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Thursday, January 23, 2025, Zhoughin Burnikel

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  Questionable Clues?     Today C.C. clues her puzzle themers with 5 one-word punny questions (3 across and 2 down), each ending with "words?" and then fills them with an idiomatic or in the language phrase ... 17A. Keywords?:  OPEN SESAME .   This phrase entered the Western world from an Arabic folk tale   Ali Baba and the 40 thieves , about a poor woodcutter who discovers the secret treasure of a thieves' den, overhears them, and enters with the magic phrase "open sesame", the key to opening the cave.  Here's a cartoon summary of the story ... 39A. Crosswords?:  I SAID NO .  A phrase often said by cross parents when talking to a disappointed child. 62A. Safewords?:  JUST IN CASE .  A phrase indicating that you're not taking any chances. 11D. Catchwords?:  ROGER THAT .  A phrase used in military, CB radio, and airline communications to acknowledge successful receipt of a message -- do ...
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Thursday, January 16, 2025, Pravan Chakravarthy

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  Pros minding their Ps and Qs Veteran Pravan Chakravarthy last appeared here with co-constructor Matthew Stock with a themeless puzzle, reviewed by Husker Gary .  Pravan is a double major in linguistics and physics at the University of Chicago and a crossword editor himself . Today he solos with a theme that seems to have some similarities to last Thursday's puzzle, which was all about long vowel sounds.  Scanning the theme clues below you'll see long  Ē  and  Ū sounds in the words/phrases peas , cues , p 's and q 's, and keys and pews , and I thought there might be a rhyming pattern there.  I wasn't sure so I reached out to Pravan via email and he assured me that he wasn't consciously trying to rhyme, but the theme could be interpreted that way. Here are the theme clues which all start with "Professional who minds their ..." ... 17A. Professional who minds their peas:  VEGETABLE FARMER .  We've planted a vegetable garden for year...
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Thursday, January 9, 2025, Jem Burch

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  A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y.  Today's constructor, Yale linguistics major  Jem Burch  is making his LAT debut and takes us back to elementary school to relearn our vowel sounds and to demonstrate some of the vagaries of English spelling and pronunciation.  His theme clues had me stumped for awhile -- they are identified only by being the 5 longest answers in the grid and they are not intended as a solving aid, but rather a second puzzle you can solve if you want to understand the theme ... The first thing you notice is that the first word of each theme answer begins with the letters SH , but the rest of the letters don't seem to follow any pattern.  But when I moved them in order to the top of this review for explication, they made a bit more sense -- the remaining letters of the first word make the sound of the long vowels:   Ā ,  Ē ,   Ī ,  Ō , and  Ū   i.e. ... 16A. Old New York ball field:  SHE...
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