Tuesday, September 24, 2024

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Rack Your Brain” — new Scrabble words for 2025! – Erin’s write-up

Hello lovelies! This week we have some of the words added to the Scrabble dictionary for 2025.

• 17a. [*Big, round housecats (answers to starred clues are new words added to Collins Official, for international non-US play as of 1/1/25)] CHONKS. You can see where your cat falls on the Chonk Chart below.
• 18a. [*Most materialistic and high-class (using four different vowels)] BOUJIEST. Bougiest is also accepted.

 

• 26a. [*Flattens out like a hot resting dog (just a fun word to say)] SPLOOTS
• 29a. [*Whatchamacallit (previously in the list, but with a Y)] THINGIE
• 44a. [*”Isn’t that true?” (not a type of mineral)] AMIRITE
• 46a. [*Became a huge fan of (all tenses are now fair game)] STANNED
• 56a. [*Cranial attack in a fight (surprisingly, new to the list as one word)] HEADBUTT
• 58a. [*Subject-changing segue word (either spelling is new)] ANYHOO

Other things:

• 33a. [Infants’ sicknesses] CROUPS. I can’t say I’ve seen the plural form of croup before, but it rolls off the tongue better than laryngotracheobronchitides.
• 26d. [Uh, it’s a vowel sound] SCHWA. Clever clue!

Until next week!

Gary Larson’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “A Matter of Record”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar phrases whose final words can also mean “song”, clued with crossword wackiness of course.

• 17a. [“Little Deuce Coupe” (The Beach Boys)] AUTO TUNE.
• 30a. [“Atlantic City” (Bruce Springsteen)] JERSEY NUMBER.
• 47a. [“Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” (Michael Bublé)] WARNING TRACK. Excuse me? Michael Bublé? Per Wikipedia, the song’s been covered by more than 200 artists, so I’m not sure how Bublé gets credit here. If anything I’d go with the version from the TV special (Fred Astaire), or else just label it a standard. Also, I filled in “track” with few crossings, so I must have heard the phrase somewhere, but didn’t realize it came from baseball.
• 65a. [“Jeepers Creepers” (Louis Armstrong)] EYE PIECE.

Solid theme with good wordplay. But where are the question marks in the clues? There’s supposed to be question marks in the clues.

More impressive are those stacks of 9s in the corners especially in the SW with “ARE WE GOOD?”, LOMA LINDA, and GIBRALTAR. Other nice bits of fill include AIR FRYER, ABUELO, and MUZAK.

However, ODA MAE should not be in any constructor’s word list in 2024. Ghost is 34 years old, the character in question was a supporting one, and I couldn’t even tell you the main characters’ names.

Clues of note:

• 8a. [Company whose repairman did nothing for decades]. MAYTAG. Probably should mention that this was their ad shtick.
• Best clues: 39a. [Country album?] for ATLAS and 72a. [Out house?] for TENT. (I guess I found the question marks.)

3.25 stars.

Kevin Shellito’s New York Times crossword–Amy’s recap

Am short on time, so will be brief. Theme is newspaper names with the non-city part de-capitalized so that it clues something else.

• 17a. [Washington post?], VALLEY FORGE. A place where General George Washington was posted.
• 31a. [San Francisco examiner?], FORTY-NINER. Gold Rush, examining the ground or riverbeds for gold.
• 49a. [Boston herald?], PAUL REVERE. “The Redcoats are coming,” etc.
• 65a. [Kansas City star?], TRAVIS KELCE. Kansas City Chiefs’ most famous player is Patrick Mahomes, but Kelce is dating Taylor Swift.

I remember my New York times when the ACPT was held in Brooklyn, sigh. Traveling from LaGuardia to Stamford, CT is a hassle, man.

Four stars from me.

Elizabeth C. Gorski’s Cr♥ssw♥rd Nation puzzle (Week 696), “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”—Ade’s take

Hello there, everybody! Hope you’re doing well and that you’re all ready to close out September in style! 

We have some fun misdirections with the answers to the clues, which all mention different types of lines, in the linear sense. The answers are verbal lines, with the last theme answer being the absolute peach of the group. 

• • • • WHAT’S FOR DINNER (16A: [Chow line?])
      • YOUR PLACE OR MINE (22A: [Date line?])
      • ALL ABOARD (36A: [Train line?])
      • CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? (52A: [Phone line?])
      • HAHAHAHAHAHAHA (58A: [Laugh line?])

Honestly, what a fun little twist with the final theme answer! Also, any puzzle that has CAHOOTS in it is a winner (2D: [Partnership, slangily]). Also was reminded of the state that I’ll (hopefully) be at in February, with the Super Bowl being in New Orleans, LOUISIANA (14A: [The Pelican State]). Very nice but of trivia surrounding HUNGARY, and my first guess would be that building is in Budapest (44D: [Country that’s home to Europe’s largest synagogue]). *Does check* … Yep, Dohány Street Synagogue, in the capital.  

“Sports will make you smarter” moment of the day: CARAY (31A: [Legendary Chicago Cubs announcer Harry]) – “It might be … it could be …. it is!!!” … an entry about one of the beloved baseball broadcasters of all time, Harry Caray. His first gig behind the mic came in 1945 with the St. Louis Browns (now the Baltimore Orioles) and St. Louis Cardinals, and he worked with the latter until 1989. But he’s widely known as the lovable homer who broadcasted games for the Chicago Cubs from 1982 to 19997, as he routinely lead the “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” ditty that played in Wrigley Field during the seventh inning stretch. His son, Skip, was the longtime voice of the Atlanta Braves on TBS Superstation, and his grandson, Chip, is currently the TV voice of the St. Louis Cardinals, the city  and team where his granddad got his start in the Majors. If you’re wondering, the line I started the entry with was Caray’s signature home run call.

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

Norman M. Aaronson’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Jenni’s write-up

Good morning! Sometimes constructors cram too much theme material into a grid. This time it felt like there wasn’t as much theme material as I’d expect, probably because the theme only took up part of the answers. Then I thought about it and realized I’d been unfair. Let me explain.

• 3d [Melodramatic series] is a SOAP OPERA.
• 5d [Professional who helps correct communication disorders] is a SPEECH THERAPIST.
• 9d [Summer coolers] are AIR CONDITIONERS. 

And the revealer: 36a [Rises to the top, or what can be found in this puzzle?] is BUBBLES UP. SOAP bubble, SPEECH bubble, and AIR bubble. Really solid theme with an amusing revealer. We have four symmetrically placed themers, two of which are 15-letter entries. That’s a good amount of theme material. Goldilocks says it’s just right, and my first impression was just wrong.

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that RENEE Elise Goldsberry co-starred in “Girls5eva.”

Emily Biegas’ Universal Crossword, “Fall Themeless Week, Puzzle 2” (ed. Taylor Johnson) — Matt F’s Review

I am a big fan of themeless week at AMU. It seems like we can expect a week like this once per season for the foreseeable future. These puzzles are designed to be approachable, like all Uni puzzles, but they are still packed with sparkling entries for your solving pleasure.

Today’s puzzle is a perfect example. Despite relatively easy cluing difficulty, I was delighted to uncover every standout entry. You might be surprised to learn that 6 long answers today have never even appeared in an NYT puzzle:

SOBER CURIOUS, NEXT LEVEL, GREEN GODDESS, PET PARENT, BADASSES, and BIKESHARE

I was amused at the pairing of SOBER CURIOUS and NEAR BEER. There are some delicious GREEN GODDESS recipes out there if you’re looking to utilize fresh herbs from your garden. I once visited Boston and eschewed a rental car, and instead relied on their BIKESHARE program and public transit to get around.

NEVER SAY NEVER to a gently-clued themeless. They are still chock-full of fun, and this puzzle is no exception!

Paolo Pasco’s New Yorker crossword — pannonica’s write-up

Another too-easy ‘moderately challenging’ Tuesday offering. Yes, yes, I humbly acknowledge that I’m probably more accomplished than the median solver, but even by the New Yorker’s slightly skewed metrics this one seemed a pushover.

Nevertheless, it was a good solving experience, without junk and with some nice cluing.

• 19a [High wind instrument?] VANE. A weather vane, mounted on say a roof. Without the question mark the clue would point to the old crossword reliable, OBOE.
• 20a [Wooded valleys] DELLS, not GLENS.
• 25a [Arcade game with arrows on the floor] DDR (Dance Dance Revolution).
• 28a [Programs that don’t go through the proper channels?] PIRATE RADIO.
  
• 31a [Something one can build with posts] is a halfhearted misdirection clue. It’s just a wee bit too awkward to be taken as meaning some physical structure, so its true intent—talking about blogs or social media—is rather plain to see. PERSONAL BRAND.
• 33a [Leftovers after making California rolls] AVOCADO PITS. The AVOCADO part was a gimme and it briefly remained to be seen whether the rest would be PITS or SKIN.
• 42a [Muscle that might be “bounced,” in brief] PEC. So that’s what the kids call that.
• 48a [Grassland animal that shares a family with the ground squirrel] PRAIRIE DOG. Prairie dogs are ground squirrels; there is no single species called a ground squirrel. The taxonomic family they belong to is the significantly large Sciuridae, and there are more restrictive ranks that could be invoked. However, for a lay audience the clue is solid enough.
• 51a [Life change that may require relocating to a new city] CAREER MOVE.
  
• 2d [Tragedy plus time, it’s said] COMEDY. “Too soon?”
• 3d [Something spiked in winter?] ICICLE. Hmm.
• 9d [The last of us?] isn’t a reference to the television show or the video game it’s based on. Straight spelling/orthography: the letter ESS.
• 14d [Routes that have already been covered?] PAVED ROADS. I kind of like this one.
• 26d [Words written under some stars?] YELP REVIEWS. Nicely turned.
  
• 28d [Expert] PRO. Because I’d already filled in 7d [Nailing] ACING, I eliminated ACE from consideration here.
• 37d [Phrase that might be mouthed while sticking up a finger during a call] HOLD ON. Evocative imagery.