"Mixed Results," 3/26/17

My sister- and mother-in-law are here! I won't have time to write a full post today since we are busy hanging out with the baby. But I did do the puzzle while they were at the grocery store buying food for our poor empty fridge, so here are the results:

Time I finished: 46:33

It took me FOR.EVER. to figure out the theme of this puzzle. The themers were almost the last part I finished. Finally broke it open with the blue+red=purple one (blue hearts, red people eater) when we had _LU_HEARTS. I thought this was a clever puzzle and the fill was fun for once. Rex disagrees with me, but there's no pleasing him.

What did you think, loyal readers? What were you too old or too young for? What made you say "really?" Did you use your college major this week?

What did you learn? I learned that ERSE is a European language (apparently it's Irish/Gaelic). Given that I work at a language services company and know the names of probably at least 300 languages, I was pretty concerned that I couldn't fill this in early on, but I feel a little better now that I know it's an alternative and/or old-fashioned name.

"111-Across!" 3/19/17

It's a joyous weekend for my family; my dad was inaugurated as the 31st president of Centenary College on Friday. Congrats, Dad! We have all converged on Shreveport, Louisiana and have had a ball. Including the very best of activities...family crossword. We had 4 deft solvers on this one, leading to a nice time of...

Time to finish/time I gave up: 39:33. Not too shabby, especially considering that includes the time it takes to read the clues out loud.

Commentary:
Hey all! Guest poster Fran here. It's always great to get a chance to puzzle with the family when we're together. It's also not always so great because it reminds me how much less crystallized intelligence I have than most other members of my family (but I do know what crystallized intelligence is, so school psychology for the win). I don't know what Allie is going to say about today's puzzle yet but I enjoyed the theme, especially the Harry Potter theme clue. 10 points to Hufflepuff for any puzzle with HP references. That said, 10 points from Slytherin for Snape killing Dumbledore (spoiler alert). Frannie out.

Allie in (?). I, too, thought that the theme was fun, and was glad that there were no spoilers that I didn't already know. I don't know what crystallized intelligence is, and Frannie is very smart, even though she's a Hufflepuff.

As I am writing this post and my list of complaints grows longer and longer, I realize that I quite liked this puzzle but maybe only because it's easy when 4 people are thinking about it at once. Some of this might well have frustrated me if I had been on my own.

Clues I especially liked! Yay!

• 35A Product of Boston or Chicago SONG. Cute. We spent a lot of time trying to make this Sox-related. (SOCK? SOKS? SOXS?)
• 44A "Phooey!" DANG. As we all know, I normally dislike these clues, but my lovely sister (see above) says "dang" so it gets a pass.
• "A day without a friend is like a pot without a single drop of honey left inside" Small tear.

I'm too young for this $h*t

• I'll just leave this here:
  

Really?

• 7A Pale-faced ASHY. "Ashen" would be fine. "Ashy," when applied to skin tone, means (at least in modern parlance) white coloring on dark skin. Just Google it if you don't believe me. Therefore, I don't think this clue means what Thackray and Shortz think it means. Watch your privilege, NYT.
• I don't usually know the geography clues, which is often my own failing, but I do think it's a stretch to have Indonesian islands featured twice in the same puzzle. (BALI and ARU)
• 53A Bad luck, old-style UNHAP. What? Pretty sure this is like, medieval old-style, not weird 50's slang, saving it from the previous category. Urban Dictionary points out that "unhaps" is currently used as an abbrev for "unhappy," as in, "this clue makes me unhaps."
• 61A Peeping aid SPYHOLE. Gross.
• 90A Relating to the sun HELIACAL. The root helio is fair game, but this word was not familiar to our solver group, which would also be acceptable except that it crossed with 84D Interest for a limnologist, which turns out to be LAKES. It's a good thing that LOKES is not a word, or we would have been out of luck. Tough cross.
• 2D Tomboy HOYDEN. It's unhap that this word is no longer in use at all. When the dictionary lists it as "dated," maybe don't put it in your crossword.
• 12D Muddles MARESNESTS. I guess this means "muddle" as a noun, which I already dislike, but no one in my family knows this phrase, which means it doesn't exist. Also, "mare's nest crossword" is one of the Google auto-fill suggestions, so that's strike 3 for this one.

Things I learned today:

• Sir Basil Urwin Spence, OM, OBE, RA was a Scottish architect, most notably associated with Coventry Cathedral in England and the Beehive in New Zealand, but also responsible for numerous other buildings in the Modernist/Brutalist style.
• I also did not know there is a Brutalist style. I gotta say, I don't love it. The name isn't doing it any favors.
• Marshal Lon Nol was a Cambodian politician and general who served as Prime Minister of Cambodia twice, as well as serving repeatedly as Defense Minister.
• My dad knew this one (of course). From my end, all I know is that his name is a palindrome.
• A ferrule is a ring or cap, typically a metal one, that strengthens the end of a handle, stick, or tube and prevents it from splitting or wearing.
• File this in the crossword section of the brain next to aiglet. 
• Sometimes Shiva is spelled Siva.
• John Andre was a British Army officer hanged as a spy by the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War for assisting Benedict Arnold's attempted surrender of the fort at West Point, New York to the British.
• Again, good thing my dad was here for this one.

Times I got to use my French major this week 

• Eau flows in a riviere. (Sorry for the lack of accents, Blogger is pretty terrible.)
• La fin. How appropriate.

Fritz out!

"Taking the Fifth," 3/12/17

This puzzle was terrible! I felt very vindicated to see that Rex also thought it was bad, and then also a little ashamed because he said it was easy but we couldn't finish it. :(

Time to finish/time I gave up: 55:11. I really gave up on one letter and guessed on a few more. It was a sorry state of affairs.
When I checked puzzle there were...I want to say four wrong letters? I don't even remember, it was so unfortunate.

Commentary:
I ended up just throwing in the towel on the LEU (Romanian currency)/AUTORACE (500, e.g.) cross. I should have just stuck it out and tried every letter, but I was so exhausted from ODER (Baltic Sea feeder)/POTHERS (Commotions) that I just gave up instead. Are you kidding me with POTHERS??? Also, the reason I have heard of the word HEGIRA is Joni Mitchell's album, which she spells Hejira. So I was already annoyed with that whole box and ready to be done with this stinker.

The theme was a mixed bag for me. I enjoyed HOTCROSSBUNNY (Sweaty, irritable rabbit?) but really, really hated IRRESISTIBLEUIE (Turnaround too tempting to pass up?) Definitely not good enough to make up for the disaster that was the rest of the puzzle.

Clues I especially liked! Yay!

• I don't think there was any clue in this puzzle that I liked because of the cluing. Here are some things that were in this puzzle that I like as things:
• Roo, from Winnie the Pooh
• Jai alai (because it reminds me of the exchange from Archer where the guy says he's going to hunt "the most dangerous game," and Archer responds, "Jai alai?")
• Waldo
• Chicken wings
• Geese
• Just kidding, I hate geese. They're loud and messy.
• Sydney Poitier

I'm too young for this $h*t

• Nothing specifically here. Let's just move on to all the other terribleness.

Really?

Here are all the things that were at least questionable if not downright terrible, in addition to the stuff that I listed in the first section,

• STERNA (Chest protectors)
• NAUGHTS (The 2000s, with "the")
• YAW (Go off course)
• ISTH (Panama, e.g.: Abbr.)
• TOLDTO (Shared with, as a story)
• ADEE (Ending with chick)
• INOT (Playing a fifth NFL period, say)
• ULE (Suffix with nod-)
• ITER (Road to the forum, e.g.)
• RELO (Move, informally)--I've complained about this one before and I still don't like it.
• NINON (Curtain fabric)
• Exercitation (EFFORT)--in this case it's the clue word to which I object
• SAWII (2005 horror sequel)
• ABATER (Lessener)
• UTERI (Centers of early development)--see also sterna

Things I learned today:

• I learned this a few months ago--Fisher of fashion has reappeared, and her name is still Eileen. Every week I write down things I've "learned," but I wonder if I will really retain them. Here's one I stored away for good! Probably the least useful.
• Teena Marie also making a reappearance. That's two!
• Tampa is nicknamed "The Big Guava." A cursory read of the Wikipedia article on the subject tells me that there aren't actually guavas in Tampa at all. This is not helping Tampa's image in my mind.
• Sanaa is the capital of Yemen. How has this not come up before?
• "Alo" is a greeting in an unidentified South American language. I'm not sure this counts as learning something.
• Erno is Mr. Rubik's first name. "Erno's cube" didn't take off in marketing I guess.

Times I got to use my French major this week 

• Menthe. It's something that there is a creme of.
• Affaire is the French spelling of the English word affair. Which I think could just as easily have been the answer to Romantic liaison. Even the French part of this puzzle was no fun.

Fritz out!

"It's Elementary," 3/5/17

Happy first Sunday in March, loyal readers! Spring is in the air (sometimes) and the crosswords are fine.

Like, fine, but not great, as far as this week's puzzle.

Time to finish/time I gave up: 1:02:01

Commentary:
Another slow solve for us this week as we split puzzling and baby watching. I also thought this puzzle was pretty hard for two reasons:
1. The theme--which I enjoyed because I am always proud of myself when I remember things from high school chemistry like element symbols--was such that you couldn't really guess the answer until you had a decent number of letters filled in already.
2. A lot of the fill was hard for me...or, as Rex puts, it "dated/stuffy." That section on being too young is going to be a long one this week.

We got particularly stuck in the mid-SW corner around SCION, ILDUCE, LUCKYDOGS, GINSU, ECOLI [this one was troublesome because we had EBOLA for a while] and also in the NE at BABOON, BLOAT [we had BLOOM], BETHEL, ZORRO, ENCORE, etc. Complaints about some of these forthcoming.

Clues I especially liked! Yay!

• 65A Existentialist Kirkegaard SOREN As a philosophy wife I am always proud when I know the answer to phil-related questions.
• 75D Modern acronym for "Seize the day!" YOLO!!!! Mostly I like this because it broke open DAGUERREOTYPE for us, but also it made me laugh to yell out yolo.
• 101D Ballet school supporter BARRE. I kept trying to make, like, Ailey...or Medici...or something fit in here so the pun (if we can call it that) amused me once Jamie got it.
• 117D Image on a Wisconsin state quarter COW. Is this a shot from the author about how lame it is to put a cow on your quarter? Or just a statement of fact that I have shaded with my urban elitism?

I'm too young for this $h*t
This week, let me just prepare a list without a bunch of comments so as to keep this a readable length.

• CECIL the sea serpent of old cartoons
• EDSEL the bomb (I take it this means "bomb" for sales) developed in the 1950's
• ENL is presumably short for "enlargement," like an 8 by 10 photo. Haha photo labs, so retro.
• ZORRO rides a horse named Tornado (which I have learned from Wikipedia is usually pronounced "tor-NAH-do," i.e. in Spanish.)
• LILABNER married Daisy Mae in 1952
• The phrase SONNYBOY
• The phrase GALPAL
• GINSU infomercials
• Side note: I am exactly the right age for the Olsen twins. Fun fact: they are 3 days older than I am. And almost as successful.

Really?

• CAPRI is a chocolate-banana cocktail. I'm not much of a liqueur drinker to start with, but this sounds vile. (The "really?" in this case pertains to the existence of the drink, not the cluing per se.)
• Now hear this! SOUND. Like...a sound is something you could now hear? Or "Sound!" like an interjection that means "now hear this"? (Sound! We will be having Kraft macaroni and cheese for dinner!) I am missing the boat on this one.
• "That's great!" GOODY. I think the last person that said "goody" was Shirley Temple.
• Seaman's chapel BETHEL. This definition is not on the first page of Google results, therefore it's not real.
• Think piece? IDEA. This is lame and doesn't merit a ? clue as if it were cute.
• It's time to retire the word "muff" from non-slang usage. Too awkward. [If you, dear reader, are too old for this reference, just trust me.]

Things I learned today:

• TNOTE is...something about finance...yawn.
• NUN is a letter on a dreidel. I need to learn my Hebrew alphabet better if I'm ever going to be a true crossword expert.
• A PEWEE is a bird. Also, flycatchers are a type of bird. I learned both of these things at once. (My theory prior to googling was that this was "pee-wee" baseball and the kids were fly (ball) catchers. Cute, right? No? Allie, you're ridiculous? Ok.)
• The capital of Togo is LOME.
• KPMG hires CPAs, so I guess this is also something about finance. Zzzzzz.

Times I got to use my French major this week 

• DAGUERREOTYPE is French in origin, je crois.
• SARTRE wrote "I exist, that is all, and I find it nauseating." That guy was always a barrel of laughs.
• Quatre halved is DEUX.

Fritz out!