Sat Mar 31

Jumble = 0:47 (a SERPENT)
Word Sleuth = 5:01 (2007 Atlantic Hurricane Names)
NEA Crossword = 3:09 (3-31-07)
NY Times Crossword = 34:27, with 12! lookups

Had trouble finding KAREN in the Word Sleuth, it took forever. NY Times Crossword just killed me. I couldn't make any headway, and regularly looked up things on the Amy Reynaldo entry. Tough day.

Fri Mar 30

Jumble = 0:24 (INFLATION)
Word Sleuth = 2:33 (De Names)
NEA Crossword = 3:08 (03-30-07)
NY Times Crossword = 21:27 (No. 0216), five lookups

Zippy fast through the first three, then Friday gave me trouble at the start. Eventually, I looked up five movie related things (THE GAME, ROLFE, OLAN, JASPER, AHERNE) and was able to work through the rest after that. Could I have figured out something on my own? I don't know.

Thurs Mar 29

Jumble = 3:14 (HIT the HIGH "SEAS")
Word Sleuth = 3:02 (Jump Rope)
NEA Crossword = 3:00 (03-29-07)
NY Times Crossword = 9:33!

It was a slow Jumble, both WHEAT and the final pun took me a while to figure out. Everything else was speedy! I think it could be one of my first sub-10 minute Thursday NY Times.

Wed Mar 28

Jumble = 2:23 (it WAS "SLANTED")
Word Sleuth = 3:05 (Tons of Cities)
NEA Crossword = 4:11 (03-28-07)
NY Times Crossword = 6:40 (No. 0214)

Sudoku = 20:15 (Medium difficulty)
The Onion Crossword = 13:32 (Wed, Mar 28)

Slow Jumble; TAWDRY and SUNDAE gave me fits even though I had the final pun. Others were pretty quick, especially the Wednesday NY Times. Sudoku and The Onion were extra, and went surprisingly well.

Tues Mar 27

Jumble = 0:48 ("ABSORBING")
Word Sleuth = 2:55 (--- Diet)
NEA Crossword = 3:43 (03-27-07)
NY Times Crossword = 7:39 (No. 0213)

Fairly quick, though the NY Times took longer than it felt like it should have.

Mon Mar 26

Jumble = 1:38 (to GET "UNLOCKED")
Word Sleuth = 3:21 (Most Used Words In Country And Western Titles)
NEA Crossword = 3:56 (03-26-07)
NY Times Crossword = 5:01 (No. 0212)

Pretty speedy overall, almost broke 5 minutes on Monday NY Times.

Fri Mar 23 - Sun Mar 25

**** Fri Mar 23:

Jumble = ??? (a "PAGE" was MISSING)
Word Sleuth = 5:06 (City Nicknames)
NEA Crossword = 4:49 (03-23-07)
NY Times Crossword = 16:29 (No. 0209)

Forgot to set timer on Jumble, did NY Times in 3 time chunks. Slow overall, but did finish NY Times without any lookup.

**** Sat Mar 24:

Jumble = 1:00 ("RUSHED" to SCORE)
Word Sleuth = 2:12 (Nancy ---)
NEA Crossword = 4:20 (03-24-07)
NY Times Crossword = TBD (No. 0210)

Good times, but delayed on getting NY Times done due to travel.

**** Sun Mar 25:

Jumble = 2:44 ("REVOLUTIONARY")
NY Times Crossword = N/A (Initial Substitutions)

Very fast Sunday Jumble, but didn't do timing on NY Times as I was travelling at the time and very time-challenged.

Thurs Mar 22

Jumble = 9:20!!! ("STICKER" SHOCK), with two lookups
Word Sleuth = 2:48 (--- Games)
NEA Crossword = 4:21 (03-22-07)
NY Times Crossword = 10:07 (No. 0208)

The Onion Crossword (Mar 21) = 13:14

Rough, rough day, even for a Thursday. Jumble just slaughtered me. I had to use an anagram finder to get the words TRUISM and CIPHER after suffering for a while, then it still took me a bit to get the final pun. Word Sleuth and NEA Crossword were fine, but NY Times was tough even though I figured out the theme rather early. Surprisingly okay time for The Onion, even if the interface was an absolute pain in the rear (it didn't like my Mac).

Wed Mar 21

Jumble = 4:02 (IN a "DIVE")
Word Sleuth = 2:41 (Sources of Omega 3)
NEA Crossword = 3:42 (03-21-07)
NY Times Crossword = 7:15 (No. 0207)

Absolutely terrible Jumble - got the pun but struggled with words especially VIABLE, MIDGE and INDUCE. Good on everything else with an interesting theme on the NY Times (keyboard rows) that I recognized right away. I think it did help solve the puzzle.

Tues Mar 20

The Onion Crossword (Mar 14, "Francis Heaney") = 15:12, with three hints.

Jumble = 1:54 ("FIGURES" it OUT)
Word Sleuth = 2:46 (Cell Phone Manufacturers)
NEA Crossword = 3:20 (03-20-07)
NY Times Crossword = 4:57 (No. 0206)

Never did understand The Onion Crossword theme. Pretty quick on the puzzles, except for a slow jumble.

I'm signed up for the online version of the American Crossword Tournament but I'm going to be gone this weekend on a belated birthday trip so I'll probably do the puzzles the next weekend. I'm curious as to how I'll do. My goal is to break 9000 points, and I think I have a decent chance of doing so (even with having to deal with the online interface).

Mon Mar 19

Jumble = 1:54 ("PIECE PEACE")
Word Sleuth = 2:49 (British ---)
NEA Crossword = 3:16 (03-19-07)
NY Times Crossword = 4:26 (No. 0205)

Good times all the way through. Got stuck a little on Jumble when I knew the final saying but didn't have one word quite right (had KEEPUP instead of UPKEEP) so the letters didn't work out. A good Monday.

Sunday Mar 18

Sunday Jumble = 2:53 (SITE for SORE EYES)
Sunday NY Times Crossword = 35:45

Friday and Saturday's puzzle times got lost in a rush of family visiting and helping at California State MathCounts competition (http://www.mathcounts.org). OK times for Sunday - jumble was get the phrase early and figure out the words, NY Times was just slow all the way through, even though the theme did help.

Thurs Mar 15

Jumble = 0:52 ("SCULL" CAPS)
Word Sleuth = 2:36 (Played A Baseball Player In The Movies)
NEA Crossword = 5:27 (no id)
NY Times Crossword = 15:17+

Fast start, slow NEA, then had to take a break during NY Times Crossword and messed up the timing. Probably 20 minutes or so.

Had some free time and decided to do the first four "pure" crosswords from the May 2007 GAMES Magazine.

"Grocery Guys" (one star) = 4:11
"X-Rated" (two stars) = 5:56
"Simply Splendid" (two stars, 17x17) = 11:19
"Send the Ends" (three stars, 20x20) = 28:14, three wrong letters

That's enough crossword puzzles for one day!

Wed Mar 14

Jumble = 0:42 ("FOOTED" the BILL)
Word Sleuth = 2:39 (Food Preparation Adjectives)
NEA Crossword = 3:43 (10-11-04)
NY Times Crossword = 10:11 (No. 0131)

Doing great until the NY Times. Very slow on that one, took forever to get lower right then upper left.

Tues Mar 13, part two

Mar 7 Onion AV Club = 11:35 (DEB ALMEN)

Never quite got the theme, it seemed like it was slightly altering phrases but I didn't see any consistent pattern to the alterations. I also always get slowed down by the keyboard interface.

Tues Mar 13

Jumble = 1:07 (WELL "ROUNDED")
Word Sleuth = 3:30 (The Moose)
NEA Crossword = 3:47 (10-17-04)
NY Times Crossword = 5:09 (No. 0130)
Sudoku = 8:26 (Easy)

Good decent times for Tuesday on everything, nice time for Tuesday NY Times. Added in Sudoku for fun and managed to finish it.

Monday Mar 12

Jumble = 1:32 (OFF DAY)
Word Sleuth = 2:50+ (--- OFF)
NEA Crossword = 4:12 (10-11-04)
NY Times Crossword = 4:19 (No. 0129)
Sudoku = quit at 7:00 (messed up)

Slow start all the way to the first few words on the NY Times Crossword, then flew through NY Times almost beating the NEA time (which never happens). The theme worked well for me. I messed up somewhere in Sudoku and stopped at 7 minutes.

Thursday Mar 8

Jumble = 2:18 (WELL-"SUITED")
Word Sleuth = 2:57 (Minor League Baseball Cities)
NEA Crossword = 3:29 (03-08-07)
NY Times Crossword = 16:00+ (No. 0125)

Pretty rough day. Jumble words WEEVIL and EYELID held me up for a while even though I knew the caption. For Word Sleuth, I never did figure out the unlisted clue ("SLIPPERY ---"). NEA was fine, but I got clobbered by the NY Times. Had everything but the upper right section by 11:00, then stumbled badly there and eventually needed to look up a couple clues. Even then, not everything made sense ([Abhorrence] = ODIUM???)

Wed Mar 7

Jumble = 2:11
Word Sleuth = 3:02 (Kipling Poems)
NEA Crossword = 3:25 (03-07-07)
NY Times Crossword = 9:22 (No. 0124)

Tough time with Jumble and NY Times Crossword. Started off strong on Times, then faltered, then got the theme and sped back up. This was one of those infrequent times when a theme actually helped me solve the puzzle.

Tues Mar 6

Jumble = 1:02 ("GHOST" of a CHANCE)
Word Sleuth = 2:44 (Panhandles)
NEA crossword = 4:08 (03-06-07)
NY Times crossword = 5:18

A good, solid Tuesday. Nothing bad, nothing great.

Mon Mar 5

Jumble = didn't finish (???)
Word Sleuth = 3:39 (--- West)
NEA Crossword = 3:52 (03-05-07)
NYT Crossword = 4:56 (No. 0122)

I think this is the first time I didn't finish a Jumble. Two of the words ("RHYME" and "SOIREE") took me forever to figure out and then I never got what the final answer was. I eventually quit after 12 minutes. I could claim distraction from eating dinner and answering kid homework questions but that's no excuse.

Beyond that, a little slow on everything else.

Sunday March 4

Jumble = 2:30 (FORGETFULNESS)
NYT Crossword = 38:30 (Comic Relief)

Great Sunday Jumble, but really struggled with the NYT. The theme didn't click with me until I had 7 of the 8 theme-related entries and not even then until I finally filled in "OSCAR EMCEE" and went "well, duh!" Not too sure how much figuring out the theme would have helped, as I felt rather slow.

Feb 28 Puzzles

Jumble = 0:23.07 ("SCOTCH" TAPE)
Word Sleuth = 2:39 (Brands of Tea)
NEA Crossword = 4:03 (02-28-07)
NYT Crossword = 12:01 (No. 0117)

Pretty decent until the Times crossword, where I just got clobbered. Probably distracted by my upcoming trip to Texas. As a result of the trip, there's no puzzle timing for Thurs through Sat thought I did do the Jumble and NYT crossword. They were pretty slow, with some lookups on the NYT crossword.