Thursday, September 24, 2015, Peter A. Collins

9:28

Quintuplets of 2-letter syllables! Tricky parsing and kooky definitions! Yes, I had fun with this. I got the idea with 27A: Let someone's father borrow this Arp or that Duchamp? (LENDADADADADA), which is, however, the least successful of the bunch, in my view. I think the fact that "dada" is used as discrete words twice makes it weaker than the others.

Conversely, 46A: Statement from the proud snake as its eggs were hatching? (IAMAMAMAMAMBA) works both from a humor perspective, and also from a cleverness perspective, as the 2-latter syllable "am" flips around between different words, only being discrete in the first instance.

Anyway, I had fun figuring out the phrases, but that's not all that's nice about this grid. The long downs are numerous and quite long. I think it's interesting that SMOKEALARMS (I liked the clue, although the verb to noun switch was not hard to see through (8D: Signals to leave?)) and PHOTOALBUM (this clue I didn't love, and it was equally transparent, although I had to work to figure out the second part of the answer (I tried "booth first (11D: Where to get in your best shots?))) have to have the same frame to work, namely __O__A___M due to the theme answers they each cross.

The same is not true for the other pair of long down answers, NEXTINLINE (very nice clue (29D: Like Charles vis-a-vis Elizabeth)) and SANTAMONICA (clue was completely unhelpful to me (I've never watched "Three's Company" (24D: "Three's Company" setting (are you enjoying all these nested parentheticals? (I'm going to stop now.)))).

There's also HIATUSES, which I had difficulty seeing, because I'd automatically put in AGRo. I see now that's pretty much always going to be incorrect, so maybe I'll change my autopilot on that one. I find it very weird that I couldn't place FINN, even though I felt the quote had to be by Twain. I was stuck on Tom Sawyer. Even after I put it in, I couldn't get the Huck part of it.

1A: Not much, but better than none (SLIM) doesn't seem quite right. I wanted "some", which feels more apt based on the clue to me. The actual answer feels like it needs a reference to "a chance" in order to work. I give it a C-.

- Colum

Wednesday, September 23, 2015, Michael S. Maurer

7:22

What a great Wednesday. The fill is clean, the theme is fun, and any puzzle that has BRA, ORGY, and EROS in it ought to get a high mark, at least from Huygens. Although the term UNITARD is enough to tone down the excitement several levels on its own.

Football! And who isn't excited by the world's number one producer of chronic traumatic encephalopathy? Actually, I am, even if I'll admit to becoming more and more disturbed by the medical news. Because Brady, that's why.

In any case, the theme is taking standard American football phrases and giving them wacky definitions as clues. 17A: Appetizer, usually? (FIRSTDOWN) got us off to a roaring start. And actually, it might be the best of the bunch. 24A: Exile from? (KICKOFF) is only true if you're exiling from Elba, rather than to it. And 50A: Cuba or North Korea? (REDZONE) is okay. 33A: "I am not guilty," e.g.? (DEFENSIVELINE) is good, although not very funny. And 57A: Beauty queen bride, quaintly? (FAIRCATCH) is actually both good and funny, but I didn't need the "quaintly", honestly.

I liked 5D: Madre-y-padre store? (BODEGA), although I needed several letters to remember the term I used most every day when I lived in New York. I very much enjoyed "The Imitation Game", and have always been a sucker for Alan TURING's mind games. I also like 54A: How the spiritual look (INWARD). That's a nice twist.

I don't love EMOTER, ESPECIAL (that E is unnecessary nowadays), or HIREE. But just about everything else is fine with me. 1A: Engrossed (RAPT) is a standard synonym clue with a nice answer. I'll give it a B+.

Can you tell I'm hungry? It's Yom Kippur, and I only ate one meal today. Not exactly a fast, but I'm not exactly observant, so it works.

- Colum

Tuesday, September 22, 2015, Victor Barocas and Tom Pepper

5:32 (FWOE)

Hey, I was just talking about how my mother used to own a VESPA when she was in college! So 1A: Italian scooter brand was a gimme, and a quick entry into the puzzle. I'll give it a B+ for a cool word and the nostalgia.

So my error was silly. I put in ARArAT for 54D: 1994 Peace co-Nobelist (ARAFAT). I recognized something was wrong when I finished 65A: even before I put in the last A in TARE. But I didn't figure it out until afterwards, so there's your error.

This is a pretty darn good theme, actually. I like that we get two 16-letter answers in this 16x15 size grid. It's refreshing to get the entire OTOLARYNGOLOGIST instead of your typical ENT. And 51A: Hard rubber, maybe (MASSAGETHERAPIST) is a quality clue and answer. So the revealer is even better with its silly pun (WIZARDOFAAHS). I don't love PYROTECHNIST, putting it in with a wince even as I knew it had to be correct. But that's a small price to pay.

During solving, the fill felt smooth overall. ILLUMINATI is a good entry, although the clue is overly verbose. OPENSDOORS is not great. I liked ATTICA and MYRTLE. And EDAM is always a happy image. 9D: Risky way to buy a used car (ASIS) is a new and clever way to clue that bit of crosswordese.

Of course, now I look more closely, the more I find that I didn't like. Maybe we shouldn't be parsing these puzzles so closely? On the other hand, what then is the point of this blog?

Anyway, I'm just going to note that ITERS should be "itinera" and leave it at that.

- Colum

Monday, September 21, 2015, Bruce Haight

4:22

Um.

So, I'm obviously going to take an immediate dislike to this puzzle when 1A: 1969 and 1986 World Series champs (METS) reminds me of one of the most painful moments of my sports-watching life. That only escapes a failing grade because of the inclusion of the 1969 Miracle Mets.

Without looking anything up on the Interwebz to see the creator's purpose, all I can say is that today's theme answers are two-word phrases which both start with S. The fact that there are 12 theme answers is impressive enough, I suppose, although it becomes slightly less impressive because of all of the Ss involved. Of all of the answers, only STEEPSLOPE feels like a random pair of words, so the puzzle gets points also for genuine phrases.

On the other hand, we get both ESAI and ESAU. ENOW, already, with those names. And seriously, we get CSIS?! That's just not an acceptable answer. There are some abbreviations that I don't love (PCT, I'm looking at you), but otherwise the fill is not too bad.

I liked LISZT, but I really wanted RAVEL to be clued to the composer, rather than the never-used "Get tangled up" sense of the word. You know, like: "When I do the laundry, I hate how my daughter's leotards and tights get all ravelled up." And speaking of Ravel, Maurice, I really love Bolero, love it to death. But it annoys me to no end when a conductor puts an uncalled-for slow-down in the last few iterations of the theme. It's meant to go straight through, metronomically, and the excitement comes from the inexorable accretion of orchestration.

Anyhoo, I guess if I'm talking about that, it means I don't have enough to say about the puzzle.

- Colum

Sunday, September 20, 2015, Jason Mueller and Jeff Chen

PUT A LID ON IT!

I love this idea! Take famous fictional or real-life individuals who are known for wearing certain kinds of hats, and then put the type of hat above their names. There wasn't much mystery to the theme: I knew what they were getting at at 25A and 28A, but since I couldn't recall CALAMITYJANE (I was stuck with Annie Oakley, which fortunately didn't fit), I had to wait until 23A: Fictional archaeologist (INDIANAJONES) to get my first theme entry.

Maybe the theme was a little on the easy side: once you got the individual, the hat was a gimme. With the notable exception of CHARLESDEGAULLE and his KEPI. I always forget that type of hat. If I had any complaint about the theme, it would be that the people chosen are fairly old hat at this point.

Uh, sorry.

But really, how about Justin Timberlake for FEDORA? How about Pharrell and whatever that kind of hat is called? Actually, I can't even figure it out after doing some rudimentary Google research. Or Daft Punk and those Power Ranger helmets? Okay, maybe it's a little bit more difficult to get contemporary hat-wearers than I thought.

The fill is FAIR, with some nice bits here and there. 1A: Just is a straightforward thesaurus clue and answer. It's nothing much. I'll give it a C+. Leopold AUER and ALLA breve are classic classical music crosswordese which most longtime solvers wouldn't flinch at. AGOUTIS, NOOR, TSR, AORTAE (annoying one, that), REATA... There's a lot of this stuff.

IMDOINGOK (5D: "Been better, been worse") is a nice entry. AFRIKANER is also a good word. We were just talking about GENX (which I belong to), and how silly it is to assign names and characteristics to generations. I like the way the entry looks in the grid.

84D: Discordant, to some (UNKEYED) is not correct, in my opinion. What they really mean, I think, is atonal. Not having a key assigned does not say anything about the music. For example, Erik Satie's music has no key assigned, but it's far from discordant (think Gymnopedie). Meanwhile, Hindemith's music always has a key assigned, but it's quite discordant, typically. Kind of funny that the answer is right next to 86A: Like Mandarin or Cantonese (TONAL).

Anyway... It was fine, but not great, sort of typical for a Sunday.

- Colum

Saturday, September 19, 2015, Kevin Adamick

Untimed (FWOE)

Completed this with my mother in NYC, always an enjoyable endeavor. There are so many answers I'd never have gotten without her, CANTONESE being a prime example. Although, she said she thought it had eight phonetic tones! What do I know from Chinese dialects.

The grid is one of my least favorite kinds. I think I might have mentioned this sort of thing before in this space, but when you have connectors between the areas of single letters, the puzzle devolves into four separate mini-puzzles. And on a Saturday, I like to have a little bit more to work with as I go from area to area.

Then, too, there are some entries I take issue with. NONACTIVE (40A: Like silent partners) is probably technically correct: I do see the difference between it and "inactive", but I just don't like the word. Then, EYESHADES, right beneath it seemed a strange term. Of course we wanted "sleep mask". I'm also not a fan of AUTOCADES (10D: They're often escorted by police). That's clearly meant to be "motorcades" but there just weren't enough letters.

We completed the puzzle in pencil and breathed a sigh of relief when it was done. My mother, however, suggested I should put it in the iPad to make sure we got it all correct. And lo and behold, up came the message that there was an error. I don't know how many people out there know the various subfamilies of the falcon species, but CARACeRAS seemed perfectly reasonable. And MeNAT-arms worked just as well as MANAT. I'm calling it a Natick and giving us a mulligan. All those who disagree can just keep their comments to themselves, thank you.

On the good side, however, there was plenty to enjoy today. 1A: Dream acquisitions for huge fans (VIPPASSES) is outstanding, and merits an A from me. I like both the clue and the unusual nature of the answer, with its initials. The TETRA/PENTA pairing was highly unusual. The only consecutive numbers I could think of in the English language that fit that 5-letter pairing were "seven" and "eight", but those didn't work.

8D: Like addition, vis-a-vis division (EASIER) got a laugh-out-loud moment. We were also fond of 9D: Private eye in dozens of novels (SPENSER) for our long being fans, and for the series being set in Boston. I expect Frannie enjoyed that also. Remember, with an S, like the poet! 44D: It's left in a manuscript (VERSO) is excellent, especially because it lacks a question mark.

We had fun doing it, and were very proud of ourselves once it was done, so I'm giving it a thumbs up.

- Colum

Friday, September 18, 2015, Gareth Bain and Brad Wilber

13:53

I thought this one was going to go even faster! I had finished the bottom half in under 5 minutes, but clearly the upper half had my number.

I broke in at 22A: Fiver (ABE), which gave me CASABA, because what other fruit has a B in that position? I didn't get any purchase in the NW from that, but the D implied at the end of 3D gave me the ever-present ADAR at 25A. I wasn't holding out much hope at this point for the puzzle with two so hoary answers already in the grid.

I started to enjoy myself a little more when I saw MOHS (thinking of Horace's father), and then with 33A: One whose work hours may involve minutes (STENO), and SPINETS. I liked the clue at 33D: Terse cop order, more than the answer (SPREADEM), but I liked both at 36D: Rush-hour subway rider, figuratively (SARDINE). And the SW also had NEURO in it, so much happiness ensued.

50A: Chicken or mashed potato (DANCECRAZE) is one of my favorite clues today. I'm not sure  that "mashed potato" shouldn't be capitalized in this sense. In any case, I had the whole first word in place from the crosses before I looked at the clue, so the answer was fairly obvious.

I confused myself for a while by entering SorREnO, a town I made up out of whole-cloth. I was thinking of Sorrento, which is not on the Riviera at all, but on the Amalfi Coast. Did you know that I visited there? Wow. That was a year and a half ago. Still a wonderful memory! Anyway, it was compounded by putting in roDE at 40A (Took home). Not quite right. Anyway, I figured it out, and got the nice HOTMIC as a present.

54A: They're never required (ELECTIVES) is fine. It's clever having OBSOLESCE intersect with PASSE. Otherwise I wouldn't much want to see that word in the puzzle, as I feel it's not in common parlance at all.

After that, I stared at the puzzle for a while. Even with ACTII being a gimme for me (love La Boheme soooo much... sounding like a fan-girl here... a fan-girl for Puccini!), it took me a while to get purchase here. I love IONOSPHERE - a great word. 27A: Ballet supporters (TOES) is brilliant. I finished the puzzle at the cross of GOAPE and ROSH. That's a tricky crossing, for sure, but perfect for the time of year.

1A: Like Blofeld in Ian Fleming's "You Only Live Twice" (SCARFACED) is a little twisty. I think the adjective is appropriate, but I don't think it's what you'd say in conversation. "His face is scarred," perhaps. The term "Scarface" has such a strong association with the Pacino film, it's weird to see it this way referring to another person. I'll give it a B. But the puzzle was definitely enjoyable.

- Colum