Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Inside Out” — not as emotional as the movie. – Erin’s write-up
Jonesin’ solution 9/3/24
Hello lovelies! In this week’s puzzle Matt has added the word OUT to some common words and phrases:
- 17a. [Defeating Dad by a lot?] ROUTING POPS (Ring Pops)
- 59a. [Canada’s possible national symbol, if there were no maples?] POUTINE TREE (pine tree)
- 11d. [Contemptible person got loud?] TOOL SHOUTED (tool shed)
- 25d. [Fashion that involves trigonometry?] SINE COUTURE (sinecure). Unfortunately they don’t make it anymore, but clothing company Svaha once sold this trigonometry dress, and still sells delightfully geeky couture.
Other things:
- 44a. [Prefix for some Goths?] OSTRO. Matt’s referring to the 5th century Germanic people and not our friends of dark aesthetic.
- 2d. [Rescuer of Odysseus] INO. She was also a princess of Thebes and aunt and nurse to Dionysus.
- 8d. [Dig Dug character with goggles] POOKA. In the 1982 arcade game, Pookas are the mortal enemy of the main character, but in the Pac-Man game series, they are portrayed as good.
Until next week!
Sam Acker’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Across the Aisle”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases whose final words are also types of PRODUCE (23d, [Grocery store section in which you might find the ends of the starred answers]).
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Across the Aisle” · Sam Acker · Tue., 9.3.24
- 16a. [*Athletic apparel brand founded in Vancouver] LULULEMON.
- 18a. [*Tinder meet-up, perhaps] HOT DATE.
- 30a. [*TV binger, probably] COUCH POTATO.
- 38a. [*Marine creature with a tentacled mouth] SEA CUCUMBER.
- 56a. [*Lego collectible, familiarly] MINIFIG.
- 57a. [*Head honcho] TOP BANANA.
Very nice! I especially liked the inclusion of the Lego MINIFIG as well as HOT DATE since they were stealthy enough to be surprise theme answers (to me, anyway). So we have six theme answers plus a revealer situated vertically and crossing two of the theme answers. Impressive construction! I guess that’s why we see some “cheater squares” on the edges and two of the corners. But if it all flows and results in a smooth grid (it does!), then it works for me. Nice job.
As a bonus to the breezy theme, we get nice long entries like CRUELLA, OCEANIC, CAN’T GO ON (how dramatic!), PR BLITZ, and LEAPFROG. Speaking of which, college football started in earnest this last weekend, and there was a play in which a Western Michigan player LEAPFROGged an unsuspecting ref. Check it out.
Some crosswordese makes its way into the grid (MNO, ICER, IN LA, URSI), but with a theme-packed grid, I’m inclined to look the other way. Crosses were all fair in any case.
Four stars.
Alex Eaton-Salners’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 9/3/24 – no. 0903
TWO-PARTY SYSTEMS are the [Political configurations suggested by the answers (and their circled letters) at 17-, 24-, 50- and 61-Across?], and the themers fit like so: You can have a TUPPERWARE party or a TEA party. There’s a SOCIALIST party and you can hold a CAST party after a play wraps. HALLOWEEN party, British usage HEN party (bachelorette party or other women-only shindig). There was a FEDERALIST Party and you could, if so inclined, go to a FRAT party. Neat two-layer theme.
Fave fill: POP-UP BOOK (though the clue feels a little off target to me: [Story that jumps off the page?]), PHILLIES. Felt like a good bit more fill that I wouldn’t necessarily put into a puzzle that’s expected to be easy (ASPS, P.E.I., AMIE, VIDI, EDAM, ELIA, ARLO, TSAR?).
New to me: 13a. [Clown role in Chinese opera], CHOU.
3.5 stars from me.
Elizabeth C. Gorski’s Cr♥ssw♥rd Nation puzzle (Week 693), “We’re Off to a Strong Start!”—Ade’s take
Crossword Nation puzzle solution, Week 693: “We’re Off to a Strong Start”
It’s September, everyone! The best month of the year, and I’m not just saying that because my birthday falls on it. But mostly, that’s the reason! Anyways, hope all of you are doing well and hope that you had a relaxing Labor Day off.
Speaking of labor, while you took off from work to do some puzzling, we have some legendary strongmen doing the heavy lifting in this puzzle, highlighted by each of the names that start the four theme answers.
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- ATLAS OF THE HEART (17A: [2021 Brene Brown best-seller that maps out 87 emotions and experiences]) – 87? Geez, that seems like a lot!
- GOLIATH HERON (25A: [Very large wading bird of sub-Saharan Africa])
- SAMSON EBUKAM (41A: [Nigerian-born defensive end for the Indianapolis Colts]) – The Colts play the Jets in November in New Jersey. Might have to head to the game and show him this puzzle!
- HERCULES BEETLES (53A: [Critters on the list of the world’s largest insects])
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How about those non-themed 10s in the grid?! The clue to BUCKET LIST (14A: [Lineup of goals that can include cliff diving and climbing Kilimanjaro]) reinforced not to put those tasks mentioned onto my bucket list, while ESPADRILLE was an entry I don’t think I’ve seen in a crossword before (57A: [Casual shoe with a rope sole]). Also like DAMOCLES as well, which would have been even cooler if, somehow, the word “hair” or “strand” was situated above it (35A: [Sword of ___]). Instead, we’ll just have to settle for WIIG (22D: [Kristen of “Bridesmaids”]).
“Sports will make you smarter” moment of the day: PETCO (44A: [Retailer for Fido and Fluffy]) – It seems like yesterday, but Petco Park, the home of the San Diego Padres baseball team, opened up 20 years ago, in 2004. The stadium is the crown jewel of the redevelopment of the city and the area around the Gaslamp Quarter, and the park was designed so that the historic warehouse, Western Metal Supply Co., acts as the left-field foul pole.
Thank you so much for the time, everybody! Have a wonderful and safe rest of your day and, as always, keep solving!
Take care!
Ade/AOK
Erik Agard’s New Yorker crossword — pannonica’s write-up
New Yorker • 9/3/24 • Tue • Agard • solution • 20240903
I’d call this one just a notch below actually ‘moderately challenging’.
Breakfast time!
- 21a [ __ rocket (runner’s forceful nose-blowing technique)] SNOT. 39d [Swap spit] KISS. 48a [Deodorant targets, for short] PITS.
Are we upset or offended?
OK, let’s continue.
- 9a [Racing discipline, for short] BMX, which stands for bicycle motocross. That seems oxymoronic to me.
12d [Won back-to-back-to-back-to-back championships] FOURPEATED, which looks like the inverse complement to the fork–threek dynamic. (Also, fiverks exist).- 22a [Taxonomic rank above family and below class] ORDER. A gimme for this solver.
- 27a [No matter what] COME RAIN OR SHINE. I would have thought the more common version of the expression was “come rain or come shine”, but Ngrams says differently, in no uncertain terms. This entry is the first of three stacked central grid-spanning entries. It strengthens the core, without compromise in crossing fill.
- 38a [ __ and salt fish] ACKEE. New to me, and I have no idea what it means. <consults web> All right, it’s a dish from Jamaican cuisine. ACKEE is a fruit, a larger distant cousin of litchi and longan. And the other part is often (usually?) spelled as one word: saltfish.
- 49a [Star of the 2024 film “Shirley“] REGINA KING. It’s about Shirley Chisholm.
- 3d [Podcast releases, for short] EPS (episodes), avoiding conflict with 23a [Parts of some music collections, for short] LPS.
- 9d [Performer for whom turnout is important?] BALLERINA. I can see that, ok.
- 10d [Slips of paper?] MISPRINTS. Nice.
- 11d [ __ tetra (fish so named because its spine is visible through its translucent skin] X-RAY. Somewhat odd, but not as unusual looking as the barreleye, whose head is transparent.
- 26d [Common e-mail sign-off] BEST. This is what I use most often. Some people abhor it, for various reasons.
- 49d [Detroit __ (early nickname for Malcolm X] RED. Because he had reddish hair.
Kelly Richardson’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Jenni’s write-up
I was definitely on Kelly’s wavelength for this puzzle despite the fact that I’m at the tail end of a HEAD COLD.
The theme answers:
Los Angeles Times, September 3, 2024, Kelly Richardson, solution grid
- 20a [Winter weather caused by cold air moving over warm water] is LAKE–EFFECT SNOW. My husband grew up in Rochester, NY, and I have heard stories of the lake effect.
- 32 [Hopping African primate] is a BUSH BABY.
- 39a [Malady that causes the sniffles] is the aforementioned HEAD COLD.
And the revealer: 51a [Mundane musings, or what the last words of 20-, 32-, and 39-Across have in common] is SHOWER THOUGHTS. I immediately understood this phrase even though I don’t think I’ve ever heard it before. The Google Ngram viewer suggests it took off in 2001 and is still a thing. A search for the term turned up a Parade Magazine article, so this is clearly entered the Middle America mainstream.
Google NGram for SHOWER THOUGHTS
I appreciated the theme!
What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that a BUSH BABY hops. I would call it more leaping than hopping. Still totally intriguing. Now I want to go visit Gareth.
Matthew Faiella’s Universal Crossword, “Take That, Boss!” (ed. David Steinberg) — Matt F’s Review
Universal Solution 09.03.2024
The title is a subtle giveaway – you’re looking for “towns” going “up” in the grid; and the reveal is even more specific:
- 7D/42D – ]Goal of entrepreneurs on “Shark Tank” … and what this puzzle’s theme answers are doing] = RAISING / CAPITAL
Each vertical theme answer hides a capital city that is spelled upwards in the grid:
- 3D – [Super safe salsa specification] = EXTR(A MIL)D (Lima)
- 9D – [Road sign before a blind turn, say] = CAUT(ION AH)EAD (Hanoi)
- 21D – [City on California’s Central Coast] = SAN(TA BAR)BARA (Rabat)
- 33D – [Street in a Poe mystery] = RU(E MOR)GUE (Rome)
A lot of real estate was consumed by the theme today, which makes the clean fill all the more impressive. The four bonus words are each crossing y 2 theme answers, and they still enliven the puzzle: ZIP LINES (with a top notch clue – [Completes a wire transfer?]), ALL CAPS, TEAM USA, and BEER TAPS. The puzzle was smooth from top to bottom. I love an evocative clue, and my favorite today was 31D – [Sounds of belly flops] – for SPLATS. You can’t help but picture someone smacking the water after fully committing to the trick. I also liked the playfulness of the clue at 49A – [They can’t be trusted because they make everything up!] for ATOMS. Nice one!
Thank you for the puzzle, Matthew. I look forward to your next one!
NYT: I liked the puzzle. Might have been a little more elegant if TEA Party didn’t have an actual political connotation in recent years. I’ve heard the term HEN party, but have always thought of it as old-timey and somewhat dismissive.
Good point about TEA Party. I suppose a less figurative tea party, like Alice’s, might have felt even less satisfying, but no doubt the theme made the entry too commonly applied not to use. Oh, well. I also didn’t recognize HEN party, which made the theme less resonant with me still.
Didn’t help that I never care for themes where the setter can circle whatever letters however isolated just to get it to work. But I guess that’s just me, so ignore it. Most people here liked the puzzle.
“I never care for themes where the setter can circle whatever letters however isolated just to get it to work.”
But it’s not that simple. The circled letters have to spell a word that can be tied into the theme. Not only do they have to be there in the first place, they have to be in the correct order.
To some extent, that’s a matter of luck. If, for example, there were no such thing as a HEN party, then HALLOWEEN doesn’t work. But it still takes skill on the part of the constructor to identify the words that work.
All that said, I wasn’t wowed by this one. Circled letters are just difficult for me to read in a grid, and lately my multifocal eyeglasses seem to be making close-up tasks more difficult.
So I didn’t really understand the TWO-PARTY SYSTEM until after I had filled in the grid, and I solved it mostly as a themeless puzzle.
It didn’t help that I had to track down a mistake at the end (a misplaced letter in TWO-PARTY SYSTEM). Nor does it help that the revealer reminds one of the stupid, undemocratic, racist Electoral College system that we’re stuck with.
Thanks for the setter’s perspective. As a print from pdf solver, I’d have trouble where my ink can obscure the circles. I deal with it (tada) by reinforcing the circles with ink.
Not sure I get the issue with TEA Party, in the context of the inclusion of SOCIALIST and FEDERALIST parties.
In fact, given the political connotation of “two party systems” (a rather egregious POC) I think this theme would have been considerably more elegant of each of the pairs had included one political party. To have three of the pairs structured this way, and one not, feels off to me. Incomplete. Uneven.
Which just adds to the unevenness of the fill generally, epitomized by the esoteric CHOU and the crosswordese EDAM and TERI looking at each other from opposite corners.
When I was young (a very long time ago) a HEN party was a gathering of adult women without their husbands or children present. The term was used neutrally by the women, it seemed to me, but with a faint-but-noticeable dismissive or derogatory tone by their husbands. Apparently the term is making a comeback as the female counterpart of the prenuptial stag party, a factoid that was unknown to me until today. I haven’t heard the term used in the wild in at least fifty years.
Ah, you need to watch more Brit-oriented streamers like Britbox and Acorn. Hen parties are frequently referenced in their content. But in the wild, you’re right!
TNY – Also notch below moderately challenging for me. I immediately thought “come rain or come shine” as well. I have five versions in my library with Ray Charles edging out James Booker as my favorite
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY1xAc1ucaI
TNY: pannonica, here is the inimitable Harry Belafonte singing Jamaica Farewell, which talks about “ackee, rice, saltfish are nice and the rum is fine any time of year..” That’s where I heard of it, and it seems that ackee has been mentioned in another puzzle recently?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh1ow6zKapQ
I had the most trouble with ACKEE crossing SANDIE (not so often in the singular like that?), BMX crossing XRAY (where I’d considered “gray tetra”), FOURPEATED crossing EPS, and Regina KING next to SWAG and EGGS (where I’d swear a menu would say roe). That’s a lot of trouble.
Generally there was that TNY mix of gimmes, too many of them to my taste, as an excuse to make solvers work letter by letter on crossings, which as I say didn’t always work out for me.
I too had the most trouble at the BMX/X-ray crossing. I suppose if you eat just one you would call it a pecan sandie,lol. (I think they are sold as pecan sandies as you commented.). I don’t think roe is a usual topping for ramen, often soft-boiled or hard or scrambled eggs are used.
I enjoyed this puzzle.
til: Ackee rice saltfish dish is pretty much Jamaica’s national food… I did not know that. Never been there so that’s probably why I didn’t know it. :) .
WSJ: I’m wondering if Jim and I grok “cheater squares” differently; I wouldn’t call any of the midsection black squares cheaters, as they are all necessitated by theme-entry positioning.
Hmm. I didn’t think “cheater square” was an ambiguous term – so that’s an interesting comment. I believe it just means you can remove black squares and still have the same number of total words, with a valid grid. (I don’t think it has to do with the particular theme/fill/etc., just the grid – right?)
I’d assume many terrific grid just require “cheaters”. (Don’t take offense at the lingo/slang, in short?)
“Impressive construction” is the real take away you should focus on! Per my understanding, cheaters are often a quick-and-dirty guesstimate/metric that there’s complex stuff (indicating a trickier-than-usual construction) for any published puzzle…
Here, I think the terminology refers to the 3 blocked-out squares in upper left and the 2 directly below AHEM – and their symmetric partners – for 10 total.
Finally: please somebody correct me where/if I’m wrong here. ;-)
New Yorker: The pleasure of the puzzle’s being easier than usual for a Tuesday (not a pleasure for everyone, but it is for me) was offset by the unpleasant trio pointed out by pannonica. A few years ago, I would have put myself in the unsqueamish category, but the relentless pushing of the envelope by most of the New Yorker constructors has sent me to the other side.
SNOT ROCKET was the only one that crossed the line for me. It’s a pretty gross thing to do.
LAT: re: SHOWER THOUGHTS
It appeared just a week ago, in Wyna Liu’s New Yorker crossword.
Indeed. :-D (I also like that INNER MONOLOGUE happens to be 14-long, too… OK, not the same things. But a bit similar.)
The general concept reminds me of a 1980’s John Cusack movie (I couldn’t remember which, really) with the line: “Who invented liquid soap, and why?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIicp6oe45A&t=105s
Also, nice ngram viewer data! (But still…)
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=shower+thoughts%2C+inner+monologue
New Yorker: Nice puzzle that for me fit the “moderately challenging” label. The multi-word phrases all took a few crosses to become obvious, and I don’t remember ever hearing of ACKEE. I knew IBO had been superseded by another, four-letter word, but I couldn’t remember what the fourth letter was. Lots of gimmes throughout the grid, which always helps.
Probably my biggest slowdown was self-inflicted, where I muffed the gimme KUNTA by putting KiNTe. Guess I should’ve read the clue more carefully. That I in place of the U made FOUR-PEATED (a new term for me) hard to see. It didn’t help that I had Montana observing standard time in the summer. A Freudian slip, perhaps? (Daylight Saving Time irks me no end.)
COME RAIN OR SHINE reminds me of an event my husband recently saw an ad for. The event was to be held “Come rain or shine/Weather permitting.”
LAT: the review shows the wrong title for the puzzle. It should read “Uptown”.
In Matt’s puzzle I was thrown by three of the four theme answers having both OUT and IN. (“inside out”). Was that a mistake or was it just unintentional that IN occurred in those three as well as OUT? I found the fill kinda clunky this week also, and I’m a reliable Jonesin fan. C’mon Matt!