Saturday, January 31, 2015, Tim Croce

Untimed, about 45 minutes

Completed with my mother in NYC. A story of two halves of a crossword puzzle. The diagonal split things pretty well, with the SW half being far easier than the NE half.

The first entry was ALLES, with 2D: Plant called "rocket" outside the U.S. (ARUGULA) being a quick second. And here is where we made our first mistake: I suggested "rUglach" for 17A: Alternative to a babka (NUTCAKE). In fact, that answer didn't make its appearance until 5 minutes before the ending. Instead we merrily completed the SW corner and the SE corner, and even worked our way up the east side.

My favorites in these sections were 54A: Himalayan food, perhaps? (CATCHOW), 36D: General figure (BODYTYPE), 48A: It's not much higher than a D (EFLAT), and 33A: Part of a goth dude's look (GUYLINER). That last I'd guessed "eyeLINER" off of the L of BLOKE, but was corrected by Phoebe, who from across the room suggested the appropriate gender-modification.

Things I didn't much like in this section: EMSPACE, a less than interesting entry; OMER, your standard 4-letter Hebrew option; and ALOHAOE. Don't much like FOTO, either. We also had a little Huygens material with BREASTS.

So, all well and good, we're motoring along, not even 10 minute into it at this point, when we come up against it. Sometimes it's like that. Even with BLAME and GUYLINER in place, the NE corner mocked us. 29A: Shortening for shortcuts (CTRL)? 22A: Beethoven's fifth? (SOL)? Both took forever to figure out. I guessed TRISTAN, but erased it several times, mostly because we'd entered "trustME". Later, we tried "eatsoME" as well.

For 8D: "I'd like some of that, bro", we had "fillMEUP" for a while. Another error was at 1D, where we guessed "rAmADA". Finally, I erased everything we weren't sure of, and when my mother suggested CANADA, we quickly finished the NW. Unfortunately, I thought MELIKEY was spelled with two Es at the end, so that made for more difficulty. Mom suggested RED for 11D: Ketchup, e.g., and that finished it off.

I like the colloquialisms: HOOKMEUP, YESBOSS, IMAWARE, all of these more than MELIKEY. CARLSJR, a restaurant chain that operates "predominantly in the western and southwestern states", per Wikipedia, was unknown to me, which really slowed us down.

Overall, it's a well-made puzzle with a good grid, and few complaints. A good challenge is well worth it. Others may have found it easier, I'm sure.

Signing off as blogger until March!

- Colum

Friday, January 30, 2015, David Phillips

21:57

I found this an odd puzzle. On my first passthrough, I had a number of down answers entered (incorrectly in several cases), but almost no acrosses. I like the shape of the grid, with nice open chunks of real estate and connections between sections that are several spaces across usually. Somehow, though, it didn't play as enjoyably as I might have hoped.

2D was my first entry, with a nice quotation from Desmond Tutu, which didn't hide the love of my life very well (HOPE). ETHAN was an easy answer, and a reference to an outstanding movie. Then I entered 8D: Not much, as of salt (ADASH) and the straightforward BLEU at 10D. I toyed with putting AINT in immediately, but held off. Next I erroneously entered lAttE at 22D and AWAIT for 23D: Expect. I put in AWHIRL unhappily (my first across entry!), and then wanted RHein, which slowed me for a while because of ETE.

Anyway, then it was on to the central east section, where I once again erroneously entered "Cleopatra", who shares the same number of letters, remarkably, as NEFERTITI. I knew LOMA and guessed "erect" for 27D: Upright. That answer later morphed to "build" (?! - not a synonym for "Upright", but it is a synonym for "erect" so I clearly lost sight of my clue), and finally much later to the correct ONEND. But with the incorrect Queen of the Nile, I was stuck there too. I should have known sooner, as I immediately had thought of ALLEMANDE for 41A from all of those lovely J.S. Bach solo keyboard suites.

Where I finally started getting traction was in the SW, where FRERE was another French gimme (one of three in the puzzle, thank goodness). I couldn't immediately recall Anna FARIS's last name, but ENTERIN was the thing that opened everything up. After Horace's recent comment on how to solve a crossword puzzle (thank you, sir!), it should come as no surprise that it takes a crossing to make things easier. PEP, PASTES, Ms. FARIS, OFFHOURS, and then SLOE, and then recognizing that Caffe and Cleopatra were wrong. Etc., etc.

I guess the lesson from a solving perspective is when a section refuses to come together, be prepared to "kill your darlings," and erase something.

1A: Sharp (SHREWD) is a great opening to this puzzle. 13A: Take for the road? (HOTWIRE) is another very fine clue-answer pairing. But I have issues with EPEEIST, although it's a great clue. I briefly entered "spearer" and very quickly erased it, but the true answer is not much better. And that was a pattern elsewhere.

CARTOONED - blah. AWHIRL - yuck. FAINTLY, FINESSES - excellent. The pair of heavy metal clues were unknown to me. I like SCHOOLSOUT but not PANTERA. Who?

Anyway, maybe I'm splitting hairs. It's a pretty well done puzzle with just a few things I didn't like.

- Colum

Thursday, January 29, 2015, John Farmer

12:52

Before I figured out the theme as a whole, I came across 20A: Best Picture between "The Last Emperor" and "Driving Miss Daisy", and I thought to myself, that must have been right around Rain Man, right? But it didn't fit, so I moved on. I did briefly wonder whether there would be a rebus.

Later on I noticed the presence of several "man" triplets throughout the puzzle. Somehow the theme eluded me even then. I had a strange time staring at 53A: Central American capital, and wondering what on Earth was going on when I could think of no city that started with Ag__.

So, really, a pretty darn clever theme, once revealed by CUTOUTTHE/MIDDLEMAN. The missing "man" from three answers is in between two other "man" in other clues, thus giving us RAIN[MAN], THEICE[MAN]COMETH, and [MAN]AGUA. I love it!

It was unfortunate to start with 1A: Maria's "those" (ESAS), which I think I may have complained about in the past. And there are 24 3-letter answers, which will stretch the ability of any puzzle crafter to come up with excellent fill. Despite that, there was some good cluing, including 6D: Queen's pawn? (ANT) and 43: Span of attention? (ERA). I still don't get 24D: Chapter seven? (ETA). I get that eta is the seventh Greek letter, but why chapter? Anybody explain for me?

Other things I liked: 32A: Offer? (HITMAN). That's pretty darn funny. SACKLUNCH is a nice non-theme entry. EMAILLIST is okay. GHERKIN and LUNATIC are a couple of great longer down clues. Kind of weird to have MODELA cross SCLASS. We also get Columbus represented twice in PINTA and MDII (Year of his last voyage).

And what's with the obsession with the movie Rio recently? I didn't even see it.

In keeping with the theme of the week in pictures:

- Colum

Wednesday, January 28, 2015, Gary Cee

7:16

My Wednesday time is faster than my Tuesday time this week.

So this puzzle is a neat whirligig of theme answers, all surrounding the central YOU, which partakes in each song title. The symmetry is beautiful: IVEGOT[YOU]UNDERMYSKIN mirrors IWANTTOTAKE[YOU]HIGHER, while ALL[YOU]NEEDISLOVE is countered by JUSTTHEWAY[YOU]ARE. It seems like this would take an awful lot of work to find titles that fit the necessary requirements. I even like the songs, especially the pair of The Beatles and Billy Joel tunes.

The excellence of the theme makes up, in part for the large number of abbreviations and crosswordese that dot the fill. Just to name a few: USO ILO AAU YTD NYS RIV EDT and then ERES EPEE EMIR ORLY ODAS.

But to focus on that poor set of words would miss the other very nice entries. KONTIKI was a favorite book of mine when a lad. GRAPENUTS is unpleasant to eat, but nice in the grid. RUNALONG is cute, IMPOSTER is nice.

Not much good cluing unfortunately. 7A: Popular game? (ELK) is clever. 35A: Producer of many parts would be a clever clue except for the following issue:

Q: What do you use to part your hair?

A: My HAIRCOMB, said no one, ever.

On the other hand, MAHLER. [swoons]

- Colum

Tuesday, January 27, 2015, James Tuttle

7:21

Definitely a long solving time for a Tuesday, but the puzzle didn't feel difficult. But let's talk about that theme. Clever, to have the sound "ro" represented five different ways, and with five very pleasant answers. DENISDIDEROT wins the prize for most recherche, and SUCHSWEETSORROW the prize for most excellent. Before I figured out the theme, I tried to squeeze JAMESMadison into 60A before I recognized the lack of available spaces. It would have been very amusing if they'd done "ro, rot, reau your boat"...

I like the fact that 1A/1D are both fine words, and OVID is a pleasing presence in the NW. 14A: Lead zeppelins? (AVIATE) is a hoot. So, good start, for sure, that put me in a good mood for the remainder of the puzzle. It allowed me to overlook such lesser fill as NOI, ELUL, EMER, OER, and LEA.

How excellent is it that 7A: Half-baked (DUMB) crosses 10D: Mae West or Cheryl Tiegs (BLONDE)? That's some fine construction there.

Not too many other fine clues: I liked 30D: It may be wild or dirty (RICE). I also liked the trivia of 46D: Indian state whose name means "five rivers" (PUNJAB). I'll admit to the fact that my first instinct on reading the clue was to think of Native American names. I've been conditioned by lo, these many puzzles.

I finished the puzzle in the SW, where I had a very hard time seeing 48D: Not broadcast (CABLE). it wasn't helped by thinking nTH rather than ETH, and not having the first clue what the Polish airline was (LOT).

I had fun with it.

- Colum

Monday, January 26, 2015, Ian Livengood

5:02

It's a sassy puzzle, really. The kind of upstart that likes to show off its knowledge. Like those "children who are up on dates and floor you with 'em flat."

Okay, actually, Mr. Livengood has produced a fine example of a Monday puzzle, with six theme answers that doesn't sacrifice the fill too much. Each of the theme is a reasonable phrase, although I'm not that fond of PERTPLUS, which is more of a brand name. FORWARDPASS is seasonable, given the big game coming up on Sunday. And I like "forward" as a synonym for "fresh." I like "froward" better, but that's archaic.

In fact, the worst piece of fill comes at 1A: Attendees (GOERS). The only time I've ever heard this term is in Monty Python: "Is your wife a goer, know what I mean?" Otherwise, it's a sad non-starter. Other answers on the same level include RUER, PARER, RISER, sort of. Things improved somewhat after that.

ERIECANAL, PADDYWAGON, SENIORPROM, and LEMONTART are all very nice long down answers, each crossing two theme answers, which does tend to put handcuffs on what's possible elsewhere.

You know, the more I look, the less I like the fill, which is too bad. I actually enjoyed doing the puzzle, so maybe I don't want to nitpick too much. Let's just say that OOO is not something I like. But at least Jean-LUC Picard is in there. And Hieronymus Bosch.

So, a mixed bag.

- Colum

Sunday, January 25, 2015, Alan Arbesfeld

Twist Ending

This went smoothly and easily, solved with my mother on a Sunday morning in NYC. The theme is straightforward, and obvious from the title. My favorite from a absurdist point of view is ANNIEGETYOURGNU. And the clue is so tortured as well. The best in terms of degree of difficulty is ILLEGALALINE, in that it's a five-letter ending word instead of the 3- or 4-letter words in the other answers. RAISINGTHEBRA is sort of an anti-Huygens answer.

There wasn't much of anything that gave us pause for long. Some nice clues are present, however: 25A: Something hard to drink? (CIDER) is good, as is 79D: Canine cousin (MOLAR), another excellent example of avoiding an unnecessary question mark. Another example of that is 45D: Where many people may follow you (TWITTER)

I'm not sure that 47A: Asked to come back, in a way (ENCORED) is quite right. I presume the meaning is that of "After the performance, the audience encored the performer several times," but is that really anything anyone would say?

123A: One in a tight spot? (SARDINE) is cute, and 124A: Did some edgy writing? (DOODLED) is all right, but neither were particularly difficult or amusing. I like ICEPALACE and WENTSOLO, but PILLARED is meh.

71D: U.S. city whose name becomes another city's name if you change both its vowels to A's (TEMPE) gets the award for longest clue. At 85 characters, it's longer than its answer by a factor of 17. It's almost tweet-length!

So overall, not particularly challenging nor particularly entertaining.

- Colum