Jackson Matz’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 9/20/24 – no. 0920
Hello! It’s a Friday puzzle, not too tough, anchored by four interlocking 15s. A little bit of odd fill — plural HAVOCS, not-an-idiom NO SEATS — offset by more fun stuff.
Fave fill: SHAR-PEI, SPARROWS (if you’re like me, you had the -WS in place and filled in S*A**OWS, unsure whether it might be swallows, but they’re a different family within the Passeri suborder), SPIRAL STAIRCASE (nice clue, [Windy flight?]), SHEBANG, PARANOID with a Molly Ivins clue, THANKSGIVING DAY, HARD AS A ROCK, JEDIS (I didn’t know this was a [Plural form decried by staunch “Star Wars” fans] and I just wish that the crossing LEGO had been LEGOS for maximum triggering), MISSING THE POINT, PESCETARIAN (though I decry this variant spelling and prefer PESCATARIAN as sensible Merriam-Webster does), PRIME REAL ESTATE, and ATLANTIS.
Shades of “Saturday Stumper” Stan Newman in the generic names here: OSKAR (I’ll grant you the clue is about a specific fictional one, but [“The Tin Drum” protagonist] mightn’t resonate with that many solvers), GIANNI, and ERICH clued as if it were e-Rich, [Apt name for a successful crypto investor?].
Did not know: 42a. [Brazilian soccer club named for an explorer, familiarly], VASCO. Started out as a rowing club, of all things!
3.75 stars from me.
Will Pfadenhauer’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up
LAT • 9/20/24 • Fri • Pfadenhauer • solution • 20240920
This was significantly chewier than I’m used to in a Friday Los Angeles Times crossword. I sort-of saw the the theme with the first relevant entry, but didn’t appreciate it fully.
- 17a. [*Youthful helpers on tennis courts] ALLOYS (ball boys). At this point I thought it was missing Bs, and …
- 19a. [*Fashion toys from Mattel] ARIES (Barbies). … this seemed to confirm that, but …
- 25a. [*Restaurant freebie] BE A DOLL (bread roll) … nope! Just double letters, which change.
- 28a. [*Weapon in Clue] EVOLVE (revolver). Now, at this point I was desultorily moving around the grid, so didn’t yet perceive that these starred entries occurred in the same rows.
- 34a. [*Italian red wine] CHANT (chianti).
36a. [*Sasquatch trait] HARNESS (hairiness). … aha, rows! - 50a. [*NCAA basketball powerhouse in Milwaukee] MARQUEE (Marquette).
52a. [*Tornado] WISER (twister). - 59a. [*Weekend part] STURDY (Saturday).
61a. [*Finding the means?] VERGING (averaging). - 70a/73aR [… insert for some water pitchers, or what has been used row-by-row on the answers to the starred clues?] BRITA | FILTER. Kind of an unwieldy phrasing required to explain the principle, yes?
First, these are great finds, and the clue for 61-across is notably good. Second, I have just a couple of minor reservations. One is that, although brand names have become commonplace in crosswords since the Will Shortz era, I remain a bit prudish about using them as the basis of a theme. True, BRITA filters are rather ubiquitous, but not so much as to have become generically synonymous with the product. I believe PUR, among other brands, has significant market share (I happen to have a LIFESTRAW dispenser). The other nit is observing that in Row 3, 18-across [Tit for __ ] TAT is not missing any Bs. The other thematic rows each consist of two entries, so it isn’t an issue elsewhere. Looking symmetrically, Row 13—which contains the revealer—has TEA in that location (72a), but that row doesn’t employ the filtering mechanism.
- 9d [Jazz station?] NBA TV. I had no idea this was a thing. 66d [Provo’s state] UTAH.
- 12d [Slob’s napkin] SLEEVE. I’d more likely call such a person a boor. A slob might not wipe their face at all!
- 34d [No. pro] CPA. I fully understood the clue only after getting the answer via crossings. 44d [WNBA pos.] CTR.
- 50d [Brand sold at REI] MSR (Mountain Safety Research). REI stands for Recreational Equipment, Inc.
- 55d [Exfoliation stone] PUMICE. Etymology: Middle English pomis, from Anglo-French pomice, from Latin pumic-, pumex — more at foam (m-w.com).
- 60d [Thumb-operated controls] D-PADS. The D stands for directional.
- 62d [Not self-sufficient] NEEDY. Disagree. This is not an either/or, and ‘needy’ has a pejorative connotation.
- 67d [Main information source?] MENU. As in main menu.
- 41a [“Find out if they know”] GO ASK. Good clue for a tricky entry.
Drew Schmenner’s Universal crossword, “Inauspicious Starts”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar(ish) two-word phrases that start with L and S and typically have negative connotations. The revealer is BADLANDS (64a, [National park in South Dakota … or, parsed differently, a hint to the meanings and initials of 17-, 24-, 39- and 51-Across]). Re-parsed, that’s BAD L AND S.
Universal crossword solution · “Inauspicious Starts” · Drew Schmenner · Fri., 9.20.24
- 17a. [Union mole] LABOR SPY.
- 24a. [Lending money illegally] LOAN SHARKING. I’m unaccustomed to seeing this as a verb or gerund.
- 39a. [What may spark a forest fire] LIGHTNING STRIKE. Not always a bad thing as one brought life to Frankenstein’s monster, eh?. But these people probably have no love for thunderstorms.
- 51a. [A long one may get a coach fired] LOSING STREAK.
A fine theme though to be honest, I find it a little goofy to re-parse a phrase like that. Still, it evokes my one visit to the BADLANDS when I was a teen visiting my older brother stationed at Ellsworth AFB. Of course we also stopped by Mt Rushmore, Wall Drug, and Devil’s Tower in Wyoming.
The South Dakota BADLANDS (photo by Joseph C. Filer)
The solve proceeded smoothly without too much trouble. No marquee fill entries to highlight, but I do like the slangy GO HARD and “I GOTTA“.
Clues of note:
- 2d. [Computer sold in pink]. IMAC. There are six other colors if pink’s not your thing.
- 50d. [Scandinavian toast]. SKOAL. Sitting in a hot tub amid a snow-draped landscape and toasting the health of your Scandinavian buds sounds idyllic. Nasty chewing tobacco, not so much. I’m glad the clue went with the former.
3.5 stars.
NYT: Nice Friday – just about the right level of difficulty. I was slowed down a bit by the fact that “Green Bay Packers” has the same number of letters as THANKSGIVING DAY (in retrospect, I imagine the Packers have been on the Lions’ schedule since before 1934).
Resisted ERICH until I had no other choice.
LAT – It wouldn’t be hard to fix for the Row 3 nit. This took me 5 minutes, so there are likely more elegant fixes out there.
CEL
HEM
AKA (BABKA –> AKA)
ISO
NYT — clever clue for “JEDIS” … I think I once saw it in a puzzle clued as “A ___ Journey” (DVD extra) or something to that effect, with an implied (and unwritten) possessive apostrophe. Which… yeah, clunky.
All the dictionaries I checked cite the etymology of “pescatarian” as a portmanteau of pesce (Italian for fish) and vegetarian. So where did that first “a” come from? I’ll give Amy “common” but not sensible.
The orthographic rules of Italian would require adding an H to get the hard C sound following an E: peschetarian. We could refer to meat-avoidant eating as bruschettarian.
There’s no reason for an English word to follow Italian rules of spelling or pronunciation. Pescatarian works in English; pescetarian doesn’t.
Yes. It’s pronounced like “pesk-uh-tarian,” not “pesh-uh-tarian.” English speakers (except Martin) want that to be spelled pesca-.
I don’t understand the rule of English spelling/orthography that turns the “e” into an “a.” Why not “vegatarian”?
I spell it “pescatarian.” I’m not saying that spelling is wrong. I am questioning why.
I already explained why, but let me try again. In English, as Amy says, words with -esce- have a soft s; quiescent, for example.
Vegatarian would have a hard g (as in ‘negate’). Vegetable has a soft g.
English spelling and pronunciations rules are wacky but not completely random.
That makes sense.
NYT relatively easy— except for the crossing of VASCO with MCATS, where I got stuck for a few minutes. OK otherwise.
Pretty good NYT, with some awkward stuff, notably HAVOCS as a verb. MCATS is one of many exam abbreviations that I can’t keep straight in my head, so had to get it from crosses. I didn’t understand ERICH at all; parsing it as ‘e-rich’ is just silly. I don’t know who Bella THORNE is but the crosses were reasonable.
I balked somewhat at the supposed connection between THEISM and Aristotle’s Unmoved Mover, but ‘influenced by’ is imprecise enough that I’ll allow it.
NYT: A very enjoyable solve, with lovely long entries like SPIRAL STAIRCASE and MISSING THE POINT. Originally tried MARCO for VASCO, but MOTER didn’t make sense. And had SWALLOWS before realizing that SPARROWS fit better.
Plus, I had no idea that HAVOC could be a verb.
Pretty much my reaction, apart from my getting SPARROWS quickly. I found the right side harder overall than the left, although I initially had a hard time just breaking out of the NW. I started with “hard as nails,” which is my stupidity. I must have been thinking of “tought as nails.” But anyhow that slowed me up, too.
FWIW, I had no idea how to spell the diet. I entered the E as feeling more natural for Martin’s reason: pesce + vegetarian, as well as my ear. And I see it’s not in RHUD but has the E in Wiki. Which isn’t to say that the A wouldn’t suit others.
I don’t see anything stupid about trying “hard as nails” to start – I think it’s as idiomatic as HARD AS A ROCK. Don’t know – maybe it’s where I grew up.
I’ve heard “tough as nails” a lot, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard “hard as nails”.
Google ngram viewer seems to show them as more-or-less equally common (and of course, I don’t know how to embed a link to those results here),
LAT: minor nit for 11D. “Bases clearing hit” and the answer is “Triple”. Technically speaking, all base-runners could score, but there would still be a runner on third base. (The editor(s) get a 1 point deduction from an otherwise nice puzzle.)