Vasu Seralathan’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Spell Trouble”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases oriented vertically with first words that are also a kind of magical spell. The revealer is HIJINKS (54a, [Pranks and tomfoolery, and a phonetic and positional hint to the starts of 3-, 5-, 9- and 11-Down]).
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Spell Trouble” · Vasu Seralathan · Wed., 7.17.24
- 3d. [Campaigns to gain favor or support] CHARM OFFENSIVES.
- 5d. [Utterance resulting in a swear jar contribution] CURSE WORD.
- 9d. [Tool included with many IKEA kits] HEX WRENCH.
- 11d. [Reagan fiscal policy, to detractors] VOODOO ECONOMICS.
Lovely theme and theme answers, especially the grid spanners. Maybe a detraction for inconsistency in that HEX in its phrase above is etymologically different from its magical homonym whereas all the others are more closely related. And maybe another minor detraction for the plural in the first one, but that’s just being picky. As a solver, I enjoyed this theme set.
The grid design doesn’t allow for long fill entries, but I’m impressed with that center section with stacks of entries crossing two theme answers. Nobody likes ARE SO or its ilk in a grid, but that’s about all for iffy fill in a smooth grid.
Clues of note:
- 5a. [Play director]. COACH. A football play perhaps?
- 23d. [Work J.R.R. Tolkien contributed to]. OED. Good use of an abbreviation to stealthily hint at the answer. Sneaky! Thankfully, I knew that Tolkien was a linguist.
3.75 stars.
Alex Eaton-Salners’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 7/17/24 – no. 0717
Neat idea for a theme! Take AMERICAN / SIGN LANGUAGE signs that are more broadly familiar than most other ASL vocab, and put little drawings of them into the clue space. The signs for YOU’RE WELCOME, I LOVE YOU, PLEASE, and THANKS round out the theme.
Fave fill: ST. LUCIA, ROUGH UP, EAST BERLIN, SHOELACES, and some HONEY-LEMON tea to play off yesterday’s theme. Not that I like honey; if you also don’t like the taste, tell me in the comments!
Fave clue: [Major undertaking?], COLLEGE.
3.75 stars from me.
Robyn Weintraub’s New Yorker crossword – Kyle’s write-up
The New Yorker solution grid – Robyn Weintraub – Wednesday 07/17/2024
Thanks Robyn for today’s puzzle. As usual, it’s a talkative grid: “SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN!”, “I CAN DREAM”, “HOLD MY BEER”. Nice pair of 14s in WEEKEND GETAWAY and AGAINST ALL ODDS. I didn’t see the clue for 38D PAIN while solving, but on review I think it’s the best one in the puzzle: [“Life is ___, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something”: “The Princess Bride”].
Jess Rucks & Carly Schuna’s AV Club Classic crossword, “AV Classic Themeless #77″—Amy’s recap
AV Club Classic crossword solution, 7/17/24 – “AV Classic Themeless #77”
This puzzle got off to a halfhearted start with SGTS, GIA Scala, OMANI, AVIA, and TELE– in the first few rows. But then it picked up with the good stuff. If any of you solvers actually owns any AVIA shoes or apparel, I’d love to see a photo.
Fave fill: “NO WORRIES IF NOT,” “IT ME,” FYRE FEST (I did watch one of the documentaries about that whole mess), Thai DRUNKEN NOODLES, EXTRA FRIES (make mine sweet potato and not from McDonald’s), BUTT DOUBLE, STAR ANISE, GIVING THE FINGER, SEND-OFF, and oh yeah, “I WENT THERE.”
Overall a fairly quick, breezy solve. Fun clue for 27d BUTT DOUBLE: [One who takes other people’s seats at the movies?].
3.25 stars from me.
Larry Snyder’s USA Today Crossword, “Roll the Dice” — Emily’s write-up
Take a chance with this one!
USA Today, July 17, 2024, “Roll the Dice” by Larry Snyder
Theme: each themer contains jumbled “dice” in the middle
Themers:
- 20a. [Common exceptions to a “no pets” rule], SERVICEDOGS
- 39a. [Airport convenience], CURBSIDECHECKIN
- 55a. [Spiced, warm winter drink], MULLEDCIDER
The themer set includes SERVICEDOGS, CURBSIDECHECKIN, and MULLEDCIDER. For each, I needed a few crossings for them but enjoyed their reveal once they were filled. The cluing, while not too tricky, eluded me a bit but everything was fairly crossed so they ended up coming together for me after a couple of passes.
Favorite fill: CHAI, ROTI, and GUAVA
Stumpers: KNAVE (needed crossings), SOCKED (“squirreled” kept coming to mind), and ALOHA (new to me)
Overall, a smooth solve with great fill and nice cluing. I think I was just off today so it just took me longer and I got waylaid due to it. Hopefully you all had an easier time today, which I expect so.
3.5 stars
~Emily
Jerry Edelstein’s LA Times crossword – Gareth’s summary
LA Times
240717
I feel like I’ve seen MINDYOURPSANDQS as a revealer a few times. In Jerry Edelstein’s puzzle, this is interpreted as P.. Q.. across answers, a pretty basic theme. I did really like PULLQUOTE as an answer though, with POINTEDQUESTION and PROMQUEEN completing the set. I do appreciate that all four crossing Q’s are respectable answers (QUA being the sketchiest).
New to me: [Stella __ cookies], DORO – not shown up in the US import aisle yet… Apparently [Cannondale two-seater], TANDEM means Cannondale is a bicycle brand. Their find a dealer tool, suggests I can buy one from a shop in the town twenty minutes drive north of me; it seems plausible, the upper middle class are bicycle crazy in this part of South Africa… [Pitcher Jim who wrote the 1970 memoir “Ball Four”], BOUTON – didn’t even know that the surname existed.
Gareth
NYT: Not my cup of tea, not even within a light-year of my cup of tea.
Because either you knew the signs or you didn’t, and they contributed a negative amount to my enjoyment of the puzzle.
I am so tired of gimmicks that seem to think they are so cute because the transcend the traditional limitations of the crossword.
But it is exactly those limitations that make a great puzzle great, which involves finding novelty and applying ingenuity *within* those limitations.
Had this puzzle never existed, I would have liked it a lot more.
I have some sympathy for your point, but it wasn’t exactly either you knew it or you didn’t, because the answers were not hard to get from the crosses. They were so comfortable to fill in that it took me one minute less than yesterday’s to complete. In fact, I think this one might have been more suitable for a Tuesday, and the puzzles could have been switched. I would argue that it didn’t have to be a great crossword in itself, just a pretty interesting crossword with something new to impart. The non-theme clues were neither too familiar nor too trendy.
I learned a few ASL signs over 30 years ago, including some of the ones in the puzzle, but I didn’t remember any of them. But as Lois noted, the theme answers were easy to get from the crosses, and they all fit a feel-good category.
My time was a bit slower than usual, but it could have just been because I was sleepy.
Do you have the same complaints about clues for foreign-vocab answers? If you don’t oppose French, Spanish, Latin, and Italian content in the NYT crossword, you shouldn’t be mad at this puzzle.
Everyone is welcome to their own opinion about the crossword, but I don’t believe anyone has a right to an opinion about whether my opinion is appropriate or not.
I have traveled to France and Francophone Canada, as well as Mexico and Spain, so I picked up a few of their words, which also occur sporadically in articles and books in English in the U.S.. I have not traveled to Gallaudet University.
You should watch the movie “CODA,” whose main cast is mostly deaf.
I’m somewhere in the middle, but leaning negative. I’d say they’re nice to learn, like any other language (and virtuous to boot), but no question having THAT many answers to work out from crossings alone made the puzzle much harder and less fun for me. Maybe it didn’t help that it was hard for me to read the drawings in a printout, but I wouldn’t have known how to interpret them regardless.
Didn’t enjoy this one. No, the themes weren’t hard to infer, but I’m tired of cheesy graphic gimmicks from what’s supposed to be the premiere crossword puzzle provider.
Respectfully, I wouldn’t call this puzzle a gimmick. I think it was a creative way to broadcast how inclusive puzzles can be! It is also a new challenge where everyone is able to learn a little something new in a fun and experimental way–which is hopefully exactly what you’d want from a “premier” provider.
Definitely interesting conversations however about evolutions brought about by online puzzling.
NYT: I had a different experience with this one from the previous posters. Those are very important ASL signs, ones we could all stand to learn. The diagrams are really well-done, and as Lois said above, the crosses are all fair.
If these “gimmicks” take us out of our comfort zones, that’s all the better. I think it’s great that the NYT crossword explores new ways to express clues; doing so keeps the puzzle from becoming stagnant.
I liked learning that a baby moose could outrun me so early in life (even earlier probably, in my case 😀 ). Overall, a fine puzzle.
My thoughts exactly. A great Wed. puzzle
I agree. The illustrated clues were nicely rendered, and nicely balanced by easy crosses. I finished within just a few seconds of my Wednesday average time, so no complaints here.
The puzzle was well done, and I learned a few things. Two thumbs up!
I liked it, too; I thought it was a fine Wednesday puzzle, and sent it along to a friend, too.
I agree, a very fine puzzle. I don’t know sign language at all, but was able to get through it. The existence of this puzzle enriched my life.
NYT: I learned a little bit of ASL 45 years or so ago, while working a summer job where one of the regular employees used sign language. The sign for “bullshit” is the one I remember, as he used it frequently (though I gather there are multiple versions of it). The sign for “thanks” looked vaguely familiar. “Please” and “you’re welcome” didn’t come up much – it was a grunt work type of job. And “I love you” – nope.
I don’t mind the occasional graphical clue, but I don’t like being pushed to use the NYT app. Guess I could have printed it and solved on paper – but that’s pretty old-school for this 67-year old!
For what it’s worth, Nexus solver showed the graphical clues. I see that the more-commonly-used Across Lite did not.
I solved it on the NYT website (and have been solving the NYT there for a couple years, rather than chasing down a .puz file). It worked absolutely fine. I don’t love solving on a little phone screen, so I rarely ever use the app.
NYT: I really liked the illustrations for the clues. They were all easy enough to get and made sense when you acted the motions out. ASL is a very expressive language. I didn’t see this as a gimmick but as a fun variation to the usual.
Love AmyL’s comments. I agree. Maybe getting you to (mentally) act out the signs was (actually) part of the aim here, too?
I was familiar with “ILY” in ASL (via signing all 3 letters at once, with one hand) – but I was confused by the two-handed image shown. (What the heck? What did I miss there?)
BTW, if Jim Horne has got things right (iffy, I know), today’s the 4th NYT theme using some sort of graphic clues? Jim’s made a page at xword info, documenting 4 from the last year (and change): https://www.xwordinfo.com/PictureClues
In Wordplay, apparently the puzzle itself came before the NYT capabilities for such graphical clues. (I’d guess there was a little nail biting when each of these 4 puzzles was published… in terms of hoping not to make users angry, e.g., via bugs.) Wonder if this was actually the first of the 4 created. (Hmm.)
Essay length clues never please me. The font is so small in Across Lite it’s unreadable. Enlarging it reduces the size of the grid. Bouncing back and forth breaks up the rhythm of the solve, making it an unpleasant experience. I ended up ignoring the long theme clues and solved from crossings. I agree with Frank: “cheesy graphic gimmicks” don’t belong in a NYT puzzle, especially when they’re described verbally. It seems we’re right back to hoping for a fast Shortz recovery and a return to NYT editorial standards.
BTW, is there any word on Will’s recovery?
Except that the graphics aren’t really “described verbally” … at least not with the PUZ file I got from Crossword Scraper. All four of the clues show an image and read “One gesture in 54-/65-Across * This puzzle has an important note. Tap the “i” to read. *”
In the version I downloaded into AL, at the end of each of those very long and hard-to-read clues, there was a file name for the image that was supposed to be in the clue – and the file name was the answer to that clue.
Have you folks in this particular thread tried solving in a browser on the NYT website? It did take me a while to get used to it, but I appreciate having the occasional bells and whistles displayed as the puzzlemaker intended.
Yeah, you’re probably right but I’m old and set in my ways. If I can’t do in Across Lite, I don’t do it.
Hear, hear.
The version I solved had the graphical clues totally blank. It was actually a lot of fun when I figured out what was going on. Talk about an aha moment!
True dat!
Would someone kindly explain ‘I mean it!’ theme from July 17 Universal, with hint clue ‘Excuses are unacceptable’ … answer: no ifs ands or butts?
Starred clue answers: iota, diamondearrings, thehangover, and libertybell ???
Many thanks.
Apologies for not being around to write this one up yesterday. They key is to ignore the letterstrings if, and, but in the starred clues. It’s a clue theme more than an entry theme.
Take 15A IOTA. in the clue “Little bandit,” ignore the “and” and read it as “Little bit.”
Repeat as necessary with the starred clues, ignoring “if” or “but” as the case may be.
Oh pannonica, I must be thick. I still don’t get it. There’s no if, and, or but ‘string’ in iota, thehangover, or libertybell. And if I ignore the and in diamondearrings, I get dimoerrings? And what does that have to do with I mean it??? I’m embarrassed.
Oh wait. You probably meant ‘if’ and ‘but’. But that still doesn’t help me. There’s no ‘f’s or ‘u’s in any of these words? If you have time to explain this to me, I know I’m gonna shake my head in shame. But I’m grateful
See my comment above. The if, ands, and buts are in the clues, not the answers.
Light dawns on marble head. It didn’t register when you said ‘clue theme’ pannonica.
Many thanks Eric H and pannonica both.
You’re welcome.
You’re welcome. I’m glad you came back to see the replies.