Hemant Mehta’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 8/8/24 – no. 0808
I hadn’t realized that the puzzle contained a narrative until I saw Hemant’s post on Bluesky (which is a kinder, gentler Twitter sans Nazis). He wrote, “Show off your 1-Across until you’re 27-Down and then you’ll 17-Across. And never 30-Down. (It’s impolite.)”
A little on the hard size compared to Shortz-edited Fridays, on the easy size compared to Fagliano Fridays.
Fave fill: INDIE BANDS, GO OUT ON TOP, KEEPS TIME (though the [Taps one’s foot, maybe] clue butts heads with FOOTLONGS), HOT MICS, “I MISSED YOU,” ALMOST DONE, BREATH MINTS (the clue, [Apt anagram of TINS BEAR THEM, minus an E], had me thinking of sardines), “LET ME EXPLAIN,” KINK-SHAME.
Three things:
- 38a. [City once home to Black Wall Street], TULSA. If you haven’t heard about the racist massacre and conflagration that destroyed Black wealth there, read up.
- With A-PLUSES atop B-TEAMS, I really wanted 30a to be C-SECTIONS.
- 2d. [Wedding planning website, with “the”], KNOT. Hey! My son and daughter-in-law had a page on The Knot. The Internet makes wedding things so much simpler. Remember waiting for a little slip of paper in with the invitation or asking someone, “Where are they registered?” And then you had to go to the store like a sucker to access the registry and buy gifts, wrap them, and take them to the wedding? Now you just check out the registry online and click through to ship a gift. I digress!
Back to the Olympics. Four stars from me.
Ed Sessa’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up
LAT • 8/9/24 • Fri • Sessa • solution • 20240809
Took a minute to suss out the theme. What’s happened is that phrases beginning with voiceless postalveolar fricatives [ ʃ ] have been changed to voiceless alveolar fricatives [ s ].
- 17a. [Principle behind “speak softly and carry a big stick”?] SUBTLE DIPLOMACY (shuttle diplomacy).
- 31a. [Grumbler left holding the bag?] SOUR CADDIES (shower caddies).
- 40a. [Some Lakota winter supplies?] SIOUX STORES (shoe stores).
- 56a. [Item in a moth-infested closet?] SUIT FULL OF HOLES (shoot full of holes).
Sure, that’s fine.
- 3d [Spice blends] RUBS. Not necessarily? I mean, you can have a monospice rub, right? But ultimately the clue is fine.
- 27d [Not perfect] HUMAN. Riffing on “to err is humna”. [sic]
- 33d [R&B’s Hill] DRU, as ZZ certainly wasn’t going in there.
- 35d [Mini mover] GAS. The Cooper automobile. I first tried VAN here.
- 48d [Min. fraction] PSEC, a picosecond, one-trillionth of a second.
- 22a [Perambulates] WALKS.
- 39a [Extinct New Zealand bird] MOA, Dinornis novaezealandiae. Like ‘dinosaur’ the dino- prefix means ‘terrible’ (= inspiring dread or awe), so it’s ‘terrible bird from New Zealand’.
- 62a [“The Jellicle Ball” musical] CATS. There’s a new musical currently showing called “Cats: The Jellicle Ball“.
{curtain}
Elly Zupko’s Universal crossword, “Right Between the Eyes”—Amy’s recap
Universal crossword solution, 8/9/24 – “Right Between the Eyes”
Amy filling in for Jim.
I solved this easy crossword in sequential Acrosses, so I don’t know how the theme works. The five themers with circled I’s are all Downs. Ah!
- 4d. [Ibuprofen alternative / One with ambitions? (Hint: Note letters 4 and 6)] clues the Down entry ASPIRIN as well as ASPIRANT, which is formed by turning to the right between the pair of I’s.
- 9d. [Complete / Restricted? (… letters 2 and 4)], FINISH and FINITE to the right.
- 26d. [Boundary / Favored one leg? (… letters 2 and 4)], LIMIT and LIMPED.
- 40d. [California’s ___ Valley / Goofy? (… letters 2 and 4)], SILICON and SILLY.
- 41d. [Yellow character in “Despicable Me” / Opposite of plus? (… letters 2 and 4)], MINION and MINUS.
Okay, that’s cool. I think this might be a debut publication, or at least the first of this constructor’s puzzle’s we’ve blogged here. More complex than the typical first-timer’s theme.
Fave fill: INSPO (short for inspiration), SAMSONITE, PHILLY, MARIPOSAS, LONESOME, FAST LANE. Not keen on NAST and E-CASH, but overall the fill is impressively smooth considering that the theme locks down ten entries.
3.75 stars from me.
LAT – I enjoyed the theme. I guess there are many theme entries possible.
Zealously wants to take care of your chiropteran pet (11 letters)
Your suggested answer is funnier than the ones in the puzzle, though I did like SOUR CADDIES.
LOL… took me a while but I got it, I think I got it!! :) . Will await answer later in the day.
In ROT-13 the answer is ONGFVGPENML
(Doesn’t begin the right way.)
I’m not following
I think pannonica is saying that in the LAT puzzle, the sound shift is at the start of each theme answer.
Your (very funny) answer has the shift in the middle.
Good I was right! It took me longer because, as pannonica said, it started differently from today’s puzzle . I was looking for the ‘s’ sound at the beginning
Oops! That aspect slipped by me in my solve
How about, Serendipitously finds a chair (12 letters)
Again, funnier than the clues in the puzzle! I actually can think of two answers for that, one I’m sure is the one you wanted the other kind of a stretch but still sort of fits
I had SIT OUT OF LUCK in mind. What’d you have?
That was my first thought. Given your criteria of 12 letters, I also thought of Sit can happen. (sit happens would have been more in the language but is only 10 lettters) :D
I thought this puzzle was SHIT full of holes. Ugh.
Dude, be better. Shall we delete your comment so you can try again?
Though it’s fairly common knowledge, especially among crossword solvers, I thought it was funny for the LA Times to accept Edy’s as an answer when the brand is Dreyer’s here in California and other Western states.
NYT didn’t feel like it was going to be fast; I was very slow going in the NW and even a bit through the NE, but once I got to the bottom half, it fell in pretty quickly, and ended up with a pretty fast time. A pretty Good Friday overall :-)
I found it hard for a Friday (again), but it did fall in close to the usual time. I had the most trouble breaking out of the SE and a few letters in the SW at all. I ended up with an avoidable mistake. The start of “bomb” could have been A, H, or N, and I picked the last, making a long down idiom new to me “kinks-naming,” but I know that’s a bit implausible.
Scratch N-BOMB off your list. It’s been in one NYT puzzle going back to 1943 and really seems to be a reach.
All of these _-BOMB terms seem a bit archaic at this point – I’m thinking they mostly disappeared in common usage by the time I finished elementary school.
My first guess was “A,” but when BARREL RACE made that unlikely, I certainly considered “N.”
I enjoyed the puzzle. Probably a pretty typical Friday solve time for me. Some good fill, but not a lot of fun cluing (the clue for BREATH MINTS was nice).
Not a fan of the clue/answer for GLASS TUMBLER. First, does anyone say “GLASS” TUMBLER? It’s just a tumbler. Second, I’m not aware of a tumbler being a particularly likely cocktail vessel. When I think of “tumbler,” I think of water.
My husband has a thick glass drinking vessel that I would call a tumbler from which he drinks his rum and Coke. Even empty, that glass probably weighs close to a pound.
I found the clueing was overall fun, even though there’s no single outstanding clue.
I had MARTINI GLASS for that one at first, and then got TUMBLER at the bottom… ROCKS TUMBLER didn’t work. I also feel like “tumbler glass” (which is repetitive) sounds more natural to me than “glass tumbler”… oh well.
What about metal tumblers?
Happy 32nd birthday to Joel Fagliano.
WSJ: Today’s meta seems pretty simple. Give it a try!
But it’s entirely possible that I missed it completely.
I think you’re right Eric, because even I might have solved the meta, lol!
universal – one of the coolest puzzles i’ve solved all year, really impressive construction!
I agree! It’s a very inspired and creative puzzle!
Universal
Thanks for explaining the theme. (The “right” turns depend on how you look at it, but I don’t think I would have gotten the trick without your help.) Nice puzzle – must have taken a lot of work.
USATODAY I got a different theme for Road Trip. I don’t feel Way, Place, Pass = Road. My take: RoadWay, RoadMine, BackRoad.
This was amazing, thanks