Michael Lieberman’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 1/25/25 – no. 0125
Kinda thought this one would fall quickly and then … it did not. Not that it played like a Saturday Stumper or anything, but about twice the solving time of the Friday puzzle for me. That SASH/ALAI corner definitely slowed me down, with HISS flirting with SSSS instead. Oof!
Fave fill: RIPTIDES, TOUR GUIDES, STRESS-ATE, HAIR SALON, AMPERSAND, the ORESTEIA, GESTALT, X-FACTOR, P.E. CLASSES.
I also like the ARMREST HOG concept, but I’m not entirely convinced that “hog the armrest” has expanded to a noun.
Probably I learned this before from crosswords, but forgot the fact: 23A. [Funding source for the Great Wall of China], SALT TAX.
28A. [Felt in the Christmas spirit?], ELF HATS. Yes, modern-day costume elf hats are often made of felt, but that’s costumery. Real elf hats are much more luxe.
Could’ve done without the handful of crosswordese/musty stuff: SSR, OMOO, ALAI (not jai ___ here but [___ Mountains, Kyrgyz/Tajik border range]), and the knife called a DIRK.
EYE SOCKETS, eww.
August Miller’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up
Los Angeles Times 1/24/25 by August Miller
I liked the mid-length entries in this puzzle better than I liked the marquee stack of 13-15-13 in the middle: WHAT MORE CAN I DO, SEATS ARE LIMITED, and PERSONNEL FILES, which were a bit meh to me. On the other hand, BLUE SHELL? Yes please.* ANGLOMANIA? Here for it. I also liked MINISODES, VITAMIN C, PACIFIC RIM, and the clue [Falsies?] for CHARLATANS.
*I own a different design of this shirt, which perfectly illustrates the nihilism of the BLUE SHELL: It doesn’t actually help the person who’s using it, it just screws over the person who’s leading the race! Because the person who uses it doesn’t actually benefit, I argue that versions of the shirt that use the entire Bible quote “so the last will be first, and the first will be last” are incorrect.
Joanne Sullivan’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Cold Play” — pannonica’s write-up
WSJ • 1/25/25 • Sat • “Cold Play” • Sullivan • solution • 20250125
6-down: [Wintry entree] STEW.
- 119aR [“Frozen” song suggestion … and what you might do with the ends of the answers to the starred clues] BUILD A SNOWMAN. The full title of the song is “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?”.
- 23a. [*Tony the Tiger’s cereal] FROSTED FLAKES (body composition).
- 32a. [*Collect money from a group] PASS THE HAT (headwear).
- 40a. [*Reprimand severely] RAKE OVER THE COALS (eyes). Unfortunately a RAKE is very often snowman accessory material.
- 57a. [*Bright orange Crayola color] NEON CARROT (nose).
- 67a. [*Shepherd’s instrument] PANPIPE (in mouth).
- 79a. [*Midas specialty] CAR MUFFLER (scarf).
- 94a. [*Appetizer served with marinara sauce] MOZZARELLA STICKS (arms).
- 103a. [*Charged issues] HOT BUTTONS (suggestion of a coat). I feel as if the usage is ‘hot-button issue’ or just ‘(push one’s) buttons’.
Just as in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times crossword, kudos for having the features appear in correct top-to-bottom order, with the exception of the special, foundational snowFLAKES.
- 108d [Serious lawbreaker] FELON. 47a [“SNL” cast member Nwodim] EGO. 8d [Most mendacious] FALSEST. 84a [Fools] DUPES. 28a [Tariff target] IMPORT. 1a [Divides into new districts, perhaps] REMAPS. 4d [On the line] AT STAKE. 21a [Went under] FAILED. 35d [Breakfast staple] TOAST. 40d [Resist authority] REBEL. 69a [Deadly] LETHAL.
32d [Walnut look-alike] PECAN. Really?
Kate Chin Park’s Newsday crossword, Saturday Stumper — pannonica’s write-up
Newsday • 1/25/25 • Saturday Stumper • Park • solution • 20250125
Well this one turned out to be rather easy!
Was able to get more than the usual amount of entries filled during my initial pass, and progress was generally steady. In relatively short order only parts of the lower left and upper right remained, and in each case it was getting the across entry at the edge that served as the final bridge.
At 60-across [Give service], I had ––ND and eventually saw TEND, at which point it was a cinch to complete 49d [Step lively] TROT (not TRIP) and 44d [Recessed] BROKE (as a class, or meeting), and then the rest.
At 10-across CA–– for [It’s most liquid] eventually revealed itself to be CASH, and then 13d [Mass (of)] HERD was easy. I had enough crossings to see that 15a [Chorus-like] was ALL AT ONCE, and 18a [Cause of many a claim] was REAR-ENDER. These perforce completed 7d [Accented approval] OLÉ (I’d considered that OUI might have an accent!) and 8d [Literature scholars’ org.] MLA, the Modern Library Association. And that was the whole crossword complete.
- 14a [Surname meaning “priest”] COHEN. Never knew this.
- 17a [Otter cousin] STOAT. Filled this in early from the S of the obvious plural at 1-down, and because it’s a common crossword entry. But other crossings seemed off, so I removed it, only to restore it closer to the end of my solve.
- 19a [Eos alias] AURORA. A gimme.
- 21a [How to respond to “I didn’t get it”] RESEND. Tricky. I suppose it’s a bit of a tell that the clue uses didn’t rather than don’t but I missed that subtlety at the time.
- 22a [Pupil mover] BUS. Oof.
- 23a [Popular pop selection] PEPSI. Got this on the strength of the S from 24d [Olympic country code below Serbia’s alphabetically], which I reasoned would also start with S—but I didn’t expect it to be SRI Lanka. What about, for instance Slovakia and Slovenia? I imagine they’d be closer, but then again the clue doesn’t say that it’s immediately after Serbia. So, weird/tricky.
- 27a [Way out there] AFAR. Another where I reflexively felt I knew the answer but ‘judiciously’ waited for more confirmation because it’s the Stumper.
- 29a [Pet held in five 007 films] PERSIAN cat, by the antagonist Ernst Stavro Blofeld, who now seems kind of tame compared to our current real-world ‘Bond villains’.
- Both of the long across entries in the center of the grid were easy to get, since I had plenty of crossings in place: 31a [Communication challenge] GENERATION GAP, 38a [Uninvolved associate] SILENT PARTNER.
- 35a [Polo was born there] VENICE. I would have thought it was someplace like Mongolia. OH WAIT I’m an idiot—it’s Marco Polo! And for the record Wikipedia indicates that the sport originated in Persia.
- 46a [Achilles adversary] PARIS, because HECTOR didn’t fit.
- 48a [Zuo Zongtang’s much-seen alias] TSO. Generally speaking.
- 56a [Cabinet appointments] DOORS. Good clue, but oof.
- 6d [Rampart part] PARAPET, which was a pivotal entry for the solve, and rather easy to get with the —AP— in place thanks to the aforementioned AURORA and PEPSI.
- 10d [The majority of chopsticks and corkscrews] CONSONANTS. Ouch.
- 11d [Where Neruda “crossed the high cordillera”] ANDES. My first filled entry. Easy if you know (as you should) that Pablo Neruda was South American (Chilean).
- 16d [Joan of Arc, at Orleans] TEENAGER.
- 20d [Freshen, as one’s study] REPANEL. Along with 42a [Market with a new name] RELABEL, and 21a RESEND / 28d [Sent back, say] REDIRECTED, which constitutes a duplication in my book.
- 25d [Texter’s “seeking”] ISO, in search of.
- 36d [Cleaned up by cutting] CENSORED, though I toyed with TONSURED for a bit.
- 41d [Number noted by NASA] PERIGEE.
- 54d [Shout-sounding verb] EKE (“eek”). The clue seemed to bothersome to deal with, so I let crossings handle it.
NYT: A good Saturday!
One of those puzzles where almost everything felt tentative (except the little NE corner) and yet it somehow came together and turned out to be correct.
I especially liked the NW stack: ARMREST HOG on top of WHY AM I HERE felt like a perfect combo.
Trying to decide whether or not I like the STRESS EATING clue– “consumed with grief”.
And I learned a few things– e.g. SALT TAX. Cool
Americans are the scum of the earth.
They either re-elected Trump, or allowed the re-election of Trump to happen.
Scum.
This isn’t the place for political commentary.
Crosswords—and people—do not exist in a vacuum. Political commentary is valid here. The more constructive kind is better, but the horrific situation we find ourselves in now understandably merits such vitriol.
This goes beyond political commentary and makes a blanket insult against people who even opposed said election. It’s also irrelevant to the puzzles.
I am a firm believer in free speech. But I also know this Crossword Fiend site is a private entity and can squelch Ben’s post very easily. Ben’s post in no way is related to crossword puzzles and should be removed. There are plenty of venues where he can spew his “vitriol”. That vitriol is not the reason we come to this site.
Validity depends very much on whose ox is being gored. “All liberals are idiots”, for example, probably wouldn’t be looked on here with the same shrug of the shoulders.
Correct, but it wouldn’t necessarily be automatically jettisoned. I don’t know whether Amy’s seen this exchange or what her decision would be regarding it.
On a prior day he wished we (Americans).” Should all die of the plague”. I’m sorry but that isn’t constructive to me. In fact, it’s hate speech by definition.
Personally, I agree with Steve, RCook, and Sophomoric Old Guy. IF it were relevant to the crosswords, THEN it would be OK — but it’s not. I think it should be deleted as well.
If I delete the Ben post, the rest of the ensuing discussion vanishes. No, it’s not particularly relevant unless there’s something in a puzzle or review that sparked it. Could just be random venting plunked down in a weird place.
Personally, I would like any post removed that disparages a group of people. And especially with an unambiguous slur.
Delightful theme and execution from Joanne in today’s WSJ. I just built one of these last Sunday with my granddaughters, and it went pretty much in Joanne’s order, with the exception of the fourth one. But yes, back in the day, some kids did include that item. Great title, too.
Easy Stumper but it had its moments. Based on the overly cute clues in today’s NYTimes puzzle (also very easy), I was convinced 1A was Atilt and confirmed it with “total” at 5D and ACS at 1D. My NASA number at 41D stayed at zERoGEE for too long. And I briefly thought the answer to “I didn’t get it” was REpEat.
Fun puzzle, thanks Kate Chin Park!
I agree the Stumper was on the easier side … I was able to solve it without any cheating and also guessed correctly at the two longest answers before even looking at the crosses. Still a fun one to do.
NYT: This puzzle stood out for me as — besides being a well-calibrated Saturday challenge — having a very large number of beautifully deceptive clues, leading to many liitle Aha! experiences.
My favorite of these is 12D [Number at filling stations?] for NOVOCAINE. (Especially since my initial fill-in was the inscrutable NOVOCtaNE.)
(Maybe tied for second are 23D [Joined a union] for SAID I DO, and 30D [Consumed with grief?] for STRESS ATE.)
I was with Amy; I thought this would go fast after dropping in ARMREST HOG and checking the crosses to confirm… but it was slower than my average. I had MARRIED in for SAID I DO, and got tripped up with ID EST (thinking it was a single word… after I just finished an old Friday with PER SE, so my brain should’ve been primed, but alas). NOVOCAINE was a particularly tricky one since I had the 2nd C and 2nd O and tried to put in OCTANE but that didn’t work. I only just now got that the clue was “numb”-er not number.
All in all a tricky Saturday, but still pretty satisfying.
Though now that I think of it, “stress” and “grief” are rather distinct from one another, even if they happen to both be things we try to avoid. Maybe I’d prefer if the clue had read “Consumed with angst”.
Stumper: the grammar on “It’s most liquid” for CASH is bugging me. Should it be “It’s mostly liquid” instead? As in, CASH is mostly a liquid asset? Or is the clue saying “Most liquid assets are cash”? But is that accurate?
I wasn’t fond of the wording, but yes, cash is the most liquid of assets as any accountant/finance person will tell you. It’s more liquid than a CD, building, etc.
I read it as: Of the various types of assets, cash is the most liquid.
My read as well.
As usual, pannonica is on the mark with the Stumper. I wasn’t fond of the wording of clues here and there (56A was the worst), but it wasn’t too bad over all. My husband started it off by having the AFAR and ERGO and a few others. I then got STOAT, so that made POT AU FEU self-evident. Having a business background, I got SILENT PARTNER from the obvious plural “S” of 3D and the “R” of ERGO. So, pretty good!