Two crosswords, one theme---sort of.
Today's Los Angeles Times puzzle by C.C. Burnikel includes four theme answers: HOUSEFLOOR, DOUBLEPLAY, WEEFOLK and MONKEYWITH ("Work on casually, as an engine"). Some of the beginning and ending letters of each word are circled. Those letters make HOUR, DAY, WEEK and MONTH. The clue to 61 across is "Durations." The answer---and the puzzle's theme---is TIMEFRAMES. Very clever.
The Daily News crossword by Finn Vigeland---whose name sounds like it should be a Scandinavian country---has a similar theme. Seven rows contain circled letters. In each case, one word ends with one or two circled letters and the following word begins with one or two circled letters. The theme: DAYBREAK. The circled letters form MON, TUE, WED, THU, FRI, SAT and SUN and a black square breaks each "day."
The Universal crossword included INVIGORATES, RECONDITION, REGENERATED and REVITALIZES---one verb, two verbs with an S added, and one verb in past tense. Ideally, all four verbs would be in the same form but then they wouldn't all be 11-letter words and the crossword would likely have to be asymmetrical. EAGRE was also one of the answers. It's a British word meaning "a high tidal wave in an estuary; bore." It derives from the Old English eagor, which means "flood" or "high tide." I had never heard the word before. I am always "eagre" to learn new words.
The NEA crossword? Typical. No theme, no word longer than seven letters and more of the usual over-used words: ADORE, AGE, ALI, ARIA, EKE, ENID, OAF and SPA.
