Alexander Liebeskind’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Home Free”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases that end in a word that is a part of a house. The revealer is “IT’S ON THE HOUSE” (35a, [Words from a friendly bartender, and a description of the ends of 17-, 25-, 51- and 59-Across]).
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Home Free” · Alexander Liebeskind · Wed., 8.7.24
- 17a. [Secretive, as some deals] CLOSED-DOOR.
- 25a. [Place for a dirty mind] IN THE GUTTER.
- 51a. [Annoyance while browsing] POP-UP WINDOW.
- 59a. [Go ballistic] HIT THE ROOF.
Nice theme. Nothing fancy, but it works with solidly in-the-language theme answers.
With five theme answers, I still would’ve liked to have seen a couple of marquee fill entries. The fill is fine, but doesn’t shine with only ANNETTE and OBOISTS cracking the 7-letter barrier.
Clues of note:
- 1a. [Get some shut-eye?]. BLINK. It’s always nice when a grid starts off with an interesting clue/entry combo.
- 47a. [Degree from RISD]. MFA. Do people commonly know that RISD stands for the Rhode Island School of Design? I didn’t.
- 45d. [Poet who gave us the phrase “carpe diem”]. HORACE. Nice bit of trivia. Here’s an interesting read on what the phrase was originally intended to mean.
3.5 stars.
Meghan Morris’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 8/7/24 – no. 0807
This puzzle’s theme is the chaos that is English spelling and pronunciation. 1a BUFF rhymes with 49a ROUGH but is not a homophone of 19a BOUGH. 8a DOFF rhymes with 46a COUGH but doesn’t sound like 21a DOUGH. 66a COW rhymes with 19a BOUGH but isn’t a homophone of 46a COUGH. And 69a RUE rhymes with 43a THROUGH but 49a ROUGH doesn’t sound like it. Not included: the chiefly Irish word lough, or the verb sough, which rhymes with cow but doesn’t sound like sue. Also not here: the “aw” sound many/most of us use in bought and fought. I tried to come up with helpful spelling mnemonics when my kid was in grade school, but it’s chaos and in English, rules were made to be broken multiple ways. Fun theme!
If you’re teaching ENGlish (37d. [Subj. taught by Fulbright scholars], but not all Fulbright scholars, I’m pretty sure), good luck to your students who already speak languages that follow a consistent logic.
The fill’s got some rough (!) bits, like the FEN/LEA geography sandwich and OHH, but overall I enjoyed myself. 3.5 stars from me.
Adam Vincent & Sid Sivakumar’s AV Club Classic crossword, “Line-Item Veto”—Amy’s recap
AV Club Classic crossword solution, 8/7/24 – “Line-Item Veto”
I think I’m missing the full sense of the puzzle’s title, “Line-Item Veto.” Can you explain it? The theme revealer is 35a. [Security device that’s been set off by four of this puzzle’s answers], METAL DETECTOR, and four-letter items that might be found by a metal detector are replaced by BEEP within the phrases that hide those items. ERIN GO BRAGH is clued by 17a. [St. Patrick’s Day exclamation (Oops, got so used to having it on my finger!)], where the RING has been BEEPed out by the detector so the entry is E{BEEP}OBRAGH. The song DISCO INFERNO has a COIN that the metal detector flags, so DIS{BEEP}FERNO. Similarly, REBEL TROOPER becomes RE{BEEP}ROOPER (though only the belt buckle is typically metallic), and a WHISKEY SOUR is flagged for your KEYS, giving you WHIS{BEEP}OUR. TSA security line, where these items are vetoed and you need to place them in a bin to be X-rayed and step through the metal detector again? I guess that works for the title.
9d. [Nighttime attraction on an Arctic cruise], AURORA. Sure, but this year the sun has been mighty active and the aurora borealis (and aurora australis in the Southern Hemisphere) has been visible far outside the Arctic. I live in the heart of a big city and value my sleep, so I’ve not been outside to see any of the recent auroras.
I came across a recent article about constructor Sid Sivakumar, how he finds theme ideas, the brain’s recovery after stroke, and his precocious insights as a kid. Huda, I don’t know if you read write-ups of the AV Club puzzles, but I think you’ll appreciate the article too.
Four stars from me.
Caitlin Reid’s New Yorker crossword – Kyle’s write-up
The New Yorker solution grid – Caitlin Reid – Wednesday 08/07/2024
A pleasant challenge, nicely pitched at the New Yorker’s “beginner-friendly” level. Clues like 16A [Present-day V.I.P.?] for SANTA CLAUS and 33D [Spot nowhere near the podium, so to speak] for LAST PLACE provide some welcome light wordplay. 9A SSRI [Common type of antidepressant: Abbr.] doesn’t show up in a lot of puzzles, but it’s hardly obscure and provides useful letters for crossings. Other than EATS ALONE, which I question as a standalone [ahem] phrase, there’s a lot to like in this grid. Thanks Caitlin!
Annemarie Brethauer’s LA Times crossword – Gareth’s summary
LA Times
240807
A fairly by-the-numbers theme idea. TURNCOATS is the central revealing answer, and it means the four sets of four circles have the letters COAT and the letters rotate clockwise as the circles go around clockwise in the grid. As I’ve said before, the tricky part of this theme, as far as solver interest goes is, once you appreciate the trick, there aren’t many long splashy entries to go with. AHIGOTCHA in particular seems more than a tad arbitrary.
A couple of the more tricky/difficult clues:
- [Food grinder], MOLAR. I didn’t see it, even though my own dog had two (pre-)molars extracted yesterday.
- [__ La Table: kitchenware shop], SUR. I’m guessing this is a thing in America-land?
Gareth
Sean Ziebarth’s USA Today Crossword, “Road Trip” — Emily’s write-up
Grab some snacks and a drive and let’s go!
USA Today, August 07, 2024, “Road Trip” by Sean Ziebarth
Theme: each themer contains a a synonym for “road”
Themers:
- 20a. [“I’ve already thought about that”], WAYAHEADOFYOU
- 41a. [“Where should we go canoodle?”], YOURPLACEORMINE
- 60a. [Credential that might allow a fan to meet a performer], BACKSTAGEPASS
A nice set of themers today with: WAYAHEADOFYOU, YOURPLACEORMINE, and BACKSTAGEPASS. They have a throwback feel, but perhaps that’s just me. Also, there’s another layer in the title hint with the key word in each themer moving progressively from left to right, traveling across the grid.
Favorite fill: BETWEENUS, NOTATALL, PLAYSETS, and OVERPACK
Stumpers: HARPO (got stumped on the ending), SPLIT (kept thinking “left”), and MAKOS (new to me)
Today’s puzzle took me longer than expected, especially since for about the first half to two thirds it really seemed like I’d have a fast time but a few entires slowed me down and a couple of crossings in particular that tripped me up for a while. Eventually it all came together and overall it was a smooth solve though it took me a while.
4.0 stars
~Emily
NYT: Hmm – As one who dislikes cross-reference clues, I’m particularly unappreciative of a theme that relies on three-way cross-references. Interesting concept, but it wound up being more annoying than entertaining. And 22 three-letter entries! Was that somehow dictated by the theme?
I share your dislike of cross-referencing clues, so I just don’t bother with them unless it’s absolutely necessary — and it often isn’t.
They take me out of my enjoyable crossword trance, which is something I cherish so do not want to be jolted out of it by discontinuous eye movements (other than the naturally occurring ones).
NYT: The many pronunciations of OUGH has long fascinated me, but it never occurred to me to try and build a crossword puzzle around it.
And MENDACIOUS is just a great word to see in a grid. It seems odd that it’s only been in the NYT puzzle four times, and not since 1992. With all those vowels, it looks like it would work well in a puzzle.
MENDACIOUS is supervocalic: it contains each vowel exactly once.
Thanks for the education!
@Mutman: “education” = wasn’t unnoticed
[and thnx Amy! Cool word to know…]
I missed “vocalic” in Spelling Bee just the other day.
Go ahead. Rub it in.
So is SUPERVOCALIC. There’s a term out there for a word that is an example of itself.
NYT: I enjoyed the puzzle, though I became somewhat tired of all the cross-referencing. But my one question has to do with 28A – Like Plan B, for short. The answer is OTC, which I assume means Over The Counter, as with drugs, for example. But is that really like Plan B?
I understood it as Plan B emergency contraceptive pills, which I believe are available without a prescription.
As EricH said, Plan B is the brand name of “morning after” contraception, available OTC
AVXC: I’m never quite sure how AcrossLite will work with a gimmick such as this, which I had trouble grasping while I was solving. The ERIN GO BRAGH entry was particularly weird-looking, so I was surprised when I solved the puzzle without error.
And I’m just now understanding the parenthetical phrases in the theme clues.
Now that I fully understand the theme, I like it! It’s clever and amusing.
Thanks very much, Eric H. What you say seems reasonable. I guess I’m just surprised that I’ve never heard of those pills referred to as Plan B.
It’s actually the trade name for one of the more prominent branded versions.
You’re welcome.
NYT: I ignored all of the cross-references during the solve and finished in 4:29. A curiosity of a crossword.
Pretty much my experience with a fast time for me.
Solving this puzzle did help me get started with Strands today
I noticed that about today’s Strands, too.
But I have a nit with that puzzle: the word in the lower left corner is misspelled!
I just did the puzzle — it accepted the correct spelling, so I guess either one works.
That was a not very good joke.
Ah, ya got me!
My experience, too. I learned, long ago, that many themes can be ignored, especially ridiculous ones like today’s NYT. Like cyberdiva, I dislike cross-referencing.
I ignored them period after guessing the theme, meaning almost right away. I didn’t care to do the work of verifying that it worked out and figured they must have done so.
@pannonica – what’s the meta (take-away) on that, then – if any? :-} Not being at all snarky here, btw. Just — hmm
Regarding the WSJ, there’s a show right now in Chelsea (an arts district of Manhattan) of new graduates from RISD, so yeah it exists. The same gallery (Microscope) has had one in recent past years as well. Anyway, for what it’s worth, it’s a respected MFA program.
It’s a premier art school, at least in the Northeast.
Famous alums include the Talking Heads (75% of them, anyway)
Certainly.
I enjoy internal cross-references and was pleased and impressed by today’s NYT. My seventh grade language book (59 years ago) included this poem, “O-U-G-H.”
https://www.futilitycloset.com/2009/09/19/o-u-g-h/
NYT: I was so pleased to fill in MONONYM for 62A (“A pop star might go by this”), so imagine my grin when it turned out to be ONE NAME. At least I had the right idea!
AVXC again: My take on the title is that TSA checkpoints usually have lines, and TSA agents sometimes veto items by confiscating them.
It doesn’t quite work in the puzzle because the things hidden by the metal detector’s beeps are not usually confiscated. You take your belt off, go the metal detector again, and get your belt.
Universal: The “Solid Food” theme gives us MARBLE CAKE, STONE CRAB, ROCK MELON (a name I had never heard, though I love a good cantaloupe) and JAW BREAKER? I guess sometimes it helps to read the clues.
I liked seeing CLICKBAIT in the grid. I’m a sucker for that kind of stuff.
UNI: Guess the editor was asleep at the wheel today with ROCKMELON and GRUNGEROCK in the same grid.
The verb rock, the etymon of GRUNGE ROCK, comes from German. The noun comes from Latin. As the words are totally unrelated their duplication is unlikely to cause any solve spoiling. For most crossword editors, this is not an issue.
Solvers who object to seeing similar letter strings after the fact just have to accept that editors are aware but not particularly sympathetic.