0:13:45
Not bad at all, and I love the theme!
Initially wanted "nose" for 1D: What dogs "shake hands" with, but Frannie thought I was probably reading a little too much into a human handshake, to think that it could involve as much information as whatever info a dog gets with a sniff, and she immediately corrected it to PAWS. And I guess 5D: Phonograph needle (STYLUS) might seem a little outdated to some, but it comforts me. And besides, you've got REN (7D: Stimpy's TV pal) right next to it, so that makes up for it, right? Or is that, too, already outdated? ... god I'm old... but hey! I'm not old enough to actually have listened to AMOS (9D: Half of an old radio comedy duo), so that's something, right?
I like the vertical tens, PEJORATIVE (11D: Disparaging) and NATUREWALK (28D: Activity led by a park ranger, perhaps). Also liked the clue/answer 53D: "Hot" lover (FLAME).
Not a ton of good stuff to call out, but very little bad to say either, and sometimes that's a very good thing.
Also, does this puzzle count for getting us one degree closer to KEVIN 45A: Bacon of "Mystic River"?
- Horace
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Monday, April 29, 2013
Monday, April 29, 2013, C. W. Stewart
0:08:00
Not my favorite Monday puzzle. Didn't love the theme. Seemed awfully contrived, and in MOORESSMORES, the vowel sound changes, at least in my dialect. Add to that complaint OVI (39A: Prefix with duct) (yeah, that's an everyday, Monday-type word, right?), EROSE (22A: Jagged, as a leaf's edge) (well, ok, I know that word, but it might just be from crosswords... I can no longer be sure), and AARE (57A: Bern's river) (definitely from crosswords), and, psst!, you've got kind of a weak puzzle.
25D: Direction in which the sun sets? Why not just clue this with 25D: Write W-E-S-T into these four boxes? Influenced, perhaps, by recent sporting events, I was almost tricked by 50D: Augusta's home, but when Georgia didn't fit, MAINE was easy enough.
In looking for other things to write about, I kept imagining other possible ways to clue certain things. Like 52D: ___ ___ half instead of 52D: Admitted at the door, and 53D: Obnoxious recurring character played by Chris Kattan on SNL for 53D: Tropical fruit. And, of course, 67A: Montoya who said: "You killed my father, prepare to die" instead of 67A: Architect Jones.
But let's end on a happy note, shall we? My favorite answer today: IKIDYOUNOT (29D: "No, seriously"). I kid you not.
- Horace
Not my favorite Monday puzzle. Didn't love the theme. Seemed awfully contrived, and in MOORESSMORES, the vowel sound changes, at least in my dialect. Add to that complaint OVI (39A: Prefix with duct) (yeah, that's an everyday, Monday-type word, right?), EROSE (22A: Jagged, as a leaf's edge) (well, ok, I know that word, but it might just be from crosswords... I can no longer be sure), and AARE (57A: Bern's river) (definitely from crosswords), and, psst!, you've got kind of a weak puzzle.
25D: Direction in which the sun sets? Why not just clue this with 25D: Write W-E-S-T into these four boxes? Influenced, perhaps, by recent sporting events, I was almost tricked by 50D: Augusta's home, but when Georgia didn't fit, MAINE was easy enough.
In looking for other things to write about, I kept imagining other possible ways to clue certain things. Like 52D: ___ ___ half instead of 52D: Admitted at the door, and 53D: Obnoxious recurring character played by Chris Kattan on SNL for 53D: Tropical fruit. And, of course, 67A: Montoya who said: "You killed my father, prepare to die" instead of 67A: Architect Jones.
But let's end on a happy note, shall we? My favorite answer today: IKIDYOUNOT (29D: "No, seriously"). I kid you not.
- Horace
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Sunday, April 28, 2013, Patrick Berry
1:08:36
SOFT T's
After a brief scare last night when the NYT Crossword app sent us the diagramless puzzle by mistake (and not correctly formatted, at that!), the proper puzzle arrived this morning, and we're sure glad it did!
This was a fun Sunday puzzle. The "THeme" answers were mostly hilarious, although, as Frannie said, "No one should ever have thought of" the phrase ASCYTHEFORSOREEYES (95A: Unpopular ophthamologist's implement?).
Remember Jennifer CAPRIATI (94A: 1992 Olympic tennis gold medalist)? Yeah, neither did we, until we got the C and a couple other letters. What ever happened to her?
The cluing in this one was quite good. It starts off strong with 1A: Coating on some facial tissues (ALOEVERA), which could mean that the stuff is on your actual skin (because you applied lotion) or on an actual paper tissue, 'cause they do that sort of thing now, don't they? And 1D: Elementary school group? (ABCS) is also solid. 90A: Form letters (WRITE) was very nice, as were TAILFINS (60D: They were big in the '50s), 97A: Cabinet members? (FILES), 111D: Miss America she's not (HAG), and many more. 50A: Uses a keyless entry system? (BREAKSIN), brilliant. 53A: They go places (ROADS), love it. 101A: What a fist might represent (ROCK)! One of Frannie's favorites was the simple, but perfect, FRO (48D: Back again). And I liked seeing the double double F's of FFLAT and WOLFF.
Clues like 5D: Hound doc (VET) and 99D: Long little doggie (CORGI) show an admirable playfulness, and for that, we're willing to give Mr. Berry the extra leash, as it were, for things like YKNOW (96D: "... see what I mean?").
Zippy, modern fill mixed with the ICHOR of ARACHNE makes for a very satisfying solve(nt?). I'm going on record saying this is my favorite Sunday puzzle of the year so far. What do you think of that?
- Horace
SOFT T's
After a brief scare last night when the NYT Crossword app sent us the diagramless puzzle by mistake (and not correctly formatted, at that!), the proper puzzle arrived this morning, and we're sure glad it did!
This was a fun Sunday puzzle. The "THeme" answers were mostly hilarious, although, as Frannie said, "No one should ever have thought of" the phrase ASCYTHEFORSOREEYES (95A: Unpopular ophthamologist's implement?).
Remember Jennifer CAPRIATI (94A: 1992 Olympic tennis gold medalist)? Yeah, neither did we, until we got the C and a couple other letters. What ever happened to her?
The cluing in this one was quite good. It starts off strong with 1A: Coating on some facial tissues (ALOEVERA), which could mean that the stuff is on your actual skin (because you applied lotion) or on an actual paper tissue, 'cause they do that sort of thing now, don't they? And 1D: Elementary school group? (ABCS) is also solid. 90A: Form letters (WRITE) was very nice, as were TAILFINS (60D: They were big in the '50s), 97A: Cabinet members? (FILES), 111D: Miss America she's not (HAG), and many more. 50A: Uses a keyless entry system? (BREAKSIN), brilliant. 53A: They go places (ROADS), love it. 101A: What a fist might represent (ROCK)! One of Frannie's favorites was the simple, but perfect, FRO (48D: Back again). And I liked seeing the double double F's of FFLAT and WOLFF.
Clues like 5D: Hound doc (VET) and 99D: Long little doggie (CORGI) show an admirable playfulness, and for that, we're willing to give Mr. Berry the extra leash, as it were, for things like YKNOW (96D: "... see what I mean?").
Zippy, modern fill mixed with the ICHOR of ARACHNE makes for a very satisfying solve(nt?). I'm going on record saying this is my favorite Sunday puzzle of the year so far. What do you think of that?
- Horace
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Saturday, April 27, 2013, Chris A. McGlothlin
0:28:30
The grid looked Saturday-y, but it filled in like a Thursday. Something of a relief, actually, after last Saturday!
My favorite clue today: 28A: Character in "Unforgiven." We ended up with CAPI_ALU before finally realizing that it was one of those tricky, cryptic-type clues. Sheesh! Good one! Other fun ones included 40A: Holy smoker? (CENSER), 34D: Spirit in a sling (GIN), and 40D: Its patrons are usually kept in the dark (CINEMA).
On the not-so-great side: NYS (35A: Gov. Cuomo's purview), DEXTRAL (37D: Right-handed), and a healthy dose of crosswordsy stuff: SSTS, OLEA, ORDO, LANI, ESAU...
A lot of it was just kind of boring. Even Cee-lo Green. When is his fifteen minutes going to be up? MAJORIN, ORDERARMS, NOSYPARKER (?), SADDLEBAG... I don't know, it just didn't do anything for me.
- Horace
The grid looked Saturday-y, but it filled in like a Thursday. Something of a relief, actually, after last Saturday!
My favorite clue today: 28A: Character in "Unforgiven." We ended up with CAPI_ALU before finally realizing that it was one of those tricky, cryptic-type clues. Sheesh! Good one! Other fun ones included 40A: Holy smoker? (CENSER), 34D: Spirit in a sling (GIN), and 40D: Its patrons are usually kept in the dark (CINEMA).
On the not-so-great side: NYS (35A: Gov. Cuomo's purview), DEXTRAL (37D: Right-handed), and a healthy dose of crosswordsy stuff: SSTS, OLEA, ORDO, LANI, ESAU...
A lot of it was just kind of boring. Even Cee-lo Green. When is his fifteen minutes going to be up? MAJORIN, ORDERARMS, NOSYPARKER (?), SADDLEBAG... I don't know, it just didn't do anything for me.
- Horace
Friday, April 26, 2013
Friday, April 26, 2013, Michael Ashley
0:48:41
At first, I thought that this was one of those puzzles that uses every letter of the alphabet at least once or twice. There's a name for those... pangram? Is that it? Anyway, the last time I remember this happening, the resulting puzzle was less than ideal. This time, however, it's missing a Q and a V (I'm pretty sure), but maybe that is what saved it from being terrible. There still are a lot of high-point Scrabble letters in here, though, and Frannie, especially, liked working with "all the fancy letters."
Initially, I feared the grid with its nearly sealed-off corners, but there wasn't any trouble getting from one section to another. And with only a few three-letter answers (what are there, six?), and one of those being UTZ (44A: Potato chip brand), well, we have no complaints.
A very clean, enjoyable puzzle. Not too hard, seemingly, or maybe it just fell right into our collective wheelhouses. (Or should that just be "wheelhouse," since I already said "collective?") Frannie just laid down things like ANNEMEARA (17A: "Archie Bunker's Place" actress) and ASHCAKES (20A: Some cornbreads) (odd coincidence, I made cornbread for dinner tonight! But not directly on fiery coals.), while I put in things like OLLIE (18A: No-handed skateboarding trick) and, off that "O," BMOCS (10D: Quad standouts), without hesitation. What one didn't know, the other did, and so it went.
LILA (11D: Lee of silent films), was a complete unknown, and I suppose if you weren't familiar with the term "Ollie," you might try some other letter there (S, maybe??). And SWARMS for (1D: A lot) wasn't our favorite answer ever, but these are trifling complaints. Not the cleverest puzzle, but a clean one, and that counts for a lot.
- Horace
At first, I thought that this was one of those puzzles that uses every letter of the alphabet at least once or twice. There's a name for those... pangram? Is that it? Anyway, the last time I remember this happening, the resulting puzzle was less than ideal. This time, however, it's missing a Q and a V (I'm pretty sure), but maybe that is what saved it from being terrible. There still are a lot of high-point Scrabble letters in here, though, and Frannie, especially, liked working with "all the fancy letters."
Initially, I feared the grid with its nearly sealed-off corners, but there wasn't any trouble getting from one section to another. And with only a few three-letter answers (what are there, six?), and one of those being UTZ (44A: Potato chip brand), well, we have no complaints.
A very clean, enjoyable puzzle. Not too hard, seemingly, or maybe it just fell right into our collective wheelhouses. (Or should that just be "wheelhouse," since I already said "collective?") Frannie just laid down things like ANNEMEARA (17A: "Archie Bunker's Place" actress) and ASHCAKES (20A: Some cornbreads) (odd coincidence, I made cornbread for dinner tonight! But not directly on fiery coals.), while I put in things like OLLIE (18A: No-handed skateboarding trick) and, off that "O," BMOCS (10D: Quad standouts), without hesitation. What one didn't know, the other did, and so it went.
LILA (11D: Lee of silent films), was a complete unknown, and I suppose if you weren't familiar with the term "Ollie," you might try some other letter there (S, maybe??). And SWARMS for (1D: A lot) wasn't our favorite answer ever, but these are trifling complaints. Not the cleverest puzzle, but a clean one, and that counts for a lot.
- Horace
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Thursday, April 25, 2013, Jeffrey Wechsler
0:33:03
Great start today with 1A: It has everything (COSMOS), and it just kept on keepin' on after that. Very little garbage in this one, and what there was (ESA) (for example) was clued very well (44A: What's that to José?). Some answers seemed a little odd (ONEHORSEPLOW, FENCERAIL, HROSSPEROT), but there was nothing wrong with them. They're perfectly acceptable, just, I don't know... odd.
It seemed surprisingly straightforward for a Thursday. No rebuses, no circled letters, no trickery of any kind. Just a simple PRESTOCHANGEO (Magician's phrase ... or a hint to part of 18-, 25-, 34- and 41-Across) theme where each theme answer contains the letters P,R,E,S,T, and O in different arrangements. It took a while to figure it out, and the last theme clue to fall for us was the revealer, so knowing it didn't help the solving at all. It was interesting to learn that the name of that 18A: Classic cartoon in which "Kill da wabbit" is sung to a Wagner tune was WHATSOPERADOC. Who knew? Aside from Jeffrey Wechsler, I mean.
It seems every puzzle will have its OLIOs, its ICCs and its LUANAs (that last one almost killing us until we finally figured out 28D: Lux.'s place (EUR)!), but this puzzle was far heavier on clever clues and interesting answers. 59A: Best way to defuse a bomb, for example (CALMLY). It reminds us of Tom Lehrer's classic song "L-Y" and the line "As you walk along the street / A porcupine you meet / How do you shake his hand when he says hi? / Carefully... carefully... carful ... L-Y"
- Horace
Great start today with 1A: It has everything (COSMOS), and it just kept on keepin' on after that. Very little garbage in this one, and what there was (ESA) (for example) was clued very well (44A: What's that to José?). Some answers seemed a little odd (ONEHORSEPLOW, FENCERAIL, HROSSPEROT), but there was nothing wrong with them. They're perfectly acceptable, just, I don't know... odd.
It seemed surprisingly straightforward for a Thursday. No rebuses, no circled letters, no trickery of any kind. Just a simple PRESTOCHANGEO (Magician's phrase ... or a hint to part of 18-, 25-, 34- and 41-Across) theme where each theme answer contains the letters P,R,E,S,T, and O in different arrangements. It took a while to figure it out, and the last theme clue to fall for us was the revealer, so knowing it didn't help the solving at all. It was interesting to learn that the name of that 18A: Classic cartoon in which "Kill da wabbit" is sung to a Wagner tune was WHATSOPERADOC. Who knew? Aside from Jeffrey Wechsler, I mean.
It seems every puzzle will have its OLIOs, its ICCs and its LUANAs (that last one almost killing us until we finally figured out 28D: Lux.'s place (EUR)!), but this puzzle was far heavier on clever clues and interesting answers. 59A: Best way to defuse a bomb, for example (CALMLY). It reminds us of Tom Lehrer's classic song "L-Y" and the line "As you walk along the street / A porcupine you meet / How do you shake his hand when he says hi? / Carefully... carefully... carful ... L-Y"
- Horace
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Wednesday, April 24, 2013, Clive Probert
0:27:27
We didn't know that a PACA was a 1D: Spotted rodent, but it was INFERable (in a way) (27A: Gather, logically) from the crosses. The same was not true, for me anyway, of CSTAR (31D: Astronomical red giant). We will be interested to hear whether or not Huygens knows this term. Me, I hadn't heard it so as to remember it. Nor had I heard (so as to remember) of the city named SOCHI, which is, apparently, the 30A: Russian city, host of the 2014 Winter Olympics. I guess I'd better start paying attention to more of the so-called News. Oh, and one more thing - we know a lot of French people, and never once have we heard any of them say ALLOALLO (20A: Repetitive French greeting).
Anywho, enough complaining. We liked plenty in this puzzle. SLOB (9D: One whose work is not picking up?) was nice, and although other reviewers sometimes complain about cross-referencing, we rather like it, so 14D: Least like 9-Down (NEATEST), was fine with us. 47D: Sister (and occasional rival) of Venus, had us both thinking of mythology, and it wasn't until this morning that we finally realized it was really about tennis! And while we're down there in the SE, we put in "Prospector" immediately for 50A: One who hoped things would pan out? It's amusing that FORTYNINER also fits in those same squares. Fortyniner also fits in much better with the "numbers" theme of this puzzle. When it started out with "Fifteen" and "Thirty," I was kind of hoping for "Sixty," but no dice.
Lastly, 36D: Partiers at a hooley made us laugh. I've gotta look that word up, and then start using it all the time.
- Horace
p.s. Totally missed the other theme entries of LOVEBOATS (weak), FORTYNINERS, and GAMESOVER. I guess the sequence did make sense, and I was missing out on more than I realized when I didn't understand "SERENA."
We didn't know that a PACA was a 1D: Spotted rodent, but it was INFERable (in a way) (27A: Gather, logically) from the crosses. The same was not true, for me anyway, of CSTAR (31D: Astronomical red giant). We will be interested to hear whether or not Huygens knows this term. Me, I hadn't heard it so as to remember it. Nor had I heard (so as to remember) of the city named SOCHI, which is, apparently, the 30A: Russian city, host of the 2014 Winter Olympics. I guess I'd better start paying attention to more of the so-called News. Oh, and one more thing - we know a lot of French people, and never once have we heard any of them say ALLOALLO (20A: Repetitive French greeting).
Anywho, enough complaining. We liked plenty in this puzzle. SLOB (9D: One whose work is not picking up?) was nice, and although other reviewers sometimes complain about cross-referencing, we rather like it, so 14D: Least like 9-Down (NEATEST), was fine with us. 47D: Sister (and occasional rival) of Venus, had us both thinking of mythology, and it wasn't until this morning that we finally realized it was really about tennis! And while we're down there in the SE, we put in "Prospector" immediately for 50A: One who hoped things would pan out? It's amusing that FORTYNINER also fits in those same squares. Fortyniner also fits in much better with the "numbers" theme of this puzzle. When it started out with "Fifteen" and "Thirty," I was kind of hoping for "Sixty," but no dice.
Lastly, 36D: Partiers at a hooley made us laugh. I've gotta look that word up, and then start using it all the time.
- Horace
p.s. Totally missed the other theme entries of LOVEBOATS (weak), FORTYNINERS, and GAMESOVER. I guess the sequence did make sense, and I was missing out on more than I realized when I didn't understand "SERENA."
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