Jerry Miccolis’s New York Times crossword, “Triple Features” — Nate’s write-up
10.20.2024 Sunday New York Times Crossword
23A: BIG GIANT MONSTER [Marquee at the Tri-Plex mistaken as a promo for … “Godzilla”?]
37A: WITNESS ALIEN ARRIVAL [… “E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial”?]
54A: HANCOCK SIGNS THE PAPER [… “Independence Day”?]
75A: TANGLED FROZEN TRAFFIC [… “Rush Hour”?]
91A: WIRED SLEEPERS MISERY [… “Insomnia”?]
110: MANHATTAN HOOK UP [… “Sex and the City”?]
This puzzle had a theme I found quite enjoyable, with solid themers and a nice cluing conceit. Each clued film is described using the titles of three other films, to largely successful effect. (I think SLEEPERS needs an apostrophe somewhere for a possessive moment to make the clue work, but otherwise the rest seem solid.)
The SORE SPOT in this puzzle for me, unfortunately, was the fill. There was A LOT of crosswordese throughout the grid, and I almost stopped solving entirely after I realized that [Emasculates] at 8D was trying to clue UNMANS. Genuinely, in what year is this puzzle is running? (To preempt the run of “but actually”s in the comments section, I indeed see that MW supports this definition / denotation, but I would argue that the primary connotation of “unman” these days – though even now this use is also antiquated – would be in the context of an unmanned (unpersoned) vessel, like a spaceship.)
And seriously – JAI alai, LST, RIA, AGUE, RILL, RUSSE, TAW, TALI, WHENCE and many more entries made this grid a really tough one to (want to) get through. Also, I’m pretty sure that 31A is commonly understood to be an anti-Irish slur, so that didn’t feel great. BRUTAL. Was the editor having an OFF DAY when this puzzle was sent to print? I wish the fill and cluing were as strong and fun as the theme set was. (NB: I would certainly be more forgiving of the fill it this were the constructor’s first NYT puzzle or even first NYT Sunday puzzle. It is not.)
What did you think of the puzzle? I’m hopeful you found the puzzle more enjoyable and that the theme at least made you smile! Can you think of any other fun triplet combos of movie titles that might work as an extra themer? Let us know in the comments – and have a nice weekend!
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword, “Long Division” — Matt’s write-up
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword, “Long Division” solution, 10/20/24
Little bit different this week, with a 19×23 grid and two disconnected halves. Well, kind of, but we’ll get there.
Four theme entries jump out and make it clear that we’re looking for something additional:
- 21a [Body of water meeting this puzzle’s landmark at a spot known in English as Old Ox Bay] YELLOW RIVER
- 29a [Reality competition series whose first season featured this puzzle’s landmark] THE AMAZING RACE
- 115a [Section of the eastern end of this puzzle’s landmark, so named for its resemblance to a mythical beast drinking from the sea] OLD DRAGONS HEAD
- 125a [Group that was in power when the best-preserved form of this puzzle’s landmark was built] MING DYNASTY
Hopefully it’s clear by this point that the puzzle’s theme is THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. And while it’s not clued or visible in the grid, it does have a place. If you theoretically solved acrosses-only, you wouldn’t notice, but the down entries just above and below the black row in the middle of the puzzle don’t quite match their clues, even if the entries are all valid (if at times musty) crossword entries. But they do match their clues if we insert THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA into that row — [Blast of wind] is GUST, [International Criminal Court locale, with “The”] is HAGUE, and so on.
A fun gimmick that’s a bit off the beaten path as themes go. I was torn during my solve between working out the altered entries and just ignoring them for the acrosses but much like a Schrodinger puzzle, it’s fun to go back after the fact.
Other highlights: the slightly stretchy [Light competition?] for DAY GAME / less familiar to me SATE (vs ‘satay’) at 96a / the tricky letter combination of HOV LANE that makes you second guess some of your crossings.
Hoping you found this as enjoyable as I did. And while we’re here, since I only blog on Sundays, it’s not too early for me to urge American Fiend readers who are eligible to make a plan to vote in the upcoming elections. Cheers!
Evan Park and Jeffrey Martinovic’s Universal Sunday crossword, “Breaking the Sound Barrier”—Jim’s review
This is the debut puzzle for Evan Park, so congrats are in order! Our constructing team brings us a clever idea. Theme answers are familiar phrases that include the letters of a sound effect somewhere within. This sound effect is “broken” out and placed elsewhere in the grid with extra pieces scattered around as well. I won’t list the clues for each piece of each entry, just the main one for the sake of brevity.
Universal Sunday crossword solution · “Breaking the Sound Barrier” · Evan Park and Jeffrey Martinovic · 10.20.24
- 26d. [With 7-Across and 75-Down, “It wasn’t my fault!”]. DON’T / BLAM / E ME.
- 35d. [With 11-Across, karma, by another name]. BOOM / ERANG EFFECT. This doesn’t work the same as the others. The “With” clue should go with the start of the phrase as it does in all the other phrases. But here it goes with ERANG EFFECT. BOOM gets the clue [Noise heard before 35-Down?].
- 36d. [With 128-Across and 89-Down, working on a broad range of devices]. CROS / S-PLAT / FORM.
- 48d. [With 32-Down, kit and caboodle]. THE WHOLE SHE / BANG.
- 60d. [With 93- and 102-Down, they may pull nails]. CLA / W HAM / MERS.
I’m sorry, but this was not for me. Way too much cross-referencing with no rhyme or reason as to the placement of the various pieces, especially when a phrase needed a third piece. I like the idea for the theme, and maybe there’s no other way to implement it, but this felt very disjointed and difficult to follow. I don’t doubt this was a bear to construct and I give our constructing team kudos for pulling off their vision, but as a solver, there was just no flow to the solve.
The long fill had some lovely marquee entries but some misses as well. Highlights include SHAPESHIFTERS, TIME SUCK, KIDS MENU, NERF GUN, NERVE CELLS, and “IT’S A GIFT“. But MLB UMPIRES and especially IMPROV STUDIO felt like so much green paint. Musty entries like CANA, TAW, ECLAT, and T-MAN didn’t help matters.
Clues of note:
- 56d. [“No need to repay me”]. “IT’S A GIFT.” This works fine, but I would’ve preferred something along the lines of [Mock statement of self-adulation].
- 66d. [Set with no set lines?]. IMPROV STUDIO. Aside from this not being an in-the-language phrase (AFAIK), I struggled with equating a “set” with a “studio”.
An impressive construction with some great fill, but it was a difficult, disjointed solve. 2.75 stars.
NYT: I thought the theme was great fun and well executed. Extra point for being clever without trying to be punny. To my mind, those types of Sunday themes are rarely successful.
Fun theme, really liked it. Agree with the rest of the fill; if I hadn’t been doing puzzles for a bit by now, it really would’ve been more difficult to get through.
re NYT 31A … but it’s his name? maybe it’s a slur sometimes but it’s also a legit name. i think banning MICK Jagger from the puzzle seems .. oddly disrespectful in a way; he didn’t ask to be named something that is also used derogatorily.
yeah the fill was a little dated but the fun solid and consistent theme made up for that for me.
Yes I’m part Irish and can’t imagine a world in which someone would be offended by a reference to one of the two most famous musical pairings of the last 60-odd years.
Nate. I think you’re LOST (AT SEA) with the MICK comment. Will we never then reference Senator Durbin, detective Tracy or actor Van Dyke in a crossword puzzle???!?!
re NYT 31A … but it’s his name? maybe it’s a slur sometimes but it’s also a legit name. i think banning MICK Jagger from the puzzle seems .. oddly disrespectful in a way; he didn’t ask to be named something that is also used derogatorily.
yeah the fill was a little dated but the fun solid and consistent theme made up for that for me.
To be fair to today’s NYT most Sunday sized puzzles are a slog to get through because the format so often necessitates gloopy fill. This one at least has amusing theme entries. I would be perfectly happy though if the NYT only ran 15x15s.
As a guy who writes 21×21 puzzles or thereabouts almost exclusively (though not for the NYT), I’m gonna disagree with you on that one.
I can see why you would object to Martin’s comment. But as with most endeavors, someone who specializes is going to be more adept at the task than someone who occasionally takes a stab at it.
In regard to NYT Sundays specifically, I agree with Martin that they are too often “a slog to get through” and today’s puzzle is a good example of the phenomenon.
+1 for Evan
One (or two or three) big puzzles a week is great :-) Just like I do short bike rides during the week, and long bike rides on the weekend.
The NYT wasn’t too hard even for someone (me) who doesn’t know a whole lot of movies. The one tricky spot was 81D crossing the movie title. I wondered if the marble might be a TAT and the first movie TIRED, which would fit the clue just as well. But W seemed more plausible.
And yes, ZDL’s objection to MICK is just silly.
WaPo was an impressive construction and fun to figure out. My only objection is that the version I printed out had black squares where THEGREATWALLOFCHINA goes, so I had to squish the missing letters in at the side of the puzzle.
I was with you on TIRED.
Is TIRED a film title that more than a few solvers would recognize? IMDB informs me that there was an award-winning Iranian (I think?) film with that title released in 2010. I wasn’t sure about WIRED, but it rang a faint bell. I sure wouldn’t have been happy about needing to know about TIRED (the film) and I’ve done enough crosswords over the years to know that a TAW is a marble.
I had no idea about TIRED as a movie title, but WIRED didn’t ring a bell either. And I was leaning toward TAW over TAT but wasn’t totally sure about it. I went with W because it seemed more likely on both counts.
wapo: ” version I printed out had black squares where THEGREATWALLOFCHINA goes” I haven’t checked the WaPo app, but across lite has them black also. I think that was part of the point… to be a wall between the two halves, so you had to mentally put in the letters to make the down answers match their clues.
Also nice is that the downs are all real words, though they don’t match the clues since you need that extra letter to do that.
The down being real words is a signature of Evan’s. His crosswords are too elegant to include random letter strings in the grid.
yes, very much agreed :) . Just pointing it out since i like that about Evan’s puzzles.
I solved on the wapo website. You can type THEGREATWALLOFCHINA in the black squares there.
Me too. But you could only see the blanks by selecting the across entry. (Not a complaint.) Fun puzzle, Evan.
NYT: I thought the theme was amusing with the rest OK, but uninspired. The one that bothered me was 40D “Some PCs” with an answer of “IBM” — IBM hasn’t made PCs in years. Any IBM PC still around is ancient in computer terms and the clue should have reflected that.
40d reads as “Some old PCs” in my copy. Maybe it was changed?
Yeah, I got that changed. Where is the old clue found?
The old clue shows up in the “newspaper version” print file.
I saw it without “old’ in the print magazine, too. And yes, it bothered me at least briefly.
Yep! That’s where it was! Glad to hear that someone realized it somewhere along tbe way!
UCS – 40a Whiskey Alternative = RYE. I drink a few Manhattans (always Rye) but I’m not an expert on whiskeys. I think of Rye as a whiskey. Or maybe I should read alternative as a choice instead of a replacement?
The dictionary supports both meanings: one of several to be chosen, or one to be chosen instead.
Now, the lyric in American Pie, “Them good ol’ boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye,” is still problematic, I’m afraid.
That’s where I was headed. Seems a little nuanced for a UCS but no big deal. Is there a difference between whiskey and whisky? That one always causes me to pause before typing
I’ll give the song a little literary leeway but, yeah.
Whisky is the Scottish spelling; Scotch is whisky. The Irish use whiskey. The US takes its spelling from Irish whiskey; most of the rest of the world honors Scotch. Canada uses whisky, so rye distilled in Canada is whisky unless it’s shipped to Whistle Pig in Vermont for aging, in which case it becomes whiskey.
Looks like I’m in the whiskey camp. I like Irish Whiskey and Whistle Pig Rye.
Thanks!
My personal feeling about good words with bad uses is that banning them is a victory for the bigots and other intentional offenders. It’s exasperating that the Spelling Bee accepts CHICA but not CHICO and PAPPY but not MAMMY. Calling someone a “beaner” is ugly, but turning a form of “beanball” into calls for firings is also ugly.
I accept that enough people find “chink in the armor” hurtful that it and these other words must be banned. After all, I only have one vote. But why is it so clear that “beaner” and “chink” are too offensive to be printed with innocent meanings but challenging “mick” is silly? Man, the pearl-clutching rules are complicated.
Mick’s of course not just Jagger’s name, but in being so the name of one of the most impressive and influential musicians of his time. It’s also the name of perhaps the best of his band’s succession of guitarists, Mick Taylor. Indeed, it wouldn’t have become also a slur without being first a name. Let’s surely not feel obliged to eliminate them and others of that name from memory. That surely does no favor to their ancestry.
But then you know what a John is.
as a 4th generation Irish American I can say that while my great grandfather may have gotten his “Irish” up but probably not my grandfather ,certainly not my father,me, my children,or grand children.
and really what is so upsetting about unmanly that would cause you to abandon the puzzle
also as a Sunday only puzzler for more than you all have been around this was enjoyable .
only one or two wikepedia referrals
i may be prejudiced since i’m also a basking ridge resident
The NYT was just not for me, relying on film titles I often didn’t recognize, with a strong nod to kinds that I came of age thinking were in no way for adults — animation, scifi, superheroes, and so on. It meant, though, that the huge Sunday fill (with weaknesses others have noted, and there were plenty) truly was a slog.
It also meant that I couldn’t enjoy the construction, since I had no clue what was going on. I got the first themer quickly enough. So maybe the idea in the title is that everything is repeated with variations three times? So it can’t just be a monster, but also big and giant? What could merit the redundancy?
Eventually the answer dawned on me that everything must be a film title, though I couldn’t know it. That didn’t make things any more impressive or pleasurable, but at least it helped me understand why the answers weren’t all three words long. Glad to be over it.
NYT: Enjoyed, and “Mick” is just how Mr. Jagger is known. No offense meant.
LAT: Not reviewed, just wanted to put in that I enjoyed the theme, but was slowed down because I haven’t read enough fiction recently.
My objection to the theme is that two or three of the answers describe the words of the clued film title, but not the actual film. 54A describes the historical event, not the sci-fi movie (and uses a film that the star of the clued film also starred in, adding to the confusion). 75A describes the daily urban curse, rather than the animated tale. And, 110A seems to be a generic NYC one-night stand, unrelated to the plot of the movie. 23A and 37A arguably describe the clued film. Consistency in this regard would have been nice. Also, 54A having a two-word title in the answer throws off the established pattern.
NYT: I know I’m a snowflake, but I ***never*** want to see a word like UNMAN in a puzzle.
(The suggestion by Nate that this word’s primary association is with something that is not staffed does not hold water: There is no related verb “unman” that means to fire everyone, or anything like that.)
I agree that “unmanning” a spaceship isn’t a thing. However, the first meanings of both emasculate and unman are psychological, not surgical: to weaken or make unmanly. If you mean castrate, say castrate.
NYT – “Wired” was the movie based on the Bob Woodward book about John Belushi (an early role for Michael Chiklis.)
The 3-word Triplex punny theme reminded me of a great photo from of all places, The National Enquirer, in 1979. (Probably reprinted from some local paper where the theater was.) The Triplex was showing 3 popular summer movies of 1979, but without a line separating them on the marquee, it read like this:
ALIEN
MEATBALLS
ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ
WaPo: really liked the theme and the puzzle this week. I solve on the WaPo app, so I was able to fill in the black letters, which certainly made it easier to work with than if I had to remember how to spell THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA while solving. Very clever that all of those downs were still valid without the center… very impressive @Evan Birnholz!
just love how you embrace challenges! Your resilience is truly inspiring, and it encourages others to push through their own struggles. It’s amazing to see how you turn obstacles into opportunities. Keep that fighting spirit alive—it’s a rare quality! You’re making a difference in more ways than you know. Keep shining bright!”