Monday, December 23, 2024

Glenn Cook’s New York Times crossword— Sophia’s write-up

Theme: AFTER MIDNIGHT – the answers to the starred clues can follow the word “midnight”

New York Times, 12 23 2024, By Glenn Cook

• 17a [*Hodgepodge bowlful of munchies] – SNACK MIX (midnight snack)
• 25a [*Buses, trains, subways, etc.] – MASS TRANSIT (midnight mass)
• 48a [*Rodeo footwear] – COWBOY BOOTS (midnight cowboy)
• 58a [*Portrait artist’s medium] – OIL PAINT (midnight oil)
• 34a [CBS late show hosted by Taylor Tomlinson … or where to find the first words of the answers to the starred clues] – AFTER MIDNIGHT

Fun theme and revealer! I’m a big Taylor Tomlinson fan (definitely check out her comedy specials if you haven’t seen them), so AFTER MIDNIGHT was a total gimme for me. I think that the clue as written will help folks unfamiliar with the show, though – “late show” definitely helps point to “midnight” as the second word in the answer.

The theme is a tinyyy bit simple – oftentimes Monday themes involve both pieces of a phrase following a given word, or some other extra layer like that – but given that MIDNIGHT is not used in a ton of different phrases, that didn’t bother me much. I liked that the midnight phrases used “midnight” in different ways: midnight mass and snack refer directly to the time of night, Midnight Cowboy is a proper noun, midnight oil is an idiom. I also liked all the base phrases Glenn picked, since with a simple theme the fill needs to really shine. MASS TRANSIT and COWBOY BOOTS were my favorites here.

As mentioned above, the fill here is pretty strong, although by necessity a lot of it is pretty short – see how AFTER MIDNIGHT’s 13-letter length requires the line of black squares through the middle of the puzzle? BLAST OFF and HALFSIES are fun, and I literally ate a chocolate MOUSSE less than 10 minutes before solving this puzzle so that was apt!

I had a lot of trouble with the first row of across answers – none of ORBS/CBC/CAROMS came to me on a first pass. (After learning Glenn is Canadian from his constructor notes, I especially appreciate the CBC answer). My only other error was for the clue [Unwavering] trying to put in “stable” rather than STEADY, and then realizing “wait, I just used STABLES for [Horses’ homes], that can’t be right”. But after that it was Monday-smooth for me.

Congrats to Glenn on his NYT debut!

Desirée Penner & Jeff Sinnock’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Big Deal”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar(ish) phrases that feature a word that is also a playing card. Phrases are presented vertically with the ACE at the top and the JACK at the bottom. The revealer is HIGHEST CARD WINS (37a, [Tiebreaker rule in poker, represented visually by the starred answers]).

Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Big Deal” · Desirée Penner & Jeff Sinnock · Mon., 12.23.24

• 11d. [*Beat, as the competition] ACE OUT.
• 19d. [*Alaskan crustacean] KING CRAB.
• 29d. [*”You go, girl!”] “YAS, QUEEN!”
• 48d. [*Commandeer, in a way] HIJACK.

I feel like I’m missing something because this just seems like a listing of phrases with cards in them with the added constraint of their placement. I solved this without regard to the theme, so it made no difference to my solve, and it is Monday, so a theme shouldn’t be complicated. But this seems rather light to me. Also, I don’t know that I’ve ever heard anyone use ACE OUT as a phrase.

Oh yeah, there’s an added revealer of POT at 66d [What may be at stake as a result of the ruling at 37-Across]. This feels quite unconnected from the rest of the theme, almost as if it was added in just to boost the number of theme squares. I do like that its counterpart is PAN at 1d.

I quite enjoyed the fill though with ICE SKATERS, ABU DHABI, ON A TANGENT, and STRAY DOGS topping the list. OLD DAYS is okay, but it would be much better as “good old days.”

Three stars.

Zhouqin Burnikel’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Los Angeles Times 12/23/24 by Zhouqin Burnikel

This puzzle surprised me with its difficulty, both because it’s Monday and because it’s Zhouqin Burnikel. Which is not to say it’s a bad puzzle, just that maybe it should have run on a Tuesday? (Not the constructor’s fault!)

Anyway, the revealer, which is in the center of the puzzle at 35A [“We’ve made some progress,” and what one might say about the answer to each starred clue], is IT’S A START. That is, each theme entry is the start of something: a baseball game (Patti bait!), a TV series, a Broadway musical, and an auction:

• 18A [*Ceremonial toss made memorable by Simone Biles at the 2019 World Series] is FIRST PITCH. When I was solving, I thought Simone Biles was kind of a random choice to include in the clue, but then I looked up the pitch in question and oh yeah, she Simone Biles’ed pretty hard doing it and it’s fun to watch. (Also, it took the Astros until 2019 to ask her to do it?)
• 23A [*TV show pilot, typically] is EPISODE I. I wasn’t crazy about this entry because the Roman numeral feels contrived if it’s not relating to, say, Star Wars or some other context in which the actual Roman numeral is used and not “first episode” or the Arabic numeral.
• 49A [*Musical introduction] is OVERTURE. My favorite is Leonard Bernstein’s OVERTURE from Candide.
• 54A [*Auction action] is OPENING BID.

As noted, a little more difficulty than usual for a Monday, much of which I enjoyed. For example, I didn’t know that nepo baby LENI Klum is now modeling (so is supermodel offspring Kaia Gerber, who is basically her mom put through a Xerox machine). I also enjoyed seeing OMBRE and the crossing of ANCHOS and ANCHOR in the top right (look for that similarity to feed into a cryptic clue from me one of these days).

Oh yeah, and a cross-reference at 1A: Would normally hate this, but the fact that the cross-reference is symmetrically placed at 65A? All is forgiven.

Patrick Berry’s New Yorker crossword, “2024 in language”–Amy’s recap

New Yorker crossword solution, 12/23/24 – Berry

It’s the end of the year, so time for the New Yorker’s roundup of 2024. I lucked out and got Berry’s language crossword.

New to me: HOT RODENT, [Term for a male celebrity with a charmingly ratlike appearance]. I have no idea who this describes. On Fleabag, there was a character known only as Bus Rodent (prosthetic teeth on a non-ratty guy), but that’s not the same thing.

Not sure I was familiar with VIBECESSION, [Period of negative public feeling about the economy, despite positive data].

BRAT SUMMER, lime green, with BRAT applied to Kamala Harris as a compliment. The ROMANTASY combo-genre, I learned this year. TOUCH GRASS, I hate ([Exhortation to log off and reconnect with the real world]). I really do. Particularly when someone is snippily aiming it at somebody else as a command.

I do like “LET THEM COOK,” [Instruction not to interrupt people who are on a roll]. Envision a band member playing an amazing solo, say.

It’s fun to learn about newer additions to the language, so I always look forward to a “year in language” crossword. Four stars from me.

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1742 — Eric’s review

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1742 — 12/23/24

Brendan’s offering a super-smooth, not-too-challenging puzzle today. I skipped the first dozen or so clues until I got to 23A [Coffee-Mate parent company] and half-guessed/half-remembered that it was NESTLÉ. The L led to 12D [Crappy digs] HOVEL which was almost enough to get me 18A [“If This Is a Man” author] PRIMO LEVI (a name I recognize, though I don’t think I’ve read anything by him). After that, I plugged along with barely a pause.

Some nice stuff:

• 15A [Hard worker?] AUTOMATON I’m only a little disappointed that my original guess — PORN STAR — didn’t fit.
• 20A [Unbelievable whoppers] TOTAL LIES Looking at the grid now, I want to parse that as TOT ALLIES (those who aren’t preschoolers but who are on the kiddos’ side).
• 24A [Skip Day participants] SENIOR CLASS If I remember correctly, I went to a lake and went swimming that day.
• 40A [Some adult recreational sports groups] BEER LEAGUES For a bit, I had COED rather than BEER.
• 47A [Sound made with the “n” in “nose” and “m” in “mouth”] NASAL STOP It’s stuff like this that makes me wish I knew more about how we make the various speech sounds that we use.
• 3D [Jim Croce song that begins “Like the pine trees lining the winding road”] I GOT A NAME By the time I saw that clue, I had enough letters that I didn’t really need to think about it. It should have been a gimme; Croce was really the first musical artist I started listening to on my own, as opposed to being introduced to his music by one of my four older siblings.
• 9D [Novels based on real-life events] ROMANS À CLEF This was my biggest mistake. I knew the answer but foolishly put the S on CLEF, which put the second A in the wrong square. That made me wonder if there was a Spanish word for 29A [Now, in Nogales] other than AHORA.
• 22D [All-nighter] CRAM SESSION I graduated from law school almost 4o years ago. Yet once a year or so, I have that dream in which you get to the final exam having skipped class all semester.
• 31D [Victorian England establishments with many water pipes] OPIUM DENS When I think about such places, I picture Robert DeNiro’s character “Noodles” Aaronson in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America. It’s a great movie.