MOVIE "M*A*S*H" "UP"

I know some people like tales of construction dabbling and derring-do, but I prefer letting a puzzle stand by itself.

So instead, here's a bit of theme-related trivia: The 24 films in the puzzle garnered one hundred 94-Downs (OSCAR NODs).

The biggest surprise is that The Poseidon Adventure snagged eight nominations, although the only winner was its original song, "The Morning After." Ugh, remember that one? Additionally, the movie was awarded a Special Achievement Oscar for special effects.

I still remember a synopsis of the movie that ran in the New York Times TV listings back in the '70s: "Big ship turns over. Eyefilling, sure. Plus the world's dullest passenger list. Ship of meatballs."

All that said, I remember enjoying it at the time, including all those meatballs.

There was another puzzle like this two years ago, two movies smashed together to create a description of a third movie. I helped Jerry develop that one, constantly reinforcing the idea that 1.) the movies had to be very well known, and 2.) that the descriptions had to be not just apt, but amusing.

Same criteria apply today, and I liked many of Patrick's themers. SUPERBAD HAIR was the standout — both movies were popular and did well at the box office, and that description of "Dumb and Dumber" is so funny!

(My poor son, Jake, has a "Dumb and Dumber" haircut. We try everything we can do to get him to sit still to fix it, but no dice. Superbad hair it is!)

NOTORIOUS PSYCHO was good, too. No doubt, a perfect description of "Silence of the Lambs." That movie creeped me out so bad, though — Superbad! — so I didn't personally like it as much as SUPERBAD HAIR.

I wasn't a fan of using movies like NETWORK, NEIGHBORS, or TOYS. Sure, you could make a case that NEIGHBORS did okay at the box office, but I'm not sure anyone would call it a classic. (Would they?) I'd much prefer to stick to movies that were in Oscar contention, huge box office smashes or cult classics.

Of course, one could easily make the case that SUPERBAD isn't as well-known as NEIGHBORS, since it's older and made less at the box office. No doubt, there's a lot of subjectivity involved here. And I'm wrong a lot!

Much better to avoid the discussion at all by using movies like TITANIC and JAWS — hard to argue with those.

As for fill, I liked the insider's nod with OSCAR NOD. I would have liked more color like that since GESTALT was the only other entry that stood out. But the grid already has a slew of NTEST ACTSO AGHA ATEN SWA AGS kind of stuff, and I wouldn't have been okay with much else. Tough call. Probably best to pare back on one of the themers if you can't get enough color without introducing too much crossword glue.

Just goes to show how tough a 140-word Sunday puzzle is to make. Heck, even a master like Patrick had to go up to 142 words to get it completed!