Christina Iverson’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 9/14/24 – no. 0914
Plenty of tough clues here, no? Such as:
- 8d. [Something trimmed after purchase], FIR. Buy a fir tree, put it in a stand, decorate (“trim”) it with Xmas ornaments and such.
- 27a. [Job that anyone could see themselves doing?], WINDOW WASHER. Not sure I get where this one’s going. Because the clean window has a reflective enough surface and the lighting situation is such that you’d see yourself in the reflection??
- 6d. [Connections might hinge on it, for short], ETA. If your flight’s ETA is delayed, you might miss a connecting flight.
- 11d. [Trailer homes?], THEATERS. Coming attractions trailers, that is. One thing I enjoy about my job is having to watch movie trailers to research constructors’ theme pitches. You haven’t lived till you’ve watched a Transformers trailer three times in a row trying to find the actor who turns out to have ended up on the cutting room floor. Ach! (Some trailers do make me want to see the movie, though!)
Fave fill: POLYMATHS, TREE FORT, the decade of the SIXTIES, CITY HALL, “ANYTOWN, USA,” CHOCOLATE MALT, SMALL CRAFT, and “SO EXTRA.”
Thing I enjoyed learning: 5d. [Word with the same meaning in English, Swahili and Mandarin, among other languages], MAMA.
3.75 stars from me. I’m uncertain that “OH, COOL” is really an idiomatic phrase and isn’t this its second appearance this week?
Adrian Johnson’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up
Los Angeles Times 9/14/24 by Adrian Johnson
This is a puzzle with a lot of fun fill that I think could have used more zhuzh in the clues — it’s not just that it was too easy for a Saturday (which it was). Sometimes I’ll comment that a puzzle was easy and yet still playful — this one felt a bit more straightforward all around.
So: The highlights for me were many of the entries themselves. Ones I liked a lot: DO THE MATH, BIG MACS, BEHOOVE (it’s just a fun word to say out loud!), POOL FLOAT, TRUST FALL, TOUCAN SAM (although the clue [Cereal mascot once voiced by Mel Blanc] didn’t slow me down at all, it was a nice fun fact to learn), MEDAL COUNT, KRISHNA, EROTIC.
Gary Larson’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Cheat Sheet” — pannonica’s write-up
WSJ • 9/14/24 • Sat • “Cheat Sheet” • Larson • solution • 20240914
Another sound-shift theme. This version has sh transformed to ch. More technically, that’s a voiceless palato-alveolar fricative, ʃ, becoming a voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant affricate, ʧ.
- 23a. [Pringles, e.g.?] CONTAINER CHIPS (… ships).
- 48a. [“King Kong vs. Godzilla,” e.g.?] MONSTER MATCH (… mash).
- 68a. [Do some wrangling?] CATCH COWS (cash …).
- 90a. [Clasp for a popular timepiece?] SWATCHBUCKLE (swashbuckle).
- 119a. [Emptied a vacuum cleaner bag?] DITCHED THE DIRT (dished …).
- 39d. [Snacks for an equestrian?] SADDLE CHEWS (… shoes).
- 44d. [Stuff to be raked on a honey-do list?] CHORE LEAVES (shore …).
These are pretty much okay. I was distracted by the noun pluralizations and the one verb conjugation, which come across as very much in service to the theme. That sort of thing shouldn’t be so noticeable during a solve.
Not part of the theme: 10d [Tough wood] ASH, 80d [Work safety org.] OSHA, 74a [Appreciate a great deal] CHERISH (doubly).
- 3d [Like young Abe Lincoln] LANK, not LEAN.
- 5d [Crown covering] ENAMEL. Primed by the same entry (different cluing) in today’s NYT. Same deal for 12d [Place to be picked up?] NAPE.
- 7d [Brother] MONK. 72d [Superior, perhaps] ABBESS. 94a [End for priest or prior] -ESS.
- 53d [Hops headgear] BEER HAT. Just weird all around. I know what’s being described.
- 75d [City between Edison and Newark] RAHWAY. This seems like localized knowledge?
- 100d [Words before tres] UNO DOS. The old one-two.
- 1a [Lions and Bears (but not Tigers)] NFL TEAMS. Fine, I’ll say it: oh my.
- 14a [Blue man group?] SMURFS. All but one, which is very weird.
- 37a [Six-tentacled villain in “The Little Mermaid”] URSULA. Presumably her two human arms bring the total to eight, so I further presume she’s an octopus archetype.
- 51a [Fu __ (sage of Chinese legend)] HSI. Have not seen this in a crossword previously. The more modern spelling Fuxi would also be very useful.
- 66a [Center of a roast] HONOREE. Nice.
- 85a [Dressy pair] HEELS, not TAILS (which isn’t really a pair). Good job not duping 39-down.
- 108a [Alternatively] ELSE. 61d [Alternative] OTHER.
Stella Zawistowski’s Newsday crossword, Saturday Stumper — pannonica’s write-up
Newsday • 9/14/24 • Saturday Stumper • Zawistowski • solution • 20240914
Today, the solving route went from bottom to middle to top left and finally the top right.
Things would have gone quite differently had I been able to remember 1-across [Top-level cricket battle] TEST MATCH, I have no doubt.
- 10a [Spot strife] AD WAR, for which I originally had AD FEE. 12d [Extreme admiration] WONDER, not FANDOM. 26a. [Spread a rumor] REPEAT, not REPOST. These were all contributing factors to the northeast section being the last completed—despite being rather confident that 31a [Bibliography data] was URLS and reasonably sure that 22a [An omission for a musical Dr.] was DRE, even though I don’t like the clue.
- 15a [Playing away] ON THE ROAD. Nice.
- 18a [Mom and dad, lately] ’RENTS.
- 19a [Costumier for the silent Ben-Hur] ERTE. My first thought was the ubiquitous Edith HEAD, but further consideration was fruitful. 60a [Ben-Hur or Braveheart] EPIC DRAMA.
- 32a [XW, on cardboard boxes] EEE. The unspecified cardboard boxes are shoe boxes.
- 36a [Vodka/coffee concoction] ESPRESSO MARTINI, which never seems appealing to me.
- 41a [Be ruled by] ADHERE TO, not ANSWER TO.
- 42a [Nearly nothing] JOT. As in, “I don’t give a jot!” Not for nothing, though, this was a pivotal entry for my solve, despite being a mere three letters long—it got me all of the crossing words.
- 46a [Dose, taken another way] is a fiendish clue for DEM. As in a dialectal those and them.
- 52a [Preceder of up or down, in or out, off or on] LAY. Pay works for all of these save the last.
- 2d [Every available power] ENERGIES. Abstruse clue there.
- 4d [What a spool emoji signifies] THREAD. A gimme for me, but fairly easily guessable for the less online?
- 7d [Case for a six-pack?] TORSO. Reasoning that 23a [Customize for] would end with TO gave me this answer.
- 11d [She-goat] DOE, not EWE as I’d immediately figured.
- 24d [Take a second] REWED. Tricky.
- 25d [Time for a throwaway line] TRASH DAY. “Line”?
- 34d [“Please continue…”] I SEE, not GO ON.
- 38d [“No thank you” follower, perhaps] I JUST ATE. Acknowledging thanks once more to 42-across.
- 43d [Dunkin’s Long John] ECLAIR. No way, they really called it that?!
I saw through the semi-cryptic clue “woman in dire need” immediately, and put in IRENE. Right idea, wrong choice.
The clue for NYT refers to a headline “Santa dies on Xmas trip,” and then 10D is SANTAHATS. That must be an editing error, unless the dupe policy is even more lax than I thought.
CHEX is “Puppy chow ingredient”? Google tells me it’s a snack mix of some kind. No idea.
I didn’t like this one as much as yesterday’s.
I was confused by the puppy chow clue too, but it’s a snack recipe using Chex cereal https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/15820/puppy-chow/
Pretty tough NYT, but doable, somewhat surprisingly. Basically zero on the first pass, started to imagine ending up with a blank grid, got a foothold in the SE, then slowly filled in the rest. Took me a minute longer than yesterday. Nice puzzle.
Puppy chow = chex? Seriously? Google says it is mostly a midwestern treat that has nothing to do with baby dogs (has chocolate.. no no for dogs). Another definition is slang for heroin. I think this was a bad clue :( .
Whole puzzle seemed trying too hard (so extra) to be difficult. I like a good tough and fair Saturday. This didn’t quite fill the second part of that bill. NW was esp. difficult for me. No idea on Polymaths or Phanatics. Nor teletubby in the middle, with those double ‘a’s.
Rice Chex, Wheat Chex, Corn Chex (which may not all still exist) are or were unsugary breakfast cereals that I can easily imagine have been used to make puppy chow.
(These had no chocolate or anything else harmful for a dog.)
I don’t think dogfood is what the clue referred to. See above recipe and comments.
While I didn’t have quite as much frustration as you, I agree this puzzle felt lacking somehow. The entries just are lackluster – it’s a ton of unexciting nouns. Cityhall, artstudio, polymaths etc
I also had an immediate IRENE instead of RENEE.
One of the very few answers I had on first pass was PHANATIC. It would have been a major struggle if I hadn’t known that one.
Amy, I think you are right with how you are interpreting the clue for WINDOW WASHER. I was trying to think of a job that involves mirrors at first.
I believe there is no crossword rule or custom that prevents a clue from using a word that appears in the answer to another clue.
There is for some venues. Will Shortz has not cared about that, but in my work as a crossword editor, our editorial team works hard to avoid such overlaps.
Yay me. This is the closest my time has ever been to Amy’s.
WSJ – The old one-two. I laughed out loud
I’m not sure of ‘man’ in the clue for Smurfs. It’s like calling a Hobbit a man
LAT – I found it difficult, but in a good way. Stella continues to amaze me with solving times
NYT: An odd experience for me today. On my first pass through, had only a few scattered 3s and 4s filled in, and thought “this one is gonna be tough.” Then at FIR/IDES/SANTA HATS/THEATERS I suddenly clicked with the cluing voice, and sailed pretty smoothly through the rest of the puzzle, ending up just 4 seconds over yesterday’s time (a puzzle that I thought was easy for a Friday).
I am only familiar with PUPPY CHOW as an actual Purina dog food, so I had to take CHEX on faith when it appeared. Did not know SAMARA or what a “Cupid stone” was, and never heard anyone say SO EXTRA. When I was a senior we had a “skip day” and I struggled there for a bit, but then recalled having heard DITCH DAY from my kids.
So quite a few unknowns that at least sounded reasonable when they appeared from crosses. In the end, a fun workout that was less challenging than I had expected.
In the Stumper, “Time for a throwaway line”: line puzzled me too. Think of a line of trash cans waiting as the garbage truck (or trash truck, as my granddaughters call it) rolls down the street.
Oh yes, I understood the implication, but I don’t buy it.
I didn’t understand it and don’t like it.
At least in my town, there are times when we have a trash day trio: a curbside lineup of bins for regular trash, recyclables, and compostables. So the clue worked just fine for me.
Agree that 22-A really doesn’t work as worded. Fun puzzle, if not quite the usual Stella-Stumperesque challenge.
NYT: I read the clue for 13A, I pictured the mascot, I knew it was the Phillies — and blanked on PHANATIC. Later, it came to me when I had a few letters.
It was another sports answer, 20A COLT, before I finally saw something I could fill in. I don’t generally follow sports, so getting a sports answer easily is rare.
The lower half ended up being much easier than the top half. Except for 15A IDAHO and 10D SANTA HATS, everything up top took a bit of work.
I’ve got a few albums by Courtney Barnett in my collection and a few songs by Kurt Vile, but I must have missed their collaboration. I’ll have to give it a listen.
Thanks, Ed+B, for the Puppy Chow recipe. I imagined it was something along those lines and that no one was actually feeding CHEX cereal to dogs, but I was too lazy to look it up.
I liked the puzzle overall, but it took me almost twice as long as Friday’s.
NYT: As a high school teacher I like to think I know something about Gen-Z slang, and I don’t think that someone is being SO EXTRA when they’re trying too hard. I think GenZers call each other extra when they’re overreacting to something.
I think it has evolved more towards describing reactions as you’re familiar with it, but the original usage in my experience (as someone straddling the millennial/gen-z divide) was for someone trying really hard. For me the clue was idiomatic and I popped it in immediately!
NYT: A good typical Saturday challenge, but once again I felt I could not finish the NW without a lookup: This time it was for the baseball mascot. With that entry, it took another 20 seconds to complete the darn thing. Time was just a little above average.
Fun, with a bunch of fresh entries, like WINDOW WASHER, POLYMATHS, IT’S A DONE DEAL, ELEPHANTS, CHOCOLATE MALT, to name a few. I’d never heard of DITCH DAY before.
nyt: no one mentioned “appolo was conceieved in them”
anyone care to enlighten me?
eta: nasa?
ftr, i thought this was gonna be a tough puzzle, but it turned out to be average for saturday
NASA’s Apollo series of space missions, in the 1960s.
thanks, it hit me while my question was loading
the older i get, the more common are these “moments” :)
NYT 27a– Seems like you got it to me.
I agree with everything pannonica said, with the addition of not liking 16A (never heard of ” to gooseup” something.
+1. And I still don’t get the Dr Dre reference.
“Antlers in the Treetop” by Who Goosed the Moose was a joke in a book I had growing up. 16A in the Stumper?
I thought the word “put” worked admirably for the 52A clue except for GIRDERing every thing up in the SW.
ALIAS as a substitute for “or”? I get it but I don’t have to like it.
All in all, a pretty easy Stumper, especially for a Stella puzzle. I liked it overall.
agree, alias did not make the cut, esp for stella, good puzzle but not in her top ten, eh
the bar is higher for some constuctors
Stumper: I had LET before LAY.
NYT: TIL a surprising number (to me) of people have never heard of PUPPY CHOW the snack, named for its resemblence to PUPPY CHOW, the dog food. Quite tasty!
Also: Does anyone actually use the abbreviation TEL on business cards anymore? Just wondering.
Stumper: I came to it late after a long day doing other mentally taxing stuff (playing bridge, to be specific). I found the NW and SE section easy, then struggled slowly through the rest. It took me a long time to come up with ESPRESSOMARTINI, which helped fill out the middle. The clue for TRASHDAY mystified me (where I live, people put their trash bags out on the side of the street; no sidewalk so no tidy lines). I had WAY before LAY.
I can’t think of any sense at all in which “Every available power” means ENERGIES.
LAT: When I was about seven, I ate a metric fuckton of Froot Loops to get enough box tops for a stuffed TOUCAN SAM. I knew then who Mel Blanc was, thanks to Looney Tunes, so how did I not know he was the voice of Toucan Sam?
Fun puzzle with some sneaky clues like the one for ASSN.
stumper: an odd experience, where i was able to plonk the horizontal stacks in the nw & se corners, which i believe contributed in making the puzzle go by quickly… also helped to plonk the center — it helped that i remembered it from another puzzle… and possibly another stella? anyway, the only real sticking point for me was the ne corner, which took several iterations for me to find the right words
Late to comment but re Stumper and the line “Trash Day,” I took it as someone saying it as one might when it’s time to put out the garbage.