Andrew Colin Kirk’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “The Combative Type”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar two-word phrases whose first word is also a keyboard key and whose second word can be loosely seen as “someone who might prepare for combat.” The revealer is KEYBOARD WARRIOR (62a, [Abusive online poster, and a literal interpretation of 14-/16-, 25-, 30- and 52-Across]).
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “The Combative Type” · Andrew Colin Kirk · Thu., 10.3.24
- 14a. [With 16-Across, flighty sort] SPACE / CADET.
- 25a. [Discount chain with nearly 20,000 locations] DOLLAR GENERAL.
- 30a. [1950s heartthrob who came out as gay in 2005] TAB HUNTER.
- 52a. [Luke Skywalker’s X-wing, e.g.] STARFIGHTER.
Nifty double theme. Not sure that I would call cadets and hunters “combative”, but I guess it’s close enough for crosswords. I’m also impressed with the grid design which manages to still be symmetrical despite theme answers of length 9, 10 (two 5s), 11, 13, and 15. Oh, and this is a debut grid, so I’m doubly impressed. Well done!
FORKY from “Toy Story 4”. Why the heck didn’t they name him “Sporky” though?
There were some meh pieces of fill, like MOL, SATB, ULM, and plural MA’AMS, but there are some definite highlights: CERULEAN, MCCREPES, CATSEYES, “LET’S GO!”, KNESSET, GALOOT, and FORKY from Toy Story 4.
Clues of note:
- 9d. [Fast food hack made by combining Hotcakes and Yogurt Parfait]. MCCREPES. New to me. I only know about some of the secret menu items at In-N-Out. But looky here, there’s a whole bunch of fast food hacks you can explore. Maybe the Chicken Cordon Bleu McMuffin is more your style.
- 36d. [Glass marbles]. CAT’S EYES. I had never heard this phrase until we found ourselves driving around rural Britain where we saw a road sign proclaiming “Cat’s Eyes Removed”. We were horrified until we later learned that this was the local term for those reflectors embedded in the road.
Impressive debut puzzle! 3.75 stars.
Rena Cohen’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up
Difficulty: Challenging (15m38s)
Rena Cohen’s New York Times crossword, 10/3/24, 1003
Today’s theme: SPIKE / POLYGRAPH (53-Across feature, as seen three times in this puzzle / Test required for all C.I.A. applicants … or a hint to this puzzle’s theme)
- WHILE SUPP(LIE)S LAST / EL(LIE) / EE(LIE)R
- CHAR(LIE) SHEEN / BE(LIE) / STEE(LIE)
- NONBE(LIE)VERS / SAL(LIE) / KY(LIE)
One bump, one rebus, one beer. Spent quite a while convinced that the (LIE)s were buried in black squares, although the (-) cluing on the second half of the long theme entries should have been a dead giveaway.
Cracking: bestowed upon BOYTOYS once already this year, but much like the Kansas City Chiefs, they will not be denied the title
Slacking: ANTI BARK, also hates phloem, and don’t even get him started on the vascular cambium
Sidetracking: Toots and the Maytals, the only way that I have ever clued the word SKA
Peter Gordon’s Fireball crossword, “Themeless 171”—solution grid
Peter Gordon’s Fireball crossword, “Themeless 171” solution, 10/3/2024
Katherine Simonson’s LA Times crossword – Gareth’s summary
LAT
241003
Unless I’m missing something, Katherine Simonson’s four-part theme has one wonky leg. Three of the four answers are phrases that have had a first word expanded at the beginning to become a demonym of a country. In the second of the four, TONIC becomes TEUTONIC, which is clearly an odd man out. I’m not sure how many other country demonyms do work with this theme, but off the top of my head, although boring, GERMANOFSTEEL would have fit the bill. In full, there are:
- [Warmup bands from Casablanca?], MOROCCANOPENERS
- [Liquid from Munich?], TEUTONICWATER
- [Faucet hardware from Stockholm?], SWEDISHWASHER
- [Ice cream treats from Manila?], PHILIPPINECONES
There wasn’t too much else to note, good or bad. It is worth making a note of [“Hot To Go!” singer Chappell], ROAN. Chappell Roan not Roan Chappell although both sound plausible. This is a fairly new angle for ROAN clues.
Gareth
Margi Stevenson’s USA Today Crossword, “Middle Management” — Emily’s write-up
Turn it up!
USA Today, October 03, 2024, “Middle Management” by Margi Stevenson
Theme: each themer contains —CEO— at the center of (aka middle)
Themers:
- 17a. [Documentary narration], VOICEOVER
- 39a. [Title shared by folks like Justin Timberlake and Justin Bieber], PRINCEOFPOP
- 64a. [Competitions in “Step Up” and “You Got Served”], DANCEOFFS
Jamming out today with this rad themer set of: VOICEOVER, PRINCEOFPOP, and DANCEOFFS. With the title hint, once I saw the commonality, it took me another minute for the title hint to click—very clever!
Favorite fill: COINTOSS, PEACEFUL, SERIFS, ONIONDIP, and SAYIDO
Stumpers: ENDOR (I’m more of a Trekie) and ENNUI (needed crossings)
Flew through this fun puzzle. Enjoyed the entries and lengthy bonus fill. Great cluing and a nice grid design.
4.0 stars
~Emily
NYT: I confess to not enjoying the confusion I experienced about just how the theme entries are to be entered.
Up to a point, it’s fun to figure out what was on the constructor’s mind.
For me, this puzzle went way over any reasonable line in the complexity of whatever may be intended to simulate a polygraph spike. I never got it right and despite having all letters filled in, have no interest in spending another moment on it. I understand the frustration of newer solvers, since I am experiencing almost the very same thing right now.
Although if the puzzle made any connection between lying (=polygraph spike) and the meanings of the theme entries, I missed that, too.
I think I just figured out that I particularly disliked that theme entries do *not* seem to be entered in consecutively adjacent squares, not even diagonally adjacent. This violates a deep crossword instinct I’ve developed over the years.
Okay, just checked ZDL’s writeup and I see that I totally missed the charade character of the theme. That’s fine with me. Not my cup of tea at all.
NYT: I thought this was very impressive for a debut constructor, and one who the Wordplay column tells us was still in high school when this puzzle was accepted! Each LIE related to three different answers, which was quite tricky.
I got quite sidetracked by the coincidental appearances of a lot of L’s, I’s, and E’s in nearby squares for the first two LIEs. I took the SPIKE clue to mean that the L-I-E were radiating across the grid in some fashion, rather than the more straightforward rebus approach that ended up being correct.
Great job, Rena!
I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I found the embedded lies quickly, then started to see the rebus lies, and finally got to the theme reveal to see how they were arranged.
Super difficult. Almost gave up after a half hour of utter confusion. If I’d given up I’d say this puzzle was unfair and sucked. Having seen it through I say great puzzle with a happy “aha!” on a gorgeous Thursday theme like in the old days.
👍 👍
and in addition, one terrific debut & solve!
Agree! Excellent debut, great Thursday puzzle!
It took me a long time to figure out the trick with the NYT, because I was convinced 19/21A was meant to be WHILESTOCKSLAST with the K missing. I jumped around the grid a lot before I hit on what was going on.
My final square was the M in MEW/MEEPLE. I couldn’t think of any alternative to MEW, but ‘meeple’? That seemed absurd, but evidently it’s some board or video game or both that I have never heard of.
MEEPLE has come to be a pretty common term in board games nowadays… it’s the little “person” that represents you on the board, instead of a pawn.
Shouldn’t that be a ‘merson’?
I think it’s a portmanteau of “me” and “people” … but I haven’t looked it up. Sounds cuter than “merson” ;-)
I must have missed that memo. I’m afraid I’ve also missed a lot of other memos in the last 5 to 10 years.
NYT: I got the rebus idea right away (courtesy of the one EL[LIE] Goulding song in my collection). I didn’t understand the polygraph spikes until much later.
I had the entire grid filled in but didn’t get the “Congratulations!” pop-up. For CHARLIE SHEEN, I had a rebus of RLIE in the end of 26A.p (which looked dumb and was unsatisfying as an answer). When I went back through and changed RLIE to R, the puzzle was solved. And just as I was getting the congratulations, the “spike” idea clicked.
It’s a really clever idea. It took almost twice as long as my Thursday average. I expect that I wasn’t functioning at my best, because I had just spent about two hours trying to set up my new phone, which didn’t go as smoothly as I expected. (In fact, I’m still not done with that.)
“Pressure Drop” is such a great song. If I hadn’t been a semi-clueless white boy in 1970|
-whatever, I’d have Toots and the Maytag’s in my collection instead of Robert Palmer.
“Maytals.”
Screw you, autocorrect. Thanks for making me look even more clueless than I really am.
Pretty tough NYT. Probably should have been more on the lookout for ‘not enough room for the right answer’ situations, being a Thursday and all… But I’m always a bit surprised. A nice one, IMO.
I agree about it being tough, but somehow managed my average time. I knew the answers had to be split, but after getting the revealer… I was still rather confused, until I got WHILE SUPPLIES LAST… but then figured the LIE was hidden by the black square, before realizing I needed it for SALLIE, and those all came together, but the NW still needed to be filled in.
LAT: Didn’t a fuse that blew, do its job rather than fail?
That clue seemed pretty odd to me also.
It did its job by failing.
This NYT defeated me. I got the theme ok, but there is just so much else I didn’t know that understanding the fill and even getting theme answers was beyond me. Which Charlie, say, who is Kim’s half-sister, what is this dog collar, where are there gorges, and what about Gloulding and the game piece, all working with themers. And all factual. I’m lost in the NE as well and don’t understand a baker’s PIPE.
I should add that if you commute by cab, you’re way out of almost any New Yorker’s league even if you split the fare.
some info about the way bakers PIPE:
https://philosophyofyum.com/piping-frosting-101-manual/
and when commuters heading home SPLIT A CAB from their train stations, well — everyone wins!
;-)
https://www.brainandlife.org/articles/crossword-editor-will-shortz-says
Martin, thank you for that link.
Thank you, Martin.
I’ve been curious about Will Shortz’s recovery. It sounds like it’s going as well as can be expected (and that he’s pretty lucky overall).