0:51:59
This puzzle put itself at a disadvantage right away by starting with a clue that referred to another answer, but we came around to it in time. Loads of misdirection, as there often is on a Saturday, but do you ever feel like you can sometimes get into a groove by just starting with that as a premise? Take 50A: Key setting (OCEAN), for example. You see that clue on a Saturday and "lock" doesn't even enter your mind. Maybe that's a bad example, because "key" itself is almost crosswordese, and it's frequently given a tricky clue. Same thing for OBIS (34D: Geishas often draw them). You see the word "Geisha," and you immediately think "obi." How 'bout 57A: Universal work (MOVIE). Today, we saw the "hidden capital" for what it was, and put it in. I'm not really sure what I'm trying to say here, except that sometimes you're in the groove and sometimes you're not.
Perhaps the trickiest clue today for us was 61A: Evidence of having worn thongs (SANDALTAN). Frannie got that one, not because she wears thongs on the beach, but because she is more familiar with summer footwear terminology: "sandals;" "flip-flops;" "espadrilles;" "huaraches;" etc. Although honestly, she tells me now that she was using the aforementioned technique, and immediately went to places other than undergarments.
In the category of "tricky clues that kept us guessing for a while longer," you may add 10D: Fryer seen at a cookout? (BUGZAPPER) (very nice!) and 39D: Open love? (ZERO) (ditto). We didn't know RAMEAU (2D: Bach contemporary), STU (45A: Sportscaster Nahan with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame), or that PLAT meant an 31A: Area map (it can also be a verb!), but EMMASTONE (17A: "The Help" co-star, 2011) is always a pleasure, and AEGIS (15D: Backing) is a real nice word. Also kind of loved TADA (55D: Drumroll follower), so... decent Saturday.
- Horace
p.s. We enjoyed remembering our old college friend "Skegger" when Frannie filled in SKEG (48A: Keel extension). Skegger, if you're out there, Hi!
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Friday, December 6, 2013
Friday, December 6, 2013, Elizabeth C. Gorski
0:13:45
Recently, we suggested that themeless puzzles might be a good idea on Wednesdays, and this is a perfect example of such an one. It was fun and fairly clean, but we absolutely shredded it. Frannie called it, by the way, when she saw Ms. Gorski's name. Either she's decidedly in our wheelhouse, or she's just too kind to put the hammer down for a weekend puzzle. Either way, our time today is lower than our Tuesday average.
All that aside, however, there was good and bad, as there almost always is. On the good side were BREAST (4D: Nursing locale) (tricky!), MINI (6A: Short shift?), and I actually kind of loved NOMSG (8D: Chinese menu words). It's because it's Friday that they didn't have to clue that as "Chinese menu wds.," right? Also, there's a lot of interesting trivia, like BOSC (1D: "The aristocrat of pears") (really? never heard that before), SUDAN (41A: Country that split in two in 2011) (I feel I should have known this, but we needed a few crosses), SIRI (60A: In Australia her name is Karen), and NELLE (62A: Harper Lee's given name). That last, by the way, led to our one error today. I put in "Belle" at first, because it seemed plausible, and because we had no answer for 50D: NASA's Gemini rocket (AGENA) (??). Soo... maybe an error undermines the contention that this was too easy, but I would argue that one difficult square does not a challenging puzzle make. Anyway, even with a little scrambling (B... D... N), we still finished quickly. (Also, if Frannie had been holding the puzzle, the B would not have been entered so hastily, since "Ageba" seems more unlikely than "Agena.")
In the "?" column were RITT (26A: "Stanley & Iris" director Martin), DEWLINE (47A: Cold war defense system), and HARAJUKUGIRLS (51A: Dancers known for their Japanese street-style wardrobe). Also, the aforementioned AGENA.
Lastly - TILTAWHIRL (28D: Carnival ride since 1927). Awesome.
- Horace
Recently, we suggested that themeless puzzles might be a good idea on Wednesdays, and this is a perfect example of such an one. It was fun and fairly clean, but we absolutely shredded it. Frannie called it, by the way, when she saw Ms. Gorski's name. Either she's decidedly in our wheelhouse, or she's just too kind to put the hammer down for a weekend puzzle. Either way, our time today is lower than our Tuesday average.
All that aside, however, there was good and bad, as there almost always is. On the good side were BREAST (4D: Nursing locale) (tricky!), MINI (6A: Short shift?), and I actually kind of loved NOMSG (8D: Chinese menu words). It's because it's Friday that they didn't have to clue that as "Chinese menu wds.," right? Also, there's a lot of interesting trivia, like BOSC (1D: "The aristocrat of pears") (really? never heard that before), SUDAN (41A: Country that split in two in 2011) (I feel I should have known this, but we needed a few crosses), SIRI (60A: In Australia her name is Karen), and NELLE (62A: Harper Lee's given name). That last, by the way, led to our one error today. I put in "Belle" at first, because it seemed plausible, and because we had no answer for 50D: NASA's Gemini rocket (AGENA) (??). Soo... maybe an error undermines the contention that this was too easy, but I would argue that one difficult square does not a challenging puzzle make. Anyway, even with a little scrambling (B... D... N), we still finished quickly. (Also, if Frannie had been holding the puzzle, the B would not have been entered so hastily, since "Ageba" seems more unlikely than "Agena.")
In the "?" column were RITT (26A: "Stanley & Iris" director Martin), DEWLINE (47A: Cold war defense system), and HARAJUKUGIRLS (51A: Dancers known for their Japanese street-style wardrobe). Also, the aforementioned AGENA.
Lastly - TILTAWHIRL (28D: Carnival ride since 1927). Awesome.
- Horace
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Thursday, December 5, 2013, Dan Schoenholz
0:27:47
Most people, when solving a crossword alone (myself included), will start at 1A and slowly work their way through, filling in as densely as possible as they go. When solving with Frannie, however, if I start the puzzle, I have taken to going straight through the Acrosses in order, and then the Downs in order, not allowing myself to cross-reference at all. After this, I hand the puzzle over. Today, however, I broke that rule to take one last look at the revealer clue 34A: Puzzlement … or a hint to getting the 10 words on the perimeter of this puzzle (CONFUSION), because I had put several letters through it on the downs, and, well, because it was the revealer. I was able to fill it in at that point, so I looked again at 1A, which stood as "_AV_," and the theme was understood. All this is just a long way of saying that I felt it played a little on the easy side.
That's not to say, however, that we didn't like it. We did. And even with the trick revealed, we still did double-takes on some of them, like 44D: Be patronizing ([CON]DESCEND), and 62A: Pageant, e.g. ([CON]TEST). I mean, they could almost work without the "Con"s. 5A: Court disaster? ([CON]TEMPT) was kind of funny, although I think "disaster" might be a bit strong. If he's using "court" as a verb, then it's a strange, dual, meta clue that I only barely understand. Any thoughts?
I loved the non-theme long answers BATTENDOWN (18A: Secure, in a way) and INLALALAND (56A: Out to lunch). Very nice. 22A: In stitches (SEAMED) was nice and tricky. As were 45A: Coke source (SODACAN) and 47D: Lightheaded one? (CANDLE). Thankfully, the crosses on ELEAZAR (43D: Nephew of Moses) were all gettable (luckily, I know a little Latin!). And while we're right there, I loved the symmetry of the two "unwind" clues 17A: (REST) & 58A: (LAZE).
A decent Thursday.
- Horace
Most people, when solving a crossword alone (myself included), will start at 1A and slowly work their way through, filling in as densely as possible as they go. When solving with Frannie, however, if I start the puzzle, I have taken to going straight through the Acrosses in order, and then the Downs in order, not allowing myself to cross-reference at all. After this, I hand the puzzle over. Today, however, I broke that rule to take one last look at the revealer clue 34A: Puzzlement … or a hint to getting the 10 words on the perimeter of this puzzle (CONFUSION), because I had put several letters through it on the downs, and, well, because it was the revealer. I was able to fill it in at that point, so I looked again at 1A, which stood as "_AV_," and the theme was understood. All this is just a long way of saying that I felt it played a little on the easy side.
That's not to say, however, that we didn't like it. We did. And even with the trick revealed, we still did double-takes on some of them, like 44D: Be patronizing ([CON]DESCEND), and 62A: Pageant, e.g. ([CON]TEST). I mean, they could almost work without the "Con"s. 5A: Court disaster? ([CON]TEMPT) was kind of funny, although I think "disaster" might be a bit strong. If he's using "court" as a verb, then it's a strange, dual, meta clue that I only barely understand. Any thoughts?
I loved the non-theme long answers BATTENDOWN (18A: Secure, in a way) and INLALALAND (56A: Out to lunch). Very nice. 22A: In stitches (SEAMED) was nice and tricky. As were 45A: Coke source (SODACAN) and 47D: Lightheaded one? (CANDLE). Thankfully, the crosses on ELEAZAR (43D: Nephew of Moses) were all gettable (luckily, I know a little Latin!). And while we're right there, I loved the symmetry of the two "unwind" clues 17A: (REST) & 58A: (LAZE).
A decent Thursday.
- Horace
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Wednesday, December 4, 2013, Daniel Raymon
0:21:47
I had no idea what was going on with the theme until I looked at it after the grid was done. I was all set to hate it, because I couldn't understand it, but then it slowly came to me and I laughed out loud, as the kids are saying these days. My favorite was SQUIRTCHASER (43A: Rug rat pursuer?) ("Skirt Chaser"). The strangest was GREATSQUAT (57A: Outstanding posture for a catcher?) ("Great Scott!"). I've seen this kind of "change the sound of one part of a word" theme before, but today it caught me by surprise, and I ended up liking it.
Our solve was done after coming home late and we were both a little sleepy, but I still think this skewed a little harder than normal. Part of the confusion was that once the answer for 15A: Area jiggled while twerking (REAR) (They went there, apparently…) was four letters and not three, I assumed it would be "Butt," and actually took out GEOM (6A: Math subj. with proofs) for a time, even though we both knew that was correct. Multi-part abbreviations also were slow to come to us, like TREX (29D: Cloned menace of film) and SQIN (55D: Newspaper ad meas.). 59D: Proterozoic ____ (EON), too, seemed strange. It's legit, but we both thought only of "era."
The fill contained what is, perhaps, my least favorite "crossword word," REUNE (47D: Attend a homecoming, say). No one says that. But on the other hand, it also contained MASON (1D: Perry who's on the case), which made Frannie quite happy.
A slightly mixed bag, but now that I understand the theme, I'm giving it a thumbs up.
- Horace
I had no idea what was going on with the theme until I looked at it after the grid was done. I was all set to hate it, because I couldn't understand it, but then it slowly came to me and I laughed out loud, as the kids are saying these days. My favorite was SQUIRTCHASER (43A: Rug rat pursuer?) ("Skirt Chaser"). The strangest was GREATSQUAT (57A: Outstanding posture for a catcher?) ("Great Scott!"). I've seen this kind of "change the sound of one part of a word" theme before, but today it caught me by surprise, and I ended up liking it.
Our solve was done after coming home late and we were both a little sleepy, but I still think this skewed a little harder than normal. Part of the confusion was that once the answer for 15A: Area jiggled while twerking (REAR) (They went there, apparently…) was four letters and not three, I assumed it would be "Butt," and actually took out GEOM (6A: Math subj. with proofs) for a time, even though we both knew that was correct. Multi-part abbreviations also were slow to come to us, like TREX (29D: Cloned menace of film) and SQIN (55D: Newspaper ad meas.). 59D: Proterozoic ____ (EON), too, seemed strange. It's legit, but we both thought only of "era."
The fill contained what is, perhaps, my least favorite "crossword word," REUNE (47D: Attend a homecoming, say). No one says that. But on the other hand, it also contained MASON (1D: Perry who's on the case), which made Frannie quite happy.
A slightly mixed bag, but now that I understand the theme, I'm giving it a thumbs up.
- Horace
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Tuesday, December 3, 2013, Phil Ruzbarsky
0:09:58
We totally missed the theme while solving this (maybe because there's no "revealer"), but now we see several horse-related terms as the first parts of the long Across clues. If you count the whole entry as thematic, there's even more theme material than yesterday, and still the fill doesn't suffer too terribly. Sure, you have to deal with answers like SEPOY (32D: India's ____ Rebellion, 1857-59) (??) and TIBIAL (5A: Shin-related), but all the long Downs are solid, and there's not too, too much crosswordese, so we'll give Mr. Ruzbarsky the leeway he needs.
Nice that old king PRIAM (22D: King killed in the sack of Troy) gets a shout-out, and we liked the mention of the under-rated BITOHONEY (47A: Nestlé bar). We were surprised to hear that it was a Nestlé product, so we looked it up in our go-to online resource, Wikipedia, and lo and behold, Nestlé did acquire the brand from Ward Candy Company in 1984, but in May of this year, they sold it to Pearson's Candy Company of St. Paul, MN! Hmm… I wonder if it's worth writing to Will Shortz about this…
A decent Tuesday, despite a few issues.
- Horace
We totally missed the theme while solving this (maybe because there's no "revealer"), but now we see several horse-related terms as the first parts of the long Across clues. If you count the whole entry as thematic, there's even more theme material than yesterday, and still the fill doesn't suffer too terribly. Sure, you have to deal with answers like SEPOY (32D: India's ____ Rebellion, 1857-59) (??) and TIBIAL (5A: Shin-related), but all the long Downs are solid, and there's not too, too much crosswordese, so we'll give Mr. Ruzbarsky the leeway he needs.
Nice that old king PRIAM (22D: King killed in the sack of Troy) gets a shout-out, and we liked the mention of the under-rated BITOHONEY (47A: Nestlé bar). We were surprised to hear that it was a Nestlé product, so we looked it up in our go-to online resource, Wikipedia, and lo and behold, Nestlé did acquire the brand from Ward Candy Company in 1984, but in May of this year, they sold it to Pearson's Candy Company of St. Paul, MN! Hmm… I wonder if it's worth writing to Will Shortz about this…
A decent Tuesday, despite a few issues.
- Horace
Monday, December 2, 2013
Monday, December 2, 2013, Adam G. Perl
0:05:51
Decent Monday. Tons of theme material and all of the long answers from which the theme was pulled were perfectly un-strained, normal constructions. The fill was really quite clean despite the 45 theme squares, but then, in early-week puzzles, I often find things like ANIL (7D: Indigo dye) and ANAT (54D: Med. school subj.) almost comforting. Truly, though, that was about it for crosswordese, and there was plenty of good stuff to cushion it, like CODDLE (45D: Treat like a baby), ERELONG (9D: Soon, old-style), OXYGEN (27A: Scuba tank content), and INERTIA (42D: Subject of Newton's first law of motion), among others.
Funny that we see the uncommon (and prudely clued) AREOLA (28A: Colored part of the iris) today, when we just saw AREOLE (38A: Biological ring) yesterday. And we've got side-by-side French fill in IDEES (35D: Notions: Fr.) and GARDE (36D: En ____ (fencer's cry)), and they're right below another language pair - VOGUE (12D: Style) and ESSEN (13D: City on the Ruhr).
This is just what a Monday ought to be. A simple cakewalk, to be sure, but one that's got a fun theme and not too much ridiculous fill. Nice job, Mr. Perl.
- Horace
Decent Monday. Tons of theme material and all of the long answers from which the theme was pulled were perfectly un-strained, normal constructions. The fill was really quite clean despite the 45 theme squares, but then, in early-week puzzles, I often find things like ANIL (7D: Indigo dye) and ANAT (54D: Med. school subj.) almost comforting. Truly, though, that was about it for crosswordese, and there was plenty of good stuff to cushion it, like CODDLE (45D: Treat like a baby), ERELONG (9D: Soon, old-style), OXYGEN (27A: Scuba tank content), and INERTIA (42D: Subject of Newton's first law of motion), among others.
Funny that we see the uncommon (and prudely clued) AREOLA (28A: Colored part of the iris) today, when we just saw AREOLE (38A: Biological ring) yesterday. And we've got side-by-side French fill in IDEES (35D: Notions: Fr.) and GARDE (36D: En ____ (fencer's cry)), and they're right below another language pair - VOGUE (12D: Style) and ESSEN (13D: City on the Ruhr).
This is just what a Monday ought to be. A simple cakewalk, to be sure, but one that's got a fun theme and not too much ridiculous fill. Nice job, Mr. Perl.
- Horace
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Sunday, December 1, 2013, Alan DerKazarian
0:59:17
TWO HALVES IN ONE
Interesting puzzle today. The diagonal GREATDIVIDE (27A: Passage from life to death) (couldn't/shouldn't this have been clued geographically?) splitting the grid was novel, and the "secret code" of BACKINBLACK (1980 hard rock album that went 22x platinum ... or a hint to how to cross this puzzle's 27-Across) are just the sorts of things you expect from a Sunday, but there were so, so many three-letter answers, and a few real clunkers (NUTTED), that overall, the solve ended up being less than totally satisfactory.
On the bright side, Frannie liked the inclusion of the not-often seen word SUITORS (22A: Ones with bouquets, maybe), and CONCLAVES (60A: Private gatherings) ain't so bad either. In fact, much of the longish stuff (9s & 10s) was very good. MENTALNOTE, LOSSLEADER, BLOSSOMED, all nice. And who doesn't love an OCELOT (70A: Cat also known as the dwarf leopard)? Oh, and speaking of animals, I looked up MAKO (79A: Ocean menace), and found it is a variety of shark. They can jump 30 feet in the air, and some estimate that they can swim at over 60 miles per hour. Calling them a "menace," however, is challenged by at least one Wikipedia contributor, who wrote: "The mako is regularly blamed for attacks on humans and, due to its speed, power and size, it is certainly capable of injuring and killing people. However, this species will not generally attack humans and do not seem to treat them as prey. Most modern attacks involving mako sharks are considered to have been provoked due to harassment or the shark being caught on a fishing line." Sooo... maybe not their fault.
Lastly, 18D: "Purple haze" was LSD? I guess I should have figured that out, but I never really gave it much thought.
- Horace
TWO HALVES IN ONE
Interesting puzzle today. The diagonal GREATDIVIDE (27A: Passage from life to death) (couldn't/shouldn't this have been clued geographically?) splitting the grid was novel, and the "secret code" of BACKINBLACK (1980 hard rock album that went 22x platinum ... or a hint to how to cross this puzzle's 27-Across) are just the sorts of things you expect from a Sunday, but there were so, so many three-letter answers, and a few real clunkers (NUTTED), that overall, the solve ended up being less than totally satisfactory.
On the bright side, Frannie liked the inclusion of the not-often seen word SUITORS (22A: Ones with bouquets, maybe), and CONCLAVES (60A: Private gatherings) ain't so bad either. In fact, much of the longish stuff (9s & 10s) was very good. MENTALNOTE, LOSSLEADER, BLOSSOMED, all nice. And who doesn't love an OCELOT (70A: Cat also known as the dwarf leopard)? Oh, and speaking of animals, I looked up MAKO (79A: Ocean menace), and found it is a variety of shark. They can jump 30 feet in the air, and some estimate that they can swim at over 60 miles per hour. Calling them a "menace," however, is challenged by at least one Wikipedia contributor, who wrote: "The mako is regularly blamed for attacks on humans and, due to its speed, power and size, it is certainly capable of injuring and killing people. However, this species will not generally attack humans and do not seem to treat them as prey. Most modern attacks involving mako sharks are considered to have been provoked due to harassment or the shark being caught on a fishing line." Sooo... maybe not their fault.
Lastly, 18D: "Purple haze" was LSD? I guess I should have figured that out, but I never really gave it much thought.
- Horace
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)