Gareth Bain's theme for today's
Los Angeles Times crossword is WOWFACTOR ("Extremely impressive quality, informally"). The four longest answers are W-O-W phrases: WAROFWORDS, WHEREORWHEN (a 1960 Dion & the Belmonts hit) WALKONWATER and WAYOUTWEST (one of my favorite Laurel & Hardy films; when the boys present a gold mine deed to a young woman, she asks, "Is my dear daddy really dead?" and Stan says, "Well, we
hope he is---they buried him."
).
Daniel Raymon must have been frustrated at not being able to include the movie title
Kill Bill in today's
Daily News crossword. However, he managed to include HILLBILLY, CHILLPILL, ILLWILL, MILLARDFILLMORE and CADILLACSEVILLE.
The Universal crossword is titled "Bitter Critters" and includes LEGALBEAGLE ("Prosecuting pooch"), COARSEHORSE ("Uncouth steed"), GRITTYKITTY ("Starkly realistic feline") and CRAVENRAVEN ("Fearful Baltimore footballer"---although a Baltimore Raven is a person and not a critter).
The 13x13 NEA crossword is the same as ever: no theme, no long words and the usual high number of over-used words (AID, AIL, HER, IDEA, ILK, ODOR, OMEN, ONE, SEA, SIDE).
