Tuesday, August 7, 2018, Alex Eaton-Salners

4:45 (FWOE)

Welcome to day 2 of my week of surprise blogging! During which I will attempt to be surprised and surprising all at the same time. ARYA surprised yet?

No? RHO well.

Today's puzzle takes the four main BEERINGREDIENTS and hides them inside four other two-word phrases. Nicely, all of the hidden words are split across the two words. The most surprising of these was IOWATERRITORY, a term I'd no memory of encountering before, but all four stand up to inspection.

I'll just go on a little tangent here. More of a rant really. I don't really like IPAs. And nowadays, it seems that 90% of beers on draft are IPAs. Or double IPAs. Or super IPAs. See, I'd rather have less of the hops, and more of the malt. Although not so much that it becomes a stout.

Speaking of which, on a recent trip to Ommegang in Cooperstown, I tried a Gnomegang beer. I highly recommend it, although they are very difficult to find outside of the actual brewery, it seems.

Oh yeah, the crossword puzzle. My error was stupid: I had dORIA in at 14A: Middle-earth area under the Misty Mountains. Clearly I was thinking of the Andrea Doria, the ghost ship. MORIA is where The Fellowship encountered the balrog, and Gandalf "died". Anyway, dELT was clearly incorrect, I should have figured that out before finishing the puzzle. Ah, well.

Other things I liked included 53A: How a dying machine goes (KAPUT) and BLOVIATES.

- Colum

Monday, August 6, 2018, Andrea Carla Michaels and Mark Diehl

3:32

Well, I opened up Horace and Frances today to see the review of the puzzle, and found none posted yet. It was at this point that a little light bulb popped in the nearly empty refrigerator of my mind. "Perhaps..." it said to me, "perhaps it's your week to review?"

Gah. Happy I figured it out before tomorrow!

In any case, a lovely start to the week, with the classic idealistic statement "make love, not war" across the front of the four theme answers, and the numerically replaced revealer at 54D: Decade that spawned the slogan [above] (60S). All four theme answers are strong, especially MAKEITSNAPPY. (It occurs to me that I don't think I've ever actually said "Stat!" as a physician in an emergency. Neither have I said the previous phrase.)

51A: L.B.J. campaign to help the poor (WARONPOVERTY) is an extra bit of theme material, since it originated in said decade. I think we'd all agree we've failed on that particular front.

Things I liked today:

• OPRAH directly above OPERA. Also that the latter references "The Magic Flute," not my favorite exemplar (or even my favorite Mozart opera - "Don Giovanni" wins that one), but still chock full of lovely goodies.
• CLEAVES. Such an excellent word. In one sense it means to split, as in the clue, but in the biblical sense, it means to stick together. How is this possible, O English language?!

Things I didn't like today:

• Strange pluralizations, such as PLANBS. I think you can only have one plan B, no?
• Also APERS. Yuck.
• 4D: "Almost finished!" (ONETOGO) - I mean, I get it, but it just didn't feel quite right.

But overall an enjoyable start to the week. Which I am blogging about.

- Colum

Sunday, August 5, 2018, Alison Ohringer and Erik Agard

"Ghosted"

FWOE

The circled letters in the puzzle, when read left-to-right and top-to-bottom spell PHANTOMS, which coordinates well with the title "Ghosted," but there is also the matter of the clue at 69A to address. It reads, "Like this puzzle's circled letters vis-à-vis their Across answers" (LOSTINTHESHUFFLE), which makes it seem like something else is going on that I didn't figure out. I'm counting on our esteemed co-blogger, Colum Amory, to explain this aspect of the puzzle. :)

I FWOED at 18D: "What it takes two to do." I entered DUEl even though HEARTRAlE didn't mean anything to me, but as the across was a question-mark clue, I thought maybe I just didn't get it. I did consider the correct answer, DUET /HEARTRATE, but the way the clue was worded, I rejected it. I thought two couldn't really "do" a duet, although I was fine, for some reason, with that same pair "doing" a duel. I may also have been influenced by the next door neighbor EPEE (One-on-one Olympics event).

I enjoyed the puzzle overall. Some clues I liked in particular:
Good name for a botanist? FLORA - I thought of Ferne initially, but this answer is also quite good.
Competitor of Rugby (ETON) - nice twist on an old chestnut.
Hell, informally (SAMHILL) - this is an old favorite from "It's a Wonderful Life" - "What the Sam Hill you yelling for, George?"
In spades (BUTGOOD) - excellent.
Two of diamonds? (SYLLABLES) - my old friend, the self-referential clue!
Friend of Descartes ... or, in English, question pondered by Descartes? (AMI) - Interesting clue.
Makes out? (TAGS) - tricksy.
Dummkopf (ASS) - both are good words.
Pricey-sounding apparel brand? (LACOSTE) - Ha!

~Frannie.

Saturday, August 4, 2018, Sam Trabucco

DNF

Sitting on the porch at the beach cottage, after having IDLED at the north west corner for too long, I gave up and had Horace tell me the answer to 1D: "Makeshift technique for female modesty" (HANDBRA). I hadn't heard of that cover up option before. Or RYEBEERS, or the AARE river, or that a feature of a moat is a DAM. So, there you go.

I didn't figure out the trick of the puzzle until after it was complete, in spite of my natural penchant for the literal. If I had associated the "literally" in 50A with the "8-Down" part instead of with the "one just taking up space" part, the light might have gone on a little sooner, and I would have entered EIGHT down at the end of the letters DEADW across. Combined, the two parts together formed DEADWE/IGHT. Another one of the trick answers, 18A (With 10-Down, literally, now and then), had the letters TEN down at the end of EVERYSOOFT/EN. I think I was additionally thrown off the track of the trick because my app highlighted the related clue (at 8D, for example), but the actual answer in that space had nothing to do with it.

I liked AHEM, FROTHS, FRIENDZONE, MODELUN, and I have a fondness for a ROLODEX - who doesn't like an ordered set of data?

Although I don't normally like to cave on a puzzle, today it was good for my bien ETRE. :)

~Frannie.

Friday, August 3, 2018, David Steinberg

28:44

A relatlively fast Friday for this solver. There wasn't a lot of flow, but I was luckily able to break into each section with at least something. The toughest for me was the mid west. I have heard of WEEZER, but for some reason the band didn't jump to mind. On the other hand, I've never heard of EDSHEERAN, but thanks to the downs, he didn't give me any trouble.

I liked MAKESNOISE (complains vocally) in the north east. STRIPMALLS was fine, as fill, and I see how it goes with the clue, but are "Commercial lines?" a thing? Maybe that's another area for me to study up on. My favorite in the south west was BREAKADATE (Cancel on someone). NEATH that I had CORKingFEE at first. Had I been familiar with Sir KAY of the Round Table I might have gotten to CORKAGEFEE sooner. It also took me too long to get STARTREKVI (1991 scifi sequel). Was that one of the good ones? Despite the fact that I consider myself a fan of the Original Series, I can only reliably associate plot with sequence number for I, III, and IV.

Some clue/answers of note:
Monet that isn't worth much money, say (REPLICA) - I liked this clue, but did think it would have been stronger with out the "money" part, even though it has the Monet/money sound thing going for it.
Sauce with the same consonants as what it's used on (PESTO) - Neat.
French vanilla ice cream ingredient (LAIT) - nice misdirection.
Stir crazy? for PRISONRIOT - Ha!
Four-finger gestures (AIRQUOTES) - I don't take an air quote myself, but I enjoyed this one anyway. As and aside, I am in the ANTI camp where DOGEARS (Turns a corner) are concerned.
POOCH is a funny word. 

I thought there was ATAD too much crosswordese for a Friday, even if it was introduced with more clever or twistier clues (ANTE, IMAC, RUE, ETS, IRA, PPS, ALOE, etc.). I guess that ENDSIT.

~Frannie.

Thursday, August 2, 2018, Xan Vongsathorn

19:18

A stunt puzzle! What TH?? Each square with a circle in it could be filled with an H[eads] or a T[ails] based on COIN FLIPS without, so the revealer claims, affecting any of the clue/answer pairs. For example, the clue for 31A/D is "Breaking records, maybe" and the answer could be either HIP/HOP or TIP/TOP. I especially liked TINT/HINT for "Slight coloring" (6D). That one was paired with the more sedate STOCK or SHOCK value. The pair at 1A/1D deserves mention for the entertaining clue: "Something at the end of the hook?" FISH/FIST. HAHA! BASHES/BASTES at 56A  is nice for its non-rhymingness. And HEATRAY/TEATRAY is notable for its change in word boundary. I liked the theme ALOT.

I don't think the rest of the fill was afflicted by the ILLS sometimes associated with a stunt puzzle. I liked KITED, ASTUTE, LAGGARD, SHEAF, STABILE, SLATE, KEVLAR, and SLIVERS.

The answer NYE for "Dec. 31" took me a minute because I went the easy route with crossword darling evE at first. 5D: "Place for a mogul" (SKISLOPE) is fun. And I thought 67A: "Falling down in a pillow fight" (EIDER) was ducky. :)

Overall, an excellent Htursday puzzle!

TATA.
~Frannie.

Wednesday, August 1, 2018, Sande Milton and Jeff Chen

10:58

The ayes have it! Wait, scratch that, reverse it. The i's haven't ... any place in this puzzle. Not a I. The puzzle is homophonically EYELESS - both clues and answers. Randy Quaid lost an eye and became RANDYQUAD (Campus area for amorous students?). Ha! An eyepopping Greek ruin becomes a GREEKRUN (Marathons, way back when?). and a SOCALBUTTERFLY gets an eyeful in Orange County and L.A. and becomes a social butterfly.

In addition to putting the eyes out of the puzzle so dramatically, there were other GOOD bits. ODDDUCK with the three D's in a row looks great. I also liked SOAK, RECUSAL, REDHOT, EQUUS, and ELOQUENT.

I am FOND of an EXCEL spreadsheet, although a little put out at it being tied with the epithet "common." :) I really don't know how anyone COPES without them. How else do they know what they URN?

And, color me surprised to learn that EMUS lay green eggs - and they are really green! I looked up some images on the World Wide Web - that's just how I am - driven to learn all I can on my own. I guess you could say I am self TAUT. I hope these groan-worthy remarks aren't taking ATOLL.

There were a lot of three letter answers in the grid, but most held their own - UGA excepted. Also, while I don't think this merits being scald out on the carpet, I thought PYRE didn't furnace an exact description of Joan of Arc's demise. Too soon?

~Frannie.