Gary Larson and Doug Peterson’s New York Times crossword “Manual Dexterity” – Kyle’s write-up
“Manual Dexterity” solution grid – NYTimes Sunday 10/12/2024 – Gary Larson and Doug Peterson
Kyle here, filling in for Nate. For today’s Sunday NYT, we have a collaboration by two seasoned constructors, Gary Larson and Doug Peterson. Larson’s signature is punny themes, and this puzzle fits the bill. We’re asked to think of phrases that could work as titles of how-to books:
- 23A [Title for a tutorial on musical composition?] KNOWING THE SCORE. Strong start, though might it be slightly more apt for a conductor rather than a composer?
- 41A […a primer on playing dreidel?] GOING OVER THE TOP
- 57A […a volume on vapor dynamics?] PICKING UP STEAM. I can’t quite make sense of what practical knowledge such a book would offer.
- 83A […a step-by-step guide for throwing breaking balls?] LEARNING CURVES. Whereas this one fits the theme logic precisely.
- 97A […a handbook on raising kids?] GETTING YOUR GOAT. I filled this one entirely by crosses. Only upon seeing the full entry did I realize it was not supposed to be a book on parenting!
- 120A [… a D.I.Y manual on other D.I.Y. manuals?] TACKLING DUMMIES. Ending with a nice meta-thematic flourish.
I sailed through the rest of the grid, which was expertly filled.
Thanks Gary and Doug!
Evan Birnholz’s Los Angeles Times crossword “Back Home” – Matt’s write-up
Evan Birnholz’s Los Angeles Times crossword “Back Home” solution, 10/13/2024
Circles in our themers this week, and thank goodness for that, because I certainly didn’t know and/or remember the actor who played Lurch. Let’s get right into it:
- 23a [Actor who played Lurch in the 1990s “Addams Family” films] CAREL STRUYCKEN (yurt)
- 32a [Casino game with a smaller maximum number of payers compared with the classic version] MINI BACCARAT (cabin)
- 50a [Medical device of interest to hepatologists] ARTIFICIAL LIVER (villa)
- 65a [She may be a junior high student] SCHOOL GIRL (igloo)
- 70a [Identifies one’s partners in crime] NAMES NAMES (manse)
- 85a [Communications officer aboard the USS Enterprise] LIEUTENANT UHURA (hut)
- 101a [“Rocky III” line uttered by Clubber Lang that became a catchphrase for Clubber Lang’s portrayer] I PITY THE FOOL (tipi)
- 116a [Buying, renovating and quickly selling homes for profit … or what this puzzle’s theme entries are literally doing] FLIPPING HOUSES
A clever, consistent theme, and one that isn’t too hard to spot thanks to the circles. It definitely helped me nail down a few of the theme entries themselves. And aside from the theme, the grid has nice room to breathe – there’s no hemmed-in area with a bunch of short stuff.
Notes:
- 20a [The equines Applejack and Rainbow Dash of a children’s TV show] PONIES. I believe the shoe contains “pony” in its title, thus the extra-evasive clue.
- 75a [Not-so-exciting job openings?] YAWNS. I’m not sure what ‘job’ is doing other than allowing for the familiar phrase ‘job openings,’ but I found it cute.
- 109a [Plane for a car?] RAMP. As in an inclined plane.
- 16d [Soap opera star Slezak] ERIKA. Of “One Life to Live,” specifically.
- 102d [UConn basketball star Bueckers] PAIGE. One more college season for Bueckers, who has battled injuries in her career but is can’t-miss when healthy.
- 119d [“Catch-22” character who “would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he was sane he had to fly them”] ORR. Very glad Evan had room for the full quote. A catch-22, indeed.
Kevin Christian’s Universal Sunday crossword, “Free Forms”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases with circled contiguous letters that are scrambles of common shapes. The revealer is SHAPE-SHIFTING (64a, [Changeling’s ability, and a hint for the circled letters].
Universal Sunday crossword solution · “Free Forms” · Kevin Christian · 10.13.24
- 23a. [Entrepreneur’s desire for their business (3)] EXPONENTIAL GROWTH. Triangle.
- 39a. [Means for clandestine communications (4)] SECRET LANGUAGE. Rectangle.
- 53a. [Significant stories of the day (5)] FRONT-PAGE NEWS. Pentagon.
- 75a. [Cursing (6)] PUTTING A HEX ON. Hexagon.
- 91a. [Heavy equipment transportation item (8)] CARGO CONTAINER. Octagon.
- 109a. [Device that can turn light into a current] PHOTO-ELECTRIC CELL. Circle.
I’m impressed with how long the scrambled words are and yet they’re hidden in what are largely in-the-language phrases. Further, the phrases are in numerical order based on the number of sides each shape has (with the last one being the obvious outlier). All that said, I didn’t bother trying to unscramble the words as I went along and waited for that post-solve clarity (I’m coining that term, as of today) to make sense of it.
Fill highlights: OLIVIA RODRIGO RIDES BAREBACK. Oh wait, I think those are two separate entries. A number of entries were clunky — not bad, per se, but less than interesting: RAN IN, ADEPT AT, RHONES, HIRING ON, ONE-HITS (clued as a verb), BE AT EASE.
Clue of note: 60a. [“Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs,” for example]. PANGRAM. Didn’t know this PANGRAM which shows up on the Wikipedia page. I’m liking the look of “Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz” which is one letter shorter.
3.25 stars.
NYT: Fun Sunday theme, with really nice fill. My only hiccup was the SW corner which stymied me for a bit, but then came together. Really enjoyable, especially after I struggled with yesterday’s Saturday.
Small typo: Matt listed Evan’s puzzle as LA Times, not WaPo…
I don’t understand GETTINGYOURGOAT in the NYT, and I was perplexed by the clue for YAWNS in the WaPo. Otherwise these were decent but less than enthralling puzzles.
The “kids” being raised are baby goats.
Yes, I understand that, but how does ‘getting your goat’ translate into raising kids?
You raise the kids and eventually you get full-grown goats?
That’s the best I can do. It’s probably the weakest theme answer in the puzzle, which as I said earlier, didn’t do much for me.
Here’s how I took it: “getting” as in “understanding.” It would not be implausible for there to be a “how-to” book called Understanding Your Kid (or Child). Then the title is punnified.
It was just fine. Everyone’s explanation matches my own thoughts/possibilities, e.g. envisioning a “before you [adopt-or-buy]” book, similar to a “How to Raise a Puppy” book just being called “Getting your (first) dog”… and just a “What to Expect With a New Goat” makes equal sense.
BTW, I was then curious if-or-when you might be well-advised to get a kid, vs a young adult, or a ready-to-milk age goat… and the first link I got to had an oddly-familiar name to it!
https://fiascofarm.com/goats/getting-your-goat.htm
…and if this ever comes up for you, b/c goats are naturally herd animals, you might need to consider “Getting Your Goats” (plural), so that they each have at least one companion, according to that link – maybe…? ;-)
The NYT seemed awfully un-funny at first, but it grew on me as I worked at finding more synonyms for “learning.” I’d call it about average, which alas is good for a Sunday these days.
I did have trouble in the sector with MARC, RORY, MAC, and TYCO, and I can only imagine the complaints about obscurity here if MARC had been a NY area commute. But finished it off just fine.
The Maryland Area Rail Commuter train is new to me, but is it any more obscure than SEPTA, the transit authority in Philadelphia (which I have seen in more than one puzzle)?
I also didn’t know Kraft MAC, though that should have been fairly obvious. (I actually think that I’ve never had macaroni and cheese from a box.)
It helped that both RORY and TYCO were gimmes for me — the first despite my almost complete lack of interest in golf. Tickle Me Elmo dolls might have been the first “must have” toy that I was aware of, and TYCO has been around since long before I was a kid. (I’d forgotten that they started out making model trains.)
Overall, the puzzle didn’t do much for me. As you said, John, it’s about average. There have only been two NYT Sunday puzzles this year that were really good puzzles. On the other hand, I don’t remember any that I really disliked.
I wasn’t complaining about MARC, quite the opposite, only about a certain bias here. And I did successfully complete that sector.
In the Maleska days, MARC was often the grappa of Burgundy. It was “French brandy” only once in 82 Shortz-era appearances.
I learned that the only consonants pronounced at the end of French words are C, R, F and L. The “c” in “marc” is silent. The French are fond of saying pronunciation is logical in their language. They are in denial.
All during my years as a French educator, I taught my students “CaReFuL” to pronounce those final consonants! And yes, that final c is silent: “ Le prénom Marc est issu du latin Marcum, accusatif du prénom Marcus. En latin populaire le m final est tombé, puis le u, et nous avons eu un mot d’une seule syllabe, Marc, dans laquelle le c n’était pas prononcé. C’est alors que s’est fixé en français le nom de la célèbre place de Venise.” Same thing happened with PORC, Latin was porcum, and the final C in PORC is silent also.
Thanks, Karen. They should just admit there are lots of exceptions to the vaunted logic. Like vin and vingt.
Yawns, as in being bored in a “not so exciting job” and therefore yawning or opening your mouth.
Loved seeing MARC (Maryland Area Rail Commuter) Train in the NYT. I took the MARC Camden line for years to Union Station when I worked in Northern Virginia.