Friday, April 21, 2023

Robyn Weintraub’s Inkubator crossword, “Themeless #42″—Amy’s recap

Inkubator crossword solution, 4 21 23, “Themeless #42”

Ahhh, I do always appreciate a Robyn themeless!

Lots of fave fill to shout out: “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” The RED CARPET. Sensibly ON A BUDGET. SNOW GLOBES, [Gifts that recipients are guaranteed to flip over], meaning they’ll flip the snow globes over, but they may well also flip in the “delighted” sense. “LET’S PUT A PIN IN IT.” “OUT, DAMNED SPOT” messiness beside a little “Marie Kondo has three kids now” CLUTTER. A tasty BELLINI (did not know the sub-pomegranate-for-peach version is called a Tintoretto). The delightful and talented QUINTA BRUNSON. And from pediatrics/neonatology, Virginia APGAR of Apgar score fame. (That the score accounts for appearance, pulse, grimace, activity, and respiration threw me off her track for years.)

Fave clue hit me right off the bat: 1a. [You probably don’t want a flat one], which could be so many things. Tire? Foot? Note? It’s a SODA. Also appreciated the 1d crossing, [Type of horse or cucumber?] for SEA. Not to mention the entirely apt [“What the fuuuuuuuck”] for ARE YOU KIDDING ME.

And another thing: The second of the DALIS in the 48d clue is new to me. “The Great Masturbator”! You can read about its various layers here. If you should find yourself in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area, do make time for the Dali Museum in St. Pete, and take a docent-led tour. So fascinating!

4.25 stars from me.

Erica Hsiung Wojcik & Matthew Stock’s New York Times crossword–Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 4 21 23, no. 0421

Wow! This puzzle just has SO many goodies in it. Among my favorite bits are the edibles: OCEAN SPRAY, CARNE ASADA crossing ADOBO, and ESPRESSO. (But a SPITTED pig? YUCK.)

Other highlights: TRANSLATOR with a neat literary clue, [Jorge Luis Borges vis-à-vis William Faulkner or Franz Kafka], and also a SLAM POET. ESPANOL. A retro CALCULATOR WATCH, being a wristwatch with two different functions (it did not, however, track your sleep or heart rate). Idiomatic DATED UP (as in dating someone who’s out of your so-called league). Northern Finnish FORESTS are on display in the first episode of Apple TV+’s Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy. DATA CENTER, “I HAVE TO ASK…,” TORE TO BITS, CUTS A DEAL, A CAPPELLA, STATUS QUO, and SCRIPTURE round out the highlight reel.

The short fill is solid, nothing that blights the enterprise.

Gonna call this one 4.75 stars, as it’s such a lovely example of what a Friday NYT puzzle should be.

Guilherme Gilioli’s Universal crossword, “Spooky!”—Jim’s review

Today’s theme answers have the word HAIR hidden within, and they are each placed in such a way that the word seems to move upward as you scan the finished grid from left to right.

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  Universal crossword solution · “Spooky!” · Guilherme Gilioli · Fri., 4.21.23

  24d. [*Patio seat] LOUNGE CHAIR.

• 5d. [*Carrier to Heathrow] BRITISH AIRWAYS.
• 15d. [*Place to order khao soi (coconut curry noodle soup)] THAI RESTAURANT.
• 10d^R. [*Eerie, and a hint to the word that progresses upward through the starred clues’ answers] HAIR-RAISING.

Nice enough theme with good theme entries. Unfortunately, a theme of this type is never going to be as smooth with a four-letter word as it is with a 3-letter word (in a 15x grid, that is). Specifically, the “movement” is uneven as we progress left to right; it goes up 5 squares from the first entry to the second, then 4 squares, and then 2 squares. Compare that to Mary Lou Guizzo and Jeff Chen’s masterpiece THE DESCENT OF MAN puzzle where the descent is consistent throughout.

But that’s an unfair comparison, and I enjoyed this well enough.

I could say the same for the fill with “SIT STILL,” HOT YOGA, MAD DASH, NIGIRI, and ANAGRAM. I didn’t know TIRANA [Albania’s capital], so I needed all the crossings there, and I keep giving SCANTY [Hardly sufficient] the side-eye. To me it seems like a made-up word — a cross between SCANT and SCANTILY.

Clues of note:

• 18a. [Putting in a position?]. HIRING. The question mark really threw me off; I thought this was going to be about golf.
• 20d. [___ reflex]. GAG. I went with GUT at first and was surprised it turned out to be wrong.

Nice puzzle. 3.75 stars.

David P Williams’ Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up

LAT • 4/21/23 • Fri • Williams • solution • 20230421

Today’s theme takes the concept of “Latin names” (a misnomer for scientific names) loosely, turning common names of animals back into Latin, with the twist that elements are turned into adjectives ending with -ing. Also, homophones (sometimes). Oh and plurals too.

• 17a. [Feles inquisitae?] POLLING CATS (polecat). (Polecats are mustelids.)
• 23a. [Apes ineptae?] BUMBLING BEES (bumblebee). No real change in the meaning or interpretation of ‘bumble’ here.
• 37a. [Ursi dividi?] POLARIZING BEARS (polar bear). This one adds an ‘ize’ element, because that how polar works syntactically.
• 48a. [Cervi dominati?] REIGNING DEER (reindeer).
• 61a. [Porci circumspecti?] HEDGING HOGS (hedgehog). (Hedgehogs are erinaceids.)

It’s an interesting idea and I feel it’s probably okay for the average audience, but since I’m actually trained in mammalian taxonomy it sends me into conniptions.

• 12d [Cold ones] BEERS. Whenever someone says “have a good one” I think of this idiom, not something like a day or whatever.
• 14d [Head space?] SINUS. Succinct and accurate clue.
• 22d [Took someone else’s wheels] UBERED. Because CARJACKED certainly doesn’t fit.
• 28d [Diamonds that don’t sparkle?] BALLFIELDS. Unless perhaps if they are bedewed.
• 1a [Taylor-Joy of “The Menu”] ANYA. Spoiler alert: s’mores are indeed quite terrible.
• 60a [Silly string?] LOL. As in a letter string.
• 67a [Gastropod for gastronomes] SNAIL. Revisiting the taxonomy of the theme, tangentially.

Kelsey Dixon & Rafael Musa’s USA Today crossword, “BFFs”—Darby’s recap

Editor: Erik Agard

Theme: Each theme answer has three words, the first letters of which spell out BFF.

Theme Answers

Kelsey Dixon & Rafael Musa’s USA Today crossword, “BFFs” solution for 4/21/2023

• 14a [“Large bat species found in Australia”] BLACK FLYING FOX
• 35a [“Apple TV+ show about a young amputee starting public school”] BEST FOOT FORWARD
• 61a [“Escapes”] BREAKS FREE FROM

I love that these three themers became BFFs in this puzzle. I’m grateful for the theme itself, since it helped me figured out of these themers, particularly BLACK FLYING FOX and BEST FOOT FORWARD. With two 14s and a 15, I also appreciated the amount of theme content in relation to the puzzle.

The grid itself is just cool to look at, feeling almost like a themeless in some ways because of its open corners. I appreciated the 6s in LURKER, ESSAYS, ASSIST, and NUANCE, which all felt very good and smooth. I GEEKed out seeing 21a [“‘(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay’ singer Redding”] OTIS since I was just listening to that song this morning. I also really liked the inclusion of 23d [“Website with trivia quizzes”] SPORCLE and 11d [“‘Bulls’ and ‘warriors,’ but not ‘heat’ or ‘jazz’”] PLURALS in its reference to a wide variety of basketball team names.

A few other things:

• 44a [“NBA star Antetokounmpo”] – GIANNIS Antetokounmpo plays on the Milwaukee Bucks, and his family is the focus of the 2022 biographical sports film Rise on Disney+.
• 38d [“‘Friends’ actress Jennifer”] – I just watched Murder Mystery 2 with Jennifer ANISTON and Adam Sandler, which I thought was cute and fun.