Saturday, April 20 2024, Garrett Chalfin and Andrew Kingsley

Rounding out my week of blogging is this delightful gem of a Saturday puzzle, which took many minutes of steady pressure to bring to heel.  Numerous juicy stacked long Across clues including a triple stack in the centre, lots of misdirection - great weekend fare, this!

Nothing was jumping out at me until the very middle, where "Sentimental feelings" had to be WARMFUZZIES, but I couldn't think of a three letter word for "Catch" with a U in the middle, so I had that erased for a while until finally RUB sprang to mind.  Ordinarily I'd be off to the races with a long answer like that in place, but not today - nothing else was immediately obvious and it took a lot of forward and backward before things started revealing themselves.  When "Chew the doors, e.g." in the SE corner finally revealed itself as the excellent SPOONERISM, followed right below by the "Green-tinted cocktails" APPLETINIS, I felt relief, and shortly after, I figured out that "Lacked pop" was HADNOOOMPH, which may be the first time I've seen a triplet of 'O's in a grid.  

Had some uncertainty about the spelling of WOOKIEES, inspired apparently by George Lucas' dog.  I liked the math-y SINE and RATIO in close proximity at the top.  I think we've seen that clue for SINE recently ("1, for 90 degrees") - one of the ACPT puzzles maybe?  And BOOMROASTED as a "burn" expression is about an entire generation separated from me, I think. 

I have to cut this short as I am on the road all day tomorrow (it's Friday night as I write this).  If you are reading this and you've done the puzzle, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Cheerio!

-philbo

Friday, April 19 2024, Kate Hawkins

Hello all!  I find myself in an awkward position today, having completed (and enjoyed) the crossword and finding that I can't think of much to say about it.  Not that it wasn't a perfectly good puzzle... let's see.  Anchored by two long Across answers, both things that one might say to someone - IDONTHAVEALLDAY while anxiously tapping one's watch, and SOMETHINGCAMEUP after one's plans change.  These both share a temporal aspect - "I'm gonna be late" and "Sorry I'm late".  (The latter of which is soon going to apply to yours truly, if I don't get this blog done.)

There really weren't any hiccups while filling in the grid.  I liked the indirectness of the very first clue - AHAB ("Stubbs was his second mate").  Also liked VIBRAPHONE as a "Marimba lookalike".  I love the "vibes" and have great admiration for those who've mastered the instrument.   Two side-by-side "Unspecified amount"s (ANY and ALOT) was a nice touch.  And the two QMCs that tickled me were "Shell company?" (CREW) and "Bound for the big stage?" (JETE).  

When one encounters a clue like "Bizet's 'L'amour est un oiseau rebelle,' for one", one can write in ARIA without any operatic knowledge whatsoever.  Such is the curse of the experienced solver.  My mission this afternoon is to find and listen to that piece!  

As a sci-fi-loving teenager, I was a huge fan of OMNI magazine when it first came out.  Either it changed or I grew out of it, but there were some good years at the start..

22A ("Deep-fried bite") triggered an amusing little memory from the ACPT - we went for drinks at a bar after the stress of Day 1, during which Frannie ordered a round of TATERTOTs to take the edge off...TATERTOTs might not be a thing up here in Canada, actually.

That's all for now.  Have a great day everybody!

-philbo

P.S.  just about hit "Publish" on this thing, but twigged to something:  the answer to 44A "Dances for which girls do the asking, informally" is SADIES, which, if we disregard the awkward pluralization, is short for SADIE HAWKINS - same surname as our constructor today!  Coincidence?  I...think...not........

Thursday, April 18 2024, David Kwong

Well, that was fun!  I just wrapped up the Thursday crossword and then stared at it for two solid minutes before figuring out what the theme was.  In doing so, I had to enter answers to the six starred clues without comprehending them.  The revealer, the thrice-remade movie ASTARISBORN, finally made it all make sense.  We're instructed to re-parse it as six words, which at first looks impossible - but if you read it as 'A STAR IS B OR N', then aha!  It's telling us what to do with the stars on those clues.  So we have:

• *Assist in a foursome = MCCARTNEY if the '*' is a 'B'.
• *Allot time = ELECTIONDAY if the '*' is a 'B'.
• *Acre on the ocean floor = MOTHEROFPEARL if the '*' is an 'N'.
• *Ascent stage for a bird = HATCHLING if the '*' is an 'N'.
• *Ice is found on it = RIVIERA if the '*' is an 'N'. <-- my favourite!  So nice and terse
• *Ovid of Greek mythology = THECRETANBULL if the '*' is a 'B'.

Quite neat, not obvious (not to me), and I like the even distribution of 'B's and 'N's.  Six theme clues is also a lot to pack into a 15x15 grid. 

A bit of an unusual layout, not unpleasant, with little isolated areas in the NE and SW.  I thought "Money maven, for short" would be CPA but it's CFO, so that was a little hiccup.  I loved the ALI clue, with the factoid about his vertically-mounted marker on the Hollywood Walk of Fame - this is what keeps us coming back!  And indeed, coding loops and measuring cups can both be NESTED.  (But they can't both be RECURSIVE...) Couple of notable QMCs - "Cross fit?" (SNIT) and "Sightsee?" (AIM) were worthy.

Aren't LEIs worn around one's neck, not head?

This was great.  Such an inventive theme, and good cluing despite the relatively high number of short answers.

-philbo

Wednesday, April 17 2024, Joseph Gangi

In a nod to dromedary camels everywhere - happy "Hump Day" everybody!  Let me get one thing out of the way, right up front:  I did *not* like 1A in today's puzzle:  FLORAS ("Groups of plants").  I really don't think FLORA is a word you can pluralize.  Having gotten that nit out of the way - what an admirable piece of construction!  The theme centres around THECYCLOPS, the one-eyed figures of Greek and Roman mythology, and in homage, the entire grid contains one single 'I', centred near the top where it should be.  Furthermore, the puzzle's clues are entirely devoid of 'I's.  This is revealed in the very last Across clue (ONEEYE) - which I missed at first, having gotten the SE corner entirely from the Down clues, and so I discovered this paucity of 'I's all by myself, which was more rewarding in a way.

All of this elaborate construction was in service of a pleasant, Wednesday-appropriate solve.  I did not know that POLYPHEMUS was a Cyclops, so I needed a lot of help from the crossers in the NW corner.  Over to the right, I got "farbed up", as my mother would say, trying to jam POTATOSALAD in as a "Potluck staple" (PASTASALAD, of course).  Also causing trouble was "How Jenga blocks are placed, hopefully", which I thought was EVENLY but was STABLY instead. 

Excellent cluing can be found the SW corner with "D.C.'s B and A" (STS).  I love the reverse alphabetical order in that one.  I also liked "Mental MATH".  I do it all the time.  Is it staving off any sort of decline?  Time will tell...  "Egg ___" was a weird way to clue SAC.  Oh and "Wrap for a monarch?" (COCOON) was a quality QMC.

Kudos to Mr. Gangi for the the fabulous, effortful construction today!

-philbo

Tuesday, April 16 2024, Adam Vincent

Today's theme is a clever one, to which many of us can undoubtedly relate.  There are four long answers near the periphery, each with a notable man's name:

• Actor who played Oscar Wilde in "Wilde" : STEPHENFRY
• Mouseketeer peer of Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake : RYANGOSLING
• Inventor who patented the first revolver : SAMUELCOLT
• English essayist who wrote "Lawyers, I suppose, were children once" : CHARLESLAMB

These all have something in common, aside from being men's names: the surnames are all baby animals, and this is revealed by the central clue "Certain immature adult..." - MANBABY!  In fact, the theme clues provide an additional hint, not shown above, indicating the adult form of the animal in question.  I thought this extra help was unnecessary, although it did highlight the bonus fact that in three of the four answers, the adult name has a distinct male form (sorry, FISH, not today..).

Ask yourself, if you're a male solving this puzzle - am I a MANBABY?  The answer is probably "yes, sometimes" 😄

This was a pretty smooth solve for me, despite not knowing BARBACOA as a Chipotle beef option.  My favourite clue was definitely "Wild couples cruise?" (NOAHSARK - excellent!!). A couple of Across answers that stood out were the consecutive HDTV and SGTS - look Ma, no vowels!  "One under a birdie" didn't fool me for a second - it's EAGLE, not CHICK - thanks to my multi-hour bingeing of the Masters this past weekend.  KISSCAM ("What might catch X's at an O's game?") definitely deserves a shout-out as well.

I didn't love ALE hidden in "Drink aptly found in 'medieval era'".  Un peu de trop, methinks.  Besides, there's only one medieval drink in crossword-land, and that's MEAD of course.  

Gentle fun for a Tuesday!

-philbo

Monday, April 15 2024, Amanda Winters

My mind isn't generally at its most receptive on Monday mornings - but I learned something new today - ASABOVE SOBELOW - a phrase lifted from the 9th century Emerald Tablet referring to the symmetry of earth and heaven.  As dubious as this philosophy may be, it forms the theme of today's puzzle, in which the words 'AS' and 'SO' appear in six little four-letter blocks throughout the grid, with AS above and SO below (of course).  An interesting concept for a Monday crossword and I imagine easier than usual to clue from a theme perspective.  

No issues with the solve, though it played a tiny bit slowly for me today.  I don't generally look to the theme for assistance and it probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway.  One slight hiccup was entering TACK instead of NAIL for "Poster holder-upper".  Who nails a poster to a wall??  I liked the references to two of my favourite things - OSSO buco (mmmm - a dish with plenty of UMAMI), and origami and its FOLDS, my go-to Zen activity.  STEFFI Graf was great indeed.  So classy.  SQIN ("small area measurement") was a cheeky way to clue a tricky 'Q'!  My family and I did hop on the SQUID Game bandwagon - did you??

ALAS, I got nothing else, so I shall CLEAVE you now..

-philbo

Sunday, April 14 2024, John Rippe and Jeff Chen

Greetings Earthlings!  Seems like forever since my last contribution to this blog.  A lot of water under the bridge in the past while, including the ACPT a couple of weeks ago - which was fun, challenging, stressful, and - most of all - emotional, with a recovering Will Shortz taking the podium on all three days.  We are all very much rooting for you, Will!!  

Interesting puzzle today, with an unorthodox left-right symmetry and a square pattern that, if you squint, resembles a jet plane or perhaps a down-arrow, indicative of the direction in which our planet may be headed.  Which brings us to the theme.. though it's not apparent at first, there are seven pairs of Down clues, adjacent vertically, with the top and bottom clues labeled 'BEFORE:' and 'AFTER:' respectively.  The top "before" answers, legitimate in their own right, contain embedded (circled) letters, which spell out the names of animals; and the remaining letters are identical to the bottom "after" answers.  So what's the deal?   As indicated by 104A, 112A and 114A, the animals are all ENDANGERED SPECIES, and the puzzle is telling us what'll remain when they are gone.

I don't feel I've explained this very succinctly.  A couple of examples:  21D "Having physical form" (CORPOREAL) is followed by 75D "Target of a facial cleanser" (PORE) - yes, CORAL is a member of the animal kingdom.  16D "Theme park chain" (SEAWORLD) is followed by 64D "Slangy 'Amen'" (WORD) (but are SEALs really endangered?  Maybe some types of seal are?).  I dunno.  I didn't mind this, though it's a bit weird to have answers essentially repeated in the grid.  And  not that it's inappropriate at all, but what a gloomy theme! 

What else ...  I liked NACL for salt, and the excellent QMC "One on the links?" (ACE), which took me a while to twig to, even though it's Master's weekend.  Another clever one was CHINASHOP ("A bull market it is not!"  A TOENAIL is indeed a "tiny 'canvas' on which to paint" - nice one - and I just noticed "Scoff in Offenbach" (ACH) which is inventive indeed.

Nice cluing overall.  I'm going to go and think happy thoughts for the rest of the day, and I hope you do too!  See you tomorrow...

-phil