Sunday, November 26, 2017, Jeff Chen

INSIDE OUT

This is what I call a classic Sunday puzzle theme. It's right out of GAMES magazine from the old days. One word is put inside another to make a new word or phrase. What elevates this particular theme is the cleverness of the cluing: it's almost cryptic crossword style, with the exception that there is no reference to the finished product. Still, in each example, there's some term to indicate that one word is inside the other.

My favorite example is 68A: Flourishes around monsoon events (BRAINSURGEONS), or "rains" inside of "burgeons." Very nicely done. I also very much liked 28A: Neighborhoods surrounded by crime (THEFAREAST), or "areas" inside of "theft."

While all of the theme answers are clued well, I didn't think DRIVETRAINS stands up that well as its own phrase. Also, 116A: Crew found inside again and again (THROWINGRICE) doesn't work that well with the manipulated words. Why is "rowing" equal to "crew?" Shouldn't it be "rowers?"

Meanwhile, the rest of the grid is strong, as is to be expected from Mr. Chen, who pays very close attention to the quality of the fill. I feel sure he will remark on the "cheater" squares in the NW and SE corners, which likely improved those areas. Look at 18A and 18D, GRAVLAX and GROK. Beautiful combinations there. 1A: Per (APIECE) gets a C+, though, for its commonality.

Other nice entries include DOTTEDI, POSSECUT, and DULCINEA. 3D: Does his name ring a bell (IVANPAVLOV) and 124A: Need a lift? (SAG) are both GROANERS, but the former positively, the latter much less so.

I really have very little to complain about. Yes, there's AONE, NRA, and ECRUS (how can a color be pluralized?), but it was a fun Sunday.

- Colum

Saturday, November 25, 2017, Kevin G. Der

17:04

Ooh, this was a tough Saturday. I'll point out some answers I'm unhappy with, but overall, who doesn't like a struggle on a weekend?

I entered through the ENSUITE, and followed with SAYPLEASE. At this point I thought things might be easier than expected. But I tried turnLANES for 1A: Places for drivers to get around (LEFTLANES). Okay, so that's actually a pretty darned good 1A. I'll give it an A- for the laugh, but a B for the fact that how many left hand lanes are there on a highway? Just one. So overall, that averages to a B+.

Anyway, I couldn't remember CALDERCUP, even though it was a clue on Thursday where it was called the Calder Memorial Trophy. So when things slowed down there, I moved via 21A: Engage in warfare (SPILLBLOOD) and LALO - how nice to have specialized music knowledge - into the SE corner.

I had TAKETIME and TREN as my entrees here. I like this corner a lot. 48A: Entertainers for whom lines quickly form (SLAMPOETS) takes the prize for my favorite clue today. But we also have two not so great answers in CASHAUDIT (I mean, I see that it's probably a thing, I've just never heard of it) and 55A: Producer of loose leaf notes? (TEATASTER). This latter is a real job, apparently, but looked to me as I entered it to be a completely made up vocation.

Anyway, the other answer in the puzzle I didn't like much was 38A: Consumers want to get their hands on it (TABLETPC). Oooooo-kay. I just don't think the clue really works.

Otherwise, the puzzle was quite smooth and well constructed. There's a mini-theme in Mexicana with ELMARIACHI, SOMBREROS, and LAREDO.

- Colum

Friday, November 24, 2017, Bruce Haight and David Steinberg

12:53

Friday themeless theme alert! The three sets of black squares across the middle are in fact meant to be a hat turning over, apparently with counterclockwise action. I imagine that is a more difficult way to go about FLIPPINGONESLID, but who am I to judge. Meanwhile, in the symmetric space across the bottom of the grid, we get ATTHEDROPOFAHAT, which I like much better (none of this "one's"). Also note that the grid lacks symmetry.

I solved this puzzle in the company of my mother, the day after Thanksgiving, down here in NYC. I recognize that for most of the country, NYC is not "down", but rather "up", or conceivably, "over there." We wanted SOFTcrab at 1D: Its shell isn't hard (SOFTTACO), but 22A: Sci-fi TV series before "DS9" (TNG) soon put that right. Even though we worked our way down to ONSITE, the top part of that corner was still too difficult, so we skipped to the NE.

Of course GANACHE is a favorite, especially chocolate truffle variety. I also very much liked 13D: Chip maker (CHISEL). Not the sort of chip I was thinking of. We slipped into the SE corner by way of 35A: Person picking a ticket (VOTER).

I will always come out against ENPLANE and similar words. I just don't see anybody using the term in real life. Similarly, 40D: Amateurs (NONPROS) is true, accurate, and never used.

We finally worked our way back up to the NW by way of 6D: Steady (MAINSQUEEZE), which is my favorite from today's grid. It's exact but the clue has enough ambiguity to be unclear, and the actual answer is very satisfying.

1A: Dish whose name means "pierce flesh" (SASHIMI) gets a B+ for the nice trivia.

- Colum

Thursday, November 23, 2017, Howard Barkin

19:55

Happy Thanksgiving to all! I hope everybody is feeling stuffed and happy, unlike our turkey brethren, who were stuffed and unhappy about it.

I had a really hard time with today's puzzle, and I can't exactly say why. The theme is relatively straightforward, although I could barely grasp it while solving. Essentially, each answer is derived from a well-known title, each of which has a number in it. That number is mathematically manipulated, and the resulting phrase is then clued using that manipulation. Got it?

Yeah, so I didn't see it at all for a long time. 20A: Halftime show? (THIRTYMINUTES) I was able to fill in from a lot of crosses and some logic, but I didn't see why. A show that lasts an hour? Okay, a lot of shows last that long. But no, the original title is, of course, "Sixty Minutes," a very well known TV show where the number has been cut in half. Very nice.

Especially well done is the fact that you have a TV show, a movie, a play, a plantation estate, and a band. The clues are brilliant as well. 30A: Double feature? (SIXAMIGOS) is very strong (from "Three Amigos"). 38A: Triple play? (RICHARDIX) is very good, especially that the number tripled has remained in Roman numeral form. 50A: Fourth estate? (THREEOAKS) is very good, even if "Twelve Oaks" from Gone With The Wind is not in common parlance any more. And finally, 59A: Fifth act? (THEJACKSONONE) is where I finally understood what the heck was going on ("The Jackson Five").

The place I spent the vast majority of my time was around the crossing of JODECI (who? when? I have no idea who these people are) and ACIDY (not a great answer, honestly). 11D: Declaration at the end of a chess game (IRESIGN) was hard to find. I was stuck thinking of "and mate." I had a very difficult time figuring out JIVE and VAC as well. So that whole corner took a long time.

Otherwise I don't have a lot to comment on. I broke in at MOVIE and MERYL, a nice crossing, especially with EBERT right below. I also liked BRITCOM.

1A: Completion of filming (WRAP) -B. Straightforward.

I hope to have better performances tomorrow and Saturday. Here's to the rest of the turn!

- Colum

Wednesday, November 22, 2017, Timothy Polin

5:10

Yesterday's puzzle was international, but today's is global. It appears that the grid is reimagined as a world map, with the edges of the puzzle representing the cardinal directions, while the two tropics and the EQUATOR go across the middle. I liked how the tropics were both split across two answers, namely ICAN / CERES and CAPRI / CORN.

The theme gave itself away on 1A: Home to Santa's workshop ([NORTH]POLE). Only one answer serves, but there was space enough only for "pole". Once I had the odious ODEA in place at 2D, the process was confirmed.

It's quite impressive to have three examples each of [direction]word along each edge. My favorite trio was [SOUTH]KOREA, [SOUTH]PAWS, and [SOUTH]BEND, because at least one of the terms was not truly directional in nature (yes, lefties have their left hand to the south when they pitch, but it's not a name of a place or an obvious direction like [EAST]WIND).

Anyway, there are some fine long bonus answers here as well. I myself like a LIQUIDDIET de temps à temps, although that's not the pre-op preference they're talking about here. SUGARSNAP and LASTINLINE were both good. EXTREMITY is a chunky word, though not with the same brilliance of the others.

I also very much enjoyed MEDULLA for obvious reasons, both professional and because of the really excellent Björk album of the same name. Symmetrically, I had high hopes for 47A: Queen in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (TITANIA) when I had the first three letters entered from the crosses. I still really love the final answer though.

On the down side, you get REQD, ABOX (Has anyone ever used the phrase "As dumb as rocks in a box"?), your everyday random NTILE scrabble tile clue, and the antiquated ENOW. All that was not enough to overcome the fun of solving though. I'm definitely in favor here.

- Colum

Tuesday, November 21, 2017, Brian Thomas

4:28

Groaner car racing puns based on nationalities. Hmmm. The only one I actually liked was CZECHEREDFLAG. It looks excellent in the grid. The other three I grade as follows:

FINNISHLINE: C.
RUSSIANPAST: C-.
POLEINTOFIRST: D-. This doesn't even sound right. I thought it was a joke on "pole position".

So anyway, that gotten out of the way, we can instead pay more attention to the fill, which is fine, if nothing special. In the NW corner, there's the vague and fine clue at 1D: Diamond, e.g. (SHAPE). Many possibilities there. 20D: Rare grandfather clock numeral (IIII) is fun to look at, and I have seen it on some clock faces, so I'll accept what might otherwise seem like a piece of constructor desperation.

6D was unwelcome in my eyes, slightly misdirecting clue notwithstanding.

Happy to see HARRIET and the complete RASTAFARI in the NE corner. In the SW corner, 32D: Ponytail holder (SCRUNCHIE) was my favorite answer in the grid. In our household we call them "ucks" because that was the sound my wife made whenever our daughter's hair would escape from her grasp while trying to put the scrunchie on. 39D: Where China is (FAREAST) is obviously entirely relative. I don't think the Chinese would put it that way.

But enough ZANY remarks. I didn't hate it.

1A: Wound on a dueler (STAB) - C-. The English language itself is wounded by the syntax of that clue.

- Colum

Monday, November 20, 2017, Peter Gordon

4:19

ALLITERATION is the name of the game, to quote ABBA. Except it's hidden examples today, where the sounds are in fact the same, but the spelling is different. Ah, English!

I didn't know General Burgoyne's nickname, but it came easily enough based on the crosses. GENTLEMANJOHNNY is a much happier 15-letter answer than its symmetric opposite. I suppose KELLYANNECONWAY was due to show up in the NYT at some point, but the less said about her the better.

Meanwhile, PHOTOFINISH is excellent. CAESARSALAD is also good, although the classicists among us (Horace?) might complain that the initial C should be hard rather than soft. I know, I know, it's a common English phrase. But again, if we can't nitpick a little, what's the point of this blog in the first place?

Wait, don't answer that question. I don't want to put us out of business.

I really like the revealer running right down the middle of the grid, crossing all four theme answers. That's some nice construction there.

In the fill, there are a number of answers that cross multiple theme answers, including ABNEGATIVE (I initially had ABposiTIVE there, which I suppose I should have known better - turns out it's almost six times more likely than the actual answer). Better even is IVORYTOWER, which is where I work, almost literally. Okay, not literally, but it is an academic institution. Yeah, but who wants to live in an institution?

Thank you, I'll be here all week. I mean, all month.

Favorite piece of trivia: Henry SHRAPNEL. Least favorite answer, and it will be every time it's in the puzzle: STYES.

1A: Three-syllable foot, as in "bada-bing" (ANAPEST) - A-. It's the poetic foot used in limericks. Such as:

A very sad poet was Jenny:
Her lim'ricks were not worth a penny.
In technique they were sound,
And yet somehow she found
That whenever she tried to write any,
She always wrote one line too many.

- Colum