0:48:26
I like this one more and more as I review it. It pushed back at me during the whole solve, but it was a satisfying struggle. Loved the pair of "fall" clues - 12D: It opens during the fall (PARACHUTE) and 67A: Fall fallout, some believe (ORIGINALSIN). And many of the other 11s were good as well. KINGSRANSOM (17A: Fortune), JACKSQUAT (14D: Nada), BLOCKADES (13D: Some trade barriers) (very nice!), and the wonderful MAGINOTLINE (63A: W.W. II defense). And that's just a sampling. There were many more clever entries. 23A: Hudson River school? was nicely deceptive, especially for one who has taken art history, but are there really any SHADS still in that river? Didn't GE pollute it back into the stone age?
For a while I wanted "A pos." for 61A: Many a donor, in brief, but although I didn't remember exactly what it was, I knew that the "54D: Sporty Lotus model" was a woman's name, and "_pise" didn't look very good. And speaking of that quadrant, is OMEGA used in some kind of math as a 52A: Resistance figure? I suppose I could ask someone from the 3D: Quick set. HAH! Those morons.... Oh, and speaking of morons, I've never heard YOS used to mean "5D: His, modern-style?" Who says that? [But wait! It's not possessive, it's plural! Hi! = Yo! ... very nice!]
This is the fifth puzzle we've reviewed by Mr. Knapp, all of them Thursday or later. He's always challenging, but fair, and I think this is my favorite one of his yet. I look forward to the next!
- Horace
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Friday, August 30, 2013
Friday, August 30, 2013, David Steinberg
0:32:30
After yesterday's whirlwind, almost any puzzle would be a letdown, but seeing young Mr. Steinberg's name gave me hope. Overall, it was a good one, but I am not without a few complaints. The first of which is any mention at all of MICHELEBACHMANN (1A: First female candidate to win the Ames Straw Poll). I guess that was a historic event, but so was the fire-bombing of Dresden. They're not parallel in any way except that they both conjure up bad thoughts. Anyway, I first tried Hillary, knowing that it couldn't be true, and then tried "Michelle Bachman," before a few crosses corrected my misspelling. THELATELATESHOW (17A: It airs in the morning, ironically) was another answer that came very quickly, as was URBANDICTIONARY (61A: Big source for modern slang). I'm a little surprised that Mr. Shortz accepted that as fill, actually, but maybe he's never really delved very deeply into the resource. And if you, dear reader, are not familiar with it, all I can say is, tread lightly.
So with three fifteens quickly in place, the rest of the fill went pretty easily. It also seemed like we were dialed into this one. ITHACAN (2D: Odysseus, e.g.) was easy with a couple crosses - wasn't his home town just mentioned a week or two ago in a puzzle? And even EPAULET (27A: Possible rank indicator) came without trouble. The same was not true, however, of 47D: Emulates Homer. We were, of course, thinking of Mr. Simpson or the poet, without much success. Eventually, Frannie had PA_NTS, and we finally got it. Incidentally, Homer's house on Prout's Neck is being (or has been) refurbished, and is available for tours through the Portland Art Museum. It's in a lovely setting, overlooking the sea, and the rocks out in front (or is that in back?) were the setting for at least a few of Homer's more famous works.
Favorite clues? Well, 6D: Re-serve judgement? (LET) was right up there, and I loved the inclusion of the word BILIOUS, with it's literal clue: 8D: Ill-humored, and I liked the word AFLUTTER (37A: Like some lovers' hearts) too. "9D: Norwegian Star port of call" (ACAPULCO) was nicely misleading. I was a little shocked when "Oslo" would have left four blank squares! There were lots of good clues, really, but there seemed also to be lots of abbreviations, which I don't love. I know they're a fact of life in crosswords, but there were at least 13, and I'm not even sure whether or not that includes USBPORT (43D: Modern mouse hole?), but really, that one was fine.
It seems Frannie just looked up EGERIA (7D: Female adviser) after seeing it in a puzzle very recently, but neither of us could remember it, so again, we needed all the crosses. Perhaps the next time we see it we'll know it. And speaking of never remembering - things like MST (1D: Yellowstone setting: Abbr.) seem to get me without fail! I don't wear a watch, and I guess I'm just never thinking about time!
Overall this felt a little on the easy side for a Friday, and a little uneven (XESOUT is not a favorite), but it's hard to know if I'm judging it fairly, coming, as it does, on the heels of one of my favorite puzzles of the year.
On to Saturday!
- Horace
After yesterday's whirlwind, almost any puzzle would be a letdown, but seeing young Mr. Steinberg's name gave me hope. Overall, it was a good one, but I am not without a few complaints. The first of which is any mention at all of MICHELEBACHMANN (1A: First female candidate to win the Ames Straw Poll). I guess that was a historic event, but so was the fire-bombing of Dresden. They're not parallel in any way except that they both conjure up bad thoughts. Anyway, I first tried Hillary, knowing that it couldn't be true, and then tried "Michelle Bachman," before a few crosses corrected my misspelling. THELATELATESHOW (17A: It airs in the morning, ironically) was another answer that came very quickly, as was URBANDICTIONARY (61A: Big source for modern slang). I'm a little surprised that Mr. Shortz accepted that as fill, actually, but maybe he's never really delved very deeply into the resource. And if you, dear reader, are not familiar with it, all I can say is, tread lightly.
So with three fifteens quickly in place, the rest of the fill went pretty easily. It also seemed like we were dialed into this one. ITHACAN (2D: Odysseus, e.g.) was easy with a couple crosses - wasn't his home town just mentioned a week or two ago in a puzzle? And even EPAULET (27A: Possible rank indicator) came without trouble. The same was not true, however, of 47D: Emulates Homer. We were, of course, thinking of Mr. Simpson or the poet, without much success. Eventually, Frannie had PA_NTS, and we finally got it. Incidentally, Homer's house on Prout's Neck is being (or has been) refurbished, and is available for tours through the Portland Art Museum. It's in a lovely setting, overlooking the sea, and the rocks out in front (or is that in back?) were the setting for at least a few of Homer's more famous works.
Favorite clues? Well, 6D: Re-serve judgement? (LET) was right up there, and I loved the inclusion of the word BILIOUS, with it's literal clue: 8D: Ill-humored, and I liked the word AFLUTTER (37A: Like some lovers' hearts) too. "9D: Norwegian Star port of call" (ACAPULCO) was nicely misleading. I was a little shocked when "Oslo" would have left four blank squares! There were lots of good clues, really, but there seemed also to be lots of abbreviations, which I don't love. I know they're a fact of life in crosswords, but there were at least 13, and I'm not even sure whether or not that includes USBPORT (43D: Modern mouse hole?), but really, that one was fine.
It seems Frannie just looked up EGERIA (7D: Female adviser) after seeing it in a puzzle very recently, but neither of us could remember it, so again, we needed all the crosses. Perhaps the next time we see it we'll know it. And speaking of never remembering - things like MST (1D: Yellowstone setting: Abbr.) seem to get me without fail! I don't wear a watch, and I guess I'm just never thinking about time!
Overall this felt a little on the easy side for a Friday, and a little uneven (XESOUT is not a favorite), but it's hard to know if I'm judging it fairly, coming, as it does, on the heels of one of my favorite puzzles of the year.
On to Saturday!
- Horace
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Thursday, August 29, 2013, Timothy Polin
0:35:46
"Auntie Em! Auntie Em!"
This is why I do puzzles, to run into things like this (and today's syndicated!). I pity the fool who solves this on paper. One of the first clues we plunked down was the obvious answer to 17A: Exonerated [Really!? How did I miss that? - H] boxer who is the subject of a Bob Dylan song, but very soon after that, Frannie was telling me that it looked problematic up there. Sure enough, that whole top was a mess. Many things seemed certain, and they fit, but nothing meshed with anything else. In desperation, I took out some of "Hurricane Carter" and put in "Mouth" for 12D: Be sassy, with "off," and "Ochre" (even this variant spelling worked to help figure it out!) for 13D: Autumnal hue, as both seemed very likely. Luckily for me, U and H are in the middle of those words, and suddenly, it was clear that we were not in Kansas anymore.
Well, there was one other thing that helped. The central EYE (and isn't it nice that this word is palindromic!) had gone in quite early, with "7D: Giant Ferris wheel on the Thames," (LONDON EYE), but that interfered with "Katrina," which we knew to be right for 29A: ____ and the Waves ("Walking on Sunshine" band), so I was already on my guard. When EYE OFNEWT (36A: Ingredient in a witch's potion) put the T of "Est" (39D: Ending for a record-breaker) first instead of last, well, maybe that was part of us getting it, too.
The concept is so beautiful that I wouldn't care much about the fill, but the fact is, it's still good! DEMYHR (9A: Made ends meet?), for example - that's good cluing and good fill! WEDYENOH (38D: Green, juicy fruit) is nice, too. And what about TSYRT (50D: Part of an affair to remember?)! That's good stuff! [For more talk about the fill, by Mr. Polin himself, see the "Wordplay" blog, linked to on the sidebar. - H]
Luckily for me, I had Frannie here to get things like OMERTA (6D: Enforced silence) and NUNCIO (45D: Ambassador from the Holy See), otherwise, I would have been out in the holy sea. And speaking of Frannie, at the very end, when we finished in the NW with THESAURI (2D: Hustling is the same as cheating, according to these authorities), I asked out loud, "What is "The Sauri?" I was expecting some known government agency, or, well, something known! Frannie pronounced it for me as the plural of "thesaurus." D'oh!
This puzzle was great. This is what separates the NYT puzzle from the rest of the bunch. This couldn't have been generated by computer, this was hand-crafted. The grid has a nice swirl in the middle of it, the central "Eye" works beautifully in all four directions, and it spins counter-clockwise, like any good storm should. There's extra bonus fill with "Katrina," TYPHOON, BROOKLYNCYCLONE, and "Hurricane Carter," and to top it off, it's Hurricane season!
Those solving both this NYT daily and the syndicated puzzle (by Patrick Blindauer) today (and I know at least one who is), are doing two of the year's finest puzzles. Thank you, creators, and thank you Will Shortz.
- Horace
"Auntie Em! Auntie Em!"
This is why I do puzzles, to run into things like this (and today's syndicated!). I pity the fool who solves this on paper. One of the first clues we plunked down was the obvious answer to 17A: Exonerated [Really!? How did I miss that? - H] boxer who is the subject of a Bob Dylan song, but very soon after that, Frannie was telling me that it looked problematic up there. Sure enough, that whole top was a mess. Many things seemed certain, and they fit, but nothing meshed with anything else. In desperation, I took out some of "Hurricane Carter" and put in "Mouth" for 12D: Be sassy, with "off," and "Ochre" (even this variant spelling worked to help figure it out!) for 13D: Autumnal hue, as both seemed very likely. Luckily for me, U and H are in the middle of those words, and suddenly, it was clear that we were not in Kansas anymore.
Well, there was one other thing that helped. The central EYE (and isn't it nice that this word is palindromic!) had gone in quite early, with "7D: Giant Ferris wheel on the Thames," (LONDON EYE), but that interfered with "Katrina," which we knew to be right for 29A: ____ and the Waves ("Walking on Sunshine" band), so I was already on my guard. When EYE OFNEWT (36A: Ingredient in a witch's potion) put the T of "Est" (39D: Ending for a record-breaker) first instead of last, well, maybe that was part of us getting it, too.
The concept is so beautiful that I wouldn't care much about the fill, but the fact is, it's still good! DEMYHR (9A: Made ends meet?), for example - that's good cluing and good fill! WEDYENOH (38D: Green, juicy fruit) is nice, too. And what about TSYRT (50D: Part of an affair to remember?)! That's good stuff! [For more talk about the fill, by Mr. Polin himself, see the "Wordplay" blog, linked to on the sidebar. - H]
Luckily for me, I had Frannie here to get things like OMERTA (6D: Enforced silence) and NUNCIO (45D: Ambassador from the Holy See), otherwise, I would have been out in the holy sea. And speaking of Frannie, at the very end, when we finished in the NW with THESAURI (2D: Hustling is the same as cheating, according to these authorities), I asked out loud, "What is "The Sauri?" I was expecting some known government agency, or, well, something known! Frannie pronounced it for me as the plural of "thesaurus." D'oh!
This puzzle was great. This is what separates the NYT puzzle from the rest of the bunch. This couldn't have been generated by computer, this was hand-crafted. The grid has a nice swirl in the middle of it, the central "Eye" works beautifully in all four directions, and it spins counter-clockwise, like any good storm should. There's extra bonus fill with "Katrina," TYPHOON, BROOKLYNCYCLONE, and "Hurricane Carter," and to top it off, it's Hurricane season!
Those solving both this NYT daily and the syndicated puzzle (by Patrick Blindauer) today (and I know at least one who is), are doing two of the year's finest puzzles. Thank you, creators, and thank you Will Shortz.
- Horace
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Wednesday, August 28, 2013, Erik Agard
0:10:38
Well, how can you not like a puzzle with this theme? The only drawback was that once I got 1A: With 67-Across, man whose 1930 salary was $80,000 (BABE) (RUTH), the other theme answers were obvious, and 45 free squares on a Wednesday makes for a very easy solve. Well, I hesitated briefly on 38A: Man whose 1930 salary was $75,000 (PRESIDENTHOOVER) when "Herbert Hoover" didn't fit, but it was sorted out soon enough. 17- and 60-Across were immediate.
As for the rest of the fill, I thought it was pretty good. There was a lot of "semi-normal" fill that still might qualify as crosswordese, like ETON (35A: School for James Bond) (I definitely learned this trivia from doing these puzzles), OAHU (33A: Obama's birthplace) (ditto), EGRET (41A: Snowy wader) (didn't learn this from crosswords, but jesus, how often do you see this?), ALES (49A: Newcastle Brown and others) (unusual-ish clue, but still, it's common, and here pluralized, which makes it even more crosswordsy).
Some stuff was nice, though, like STATUTE (27A: It's the law), and ARMADAS (45A: Battlers at sea). I also liked SERENITY (20A: Peace and quiet) and HORRID (52A: Deplorable). And, surprisingly, perhaps, I enjoyed AARGH (25D: "Good grief!"), although I thought the clue was a tad tame for the exclamation.
On balance, I thought this was a fine Wednesday. Fun theme, ok fill.
- Horace
Well, how can you not like a puzzle with this theme? The only drawback was that once I got 1A: With 67-Across, man whose 1930 salary was $80,000 (BABE) (RUTH), the other theme answers were obvious, and 45 free squares on a Wednesday makes for a very easy solve. Well, I hesitated briefly on 38A: Man whose 1930 salary was $75,000 (PRESIDENTHOOVER) when "Herbert Hoover" didn't fit, but it was sorted out soon enough. 17- and 60-Across were immediate.
As for the rest of the fill, I thought it was pretty good. There was a lot of "semi-normal" fill that still might qualify as crosswordese, like ETON (35A: School for James Bond) (I definitely learned this trivia from doing these puzzles), OAHU (33A: Obama's birthplace) (ditto), EGRET (41A: Snowy wader) (didn't learn this from crosswords, but jesus, how often do you see this?), ALES (49A: Newcastle Brown and others) (unusual-ish clue, but still, it's common, and here pluralized, which makes it even more crosswordsy).
Some stuff was nice, though, like STATUTE (27A: It's the law), and ARMADAS (45A: Battlers at sea). I also liked SERENITY (20A: Peace and quiet) and HORRID (52A: Deplorable). And, surprisingly, perhaps, I enjoyed AARGH (25D: "Good grief!"), although I thought the clue was a tad tame for the exclamation.
On balance, I thought this was a fine Wednesday. Fun theme, ok fill.
- Horace
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Tuesday, August 27, 2013, Jacob McDermott
0:17:15
It seems we just saw this theme very recently - last week maybe. Anyway, what does that matter, really? It's a theme you see somewhat frequently, and here it's done in a nice pinwheel symmetry, with a central revealer. Not bad.
Some good stuff in here. I like SCHWA (24D: Vowel sound represented by an upside-down "e"), even though the clue might as well have been "Type in "SCHWA,"" and I like the word BOSH (49D: Claptrap) and its clue, even though no one I know says either one. I'm going to make an effort to use "claptrap" more.
There's interesting trivia with 33D: How many times Laurence Olivier won a Best Actor Oscar (ONCE), but PEEVE (46A: Annoy) crossing TEED (41D: Angry, with "off") is a bit of a peeve, and ticked me off a little. I don't love MOPER or ENGR, and it's almost angering to see LENTO, which gave us such trouble on Saturday with it's clue of "Leisurely," get such simple treatment here (8D: Slow, musically). The theme answers are all decent, though, and overall, it's not a bad Tuesday, I don't think.
- Horace
It seems we just saw this theme very recently - last week maybe. Anyway, what does that matter, really? It's a theme you see somewhat frequently, and here it's done in a nice pinwheel symmetry, with a central revealer. Not bad.
Some good stuff in here. I like SCHWA (24D: Vowel sound represented by an upside-down "e"), even though the clue might as well have been "Type in "SCHWA,"" and I like the word BOSH (49D: Claptrap) and its clue, even though no one I know says either one. I'm going to make an effort to use "claptrap" more.
There's interesting trivia with 33D: How many times Laurence Olivier won a Best Actor Oscar (ONCE), but PEEVE (46A: Annoy) crossing TEED (41D: Angry, with "off") is a bit of a peeve, and ticked me off a little. I don't love MOPER or ENGR, and it's almost angering to see LENTO, which gave us such trouble on Saturday with it's clue of "Leisurely," get such simple treatment here (8D: Slow, musically). The theme answers are all decent, though, and overall, it's not a bad Tuesday, I don't think.
- Horace
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Monday, August 26, 2013, Ian Livengood
0:05:54
Right in my wheelhouse, and fun. Love seeing LEGIT (1A: For real, in slang) in there, and I also liked the mini-theme of single letters in certain clues - PLANB (20A: Backup strategy), EASYA (23A: Course that's a cinch), HIGHC (66A: Note an alto is unlikely to hit), and DPLUS (59A: Pretty poor grade). I suppose you could also count ITUNES (4D: ____ Store (source of many 99¢ downloads) in that category as well. Impressive.
The real theme of LOWHANGINGFRUIT (7D: Simple things to pick ... or what 5-, 11-, 29- and 38-Down have?) was pretty nice as well. Seems like a lot of theme squares, too - 53 theme squares out of 189 total filled boxes? Is that high? It seems it. Yet the fill was quite clean. Sure, you get APER and ULEE, but really, it was pretty damn good.
Fun Monday.
- Horace
p.s. Mr. Livengood has the syndicated today, too. That happens somewhat frequently, I've noticed. Maybe that's the minimum amount of time that Shortz has decided must pass between publications by the same constructor.
Right in my wheelhouse, and fun. Love seeing LEGIT (1A: For real, in slang) in there, and I also liked the mini-theme of single letters in certain clues - PLANB (20A: Backup strategy), EASYA (23A: Course that's a cinch), HIGHC (66A: Note an alto is unlikely to hit), and DPLUS (59A: Pretty poor grade). I suppose you could also count ITUNES (4D: ____ Store (source of many 99¢ downloads) in that category as well. Impressive.
The real theme of LOWHANGINGFRUIT (7D: Simple things to pick ... or what 5-, 11-, 29- and 38-Down have?) was pretty nice as well. Seems like a lot of theme squares, too - 53 theme squares out of 189 total filled boxes? Is that high? It seems it. Yet the fill was quite clean. Sure, you get APER and ULEE, but really, it was pretty damn good.
Fun Monday.
- Horace
p.s. Mr. Livengood has the syndicated today, too. That happens somewhat frequently, I've noticed. Maybe that's the minimum amount of time that Shortz has decided must pass between publications by the same constructor.
Sunday, August 25, 2013, Victor Barocas
0:56:53
CAPITAL L'S
Kind of a nice little trick in this one! It took us over a half an hour to realize what was going on, maybe 45 minutes, but once we did, it was over in no time. We wanted JUN/IPER right away for 37A: Berry used to make gin, but it was quite a while before we saw exactly how to put it in. I mean, it seems straightforward (or, well... crooked...) now, but we weren't sure what to do with the rest of the across. Having the Downs turn into it, and creating capital cities with the parts, well, that's pretty damn cool. Plus, BOSTON gets in, which we like.
My favorite clue might have been 103D: It's been shortening for over 100 years (CRISCO). Very nice. 21A: Lump in one's throat (UVULA) didn't seem quite right, though. I mean, it's not really a lump. It's more of an appendage. "Lymph node," that can be a lump. But, of course, that didn't fit.
Hands up, who else put in "Overtures" for BARITONES (19A: Rossini's William Tell and others)? That really slowed things down in the NW. And I couldn't see the joke in 24A: Rush job? (ROCKCONCERT) until almost the entire thing was filled in. Heh. I blame it on still being a little worn out by the Saturday puzzle...
Overall, I liked this Sunday puzzle more than most Sundays. Sometimes it just seems like a chore to fill in the big grid, but this one, while definitely on the easy side (once you got the trick), was still clever enough to be fun.
- Horace
CAPITAL L'S
Kind of a nice little trick in this one! It took us over a half an hour to realize what was going on, maybe 45 minutes, but once we did, it was over in no time. We wanted JUN/IPER right away for 37A: Berry used to make gin, but it was quite a while before we saw exactly how to put it in. I mean, it seems straightforward (or, well... crooked...) now, but we weren't sure what to do with the rest of the across. Having the Downs turn into it, and creating capital cities with the parts, well, that's pretty damn cool. Plus, BOSTON gets in, which we like.
My favorite clue might have been 103D: It's been shortening for over 100 years (CRISCO). Very nice. 21A: Lump in one's throat (UVULA) didn't seem quite right, though. I mean, it's not really a lump. It's more of an appendage. "Lymph node," that can be a lump. But, of course, that didn't fit.
Hands up, who else put in "Overtures" for BARITONES (19A: Rossini's William Tell and others)? That really slowed things down in the NW. And I couldn't see the joke in 24A: Rush job? (ROCKCONCERT) until almost the entire thing was filled in. Heh. I blame it on still being a little worn out by the Saturday puzzle...
Overall, I liked this Sunday puzzle more than most Sundays. Sometimes it just seems like a chore to fill in the big grid, but this one, while definitely on the easy side (once you got the trick), was still clever enough to be fun.
- Horace
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