Thursday, May 31, 2018, Dominick Talvacchio

20:47

Happily, the Greek wasn't all Greek to me, once I caught upsilon the trick of it. Each theme answer is a string of two or more letters from the Greek alphabet clued as if they were English words or phrases. To wit: 23A: Hired vehicle that's only as big as a potato crisp? (CHIPSIZETAXI). That one gets props for using the most Greek letters, but I thought the funniest one was 17A: Wager one's sculpture of the Virgin Mary cradling the body of Jesus? (BETAPIETA). The clues all struck me as something of a stretch, but I give it an alpha for effort.

It seemed to me that a lot of thought went into all, or most, of the clues in the rest of the puzzle, too, often with excellent results. Some of my favorites are:
20A: Stacked quarters?: Abbr. (APTS) - Home run!
46A: It takes a toll (EZPASS)
5D: Cher, e.g. (AMI) - this one had me going for a while. All I could think of was the singer.
56D: Adjective and adverb, for two (NOUNS) - Grammtastic!
65D: One whose office has an opening to fill?: Abbr. (DDS) - a gas!

Less recherché, but one tailor-made to AMUSE this solver:
41D: Answer to the riddle "What cheese is made backward?" (EDAM) - ha!

Other clues were well crafted and fitting, like everyone likes:
43A: What to expect (NORM)
61A: As expected (ONCUE)
68A: Embrace fully (OWN)
1D: Filler for une pipe (TABAC)

In other nus, there were a few clues, however that *were* Greek to me, or rather, I thought the clues were less apt than I like them to be.
19A: Napkins and such (LINEN) - when used in this context, LINEN needs an S
40D: Do-it-yourselfers (AMATEURS) - OK (obviously), but not fine.
57D: Opposite sides (FOES) - Ditto.

Overall, though, I was psixi'd about this one. Beta nu didn't see that gamma now did you? Iota stop now.

~Frannie.

Wednesday, May 30, 2018, Sande Milton and Jeff Chen

12:22

I think an apt title for today's puzzle could be Salute to Scrabble(TM). Apt! Four clues mimic Scrabble trays of BDEJLMU EELRSTT which AELPRSY had to AAEGNRR to find the correct word to enter into the grid. The four "rack" answers are nicely placed, one on each side, around the center block, which is itself surrounded by black squares that I think are supposed to resemble the bag of letters used in the game. The "bag" contains three arrangements of t, e, s, i, and l that make the words ISLET, STILE,  and TILES.

When the rack clue answers are read in order by number, as suggested by 31D: "Game described by this puzzle's four racks," we get a spot-on account of the central action of SCRABBLE:
20A: Rack #1: AELPRSY" (PLAYERS)
25D. Rack #2: AAEGNRR (ARRANGE)
56A: Rack # 3: BDEJLMU (JUMBLED)
23D: Rack #4: EELRSTT (LETTERS)

Taken all together, it's a lot of theme material - a fitting homage from one word game to another. Elsewhere in the grid I liked ACETATE, MIASMA, SABOTEURS, and AMPLE. The clue "Gooey vegetable" for OKRA did not make me want to rush out and get some.

I had a slight hiccough where TEES crosses with ABIE. I had TiES at first (Links things), but the wrong-looking ABIi caught my eye before I completed the grid. I still don't know what or who ABIE is (Irish Rose's love), but I realized the clue was referring to another kind of links AUJUS in the nick of time.

~Frannie.

Tuesday, May 29, 2018, John Lieb

10:33

One of today's theme answers can also describe the theme entries: ODDDUCKS, which, according to the revealer at 66A are "Certain spears ... or a curious spelling feature of 1-, 20-, 26-, 45-, and 53-Across?" (TRIDENTS). I get the spear part, but was a bit perplexed when trying to figure out how it applied to theme answers, in each of which one letter appears three times in a row. It crossed my mind that all the repeated letters could be "dentals" in the phonetic alphabet sense, but I don't think vowels (FREEEMAIL) are ever dentals, so, that's probably not it. Anyone? My personal confusion not withstanding, I liked the super weird looking triumvirates. The aforementioned ODDDUCKS is my favorite, but I also like SUEANNNIVENS and DRESSSIZE.

The grid includes some possible themish also rans - additional fill with double or repeated letters - like NOOGIE, ALANALDA, LATTEART, and ANDEAN.

Imagine with what elan I espied 33D: Jai __ (ALAI)! When was the last time we saw that old chestnut? (September 10, 2017 - thanks XWord Info!)

Are there clues that could use a DUOver? Sure, maybe a few, like COL, SYST, PSAS, IAM, MSN, and SHUNT (I really don't like that word!) but any puzzle that includes PALMEDOR, DRAB, ZEST, SAUNA, and SONATINA BINGES along with those wacky triple-letter theme answers is okay with MESAS.

~Frannie.

Monday, May 28, 2018, Alex Eaton-Salners

12:32

Today's theme may be all grins and good spirits - highlighted by the smiley face in the center of the grid - but I was not too happy with my time - very slow for a Monday. Heck, I did Friday's puzzle in under 18. Of course, it's not all about times or competition, it's about the fact that doing puzzles makes one FULLOFGOODCHEER, am I right?

There were some RUFFS areas that slowed me down, especially the cross of 14A: Hinged part of an airplane wing (AILERON) and 9D: Prince ___ Khan (ALY). I have added airplane parts and representatives to the United Nations to the list of things I need to learn to improve my solving abilities.

Things that made me BREAKINTOASMILE:
62A: Medium strength? (ESP)
63A: No-goodnik (SOANDSO)
10D: Ones whistling while they work? (REFS)
52D: Big top? (AFRO)

I also liked the DEB/REB cross in the bottom right corner. I was amused by the  parallel answers HADAMEAL and BIGMOUTH in the west and east. I happily entered flOaTie at 22A: Inflatable item for water fun instead of the correct POOLTOY because the clue made me think of Blue Floatie, my favorite swimming accessory at our villa in Italy.

There were a few YAWNS today: IDA, DSL, EPI, TIS, AAS, ESS, PDAS, and GOA. And I am inclined to GROWLAT 17D: Travel aid made obsolescent by GPS (ATLAS) because I love consulting a map, but if I were writing this review as a single emoji I would PUTONAHAPPYFACE. :)

~Frannie.

Sunday, May 27, 2018, Andrew Chaikin

21

A relatively simple-seeming, but sometimes hard to guess, Sunday theme today of six ways to define “21,” with bonus material at 1A: New Hampshire’s is 21 kilometers long COAST) (Nice find, that), 41A: Famous writer who entered West Point at 21 (POE) (That didn’t go well), 97A: 21^st-century currency (EURO), 94D: “21 Grams” actress DuVall (CLEA), 102D: Scandium’s is 21: Abbr. (ATNO), and possibly 50D: State whose capital is 21-Down: Abbr. (NSW). Whew! Nice work with all that extra stuff! Of the six 21-letter answers, I think my favorite is SPOTSONALLSIDESOFADIE, because it was the least expected.

NUMBERONEALBUMBYADELE isn’t bad either, because, well, she’s great.
The grid itself has an interesting look. It appears to be fully symmetrical, which we don't see all that often. Other things I don't see all that often are the names SLIWA (69D: Guardian Angel Curtis ____), CHITA (13A: Actress Rivera), LONNOL (91D: Bygone Cambodian leader with a palindromic name), and EXON (33A: Former Nebraska senator James). There seemed to be a few other stress points that were smoothed out by foreign words or partials - ELRIO, USTED, TERNI, MOT, TGI, SSTS, SNCC, ITA, OCC, OESTE, ETD, PCT... and more. Perhaps it was ONETOOMANY. TRISTE, but true. Even with all that, I didn't mind it. The grid is pleasing, and I kind of liked the simplicity of the theme.
It's been a fun week, but I'll let Frannie take it from here. Over and out.
- Horace

Horace said this morning, "who's next on the review schedule?" and I said, ISITI? Apparently, it is. So, here's I am, taking up the reviewer's MANTLE this fine Sunday afternoon. I think Horace ALLTOLD concerning the theme, so I'm going to focus on the fill.

One of my favorites today was 10D. End of an illness? (ITIS). Ha! While it does fall into the oft-lamentable category of partials, I still liked it because it's amusing. I thought the clue for 9D. (Bit of scolding) improved the old standby TSK as well. I liked both clue and answer for 5D. Hellion (TERROR). FACSIMILES and MALEFICENT are both good grid fillers, or gridlers.  40A One might be cast in a Harry Potter film (SPELL) was also nice.

I FWOE'd in the northeast thanks to a lengthy struggle with actress CHITA Rivera. I wanted her name to be CHIrA, which lead me to put rELayED in at 16D.Sent an important message, once (TELEXED). My apologies to Mr. James EXON for never having heard of him. I hope the almost 2 million Nebraskans who dropped that answer right in will boost his spirits. That whole area also suffered from my mistake at 20D (Monopoly pieces) where I entered tOkEnS instead of HOTELS. It was a classic CASEOF overconfidence, which caused me another little spot of trouble over in the mid west. For "Brand of wafers" I dropped in Nilla, which, in retrospect is not so much a brand of wafer as a type, but the correct N (for NECCO) made me reluctant to JETSON my error.

Let me give Horace a SHOUT out for a great week of reviews. I know I had ABLAST. I hope he did, too.

~Frannie.

Saturday, May 26, 2018, Peter Wentz

0:16:44

Well, this one went along pretty smoothly. I think I got started up in the NE, with DENADA (18A: Literally, "of nothing"), BIN (27A: Trash holder), and, believe it or not, NERTS (22A: "Dagnabbit!"). Those three allowed me to correct my incorrect entry of "IVewon" for 16A: Election Day declaration (IVOTED). First of all, does "Election Day" really need a capital D? And second of all, is this Election Day? Because I sensed a micro theme with 35D: Question pundits discuss after a presidential debate (WHOWON) and DEM (36D: Certain voter ID).

I enjoyed the surprise when I finally got KEEL (23A: Bottom of the sea?), and REELIN (61A: Not leave at the end of the line) took me forever to parse correctly! DOTGOV (30D: End of a presidential address) was entertaining, as long as you didn't accidentally think about the president, and THELEGOMOVIE was, indeed, a CROWDPLEASER.

I liked HOMEROW because it is about typing ("Typing" has turned out to be perhaps the most useful course I took in high school), but when I learned to type, we used the term "home keys." And I've never heard of OMELET station. Is that a thing at a hotel breakfast buffet? "I'm going over to the omelet station to see if they can just make me a couple of fried eggs." .... My favorite clue today is 43D: It's perfect (UTOPIA). It's perfect!

- Horace

Friday, May 25, 2018, Jeff Chen

0:16:37

How have I never heard the term NUCLEARFOOTBALL before? And why now? Why like this?

I don't actively take in much news. I don't watch televised news or listen to the radio, and I don't receive any newspapers. What I do know about world affairs, I get from the first piece in The Talk of the Town in The New Yorker. Or someone calls to tell me. (When a water main broke near our house a few years ago, three different people called to tell us we should boil our tap water.) And now, I can say that some of my information comes from crossword puzzles! After finishing this puzzle, I Googled NUCLEARFOOTBALL and found that it is the suitcase carried at all times by an aide close to the U.S. president that allows nuclear missiles to be launched. Great.

So why is it the only 15-letter answer today, and why is there a goalpost in the center of the grid? Is it a theme? Is there any more of it? Are the "targets" between the uprights? "Radicalism" embodied in Bobby SEALE? The "old ways" of our ELDERs? (Probably not, given the clue "Someone to respect.") TSARS is a little too obvious, maybe. And too soon? And are KNEELS (7D: Time-killing plays for quarterbacks) and DLINE, because they're football-related, also thematic? What about ENDERS Game?

So maybe there is no theme... but why, then, spend all that time working around the goalpost? As with many things, maybe someone will call to tell me.

Theme or no theme, there's some very good stuff in here. I tried "too hard" at 1A: Frustrated solver's cry (IMSTUCK), but that was (ironically) soon corrected by the Downs. TEDNUGENT (4D: Rocker nicknamed "The Motor City Madman") was a gimme, and the rest came eventually. I really liked ONADARE (17A: How bugs may be eaten), and HATESON (15A: Verbally abuses, in slang) was nice and modern. And I loved all the Downs in the lower left - ANDES (43D: Long range) (more theme material?), HUEVO (44D: Spanish omelet ingredient) (Hah! I kept trying to think of what might be in a "Spanish omelet," but really they just wanted a Spanish word for what's in every omelet!), BCCED (45D: Secretly included, in a way), and LLOSA (46D: Author Mario Vargas ____) - those last two look great side by side.

I'm not super happy with DEEPFAT (8A: Frying need for French fries), as I'm not sure that's a thing by itself without the word "fryer." Wouldn't the need simply be "fat?" or even "oil?" Still, that one small quibble - and the weirdness of the theme - aside, I enjoyed this Friday offering. It's always nice when I learn a little something about nuclear war. Right?

- Horace