"Thumbs up" for the April 27 crossword

[Thomps2525]

Mark Bickham's crossword in today's Los Angeles Times includes ALLTHUMBS, clued as "Clumsy." The end of each theme answer is a type of thumb (or, in one case, "Thumb"): LIMEGREEN, PEEPINGTOM and SADDLESORE. The puzzle also included some seldom-seen longer answers: CATBURGLAR, HORNOFPLENTY, IHADNOIDEA and TIDALWAVE. And three products got a teeny bit of free advertising: AVIA, OREO and RCCOLA.

The theme of Michael Dewey's crossword in today's Daily News needs no explanation. The theme answers are KLEPTOMANIA, MARCHMADNESS, CATSCRATCHFEVER (a 1977 hit by Ted Nugent), FASHIONCRAZE and MEDIAFRENZY.

The NEA crossword is not worth discussing. It never is. The grid is only 13x13 and today's puzzle included 42 black squares. Those black squares account for 25% of the grid. Yikes!

[Thomps2525]

The Daily News also includes the Universal crossword, distributed by Universal Uclick. The theme answers in today's puzzle are ACTUALPRICE, GENUINERISK, REALNUMBERS and TRUEHEADING. Universal's URL is www.upuzzles.com but that link will take you to the Puzzle Society website. For an annual fee of $19.95 (or a free ten-day trial), you get access to hundreds of crosswords, jumbles, jigsaws, word games and other puzzles. New games and puzzles are added throughout the year. Fun!

http://www.puzzlesociety.com/