Friday 5/23/2008

nmHz, if you're reading this, could you at some point inform me how to put text behind a cut so as it doesn't show up in RSS feeds? It is behind a cut right now, but apparently one that only works when you visit the page itself. (Sorry) Also, although the Wall Street Journal puzzles come out on Fridays, I will write my comments for them on Sundays with the rest of the 21x21's.



It was pointed out to me that my alternative fill for Thursday's NYS would not work because RIPEN was already in the grid.

CrosSynergy

Author: Patrick Blindauer
Title: "Middle Management"
Theme clues:
{Break into, as a safe}--FORCE OPEN
{"Attaboy!"}--NICE ONE
{Oscar winner for "Henry V"}--LAURENCE OLIVIER
{Hockey confrontation}--FACE-OFF
{Unseen narrator}--VOICEOVER
Theme rating: 1

This is about as simple as a theme can get and still be rated a 1, I think. NICE ONE isn't the type of phrase I'd consider strong; ditto re: I WIN. I don't have much more to say about this puzzle right now, but I will come back to it in this week's weekly essay.

Los Angeles Times

Author: Lee Glickstein
Theme clues:
{Aperitif?}--SUNSET SIP
{Snafu at the base?}--MILITARY OOPS
{Lake denizen, and a hint to this puzzle's theme}--TROUT
{Sewing class lesson?}--SEAMING VIDEO
{"Fahrenheit 451", for one?}--ASHY NOVEL
Theme rating: 1

I will note that Mr. Glickstein has had a puzzle published in the NYSun with the title "Scout", and an analogous theme. I don't mind that so much, though, because I liked the results here (especially SUNSET SIP), but if "Clout"/"Spout"/"Tout" puzzles by Mr. Glickstein follow on this one's heels, I may raise an eyebrow.

I liked TREE TOAD, YO-YO MA, ICE MAKER here. I'm torn about THE AX {Bad thing to get at work}--it's not as obviously bad as THE MUSTARD {What satisfactory things cut}, but it still seems a bit off. I notice that corner could have been filled as shown on the left (with the original fill on the right for comparison)--I'm pretty sure I didn't introduce any dupes this time. Which do you prefer?


LABS..........................PUBS.
OBOE..........................SHOE.
SUNSETSIP.....................SUNSETSIP
STEAM.........................THEAX.
...MI............................MI
...ET............................ET
....S.............................S


Also, there's a pretty easy fix in the upper center which removes AWS. I liked the approach in the clue {Hotspot seeker}--USER. Some good trivia style clues here (see below). The upper right corner was weakest, with GO SEE and the uncommon ARTEL.

New York Sun

Author: Alan Arbesfeld
Title: "Auto Trailers"
Theme clues:
{Abdominal network}--SOLAR PLEXUS
{Song that knocked "Ticket To Ride" out of the #1 slot}--HELP ME RHONDA
{Words before a date}--ANNO DOMINI
{Has to wait for the next round, maybe}--LOSES A TURN
{Spanish architect who designed the unfinished Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona}--ANTONIO GAUDI
{"Three's Company" hangout}--REGAL BEAGLE
Theme rating: 1 (upgraded from an 0 based on faulty research on my part)

LEXUS, HONDA, SATURN, and AUDI are all car manufacturers (in one case, a division of a larger company); EAGLE and MINI are specific cars. I think opening up the theme to include individual models makes it too broad (tie oNE ON, fidel cASTRO, hermione gRANGER, and I'm not even 1/4 of the way through the Wikipedia list of 2000 autos). I'd never heard of Mr. Gaudi, but he seems famous enough. Fairly clean fill with so much theme material, even weaving in ARMY BRAT into a slot crossing three theme entries, but there are signs of strain (A STAB, PORTO). I think throwing out the MINI and EAGLE entries would have tightened up the theme as well as allowing for a less constrained fill.

**** EDITED **** Well, I was wrong again. I *did* look these things up, to my ever-diminishing credit, but the thumbnail information I got from Wikipedia didn't tell the whole story--in particular, I assumed the wikipages do not show a logo for the Mini or the Eagle. Turns out they are all makes--Mini : BMW :: Lexus : Toyota :: Eagle : AMC. While being owned by BMW, the Mini sub-brand does have its own logo and models (the Hardtop, the Convertible, etc.)

48-Across is {Compass creation: Abbr.}--CIR. Is this accurate? My dictionary does list "circle" as a potential meaning for CIR, but I was under the impression that this was only used in the context of street abbreviations. {"Little Women" surname: Abbr.} wouldn't be a valid clue for MAR, despite the fact that "Mar." is an abbreviation for "March", for instance. (My dictionary also gives "circumference" as a possible meaning, but that runs into the same problem, because AFAIK that's only used in contexts like "titanium bracelet SH046B--Cir 155mm /Open 25mm..."--web address available on request. Should you know anyone who needs a really, really durable bracelet.)

New York Times

Author: Patrick John Duggan
Themeless

Also a constructorial debut. Also fairly clean, though there was the partial END ON and two phrases I don't think have dictionary nature. I accept the legitimacy of the entries SO THEN, WE DID IT, and NOT IT, but I don't think they're very strong entries; not like the entries MR. TOAD, WHOVILLE, JUJITSU, LEAN ON ME, and a few others.

My favorite clever/tricky clues:
NYS 26A: {The Blues Brothers and Indigo Girls, e.g.}--DUOS

My favorite trivia-style clues:
LAT 4D: {"5, Rue ___" (French kids' TV show)}--SESAME
LAT 25D: {The "two" in "two if by sea"}--LANTERNS
LAT 52D: {"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" cellist}--YO-YO MA
NYT 1D: {It was shipwrecked in 1964 somewhere in the South Pacific}

Non-dictionary nature phrases: GO SEE, MAY I SEE, ON LATE.