Default: 346056
Default with Spaces: 128926
NOTES: I finally finished season 2 of House of Cards. I didn’t like it as much as season 1 but still find Kevin Spacey’s portrayal of Francis Underwood (70) compelling. While jotting down actors and character names I noted that Mahershala Ali (55) could be useful for crossword puzzles — it’s always nice to have a new way to clue MAHERSHALA. Ben Zimmer wrote a column last year that mentioned the trending popularity of the suffix -nado. The column came to mind when I noticed the term firenado (72) in a few news pieces about recent severe storms. The Supervolalic group on Facebook continues to be a decent source of word list additions. I recently added Family Fortunes (55), which could be clued as an uncapitalized phrase but is more known to me as the UK version of the game show Family Feud, Fitzroy Square (55), and Edinburgh Scotland (70).
LISTS: NPL convention work and other recent puzzle projects have hindered me from working on incorporating lists, but I found a little down time this week to look at my revision file. The comparative chicer (53) was not previously in Default. It’s 11C but an unusual form — I’d be more inclined to say “more chic.” I also worked on a few more 10-letter entries from Mark Diehl’s list; I have about 9,000 to go. Additions include Dante’s Peak (75), which I originally read as “Dante-speak,” diving mask (75), dough hooks (55), and drop cookie (65). I found it amusing that Downyflake (70) was not in Default. I feel that I should have collected it from some published theme puzzle where the unwieldy word that frequently appears in the clue for a crossword repeater becomes the grid entry and the repeater is used in the clue, as in {Eggo competitor}.
life as a puzzle 
I preferred him when he was the 21-letter MAHERSHALALHASHBAZ ALI (and yes, I did that without looking it up). I thought it took tremendous guts to not Hollywoodize that name. I have to say, the way his eventual change seems like a weird compromise.
I didn’t watch The 4400 when he used the longer version of his name. I can see how he may have been a well known and well used pop culture touchstone for crossword constructors before now.
I am so disappointed he changed his name! His name in the opening credits was one of my favorite parts of The 4400.
You can see it around 0:21 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMBcyt_CRM4
“it’s always nice to have a new way to clue MAHERSHALA.”
I enjoyed this very much.