Friday, August 30, 2024

Colin Adams’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 8/30/24 – no. 0830

Fun puzzle, plausible level of difficulty for a Friday puzzle, lots of crisp entries.

Fave fill: BRA STRAPS ([Consideration when donning an off-the-shoulder dress], but also for anything with a wide neckline or cut-in shoulders), UNREALITY, PLOT HOLE, AD BLOCKER, FREE AGENT, OR NURSE (shout-out to my son! so proud of him), GO POOF, PIT STOP, the OH LORD/DEAR GOD combo, YOINKED, and some TOPSOIL for you gardeners.

Three things:

• 41d. [Tragic heroine of Irish mythology], DEIRDRE.  I would have thought this story would be familiar to me, but it isn’t ringing a bell.
• 65a. [Takes for a spin, as a motorcycle], TEST RIDES. I’ve never been to a motorcycle dealership, but it stands to reason that they’d call the test drives TEST RIDES instead.
• 3d. [Genre for Wizkid and Burna Boy], AFROPOP. I misremembered Burna Boy as a rapper rather than a singer (and Wikipedia calls his genre more Afrobeats than Afropop). He’s had a number of stateside award nominations and wins in recent years. Wizkid’s biggest US hit features Tems; I didn’t know she was also Nigerian but her single “Free Mind” gets radio play here.

4.25 stars from me.

Garrett Chalfin’s Universal crossword, “Snaps Up”—Jim’s review

Theme: Circled squares spell out synonyms of “photos”. Said circled squares start on one row but end in the row above. The revealer is PHOTOSHOP (52a, [Adobe graphics editor … or when parsed differently, a hint to this puzzle’s theme]), with the re-parsing read as “photos hop”.

Universal crossword solution · “Snaps Up” · Garrett Chalfin · Fri., 8.30.24

• SHOTS: SHORTSTOP and THAT‘S ON ME.
• PICTURES: PICASSOS and PUNCTURES.
• IMAGES: “I‘M ALL EARS” and LARGESSE.

I solved this while ignoring the theme due to the clunky parenthetical square-counting hints in the clues. As such, my solve proceeded smoothly, and the theme was mostly self-evident after the second set of circled squares. I like the stacks of long Across theme entries, especially that first pair. For me, however, a “hop” involves both an ascent and a descent, so the “photos hop” idea didn’t quite work for me since what went up, didn’t come down.

But admittedly, the puzzle won me over with BITE ME [“Oh, buzz off!”], so I’m inclined to to provide plenty of leeway. Other goodies: “HERE WE ARE,” SIGHTSEE, RAGTAG, and CITADEL.

3.5 stars.

Ella Dershowitz’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up

LAT • 8/30/24 • Fri • Dershowitz • solution • 20240830

Phrases reparsed to be describing music recordings:

• 17a. [“Call Me Maybe” or “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels)”?] TELEPHONE NUMBER.
• 27a. [“Popular” or “Fashion!”?] IN TUNE.
• 28a. [“Sound of da Police” or “The Artist in the Ambulance”?] SIREN SONG.
• 38a. [“Midnight Train to Georgia” or “Chattanooga Choo Choo”?] RAILROAD TRACK.
• 48a. [“Sittin’ in the Sun (Countin’ My Money)” or “Can’t Buy Me Love”?] BUDGET CUT.
• 50a. [“I’m Too Sexy” or “Summer in the City”?] HOT AIR.
• 61a. [“Take Me Out to the Ballgame” or “Talkin’ Baseball”?] LINE DRIVE SINGLE.

I enjoyed this theme, but have some quibbles. Unlike the other six theme entries, I don’t feel the AIR of 50-across is a strong synonym for ‘song’. Its symmetrical partner IN TUNE is rather slight, and is partially duplicated by the proximate INSOLE [Adidas addition] at 43-across. Next, 61a: neither of the named songs adequately describe LINE DRIVE, in a way I feel the other theme clues work.

The solution for my first complaint is simple: just excise those two shortest (6-letter) themers. After all, eight theme entries in a 15×15 is excessive. For 61-across, I don’t immediately have a good resolution.

• 1d [Item used at home] BAT. After my musing on the baseball entry, it seems a little weird to see this. Objectively, however, they are at a remove from each other.
• 8d [Union __ ] DUES.
  
• 26d [Arrive quietly] SNEAK UP. Had SNEAK IN first.
• 30d [Void’s partner] NULL. It seems a recent trend is to refer to black cats as “voids” (although not necessarily naming them such). But I can imagine someone going ahead and calling their pair Null and Void.
• 44d [GRE org.] ETS. Educational Testing Service, Graduate Record Exam.
• 47d [Not much, colorwise] A TINGE.
  
• 49d [“Spill!”] DO TELL. 59d [“Spill!”] DISH.
• 63d [Nickelodeon slime] GAK. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t know this.
• 54a [Antioxidant juice brand] POM. From the not-so Wonderful Company, which I have been boycotting for quite some time. 60d [Averse to] ANTI.
• 67a [Watch rim] BEZEL. It seems the etymology ultimately(?) derives from French biseau, meaning a bevelled edge.

Solving notes: It took a few stabs for me to break into the grid, but once I did so, it turned out to be a fairly easy process to complete the puzzle.