Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Cast and Crew” — double examples. – Erin’s write-up
Jonesin’ solution 11/26/24
Hello lovelies! Welcome to the cast party! Each of the words in today’s theme entries can precede the word “cast” to make a new word or phrase.
- 17a. [Group of British whales covered in Band-Aids?] PLASTER POD (plaster cast, podcast)
- 58a. [What to do in the search bar to get the latest scores?] TYPE SPORTS (typecast, sportscast)
- 11d. [Nightmare that keeps you tossing and turning?] ROUGH DREAM (roughcast, Dreamcast)
- 27d. [Ballots using really wide sheets of paper?] BROAD VOTES (broadcast, votes cast)
Other things:
- 1a. [McEntire of “Happy’s Place”] REBA. This NBC sitcom premiered last month. I enjoyed watching Reba in her eponymous show in the 2000s.
- 60a. [One T of “ST:TNG”] TREK. “Star Trek: The Next Generation” is one of my favorite shows. Ask my oldest child to sing “My bat’leth brings all the threats to Picard” if you want evidence of its influence on my household.
Until next week!
David Stern & Ella Dershowitz’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Square Shooting”—Jim’s review
This is a debut puzzle for David Stern. Congrats!
Groups of four circled squares form squares themselves, and each group has the same letter in each of the four squares. Collectively the four groupings spell out FILM. The revealer is LETTERBOXES (34a, [Adapts to fit a home screen, and a hint to this puzzle’s theme]). The entries associated with each box are as follows:
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Square Shooting” · David Stern & Ella Dershowitz · Tue., 11.26.24
- F: COFFIN, HUFFPO, OFFSET, and AFFIX.
- I: ASCII ART, SKIING, SHIITE, WII.
- L: POLLEN, SOULLESS, BALLOT, LLC.
- M: COMMON, HOMMES, WHAMMY, SUMMA.
It’s a fine puzzle and the double letters sure made filling in those entries easier, which is a good thing in an early-in-the-week puzzle.
But I’m going to gripe a little bit about cluing the revealer as a verb since no one would ever use it this way. The only people who might use it as a verb are the people who record video in that format, and even then I suspect they use it more as an adjective to describe the format.
To me, a letterbox is Brit-speak for what we Yanks call a mail slot in a door. IMO, this would have been a better cluing angle for the revealer and then the four groupings could have spelled out MAIL (or POST to go along with a British theme).
It’s also a little strange to have things based on squares in this grid when the point of the letterbox format was to move away from the squarish format of regular TVs back in the olden days.
Fill highlights: WAR GODS, LAB MOUSE, “NOT A LOT,” FISH WRAP, BISCOTTI. Not so keen on ESC KEY.
Clues of note:
- 10d. [Cuts in front of, as a celestial body]. TRANSITS. An unexpected cluing angle for this word, but I like it.
- 55d. [Org. that aids mom-and-pop cos.]. SBA. I honestly don’t know what “cos.” is here. “Companies”? The “Org.” already hints at the abbreviation. Why not just say “mom-and-pop shops” since it’s what people say?
Three stars from me.
Killian Olson’s New York Times Crossword — Eric’s write-up
Killian Olson’s New York Times Crossword 11/26/24
Congratulations to Killian Olson on an entertaining NYT debut!
As I often do, I noted the shaded squares before I started, then proceeded to ignore them as I solved. Sometimes, I need to slow down and think about these a little more.
The revealer at 58A [Completed without manual input, as an online form … or a description of this puzzle’s shaded squares] AUTO-FILLED explains what I didn’t see as I was bopping through the grid: The shaded squares all contain different brands of motor vehicles:
- 16A [Not currently functioning] OUT OF ORDER
- 22A [Section of a sidewalk] CONCRETE SLAB
- 35A [Participants in an endurance competition set to music] MARATHON DANCERS
- 46A [Sandwiches that kick-started the fast-food breakfast industry] EGG MCMUFFIN
I like that all the autos are split across two words. Except for OUT OF ORDER, all the theme answers are making their NYT debuts, which helps give this grid its fresh feel.
CONCRETE SLAB is a bit meh, though it’s cool that Mr. Olson found a credible-sounding phrase that incorporates TESLA. (On the other hand, the less I have to think about Elon Musk, the better my mental health is.)
Probably my favorite of the theme answers is MARATHON DANCERS, partly because it’s a fun phrase, but mostly because it reminds me of the 1988 Honda Accord coupe that was my first new car. It had a five-speed manual transmission and was just fun to drive. It was also the only car I’ll ever own on which I saw the odometer roll from 99999 to 00000. (I-70 in Utah, if you’re wondering.)
The long down slots are all winners:
- 4D [After-meal drowsiness known scientifically as postprandial somnolence] FOOD COMA For many Americans, that’s particularly timely this week .
- 10D [Western roller] TUMBLEWEEDS Last year driving through northeastern New Mexico, we saw some massive tumbleweeds blowing along and across the road. I’d forgotten, though, that they’re an invasive species.
- 26D [Bursting with anticipation] RARING TO GO To me, this only sounds right as RARIN’ TO GO, but since I had fun, I’ll ignore that.
- 38D [Like a bodybuilder’s physique] CHISELED There’s nothing wrong with a little titilation on Tuesday. (Or any other day.)
Bonus points for :
- 60A [Part of a ski that cuts into the snow] EDGE We’ve got our season passes and snow is on the way. Life is good.
- A nonjudgmental yet original clue for 65A ODORS [Things hidden by potpourri].