Sunday, December 16, 2018

Evan Birnholz’s Washington Post crossword, “(Her)e, T(her)e, and Everyw(her)e” – Jim Q’s writeup

Might as well start this post with an Inkubator plug (coming soon!) since both this puzzle and that project feature the women of crosswords! Have you subscribed yet?

THEME: THREE TIMES A LADY. Three first names/nicknames typically associated with women can be found in each of the theme answers. 

WaPo crossword solution * 12 16 18 * “(Her)e, T(her)e, and Everyw(her)e” * Birnholz

THEME ANSWERS:

• 23A [Gulf Coast city that’s home to Ca’ d’Zan (winter home of John Ringling)] SARASOTA, FLORIDA. Who’s John Ringling? Oh. This guy. Quick Google search brings up some female celebrities who have lived there (Jane Lynch! Martina Navratilova!). I wonder why John Ringling was featured in the clue.
• 31A [Former name of the carrier now known as Envoy] AMERICAN EAGLE AIRLINES. The history of this branch of American Airlines is confusing, but from what I gather “American Eagle Airlines” was used as an actual airline name between 1980 and 1981. Obscure, but inferable.
• 50A [Note passed around in Amman] JORDANIAN DINAR. Currency of Jordan since 1950.
• 64A [Word reference that can list material in non-alphabetical order] REVERSE DICTIONARY. A tool that may be familiar to crossword constructors and solvers. Is it a commonly used reference?
• 81A [1961 Patsy Cline song whose lyrics reference the Alamo and “Lips so sweet and tender like petals falling apart”] SAN ANTONIO ROSE. I should’ve read the whole clue. I stopped after reading “song” and struggled with the rest. Very inferable.
• 96A [Berkeley university’s athletic team] CALIFORNIA GOLDEN BEARS. Never heard of the team, but also very inferable.
• 109A [1978 No. 1 hit for the Commodores, and an alternate title for this puzzle] THREE TIMES A LADY.

I started this puzzle in the northwest with strong confidence. When the first four circled letters of SARASOTA, FLORIDA revealed themselves, I figured out the theme (thanks mostly to the title). But I lost steam quickly. With the exception of the (perfect) revealer THREE TIMES A LADY, none of the theme answers had a ring of familiarity. Okay, maybe SARASOTA, FLORIDA did, but for some reason I thought I was looking for a foreign city- that’s on me. I was hoping the names embedded within each would help me out, but that didn’t happen. While the concept, title, revealer, and construction were all top-notch, as we’ve come to expect from Evan, many of the names used don’t seem all that common (outside of crosswords, that is):

• SARA: Definitely passes. Reminds me of one of my favorite Ben Folds songs
  

  Remember this Flo?

  .

• FLO: I guess. Sounds more like a name used in comics or commercials. I don’t know any FLOs.
• IDA: Doesn’t seem too common nowadays. Muckraker Tarbell and Mrs. McKinley may disagree. They’re both sweet as apple cidah.
• ERICA: Absolutely.
• LEA: This is almost always clued as a grazing pasture. Occasionally LEA Michele of “Glee” makes an appearance. Without the H on the end, it’s not all that common.
• INES: I’ve never met an INES.
• JO: Okay. Pass. When I saw answers with two letters only circled, JO came to mind immediately.
• ANI: Constant solvers know her as “Singer DiFranco.” Other than that…?
• DINA: Went to school with a DINA, but still feels somewhat uncommon.
• EVE: Solid.
• DI: This seems like a huge stretch.
• IONA: Huh? I’ve heard of the college, but that’s it.
• ANA: Sure. Crosswordy, but sure.
• TONI: Alright.
• ROSE: Without a doubt.
• ALI: My ex-wife’s spelling of her nickname.
• NIA: Seems relatively unique to Ms. Vardalos. I had a student named NIA once. I have named some of my gray hairs after her.
• BEA: A bit dated, but pass.

Of course, that’s a very one-sided and narrow view. And I certainly don’t mean to detract from the obvious effort that went into discovering three different gender-specific names embedded within symmetrical theme answers. However, with both many theme answers and names being unfamiliar, it played on the bland side from this solver’s perspective.

Also, the more common names PAM, MEGAN, TINA, ARLENE, MARIE, and CLEO make an appearance in the fill. ENYA, DREA, and MAE drop by too. My sister’s name LAURIE is in there, but clued as Hugh of House.

I’d call this a 4.5 star concept and construction, but the solve experience puts it just south of 3 stars for me.

VIDEO GAME CLUE OF THE WEEK:

• 22A [Console with a CX40 joystick] ATARI

And this post wouldn’t be complete without this:

Sam Ezersky’s New York Times crossword, “Top Gear”—Amy’s write-up

NY Times crossword solution, 12 16 18, “Top Gear”

Hats. It’s all about hats. 108a. [Immediately … or where this puzzle’s five circled squares appear?] clues AT THE DROP OF A HAT, and each Across theme answer includes a letter string that’s also a type of hat. That hat word “drops” at the circled square, and is also part of a regular Down answer.

• 27a. [Casting doubt on], CALLING IN{TO QUE}STION. Crosses an unidentified music app’s ADD TO QUEUE command. (I can’t use music apps, really, not with hearing aids occupying the spot earbuds would go.)
• 40a. [Topic concerned with hacking and software rights], CY{BERET}HICS, which is not a term we see much. Its BERET is also in the [Italian pistol] brand BERETTA.
• 65a. [Riddle-ending query], WHA{T AM} I, crossing LION TAMER.
• 83a. [Dangerous environment], SNA{KEPI}T. The KEPI is a hat I know only from crosswords, personally. Crosses MIKE PIAZZA.
• 89a. [It comes after II Chronicles], BOOK O{F EZ}RA, crossing SAFE ZONES.

Cute! (Or 28d, “GOOD IDEA!”) I thought it was a hat rebus puzzle at first, but it took a detour I didn’t expect. The “Gear” part of the title doesn’t quite make sense to me, but I’m sure one of you will explain how it’s perfect.

Crispest fill: FIVE A.M. (do not wake me then), the GHANA/MALAWI crossing (though the two countries don’t share a border), BUNDLE UP (I was out for a few hours this afternoon, and it was over 40° so I barely had to bundle up at all … but I was cold), CRAB LEG (maybe weird in the singular?), “I’M SPENT” (though there are at least six other entries with the first-person singular pronoun! And one of them, I CAN GO, is not good), MY ANTONIA, SWEETIE, “OH, BOY,” MAIN ACTS, an ASTRO POP, and the dreaded IMPOUND LOT.

Three more things:

• 3d. [Calf raised for its meat], VEALER. Never seen this term before. Gross. The contrast between this and 92d “a MOO MOO here” isn’t a happy one. See also: 51d. [Who wrote “Some people talk to animals. Not many listen, though. That’s the problem.”], A.A. MILNE.
• 49d. [Longtime N.B.A. on TNT analyst], O’NEAL. I suspect a small editing slip-up here, because that should probably be the TV show title “NBA on TNT” and not appear without quotes and with NYT-style periods in the abbreviation. Speaking of NBA on TNT, did you hear or read the public-radio story about Shaq’s cohost Charles Barkley’s unlikely friendship with a Chinese-American scientist he met in a hotel bar? The story’s by Lin Wang’s daughter, Shirley Wang, and it’s lovely.
• 94a. [Coiner of the term “Oedipus complex”], FREUD. With FR*UD in place, I filled in FRAUD. Then I read the clue and really … it kinda works. Freud more or less convinced people that the Oedipus complex exists, and based on what sort of evidence?

Four stars from me.

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s CRooked crossword, “VWs”—Judge Vic’s review

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s CRooked crossword, “VWs,” solution, 12-16-18

So, Friday I blogged Ed Sessa’s LAT, in which F’s became PH’s and PH’s became F’s. Deja vu! All over again. In “VWs,” we do not deal with Bug automobiles. But with V’s becoming guess what? Given the simplicity of the theme, though, this puzzle was upbeat, fun, and almost exciting. My solving time was (let me see here if I saved it–yup) 29:05. Anything under 30, and we’re talking piece-o’-cake! But a delicious, humorous one today, producing smiles, out-loud laughter, aha moments, and newly acquired knowledge!

First, let’s consider the themers:

• 23a [Snaps of people on Deeres?] MOWING PICTURES–cleverly conceived clue, with a distinct visual image about it.
• 37a [Action sequence you can stick your teeth into?] CHEWY CHASE–This gave me a nice memory from the early ’90s. I told my daughter that I’d been to the Chevy Chase Country Club, and she replied, “Was he there?”
• 41a [Pool hole over where the sun sets?] WEST POCKET–Once I got the image here, I was struck by it: a billiards table positioned in such a way that the players give a hoot where north, east, south, and west are! I laughed. In all my years of playing 8-Ball and 9-Ball, I’ve never thought of those six openings on the table as “holes.” Thus, I was focused on swimming pools, tidal pools, etc.
• 56a [Handling a rock roughly?] PAWING STONE
• 69a [Like logs a loser cut?] SAWED BY ZERO–This one I had to look up, as my “saved by” phrases start with “the bell” and end with–uh, “the grace of God,” I suppose, and total two in number. But, I see now, that “Saved by Zero” is a 1983 song by British new wave band the Fixx. I’ll listen to it later.
• 83a [Less people toss balls?] FEWER PITCH
• 86a [“Ya like some Riesling?”] WANNA WHITE
• 102a [Most-most-recently found country?] NEWER NEWER LAND–Getting this answer was a “double your pleasure” moment.

The non-theme fill was chock full of good stuff!

At 21a the [Retirement vehicle] is a ROTH IRA. Its symmetrical counterpart, 110a [4 and 6, in craps], is an EASY TEN–not that I’ve any experience with this game of chance. The [Slopes ride] at 4d, is a SKI TOW, which put me in in mind of pesky summer insects.  PRESS KIT, at 17d, is clued aptly (a sportscaster would say “perfectly”) as a [Promo handout].

An educational digression about 34d [“You’ll get __”] (“Keep going”) USED TO IT: I’m not bothered in the least by this “violation” of the “rule” against fragments (commonly called “partials”) with more than five letters. Merl Reagle, as I see it, led the indie charge of disregard for this rather arbitrary regulation. I am often bothered by how some cruciverbalists engage in linguistic gymnastics to clue the 6-, and occasionally 7-letter partials that they want to allow, as they eschew the logically needed FITB clue. Such as [Frequently exhibiting, by nature] for PRONE TO. Here, I suppose, you could clue USED TO IT as [Comfortable with something, as a new policy, after “get”]!

[Afternoon shuteye] is, of course, a POWER NAP, 59d. But who knew CAMEROON‘s [… capital is Yaunde], 55d? Or that [Madras, today] is called CHENNAI, 60d?

A RAW NERVE is a [Sensitive thing to touch], 74d. A [Reagan inspector] is a TSA AGENT, 76d. And an [Edible coastal plant] is SEA KALE, 78d.

Being [100 percent correct] is being SO RIGHT, 61d. I was worried, though, that something was not 100 percent correct when I encountered 57d [ÒPrizeÓ for the close] NO CIGAR. I was unfamiliar with Ò Ó (and still don’t know how to make it with my keyboard), but I found it to be in common usage in lieu of quotation marks in some contexts (please correct me if I am wrong). I found a church newsletter from 2004 in which an article titled “Hummer Ride Prize” began, “This is more of a ÒprizeÓ idea than an event idea. But this idea can be used as a prize for everything from Òmost visitors brought to youth groupÓ to Ògrad nightÓ to Òmissions fundraising winnerÓ event.”

BEQ hit Lige’s Three-E’s, a term I coined in honor my dad, Elijah “Lige” Fleming, who told me once, “People will tell you they want to be educated. But what they really want is to be entertained. If you can do both, they will also be enlightened.” I found this puzzle to be entertaining and educational. And I came away feeling enlightened. 4 stars.