New York Times – 20:06
Wall Street Journal – 22:41

New York Times
constructed by Barry C. Silk; edited by Will Shortz

The lower left filled very quickly for me. 47A. Famous finger-pointer’s declaration screamed I WANT YOU, and after that. 33D. Paper parts was SECTIONS, 28D. Kraft brand is CHEEZ WHIZ and 29D. Great Seal image is a BALD EAGLE went in smoothly. I had a bunch of names I didn’t know down here, but crossings were enough to convince me that 40A. TZE and 55A. SZELL were correct. I was on the wrong track with 33A. Couple seen in a restaurant, as I went with SHARERS (my wife and I often order two appetizers and one meal for our split dinner), when the answer they wanted was the salt and pepper SHAKERS. This errant K was the last square I had to correct.

I moved there to the lower right, and got the three long answers here rather quickly as well:

• 51A. Declare “I will go no further than this.” : DRAW A LINE
• 54A. Became a participant : ENTERED IN
• 56A. Unrevivable : STONE DEAD — I don’t know this term. I know “stone cold,” which I tried at first. Apparently, I don’t work enough hours at the morgue anymore.

I was reluctant to enter ERODES in for 39D. Undermines because I already thought I had EROSE at 22A. Jagged. Without doing research on it, my brain decided that these two words were awfully similar, and shouldn’t appear in the same puzzle. Brains, smarter, now, you know the drill.

I hit some rough territory in the upper right, as I tried QUERYIST for 14D. “What’s my line?” participant. Rather that point out its own error, it instead led me to doubt my correct efforts at 12D. “Sheesh!,” south of the border (AY, CARAMBA!) and 13D. One whose efforts may be catchy (SLOGANEER), and thus a lot of making up random 5-letter across options, none of which made any sense. In lieu of Googling, I checked an internet source for a solved puzzle grid to confirm my thoughts on 24A. 1960s Elvis-style singer ___ Donner (RAL – I wrongly thought it was RAY), and my eye inadvertently spied a P in the top left corner. This set me straight, replacing QUERYIST with PANELIST, and suddenly the corder made sense.

Finally, the top left came together, although I couldn’t find SPACE RACE (1A. Contest with many missions) for an eternity. A contest? Weird. My confusion also was due in part to 2D. One of a lot of workers?, which is apparently PAVER. I tried HIVER, thinking it was worker bees perhaps. Referring to NASA’s work as a “contest” doesn’t earn a question mark, but someone who does road construction is somehow a punny answer? I’m not clear on how 2-Down merits a question mark, but neither 1-Across nor 33-Across do.

I completed the grid with minimal outside help in just over twenty minutes, a major improvement over most of my Friday efforts. I will likely be ignoring the Saturday puzzle once again, as it only makes me feel like I’m just about the dumbest person ever to pick up a pencil.

See you Sunday!

Also, I’m trying to use different colors for clue answers… Brown yesterday, purple today. We’ll see what I eventually like.

Scores
New York Times 18:55
Los Angeles Times 9:30
CrosSynergy 8:09
New York Sun 21:56 (with one gimme)
Wall Street Journal 29:52

New York Times
by David J. Kahn; edited by Will Shortz

Loved this. Absolutely loved this. The only bad part is that I took too much time looking for the gimmicks, I think it added minutes to my (already pathetic) time:

• 64A. What you can find in the grid after completing this puzzle, looking up, down, left, right and diagonally, word search-style : A DOZEN ROSES

And lo and behold, there are a dozen “ROSE” sequences hidden throughout the grid. Oh, such joy. The long center answer at 38A. Classic 1911 children’s novel… with a hint to this puzzle’s theme was THE SECRET GARDEN, which sadly I learned as a musical before I learned it as a book.

I had some trouble with a handful of things in the left area… 38D. One way to get to the top is always always something clever, and never something logical. I have probably missed cutesy clues for T-BAR on more occasions than I can count. A life in Maine apparently did not provide me with enough skiing jargon. And I went with the opposite guess on 39D. “Too great a burden to bear”: Martin Luther King, Jr. by trying to make HOPE work when he was talking about HATE. Up in the top right, my errant choices of ANOL, HARDWOOD and INK for 10D, 11D and 12D led me into all kinds of trouble. If only I knew that ALEPPO was a city in Syria, I might have avoided what felt like hours of cluelessness. (Can one suffer from cluelessness in a crossword puzzle, where one is inundated with clues?)

My Excel spreadsheet is getting out of hand. I’ve included a screen shot here. I think you can right-click and View image… to see it at it’s full resolution.

Los Angeles Times
by Gary Steinmehl; edited by Rich Norris

Did it in half the time as the New York puzzle, but had about half the fun. It got off to a great start as the 1D. Sound of sawing wood was ZZZ. Initially, I hoped that triple letters or grouped consonants or something would be the trick. Alas, no. Instead, the trick was saved for the last of the down clues, 67D. Word that can precede the first word in the answers to starred clues (SKY). A little boring, and with it as the only throughline for the puzzle, left me wanting more. Maybe this was because of the absolute utter joy I had with the New York Times puzzle. I mean — a dozen roses! So cool!Because I’m more interested in the New York Times than the L.A. puzzle, I’ll just list the long answers here and be done with it:

• 18A. Doing the macarena, e.g. : LINE DANCING
• 23A. Stationery : WRITING PAPER
• 53A. Carefree : LIGHT HEARTED
• 61A. Cannonball origination spot : DIVING BOARD

There you have it.

CrosSynergy: “Ster-linguistics”
by Randolph Ross

Cute puzzle, if a little generic. The title was the most confusing part to me. Is the title a play on some long word I don’t know? Or a phrase I don’t know? Or is it just a random made up hyphenated word to explain that the long answers within the grid will get STER added to them somewhere?

• 17A. Physicians who treat unmarried women? : SPIN[STER] DOCTORS
• 25A. Dictionary reader, at times? : WEB[STER] BROWSER — I think this would have been better clued as “Online dictionary reader” or “Electronic dictionary reader.” The “at times” thing is a clue trick I really don’t care for that much.
• 42A. Those with affection for cool cats? : HIP[STER] HUGGERS
• 55A. Rodent in the rye? : HAM[STER] SANDWICH

Otherwise, there was one little gem within the grid: 36D. Pupil in the 70s? (C STUDENT)… Other than that, fairly straightforward. I was distracted in the middle (and paused the clock) while my wife killed a bumblebee in our foyer. I am deathly afraid of flying insects, and this guy was huge. I am still having a mild coronary, and it’s been twenty minutes.

New York Sun: Themeless Thursday
by Doug Peterson; edited by Peter Gordon

I tried. I let Across Lite show me a few mistakes (not answers, just where squares were wrong), and then I asked for one free answer at 8D. Rose’s home (PBS), which I still don’t understand. I assume there’s someone named Rose who has a show on PBS. Or lives at the station. I don’t know.

I think the Sun puzzles are like an insider game… You have to be brilliant to do them, to enjoy them. It’s like a secret society. If you have fun doing the Sun puzzles, you are part of the Crossword Society of the World. I am not a worthy pledge to such an organization. I need to be more smarter. Maybe next year…

New York Times
by Peter A. Collins, edited by Will Shortz

I had to look up a couple things, but for the most part, I was able to work this one out. The grid, full of twelve 10-letter answers, looked very scary as I first loaded it up. And when I went through the clues the first time, I saw very little I could actually write in. I was about to just abandon ship, and post something to this blog with the tag “Brian continues to eat moron pills on Fridayze,” when I clicked onto a long answer I actually thought I knew.

• 59A. Doll that was once a going thing (BETSY WETSY)

Why did I know this? Maybe because I was traumatized as a child during my father’s attempts to toilet train me. Maybe because I have always thought it was a funny thing, a funny name. Maybe because — well, who cares? I knew BETSY WETSY, and suddenly the bottom row of the grid had something in it!

And then suddenly:

• 54A. Choice for intercontinental travel (OCEAN LINER)
• 57A. Student activity (TEST TAKING)

And into the southwest and up the left edge:

• 24D. Opening pair? (ADAM AND EVE)
• 25D. Tidy up the lawn, in a way (RAKE LEAVES)
• 26D. Marmalade ingredient (ORANGE ZEST)

Within a few minutes, I had two huge chunks of the grid filled. Maybe there was a chance here… Quickly! To the other 10-letters! I’m on a roll!

And… CUT. Nothing. Ran out of film. Camera died. Light is gone. I got a few scattered answers:

• 4D. Tikkanen of hockey (ESA) — I had ELA in here for a while, even though I saw this clue last week.
• 5D. It’s no longer divided (BERLIN)
• 7D. “___ Lady” (1971 hit song) (SHE’S A)
• 8D. Meet preliminaries (HEATS)

But through the middle and the whole northeast, very little else:

• 23A. Hit the big time (MADE IT)
• 35D. “Stand and Deliver” Oscar nominee, 1988 (OLMOS) — One of my favorite films. And between this and “Blade Runner,” did James Edward Olmos have the coolest resume?

I have a bunch of guesses for other clues, but they’re giving me word partials of EEEU and NNNTY and things that just aren’t going to be right. So I decide to give myself a big present. Since I’ve never heard of San Quentin prison, I will just find out where it is, and that will kickstart the middle for me. Thank you Wikipedia, and we learn that 23D. Home to San Quentin State Prison is MARIN COUNTY (clearly not ending in -NNNTY). From this, I now find:

• 30A. Pessimist in a Disney cartoon (EEYORE)
• 35A. Uses as a bed (LIES ON)

…which gives me the downs (and solves 35A. One way to get through a wall [OSMOSIS]), and now I’ve filled the middle. Suddenly, the northwest starts making sense. 1A. They have many sticking points is ROSE BUSHES, and 15A. 1978 cult film with a mutant child is, of course, ERASERHEAD. I’m confused with 17A. Sealing fans?, but it sure looks like POLAR BEARS fits. We’ll try it for now. All the downs make sense… POLAR BEARS? Okay…

Now I’m still stuck in the northeast. I decide that I ought to know 18A. Oscar-nominated “My Man Godfrey” actor, 1936, since at one point, I was going to adapt that film into a musical. But I don’t know. Gregory Peck? No. Cary Grant? No. I have no idea. Betsy Ross? Of course not. She only made snuff films. I go to the trusty internet, and discover a typical vowel-eating answer in Mischa AUER.

Well, that’s all I needed to find 12D. Zydeco instrument (SQUEEZE BOX) and 14D. Simplest, in math and logic (FIRST ORDER). The across clues fall into place, and before I know it, everything is full.

I’m sure I have mistakes, though… I can’t fill out a Friday in a half hour even with help and not have mistakes. I click the “Done!” button, expecting to have to proofread everything and find my three errant squares, when… “Thank you for playing!” and I’m actually finished.

I’m going with no pictures for today. I’m just too tired to look them up. Let Ryan find the pictures.

Wall Street Journal: Box Sets
by Randolph Ross, edited by Mike Shenk

I should have my puzzler’s license revoked.

I didn’t see the gimmick in the puzzle until way way way late in the game. I had all these answers with a missing T. At least, that’s what I thought the trick was. I thought I was dropping the T from various answers for some reason. 4D, 14D, 48D, 85D, 31A, 72A, 106A, 109A — all of these clues had, as I saw it, a T for their fifth letter — and the T was what I had to drop.

Ask me if I ever saw that every single one of them also had a V for their sixth letter? Go on, ask me

NO!

I spent my brain power trying to figure out a pattern amongst the missing Ts in, and got so confused when I got 34A and 70D, neither of which have a T for their fifth letter… How can I fit “Absolut Vodka” in there when the fifth letter is an L?

…sigh.

Well, if you’re here and trying to learn what the damn gimmick actually was, it came from the title (which I didn’t notice either — HELLO, BRIAN! WAKE UP!), “Box Sets.” It’s not that we drop the T, it’s that each of the answers contains the consecutive letters TV, and those letters share a square. As a result:

• 4D. Weight of a test question (POIN[T V]ALUE)
• 8D. Brief spot ([TV] AD) — This would have given away the whole trick for me, if I had ever gotten it right. Even after completing the grid, I had no idea. I was looking for places a brief could be, e.g. on a lawyers desk, in a man’s pants, etc. Didn’t think of brief as an adjective. Again, my license. Revoke it.
• 14D. Win worth celebrating (SWEE[T V]ICTORY) — This was the first of the gimmick answers I filled in, and what started my theory of the disappearing T.
• 48D. Opera star’s asset (GREA[T V]OICE)
• 70D. Grey Goose competitor (ABSOLU[T V]ODKA)
• 85D. Blood flow regulator (HEAR[T V]ALVE)
• 121D. When Hamlet dies (AC[T V])
• 6A. European Union member since 2004 (LA[TV]IA)
• 31A. Jazz sound? (SHOR[T V]OWEL) — I’m not sure if this relates to the art of scatting in jazz, or the vocal stylings of Bobby Short (or someone else named Short?)…
• 34A. Write-in candidates may receive them (PROTES[T V]OTES)
• 72A. Emigration document (EXI[T V]ISA)
• 106A. Business partnership (JOIN[T V]ENTURE)
• 109A. Edward Lear specialty (LIGH[T V]ERSE)
• 129A. NHL Hall of Famer Denis (PO[TV]IN)

A very clever trick full of enjoyable clues. Oh, and how did I eventually discover the trick? When I asked Across Lite for help on my three empty squares in 69A. Jibs on racing yachts (GENOAS) and 128A. Seaweed-filled sea (SARGASSO) — and it marked all those V squares as wrong. (In Across Lite, had I eliminated all the Vs instead of the Ts, it would have marked them correct. When a square requires multiple letters, you can either put the first of several letters or all the letters, and the software will mark it correct.) If I had assumed the trick was dropping a 6th-place V, I’d have possibly never understood my folly.

Fine. No one understands my folly. Ever.