Sunday, March 31, 2019, Andrew J. Ries

TAKE ONE FOR THE TEAM

Today's theme is SACRIFICE. Is it the sacrifice of money that you need to make to buy a ticket to a professional baseball game? (The average price for Field Box seats at Fenway is now over $150.00 per ticket.) Is it the sacrifice in time, energy, and emotional well-being that so many diehard fans make? Or is it the sacrifice in health and longevity that professional athletes sometimes make by choosing to use steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs? I cannot say.

OKSURE, lots of people seem to like baseball. And I, myself, still enjoy a day at the park INPERSON with a friend, but you've gotta admit that the whole thing has gotten a little out of control, don't you?

But back to the puzzle, where we try to evaluate the sacrifices made to accommodate a complex theme. Today I feel there are several entries that ARENOT particularly ATHROB. There's ALLELE, ALIENEE, WAF, PERI, ELHI, and NOB, and the unusual TOILETBAG (I usually think of it as a "toiletry kit"), SCRUBSUITS (usually just "scrubs"), and WHEELNUT (usually lug nut), the old-timey MAUDE and ADLAI... and what the hell is an ONLAY (109A: Bit of dental work)? And why is the UVULA "something seen with a tiny flashlight? It's visible in any light. Because doctors sometimes shine a light onto it? OK, maybe... but is that light so tiny?

I did enjoy the clues for FLYROD (103A: Casting choice) and CHASER (11D: Drink after drink?). And I appreciate the effort of trying to make some clues more "baseball-y," like 36D: Hit sign (SRO), 56D: Related to pitches (TONAL), and 16A: Dugout propeller (OAR).

As you can see, I didn't particularly love this one. Hopefully, you liked it just fine.

- Horace

Saturday, March 30, 2019, Greg Johnson

12:37

Another fun themeless puzzle. I'm a little ambivalent about whether I like themeless puzzles better than their themed cousins or not. On the one hand, when done well, they can be packed with fun answers and tough clues. On the other hand, I love the aha moments of figuring out tricky themes.

Well, we'll leave that argument for another day.

Today, lets acknowledge Mr. Johnson's fine efforts. I broke into the grid in the NE corner with OAR and ELLE as well as TOE. I then took a stab at ISITSAFE, which led to the excellent 16A: Something holding up the works? (EASEL) Hah!

VESPERS is a lovely answer, reminding me of The Name of The Rose (by crossword favorite Umberto Eco). The clue at 28D: Totally screw up? (MISADD) is really something: I had to twist my mind around to get what they were looking for. I am more used to seeing Pangaea than PANGEA, but either is acceptable.

Happy Baseball Season

ITJUSTAINTRIGHT is a very good grid-spanner, and with that, I had completed half the puzzle. Getting back out of the SW corner took some doing however. 33A: They're chewable but not meant to be eaten (DOGTOYS) was a challenge, as was MRTOAD's Wild Ride (I've never been inside Disneyland - I once stayed at a Disney Hotel in Orlando for a medical conference, but did not check out the rides).

I love love love 23A: Peabrain? (MENDEL). That's a brilliant clue.

Finally, I confused myself by putting in genetICMATERIAL. In fact, nobody has found DNA or RNA on Mars, simply hydrocarbons (i.e., ORGANICMATERIAL). But I had to take everything out of that corner before I could convince myself that the error was in that answer, rather than in REHEARSAL or CEOS.

- Colum

Friday, March 29, 2019, Martin Ashwood-Smith

9:14

It feels like it's been quite some time since I last saw Mr. Ashwood-Smith's byline in the NYT. I am used to seeing double quad stacked 15-letter grids, which used to make me throw my hands in the air and give up.

Nowadays the staggered 13-letter answer stacks are all the rage, and it's easy to see why. Look how excellent that middle section is, with DIXIELANDJAZZ right above its near neighbor MOBILEALABAMA (with a great piece of trivia about its early days as the capital of French Louisiana), and below that DOUBLEDEALERS.

The staggering allows for very strong crossing answers as well, including my favorite answer of the puzzle today at 27D: Bungling (MALADROIT) - a great word, and a misleading clue, in that you might be tempted to try out a word ending in -ING, but get nowhere. I also liked JAREDLETO and BARRYGIBB's full names.

This is a particularly scrabble-y grid, with 3 Xs, 3 Js, and 2 Zs. I was amused by 15A: Laser alternative (DOTMATRIX) - not so much anymore, am I right?

I could complain about XII and DERE, two less than wonderful answers, but I'll leave you with 5D: Schooner filler (ALE).

Now that's a nice image.

- Colum

Thursday, March 28, 2019, Damon Gulczynski

9:52

Oh, this is excellent stuff. It brings me back to my youth and puzzling through GAMES magazine. There are four examples of words which can be reinterpreted as two word clues by inserting one space in the middle. For example 17A: Tome gets reparsed as "to me," thus resulting in FROMWHEREISTAND.

Very nice.

My favorite is definitely 30A: Often (DECIMAL), or "of ten." That's a lovely discovery. The others are 37A: Notable (POWERLESS) ("not able") and 49A: Goon (PERSIST) ("go on"). And there's a great 15-letter spanning revealer in GIVEMESOMESPACE.

The puzzle has some happy chunky corners. I like the SW best with SPONGED (echoes of Auntie Mame), HEROINE, and ARRIVAL, which was a truly outstanding movie.

I also enjoyed LIZLEMON and BEEFCAKE. Two things which did not go together really at all during the run of 30 Rock.

There are really no clues that stand out, I think because those four clues were tricky enough that there had to be reasonable ways in to get what was going on. 36A: It's generally not played so much (BSIDE) is good, and took me some time to figure out because I had PCpS at 25D for a while. I also liked 58A: They can carry a tune (IPODS), even if hardly anyone uses those any more.

I am seriously unconvinced by 66D: Hems and haws (ERS), but otherwise I had little to complain about. Fun Thursday puzzle.

- Colum

Wednesday, March 27, 2019, Michael Hawkins

5:12

Wednesday (WEDIDIT!) is always a resting place of the odd themes, the out there ideas, the concepts that don't work for tricky Thursdays (THURMAN!) or the advanced beginner Tuesdays (TUESBELLE! - okay, okay, I'm done. Still just loving yesterday's theme...).

So today, we have the unusual revealer at 49A: Misconceptions about money ... or a loose hint to 20-, 24- and 44-Across? (FINANCIALMYTHS). I'd never come across this concept before, but it Googles well. The puzzle then takes this idea and comes up with three phrases with mythical or legendary entities worked in. The best of these is UNICORNSTARTUP - an entrepreneurial endeavor that is markedly successful, so-called because of the rarity.

But I'd argue that the whole puzzle falls apart with 44A: One profiting through litigation, not innovation (PATENTTROLL). Because if the Troll is so obvious to be patently visible, how can you call it a myth?

Oh... not that patent. I get it now. IKID!

Other than that, the puzzle suffers from a lack of exciting fill. SEARCHER is kind of meh, while ATTYGEN should probably not even ever show up in a puzzle, in my opinion. Of course, your opinion may differ, but it's my blog, and my HOTTAKES, so there.

Meanwhile, 57A: Discuss one's toilet habits, for example (OVERSHARE) made me uncomfortable.

Anyhoo, I made myself laugh by taking forever to get 10A: Alternative to Venmo (CASH). I was so convinced there was some other app out there to transfer money from person to person that I didn't even consider this other thing Mr. Hawkins was referring to. Paper? That people accept as a way to transfer wealth? How unusual.

- Colum

Tuesday, March 26, 2019, Zhouqin Burnikel

3:39

Now, that's a theme, if you ask me. I had absolutely no idea what was going on, even once I'd completed the entire puzzle. The revealer comes at 62A: Start of the baseball season ... or what the start of each starred clue is? (OPENINGDAY). There are seven such starred clues, which should have been the dead giveaway. Finally, I figured out that the first three letters of each answer are the standard abbreviations of the days of the week, in order from Sun. through Sat.

Wow. That takes some doing. That's 60 squares dedicated to the theme, which is pretty amazing. And Ms. Burnikel, as per usual, has a clean fill despite that. Throw in your ADBLITZES and CARALARMS, and you've got a lovely puzzle.

I also note that RBI, TIED, and UPONE could be extra theme material.

Wrong sport

The clues lean towards the easy side. I liked 30A: Moon ____ (apt anagram of ASTRONOMER) (STARER). Apt. Apt! Also, 67A: Fraction of a bushel (PECK) brings me back around to Guys and Dolls. Finally, 64D: Chatty travel companion (GPS) had me laugh out loud. Nice way to make a standard piece of crosswordese (in the modern world) stand out.

- Colum

Monday, March 25, 2019, Kevin Christian and Andrea Carla Michaels

4:09

I'm not going to draw too much attention to it, but we had a comment on Horace's Report from the ACPT post from a celebrity, so go take a look if you want to see. No need for name dropping here at HAFDTNYTCPFCA. In fact, I just dropped three entire names from that acronym, so...

I grew up around LPS. My first that I purchased was a full recording of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker - it was a double record with a psychedelic pink cover. I had quite a collection by the time CDs started taking over, including all of the D'Oyly Carte Gilbert and Sullivan recordings (the ones with John Reed playing all the patter song roles), as well as multiple Tom Lehrer records and a few Monty Pythons. This is how you know Horace, Frances, and I were made to be bosom buddies.

Today's puzzle interprets "long play" records as literal acronyms for seven examples of two word phrases. It's impressive to fit seven theme answers (and a 3-letter revealer) into a 15 x 15 grid. I once saw Tito Puente perform in Cambridge, MA, so I liked LATINPERCUSSION the best. Otherwise, I was sadly a little unimpressed by the collection. And why these, and not others?

On the other hand, ELPASO must be a hidden theme answer, no? YES?

I am in favor of IGOR and Young Frankenstein. I have never been in favor of ERIK Satie, who I think is fairly uninteresting. So maybe my response to the puzzle over all is that it was MAA. I mean MEH.

- Colum