Sunday, July 31, 2022, Jesse Goldberg

WHY? WELL, WHY NOT

When I saw the title today, and then read the clue for 9A, "Got too scared, with 'out,'" I quickly decided that there would be some kind of "chicken" theme. A chicken rebus, or we'd have to have it "cross the road" into another clue or something... I thought I was so clever. Figuring it all out, and on the second clue! 

Well, as you well, know, that was not how things went down. Instead, we have Ys that are inserted into phrases that don't usually have them (BELLYBOTTOMS (Places where some belts are tightened?)) and taken away from phrases that do (COMBATREAD (Stephen Crane's 'The Red Badge of Courage,' e.g.?)). So already, that's pretty fun, but then we get to the revealer, WISEUPTO, and realize that each time a Y is inserted into a phrase, it's been taken from the exact spot that it was removed from in another phrase and moved up two squares in the puzzle. Now that's fancy! I mean, really, how is it even possible to make that work out? 

Amazing. In other news, ENYA continues to have a big week in the crossword. I was fooled for a while by "Server error," thinking about "file somethingorother," but no, it's a tennis FOOTFAULT. Also, I did not remember learning that Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts was DEAF. Interesting. And why did I enter "Gauze" for "You can see right through it," when the obvious answer was GLASS? I guess I was not TUTU awake yet.

Well, it's been a fun week of puzzles. Tomorrow, I think Frannie takes over, but we're on vacation, so maybe she'll try to enlist one of the many other family members that we're sharing a house with to either do it or help with it. We shall see. Tune in tomorrow, same HAFDTNYTCPFCA time, same HAFDTNYTCPFCA channel.

- Horace

Saturday, July 30, 2022, Lance Enfinger

The week began with a couple debuts, and it ends with one - a lovely, challenging, triple-stack Saturday. Welcome to the fold, Mr. Enfinger, I am already a fan.

Way back when, when I first started doing puzzles, long, grid-spanning stacks struck fear in me. All that empty white space! Then, once I had solved a bunch, they struck fear for another reason - all those short crosses! But this time, the stack is run through with fives, sixes, nines, and elevens! And almost all of them are sparkly! I don't take a FILETMIGNON, but you've gotta love that as fill, complete with French clue "Literally, 'dainty slice'" (well, I would have said "cute slice"). "Simple kind of question" (TRUEFALSE) is strong, too. I kept wanting to stretch out yessornoo. LEADBALLOON (It's not going to fly) is a heavy hitter, and SLIDINGDOOR (Future-altering decision point, metaphorically) slides into the stack nicely. 

Once again, my upbringing stood me in good stead for OPERETTAS ("Iolanthe" and "Candide," for two) (I dropped that right in), but even though I was thinking of the gambling kind of whale, I could not for the life of me think of HOTELCASINO. (Don't bet on me at the crossword tournaments!)

Even the small stuff running through the middle is strong. It starts on the left with the FIC (False Imperative Clue) (I had to look that up in our own glossary!) "Scratch that" (ITCH), and continues with a real imperative clue "Get outta here!" (SHOO). And on the other side, the word ERST always reminds me of Shakespeare's sonnet 12, which is nice.

There's just so much good stuff I could talk about in here! DENOTE (Mean) (tricky!), LILTS (Pleasant cadences) (tried LopeS first), BLUNT and CHEF (Pot holder) (uhhuhhuhhuh...), EELS (The ancient Egyptians believed they were created from the sun hitting the Nile) (Whaa?!), ONNOTICE (Warned), STOMACHS (Bears)... HELLNO (Rude "Forget it!"). It's all good.

It's a fantastic debut. I'll be happy to see Mr. Enfinger's byline again.

- Horace

Friday, July 29, 2022, Robyn Weintraub

What a lovely start to my vacation, a Robyn Weintraub Friday puzzle! 

She's opened up her BAGOFTRICKS and filled the grid with fun and games. Right of the bat we get ATARI (Breakout company of the 1970s) ("Breakout," the game), and next comes the great combo of 7D: "Where a town in Wyoming was once sold (for $900,000)" (EBAY) and 6A: "What 7-Down is pig Latin for" (BEE). Hilarious.

There's a nice little theme of drinks and parties, including ICE (Something can't be neat if you add this), DRAM (1/8 oz.), ANIS (French liqueur flavoring), THEDRINKSAREONEME, TOGAPARTIES (Fun times between the sheets?), and PINATAS (They're broken just for fun). 

I love the clever, misleading clues like "Area around the mouth" (DELTA), "Liquid weapon, or a solid one" (MACE), "Lead-in to a street name, perhaps (AKA) (really lovely), and "Hall of fame collaborator?" (OATES). That last one is a real stretch, but I still enjoyed it.

My recent Greek lessons in DuoLingo paid off with "It's written as a vertical line bisecting a circle" (PHI), my earlier lessons in Dutch made BOER (Dutch for "farmer") a snap, but my eight or so years of French did nothing to help with the 1970 #5 hit (Ma Belle AMIE) until I had a cross or two.

And how about "Sound of an unsuccessful attempt at stone skimming" (PLOP)?! Hah!

I loved all of it. Thanks, Ms. Weintraub. :)

- Horace

Thursday, July 28, 2022, Bill Pipal and Jeff Chen

It's a strange puzzle today. There are circles appearing in seven squares, all positioned in an upper-right corner. They are double-checked in that they are used in the Down answers, and together, in order from left to right and top to bottom, they spell out the word "corners," but they are ignored in the Across answers, which need to make a turn at those corners and use all but the circled letter in the Down answer to answer their own clues. Still, the circled letters, if added to the first part of the Across answers, make a word, which is a nice touch. 

Why should it be that this is so? We find that out with the littlest revealer I have ever seen - CUT (With the circled letters, a hint to solving seven Across clues). And now it all comes clear - we need to cut corners in order to make those Across answers work! While solving, I filled in the revealer without ever reading the clue, and if I weren't writing the reviews this week, I might never have understood it. So... yay?

Was there a meta-theme within the theme? The first Across answer is ANTI_AGING, and I feel like that somehow relates to the old-timey HOME_EC, DON_KING, and LIVE_AID answers. :)

Really, it's a nice theme, now that I understand it. And in non-theme, we have the lovely RHAPSODIC (Extravagantly emotional) up top, and the fun CANOODLED (Engaged in some amorous behavior) below. SALLOW (Opposite of ruddy) is a ten-cent word, BEDHOGS (Ones always taking cover?) was fun, and it's always nice to think of various MILNE characters. 

Overall, a solid start to the Turn.

- Horace

Wednesday, July 27, 2022, Enrique Henestroza Anguiano

A Wednesday wardrobe puzzle. In the long Acrosses we find:

SCAREDYPANTS

BLACKHAT

EMPTYSUIT

TURNCOAT

STUFFEDSHIRT

 

I like STUFFEDSHIRT and EMPTYSUIT the best. I've heard from people in the computer security biz that the term BLACKHAT is being phased out to avoid the "white = good/black = bad" message. 

And in the Downs we get a SLITTED gown and a CAFTAN, and the verb WEAR (Represent, as a designer at a fashion show). And I suppose a SPUR could be an article of clothing... or is it just an accessory? For me, these additional related entries dilute the theme a bit.

I enjoyed the French pairing of ETOILE and EAU, both off the same E. And OMNIA vincit amor is always nice to see. POPSICLE, ODYSSEY, and TICKTOCK ("Time's running out" sound) were nice long bonus fill.

My solve time has been going Down on all the puzzles this week: 4:53, 4:42, and 4:05 today. And I guess today's did feel more like a Monday to me - no resistance, and a theme that kind of hangs together, as it were, but doesn't really thrill me for some reason. 

- Horace

Tuesay, July 26, 2022, Lillian Simpson

It's a shame that I already had cereal for breakfast, because now I want FRIEDEGGS. The great thing about eggs, though, is that they're also perfect for lunch! I have a yearly physical in the afternoon, but I've already done the blood work, so cholesterol be damned! :)

It's another debut puzzle today, and I've already read over on xwordinfo.com that Ms. Simpson doesn't even like eggs! In that she is like Frannie. Although Frannie will take them in a COOKIE or a cake, and sometimes scrambled, if I make hers a lot CHEESIER than normal. Me, I love two over easy, with yolk like LAVA that I SLATHER over toast. And with a last crust of bread I'll mop up any RESIDUES on the plate. OK, perhaps I need not INDULGE in so much detail. Who ASKED me anyway?

In oblique thematic material I find POACHERS, NEST, and even PREGGO, a state which relies on the OLDEN crossword favorite "ova." 

We saw a ROSHAMBO-themed puzzle a while ago, but I still needed a cross or two to remember that name. And I was happy to see ITERATE - a word I learned through doing crosswords, and that I now hear versions of far too often at work. "It's an iterative process," "We need to iterate as we go along," ... SNORT! But no one ever starts a wrap up with "To iterate, ..." it's always "To reiterate ..." Why?

Anywho, the week is off to a great start. Two debuts, and two novel and interesting themes. What oh what will Wednesday bring? We shall see!

- Horace

Monday, July 25, 2022, Michael T. Buerke

Today's theme is an interesting, non-OVERT take on a vowel progression, going through the five ONEBYONE at the BITTERENDs of:

BIRDSOFPREY

GRANDPRIX

IDIDN'TMEANTOPRY

TENNISPRO

ANNIEPROULX 

 

And speaking of vowels, I was thrown off for a second by the missing "E" at the beginning of the author's name. Has she dropped that entirely now? Perhaps I haven't kept up.

 

 

It's a little too bad that Mr. Buerke couldn't work in something like "tableaux" (is that acceptable in English?) for the fourth one, then he could have done all the vowels using high-point Scrabble letters. But then, that wouldn't have started with "PR" ... hmm... perhaps that's why they had to go with the straight O. It's a pity, because that's the only one that is what it is, but I see the dilemma. And maybe that BLAH right after it is a cry of exasperation for having been forced into that corner... Still, I liked this one quite a bit.

Is it just me, or has the word ARSE been in the grid a lot latetly? Is Will on vacation? Did Ezersky take over? ...

I liked seeing BREADBIN (Place to store a loaf). We had one when I was young, I think, and I sort of always wanted to get one, but we don't really have the counterspace for it, and we aren't buying that kind of loaf that often. Still... nostalgia. :)

 

The clue "Rap lead-in to Jon or Wayne" was cute for LIL. I see what they did there.

It's a rare Monday that offers an unusual new theme, and I say we're off to a good start this week. What'd you think?

- Horace

p.s. It's a debut puzzle! Congratulations, Mr. Buerke!