Saturday, November 14, 2020, Emily Carroll and Erik Agard

0:10:38

Two constructors whose work I have enjoyed in the past team up today, and although it did have some nice moments, certain little things served to ALIENATE me a bit. And it's probably just me being too fussy, but "Assembly line feature" just seemed a little off for (ROBOTARM). "Robotic arm" would have suited me better. I think of "High dudgeon" more as a state of being "put out," and WRATH as a more serious anger. And "Fresh bread?" for NEWMONEY? It's cute, ish, but it doesn't really work. Similarly, "See for a bit" can be forced to be similar to PEEKAT if you work at it, but it's not a natural parallel. "Historian's specialty, perhaps" is ERA? Ok. Maybe.

On the other hand, I very much enjoyed the quote "All WARS are civil WARS, because all men are brothers," and I did not know that ODIN had two ravens working for him, so that was interesting. Learning that GEISHA means "art-doer" was also good, and who doesn't like the word UMPTEEN? 

So I'm a little torn. There were some clues that were quite good, like "Something to sneeze at?" for DANDER, and "Bath water?" for AVON (the river), but ONGOD is not used to mean "I swear!" very frequently in my experience. Of course, my experience is not your experience, but then again, I'm the one blogging, not you.

I'm going to come down on the negative side today. It wasn't terrible, by any stretch, but I wanted more from these two constructors. Perhaps that was the problem all along - I expected something. 

But the good thing about the NYTX is that even if one puzzle isn't your favorite, there'll be another one tomorrow. See you then!

- Horace

Friday, November 13, 2020, Sawyer Tabony and Ashton Anderson

0:12:45

I like the chunky 7/9-stack corners in the NW and SE, and the 5/7 stacks in the other corners, and the diagonal through the middle is attractive too. In short, I like the look of the grid. So that was a good start right off the bat. Did the content hold up once the grid was filled in? Well, yes. Yes it did. 

 

I loved that it started with LETSDANCE (Words that might accompany an outstretched hand). It's such a great intro for a Friday puzzle, and it set a nice "conversational" tone for the whole puzzle. IMONAROLL ("Look at me go!"), NOWORRIES ("You're good"), UPTOYOU ("I'm good with whatever"), YOW ("That smarts!"), YEAH ("Think so?"), WHOLEHOG (Full throttle), WHOA (Cousin of "OMG!"), HEREWEARE (Line upon arrival), EASYASPIE (Like a cakewalk), and PRESSSEND (Stop tinkering with an email). That's a lot of conversational entries and "quote clues," but I kind of like them all, and I like them more in this mass grouping. And I'll throw in ITSME (Response to "Who's there?" that may be unhelpful) ASWELL. This response is particularly annoying to me when I answer the phone. (Yes, I still answer the phone, and even though there are only about three people who actually call me, and only one who says ITSME when I answer, it still rubs me the wrong way.)

So that's all good. I also like 1D-Ancient undeciphered writing system. When "Etruscan" didn't fit, I dropped in "LINEAR_" because I couldn't immediately remember which one had been worked out. 

SCRAWLS (Chicken scratchings, say) is nice, AVERSE (Opposed) is a good word, and who doesn't like SEAWEED? For my money, this was a quality Friday offering.

- Horace

Thursday, November 12, 2020, Kristian House

0:08:12

I'm not sure I've ever seen today's particular twist before, but I knew something was up when I hit 17-Across "Shelley ode that begins "Hail to thee, blithe spirit!" (AASKYLARK). Even though I already had LIAM (Youngest of the Hemsworth brothers), I took out the last two letters and left them blank, thinking maybe there was a brother named LIto-something, because I wanted a little "to" rebus there.

But my confusion was soon cleared up by 28-Across, "Bye for now" (TALKUULATER). I had LUTIST (Many a troubador), and had wanted INUIT (Native of the Land of the Midnight Sun), but had resisted the "two U" situation. Then it hit me. 

FLOATSOUTCC (Gently leaves shore) came a little more quickly, and I should have known to expect the last one to have a little something more - as the best themes seem to kick it up a notch for the final entry - but BBORNOTBB (Famous question first asked around 1600) still took a little more time, and got a little more of a chuckle when it did finally come clear.

The toughest cross, I'm guessing (except for all those in the North Star state), will be 6-D "Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan" (OMAR) and 15-A "Parts of some circles, in France" (AMIS) (circles of "friends"). And I didn't know "Peace Nobelist Yousafzai" (MALALA) either, but the A might be easier to guess there than the M, I don't know.

I'd never thought of a CLOVE as a dried flower bud, but now that I've read it, I will never be able to see it any differently. Makes sense, I guess. And another surprise was thinking of Jessica TANDY as Blanche, as I know her chiefly through "Driving Miss Daisy." There were quite a few names today, many of them either older or a tad on the RANDOS side - KAROL, LYNDON, LIAM, MALALA, OMAR, ABEL, EDDIE, EYDIE, TASHA, DEBS. Perhaps it was clued a little on the easier side because of all that.

Favorite clue: "Skinny?" (DERMAL).

Overall, I like a Thursday with a trick, and this is no exception.

- Horace

Wednesday, November 11, 2020, Alex Bajcz

0:06:06

Today's DOUBLEDAY theme includes four two-part answers where each part can precede the word "day." As in, WEDDINGPRESENT (*Gift that comes with a hitch?) (wedding day, present day). VETERANSMEMORIAL, in the center, does another kind of double duty in commemorating today's "day." 

It was nice to see XIEXIE (Mandarin "thank you") in the grid, both because one doesn't find Mandarin in a crossword very often, and because Frannie is currently enrolled in a Mandarin class, which allowed me to fill it in much more easily than I might have otherwise. FELONY, MORASS, BESET, and SCOURS are good words, and it was amusing (to me) that I had to change ERRors to ERRATA to avoid same. 

On the down side, I thought HOBS (Goblins, in folklore) was a bit NUTS, and PIEPAN (It's found beneath the crust), while it did have a fun clue, seemed a bit off to me. I call them either pie tins or pie plates. Maybe it's a regional thing. Also, although I have probably never written it before, I would prefer "What's the diff?" to "What's the DIF?" But really, "What's the diff," I guess.

In all, it was fine. "Business day" seems a bit less common than "work day," but I'm not going to GOAPE about it. As I said, it was fine. I've seen POORER.

Enjoy the day off, if you've got it, and to all the veterans out there, thank you for serving. May your numbers grow ever fewer.

- Horace

Tuesday, November 10, 2020, Robert Fisher

0:05:33 (F.W.O.E.)

If you're Bone-dry (SERE), you might want to MEET up with one of the four people represented by the theme answers today, all jokey purveyors of liquid refreshment. It's a good set, and I'm a fan of all the beverages, each in their own appropriate time, of course:

PORTAUTHORITY (Sommelier?)

DRAFTSPERSON (Bartender?)

FOUNTAINHEAD (Soda jerk?)

GROUNDSKEEPER (Barista?)

It's a good IDEA, IMO, and there's even a couple bonus beverage-adjacent clues in "The "I" of I.P.A."   (INDIA) and "What shaken soda cans do after being opened" (SPEW).

Lots of nice conversational entries in the Downs today, including WHATOFIT, LETRIP, IBET, NOHASSLE, ATEASE, and INDULGEME. It's almost a mini-theme! And there isn't much DRECK, but I was a little surprised by SYL. I never mind Latin entries, so ERAT (Quod ____ demonstrandum) was fine. Too bad EST wasn't clued as another possible form of the verb essere. :)

Other entries I enjoyed were NAIFS, GOUDA (more for the Netherlands than for the cheese itself, although the aged varieties are quite good), and DOUR. But I think the editing team ought to get a consultant from the cooking world, because I find they often confuse "ricing" with "dicing." When a food is RICED, it is not "chopped finely," but passed through a ricing sieve. That was not my mistake today, but it did come elsewhere in the word that crossed at the top - DRAFTSPERSON. When I first read the clue "Bartender?" I guessed cRAFTSPERSON, thinking of "craft beers." Ah well...

Overall, a fine Tuesday.

- Horace

Monday, November 9, 2020, Kate Hawkins

0:04:51

Sometimes a nice simple theme can be comforting. Then again, maybe everything is more comforting these days, now that we feel slightly more hopeful about the fate of the country. (But we're not political here.)

Today's vowel progression theme (or "vowel movement," as Jeff Chen so delicately put it on his blog), includes five entries that begin with P_LL, where the blank is filled in with the five vowels in alphabetical order. Nice and tidy. And speaking of "tidy" (anybody else here watch "Gavin and Stacey"?), maybe someone in WALES could come up with a word that begins with "pyll." But then, that probably wouldn't be accepted on a Monday ... 

Anyhoo, although I enjoy a good vowel progression as much as the next nerd, none of these theme entries was very exciting. Many, in fact, are somewhat off-putting. PALLBEARER (Raiser of the dead?) got a great clue, but still ... and who wants to think about a PILLBUG? If you ask me, it's still too soon after 2016, never mind last week, to talk about a POLLTAKER, and if there's one thing I absolutely hate about modern layout practices, it is PULLQUOTES. Why, when reading an article, must I be forced to read certain portions twice? Thankfully, the only magazines I read with any regularity (The New Yorker, Massachusetts Wildlife, and World of Games) do not use PULLQUOTES. 

Why, when reading an article, must I be forced to read certain portions twice?

In the "things I doubt my father will know today," I will include RAPPELS (Comes down a mountain, in a way), LEDE (Start of a newspaper article, in journalese) (is there a good reason that "journalese" prefers an apparently misspelled four-letter version of the four-letter word "lead?" What am I missing?), REY (Singer Lana Del ____), and possibly ELLENPAGE (Best Actress nominee for "Juno"), although I think he might have actually seen that movie, so maybe he will remember her. Oh, and maybe COCKAPOO (Mixed-breed dog that's part spaniel). How 'bout it, Dad - did I guess correctly?

- Horace

Sunday, November 8, 2020, Evan Kalish and Caitlin Reid

WAIT, WHAT? 

Today's title seems appropriate for this past week. This past quadrennium. It certainly was good to finally get some sense of closure yesterday. The President-elect's speech was positive and hopeful, and it would be great if somehow he and his administration were able to bridge the divide and focus the energies on both sides toward a common cause. I sometimes think of Bob Newhart's joke:

"I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down'."

And it's easy to ridicule those who appear, on the surface, to be out of their minds, but I'm going to try to not think that way anymore. To not paint with a broad brush. It's not easy, but if I can't do it, how can I expect others to? How can I expect our president to?

OK, that's enough on that. IKNOW this (and the NYTX itself) is supposed to be a way to ELUDE the POISON of the daily grind. So LETSNOT dwell on politics. I'll try not to MORALize.

The title today, once again, elucidates the theme. The "ai" sound is changed to an "uh" sound in all theme answers. YOUGOTTHATSTRUT? 

I especially liked CUSSSENSITIVE (Easily offended by foul language?) because, in a way, I am, sometimes, and also because: details. WHYTHELONGFUSS (Question to a tantrum thrower?) was also good. And timely! (Because: the past quadrennium!) 

Really, they're all quite good, and it ends with the double-barrelled THENUMBOFTHEGUM (Title for an oral surgeon's handbook?). Hah! That's quite good. 

In other entries, I initially dropped POISON in at 6-Down (Like apple seeds, if eaten in huge quantities), but changed it to LETHAL even before I got to 58-Down "Downfall in many an Agatha Christie novel" (POISON). Still, it's interesting that either would have been appropriate for 6-D, but not for 58-D.

I'll close now, without discussing much more of the fill, but overall, I thought this was a fun Sunday. I hope you enjoyed it too.

- Horace