Saturday, July 7, 2018, Ryan McCarty

0:16:11 (F.W.O.E.)

Boy, I almost made it through the week error free, and I actually changed the letter in question today from correct to incorrect. Gah! I had PHENOLS (37D: Chemical compounds in so-called hospital smell) fairly early, but then when I saw that "50A: Individual's unique use of language" ended with "LECT," I immediately "corrected" to an A so that I could put in "_DIALECT." And then, when I guessed at ASIAM for the Alicia Keys album, I thought to myself "sure, 'I-dialect" sounds plausible..." Funny, now, in retrospect, that I should have trusted my faint and fading chemistry knowledge over my language skills. In my defense, "I-dialect," were it to actually be a word, would be pretty much the same thing as an "ideo-lect."

Ah, well... a small blot on my record that did little to dampen my enjoyment of this puzzle. That it should begin with ABLARE is unfortunate, but the TWINKLE starts in the very next answer, and really gets going off of that with THATSSONOTOK (7D: "Absolutely unacceptable), and KOOKS. In the middle, we've got the old-school, but still amusing WACKYTOBACKY (19D: Mary Jane), and two grid-spanners: LITTLEKNOWNFACT and KEEPSITTOGETHER, both strong. I love all the strange-looking letter strings formed in the multiple-word answers - "TSSO," TTOG," "LEKN," "LKTO," ... Everywhere you look there's weirdness. See also: DANKMEMES (48A: Internet in-jokes that have gone viral, in modern lingo.)

There are a few downers here and there (I'm looking at you, JAMESWATT and SHALEOIL), but overall, this was a really fun Saturday. Great close to the Turn, as we like to call the Thursday/Friday/Saturday puzzles collectively. Now it's on to Sunday, whence, I believe, you'll be treated to another week of reviews by Frannie. If she were reviewing today, she might have written out for you the entire copy text of the old TV spots that used to advertise ITT Technical School. Who knew it was now defunct? Oh well, perhaps there will be other chances for her to let loose her pop-culture Tourettes.

Bye for now!

- Horace

Friday, July 6, 2018, Robyn Weintraub

0:13:13

Lovely start today with CLEOPATRA (1A: Ruler who died in 30 B.C.) (no B.C.E., NYT?). If only she, Caesar, Pompey, and Ptolemy could have arranged to somehow MEETINTHEMIDDLE, maybe there wouldn't have been so many deaths. JUSTKIDDING, they loved to wear ARMOR and kill each other back then. Ever since the time of HERA, "murderer" has been one of the main VOCATIONS. Just like it is today - except it's TRENDIER to say "soldier." ...

Boy, that went south fast. Let's all just take a drink from the LETHE and fall back ASLEEP. No need to TIRE oneself out being a Nervous NELLY all the time about the CHASMS in REASONING between humans. Here I was, trying to say something nice about the puzzle, and all of a sudden I'm pontificating. Kind of KILLS the mood. What I need is more SWEETTALK.

Favorite clue today - 51D: Decrease? (IRON). Yes. More like this.

I also very much enjoyed UMPTEENTH (61A: Sizable ordinal), which reminds me of my mother, who was wont to use that word. (And who would be disappointed with my vitriol above.) SCATTERSHOT (22D: Lacking focus) is quality, and SIDLE and CREPT made a nice pair.

Overall, I did enjoy this one - and the appropriateness of the two 15-letter clues - but it went a bit fast for a Friday.

- Horace

p.s. I almost forgot! I was going to complain about NOB (42A: One of the jacks in cribbage). It's not just one of the jacks, it's any jack that matches the card turned up in the cut, and it's always "His Nobs," or "Nobs," not just a NOB. Sheesh!

Thursday, July 5, 2018, Randolph Ross

0:14:56

I love the spin that the N.Y.T. is putting on the national celebration this week. On Tuesday, we got the ethnic melting pot of answers, then on Independence Day, we got four fourths not specifically related to America (well, except for the Bible, I guess...), and today we get rebuses of American governmental agencies that WIRETAP. LOL.

Bonus thematic fill might include OILMAN, MABELL, THEMOST, MARCIACLARK (America at its best, the O.J. trial), SNEERY, YANK, WMD, and TRASH.

On the un-American side we've got BELGIAN, the Middle-Eastern duo of ARABIA, and ALIBABA, KENYA, HORS, CARTA, BAYO[FBI]SCAY, and AMORE. Certainly not American, that last.

On the bright side, we see ALBEIT for the second day in a row. Strange. And I enjoyed the clues for LIL (26A: Wee wee?) (Took a while!), ILLLIVE (12D: "It doesn't hurt that bad"), DEER (58A: A couple of bucks?), AMEN (52D: Grace period?) (Nice), DEN (35D: Animal house), and even ANS (59A: T or F, frequently: Abbr.). It took me forever to understand ONEALL (19A: Low draw) as a low-scoring tie game. I should have known better during World Cup season!

I love AMY (23D: Frank Loesser's "Once in Love With ____"), but my favorite clue today was 31A: This pulls a bit (REIN). That's really very good.

Lively, entertaining clues and a rebus. Pretty much a perfect Thursday.

- Horace

Wednesday, July 4, 2018, Freddie Cheng

0:10:44

Appropriate, maybe, that the first clue today should mention tea (1A: Indian state that exports tea (ASSAM)), because ... well, you know why. Although the tea dumped in 1773 by the Sons of Liberty was from China, not India. Still, ...

Also appropriate for the date is today's revealer, HAPPYFOURTH. The other four (also appropriate) theme answers each provide, in their last word, the fourth in a series. Numbers being the fourth book in the Bible, Time being the fourth dimension, Delta the fourth letter in the Greek alphabet, and Mars the fourth planet from our Sun. Pleasing. The only thing I find odd about it is the "Annual greeting" part. When did that start? I don't say it isn't true, because earlier today, as Frannie and I walked along the beach at low tide, people actually said this to us when passing. "Happy Fourth." Is this a new thing? I don't really remember it from my youth. But then, there are many such things.

In addition to the theme, I liked much in the fill today: PSHAW (22A: "Oh, hogwash!") and OODLES (44A: Gobs) are excellent. LOPED (55A: Ran gracefully), and ALBEIT (32A: Notwithstanding) are enjoyably unusual. CREAM clued as "Destroy, as an opponent" got a chuckle. And how many of you tried to make a three-letter abbreviation for "size" when confronted with 59A: Small, medium or large: Abbr. (ADJ)? I sure did.

The two "father/son" (LENNON/LEE) clues were nice, and "19A: Blue expanse" could have been sky or SEA, so that caused a little slowdown. Also slowing me down (this seemed tough for a Wednesday) was spelling SABER with an "re" instead of an "er." And cluing COB with a male swan instead of a Fourth of July staple was shocking!

ISPY lots to like today. I hope you're having a pleasant holiday.

- Horace

Tuesday, July 3, 2018, Christopher Adams

0:04:42

A little red, white, and blue folded into the NATIONALPASTIME to celebrate the nation's birthday. I like all three cities, but I can't help but note that one of them isn't actually in the good ol' U. S. of A. In fact, there's kind of a "Melting Pot" vibe to the whole puzzle, what with ECLAT, ENERO, RAGU, GREEK, OLE, PEDRO, ARP, and PERES. Kind of an international OLIO, if you will. And should we throw in EXPOS (31D: Montreal nine, once)? And EDEN?

There are quite a few baseball-related entries in the fill, like SLIDE, MINOR (27D: ____ leagues), the aforementioned PEDRO, who played for the EXPOS, EJECTED, LOFT(ed one into the outfield), TEES (up on one) ... hmmm ... it seemed like more while I was solving. And I won't even mention 65A, as I take it as a direct assault on all BOSTON REDSOX fans. Or at least those "of a certain age." I held my little red Radio Shack transistor all the way around my route as I delivered the Evening Gazette, only to hear Yaz pop out to end it. GROAN. Why, even in my "post-sports" life, do I still wish things had gone differently back then?

Love CAUSTIC, UPTAKE, ERMINE, ECLAT, and GOODEGG. That's some good bonus material on a Tuesday. And my last square was the E of ISSARAE. The name is completely unknown to me, but I finally figured out EARL (53D: Title below marquess). And you know what? I think I'd take the demotion to get the better title.

Decent Tuesday. Will there be fireworks tomorrow? Stay tuned!

- Horace

p.s. Another debut puzzle today! Congratulations, Mr. Adams.

Monday, July 2, 2018, Evan Kalish

0:03:53

Shh... ITSASECRET. Well, it would have been, had they left out the circles. Or the revealer, I guess. :) But luckily, we have both, and we are able to see that hidden between two words in each long answer are secret things. At first, since the word secret is kind of implied in "stash," I did not realize that the word "secret" could be added to every circled word (or, "word made by the circled letters," as I'm sure the NYT would have it ...), and I thought, "Well, yeah, I guess that grown-ups are supposed to keep the true identity of Santa a secret from young children ...," but then with "agent," I realized what was going on. And finally, when I got to "menu" I was a little unsure again, because I'm not sure that I'm all that familiar with secret menus. Perhaps my very unawares-ness of them proves their existence? Is that possible? (No.)

A couple of spots that could have gone different ways - SNAPAT (5D: Get testy with) could have been snip at, and I actually had "roam" in for ROVE (50D: Wander about) for a while, but luckily noticed before the end.

I'm sure that frequent commenter, Huygens, will enjoy the inclusion of PRIMENUMBER, and I always enjoy the appearance of Latin in a grid, especially when it's unabbreviated, i.e. IDEST. I'm also a big fan of NOGS, but this isn't really the season. And speaking of seasons, I thought GAVEL was a little too soon. Sigh.

<rant>Lastly, I'll add that it's been nearly a full ten years during which I have not taken a single BAG at a grocery store. It's not just the eco-conscious who should be doing this, it's everyone. The answer to paper or plastic is always "Neither."</rant> (See what I did there?)

 A ROSY debut for Mr. Kalish, and a fine start to the week.

- Horace

Sunday, July 1, 2018, Sam Trabucco

DRIVING AROUND

I love that moment when a puzzle clicks. The revealer reveals itself, and title suddenly makes perfect sense. I had that today, and aside from a touch of P.T.S.D. from Puzzle Four of this year's A.C.P.T., I very much enjoyed this one.

For the themers, if we want the clues to work, we need to "drive around" the unclued, circled, automobiles by moving left, into the PASSINGLANE, and then back. The answers with the cars still make sense, but they are unclued. As in "23A: Trying to show no signs of life." The clued answer is PLAYING/DEA/D, and the unclued answer is PLAYING(CAR)D.

Obviously, when "passing," one must use some of the letters from the answer above, and it's never just using a word from a two-word phrase, it's letters out of the middle, or from two consecutive words. Very nicely done.

The fill was fun, too, with strong entries like FIASCO (5A: Total mess), SPOILER (36A: "Darth Vader is Luke's father," e.g.), ZEROSUM (67D: Like a game with equal winners and losers), and GETLIT (116A: Go on a drinking spree, in slang).

LACUNAR (55A: Relating to gaps) begs a bit of reviewer lenience, as does TRUTHSERA (74A: Confession inducers), and WIVE (71A: Take as a bride) is borderline at best, but there was a lot to encourage generosity. COLDDAY (26A: Metaphorical time in hell) got a chuckle, as did STAGEDOOR (24A: Show out?). And I took ICANSEETHAT (113A: "Yeah, it makes sense") as a comment on the revealer, which sits just above it. Furthermore, EMETIC always reminds me of the Monty Python sketch that introduced me to that word: "Australian Table Wines."("... 'Chateau Chunder,' which is an appellation contrôllée specifically grown for those keen on regurgitation - a fine wine which really opens up the sluices at both ends. Real EMETIC fans will also go for a 'Hobart Muddy,'...")

Overall, I liked the tone of this one, and I liked the theme. Thumbs up.

- Horace



p.s. I really should have written this review during the Spain/Russia match. That was a snoozer, but this Denmark/Croatia match is non-stop action!