Friday, March 24, 2023

Blake Slonecker’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 3 24 23, no. 0324

What a bonkers grid! A bunch of black dashes sprinkled throughout the diagram.

Fave fill: SELTZER, CROSSOVER ARTIST, LINE DANCERS (gotta love your Electric Slide), MOIST TOWELETTES, “NOTHING PERSONAL,” MEADOWS. The down side of this grid layout with seven 15-letter answers is that more than half of the entries are 3- and 4-letter words or phrases, many of them of the clunky/glue variety. (Think ABIE, OSSO, EEE, I LIE, EMIR, SRA, G-MEN.)

Three things:

• 8a. [British singer/songwriter ___ Parks], ARLO. I first learned of Arlo Parks from a Brooke Husic puzzle in the first These Puzzles Fund Abortion crossword pack a couple-three years ago. Still hadn’t encountered the name anywhere else until this puzzle came along. She’s an indie artist, with a few songs that have registered on the Billboard “adult album alternative” chart, so not a mainstream star yet.
• 48d. [___ Barnacle, on whom Molly Bloom of “Ulysses” was based], NORA. Barnacle?? James Joyce was married to one Nora Barnacle. Did not know this! And I read Ulysses (well, most of it…) in college.
• 51a. [___ saltado (stir-fried dish with sliced beef)], LOMO. Somehow I knew this even though I do not eat beef.

I learned POPO was slang for the [Fuzz] from the medical drama House. A cop had some rare disease that made him alarming to others. “You high, popo?” has been part of my lexicon ever since!

3.5 stars from me. Onward to the weekend!

Dennis Nullet’s Universal crossword, “Topped Off”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar phrases of the form x-“top” y, but instead of including the word “top,” the x sits atop the y.

Universal crossword solution · “Topped Off” · Dennis Nullet · Fri., 3.24.23

• 17a. [*Ride with a soft fabric roof] CONVERTIBLE with 14a RAG makes it a RAGTOP CONVERTIBLE.
• 29a. [*Workstation in a coffee shop, maybe] COMPUTER with 26a LAP makes it a LAPTOP COMPUTER.
• 47a. [*They don’t cover ankles] SNEAKERS with 43a LOW makes them LOWTOP SNEAKERS.
• 62a. [*Software program that doesn’t run on phones or the web] APPLICATON with 58a DESK makes it a DESKTOP APPLICATION.

Nice little gimmick that was easy to grok but which still required just a little bit of work to complete the subsequent entries. It didn’t matter to me that the “top” words were in different positions relative to their main entries. Those top words were easily identified with their [See x-Across] clues. All in all, a solid theme with a nice little twist.

We have solid long fill as well: VERSATILE, POWERLESS, NO-RISK, PING ME, HAN SOLO, GO TO SEA, and “I WANT IN!” [“Gimme a piece of that action!”]. This last one gave me trouble because I stuck with I WANT IT for far too long, giving me PITG ME in the Down direction. The actual answer fits the clue better and is more fun than my erroneous entry. Not so keen on IS INTO, but it was quickly gotten past.

Clues of note:

• 1a. [“I’m open to all questions,” online]. AMA. Short for Ask Me Anything on Reddit. Is this in use outside of Reddit?
• 34a. [Loser to scissors]. PAPER. German comedian Flula concludes PAPER has no place in this game and offers a sensible alternative. (See video below.)
• 18d. ___ actor (cartoon line reader)]. VOICE. Not a fan of that particular parenthetical hint. I think the industry uses “animation” and “animated film” more these days. And VOICE actors do a lot more than just animation: There’s audiobooks, video games, and commercial voice-over work. Try this instead: [___ actor (one who reads with animation?)].
• 32d. [“Send a text”]. PING ME. Is this one of those Kids These Days things? I don’t know that I’ve heard the phrase before, but I like it.

Good puzzle. 3.75 stars.

Samantha Podos Nowak & Katie Hale’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up

LAT • 3/24/23 • Fri • Nowak, Hale • solution • 20230324

Featuring a perfect revealer, which must have been the springboard for the theme.

• 53a^R [Modern way into a building, and what each answer to 20-, 29-, and 43-Across needs to be to match its clue?] KEYLESS ENTRY. The relevant letters have helpfully been circled for the solver.
• 20a. [Portrait painter who specializes in primates?] {ESC}APE ARTIST.
• 29a. [Foot, essentially?] LEG{AL T}ENDER.
• 43a. [Pilot’s standard routine after leaving the gate?] RUNWAY MO{DEL}. M.O. for modus operandi.

Nice too that each of the keys is a three-letter abbr.

• 4d [Short-tailed weasel] STOAT. I recently watched Rob Roy (1995)—don’t ask—and one of my favorite lines is “That Montrose is a stoat of a man.”
• 5d [Came down, with “up”] SOBERED. Cute observation.
• 21d [Sheepdogs from Hungary] PULIS. I waited to see if it would be the more indigenous plural form pulik.
• 31d [Military police procedural] NCIS. TIL that it stands for Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
• 33d [ __ toy] CHEW. Recently featured in a SCOTUS case.
• 8a [Cold feet or cold shoulder] IDIOM. Now thinking of a tasteless clown joke from decades ago.
• 24a [Tiny amount] SOU, crossed by 22d [Letter before kappa] IOTA.
• 36a [Maze choices] PATHS. I recently heard on the radio that there’s an essential difference between a maze and a labyrinth. I suspect, however, that it doesn’t apply to the Minotaur’s labyrinth of Greek myth. There’s also a worldwide labyrinth locator.
• 59a [Piece of maguro] TORO. This is a sushi clue.
• 60a [Stable issue] FOALS. Issue in the sense of offspring or progeny.

Very solid crossword.