Malaika Handa’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 3/7/25, no. 0307
You know when you misread a word in a clue and you’re perplexed as hell by the answer that emerges in the grid? I read 51A. [Seat of power in Westeros] as being about Westerns, not the Game of Thrones region of Westeros. When I had THRONE, I was still working crossings to piece the IRON THRONE answer together while thinking about Wild West sheriffs. Oops!
The fill has a fun girl-time vibe. Go for a BRA FITTING (10D. [Service for someone who needs support?]). Wear your SUNDRESS. Use your PALETTES to get the right mix of eyeshadow hues. Meet your friends at a bar before the OLIVIA RODRIGO concert and sip APPLETINIS in lieu of going on any of those dreaded BLIND DATES.
Other fave fill: SHOWDOWNS, the combination of NO WISER and OH I SEE NOW (you see how NOWISER is a letter off from NOW I SEE?), MOONSTONE, DONUT SHOP, ALONE TIME. Plus WNBA player Angel REESE, who plays for the Chicago Sky.
Today I learned: 48D. [Mother’s mother, in Cantonese], POPO. That wasn’t in the Karissa Chen novel, Homeseeking, which has chapters in 1930s-2000s Shanghai, Taiwan, and Hong Kong (and the U.S.), with bits of the distinct languages in each. It’s a good read!
4.25 stars from me.
Julius Tausig’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up
LAT • 3/7/25 • Fri • Tausig • solution • 20250307
Letter insertion theme today.
- 64aR [Accepted defeat, and what 17-, 24-, 40- and 51-Across did?] TOOK THE L.
- 17a. [Hideout that’s not very hidden?] OPEN LAIR (open air).
- 24a. [Times of year for competitive baking?] FLOUR SEASONS (four seasons).
- 40a. [Hip-hop subgenre dedicated to the woes of hair loss?] BALD RAP (bad rap).
- 51a. [Assorted barrettes and clips?] HAIRPIN BLEND (hairpin bend). Ngrams respectably vs hairpin turn.
These all work just fine, and the revealer is perfect.
- 1d [First commercial synthesizer maker] MOOG. Remember, pronounced with a long-o sound.
- 5d [Longtime KGB spycraft enemy] CIA. Seemingly not so much the case currently.
- 8d [Contract endorser] SIGNEE. What’s the difference between a SIGNEE and a signer?
- 30d [Like an ancient obelisk] MONOLITHIC. Symmetrical to 11d [Small rabbit] COTTONTAIL. Both are solid fill that I haven’t seen before.
- 35d [Public health org.] CDC. Now enfeebled.
- 58d [Weird or cringe, in Gen Alpha slang] OHIO. Here’s the background.
8a [Manatee] SEA COW. Was at the post office today and picked up some commemorative stamps; narrowed it down to manatee and Allen Toussaint then decided on the latter.- 16a [Like enigma machine messages] IN CODE. Not my favorite entry. Marginally better is 61a [Split] IN HALF.
- 57a [Garden party?] GNOME. That’ll work.
- 69a [Turn on the charm?] INCANT. Clever.
Gary Larson and Amy Ensz’s Universal crossword, “Me First”—Jim’s review
Theme answers were originally common words, but the letters ME have been added to the beginnings, thus causing re-parsing and crossword wackiness.
Universal crossword solution · “Me First” · Gary Larson and Amy Ensz · Fri., 3.7.25
- 17a. [Butcher shop burglary?] MEAT HEIST. Me + atheist. Good one.
- 25a. [Photos of the mass transit system?] METRO PICS. Me + tropics. Solid.
- 37a. [Important piece in a fancy chess set?] METAL KING. Me + talking. Not sure that metal = fancy, but whatever.
- 51a. [Nothing more than pains?] MERE ACHES. Me + reaches. Sometimes those aches aren’t so mere.
- 62a. [Flavor enhancer?] MEAL ADD-IN. Me + Aladdin. I like this one, but mainly because I’m imagining it as a line from a confused Tarzan, “Me, Aladdin. You, Jane.”
Pretty good, yeah? I like that each addition causes a complete restructuring of the entry for maximum unexpectedness. Good wordplay and not without humor. Nice theme.
In the fill, I don’t know that PLAYSUIT is a phrase that people use, but I do like TELEPORT, BURRITO, “AW HECK,” TEST DAY, and PURLOIN. Some tough fill: Spanish BESO, old actress YVETTE Mimieux, and actor ELIAS Koteas.
Clue of note: 67a. [Shade provider on a house]. EAVE. Really, how much shade do the eaves provide? Some, I suppose, but that’s not their primary purpose.
Solid grid. 3.5 stars.
NYT: I generally found it pretty easy for a Friday, except I go stuck with an error, an E instead of R
In fact, I had NOW I SEE instead of NO WISER, crossing OH I SEE NOW (!) and kept wondering how that can be… Ironically, I could not SEE where my error was. I’m blaming the brutal dental work on my wisdom tooth for my addled brain.
Some parts of this flowed like a Tuesday for me, and even total stabs in the dark would turn out to be right. I too liked the girly vibe.
PS. Are there really 50 ratings already for this puzzle, or is there a glitch? It looks like the ratings from Thursday are transposed to Friday??
Oops, had the wrong date in the header codes and we were thus displaying the ratings for yesterday’s puzzles instead. Dave should be able to relocate the 3/6 ratings from after ~10:26 pm to the 3/7 puzzle(s). Thanks for mentioning the problem, Huda!
Annoyed out of proportion by the grammar of “Split” and IN HALF. It doesn’t quite fit!
It bugged me as well (LAT).
What’s the issue?
NYT: Loved this Friday puzzle. For me, a little easier Friday makes me smile 😎. Thanks Malaika for helping me start my day! Shout out to Drew University men’s basketball team making their first ever appearance in the D3 NCAA tournament this afternoon.
just loved the nyt. i’m a 40 something straight dude and loved the 20-something girl vibe on this one.
just such a nice change. more from this constructor coming I hope!
Fun and fast; I only got tripped up because I had MOOdSTONE instead of MOONSTONE giving me ROTTEd not ROTTEN… anyway, still a pretty fast Friday. I had tried RAFTS early on, but BRAF looked wrong so I took it out until near to the end.
It’s a fun little rabbit trail, speculating on whether that D allows for a legit alternate solution to the puzzle.
Yeah, the clue for MOO(N/D)STONE felt like a bit of a stretch… “rock” makes sense, but I’m not sure how “glam” applies to a moonstone… oh well :-) ROTTEN feels like the better answer over ROTTED; I had put MOOdSTONE in first so that how I ended up with it.
Well said.
for anyone who hasn’t encountered these: here’s the constructor’s website (where you can sign up for email notifications for her new puzzles), and she makes pop-culture-forward midis for the vulture 10×10. love a malaika puzzle!
Very well made NYT, although harder for me than the typical Friday, mostly likely because I’m an old dude. Do you really put plain GHEE on parathas? Malaika would know, I imagine, but it seems odd to me. And PHONO as an abbreviation for the thing you use to play LPs was new to me. But it was all gettable and fair.
I’m not sure I buy ‘wax off’ for WANE. It’s cute but doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
You do put ghee on parathas as you cook them, and when they are done.
I am curious: What is the reason for separating out only the butterfat portion of butter to use as ghee?
Ghee is just super-clarified butter. You heat the butter in a moderate oven long enough to separate out the milk solids and boil off the water. I leave a 6-pound batch in a 225-degree oven for seven hours and then strain it though cheesecloth.
The strained ghee has many advantages over butter for cooking. It can be heated to deep-frying temperature without burning, since it’s the milk solids that burn. It can be stored for months at room temperature, since the protein components that turn rancid are gone. It takes on a butterscotch aroma that makes the kitchen smell wonderfully.
I use ghee for sauteing salmon, cooking all manners of fish à la meunière, and of course in Indian cuisine. Fried breads, like pooris, are much nicer fried in ghee rather than oil. Anytime a French recipe calls for clarified butter, ghee works well. And when a mixture of oil and butter is called for, “to prevent the butter from burning,” ghee is a better-tasting alternative. It’s great for sauteing mushrooms, for instance.
Martin i always love reading your food comments!
I didn’t misread Westeros, just figured it must be new terminology for Western, known and caring zilch about Game of Thrones. That with POPO and REESE made this my last corner. Indeed, the layout with stacks in each corner separated by the long central entry, a name I didn’t know, made this anything but the easy Friday others found. I needed all the crossings for that entry and worked the quadrants separately, clockwise from the SW.
NYT: Excellent puzzle, though having a popculture trivium unknown to me as the central entry does detract from my fun a bit.
oh, wow, pannonica, i used to listen to that andrea parker album a BUNCH back when it was newer. great pull
The fill has a fun girl-time vibe. Go for a BRA FITTING (10D. [Service for someone who needs support?]). Wear your SUNDRESS. Use your PALETTES to get the right mix of eyeshadow hues. Meet your friends at a bar before the OLIVIA RODRIGO concert and sip APPLETINIS in lieu of going on any of those dreaded BLIND DATES.
Nicely done!