Fri., 1/23 Sam Buchbinder

[magus]

THEME:   intrusive AU (good as gold)
   
GOOD ONES:    
Mythological figure who touch {theme phrases}   KING MIDAS   
Extraordinary northern bird?   SPECIAL AUK [Special K is a cereal brand]   
Alaskan insects?   JUNEAU BUGS   
Noodle   BEAN [are these "brain foods"?]   
Top story   ATTIC [not the lead story or even a feature story, as in 11-Down, because features don't lead in "journalism biz"]   
Sprinkling on French fries?   SEL [ it's on the edge but it's clever]   
Cab driver?   TRUCKER   
Sun block   CURTAIN   
   
   
BTW:   
Statistician's challenge   BIG DATA [not a familiar expression any more than is "blue car" so it is an inappropriate entry, but even if it were, a statistician is not challenged by large numbers  --- I suspect the original entry was BIG PAPI]   
   
Plot component   ACRE [most are less than an acre so I'd modify the clue with "at times"]   
   
At last night's (Saturday) dinner party a Microsoft engineer used the term Big Data, not in the sense of its being difficult to handle but as a new computing concept.  So the entry wasn't as bad as I made it sound.  1/25

   
RATING:    
Three grins = Loved it; Two grins = Enjoyed it; One grin = A bit bland for my taste; One teardrop = Not much fun   

[Thomps2525]

I often wonder how puzzle creators can come up with particular themes, and I was especially impressed with today's theme: referencing KINGMIDAS with phrases that contain an added AU (the chemical symbol for gold, short for the Latin aurum). Have any puzzlemakers ever discussed how and where they get their ideas?

As for the term BIGDATA, Webopedia defines it as "a massive volume of structured and unstructured data that is so large that it's difficult to process using traditional database techniques." More details are at  http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/B/big_data.html and, after reading everything, I is still confused!

[magus]

No wonder you is still confused.  I never trust websites that don't spring from print ---anything can be found in them.  Editors are needed, and the best books on language are edited by panels of experts, rather like me --- bald, bearded, and briar-smoking.

[Thomps2525]

There are nicotine patches that can help people quit smoking. If you smoke briars, perhaps you can check with your local drugstore and see if you can get a briar patch. (If no one else thinks that is a clever pun, at least Br'er Rabbit thought it was funny!)