Thursday, January 2, 2025

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gus Bloxham’s Fireball Crossword, “Turn It Down!” – Jenni’s write-up

The Fireball kicks of 2025 with a hard one, which made for a fun holiday afternoon. I had to walk away from it and come back even though I’d figured out the trick because the cluing gave even the straightforward fill a high difficulty level. And if our tags are accurate, this is the first of Gus’s puzzles we’ve reviewed on the Fiend. If this is a debut, it’s damned fine one, and I look forward to more!

I needed the title to suss out the theme and the revealer to understand the extent of it, at which point my already high opinion of the puzzle went up a few notches. The part I figured out was that in some sections of the puzzle, the Across answers take a 90º turn and you need to read down to get the whole thing. The part I missed is explained in 66a [What marathoners do around Mile 20…and what every Across answer in this puzzle has done?]: HIT THE WALL. The only answers that don’t take that 90º turn have black squares underneath the last letter. I’ll demonstrate how the NW corner works and then you can figure out the rest; I love you all but I’m not typing out that many answers.

• 1a [Went in with a bang] is MADE AN ENTRANCE with the R marking the turn.
• 15a [Financial planner’s assessment is RISK TOLERANCE which turns at the A.
• 17a [Brightness] is INTELLIGENCE which turns at the N
• 10d [Gospel singer Allen or baseball player Mulliniks] is RANCE.

Each successive Across answer uses a smaller part of the Down after the turn. I’m not explaining this well; I think you can see how it goes. It’s brilliant and it was a lot of fun to solve.

What I didn’t know before I solved this puzzle: that COVENTRY has a naked woman on horseback on its flag. Turns out Lady Godiva rode through COVENTRY. Didn’t know that, either.

Billy Ouska’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Focus!”—Jim’s review

All the letters I in this grid appear above rebussed MEs. The revealer is “ALL EYES ON ME” (61a, “Pay close attention to what I’m doing,” and a phonetic hint to this puzzle’s theme]).

The MEs appear in FROM EAR TO EAR, SIAMESE, SYSTEM ERROR, EMERGES, RAHM EMANUEL, MEETS, and OMEN. The vertical answers are TIME TO GO, SLIMER, PRIMED, IMELDA, DIMES, LIME SODA, and ANIMES.

Now that was a good Thursday challenge! I hope we get to see more of this sort of thing this year. As unexpected as this was to see and with some tricky Thursday cluing, this took me far longer than usual. I was beguiled for most of the solve, almost to the point of frustration. But then I found the revealer, and it was all worth it for the fun aha moment.

The theme is present in all corners of the grid, so there’s not much long fill, but at least we get TEASE OUT, MANACLED, and AMULETS.

Clues of note:

• 23a. [Character who “went a bit too far” at the Copa]. RICO. I saw this was four letters long, so I went with LOLA. Anyone else?
• 58a. [Cash-dispensing devices]. SLOTS. Do you call coins “cash”? I wouldn’t, but I guess technically it’s correct.
• 59d. [Peter or Paul, e.g.]. TSAR. I didn’t know of Paul I, TSAR from 1796-1801 and son of Catherine the Great.

Challenging, but good puzzle. Four stars.

Robert Charlton’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up

Difficulty: Challenging/DNF (19m05s)

Today’s theme: tuff stuph from Steven Wright

• WHY ISN’T THE WORD
• PHONETICALLY
• SPELLED WITH AN F

This is my first DNF in many years.  At around the nineteen minute mark, I decided no amount of additional time would get me EL(PH/F) (Maker of toys for girls and boys) crossing (F/PH)LOX (Flower whose name means “flame” in ancient Greek) crossing TELEX (Early text messager), with LANE clued as (Runner’s assignment) for good measure.  I’ll make myself feel better by believing that corner will trip up a lot of people.

Cracking: MAI TAI, referencing Elvis and Blue Hawaii and evoking everything in my 1950s Polynesian dreams

Slacking: ALER

Sidetracking: NORM Macdonald, king of Weekend Update

Matthew Stock’s LA Times Crossword – Gareth’s summary

Matthew Stock’s puzzle is revealed at something called a MCDOUBLE; I have no idea if it occurs here, but it seems way too fancily named for a normal hamburger with an extra patty? Anyway, three answers have two MCs (and no DJ). The answers felt rather contrived other than CHIMCHIMCHEREE, I’m guessing there aren’t many options. So while a ROMCOM is a thing, and they do usually have a COUPLE, a ROMCOMCOUPLE felt like two things smoshed together; a repeated IMCOMINGIMCOMING also felt a tad weak…

Pair of mystery entries for me:

• [___ bock…] is apparently SHINER.
• [One-time Apple media app], IPHOTO. Took way too long for me to see…

Gareth

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1745 “British Movies” — Eric’s review

This theme was perfect for me. I like movies to the point that I will read about movies I have no intention of seeing. And I know enough about the common language that separates us from our Anglo counterparts that once I spotted the trick, it wasn’t too hard to fill in the theme answers:

• 17A [British version of a 1969 Peter O’Toole?] GOODBYE MR. CRISPS Goodbye, Mr. Chips Today I learned that there are at least three films based on James Hilton’s novella: the 1939 version with Robert Donat, the 1969 version with O’Toole, and a 2002 made-for-TV version that starred Martin Clunes.
• 25A [1992 Robert Redford caper set in England?] TRAINERS Sneakers
• 39A [1960 Jack Lemmon rom-com set in England?] THE FLAT The Apartment Don’t let the black and white photography or the somewhat dated sexual politics deter you; this is a very funny movie from the brilliant director/writer Billy Wilder.
• 52A/62A [1983 Chevy Chase comedy set in England?] NATIONAL LAMPOON’S HOLIDAY National Lampoon’s Vacation

I initially got the wrong idea about Brendan’s theme because Goodbye, Mr. Chips *is* a British movie and it *is* “set in England.” I saw there was an extra space for the “real” title and, knowing Brendan’s propensity for wordplay, plopped down CHIMPS rather than CRISPS. But a few choice letters in TRAINERS let me see that answer, and then I knew we were swapping British words for their American equivalents.

The rest of the grid has a heap of movie references and some other nice stuff:

• 1A [Whispery audio category that gives people tingles] ASMR Someday, I will be able to plug in the initialization for autonomous sensory meridian response without really having to think about it. I’m not quite there yet.
• 14A [Seehorn of “Better Call Saul”] RHEA Great show, great performance.
• 22A [“___ Hot American Summer”] WET
• 31A [1985 comedy with the joke “Flames, on the side of my face, breathing-breathe- heaving breaths”] CLUE I dislike this kind of wordy clue because they get shrunk to a tiny type size that’s hard for me to read.
• 33A [Michael of R.E.M.] STIPE R.E.M. was one of the first “alternative” bands I started listening to, and I still enjoy their old stuff.
• 50A [Fade away] EVANESCE I just like that word.
• 71A [“I rock!”] YAY ME Fittingly, this was the last entry I filled in.
• 5D [Adams of “The Fighter”] AMY I’ll watch her in just about anything.
• 12D “___ Moon” (1973 Ryan and Tatum O’Neal film) PAPER I was 14 when that movie was released and living in Dallas. At the time, Dallas had its own film rating board that decided this PG movie was too racy for anyone under 17. That still annoys me. Fun fact: 10-year-old Tatum O’Neal won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress and remains the youngest winner of an acting Oscar.
• 27D [“___ of Tomorrow” (2014 Tom Cruise movie)] EDGE
• 44D [Two-time Oscar winner Mahershala] ALI He won Best Supporting Actor for Moonlight (2016) and Green Book (2018).
• 52D [Nick of “Lorenzo’s Oil”] NOLTE
• 61D [“___ Wide Shut” (Kubrick’s final movie)] EYES

I could have done without 15A [Massacre site of 1968] MY LAI, but maybe if people who weren’t around during the Vietnam War learn about it, that’s a good thing?

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CJ Tan’s USA Today Crossword, “Best Part” — Emily’s write-up

Wait for it!

Theme: each themer is contained within BEST

Themers:

• 20a. [Unlikely to sugarcoat things], BRUTALLYHONEST
• 38a. [The middle of a bad situation], BELLYOFTHEBEAST
• 54a. [Irrelevant to an argument], BESIDETHEPOINT

An excellent themer set with BRUTALLYHONEST, BELLYOFTHEBEAST, and BESIDETHEPOINT. I needed several crossings for each but truly enjoyed the reveal as they filled in. The shifting theme of the split BEST is delightful.

Favorite fill: BONSAI, FALSEALARM, BLEEP, ROSIE, and PUFFS

Stumpers: XMEN (needed crossings), INSET (also needed crossings), and EXHALE (kept thinking about poses or the instructor)

I fun puzzle with fresh fill, a great theme and themer set, and wonderful lengthy bonus fill. Cluing seemed a bit trickier but everything was fairly crossed and it too a bit longer than usual for me to solve but not by much.

4.5 stars

~Emily