Marshall Walthew

I completely missed the theme and solved faster than usual for a Thursday. I feel a little dirty.

I give this one an A. Just because.

At 12:45 a.m. on Sunday I received the dreaded, but expected, phone call that my 95 year old mother who had been receiving hospice care had passed away. Thankfully, she passed peacefully and with a minimum of suffering at the last. After making some phone calls that I needed to make to take care of arrangements for taking care of her body, and notifying other close family members I tried to get some sleep, but sleep would not come. So I opened the NY T Sunday puzzle and worked it. It was both therapeutic and poignant, as it was my mother who inspired in me my love of words, and,more particularly, my love of crosswords and other word puzzles. From a very early age I can remember the pleasure she took from sitting down on Sundays after church and solving the NYT Sunday puzzle. When I got older, I would sometimes help her with the puzzle, and when I got older still, we sometimes fought over who would have dibs on the first crack at the puzzle. She remained a puzzler right up to the end, although she never graduated to solving on line. So for me, sitting in my darkened bedroom, doing the Sunday puzzle was a comfort beyond words.

This tasty puzzle left me hungry for more. The puzzle highlighted one of my favorite foods — MAPOTOFU. When I was learning how to cook during my college years, it was one of the first things I learned how to cook. After graduating, I was looking for a summer job and walked into a Chinese restaurant here in suburban Ardmore where my fiancée and I had enjoyed several meals and asked for a job. To my surprise, the owners interviewed me. On the strength of my ability to describe how to cook MAPOTOFU (and perhaps also because I agreed to tutor their 8 year old son in English) they offered me a job as the third cook. I spent a great summer learning the restaurant trade and the secrets of Chinese cooking. Fast forward 20 years, and after years of living in Philly I moved back to Ardmore, and went back to eat at the restaurant, where the son was now the head chef, and he and I are friends to this day.

I found this one tougher than the average Tuesday, with lots of specific knowledge clues that were outside my ken. I actually used the theme to open up the pesky NE corner (having no clue about Emily OSMENT). Getting ANGELANGLE gave me enough letters to piece it together. I was struck by the plethora of Qs and Xs.

I found all the medium long entries in this puzzle delightful: HERDINGCATS, FAKEPLANTS, GETSABADRAP, SINKORSWIM and any reference to ANIMALFARM (George Orwell’s farewell to communism) is welcome. I was helped by knowing about SEALS in Scottish lore, which I learned from the folk song The Silkie of Sule Skerry, and which reminded me of the lovely trip to Scotland my wife and stepdaughter took in September, in part to visit my daughter, son-in-law and grandson. My one disagreement with the puzzle is that it doesn’t seem to me that it takes a long time to get OLD. It seems to happen in the blink of an eye.

A very fine puzzle with a good mix of nice clues and fresh entries. It wasn’t overly tough, but I did have to skip around a good bit to get enough crosses going to crack it open. I’m embarrassed to say that I tried gas before FAD.

There was a FUNFILLED puzzle, with lots to like. I, for one, liked the clue for BELLCURVE, and the use of AUTODIDACT, NOCAP. I also liked THECREATIONOFADAM. Though not a religious person I was very moved by the frescoes in the Sistine chapel. Seeing BBKING took me back to when I was 12 or 13. My best friend’s mom worked at the Lawrenceville School, and when BBKING performed a concert there, she insisted on taking us. Neither of us knew much about him, and were, of course, blown away. My somewhat unlikely intro to the blues.The funny thing was that my friend’s mom was a very refined lady whose musical interests lay in the classical sphere. Thinking back, I recall a couple of years earlier, she took us to see A Hard Day’s Night. So her outward appearance concealed hidden depths. Many years later I learned that she had driven an ambulance in France during WWII. She’s still going strong at 101 and still does the NYT crossword in ink every day.

I found this one to be a solid puzzle, with plenty of fresh answers, little glue and few proper names. As a former lawyer (although not a TAXLAWYER), I did bristle a bit at the clue: one skilled at withholding details. Then it dawned on me: withholding as in tax withholding, not as in hiding or refusing to produce. With such well established constructors, I should have known better. Bravo.

Pretty good Wednesday with a well disguised theme. TIL that I didn’t know how to spell LANGUOROUS. I liked the clues for TUTU and COVENS. I just listened to O mio babbino caro earlier today, which is not as serendipitous as it might seem, as it is, to me, the most beautiful song ever written, and I play it often. I find it incomparably serene and soothing. My father was an opera buff and I had a lot of exposure to opera growing up, although I never developed a fondness for it. In my old age I have learned to love many of the great arias. When my father was in the later stages of dementia I would take him from his memory care unit to the local art house theater whenever it would offer a filmed opera performance. He would sit in the darkened theater, transfixed, and pretend to conduct. I do believe those were the happiest moments of his last two years.

Seemed hard, then easy, then I bogged down at ATTACKAD and ANKLETAT. As a former insurance lawyer, I thought minimal coverage provider should be GEICO or AETNA. Nevertheless a good clue for THONG.

A gentle theme and a pleasant puzzle. Perfectly cromulent.

I solved without ever figuring out how the theme worked. I would never have gotten it without reading Wordplay. I’m a word person first and foremost, and while gimmicks like this do add a nice extra dimension to solving, I’m perfectly happy to just get by with word intuition and crosses. That said, I found this one very clever, but way above my pay grade.

This puzzle was a welcome RAY of sunshine, featuring the gentlest of rebuses. I would even go so far as to say it is the perfect puzzle to introduce the uninitiated to the rebus concept. The rebus was easy to spot and repeated itself, so, once gotten, it became even easier to spot the other rebus squares. For myself, I’d prefer a more challenging rebus, but since this is only Wednesday, it’s probably best that the constructor tried to minimize potential blowback. On a more serious note, I’d like to thank again all those who responded to my post on the Tuesday thread with kind thoughts, consoling words, especially those who shared their own stories.

A very fresh Friday with lots of nice long answers that were not PREDICTABLE, like the ending of a rom-com, but which were reasonably easy to get. I liked the little college theme going on in the SE with DEANS, BURSAR, SRS and TENURE. I was helped immensely by knowing TEXASTEA, which I learned AEONS ago when I first heard it the Beverly Hillbillies theme song: “black gold, TEXASTEA”

I don’t know if it was just me, but this puzzle seemed to have ATON of fairly esoteric general knowledge questions. I’m sure there will be quite a few complaints. I actually looked up ELLIE Bamber, the first time I’ve had to resort to Google in quite some time, and after that it did come together. Not my favorite puzzle, although I did learn some things.

NOIFSANDSORBUTS about it, this was a fun Thursday. I could see that the starred clues were missing letters, but it wasn’t until I got the revealer that the light bulb went on and I fully got the trick. A STandOUT puzzle.

Puzzled by the non-quip nature of the theme I had to read Wordplay to learn that there was actually a (very strained) logic to the whole thing. I like a challenging puzzle, but a theme this esoteric that is basically irrelevant to the solve doesn’t move me. I did like the clue for DOGTOY and the mention of Phil OCHS, perhaps the most earnest of the 60’s folk/protest singers, who sadly isn’t marching anymore, having died at the tender age of 36.

I finished this one fairly quickly, although it never felt easy. As an LOTR nerd, I was surprised to be puzzled by ringbearer. I tried Samwise and then Baggins and then Isildur, before letting the crosses lead me to SMÉAGOL. Only at the end did I catch the little joke that the next across clue was “precious person.” For the non-LOTR crowd, SMÉAGOL always referred to the ring as his precioussss. REEFS for school rooms was a nice touch.

I was wandering around the puzzle FRUITLESSLY until I got the revealer. Then the clever themers became clear in a trice. I like it when the revealer unlocks a puzzle like that. Lots of good clues and very little filler. An all around winner. And for me a bonus — my law school alma mater (UPENN) showed up.

What an elegant puzzle. The grid was lovely and daunting, as were the clues. Sesquipedalia for TENDOLLARWORDS has to warm the hearts of word lovers everywhere. I was a bit tired when I started this one and thought I might have to sleep on it when I had very little after the first pass. I did myself no favors by entering OTS at 4D rather than 3D, but then I came up with SHERLOCKHOLMES and his DEERSTALKERCAP and was able to crack the case. A bravura debut puzzle. Just a lovely end to the puzzling week.

This one had its UPs and DOWNs. I thought it was a simple rebus, and entered UP in all the circled squares. I was charmed to find that DOWN worked as well and that the rebuses worked both ways. That was a very neat trick in my book.

A pretty grid, but completely lacking in resistance. Even the long answers were guessable without crosses. Pleasant enough, but disappointing for a Saturday. I’ll check back to see if SHAG and its clue inspire any controversy.

Another in a long line of puzzles in which the theme only became clear to me after solving the themers and the revealer independently of any understanding of what was going on. Turns out to be a a clever trick. There many other names in the puzzle too, and I was pleased to remember MRSLATE thanks to childhood spent watching too much TV. It was fitting that the Grand Ole OPRY made an appearance on the day of Dolly Parton’s passing. She lived a uniquely American life, and reflected many of the qualities that characterize America at its best, talent, ambition, success, kindness, generosity, and joie de vivre. I feel her loss surprisingly keenly for someone I never knew personally.

This puzzle was sneaky good. The themers weren’t obvious (at least not to me) and each one was its own aha moment. My favorite, and the last to fall, was DRAGONSLAYER. I also got a kick out of seeing RAP and EMO stacked atop each other (even though EMO wasn’t being used as a music genre in this case). I had tried EMO as the mix tape genre, so I was amused to see it crop up right below where I had improperly inserted it.

I found this one delightful from start to finish. Despite the many decades of puzzles I’ve worked on I still get flustered when I see a lot of open white space and long answer stacks in the grid, even though experience has taught me that all it takes is enough crosses or good guesses to get one or two of the long entries and then there is enough information to make the puzzle unfold like a rose. Sure enough, I got RETIRETHESIDE and TOENAILSCISSORS and was able to build the puzzle from the bottom up — until I got to the top third that is. Up top, I had screwed myself royally by filling in COFFEECAKES (based on the K from KAEL) for 1A. My ignorance of all things car-related also led to my entering El Dorado, instead of ELCAMINO (Chevy, Cadillac what’s the diff, they both begin with C). Apologies to our resident car buff Grant for this bit of automotive ignorance. Having sorted that out I tried coffee maker before finally stumbling on WAFFLEMAKER and was able to cruise to a reasonable Saturday finish. Favorite entry: GOODSPELLERS I got DAB by recalling old Brylcreem ads, “A little dab’ll do ya.”

Some good clues made this one fun. Low volume [TEASPOON], Game [UNAFRAID], It has a light bulb [DAFFODIL], Peace sign [DONOTDISTURB], Acrobat’s display [PDFFILES]. Those and others made for a breezy themeless.

CAPITAL Tuesday puzzle!

I made my way through this puzzle in a workmanlike way, and expected to finish in an average-ish time, only to be surprised to find I’d been a good bit slower than usual. The clues must have been more thought provoking than they seemed at first. Kudos to Erik Agard for a job well done. I struggled a bit in the middle by trying hash things out instead of HAVETHINGSOUT. I let my six year old grandson, who has been visiting from Scotland, help with the puzzle by supplying the answer WARIO, a no brainer for him as he is obsessed with all things relating to the Mario universe. He was immensely proud of being able to answer an NYT Sunday crossword answer all by himself. I, on the other hand, was proud of myself for finding a way to get him interested in crosswords.

I like puzzles that evoke the simple joy of playing with words, and this one did that. All the themers were fun, but QUASIQUASIMODO, was a true standout.

This was a perfectly fine puzzle, but it offered very little resistance for a Saturday.

How cute to have GOODMORNING on the side with sunrise and NIGHTYNIGHT on the side with sunset. I dutifully filled in IRON, but didn’t see the connection to decrease until after I completed the whole puzzle, which led to a belated chuckle.

I was struggling a bit with this one until I caught on to the stately theme at OZARKS. After that, the patchwork of words that I had accumulated proved sufficient to enable me to fill in the other themed clues and the puzzle fell into place. Other the three letter heavy NE and SW corners I thought this was a good workout. Given recent developments I was amused to see GULFOFMEXICO appear as an answer and deport as a clue. I’m not one to view crossword clues and answers with a political lens, but those two seemed oddly timely.

Usually I expect a rebus to make a puzzle more challenging, but here it quickly became apparent that all the circles contained the sin rebus, and a couple of crosses made it clear that the shaded squares had sin too. With so many free letters, and an obvious revealer, there wasn’t much mystery to the puzzle. Not what I was hoping for.

A very clever puzzle this one. Fun with ROMANNUMERALS and clever wordplay too. VIKINGSHIPS was the last themer I got, and my favorite of the bunch BYGUM.

I had a wry grin on my face when I finished this one.

As is often the case for me, the fact that the key to this one lay primarily in the clues, completely eluded me. I was able to get the themed answers without the slightest clue why they made sense. Fortunately the crosses and a little logic kept the puzzle from being frustrating, and I got a nice, if belated, aha moment thanks to Wordplay. I was helped greatly by the pangolin clue, as my grandson is infatuated with all things pangolin. His favorite t shirt, correctly warns, “may spontaneously talk about pangolins.” I tried reading him Marianne Moore’s poem, The Pangolin, but, unsurprisingly, given that he is four years old, he preferred pangolin videos on You Tube. A couple of dodgy answers (CATDOM and EVILEST) had me wincing a bit - but all’s fair, as long as I can figure it out. And finally, I’m glad to see the puzzle on a first name basis with Ms. Streisand. I’m just glad they didn’t go with Babs.

Well, I had no idea that ELMS were a symbol of wisdom. I just took that one on faith. So much short fill made this one a bit choppy. I mostly just came to wish the merriest of new years to all the wonderful puzzle enthusiasts in this community who daily take my enjoyment of crosswording to a higher level with their wit and wisdom.

I smiled when I figured out the rebus and that the puzzle was a riff on MINESWEEPER. When i was working, MINESWEEPER was on the computer and I played many a game when I had downtime, or when I was on particularly boring conference calls. In this puzzle, spotting the rebus speeded the solve and success was MINEALLMINE. I liked the clue for ABACUS.

I usually listen to music while doing the puzzle at night, and when I saw SPINALTAP in the puzzle I turned my amp up to eleven. I was able to spot the rebus without too much trouble, and even spotted the theme before seeing the revealer (not that common for me). I did get a little twisted in the NW by entering strum for 1D instead of THRUM, but caught my mistake relatively quickly. I mostly just came tonight to say that I hope all my fellow puzzlers had a joyful holiday season and to wish you all the merriest of new years, and that all your puzzles bring a bit of happiness to your days.

I was proceeding briskly until I ground to a screeching halt in the bottom four rows. Spam instead of BILL, tax instead of TAB, fine instead of FAIR, not knowing OLGA Tokarczuk, and a couple of improvidently placed typos took some time to sort out. Also took me longer than it should have to figure out NESTSIN. Learning the term CRASHBLOSSOM alone made this puzzle SOFUN.

Some fun clues in this one, like present day attire for SANTASUIT and they help you get off the lot for AUTOLOANS. It came together pretty quickly for a Friday. I was happy to see Marilyn McCoo get some love in the puzzle. Her smooth as silk vocals with the Fifth Dimension were some of the high points of sixties soul. Yet somehow she never gets mentioned when the great female soul singers get discussed or listed. Maybe that’s because she’s deemed more pop than soul, but it seems like an injustice to me. Her version of One Less Bell To Answer is as soulful as they come.

At first I thought the theme was annoying and esoteric beyond belief. I worked primarily through crosses, and was doing ok until the SE corner. Then the anagrammatic nature of the themed clues became clear, the revealer made sense and my frustration vanished. I stand in awe of the linguistic legerdemain that went into this one. And to top it off, the clue for MADEMAN was top notch. For reasons I won’t get into, I was unable to comment on yesterday’s puzzle, but suffice it to say GUMMO gave me fits.

This was a proper Saturday. It seemed opaque to me for quite some time, but after having the KNOWHOW to figure out the SW corner, it came together steadily and I finished a bit under my usual Saturday time. Getting RETINALSCAN and SPIDEYSENSE were key for me. SAINTED and TIMEMACHINE took me some time to catch up with. I was helped by the Philadelphia clue, USCOINS, especially because the mint here has been in the news recently because they minted the last penny there last week. While it makes economic sense to discontinue production of the penny, as a childhood coin collector and as someone who will still stoop to pick up a penny on the sidewalk, it feels like another piece of the America I grew up with vanishing.

I put myself behind the eight ball on this one by trying marble ryes instead of JEWISHRYES and space ship instead of SPACESHOT and tamer instead of TAMED. After asking (like Marvin GAYE) “What’s going on?”, I sorted it all out with a little thought and some crosses. Of all the great soul singers, Marvin is my favorite, and I mourn all the great music we lost with his untimely death. PBJS, OREOs, JEWISHRYES, MISO, EGGS; that’s two nights in a row with a plethora of edible entries. A nice puzzle that had me at POMPOUSASS.

Fun puzzle with lively clues, lots of fresh and interesting answers, and few three letter answers. I solved it steadily by jumping all around. I liked REFUSENIKS (maybe Bartleby was the first one). I was also happy to see DEIRDRE (of the sorrows), which I remembered because I long ago wrote a paper on the treatment of the DEIRDRE legend in Irish literature. Don’t let anybody tell you that a liberal arts education isn’t worthwhile. But all puzzlers know that.

This puzzle went from the sublime (the Brontës) to the ridiculous (the Kardashians). Cute theme nonetheless. I liked little buggy for ANT. I was happy to see Anthony DOERR in the middle of the puzzle. His novels, All The Light We Cannot See and Cloud Cuckoo Land are delightful reads.

This was really fun, but over too fast. BLOVIATES is one of my favorite words. I was after all once a lawyer. I liked having a clue for lab access point refer to a PETDOOR, while the clue to the answer next to it [Yellowish canines] solved to GOLDTEETH. That’s doggone clever. CULDESAC for [You can’t cut through it] was quite nice too.