Andy Kravis’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 7/26/24 – no. 0726
Fun one, lots of crisp fill, right on target for Friday difficulty.
Fave fill: “I’M OUTTA HERE,” BARTLEBY the Scrivener, SLAM DUNK CONTEST, DOBERMAN, PROPHECY, ANGIE THOMAS (The Hate U Give is her best-known book, but having the entry touch HATING bugged me a bit), Jason MOMOA, FRATERNAL twins, DEADHEAD, “OH, BEHAVE,” STAR SIGN, TERM LIMIT, SEA SNAKE.
Three other things:
- Tricky clue for that spanner. 36a. [Jam session?], SLAM DUNK CONTEST. You leap up and jam the ball into the basket, is that the gist here?
- With PIT being the answer to 26a. [Center of a 63-Across], I wanted 63a. [Divisive pizza topping] to be a PEACH. What? It would be good! Alas, it’s an OLIVE, which is indeed divisive as I will fight you if you want to put olives on my pizza.
- 54a. [Predictive text?] is a terrific and tricky clue for PROPHECY. Create your own! Start typing “My prophecy is” on your phone and see where the predictive text takes you. Mine took me to prophesying completion of paperwork to get my mom some money?
Four stars from me.
Katherine Baicker and Laura Dershewitz’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up
LAT • 7/26/24 • Fri • Baicker, Dershewitz • solution • 20240726
A 16×15 grid today.
- 61aR [“Straight up, please,” to match 17-, 25-, 37-, and 51-Across?] MAKE IT NEAT. Okay, we could get into the weeds here with neat, straight up, straight, and up. Shorter version is that straight up can mean the same thing as neat—that is, a drink poured directly from the bottle, with no mixers or (relevant here) ice involved in the preparation. Ideally, the terms employed should only be ‘neat’ and ‘up’, with the ambiguous ‘straight’ and ‘straight up’ left by the wayside. Anyway, the trigram I-C-E is missing from the original phrases, wackifying them.
- 17a. [Orientation for new senators?] POL ACADEMY (police academy).
- 25a. [“Margaret won’t be in the comedy showcase”?] YOU HAVE NO CHO (… choice).
- 37a. [Exclamation when a product lives up to the hype?] THE PR IS RIGHT (… price …).
- 51a. [Tables and chairs that wobble?] OFF FURNITURE (office …).
Drink up.
- 3d [Smaller than sm.] LI’L. 61d [Larger than sm.] MED.
- 4d [Bitter brews] TEAS. Seems a little skewed, but I see it’s to echo 63d [Bitter brews] ALES.
- 11d [Beach homes?] SAND CASTLES. I guess this works.
- 24d [Permafrost predators] ARCTIC FOXES. Last I knew, it was Alopex lagopus, but it seems that some taxonomic revision has occurred and it’s been placed back in genus Vulpes, which is where most foxes reside.
- 36d [Pickup alternative] SHIP. I see these options when ordering things online.
- 46d [Bargain footwear chain] DSW, which I believe stands for Designer Shoe Warehouse.
- 48a [Red and blue] PURPLE. “America is not red or blue but purple—purple like a bruise.” —Sarah Kendzior
- 52d [Server error?] FAULT. This is about tennis.
- 16a [Raises or rises] REARS. Nice.
- 59a [Muddle] MIX UP. Unrelated to the theme, although preparing cocktails can involve both muddling and mixing ingredients.
- 68a [Source of waste] HASTE. In a phrase, or an old SAW (55a [Circular __ ]).
Rebecca Goldstein and Amie Walker’s Universal crossword, “Olympic Commentary”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases repurposed as exclamatory sporting praise.
Universal crossword solution · “Olympic Commentary” · Rebecca Goldstein and Amie Walker · Fri., 7.26.24
- 3d. [Kudos to an Olympic weightlifter?] “WHAT A JERK!”
- 7d. [Kudos to an Olympic boxer?] “MONSTER HIT!”
- 11d. [Kudos to an Olympic fencer?] “NICE TOUCH.”
- 44a. [Kudos to an Olympic gymnast?] “SWEET ROLL!”
- 58a. [Kudos to an Olympic rugby player?] “GOOD TRY!”
Interesting grid design made necessary by the fact that the theme answers are 10-, 9-, 9-, 9-, and 7-letters long (i.e. impossible to arrange with traditional crossword symmetry). It’s fortuitous that MONSTER HIT can cross SWEET ROLL at its 5th letter (but then NICE TOUCH also has a T at that same spot). In the end, the theme is fun and the design is still symmetrical while allowing for some juice non-theme fill.
Speaking of which, highlights include EMPANADAS, ROYAL TITLE, OSCAR MAYER, TEA KETTLE, “EASY NOW,” SITE MAP, and TAG TEAM. That’s a truly impressive collection on top of a fun theme. Kudos!
Clue of note: 65a. [Pimienta’s partner, at a Spanish table]. SAL. TIL (today I learned) the Spanish word for “pepper” is “pimienta.”
Enjoy the Games! Four stars.
NYT: As fine as the 1968 film “Powers of Ten” (rereleased in 1977) was …
… it was entirely based on an earlier book ,”Cosmic View: The Universe in 40 Jumps” written by Kees Boeke in 1957.
Maybe the book was “landmark”, but I would not use that word for a film entirely based on a previous book, and especially not for the film’s rerelease.
(The clue was “Powers of ___, landmark 1977 film” for TEN.)
FWIW, the 1977 “rerelease” is quite different from the earlier version. According to Wikipedia, “the 1977 version was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being ‘culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.’ ” That would seem to be enough to justify the clue as worded.
NYT: Fun clueing throughout, though only [Predictive text?] PROPHECY strikes me as a candidate for the Clue Hall of Fame.
Not knowing PION or ANGIE THOMAS, and having DUEL before DUET, the SW added a minute to my time.
That little NW corner was the last to fall, after I got FRATERNAL. I know KATANA only from crosswords, PARASAIL didn’t come easily, EAR might have been EYE, and SPF could have been any number of things.
I had MUON before PION (the number of subatomic particles named after Greek letters is a lot) and ANGIETHOMAS and her book were complete unknowns.
I filled in SLAMDUNKCONTEST from crosses but I don’t really understand the clue.
DOGMA isn’t a set of beliefs but a set of principles or rules.
Despite all that, I liked the puzzle!
I also put MUON in first before fixing it to PION…
Two definitions I found online:
“Dogma: a fixed, especially religious, belief or set of beliefs that people are expected to accept.”
“Formally, the term dogma has been used by some theistic religious groups to describe the body of positions forming the group’s most central, foundational, or essential beliefs, though the term may also be used to refer to the entire set of formal beliefs identified by a theistic or non-theistic religious group.”
I found this:
“The term dogma arose from dogma in Latin, which initially described philosophical beliefs. Religious dogma, however, changed the meaning of dogma from belief to an authoritative decree. Anyone who did not follow religious dogma was a heretic and an adversary to the church and to God.”
Theology is not my expertise, though, by any stretch.
Liked the NYT. Finished in average time for a Friday, but I could feel resistance from the puzzle to just filling things in. Had RHEA rather than GAEA at first.
Same, except I went RHEA -> GAIA -> GAEA. Whew…
My thought processes were similar, although I tend to leave squares like that blank until crosses give some disambiguation. I had __ON, say, for a while for PION. Of course, that strategy doesn’t help with TNY puzzles for which crossings are no help and wild guesses are the only recourse.
Nice puzzle, even if I wasn’t sure why “jam” worked, weren’t sure I’d got it right with YEOH, wasn’t sure that DOGMA worked, and have no idea why the clue yields OR NOT.
Re: OR NOT – I’ve heard it used when someone makes some declaration of fact and then almost immediately realizes they’re mistaken. “There are seven rings in the Olympics logo.” [pause] “Or not.”
Re: jam – a dunk shot is sometimes referred to as a “jam,” though I don’t think I’ve heard that for a while, so maybe it’s passe. In the early 80’s, the University of Houston basketball team, known for it’s reliance on, and proficiency at dunking was nicknamed “Phi Slamma Jama.”
NYT: After a lifetime of pizza eating, this is the first I’m hearing that OLIVEs are “divisive.” A matter of taste, sure, just like mushrooms and green peppers. But surely not divisive in the sense of “Those things just don’t belong on pizzas, ever!” Pineapple, now, that’s divisive. For a surprising number of people, it seems to fundamentally offend their sense of propriety. So I’m saying “easy.”
Odd puzzle today. I never felt on the constructor’s wavelength, was not aware of the YA author, thought the musical was spelled with an “s” and the goddess with an “i” and yet finished well under my Friday average.
So I’m saying “easy.” – that was meant to be at the end of the second paragraph. I got caught by the edit clock!
I love that someone has researched divisive pizza toppings. While olives are only #3, they are “the most removed pizza topping.”
I guess I can see anchovies, especially the fishy Moroccan ones most places use as opposed to the genuine umami delights from Agostino, but c’mon, how is pineapple even considered for a pizza?
Pineapple is like deep dish pizza. It may be delicious, but it’s not a pizza
Counterpoint: Hawaiian pizza is the bomb!
ETA: My local pizza chain, Otto’s of Portland, ME, makes pizza with mashed potato as a topping. The American equivalent of a chip butty, I guess. I haven’t tried it (I don’t like their crusts).
I like pineapple. I like pizza. Pineapple is a terrible thing to do to pizza, and pizza is a terrible thing to do to pineapple.
And deep dish is just an abomination.
Come to Chicago and try a Lou Malnati’s deep dish. Big chunks of tomato, gooey Wisconsin mozzarella, butter crust … it’s a different vibe from thin-crust pizza, but I love it! I don’t love the deep dish everywhere, but Malnati’s cheese deep dish isn’t the salt bomb that most pizzas are. It’s got a freshness to it.
They also do a good job with their mail order pies. Six pies for $140, including shipping
Amy,
Did you ever see John Stewart’s pizza rant?
Martin: Yes. Jon Stewart’s pizza rant is tiresome.
LAT: Can someone please explain the clue/answer combo “Smaller than sm.” for LI’L ?
As far as I can tell, sm. means small and LI’L means little (and it’s even longer to write than sm.). So I’m missing something.
That combo baffled me, too. I hope someone offers an explanation.
Might it be that “little” is often perceived as smaller than “small,” and the use of “sm.” in the clue just indicates that the answer, too, is a shortened word?
That’s what I guessed, but it seems like a swing and a miss to me.
WSJ: Today’s meta seemed obvious to me (and I am not that good at metas). But of course I’ll find out Sunday night if I got the right answer.
Same here
Maybe Matt Gaffney likes to throw a soft-lob every so often so that mainstream-solvers like me might get interested in trying to figure out the Meta?
I think Gaffney does that and exactly for that reason. I would probably have given up on meta puzzles a long time ago if I hadn’t eventually found one easy enough for me to get.
UNI: I got a chuckle out of today’s puzzle, and the co-constructors and editor were spot-on with the clues and answers. And as in the clues, I give them 4 “Kudos”!
USAT: I enjoyed this puzzle as much as the UNI, and they both were Olympic Games themed. And finding three “Torches” that spanned two-word answers must have been very hard.
i didnt like “cold call” being the clue for achoo… “or not” doesnt seem applicable to oops, my mistake. i shouldve realized it wasnt “my bad” due to ‘my’ being in the clue but OR NOT doesnt seem applicable.
“Let’s try that new Ethiopian sushi restaurant.”
(Steely-eyed stare.)
“Or not.”