Joe Deeney’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 3/8/25 – no. 0308
Clue that mystified me for too long: 50D. [What’s added to one to make zero?], NOTA. Finally figured it out after setting up the blog post: Add “not a” before the word “one,” and “not a one” means zero, none. Did this perplex others?
I like the format of quad-stacked 10s in every corner, though not every 10 is great and some of the short crossings are a bit clunky. Fave fill: TIMEPIECES, IN BAD SHAPE, CLASSIC CAR, “LISTEN HERE,” SNOWSTORMS. OVERABOUND is a form of the word I don’t think I’ve seen before; abound, yes, and overabundant, yes. I couldn’t tell you what TEA DRESSES are, exactly; Bloomingdales will give you a bunch of mostly midi length dresses for that search query, but they’re floral, solid, black, short-sleeved, sleeveless, long-sleeved … no clear identity there, and the item descriptions don’t use the word “tea.” Tea length, that’s a thing.
Meh: ALTHO, historical MS-DOS, PASSED TIME (I want there to be “the” or “some” between the two words).
New to me: 56A. [L.G.B.T.Q. activist McDonald], CECE. Let’s look her up: CeCe McDonald was imprisoned for defending herself against an attack from a group of racist transphobes. Must’ve been so terrifying.
Not wild about GOOD OLE BOY. The attackers in the 56a mention weren’t Southerners, but similar vibe for me.
Erica Hsiung Wojcik & Matthew Stock’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up
Los Angeles Times 3/8/2025 by Erica Hsiung Wojcik & Matthew Stock
Some very interesting entries and clues in a grid with interesting diagonal symmetry! Some of my favorites:
- 16A [A lot for parents to manage?] is STROLLER PARKING, which is both a lively entry and a playful clue. A+
- 19A [One responsible for many of Starbuck’s orders] is AHAB — i.e., referring to the characters of AHAB and Starbuck from Moby-Dick. Very fun clue even if you’ve never read the novel and have no intention of doing so.
- 34A [Ackbar’s oft-quoted “Return of the Jedi” line] is IT’S A TRAP. It’s a fun entry, too.
- 38A [Communications service with an AI assistant named Gemini] is GMAIL. I find GMAIL one of the hardest entries to clue, because it’s so hard to define GMAIL without using the dupe “mail.” This clue does a good job of that.
- 57A [Freshwater salamander native to Mexico’s Lake Xochimilco] is AXOLOTL. Who doesn’t love looking at the letter combo in that word? (Also, I recently learned that plush AXOLOTL toys are A Thing now. Even Build-A-Bear has them.)
- 5D and 6D are two great clues in a row: [Ink smear?] for BAD PRESS and [Stage whisper?] for BREAK A LEG.
The one big needle scratch for me was the crossing of 2D RIGOBERTA MENCHU with 45A LIRE. I realize that the clue for the latter, [Old Italian coins], rules out LIRA (which is singular), but boy can it be hard to remember sometimes which one is singular and which is plural if you don’t speak Italian. This is one of those crossings that would really upset me if this were a tournament puzzle.
Zhouqin Burnikel’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Spout” — pannonica’s write-up
WSJ • 3/8/25 • Sat • “Spout” • Burnikel • solution • 20250308
Let’s reparse that title as SP-out, shall we?
- 22a. [Warning from a crude ship?] OILER ALERT (spoiler alert).
- 24a. [Periods between rounds of a boxing match] RING BREAKS (spring breaks).
- 50a. [Super-exciting instants?} LIT SECONDS (split seconds).
- 52a. [Corn harvester’s basket?] EAR CARRIER (spear carrier).
- 83a. [Protectors for some hair extensions?] LASH GUARDS (splash guards).
- 85a. [Diamond dealers?] ICE TRADERS (spice traders).
- 112a. [Show about star pitchers?] ACE PROGRAM (space program).
- 114a. [Final film versions?] ENDING CUTS (spending cuts).
I didn’t see the theme until after the grid was complete, and needed a few moments to figure it out.
- 2d [Sheds tears] CRIES, 31a [Sheds tears] SOBS, 69a [Shed tears] WEPT.
- 42d [“Farewell, mio amico!”] CIAO. 61a [“Farewell, mon ami”] ADIEU. Exclamation point discrepancy, or are Italians just more ebullient?
- 98d [Make a case] ARGUE. 94a [It’s up for debate] ISSUE.
- 15a [Result of inflation, perhaps] POP. 18a [Expanded] GREW. 21d [Keep from expanding] HEM IN.
- 30a [Mom-to-be’s test] AMNIO. 13d [Doc who truly delivers] OB-GYN.
- 35a [Approves or penalizes] SANCTIONS. One of those tricky contranymic words.
- 37a [Floors in an arena] KOS. Misled me for a couple of beats.
- 124a [Outperform] BEST. 74a [Winning by a point] UP ONE.
Apologies for not having more interesting things to say about this crossword. That’s more a reflection on myself this morning rather than anything intrinsic to the puzzle. And at the moment my internet is out, so we’ll see how long that takes to resolve.
… okay, it’s back (with a router reboot).
Matthew Sewell’s Newsday crossword, Saturday Stumper — pannonica’s write-up
Newsday • 3/8/25 • Saturday Stumper • Sewell • solution • 20250308
Pretty fast solve time this week!
Lets start at the end, shall we? The final section that I completed was the strip in the lower left, and the very last square was the crossing of 44d [What Malcolm X visited in Mecca] KAABA and 57a [Name on Milk & Cookies containers] BEN, which was a mystery to me until just this moment—it must be a new flavor of BEN & Jerry’s ice cream. So I had to remember the name of that giant cube-like structure, and I struggled a tiny bit to do that.
At 47a, I’d considered LOT for [Subdivision], which turned out to be ARM. And 44a [Gold standards] is a pretty straightforward clue for KARATS, but I’d considered IDEALS before acquiring more crossings. Likewise 41a [Marquee name] was simply MOVIE STAR. Pretty sneaky reverse psychology from the Stumper!
- 16a [Butter associated with spring] ARIES THE RAM might have fooled me were it not for crossings already in place.
- 21a [Hazel’s cousin] TAN.
- 24a [Cut-off cone confection] ROLO. The clue confused me, and I was definitely thinking about ice cream here. Anyway, the technical name for such a shape is a frustum.
- 27a [Pictogram on pants or pajamas] CARE LABEL. Nice entry.
- 31a [Subject of the media history Down to the Wire] UPI. I tried FBI first, and having the I in common did me no favors.
- 35a [Sting mitigation treatment] BEE VENOM THERAPY. I guess this is to build up a tolerance? Anyway, I was scratching my head trying to figure out how ANTI- could fit in three squares.
- 39a [Entanglements metaphor] MIRES. Uh, okay.
- 45a [Shortened texts] MSS, manuscripts.
- 48a [Some adopters] STEPFATHERS, not STEPPARENTS.
- 56a [Weather pattern seen on TV] NATIONAL MAP. 11d [They’ll tell you where to go] TRAVEL APPS.
- 58a [Bank roller] OTTER. That’s a fresh clue for a common crossword entry, but it’s Stumper-tenuous and couldn’t really fly anywhere else.
- 2d [Dieter’s address] HERR. It’s been a while since I saw this particular dieter/Dieter wordplay.
- 9d [Metal samples] DEMO TAPES. Lack of a question mark makes this clue tough.
- 10d [Hamilton, vis-a-vis General Washington] AIDE-DE-CAMP.
- 12d [Much-copied poster art] MEMES. Not the kind of poster one hangs on a wall.
- 14d [Oral exam excerpts] AHS. Good misdirection.
- 28d [“We shall never be able to see __ themselves”: Heisenberg] ATOMS. This is from 2021, itself an improvement on a 2018 effort. More than three years later, there may be something better coming soon.
- 43d [Welsh-born couturiere] Laura ASHLEY.
- 51d [In tribute to] FOR, not À LA.
All in all, toward the easier end of the Stumper spectrum, with a generous amount of toehold entries, including: END IT, ATT, SWAP, NORI, NYSE, ESTATE. (38a, 60a, 1d, 7d, 34d, 42d)
I solved the puzzle without understanding nota. Thanks for the explanation!
I’m done
I had “nine” for the longest time which I thought was such a clever clue/riddle, because I envisioned 1+9 gives you 10, so you’ve “made” a 0 next to the 1 you already had by adding 9.
My first try was AN EN because N + ONE = NONE
Me too
A stroll down memory lane in NYT fill— UTNE, SERTA, NENE, ORCA, EYRE, STETSON, MSDOS… but I suppose that’s better than a lot of popcult.
NYT: NOTA as clued is really bad IMO. I really struggled with the SE in general. Never heard of ABDI, and I had a lot of trouble seeing POEM and EYRE. But, except for NOTA, the rest of my struggles were very appropriate for Saturday.
The Japanese antonym clue was like random garbled letters…could have just gone with Bali ___.
NYT: I generally found it to be easier than a typical Saturday, and enjoyed some of the long entries. NOT A made me smile I think it was a nice alternative to something like NOTA Bene.
I did not love ABDI as clued. It’s technically acceptable, but it really means “my servant” or can be thought of as a derivative name in some Arabic speaking countries.
The word ABD means servant or slave. You often see Abdul in English but if you’re Arabic-speaking it makes no sense on its own. It needs to precede Allah, as in Abdullah or Abdallah meaning the servant of God. So two words ABD and Allah and the U or A is a short sound used as connector: “Servant o god”. It’s like someone gave you “Servanto” as a single word entry.
There’s a Somali actor named Barkhad Abdi. Nominated for an Oscar for his debut in “Captain Phillips” as a modern pirate.
Cool! I need to look that up. Some Somali Arabic may be a bit different from what I’m used to.
I’m with you regarding NOT A… I liked it a lot. For Brit Lit orphan, I couldn’t get Oliver! out of my head, and it took EY to get EYRE. The TEA DRESSES was weird, because just yesterday we had SUNDRESS, which if it hadn’t been an entry, I would’ve immediately plunked down. The SE corner was the last to fill for me, but was still faster than my average time.
I’d agree that the NYT was easy for a Saturday but also interesting a fresh (even with old references). I liked all the clues to which people have objected as good Saturday kind of trickery. I suspect part of why NOT A took me so long is that I was looking for an addition to come at the end, but all the better.
The objection to ABDI is fascinating, and thank you for it. I’d just caution that to my untrained ear the objection sounds a lot like mistaking etymology for usage. I wouldn’t care at all if Abdul itself squeezed meanings into a name.
Stumper: classic super hard puzzle, though surprised I got through it as fast as I did! Though I finished with two wrong squares that I would never have been able to find: the crossings of KARATS/VIVA/KAABA. I had CARETS. I can never remember the difference, and VIVE and CAABA looked perfectly fine to me.
A carat is named for a carob seed, which has a remarkably consistent weight of around 200 milligrams. It was used as a standard of commerce in ancient times. So the unit of gem weight is carat.
Yes, karat, the unit of gold purity, is derived from carat, but is a bit further removed from carob. Not the most elegant mnemonic device, but maybe it will help.
yeah, fast start
ooops, impossible and then out of the blue the puzzle was solved in less time than average
some answers bubbled up from the depths or i never finish this puzzle, never mind in a better than average time
NYT: Are most ports in fact REDS? If we’re talking vintage ports, yes, but I think the stereotypical port is an aged tawny.
Tawny ports are reds. It’s just the trade term for a blend of ports, as opposed to a vintage port. The non-reds are white ports. They’re fairly rare in most stores.
Ah, thanks.
NYT was significantly faster for me than yesterday’s. I put in HAI instantly, because what else could it be? OTOH, I’m not sure what the Spanish phrase cluing DOS means — ‘why not both’, maybe? OVERABOUND sounds iffy, to my ear. Overabundance, sure, but I haven’t come across a verb form. The NW section was the last to fall, but I was helped by putting in ATTA quickly – it’s word that I hadn’t seen until pretty recently but now it seems to overabound in crosswords.
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/why-not-both-why-dont-we-have-both
OK, but why Spanish?
I believe the commercial featured Spanish speech with English subtitles, but am not sure.
Thanks. I didn’t click through all the stuff on the webpage…
Woohoo. It’s the one night a year when Spelling Bee is available at 11:00 PM Pacific. I can’t wait.
I also found the Stumper pretty straightforward this week, but I have a couple of questions: What ‘force unit’ is MPS? And is it true that every QB throw is an ATT(empt)? What about throwing out of bounds or spiking the ball? There’s also the penalty for intentional grounding, where the ball is not thrown toward a receiver.
My best guess for [Force unit] is military police, which is not the greatest clue/answer combo.
That’s probably correct, and I agree that it’s not great.
If a QB deliberately throws the ball out of bounds or into the ground, it still counts as an “attempt,” unless the play is nullified by a penalty. Intentional grounding counts as an attempt because the penalty doesn’t nullify the play.
The only exception I can think of is a “backward pass,” which, statistically, is treated the same as a hand-off.
Thanks for the explanation. I figured there must be rules about how the numerous stats are compiled, but I wasn’t aware of how an ‘attempt’ was defined.
Stumper: has GIVE for 36D and couldn’t bring myself to change it, what with the “v” working so nicely. As in, “give me an A”
Stumper: Maybe it’s my morning brain fog being a little worse than usual, but I found it to be fairly hard. Between the two of us (my husband and I), however, we did it. I didn’t like 56A “weather pattern” for “national map” — that’s really stretching the word “pattern.” Same for 58A’s “bank roller” for “otter.” I’ve never heard of using “tin can” for a car (17D), only a WWII Navy ship.
NYT: This was the *easiest* Saturday NYT puzzle that I can recall ever solving.
Alas, thanks to a couple of typos, it was not my fastest by a long shot. But the long answers turned out to be surprisingly easy to guess with few or no letters.
Not a complaint! It was lotsa fun racing through this. And many clues were very cute.
First I thought what is added to one to make zero might be AN EN.
Nope, that doesn’t fit. After a long time it dawned that it’s NOT A one = zero.
NYT: Agreed with Amy. Not a bad puzzle at all, but I’d have rather had fewer 10-letter entries but have them all sparkle like yesterday’s.
I thought you made none by adding ANEN
I thought the NYT was enjoyable, and I am not as sensitive to dupes as some, but DOS beside MSDOS seemed odd to me. I realize the meanings are wildly different.