Sunday, November 29, 2015

(Reagle, original write-up from 29 Nov 2009)

Alex Vratsanos’s New York Times crossword, “Four-Letter Words”—Amy’s write-up

NY Times crossword solution, 11 29 15 “Four-Letter Words”

Typically, I do not at all care for themes where the theme answers are the sort of phrases that would normally appear in the clues. Most such themes have short clues that would normally be the sort of entries signaled by clues, so the usual order is reversed but the whole thing bores me. This riff on that concept–including the shorter “clue words” as the 4-letter words in the grid’s corners and combining them in various permutations to clue the long theme entries–works much better, in my book. An extra layer of puzzling to work out as you proceed through the grid. I don’t usually try to fill in the bottom of the grid before I’ve naturally worked my way down, but had to change my approach here. Didn’t work back and forth between the 4-letter clue halves and the theme entries–mostly used the crossings to fill in the themers–but it comes together well enough.

OVER + HEAD = an EXPENSE TYPE, adding the first and second 4-letter words together. The theme layout is incredibly orderly, cycling through OVER + the third and then fourth 4s (LONG and SHOT), then HEAD cycles through the words that come after it (HEAD + LONG and HEAD + SHOT), and then finally LONG pairs with SHOT for NOT A GOOD BET. This sequencing is better than having the words paired in a haphazard fashion.

In the 1-Across corner, at first I scowled a bit at the OJAI/JOVI crossing, But EVE’S BAYOU–which introduced child actress Jurnee Smollett (her brother, Jussie Smollett, is one of the stars of Empire) and RICE-A-RONI’s full name (for a change) redeemed the puzzle and made me more favorably disposed to what followed. I also like EUPHORIA (who doesn’t?), SANITIZER (don’t call me a germophobe just because I need to kill germs!), CHILI DOG, and OPEN BAR.

There was some fill I didn’t care for–ETUI, say, and IRONERS and SMEE.

Question for our house physicians: What do you think of cluing 39d: IMAGER as [Radiologist, e.g.]? I’ve had plenty of diagnostic imaging done, but I can’t recall any time that the radiologist performed the imaging, as opposed to reading the images later. Radiologic technicians, sonographers–those are your IMAGERs, no? Or the machines themselves?

Never heard of Bobby LAYNE or these odd little PEARLFISH that live inside (!) oysters  (though Wikipedia mentions clams, not oysters). Please note that the pearlfish may also inhabit the anal pore of a sea cucumber, and if that isn’t insult enough to the sea cucumber, they may also eat the cuke’s gonads. The nerve!

3.8  stars from me.

Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon’s CRooked crossword, “Jazz Mix” — pannonica’s write-up

CRooked • 11/29/15 • “Jazz Mix” • Cox, Rathvon • hex/hook, bg • solution

Well here’s a happy little theme for me. Puns riffing off the names of jazz personages.

• 27a. [Game for a swinging musician?] BASIE BALL (baseball). Count Basie. Reminiscent of Garrett Morris’ Chico Escuela.
• 29a. [Jazzman’s seasonal tune?] DJANGO BELLS (“Jingle Bells”). Django Reinhardt.
  
• 45a. [Tatum breaking new ground?] MODERN ART {no spelling change}. Art Tatum.
• 47a. [Bird getting meddlesome?] NOSY PARKER {no spelling change}. Charlie Parker, aka ‘Yardbird” aka ‘Bird’.
  
• 61a. [Trumpeter’s sped up career?] FOUR-MINUTE MILES {no spelling change}. Miles Davis.
• 80a. [Item in a jazz singer’s golf bag?] BILLIE CLUB (billy club). Billie Holiday.
• 82a. [Mania for a jazz singer?] ELLA FEVER (yellow fever). Ella Fitzgerald.
• 94a. [Bebopper’s juju?] DIZZY SPELLS {no spelling change}. Dizzy Gillespie.
• 99a. [Item in a bandleader’s golf bag?] CAB DRIVER {no spelling change}. Cab Calloway. Another golf pun?

Nota BENE (101d): I’ve listed the most prominent and likely jazz people. Hence no DJANGO Bates, Ron MILES, William PARKER, et ALIA (6d).

1a [Mingus’s instrument] BASS, 14a [Jazz jargon] JIVE, 24a [Brothers who sang “Glow Worm”] MILLS (they performed in both jazz and pop idioms), 74a [Jazz leads] SOLOS, 92a [Jazzy drum] CONGA, 80d [Harry Lillis Cosby, Jr.] BING (he sometimes performed in a jazz idiom, but for the bulk of his career was mostly advised not to). 10a [Coal porter] TRAM; not jazzy per se, but Cole Porter’s compositions were definitely part of the so-called American Songbook, fodder for much of jazz standards. 52a [Musical tapper?] TOE. In jazz, an AXE is more likely to be a saxophone than a [Guitar, slangily] (91a).

• 3d [Septet in an idiom] SEAS. But no such qualifier for 5a [Creator of errors] HASTE, which I feel requires it more.
• 20a [Avuncular raconteur] REMUS; 67d [20-Across, for one] UNCLE. 33d [Role for Gielgud at 90] LEAR; 11d [A daughter of 33-Down] REGAN.
• 53a [Starry ram] ARIES; 65a [May baby, maybe] TAURUS.
• 77a [Biology beginner] EXO-. But I had ECO-, which is not as good an answer for the clue (as well as not being correct); this was my final correction before getting the green light from the solving app.
• 89a [Did some cleaning] DUSTED; 92d [Untainted] CLEAN.
• 94d [Robotic rock band] DEVO. Because KRAFTWERK wouldn’t fit.
• Long non-theme answers: SANITARY, TOLL GATES, PISTACHIO, CAST IRON.
• Finally, 19a [Medleys] OLIOS. Kind of like a jazz mix.

Good puzzle, but not super-exciting.

…

Okay, I simply can’t leave it with the only linked music—especially for this theme—as the Gypsy Hombres, and a Christmas song to boot! It isn’t even December yet.

Some justice needs be applied.

Bob Klahn’s Sunday Challenge CrosSynergy crossword —Ade’s write-up  

CrosSynergy Sunday Challenge crossword solution, 11.29.15

Good day, everyone, and hope you’re enjoying your last Sunday before December.

Can’t stay too long as I’m doing more reporting on location (Landover, MD), but just wanted to say that today’s Klahn special was definitely easy on the solver. (Well, at least I’m directing that comment to those who are used to solving Klahn puzzles.) Personally, the best answer for me was the first one I entered, SAM THE SHAM (1A: [“Wooly Bully” singer]). Knew that in a heartbeat, and initially wanted to type in “The Pharaohs.” But was definitely on that, especially since the song is on regular rotation on the iPod. The two across entries immediately below it were gettable, ALOHA STATE (15A: [Nickname established in 1959]) and ROBERT E LEE (17A: [Steamboat of song]), with SARI breaking those open for me (1D: [Sad-sounding attire]). Actually, my favorite entry was PIRATE SHIP, especially with the clue given referencing the ship that Blackbeard was on (12D: [Queen Anne’s Revenge, for one]). Only real hangup for me was UP-BOW, as I’m not up on my strings as I should be (25D: [V, to concertmasters]).

“Sports will make you smarter” moment of the day: BOOTH (34A: [“Sic semper tyrannis” shouter])– Today’s entries were real short on answers that I could give a sports tinge, so I’ll just give a quick shoutout to former NBA player Calvin BOOTH, a forward/center who played his collegiate ball at Penn State (graduated in 1999) and then played 11 seasons in The Association. He was drafted in the second round of the 1999 Draft by the Washington Wizards.

See you all on Monday!

Take care!

Ade/AOK

Gary Schlapfer and C.C. Burnikel’s Sunday LA Times crossword, “Man to Man” — Jenni’s write-up

I love it when my morning Email from Google Calendar says “There are no events scheduled for you today”. That means a leisurely Sunday with coffee and puzzles – and today a bonus of leftover pumpkin-maple-orange cinnamon buns. Yum.

Gary Schlapfer and C.C. Burnikel’s LAT puzzle, “Man to Man,” 11.29.15

There’s nothing tricky about this puzzle. The theme entries kind of snuck up on me. Each one is a word or phrase in which the word “man” can be substituted for the second part.

ANCHORCHAIR —-> ANCHORMAN
FRONTDOOR —-> FRONTMAN
WOLFSPIDER—->WOLFMAN
SUPERPAC—->SUPERMAN (a definite improvement)
SPACEWALK—->SPACEMAN
FRESHAIR—->FRESHMAN
CAMERACREW—->CAMERAMAN
IRONHORSE—->IRONMAN (Lou Gehrig to Robert Downey, Jr. From strength to strength.)
MIDDLEEARTH—->MIDDLEMAN

Both the originals and the substitutions are in the language. Satisfying.

A few random notes:

• “Healthy bar creations” at 1A is SALADS. Not all salad-bar salads are healthy. I can load mine down with croutons and bacon bits and yummy dressing. And then I laugh.
• My first answer for 15D, “dating scene returnee”, was DIVORCE, which I figured was the male version of “divorcée”. Turned out to be WIDOWER.
• Don’t ask me how I knew that a HODAD is a “surfer wannabe”, but I did.
• There was an olden-days feel to this puzzle with Lillian GISH and INKA-dinka-doo and Buck Rogers and his RAYGUN; modern flair showed up with SNARF.
• When I saw “Pandora’s inventory”, I first thought of music and then of beads before I filled in ILLS.
• I learned something! “Cheroot” and “curry” entered the English language from the TAMIL tongue.

All in all, a smooth Sunday solve without much crosswordese. 4 stars from me.