Friday, June 30, 2017, Damon Gulcynski

41:11
FWOE

I'm sorry to go out on a FWOE, but there you go. I'm a poet and I don't even know it, but my feet show it, they're long fellows. Remember that old chestnut?

My FWOE came where TASSEL (a tarboosh feature, apparently) crossed ANNASUI, or ANNA puey, as I'm going to call her, since she makes perfume. Fashion is apparently not my forte, and even if it were, a scent called Dolly Girl is right out, as Huygens might say.

The whole north west was a problem. 2D. Tower of ____ (classic math puzzle) was either too classic, or not classic enough for me. I've never heard of it (HANOI) . And I love math! Huygens probably dropped that in like an I shaped Tetrimino. And, I was stuck in other parts of New York City for a long time, instead of enjoying myself at the PIZZERIA (21A. Locale in "Do the Right Thing").

I was intrigued by 20D. Humorous as opposed to strange. When I was a kid, when someone in my family said, "a funny thing happened." someone else always said, "funny strange, or funny haha?" Apparently, other people say HAHAFUNNY. Aren't humans wonderful?

Never mind MOANS, a literal groan escaped me when I completed 10D. Food processors, informally (TUMMIES). I'm sorry to even type that in here. I wanted APT at 8A (Prone), but I did not want that. I told Horace I was stuck on that square, and he said, "you're not going to like it." What he said was apt. APT!

My second unfavorite answer was CARRACE for 500, e.g. I like a curve, but that one was a NON.

Anywhoo, it's the thirtieth day of the sixth month, Saturn is in retrograde, and the review is about to enter a new FAZE: Horace takes over tomorrow. Save all your SOPPY encomiums. I'm so OVER it.

NANUNANU.

~Frannie

Thursday, June 29, 2017, Rich Proulx

34:57
FWOE

Sacre bleu it's déjà vu all over again! A French word crossed me up again. Nothing about the clue at 24A. Figure on the top of Paris's Notre-Dame seemed to indicate that un mot français was called for, and I've never heard of Mlle. Hadid, so I guessed ANnE instead of ANGE. Derp.

My favorite theme answer was 27A. Call for cleanup in the Persian Gulf? (BAHRAINWASH). Ha! The other countries heard from were also pretty amusing. I have a soft spot for TAKEMYWIFEBELIZE because it reminds me of my Dad. :)

I also liked 1D. Hunky-dory (JAKE). That's a word you don't hear every day. On the other hand, you don't know how often I hear, "get a load of that suit (EXEC)" at the office. One of these days I will learn to play EUCHRE.

There was quite a lot of good fill throughout, really. My one WEIMAR might be that the clues were a little uneven, ranging from easy peasy ("Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" band at 6A, which everyone knows is WHAM) to ungettable (Supermodel Hadid (GIGI), which no one knows) - oh, wait, maybe that's just me.

And one more thing, Peter Falk feature at 41D. (GLASSEYE)? Are we supposed to talk about that?

~Frannie

Wednesday, June 28, 2017, David Kwong

14:58
FWOE

My FWOE came when ALAIN met LARA. I'm too UNHIP to know who either of the two principals is. I guessed AdAIN and dARA, but when Horace told me the man's name was Alain, I realized I could have made a better guess based on his last name (De Botton). Derp.

I found the theme/quip to be entertainingly meta. I am a fan of portmanteau words and celebrity names to begin with, so making a portmanteau name that is PORTMANTEAU, well, that's a PLUS. Thinking of Natalie and Jacques actually dating is UDDER nonsense. Maybe they met when she was the black swan. :) In any case, it would have been something of a GIGIesque romance, as she had just turned 16 when he died in 1997.

ELSINORE was a nice longish down ("To be, or not to be" soliloquy setting), but its partner in the north (IWANTYOU (Wartime poster phrase)) had less LILT.

If I said the list of crosswordese in this puzzle was ENT LYS, it would be a LYE, but tho there isn't exactly a TON, there's not none: ARP, SSN, GPA, ETA, UNE, ETON. Only epee and eel are AWOL. :) Speaking of which, I haven't seen an eel in the puzzle for quite some time - unless one slipped by me.

~Frannie

Tuesday, June 27, 2017, John Guzetta

10:32

Today's theme is personally apt - APT! Horace and I are going to see a baseball game tonight. I'm hoping that most of the WHIFFSOFSCANDAL, or otherwise, fall to the visiting team's lot, but in sports, there ARNO real guarantees. We'll see which team will GODOWNSWINGING.

The energy of the theme answers is supported by quite a bit of punchy fill like SPEW, CHAOS, DIRK, STYE, WORF, and STAN (kidding about that last one). We also seem to have a Huygensesque mini theme going on with SPANK, KINKY, and, dare I say, ANAL? He might also enjoy SOL and PREALGEBRA, if he's not too mad that there is a thing called PREALGEBRA.

NOLE (Florida State athlete, maybe) and SEGO (State flower of Utah) were not this FAN's FAVORITEs, but it's FEIN.

~Frannie

Monday, June 26, 2017, Brian Greer

8:38

Happy anniversary to "The Philosopher's Stone"! I can't believe it's been 20 years since the first Harry Potter novel was published. Although, I didn't get on the HP bandwagon right out of the gate. I started reading the books after volume 4 came out, when it was no longer possible to communicate with the nieces and nephews if one didn't. :)

In addition to the two theme-related fifteens (THEPHILOSOPHERS and DANIELRADCLIFFE), we have the STONE standing in the middle plus two non-theme clues that end up making HARRY POTTER appear across the bottom of the puzzle. The constructor conjured up some real hocus pocus to get Ms. Rowling's initials to materialize (38A. Alphabet chunk after D-E-F (GHIJK)) - otherwise an almost unforgivable groaner, even on a Monday. The J and K were circled, along with all the letters in 39A. Column's counterpart (ROW) and the LING of LINGO (40A. Specialist's vocabulary) to complete the author's name: J. K.  Rowling. DARWIN also pops up in the grid along with Rowling, possibly making a micro category of authors whose books have been banned.

There are a few good non-theme clues I wand to call out:
12A. Person in a detached state? (ALASKAN) - apt!
52D. Subject of a long sentence? (LIFER) - ha!

To pull this theme out of the hat, a few answers got SAWed in half including  9D. Biblical verb ending (ETH) and 63D. Comparative suffix (IER). Some of the other spells were more shortened: TBA, TSA, ABA, AWOL, AHOT, and ASNEAT. It's an anniversary BASH, tho, so it's OK.

~Frannie

Sunday, June 25, 2017, Jacob Stulberg

Cropped

VEGETABLESHORTENING is the revealer for today's theme. The vegetables BEET, CORN, KALE, CHIVE, TOMATO, and OKRA are squashed into rebus squares in six longer answers. [CH][IV]E was a weird one because it included one letter that wasn't rebused, unlike the rest. This kind of theme makes me wonder where the constructor got the idea for the puzzle in the first place. Was it noticing that COSMOKRAMER contained the word OKRA, or the fact that the word TOMATO appears in SYMPTOMATOLOGY? It's a fine theme, but there's no connection between the vegetable and the clue/answer in which it is found, which makes it less entertaining than some.

My iPad was on the fritz (it's better now, thank you), so Horace and I did this puzzle together on his iPad on the porch of the family beach cottage. Our niece helped us with 4D. NALA (Lion in "The Lion King")  - apparently Scar was another potential candidate - and, as she hails from those parts, Minnesota's state bird (LOON).

I couldn't help thinking that Huygens might have wanted a different answer for 109D. Ta-tas (BYES).

Here are a few answers to which I say AMEN:
121A. Like those who really have guts? (OBESE) - funny.
80D. Do House work (LEGISLATE) - nice not-so-hidden capital
36D. Many a character on "The Big Bang Theory" (TREKKIE) - same.

I was ATSEA when it came to British politician Farage (NIGEL). And I think extreme UNCTION should be called on OVATE (14A. Like most grapes). I would prefer people ovoid that word. :)

~Frannie

Saturday, June 24, 2017, Stu Ockman

41:14

Despite the rather high number above, I filled in the grid with relative EASE for a Saturday, until I hit the south east. I spent at least half the time struggling with my CORSELET and ALTEREGO. And, while I obviously found this corner challenging, it was, ulitmately, when solved, a little DAYTODAYesque.

There was some NEET fill. I love the expression on the DOLE, though the condition it describes is less appealing. AMBLE is a nice word, but the clue (Many a nature walk) left me hearing crickets. 8D. Company with striking footware (TAPDANCERS) had a little twist to it, but nothing to write home about. Often, clues seemded to lack payoff, e.g. 36D. Like tailgates and trapdoors (HINGED) and 2D. Some whipped creams (AEROSOLS). Meh. Maybe it's just me. At 19A, there's a clue with a question mark, usually indicating a little twist (Bean in a pod?). I got it (ALAN) but I don't get it.

I thought it was odd that the puzzle included both ALAN (as mentioned above),= and ALAR (Now-regulated growth regulator) as well as LAALAA (One of the Teletubbies) and LALA (Karaoke stand-in?).

I realized with some disappointment that New Age retreats is another category of things I'm going to have to brush up on.
I HOPETOGOD that's the last one. :)

Overall, I wanted to get my YAYAS out, but I couldn't.

~Frannie