Wednesday, August 31, 2022, Joe Deeney

Turns out there are a lot of two-letter combinations in common parlance, where the second letter is a V, but I like the six that Mr. Deeney included in this puzzle. The revealer is simple brilliance, at 35A: Dubious food-eating guideline ... or a hint this puzzle's starred clues (FIVESECONDRULE). First, let's just acknowledge the selection of that excellent first word in the clue. Too funny! I also like the descriptor of "guideline," as if the FDA had put out a government-supported statement.

But the reinterpretation to mean that the rule guiding all the theme answers is that V comes in the second square is lovely. The only other answer that Mr. Deeney could have used is "UV rays." All other examples I can think of are three letter abbreviations, such as BVD, QVC, MVP. The theme answers are clued in a straightforward way, befitting a Wednesday. I like the trivia surrounding TVDINNER.

Some enjoyable fill include the wistful ICANDREAM. I've never listened to the entirety of Tristan and ISOLDE, but the Liebestod is an astounding piece of music. 

I find it interesting how the theme answers drive unconventional choices in the fill. Because RVPARK starts with three consonants, you end up with DMVS (four consonants, no vowels) and ASP (two consonants, one vowel) in the region. Similarly with JVSQUAD, starting with four consonants: here we find JCREW and IQTEST. 

Finally, a few fun clues to note:

10D: Bye at the French Open? (ADIEU)

19A: Only about one-sixth of these in humans is visible (EYES) - odd piece of trivia, but cool.

41A - (MINUS) - so much better than those puzzles where a continuation of an answer into another answer gets the same clue.

1D: You might be on it during a meeting (MUTE). As much as possible.

- Colum

Tuesday, August 30, 2022, Emily Carroll

For this non-skier, any slope that goes down at a 45 degree angle is well beyond a BUNNY / SLOPE. But that takes nothing away from this lovely theme.

There are four slanted leporine animals hidden in the grid. This is an example of a time where circled letters are definitely preferable. I'm not terribly excited about having to perform a word search at the end of completing a crossword puzzle. The hidden hares represent a nice spread across areas:

DUST[BUNNY] - metaphorical.

BUGS[BUNNY] - cartoon.

ENERGIZER[BUNNY] - advertising.

EASTER[BUNNY] - mythical (or so we suppose). 

It's at this time that I feel the need to report on a note that my daughter wrote when she was nine or so, penned to the Tooth Fairy. She had lost a tooth, but accidentally swallowed it. Unhappy that she was unable to provide proof to the fairy, she wrote to explain that she would like to receive the money anyway. She then wrote: "I do not feel right about this. Thank you for your previous service."

But back to the puzzle. Any time a grid has these diagonal answers, letters become "triple-checked." This means that they are responsible for making sense in three separate words, the across, the down, and the diagonal. The strain this puts on a grid explains things like AHS crossing RUHR; STEROL, ALAI, and AGAME; GELID crossing ODIE.

But if these things make Ms. Carroll EDGE towards saying "sorry!" I say, DONTBE! I'm impressed overall by the way the challenge is overcome. ISRAELIS, TRESSES, ATODDS and the very unusual appearing DAREI are fun entries. Certainly the puzzle played harder than usual for a Tuesday, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

- Colum

Monday, August 29, 2022, Chase Dittrich and Jeff Chen

If you ask this neurologist, the heart is an overrated organ. All it does is pump. Over and over. For as long as you live. In an average lifetime, it beats over 2.5 billion times.

Okay, that's pretty cool, actually. Even if it doesn't do all the amazing things the human brain can do, I guess it's important. What it doesn't do is love. That's the brain.

Still, Janis Joplin wrote a pretty damn amazing song with PIECEOF / MYHEART, which in this puzzle is interpreted literally at the end of each of the other theme answers. Thus, ECHOCHAMBER and SAFETYVALVE refer to the two atria and ventricles and the doors between them. TRAFFICARTERY and INTHESAMEVEIN are referring to the vessels which enter and leave the heart. I'm not actually convinced that anyone would refer to them as pieces of the heart medically, but most illustrations include the aorta and superior and inverior vena cava.

Still, it's a lot of theme material, and fine answers as well. In addition, we get the immortal ABBEYROAD and LETSITFLY for colorful fill. I also enjoyed the symmetric geographic answers AFRICA and GENEVA, as well as the historic LASCALA, site of Verdi and Puccini's greatest triumphs.

No complaints here, and it moved quickly enough for a sub-3 minute solve.

- Colum

Sunday, August 28, 2022, Ori Brian

ANIMAL HYBRIDS

Hello! Welcome to another week of clever puns and wordplay... no, wait. That's Frannie. How about folksy humor and musings about the nature of blogging? Um, that's more Horace's line.

I guess, instead, you get me and my urbane wit and deadly suavity.

But enough pumping up my own ego. Let's talk about the puzzle! I will confess that I completed the puzzle (and very quickly too) without understanding the theme, even once I'd entered the revealer at 108A: Mixes animal species ... as eight answers in this puzzle do? (CROSSBREEDS). The clue is a better clue than the answer is. At first I looked for answers crossing the theme answers which would be breeds of the animals listed in the clues. No love there, obvs!

Instead, the trick is that the answer is an anagram of the three animals in the parentheses in the clues. Thus, 22A: Get a party started? [bee, hare, tick] (BREAKTHEICE) is an anagram of those three animals.

I don't want to be a WETBLANKET (bat, elk, newt), but I find this sort of thing uninteresting. There's no connection between the animals and the answers (it would be astonishing if Mr. Brian could have pulled that off), and even if I had gotten the trick, it would not have helped me with the solve. All we're left with, in the end, is a certain degree of respect at coming up with the anagrams. But no real aha feeling for this solver.

But if you treat the puzzle as an oversized themeless, it was pretty nicely constructed. Sure, you get your standard ACER HODA RHEA OSSA stuff that a large grid often demands, especially when a theme requires certain letters to be in certain places. But we also get DEALMEIN, IVENOIDEA, THATSALIE, and ESCAPADE.

And some fun clues! 15D: Fashionable spots (POLKADOTS) is good fun. 101A: Devilish look? (GOATEE), and 112A: Wave to one's math professor? (SINE) brought a smile to my lips.

In the end, call me Myrtle the MOANER, but the theme left me cold. 

- Colum

Saturday, August 27, 2022, Andrew Linzer

A fun Saturday in the mid-to-easy range for this solver. I completed the grid in 18:41 today - anything under 20 minutes on Friday or Saturday is good for me. I went right along and hit only one sticking point - or rather, to be more specific, sticking area - the top right. RELEASEDATE was nowhere on my radar when I read the clue "Bit of album info." For some reason, I was intent on getting the word 'bio' in there. A similar thing happened to me with "Where to see the big picture?" I had the idea that something movie-related was wanted, but my first ideas ran to 'cinema', 'megaplex' and the like. Eventually, I got some Down answers which revealed the longer Across answers, including IMAXTHEATER. The Downs were slow to come in because I had guessed 'ready' for "Prepare (oneself)" which seemed apt but was incorrect and which also meant every last letter for five Down answers in a row was wrong. ALAS, if I had thought of TEXT as a way to "reach quickly", or if I had known North Carolina's ASHE county, I could have saved myself much time and trouble. 

I had FU__ for "Mess (with)" and I briefly consider a well known four-letter word, but then I thought, no way, and fortunately remembered FUTZ.

I did not know "Rhadamanthine". Also, cool that 'tires' and TRIES are anagrams and both are possible synonyms for "Taxes". Another fun fact for Frannie: a group of HARES is a husk. Who knew? Probably many of our dear Readers. :)

But, enough about what wasn't ACURA in my puzzle. There were several trixy clues that I did twig to immediately including "Rock variety" (EMO) and "Breaks the bank?" (ERODES). I'm not sure I would have gotten the latter so quickly if it hadn't been for LEVEE ("Bank regulator") in yesterday's puzzle. I did immediately drop in HUGUENOTS. I'll spare you my discourse on Henri IV, the Edict of Nantes  and its subsequent revocation by Louis XIV - this time. :) 

Other C/APs of note:

"Future residents" (MEDSTUDENTS)

"Super-useful item?" (MASTERKEY)

"Seated position?" (DESKJOB) - ha!

"Where jobs may be on the line (FACTORIES)

I enjoyed the nicely ambiguous clues "Confirmation, e.g." for RITE and "Something that gives takes" for (OPED). Also, WADDLED is a great word.

Well, dear crossword cronies, WATERRIDE it's been this week, non? I leave you ONEMORETIME in the capable hands of my esteemed co-blogger, Colum Amory - whose posts offer a TONIC to my RATTLES.

~Frannie.

Friday, August 26, 2022, Robert Logan

When I got to the last Across clue in the grid ("A 50/50 chance ... or a description of the lengths of this puzzle's Across and Down answers, respectively), I thought it might indicate that there was a trick to the puzzle - unusual for a Friday, but not unheard of. And there was a trick of sorts, but it was pulled off by the constructor rather than the solver: all the Across answers are an even number of squares and all the Down answers are an odd number of squares. Not being a puzzle constructor myself (yet!), I don't have a good understanding of how difficult this type of thing is to do, but, going by the fact that I've never seen this kind of thing done before, I'm guessing it's either very difficult, very creative (maybe no one ever thought of it before?), or both. It seems pretty neat to me. 

Additionally, there wasn't much funky fill fall out from the fancy formation, and there was a bunch of clever and fun C/APs, including "Journalist's secret" (SOURCE), "Explosive feedback?" (RECOIL), "Bottle of rum go-with" (YOHOHO) - lol - and "Board, so to speak" (MEALS). I also enjoyed "Showbiz sappiness" (SCHMALTZ), "'Can we talk?,' tersely" (AWORD), "Get drunk, formally" (BESOT), and "Ring bearer of note" (FRODO).

For "Davy Jones was one" I first tried 'sailor,' but the correct answer was MONKEE. Heh. "Bank regulator" at 2D had me kerflummoxed, but fortunately I couldn't think of any suitable five-letter financial institution employee and LEVEE eventually appeared and saved the day - for once. Too soon? To end on a positive note: YESINDEEDY, ITSADEAL, YOUBETCHA, AGREE, OKEYDOKEY.

~Frannie.

Thursday, August 25, 2022, Olivia Mitra Framke and Andrea Carla Michaels

Today's theme is cleverly turns states of the union into a union of states. Each theme entry consists of three overlapping state names, creating TRISTATEAREAS. It's cool that the constructors figured out this could be done. The clues for these answers consist of a list of various state things. I think the first group is birds, the second is flowers, and the third is maybe nicknames? As you see, dear Readers, my knowledge of state trivia leaves ROOMBAS for improvement. 

The northwest region contained most of the C/APs I liked the best. I enjoyed "Rider of the lost ark?" (NOAH) - ha! - "Place to pick some vegetables?" (SALADBAR), and "Tear a lot" (WEEP), not to mention SIZE up, which is a nice expression. I'd like to give a shout out to the southeast, though, too, for "Oscar and Edgar" (AWARDS).  

Despite the theme's focus on USAUSA, there was some fun international fill as well. I am learning Greek right now so I especially enjoyed the pair of Greek letters, ZETA and ALPHA, and the two Greek myth elements, LOOM ("Device for Arachne, in Greek myth") and EREBUS. We also got two German entries (NIE, EIN) and a "Ne plus ultra" in the clues. Ole!

ICAL ("Suffix with period") was, perhaps, borderline, but otherwise I thought the fill was capital. 

~Frannie.