Thursday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 31, 2020

My time: 17:13, two and half minutes slower than average.  I knew there was probably a rebus but I didn't catch on to it very quickly, and I found several clues to be confoundingly vague.  Everything just went against me AB OVO (from the start).

Theme: SMALL BUSINESSES — that is, four answers contain letter strings that represent business (CO, INC, LTD, and LLC) and these go in one square, rebus style, so they are "small."

"NBA stat" is PPG, or Points Per Game.  The all-time leader is Michael Jordan with 30.12.

I had a hard time remembering MC REN of N.W.A. fame.  His moniker is derived from the middle letters in his first name (Lorenzo).

"Broker's request for funds" left me stumped, because I know virtually nothing about the finance world.  It's MARG[IN C]ALL.  A margin call occurs when the value of an investor's margin account falls below the broker's required amount. An investor's margin account contains securities bought with borrowed money (typically a combination of the investor's own money and money borrowed from the investor's broker). A margin call refers specifically to a broker's demand that an investor deposit additional money or securities into the account so that it is brought up to the minimum value, known as the maintenance margin. 

James Merritt IVES is a pioneer in American lithography.   He oversaw the business and financial side of the firm, Currier and Ives, which he co-managed with his business partner, Nathaniel Currier.  The firm called itself "the Grand Central Depot for Cheap and Popular Prints" and advertised its lithographs as "colored engravings for the people."

The clue "literally, 'way of the gods'" made me thinking Latin like via deo or something.  Nope, it's SHINTO.

The capital of Apulia, Italy, is BARI.  Apulia is famed for its historical villages, coastline, and ancient fortress.  BARI is known for its coastline, beaches, and orecchiette (ear-shaped pasta).

"Game with sets a runs" is GIN RUMMY and, sadly, not cribbage.  At least it wasn't melds this time. 

Did you know a LITER is about seven glasses of wine (or, I guess, any liquid)?  Start guzzling.

"Winner of a record 26 Oscars" is WA[LT D]ISNEY.  Wikipedia lists his total as 22, plus three honorary awards.

An Olympic site with three letters is RIO, but swimmer Katie Ledecky (who won four golds there) was in the puzzle on March 5, 2018.

SUVA, the capital of Fiji, last came up on July 1. 

Clever clues: "Highlighter of tihs clue?" is SPE[LLC]HECK.  "Faces of the digital age?" is EMOTI[CO]NS.  "Legal limits?' is ELS.   "A one-hit Wonder he's not" is STEVIE.

This was a tough one for me, but not because it was a poorly constructed crossword.  I'm just a bit slow lately, and couldn't parse the clues correctly.  Just for one example, I kept thinking of a word for a specific costume for "certain tailored suit" when it wanted a brand, ARMANI.  Except for the atrocious IN E clue about some stupid symphony, it was a well-done puzzle.

Happy new year!

Wednesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 30, 2020

My time: 5:50, about 33 seconds short of the record.

Theme: the BILLY CLUB.  Each of the four themed answers begins with a famous Billy: Ocean, Crystal, Graham, and Billy Porter, an actor and singer.

I enjoyed the clue "Apple tool" because it could have been referring to the company or the fruit.  It turned out to be the latter (CORER), but I like the ambiguity.

"Chubby mouse in Disney's Cinderella" is GUS.  His friend's name is Jaq.

Never heard of MAISIE Dobbs, a detective in a series of books by Jacqueline Winspear.  The series is set in the 1930s.  I think I might like them!

I misread "do with a pick, maybe" as starting with a verb rather than the noun, a hairdo: FRO.

OBAMA has written more than a couple of books!  A Promised Land is a memoir of his time in the White House. 

"Southwestern evergreen" is PINYON, a pine with edible nuts.

It's not too hard to guess that Ilya Kuryakin's organization in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is the KGB.  I don't think I knew about the film.  Ilya was played by Armie Hammer.

LEAH, Rachel's sister in the Bible was just in the puzzle on August 17.

The ACELA corridor refers to a high-speed train from Boston to D.C., which has come up a few times.

This was a nice quick Wednesday.  I liked the selection of Billys.

Tuesday's New York Times crossword puzle solved: December 29, 2020

My time: 4:00, a new record, beating my previous best by eleven big seconds.

Theme: "Happily ever after," or a FAIRY TALE ENDING, as the four themes answers have.

I needed a couple of crosses to be reminded that GLADYS KNIGHT (and the Pips) sang "Midnight Train to Georgia." 

Totally new is NYALA, a spiral-horned African antelope.

I remembered that Galileo was PISAN by birth from August 27.

The OTOE tribe has come up many, many times in the puzzle.  Today it's clued as the source of the eponymous Nebraska county.

Clever clue: "Ones usually found at home" is UMPS.

This was a terrific Tuesday puzzle!  I thought the clues were well written, and the fill had a few interesting phrases, like LONGEVITY and EGO TRIP.

Monday's New York Times crossword solved: December 28, 2020

Sunday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 27, 2020

Saturday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 26, 2020

Friday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 25, 2020

 

Thursday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 24, 2020

Wednesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 23, 2020

Tuesday's New York Time crossword solved: December 22, 2020

My time: 5:47, about two minutes faster than average.

Theme: on CLOUD nine, as the center black squares indicate.  That is, being in one's HAPPY PLACE, or SHEER BLISS.  Or possibly in SHANGRI-LA or a WONDERLAND.

Is this the mood for the end of 2020, though?

"Italian name of six Popes" is PAOLO, Italian for Paul.  Paul VI was the final PAOLO; he died in 1978 and was succeeded by the shortest-reigning pope, John Paul, who was God's henchman on earth for just 33 days.

I learned two things about CONEY Island from its clue today: it's part of Brooklyn, and not in fact an island.  Development began in the 1840s, when Coney Island wasn’t even connected to the mainland. That’s why it’s called Coney Island, despite not being an actual island. 

John van Neumann came up as an answer on September 15, 2017, but even with all the accomplishments I listed for him, I failed to note that he pioneered GAME THEORY.

PAPA HAYDN came up as "Father of the Symphony" on June 13, 2018. 

HORACE, famous for his Odes, appeared on November 16 as author of the phrase "carpe diem."

Clever clue: "Something a wedge often leaves exposed" is TOE.

This was a well-done Tuesday.  Original grid, decent fill variety, not very many vague clues.  Maybe we all need a little CLOUD 9 type of thinking these days. 

Monday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 21, 2020

My time: 4:03, one and a half minutes faster than average.

Theme: SAY WHAT?  The four themed answers are synonyms for "nonsense."

"Second letter after epsilon" is the best clue they could come up with for ETA?  Ugh.  Alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta.

PAL JOEY was a 1957 film starring Frank Sinatra, based on the original 1940 novel and subsequent musical.  Sinatra plays the title role, Joey Evans, a talented, charming heel.

This was a nice Monday!  It served as  a refreshing palate cleanser from Sunday's slog through Orem and Opa and so forth.  The nonsense words are fun fill.

Sunday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 20, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 21:09, about five minutes faster than the average.

Theme: "Toy Story."  The themed clues describe famous toys, and note CHRISTMAS as the "day to play with new toys."

I probably would have done better if I'd known all of the toys, or knew more about them, but more on that in the fill.  Also, there was just a giant-sized truckload of new material today. 

OREM is the city "just south of Timpanogos Cave National Monument."

Indiana governor ERIC Holcomb seems to be a decent Republican.  He's a Navy veteran and claims he works to help incarcerated Indianans break the cycle. 

"She debuted on March 9, 1959, in black and white striped swimsuit" obviously describes a fictional character.  I thought about Betty Boop (before I got the theme) but it doesn't fit.  It's BARBIE DOLL, which originally came in both blonde and brunette.

I know about TAMAGOTCHI virtual pets, but had quite a time trying to spell the name.  The game won the 1997 Ig Nobel prize in economics for being such a time-waster.

"IN THE MOOD" was a 1939 hit for Glenn Miller.

Never heard of the CAA, "talent grp. representing athletes and entertainers."  It stands for Creative Artists Agency.

Hey, this is the second clue in a week about ETCH-A-SKETCH!  Today it's clued as originally being named L'Ecran Magique.  French electrical technician André Cassagnes applied his experience with the clinging properties of an electrostatic charge to invent a mechanical drawing toy with no spare parts. He called his creation L’Ecran Magique, the magic screen. 

Did you know APR. is National Humor Month?  It's such a riot when you have to pay taxes.  National Humor Month was founded in 1976 by comedian and best-selling author Larry Wilde, Director of The Carmel Institute of Humor. 

A CLARO is a mild, light-colored cigar. 

The north-central Florida city OCALA has been in the puzzle a couple of times.

For "food ____ (Thanksgiving feeling) I put food *BABY.  It's COMA.

William O'NEIL, founder of Investor's Business Daily, isn't very famous.

BROCA'S Area is a region in the frontal lobe of the brain related to speech production.  It's named after Pierre Paul Broca, a French anatomist whose work produced the first anatomical proof of localization of brain function.

For "combined" I put *AS ONE but it's IN ONE.  Similarly, for "not just available online" I put the common phrase *IN STORES but the puzzle wants... AT STORES??  No one says that.

Never heard of IODATE, a salt containing the IO₃⁻ ion.

Another unremarkable Florida city: OPA-Locka. The name Opa-locka is an abbreviation of a Seminole place name, spelled Opa-tisha-wocka-locka, meaning "wooded hummock" or "high, dry hummock."

And in similar sounds, an OPAH is another name for moonfish, a Hawaiian food fish.

"Classics comics teen with good manners" is ETTA KETT, an instructive comic which ran from 1925 to 1974, all by the original creator.  Now that's a good run!

In the musical "South Pacific," EMILE de Becque is a wealthy, sophisticated and older French gentleman who runs a plantation on the island.  He volunteers to serve as a spy for the American troops when Nellie calls things off between them.

As with SILLY PUTTY's origin in wallpaper cleaning, I think I've heard before that MR. POTATO HEAD was the first toy advertised on TV. 

But while I have seen them many times, I've never heard of the name COZY COUPE, a toy car that apparently "sold more vehicles in 1991 than the Honda Accord or Ford Taurus."  The name sounds like a company that went out of business long ago.

"Cleanliness fixation" is an extremely tone-deaf clue for OCD, a range of disorders that are far from being a desire to clean things.

Did you know ASHANTI had an eponymous debut  #1 album in 2002?  It won the Grammy for Best Contemporary R&B Album.

"Give up on" as a clue for PUNT?  That's not a meaning I've heard before.

Taormina is a hilltop town in Sicily, close to Mt. ETNA. It's a tourist destination known for its ruins and churches.

Mystic Pizza actress LILI Taylor last appeared on November 1.

The UK military award DSO came up on November 3, 2017.

Clever clues: "One who hasn't turned pro?" is ANTI.  "Things found in wandering souls?" is A-E-I-O-U.  "Statement of resistance" is OHM'S LAW.  "Ballpark figures" is UMPS.  "One whistling while working in the Garden?" is REF.

Whew!

While I enjoyed today's theme, I thought there was a preponderance of uninteresting, boring material in the fill.  There's nothing wrong with putting things like Opa-Locka or the name O'Neil in the fill; but they need to be clued in an interesting way.  The fact that the town exists is not interesting.

Saturday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 19, 2020

My time: 11:36, eight minutes faster than average.

All right, let's get to the fill!  I'm TURNT (excited)!

Lots of OTIS in the New York Times puzzle, mostly elevator impresario Elisha Otis, but today it's OTIS "Big Daddy" Williams, founder of the Temptations.

Oysters Rockefeller was in the puzzle on February 14, 2019, but today we are told that it originated in NOLA.  Most sources agree it was created in the famous restaurant Antoine's.

I hate to keep beating a dead horse, but blank clues are the worst.  "Dinner _____" had me putting *BELL.  It's ROLL.  Boring!

Callisto was a nymph, daughter of Lycaon, who became one of Artemis' handmaidens.  Although Artemis took a hard line on remaining virginal, Zeus saw her and fell in love with her; to lure her, he turned into Artemis and eventually took advantage of her. Callisto bore a son, Arcas. After this, she was turned into a BEAR, either by Zeus while trying to hide his misdeeds, by Hera out of jealousy, or by Artemis out of anger that she broke her vow of chastity.  She later became the constellation Ursa Major.

It's not hard to guess that TSETSE is the word that comes from the Tswana language.

"Marbled cut" is STRIP STEAK, which also known as sirloin or the Delmonico steak.

I love the clue "how beans or cheese are often served in Britain" for ON TOAST.

I'm not familiar with the R&B artist known as HER (not a very memorable name, maybe?), or stylized as H.E.R. (it stands for Having Everything Revealed).  She had the 2017 hit "Best Part." Never heard it.

Apparently the 1979 film THE ROSE was Bette Midler's first starring role.  Midler plays the Rose, a Janis Joplin-like rock singer.

L'AMOUR is a fragrance by Lalique.  Okay then.

Male kangaroos are BOOMERS?  Crikey, I never heard that.  A female kangaroo is known as a 'flyer' or a 'doe' and a male kangaroo a 'buck' or a 'boomer' (hence the nickname of the Australian men's basketball team, the Boomers).

"River of Idaho" is TETON.  It is a 64-mile-long tributary of the Henrys Fork of the Snake River in southeastern Idaho.

The Spinner's 1975 hit "SADIE" came up on October 26.

Clever clues: "Ones holing up in closets?' is MOTHS.  "Hard and fast" is SET.  "Jewelry stores?" is TREASURE TROVES.  "Common material for a jacket" is ABOUT THE AUTHOR.  "Passing concern" is WILL.  "Does some lifting" is STEALS. 

I liked this puzzle.  I enjoyed some of the unusual fill like ELIZABETH WARREN (she persisted), ONE MAN ARMY (Bruce Lee), I'LL BITE, and BE LIKE THAT.

Friday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 18, 2020

My time: 14:56, about twenty seconds faster than average.

This one kicked me around a bit, but I was able in the end to beat the average score, which is nice.  Some of these clues were really devious!  Well, BETTER GET MOVING.

Never heard of Nick SABAN, championship-winning football coach of Alabama and LSU. He is tied with Bear Bryant for most major college football national championships for a coach in the modern era.

I'm not sure if "the US Open is played on it" is a good clue for EDT.  Do people play "on" Eastern Daylight Time?  

TAU has come up a lot in the puzzle, but I don't believe it's been clued as the symbol for torque before.

For "rank" is put *CASTE but it's the other rank, meaning NASTY. 

I have seen almost all of the series "The Crown" but I don't know many of the actors.  Erin Doherty plays Princess ANNE.

Mezza VOCE means medium or half volume in music.

In a nice bit of synchronicity, I just the other day encountered the rare word ASHLAR, which means square-cut or otherwise worked masonry.  

In the crossword's quest to include every single California city ever, today we have the rather unremarkable COSTA Mesa. 

In 2006, Mike Piazza, New York Catcher, became an EX-MET, and joined the San Diego Padres for a one-year contract at the age of 37.

DOHA is the capital and an important port of Qatar. 

Source of the word "trousers?"  It's ERSE.  Dating from the 1610s, earlier trouzes (1580s), extended from trouse (1570s), with plural ending typical of things in pairs, from Gaelic or Middle Irish triubhas "close-fitting shorts," of uncertain origin.

I remembered that the SEGO lily is Utah's state flower, from October 2, 2018. 

Supermodel ALEK Wek appeared on August 4.

The Belgian river YSER has come up before, but today is clued as "World War I battle locale."

There was a profusion of clever clues today.  "Look out for, say" is ABET.  "Line outside the entrance?" is OPEN SESAME.  "Cleared one's cookies?" is ATE.  "Court suspensions?" is NETS.  "Hold for another year, say" is FAIL.

I loved the fill in this one.  Kudos to Damon Gulczynski (it is something about having unusual and letter-rich last names that makes people want to make crosswords?) for manages to include great phrases like CATCH AS CATCH CAN, SHIVER ME TIMBERS, SCENE OF THE CRIME, SCRUB NURSE, BECAUSE IT'S THERE, and BACKSEAT DRIVERS.  Really well done.

Thursday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 17, 2020

My time: 6:37, a new Thursday record, beating the old one by eleven seconds!

Theme: BEETHOVEN'S FIFTH is celebrated in this puzzle.  The circled squares (three Gs) and the shaded section on a lower line (E FLAT) are meant to represent the celebrated dum, dum, dum, BUM of the Fifth's opening.

The puzzle also recognizes that ol' LUDWIG (baptized December 17, 1770) went DEAF, and of course includes the omnipresent OBOE.

Oh, and "the opening motif of the Fifth is supposed to represent" FATE.  That is, the notes are FATE knocking at the door.  This story is often discredited, however.

Finally, "key to this puzzle's theme?" is C MINOR.  That's the key the symphony is in.

And now, the fill.

In a nice bit of synchronicity, I just the other day encountered the SCOTS insult "Yer bum's oot the windae," although it's pretty easy to see from the dialect where it's from.  I just wished they'd also included 'bampot.'

I have used GOGO to get on the internet in mid-flight, but it isn't exactly a household word in my household.  It was founded in 1991.

Not being familiar with every one of India's 28 states, I had to get a few crosses before TAMIL Nadu was solved.  It's one of India's most urbanized and industrialized states.  It's the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. The economy of TAMIL Nadu is the second-largest state economy in India, after Maharashtra.

"Extinct flightless bird" is MOA, an ostrich-like bird of New Zealand killed off by humans.

'Absolutely no idea and crossfill doesn't help' department: the Swiss Alp RIGI, Queen of the Mountains.  Located next to Lake Lucerne, Lake Zug and Lake Lauerz, it is a prime skiing area.  The epithet 'Queen of the Mountains' comes from an erroneous interpretation of RIGI as being derived from regina, but it actually comes from an old German word meaning strip, ridge, or band.

"Sight on Disney World's Expedition Everest ride" is YETI.  It's an animatronic attraction.  Apparently it often doesn't work.

The Summer Triangle of stars came up on April 22, 2018, but about Deneb, in Cygnus.  The answer today, VEGA, has come up before as the brightest star in Lyra, but not as part of the Summer Triangle.  The three points of the asterism are VEGA, Deneb, and Altair (the brightest star in Aquila).

Marlee MATLIN is a noted deaf actress who won a Best Actress Oscar for Children of a Lesser God.

I did not know there was a Copland ballet called RODEO.  Subtitled "The Courting at Burnt Ranch," the ballet consists of five sections: "Buckaroo Holiday," "Corral Nocturne," "Ranch House Party," "Saturday Night Waltz," and "Hoe-Down."

"Lover of Radames" is AIDA, a fact which I am proud to have remembered from its most recent appearance on August 8, 2018 (which as of today still maintains the Wednesday time record).

Clever clues: "Items that are hard to throw away?" is BOOMERANGS.  "Credit line?" is ROLE, as in a line in the credits; that's a sneaky one.

I loved this one!  I like it when the theme sneaks into many answers, not just one or two.  The clues were sneaky and fun, and there was a lot of new material to learn.  Great Thursday puzzle.

Wednesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 16, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 8:15, a minute and a half faster than average.

Theme: a play on GOVERNMENT BONDS.  These bonds are three-letter acronyms that are government agencies, and "bond" two-word answers together.

For example, "place to land that's not on land" is AIRCRAFT CARRIER, and the two words are "bonded" by the FTC, or Federal Trade Commission.

Fun.  As for the fill, it's a SKOSH POSH.  (Or "a little bit" "fancy-schmancy.")  It isn't really.  I just wanted to write those two answers out.

"______ the only one?"  AM I the only one who hates blank clues??

It's not surprising that HAIRSPRAY won eight Tonys.

I can never remember if the Bronx Bombers are the Yankees (NYY) or the Mets.

Toussaint Louverture is known as the Father of HAITI.  Louverture (also spelled L'Ouverture) was born a slave on the French colony of Saint-Domingue, now known as Haiti.  He became a free man and a Jacobin, and began his military career as a leader of the 1791 slave rebellion in Saint-Domingue.  During his life, Louverture first fought against the French, then for them, and then finally against France again for the cause of Haitian independence. As a revolutionary leader, his military and political acumen helped transform the fledgling slave rebellion into a revolutionary movement. It's nice that the answer to his right is REVOLT.

"Pfizer competitor" is MERCK.  It is known as MSD outside the US and Canada.

OHIO ART is a metal and lithography company started in 1908 by a dentist. It started with pictures frames, moved into novelties and toys, and currently makes rather sedate and modern picture frames.  It made the Etch-a-Sketch from 1960 to 2016.

"Kind of wave" is SINE, as shown on July 31, 2018.

Clever clues: "Very picture of idleness?" is SCREEN SAVER.  "Something you grin and bare?" is TOOTH (I prefer my first guess, *TEETH).

I liked this one!  Not too hard, not too easy, with a theme that required a little brain power but helps you solve once it clicks.

Tuesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 15, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 5:27, just over a minute slower than the record.

Theme: common sayings clued as if they are puns based on the names of newspapers.  "Where one might find Boston news reporters?" is AROUND THE GLOBE.  "Where a Baltimore news reader's desk might be found?" is UNDER THE SUN.  And "beaten to a news scoop in Los Angeles?" is BEHIND THE TIMES.  That's the best one.

Well, we have a rilly big shew for you tonight, and long-forgotten comic TOTIE Fields, who was mostly active in the 1960s and early 1970s.  Sadly, she suffered a variety of health problems and died at the age of 48.

"Crab traps" is POTS.  That's the term for the mesh cages the trappers use.

I remembered that "org. for Kings and Senators" is NHL, but I continue to detest clues about the ACC ("UNC and Clemson are in it" — so what?). 

I also dislike the phrase US OF A.  And, as I have mentioned, blank clues like "______ anything."  ASK ME why IT'D be a better idea to come up with an interesting clue!

OPRAH Winfrey's birth name is Orpah Gail Winfrey.  Orpah is a Biblical figure in the book of Ruth, the daughter-in-law of Naomi.  She is the sister-in-law who goes home after her husband dies, rather than sticking with Naomi, like Ruth.

"Annual video game competition, for short" is EVO.  It stands for Evolution Championship Series.

Cal Ripken, like Brooks Robinson, was an ORIOLE his entire career. 

Sports sports more sports ughzz: The 1967 NFL Championship Game was called the ICE BOWL because it was played at about -15°.  It was between the Packers and the Cowboys.  The Packers took it 21-17.

This crossword teaches us that in Monopoly, there are 28 DEEDs and 17 AVENUEs.  How boring!

TEAK just came up on December 11 as "deck wood."  Today it's clued as "cutting board wood."

Clever clue: "Go for the gold?" is MINE.

I was pretty meh on this one.  Some of the clues were just so-so, and the theme, with only three examples, isn't terrific either.  Well, they can't all be gems,  TRUE DAT!

Monday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 14, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 4:18, over a minute faster than average.

Theme: "Female scholars," i.e. WOMEN OF LETTERS, a pun indicating that the four themed Across answers are women whose names are homonyms for letters — SANDRA OH as in "O," ELLE MCPHERSON as in "L," etc.

I enjoyed the clue "like calamari... or overloaded circuitry" for FRIED.

Kendrick LAMAR has 13 Grammys, which is reasonable, but I didn't know he has a Pulitzer Prize!  He won the Pulitzer in Music for the album Damn.  Damn!

ELLE MACPHERSON was on a record five Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue covers, 1986 to 2006.

Noted woman of letters KAY HAGAN unseated Elizabeth Dole to become senator of North Carolina in 2008.

The movie It's a Wonderful Life was produced by RKO Studios.

This was a nice quick Monday.  I liked that two goddesses of the dawn, EOS and AURORA, were both represented.

Sunday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 13, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 12:47, a new record!  I beat my old best time, set just a week ago, by a full minute!

Theme: "Cinéma Vérité."  This means that move titles are clued with puns that literally describe the movie.  This is the kind of wordplay that's up my alley, so I got these jokes immediately.  I didn't need any crossfill; I just saw the clue "Indy film?" and knew it had to be RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.  "Dock-udrama?" is clearly ON THE WATERFRONT, and I knew "Family film?" was THE GODFATHER right off.  So with those long theme answers coming in quickly, the rest just fell into place, I guess.

I did think "Short film?" might be a movie that starred Martin Short, but it's HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS, which is pretty funny.

So, the fill.

"Out of tune... or bubbles" is a good clue for FLAT.

I either never knew or long forgot that the first story in I ROBOT is called "Robbie," but that's a pretty apposite and helpful clue.

"One whose range goes from about F3 to F5, musically" is ALTO.  I have never heard of this type of musical notation.  This page says an alto can be G3 to E5.

DREA de Matteo played Adriana on "The Sopranos," Angie Bolen on "Desperate Housewives," and Wendy Case on "Sons of Anarchy." 

MYSORE Palace is the royal residence in Mysore, Karnataka, India.  It is now one of the most famous tourist attractions in India, after the Taj Mahal, with more than 6 million annual visitors.

The puzzle says that a PANSY is a variety of violet, but seems rather than they are cousins, both being in the genus viola, rather than one being a subset of the other?  Maybe.  I'm no botanist.

Italy's Mount ETNA is a common answer.  Today it's clued as having a name "derived from the Greek for 'to burn.'"  

ANNO mundi means "year of the world" and is distinct from anno domini in calendar keeping. It's a calendar era based on the biblical accounts of the creation of the world and subsequent history. 

I vaguely recall the TGIF block of programming on ABC in the '90s.  It included "Full House" and "Perfect Strangers," two shows I have watched pretty much zero of.  Apparently the opening sequence featured animated mice with falsetto voices.  No wonder I didn't pay attention.

Grp. with the Vezina Trophy is NHL.  It is awarded annually to goaltender who is "adjudged to be the best at this position."  What mild wording!

"Half-moon tide" is NEAP, a phenomenon I'm aware of, but I wasn't sure about the half-moon connection.  Neap tides occur during the first and third quarter moon, when the moon appears "half full."

The New York engineering sch. is RPI, or Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, located in Troy, New York, which came up on January 30, 2019.

I remembered Nair rival NEET from October 24, 2018.

Photographer NAN Goldin is back, baby! 

Utah site ARCHES National Park was in a clue on November 12.

Clever clues: "Wear off?" is DISROBE.  "Kids use it for texts" is BOOK BAG — they got me there!  "Bit of ranch dressing?" is STETSON.

Well, that's the puzzle, from DAN to RAN.  There wasn't very much new to me at all, and the theme came easy to me.  I broke the thirteen-minute mark; now only seven minutes stand between me and Dan Feyer!

Saturday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 12, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 20:13, about 15 seconds slower than average.  THAT WAS CLOSE!

This one just kicked my can around the block.  The southeast corner especially had me staring at blanks for the longest time.

No surprise that IBM is the company with the most patents per year, every year since 1993.

Never heard of LON Kruger, a basketball player for Kansas State and later the head coach at many colleges.  Kruger is one of only two coaches ever (the other being Tubby Smith) to lead five programs to the NCAA Tournament.

There are two mattress brands in the Times puzzle, Serta and SEALY.  The latter is the one acquired by Tempur-Pedic in 2012.

HOME RUN TROTS ("they cover all the bases") came up on June 18, 2018, but I still had a dilly of a time remembering what they were called.

I have never heard of STOP-TIME, "rhythmic pattern in jazz."  In tap dancing, jazz, and blues, stop-time is an accompaniment pattern interrupting, or stopping, the normal time and featuring regular accented attacks on the first beat of each or every other measure, alternating with silence or instrumental solos.

"Symbol for elasticity, in economics" is ETA.  In economics, elasticity is the measurement of the percentage change of one economic variable in response to a change in another. I'm not convinced that ETA is used, though; in that Wikipedia article, the symbol seems to be epsilon (ε).  And this article says it's epsilon as well.

Apparently the EMMYS were first held on January 25, 1949, at the Hollywood Athletic Club, a social retreat for the elite founded in 1924 by Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino and Cecil B. DeMille.

Hawaiian peak MAUNA KEA has been in the puzzle a few times, once as perhaps meaning Sky-Father Mountain. Today it's clued as "representation of the first-born child of 'earth-mother' and 'sky father' in Hawaiian culture."  Mauna Kea is considered to be kupuna, the first born, and is held in high esteem. Because Mauna Kea was the first-born child of Papa and Wākea, it's considered the piko (navel, or center of a beginning or ending) of Hawai'i Island. 

"Flares" is a really devious clue for SPLAYS.

I feel like we already had the clue "sch. with the most applications in the US" for UCLA, but I can't find it in the archives.

ET ALIBI is Latin for "and elsewhere," which I feel like I should have guessed a lot quicker.

The movie Arrival has shown up a lot in the puzzle, but not star Amy ADAMS.  She plays expert linguist Louise Banks.

I have never heard of a PLUOT referred to as an aprium.  It's a trademark.  The aprium was invented by Floyd Zaiger in the late 1980s in California.

"Musical piece with a recurring theme" is RONDO. 

I've never heard of tapenade, so didn't know a possible discard while eating it is OLIVE PIT. 

"State of being broken" for TAMENESS really got me.  Broken as in a wild horse or something; that just was not occurring to me.

"Heads out, slangily" makes one thing of maybe bounces?  But not PEACES.  Like, 'He peaced out of there'??  Or, 'This party is boring, let's peace'?  I don't think so.

Apparently a TATAR is a Siberian native?  I know that's accurate, but I just think of Tatars as Mongols. 

Clever clues: "What doesn't require a return envelope?" is E-FILING; return, get it?!  "Order in the court" is PLEASE RISE.  "Foundation location" is SKIN.  I thought "rafter neighbor" would be something like Huckleberry Finn but it's SHINGLE.  "N as in Nissan?" is NEUTRAL.

I could have done WORSE on this puzzle, but not by much!  Very tough going.  It was not EASY for me.

Friday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 11, 2020

My time: 8:10, a new record by eleven seconds!  I had no idea while I was completing it.  WOOT!

OBOE certainly is a crossword mainstay, isn't it?  "One of two or three in a typical orchestra," but one of thousands in the history of the NYT puzzle.

I vaguely remembered PEAR drop as a boiled British candy.  It's mostly named after the shape and not the flavor.

I know ST. JAMES is a Monopoly property, but I can't recall what colors the various squares are.  The orange ones are ST. JAMES Place, New York Avenue, and Tennessee Avenue.

Rita Moreno was noted as having won the EGOT on August 9.  John Legend is also an EGOT winner.  He won his Emmy for playing Jesus.

French printmaker, sculptor, and caricaturist HONORE Daumier was an iconoclast who attacked royals and the bourgeoisie.  He was jailed for portraying King Louis Philippe as Gargantua in the periodical "La Caricature."

"Resort near White River National Forest" is ASPEN, Colorado.  White River National Forest is the most visited national forest in the nation encompassing 2.3 million acres. With 11 ski resorts, eight Wilderness areas, 10 mountain peaks over 14,000 feet and 2,500 miles of trails, this forest is a place where you can press play on adventure and inspiration!  Or so they say, anyway.

"Deck wood" is TEAK, which was referred to on December 16, 2017.

Clever clues: "still on the line, say" isn't about phones but laundry: DAMP.  "It requires some assembly" is QUORUM. "A home?" is OAKLAND.  "Crack jokes, perhaps?" is POTTY HUMOR (not, as I thought it might be, drugs humor); the crack must refer to the crack in people's behinds.  "Take turns, say" is STEER.

This was a fun puzzle!  There was very little new information, but lots of sly cluing.  The grid has some good fill, like MOONQUAKE, PIZZA OVENS, PREEMIES, and SCRATCH AND SNIFF.

Thursday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 10, 2020

My time: 12:19, twice as slow as my record but still more than two minutes faster than average.

Theme: This is a tricky one, and I was quite baffled until I got SILVER BULLET.  The clue is "aground," and I had no idea why; I just filled it in from the crosses.  Then it hit me!  (And if I was a werewolf, I would have died.)  The clue is to be read in two parts: as the symbol of an element plus a word.  So "aground" is actually Ag round, or SILVER (Ag) and then BULLET, meaning a round.

Only then did I realize why "cold" meant CARBON DATED; it's C + old.  "Female" is Fe + male, or IRON MAN.  And so forth.  For "siding?" it's SILICON CHIP; that's an odd one because only in a narrow set of circumstances does ding mean CHIP.

Tricky!  And there's no hint to this devious cluing anywhere in the puzzle!

I thought "doctor's order" might be *SCRIP but it's SAY AH.

Aden has been an answer several times in the puzzle. but today the Gulf of Aden is the clue, and its resident is SOMALI.  The Gulf lies to the south of Yemen and north of Somalia and Djibouti.  Bonus fact: according to legend, Cain and Abel are buried in the port of Aden, Yemen.

For "dermatologist's concern?" you can always reliably put acne, rash, or CYST. 

I knew that an AKITA is a Japanese dog, but not that AKITA is a prefecture in north-west Japan.

Top round steak is a LEAN CUT and usually tough, so it's inexpensive and is usually pounded into cube steak to make it tenderer.

CPAS is "frequent filers;" the problem is I consistently read that is frequent fliers and didn't understand the answer.

We learned that YOGI BERRA has a record ten World Series championships (as a player) on April 5, 2018.

Clever clues abound today: "What's anything but neutral?" is ION.  "Sound track?" is EAR CANAL.  "Figure for determining one's grade in school" is AGE; this cleverly plays on the way "grade" is used two ways in school.  "Foil, e.g." is BLADE; I tried to put *EVADE.  "It hits close to home" is BAT.  "One on a slippery slope" is SKI.  "It may be glossed over" is LIP.  "You may find a range of these" is MTS.  "Resistance figure" is OMEGA.  "A constant celebration?" is PI DAY.  "Clicking sound?" is AHA.  "Cup holder" is BRA.  Whew!

I liked this!  It was quite a challenge.

Wednesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 9, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 6:18, one minute slower than the record.

Theme: phrases that sound like they might have to do with LIMBO.  For example, SET THE BAR LOW ("establish a standard that's easy to reach").  BEND OVER / BACKWARD works well with this, but UNDERACHIEVE is really a pun, not something you would actually do in LIMBO.

Now let's straighten up and get to the fill.

Utah senator is Mike LEE, a conservative Republican who is a puppet of the oil and gas industry, and has zero backbone or principles.  He mocked the Green New DEAL, and said that having more babies would be a better response to climate change (!?).  He's part of what is making America weak and moribund.

Veronica ROTH is a YA novelist I don't know much about.  I have heard the titles of her books but that's about it.

ARUBA, one of the ABC islands or Lesser Antilles, claims Oranjestad as its capital.  ARUBA is a constituent country of the Netherlands, so they speak Dutch.

The Iraq port city of BASRA has been in the blog a few times.  Today it's clued as "home to Sinbad the sailor."

"Four are credited for a grand slam" is RBIS.  This is the baseball grand slam, which last appeared in the blog on September 2, 2018.

I forgot that OBOE came up as the letter O in the WW II Army/Navy alphabet on July 4, 2018.

The Kia subcompact RIO came up on April 26, 2018.

This is an inoffensive, unexceptional Wednesday puzzle.  The fill isn't impressive, the theme is just okay, and the clues are fine.  Not bad, not great.

Tuesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 8, 2020

My time: 6:17, about a minute faster than average.

Theme: POLAR OPPOSITE, which indicates that the answers along the opposite edges are antonyms of each other.  So on the northweat corner you've got WORK and WET, and if you follow the diagonal to the southeast corner you have PLAY and DRY.  Likewise with ABOVE at the middle north, BELOW in the middle south, etc.

This theme didn't excite me much.  It definitely shows some word arrangement skills, but the cluing isn't very clever.  EASY is "like a Monday crossword;" HARD is "like a Saturday crossword."  I know this is an easy Tuesday, but ho-hum!  Why not a little more thought into the clues so the opposite nature of the answers isn't so straightforward?  Maybe something like 'It's a _____ knock life (Annie song)' and '______Rider (1969 counter-culture film)'?  

Instead we have "rainy" for WET and... wait for it... "not rainy" for DRY.  Boooooring.  I get that the clues themselves are opposites of each other, but that's the problem.  That's boring.

Okay, moving on.

Days of Grace is a 1993 memoir by tennis great Arthur ASHE, with Arnold Rampersad.  I will say that this is a fresh clue for a very common crossword answer.

I have never heard of twentieth-century French conductor and composer PIERRE Boulez.  Luckily his first name is a common French one.

I needed a little help remember Gare de l'EST, the Paris railway terminus.  It was the departure point for the first Orient Express to Istanbul.

Similarly, only after crossfill was I able to remember DAKAR is the capital of Senegal.  Seen a gal?  Get in DAKAR and drive after her!

I didn't know that ADDERS are known for having zigzag patterns on their backs.  In Poland the snake is called żmija zygzakowata, which translates as 'zigzag viper', due to the pattern on its back. 

"Some French wines" is RHONES.  Côtes du Rhône came up on August 29 as a designated wine appellation.

Clever clue: "Things that may be broken when moving?" is LEASES.  "Pic picked in a parlor" is TAT.

That's the end of this one, which I found pretty meh.  I hope tomorrow brings a little more zest in the clues. 

Monday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 7, 2020

My time: 3:52, twenty seconds slower than the record.

Theme: Common expressions, clued as if a British person were saying them.  For example, CASH IN ONE'S CHIPS is clued as "use French fries as legal tender?" because in the UK, French fries are referred to as chips. 

Likewise, CAN I GET A LIFT? is clued as "would you call the elevator for me?" because elevators are called lifts in Britain.

This has nothing to do with the attack on Pearl Harbor, but timely themes are looked down on at the Times, and rarely used.  

Chrissy METZ is an actress best known for her role on "This Is Us."

"Letters after nus" is XIS.  Kappa, lambda, mu, nu, xi, omicron.

"'Person' that speaks in beeps and boops" is a terrible clue for ROBOT.  Not all robots do that.  And the weird choice to call it a "person" made me think it would be a specific fictional android.

O'HARE airport is the alternative to Chicago's Midway, which I didn't realize was an airport.

This was an enjoyable Monday.  The theme was nice, if somewhat random, and there was good fill, to boot (stuff you put in the car's trunk?).

Sunday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 6, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 13:52, a new record by eight seconds!

Theme: Well, the title is "Get Out Of Here," which however way you read it doesn't really convey the idea that you must get "of" out of the themed answers.  That's right, the nine themed Across answers are well-known phrases with of in them, but taken out, and clued as if they had no of.

For example, "stand-up's bombs?' is COMEDY ERRORS.  "Swim team guru?" is STROKE GENIUS.

The first one I got was "archeologist's assertion about a finding?"  This is BONE CONTENTION.  My favorite is "hire Phil Collins's band," which is BOOK GENESIS.

A simple but quite effective theme.  Once I caught on, the rest of the themed answers were easy to figure out.

And now, the fill.

I know the name LATOYA Jackson, but didn't know they left her out of the Jackson 5.  Actually until I looked her up, I wasn't sure if she was male or female.  But now it all comes back to me: the spousal abuse she suffered, the estrangement from the family, the "Playboy" spread.

GERI Allen was a jazz pianist, composer, and professor of music.

Two onomatopoeia close together gave me trouble: "explosive sound" which turned out to be BLAM, and "drops (down) heavily," for which I put *THUMPS and then *THUNKS but it's PLUNKS.  

The word bavardage I know, but clishmaclaver is a nice one that I don't think I've heard.  They both mean GOSSIP. 

I'm not happy with the clue "gets out in dodgeball, say" for PEGS.  It's phrased to be read as intransitive, but clearly they mean it to be transitive.  I find that to be poor form.

"Keys near G's" are A FLATS.  Who cares?

Here's something I've never heard of: ISTRIA, the European peninsular region that is shared by Croatia, Slovenia, and a tiny part of Italy.  The name is said to be derived from the Histri, a fierce tribe of pirates whom Strabo refers to as living in the region and who are credited as being the builders of the hillfort settlements there.

HENRI Poincaré's conjecture involves a hypothetical about topology and is so insanely complicated that I can't begin to understand it.  Basically it involved wrapping string around a donut.  These theoretical mathematicians are strange people.

LEKS are Albanian currency units.  Currently one Albanian Lek equals 0.0098 United States Dollar.

Of the two TYS noted in the puzzle, I recognize the name Cobb.  Ty Burrell is Phil Dunphy on "Modern Family."

I just guessed that LOON is Minnesota's state bird.  It seemed reasonable.

Patti LuPone has come up in the puzzle before, but today she is clued for her role as Eva Peron in EVITA.  She won the 1980 Tony Award for her work in the original Broadway production.

Apparently "Fluff Yeah" is a brand of UGGS.  I think they're hideous.  They look like a satire of trendy house slippers.

I was already vaguely familiar with "RUR," the 1920 science fiction play by the Czech writer Karel Čapek.  It stands for Rossum's Universal Robots and introduced the word "robot" to language.

Shiraz is the fifth-most-populous city in IRAN and the capital of Fars province.  And the wine, of course, is named after it.

EVA Green was clued as playing Vesper Lynn in Casino Royale on November 1, 2018.  Today she is clued as playing the title role in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

Journalist ANN Curry last appeared on December 3, 2018.

MR. CUB, nickname of Ernie Banks, was the clue and not the answer on October 26.

MIT's business school SLOAN came up on October 15, 2017.

"Digital imaging company that used to make film" is AGFA, which was last in the blog way back on December 22, 2017.

Clever clues: "Brand that comes out a head?" is PEZ.  "Fan group?" is BLADES.  "Get in gear?" is SUIT UP.  "Dubbing need" is SWORD — I could only think of the foreign film aspect of dubbing!  The word "bit" threw me off (I was thinking "piece," not "cutting tool") in "helical bit" for AUGER.  "Serve well?" is ACE.

This was a fun Sunday, with few problems for me.  The theme is fun, the fill interesting.  To me, it was a piece cake.

Saturday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 5, 2020

My time: 24:27, four and a half minutes slower than average.

This one just kicked my butt.  I got the southeast corner done in under seven minutes, but after that nearly everything else was a total slog.

No, I had no idea that General Mills once owned SLIM JIM, and I think that's a boring and frustrating clue — it's not current, not interesting, and not intuitive. Here's some snack-related history: Adolph Levis, the inventor of Slim Jims,  sold his company, to General Mills. In the year 1970, Jesse Jones Sausage Co was bought by General Mills and merged with Slim Jim Inc. to form a new company called GoodMark Foods. GoodMark Foods eventually became a separate company until GoodMark was acquired by the company ConAgra in the year 1998 for 225 million US dollars.

For "words from one preparing to knock back a few," I was flummoxed. I tried *HERE'S MUD (as in "...in your eye"), but it's LINE 'EM UP. 

The "Black Paintings" are examples of GOYAS.  They are a series of 14 bleak pictures, including the famous Saturn Devouring His Son.

"Squiggly musical symbols" is QUARTER RESTS. 

The tenor part in Gaetano Donizetti's opera "Don Pasquale" (which just came up September 18).  The tenor is ERNESTO, Pasquale's nephew who refuses to marry a wealthy lady, so is threatened with disinheritance.

Figure skater TAI Bablionia is yet another in a series of athletic figures I don't know or care about.  Babilonia was the first figure skater of partial African-American descent to compete for the United States at Olympics and win world titles.

And the golfing term LIP-OUT, which describes when the ball touches the rim of the cup but doesn't fall in. 

I knew that vespa means wasp, so I thought "vespa mandarinia" might be killer wasp, but it's MURDER HORNET.  Also known as the Asian or Japanese giant hornet.

I don't understand why "blasted" is LIT.

I've heard of John Le Carré's character GEORGE SMILEY, but didn't know the 1961 novel Call For the Dead, which is where he made his first appearance.

LUNESTA is an anti-insomnia drug.  Never heard of it.

The musical direction TANTO, meaning "so much" (like molto), just came up on October 14, but I forgot all about it.

Clever clues: "Temple offering" is DEG; it's referring to the school.  "Without a script, briefly" is OTC.  "Letters for a proof reader" is QED.  "Occasion for smoking" is BARBEQUE.  "One found among the reeds" is not Moses but an OBOIST.

Well.  I wish I could say I LIKED IT and it was SWELL, but this was a real hassle for me. I found it rather DEVILISH to solve. They can't all be gems.  Or attuned to my wavelength.

Friday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 4, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 13:10, about two minutes faster than average.

I had a little trouble in the northwest corner today.  For "as yet" I put *SO FAR, which really slowed me down because I stuck with it.  It's actually TO NOW.  Adding to that my inclination to think of "tending (to)" as meaning "inclined to," when it's actually MINISTERING, and I was left with a few blanks up there for quite some time.

I didn't know that YEWS symbolized death in Celtic culture. Drooping branches of old yew trees can root and form new trunks where they touch the ground. Thus the yew came to symbolize death and resurrection in Celtic culture. The Celts will also have been familiar with the toxicity of the tree’s needles in particular. This may have further contributed to its connections with death.

I like the clue "before thou knowest" for ANON. 

The site Rotten Tomatoes is owned by FANDANGO, which I really should have guessed much earlier.  I couldn't remember the name of the company.  I was like, Filmago?

Here's a couple of authorial ANNS I don't know: Ann Patchett, who wrote The Patron Saint of Liars and The Dutch House; and Ann Brashares, author of the Sisterhood of Traveling Pants series.  Ha ha, pants shares and Bra shares.

"Brand for determining if you're expecting" is EPT.

Apparently THE CONGO is the world's deepest river.  It's so deep we don't know how deep it is.  That's deep, man.

Los Angeles suburb GLENDALE was the home of the 1970s serial killer the Hillside Strangler.  It borders famed Griffith Park.

MARCO Andretti is the third generation of the famous racing Andrettis, about whom I know nothing.

The QB stat ATT, for attempted passes, was in the puzzle most recently on September 27.

GRETA GERWIG, director of Lady Bird and Little Women, was in the puzzle on November 15.  She  also played the title role Frances Ha.

Clever clues: "One who takes stock" is CATTLE THIEF — that one had me struggling for a bit.  "6-9 months?" is SUMMER, as in the calendar months June (6) to September (9).  "Leaves home?" is TEA POT.

A fairly tough Friday, in my view.  If I were a drinking man, I'd need a stiff shot of AQUA VITAE after all that.