Tuesday, August 31, 2021, Eric Bornstein

So here's an interesting thing - the "Constitutional measure passed in '72 but never ratified" (ERA), actually received its 38th state ratification last year (Thanks, Virginia!). That's three quarters of the states, and the threshold for ratification. I think I somehow missed that news. I'm not sure what could have distracted me... Anyway, there's a nice write-up of the challenges remaining for ERA on the Brennan Center website. If you're interested.

To sum it up for you, ERA's fate may be left to the WINGNUTS in Congress. IBET it'll require a PLETHORA of persuasive arguments from some TOUGHCOOKIES with valuable BARGAININGCHIPS to convince those who see females as nothing but EYECANDY to grant them fair and equal treatment under the law. If and when that happens, the setting off of FIRECRACKERS will certainly be appropriate.

And speaking of women and men, one means of giving birth (which only women can do) has been famously named after a tyrannical man - the CSECTION. This was extra tricky today, because of its vague clue ("Delivery option") and it's surprising beginning - "CS." I actually took out the S of SASSY (Like the comment "Oh no, you didn't!," say) for a bit because I was pretty sure of "chips." Another area like that was in the SW, where I ended up with "__LCI_" and got worried. Happily, I eventually had enough INFO to see my previous apprehension as DROLL.

Speaking of DROLL, I enjoyed the jokey food theme, and the fill had enough BRISK entries to keep it interesting. 

- Horace

Monday, August 30, 2021, Brooke Husic

I enjoy a simple vowel progression theme. It's familiar. It's comforting, even. 

LACKSHEART

LEXINGTON

LICKSTHESPOON

LOCKSMITH

LUXEMBOURG

 

Too bad the first one couldn't have been clued with something about the Cowardly Lion. But then, I suppose that film probably came out something like 75 years before Ms. Husic was born, and the book even before that. :)

And speaking of clues, it would have to be a pretty amazing soup for me to want to lick the spoon after finishing it. That's a tough entry to clue, though...

And speaking of tough entries, there were a few of them: RESEEK, SCORER, AMORS, and ORIN. Not great.

 

On the other hand, I very much enjoyed INTRICACY (Complexity), FOOTMODEL (One who might have a contract with a sandal manufacturer), and TOLLROAD (Opposite of a freeway). And it's as though the grid itself is welcoming our resident Canadian, Philbo, back from vacation with LOON (Bird on the Canadian dollar) and AHL (Calder Cup rink org). And yes, I realize it stands for "American Hockey League," but it's still hockey!

 

No record time for me today, as this played a little tough for a Monday. Not that there's anything wrong with that. 

As George Orwell said, "The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection." 

 

It was a fine Monday.

- Horace

Sunday, August 29, 2021, Dory Mintz

UH? OH ...

First off, thanks to Frannie and Colum for two fine weeks of reviews. I don't know how long this crazy blog experiment will continue, but I really appreciate the fact that we're splitting the work. Without the regular breaks, I think we might all turn into the kind of cranky blogger that inspired the creation of this blog in the first place.

OK, enough on that. Today we have one of those themes that changes regular expressions by adding ə sound. It sounds weird when you write it down, but examples always help:

"Fantasy sports" is changed to FANTASYSUPPORTS, and is clued as "Beams of one's dreams?" Absurd. Wacky. Just what you've come here for. The others are:

GOFORBAROQUE (Visit a museum to see a Rembrandt exhibit?)

FALCONCARESSED (Bird of prey that's gently petted?) (wow)

THEROUXINTHETOWEL (Actor Justin sitting poolside?) (who?)

DERIDEAPRICOTS (Make fun of small orange fruits?) (mmm... dried apricots...)

GRAVYTERRAIN (Mashed potatoes, on a Thanksgiving plate?) (an amusing stretch)

THUNDERCOLLAPSE (Fourth-quarter meltdown at an N.B.A. game in Oklahoma City?)

This kind of "pronunciation" theme is tricky, because not everyone pronounces things in the same way. Me, for instance, I like to put a long E into the first syllable of "deride," and I think the E in "terrain" is different from the U in "supports," but, well, if I can't make allowances for these minor differences, I'm never going to enjoy anything, am I? (If you're interested in pursuing this topic further, just talk to anyone who knows me.) :)

Theme aside, this one played a little tough for me. It seems, now, like I've heard of the RAMAPO (River across the New York/New Jersey border), but I needed every cross for it today, and PETE Alonso didn't help me one bit. Except for the fact that few other letters would work to make a name once I had _ETE. PERSONNEL (Staff) is a word I missed in "Spelling Bee" a while back, and SLEPTLATE (Didn't hear the alarm, say) is something I haven't done in years. I can't even remember the last time I set an alarm, and I'm not just talking about the pandemic either. It's been years and years.

I enjoyed "Angry reaction" for RISE, "Nonstop flight?" was a strong QMC for ESCALATOR, likewise "Speaking part?" for LARYNX. And remind me to never order soup in PALAU (Where fruit bat soup is eaten as a delicacy).

- Horace

Saturday, August 28, 2021, Julian Lim

Okay, folks. LETSDOTHISTHING.

Another Saturday, another fun themeless, definitely tougher than yesterday, solved en famille in Albany. 

Oddly, we got started at 8D: Area with lots of schools (REEF), and then 20A: South Beach and others (FADDIETS), and then moved into the NE corner. I like Georg SOLTI very much. I used to have a number of his recordings, back when LPs were the source of music appreciation. Now it's all streaming, I don't have the same ability to pick and choose performers, which is a source of sadness and frustration.

42A: Round trip for one? (SOLOHOMER) took a long time to become clear. In fact, we had all the letters but the Os in place before I caught on. In a different direction (literally), THRASHER was opaque to me, because I thought they were referring to thrash metal music, rather than an actual bird. Visual reference is provided below.

That word "visual" reminds me of Monty Python (vis-a-vis Arthur Frampton. Look it up), which was an odd way to get at DARKHUMOR. I never really thought of it as all that dark. I mean, yes, the Black Knight loses all of his limbs, and death is treated as a silly little joke, but it's more surreal to me than dark. Perhaps I'm splitting hairs.

Meanwhile, 64A: Kind of zone (EROGENOUS) was completely unexpected. All the more so when it's your daughter who announces it before anyone else. Too soon? Obviously.

THESHARD

Anyhoo, 1A: Divine instrument? (TAROTCARD) is the kind of QMC that proves that they still have a place in our puzzles. I could do without YESES or ACTIV, but otherwise, found this to be an enjoyable puzzle.

Back to Horace tomorrow.

- Colum

Friday, August 27, 2021, Robyn Weintraub

And suddenly the week looks that much brighter. All it takes is Ms. Weintraub's byline and I'm smiling again.

This puzzle went by super quick, in part because I solved it with the entire fam, everybody contributing as we went along. I knew things would be good in a Weintraubian way with 1A: What takes a licking and keeps on sticking? (STAMP). We were off to the races!

If you were new to our beloved constructor, you'd quickly see her penchant for including fun phrases of an exclamatory nature, such as ANSWERME, BEFOREIFORGET, and best of all, OHISTHATSO. 

You'd also find a trove of fun answers like 11D: Don't be misled by this (REDHERRING) - thanks, Phoebe for the quick get; or 28D: Tourists' reading (GUIDEBOOKS) - this was one of Hope's. 

How many of us happily put in ROSEgardEn at 27D: View from the Oval Office... only to have to backtrack and replace it with the perfectly correct ROSEBUSHES instead? 

ROTI

The puzzle suited my family well. For Phoebe, there were the CLEARSKIES for stargazing and BOSONS for the Physics geek. Up Cece's alley was Peter Paul RUBENS and TOAD from Mario. I enjoyed COSI (as in Mozart), and 6A: Bars that close (CODA). And Hope has been known to take a LEEK in her soup. Wait, that didn't come out right.

I'd just also like to point out the lovely pair of clues and answers at 33D: Make a turnover, say (BAKES), and 34D: Turnovers, e.g. (STAT). Perfect when they're right next to each other.

The only things to take away from the delight were SACS and crosswordese OENO. 

- Colum

Thursday, August 26, 2021, Ashish Vengsarkar

Well, I'll be the first to say it's been an odd week here at the NYT crossword puzzle. Today's puzzle fits in with the peculiar stylings we've seen so far. It was challenging, which I enjoy, and I definitely had to work hard in several areas to figure out even the non-thematic stuff, which itself was an interesting and Thursday style challenge.

The revealer is at 40A: One way to run ... or a hint to four geographical intersections found in this grid (CROSSCOUNTRY). Fittingly, we find four answers which cross each other only by adding a letter to each answer, which then result in crossing countries. Thus, 4D (MAL) and 21A (SURNAME) meet only by adding an I to create the two countries Mali and Suriname. 

The challenge was to find the four spots where you had to add a letter to make the crossing countries, and to recognize what letter would work to create the countries. I love adding an R to NOWAY and WANDA to make Norway and Rwanda.

To add an extra level, if you look at the four letters added, you get I-R-A-N, yet another country. That's some great second level puzzlemaking.

Some tough entries in the fill made solving tough. For example, IBMPCS is a mighty peculiar collection of consonants. 57A: English channel, familiarly (THEBEEB) is a classic bit of misdirection. 69A: Small storage unit (ONEMEG) is a real hard get. I stared at 64A: Wiggle room (MARGIN) for a long time before filling in the last letter (the R). 

I am proud to say that Cece taught me the answer to 25A: Need for making pochoir prints (STENCIL) this year, from her art classes in college.

I wanted THRObS at 47A: Pangs (THROES), but recognized that bLEMENT just couldn't be correct. Thank goodness for the lessons I (barely) learned earlier this week with my many errors.

Fun puzzle. CANYOUDIGIT?

- Colum

Wednesday, August 25, 2021, Adam Vincent

No errors today! I'm getting my mojo back, baby.

And just in time, for the best puzzle of the week so far. I love this theme: standard phrases where the second word can be reinterpreted as an attempt to sell something, then clued wackily. My favorite was definitely 27A: "This device makes prepping cherries a breeze" (PITTERPATTER). Hah! That's truly silly. I hope it was the seed for the grid (see what I did there?).

FEVERPITCH is much better served here than in the stupid rom-com movie set in and around Fenway Park. ASSEMBLYLINE's clue wasn't a home-run, but I liked MASSAPPEAL.

Some good answers in the fill as well, including DYSTOPIA. I haven't watched The Handmaid's Tale personally. I found the book fascinating, especially once somebody told me that it was set in Harvard Square/Yard. BLUESTATE, IDEALIZE, and DNASAMPLE (although who wants to think about spit in a tube?) were also good entries.

IVAN The Terrible

32D: There are two in "101 Dalmatians" (ONES) failed to trip me up, thankfully. The answer couldn't be "dogs." The title's a dead giveaway for that one.

57A: It shows a lot of plays, but no musicals (ESPN) is a clever non-QMC. I'm a big fan of those types of clues. But how about 56D: For whom the bell tolls (THEE)? It's so brazen! I personally like this new style of clue as well.

My last square (and there was a moment of concern here) was at the crossing of MAYA and YEA. I almost had to run through the alphabet to get the letter, but then thought, "what if it's a vowel, not a consonant?" And then I got what "Passing remark?" was getting at, and the rest was history.

- Colum