Sunday, February 7, 2016, Alan Arbesfeld

ADDING INSULT

Adding insult to a less-than stellar Super Bowl result, we have this so-so Sunday puzzle that disses some standard things and phrases. As in TABLEOFDISCONTENTS (29A: Ones giving the waiter a hard time?) and DISBARANDGRILL (113A: Question harshly after not allowing to practice?). Not bad, I suppose. A little tortured, but that's how these wacky themes often go. So how about a C+ for the theme.

The fill, on the other hand, is downright tortured in places. HURTERS (44A: Sadists, e.g.) is very poor, and many of the threes were either weak or obscure - FMS, OSE, REB (clued as 60A: Orthodox Jewish honorific), FLA (clued with "Hollywood's locale: Abbr.), OYL, SCH, SOR, and INE. Plurals include BABAS, DECAFS, FERNS, and ULNAR (45D: Kind of nerve). :) It almost feels like a plural, doesn't it? Lots of proper names, too, some of them quite old: OLAND (9D: Charlie Chan portrayer), DESICA (12D: "The Bicycle Thief" director Vittorio), and MESTA (36D: Legendary Washington hostess), for three.

But I didn't hate everything about it. I loved the look of TOOOLD (119A: Past the cutoff age), those three Os look great. See also the double-N, double-EE in BEINNEEDOF (16D: Require). PROBOSCIS (43D: Schnozzola) is a fun one, and everybody loves BACON and TUNAROLLS. I also enjoyed TAILFIN (1A: Ornamental projection on some 1950s cars), and will give it a B. And my favorite clue answer was 108A: Major in astronomy? (URSA). Although the nicely misleading 80A: Monroe or Taylor (ACTRESS) was a runner-up.

Overall, not our favorite Sunday puzzle.

Poor Cam. I thought it was his year.

- Horace

Saturday, February 6, 2016, David Steinberg

Unknown time - seemed like a good long while.

The online version of the puzzle seems to be undergoing some sort of transformation. One day it shows an empty square where you make a mistake, the next day it resets the time every time you it pause. Yesterday, my time was "0:03:24," according to the NYT site. Today it's 13-somehting... but it really felt more like an hour. We were entertaining tonight, so the solve was very disjointed and neither of us could really focus. Perhaps it was that disconnectedness that left me feeling a little lukewarm about this one.

It starts out well enough - I guess the ACIDWASH look was meant to look broken in, so sure, "Make look old" is acceptable. Let's give it a B-. And my favorite clue answer might be 58A: Piano (SOFTLY). It's a music clue that I entered immediately, unlike 3D: Its icon contains a pair of quavers (ITUNES), which took me forever! No one ever says "quaver" for "eighth note," obviously, but hey, it's Saturday, so I take my lumps there.

In other places, it's a little harder to do so. 28A: Five-time N.B.A. All-Star Pau GASOL  is completely unknown to me. As is LOCARNO. I had all but the first letter and I still needed the cross. And what a cross it was - "35A: Couple of star-crossed lovers?" LONGINGEYES. What does that even mean?!

Oh, well... we enjoyed PYRENEES (59A: Locale of the ancient kingdom of Navarre) (Henri IV FTW!) (and is it really that ancient?), and SERIESFINALE (7D: Pilot's opposite) was good. But as I said, I felt a little distant from this tonight. Maybe it's the $400 worth of wine that was consumed over dinner, maybe not...

- Horace

Friday, February 5, 2016, Mary Lou Guizzo

20:58 FWOA

Frannie here. I have been pressed into service while Horace cooks up a storm in the kitchen. Speaking of which, we had a storm here today - a snow storm. Six or so inches of heavy, wet snow. I wished I had a whole ECRU of people to help me shovel, but I Dent. The snow was so deep it was like taking ABAFT. Happily, it wasn't too KOLN. I UKES a scraper to clean off the car. ODIC, our neighbor was out clearing his drive at the same time. We both agreed our backs were going to ACRE tomorrow.

But seriously folks, it was a fine Friday for Frannie. For most of the puzzle, I was able to read the clue and enter the answer, rare for me on a puzzle in the latter part of the week. I did hit a couple two three snags, detailed below, but otherwise, it was pretty smooth sailing. I really liked SKIRT for Circumvent (38A).  I also liked the slightly unusual SONDE (35A. Balloon-based probe). I thought 34A. Frank narrative (DIARY) was a clever hidden capital. KOLN and SENAT brought a nice hint of Europe, which I always enjoy. And who doesn't like a NILLA wafer?

There were very few groaners, or as I believe our regular reviewers call it, puzzle glue. My least favorite answer was CSIS, (24D. Collectors of DNA, prints, etc.) Is that an acronym you really want to pluralize? I don't think so.

Infelicitously, I entered the Clean freak of sitcomdom's first name (9A) where UNGER belonged, which set me back in that corner for a minute until I got to 10D. Shetlands turndown (NAE). Another spot that held me up was at 1A, where a person might reasonably enter GApe, or GAwk, just to name two words that start with GA, before hitting on GAWP. So, today's 1A gets an A- from me. An A for trickiness and a minus for fooling me. :)

If it's not too forward of me, I have AMODESTPROPOSAL of my own. Never cross AMPAS with SHAILENEWOODLEY if you want me to be able to complete the puzzle without one assist (see FWOA above). This is the first I've heard of Ms. Woodley. And, although I have watched the Oscars every year for as long as I can remember, I had a vague notion that the acronym for the Grp. behind the Oscars would be composed of the letters A and M. Who'd a thunk we'd need a P or, more importantly, an S?

Anywho, Ms. Guizzo created a puzzle that was squarely in my wheelhouse. For me, a 21 minute all-but-completion on a Friday is pretty good. I didn't EXPAT such a good time.

~Frannie

Thursday, February 4, 2016, Jeff Chen

0:21:43 (F.W.O.E.)

A tricky Thursday from Mr. Chen! From what I've pieced together, he's something of a math/science/engineering sort of fellow, so it seems right up his alley to build a puzzle around square roots. And how beautifully done! The last one I got was the first in the sequence, and the funniest, because it's the same! HOLEINONE (17A: Ace) is the same whether you square the one or not. The others, though, progress up to four. FANTASTICTWO (28A: Marvel Comics group), ONCLOUDTHREE (45A: Elated), and SWEETFOUR (60A: Milestone birthday). It's a little unfortunate that a note was required (in the online version anyway... did anyone see it in the actual paper?), but even so, I'm still giving the theme an A. It's just so cleanly done.

1A: Loads (RAFTS) is kind of dull, but the words can be quite different, so that's a nice juxtaposition. B-
And my favorite clue answer: 2D: "Hi, Ho!" (ALOHA) because it totally got me, even after yesterday's "HI hi." I don't know what I was looking for, but I laughed out loud when I realized what it was.

The fill is relatively clean, too, apart from a few groaners like FILER and SUI. NOUNS (18D: Words ending in "o" in Esperanto) was interesting, I enjoyed BARACUS and ATEAM, and contrasting that lowbrow pair, we have AMBITS (32A: Circuits), CITADEL (27D: Bulwark), and ADHERE (44A: Accrete) which are all quite erudite. The long downs are all solid, and we get the entire name of LAOTSE. It's just one variant of his name, but still, I'll take it.

My error sadly came at PECOS (26A: River mentioned in Yosemite Sam's self-introduction). I must have put in NITS (22D: Snags) without really thinking it over and I never went back. Which brings me to my last topic - the online version of the puzzle now leaves my error square unfilled, forever exposing my shame. I like the change, actually, and I think it might make me a little more careful. That's the dream anyway. We'll see if it works.

Solid Thursday - even without a rebus.

- Horace

p.s. TOM gets in for a second day in a row!

Wednesday, February 3, 2016, Tom McCoy

0:08:35

Another slightly odd theme today. I like the trend. For one thing, there are double revealers. MIDDLE-CLASS (31A: Bourgeoisie ... or a description of each group of circled letters?) and CENTERFIELD (42A: Baseball position ... or a description of each group of circled letters?). And in the circles, we see "ECON," "MATH," "LATIN" (my favorite!), and "THEATER." Even the arts folks are included! (See also: 21D: "____ washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life": Picasso (ART).) And the answers that these fields are hidden in are really quite diverse. From the full-name of actress UMATHURMAN (22A: Female lead in "Gattaca" and "Kill Bill") (I've seen both of these!) to the somewhat uncommon yet still acceptable ALLATINGLE (47A: In eager anticipation). I'm not too familiar with DEATHEATERS (60A: Followers of Lord Voldemort), but Frannie assures me that they were in those damned movies, and I'm sure that many, many people will find it to be their favorite of the four.

So let's give the theme an A. What do you know, two theme grades and two As. How long will it last? And while we're grading - 1A: Infomercial presentation, e.g. (SPIEL). I love the word, and it's uncommon and interesting, but it's not terribly clever or funny, so let's give it a B+. Better than better than average, but not great. And finally, my favorite clue/answer - 26D: Source of about 20% of the calories consumed by humanity (RICE). Very interesting. And sort of surprising to learn that it is not corn.

Not much long stuff outside the theme today, but there's still plenty to enjoy. The pair of fictional lands PANEM and EASTASIA, the paired "Cotton" GIN and ELI "Whitney," The paired "file name ending" clues make PDF and DOC slightly better, and then we have such fine words as ELICIT, CANON, EENSY and ICKY. And finally, a little something non-smutty for Huygens - AREA (21A: What pi may be used to find) and 15A: HI hi (ALOHA).

All in all, a fine Wednesday. Onward to The Turn!

- Horace

Tuesday, February 2, 2016, Peter A. Collins

0:05:21 (F.W.O.E.)

I knew it didn't feel right when I put in "aCS" for 1D: Windows runners (Saw "Window runners" and thought of air-conditioning. Idiotic, I know), but I never went back to check on it and, well, that, my friends, is how you end up Finished With One Error.

Apart from my own little problem, I really enjoyed this one. It's an unusual theme, with the HORIZON in the middle splitting answers about SEA and SKY. FLOCKOFBIRDS and SCHOOLOFFISH are so perfectly matched, and they're such normal expressions. And PLANE and CORAL aren't bad either. Overall, the theme gets an A. Hey, maybe I'll add that to the list of rankings that we (almost always) do here at Horace and Frannie and Colum. We already rank the entry at 1A - which today is problematic, because it's part of the theme. I believe we abstain on days when that happens. But the other thing we do is pick a favorite clue/answer pair (also non-theme-related). Today there's lots to choose from, including references to "Office Space," "The Wizard of Oz," "Happy Days," and grammar school (NOCUTS), but my favorite is 27A: Things spotted in a casino (DICE). I love that kind of cleverness.

As I said, there was a lot to like in here - KOOKS (7D: Nutcases), AVARICE (11D: One of the seven deadly sins), and the classic clue type 17A: Genius's head? (SOFTG) - which today didn't get me mostly because I didn't even see the clue until I started writing this review. There's a ton of small stuff in here, but none of it is too, too objectionable. And that SW stack is lovely, with HIPSTER, TRACHEA, EARHART, and, well... ok, SITONIT might skew a little old, but hey, I got it and I liked it, so... "Ayyyyyyy." 

Overall, quite an enjoyable Tuesday.

- Horace

p.s. After posting I read Mr. Collins' notes on this puzzle, and he mentions the unfortunateness of having Amelia EARHART down there in the water. OOH, that's EERIE. Too soon!

Monday, February 1, 2016, Gary Cee

0:04:45

How nice to start a new month on a Monday. Frannie and I have just been remarking that the Europeans tend to think of weeks starting on Monday, whereas the Americans like to start weeks off on Sunday. You wouldn't think it would make all that much difference, but when you start looking at online apartment-rental calendars that are actually set up in a different way than you're used to, well, it can get confusing. And speaking of confusing, what are we to make of the NYT Crossword? Does its week start on Monday with the easiest puzzle and culminate in the one that usually takes the longest? To me that seems the most logical analysis. One might accuse them of being European! And, well, that's how I choose to think of them.

All that to justify my first sentence...

Today's puzzle went pretty quickly. I had enough crosses to fill in SUNSETBOULEVARD (26A: Title locale in a 1950 Billy Wilder film noir) and MULHOLLANDDRIVE (44A: Title locale in a 2001 David Lynch thriller) without any hesitation, even though I've never seen either film. In fact, I never saw WALLSTREET either, but you needn't have seen them to appreciate this nice twist on the idea of ROADMOVIES. What does strike me as a little odd is the clue for the revealer - "58A: "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Thelma & Louise" ... or a hint to 18-, 26-, and 44-Across." I've never seen "Bonnie and Clyde" either! I did see "Thelma & Louise," but would I have called it a "road movie?" I doubt it. Wouldn't it have made more sense to clue the revealer with something like "A Nightmare on Elm Street," to match more with the theme answers? Or would that be giving away another level of pun? ... oh, maybe I just don't understand road movies if they're not the Hope & Crosby kind... none of which, incidentally, have I seen.

So anyway, if you're still with me after this rambling diatribe, I'll just add that CORA (14A: ____ Crawley, countess on "Downton Abbey") makes me think of the shockingly gruesome episode last night. Did you see that?! Did they really have to have him cough up all that blood?...

MYMY, where was I? Sometimes it's amusing to see a straightforward clue like "15A: One of the Great Lakes" for ERIE, after so many "lakeside tribe," or "War of 1812 battle site," or even "City of NW Pennsylvania" type clues. It's refreshing, in a way. URU and VIEIRA, on the other hand, are not all that Monday-friendly. I liked ALLNIGHTER (30D: Crammer's last chance), BUTTON (25D: Campaign giveaway) (Timely!), and SHOALS (23A: Sandbars), but the less said about ASSUCH the better, don't you think? Is it an exclamation? Is it a hard "ch?" I'm going to start yelling that when I sneeze...

- Horace

p.s. As Colum so kindly reminded me in the comments, I forgot our standards. Have I really been away that long? So let's set things straight -

1A: Switch that changes bands on the radio (AMFM) - C+. I dropped it right in, and I like thinking about the old dashboard radios, but wasn't that more of a button?

Favorite clue/answer - I guess I'll go with the fairly obvious 38A: "$500 on the roan nag," e.g. (BET) for the absurdity of it all.