Joey

I was thrown off by 1A’s clue being one word. Yes, I know that the meaning of “female friend” is both a socially and dictionary sanctioned one for “girlfriend.” But I’m an old fogey who’s used to “girl friend” (two words) meaning “female friend” and “girlfriend” (one word) having a romantic meaning. Hence, my initial entry of “novia” here. But it’s only Tuesday, so this was very quickly sorted out by an intersecting clue or two 🙂

I came here to look for “alop” in the “Tricky Clues” section, and was surprised that it wasn’t included. Aside from the usual name/title/quotation stuff, it’s the only answer that I wasn’t familiar with and had to get entirely from crossing entries. An online search shows that it’s an obscure, rarely used word that’s derived from “lopsided”.

I picked up the theme quickly enough (after all, it’s a Monday puzzle), but I didn’t notice the size progression until I read this article. The only new entry for me was the “ship” one. I don’t know if it’s because I’m an old geezer (turned 61 just today) or if it’s just because I’m not into fandom activities, but for me it was definitely a Saturday clue hiding in a Monday puzzle :)

A delightful puzzle! 😲😊 And I learned a new word — “sigil”. I’ve never seen it before, and not just in the context of crossword puzzles. Thankfully, as an amateur musician, I know my prog rock, so i didn’t have to cycle through the letters of the alphabet on the NYT app to get the letter “g” 🙂 The phrase “clout chasing” is also new to me, although since it’s described as “modern lingo”, I wasn’t surprised. As a member of Generation X, I hope that I’ll be exonerated for that 😉

I loved this puzzle. I was as delighted as Deb was with that middle stack ♥️ It did have a Natick for me though, the intersection of 56 across and 53 down. I realize that, in this puzzle’s New York domain, Jewish terms may be common enough that intersecting one with a largely archaic French card game might not be considered a Natick. But here in Southeast Asia, it’s definitely one. But it was clear enough that the square required a vowel, so it only took me two tries to nail it (obviously, I use the app). Having said that, I was stunned to learn that the constructor was also from Southeast Asia, and was just a kid a quarter my age! 😀

As a Shohei Ohtani fan, I’m pleased to see him in an entry here (I have no access to XWord Info so I can’t confirm, but I suspect it’s a debut). Needless to say, I got it immediately, but I realize that it might be extreme trivia for those who aren’t baseball fans. I also realize that there would probably be many Yankees fans among the readers of a New York publication, and it might have triggered some traumatic memories.

The first thing I look for in a puzzle is if there’s a clue that helps with a theme. I do this even with puzzles that don’t mention a theme in the Info window, because not all themed puzzles have an Info window entry (I use the iPad app). I even check the Info window and the clues for a theme even on Saturdays, which are never themed, because, who knows, there might eventually be a historical break with tradition 🙂 Once I got the aforementioned clue at 113 across, it was pretty straightforward for me (though no less delightful) I’m slightly colorblind so I had a bit of trouble with Indigo and Violet, but since they have no position at all with a common letter, solving even just one crossing answer sorts that out pretty quickly. Some others mention that the colors being in classic ROYGBIV order would help with colorblindness, but I didn’t notice that before I finished the puzzle and read this article.

Pronunciation can sometimes be so critical. 49 across is the one that got me. Even long after I had solved the entire puzzle, I was Googling whether “creased” was some sort of slang for tired or frazzled, and thus in need of an evening out (the main things I found involved someone making you laugh). I had no idea until I read this article that it was “evening” prounounced ee-ve-ning (as in the gerund form of “to even”) rather than eev-ning 🤦🏻‍♂️

I actually solved this faster than my usual Thursday puzzle, probably due to my being a basketball fan and occasional recreational player. I just have one nitpick to add: the clue for 51 down should have been “Leg : tibia :: arm : _____”. The tibia and ulna are counterparts in the leg and arm in terms of position. It’s the radius that would be the arm counterpart of the fibula.