Monday, February 3, 2025

BEQ 15:07 (Eric) 

 


LAT 1:47 (Stella) 

 


NYT 4:04 (Sophia) 

 


The New Yorker 6:47 (Amy) 

 


Universal tk (pannonica) 

 


USA Today tk (?) 

 


WSJ 3:44 (Jim) 

 

Jack Scherban’s New York Times crossword— Sophia’s write-up

Theme: CHALKED UP – each theme answer something that could be covered in chalk.

New York Times, 02 03 2025, By Jack Scherban

  • 17a [Obsolescent classroom wall fixture] – BLACK BOARD
  • 25a [Hopscotch locale] – SIDEWALK
  • 47a [Need for playing pool] – CUE STICK
  • 55a [Recreational rock climbers] – BOULDERERS
  • 34a [Achieved, as a victory … or how you might describe 17-, 25-, 47 and 55-Across] – CHALKED UP

Cute theme! Because of the revealer placement in the middle of the puzzle, I was able to get the CHALK theme after only the first two answers. Thus, I was quickly able to get CUE STICK despite the slightly vague clue. BOULDERERS took a bit longer for for me to get, even though living in Seattle every person I know goes to a bouldering gym. For those not familiar, bouldering is basically rock climbing without ropes.

Really interesting grid shape today. The shape reminded me of a pinwheel, which comes up more often in themeless puzzles than themed ones. The shorter theme answers leaves lots of grid space for interesting clues/answers.

Fave clues: [Name on a mailbox at the North Pole] for CLAUS, [Onetime “Jeopardy!” host Trebek] for ALEX
Fave fill: DIRTBAG, DIDDLY DOODLE, KERMIT, PARASKI, CLOSE ONE, TEST RUN, SCREWS UP. So much great stuff!
New to me: That T.S. ELIOT’s initials stood for “Thomas Stearns”

Neil Shook’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Rock On!”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar phrases that all start with onomatopoeic words similar to “BANG!”. The revealer is HEADBANG (56a, [Brain-rattling move at a metal concert, and what the starred answers have in common]).

Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Rock On!” · Neil Shook · Mon., 2.3.25

  • 17a. [*Basketball shot first performed in the WNBA in 2002] SLAM DUNK.
  • 22a. [*Friends’ places, sometimes] CRASH PAD.
  • 32a. [*Oddball] CRACKPOT.
  • 38a. [*Fairbanks, during the Gold Rush, for one] BOOMTOWN.
  • 45a. [*Wooden siding material] CLAPBOARD.

Solid theme for a Monday with lively theme answers. They’re on the shorter side as far as theme answers go, so we get six of them to make up the difference. It can’t help but remind of the video below from the Britcom I’m Alan Partridge (starring Steve Coogan), and that’s always a good thing.

An 8-letter revealer seems to require a lot of wide open corners, especially those stacks of 6s in the NE and SW. But everything is filled quite nicely, and despite six theme answers, we still get highlights “I DARE NOT,” COLORADO, ANOMALIES, and SURGICAL.

Clues of note:

  • 55a. [“Fighting” college football team]. ILLINI. You were thinking IRISH weren’t you? Well, I had the closing I in place, and as a Notre Dame alum knowing it couldn’t be IRISH, I knew there was only one other choice. As for the school’s choice of mascot, students at the school have been pushing for a change to the belted kingfisher, which is native to the state and shares the school colors of orange and blue.
  • 30d. [Dad, in Mandarin]. BABA. I don’t think I’ve seen this cluing angle before. Good to know.

3.25 stars.


Janice Luttrell’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Los Angeles Times 2/3/25 by Janice Luttrell

Los Angeles Times 2/3/25 by Janice Luttrell

The revealer at 64A [The “surf” of surf and turf, often, or what the first word of the answer to each starred clue can be] is LOBSTER TAIL, because the first word in each theme answer can follow LOBSTER to make a new phrase:

  • 17A [*Vintage spot for a bubble bath] is CLAW-FOOT TUB, leading to LOBSTER CLAW.
  • 27A [*Undertaking that could have a good or bad outcome] is ROLL OF THE DICE, leading to LOBSTER ROLL.
  • 48A [*House pet that oinks, familiarly] is POT-BELLIED PIG, leading to LOBSTER POT.

Wish I had time to say more, but this is a nice evocative set of theme entries and I liked the longer nontheme downs of KARATE CHOP and LEAD PENCIL — also very evocative in a Monday kind of way.

untimed

Zachary David Levy’s Universal crossword, “Insert Bills Here” — pannonica’s post

Universal • 2/3/25 • Mon • “Insert Bills Here” • Levy • solution • 20250203

·


Anna Shechtman’s New Yorker crossword–Amy’s recap

New Yorker crossword solution, 2/3/25 – Shechtman

Lots of longer fill I enjoyed here. We are still in SWEATER WEATHER in the north (much better than sweaty weather). THOUGHT LEADER, CHATGPT, SLUTTY from a book title ([“Too Fat, Too ___, Too Loud” (Anne Helen Petersen’s history of “unruly women”)], MAGIC MUSHROOMS, kid-lit’s AMELIA BEDELIA, TWIN PEAKS (clued via its creator David Lynch’s recent obit), SAINT LUCIA, TEASER RATE, and BIG PHARMA.

Could’ve done without the SEES/LET’S SEE overlap (cluing SEE’S as a regional chocolate brand didn’t solve the problem for me). ETHANE, EINE crossing CHERE (German/French border), ELP, UNAS crossing STAUB (never heard of the cookware brand but at least it’s a more familiar name than STOUB would be), RELOAN, DEUT, and LOOIE.

Some things I hadn’t known:

  • 30a. [Subject of David Foster Wallace’s “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again”], CRUISE. Is it because of norovirus outbreaks?
  • 49a. [Substances featured in a 1957 Life cover story], MAGIC MUSHROOMS. Surprised to that 1957!
  • 3d. [Singer who’s part of “a golden age of Sapphic pop horniness,” per an essay in Them], ROAN. Just learned last night on the Grammy Awards show that Chappell Roan is gay.

Three stars from me.

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1754 — Eric’s review

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1754 — 2/3/25

I found this a bit crunchier than recent themeless puzzles from Brendan. Halfway through solving it, I had answers scattered throughout the grid. But I never got stuck anywhere, which is my least favorite sort of crossword-solving experience.

Part of the challenge might have been that the grid consists of five sections, each of which is fairly isolated from the others (especially the NW and SE corners).

Notable entries:

  • 16A [Move clumsily] FLOUNCE I’m not sure that clue works for me; I would define FLOUNCE more along the lines of “move with exaggerated motions.” But in any case, it’s a fun word to see in a grid.
  • 18A [Film in a bathroom] SOAP SCUM I don’t know if we were supposed to think of “film” as plastic with a light-sensitive emulsion, but I went immediately to the correct answer.
  • 22A [Dank stuff] ENDO 30 seconds of Googling gets me ENDO Nitro cold brew medium dank roast THC-CBD. I’m not sure this is what Brendan had in mind; I’ve never heard of the stuff. If anyone has a better explanation, I’d love to hear it.
  • 28A [One of two animals on Guyana’s coat of arms] JAGUAR I think I sort of knew that, but I needed a few crosses to get it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • 32A [Fantastic stories based on some facts] HARD SCI-FI That’s not a term I remember hearing before.
  • 38A [Wizard who leads the Council of Elrond] GANDALF A welcome gimme for a Tolkien nerd.
  • 43A [Protesting, perhaps] ON A MARCH More than a little green painty.
  • 47A [Animal representation] FURSONA Every time I see that word, I picture someone dressed up in an animal costume.
  • 8D [Crappy picture on the Internet?] POOP EMOJI Kind of a clever clue.
  • 10D [Best Supporting Actress winner with the second-shortest screen time (eight minutes)] Judi DENCH, who won for playing Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love.
  • 14D [City on Route 66] FLAGSTAFF Route 66 ran almost 2,500 miles, so there were a lot of possibilities here.
  • 20D [Deception game played with cups] LIAR’S DICE I might’ve shaved a minute or two off my time if I’d been more confident about that being the correct answer.
  • 31D [Poisonous mushroom also known as “russula emetica”] SICKENER That’s new to me; I had all but the first letter before I figured it out.
  • 37D [Animal that makes clicking noises to attract a mate, for short] POSSUM More learning!

Me at the halfway point

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18 Responses to Monday, February 3, 2025

  1. Seth Cohen says:

    Avid rock climber here! Just a little nit I’d like to pick with the NYT clue on BOULDERERS, to educate those who don’t rock climb. Bouldering is NOT automatically “recreational.” There are several types of rock climbing, but the two most well-known and easily accessible are sport climbing (climbing tall things and using a rope to prevent falls) and bouldering (climbing short things and using pads on the ground to prevent injury if you fall). You can do either of these recreationally, or avidly, or professionally, or anything in between. There are recreational sport climbers, and there are professional boulderers. So the clue is inaccurate.

    But as a climber, it was fun to see it in the grid!

  2. David L says:

    Nice theme in the NYT, although CUESTICK always seems odd to me. I just call it a cue.

    • Mutman says:

      Seems both are acceptable, CUE STICK being two words.

      Are BLACKBOARDs really obsolescent? I bet my old Catholic school will keep them until it crumbles!

      • Seth Cohen says:

        I think a lot of schools are moving to whiteboards.

      • Gary R says:

        My understanding of “obsolescent” is a description of something that is going out of style/favor – not necessarily that it is no longer around or in use. If my sense is correct, then blackboards are definitely obsolescent.

        I taught for 40 years, including my time as a Grad Ass. I think the blackboards started disappearing at the college level around 1990, replaced by whiteboards. They were nice in that they allowed more flexibility to write/draw in multiple colors. But still messy in their own way, and no record of what was on the board once you erased it (and then there was the problem of the guys who would write on the whiteboard with a permanent marker). Document cameras are really handy – write in a natural position on ordinary paper using pens/pencils of your choice, you can easily backtrack to something displayed earlier (that might have been erased from a blackboard or whiteboard), and you have a hardcopy record of what was displayed in class.

      • Martin says:

        Blackboards are obsolescent. Sea urchin spine pencils for blackboards are obsolete.

  3. Sebastian says:

    NYT: Yet another egregious dupe today, made worse by the words sharing the same adverbial sense, and actually intersecting. And if that wasn’t bad enough, one of them is part of the revealer — in the dead center?? So inelegant. Stop the madness!

  4. JustJack says:

    Never heard of boulderers. Even spellcheck doesn’t like it.

  5. JohnH says:

    In TNY didn’t like a lot of the fill, but particularly crossing things I didn’t know due South like STAUB, BEDALIA, SERGE, and UNAS (which could have equally well been “unos,” no?). I didn’t know the title word be SLUTTY, but that one did make sense once I got it. Still, an unfair cluster.

    • Sebastian says:

      My reaction was inverse to yours, with that sublimely satirical clue for 12-A setting a playful tone early on. 38-A is presumably a reference to the iconic Serge Gainsbourg. (Who I’m guessing, were he still around, might enjoy duetting with 2-Down.)

    • Gary R says:

      Finished with an error at the crossing of STAUB and UNAS. Have not heard of STAUB, and entered STeUB – but I guess “unes” would be more French than Spanish.

      Liked the puzzle overall, and it seemed about appropriate difficulty for a Monday.

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