Chandi Deitmer and Matthew Stock’s New York Times crossword, “Product Integration” — Nate’s write-up
09.01.2024 Sunday New York Times Crossword
I can hear what some of you are saying: “Math!? In my crossword?” Well I, for one, think it’s a neat innovation that asked me as a solver to stretch in a new way. For each themed entries that crossed a TIMES SQUARE, the solver had the extra brainteaser of figuring out how to break the thematic numbers into factors that, when multiplied, would fit with both the across and down themers (hence the clever “Product Integration” title).
37A: PAC 3 x 4 [West Coast N.C.A.A. conference that lost 10 teams in 2024] (PAC 12)
44A: 7 x 4 DAYS [Typical length of February] (28 days)
3D: SWEET 4 x 4 [Coming-of-age celebration] (Sweet 16)
38D: 3 x 7 GUN SALUTE [Military honor with fired artillery] (21-gun salute)
71A: 5 x 8 WINKS [Short nap] (40 winks)
76A: CLOUD 3 x 3 [Location of elation, in an idiom] (Cloud 9)
22D: FRESHMAN 5 x 3 [Weight gained at the start of college, informally] (Freshman 15)
72D: 8 x 3 HOUR GYMS [Always-open workout spots] (24-hour gyms)
99A: HANG 5 x 2 [Surfing move with all of one’s toes off the board] (Hang 10)
106A: 4 x 2 BIT [Like old Nintendo consoles] (8-bit)
50D: FANTASTIC 2 x 2 [Squad for the Invisible Woman and the Thing] (Fantastic 4)
100D: 5 x 4 PENCE [One-fifth of a British pound] (20 pence)
131A: TIMES SQUARE [Midtown Manhattan hot spot … or each of this puzzle’s three shaded regions?]
This puzzle felt like a breath of fresh air. Sure, there were some bits of sticky fill (DELEGATEE, ENSOR, KVASS) but, at least to me, the juice felt worth the squeeze. Nearly all of the themers felt solid and in-the-language (maybe with the exception of 5 x 4 PENCE), which was certainly a selling point. What did you think? Did the extra bit of math elevate the puzzle or make it too much of a number cruncher for you? Let us know in the comments – and have a great (hopefully long) weekend!
Adam Levav’s Universal Sunday crossword, “Back to School”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases whose final letters spell out well-known American colleges and universities. The revealer (in addition to the apt title) is COLLEGE FINALS (108a, [End-of-semester exams … or a description of the circled letters]).
Universal Sunday crossword solution · “Back to School” · Adam Levav · 9.1.24
- 21a. [*Arguments between legislators, say] POLICY DEBATES.
- 31a. [*Fortnite subgenre] BATTLE ROYALE.
- 45a. [*Philosophy prioritizing profits over people] CORPORATE GREED.
- 64a. [*Twizzlers choice] RED LICORICE.
- 82a. [*Document for a new driver] LEARNER’S PERMIT.
- 94a. [*Learning acquired by physical repetition] MUSCLE MEMORY.
Each of these theme answers is two words long, yet none of them needed the first word to satisfy the theme. That is to say, hidden-word themes often rely on the hidden word spanning multiple words. Not so today because of course both the revealer and the title indicate that the hidden words are at the ends of the respective entries. So while I see it as slightly less elegant than the usual, I can’t see any other way of accomplishing this particular theme. And besides, each theme answer is a solid in-the-language, if not fun, phrase. Ergo, I’m not complaining, just pointing it out.
Plenty of long fill to enjoy: “SAY NO MORE“, ACID TRIP, PLOT HOLE, NEONATAL, GRIDLINE, CRISPER, “NOT EVEN!”, ALBUM ART, “BAD IDEA“, SPORTS FAN, CAT TREAT. I don’t think I’ve seen OMW [“In transit,” in text-speak] in a grid before, but I accepted it readily since I use that abbreviation as a shortcut on my phone to send the full phrase “On my way!”
Clues of note:
- 41a. [“The ___ is a mass of incandescent gas” (They Might Be Giants lyric)]. SUN. I enjoy TMBG, but I’m not familiar with this song. Let’s all get educated on the (subject of the) SUN (see below).
- 70a. [Taking HRT, for a trans man]. ON T, with the “T” being testosterone. This terminology was new to me and difficult to search for online, but now it makes sense.
3.5 stars.
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword, “Beast Mode” — Matt’s write-up
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword, “Beast Mode” solution, 9/1/24
Apologies for the delay on this one – I lost track of the days on the holiday weekend. I’m now reliably informed that it’s no longer Saturday.
Doubly kicking myself, because I particularly enjoyed this theme. Common phrases are altered by a single letter to contain an animal, and clued to the amusing new phrases.
The new letters, helpfully circled, aptly spell WILDLIFE, while the unseen replaced letters, when reordered according to the enumerations in the theme clues, aptly spell NOAHS ARC, er ARK – I often forget “Mortal Kombat” is spelled with a K.
I had a particularly smooth time through this grid – there was lots of connectivity in the middle section, and the theme clues and entries were amusing but neither too easy nor too hard to get from A to B and beyond, unlike last week where some solvers found some of the names a bit tough. And the quasi-meta final payoff wasn’t too much of an extra step, either.
Highlights:
The repetition of [Work on a hero, say] for both CHEW and ODE // [Celebrity chef Jacques] PEPIN – I just like him // The particularly amusing clue for theme entry OWL GOALS
Lowlight:
APEMEN. I may care about this more than I should, but I always cringe when I see this. Humans didn’t evolve from apes, but rather share a common ancestor, just as humans and whales share a common ancestor if you go back far enough! There’s no “missing link.” The Wall Street Journal puzzle is particularly egregious at using this entry and presenting it as something factual, and it bothers me.
NYT has an ingenious and fresh theme. Not bad at all, especially since it took me a while to figure it out. When entering numbers wasn’t working out, even with the instructions saying only one digit in a square, eventually a fresh look at the title did the job.
True, it’s math, but nothing past third grade. And a fair amount of fill wasn’t going well for me, including at least two themers. DELEGATEE had to be the worst entry. But that has support from dictionaries, and everything else works out as well, so I don’t want to say I loved the puzzle, but I honestly can’t object. Maybe a little weak in that the theme leaves big swatches, the NE and SW, untouched. But still glad they tried it.Worth seeing.
Loved the Times. sort of a blend of Sudoku—well maybe more KenKen—and crossword. i’d think gettable even for the mathphobic.
only one that bothered me was the 20 PENCE crossing 8 BIT. i felt if you didn’t know both the intricacies of the British monetary system and antique video game consoles, that common digit could be tough.
20 is a fifth of 100; the metric pound isn’t very intricate. The former pound, with 20 shillings of 12 pence, was pretty weird but 2o pence today would have been a good guess.
That’s what I guessed. There were (I learned) 48 pence in a pound which was a major misdirection for me.
That’s the bit that stumped me. I had 1 x 2 instead of 4 x 2 for the longest time. Super fun puzzle today!
NYT: Thought it was great fun and especially liked the bit of math embedded in it. And while it doesn’t seem theme heavy, I’m sure it was a construction challenge to get all 12 of the numbered theme elements to cross correctly (plus the clever TIMES SQUARE revealer).
I’m glad I thought of MARIE CLAIRE immediately, as it opened up the NW corner.
I ended up with an error- I have no idea where and no energy to track it down. (I practice lowering my standards every now and then :).
thanks for solving! yes, maybe not theme heavy in terms of total theme squares, but the interlocking areas were a bear to nail down, especially because we didn’t want to repeat any products. took us about four hours over zoom just to get those 12 themers solidified!
Thanks for the insight on the construction process, and especially that the products were not repeated. I didn’t notice while solving but I’m pretty sure I’d have noticed if there had been a repeat… it would set expectations.
It’s a subtle kind of elegance.
Loved it Matthew!
I didn’t know MARIE CLAIRE and was stumped for a while even after I had MARIE.
I don’t know French magazines nor am I familiar with rarely clued Indian stews. That corner was beyond tough for me. Crossed with a filmmaker and author I’ve never heard of.
Agree. That was a horrible little section.
I wonder if there’s a phrase of 11 letters that could have replaced the magazine, mirroring Times Square. (Thus, I was wrong to say that there’s no theme material in the SW.) The clue could provide the wit, so the phrase could be unremarkable. (I thought of “higher maths,” but “maths” is British, and “digital divide,” but that’s too long..) Then a whole new corner could be constructed without some of the rough spots that Jose cites and without a feeling of a single unthemed corner.
Marie Claire has been publishing in English in the United States for 30 years.
After nine appearances as the Asiatic deer, sambar finally makes its debut as the wonderful dal. Ubiquitous in South Indian cuisine, it’s always served with dosas (dosai for the Indo-purists) and is half of the basic meal called idli sambar — a cake of steamed rice and lentil batter cut into a bowl of tomatoey spicy sambar. On our first trip to India, in the ’80s, a lunch of idli sambar could be had for about 3 cents in the south.
I tried putting in MADEMOISELLE but after it wouldn’t fit, I had to leave it for later…
My wife used to bring home a copy of Marie Claire from time to time, so the title was familiar – but the clue was of no help. The Indian stew was unfamiliar, so that came from crosses.
I thought the theme was clever, but for some reason, AcrossLite didn’t like the way I entered the numbers – oh, well!
@huda – if I don’t get the “Happy Pencil” in AL, my policy is to do a cursory check for typos, and if I don’t see anything obvious, I just have the app point out my error. And life goes on!
NYT – I wanted to like it. It was likable. It was clever.
But I kind of hated it.
NYT: really fun theme. I love math puzzles, so I went straight to the theme blocks. I first put in 28 DAYS, but when 21 GUN SALUTE wouldn’t work, I realized the trick… then did the other three blocks. Really cute and very fun theme. For me, it felt almost like a little warmup puzzle before tackling the main full Sunday puzzle.
NYT was very good, held my attention through the time it took to solve. Indian stew was obscure, but I resisted the urge to look it up.
I usually refuse to do arithmetic in a puzzle, my standard objection is that I’m a professional and should be paid for it. But… I’m retired now…
Kudos to Evan for today’s WaPo. Funny theme answers and amazing construction to make the circled letters do two different things.
Yes, it was up to his usual standard.
My only misstep was putting in a C where a K was required. That seems like a genuine ambiguity, since both answers are legit, although it was resolved by putting the letters together after completion, as instructed.
Right, it’s no longer ambiguous when you do that last step.
I made the same mistake (not being a video gamer).
But either way, MORTAL WOMBAT amused me. Nice work, Mr. Birnholz.
+1!
Evan B is a master craftsman, and his double-themer is brilliant!
And holy cow, look at his star-ratings (even though he ignores them).
NYT: The theme of multiplying numbers to get the right answer is innovative and fresh.
Alas, I did not find the process of fumbling with the numbers, unsure of some of them, to be fun.
(And personally, I really don’t like words like DELEGATEE that mean the same as the shorter and standard word DELEGATE.)
A delegatee has certain, limited, roles assigned. A delegate is a representative with broader responsibilities. There is some overlap in informal usage but legally they are different concepts.
I love math, so I very much enjoyed the NYT. The only gripe I had was with the editor’s decision to write a note telling us to put numbers in the shaded squares. That took a HUGE part of the puzzle out of it! Let us figure that out for ourselves! It really wouldn’t have been hard — one look at any of those answers with shaded squares and you know numbers are involved. And the little multiplication signs make it clear that multiplying is involved. The note is totally unnecessary and a bit insulting to the solver.
But aside from that, loved it!
My guess is that if the numbers were straightforward, say SWEET16, there wouldn’t have been a note, but they were concerned that with the trick it would have been too frustrating. Of course, once you got to the revealer it would be clear.
I habitually skip the note on the Sunday NYT puzzles unless it’s just not clicking. I noticed the shaded squares and the tiny multiplication signs, then went ahead and put in straight-forward answers like 28 DAYS. Eventually, I realized the crosses were not working and saw that I had to do some simple arithmetic. I’m not sure if I read the note before finishing, but no, it’s not necessary.
NYT: “AS DO I” grates on me every time I encounter it.
Is it AS DO I, AS AM I, SO DO I, SO AM I, ME TOO??? So many options!
Ditto!
Too many options for an answer no one gives a rat’s ass about.