Sunday, February 24, 2019

 

 

 

 

 

Erik Agard’s New York Times crossword, “Everything Evens Out in the End”—Amy’s write-up

The theme revealer/explainer is 121a. [“How lucky was that?” … or a hint to the answers to the starred clues], “WHAT ARE THE ODDS?” Each of those theme answers ends with a 4- or 5-letter word that consists of the odd-numbered letters from the word(s) that precede it:

• 21a. [*Likely inexpensive place to get one’s hair done], SMALL-TOWN SALON.
• 40a. [*Tourist activity in northern Scandinavia], REINDEER RIDE.
• 59a. [*Source of call-ups, in baseball lingo], THE FARM TEAM. I suspect this was the seed entry, since it’s the only one that is a common and natural-sounding phrase.
• 64a. [*Posting that blows in the wind], SWINGING SIGN.
• 72a. [*Has little excitement for], IS NOT TOO INTO. Awkward.
• 84a. [*Allen Ginsberg, e.g.], PROTEST POET.
• 99a. [*Bottom-of-page design choice], FOOTNOTE FONT.

Fair enough.

Erik’s dressed up the corners with stacked 9s and 10s. CHEWBACCA (neat clue: [Solo partner], as in Han Solo), LOSE SLEEP, AWKWAFINA, SAILOR MOON, and the ILLUMINATI are highlights.

Five more things:

• 50a. [It’s groovy], SCREW. Cute hardware clue.
• 89a. [Bird akin to the nene?], DODO. Akin in terms of their reduplicative names, that is.
• 53d. [Worker often found on hands and knees], MASON. Gotta get low to lay those first few rows of bricks.
• 65d. [Tower construction material], IVORY. Has there ever been a literal ivory tower, a tall tower made of elephant tusks?
• 109d. [Role in “Our Gang” or “Queen Sugar”], DARLA. Nice combo of pop culture references from nearly a century apart.

Easyish puzzle this time, no? Four stars from me.

Gail Grabowski’s LA Times crossword, “Prep-positioning” – Jenni’s write-up

It’s been a long day. This will be a short review.

Each theme answer has a preposition added to a base phrase to match the wacky clue.

• 16d [Preview from St. Peter?] is AFTERWORLD TOUR. I would have been happier with afterlife, which is my association with St. Peter.
• 23a [Revenue for a monarchy?] is KINGDOM INCOME.
• 39a [Kids nagging parents about lack of air conditioning?] are HOT OFFSPRING.
• 52d [“You’re a big girl now”?] is a MATURITY UPDATE.
• 58a [Bungalow inundated with vacationing relatives?] is OVERRUN HOME.
• 85a [Funny BBQ scene that got cut?] is a SPIT OUTTAKE.
• 101a [Unlikely winner of a trite joke contest?] is a CORN UNDERDOG.
• 123a [Group unhappy with election results?] is the DOWNCAST PARTY.

A solid theme. Some of the answers made me smile and might have made me giggle if I weren’t so tired.

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that PEZ were invented in Austria. I’ve also never before seen BLINTZE spelled with an E on the end.

Good night.

Evan Birnholz’s Washington Post crossword, “Upscale” – Jim Q’s writeup

Hope you’re starting your day off on a high note after solving this puzzle! (see what I did there? Hahaha! Ha. ugh.)

THEME: Names of notes from the solfege scale (think “Doe, a deer, a female deer…”) appear above where they should be in the theme answers.

THEME ANSWERS: *Note: I am using the clue numbers from the .PUZ version since that is the grid image I am including (clues are numbered differently in the print version).

• 25A [Royal widow] QUEEN {DO}WAGER. 
  

  WaPo crossword solution * 2 24 19 * “Upscale” * Birnholz

• 28A [Dramatic expression of reluctance] I DA{RE} NOT.
• 48A  [Making the most of] MAXI{MI}ZING.
• 59A [Former boy band singer who hosted “The Singing Bee”] JOEY {FA}TONE. I’ve also seen him in some stage productions (and Joey McIntyre come to think of it!). 
• 83A [At all] WHAT{SO}EVER.
• 92A [Ring-shaped structure formed over millions of years] CORA{L A}TOLL. 
• 115A [It may begin with a semicolon] EMO{TI}CON
• 117A [Whiskey sour garnish] SLICE{D O}RANGE.
• 120D [Scale unit raised eight times in this puzzle] NOTE. 

While I had a feeling this would be a puzzle based on the notes of the scale (from the title), it still took me a while to figure out what was going on. At first, I thought random notes were being blacked out; I didn’t realize that they appeared in the across answers directly above where they “should’ve” been. I jumped to the revealer early (120D) after floundering around for a while, and that helped clear things up. And it’s also one of those themes that works synergistically with the fill, where the solver can figure out tricky areas with some deductive reasoning. My favorite!

Still, this was one of the harder Birnholz puzzles I’ve solved in recent memory. Feels like there were a lot of tough names and perhaps some niche terminology (like CORDON and RETREADS). Fill I struggled with in the Names Department included Princess CHARLENE,  ABE Fortas, Rupert EVERETT, SID Meier, Hans LANDA, AVA (as clued), HASAN Minhaj, Horatio SANZ, Prue LEITH, DAN Simmons, DEVA, and Miriam SHOR (despite being a fan of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”). Thank goodness crossword friendly Nin ANAIS, Georg SOLTI, TORI Amos, and ETTA Jones all came to help! MCLOVIN, SARA (of Tegan and Sara), and Neil SIMON were also on my wavelength.

 

FUN STUFF:

• 18A [ ___ point] HIGH. I filled in HIGH immediately, but only because I live next door to High Point State Park. Realizing our relatively small state park is not Crossworthy, I erased it. Then happily re-entered it later.
• 30A [Camp accessories] BOAS. They are very campy, aren’t they?
• 10D [EP A] SIDE ONE. Clever clue. This is referring to the “A” side of an “EP” album.
• 36D [Make Money, say] PRINT. Had “Money” not been capitalized, I would’ve gotten it much sooner. In this context, it refers to the magazine.
• 42D [Grp. authorised to fly] RAF. British spelling of “authorized” was there to tip us off!
• 103D [Giant in a major league clubhouse, maybe?] EGO. “Giant” + “major league” + 3 Letters almost always = OTT. Not this time!

Other fill like TEXAS TEA, NBA COACH, ST. JAMES, WAVE TANK, CALLS UP, CATS EYE, THE FAN, and DO AS I DO helped to keep it fun.

MINOR QUIBBLES:

• I’d argue that most musicians refer to the fifth step of the scale as “sol.” I’ve only seen it as “so” in a very elementary context. When I see it written that way, I want to correct it. Still, as per The Sound of Music, “sol” isn’t really a needle pulling thread now is it… so just for that it gets a pass.
• I call the whiskey sour garnish an “orange slice.” SLICED ORANGE feels weird. Call it what you want in the long run, as long as there’s a cherry and some bitters in there too…
• I solved the print version, and “Part 2” of the EMOTICON entry caught me off-guard because it was a numbered clue (unlike the others)*. I was 100% confident it was a typo, but of course I was wrong. I was politely corrected: since there is a down clue starting in that square, a number is necessary. It simply looked amiss in comparison with the others. *I’m referring to the box numbered 110 in the print grid.

Kudos for the notes of the scale ascending in order! Although they appear to go down in the grid, the scale itself is going up.

Overall this was a high quality puzzle- the tougher fill felt like it was just that: Tough. That’s not a bad thing. While I would’ve preferred fewer names, there wasn’t anything there that I wasn’t happy to figure out and learn for future use.

4 stars.

Jeff Chen’s Universal crossword, “Central Intelligence” – Jim Q’s writeup

I don’t think I’ve ever been as distracted by an answer in a crossword as I was when I was solving this. I’ll get to that in a bit.

THEME: Words that are synonyms for “info” are placed “inside” (i.e. central) in the grid.

THEME ANSWERS:

• 

  Universal crossword solution * 2 24 19 * “Central Intelligence” * Chen

  18A [*Splashes around au naturel] SKINNY DIPS.

• 24A [*Ali’s boxing technique] ROPE-A-DOPE.
• 39A [*Dishonorable] LOW DOWN.
• 49A [*Plunging shirt feature] SCOOP NECK.
• 58A [*Stock tips, e.g., or a hint to the starred answers’ synonyms and their placement in the grid] INSIDE INFO. 

First off, I seriously hope that solvers are noticing the high quality change in the Universal puzzle since David has been editing. He is also bringing in some serious talent. Besides the theme, Jeff Chen’s grid is fantastic with fill like ALIEN LIFE, LIP READER, DO PENANCE, and HOT MESSES. 

But I had a very hard time (emotionally) with this one for a reason that neither the constructor nor the editor could’ve avoided. It’s the way that I solve. I tackle Acrosses first in the top third of the puzzle, but I skip over theme answers. Then I fill in a few downs.

Because of this, I had CH?M? when I got to the clue for 7D [Real head-scratcher, informally?].

I couldn’t unsee CHEMO. I couldn’t unsee my father constantly touching his scalp as he briefly fought with pancreatic cancer. For me, the answer fit perfectly: the word CHEMO is informal… and, if the time I spent by dad’s bedside in Sloan is any proof, it’s real head-scratcher. I froze. And then I slowly entered the letters E and O, fully knowing that Jeff and David would avoid that entry at all costs and would certainly never clue it as horrifyingly as I read it.

CHIMP. The answer was CHIMP. A perfectly fun clue for a perfectly fun entry. And yet it brought me to tears.

It took me over twenty minutes to figure out the theme after I eventually finished the solve. Perhaps the fact that the revealer clue was quite cumbersome to unpack didn’t help (only one of the answers in its entirety is a synonym for “info”). I don’t know why. Just couldn’t gather my wits.

Good theme with great fill, and a bizarre coincidence that I’m sure was unique to this solver. If a 5 star puzzle is unforgettable, then I’d have to rate it 5 stars. But that’s me. I won’t forget it. That unwieldy revealer clue is sure to addle a few solvers.

 

Matthew Sewell and Brad Wilber’s Universal Crossword, “Come to Our Garage Sale!”–Judge Vic’s write-up

This clever, clue-dependent theme is executed with long horizontal entries, the tone and tenor of which are portended by the title:

• 23a [Take our cue and buy this ___] PRIZE POOL TABLE— A prize pool is the aggregate amount of whatever’s available (usually money) to give to the winners of a competition, no?  A pool table is a rec room feature that one might sell at a yard sale. Hmm, a before-and-after theme, tightened up by a repeating sales-promo gimmick.
• 31a [Never miss a date thanks to this ___] GREAT WALL CALENDAR–You’ve got your Great Wall of Mex–uh, China. And you’ve got your rapidly-going-obsolete wall calendar.  Great entry! And it’s not the best one.
• 48a [Sizzle in the kitchen with this ___] AWESOME SAUCEPAN—Awesome sauce was a new phrase for me. It’s a goodern! Look it up. That saucepan is one word, rather than two, doesn’t bother me a bit for a theme like this.
• 64a Bolster your decor with these ___ FLAWLESS ACCENT PILLOWS–There’s some green paint in the atmosphere, but I think flawless accent is enough in-the-language for a theme item. Accent pillows were not heretofore known by me, but hey, can 3.2 million Google hits be wrong on something like this, especially when Etsy is the first one in line?
• 82a [Be a champion woodworker with this ___] WINNING EDGE TOOL–Okay, each separate term–winning edge and edge tool–gets lots of hits.
• 97a [Serve stunning eggnog in this ___] KNOCK-OUT PUNCH BOWL–My guess is that this is the one that got the idea started. The only problem I have with this clue is that I deny the existence of stunning eggnog.
• 111a [Protect your family from surges with this ___] SUPER POWER CORD–This one is almost as good as the one before–super power, power cord. Good stuff!.

Lots of other good ILSAs elsewhere in this grid’s fill. E.g.,

• 1a [Large gap, in typesetting] EM SPACE–“Em (typography)” is a Wiki title!
• 13a [Fumbled one’s chance] BLEW IT–I would probably have started this clue with Bumbled. And that’d have been right, too. As one of the definitions of fumble at Merriam-Webster Online is “to deal with in a blundering way : BUNGLE.” And one of the definitions M-W gives to bungle is “BUMBLE.”
• 44a [Keyboard sounds] TAP TAP–Nice!
• 73a [Mardi Gras song with an echoic title] IKO IKO–Good use of echoic!
• 87a [“Gently!”] GO EASY.
• 117a [Detached forcibly] TORE AWAY.
• 120a [Timothy Leary dropped them] LSD TABS–I find it interesting that LSD tablet gets 4,000 Google hits,, and LSD tab gets 190,000.
• 13d [Colorful flower worshipped in ancient Egypt] BLUE LOTUS.
• 37d [Crusade against] WAGE WAR ON.
• 50d [Swimmer once thought to aid navigators] PILOT FISH.
• 77d [’50s dance party] SOCK HOP.
• 91d [Bunny slope conveyance] SKI TOW.
• 96d [Desert one’s post] GO AWOL.

Nice going, Brad and Matthew! 4.0 stars.

Gail Grabowski’s LA Times crossword, “Prep-positioning” – Jenni’s write-up

It’s been a long day. This will be a short review.

Each them answer has a preposition added to a base phrase to match the wacky clue.

• 16d [Preview from St. Peter?] is AFTERWORLD TOUR. I would have been happier with afterlife, which is my association with St. Peter.
• 23a [Revenue for a monarchy?] is KINGDOM INCOME.
• 39a [Kids nagging parents about lack of air conditioning?] are HOT OFFSPRING.
• 52d [“You’re a big girl now”?] is a MATURITY UPDATE.
• 58a [Bungalow inundated with vacationing relatives?] is OVERRUN HOME.
• 85a [Funny BBQ scene that got cut?] is a SPIT OUTTAKE.
• 101a [Unlikely winner of a trite joke contest?] is a CORN UNDERDOG.
• 123a [Group unhappy with election results?] is the DOWNCAST PARTY.

A solid theme. Some of the answers made me smile and might have made me giggle if I weren’t so tired.

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that PEZ were invented in Austria. I’ve also never before seen BLINTZE spelled with an E on the end.

Good night.