Thursday, January 16, 2025

Jamey Smith’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Parts Unknown”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are the beginnings to classic bumper stickers, but the key parts (i.e. the endings) have been cropped out. The revealer is BUMPER CROP (62a, [Uncommon abundance, or an explanation of this puzzle’s four stickers]).

Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Parts Unknown” · Jamey Smith · Thu., 1.16.25

• 17a. [Sticker #1] I’D RATHER BE…
• 26a. [Sticker #2] HONK IF YOU…
• 38a. [Sticker #3] MY OTHER CAR IS A…
• 51a. [Sticker #4] I BRAKE FOR…

It took me some time post-solve to fully grok the theme. For a while I was looking for the endings of the stickers elsewhere in the grid and also wondering what it had to do with crops (rice, corn, OATS, etc.). I eventually settled on my interpretation above, and while I was initially a little dissatisfied with it, it’s grown on me.

Have you ever had one of these bumper stickers on your car? Do you have a favorite? My brother had one that said, “Drive Nimbly, Not Numbly”. I thought that was a good one. [Correction: It was a license plate frame, not a bumper sticker.] Another good one I saw recently is, “My other car is also a car.” And if you like that one, you’ll like:

There’s not a lot of long fill to sink one’s teeth into, but we have SCRAGGLY and SALT-FREE in the corners. I wonder if SCRAGGLY will divide solvers. I think I come down on the side of pro-SCRAGGLY.

Tom SERVO of MST3K

Clues of note:

• 42a. [Mollycoddles]. COSSETS. Both clue and entry are lovely words.
• 43a. [Filly food]. OATS. 59a. [Filly foot]. HOOF. It’s no accident these clues are very similar. I enjoy little finds like this.
• 55a. [Oingo Boingo, for much of its history]. OCTET. No idea they had this many band members. Seems unwieldy.
• 7d. [Robotic mechanism]. SERVO. Poor Tom SERVO of Mystery Science Theater: 3000. When is he going to get some crossword love. 26 hits in the Cruciverb database for this word and no MST3K clues. For that matter, Crow T. Robot has no hits either.
• 36d. [Pitt or Penn, e.g.]. ACTOR. Good misdirection here.

Nice, lively puzzle even though the theme is a bit confusing at first. 3.5 stars.

Ryan Mathiason Fireball Crossword, “Hit or Miss” – Jenni’s write-up

I got all the theme answers and had no idea what was going on. I needed one part of the revealer in order to figure out the other part. Fun puzzle and a very satisfying aha! moment.

The revealer at 10d tells us part of the story. [What is called in 58-Across…and found in four spots in this puzzle] is COORDINATES. I was pretty sure there was a rebus because so much of the puzzle didn’t make sense. I finally figured out what I was looking for with 52a. Each rebus is a combination of letters and numbers, which should have made the answer to 58a obvious. It probably was to smarter people. Here’s Peter’s grid because it’s easier to see than mine.

Fireball, January 15, 2025, Ryan Mathiason, “Hit or Miss,” solution grid

• 1a [Kathy Kane in DC] is B{ATWO}MAN. DC the comics, not the US city. 2d [“If everything goes wrong…”] is {AT WO}RST.
• 22a [Grand opening, maybe] is a SAL{ES EVEN}T crossing 14d [Squares], MAK{ES EVEN}.
• 36a [Intensify] is HEIG{HTEN} crossing 24d [Rob Gronkowski, for one] TIG{HT EN}D. Would have helped if I knew what position Gronk played.
• 52a [Social butterfly’s counterpart] is a {LONE} WOLF. I saw that and realized that 48d [Conflict in a galactic world] was C{LONE} WAR and the penny finally dropped.

58a [Game focusing on letters and numbers] is BATTLESHIP, of course. That explains the title. Fun!

What I didn’t know until I did this puzzle: in addition to where Gronk lined up, I also didn’t know that Sir Patrick Steward played AHAB in a 1998 miniseries. I went looking for a video and found this instead.