Wednesday, December 31, 2014, David Woolf

FWOE

First of all, I'd like to thank Colum for stepping in on very short notice to do the last two reviews. Our router gave out, and Verizon kindly offered to UPS a new one, which should arrive in 4 or 5 days. Jerks. (I'm at Colum's house, using his internetz to write this!) Anyway, what I was going to say in today's review, even before the router debacle, is that Colum would be taking over the reviews for the month of January! Frannie's going overseas, and, well, you're probably sick of my drivel. This will provide a nice jolt of "something new" into the whole thing. It was my idea that maybe he and I would trade off months for a while - but I guess I've got to get his ok before actually announcing such a thing. He's a busy guy, with a real job and a family and actual responsibilities, after all, but he's also just crazy enough to agree to do a month, so who knows, maybe we'll get this every-other-month thing going after all. Stay tuned!

But now, let's get down to brass tacks. Cece, Colum and I breezed through this thing in about 8 minutes, but then we didn't get the "Congratulations" page, and spent quite a bit of time questioning things like RAT, and EYRA (41A: South American wildcat), before Frannie finally said - without having the puzzle in front of her - "What about PLAT (54D: Map showing property divisions)"? And what do you know, she was right! PLAT?! Hmpf. We had PLoT, of course, but, of course, that was wrong.

The theme was fun, and I like that Mr. Woolf started the whole thing off with the proper alternative to PRNDL, which is STICK (1A: Manual). The rest of the theme entries were all decent fill. My favorite was GENDERNEUTRAL (34A: *Like you or me), but SWEETNLOW (57A: *Equal rival) wasn't bad. Another one that had a good clue was MAIDS (59A: Some help they are!). Hah!

LIMAPERU (9D: Home of the oldest continuously functioning university in the Americas) was interesting trivia. Who knew? And NAWAB (50D: Muslim princely title)? Wha? It was kind of weird that DENIM (17A: Material that can be acid-washed), LEVI (40D: Big name in jeans), and LEE (47D: Big name in jeans) were all in the same grid - but I suppose that was done intentionally. Derp.

OK, we've gotta get back to the New Year's Eve festivities. Namely, the wine. And the baked brie. Mmmm... baked brie....

Thanks again, Colum, and have fun with the reviews in January. I'll see you in the comments!

- Horace

Tuesday, December 30, 2014, Jeffrey Wechsler

10:52, FWTE

That's correct, finished with two errors. It all came about due to that very poor middle south section. I chose TENto instead of TENOF, a reasonable choice in my opinion. The crosses were helpful only in retrospect. Yes, I should have known that PLt (68A: Olso Accords Grp.) wasn't quite correct, but I forgot (once again) that the PLO were involved in the Oslo Accords. And OOo seemed reasonable, although OOF is clearly superior. Regardless, too much isolation for such blah fill. I mean, who clues HARPO with 54D: ____ Productions (Oprah Winfrey company)? And who cares about OCELO (55D: Big name in kitchen sponges)?

So maybe you've cottoned to the fact that there are some sour grapes going on in the Amory puzzle-solving world. But to be honest, this puzzle lacks something. It starts with the grid which has zero flow because each corner and middle section are almost completely isolated from each other. Then there's the theme with the less than scintillating reveal. I can see that each quartet of circled letters represents a "looped" LOOP, but where's the third looping? I guess it's that all of the quartets of circled letters are in a circle within the grid.

And then, we have to deal with all of the words with LP in them. POOLPUMP, CPL, ALP opposite ALPO, RALPH, PLO. RUMPLE and DIETPLAN are better on the whole than the preceding six. So what did I like? I liked the pair of Food for Fido, perhaps clues (SCRAPS and ALPO), and the matching pair of Toon dogs (one chihuahua, REN, a favorite; one beagle, ODIE, a major dislike). I liked the mention of Hugh LAURIE, an all-time favorite for his pre-House Britcom life.

Meh from me, once again proving that theme density is not a good trade-off for high-quality fill.

- Colum

Monday, December 29, 2014, Peter A. Collins

0:07:15

I have returned! This is Colum, filling in for Horace and Frannie, whose router has apparently betrayed them, such that they are unable to post. Fortunately, they are coming to visit the day after tomorrow to ring in the New Year in sunny Albany, New York, and they can chime in on my witty and urbane musings at that time.

Speaking of which, this was a surprisingly difficult Monday puzzle. Sure 1A: Titanic victim John Jacob ____ (ASTOR) was a gimme, and I filled in the remainder of the NW-most corner until hitting 5D: 1970 John Wayne film (RIOLOBO), crossing 14A: Havana hero José (MARTI) and 21A: ____ nut (Chinese fruit) (LITCHI). And don't we usually spell that "lychee?" Seems litchi chinensis is the scientific name for the genus. Well, no issue, I worked away from it, but many more un-Monday like entries loomed.

MOTT, ROUX, ZEROG, XOUT, SHEP all gave me more than the usual pause. 55A: Second-stringers (BTEAMS) is not okay. A B-team is already made up of second-stringers, plural, You don't need more than one. On the other hand, 13D: Enjoys Joyce, Carroll or Oates (READS) was a fun clue. 30D: Like integers of the form 2n + 1 (ODD) was an oddly long clue for such a short answer, and I liked it.

Which brings us to the theme. I liked all of the answers, although TEACHEST is the poorest fit. And SPELLITOUT is a good revealer. Overall, I'd say not the best Monday, and I think the six theme answers are responsible. For me, fill trumps theme, unless the theme is outstanding, which is not the case today.

- Colum

Sunday, December 28, 2014, Joe Krozel

Fill-In-The-Blanks

After the first couple gimmes - THETOP (1A: Where it's lonely at, it's said) and CABS (7A: Semi parts) - I found it difficult to get much else of substance on my first pass through, and the theme remained completely opaque to me. Luckily, Frannie was able to fill in about 70 percent of the grid, working methodically from top left to bottom right, and she broke the theme with MISSINGPERSON (26A: Su____ic). "Supersonic." I had been thrown off by the use of four underscores, even though that's the same convention we use in this blog for any amount of missing material. Tricky, though, isn't it? Well, it was to me.

When I took it over again, I put in FORFEITEDnAME for 91A: Li____nt, which seemed to work pretty well, but which made GUESSNOT (93D: "So much for that") difficult to work out. Another cross through that word - NONONO (124A: "That's completely wrong, you idiot!") was one that I thought of immediately, but waited to enter until I had a little backup.

So overall, we enjoyed the theme. The clues look a little weird, though, like 50A: ____t (UNUSEDMINUTES). I mean, what is that? … but if you just let it wash over you, it's a fine theme, and a decent execution.

LENOS (25A: Host Jay and family) was a little weak, but there aren't too many other cheap shots. Well, maybe PARTVI (42A: "Friday the 13th" sequel subtitled "Jason Lives"). Wasn't the whole title actually "Friday the 13th, Part VI" and not just "Part VI?" Meh.

Wanted "Mad Libs" for HANGMAN (35D: Fill-in-the-blanks activity), and again, in Hangman the exact number of blanks is important, whereas in Mad Libs, it's just one blank for an entire word. Oh well.

I liked the obscure clue for MEANINGS (24A: Imports), and 17D: Apple picker's pick? (IPODNANO) was pretty tricky! Finally, are they really putting ALOEVERA into drinks now? No more "lotion ingredient" clues?

I guess I sound like I'm complaining a lot here, but we enjoyed it overall. A nice challenging Sunday.

- Horace

Saturday, December 27, 2014, David Phillips

0:33:16

A very smooth Saturday. A couple of gimmes to get the ball rolling (MARIANO (17A: 19-season Yankee Rivera) & ANAHEIM (5D: Home to "The Happiest Place on Earth")) and we were well on our way! Frannie and I passed it back and forth in a relaxed way, ending up in the tricky SE with ADAK (56D: Alaskan island or its principal town) and ADAWARE (59A: Popular pop-up preventer). We took an educated guess on the D and got it right. Yippee!

Loved 33D: Limited expense? (TRAINFARE), 63A: Big name in air circulation? (SKYMALL), HOTTOTROT (12D: Turned on), MAPLELEAF (8D: 11-pointed national symbol), 57D: Pre-texts? (IMS), and VEHEMENCY (34D: Fire). Also enjoyed the pair of "Batting targets" clues resulting in PINATAS and PITCHES. SLAKE (21A: Assuage) and its clue are both lovely words, as are FERAL and 37A: Savage.

We tried OIL/paint at first, of course, for OIL/COLOR (27A: With 46-Down, common canvas coater), and frankly, what is "oil color?" Isn't that really oil paint? So that wasn't great, but there wasn't much else to complain about. Sure, some obscure stuff like KLOSS (7D: Supermodel Karlie), SNELL (52D: Tackle box accessory), and MALTHUS (8A: Economist who wrote "An Essay on the Principle of Population," in 1798), but that's just the kind of thing you're supposed to run into on a Saturday. That and ATARAXY (41D: Serene calmness). And furthermore, we loved ETERNAL (15A: Like Rome, supposedly). And AMOROSO (16A: How one might play a love ballad). And SAIL (54D: Junk mover). HAH! Excellent.

- Horace

Friday, December 26, 2014, Patrick Berry

0:37:02

We tend to enjoy a good Patrick Berry offering, and that's what this was. Not his greatest, but certainly good. The stutter-stepped 14s in the middle around the cutesy RENTMONEY (33A: Letter's capital?) looks very "Patrick Berry-ish" to us. Frannie uses the expression SEATOFTHEPANTS (30A: Based on instinct and guesswork) a lot, and SAVINGSANDLOAN (34A: Thrift) echo's "It's a Wonderful Life" nicely on this, Boxing Day. (See also: MRDEEDS (20A: Frank Capra title character.)

Some good thought in the clueing, as in - 14A: One who gets upset twice (SORELOSER), 39A: Page with many views (OPED), and the ridiculous stretch 57A: In the pit of one's stomach? (EATEN).

In the "things that went right in" category, I got ANGIE (18A: Love ballad from the 1973 album "Goats Head Soup") and Frannie got HERMES (48A: Caduceus carrier) and EMMA (15D: Miss Woodhouse of Highbury), of course. We both wanted FIVE (45A: Maximum on a hurricane wind scale) immediately, but didn't have the confidence to leave it in until we had a cross.

A few ARID (31D: Uninteresting) entries - ICIEST, OVATE, STEN - but SOFTSCIENCE (23D: Psychology or sociology) and INAMORATA (17A: Ladylove) are both great, and the "Hide/Hides" pair was good (PELT/VEILS). Overall, it's a clean, chunky-ish Friday puzzle. Looking at it now, it's hard to find concrete criticisms, but I guess we just expect miracles from Mr. Berry. Perhaps that's unfair. Especially on the day after Christmas.

Thumbs up!

- Horace

Thursday, December 25, 2014, Xan Vongsathorn

0:23:30

I think I was confusing the cassava, which does, indeed, look kind of like a YAM, with a casaba melon, which looks more like a melon. Maybe a visual aid will help me to remember.

But really, I guess, I should have chosen a photo of some mixed nuts, since that's the theme. Frannie figured it out when SP[UTN]IK (26A: Startling newsmaker of 10/4/1957) crossed CH[UTN]EY (37A: Samosa topping) (mmmm.... samosa....) and the rebus was laid bare. It took her another couple, I think, before she figured out the "mixed nut" thing. 

Some favorites from the fill include: ORIGAMI (61A: Artwork from a folder), PE[TUN]IA (40A: Flowery girl's name), and it's always nice to be reminded of 46A: Joe Quimby on "The Simpsons," e.g. (MAYOR). 

Frannie found the near repetition of HAHAS (25D: Rib-ticklers) and HAR (55D: Laugh sound) a bit off-putting, and the same, sort of, with SUDS (23A: Brewskis) and ALE (67A: It may be blonde). Of course, the latter was mitigated by its proximity to another "blonde" clue - 40D: Blonde's secret (PEROXIDE), and there were some other nice pairings, like the TRIED / HEARD set (Presided over, as a case), and the PEN / LEG pair. 

Overall, a few EHS, so not a RAVE review, but the good features OU[TNU]MBER the bad, so we won't throw it into a OPENPIT. OK. I should stop now. Time to go back to looking at all the presents...

- Horace