Saturday, December 31, 2022, Billy Bratton

I thought I was going go out in a blaze of glory by solving today's puzzle in record time, but I was stymied by some trixy clues in the northwest and southeast, resulting in last-puzzle-of-the-year time of 20:32, which would have been a kickass time if only I had solved it nine seconds faster!

Although I dropped the answer to 1A right in, answers to other clues in that section were "Few and far between" (SPARSE) at first. The opposite was true for the northeast where I guessed FANBASES, enabling me to complete that section, including the unknown-to-me TOADETTE, to a great xSTENT all in one go. I moved on to the gimme-for-my-age-group, ZIGGYSTARDUST, and continued my rampage through the southwest, only to be pulled up short in the southeast. In the southwest, a false start of BEarS instead of BERGS caused by the clever non-QMC clue "Sights in the Arctic" (SEAMY list of QMCVSnon-QMC clues below), never GUMMEDUP the works. 

OTH, despite a high confidence level in both ESPERANTO ("Language with its own 'green star' flag") and TERAFLOP ("Large unit of computing speed"), the KRAFT of the clue "Producer of many singles" clogged my answer artery. I was further put off piste by having initially guessed twoTON as a "Kind of pickup" instead of the correct ONETON. Also, I couldn't quite remember how to spell DENTYNE. 

The constructor managed to FITIN a ton of great clues, of both the QMC and non-QMC variety. I am giving the advantage to the Non-QMC clues today. Judge for yourself: 

QMC:

"Turning point in construction?" (SCREW) - I turned this one over in my head forever before figuring it out.

"Lab order?" (HEEL) - Cute, but this one didn't give me much paws.

"Didn't wait for a restaurant job?" (BUSED) - I got this one in short order.

"At a high interest rate?" (KEENLY) - Excellent return on investment, once I figured it out.

"Fret about a fricassee?" (STEW) - I might have gotten this one sooner if I had known what a fricassee was. :|

Non-QMC:

"In on" (WISETO)

"One end of it might be felt" (INKPEN)

"Windup" (END)

"Sap" (DRAIN)

"Understand without listening" (READLIPS)

"Sort of spectacles not much seen nowadays" (PINCENEZ)

"Long division" (EON) - nice.

"Floors in a ring" (KOS) - excellent!

I also enjoyed the clue "Grubby little paws" and the answer SWISHED. In sum, hats off to this FINE finish, and a big thank you to all who make the NYTX a fun feature of every day.

See you next year, dear Readers! I wish you all a very happy New Year.

~Frannie.

Friday, December 30, 2022, Brendan Emmett Quigley

A surprising sub-20 for me on today's BEQ (if I may) offering. I finished in the northwest corner with a G and a prayer - so to speak. I didn't know "What the 'angler' on a deep-sea anglerfish can do," and I was confounded for a time by the clever clue "Sleeper's support," even while looking at SOFALE_. I am not familiar with the particular CHAGALL painting, "The Spoonful of Milk," and I was also unsure of the NEWTOME ANNATTO ("Peppery orange-red condiment"). I finally entered a G as THECLOSER which gave me SOFALEG and GLOW, but, because I was so unsure of my guesses, I deleted the S in the final square in the grid so I could review without setting off the auto check. THINGS looked good enough so I re-entered the S to complete success and a final time of 17:16.

It wasn't just the northwest, but the entire top section of the puzzle was the most challenging for me. I had to reach into the depths of the brain barn to dig up MANOWAR. And I didn't "get" the sports reference of "What a single is worth" (ONEBASE) until reviewing the completed puzzle. Other trouble spots included "Place to get a platza treatment" (SAUNA), "M.L.B. great with a famous 'unbreakable' streak, familiarly" (JOED), and the not-super-tricky-clue-but-odd-looking answer AORB. 

On the other hand, ATON of the rest of the puzzle went right in - unusual for this solver with a BEQ puzzle. I was somehow on the right wavelength to drop in LOOKTHEOTHERWAY for "Condone an action tacitly", as well as THATSFORSURE, and the slightly-tortured-but-entertaining-and-seasonal "One who is mean as the Dickens?" (SCROOGE) - ho ho!

Nothing DRESSES up a Friday puzzle more than clever QMCs, of which there were a SCAD. In addition to the SOFALEG mentioned above, I enjoyed 

"Quick refesher" (CATNAP)

"Toy inspector?" (DOGSHOWJUDGE) - ha!

"Secretly pass gas?" (SIPHON) - a win-win! Hilarious clue and great word as answer. 

"Power couple" (AAS) - nice clue for crossword stickum.

There were also a couple gems in the non-QMC category including "They're chosen for their high-grade potential" (EASYAS) and the most excellent "Tool that you turn on" (LATHE). 

Fun fill included the aforementioned SIPHON, the double J'd JUMBOJETS, KHARTOUM, FANG, BAGEL, and SHED. 

And it wouldn't be a Friday without a few novel oddities like TYES "Nautical ropes" and ARE "Metric unit equal to 100 square meters," would it?

~Frannie.

Thursday, December 29, 2022, Rachel Fabi and Claire Rimkus

A nice trixy theme for today's puzzle. Understanding the trick came to me in two parts. I first noted the intrusion of LATE into some entries, and secondarily, I noticed the lack of LATE in other entries both of which, taken together, were caused by a LATESHIFT - moving LATE from one answer in a row to the other - with both modified answers still being common words. For example, "Makes the rounds" should be CIRCU[LATE]S, but we enter only CIRCUS at 24A, while the answer to the next clue in the row ("Large, flightless bird") is EMULATES. The LATE from CIRCUlateS shifts to the end of EMU. OVATION! The one that I had the most trouble with was the "Chilly" (COLLATED) /  "Fresh start, metaphorically" (CLEANSlate) pair. What seems obvious now - that the D of COLD comes after the interloping LATE seemed less obvious when looking at it in grid form. In that same vein - ORE is it? - I got TOAD from the crosses, but it took me a minute to correctly parse the clue so the answer made sense ("What might have bumps on a log?") - ha.

While there were a bunch of clues that were right in my wheelhouse such as "Hayek who portrayed Frida Kahlo" (SALMA), "George who wrote 'Romola'" (ELIOT), and "Hybrid beverage in a Bloody Caesar cocktail" (CLAMATO), I was lead down the garden path, as intended, by a number of clever clues today including "Easter starter?" (NOR), "Cry at la Copa Mondial" (GOL) - I started with the tried and true 'ole' - "Draped garment" (SARI) - I went with 'toga' at first - and "Big Sur runner beginning in 2020" (IMAC) - I was thinking sports, rather than computers.

Also of note today - the sets of paired clues - two chicken kings in the top middle (PERDUE and ALA), "For one" (EACH) followed by "For us" (OUR), "Camper's protection" (DEET) and Camper's detritus" (ASH), and the two "X" clues (CHI and TEN) to name a few. 

And that's not all. There were great C/APs throughout the grid. "Top, for instance, but not bottom" (TOY) is clever and "One in a 100" (SENATOR) is tough until you remember the answer. :) "Good name for a firefighter?" (BLAISE) is fun, as is "Something dingy" for BELL. And the C/AP "Lazily lie" for LOLL is lovely. Fill-wise, I enjoyed RETORTS, HOTHEAD, SCYTHE, and DABBLED.

Well, I better get this review published, I don't want to POSTULATE. 

~Frannie.

Wednesday, December 28, 2022, Josh Goodman

Today's theme answers are the names of the only three women ever to be inducted into the ROCKANDROLL HALLOFFAME twice, each as part of a duo or band and then as a solo artist. Hats off to the ALLSTAR trio TINATURNER, STEVIENICKS, and CAROLEKING.

And speaking of trios, I had at least three minutes worth of trouble in the north east. I was pretty sure about NAB ("Catch, as a criminal), but unclear about what was wanted for "Park in Manhattan, e.g.: Abbr."), and completely stumped by the unknown-to-me chocolate treat named for a Vancouver Island city, the NANAIMO bar. I read a little about it just now. Sounds like something I might like know that I know about it. I imagine this one didn't slow esteemed reader and speed solver Philbo down one bit. :)

Funny how it's always a combo of unknowns that causes trouble. For example, I've never heard of BENNETT, "Brit who wrote 'The Vanishing  Half'" at 47A, nor did I immediately remember Susan G. KOMEN's last name at 55D, but neither slowed me down thanks to the gettable surrounding material. 

I enjoyed STACKS ("Shelving area in a library"), "Architectural style started, strangely, in England" (ITALIANATE) and "Skeleton that's no longer in the closet" (SCANDAL). I've always liked the word EDICT. LEONINE is another nice one.

I was less happy with the TENOR of a few of the C/APs, which struck an off note to me, including "Way off base" for ERRANT, "Strict" for STERN, and "Gives permission" for ENABLES - all valid in a way, of course, but none destined for the crossword puzzle hall of fame, IMO.

~Frannie.

Tuesday, December 27, 2022, Lynn Lempel

I didn't need today's revealer to solve the puzzle, but I did enjoy the theme once I reviewed the completed grid. In the shaded squares are words that form common expressions when paired with the word "double." And each such word crosses another in the grid, making it a literal DOUBLECROSS. The most common pair (to this solver, in any case) was double DATE and double PARK, but double CHIN and double DIP came in as a close second - although really, double DIP shouldn't be a thing people! I also noted an almost double cross of another kind of SYD and KYD in the middle east corner. 

A couple of clues that almost double crossed me were "Classic car inits." where I tried gtO instead of REO. And I started with LIVEin for "Have as one's residence" which  messed up my entry of MAGENTA - without my leave or notice. Fortunately, I was able to straighten that out when I got to 44A: "Fail to keep a promise" and found REeEGE staring me in the face. You couldn't really say I finished this puzzle on the double: total solve time: 7:33.

A nice QMC, which, I thought this morning could be considered a clue with a double take, was "Sheepish utterance?" for BAA. I also enjoyed the clue "Texter's chortle" for LOL. I thought that including "of old" in the clue "Charitable offerings of old" for ALMS was particularly apt. Apt! I was also very happy to see PLY in the grid ("Thickness of yarn"). Such lovely specificity. "Org. that oversees court battles" (NBA) was fun. Fill-wise, I enjoyed DERANGE, AFLOAT, OAF, SPARKLE, MAGENTA, and BOT. 

The grid is filled with literary  references of interest - or ROIs - including AENEAS, BEANSTALK, AUDEN, and BILLY Budd, along with other topics. I went down a rabbit hole looking into Mama CASS Elliot. And, speaking of rabbit holes, the puzzle also includes a new-to-me clue for the classic OREO. According to the fabulous XWord Info, OREO has appeared 354 times in puzzles in the Shortz era. One day soon I will scrape the results of the Oreo search and attempt to determine the number of unique clues for this old chestnut. For today's puzzle, maybe a theme-related cluepportunity could have been something like 'also comes in a double-stuf variety." :)

It's getting late. I better post this on the double!

~Frannie.

Monday, December 26, 2022, Kurt Weller

Today's theme answers are common expressions that can all be read as parts of CLOCKWORK: MAKEAFACE, SWITCHGEARS, CHANGEHANDS. Although the puzzle contains only these three elements, there is probably more to it than that. :)

While I felt like I was making good time through the puzzle, I didn't even get close to the 5 minute mark today, clocking in at 6:12. A couple of items that chewed clock were "House of mirrors at a carnival, for one" - the answer was MAZE, but I started with 'ride' - "Like old-fashioned railroad crossing signs" (XSHAPED) - I wasn't expecting that initial X - and "Venom neutralizer, e.g." (ANTITOXIN) - I had to wait for the X in OXEN to point me in the right direction - but the one that almost cleaned my clock was remembering how to spell MNEMONIC. Heh. 

Two nice groupings were the COE College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa answer just above "Campus quarters" (DORM), and TRIPE at one o'clock and GRIPE at seven in the grid. I also enjoyed "Put a patch on, say" (MEND) and "97.5% of a penny" (ZINC). Fill-wise I liked BOOM, PITH, and SCRUM. 

 

Two C/APs that didn't tick any boxes for me today were Super-ULTRA, and AWOLS as a plural. 

OK, time's up. Gotta punch in. :)

~Frannie.

Sunday, December 25, 2022, John Martz

NOVEL THINKING

A fun literary theme today, with book title clues leading to punny answers. "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," e.g.?" is a FLUIDVOLUME, for example, and "The Help," e.g.?" is a WORKINGTITLE. Heh.

Some very clever clues today - like "One might have three parts, with or without its last letter" (SUITE). Very nice. And for "I, to Claudius," I dropped in "ego," thinking I was all that, but no, it's not our "I" translated, it's his "I" used as a number: ONE. And speaking of false starts, I tried "Shh" for "[I know it's wrong]" thinking, you know, "We shouldn't be doing this, but let's just both be quiet about it...", but no, it was the much more literal SIC. Oops.

But my favorite clue today, by far, is "Cut with a letter opener?" Even as I saw the letters come in, it took me a while to understand that it was TBONESTEAK. A cut of meat that starts with a letter. Wow. Beautiful.

In other news, I put a Phil OCHS quote under my photo in my high school yearbook, little radical that I was. Poor Phil OCHS... through connections at work I later met his niece, which made me very happy. I'm sure I over-gushed about how much I liked her uncle, but she was very nice about it.

Finally, I did not know that there was a Looney Tunes animator called BUGS Hardaway. And I further did not know that it was he who first drew BUGS Bunny, and according to Wikipedia (which Frannie and I each donate to every year, and which I recommend you consider in your charitable donations), when Hardaway was given a model sheet for a new animated short, someone simply wrote "Bugs' bunny" on it, and, well, the rest is history. Fascinating.

I hope you enjoyed this one, and I hope you all are enjoying your Sunday, whether you've spent it opening presents or not. We appreciate each and every one of you who comes to check in on our little blog, and we wish you all the best, today and every day.

- Horace