Monday, October 31, 2016, Peter A. Collins

3:24

Happy Hallowe'en! I guess we had our seasonal puzzles last week.

Instead today, we get five examples of song titles whose first two words are repeated. I would like to take this moment to personally rank these five songs by my own level of appreciation of them. Here goes:

1. WILDWILDLIFE. Talking Heads is always a good choice for the top of a list.
2. MERCYMERCYME. Marvin Gaye's music was cool.
3. BYEBYEBLACKBIRD. I have never actually heard this song. I will now take a moment to listen to it on iTunes.
4. I leave this space blank.
5. (tied) REDREDWINE and ICEICEBABY. I can't stand either of these songs.

I like the theme just fine, and I can't think of any other examples of the top of my head (although I'm sure there are plenty). It's impressive to find symmetrically matching answers in terms of length.

The rest of the puzzle is pretty good. There are several slots for long answers going down, and I feel that the chosen words are reasonably interesting. EXCISING and MENSCLUBS are two examples that would be better without the odd end(ing)(s). FRENETIC is fun. There is an odd odious AWN and ODEONS here and there. Twice an answer split across two entries has the second word coming first by clue number (AGE / MODERN and BABA / ALI), which feels off.

But it didn't feel BLAH. So that's good.

1A: Twin city of Raleigh (DURHAM) gets a B+, and was the first answer I put in.

Hey, it's the end of October! Which means tomorrow either Frances or Horace are taking over. I might not be back on blogging duty till January, 2017, so see you next year!

- Colum

Sunday, October 30, 2016, Caleb Madison

UPDATES

It's a one-note theme (aren't they all?), but this seems even more one-note than most. I was confused at first, because I thought 23A: "Fine, see if I care!" (BETHATWAY) was part of the theme. When I saw the revealer clue, I looked at the beginning of that answer and wondered if there would be hidden women's names. And then I realized it wasn't a starred clue, so...

Anyway, I hadn't figured out the revealer, but had many of the starred answers filled in, so I figured it was going to be about big cats in some way. So the revealer made me chuckle, but then it wasn't so interesting any more.

So. MACOPERATINGSYSTEMS. All used to be named after large felines. Now they're all named after things at Yosemite National Park. In each theme answer, the cat name does not refer to the actual animal, but is used in another context. They were fine, just kind of blah. The CHEETAHGIRLS was the only one I'd not heard of, but it looks like I had no reason to, and no further interest at this point to learn more.

There's a cute addition to the theme at 15D: Tech help station (GENIUSBAR), which you'd find in an Apple store. Otherwise a few good answers included ENSCONCES, MOTHRA, and EMMASTONE. I did not like LBARS, YRS (and what a silly clue too), ALER, and SANELY. This last is an adverb that no one has ever used.

I am mixed on TEAMJACOB and DENIERS. I don't want to celebrate Twilight, but the answer is fun. The latter has clear negative connotations, both literally and in reference to people whose heads are in the sand with respect to global warming.

What do people think of the clue for 97D: One plus one? (ELEVEN)? It's not correct in any mathematical system, and just as a literal description of 11, it comes up short, in my opinion.

1A: One talking on the phone, nowadays? (SIRI) is okay. I give it a B. I was thinking of "old-timer", "retro", "hopelessly passé". Both of my children nearly have a panic attack at the thought of having to talk with anyone on the phone, even friends they've known for years. My first answer was the unfortunate 1D: Kemo ____ (SABE).

- Colum

Saturday, October 29, 2016, Patrick Berry

9:58

A very smooth and very flowing themeless, as is to be expected from Mr. Berry. But am I allowed to say I found it a bit boring? Let me see... yes, I think I am allowed to say that. With sincere apologies to the puzzle's creator, whose grids I usually find to be delightful. Just not as much today.

I broke in easily with 1D: Ticket waster (NOSHOW), weirdly supported by my unexpected confidence in WES and OLDS. In no time, I had the entire corner filled in, with the starts of all three long answers in place. So, 1A: Pickup trucks from a foreign-owned company made and sold only in North America (NISSANTITANS).

Huh.

A sort of interesting piece of trivia, but then we get a full brand name, and worse, it's pluralized. I just didn't feel it was worth the opening gambit of the puzzle. Not, as Mr. Chen would say, an asset. I give it a D+.

ONCEUPONATIME is much better. Here is a standard piece of story-telling, in its complete form. I like that. SHOCKRESISTANT is also fine. In terms of the crosses here, I liked that SECTS and CULTS (later on) both are in the grid. TAINTS is a nice word. SMASHINTO is also fine.

I worked down both diagonals at the same time. I definitely found the lower one to be easier. This time, Jack LALANNE came easily to me. The bias of recent crossword exposure. I'm not sure I entirely understand 36A: Metallic stickers (BARBS) - is there something clever here, or is it just like what you'd find on barbed wire? Funny that it crosses CARBS.

The lower trio of long answers is also not outstanding. 50A: Something played at 1980s parties (CASSETTETAPE) is okay. I was hoping for a mix tape, or a dance tape, or something along those lines. I never much called it a cassette tape in real life. VERMONTAVENUE is fun. Boy, I had a hard time figuring it out: I recalled Oriental and Connecticut, but not Vermont, for the life of me.

And then there's ROSANNECONNER. I never knew her character's last name. And I was really going crazy trying to figure it out. I had put in CaVE at 45D: Smuggler's hideaway (COVE), which I think is both natural and reasonable. And I was certainly not sure of the first N in GOANNA. So I had CAN_ER. Roseanne Cancer? Seemed unlikely.

Anyway, once I had those in place, I was able to finish the western side fairly easily. TRIPLESEC is a nice entry, and I do like ELOISE. On the other hand, ALYDAR next to MOLOTOV is a little rough.

- Colum

Friday, October 28, 2016, Mary Lou Guizzo and Jeff Chen

5:25

This went fast! I was astonished to see my time. Did it play easy for others?

I entered the puzzle quickly with SHANIA, a gimme. Some nice answers in the NW, including WHOAWHOA and HARDSELL. 1A: Like the national currency known as the tala (SAMOAN) gets a B for the trivia. Apparently the name is a transliteration of "dollar". It's a bit of a strange piece of cluing, that "known as".

The minitheme, appropriate for the time of year (like yesterday's puzzle), is very cute: ALLHALLOWSEVE crossing LORDVOLDEMORT.

Otherwise, I also liked LIFEHACK, LASERBEAM, and IWONTDOIT. I was astonished to find that the first TEDTALK was given in 1984. Boy, that seems like a long time ago. I guess it wasn't shown on any kind of internet. Turns out it was a conference, and the second didn't happen until 1990.

I guess EREADERS are here to stay. I accept that word much more than any other E- type phrase. ARMPIT and VERBOTEN, on the other hand, I could do without.

I just went through all the clues: there's really not a truly tricky one among them, and I suppose that's what led to the quick time of the solve.

So overall it was fun, but not challenging enough for a Friday, in my opinion.

- Colum

Thursday, October 27, 2016, Milo Beckman

17:44

Wow! Wow, wow, wow.

I got part of the theme early on, in a sense. I came to 22A: Like many celebrity memoirs, and immediately thought of [GHOST]WRITTEN, but didn't see how it was going to fit into the space. Was there going to be a rebus? But even that wouldn't fit.

Later on, when I filled in 35A: Full of ghosts ... like four answers in this puzzle? (HAUNTED), I realized that, in fact, I had been correct about my earlier answer, and found the other three fairly quickly ([GHOST]TOWNS, [GHOST]BUSTERS, and [GHOST]STORY). Still I didn't see the true beauty of the theme.

Because in fact, the ghostly nature of each answer is that you need to ignore their letters to answer the down answers that cross them. It is truly a "ghost" WRITTEN: it's not there.

Or is it? Because in addition to the above, each crossing answer becomes a new genuine word with the addition of the ghostly letter. "Courier" becomes COURTIER. "Holland" becomes HOLYLAND (my personal favorite). "Alums" becomes ALBUMS. Holy cow, that's some serious work going on there.

Sure, there are a few swings and misses: MINTER I did not want to put in. I was going to complain about ISWEAR but I just now realized that I was parsing it as "is wear" rather than "I swear"... very nice. I did not love "Reginal" as a root word, but transitioning it to REGIONAL is lovely.

There are a ton of 3-letter words in the middle of the puzzle, but I didn't mind. LEANONME and TELETHON were two nice additions. Also, the center N and center S each have a triple stack of 7-letter answers that are impressive considering how much they interact with the theme answers.

Whew. I'm exhausted just thinking about the work that went into this. Beautiful work.

Oh, yeah. 1A: Blu-ray ancestor (VCR) - I guess. I wanted DVD, which is more correctly an ancestor of Blu-ray. I give it a C-. My first confident answer (and there were many flails before this one) was FINI at 26A.

- Colum

Wednesday, October 26, 2016, Scott Yut

3:47

It's a debut puzzle today, so welcome to the fold, Mr. Yut! And I love your theme: it's a knee-slapper! Kept me on my toes, so to speak!

Yeah, so, the revealer is SHOWSOMELEG, and I needed i. And it is the purest example of why we don't need circles or shaded squares with a well constructed revealer. Hidden in each of the other three long across answers is a body part related to the leg. In each case, it crosses the two words, just the way we like it.

In terms of the answers themselves, I like TROPICALFRUIT ("calf") and RIDGEMONTHIGH ("thigh") just fine. However, BANKLENDING ("ankle") feels like an ad hoc phrase. Certainly, we'd all accept a "bank loan" as a thing (and many of us, I assume, have accepted a bank loan in his or her life), but this other thing sounds more corporate. In any case, it's not terrible, and I can't think of another example that would work ("Crank lemon"? "Thank Lenny"? "Spank lead"?).

Outside of the theme, I liked STREETCRED, and I liked UMATHURMAN getting her complete name in a grid, rather than just her first name as a piece of crosswordese glue. I also enjoyed AMERICAS symmetrically placed opposite from SUMATRAN, appropriately given their relative places on the world map.

I had very little to complain about. Yes, the NW and the SE corner are replete with crosswordese, and to that point, 1A: Places for hosp. scrubs (ORS) gets a D. It was also my first answer. But I liked the grid overall, and the theme was fun. It was perhaps too easy for a Wednesday.

Oh, it's been some time since HOMEEC was "for-girls-only", hasn't it? I took it in the 70s. Just sayin'.

Thumbs up.

- Colum

Tuesday, October 25, 2016, John E. Bennett

5:40 (FWOE)

Now, nobody likes a good alcohol-related theme more than I do... well, except perhaps Horace.

Right.

Nobody likes a good alcohol-related theme more than Horace or I do. And this one is fun: a circle of different names of alcoholic drinks, shaded in just so you can see that it indeed is a circle. All six exemplars are well chosen. And I like that GIN and STOUT, the two that aren't diagonally displaced, are clued without reference to the drinks.

And yet. And yet. THEROUNDSONME... it almost hits the nail on the head. Only, how does the "on me" fit in? Maybe I'm just being nitpicky. It just bothers me a little.

There is a ton of theme here, and all of those diagonal answers require triple-checked letters, which makes for some challenging fill. Thus, MASTIC. That was my error: I hadn't heard of that before, and I chose an L to start it with, crossing it with 9A: Leaky parts of an old tent, often: SEAlS, right? Well, SEAMS works better, I can see now.

That being said, I like MARIPOSA, HOTMEALS, and JAUNT is very nice also. EAGEREST is fine, although I'd probably say "most eager" in actual conversation.

1A: Common name for a cowboy (DUSTY) is cute, and I'll give it a B. My first answer was 1D: Opposite of births (DEATHS).

Horace and Frances will know that MACHU makes me think of another spirit: Pisco. A pisco sour is a very fine mixed drink.

- Colum