Wednesday, October 31, 2018, Bruce Haight

5:15

I love this puzzle. I'm just going to come right out and say it. Outstanding work. The amusing thing is when you know the shaded squares spell letters out phonetically, and yet when you go to enter the answer at 67A, you try to spell it using just the first letters of the shaded squares. S-A-W-P-T? Doesn't make any sense!

No, of course, it's actually CRYPT. We've seen this sort of thing done before, but in this instance it is elevated (not the most apt descriptor for the theme) by the grid artwork. Not only is the aforementioned tomb separated in the bottom of the puzzle with what looks like one of those stone coffins with an effigy on the top (represented with the answer THEME), but there's a perfect cross in the middle of the puzzle above it. Nicely done!

In addition, we get BURY and ARAMAIC (which brings that cross back to mind). AGASP and CUJO make the chilling nature of the puzzle and day more acute.

It's nice having the additional spice of GOMORRAH and KGBMOLE, along with the lengthy if not brilliant ROTARYCLUBS (you can't have everything). I very much liked the clue at 19A: It's not a good look (OGLE), which redeems the unpleasantness (and crossword ubiquity) of the word with appropriate disdain.

Nicely done, Dr. Haight.

- Colum

Tuesday, October 30, 2018, Jules Markey

4:40

It's not even Hallowe'en and we're starting in on the spooky stuff! I enjoy this time of year, and it's not because of the already opened bags of candy on our counter. Nobody's been eating those. Nope. Not a soul.

Today's puzzle takes as its theme the GRAVEYARDSHIFT, and interprets it literally by shifting the letters RIP along from left to right as the puzzle moves down. Did we need the grayed in squares to point out the theme? I'd love to try one of these puzzles without the unsubtle hinting and see if I have enough nuance to figure it out on my own.

Meanwhile, the theme answers hide the RIP well, in my opinion, except for the amusing GIVEARIP, which wins just on its own. SUNRIPEN is nice because of the image, the Proustian taste sensation it summons forth, and because the RIP is pronounced differently.

I enjoyed STYLIZED (although I'm not sure I accept SEEPY as the price). Also GOFLYAKITE is excellent. We should have more of these phrases in puzzles. There must be a MYRIAD of them to draw from!

My favorite clue today came at 44D: Like ghosts and goblins? (PLURAL). Bonus theme material 'lert! (Along with BOO.)

- Colum

Monday, October 29, 2018, Peter Gordon

3:50

In our society today, I think we have a tendency to want to see things too much in black and white. There's not enough nuance. That being said, today's puzzle is all about the black and white, at least in the animal kingdom. I'm impressed that there are five examples of said animals available to be used in the puzzle, and that each is in a phrase that is at least semi-unrelated to the actual animal.

My favorite today is ZEBRACROSSINGS, because I am instantly reminded of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - to be precise, the bit where Man proves that God does not exist, and then, "for an encore, goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing." You might take a point from PUFFINBOOKS in that it is a subsidiary of Penguin Books, but, really, I'm not going to use that to detract from the ZANINESS.

There's not a ton of zing in the fill otherwise, nor does Mr. Gordon prove himself INEPT at constructing a Monday puzzle. I was amused by the ABFAB next to DEFIB coupling. There might be a bit of reliance on old school crosswordese here (I'm looking at you, ELOI, AGEE, and OSTER), and I am certainly unconvinced by ACMES. It seems wrong that you can have more than one highest or most successful point.

Anyway, it was fine.

- Colum

Sunday, October 28, 2018, Erik Agard

MATCH PLAY

Hey, it's Sunday! And I haven't written a crossword blog post in like forever! So it must be my turn! Yay!

I actually solved today's puzzle fittingly while waiting for my daughter's tennis lesson to be complete. The revealer at 119A is MIXEDDOUBLES, referring to the fact that the answers, which are well known phrases of the form "A and B," are anagrams of the clues (if you drop the "and"). Thus, 23A: Sou'wester is an anagram of SWEETANDSOUR. It's very cleverly done.

You could certainly argue that clue phrases like 62A: "After Earth" (TARANDFEATHER) or 111A: Prostates (STOPANDSTARE) are hardly scintillating (or even in any way appealing) references. For the record, the first was a sci-fi film that nobody saw ever. But that didn't bother me much during the solve. The best of the bunch, in my opinion, is 97A: Trade punches (STANDUPANDCHEER). That's fine stuff.

I felt sure that I was going to be on the right wavelength when I hit 1A: Chunks of land (TRACTS). I was immediately put in mind of a classic Monty Python scene, and that's always for the best. But to be honest, after that, there wasn't much I loved in the fill. EEROSAARINEN's full name was very nice to see, but let's be honest. He's been dead almost 60 years. Then you get things like CUESTAS, DONTPLAY (which feels completely ad hoc), and APOLUNE. Oof.

On the plus side, COGNAC. Also 67D: Good throw? (AFGHAN).

An answer I'm unconvinced by: STARSPOT. I believe it as a general term for what we're used to around these parts of the galaxy, namely sunspots. But still.

Anyway, these are probably the tradeoffs we get for seven theme answers and a revealer. See you tomorrow!

- Colum

Saturday, October 27, 2018, Bryon Walden

38:47

A topsy turvy week, puzzle-difficulty-wise for this solver. I had much more trouble midweek than with Friday and Saturday. Maybe I have NOTALENT for trick puzzles. :)

Mr. Walden gives us some great fill today from SCHLUBBY and KNAVE to POTASH and ECOCIDAL. I also liked the clue answer pairs "Being"/ENTITY and "Clocked"/BRAINED.

There were also some fun clues:
Ads that get a lot of traffic? (BILLBOARDS) - apt!
Do a double take? (REFILM) - reel nice.
Miss, e.g. (TITLE) - this one's a hit!
Transferrer of stock? (LADLE) - a pun in pour taste? :)
Cabbage for canning? (SEVERANCE) - this one really paid off!
Take in the paper (OPED) - which I first mis-parsed as the poetic 'ope'd' but just now realize is the much more clever answer OP ED. Ha!
Hardwear? (ARMOR) - this one suited me just fine.
Signs of rush hour (HONKS) - a tricky aural answer to the normally visual "signs"

I got slowed down in the north east at the clue "Skunks." At first, believe it or not dear readers, I knew the sports clue in that corner. I remembered TOMWATSON from when we used to watch golf. But, then I got into a MIRE with "Skunks." My first thought was for the cribbage definition, as in when one player wins with a margin of 31 points or more. I already had ATS at the end of it, so I thought, oh, it'll be something beATS. Nope. It was a more straightforward answer: POLECATS - talk about PETODORS!

Nice that both jungle and APEDOM could fit the answer squares for "Tarzan's realm," however, I rejected jungle out of hand as being too easy for a Saturday.

Learning that "Paragon" can mean an unflawed diamond weighing at least 100 carats or a very large spherical pearl (GEM), having SCORED a sports answer, and having solved the two big puzzles of the week, both in under 40 minutes, makes me feel like a real ENIAC. :)

~Frannie.

Friday, October 26, 2018, Evan Kalish

25:30

A relatively easy Friday, which was a relief for this solver after her epic struggles with the Wednesday and Thursday puzzles. I'm not sure if the clues were easier, or if the topics were just more in my wheelhouse, but I suppose that's always something of a GRAYAREA.

Kind of a chunky puzzle with three tens each across the top and bottom and all those eights and nines down the sides. My favorite ten was IVECHANGED ("That's not me anymore"). I was vexed at first about the answer to "Tahoe, for one" (ALPINELAKE), but, I looked it up and it turns out I was taking the "alp" in alpine too literally. Apparently, it refers to any lake or reservoir at high altitudes. The Wikipedia page includes a list of  famous alpine lakes, none of which are in the actual Alps. How's that for a nice TABLESCRAP of information? As concerns the downs, that SANTAANA on the far right sure looked weird, didn't it? Nice olio of A's and N's.

I had the most trouble with the south west where "Traditional retirement present" (PEN) - I was thinking of something a little more spendy like 'watch' - "Selection ____" (BIAS), "Fluff pieces" (LINT), "Stuffed appetizer" (SAMOSA) - love those, but was thinking 'olive'! - and "Funny Martha" (RAYE) slowed me down. I also had a tough time with 37D. Bills are found in it (AFCEAST), thinking, as intended, of the wrong kind of bills, compounded by the fact that I don't know which teams are in which conferences (damn sports ball :).

In reviewing the puzzle just now I realize I misunderstood the clue "Pitched horizontally" thinking it referred to some kind of angle, but no, a throw. And, although I was able to fill in BPLUS for "88 or 89", I confusedly misparsed it as BP LUS, which I decided was some kind of blood pressure measure. What justifications won't the brain come up with?

One of my least favorite fill answers is SAC. UGH. :)

~Frannie.

Thursday, October 25, 2018, Neville Fogarty

55:22

Wow. I had a tough time with this puzzle. I didn't get very far on it over coffee this morning, so I sat down with it after dinner and at least 30 minutes LAPSED, during which the occasional BLEEP was heard, before I got the "Congratulations" message.

Even though I completed the puzzle successfully, I didn't understand the theme until I talked it over with Horace. There were four theme answers that each referred to another answer in the puzzle. For example, the clue for 17A was "Footnote info" (PAGE) and then 18A said "See 17-Across. We realized, after some discussion, that one needed to literally add the "See" from the companion clue to the answer for the clued clue, which would then make a word that matched the long answer. See? :) In this case, the combo was see + page, or seepage, which could be defined as LOSTLIQUID, which was the answer for 18A. The other theme answers were

See + THE / DOASLOWBURN
See + SAW / GOUPANDDOWN
See + KING / INSEARCHOF

Very tricky! I think I would have been able to solve the puzzle faster if I had figured out the theme, but I was happy I was able to power through the tough but excellent fill in the rest of the puzzle. I had the most trouble in the north west, not knowing actor LIAM Hemsworth, Dutch artist Jan van der MEER, or the African country that's a member of OPEC, although the latter was easy enough to figure out once I got a break. The clue "Looks beneath the surface, in a way" (SNORKELS) had me on the ropes for a long time, but it's the kind of clue I like: so obscure at first, at least to me, then when you get it, so apt. Apt! Another one I had a lot of trouble with was "Something that's tailor-made" (HEM). I thought this one was a bit more of a stretch, but OK, I guess. Also in that section, I kept putting in and taking out PAGE for "Footnote info" because I couldn't square the short form of "info" with the complete word "page", well, that, and I couldn't figure out "Rough spots" (ACNE) or "Firm affirmation" (ICANSO).

There were a lot of excellent clues that contained multiple possible meanings, just like I like, including "Not yellow" (BRAVE), "Trail" (LAG), "Ran out" (LAPSED), and "Boots" (POWERSUP). I was surprised to see "slangily" added after "Dog" in the clue at 49D in light the ambiguous nature of the rest of the clues. I wonder why the clue wasn't simply "Dog."

Other favorite clues:
SAW for "Oft-repeated words" is really top drawer.
"What may blossom from buds?" (BROMANCE) is hilarious. Ha!
"That's an order" (EDICT) is very nice.
"Tears for Fears, e.g." (TYPO) - genius!

In sum, a puzzle with some standout clues, along with, luckily (at least for me) some more prosaic fill like San ____, Calif. (DIEGO) and "Rigged game in 'Casablanca'" (ROULETTE) or I might still be INSEARCHOF an answer, or two right now.

~Frannie.