Sunday, January 14, 2024, John Kugelman

ER, IN OTHER WORDS

It's one of those "Normal phrases re-interpreted" themes today, where a thing like the standard JUNKDRAWER is given "Erotic artist?" as a clue, and "Farmers?" is answered by CHICKENTENDERS. Where a "Switch hitter?" is a FLICKEROFLIGHT (hah!) and "Animal tranquilizer?" clues NUMBEROFTHEBEAST. And the best, of course, is saved for last - "With 117-Across, the Grim Reaper?" = ANOFFERYOU CANTREFUSE. Not bad at all. :)

This took me a little longer than a Sunday usually does, and in the end I finished with a couple mistakes - I didn't know "Yesterday, in Spanish" (AYER), and "Street magician?" (WANDERAROUNDTOWN) just wasn't coming to me. You probably didn't have such difficulties.

Let's see, what else? I hadn't heard the slogan "Let me be perfectly QUEER" before. That's a good one. And I didn't realize that Anthony Hopkins only had 16 minutes of screen time when he won BESTACTOR for "The Silence of the Lambs." The record, in case you're interested, is five minutes and forty seconds, for Beatrice Straight's performance in "Network" (1976). 

And what's the name for a word that can sound different and mean different things? "Appropriate" is a good example. I kept thinking "apt" or something like that, but it's the SEIZE meaning that they wanted today. Heteronym. That's it.

Another one that got me for a long time was "Pan handle?" (PETER). Hah. 

How did you enjoy it?

- Horace

Saturday, January 13, 2024, Hoang-Kim Vu

I think one sign that you may have spent too much time doing crosswords is that, when you come across the clue "Crag," you immediately enter TOR. ...

In other news, I feel like there was a mini love theme in here. One is ENAMORED (Smitten), then finds TRUELOVE (Romantic's quest), says YESIDO, becomes ASONE, then takes a BABYMOON (Trip before a delivery), before buying a ONESIE (First garment, perhaps). Or maybe that's just me.

Strong C/APs today included "Sound in a clearing?" (AHEM), "Ascribe, as blame" (IMPUTE) (fancy!), "Take a round trip" (ORBIT), "One called to go places" (CAB), and the amusingly straightforward "Something you might kick" (ASS). 

The grid is run through by three lively, vertical 15-letter pins: THISISPOINTLESS ("Aargh, why bother?!"), ABOVEMYPAYGRADE ("That's why you get the big bucks and not me"), and TOOKITONTHECHIN (Stoically endured misfortune), and there's very little that I find to complain about.

Overall, a decent Saturday.

- Horace

Friday, January 12, 2024, Hemant Mehta

Lots of multi-word answers today. MYFAULT, HIDDENFEES, UPTONOGOOD, TINSELTOWN, BOOTYCALLS, STUFFYNOSE, SHOOKTHINGSUP, OHITSONNOW, BORETHECOST, RANAT, SINGTO, BLOTOUT, ONAROLL, SPOILEDROTTEN, and BANNEDBOOKS (Merriam-Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary and "Where's Waldo?," once, surprisingly). That's a lot! And can't we all see that it's too late for us when people are trying to ban dictionaries? I mean, we don't need to read OPEDS about this to realize that it's AKIN to mob RULE do we? What's next? A COUP? The president's head on a PIKE? I suppose it's all a CYCLE, and LORDY I CRINGE to think of the FUTURA. Get out and VOTE sheeple! If that day-glo megalomaniac wins this fall we will all get what we deserve. 

Wow, that got dark fast. Really got my DANDER up. And here I am supposed to be talking about a simple crossword puzzle! 

So what else ... I always feel that the puzzle is on the easy side when I review it afterward and find that there were clues I didn't even read. Today one such was "Sexy growl" (RAWR). Sorry to have missed that one! :)

And a FLOAT is a weird concept, isn't it? If somebody asked me if I wanted milk in my root beer I would think they were insane. But drop a scoop of ice cream in there? Yes please. 

- Horace

Thursday, January 11, 2024, Damon Gulcynski

Isn't it funny that this puzzle comes right on the heels of yesterday's? But did it help me with the theme? No. Not until I got to the revealer, that is. And how nicely it is tucked away in the corner there. Beautiful. And another beautiful thing about this theme? The fact that the first answer "Cause of irritated eyes" (BADBREAKUP) makes sense as it is. When I got that filled in, I wondered why it even had an asterisk. Then "Many lovers, e.g." didn't really make sense for CATPEOPLE, but as usual, my mind sort of made it work. "Sure, some people love cats. What? What about the e.g.? Just forget about that... nothing to see here."

By the time I got to "Mayim of entertainment" (THESHOWMUSTGOON), I was just ignoring those theme answers altogether. Finally, 69A is "Basic linear expression with a hint to answering the five starred clues in this puzzle." And you know what? I got the rebus from the Down - "How peers should be treated" (AS[EQUALS]). So then the Across answer is Y=X, and suddenly all those clues look a lot different. It's not "Many lovers, e.g." it's "Manx lovers, e.g.", and "Maxim of entertainment." Very nice.

My favorite clue today might be "Try to see?" (WOO). That's good. And there's a funny little pairing of EAST and EDEN (Steinbeck title starter and ender). "One of three for a grand" was cute for PIANOLEG. I thought first of "zeros," of course, but it was way too short. Heh.

Seemed on the easy side overall, but it's a fun theme. 

- Horace

Wednesday, January 10, 2024, Chloe Revery and Alissa Revness

I enjoy this kind of theme, where a regular change in spelling results in absurd clue/answer pairs. So instead of the expression "No great shakes," we get NOGREATCAKES, which is clued as a "Review for a so-so bakery?" Hah! And why does the "sh" change to a "c"? Because, as the revealer tells us, SHARINGISCARING. My favorite might be "Completes a superhero transformation?" (GETSINTOCAPE) because of the stiltedness of the answer. Wacky. Just like we like.

MITT (It's catching) is a lovely Non-QMC. See also "It's often in stock" (BONE). (Soup stock.)

"'Magic that works,' per Vonnegut" is a fun clue for SCIENCE. "What's tolerated by every body?" is a tricky one for TYPEO, and I tried "ski" for "Runner on the ground?" (RUG), but that was eventually fixed by RAGU (Meaty pasta sauce), with its false capital - the ragu they're referring to is simply an Italian word, not the brand.

Yesterday we were told that octopi have way more neural connections than humans, and now we learn that the ORCA has the most gray matter of any mammal. It kind of makes me wonder why we do not eat ORCA. I mean, we eat pretty much everything else that lives and breathes. What's so special about them? I mean, aside from all that gray matter?

Finally, UPSA? "UPSA-daisy?" OK. You can have it. But only because I enjoyed the theme so much.

- Horace

Tuesday, January 9, 2024, Adam Wagner

In the immortal words of Amy Reynaldo, "Tuesdays gonna tuez." In today's TUESDAY theme, we have phrases containing abbreviations for two days. And together, the three phrases contain abbreviations for every day except TUESDAY, which is given as the revealer. "Part of a calendar septet, and a phonetic hint to this puzzle's theme." Sooo... twos days? I meannnnn, it kinda works? What am I missing?

What else. GNOTE (Thousand-dollar bill, slangily)? Hmmm... this is currency that was discontinued in 1969. The $100 bill has been the largest note in use since then. Do I sound like a DORK for saying that? 

"Ocean creatures with nearly triple the neural wiring of humans" = OCTOPI. I have said for a while now that I don't eat octopus because I don't want to be eating anything smarter than myself. And honestly... "triple?!" Yeesh. Humans should wise up and try to be friends with OCTOPI instead of trapping them and killing them. Open your EYES people! We are not doing this DANCE of living on our own.

I liked "Plus-or-minus one?" for ION, "Prepared for an oral exam?" (SAIDAH) and "Lei man's term?" (ALOHA) were amusing, and WENTKABOOM (Exploded) was unexpected and fun. There was a little weirdness with the abbreviations clustered in the south central area (ROTO, UNI, GUAC, PEI, PREOP), the alternate spelling of DAO ("The Way," in Chinese Pinyin), and the plural KMARTS, but overall, I enjoyed it well enough.

- Horace

Monday, January 8, 2024, Nate Cardin

Dear Reader, this is NOTMYFIRSTRODEO, but it is the first time I've broken three minutes on a crossword puzzle. Yup - 2:54 today. Not too shabby for an old POET. 

OK, enough with the ONEUP nonsense. I don't want to drive a WEDGE between me and any readers, and I don't want to put any EGOS in a PANIC. I have had my OWN little moment, and now it's time to move on.

WHATNOW? Right... the puzzle. It's got a rip roarin' rodeo theme! Featuring the SANANTONIOSPURS, a PORKBARREL, REDBULLS, TEDLASSO, and a CLASSCLOWN. That's a lot, and with the revealer it includes two grid spanners! Very nice. 

ALSO, a nod of RESPECT to our Canadian correspondent with the inclusion of POUTINE! We also get a little blue material with PEEP, SEXT, ORAL, and ONIT. Oops... TMI?

This was fun. The week - and 2024 - are starting out well.

- Horace