LAT 3:49 (Stella)
Newsday 23:07 (pannonica)
NYT 7:44 (Amy)
Universal tk (Matthew)
USA Today tk (Matthew)
WSJ untimed (pannonica)
Luke K. Schreiber’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s write-up
NY Times crossword solution, 12/7/24 – no. 1207
The central Across made me smile. 33a. [Driving competitions amidst everyday traffic] clues ROAD RALLIES. Marty Howard, a crossword friend I met at ACPT who lived in my area, was also super into road rallye competitions. Sadly, Marty passed away this October. He was a great guy and I’ll miss him. (Obit.)
Fave fill: BIT OFF (as in ___ more than you can chew), “DON’T BLAME ME,” NECK RUBS, DIRE STRAITS, LEAD BALLOON, OJIBWA.
Three more things:
- 27a. [Illegal substance, in sports lingo], PED. I never remember what this is short for … oh, performance-enhancing drugs rather than any chemical term.
- 21d. [Gifted orator], SPELLBINDER. I’m not entirely sure I’ve really encountered this word before. It’s in the dictionary. Maybe a little old-fashioned?
- 51d. [Most successful American video game franchise, for short], COD. Call of Duty, I presume. Meh, not for me.
3.5 stars from me.
Rachel Fabi & Lewis Rothlein’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up
Los Angeles Times 12/7/24 by Rachel Fabi & Lewis Rothlein
Satisfyingly hard puzzle with some clever cluing:
- 7A [Subatomic particle in the world’s largest collider] is HADRON. TIL that HADRON is a thing, and not a person’s name.
- 31A [Spy glasses?] is ONE-WAY MIRRORS.
- 33A [Some mats] is quite a tough clue, and makes the ubiquitous SNARLS harder to get than usual.
- 45A [Like no films released to theaters in 2023] is RATED G. Huh, really? Very interesting fact to get into a puzzle!
- 5D [Make the rent?] is clever for TEAR.
- 27D [Ice mass unit] is CARAT. I admit that this one definitely had me fooled into thinking “ice” was being used in its literal sense rather than its slang-term-for-diamonds sense here, so I got it from crossings and realized how good the clue is only after the fact.
- 44D [Plot with a shameless beginning] is EDEN. Heh. Get it? Adam and Eve had no shame before they ate from the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of EDEN.
David Alfred Bywaters’ Wall Street Journal crossword, “Persistent Problems” — pannonica’s write-up
WSJ • 12/7/24 • Sat • “Persistent Problems” • Bywaters • solution • 20241207
While I was solving the crossword it looked as if the theme idea was simply repeated sequences of letters, but now seeing the ‘problems’ of the title has me thinking there might be something more. I hope there is.
- 23a. [“I should’ve won! I was robbed! It’s all rigged” and the like?] ENTRANT RANT (rant).
- 25a. [Dispensary warning?] POTENT POT (pot).
- 43a. [Making goofy faces?] SILENTLY SILLY (sil?).
Oh wait, I see! It’s the ENT part that’s crucial. When it persists, it interrupts a repeated sequence. So 23-across is ENT~RANTRANT, 25a is POT~ENT~POT, and 43a is SIL~ENT~LYSILLY.
- 59a. [Pole for a vole?] RODENT ROD (rod/ent).
- 75a. [Dog crate occupant?] PENT-UP PUP (pup/ent).
- 92a. [Cake asset?] ENTICING ICING (icing/ent).
- 113a. [Physique feature of a couch potato?] ABSENT ABS (abs/ent).
- 115a. [Creation of a carpenter’s apprentice?] STUDENT STUD (stud/ent).
It’s a weird little theme, if you ask me.
- 1d [Give a talk] SPEAK. 30a [Give a talk] ORATE.
- 6d [Rabelais, for one] SATIRIST. Just last week I pulled out my copy of Gargantua and Pantagruel from storage and out it on the bookshelf. But I have far too many other things to read first (if at all) in this lifetime.
- 33d [Irrational] ABSURD. 42d [Rational] SANE.
- 77d [Gramps’s son] PAPA.
- 83d [Tubular noodles] PENNE. 110d [Tubular tooter] OBOE.
- 101d [Setting for a setting] TABLE. One of the few clues that I needed two beats instead of one to drop in the answer. Things were that fluid throughout.
- 1a [Handbag holder] STRAP. A couple of weeks ago I needed to replace the strap on my aging handbag, so the best solution I could think of was to contact a bridle and saddlery place. They’re working on it now.
- 20a [Judge with a bat] AARON. I know it’s baseball but it sounds biblical as well. 70d [Prayer conclusion] AMEN.
- 27a [Dinosaur nemesis, perhaps] ASTEROID. Wondering what the qualifier is indicating here. The asteroid cause of mass dinosaur extinction is no longer mere theory. So I’m compelled to interpret the clue as meaning that not all dinosaurs perished due to ramifications from the asteroid’s impact. Exhibit A: Aves.
- 52a [Where the wild things are] ZOOS. Ugh.
- 57a [Significant cold spell] ICE AGE.
- 85a [Put up with] BEAR. 99d [Put up with] ABIDED. Hidden tense change!
- 95a [Infomercial exhortation] ACT FAST, not ACT SOON.
- 104a [Det.’s title] INSP. Detective, inspector.
Kate Chin Park’s Newsday crossword, Saturday Stumper — pannonica’s write-up
Newsday • 12/7/24 • Saturday Stumper • Park • solution • 20241207
Solving sequence: bits and pieces throughout, then magically the entire left half was complete, then most of the right half, with the middle flank the last to go.
- 8d [Literary lion] ASLAN. Got this off the bat, which helped. Gave me the final L for 17a [What begins a summary judgment?] and ALL IN ALL just leapt at me. Unfortunately, I opted for TRA rather than SHA at 6d [Certain song syllable], so that held things up for a while. Once that was straightened out, the –H_S sold me on PIRANHAS for 15a [They’ve inherited strong jaws].
- 18a [Back up] ARISEN. As in “they’re back up again” as opposed to lending support.
- 19a [Immovable] STONE. But I cycled through STERN, STOIC, and STONY first.
- 20a [Weapon in commercial warfare] TASTE TEST. Got this with only a T and one other letter in place. Yesss.
- 22a [Revolution’s final phase, in brief] DECember. You’d think I would have been primed to get this more easily, nuh-uh. 61a [Much-anticipated global decline?] BALL DROP. Oof, good clue.
- 29a [Infantile complaint] WAH. Got right away, confirmed with 21d [Follow a pattern] SEW.
- 30a [Comfort zone] SPA. Symmetrically paired with 44a [Comfort zone] DEN.
- 36a [Supervisor of clerical work] BISHOP. When I saw this early in the solve, my mind went to DEACON and ABBESS as potential answers.
- 38a [Solving skill] LATERAL THINKING. Got this with only a few crossings, but needed to overcome an incorrect letter because I’d experimentally put in an -ED ending for 10d [Neared depletion] WORE THIN. But when I did get this grid-spanning entry, it was of course helpful to the solve. The last remaining impediments were correcting 47a [House inspired by a castle] from MANSION to WINDSOR, which took quite a lot of doing. I’d ‘confirmed’ the former with 40d [Equivocate] HEM, which eventually turned out to be its partner HAW. Also a little earlier I needed to correct 48d [Caught stealing] from NABBED to NAILED.
- 41a [Among the earliest record labels] EDISON. Can’t recall if I got this with one crossing or none.
- 60a [Runs off] PRINTS. Seeing this one with only a crossing or two was also very helpful.
- 63a [Catch phrase] I GOT IT. Put this in, took it out, put it in again after correcting some crossing entries.
- 64a [Where alpine climate begins] TREELINE. Easy.
- 65a [Performance review] NOTICE. Hmm?
- 3d [Folkie from Charlotte] ARLO. Would not have guessed this. Would have thought either midwest or Brooklyn.
- 4d [Insurance for fair play] RAIN DATES. Cute.
- 9d [Reflection of a skeptic] THAT’S A BIG IF. Nice entry.
- 14d [Base pay?] RENT. Tough-ish. 35d [How many on US Navy ships take their pay] ATMS.
- 23d [Documentary procedure] CUT-AND-PASTE. It’s just about a document, not an actual documentary. Lack of a question mark made this more challenging for sure.
- 31d [Anime goldfish voiced by Miley’s sister] PONYO. Completely unknown to me. § Oh, ok the poster looks a bit familiar.
- 32d [Obstetric eponym] APGAR. If I hadn’t had so many other obstacles in this section I certainly would have gotten this answer sooner, and solved the whole thing much faster.
- 37d [Beat it] SKEDADDLE. But the errant MANSION had me thinking of some sort of SADDLE.
- 46d [Tom Sawyer’s roommate] SID, not NED.
- 50d [They’re outstanding] DEBTS. Easy.
- 53d [Conjunction favored by Buckminster Fuller] ERGO. Okay …
- 55d [Name on sweet potato pie boxes] SARA. Must be Sara Lee.
- 57d [New Looney Tune __ Go Bugs] ERIN. Haven’t even heard of it, much less seen it. Oh! I see that New Looney Tunes is actually the title of a series.
- 58d [Unbeatable] A-ONE. Had the –ONE in place for a while, but considering that this is the Stumper, so many letters could have ‘worked’: done, gone, lone, none.
- 59d [Blazed] SPED, as in blazing speed. 62d [Blazed] LED, as in blazing a trail.
And that’s a wrap.
NYT was four mini-puzzles and a little larger fifth section. The four corners all went the same way. A first pass had an entry or two entered and another two or three I felt pretty good about but didn’t enter. Then a flurry to complete the section. The center was pretty wide open. I dropped in 17d and 25d right away. Also the INGs of 36a and 29d. I correctly suspected 28d and 42a but held back way too log. I finally remembered 24d which led to 34a and the it was done.
I liked the nice number of long answers in the center. They felt fresh. I recalled SPELLBINDER after a fair number of crossings. I was probably heard it in some history class talking about Daniel Webster or some other 18th century senator. I do wish it had put up a little more fight. Probably a great Friday puzzle.
NYT: One the easy side. The structure made the solving experience feel a bit fragmented. But there were some cool long entries. LEAD BALLOON going down the middle is great, and MISDEED on top of DONTBLAMEME was really good.
Had some stumbles — e.g. LEOTARD before UNITARD delayed me, SPELLBINDER took a bunch of crosses, and had no idea about COD.
Long day today, and another trip awaits tomorrow. A NECKRUB might be in order…
Similar experience here. As well as LEOTARD before UNITARD, I had BACKRUBS before NECKRUBS and ODES before AYES. The NW was toughest. TITLED at 3D set me straight.
ROADRALLIES surprised me. It made me think of illegal competitions among teenagers and other youngsters on city and suburban roads in the middle of the night. Such things were a menace in and around DC when I lived there. I guess some other activity is implied here, but I don’t know what it is.
Same here on LEOTARD before UNITARD. Had already gotten LEAD BALLOON, so avoided the NECK RUB/BACK RUB issue.
Wasn’t entirely happy with MOTOR OIL – it doesn’t really “grease the wheels.” And I wonder how many trucks these days have a CB RADIO?
Went back and forth a couple of times between TOM and JIM and between GALA and FUJI.
Overall, a nice puzzle.
The five separate sections elevated it to a Saturday level for me, and I did run into trouble in the SE with FUJI and COD. A really nice challenge, though.
I liked a lot of it, and had the same LEOTARD / UNITARD issue. The long downs were quite good. That said, I really chafed at THE USA. Who says that? The United States, and USA, sure… but does anyone actually say “The USA”? It reminded me of my Chicago friends explaining that Lake Shore Drive is either “The Drive” or “LSD” but never “The LSD”. I was a bit flabbergasted.
Stumper was haaaaard. Several sections were blank for a long time until one entry clicked and it fell, until the next empty section. TWO CAR was the last thing to go in, and it was impossible for me to see. I had TWO_A_ for the longest time and just could not make it work. DAD? MAN?? CAT??? CASE for “Patient” is just brutally hard. But that’s why we do the Stumper!
PS. ARISEN for “Back up” is amazing. Another brutal Stumper clue. I was so proud when I got that one.
Agree! That upper right was the last section and “two car” was the last in that section.
NYT: same here for leotard and also tried oneida for ojibwa and jim for tom. Glad I don’t use pen :D … but overall those were easy to correct and the puzzle was easier than some Saturdays. I did like the 4-puzzles grid, the connections with the long answers made it less strenuous. I enjoyed “lead balloon” and it was a gimme. Spellbinder? I’ve heard of books/movies etc. being spellbindING, but not used as a noun to describe a speaker.
Oh, I also wanted DND once I had the d (Dungeons and Dragons) for the video game, but I’m not a gamer and that’s the one I’d heard of.
In the Stumper,“Folkie from Charlotte,” ARLO is embedded in ChARLOtte. I saw that hours after I solved the puzzle.
Arlo Guthrie was indeed born in Brooklyn.
ouch.
I hate those, even if I get them.
Pardon my chiming in late…
RE: 23d [Documentary procedure]: It could refer to a generic document, as pannonica suggests, but I wonder if CUT AND PASTE might have been intended as a reference to scrapbooking, i.e., documenting something that is personally meaningful in book form. That’s how I perceived it anyway.
WSJ-
I like puzzles with word changes based on letter insertions but I wanted ENT dignified by a revealer at the bottom–perhaps something to do with sinusitis or earaches.
My guess is that the title is meant to be the revealer — as in persist-ent problems, because each “theme” entry has an ent that creates a stupid meaningless phrase or a problem. Maybe I’m reading it wrong, but I am very unimpressed.
+1 and I agree with your full assessment.
NYT: A thoroughly enjoyable solve, with almost zero pop trivia and a lovely 50-letter tilted square smack dab in the middle. The form of the diagram caused this to feel like solving five smaller puzzles.
Favorite clue: “Stressed half the time” for IAMBIC.
And one of the very rare occasions that my solving time was less than twice Amy’s (just barely).
Feels weird to be the first to say this, but LATERAL THINKING may be my favorite Stumper answer ever. It’s quite meta (small m), isn’t it?
I connected with this one early and had little trouble throughout. Certainly helped that CHARISMA was my first guess.
If you’re interested, I and a few other regular commenters on the NYT Wordplay column are running a Puzzle of the Year poll over there. It’s limited to NYT puzzles.
All the details and information about nominating puzzles for the poll can be found here:
https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/43m7km?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share
You don’t have to submit nominations to participate in the poll. If you’d rather just wait until voting opens in January, that’s fine.
Univ: Certainly didn’t expect to see Spiders Georg or Saitama in a puzzle. Interesting. With 34A perhaps I can see the reason why.
Stumper: Question — how is Windsor “inspired by a castle” when it began as a castle?? Yes, it is the home of the royal family, but it was originally built as a castle. Am I missing something here?
The current royal family was the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha until 1917. George V changed it to the House of Windsor because Germany was now the enemy. He was indeed inspired by Windsor Castle, named for its location.
Ah! Thanks! I would NEVER have thought of that!