Christopher Youngs’ New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up
Difficulty: Easy (8m35s)
Christopher Youngs’ New York Times crossword, 8/8/24, 0808
Today’s theme: MINUTE HAND (Part of a clock depicted four times in this puzzle?)
- SCOTC(H AND) SODA / UN(HAND) ME
- (HAN D)YNASTY / RED (HAND)ED
- EASIER SAID T(HAN D)ONE / AT (HAND)
- C(HAND)ELIER / (HAND)S UP
The HANDs are indeed MINUTE. “Little HAND” also fits, and despite that error lingering for quite a bit, I finished at a breezy pace — the MINUTE HAND ticked eight times (or traveled roughly 48 degrees, if your watch employs a fancy “sweeping” motion.)
Cracking: COATIs are wonderful creatures, a monkey-raccoon amalgamation that sadly doesn’t exist at my latitude.
Slacking: we passed the exit, make an E-TERNE up ahead, otherwise it’ll take us forever to get back, HAR HAR HAR
Sidetracking: the Tim GUNN voice
Matthew Fuchs’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Well-Rounded Diet”–Amy’s recap
Wall St Journal crossword solution, 8/8/24 – “Well-Rounded Diet”
Amy filling in for Jim tonight.
The theme relates to CHEESE WHEEL, and the three long themers take a circular detour through four-letter cheeses. “WHAT’S THE DAMAGE?” had EDAM looping around in those circled squares. FETAL POSITION has a FETA gambit. And BOXERS OR BRIEFS oozes with BRIE. Kinda fun, albeit … cheesy.
I don’t normally solve the WSJ puzzle these days so I don’t know what the Thursday target is for the difficulty level. I was surprised to see some tougher fill (ELSE IF, ALBEDO, TATLER) and/or crosswordese (EDO, ECU, IEOH) in the grid.
How’d the puzzle treat you?
Rebecca Goldstein’s LA Times crossword – Gareth’s summary
LA 240807
I don’t think I’ve heard the final phrase ILOVETHATFORYOU, and I can’t parse its syntax either, but it checks out. The only part of it that is thematically relevant is FORYOU, as three other answers are phrases with four u’s in:
- [Patrons of the arts], CULTUREVULTURES
- [Fluffy blockers of the sun], CUMULUSCLOUDS
- [Coined phrase?], EPLURIBUSUNUM
My error was HSs/sTL. It seems like an almost inevitable trap if you don’t know what HSA is.
Other oddities:
- [Small drink?], BEV. Presumably beverage, abbreviated.
- [Pastries often dipped in chocolate], CHURROS. They’ve been selling them at Nando’s here…
- [Jackrabbit, e.g.], HARE. Of course, hares are just a genus of rabbit, so jackrabbits are also rabbits.
- Creamy cheese], BURRATA. Another trendy foodstuff, it seems?
Gareth
Claire Rimkus’ USA Today Crossword, “Get Moving! (Freestyle)” — Emily’s write-up
Keep it going with this puzzle!
USA Today, August 08, 2024, “Get Moving! (Freestyle)” by Claire Rimkus
Favorite fill: PLAYINGITCOOL, THINGSTODO, SLEEPSTUDY, and EATIT
Stumpers: TALC (needed crossings), BROOK (keep thinking electronic “stream”), and IMAGES (also needed crossings)
Love the grid design as well as the overall fill and numerous lengthy fill. Cluing for the most part just clicked for me today and I ended having a great solve time, for me. A fun freestyle. Very enjoyable for a Thursday!
4.25 stars
~Emily
NYT: I’m not sure that I have ever spotted a rebus this quickly. At 5D, UN(HAND) ME seemed to be the most likely answer, and at 8D, RED-(HAND)ED was certain to be correct. After that, it was just a matter of finding the other rebuses.
I preferred the rebuses in which HAND was broken up, e.g. 17A SCOT(H AND) SODA, to the ones in which it wasn’t.
I felt like I had already seen some of the cute clues, like 28A [Sudden inspirations?] for GASPS. But I did like 61A [It happens] for EVENT.
I’m curious as to whether Zachary David Levy’s time was 16+ minutes or 8+ minutes. Given that he described the puzzle as easy, I’m guessing the actual time is the shorter one.
we had a posting SNAFU, now corrected. it was 8m35s
That’s what I thought. My times are usually pretty close to yours.
Thanks!
In the rebuses across, they are broken up. In the other direction, they are HANDs down, interestingly.
Thanks! I missed that nuance. I wonder if it was deliberate. My own attempts to construct a rebus puzzle have left me grasping at whatever interesting answers didn’t kill my grid.
Nice catch on that nuance. I was hoping for an extra layer to the rebus, and there it is… sorta.
When I got the first “hand” I was looking for something akin to 4h rebuses, so I found the simple hand underwhelming. Hands down makes it better :)
Three of the four HAND acrosses are broken. CHANDELIER is not.
And that particular “HANDs down” is HANDS UP, which was cute.
This was a near-PB for me. Very easy in spite of a fair bit of trivia.
WSJ: Thanks, Amy, for filling in for me, and to others of Team Fiend who might do the same in the days to come. I’ll be taking some time off after my father’s passing.
I am so sorry for your loss, Jim.
Sorry to hear about your loss. I hope you and your family will have many happy memories of your father to help ease the pain.
May he rest in peace.
I’m so sorry to learn about your Dad, Jim. Requiescat in pace.
And my condolences as well.
Thanks, everyone. It was quite a roller-coaster day as my father died in the morning and we celebrated my brother’s birthday in the evening. So we toasted them both with good wine and funny stories.
LAT: I liked the theme/revealer, as well as the elegance of having Us only in the theme/revealer answers
LAT: It’s always curious and interesting to me what’s common knowledge with some of us and not with others. Atlanta’s plethora of Peachtree streets is well-known to me even here on the west coast and I’ve been ordering burrata in restaurants here for years, it’s my favorite and doesn’t feel trendy to me at all. And I love that for me. (Learned the “I love that for you/me” from my nieces a long time ago, it’s very in-the-language here.) On the other hand, I don’t know about chocolate dipped churros or Nando’s so I have my gaps as well.
I was coming here to ask why in the world I have never heard of or seen burrata…. it sounds sooo good!! I’m on a quest to get some! :D.
I am a west coaster also and have not encountered chocolate dipped churros, but maybe I just don’t get out enough.
What are you referring to with “Nandos”…?
Gareth referred to Nando’s, a South African peri-peri chicken chain. It has restaurants in the DC area, where peri-peri chicken in popular. Peri-peri or piri-piri is a chili-based sauce originally from Portugal. It spread to Angola, Goa and other Portuguese colonies, and then to South Africa. I’m not sure why DC became a hotbed of the hot chicken, but it did. I don’t know if American Nando’s sell chocolate-dipped churros.
I don’t see the churro’s on their US menu…
And yep, they have Churros & chocolate sauce on the S.A. menu… for 39.00 (don’t know the USD equivalent)
eta: about 2.14 USD today :)
Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods both sell burrata (if you can find it before they sell out!) So delish on a salad or a pizza or with summer tomatoes (like a caprese only creamier.)
OK, I see Gareth referred to Nando’s in his review. I don’t know that we have any on the West Coast of the US. They apparently do in South Africa where Gareth is.
Chicago is lucky to have some Nando’s restaurants. The chicken “burger” is a chicken sandwich with a slice of cheese and a grilled pineapple ring and I love it. I hope they expand throughout the US in the coming years.
The South African Nando’s menu has other things ours doesn’t, such as livers, pap, and sosaties. Gareth’s churros make sense because my local Nando’s has Portuguese nata tarts; churros may feel Mexican to a lot of Americans, but they were Iberian first.
LAT Review: the posted completed grid is for yesterday.
The Universal puzzle doesn’t seem to have gotten a review today. I thought it was brilliant (science nerd here…). Hanh Huynh not only did a complicated theme, but made it work both across and down. The 3/14/15 clue (pi) was an added treat for the STEM crowd.