Whatever it Takes

Well executed given the theme and approach, but this one didn't sparkle for me.

I don't really care for themes that depend on grid art to work. Even after I get the gimmick, it just always seems to fall flat for me. So, while there was a lot to like here, it just wasn't for me.

I won't belabor CLONK any more than has been done, except that it crossed AMINO GROUP, an unknown to me. CLANK/AMINA works for me, but CLENK/AMINE doesn't. Needless to say, last letter to enter.

Second only to the O in MOANA/DORK. I was really confused until the cleverness of the clue for DORK gave me an Aha! moment and pleased me bigly. Never heard of MOANA.

LOS before LAS CRUCES. KYRA before TYRA.

Anyway, lots of nice stuff: PANDORA'S BOX, AGORAPHOBIA, both the themers, YO YO MA, ANCHOR as clued.

SPIRO Who?

Thanks all.

This is a test. Please ignore. I'm trying to see how annoying it is to get to Wordplay on my phone.

Neat puzzle, only one quibble: I could have dispensed with the hint in 55A -- almost a spoiler.

I appreciate honoring Yo Yo Ma. He has many youtube appearances in different musically-related roles.

Ma and Ax have to be the only musicians whose names require just four letters. I expect to see a crossword with that as a clue.

Got any SIXES? Go FISH...Many of the byways of NY NY, especially those in Manhattan, have those all too FAMILIAR conveyance restrictions. CITY travelers acquiesce to the ONE WAY OR ANOTHER traffic flow in order that they might avoid the clanking, clunking, clinking and CLONKing of a dreaded head-on collision...With all my answers in place (SEA LION was last) I still had to determine the gist of 55a as clued. Once I'd done that, the subliminal nature of the puzzle morphed from hazy and indistinct to one of crystal clear recognition...This is techno-rock's Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark unwrapping "PANDORA's BOX."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMFKib_Byb8

Isn't Thursday often a day for quirky and offbeat puzzles?
Really wanted "Pence" at 26A, but the clue asks for a first name.
At 29A, wrote in "tnt" too soon and held onto it too long. Nice one, JEB and Jeff!

All IN ALL, an OK puzzle. The unusual layout necessitated a lot of 3-letter fill. Pretty sure CLONK was only there to teach a lesson to those of us who confidently entered CLANG without checking the crosses. I would've been more sure of OTHO if it had been clued in regard to the interior decorator in the movie "Beetlejuice," which I've seen about a hundred times (slight exaggeration).

TONIO K. (real name Steven M. Krikorian) is a songwriter and recording artist who generated a devoted cult following back in the 70s. His songs have been recoded by many top-selling acts, but his own recordings are difficult to pigeonhole. Check out the title track to his 1978 album "Life in the Foodchain" (I can easily imagine Meat Loaf doing this song):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmHvSz6y9M4

In addition to CLONK, I also took issue with the clue for THEM. It's not "the M" that's silent in "mnemonic," it's specifically the first M. When you have two Ms in a word and only one is silent -- and given that this four letter combination can be clued a million different ways -- this choice strikes me as odd and bad.

Disregarding whether the word signifies a metallic sound or not, here's one example, IMO, for when the word CLONK is perfect, coming from "Reaper Man" by Terry Pratchett (2002):

The minute hand moved with a clonk, and shuddered to a halt on the 9.

Loved the basic visual theme of the hook catching the FISH and the crook catching the LAMB.

Hated CLONK. Never in my years of onomatopoeiac crossword fills have *I* clonked "metal" in an impact. CLANK and CLUNK for sure. Clink for glasses and tea parties (cf., Despicable Me: keep clinking). But CLONK? Me thinks the cluers clonked on this one.

Debbie Harry ain't the only one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxoVRdR6rWg

I'm glad I am not the only solver to have an issue with CLONK.
Good puzzle , but terrible clue.
Your clue leads to clang.
Clonk is dull thud , not metallic impact.

CLONK is in the OED but it has nothing to do with "metallic" sound. That clue landed with a thud.
The rest of the puzzle was well done.

I am so happy that Jeb and Jeff got together to bring this very clever puzzle to fruition. Surprisingly it was easier than it looked at first but no less enjoyable.

CLONK is a great word. CLONK, CLONK, CLONK! Perhaps the sound of wooden shoes going down a flight of wooden stairs?

Thanks to Jeb and Jeff for a most enjoyable Thursday!

I'm guessing that I won't be the only one who confidently slapped LION into 39A after getting the LAMB at 34A.... it was easily fixed, and this puzzle opened up like a lily....

I often hear metallic impacts, and CLONK isn't what I hear; CLANK, CLUNK, THUNK, CLINK, CHING--all more metallic than CLONK, but a constructor's gotta do what he's gotta do, 17A or 55A, right?

Cute puzzle. I also solved this week's BEQ's just as a little treat to myself....
What a great start to the day!

I usually step gingerly into a Thursday grid, looking for tripwires. But after finding none in the north (after noting with amusement that *this* newspaper does not *have* a desk called CITY), and sensing nothing dangerous about the two four-circle words, I raced to completion, with a somewhat yawning "oh yeah" nod to the "theme." IMO this was a fine puzzle for construction; for solving, not so much. I will not repeat the PEAT, amen on the clunker CLONK. *Metallic* impact should be CLANK (as in chains), but since metallic is just one impact and any heavy impact could be clued as CLONK, it's just a poor or misdirecting clue, not a completely incorrect one.

(Ingredient in moussaka yesterday *was* a completely incorrect clue for FETA, but frankly, my dear, I don't give edam.)

I was determined to finish this one BYHOOKORBYCROOK and I did - with lots of checks and one Google. I did not know OTHO. Last area to fill was FISH and POSTS.

Clonk should have gotten the hook!

The puzzle was okay. Maybe better as a feat of construction than as a solve. As soon as FISH filled itself in, I looked for the HOOK. Then the reveal at 55A came to light with just a few letters.
YOYO MA is a hero around these parts for something only tangentially related to making beautiful music -- by appealing to the audience at a Tanglewood concert, he helped reunite a lost dog with his owner who may have been conducting. And the dog is a Havanese -- like my little avatar!

Well bald spot did not fit in 27d..., a PITHY tale ensues

Set next to YOYOMA and his Cello on my way to the ASPEN Institute. Told Mr. Ma I recognized him from Sesame Street. He is a charming fellow. At ASPEN the living quarters resemble college dorms done really really well... then Bauhaus school slips across a synapse. I was there to present my research on why coercion and abuse (aka torture) rarely produce reliable information. My results, and the 30 years of previous research, did not fit the then administration's agenda and so here we are.

Very pleasant Thursday J&J.

I thought the BY HOOK OR BY CROOK reveal was super, but agree it was not a tricky Thursday type of theme, just right for a Wednesday I would say.

SPIRO was a gimme, luckily no need to know who the first one was, but thanks for the info, Deb. Cute clue for PANDORA'S BOX, and I wasn't fooled for long by the spent clue.

Looking forward to Jeb and Jeff getting together again.

I am not a CROOK. Gee, those were the days. I didn't realize that vice-presidents had the lead in the resignation category. Hmmm...

Where was I? Oh yeah, the puzzle. Tough for me but ultimately doable. Some unknowns, like MOANA, but it was more the ambiguous answers that slowed me down. I'm looking at you 'dynamite' and of course CLONK, but there were others. Did a lot of pondering of this letter vs. that letter and seeing how it might work both ways. Somehow thought of LASCRUCES with just a couple of crosses and tentatively typed it in. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. Did seem a little thin on theme material but still a lot of nice non-theme entries.

Note to Jeff and John re 31d. You'll put your eye out.

I think I may have mentioned before the NVA propaganda leaflets (stuck to branches along a trail) that included the phrase: "Your HOARY old mothers." If not, I've now mentioned it.

Nice puzzle and a nice challenge.

This is a beautifully executed concept -- how could you do a BY HOOK OR BY CROOK puzzle better than this? Two beautiful and theme-perfect longs, the grid art illustrating the phrase, the creatures hooked and crooked. Paradigm of what a theme puzzle should be.

I love the word CLONK and will be seeing it in my mind's eye and hearing it in my mind's ear today, I'm sure. The puzzle shot me back to youngsterhood, where in every depiction of Little Bo Peep she was carrying what I now know is a crook. Even now, in my brain, that little shepherd girl isn't Little Bo Peep unless she has that crook.

The puzzle has a mini-theme of double O's (5), and I loved the clues for HOLE and DORK. At first I had ONE WAY OR AN OTTER and I thought the theme was going to be wacky animal-ending phrases. One thing I have confidence in with any puzzle with the CHEN name on it, is that words I don't know will be fairly crossed.

Well done!

I'm with capntim. CLONK is the weakest link.easy solve except for that awkward O.

Clonk? Really CLONK?! Jail is colloquially called the CLINK because of the metal on metal sound of the cell door closing. Has anybody ever heard metal on metal go CLONK?

Copy desk before CITY. Otherwise the puzzle was a quick solve. I felt the normal Thursday trickiness to be weak.

Thanks for the puzzle.

The fills fell into place quickly and, I am proud to say, I got BYHOOKORBYCROOK with just three squares filled by crosses. Having gotten the theme fills and the long verticals early, I had ONEWAYORANOTHER playing in my head almost the entire time I was working this. Gonna getcha, getcha, getcha getcha...

I like PEW for "seat of Christianity"! I agree, though, with the comment below noting that featuring FISH and LAMB in the circled squares, and cluing one of those as a Christian symbol, comes off as a bit jumbled.

The fill for 28A (mulching material) is incorrect. Mulch is spread on top of the soil to protect roots, crowd out weeds, conserve moisture and prevent erosion. PEAT is a soil amendment and sometimes a growth medium for sprouting seeds. It is inappropriate for use as mulch because it will soak up the moisture from the soil -- like a sponge -- and allow it to evaporate. Peat dries out quickly, and it crusts over. It is also acidic, and will acidify the soil. Mulch should be a more pH neutral material, like bark chips or compost. Even rocks can be used asmmulch.

and Elke
Little time but wanted to try the puzzle, so:
by any means or
somehow or other or
by fair means or foul or
in other words , used available aids for BMOC , OTHO among others.
In addition, after a fashion, j'adore DIOR .
Did like the fish on the hook and the lamb in the shepherd'd crook.

The puzzle was OK, but the theme was lame, as was the grid. BY HOOK OR BY CROOK explicitly refers to two different things, so using the same layout of black squares to represent them both certainly shows a lack of imagination or creativity. One expects more of a juicy gimmick on a Thursday.

I'm disappointed. Jeff Chan, whose puzzle note today unsurprisingly includes a touch of arrogance so notable in his daily puzzle comments, was working off of an already fun idea from his collaborating constructor, but only two theme phrases? That's seriously inadequate, even with the hook and crook shapes. Two of the long downward entrees should have been related to the theme -- a pair of phrases both clued with something related to "Whatever it takes", such as "Not enough" or "A step too far". Crossing them would have been appropriate, too.

Lots of drab fill appear in the four corners. Some clever clueing helped salvage some entries, but as we know, those clues very well could have been from Joel and Will.

I have to say it: MEH

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Debbie Harry (sometimes billed as Deborah Harry) has a surname that can be a verb. The same is true of the surname on her birth certificate (Tremble, if I read correctly). So ONEWAYORANOTHER, her surname could be a verb.

She was in the movie "Hairspray", which has no relevance here, except that Marc Shaiman (who won awards for the stage musical "Hairspray") is a frequent solver. He sometimes reads Wordplay.

I liked the grid design & the trick in having a this-way-or-that spirit apply visually & verbally. I liked a lot of the fill too.

Deb had O- - O for the Roman. I had C - - Y for the newspaper desk. Years back, I might be torn between IT & OP there, but those days are gone. So, altho murmuring "surprisingly dangerous" as I did so, I entered CITY.

Interestingly, the solution presumes that the Spanish sweetie is female while the initialism for the noted individual on campus includes THE M (usu a signifier of maleness in that idiom). If Spanish lacks a gender-neutral term for friend, we have to live with that, but can't a (male) AMIGo be a sweetie as well? Don't campuses have big People who do not identify as male? If we have to be gender-binary, it might be nice someday to see BWOC.

I thought about that only because PANDORASBOX is so visible. I have read that the myth of that jar blames a woman for the ills afflicting our species.

Then too, SCOTT can be "Middle name of a King"; and BYHOOKORBYCROOK, STUARTS had Mary & Anne in da House as well as James I & Charles I.

Enjoyable Thursday. Grew up an hour north of LAS CRUCES in the good ol' Land of Enchantment. Go Aggies!
Also, according to my stat page, I simultaneously completed my 1000th puzzle overall and longest ever daily streak of 200. For perspective, I then calculated that I need only 6.5 more years straight of daily gold stars to approach Cal-Ripken-like (2,632) numbers! What's the longest online gold streak anyone has hit? Anyone in the 1000s?

And another thing. Both FISH and LAMB could have been clued as Christian symbols, not just the former, and I wonder if our constructors were tempted. But that would have given the impression of a sub-theme that not only wasn't there but clashed with the real theme's long answers. I would have preferred the two words had been clued differently, leaving out the symbol parts.

Didn't like the clue for AMIGA, which is really just a friend of someone of either sex, who is a female. The sweetie clue infers more novia or guapa, or some other word, depending on the country. I will defer to the true native speakers on this.

My first fills were YOYOMA (liked the clue for that) and ASPEN. Took a while to get STUART instead of STEWART which first occurred to me. I really liked PANDORASBOX and wondered if I could now resist opening it.

Since I had CLANG and then CLANK, my stabs at the chemistry clue for 30d first brought IMINAGROUP which seemed rather odd. Ended with AMINAGROUP until Deb clued me in on CLONK. CLONK?? The dictionary affirms it, but I sure never heard of it.

And Judy's song would never have been popular if it had said Clonk clonk clonk went the trolley, would it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0odXnKhKBxQ

Disliked BMOC and CLONK, but these are minor quibbles. Overall, really fun and loved the visual.

Applause, applause, applause! Super clues, a delightfully smooth and entertaining solve. BYHOOKORBYCROOK opened the entire puzzle up beautifully. Well written, well done ... have I mentioned I liked it?

I don't comment much here, but I had to weigh in on this one. Great clues, great fill, great theme.

THE M. I especially love that clue.

Well done Jeb and Jeff!!

Slower than average for me today--this one came together very slowly, but finally did come together. I figured SPIRO was a sort of trick clue, no idea who the first resigned VP was, but I knew there hadn't been one since him. Then BMOC and LENA and RAYE and TYRA gave me hope that I could do this.

The grid design is fun. I took a couple of flyers on words I thought might work out and they did (HAN, DIOR, MOANA) so that was good. I also wanted CLANK or CLANG before CLONK and had no idea about an AMINO GROUP, so that was my last fill.

pretty easy Thursday. Love Yo Yo Ma. Saw him in July at Tanglewood at a Das Rheingold concert which he also attended. He was chatting in the aisle beforehand with all his fans!

Easy for a Thursday. My best Thursday time ever, 11:09.