Andrew Kingsley’s New York Times crossword—Jenni’s write-up
It’s Fruitbasket Upset week here at Team Fiend. Ade filled in for me while we were celebrating Pesach and I’m filling in for Amy, who is traveling. This puzzle seemed a tad easier than the usual Friday to me. Maybe I’m smarter in the evening (I usually solve Friday puzzles in the dead-tree Times over my morning coffee).
I like this puzzle. The Friday challenge comes more from misdirection and wordplay that trivia. It’s much more fun that way.
NYT 4/14, solution grid
- 4d [Persian, e.g.] I dropped in RUG as my first answer in the puzzle and then thought “No, it could be CAT” and took it out. Turns out I was right to start with.
- 7d [Opportunity], in the era of Hamilton, can only be SHOT.
- 8d [Place where people make the rounds?] reminded me of The Cosby Show. On more than one episode, Dr. Huxtable announced that he was going to the hospital to make “the rounds.” We don’t make “the rounds.” We make rounds. No article necessary. I have been told the term comes from the circular shape of the wards at the original Johns Hopkins hospital, the domain of William Osler and birthplace of academic American medicine. Anyway, that’s got nothing to do with the answer, which is TAVERN.
- Related clue: 35a [Brewski] is TALL ONE. I tried COLD ONE first. Nope.
- I like the juxtaposition of SOUND ASLEEP and CATNAP.
What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that there are 16 ARIAS in Don Giovanni.
I will leave you with some ARENA ROCK, a term I have never heard outside of crosswords.
Mark McClain’s LA Times crossword – Gareth’s summary
LA Times
170414
NOPE is repurposed to be NO/PE and so PE is removed from answers and new “wacky” ones are made. Oddly for this theme variant, there are two downs and two acrosses. CA(PE)DCRUSADER and FLYINGCAR(PE)TS go over the plate. The THE in THEPA(PE)RCHASE, but apparently it’s an old book/film/TV show, so… SINNERSRE(PE)NT was similarly puzzling as a base phrase. It’s a sentence, but so are a lot of things.
In the rest of the puzzle, I appreciated the quirky TUMTUM and its symmetrical partner RAHRAH.
2.5 Stars
Gareth
Some clever fill, much of which took the crosses to point me to the answers. But SCAT, SKAT and SWAT all in the same puzzle???
No CHE this morning? I get “File Not Found” message.
I’ll call them immediately – didn’t realize it had not been posted.
I’ve received phone assurances that the CHE puzzle is soon forthcoming. Today was a day that would have been a puzzle “blackout” date in times past but no longer now that the puzzle has moved from Review section to “A” section. So some web team confusion.
Thanks, Brad!
Would that I could actually MAKE it happen.
The CHE puzzle is now available – I hope people will take time to give it a go today or this weekend, since it’s the constructor’s debut in print. Congrats, Sarah…
I just did it and really liked it!
Thanks Brad. Always a well-constructed puzzle worth the time, ever since I discovered it!
And I did it. Nice effort. :)
NYT
Southeast corner was knotty. French CES crossing Marc ECKO and obscure card game SKAT. Now I’m going to play on my BALALAIKA as I “shuffled off this mortal COIL”.
Yeah, I guessed mortal soil because coil would never have occurred to me (though I did wonder how “soil” was “mortal”). No happy pencil for me.
Tumbala, tumbala, tumbalalaika….
all those years singing folk songs finally paid off!
It’s kosher to have ARIAS crossing ARIOSE? That’s like having CATS crossing CATLIKE.
I agree, not a favorite moment…there are a couple of (semi-)worthies with the surname ARIAS that might have stepped in.
True. I filled one of those in via crossings and didn’t notice.
SKAT is a card game of German origin and is IMO the best three-person card game. It was quite popular in Wisconsin when I lived there. There are international SKAT tournaments.
I also put RUG instead of CAT. I am embarrassed to say that I avoided STRAITLACED because I was thinking that it was spelled STRAIGHT. I am glad that was not in my grade and middle school spelling bees. I knew COIL, but had to think for a while as to how TIMESLOT fit the clue.
All in all, a pretty easy, fun Friday.
Steve
Pretty much the only card game designed specifically for three players, outside of 3-5-8, which isn’t as well known, and will probably never show up in a crossword.