Thursday, April 3, 2025, Hanh Huynh

This is a lovely Thursday puzzle. And it looks to me like the stars in the grid echo the placement of the stars in the referenced painting, where they are grouped largely on the left side, with one bright one in the upper right corner. Very nicely done.

I caught on quickly with CO* (One sharing the credits?), but didn't really know what to do with *NSYNC (Band with the 2000 11x platinum album "No Strings Attached") because I didn't remember that the name began with an asterisk. See also: Q*BERT and E*TRADE. I knew both answers immediately, but had forgotten about the asterisks. It wasn't until M*A*S*H (Show with the most-watched episode in scripted TV history) rezzed in that I finally caught on. 

Fave clues:

Corner piece - CASTLE
Places for prongs - OUTLETS
Get on - AGE

Overall, a nice way to turn a STARCROSSED thing into something beautiful.

"AVEC beaucoup d'amour,"

TOMCAT

Wednesday, April 2, 2025, Daniel Bodily

Almost seventy squares of fill in today's puzzle. That seems like an awful lot, but judicious use of black squares make it so no Down word has to pass through more than two of the theme answers, and that keeps the fill reasonably decent. I was introduced to the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC (New Deal program in which workers planted more than 3.5 billion trees, in brief)) (sigh...), I learned the word DEMISED (Transferred at death), and I question PANIN (Get a closer shot) as a valid term. But those are small things, and there were plenty of good Down answers too.

WARLOCK (Dark wizard), BUFFOON (Goofball), and EPISTLE (Romans, e.g.) are all STRONG. ORACLE (Clairvoyant), SCOURS (Cleans vigorously), and ASIAGO (Parmesan shelfmate) are all strong in the non-fill Acrosses. And who doesn't like HEARTS? Might be my favorite card game of all.

The heavy theme was well done. Solid Wednesday.

- Horace

Tuesday, April 1, 2025, Sande Milton

It's April Fools Day today, so we could expect something a little different in the puzzle today. And lo, we find that someone has started it! I don't know about you, but when I pick up a puzzle that has been started by someone else, I ignore what has been entered. I did the same thing today and got pretty much the same result - some previous answers were right, some were wrong. 

If we set aside the penciled-in answers, we see a theme of INFLIGHTMAGAZINE, SEATBACKPOCKET, PRIORPASSENGER, and the unsatisfyingly incomplete RETURNTRAYTABLES. Plus the word GUESS (What you might do if you don't know an answer. And maybe even ENDRESULTS (Final outcomes)?

My brother really hates the idea of an INFLUENCER (Big shot on the internet), so that brought a smile. (I think he's just jealous of me being a crossword influencer. :P) HIPS (Body parts that swivel) brought to mind the lyric "The world moves on a woman's hips. The world moves and it swivels and bops." And come to think of it, that same brother also hates David Byrne, for some reason. 

An interesting Tuesday.

- Horace

Monday, March 31, 2025, Ryan Mathiason

The crossworder's high holidays are approaching this coming weekend, so in preparation, I have decided to write reviews all week. If you happen to be among the very few who will both read this message and attend the A.C.P.T. this weekend, and you know my real name, then by all means, come on up and say hello! :)

This puzzle went quickly (3:46), as Mondays often do, and then after that it took another minute or so to understand what it was that was "growing on me." Turns out, it was hair. Or the lack of it. I guess it was about the appearance of the head, unless you consider "bald" a haircut. The others theme entrants, "buzz," "fade," and "afro," are all valid haircuts.

In other news, 1-Down recalled the great Roger Miller classic, "King of the road" (HOBO). I never considered that "king of the road" might have been used as another word for HOBO before that song. Was it? I'm not sure I have the time for such research this morning, but if anyone wants to tell me, I'd be interested. 

I enjoyed "Standard announcement of a pilot upon landing" because I couldn't think of anything at first, but then when LOCALTIME came into focus I thought "Oh yeah... they do always say that." Heh. I thought "Like good knives and pupils" was a SHARP clue (see also "Word after poison or bull" (PEN), but back when I was running, a HILL never really phased me. Well, I should say that going uphill was never an issue. Going downhill, on the other hand, especially in the last 6.2 miles of a marathon, for example, was often ...  "noticeable." And who knows, maybe that's what Mr. Mathiason meant.

Lastly, "Kids in the 90s?" was a great clue for ASTUDENTS.

May you all have a FELIZ Lunes. A demain.

- Horace

Saturday, March 22, 2025, Katie Hoody

This was a doozy! It started out easy, with DADA (Style of Duchamp's so-called "readymades"), DONTMOVEAMUSCLE ("Stay still!"), and even the guessable ETON (____ blue (original team color of the Chelsea Football Club)) and ANTOINETTE (____ of Bourbon, grandmother of Mary, Queen of Scots). But the CONTROLLEDCHAOS (It's not as random as it seems) at the bottom of the grid was like a TICKINGTIMEBOMB (Plot device in some suspense thrillers). 

I initially guessed shoES for "They come with strings attached," and from that entered smU for "The Wildcats of the Big 12 Conf." I have never known anything about college sports. If it weren't for Doug Flutie I might not even know that it's the Boston College Eagles. Anyhooo... I could remember hearing other English actresses talking about ELLIE Bamber, so that helped put a few letters in, but still it was a long time before I would figure out that "Cry before a shot" was SMILE. And me, a photographer! On the other hand, I was thinking as a photographer when I read "You might sit for one," but no, this time it's babysitting a KID! Hah!

Another slowdown was entering sidES instead of EDGES for "Pentagon quintet." I did not remember the ICEPALACE (Massive hockey arena in St. Petersburg, Russia) until it was forced on me by DRAGONCON (Annual Atlanta gathering of sci-fi/gaming fans) and the excellent DAISIES (Links in a certain chain). And then it was SODA (Pop) that finally squared the pentagon clue.

I've seen mis-directions like "Angled for attention?: Abbr." before, but did it help me to think straight and enter ITAL? No, it didn't. See also: "Cream alternative." I was seeing all kinds of plant-based milks, but not the color ECRU! And how about "Way-out fun?" (MAZE). Wow. Took me a long time to get into that one! 

Overall, I loved it. What did you think about it, Kelly? ;)

- Horace

Tuesday, March 4, 2025, Hanh Huynh

Another lovely Tuesday puzzle. I was rolling right along in this one, minding my own business, when I got to that SE corner and found three clues so good I had to write about them. 

Nine to five, for example - RATIO
A red one is rare - STEAK
and
Make two dos, say? - TRANSLATE

Nice! 

The revealer, IMSHOOK ("This news has got me rattled!" ... or a hint to...") (An all-too-common phrase these days), is a fun one. I was a photographer who used 4x5 Polaroid film for about twenty years, and I never shook them - I rubbed them between my palms, but I have seen that shake, so I'm not complaining. And does a TAMBOURINE really "jingle?" Maybe so... and people definitely shake those. Sometimes rather too much. :)

There's a little bit of an unfortunate cross in OHHI/OHYOU, but, hey, I came here to write about it because I enjoyed it. Did you?

- Horace

Tuesday, February 18, 2025, Erik Agard

I had to come back to say a few words about this puzzle. And those words are: I loved it. 

This is pretty much a perfect theme, executed perfectly. The first three themers: ICANTBELIEVEYOU, WHODOESTHAT, and THEAUDACITY, all clued with "Seriously?!," seemed like a solid theme all on their own, but then when I hit the last "Seriously?!" clue and understood what was going on, I laughed out loud. 

And for a theme like this, on a Tuesday, I am willing to look the other way when 1A is ROH ("Ruh-____!" (Astro's "Yikes!")(Maybe part of the "Seriously?!" theme?). TAE (____ kwon do) is another partial, but aside from that, the fill is solid. And I liked the Indigenous American mini-theme: "918 or 539, on the Cherokee Nation" (AREACODE), "Important powwow figure" (HEADDANCER), and "New Mexico site of the largest radioactive accident in U.S. history" (CHURCHROCK) (this CRISIS polluted the water source for Navaho Nation). 

I had missteps at "Emphatic rejection" (HECKNO) (I tried something a little stronger) and "Enough already! I'll do it!" (OKOK) (tried OKay), but other than it went pretty smoothly. 

Lastly, I liked "Ones vowing payback?" for IOUS.

Excellent puzzle.

- Horace