Saturday, January 7, 2017, Roland Huget

0:30:41

I'll tell you one thing, I'm a sucker for a pretty grid. When I opened this up this morning I was predisposed toward it before filling in a single answer. And when they did start getting filled in (I think STALE (19A: Overused) was my first entry) I still liked it!

But let's get the iffy stuff out of the way first. I wanted "flap" instead of SLAT (26A: Plane wing part), and SOFABED's clue, "All-weather convertible?," seems a little too cute, doesn't it? EMME (53D: Model who wrote the 1996 book "True Beauty") is unknown to me (not really a problem), and then there's ARIL, ANILINE, and URU, which are what Jeff Chen likes to call "glue." And that's about it for iffy.

As for the good stuff, there's almost too much to mention. First, as I said, the grid shape. Lovely. Then there's SPACETIME, AREWEGOOD, MASSEUR (1D: One pressing the flesh), INTHEBAG (8D: Assured), LOVESET (24D: Court blowout), WHATIFS (37D: Thoughts of wishful thinkers), ANGELIC (12D: Not merely good), ACQUIRE (15A: Pick up), PEERAGE (13D: Aristocracy), DEFINED (45A: In the dictionary, say) (maybe my favorite clue), and CAPRICES (33A: Vagaries). And that's just all I'm going to write down. You may have other favorites. 1A: Barbecue chef's coat (MEATRUB) I'll give a B-. I don't love it, but at least they tried to make it tricky.

Solid end to a Turn that picked up steam as it went along.

- Horace

Friday, January 6, 2017, Jacob Stulberg

0:31:19

Nice, tough Friday puzzle! That NW corner took me at least half the time today, and I had to put it down and come back to it several times before finally taking out "Jean Arp" and putting in the alternate HANSARP. Very tricky! Then, somehow, OVERTHEMOON (1A: Thrilled) (B) came clear. Did you notice that "tickled pink" fits into those squares exactly? I sure did. It was my first entry and I was loath to take it out.

Also in that corner, the "ones" part of TIPSONESHAT is routinely maligned by crossword reviewers, and RESOD (4D: Maintain, in a way, as a lawn) is not only a weak word, but I feel the clue is almost misleading, as it's more of a renewal than a maintenance chore, isn't it? VAINER and OCTANT are also less-than-ideal. In fact, the whole corner is a bit MESSY, so I don't feel so bad about spending so much time up there.

The SE, on the other hand, is quite nice. We've got AGEOFREASON (55A: Period following the Renaissance), the bowling combo of SPARE and BOWLASTRIKE, and the Huygens-ready LEWD (51D: Blue). I also enjoyed THESIS (43D: Argument) and FLAGON (41D: Mead holder).

Elsewhere, there's the nice "Healthy/Unhealthy" pairing of FIT and ILL, the lovely word AEOLIAN (29A: Windblown) (but I'm guessing that E will be a tough get for many), and I'm always happy to see my NERD friend AMES in the grid.

Overall, kind of a mixed bag, but I like the challenge, and I like more than I dislike. You?

- Horace

Thursday, January 5, 2017, Ed Sessa

0:09:59

Kind of a quick Thursday to start The Turn. The revealer gives us two choices, and I'll take the latter "blackjack" to describe the theme, which is that the word "jack" is assumed to be represented in asterisked clues by a black square. As in YOUDONTKNOW[JACK], [JACK]PINE, and [JACK]OFALLTRADES. It's too bad that "jack vey" and "tar jack" aren't things, because then every time a black square were used to mean "jack" it would be consistent with all Across answers. But one can't have everything, can one.

There's a lot of theme material, and I think the fill suffers somewhat. 1A: Half of a Wall Street firm since 1882 (SACHS) gets an F, largely because they probably shouldn't be a firm anymore, and might not be were it not for the kindness of the U.S. Government. TILER is weak, MMI, INICE, INKER, ACUT, REWOVEN, ENDON, UIE, BYS... I don't mean to TAR it as a whole, but it does seem like there's a lot of meh-terial™ today.

My favorite entry is probably EMPTYSUIT (11D: Ineffectual exec). Most interesting factoid goes to 36D: Company for which about one in eight U.S. workers has worked (MCDONALDS). Most obscure proper name, 50D: William ____, physician who championed bedside training (OSLER). Wikipedia elaborates on the name, giving the impressive-sounding "Sir William Osler, 1st Baronet." He was one of the founders of Johns Hopkins Hospital, and created the first residency program. I'm guessing our (no longer a) resident MD, Colum, will have needed few, if any crosses.


- Horace

Wednesday, January 4, 2017, Samuel A. Donaldson

0:06:35

We here at Horace and Frances and Colum enjoy a good pun as much as, no ... ok, probably more, than most people, but I have to say that as I get on in years, I like thinking about the dentist less and less. Well, I suppose I can't pin it all on the poor dentist, but to blame it more correctly on my aging teeth just leads to further examination of my aging self, and that's no way to start a Wednesday morning!

photo: Bob O'Connor        http://boboconnor.net

So anyway, there are four puns today. I'm not really familiar with a BRIDGELOAN, but the other three are fine. I enjoyed BRUSHPILES (45A: The dentist sorted all the bristled instruments into ... ) even with its tortured clue, and the final one YOUKNOWTHEDRILL (58A: When it was time for the filling, the dentist asked for, well, ... ) was the best. Ha! Puns.

I give 1A: Bee ball? (SWARM) an A. Interesting word, humorously clued. Just what I'm always asking for. I get it at the cost of AGRI and RESLIDE (4D: Decline again), but, well, sometimes you have to give a little to get a little, right?

Not a whole heluva lot of sizzling fill, but SPHERE, AGILITY, CRACKUP, and GOKAPUT are fun, and I love the clue for NBA (39A: Org. that prohibits traveling)! It's a foul, get it?! HAahahaha... Furthermore, AIRCREW, RUNWAY, and CHEZ are particularly appropriate today, since Frannie and I just booked a flight last night!

Sure, there's plenty of AARP, OYEZ, ERST, and ABS, but there's also light-hearted cluing (1D: Loose change "collector" (SOFA), 36A: Heads for the bar? (FOAMS), and 19D: Good name for a plaintiff? (SUE) for example), so I rate this a perfectly fine Wednesday.

Or maybe I'm just in a good mood about that trip...

- Horace

Tuesday, January 3, 2017, Michael Shteyman

0:07:50

Given the revealer of ATANDT (44D: Communications giant ... or a possible title of this puzzle), you'd maybe expect three-word theme answers beginning with those letters, or answers having only one A and two Ts, in that order, but instead we have two answers with two As and three Ts, and one with exactly one A and two Ts. The answers themselves are fine, good even, in the case of ATOMICTHEORY (54A: Basis of particle physics), but overall, it's not a strong theme. Or am I missing something?

1A: Misgiving (QUALM), on the other hand, gets a strong B+. If it were at all humorous it would be in the As. And maybe it ought to be an A- anyway... I'll leave that up to you.

The fill has a number of better-than-average bits - VECTOR, NAPALM (35A: Incendiary weapon), HOAX, TRENCHES (38D: Soldiers' digs?) (Ha!), and KOALA are nice. Less nice are ELHI, APTNO, UAE, and IMET. I actually don't mind the common "name + roman numeral" convention, especially when, as here, the clue makes it worthwhile: LEOVII (34D: Pope said to have died from a heart attack while in bed with his mistress). Is that considered "pre-marital," "extra-marital," or something else? ... Why does anyone pay any attention to the Pope at all?

Didn't love HOODOO (46D: Bringer of bad luck), and would have preferred "voodoo," of course. LORAIN (42A: Ohio city on Lake Erie) and SPITZ (10D: Pointy-eared dog) were completely new to me, but crossed fairly.

Overall, not perfect, but not terrible.

- Horace

Monday, January 2, 2017, Chuck Deodene

0:04:45

The party never stops at the NYTX! Today's grid has a rather elegant circle theme falling in comforting symmetry from left to right through the grid: "fest," "gala," "bash," and "fête." We'll let it slide that the first and last are the exact same word in different languages, because the repetition seems so appropriate for a "new year's" celebration. The revealer, PARTYDOWN, is nicely set off in the center, and the theme-encapsulating answers are all quite strong. So thumbs up there.

I wonder if 4D: Three on a grandfather clock (III) could be thought to be theme-related? Not theme, of course, but it does show a strong verticality. And it would have been very easy to change GENE (59A: It's made up of DNA) to "René," which would have allowed for "RRR" ("Elementary school basics?") in a spot symmetrical to III. I think that could have been a nice touch, but perhaps others would have found it too confusing/distracting.

The rest plays something like a themeless, with a few flashy bits like STIFLE (44A: Hold back, as a yawn), EPITAPH (60A: Message that might end "R.I.P."), and the plural CICADAS (65A: 17-year insects). There's also the possibly inflammatory AHSO (58D: "I understand," facetiously), a smattering of OPIE, OBOE, SRA, ASA and the like, and 1A: Leatherworker's tool (AWL) is not particularly gripping (D+. I like the word, and the tool, but still...), but overall, I thought this was a very good Monday.

I did not recognize Mr. Deodene's name, and I learned from xwordinfo.com that he has not had a puzzle in the Times for five years, but that this is his 39th to date. So while he certainly is not new, he is new to me. Here's hoping it won't be another five years before we see his byline again.

- Horace

p.s. I wrote this in a comment a couple days ago, but then I thought that it might be seen by more people if I included it in the body of a review instead, so I repost it here:

A sincere thank you to Mr. Shortz and all the puzzle constructors. And another thank you to you, Mr. Amory, for sharing with me the pleasure and the burden of pounding out a puzzle review every single day of the year. I don't know how long it will continue, but I'm still having fun and I hope you are too. And finally, thank you, our readers. We wish you continued fun, challenging, and satisfying puzzle-solving in 2017, on computer or on paper, and in real life!

Sunday, January 1, 2016, Matthew Sewell

ROLLING IN THE AISLES

Happy New Year, Dear Reader! Welcome to 2017, which starts, in the crossword world at least, with a laugh.

Six, two-word theme answers, each having an aisle, or aisles, and in the "aisle" between the two words, we have a "HA" rebus that works with the cross. It's all symmetrical, it runs horizontally and vertically, and, well, it's pretty well done. I'm with Colum today, and he initially liked it better than I did, but he's argued his case successfully, and I give it a thumbs up.

Continuing with our practice of rating the first clue and answer of every puzzle, I give MOOCHED (1A: Sponged) a solid B+. It stays in the Bs because I don't particularly like the word or the action, but still, it's interesting and unusual. There are other very nice bits of fill today like AVALANCHE (16D: Winter fall?), YODELED (52D: Made peak calls?), and TOUSLE (112A: Muss up). But as usual, there are also concessions to be borne as well, like CANTI (63D: "Pretty please?"), CUGAT (63A: "That Latin Beat!" bandleader) (Who? Oh, right, it was that 1957 release...), NTH, ETES, TSU, AORTAE, and a few other things.

But on balance, there's more good than bad, and we could all use a little chuckle, right?

- Horace