Saturday, April 19, 2025

Alex Tomlinson’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 4/19/25 – no. 0419

I’m pleased with the 8a SCUD clue, [Move quickly with the wind, as clouds]. Didn’t care for the missile clue the other day, but you can’t very well have scudding clouds twice a week (other than in the sky).

We’ve got a dull 1a, I-BAR, but lots of other lively entries. Fave fill: ACTION ITEM, BASE JUMP, MENTAL NOTE, BUSINESS ACUMEN (the R.E.M. song below is likely the only recorded music with the line “to improve your business acumen” in it), ALONG THOSE LINES, REBOOTS, JORTS (jean shorts), and REVERSE COMMUTE.

I belatedly started solving Stella Zawistowski’s Tough as Nails Crosswords book this week and encountered ISOMERS in there, along with a smattering of other scientific/medical vocab, which is right up Stella’s alley as well as mine. The puzzles are generally tougher than Saturday NYTs, so if that’s your bag, check out the book.

Three more things:

• 13A. [On what to write one’s final words?], EXAM PAPER. Anyone else try TERM PAPER here?
• 23A. [Firmly establishes, in one spelling], ENGRAINS. Merriam-Webster lists ingrain, with an “or less commonly” tag for the engrain spelling. Proper spelling is ingrained in me, but “engrain” is more aesthetically pleasing.
• 9D. [Locale for an echo], CANYON. Slowed myself down in this zone with CAVERN. You too?

Four stars from me.

Gary Larson and Amy Ensz’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Bar Association” — pannonica’s write-up

WSJ • 4/19/25 • Sat • “Bar Association” • Larson, Ensz • solution • 20250419

Making explicit wordplay between the two senses of ‘bar’—the legal profession and a drinking establishment.

• 22a. [Buying a bottle to go?] TAKING THE FIFTH. Nobody produces fifths anymore, do they?
• 35a. [Crate of liquor on the loading dock?] BURDEN OF PROOF. Meh.
• 62a. [Entice customers to buy more rounds?] COURT ORDERS. Nice wordplay, but feels a little thin.
• 89a. [Spilling two dozen beers?] DROPPING A CASE. Good one.
• 105a. [Danger inherent in extra-strong cocktails?] DOUBLE JEOPARDY. Also good.
• 1d. [Notice that the bartender is watering down drinks?] WITNESS TAMPERING. Perfect.
• 37d. [“Last call”?] CLOSING STATEMENT. Saving the best for the end.

It’s a clever conceit, with mixed results. Some are strained. Great title.

• 4d [One of a pair sported by Wolverine] SIDEBURN. This is the Marvel Comics character.
• 7d [Encrust] CAKE ON. I tried UP first.
• 8d [Hannibal opponent] SCIPIO. That took some remembering. Needed some crossings too.
• 17d [Debonair] SUAVE, which I like to consciously mispronounce with a long-a. (9a [Marked with a macron] LONG.)
• 23d [Weakens, in video game lingo] NERFS. Its complement is buffs.
• 31d [Homesteader] SETTLER. A less neutral and sometimes more accurate term might be incursionist or usurper.
• 41d [Reduce gradually] PARE, not WANE. 53d [Laugh-a-minute] HOOT, not RIOT.
• 59d [Chopper, to a grunt] HELO. Did not know this.
• 62d [Cardamom-infused beverage] CHAI. 71d [Cardamom, e.g.] SPICE.
• 74d [Chain with chairs] IKEA. Despite the vagueness of the clue, it works well. How does that happen?
• 86d [Rite aide] ACOLYTE, punning on the name of the (bankrupt) drugstore chain, which has stores primarily on the East and West coasts. 56a [Proceeds effortlessly] COASTS.
• 91d [Reason for running a tab, perhaps] NO CASH. Theme-adjacent.
• 20a [Light bender] LENS. Not theme-adjacent.
• 25a [Legendary matador] MANOLETE. Wow, is this something we’re supposed to know?
• 49a [Wet noodle, perhaps] POOL FLOAT. 76a [Wet noodles, perhaps] PASTA. I encountered the latter clue first and thought it odd, but seeing the other one made it clear why it was done. Still, strained.
• 53a [She’s helpful around the house] HELOISE. Hint, hint.
• 57a [Quiet entertainers] MIMES. 58a [Mario Puzo bestseller] OMERTA. Nice pairing.
• 121a [2021 Pixar film set on the Italian Riviera] LUCA. Haven’t heard of this at all.

August Miller’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Los Angeles Times 4/19/25 by August Miller

I thought this puzzle was solid if not top-tier (and surprisingly difficult at the start; it got easier after I left the NW corner behind).

• 7A [Option for table service] is A LA RUSSE. This term was new to me, and means serving meals in courses rather than having all the food on the table at once (which is A LA FRANCAISE). I enjoy TIL moments in puzzles, although I like them better when I learn the thing without having to go look something up after the solve.
• 17A [Light show?] is a cute clue for SITCOM.
• 41A [Leg exercise that mimics a ballet step] is a PLIE SQUAT, which I am more accustomed to calling a SUMO SQUAT (because the wide stance mimics a sumo wrestler’s stance in the ring). Potato, potahto.
• 43A [“Moneyball” squad] is THE A’S, which…feels like glue.
• 46A [Use leaves for eaves, say] is THATCH. Nice clue; I thought there might be some kind of typo joke going on with the clue when I first looked at it, but turns out the meaning is much more literal!
• 55A [Selena y __: American Tejano band] is LOS DINOS. Another TIL, but one I didn’t have to do a lookup afterward for. Nobody asked, but my fun fact about Selena is that Drag Race México did Night of a Thousand Selenas for a runway theme once, and that’s how I learned about her habit of not only wearing pink lipstick, but often leaving a smear of it on her microphone.
• 7D [Stay the heck away from] is AVOID AT ALL COSTS. IDK, it sounds a little green paint as clued, but I think a clue like [“Don’t do it!”] would reflect that I’ve heard this phrase spoken out loud in the imperative plenty of times.
• 8D [Time to throw in the towel, perhaps] is LAUNDRY NIGHT. Very clever clue, but LAUNDRY NIGHT still feels very green-paint compared to the more common LAUNDRY DAY.
• 24D [Something left on the cutting room floor?] is TRESS. Cute!
• 54D [Lane in Metropolis] is LOIS. It’s pretty hard to clue LOIS without a Superman reference, so adding a little wordplay to it is nice.
• 58D [Lets hit it] is NET. Best clue in the puzzle IMO. Looks like a typo with a missing apostrophe; it’s not. It means that a let in tennis hits the NET.

Lester Rough’s Newsday crossword, Saturday Stumper — pannonica’s write-up

Newsday • 4/19/25 • Saturday Stumper • Ruff, Newman • solution • 20250419

Was stymied so often while solving that I was certain I’d be talking here about how it wasn’t a ‘less rough’ puzzle for me, but L+B my time was on the quick side for a Stumper, so who am I to complain?

First section completed was the upper right, followed by the lower right, then it was a mishmash to the ultimate finish, which I think was somewhere in the middle-upper left.

• 14a [Now, for short] ’TWENTY-FIVE. Was wondering how a 10-letter entry could be shorter than now, but ex post facto I see how this works.
• 17a [Land with little land] MICROSTATE. Perfectly correct, but I had to dredge it out in pieces.
• 20a [Stick to glide with] SKI POLE. Once I decided that SKI–––– might be completed with POLE, the rest of this section pulled together.
• 25a [Be like a hot dog] PANT. I should have keyed to the two-word rendering of hot dog. Instead I was thinking about showoffs, as the misdirecting clue intended.
• 28a [Word from the Latin for “husk”] EAR. In the vegetative sense. The etymology (from m-w.com) goes like this (deep breath): Middle English er, ere, going back to Old English ēar (Northumbrian æhher), going back to Germanic *ahaz (whence also Old Frisian ār “ear of grain,” Middle Dutch aer, aere, Old Saxon ehir, Old High German ah, ahar, ehir, Old Norse ax, Gothic ahs), going back to Indo-European *h₂eḱ-es-, s-stem derivative from the base *h₂eḱ- “sharp, pointed” (in reference to a spike of grain perhaps originally referring to the awns, then generalized to the entire spike), whence also Latin acer-, acus “husks of grain or legumes, chaff,” Tocharian B āke “end,” Tocharian A āk — more at EDGE entry 1
• 30a [To be broken, often] TIED. As in a game.
• 37a [Old Testament opposite of “rend”] SEW. Had the clue omitted Old Testament, I would have gotten this much more easily.
• 38a [An Epistle] II PETER. Maybe I was confusing Epistles and Apostles, but it was difficult to let go of ST PETER here.
• 40a [Homophone of Morse’s VTB] SOS. Everyone knows that SOS is dit-dit-dit dah-dah-dah, dit-dit-dit. The nonsensical* VTB is dit-dit-dit-dah dah dah-dit-dit-dit. If the coder’s spacing is good, it really isn’t ‘homophonic’.
• 48a [A., in full] ANNO. Tough one.
• 49a [Suspension bridge supports] PYLONS, not CABLES.
• 54a [Highly adaptable] ELASTIC, not PLASTIC.
• 56a [Swimmer in water gardens] KOI CARP. Seems somewhat redundant?
• 60a [It’s ignored in Alphabetisierung] EINE. As you might surmise, in German, eine is often ignored while alphabetizing, just as a is in English.
• 61a [Merchant of Venice conclusion] LOWERCASE E. Wow. 52d [Name in monorails] NORA.
• 63a [Chain with nuggets] KFCS. Was stuck on this one for a while too, because that colloquial possessive s was in no way indicated by the clue.
• 2d [“This one’s mine!”] I WIN, not DIBS.
• 8d [USCG Seaman Recruit peers] PVTS, not PFCS.
• 12d [Now less like shorts, as slacks] ROLLED DOWN. Oh come on.
• 15d [Explanation’s brief beginning] Y’SEE, not TL;DR.
• 32d [“The __ homage of thoughts unspoken”: Longfellow] SILENT. The rare Stumper fill-in-the-blank quote that’s relatively easy to guess. Except if you have the wrong letter in the second spot.
• 44d [On-site work perk] DAY CARE. Took a chance on this off of the Y in the very easy 51a DANNY ([Whom “the pipes are calling” in song]).
  
• 47d [Quacks not ducky] FAKERS. Great clue, but I fear the depth of the wordplay perhaps isn’t appreciated when struggling in the crossword.
• 50d [Statuesque cylinders] SILOS. Statuesque?? I thought maybe STELA. Weird.
• 53d [What many charge all the time] NICAD, nickel-cadmium (battery). Why “all the time”? Because it’s common as a watch battery? I’m not really seeing it.
• 59d [Much less than a scourge] PEST. 6a [They’re not big trouble] IMPS.