John Kugelman’s New York Times crossword, “Teacher’s Marks” — Nate’s write-up
I decide to take one day off from grading my students’ work and this puzzle pops up! The universe wants me to have no peace. :D
10.05.2024 Sunday New York Times Crossword
22A: DON’T QUOTE ME ON THAT [Mrs. B you’ll die when you hear what happened to “me” this summer.]
37A: YOUR MONEY’S NO GOOD HERE [So we’re at the convenience store and WOW I find a 5$ dollar bill on the floor]
45A: HALT, WHO GOES THERE [Surprise surprise! Whom should walk in? Just my best friend ever!]
64A: DON’T START WITH ME [Me and Jamie ask if we can get a couple of scratchers]
83A: ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE [My mom buys them, and she knows how much I loooooooove lottery tickets]
92A: PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER [“Scratch them your self girls,” she says, so we do]
111A: YOU CAN’T WIN THE MALL (THEM ALL) [OMG can you believe it! We won the mall!!!]
The themers’ clues read as a student’s essay about buying lottery tickets and each themer answer is a common phrase / idiom repurposed to read as a teacher’s literal comment on how to fix that part of the essay. I really enjoyed this puzzle and found myself cracking up almost every time I figured out one of the theme answers. This puzzle has a lot of theme density and a few moving parts that had to come together to have everything work this smoothly, and it really feels like the constructor pulled it off. Bravo!
The bonus for solving the puzzle in the NYT app is a “C+ Fix!” post-it note on top of the puzzle. A stern note in red ink? Modern teachers would never!
The rest of the puzzle felt largely smooth to solve. The only place I got tripped up was in the LEA / SHEENA crossing, especially since I originally had “HARK” instead of “HALT” in HALT, WHO GOES THERE. Entries like ARABY, MCCOO. and ORDS weren’t my favorite, and I might have edited “men’s” into the NETMAN clue, but those small bits felt worth it for the greater theme, at least to me.
What did y’all think of the puzzle? What grade would you give this “essay”? Let us know in the comments section below – and have a great weekend / start to October!
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword, “Group Pictures” — Matt’s write-up
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword, “Group Pictures” solution, 10/06/2024
No meta this week, just a bunch of movies. What ties them together?
- 23a [*2016 film featuring Robert De Niro as a foul-mouthed senior citizen] DIRTY GRANDPA
- 32a [1970 film that’s a retelling of “Madame Bovary”] RYANS DAUGHTER
- 49a [*1994 film starring Kathleen Turner as a housewife and secret murderer] SERIAL MOM
- 58a [*2022 film in which a young man is “catfished” by his estranged father] I LOVE MY DAD
- 70a [*2006 film in which a video game tester moves in with his elder relative Lilly] GRANDMAS BOY
- 83a [*2020 film in which a closeted NYU professor comes out to his niece] UNCLE FRANK
- 92a [2014 film in which the criminal Brendan Lynch commits armed robbery with his younger protege JR] SON OF A GUN
- 111a [*1992 film with the tagline “Truth, justice and the Gambini way”] MY COUSIN VINNY
So we’ve got a set all with family members in the title, but I’ve only seen one of them, and only heard of one or two more, so there’s gotta be something else going on. The revealer points it out:
- 123a [Films deemed suitable for people of all ages … or an ironic description of this puzzle’s R-rated starred films] FAMILY MOVIES
Aha. I might have had a more enjoyable time filling the grid if I recognized more of the titles, but the irony of R-rated FAMILY MOVIES is a nice little payoff. And I didn’t find the unfamiliarity *hard* – Evan was gentle in pointing us right to the family member in several of the theme clues. A solid Sunday offering, I think.
Notes:
- 20a [The stuff of party tray cubes] CHEESE. This clue jumped out at me during solving for its odd syntax. Am I missing a reference here?
- 76a [Airport gate hassle] DELAY. Airport everywhere hassle, I’d say. I’ve been lucky to avoid delays the last few years. Knock on wood.
- 79a [Base phrase, at times] NO SIR. As in a military base.
- 96a [Plant product] CAR. The “factory” sense of “plant”
- 132a [Guitarist Paul] LES. Les Paul and Les Miserables dominate clues for this entry nowadays. I wouldn’t mind some variety! WKRP’s Les Nessman and … something to do with spacecraft are out of date, I suppose.
- 42d [Child’s scalp woe] LICE. I hope father-of-a-tyke Evan isn’t speaking from experience, here!
- 60d [68 Across building] DORM. Three cheers for a cross-reference clue that’s in the same area of the grid as itself, *especially* in a Sunday grid.
- 93d [Beetle juice?] GASOLINE. As in a VW Beetle. This brought a smile to my face, for sure.
- 109d [Hybrids of ribaldry] SATYRS. The clue had me a bit cross-eyed – a phrase I’ve never seen before, with a certain poesy to it. But yep, SATYRS are mythological hybrids well known for their lustfulness.
Oh, and congrats to Evan and his brother Justin for winning the Pairs Division at yesterday’s (inaugural) Midwest Crossword Tournament. Seems like it was a successful event and hopefully the start of a new standard on the crossword calendar.
Michael Schlossberg’s Universal Sunday crossword, “Out With It!”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar two-word phrases that have OUT added to the end, fundamentally changing the final words.
Universal Sunday crossword solution · “Out With It!” · Michael Schlossberg · 10.6.24
- 22a. [*Pamphlet on portion control?] HELPING HANDOUT.
- 30a. [*Toddler’s accident when learning to walk?] BABY WIPEOUT.
- 50a. [*Crow’s nest with a shiny new coating?] GLAZED LOOKOUT.
- 62a. [*Statement like “That opinion stinks, Your Honor”?] JUDGMENT CALLOUT.
- 81a. [*Tantrum thrown by Clark Kent?] SUPER FREAKOUT.
- 91a. [*Chic grocery scanner?] HIP CHECKOUT.
- 109a. [*Olympic gold medalist in freestyle snowboarding?] HOTDOG STANDOUT.
Other than the fact that I didn’t know what a “hip check” was (I’ve never watched a hockey game), a very nice set. I love the consistency in that each word with the added OUT becomes a wholly different word. While I may not have LOLed at the entries, I did appreciate the humor.
Fill highlights include HELLBOY, ROAD TRIPS, SOY LATTE, G-FORCES, LONG CON, “WHAT THE?”, TOSTITOS, and UMPTEEN.
Never have I ever heard of a BEARJAM [Traffic backup caused by a grizzly, in slang]. Is this even a real thing? I’ve been in a bisonjam at Yellowstone, but I wouldn’t have known to call it that. Also new to me: GLITTEN [Hand-warming garment with a hybrid name].
Solid puzzle. 3.5 stars.
The NYT theme was cute enough, but I just wish it cohered a bit more. “Me and X” is a common grammatical error in speech, but others were different altogether. One or two were forced, and I can’t really swear that ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE is even pertinent, at least not as pertinent as some. There was no single error, much less a common one, for the money (a) on the floor and (b) with the dollar sign out of order.
So call it close to a super Sunday but just not quite working. Oh, well. One of those under the new editor that I keep thinking a better editor would have intervened more. But all that aside, I wouldn’t be surprised if your reaction depends totally on what you think of a plethora of 3-letter fill.
WaPo: 97d [Nowadays] ANYMORE. This is not a sense of anymore that is in my speech. I’ve encountered it, and it always sounds weird to me. Wondering if it’s a regionalism, a generational thing, or both. And also how widespread it is.
Great Lakes region for me, mid-Boomer. I’ve heard it and used it occasionally, and it sounds okay to me. “Almost no one uses a landline anymore.” “Almost no one uses a landline nowadays.”
That doesn’t quite capture it. “I just use a cell phone anymore” is the usage.
It’s regional. It’s largely a Midwest thing, but there are other pockets as outlined in the linked article.
Dictionaries and my ear agree with Gary on nowadays “in the negative sense” as widespread and more than sufficiently equivalent to “nowadays” to justify the clue. RHUD agrees with Martin that the positive sense” is “chiefly” regional and of south midlands origin. (Well, it also defines “midlands” as in England, which is how I think about it, but never mind.) MW has it as having now caught on everywhere but in New England.
The NYT puzzle left me a little flat. After getting off to a fun start with DON’T QUOTE “ME” ON THIS, most of the other themers felt forced or too easy (because they used words from the clue) or both (with the worst offender being PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER).
Re: NYT
How does a publication of the NYT’s gravitas allow this pathetic a puzzle to (dis)grace its pages? Horrible doesn’t begin to describe the experience.
Now, now.