Thursday, July 31 – 32:11

Sorry for the delay, this was a hard one and I didn’t finish last night.  I got the center theme answer first – 34A, Band with the 1970 hit “Get Ready” – RAREEARTH.  I didn’t know the song, but the crossings let me  guess the band name.  After that the bottom fell easily, including the lower theme answer, 50A, 1979 AC/DC seven-time platinum album – HIGHWAYTOHELL.  But then at the top I was stymied.  But I was sure that the third theme, 19A, 1979 Bee Gees chart topper, ended in HEAVEN, and that was enough to give me an entre.  With a lot of false starts I was able to piece out the top finally (TOOMUCHHEAVEN, btw, not TOTOUCHHEAVEN, which I had at first – hint: there’s no such thing as Radio HANTI).

Wednesday, July 30 – 9:37

A quote from Sam Goldwyn about SHAKESPEARE (the circled squares) is the theme of this puzzle.  The quote is given in the answers to 20A, 37A, and 52A, and is FANTASTICAND, ITWASALLWRITTEN, WITHAFEATHER.  I went through most of the puzzle fairly easily and then got tripped up for about 20 or 30 seconds trying to figure out the first part of the quote, for which I had FENBASTICAND.  I had BLOB instead of BLOT for 4D, Inky mess, and I had ARHET instead of ARHAT for 2D, Enlightened Buddhist.

I knew FENBASTICAND wouldn’t do at all, and eventually figured it out.

Tuesday, July 29 – 6:43

Today’s theme involves reevaluating things that maybe weren’t so great after all.

17A, Mediocre F. Scott Fitzgerald novel? is THEDECENTGATSBY
27A, Mediocre place to scuba? is GOODBARRIERREEF
49A, Mediocre Steve McQueen film? is THENOTBADESCAPE
65A, Mediocre Jerry Lee Lewis hit? is OKAYBALLSOFFIRE

I like it.

Monday, July 28 – 5:30

Slightly harder than usual Monday, I think.  The theme answers are:

1A, 21A, begin from scratch – START, ATSQUAREONE
41A, Move into the limelight – TAKECENTERSTAGE
59A, 73A, be beaten by the rest of the field – ENDUPINLAST, PLACE
72A, ____-specific – SITE

Sunday, July 27 – 47:07

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to finish one 3×4 section of this one.  Considering that the puzzle was the product of a team-up between Mike Nothnagel and David Quarfoot, it’s not surprising that it was a difficult one.  It was a rebus puzzle with rebus squares for the words Left, Right, Up, and Down.  Here’s the rundown:

16A, Command to an overfriendly canine – (DOWN)BOY
29A, Populare 1970s British TV series – (UP)STAIRS(DOWN)STAIRS
37A, “Now you’re talking” – ALL(RIGHT)
38A, Took the risk – (LEFT)IT(UP)TOCHANCE
71A, Liberals – THE(LEFT)
84A, Causes of unemployment - (DOWN)SIZING
92A, Slangy street greeting – S(UP)DOG
95A, Arrangements – SET(UP)S
101A, Football defensive line position – (RIGHT)END
125A, Exasperated teacher’s cry – SIT(DOWN)ANDSHUT(UP)
137A, Missing glasses’ location, usually – (RIGHT)WHEREYOU(LEFT)THEM
1D, Block – DAM(UP)
16D, Barely fair, maybe – (DOWN)THE(RIGHT)FIELDLINE
30D, Went from second to first, maybe – (DOWN)SHIFTED
36D, Erect – STANDING(UP)(RIGHT)
38D, Not brought home – (LEFT)ONBASE
41D, Awake by – (UP)AT
70D, Sentiment suggesting “Try this!” – ITS(RIGHT)(UP)YOURALLEY
72D, Secured, in a way, with “on” – (LEFT)A(DOWN)PAYMENT
89D, Took it easy – RESTED(UP)
105D, Common entry point – STAGE(RIGHT)
140D, Bazooka Joe’s working peeper – (LEFT)EYE

A lot of theme entries, fore sure.

What I had trouble with was the block with 12A/D.  I didn’t know IOS for 12D, Cyclades island, nor 27A, Junior of the N.F.L. (SEAU), and I didn’t get 14D, Longtime Boston Symphony conductor OZAWA (although I _did_ know it).  I did have 15D, Hollow center? – DOUBLEL.  and I had __BEETLE for 32A, Bug.  I kicked myself for not seeing VW, because it was obvious in retrospect.  I did have ORZO for 23A, Pasta used in soups.  But with only  ___D, _R__, and _Z__A, I wasn’t able to get 12A (It’s found in many pockets, nowadays – IPOD), 13A, Before: abbr. – PREV, and OZAWA.

And in other news, I’m about 80% done assembling the swing set.

Saturday, July 26 – 16:51

I can’t be unhappy about a 16:51 time for a Saturday.  Hopefully that bodes well for the weekend, since I’ll be doing a much bigger puzzle tomorrow and Sunday – assembling a wooden swing set.  But as for the 2-D puzzle, it was a very enjoyable one from Barry C. Silk with a Beatles mini-theme.

It had 21D, Title woman of song who “lives in a dream” – ELEANORRIGBY, 42A, “Let ____” – ITBE, and 62A, “Nothing to get upset about”, a line from “Strawberry Fields”.   What?  ITGO?  Really?  “Nothing to get hung about”?  Well color me hallucinating.

Ok, apart from the not-quite Beatles theme, here are some answers with rarer letters:
1A, Conductor of many TV experiments – MRWIZARD
9A, Many people get 100 on it – IQTEST
39A, Things associated with pits and spits, briefly – BBQS
52A, Ventura County’s most populous city – OXNARD
54A, Second biggest city in Russia’s Orenburg region – ORSK
64A, Periodicals with unturnable pages – EZINES

The downs on those are, respectively, WEANERS, ZEAL (MRWIZARD gets two), QWEST, QUENTIN, MINX, STKITTS, and BONANZA.

Friday, July 25 – 29:49

That was a close one -  the whole SE corner had me stumped, and I thought I wasn’t going to be able to finish!  I had 30A, Visitors as SOJOURNERS, and I tentatively put in STLEO for 39A (Fifth-century pope).  Then I figured STLEO must be wrong because 32D, Shortage on a rush-hour subway had to be EMPTYSEAT.  What else could it be?  Except RIOTED for Rebelled at 45A didn’t work – that gave an SR combination for 42D.  ___Y__ left me clueless for 52A, Look daggers.  I wanted to put STOOLS at 61A for They may be lined up at a bar, except that didn’t go.  I had PAL for Mac at 43A.

And there I lay stuck for a good 12 or 13 minutes.  I tried various endings for 34D, Dry state – TION, ITY, ISM – but none unstuck me.  Then I noticed I had missed that 63A was a plural, “herbs”, not “herb” – d’oh!  I put in an S, and then put in NESS for the end of 34D.  SOLEMNESS would work there, but didn’t sound right.  I was getting near to giving up, when all of a sudden, 42D, Intimate, came to me in a flash – SUGGEST!  Then I put in UPROSE for 45A and finally decided EMPTYSEAT _might_ be wrong.  I put in STOOLS, erase PAL, put STLEO back in – ah ha, ELBOWROOM!  And the rest fell into place, with ROBROY, GIBRAN, and PLINTH being the last of the bunch.

A couple of other random hints are:
7A, Crams – JAMPACKS (whats a jamp ack?)
7D, Rolling Stones song – JUMPINJACKFLASH (leave off the G for extra savings)
22A, Thingy on a turkey – WATTLE
62A, HASHEESH (you put your weed in there!)
3D, Acting – ADINTERIM

Thursday, July 24 – 9:25

I have a better time than yesterday for this singular Thursday puzzle from Matt Ginsberg.  The theme entries are terms that normally contain a repeated letter sequence entered without the second repetition of that sequence.

17A, Hollow-point projectiles, is DUMBULLETS
22A, Mutually beneficial interaction, is WINSITUATION
45A, Puerto Rican-born P.G.A. star, is CHIRODRIGUEZ
56A, Child’s fair-weather wish, is RAINGOAWAY

Tying it all together is 35A, a Jacqueline Suzanne novel, is ONCEISNOTENOUGH.  61A, Really!, which isn’t a theme answer, is MYMY.

Wednesday, July 23 – 12:27

The name of the constructor of today’s puzzle, Henry Quillen, doesn’t ring a bell (although that doesn’t necessarily mean anything), but the puzzle he made has a fun and clever theme.  The circled answers either begin with A and end with Z, begin with Z and end with A, or begin and end with A and have a Z in the center.  And they form two continuous chains that cross in the center.

The NW to SE chain is: ZIMA, ARROZ, ZESTA, ARIZONA, ADBIZ, ZEENA, ANTZ.
The SW to NE chain is: ARNAZ, ALCATRAZ, ATOZTOA, ZIRCONIA, ZAPPA.

And he threw in an extra Z just for kicks, at 26D/46A: BABYZ/ZURICH.

Tuesday, July 22 – 7:36

A little on the hard side for a Tuesday.  The theme is punny answers you get by inserting an N in common phrases.