Wednesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: October 7, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 5:25, only eight seconds from the record!

Theme: LOOK MA, NO HANDS, or "cry while doing a stunt."  Three themed Down answers hint at things with a lack of hands, the word "hands" being used three additional different ways: WATER CLOCK, GHOST SHIP, and TOUGH CROWD.  Now this is a clever fun theme!  The best puzzle in a while, I think.

O'SHEA has come up a couple of times before as Irish actor Milo O'Shea.  This time it's a first name: actor O'SHEA Jackson Jr, who is the son of Ice Cube and portrayed him in Straight Outta Compton.

The MUIR Woods National Monument came up on September 12, 2018.

"Duke's NCAA div." is ACC or Atlantic Coast Conference, which has come up quite a lot before.

Actor Rami MALEK has come up a few times as well. 

Another repeat customer is California city San LUIS Obispo, of the famed gum wall.

As I noted I really enjoyed this puzzle.  The reveal was a surprise — I was wondering what the hell those three Down answers had in common — and it took a minute to click even after I put the last letter in the capper.  I love it when the puzzle's theme comes together like that.  Lately we've been having somewhat BLEH themes.  ALL TOO TRUE.  Luckily this is a high point.

Thursday's New York Times puzzle solved: April 26, 2018

My time: 12:18, close to my record but but no cigar.

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Alex Eaton-Salners connects us with a meta puzzle, in which the number of a clue, and another answer in the puzzle, make up the clue.  Examples:

22 Across, "without stopping," is ENDLESSLY.  Right across from that the clue: "22 Across, with respect to this answer's location" (which is 24 Across).  This means that ENDLESSLY is defined as "24 ________."  It's 24/SEVEN.

46 Across is "in fairness," EQUALLY.  Next to it is this clue: "46 Across, with respect to this answer's location" (50 Across).  Thus EQUALLY is defined as "50 _______."  It's 50/FIFTY.

Similarly, NAP is 40 (Across) WINKS, while BOGEY is 1 (Across) OVER.

Brilliant idea, with extremely precise construction, since the linked answers are so close to one another.  I really enjoyed this puzzle.  I might even have gotten a speed record on this one, except for the northwest corner which I spent at least two extra minutes on.

The main problem was OVER, in the northwest corner.  When I got to the BOGEY theme clue, I didn't yet understand how the theme worked, and I kept wanting to put *FOUR for the answer at 1 Across.  My thinking was that if you got a BOGEY on 5 (because it's at 5 Across), the other answer would be par, in this case four.  I hadn't quite gotten the "previous answer is defined as [number of the clue] plus this new word" idea yet.

As for the rest of the fill...

Today I learned that pyriform (sometimes spelled piriform) means "shaped like a PEAR."  From now on whenever one might normally say "this is going pear-shaped," I'm going to say, "this is going pyriform."

Also in the northwest corner is ANSE Bundren, the name of the father in As I Lay Dying, which I read about 35 years ago.  He is an awful, lazy, selfish man.  Interestingly, this name appeared on November 25, 2017, as the real-life head of the Hatfield clan.

We all know William the Conqueror, but we don't all know that his dad was ROBERT I, Duke of Normandy.  His bastard son William succeeded him as Duke at the tender age of 8, and would go on to do great things.

I've never heard of NARITA airport, Tokyo's international airport.  It's named after the city in which it's located.

Rembrandt's name is usually spelled van Rijn, not RYN, right?

NIMBI are large greyish-black rain or storm clouds.  Geez, get your clouds right, Michael.

Did you know ESTONIANS are "citizens of the only country that relies significantly on online voting in elections?"  Are you ashamed that you didn't?

"Prefix with law or label" is ECO-?  "Ecolabel" appeared April 14, and I didn't think it was a thing then either.  ECOlaw?   Are we just adding the prefix to anything?  I enjoyed my ecosandwich.  It was made with dolphin safe tuna.

I know who Scottish pirate Captain William KIDD was, but not the legend that his treasure is buried on Oak Island.  But it may not be.  Indeed, the Oak Island mystery has many theories as to what treasure may be buried there, and whose, if any is at all.

INGA Swenson is an actress known from her roles in "Soap" and "Benson."  Interestingly, even though the latter is a spinoff of "Soap," she played different characters on the two shows.

I don't yet have my Monopoly properties memorized.  I know.  It's pitiful.  Anyway, the three yellows are Marvin Gardens, Atlantic Avenue, and VENTNOR Avenue.

I guessed "Debussy's La" MER pretty easily, but I'm not familiar with the work.

Never heard of LENE Hau, Danish physicist who apparently stopped the movement of a beam of light with her arcane eldritch powers.

I've seen IDA many times in the puzzle (Ida Lupino, short of Idaho, a Polish film), but I don't believe it's been clued as MT. IDA, the Greek peak on which Zeus was hidden as an infant.  He was hiding from his baby-eating dad, Cronus, and fed by the goal Amalthea.

Gum wall city San LUIS Obispo last appeared September 30, 2017.  Additional previously-learned fact: it is home to Cal Poly.

I could probably count the number of KIA models I know on one hand; the Rio is not one of them.  It's a cheap subcompact.  For "Rio producer," I was trying to think of Spanish words for "water" or "lake" that might fit.

Bell Atlantic acquisition GTE appeared on November 24, 2017.

Australian boot UGG appeared December 19, 2017.  It's clued as "Australian boot brand" but that's not technically correct; the company Ugg was founded in California.  The item, an ugg, no capital, is an Australian style of footwear, not a brand.

Clever clues: "Decked out?' is DEALT.  "Bolt of lightning speed" is USAIN.  "What might follow suit?" is TRIAL.

Well, this puzzle was overall a PLEASER.  I really ran through it quickly, but for that block at the top left, which was a huge SNAG.  OH, FUDGE!

Thursday's New York Times puzzle solved: January 11, 2018

My time: 17:21.

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I'mma let you finish, Wednesday, but Sam Trabucco's Thursday puzzle was the trickiest puzzle of all time.  Of.  All.  Time!

Just kidding.  This puzzle plays with interruption and how we depict that in writing.  I don't know if any other puzzle has included a dash before, but it's very clever.  "Line from someone who's been interrupted" is the clue for three answers, which are PLEASE LET ME FIN-, DO I LOOK LIKE I'M D-, and QUIET, I WAS SPEAK-.  Underneath each is a clued continuation.  They are, respectively: "kinda" is ISH, "joined" is ONE, and "Beethoven's Minuet ____" is IN G, or ING when used as a continuation for the third interrupted clue above.

The fun thing is that the dashes are part of the clue, so the the crossfill incorporates the dashes: HI-C, A-Z, and NO-NO.

"Hasbro toy that involves pulling and twisting" is BOP IT.  After my time.  Now there's an updated version where you can selfie it and sing it!

"School located in San Luis Obispo" is CAL POLY.  Officially it's California Polytechnic State University, but you wouldn't know that by looking at their web page.  The name of the city seemed familiar, and indeed it was an answer on September 30, 2017.

I was totally baffled by "Some canasta plays."  I'm not a group card game player.  For some reason I kept thinking of castanets.  Anyway, it's MELDS.  In the game, a meld is a grouping of cards of the same rank, such as a group of queens.  A meld of seven or more cards is called a canasta.

NAN Goldin is an American photographer whose images often feature LGBT themes.

Mercedes RUEHL, who won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for her role in The Fisher King, has a hard name to spell.

MAUNA Loa, it's been a while.

I've never heard of George AIKEN, governor of Vermont and then senator for Vermont from 1941-1975.  A Republican, he supported an early form of food stamps, the Full Employment Act, aid to education, and a minimum wage.  He also opposed Joe McCarthy.  The Republican platform has changed 180 degrees since the 1940s and '50s.

Clever clues: "What may take its toll?" is HWY.  "Is appealing" is PLEADS.  "Body shot?" is MRI SCAN.  "Provider of global support?" is ATLAS.  "Exchanged bonds?' is I DOS.

That's AWLS she wrote, so ADO for now.

Saturday, September 30, 2017

Today's time: 18:30, a new record!

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A pretty clever puzzle by Mary Lou Guizzo and Jeff Chen.

I would have had an even faster time, but got hung up on the south.  For "home of Rembrandt's The Night Watch" I ended up with *RIETSMUSEUM, which seemed reasonably Dutch to me.  This is one of the cases wherein I would have just had a DNF if it hadn't been for doing it online, which told me I had some errors.  So I changed *V-E DAY to V-J DAY, and changed "track prize" to STAKES from the incorrect *STATES.  (You know, as in "We won the regional, and now we're going to States!"  No?  Apparently it's just "going to State.")  So anyway that makes The Night Watch living at RIJKSMUSEUM, which is even more appropriately Dutch!

For "yours truly, facetiously," I got stuck on thinking of letter closings.  It's actually the term for MOI, as used by Miss Piggy.

I liked "reception figures" being both EARS (surely an incomprehensible answer to those born after 1980) and DJS.

I got PHLOX by naming flowers that fit; I didn't know it was Greek for flame.  But it makes sense, if you think about phlogiston.

I think K-MART's slogan "The Saving Place" is before my time.  Or maybe I just wasn't paying attention.

Ask AMY, syndicated advice column.  Not Ask Ann.  Amy Dickinson.

San Luis OBISPO, or SLO to the locals, is known for Bubblegum Alley, where wads of chewed gum cover walls.  Ick, how gross!

Point REYES National Seashore is a coastal park in Marin County, California.

I find it hard to remember if the author of the novel The Phantom of the Opera is Gaston *LAROUX or LEROUX.  He is also well known among mystery fans for his The Mystery of the Yellow Room.

"Setting of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" ends up being G MAJOR.  I feel like that is misusing the word "setting" somehow.  Also it seems like it is played in different keys than G at times, so.

I'm glad the Young Frankenstein assistant was INGA and not Igor.

IDEAL GAS is a "substance obeying Boyle's law," which is an experimental gas law, making the gas in question largely hypothetical, much like my sex life until late college.  Basically the law states that the pressure a gas exerts is inversely proportional to the volume it occupies.

Clever clues: "under the weather while above the clouds" is AIRSICK.  "Become lightheaded" is GO BLONDE. (I was looking at the partial fill, thinking, *GO BLOODY?  As in, loss of blood?)