Monday, August 14, 2017, Rich Proulx

3:51

So I guess MEATLESSMONDAY is a thing. I'd never come across it. Most of our dinners are vegetarian, but I can see that it would be a good thing to encourage the rest of America to consider. At the same time, it makes for a fun theme for a Monday.

Especially given that the three exemplars chosen for the puzzle are all outstanding. Each is a classic recipe and commonly found. I might quibble with MUSHROOMBURGER. Clearly the reference is to a Portobello mushroom burger, but as it stands, you might think of a standard beef burger with mushrooms on top.

Still, SPINACHLASAGNA and BLACKBEANCHILI are great, and all three answers (and the revealer) are 14 letters long, which could be challenging from a grid construction perspective.

There's not too much in the fill that is sparkling. PALOOKA and KLUTZES are amusingly old school, as are TVTRAYS (I think). I don't like the clue for 41D: Like the peninsula seized by Russia in 2014 (CRIMEAN). Because see, it's not "like" the peninsula, it is the peninsula. I would have preferred "____ Peninsula, 2014 news story because of Russian invasion," or some such.

1A: Where holsters go (HIPS) - C-. It's an odd reference, but evocative. They could go at the ankles or the shoulder, but honestly, I don't really want to think about that sort of thing at 1 across.
Fave: HUMOR (42D: "Mankind's greatest blessing," per Mark Twain). I have certainly always thought so. And a great quotation.
Least fave: WISC (25D: The Dairy State: Abbr.) - I don't see why you'd abbreviate Wisconsin as anything other than WI.

- Colum

Sunday, August 13, 2017, Eric Berlin

THE MAGIC SHOW

Oh, this was excellent. So much fun figuring out each magic trick. I had one little quibble, but I've decided even that was unfair, so I'm calling it a win all around.

There are five classic magic tricks described. Each one is demonstrated graphically elsewhere in the grid. Thus, we get VANISHINGCOIN, which is shown elsewhere at 78D: Provide part of a coverage policy for ([COIN]SURE). I literally ran multiple types of coins first, thinking of "penny sure," "quarter sure," etc. before hitting on the correct and in retrospect obvious one.

Next is LINKINGRINGS, where at 104D and 119A we get the actual rebuses of SY[RING]E and ST[RING]BEAN. That's very nice work. Unfortunately I had entered just the R rather than the entire rebus, which the app accepted, so it looked more like there were invisible rings. But that's not the constructor's fault.

The third magic trick is SAWINGALADYINHALF, which is demonstrated by ELLA and DYS separated by a black square, thus putting LA and DY on either side of the divide. Very clever, but I don't love DYS.

My favorite by far is the CHANGINGCARD trick, where "Peking" duck is switched to PEACE. Oh, that's brilliant. And you end up with a real word in the space. I don't think you could have a better trick than that.

Finally, there's the LEVITATINGMAN, which is graphically produced by having the first letters of [M]ETRES, [A]ARON, and [N]IELS floating above the grid. Finding these out early really messed up my solving for a while because I was looking for missing letters.

I love that there are five different ways of representing things graphically. Initially I was upset that not every altered entry in the grid was also a true word, but that's asking a bit much with some of these maneuvers.

Let's see: other tough answers in the puzzle included 27A: Nickname for an Oxford university (OLEMISS). I was all the way across the ocean, which I imagine most of the solvers were for a while as well. I also liked 28D: Manipulative type (SVENGALI). I initially had "seam" at 42D: Place from which to withdraw deposits (MINE), then switched to MINt, and missed the flaw at NEA, so that's an error on finishing.

1A: Bit of a Bollywood soundtrack (RAGA) - B-.

There was a lot to like here, but, mirabile DICTU, I've run out of space.

- Colum

Saturday, August 12, 2017, Kameron Austin Collins

17:35 (FWOE)

I feel like I really lucked out on this turn. Mr. Collins is a favorite constructor of mine, who has seemed to be absent for quite some time from the NYT. I solved once again in the car with Hope, and she gave me my first entry, Mr. Vic DAMONE. With CATT and ORK in place, followed by the yummy LATKE, we were off and running.

Does anybody here take a BANANAPIE? I'm not sure how much of a thing that really is. Round our place, banana bread (with chocolate chips) is a longtime favorite. Certainly a banana split is well recognized. Bananas Foster, even. Hmmm. I see some recipes, but I'm not convinced.

LEGARMOR (26D: Greaves, e.g.) immediately made me think of Princess Ida: "These things I treat the same / I quite forget their name! / They turn one's legs / To cribbage pegs." And there you have it. How likely was it that two blog posts in one week would find a way to weave cribbage in? All the naysayers out there... no, I might even go so far as to call them haters! They never thought it was possible. Well, I guess the foot's on the other hand now, isn't it?

Yeah, so. Um. Anyway, the two 15-letter answers are beauts. COMMITMENTPHOBE is good, but of course I'm pretty fond of BRAINPLASTICITY.

Other good answers include 16A: Champagne is one (TOPONYM), and 15A: Start of a big fight? (THRILLA). Nice stuff. I also enjoyed 6D: Weight-watchers watch it (BELTLINE).

1A: Cambridge student, informally (CANTAB) - B+. This is really referring to the British Cambridge, not the American one. Still, a nice reminder of the year I spent there some time ago.
Fave: ABHOR (2D: Not fancy at all). I stared at AB_OR, wondering how this would refer to something simple or unadorned. Nope, it's the British "fancy," meaning "have a liking for".
Least fave: Probably TNUTS (16D: Fasteners with flat heads), just because it's crossword glue, pluralized.

My error was yet again a typo, where I had put in BAYBERsY. But there's no excuse here. I had stared at 25A: Short but not necessarily sweet (CURT), where I had _UsT. So really, I should have caught that.

- Colum

Friday, August 11, 2017, Hal Moore

11:10

Oh, this was fun. I really liked this themeless. I finished it this morning in the car while Hope was driving, on our way to Maine to pick up our younger daughter from camp. Hope was definitely helpful, so shout out to her.

Truthfully, the long answers win the day in this grid. The trade-off is a fair amount of less than LOVABLE fill, but the only area I really didn't dig was the SW corner.

My first entry was SHE, but that didn't help much. What broke the NW corner was hitting on TIMETRAVEL for 17A: Basis of the Doctor's adventures on "Doctor Who". With that in place, much came into focus. I toyed with "safe" for 19A: Call heard at Arlington (TAPS), thinking of the Texas Rangers stadium, but really it was a lot more straightforward than I expected. GARBLE and CLARET are very nice.

Funny to have both PHILEAS Fogg and Charlie CHAPLIN in the puzzle, crossing each other, as both have been recently featured in the NYT crossword. Thank goodness for the latter, as originally I had PHInEAS (Trollope readers will recognize the source of my error. Frannie?).

SHETLANDPONY and EXTRAVAGANZA are topnotch entries. It's surprising to find out that GRAPENUTS have been around since 1897, but as Hope pointed out, are we okay that the clue asks for the "Breakfast brand," when the brand is really Post here? Thoughts?

The SW has the crosswordese collection of ALTA and LEOI (ugh). While I did like THEXFILES and HALTERTOP as answers, I'm not sure they were worth those two.

Meanwhile, in the SE, TRINILOPEZ was familiar to us, but I needed almost all of the crosses to actually enter it. ANTICIPATE is fine, but I liked GOESEASYON better. 48D: Pharmacy figure (COPAY) is a fine clue, but really not the most pleasant of thoughts.

1A: Rap group whose name comes from a martial arts film (WUTANGCLAN) - B+. I don't know much about rap, but I know this group is supposed to be great. And it's an outstanding name, and a good 1A.
Fave: NODICE (45D: "Ain't gonna happen"). I love the answer, and I love even more that I had ____C_ and got it off of that.
Least fave: LEOI. Has to be.

Fun Friday. Here's looking forward to Saturday!

- Colum

Thursday, August 10, 2017, John E. Bennett and Jeff Chen

8:44 (FWOE)

Well, I wasn't sure about this puzzle based on the initial entries. Almost thought it was going to be MEH. But ONEWAYORANOTHER, it started to build on me.

The pictures created by the black squares are a hook in the west, with a FISH caught in it, and a shepherd's crook in the east, pulling in a LAMB. Thus, BYHOOKORBYCROOK. I actually love that. I don't know whether the other "Whatever it takes" 15-letter answer was truly necessary for the theme, but it's a nice bonus.

In the meantime, look at the very interesting long answers that get fit in! 6D: Recluse's problem, maybe (AGORAPHOBIA) is great, and went in without a crossing. Similarly, 25D: Don't open it! (PANDORASBOX) is really outstanding, with a fun clue and an unusual answer.

I like the outcome in the SE corner better than the NW. LASCRUCES is very welcome as a complete answer, rather than a prompt for a partial, such as ___ Cruces. I also liked AMINOGROUP and the crossing with the royal family of the STUARTS.

My error came at the crossing of STP and TONIO. I put in SlP, somehow confusing the motor oil with SLR cameras. Ah, well. Can't blame that one on typos! Speaking of which, I call a small foul on a minor opera role in Pagliacci. And anyway, whenever I think of Pagliacci, I can only think of Donald O'Connor in Singing In The Rain.

Otherwise, I liked the understatement in 56D: Rare occurrences at Super Bowls, briefly (OTS). Yeah, rare. It's happened once, just this year. Pretty amazing game, huh?

CLONK is extremely bold. If you don't like it, there it sits in the grid, with a resounding CLONK! But how about 41A: Congested place, at times (SINUS)? Yes! I love it. Even better is 47A: It might prevent you from drifting off (ANCHOR) - literally. No wordplay here. It's just true.

I'm quite pleased in the end with this puzzle.

1A: Diner staple, for short (BLT). Tough call. It's my favorite sandwich, but it's an abbreviation. On the other hand, it's a widely used abbreviation. B+.
Fave: Probably PANDORASBOX.
Least fave: BMOC (Standout in a quad). Nah. Not so much.

- Colum

Wednesday, August 9, 2017, Adam G. Perl

7:01

A puzzle for the underdogs!

Once upon a time, most of the professional sports teams I rooted for were underdogs of a sort. The Red Sox, the Patriots... Okay, not the Celtics in the 1980s, but they were not so great for the 1990s and early 2000s. Nowadays, though, my teams are bullies. Don't get me wrong, it's been a ton of fun watching them win titles over and over again since 2001.

I actually want all of the "cursed" teams to win titles so we can stop talking about that sort of thing.

But back to the puzzle. This is a great theme. Peculiar, but right to the point. Only three answers, but each one paradoxically shows how the unexpected can be overcome.

17A: Where a queen can beat a king (CHESSMATCH). I wanted CHESSboard, which feels more natural to answer the question of "where," but I'll accept the actual answer, even though it feels a bit forced.

39A: Where an ace can beat a pair (DOUBLESTENNIS). Much better. This was amusing, but not so much as...

61A: Where two pair beats three of a kind (SOCKDRAWER). Hah! That's awesome. I laughed out loud when I figured it out, which took a few moments because I initially had Gre for GED. Wrong, as the GRE is a test for graduate school, while the GED is a test to complete high school. Anyway, I really love this theme answer.

Having only three theme answers means there's a lot of room for innovation elsewhere. Two 11-letter answers and one 15-letter answer run down through the puzzle. LAMEBRAINED is outstanding. GOTOTHEDOGS is likewise quite good. I don't love DOTHEBESTYOUCAN, but still, it went through all three of the theme answers.

More impressive are the two 8-letter answers going across in the middle. Being adjacent to that theme answer makes it tougher to fit in. AMESIOWA is nice, better than seeing only one or the other of the 4-letter halves. And TRIBUTES is nice. Glen Campbell just passed away. I've heard some nice tributes to him on NPR already. He stood up for people with Alzheimer's disease, performing well after he'd lost a lot of his memory, with his family helping him out on stage. Lovely.

1A: Feeds the kitty (ANTES). C-. Standard crossword stuff.
Fave: EROS (59A: One taking a bow in Greek art). I've been known to take a bow.
Least fave: PONE (15A: Dixie bread). Everybody knows "pone" is the name of the person who isn't dealing in cribbage. No other definitions are acceptable.

- Colum

Tuesday, August 8, 2017, Dan Flanagan

4:31 (FWOE)

Dagnabbit, it's the month of gypos. I mean typos. AdMES and ORdA are not words.

Our theme today is a pair of the same numbers separated by a forward-slash, with each example interpreted in a different way. Thus, 4/4 is COMMONTIME, a musical notation often represented with a C in the score (for the above phrase). 11/11 is a date, namely VETERANSDAY.

Then it starts getting iffy. 20/20 is interpreted as GREATVISION. I think the term typically used is "perfect vision," although if that's perfect, what was Ted Williams's 20/10? In reality, what it means is that you can see at 20 feet what you should be able to see at 20 feet. An eye with 20/50 vision sees letters at 20 feet as if they were 50 feet away, thus with less acuity.

Worse, in my mind is the answer for 50/50 (EVENSTEVEN). Huh? That's "even odds," I suppose. Google defines "even steven" as being a fair or equal distribution of resources, so in one sense I suppose 50/50 means that. But to me, "even steven" means that you've come out neither ahead nor behind. Or that in a race, two competitors are neck and neck. I don't see how that means 50/50. I call foul.

Are there other examples of this theme? I'm rather fond of 3/3, as it's my birthday, but a date's already been used.

Outside of the theme, there's the humorous 10D: Something that gives you a sinking feeling (QUICKSAND). The other long downs are also strong, especially PRIMEVAL and the appropriately downward moving NAMEDROP.

Perhaps 40D should have been clued "One of over 200 by Edna St. Vincent Millay." Put that in your pipe and smoke on it, Mr. William so-called Shakespeare!

1A: Row (SPAT). C. It's so perfectly average.
Fave: SADIE (63A: "Sexy" woman in a Beatles song). This song has a similar chord progression to "Karma Police" by Radiohead.
Least fave: ACMES (3D: Zeniths). Not because I typoed it, but because how many highest points can there be? LENTS was a close second.

I think I liked this puzzle okay, despite my disappointment in the theme.

- Colum