Note: Fireball is a contest this week. We’ll post a review after the submission period closes.
Alan Olschwang’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Moderation”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases except that they’re missing the first two letters (RO) and the last two letters (AD). The revealer is MIDDLE OF THE ROAD (65a, [Not extreme, like the answers whose clues start with asterisks]).
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Moderation” · Alan Olschwang · Thu., 10.10.24
- 17a. [*Not put up any resistance]
LL OVER AND PLAY DE. Roll over and play dead. - 26a. [*Caesar, essentially]
MAINE SAL. Romaine salad. - 30a. [*”Stairway to Heaven,” for one]
CK BALL. Rock ballad. - 49a. [*One of many that may be prayed upon]
SARY BE. Rosary bead. This is the first theme entry I fully completed, but I couldn’t make sense of it. I double- and triple-checked each crossing, yet it still took me some time to see the light. - 51a. [*Hugh Grant in “Notting Hill,” e.g.]
MANTIC LE. Romantic lead.
Now this is a nice trick I don’t recall seeing before! It had me befuddled until I nearly had the grid filled, and I was still trying to make sense of the nonsensical theme entries. Given the revealer, I was fully expecting the outer letters to spell synonyms of ROAD, but it just wasn’t panning out. Finally, in a burst of inspiration, I had my aha moment and finished the grid in short order. This was much better than looking for synonyms. What I like best about this theme is that it doesn’t duplicate the letters in question (ROAD) and lets the solver mentally fill them in. Fun!
A prie-dieu
I love “GET A ROOM!” in the fill, along with other highlights STEEL-TOE and HAPTIC. I’m less enamored of that LA RAM / PEREZ / SEGAL / ZENO mash-up in the middle, but I eventually sorted it out.
Clue of note: 44a. [Used a prie-dieu]. KNELT. Had to look up a picture of the thing. I would just call it a “kneeler.”
Good Thursday-level theme! Four stars.
Grant Boroughs’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up
Difficulty: Easy (9m45s)
Grant Boroughs’s New York Times crossword, 10/10/24, 1010
Today’s theme: W OR D CHOICE (Author’s concern that, when parsed as four parts, provides a hint to this puzzle’s theme)
- COW/D / W/DASHBOARD
- PAW/D / W/DITHER
- FLEW/D / W/DELLS
- W/DINED / W/DRY HUMOR
- W/DAY AHEAD / W/DISHES
- SOW/D / PLOW/D
Here’s the thing about Schrodinger — he never even had a cat. Made the whole thing up.
Cracking: YER OUT, better luck next time slugger
Slacking: Probably could have clued PELHAM as the quasi-popular film/remake (The Taking of…), rather than the obscure Bronx enclave. At least ECHO is inferable to those who’ve never set foot in California — I can imagine non-New Yorkers struggling to confidently plunk down anything with that -L-H- eyesore daring you to rethink the crosses.
Sidetracking: BELLA
Larry Snyder’s USA Today Crossword, “Three Bags Full” — Emily’s write-up
Pack a bag and let’s go!
USA Today, October 10, 2024, “Three Bags Full” by Larry Snyder
Theme: each themer is contained in a TOTE
Themers:
- 20a. [Written token of appreciation], THANKYOUNOTE
- 38a. [Umami-rich ingredient in a pantry], TOMATOPASTE
- 59a. [Celestial event that occurred on April 8, 2024], TOTALECLIPSE
A variety of themers in this set of THANKYOUNOTE, TOMATOPASTE, and TOTALECLIPSE. The “totes” are so so fun as they are filled to various degrees, with some more to the brim than others. Cute theme and a fun title hint.
Favorite fill: LYCHEE, CATNAP, and UPDOS
Stumpers: RPM (took me a minute to read the cluing), TRYME (needed some crossings), and PROXY (needed crossings though this might have hit different in later in the month or in November)
Overall a lot of fun. Enjoyed the grid and fill with lots of lengthy ones. Cluing fairly easy for me so a very smooth solve. Absolutely loved the theme and the title hint!
4.5 stars
~Emily
Gary Larson’s LA Times crossword – Gareth’s theme summary
LA Times
241010
Gary Larson’s puzzle features five long across answers that end in dog varieties of varying levels of specificity, with HOUND being a lot more generic than say spitz. The attempt to add another layer with clues was awkward for me, each clue being a “Service dog for…” but the puzzle probably would have worked better without it:
- [Service animal for a heavy-metal musician?], ROCKHOUND
- [Service animal for a neighborhood cop?], BEATBOXER
- [Service animal for an airline pilot?], JETSETTER
- [Service animal for the Energizer mascot?], BUNNYCHOW . Wait a minute? Bunny chow is a South African street food. How can it be well-known enough for American crosswords?
- [Service animal for a swindler’s victim?], MARKSPITZ
Elsewhere:
- EVO is this.
- A CANOER sounds a lot more clunky than a CANOEIST… YMMV.
Gareth
For me the NYT is a contender for an Orca.
six sets of Schrödinger entries? all with the same letter pair? and well-clued (one of them being especially “well” clued; couldn’t resist) too.
ODIC was the worst entry and forgivable.
NYT: Agree with Ethan. One of the best puzzles of the year! I picked up the theme pretty quickly, so I put the W/D in all of the circles right off the bat. (Speaking of bats, Let’s Go Mets!; let’s continue the magic ride as we head off to the west coast 😎)
ZDL,
You do know “The Taking of Pelham 123” is about the high-jacking of the subway to Pelham Bay, right?
I, a New Yorker who once joked about taking the 6 to see the 2009 remake, am shocked — shocked — by this revelatory and devastating piece of information.
I know you know your IRT. Just curious why the place is obscure but a movie about the train to the place isn’t.
I know it’s obscure to someone outside New York, but surely we’re allowed a New York clue once in a while. I’d swear we had our share of Chicago clues in the New York Times.
It’s actually a bit obscure to me, in the sense that I’ve never once been there, but I sure see the electronic sign for next train there more than once a day. I’ve never seen the movie, but you might think it’s been hijacked from the frequent delays.
I’d swear black ice is new to me. (After entering the E, I leaped to black tie. I also started with “gist” for PITH.) I’m also not convinced that all pairs are equally likely. I guess washboards are instrument panels in the sense of musical instruments in old-timey music, but it took me a while to come up with that. And wither away doesn’t often mean failing to rise to a challenge. Still, nice puzzle, nice theme!
*”I’d swear black ice is new to me.”*
If you drive (or even walk on asphalt) much in the subfreezing weather, black ice is a real hazard… you can’t see it and you go flying when you hit it.
I put “ops” first until that didn’t work. the ice just came when I did the downs. I second “gist” for “pith”. LOL at washboards, I had to shrug and say “ok, they’re a thing (instrument) used to wash clothes back then”…. thanks for defining it better for me :) .
I’ve never heard of Pelham Bay, but I’ve seen both the original movie and the remake. I had PEL in place before I looked at the Down clues, so it wasn’t hard to guess that the train in the movies was named for a place in the city.
Same.
And the other city locale, ECHO Park, is maybe best known outside LA as the title of Michael Connelly’s twelfth Harry Bosch novel, semi-famous for revealing Bosch’s cell phone number.
Brilliant puzzle. Bravo, Grant Brooklyn and Manhattan!
NYT: good idea for the theme, but the implementation was ruff enuf. Yikes.
The DAYAHEAD doesn’t seem idiomatic enough for inclusion. It just feels awkward.
Worked for me.
I thought DAY AHEAD was at least somewhat more idiomatic than WAY AHEAD. That was probably the most strained of the theme pairs.
I thought it was a nice puzzle. I had noticed before I got to the revealer that some of the answers worked with either a “W” or a “D,” but I hadn’t realized all do.
The one themer that was a little questionable in my mind is 28-D. I’m not sure that either WINED or DINED by itself quite fits the clue – really needs to be both, with the “and” in the middle.
It’s a shame they couldn’t squeeze the WD combo in there 40 times. Maybe with the right lubricant.
I see what you did there.
I often do not understand the titles used for some puzzles. How on earth does “Moderation” have any relevance to the WSJ puzzle? Loved the puzzle but I just cannot fathom the relevance of the title.
MIDDLE OF THE ROAD = moderate.
Thanks, I was also perplexed by the title.