Daily review hiatus

Jul 21 2024 - posts

The daily review is going on hiatus.

I'm taking a little break from the daily crossword solve + commentary combo, it's taking a little too much time out of my day that I'd rather reserve for other projects. I'll still be posting crossword-adjacent topics over at my newsletter (like the Adventure Awaits constructor notes), but I won't be writing new reviews anytime soon.

A big thank you to anyone who's been following along so far, it's been a fun experiment!

Trading Halt

Jul 21 2024 - reviews

Oh no dude, it's the revenge of the HUNDOP. Do people actually say this? Please don't tell me people actually say this. This word needs to be eliminated from every constructor's word list, ASAP.

This is not a crossword for mortals. I'm scratching my head trying to figure out what kind of person can solve this thing without hints, is it someone who knows the trivia by heart? Or someone who can improv an 11-spanning wordplay misdirection? Either way, I fit neither of these descriptions.

I spent ten minutes or so futzing around before I gave up and hinted the long acrosses. Even with 6 hints I was getting nowhere. After another 10 minutes of circling the grid I simply gave up and revealed the rest of the squares. Since I effectively DNF'd this grid I don't think it's necessarily fair for me to comment on it, so I'll keep it short.

I'm a little disappointed by "#bada55 or #defec8, e.g." My answer was RGB since each 2-number hex component corresponds to one of red, green, blue, in that order. Once that was revealed to be wrong (TUSHIES at the cross) I slotted HEX. Nope. Instead the answer is the boring HUE. What can you do?

My feeling with this single clue was rather emblematic for the whole grid, hence the DNF.

Hit the Road

Jul 20 2024 - reviews

Sometimes you just have to throw in the towel. I don't think I had an answer for a single piece of trivia in this grid, and while that's normally not a requirement for solving a puzzle, this grid felt particularly nasty without it.

I count this grid as a themeless even though it clearly has a recurring motif. The editor notes MOVEALONG, GETONTHEBUS, WALKAWAY, and LOVETRAIN as "song titles that can be related to travel". Meh? Honestly the fill in this crossword is rough, and I'm not just saying that because I had to use at least 5 hints.

My first mistake was slotting DONTASKME as the "Response when someone should know the answer to their own question". IMO it's just as solid a fit for that clue as YOUTELLME, the actual answer that didn't occur to me until I had hinted 20A and 27A. It doesn't help that the Y and U are only revealed via a Ted Lasso reference and a Greek letter. Look, I understand that I'm missing the boat by not having watched Ted Lasso like every other sport-loving American, but throw me a bone!

After ten minutes of floundering, hinting, and arriving at YOUTELLME I'm finally starting to make progress on the grid. Unfortunately my next mistake was slotting LATETRAIN instead of LOVETRAIN, where the O and V are revealed by an All-American rejects song (which I had as NOTELLING) and some name from a cartoon from the early 2000s. Man, it took me long enough to figure out GETONTHEBUS (by the way, not to be confused with GETINTHEBUS) that at this point I've just given up and am hinting anything with the slightest level of friction.

I don't remember the last time I've been so wholly wrong during a crossword solve but this feels like a special moment.

Up to Their Old Tricks

Jul 19 2024 - reviews

Another day, another themeless. I had a great time with about 90% of this puzzle, with that final 10% leaving me a little frustrated. There's one corner in particular that I think needed an extra edit pass (LAO-SAO, anyone?). I appreciate the longitudinal shape of today's grid, but it does come at the expense of some bad fill.

The more crosswords I solve, the more I appreciate my ability to guess random trivia. For example, take "City where you say 'takk' in thanks". I don't know any Norwegian (though I have been to Norway, so maybe there's a subconscious element here) but seeing that the answer occupies 4 squares, the language "sounds" Scandinavian, and knowing that OSLO is exceedingly common fill, I slotted it straight away. Half of the game of solving harder crosswords is recognizing common words so you're nearly immune to clue variations.

Then again, I floundered on TLC so have I really learned anything? "'Waterfalls' trio" was giving me no hints, so in my desperation I looked at the TL_ and assumed the C. That C proved critical since MEATSAUCE followed, then USUALSUSPECTS, and now we're cooking with gasoline.

I found nearly every corner in this grid to be fairly easy, at least compared to some of the longer acrosses like PHOTOOP and MIDDLEC. One corner in particular absolutely kicked my butt, with the LAO-SAO combo in the middle-right. I started off with HUTS, grew into MIDDLEH (I don't know notes, sounds plausible?), and got stuck on "Squares on diamonds". And boy, it took me a loooong time to finally fill BASES. Maybe part of my problem is that "diamonds" is plural for seemingly no reason. Is it weird that the clue isn't "Squares on a diamond" or is it just me?

Overall the clues in this grid are interesting and unique, even if they don't always agree with my taste. There are a lot of clever misdirects and interesting compositions (e.g. "Occasion for a round of shots?" PHOTOOP) that are super solid.

From the desk of...

Jul 18 2024 - reviews, partner-solve

No theme today, but solid fill and a fun solve. I am immensely proud of some of my plonks today, with AMOEBA, CARETS, and ONSIDE. Something about the cluing jived with me, what can I say.

As far as themelesses go, this is one of the better ones. Maybe I'm biased since I solved this together with my partner and we make the greatest crossword tag-team duo known to humankind. Maybe the fill is simply great. One of these is probably true.

I found that this puzzle split the difference between easily plonkable and entertaining in just the right way. A lot of the gimmes sat on the tip of my tongue for a few seconds before I could jot them down. There's something inherently satisfying about the space created after reading a clue, where mental gears are churning and the debate as to whether you can slot it reaches its peak.

The top half of the grid went down easy, each across plonked without considering its downs. I did mistake CHAD for "British bloke", but it was close enough to the intended answer CHAP that I can't count it as a loss. The bottom half was a bit harder, with some more esoteric trivia like TOOTLE for "Play the flue" which stumped even my flautist partner. We were thinking TOOTED, TOOTS but couldn't find the right extension for the act of TOOTING to finish it out.

I caught on to CLASSACTION surprisingly quickly, slotting it after only the CLA was revealed. EDITORSNOTE took a little longer, where EDITOR was obvious (especially so thanks to the puzzle title) but the back half a little less so. A couple of solid spanners.

Maybe could've done with a few more wordplay clues, but I do love the inclusion of the dad joke "Lawyer's underwear of choice?" as BRIEFS.

So Extra

Jul 17 2024 - reviews

An xtreme xword in the shape of an X. What's not to like?

There's nothing beyond this theme other than the shape of the grid and a number of words containing the letter X. There's almost a second layer, where nearly every X falls on the upper-left to bottom-right diagonal. TXT is the odd one out. The arrangement of the X's feels so deliberate that I actually slotted the entire diagonal with X's in anticipation of the theme, only to later realize that the gaps are intentional (PORIVER, REDO, EMUS, TXT).

I can understand that exclusively fitting X's along the diagonal is tough stuff (hence the not-so-good fill with the current composition) and I wonder if it was the constructor's original plan. I could see the realities of the word list making it nearly impossible, maybe requiring some sacrifices to the grid shape. Either way, I wish the word arrangement was less consistent to avoid suggesting a pattern.

As for the fill, well, it definitely suffered from the theme. PORIVER, EMUS, WACOTEXAS, ALDO? Not exactly my favorite picks, especially so in a 9x9 grid. I really struggled with this puzzle because the fill is borderline arbitrary.

I also didn't particularly jive with the clues. "CTRL + Y on a PC" strikes me as one of the more esoteric keyboard shortcuts. I was almost tempted to slot YANK since that's the equivalent Emacs command, but let's be real, there's zero chance of that happening. TXT likewise tickles my nerd brain, "README file extension, often". The funny thing is I only ever see two types of READMEs, README (no extension) that implies plain text, and README.md that uses Markdown. I can't remember the last time I saw a README.txt.

How about "City and state where the Dr Pepper Museum is located"? Now, this one threw me for a serious loop. I was convinced that "City and state" meant that the answer was both a city and a state, e.g. New York, New York. Not that both the city and state are included in the answer (WACOTEXAS). Oof. But hey, hats off to WACOTEXAS whose apparent greatest identifying feature is a Dr Pepper museum.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Grid

Jul 16 2024 - reviews

Awesome puzzle today, packed full of wordplay.

I cruised the top half of the grid, plonking BRASSTACKS almost immediately. The bottom half was a little more difficult, my first pass came up short with only a few answers. Once I figured out the WIND in WINDENERGY I went down a train of crosses, revealing STRINGBEAN and finishing out the grid.

The theme is OK, though I didn't need it for the solve. Each of BRASSTACKS, WINDENERGY, and STRINGBEAN include a section of an orchestra: BRASS, WIND, and STRING. I appreciate that the letters weren't circled like in yesterday's "Fire Safety"; I wonder how the editors determine whether a categorical theme highlights its categories? Maybe it has something to do with difficulty.

Speaking of difficulty, I rated this one a medium even though my time would normally tag it as easy. My reasoning has to do with the amount of wordplay, and today's puzzle is absolutely packed to the brim. "Got lippy?" (KISSED), "Forward thinker?" (SEER), "High-quality snack?" (EDIBLE), you get the idea. There's also some clever misdirects that aren't marked with a question mark: "Sit in a celler, say" (AGE). This stuff rules.

Before I was chasing the timer for a good score, I used to challenge myself with wordplay clues by trying to solve them with as few crosses as possible. Clearly not the best way to solve a crossword, but it's a fun twist to puzzle out a clue like it's a riddle.

YOUDO strikes close to home because it's exactly the sort of non-question that I ask my partner to the point of aggravation. "Is it?" "Think so?" "Is that right?" I've got a penchant for annoying questions, what can I say. Although, in the case of "Question I might ask in shock after hearing someone say 'I hate Star Wars'" I'd probably lean more towards the "Honestly, that makes total sense." Let's be real, those prequals are rough.

Fire Safety

Jul 15 2024 - reviews

STOP, DROP, and ROLL! Cute. I'm sitting here wondering if the grid is intentionally shaped like a fire flower from Super Mario. That'd be doubly-relevant for the whole fire drill business. On second thought, it might actually look more like a toad with a bow tie.

I plonked 2/3 of the themers: SHORTSTOP and CRUNCHYROLL. MICDROP took me a few more crosses since I was thinking gymnastics for "end of a performance". You know, the whole landing with flared arms thing. What's that called? Either way, the ambiguity was resolved easily enough with the CHUCK and PIC gimmes.

My last corner was the lower-right corner, with NEPAL ("Only country with a non-rectangular flag") and DENY ("Refute") crossing MOPE, FLAN, and ALLY. I feel like it's way tougher than any other location in the grid.

I love the clue "River in the video game 'Hades'" for STYX. If you don't know the game you can infer that the clue is talking about the underworld (AKA Hades). I also wouldn't be surprised if the video game is more well known among the kids of today than actual Greek myth. How many kids have played Hades vs. how many have read Edith Hamilton? I rest my case.

Sleepover Party

Jul 14 2024 - reviews, partner-solve

I want it on the record that while I do indeed WFH I have never worked in pajama pants. It helps that I don't own a pair of pajamas.

Today's grid is a rather difficult themeless. At least, I think it's a themeless. PAJAMAPANTS, POLLYPOCKET, and BOXBRAIDS all share some alliterative patterns and the first two have a potential pairing with PANTS/POCKET. Maybe POLLYPOCKET is the kind of thing you'd bring to a sleepover, PAJAMAPANTS the kind of thing you'd wear to a sleepover, and styling BOXBRAIDS the kind of activity you'd participate in at a sleepover? I don't know, I'm just spitballing here.

I dig the wordplay in this puzzle. I felt mighty clever figuring out SCARAB from "Bug in some old code?", where "code" refers to hieroglyphs. Meanwhile "Engage in some next-gen development?", MATE, had me locked in a multi-stage eye roll. The only wordplay clue I'm not a big fan of is "Up to something?" as ABLE. I'm still scratching my head trying to put it together, perhaps the intended misdirect is to think "scheming"? The actual definition feels like it should be "Up for something" instead, the "to" feels errant. Maybe I'm just being pedantic.

I'm fortunate to have solved this crossword with my partner because she plonked POLLYPOCKET from the get-go. In fact, I was in such disbelief that I actually made her erase it so that we could verify a few of the crosses beforehand. I mean, WTF is a POLLYPOCKET? Crosswords with brand recognition always tread a thin line, like yesterday's ABOUTBRUNO that references one of the characters in Disney's Encanto. You either know it or you don't, and if you don't you better hope the constructor dangles some hints. In a themeless I think it's a little less acceptable.

Sidenote, I tried SPAM musubi for the first time two days ago after it was hyped up to the high heavens by my friends. I don't get it. It's a slab of SPAM on top of rice wrapped in seaweed, is this some kind of high culinary achievement? It's not bad but it's not great. It's kind of like an inferior onigiri.

Back to the grid, BONN clued as "Beethoven House home" is weirdly hilarious to me. It's not "Beethoven's home", but his house's home, as if the home of the home requires an extra level of attribution. For those uneducated like myself, the distinction seems legitimate: Beethoven House being a memorial site/museum that also happens to have been where Beethoven was born. I feel like I'm going in circles here.

Speaking of music, I guess the clue "Feldt's collaborator on 'Follow Me'" is supposed to be recognizable. I originally went for the cheeky OMW, since you know, the answer to "come with me" being "on my way". Even though I was way off I prefer my answer. Puzzmo needs some better music taste, for real.

Te Encanto

Jul 13 2024 - reviews

Well, that was certainly a puzzle. Holy moly I don't even know where to begin. I'm about 25/75 towards liking/hating this puzzle. Let's start with what I liked.

Plonking TEETERTOTTER was the highlight of my day. After flowing through the grid two times over and only catching a couple words, TEETERTOTTER comes streaming in and fills up the entire 12-length column. A triumph!

My enjoyment peaked with the upper-right corner. There's a good blend of tough clues and esoteric trivia, but it feels achievable. Nothing is too far out there. I was floored that my guess EUCHRE was correct, and eventually stumbled into TRUCES/ENLIST after thinking about the clues long enough. I filled SET, even if my interpretation of the wordplay was totally off. I was thinking "Collection of games?" was a reference to the card game/NYT puzzle, but turns out it's actually a tennis thing. Eh, close enough.

As for the rest of the grid, we've got our obligatory Beyoncé reference and a theme built on a song for a Disney movie I've never seen. Oh boy. Honestly, I think the song choice here is bad. It strikes me as impossible to guess without context of the movie: WEDONTTALK and ABOUTBRUNO. How was I supposed to know BRUNO was a character in the movie? I used hints on both of the themers and even then I was just stumbling around with letters, trying random combinations. "Is ABOUTBRUNO right? Iunno, let's just ship it and see what happens".

Some of the other fill in this grid is borderline offensive. "Peeled grapes" for EYES? Say what? How about "Another name for an ascot" as CRAVAT? Considering "Some Circuit City (RIP) purchases" as TVS I'm thinking we've got a grid filled with Boomer references.

As for "When many start receiving Slack notifications" as ATNINE, I'm guessing the constructor was going for a 9-5 work week thing here. But let me tell you, as someone who has used slack for the last 6 years the real answer to this clue is Friday at 4:50 PM. "Hey, just wanted to quickly check in before next week that everything's going as planned with project X?" Way to ruin an evening, PM.