Kenneth Cortes’s New York Times crossword — Sophia’s write-up
Hi folks! Quick one today because I’m on vacation. Today’s puzzle plays on the physical location of the answers in the grid:
New York Times, 08 19 2024, By Kenneth Cortes
- 17a [Prime cut of beef … or 5-Across, literally?] – TOP SIRLOIN (5a is STEAK, on the top edge)
- 62a [Balance sheet total … or 68-Across, literally?] – BOTTOM LINE (68a is METRO, on the bottom edge)
- 27d [Abandoned … or 25-Down, literally?] – LEFT BEHIND (25d is BOOTY, on the left edge)
- 11d [One of four for a square … or 32-Down, literally?] – RIGHT ANGLE (32d is SLANT, on the right edge)
This is such a well constructed theme. I love how the top/bottom/left/right in the longer answers don’t ever mean anything to do with directions. The shorter words are also clued whenever possible with a different meaning than they have in the longer answers, for example METRO being a train line. Also, all the short answers are also symmetric and line up perfectly with their corresponding longer answer, which is incredibly helpful as a solver when a puzzle has a lot of cross-references! It means my eyes don’t have to look in a lot of different places to solve a single section of the puzzle.
Other notes:
- While error hunting at the end of the puzzle, I was sure YABBER had to be wrong – I wanted either “yammer” or “jabber”
- Fill highlights: HOT SALSA, Gwen STEFANI, LAST LEG, GO SOLO
- Clue highlights: [Poorly drawn circle, perhaps] for OVAL, [Common email sign-off] for BEST – I sign off all my emails this way so I feel very seen.
- If anyone has yet to see Pentatonix’s version of “Video Killed The RADIO STAR” (from way back when they were on the Sing-Off like 12 years ago), I highly recommend!
Dena R. Witkes & Andrea Carla Michaels’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Runaround”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases whose final words are baseball bases. The revealer is TOUCH BASE (64a, [Stay in contact, and a hint to the ends of 17-, 24-, 39- and 50-Across]).
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Runaround” · Dena R. Witkes & Andrea Carla Michaels · Mon., 8.19.24
- 17a. [One way to jump in] FEET FIRST.
- 24a. [Incredibly brief moment of time] SPLIT SECOND.
- 39a. [Symphony known as “Eroica”] BEETHOVEN’S THIRD.
- 50a. [Fixer-upper, perhaps] STARTER HOME.
Nice, breezy theme to start the week. Since the grid proved to be a quick solve with smooth fill, I left the theme for the post-solve review. Nothing complicated, but a great introductory theme for newbies.
As I said, the fill was pleasantly smooth. Highlights include SIDE-EYE which gets no SIDE-EYE from me, RITUALS, and ACUMEN. Only IS TOO was sub-par as far as fill goes, although proper name EGAN might be tough on a Monday.
Catherine Cetta’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up
Los Angeles Times 8/19/24 by Catherine Cetta
If you’re having kittens over this puzzle, you’re not alone. The revealer at 57A [Feline user of a pet door, and a feature of 18-, 23-, 38-, and 50-Across?] is OUTSIDE CAT, meaning that each theme entry is bookended by the letters LION — a type of CAT:
- 18A [Virtual thumbs-up] is a LIKE BUTTON.
- 23A [“You can’t please everyone,” for one] is a LIFE LESSON.
- 38A [Tastes brownie batter before baking, perhaps] is LICKS THE SPOON.
- 50A [Attend while muted, as a virtual company meeting] is LISTEN IN ON.
Pretty smooth grid overall.
Noelle Griskey’s Universal crossword, “Half-Truths” — pannonica’s write-up
Universal • 8/19/24 • Mon • “Half-Truths” • Griskey • solution • 20240819
Three circled letters in each of the theme entries.
- 17a. [Jobs for kids on bikes] PAPER ROUTES.
- 26a. [College football award] HEISMAN TROPHY.
- 42a. [Some coq au vin ingredients] CHICKEN THIGHS.
- 56a. [Multicolored ice cream flavor] TUTTI FRUTTI.
So each of those collections of three letters comprise half of those in the word TRUTHS. I’m not sure of the permutations (factoring in the duplicated T, of course), so I’ll just assume that these four sets are equal to them all?
This strikes me as a rather odd and slight theme idea. The circled letters aren’t consecutive within their words, the theme answers have no relationship either to each other or to the concept of truth(s)—it’s just kind of half there.
- 52d [Soup recipe instruction] STIR. 36a [Vessel for cooking pho] POT.
- 1a [Fairway vehicles] CARTS. This works for either golf or the storied supermarket on Manhattan’s West Side.
- 14a [“Farewell, mon ami”] ADIEU. Alain Delon’s death at the age of 88 was reported yesterday. It turns out, however, that he held some rather unsavory opinions (misogyny, racism, homophobia).
Anna Shechtman’s New Yorker crossword—Amy’s recap
New Yorker crossword solution, 8/19/24 – Shechtman
Briefly—
Fave fill: Emily Dickinson’s “I’M NOBODY / WHO ARE YOU,” MTV CRIBS, CHEERIO, KUNTA KINTE, RuPaul’s GLAMAZON, RAVENOUS, Simone DE BEAUVOIR. Meh: UNHANG, LLD, THO, ELIHU, ADMEN.
New to me: 44d. [“Justice as Fairness” philosopher John] RAWLS. My Rawls is singer Lou.
Re: “SPOT THE LIE”: This feels like a blend of “spot the error” and “no lie detected.”
3.33 stars from me.
NYT: I agree it’s a well constructed puzzle and my time was pretty normal for a Monday. Yet, while solving, it felt like it was slightly too hard for a Monday puzzle? maybe it’s the cross-referencing that’s central to the theme? I say this in case it affects the ratings, not to criticize the puzzle itself.
I was also slightly thrown off by the degree of similarity between the elements of the theme- TOP SIRLOIN is a STEAK- that’s essentially a synonym. Whereas BOTTOM LINE and METRO are not nearly that close.
I found the clue for TLDR confusing. It reflects the response to a long post, but not necessarily the promise to provide a summary. Is that not the case?
Still, the fill was pretty clean considering all the constraints.
Huda,
The directions, Top etc., are not meant to be included in the entry as clued. So SLANT is just “angle,” not “right angle.” I think you’ll find the matches closer that way.
tl;dr can signify a literal reading: “too long; didn’t read,” but it can also be used with a bit of irony to provide a summary, usually at the beginning of a post.
I think Huda’s point is that among the four themers, TOP SIRLOIN stands out because it *is* a STEAK. For the other three, the relationship between the two-word phrase and the single word in the perimeter of the grid is more imaginative/playful (and, to my mind, more entertaining).
Thank you, Gary R. You said it better than me, but that’s exactly what I meant.
If you get the TOP SIRLOIN/ STEAK combo first (which is likely given their position in the grid) it gives the solver an idea of the theme that needs to be revised during the rest of the solve. Which is perfectly fine, but seems a bit more complex for a Monday.
It may well be that my idea of what a Monday NYT should strive for is off, and/or that the ideal has evolved to be more textured. I’m always happy to revisit my own assumptions.
Yes, I agree TOP SIRLOIN could be seen as a flaw.
@huda – good point; I was thinking the same. (I guess TOP BILLING / PRICE doesn’t quite work? But yes, the other 3 were more fun and consistent.) Nice puzzle, overall!!!
LEFT BEHIND cracked me up.
As Martin said, TL;DR has acquired a secondary meaning.
Thanks both to @Martin and @Eric H for explaining the secondary meaning of TLDR!
Very educational :)
I’m not a fan of cross-references, and in fact this time I didn’t bother looking for four of them. I figured I’d wing it, maybe guess at it, and look here. Big mistake! Oh, well. Decent construction, although I appreciate that TOP SIRLOIN could have one looking for something else in the other three.
TNY: Pretty challenging, but doable, at least for me. The names and other cultural references were generally in my wheelhouse, which is not the case with other constructors (you know who I mean!)
The one tough crossing was 55A/D, but after a little thought I was able to infer it correctly.
I got hung up in that same spot, since I don’t much follow either RuPaul or campus politics. But eventually worked it out. Gotta say I’m amused by GLAMAZON. :)
Well, we’re never going to agree on this, but what for you is consistently fair and solvable in TNY with the likes of Shectman and Last might as well for me be in a private language or a club with its personal idols. Maybe I’d have eventually resolved 55A/D if pretty much the entire SE weren’t foreign to me. (Also can’t say I care for the repetition of TAG down there.)
This time it helped that their club overlapped mine. It was still just a trivia quiz, but at least I could take minor comfort, if not approval, in its including a fair amount of literature and philosophy. (Two from Shakespeare. Dickinson wrote ever so many poems, but they stuck to a popular one. All I could come up with for a Scholastic was Aquinas, but once I had it OCCAM was familiar enough from one thing, Occam’s razor. It wasn’t a quote from Benjamin or about Beuavoir I knew, and knowing them well didn’t help, but both came down to just ordinary usage, thankfully. I was thinking about Rawls just yesterday.)
NYT: A more-interesting-than-most Monday puzzle, I thought: a clever concept, well-played.
The only sour note here was YABBER clued without any reference to our Aussie friends, whose word it rightfully is. And according to Xword Info, it has been so clued in all of its previous (and scarce) appearances. Has this somehow become a word used in the good old USA without my having noticed? Because I haven’t. But maybe I wasn’t paying attention.
Shout out to the fabulous Dena Witkes for her WSJ debut! You will be seeing a lot more from this clever, fun gal!
Dena had one previous solo puzzle published in the WSJ earlier this year on February 21
It’s true! Glad to hear you’ve been following my illustrious career.
You are correct, sir! I meant our debut together. :)
Strangers collaborating has turned into a lovely friendship!
Universal: each pair of “half-truths” theme answers fill in each other’s blanks in the word TRUTHS exactly
1. PAPERROUTES -> _ _ U T _ S
2. HEISMANTROPHY -> T R _ _ H _
1 & 2: T(2) R(2) U(1) T(1) H(2) S(1)
3. CHICKENTHIGHS -> T _ _ _ H S
4. TUTTIFRUTTI -> _ R U T _ _
3 & 4: T(3) R(4) U(4) T(4) H(3) S(3)
New Yorker: The west side was pretty easy, but the east side seriously slowed me down. I didn’t know the Dickinson quote, GLAMAZON or SPOT THE LIE. The NE was particularly hard because I didn’t interpret “Tap” in 9D correctly until after I had the answer, and I just wasn’t seeing UNHANG.
Still managed to finish it in a decent time.