NYT 7:56
LAT 4:23
CS 5:17 (Sam–paper)
CHE 6:08 (pannonica)
WSJ (Friday) 7:14
Martin Ashwood-Smith and Joe Krozel’s New York Times crossword
NY Times crossword solution, 7 15 11 0715
Enough! I don’t care if it is really, really difficult to make quad stacks. What I care about is good fill and interesting clues, and a super-challenging constructing task is often accompanied by subpar fill. To wit:
- 18a. STERLING SILVERS, as a plural “they.” Say what? I don’t think so. The Scowl-o-Meter flashed red here.
- 13d. The FROE is a [Wood-cleaving tool]. How many froes have you got in your workshop? This one‘s pretty nice.
- 15d. [Simon who wrote “The Death of Napoleon”] in 1986 is Mr. LEYS. Wait! No, he’s not! His real name is Pierre Ryckmans. The book is apparently a “sardonic short fable.”
- 52d. Joining FROE and LEYS in my Thank the Crossword Gods for Crossings category is TANA, [Lake __ (Blue Nile source)]. I think I’ve seen that one before but couldn’t summon up the name.
Those four bugged me. EEK-A, SPAD, SMEE, ALEK, RRR, NETCOM (what?), and ELON also didn’t do anything good for me. Not sure how I feel about BE DISRESPECTFUL—does that open the floodgates to “BE + {any adjective}” fill? BE MAD, BE HAPPY, BE RUDE?
Things I liked:
- 16a. A MAN CALLED HORSE. I remembered the first three words.
- 35a. Scrabbly HIJACKS, clued nonviolently.
- 37a. NIX, a [Word often pig-Latinized]. Ixnay!
- 49a. I like birds. Didn’t know SCARLET TANAGERS could be called [Some firebirds], though.
- 22d. [Out for a trial] is a great clue for an ALIBI.
- 31d. THE HILTON is my favorite answer in this whole puzzle.
- 32d. [Lay low], a grammatically correct clue for HID, is a sop to everyone who chafed at LAID LOW in other recent puzzles.
What is up with A LOT ON ONE’S PLATE and these two constructors? Each has used it before: for example, Krozel (with SCARLET TANAGERS in the same puzzle, to boot!), Ashwood-Smith. As I said four months ago: “I must hereby declare a moratorium on quad stacks that include A LOT ON ONE’S PLATE (38a). Remember seeing that in last Friday’s Krozel NYT? What’s more, the two previous uses of that entry in the NYT crossword were in other themelesses by Ashwood-Smith and Krozel. Guys! We’re done with that one now.” It’s just weird by this point.
Three stars.
P.S. A regular reader just wrote me the other day to defend MEL C’s currency as an entry and kvetch that Eddie Money is someone he learned about strictly from crosswords, and how come nobody complains about him? [Money making hits] clues EDDIE here, but the word “making” suggests present tense. Not so much. Me, I only know his 1982 songs.
Bruce Sutphin’s Los Angeles Times crossword
LA Times crossword solution, 7 15 11
Hey! It’s Bruce S. from Ryan and Brian’s “Be More Smarter” site, with his name attached to a puzzle. I believe this is his debut. Congrats, Bruce!
The theme involves insertion of TAGS—66a: [Some graffiti signatures (which were used to form this puzzle’s four longest answers)].
- 20a. [Gnome held against his will?] is a GARDEN HOSTAGE (garden hose). ‘Tis the season—that Smurfs movie is coming out soon and all such critters should be locked up until winter.
- 27a. [Meteorologist’s view?] is the WEATHER VANTAGE (weathervane). I hear that by Monday, 39 of 50 states will see temps in the 90s or above. I much prefer unseasonable July 70s.
- 43a. [Team equipment manager’s snafu?] clues JERSEY SHORTAGE (Jersey Shore). Yes, I have italicized Jersey Shore because of the TV show. The geographical location is the Jersey Shore. Bonus points for the liveliness of the original phrase here.
- 51a. [Stamps with nudes?] might be EROTIC POSTAGE. Not in the U.S., they won’t be. But maybe in Laos. Minus two points for “erotic pose” as the base phrase. Is that a thing unto itself?
We remain in the “Hey! This puzzle’s got some teeth to it” Friday-LAT mode. It took forever before I could figure out the 1-Across corner, thanks to a concatenation of tough clues. [It’s covered in silk] is talking about CORN, and [Galileo’s patron] isn’t a Renaissance Italian but the space agency NASA. No idea what [Operation Neptune Spear org.] is all about, other than that the answer is the CIA. And [Arcturus, for one], isn’t a something-STAR but a RED GIANT.
Elsewhere in the puzzle, I found other challenges, such as 7d: [Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael] OREN, who is unknown to me. But most of the rest of the clues were more pliant.
Generally one does not love a two-word partial entry, but I like 48d: LET US [“__ go then, you and I”: Eliot] and not just because of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” In crossword-maker Francis Heaney’s literary parody anthology, Holy Tango of Literature, Francis anagrams “T.S. Eliot” into “Toilets” (see p. 3) and riffs on “Love Song”: “Let us go then, to the john…. To the stall the people come to go / Reading an obscene graffito.” If you like anything the areas of poetry and drama and you have a sense of humor, you owe it to yourself to buy a copy of Francis’s book; if you disavow all such literature, give the book to a smart friend. The whole thing is spot-on parodies, all inspired by anagrams of writers’ names. (And no, I don’t get a kickback from Francis. I just love that book so much.)
I could do without the two RE-words, REHANG and RETOSS. The plural first name ANNAS (32a: [Faris of “Scary Movie” films et al.]) is subpar fill as well. Wait, isn’t George Annas, the New England Journal of Medicine’s regular contributor on legal issues, a household name? No? Because he’s my default ANNAS.
3.75 stars.
Donna S. Levin’s CrosSynergy/Washington Post crossword, “The Girl Next Door” – Sam Donaldson’s review
Washington Post/CrosSynergy crossword solution, 7 15 11
What a fun puzzle for an old TV sitcom fan like me! The theme consists of five female characters from television comedies, clued by reference to the female characters that lived next door:
- 17-Across: [Ethel Mertz’s Manhattan neighbor] was LUCY RICARDO from I Love Lucy. I’m guessing this was the easiest theme entry for most solvers, and with its placement at the top, it’s clear Levin wanted us to grasp the theme quickly.
- 24-Across: [Irene Lorenzo’s Queens neighbor] was EDITH BUNKER from All in the Family. The “Queens” tipoff was helpful to me, as I didn’t remember the Irene character at first. I feel like such a meathead for not catching it sooner.
- 38-Across: [Helen Willis’s Upper East Side neighbor] was LOUISE JEFFERSON from The Jeffersons. Anyone familiar with the show’s iconic theme song probably got this one readily after the reference to the Upper East Side.
- 49-Across: [Millie Helper’s New Rochelle neighbor] was LAURA PETRIE. The Dick Van Dyke show is juuuust outside my sweet spot, for it wasn’t running in syndication in my hometown during my youth (like I Love Lucy). I’ve had to catch most episodes from the show on Nick at Nite and other avenues. I knew enough to have confidence in LAURA after I had most of PETRIE in place.
- 60-Across: [Wilma Flintstone’s Bedrock nighbor] was BETTY RUBBLE from The Flintstones. I suppose one could cry foul here on two counts, but only one of them would be sustained. The first objection might be that the other shows are traditional sitcoms while this one was an animated series. But I’d overrule this objection on the grounds that The Flintstones too was a prime time series when it first aired. The second objection would bemoan that this is the one theme entry that features the supporting female character and not the lead female character. I’d reluctantly have to sustain that one. WILMA FLINTSTONE is 15 letters long and thus could pair opposite LOUISE JEFFERSON, leaving the 11-letter LUCY RICARDO for the grid’s center. So it seems this correction would not make the construction impossible. But hey, this is a most minor point.
I like the female-centric focus of the theme entries and the technique for cluing them. The nontheme fill didn’t exactly sparkle (the best stuff is probably NIMROD and RAW BAR, though CHIMERA is kinda neat), but it’s still pretty darn smooth. And that’s good enough in my book–fill doesn’t have to “wow” me if the theme itself is fun. Couple a neat theme with smooth fill and you have a satisfying solving experience.
My only hangup was with ROOD, the [Chancel cross]. Only the word “cross” was familiar to me. My dictionary says a rood is “a cross erected at the entry to a church chancel.” Convenient definition, ay? Another site states that “Roods often had figures of the Virgin Mary on one side and St. John on the other.” Guess you can tell where I (did not) spend most Sunday mornings as a child.
Michael Ashley’s Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, “Change of Ownership” — review’s pannonica
CHE puzzle "Change of Ownership" answers 071511
Great theme! Ashley UPSETs (28d) the order of five novel titles and clues the resultant phrase. Each original title has the same structure: X’s Y, which becomes Y’s X.
- 17a. [Novel about a walk-off home run?] GAME’S ENDER (Ender’s Game (1985), by Orson Scott Card). I’m not familiar with “walk-off” but will assume that it means what it’s supposed to in order to make the clue accurate.
- 20a. [Novel about an emoticon that everyone can use?] PEOPLE’S SMILEY (Smiley’s People (1979), by John le Carré).
- 34a. [Novel about the seriousness of a weather phenomenon?] RAINBOW’S GRAVITY (Gravity’s Rainbow (1973), by Thomas Pynchon).
- 51a. [Novel about an infant’s fragrant herb?] BABY’S ROSEMARY (Rosemary’s Baby (1967), by Ira Levin.
- 57a. [Novel about the life of a pointer?] ARROW’S TIME (Time’s Arrow (1991), by Martin Amis). Thought this was going to involve a dog.
Sure, most of the clues are somewhat tortuous and nonsensical, but that’s par for the course with this kind of wordplay. It was entertaining and enjoyable nonetheless. All the novels are late 20th century works, so should be in the sweet spot for most solvers. They encompass a variety of genres (science fiction, espionage, postmodern, horror, enfant terrible) and are well known but not trashy, so the theme’s very much in the Higher Education Wheelhouse™. Too bad that none of the five books is by a female author; then again, I can’t immediately think of one that’s appropriate.
The ballast is smooth, nothing to make you pull out your hair and not much to put a scowl on your face. Nice quadruple-six vertical stacks in the northeast and southwest: FATIMA, OVULES, RESENTS, MR HYDE and MCBEAL, ARABLE, TOBOOT, HAYNES (the first group is much better). Other long entries are interesting: SEMPER FI, INLAYING, UNCHASTE, and, er, MATH TEST.
Other notes:
- The oh-so-genteel clue for (19a) TUSH [Exclamation of impatience]. Amusing clue for (50a) ASS [“…the law is a __”: Charles Dickens]. [Prank victims] BUTTS (35d). Is this a mini-theme?
- Geography with epithetic clues for TURIN [“The cradle of Italian liberty”] and PETRA [Jordan’s “rose-red city”]. Bonus demonym: CROAT.
- Least favorite clues: Tolkien and Rowling, BEORN and OWLS. Fantasy’s not my bag. At least not their brand.
Michael Torch’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Dynamic Duos”
Wall Street Journal crossword solution, 7 15 11 Dynamic Duos
Fun, poppy theme this week. Mike Torch plays the “before and after” game to create mashed-up pairs of singers (one’s last name is the other’s first name), clued by merging songs from both of them. Like so:
- 23a. [Group that might have the hit…”Handy Man Love Story”] = JAMES TAYLOR SWIFT. Starring Bob Vila and Norm Abram. Nothing finer than a man love story about handy guys.
- 41a. […”At Last Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”] = ETTA JAMES BROWN. Papa’s old messenger bag was looking pretty ratty, wasn’t it?
- 67a. […”I Kissed a Girl, Hot Diggity”] = KATY PERRY COMO. That is one awesome mash-up title.
- 86a. […”Island Girl, Your Body Is a Wonderland”] = ELTON JOHN MAYER. John Mayer is creepy. That is all.
- 111a. […”Steppin’ Out Lawyers in Love”] = JOE JACKSON BROWNE. These two singer-songwriters occupy the same brain space for me. Sensitive guys, same era.
- 16d. […”I Just Can’t Help Believing She Blinded Me With Science”] = B.J. THOMAS DOLBY. “Science!”
- 53d. …”Rock Me Gently, Bette Davis Eyes”] = ANDY KIM CARNES. I don’t know who Andy Kim is. He’s Canadian and mostly before my musical time.
Oddest answer: 91d: YOUR WAY, clued as [Burger King’s method of preparation?]. It’s just nutty enough to win me over rather than alienating me liek that incredibly creepy plastic-headed King on the Burger King commercials. That clown shows up at my kitchen window? I’m shooting first, asking questions later.
Finest fill: EAST RIVER, “I MADE IT!,” tasty SAMOSAS, literary JOCASTA.
Worst fill: GRAYLY crossing SEA EEL, lotsa partials (ON AN, A JET, IF IT, NO FOR, A JAM, GOT A), blah repeaters (ERL, EYER, OSES, OTERO, TAY, H-TEST). Hey! That GOT A is a dupe with the clue for ETTA JAMES BROWN.
Four stars because I enjoyed the them so much. (Yes, I do like names in my puzzles, particularly if they’re not woefully obscure.)
Thanks for the kind words Amy. This is my debut. Glad you like the top left. The 1-Across clue stumped me for a bit when I finally saw the puzzle in print, and it was one of my clues. How soon we forget things I guess.
I say bring on the quad stacks. I love these puzzles, even if it took me forever to solve. A MAN TITLED HORSE sounded wrong, but fit. But RNASE? There is no acceptable pancreatic enzyme that belongs in a puzzle.
Congratulations to Bruce! you’re IT!
Around 4 stars each.
Bruce! Congrats! Good stuff. Hope you keep at this constructing thing ;). Great to see.
Loved the middle to bottom area of the Times, but that top was just too much (and sorry to whichever constructor’s part that is). I had never seen the game named as “Ring Around a Rosy” but instead as “…the Rosie”… which isn’t a nit to pick, but just an extra stumbling block up there for me. The rest were just really tough obscurities already mentioned. TORVALD must have been brutal for others as well. But other than that, as Jeffrey said, I do like these quads, as long as there’s some fresh stuff in there. Easier said than done, I know.
RNASE is also in the most recent iteration of my favorite puzzle (spoiler alert!)
Hey Amy,
There are different kinds of sterling silver, hence the plural. It depends on the other metal the silver is combined with. Copper is the most common, but germanium, zinc, platinum, boron and silicon are also used. Each of these STERLING SILVERS has its advantages and disadvantages to a silversmith.
-MAS
MAS – The mere existence of multiple kinds of sterling silver does not validate STERLING SILVERS as an entry. The fact is, _nobody_ says that, relative to how popular “sterling silver” is as a phrase. It’s the quintessential bad pluralization.
As Amy points out, A LOT ON ONE’S PLATE (the ‘ERA’ of 15s) has a curious history: it goes Manny (of course), Manny, Joe Krozel, MAS, Joe Krozel, MAS, and finally today’s MAS & Joe Krozel. Maybe Manny can join in for a three-way collaboration and end it there?
I tend to dislike these mega-stack puzzles – they look like Mondays in the middle and Saturday+++ on the outside. And even the stacks themselves can be bad – as Howard B pointed out, today’s top one is just not good. Only the 2nd 15 is completely legit.
No problem here with RNASE, but its clue is kind of iffy. RNases exist in nearly every cell type. They like to sit around on glassware and countertops too, which can really lead to a bad day in the lab if you’re not careful.
Rihat:
You might be interested in knowing that the original clue submitted for RING AROUND A ROSY (which incidentally is legit, otherwise it would not have be used, nor accepted) was in reference to the Arlo Guthrie song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCcP6vjC9gQ
-MAS
I thought it might be RRR, but that had to be wrong as it yielded RNASE. I thought the bottom was pretty easy and the top tough.
I have always had mixed feelings about whether an answer (particularly an expression) had to be an idiom or whether it could be any combination of words that might fit a clue. STERLING SILVERS did not bother me, but I do not see it as idiomatic, which I guess is obvious.
I enjoyed learning FROE.
Steve
NYT: Except the top an easy Friday that I raced through. More than ten minutes up there, and I ended up with LEES/ROSE. One of those that every last letter was a fight, even after getting AMANCALLEDHORSE. My kneejerk reaction for 17A was RINGARINGAROSIE – never ever heard it called RINGAROUNDAROSY – is that an American version? STERLINGSILVERS = horrible-ist 15 eh-ver!
Bottom quad is more interesting. Also liked SCARLETTANAGERS. Nailed TANA. SPAD turned up in a desperation search query for a puzzle I was working on yesterday, so I nailed that one too! Didn’t remember that SCARLETTANAGERS had been in a Krozel puzzle before, but ALOTONONESPLATE I did remember as being in other stacked puzzles…
Didn’t know RNase is also made in the pancreas, but it’s a perfectly fine, if a little technical entry. Plenty of other pancreatic enzymes are acceptable: AMYLASE, LIPASE seem just fine IMO, CHYMOTRIPSIN is probably not gonna appear any time soon though!
Pleasant LAT, with one or two teeth indeed. CORN/NASA was my last square. Was also wondering about the legitimacy of EROTICPOSE.
Didn’t we have sterling silvers before in another quadruple fifteens last year or was it somethig similar?
Congrats, Bruce! Fun debut.
I’m surprised more people don’t know RNASE – like LDOPA, it’s always jumped out at me as a peculiar word or phrase I need to know about.
Other than briefly wanting some sort of PONTIAC or GTO (SUPERCHARGEDGTOS is 16 – note to self: do not use a Sharpie on Friday) for the non-capitalized [firebird], I had the most vexing time trying to extend to 7 letters about a dozen 6-letter names ending in -ALD – perhaps some even lesser-known Disney Duck kin? It was a mini stumper.
Also, could not stop myself from mashing up movies to make ALITTLEBIGMANCALLEDHORSE – 24x before and after puzzle, anyone?
What a great debut for Bruce! JERSEY SHORTAGE was brilliant. BRILLIANT. I think you’re allowed two awkward RE- entries in your first published puzzle, no? (But never again!)
Thanks Jeffrey, Howard, Gareth, Matt and Neville.
@Neville I will keep the RE- entries to a minimum in the future.
@Gareth I originally had WARRIORPOSTAGE in my grid and a couple of other things different, but Rich didn’t think the yoga angle would be recognized by a wide array of solvers so we went back and forth and settled on EROTICPOSTAGE.
I would be remiss if I didn’t thank Doug Peterson for all the help and advice he has given me in this past year. He is a true Crossword Gentleman (and man about town).
denis, kevin der used STAINLESS STEELS as 18a in the first double-quad stack puzzle (in the same position as the 4th row in the top stack) last year. that’s probably what you’re thinking of, given the similarity (adjective + metal + awkward plural).
i got TORVALD okay (more ibsen, please), but i had a really tough time with that top right anyway and, like gareth, ended up with LEES/ROSE. i didn’t really like either stack, honestly. POLITICAL ASYLUM was the only 15 that did it for me. the others were either awkward (BE + adjective, DOESN’T + verb?), overused (SCARLET TANAGERS), or both (A LOT ON ONE’S PLATE, ugh). oh, i guess there’s A MAN CALLED HORSE. that’s neither forced nor overused, but it’s for me hard to like it since i don’t really know what that is. the puzzle as a whole exhibits an incredible disparity in quality and liveliness between the middle (scrabbly letters, clean fill) and the stacks (ugh).
congrats, bruce, on your debut! JERSEY SHORTAGE was terrific. i’m getting acclimated to the friday > saturday idea that we’ve been seeing in the LAT recently, but man, this one was tough. amy, my go-to ANNAS is the judean high priest in the new testament who, along with his son-in-law caiaphas, presides over the sham trial of jesus before the sanhedrin. i actually think that’s totally legit for a late-week clue. in this particular case, though, i think i’d have rather seen a cheater square there where ANNAS/RAHS meet at the S, making the symmetrically-situated ASCOT/AREA into SCOT/REA. there are other, slightly more complicated fixes involving RAHM/ANNUM (and a few changes around there), but i’ve already probably done too much dissecting here (and for the benefit of XOP, let me be clear that i’m pronouncing that dis-secting). this was a fine debut puzzle and i look forward to more from bruce “r.” sutphin.
joon: Who is XOP? That’s a major peeve of mine too.
XOP is Brian Cimmet’s father. Listen to Episode 127 of “Fill Me In” for the hilarious details.
I was really excited when, right off the bat, Jeremiah Johnson fit into 16 across. . .but dang it, wrong year and wrong Tribe.
I loved this puzzle. Quad stacks are so weird looking. . .and totally fun.
Thanks Jeffrey and joon. I disagree with much of what was said in the podcast, but on the whole it was good. Unfortunately, it got off on a very wrong foot with me by not being aware (expansive?) enough about the possible interpretations of “near miss.”
From the catacombs, my more etymological discourse on dissect, among other musings.
Pannonica, you can get many more (probably unsatisfying) discussions of “near miss” in other episodes of “Fill Me In”.
Congrats Bruce! Nice “Breaking Bad” clue.
In the NYT, I should have thrown down A MAN CALLED HORSE when I saw the clue, but when I came back I had some wrong things crossing it and had to unravel. (ETUDE for SCALE, UN IDEE for PENSEE.) NETCOM was very familiar – my first email address in 1994 was dfeyer@ix.netcom.com.
Oh, it was still entertaining. Didn’t mean to sound so harsh.
I agree about the contrast between the stacks and the mid-grid section. You can get livelier fill when you’re not trying to fill all that white space. And you want lively fill, especially in a themeless. But the middle is mostly short answers, and a themeless grid needs to be open, with a bias toward long answers. Open grid, lively answers. That’s the challenge.
The other day I was looking at some themeless puzzles from the early and mid 90s. On average, quite a contrast with today. Themeless puzzles now seem much more open and much more lively. Puzzles evolve, and part of that process is constructors pushing the limits. Like today’s puzzle, e.g.
Quad stacks are the new triple stacks, which were novel in the 90s. Stacks are not the be-all and end-all, but I’m glad to see them now and then. And today’s I thought worked better than some other quads.
And yes, the next one can do without A LOT ON ONE’S PLATE.
Oh, I forgot to mention this interesting historical note: Charles Gersch published a quadruple-stack in TOUGH PUZZLES magazine in 1991. It was in the middle of a 15×16, with no crossings shorter than 6 letters, including two 16-letter answers from top to bottom. Standards for fill were a bit looser then, so we would giggle at some of the long partials. But it’s still really impressive that he did that by hand!
That’s right Dan,
As far as I know the first ever quad-stacks puzzle was from the great Charles Gersch. He showed a copy of the puzzle to Frank Longo and myself at the ACCP in 1998.
-MAS
“I don’t know who Andy Kim is. He’s Canadian and mostly before my musical time. ”
Sigh. That is all.
I can share the general dislike. To get the stacks, almost everything felt either obscure or forced, and the stacked entries themselves included trivia (the movie), obscurity (the bird), and something that was wrong to my childhood, too (“a rosy”). Didn’t help for those of us not knowing the “Wyndham” (and not convinced that one specifically says one’s staying at “the” Hilton but never “the” Wyndham or “the” Hyatt or “the” Marriott) and not remembering NET.COM that RAFT could also have been “rash” or “rife.”
I won’t even start listing the weird downs (was a single down crossing of the 15 bottom letters other than maybe ELAN ordinary?) , but I’ll say it’s a lousy definition of RNASE. This from someone who just edited a biochem text the pub date of which was today! (Yeah.)
If there’s anything I actually liked, it was dealing with, after the (ugh) TV crossing D LIST (where I first tried “A list”), the discovery of CHALK DUST. A fun fill for me.
Dan F, I thought, too, of “etude” for SCALE but didn’t enter it. It felt too loose a definition. So I just hung for a while. I also thought first of “un idee,” but “idee” is feminine.
Congrats, Bruce! Hope it’s the first of many.
I was going to say i only knew ANNAS from “Jesus Christ Superstar” but it looks like joon sorta beat me to it.