Wednesday, June 30, 2021, Christopher Adams and Adam Aaronson

It's hard to believe that it took almost 40 years for this to become a crossword puzzle theme. JENNY's phone number has been well-known and often sung by everyone who went to school in the Eighties. The only thing that would have made this more perfect is if the "nine" had been drawn out to "ni-ee-ine," but I'm not sure that would have gotten past the editors.

There are many theme answers (8), but they're all relatively short, which might have made it easier to avoid crosswordese. Sure, we haven't seen our old friend ENIAC in a while, and some might have said HUNH? to HUNH, but there's really not much trouble at all. And we get things like IMPASSE (Stalemate), the full TEALEONI, and a nice vocab. lesson in ENERVATE (Deprive of strength - not, as is commonly believed, to give strength).

You know, when I read "*One of two for the 1990s Chicago Bulls" I didn't really understand why that was used to clue THREEPEAT. I thought, are they saying that the threepeat win was just one of the two wins they had after they won the first championship? But no, I looked it up and guess what? The Bulls won three times in a row twice in the 1990s! And they probably would have won four in a row, and possibly eight, if Michael Jordan hadn't retired after the first one. 

What? Haven't I mentioned that I'm not a big fan of sportsball? It took 39 years for this theme to happen, and it took 23 years for me to understand how truly great the 1990s Bulls were. 

Here's a fun fact, the Bulls (yes, with Michael Jordan!) came to my college to do some pre-season training one year. I was in the gym with them, but I didn't actually get into any scrimmages. Heh. Honestly, I hardly knew who they were. This was pre-1990. True story.

Minitheme with ISHMAEL and SEVENSEAS?

Fun Wednesday.

- Horace

Tuesday, June 29, 2021, Alan Arbesfeld

A Tuesday with a trick! Phrases in the form of "[Blank] in the [blank]" are re-arranged into "the [Blank] [blank]." So, "Toy with a spring, literally," is rendered as THEJACKBOX, and "Undecided, literally" is THEUPAIR. Not a bad little diversion, and there are six of them to boot! 

I know some of our Excel-loving solvers will enjoy DATASET (Spreadsheet figures), and everyone loves a BEANBAG (Shape-shifting seat). Do they still sell those? Or were they just a '70s thing?

It seemed like there were a lot of names in the puzzle today - ANN, PACINO, TERI, STACY, ARES, LEARY, MINETA, EARL (sort of), JACOB, TIMON, HARRIS, ESTES, and the uncommon LEY (Willy ___, pioneering writer on rocketry) and TOD (Director Browning of 1931's "Dracula"). Did I get them all?

I like how TRAY (It goes up during takeoff) and SHAY (Two-wheeled carriage) are symmetrical in the center, and right with them are HEY and LEY. MILIEU (Setting) and ELIXIR (Sorcerer's concoction) are nice words, and ASTHMA (It can take your breath away) got a good clue. On the whole, though, the theme is front and center. And sometimes that's fine.

- Horace

Monday, June 28, 2021, Pamela F. Davis

What a fun start to the week! Four HOMECHEF meals critiqued by a child. The meals get fancier and fancier as they go on, from the lowly BEETREPORT to the chocolate MOUSSECALL. I'm not sure what a "French roll" is, and it took me a while to remember that there's a thing called a "moose call" (there is such a thing, right Philbo?), but still, I laughed out loud at this theme. And I love the bonus themer SUPS (Has an evening meal) at the end. 

It played longer (4:58) than a Monday sometimes does for me, partly because of the "quote" clues for the theme answers, and partly thanks to me guessing "megafail" instead of MEGAFLOP (Epic failure) (I know, I know, the clue has "fail" right in it, but I was not paying close attention!), and "loll" instead of LAZE. It also got a little tricky in the South, with SERGE (Twilled fabric for suits), SPUMES (Sea foams), and SPOOR (Scent of an animal). Not exactly true KOFCA-esque words, maybe, but still, a few that require a deeper search in the ol' memory banks. But as we always say, we appreciate and welcome the challenge any day of the week.

My favorite clue today is "It's a crime to lie under it" (OATH). 

Fun Monday! 

- Horace

Sunday, June 27, 2021, Ross Trudeau and Lindsey Hobbs

GRAVITY'S RAINBOW

I've never read the Pynchon book, but today (finally!) it doesn't matter. In this puzzle, gravity works on a rainbow in the grid, pulling the colors downward, out of their Across answers. They appear in proper Roy G. Biv order from left to right, and if you solve online, the gravity-affected words are appropriately colored once the puzzle is finished! Fun!

I'm guessing this ran in June to help celebrate Pride Month, but - fun fact, the current LGBT flag has six stripes (omitting INDIGO), and the original had eight stripes (including pink and teal). But any way you stripe it, it was a colorful and enjoyable Sunday solve.

It started off strong with a fun clue for bad things - SCAMS (Rackets), and off of that the old-timey SHASTA Cola. SHASTA was founded all the way back in 1889, but do you know what soda is older? If you said Coke (1886), you'd've been right, but it wouldn't have been the one I was thinking of - Polar (1882!). It's a shameless plug for a product from my home town. :)

Anywho, how about the hilarious clue "A one and a two" for THREE. Hah! 

I like how ESOTERICA is followed by a good example of same: AZURE (Color whose name is derived from "lapis lazuli"). But being something of a skeptic, I would like to be able to see the work on this one. I'm not a professional etymologist, but I find that "lapis lazuli" was itself named for a place where the stone was collected. Both words went through Latin, as many words do, where the "lapis" part meant "stone" and the "lazuli (gen. of lazulum)" part meant "from that town," but it seems to have also more generally meant "blue," so probably it could be more simply said that AZURE comes just from the place name, and not the stone name (possibly from mistaken removal of the first letter because it was thought to be a French article). And to continue beating this poor blue horse, is it at all CONTROVERSIAL that we have this stray color word in a puzzle focussed, as it is, on specific colors? 

And while we're on the topic of etymology, I was also driven to do a little research by "Part of a religious title that means 'ocean'" (DALAI)." This does seem to be straightforwardly from Tibetan, and "DALAI lama" means "ocean monk," but why are they talking about the ocean way up there in Tibet? One source says it's because he's an "ocean of compassion." I like it.

And speaking of ESOTERICA, how 'bout BUGGYWHIP?

I noticed oddities along the way, like AWARDEE, SERENEST, EELIER, but overall, the minor ROUGH patches are smoothed by the overall colorful nature of the whole. Happy Pride Month to all.

- Horace

 

p.s. On the subject of Ravel, I must defer to my music major colleague. If he says he's worth listening to, I will blindly (deafly?) argue the same. As I said in the comments earlier in the week, all I know of the man is "Bolero," but I very much like the sound of "piano toccata," and someday, when I have a sound system hooked up again (long story), I'll give him another chance.

Saturday, June 26, 2021, John Lieb and Brad Wilber

It's been a really great week for the NYT crossword puzzle, in my opinion. I've had a blast solving and blogging on them. Today's is no exception.

There are five grid-spanning 15-letter answers, and each of them works beautifully. We start with the ludicrous ICOULDEATAHORSE. I seem to recall on a trip to some town in England, my older brother announcing that he was so hungry he could eat an Anglican cathedral. 

The next one, THEMUDVILLENINE is so evocative. I still remember the last lines of the poem: 

Oh, somewhere in this favoured land the sun is shining bright,

The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;

And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout,

But there is no joy in Mudville - mighty Casey has struck out.

I always loved this poem as a kid, especially with the shocker that he doesn't come through for the home team. As a Red Sox fan, this seemed all too familiar, and also support for the inevitable heartbreak that came at the end of every season up until 2004.

34A: Like popping bubble wrap, for many (ODDLYSATISFYING) is exactly that: an incredibly satisfying answer. I don't think I've ever seen it in the puzzle before. [Checks xwordinfo.com] - Nope, it's never been in the NYT crossword before, and I'm happy to see it here.

The last two are not quite at the same level, but still quite good. CARETOELABORATE is very much part of the vernacular, and DRIVEWAYMOMENTS applies more to me when I'm listening to, say, a piece by Ravel (Maurice, French-Basque composer, 1875-1937), such as his remarkable Le Tombeau de Couperin, a suite of pieces dedicated to friends who died in World War I. Just listen to the toccata (only in the piano version) - so brilliant.

SLEEVE

Some good clues today include 9D: It has its limits (CALCULUS); 4D: Entirety, redundantly (SUMTOTAL); 50A: Occupied leader? (PRE).

Fun week. Tomorrow, Horace takes back over. I expect the discourse about Ravel to continue until Huygens gives in. 11:49.

- Colum

Friday, June 25, 2021, Scott Earl

Oh, that staircase triple stack in the middle of the puzzle. What a happy discovery, I'm sure, for Mr. Earl, to be able to put METOOMOVEMENT right on top of MALEPRIVILEGE. And then to finish it off with a nice twist, you get BIGLITTLELIES, the show about women trapped by the patriarchy in different ways, banding together to support each other.

Add to that DIANA Taurasi, one of the all time great basketball players; LAURA Bassi, the first woman to earn a doctorate in science (1732!!); and CELIA Cruz, and you get a nice grid tilted (for once) towards the 51%. The only examples I can see in the other direction are ANSEL Adams and NIALL Horan.

Speaking of which, thanks to Cece for assisting in this solve. She knew that one immediately, but she also got multiple long answers with very little in the way of crosses. For example, she got ICOULDEAT off of the I, and two of the long answers in the middle. As always, I'm impressed, and suspect she will one day beat the pants off of old Dad in the crossword solving department.

Funny, now that I look at it: The NW corner has an aspirational aspect to it, with LOOKINGUP and DREAMCAR, while the SE feels a little anxiety provoking, with GANGUPON, CANWETALK, and HITANERVE.

Oof. Fortunately MEETCUTES breaks up that little doom cloud.

In the area of fun clues, I like 38A: Stub hub? (TOE). Also, 32D: Hat tricks are seen in them (MAGICACTS) really threw me for a loop. I was certain that we were talking about soccer or hockey. But no. Actual tricks with hats in them. Nice.

Very little not to like today. The Turn is going great! 5:57.

- Colum

P.S. I actually really love Bolero by Ravel, even though it's not the most representative of works by the composer. If you want something else with a Spanish flair by him, try Alborada del Gracioso. 

P.P.S. And yes, I'm not getting off the soapbox until Huygens gives it a try. I've got a lot to say on the subject!

Thursday, June 24, 2021, Danny Lawson

Everybody loves a good rebus puzzle. At least if you define everybody as me. Or as "at least" me. Now I'm tripping myself with my own syntax.

In any case, I had a strong suspicion something was going on when I had PIN_ at 1D: Fool (PIN[HEAD]), only I couldn't see what I was supposed to put in there because I was parsing the clue as a verb rather than a noun. 

At 25D: Moved up the corporate ladder, say (GOTA[HEAD]), I was fixated on the possibility of "raise" going in that square, so things were stuck for a while longer. I didn't see where the other two rebuses were going to go yet, so it wasn't until I figured out the revealer at 55A: Lucy van Pelt's frequent outburst to Charlie Brown ... or how to fill some squares in this puzzle? (YOUBLOCK[HEAD]) that it all became clear to me.

To be fair, I did not really remember her saying that until I had it filled in. I was looking for "Good grief!" But that's what Charlie Brown said, not Lucy.

SHAKINGMY[HEAD] at all of these digressions.

The clue at 19A: In-flight call? ([HEAD]SORTAILS) is just the sort of fun I like to see in good QMCs. On the converse (or is it inverse?) there's 60A: One making a scene (STAGEHAND) - an excellent non-QMC. Why, we have eternally wondered, are some clues decorated with a question mark, and others are not? It seems to me that 19A didn't really need one, and 60A could have had one. It's a mystery.

We got to see this when we were last in Europe

Meanwhile, I love the quotation at 63A for TOLERANCE. It's a quality we all could use more of nowadays. I have my own biases as to which side of the political aisle cultivates it more (and perhaps is more inclined to the increase of education), but we'll leave it at that. I also love MOONRIVER, the song, the movie it was in, and the composer. 

My assignment for anyone who has never listened to Maurice Ravel - go listen to his Piano concerto in G. It's a wonder, extremely exciting, jazz-inflected, a delight. 8:29.

- Colum