Thursday, January 16, 2025

LAT 4:26 (Gareth) 

 


NYT 12:30 (ZDL) 

 


Universal tk (Sophia) 

 


USA Today 10:48 (Emily) 

 


BEQ untimed (Eric) 

 


Fireball untimed (Jenni) 

 


WSJ 7:22 (Jim) 

 


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.

Rebecca Goldstein and Adam Wagner’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up

Difficulty: Challenging (12m30s)

Rebecca Goldstein and Adam Wagner’s New York Times crossword, 1/16/25, 0116

Today’s theme: COMMON CORE (Set of educational standards … or a hint to 17-, 23-, 34- and 46-Across)

  • (M)OBSCENES(T)
  • (E)DNA MODE(L)
  • (C)LOSE HOP(E)
  • (A)PRES SKI(T)

Got the theme pretty quickly, courtesy of EDNA MODE(L), but took ages to fill in the lower section of the puzzle, and 12+ minutes in particularly slow given this is an undersized (14×15) grid.  Kept looking for the endcap letters to spell something (like ENDCAP maybe?) but that’s probably asking too much, and the puzzle already stands on its own.

Cracking: LAST LEGS

Slacking: not much to complain about… NOTATED would probably take the cake (Covered in marginalia, maybe)

Sidetracking: WHIPLASH

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1749 “AI Slop” — Eric’s review

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1749 “AI Slop” — 1/16/25

The sans serif font Brendan uses for his puzzle titles had me briefly wondering if today’s theme involved somebody name AL. The video Brendan embedded (about creepy AI images) resolved that initial ambiguity. Still, I had the puzzle three-fourths solved before I saw that all that’s going on here is that Brendan has added the letters “AI” to common phrases to create wacky new ones:

  • 17A [Make ice cream?] FREEZE DAIRY Freeze-dry
  • 26A [Parisian pixies?] FRENCH FAIRIES French fries As a gay man, I always cringe a bit at the word “fairy,” even when (as here), it’s not being used to refer to a homosexual.
  • 42A [Part of a pogo stick no longer working?] SPRING FAILING Spring fling
  • 56A [Peninsula that’s not the easiest place to live?] DEADLY SINAI Deadly sin

It’s a solid theme of a type we’ve seen many times before. Brendan labeled the puzzle “Medium” difficulty; I found it to be on the easy side, with relatively few proper nouns.

The grid provides for a few longer Down answers of interest:

  • 5D [Gerrymanders] REZONES After almost 30 years of watching up close as the Texas Legislature redrew legislative and congressional districts multiple times to benefit the party in power, I found this clue a little off. REZONES suggests the zoning power that city governments exercise.
  • 11D [1980 movie set in the Overlook Hotel] THE SHINING Even if you’ve never seen this one, you’re probably familiar with Jack Nicholson’s head coming through the axe-hole in the door.
  • 26D [Solved, as a puzzle] FIGURED OUT
  • 41D [Cleaner with an evergreen scent] PINE-SOL Our most recent house guest was amused that we use pine cleaner on our floors; the scent reminds her of cleaning latrines at Girl Scout camp.

Other stuff that grabbed my attention:

  • 6A [Split personality?] CROAT I don’t know if this clue is orginal, but it’s a good bit of misdirection.
  • 36A [Ship that carried the Golden Fleece] ARGO My first answer.
  • 38A [Italian home of the Arena Garibaldi stadium] PISA I didn’t know that trivia before solving and I probably won’t retain it.
  • 45A [Cooking staple acronym] EVOO “Extra-virgin olive oil.” Celebrity chef Rachael Ray generally gets credit for that acronym.
  • 64A [More chill] LAXER Not a word I’ve ever used.
  • 1D [Group of friends you wouldn’t dare ghost, for short] BFFS I initially resisted that answer. You can only have one “best friend.”
  • 51D [Company that made America’s first exported car] OLDS I hadn’t known that bit of trivia, either, and may actually retain it. Oldsmobile was one of the iconic American auto brands when I was growing up; it’s hard to believe that General Motors discontinued the brand over 20 years ago.

Margi Stevenson’s USA Today Crossword, “Stick Down” — Emily’s write-up

Would you prefer a carrot?

Completed USA Today crossword for Thursday January 16, 2025

USA Today, January 16, 2025, “Stick Down” by Margi Stevenson

Theme: the final word of each down themer can prepend —STICK to form a new item

Themers:

  • 3d. [Pull-apart breakfast pastry], MONKEYBREAD
  • 17d. [Newborn baby], BUNDLEOFJOY
  • 24. [Make various wardrobe conbinations], MIXANDMATCH

What a themer set! Starting off with MONKEYBREAD, welcoming a BUNDLEOFJOY, and ending with MIXANDMATCH. With the theme, we get BREAD STICK, JOY STICK, and MATCH STICK. Each also descends further down the grid with each successive themer, from right to left.

Favorite fill: EMBOSS, SASHAY, and YARN

Stumpers: SKYE (new to me), TERRACE (needed crossings—haven’t used this word in a while), and MALARKEY (also needed crossings—haven’t used this word in a while)

A trickier puzzle for me today. I found the cluing a bit challenging and even with crossings, there were a couple of areas that took me longer to fill in today, particularly the SW corner. Still an enjoyable solve with great fill. How did you all do?

4.0 stars

~Emily

Pravan Chakravarthy’s LA Times crossword – Gareth’s summary

As a concept, I thought Mr. Chakravarthy’s puzzle theme was quirky, fun a very creative. It consists of four long across answers that are jobs that deal, respectively, with “peas”, “cues”, “P’S & Q’s” and “keys and pews”. So a [Professional who minds their peas] is a VEGETABLEFARMER; A [Professional who minds their cues] is a BILLIARDPLAYER; a [Professional who minds their P’S and Q’s] is a ETIQUETTECOACH and a CHURCHCUSTODIAN is a [Professional who minds their keys and pews]. A motley crew for sure!

Gareth

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26 Responses to Thursday, January 16, 2025

  1. Dan says:

    NYT: I liked this Thursday puzzle plenty!

    Because not only was the theme interesting — common words or phrases with a big overlap — but it actually played a role in the solve. (Which in my opinion all themes ought to do.)

    But also the clues were more challenging than … some tricky themes seem to be correlated with, I suppose to moderate the difficulty.

    But other than that the very interesting theme was pretty easy to suss out (so its fun was limited to figuring how it would play out in each case), this was a terrific Thursday puzzle.

    • huda says:

      Agreed!
      And I like EDNA MODE and DNA MODEL. They work well together!

    • Dallas says:

      Agreed; really nice Thursday. Ended up faster than average though I did struggle with the NE and SE last. At first I thought it was just parts of the words (MOBS and OBSCENEST; EDNA MODE and MODEL) but on the third I realized it was everything but the end letters… very nice. I had also put POP before RIP for a noise you wouldn’t want to hear bending over… I guess I’m showing my age ;-)

    • Gary R says:

      I enjoyed the puzzle, too. In the end, it took me longer than a typical Thursday because I was hung up for way too long in the NW – my last part filled.

      I’m aware of gaming PCS, but it took forever for me to come up with it. Started with RIP at 13-A, but I wanted MAYFLY for 2-D, so I spent some time trying to come up with something like @Dallas’s POP for 13-A. Also thought, this being a crossword, that [Letters put in boxes] had to be FILL.

      Didn’t help that EDNA MODE was totally unknown (not unusual for me with movie clues). PRIMER (in a makeup context) was new for me, too.

      Can anyone explain 56-A, PRE for [What follows T.S.A., weirdly]? I assume it’s referring to T.S.A. Pre-check at the airport – but what’s weird about it? Just that PRE “follows” something else?

      • DougC says:

        I think it’s just that PRE usually preceeds whatever word it’s paired with, rather than following anything. As you say, the name of the program is TSA PreCheck, so “PRE” actually preceeds “check”, but it’s stylized as TSA Pre [followed by a checkmark] so I guess some people shorten it to just “TSA Pre”? Maybe? One of the weaker clues in this puzzle, IMO.

        • Dallas says:

          Yes, in the airport you’ll see signs for TSA Pre; I think it even shows up that way on the tickets. I think what’s weird is that “Pre” comes *after* instead of *before*, as it’s the prefix “pre”. A bit of a stretch…

  2. JohnH says:

    Not ever having owned a car, I had to come here to find that the WSJ’s BUMPER CROP means bumper stickers. (I’ve also never seen MY OTHER CAR before. Gee, two cars.) In fact my first association with the first I got was “I’d rather be right than president,” but I had to use the Web to see where that’s from. (I first guessed an old musical, but no it quotes Henry Clay, no hero of mine.)

    But I do realize that most people outside NYC are car owners, and any disadvantage in solving for me could be overcome. I’d only say that like Jim I wasted time hunting for endings elsewhere in the grid. And I’m not moving to a culture that values sending messages (MAGA!) any time soon.

  3. Burak says:

    NYT was a proper workout, in a good way. Nice aha moment, and the challenging/tricky clues definitely made it a good exercise even after I got the theme.

  4. Dan says:

    (Note: ZDL’s writeup of the NYT puzzle is designated as “tk”, but it is most definitely here.)

    (Also, the answer CLOSESHOPE is mis-written in the writeup, as CLOSEHOPE.)

  5. GTIJohnny says:

    WSJ: I really enjoyed this puzzle with its somewhat unusual cluing and head slapping payoff. More from Jamey Smith please.

  6. Papa John says:

    My experience with NYT puzzle is not at all like the comments. I somehow managed to fill it in after numerous changes out but had no idea what it was about. I came here looking for an explanation but didn’t understand most of the comments. Still in the dark.

    • Dan says:

      It’s two words or phrases that have a big overlap, lie MOB SCENE and OBSCENELY. You are supposed to fill in the whole shebang, as here MOBSCENELY.

    • pannonica says:

      MOB SCENES / OBSCENEST share the ‘common core’ of {OBSCENES}
      EDNA MODE / DNA MODEL share the letters {DNAMODE}
      CLOSE SHOP / LOSES HOPE share {LOSESHOP}
      APRES-SKI / PRESS KIT, {PRESSKI}

    • Papa John says:

      Thanks

    • JohnH says:

      I didn’t anticipate the revealer but got the theme quickly enough. My main obstacle was in not knowing EDNA MODE.

  7. HoldThatThought says:

    Jenni –

    It’s unclear from your review whether you grokked it or not, but the coordinate rebus squares in the Fireball; A2, E7, H10 and L1, actually matched their coordinate location in the grid, making the puzzle that much more impressive a construction.

    If you considered the grid as a sequence of letters, representing the rows, and a sequence of numbers, representing the columns, the rebus square ATwo appeared in the 2nd square of Row A, ESeven in the 7th square of Row E, etc.

    Just wanted to acknowledge and applaud that feat.

  8. David Roll says:

    WSJ–favorite bumper sticker–“vasectomies prevent pregnancy”

  9. Seattle DB says:

    BEQ: the write-up for 6A didn’t mention that a “Split personality” is a “Croat”, and Split is a major city in Croatia.

  10. Seattle DB says:

    LAT: excellent word-play for all four themers!

Comments are closed.