Wednesday, August 7, 2013, Erik Wennstrom

0:15:00

Well, after two harder-than-normal puzzles (according to me), this one seemed pretty much just like a typical Wednesday.

We loved KILLMENOW (53A: *Sarcastic remark upon hearing bad news), so much that I will say right now that we like the puzzle overall. The TWISTOFLEMON (23D: Drink garnish … or a hint to five letters in the answer to each starred clue) was a decent enough theme. We’ve seen this kind of thing before, but it’s a good one. Would have preferred “A million here, a million there, and pretty soon you’re talking about _____” for REALMONEY (20A: *What paper profits aren’t), but, well… it wasn’t our byline.

ABJECT, SCONCE, PRAGUE…  all good words. And any reference to 56D: Phil who sang “Draft Dodger Rag” (OCHS) is a-ok with us! And an interesting lesson in physics with ERNST MACH.

Nice Wednesday.

- Horace

Tuesday, August 6, 2013, Lynn Lempel

0:14:41

Maybe it's just that I'm on vacation, but the first two puzzles this week have seemed unusually difficult. Not "difficult" difficult, mind you, but trickier than usual for early-week. Who didn't put "Fox" in for 1A: Aesop animal (ASS), for example? And I put "Sealy" in for SERTA (14A: Mattress giant), but I'm not going to claim that everyone did that. Or that you put in "North" for UNION (48A: Confederacy foe).

I liked the theme today. Cleptomania is always funny. COPCARS (39A: Make off with some vehicles?) might have been my favorite, but PINCHPENNIES (50A: Make off with some cash?) was also nice.

Is YAKIMA (46A: Washington city in apple-growing country) also the place that they make those bike racks? I've gone with Thule, but I see those Yakima ones around.

There are some words today that I'm getting tired of seeing, like ARENA, INCA, SASS, and ELBA, but really, there wasn't much that was truly terrible.

Now, back to sitting around doing nothing!

- Horace

Monday, August 5, 2013, Alan Arbesfeld

0:07:39

More difficult, I thought, than some Mondays. AGITA (1A: Uneasy feeling) starting it off was surprising. That's not a word I know. Frannie knew it, but on Monday, usually only one of us does the puzzle, so that didn't help me. RIFIFI (18D: Classic Jules Dassin heist film), too, was completely foreign to me. Still, both were easily filled in with crosses. Didn't love OCTADS (8D: Groups of eight) or SHALALA (11D: Song syllables in the title of a 1964 hit) either. Both are perfectly fine, I guess, but that doesn't mean I have to like them.

What I did like, was the universe (-al) theme. I didn't realize that FORDGALAXY was a 24A: Minivan since the mid '90s. Back in my day, it was a sedan. The first car I drove with any regularity was my grandfather's old '68 Custom 500, which was very similar to the Galaxy, and which was not a minivan.

Some other nice stuff, too, like ASCRIBE (44A: Attribute (to)), and EXPIRE (46D: Run out, as a subscription). On balance, a good Monday.

- Horace

Sunday, August 4, 2013, Steven Ginzburg

1:28:58

SHOULD I CALL THE REPAIRMAN?

We enjoyed the theme, but there was some junk in here. EYESHADES (29A: Antiglare wear)? Who says that? And 2D: Quatrain rhyme scheme (ABAA) is a little lame. But PURR (1D: Result of some heavy petting?), and AUDI (78D: Car make whose name sounds like a Cockney greeting) were pretty nice. That THERAMS are the "90D: Pride of St. Louis" is a little sad.

The last thing we got was HAVENT (67D: Lack). I didn't know a TAJ was a "75A: Muslim headdress," but, well, that's not that surprising, I guess. For me not to know that, I mean.

I don't know... I tried to get someone else on the porch to write this review, but I didn't have any success. Maybe tomorrow...

- Horace

Saturday, August 3, 2013, Brad Wilber and Doug Peterson

3:04:52

We worked on this one all morning, and I'm not sure if the long solve is due to our being distracted by a  porch full of family members, or if it really was this tough. Either way, it was quite a satisfying puzzle. Lots of old-fashioned seeming stuff today. HABERDASHER (4A: Person who might suit you well?) was beautiful, HISMASTERSVOICE (12D: 1899 painting used to promote gramaphones) was a gimme, but it did little to help on the East, surprisingly. And on the other side, it was Frannie who finally got TOAFARETHEWELL (3D: Perfectly). Wow. That's not an expression you hear very often. GOETH (40A: "Pride ____ before destruction": Proverbs) qualifies as "old-timey" too. And while we're at it, WAXTABLET (30A: Ancient scribe's work surface) is pretty old. I originally wanted "parchment" in there, which fit, but it was older still than that!

But it wasn't all ancient history. We've got TIVOS (Show stoppers?) and ONLINEFORUM (54A: Avatar setting).

Some beautifully tricky clues. GASLOG (40D: Ersatz blazer) was Frannie again. Great, great clue. I got 50A: Inventor's undoing? (LIEDETECTOR), which was another good one. Another one I got right away was GOLDENSPIKE (56A: Image on Utah's state quarter), but that didn't help as much as I had hoped, either.

Anyway, this was a very satisfying Saturday. Very clean grid, too. I've been 16A: Transported! At least until tomorrow.

- Horace

Friday, August 2, 2013, Barry C. Silk

0:43:11

A decent Friday from Mr. Silk. I don't particularly love TINCT (13D: Coloring) - I've never heard anyone ever say that word - and do people from Upstate NY say CAYUGALAKE (61A: Ithaca is at its southern end)? or do they say Lake Cayuga, like normal people would? The only lake that I know where the word "lake" comes second is Crater Lake. Otherwise, it's Lake Louise, Lake Eire, Lake Titicaca, etc. Maybe I'm wrong on this, I don't know. Any upstaters care to chime in?

Other than that, though, and ILO (59D: Publisher of Work mag.), SUVA (44A: Largest city in the South Pacific), and ERIS (16A: Plutoid just beyond the Kuiper Belt), none of which I had ever heard of, there was lots of good stuff. BRUSQUE (41D: Curt), AVARICE (39D: Midas's undoing), and EISENHOWER (63A: His Secret Service code name was Providence) are all great. I've never heard of or used a BRADAWL (41A: Cousin of a screwdriver), and for the longest time, I wanted something more like "Manhattan" in there. Alas.

And speaking of the East, it was there that I bogged down this morning, and where Frannie had to pick up the torch. Luckily, she knew DAWS (33D: Crow relatives) (I was thinking "anis"), and that W gave the "awl" part.

I loved the fifth line down from the top, with the symmetrical "lulus" in the middle. Also, I learned from this a more specific definition of the word LATE (11A: Not long-departed), so that's nice.

- Horace

Thursday, August 1, 2013, Timothy Polin

0:26:09

The PHYSICSFORMULAS (60A: What the three sets of circled squares in this puzzle represent) were very clever, and the rest of the puzzle held together pretty well. Some oddities, and some crosswordese, but, well, it was worth it today.

I found the clue 50A: The Yoko of "Oh Yoko!" (ONO) to be somewhat odd. I mean, how many Yokos are there? Just one–at least as far as crossword puzzles are concerned. To put it into the clue twice seems, well, odd. I also find that my French major has never come in so handy as it does doing these things. I mean, yesterday we had "Massifs," and today we have DETROP (64A: Too much). I thought of "de trop" immediately when I read the clue, but I then thought to myself, Well, sure, Frannie says that all the time, but it's French, so it can't be the answer. Is it English? Is "de trop" common in English?

3D: Center of a square, maybe (STATUE) was a very nice clue. And who knew there was an EEL river (33D: California's ____ River)? It was nice to see ERECTORSET (28D: Old A. C. Gilbert toy) in the grid, but does ENVIRON really mean to 44D: Form a ring around? (Yup, I guess it does. Who knew?)

In the SW, I had guessed the more popular (and less scary) LSD for 60D: Hallucinogenic inits. (PCP), which started "66A: Some Groucho Marx humor" with a D, so I tried "dark." I think it's kind of funny that "dark" should have turned to PUNS.

Did not like the SMEARY (49D: Like wet paint)/NYX (68A: Greek night goddess) crossing. Really would have felt better about "Nox" as the night goddess, but it said Greek, not Roman, and I didn't know of a goddess with either name, so we went with the Y. Still... "smeary?" EGAD.

- Horace


p.s. I wish it could be settled once and for all whether the drink is "Iced tea" or ICETEA (43A: Ingredient in an Arnold Palmer) as Mr. Polin has it here. (Deb Amlen agrees with me that it should be "iced.")