Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Head for a Fall”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases whose final letters spell out a body part — specifically, a part that can be found on one’s head. This body part “falls” Down, hence the title.
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Head for a Fall” · Mike Shenk · Thu., 9.5.24
- 17a. [Debut with great fanfare] MAKE A BIG SP(LASH) with 15d FLASHY.
- 29a. [Biker jackets and the like] LEATHERW(EAR) with 33d EARNS.
- 44a. [Hugo’s Gavroche or Dickens’s Artful Dodger, e.g.] STREET UR(CHIN) with 46d CHINOS.
- 59a. [Shaking] GIVING THE S(LIP) with 57d CLIP.
I needed to get all the way down to the third theme entry before I cottoned on to the theme, but that just meant the AHA moment was all the more satisfying. Still, I have to say it’s an odd choice to have an eyelash as part of this group. Why not just go with a more worthy body part, like the 3-letter EYE. Perhaps the letters in LASH were more conducive to smooth fill.
Speaking of which, we have highlights ANKLE BITER (not part of the theme), RAP METAL, MUTINIES, and RAISES HELL (which I switched back and forth with RAISES CAIN more than once).
Clues of note:
- 16a. [Instrument for Jake Shimabukuro]. UKE. Saw him in concert a couple years ago and the dude is flat-out amazing. He’s on tour now, so if he comes to your area, check him out.
- 5d. [Tap type]. SPINAL. I’m not a fan of this kind of clue, so I went with SPIGOT. To my mind, the clue wants a noun for an answer.
- 13d. [Swift work, say]. SATIRE. Jonathan, presumably, not Taylor (although I could be wrong).
3.5 stars.
Peter Gordon’s Fireball Crossword, “Themeless 170” – Jenni’s write-up
The Fireball is back from vacation and I am traveling and don’t feel well, so don’t expect much.
It’s a themeless and either it’s more difficult than they’ve been lately or I feel worse than I thought. Here’s what I noticed:
Fireball, September 4, 2024, Peter Gordon, “Themeless 170,” solution grid
- 1d [Person who might make a sole patch?] is a COBBLER. Cute.
- 5d [Some old Kenner action figures] are EWOKS. Apparently Kenner had the Star Wars franchise.
- 34a [Wheels with dozens of pockets] are ROULETTES. I raised an eyebrow at the plural.
- 40a [Judge’s goals, often] are RBIS. Aaron Judge.
- Peter often has paired entries in his themelesses. This time they’re 17a and 57a, both clued as [When you might have a cold one]. The answers are BEER O‘CLOCK and MILLER TIME, respectively.
What I didn’t know before I this puzzle: that AVA has been among the most popular baby names since 2005.
Joe Deeney’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up
Difficulty: Easy (9m05s)
Joe Deeney’s New York Times crossword, 9/5/24, 0905
Today’s theme: you just keep on pushin’ my (theme entries) over the border line
- (wave) TO THE CAMERA
- (curl) UP WITH A BOOK
- (tilt) AT WINDMILLS
- (lines) ONES POCKETS
I actually found the various border shapes so evocative, I was able to plunk down 3/4 theme entries based on the clue and line orientations alone. Held up mostly by the fill in the NE, but otherwise, this played pretty easy. Your mileage may vary.
Cracking: OLD MONEY KEISTERS
Slacking: I do not know whether to love ZEDONK (making its NYTXW debut today) or to huff with incredulity. Maybe a little from column A and a little from column B. Wikipedia tells me this animal is also variously called a zenkey, zonkey, and a zeebrass.
Sidetracking: EATS CROW and drinks Fight Milk
Jess Shulman’s USA Today Crossword, “Open Wide” — Emily’s write-up
Say ah!
USA Today, September 05, 2024, “Open Wide” by Jess Shulman
Theme: each themer is contained within WI—DE
Themers:
- 17a. [Annual cold-weather festival in Ottawa, Canada], WINTERINTERLU DE
- 40a. [Have a runaway victory], WINBYALANDSLI DE
- 64a. [One of two on many windshields], WIPERBLA DE
A mix of themers in today’s set, with WINTERINTERLUDE, WINBYALANDSLIDE, and WIPERBLADE. The theme is a fun one with a nice title hint to make it clear.
Favorite fill: CAKEPOP, BEARS, TIG, and IMGAME
Stumpers: WAITREALLY (I needed crossing for this one, yes really), HOWRU (also needed crossings), and STONY (also needed crossings)
Overall a smooth solve with lots of great fill and lengthy bonus fill too. I enjoyed that KNEEPAD was next to SETTERS. It also felt like a nice variety of topics and knowledge, though some entries I needed crossings for so I’m sure someone more clued in to some of these would have had an even faster solve.
4.5 stars
~Emily
I solved the themers but the NE killed me, damn horse with new name.
Other complaints:
—On my printed puzzle, 27-A didn’t look like curls.
—The themer clues were all in past tense so the answer to 16-A would be “(Waved) TO THE CAMERA”. Where’s the logic there”
The logic is that the boxes are “waved”, therefore the answer is a “waved” TOTHECAMERA. I.e. the pun is that we’re using the same word both as an adjective and a past tense verb. Same with the others, obviously. They are tilted, curled and lined, respectively
I think it’s solid. The boxes are WAVED. The others are STRIPED TILTED & LINED.
I enjoyed this puzzle. Fill felt just right for a Thursday. I think there’d be more complaints about the always-ambiguous I DO TOO than ZEDONK, which is pretty inferable.
Pretty fun; other than the NE, it felt on the easier side for a Thursday, and I finished in half my average time. Very cute theme answers; after the first one, I got it and was able to drop in the others without too much trouble.
This one was intriguing but defeated me. The cute diagram just would not match up.
I saw the “tilted” squares easily enough, but that’s that. “Lined” seemed to come out instead as the shaded squares of many a puzzle, and “curled” came out dotted (at least the top and bottom edges). I thought of “played” to the camera but couldn’t come up with anything else, which made it worse. Obviously I’ll never be attuned to the “hi mom” spectator thing the NYT so loves.
I too only considered “Played to the camera.”
I completed this puzzle in Nexus without noticing the notes. As I was having no luck figuring out the commonality of what simply seemed to be four missing words, it was quite a revelation to notice and read the notes and thus quickly look at the print preview of the newspaper version.
I solved in AL, so no special graphics. And so I only came up with “played” TO THE CAMERA, too. The other three are sufficiently idiomatic that it was no trouble to come up with the right phrases. And since we didn’t actually have to enter the first words, I finished with no errors.
I took a look at the rendering in the app on the NYT website, and the curls didn’t look like curls to me. I downloaded the pdf of the “newspaper version” and if I blow it up to 250%, I can sorta see the curls.
With “played” and “tilted” in my head, I was wondering if “curled” and “lined” had something to do with pinball.
Yeah, at the normal size of the grid in the NYT Games app, the curls looked like sprocket holes on 35mm film. But if you enlarged it, you could see the curls.
zedonk isn’t particularly new, nor is the more common name zonkey. Ngram
Jim is disappointed that a LASH in the WSJ is such a minor body part, but I think the idea is that the four turning down are facial features. Hence the “head” in the title, “Head for a Fall.”
That said, I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t spot this. I saw only incomplete phrases and then, aha, a fall. Got it, I thought, only I didn’t. It confused me at first that, unlike LIP, which I got first, the continuations stop short of also completing the down clue, but I accepted it. Yet I never noticed what else the four continuations have in common, like making sense.
I didn’t notice it either.
The visual clues in the NYT don’t show up in Across Lite.
Besides the BEQ having a great theme it’s one F, Q, V, and Y away from being a double pangram. Amazing!
I didn’t understand the theme until I spent a few minutes looking at the grid once I had it filled in. I finally saw the STREP that’s part of EXPERTS backwards.
I’m impressed that he found all those words, but I solved it by heavily relying on pattern recognition.
I really liked the Universal puzzle today. Lovely progression from left to right. Not a hard theme to grok, but solid, consistent, and entertaining. MIDDLE OF … was my fave.
That is a clever theme that I didn’t get until I had finished the grid. I too liked MIDDLE OF NOWHERE (a phrase I have always liked), even though I was slowed by originally putting MIDDLE OF the road. I had another slowdown with BEETHOVEN’S nInTH, but both mistakes were easily corrected.
Thanks for mentioning it. I too often skip the Universal puzzle because they tend to be easier, but I forget that they’re often a lot of fun.
NYT – Special effects showed up in Black Ink
Mr. [not at all] Grumpy,
Well, don’t I feel dumb, because you say ‘not hard to grok’. I think I got ‘H’ is in the middle of ‘nowhere’, and ‘H’ is the fifth letter of Beethoven, or is in the middle of Beethoven, and is in the middle of flashback, but couldn’t figure ‘H’ in sleeveless garment, haltertop? Could you enlighten my block? Many thanks.
I think you’re missing the idea of the H in FLASHBACK. H is the last letter of of FLASH, and BACK is sometimes used (especially in cryptic puzzles) to mean the last letter.
So in HALTER TOP, H as the first letter is the TOP of HALTER.
BEQ: 5d – Clue is “The drip, e.g.” and the answer is “Std”. Can anyone explain that?
The correct answer, I think, is STD as in sexually-transmitted disease.
Assuming I’m correct, I kinda wish I hadn’t figured this out.
Gonorrhea is nothing to clap about.
Once again, Eric, I can always rely on you to explain things to this particular 70 year-old who is barely keeping up with new lingo. TY!
You’re welcome.
I don’t know whether I hope my answer is right or wrong.
Yup Eric H,
I sure did miss the point in flashback. God love you for the explanation of that, and haltertop.