Thursday, November 22, 2018

No WSJ today, and no Fireball this week because of Thanksgiving.

Randolph Ross’s New York Times crossword—Andy’s review

NYT puzzle 11.22.18 by Randolph Ross

First of all, Happy 25th Puzzleversary to Will Shortz! 25 years ago yesterday, this Peter Gordon puzzle became the first Shortz-edited puzzle to run in the New York Times. Of the four editors of the NYT puzzle, only Margaret Farrar (1942-1969) has held the job longer, but because the puzzle only went daily in 1950, Will Shortz has edited the most NYT crosswords (at over 9000!).

So let’s talk about this Randolph Ross puzzle, shall we? Each of the theme clues is a word in ALL CAPS with one letter chopped off. Those clues are wacky representations of the four theme phrases, as will become clear:

• 17a, HEADLESS CHICKEN [OWARD]. “Coward” without its head (i.e., its first letter). I don’t know if “headless chicken” is a standalone phrase. “(Like) a chicken with its head cut off,” absolutely. The only Google hit I got for “headless chicken” was a literal headless chicken that was marginally famous in the 1940s, which I don’t think merits it being a theme phrase.
• 25a, BOTTOMLESS PIT
  [Q
  U
  A
  R
  R]. “Quarry” without its bottom letter.
• 42a, ENDLESS SUMMER [SEASO]. “Season” without its end. This is only familiar to me as the famous surfing documentary, with “The.”
• 57a, TOPLESS SWIMSUIT
  [I
  K
  I
  N
  I]. “Bikini” without its top. Topless swimsuits, as far as I can tell, aren’t terribly popular in the U.S. (unless you count men’s swimsuits, which are almost exclusively topless). Avant-garde fashion designer Rudi Gernreich, one of the earliest supporters of the foundational gay rights group the Mattachine Society, designed the first monokini (content warning: partial nudity) in 1964.

I like this theme idea, and I especially like the consistency of the execution. The clues are all six-letter words where exactly one letter has been removed, and four different directions (head, end, top, bottom) are represented. As I mentioned above, some of the theme phrases didn’t thrill me, which detracted from my overall enjoyment of the puzzle.

The grid is an ambitious 70 words, plus the grid pattern is severely restricted by the fact that the theme answers are two 15s and two 13s. The fill suffered accordingly. No entries stood out to me as exceptional, and the SE corner (ESTH, NUIT, -STER, -ITA) was particularly rough.

A few more bullet points:

• I’ve been seeing a lot more clues for ERAT referencing quod erat faciendum than the usual quod erat demonstrandum lately. Not sure what set off that trend.
• I was surprised to see how often I GAVE had been in the puzzle before (this is the 12th time in the Shortz Era). It’s not a very in-the-language standalone entry without “already” (as evidenced by it being clued as a partial in its first 7 Shortz-era appearances), but I guess necessity is the mother of invention.
• I only noticed two “?” clues:
  • 7d, DISARMED [Took the heat off of?], and
  • 20a, ACHE [Distress signal?]. I didn’t really love either of them.

A hearty meh from me. Until next time!

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s website crossword – “Friendsgiving” — Ben’s Review

“Friendsgiving” – BEQ 11/22/18

It’s Thanksgiving!  You’re all off with family or, like me, celebrating with family tomorrow and binging all of MST3k: The Gauntlet today, so let’s keep this brief.  BEQ invited a bunch of people over for friendsgiving!

• 17A:Actor Mineo and feminist poet Rich are bringing the appetizer — SAL ADRIENNE (salad is not a Thanksgiving food.  Unless it’s one of those dessert-y jello/cream cheese sort of salads)
• 20A: Comic Goldberg and “Rap God” rapper are bringing the desert — WHOOPI EMINEM
• 35A:Pianist Rubinstein and wide receiver Johnson are bringing the entree — ARTUR KEYSHAWN
• 54A:”Orinoco Flow” singer and a video game maze runner are bringing a side dish — ENYA MS. PACMAN
• 58A:And finally, guitarist Clapton and saxophonist Coleman are bringing another side — ERIC ORNETTE

Pretty straightforward – each of these pairs of names conceals a Thanksgiving food.

Happy Thanksgiving, all!
3.75/5

Robin Stears’s LA Times Crossword – Gareth’s summary

LA Times
181122

Quite an impressive anagram find this one. Four six letter sets without an ‘S’ – THORNE / THERON / THRONE and HORNET. Also the first time I think I’ve seen CHARLIZETHERON as a full name, so big ups there.

I finished on IRS / LISI. The [Returns home?] clue is brilliant and baffled me. I also don’t recall meeting old actress Virna LISI (could be LISI Virna? No, Virna LISI.) YODOG is something I haven’t seen in a puzzle before, I think. It looks deliberately chosen to spruce up the quiet bottom corner. I like geography answers, so UTRECHT made me smile. Some of you may have struggled, and I think it was locked into the grid early, because it is one of many answers crossing two themers today.

3.5 Stars
Gareth