Saturday, May 1, 2021

 

 

 

 

 

Ryan McCarty’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s write-up

Ryan McCarty has some serious chops. You see the midsection of this grid? That sliding stack of seven longish entries crossed by yet more longish entries? This seems to be his trademark, as this grid is quite similar to the one in his Boswords Spring Themeless League puzzle (#5). And he’s not relying on junk like SEERESSES to hold everything together.The NE and SW corners are fairly cut off, but each has two routes in from the center. The whole thing felt more like a Friday puzzle to me, no trouble spots that help me up.

Fave fill: “NEED A RIDE?,” BALD TIRES, LOVE SEATS, DIRTY RICE, CHEST COLD, SPRITZ, THE OLD VIC, WATER HAZARD, THE OX from the Chinese zodiac, “KING ME,” SCOTCH EGG, DICE CUP, and DO SHOTS.

Less keen on plural interjection OWS, PEN NIB (which maybe shouldn’t bug me, but it looks weird in the grid), LACTEAL, and ELIA, though that ELIA clue is sharp: [Essayist who wrote “Newspapers always excite curiosity. No one ever lays one down without a feeling of disappointment”].

Six more things:

• 6a. [One whose business is home-based?], UMP. Baseball’s home plate. Imagine if umps worked from home via Zoom.
• 36a. [Vaccine target], ARM. If you haven’t yet gotten the COVID vaccine, please do! There are many of us who must rely on herd immunity to stay safe, and having a third of the US population vaccinated is nowhere near enough.
• 53a. [Print source], FINGERTIP. There are so many meanings of the word print, and this one’s not hinging on printed reading materials or art prints.
• 10d. [Peak overlooking Armenia’s capital], ARARAT. The mountain is on the Turkish side of the Turkey/Armenia border. Glad that President Biden officially acknowledged the existence of the Armenian genocide from a century ago.
• 29d. [Old-timey hearing aid], EAR TRUMPET. Thank goodness we’ve moved on to electronic amplifiers and Bluetooth connections for hearing aids!
• 36d. [Focus of middle management?], ABS. Abs? I suppose they’re in there somewhere. The smattering of question-mark clues in this puzzle are welcome.

4.25 stars from me.

Ryan McCarty’s LA Times crossword – Derek’s write-up

Great puzzle! I am starting to love Ryan’s puzzles. (Not that I didn’t before!) This puzzle has quite an impressive stack of 10 9-letter entries in the middle. In going through the puzzle, I try to find interesting entries to highlight, and it is amazing that none of these are forced, and many of them are quite unremarkable in their commonness. This is extremely hard to do, and Ryan pulls it off expertly. This is not too difficult of a puzzle, but the enjoyment level is quite high. A robust 4.7 stars from me today!

Some notes:

• 24A [Inflatable emergency transports] LIFE RAFTS – Easy enough clue. I just hope I never have to actually inflate one!
• 32A [It was initially dubbed “Clinton’s Big Ditch” by its critics] ERIE CANAL – No, not THOSE Clintons!
• 38A [Wood stove successors] GAS RANGES – We have an electric stove, but we are going to invest in a gas range soon. We have the line already in place. Perhaps later this year!
• 42A [Just below par] ONE UNDER – I like watching golf on the weekends. I stink at it, though. I think I will try this game when I retire!
• 49A [Beneficiaries of exercises called Russian twists] ABS – I need to do a lot of Russian twists, then!
• 3D [Aptly named giant in surfing sportswear] RIP CURL – I don’t know this brand that well, here in northern Indiana where surfing is basically nonexistent!
• 28D [__ Kelly, woman with the most lifetime “Jeopardy!” winnings] LARISSA – I would have thought it was Julia Collins, but I think Larissa won more in a big tournament or two.
• 29D [Group that includes Chevron and BP] BIG OIL – There seems to be a subtle political statement being made here. I will stay neutral!
• 33D [Writing letters, some say] LOST ART – Great clue!
• 35D [Carnival offering] CRUISE – I went on a Carnival cruise a couple of years ago. Not going again any time soon! Not until this virus mess is over. I would like to do an all-inclusive resort next time anyway!

Off to solve more puzzles!

Greg Johnson’s Newsday crossword, “Themeless Saturday” – Derek’s write-up

I think the “Stumper” difficulty is back up just slightly. Or maybe I am working too hard! It has been a rough few weeks. But summer is coming! I think. This puzzle had me slowed down a bit early, got a decent pace in the midsolve, and I finished in the NW then the NE areas of the puzzle. Still not frustratingly hard, but enough resistance to give me minor fits. Perhaps you found it slightly easier, but I thought this packed a bit of a punch. But that is to be expected from a Greg Johnson themeless. I will take 14 minutes or so on this one; I think my barometer now may be to finish under 15 minutes, not 10! 4.6 stars today.

A few highlights:

• 18A [What a fence may fix] PERIMETER – Sure, this makes sense NOW. But man, I struggled with this. Not sure why!
• 19A [Supermarket money saver] ECONOMY SIZE – My family just went to Costco on Friday, which is what I think of when I think of large bulk purchases. But these are at the grocery store as well, I suppose.
• 30A [Night spot] BOITE – I know this word, but I really don’t. I am off to the dictionary …
• 55A [Time travelers of a sort] MINUTE HANDS – Great clue, but not my favorite. See 34D!
• 1D [Brando rival] JAMES DEAN – Why were they rivals? This is before my time
• 6D [High-ranking newspaper person] COPY CHIEF – I got the CHIEF part fairly early. Newspapers are still a dying breed!
• 28D [His anthem is heard in Beethoven’s “Wellington’s Victory”] ARNE – I am not sure what this clue means: did Beethoven “borrow” a melody here? Is “Wellington’s Victory” an opera or something? Perhaps I should Google it …
• 34D [It’s set for a suit] TRIAL DATE – Best clue in the puzzle!
• 39D [Biodiesel source] ALGAE – Good to know! Can they make a Tesla that runs on this?
• 48D [Civilian outfit] MUFTI – Why don’t I know what this is??

Everyone have a safe and healthy weekend!

Amanda Rafkin and Ross Trudeau’s Universal crossword, “Look Within Yourself” — Jim Q’s write-up

A puzzle that’s after your heart.

THEME: Body organs are found in phrases

THEME ANSWERS:

• COBRA INSURANCE. Brain.
• THE ART OF LOVE. Heart. 
• COMPUTER USER. Uterus.
• (revealer) INTERNAL ORGANS. 

Cool. Very similar in concept to the last collaboration I solved in Universal a couple days ago. I don’t know why it seems like sometimes Universal runs similar themes very close to one another. That’s probably just me.

Both COBRA INSURANCE and THE ART OF LOVE were brand new to me. However, I was able to figure them out with very few- if any- crosses since the title, the circled letters, and a little inferring worked synergistically. And they’re such colorful names! So I rather enjoyed learning them. Ironically, the familiar one (COMPUTER USER) I found a little bland in comparison.

Nothing too much to make me CRINGE in the fill, though MICA being in 1A had me bit leery for a moment (feels a bit crosswordy to me, but of course it’s a legitimate entry). OK, ARFED may be pushing it a bit, but it’s so danged cute that it’s hard to grimace for too long.

I feel like I usually see the plural of TORSO as TORSI, AMIRITE? Lemme check… ah! Either.  TORSOS or TORSI.

Fun to learn that NINE was based on 8 1/2.

Lastly there’s my frequent complaint that Universal runs puzzles that are better served with circles, yet can’t provide the solver with those circles on its more widely available platforms. I don’t believe this one suffers much from that pitfall, though I can’t tell. It would be a different solve experience altogether since, on one hand, I wouldn’t have caught onto the gimmick early and the aforementioned synergy wouldn’t have existed. On the other, it might be more fun to look for the organs yourself. I dunno. It’s very strange to me that they’re offering two different solve experiences.

3.5 with stars

??? without

Gary Larson’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Odd Lot” — pannonica’s treatment

SCENE: INTERIOR, mid-morning. A WOMAN sits at a computer, coffee at hand. She seems jaded, starts typing.

Today we have in-the-language phrases recontextualized as pertaining to film production, in a more literal fashion.

• 21a. [Filming the part of the movie where a stand-in appears?] DOING A DOUBLE TAKE.
• 44a. [Editing raw footage into a cohesive narrative] MAKING A SCENE.
• 64a. [Canceling the movie’s dangerous action sequence?] PULLING A STUNT.
• 85a. [Hiring somebody for the opening on the film crew?] GETTING A GRIP.
• 111a. [Reaching an agreement on the film’s soundtrack?] SETTLING THE SCORE.
• 14d. [Positioning an overhead microphone closer to an actor?] LOWERING THE BOOM.
• 42d. [Stepping out of frame while being filmed?] LEAVING ONE’S MARK.

Seemingly having achieved some sort of minor success, the WOMAN takes a triumphant sip of the coffee, then resumes typing.

WIPE

We see words appearing on a COMPUTER MONITOR. They appear to be transcriptions of a crossword puzzle's clues and answers.

Not part of the theme: 6d [They may be big on movie sets] EGOS, 82d [Hollywood trickery, briefly] CGI, 116a [Like voice-over narrators] UNSEEN.

• 8d [Strip in the living room, say] MOLDING. Racy.
• 13d [Racket material] CATGUT. Not anymore, I should think. Or would at least hope.
• 40d [Beard bits] HAIRS. What a strange clue.
• 45d [Frazier of the Yankees] CLINT. My brain filled in the end as {New York sports team} so I duly completed the entry as CLYDE.
• 69d [Former education secretary DeVos] BETSY. There are clue choices other than this reprehensible human, you know.
• 81d [Producer of Fairlady and Bluebird autos] DATSUN. These are older models. I’m familiar with the era where their model names in the US were number based, like 280ZX and the B210. Turns out the Fairlady is quite famous and was very stylish.
• 86d [Detail-oriented sort] I-DOTTER. I  have never seen this construction before. I presume there would also be t-crossers, then.
• 87d [Opposite of alt] NEU. Unannounced German, and a bit of a misdirection.

CUT TO
CLOSE-UP of more coffee being sipped. Then

CUT TO
OVERHEAD VIEW of KEYBOARD, MONITOR, WOMAN. She begins to type again, but a CAT walks across the desk, probably garblingglksdkdhe eelem soejenornfjm   The cat nearly knocks over the coffee cup as well.

CUT TO
¾ VIEW of woman's FACE. Somehow the images on the computer screen are projected across her features. Do not question this. More typing.

• 1a [Archrivals] NEMESES. Always a good feeling when one can enter a decent-sized 1-across right off the bat.
• 48a [Language known to native speakers as Unangam Tunuu] ALEUT. This is interesting but not useful and I am bound to forget it within moments.
• 77a [Brand-new Bruegels, e.g.] FAKES. I like this clue; it’s so random.
• 90a [Old name for the Chinese port Xiamen] AMOY. I used to occasionally see AMOY noodles on restaurant menus. It’s in Fujian province.
• 103a [Vole’s cousin] MUSKRAT. Good job on the clue. They’re both in the same subfamily, Arvicolinae.

She takes a vaguely dissatisfied sip of coffee, as if she cannot remember the name of some Native American language, or perhaps she is recalling that there is no yogurt in the house. The camera

PANS to see her putting the CUP down on a coaster, to the MONITOR, over to a WINDOW, where we can see outside it is a clear, verdant, crisp morning. Birds are chirping in the trees and all seems right in a world laden with possibility. We hear the CAT leap onto her lap, purring. She begins to say something as

an ENORMOUS METEORITE impacts the entire house, obliterating everything inside.

ROLL CREDITS

~ A FILM BY CHANTAL AKERMAN AND MICHAEL BAY ~