Monday, September 30, 2013, Ian Livengood

0:06:20

What was the theme? Phrases with "OPS" in them? Strange, but fine, I guess.

Let's see... what can I talk about? COHIBA (43A: Deluxe Cuban cigar brand) - that's a thing? A known thing? Hmm... And I get ERST (21A: Previously, in old usage) again, so that's nice. Doesn't it always make you think of Sonnet #12?

When I do count the clock that tells the time,

And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;

When I behold the violet past prime,

And sable curls all silver'd o'er with white;

When lofty trees I see barren of leaves

Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,

And summer's green all girded up in sheaves

Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard,

Then of thy beauty do I question make,

That thou among the wastes of time must go,

Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake

And die as fast as they see others grow;

  And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence

  Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.

A perfect poem for Fall, and it's always good to think about one's own mortality, and if that's all that we take away from a Monday crossword puzzle, well, I think it's enough.

- Horace

p.s. Many years ago, I sent a postcard with this poem on it to a friend when I heard that he and his wife were expecting, or perhaps had delivered, a child. He never commented on it.

Sunday, September 29, 2013, Norm Guggenbiller

1:06:05

OVERHEARD IN NEW ENGLAND

Is everyone from New England as tired of hearing people try to correctly pronounce the accent as I am? And are they as irritated as I am when it is not done right? Does "cod" really sound like a Bostonian saying "card?" Maybe if you're JFK saying both words, and you assume that "cod" itself isn't being pronounced correctly, and maybe then it rhymes with the way he might say "card," but that's a bit of a stretch. If, on the other hand, you're assuming that we say "card" the way the rest of the country says "cod," well, I think that you're crazy. Now, if you're talking about my nephew Jeremy, then yes, he would, probably, say "card" like you say "cod," but he's an unusual case.

So, the theme didn't go over well. Did that poison the rest of the puzzle for me? or was it really as bad as I think it was? ESTS (1D: They're probably close: Abbr.)? Weak. CERO (3D: Large sport fish)? Really? ERN (6D: Directional suffix)? Really? That's half of the first six downs! It'll take me forever if I want to get all the way to SOONEST (122A: Immediately) (No.).

We did, somewhat coincidentally, get NEAT for 2D: Undiluted, which Huygens was just talking about recently... so that's nice. Maybe I'll go pour myself something neat.

Did. Not. Like.

- Horace

Saturday, September 28, 2013, Joe Krozel

1:15:27

A decent challenge from Mr. Krozel today. Our solve went more or less counter clockwise from 1A. The first few passes yielded very little, but as we handed it back and forth (and yes, the tandem solve made this one much easier today), each of us was able to build on what the other had figured out, and, well, eventually we got there.

Some good, some bad. Let's start with the good. The favorite might have been 26A: It can be found beneath the lower crust (PIETIN). I wrote in "mantle" at first, even though "lower crust" in the context of layers of the earth didn't really make sense to me. 33A: Beginning of time? (BIGBANG), on the other hand, was an impulsive, immediate fill-in that held up. Not bad. 50A: Mobile advertising medium? (TSHIRT) was pretty good, and 6D: What the French think? (IDEES) was a fun one for us francophiles. And speaking of France, 39D: Ones above military heads (BERETS), and GARNI (43D: Adorned, per menus) were also good, and it's lucky I read so much about cooking, because while I don't know how to make a MIGNONETTE (28A: Sauce often served with oysters), I do know it as a sauce name, which helped. Lastly, in the plus column (well, not that this is all of the good, but it's all that we're writing about), 46D: Something with round parts? (BOUT) was nice.

In the other column, there were proper names I didn't know (MOSHE, HUA, BARTOLI, OSSIE), and things like GERMAN LIT (43A: With 32-Across, study of Hesse and Mann, informally) and TURNALOSS (30D: See red?) (Isn't "turn" used more often with "a profit?"). Not that they're terrible, or unfair, but they just weren't to my liking. And what the heck is TREEN (13D: Woodenware)? Well, I'll tell you - "Small domestic wooden objects, esp. antiques." Seems legit. I've never heard it before in my life, but I'll try to start using it from now on.

Overall, it had lots of clever stuff, and it was a decent challenge. So... good Saturday.

- Horace

Friday, September 27, 2013, Peter A. Collins

0:32:48

Frannie is away on an overnight trip, so I was forced to fend for myself on this one. It was definitely trickier than yesterday's, but I seemed to get into a pretty good groove. It didn't take too, too long, but it did still take a few "closing the iPad and walking away" episodes before everything fell into place. I sometimes think those interludes should be factored in somehow, since my brain is probably still mulling things over while I make dinner, or a drink, or whatever, but, well, that would be difficult to do, and who really cares, anyway? I'm not in a tournament. I only started writing my times down on this blog so that normal solvers would have a more reasonable benchmark than those posted by the "professional" puzzle solvers.

But enough about me, let's talk about some clues! 22A: Fixer, perhaps (VET) was clever, and 24A: Phony blazers (GASLOGS) had me stumped for a good long while. I misread, or misunderstood, the clue for the somewhat common ANODE (16A: Magnetron component), and could think only of "X-Men" and/or Megatron, and I was thinking things like "metal helmet?" "Transformable arm/guns?" Yeah... way off.

The theme (can we call it that on a Friday?) was cool and elegantly done. Nice symmetry for the central instructions, which were flanked by the odd "Robert W. Service" pair. I was not familiar with his 33A: Robert W. Service's "The Cremation of Sam ____" MCGEE. Perhaps I'll look it up. There is also some nice balancing of the GERMINATE/TERMINATE pair with two women's names in the NE and SW. I doubt that was intentional, but I still mention it.

Who doesn't enjoy the mention of INIGO (58A: ____ Montoya, swordsman in "The Princess Bride"), and I like when puzzles have something like 61A: End (TERMINATE) as the last across clue. It's kind of like a sign-off. Yesterday, the clue there was "Fin," and although it was referring to a "{FIVE}SPOT" I still enjoyed thinking of it as French for "end."

And that's probably a good place to end.

- Horace

Thursday, September 26, 2013, Tom Pepper and Victor Barocas

0:19:51

The theme/trick/gimmick of this puzzle is beautiful, truly beautiful, but was it or was it not the easiest Thursday in recent memory? Frannie and I passed this back and forth leisurely, and we still finished under twenty. If we had pressed it, we could have maybe gotten very near ten. But what is time? Does it matter? Well, on Thursday, I think it should start to. Certainly, as ET59 argues, we should get a decent challenge on Friday and Saturday, but does such a lovely, perfectly symmetrical, all-around theme deserve a little "slack-cutting?" I say it does.

Still, let's consider, for just a moment longer, the gimmies in the first few Downs alone. 2D: "... baked in _____" (APIE) is an immediate fill-in for anyone who can write. 4D: Car that leaves you with a sour taste? (LEMON) is a cute clue, but again, immediate fill. 6D: Some tram loads (ORES) might be tricky to one new to crosswords, but to us seasoned pros (and who reading this blog can claim to be otherwise?) it's easy. 7D: Galifianakis of "The Hangover" (ZACH) - ok, maybe you can't remember if it's a C or a K, but if you're alive today, you know who they're talking about. 11D: Marketing pro (ADMAN) - here again, easy if you do crosswords, maybe tough if you don't. 13D: Acid-burned Bat-villain ({TWO}FACE), and, "Boom", you've figured it out. One more word about the top, though - I liked that you could easily fill in 10A: 50% ({ONE}HALF) without understanding that it was a theme answer.

There is, however, plenty of decent fill in here. HIGHERED (10D: Colleges and universities, informally) was, I thought, very nice, and LEANINGON (3D: Using for support) is one of those "obvious but still solid" phrases that almost always takes a few crosses to figure out. LATENT (25A: Not obvious) (not obvious) is quality fill, and IAMACAMERA (65A: Play that was the basis for "Cabaret") is good "trivia fill."

To recap: Very easy. Almost too easy. There was some junk in here (I'm looking at you MILS, AMAD, ODIC, and others), but I'm giving it all a pass because the theme is so damn nice. But dammit, Will, you'd better have some nice, chewy* puzzles in store for the weekend.

- Horace

p.s. A big shout out for my favorite arcade game Asteroids! (55D: Creator of Asteroids)

* Deb Amlen reference.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013, Victor Fleming and Bonnie L. Gentry

0:15:46

I lit'rally fell asleep doing this puzzle. Not from lack of interest, but because it was after midnight and I was very tired. I don't think that's happened before. I got about half the top done, and then conked out. Frannie, like that old cobbler's elves, finished it up while I slept.

As I review it now, there were some entertaining clues in here. 2D: It's more useful when it's busted (BRONCO), 38A: Hated to death, say? (ANAGRAM) (I love these every time), and 58A: Kittens come in them (LITTERS), for example. And there were only one or two that made me say "Meh," like 1D: Frome and others (ETHANS).

The theme is a time-honored one, and there's a lot of it. Six symmetrical theme answers, and twelve words that can all precede the word "line." Not bad. And I'm especially grateful that the constructors clued AIRSUPPLY in something other than a musical way.

Overall, a nice Wednesday.

- Horace

Tuesday, September 24, 2013, Kevin Christian

0:10:51

I'm guessing it's the anniversary of the release of "E. T." Hmmm... nope. It was released in the U.S. on June 11, 1982. I went to opening night in Worcester with my friend Matt. While we were in line, someone came around handing out buttons that said "I Saw E.T." I believe I still have that somewhere. Anyway, that was, what, 31 years ago? Also, I'm old.

It was very nice to see DREWBARRYMORE (20A: Child actress who appeared with [circled letters]) in the grid. She's been a favorite of mine ever since that day. I think she was also the first theme answer we got. After that, it was basically a fill-in-the-blanks for all related clues, and it seemed like there were a lot of them. I enjoyed the movie when I first saw it way back then, but we watched it again much more recently, and maybe I've just outgrown my childish sense of wonder, but the whole thing just seemed so sappy and terrible to me now. And that includes the horrible, swelling SCORE (23D: Best Original ____ (award for the film with [circled letters])).

The rest of the fill was actually pretty decent, I thought. The NE looks crazy with THEMRS (9D: One's wife, informally) next to ZEROG (10D: Free-fall effect, briefly)(Sounds more like a Superman villain), and TZUS (9A: Shih ____ (diminutive dogs)) on top of HESA (16A: "For ____ jolly good fellow") (ok, that's weak), but I don't mind it, for some reason. Maybe because I like the word ERST (19A: Once, old-style) so much. TOGAE (6D: Forum robes) is a little much, but, well, I guess I'm in a good mood today, because I'm not going to complain about it. I loved the clue for SHINGLES (37D: They're "hung out" by professionals), and I learned how to spell PYLON (45D: Traffic cone). Plus, we got "Thos." yesterday, and AMY (44D: Adams of "The Fighter") today, so that's nice. (And yes, "Thos." is a common abbreviation for Thomas. I've seen "Thos. Jefferson" a lot, for example.)

Maybe I'm blinded by Drew, but I thought it was an OK Tuesday.

- Horace