Jeffrey Martinovic and Jeff Chen’s New York Times crossword, “Working the Night Shift” — Nate’s write-up
10.27.2024 Sunday New York Times Crossword
The Phases of the Moon
84D: THE (MOON) [This puzzle’s subject]
111A: IT’S JUST A PHASE [“They’ll grow out of that” … or a description of eight squares in this puzzle]
Those eight circled squares were involved in these crossings:
M: 43A EMAILED x 35D ARM
MO: 67A KE(MO)SABE x 63D S(MO)OCHED
MOO: 91A (MOO)SE MEAT x 55D MAKE IT (MOO)
MOON: 97A HONEY(MOON) SUITE x 84D THE (MOON)
OON: 88A I CAN’T G(O ON) x 53D HIRED G(OON)
ON: 64A LOND(ON)ER x 58D S(ON)ORITY
N: 40A WAR SONG x 31D INN
(Dark circle acting as a black square between 30A and 33A)
19A: ROUND TRIP [Complete journey … or what 84-Down makes in this puzzle?]
37A: GOING FULL CIRCLE [Completing a cycle, like 84-Down in this puzzle?]
This week, we’re treated to an incredible depiction of the moon cycle, with eight circled squares depicting, in rebus form, the waxing of the word MOON and then its subsequent waning. Wow! On top of that, we have a number of thematic entries like IT’S JUST A PHASE, ROUND TRIP, and GOING FULL CIRCLE also describing what’s going on with this tribute to THE MOON. This felt like two complementary themes in one Sunday puzzle, and they worked together for me in the best of possible ways. Bravo to the constructors!
I wonder if anyone will experience the solve similar to me: I cruised through the top half of the grid at nearly record speed and then struggled a lot more in the bottom half, perhaps because of the rebus squares (it took me a bit to figure out what the rebus circled squares were doing, but I loved the aha moment of discovery!) and perhaps because of some trickier fill in that region. LINED OUT / TSR was a tough crossing for me, as was MICRODOT / SOU / TEY. That said, this puzzle and its multi-layered theme felt quite satisfyingly executed and made for a joyful solve.
What did y’all think? Let us know in the comments. Have a great weekend and, if you are eligible to vote in the US elections, please do so!
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword, “Spare Parts” — Matt’s write-up
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword, “Spare Parts” solution, 10/27/2024
Another meta from Evan this week – we’re prompted for “a well-known name.” Twelve theme clues are marked by asterisks:
- 12a [*Site of fir sales] TREE FARM
- 27a [*She says to Mr. Rochester, “It is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave”] JANE EYRE
- 33a [*Driver’s device for preventing skidding] TIRE CHAIN
- 37a [*Visual feature of the 1979 film “Stalker”] SEPIA TONE
- 52a [*Brightly colored lizard] FIRE SKINK
- 55a [*Saliva-based gloss for a shoe] SPIT SHINE
- 67a [*Fashion designer who created extravagant dresses for the fashion icon Mathilde Willink] FONG LENG
- 73a [*Desert, as a failing organization] JUMP SHIP
- 91a [*Chicago paper, briefly] THE TRIB
- 100a [*Exercise involving a lateral maneuver] SIDE LUNGE
- 108a [*Alternative to total silence in the bedroom] WHITE NOISE
- 114a [*Approaching] COMING NEAR
Themers aside, it’s abundantly clear from the clues that Evan has Halloween in mind. Not seeing anything jumping out at me, and working off twelve themers and the title, “Spare Parts,” I guessed the twelve-letter name FRANKENSTEIN and tried to backsolve.
That’s indeed our meta answer, but how to get there without backsolving? The “in” for me was repeatedly thinking that FONG LENG doesn’t look all that fair from “frog leg.” With FRANKENSTEIN as my guess, the -R- in the second themer, JANE EYRE, drew some attention. Treat it as a spare, remove it, and the second word of that themer is “eye” – a body part – while pulling a “leg” out of FONG LENG also seems the right track.
And that’s the hook – each of these themers are two words, and in each case, the second word becomes a body part after removing one letter. Those removed letters spell FRANKENSTEIN.
(There’s also a wink-wink in the lower right, as Evan often does, and I often miss until compiling the write up, as today: 127a [___ parts] BODY)
I wish I hadn’t backsolved this one from scratch, but that’s nothing against the meta, which stands out to me in the consistency of the mechanism and the ease of extraction. And while I’m not really one for grid art, there’s very much a Frankenstein face going on in this grid, right? Not just me?
Other highlights: the mental image of ALEX Trebek (51a) dressing as a member of Kiss for Halloween // the simple punniness of [Starry?] for FAMED // DEEP SIX at 31d [Discard permanently]
If you are eligible to vote in the U.S. elections in just over a week, please make a plan to! In fact, the election is happening right now – over 40 million people have already voted, and you may be able to vote early right now. Thank you if you already have!
Lisa Senzel and Jeff Chen’s Universal Sunday crossword, “Monster Mash”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar (YMMV) song titles clued as if they were favorite songs of Halloween monsters at a party.
Universal Sunday crossword solution · “Monster Mash” · Lisa Senzel and Jeff Chen · 10.27.24
- 22a. [*When DJ Boogeyman started his party set, the ghost requested ___] INVISIBLE TOUCH. Of the full set, this is the only song whose chorus didn’t immediately come to mind, so I’m embedding the video below. For the briefest of moments I considered INVISIBLE COUCH.
- 38a. [*Frankenstein’s monster wanted the ___] ELECTRIC SLIDE. Hmm. This song requires a bit more agility than we’ve come to expect from the big guy. Of course, he did “Puttin’ on the Ritz” to great effect.
- 48a. [*The dragon pleaded for ___] HOT STUFF. Who invited the dragon? Not your typical Halloween monster.
- 67a. [*The witch asked for ___] COME FLY WITH ME. Perfectly fine, but I like the song Witch Hazel sings here, if only it had a name.
- 91a. [*The mummy’s only desire was to hear ___] WRAP IT UP.
- 99a. [*The werewolf howled for ___] BAD MOON RISING.
- 118a. [*As the night ended, the vampire desperately begged for ___] AIN’T NO SUNSHINE. I guess there aren’t many songs about mirrors and even fewer about garlic. “Hot Blooded” by Foreigner would’ve worked but it doesn’t fit symmetrically.
Great idea for a puzzle theme that made me wish I’d thunk of it. Fun choices all around. Just dropped my daughter off at a Halloween party. I wonder if they’ll play any of these songs. Probably not since the songs are mostly pretty old.
Highlights in the fill include GUAM (because I’m from there), SEVERED TIES, LAB ANIMAL, ICE SHOW, TAILLIGHT, COLD BEERS, and TAUTOLOGIES. However some stale crosswordese made its presence known, specifically AUEL, ONEL, AHN, ODEA, and R-LESS.
Clues of note:
- 15d. [“Search Party” actress Shawkat]. ALIA. I’ve not seen anything she’s in (including Arrested Development), but I should probably remember her name as she’s bound to be in crosswords for years to come.
- 69d. [Matisse painting with five figures in motion]. LA DANSE. Given the Halloween theme, I’m surprised this wasn’t clued via “LA DANSE Macabre.” Probably because there’s enough music involved in this grid already.
- 109d. [Where “Fatal Attraction” turns fatal]. BATH. I don’t remember this part. All I remember is why would you cheat on your wife if your wife is Anne Archer? (Okay, I re-watched the climactic scene, and yeah, the clue is accurate. Google it if you want.)
I know I wasn’t invited to the party, but my request for best Halloween party song is Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition.”
Great theme and a good puzzle once you get past the smattering of crosswordese. 3.5 stars.
that was a tough Thursday masquerading as a Sunday. took a while to get going. but worth the payoff in the end!
also worth mentioning and didn’t see in the write up (maybe i missed it)—the moon is orbiting a central EARTH in the puzzle.
I very much admired the NYT theme, all the more because it took me a long time to work it out. (Wow, a changing rebus, duly motivated.) I’d a few red herrings along the way. At first I wondered whether entries should skip over the white circles just as they skipped the black circle. Then for a bit, wondering at the use of WIRES rather than “wire services” for news agencies, checked whether omitted letters might themselves follow the circle around.
As that entry suggests, I did find some entries new or uncomfortable to me, especially in the bottom half with, say, the supermodel and chef. (I’m embarrassed that I needed help from crossings to remember the African leader, too.) I started with “dog” for LAB and was tricked by some cluing as well. But the fill seemed a fair price to pay for an ingenious grid. I’d call it the best Sunday in some time.
Immediately upon starting the NYT, I knew I was in for a treat, what with that black circle… brought back memories of Jeff’s “Taken to Task” from 2013. VERY clever way to represent the moon waxing and waning, with very few compromises in the fill. Five stars, easily.
NYT wasn’t too difficult after I’d figured out the trick, but there was some questionable cluing and fill, I thought. The worst was the ELBRUS/SUNIN crossing — almost any vowel could work there, but luckily I dragged ELBRUS from the dark recesses of my memory. The clue for LINEDOUT tries to too hard to be cute at the cost of being correct, and the cross with NADIYA doesn’t help.
WaPo: Nice puzzle, of course. The starred answers are all two-word phrases, which sent me down the wrong path when I tried to do something with the pairs of initial letters. Then I noticed the final answer – BODY parts – and saw the ARM in 24A and the EYE in 27A. But those misled me too, because ‘eye’ has an ‘r’ in the middle of it but ‘arm’ is unchanged and I couldn’t figure out where to go next. Oh well, another meta fail for me.
Now that I look back at the puzzle, I realize I really did leave the ELBRUS / SUNIN crossing blank. A pity they couldn’t edit that out. (I’ll just have to take on faith that DEFIB in that sector is a legit shortening.)
The best Sunday NYT puzzle I’ve seen in quite some time. Love how the rebus squares mimic the actual moon phases.
Also, I vaguely remember Joan Cusack in SNL, but didn’t know that Robert Downey, Jr was a cast member.
Some non-excellent crossings – like a Volcano crossing a hair lightening brand name? Yuk.
NYT: I agree with Nate that the bottom half was harder than the top, especially the SW corner in the vicinity of the unknown (to me) NADIYA. But the ELBRUS/SUNIN name crossing was a mystery to me, too.
That clue for LINED OUT was, sorry to say, trying too hard by half. There is a catch, obviously, but “nearly succeeded”? The result of an AT BAT is quite often a line drive straight to the shortstop, which of course is why he’s there. A grounder would be even better, from the pitcher’s perspective, but lining out is too common to be described as “nearly” successful.
But then in the SE we have the great EYEBALL IT and STEENBOK, so, okay.
All in all, an elaborate construction that managed to keep me engaged, and the best Sunday in a long time.
I was disappointed, however, to find that the MOON apparently orbits the NRA. Please say it ain’t so!
Yeah, that ELBRUS/SUNIN crossing was my last entry, a complete guess since I knew neither one.
I have no clue as to the veracity of this, but from the Wikipedia entry on “Batted Ball” is this:
“A line drive (colloquially, a “liner” or “rope”) is a batted ball “hit in a nearly straight line usually not far above the ground.”[14] Batters are usually most successful when they hit line drives, reaching base over 70% of the time, as compared to about 25% of the time on ground balls or fly balls.”
If true, the clue/answer work pretty well.
ELBRUS/SUN-IN cross was the last entry for me, too. But as I ran the possible vowels, TV ads for SUN-IN clicked in my brain (from many years ago – no idea if it still exists).
Yeah, this is the right view of lining out. A line drive is what you’re looking for on a batted ball, and the only way you’ll get out is if it goes directly to a fielder; otherwise you have a good shot at getting on base.
NYT: The clues were perhaps too often shoo-ins.
Bur the theme was out of this world!
Nice NYT. Took me considerably longer than a typical Sunday NYT, but I was engaged with it, so no complaint. I had one of those time-consuming single-letter errors at the end, so I looked up several of the obscure crossings until finding the actual (uninteresting) error.
NYT: SE and SW were unreasonably hard. The other parts I found easier than the average Thursday, partly because of the short entries and partly because I had NIENTE (I studied classical music) and ELBRUS.
ELBRUS is not just the tallest volcano but the tallest mountain in Europe so it’s a familiar name for geography nerds.
Of course being strong in one suit means being weak in another, like I don’t know KEMOSABE.
LAT: I thought this puzzle was very well done, and I really liked 68A: “What would you wear, say, when spending St. Patrick’s Day in Madrid?” : “CAPE VERDE”.
Good job by the constructor & editor(s), and I gave it 4 stars.