Thursday, November 30, 2017, Trenton Charlson

7:46

I had absolutely no idea what was going on for almost the entire puzzle. I had figured out that the circles were to be filled with Xs, which sped things along, but I couldn't get why they were that way, even when I knew the terms that were supposed to go there. And then I finally filled in 60A: It's four units long in a popular board game ... (BATTLESHIP).

And then it became clear. The destroyer is 2 units long, thus CONANTHEXX is actually Conan The Destroyer (the real name of the movie). The cruiser is 3 units long, thus PTXXX. I really never liked that car. Looked fake 50s. And so on.

The theme is excellent, strong work for a fun Thursday, even though there aren't any rebuses. All those Xs made for faster work as well. There are 12 answers with Xs in them (one has 2). Some were bound to be less strong. For example, JOHNX and RXS. On the positive side, though, you get one of the top clue-answer pairs of the year, in my opinion, at 9D: Congress (SEX). Mm hm. That's right. You heard me.

Also very nicely done is the inclusion of JUKEBOXHERO (another X word), and its symmetric opposite LOOSECANNON.

Other nice entries included 44A: Opened one's mouth but didn't speak? (YAWNED); 30A: It's measured in cups (BRA), and 12D: "Oh, cry me a river!" (BOOHOO).

I messed up at 1A, and it was falsely confirmed with an error at 1D as well. I put in "adder" at 1A: Venomous African snake (MAMBA), and thought "air" was a good answer for 1D: Word after hot or open (MIC). Fortunately 2D: Blood letters had to be ABO, and corrections were made. So I give 1A a B+ for being tricksy.

Lastly, I'd like to say that Cece and I watched Speed with KEANU Reeves and Sandra Bullock this past weekend. On rewatching, it was incredibly flimsy in plot, but a ton of fun, and the two of them were so young! Keanu had started down the road to wooden acting, but still had a bit of his Bill goofy walking.

- Colum

Wednesday, November 29, 2017, Erik Agard

6:23

Hmmm. I like celebrating MOTOWN. A ton of great music was produced in Detroit in the 1960s and 1970s. I also like the four theme answers, even if I've never heard of a CONTOURKIT before this puzzle (although I see it's actually something quite common, by Google).

However.

Isn't it a problem that the groups were called "The Supremes," "The Contours," etc., and that we only get a singular version with each theme answer? Or are we to imagine it's a singular representative of each group heading up each one? I'm a little underwhelmed by that.

That being said, the grid is reasonably clean. There's something of a Japanese mini-theme going on with RAMEN, UDON, TAIKO, ANIME, and AKIRA. There's also a mean streak, what with MAIMS, TRAUMA, and SADISM.

But the real reason I liked this puzzle came with 1A: What you see when you look up? (ACROSS). That gets a flat out A. I was not expecting it, and it's precisely correct. Excellent start to the grid.

Not much else to comment on from my perspective, except that 7D: "The following is completely true:" (FACT) reminds me of Dwight Schrute.

- Colum

Tuesday, November 28, 2017, Andrew J. Ries

4:14

Hee hee! UTURN, that much maligned crossword answer (at least it's better than "uey" or "uie") gets its turn in the spotlight (see what I did there?), being reinterpreted as names of universities ("U's") making a 180 degree change of direction. It does mean that we get the less than desirable circles to show us just where the cleverness is happening, but I'd have had a hard time finding them otherwise.

The four centers of higher learning are placed symmetrically, and represent Clemson, Cal Tech, Princeton, and Notre Dame. Nicely spread out geographically, although only one from west of the Mississippi. These kinds of answers cause letters to be "triple-checked" because they have to play a role in three different answers at a time. I'm sure Mr. Ries would have preferred not to have both CHEERON and STARTON in the grid, but I suspect it was necessary because of the constraints of those letters.

That being said, I was impressed by the presence of EVIDENCEBAG, TRADEROUTES, PARISMETRO, and ADULTERANT, all fine answers. And my favorite answer in the grid is 10D: Kind of motel (NOTELL). Never heard of it before, but it makes all kinds of sense.

We also get everybody's favorite dog, GROMIT (much better than that brainless Odie), and GOTYE, who wrote the song that we must have listened to 6 million times in 2012.

I don't love ACER, a longtime piece of crosswordese, or TAPA, which seems awfully lonely. Nobody has just one when they go to a tapas bar, right? Also ISS seems ish to me. But I did chuckle at 2D: Lovers running to each other may be shown in it (SLOMO).

1A: Molded jelly (ASPIC) - C-. Yuck.

- Colum

Monday, November 27, 2017, Kevin Christian

4:01

In celebration of the MULLET, we get no fewer than six movies (well, nine, if you include the sequels to RAMBO... oh, and there were four LETHALWEAPON movies as well, so that makes, um, twelve?!) squeezed into the grid. Of these movies, clearly DIRTYDANCING is the best, followed by PULPFICTION. CONAIR gets last place, even though it was entertaining. But still, Nic Cage...

All of those theme answers makes for some unfortunate fill. There are a full twenty-three 3-letter answers, out of 78 total. And OHBOY, those include both TOR and CLE, as well as UTA and CPU. But even so, those aren't terrible. I'm more disturbed by EREI and INST (the dreaded abbreviation from an abbreviation).

On the other hand, it is impressive to have both STREETCRED and JUSTINCASE, alongside SCORPION and DOGFIGHT.

The print version had thumbnails of each actor sporting his iconic hairdo, which could not be reproduced in the app. But, just in case you wanted more, I'm pretty sure the DUO of Hall & Oates were known to have similar hairstyles...

- Colum

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