Wednesday, 1 November 2023, Steve Weyer

It is the aftermath of Hallowe'en here in Toronto. The jack-o-lanterns are extinguished, the streets are quiet, and the neighbourhood houses are full of hyper, overstimulated (and over-sugared) little children.  I sit here with my little personal stash of mini chocolate bars and turn my attention to Wednesday's crossword, which was fun and clever and "meta" and a little bit silly - just my cup of tea for a mid-week diversion!   It's an anagrammatic theme today, with four long, oddly-worded clues, whose solutions turn out to be concatenations of the same five letters, arranged three different ways!  Better I just lay it out than try to describe it:

• "Actor Sean does some things that aren't nice" : ASTINISNTASAINT
• "Silent film star Bara didn't want to leave us" : THEDAHATEDDEATH (bit of a reach, this one)
• "Artist Edouard mistakenly proposed 11:00" : MANETMEANTTENAM (my favourite!)
• "Fictional lawyer Perry cries 'I give'!" : PERRYMOANSNOMAS

See?  Clever and fun and silly!  And the icing on the cake is the revealer in the very last Across clue, "1545 treatise..." which is ARSMAGNA, an anagram of the theme!  Meta!  This is the kind of creativity that makes me think, "gee, I should try setting crosswords some day..."

Funny about the Bosch reference (ex-LAPD).  I was watching an episode of Bosch just before writing this blog!  Sometimes I do wonder if we're all in the Matrix.  I liked the thematically linked IBERIA and DESOTO stacked on top of each other.  Good cluing, that. ... on the other hand, one doesn't often see OMS in its plural form (unless one has clued oneself into a corner, ha ha)

Great puzzle!  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

-philbo

Tuesday, October 31 2023, Kathy Lowden and Erik Piepenburg

Well, it's All Hallows' Eve and if you've come to today's crossword expecting an appropriate theme, I trust you were not disappointed: six scary, season-appropriate movies appear in the grid, including the eponymous HALLOWEEN, the film I think cemented Jamie Lee Curtis' early-career reign as Scream Queen.  I remember seeing it (the original) as a teenager when it came out.  It was super creepy.  Enumerating the others - I realize I'm not that well rounded in the genre, though I do love a good scary flick:

• HESOUTTHERE (2018 slasher film set at a lake house) - never saw it!
  
  
• SCREAM (horror franchise with Ghostface) - saw one, maybe two of these.  "Ghostface" was the theme of my son's pumpkin carving efforts this evening!
  
  
• GETOUT (2019 horror film, Best Original Screenplay Oscar) - saw it, liked it
  
  
• DONTLOOKNOW (1973 horror film with Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland) - never saw it
  
  
• YOURENEXT (2011 slasher/comedy set at a family reunion) - never saw it

Clearly I've got some catching up to do!  Also in the grid is OMENS ("Warning signs").  I did see "The Omen" and its sequel "Damien: Omen II" back in the day and they were excellent.  Wonder how (or if) they've stood the test of time, though.  

I smiled at the intersecting BALMS ("Soothing applications") and ALOE ("Hand sanitizer ingredient"), largely because I entered ALOES first, which cost me some time ... Oh hello, AMAH ("Asian nursemaid"), you old chestnut!  Where've you been? ... It has always been intriguing to me that a MINORTHIRD conveys sadness.  Why would that be, physiologically?  I know the intervals on a diatonic scale lend themselves to nice simple fractional pitch ratios, or nearabouts. But why would the minor third interval (6:5) be interpreted as sad, but a major third interval (5:4) be not-sad?  It's not a cultural thing, is it?  Can any among you multitudinous readers weigh in on this?  

Anyway.  Happy Hallowe'en everybody - hope your kids have a fun safe time, and nobody TP's your house 😃

-philbo

Monday, October 30 2023, Kenneth Cortes

Happy Monday all!  Circumstances dictated that I do today's crossword at my desk at work, with a colleague looking over my shoulder, which slowed me down considerably.  And those same circumstances constrain me to keep this review short, so let's get to it!    Okay.  At first I thought there was something wrong with my browser today, as just about the entire grid was greyed out, as though the whole thing had been "selected" or something.  But no - turns out it's part of the theme - three clues have the word IDEA buried in them, with the revealer ("Stroke of genius...") being BRIGHTIDEA - and those embedded IDEAs are the only non-greyed squares so they stand out, in a BRIGHT sort of way.   Each theme answer is multi-word, with its IDEA spanning two words, which is cleverer than having it being part of a single larger word, which would have been NONIDEAL (heh heh).    Two IDEAs are split between the E and A, and one in the middle.  Posing the question - can you think of a phrase where it's split between the I and D?  I cannot.  (SEMI DEAR?)

Notables along the way ... I entered COCOA instead of MOCHA for 5A "Chocolaty coffee drink" - that'll teach me to not read the entire clue... I'd never heard that telling a ladybug's AGE by its spots was a thing.  Live and learn!  I lived in a MANSE ("Cleric's house") once upon a time, so that one was easy. 

Not much else to report.  Gentle Monday puzzle and now I have a colleague who's seen me in crosswording action!

Ta ta till Tues

-phil

Sunday, October 29 2023, Alina Abidi

Hi all!  Philbo here, kicking off another fun week of blogging.  Just back from a weekend of RnR in the country with my wife + sis + bro-in-law and, as is generally the case after our get-togethers, I'm not firing on all cylinders at the moment.  However!  Soldier on!   Today's theme is "Fabric-ations" and it didn't take long to figure out what that meant.  Going through the grid, four adjacent pairs of clues end in the same parenthesized word; for example 38A "Washington post (SATEEN)" and 40A "Thumbs-up (SATEEN)".  Thanks to fairly gentle crossers, the answers were quickly apparent : SENATE SEAT (clever!) and ASSENT.  Both answers can be created from the letters in SATEEN - or, as indicated by the revealer clue ( "Having similar qualities..."), CUTFROMTHESAMECLOTH, as it were.  Fortunately, as an avid cryptic crossword solver, I am familiar with this device, which is sometimes referred to as a "word factory", and consequently none of the theme pairs posed much of a challenge.   I took the time to check and yes, each paired answer does require all of the letters in its "factory" word, once repeated letters have been taken into account.

Interesting/amusing tidbits along the way ... I looked up the HODGE conjecture, one of math's Millennium Prize Problems, and backed away quickly.  Topology isn't really my thing, though I do like my quasiparticles, like a good PLASMON...  a "huh" moment, learning that Auto-Tune was popularized by TPAIN.  Not an Auto-Tune fan.  They're called "singing lessons,", folks!  (Lord, I'm curmudgeonly today!)  ... CHILE is 2,600+ miles (that's around 4,200 km) long, we learn.  It occurs to me that it's one of the few countries one would use the word "long" to describe.  

Upshot - I enjoyed this puzzle but I didn't find it super challenging - which lines up very nicely with my state of mind today :)  And on that note, I shall SAYNOMORE.  "See" you tomorrow!

-philbo

Saturday, October 28, 2023, Ryan McCarty

Greetings, dear Reader (heh). Frannie here to comment on the final puzzle of the week. I am late to the keyboard again today because A. I couldn't finish the puzzle on first attempt, and IIc. I had to go shopping with Horace for his Halloween costume. After that refreshing sortie and a delicious lunch, I looked at the puzzle again and was able to complete the remaining empty squares. Too bad they don't allow that type of thing during the ACPT. I would slay! Kidding, of course. I am never going to slay at the ACPT. But, except for Puzzle 5, it's still fun. Well, Puzzle 5 is ABIT fun when it's over and you can rehash it with other survivors. I digress. A discussion of my relative capabilities at the ACPT is almost certainly not why you called me here.

Anyhoo, despite/because of the initial setbacks (described in more detail below), I enjoyed the challenge of today's puzzle, especially after yesterday's relatively easy Friday. Today's C/APs run the gamut from amusing to arcane. "Head covering?" (TOILETSEAT) was funny. SAMTHESHAM ("Singer on the 1960s hits 'Wooly Bully' and 'Li'l Red Riding Hood'") is an oldie that is new to me. "Had kids on a farm?" (LAMBED) might be a little of both. :)

Back to the trouble spots. The toughest corners for me were the southwest and the northeast. In the southwest, I was duped by "Himalayan resting place." It took me forever to think of the cat breed instead of the mountain range. Also, although I've watched and enjoyed the comic stylings of ARI Eldjárn, I couldn't remember his first name. Derp. The short and pluralized form of TREXES for the amusing "-saur subjects?" also took me a while to figure out. 

My biggest area da crapo, however, was the northeast. I didn't easily guess - but particularly liked MOBSCENE ("Complete pandemonium"). I did guess LOAN for "Word like 'cafe' or bazaar,'" but my confidence in it was low. Also, I'm not sure what strings a RAINHAT has, beyond maybe a way to tie it on? Maybe I should Google it. I realized I had heard of an FMRI ("Scan in neuroscience research, in brief") as soon as the answer appeared thanks to the Downs. EDIFY!

Other entries of interest include "First base?" (STARTERHOME), "Cut corners, perhaps?" (MITERED), "They signal a delivery" (LABORPAINS), and "Nonsensical movement" (DADA). 

LANDUP as a way to say "Ultimately arrive (at)" sounded odd to this solver, but that was the only odd duck in a pond of long-necked swans like TWITTERRANT, CHOKEARTIST, TIRELESSLY, and FOISTED. 

If I could press the BACKBUTTON and do this week all over again, I wouldn't. I know you will be in better hands with Philbo next week. Until next time, dear Readers.

~Frannie.

Friday, October 27, 2023, Adrian Johnson

Today's puzzle was a little on the EASEL side for a Friday, at least for this solver (16:13). I actually stopped myself from entering WINE at 47A (Barossa Valley export) because it seemed too straightforward. OTH, I didn't know what Bibimbap and tamago kake gohan were until the crosses spelled it out for me (RICEBOWLS). Even, "Devils and Angels, e.g." was easy enough because, though I don't know either team per se, I knew they must be TEAMS of one kind or another. 

The ease of the solve was surprising for another reason. One category of clue that I often have trouble with is the "quote" clue, and this puzzle featured a few, for instance, "Alas, it is so" and "There's a lot more to this than you think." ITSNOTEASY to know what the "equivalent" expressions are meant to be. That was also the case today, but fortunate crosses took the usual guess work out of it for me.

A few C/APs did require a bit of TOIL. At 54A, 'kingbeds' fit ("Features of many hotel rooms"), but it was MINIBARS that hit the spot. Another nice trixy one was "Heart," which could be so many things, but turned out to be MEAT. Maybe this one could even be considered a two-fer? :) Similarly, in re: clue ambiguity, we have "Jaw" for CHAT. Another slightly tricky one was SCARS for "Results of cuts, maybe?" I was entertained by some of the QMCs, like "Took on a pet project?" (CATSAT) and "Lightened up?" (PALED) - ha. 

Everyone likes an ROI. Today's top two for this solver were "Garter and stockinette, in knitting" (STITCHES) plus the interesting fact that the word KENO comes from the French - Qui savait? Pas moi. Top that off with some fun fill like SOBERUP, ASCEND, LIVEWIRE, and NIHILIST and you have a puzzle that would SUIT anyone. 

~Frannie. 

Thursday, October 26, 2023, John Donegan

Here, finally, are my centcent about today's puzzle. First off, it was a fun and trixy theme. Theme answers included phrases or titles with numbers in them and instead of the number and plural, the key noun appeared the appropriate number of times. So, for example, PLACEPLACEAT was clued as "What it's impossible to be in" or two places. Another nice one was BIRDBIRDSTONE (two birds with one stone) -"What a multitasker might kill." You might even call it NEWMATH. I caught on to the theme with MANMANMANBABY (Three Men and a Baby) because I remembered that movie, having seen the original (?) when I lived in France. It was early days in my life overseas at that point and watching a movie in French with no subtitles was big. Anyhoo, that's not why you called me here. Truth be told, you didn't call me here at all. Duty did. 

In addition to the actual theme, there seems to be an running ghoul of having some Halloween answers in every puzzle this week. Today we have EYEBALL, CANDY, and the amusingly clued "Spirit-filled?" (HAUNTED). 

Other fun ones included, "Off the hook, so to speak" (INSANE), "Sunny side of breakfast" (YOLK), "Narrow" for TAPER, "City of Paris?" (Troy) - ha!, and the entertaining, "Bottoms out?" (MOONS). Oh yes, and "Maker of small front-end loaders" (TONKA) - cute! I'd include a picture of a Tonka front loader as a decorative element, but I'm getting a message that Wikimedia is down at the moment. Troubling! 

I'll try to get UPANDATEM a bit earlier tomorrow, dear Readers. That's it for nightnight.

~Frannie.