Friday, June 30, 2023, Carly Schuna

Carly Schuna clearly understood the assignment. Facts. This puzzle definitely hits different. I'm totally vibing on it! I went looking and could hardly find anything basic. No cap!

OK, that's probably enough of that. I DOUBT you were fooled into thinking I was a hip Gen Zer, but seriously, so much dank material. The three long Acrosses are all so strong: HELLTOTHENO ("As frickin' if!"); THISISSUCHAMOOD ("I can relate," in Gen Z slang); and IMEANREALLY ("Surely you know this is ludicrous").

And really, everywhere you look you can find something to love. CHICKLIT ("Waiting to Exhale" or "Bridget Jones's Diary," dismissively), BITEME (Sassy retort), BROUHAHA (It's a big thing), BRAWN (Strength), SMORE (The first recipe for one was published in "Tramping and Trailing With the Girl Scouts" (1927)), PASTABAR (Dining option where bow ties might be expected). It's all so good!

I kind of wanted "pep pills" for "Crash protection?" but AUTOSAVE is also good. And how long did I try to make MAuvE work for "Lipstick choice"? Too long! And hands up if you tried doCTOR before RECTOR (Service provider?). 

As this is only Carly's second offering in the NYT, I can't really say whether or not there was much of a glow up period, but one thing I can say is "Slay!" This puzzle slaps!

- Horace

Thursday, June 29, 2023, Simeon Seigel

When I got to the revealer today - "Sharing in a symbol of commitment ... or what four rows in this puzzle are doing to form new phrases," I was all TL:DR and I moved on without spending any time at all trying to figure out what that meant. Eventually, after plowing my way through the NE and finishing the entire thing, I went back and said to myself, "Horset rainers?" What's that? "Trave lagency?" Huh?

The extra trick, which took me an extra beat today, was that we had to look beyond the black squares and the spacing to come up with "horse trainers" and "travel agency." Ahhh. Much better.

So, a few more missteps from me were wanting to put in "sloth" for "America's first vice, so to speak" (ADAMS), and "statie" for "Vehicle with a spotlight and municipal plates, most likely" (COPCAR). Heh. 

On the other hand, I knew that "Cat, vis-à-vis milk" would be LAPPER, but I kinda wished it wouldn't be.

HORNET and "Vespa" are both great words. And it's fun that HORNET sits just below STABS. And I enjoyed "Reacted purposefully when handed 'the ball'" (RANWITHIT). 

Some rather boring stuff - ELIA Kazan, HARPO Productions, OCHER, TOON, CABO, USSR, TOON, STELLA... not my favorite Thursday.

- Horace

Wednesday, June 28, 2023, Matt Fuchs and Victor Sloan

A bit of a trick today, with certain Down answers said to be "in" a certain Across answer. To wit:

PARTRIDGE [in a] PEARTREE (... first (and last) gift of a seasonal song)
FROG [in ones] THROAT (... cause of some hoarseness)
SNAKE [in the] GRASS (... hidden traitor)
ANTS [in your] PANTS (... source of restless anticipation)
BEE [in ones] BONNET (... persistent little obsession)
CANARY [in a] COALMINE (... harbinger of danger)

It's a nice set, and a bit of a Thursday-ish twist to a Wednesday puzzle.

In other news - I did not know that RAYON is a "Fabric derived from wood pulp." And I tried AspicS before AIOLIS (Cold sauces) forced its garlicky way in. And yes, before you write in, I understand that aspic is not a sauce. It was just the first cold thing I thought of. I also tried "Bob" for "Apt name for an angler" (ROD). You know... you bob the fly on the water ... ? No?

Clever clues included "Providers of in-flight entertainment?" (AIRSHOWS), "Little attire" (MINISKIRT), "Flat sign, maybe" (TOLET) (lovely), "Parlor decoration, for short" (TAT), and "Match point?" (WICK). And I loved "Noted seashell seller?" (SHE). Ha!

A friend of mine used to give out the occasional STYLETIP "Advice on [her] fashion blog," but I don't know whether or not she ever modeled an OBI. 

TRANE (Saxophonist who pioneered modal jazz, to fans) (John Coltrane) did not come easily to this fan, nor did the fancy French words CERISE (Fruity red) or SUISSE (From Lausanne, par exemple). 

Funniest looking answer? GOOUT. "Hey, BRO, what's wrong with your toe?" "GOOUT, LOL!"

- Horace    

Tuesday, June 27, 2023, Anthony Gisonda

I spent a while this morning catching up on the BABADOOK (Horror film monster who has become an L.G.B.T.Q. icon, with "the"), and now I have to REFOCUS and churn out a review. 

This theme was unexpected. Four kinds of MUSTACHE, all spelled out and depicted in the grid using scads of triple-checked letters. A Dalì, a Fumanchu, a handlebar, and a pencil. Pretty impressive feat, really, to cram them all in here. 

I assume the triple-checking forced a somewhat disjointed grid, but there's nothing too objectionable. OPI (Nail polish brand), the plural USOS (Shows for soldiers, informally), OLORD (Prayer starter), the very strange ANDTHEN (Segue in a story)... ok, if you look you can find things. But you can also find nice words like DOCILE (Tame), ALLURE (Enticing quality), BLAZE (Reason to call the fire department), and everybody's favorite genre GLAMROCK.

I find it interesting that the longest Down answers are both two-word qualifiers: ONOCCASION (Every so often) and ASPROMISED ("Just like I said I would ..."). Weird.

My sister does a good MISSCLEO impression. If you're lucky, maybe she'll do it for you sometime.

Interesting, unusual theme, some fun answers - good Tuesday.

- Horace

Monday, June 26, 2023, Taylor Johnson and Christina Iverson

PICKYPICKYPICKY! Like a TEAMCAPTAIN, we all need to make choices, but it's hard to choose between BANJOPLAYER and VEGETABLEFARMER as my favorite "picky" entry today. Both are necessary ingredients in a healthy life, if you ask me. Heh. But who did?

But let me ask you something. Did it take you as long as it did me to figure out which bear's porridge was too cold? (MAMA). I guess it goes "Hot, cold, just right." Hopefully I can get that more solidly into my NOGgin. (TETE, for you francophiles.)

Interesting to find TROPE on a Monday, and LOME (Togo's capital) was a toughie. And does anyone still wear a PAGER? (I'll ask Colum, he's still "On-call" from time to time.) 

I kind of like how the end of MAKENICE lines up with NICHE. And next to those two, TOKEN always makes me think back to spending all my paper route money at the Silver Ball arcade in downtown Worcester. Ahh... the good old days. Back then I was drinking TANG, and we had a persian, not an ANGORACAT, but I will MAKENICE and not complain too much about that.

OK, when I start trying to cram in entries like that, I think it's time to wrap things up. I'll see you tomorrow.

- Horace

Sunday, June 25, 2023, John Westwig

OPPOSITES ATTRACTING

Howdy Puzzlers! Horace here. It's been a while, and maybe I'm just rusty, but this Sunday puzzle took me about twice as long as Sundays usually do!

The theme is cute. Sometimes it works well:

"Event at a hot new club?" - INOUTING
"Compliment for a lexicographer?" - NICEMEANING (Har!)

And sometimes they were a little forced:

"A kiss, a hug, a wave, the works?" - WHOLEPARTING
"Whoa there, Warren G.!"? - EASYHARDING

Still, you've got to applaud the effort. 

And maybe the editors thought that the whole "opposites" thing would be too easy, because the clues for the rest of the puzzle seemed to be really souped up. Like "Old timer" (SANDGLASS) (nice!), "Famous drawing of a ship?" (SIRENSONG) (wow), "Secret service member?" (ELOPER), and "That one will never have again" (OFALIFETIME). Tricky! And then there were some that were just plain unexpected, like DECAPOD (Crab or lobster) ("seafood" also fit), MINGERA (Like much prized blue and white porcelain), RIGHTSMART (Considerably large, in Appalachian dialect), and FBISPY (Certain government agent, informally). And what about "Stop hiding behind?" for MOON. Hah!

I had a hard time, but I had fun. I guess that's what a Sunday puzzle ought to be - something to take up a lot of time on Sunday so you can't do all your chores... 

How'd you like it?

- Horace

Saturday, June 24, 2023, Spencer Leach and Quiara Vasquez

Apologies for the late review! I slept in a little this morning after a difficult night on call, and then Cece and I took a day trip to Beacon, NY to visit Bannerman Castle (not a castle, but an armory and storage building), now in ruins after it exploded from stored gunpowder, and then decades later burned down due to the floors being coated with bitumen. Some strange choices there...

In any case, a fun and challenging Saturday. I did extremely well in the northern half, but had much more difficulty in the lower half.

I broke in with WOZ (not Steve Jobs), and the then quite apparent 3D: Gentle rock arrangements? (ZENGARDENS). This puzzle definitely loves its Scrabbly letters today. JUDAS was not expected at 30A, but JETE helped me find it. 

I actually got the triple stack in the NE corner through attacking it from the ends. BEAR and URGE helped a lot. 18A: Ones waving at people who might be on their way out? (PRIDEFLAGS) is a clue that is beautifully twisted to get at its meaning. BBQPORKBUN is always a winner.

9D: It can't be helped (REFLEX) led to issues. Because I thought it was REFLuX (which also can't be helped, but not what the clue was getting at. Fixing that letter was the last thing I did in solving.

Two great 15-letter answers anchor the grid, with QUITDAYDREAMING and the excellent 33A: "Elvis has left the building" (EVERYBODYGOHOME).

The lower triple stack is also strong, and was helped by getting 50D: English channel (BBC). 55A: It has a hook and, sometimes, two claws (COATHANGER) was such a challenge to see! I was sure it would be a living creature...

42D: Sports stud (CLEAT) was unexpected. It took a while to see CORK and SAKE, and then the fix at 23A: Something that needs a spell checker? (BEE) and it was complete in 10:31.

Horace takes over tomorrow. I had a great week, and hope you did too.

- Colum