David Steinberg’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s write-up
NY Times crossword solution, 2 17 17, no 0217
A bit hard for a Friday puzzle, no? It played more like a Saturday to me.
Did this puzzle make you hungry? I like BUTTER DISH, INDIAN FOOD, and STICKY RICE a lot! Tasty. (Keep that RACK OF LAMB away from me.)
Other solid fill: ELAINE CHAO, back again; hideous CHAIN EMAIL; TEXT ALERTS; STEELY GAZE; IN BAD TASTE; NEON YELLOW highlighters; BOHO CHIC; and HONKY TONKS.
Five more things:
- 21a HOT LICK in the singular feels a little weird to me. What do the jazz aficionados say?
- Toughest crossing: Where PISH (11a. [“Fiddlesticks!”]) meets POOLE (11d. [Grace ___, servant in “Jane Eyre”]).
- 39a. [Thwarts], FOILS. Imagine if we had a highlights clue for FOILS, just once. (As in the highlights a colorist puts in your hair.)
- 5d. [“110%” effort], ONE’S ALL. This is terrible. “Give it one’s/your all” is in the language, but ONE’S ALL just looks bizarre by itself.
- 28d. [Bug], HIDDEN MIKE. I’m so used to seeing mic now, this answer looks peculiar to me.
3.9 stars from me.
Mark Feldman’s Los Angeles Times crossword – Gareth’s theme summary
LA Times
170217
The theme is oddly open-ended. Four two part answers are reversed, with the result respelt and a “?-style” answer created. So STUDHORSE becomes HOARSESTUD, BABYBEAR becomes BAREBABY, TEENIDOL IDLETEEN and MODELPLANE PLAINMODEL.
Gareth
Roger Wienberg’s Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, “Highly Functional” — pannnonica’s write-up
CHE • 2/17/17 • “Highly Functional” • Wienberg • solution
Who doesn’t not love mathematics?
- 66aR [Calc prerequisite whose basic ratios are indicated by the sets of circled squares] TRIG. Calculus, trigonometry.
- 18a. [“You betcha!”] YES INDEEDY. Sine.
- 23a. [It’s folded at some fast-food places] TACO SHELL. Cosine.
- 36a. [Unlikely to drift off?] AT ANCHOR. Tangent.
- 42a. [Trips where a “carry in, carry out” policy may be observed] ECO-TOURS. Cotangent.
- 51a. [Cliffhanger outcome, often] CLOSE CALL. Secant.
- 61a. [Subculture of local bands] MUSIC SCENE. Cosecant.
We get the abbrevs. for the main trigonometric functions in standard ‘order’.
Not precisely my cup of tea, but my sense is that the crossword is fairly well done. Can’t discuss it now. Apologies for my own abbreviated write-up.
That PISH/POOLE crossing got me. BISH? TISH? Both seemed possible…
Also, I don’t get “Omen” = BODE. The first is a noun, the second is a verb. A hasty check of some online dictionaries agrees with me.
I had the same problem, I didn’t know the proper noun, and it seemed like most vowels would work there. Guessed P as PISH seemed more likely than TISH or BISH, but I haven’t heard PISH without an accompanying posh.
And by vowels I mean consonants, of course. It won’t let me edit my comment.
I thought so too, but dictionary.com has “omen” as a noun or as a verb. It’s a rather tenuous connection but legal.
NYT took a normal Friday time for me… HOTLICK seems OK to me, although my first guess was HOTRIFF.
Can anyone help me learn how to solve Fireball puzzles online? I subscribed yesterday based on Rex Parker recommendation, but they look like you have to print out the pdf’s. Anyone know how to solve on a tablet?
The regular emails one gets from Peter Gordon contain a .puz file and a .pdf file of the current puzzle. I don’t think there’s an online component for the Fireballs.
Edit: Also, the usual apps can be used to solve the .puz files. I know there are iPhone/iPad apps that can read .puz files, but I don’t know the details.
I wish you did because I just got an iPad. Who does have the details? Anyone?
Do you have Across Lite installed? If you’re using a computer or an ipad, a .puz file is included, and you need software to open it. Several apps can open a .puz, but Across Lite is the most popular. It’s a free download…. http://www.litsoft.com/across/alite/download/
There’s also a Crosswords app from Standalone, and Puzzazz. I use Crosswords because I like to solve using my iPad keyboard.
NYT : I liked this puzzle. Thought the four 3×10 stacks were great and the cluing quite clever for the most part. I even liked ONESALL and its clue (crazy, right?). However, I do agree with the “omen”(noun)/BODE(verb) mismatch noted by David L at 7:11 a.m. I think the constructor’s penchant for terse clues got the better of him here.
It’s been noted here that “omen” is also a verb.
Remember that if a constructor makes a clue/entry agreement goof it’s also got to get past Will Shortz, Joel Fagliano, Frank Longo and a bunch of other solvers. It’s possible, but not very likely.
I Had WHEN at 53d for a long time, as in who, what where and when. I agree it was tough for a Friday
CHE — I enjoyed this one, naturally, also for several musical entries (22A:TRIADS, 25D:LUTE, and the trickily clued 57D:TUNE) in addition to the theme’s 61A:MUSIC_SCENE (note [sic] that none of these resorted to a proper name in either clue or entry!). Guessed the theme correctly from the title and circles. Alas René 16A:THOM is not one of the few mathematicians well enough known to appear in a mainstream crossword, not even a math-themed one. I might still have expected a scientific route to 26A:ATP in this venue.
Noam, I am very glad you liked the my CHE puzzle. My clue for the final
across answer (ONE) was “ratio of opposite side to adjacent side for an isosceles right triangle”.
Brad probably thought that I went off on a tangent.
:-)
Of course if it’s isosceles the ratio is ONE regardless of the angle between those sides . . .
Sorry for giving it such short shrift. It was nothing personal, and not even about the puzzle itself.
NYT: 57D Part of a gig = MEG? Can I please get some clarification? I kept thinking it was ‘LEG’ as in part of a tour…
A megabyte aka “meg” is one thousandth of a gigabyte aka “gig.”
The term “ill-omened,” where “omen” is a verb, is fairly common, no? (But no, “omen” by itself is seldom used as a verb.)
Not common, no. But it’s Friday.