Thursday, April 29, 2021

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joe Hansen’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Headbands”—Jim P’s review

Our theme is PUT A RING ON IT (23d, [Lock in a spouse, and what the first letters of six Down answers do visually]). (Note that the phrase “lock in” means “get a commitment from,” not “imprison.”) The other theme answers, all in the Down direction, have an O as the first letter. This is to be read as “RING” when reading the answers.

• 4d. [Madagascar native] O-TAILED LEMUR.
• 7d. [Playground singing game] O AROUND THE ROSIE.
• 9d. [Trapper Keeper, e.g.] O BINDER. Usually there’s a number (usually a three) before the “ring.”
• 11d. [Seem implausible] O FALSE. I feel like “ring false” is 1000 times less common than “ring true.”
• 44d. [1963 Johnny Cash hit] O OF FIRE. Just learned the song was co-written by June Carter Cash and some other dude and originally sung by her sister, Anita Carter, in 1962, a year before Johnny’s version. (See video below.)
• 49d. [Notes to answer] OTONES. Well, you don’t really answer your ringtone, do you? You answer your phone.

I like it. The revealer makes sense, the “rings” are “on” the theme answers, and the title is a clever play on words.

But why o why are there extraneous O-words in the Down direction that aren’t part of the theme. I’m looking at “RING-NO” and “RING-TOOLE” (41d ONO and 48d O’TOOLE). This was distracting at worst and inelegant at best. I realize now that these aren’t symmetrically placed like the others, but still, by the lower half of the grid, the solver is looking for O’s in the top squares and is expecting them to be “rings.”

Other than that, there’s a lot of other fill to like: BULLPENS, NO ESCAPE (the Owen Wilson film), LANDLORD, HERMIONE (nice to see her get some airtime), RED SOX, WARSAW, and SMOCKS. I’ve also taken a shine to those first two entries: BEBOP PO’BOY. Fun to say and almost the reverse of the anime Cowboy Bebop.

Clues of note:

• 1a. [Monk’s music]. BEBOP. That’s Thelonious Monk, the jazz pianist.
• 19a. [Fender attachment]. AMP. That’s a Fender guitar, not a car part.
• 32a. [Professional letter]. LANDLORD. That’s “letter” as in one who lets (leases) an apartment. Reminds me of the prank of adding an I to a “To Let” sign.
• 2d. [H.S. elective]. ECON. Did your high school have Economics as a subject? I don’t think I saw that as an offering until I got to college.

Nice theme and fill, I just wish the extraneous O-words had been rooted out. 3.75 stars.

Peter A Collins’s Fireball Crossword, “Switch Positions” – Jenni’s write-up

I was pretty sure this was going to have something to do with on/off switches before I started solving. I was right. It still took me a little while to figure out exactly how it worked. It’s a two-way rebus – ON in one direction, OFF in the other, with an extra element that makes it really elegant. I’m using Peter’s grid, which is clearer than mine.

• 2d [Place to place a drink order] is SALO{ON}, crossing 23a [Place to place a drink order], C{OFF}EE BAR. See? Elegant.
• 22a [Certain criminal] is SC{OFF}LAW, crossing 10d, FEL{ON}.
• 46d [___ Ice (brand of alcoholic beverage)] is SMIRN{OFF} crossing 67a, MOLS{ON}.
• 60a [One of only two people who have twice one acting Oscars in films that won Oscars for picture, director, and screenplay is NICHOLS{ON} crossing 55d, H{OFF}MAN.

That last one blows my mind, and I presume it was the seed entry for the whole puzzle. This is amazing – four pairs of theme entries that can be clued the same way and cross at ON/OFF. They’re all solid entries – nothing iffy, nothing forced. A tour de force of construction with a good “aha!” moment. I’m in awe, and I had a lot of fun solving it.

A few other things:

• 1d [Simple choice] is ABORC, which looks very odd until you realize it’s A, B, OR C. I like this; I suspect that’s a minority opinion.
• 5d [Marlon Bundo, for example] would be a cute name for a PET RABBIT.
• 8d [Start of an “Oliver!” song] is OOM as in OOM Pah Pah.
• 21d [Eastern half of an East African capital?] is the right-hand (east) part of ADDIS ABABA.
• 44a [They might be dropped in rap battles] are F BOMBS.

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that EGGO has a Chocolatey Chip variety. I’m not even tempted.

Adam Wagner’s New York Times crossword—Ben’s review

Oh man, y’all, I am not a fan of quip crosswords, and it turns out I’m even less of a fan when you apply specific poetic meter rules to them:

• 17A: First line of a three-line poem — IT WOULD BE A SHAME
• 30A: With 36A and 43A, second line of the poem — IF MY
• 36A: See 30A — HAIKU WERE
• 43A: See 30A — TO BE
• 56A: Final line of the poem — ONE SYLLABLE TOO [LONG]

There’s just not enough of a toehold on some of these longer entries to figure out what’s going on, and there’s something that kills the joke for me of the final line of the quip actually being too long instead of leaving you hanging at “one syllable too”, which wouldn’t work here because you need a 15 letter answer for the final clue.  The one rebus square for LONG also sticks out to me, though it’s nice that PRO[LONG]ED (47D, “Extended the duration of”) gets use of the square as well.

Anyways, this ended up feeling like a slog to me, since the very specific wording of the lines meant that getting the lower left corner’s entries (RHYE? COME NOW?) was trickier as well.

 

In honor of today’s haiku theme, here’s some Japanese ambient and my favorite haiku:

Haiku are easy
but they don’t always make sense.
Refrigerator.

Happy Thursday!

Stu Ockman’s Universal crossword, “Through the Looking Glass” — Jim Q’s write-up

A puzzle you will definitely reflect on.

THEME: Phrases / Words that can be read in a mirror due the symmetric nature of their letters and the backwards placement in the grid.

THEME ANSWERS:

• ITIHAT. Tahiti. 
• AHTAWAIH. Hiawatha. 
• ATAMOTUA. Automata. 
• IHAMIHAM. Mahi mahi. 
• AIMAMMAM. Mamma Mia!

This is pretty cool, despite the fact that I stared at the grid for quite a bit before actually checking it out in a mirror (of sorts). I used my phone in selfie mode to look at it, but when you actually take a picture (or even screen capture), it “unmirrors.” Otherwise I’d share the picture. I suppose I could take my laptop in to the bathroom here at the high school where I teach and snap a pic there, but that’s way too much explaining to do on the very likely chance that someone inadvertently witnesses that situation.

I really didn’t catch on to the fact that the answers are simply backwards and are composed of symmetrical letters, so the theme stayed a mystery for me until post-solve. That’s not a bad thing. It has enough of a curious gimmick to keep the suspense high, and the AHA is satisfying. I just wonder how many solvers are going to actually see how the puzzle looks in the mirror, especially those solving on a desktop computer/phone/laptop/ipad.

At first I assumed WII GAMES was part of the theme because it’s the same length and doesn’t solidly strike me as a stand-alone phrase. I think the themers would pop better (especially in the mirror) if they weren’t abutting other entries of the same length.

Plenty to like in fill: BEER ME, NEW KID, I HAD TO!

Chuckled at clue for EAST with [Indian-to-Ohio direction]. I’m programmed to assume abbreviations like SSE, NNE, etc. when I see clues asking me to mentally navigate the country (I never do btw, I always just guess).

How did I never notice that HERA is an anagram of Rhea?!

Also, I think I HAM! I HAM! sounds like a swell name for a children’s book about piglets.

3.8 stars from me.

George Jasper’s LA Times crossword – Gareth’s sumamary

I have said this before but these “scrambled word hidden across parts of a phrase” puzzles are feeling a bit overdone lately. Today’s puzzle is by the book: cute revealer with anagram indicator – TUMBLE:WEEDS. The entries are well chosen too: THOMA(SDEWE)Y, SHORTAN(DSWEE)T, and UNIT(EDWES)TAND.

Bits and bobs:
[Yanks’ NL counterparts, on scoreboards], NYM. Don’t remember seeing that abbreviated thusly. (Mets)
[Cutlass model], CIERA. Not to be confused with R&B singer CIARA, which I usually do.
[Minute], WEE. We had a cat for sterilisation called Wee-wee today?
[Google rival], YAHOO. Yahoo search is just bing now and it’s long since been bought out and its brand eroded.
[“No arguing”], BENICE followed by [Cast a spell on], BEWITCH. Don’t be nice, be witch!

Gareth

Brendan Emmett Quigley crossword (No. 1361), “Oy!” — Jenni’s review

I always end up writing these in a rush. I apologize if I’m not given Brendan his due. It’s almost dinner time around here…

Each theme answer has an OY sound replacing a long U sound. Wackiness results.

• 17a [Helen’s abduction by Paris?] is TROY CRIME (true crime).
• 19a [Enter a Volkswagen carpool?] is JOIN BEETLE (June beetle).
• 32a [Celebrate béarnaise?] is ROISTER SAUCE (rooster sauce, also known as sriracha, so-called because the brand most commonly found in the US has a rooster on the label).
• 49a [Inventory entry for a lace mat?] is DOILY NOTED (duly noted).
• 53a [Places where the “Ulysses” writer drank?] are JOYCE BARS (juice bars).

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that Chick COREA won two posthumous Grammys earlier this year.