Friday, July 7, 2017, Andy Kravis

0:16:14

Mr. Kravis had me on the run at the start, when I looked quickly at "1A: Filing station?," and was fooled into assuming there were two "Ls." I thought about gas pumps, not a NAILSALON. But STRAP (10A: Bookbag part), on the other hand, went right in, and from that I quickly filled in the NE. SPINES (10D: Things seen on a bookshelf) is lovely in its literalness, and I liked RISKPRONE (12D: Like someone who invests in volatile stocks) (had RISKtaker in there for a while), but INSTA (18A: Photo app, slangily) is something I have not, happily, heard anyone say.

I really liked RODEUP (25A: Shifted, in a way, as a skirt). Such a great expression, and one that I have never seen in a puzzle. (Indeed, this is the first time it has appeared in the NYTX!) It also reminds me of something I like less, and something I'm not even sure I should put in print... but what the hell... My wife and her sisters, when they were very young, came up with the expression "Indian underwear," for those pairs that were "Creeping up on them." .... I know, right? Yikes! Sorry.

Anywhooo, I found lots to like in here. The nine-stacks were solid, with such lovely entries as INVIOLATE (15A: Kept sacred), SETPIECES (64A: Furniture and such onstage), and ENFORCING (62A: Putting teeth into). We also have GETSRIDOF (33D: Deep-sixes) and ATAPRICE (39D: Not without consequences), and if all that weren't enough, there's also a shining example of the kind of clue/answer that, when you finally get it, makes all the ASTIs, SRIs, and IDOS worthwhile - 27D: Dimensions without planes (NOFLYZONES). That's just beautiful.

So thumbs up. I could go on and on - I wanted, for instance, to mention that the very word "denim," used in the clue for 1D, includes, in a way, the answer. Denim is French for "from Nîmes" - "de Nîmes." Cool, non? And what about TITTLE? Seems a little risqué lying there right next to BEAVER. Too much? Perhaps.

OK, I'll sign off, but I'll say again that this was a good one.

- Horace

Thursday, July 6, 2017, Erik Agard

0:09:45

Yesterday I couldn't parse the game "Go" out of an answer, and today I don't know what expressions they're referencing with 35- and 37-Across. Jeff Chen on xwordinfo.com thinks that "killing two birds with one stone" could be the inspiration, but the "stones" (ONYX & OPAL) only "kill" (by crossing) one bird each, the MARTIN and the HAWK. The WREN and the HEN are left free to fly away. Additionally, SONYEXPERIA (5D: Line of Japanese smartphones) and BAMBOOPALM (27D: Tropical houseplant) do nothing for me. I don't own a smartphone and I have a black thumb where houseplants are concerned. Consequently, I had never heard of either answer before. Not that that matters, necessarily. I have heard of Mr. PIBB (but not PIBB Extra), and the band KORN, and probably lots of other solvers didn't know those. Or maybe they did... what do I know?

All that grousing aside, I'm not going to fly off the perch about it. I was limed early on by such fine answers as RUMRAISIN (1D: Popular [!] ice cream flavor) and SPARETIRE (2D: Little extra poundage). And in the opposite corner are caged POLEDANCE (33D: Performance that requires a lot of upper body strength) and SNOWANGEL (34D: Figure whose wings melt in the sun). I like how Mr. Agard works the blue material in the former, and the bird material in the latter.

1A: Say "Yeah, I can make it," say (RSVP) - C+. The plus is for French, and the odd repetition of the word "say" in the clue.
Favorite: 62A: Half of a two-volume directory (ATOM). It's surprising, because ATOM is a perfectly normal word, and sometimes surprising is all it takes. See also: 58A: Nursery item (TREE). I had "crib" in there for quite a while!
Least: 57D: Two-nation peninsula: Abbr. (KOR)

Decorates with some rolls, for short (TPS) was fun, and 30A: It uses clicks in lieu of paddles (EBAY) was tricky. It took me a long time to think of auction paddles! And 18D: It often occurs following a car wash, seemingly (RAIN) made me chuckle. But seriously, why wash your car? About twenty years ago I met a guy who argued against it as a total waste of time, resources, and money, and I had no rebuttal, so from pretty much that moment, we have never washed our car. Sure, I guess if I ran through deep mud I might consider hosing it off, but pay to drive through those brushes? No thank you.

So anyway, this was a disappointing Thursday puzzle for me. The theme made no sense, and it was over very quickly. Onward to the remainder of the Turn!

- Horace

Wednesday, July 5, 2017, Jake Halperin

0:08:01

Classic board games found in ordinary-ish phrases is today's theme. LIFEONTHERUN (27A: Travel edition of a classic board game?) isn't something that I hear very often, but the other three are normal enough. My favorite is FLIGHTRISK, because it's the funniest and the best game. And because I have never heard of the board game "Goon." Or maybe it's "Vacation?" I really have no idea.

The grid is pretty open, with decent flow from one area to the next. There are those little islands in the NW and SE, but they didn't cause too much trouble. The fill includes some very nice eight-, nine-, and even eleven-letter entries in the Downs, including LINGERIE (39D: Boudoir wear), FOODGROUP (10D: Cooking class?) (nice clue!), SOUNDEFFECT (6D: Boing, for a spring) (ditto), and TACOSTAND (33D: Place to grab a bite in Mexico).

OEUF (18D: One of a dozen in un frigidaire) (nice non-capital), CINE (54D: French filmdom), FINI, PESO, and FRIO (34A: Opposite of caliente) provide an URBANE air, and ORAMA, NOES (30D: Refusals), and ELOI provide bloggers with a little something to grouse about.

1A: Songwriters' org. (ASCAP) - D.
Favorite: 61A: Done, in Verdun (FINI), because it reminds me of a funny limerick.
Least: 44D: Nonproliferation treaty subjects, informally (NTESTS), because it reminds me of North Korea, and a nagging worry that they will eventually nuke us.

All in all, a pretty solid debut puzzle.

- Horace

p.s. Frannie points out that 43A includes the game "Go." What a goon I am for not seeing this...

Tuesday, July 4, 2017, Brendan Emmett Quigley and Mangesh Ghogre

0:05:40

An amusing "fourth of July" theme today, where each letter is phonetically represented at the start of each theme answer: "jay," "you," "elle," and "why." The full theme answers are made up of two names and two phrases - YOUARENOTALONE (25A: "I'm here, too") being the weakest. It's not bad, really, it's just not all that common seeming a phrase. At least not to me.

Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!

There are a few stars in the field of fill today - mostly in the Downs, where there was more room for slightly longer answers. ONALLFOURS (26D: Crawling, say) (extra theme material?) was good. EMULATE and ENTICE are MODISH (24D: Fashionable), and PLUMTOMATO is fine.

We do find a few oddities, in IDYL (3D: Pastoral verse), TOME (31D: São ____ and Príncipe) clued as a partial, and the ever-popular AROAR. And I found a surprising amount of material that one might not want to promote on such a jingoistic holiday: NIXON - who MUSSed up the presidential office, in part through his dealings with the SHAH, to whom he sold a veritable ARSENAL; HUEY (23D: Chopper in the Vietnam War) references another STAIN on our history. Heck, even NAACP (28D: Org. that gives out Image Awards and Spingarn Medals), with its mission statement that hopes "to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination," puts names to troubles that have plagued this country from its very beginning to today.

Perhaps I should just RELAX, but everywhere I look, I see entries that give me SPASMS. OKAY, ILL PUTON a happy face and act the YOKEL. Bring on the TNT!

- Horace

Monday, July 3, 2017, Randall J. Hartman

0:05:22 (F.W.O.E.)

Another day, another FWOE. Dammit! I somehow ended up having LANE for both 39A: Superman's love interest Lois ____) and 34A: Superboy's love interest ____ Lang (LANA). I know, it doesn't make any sense, and I don't know how it happened, but there it is.

So for today's theme we have four long answers that end with synonyms - BOMB, FLOP, TURKEY, and BUST. Whether the last answer, HOLLYWOODORBUST should be taken as something of a revealer, since all four words are often used for bad movies, I don't know. I did learn that it was the last movie that DEAN Martin and INANE Lewis did together, and that they could no longer ABIDE one another by then. They were, in fact, so IRATE that they did not speak to one another off set during the entire filming. Lewis has said that it is the only one of his films that he has never seen, because watching it would be too painful. Poor guy.

1A: Tokyo's land (JAPAN) gets a B.
Favorite: The weird duo of BROADWAY and ROAD.
Least: TBS (20A: Atlanta-based cable channel). It's just so meh.

Nice that ARLO and GUTHRIE made it in, and that the latter crossed ROASTTURKEY seemed appropriate. I always enjoy thinking of HELEN of Troy, but not so much a LASERGUIDEDBOMB.

It was a fine Monday.

- Horace

Sunday, July 2, 2017, Patrick Blindauer

THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD

Wow! A very tricky Sunday! And, I might add, much, much more difficult to complete on an iPad, where the central "long and winding road" is totally made up of black squares into which you cannot enter letters. The Beatles connection was a big help, and once I saw what the letters along the road would spell out, it helped me to finally figure out such tricky ones as CLE[V]ELAND (78A: Harrison's successor) and ALE[R]TEST (23D: Most watchful).

On the other hand, entries like 65A: "The Time Machine" race (ELO[I]), and 68A: Delany or Carvey (DAN[A]) were some of the ones that gave away that there was something else going on in the first place.

So again I say Wow. It was a struggle, and the sparse placement of the letters on the road was a bit troubling, but in the end, I am a fan. I mean, come on, it's a Beatles-related theme, and it had some nice bits of trivia! So let's look at non-theme stuff.

1A: Major tenant of Rockefeller Center (NBCTV) - It's fine, but it's an abbreviation. On the other hand, it's kind of an unusual abbreviation, because it's made up of two separate abbreviations mashed together, so let's give it a C+.

I very much liked the long downs in the center, especially BROADSID[E] (37D: Strongly worded attack), EVANESCE (59D: Slowly fade away), DELUXE (68D: Extra-special), and PLATEAU (80D: The highest form of flattery?). I liked the little Penny theme in 15D: Penny, mostly (ZINC) and 94A: 1943 penny material (STEEL). CLAMORED (106A: Raised a ruckus) is nice, but seems like something that no one would say. And RANARACE (28A: Emulated the tortoise and hare) is clued so absurdly that I had to smile when I realized the obvious answer was so obviously correct.

So thumbs up. It's an unusual theme, a tricky puzzle, and I applaud it. Nice work, Mr. Blindauer.

- Horace

Saturday, July 1, 2017, David Phillips

25:17 (F.W.O.E.)

Hello, Dear Reader! It is I, Horace. OHDEARME it seems like ages STINTS I wrote a review! Thanks, Frannie and Colum, for two months of excellent and entertaining reviews! ITHINKICAN safely say that you are both my AMIS, and my ROLEMODELS as I try to EARNSANAME for myself on this blog!

But if I could bluntly SEGWAY to the actual review, I want to start with a complaint. And it's really more of a lifestyle scold, so LISTENHERE, I hope that none of our readers actually considers a PLASTICBAG to be a "Checkout counter option." Say it with me - the answer to "Paper or Plastic?" is always, "Neither. I've brought my own!"

In actual puzzle complaints, I call "boring" on COSET (MATH subgroup), and "Ooh, that's Saturday hard!" on RAO (42A: "Kanthapura" novelist Raja ____). Or maybe it's just "non-reader hard," I don't know... TVCAMERAS (30D: Soap-making equipment?) had me fooled for quite a while, and AEROLOGY (34D: Study of the atmosphere) gets a YEAHSURE from me. Yeah, sure, it's probably correct, but it just seems so... I don't know, obvious? What wasn't, sadly, obvious to me, but should have been, was OPERASERIA (51A: Mozart's "Il Re Pastore," e.g.). I saw "Mozart," and what looked like it could be an aria name, and I had the R at the end, so I wrote in "aRIA," and waited for the first part to come in. I should have noticed that MADaRA (41D: City and county of central California) didn't look right, or, come to think of it, that OPERASaRIA didn't either, but, well, I didn't. So FWOE. (BTW, SAES is weak. Aren't they really SASEs most of the time?)

So let's see, I used to do various things every day....

1A: Noodle house noodles (SOBA) gets a B. Mostly because I like SOBA so much.
Favorite: MATINEES (37A: Early showings) (Did you notice that "previews" also fit?)
Least: Probably that SAES.

Overall, there were some peppy entries: TRASHTALKS, SALTLICK, CHINATOWN... but it didn't really wow me.

- Horace