Joseph Knecht

  Forever Blowing Bubbles Today marks the 140th puzzle that Dr. Ed Sessa has constructed for us.  Here's an email that Husker received from him on June 1, 2023 re his current plans ... Hi Gary, Thanks for asking. Penny and I traveled through northern Virginia trying to find a place, home or apartment that was somehow equidistant and closer to our kids but it was not to be for various reasons. All things considered we decided to stay in SW Florida, and will soon close on a home in Fort Myers. It's about 45 minutes from Sanibel so we can still maintain some friendships and connections from the past 20+ years and watch the island heal. We were very lucky that someone (turned out to be an ex-football player and contractor) bought what was left of our home, with plans to build an elevated home on the site. I appreciate all the work you and the whole crew do on the blog site - it must be a labor of love. If you are ever...

Let's Party! This marks the 12th appearance on the Corner for constructor Hoang-Kim Vu .  For a bio-bit on Vu I refer you to Husker's March 18th 2023 review .  His collaborator Jasper Davidoff is making his LAT debut but he has had at least one other puzzle published in Universal Crosswords on June 25, 2021.  Today they invite us to three different types of celebrations and they've eavesdropped on the types of conversations we're likely to hear at each, as revealed by ... 59A. Political platforms, and an apt title for this puzzle?: PARTY LINES .  ... the clue"political platforms" has nothing to do with politics, -- rather it's a metaphor for the theme clues,  each of which describe 2 snippets of conversation, which are then filled by a type of PARTY and typical LINES that you might hear at each: 17A. "Pour the tea!" and "Let's pick a new topic of conversation!"?: SOCIAL CUES .  An ...

Let the Good Times Roll! Today veteran constructor Taylor Johnson (7 previous LAT and 4 NYT puzzles ) presents us with an interesting challenge.  It's not uncommon for puzzles to have clues that reference other clues, but I've never seen one where all the theme clues just referenced another clue , which of course had to be the reveal : 57A. "Time to go," and a phrase that could be uttered by a 15-, a 21-, a 32-, or a 48-Across?: LET'S ROLL .   This is an idiom that can have at least four different meanings, depending on who the "utterer" is ... 15A. See 57-Across: DIRECTOR .  This utterer is the one who says "Lights, camera, action".  In this case LET'S ROLL means "start the film reels that record the action".  This is an anachronism these days as most video is recorded digitally or generated by CGI .   We see a few examples of the latter in the clues below. 21A. ...

 Today's constructor is August Miller , a Maine dairy farmer who is making his 11th appearance on the Corner, and is also an NYT puzzle veteran (sorry I couldn't find the name of his dog). Today he asks us the question* ... Well the answer to that is obvious - it was our august constructor himself!   Which of course leads to the further question ... Where did he move it? ... ... ... and it will delight some that August has cleverly inserted slices of the stuff sans circles in the following theme clues ... 17A. *Fruit pastry: AP RICOT TA RT .  Here's a recipe ... Apricot Tart 28A. *"Star Wars" role for Oscar Isaac: PO E DAM ERON .  I've fallen out of touch with this franchise, but apparently it's still going on in a galaxy far, far away.  It seems that POE is a pretty intense guy and after reviewing several action videos I decided on this picture instead ... Poe Dameron And here's POE 's favorite cheese ... Edam Cheese 42A. *Array in some w...