Tuesday, March 1, 2016, Freddie Cheng

4:06

Happy March everybody! It's a favorite month around Horace & Frances (Featuring Colum), as two of us celebrate our birthday during it. I thought I'd get a jump on the blog tonight while it's still Leap Day, because any other year, it would already be March, see. I heard a great report on NPR about 52 year old Jewish people born on February 29 who are having their Bar or Bat Mitzvahs today. Finally, they are men and women!

Anyway, today's (or tomorrow's) puzzle features one of the great films of all time, ALLABOUTEVE. Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night! There are some 15 uses of the three-letter string EVE in the puzzle, which wouldn't be so amazing in and of itself, but the examples are very strong on the whole. I particularly like SEALEVELS and PETPEEVES crossing EVELKNIEVEL. On the other hand, it also means we get a number of 3-letter words such as GOV, HOV, AVE, VEE, and so on. I've never heard of EVENSTEVENS, but any reference to Shia LaBeouf is okay in my book.

UNPC seems to be much in the news nowadays, at least if you care about Donald Drumpf (c.f. John Oliver if you want to know more #makedonalddrumpfagain). I love 16A: Tri and tri again? (HEXA) - what a great clue for a terrible bit of GREEK crosswordese. Perhaps Huygens enjoyed SEXED? Or maybe the educational portion of it removes it from being risque?

Chris Rock was pretty great as HOST last night of the Oscars, which otherwise was flat out a BORE. I'm glad Spotlight won. It was definitely the best of the three nominated movies I saw (the other two being The Big Short and The Martian, both excellent in their own right).

1A: "Put a tiger in your tank" brand (ESSO) gets points for the motto, loses points for being a brand name, and loses more points for not being a brand in current usage, and even more points for being actually ExxonMobil now. So it gets a D+.

All right! That was fun. Good night.

- Colum

Monday, February 29, 2016, Joel Fagliano

0:04:07

Well, I was hoping to end the month with a time in the threes, but a little bit of flailing on the keyboard put me just over four. Still, I'm not complaining, because although I may have frowned at my typos, I was not frowning (much) at the actual entries.

The theme today is inspired by today being LEAPDAY. Four recognized "days" from the calendar year are broken across a gap in the grid. Let's see if I can convey this somehow in text form... "46A: Gullibility" is NAI[VETE] and [RANS]OMS is "48A: Kidnappers' demands," and when you read the circled letters (here bracketed) you see "Veterans." That's a particularly nice one. Others rely on more questionable phrases like HERSTORY (18A: The past, from a feminist standpoint) and PHONEBOX (60A: Once-ubiquitous red fixture seen along London streets). As a theme, though, I like it. It's unusual and pretty cleanly done, but I can't decide whether it's helped or hurt by the inclusion of MAYDAY (69A: Call for help) in the very last Across spot. Often I like bonus material, but this is another day that doesn't leap any black squares... still, I'll give the theme a B.

I enjoyed the many paired answers today - RAM/EWE, SAGA/TROY, WAXES/WANES... and I also liked some of the longer Down answers - GROUNDZERO, ARMYANT, ODIUM, and IAMBIC.

1A: Apelike (SIMIAN) I will give a B+. It's a decent enough word. And my favorite clue/answer today is 53D: It's postal abbreviation is also an exclamation (OHIO).

Colum takes over again tomorrow for the month of March, and then Frannie and I will be back on April 1st, when, in addition to commenting on the daily puzzles, we will be issuing reports from the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Stamford, CT!

- Horace

Sunday, February 28, 2016, Timothy Polin

COURT JESTERS

An amusing theme today, taking terms used in basketball and giving them wacky clues to force a different reading. It's one of the standard tropes, and it's done well here, we thought. There's quite a bit of it - eleven answers - and a couple of them are Down answers, which is always nice. I especially liked SHOTCLOCK (58A: Busted timer?). It's so simple. But NOTHINGBUTNET (101A: Lament from an unlucky shrimper?), FREETHROW (79D: Rug dealer's special?) (Frannie's favorite), and BALLHANDLER (66A: Desi Arnaz?) are also quite good.

With so much theme, it's not too surprising, I guess, that we get a more than our usual allotment of 25-cent entries that you don't see every day - BAIZE (12D: Card table cloth) (Frannie knew this one!), AQUILA (19A: Eagle constellation) (you don't say...), MAGDA (81A: One of the Gabor sisters) (the forgotten Gabor), ALECTO (94A: One of the furies), and GIMBAL (52D: Stabilizer of a ship's compass). We also see, as usual, some less-than-perfect fill like OCTAL and WARBOW, but you know what? The more I look around at this grid, the more I like it. I've been sitting here trying to concentrate on this review during the acceptance speeches, and I keep seeing clues like 58D: Mobile home resident? (SNAIL), 21A: Runway model? (AIRPLANE), and 42: Quaker of note? (ASPEN). Some are critical of the "question mark clue," but I don't mind so much...

OK, that's all I've got. I'm sorry this is so late.

- Horace

p.s. 1A: Make less dangerous, in a way (DECLAW) - B.
Favorite clue/answer - 31A: Confer (POWWOW). Love all the Ws.
Least favorite - 28A: Trickle (OOZE). Not the same thing!

Saturday, February 27, 2016, Julian Lim

0:20:27

This grid, to me anyway, is a little like yesterday's, but reversed and opened up. Do you see what I mean? There's a line running diagonally down the middle, but the openings are wider and the flow is the other way. Oh... never mind....

1A: Anchor line (THISJUSTIN) (A) gets us started on the right foot. It's clever, kind of amusing, and perfectly normal. And off of that, we have a reference to "Casey at the Bat," (THAYER) which one of my brothers memorized and recited at school one time, I believe, so that brought a smile. HATERS (2D: No fans) is good and fresh, and SEL (4D: Frites seasoning) reminds Frannie and me that we will soon be having frites at Manneken Pis with our friends in Utrecht, where we will be staying at an AIRBNB!

I've never heard of TAMIAMI (8D: Florida community with a portmanteau name), or HALVA (30D: Crumbly Midwestern dessert), and REATA (24A: Bit of vaquero gear) is always a little wince-worthy, but like yesterday, I'm willing to overlook the junk when there's so much good to overpower it.

The NE, for example, held together as it is by OLEO, ILE, and COSTA boasts a lovely eight-stack of ALPACINO, LEASHLAW (13D: Dog checker?) (nice clue), and FORKEEPS (14D: Permanently). And down in the SE we get the amusingly clued STAMPALBUM (61A: Book with profiles of many people) (I had "photoALBUM" for a while), PARISIENNE (64A: Coco Chanel, par exemple), and the ironically comforting, given the clue, ANDSOTOBED (66A: Words before crashing?) with hardly any glue at all. Well, except maybe for DIPSO (54D: Sponge). What the hell is that? Is a drunk called a sponge? Hmmm...

Anyway, if you'll allow me to gloat a tiny bit, I just feel like I've been firing on all cylinders these last two days after my recent DNF. I've been totally INTUNE (49D: Connected (with)) ATALLTIMES. OK. enough gloating. I hope you enjoyed it, too.

- Horace

Friday, February 26, 2016, Paula Gamache

0:20:01

I enjoyed this puzzle. The transitions between the three sections were tight, and the four linking entries - GEMINIS (26A: Kennedy and Bush 41, but no other U.S. presidents), BETWEENUS (29A: "Mum's the word"), ESCAPEKEY (35A: It's in the far northwest) (that's a little cheap, I think), and SUBARID (38A: Moderately dry) - did not come quickly, but the sections were thick enough so that you almost always had a cross for something - provided, of course, that you could get a few starters! One such, for me, was GOMPERS (21A: Pioneering labor leader Samuel). I wasn't positive about it, but it fit, and hey, it worked! I also guessed RES (20A: ____ nullius (no one's property)) without crosses - but needed a few for JURIS (24A: Nullius ____ (of no legal force)). That's a nice Latin pairing. And on the "non-high-fallutin' side, I also dropped in ROBOTO (41A: "Mr. ____" (Styx hit)). Hah!

Some lovely fill today. POMPOUSASS (3D: Blowhard) is, I think, my favorite, but NOTORIETY (9D: Unwanted attention), GALOSHES (34D: Couple taken out on a rainy day), VAMOOSED (17A: Amscrayed), and NOSTRIL (42A: Blow hole?) were also quite good. Lot's of "quote fill" today - OHDEARME, SUREYOUARE, BEPATIENT, IMLIKE (love it), and the aforementioned BETWEENUS. I always find these types of answers a little more difficult to guess, but I don't really have a problem with them. I guess I used to, but I've come around.

There's a little glue, like SMA and EMP (who knew they were considered "Emperor of India?"), but with so much quality material, I don't care at all.

Overall, thumbs up!

- Horace


p.s. 1A: 1991 Scorsese/De Niro collaboration (CAPEFEAR) - meh. C+.

Thursday, February 25, 2016, Joel Fagliano

D.N.F.

I made four mistakes in this grid, all in a little block in the right center. Early on, I guessed "ArtS" for 35A: Affectation (AIRS) (better), and when I came to my last couple squares - the first two of 38A: Veterinarian's branch of sci., I couldn't think of anything but "biOL," so I put that in. It took me a minute or two to realize that both words were wrong, but it really shouldn't have, because even though I didn't know IBIZA (28D: One of the Balearic Islands) off the clue, I should have known that IBrbA wasn't right. Same with TUtiW... So, in short, a DNF.

Aside from all that, the theme didn't really do much for me. Sure, I use Amazon - who hasn't? - but I've never visited POLITICO or GAWKER, and I've never even heard of a Web site called VULTURE. So the wacky cluing that I usually love so much was diminished today by my own ignorance. I hope that this kind of thing brings in the young folks, but for me, the one doing the rating today, the theme fell flat. I'm giving it a C-.

1A: Squelch (STIFLE), on the other hand, I'm giving a B+. Both clue and answer are unusual and interesting.

I liked seeing AUNTIEEM  (17A: Neighbor of Miss Gulch), I loved seeing POETICS (11D: Aristotle work that began literary theory), and CREAMPIE (56A: Boston specialty) was fun and local. LECTERN (39D: Stand taken by one making a speech) was cutely clued, but RHEUMY (42D: Watery, as eyes) is gross. That's the way it was today - kind of up and down. Still, I didn't hate it or anything. Thumbs up. Just not way up.

- Horace

Wednesday, February 24, 2016, Ruth Bloomfield Margolin

0:11:33

A theme last Friday, and now a trick puzzle on a Wednesday? I don't know what the world's coming to, but I like it!

Today's revealer is 37A: Goes underwater ... or a hint to the answers on the perimeter of this puzzle (SUBMERGES). From that we learn, eventually in my case, that the understood prefix "sub" merges with each theme answer in the grid to make the proper answer. As in: 1A: Lofty in thought or manner (LIME) = sublime; 10A: Puts down by force (DUES) = subdues; or 68A: Take away (TRACT) = subtract. I love that each entry actually in the grid is a real word on its own, and it's nice that it runs all the way around the edge. Overall, I'm giving the theme an A.

Looking through the answers now, I think it would be rather easy to be full of complaints. STAGG (22A: Football legend Amos Alonzo ____) is a bit of a stretch, and ENBANC (28A: With all judges present) and 54A: Mens ____ (criminal intent) (REA) are two pretty deep foreign-language entries. Then there's stuff like VOA, INME, EMAC, ULT, and GEST (38D: Tale of adventure), but you know what? I still ended up liking this puzzle. I looked up that Stagg fellow, and find that he "developed basketball as a five-persron sport" and is also in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Sooo... that's interesting.

Any Bach clue is ok in my book (BOURREE), I liked TEAHOUSE (33A: Twinings in London is one), and who doesn't like SASHIMI (43D: Sushi bar option)? OK, Frannie doesn't, for one. And probably millions of other people who think raw fish ought to be either swimming or soon cooked. But that's the way it is, not everyone likes everything the same. Me, I enjoyed this puzzle. You?

- Horace

p.s. Favorite clue/answer today? 24A: Number of states that border the Mississippi (TEN). I put it in immediately, because it wasn't "one" or "two." I suppose some might have guessed "six," which I hadn't thought of... but anyway, it's a fun way to clue a number.