Malaika Handa’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 7/12/24 – no. 0712
I didn’t really have an untimed solved. I kept dozing off before 9 p.m. puzzle time, which is not like me, so I finished in 7:43 but nodded off a couple times along the way. Not the puzzle’s fault! Just sleepy here.
Lots of lively fill. My faves: SHORTBREAD, PAPER ROUTE, CRAZY STRAW (actually saw some of these at CVS yesterday; loved crazy straws as a kid but have since learned a hair too much about biofilms to go anywhere near them), ESPRESSO MARTINI, HAND-PICK, DIGITAL ART, HELLO KITTY, POST MALONE (yes, he has a lot of face tattoos, but he is also a singer, not just a rapper), the great “TRY TO KEEP UP,” SHARK ATTACK, voting exhortation “STAY IN LINE.”
New to me: 56a. [Cosmetics brand whose name sounds like a dessert], TARTE. I’m not much for makeup.
25d. [Frequent Ja Rule collaborator], ASHANTI. I do know the 2001 collabo “Always on Time” but I still tried the late AALIYAH here first. The two 7-letter A women born about a year apart share a dusty corner of my brain.
Four stars from me.
Renee Thomason and Zhouqin Burnikel’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up
LAT • 7/12/24 • Fri • Thomason, Burnikel • solution • 20240712
We’ve got reversals today. I knew something was going on when the unimpeachable crossing downs for the first theme answer were yielding apparent gibberish.
- 61aR [Classic film with a time-traveling DeLorean, and an apt description of 17-, 24-, 38-, and 52-Across] BACK TO THE FUTURE. The cited entries all have the same clue.
- 17a. [On the horizon] {AROUND THE CORNER}
- 24a. [On the horizon] {SOMEDAY SOON}
- 38a. [On the horizon] {YET TO COME}
- 52a. [On the horizon] {IN DUE COURSE}
Works for me.
- 3d [Go long?] RUN LATE. Nice, and a sort of counterpoint to the theme.
- 8d [Thai skewers] SATAY. Originated in Indonesia, but there are far fewer Indonesian than Thai restaurants in the States.
- 16d [Burrito option] SALSA. 31a [Burrito option] ASADA.
- 40d [Suffix with ump-] -TEEN. The ump part comes from umpty, meaning ‘such-and-such’. According to m-w.com, umpty is “probably [an] alteration of -enty (as in twenty, seventy), which makes the resultant umpteen weirdly recursive and almost nonsensical.
- 63d [LAX safety team] TSA. “safety”
- 64d [Young fig.] ERA. Cy Young award?
- 29a [Counter attacker] ANT. I guess the implication is that an ANT is an attacker (of sorts) that is often seen on countertops, not that they attack counters. Anyway, I’m now musing about formica.
- 66a [Cookies with a Sour Patch Kids flavor] OREOS. Oh no; why?
- 69a [Mangyshlak Peninsula‘s continent] ASIA. It’s in Kazakhstan and projects into the Caspian Sea. “The peninsula’s name stems from Ming Qishlaq, which means ‘1000 winter encampments’ in Turkic languages.”
Dylan Schiff’s Universal crossword, “Go to Great Lengths”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases whose outer letters spell out a unit of length. The revealer is EXTREME MEASURES (60a, [Drastic actions, or what the noted letters literally are]).
Universal crossword solution · “Go to Great Lengths” · Dylan Schiff · Fri., 7.12.24
- 17a. [Small dog with curly fur (In this answer, note the first 2 and last 2 letters)] MINIATURE POODLE. Mile.
- 23a. [Cuban sandwich condiment (… first letter and last 3 letters)] YELLOW MUSTARD. Yard.
- 39a. [Dance in 4/4 time (… first 2 and last 2 letters)] FOXTROT. Foot.
- 52a. [Conspiring alongside (… first 3 letters and last letter)] IN CAHOOTS WITH. Inch.
Let’s get this out of the way: If we’re going to have parenthetical letter-counting hints, I’m sure glad they can be wholly ignored by those of us with circles in the grid. I wonder if there will ever come a day when such hints can be dispensed with.
With that said, solid theme smoothly executed. I like the grid-spanners, and I especially like that the units of length are in a logical order (in this case descending in length).
Fill highlights include FAIR CATCH (though those who don’t watch American football might not know the term), DID BATTLE, and POTLUCK. Thankfully, I never even saw the entry HORAN [One Direction bandmate Niall] because I would’ve needed every crossing.
Clue of note: 71a. [Had a hunch]. KNEW. Well, I guess if we use “KNEW” rather loosely.
3.5 stars.
I think today may have been my best Friday time ever. 9:11.
NYT was a pleasant puzzle but less challenging than I like for a Friday. The NW was the only area that held me up a little. I needed several crosses to come up with SHORTBREAD (since neither cake nor scones were going to fit), and CRAZYSTRAW was new to me. I refer to them as bendy straws, unless they’re different from what I’m thinking of.
Also: if you must use straws (and really, do you have to?) use paper ones, people!
I was sleepy when I solved the NYT last night, and it took me a few minutes longer than I would’ve expected. I never got stuck anywhere, which is always nice.
CRAZY STRAW is new to me, too. I think it’s referring to something with multiple loops and reversals, unlike the bendy straw with a concertina hinge (which I have just learned is officially called an articulated straw).
About the only time I use a straw is if we get popcorn and a soda at a movie. The pandemic killed our movie-going habit and we haven’t been to the theater in months.
Ah, I’m sure you’re right about the crazy straw.
Lovely grid. I suppose they are trying to make themeless puzzles more accessible but it still feels odd to see clues like [French for “eight”] and [___ Lama] on a Friday.
Agreed. Save the softballs for easy mode!
The puzzle felt weird. At first it did seem way too easy for a Friday, but then I kept running into so much unfamiliar or odd to me, some of it needed in crossings. I see it’s a popular puzzle, but it just didn’t go down well for me.
I didn’t know ASHANTI, at least in this sense, but could work it out pretty easily from crossings and the familiarity in other uses; ditto the cosmetic brand. I started with EXPRESSO and didn’t now the rapper, but it kinda sorta felt he had to begin POST, so ESPRESSO it was. I didn’t know Dennings (and her list of roles looks god awful) and thought the clue for the rather dated ‘TIS wasn’t pointing me to the past, but the only alternative to KAT, Kay, gave YIS, which was obviously wrong. I still don’t get LED = RAN. Oddly enough “bled” would work, but I was disappointed at hopes then for a rebus.
That left the NW, which was a disaster for me. I don’t associate SHORTBREAD with tea and halted at BREAD. Classic had sure better mean “ancient history” if we’re talking about a PAPER ROUTE. (I first thought of supermarket checkout or waiting tables and was at least grateful they didn’t claim your first job is still taking memos down in ink.) I’d never heard of CRAZY STRAW or OPAL in Winn-Dixie, and “forever homes” was new to me, too, only nice to learn. I think of “get with the program” as meaning stop refusing to comply, not slowness. So a dreadful quadrant. (Incidentally, I was glad for BRS, since BRM or maybe it was BDRM, I foreget in another recent puzzle still feels wrong to me.)
“I still don’t get LED = RAN”
The boss ran=led the activity.
Led = Ran: “run” as in the sense of directing. “When she RAN the company, it had its three most profitable years ever.” “When she LED the company, it had its three most profitable years ever.” same meaning
NW was tricky for me too; I had SHORTBREAD, PAPER, and CRAZY all in, but tried BDR and BTH for the rental abbreviation before realizing is was PAPER ROUTE. I also wanted SYMPATHY as the accompaniment for “tea” but alas… that will have to wait for another puzzle I suppose. Pretty Good Friday, if a little easy.
NYT: Loved it. Just about my speed. And my favorite– TRY TO KEEP UP.
Also some clever cluing without going over the top. Well done, all involved!
LAT: Lovely theme … but the CATCHER wears a MITT; a fielder wears a GLOVE.
Unless the fielder plays first base
Lifelong baseball and softball addict here … In my experience, MITT and glove are completely interchangeable words irrespective of position on the field.
For a clue, it’s fine. However, many fans are a bit more precise with the terminology. I’d say a catcher’s mitt and a first baseman’s mitt are two types of baseball gloves. While mitts are gloves, I wouldn’t be comfortable saying all gloves are mitts. A mitt (mitten) lacks fingers.
sanfranman59: Not.
https://baseballrulesacademy.com/official-rule/mlb/3-05-1-13-first-basemans-glove/
A first baseman can wear a mitt {ugh, that still annoys me], but glove and mitt are NOT interchangeable.
My bad … I’m an idiot
LAT: pannonica “I’m now musing about formica”… LOL!! Ants…Formicidae … formica..countertops… did we have to go there? best/worst thought for today…
I think it’s very cool that Formica counters owe their names (and composition) to ants.
Formica is made of squashed ants? Eeew!
Sorta. Ants, including those of genus Formica, spray a defensive liquid that was named for them: formic acid. A derivative, formaldehyde, is a key ingredient in phenolic resin, the early plastic used to make veneers for counters. It was invented by Westinghouse as an insulator, a substitute “for mica.” The company that spun off to market it chose Formica as a brand, quite coincidentally coming full-circle to the little guys who started it all.
Next your gonna tell me that Johnson’s baby oil really IS made from …
(Kidding of course… Just playing on the trend of thought)
And thanks for the history of formica, it is interesting!
Totally cool replies here, and I learned something new. TY to you all!
xkcd: So, did anyone else see today’s xkcd comic? https://xkcd.com/2957/#
Without posting a total spoiler here, some clues were more fun than others, but I appreciated the “all in” spirit of it…
Finally, since some folks enjoy learning new words, bonus points if anyone can figure out that “full” word (not just “every 3rd letter”) referenced by 18-Across. (Hint: it’s a bit obscure, but it is in M-W.)
NYT: I honestly loathe the clue for DIGITAL ART. DALL-E does not create ART. It generates graphics or images or pictures–ART is something only a conscious being can make. DALL-E does not have an imagination or a desire to communicate anything, it has no theory of mind, it is not creative.
From the OpenAI Web site: “DALL·E 2 is an AI system that can create realistic images and art from a description in natural language.” While most talk about AI-generated images has been whether the creation of functional graphics will put people out of work or whether fake photos will harm their subjects, there have certainly been articles in The Times about AI-generated art gaining credibility and attention.
I suspect they’re wrong, the work in question looks dreadful, and The Times loves “man bites dog” stories, but still it’s clearly in the public dialogue. And the Whitney had a show just this year of an artist who trained a predecessor of today’s AI to make art. You sure with art as something only we can create that you’re not just pushing an agenda?
Oh, the artist at the Whitney was Harold Cohen, who named AI assistant AARON. Here’s my review of it in April.
https://www.haberarts.com/2024/05/a-mind-of-its-own/
And I should add that Refik Anadol, an artist at MoMA not long before, had a video projection in the lobby that became quite popular and that he claimed was an AI digital tour of or riff on the museum’s collection.