Thursday, June 30, 2016, Jonathan M. Kaye

45:54 - a palindromic number, but that's the only beautiful thing about it.

FWToTEDOHYCT

I'm a SAP for thinking I could go out on a high note. Not only did I complete this puzzle incorrectly, but as of this writing I still don't get the trick or theme or whatever it is. The locus of the error occurred where 35A and 30D meet in the middle. I confidently entered coP for Fuzz at 35A while convincing myself that soP could work for 30D (Person taken for a fool). And speaking of... as the British might say - not because of the recent Brexit controversy but because it seems to be a feature of Britons that they leave their aphorisms half said - I was convinced that 24A. Prisoner's assignment: Abbr. would be some obscure answer there'd be no way IDNO so I hardly even thought about it. SILLYME.

I'll have to leave it to my esteemed readers to comment on the theme. I did think the fill featured some nice words like ETHER, LARD, SURGE, BEDEW, and SPONGES. Plus, I always love the word ROT for nonsense. And how about Tout? A nice rarely-encountered-by-me word. I surprised myself by getting 4D. Positions in Quidditch (SEEKERS) right out of the gate. Who know I'd remember that? On the other hand, I did enter hero for Sub (5A) temporarily, which was not helpful. 

There was quite a crowd of people in the puzzle today: ERIKA, SAL, EDNA, ONEIL, BELA, ABEL, ELIZA, ENOS, GRAF, and DINAH! but I only knew half of them - I'm not really a people person. 

I am sorry I couldn't figure out today's trick. Maybe it's an OMEN. I guess I'll LIELOW for a while.

~ Frannie out.

Wednesday, June 29, 2016, John Lampkin

14:51

I find Mr. Lampkin and I have a few things in common. We're both familiar with the soap CAMAY, we think BUTTDIAL is an hilarious expression, and we both love jeux de mots. I think my favorite today is 51D. Range of the von Trapp singers (ALPS). Ha! But, 38D. Soft rock? (MAGMA) is also gneiss .

Another Frannie-friendly feature (or FFF) of this puzzle are the identical clue pairs with different answers. We have a nice twofer with Overplay (EMOTE and HAMUP). And we have a triple with Pub offering (ALE, BREW, and SUDS). There's probably a puzzle out there where all the clues are the same and the answers different - well, maybe a very small puzzle.

I had no trouble with 35A. Flabbergast [great word!] (BOWLOVER), but when I was running through the grid to write the review, I mis-read the answer as BOW LOVER. That would probably need a different clue (Robin Hood, say). Are clues that mean completely different things but result in the same-but-different answers ever used to create easier and harder clues sets for puzzles? I wonder.

Further fine fill: LOPE, SPARSE, STEED, SPYRING, and ASS.

The only difference between me and Mr. Lampkin seems to be that he has, apparently, heard of hair goop called GELEE, and I have not. That aside, I am giving the puzzle a RAVEREVIEW. I bet Mr. Lampkin didn't see *that* coming.

~ Frannie.

Tuesday, June 28, 2016, Alex Vratsanos

26:33

FWOE

Mr. Vratsanos has spun a web of creepiness with his eight LEGged theme. The surfeit of arachnid answers detracted from my enjoyment of the puzzle, especially BITEMARKS. No good, as Huygens might say.

My error occurred where 54A. Antarctic volcano named for a place in the underworld crossed 56D. Hwy. through Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan - another type of hell - kidding! For some reason, I guessed eSTEN, which I was picturing as S10, but US 10 makes a lot more sense. As does EREBUS instead of EREBeS - kidding! :)

I've always thought the word CABOOSE was funny - in a good way. Seeing it in the puzzle today, I wondered where it came from. I looked into it briefly. Its origins are a little murky, but some think it might come from the Dutch word kombuis, meaning galley, because the caboose provided shelter and sometimes cooking facilities for train workers. In other learning opportunities today, I thought I was familiar with the word EPICENE, but it turns out I really had no idea what it meant. Now I do. Thank you NYTX!

Another great entry is ULM. Doesn't that always make you think of Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern- schplenden- schlitter- crasscrenbon- fried- digger- dingle- dangle- dongle- dungle- burstein- von- knacker- thrasher- apple- banger- horowitz- ticolensic- grander- knotty- spelltinkle- grandlich- grumblemeyer- spelterwasser- kurstlich- himbleeisen- bahnwagen- gutenabend- bitte- ein- nürnburger- bratwustle- gerspurten- mitz- weimache- luber- hundsfut- gumberaber- shönedanker- kalbsfleisch- mittler- aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm? It does me. Every time.

The high incidence of three-letter answers in the grid didn't do it any favors. EDA LeShan was completely unknown to me, but the others, while causing no trouble, also brought no joy.

Horace might be surprised to learn that I figured out 66A. Conductor Georg whose name consists of two musical notes (SOLTI) by running through the solfège song from The Sound of Music. Fa!

~ Frannie.

Monday, June 27, 2016, Kevan Choset

15:08

RWE (Riddled With Errors)

Maybe I shouldn't solve a puzzle late at night on the sedation side of a couple of cocktails. I "finished" the puzzle rather quickly, but did not get congratulated. I ran through the puzzle and fixed dumb mistake after dumb mistake and was still met with silence. I didn't find the final mistake until I looked at the puzzle again in the morning. It was good night IRENe, good morning IRENA. :|

The theme answers were entered per decree merely met the letter E. Kind of cool for those three people. I wonder if they ever think about it. ELLEN might.

While the clues were pretty straightforward, the fill was solid. DEVILEDEGG and LITTERBUG are both nice. Well, they're nice words. I'm less fond of the things they represent, especially LITTERBUG. Who does that? JEWELER, REGALIA, and RETWEET are also strong. I often consider words in puzzles with a "RE" prefix to be a bit of a stretch (for example: puts on clothing again /*redresses), but RETWEET has the distinction of being a legitimate word because it's a thing people actually do with some regularity.

Mr. TEBOW showed up for work again today. And ONEL was back! I am beginning to get a little homesick for ELHI.

~ Frannie.

Sunday, June 26, 2016, Priscilla Clark and Jeff Chen

Sports Page Headlines

Great Sunday theme! The answers are funny because they are true. And by true, I mean because they seem like they *could* appear on a sports page. Well, I'm not actually sure about that. I know a fair amount about sports as concerns the rules of play and the teams involved, but I know very little about  leagues, subdivisions, and so forth. So, maybe the Mariners can never play the Pirates due to some obscure geographical, financial, or random circumstance, but, if they could, and did, this would be a nice headline: MARINERSBATTLEPIRATES. Ha! I think all the theme answers are pretty damn good, but PADRESBOWTOCARDINALS might be my favorite. It's also where I got a little hung up. I guessed 'nod' in place of BOW, and refused to recognize my mistake. Horace showed me the error of my ways.

There's a lot of good material in this grid. I love OHBOOHOO (20A. Unsympathetic response to a complainer) and vow to incorporate it into my everyday vocabulary. Maybe I'll also incorporate HOTPANTS into my wardrobe. Ha! The ADOBE/ABODE pairing at 15 & 80A is nice. I noticed four queens in the grid: BEE, BEY, DRAMA, and SHEBA (admitted, that last is somewhat oblique).  And speaking of counting, maybe Huygens enjoyed the math involved in 65A, Eight days after the nones (IDES).

I learned that UCLA is the most-applied-to sch. in the U.S. And that a BIALY is a kind of savory baked good. Who knew?

I know the question mark clues are somewhat controversial with this crowd - although I think that's less the case on a Sunday - but I, for one, welcome today's interrobang overlords. To wit:
Dear one? at 100A (DIARY).
22A. Italian vessel? (CRUET) - excellent clue and answer.
131A. Faulty connections? (BADDATES) - nice double DD in this one, eh?
And how about 84D. Gets fitted for a suit? (LAWYERSUP). Now that's legit. :)

In short, I am straight liking this puzzle. GTG.

~ Frannie.

Saturday, June 25, 2016, Kameron Austin Collins

38:29

Of the six tens in today's puzzle, I am most familiar with two of them: DONTSASSME - I say that at work all the time - and HEADSTONES - a hard thing to avoid. I had to look up OLIVERREED. I recognized him from the photos I found on the World Wide Web, but I couldn't have picked him out of a lineup ten minutes ago.

But, enough about the tens, what about the elevens? SHOEADDICTS had a tricky clue, but the shoe addict would have to have a very serious problem if they literally had only wedge issues. I've never heard of a SCREENERDVD, but it was definitely gettable from the crosses.

I thought 34A. Point of computer technology? (PIXEL) was good. I liked that YOOHOO crossed with OHOH at the O. And how about the appearance of SOCLE? You definitely do not see that every day. My favorite might have been 16A. Short pants? (TROU). Ha!

It's been a long day today, so I am going to put on my ALOHASHIRT and say goodnight.

~ Frannie.

Friday, June 24, 2016, Patrick Berry

0:13:44

Horace again. Maybe you'll get Frannie for a couple days in July in return. Maybe not.

Did anybody else find it poignant that Elizabeth REGINA appears on the very day of the Brexit vote? One wonders what her stance on the whole thing was. Well, this one wonders, anyway. Perhaps it was made public, I don't know. I don't follow the news. Unless, of course, there's been a tremendously important piece of news like there was this morning. Will her land now be seen by the rest of the E.U. as an AGGRESSORNATION? This ain't no TRIALRUN, Redcoats, this is "End of EMPIRE" stuff we're talking about. How will you GETBY? And already we're hearing rumbling from the capital on the AMSTEL about a "Nexit," and from the nation that makes BRIE of a "Frexit." Will BLADES be drawn? Will there be WARS? Or will a sense of unity and togetherness be REAWOKEN in the rest of the E.U., and indeed, the world at large? Will the OVAL Office help put the LIE to the NAYSAYS of the horde, the GANG? Will the ignorance of the majority be LAID BARE? Will Europe ever again rise to meet the BELL, to usher in the LONGEST peaceful era EVA?

OK... that's probably enough of that. Besides, I had OLMOS run out of material! OK, ok, I'll YIELD... Even the SNOOTiest ETONIANS will have tired of this trick by now...

Still, the E.U. is NEARTO my heart, and I'm sad to see it compromised in this way. And by England, of all places. The same England that tried to keep together another union separated by an Ocean, never mind a Channel. What have they become?

BLADES (1A: Fan group?) - A-. Decent clue, decent answer. Question mark doesn't bother me.

Overall, I enjoyed it. As Frannie said - "Funny thing about this puzzle, I did better on it once I realized it was a Patrick Berry." He hardly ever ANNOYS us.

- Horace