Wednesday's puzzle solved: December 20, 2017

My time: 8:55, not too shabby.

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This puzzle, courtesy of Talitha Randall, has the theme of... NINE.  Themed answers include ONE and EIGHT on the same row; FOUR and FIVE on the same row; and SEVEN and TWO on the same row.  Also, SEPT, NEIN and NONA-.  And CLOUD nine.  And nine LIVES.  Well, at least the theme is pretty thorough.  Maybe if this puzzle appeared on September 9 it would tickle me more?  As it is, I find it pretty INANE.  It's a theme without a reason to be.  But then, they can't all be gems.

"Pennsylvania, for example" gave me pause.  It's AVENUE, as in the White House address.  And a green property in Monopoly.

"Game-ending cry at a card table" is GIN, but *UNO crossed my mind.

I've heard of designer MARC Jacobs!

LLCS appeared in the singular this past Sunday.

I knew AD-IN ("possible score after 40-all") thanks to its appearance November 21.

The opera AIDA by Giuseppe Verdi is partially set on the banks of the Nile.  The titualar Aida is an enslaved Ethiopian princess.  In Act 3, she and Radamès, the Egyptian army commander, meet and plan to marry.

SONANT ("voiced") is a word I struggled with.  It means having a sound, but in phonetics, it does mean voiced, and its opposite is surd.  Is a B surd?  No, it is sonant.  But S is surd.  Here's an explainer.

"Sunset's direction, in Sorrento" also stymied me.  It's OVEST.  Sorrento is an Italian town overlooking the Bay of Naples.  I don't parlo Italiano.

INDIGENE is another pretty obscure word for a Wednesday, in my opinion.  Indigenous, yes; the noun form, no.

I've never heard of LUC Jacquet, but I have heard of his famous film March of the Penguins.

I was glad that my original guess for "what transported Dorothy to Oz" --- TORNADO --- was right, and it wasn't the original *CYCLONE.  Glad because it worked out quicker, but slightly sad that it isn't really accurate.

Clever clue: "Gains yardage?" is SODS.  I thought it might be *RUNS, like in football.

Overall a very fine puzzle, the right difficulty for a Wednesday.  I just wasn't wowed by the theme. 

Thursday's New York Times puzzle solved: May 17, 2018

My time: 12:48.

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In this exceedingly clever puzzle, David J. Kahn showcases two cities that were founded in MAY 1978: NEW ORLEANS and SAN ANTONIO.  Crossing the former is a sight found at the latter, the ALAMODOME, while crossing the latter is the Big Easy's famed JAZZ BANDS.

What makes this theme particularly fun is the use of numerals in the grid.  Crossing the year in the center date are NOT 1 BIT ('zero"), 7-UP ("soft drink whose logo features a red circle"), 1-L'S ("law school beginners"), and 8-BALL ("it's bad to be behind it").  I loved this!  It's a new idea to me, and I admire the theme's cohesion and symmetry.

I have never heard of ILYA Frank, Russian winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1958 for his work on Cherenkov radiation, which has to do with energy released when a particle moves faster than light through a medium, or something.

NFL Hall of Famer MEL Blount is not someone I know.  He played for the Pittsburgh Steelers and is considered one of the best cornerbacks of all time!  Uh... and what's a cornerback, then?

I call a RIP SAW a "saw."

"Plant bristles" is AWNS, not a word I encounter on a daily basis.

Are the SIERRAS considered a particularly jagged mountain range?  Well, there are many ranges called by that name across the globe, and since the name means "saw," I suppose most are pretty jagged.  The ones in the Sierra Madre don't look all that jagged to me, but the Sierra Nevada mountains seem pretty saw-toothed.

I've had a bit of rum in my life, but not TIA Maria, a rum-based coffee liqueur.

"St. Lawrence and others" is SEAWAYS.  I was not expecting that!  It's a system in Canada and the US that allows ships to travel from the Atlantic to the Great Lakes.

Did you know president John TYLER has 15 children?  This is because he had eight children with his first wife.  After she died, Tyler began courting 23-year-old Julia Gardiner (30 years his junior), and had seven more children.  The old goat!  He also has two living grandchildren.  That's because he had his third-to-last child at 63, and that child, Lyon, had his son at 72.  Why don't we learn these tidbits in school?

"Big shake" is SEISM.  Ugh, this is like "plasm" and "poult" from three days ago.

We all know that saucy minx Anaïs NIN, but I'm not familiar with her work.  Winter of Artifice is her second published book, a volume of novellas, including the controversial "Djuna" and her account of an incestuous relationship with a father.

Giuseppe Verdi's opera AIDA is set in Egypt, and takes place near the temple of ISIS.

IONE comes up a lot in puzzles.  This time it's as a Nereid, a sea nymph, as on August 11, 2017.

Democratic Congressman ADAM Schiff last appeared on September 26, 2017.

Actress LILI Taylor appeared on November 28, 2017, as having a role in Mystic Pizza.  Today they cite the 2009 Johnny Depp vehicle Public Enemies.  She does not have high billing in that film.

I was briefly puzzled by "ORD listing" (ETA), but ORD is Chicago O'Hare, and first was used in a clue on January 17 (and was again used January 21).

Clever clues: "Ink spot?" is TATTOO.  "Make a submarine disappear?" is EAT.  "Expert spelling?" is VOODOO.

Wow, this was a very clever, and equally challenging, puzzle!  I didn't do too badly, either, considering its relative difficulty.  I'm going to give myself a hand --- CLAP! --- and if I were to grade my performance, I'd say I get a RED A (like Hester Prynne).

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 3:42, very good!

Theme: five words are reclued as if they were to be read as [verb] a [noun].  So METAPHYSICIAN is clued as "was introduced to the doctor?" as in met a physician.  And PANASONIC is clued as "criticize Sega's hedgehog design?" or pan a Sonic.

There were two clues that struck me as poorly written and/or edited.  PROPAGATE is clued as "support the pasture entrance?"  That's a little odd.  Is a gate only a pasture entrance?  Are there no other gates?  And CARDAMOM, an Indian spice, is clued as "check someone's parent to make sure she's of drinking age?"  That is, card a mom. But it's so wordy; why not just "check a parent's ID?"

I've heard of JOAN Didion but not her 1970 book Play It as It Lays, a grim novel about a self-destructive woman who is drawn to the seedy sides of 1960s Los Angeles and New York.

The Egyptian-set opera "Aida" is a crossword mainstay, but usually it's the opera found in the grid, not the composer VERDI.

I really should learn more capitals.  RIGA, the largest city in the Baltic states, is the capital of Latvia.

"Corsage flower" is ORCHID. I don't think I ever would have guessed that.  I think I only know carnation corsages.

This was a quick and easy Monday, with a fun theme that made me smile, despite my MINOR quibble with a couple of the clues.  I think on the whole this one is ON A PAR with some of the best Mondays.

Sunday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: January 17, 2021

My time: 19:41, exactly five minutes faster than the average.

Theme: "Double-Crossed."  That title, and the note that "in the newspaper version of this puzzle, each of the six circled squares contains a slash that divides the square in two," clued me in early that this would be a rebus.

So, in each circled square you must enter two sets of double letters.  For example, "some entertainers at children's birthday parties" is BA[LLOO]N ARTISTS.  But!  This arrangement of the two doubles will not work going the other way.  The answer intersecting the circled square will feature the two pairs in reverse order.  As in, "Sallie Mae products," which is SCH[OOL L]OANS.

Another example: "visual phenomenon created by short flashes of light" is STROB[E EFF]ECT.  And so, the word crossing that must contain ff ee, because the double pair is reversed.  That answer, for "Nestlé creamer," is CO[FFEE] MATE.

I hope that's clear.  And now, the fill.

The BBC as a Corporation might have been established by Royal Charter in 1926, but it was founded in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company.

Gilbert ARENAS was a basketball player who played in... arenas?

In other sports news, did you know that Chris EVERT won at least one Grand Slam title for a record 13 straight years?  Famous golfer Jack Nicklaus called this “The greatest record in sports.”

And more (sigh) sports: SID the Kid is the nickname for Sidney Crosby, center for the NHL Pittsburgh Penguins.

I'm not up on my royals.  Princess EUGENIE is Prince Andrew's youngest daughter.

Miosis means excessive contraction of the pupil.  The adjective form, MIOTIC, means having or causing constriction of the pupils.

A MESON is a subatomic particle composed of a quark and an antiquark.  Mesons are bosons!  Three quark combos are called baryons.

I don't think I've heard of the Sleeves Up campaign, but it's pretty easy to guess that it's about vaccinations, or, as is the right answer, a BL[OOD D]RIVE. 

"Beer in a green bottle" is STE[LLA A]RTOIS.

The three UNESCO World Heritage Sites in AGRA are the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, and Fatehpur Sikri.  They're all very impressive!

"Word before bag or bar" is GRAB.  Grab-bag I know; a grab bar is a bathroom safety feature for people who need help with their balance in the bath or shower. 

Here's a new way to have hoary old chestnut AIDA in the fill: name a song from it!  "Every Story is a Love Story" is the opening song from the Broadway musical version, by Elton John and Tim Rice.

MISSOULA is home to the University of Montana.

A Z4 is a BMW roadster convertible two-seater.  A Q50 is an Infiniti sports sedan.  So they are both a kind of CAR.

Tony winner IDINA Menzel was in the clue on October 28, 2020.  It asked about a role for her, which is Maureen Johnson, from "Rent."

I never seem to get it through my thick skull that the VOLGA is the longest river in Europe, despite its many appearances in this blog.

The OAS, the Organization for American States, last appeared on December 2, 2020.

Famed firefighter Red ADAIR was mentioned on September 26, 2019.

Actress EVA Green of Casino Royale appeared a couple of times. 

"QB's passing stat" is, once again, ATT, for Attempted Passes.

The word for immature egg cell, OOCYTE, appeared on September 14, 2018.

Easy two-pointer LAY-UP was clued as "easy buckets" on August 12, 2018.

Clever clue: "What's more, it's said" is LESS.  "One whose calling is making calls?" is UMP.  "What tots might go after?" is TATER.

Whew!  This was an interesting puzzle.  I think things might have gone differently, and I might have been more frustrated than challenged, if I hadn't read the title and descriptor of the two-art squares first.  If I could just remember all these little answers that come up so often I might even be able to solve a bit faster.

Wednesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: August 8, 2018

My time: 5:17, a new Wednesday best!

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Andrew Kingsley had a brilliant idea with this puzzle (though I'm sure that some other crossword creator also thought of it at the same time).  Proving the adage GREAT / MINDS / THINK / ALIKE, he showcases five inventions that were the product of two independent thinkers at about the same time.

For example, CALCULUS was invented by both "Gottfried Wilhelm Liebniz and Isaac Newton."  Many Americans go through their entire school careers ignorant that the TELEPHONE was a brainchild of both "Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray," and likewise give no credit to Joseph Swan for the LIGHT BULB.   While I have heard of Mendeleev, I did not know that the PERIODIC TABLE was also conceived of by Julius Lothar Meyer.  Both of them worked under Robert Bunsen.

Unknown to me are "Leo Szillard and Joseph Rotblat," both of whom came up with the ATOM BOMB.  Szilard, a Hungarian, encouraged Einstein to warn President Roosevelt about the possibility of a German atomic bomb, and later worked with Fermi on the Manhattan Project.  Rotblat was a Pole who also worked on the Manhattan Project, and dedicated the rest of his life to a nuclear-free world.

Very nice theme! Good thing Kingsley was the first to publish.

I don't think SLIM means "not very likely."  Only if someone asks, "What are the chances of this happening?"  And then they could answer SLIM, which in this context means "[it's] not very likely," but really it just means low.  It only means not likely in the context of chances.

I know the ORIOLES, but didn't know they played in Camden Yards.

Also in sports, "longtime Boston Celtics executive" Danny AINGE is a total unknown to me.  His name looks like a misprint.

The Sierra is a pickup truck made by GMC.

Is CHER the Goddess of Pop?  I guess so.  Among other nicknames...

"Radamès's love" AIDA appeared on December 20, 2017.

Appliance brand mainstay AMANA last appeared on June 10.

Venetian marketplace RIALTO appeared on December 27, 2018.

Clever clues: "Heat setting" is MIAMI.  "It's found behind a temple" is EAR.  "Band aid?" is AMP.

This was a quick and easy puzzle!  A very intelligent and instructive theme, but with good basic fill.  Perfect for a Wednesday.  It caused me no STRESS.  I tore through it like a WHIP through TISSUE.

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.

Thursday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: Janary 24, 2019

My time: 11:02.

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Stu "Doc" Ockman has us taking a good long look at this puzzle, which I identified very quickly as a rebus  (Unfortunately, solving on the phone is not conducive to quickly filling out rebus squares.)  Double O's are placed in a single square, giving these squares the appearance of G[OO]-G[OO] EYES, apparently, or at least to Ockman. He really loves this puzzle!

New word alert: REGINAL, meaning made or relating to a queen.

The Verdi opera AIDA has come up a lot, but I don't think I've noted before that the title character is buried alive!  In an Egyptian tomb with her love, not in a dirt pit.

Did you know a BASS[OO]N opens Stravinksy's "Rite of Spring?"  Me neither.

The Indian word DESI means indigenous, as in a native animal, but is also used to mean a South Asian living abroad.

Never heard of EVA Air, a Taiwanese airline.  It stands for Evergreen Airways.  As of January 2018, EVA Air is the 15th safest airline in the world, with no hull losses, accidents, or fatalities since its establishment.

MOUSSAKA showed up as a clue on August 9, 2017, when I looked it up.

Iona College and its Fightin' GAELS have come up before.

Clever clue: "One stuck abroad?" is V[OO]D[OO] DOLL.  "Raiders' org." is ATF, as seen on May 27, 2018.  "It can make an impression in correspondence" is SEAL.  "On the blue side, for short" is DEM.  "Clay, after conversion" is ALI, which seems obvious in retrospect, but I was stuck on the effect of a kiln on clay.  "Call to reserve?" is LET, if you pronounce it with a long E and a /s/.  "Ones pumped up for a race?" is TIRES.

That's it for me!  I didn't exactly do this IN A FLASH, but as I said, rebuses are always a pleasant surprise, but they go slowly.  I don't want to be CRITICAL; this was a fun puzzle.