Monday, January 27, 2025

Alexander Liebeskind’s New York Times crossword— Sophia’s write-up

Theme: LOOK THE OTHER WAY – each theme answer contains a word meaning “look”, but backwards

New York Times, 01 27 2025, By Alexander Liebeskind

• 17a [Commonly visited part of a website] – HOME PAGE (“gape” backwards)
• 24a [Study abroad program on a ship] – SEMESTER AT SEA (“stare” backwards)
• 51a [Funding sources for many labs] – FEDERAL GRANTS (“glare” backwards)
• 62a [Stance for a yoga beginner] – TREE POSE (“peer” backwards)
• 40a [Ignore suspicious behavior … or a hint to the circled letters in 17-, 24-, 51- and 62-Across] – LOOK THE OTHER WAY

I loved this theme! Slightly higher concept than the usual Monday, but still simple enough for a beginner to grasp what’s going on. Wordplay is one of my favorite things about crosswords, so I love when puzzles across difficulty levels incorporate it well. Plus, each of the hidden “look” words spans all the words in the base answer – elegant! HOME PAGE and TREE POSE were quick to fall for me, as was SEMESTER AT SEA (but only because I knew several people in college who took part!). FEDERAL GRANTS was the hardest for me – I couldn’t figure out what word went before GRANTS for the longest time.

So much fun long fill today! SWISS ROLL, SKI RESORT, COURTYARD, SHOEBILL – I was entertained at every turn. There were a couple of tough points that held me up – I could not parse [2.0] to mean CEE – I kept wanting some way to say “next version” that was only three letters. I also really wanted [“I see!”] to be “aha” and not AAH, and unfortunately the clue of [Yes votes that are an anagram of other yes votes] doesn’t actually help me know if the answer is AYES or “yeas” :) but other than that the fill and clueing is very strong! I particularly liked the musical references of ANNIE and Phillipa SOO.

Happy Monday all!

Lee Taylor’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Any Way You Slice It”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar phrases whose first words can all precede “cheese” in other phrases.

Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Any Way You Slice It” · Lee Taylor · Mon., 1.27.25

• 17a. [Cheesy Vatican sentinels?] SWISS GUARD.
• 20a. [Cheesy swimwear?] STRING BIKINI.
• 57a. [Cheesy doll line?] AMERICAN GIRL.
• 60a. [Cheesy hair conditioner?] CREAM RINSE.
• 10d. [Cheesy weapon?] JACKKNIFE.
• 31d. [Cheesy music genre?] BLUEGRASS.

Fairly straightforward theme that works well for a Monday. The remarkable thing here is that there are so many theme answers with some of them partially stacked upon or else crossing another theme answer. And for all those constraints, the fill isn’t terrible.

In fact we have some sparkly fill in the form of CHICKPEA, LONG LOST, COOL MOM, SPY FILM, and NUANCED. Those are some good assets to have considering all the theme answers. A couple things aren’t your usual Monday fare: QUAI, SARTO. But on the whole, I’m impressed with the fill.

Clue of note: 15a. [Paris’s ___ d’Orsay]. QUAI. I’d bet a lot of solvers wanted to squeeze MUSÉE in there.

The theme may not be particularly engaging, but it’s lively and the execution is top notch with strong, smooth fill. 3.5 stars.

David Karp’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Los Angeles Times 1/27/25 by David Karp

This puzzle is a much-used-on-Monday theme variety, but with a revealer that feels different than I’ve seen before. The revealer at 58A [Deal made with shrewd bargaining, or a swap that could be made with the ends of 17-, 25-, 37-, and 47-Across?] is HORSE-TRADE, meaning that the second word in each theme phrase can be “traded” out for the word HORSE to form another phrase. So, it’s the old “words that come before another word” trick wearing a new dress. I’m into it!

• 17A [Prerequisite for going into labor?] is WORK PERMIT, leading to WORKHORSE. You don’t usually see punny clues for Monday theme answers, and I like this one, which elevates an otherwise fine if not particularly sparkly entry.
• 25A [Hypothetical stuff in space] is DARK MATTER, leading to DARK HORSE.
• 37A [Requiring a lot of careful attention] is HIGH-MAINTENANCE, leading to HIGH HORSE.
• 47A [Unvarying background sound] is WHITE NOISE, leading to WHITE HORSE. TIL that WHITE HORSE isn’t just the capital of Yukon (one word, no space), it’s also a Taylor Swift song.

Renee Thomason’s Universal crossword, “Canine Closet” — pannonica’s write-up

Universal • 1/27/25 • Mon • “Canine Closet” • Thomason • solution • 20250127

Left/right mirror symmetry for this one.

• 31d^R [Some pet parents’ purchases … or what the starred clues’ answers are?] DOG CLOTHES.
• 21a. [*Scientist’s garment] LAB COAT.
• 25d. [*Alternative to briefs] BOXER SHORTS.
• 27d. [*Bit of sock hop attire] POODLE SKIRT.

That’s the theme, short and sweet.

There are some longish down entries that seem as if they should occupy theme space, but they don’t. 3d [“Swear on it”] PROMISE ME, 11d [Paperback’s place] BOOKSTORE. There’s also a centered across entry which has a doggy vibe: 15a [Capital of Tibet] LHASA; the dog breed Lhasa apso is often shortened to just the first word.

• 1a [What a PR agent hopes to build up, maybe] HYPE. Can’t put my finger on it, but this feels off as an answer, and I prefer BUZZ.
• 45a [More, idiomatically] LESS. “Less is more” per architect Mies van der Rohe. To my mind (at the moment) it says something about figure-ground relationships, and also the capacity for humans to supply thought.
• 59a [Bladed footwear] SKATE. 5d [Soccer shoe spike] CLEAT.
• 10d [Augusta Savage‘s specialty] ART.
• 22d [Small Starbucks size] TALL. I know there are larger sizes like, uh, grande and venti (and probably something even more imposing), but do they no longer offer short?
• 30d [Loathed] ABOMINABLE surprise! it’s ABOMINATED.
• 50d [Flood barrier] LEVEE.
  

Elizabeth Gorski’s New Yorker crossword–Amy’s recap

New Yorker crossword solution, 1/27/25 – Gorski

I don’t have an accurate solving time to report. The webpage calls it 9:30 but I took a break to savor a bit of almond croissant (from La Fournette on Chicago’s Wells Street, so buttery and crisp and flaky and perfect, highly recommended!) so who knows.

New to me: Malbork Castle, which is in POLAND. It’s a giant Gothic complex begun in the 1200s, and it even includes a toilet tower.

Did not know this was a thing, times three: PLANT STEM CELLS ([Ingredients in some vegan cosmetics]), SANCTUS ([Section of a traditional Latin mass]), CROME YELLOW ([Aldous Huxley novel whose title puns on the name of a paint color]).

Fave fill: CHIA SEEDS, PIPED UP, KEN WATANABE, SIAMESE CATS. Meh: ULNAE, FAB, plural alternate-spelling AWS, NEAP, NNE, French CES and SUD.

2.75 stars from me.

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1752 — Eric’s review

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1752 — 1/27/25

I started slowly with this one, getting to 25A [Curry spice] CUMIN before I had a gimme. After that, it was mostly a smooth solving experience, with each answer leading to another one, just the way a crossword puzzle is supposed to work.

There’s some nice stuff, as expected:

• 20A [Sch. with an “Infinite Corridor” in its main building] MIT I almost put that in without any crosses, as it seemed the most likely answer. I was happy to see that my guess was correct.
• 21A [Letdown of a story] ANTICLIMAX
• 42A [Her boyfriend was a real high flyer] LOIS LANE Cute clue.
• 6D [They’re no longer speaking] OLD FLAMES
• 23D [1978 Sam Shepard play] BURIED CHILD It won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was the play that made Shepard nationally known. I needed several crosses to remember that title.
• 26D [Was happy and satisfied at how things turned out] WON AT LIFE I always assumed that phrase had a more materialistic interpretation.

New to me:

• 1A [Tomy rival] HASBRO Tomy is a Japanese toy company.
• 24A [It might have a “flavor saver”] GOATEE I’ll let you look it up if it’s new to you.
• 49A [“Madame Web” star Sweeney] SYDNEY For a while, Facebook was regularly throwing Ms Sweeney into my feed, so I should have gotten this sooner.
• 4D [Dudes from Silicon Valley who run things] BROLIGARCHY Even after I had the last five or six letters, it took me a bit to figure out the beginning. In hindsight, it’s pretty obvious.
• 31D [“Roxana” author Daniel] DEFOE It’s nice to see a clue that doesn’t refer to Robinson Crusoe. One of these days, I’ll remember that the second letter is E and not A.
• 40D [Actor Robert of “Rhapsody in Blue”] ALDA I guess Alan ALDA has the day off. The referenced movie is a biopic of composer George Gershwin.