Wednesday, January 15, 2020

David Alfred Bywaters’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Indefinite Pronouns”—Jim P’s review

Theme: Pronoun puns. Words that are homonyms of phrases that include a pronoun replace those phrases in well-known sayings.

Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Indefinite Pronouns” · David Alfred Bywaters · Wed., 1.15.20

• 17a [“Little pitchers have big ears,” e.g.?] EWER SAYING. “You were saying…” That was a confusing clue, especially as this is the first theme entry. It took a fair amount of crosses to figure out what was going on here.
• 28a [The Chornaya, which flows into Sevastopol Bay?] CRIMEA RIVER. “Cry me a river.” Ooh. That’s a good one.
• 47a [Interested in trying a little poetry?] IAMB-CURIOUS. “I am curious.” I think the entry is meant to be written with a hyphen, yeah? However, the base phrase is less in-the-language than its contracted sibling, “I’m curious.”
• 61a [What happens during Baltic ballets?] LETTS DANCE. “Let’s dance.” This one I just didn’t know. I relied on the crosses to be right. But LETT (the Baltic people living in Latvia) has appeared numerous times over the years, so it’s legit and I should’ve known it. However, with this being the second Europe-related pun, that threw me for a loop as to what the theme was. Also, with the “us” subsumed by the contraction, that makes this one an outlier compared to the others.

This one took some thinking to nail down, but on the whole, it works. Maybe some of the entries could be tightened up, but CRIMEA RIVER is worth the price of admission.

Tons of long Down fill to inspect. How does the puzzle fare? Pretty good with LOW TIDE, OVERDUE, ORIGAMI, MONROE, ANGOLA, CENTAVO, MONIKER, LIBERAL, AMNESIA, WIRETAP, and ARSENAL all in the strong plus column. Those NW and SE corners are quite large with little to complain about. Plus, there are no other pronoun-type phrases (like “I WIN” or “I RULE”) in the fill, which there often is. Good attention to detail there.

A strong puzzle for pun lovers. 3.7 stars.

Mary Lou Guizzo’s New York Times crossword—joon’s write-up

NY Times crossword solution, 1 15 20, no. 0115

joon here, subbing for amy who’s out with migraines tonight. (feel better, amy!) mary lou guizzo gives us a straightforward theme consisting of boxing metaphors:

• {Engaged in foul play} HIT BELOW THE BELT. well, that or BITE OFF THE EAR.
• {One engaged in friendly contention} SPARRING PARTNER.
• {“Oh, now they’re really going to fight!”} THE GLOVES ARE OFF. this is the only one you wouldn’t ever see in an actual boxing scenario.
• {Cry “Uncle!”} THROW IN THE TOWEL.
• {Hold back} PULL ONE’S PUNCHES.

this is a pretty good theme. boxing has certainly receded in prominence in american culture over the past half-century, but it’s interesting that there are still so many common expressions with their origins in boxing. the awkward ONE’S in the last theme answer is about the only thing i didn’t like about the theme, and that’s pretty minor.

5×15 is quite a lot of theme, so there isn’t a great deal of breathing room left in the grid for sparkly fill. there’s only one seven-letter fill answer, and it was totally unfamiliar to me: {Receptacle for one doing decoupage} GLUEPOT. of course, it’s inferable, and it’s certainly a word (well, merriam-webster lists it as a two-word phrase, but the new oxford american has it as a single compound word), and i’ve never done decoupage, so i can hardly be considered an expert or how legit this term is. i could imagine that somebody who’s into decoupage would enjoy seeing this entry, but for me it wasn’t an asset.

clues that caught my eye:

• {Corp. manager} COO. this is a perfectly fine word. why clue it as an initialism (for chief operating officer)? not even an interesting initialism, at that.
• {Wager} PUT. this is a saturday clue that stuck out a mile in this wednesday puzzle. it’s certainly a valid clue (“wager money on”/”put money on” are synonymous), but boy did it make that little section tough. i also resisted writing in {Gangster} THUG, a word i am never thrilled to see in a grid due to its racially charged associations.
• {What has a long history in ichthyology?} EEL. i actually never even saw this clue while solving, as i filled in EEL from the crosses. i have a kind of grudging admiration for this clue—it’s fairly transparent, but i appreciate the effort that went into trying to come up with a new way to clue a very familiar repeater.

that’s all from me. 3.7 stars.

Peter Silzer’s Universal crossword, “Support Group”—Rebecca’s review

THEME: Word beginning with PRO redefined in terms of what they are for

Universal crossword solution · Peter Silzer · “Support Group” · Wed., 01.15.20

THEME ANSWERS:

• 15A [For a farm machine?] PROTRACTOR
  
• 23A [For a metric weight unit?] PROGRAM
  
• 25A [For the sovereign government?] PROSTATE
  
• 50A [For an imperial weight unit?] PROPOUND
  
• 52A [For actress Shelley or Nia?] PROLONG
  
• 66A [People who say “aye,” or an alternate title for this puzzle] ALL IN FAVOR
  

Easy and very well-executed puzzle today that was fun to solve from start to finish – with an apt and fun revealer. There were a lot of theme answers and they all work very well within the context of the puzzle, and their placement worked nicely to allow longer non-theme answers not get in the way or confuse the theme at all. PROPOUND felt less common than the other long words, but clued very fairly – so even if it isn’t something I would come across in daily language, it worked for the puzzle. My favorite clue was for PROLONG [For actress Shelley or Nia?].

MALIGNANT, ESSAY TEST, and FIDGETY were all fun long answers to come across while solving -and I particularly enjoyed the clue for ERA [Some are named for queens].

3.75 stars

Byron Walden’s AVCX, “Pandora’s Boxes” — Ben’s Review

AVCX 1/15 – “Pandora’s Boxes”

I think this is the most I’ve ever been on Byron Walden’s wavelength for an AVCX – this fell for me almost instantly once I realized what was going on with the grid.

The title “Pandora’s Boxes” tells you everything you need to know about what the rebus squares in the puzzle contain:

• 19A: Dog-eat-dog precept — K(ILL) OR BE K(ILL)ED
• 24A: Actor in Episodes V, VI, and IX of the “Star Wars” movies — B(ILL)Y DEE W(ILL)IAMS
• 41A: Get the booty? — P(ILL)AGE
• 44A:Congress, metonymically — THE H(ILL)
• 46A:”Mack the Knife” composer — KURT WE(ILL)
• 54A: What watching stock car racing offers fans — THR(ILL)S AND SP(ILL)S
• 64A: Hanna-Barbera ape in a bowtie and suspenders — MAG(ILL)A GOR(ILL)A
• 74A: “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my ___” — ONLY (HOPE)

The grid is full of ILL, with HOPE emerging right at the end.  I liked the construction on this one! I’m not a fan of Roman Numerals in puzzles, though the Super Bowl-themed cluing of CVI was much appreciated over any sort of math problem.

In addition to the theme from”To Sir With Love” and the theme for “The Man with the Golden Gun”, LULU also was involved in a 4-way tie for Eurovision in 1969! They…didn’t have a plan for what to do if that happened, so all four songs won.