Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Whole Grains” – – wordplay that’s good for you. – Erin’s write-up
Jonesin’ solution 11/19/24
Hello lovelies! You could say this week’s Jonesin’ should have an hourglass figure with how the SANDS are moving.
20a. [2002 Disney title duo] LILO AND STITCH
- 27a. [Almost there] SECONDS AWAY
- 51a. [’70s sitcom character always talking about “the big one”] FRED SANFORD
- 58a. [Terrain that’s tough to predict, or a representation of the circled letters] SHIFTING SANDS
Other things:
- 53d. [South African restaurant chain known for peri-peri chicken] NANDO’S. They only have locations in five US states and DC. Drat.
Until next week!
Aaron Ullman’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Keyless Entry”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar(ish) phrases whose first words can also mean “remote” in one way or another. The revealer is REMOTE START (61a, [Keyless convenience with many newer cars, and a hint to 17-, 24-, 38- and 51-Across]).
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Keyless Entry” · Aaron Ullman · Tue., 11.19.24
- 17a. [Long, long ago] DISTANT PAST. Remote as in far removed.
- 24a. [Alter ego of Eminem] SLIM SHADY. Remote as in small (like chances).
- 38a. [Method of dog instruction with noisy reinforcement] CLICKER TRAINING. Remote as in the TV-controlling device. (Never heard this phrase before, but it makes sense.)
- 51a. [Tasks for a telemarketer] COLD CALLS. Remote as in aloof (I think).
Nice. I like the changes in meaning with each entry and the lively phrases.
We also get four anchoring long Downs in the corners, my favorites being RIVAL GANG and KICK DRUM. I don’t know the director JUSTIN LIN, but he’s certainly crossword-worthy as popular as the Fast & Furious franchise is. ARTICLE I rounds things out in the NE. Not so keen on REDOS, OLA, AINGE, ORONO.
A woman wearing a mantilla
Clues of note:
- 43a. [Players retired in 2022]. IPODS. I probably wasn’t the only one thinking this had something to do with sports.
- 13d. [Mantilla or muffler]. SCARF. TIL what a mantilla is. Despite growing up Catholic and seeing it worn by many church-going women, I always thought it was just called a veil.
- 33d. [Ride at a rodeo]. BRONC. A “for short” is in order here, I think.
Fine puzzle. 3.25 stars.
Elizabeth C. Gorski’s Cr♥ssw♥rd Nation puzzle (Week 703), “Make Mine a Triple!”—Ade’s take
Crossword Nation puzzle solution, Week 703: “Make Mine a Triple”
Hello there, everyone! Here is hoping that you’re all doing well and not too frustrated that you’re already hearing Christmas music before Thanksgiving officially arrives.
It’s a bit of rhyme time with today’s theme, as rhyming phrases are paired with another similar-sounding word at the end to create some wacky puns.
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- FUDDY DUDDY BUDDY (17A: [Persnickety pal?])
- HIPPY DIPPY TIPPI (28A: [Actress Hedren, who was a 1960s flower child?])
- NAMBY PAMBY BAMBI (47A: [Banal Disney film of 1942?])
- HOCUS POCUS LOCUS (60A: [Magical place?])
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Immediately filled with good memories upon filling GO FISH, as I had not played the game in forever until I stayed at the house of a friend and fellow crossword puzzle solver in the Boston area and got to play with her nine-year-old son (1D: [Kids’ card game]). If I remember correctly, I was asking questions to him about the rules while I was playing and was well on my way to losing before the game got interrupted as he had to get ready for bed. I literally only knew a couple of days ago that the person starring in Gladiator II was named MESCAL, as I was too busy focusing on Denzel Washington being in the period piece when watching all of the previews (50D: [Paul of “Normal People”]).
“Sports will make you smarter” moment of the day: OLIVA (14A: [Minnesota Twins great Tony]) – Tony Oliva finally got his due for his amazing baseball career in 2022, when he was selected by the Golden Days Era Committee to be enshrined into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Cuban-born Oliva spent his entire career with the Twins, from 1962 to 1976, and made eight consecutive All-Star Game (1964-1971) while winning the American League batting average title three times. Oliva is the only on-field member who appeared in all three World Series appearances in Twins history: as a player in 1965, hitting coach in 1987 and bench coach in 1991.
Thank you so much for the time, everybody! Have a wonderful and safe rest of your day and, as always, keep solving!
Take care!
Ade/AOK
Erik Agard’s New York Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up
NYT • 11/19/24 • Tue • Agard • solution • 20241119
Stepping up to pinch-hit.
Solved this one rather speedily, as befits a Tuesday crossword. Just a minor hitch or two.
- 17a. [Find a way to avert disaster] SAVE THE DAY.
- 38a. [Have a sleepover] SPEND THE NIGHT.
- 62a. [What 17- and 38-Across combine to form?] TIME BUDGET. Not quite a revealer, but it illuminates the appealing symmetry of the two other theme answers. Not a strong phrase for me, but it has ample Ngrams support.
This is a good case argument for a less-is-more approach to crossword themes. It’s elegant.
- 6d [Hue granter?] DYE. Goofy pun on the actor Hugh Grant.
- 8d [ID is required when sending a letter there] IDAHO. Great clue that fooled me well and good.
- 11d [Rosh __ ] HASHANAH.
- 12d [“Don’t bother with that”] IGNORE IT. This looked like gibberish because I had an error in one of the crossing entries: 19a [“Who __?”] ISN’T, for which I had IS IT. IGIOREIT was weird-looking indeed.
- 22d [First name in civil rights history] MARTIN Luther King, Jr. But for whatever reason I first considered MARIAN Anderson.
- 26d [Game of throws] DARTS, playing on Game of Thrones.
- 35d [Head over heels] IN LOVE. 16a [Head over heels] GAGA.
- 36d [Some band recordings] DEMOS. 63d [Some band recordings] EPS.
- 38d [Track-and-field star Richardson] SHA’CARRI. New to me.
- 41d [Expressed contempt] SCOFFED. 53d [Overlooks disrespectfully] SNUBS. 69a [Express contempt] SNEER.
- 51d [Quintet in a supervocalic word] AEIOU. “Supervocalic” is itself supervocalic.
- 61d [Key that’s missing an “ape”] ESC. Silly clue.
- 15a [Saga sage since 1980] YODA. This one confused me for a bit because I elided the ‘sage’ part of the clue.
- 58a [Low tie score] ONE ALL. Needed crossings to eliminate ONE-ONE.
Will Nediger’s New Yorker crossword — pannonica’s write-up
New Yorker • 11/19/24 • Tue • Nediger • solution • 20241119
This week’s Tuesday offering was for me moderately challenging, as per the description. It felt just a bit more recalcitrant than what we’ve seen of late. So, yay!
- 1a [“EastEnders” channel] BBC ONE. Filled in the BBC, waited for crossings to eliminate TWO.
- Several fine clues in the puzzle; I’ll collect them here. 16a [Bone-shaking action?] DICE ROLL. 12d [Where one might be fore-warned?] GOLF COURSE. 24d [Chelsea buns?] ARSE; I don’t know whether there’s a baked good called a Chelsea bun, but I like the clue all the same. (update: it is a thing.) Lastly, my favorite of all: 27d [Steps in for a limited time?] DANCE CRAZE.
- 18a [“Gotta be honest with you …”] I CAN’T LIE. Waited for crossings to eliminate WO–.
- 21a [Celebratory initialism that reverses to an incredulous initialism] FTW (for the win, what the fuck).
- 29a [Greeting that can be used instead of “Oi!”] OLA. Is this all Portuguese?
- Grid-spanner: 36a [“It’s just a figure of speech!”] DON’T BE SO LITERAL.
- 42a [“Munch” kin] EAT. Munchkin, get it? 45d [Something to nosh on] SNACK.
- 45a [Breakaway group] SECT, followed by 47a [Joined together] SPLICED.
- 61a [Joint cuddle sesh?] KNEESIES. Haven’t heard the term, but it was inferable with a few crossings. And now I see that ‘joint’ was a bonus nudge.
- 35d [Work with an audience] PLAY. Seems like a sort of weak clue?
- 49d [Zaps with a beam] LASES.
- 51d [Toothpicks for giants, maybe] LOGS. Silly.
- 54d [Word that fills in the blanks in the film titles “There is No __” and “__ Does Not Exist”] EVIL. I’m aware of the latter because it’s a newish film by the director of Drive My Car (which I still need to see). The other title is unfamiliar to me, but I like how the titles are simpatico. Nediger is a cinephile so it’s nice to see the editors letting him flex that itch.
- 58d [Item that can be used after it’s burned] DVD. Technically wouldn’t that be a DVDr?
Kevin Curry’s Universal Crossword, “Digging Around” (ed. Taylor Johnson) — Matt F’s Review
Universal Solution 11.19.2024
A modern classic “reparsing” theme today, where we have to chunk down the revealer into smaller pieces in order to make sense of the theme:
- 39A – [Where a kid might build a castle … or, when parsed differently, a hint to the starred clues’ answers] = SANDBOX, or, S AND BOX
You read that right. We have “s” + “box” theme answers, meaning two-word phrases in which the first word starts with “s,” and the second word is a type of “box.”
- 17A – [Certain barrier-breaking noise] = SONICBOOM (boom box)
- 29A – [Anonymous voting method] = SECRETBALLOT (ballot box)
- 47A – [Severe punishment] = STIFFPENALTY (penalty box)
- 63A – [Characteristic of a hothead] = SHORTFUSE (fuse box)
- 10D – [Keyless door feature] = SMARTLOCK (lock box)
- 35D – [Letters and such] = SNAILMAIL (mail box)
Pretty clever if you ask me, and surprisingly dense, making use of vertical space to give us a whopping 6 theme answers! We still get some playful mid-length words, like LIPBALM, NFLLIVE, and DEEPSEA – this is a fairly open grid despite these theme constraints. Well constructed, and clean as ever!
C.W. Stewart’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Jenni’s write-up
This puzzle reminded me of an exercise my daughter brought home from first grade. I liked the puzzle better than the exercise. A LOT better.
The theme answers build on each other.
Los Angeles Times, November 19, 2024, C.W. Stewart, solution grid
- 17a [Big spender in Vegas] is a HIGH ROLLER.
- 25a [Extremely volatile situation] is a HORNET‘S NEST.
- 44a [Southern breakfast side dish] is HOMINY GRITS. Are there other kinds of grits?
- 60a [Sigh from a weary traveler, and an apt title for this puzzle] is HOME AT LAST. That’s a lovely feeling.
What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that Kristen Kish now hosts TOP CHEF. I didn’t watch the show until I had knee surgery in September and I’ve been catching up. The season I’m watching still has Padma Lakshmi.
NYT: somewhat tough for a Tuesday, lots of names, and a baffling theme too.
Agreed
About an average Tuesday time for me. But I knew most of the names, which often doesn’t happen with e.a.’s puzzles.
As for the theme, I thought the two themers were nice in-the-language phrases, clued at a Tuesday level. The revealer seems less in-the-language, but I’ve heard it IRL. And I thought it provided a nice “aha” moment that tied the two themers together for me.
Agreed. Felt like one of his on a Tuesday in TNY, and the revealer looked just weird.
I agree it was a tough Tuesday. I thought the theme was clever, but I was stumped by the names.
NYT: I had many of the same little snags as pannonica, except that my [First name in civil rights history] was MEDGAR.
Nice puzzle; the only name I didn’t really recognize was SHA’CARRI Richardson. I just don’t pay much attention to sports. In terms of difficulty, it was perfectly pitched as a Tuesday NYT puzzle.
A few months ago, Amy Reynaldo pointed out to me that my first and last names are supervocalic. I don’t know how I had gone through life without knowing that, but maybe that’s why I so rarely use my middle name.
Fair enough, but just be aware that you’re way, way more fluent in the vocabulary and people references than a lot of us. As you can see from the uniformity of comments here plus the vast majority of negative ratings (31 to 13), a lot of us just find much harder what to you is a typical Tuesday breeze. Your reviews of other puzzles, often TNY, often give me the same wish you’d be more forgiving that we find obstacles where you find the obvious.
I don’t rush or time myself. In fact, I linger over puzzles. Still, I’d say a typical Tuesday fills itself about as fast as I can read the clues and write, while this took maybe half an hour. TNY for once was for me a very nice Tuesday challenge with enough clues like the one for DANCE CRAZE to throw me off the scent quite fairly, as I’d hope.
Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll try to be more aware of that in future reviews.
If you look at some of my reviews of BEQ’s puzzles (which are my regular gig here), you’ll see I often struggle with some of his pop culture references. I don’t think of myself as “way, way more fluent” in people references and I know I’ve got huge gaps in my pop culture knowledge. On the other hand, I do have lots of names floating around my brain, and sometimes just a few letters will suggest the right name to me.
I’m glad you enjoyed The New Yorker puzzle. I did too, though it took me a little longer than yesterday’s.
I counted eight person names in the NYT. Of the eight, only OCTAVIA Butler was unknown to me.
Now, three of these were sports personalities, and I do follow sports. But SIMONE Biles has been all over the non-sports media this year, as has been Britney GRINER (for different reasons) – it’s hard for me to imagine how these names have escaped the attention of someone paying attention to the headlines.
As both pannonica and Eric point out, there were alternative Civil Rights leaders that start with “M” and fit the space – but it can’t be an unreasonable request to come up with MARTIN after some pondering. I know SHA’CARRI Richardson’s name (but couldn’t come up with the correct spelling without several crosses) – so I think that’s a tough one.
My wife is Mexican-American, and she has seen CARLOS Santana in concert probably 40 times, so that was another gimme for me – YMMV.
For folks who like to track such things, I believe all of the person names in the puzzle are people of color. In an e.a. puzzle, probably not a coincidence.
NYT: I fell on two of those names, which crossed each other. I was determined to spell SHA’CARRI with a “K,” though OKTAVIA didn’t look right at all. Maybe that apostrophe, which I didn’t remember and which we didn’t need for the puzzle, was prodding me towards something I didn’t quite remember.
TNY: Was happy to see WN’s byline as it usually indicates some crunchiness, and this didn’t disappoint. Not a Monday Challenge but still needed some work. I really enjoyed some of the jokey clues (munch kin? , chelsea buns?) funny! I needed every crossing for the cozy of cozy game, but it got there with no googling.
NYT: All the same glitches as pannonica (just lived with the M for the civil rights activist until the rest fell in place)including “one one” for the low tie which I had to give up. Also enjoyed this one a lot. I didn’t know if EA was capable of an easy-ish Tuesday but he delivered and it was fun! I enjoyed the tricksy jokey clues (mail ID? hue granter?…lol!) and paired clues (head over heels, expressing contempt)
I like that the write ups here are done with the writers’ points of experiences, areas of expertise, individual vocabularies and interests. I learn a lot just from them.
TNY: I was also happy not to have to Google for this puzzle today, at least not until I had completed it. But it was hard for me. “Cozy game” was one of the things I looked up after I finished the puzzle, and I’m happy to learn that phrase, in this world of unending new words and new expressions.