Saturday, November 16, 2024

Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Wait and Seek” — pannonica’s write-up

WSJ • 11/16/24 • Sat • “Wait and Seek” • Shenk • solution • 20241116

I don’t know whether anyone else was considering it, but the title isn’t a play on “hide and seek”. Instead it’s “wait and see”, so we parse it as wait and see K, for the letter K sound is attached to the ends of the theme phrases, adjusting spelling as necessary. Unfortunately, calling the puzzle “Wait and Heark” would not work at all. (30a [Found out, in a way] HEARD.)

• 21a. [Stretch when the paper contains only opinion pieces?] EDITORIAL WEEK (editorial we).
• 31a. [Ostentatious oddball?] FANCY FREAK (fancy free).
• 50a. [Stroke of luck in Seville?] SPANISH FLUKE (… flu).
• 69a. [Peer in the Pyrenees, perhaps?] MOUNTAIN DUKE (… Dew).
• 87a. [Material for a really lightweight boat?] MARINE CORK (… Corps).
• 103a. [Misfit on a merry-go-round?] REVOLVING DORK (… door).
• 3d. [Disguise for a reviewer?] CRITICAL MASK (… mass). Or an N95, for example.
• 57d. [Commander in the baby-delivering forces?] GENERAL STORK (… store).

These were pretty fun.

Not part of the theme DESPITE (74a) being a longish entry ending in K: 13d [Noted resident of Prinsengracht 263] ANNE FRANK.

• 2d [“The Burghers of Calais” artist] RODIN. There are six figures in all and, judging by images I’ve seen of various castings and displays, it appears that there is no prescribed relative arrangement for them.
• 10d [Dunvegan denial] NAE. 16d [Dunkerque denial] NON.
• 41d [Black __ (bygone police vans] MARIAS. The etymology is uncertain, but Wikipedia collects some of the lore.
  
• 42d [Wise] SAPIENT. As in, for instance, pearwood.
• 50d [Sacred spot] SHRINE, crossing 54a [Worship of divine beings called “kami”] SHINTO. My cat’s name derives in part from the name of Shinto shrine maidens.
• 76d [Boom, e.g.] SPAR. Nautical. Followed by 78d [Toward the wake] ASTERN.
• 94d [Symbols of oppression] YOKES. 5d [Ready for pulling the plow, perhaps] SHOD. 93d [58-Down, e.g.] HORSE. (58d [Track has-been] OLD NAG.) Kind of a bleak collection.
• 89a [Teegarden of TV’s “Friday Night Lights”] AIMEE. I didn’t know the answer, but with the first couple of letters I decided to try AIMEE, consciously influenced by the double-E in her surname.
  
  (I discovered that contemporarily there were both an English and Australian footballers named Jack Armstrong—so I have a tenuous connection here.)
• 96d [Nation whose capital is the highest in Europe] ANDORRA. That’s a really interesting bit of trivia that I don’t recall ever learning before. It’s Andorra la Vella, elevation 1,023 m (3,356 ft), and of course is located in the Pyrenees (see 69-across).

Fun crossword. On to the Stumper!

Peter Gordon’s New York Times crossword – Kyle’s write-up

The New York Times solution grid – Peter Gordon – Saturday 11/16/2024

Peter Gordon’s byline hasn’t appeared on a NY Times themeless puzzle since 2016, though I believe he produces themelesses regularly for his Fireball series. I was curious to see what would be in store in this 66-word puzzle.

• [Phrase on ID tags] FAMOUS POTATOES. Outstanding clue! That’s ‘ID’ as in Idaho, and ‘tags’ as in license plates.
• The other 14-letter entry, JAZZ ORCHESTRAS, has those jazzy Z’s but the clue is more straightforward [Big bands]. Vague at first, but I was able to fill it in with a couple of letters.
• SAFARI HAT also gets a tricky clue: [Something to wear while watching the game]. Had to get a lot of crosses for this one, which gave me a nice aha moment.
• Enjoyed learning this piece of trivia: [Subject of New York City’s first public statue of a woman (1915)] JOAN OF ARC. Sculpted by Anna Hyatt Huntington, located at 93rd Street and Riverside Drive.
• Also learned [Ballerina who popularized “The Nutcracker”]–that’s Maria TALLCHIEF, first prima ballerina of the New York City Ballet who danced the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in George Balanchine’s 1954 production. She was a member of the Osage Nation.
• I liked seeing TAOISEACH in the grid. That’s the official title for the [Prime minister of Ireland], which is the Irish word for “leader”. (not the name of the Irish prime minister, currently Simon Harris). Approximately pronounced tee-shuck, with the final sound being closer to the sound of ch in “loch”.
• It feels like the clue for HUSKIES [College basketball powerhouse] is a step removed from the answer–no doubt the powerhouse in question is University of Connecticut, but from there you have to get to the name of the team. This applies to both the men’s and women’s teams.

I’ll leave it at that. Thanks Peter for an interesting puzzle. Fiend readers, what did you think of it?

Zhouqin Burnikel’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Los Angeles Times 11/16/24 by Zhouqin Burnikel

Afraid I have little time to comment today, so I will say two things:

1. Too easy
2. Wouldn’t be a Zhouqin Burnikel puzzle without multiple references to good things to eat and drink, like MANGO LASSI, SEA SCALLOP, ROE clued as [Eggs on top of toast Skagen], HOT SAUCES, and MAPO tofu.

If you’re ever in Scandinavia, try toast Skagen. It’s awesome, and despite its simple-looking appearance, I have not been able to find a suitable recreation at a NYC restaurant or make it properly at home.

Lester Ruff’s Newsday crossword, Saturday Stumper — pannonica’s write-up

Newsday • 11/16/24 • Saturday Stumper • Ruff, Newman • solution • 20241116

My experience was not that of a ‘less rough’ puzzle, but as always your mileage may vary.

The black squares in the grid describe a sort of hybrid pinwheel/crosshairs design. It flows mostly all right, but there are bottlenecks leading from the central eye to the corner sections.

The route for my solve was: upper right, some of center, lower right, more of center, lower left, upper left.

• 1a [Bowling center facility] SNACK BAR. Needed many crossings here. The first was 8d [Jane Eyre addressee] READER, then 3d [Loblike] ARCED. But it wasn’t until I took a half-guess on 5d [Earliest (1901) of Modern Library’s 100 best 2oth century novels] KIM that it cracked; suddenly 4d [Schedule fillers] CPAS—based on the CK combo—revealed itself and I finally hit on SNACK BAR.
• 9a [Second male Open Era career Grand Slam achiever (1999)] AGASSI. Took an educated guess here and confirmed it with the crossing G in 10d [Fooled] GOT.
• 16a [Whom Sotomayor succeeded] SOUTER. I feel as if I should have known this outright, but needed crossings.
• 19a [Tiny platforms] TEES. Surprisingly tough clue for me.
• 20a [More or less] ODD, not ISH.
• 24a [Goddess on the Medal of Honor] MINERVA. Was temporarily stymied when the obvious notion of Athena didn’t fit. 18a [Helmet accessories] STRAPS.
• 29a [Deliberation location] JURY ROOM. Suspected the ROOM part early on, but needed crossings to confirm and also to get the first section.
• 30a [Took a course] ATE. Closest thing to a gimme that this puzzle yielded.
• 31a [“What makes human progress possible,” per FDR] FREEDOM. We’re about to have less of both FREEDOM and progress.
• 34a [Baby hamster] PUP. I was thinking it’d be either this or KIT and I was leaning toward the former.
• 35a [Every president from Washington to Biden] SON. Not MEN or MAN. So we can see that this crossword was locked in before the election.
• 39a [Wave-catching skill] ESP. I might dispute the clue, but ‘ESP’ is essentially being skilled at cold-reading and interpreting other subtle cues, so I feel it’s okay. 11d [Subjective surroundings] AURA.
• 54a [Sour expression] MOUE. Another early toehold, confirmed with 54d [What Meet the Beatles could be bought in] MONO, which didn’t fool me for a moment.
• 55a [Male name with two male name anagrams] RONALD. I don’t like this kind of clue. It might be interesting per se, but it’s decidedly unhelpful until it’s practically filled in via crossings. Didn’t help that misinterpreted the clue as meaning that was composed of two male name anagrams: LON + ?, ROD + ?, et al. So now let’s see … ROLAND and ARNOLD.
• 58a [Poker variety named for its sinuous card shifting] ANACONDA. Didn’t know this but the ‘sinuous’ in the clue was very helpful, along with a couple of crossings.
• 63a [Fancy bookends] GEODES. Accurate, but an odd clue. I have the same reaction to the crossing 31d [Part of many a baby picture] FLEECE RUG. They both feel idiosyncratic.
• 1d [Scrap] SET-TO. Was not considering a noun.
• 7d [DMV, somewhat controversially] ACRONYM. Not understanding the clue. Is it that some states call the entity something else, like Motor Vehicle Commission, but people still use the ACRONYM for Department of Motor Vehicles?
• 13d [Brady-era image] SEPIATONES. Once it clicked that the clue was about 19th century photographer Matthew Brady, famous for Civil War images, this was almost a gimme.
• 26d [Proof of purchase] VOUCHER, not RECEIPT.
• 29d [Very dark] JET. There was a Learned League question about this a few days ago, and I got it wrong.
• 33d [In which krucvorto is “crossword”] ESPERANTO. I kind of guessed on this one, based on how weird but also familiar the word looked.
• 42d [It’s in the etymology of “penny”] PFENNIG. Helps to know a little German!
• 48d [Depp role on horseback] TONTO. I was kind of thinking it would be Ichabod CRANE, but that wasn’t working with any potential crossings.
• 49d [The first “all-aluminum” autos (1994)] AUDIS. Unsure why the quotes. Without investigating at all, I’m also thinking that whichever models are being referenced were the first production autos so constructed. It seems there would have been prototypes decades earlier?
• 52d [Related] SAID. 42a [Articulates] PHRASES.
• 57d [Filler/driller designation] DDS. Oh right, this was another easy answer.
• 60d [Beverage or bus alternative] CAB. I get the taxicab vs omnibus part, but not the beverage one. I can only think of cabernet [sauvignon], but that is a beverage, not an alternative to one.

How did this Stumper treat you?