Kate Chin Park & Rafael Musa’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 2/1/25 – no. 0201
Not too tough on the Saturday scale of things. I’m digging the grid design, with not many 3s, a plethora of 8+ letter answers, and flow through the six chunks of the diagram.
Fave fill: APPLE TART, “AIN’T I A WOMAN,” MINIMOON (awkward to have “moon” in the WAXING clue when the entries are stacked together), ODDS AND ENDS, journalistic HIT PIECES, “AND VOILA!”, GO DUTCH, STAGE MOM.
Working the Crossings Zone: 12D. [Main script of written Japanese], HIRAGANA. The first half came from the Acrosses, and then I blanked on the second half. Some A’s or maybe an I? And which consonants?
41Aa. [Deg. held by Shaquille O’Neal and Melinda Gates], hmm. Ed.D wasn’t going to work out with crossings. I don’t think I knew Shaq had gotten an MBA earlier.
Really smooth fill throughout, though I look a bit askance at BIG NO-NOS. 4.25 stars from me.
Adrian Johnson & Will Nediger’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up
Los Angeles Times 2/1/25 by Adrian Johnson & Will Nediger
This puzzle was too easy, and I liked the Downs a lot better than most of the Acrosses — starting off with the gluey phrase TIE ON was not my favorite, and I thought most of the multi-word phrases (DON’T BE SO HASTY, LET’S COMPROMISE, IT’S TIME FOR BED) were fine if not particularly having a themeless level of zing. I did like PRESSURE COOKER, a thing that I use in real life quite often (although it was clued in its metaphorical sense, not its Instant Pot sense, here).
Downs I liked:
- 1D [Big name in pizza rolls] is TOTINO’S, which is nice and evocative and now I want a pizza roll or six.
- 6D I thought [Recycling-plant worker] was a cool angle on SORTER.
- 12D [People who partially identify as female] is DEMI-GIRLS, a neologism that was new to me but totally inferable as clued.
- 21D [Rotten to the Corps, perhaps] is a fresh angle on the ubiquitous AWOL.
- 27D [Handled better?] is REBRANDED — an entry that feels very modern and yet not like it’s going to age out of the language in the next five minutes, and a clever clue to boot.
- 56D [Interrupting animal in a classic knock-knock joke] is COW. My six-year-old niece was obsessed with this joke the last time I saw her.
Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “I’m Right Here!” — pannonica’s posting
WSJ • 2/1/25 • Sat • “I’m Right Here!” • Shenk • solution • 20250201
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Anna Stiga’s Newsday crossword, Saturday Stumper — pannonica’s post
Newsday • 2/1/25 • Saturday Stumper • Stiga, Newman • solution • 20250201
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I am curious about how people feel about lots of S’s in row and column 15. Entries like ASSESS and STRESSTEST make the filler’s job a lot easier and will undoubtedly lead to nicer entries everywhere else, but they also little the grid with plurals. Today’s NYT is a nice example, with seven S’s out of the 25 right/bottom squares. Do you care? As someone who occasionally makes puzzles, I’d be interested to know what people think (or not) about the question.
Peace and good health to all.
I personally don’t care unless the answers are contrived words or phrases that no one uses, like RESENSES, for example. The row 15 and column 15 answers in today’s NYT are perfectly fine to me.
+1
What Evan said.
NYT: Super fast today; 6 seconds behind my PR. Almost felt like I was solving with Thursday cluing for the Saturday puzzle (if they still do that… not sure?), although there were some tricky entries in there like HIRAGANA that I got from the crossings.
And today is Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast day, if you’re into that sort of thing.
NYT: Definitely easy for a Saturday, but don’t think I’m complaining. It’s been a complicated week so I’m grateful for something on the easier and smoother side.
I loved AINTIAWOMAN and especially the clue to it- “You need not be afraid to give us our rights”. I once read a book that suggested that the reason women are expected to wear hijab is not to subjugate them, but because men are afraid of them, or at least of their impulses towards them. So much bias and control is due to fear. I feel that understanding that can help shape our approach to fighting it.
WSJ – The bigram IM is dropped into familiar phrases. Wackiness ensues.
I liked the theme at first but I began to tire of it. Then I saw AMAZING GRIMACE coming and my enjoyment topped out. I like when it works out the the last of these type of theme answers is my favorite
Stumper: A tough one! The upper right was the worst. I don’t like the cluing for 16A, 21A, and 11D. The rest was fair, but tough.
With the NW and SE being barely connected to the rest of the grid, I found it hard to move from one section to another. The SE was toughest for me – I had ATTENDED instead of ATTAINED for a long time, and couldn’t figure out what came after COAL at 53A.
I agree about 16A and 21A, the latter in particular. I started with AID instead of ITO at 11D, but thought the clue was ok for a Stumper.
Yes, the SE was tough also, but I was able to get it with the down answers — for instance, I, too, had “coal…,” but then got “Titanic,” so that helped with the rest. I just didn’t like 11D and would have preferred some other wording — the Frito Bandito” is long gone and how often do you see “bandito”?
Stumper: Intersecting CATCH UP and KETCHUP at the center. Nice!
I had no chance with this one. Unlike last week the long ones I threw down turned out to be wrong (CATCHES UP for SAVES TIME and JUST IN TIME for NOT TOO LATE). Funny that CATCH UP turned out to be in the grid after all.
NYT: Hand up for another near-PR. Wednesday on Saturday. An enjoyable, engaging and smooth puzzle; just not at all the challenge that I expect on Saturday. I’m wondering what it was about this puzzle that said “Saturday” to the editorial team.
I’m not sure how many solvers will recognize the “Jezebel of Jazz” (she must have loathed that name) as Anita O’Day. But I’m guessing that Stan Newman must be a fan. Me too.
One of my earliest musical experiences (I am told) is of my dad playing her “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” and me saying “Sad!” An electrifying place to start: her 1958 Newport appearance. I’m not sure about the Armstrong and George Shearing connections: she did at least share a stage and a song, sort of, with Armstrong. Since Pannonica hasn’t weighed in on the puzzle today, I’m just supplying some necessary O’Day.
LAT: I’m not familiar with the interrupting cow knock knock joke! I had to google it.
Me neither, fwiw.