Sam Berriman’s New York Times Crossword — Eric’s review
Sam Berriman’s New York Times Crossword 12/28/24
Congratulations to Sam Berriman for a fairly challenging New York Times debut! It’s an interesting grid, with both 180º rotational symmetry and quasi-symmetry along the NW to SE diagonal. (I originally thought it was diagonally symmetrical, but as Fiend reader Gary R. observed, the black squares on either end of row 8 throw that off.) This creates a dozen slots of 14 or more letters, but also what seems like a high number of three- and four-letter slots.
The long answers range from OK to pretty nice and include many NYT debut answers, which gave the puzzle a fresh feel. But I needed a few crosses for each one, which meant filling in a lot of those short words before I made much progress.
In the long answer category:
- 1A [Fans flip for it] SPORTS PAGE Nice clue, if a bit outdated in a world where a fraction of “newspaper” readers read the dead-tree edition.
- 11A [Deflection technique] WHATABOUTISM I hadn’t come across this particular logical fallacy by name, but it was easy to figure out once I had some letters in place.
- 13A [Iconic accessory worn by 1-Down] DEERSTALKER CAP A gimme once I got 1D.
- 45A [Sesquipedalia] TEN-DOLLAR WORDS This phrase apparently dates to the late 19th century. Let’s say it’s from 1890; $10 in 1890 is equivalent to about $340 today.
- 50A [Some celebrity memorabilia] SIGNED PHOTOS
- 51A [Current from currents] HYDROPOWER
- 1D [Guinness’s second-most-portrayed literary character in film, after Dracula] SHERLOCK HOLMES I should have been able to guess this without needing half or more of the letters.
- 11D [“Sorry, that’s the last one”] WE’RE FRESH OUT
- 12D [One asked “to change his ways,” per a 1988 hit] MAN IN THE MIRROR I was never a big fan of Michael Jackson, but some of his hits were inescapable back then. Still, I have zero memory of this song, even listening to it now.
- 14D [Sources of retirement income] PENSION FUNDS
The unusual grid creates two central groups of mostly short words, one on either side of a diagonal string of nine black squares. The group towards the NW corner didn’t cause me any trouble, but the other one felt like it took as long to fill in as the rest of the grid. 25A [Feature of English, but not Chinese] TENSE was new to me (and I’m curious about how one communicates in a language that lacks tense). Even once I had TENSE, I couldn’t figure out 25D [Gear that’s a homophone of 25-Across] TENTS, mostly because I was thinking of “gear” in the sense of a wheel with teeth, but also because “tense” and “tents” are at best loose homophones to my ear. I also messed up with 37D [One side of a deal] SELLER by putting TELLER.
I’d have had even more trouble with that section of the puzzle if I hadn’t gotten 33D [World’s highest-paid athlete in 2024] RONALDO relatively quickly. I’m not a big sports fan, but I’ve seen enough of the FIFA World Cup to see Cristiano Ronaldo play a few times. I’m frankly a little surprised that Ronaldo was paid more than Lionel Messi, but then Ronaldo now plays for a Saudi Arabian team while Messi plays for Inter Miami.
A few other highlights:
- 4D [Singer in the family?] RAT
- 13D [Label that first signed the Rolling Stones] DECCA A gimme for me; Decca famously auditioned The Beatles in 1962 but rejected the band and instead signed Brian Poole and the Tremoloes.
- 28D [Fringe : British English :: ___ : American English] BANGS I didn’t know this and it contributed to my slowness with that center right section.
Annemarie Brethauer & Katie Hale’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up
Los Angeles Times 12/28/24 by Annemarie Brethauer & Katie Hale
Sorry to say I didn’t care for this puzzle. Here’s what I did like:
- The three rhyming six-letter entries of SIN BIN, HOBNOB, and ZOM-COM (although see note below about ZOM-COM), which made for a fun little Easter egg.
- Learning that MIT is a [Univ. that sends acceptances on Pi Day]. I’m always here for learning a new fact through a clue that doesn’t require looking anything up after the solve is done.
- 53A RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE. Duh. You know how I’m always pointing out baseball entries and clues as bait for Patti Varol? If I were the editor of a major publication’s crossword, you could easily bait me by adding references to the show in your puzzle.
- 59A DEADPOOL is a fun and modern entry that doesn’t feel like I’ve seen it a million times.
- 3D the clue [Lazy answer to “How many stars are in the sky?”] for the otherwise seen-it-a-million-times entry A LOT.
- 5D Enjoyed the entry REAL MATURE.
Ultimately, though, there were a few needle scratches too many for me, whether in the form of crosswordese entries (APSE, ABIE, AMAH, ESTES, OAST) or things that felt green-painty (BOOS AT, SETTLE OLD SCORES, I’M SAFE) for my taste. And although I liked ZOM-COM as an entry, I didn’t love it crossing the unfamiliar NAZCA. Both are totally legit entries, but ones that have some Natick potential crossing each other.
Gary Larson’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Sounds Easy” — pannonica’s write-up
WSJ • 12/28/24 • Sat • “Sounds Easy” • Larson • solution • 20241228
Internal schwa sounds are altered to long e sounds. Spelling is modified as necessary.
- 24a. [DEA agent on the Penn campus?] PHILLY BUSTER (filibuster).
- 46a. [Inventory of snarky observations?] CATTY LIST (catalyst).
- 87a. [Detroit player who’s a snappy dresser?] DANDY LION (dandelion).
- 111a. [Deepfake image?] PHONY GRAPHIC (phonographic).
- 4d. [Like a night owl?] PERKY LATER (percolator).
- 16d. [Necklace worn by an iconic Harrison Ford character?] INDY PENDANT (independent).
- 43d. [Julia-Louis-Dreyfus, with eight acting awards?] EMMY GREAT (emigrate).
- 64d. [Canada, with all of its wide-open spaces?] ROOMY NATION (rumination).
- 77d. [Dinner companion who might gag you with a spoon?] VALLEY DATE (validate).
Perhaps these don’t all work perfectly for you, but they work well enough for me.
Most salient during the solve, and practically eclipsing both the theme and the rest of the fill, were two unusual words: 72d [Following as a result] ENSUANT and 73a [Fishing boat] SEINER.
- 6d [Colleague of Porthos] ATHOS. 95d [Colleague of Porthos] ARAMIS.
- 8d [James’s “Rebel Without a Cause” co-star] SAL. Dean, Mineo.
- 10d [Coffee brand originally made for Christmas] YUBAN. Did not know this and am now curious. Okay, according to this article, the name derives from Yuletide Blend and was developed by one of the preeminent coffee roasters of the time, John Arbuckle.
- 25d [Grassy plain] LLANO, crossed by 29a [Meadows] LEAS.
- 39d [Web designers] SPIDERS. Lack of a question mark makes the clue a bit tougher.
- 55d [Square with soup] SALTINE. Was tricked into thinking about square meals and such.
- 69d [Character with a broken chair] BABY BEAR, from the Goldilocks story. Superficially, this entry seems as if it should be a theme answer.
- 41a [Cheering raucously] AROAR, which only seems to occur in crosswords. An Ngram query shows minimal usage, with a huge spike in 2012, which I can’t pin down to any one source, although it might be Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon. But honestly, probably not.
- 93a [Cutting edge] BLADE. No hyphen signals noun rather than adjective.
- 99a [Deep-fried rice balls] ARANCINI. Etymology: borrowed from Italian, plural of arancino, literally, “little orange,” from arancio “orange” (borrowed from Arabic nāranj, with misdivision of the Italian article un) + -ino, diminutive suffix (going back to Latin -īnus, suffix of appurtenance) — more at ORANGE entry 1, -INE entry 1 (m-w.com)
Matthew Sewell’s Newsday crossword, “Saturday Stumper” — pannonica’s write-up
Newsday • 12/28/24 • Saturday Stumper • Sewell • solution • 20241228
Well this one really kicked my butt. A lot of entries where I had most of the letters and still couldn’t see the correct answer.
- 11a [Marvel villain aka Cleo Nefertiti] ASP. Just an educated guess here, and as my first fill it helped break in to the grid. Off of the S in ASP I was able to get 12d [City about 50 miles (or a city about 100 miles) from Portland] SALEM. This plays on Portlands Oregon and Maine. Without referring to a map, I’ll say that SALEM Oregon is 50 miles from Portland Oregon, while SALEM Massachusetts is 100 miles from Portland, Maine. Then at 16a [News magazine cover figure in ’49 and ’72] MAO—so much of my solve was accompanied by a sense of performing without a net, stringing together wild ‘maybes’ until, often to my surprise, there was an actual lattice with integrity. Anyhow, that upper right corner was soon expanded a littler farther, but then a stall-out.
- My next entrée was the gimme at 41-down [Beatles “Be thankful I don’t take it all” tune] TAXMAN. Unfortunately that didn’t help a whole lot until I finally dredged up James WATT. Even after that it was slow going in this area, and tendrils from other regions were required. For instance, I tentatively had WHOLE for 45d [One with], but I wasn’t WED TO it.
Things that did not help: First -ISH, then -IVE for 52a [It’s like -like] -INE. CEDAR before LARCH (via several crossings) at 46a [Spruce cousin]. 49d [Dante’s summit of Mount Purgatory] EDEN, not ETNA. 37a [Galaxy part] CAM, not CPU (the Samsung device). 1d [Hoe foe] CLOD, not ROOT. 47d [Tools for opening holes] TEES, not AWLS (golf). That’s a lot of dilemmic material in an already-difficult crossword.
- 15a [Quick charge] PRONTO. Really tough clue.
- 17a [They say it ain’t so, formally] OFFICIAL DENIALS. Got the second part easily enough, but completing the -IAL of the first was like pulling teeth.
- 20a [Hand axes?] DISCARDS. Oof.
- 29a [Its university turned 800 in 2022] PADUA. This was a snap, after already staking out the area with 25d/a ENACTS and EPIC, which had relatively straightforward clues.
- 30a [Change positions, incompletely] REORG. Using ‘incompletely’ rather than a qualifier such as ‘briefly’ or ‘for short’ is quite devious.
- 34a [Soon enough] IN A TIMELY MANNER. Ironically, filling this in completely was a piecemeal affair which took a while.
- 40a [Throw out] ISSUE. Just tough cluing.
- 51a [Iconic song on AFI’s 100 list (recorded 1500+ times) named for a ’55 film you’ve likely never heard of] UNCHAINED MELODY. True enough. The film is Unchained. Growing up, I always thought the oldie song title was some technical reference describing the structure of the melody itself.
- 54a [Letter letters more often seen with one more S] SAE. Just a confusing clue until you see the answer. Self-addressed (stamped) envelope.
- 55a [Standing trial] IN BETA. Oof. Made even more difficult by earlier encountering 24d [Key factor in tort law] HARM.
- 57a [Held back] HID. Short entry, but another instance where I felt as if I was taking a huge risk by filling in what turned out to be the correct answer.
- 2d [MGM tech first heard in ’37] HI-FI. Genuinely surprised at the date. Here‘s the relevant information at Wikipedia.
- 4d [Special feature] PRICE CUT, not PRIME CUT. Just a minor hiccup, when I finally had enough crossing letters to (almost) see the answer.
- 5d [Points of view?] SPIRES. Wondering why this clue has a question mark when so many other toughies here don’t.
- 8d [Any of seven words on the UN Member States list] AND. Needlessly obscure.
- 9d [Athlete competing for the Beehive Boot] UTE. Oh maybe this was my first entry, even before ASP. Probably yes.
- Longest down entries: 10d [Royal news source since 1665] LONDON GAZETTE, 18d [Seat of power] CAPTAIN’S CHAIR.
- 23d [Smart devices] PLOYS. Oof.
- 50d [Forest* A *__ (online woods management tool] SYST. Wha? Huh? Okay, fine, whatever.
NYT: I enjoyed the puzzle. Thought there were some nice long entries and some fun cluing. Didn’t realize this was a debut – bravo!
I don’t track my times, but at 12:45, this was a very fast Saturday for me (4:30 faster than Friday’s puzzle). It helped a lot that I was able to come up with SHERLOCK HOLMES and DEERSTALKER CAP with no crosses – in spite of misunderstanding the clue for Holmes at first (thought it was referring to Alec Guinness). HYDROPOWER also went in with no crosses.
PENSION plans before PENSION FUNDS, but MFA and IUD helped fix that pretty quickly. I wasn’t a big fan of MAN IN THE MIRROR, but it was on the radio a lot at the time, so that went in pretty quickly, too. I’m a little surprised the constructor/editor passed on the opportunity to clue BEAT IT with a cross reference.
Eric, I don’t think there’s diagonal symmetry in the grid – don’t the single black squares in the west and east throw that off?
You’re right about the diagonal symmetry, Gary. Those two squares are enough to throw it off. Thanks for catching that!
Funny, this symmetry thing hasn’t been caught on Wordplay or Xwordinfo. Both call it diagonal symmetry. But, no, it isn’t. Technically it’s asymmetrical.
Well, Wordplay says it has diagonal symmetry, which we’ve determined is wrong. But xwordinfo.com correctly describes it as having “normal rotational symmetry.”
Exactly.
So it does! Oops. That’s a tricky grid.
There are certainly strong diagonals, symmetry aside. And I could see someone disliking how it meant all but two separate puzzles, requiring a restart, and it and the stacks mean several three-letter words. And the ratings are mixed. But I was really impressed by the ingenuity of the grid and the fill.
Things caught me and slowed me up. I, too, didn’t know “fringe” (even with BAN_), and that part of the puzzle was harder. With TEN _ WORDS I gambled on “letter.” And I didn’t know RONALDO (whoever that is) or WHAT-ABOUTISM. But such a nice challenge.
NYT: Very cool grid design! Never used to notice such aspects until I started reading the analyses on this site. And nice debut!
I usually struggle with ultra short answers, and I had never heard of WHATABOUTISM… So had to walk away from the North and return at the end. Still it was easier than average for a Saturday. The dual Sherlock entries really helped. And the factoid about RONALDO is mind blowing.
I found the NYT a little more challenging than usual for a Saturday. No idea about MANINTHEMIRROR, but getting it from crosses was not too hard. I had CPA before CFO, but at least that gave me the C of DECCA.
The toughest spot for me was the middle section: KONG was a mystery, as were AUNTs Hilda and Zelda. STOUT isn’t necessarily strong — it’s your double IPAs that have more alcohol. I was reading recently about a surge of enthusiasm for Guinness, which noted that it’s actually a pretty weak beer – less than 5%, if I remember right.
Oh, and TENTS/TENSE is a little off for me too. But a nice puzzle overall.
Your comment about the pronunciation of TENSE and TENTS occurred to me, too.
But on reflection I cannot think of how to pronounce the words so that they sound the least bit different.
For me, TS and S are not quite the same. Small difference, admittedly, and I don’t really object to the clue.
Right you are about Guinness, David. 4.2% ABV and also only 125 calories. I think a lot of folks are surprised by that. I know I was when I learned it. It’s one of the reasons that it’s one of my preferred adult beverages.
I, too, was going to say that stouts aren’t necessarily strong. Indeed, much of the profile of Guinness, by far the most visible stout), was that you could drink it all day (and many did).
Sherlock Holmes wears a deerstalker hat, not a cap.
Not as common, but in use, per Ngrams
FWIW, the wiki article refers to the deerstalker as a cap 27 times and never a hat.
I often rely on a Wikipedia article if it seems authoritative.
Yet it’s hard to evaluate wiw, given that anyone can edit most articles st any time.
Wikipedia is not necessarily authoritative, whatever that means. But for non-controversial topics, it does a pretty good job of attractive editors with domain expertise. Vandals tend to mess up less mundane topics than articles of clothing, and are usually dealt with swiftly.
But a deerstalker fits the definition of a cap. It’s soft cloth, is made of segments to fit the scalp closely and has a brim. Uniquely, it has two brims. Since a cap is a type of hat, calling it a hat is not wrong but neither is calling it a cap.
NYT: An excellent challenge, which I found fair and fresh and tough.
Today’s Spelling Bee: I’ve never seen so many pangrams (so far I’ve found 7) since the game began in 2018.
I found 5 of the pangrams. I have a hard time continuing on once I hit Genius and the point count is >250 or so, like today.
If you were a teenager or greater in the 80s you’d know MAN INTHE MIRROR. I wasn’t a big MJ fan, but this song is typical pop. If your not a fan, you’re not missing anything.
I was in my 20s throughout the 1980s. I listened to a lot of music then, and watched too much MTV when that came around, but I never listened to much Michael Jackson.
I know “Bad,” “Billie Jean,” “Thriller” — but I honestly don’t think I had heard “Man in the Mirror” before last night.
Stumper: “Points of view?” has a question mark because “points of view” is a common phrase that means something else. I feel like that’s really when a question mark is warranted: when the base phrase is well-known in a different context, not when it’s just difficult.
Yes but often the Stumper dispenses with such niceties.
Ha true! How kind of them to give us a question mark :-D
That crazy “Forest* A *___ (online woods management tool)” also showed up in a 2020 Brad Wilber Stumper. I still don’t like it.
As much as I hate to, I finally broke down and looked up Rodin’s “Creation of….” work because my guess of PAris was not letting me move on in that central left sector. That really broke the whole Stumper open. Previous to that, my only other answer in the grid was TAXMAN and the incorrect wane/weed at 1A/1D.
Long time coming ahas were REVUE crossing NAVES and TEUTON for the Goth. I can’t believe, as a resident of the Twin Cities, that ST. PAUL didn’t go in first. Instead, I needed the L.
Nice Stumper, Matthew Sewell!
I got the top two-thirds of the Stumper in a not completely unreasonable time, but then got stuck. I put it aside for a couple of hours, then decided to try CHAIR at the end of CAPTAINS – that gave me LARCH and INCH and BLANCHE and ARCED, which broke open the rest of the puzzle.
BTW — when I click on the Stumper in the Saturday listing on the home page, I get sent to Tuesday’s page, not today’s Stumper.
Stumper: Ugh! pannonica says it all. Right bottom was the worst.
fixed that jump/link issue
Thanks. I must’ve mistyped the date.