Chase Dittrich’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “The Sweet Spot”—Jim’s review
Circled squares in up-and-down formations spell out terms of endearment synonymous with “baby”. The revealer is BABY BUMP (63a, [Expectant sign, and what each group of circles represents]). The terms in question are SUGAR, DEAR, LOVE, and HONEY.
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “The Sweet Spot” · Chase Dittrich · Wed., 9.25.24
At first I thought these were words that would precede “baby” since SUGAR is the first one on the list. But the rest didn’t quite flow, hence the reinterpretation. However, I didn’t avail myself of the theme during the solve. It’s there if you need it, but I enjoyed the solve without it.
I liked a lot of the longer fill today: DOOMSDAY, GOOD FATS, SET SAIL, BEER NUTS, CLAIROL, SLY DOG, “PROVE IT!”, POD RACE, YODELER, and IGUANA. There were a few eyebrow-raisers though: EENSIE (how many different ways can we spell this?), ENUF, and FRYE [Boot company since 1863]. I needed every crossing for this last one.
Clues of note:
- Top clues: 52a [Peak performer?] for YODELER and 1d [Caesar wrap?] for TOGA.
- 67a. [Name of MIT’s beaver mascot, for obvious reasons]. TIM. Or is it T.I.M.?
3.25 stars.
Peter Gordon’s New York Times crossword–Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 9/25/24 – no. 0925
The answers in the shaded squares around the grid’s edges are made from the musical notes DO, RE, MI, FA, SO(silent L), LA, TI, DO. Three revealers point to that: 30a. [Life-size … or a hint to this puzzle’s theme] clues FULL-SCALE, 36a. [Phone numbers? … or a hint to this puzzle’s theme] clues RING TONES, and 45a. [Marginalia … or a hint to this puzzle’s theme] are SIDE NOTES. The SCALE, TONES, and NOTES all pertain to musical notes.
A bit surprised to find retro 9a. [Scottie in the White House in the 1940s], FALA in the puzzle, though it fits the theme with FA+LA, and also 22a. [Icelandic poet Sturluson], SNORRI. I learned both from crosswords, the latter from EDDA clues.
Plain entries that happen to be made from those two-letter note names … not all that appealing to me. Three stars from me.
Enrique Henestroza Anguiano’s AV Club Classic crossword, “Moving to the Music”–Amy’s recap
AV Club Classic crossword solution, “Moving to the Music” – 9/25/24
The theme revealer is 43a. [Start of a David Bowie chorus … or what four answers in this puzzle have undergone], CH-CH-CH-CH-CHANGES. Each themer has a relocated CH that changes the phrase’s meaning.
- 22a. [Podcast where Tilda Swinton and Anthony Head (as his “Buffy” character) discuss the occult?], SCOT AND WATCHER. Scotch and water.
- 32a. [“Eww, your quest to bake the densest fruit cobbler has gone too far”?], ICK, PEACH FLOUR!, chickpea flour.
- 59a. [Pro wrestling dudes, essentially?], MAT SCHTICK MEN, matchstick men. This one’s great!
- 68a. [“I thought chef Cora already took care of the roof”?], DIDN’T CAT THATCH?, “didn’t catch that.”
Fave bits in this 17×17 puzzle: [Have a visibly bulging forehead vein, say], SEETHE. [Person who distinguishes crosswords from criss-cross puzzles, e.g.], PEDANT (guilty as charged!). Pokemon PSYDUCK, GLOW-UP.
Four stars from me.
Quinn George’s Universal crossword. “Fall Themeless Week, Puzzle 3” — pannonica’s write-up
Universal • 9/25/24 • Wed • “Fall Themeless Week, Puzzle 3” • George • solution • 20240925
Quick work in this nicely flowing grid. Just a few mis-fills which were swiftly corrected via crossings.
- 1d [Character sketches?] ASCII ART. Nice clue, which feels like one we’ve seen before.
- 2d [Danish relative from the U.S.?] BEAR CLAW. With the B in place, this was an instaget.
- 5d [Reuben or PBJ, informally] SANDO. Held my nose when I put in my first answer, SAMMY, which I then emended to SANDY and finally to the correct entry.
- 10d [Unfair set of cards] STACKED DECK. 3d [Tape deck insert] CASSETTE.
- 23d [’80s Soft Cell hit] TAINTED LOVE, which itself was a cover of a 1960s song first recorded by Gloria Jones.
- 25d [Red pepper paste from northwestern Africa] HARISSA.
- 37d [Uncle Sam’s catchphrase] I WANT YOU. On an iconic recruitment poster.
- 39d [How two people may see] EYE-TO-EYE. 44d [Cornea’s organ, slangily] PEEPER.
- 59d [Song that slaps] BOP. Ooo…kay?
- 8a [Marching together] IN STEP.
- 16a [“Too busy”] NO TIME. First attempt: NOT NOW.
- 24a [Name that anagrams to “Hosea”] O’SHEA. How common is it as a first name, which is what’s implied.
- 35a [They’re rolled in Dungeons & Dragons] TWENTY-SIDED DICE. Icosahedra.
- 42a [Tubes for Mario] PIPES. Not PENNE or … ZITIS (is that a legit plural?), which is a not-uncommon meaning for tubes in crossword land. (It’s a video game reference.)
- 61a [(Boom!)] KABLOOEY. Not convinced I’ve encountered this in a crossword before.
Kyle Dolan’s LA Times crossword – Gareth’s summary
Kyle Dolan’s puzzle feels like it started with a great idea: the revealer IMNOTAROBOT from those online gateways. However, there weren’t that many theme entries, so they came out a tad uneven. For starters, THEIRONLADY, but THE-less MANOFSTEEL; and then, collective NAVALBRASS.
The SKIPAD entry felt like a companion piece to IMNOTAROBOT. In the same corner we get two US-sportsy answers I was a tad clueless on: NOHUDDLE and TOEPIECE. Their opposite numbers were also extra-effort entries: OPERABOX and SATSCORE.
Gareth
Erik Agard & Jasmeet Arora’s USA Today Crossword, “Ego Trip” — Emily’s write-up
Pack up and get ready!
USA Today, September 25, 2024, “Ego Trip” by Erik Agard & Jasmeet Arora
Theme: each themer contains —EGO—
Themers:
- 20a. [____ coaching (service offer by 81cents to help close pay gaps)], NEGOTIATION
- 36a. [“It’s the same story for the hundredth time”], HEREWEGOAGAIN
- 53a. [Words ending an oath], SOHELPMEGOD
A mix of themers in this set which includes NEGOTIATION, HEREWEGOAGAIN, and SOHELPMEGOD. Also, with the title hint, “ego” travels from left to right from the first to the third. Lovely!
Favorite fill: EMPANADA, TEASHOP, SHRINES, and TOPTENS
Stumpers: STRAPIN (stuck on “ready, set, go” so needed crossings), ITSASIGN (needed crossings ironically), and PATRONS (only “customers” came to mind)
Great puzzle that was harder for me than usual. I found the cluing trickier and there were many multiword entries that I also needed some, or a lot, of crossings to get. Everything was fairly crossed so I got through it eventually. Still a fun time with lot of excellent fill! How did you all do?
4.0 stars
~Emily
NYT: I’ll apologize in advance, if there’s something really clever in the arrangement of the scale notes around the perimeter of the grid (e.g., they represent some familiar tune) that my limited musical knowledge prevents me from seeing/hearing.
Otherwise, it seems like we just have a random arrangement of two-letter renderings of notes on the scale. And with this, we get an Icelandic poet, Haitian currency and a county in Nebraska. Or was that a Nebraskan poet, Icelandic currency and a county in Haiti?
Ugh!
Actually, county in Nevada (knew it), Icelandic poet (knew him) and Haitian currency (googled it, and thought it pretty obscure since nobody outside Haiti uses it). Anyway, I thought the puzzle was OK but didn’t get enthusiastic about the theme. The NYT Wordplay discussion is deeply offended that the fifth note is actually “sol”, not “so”.
When I was a kid and learned music, I was taught SO was the note. Not SOL.
Honestly, it wasn’t until l I did crosswords that SOL entered my vocab.
My British-trained piano teacher used SO and the French-trained ones (who were nuns) used SOL.
My apologies to Nevadans (it was late when I posted).
I learned “sol” as a kid, but have seen “so” enough times that I don’t worry about it.
Technically, so and sol have different uses. In “fixed-do” solfège, the syllables are synonyms for absolute pitches, and G is designated “sol.” This was the original use of these syllables, for monks who didn’t read musical tablature.
Later (and more commonly) solfège is “movable do,” where “do” signifies the tonic note. This was used to teach singing, and the syllables were sung as in “Do Re Mi” from the “Sound of Music.” In this use, “sol” became “so.” All of the notes must end on vowels in order to keep the throat open. It was fine to refer to a note as “sol” as an abstraction, but not in singing.
Of course, the line “SO, a needle pulling thread” didn’t help much,
Personally, I would vastly prefer to learn of Icelandic poets (this one I knew), Haitian currency (the crossings did it for me), and counties in Nebraska (crossings again) than pop culture trivia.
I’m not sure I understand why – other than maybe a general disdain for anything “pop.”
In my case, I have a son and daughter-in-law in their early 40s, and grandchildren ages 6-14. Pop culture trivia is much more likely to come up in conversation with them than the currency, county or poet is – so I think the pop culture stuff is likely to have more practical value for me.
I was slowed down for a minute because of the convention of no duplicates. It soon became evident that wasn’t the case with this puzzle. Altogether, not a very compelling challenge, which is my nice way of saying “blah”.
NYT? or another puzzle?
(If NYT, I’m curious: what dupe(s)? REDO and LAREDO? Those seemed fine, to me.)
The NYT felt exceptionally difficult for a Wednesday.
The data collected by xwordstats.com would support you “exceptionally difficult” assessment. 75% of their users solved it more slowly than their Wednesday averages.
For me, it was one of my fastest Wednesday time. I picked up on the theme by the time I got FALA and used the theme to fill in some of the shaded squares.
Most of the “trivia” was stuff I knew. ORRIN Hatch was a complete gimme; crosswords have taught me SNORRI Sturluson; with enough crosses, I got EDUARDO Saverin and DAVID HO (both of whom I should have remembered more easily j.
NYT: Throwback Wednesday? This puzzle had a very retro-NYTXW feel to it, with only the relatively obscure names and factoids (Haitian unit of currency?) raising the difficulty level above a Monday. Not a style of puzzle that does anything for me; hoping it’s a ONE OFF.
WSJ: What an adorable theme! I’m still smiling.
That is a cute theme, which I didn’t pick up on until I got the revealer.
But did he have to include POD RACE? I’ve seen “The Phantom Menace” twice, and that scene was just as boring the second time around.
USAT: Uninteresting puzzle with useless references to things and people that most solvers don’t know, or even care about.
I completely missed the theme because I mostly sailed through it. The only answer that I gave me much resistance was HUALAPAI; despite many visits to the Grand Canyon, I don’t remember hearing that name before.
OK, I guess I have never seen ATOLE before, either, or the Hawaiian anthem. So that’s at least three things I learned today!