Thursday, July 6, 2023

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peter Gordon’s Fireball Crossword, “Themeless #161” – Jenni’s write-up

This is Fireball Year 14, #28 and the 161st themeless of that series. Many (I’d say most) of the FB themeless puzzles are Peter’s, and I am in awe of his ability to continue to create original, challenging, and enjoyable puzzles day after week after month after year. I’m also grateful to have (I hope!) many more to look forward to.

Peter often has the first and last entries (1a and 68a, in the case) relate to each other in some way. This time it’s FANTASIA and EAST ASIA. The clues are appropriately difficult without being tricky. 1a is [Film that came out a year after “The Wizard of Oz” and followed it into the National Film Registry by a year as well] and 68a is [Joro spider’s native habitat]. FANTASIA was one of my dad’s favorite movies and the only one I remember him taking us to when we were kids. Dad was a doc and he worked pretty much 24/7/365, but when they re-released FANTASIA he took a whole Saturday afternoon off and we saw it at the old Pix Theater in White Plains. And then he took us to Carvel for ice cream cones. It was a good day.

Other things I liked:

• 16a [Figures in vital statistics] are BIRTHS. This puzzle is a great example of the fact that the level of difficulty in a puzzle is often determined by the clues, not the entries. There are lots of obvious ways to clue this word. The answer to this one could have been DEATHS and I’m sure that didn’t escape Peter’s notice.
• 20a [Thing that’s hard to flip] is a SAFE SEAT. As in Congress.
• 28a [Good thing to bring to a knockout tourney] is A GAME. It took me a while to parse this once I’d finished the puzzle.
• 33d [Feature of Chatty Cathy?] is ASSONANCE. I looked this up to figure out the difference between ASSONANCE and alliteration. It’s the diphthong that does it.
• 66a [Angel on the head of a pine, e.g.?] is my favorite clue of the puzzle. The answer is ORNAMENT. Love it.

I do have one nit to quibble over. 17a [Beverage option for celiacs] is RICE MILK. While many people with celiac disease become lactose intolerant due to intestinal damage, it is not a universal hallmark of the disease. I’d be happier if the clue said “many.” I’d be even happier if it said “people with celiac disease” rather than “celiacs.” It’s worth remembering that the person matters more than disease. William Osler was racist and misogynist and is wildly over- and mis-quoted. He was still right when he said “It is much more important to know what sort of patient has a disease than what sort of disease a patient has.”

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: the year FANTASIA was released. I’d also never heard of the Joro spider. Do not do a Google image search unless you really like big spiders. And ARI Aster, author of “Beau is Afraid” was new to me.

You probably saw this coming.

Sorcerer’s Apprentice – Fantasia

Blake Slonecker’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Number Crunching”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar phrases that use mathematical terminology.

• 17a. [Bud multiplied by the square root of -1?] IMAGINARY FRIEND.
• 22a. [Dairy product without fractions?] WHOLE MILK.
• 33a. [Fowl not divisible by 2?] ODD DUCKS.
• 41a. [Bone only divisible by 1 and itself?] PRIME RIB.
• 51a. [Mood divisible by 2?] EVEN TENOR.
• 57a. [Idea expressed as the quotient of two integers?] RATIONAL THOUGHT.

For the most part, these were on the too-wacky side without a lot of surface sense. I didn’t lol, but I was able to just go with the flow. The hints to the math portion of each entry were clear enough to make resolving most of the entries relatively quick.

I do like the long fill today (and a healthy portion of the short fill is quite nice, too). Highlights include HAMSTRING (clued as a verb) and SPICY TUNA.  That KAZOO/MAIZE/CAIRN/NAAN section is pretty fun, too. I did end with an error since I went with WHOOP at 22d [Crush], thinking that 37a [Conservative columnist Charen] was named OONA. So it took about 30 seconds of post-solve searching to realize those should’ve been WHOMP and MONA.

Didn’t know the name KODI Smit-McPhee but the crossings are fair, assuming you’ve heard of IDRIS Elba (which, if you’re doing Thursday puzzles, you probably have, even if you’ve never watched Luther). The other name I didn’t know was PHIL Keoghan of The Amazing Race. I inferred the I, even though I didn’t know the Mexican folk tune “Cielito LINDO.”

Clue of note: 59d. [Beach fan’s Indian destination]. GOA. I didn’t know this about the state on India’s west coast. Might have to put it on my bucket list.

A pleasant theme with nice entry choices, though it didn’t tickle my funny bone. 3.5 stars.

Alison Perch’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up

Difficulty: Easy (7m42s)

Today’s theme: TAKE ME OUT (Request regarding “the ball game” … or instructions for answering the starred clues) and MAKE MONEY (Earn … or what answering the starred clues will do in each case)

• COmeIN
• WOmeN
• YEmeN
• CEmeNT

Very straightforward cluing on the revealers, which certainly helped with the finish time.  The fill was also clean.  It’s impressive, from a construction perspective, to find four symmetric entries that can all lose ME to become various currencies (although the YEN and WON are specific currencies, while COIN and CENT are general terms.)

Cracking: GO FLY A KITE!  Pound sand!  Take a long walk off a short pier!

Slacking: almost had a clean sheet here, and then I remembered how awkward partials are AREAL bummer.

Sidetracking: …when I make it to MOAB, I’ll get my canteen filled…

Michael B. Berg’s Universal crossword, “Workouts” — Sophia’s write-up

Today’s theme is all about workouts and muscles, which is very much not my area of expertise (even when I’m not on vacation like I currently am). So I found this one to be a little trickier than most Universal puzzles.

Theme answers:

• 17a [Leg press video for paramedics?] – RESCUE QUADS
• 29a [Chest fly video for carpenters?] – BUILDING PECS
• 44a [Abdominal crunch video for composers?] – MUSICAL CORES
• 59a [Shoulder raise video for jockeys?] – SADDLE TRAPS

Each theme answer is constructed by taking a two word phrase where the second word is comprised of S + [muscles]. The S is then moved to the end of the word and the whole thing is clued via a job – so WORK out S, get it? Because it’s a job and the S is moved to the end? Very clever.

Other notes:

• I had “deserts” instead of DEPARTS for [Leaves], which made BUILDING PECS very hard to see since only two letters are different there.
• I hope, in the style of Dick Clark’s New Years Rockin’ Eve, that Wheel of Fortune is renamed “PAT Sajak’s Wheel of Spinnin’ Fortune with Ryan Seacrest”. I’ve never been a big Wheel watcher, but I assume he’ll be good.
• Fave fill: OH RATS, THE NOD, SEES STARS
• Fave clues: [John Williams was last to receive this title from Queen Elizabeth II] for SIR, [“Glass Onion,” to “Knives Out”] for SEQUEL

Brooke Husic’s New Yorker crossword – Kyle’s write-up

Thanks to Brooke Husic for today’s New Yorker offering. I believe this is the first time I’ve seen Brooke’s byline on a New Yorker Thursday puzzle. Given her association with challenging themelesses (her most recent “experimental” themeless took me about 2.5 hours to solve), I was very curious to see what would be in store in this “beginner-friendly” puzzle.

We have an extra-wide grid to accommodate two 16-letter marquee entries: CLOTHING OPTIONAL and “MISTAKES WERE MADE”. The width also enables a central 12-letter entry, TURTLE ISLAND. Running through all three of these long Across entries we have the symmetrical conversational entries “I GOTTA ASK” and “TALK LATER”. That’s a nice framework to build a grid around.

Couple clues/entries of note:

• 10A [Trinidadian music genre] SOCA. I wonder why we don’t see this entry more often.
• 59A [Air Swoopes sneaker brand] NIKE. Named for basketball legend Sheryl Swoopes.
• 53D [Bed spread?] SOIL. Took me a second to grasp this one. I like it.

Ed Sessa’s LA Times Crossword – Gareth’s summary

In today’s puzzle, I saw the circles, saw they were vertical, and got fairly quickly that the first spelt TSEZ. I didn’t think to read bottom to top, so it was a very pleasant surprise to arrive at [Products of a child’s wand…], SOAPBUBBLES and discover that the circles spell (US) soap brands, but “backwards”. I also thought the “child’s wand” descriptor was very evocative.

The long entries containing the bubbles are as follows:

• [Snooze], CATCHSOMEZS; zest
• [Whoopi Goldberg comedy with a “Back in the Habit” sequel], SISTERACT; caress
• [Got carried away], WENTOVERBOARD; dove
• Quaint [Act as a matchmaker], PLAYCUPID; dial.

I think I’ve only seen DOVE here, though something tells me Dial was sold here at some point.

Other interesting clues and answers:

• [Regional measure], STATELAW. Subtle misdirect as you may have been thinking Imperial.
• [Actress Catherine who played Donna Noble on “Doctor Who”], TATE. I know her as a skit comic, but I feel like that show isn’t known in the US? I found it unwatchable in any case.
• [Candymaker Russell], STOVER. In which we learn it’s a person’s name.
• [Party app], CANAPE. Don’t know what this is. I know what a canapé is. Google seems to come up with some engineering app?
• [__ fly], TSETSE. I’ve booked for northern Kwazulu-Natal at the end of the month which is theoretically the one place in South Africa that has them! But luckily not (human) trypanosomiasis.

Gareth

Neville Fogarty’s USA Today Crossword, “Get the Ball Rolling (Freestyle)” — Emily’s write-up

Once you get started, you’ll just keep on moving through this puzzle!

Today’s freestyle has oodles of fantastic lengthy fill:
DRAGBRUNCH
WHEELCHAIRRUGBY
IDBRACELET
BYGEORGE
UNDOSEND
CBRADIO
SHARPER
FORMAL
FLAVOR
OWNERS
PECANS
HARVEST
CABASA

Stumpers: TOMEI (needed crossings, despite having seen the movie a couple times), PITHY (needed crossings), and ABYSS (only “gorge” can to mind)

Despite all my stumpers being crossed in the middle, which really tied me up for a few minutes, my solve was otherwise smooth and I adore the grid and its flow. Such a delightful treat today!

4.5 stars

~Emily