Friday, June 7, 2019

Lynn Lempel’s Inkubator puzzle, “Miss Out”—Jenni’s review

Two Lynn Lempel puzzles in one week! Yay!

This is a classic Lempel: smooth, fun, accessible, and amusing. Each theme answer is missing a feminine pronoun (the “miss” who is “out) and wackiness results.

Inkubator crossword, 6/7/2019, Lynn Lempel, “Miss Out,” solution grid

• 18a [Bunch of soused crooks?] is a PICKLED RING (herring).
• 24a [A jocular Tarzan swinging through the jungle?] has WIT ON THE VINE (wither).
• 52a [What cosmologists strive to understand?] is THE WHOLE BANG (shebang).
• 61a [French fries for Alfred E. Neuman?] are MAD POTATOES (mashed).

And we have two revealers: 39a [Candy company whose name includes this puzzle’s missing pair] is HERSHEY and 32a [With 46-Across, 2012 best seller with a hint to what’s missing in the four longest Across answers] is GONE GIRL.

That’s a lot of theme material, and it requires a fair number of familiar three-letter entries like ESL, TAO, and NIL, as well as the clunky partial IT A (for 65a. “Keep ___ secret!”). I think it’s worth it for a creative and solid theme.

A few other things:

• 7d [Lowdown joint?] is  not a dive bar, but an ANKLE.
• This is an Inkubator puzzle, so WAR HERO is clued with Joan of Arc and Nancy Wake.
• LIV Ullman appears as a director rather than an actor.
• I filled in 46d from crossings and couldn’t figure out what a GOBY was. Turns out it’s [Elapse], or GO BY.
• 70a [Sales receipts for pettipants, perhaps] are SLIPS. Cute.

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that Toni Morrison was born in Ohio, that Ossie Davis directed “Cotton Comes to Harlem,” and most strikingly I’d never heard of the aforementioned Nancy Wake. She was a native New Zealander who fought with the French maquis during WWII – and that doesn’t begin to describe her achievements and exploits. Thanks, Lynn, for bringing her to my attention.

Michael Hawkins’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 6 7 19, no. 0607

I don’t know, folks. I just didn’t enjoy this puzzle. I see some fill I like—“DO ME A SOLID,” BOOK CLUBS, OPEN DEBATE, VOICE ACTOR, “DON’T I KNOW IT?!” (overlapping, alas, with crosser I SAW and nearby I’M A), DINE AND DASH, and ADULTING. But overall, I felt grumbly throughout the solve.

Seven things:

• 10d. [Stiff a restaurant], DINE AND DASH. If you do this, you are a dirtball. You’re generally not stiffing the restaurant, as the money often comes out of the wages/tips of your server.
• 28a. [United Christendom movement], ECUMENISM. I feel like this term is markedly less common than ecumenical.
• 48a. [Kind of replication], RNA. Ugh. I don’t like this clue. XEROXING would be a workable answer, as that’s actually replicating. This is one of those “sea anemone clues”—like cluing SEA as a [Kind of anemone] instead of using a more accurate fill-in-the-blank. Although I don’t know that RNA replication is a standard thing.
• 15d. [Lead-in to a meal?], OAT. A terrific alternative to saying grace!
• 21d. [May in England], THERESA. I was in England in May 2007, and it was the only time in my life I’ve had seasonal allergies. Now I’m feeling allergic to the Tories in general.
• 27d. [Speedster], FAST CAR. This entry feels green-painty unless you clue it as the Tracy Chapman song.
• 46d. [One going over the line], EDITOR. Yes. We can often make it clearer, more concise, and more in line with in-house style.

Three stars from me.

MaryEllen Uthlaut’s Universal Crossword, “Easy as 1-2-3″—Judge Vic’s write-up

MaryEllen Uthlaut, ‘s Universal Crossword, “Easy as 1-2-3”–6/7/19, solution

Fun! Let’s see if I can figure this out as I solve. I see a bunch of starred clues:

• 8a [*Insomniacs] SHEEP–What do insomniacs and sheep have in common? Other than that someone who cannot sleep might count sheep?
• 13 [*Dieters] CALORIES–Oops! And dieters count calories.
• 18 [*Census takers] RESIDENTS–Census takers administer questionnaires–Quit! They count residents.
• 37 [*Umpires] BALLS AND STRIKES–Well, umps actually call balls and strikes, but by now we know the word we’re supposed to come up with is count. This is the lone ILSA in the theme bunch.
• 50 [*Thankful souls] BLESSINGS–Count your blessings, you thankful soul. I’d so much rather this clue have been [Thankful people].
• 65 [*Blackjack players] CARDS–A bit random, this clue seems. In a sense, the player of any card game counts the cards. And the average blackjack player, I would think, is more into counting points.
• 64a [Serving surfaces … or, in another sense, what the starred clues are for their answers] COUNTERS

Elsewhere we find some RED TAPE, though not MORE THAN we can handle. And, the symmetrically placed ORIGINAL EASEMENT could, I suppose, be an Edenic reference.

With a paucity of ILSA’s in the fill, the puzzle has an unexciting look. If you fill that void with the missing word, then it has a redundant feel to it. It’s given me an idea for a similarly-themed puzzle, which I hope to work on next month.

3.0 stars.

Jeff Stillman’s The Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, “Landing Page”–Judge Vic’s write-up.

Jeff Stillman’s The Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, “Landing Page”–6/7/19, solution

Theme: D-Day code words in first position of two-word ILSA’s.

So, I didn’t finish well. The aggregation in the upper left of EDWIN (Drood),  YOSHI (the dino), and SWORD LILY had me guessing even after I’d figured out the theme. Yet and still, it’s one of the better D-Day themes of the week.

• 17a [*Gladiolus, by another name] SWORD LILY
• 26a [*NBA team formerly based in New Orleans] UTAH JAZZ
• 44a [*Paste-on kindergarten commendation] GOLD STAR
• 11d [*Canadian recording-industry coup] JUNO AWARD
• 33d [*Poker variety] OMAHA HI-LO
• 58a [Invasion site represented by the 75-year-old code words] leading the answers to the starred clues D-DAY BEACH

IN SHORT, nicely done! This cook learned about EGG WASH and DHOTI.

My least faves were PSHAWS, ARGUS, PUPAS, and TANYAS.

3.5 stars.

Natan Last’s New Yorker crossword—Laura’s review

New Yorker – 6.7.19 – Solution

Five interesting things:

• [31a: Pulitzer-prize winning writer of “The Sympathizer”]: VIET THANH NGUYEN. He gave a keynote at the last library conference I attended. Amazing writer, amazing speaker, and I’m super psyched that Natan chose him as a marquee entry.
• [18a: “Used to sell dope just to feed the ___/ Matchbox jumping with the kilograms”: Rick Ross]: FAM. Lyrics from a song called “Carol City,” which is a neighborhood in Miami, hometown of Ross and also the artist Flo Rida. I like the term fam as an alternative to the gendered “you guys” or “y’all” (which I feel a little odd using as a Midwesterner-slash-New Yorker).

• 

  Frida Kahlo, Self-portrait with Monkey, 1938

• Lots of art and literature in this grid, what with FRIDA KAHLO, INTAGLIO, SIENESE, THOREAU, and LHOSA.
• [21a: Go over the manuscript again]: REEDIT threw me off, because I kept parsing it as REED IT, which could be clued as [Play the oboe, slangily].
• [54a: Role-playing-same locales]: DUNGEONS. After its 1970s-80s advent, Dungeons and Dragons is experiencing a renaissance. Sure, there were plenty of people who continued to play post their stereotypical adolescent heyday, but it’s now become entrenched in popular culture as a family game. (Personal note: We’re starting to play at home with the fam.)
• Okay, six things. [45a: Talia’s “Rocky” role]: ADRIAN. Here you go:

Bruce Haight’s LA Times Crossword – Gareth’s summary

LA Times
190607

Unless I’m missing something, this is not the most ambitious addition theme ever. I see +S, but with spelling changes, except the first time. So: (S)LUMBERJACK, (SLEEP)LEAPOFFAITH, (SNOOZE)NEWSWORTHY (presumably people pronounce it snyooze?) and (SNORE)NOREASTER; and yes, using SNORE as an adjective is incredibly awkward.

Am I the only one who really struggled in the JJWATT, JANIE, ONTHEDL area. Finally recalling SEGAL unravelled things, albeit slowly. ONTHEDL is a synonym for ONTHEQT in my world.

Gareth