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

• 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.

• 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.

Janice Luttrell’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

This puzzle went by so fast that I didn’t notice the theme at all while solving. The revealer at 52A [“In all honesty, … ” and what the starts of 20-, 27-, and 44-Across might say?] is LET ME BE FRANK, because each of the theme answers starts with a word that means FRANK, in its “honest” sense:

• 20A [Classic Allen Funt series with practical jokes] is CANDID CAMERA, which feels musty in that the show hasn’t been on the air regularly since the 1970s, and yet feels like something Gen Xers at least might know about, if maybe not Millennials and younger.
• 27A [Shortest ways to travel] is DIRECT ROUTES.
• 44A [Like detectives sporting civvies] is PLAINCLOTHES.

I didn’t love the theme answers themselves, which felt not so evocative, but I did enjoy a lot of the surrounding fill. The fact that all the themers and the revealer are 12s leads to an unusual grid layout with 9s going across — NAIL-BITER was a favorite. ROMANCE and TINDER were my favorites among the Downs.

Zachary David Levy’s Universal crossword, “Is Everything All Right?” — pannonica’s write-up

• 57a^R [Question when checking on a friend … or a hint to two pairs of letters in 17-, 30- or 43-Across] ARE YOU OKAY (RU OK).
• 17a. [Mixed drink that is essentially a Cuba libre] RUM AND COKE.
• 30a. [Mark made on a canvas] BRUSHSTROKE.
• 43a. [Going off the rails] RUNNING AMOK.

I like this theme. It’s elegant, and all the relevant answers are very strong.

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• 11d [“Relax, I’m kidding!”] IT’S A JOKE. There’s an OK in there, no lie.
• 12d [Refrigerator feature] ICE MAKER. 6d [Sierra or Yukon maker] GMC.
• 25d [Not just my] OUR. I took a wrong spin here and confidently put in THE. Until I looked at the first crossing and quickly corrected.
• 30d [Hon] BAE.
  
• 34d [Dark blue] CERULEAN. Cerulean comes from Latin caeruleus, which means ‘dark blue’ and is most likely from caelum, ‘sky’ (mw.com)
• 36d [Age of the Marquis de Lafayette when he became a major general] NINETEEN. This seems like a bit of trivia that the constructor was just itching to share.
• 14a [Smell of hot cider, say] AROMA. ’Tis the season.
• 21a [Skedaddles] SCRAMS, not SCOOTS.
• 63a [Sequence of musical notes] SCALE. Interpreted another way, I think the clue could mean a melody? Help me out here, musically literate people. Either way, the clue is of course fine.
• 64a [Big Apple address letters] NY NY. 48d [Enthusiastic agreement] YES YES. 20a [Giggly outburst] TEE HEE.

Patrick Berry’s New Yorker crossword — Eric’s review

This felt like the kind of puzzle that drew me to The New Yorker in the first place: A nice challenge, but nothing that I couldn’t figure out with a few crosses.

My initial pass through the clues was unproductive; I got to 19A [Monument Valley sight] MESA before I reached something I could answer easily. (Monument Valley is worth a visit if you’re in the Four Corners area.) 25A [Hundred-eyed creature of Greek myth] ARGUS was next, though I misspelled it with an O until 13D [Satirized] SENT UP set me straight.

There were a few answers that I should have gotten more easily than I did:

• 31A [Outside the studio] ON LOCATION
• 41A [Working stiff] PEON
• 21D [Fin-footed mammal] SEA LION

Some clue/answer pairs I enjoyed:

• 12A [Fifties and sixties sitcom about an Appalachian family that relocates to California] THE REAL MCCOYS I wonder how many solvers tried to cram The Beverly Hillbillies in there. By the time I saw that clue, I already had most of MCCOYS in the grid, and though I don’t think I ever saw that show, the title is familiar.
• 14A [“Am I right?”] WOULDN’T YOU AGREE?
• 27A [Almost out] HALF-ASLEEP Experience has taught me that’s not a good way to solve crosswords.
• 42A [Back in the pool?] BET ON I thought first of swimming.
• 50A [Inscription hidden twice on Washington, D.C.,’s World War II Memorial] KILROY WAS HERE I was a devoted reader of Mad magazine in my childhood and I’m fairly sure that’s where I picked up that phrase. I saw the WWII Memorial about 15 years ago, but I didn’t see that inscription.

 

 

 

 

• 10D [Ready to drop] DOG-TIRED That pairs nicely with HALF-ASLEEP.
• 35D [Barnard : Alcott :: Bell : ___] BRONTË Louisa May Alcott used the pen name A. M. Barnard; Anne Brontë used Acton Bell.
• 36D [Staple of  New Wave] SYNTH To me, a lot of 1980s pop music hasn’t aged all that well, in large part because of the reliance on synthesizers.

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1736: Themeless — Eric’s review

A moderately challenging Monday, especially on the right side of the grid. There’s a plethora of names, most of which I knew outright or got with a few strategic crosses:

• 1A [Eight-time Ballon d’Or winner] MESSI To the extent that I pay any attention to sports, I follow soccer the most. PELÉ and RONALDO didn’t fit, so MESSI was a logical choice.
• 13A [Illinois River city] PEORIA Will this puzzle play there?/8D [“Family City USA”] OREM UTAH The inclusion of the state slowed me down.
• 14A [“Brazil” director] Terry GILLIAM Brazil is one of my favorite movies.
• 26A [“Her” Oscar winner] Spike JONZE, who won for Best Original Screenplay.
• 33A [1998 animated movie whose main character battles termites] ANTZ I remember absolutely nothing of that movie’s plot, but again, a little familiarity and logic made this easy for me.
• 34A [“Mary Poppins” author] P. L. TRAVERS I completely blanked on this until I had some crosses.
• 39A [1970 John Wayne film set during the Civil War] RIO LOBO
• 43A [Chicago singer Peter] CETERA
• 44A [“Leda and the Swan” poet] William Butler YEATS Even with a few crosses, it still could have been John KEATS.
• 2D [González in 2000 headlines] ELIÁN  Tough if you weren’t around then: Six-year-old Elián was a Cuban refugee with his mother and her partner; she drowned during the crossing and Elián was rescued by fishermen. A high-profile custody battle ensued between Elián’s relatives in Miami and his father in Cuba. After an Immigration and Naturalization Service raid, Elián was returned to his father’s custody. Fun fact: In 2023, Elián was elected to Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• 4d [“Only Murders In the Building” star] SELENA GOMEZ I’ve not seen that show, but I’ve heard good things about it.
• 23D [Villain who says “I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.”] DARTH VADER The Star Wars character is number three on the American Film Institute’s list of the 50 Greatest Villains.
• 27D [Her Secret Service code name is “Pioneer”] Kamala HARRIS I wonder if former vice-presidents are entitled to Secret Service protection; Wikipedia suggests they aren’t.
• 30D [“The Rope Dancer Accompanies Herself With Her Shadows” painter] MAN RAY, née Emmanuel Radnitzky I know the name but little of his work.

 

 

 

 

 

A few other things of note:

• 36A [___ payments (contactless transactions] NFC The initialism — for “near-field communication” — is new to me; I can never get those payment terminals to work.
• 32D [2024 election issue] PRICES and 37D [2024 election issue] JOBS and HARRIS all crossing 37a [“Think about it!”] JUST IMAGINE. Indeed. I originally had JUST A MINUTE there and was annoyed that the clue was off.

Overall, a nice puzzle.