Friday, April 18, 2025

Greg Snitkin & Glenn Davis’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s write-up

NY Times crossword solution, 4/18/25 – no. 0418

I didn’t solve optimally for speed here. Instead, I clicked through all the Acrosses first rather than building off an Across answer by working all its Down crossings. If you are looking to get faster, try building on what you have before you venture into trying to break into new areas.

Lots to like here. Fave fill: “DIAL IT BACK,” BARBIECORE, PLAY IT COOL, DOUBLE OR NOTHING, ROCK BOTTOM, “SURE, WHY NOT?”, LONDON ZOO, LIBERTY BELL, FIGHTS DIRTY, AMERICANO coffee.

Entirely new to me: 63A. [Football maneuver involving a fake handoff], PLAY ACTION. I read the clue to my husband and he replied, “Play action?” So I guess it isn’t obscure to football fans.

I didn’t know that TALC was a [Common additive in chewing gum], and it makes me want to give up gum.

Today I learned: 14D. [Arabic name that means “wealthy”], YASIR. Huda, any insights or anecdotes inspired by this one?

Four stars from me.

Doug Peterson’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up

LAT • 4/18/25 • Fri • Peterson • solution • 20250418

• 47a^R [Groups that do prep work ahead of an event, and a directive followed by this puzzle’s theme answers?] ADVANCE TEAMS. Not sure how adequate that is as a description of what’s going on here. Simply put, team names are placed in front of their locations, an inversion of the way they’re normally presented. In the process, nouns become verbs.
  § Okay, I’ve thought about it some more and decided that the description works well enough.
• 20a. [Sends an invoice to an upstate New York municipality?] BILLS BUFFALO (Buffalo Bills, NFL)
• 28a. [Makes hostile comments online about Alberta’s biggest city?] FLAMES CALGARY (Calgary Flames, NHL).
• 42a. [Gamely faces the heat and humidity in Georgia’s capital?] BRAVES ATLANTA (Atlanta Braves, MLB).

Usually in these sorts of things, if one of the big four North American professional sports leagues is omitted, it’s ice hockey, but in this instance the NBA is the odd one out. There are several basketball teams that would work for the theme, with the best choices by my reckoning as Nets, Bucks, Hawks, Spurs. Of those, only the Hawks would fit in the space occupied by the revealer, and Atlanta was already used. Remember also that the LAT doesn’t provide titles for its crosswords, so you can see why the decision was made thusly.

• 8d [Roar producer] SURF. 1d [Beach creature] CRAB.
• 9d [“Arrival” star] AMY ADAMS.
  
• 21d [“There ya go!”] BAM. >narrows eyes<
• 31d [Ear piece?] CANAL. Needed most crossings here.
• 37d [Instrument often paired with a harpsichord] BASS VIOL. I found this passage on the Wikipedia page about viols: “The bass viola da gamba remained in use into the 18th century as a solo instrument (and to complement the harpsichord in basso continuo) … Composers such as Marc-Antoine Charpentier, François Couperin, Marin Marais, Sainte Colombe, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Schenck, DuBuisson, Antoine Forqueray, Charles Dollé and Carl Friedrich Abel wrote virtuoso music for it.”
• 58a [Rosalind’s cousin in “As You Like It”] CELIA. An important character in the play, but it feels to me like a deep cut. Maybe it’s simply been too long since I read any Shakespeare.
  
  
• 62a [Civic shaft] AXLE. Is there wordplay happening here?
• 63a [Dishwasherful] LOAD.

Glenn Cook’s Universal crossword, “Bean Dip”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar phrases that hide a type of bean within. Said beans are circled, turned in the Down direction, and given their own clues. The title serves as the explanatory revealer.

Universal crossword solution · “Bean Dip” · Glenn Cook · Fri., 4.18.25

• 16a. [Get used to a change in conditions?] ACC(LIMA)TIZE. With 17d LIMA [*Capital of Peru].
• 30a. [Federal Reserve chair from 1987 to 2006?] ALAN (GREEN)SPAN. With 31d GREEN [*Color of Kermit].
• 45a. [“Totally outdated”?] (SO Y)ESTERDAY. With 45d SOY [*”Yo ___” (“I am,” in Spanish)].
• 61a. [Determined by genetics?] HE(RED)ITARY. With 62d RED [*Hair color for roughly 2-6% of Americans].

Nothing overly complicated, but a nice little trick for our Friday solving. Didn’t take too long to suss out, and the theme answers are solid to lively.

Similarly, the long Downs can be described the same way with highlights: DECADENT, BARBASOL, MOTOROLA, RAINDROP, and EL DORADO.

Clues of note:

• 68a. [They can be “loose” or “tight”]. ENDS. What about a tight end that breaks free from coverage? Would you call him a loose tight end? I smell a theme.
• 6d. [Charisma, in slang]. RIZZ. I enjoy seeing new slang that looks like it has some staying power. I wonder if this will last.
• 8d. [Have some poutine, say]. EAT. I had some for the first time this last weekend on a trip to Vancouver. Maybe the very definition of comfort food.

Good puzzle. 3.75 stars.