Thursday, January 11, 2024

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul Coulter’s Fireball Crossword, “Figure It Out” – Jenni’s write-up

The Fireball is two for two on inventive and enjoyable constructions so far this year! I apologize for not posting my rave review of last week’s puzzle – and thanks to Jim for filling in the gap.

I didn’t figure out what was going on here until I’d finished the puzzle. I knew there was some kind of code since none of the theme answers made sense and they all contained numbers. I thought maybe it was the shape of the numbers. Nope. Then I looked for a revealer. Nope. Finally I looked at 36a [Scheming], which is THIRTY SOMETHING and realized that THIRTY had to be UP TO  and that I’d seen that entry elsewhere in the grid. Turns out it’s at 30a. Aha!

• 17a [Deal an effective blow] is STRIKE THREE. 3a is HOME  for STRIKE HOME.
• 23a [“Watch yourself out there”] is TAKE FIVE. 5d is CARE for TAKE CARE. And I am old so I thought of this.
• 36a is explained above.
• 46a [Like many e-readers] is BACK NINE. 9d is LIT for BACKLIT.
• 57a [Visors] is FIFTY SHADES. 50a is EYE for EYE SHADES.

A very satisfying aha! moment indeed. Not all Very Clever Constructions are fun to solve and this one was. Thanks, Peter and Paul!

A few other things:

• Formaldehyde is no longer used to preserve anatomical specimens for dissection, so the ODOR that permeated my clothes after anatomy lab was phenol. No matter. It was bad and my non-medical roommates rapidly made a rule that I had to change clothes at school before coming home.
• I filled in 14d from crossings and at first I thought ESTAR was either some downgraded astral body or a really loathsome “etail”-like construction. Nope. It’s [Intro Spanish verb]. Mea culpa. I studied French.
• 27a [Very curious] is OUTRE. As is “odd” rather than “nosy.”
• WINONA is clued as the American Indian activist rather than the musician or actor.
• I am currently listening to my husband practice on the invention of Mr. SAX so that was a gimme.

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: never heard of “ODE to Newfoundland.” Also did not know that PRETTIES was a dystopian novel by Scott Westerfeld both because I really don’t like dystopian novels and I’ve never heard of Westerfeld.

Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Removing Experience”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are words that include the letters CT somewhere within. Remove those letters (mentally) to satisfy the clues. The revealer is EXTRACT (66a, [Remove, or, if you put a space after the fifth letter, a feature of five of this puzzle’s Across answers]).

• 17a. [Elevator parts] DOCTORS. Doors.
• 18a. [Local group] UNCTION. Union.
• 27a. [Marbles, so to speak] SANCTITY. Sanity.
• 50a. [Things to champion] CACTUSES. Causes.
• 64a. [Pakistan divider] INDUCTS. Indus.

Pretty nifty wordplay on that revealer. EXTRACT the EXTRA CT from each theme answer to satisfy the clue. Nice. I caught on with the second entry, and that helped me resolve the others. Not a lot of sparkle in the theme answers themselves, but the wordplay was enjoyably satisfying.

In the fill, I found SAYS UNCLE to be of interest. “Cries ‘uncle'” sounds more colloquial to me, but the person giving the command would normally enjoin, “Say ‘Uncle’!” at which point the uncler (unclee?) would choose to cry ‘Uncle’ or not. DECAGON, PALE ALE, ANTIOCH, and ARTWORK are other notable entries.

I didn’t know OVERSET [Like text that’s too long for the layout], and ended up with the erroneous OVERSEB since 63d is clued [Ballpark figure], and I couldn’t see anything other than STAB for that. All the other crossers seemed right as well, so I eventually gave up and accepted the error.

Clues of note:

• 40a. [Window closer, perhaps]. MOUSE. Needed every crossing because I didn’t make the computing connection until after I’d filled it in and stared at it for a few seconds. I don’t know. I have trouble saying that the MOUSE actually closes the window.
• 14d. [Check for a flat]. RENT. Good, tricky clue.
• 29d. [Gets ready to drill, say]. NUMBS. Dental drilling, not military nor construction drilling.
• 67d. [Amendment with an insurrection clause]. XIV. Timely.
• 4d. [Capital of ancient Syria]. ANTIOCH. We also would have accepted [Whence Monty Python’s Holy Hand Grenade].

Good puzzle. 3.75 stars.

Damon Gulczynski’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up

Difficulty: Average (10m29s)

Today’s theme: Y = X (Basic linear expression with a hint to answering the five starred clues in this puzzle)

• BAD BREAKUP (*Cause of irritated eyes) exes
• CAT PEOPLE (*Many lovers, e.g.) manx
• THE SHOW MUST GO ON (*Mayim of entertainment) maxim
• BRAZILIAN (*Way down in the nether regions) wax
• DAS KAPITAL (*Book of Mary) Marx

Real nice masking on the theme clues, particularly the Mayim/maxim swap.  When the grammar on the theme cluing is askew, it prompts you to look closer; here, it’s almost a shame they decided to append the asterisks, as the constructor has done a pretty slick job covering his tracks.  And you get a bonus rebus crossing the revealer: AS =.

Distracted by ASAHI in close proximity to AISHA, because they’re basically the same word.  You never see them in the same room at the same time.  Shenanigans.

Cracking: VROOM, screech, hummmmmmmoff into the distancemmmmm..

Slacking: If you were ranking a baby grand on its various interesting features, each individual PIANO LEG would be somewhere fifty slots down the list.

Sidetracking: I can’t see AUDEN‘s name in a puzzle without thinking of the “Funeral Blues” eulogy from Four Weddings and a Funeral —

Paolo Pasco’s New Yorker puzzle – Kyle’s write-up

A nice way to begin a Thursday morning. Thanks Paolo for this breezy themeless.

• 1A WONG [“Beef” actress Ali] – She just picked up a Golden Globe for her performance.
• Echoing clues in 14A [“Understood”] and 15A [“Understand?] for “I SEE” and “ARE WE CLEAR”.
• 34A MONTHIVERSARY [Portmanteau for an early relationship milestone] is a nice marquee entry.
• 37A SNOW [Precipitation in a flurry or blizzard]. I hear there will be several inches of snow in Chicago by the weekend, but then we had five inches forecast on Tuesday and it turned mostly into rain/sleet.
• 49A [Harriet whose image is scheduled to appear on the twenty-dollar bill] TUBMAN. But when? The idea was first proposed 10 years ago and it still hasn’t happened.
• 44D TUM [Rum ___ Tugger (role for Jason Derulo in 2019’s “Cats”). Deja vu! The full name RUM TUM TUGGER just appeared as a theme answer in yesterday’s LA Times crossword by Rebecca Goldstein, with the clue [Role for Jason Derulo in 2019’s “Cats”].

Daniel Hrynick’s Universal crossword, “Pickin’ Chicken” — Sophia’s write-up

Theme: Normal phrases reimagined to be about chicken dishes

• 17a [Attending a brunch that celebrates Pride? Try our …] DRAG STRIPS
• 23a [Watching basketball in the Mile High City? Try our …] – DENVER NUGGETS
• 37a [Watching hockey in the Motor City? Try our spicy …] DETROIT RED WINGS
• 48a [Planning to drop the ball at a New Year’s party? Try our …] – BUTTER FINGERS
• 59a [Fueling up for the law exam? Try our …] – BAR TENDERS

Very cute theme! I live in Seattle, where the hot chicken scene is really popping off. I was able to understand what was going on from DRAG STRIPS (my favorite answer too), and thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the puns. The only one that didn’t really hit for me was BUTTER FINGERS – I thought it was going to be a more “New Year’s Eve” answer, and less of just a “dropping” one. But all the other four I really liked.

Fave fill: START A TAB,NOPEEKING, Ewan MCGREGOR (the “Hello there” meme clue was my favorite in the puzzle).

Fave other clue: [Quantity of brownies] for BATCH

New to me: Hockey player IGOR Larionov

Shannon Rapp & Will Eisenberg’s LA Times Crossword – Gareth’s summary

First off, what I liked about Shannon Rapp & Will Eisenberg’s theme, the revealer: PROTEINSHAKE is a fresh feeling entry and a good source of word play. However, I got there early, and already was irked in a way possibly people without a biological science background won’t be. I immediately thought, “what proteins are familiar and short enough to work in this way? Insulin? Albumin? Collagen? But no, the circles spell out protein sources not proteins. The protein component of PORK and LAMB is myoglobin in the main; the plant-based LENTILS and TOFU contain a heterogenous array of plant proteins lacking in certain amino acids…

• [Forward-looking aesthetic of Janelle Monáe and “Black Panther”], AFROFUTURISM. I’m not sure I have a lot of context here.
• [Part of the digestive system], SMALLINTESTINE
• [Job requirement for some visa holders], WORKPERMIT
• [Plant-based remedies, e.g.], HERBALMEDICINE.

[RANT INCOMING]. So I administered vincristine at a very precise dose to treat transmissable venereal tumours today. Vincristine was originally extracted from cape periwinkle, but I suspect my vincristine is made more efficiently. Is it only herbal if it’s made from periwinkle, even though if it’s chemically identical, it will have the same effect? Or do you have to chew raw periwinkle and hope the very precise dose needed to be both safe and effective is absorbed… Similarly, I prescribed milk thistle extract in the form of a capsule with a guaranteed amount of silymarin, the active ingredient. Because it’s classified as a “herbal medicine”, it skips a lot of red tape regarding purity testing, as well as any need to prove its benefits – it’s used for liver support, but the evidence remains equivocal at best. But I just don’t get why one chemical is dressed up as “herbal medicine” and another isn’t.[/RANT]

Others:

• [DOS pt.], SYS. How well recalled is MS-DOS?
• [Far-too-memorable songs], EARWORMS. Are they always “too”?
• [Molecule preceded by m-, r-, or t-], RNA. A bonus third of the central dogma of genetics.

Gareth

Beth Rubin’s USA Today Crossword, “First Chair” — Emily’s write-up

Pull up a seat and settle in!

Theme: each themer begins with a word that can prepend “chair” to form a type of chair

Themers:

• 20a. [Classic gift for aspiring young chefs], EASYBAKEOVEN
• 36a. [Pompous], HIGHANDMIGHTY
• 54a. [Carol in which “la” appears 96 times], DECKTHEHALLS

A variety of themers in this set, starting off with EASYBAKEOVEN, continuing with HIGHANDMIGHTY, and ending with a seasonal DECKTHEHALLS. With the theme, we get: EASY CHAIR, HIGH CHAIR, and DECK CHAIR.

Favorite fill: TAPIRS, MAKEME, EWOK, and TARO

Stumpers: TWISTTOP (“twist off” is more common to me), BLECH (needed a couple of crossings), and GIRTH (needed a few crossings)

Love the grid design and still felt there was good flow despite some entries took me crossings but everything was fair and my time was about average. Another nice mix of types of entires and more of those multi-word fill which adds interest: ILOSE, PLAYROUGH, THROWAFIT, MAKEME, IWONT.

4.0 stars

~Emily