Puzzle by / Edited by PING / PONG (23A. With 57-Across, game that includes the starts of 17-, 29, 48- and 64-Across), TABLE LINEN (17A. Laundry that’s often food-stained), NET INCOME (29A. How much you really earned), BALL STATE (48A. Hoosier university) and PADDLE BOAT (64A. Lakeshore rental, perhaps) are the interrelated group of this lively Monday crossword. Oh, by the way, the game is — the equipment is . Other — ANECDOTE (11D. Brief story that might open a speech), ATHEISTS (43A. Ones in disbelief?), CHLORIDE (38D. Salt, e.g.), ELAPSES (44D. Passes, as time), IONIZER (7D. Air purifier, of sorts), MOSAICS (10D. Artworks made of many pieces, ROCK STAR (35A. Sting or Prince), SKELETON (8D. Common Halloween costume), STACCATO (40D. Disconnected, musically), STOOD ON (45D. Used as a platform). Mid-size — AIOLI, ANKARA, ARAMIS, ASCII, CABINS, COCOON, ELUDES, ERASE, ESSES, I GET IT, INHALE (52A. Get some air), MONET, RACED, RETAPE and RETILE, SCOUTS, SEXIST, WAIT ON.

Short stuff — ACME, AID, AMI, AOKI, ATL, AXED and AXIS, BIO, CEDE, CHE Guevara, Pepsi-COLA, DEER, ERE and EYE, ESL, GUAM (12D. Where America‘s Day Begins), ICBM, ISLE of Man, ISP, “Give IT A whirl“, LED, MAGI, MAY, MRI, NBA, NEZ, OAT, ODES, ONUS, OTOE, PINE, SEAL and SEAM, SPOT (60D. Good name for a Dalmatian), TAB, TIC-tac-toe, TONS, WACO, WARP, WISP, XES, ZEST. Rex Parker in the News Relative difficulty: MediumTHEME: "Did You Get the Memo?" - common phrases that start with "RE" are clued as if the "RE" meant "regarding" in a business memoThis was Dull. As dull as ... well, as dull as an office memo, presumably. Even searching over all the clues, I could barely find anything remotely interesting to write about. When [Alternatives to Yodels] is your most interesting clue, man, you're in trouble. The difficulty level was pitched just right, there were very few entries that made me wince or gag, but taken as a totality, the puzzle was radically Blah. I have ALMOST (45D: Bordering on) nothing to say about it.

Theme answers: - by far my least favorite of these. There are other, more plausible kinds of tails, you know. Tuxedo tails, kite tails ... - I do like how this intersects NAM () - another really bad one - why not zazz this clue up? [Memo about AN ACTUAL @#$@#$ING POET] - fantastic clue / answer pair, though sadly my first thought was "you don't use staples in origami ..." - part of the postmodern pantheon, i.e. those names that have become crossword staples since Will Shortz took over the puzzle (SELA Ward won her first Emmy in 1994) - our neighbors' daughter has one of these, so this answer came to me quickly. honeywell® ifd air purifier oscillating towerI love how this word is rotationally symmetrical with MINX (100A: Flirtatious sort). oreck proshield air purifier priceYou see so few BOXY MINX these days. csonka car fresh air purifier

- I ... just ... what? See, the thing about the BBC is that people in the U.S. have Heard Of It. Yeesh. Thankfully, I never saw the clue while solving this puzzle. database) that it's been in the puzzle before, usually clued as Thor Heyerdahl's boat (RA I), and only twice as the Italian network. At least I didn't get the [Algerian pop music] or [Some Bollywood actor I've clearly never heard of] clue. - goes nicely with "I DIG IT!" () - nice misdirect with "Apple" - nice noun-for-verb switchout - had EDER, then ESER, which I never bothered to change ... until my puzzle got rejected by the Puzzle Gods - put it in, couldn't do anything with it, took it out ... put it in. - I half-like this. I would never say that a car was well TIRED, but whatever. - Much older than I thought. - Had FA- and was trying to think how in the world the puzzle was trying to spell FA (FAH? when I noticed that the clue wanted a plural. - With SELA, an important part of the postmodern pantheon. - she will be marrying Ellen DeGeneres soon, I hear.

- Never thought of it as an exclamation. Like that it intersects the equally junk-foody HOHOS. - one of my best students is named DONNA. I guess that's true. - I blame this answer for R.A.I. - awesome- sad. He remembers fondly, I'm sure, when he was clued as [LeBlanc of "Friends"] - wow, nice clue. I was thinking of some scientific, perhaps astronomical "rule" - I have no idea what this clue means. Oh, whoops, it's a Longfellow poem. I probably should have known that. In fact, maybe I did. The phrase feels a little shaky to me, in terms of its stand-alone-worthiness. - what is up with this clue? Why not [Like many films], because that's about how specific this clue is. I always root for DEY over AGA. Then there's always BEY, which is what I had here at first...Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorldPS Happy Father's Day to all relevant parties © Free Blogger TemplatesQ. What’s the best way to clean the air in my home?A. Air researchers talk about the Rule of 1,000: anything released indoors is about 1,000 times more likely to be breathed in than something released outdoors.“

It doesn’t take a lot of something released indoors to cause exposure,” said Dr. Kirk Smith, a professor of global environmental health at the University of California, Berkeley. “Even in California, which has among the strictest controls on smoking and among the lowest smoking rates in an industrial country, a significant fraction of total pollution exposure is from smoking.”Indoor pollution is, in a word, potent. And our attempts to combat it often make it worse.“People think incense or candles are beneficial, but of course they’re not,” Dr. Smith said. “It’s just combustion, and the smoke has the same health effects as cigarette smoke.”As for air fresheners, “it’s just adding chemicals on top of chemicals,” he said. “We might not know the exact health effects, but why expose yourself?”Plants are overrated as air cleaners, said Dr. Richard Shaughnessy, director of the indoor air program at the University of Tulsa. “Many leafy plants can be allergen collectors,” he said.

“And the soil is wet, which can be a source of mild spores.” Before you begin an air-cleaning effort, ask yourself what you are combating. Dr. Shaughnessy said: “Consumers are usually responding to an odor in their house. It could be related to cooking, flooring, painting or even mold. These are all gases, and the portable air cleaners you see at the store are not very effective at removing gases.”But filter-based cleaners can be effective at removing pollen, dust or smoke, which have larger particles. Dr. Shelly Miller, an air-quality researcher at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said she bought a HEPA (or high-efficiency particulate air) filter-and-fan-based cleaner that helped combat forest-fire smoke at her parents’ home in San Bernardino Valley, Calif.Before buying the unit, which cost about $80, she said, she made sure it had a clean-air delivery rating (or CADR) certification from the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, which measures the amounts of pollen, dust or smoke the model can remove.

Some units are better at eliminating one pollutant than another, so the information allows consumers to pick the unit that best suits their needs. For a quick fix in less extreme situations, like high-pollen days, Dr. Miller suggests turning an air-conditioner into an air-cleaner by replacing the regular filter with a HEPA filter, and running the unit a few times. Look for a filter with a minimum efficiency reporting value, or MERV, of over 10, she said.In general, Dr. Miller said, she doesn’t advocate the use of air cleaners, which she considers the equivalent of using a broom to clean up M & M’s spilled on the floor. Or, as Dr. Smith put it: “The best way to not have polluted air is to not have sources of pollution in the house.”Dr. Miller, who lives in Boulder, Colo., with her husband, two small children and a malamute, said she had very little carpet, since “carpets can be a reservoir for all sorts of particles. We call it resuspension — where you walk on a carpet and particles become airborne again.