Tuesday, February 25, 2025

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Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Pizza and a Movie” — watch for these slices. – Erin’s write-up

Jonesin’ solution 2/25/25

Hello lovelies! This week Matt has graced us with movie titles containing certain styles of pizza.

• 17a. [With “The,” 1987 Michael Cimino epic adapted from a Mario Puzo novel] SICILIAN. Sicilian pizza is usually square with thick, spongy dough almost like focaccia.
• 28a. [1999 comedy about kids trying to get to a KISS concert] DETROIT ROCK CITY. Detroit-style pizza is thick and cooked in a rectangular pan, usually topped with mozzarella or Wisconsin brick cheese.
• 36a. [First musical to win Best Picture since “Oliver!” in 1968] CHICAGO. Chicago-style pizza is usually round and deep-dish.
• 44a. [1944 musical starring Judy Garland] MEET ME IN ST LOUIS.  St. Louis-style involves a thin crust, sweet tomato sauce, and Provel cheese, and is cut into rectangles or squares.
• 58a. [Classic Disney cartoon with some questionable depictions of Native Americans] PETER PAN. Pan pizza is simply pizza cooked in a deep dish or pan. All of the above minus St. Louis-style are pan pizzas.

Other things:

• 63a. [Culinary knife cut that’s finer than julienne] BRUNOISE. The Brunoise cut involves cutting vegetables into 3mm strips (julienne cut), then cutting the strips into 3mm cubes.
• 11d. [“___ Martin: SAP” (2023 Netflix standup special)] MAE. The Canadian comic started their career at 13 and has written and/or starred in several TV shows, written a young adult novel, and is releasing their first studio album this week.

Until next week!

Christopher Youngs’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Let’s Chat”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar phrases that end in a word that is also a modern online chatting application.

Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Let’s Chat” · Christopher Youngs · Tue., 2.25.25

• 20a. [Dissension cause, from Greek myth] APPLE OF DISCORD.
• 29a. [Squads that may or may not participate in March Madness] BUBBLE TEAMS.
• 40a. [Feature controlled by adjusting telescopic lenses] OPTICAL ZOOM.
• 53a. [“Get off my case!”] “CUT ME SOME SLACK.”

I’m GenX and don’t work in an office setting, so I’m probably not in the target audience for this one. I’ve used Zoom a little bit, and my kids are on Discord, of course. I’ve heard of Teams and may have vaguely heard of Slack. Maybe. So I needed a few extra seconds post-solve to make sense of the theme.

Still, it’s a good theme. Don’t know that I’ve heard the phrase BUBBLE TEAMS, but it googles fine, and it was inferable from “on the bubble” which I have heard.

The grid sports some sizable corners with strong long fill, especially MARIO KART, KIDS MENU, BARCODES, CLEARED UP, ANTARCTIC, and DROPOUTS. We have a proper name mash-up on the left with RENEE crossing both DROGO and LOEB. If you’ve been solving for a while, those shouldn’t be too hard, but it still might be a sticking point.

Clues of note:

• 37d. [It might include small fries for small fry]. KIDS MENU. I tried KIDS MEAL here at first, and I contend that’s a better answer for the clue.
• 52d. [Bacon offering]. ESSAY. Pro tip: If you see “Bacon” in a WSJ clue, it’s probably about Francis Bacon.

3.5 stars.

Elizabeth C. Gorski’s Cr♥ssw♥rd Nation puzzle (Week 717), “Cut the Nonsense! “—Ade’s take

Crossword Nation puzzle solution, Week 717: “Cut the Nonsense!”

Hello there, everyone! Just saw a meme the other day that made me laugh, and it said: The month of January is so long that February is almost over. 

Today’s puzzle is far from claptrap gibberish, but it definitely comes together to form a lot of gobbledygook! The circles in the grid are broken up by black squares, and when those letters come together, they form a word that’s a synonym to “nonsense.” 

• • • • • SPICE RUB (17A: [Flavor-enhancing burger coating]) + BISHOP (18A: [Chess piece]) – Rubbish
        • CASABA (23A: [Honeydew alternative]) + LON (25: [Horror film star Chaney]) + EYER (26: [Watchful one]) – Baloney
        • CABAL (40A: [Conspiratorial group]) + DER (42A: [“___ Rosenkavalier” (Strauss opera)]) + DASHI (43A: [Japanese soup base]) – Balderdash
        • BRIG (52A: [Jail for a sailor]) + AMA (55A: [Physician’s org.]) + ROLEOS (57A: [Contests for lumberjacks]) – Rigamarole
        • QUAHOG (65A: [Cape Cod clam]) + WASHABLE (67A: [Laundry-safe]) – Hogwash

Can’t say that architecture is in my wheelhouse (far from it, actually), but definitely know Frank GEHRY and a few of his past words and recognition enough that that wasn’t too much of a bother for me while solving (11D: [Architect of the Walt Disney Concert Hall]). Had some really nice fill in this grid even with the many theme entries, from SOB STORY (13A: [Sympathy-evoking take]) to END GAME (28D: [Chess finale]). Last thought: I can honestly say that I did not know what a quahog was until I first started watching Family Guy when it first came on, and I’m hoping I’m not the first person who falls into this category. 

“Sports will make you smarter” moment of the day: BUTLER (24D: [Help around the house?]) – There are two schools in the 64-team NCAA Tournament era (since 1985) that have lost back-to-back national championship games. The “Fab Five” teams of the University of Michigan in 1992 and 1993 were one. The other? How about Butler University, the small located in Indianapolis. The Bulldogs made Cinderella runs to the national title game in both 2010 and 2011, led by then 33-year-old head coach Brad Stevens (now the president/GM of the Boston Celtics), but lost to Duke and Connecticut in those games. The 2010 championship game is remembered as having one of the great finishes in the history of the tournament, as Gordon Hayward’s buzzer-beating prayer from half-court to win it all almost went in!!

Thank you so much for the time, everybody! Have a wonderful and safe rest of your day and, as always, keep solving!

Take care!

Ade/AOK

Greg Snitkin’s New York Times crossword–Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 2/25/25 – no. 0225

This one’s for the horologists! The revealer is NOT ON MY WATCH, and the four theme answers end with parts of an analog watch: (BILLY) CRYSTAL, (DRUNK-)DIAL, (NUT)CASE, and (JAZZ) HANDS. Nice! The WATCH and its parts are all in the grid as rather unrelated things, enhancing the theme’s element of surprise.

Fave fill: DONEZO (slang for “done”–why? because it’s more fun to say!) and ZONKED.

Sort of tricky clue to parse: 63A. [Call it an early night?], DUSK. DUSK is the “it” in a clue. You can call DUSK “an early night” in that it’s the earliest part of night. Eh. Not my favorite clue.

Four stars from me.

Nate Cardin’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Jenni’s write-up

I enjoy Nate’s puzzles no matter what the difficulty level and this is a good example. Fun, consistent theme, smooth fill, and clues that are well-pitched for a Tuesday.

The theme answers:

Los Angeles Times, February 25, 2025, Nate Cardin, solution grid

• 19a [Bit of sidewalk art] is a CHALK DRAWING.
• 25a [Checking account problem] is an OVERDRAFT.
• 30a [Make one’s way to a previous location] is HEAD BACK.
• 48a [Shower gel] is BODY WASH.
• 56a [Ballpark buy that may come with a free pencil] is a SCORECARD.

And the revealer: 64a [High-level get-together, or an apt description of the pairing found in 19-, 25-, 30, 48-, and 56-Across?] is BOARD MEETING. Each half of every theme answer is a kind of BOARD. Nice!

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: never heard of Gus Kenworthy.

Rebecca Goldstein’s Universal Crossword, “Sounds Fun!” (ed. David Steinberg) — Matt F’s Review

Universal Solution 02.25.2025

Today’s theme is comprised of playful plurals. Sounds fun, right?! (See title, wink wink). Theme answers are triplets of the pluralized clues.

• 17A: [Faucets?] = TAP TAP TAP (faucets = taps)
• 329A: [Bores?] = DRIP DRIP DRIP (bores = drips)
• 44A: [Dents?] = DING DING DING (dents = dings)
• 60A: [Seats?] = PEW PEW PEW (seats = pews)

This is kind of like a rebus puzzle, where the theme answers have to be viewed as a collective set in order to make sense of the clues. I was unfamiliar with the bore/drip synonym, but it’s real. What I like most about this theme is the in-grid answers are standalone, recognizable onomatopoeias. What I found odd was the clue at 43D – [Apt rhyme for “bore”] – duping the theme clue at 29A. In typical Goldstein fashion, the fill is squeaky clean and lively. BIG IF TRUE, UTTER RUIN, DRAG KINGS, and even shorter fill like POP-SCI and DETOX all work to enliven this grid.

Paolo Pasco’s New Yorker crossword — pannonica’s write-up

New Yorker • 2/25/25 • Pasco • solution • 20250225

Felt fresh. Also felt pitched correctly for the “moderately challenging” puzzle.

• 19a [Something rarely ordered for dinner?] STEAK. I missed the wordplay at first, hesistatedly trying SALAD (which of course can easily be a dinner entrée).
• 23a [Round house?] BAR. More gustatory wordplay.
• 31a [Eyesore on a driveway] OIL STAIN. I can picture that.
• 32a [Court figures, informally] HOOPSTERS. Can’t recall seeing this in a crossword.
• 39a [Frames of thought?] VIDEO ESSAY. Nice one.
• 42a [Form into dreads] LOC. 37d [Description for some hair styles and senses of humor] TWISTED.
  
• 44a [Cause of a clogged artery?] TRAFFIC. Caught this one easily, just needed one crossing to confirm that the answer was TRAFFIC and not something similar.
• 50a [Coördinated activity with friends] GROUP DATE. Never change, The New Yorker, never change.
• 55a [Middle Eastern city on a namesake gulf] ADEN, YEMEN. Haven’t seen both the city and nation in an entry before.
• 1d [Paddington in Peru?] OSO. The clue is also the name of the most recent film in that franchise.
• 2d [Grippy, in a way] NON-SKID. Like certain tires, or socks. IYKYK.
• 3d [Another name for alla breve, in music) CUT TIME.
  
• 5d [“Should have waited before saying that”] SPOKE TOO SOON. A nice easy clue that opened up a large amount of grid real estate. Its symmetric partner is 20d [Casually discussed, as an idea] BATTED AROUND, for which I needed several crossing letters.
• 7d [ __ text (accessibility aid for online images)] ALT-. If you use Bluesky, there’s a setting you can change that requires ALT-text for any images you share. I recommend it.
• 8d [Hoped-for response to “Is this your card?”] YES. I didn’t quite understand this because I was thinking of business cards, but I just now see that it’s what a magician would say during a trick performance.
• 9d [Vehicle that was repurposed from private-jet boarding to everyday transport, in “Arrested Development”] STAIR CAR. I haven’t seen the (acclaimed) show, but the clue makes it pretty obvious what’s wanted. Figuring out the name of such a thing was another challenge.
• 12d [Rear-ended?] MOONED. We see versions of this fairly commonly nowadays, but this might be the most laconic cluing I’ve yet encountered.
• 39d [Parts of an impressionist’s repertoire] VOICES. Had NOISES for a bit.
• 45d [Volume-adjusting slider for a d.j.] FADER.
  
• 50d [“Be __, do crime” (slogan associated with queer anarchism)] GAY. We may see a resurgence of this in the coming years.
• 53d [Brian who co-wrote the book “What Art Does: An Unfinished Theory”] ENO. Kind of neat that the last clued entry contains “unfinished”. Alternatively, it could have been END, with the intersecting across entry referencing comedian REDD Foxx instead of an Edit menu’s REDO (58a). Factette: a redd is the name of the spawning ground and/or nest of various fishes, such as salmon.