Freddie Cheng’s New York Times crossword — Sophia’s write-up
Theme: Each theme answer ends in a three letter initialism
New York Times, 09 23 2024, By Freddie Cheng
- 17a [How some movies were released, pre-streaming] – DIRECT TO DVD
- 29a [Bruce Springsteen album with a red, white and blue cover] – BORN IN THE USA
- 44a [Question to someone who’s on the way] – WHAT’S YOUR ETA
- 59a [A piece of cake, so to speak] – AS EASY AS ABC
Great choices of theme answers here by Freddie! BORN IN THE USA is a classic and I like how to clue hints at the title for folks who don’t know it. Being a 90’s kid myself, I remember watching a *lot* of DIRECT TO DVD releases (“Lion King 1 1/2” or “Cinderella 3: A Twist in Time”, anyone?), so that answer came quickly for me. I also liked the answer of WHAT’S YOUR ETA – other than in crossword puzzles, this is by far my greatest usage of the word ETA in my personal life.
My only complaint about the theme is that it’s very simple, and pretty broad. I really like these answers, but there are plenty of others that fit the same pattern. I had to go to the NYT Wordplay blog to make sure I wasn’t missing another layer of theme, so simply completing the puzzle wasn’t fully satisfying for me.
Overall the fill is strong. I had HELLO instead of HI ALL for 1a [“Greetings, everybody!”], so I was surprised when it showed up as the correct answer later in the puzzle for [Meaning of “Ciao” and “Bonjour”]. LUCKY ONE, HOT SEATS, and ETTA JAMES are all great fill – it’s fun to see Etta’s full name since she’s so often just seen as a first name in crosswords. I’ve never heard of [Accident-investigating org.] NTSB and needed every cross – it’s the National Transportation Safety Board. And the question mark on [One serving you a whopper?] sent me in the wrong direction – I really thought the answer would be Burger King related, not just LIAR.
Happy Monday all!
Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Stockholders”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases that have hidden COWs. The revealer is COWCATCHERS (55a. Old locomotive parts, and a hint to the starred answers
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Stockholders” · Mike Shenk · Mon., 9.23.24
- 17a. [*Candy disks with flavors including clove, licorice and chocolate] NECCO WAFERS.
- 36a. [*National control of an industry] PUBLIC OWNERSHIP.
- 11d. [*Activist with an environmental crusade] ECOWARRIOR.
- 27d. [*Cinder block covering, sometimes] STUCCOWORK.
Fine Monday theme. I’ve never heard the last term, but it checks out.
I mostly enjoyed solving this as a themeless with all the long answers to include fill entries TABLE WINES, “FINE WITH ME,” and “COME ON IN.” I’ve always liked the word ORDNANCE which seems like an elided form of “ordinance” (which, oh, it basically is).
Clues of note:
- 7d. [1860s Washington nickname]. ABE. Somewhat of a tricky clue for a Monday. That’s Washington, D.C., not a person named Washington.
- 26d. [Bridgestone product, in Britain]. TYRE. I wanted to make sure that Bridgestone was an international company and sold tyres in England (they do). What I was surprised to learn was that the company started in Japan in 1930.
3.25 stars.
Gwynneth Uhrhammer and Sarah Sinclair’s Universal crossword, “Fall Themeless Week, Puzzle 1” — pannonica’s write-up
Universal • 9/23/24 • Mon • Fall Themeless Week, Puzzle 1″ • Uhrhammer, Sinclair • solution • 20240923
Just recently I’ve decided that my preferred analogy for crosswords is that themeless ones are like instrumental songs, and those with themes are the equivalent of songs with lyrics. It’s a little weird, since crosswords are per se entirely focussed on words, but I’m sticking with it.
Anyway, this one is rather easy but still chewy.
- 17a [Excitement for parenthood inspired by seeing cute infants] BABY FEVER, which I don’t believe I’ve heard of before. Paired symmetrically with the equally unfamiliar 62a [Infant’s neck workout] TUMMY TIME. I’m assuming this is placing the baby in a prone position so that they’ll be obligated to raise their head up, thus exercising those nuchal muscles.
- 35a [Toyota in the lyrics of “50 Ways to Say Goodbye”] SCION. Is it memorable in the song? Scion (2003–2016) was a more budget-friendly marquee from Toyota.
- 45a [The Jazz, on scoreboards] UTA. Usually we see this clued as Broadway legend Hagen.
- 55a [Malodorous] FETID. See? mal + odor.
- 67a [Designation for a universal donor] TYPE O. Specifically O negative.
- 68a [Olympic 5-down medalist Virtue] TESSA. 5d [Figure skating discipline] ICE DANCE. Interesting cross-reference pair.
- 1d [It keeps a watch on you!] FOB. Nice, a little tricksy.
- 2d [Tablet on which an infant may watch Cocomelon] IPAD. More infant stuff?!
- 7d [Bare-bones Halloween attire] SKELETON COSTUME. An easy get, and having a grid-spanning central entry like this really speeds up the solve.
- 10d [Colorful diagram in a weather report] HEAT MAP. Or, a Siamese cat’s distinctive markings, essentially.
- Two pairs of vertical stacked 10s: IS THAT TRUE / NOT ONE IOTA, NECROMANCY / TAKES A TRIP. Kind of a mixed bag of interestingness.
Brooke Husic’s New Yorker crossword—Amy’s recap
New Yorker crossword solution, 9/23/24 – Husic
Phew, lots of stuff I didn’t know in this one. I did feel that the crossings were fair, as I didn’t have to run the alphabet to complete any of the answers.
New to me:
- 1a. [Rosalía single about the caprice of celebrity], “LA FAMA. I know she’s a Latin music star and fame = la fama is plausible.
- 22a. [Composer Bowers who co-directed the Academy Award-winning 2023 short “The Last Repair Shop”], KRIS. I did watch that short documentary, though. It’s about the shop that fixes the LA public schools’ musical instruments. Watch on YouTube if you’ve not seen it.
- 25a. [Opposite of mismo], OTRO. Otro = other so mismo must mean “same.”
- 42a. [___ Can’t Swim (artist with the 2023 album “When Will We Land?”)], BARRY. If you don’t listen to British electronic dance music, there may be zero reason for you to have heard of him. Brooke likes to include musical references with very little penetration into the US market. A singer who goes by Teddy Swims is much better-known here.
- 31a. [Like some life partners whose intimacy may not conform with social norms], QUEER PLATONIC. Not entirely sure I’ve run into the phrase before. I did know that [One meaning of the “A” in L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+, for short] could be ACE (asexual) or ARO (aromantic), though.
Whew! That’s a lot for someone whose job requires keeping up with pop culture.
Fave fill: CHIMERA, DIREWOLF, Impressionist BERTHE MORISOT, DREAM COME TRUE, ORPHAN clued via typographical widows and orphans, BANK HEIST.
3.5 stars from me.
NYT: I’d been curious when DEI (22-Across) would finally be clued as short for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. (I think this may be the first nyt to do so?) fwiw…
NTSB hasn’t appeared since 2019, but I feel it’s in the news? (re: Boeing)
NTSB is in the news every time there’s a plane crash.
USAT:I’m having trouble figuring out themes lately. This is either too easy or I’m not UP to it.
LACE is anagrammed in the three longest across answers. But I’m at a loss as to why the grid the title is “Lace Up”.
TNY: As is often the case with Brooke Husic’s puzzles, I loved the devious cluing (“Across-the-board figure?” for OPPONENT, e.g.) but hated the pop culture trivia.
I knew the Spanish, and got QUEER PLATONIC from the crosses, but DNK and likely will not retain any of the names.
Similar reaction here. It seems to be characteristic of TNY puzzles by younger constructors that they must include a boatload of names and pop culture references that us oldsters don’t know.
I worked my way steadily through the puzzle but I can’t say I enjoyed the experience that much.
I did better with the New Yorker puzzle than I have done with any recent Brooke Husic puzzle that I can remember. Rosalía sounds vaguely familiar, but not KRIS Bowers or BARRY Can’t Swim. (The second isn’t surprising given my utter lack of interest in dance music (though I did like the clue for EDM).
BERTHE MORISOT was floating around in my memory somewhere; the H from the gimme ORPHAN suggested her first name.
I didn’t get stuck anywhere and enjoyed having to tease out a few answers, which is what I want from this kind of puzzle.
As I was solving, it felt like a lot of pop culture stuff – none of which I knew. But after I finished, I went back over it, and it didn’t seem quite as heavy on those type of clues as I had thought.
But I will complain a little about EDM and ELO. I got both from crosses, and each one required two after-the-solve Google searches to grok (assuming that I’m correct that EDM is “electronic dance music.”)
I started with “ALT” for 6-D. Am I wrong in thinking that the “A” once meant “alternative?”
Your thoughts on the pop culture stuff mirrored my experience. The only name I knew was Sun Ra. Ok, I have heard of Flo Rida but his interesting name was all I know.
He got me wondering when did Tramar Lacel Dillard become Flo Rida? I tried wiki research and came up with nothing. But then I’ve been wondering when did Charles (or Karlus or Carolus) become Charlemagne?
ELO was an almost gimme for me, even though I had never heard of Judit Polgár or ნონა გაფრინდაშვილი (Nona Gaprindashvili). Both names sound like women’s names.
A three-letter rating is almost certainly an ELO rating, which was developed to rank chess players. I don’t play chess or follow it, but I have an ELO rating from an online Scrabble game I used to play.
You are correct on the meaning of EDM. (Although it doesn’t interest me, I have a few EDM tunes in my library that I got free.)
I’m not sure ALT was ever part of the overall queer identity. I think of ALT mostly as identifying music genres.
Universal: Not really about the puzzle but two comments (as a previous 23 year Siamese hostess, I’m interested :) ).
1. Siamese Cat Song… I wonder why the video references Beauty and the Beast, when EVERYbody knows its from Lady and the Tramp!! (JK about everybody, of course).
and 2. Very much appreciated the link to the reason behind the distinctive markings, I did not know they were temperature related!
The album consists of instrumental jazz covers of Disney tunes, and for whatever reason its title is Beauty and the Beast.
Thx!
I have a complaint about the clue “Begun, briefly” for ESTD
“Founded, briefly” or even “Started, briefly” would have worked
But “begun” is simply not a synonym for “established”