Sam Koperwas & Jeff Chen’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Cut!”—Jim P’s review
Our theme consists of common phrases whose first or last few letters spell out a type of tree. The tree part of each phrase is cut off from the rest of the letters by a block. Not only this, but in an impressive feat of construction, this cut, represented by a single diagonal slash down the grid, separates all the trees from their base phrases. And everything fits symmetrically to boot. Very impressive!
Each half of the phrase is clued in two parts, with the beginning as the actual clue and the ending as some sort of tree pun.
It’s all tied together with the revealer “TIMBER!” (56a, [Lumberjack’s cry, and a hint to 24-, 32-, 35- and 47-Across]).
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Cut!” · Sam Koperwas & Jeff Chen · Thu., 4.1.21
- 24a / 25a. [Cartography list that often…] / […contains a tiny tree].
MAP LE / GEND - 30a / 32a. [Classic daytime series full of…] / […knotty situations].
ONE LIFE T / O LIVE - 35a / 38a. [Tangy coating for those who…] / […pine for flavor].
BALSA / MIC GLAZE. Yum! - 46a / 47a. [Joining tool that’s…] / […held in the palm].
ARC W / ELDER
This was an incredibly timely theme for me as for the last 24 hours I’ve been engaged in a tree pun discussion with a Facebook friend as I tried to describe the nearby beach we visited that was awash in driftwood. Here’s a sample: “It’s a very poplar beech fir alder right reasons. I kid you knot! If you deciduous to go, be sure to cedar sea lions. Makes for a nice little st-acacia-n. So pack a trunk and leaf at once. Sound like fun? Yew birch yer aspen!” I’m especially proud of that quad-string of puns in the first sentence. Thank you, thank you. I’ll be here all week!
Back to the puzzle. I know that Jeff likes to put together a grid that has a visual impact, and this certainly does. Not only is there that thematic slash from the NE to the SW, but the rest of the grid feels so wide open with 7s and 8s galore.
That said, I didn’t find a ton of sparkle there, no doubt due to the constraints of the theme answers. ZINGERS and CAHOOTS are the best of the lot, and I liked SPIKE TV. But I wanted just a BARON instead of BARONET and INHALER(S) instead of INHALANT and EL CID instead of just CID. Then there’s the awkward MIDSTS and the 18th-century French novel “Gil BLAS.” Add to those some quite opaque clues (especially in the NW for me), and the puzzle threatened to get sloggy. But I worked my way through and was rewarded in the end.
Clues of note:
- 22a. [T, at times]. DASH. I think I needed all the crosses. Think Morse code for this one.
- 49a. [No foe?]. BOND. Dr. No, that is.
- 5d. [Idle in movies]. ERIC. I recently discovered all the old Monty Python audio albums on Amazon Music and am just awed at their genius, especially Eric Idle’s songwriting abilities.
- 15d. [Patronize]. SHOP AT. I went with STOP AT which made 17a [It’s a lot] TOMESITE. I had to check each crossing a couple times before I finally found the error.
- 44d. [Repeats oneself?]. CLONES. Nice one.
Oh, this is a debut for Jeff’s partner, so congrats! It’s an impressive grid all around. Four stars from me.
Sam Ezersky’s New York Times crossword—Ben’s review
NYT #0401 – 04/01/2021
I sat and stared at the completed grid of Sam’s puzzle for a full five minutes before what’s going on clicked for me. It’s a groaner, y’all, and it needs an extra breakdown. Let’s go clue by clue, or more appropriately, clues by clues.
- 19A: 6-Across, with “out” — VERY RELIGIOUS
Well, 6A is “Actor Patel of “Slumdog Millionaire”, and that’s DEV. DEV with “out” (as in the word out, from the clue) is “Devout”, which means VERY RELIGIOUS.
This puzzle is all about being literal.
- 33A: Inits. before 9-Across — ESSENTIALLY
9A is “Film in which Will Ferrell wears yellow tights”. That would be ELF, and “Inits” before ELF is “In itself”, which is a clue for ESSENTIALLY.
- 40A: 37-Across, in slang — BADMOUTHING
37A is “Start of the third millennium”, which is MMI. Placing MMI in “slang” makes “Slamming”, a clue for BADMOUTHING. Finally:
- 50A: 64-/65-Across and others — BLENDED FAMILY
64A is “French holy title: Abbr.”, or STE, and 65A is “Cheap beer choice, for short”, which is PBR. STE and PBR “and others” makes “Stepbrothers”, which can clue BLENDED FAMILY
22D: “1984 hit for Cyndi Lauper” — SHE BOP
I thought this one was clever, even if it took a second to figure out what the heck what was going on once everything was filled in. All that AND DAVID LYNCH in the grid? I’m set.
Happy Thursday!
Fred Piscop’s Universal crossword, “Where’s the Beef?” — Jim Q’s write-up
I just felt the need to do a little research on the “Where’s the beef?” lady of Wendy’s commercial fame. Clara Peller. She landed that gig at 81 years old and was a manicurist on a TV set the time she was discovered. Her Wikipedia page is a quick and worthwhile read.
Anyway…
THEME: Types of meat need to be deleted from theme answers in order to the clued to make sense.
Universal crossword solution · “Where’s the Beef?” · Fred Piscop · Thur., 4.01.21
THEME ANSWERS:
- 17A [*Bronco’s activity (hint: delete each starred answer’s circled letters)] BUCKINGHAM. Take out the HAM and you have BUCKING.
- 10A [*Monopoly card] DELIVERED. Eschew the LIVER and it’s DEED.
- 39A [*Airport rental] CLAM BAR. Lose the LAMB and it’s a CAR.
- 35D [*Strong suit] FORTUNATE. Throw that TUNA back and it’s FORTE.
- 61A [Person who eschews the starred answers’ deleted portions] VEGETARIAN.
Very cool puzzle. It has that little Thursday kick to it that Universal has been doing a bit more of since February. I solved the version with circles in AcrossLite. I’m assuming that the APPLET and the print version still don’t have circles (which annoys me to no end as it’s essentially offering two different solving experiences), but I don’t think this puzzle suffers for it. In fact, I think it would be a better AHA if there was no indication at all of the hidden meat and the solver had to figure that out, but perhaps that’s a bit too tricky for Universal‘s target solver.
It’s chock-full of references with other animals (safe from consumption thankfully) what with TOTO and CATS EYE. And don’t forget to SPAY your PETS before heading off to the Running of the Bulls in PAMPLONA!
Five strong themers and a nifty concept makes up for a couple dings in the fill: I think you should only be allowed one EKE/EEK per puzzle. RIP crossing RIPA was a bit weird too.
Good start to the puzzling day.
4.5 stars from me, with or without circles.
Brendan Emmett Quigley crossword (No. 1353), “Fool Me Once” — Jenni’s review
Brendan did indeed fool me once. I thought I had the gimmick figured out when I filled in the first theme answer. Nope. Not surprisingly, the real gimmick was better.
The theme answers are all wacky, as is appropriate for the day.
Brendan Emmett Quigley, Crossword #1353, “Fool Me Once,” solution grid
- 19a [Lesbos poet probably gonna fail at open mic?] is SAPPHO TO BOMB. I saw PHOTO BOMB and figured it was a word combination theme. Hah. Got that one sussed. Pride goeth…
- 33a [Good physical condition needed to swim in a shallow bay?] is LAGOON FITNESS. I could not find any words in the middle of that. Hmm.
- 42a [One who makes counterfeit lift tickets?] is a SKI PASS TRACER.
- 54a [“Hey, Ronstadt, you want this sheepskin?”] is DIPLOMA, LINDA?
Eventually I realized that each theme answer has a base phrase + a synonym for FOOL. SAP + PHOTO BOMB. GOON + LA FITNESS. ASS + SKIP TRACER. DIP + LOMA LINDA. Much better than my first thought!
Gotta get back to work. What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: never heard of the Russ Meyer movie BIKER PSYCHO. I am not going to seek it out.
I’ll leave you with the sound of my youth. I’m an ALTO, so I worshiped LINDA Ronstadt, and this album was released the summer I turned 16. This Karla Bonoff song is still one of my favorites.
By the way, if you haven’t seen the documentary about her life, “The Sound of My Voice,” it’s available to stream on several platforms. I loved it.
Trip Payne’s Fireball Crossword, “Cuckoo Crossword” – Jenni’s write-up
It’s April 1st so we have the annual appearance of Trip’s Cuckoo Crossword. I enjoy solving these and I never know what to write about them, so I’ll just list a few of my favorite entries and leave you with the grid to peruse for yourself.
Fireball Crossword, “Cuckoo Crossword,” Trip Payne, solution grid
- 15a [How old your tushie is] is BUTT AGE. “Tushie” is a funny word.
- 32a [Monkey’s favorite delivery service] is UBER BANANAS.
- 35a [“My right _____ be sore after all this hula dancing”] is HIP‘LL.
- 43d [Make more pigeon sounds] is RECOO.
- 52a [“Look at this Duncan toy over here!” is YO A YO–YO.
Enjoy!
NYT was clever, but I also did not get the theme until I was finished, even when I understood DEV + out and VERYRELIGIOUS early. Clever but not especially rewarding or fun. 31:12! Ack.
I felt the same way.
But I also felt that there was some inconsistency in the theme.There was a misdirection in this clue:
33. Inits. before 9-Across
The period after “Inits” is intended to make it look like an abbreviation, when it was meant to be strung together with “elf”. For all the other theme clues, it was as Ben noted, all about taking them completely literally and doing the stringing, inserting or combining. That period had nowhere to go!
For what it’s worth, in cryptic crosswords punctuation can be ignored, as it is often only present to disguise elements. It would seem that these cryptic-style conventions are in use here.
There’s no justification for using a cryptic clue when they’re alien to NYT crosswords. However, because “inits” is gibberish and the constructor was apparently too lazy to reconstruct he had nowhere else to go. The result is an absurd, incongruous, laughably bad themer.
So, to get this, you had to (1) intuit that the clue was using the conventions from a different genre of puzzle, and (2) know what those conventions are. Well, to all you folks who do cryptic crosswords, I’m happy for you if this entertained you. As a non-cryptic-solver myself, I have to say that this fell flat, and was a real disappointment on a day when I was looking forward to a devilishly clever but fair puzzle.
Quotation marks around the added word in only the first themed clue and “inits.” in the second which doesn’t work due to the dot marred an otherwise clever gimmick. Throwing the solver in a poor way or poor execution I don’t know.
NYT: This took an entire mug of coffee to finish, and was well worth the time (and coffee). I love the combination of cryptic and literal clues here.
It took me a while to realize that MMI had to go inside “Slang”. How clever was that?! My favorite, though, was the clue for STE PBR OTHERS. I laughed out loud (quietly, as no one else is up) at that one.
I had been looking forward to being April Fooled, and was not disappointed! Thanks!
NYT: I like it a lot except for the classist 63A. There are plenty of people with that as a surname, why not use one of them?
NYT: 38a TV AD, 41d AD REPS. blech
WSJ – Palm in the clue for 47a was a bit distracting. But having the bearer of elderberries along with Eric Idle more than made up for it.
FB 42d is my favorite entry in a while.
I liked that one – should have made my list!
NYT: FWIW, if you have to come here to figure out the theme, it is too obscure.
I love cryptics, but not in the daily NYT.
Don’t mean to be a hater, but I did not enjoy this one.
I tend to agree with you. It’s like having to explain a joke. At that point, it’s not funny anymore. But it does seem like some people understood this theme while they were solving (I did not, and like you, didn’t enjoy it all that much), so it’s a tough line to draw. What percentage of solvers should be expected to get the theme while they’re solving for it to qualify as having broad enough appeal?
You make a good point, but I think that the intersection of traditional NYT Thursday wackiness and April Fools Day was too good an opportunity to let pass.
Also, the crosses were fair, and sometimes, the laugh comes afterward.
That may increase the broaditude of the appeal, at least for this one specific day.
The cleverness of the NYT grew on me, starting after I finished the grid and finally caught on. I felt embarrassed at having been tricked and appreciated that.
I did find it a bit heavy on proper names, and I’m still not familiar with SAMMY, meaning, what, sandwich?
Sandwich, yes, although this is the first time I’ve seen the slang word in print, and in my mind it is spelled “sammie”. They might both be fair game, so look out ?
any word on latimes acrosslite returning??
NYT: Going through the comments, it’s refreshing to get a break from our normal “NYT is boring and never does anything different” and get “NYT did something different and I hate it.”
Thought this was the most mishandled Thursday I’ve seen. The first themed clue signals appendages will be in quotation marks when that’s not the case. That misleading suggestion is reinforced by the second themer where “inits.” makes no sense as an appendage. The third and fourth themers are fine if not for the first and second and the fourth is further hobbled by notation that’s needlessly confusing. If memory serves, a slash has been used in some fashion before to instruct coupling, but it’s been so long you can’t fairly expect solvers to remember. Using an “&” or “and” or something akin would’ve been prevented any confusion.
Why only the first themer uses quotation marks around the appendage I can’t say, but I presume it’s laziness: If “out” doesn’t allow for a clever use of phrase but you don’t want to reconstruct you have to use them.
No way the the April Fools’ Day prank is the submission, acceptance and running of this puzzle?
I thought the LAT was relatively easy—I wish I knew what GRAB thought?