Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Oxen Free” — a themeless challenge to wind down the year. – Erin’s write-up
Jonesin’ solution 12/31/24
Hello lovelies! Please forgive any errors as my 70-pound dog parked herself between my torso and my laptop. She’s still holding a grudge because I bathed her a day ago. Anyway, we’re finishing off the year with a tricky themeless. Here are a few things I learned from this grid:
- 16a. [Misrepresented a public campaign as fully authentic] ASTROTURFED. Astroturfing involves hiding the sponsors of a candidate, policy, etc., to make it look like community mobilization. In otherwords, it’s an artificial grassroots movement.
- 23a. [Like elements past #92 (all unstable and prone to decay into other elements)] TRANSURANIC. All elements in this group are radioactive and were first discovered in the lab.
- 44a. [Butt: var.] KEESTER. I’ve always seen it spelled KEISTER.
- 3d. [Fictional month in a 1977 Dr. Seuss title] OCTEMBER, as in Please Try to Remember the First of Octember! Personally I prefer Febtober.
I hope 2024 has been as kind as possible to you, and best wishes for 2025.
Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Bubble Chamber”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar(ish) words and phrases that have the letters POP in them. The revealer is CHAMPAGNE (54a, [New Year’s Eve libation whose uncorking sound can be found in the starred answers]).
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Bubble Chamber” · Mike Shenk · Tue., 12.31.24
- 18a. [*Long story, of a sort] SOAP OPERA. Apt, given the association between soap and bubbles.
- 20a. [*Hold, as a door] KEEP OPEN. I wanted PROP OPEN which feels more natural.
- 26a. [*Mammal that can fold its nostrils shut when submerged] HIPPOPOTAMUS.
- 42a. [*Deep red spice used in Middle Eastern cuisine] ALEPPO PEPPER. Did not know this one but I’d bet huda does. It hits around 10,000 Scoville units, around the same level as a serrano pepper.
- 49a. [*State of uncontrollable anger] APOPLEXY. Despite its meaning, I find this to be a fun word.
Almost the exact same theme as yesterday, just with a different hidden word and without the wacky clues. Also, there are no circles in the grid (though it would’ve been entirely appropriate if there were). Both puzzles are well made, but neither theme is particularly engaging.
Like KEEP OPEN, TOP PLACE [Coveted position in the standings] is weird. Who says that instead of “first place”? But I liked BLOOPER, RHOMBUS, and DESOTOS.
Clue of note: 56d. [Combo’s job]. GIG. As in a jazz combo.
3.25 stars.
Speaking of jazz, this seems appropriate. Happy New Year!
Elizabeth C. Gorski’s Cr♥ssw♥rd Nation puzzle (Week 709), “A Bit of Eves-dropping! “—Ade’s take
Crossword Nation puzzle solution, Week 709: “A Bit of Eves-dropping!”
Hello there, everybody! We’re just a few days away from turning the calendar to a new year! Here is hoping all of you are doing well.
As a not-so-subtle reminder of 2024 winding down and the ball dropping soon to ring in 2025, we have three theme answers in today’s grid in which the first words, with their letters all contained in bubbles, spell out the date that is New Year’s Eve, 12/31. The fourth theme answer, HAPPY NEW YEAR, acts as the reveal (20D: [Cry after a countdown on the date revealed in the circled letters]).
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- TWELVE O’CLOCK (3D: [Typical lunch hour])
- THIRTY SOMETHING (6D: [Hit 1980s-’90s TV series starring Ken Olin])
- ONE MOMENT PLEASE (9D: [“Kindly hang on …”])
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All my times working at a desk in an office, and I had never heard of AL DESKO before (7D: [Office lingo for “like lunch eaten at one’s work station”])? Ugh! Well, all my al desko meals at the moment while working are all from home, which I’m not complaining about either. Only other word that I was completely stumped on was BEMA, though I do remember seeing a “bimah” (guessing it’s an alternate spelling?) during my religion classes in elementary schools years ago (48A: [Synagogue platform]).
“Sports will make you smarter” moment of the day: SOL (40A: [Scale member]) – There will be a couple of new franchises in the WNBA in the next few years, starting with the debut of the Golden State Valkyries in 2025, so definitely a perfect time to quickly being up a team from the league’s past. The Miami Sol entered the league in 2000, and in 2001, they had their best season in franchise history at 20-12. The coach of the reigning WNBA champions, New York’s (and Australian native) Sandy Brondello, was a former member of the Sol. After their third season in 2022, the Sol franchise folded. Though anything is possible, it’s hard seeing any more teams fold in the league given the explosion in popularity of women’s basketball in America over the past couple of years.
Thank you so much for the time, everybody! Have a wonderful and safe rest of your day and, as always, keep solving!
Take care!
Ade/AOK
Michael Lieberman’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 12/31/24 – no. 1231
Each theme clue lists two things in a category, pointing towards an idiomatic phrase that can describe them. [VOLT, AMP] are a POWER COUPLE. [PUNCH, WALLOP] are a PAIR OF SOCKS. [FINGER, TOE] evoke DOUBLE DIGIT. And [HINT, TIP] are TWO POINTERS (playing on a basketball two-pointer that’s hyphenated). Solid.
Overall, a fairly breezy Tuesday puzzle. Fave fill: SPOOKY, “ADIOS, AMIGO,” “IT’S UP TO YOU,” LORETTA Lynn, COFFEE CAKE, and the CLEAR SKIES we had after a few rainy and foggy days.
Four stars from me.
Olivia Framke’s themed New Yorker crossword: On the fence — pannonica’s write-up
New Yorker • 12/31/24 • On the fence • Framke • solution • 20241231
The original words and phrases of the thematic entries have had -ER replaced by OR, and then they’ve been reparsed as X or Y choices.
- 17a. [Sommelier’s choice between a fortified wine and an inexpensive red?] PORT OR HOUSE (porterhouse).
- 19a. [Stylist’s choice between a tidy appearance and a more casual look?] TUCK OR OUT (tucker out).
- 35a. [Thrill seeker’s choice between a cliff dive and a zip line?] JUMP OR CABLE (jumper cable).
- 51a. [Vacationer’s choice between a country bed-and-breakfast and a downtown hotel?] INN OR CITY (inner city).
- 55a. [Detective’s choice between following a suspect and establishing a stakeout spot?] TRAIL OR PARK (trailer park).
These are pretty good.
Disclosure: I was going to editorialize about inner city, but it’s followed by trailer park and I suspect that anything I might have to say about biases and bigotry would be more reflective of what I’ve consciously or subconsciously internalized over a lifetime of simply existing in a media-saturated society such as ours. These can be neutral terms, and that’s how I’m processing them here.
- The grid starts in the upper left with a stacked trio of fragments: 1a [Untrustworthy, briefly] SUS, 13a [Swim-cycle-run race, for short] TRI, 16a [Believer’s suffix] -IST. I found that very mildly off-putting.
- 9a [Souls on the road] KIAS. 43d [Seoul-based airline] ASIANA. 9d [Blackpink’s genre] KPOP.
- 14a [Smart as a whip and tough as nails] IDIOMS. Breezy misdirection.
- 42a [Smear] DAUB. Not DISS, as I’d first attempted.
- 57a [Not the crushing type, in brief] ARO, aromantic.
- 4d [Stink] ODOR. You know the drill.
- 6d [Acronym for an annual Presidential speech] SOTU. 11d [States] ASSERTS.
- 35d [Departure vehicle for John Denver] JET PLANE, per a famous song he recorded.
- 52d [Quest-giving villagers in World of Warcraft, say: Abbr.] NPCS, non-player characters, which is also an insult used by some people to dismiss others who they consider for usually spurious reasons to be lesser-than.
- 56d [Demon of Japanese folklore] ONI. I know Onibaba primarily from the 1964 film of the same title, but yes ONI is the original type of entity.
And thus we enter a new year.
New Yorker: For people who get grumpy about modern music, movies and games in crosswords, I’d like to say that the crossword was doable without knowing anything about those topics. I did check a couple of items as I went along, but I didn’t have to look up anything directly. The crosses were good, and the puzzle was cute. I like themes!
New Yorker: Thanks, pannonica, for pointing out ONI and referring to Kaneto Shindo’s film Onibaba, which I hadn’t heard of. (I had missed ONI in the puzzle because it had filled in itself.) In 1971, on my first date with my future husband, we went to another film by Shindo, Kuroneko (Black Cat). It wasn’t all that propitious because our second date was 10 years later.
Maybe, but sure not for me. How about SUS and HAMM crossing URSULA and the nature of 30 Rock and 3rd Rock from the Sun? Or NPCS and ONI (and also the call for an informal negative, or which there are many, so you darn well better have crossings) crossing a T-Baby song? Or how about ULTRON and ASIANA crossing a rather indirect reference to the PC slang ARO? Or LENO crossing Zootopia, whatever that is?
Indeed, is there a fair section of the puzzle anywhere at all? I know the word DINGO, but not Dreamtime, and that crosses a reference to a “dual chamber box,” which I guess I’ll have to go elsewhere to understand. Not that I admired the theme entries, only a few of which changed the meaning of the second alternative. Hateful puzzle, start to finish. I recognize it’s the world you live in, so you’ll find it easy, but be realistic.
“pc slang”?
“hateful”?!
your wild choice of words with “pc slang” aside, these are all things that are very widely known in the modern world, in western culture — ultron and zootopia are both movies that netted over 1 billion dollars worldwide! mia hamm is one of the most recognizable soccer figures of all time! and even if you don’t know the t-baby song, that fill-in-the-bank is very inferrable. same for the dog in indigenous australian culture: i feel like there’s a very clear answer there. there’s nothing “hateful” going on within this puzzle… maybe the new yorker crossword isn’t the one for you and you’d get more enjoyment out of other puzzles?
“Hateful” is usually used to mean “full of hate,” but I assume John is using the other meaning: “deserving of hate.” It’s his hate to dispense as he sees fit; it’s strong criticism but not scandalous.
I agree I don’t know what a non-PC alternative to “aro” would be.
UC cross – 6a with 9d at the O in IMHO and a clue containing “opinion.” Not inelegant but interesting
I realize what the constructor meant for the John Denver clue, but it really, really struck me as inappropriate! Wondered if it was meant to be funny? For blank sake, he died in a plane accident!
I too had a vague sense of discomfort, but had forgotten that was the cause of his death.
NYT: Maxie: I had the exact same thought about the John Denver clue when I first read it and filled in the answer. But when I saw pannonica’s write-up, this clue made perfect sense to me (Leaving on a Jet Plane was a huge hit for John Denver), and I am now okay with the clue. (Thanks pannonica, and Happy New Year to you as well) 😎
He wrote the song.
Duh. I know he wrote the song, but it could have been clued with more sensitivity, or with Peter, Paul and Mary instead of Denver.
The clue as written might not have been great, but Denver’s plane crash was probably not in a jet plane. Wiki says it was a 1931 biplane, whatever that is. I don’t know much about pop culture myself, and less about science, but I was familiar enough with the song to deal with the clue. I didn’t even know Denver had passed, though, let alone how.
LAT: though the puzzle wasn’t reviewed here, the constructor did an excellent job in making four two-word downward answers that can all preface “ball”. The theme is “Ball Drop”.
Universal: Good to see David Steinberg as the constructor of the Universal puzzle today. I’m sure he is busy enough with all his editorial work.