Tuesday, April 15, 2025

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Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Now I Get It” — making you say the letter. – Erin’s write-up

Jonesin’ solution 4/15/25

Hello lovelies! This week’s puzzle involves the element of surprise…we’re adding OH to some common phrases.

• 17a. [Old arcade game where you eat dots from talc to diamond?] MOHS PACMAN (MS. PAC-MAN)
• 56a. [Ensure there’s only one presenter on any TV show?] CUT COHOSTS (CUT COSTS)
• 11d. [Setting that’s very Hawaiian?] ALOHA MODE (A LA MODE)
• 33d. [Crates in the Hundred Acre Wood?] POOH BOXES (PO BOXES)

Other things:

• 37d. [’60s dance craze] FRUG. According to library of dance.org, the Frug involves rhythmically shaking the hips to accompany arm movements like the Swim.
• 10a. [Rabanne of perfume and fashion] PACO. The brand dropped Paco from its name in 2023, the same year that Rabanne passed away.
• 10d. [Deep-fried South Asian snack] PAKORA. Vegetables (or meat) are dipped in spiced gram flour and fried to crispy deliciousness.

Until next week!

Noelle Griskey’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Log Splitting”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar phrases whose beginning and ending letters spell out types of TREEs (70a, [Source of logs, as featured in this puzzle]).

Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Log Splitting” · Noelle Griskey · Tue., 4.15.25

• 3d. [Fond recollection] CHERISHED MEMORY. Cherry.
• 9d. [been have into put these What words] ALPHABETIC ORDER. Alder. Ooh, I’m giving this one my sideiest side-eye ever. Does anybody really say this? I reeeeally wanted “alphabetical order”.
• 13d. [Pair with rings] MARRIED COUPLE. Maple.
• 14d. [Common rec room fixture] PING PONG TABLE. Pine.

Giving the second entry plenty of leeway, a solid theme. I love the structure of the grid as well with those two 13-letter entries using rows 2-14.

Smooth fill throughout. Maybe a little short in the sparkle department, but the easy fill allowed for a quick solve.

Clue of note: 9d. [been have into put these What words]. ALPHABETIC ORDER. Regardless of the entry, I enjoyed this crazy clue. The capital letter helped with doing the mental rearrangement.

3.25 stars.

Elizabeth C. Gorski’s Cr♥ssw♥rd Nation puzzle (Week 724), “Share and Share Alike!”—Ade’s take

Crossword Nation puzzle solution, Week 724: “Share and Share Alike!”

Hello there, everyone! Here’s hoping that your visits with your tax person/CPA went smoothly during tax season!  

We have another ladder featured where the second word in the first theme answer becomes the first work in the second theme answer, and that pattern continues until that very first word in the first theme becomes the last word in the final theme entry  Dos-i-do and away we go! 

• • • • BACKSPACE (17A: [Delete while typing])
      • SPACEBAR (26A: [Largest keyboard key])
      • BARBELL (33A: [Lifted thing in a gym])
      • BELL JAR (45A: [Protective glass case])
      • JARHEADS (52A: [Marines, slangily])
      • HEADS BACK (65A: [Starts making a return trip])

Definitely in the mood for some food with MEAT (15A: [Potatoes partner]), TACOS (3D: [“Tuesday” dinner fare]) and AREPA all being a part of the top portion of the grid (16A: [Venezuelan corn patty]). Though BACON doesn’t make me hungry at all because I’m not a fan of it, probably one of the few people you know who say that about the popular breakfast side (9A: [Strips for breakfast]). All of the 9-letter non-themed entries going down were good fill as well. I can definitely tell you that I will not be talking about a SCRUB in the next graph, though I had to switch things up at the last second (18D: [Cancel a deep-cleaning session?]). Of course, I’m using “scrub” in the sports sense (an unskilled ball player).

“Sports will make you smarter” moment of the day: CEASE  (2D: [Stop]) – I was all ready to go with some CARLOS Alcaraz love, but, at the time of writing this, I’m watching the Chicago Cubs play the San Diego Padres and the person pitching for the Padres is Dylan Cease. There were four no-hitters in Major League Baseball last season and Cease threw one of them, as he held the Washington Nationals without a hit in his nine innings of work during a 3-0 Padres victory on July 25, 2024. Before 2021, the Padres were the only active franchise in Major League history to never record a no-hitter, but now have recorded two in the past four years: Joe Musgrove on April 9, 2021, in Arlington, Texas, and Cease’s effort last summer in the nation’s capital.

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

Victor Schmitt’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Jenni’s write-up

This is a fun way to start Tax Day, if there is such a thing. Each theme answer has two sets of circles. Once I caught on to the pattern it sped up the solve.

Los Angeles Times, April 15, 2025, Victor Schmitt, solution grid

• 15a [With some exceptions] is IN CERTAIN CASES.
• 27a [Place to pick up tickets at a theater, perhaps] is the WILL CALL COUNTER. I presume the “perhaps” is there to ward off comments about the more usual WINDOW.
• 41s [Thin Mint or Trefoil] is a GIRL SCOUT COOKIE. Mmm. Thin Mints.

And the revealer: 55a [Goal of store loyalty programs, and what can be found in 15-, 27-, and 41-Across] is REPEAT BUSINESS. INC, LLC, CO. Nice!

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that Richard GERE appeared in “Sommersby.”

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

New Yorker • 4/15/25 • Tue • Pasco • solution • 20250415

Simply flew through this one. I thought perhaps that some of the sections with only medium-length entries might get a little rocky, but it was smooth sailing everywhere I turned my eye. Easiest ‘moderately challenging’ New Yorker crossword since I’ve been discussing theme here.

• 14a [California city that was home to the Auto Club Speedway] FONTANA. Had everything but the first letter by the time it came to reading the clue and I was expecting MONTANA, but no. Crossing 14d [Ultimate obstacles for gamers] FINAL BOSSES—feels as if we’ve been seeing a lot of this sort of clue/answer in crosswords lately—provided the correct letter.
  
• 19a [Finds a spot for someone else?] VALET PARKS. Cute, but I wasn’t misled for a moment.
• 34a [Ones driven on a camping trip?] TENT STAKES. Nice. Once again, I wasn’t fooled. The question marks were helpful in both cases.
• 40a [Make a recorder-like sound, e.g.] TOOTLE. 34d [Dot on an “i” or “j”] TITTLE. 8d [Dissimilar to] UNLIKE.
• 44a [Invertebrate such as a leech or earthworm] ANNELID. This was a gimme for me, but I suspect maybe not so for most solvers. But it’s fine because the grid was very fair with crossings throughout.
• 45a [Swathe] ENWRAP, although I was half-expecting ENROBE.
• 1d [Network whose logo is a stylized depiction of three heads in profile] PBS. Compare to the earlier 1971 version.
• 7d [North-pointing member of Ursa Minor] POLARIS. This clue doesn’t feel quite right to me. Polaris guides one north, but it doesn’t actually point that way. I’m probably being too nitpicky and narrowminded here.
• 11d [“Je Suis __ Legende” (French title for “I Am Legend”)] UNE. I found this clue hilarious.
  
• 16d [Gets the champagne flowing] POPS BOTTLES. I can’t see myself saying it that way, unqualified by something like “a few” or “some” but I guess it works.
• 26d [Blackmail, e.g.] SHAKEDOWN. Now a commonplace feature of the US Executive Branch.
  
• 31d [Offshoot of a climbing plant] TENDRIL. etymology (m-w.com): probably modification of Middle French tendron bud, cartilage, alteration of Old French tenrum, from Vulgar Latin *tenerumen, from Latin tener tender — more at TENDER entry 1. 12d [Soft paw part] PAD.
• 39d [Nickname for the title character of “Anora”] ANI. Finally we’re moving on from Star Wars here? I have yet to see this widely acclaimed film, and am looking forward to it eventually.

Per Bykodorov’s New York Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up

NYT • 4/15/25 • Tue • Bykodorov • solution • 20250415

It’s an anagram theme, with the revealer spanning the grid at Row 8.

• 35a^R [Not quite right … or a hint to this puzzle’s circled letters] CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR.
• 16a. [Like a film that’s both sad and funny] TRAGICOMIC.
• 22a. [Ben & Jerry’s flavor honoring a jam band legend] CHERRY GARCIA.
• 46a. [Genre for Gabriel Garcia Márquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude”] MAGIC REALISM. I would’ve omitted the author’s name so as to avoid duplication with a key element of the theme.
• 56a. [Online marketplace with a “barter” category] CRAIGSLIST.

Very straightforward, yes. My (unreported) solve time was only about 10 seconds faster than that for today’s New Yorker offering.

• 1d [March V.I.P.s?: Abbr.] SGTS. Slightly tricky clue, especially as we’re on the cusp of St Patrick’s Day.
• 3d [Cleaning product with a mythical name] AJAX. “Stronger than dirt!” Should it be mythological name?
• 5d [Performer at ozashiki parties] GEISHA. Per Wikipedia: “The term ozashiki combines the name for a banqueting room, zashiki (座敷), and the honorific prefix o- (お), changing the meaning to a term exclusively referring to the engagements a geisha takes.”
• 7d [Something heard through the grapevine] RUMOR.
  
• 11d [Wombs] UTERI, which is … something, coming right after 10d [Big name in fertilizers] MIRACLE-GRO. Maybe I’m just being weird.
• 21d [Fundamental] BASIC. 25d [Fundamentals] ABCS.
• 30d [Container for keys, wallet, razor, etc. in a modern portmanteau] MURSE, for man purse, evidently. I’ve seen the term before, but not often. Would a razor really be in there?
• 45d [Requests from] ASKS OF.
  
  (I’ve shared this before, but it’s good enough to spin again)
• 58d [“It’s not you, it’s me,” often] LIE. Truth.
• 6a [Beer pong locale] FRAT. Some rumblings in the comments about this. To me it sounds ok, as FRAT can be taken to mean frat house.
• 15a [ __ for sore eyes (www.optometrists.com?)] SITE. Ha-ha.
• 18a [Cactus __ (Arizona’s state bird] WREN.
  
• 30a [“Can’t you get someone else?”] MUST I. Nice work on the clue; really captures the essence of the phrase.
  
• 42a [Smells] ODORS. As ever, I am contractually obligated to highlight non-pejorative cluing for ODOR/S entries.
• 59a [Similar to] AKIN, crossing 47d [The same] ALIKE.

A very Tuesdayish puzzle, calibrated just right.