Rich Norris’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 8/3/24 – no. 0803
Maybe a bit on the hard side for a Saturday and right in line with yesterday’s NYT.
Fave fill: “CARE TO ELABORATE?” (which I had as CAN YOU … for too long because instead of CAREY for [Drew with many lines?], I tried NANCY), ST TROPEZ (sing it with me, Gen Xers: “Bain de Soleil for the St. Tropez tan”), the fog ON LITTLE CAT FEET (in one of Carl Sandburg’s Chicago poems; I know that lakefront fog well), TWIX bars, NO POINT, and IN A STUPOR (the stupor comes on little cat feet too).
A few things:
- Trivia I didn’t know: 51d. [Drinks mistakenly invented by a Dairy Queen owner in 1958], ICEES. Had the fridge too cold, I expect.
- 33d. [Clothing misnomer more aptly replaced by “three-quart”], TEN GALLON. So the ten gallon hat holds 0.75 gallons?
- 53a. [Last syllable of a word], ULTIMA. In what context is this term used? Poetry analysis?
Katie Hale’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up
Los Angeles Times 8/3/24 by Katie Hale
Okay, I never give star ratings because I think they’re such a blunt instrument, but…five freaking stars! I loved this puzzle! Things I loved especially:
- That the NW corner is trickily clued enough that I had to go elsewhere to get a first toehold.
- That the few meh entries (ARON, HOOT AT) were counterbalanced by so much fun that I didn’t remember them until I went clue-by-clue to do this writeup.
- 17A [Event responsible for the northern lights] is SOLAR STORM. I both learned something from and added an entry to my word list because of this clue. Win-win!
- 21A [Takes the cake?] is a clever clue for the ubiquitous (in crosswords and in life) EATS.
- 24A TREACLE. Judging from the score previously assigned to it in my word list, maybe this word isn’t for everyone, but I love it? I think it’s fun to say and is a concept I like to call out when I see it.
- 42A [Important body part in balancing] I put EAR here first and thought I had it. Nope. EYE? Also nope. TOE. Clues like this with multiple plausible possibilities of the correct letter length are what Saturdays are for. (See also: All the damn wading birds whose names are five letters long, but this is more fun than that.)
- 5D [Super Bowl goal] is AD SALE. Hahahahaha that’s a good one!
- 9D [Spiritual that lists body parts] is DEM BONES. Growing up in a mostly white Philadelphia suburb, I was taught a song in church choir called DEM BONES about Adam and Eve getting kicked out of the Garden of Eden, and did not realize that it was a Black spiritual, as is the song referenced in the clue.
- 11D [Shell stations?] is a very clever clue for PASTA BARS.
- …and we have another couple of bangers in a row with [Signal to start playing] for RECESS BELL and [Digs in canals] for HOUSEBOATS.
- I enjoyed seeing some classical South Asian mythology with RAMA at 52D.
Kevin Christian’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Well, That Took a Funny Turn!” — pannonica’s write-up
WSJ • 8/3/24 • Sat • “Well, That Took a Funny Turn!” • Christian • solution • 20240803
The circled squares definitely helped me to figure out the theme mechanic.
- 100aR [Entertainers found in the circled letters in the grid] STAND-UP COMICS. First names are provided parenthetically in the clues, and they spur upward (‘stand up’) from their entries.
- 29a. [Musician’s semibreves (Jay)] WHOL{E NO}TES (Jay Leno).
15d [Narrow way] ONE-LANE ROAD. - 31a. [Beginning with some problems (Chris)] OFF TO A R{OCK}Y START (Chris Rock).
8d [Part of the Tombstone Historic District] OK CORRAL. - 63a. [Flavor enhancer (Margaret)] PINC{H O}F SALT (Margaret Cho).
53d [“You must be kidding me!”] OH COME ON. - 71a. [Quick drawer (Kevin)] SKETCH {ART}IST (Kevin Hart).
46d [Like Tabasco’s Scorpion Sauce] EXTRA HOT. The most ridiculously hot thing I’ve tried lately is Wicked Cutz Carolina Killa beef jerky—had a very small piece and it was just needlessly hot, couldn’t taste any flavor at all. - 104a. [Winery containers (Roseanne)] OAK B{ARR}ELS (Roseanne Barr).
67d [Brother of Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail] PETER RABBIT.
Nicely done. The grid was easily filled, as there wasn’t anything too difficult or tricky.
- 27a [Clapton classic] COCAINE, written and first recorded by JJ Cale. I was casting about for something more directly associated with Clapton, even though yes he had a big hit with it.
- 52a [Chaotic place] ZOO. Idiomatically.
- 76a [Ice planet in “The Empire Strikes Back”] HOTH.
- 94a [Word repeated by Danny in “The Shining”] RED RUM. Isn’t that a phrase? Or is it stylized as one word in the film?
- 112a [Senators’ home] OTTAWA. 120a [Oilers’ home] EDMONTON.
- 114a [Together] IN UNISON.
- 12d [Its capital is Monrovia] LIBERIA.
- 28d [Partner of magenta, yellow and black] CYAN. In CMYK printing.
- Favorite clues, and they’re next to each other: 33d [Try for bronze?] TAN. 34d [At first, maybe] ON BASE. You’d think I’d also like 58d [Chow line?] for LEASH, but no.
- 95d [Funny Brooks] MEL. Not part of the theme. If it were my decision, I’d have chosen a MEL from a different sphere, even old Mr OTT.
- 104d [Gem with fire and water varieties] OPAL. 122a [Cars advertised with the slogan “Wir leben Autos”] OPELS. Not a duplication.
Anna Stiga’s Newsday crossword, Saturday Stumper — pannonica’s write-up
Newsday • 8/3/24 • Saturday Stumper • Stiga, Newman • solution • 20240803
I wasn’t really in the mood—or right frame of mind—to be solving this crossword, so I’m pleased that it didn’t take too long.
By a fair margin the upper left section was the most difficult for me. Those first three down entries all have tough clues: 1d [Name at noxing weigh-ins] DETECTO, 2d [Line on a plane] EXIT ROW, 3d [Outer space measure] ACREAGE.
6d [Elder ender] -BERRY certainly fooled me. 27a [Welsh Eugene] OWEN kept pushing me toward EWAN, but I knew that that’s the cognate to Ian/John. My initial encroachments to the area were the radial threes: 4d [Would prefer to undo] RUE, 18a [50-Across’ shape] ARC, and finally a somewhat educated guess for 17a [“L’heure d’__ (daylight saving time)] ÉTÉ.
I was going to call this a surprising fact—5d [22 Peace Prize winners, through 2023] ASIANS, but oops I had somehow misinterpreted it as Nobel Prize winners.
- 28a [Monthly opening, maybe] ART EDITOR. I see this has already been discussed in the comments. I concur with those who say it suggests a magazine or other periodical.
- 37a [What Twitter was in ’23] REBRANDED. To say the very least.
- 38a [Fencing choice] CEDAR. Insidious clue for when we’re in the midst of the summer Olympic games (see 17a), but I was half-expecting such a misdirection.
- 42a [What Scrooge did] DREAMED. Really vague clue.
- 51a [Consequently] THEN, not THUS.
- 52a [What’s said for a spoken-for seat] IT’S TAKEN. Didn’t put this in for a long while because I suspected it would be something less obvious.
- 9d [Needing a car wash, say] BESPATTERED. Not a word you see every day, and certainly not in crosswords.
- 14d [Bean or brain] BOP. Verbs.
- 21d [China replacer in ’81] NANCY REAGAN. In her capacity as first lady, in the White House. Tricky.
- 22d [Surmount] GET OVER.
- 31d [In a selling mood] BEARISH. You’d think I’d be able to easily recall which is BullISH and which is BEARISH, but I have to stop and consider deeply every time I’m confronted with the choices. At least I was able to fill in more than half the letters, which was helpful.
- 35d [Whom Picasso first met in Paris] MATISSE. Another wildly vague clue, despite the two long-lived giants of 20th-century art often being paired in histories and analyses.
- 36d [Different all the time] PROTEAN, named for the Greek mythological figure Proteus.
- 38d [One of only four elements with a unique last letter] COBALT. Who knows what the other three are?
- 44d [Become] SUIT. As in, “that outfit becomes you.”
- 48d [Brooklyn is part of it] NBA. Obvious misdirect for NYC, but wow this is a bad clue, in my opinion. 47a [48-Down retiree Manute Bol, e.g.] SUDANESE confirms that the answer is indeed the National Basketball Association and not some little-known group like ‘North Brooklyn Artisans’.
Whew!
Stumper: Can someone explain “Monthly opening, maybe” for ART EDITOR?
After looking at it this way and that: an opening for one of the positions on a monthly magazine.
A job opening for a monthly magazine.
Like an art magazine? But why would there be an opening every month? Do art magazines hire different editors for each monthly issue? If they don’t, I don’t get this clue/answer. And if they do, is that even remotely widely known enough even for a Stumper?
It’s not that there are openings every month. It’s that the magazine is a monthly and an art editor is someone who may be hired to work on it.
Gig economy = yikes!
Good/interesting to know…
I originally thought of an editor for stories about art, but now I’m thinking that magazines often employ people to edit the art (illustrations, photos) that appears with the stories. It took me a long time to get that one, but it’s a pretty good clue.
One definition of “Monthly” is “a magazine that is published once a month.” A monthly may have a job opening for an art editor. ( I composed my answer while Josh posted his; didn’t see his answer until after I posted).
Clicking on the individual puzzle links on the home page doesn’t seem to be working.
fixed
Phosphorous, nickel, bismuth
Dangit, I was trying to generate commentary!
Do you mean phosphorus, Stan?
If the adjectival form of phosphorus is phosphorous and the adjectival form of mucus is mucous (I see the O mistakenly put into the noun a lot), can we use “hummous” for things relating to a chickpea dip?
I still remember my 10th-grade bio teacher marking my answer (T) as wrong to the T/F question: “Athlete’s foot is a fungus infection.”
She said, “False. It’s a fungous infection.”
This has hounded me for going on 60 years.
Nobody effing says “fungous infection.” The adjective of choice is “fungal”! I guess your bio teacher wasn’t up on medical terminology at all.
Did the ratings get wiped out? I’m pretty sure that I rated the NYT last night.
Probably a side effect of my fixing the links. Perhaps Dave can retrieve the earlier ratings.
Thanks.
NYT: I managed somehow to type an O in the square that should have held the second A in ELABORATE, making it impossible to see IN A STUPOR for a few minutes. Otherwise, it was a breezy solving experience.
I wish I could say the same about Rich Norris’ 1990s puzzles. For a while, it felt like every Saturday puzzle I solved in the NYT archives was one of his, and they all seemed pretty tough.
+1 re “they all seemed pretty tough” … RN remains one of the toughest constructors for me in my solving database. I’ve averaged about about 8.5% above my day-of-week-specific median solve time on 198 puzzles. Of 51 constructors with at least 100 puzzles in my database, only 12 have higher relative difficulty ratios (Eugene Maleska leads the way and no one else is even close).
The nerd in me is jealous of your crossword solving database. I have an account at xwordinfo.com, but (A) it’s NYT only and (B) some of their data seems suspect. (They have Monday puzzles that took me more than an hour? I don’t think so. If I was ever that slow, it would have been when I was still solving on paper.)
I had an easier time than Friday, but probably I just lucked out. I knew the poetry quotes at both the fog coming in and the (second) funeral oration in Julius Caesar. (I actually memorized the whole thing in 7th grade. Don’t ask why.) Not bad at all, but no question the new editor isn’t always in control of weekend difficulty.
I really enjoyed the LAT. It put up a good fight and left me a bit bloodied
sorry about the violence. I’m currently bingeing House of Dragon
The LAT was a fun puzzle, for all the reasons Stella Zawistowski mentioned. Especially TREACLE, a great word that I use a lot in a metaphorical sense.
I found the LAT more difficult today than the NYT. A fun puzzle but as you said, somewhat brutal :D in a good way. I do love some treacle when it shows up, and Piety… well its my maiden name so I’m sold on the puzzle from there.
Agree with pannonica on everything. I finally managed to get the upper left from the 4D RUE to take a leap to DEAR ABBY and it finally fell into place after that. I didn’t like 49A’s clue (“An Award of Merit, familiarly”) and a “red hot” (37D) is a candy I don’t like, not a sausage.
There is a variety of hot dog called a red hot.
Ah! Never heard of it. Thanks!
Fellow commenters: Please make sure the puzzle you’re commenting on is clearly identified. Thanks.
Calling out Stan? Now we’ll get a real Stumper!
No, I had a pretty good idea which puzzle Stan Newman was talking about. Some of the other comments are about puzzles that I may do if I have time, and I prefer to avoid spoilers.
Thanks for identifying the LAT puzzle in your comment.
Twas an attempt at humor
My bad.
If that was meant for me, I’m sorry. I’m new to posting here and sometimes forget to clearly list the puzzle. In this case, since I referred to pannonica, I thought it was farily clear, but just realized that pannonica wrote two of the reviews.
Sorry. It wasn’t directed at anyone in particular.
Sometimes it’s clear which puzzle a comment is about, but it’s so easy to put something at the start of a comment that I encourage everyone to do it.
Thanks.
(Sigh!) Apparently,I neglected to click “reply” before keying my reply to you — as indicated, I’m still learning your site. See below for my reply to you.
Thanks.
I have no official connection to the site. I just hang out here a lot some days.
OK, I hang out here a lot most days.
Amen
+1 a good reminder for us all.
Myself I usually try to also indicate the clue # I’m talking about, but a puzzle indicator is pretty sufficient usually.
I appreciate when someone puts the clue number in their comment, but I’m typically too lazy to do that myself.
NYT: A very enjoyable solve, with some stalling thanks to mis-guessing BIARRITZ (not really a resort town!) before ST. TROPEZ, and at the end when I tried TWO-GALLON (hat) and WOW before TEN-GALLON and AWE.
(Then I remembered that as a young child I read the book “Ten Gallon Hat” (1953) by Shannon Garst — which I loved. That may have been the only time I’d ever encountered that phrase before.)
But some entries seem awfully green paintish, especially IN A STUPOR and ACCESS TIME (even if it is, as claimed, a technical term). (Almost anything that takes time can be followed by the word “time” to make a two-word phrase.)
pannonica — Fab selection of vids. Thanks.
Appreciation appreciated!
…and deserved.
+1, with thnx for the shout out from Papa John (so I’d notice, on a busy day)
Universal: For an easy themeless, this was a lot of fun. The conversational phrases are all lively and feel fresh.
WSJ: “94a [Word repeated by Danny in “The Shining”] RED RUM. Isn’t that a phrase? Or is it stylized as one word in the film?” The RedRum in the movie is one word, since it is murder backwards and plays to the theme. I haven’t seen it for years and years, but doesn’t danny see or write redrum on a mirror, so it shows in reverse?
Re Stumper: the NW and SE came fairly easy for me, but then I was left with a giant swath of blank squares in the middle from NE to SW. The way the black squares were arranged, it was almost like three separate puzzles, so it was hard for me to get a toe-hold in the middle.
Stumper: Tough for me. I’ve reached the age where I take more medications than I would like, but I don’t need any statins, so I had a hard time remembering CRESTOR. I cheated a bit, recognizing the name Manute Bol as a jock but not a SUDANESE. I did like the ART EDITOR clue but could do without stuff like BESPATTERED (which actually describes half the shirts I own).
I’m not sure a NOD is a welcoming gesture. It seems more like an acknowledgement.
It took me way longer than it should have to get BAY LEAVES. We put a few of those in our gumbo and I always lick them off before I discard them. But the grammar of the clue is odd. Why not “Things removed from gumbo before serving”? “What goes from . . . “doesn’t seem like misdirection, just English as spoken by someone who learned it as a second or third language.
I feel there was a go-gumbo alliteration thing going on.
That could be. Still sounds weird to me. But I’m not sure I would have gotten the answer any more quickly if the clue hadn’t sounded so odd. I just couldn’t think of something that I take out of gumbo until I saw the V from GET OVER.
At least it wasn’t directed at me. :)