Mark Diehl’s New York Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up
NYT • 8/19/17 • Sat • Diehl • № 0819 • solution
Okay, I’m going to confess up front that I’m not in a reasonable state to evaluate this crossword.
I think it’s very good. Found it tricky and some of the clues were pointedly tough. The northwest quadrant was noticeably recalcitrant. Of which: 1d [“Should there be any question …”] IF IN DOUBT, 4d [Shows the way] LEADS IN – not hardly! – 6d [Shakespeare’s First and Second Folios, e.g.] TOMES, 15a [Score after opening with an ace, informally] FIVE–LOVE, 17a [Catch of all catches, of a sort] IDEAL MAN, 21a [Looks forward to the next spring?] DOWSES, 24a [Root used in perfumery] ORRIS … that’s some tough action, And the other stuff over there was no walk in the park, let me tell you.
Honestly, were it not for the flash of insight to garner 8d [It covers bridges, typically] DENTAL INSURANCE I might’ve spent ages getting through this crossword,
It was tough! 27a [Joint flare-up?] PRISON RIOT, 39a [Scenery chewer] HAM ACTOR, 46a [Box at the gym?] LOCKER, 51a [Many people take them to bed nowadays] E-READERS, 12d [Toon who uses his middle initial] WILE E, 14d [Ones always banging their heads against things?] PEENS, 23d [Female factory workers in W.W. II, informally] ROSIES, 27d [Some fruit pastries] PEAR TARTS, 28d [Like store brands vis-à-vis name brands, typically] IMITATIVE, 29d [Waterway that lent its name to two French departments] OISE RIVER, This is some tough, obscured stuff! And that’s just a sampling.
Yow, a Saturday.
Matthew Sewell’s LA Times crossword – Derek’s write-up
It’s Matthew Sewell Day! Both the LAT and the Stumper are from him. The Stumper is much more difficult than this one, but both are good, well-rounded themeless constructions. 68 words in this one, and evidently nothing too obscure if I was able to solve it in under five minutes. I think it is incredibly difficult to construct a puzzle like this with virtually nothing unheard of in it. 4.7 stars.
Some of my favorites:
- 18A [There’s one right in front of you] PUZZLE – According to my wife, this is usually true of me all the time!
- 35A [Panasonic flat-screen] VIERA – This is about as obscure a term as this puzzle has, and even it is probably in your head from scanning a Best Buy ad in your Sunday paper!
- 44A [Four-time WWE World Champion Brock __] LESNAR – Rhymes with 10D [Nine Inch Nails founder Trent] REZNOR!
- 57A [1984 Winter Olympics city] SARAJEVO -Then, it was in Yugoslavia. Now, it is the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I like the idea of just having the Olympics, either summer or winter, in a rotation of just three or four sites. Might help avoid ghost towns that arise afterwards.
- 3D [’90s loser to Deep Blue] KASPAROV – Soon, the computer will be able to beat humans at the game of Go as well!
- 6D [“Rubáiyát” poet] OMAR – Shouldn’t this say “first name” somewhere?
- 24D [Kan. Army installation] FT. RILEY – You knew it was FT. something. This is also a bit obscure, but easily assumable.
- 34D [Sitting Bull’s people] LAKOTA – Will they finish his monument? I want to see it before I leave this planet!
- 41D [Knight aide] SQUIRE – As in the squire Podrick Payne on Game of Thrones, which is getting interesting now that we are about halfway through this season!
Have a great weekend!
Matthew Sewell’s Newsday crossword, “Saturday Stumper” – Derek’s write-up
Again, it is Matthew Sewell Day! This one is pretty hard, although I was able to get it done in less than 15 minutes, and for me that is a triumph for these puzzles! I hope to meet Matthew someday; I don’t believe I have before. 72 words in this one, which may be a tad high for a themeless, but that allows for great fill. And there are no cheater squares in the grid, so the count is just a result of the configuration. I found the middle right section the hardest, as I have never learned the SLAP BASS technique! A nice 4.5 stars for this one, and, since it was a tad tamer than normal Stumpers, look out next week!
Some highlights:
- 17A [Event with the Samsung MVP award] ASIAN GAMES – These are in Indonesia next year. Let’s go!
- 22A [Black-and-white toon in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”] BOOP – As in Betty Boop. It has been so long since I have seen this movie I couldn’t remember who they were talking about!
- 42A [“Neapolitan Novels” author] FERRANTE – Never heard of her. I HAVE heard of the piano duo Ferrante & Teicher, though.
- 60A [Magazine that reviews shoes, saddles, and swimwear] TRIATHLETE – Best clue in the puzzle, and not just because I want to run one of these someday!
- 1D [“Flat-out fun” product] IPAD – It ISN’T fun having to re-purchase one every three years because the old one works like garbage. These things are $700!
- 12D [Certain vegan] FRUITARIAN – I am going to try the vegan route starting next week. Yikes!
- 27D [Southwest floral crystal] DESERT ROSE – It looks kinda floral!
- 34D [How to reach Disneyland’s Tom Sawyer Island] RAFT – I’ll take your word for it!
30th high school reunion today! I am OLD!
Samuel A Donaldson’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Sleep Over” — pannonica’s write-up
WSJ • 8/19/17 • “Sleep Over” • Donaldson • solution
Five rows have paired themers. A Z is transferred from the one on the left over to the one on the right. Try to catch ’em all.
- 23a. [Ornate crowbars?] GRAND PRIES, 25a [How the new couches at the Golden Arches feel?] REAL MCCOZY (grand prize / real McCoy).
- 43a. [Job on an undertaker’s schedule?] LAY BONES, 45a [Impression of a Hungarian composer by a James Bond star?] CRAIG’S LISZT (lazybones / Craigslist). That’s Daniel Craig.
- 66a. [Warden’s excuse for staying at work?] I’M FREEING, 70a [Powerful politico in imperial Russia?] CZARMAKER (I’m freezing / carmaker).
- 92a. [What a coulrophobe might do at the circus?] BOO THE CLOWN, 95a [Gear for Moroccan scientists?] LAB FEZES (Bozo the Clown, lab fees). Really wondering what lab fezes might look like.
- 114a. [Disney’s childhood nickname?] MINUTE WALT, 117a [Nabisco crackers at the bottom of the box?] LAST RITZES (Minute Waltz / last rites). I’d have preferred the clue to mention a bowl rather than a box, as—if I’m not mistaken—the crackers are packaged in single-column sleeves within the box.
These were pretty entertaining.
No Etsy, that isn’t what I had in mind, not at all:
Hmm, this isn’t quite it, either, though it seems intriguing:
Whut? Thank you, Archie McPhee. I think.
Uhm, okay, “Fez-o-rama“:
(backs away slowly from the computer)
Zzzzz…
Seconding that being a tough Saturday. Ended up erroring on FRESNO instead of FRISCO, and the upper right took forever to fall into place. Is HAM ACTOR a thing though?
As to the title…um…wow. Should I just assume someone is very excited about the fact that Lollapuzoola is today? To be fair, that is a very exciting prospect.
See you folks there, have fun!
Rated the LAT a 3 when I intended a 4.25. A 4.5 fix will be fine and thanks.
NYT was a bit quizzy. Liked the clues for PRISONRIOT and TRANSFERS.
Finished the NYT relatively quickly (for a Saturday). Main problem was that the puzzle was basically three sub-puzzles– so looking for a foothold happened a lot. But, as it happens, misleading clues don’t trip me up very much.
Just noting that the date in the blog post title is a bit unconventional.
NYT: FIVE-LOVE? Really? Never heard that term. Really nice puzzle, however, so it didn’t bother me. Actually didn’t even see it until I was done.
LAT: Nothing too obscure? You’re joking, right? VIERA, REZNOR, LESNAR? I’ll take issue with YALE MEN as well as a rather 50’s way to phrase a non-thing. The crosses were fair, which is all I ask when the constructor wants to toss a proper name stumbling block into the grid, but those are about as obscure and worthless as I’ve seen this year.
WSJ: Very, very nice.
I thought the LAT was significantly easier than the NYT. Trent REZNOR is one of the most successful musicians of the 1990s. LESNAR is obscure. REZNOR is not.
I liked YALE MEN since the clue specifically referenced men. Yes, it has a little smoking-jacket feel to it, but it’s definitely in the language, at least to those of us who know the breed.
“Five” for “Fifteen” is extremely common tennis slang.
You’ll hear “five” = “fifteen”, “three” = “thirty” and “four” = “forty” all the time in casual play
Funny, but I’m from kind of a tennis family, and I’ve never heard of “three” or “four.” But yes, “five” for “fifteen” all my life.
The WSJ jokes mostly didn’t work for me, and much of the fill felt obscure.
“Left my home in Georgia
Headed for the Fresno Bay.”
Yeah, um, no.
Besides, any reference to Fresno that doesn’t involve either Tom Seaver or Ted Baxter should be summarily rejected.
Why, no, I haven’t signed up for AARP yet. Why do you ask?
Where’s the WSJ write-up?
FRISCO was my first entry. Huge Otis Redding fan.
It was a tough, but enjoyable puzzle. I got into big trouble in the NW as I put in TWO UNDER for the ace clue (hole in one on a par three is two under par). I suppose the inclusion of the word “informally” justifies FIVE LOVE, which, of course, is not part of the standard scoring system. I wasn’t thinking 15-30-40 at all, as they obviously don’t fit.
Steve
Tennis players sometimes informallu shorten fifteen love to five love. SW was my easiest quadrant, NE the hardest. I didn’t know there were secret recipes, and I don’t know why gridirons are primitive cooking equipment. Waffle irons yield a grid pattern but they aren’t primitive. Is the toon Wilee Coyote(?). but what’s the middle initial?
Got your helmet on, Bruce? You gonna need it for this head-slapper — Wile E. Coyote.
Have any of you read the case of the century?
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1990/02/26/coyote-v-acme
Steve
Oh yes.
I thought the NYT was easier than yesterday’s and found the Stumper almost undoable – in fact, I finished with an error, because I forgot it’s the BAOBAB tree and for the life of me couldn’t parse SLAP BASS, although I’ve heard the term. Different strokes, etc, etc. I really liked both puzzles.