Apologies, everyone. I was slated to handle the NYT last night but I completely conked out and slept through. Write-up forthcoming this morning! —pann
Willa Angel Chen Miller and Matthew Stock’s New York Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up
NYT • 11/29/24 • Fri • Miller, Stock • solution • 20241129
A nice chewy crossword for your post-Thanksgiving consumption. Took a while for me to break into the grid, and the clues were pervasively tricky enough to put up regular roadblocks.
- 15a [Question that can’t possibly be answered “No”] ARE YOU AWAKE? Debatable.
- 16a [Solid : :glace : liquid :: __ ] EAU. My very first filled entry.
- 21a [Chemistry research centers?] NUCLEI. See? Tricky.
- 28a [Anti-apartheid activist Alan] PATON. He of Cry, the Beloved Country fame. 54a [War head?] ANTI-.
- 33a [Number of U.S. states beginning with “B”] NONE. 1d [U.S. state capital with the highest altitude (7,200 feet)] SANTA FE—I did not know this. 22d [World capital at roughly the same latitude as Montevideo] CANBERRA.
- In the center, a symmetrical paired crossing: 38a [Certain lifelike sculpture … or waht you might call 26-Down?] WAX FIGURE. 26d [Cogsworth’s compatriot in “Beauty and the Beast”] LUMIERE, who was an anthropomorphic candelabra voiced by Jerry Orbach.
- 42a [They might be down for a ski trip] PARKAS. Took about three passes for the clue’s PUN (59a) to become clear.
- 4d [Ghanian author __ Kwei Armah] AYI. New to me, I believe. But he’s not new.
- 8d [Something indicated with the index and middle fingers] TWO, not VEE.
- 11d [Begin a hole] TEE UP. Golf, not digging.
- 12d [One whose hard work is showing?] REALTOR. Nice clue, but I would expect that the paperwork and financing is really the more difficult component of the job.
- 24d [Protein source in a hearty meal] STEW MEAT. Green-painty.
- 39d [Piece of a children’s book, perhaps] FLAP. Must be a pop-up book.
- 40d [Burn unit?] CALORIE. Great clue.
- 43d [Sautéed-and-simmered Japanese dish] KINPIRA. Less commonly known.
- 56d [Half of a noted arcade pair] DAVE. I don’t get this. Is it Dave & Buster’s? I’m vaguely aware of that as a family-friendly restaurant chain. Answer: yes, it seems as if an arcade is a selling point of the establishments.
- 64a [Chalcocyanite, for example] ORE. Wonder what the story is behind choosing that particular substance for the clue.
Finally, aside from the crossing cross-reference entries in the grid’s center, the other salient feature are the triple eleven-stacks in the top left and lower right: SCRATCH THAT/ARE YOU AWAKE/NO TIME TO DIE and CASE IN POINT/OVER A BARREL/NEARLY READY. Great stuff.
Deanne Cliburn and Will Eisenberg’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up
LAT • 11/29/24 • Fri • Cliburn, Eisenberg • solution • 20241129
Okay, so. We have words and phrases that begin with types of animals. Further, the next part of the word/phrase begins with the letter s. Further to that, they have been reparsed as possessives and clued accordingly.
- 19a. [Having to watch the hare win over and over, perhaps] TORTOISE’S HELL (tortoiseshell).
- 27a. [Cabbie who picks up crustaceans, perhaps] CRAB’S HACK (crab shack).
- 35a. [Birdhouse opening, perhaps] CARDINAL’S IN (cardinal sin). I found this to be the weakest themer.
- 43a. [Device needed to renovate a small pad, perhaps] TOAD’S TOOL (toadstool). Like a lily pad, it would seem.
- 54a. [Legal proceeding in the grazing meadow, perhaps] SHEEP’S HEARING (sheep shearing). Factette: In the Middle Ages, animals would sometimes be put through real legal trials. The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals (1906). There was also a 1993 film based on the same premise.
my single-dilute tortoiseshell cat, being cozy on a dishabille bed
Fun little theme.
- 2d [Genre with moody hip-hop elements] EMO RAP. It’s all right there in the clue.
- 4d [Herbivore with a short proboscis] TAPIR. Unrelated to the theme.
- 7d [Shows judgment] TSKS. I feel this should have had an “in a way”-type qualifier. 13d [Placed on a scale] RATED.
- 8d [Casual get-together] SESH. Rapidly growing tired of seeing this entry.
- 10d [Ache] DULL PAIN, not FEEL PAIN.
- 20d [The “O” of North Carolina’s OBX] OUTER Banks. I hadn’t encountered this abbrev. before, but it was easily guessable.
- 29d [Law that led to many curb cuts, for short] ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act.
- 35d [Ocean Spray snack] CRAISINS. I made the mistake of assuming it started with CRAN-.
- 37d [Commuter’s way around Philly] SEPTA, the South East Pennsylvania Transit Authority. Unfortunate acronym, too evocative of septic.
- 57d [Partnerless] STAG. Also not part of the theme.
- 4a [Class for a 1L] TORTS. Makes me think again of a couple of themers: 19-across and the clue for 54-across.
- 14a [Star ingredient in Chinese five-spice powder?] ANISE. I like the clue even though it doesn’t work logically. The spice is star anise, the seed pod of an evergreen tree, which is quite different than anise, a flowering plant whose seeds are also of culinary and medicinal interest.
- 52a [Did the dishes] CATERED. Minor misdirection.
- 60a [Was circumspect about] GOT AT. Does this work? As in, “just what’re you getting at?” I guess it’s fine.
- 64a [Square one?] NERD. An individual.
Stella Zawistowski’s Universal crossword, “So Cool”—Jim’s review
Happy Black Friday, everyone! I hope you’ve all recovered from yesterday and are back to your usual puzzle-solving form. Today’s theme answers are familiar phrases that start with slangy words for “cool,” with each slang word coming from a different generation.
Universal crossword solution · “So Cool!” · Stella Zawistowski · Fri., 11.29.24
- 17a. [Cool couple embracing, to a Baby Boomer?] HIP HUGGERS.
- 25a. [Cool placard, to a Gen Xer?] RADICAL SIGN.
- 44a. [Cool tuber, to a Millennial?] SWEET POTATO.
- 56a. [Cool getaway, to a Gen Zer?] FIRE ESCAPE.
Fun theme. I really like the idea of taking from each generation to find slangy phrases. That ensures there’s something for nearly everyone in this puzzle, right?
Not much to nitpick in this grid which makes NITPICKS an extra fun bit of fill. Other highlights: CLIP ART, UPSTAGED, and POWERFUL. NO CAP [“For real”] is a bit of slang that makes it into the fill, not the theme. Various websites say the term originated back in the early 1900s, so maybe there really is something for everyone in this grid.
Clue of note: 4d. [Blowing out air]. EXHALING. Too bad this couldn’t have been clued with a reference to ANGELA Bassett, the very next down entry at 5d, who starred in Waiting to Exhale. I can’t thank of a way to incorporate one into the other without breaking any crossword norms, can you?
Cool puzzle! 3.75 stars.
Maybe the tryptophan in the turkey slowed me down (ha!), but it took me forever to crack the NW of the Times. Even so, the clues wete all fair, if challenging, and the fill first-rate.
I got SANTA FE right off the bat, having lived in New Mexico for two years; I remember wondering “why does Denver get to be the mile-high city when Albuquerque is also over 5000 ft. and Santa Fe is over 7000?” But anyway.
Feeling a bit under the weather so I was in and out on this puzzle, but it seemed quite nice for a Friday. I also was flummoxed by the clue for DAVE but in the end, it was all a good puzzle.
Denver’s elevation is 5,280 feet. Santa Fe is an overachiever.
Spot on!
I went pretty easily through the bottom half or so, and the whole fell in a reasonably normal time. But yes, some good-tricky cluing and a harder NW. It did throw me that the Japanese dish wasn’t familiar, making me wonder if my crossings were mistaken, but nothing unfair.
Good NYT, but quite tough for a Friday— took me about double my usual Friday time. However, the tough ones had enough crossings to fill the gaps, so it was doable, eventually.
NYT: Had a hard time getting started, but then the southern third fell into place fairly quickly and I worked my way back up. The center was tough for me. I don’t really know Beauty and the Beast, and I had MARS instead of TARS at 47-A. Resisted STEW MEAT as long as possible.
Definitely chewier than the usual Friday (for me).
NYT: CUE UP and TEE UP are in close proximity. I know this is not taboo any longer. Maybe it’s even considered a good thing for all I know, being right out there.
UC and others – Are TRI and three cognate? I think about this every time I see TRI clued as three somethings
None of the review links at the top of the page are working.
I’ve fixed it.
NYT: A truly first-rate Friday puzzle, that felt almost like a Saturday in toughness, but didn’t end up taking a very long time. I thoroughly enjoyed the wide variety of answers and the minimum (zero) pop culture.
But I confess that the clue/answer “Sauteéd and simmered Japanese dish” for KINPIRA stuck out like a sore thumb as far more obscure than anything else in this puzzle. (So obscure that maybe only M.H. might get the answer without crossings.)
And the conceit that adding “simmered” would help a lot of solvers is laughable.
It was actually my clue :). I thought the original was worse.
It certainly had your signature attention to detail, especially food detail.
BTW, I don’t think that “simmered” is a conceit to help solvers; it’s the essence of the dish. Kinpira is usually gobo (burdock root), simmered in sake, soy sauce, sugar and chili pepper. It’s named for a folk hero of legendary strength (thus the flavors, unusually piquant for Japanese cuisine) with an equally legendary weakness for sake. Kinpira is the son of the even-more legendary Kintaro.
Thanks for that, Martin. My Japanese daughter-in-law had never heard of kinpira but they call the picture she found “carrots and gobo” when she looked up the word. Her dad uses it in tempura. I don’t know what gobo is but saw you use it.
Gobo is great stuff. It’s a taproot about a yard long, but very skinny. It has a mild but distinctive flavor. Nothing else tastes like gobo.
It’s very woody when raw. You can whittle shavings off like you’re sharpening a pencil; these are used to flavor rice. Or slice it on the bias; that’s how it would be cut for tempura. Kinpira is made with julienne strips, often with some carrot, like your daughter-in-law does, or konnyaku, a gel prepared from an arum corm, like I do. But it takes a lot of sake-simmering to soften it, which is why kinpira was invented.
It is not something one sees regularly (ever?) on a Japanese restaurant menu :D . Thanks for the explanations!
It’s a typical home-made dish, but I’ve seen it many times in restaurants.
WSJ: I got the meta answer in about five minutes, possibly less. That suggests it’s an easy one, at least if you know a few state mottos.
I can’t name a single one, although I see them in crosswords from time to time. I saw a possible tie-in to a state or two in the fill, which had looked unrelated to anything much less each other, but not long before I threw away the otherwise finished puzzle. I don’t know why I even think about them.
Don’t forget that the title is always an important clue.
Well, of course I look to the title in each week’s vain hope. Goodness.
Yes, it blew the “fourth-Friday is a killer” myth. Nice to see a Peter Gordon meta though.
I don’t know if I’ve seen this exact execution but I have seen the mechanism before
Since nobody is expected to memorize all 50 state mottos, I took a look at Wikipedia, and got it right away.
This meta is really easy as long as you know that exact state motto.
In the last 30 or so years, the motto in the meta has been a clue in a NYT crossword at least 15 times. I’m fairly sure that is the only reason I know it.
I too often assume that if I know something esoteric, everyone else does. That’s particularly true if I learned that esoterica from crossword puzzles and I’m writing for a crossword-solving audience.
I’m glad you got the answer. I expect many people will have used Wikipedia or a similar source to get the last step, and I don’t see anything wrong with that.
I moved to Colorado about three months ago. While I know I have seen Colorado’s motto, I only halfway remember what it is.
What a coincidence. I got my first error-free Tough as Nails just now (87) and to my surprise more of Ms Zawistowski when I next did today’s Universal. And a theme. Nice one.
Universal –
Speaking of nitpicking… 20 across – New Zealand may not be part of the US, but it does fit at least one commonly used definition of “state”. ;)