Sid Sivakumar’s New York Times crossword, “Tones of Voice” — Nate’s write-up
10.08.23 Sunday New York Times Crossword
– 24A: CHANCE [One of three spaces on a Monopoly board]
– 25A: GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY [Special moment exemplified by 24-Across]
(CHANCE is an OPPORTUNITY with a gold N)
– 34A: AVIATION [The Wright stuff?]
– 36A: RED EYE FLIGHT [Air travel option exemplified by 34-Across]
(AVIATION is FLIGHT with a red I)
– 56A: BLEND [This and that]
– 58A: BROWNIE MIX [Baking aisle purchase exemplified by 56-Across]
(a BLEND is a MIX with a brown E)
– 68A: VESSELS [Containers]
– 72A: GRAVY BOATS [Thanksgiving table sights exemplified by 68-Across]
(VESSELS are BOATS with a gray V)
– 88A: PLEDGE [Sister-to-be, say]
– 91A: PINKY PROMISE [Agreement exemplified by 88-Across]
(PLEDGE is a PROMISE with a pink E)
– 98A: COLORFUL CHARACTER [Interesting person … or what’s included phonetically, five times in this puzzle]
Wow – what a neat idea! In each pair of themers, the longer entry (like PINKY PROMISE) is reimagined phonetically (pink E promise), and then a synonym with a letter that color (PLEDGE) is also included just beforehand in the grid. What a mind bender of a construction process to get this all to fit so smoothly! From Sid’s constructor notes at Wordplay, it seems that RED EYE FLIGHT was the genesis of this idea, but I’d love to know if there were other examples that ended up on the cutting room floor. So fun!
Random thoughts:
– As expected with Sid’s grids, this was a smooth solve for me. The only place I got stuck was in the top middle – CAEN / ALTO / CORP / WET RAG / OH GOD YES just wouldn’t fall for me until the end. LAG / LOGY was also a tough crossing for me.
– What a cool bit of trivia about VERMONT / Montpelier at 22A!
– I didn’t love that the clue for ARABIA overlooked a vibrant collection of cultures and history … for oil. I did, on the other hand, love the clue of [iPhone charger?] for APPLE PAY.
– I loved the meta moment of this grid looking, perhaps, like the start of a HOLI festival, with the colorful squares standing in for the “multihued poweders.” How gorgeous would a HOLI-themed grid look?
That’s all for now. What did you think of the puzzle? Let us know in the comments section – and have a great weekend! (And keep your eyes peeled for Tuesday’s NYT byline …) : D
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword, “In Retrospect” — Matt’s write-up
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword solution, “In Retrospect,” 10/8/2023
This oversized (21×25) grid accommodates ten pairs of themers. The second entry in each pair is clued with the phrase “Looking back…”, signifying that the entry is a mirror image of the first half of the pair. As you can imagine, the clues are a bit wacky, to make it work:
- 23a & 24a: RUFFLE / ELF FUR
- 26a & 28a: EDIT WAR / RAW TIDE
- 45a & 47a: FLATBED / DEBT ALF
- 56a & 57a: LAGGARD / DRAG GAL
- 73a & 75a: EVEN FLOW / WOLF NEVE
- 84a & 89a: CASH CROP / PORCH SAC
- 106a & 108a: TRACTOR / ROT CARD
- 120a & 122a: IM ALIVE / EVIL AMI
- 133a & 137a: ONE O CAT / TACO ENO
- 143a & 145a: NORRIS / SIR RON
Circles in the grid ensure that we don’t miss the last layer of the theme: the first (and last) letter of each pair spells out REFLECTION, from top to bottom.
Fans of Evan’s Captain Obvious series will enjoy this puzzle, I think. The cluing necessary to get us to ELF FUR, PORCH SAC, and TACO ENO, for example, dives right into that sense of humor. A solver who might be less of a fan can end-around the particularly offbeat clues once they recognize the theme and complete the more straightforward first halves. I particularly appreciate the decision to go extra-tall to make REFLECTION fit. A little more payoff from a somewhat straightforward theme. I did find the fill a bit heavier on names than usual. Not sure if that means “actually heavy” or simply “heavier with names I don’t know as readily.”
Some notes:
- 53a [CD or LP, e.g.] BIGRAM. This caught me – much like a deft surface reading of a clue for ANAGRAM
- 116a [“Our Flag Means Death” activity] PIRACY. I would have bought that “Our Flag Means Death” was a line from a historic letter or speech from the Age of Pirates, but turns out it’s the name of a current television series. I could do to widen my cultural net.
- 130a [Wedged strip] SHIM. Here’s a word I haven’t seen in a while. I also haven’t had need to use one in a while – most of my table and chair legs have adjustable feet.
- 4d [Having better defense?] SAFER. I was somewhat thrown off by the ? indicator here, which had me looking for something more twisty. I imagine the thought was that the straightforward reading suggested a sports angle, while the intended reading is that someone with better defenses, at their home or fort or what have you, is SAFER.
- 21d [Mrs., in Móstoles] SRA. Móstoles is new to me – a suburb (? does Europe have suburbs?) of Madrid.
- 37d [Ballpark promo in which fans get clubs] BAT DAY. I suppose baseball bats are indeed “clubs,” though I don’t think of them that way, unless a crossword needs to clue “bats”
Dylan Schiff’s Universal Sunday crossword, “Thanks for Nothing!”—Jim’s review
We have two-part theme entries today. The entries with the starred clues are synonyms of the revealer phrase: IT’S ON THE HOUSE (124a, [“Your money is no good here” … and a literal description of each answer to the starred clues]). Immediately below these entries are phrases that contain a word that can also mean “house.”
Universal Sunday crossword solution · “Thanks for Nothing!” · Dylan Schiff · 10.8.23
- 23a. [Place for pegging] CRIBBAGE BOARD underneath NO CHARGE. Did a double-take with that clue. This is a family venue, isn’t it?
- 46a. [Lively bashes] SHINDIGS underneath FREE.
- 59a. [Property co-owner] JOINT TENANT underneath GRATIS.
- 89a. [Brillo product] ABRASIVE PAD underneath PRO BONO.
- 102a. [Loverboy] CASANOVA underneath COMPED.
Solid theme. I can’t say I got a lot of excitement out of it, but it does the job.
Having stacked theme entries forces a lot of constraints on the construction, but given that, the fill is quite nice. I especially like that SW corner with MECCA, CROATIANS, SAMSONITE, and SPANGLE crossing the themers. I’m giving IN THE GATE the side-eye, but other goodies include GASTRITIS, BEST DRAMA, WRINKLES, MAC USER, “NOT THAT!,” REST EASY, FIEFDOM, MEAT PIES, and RENEGADE. I didn’t know the Springsteen song ONE STEP UP by its title, but it definitely got some airplay.
Not sure I’ll ever be okay with OKED meaning “okayed.”
Clues of note:
- 30a. [Curry on the court]. SETH. Aw, come on now. Just when I felt confident that I knew Steph Curry, along comes his younger brother.
- 131a. [Its days are numbered]. CALENDAR. Good clue there.
- 62d. [Risk concern?] TERRITORY. From the board game.
Solid theme. Good fill. 3.75 stars.
Matthew Stock’s USA crossword, “Get’cha Head in the Game!”—Darby’s review
Editor: Amanda Rafkin
Theme: HEAD is tucked into each theme answer between two wods.
Theme Answers
Matthew Stock’s USA crossword, “Get’cha Head in the Game!” solution for 10/08/2023
- 17a [TV show featuring Morticia and Wednesday] THE ADDAMS FAMILY
- 36a [Music artist with the 2018 EP “Seen It All”] SHEA DIAMOND
- 60a [“How great is that guy of yours?] IS HE A DOLL OR WHAT?
We continue the High School Musical Madness in USA Today with “Get’cha Head in the Game.” The first appeared on September 3rd and the second on September 17th. I loved that this had two grid-spanning themers with the ADDAMS FAMILY and IS HE A DOLL OR WHAT? With six words in the latter of those, I initially had a tough time figuring it out at first, and likewise was unfamiliar with SHEA DIAMOND. The crosses in the center were especially fair, and though I struggled for some reason to figure out 30d [Garb you don’t want to be seen in] CAMO, I was ableto use APED, MINI, YOGA, WHEE, EAST, and OUST to really help with it. I similarly struggled in the lower half of the puzzle with 48d [To boot] AT THAT and 45d [Celebrity chef Hall] CARLA, though I think that the crosses themselves were fair to help me figure out IS HE A DOLL OR WHAT.
I loved how the upper two corners allowed for stacking 7s and the lower two for stacking 6s. I thought that 3d [Direct paths] BEELINES, 13d [“Are you really sure that’s a rule?”] SAYS WHO, and 1d [Powerful, wealthy people] FAT CATS were especially good. I also thought that 43d [“Goodness gracious!”] MY OH MY was very cute.
A few other faves
- 36a [Music artist with the 2018 EP “Seen It All”] – Two of SHEA DIAMOND’s songs appeared on soundtrack for the queer rom-com Happiest Season in 2020.
- 44a [“What’s up, ___?” (Bugs Bunny’s catchphrase)] – I appreciate the continuing salience of Bugs Bunny’s “What’s up, DOC?” catchphrase, even as Looney Tunes seem to appear less and less.
- 66a [“I’ll keep you___ (“Details to come”)] – As always, I love the cluing of things colloquially, and so “I’ll keep you POSTED” was solid.
NYT – Even with a typo that took a bit to find this was one of the top two or three solving times for me. I don’t speed-solve – it was very easy. That isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy it, though. It’s a nice theme well executed.
NYT: I have sometimes struggled with Sid Sivakumar’s puzzles, as his clueing style often doesn’t jibe with my solving style.
Not today. This was a quick, mostly smooth solving process. I got a little bogged down in the NE where CHANCE was slow to come (I really don’t care much for Monopoly and haven’t played it about 50 years). Then I had a mistake to find, where I had put REdO rather than RENO.
I liked the colorful theme, which I picked up on quickly, with RED-EYE FLIGHTS.
I got the theme pretty quickly, but that top portion was the last to drop in for me as well. Really fun idea!
NYT: Yes, a very smooth Sunday with a creative theme that looks better the more you think about it. And very nicely explained by Nate.
I had a typo and it turned out to be at the intersection of LAG and LOGY.
NYT I always print out the puzzle in black and white and solve it with a pencil (and a good eraser). I saw no reason to do anything differently this time. I succeeded in solving the puzzle, though I was somewhat mystified by the “as examplified” clues. I had no idea that I was missing anything until I came here and saw Nate’s discussion and puzzle. Wow!!
I work from a printout weekdays, but I get the weekend NYT delivered, so I lucked out and could see color today. Unfortunately, I couldn’t always guess which colors they had in mind. I was trying to make sense of yellow for gold and violet or maybe purple for pink. Not at all the same.
But the theme carried me through, even if it diminished the experience a tad. Mostly the fill worked for me, too, and I’ll spare you the exceptions.
I was looking forward to seeing how the AcrossLite solvers who are in the majority here would find it. There’s often an outcry when a feature doesn’t translate well into puz. But so far a highly favorable reaction, so who am I to complain? Exactly what they saw of course I couldn’t tell you.
I solve using the Black Ink app so the theme was lost on me. After completing the grid I guessed something was up so I went to the NYT app. I could see that some squares were colored but I’m color blind. So this theme, even though it’s clever, didn’t do it for me.
I was thus prompted to re-take this online color sensitivity test. It seems more compact than I recall, but I still scored a perfect zero. Yay, me!
Zero is good, right? That’s what I got — at least I think I did. The scoring page seems to have information missing and there’s no explanation of what the results mean.
Zero is best, perfect.
I scored 16. I didn’t see anything to help me interpret my results. Just a graphic with colors and lines
I think I used a slightly bad link—perhaps the one from my result.
Going to try this one.
eta: yes, that was it. Apologies. (original link fixed also)
Late to this, but a great little quiz! I got zero also. Thanks, Erica.
I am delighted to report that the online version did have the colored boxes … I believe that to be a first. Now if the NYT would provide online solvers with the NAME of the puzzle as well as the INTRODUCTORY COMMENTS that hard copy solvers are privy to, I’d be a happy camper.
I am convinced that today’s NYT puzzle by Sid Sivakumar is an homage to Will Shortz, who began as the puzzle editor for that newspaper almost exactly 30 years ago (November 21, 1993) with a puzzle Will wrote that is similarly based on colors.
(I didn’t know that cacao beans are the least bit sweet. They are?)
The beans are not. The clue, however, refers to the pulp, which definitely is.
Wikipedia: “A cocoa pod… has a rough, leathery rind… filled with sweet, mucilaginous pulp….”
I believe that 1993 puzzle was written by Peter Gordon, but it was the first edited by Will Shortz. That doesn’t change your theory in the least, however.
I had long thought Will wrote that puzzle. Thank you for the correction.
Uni … I had to look up what a “keg stand” is after this solve. Yikes! Do people actually do this? Why and how did it ever occur to anyone to do it? I get that it’s a stunt, but it sure seems like a good way to get seriously injured or maybe even dead.
I didn’t understand the clue for HOVER BIKES either. “Floating cyberpunk vehicles”? Wikipedia informs me that ‘cyberpunk’ is a genre of science fiction of which I wasn’t aware. I gather that whatever HOVER BIKES are are popular in that genre?
Yes, yes. I know. I’m old. I shudder to think of how foreign the world will seem to me in 20 years (God-willing).