Monday, May 31, 2021, Michael Lieberman

Good evening all!

Try not to get too excited: it's Cece, back again to review the Monday puzzle.

Today's puzzle was fun and easy, just how I like 'em. And can I just say, I love the placement of JORTS in the exact center of the grid. Gives it a little more character, I think. Sadly, that was the very last word I filled in, because for some reason I decided 36D (Places for tips) was bARS and was confused as to what a BoRT might be. It didn't take me too long to figure that one out.

I cannot say the same for 22A, ("Superbad" co-star Seth) which I was fully convinced was "Cohen." This made 11D (Flash of genius) quite confusing, as it would necessitate the spelling of "bright" like "brihgt." I wondered if perhaps the theme had something to do with switching g's and h's, before remembering that it's Monday and I was definitely just making a mistake. I then wondered if Cohen, in Seth's case, is spelled "Cogen" with a silent G. Then, in a "Flash of genius" I remembered that Seth Cohen is actually Seth ROGEN and all was right with the world.

Welcome to my brain!

Black and White Cookies

The rest of the puzzle flew by. I like all of the double letters throughout the puzzle. The ZZ, OO, and CC combinations in the bottom half are pretty nice. I also liked BLACKANDWHITES, a cookie that I loved when I was a little kid (but only the chocolate half, thank you very much).

All in all, a solid solve. Thanks for having me back!

~Cece

Sunday, May 30, 2021, Adam Wagner

GAME OVER

Hi everyone! Glad to be back with you for another scintillating (I hope) week of reviews. As always, my respect to Horace and Frannie for two weeks of fun and interesting posts.

But I win, and the reason why is I get to review a puzzle with Rob BRYDON in it, the first time that's ever happened. If you don't know who he is (and the picture below doesn't jog your memory), may I suggest that you watch the series of movies he made with Steve Coogan, all titled "The Trip." They are essentially entirely improvised, and genuinely hilarious, in my opinion.

Oh, the rest of the puzzle?

Sure, it's okay.

Just kidding! I actually really enjoyed today's theme, related to chess, as revealed at 47D. You can either end a game in CHECKMATE, or when you realize that you're doomed, you can resign by knocking your king over. Thus, we find six examples where the name of a well known king has been knocked sideways out of long down answers. For example, 22D: Spent some time on YouTube, say (WATCHE[DAVID]EO) has the biblical King David sideways at 55A.

Typically, I know that we're supposed to expect that the names will cross over from one word to another in the originating phrase (as in the example above, as well as in TI[MIDAS]AMOUSE, YU[KONG]OLD, and FIDD[LEAR]OUND). The other two examples don't do this, but I don't mind. I very much like NAR[COLE]PTIC, which is a diagnosis in my field of medicine. DESMOND[TUT]U is probably the weakest of the answers in this way, but it's his full name, and we only usually see his last name in the puzzle. It's also nice that each time, the king has fallen down to the left.

My hardest point in the puzzle was at the crossing of 52D: Mowry who starred alongside her twin Tia in the '90s sitcom "Sister, Sister" (TAMERA) and 64A: Pickup line? (RAM). I put the M in because it made the most sense, but only figured out the joke about a line of pickup trucks after the fact.

Some weirdness with GARYIN (I have often heard of the city by Gary, Indiana, but never this way) and the sort of ad hoc answer at 1D: Some hip-hop collectibles (RAPCDS), but otherwise I don't have any complaints. On the positive side, there's OCTOMOM, WENTBYEBYE, and HOTCOCOA, which would go over well in the very cold and wet Northeast of the USA.

- Colum

Saturday, May 29, 2021, Adam Aaronson

I'm finishing out the week more BASSET than PEKE due to a FWOE in today's puzzle. I don't feel super bad about it because it occurred at a cross of a thing I didn't know exactly how to spell (YIPPEEKIYAY) and a thing I've never heard of (GARI). Our dear readers know that I don't take a fish product of any kind, which means one could count my visits to sushi bars on one finger. I do love ginger, though, especially the tangy pickled kind that comes with spicy tofu pad thai, so not sure how I managed to miss the word completely. Mmmmm, spicy tofu pad thai....

PLOTARMOR also falls into the category of things I've never heard of, but since it is made up of words I do know, there was no ERR. I like the term a lot. I plan to use it to liven up my rants against plot driven shows - you know who you are! 

"Rum-soaked treats" (BABAS) are another food item I'm not familiar with - at least IRL - but thanks to the NYT Spelling Bee (or Busy Bee, as I like to call it), it's a word I now know. 

Despite the FWOE occurring in the southeast, things were most TANGLY for this solver in the northwest. Even with DEEM, TEEM, ASP, and ORDERIN in place I had trouble with the Across answers. I had 'waTER' where LITER was wanted, which didn't help matters. "Get in the pool, say" took a minute because I kept trying things like "take a swim" (RIDESHARE) (see 'waTER' error above).  When I first read the clue, "Four-time Emmy winner from Coney Island, N.Y." I had no idea who it might be and I thought I was doomed to failure, but as I progressed through the puzzle, and with only ERLM in place, I somehow guessed RHEAPERLMAN. I was happy about that. In other lucky breaks, Horace and I have been watching a show on Netflix called "Ragnarok." One episode we watched featured the Loki character, which caused me to read up on him in the Wikipedia - just last night. What are the chances? I think you see where I'm going with this. I was able to drop in LOKI off the clue ("Father of Jörmungandr"). :)

Other CA/Ps I was KEENON include "Bunch of hipsters?" (MANBUN) - ha! I also liked "Help out with a job" (ABET) and "Ones who've split" (SECT). "Frequent book setting" is nicely misleading. "Inflation stat, for short" was similarly trixy (PSI). "Roger's equivalent" (YES) also had me wondering for a while. 

So, that's the week as I see it. Over to you, Colum. Rah rah SIS boom bah!

~Frannie. 

Friday, May 28, 2021, Andrew J. Ries

Well, dear Readers, I'm going to do something today that I've never done before: I'm reviewing the puzzle before completing it. Whaaa??? I know. Here's the thing. I'm completely stuck in the mid-west section. There are a couple of names in that area, along with a couple of tricky clues I haven't figured out yet. I've looked at it a bunch of times, but I'm still coming up blank. When it's not my turn to do the review and I get stuck, I just put the puzzle aside for a while. On review days in the past, I've either FWOE'd out, or looked up the answer. That all changes today. :) Of course, looking at the puzzle on the app while it's still incomplete is going to destroy my solve time, but que so what so what, as I believe the saying goes. YOLO.

Quite a few tricky non-QMC's in the grid today - "Building with many drafts," for one. This was tough for me because I've never heard of a BEERBAR, per se - although, I'd probably like it there. I've never heard of an ANGELPIE, either, but thanks to "'Heavenly'" in the clue, I was able to guess that one. "Got clean" (8A) was another good clue. It could refer to using drugs, or, as it turned out, using a little soap and water instead (BATHED). "Runs" for BLEEDS was similarly ambiguous. Also tricky, for this solver, was "Model's makeup, often" (BALSA). I was stuck on the lipstick meaning of makeup for a time. 

One of the few answers I was able to drop right in on my first pass was for "Brand whose famous slogan contains a double negative" (SARALEE). That's kicking it old school. I have that answer and ALBERTA to thank for my entry into that corner. The same goes for LEANER and ELENA for the northeast corner. 

And speaking of corners, one feature of the grid that was brought home to me again and again during the solve was the separateness of the sections. I'd  complete one section, then realize it didn't give me any purchase in the next. 

I thought "Cat's 'sup?" (MEOW) was very clever and entertaining. "90's groups?" for HONORROLLS was good. Also nice and trixy was "Is for more?" (ARE) -  ha! 

While there was lots of stuff I didn't know throughout the puzzle, the real trouble occurred where Bob RAE ("Canadian ambassador to the U.N.") and jazz trumpeter THAD Jones joined forces with two tricky QMCs, and the confusing (to me) "'Vice' principal?" While I did finally get DICKCHENEY, but I can't figure out why the clue referred specifically to him. Maybe I don't know enough about him.

Some of today's QMC's didn't do it for me, including the aforementioned Mr. Cheney. But I did enjoy "Ones who might use oils in a pan?" - once I figured it out (ARTCRITICS) and "Offer you might have less interest in, for short?" (REFI).

I'm going to declare my new approach a complete success. As you guessed - being puzzle solvers on the alert for this kind of thing - in the course of writing the review, I managed to tie up the last LOOSEEND and solve the rest of the puzzle. I ended up with at 39:18. With that time, you couldn't exactly say I ACED it, but I don't RIND. Now that it's done, I can ELATE. 

~Frannie.

Thursday, May 27, 2021, Barbara Lin

Today's theme answers are common noun phrases, but clued as if they were spoken with SYLVESTER's trademark lisp. So "Young woman living in a city, as 58-Across would say" is URBANMYTH (or miss). More likely, perhaps, was "Minnie's promise, as Sylvester might say it, (WORDOFMOUTH (or mouse)). I thought the southern most of the theme answers, INGOODFAITH for "Looking pretty", was a little daffy. Although never a big fan of Sylvester myself, I did pick up a few interesting scraps about him from the Wikipedia where it states that he's called "an anthropomorphic tuxedo cat" and that "his scientific name is "Felis Sapiens" - ha!

Elsewhere, the puzzle was animated by such clues as "Epitome of simplicity" (PIE), "Producer of Jacksons?" (ATM), and "Toots one's horn" (HONKS). There were also some wily clues like "Dedicated work" for ODE, "Tickets" for CITES, and "Drawn" for INATIE. Fill-wise, I thought STUPOR, TAMP, and SKITTISH were real tweets. 

On the other hand, this solver thought that both LETME, as an offer from a volunteer, and GNARLS for "Twists into deformity" landed with a bit of a fudd. But the only one that really bugged me was OCTAD. 

That's all folks!

~Frannie. 

Wednesday, May 26, 2021, Will Nediger

Mr. Nediger takes us to school today, giving us a theme with a twist and some trixy clues. I didn't pay much attention to the theme while I was solving the puzzle this morning - as sometimes happens - but I vaguely assumed it was the type where the word "class" could appear with each of the words in the theme answers. However, this one added a little something extra. Each theme answer is a common compound noun, the first part of which is a noun that can be semantically paired with the word "class", and the second part of which is a word that begins with the letters "me," BUSINESSMEETING, for example. I thought the pattern could be expressed as a formula (ThemeNoun¹ + "class" + ([ME] + x)) = theme answer. (Ex. GYM(class)[ME]MBERSHIP). I'm guessing that if I tried to pull that one during a math lesson, the result would be an ominous SEEMEAFTERCLASS. 

Elsewhere in the puzzle, the class cutup seems to have gotten a hand in when the teacher wasn't looking, supplying amusing C/APs like "Made a peeling?" PARED, "Duty-free?" (IDLE), and "They run when they're broken" (EGGS). My favorite clue today was "Brest milk" (LAIT) - ha! 

I give extra credit to one-word clues like "Sound, e.g." (INLET), "Crow" (BRAG), and "Warp" (DEFORM) that have multiple meanings to choose from. I also enjoyed MELEE, PHENOM, and VESPA. And I do like a RANT - when it's not directed at me. :) In addition to vocabulary, another of my favorite subjects has always been literature. I was able to drop in SLED for "'Ethan Frome' vehicle." That story made a big impression on me when I first read it a hundred years ago in English class.

I needed a little extra help with the clue, "Show with booths." For some reason, I had trouble associating the word 'booths' with 'show'. My first attempt produced 'fair'. Fortunately, the 'X' of the likeable HAILSATAXI ("Waves from the curb, say") cleared that up in short order. Also, I entered the answer BASES for "Diamond parts that are rounded" during the solve (why? because I must), but it wasn't until I took a second look at the puzzle for the review that I understood the clue related to baseball diamonds rather than the shiny kind. Sports has never really been my thing. Chalk it up to me being an UBERNERD. :)

~Frannie.

Tuesday, May 25, 2021, Kristian House and Mike Dockins

I was thinking that today's puzzle could be described more as thematic than as having a theme, but perhaps I'm putting too fine a point on it. Four answers appear to be showcasing expressions of disbelief, with varying levels of intensity, from IDONTBELIEVEIT to NOFRIGGINWAY. I didn't notice a revealer, per se. If there's something else going on, I'm afraid I missed it. 

Hear me now and believe this later, I found that the top half of the puzzle went much more slowly than the bottom half. Although all of the phrases are perfectly cromulent, none of them came to me off the clue, which put the burden on the Down answers for this solver. I'm not familiar with cartoonist William STEIG, the ABEL prize, or Carson Daly's hosting efforts (THEVOICE). Those lacunae, combined with some other northerly Downs that didn't leap to mind made my start slower than molasses running uphill in January, as my mother used to say. Once I got to the midsection, with RIP, BIGSALE, and BOW, however, I was on a roll. Truth.

I love the words HORDE, GNASH, and AGOG. On the other hand, words and/or things on which I would have VOTEDNO, given the chance, are SCAB, PRAT, and TVADS, but as they say, there's no accounting for taste.

~Frannie.