Jem Burch’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 12/27/24 – no. 1227
Fun one. I could really do without the ETON COLLAR, which there is scarcely a reason I’d know if not for decades of ___ collar clues for that overused ETON entry. Overall, though, fun fill and clues abound.
Fave fill: Grandma Moses the FOLK ARTIST, ETCH-A-SKETCH with a misleading [Drawer with knobs?] clue, SHORT NOTICE, the king & queen combo of PROM and the ROYAL COURT, STONEHENGE (EMO and GLAM ROCKER helped obscure the not-really-a-rock-group-that-way meaning of this clue), THUNDER GOD (“… one Nation thunder god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”), “I LOVE THAT FOR YOU,” GIVE OR TAKE.
Surprised to encounter 51d. [Put a hex on à la Shakespeare], CURST, with “put” being an obscured past-tense verb. Out of Shakespeare’s 884,000+ words, he used CURST four times? Alrighty then.
Four stars from me.
Gary Larson and Amy Ensz’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up
LAT • 12/27/24 • Larson, Ensz • solution • 20241227
Self-explanatory theme, really.
- 15a. [Casino employee, obviously?] PLAIN DEALER.
- 23a. [Natural pillow stuffing, obviously?] MARKED DOWN.
- 34a. [Actor Jude’s offspring, obviously] PATENT LAW. Offspring?
- 48a. [Honorific, obviously?] CLEAR TITLE.
- 58a. [Convenient excuse, obviously?] STRIKING OUT.
I feel that MARKED in 23-across, as a synonym for ‘obviously’, should be pronounced with two syllables and thus is the only one here that isn’t a strict homophone of the version in the original phrase. However, I’m willing to concede that not everyone might see it that way.
Apologies, but today I have no more to say about anything, including this crossword, which I’m pretty sure is fine.
Drew Schmenner’s Universal crossword, “Tailspins”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar(ish) names and phrases whose ending words are also things that spin.
Universal crossword solution · “Tailspins” · Drew Schmenner · Fri., 12.27.24
- 17a. [The Who bandmate from 1964-’78] KEITH MOON. Didn’t know the name, and we usually say the moon rotates rather than spins, but obviously they have the same meaning.
- 29a. [Guinness Book listing] WORLD RECORD.
- 50a. [Swiftie who knows every lyric, say] HARDCORE FAN.
- 65a. [Sleeveless summer wear] HALTER TOP.
I was really trying to make more of this than was there, probably because the title had me thinking some words would be going backwards or “spun” some other way.
The second thing that threw me off was when I encountered 6d with its clue [Negotiated]. I wanted it to be answered with BROKERED A DEAL which seemed to be coming to fruition when you include DAD at 40a and the E in SEMI at 46d. But then that all fell apart when I filled in the F from 50a.
In the end, I just let the puzzle guide me and spotted the theme afterwards.
Fave fill: “IT ISN’T FAIR!,” OPEN LETTER, and “SCREW IT!” If any section slowed me down, it was the NE with DRUBS, MOODY, and SLAY, but gimmes RENAL and ULTRA helped clear it up quickly enough.
Clue of note: 47d. [French painter Edouard]. MANET. Help me out here. I’m looking for a way to remember which first name goes with which artist. Edouard = MANET, Claude = Monet. Edouard has an A in it for MANET, but it also has an O in it, so that doesn’t really help. Claude has no O in it, so it’s also no help in identifying Monet. Best I can come up with is this: If you get “clawed” by some animal, you might exclaim “Oh!” What do you think?
Solid puzzle. 3.5 stars.
“Famous British rock group” was an inspired clue, bravo to the constructor.
I’ve seen similar clues before. The NYT and the New Yorker have both used clues like [Classic British rock group] or [Famous rock group?] for STONEHENGE. It’s definitely trickier without a question mark.
NYT: Smooth and easy! Enjoyable solve.
“I LOVE THAT FOR YOU”, and the way it’s clued, made the puzzle IMO. I’d love for this expression to fade into oblivion.
ETCH-A-SKETCH was a fun clue too.
For some reason, when I see “texter’s hedge” I always put in IMHO and that made the NW the last to fall for me until I finally took it out and realized it was OTOH. One day I’ll learn…
Easy? I slowed drastically in the STONEHENGE sector. I also had a blank at the end of SALISH until I cracked things further to the SE. I wondered if it might be SALISM, with had me wondering if O____ had then to be Omaha rather than O’HARE. But it all straightened out just fine.
I haven’t been in the Salish Sea for a few days now.
We’re in Seattle for the holidays (fingers crossed that the home network stays healthy) and we took a few days off on Orcas Island in the San Juans. The Strait of Juan de Fuca is part of the Salish Sea, and it’s gorgeous. The ferry ride over from the mainland is always such a treat and the laid-back beauty of Orcas Island was a great way to charge up before the craziness of the holiday cooking schedule.
BTW, Orcas is pronounced “or-kiss,” and has nothing to do with the many resident orcas. It’s a corruption of Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo, an early governor.
I’m off to salt 20 pounds of salmon and black cod.
Jim: isn’t it just as easy to remember their names rather than go through all that mnemonic nonsense?
WSJ: Today’s meta is easy (assuming I got the correct answer, which I’m 99.999% sure I did).
Pretty sure the writers of this blog can solve the meta before finishing the puzzle, lol
late to the party but astonishingly good TNY recap puzzle today, my compliments to the constructor :)
TNY: regarding the reply above mine, where is the review?
Because the New Yorker Friday puzzle is usually a mini, we don’t typically review it.
I had some free time Thursday morning and decided to write up that day’s New Yorker puzzle (which we also would normally have skipped). But I felt like my review was just a list of the theme answers, so I didn’t do the same for Friday’s. (And anyway, I spent several hours driving home.)
But if there’s anything about Natan Last’s fine puzzle that needs explaining, I’m happy to give it a try.