Joe Deeney’s New York Times crossword, “The Ayes Have It” — Nate’s write-up
09.29.2024 Sunday New York Times Crossword
All eyes up here, please! Or rather, two extra I’s in each of theme answers:
22A: CORNIER STORIES [Anecdotes that are more likely to elicit eye rolls?] (corner stores)
39A: TIRADE IDEALS [Qualities of a perfect rant?] (trade deals)
47A: WIRY SIMILE [“Skinny as a beanpole” or “thin as a rail”?] (wry smile)
68A: STEAMIER CLAIM [More risqué assertion?] (steamer clam)
87A: TAXI BIASES [Reasons that commuters might prefer Uber?] (tax bases)
95A: WAITER METIER [In-depth knowledge of the menu, perhaps?] (water meter)
118A: PLIANT GENIUSES [Ones with flexible minds and bodies?] (plant genuses)
I’m torn on this one. On the one hand, some of these theme entries are solid (TIRADE IDEALS) and their succinct clues (especially the one for PLIANT GENIUSES) are even more impressive. All but WIRY SIMILE avoided having I’s in their base phrase too, so swapping that out for another I-less base phrase themer might have elevated this puzzle even more for me. On the other hand, almost all of the base phrases felt a bit boring, which made the transformations feel less fun (to me at least, YMMV). And I stared at WAITER METIER for ages wondering what the heck METIER is – apparently, métier is “an occupation or activity that one is good at”. TIL! I wonder how many solvers will get stuck on the WAITER METIER / MOW crossing…
As a whole, this puzzle played a bit tougher for me, but I think I just couldn’t get on the same wavelength as the clues. How did it feel for you? Did any of the themers crack you up? Let us know in the comments below – and have a great weekend!
Michele Govier’s Universal Sunday crossword, “Sea, the Sights”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are types of sharks (minus the word “shark”) spread out throughout the grid underneath fin-shaped groups of black squares. The top row also consists of three types of people who might be found in or on the ocean. The revealer is SHARK-INFESTED WATERS (109a, [Dangerous area for those in the top row of this puzzle, and a hint to the words under the six black fins in the grid]).
Universal Sunday crossword solution · “Sea, the Sights” · Michele Govier · 9.29.24
- 44a. [*This fearsome one can have over 300 serrated teeth] GREAT WHITE.
- 48a. [*This oddly shaped one can use its head as a weapon] HAMMERHEAD.
- 71a. [*This long-tailed one is named for a piece of farm equipment] THRESHER.
- 75a. [*This distinctively-colored one can do spinning jumps when it hunts its prey] BLACK-TIP.
- 96a. [*This rarely seen one is named for its large jaw] MEGAMOUTH. I probably have heard of this shark, but the clue really helped.
- 100a. [*This slow-moving one can live to be over 400 years old] GREENLAND. This type of shark I’ve never heard of, and I needed most of the crosses.
Fun (but maybe a little bit worrisome and potentially gruesome) idea. The grid art definitely evokes the movie poster for Jaws but with a lot more sharks in the water! Oh yeah, the top row consists of a SAILOR, a SWIMMER, and a SURFER who all better be careful out there. Another theme-adjacent entry is 94a’s FISHED OUT. And one could even stretch the theme out to include RADIO REPORT and LOCAL PAPERS who might put out stories on swarms of sharks in the area.
Smooth solve all around though there aren’t any Down entries longer than 8 letters. But the grid design allowed for a good variety of word lengths, and it never felt like a slog. Fave bits of fill other than those mentioned above: “I’M THERE!,” MAMMOTH, FANBASE, THE BARD, PHARAOH, “IT WAS ME,” and OAKLEY sunglasses. Some of the iffier bits: AMUSERS, COALER (probably legit, but how many of us have ever had to refer to a coal-carrying freighter?), REBOLTS, and MD/PHDS.
Clues of note:
- 120a. [They might report on high school sports]. LOCAL PAPERS. I don’t usually grouse about clue/entry dupes, but RADIO REPORT is only a few rows above this entry, and this clue could easily be [They might cover high school sports].
- 128a. [Poet whose name doesn’t rhyme with Keats, confusingly]. KEATS. This entry’s followed immediately by the entry SEATS [Acts as an usher]. I’d call back to the previous clue with this one [Bums who rhyme with 128a] or something similar.
- 109d. [Ivory or Coast]. SOAP. I like the attention to detail here in putting two words that go together themselves in a phrase that has nothing to do with answer. I like this kind of clue where constructors seek to mess with your brain.
Enjoyable puzzle. Four stars.
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword, “Time Travel”—Matt’s review
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post Crossword solution, “Time Travel,” 9/29/2024
This week’s offering from Evan is another meta, and a tougher one than last week, at that. In “Time Travel,” we’re asked to find a “two-word phrase.”
Themers jump out quickly thanks to a repeated clue format and rebus squares:
- 47a [Date in 2016 when Usain Bolt won his third Olympic gold medal in the 200m] AUG18
- 50a [Date in 1982 when “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” was released in America] JUN11
- 55a [Date when those in the U.S. commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence] JUL5
- 76a [Date in 2015 when Princess Charlotte of Wales was born] MAY2
- 112a [Date in 1932 when FDR was elected] NOV8
- 113a [Date when people celebrate St. Patrick] MAR17
- 117a [Date when people celebrate Xmas] DEC25
What to do from here? Typically when you’ve got a set of numbers, it’s good to look to the appropriately numbered squares in the grid. In this case the squares alone result in a vowel-heavy letter set and are unlikely to generate our answer no matter the order. But you might notice that each entry is three letters – a pretty clear click.
Substituting those entries for the numerals in our themers, we get seven (valid!) words – a good omen. From there, the last major step is to recognize that each of these words is a plausible alternative answer for another clue/entry pairing in the grid. For example, AUGERS (from inserting 18d ERS into AUG18) is an alternative answer to 126a [Boring tools] DRILLS. (AUGERS ~ DRILLS and DECANT ~ POUR were the two pairs that jumped out at me at this stage).
Steps to solving Evan Birnholz’ “Time Travel” meta, 9/29/2024
Pulling together all of those pairs, keeping them in grid order, we see the phrase DAY TRIP, a form of “time travel” in a sense, and our meta answer, come out.
While it entailed several steps, I thought this was a fair and approachable meta, with pretty common extraction methods at each step and especially clear clicks to help confirm you’re on the right path. It’s not lost on me, either, the grid constraints to facilitate seven particular three-letter words in the first 31 (though really 25) down entries on top of other theme elements. How did it treat you?
NYT: Seriously?? We have a theme where we remove the I’s from the answer to a lame punny clue to get to a moderately familiar, if fairly mundane, two-word phrase. But wait, there’s more!! We have one theme answer that has an extra “I” that doesn’t get removed!
Not a good way to close out my Saturday evening.
Rex called this inelegant but not a fatal flaw. I think I disagree.
Does “I disagree” mean it’s a fatal flaw or not a flaw at all?
It didn’t detract from the puzzle as far as I was concerned. But then, I wasn’t particularly fond of the theme.
Yes, fatal flaw. If that was my only option I don’t think I would have submitted it. But I guess I would have been wrong!
Thanks for clarifying.
NYT: The theme reminded me of something I might see in the archives from 30 years ago.
I’m sure it was difficult to find phrases that worked with the constraints of the theme. I just wish the payoff had been more interesting.
Agreed with comments so far, more graciously phrased by Nate with “mixed feelings,” that the theme was flat. I just couldn’t enjoy it, and it didn’t help that PLANT GENUSES isn’t something you see everyday — or TAX BASES in the plural. Then, too, while it may just be my ear and not to be trusted, I’d never heard STEAMER CLAMS as opposed to “steamer clams” or simply “steamers.”
Maybe I just started on a sour note with the Sunday magazine’s editor’s or author bio note. It boasts of the “clue/answer pairing” in 1A as amusing and setting the right tone for the whole puzzle. Assuming there IS such a thing as a CAT CAFE, I don’t see a joke.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_caf%C3%A9
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragamuffin_cat
On the other hand, I dispute 14a [Some drink garnishes] ZESTS. Despite the original French meaning of zest (‘peel’), I consider it in English to indicate either the citrus oils or grated peel (containing oils) that may be used as ingredients in cooking, baking, and even mixology. The garnishes are twists or peels.
(Yes, I know there is plenty of evidence out there treating zest and peel/twist as synonyms.)
From one pedant to another, I cringe at the thought of garnishing with a peel when a zest is called for. The peel is everything you remove when you, say, peel an orange. The zest is the colored, outer layer; most of the peel is bitter pith. The hesperidium deserves better.
Oh, ok. But in my personal definition the peel is the peel sans pith. I’m probably being idiosyncratic.
Ah, thanks, so terrible pun on muffin.
I vastly prefer the plural “genera” (rather than “genuses”) for genus.
+1
I finally got around to checking “ragamuffin,” looking in my usual reference points — Randon House Unabridged, MW Collegiate (so frequent a house standard), and MW online (drawing more on its unabridged). And not one had either this meaning of ragamuffin or an entry for ragamuffin cat.
I’m not saying that an interesting puzzle shouldn’t expand its vocabulary or teach me new words. That’s great when it happens. But still, it does reinforce the impression that this guy will do anything for a bad pun, secure in his trust in himself as a witty guy.
NYT, kind of a slog. It has one of my favorite words, METIER, so I’m not going to complain very much. Took longer than the average Sunday.
NYT: I thought some of the phrases were entertaining, so I didn’t feel as negative about the puzzle as others.
WaPo: Did the puzzle, found what may be a way in to the meta, but couldn’t go further.
I got it. But not before going down one path that I was sure was the way
I noticed that the numbers in the theme answers all corresponded to three-letter words in the grid, but what to do with them eluded me.
I got distracted by GETACLUE sitting there in a prominent location. Once I found the grid entries that corresponded to the month||(three letter entries) I dissected their clues. After a few minutes of getting nowhere I backed up and focused on the entries instead of the clues.
When I got to 74a while solving I thought, “That should be DECANT.”
NYT: Pleasant solve with a few areas tougher than usual, especially the SSW area with “Hose” for NYLONS and No MOW May — sheesh.
But plenty of fun.
The theme entry WIRY SIMILE seems to derive from placing I’s in wry smile, which already has an I in it — which seems a wee bit inconsistent, alas.
Also, the title “The Ayes Have It” was maybe too much of a giveaway about the theme, once you say it aloud. (I might have preferred the title “Visual Equipment”, alluding to “two eyes”.)
PS I learned that “ragamuffin” can apply to cats. I had thought it applied only to disheveled young people.
WaPo: Just going to observe that if you take the letters in the squares matching the numbers of the months and of the days (including duplications), you get HIIEREASNETRIO, which can be anagrammed to EERIE HISTORIAN
H 02 MAY (05) S
I 04 JUL (07) N
I 08 NOV (11) E
E 11 JUN (06) T
R 17 MAR (03) R
E 18 AUG (08) I
A 25 DEC (12) O
Something I might have been if I’d continued with my American history PhD a decade ago.
Fun puzzle, and nice challenging meta! I got most of the way through it, but I split my solve over Monday and Tuesday lunch, so I had a little more trouble finding the partner phrases as the answers weren’t as fresh in my head… but a very nice puzzle!
Also, I’ve been reading Mary Roach’s book “Fuzz” and last night I learned that you should *not* play dead when encountering a bear… it’s likely that you soon won’t be playing…
My scratch-pad file contains all the same rabbit-hole detritus as pannonica’s. I never got to the anagram, though. When I finally got to my DAY TRIP, I realized this was karma for thinking last week’s RADIOHEAD was too simple.
NYT: For the third day in a row, my experience was just the opposite of most of you. I thought this was a cute puzzle, on the easy side, but interesting enough to keep me engaged. I finished well under my Sunday average, so I guess I was on Joe’s wavelength today.
For the record, NO MOW MAY, while well-intended, is actually terrible for both lawns and pollinators. It provides flowers for only a short time, which then disappear when you mow everything down, not to reappear until your lawn eventually recovers from being scalped. It’s MUCH better to mow your lawn regularly on your mower’s highest setting, which allows the grass and flowering plants to adapt to that height, keeps the lawn plants thriving, and allows pollinator-friendly clovers and such to bloom continuously. U Minn Extension is one place to look for good advice on maintaining a pollinator-friendly lawn.
I liked the NYT too… forgot to come on to comment, and kinda glad I didn’t see the negativity. It helped make the theme answers more solvable. Pretty fun!
that birnholz meta is astonishing – cool mechanism and perfect final answer! once again asking how the hell does he do it
NYT: One of the weakest Sunday puzzles I can remember. What are the answers without the “I”s? Some vaguely familiar phrase that has nothing to do with the clue? Hoping for better product from the NYT going forward. Will Shortz, please come back!
I didn’t particularly enjoy the theme, either. But I have seen similar themes many times in puzzles edited by Will Shortz.
I too hope Shortz comes back, if that’s what he wants. If he decides that he needs to retire to get his health back, I’m happy to have Joel Fagliano as the editor.
+1 to all of that.
WaPo: I commented last week that the meta was awfully easy. Evan Birnholz replied that this week’s would be harder, and he wasn’t kidding.
Beyond realizing that the squares with the numbers were key to the solution, I got nowhere with this. The “Time Travel” caused me to rearrange the theme answers in a monthly sequence and then a yearly sequence (even though I had to ascribe years to Christmas and St. Patrick’s Day). Looking at the Down answers attached to the rearranged dates got me AAAPYBC and CAPBAYA respectively.
It never occurred to me to try anything like Matt described. I’ll have to try to remember that for future metas.
Well done, Mr. Birnholz! It was way over my head.