Natan Last’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 10/5/24 – no. 1005
5:25? Yeah, I’d expect that more on a Friday than a Saturday. Is it me (and my avowed fondness for Natan’s New Yorker puzzles) or does this one feel easier than you’d have expected?
I got off to a surprisingly quick start on this puzzle by having learned 1a earlier today in a Sporcle quiz. Newcastle-under-LYME was listed as a possible wrong answer for Shakespeare’s birthplace. Possibly the name refers to being “under” the Forest of Lyme? Seems like it would be hard for a castle to be under a brook.
Fave fill: GOOD KARMA, SUBWAY ADS, DREAM DATE, TOUCH-TONE phones, BLOOD TEST (it’s a lifestyle here), LIP-READER (ditto), SKOSH, “YOU FOOL!”, MOB BOSS, BAYARD RUSTIN (you should know him if you don’t), SAME OLD STORY.
New to me: 8d. [Seventh and final “Chronicles of Narnia” book, with “The”], LAST BATTLE. Have probably seen this listed before, but the Narnia stuff never appealed to me so *shrug*.
Fave clue: 33d. [Epitome of completeness], DOTTED “I.” Needed so many crossing letters here!
David P. Williams’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up
Los Angeles Times 10/5/24 by David P. Williams
Apologies for not posting reviews of the last two Saturday puzzles — I did write them, but they were lost in a technical glitch. Anyway, after a pair of way-too-easy puzzles on the 14th and 21st, Saturday the 28th we were back in business with a more difficult offering and that’s where we’re at with this one too. Notables:
- 1A [Street in London home to many medical offices] is HARLEY. Didn’t love this one, as it felt like a bit of a YEKIOYD for the 1-Across slot, especially since there are other ways in that wouldn’t require a fair bit of across-the-pond knowledge.
- Three single-word clues at 18A, 19A, and 20A injected an extra bit of difficulty.
- 38A [A in Kindergarten] is EINE, with the capital K being your only clue that the source of the word “Kindergarten” in German (all nouns are capitalized in German) is meant here.
- 40A [Adidas rival] could easily lead one to NIKE or AVIA before you get to the correct FILA.
- 3D [Sandals, e.g.] refers not to shoes but to the RESORT chain.
- 4D [Mass medium] is LATIN, as in the language in which traditional Catholic masses are held. Loved this clue!
- 10D Wasn’t crazy about the plural GENTIANS, although I did like the evocative cluing with respect to Angostura bitters and Aperol.
- 21D [Do some sole searching] is a cute clue for PLAY FOOTSIE.
- 29D Loved the clue [Moon unit] for PHASE.
- 32D Likewise [Hair of the dog] is lovely for WHISKER, leading you down a path of idiomatic non-literality when in fact it’s a literal definition.
- 47D Didn’t even notice this clue while solving, but [Father figurer] is a very clever way to clue DNA.
NYT: I found this easier than Friday’s NYT, possibly because this time, DREAM DATE was 100% correct instead of a bit better than half right. Things that I didn’t know, like the “Narnia” title and MARSEILLE, were easy to get with a few crosses.
It’s interesting to see that the debut entries include such familiar phrases as GOOD KARMA and TOUCH-TONE. Those, plus clever clues like the one for SUBWAY ADS, show that puzzles don’t have to be the SAME OLD STORY.
Same here; easier than yesterday’s puzzle. I tried to misspell VERSAILLES before realizing it was MARSEILLE; didn’t know plus ULTRA at first, but should’ve gotten it. SUBWAY ADS was a little tricky as I was looking at “pitch” to relate to sound instead.
Good Saturday; pretty enjoyable. And my 999th NYT puzzle… tomorrow will be a fun little milestone :-)
I’ve no doubt that you’ll get into triple digits tomorrow.
I hope it’s a memorable puzzle in and of itself. I’ve been underwhelmed by most Sunday NYT puzzles for the last few years, Most are just OK, but every few months, there’s a really good one.
NYT felt quite hard but finished it in a Friday time. Maybe because the longer entries were often guessable. Good puzzle.