Saturday, January 7, 2023, Adam Aaronson

And so the first week of 2023 comes to a close. I haven't had a respiratory virus in several years, folks, and I forgot how awful it can be. Of course I'm lucky to be getting COVID now rather than back in the early days of the pandemic, and the vaccine and boosters made it into a bad head cold rather than a hospitalization. Nonetheless, not a ton of fun. Fortunately, I'm much better now, and looking forward to getting back to normal.

I'd like to address the elephant in the room first: the fact that Cookie Monster has a real name, and that name is SID. Apparently this was "revealed" in 2017, so I don't know how original it is. According to Wikipedia, Cookie Monster originated in commercials in the late 1960s, eventually losing teeth and migrating to cookies as its favorite food. Always one of my favorite Sesame Street characters.

That's a ROI (Reference of Interest) if ever I heard one!

John VENN

I started my solve with SCREAM crossing DFLATS, and then had answers here and there before really breaking in with TENORSAX and COAX. I love that 30D and 14A are opposites (INTHELOOP and OUTOFTOUCH). 

I worked back up into the NW corner with ATAMINIMUM. GOSHDARNIT is a fine 1A answer.

33A: Eco-centric college class, informally? (ITALIANLIT) is a cute clue. It reminds me of the lengths the Joke-a-Day calendar will go to in order to make a pun ("The chameleon mother, upon seeing her camouflage disappear after giving birth: 'I've become apparent!'"). Similarly, 11D: Bit of casino restaurant fare? (BAKEDCLAM, referring to Clams Casino).

The last part to fall was the SE corner, with the colloquial THESEPARTS and SUNDRESSES. It's a fine Saturday themeless, perhaps not quite as sparkly as yesterday's. 9:39.

- Colum

Friday, January 6, 2023, Erica Hsiung Wojcik

Definitely a challenging Friday themeless today. The NW and SE corners are fairly cut off from the main swath of the puzzle, making them little minipuzzles. The SE was the hardest part for me today.

I broke in in the NE corner with WILCO, a favorite of Hope's. I can't believe that album came out over 20 years ago. I smiled at 10D: Character who's striped and spotted (WALDO), books that were initially published 35 years ago. Ah, well. They can't all be super contemporary. 12D: Hot take? (LOVESCENE) added to a fun corner.

I got a few crosses for the middle section, such as 21D: Labor relief, perhaps (EPIDURAL) and the excellent John TURTURRO (if you haven't seen his wonderful performance in Severance, look for it!). But since I didn't break through with these crosses, I started again in the SW corner, with 35D: Arcade character with a propeller beanie (JRPACMAN), helped out by Yo-Yo Ma's CELLOBOW (what else could it be?)

This New Year's baked BRIE, courtesy of Horace

Finally I got the middle three long answers. I've never heard of JUDITHHEUMANN before, but I see she is well worthy of the marquee entree in the NYT crossword puzzle. 31A: Big ticket item? (COURTSIDESEAT) is a good answer, but I'm not entirely convinced by the clue. Or, to be more precise, the need for the question mark. In any case, TREASURETROVE is also a good answer.

Now it was time to break into the isolated corners. 7D: Ride with a third wheel (TRIKE) was surprisingly literal. I love the term FURBABIES, but let's be clear: my dogs are not my children. I don't even get their names mixed up with my kids' names. Usually.

In the SE, I made life hard for me by putting in "rda" for GMO. As Horace said in yesterday's comments, when things aren't working out, take out whatever you're not completely sure of. OILY helped me to see RIOGRANDE, and that helped finish things out.

As I said, it took me longer than a typical Friday, at 11:34. But a good challenge is always welcome!

- Colum

Thursday, January 5, 2023, Emily Carroll

I've grown to love Ms. Carroll's puzzles, and today's is no exception. The revealer comes at 54A: Risky baseball strategy that's indicated four times in this puzzle? (SQUEEZEPLAY). I had not figured out the rebus theme before getting to this answer, even though I recognized that something like that was going on when I couldn't fit CURBYOU[RENT]HUSIASM into the 15 boxes supplied.

You could nitpick and say that these are musicals, not plays, but who wants to spend the energy doing something like that? Instead, I love how these one-word titles are squished into their squares. T[HAIR]ESTAURANT crossing COC[HAIR]S is excellent, especially with the clue for the latter ("Runs together, in a way"). 

I actually finished with the unhappy message that I had a square incorrect, which was because I put an S in at 61A: Body image? ([CATS]CAN). sCAN seemed to work, and sUP for a condiment? Well, I convinced myself. I should have stopped before filling in my last square because I only had 3 musicals represented in rebus form... Ah, well.

Who can argue with 1A: Fake news source? (LIAR). I don't see why the question mark is necessary.

SENNA

Mostly the clues are straightforward today, probably due to the tricksy nature of the unpredictably placed rebuses. I like 38D: It's cut by a dancer (RUG). Also 6D: Tips for shoemakers (AGLETS). My source for this knowledge is the oldtime Sniglets.

ROIs today include Amy Lowell's LILACS (published in 1922), as well as 16A: Smallest South Pacific nation (NAURU). Thank goodness for Sporcle. I never heard of this country before learning all 147 of them to finish geography quizzes.

Finished with one error in 7:16.

- Colum

Wednesday, January 4, 2023, Laura Breiman and Tom Bachant

Has anyone heard of EERO? I was sure it would be EchO. I guess it's better than cluing that answer to long past architect Saarinen (died in 1951). It didn't hold me up much, fortunately.

My other shortlived error was to confidently put in XIn for XIA at 45A. But I changed my tune when I saw that "Some German cars" was coming out as nUDIS. Almost wish it were true, but AUDIS is the correct answer.

In any event, our theme today is CELESTIALBODIES, here represented literally with appropriately placed circles. Thus [MOON] takes up an orb-shaped space in the NW corner, while [COMET] streaks earthward in the NE. A [STAR] twinkles in the SE, while an [ASTEROID] (belt?) sprinkles the SW corner. In the middle, a circular [GALAXY] is found. A fun theme idea, carried out well.

Adding to the theme material, 34A: One leaving its pad quickly (ROCKET). 

Some SOX

As I've said in the past, these themes which have triple-checked letters, makes the fill challenging. I think they've done a good job here. The NE corner is a good example: 7A: What's found in cafés but not coffee shops (ACCENT) is elevated by its clue, and DROOLER is excellent. 16A: Goofus (BIGDUMMY) is great on both sides of the C/AP. And in exchange, we get standard crosswordese NEMEA and EPEES. Not bad.

Great quote for PUN. Although I'm not sure I agree. I love a good pun, and even enjoy a really bad one. Horace and Frances gave me a 365 day calendar with jokes and puns. So I'm going to be living with them daily for 2023. Good times! 4:26. (Okay time?)

- Colum

Tuesday, January 3, 2023, Margaret Seikel

Well, I spoke too soon yesterday. The second test and the confirmatory PCR came back positive for COVID. So I'm on an enforced vacation this week. Turns out it's not so much fun lying around when you don't feel so great.

Thankfully, I have the New York Times Crossword puzzle to take my attention off of this stuff, even for a brief period of time. Ms. Seikel offers us a puzzle which takes the principle of disruption and literalizes it. MOVEFASTAND / BREAKTHINGS leads to three phrases which begin with TH and end with ING. I'm not sure if the moving fast part was also meant to be literalized. People did not move very quickly in THEWESTWING ("walk and talks" indeed). On the other hand, I am reminded while thinking about moving quickly, of Joan Cusack in "Broadcast News." One of the most hilarious scenes.

One version of ARAMIS

In the realm of potentially winking bonus theme material, we also find 60A: "If it ____ broke, don't fix it" (AINT). Perhaps Ms. Seikel is offering some much needed advice to the plethora of start-ups in the modern era?

Using Frances's new abbreviation, ROI (References of Interest), we find things like the ROSETTA Stone (when I first glanced at the clue, I almost stuck ROlling in there, but clearly incorrect); MEGCABOT, a name I would never have filled in without multiple crossings, and SHARIA crossing ISLAM. Sally ROONEY writes with style, even if I don't always love her plot material.

In any case, I would never give this puzzle ONESTAR. SEEMSOK to me. 3:56, a little slow for a Tuesday.

- Colum

Monday, January 2, 2023, Seth Bisen-Hersh

Debut alert! Congratulations to Mr. Bisen-Hersh for his first published New York Times Crossword puzzle. 

Sad tweet: yours truly has an unpleasant upper respiratory infection. Does not appear to be COVID, by home testing, but who knows. I don't call that a great start to the year, but it was more than offset by the wonderful time I had with Horace and Frances celebrating New Year's. 

Today's puzzle takes the classic song ITHADTOBEYOU (I am most familiar with the Harry Connick, Jr. version, as that was the defining music from "When Harry Met Sally"), and reinterprets the title as "it had 2 B-U." Thus, we get three theme answers with the letter string BU repeated twice. TRIBUTEALBUM (clued with Queen) is great, and BUNSENBURNER gets bonus points for both words starting with the letters in question. HAMBURGERBUN is also fine.

Steve MARTIN

As is usual for a Monday, there are few scintillating clues, but I very much like the fill, and the puzzle plays smoothly. Notable answers include BABKA (yum), ASS (why not?), and GUITARS. 

We were just talking about OPERA the other day. I'd like to get some more opera viewing in my life. Maybe at La Scala, if we're lucky!

Overall a lovely Monday offering, which went by in 2:45.

- Colum

Sunday, January 1, 2023, Adam Wagner, Michael Lieberman and Rafael Musa

IN PLAY

Horace: Happy New Year! The HAFDTNYTCPFCA team is all together today, and at least two of us have done the puzzle, so it will be something of a joint review. 

So it's a new year, but the puzzles continue much as they have since time immemorial. Or at least since, what, the early 1990s? 

Anywho, I'll let Colum talk about the theme, and I'll steal a little thunder by talking about some of the better C/APs like "Food that's easy to get hooked on?" (BAIT), "Stage partitions?" (ACTS) (Hah!), and the lovely "It lacks value" (ZERO). And how about "Big shots they are not" (BBS). Nice Non-QMC. 

Colum here: I am happy to say that the tradition of New Year's Eve has been rekindled for the first time since pre-pandemic times. It's been great to have the rest of the team here in Upstate New York. Not only did we solve today's puzzle, we also solved the recent New York Times Puzzle section metapuzzle together! Good times.

Our theme today finds hidden words inside of longer answers, and then reinterprets those answers in the form of "X in Y." Thus, 31A: Seminal 1980 hit by Joy Division (LOVEWILLTEARUSAPART) has "erupt" hidden inside, which is then reinterpreted at 82A: What characters in musicals often do (BREAKOUTINSONG). Hah! I love that the reparsing clues are in order relating to their respective answers. My favorite is finding "doodle" inside DOCTORDOLITTLE, and then reinterpreting that as PICTUREINPICTURE. 

How many of you thought the fictional doctor's name had two Os in the last name? I was pulled in the wrong direction by Eliza Doolittle from My Fair Lady. But that spelling was not correct for this fake individual.

Horace did not mention my favorite C/AP of the day: 78D: Barely sits still? (POSESNUDE). Beautiful.

To address the elephant in the room (at least in our minds), we've discussed the fate of this blog, and have decided to keep going at least for now. I can't say that we weren't swayed by Mr. Shortz's recent comment.

Here's to a great New Year! May 2023 be better than 2022. 

H: I left that last one for you, Colum. :) And I'll also say that it was really fun to work on that meta-puzzle together. Colum had done a lot of it, but hadn't yet solved the meta-puzzle, and after he explained it to Frannie and me, it only took a very short time for us to work it out together. Good times, indeed. 

And as for the blog... yes. I have been swayed. Happy New Year. :)

Horace & Colum