Thursday, December 22, 2016

Mark MacLachlan’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s write-up

NY Times crossword solution, 12 22 16, no 1222

The theme is {AL}UMINUM / SIDING, with aluminum’s {AL} chemical symbol appearing outside the grid to complete each Across answer that abuts the edge. The revealer is 45a. [With 42-Down, home construction material … or a hint to this puzzle’s theme]. So we have 1a. [Hitchcock, for one] / {AL}FRED on the left and 25a. [Like some sex] / PREMARIT{AL} on the right, for instance. And the center answer, 34a, looks like BERT EINSTEIN MED, doubly curtailing the {Al}bert Einstein Med{Al}. Kinda cute, right?

Some of the fill’s a bit rough—ENTO, VEES, REMAT, IN L.A., SNERT, NONS, RUHR, not to mention the awkward/contrived-sounding {AL}E-SELLERS. And there’s a duplicated verb where I DID IT crosses DO A DE{AL}. ALE-SELLERS aside, the other {AL} answers are pretty solid.

Three more things:

• 53a. [Whales like the one in “Moby-Dick”], {AL}BINOS. Apparently albino sperm whales have been noted in real life, though I’m not 100% sure they’re truly albino as opposed to being leucistic. If you’ve never managed to read all of Moby-Dick and you enjoy anagram challenges, check out the OMBY app (for iOS and Android). The entire novel is dispensed in very brief excerpts from which a small chunk has been scrambled. You unscramble the letters to fill in the blanks, and really engage with Melville’s prose. I found the whole enterprise delightful (and perfect for calming one’s thoughts at bedtime), and finished the book after two failed attempts at reading.
• I like the PREMARIT{AL} sex/PURITANIC{AL} combo.
• 17d. [Moon of Saturn that’s a French woman’s name], HELENE. I don’t know all my moon names, so the “French woman’s name” hint was helpful to me.

3.9 stars from me.

Daniel Hamm’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Variations on a Christmas Theme” — Jim’s review

Okay. That about does it for me. Four out of four WSJ puzzles this week carry known or suspected Mike Shenk pseudonyms. I don’t know if this has happened before, but to me, that’s excessive. Are there no other constructors submitting puzzles to the WSJ?

I’ve gone back and looked at this month. Of the 19 puzzles published so far in December, 13 are by the editor. That’s a whopping 68%.

I’m not getting the sense that there’s anything sinister behind it, but something sure seems hinky, like there are just not enough high-quality submissions.

I am in no position to make any judgements. I have never met Mr. Shenk (nor any other  constructor for that matter), but from what I hear, he is a very nice person. So I am just at a loss to provide any sort of explanation. But while Will Shortz has more submissions than he can accept at the NYT, is the same not true at the WSJ? I’m certain Mike Shenk doesn’t get nearly as many submissions, but there’s gotta be more than what we’re seeing.

The main reason I mention all this is that it’s frustrating for me, the one person blogging four out of six WSJ puzzles per week when most, if not all, of those puzzles are by the same person. I feel like I’m saying the same things over and over again and the puzzles, while satisfactory in their own right, feel repetitive and rehashed on the whole. I feel I’m doing a disservice to you readers when I’m not saying anything new.

So let me conclude with a plea to any constructors out there. Give the WSJ a try. For all our sake. But especially mine.

#endrant

Okay. On to the puzzle. I’m going to keep this short and sweet. We have five entries in which the first words are all anagrams of each other.

WSJ – Thu, 12.22.16 – “Variations on a Christmas Theme” by Daniel Hamm (Mike Shenk)

• 15a [“Fallen Angels” playwright] NOEL COWARD
• 26a [SpaceX founder] ELON MUSK
• 31a [Gauze makeup] LENO WEAVE. New to me. Are you sure it’s not a [Hairpiece for a former TV host]?
• 41a [“Redemption” writer] LEON URIS
• 54a [Silver owner] LONE RANGER. Nice clue on this one.

I really struggled in the NE because I wanted DST at 9a [It starts in Mar.] instead of SPR. Unknowable (to me) entries of GRECO [Pianist-singer Buddy], FREESIA [Flower with a citrus scent], and RED OAKS [Amazon Prime comedy set at a country club] didn’t help matters.

Unusual entries: The aforementioned FREESIA and 34d ALMSMAN [Poor box beneficiary]. This last one shows up as archaic or obsolete in some dictionaries. It’s bad enough to put labels on those in need; do we have to be sexist about it as well? One more questionable entry: OBLONGS as a noun (21a, [Stretched shapes]).

Excellent entries: 7d FIREFLIES with the lovely clue [They have tail lights] and 29d SOLID GOLD with the functional clue [Like the Kentucky Derby trophy]. Runners-up include TIE CLIP, MEMO PAD, and SEXES UP.

That’s it for me for this week. I will be back on Boxing Day. If you celebrate Christmas, please have a joyful one.

Donna S. Levin’s CrosSynergy/Washington Post Crossword, “I Herd That!” —Ade’s write-up

CrosSynergy/Washington Post crossword solution, 12.22.16: “I Herd That!”

Good day, everybody. We have some onomatopoeia fun in today’s grid, brought to us by Ms. Donna S. Levin. In it, puns are derived when the first syllable of a common phrase is replaced by a similar-sounding syllable, which also happens to be the sound of a farm animal that’s mentioned in the corresponding clue. Or something like that.

• MOOVING VAN (18A: [Method a cow uses to relocate from pasture to pasture?])
• NEIGHKED TRUTH (28A: [Harsh reality of a horse’s life?])
• BAATOM FEEDER (47A: [Opportunist that takes advantage of the other sheep?])
• MAAFIA BOSS (61A: [Goat that makes offers the others can’t refuse?])

Pretty nice grid with nice fill, though I sauntered through this grid more than I sped through it. Probably my favorite fill of the day was IN ABSENTIA (3D: [How someone who jumps bail might be tried]). Had a little hangup on the left side of the grid when I put in “Bin” instead of IBN, something I do regularly when seeing that clue (32A: [“Son of,” in Arabic names]). Also typed in “property” at first instead of PREMISES as well, also slowing me up a bit (40D: [Land and buildings thereon]). Oh, and please tell me that you thought of the amazing Geico commercial when filling in ICE-T, as I did (19D: [Odafin Tutuola’s portrayer on “Law & Order: SVU”]). Don’t know what I’m talking about? Well, here it is. You’re welcome.

“Sports will make you smarter” moment of the day: SMOOT (52A: [Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist George who cameoed on “The Big Bang Theory”]) – Known as one of the best trash talkers while on the football field, Fred SMOOT played as a cornerback in the National Football League from 2001 to 2009, mostly with the Washington (D.C.) football club. Smoot was chosen as a consensus All-America during his senior year at Mississippi State and, in 2001, was selected by Washington in the second round of the 2001 NFL Draft. One of his most famous trash talking lines was, while at Miss. State, he went up against tight end Todd Yoder of Vanderbilt University, a school widely known for its excellence in academia. Reportedly, Smoot, lined up across from Yoder before a play started and said to him, “I’ll let you catch a pass if you do my homework.” Now that’s some trash talk, instead of insults that people say is trash talk.

TGIF tomorrow! I hope you have a great rest of your Thursday.

Take care!

Ade/AOK

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s website crossword – “Knight Moves” — Ben’s Review

BEQ’s pre-Christmas puzzle today has a theme that took me a second to fully parse it:

• 20A: Uprising over a tax on dark beers? —
  BOXER REBELLION
• 25A: Glance from “Rocky Horror” actor Tim? — CURSORY LOOK
• 37A: Best costume at a Halloween party? — OCTOBER SURPRISE
• 45A: Actress Hathaway with not enough money? — SHORT ANSWER
• 50A: Those who know everything about philosopher Immanuel? — CONCERT MASTERS
• 61D: Knight’s title…or what must be silent to understand the theme — SIR

It’s that last piece that helped unlock why the clues for the theme entries didn’t quite line up with the answers in the grid.  Removing the phonetic “sir” from those entries and treating the rest in a similar fashion, you get BOCKS REBELLION, CURRY LOOK, OCTOBER PRIZE, SHORT ANNE, and KANT MASTERS.  This almost felt like a usual theme done in reverse, and I liked it a lot.

Safe travels and happy holidays, all!  See you next week for the last BEQ Thursday of the year!

4.25/5 stars

Bill Zagozewski’s LA Times crossword – Gareth’s write-up

LA Times
161222

Today, four boxers seem to be doing a WWE-style tag team match for a vague TITLE/FIGHT / CHAMPIONSHIP. Using both in the puzzle is unnecessary. I think it’s because INTHISCORNER wouldn’t work centrally, but then ditch TITLEFIGHT. Grids with corner answers already end up under too much strain. Anyway, three heavyweights – Liston, Baer and Ali; are mixing it with a single welterweight (I think?) Duran.

You saw the plural names, the foreign answers, the partials and all the rest as did I. KENTS could’ve done with a cigarette clue IMO.

2 Stars
Gareth