Thursday, September 9, 2021

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Write-Downs”—Jim P’s review

Theme: DROP ME A LINE is the revealer (61a, [“Don’t forget to write,” and what you must do in 13-, 24- and 43-Across]). I wasn’t totally sure how to parse this at first. DROP MEAL IN E? DROP MEA LINE? DROP ME A-LINE? The upshot is that the other themers have the letters ME added in, thereby creating crossword wackiness. I spent a long time believing that the theme was simply “add ME” to a phrase, but there’s more to it than that. The entry above the long theme answers don’t make sense with their given clues. Putting them together, we’re to realize that ME drops from the row above and into the long theme answers.

• 17a. [Arrive like some hallway mail?] COME IN SLOTS. Coin slots. With ME coming from 13a ROA(ME)RS [Peripatetic people].
• 29a. [Billboard advertising helmet adornments?] PLUMES SIGN. Plus sign. With ME coming from 24a A(ME)LIAS [Bloomer and Earhart, for two].
• 46a. [Enough varieties to make lots of lots?] TEN CEMENTS. Ten cents. With ME coming from 43a PO(ME)LOS [Fruits with bitter pulp].

Not realizing what was going on at first, it’s safe to say I was pretty underwhelmed by the long theme answers. There have to be more interesting ME-added phrases than things like COME IN SLOTS. But once I realized the full extent of the theme (and the constraints determining where exactly the MEs came from and where they went), I came to appreciate the theme’s complexity and the difficulty in putting it together. I still don’t think TEN CEMENTS is a great theme entry, but it’s pretty cool how the ME drops from PO(ME)LOS above and into that entry.

So I was slow to catch on to the theme, but I’m glad I got there in the end. As for the rest of the grid, despite the stacked entries in the theme, we have a nice set of long Downs: CREEPS UP, HIGH SIERRA, ROMAN BATHS, TAPENADES, and AIRHOLES. Only DESPISERS feels iffy in that set. Plus there’s “SAD TO SAY…” in the Across direction.

Clues of note:

• 10a. [Croque-monsieur ingredient]. HAM. I got this from the crossings, because I was thinking it would be in French.
• 26a. [Sites of fluid-filled labyrinths]. EARS. I went with DAMS first thinking erroneously about fish ladders. Why I equated fish ladders with I don’t know.
• 38a. [City that hosts the Gasparilla Pirate Festival]. TAMPA. I guessed TEMPE solely off the P. Interesting how those two cities differ only in the vowels.

A stealthily complex theme which took some post-solve cogitation to sort out. Four stars from ME.

Billy Bratton’s New York Times crossword—Ben’s review

Billy Bratton has today’s NYT:

• 16A: “In a Silent Way” trumpeter [~3:5] — KILOMETERS DAVIS
• 25A: Some unaccredited universities, derisively [~57:1] — RADIAN MILLS
• 40A: Hardly parsimonious, in a saying [~1:454] — GRAM FOOLISH
• 54A: What you have to do to interpret the answers to 16-, 25- and 40-Across — CONVERT TO METRIC

Including the conversion factors for MILES DAVIS, DEGREE MILLS, and POUND FOOLISH is a nice touch on the theme, which asks you to convert the imperial measurements to their metric counterparts.

a random assortment of other fill: Tennessee’s first female senator MARSHA Blackburn, both ALE KEGS and CAKEs can be iced for a birthday, SNAIL teeth are one of the strongest substances in the natural world, MIRTH, and Clea DUVALL, OF COURSE.

Happy Thursday!

Peter Gordon’s Fireball crossword, “Character Building—Amy’s recap

Perfect title for the puzzle. Theme revealer: 37a. [Mark called “the typographical equivalent of a grimace or a shrug of the shoulders,” in the New York Times obituary of Martin K. Speckter, its creator], INTERROBANG. That’s a question mark and exclamation point merged into one mark, and I have not seen it used as a grimace or shrug of the shoulders. Anyway, there are eight (I think) rebus squares where it’s a ? across and a ! down, so you can fill those squares with an interrobang if you’re solving on paper. I don’t know how to get an interrobang into a .puz file.

The rebuses are NO? / E! NEWS; “THAT?” / P!INK; “WHEN?” / “HA!”; “IS IT?” / “WOWIE!”; “WHY ME?” / “HERE!”; “WAS I?” / HELLO!; “WHAT?” / “OW!”; and “SO?” / the song “HEY YA!“.

Fave fill: INDY CARS, YOOHOO, THE STING.

Mired in: 59a. [Pocket], SMALL (I guess like a pocketknife?) and 63a. [Tailor, in Turin], SARTO crossing 59d. [Dir. of traffic on Manhattan’s Columbus Avenue], SSW (lots of options if you’re missing that W) and 60d. [Sound at a petting zoo], MAA (could be BAA). Note to self: maybe don’t solve/blog at 1 a.m.

3.5 stars from me.

Rachel Fabi & Brooke Husic’s USA Today crossword, “No, No, and No” — Sophia’s recap

Theme:”No, No, and No” – each of the theme answers start with a contraction that means “will not”.

• 19a [RuPaul’s rhyming catchphrase for a lip-sync winner] – SHANTAY YOU STAY
• 38a [“The ___” (Chaucer stories in which the singular “they” can be found)] – CANTERBURY TALES
• 52a [Sheets for folding dumplings] – WONTON WRAPPERS

It took me forever after solving this puzzle to figure out the theme (well, ok, more like 20 minutes. But it felt like forever!) I think I had a hard time parsing it because of the change in pronunciation of “shant” and “wont” – it took actually typing out the answers for this blog to see the repetition in their meaning. I don’t watch “RuPaul’s Drag Race” so SHANTAY YOU STAY was new to me, although I have heard “Sashay Away” as the show’s send off line, so I had some clue as to the structure of the phrase. I love any food answer so WONTON WRAPPERS was right up my alley, and I was happy to learn a new fact about The CATERBURY TALES as well.

Loved the fill all around today. RAN POINT is a great in the language phrase, THIN MINTs are delicious, and I liked the Jewish representation in the clue for SATURDAY. The grid is a bit segmented but none of the sections are closed off, so they can each be full of  clean entries without disrupting the flow of the grid. I didn’t know SANAA Lathan, SONOYA Mizuno, or Brooke EDEN, but I was happy to learn about them all, and all the crosses were very fair to new solvers.

Other notes:

• Yep, the book title does hyphenate “Bad-ASS” like that. I’m more used to seeing it as a single word so it feels a little off to me. Side note that the book looks incredible and I definitely want to read it now.
• Looking at the grid and clues now, it’s notable that this is not a single white man anywhere in this puzzle.
• Anyone else still playing AMONG us almost a year after the fad began?? Just me and my NERD friends?? OK.
• This puzzle was edited by Amanda Rafkin! I’ll probably start including an editor section in my puzzle headings next week to make sure that Amanda and Erik get the credit they each deserve.

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1399, “Big Box Stores”—Darby’s review

Theme: The shaded, box-shaped squares in the puzzle include the letters spelling out the name of a big box store from left to right in a box.

Theme Answers (Going clockwise from 1a)

• HOME DEPOT (with sections from 9a [“Ecce ____”] HOMO, 15a [“Sparkle with morning moisture”] BEDEW and 17a [“Tools to make béchamel and Bordelaise”] SAUCE POTS)
• TARGET (58a [“Rite site”] ALTAR and 63a [“Early word processor?”] ROGET)
• IKEA (64a [“Things placed by a recording engineer”] MIKES and 67a [“X-ray blocker”] LEAD)
• KROGER (16a [“Steve of ’60 Minutes'”] KROFT, and 19a [“Hand sanitizer targets”] GERMS)

Revealer: 38a [“Systems of transactions made in cryptocurrency spread through a network and a hint to this puzzle’s theme”] BLOCK CHAINS

As always, BEQ coming in with a creative Thursday theme. At first, I had no idea, and I didn’t get the revealer until after I filled in the store names. First, I realized that the shaded letters in the upper right corner with components of 9a [“Ecce ____”], 15a [“Sparkle with morning moisture”] and 17a [“Tools to make béchamel and Bordelaise”] were only missing the E of HOME and the PO of DEPOT. Once I realized that they were store names, it was a game changer for the rest of my fill.

There were certain a few clues that elicited a solid “hmm” from me. I didn’t particularly care for 40a [“They can replace this phrase”] HIS OR HER, as I love thinking of crosswords as a place to move beyond the gender binary. I also tend to hem and HAW (40d [“Turn left”]) over the amount of name clues in a puzzle. This one had a nice range, a few like the fictional 5d [“‘Midnight Cowboy’ nickname] RATSO Rizzo, 15d [“Composer Britten”] BENJAMIN, and 29d [“Monsieur ___ (Jacques Tati role)] HULOT felt a little dated and made for especially tricky fills.

Lastly, in terms of grid shape, I thought the center of the puzzle was aesthetically kind of wonky in a way that I loved.

Other clues that caught my eye:

• 6a [“Three-part shot given to kids, for short”] – This reference to the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine felt especially poignant, especially as boosters are approved for widespread use in the face of COVID. It’s going to be surreal when COVID vaxes and references to coronavirus become a historical crossword norm.
• 13a [“Home to the National Voting Rights Museum”] – I’m definitely excited that this museum, located in SELMA, Alabama, made it into BEQ’s puzzle today. As a big fan of museums, it’s always interesting to learn through crosswords about where certain ones are, adding to my ever-growing list. You can learn more about visiting the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute here.
• 56d [“Google Calendar page, for short”] – I still can’t quite believe this abbreviation for “schedule.” SKED is not a term I have ever used, but Merriam Webster knew it, so my skepticism is slightly reduced. Maybe I’ll work it into my vocabulary.
• 66a [“Waft of smoke”] – PLUME felt very refreshing and is a word I haven’t seen often in puzzles.
• 69a [“Movie with a saloon fight, likely”] – I wanted to fill in WESTERN here, but I was shocked to learn that OATER is a term for Western movies and TV series. Another new term for the genre I picked up was “horse opera.”

Overall, I thought the theme, its answers, and its revealer were awesome. As always, I struggle with older references in BEQ puzzles, but I appreciated the variety and the new terms I picked up today, from OATER to SKED.

Zachary David Levy’s Universal crossword, “Fruitless”— Jim Q’s write-up

THEME: Food/Drinks with fruits in their titles which are actually lacking said fruit as an ingredient.

THEME ANSWERS:

• GRAPE NUTS.
• ORANGE PEKOE. 
• PINEAPPLE BUNS. 

Fun grid! Left/right symmetry and looks rather themeless, doesn’t it? Actually, to me it felt themeless with a “mini-theme” if that makes any sense.

That theme, however, is strong with its three entries.  A reminder that that’s all you need!

Clean, interesting fill results.

And today’s most bizarre clue:

[Name hidden in “vegetarian nachos”]. I wonder if ARIANNA ever noticed?

So far out-there that it’s delightful.

4 stars.

Chris Sablich’s LA Times crossword – Gareth’s summary

Chris Sablich’s puzzle theme today is definitely clever, and very neatly packaged. The revealing answer is PICKUPSTICKS and the other three entries – STRAIGHTPOOL, LACROSSE and a DRUMSOLO are activities that are played with sticks.

Undergarment bifecta:

• • [Lingerie brand], BALI. Worth noting as an alternative clue possibility. I’m not sure I understand what is different about it, but I do know my targeted ads are going to be different now…
  • [Fashion trademark of old-time golfer Gene Sarazen], KNICKERS. This must mean something different to Americans, because over here, those are lingerie, but less alluring.

Gareth