A speedy Friday for this solver (13:21), without being exactly sure why or HOW. There were plenty of top-notch QMCs like "Level bests?" (HIGHSCORES), "One who can't handle their moonshine well?" (WEREWOLF), "Attention seeker?" (AHEM), "Negative impression?" (DENT), and "Lose the threads?" (STRIP) - ha! - not to mention some nicely ambiguous C/APs including "Punt, e.g." for BOAT, "Say, say" for CLAIM, and for "Noses" the rather odd SMELLERS. But in the mix we also had "Stock holders?" for BARNS, "Chapel part" (APSE), "Scotch flavorer" (PEAT), and "Tiny bit" (IOTA), all of which are kinda Monda ..read more

Fun puzzle today, with a tricky theme - at least for this solver. Ab initio, I thought the trick was to replace a W with two VVs "old Rome style" - as I thought - but that was an erratum. The trick was much cleverer than a simple letter substitution. Each of the theme answers contained a spelled-out number. It was the solver's job to replace the word for the number with the equivalent Roman numeral, for example, the letters ONE were replaced with the Roman numeral I. The corresponding Down answers used each Roman numeral as a letter. The theme answers ended up looking a little ad hoc (WALKEDIG ..read more

OHFUDGE is today's theme revealer ("What you might cry upon recognizing this puzzle's ingredient list?") and an apt start to this late review - I forgot that I had to write it until now. Derp. One of the reasons I forgot involved some of the ingredients of fudge that are found at the start of the five theme answers, although in my case the butter in BUTTERFINGERS, the sugar in SUGARSNAPPEAS, and the vanilla in VANILLAICE were used to make cookies. Mmmm, cookies. We're having a cooler, rainy day around here and baking cookies was a way to brighten things up a bit. Puzzle-wise, I'm not really su ..read more

Each of today's theme answers RINGSABELL in one way or another. WILLYLOMAN, as a door-to-door salesman, SANTACLAUS, in his role as Salvation Army front man, QUASIMODO, denizen and operative of Notre Dame de Paris, and IVANPAVLOV, if I recall correctly, famous for trigging salivation in dogs by trained association with bells. We also get a bonus theme answer in Charles Wilson PEALE, George Washington portraitist.  There were no alarm bells for this solver. Entries from ACHES (1A: Really feels yesterday's workout, say") to AGERS (66A: "Golden ____ (retirees)) went right in, although the no ..read more

Greetings, dear Readers! Frannie here with some exciting personal (crossword puzzle-related) news. For the second week in a row, I solved the Monday puzzle in under five minutes. Watch out Paolo - 2025 could be my year! Kidding about that last bit, of course. I recently sat down with a clean copy of this year's ACPT puzzle 5. Even having solved some of it at the tournament *and* knowing the trick, it took me 20 minutes to complete, and I still might have ended up with one FWOE. So, yeah.  Anyhoo, that's not why you called me here. We are here to discuss today's puzzle with the fun theme ..read more

FROM THE ASTRONAUT'S LOGBOOK It's Sunday. Another big grid with a big theme. This time, it's so big it spread into outer space. ... OK, that was a lame attempt to break into this review in a cutesy way. Hey, look over there! What are those black squares doing? Is that a spaceship in the middle of the left/right symmetry? Could be. Or it could be a little pigeon-toed guy in a space helmet holding two guns and wearing a codpiece. Well... Look at it! Am I crazy? Today we have common expressions clued to sound as if they were written by an astronaut on a space flight. As in, "Thrilled to report t ..read more

I liked this one better once I was finished and started to review all the answers. For some reason, while I was solving it, it seemed kind of flat, but looking around now I see a lot of snark, which I like. And it starts right away with 1A "Don't flatter yourself!" (ASIF). Later, there's "Please, we don't need the details" (SPAREUS), "Words of corporate pandering" (WECARE), "That's just great," sarcastically" (GOTTALOVEIT), and after all that, you might be fooled into thinking that a "Possible cause of an icy glare" is something personal, but no, it's SLEET. That's a lovely non-QMC.  The ..read more

An interesting grid today, with the central crosshairs and double fifteens just above and below. There's nice flow through the middle, and relatively chunky corners.  First lets just admire the grid-spanners. Not a "ones" anywhere to be seen. DEADTREEEDITION (Alternative to the online newspaper, colloquially) ANHEIRANDASPARE (Phrase that inspired the title of Prince Harry's memoir) (Poor, poor boy) GASSTATIONSUSHI (Shell fish?) (Great clue) THISISANOUTRAGE (Huffy exclamation) (The least interesting of the bunch, but still quite good) NOWLETSSEE, what are some good clues... PETPSYCHIC (Me ..read more

I can't help feeling like this puzzle is almost there. It's cool that the Ts are not needed to solve the puzzle, but the fact that they were already in the grid felt strange. And TEALEAVES also seems a little odd, because they were never really used in the first place. Would it have been more interesting if the words using the Ts were clued, and the squares weren't shaded, and then they fell out? Hmmm... am I missing something? It just seems like there is a way that this could be better, but I can't quite put my finger on it. "What has a big part in 'The Ten Commandments'?" was a cute clue fo ..read more

Who doesn't enjoy flowers? Today we have eight of them around the four "walls" of the puzzle. Hence - WALLFLOWERS. And they are all given as indirect a clue as possible. My favorite is "Rainbow's end," which made me try to fit "pot of gold" into the six squares, but which turned out to be the last letter of Roy G. Biv's name, VIOLET. Another that misled me was "Subject of an annual festival in the Netherlands. I thought first of Koningsdag, which was just celebrated a few days ago, but that honors the king not the tulp, or TULIP. And speaking of the king, I did not know that the king of flower ..read more