Well, that was fun!  I just wrapped up the Thursday crossword and then stared at it for two solid minutes before figuring out what the theme was.  In doing so, I had to enter answers to the six starred clues without comprehending them.  The revealer, the thrice-remade movie ASTARISBORN, finally made it all make sense.  We're instructed to re-parse it as six words, which at first looks impossible - but if you read it as 'A STAR IS B OR N', then aha!  It's telling us what to do with the stars on those clues.  So we have: *Assist in a foursome = MCCARTNEY if the ..read more

In a nod to dromedary camels everywhere - happy "Hump Day" everybody!  Let me get one thing out of the way, right up front:  I did *not* like 1A in today's puzzle:  FLORAS ("Groups of plants").  I really don't think FLORA is a word you can pluralize.  Having gotten that nit out of the way - what an admirable piece of construction!  The theme centres around THECYCLOPS, the one-eyed figures of Greek and Roman mythology, and in homage, the entire grid contains one single 'I', centred near the top where it should be.  Furthermore, the puzzle's clues are entirely ..read more

My mind isn't generally at its most receptive on Monday mornings - but I learned something new today - ASABOVE SOBELOW - a phrase lifted from the 9th century Emerald Tablet referring to the symmetry of earth and heaven.  As dubious as this philosophy may be, it forms the theme of today's puzzle, in which the words 'AS' and 'SO' appear in six little four-letter blocks throughout the grid, with AS above and SO below (of course).  An interesting concept for a Monday crossword and I imagine easier than usual to clue from a theme perspective.   No issues with the solve, th ..read more

Greetings Earthlings!  Seems like forever since my last contribution to this blog.  A lot of water under the bridge in the past while, including the ACPT a couple of weeks ago - which was fun, challenging, stressful, and - most of all - emotional, with a recovering Will Shortz taking the podium on all three days.  We are all very much rooting for you, Will!!   Interesting puzzle today, with an unorthodox left-right symmetry and a square pattern that, if you squint, resembles a jet plane or perhaps a down-arrow, indicative of the direction in which our planet may be hea ..read more

A fun Saturday puzzle which, judging by my time (23:39), falls on the easier side of the range. I especially enjoyed "Whimsically move from here to there" (SKIP), "One stymied by security questions, say" (BOT), "Go all over" (GAD), "Checks for clothes" (PLAID), "Fit for a queen?" (DRAG), and "They don't care for icing, for short" (NHL) - a sports-themed clue that I dropped right in. Score! Lots of spoken phrase clues in the grid - not usually my cup of ICEDTEAS - but for some reason, today I was able to SAYAGAIN the gist of the clues in the correct form (YOUTELLME, IMWELLAWARE, EASYMAN, IST ..read more

Today's theme revealer is aptly instructional. It provides a hint to understanding four of the puzzle clue answers. The trick is that the answer to the first clue in each of four rows only makes complete sense if SECRET PASSAGES are included. I say "complete sense" because, as we all know - and heard amusing examples of at the ACPT - solvers can make almost any answer make sense in their minds, if they think it fits. To get the full answer to the theme clues, one must posit two letters, hidden in the black squares, between the Across answers in the row. Which two letters? The first row uses th ..read more

Today's theme is sheer sorcery and invokes what you might call spell unbinding. Each theme answer breaks a spell - HEX, CHARM, CURSE, and POX. The letters used to spell the spell appear at the beginning and end of the four corresponding theme answers. For example, when your date orders CHICKENPARM for dinner, suddenly, the CHARM is broken. We've all been there - am I right? I wander how many other such cases are out there. Amulet you tell me. Although, come to think about it, 'jinx' could possibly do the trick.  And speaking of jinx, according to the Wikipedia, the letter X appears in ab ..read more

Today's theme entertained by transforming STAR names into amusing commands, such as "Hey, patriarch of 1960s television - shut up!" (JEDCLAMPIT), or in the case of a famed singer/song writer, an exclamation  (LYLELOVEIT). Other examples included an exhortation aimed at an acclaimed Australian actress ordered to prepare broccoli (CATEBLANCHIT) and a gazillionaire told to shine the car (WARRENBUFFIT) - as if. :) There were some nice clues that attempted a soupcon of Sean Connery like "Office subs" for TEMPS and "It runs hot" for LAVA. In the Nicole Kidman category, I enjoyed "Have troubl ..read more

 Well, dear Reader, here's another review from the road. Horace and I are driving north, chasing today's TOTALECLIPSE. If we had know about it in advance, we could have benefitted from the puzzle's topical play list (MOONSHADOW, INTOTHENIGHT, STARINGATTHESUN, TOTALECLIPSE OFTHEHEART) to cheer us along. Right now, the TENOR of the mood in the car is vexation as we slog along with a million other cars on a road designed for only 10,000.  With very little in the clues to obscure the answers, the solve was smooth and easy enough (unlike this drive we are on) to have maybe allowed me to b ..read more

Another tricksy Saturday. Good prep for today's tournament, I suppose. Best not to get hopes too high. My goal, as always, is clean puzzles. I like being fast if possible, but I'm not going to win anything, so being accurate is the focus this weekend.  BUBBLY (Vivacious) was a fun start, but those Downs off of it were brutal! BADTHING seems so vague for "Demerit," and although I now sort of remember the UHOHOREO, it was not something I ever thought about. And BIGUPSET - is it really "Cinderella's calling card?" I guess I understand the reference, but I don't know...  B ..read more