Monday, March 10, 2025

Patti Varol’s New York Times crossword— Sophia’s write-up

Theme: DOUBLE BACK – each theme answer’s second word is a reduplicative word.

New York Times, 03 10 2025, By Patti Varol

• 17a [Girl of classic comics who sported ringlets and a red outfit] – LITTLE LULU
• 24a [Producer of the “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast] – TEAM COCO
• 32a [Entertaining, as opposed to disturbing] – FUNNY HAHA
• 45a [Words on a Little League dad’s T-shirt, perhaps] – PROUD PAPA
• 51a [“A Star Is Born” co-star (2018)] – LADY GAGA
• 63a [Turn around and return … or a feature of 17-, 24-, 32-, 45- and 51-Across?] – DOUBLE BACK

There’s an impressively dense amount of theme material here – six theme answers in a Monday-quality grid is tough to do. Some of the theme answers felt very timely – TEAM COCO (well, really just Conan) hosted the Oscars last weekend, and LADY GAGA was the host and musical guest of SNL yesterday. I was not familiar with LITTLE LULU and spent some time wondering how I was going to fit “Little Orphan Annie” into that slot – hey, she’s also a comic strip character with curls and a red dress! Because that answer was the first one I encountered, I wasn’t able to use the “double back” theme to figure it out on my first pass, but it was certainly helpful later.

Fill highlights: DRY DOCK, SIDECAR, Jason BATEMAN, TARDIS

Things that might be tricky for some folks: SMEW (I was unfamiliar with this, it’s a type of duck), IONA University, UHURA from Star Trek.

Clue highlights: [___ La Table (high-end cookware shop)] for SUR, [___ Jackson Jr., “Cocaine Bear” actor] for OSHEA – I just like the “Cocaine Bear” shout-out :)

Kevin Christian & Andrea Carla Michaels’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Decked Out”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar phrases that end in a word that is also the name of a card game. The revealer is “WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?” (40a, [“Why so worried?” (and a hint to the last words of 17-, 24-, 51- and 64-Across)]).

Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Decked Out” · Kevin Christian & Andrea Carla Michaels · Mon., 3.10.25

• 17a. [Chain that claims to have invented the deep-dish] PIZZERIA UNO.
• 24a. [Possible result of an international economic dispute] TRADE WAR.
• 51a. [Fireplace utensil] HOT POKER.
• 64a. [Valentine’s Day couple] SWEETHEARTS.

Smooth and straightforward theme for a Monday. Nothing complicated, but we get lively answers to get our solving week rolling.

I always thought the pizza chain was just Uno’s but I guess that’s just the familiar name. Actually, Wikipedia says the PIZZERIA UNO name is no longer current as the name was changed to Uno Pizzeria & Grilll.

Moving on to the fill, STARSTRUCK is wonderful though REAR WHEELS is less so, especially with a clunky clue [Auto movers in most pre-2000 cars] (though I can’t think of anything better at the moment).

Clues of note:

• 49d. [Mass producer?]. PRIEST. I guess if you think of the ceremony as a production, than sure, it works.
• 56d. [Sinister professor at Hogwarts]. SNAPE. Ah, but is he, though?

Solid Monday outing. 3.5 stars.

Jess Shulman & Amie Walker’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Los Angeles Times 3/10/25 by Jess Shulman & Amie Walker

There’s a lot of trash in this puzzle, but the puzzle itself is a gem, if you know what I mean. The revealer at 64A [Taunts between teams, or an apt description of 16-, 29-, and 48-Across?] is TRASH TALK, because each of the puzzle’s theme entries begins with a synonym for TRASH:

• 16A [Collection of personal clippings] is SCRAPBOOK.
• 29A [Puppies born together] is LITTERMATES.
• 48A [Last minutes of a blowout game] is GARBAGE TIME.

Really nice, evocative theme entries in which SCRAP, LITTER, and GARBAGE have some drift from their literal TRASH meanings.

But I think this puzzle’s real achievement is that it’s easy without being boring. The fill is just about as clean as you can ask for on Monday, with no clunkers — and a good bit of it is actively fun stuff like MARTINI BAR, ROCK WALL, MAKE ME. Superb.

Kim Alswager’s Universal crossword, “Look Around” — pannonica’s write-up

Universal • 3/10/25 • Mon • “Look Around” • Alswager • solution • 20250310

I feel pretty good for sussing out the theme before arriving at the revealer.

• 62a^R [Agree, or a hint to each starred clue’s answer] SEE EYE TO EYE. C-I to I. Maybe I was helped along by encountering 31-down midway through the solve: [Hosp. area] ICU?
• 16a. [*Clouds in a mackerel sky] CIRROCUMULI.
• 30a. [*U.S. city home to the most chili parlors per capita] CINCINNATI. I’ve never in my life encountered a chili parlor.
• 46a. [*Dino who’s the only undrafted player in NHL history with more than 600 goals] CICCARELLI.

I liked this spin on the bracketing-letters type theme.

• 10d [“The fourth state of matter”] PLASMA. Why is the clue in quotes?
• 17d [Shoe with 13 holes] CROC. Trivia!
• 21d [Summon] SEND FOR.
  
  (great music but awful sentiments)
• 27a [The only birds with calf muscles] EMUS. Interesting bit of trivia. I would have thought that other large ratites would possess them too. I would expect then, that emus might be the outgroup from all the others. Going to check a cladogram … and the answer is a resounding no. In fact, it’s a sister taxon to cassowaries, buried rather deep into the lineage. Estimates say that flightlessness evolved several times within the group (from three to six, at least), so there’s a lot of convergence going on. Anyway, the upshot is that either calf muscles in emus are a recent development, or that all the other species have lost them. The more parsimonious explanation is the former.
• 28a [Music player originally sold for $399] IPOD. Not really an interesting clue. I mean, technology almost always tends to go down in price, often drastically.

Natan Last’s New Yorker crossword—Amy’s recap

New Yorker crossword solution, 3/10/25 – Natan Last

In brief—

Fave fill: ICE SPICE, A REAL PAIN (which I want to see), SCHIST, GOSPEL, BABY GATES, MINI-MOON (short honeymoon), CINDERELLA TEAMS.

Didn’t know as a fact but I’ve heard of the place, plus it is/was a local brand of butter cookies you could put on your fingers like rings: [City that briefly served as the Kingdom of Italy’s de-facto capital during the Second World War], SALERNO.

Did not know: [Bernadette Mayer’s “Incandescent War Poem ___”], SONNET. A “poem sonnet,” you say?

Four stars from me.

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword # 1764 — Eric’s review

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1764 — 3/10-/25

A fairly quick one this morning, though I did finish with one incorrect letter.

Despite immediately plugging in SELL at 1D [Bears do it], I found the NW corner a bit challenging. So I moved to the NE, where a number of answers came quickly, including TUDOR, ADORE and the wonderful Saoirse RONAN.

There’s mostly nice stuff throughout the grid:

• 14A [Cubist pioneer?] ERNŐ RUBIK Despite the question mark, I was fooled into thinking about painters for a while.
• 22A [It’s not working most of the time] SEMI-RETIREMENT I’ve been fully retired for several years (unless you count this volunteer gig). I don’t miss the world of full-time work.
• 32A [Saltwater creature] SEA FISH This seems a bit green-painty, with SALTWATER FISH being perhaps more common. This is where I erred, thinking that 25D [Bones in the classroom] was OSTA rather than OSSA.
• 43A [Liverpool rival] MANCHESTER CITY That’s in the English Premier League — soccer for anyone less-interested in sports than I am. I didn’t remember this offhand, but with a few crosses, Manchester came to mind.
• 7D [___ theory (human development through imitation concept)] MIMETIC I wasn’t familiar with this concept, which was developed by a French historian and philosopher, René Girard.
• 9D [___ et Miquelon (isl. off the coast of Newfoundland)] ST. PIERRE I first learned of this archipelago from Peaky Blinders. 
• 10D [Fight of the Century participant] MUHAMMAD ALI It’s rare but nice to see Ali’s full name in a grid. The clue refers to a 1971 bout between Ali and Joe Frazier, at Madison Square Garden.
• 28D [Foxgloves] DIGITALIS I needed a few crosses to remember this one.
• 30D [“Regardless …”] IN ANY CASE
• 42D [Jet that debuted in the ’70s] DC TEN. I’ve never seen the 10 spelled out in this context.