Friday, April 11, 2025

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Jesse Guzman’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s write-up

This young constructor (a college student) is on the roster for the Boswords Spring Themeless League. Haven’t seen his byline yet after five weeks, so it’s coming up soon. (If you’re a fan of themelesses, you should consider the Boswords fall and spring themeless tournaments, basically eight weeks on Monday nights. You can choose your difficulty level–the Stormy level is usually around the Saturday NYT level, sometimes harder, but there are Choppy and Smooth, too.)

NY Times crossword solution, 4/11/25 – no. 0411

Looking at 1-Across, you might question whether COCA-COLAS can properly be pluralized. They do have assorted fruity varieties, like a new orange cream Coke, so I vote yes, this is kosher fill. Certainly “I drank three Cokes” is reasonably worded; maybe Coca-Colas works that way too?

Fave fill: BAR TRIVIA, SLAM POETS, SPINACH (I’m on a spinach kick lately), ICE PLANET, ART MAJOR, CARPOOL, SEXAHOLICS, “I’LL WAIT,” DEAD LAST.

A few other things:

• 9D. [Creature with over 200 tiny eyes along its shell]. I did just hear or read somewhere that the SEA SCALLOP has a ton of eyes. Can it possibly have been on Top Chef? They were cooking some scallops last week.
• Today’s federal gulp: 50D. [Org. that’s busy after disasters], FEMA. Wondering how well disaster-struck folks will be helped by a weakened FEMA after they’ve lost hundreds of staff.
• 53D. [Site with shops from around the world], ETSY. I recently ordered an item from an Etsy crafter, and a week after she shipped it, USPS tracking said that the parcel hadn’t left Minnesota. I contacted the crafter and she said she’d sew another one and send it along. Minnesota nice! Of course, after she shipped the replacement, the original package arrived. If you’re in the market for a tariff-free neck pillow, do check out Nana’s Sewing Hut.
• Not sure I knew that a SNAP STORY (59A. [Certain ephemeral social media post, informally]) was a thing, but Instagram and Facebook have ephemeral posts called Stories, so why wouldn’t Snapchat?

Four stars from me.

Zachary Edward-Brown’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up

LAT • 4/11/25 • Fri • Edward-Brown • solution • 20250411

• 53d^R [Bold poker play, and an apt title for this puzzle] ALL IN. The trigram ALL has been added to phrases, to wacky effect.
• 18a. [Performance in which dancers avoid center stage?] SIDE BALLET (side bet).
• 31a. [Fearlessness shared by characters such as Rocky and Rambo?] HEART OF STALLONE (heart of stone). Does heart = fearlessness? I see that m-w includes ‘courage’ in sense 4c here, but I remain marginally skeptical.
• 40a. [Decide it’s time to harvest oniony bulbs?] CALL THE SHALLOTS (call the shots). Nothing about alliums, hmm.
• 58a. [Vehicle built for Yao Ming and Shaq?] TALLMOBILE (T-Mobile).

Pretty standard fare.

• 5d [Starchy dish that requires attentive stirring] RISOTTO. My brain malfunctioned and I entered RICOTTA when I had all the matching letters between those two answers.
• 11d [“Black-ish” star Tracee __ Ross] ELLIS. Perhaps this similar name is why the crossing 16a ELLA is clued as the echolalic [Syllables repeated in Rihanna’s “Umbrella”] rather than what we usually see?
• 31d [Taiwanese electronics co.] HTC, which stands for High Tech Computer Corporation.
• 33d [“Let your __ flag fly”] FREAK.
• 41d [Construction girder] T BEAM. Ooh, change-up.
• 42d [The “Paper City” of Massachusetts] HOLYOKE. “During the late 19th century the city produced an estimated 80% of the writing paper used in the United States and was home to the largest paper mill architectural firm in the country, as well as the largest paper, silk, and alpaca wool mills in the world. Although a considerably smaller number of businesses in Holyoke work in the paper industry today, it is still commonly referred to as ‘The Paper City'” (Wikipedia)
  
• 47d [Brand of chips] INTEL. Fooled me well enough.
• 59d [Critter under Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Texas] BAT. Specifically Tadarida brasiliensis, Mexican free-tailed bats. It’s the world’s largest urban population of bats. And as you might guess from the name, it has a minimal uropatagium (even if you don’t know that word).
• 17a [Place for Jazz players to practice] UTAH. A rather large place. Note the capitalization, indicating that it’s the sports team we’re talking about.
• 22a [Some flight destinations] ATTICS. Li’l tricksy.
• 45a [WWII craft] E-BOAT, which is what the British called some German surface ships, E standing for enemy.
• 51a [Purchase that’s worth a shot] CAMERA. Tricksy again.

Sarah Butkovic’s Universal crossword, “Car Lift”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar names and phrases that start or end with a make of car turned vertically. The revealer is DRIVES UP A WALL (51a, [Irritates to no end … and a hint to the starred clues’ answers]).

Universal crossword solution · “Car Lift” · Sarah Butkovic · Fri., 4.11.25

• 20a. [*”Today” co-host from 2008-2019] KATHIE LEE GIF(FORD).
• 25a. [*Avoid a sticky situation] (DODGE) A BULLET.
• 46a. [*1965 No. 1 Beach Boys hit] “HELP ME, R(HONDA).

Fun theme with a great revealer. The only nit I would pick is that for the second one, it would have been a little more elegant if the car make was hidden within another word like the others. For example, Audi could’ve been hidden in “audio visuals” or something, but then of course, that messes with the symmetry with HONDA on the other side. Other than that, I enjoyed the revealer and the aha moment it provided.

Solid long fill with NORA DUNN, CASEWORK, and COMPLAIN. I haven’t come across the term DROP SETS [Exercise technique that involves gradually reducing the load], but knowing me, that’s probably not all that surprising.

Clue of note: 39a. [Took a shot, say]. DRANK. My brain was stuck thinking the clue was a synonym for “attempted” but that’s my own problem. Good clue.

Nice puzzle. 3.5 stars.