Sunday, March 31, 2024, Spencer Leach

TURNS OF PHRASE

Classic crossword theme today, where common phrases are flipped and clued wackily. As in:

ALARMTHERAYS (Spook some creatures in an aquarium's touch tank?)
CITESTHESEE (References a Vatican Library source?)
and
SCREWSTHETITANS (Referees a Tennessee football game poorly?)

Hah! I commented yesterday that I believe there has been a slight shift in the puzzle since Mr. Fagliano took over. To wit, the "CRAPPER" entry yesterday, and the third theme answer above. Plus, the last couple (few?) weekends have been really tough. Today's big Sunday grid took me less than half the time that yesterday's took me! But I'm not complaining. I love it. But let me know - am I crazy? Do you think it's pretty much business as usual?

Some good clues today included "Vintage restaurant items?" (WINELISTS), "Economic justice catchphrase" (EATTHERICH), "Comment from someone exiting the mall on Black Friday" (ITSAZOO). There's good trivia in "World's oldest capital city, settled in the third millenium B.C. (E.) (DAMASCUS) and "City feature that's been found to improve mental health" (GREENSPACE), and speaking of green space, who doesn't love hearing "Birds known for their loud, complex songs" (WRENS)?

We just started watching "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" so Police captain HOLT was a gimme, and I am ready for YEET these days, after missing it in a Boswords tournament puzzle, but I was very worried about THNEEDVILLE ("The Lorax" setting) and AULII (Actress Cravalho who voiced Moana). As usual, though, it's good to learn things through puzzles.

I enjoy this type of theme, and I did again today. Not much in the grid to elicit a NOMEGUSTA, but then again it wasn't an all out HELLYEAH either. Still, a solid Sunday.

- Horace

Saturday, March 30, 2024, Blake Slonecker

Happy birthday today to Horace! Who is an undisclosed amount of years old today. Congratulations! And enjoy today's jawbreaker of a puzzle.

Woof! What a tough nut to crack. The grid has a four-way symmetry, so every corner is made up of six 7-letter answers intersecting. There are four 15-letter answers making a cross through the central section, which has a diamond shape. 

The grid spanning answers are all excellent, in my opinion. If I had to rank them (and apparently, I do), I would list them as follows:

4. 36A: "No need to blame yourself" (ACCIDENTSHAPPEN). It's a great phrase, and the clue is good. It just is not as good as the other three.

3. 7D: Paradoxical line of amazement (THEREARENOWORDS). Another great phrase, and I like the clue's reminder of the silliness of the sentiment.

2. 8D: When the lights go out? (CHRISTMASSEASON). What a great QMC, showing how good a QMC can be. If the clue had used "up" instead of "out" there would have been no confusion, right? So good.

1. 32A: Patient check-ins (GENTLEREMINDERS). Obviously I'm a sucker for a clue that shows us the ambiguity of the English language. I was so stuck on the possiblity of "annual checkups," for example, that I didn't see the first word of the clue as an adjective. Love it.

TIMREID as DJ Venus Flytrap

Other great clues include:

12D: Like some schools (PISCINE) - did not see that coming.

14D: Keep in the back of one's mind, perhaps (REPRESS). Hah!

48A: Locals go to all of them (STOPS) - local trains, that is.

40D: Making out (ESPYING). So much for blue material. How many tried "neckING" first?

I enjoyed the clues for LEBANON and ECUADOR. I did not want to have 41D in my puzzle, but non-constructors can't be choosers.

Tomorrow, the one-year-older Horace takes over.

- Colum

Friday, March 29, 2024, Jake Bunch

Happy Friday morning to all of our readers! Loyal, thoughtful, intelligent puzzlers, each and every one of you, I feel certain.

How many of you, I wonder knew the reference at 9D: Emoji that might be used in response to a funny text (SKULL)? I looked it up just in case. It's to signify dying of laughing, you see. I might have to take that up myself in future texting. I barely use emojis at all, which is a sign of my advancing years, I imagine.

I had a few answers in this NW corner, but not enough to get a real foothold. That happened in the segment of the puzzle just below, where 20D: Tripping (ONLSD) as well as GOT got me going (see what I did there?). I very much enjoyed the meta reference in the clue for PASTIME, and moved over to the SW corner. 

That's PELE's jersey

Everybody likes MOOSE being both singular and plural, even though some insist on saying "meese." Heh. That's my WARPED sense of humor. I got my first long answer with ISTHISTHINGON, a great phrase. The pair of Is at 40D made ASCII obvious, and then I saw 49A: Bust (CATCHREDHANDED). Not the "bust" Auntie Mame was referring to - "That's the head, you know."

Things in the middle became clear with 23D: Those who have gone wrong? (DESERTERS), and then I got 13D: Ones who might roast you (CANNIBALS). What a great pair of symmetric answers with clever clues!

12A: Sweet message bearer (FORTUNECOOKIE) is excellent. It wasn't valentine's candy, which I thought it might be originally. Also good is 14A: Place for bucks at the bar? (MECHANICALBULL) - not a tip jar.

What a great example of a strong and smooth themeless. Thank you, Mr. Bunch.

- Colum

Thursday, March 28, 2024, Dominic Grillo

No longer the Mr. or Ms. POTATO / HEAD of my youth? What is this world coming to?! 

Actually, I'm fine with it. Today's puzzle is an homage to the OVOID toy, with a central nearly completely separated section colored a light tan on the iPad version in that same shape. In addition, scattered around are the INTERCHANGEABLE parts which are so classic. You can find a [SMILE], a [NOSE], a [HAT], an [EAR], two [EY/ES], and a [HAND]. These are shaped like what they represent, so nicely done there.

In the end, I'm not convinced it's entirely Thursday-worthy. I would rather have had yesterday's puzzle today (although it was likely a little too easy) and today's yesterday (although at 15 x 16, it played harder). What do you think?

All of the triple-checked letters made a challenge for Mr. Grillo, which he has managed nicely. The only answer I'm not so fond of is TARDIER. I think most people would plump for "more tardy," but it's acceptable. Perhaps POETRIES as a plural of a GENRES is a little odd as well.

Barry GIBB

I'm a big fan of the Keats poem referenced in 12A (To Autumn). I tried setting it to music in my college years, with mixed results. 

What do people think of these clues which come from hidden words or anagrams? It's a well-accepted type of clue in our cousin puzzles, the British crossword puzzle. 37A: Synonym found after deleting half the letters of EXHILARATE (ELATE), or 57D: Pulitzer-winning author whose name is found in nonconsecutive letters of "page turner" (AGEE) are examples today. I find them inelegant, and a bit of a gimme.

A fun puzzle but a little disappointing for a Thursday.

- Colum

Wednesday, March 27, 2024, Rich Katz

61 squares of theme material? Sure, Mr. Katz. Set yourself a nearly impossible task.

The mnemonic RIGHTYTIGHTY / LEFTYLOOSEY is our guiding concept here. And so cleverly deployed, as well! If 13A: *Wiggler in a child's mouth (TOOTH) didn't make complete sense to you as you filled it in in the NW, well, that's because it's on the left side of the puzzle, so you should add "loose" before it (on its left) to make "loose tooth." The other two on the left are [LOOSE]LEAF and [LOOSE]LIPS. 

On the right side of the puzzle, three answers have "tight" added after, or to their right, to make SKIN[TIGHT], HANG[TIGHT], and SLEEP[TIGHT]. As a bonus, SCREWDRIVERS is put in, just to make sure we don't have a screw loose.

Example of the genus BERETS

Mr. Katz has set up the black squares throughout the puzzle to ensure that no down answer goes through more than two of the across answers involved in the theme. Well done!

In the fill, I enjoyed 53A: Stick used for breaking (CUE) - as in while playing pool; and 61A: Characteristic sound of Yoko Ono? (LONGO). 

11D: Without it, that's neat (ICE) is a delightful non-QMC. Even better is 18D: Oh, to be in France! (ETRE). Hah! Finally, 51D: It might be used while boxing (TWINE) is very nice.

Pretty amazing Wednesday, IMO.

- Colum

Tuesday, March 26, 2024, Laura Dershewitz and Katherine Baicker

Congratulations on a debut puzzle, Ms. Dershewitz! Also, Ms. Baicker, for your third published puzzle with the NYT.

And it's a doozy for a Tuesday! The revealer is right in the middle of the puzzle, at 34A: Kind of fallacious argument ... or, phonetically, a hint to the answers to the starred clues (ADHOMINEM). Hah! "Add homonym." In each theme answer, a standard phrase has a homonym for the last word appended, making a new phrase which can be clued wackily. 

Thus, 46A: Marriage ceremony for the perfect guy? (MRRIGHTRITE) - beautiful. Even better is the one saved for the last. 57A: Mother superior? (SECONDTONONENUN). Amazing. That one had to be the seed entry at 15 letters long. I appreciate that it was the punchline at the end of the puzzle. Nicely done!

Also, I am a big fan of repurposing the central revealer. We've had enough of ad hominem attacks to last a lifetime over the past 10 years.

HARDEDGE painting by Lorser Feitelson

In the fill, I liked that the first two across clues were essentially the same, with 1A: Get moving (SCOOT) and 6A: Get moving? (PROD). That, along with 1D: Haul, from the Yiddish (SCHLEP) and 23A: "When will u b here?" (ETA) made for a motion filled start to the puzzle, with some fun clues. 

6D: Like checks and balances? (PLURAL) is a great form of cluing we've seen a bunch of recently, where the clue is self-referential. 

Do our readers think that there needs to be a hint (at least in the early days of the week) for the alternative spelling of AEON? I'm not a huge fan, although I get the utility of such a collection of vowels for our constructors.

I did not fall for the SILENTB bomb, as I usually do. The clue made it fairly clear what was going on.

Fun puzzle!

- Colum

Monday, March 25, 2024, Shannon Rapp and Will Eisenberg

Happy Monday morning, and happy birthday to my wonderful wife, Hope. Possibly 66A is a birthday shout-out!

Today's puzzle is a straightforward one: four phrases which end with words that also describe roles on the baseball field. There's no revealer to tie things together, but that's okay. The concept is clear enough that no extra step is needed to make the theme comprehensible. All four phrases are solid as well, including the full name of NATHANFIELDER. If you've never watched his shows, he is a deeply odd comedian who is willing to take his jokes to a place of meaningfully stressful discomfort. I'm not sure how much I enjoy it, but he is committed to his concepts.

Some good entries in the fill, including ITSADRYHEAT. I also liked HOTTAKES and NIRVANA. 

ARIANA Grande in the upcoming Wicked

The clue for 34D: 2, 4, 6, 8, how do these numbers relate? (EVENS) is so close to working, but doesn't quite. The problem is in the scanning of the second half. It only has three feet, and needs four. And, they're dactyls rather than trochees. Perhaps "How do these four correlate?" What do you think?

Otherwise, nothing much to report in the grid. It's a good example of a Monday level puzzle, and it sped by for me.

- Colum