Saturday, November 9, 2024

LAT 2:36 (Stella) 

 


Newsday 17:57 (pannonica) 

 


NYT N/A  

 


Universal tk (Matthew)  

 


USA Today tk (Matthew) 

 


WSJ untimed (pannonica) 

 


Note: For the time being while the NYT Tech Guild is on strike, we will not be covering their puzzles. Please enjoy some of the other fine puzzles we do cover.

John Andrew Agpalo’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Los Angeles Times 11/9/24 by John Andrew Agpalo

Los Angeles Times 11/9/24 by John Andrew Agpalo

Please tell me how to feel about this puzzle (besides “overall, it was too easy”), because the highs were high and the lows were low. Perhaps if we go line by line I’ll know how I feel by the end:

  • 13A [Fast train between Union Station and Back Bay Station] is ACELA. I maintain that people who clue the ACELA like it’s the shinkansen have never actually ridden it. Can’t tell you the number of times I’ve sat at the Baltimore train station waiting for one that was behind schedule or sat in the train for who knows how long waiting for it to pull into Philadelphia.
  • 15A [German city] is STADT. I like this clue because it’s masquerading as one of those old-school clues where an example is clued using the broader group (not allowed in the best standard American puzzles now, but allowed in cryptics). In fact, the clue is not asking for the name of a particular German city, but simply the word for “city” in German.
  • 23A [Got completely out of hand] is RAN WILD, but it could also so easily be RAN AMOK or RAN RIOT as clued. I didn’t fall into the trap of filling in the last four letters without any crossings, but I did put in RAN RIOT after I had the I, one of the few (welcome) points of difficulty in this puzzle.
  • 30A [Incapable of having a bad hair day, say] is BALD. Heh.
  • 32A I also liked [Gives hell?] for DAMNS.
  • 45A [Notable name on a case] is SAMSONITE, another welcome point of difficulty because it’s so easy to start filling in SAM SPADE, then realize it can’t be right.
  • 47A [Dish that requires one’s level best?] felt to me like a strained clue for LAYER CAKE.
  • 53A [Levels a theatre, say] is RASES, as in the British spelling of RAZES. Hated this entry, NGL.
  • 3D I liked [Water heater] as a slightly deceptive clue for TEA KETTLE.
  • 16D [Some characters in Japanese writing] is HIRAGANA. I suppose this clue-entry pair might be tough for people who don’t know much about written Japanese (to be clear, I don’t know the language at all, but I do know what the three writing systems are called). And depending on which crossings you have, even if you do know the names of the writing systems, you’d have to choose between HIRAGANA and KATAKANA. But I had the G, so this was an easy drop.
  • 18D [“Ben-__”] Didn’t love the partial HUR here.
  • 21D [Wire diameter measures] is MILS, so it’s a plural of an entry that’s kind of marginal in the first place. Do not love.
  • 35D [Capital on the Tyrrhenian Sea] is PALERMO. Didn’t love this clue, as it presumes that solvers know, or makes them look up after the fact, that PALERMO is the capital of Sicily. I think world capital cities and U.S. state capitals are fair game as trivia knowledge in an American puzzle; some Canadian provincial and Mexican state capitals, too; other regional capitals, not so much.

Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “So There!” — pannonica’s write-up

WSJ • 11/9/24 • Sat • “So There!” • Shenk • solution • 20241109

For this straightforward theme, the bigram SO- is prefixed to one of the words (or word elements) in the relevant entries.

  • 23a. [“I’m really sorry your new sneakers are too tight,” e.g.?] SHOE SOLACE (shoelace).
  • 25a. [First spot the massage therapist should treat?] SOREST AREA (rest area).
  • 43a. [The remarkably versatile aloe?[ SIGNIFICANT SOOTHER (significant other).
  • 60a. [Pelt a philosopher on Halloween?] EGG SOCRATES (egg crates).
  • 70a. [Great ocean that must be taken very seriously?] SOBERING SEA (Bering Sea). “Great” seems superfluous in the clue; I think of oceans being more massive than seas.
  • 86a. [“Griller Filler” and “Light-Up Lumps”] CHARCOAL SOBRIQUETS (charcoal briquets). I don’t believe those are official names, or even common usage.
  • 110a. [Broth flavored with fragrant needles?] SPRUCE SOUP (spruce up).
  • 113a. [Wait until after the final frost, don’t put two seeds in the same hole, etc.?] SOWING TIPS (wingtips). Bit of symmetry how the first and last themers are both shoe related and both are originally compound words, unlike the others.

Not part of the theme: 38a [Processes for new students at Hogwarts] SORTINGS (Ugh, and there’s another Harry Potter clue in the puzzle, ugh*). 24d Recital star] SOLOIST. 84d [Beverage brand with logo lizards] SOBE (for South Beach). 107d [“Brave New World” narcotic] SOMA. 19a [Vague amount] SOME.

  • 38d [Ko-Ko’s knife, in “The Mikado”] SNEE. Snickersnee!
  • 42d [Small bomb, in a familiar idiom] PETARD. I always forget what it means.
  • 44d [Film role for Marty] IGOR. Feldman, Young Frankenstein.
  • 56d [Garnish for sharing, e.g.: Abbr.] ANAGram.
  • 65d [Soul great Franklin] ARETHA. 109d [Soul great Redding] OTIS. Although they apparently never dueted, I found this decent mash-up of a Redding song that was a significant hit for each of them:
  • 90d [Word before chair or horse] ROCKING. Sometimes this sort of clue is tricky, involving lateral thinking, but this one was very obvious.
  • *112d [“That’s terrible”] UGH.
  • 14a [An arm and a leg, e.g.] LIMBS. The correct answer was my reflexive thought, but it just didn’t seem right, so I held off for crossings.
  • 41a [Burma’s first prime minister] UNU. There’s some vintage crosswordese.
  • 78a [Small streams] RILLETS. I did an Ngram survey for ria, rill, rillet, and rivulet. All have minimal contemporary use, but were more common in the 19th century.
  • 97d [Filibuster feature] SPEECH. That stipulation, as seen memorably in Mr Smith Goes to Washington (1939), is no longer a mandatory feature of the tactic. And incidentally, I fully expect the filibuster to be casually jettisoned this coming Congress session.

Solid crossword, but not a particularly exciting theme. briquet/sobriquet was my favorite of the transformations.

Stella Zawistowski’s Newsday crossword, Saturday Stumper — pannonica’s write-up

Newsday • 11/9/24 • Saturday Stumper • Zawistowski • solution • 20241109

Ended up with a decent time after a very daunting first pass.

Solving sequence: lower right, middle left, lower left, upper right, middle right, upper left.

Were it not for a couple key entries that I just knew, it would have taken much longer, or I might not have finished at all.

Key entries:

  • 54a. [Stephen King’s “best film ever made out of anything I’ve written”] STAND BY ME, based on the short story The Body. I haven’t read any Stephen King at all, but I knew this fact.
  • 31d. [“__ a tavola a mangiare!” (Italian “Eat!”)]. TUTTI. Okay, I didn’t know this outright, but it was a strong educated guess.

Mis-fills:

  • 52a [Experimental fiction] ANTINOVEL, not META NOVEL.
  • 21d [Pop group] COLAS, not SODAS.

Entries that popped with a just a crossing or two:

  • 30a [Shoe that sounds like an apartment number] ASICS (A-6). At first I was thinking of styles, not brands.
  • 31a [Bond bed-mate in Dr. No] TARANTULA.
  • 27a [Source of ethereal sounds] CELESTA. Once SODAS was corrected to COLAS, I had it.

First instinct correct, but not confirmed until much later:

  • 6d [Took by truck] HAULED.
  • 10d [Shell contents of a sort] ALBUMEN.
  • 45a [Fuse] WED.
  • 51a [It’s north of the Libyan Sea] CRETE.
  • special case: 33a [France’s capital] EUROS, but held off in case of PARIS.

The rest:

  • 15a [“When plants dance!”] FAT CHANCE. I’ve often heard the latter but never the former.
  • 18a [Tack together] BASTE. Sewing.
  • 20a [Accented acclaim] OLÉS, though I briefly flirted with ÉLAN, which doesn’t quite correspond to the clue.
  • 24a [Got a ticket for] PAWNED. Tough clue.
  • 34a [Grandiose verse] EPOS. I was hesitant about this because the similar-looking and -sounding ethos was in a nearby clue: 32a [Ethos] CODE.
  • 35a [Beat] ENERVATED. Another key clue for making progress through the grid.
  • 40a [Botanical barrels] CACTI. There are barrel CACTI, but I was racking my brain considering anatomical features.
  • 2d [“Tater of the equator”] TARO. Never heard that phrase and was initially nonplussed by the clue.
  • 3d [College that’s not a college] ETON. Novel clue for a common crossword entry.
  • 11d [What you’re asked to sight before a flight] NEAREST EXIT. Again I was moderately confused by the clue but it eventually made sense.
  • 13d [Biker jacket] MOTO. Not understanding how this signifies. Obviously it has to do with motorcycling, but beyond that …
  • 27d [Troubles] CARES.
  • 28d [Play way?] ALONG. So this is the phrase ‘play along’, but even with the question mark I don’t see how the clue works.
  • 36d [Renders inoperative] VACATES. Quasi-legal term.
  • 39d [Shipped out] SENT IN. Out, in. Little tricky.
  • 41d [It’s named for its cloak shape] MANTA. Must be mantle; I’d not known this.
  • 43d [Soil starter] AGRO-. 33d [Ground] EARTH. The terminal H in the latter helped me see 42a [Favorite opposite] as PARIAH, which was very helpful for that southwest corner.
  • 46d [B, C, P, or V] ELEM. Boron, carbon, phosphorus, vanadium.
  • 49d [Saw around] WAS. A cryptic style reversal clue. I’d been considering the answer might be MET.

 

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25 Responses to Saturday, November 9, 2024

  1. David L says:

    Not a fan of the NYT. Three sportspersons — I’d heard of one of them, but calling him ‘mononymous’ is a stretch — plus several ugly entries. Not too hard overall but not a whole lot of fun either.

    • sanfranman59 says:

      Mononymous seems appropriate to me in this case. Unlike most athletes, he’s almost always referred to by only his given name (ICHIRO) instead of his surname (Suzuki).

  2. Mr. [very] Grumpy says:

    LAT: That 37A/32D cross was unforgivable.

    • Papa John says:

      Not citing the clue/entry is unforgivable. (:

      • Mr. [very] Grumpy says:

        Why? I prefer to refrain from giving away too too much information in case someone has not tried to solve the puzzle yet. I call that politeness — unlike your response.

    • MDR says:

      Why is this cross unforgivable?

      Both clues/entries seem OK, at least to me. 37a [Pioneer in “New New Orleans” cuisine] is LAGASSE. 32d [Shibu Inu meme that inspired a cryptocurrency] is DOGE. They cross at the “G”.

      Emeril Lagasse is famous, having been a celebrity chef on TV for 20 years and having a bunch of restaurants with his name on it (including on cruise ships), and then, even if you are ignorant of dogecoin and other cryptocurrency memes, because Shibu Inu is a dog breed and the word “dog” is most of the answer, an educated guess can be made, especially if all that is missing is the crossing.

      • Mr. [very] Grumpy says:

        Both totally foreign to me. I think a constructor has to give me at least a slim chance at guessing, so that is why I called this unforgivable. I’m a cat person, not a dog person; I have no interest in crypto; and celebrity chefs can go to **** as far as I’m concerned.

  3. BlueIris says:

    Stumper: As usual, pannonica is on the mark. In my case, I got the lower left first and the upper right last. I didn’t like 20A being “oles” because I don’t see the clue as indicating plural in any way. I’m not fond of 32A being “code” — I think it’s a stretch. I’m not understanding “moto,” either.

    • Pilgrim says:

      I agree with you regarding “oles.” Also, 27A “Source of ethereal sounds” seems to call for the singular CELESTA. I hesitated on filling this in for the longest time.
      I don’t get 53A “Sondheim quintet.” Stephen Sondheim won 7 Tonys (in addition to a Lifetime Achievement award). Is this referring to a different Sondheim?
      Regarding 30A “. . . apartment number” – I have never heard the letter coming first in an apartment number, but maybe I just haven’t run across it.

    • David L says:

      I got about 2/3 of it on my first go-round, then did other things for the afternoon. Came back to it this evening and managed to finish, the upper right being the final section. I share other commenters’ puzzlement about MOTO and was also misled by the two singular clue/plural answer combos.

  4. meaningless nobody says:

    stumper: tried it downs only, but i got nowhere fast… opening the across clues got me to a clean and not terribly long time (still double pannonica’s) that might have been improved if not for my stubbornness… nevertheless i need to improve, so i will try again

  5. Michael Leddy says:

    In the Stumper:

    A fellow solver tells me that 15-A is all about rhyming slang. “When plants dance” = “Fat chance.”

    28-D, “Play way?” It’s a bit of a stretch, but since “along” is an adverb, it could considered a way to modify the action — play along.

    30-A: I loved ASICS even as I wondered about the letter coming first. But a search shows that to be a practice with apartments. There are A6’s for rent right now.

    Lovely to get the celesta in with Monk’s “Pannonica.”

  6. Brenda Rose says:

    Doctor, heal thyself.
    Stella accuses the LAT for the Tyrrhenian Sea/Palermo as presumptive but had no qualms about cluing Libyan Sea/Crete in the Stumper. Many of us are educated & have done the Euro Tours & the Med areas are not at all arcane. Give the solver some credit.

  7. Rebecca Johnson says:

    How has no one commented on the fact that Harry Potter was NOT a STEP CHILD?? He was an orphan.

    • Sebastian says:

      Well, the Dursleys were kind of like stepparents for him, but you’re right, they were in fact his aunt and uncle. So that’s another knock against this rather slipshod puzzle.

      I’m fine with tricky and torturously obscure clues, but just plain wrong? That’s a bridge too far. A little more quality control, please, Stan!

  8. Seattle DB says:

    USAT: Regarding 36D: “My Bad!” is a single “Oop”. Who says “Oop” instead of “Oops”? This editing blunder by Jared Goudsmit dropped my rating down to 1.5 stars (with apologies to the constructor).

  9. Seattle DB says:

    UNI: Maybe I’m a crossword purist, but when young-hipster abbreviated-slang is unwarranted and overused, I shake my head (SMH).
    For example: 55D: “You tracking?” and the answer is “Mkay”. WTF kind of initialism will be used next, and will every crossword answer come down to a 3 letter trigram?

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