Monday, December 2, 2024

Andrea Carla Michaels and Kevin Christian’s New York Times crossword— Sophia’s write-up

Theme: A/E/I/O/U vowel progression with the letters P_SS

New York Times, 12 02 2024, By Andrea Carla Michaels and Kevin Christian

• 16a [Trend that’s here today, gone tomorrow] – PASSING FAD
• 23a [Seeing the glass half-empty] – PESSIMISTIC
• 33a [Beyond irritated] – PISSED OFF
• 47a [Potential option] – POSSIBILITY
• 56a [Tiptoes, as around a touchy subject] – PUSSYFOOTS

The paradox of the vowel progression theme in the New York Times – it’s a pretty standard, even tired, concept… but also because of that, I haven’t actually solved one in the NYT for a while. So in some ways, it actually counts as a change of pace? Anyways, PISSED OFF was my favorite answer, since I enjoy whenever the puzzle gets even a little PG-13. PESSIMISTIC and POSSIBILITY aren’t thrilling answers, but it is the first time either of those words have ever been in an NYT puzzle, so that’s kind of cool.

The puzzle had a lot of clean mid-length fill, albeit a lot of multiword phrases like GAVE OUT, HAS AN IN, THIS IS FUN. Is it still possible to SUPERSIZE at McDonald’s? I thought that ended in the mid 2000’s. There weren’t any crosses that I think will give Monday folks too much trouble – the proper nouns like Lovely RITA, Glenn FREY, NOEL Coward, and TERI Garr (who died last month, RIP) are pretty spaced out from each other.

My personal favorite entries in this puzzle were the “Murder on the ORIENT Express” clue, since I absolutely love that book, and the clever [Heights of fashion?] for HEMLINE. I also liked the X-heavy TREX and VAX, and the seasonally appropriate [Kids make them for Santa] for LISTS. And as Team Fiend’s resident GEN-Zer, I appreciated that one too.

Happy Monday all!

Kathy Lowden’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “How Colorful!”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are idiomatic phrases that describe feelings with color.

Wall St Journal crossword solution · “How Colorful!” · Kathy Lowden · Mon., 12.2.24

• 20a. [Colorfully jealous] GREEN WITH ENVY.
• 37a. [Colorfully healthy] IN THE PINK.
• 43a. [Colorfully angry] SEEING RED.
• 58a. [Colorfully exasperated] BLUE IN THE FACE.

Straightforward theme with fun phrases. I especially like the cluing consistency. I did want them all to be emotions, but “healthy” is an outlier. Also, it’s interesting that we use “blue” to mean sad but also BLUE IN THE FACE to refer to someone who’s talking so much that they’re lacking oxygen.

Fill highlights include JURY TRIAL, UMPTEEN, “NO SWEAT,” and USE AS BAIT. I only know ELIHU Yale from crosswords, so that might be a tough entry for new solvers. (Same with ECLAT.)  NITR is an unsightly entry.

Clues of note:

• 14a. [“Dear me!”]. “ALAS” Hmm. I don’t equate these. The clue is used more in shock (especially since it’s presented with an exclamation mark) where ALAS is used more in resignation.
• 13d. [___ gestae (admissible evidence)]. RES. Tough clue for your Monday morning. Thankfully the crossers made it simple.

Straightforward theme to get the week started. Three stars from me.