Sunday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: January 31, 2021

My time: 17:25, seven minutes faster than average.

Theme: "Product Displacement."  In several well-known phrases, one word has been replaced by a brand name of that word, and the phrase is clued as it is them read.

Probably the easiest example to understand is NATURE ABHORS A HOOVER, where the word vacuum has been replaced with the vacuum brand Hoover.  The clue is decidedly prolix: "Reason that the prestigious scientific journal refuses articles from President Herbert's relatives?"  Man, I see that and I just glaze over catch, catch "President Herbert" and think of phrases with "vacuum" in them.

I also like WORKED FOR PLANTERS.  I wonder how many people who know nothing about boxing are confused by TALE OF THE SCOTCH?  In case you haven't grown up watching boxing like me, tale of the tape is a phrase meaning the comparison of the two fighters' measurements before the fight.

The funniest one is MY SOLO RUNNETH OVER, mostly because of the clue: "apology from a musician to the other band members?"  Seems like it could be a "New Yorker" cartoon.

And now, the fill.  There's A TON to go over.

I was surprised, but I guess I shouldn't have been, that the PESO is the currency of the Philippines.  Also called a piso, one Philippine peso currently equals 0.021 United States Dollar.

I had *GROAN for "sound of exertion" instead of GRUNT, and that cost me no little time.  I also foolishly put *AYE for "Senate support" when it's YEA.  Also, I put *SEAL for "state symbol" instead of STAR.

Never heard of the 1957 Jimmy Dorsey hit "SO RARE."  It was composed in 1937 by composer Jerry Herst and lyricist Jack Sharpe.  Jimmy Dorsey's version, which had a decidedly rhythm and blues feel unlike the earlier versions, became the highest charting song by a big band during the first decade of the rock and roll era.

Apparently the PARSLEY on a Seder dinner plate represents the arrival of springtime.  They also use celery; the fresh vegetable that symbolizes the arrival of springtime and new life is called karpas.  It is often dipped in salt water to symbolize the salty tears that the Jews shed in their slavery in Egypt.  Other items on the Seder plate are roasted bone, bitter herb, "clay" (a fruit and nut mixture), and egg.

Because "one up" was in the puzzle on January 20 to mean "tied," I immediately put *TIE and thought I was so clever.  But it's TOP.

For "one temporarily entrusting property to another," I hazarded a guess, *LIENEE, that turned out to be wrong.  It's BAILOR.

"Supergiant in Orion" is RIGEL.   It is about 870 light-years from the sun, 80 times the diameter, and 47,000 times as luminous.

I have heard of Johnny UNITAS, but could not have told you he was a quarterback for the Colts. 

"Cloth woven from flax fibre" is IRISH LINEN.  The Irish Linen Guild has defined Irish linen as yarn which is spun in Ireland from 100% flax fibres.  Fabric which is woven outside Ireland and brought to Ireland to be bleached/dyed and finished cannot carry the Irish Linen Guild logo, which is the Guild trademark, and signifies the genuine Irish Linen brand. 

RPI just keeps coming up, the last time only a few days ago.  So, again, it's the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, located in Troy, New York, established in 1824 for the "application of science to the common purposes of life," and is described as the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world.

I didn't know about STU Lou Who of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  I only know the book, which has Cindy Lou Who.  The movie has all sorts of Whos. 

Haydn's "The Creation" is one of his ORATORIOS.  It tells, in German, the Judeo-Christian Creation story as related in John Milton’s 1667 poem Paradise Lost.  An oratorio is a (usually) sacred work for soloists, chorus and orchestra intended for concert performance.

I really should have quickly put down PAMPA for "prairie east of the Andes."  I thoughtlessly put *PLAYA instead.

"Common call on a 3rd and 1" is QB SNEAK.  This term came up on August 5, 2020.  I have no idea what "3rd and 1" means.

Lena OLIN has also appeared quite a few times. Today is clued for her role in Chocolat.

Paul ANKA is another frequent flier in the NYT crossword.  Today he's clued for his song "Lonely Boy," as he was on December 17, 2017.

The KONA Coast, a coffee-growing region of Hawaii, is also a repeat customer.

Clever clues: "Power symbol" is CARET, as in exponents.  "General practice?" is WAR.  "Place to surf" is WEB (I put *SEA, like some n00b).  

This was a nice Sunday puzzle!  I got a smile out of the theme.  However, the rest of the fill was pretty straightforward, without the usual late-week punnery.  HEY!  (Does hey mean "stop right there?"  According to this puzzle it does.)

Saturday's New York Times crossword solved: January 30, 2021

My time: 8:09, thirty seconds short of the record!  I didn't think this one was exactly ROCKET SCIENCE.  Let's GET GOING.

Obviously, I never knew (or cared) that ATL "blew a 28-3 Super Bowl lead" in the third quarter.  This was Super Bowl LI (2017), where the Falcons really dropped the ball against the Patriots.  Final score?  34-28.

"Setting of a 1945 conference" is tricky because there was one at YALTA, also known as the Crimea Conference and code-named Argonaut, held February 4–11, 1945, between Stalin, Churchill, and FDR.  However, there was also one at MALTA held from January 30 to February 3, 1945 between FDR and Churchill without Papa Joe.  The first one, y'all are ta come!  The Malta conference is only for me and my friend Churchill.

I remembered that a ROO is called a boomer, flyer, or buck when I was reminded of it by the clue about the word for female kangaroo, doe, this Thursday.

The first black sorority in America, AKA, came up on October 21, 2018.

I enjoyed the plethora of clever and wry clues: "Lock holder?" is MOUSSE.  "Like some brows and berets" is KNIT.  "Frosty air?" is ICINESS.  Likewise, "de-frosting?" is DETENTE.  "Lines in an application?" is CODE.  "Holding up the line for?" is CUING.

 I love crosswords that have such long and little-used fill, like YOU HATE TO SEE IT, IT'S NOW OR NEVER, and MORE POWER TO YOU.  In all, I think this one was remarkably easy for a Saturday.

Friday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: January 29, 2021

My time: 8:48, six and half minutes faster than average.  Shall we do the fill?  We will.  DONE DEAL.

It took me a couple of minutes to remember that a tarboosh is a hat much like a FEZ. 

I knew NASA had a fancy acronym for a spacewalk, but didn't remember what.  It's EVA, for Extra-Vehicular Activity.

I never saw the movie Sherlock Gnomes, so didn't know that Johnny DEPP voiced the title character.  I think it's a sequel to Gnomeo and Juliet?  They both sound terrible.

Molly Ivins said SATIRE is "the weapon of the powerless against the powerful" in a 1991 "People" interview.  A pretty useless weapon.  I think the powerless would rather have power or money.

MRS. (Nellie?) Lovett is the accomplice of Sweeney Todd who bakes his victims into meat pies.  In the movie she was played by Helena Bonham Carter.  To date, all actresses (who have been eligible) to play the role on Broadway have earned Tony Award nominations.

"George Washington signed America's first one in 1790" got me thinking it might be treaty, but it's PATENT.  It was to Samuel Hopkins, for his new method of making pot ash.  I didn't actually put down treaty, which is good because 1790 is way, way later than the first US treaties (starting immediately in 1776.)

LIESL Von Trapp came up on November 25, 2020, but although I noted then that she's 16 going on 17, I didn't note that she sings a song entitled "Sixteen Going on Seventeen."

HMM... There were very many clever or tangential clues today.  "One might be forever" is STAMP.  "Union deserters" made me laugh when I found out it was EXES.  However, I saw SLEEPER CAR coming from the clue, "choice for those eager to retire and travel."  "Bar exam?" is PUB TRIVIA.  "Basic cleaner" is LYE.  "Talk up?" is PRAY.  "Org. concerned with lab safety?" is SPCA.

I liked the unusual fill today, like CRISIS MODE, PICKY EATER, ACCENT RUG, TERRA COTTA, and BERT AND ERNIE.

Thursday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: January 28, 2012

My time: 6:39, two seconds slower than my record!  Missed it by [Maxwell Smart voice] that much!

Theme: This one is a bit meta.  It features common phrases with the last word of each turned into an adverb, and the clues read as if the adverb is modifying the previous part of the phrase.  It helps to imagine a comma in the answer.

For example!  "Golden blades that may be tenderly chew'd by equine or bovine beings" is HAY, LOFTILY.  That is, it describes hay, but does it in a lofty way, or loftily.  It's a play on hayloft.

Second example: "The cat's meow, baby.  Dig?" is ALL THAT, JAZZILY.  "The cat's meow" is an old-fashioned bit of slang meaning what the Youths of Today would call all that, or something great.  And the clue is written in jazz talk, baby.  Or jazzily.  It's a play on "All That Jazz."

I'm not going to type of the clue that means the last item, but suffice to say the clue is extremely wordy.  So the answer is THE LAST, WORDILY.  

And so forth.  There is no capper or any clue in the puzzle that the theme answers describe how the clues are written.  And now, the fill, hopefully not too wordily.

The only girl group I know with three letters is TLC.  Apparently they had a #1 album in 1999 called FanMail.  I'm not a fan, and didn't send mail.

Since the Parisian food market LES Halles was demolished in 1971, perhaps this is a terrible choice from among the infinite ways to clue LES? 

I also don't think the clue "four-star" for RAVE really works.  RAVE is either a noun or verb; "four-star," with hyphen, is an adjective.  I don't think they're interchangeable in sentences.  You'd have to add review to "four-star" to get a RAVE.

"What crystal jellies do when disturbed" is GLOW.  I've never heard of crystal jellies!  It can expand its mouth when feeding to swallow jellies more than half its size. When disturbed, it gives off a green-blue glow because of more than 100 tiny, light-producing organs surrounding its outer bell. 

We all know AOL, but I musta forgot about NETZERO, even though I'm sure I tinkered with pretty much everything from the late '90s.  It's still around!

ILENE Chaiken is a TV producer most famous for "The L Word" and "The Handmaid's Tale."

Speaking of people being old, I wonder if the youths solving the puzzle were baffled by the concept of an EJECT button on a "tape recorder" (whatever the hell that is).

I wrote that a female kangaroo is called a DOE on December 19, 2020, but I forgot.

I did remember that a Hawaiian shirt can be called an ALOHA shirt, from July 12, 2018, however. 

I forgot author Donna TARTT's name again, even though it came up on November 28, 2020.

Clever clue: "Passing comment?" is AYE.  "90s, say" is A AVERAGE.  "Follower of pigs or cows" is E-I-E-I-O. "Common congestion points" is NOSES — this is doubly devious, as my first instict was to put *NODES.

This was one of my best times, surprisingly!  I think this is a puzzle that's going to irritate or rankle many a solver today because of the unusual theme.  But me, I enjoyed it.  I'm the prime audience for these kinds of wordplay shenanigans.

Wednesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: January 27, 2021

My time: 6:50, three minutes faster than average.

Theme: wordplay based on the position of the answers in relation to other answers.  "Despicable... or where this answer goes?" is BENEATH CONTEMPT, because this means "despicable" and is also under, or beneath, the answer SCORN, which is contempt.

"Sick... or where this answer goes?" is UNDER THE WEATHER, because that means "sick" and also is placed beneath the answer MONSOON, which I suppose is a type of weather.

Okay then.

SCORN comes with a rather recondite clue: a line in a George Bernard Shaw play.  This turns out to be "As Far as Thought Can Reach," the fifth part of his five-park work "Back to Methuselah."  This play is set in 31,920 AD.  The character Ecrasia tells Arjillax, "Silence is the most perfect expression of SCORN." because the latter seems to venerate the past in an era when no one else does.

In actual history, Servius Tullius is the legendary sixth king, or REX, of Rome.  He is credited with the Servian Constitution, which divided citizens into five classes according to wealth.  He is also credited, probably incorrectly, with introducing silver and bronze coinage.

Clever clue: "Knuckleheaded act?" is NOOGIE.  "A hot one is timely" is TIP.  "Drive... or drive mad?" is TEE OFF.

I think this was a pretty easy Wednesday.  Most of the clues were straightforward and the theme was one of those that helps you fill in the answers quickly once you get the idea.  I'm very impressed with the grid-building skills that placing the key words above the long themed answers requires.

Tuesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: January 26, 2021

My time: 7:14, about 15 seconds faster than average.

Theme: "Game in which the answers to the starred clues are legal plays but cannot be formed even if you have both blanks."  Well, I didn't need to know any of the themed answers to know that a game with two blanks is SCRABBLE.

So, the theme answers contain four Zs, or four Ks, or 7 Ss, all of which are not possible in SCRABBLE, which has only one Z, one K, and four S tiles.

Supermarket chain IGA has been in the blog a couple of times now, but today clued as having the slogan "Hometown Proud." 

Here's a truly new item: ICE DAM, a "cold weather roofing problem."  An ICE DAM is buildup of snow and ice on the roof, preventing snow and water from draining off the slope.

I'm aware of the 1933 Glass-STEAGALL Act, but have a hard time spelling the name.

Are some prognosticators really called "crystal GAZERS?"  Not crystal ball gazers?  yes.  Yes, they are.

RPI, the tech school in Troy, NY, appears today for the third time. 

Georgia's state flower the AZALEA came up on June 25, 2020.

Clever clue: "Lava, e.g." is SOAP.

Whew!  I thought this was fairly difficult for a Tuesday.  While I love the theme, I'm not enamored of the words PIZZAZZY or STRESSLESSNESS.  The amount of Zs and Ks in the puzzle necessitate some rare words, like TANZANIA and GAZERS, and odd letter stretches like the eaea of SEA EAGLE.  But beyond that, I don't think words like POTTAGES and PLIGHTS, for example, are typical Tuesday material.

Monday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: January 25, 2021

My time: 4:40, fifty seconds faster than average.

Today's theme is maybe a teensy bit tone-deaf during a pandemic that has caused the loss of over 20 millions jobs.  "Dreaded cry from a boss" is YOU'RE FIRED, and the themed answers all end in a synonym for fire: boot, can, axe, sack.

I didn't know what a "football blitz" was, so QUARTERBACK SACK had to come from crosses.  During a blitz, a higher than usual number of defensive players will rush the opposing quarterback, in an attempt either to tackle him or force him to hurry his pass attempt.

Texas A AND M (A&M) is in College Station, north of and about an hour and half away from both Austin and Houston.

"Give a makeover" is REHAB?  That seems wrong.

Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida" takes place during the Trojan War.  Troilus, a Trojan prince, falls in love with Cressida, a Trojan who has defected to the Greek side.  Troilus is a minor character in the original ILIAD, in which he is ambushed and killed by Achilles.  The love story with Cressida is a medieval invention dating to the 12th century.

I remembered TEAK as "wood for boat decks," as it's appeared in the blog a few times.

Clever clue: "Cover gray, perhaps" is DYE.  "English channel, informally" is the BEEB; they had me thinking about the body of water.  I put in *POND, lamely, thinking that wasn't right.

This was a good Monday.  Not too easy, with a few reasonably challenging clues, like "talk, talk, talk" for YAP — it could have been *GAB, for example.  I like there to be at least a little uncertainty, even on a Monday.  I thought the theme was unfortunate in these trying times.