Monday, April 30, 2018, Bruce Haight

0:04:28

Who doesn't love an underwear-themed puzzle? No one, that's who. As a longtime disc golfer and ultimate player, I ought to like DISCJOCKEYS (24A: Underwear for Frisbee enthusiasts?) the best, and it's not bad, but AMATEURBOXERS (34A: Underwear for beginners?) is my favorite. I've never really understood the idea of a "training bra," but if we're going to have the one, I think it would be nice if AMATEURBOXERS actually existed too, to even the playing field a bit.

 

There are quite a few SOLIDS in the fill, including ORGANISM (3D: Any living thing), AMRADIO (42D: It goes from about 540 to 1700), NOODLE (43D: Casserole bit), and REFEREES (37D: Whistle blowers). There are quite a few colloquialisms - WHOA (23D: "Stop right there!"), TOLDYA (12D: "See, I was right!"), HUMPH (32D: "Well, I never!"), AAH (56D: "How relaxing!"), and EWW (50A: "Gross!"), for example, and just a few entries ITD be better to ignore, like ILIAC, IDI, OTS, and INANER.

Frannie and I are driving around Europe this week, and going through ANTWERP is never all that fun. Still, as I said, we're driving around Europe this week, so I guess I can't really complain too loudly. :)

Overall, this was a fun Monday. I always appreciate a mini drinking theme: SHOTS, TIPSY, ALE, and THIRST ("They talk of my drinking, but never my THIRST...), and speaking of that, it's time to get in the car and head down into the Armagnac region!

See you tomorrow.

- Horace

Sunday, April 29, 2018, Peter Wentz

MIS-UNABBREVIATED

Lately we've been having the person who has been blogging all week start the Sunday review, and then the person who will take over does the second half, but I take over next week, and it's almost midnight where I am, so I'm going to start the review, and Colum can finish it.

I like most of the theme answers today, but I'm not sure I buy P.C. LAB as a thing. Computer Lab, sure, but PC Lab? Hmph. The others are better. I, myself, on many occasions, have shouted out PUBLICSCHOOLILOVEYOU!, and the idea of WATERCLOSETFIELDS is amusing, if odd. Too odd, really.

I had a lot of trouble with the  POWELL/DANO/DWI/LSU section. I don't know the actor, and Colin POWELL took me forever to remember. Similarly, it took me until just now to understand "Checkpoint offense, for short." It's an offense to be driving while intoxicated!

SMEARY didn't really SITWELL, but I'll get over it. There was plenty of good stuff, too. Remember JANEPAULEY? Those were the days... before 911... back when bad politics didn't seem so bad...

Anyway, I'm looking forward to taking over for real tomorrow. See you then!

- Horace

Saturday, April 28, 2018, Andrew Kingsley and John Lieb

13:33

When I reached the end of answers I either knew outright or had figured out with the help of a few crosses, and then intuited answers from patterns of letters, I was left with no fewer than three areas of blankness. The NE, SW, and SE corners all resisted completion, and there was going to be no help from any other ways into them.

The first of the three to fall was the SE. I've heard of RAMIMALEK, but never seen his show, and his name was not leaping to mind. I already had TRILOBITE in place, along with AMELIA, both of which were gimmes. Finally, I got SEXYBEAST, and the rest followed. Resisting me heavily were DEMOB, a Britishism even I, a duly verified Anglophile, was unaware of, and Tony SARG. Who? Apparently, only the father of modern puppetry in America. Huh. Learn something new, and be happy for it.

I got the SW corner next. I had guessed at OMEGAman for 38D: Lowest one in the pack (OMEGADOG), and now looking back at the clue, I don't know how I missed the obvious reference to canines. I had also guessed NICEwork for 37D: "Good going!" (NICEMOVE). I think the quotation is too general for a specific move, in my mind, but let that go, as Jack Point said. Anyway, when I took out eVade and replaced it with AVOID, that corner was done. By the way, I'd say SEGNO really ought to be a partial with "Da _____".

Finally, the NE corner. I thought this would be simple when I put in PIXYSTIX (love it) and PROXIES. Even with TOKYO and THARP in place, 13D RESISTED my efforts. I never would have guessed Fu-HSI. Finally I got OILER in place, and the rest was ALLTHERE.

I really like a lot of the entries here. NOPUNINTENDED is excellent. I object to the clue for 1A. I refuse to believe that any society will ever be POSTTRUTH, all current evidence to the contrary. We will swing back. We have to.

Or IMAGONER.

Peace out,

- Colum

Friday, April 27, 2018, David Steinberg

14:24

It's an amusing start to today's puzzle, where 1A: Ready to explode (SEETHING) crosses 1D: Hallucinate (SEETHINGS). Mr. Steinberg, you're playing around with the limits of duplication in a grid!

Beyond that, this is a very well constructed grid. The two 13-letter answers are both great, with my favorite being ICANTAKEAHINT. The two 15-letter down answers are also strong. I prefer 12D: What 90% of American households had in 2010 - but fewer have today (CABLETELEVISION), for the fun clue.

On the whole, there are fewer clever clues than I've come to expect in a Steinberg creation. The two clues for sports organizations get there: 31A: Wild grp. (NHL) didn't fool me for a second. I was actually glad for it, because I'd entered "grandjete" at 2D: Showy ballet leap (ENTRECHAT). The other, 63D: Houston is in it, but Dallas isn't, briefly (AFC), is fine.

DeShaun Watson plays for the Houston Texans

The funny set of black squares in the middle of the puzzle create a lot of 3-letter answers, odd for a themeless puzzle. But the only answer I was hardly ENTRANCEd by was 26A: Smooth talker's quality (PATNESS). Hmm. I have never heard this word before. When I google this, I find that it means "the quality of being pat: aptness, opportuneness, suitability." Those qualities don't seem like ones I associated with a smooth talker.

That being said, I like that "pat" is an anagram of "apt." Apt!

I think I'd like to spend some BEERMONEY now.

- Colum

Thursday, April 26, 2018, Alex Eaton-Salners

6:49

I shudder to think of the difficulty in constructing what looks on the surface like a pretty straightforward concept. First of all, you want the referenced answers to be close (if not right next to) the answers they refer to. Second, where the referenced answers are have to be fixed in place (at 1A, 24A, 40A, and 50A in this puzzle). Third, there have to be clues for those numbers!

By that last, I mean that not every number has a clue associated with it. For example, 23A does not exist in this puzzle. And for that reason, I imagine this puzzle would be infinitely harder to create if you were putting these answers in down positions. In that situation, each of these answers would need to have either the upper edge of the puzzle or a black square positioned above it.

In the end, the four phrases, 1-OVER, 24-SEVEN, 40-WINKS, and 50-FIFTY are all solid. They're hardly groundbreaking examples of phrases of the form "number-word". In fact, I'm pretty sure I've seen all of them in crossword puzzles before. Still, I admire the craftsmanship here.

So is the rest of the puzzle worth it? Well, I'll bet that our five or so regular readers will know that I'm not fond of puzzles that are so segmented. Note the lack of connectivity between the NW and SE corners and the diagonal swath from the SW to the NE. That being said, the corners are chunky and filled with some (but not a lot of) fun stuff.

I very much liked 2D: Yellow Monopoly avenue (VENTNOR) because I got it without any crossings. I also liked 33A: Citizens of the only country that relies significantly on online voting in elections (ESTONIANS) both for the forward seeing nature of their voting systems and because I visited Talinn in 1987 (before the USSR broke up). And OHFUDGE continues our week's acknowledgement of the finer arts of swearing (c.f. Gdansk).

At the same time, there's quite a reliance on proper names, including ANSE (never much cared for Faulkner), ROBERTI, APOLO, ELROY, MENLO, and RYN just in the NW corner alone. And by the way, I think we all know Rembrandt would have spelled it Rijn, right? Having said that, I have just Googled it, and I find that I am correct.

So on the whole, I like the idea, but think the junk too expensive.

- Colum

Wednesday, April 25, 2018, Adam G. Perl

4:56

Ever since I finished this puzzle, I've been trying to figure out the correct approach to blogging about it. I can't quite seem to find the hook I need to get started. Every point of view I consider feels like I've seen it before. Each slant I try...

Yeah, okay, enough's enough. Obviously I need someone who KNOWSEVERYANGLE. If you throw out "straight" for your basic 180° angle, the remaining four are represented in shaded squares in each corner of the grid. So, by the way, as opposed to Monday's circles, here is an example where you absolutely need the shaded squares to find the hidden angles. On the other hand, having figured out what was going on with the revealer, I was able to put the angles in place, making each corner easier.

Well, almost every corner. I forgot what a reflex angle is.

Anyway, with these hidden words comes triple-checked letters: that is to say, each letter in the angle names plays a role in three different answers, rather than two as is usually the case. What this leads to is a spattering of less than ideal fill (I'm looking at you, ALINED!), mostly because crossings no longer can fit in the usual pattern of English usage.

I think Mr. Perl does a reasonable job of avoiding the worst of it. But look in the area around "obtuse" and you'll see what I mean. ROBT, ATT, NSFW, UNS. These were made necessary by the triple checking. It also allows for some fun stuff like NBADRAFT.

Jayson Tatum's been pretty awesome this year!

Finally, it would be GRATUITOUS of me not to give a side-eyed look at LEX. We lived a block or two away from the 4-5-6 for five years, and ATNO time did anyone I knew call it that!

- Colum

Tuesday, April 24, 2018, Peter Gordon

5:07

There must be other famous men whose last or first names are names of islands... let's see. How about Howie Long? Would Saint Martin be unfair (since it's his whole name)? Or what about Method Man, from the Wu Tang Clan! If you have other good ideas, please comment below.

Mind you, the three that Mr. Gordon came up with are a lot of fun. My favorite is CUBAGOODINGJR, because of the completeness of having his Junior in there.  How about the fact that two of the three are black? And I love the revealer: NOMANISANISLAND. It's so absurd, looking over the puzzle.

The puzzle is in left-right symmetry to accommodate the lengths of the long answers. The other notable thing is the remarkable number of proper nouns (people or places) in the puzzle. I count 22 (including the three theme answers)! Of these, my favorite by far is GDANSK, which I have been known to use in the place of a curse.

There are several excellent answers in the fill. Regardless of what you may think of Cats, GRIZABELLA is a beautiful long entry. And BRAZILIANS could have been clued in quite a different way. Finally, I really liked 5D: They're likely to get into hot water (TEABAGS). It is certainly true that they could go in iced water as well, so the "likely" is well earned.

I'm unsure about 48D: She might check for a fever with her hand (DRMOM). What's the DR doing there? Isn't the answer simply "Mom"? I have never in my life called my mother or my wife "Dr. Mom."

On the whole, I'm in favor of this Tuesday offering.

- Colum