Tuesday, December 7, 2021, Margaret Seikel

I can't say I've ever received a holiday card showing people wearing MATCHINGPJS. Is that a thing? Is it that me and my circle of friends just aren't hip enough? Perhaps so. But hey... I just got an idea for this year's card...

I had a fun time today re-mixing the theme answers. I'd go to a pickle joint, I've had pizza juice running through my fingers, many a PRIVATEJET is probably a political jet, and a private junkie, well, that's just sad. Sorry.

Let's just keep the P-J combinations that Ms. Seikel chose: PICKLEJUICE, PIZZAJOINT, POLITICALJUNKIE, and PRIVATEJET. It's a good set. And that clue for the last one - "Aircraft that's 1% full?" is brilliant. At least to us 99%ers. 

It's an odd shout-out to "Boston's Mass. AVE," but I like it. And "Pleasant French city?" is a cute clue for NICE. And if you're interested in seeing Keat's "To Autumn," (also called "Seasons of Mist and Mellow Fruitfulness") in Keat's own hand, it's online here.

- Horace

Monday, December 6, 2021, Emily Rourke

Remember mail? When's the last time you received a hand-written letter? Nevermind "writing in script," the LOSTART is letter-writing. Even by the time the revealer, YOUVEGOTMAIL, came out some 23 years ago, email had started to overtake posted letters. But oh, I remember well the thrill of seeing familiar handwriting on an envelope... sigh. Read it once quickly right away, then read it again later, more slowly... those were the days.

I like the nostalgic theme. We get plenty of bills and packages, and yes, we really do still get the occasional letter. And soon will be a little flurry of holiday greeting cards. So that's something to look forward to.

The blue ones always made me gag.

There are a few OKSURE type entries - I'm looking at you SORORAL - and I suppose Sam Ezersky is happy to see NATANT in the grid, since it helps to validate his Spelling Bee word list. (When will he accept "luff?") The entry LIGHTER (Something waved at concerts prior to the age of cellphones) adds to the nostalgic feel of the whole thing.

The most interesting clue for me today was "Pearls and peridots" for GEMS. When I think of GEMS I mostly think of minerals, but pearls are one of the few organic gems. Others are jet (from wood), coral, and amber (see: SAP). Reading about pearls led me to the story, from Pliny the Elder, that Cleopatra once bet Marc Antony that she could serve the most expensive dinner of all time. He took the bet, she removed the pearl from one of her earrings, crushed it to a powder, poured it into her wine and drank it. Pliny estimated the value of the two pearl earrings at 60 million sestertii, or roughly 28 million in today's dollars. She offered the other to Marc Antony to drink, and he conceded the bet. I'm not sure what she won, but still, kind of a fun story.

- Horace

Sunday, December 5, 2021, Chase Dittrich and Jeff Chen

COME AGAIN?

DAREI come right out and say that this theme does nothing for me? " ... FLOOR FLOOR FLOOR ..." is the clue for NEVERENDINGSTORY? Does that work? I mean, I get it - a floor is a story, and "never-ending story" is a thing ... but oughtn't it be "never ending stories" here, because " ... AMBITION AMBITION AMBITION ..." is answered with RECURRINGDREAMS. ... 

Oh, ok, at least it's a novel idea, right? And ADINFINITUM ( ... COMMERCIAL COMMERCIAL COMMERCIAL ...) and BEARSREPEATING ( ... GRIZZLY GRIZZLY GRIZZLY ...) made me chuckle. But still, it's not my favorite.

But doesn't the grid look like it contains a little alien? Football-shaped head, big eyes, little legs...

[Note: Jeff Chen claims that the grid is supposed to contain an infinity symbol, which goes along with the theme.]

I like that David HUME is included. I should read more of his work. I loved "Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion." And I think he'd be happy to be crossed with PSEUDOSCIENCE (Astrology or palmistry).

Lots of unusual names - HUME, KERR, GUIDO, SANSA, NAS, RAFE, ERTE, AYRES, MARENGO - and plenty of CCS, EGOT, UTE, NON, GMC, CBS, ESE, ISE ...

Sorry Messrs. Dittrich and Chen, but I just wasn't feeling the LUV for this one. 

- Horace

Saturday, December 4, 2021, Nam Jin Yoon

I'm sure a lot of you are thinking exactly what I'm thinking right now. Why, exactly, is a FAN a "deadly household appliance, according to Korean urban legend?" Apparently, even into the 21st century, it was commonly thought that running a fan in a room without open windows was to invite imminent mortality. Thanks to Mr. Yoon for teaching us about this!

In fact, the F of that answer was my final square entered today. It took forever to see CHEFSKISS, which, once I had it filled in, immediately brought forth the expected imagery. I love the CYBERCAFE right next door to the HOOKAHBAR. The neighborhood is coming together!

35A: Taps (FAUCETS) was next to impossible to get without multiple crossings. Very nice simple clue with so many possible meanings! For some reason, I am suddenly thinking that creating a crossword puzzle in German might be challenging to clue ambiguously...

Hey! I only just now noticed the very unusual symmetry of this puzzle, along the NW to SE diagonal. It's a very pretty grid, actually.

55A: "I got you" (SAYNOMORE) has a very specific vibe for me.

I tried to put FREELabor in at 13D: Like many jobs in the gig economy (FREELANCE). Don't tell me I'm wrong!

How nice is the symmetrically placed BAA and MOO? I see that they're far away from the neighborhood. Seems apt.

Favorite QMC today is 41D: Masked warning? (ENGARDE). Ah, the memories of fencing during high school. That was a ton of fun.

It's a lovely Saturday puzzle that played easier than yesterday's. NOTETOSELF: remember to remind folks that Horace is taking over tomorrow...

- Colum

Friday, December 3, 2021, Claire Rimkus

Wow, this was a tough Friday! Hope and I worked hard at it for over 15 minutes before finally finishing the center section, which had us scratching our heads for some time. As always, some false assumptions had us behind the proverbial 8-ball.

We got to break in with the classic U.S. State riddle at 2D (OHIO), and the classic crosswordese RHEA. I love 1D: Challenge while sitting (BRAT). Not sitting down, but babysitting. Perhaps a few of those BABYGATES would have come in handy.

Of course, both Hope and I dearly wanted "Top drawer" at 19A, in memory of one Gloria Upson. TOPNOTCH is fine. 

I sensed a theme of multiword phrases here, from HASNOIDEA to UPTONOGOOD to ASIFICARE. I particularly liked that last one. I had never heard the phrase TUXEDOCAT before, but it's quite evocative.

Some of our early miscalculations included 6D: 72 answers and 34 black squares, for this puzzle (SPECS) - we had StatS initially. 46A: Everything one could possibly offer, with "the" (WORLD) - we had WORks. That one came close to really working! 35A: Empanadas and patatas bravas (TAPAS) - we had TAcoS. Clearly wrong, and it led to GOBox as well. Fixing that last error finally got us to 37A: Nice position to be in? (STEADYGIG). We really wanted STEADYjob...

Favorite clue of the day was 24D: Giant in chip manufacturing (LAYS). Hah! Did not see that one coming at all. We also appreciated 42D: Its participants are in for a wild ride (RODEO). Look at those lovely non-QMCs! Please keep them coming.

- Colum

Thursday, December 2, 2021, Rebecca Goldstein

Let me just say that Ms. Goldstein has my deep appreciation for 29A: Mendelssohn work in E flat major, and others (OCTETS). This particular work has long been one of my all time favorite pieces of classical music. Which, by the way, he wrote when he was just 16 years old. But, as Tom Lehrer once said, "When Mozart was my age, he'd been dead for five years!"

Meanwhile, the fun theme is revealed at 58A: One of a pair at the dinner table ... or a hint to this puzzle's theme (SALTSHAKER). There are three rebus squares where NaCl has been mixed up in a novel way, and fit into a pair of long answers. I'm impressed that five of the six answers split the four-letter string across two words, as in AMERI[CANL]IT and VATI[CANL]IBRARY (shout out to Frannie and Horace for the latter).

By the way, apparently they weren't looking for "suprachiasmatic nucleus" at 17A: Circadian rhythm regulator (INTER[NALC]LOCK). Sometimes being a Neurologist is not very helpful.

There are other anagrammatic formulations of the letter string (21 to be exact), so I imagine there are other sets that might work, but I'm not going to work my way through them. I'm sure Ms. Goldstein chose the best options.

JAMAAL Bowman

Some nice clues include:

46D: Too, for one (ADVERB) - I love the wit of the clue.

49D: Leaf producer (NISSAN) - Nice hidden capital.

I enjoyed this one quite a bit, finishing in 6:22. Nice start to the turn! And it's another debut. So many recently! I love it.

- Colum

Wednesday, December 1, 2021, Christopher Youngs

Who doesn't like a pun? Nobody, that's who. Nobody at all. Ever.

Well, at least I know that the readers of this blog must enjoy them, as the responses to Frannie's posts indicates a degree of appreciation, and she is a master beyond compare.

Today, we get four puns on the sound /ɛr/, which are then clued wackily. My favorite is the first one, 17A: Play a wrong note during a violin sonate? (ERRONTHEGSTRING), referring to the famous movement from Bach's third orchestral suite, often called Air on the G String. I imagine this clue could have gone in a completely different direction, but that would have been highly unusual for the New York Times.

CLEANHEIRACT is cute, and EYRETOTHETHRONE is a funny headline for the situation described. I'm less sold on TOAIRISHUMAN, but three out of four is pretty darn good. I thought for a few moments after finishing that the puns were simply rotated around, as "heir" is the proper word for the original phrase at 59A, while "air" likewise fits in 17A. But then I realized that no phrase is likely to have "eyre" as its original spelling, so there went that idea.

It's nice that 1D: Heads of staff? (CLEFS) crosses the musical theme answer.

LOLA

I don't think I've ever come across the word MUSKETRY in the puzzle before. And I'll admit to never thinking about how the Three Musketeers don't really use muskets. They're much more inclined to use swords. It makes for higher levels of entertainment, I'd wager. Although Indiana Jones used a gun at a sword fight to massive guffaws.

Anybody have an idea why 31D: Roll of stamps gets the answer COIL? I'm confused by that one.

Amusing Wednesday, which is a step in the right direction, in my opinion. And congratulations to Mr. Youngs for his NYT debut!

- Colum