Brandon Koppy’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 8/17/24 – no. 0817
Ugh, 15d. [Scouting gatherings] cost me a good two minutes. I have heard of jamborees, absolutely. Pretty sure I had never encountered CAMPOREES before. There’s a Wikipedia page for camporee, but neither my spouse nor I recognized the word. Those two crossings had me stuck here, 15a. [“___ Agua Para Chocolate” (hit 1992 foreign-language film)] clues COMO and JOMO looked wrong, but I was spacing out on what the Spanish for “like” was. And I don’t feel like SHAPERS are 25a. [Some skintight clothing]. They’re skintight undergarments, yeah? So this section was unsatisfying.
Fave fill: DOG GROOMER, DIRTY MIND, STAIRMASTER, SCREAM QUEEN, GOES NUCLEAR, “NO BACKSIES,” MACGUYVERS, SQUID GAME, and the never-had-it NATTY ICE (you call a beer “Natty” and you’ve lost me).
Two more things:
- 38d. [Eleven in Las Vegas], RAIDERS. As in the NFL team with its 11 players on a side, no longer in California.
- 63a. [Randall’s elder daughter on “This Is Us”], TESS. I only watched one deadly episode so I don’t know who TESS is, but even though the show ended a couple years back, you should make a mental note here because we don’t have many famous TESSes.
3.5 stars aside from that CAMPOREES mess.
Kyle Dolan’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up
Los Angeles Times 8/17/24 by Kyle Dolan
This puzzle feels neither of-the-moment nor overly attached to dated references. The highlights for me:
- 18A [Image concerns?] is PR AGENCIES. “Concerns” in this case means business concerns, which I thought was clever.
- 21A [Acronym to which an “A” is sometimes added] is STEM, as in science, tech, engineering, and mathematics, plus A for arts sometimes. The reason I thought this clue was worth singling out is that SPCA is such a plausible wrong answer, which adds some Saturday-appropriate difficulty.
- 41A [Jumps out of one’s skin?] is a clever clue for MOLTS.
- 46A [Historic brew-haha?] I approve of references to the BOSTON TEA PARTY.
- 10D [Film score?] for OSCAR NOD was my favorite clue in the puzzle.
The one bit I wasn’t into was the lower right, where the awkward BRISTLES AT and the fine if unexciting ESSAY EXAMS crosses E-TEXT, TSAR, and LAMA.
Emet Ozar’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Things Are Going Great!” — pannonica’s write-up
WSJ • 8/17/24 • Sat • “Things Are Going Great!” • Ozar • solution • 20240817
The idea here is that phrases in the form great X are meant more literally.
- 22a. [Great balls of fire?] MILKY WAY GALAXY. All those stars.
- 30a. [Great apes?] ELVIS IMPERSONATORS. Okay, scratch the “more literally” analysis. Let’s just go with “alternatively”.
- 47a. [Great depression?] VOLCANIC CRATER, also known as a caldera.
- 66a. [Great Dane?] HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN.
- 87a. [Great deal?] PRICE REDUCTION.
- 102a. [Great divide?] UNCONTESTED DIVORCE.
- 117a. [Great white?] SAUVIGNON BLANC. I had a good namesake SAUVIGNON BLANC this past weekend.
Nothing fancy about the theme, but it’s solid and I like all the entries.
As for the solve, it was a straight run from top down to bottom. I’m reminded of the beginning of the James Bond films, after he turns and shoots at the gun barrel (which until this moment I inexplicably thought was a camera iris), when ‘blood’ runs down the screen.
- 2d [Berth place] SHIP, not SLIP. Confirmed via 15a [Character from Euripides?] RHO.
- 9d [Draw on a board] STALEMATE. Great clue, and it fooled me.
- 19d [Put forth, as power] EXERT, not EXUDE.
- 20d [Sylvia of 2006’s “The Queen”] SYMS. I had no idea she was still active at that time.
- 44d [Attire in ancient Athens] TOGAS. I don’t believe that’s correct. Aren’t TOGAS Roman? Those Greeks wore tunics. I suppose one could argue that after Greece was subsumed by the Roman empire, the citizenry wore TOGAS, but it still makes for a poor clue.
- 60d [Goal of some candidates] PHD. As we’re in the midst of an enormously consequential election season, this was a strong misdirection.
- 67d [Ring-shaped island] ATOLL. These are often volcanic in origin, but not exactly formed from calderas.
- 69d [Bumbling] INEPT. 29d [Utterance from a bumbler] OOPS.
- 106d [Believer in a creator who doesn’t intervene] DEIST. Most of the US’ founding fathers were purportedly DEISTs.
- 109d [Memory triggers, at times] ODORS. Obligatorily noting a non-pejorative couching of odor.
- 76a [Capital founded by William Penn] DOVER, Delaware, which is a neighbor of Pennsylvania.
- 78a [Open position] SEED. The position is not itself open, rather it’s a position in a so-called open tournament.
- 85a [Gator pads] GLADES. Pads, as in places to live. Not sure what the misdirection of the clue is getting at.
- 110a [Deep state?] SOUND SLEEP. Nice.
Anna Stiga’s Newsday crossword, Saturday Stumper — pannonica’s write-up
Newsday • 8/17/24 • Saturday Stumper • Stiga, Newman • solution • 20240817
Managed to make relatively short work of this one, somewhat surprisingly. The upper left area was the last section to be completed.
The grid is anchored by crosshaired spanners, Column 8 and Row 8. 8d [Recreates with a roundball] SHOOTS SOME HOOPS; recreates is a deliberate misdirection, roundball is I-don’t-know-what. 32a [Phillumenist’s collection] MATCHBOOK COVERS; a new term to me. Wondering if this also includes those who collect matchboxes (not the toy cars).
- 1a [Help for drafts] T-SQUARES. The clue makes it seem like it’s about writing, or perhaps beer, rather than drafting.
- 9a [Sumerian descendants] IRAQIS. Two Qs in the first row!
- 10d [Ρ’s not preceding Q’s] RHOS.
- 15a [Sticky situation risk] HEAT RASH. Probably the toughest entry of that tough section. Not helped by 17a [Started doing] WENT INTO. Went?!
- 28a [Address of Yale’s PO] ELM ST. Is this common knowledge? Or just a common address?
- 29a [Pianist echoing a peninsula] Chick COREA. Kind of an annoying clue.
- 45d [Mathematician echoing a sort of ship] EULER; pointedly demonstrating the correct Swiss-German pronunciation of his name, roughly ‘oiler’.
- 31a [Magic word/ancient hero acronym] SHAZAM. I dimly was aware of the acronym. He calls on the powers of Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury.
36a [Carillon] CHIMES.- 37a [Inventor getting a Legion of Honor medal (1850s)] MORSE. Yes, that makes sense.
- 38a [Far-traveling fly] HOMER. Boo.
- 40a [Physical features?] AHS. As in, a doctor’s physical exams.
- 45a [“Honoring Tradition; Inspiring Change” school] ETON. Seemed pretty obvious (especially since I had the E); was helpful to understand that it wasn’t an abbreviated name.
- 55a [What’s on Scrooge McDuck’s beak] PINCE NEZ. This was a key inroad entry to my solve. Once I eliminated MONOCLE (which doesn’t fit), my next idea was PINCE NEZ (without crossings).
- 56a [Implement sold by the American Heart Association] RED PEN. This turns out to be simply a red-hued ballpoint pen branded with AHA stuff. Was there ever a more greenpainty entry?
- 1d [Ward off] THWART. A nifty triple-consonant opening to pair with 1-across’s TSQ-.
- 3d [They often follow speeches] Q-AND-AS was surprisingly difficult to see.
- 7d [End of many record labels] -EST. Didn’t understand this one until just now; it’s a superlative suffix.
- 26d [ __ Superiore (vino designation)] SOAVE, which is simply the name of an Italian village near Verona.
- 32d [[Whom J-Lo auditioned for, for MTV (1990)] MC HAMMER. 53d [What 32-Down hosted in ’91] SNL. Talk about rapidly changing fortunes.
- 41d [Cold comfort] HOT TEA. Subverting the idiomatic meaning of the clue’s phrase.
- 47d [A current movement] TIDE. 51a [Far from the current] OBSOLETE.
NYT: Fun puzzle that almost defeated me in the SE corner. REESE’S Puffs sound only vaguely familiar; I had no idea on the “This Is Us” character; I couldn’t remember the River CLYDE until I had 60% of its letters; and I’m too much of a beer snob to pay attention to any Anheuser-Busch InBev brands.
And then there was the wonderfully misdirecting clue for LSAT. Watching “Suits” last year prompted me to look up my LSAT score from 1983. It was absolutely the worst test-taking experience of my life, and I did better than I had any right to do.
I enjoyed the other great clues like the ones for STAIRMASTER and I NEED A HUG.
Unlike Amy, I had no trouble with jAMbOREE: “COMO Agua Para Chocolate” was a gimme (I remember seeing that movie, but I don’t remember much about it).
DNF for me because of the SE corner. I knew CLYDE, but couldn’t come up with the second part of the NOBACK… answer. The LSAT clue was meaningless to me since I didn’t go to school in this country. Never watched “This Is Us.” Never heard of REESES Puffs. Thought the Vegas clue had something to do with gambling or cards.
Most problematic of all, I had NATTYBOH for the beer; no idea about NATTYICE.
Just a whole slew of things I didn’t know, all in one corner. Hopeless.
That corner was my downfall, too. I’ve heard of CLYDE, but couldn’t bring it to mind. Have never heard NO BACKSIES, and hope I never do again. I don’t drink much beer anymore, but I have heard of Natural Ice – just didn’t know the nickname (I guess Anheuser Busch embraces it), nor that it’s a low-cost beer. Eleven is a “natural” in craps, so I was totally fooled by what (in retrospect) was a clever clue for 38-D. And LSAT – nope.
Yeah, NOBACKSIES wasn’t any help. It’s not a phrase I remember from my childhood.
The LSAT trivia may be familiar to people who watched the first few seasons of “Suits.” One of the main characters earned his living by taking the LSAT while posing as someone else, and he later coaches his girlfriend (the Meghan Markle character) to get her a high score. The 180 figure is mentioned several times.
Ditto. My first DNF in a very long time. Soooo many names and foreign-isms, and the SE was the worst. I actually thought this puzzle was very easy except for that corner, where unknowns crossing unknowns completely stumped me. My least favorite kind of puzzle.
I’m surprised Amy singled out CAMPOREE. Sure, it’s a strange and utterly needless word, but then so are so many in this puzzle, which I found unpleasant. Like others here, I don’t often leave things blank, but the SE was DNF for more reasons than I care to say. FWIW, I’ve had Natural Ice a few times, although I’m happier to play beer snob, but never heard of its nickname. Maybe that’s because I’m unlikely ever to hear someone I know speak of it at all. But I entered it.
Can someone help me understand TIE? I surfed the Web for 811 meaning and got only some nonsense about an angel word. So then I tried “811 tie,” which got me only a necktie that its brand had given the model 811. I sure hope this isn’t the constructor’s private language, although much of the puzzle felt that way to me.
A sports team might have a record of 8 wins, 1 loss, and 1 tie, displayed as 8-1-1.
Or, as in the case of this clue (“The “1” in 8-8-1, e.g.”), 8 wins, 8 losses and 1 tie, which is a possible final record in the NFL these days (though ties are pretty rare). I’m a sports nut, but I didn’t make the connection until after I’d filled it in from the crosses and thought about it for a few seconds. I’m surprised that I didn’t struggle with that corner more than I did. My biggest roadblock came in the NE, where I had a similar experience to Amy (except that I’m only vaguely aware that SHAPERS are a thing).
My guy clearly has never been to northeast Ohio in the fall.
Does this refer to some clue in one of today’s puzzles?
I’m guessing that he’s commenting about the clue in today’s NYT puzzle for HOLIER (“Like Medina, Saudi Arabia, vis-à-vis Medina, Ohio”). I’ve spent some time in Medina, Ohio since returning to my stomping grounds in retirement four years ago, but I’ve never thought of it as particularly holy. I don’t know what the connection might be to “the fall”.
I think “No takebacks” is what people, mostly kids, actually say. “No backsies” sounds like something an adult would say when imitating, ironically or not, what kids actually say. There’s a phrase on the tip of my head, something with the structure “No”+___ with the second word being trochaic and definitely ending with that unstressed “eeze” sound, just like “backsies”–but it isn’t “backsies”–I’m pretty sure I heard and said often on adolescent playgrounds, but it’s just not coming to me. Ultimately, “No backsies” sounds to my ear what someone would say who is trying too hard to be cute.
If I read the google ngram viewer correctly, no backsies and no takebacks+no take backs have similar arcs in usage with no backsies being significantly less used.
I am familiar with both terms
Stumper: Managed to finish, but it took me a long time to find an error (SeRE instead of SORE).
pannonica – best I could come up with for WENT INTO was something like Started doing comedy = WENT INTO comedy. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Took me a long time to grasp the clues for EST and HOMER – but I liked them both after the fact.
TSQ… in the NW had me thinking I screwed something up. I had considered “drafts” in multiple contexts – writing, beer, professional sports, and weatherstripping. Alas, the correct context was a long time coming.
Yep, I can make WENT INTO work too, but it’s just very meh.
@pannonica – and, um, what am I missing, with the video/song link? :-] (me = idiot, clearly… just OBSOLETE music?)
Reaching way back to the phillumeny clue.
ok – and thnx!
And now I’ve learned (I think?) that the song is in Bangla (not Hindi). [I think Bengali is a colonialism, but yes: Bangla = Bengali.]
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%A6%A6%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B6%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%87
NYT: This was on the very very tough side for me, but somehow managed to finish it. The clue “You! All of you!” seriously befuddled me. As did the clue “Hold, please”? and as did the clue for MACGYVER, which I never watched and certainly had never heard used as a verb.
Actually I found the compound punctuation of “Hold, please”? to be ultra confusing. (But it was a good clue for I NEED A HUG.)
I had a lot of trouble with the word GROOMER who might have to clean up a lot of toys. I was about to ask in this sentence what they have to do with dog toys when it dawned on me that it’s referring to toy dog breeds, not toys per se of any kind. Ha!
Like I guess many, I expected the “Eleven in Las Vegas” to be the name for rolling an eleven in the game of craps. Nope. And never heard of NATTY ICE, or CAMPOREE* (which I managed to guess, however, by luck). And the clues for NOODLES and YOGA MATS were incredibly opaque to me.
Whew!
—————
* I”m going to hazard a guess that because Boy Scouts of America has an informal copyright on the word “jamboree”, other scout groups use “camporee” instead.
Actually, Boy Scouts have camporees too. They’re much more common than jamborees because they’re at the local level, while jamborees are big deal events drawing Scouts from all over the country.
I don’t know what my father was thinking, signing me up in a Boy Scouts troop. The only person I would think would have made a lousier Scout than me would have been my father. At least I enjoyed fishing. But I couldn’t wait to escape the troop’s grip. I learned very early that I didn’t wear regimentation well.
But I was exposed to lots of terminology. I retired a Tenderfoot and entered only OREE and waited for crossings.
Got through the NYT in one piece, but it was tough. CAMPOREE was the last entry I filled in, many initial guesses all over the grid got changed back and forth, YAFEEL never made much sense, a lot of popcult. But doable in the end.
Honestly surprised this NYT made it through to publish, that top right and bottom right is brutal..
Some great cluing on the NYT, in particular the clues for SOLVERS and I NEED A HUG each got a snort from me when I figured them out.
I’ve heard “No take-backsies” but not without the “take.”
Growing up, as I eventually met people who came from various parts of the U.S., I was impressed by the wide variety of the Hide-and-Seek call to all players, from “Home Free All!” to “Ollie Ollie Umphrey!”
Re: Stumper 8d
In case it’s not inferable, “roundball” is slang for the game of basketball.
Knowing this (and parsing “recreates” correctly, of course) should make the clue/answer combo make more sense.
stumper: got outwitted by STAN AGAIN – i filled in most of the grid with the exception of the upper left corner in about 17 minutes… but after 35 more minutes of flailing i gave up and went to checks… i just could not for the life of me see 1d, 2d, 3d, or 19a… and i still don’t understand 5d or 7d… after a few weeks of moderately acceptable times, its back to the drafting board for me
5d: one sense of ARID is jejune
7d: record as in a world record; ‘labels’ is there to mislead
tysm, i confess to have never heard “arid” being used in that way… and that sense of “record” flew well over my head
Yes, like you and pannonica, the upper left was the worst (rest not bad). T-squares completely eluded me. I tried “divert” for 1 D and “total” for 4 D first. I hated “red pen” for 56 A, but managed to get it via the downs.
Stumper question:
I’m probably too late to get an answer since I had to set this aside overnight to complete it. No one else seems to have a question about 12D, QUATORZE, but I only got it from the crosses. I can’t seem to find an explanation as to what it means.
Quatorze is French for 14, and the clue relates to Louis XIV.
Thank you!
Still don’t understand the answer to 42 across. Can someone explain? Thanks.
42a in which puzzle? If it’s the NYT, it’s SIC, as in “he claimed he would meet me ‘anywear’ (sic).”
WSJ – I could think of at least a dozen preferable clues for “pole” – just ugh