Monday, April 28, 2025, Sue Fracker

An unusual theme today of MULTIHYPHENATES:

JACKOFALLTRADES - Versatile yet unspecialized sort
FIVEYEAROLD - Typical kindergartner
KNOWITALL - Smarty-pants
MOTHERINLAW - The Bible's Naomi vis-à-vis Ruth

It would have been something if the hyphens could actually have existed in the grid, but then they'd have to work (or be used somehow) in the Downs. It's also noticeable that two of the clues use hyphens, but only one uses a multihyphenate. And that MULTIHYPHENATES is not, itself, multi-hyphenated. Or is it interesting ... ? Sometimes when you review puzzles you get a little carried away with analysis.

So let's just leave the theme where it is. No wait - is "multi-hyphenate" really used to describe someone with many talents? I mean, I can see how it could be, but I don't think of it as a normal thing to say. Maybe it's just that I'm not hanging around with the multi-hyphenate set.

Anything AWESOME today? I liked the clue "Heart throb?" for PULSE. I thought "Hershey's Kiss wrap" was an odd, but apt, clue for FOIL. And was there a mini-theme with MOJITOS, REDNOSE, and TOTAL UP (Add together, as a bar tab)? Or is that just the kind of thing one notices when one is on the wagon?

- Horace

Sunday, April 27, 2025, Jacob Reed

NUMBERS GAME

All I can remember from my junior high calculator days are things like 58008 and 71077345. Anybody? So today's theme was more of a "why did they write this clue in calculator font?" than a "what's going on here?" 

Nice to see EMILYBRONTË show up again after all that talk about her name a few days ago. And speaking of diacritics, there's one in IGA Świątek's name that I can't even get my Mac to reproduce! I had to copy and paste it. The tail is called an ogonek, and it denotes a nasal sound, apparently. (Time for me to donate to Wikipedia again...)

I enjoyed TRUTHBOMB (Sudden dose of reality, in slang), SONOTTRUE (Emphatic words of denial), CATCONDOS (Some large structures for pet owners), MEDIAFASTS (Periods of abstinence from TV, news, social platforms, etc.), and CREEPO (Sleazeball). That last one is almost too cute a word for what it means. I was not familiar with Kid CUDI, LIANE Moriarty, or MUKBANGS (Food-centric broadcasts originating in South Korea), so it's good to learn those.

Gotta run this morning. See you tomorrow!

- Horace

Saturday, April 26, 2025, Sarah Sinclair and Rafael Musa

First off, AYO Edebiri made the puzzle for the third time this week. First name only today and Tuesday, full name yesterday. I think she might have a SECRETADMIRER at the NYTX.

Second, is DREAMYOGA (Tantric meditation practiced while in a sleeping state) really a thing? If so, I'm not sure I WANTTOTRY. 

Third, this puzzle went by so fast that I didn't even see several clues. That is unusual for a Saturday. One such was the nice Santayana quote "The young man who has not WEPT is a savage." 

Fourth, I was at a disadvantage when encountering the clue "Creature in the National Audubon Society logo," because I live in Massachusetts, where we have our own Audubon Society with what looks like a swallow-tailed kite in its logo. Except the beak isn't quite right for that... Anybody know for sure what bird it is? It's not easy to find out, and the Google AI bot claims it's an EGRET, like the national one uses, but does it look like an EGRET to you?

- Horace

Friday, April 25, 2025, Adrian Johnson

Nice ten-stacks in the NW and SE, and an interesting middle, with that grid-spanner and weird little channels of staggered threes. But it all flowed smootly enough. I was happy that I had just put a picture of AYOEDEBIRI in the review recently! I don't watch "The Bear," but because of that photo (and, of course, her inclusion in Tuesday's puzzle), was familiar with her name, which helped with "Producers of stains" (SINS). That I was my last square.

SPEEDTRAPS (Things feared in the 80s and 90s?) was fun. Ish. It also reminds me that I still have to pay Hertz for having incurred a speeding ticket while driving one of their vehicles... DEEPSIGH. And I questioned a COMMA as a "Common component of a date" until I entered the date at the top of the review, like I have done for over a decade. Hah. I was thinking of things like "4/25/25" not "Friday, April 25, 2025." DEEPSIGH.

I hadn't realized that nine presidents were UNWED while in office. I thought Buchanan was the only unwed president - and while it's true that he was the only one who never married, four others were widowed prior to becoming president (Jefferson, Jackson, Arthur & Van Buren), three had their wives die while they were president (Tyler, Harrison, Wilson), and Cleveland entered the White House a bachelor, but about halfway through his first presidency, he married a 21-year-old whose upbringing he had supervised. He was 49 at the time. No one was disturbed by this, apparently. Frances Folsom was still a college student when she married him and she remains the youngest First Lady ever. They had five kids, the first of whom, Ruth, died of diptheria at twelve. And it is that Ruth, not Babe Ruth, who is famously purported to be the namesake of the Baby Ruth candy bar.

- Horace

Thursday, April 24, 2025, Kathleen Duncan

GENRE/BENDING trick today, where mash-ups literally take a ninety-degree turn in the grid. As so often happens, the dash clues gave the game away early, but there really wasn't any way around it in this one. And still, I couldn't think of DARK/FANTASY ("Interview With the Vampire" and "Prince of Thorns") or COMING/OFAGE ("Lady Bird" and "Stand By Me") without a few crosses. The one that broke it for me was "'Borat' and 'This is Spinal Tap'" (MOCKUMEN/TARY), although at first I wanted it to be plural. And, for the record, for the purposes of carrying on this talk of diacritics as long as possible, I tried to put the rock umlaut over the "n" in Spinal Tap just now, but the umlauted N is not, apparently, allowed as a character. At least not in whatever editor Blogspot uses.

Very nice NE corner, with OBEISANT (Deferential) ("... not the least obeisance made he..."), and VENDETTA (More than a mere grudge). CEN (One of 10 in a millennium: Abbr.) was unusual, but totally worth it up there.

And in the opposite corner, NICKNAME got a great clue (Second calling?), and one always enjoys a reference to "The Simpsons" (NED - Subject of Homer's loathing), even if it does focus on ill will.

- Horace

p.s. I didn't realize that the Knights of REN were a whole thing in Star Wars. I thought it was just a surname. (Is it both?)

Wednesday, April 23, 2025, Brandon Koppy

So I've been thinking a lot about that Brontë clue from yesterday. It seems that the family name was changed by the Brontë sisters' father, who was born Patrick Brunty. One wonders, then, what he wanted that mark over the last letter to do - if he had wanted it pronounced the way it is by most people today, he could have used an accent aigu, as in Bronté. Maybe, as an Irishman, he had reasons that he did not want to appear to be French. There is one theory that he wanted to associate himself with Admiral Nelson, who was the "Duke of Bronte." Note the lack of diacritical mark there. If he really were trying to make that association, why change it? And one last thing - I saw one comment in a Reddit thread, I think, from a Russian speaker, who said that ë in Russian is pronounced "yo," so when talking about one of the Brontës, this person pronounced it "Brontyo." That might be what I do from now on. :)

So anyway, what day is it? Right, Wednesday. I've never heard of the term GALAXYBRAIN (Having ideas far too profound for anyone else to comprehend ...). Perhaps that goes without saying. :) Used as a revealer, it nods to the space objects and phenomena in the other four theme answers:

NEBULAAWARD - Honor for "Dune" and "American Gods"
STARSTRUCK - Like Swifties vis-à-vis Taylor Swift (Parsed for theme as "stars truck")
BLACKHOLESUN - Grammy-winning Soundgarden hit of 1994 (Is "Soundgarden hit" really a thing?)
NOVASCOTIA - Canadian province on the Gulf of Maine (I wonder if our erstwhile friends to the north are considering changing that to the Gulf of Nova Scotia?)

I liked three of the long Downs today: ASPARAGUS (Spears on a plate) (yum), PLANAHEAD (Not leave details to chance) (I tried PLANitout), and NOTAGAIN ("Why does this keep happening?!"). A "Bassinet alternative," however, can just be a crib. It doesn't have to be a BABYCRIB. Oh, I have to get a BABYCRIB for my baby. So that after DINDIN I can put my baby into a BABYCRIB. No.

But that makes it sound like I'm mad. I'm not. Sure, the revealer was new to me, and I didn't love a couple things, but I didn't hate it. What about you?

- Horace

Tuesday, April 22, 2025, Alex Eaton-Salners

It took me a good long while to understand what was happening here. It's one of those themes where the clue has to be changed from what you first think of to a more literal translation. Green Day isn't the band, but STPATRICKS Day. And Red Hot Chili Peppers are CAROLINAREAPERS. Lovely.

Nice Neil deGrasse Tyson quote in 19-Down: "A fragile juxtaposition of land, oceans, and clouds" (EARTH) - a nod to Earth Day? - and there's some deep diacritic trivia in DIERESIS (Feature of the Brontë sisters but not the Brothers Grimm?). For the curious, a dieresis indicates that a vowel (often, but not always, the second of consecutive vowels) is pronounced, not silent or elided, as in coöperate and reëlected. An umlaut, on the other hand, changes the pronunciation of a vowel. The rock umlaut does nothing. 

And speaking of crosswordy clues, how about "Interjection that's composed only of the consonants in "takes to task," appropriately" (TSK). Classic.

- Horace

 

Monday, April 21, 2025, Thomas van Geel

Now this made me laugh. A sneeze is simulated by the ends of the theme answers:

BARMITZVAH - Coming of age ceremony
THECASBAH - Place "rocked" in a Clash song
CHEETAH - Animal that can go 0-60 in three seconds
JIMMYCHOO - Famed shoe designer

and the revealer, GESUNDHEIT, is at the bottom. Very nice. And unexpected. Like a sneeze. :)

Nice that DOJACAT ("Paint the Town Red" rapper) got in there. (I love that song), and alongside her in those vertical sevens at the bottom are such fine words as EPITOME (Textbook example), NEMESIS (Moby Dick, to Ahab), and ARMOIRE (Wardrobe). And I love the last one - STARTLE (Surprise). It's theme adjacent, and the clue is like a little comment from Mr. van Geel. (See also: "Oh SNAP!)

Loved it.

- Horace

 

Sunday, April 20, 2025, Victor Schmitt and Tracy Bennett

DOUBLE VISION 

Here's this kind of theme again. I'll just list the theme answers and you can see for yourself.

WOODSWOODSCREWCREW - Group that Tiger hires to install wall art?
SPAMSPAMALOTALOT - Send fan mail en masse to a Monty Python production?
MADMADISONISON - Angry early president can be seen now in TV footage?
DEMDEMAGOGAGOG - Hotheaded liberal politico who's eager to hear?
PROPROCURESCURES - Pharmacist comes through for customers?
REDREDACTIONACTION - Editor's strike?
POSTPOSTAGEAGE - Email era?
WHOOWHOOPIEPIE - "Suh-weet! I love this sandwich cookie!"?

It's so much. And there's so much of it. The best (and possibly only good) one is POSTPOSTAGEAGE. 

Nice misdirection in "Little flap, maybe" (PETDOOR). "There short for a favorite" (ODDS) was excellent. And I kinda knew what they were doing with "Liver spot?," but it still took me a while to come up with ABODE. 

Do people really get laser therapy for ACNE? I had no idea.

And finally, I can't hear the word ENSUE without thinking of the lines of Donne quoted in the beginning of Millay's great sonnet cycle: "By our first strange and fatal interview, / By all desires which thereof did ENSUE."

- Horace

Saturday, April 19, 2025, Alex Tomlinson

It took me a while to get into this one. Sure, there were small things like IRA Flatow and DEBorah, but for "On what to write one's final words?" I guessed heAdstone instead of EXAMPAPER, and because of that incorrect T, I guessed "stairs" for "Locale for an echo." I thought "stairwell," might have been better, but better still is CANYON. And further on, I thought of a qUaSAR, not a PULSAR, when I read "Celestial object producing a so-called 'lighthouse effect' as it rotates." Sigh.

But enough about my troubles. Don't you sometimes get caught up in clues like "Location of the world's oldest surviving piano, with 'the'?" I mean, it's easy enough to enter MET pretty confidently, but then you have to look it up and find out that it is a piano made in Florence by Bartolomeo Cristofori in 1720. And then you think "Bach lived until 1750... could he have played it? He was all the way up in Germany... but maybe..." And yes, it's now at the Met. And Cristofori was, apparently, just trying to make a harpsichord with more control over soft and loud (piano e forte), and it was the revolutionary soft-playing ability that eventually gave the instrument a new name.

The work-y BUSINESSACUMEN (Know-how in negotiations, say) and ACTIONITEM (Post-meeting to-do) don't really pass the "weekend breakfast test" with me. Who wants to be FORCED to think of work on a Saturday?! :) And VISA (Need for an international student, often) is a little too soon for this Harvard employee. Sigh.

- Horace

 

Friday, April 18, 2025, Greg Snitkin and Glenn Davis

Nice ten-stacks in the NW and SE corners, and a cool staggered middle, with one fifteen and offset tens around it. And while we're talking about structure, I also liked the pins of LIBERTYBELL (Philadelphia tourist attraction) and FIGHTSDIRTY (Claws or bites). Have I already told the story about the last time I visited the LIBERTYBELL? It was sometime after 9/11, and security had been beefed up. I had to go through a metal detector, and I had forgotten about the small Buck knife that I sometimes carried with me. The very large security guard asked me to empty my pockets. He took the knife, which barely spanned his palm. He looked at the knife, looked at me, apparently assessed the risk in his mind, then handed it back to me and said "Go ahead." 

Lots of lively fill today. BARBIECORE (Trend that involves pink accessories and décor) was fun. AMERICANO (Watered-down espresso, essentially) was amusingly judgy, but not INAPT, and DIALITBACK ("Whoa! Easy there, buddy!") was nice and slangy. It's a little unfortunate about the duplication in PLAYITCOOL (Act like everything's normal despite how one feels) and PLAYACTION (Football maneuver involving a fake handoff), but it's not egregious, IMO. 

Howzabout somebody explain to me why "Let go to pot?" is a good clue for ANTE. I get that the ANTE goes to the pot, but ... "let go to?" And the question mark? Much better are the non-QMC "Exclamation to an old chap" (ISAY), and the QMC "Present-day attire?" (SANTASUIT). Hah! Also, "Pre-smash hit" was a very nice clue for LOB, but "One may cover estates," (LAW) was trying too hard.

- Horace

Thursday, April 17, 2025, Ilan Kolkowitz and Shimon Kolkowitz

Somehow this theme seemed lacking. Sure, there are asterisks to tell us which clues the "trees" should be applied to, but with all trees looking the same, it felt weird that they all represented different letters. And sure, those letters spelled out "forest," but still... And there's grid art that approximates a tree... but I don't know, it just didn't do it for me.

Do kids still take LUNCHBOXES to school? I hope so, but I really have no idea. And is it fair to clue [F]LOTUS with "*Abigail Adams or Eleanor Roosevelt, informally," when that acronym came along decades after either was in the role? 

Two interesting things I learned today - São PAULO is the "most populous city in the Southern Hemisphere," and The JETSONS was "ABC's first program broadcast in color." Cool.

- Horace

Wednesday, April 16, 2025, Kathy Bloomer

An interesting, vertical theme featuring cereal names that end with X - Chex, Kix, and Trix. None of those were top-tier cereals for me. Trix, especially, although marketed as a kid's cereal, was always unsatisfying. It was basically Kix with food coloring. 

But setting aside my morning preferences, the theme was good enough.

ENDORSEDCHEX - Came out in favor of a certain breakfast product?
GETTINGONESKIX - Doing some shopping for breakfast?
WHOLEBAGOFTRIX - Sugary bulk breakfast purchase?

Seems like it could have been funnier somehow. Still, it's not bad. 

Lots of initials today: INHD (Like most TV broadcasts, now), AFLCIO (Workers' rights grp.), USTEN (Old long-haul hwy. from Detroit to Seattle), DDS (Certain calculus expert, for short),  AFRAMES (Structures commonly seen at ski resorts), TGEL (Neutrogena shampoo with a slash in its name), and TBAR (Skier's transport). And a couple of fun "audio" clues: "Sound in a disappearing act" (POOF) and "Spittoon sound" (PTUI). Gross.

I had never heard of RUM referred to as "Nelson's blood," so that was fun. And who doesn't enjoy the word CRUX? 

- Horace

 

Tuesday, April 15, 2025, Per Bykodorov

I haven't heard the phrase CLOSEBUTNOCIGAR for quite a while. It feels like it was more popular in my youth, but it seems like it's still recognizable. Any younger readers out there want to chime in and say whether or not they have ever heard any of their contemporaries use it? Apparently, it came from the fact that carnival games used to give out cigars as prizes instead of plush animals. And for some reason, in my head it is being said with a voice like that of W. C. Fields. Perhaps because my brother used to say it to me in that voice when I was little. :)

Anywhooo, the anagrammed cigars are found in four long Across answers:

TRAGICOMIC - Like a film that's both sad and funny
CHERRYGARCIA - Ben & Jerry's flavor honoring a jam band legend
MAGICREALISM - Genre for Gabriel García Márquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude"
CRAIGSLIST - Online marketplace with a "barter" category

All good.

SGTS for "March V.I.P.s?: Abbr." confused me until I read it again ignoring the capital M, and then I got in step. And I thought "Take out a small part of one's savings, say" was an odd clue for DIPIN. I mean, sure, it is used that way... oh fine!

I would have preferred "propaganda" instead of ARTS as the modern answer to "Lincoln Center focus." Too soon?

- Horace

 

Monday, April 14, 2025, Stacy Cooper and Ken Cohen

I haven't heard anyone say WHATSCRACKING for ages, so that was nice to see. And it reveals the theme today - things that can be cracked, found in the beginning of the longest Across answers:

CODEOFCONDUCT - Rules on how to behave
EGGPLANTDIP - Baba ghanouj, e.g.
KNUCKLEHEAD - Goofball

Lotta Monday-ish stuff in here. "Roller coaster exclamation" (WHEE), "Hockey scores" (GOALS), "More whitish" (PALER). And sure, "Fuzzy Wuzzy ____ a bear ..." seems easy, but I actually wondered about whether it would be "wuz" or WAS. Hah.

I think I had heard that Geena Davis was in MENSA, but I didn't know about Steve Martin. And I've always liked the word MOLT (from Latin mutare, to change) although not the word "Slough." And speaking of Latin, it was a little surprising to see LACUNA (Gap) in a Monday grid. And finally, I much prefer a GIN and TONIC to a MOSCOWMULE. No special glass needed.

- Horace

Sunday, April 13, 2025, John Kugelman

BOTH SIDES NOW

The theme does not reference the Joni Mitchell song, but the fact that all theme answers start with "pro" and "con" followed by the same string of letters. As in "Popcorn and pretzels at a parade?" (PROCESSIONSCONCESSIONS). I guess we are to take that middle S as being possessive. CONTRACTORSPROTRACTORS (Tools of the trade?) might be the best one, even though I doubt that protractors come up too much in a contractor's daily routines. No wait - CONFESSIONPROFESSION (Police interrogator or priest?) is the best one. That works. The one that works least well is probably PROTESTANTCONTESTANT (Someone who might excel at a Bible trivia game?), because does any protestant really care much about all that Bible stuff? Or is that just me...

Seems there's a lot of religious-adjacent stuff in here: ATONER (Penitent person), ITSASIN ("God does not approve!"), POORBOX (Container for alms), NOSAINT (A flawed person), SON (Solomon, to King David).

It seemed odd that there were clues for the second- (NEWYORK) and third-largest (TORONTO) tech hubs in North America without one for the largest (San Francisco Bay area), and when I looked it up, some sites put Seattle or Ottawa as second. 

I like LOOKIE YONDER together at the bottom of the grid, and any mention of Robert FROST (Poet with four Pulitzers) is good, but I hated OLDONES (Items being replaced), and there was a little too much KOD, OKD, DECI, OPPO, INSPO, and ATTA for me. 

IMOUT.

- Horace

Saturday, April 12, 2025, Jesse Cohn

Is it just me, or is it a little odd to start with three "quote clues" as I'm calling them. There's "You're on!" (ITSABET), "You really think?" (THATSO), and "Ha! Better luck next time!" (NOTTODAY). I got the first off the clue, but the rest needed crosses. 

In the middle east there were two of a different kind of clue, which I guess could be called trivia. "Educational method with mixed-age classrooms" (MONTESSORI) (I did not know that was one component of MONTESSORI learning), and "Another name for Princess Diana of Themyscira" (WONDERWOMAN). And I guess "Activity that Simba practices in 'The Lion King'" (ROARING) could be added to that list.

I must have spent ten minutes in the small section in the southwest. I did not know the oh-so-Saturday-y "Mortars for grinding Mexican spices" (MOLCAJETES), so that was no help. And ATONCE (Like, yesterday) just wouldn't come. Of course, in retrospect, once it's all been filled in, it looks so easy. Of course a LARIAT might be thrown for a loop... of course the SENSES are a noted quintet. Sigh... what happens to the brain while solving a crossword? It's an interesting phenomenon.

- Horace

Friday, April 11, 2025, Jesse Guzman

Some answers in this one were surprisingly straightforward. Like "It's one step down from an F" (EFLAT), "Line accompanying a doorbell ring" (ITSME) and 38A "Liquid-Plumr alternative" (DRANO) ... I don't know, like what else could they be? 

On the other hand, we also have clues like "Activity with pints and points" (BARTRIVIA), "Ones in a war of words?" (SLAMPOETS), and "They're high-pressure at their low points" (OCEANS). All took me several crosses. But I suppose that's what a puzzle needs. Some that get you in and some to struggle with. 

In the "I did not need to know that" category we have "Creature with over 200 tiny eyes along its shell" (SEASCALLOP). Ick. And speaking of ... well, nevermind what, but I will never be able to hear the phrase ILLWAIT without thinking of Gilbert Gottfried in "The Aristocrats." And if you look that up, please don't report back to me on how you liked it. It's best LEFTALONE. Let's just say it's EDGY. (And speaking of, it was nice that EDGY was right on the edge of the grid, wasn't it?)

OK, howzabout we wind this up with a recognition of that racy SW corner - SPARK (Sign of romantic chemistry), PULSE (Sign of vitality), and TRYST (Private affair). Nice.

- Horace

 

Thursdsay, April 10, 2025, Adam Wagner

A cute Thursday theme today, with clue words that need to be parsed with diminutive endings, as in:

Shoveling? - GENTLENUDGE
Martini - VENDINGMACHINE
Bandito? - PINKYRING
Sublet? - FINGERSANDWICH
Rockette? - GRAINOFSAND

Cute, right? That PINKYRING took me the longest, because I didn't remember that TYR was the "Norse god of war." Just so you know, he's the god of war, and Thor is the god of thunder and strength. 

As usual, answers with initials - like ACUNIT (It might drip onto an urban sidewalk, informally) and DRHOUSE (Titular solver of many a medical mystery in 2000s TV) (to be clear, the show was called "House," but it's fine) took longer to res in for me. And for "Country whose name comes from the Latin phrase for 'Red Sea,'" I kept wondering why I didn't know a country with a name like Marerubrum, but it turns out that the etymology of ERITREA is, in fact, Greek. OOPSIE!

But still, I enjoyed it.

- Horace

 

Wednesday, April 9, 2025, Aidan Deshong and Oren Hartstein

Funny theme today - reviews that contain information about what is being reviewed. How's that for taking all the fun out of it? 

Three-star review of a cocktail shaker? - MIXEDRESULTS
Three-star review of Battleship? - HITORMISS
Three-star review of a no-stress class? - PASSABLE
Three-star review of Tulsa? - ITSJUSTOK
Three-star review of the Friday before Easter? - GOODNOTGREAT

Funny, right? 

So, I spent some time this morning researching sorghum - which I wrongly thought looked something like spinach - and MILLET. Both are grasses (distantly related to wheat and barley), and both were cultivated very early. MILLET can be traced back 10,000 years, and may have been one of the first plants to be domesticated. Both are heat and drought resistant, both can be made into bread and fermented into alcohol, and both are used to make biofuel. The U.S. is the top grower of sorghum, but produces very little MILLET, which is grown primarily in India, China, and many African countries. One fun fact is that sorghum grains can be popped like corn.

I thought "Sage-colored sage" was good for YODA. Hah. And "Sign that there's no turning back" was cute for ONEWAY. 

One thing I learned that I'm not sure I'm happy about - that the OLEATO is a "Starbucks drink made with olive oil." 

- Horace

Tuesday, April 8, 2025, Barbara Lin

Today's theme is CHIPSIN - four things that have chips in them. The two grid-spanners are the best: TOLLHOUSECOOKIE (Treat from a recipe printed on a Nestlé package) and DESKTOPCOMPUTER (Office workstation). POKERGAME (Bluffer's activity) is fine, and I guess TACOSALAD (Crunchy Tex-Mex bowl) is ok, but I've never had one, so I can't really picture it. I guess it has corn chips in it?

Once again the longest Downs were good: TAKEASTROLL (Wander through the neighborhood after dinner, maybe) brings to mind the passeggiata, one of life's great pleasures; and KINESTHESIA (Awareness of body position, scientifically) is just a good word. 

As for the shorter stuff, I always enjoy a little connection between clues, as in 3-Down "More than most" (ALL) and 15-Across "More than a few" (MANY). "Hit and run, but not error" (VERBS) had me stumped for a while even though I've seen that same trick many times. Sigh. 

I'm not sure I would have said "fad" and MANIA (More than a fad) were all that different. And it's odd to think of ODES as "Poems that express approval." I'm not sure that's entirely true. Can things be appreciated without approval? 

- Horace

Monday, April 7, 2025, Jeffrey Lease and Jeff Chen

It is a cool construction feat to find three long entries that contain both "ten" and "one," and then to be able to set the puzzle so that those words begin in squares that have odd numbers in them. It's cool and it's impressive, but it is art? 

Best clue: "Treat with the right Stuf?" (OREO). There have been hundreds of clues for OREO over the years, but this one is new. Nice.

Oddest clue: "Some broadcasts updating current events" (NPRNEWS). Is the number off here? Are we to take "news" as plural? Strange.

I was a little surprised by the long downs today: TRANSLATING (Interpreter's job) and UNEARNEDRUN (Baseball score due to the defensive team's error). Not sure exactly why, but do we normally have 11-letter Downs on Monday? 

So, a couple things. One, it looks like this blog is back on again. I know that will be of moderate interest to those few interested souls who have checked in every once in a while over the past decade-plus. Two, the A.C.P.T. is over and Paolo Pasco won for the second year in a row. He beat his two competitors on the stage by almost a full minute, finishing the championship puzzle in 3:43. Under four minutes. The final puzzle.

In distantly related news, I had my best tournament ever, finishing all seven puzzles within the time limits and making no errors. My time bonus (the time left on the clock when I finished each puzzle, totalled for all seven puzzles) was an hour and twenty-eight minutes. So not bad, most would say, but what did that get me? 242nd place. Still, I'm happy with my performance, and I was also happy to see the best solvers out there doing what they do. It's a beautiful thing. 

Thank you, Will Shortz, for making all this happen.

- Horace 

p.s. I want to also give a big shout out to co-blogger Philbo, who broke into the top 100 this year! Congrats!

Sunday, April 6, 2025, Kareem Ayas

Sunday spinners today: six roundhouse blocks where three squares filled in for one clue have to be mentally rotated to work with the other direction. Fairly straightforward, if you allow for the turns. Heh. 

The first two answers "revealed" by the spinning letters are nice and bleak: WHYD[OIB]OTHER (*"Oh, what's the point?"); and EMPT[YSP]ACES (*Voids). The rest are more neutral. 

In fill, let's see, I like TREACLE (Cloying sentimentality) (I can relate...), UTTERROT (Tripe) (I like all parts of this one), TUNATACO (mmmm....), TRASHY (Like some mindless entertainment), THORNY (Like some stems and situations), and ACORNS (Stereotypical squirrel's stash). Heh... squirrels...

OK, is that enough talking about the puzzle? What I really want to say is that I finished puzzle five! No mistakes! I apologize for the self-aggrandizing, but I'm pretty happy about it. Of course, I think it was easier than the usual puzzle five... but I'm still going to take the win.

Today is the last puzzle, then the finals. I may write in later with a little recap.

- Horace

Saturday, April 5, 2025, Rafael Musa

Well, I'm down here at the A.C.P.T. having a grand old time. There's a fun & games night on Friday, and the pressure isn't as great as in the real tournament, but there are still some prizes to be won. So at one point, they hand out three puzzles and you can choose whichever one you want, and the first person to finish in each category gets a prize. There was a Spiral, a Cryptic, and a Split Decisions, so I chose the easiest one for me, the Spiral. And on this particular night, it went very well and I think I finished it in three or four minutes. 

Well, Dear Reader, I didn't win. I heard from none other than Philbo (who finished second in the Cryptic solve!), that last year's winner Paolo Pasco finished the Spiral in ONE MINUTE (!), and then finished the cryptic in TWO (!!), winning both categories. 

You know, I tell people that I do Monday puzzles in under five and most Saturdays in, say, fifteen minutes or less (today's was 10:52), and then I tell them that I'm going to the tournament and they say "Are you going to win?" And I just laugh and laugh. Seriously. If I finish in the top half of all solvers I'm pretty satisfied. Sigh.

So anyway, another thing about the tournament is that they have a list of all the competitors, and everyone gets to say what they do: "Technical Writer," "Student," "Attorney," etc. For the past few years I've entered "bonvivant." I did so again this year, but it was changed (and I have a guess as to who might have done it!) to "Blogger." Hah! Sounds like somebody misses ol' HAFDTNYTCPFCA! 

So on to the blogging then. 

Best clue: "Old story coming straight from the horse's mouth? (TROJANWAR). So good. "Gag order?" (TMI) wasn't bad. Nor was "Time to give up?" (LENT). 

The upper right took me the longest. I spent too much time thinking of language when reading "House in Milan" (ARMANI), I was not familiar with the term RANDOMWALK (Mathematical process used to model unpredictable phenomena), and I didn't know that the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy was awarded in the NBAFINALS. I don't think I've watched a full game of basketball since Bird and McHale were on the court together.

Finally, I love the clue for AYCARAMBA (Expression of surprise ... or dismay). It was Apt!

- Horace

Friday, April 4, 2025, Karen Steinberg

It's one of these puzzles with several 15-word pins through it. I prefer these to quad-stacks, for example, because the crosses tend to be less strained. That said, I did learn OMBRE (Hair color blending technique) and LAR (Roman guardian spirit). I've had something like ten years of Latin and I have never come across LAR. But the crosses were fair, so no foul.

My favorite of the fifteens was ICALLEMASISEEEM ("Lemme be straight with you") because I got the end first, and I was worried about that ...EEEM. Yikes.

Loved 1A today - ALSO (It may lead to a second opinion). Really nice clue there. It's too bad that the next two were so close and so ... blah. (BLOBS (Shapeless stuff) and MUSH (Shapeless stuff)). They tried with the repeated clue to make it interesting, but when the words are so mid it just doesn't really sing.

Other fun clues were "Messy things to eat in a car" (TACOS), "Ottomans, e.g." (LEGRESTS), and "Every bad situation is a blues SONG waiting to happen": Amy Winehouse." 

Decent Friday. 

- Horace

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