28:20 (FWTE)
It's the last day of July, which means yet another month has slipped by. I will be handing the blogging duties back over to Horace and Frannie, starting tomorrow. Every time I start blogging, I think I might do a theme of the month, but I haven't gotten around to attempting it. Honestly, I'd probably run out of steam well before the end of the first week.
In any case, before turning over the title of crossword14 blogger, I have one final Friday to write about. It's a pretty darned good one, with nice chunky corners and open connections from area to area. My errors came from carelessness, where I had guessed something early on then missed the correction later on.
Things started auspiciously enough with 1A: It often features diva impersonators (DRAGSHOW), which I entered without pause. I figured out 8D: It may be shot on a range (WESTERN), a great clue, and thought I'd be off and running. But no, it was a dead end. I got a little stuck thinking about Ant Man (and Paul Rudd), so ATOMANT took almost until the end of the puzzle to get.
Somehow the next area I got entry to was in the SE. Usually I work in a clockwise fashion in these puzzles. But 60A: Drawer of paradoxes (ESCHER) was a gimme, and I got the wonderful TOODLES off of it. I love 38D: Mouth (LIPSYNC). And 36A: Cry after a holdup (ATLAST) is brilliant. I only just now got that it wasn't about a bank heist.
I got into the SE completely independent. This time my entry was PACHISI. I then confused myself by entering iPad at 40A: What many designers work on (SPEC). You see, I was the one working on an iPad. When I figured that out, I then when with COMMENt instead of COMMEND for "Kudize". I must have been thinking of "kibbutz".
Eventually I worked my way up through the NE and across, with lots of help from Hope, who got both RASCALS and ONLINEAD. My errors came at HULASKIRT, where I had the "hipster dancers" wearing a HULAShIRT, crossing hERB, and at TOdLET for the "reading room" (all our librarian friends are either flipping their lids or nodding sagely at that answer). AdD made sense for "support", but AID makes more sense.
There is a ton of other good stuff in this puzzle. The only downs for me were OMAR and OONA. Two big thumbs up from me, and until I come back in September, STAYDRY!
- Colum
Friday, July 31, 2015
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Thursday, July 30, 2015, Brendan Emmett Quigley
14:20 (FWOE)
One thing this puzzle was not, was PLUGUGLY, as ET59 described yesterday's corners.
I generally am pleased to see Mr. Quigley's name associated with a puzzle. While there are a few answers in today's puzzle that I did not like much, the majority worked very nicely.
It's a cute theme, adding the names of Louisa May ALCOTT's Little Women to phrases to create new silly phrases. The two outstanding answers are the 14-letter answers at 28A and 44A (BIGAMYBUSINESS and MACBETHNCHEESE). The other two are not as funny, but work all right. The answers are also balanced in that two of them add the name at the end of the phrase while the other two add the name in the middle. I also liked that the revealer is the simple addition of the author's name.
Things started off well with 1A: Chronicler of the English Restoration, which could only mean Samuel PEPYS ("and so to bed..."). 4D: Something to meditate on (YOGAMAT) is delightfully straightforward, and un-question-marked. UNEARTH is a very nice word, as is KNELLED. 12D: Ones in the closet? (MOTHS) was unexpected, and slightly disturbing.
I had some difficulty with 15A: Baby ____ (MAMA), and I didn't want JAMUPS to be correct, because that's not such a great answer. LANATE, ACCRUAL, MACRON, and ILEAC were unusual and not very aesthetic. I wanted ILEAl for the last one. My error came at 58D: Cartoonist Mayerik who co-created Howard the Duck (VAL). I had VAd, which seemed to work for 65A: "Follow" (HEEL), since I had HEEd.
29D: One doing the dishes? (YENTE) is a cute clue for an all-too-common crosswordy answer. Some good clues for 3-letter answers include: 25A: Booster for a band (AMP), 33A: School closing? (ELL, and it took me too long to get), and 6D: Small price to pay? (AMT), which was a very clever way to get around an "Abbr." marking.
I liked the entire SE corner, and it's amusing that 60D: Last ____ (ONE) is in fact the last clue.
The more I look at it, the less I like some of these things, but I still enjoyed the puzzle overall.
- Colum
One thing this puzzle was not, was PLUGUGLY, as ET59 described yesterday's corners.
I generally am pleased to see Mr. Quigley's name associated with a puzzle. While there are a few answers in today's puzzle that I did not like much, the majority worked very nicely.
It's a cute theme, adding the names of Louisa May ALCOTT's Little Women to phrases to create new silly phrases. The two outstanding answers are the 14-letter answers at 28A and 44A (BIGAMYBUSINESS and MACBETHNCHEESE). The other two are not as funny, but work all right. The answers are also balanced in that two of them add the name at the end of the phrase while the other two add the name in the middle. I also liked that the revealer is the simple addition of the author's name.
I had some difficulty with 15A: Baby ____ (MAMA), and I didn't want JAMUPS to be correct, because that's not such a great answer. LANATE, ACCRUAL, MACRON, and ILEAC were unusual and not very aesthetic. I wanted ILEAl for the last one. My error came at 58D: Cartoonist Mayerik who co-created Howard the Duck (VAL). I had VAd, which seemed to work for 65A: "Follow" (HEEL), since I had HEEd.
29D: One doing the dishes? (YENTE) is a cute clue for an all-too-common crosswordy answer. Some good clues for 3-letter answers include: 25A: Booster for a band (AMP), 33A: School closing? (ELL, and it took me too long to get), and 6D: Small price to pay? (AMT), which was a very clever way to get around an "Abbr." marking.
I liked the entire SE corner, and it's amusing that 60D: Last ____ (ONE) is in fact the last clue.
The more I look at it, the less I like some of these things, but I still enjoyed the puzzle overall.
- Colum
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Wednesday, July 29, 2015, David J. Lieb
9:24
I don't want to get jaded or anything. There were some good things about this puzzle. It's 16 by 16, which gives a little more room for the six theme answers. DOUBLEDOUBLE is okay (not as good an answer as "triple double" would be from a basketball perspective). The other 5 theme answers are solid phrases, and the use of "double" before each word makes a solid new phrase. Nothing very amusing or surprising about any of them.
GOLDENBOY is a fine answer. I like 9D: Like some showers (BRIDAL). 13D: It lacks depth (PLANE) is cute. It's unusual to have a puzzle with this guy in it:
But there are an awful lot of proper names: AGNEW, ABRAM, ABBAS, EUBIE (?), THERESA, KYLE, NEGEV. And the puzzle starts on the wrong foot with UPCAST. Blah.
I guess that's the way I felt about this puzzle. Just not that exciting.
- Colum
I don't want to get jaded or anything. There were some good things about this puzzle. It's 16 by 16, which gives a little more room for the six theme answers. DOUBLEDOUBLE is okay (not as good an answer as "triple double" would be from a basketball perspective). The other 5 theme answers are solid phrases, and the use of "double" before each word makes a solid new phrase. Nothing very amusing or surprising about any of them.
GOLDENBOY is a fine answer. I like 9D: Like some showers (BRIDAL). 13D: It lacks depth (PLANE) is cute. It's unusual to have a puzzle with this guy in it:
But there are an awful lot of proper names: AGNEW, ABRAM, ABBAS, EUBIE (?), THERESA, KYLE, NEGEV. And the puzzle starts on the wrong foot with UPCAST. Blah.
I guess that's the way I felt about this puzzle. Just not that exciting.
- Colum
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Tuesday, July 28, 2015, Caleb Emmons
5:42 (FWTE)
Well.
Hmmm.
I've got nothing against a good gimmick. And there is something impressive about a puzzle that uses only one vowel per row, in order of AEIOU, then does it again, and then again. So I acknowledge the artistry of the gimmick. But that's what it feels like in the end, a gimmick, in large part because of the compromises that have to be made to make it work.
Let me start with my errors, which came in the same word. I don't know why I thought CSI would be Cis. That stands for "clinically isolated syndrome" in Neurology, which is the first episode of symptoms in what might or might not become multiple sclerosis down the line. Regardless, it's not a television show, so all of that is just hot air.
Why might I have made that error? Well, let's see. 35D: Make a sibilant sound (SISS). This is not a word. This is not a sound. This is not anything. It has no place in the crossword puzzle. I had SsSS. That at least, somewhat makes sense. I'll admit that what I had at 34D: Call in place of a nudge (PSST) was PiST, and I knew that couldn't be right, but I went with it for some reason.
Other than that issue, the rest is essentially fine, but filled with multiple blah entries. Such as SSTS, RRR, TKT, TWOUP (never heard of it, and had to guess at the last letter), ARIL.
There are some fun answers, especially in the long acrosses. PHILIPIII is crazy looking. THECREEPS is good. I love POLTROON. It's right up there with "Nimrod" from yesterday. AAAMAP is barely acceptable, but I like the way it looks. 5D: Person with lines (ACTOR) is a cute little misdirect.
So, on the whole, okay, but that section mentioned above ruined it.
- Colum
Well.
Hmmm.
I've got nothing against a good gimmick. And there is something impressive about a puzzle that uses only one vowel per row, in order of AEIOU, then does it again, and then again. So I acknowledge the artistry of the gimmick. But that's what it feels like in the end, a gimmick, in large part because of the compromises that have to be made to make it work.
Why might I have made that error? Well, let's see. 35D: Make a sibilant sound (SISS). This is not a word. This is not a sound. This is not anything. It has no place in the crossword puzzle. I had SsSS. That at least, somewhat makes sense. I'll admit that what I had at 34D: Call in place of a nudge (PSST) was PiST, and I knew that couldn't be right, but I went with it for some reason.
There are some fun answers, especially in the long acrosses. PHILIPIII is crazy looking. THECREEPS is good. I love POLTROON. It's right up there with "Nimrod" from yesterday. AAAMAP is barely acceptable, but I like the way it looks. 5D: Person with lines (ACTOR) is a cute little misdirect.
So, on the whole, okay, but that section mentioned above ruined it.
- Colum
Monday, July 27, 2015
Monday, July 27, 2015, D. Scott Nichols and Zhouqin Burnikel
3:38
Ahhh... that's more like it. I came so close, too!
I did not get the theme while I was solving. I generally don't like to spend too much time looking at the long answers on a Monday because it can really derail you. It almost happened today with GEORGETENET, a name I would never have been able to pull out of thin air, but recognized just fine once it was filled in. As PALINDROMES was the last entry I filled, I got the aha moment after I finished, which is better.
So, four full names, which is nice, including three women, all quite well known to my generation, perhaps less so to younger folks. After all, MONICASELES played her last professional match in 2003, and is unfortunately best remembered for being stabbed. YOKOONO is quite active in art and music circles, as well as being highly politically active, but is still best known for her relationship to John Lennon. DARYLHANNAH I've not heard of since her role in Kill Bill One man, who, as I've noted above, was also recognizable. He served from 1997 to 2004. That's all. And that gets him the title of "second-longest-serving director" of the CIA, behind Alan Walsh Dulles, of Dulles airport fame.
Actually, the fill skews older as well. Outside of RORY McIlroy, Barack OBAMA, and possibly EMO, most of the references are hardly relevant now. REM's biggest days were in the 1980s. Jean-Luc PICARD last had a TV show in 1994. AMY Tan's book The Joy Luck Club came out in 1989, although she's written plenty since then. DESI, ERROL, MOE, NOLTE... ARARAT?
MAVEN and NIMROD are great words. I eat GRANOLA almost every morning. And I'm out.
- Colum
Ahhh... that's more like it. I came so close, too!
I did not get the theme while I was solving. I generally don't like to spend too much time looking at the long answers on a Monday because it can really derail you. It almost happened today with GEORGETENET, a name I would never have been able to pull out of thin air, but recognized just fine once it was filled in. As PALINDROMES was the last entry I filled, I got the aha moment after I finished, which is better.
Actually, the fill skews older as well. Outside of RORY McIlroy, Barack OBAMA, and possibly EMO, most of the references are hardly relevant now. REM's biggest days were in the 1980s. Jean-Luc PICARD last had a TV show in 1994. AMY Tan's book The Joy Luck Club came out in 1989, although she's written plenty since then. DESI, ERROL, MOE, NOLTE... ARARAT?
MAVEN and NIMROD are great words. I eat GRANOLA almost every morning. And I'm out.
- Colum
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Sunday, July 26, 2015, Ellen Leuschner and Jeff Chen
NO ESCAPE
There's an awful lot to like about this puzzle, but there are also a few flaws that come close to being fatal. Let's take it one element at a time.
First of all, the theme. I figured out what was going on when I got to 44D: Tire hazard (POT[HOLE]). I had already filled in 36D: Tax dodger's discovery (LOOP[HOLE] - and I'm not sure that clue is exactly correct - after all, loopholes are legal), but initially assumed that it was some weird shorthand. I like this kind of theme in general - we've seen variations on it in the past.
But it definitely got better when I got to the East side of the central hole and realized that gravity had turned the answers backwards. That's a nice piece of crosswordery, if I can coin a word. Obviously, the answers in the South section go from bottom to top as well. The twelve examples of words or phrases ending in [HOLE] were all acceptable examples.
I also like the four long theme answers that relate in some way to black holes. HEARTOFDARKNESS, FATALATTRACTION, and CENTEROFGRAVITY all act as sideways definitions of the phenomenon, while DISAPPEARINGACT is more of a description of what happens if you get too close.
So I liked the theme quite a bit. The fill worked for the most part. In fact, the puzzle was a bit of rapid romp for me, up until I hit the SW corner, which seemed like it was at a level of difficulty higher than the rest. Of course, if I knew that LEANNRIMES had written that song, it would have been easier. ORAN was unusually clued with reference to Casablanca. ENID was a name from Arthurian legend I was not familiar with.
But the fatal issue was this: 108D: "Darn!" (DRAT) had already been filled in. Then you get to 87A: "Aargh!" (DARNIT). That's not allowed. And it would have been so easy to fix by cluing 108D with something like "Curses!" 87A was not made easier by the arcane plural of IAMBI. That's acceptable, apparently, but it's not the standard choice. It should be iambs, and I'll stick to that.
Otherwise, there's good stuff elsewhere in the grid. 13D: Change places (COINPURSES) is fun. 28A: Remove a piece from? (UNARM) is clever, although I'd prefer "disarm". 93A: 50 or more people? (AARP) is also nice, except for the fact that you start getting mail from an association designed for retired people at the age of 50.
KRAKENS is a great word (although I thought it was a singular beast, not given to running in herds, as there was supposed to be only one). Weird to see SCALA without "la" and LATOSCA with it. Typically we would have cross-referenced the one to the other, except this time they're talking about the original French play instead of the Puccini opera. Speaking of which, I got my classical fix with DEBUSSY.
22D: Greens ___ (FEE) got a "huh?" from me: apparently it's the fee to golf. OHMAGE is also a head scratcher. I understand it's referring to the unit of electrical resistance. I'm pretty sure nobody outside of electrical engineers use it.
A mixed bag. I wanted to really like it, but the SE made it untenable in the end.
- Colum
There's an awful lot to like about this puzzle, but there are also a few flaws that come close to being fatal. Let's take it one element at a time.
First of all, the theme. I figured out what was going on when I got to 44D: Tire hazard (POT[HOLE]). I had already filled in 36D: Tax dodger's discovery (LOOP[HOLE] - and I'm not sure that clue is exactly correct - after all, loopholes are legal), but initially assumed that it was some weird shorthand. I like this kind of theme in general - we've seen variations on it in the past.
But it definitely got better when I got to the East side of the central hole and realized that gravity had turned the answers backwards. That's a nice piece of crosswordery, if I can coin a word. Obviously, the answers in the South section go from bottom to top as well. The twelve examples of words or phrases ending in [HOLE] were all acceptable examples.
So I liked the theme quite a bit. The fill worked for the most part. In fact, the puzzle was a bit of rapid romp for me, up until I hit the SW corner, which seemed like it was at a level of difficulty higher than the rest. Of course, if I knew that LEANNRIMES had written that song, it would have been easier. ORAN was unusually clued with reference to Casablanca. ENID was a name from Arthurian legend I was not familiar with.
Otherwise, there's good stuff elsewhere in the grid. 13D: Change places (COINPURSES) is fun. 28A: Remove a piece from? (UNARM) is clever, although I'd prefer "disarm". 93A: 50 or more people? (AARP) is also nice, except for the fact that you start getting mail from an association designed for retired people at the age of 50.
22D: Greens ___ (FEE) got a "huh?" from me: apparently it's the fee to golf. OHMAGE is also a head scratcher. I understand it's referring to the unit of electrical resistance. I'm pretty sure nobody outside of electrical engineers use it.
A mixed bag. I wanted to really like it, but the SE made it untenable in the end.
- Colum
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Saturday, July 25, 2015, Kevin G. Der
48:06
Wow, this was a tough one! The clues were uniformly tricky, and even when I had an idea what they were getting at, the crosses were also so difficult that it sometimes took a break and coming back to the puzzle to get my brain in the right tack.
I broke into the puzzle with VIOLASOLO, an answer that was probably a "huh?" for most people, but which for me was straightforward as both my brother and his wife are professional violists. I tried smoOch at 31A: Sloppy kiss (WETONE), but figured out that was wrong when I put STAGESETS in. 26A: Loaded things? (BASES) took a while to figure out, especially since I wanted "peres" or "meres" for 26D: Members of la famille (BEBES). I never heard of a BIBELOT, so that took forever. And I misread 35A: Modern composer's constructions (TONEROWS) as "instructions".
Anyway, I had the entire NE filled in pretty quickly, so I thought things would go smoothly. Unfortunately not. I had TEENPOP going down into the SE, but I had BOXSters (?) at 33D: Some sports figures (BOXSCORE). I love that clue, especially as it misleads you into thinking the answer will end with an S. Finally, I guessed BAEZ for 45D, which enabled BOUNCEHOUSE. I actually think of those as bounce castles, but the entry googles well.
49A: Stopgap for an energy shortage (POWERNAP) is outstanding. I did not see it coming at all. The SE has very nice words in it, including ORANGINA, and ASANA right next to NEPAL.
Still, even with TIBIAS, _ALVES, and SNEEZE, I couldn't get any traction in the SW. It took a long time to see LIBRARIAN (sorry, Frannie), and 29D: Kosher (ALLOWABLE) was a tough get also. But the prize goes to 27D: Dog washers? (FOOTBATHS). Couldn't see it for the longest time! It took the breakthrough of seeing HOLY/GRAIL to open that section and finally break the rest of the NW.
Wow, this was a tough one! The clues were uniformly tricky, and even when I had an idea what they were getting at, the crosses were also so difficult that it sometimes took a break and coming back to the puzzle to get my brain in the right tack.
I broke into the puzzle with VIOLASOLO, an answer that was probably a "huh?" for most people, but which for me was straightforward as both my brother and his wife are professional violists. I tried smoOch at 31A: Sloppy kiss (WETONE), but figured out that was wrong when I put STAGESETS in. 26A: Loaded things? (BASES) took a while to figure out, especially since I wanted "peres" or "meres" for 26D: Members of la famille (BEBES). I never heard of a BIBELOT, so that took forever. And I misread 35A: Modern composer's constructions (TONEROWS) as "instructions".
Anyway, I had the entire NE filled in pretty quickly, so I thought things would go smoothly. Unfortunately not. I had TEENPOP going down into the SE, but I had BOXSters (?) at 33D: Some sports figures (BOXSCORE). I love that clue, especially as it misleads you into thinking the answer will end with an S. Finally, I guessed BAEZ for 45D, which enabled BOUNCEHOUSE. I actually think of those as bounce castles, but the entry googles well.
49A: Stopgap for an energy shortage (POWERNAP) is outstanding. I did not see it coming at all. The SE has very nice words in it, including ORANGINA, and ASANA right next to NEPAL.
Still, even with TIBIAS, _ALVES, and SNEEZE, I couldn't get any traction in the SW. It took a long time to see LIBRARIAN (sorry, Frannie), and 29D: Kosher (ALLOWABLE) was a tough get also. But the prize goes to 27D: Dog washers? (FOOTBATHS). Couldn't see it for the longest time! It took the breakthrough of seeing HOLY/GRAIL to open that section and finally break the rest of the NW.
- 7D: Sliding door locales (MINIVANS) - very nice and not what I was thinking of at all.
- 8D: Sting, e.g. (BASSIST) - I'd tried British multiple times.
- 2D: Northern hemisphere? (IGLOO) - lovely.
- 1A: One waiting to go off (TIMEBOMB) - I knew there had to be a bomb in here, but the answer is so perfect for the definition.
- 25A: Majors, e.g. (BRASS) - very tricky!
The 3-letter answers in this puzzle are:
- ITS: common contraction, easily gettable from the clue, even though I don't know the song
- LAG: common word, clued well enough.
- ROM: dated word in just about every way. Who records on disks any more? Streaming, baby. That's where it's at.
- IVE: common contraction, also easily gettable from the clue.
- ARA: crosswordese, but really really really hard to get from the clue, which refers to a constellation, Norma, I've never heard of before.
- TRU: title of a Broadway play that I got from the crosses.
Not bad, and the rest of the puzzle is an outstanding challenge.
- Colum
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