NYT 5:25 (Amy)
LAT 7:08 (Gareth)
CS 12:19 (Ade)
CHE untimed (Doug)
WSJ (Friday) 15:11 (Sam)
David Steinberg’s New York Times crossword
NY Times crossword solution, 5 1 15, no 0501
This 16-square-wide grid features two triple-stacks plus a single 16 in the middle (no more 3/3/3 stacks in the NYT, you may recall—but 3/1/3 still fair game). Most of the 16s are lively, none includes a ONE’S, and—as you might expect—a goodly number of the crossings are clunky little things.
Favorite parts:
- 18a. [Provider of an A in English?], THE SCARLET LETTER. Always good to get a title’s THE in the grid. Plus, we like literature.
- 38a. [Tangy dessert], LEMON MERINGUE PIE. I prefer Key lime pie, but….
- 44a. [Phencyclidine, colloquially], ANGEL DUST. Aka PCP. Is anyone still taking that?
- 58a. [Many an extreme athlete], ADRENALINE JUNKIE. V. good.
- 64a. [Simple], EASY TO UNDERSTAND. Easy as pie.
- 36d. [Youngest of a baseball trio], JESUS ALOU. Not generally a fan of ALOUs in the grid, but this one’s making me say “Jeezalou!”
One nice thing about triple-stacked 16s is that they are free of the stale 15s that have repeated in multiple puzzles.
Seven more things:
- 46d. [Preserves preserver], JAM JAR. Is that a contrived phrase? “Jelly jar” is a thing, “Mason jar” is a thing.
- 4d. [@ @ @], ATS. Hmm. I reckon those are “at signs” and not “ats.” You can’t pluralize AT unless you’re referring to the Cambodian unit of currency.
- 21a. [Brit in the news], HUME. Really nice clue. Brit Hume is currently on Fox News.
- 46a. [Notepad user], JOTTER. Meh. You can jot things down, sure, but nobody’s calling you a JOTTER.
- 15d. [Memory: Prefix], MNEM-. Blech.
- Quick! Name three 4-letter names of people that start with E and are found in crosswords well out of proportion to their circulation in non-crossword discourse. Did you say ERLE, ERTE, and ENID? Very good! ENYA is a runner-up because she’s actually a current figure in pop culture who sang a soundtrack song that garnered Grammy and Oscar nominations. EDIE isn’t really in the running since Ms. Falco is pretty prominent in acting circles. ELLA Fitzgerald, ELSA from Frozen, EMMA Stone et al, and other names are also less crosswordese-infected than ERLE, ERTE, and ENID.
- 19a. [Literally, “fool”], SOT. Did not know that.
As for the star rating … hmm. Good long fill offset by the stuff I didn’t care for. 3.66 stars?
Samuel A. Donaldson’s Chronicle of Higher Education crossword – “Saved by the Bell”
5/1 CHE – “Saved by the Bell” by Samuel A. Donaldson
Greetings, crossword fans. Doug here, filling in for pannonica. Oh man, I got excited when I saw the title! A tribute to the classic sitcom Saved by the Bell? Yes! I wondered what Sam came up with for theme entries: SCREECH OWL? QUARTERBACK ZACK? EMPIRE STATE BELDING?
Oops, false alarm. The “Bell” is the “bell curve” used by a teacher who is …
- 24a. [Distribution system for exam scores that’s displayed in this puzzle], GRADING ON A CURVE.
Sam’s curve (OK, it’s a little bit triangly) is represented by circles in the grid. You’ve got your A-students on the high end of the curve and your flunkers on the low end of the curve. Sam is a professor, so he knows all about grading. Does he use the bell curve? I bet Sam gives out lots of A’s and B’s. He’s undoubtedly one of those cool professors that the kids love. The prof who knows all the hip references and occasionally goes out for a beer with some of his students after class. I loved those professors. And everything’s just peachy until you show up at his house at 3 in the morning because you need to borrow a tarp, thirty feet of rope, and a shovel right now and he won’t even open the door… Oops, sorry. Little flashback there. Anyway, if a test is too difficult (or no one studied), the students could certainly be “saved by the bell” curve, so this is fun.
18a. [State capital near the 45th parallel], SALEM. Remember the recent kerfuffle about the frighteningly ugly Lucille Ball statue? I experienced similar statue trauma in SALEM, Massachusetts. I love Elizabeth Montgomery, and so I wanted to check out her statue when I was in Salem a few years ago. I know not what eldritch power created the visage you see on the right, but it must not be allowed to sculpt any future abominations! So please sign my petition at change.org to outlaw bronze statues of beloved sitcom stars. If they ever put up a god-awful bronze statue of Barbara Eden in Cocoa Beach, I will personally melt it with a blowtorch.- 38d. [Reptilian symbol of commerce], CADUCEUS. I know this as a symbol of medicine. Turns out it’s also a symbol of commerce. Nice. I always learn something, or a few things, when I solve a CHE puzzle.
- 28a. [Clunkers of sorts], SOUR NOTES. Bonus theme answer. Play the circled notes on your favorite musical instrument, and the resulting song will sound very sour.
55d. [Wisecrack], JAPE. The Man Who Japed looks like he could use a tarp and a shovel. According to the cover blurb, the dude carrying a severed head “undermined their world with mockery!”- 9d. [Socks in the Clinton White House, e.g.], TOMCAT. I have a hilarious Socks picture I could post, but I don’t have room. I’ll have to find a way to sneak it into my next post. I bet you can’t wait.
Yeah, I know this was an odd write-up. I’m more of a picture poster than a puzzle analyzer. But I know what I like, and this was a great solve. Quality work from Sam and Brad. What letter grade would I give this puzzle? Well, it depends. On its own, it’s a solid A-. But if Patrick Berry has a puzzle today, he’s going to “blow the curve” and the rest of the poor Friday constructors are all going to get C’s and D’s. Live by the curve, die by the curve.
Marie Kelly’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Golly Gee!”–Sam Donaldson’s review
“Mayday!” solution (May 1, 2015)
Hello, again! It’s me, Sam Donaldson, once more sitting in for pannonica. Have no fear–intellectual critique of the WSJ puzzle will resume next week. In the meantime, think of me as the substitute teacher. Then again, now that I remember how we used to treat subs when I was a kid, maybe you shouldn’t think of me like that. Let’s just get to today’s puzzle.
Notice that the constructor byline, Marie Kelly, anagrams to “Really Mike.” What we have here is a Mike Shenk puzzle, and that’s always welcome. The theme reinterprets today, May Day, as “Mayday!” As the clue for 108-Down tells us, S.O.S. is both [Mayday! (and the initials of this puzzle’s longest answers)]. True that–the seven longest answers in the puzzle all have the initials S.O.S.:
- The [Critique of many an arty movie] is that it elevated STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE. My fellow federal tax mavens often keep the similar judicial doctrine of “substance over form” in mind as we design transactions so as to minimize the tax bite. I’m thinking we should rename the doctrine “substance over style” so we sound cooler. Cooler than we already are, that is.
- An [Oft-repeated situation] is the SAME OLD STORY. I could elaborate, but it would just be, well, you know.
- [Deidre Hall, for one] is a SOAP OPERA STAR. I’m unfamiliar with Ms. Hall, largely because the only time I ever watched soap operas was when I was home sick from school. This was back in the days before on-demand television (hell, it was before cable), so it’s not like a sick boy on the couch had many options. Anyway, Ms. Hall played Dr. Marlena Hall on Days of Our Lives for 32(!) years. I like this bit from her character’s bio on Wikipedia: Throughout the course of her existence on the program, she has experienced what some consider to be the most outrageous circumstances of any character in soap opera history. These would include possession by the devil; a plummet from a 30-story-window (which she survived); being used as a surrogate for genetically engineered babies, Rex and Cassie, during a four-year coma; being mind-controlled to believe she was a serial killer; and becoming pregnant late in life and suffering a miscarriage, which caused her to have hysterical amnesia. She has also been kidnapped numerous times over the past 30 years. She is a doctor, wife, mother, twin, grandmother and great-grandmother. That’s what you might call a full life.
- The SPEED OF SOUND is clued as [Exceeding it causes a boom]. That’s a perfectly fine clue, but I might have mixed things up a little with something like [340.29 meters per second, at sea level].
- One [Showing off] may be said to be STRUTTING ONE’S STUFF. That’s probably my favorite of theme answers, if only because it reminds me of this…
- The [Weapons for Bonnie and Clyde] were SAWED-OFF SHOTGUNS. Great entry, in part because it allows us to discuss a matter of, shall we say, initial importance. Are the initials for “sawed-off shotgun” really S.O.S., or are they just S.S.? Do hyphenated words contain two or more initials? Please offer your thoughts in the comment field, if for no other reason than to prove you actually read this far.
- A [Huckster] might be called a SNAKE OIL SALESMAN, particularly if said huckster self-identifies with the male gender.
The puzzle seemed to offer just the right amount of resistance. There were several answers I couldn’t get on the first go, but later, with a couple of crossings in place, they all seemed to fall quite nicely. Some answers put up even more of a fight, but they were hardly unfair; I just didn’t know them. Like FO’C’S’LE, clued as [Crew quarters]. Heretofore I don’t think I’ve encountered a word with three apostrophes. My dictionary says the word is short for “forecastle.” Given the use of cap’n and bos’n asea, I’ll buy it.
Another one that gave me some small fits was MESTA, the [Famed “hostess with the mostest”]. That’s Perle Mesta, for those keeping track at home. She was known for throwing big parties in Washington, D.C. They mesta been nice to attend.
I see little in the grid that would ping Amy’s patent-pending Scowl-O-Meter. ARECA, the [Betel nut tree], may be the worst entry in the whole puzzle, but it’s not per se bad. What we have here is trademark smoothness from Mike Shenk, one of the all-time greats in this craft. And look at some of the juiciness here: PLAY GOD, MARDI GRAS, BOOZY, TAP OUT, AS LONG AS, and GIT GO are all terrific.
Before signing off, it seems appropriate here to share some great news announced to constructors earlier this week: sometime in the near future, the WSJ will be offering a daily crossword (well, Monday through Saturday) instead of just the Friday puzzle! The 21×21 Friday puzzle will move to Saturday, and 15×15 dailies will run on weekdays. No word yet on whether that puzzle will be blogged on this site, but contact our fearless leader if you’re interested in the gig.
Favorite entry = LETTING GO, the [Challenge for parents]. Favorite clue = [Prepare for takeoff?] for UNTIE.
Doug Peterson’s CrosSynergy/Washington Post crossword, “That’s Entertainment”—Ade’s write-up
CrosSynergy/Washington Post crossword solution, 05.01.15: “That’s Entertainment”
“While strolling through the park one day, in the merry merry month of May!” Hello there, and hope you’re all doing well as we begin the month of May! Today’s crossword puzzle, offered up by Mr. Doug Peterson, puts a spin on common terms, common nouns and phrases by making them puns with its clues.
- RATIONAL NUMBER (20A: [Singer’s tribute to good judgement?])
- CLASS ACT (31A: [Performance featuring students dancing on desks?]) – That wouldn’t be a bad senior prank to pull off, now would it?
- DRILL BIT (43A: [Routine with a goofy boot camp instructor?])
- CHARCOAL SKETCH (56A: [Comical piece about barbecue supplies?])
Got off to a pretty slow start, as I was not quick on getting STAB when reading its clue (1A: [Grab with a toothpick]). I guess stabbing is what we do when using a toothpick most times, but just reading that makes my gums shiver, as I’m sure it wouldn’t like to be stabbed by a toothpick. After that, it was a pretty smooth solve. How great is it that GRILLING intersects the theme answer that involves barbecue (38D: [Fourth of July activity, often])? By the way, I can’t believe that Independence Day is pretty much to months away now! Here’s another chance to lament not eating seafood, as I don’t know how good (or not) CRAB DIP is (10D: [Appetizer for seafood lovers]). Oh, did I use the word lament in the last sentence and not turn it plural to LAMENTS, which also happens to appear in the grid (45D: [Weeps for])? That’s a fail on my part.
“Sports will make you smarter” moment of the day: COMANECI (6D: [1976 Olympic gymnastics star Nadia]) – Almost inarguably the greatest gymnast in history, Romanian Nadia COMANECI was the first gymnast to record a perfect score of 10 in an Olympic event, doing so on the uneven bars during the 1976 Olympics in Montréal at the ripe old age of 14. Comaneci went on to win five gold medals during those Olympic games. Comaneci is married to former American gymnast Bart Conner, who won two gold medals at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, including an individual award on the parallel bars.
Enjoy the weekend, everyone, and I’ll see you on Saturday!
Take care!
Ade
Max Carpenter’s LA Times crossword – Gareth’s review
LA Times
150501
You don’t often see a Thursday-NYT type gimmick in the LA Times. This one looks crazy once it’s completed! I picked it up early on in the solve, though it was still tricky to know whether a particular U was single or double. As spelt out in the final answer, DOUBLEU, 18 entries have their W’s written as UU in two blocks. (W)ORLD(W)IDE(W)EB has 3 W’s, as does PO(W)(W)O(W). A(W)K(W)ARD has two. The others are: T(W)EENER (I’ve not heard of that tennis shot!), T(W)O, (W)R (a rare two letter answer!), and CLO(W)N going across; and LO(W), IO(W)A, A(W)LS, LA(W)SUIT, RAN(W)ILD, (W)ENDY, ANE(W), (W)ORK, (W)ARD, AVO(W), and (W)AND going down.
With a sprawling puzzle theme like this one, for the most part the puzzle is the gimmick and the fun comes in figuring out its intricacies. We do get a DICAPRIO in the quieter bottom-right. I can imagine this was a fun, and unusual grid filling experience for the constructor!
Other remarks:
- [IBM-inspired villain], HAL. I’m pretty sure ACC maintained the names were coincidental ’til his death.
- [Modern crime head?], CYBER. I’d prefer “quaint”.
4 Stars. Fun gimmick.
Gareth, leaving you with the beautiful work of Ms. Bush
No more 3/3/3s in the New York Times? Did Will Shortz say that somewhere?
Googled it, answered my own question.
NYT: Love ADRENALINE JUNKIE! I actually breed them (for my research that is) and contrast them to really risk averse critters (we’re talking rodents). Very genetic. And those guys would love to take ANGEL DUST, and nibble on LEMON MERINGUE PIE. They go for anything new and different, consequences be damned.
I’m not sure I agree with the clue for ESCAPE MECHANISMS (“they’ll help you out”). To my mind, an escape mechanism is a psychological term denoting a strategy that lets you repress or suppress facts and feelings because you can’t confront them. So, not too helpful in the end. An escape hatch would help you out, or an escape plan. It was confusing enough to make it the last long answer I solved.
I agree about “escape mechanisms”. It’s only an in-the-language standalone phrase in the psychological sense, as far as I know.
Went through the top 75% of this puzzle super fast (for me, not for Amy), then at the very bottom it felt like I was swimming in molasses — putting in the wrong verticals almost every time, and missing some of the across answers also. Had RAMP up, not DIAL up, ORZO not IDEA (how about a question mark for [noodle product]?), had PECTIN (booboo on my part) not JAMJAR for [preserves preserver], had Little JOE not Little UNS, had AGAR not OKRA for [stew thickener] (tricky, the stuff okra is in is usually clued [gumbo]), had IDLE not DEAD for [no longer working].
I also thought V-Mail was “video email” and had ISP (Internet Service Provider) for [V-Mail overseer] instead of APO, not knowing about Victory Mail used in World War II, a system that converted (censored) letters to microfilm and then transported the microfilm to the destination where the microfilm was converted to letters again.” I couldn’t get a clue as to the long across answers with so many wrong vertical ones.
I thought this puzzle had a lot of fun words, and until the end, was easier than Thursday’s. I guess that the lack of a “?” for “noodle product” and using “stew” instead of “gumbo” were because this was a Friday, not a Monday. Doh!
Calvin PEETE (48d) [Calvin of the P.G.A] had a fascinating life that ended Wednesday April 29th, 2015. He was the eighth of nine children, had a permanently bent left arm from a childhood fall, and did not begin golfing until he was 23. Prior to that, he had a variety of jobs, including one selling goods to migrant workers on the east coast out of his car. He had diamond studs put into his front teeth to make himself more memorable to his customers.
In spite of his late start and lack of instruction, he became the second-winningest African-American golfer ever, behind Tiger Woods. He had 12 PGA wins. He had a 4-2-1 record in two Ryder Cup matches and won both of his singles matches; he was the straightest driver on the PGA tour for ten years in a row (a record); in 1984 he won the Vardon Cup for having the lowest stroke average on the PGA Tour for the year.
Rest in peach, Mr. Peete.
http://www.golf.com/tour-and-news/12-time-tour-winner-calvin-peete-passes-away-71-1
http://www.rydercup.com/usa/history/2014-ryder-cup-player-records
It is funny how in today’s robotic world of mechanically perfect golf swings, there are still players like Jim Furyk with bizarre swings that nevertheless work because of the player’s ability to repeat the swing and control his tempo. I can’t think of any of these players who are particularly long as the one major advantage of the perfect swing is that it helps to generate a lot of clubhead speed and thus greater distance.
Calvin Peete, with his shriveled arm and perfect tempo, was my favorite golfer of the early ’80s. Incidentally, in order to be eligible to play in the Ryder Cup, he had to take a high school equivalency test as there is a high school graduate requirement to be eligible.
Incidentally, my solving experience was just the opposite: I struggled with the top and breezed through the bottom.
Steve
Steve
Bubba Watson has led the tour in driving distance, and is 3rd on tour as of today in driving distance, at 307.1 yards. John Daly was the first to average over 300 yards for a year.
Yet their swings are more homemade than robotic.
I thought I typed in “Rest in Peace.”
Sorry about that.
4d. [@ @ @], ATS. Hmm. I reckon those are “at signs” and not “ats.” You can’t pluralize AT unless you’re referring to the Cambodian unit of currency.
Don’t forget the Cadillac ATS!
JAM JAR definitely a thing. And for what it’s worth, twice as many Google hits as “jelly jar.”
JAMJAR is standard here. But then jelly is a wobbly dessert here. There is jelly jam, an uncommon subset of jam – usually apple, pear or quince – there is something in how those are manufactured that makes them different but can’t remember what.
Agreed. I’ve heard of jam jars much more than jelly jars.
How I knew the clue for ANGEL DUST:
angel dust, phencyclidine, PCP by Scott Campisi
I am writing to tell you good-bye.
On phencyclidine, I’ve found that I
Come apart at the seams
In my angel dust dreams,
And this note’s just in case I can’t fly.
WPSI (fin-SIK-luh-deen) Its full chemical name is 1–(1–phencyclohexyl) piperidine, but it is better known as PCP.
Pretty freaky in a poetic sort of way.
[@ @ @], ATS. Hmm. I reckon those are “at signs” and not “ats.”
I agree with Amy on this—not to mention that I think “at signs” is a pretty dodgy name for them, considering that the symbol far predates its modern use in e-mail addresses. I know them as arrobas (again, from my favorite dictionary [I’m not trying to spam it here, honest! It’s just that two of the relatively obscurer items in my lexicon happen to come from there and be relevant here]):
arroba, @ by Znirk (Xander Deubelbeiss)
The arroba enjoys great success
As “that sign in the e-mail address.”
As a unit of weight
It’s not used much of late,
And, frankly, the later, the less.
In Spanish, the @ sign is called arroba because it resembles the symbol for that archaic measure of weight.
The bottom 3-stack was nice — all good answers, and the down crossings are pretty good too. I didn’t care for the top 3, though. ESCAPEMECHANISMS seems like a random phrase to me, and the downs — ATS, EMT, ACL, NAE, and especially MNEM are not so hot.
It’s not clear to me that the S in LASIK really stands for SITU. Laser Assisted In-Situ Keratomileusis. If the S is for Situ, what’s the I?
Odd coincidence to see Calvin PEETE just a few days after he died. The NYT obit said that because of a childhood accident he couldn’t fully straighten his left arm. Maybe that’s why he hit the ball so accurately. Some smart entrepreneur should market an elbow wrap that prevents your arm from straightening. Golfers are suckers for any wacky device that promises to improve their game.
I could not help but notice the under 3.0 evaluation of today’s LAT. I really enjoyed the effort and would hope those who have graded it low would be kind enough to comment and reveal their issues.
Calvin Peete’s life is a great story and he will be missed; along with Lee Elder and Charlie Sifford he inspired many
yeah, i’m not sure what the deal is with those ratings, because that was a cool LAT puzzle. i definitely wasn’t expecting anything like that—haven’t seen a gimmick theme in the LAT for many years. it messed with my solving time pretty good, but it was really neat and i’d love to see more like it in the future.
I have not rated it (yet), but I would not give a high rating. It’s one of those puzzles where the completed grid is gibberish. I’ve posted previously at Rexworld that I don’t mind that result if there’s enough of a payoff — like that puzzle where the entries went up and down as you went across, or the backward theme. This just didn’t do it for me, and I found the inconsistent treatment of U annoying: sometimes it was theme; sometimes it was just a U. I’m only guessing, but others may have had the same reaction. I don’t usually spend my BART ride home frowning and grimacing, but I certainly did today.
Let me build on my earlier remarks (I hope this post pops up in the right place). I think what works for me are tricks that my brain can recognize immediately, so backwards works and rebuses work. I just tried doing the LAT on the website to see if it was my lettering that was responsible … but no. UU ain’t W even going across and the downs are a complete fail. So, this one just did not do it for me. YMMV
A lot of people who solve the LA Times are not “ACPT type” solvers and want plain, simple puzzles. It’s a common complaint that the Friday/Saturday LA Times is being “too clever”.
I don’t understand why a rater here would appreciate a Times Thursday but downgrade a LAT with the same characteristics. It’s not the “LAT audience” but Amy’s commenters who are voting.
As to the looseness question, non-theme U’s didn’t bother me. Non-theme UU’s would have. VACUUM would have been fatal.
I would not have rated this puzzle highly wherever it ran. There are many days when I think the LAT is better than the NYT. This was not one of them. ;-)
The subset of “Amy’s commenters” who solve the NYT and LAT are not necessarily the same people.
Well, aren’t you condescending? I do both, I’m not ACPT material, and I don’t want a plain, simple puzzle. I haven’t read many complaints – or comments – here about the LAT at all, let alone ones that the Friday/Saturday puzzles are “too clever.” It usually gets no comments.
I rated the LAT 2 stars and here is why. I hate gimmick puzzles. This was one. It wasn’t worth thinking about after finishing it. Oh wow, somebody suddenly realized that W can be pronounced as double U. Once you figured that out, it was easy.
Why do I never see a LA Times review?
Gareth is in a different time zone and comments well after we have completed it. Probably best to read his review the day after.
Quickly filled in the top also (quickly for me) and slogged through the bottom forever, it seemed. Good puzzle.
I’ve been getting word that the CHE crossword archive page is hinky in multiple ways at the moment. (It does seem to be, from my visit). I’ve notified them. In the meantime, if you want an Across Lite file via e-mail, send a request to bewilbered [atsymbol] gmail dot com.
Amy,
JAM JAR could have been clued even more opaquely: [Cockney’s car]
JAGUAR’s similarity to JAMJAR would have only added to the
general anguish.
CHE archive page is fixed…..
Sam,
We stayed over in Salem, Or (the one in the puzzle) one year on our way to Seattle. Your hideous Elizabeth Montgomery statue is nothing compared with the Oregon State Capitol. In lieu of a dome it is surmounted by a giant washing machine agitator, which is visible for miles in all directions. I don’t know if the dome option was behind their means, but Salems apparently are taste-challenged as a group.
Beg to differ. It’s a nice tribute to the pioneers who settled the state — my great great grandparents among them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Pioneer
The gold guy on the top is cool, but he’d be cooler on a dome.
Can’t disagree with that. ;)
Cool 16s David!
Re JAM JAR.
As some of you know, I’m originally from England. Even though many UK English words are identical to American ones. JAM and JELLY are not.(Same in Canada in this instance),
The UK a JAM refers to a traditional fruit preserve, usually with small chunks of fruit in it, however a JELLY (and I don’t mean a Jello-style dessert) refers to a type of clear almost transparent jam, where the fruit pieces have largely been filtered out (such as Welch’s Grape Jelly
.) in the UK and Canada both jams and jellies (for toast etc) are found in the same section of a grocery store. They’re closely related but not quite the same. Here the jars are usually called JAM JARS, simply because there is usually a greater variety of jams than jellies in the stores.
However, I’ve noticed in the US, many times little distinction is made between the two varieties of preserves. But for me JAM JAR is the more common word. But I don’t see anything wrong with JELLY JAR either, except that usage is rarer in Canada and the UK in my experience.
-MAS