Wednesday, February 5, 2025

AV Club unsolved (Amy) 

 


LAT 4:38 (Gareth) 

 


The New Yorker tk (Kyle) 

 


NYT 5:52 (Amy) 

 


Universal untimed (pannonica) 

 


USA Today 9:28 (Emily) 

 


WSJ 8:04 (Jim) 

 


George Barany & Michael David’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “On the Table”—Jim’s review

Do you ever play Alexa’s “Puzzle of the Day”? Well, this puzzle is apt, given today’s (Tuesday’s, as I write this) answer for Alexa’s puzzle.

Theme answers have HIDDEN / ELEMENTS (74a, [Six of these are 73-Across in the starred answers (with two in 42-Across)].

Wall St Journal crossword solution · “On the Table” · George Barany & Michael David · Wed., 2.5.25

  • 1a. [*Argentine soccer legend] MARADONA. Radon. I was wondering if the N was actually an Ñ, but it’s not.
  • 9a. [*Specialized language] JARGON. Argon.
  • 25a. [*Time saver for a criminal?] PLEA DEAL. Lead.
  • 42a. [**”People haven’t done that for years”] “YOU’RE GETTING OLD.” Tin and gold.
  • 53a. [*Opening on Broadway?] SCENE ONE. Neon.

Nice. I was stymied throughout the entire solve until coming to the revealers at the end, and even then I had to think about it. My first reaction was to look for elemental abbreviations and I was prepared to be disappointed if that was the theme. But finding the full names of these ELEMENTS made for a better aha moment. I’m impressed with the theme entry placement which ends up requiring largish stacks in all four corners. That’s tough to pull off!

There are however some compromises, like APA, ILA, awkward CELLI, and abbreviation ASCAP crossing proper name MARADONA. That one in particular might be rough on solvers. But the A makes sense, and if you can get past those entries, the fill is quite nice with highlights: CUL DE SAC, CATNAP, BEELINE, “GO TEAM!,” OUTER EAR, and TOP TEN.

Clue of note: 54d. [Yo-Yo collection?]. CELLI. Love the clue, not so keen on the entry. But knowing that the word “cello” comes from the Italian violoncello makes it more palatable.

3.25 stars.

Kiran Pandey’s New York Times crossword–Amy’s recap

NY Times crosswords solution, 2/5/25 – no. 0205

This one played like a themeless puzzle except for the thematic SLUSH PILE, [Common assignment for editorial assistants … or a description of this puzzle’s circled letters?]. Piled up in the middle three rows, those circled words are RAIN, SNOW, and HAIL, Rain and snow combine to make slush, yes. But I’ve seen hail, pretty much always in the warmer months, and the rain just melts it into water. Never seen slush in the summer outside of Slurpees. Maybe sleet can go slushy?

Fave fill: BASE TAN (wear your sunscreen, kids), DROPS DOWN to see menu commands, TALK UP, LEFT BRAIN, CARRIES NO WEIGHT, CHAI LATTE, CATTAIL (loved those at the marsh of my childhood), BIKESHARE, “ROT IN HELL!”, and gaming BOSS LEVEL.

Somewhat gettable for me but not a familiar term: 59A. [Console device with triggers and thumbsticks], GAMEPAD. I just asked my husband “What’s the name for the thing you’re holding?” He offered a few options including GAMEPAD. Okay! I know what that is now. What I don’t know is whether Pokémon GO has a BOSS LEVEL.

I also don’t know that the singular WAFFLE FRY gets much use in the language. Have you ever said it yourself? Have you then dipped it in ketchup, no mayo?

51A. [Is out] is so aspirational. SLEEPS? Yes, please. Ideally for a full seven hours.

3.5 stars from me. Still waiting for crosswords to uniformly grasp that HAIL is a summertime precipitation. Maybe those of you without exposure to Midwestern thunderstorms are less familiar with it?

Darrell Bridges’ Universal crossword, “Continental Breakfast” — pannonica’s write-up

Universal • 2/5/25 • Wed • “Continental Breakfast” • Bridges • solution • 20250205

It’s a self-evident theme, with just three entries. The rest of the grid has a little more breathing room.

  • 19a. [Dutch baby, by another name] GERMAN PANCAKE.
  • 37a. [Its main ingredient should be slightly stale] FRENCH TOAST, pain perdu, which—in conjunction with Proust—reminds me of a literal translation of nostalgia: the pain of going back [home/in the past].
  • 54a. [It has large squares] BELGIAN WAFFLE.

It irks me a little that the clue for 19-across contains what could sort of be another theme entry.

Not that it’s essential to the theme or anything, but the three countries—Germany, France, Belgium—are all contiguous with each other (Luxembourg is at the nexus of the trio). If we want to include the Netherlands, it shares a border with Germany and Belgium, but not France.

  • 4d [Best effort, in competition] A-GAME. 23a [A-lister] STAR.
  • 21d [One might be closed at a car dealership] CAR DOOR. I didn’t anticipate the clue being so silly/literal, so I was thinking CAR DEAL or possibly even CAR LOAN.
  • 45d [Amount being received] INFLOW. Tried INTAKE first.
  • 15a [Any artistic category] GENRE. I wasn’t quite in sync with the clue, envisioning something like sculpture, which probably wouldn’t be called a GENRE.
  • 33a [Showing signs of injury] BRUISED. I reflexively thought it would also end in -ing, but that’s on me not thinking clearly about adjectives.
  • 39a [Spanish artist Salvador] DALÍ. Spain borders France and Portugal, and technically, Morocco. Uh-oh, if I use that criterion, France borders a whole lot of other places! (In addition to the continental ones I left out because they weren’t relevant to the theme.)
  • 52a [Like charged atoms] IONIC. 56d [Gas that’s colorless under normal conditions] NEON.

Paul Coulter’s LA Times crossword – Gareth’s summary

The idea for the puzzle is very good. The phrase “blow-out” has a lot of connected, yet different meanings. The puzzle explores them by having the four long across answers each be something associated with a different kind of blow-out. The entries themselves, especially PARTYGIVER (blowout as in party) and WINNINGTEAM (blowout as in big victory), are a little dry. They are rounded out by RADIALTIRE (exploding tyre) and HAIRSTYLIST (hairstyle).

Perhaps because of only having four theme answers, there are a lot of long down entries today: 80’s CARLISLE and VALLEYGIRL provide a mini-theme of a kind, with plural PIGSEARS and ROMANGODS, WENTTOSEED and LAYANCHOR rounding the collection.

Gareth

Sally Hoelscher’s USA Today Crossword, “Summit Meeting” — Emily’s write-up

Pack up and get ready for this hike!

Completed USA Today crossword for Wednesday February 05, 2025

USA Today, February 05, 2025, “Summit Meeting” by Sally Hoelscher

Theme: each themer contains —ETNA—

Themers:

  • 17a. [Broadway and Park Avenue, for example], STREETNAMES
  • 40a. [People also known as Niitsitapi], BLACKFEETNATION
  • 60a. [“The Good Lie” scriptwriter], MARGARETNAGLE

A variety of themers in today’s set with STREETNAMES, BLACKFEETNATION, and MARGARETNAGLE. However, with the clever title hint, leads to thinking of mountain tops and for the most astute solver, the peak in question is Mount —ETNA—. h/t to Sally for sharing the insights to her excellent theme today or I still would have been hopelessly wayfinding as it wasn’t apparent to me.

Favorite fill: MIAMOR, PLAIT, and STEEPS

Stumpers: TOLDALIE (needed crossings), ASANA (misdirected and thought of Roman and Greek goddesses), and YSL (new to me)

What a delight! Loved the grid, themers, and fun lengthy bonus fill. The cluing was more challenging for me today though still doable, after some crossings to get footholds. Overall it felt like a smooth solve despite my longer solve time.

4.0 stars

~Emily

Matthew Stock & Jeremy Newton’s AV Club Classic Crossword, “Look Before You Leap”–Amy’s recap

AV Club Classic crossword solution, “Look Before You Leap:” – 2/5/25

Didn’t have time to solve this, so here’s the AV answer grid. Let’s see what the clues say about the theme. No let’s see what the colored theme answers do! I noted that the constructors’ favorite video games were listed in the editor’s email, so … Four rows have a brown LOG in the midst, and the intervening three themers contain CAR twice, and the blue squares evoke water while the gray squares are reminiscent of a road. Classic video game of yore, FROGGER, plus in the opposit corner of the grid, HOP TO IT, which is what a frog is wont to do! Pretty showy theme aswers here, too.

Cute! (Unrated because I didn’t solve it.)

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13 Responses to Wednesday, February 5, 2025

  1. Dan says:

    NYT: SLUSH PILE and also DROPS DOWN.

    • Lois says:

      Thanks, Dan!

    • Gary R says:

      DROPS DOWN works better than SLUSH PILE as a revealer, IMHO (see Amy’s remarks about HAIL).

      Last letter in was the “S” at the cross of BOSS LEVEL and BASE TAN. I know almost nothing about video games and I thought BASE TAN left the vernacular sometime in the early 80s. Wanted FAKE TAN, but that clearly didn’t work.

      • Dallas says:

        A rather slow Wednesday for me, with a few incorrects that took a bit to fix. I had FINAL BOSS instead of BOSS LEVEL, which share an L in the middle that got checked by a crossing… then I took out YAK to put in RIDE SHARE instead of BIKE SHARE, and the 1D was so generic I had no starting point. For “menu” I was thinking restaurant, which also slowed me down. The whole NW was last to fall. I got the theme from SLUSH PILE early, which did help the solve.

        And yes, the idea that balls of ice would be falling in the summer is a strange idea, but nonetheless true…

        Still, a pretty fun puzzle even if it brings my Wednesday time down :-)

        • DougC says:

          Ditto “final boss” which I was quite confident in until I was forced to change it.

          We have an unusual double revealer today, which I nevertheless ignored until I finished the puzzle. A typical Wednesday time for me today (unlike yesterday, when I was well over my Tuesday average).

          • DougC says:

            I also thought it a little odd that the double revealers occupied more real estate in this puzzle than the actual theme entries: 18 vs. 12 squares.

  2. Sebastian says:

    WSJ: Kudos to the constructors — this one has all the elements of a fine puzzle. :-)

    I see nothing amiss with any of Jim’s so-called “compromises,” especially CELLI, a perfectly acceptable and indeed widely used plural.

  3. Pavel Curtis says:

    NYT: Out in Seattle, we pretty much only get hail in what passes for winter here. Apparently, YMMV…

  4. Bob Giovanelli says:

    Hail is in the extreme seasons: winter and summer. On Long Island, we tend to only see hail in the winter, and we are to get a possibly-slushy snow/rain mix a few hours from now.

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