Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Oh No!” — more like didgeri-don’t. – Erin’s write-up
Jonesin’ solution 10/8/24
Hello lovelies! This week we’re replacing ending long O sounds with AR sounds, suggesting an Australian accent.
- 20a. [Actress Teri appearing on every network at once?] ALL SYSTEMS GARR (all systems go)
- 28a. [Everyday glass container?] AVERAGE JAR (average Joe)
- 38a. [Pub where you can drink samples of precipitation from around the world?] TASTE THE RAIN BAR (taste the rainbow)
- 45a. [Sailor with a foot injury?] STUBBED TAR (stubbed toe)
- 53a. [Author who’s a distant relative of Henry VIII’s last wife?] EDGAR ALLAN PARR (Edgar Allan Poe)
Other things:
- 40d. [Brick transporter] HOD. It’s a three-sided box on a pole that lets the shoulder and back support the load.
Until next week!
Joanne Sullivan’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Lowdown”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar names and phrases in the Down direction that could each be called a “short”. The revealer is SHORTFALL (36d, [Unexpected deficit, and a description of 3-, 5-, 7- and 30-Down]).
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Lowdown” · Joanne Sullivan · Tue., 10.8.24
- 3d. [Pessimist’s stock sale] BEAR TRADE. I’ve never heard this phrase and when I Google it, I mostly get news about the Chicago Bears. I do know about short selling and “shorting” however.
- 5d. [Yankee who played the same infield position for his entire career] DEREK JETER. I don’t know enough about baseball to know that Mr. Jeter was a shortstop. Nor have I ever heard of a shortstop being called a “short”.
- 7d. [Wiring problem] ELECTRICAL FAULT. Solid. No issues for me.
- 30d. [Brief, low-budget film] MICRO MOVIE. This phrase is also new to me, but it’s got its own Wikipedia page, so I have no problem with it.
Hit and miss for me, but maybe others had a smoother solving experience. I do like that the meaning of the word “short” is different in each case.
Fill highlights include LA BOHEME and that big stack in the SW: JIUJITSU, RUN AFOUL, and SMART SET. ECOLABEL [Environmental seal of approval] seemed sus to me, but it checks out. I’m less keen on uncommon words ARRANT and ROLF crossing.
Clue of note: 18a. [Join]. ENLIST IN. I just wanted ENLIST as the answer to this clue. Maybe [Sign up for] would hint that the answer should have multiple words.
Three stars.
Justin Werfel’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution grid, 10/8/24 – no. 1008
I feel like this one should be a Wednesday puzzle rather than a Tuesday. The theme is a little out there, and there’s some fill that I don’t expect to see this early in the week (TABOR, MAA, RES, HOAR, not-a-stand-alone-phrase ON ME, non-idiomatic AT A GUESS). If you’ve been doing crosswords for years and years, you plug in MAA for a goat’s sound, but if you haven’t?? It’s not a standard animal sound word we all learn as kids.
The theme revealer isn’t straightforward, as it’s a play on a standard phrase. 62a. [Summary of the phonetic puns at 17-, 31-, 38- and 45-Across?] clues MAKE ENDS MEAT, meaning “make the end of each familiar phrase into a meat instead.”
- 17a. [“Beware of this sausage!”?], FEAR THE WURST. This is funny, and as a sausage nonfan (I don’t want vegetarian sausage, either), I embrace this riff on “fear the worst.”
- 31a. [Like unshorn wool?], ON THE LAMB. The lamb appreciates this. Probably also appreciates not being slaughtered for meat, eh?
- 38a. [Breed beef cattle?], RAISE THE STEAKS. This one’s plural, and I don’t love equating cattle with steaks. (Haven’t eaten beef since the 1970s.)
- 45a. [Charlotte’s first draft for “Some Pig”?], WHAT A BOAR. I’m not sure that Wilbur qualifies as a boar rather than a pig or hog. Do we know his castration status? Also, find me the supermarket meat counter that routinely offers BOAR meat. Not sure BOAR quite meets the theme requirement.
Fave fill: SWAGGER, VALIANT.
Cavil: 1a. [Tackle, as a crossword], SOLVE. If you tackle it briefly before giving up, can it be said that you SOLVE it? Does the clue apply so long as you fill in one right answer? Not loving it.
2.5 stars from me.
Elizabeth C. Gorski’s Cr♥ssw♥rd Nation puzzle (Week 698), “Round Trip Relay”—Ade’s take
Crossword Nation puzzle solution, Week 698: “Round Trip Relay”
Hello there, everyone! Hope you’re all doing well and staying safe right now.
Today’s puzzle allowed us to experience another word sequencing, as the second word in the first theme answer then became the first word in the following theme answer, and so on and so on until the first word of the first theme ended up as the last word of the final theme. One of those grids that, once you notice the theme, you’re tempted to just jump down at each of the theme entries first and fill them out before solving the rest of the grid.
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- HOME SCREEN (17A: [Starting point on a Smart TV])
- SCREEN TEST (27A: [Hollywood audition])
- TEST RUN (33A: [Dress rehearsal])
- RUN OVER (41A: [Go long, as a meeting])
- OVERCOMING (48A: [Conquering])
- COMING HOME (58A: [1978 war drama with Jane Fonda and Jon Voight])
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So an on-air broadcaster who went to Syracuse is writing this review, and I get to come across another on-air broadcaster who went to Syracuse in Mike TIRICO, who will soon be the lead voice of the NBA on NBC once the network reclaims the rights to the league in the fall of 2025 (34D: [Sportscaster Mike, host of the Olympics on NBC]). Halloween is just around the corner and a couple of answers get us in the spooky spirit, VAMPIRE (3D: [“Twilight” bloodsucker]) and EVIL ONE , a phrase for the Devil that I have not heard in a long long time (42D: [Demon’s moniker, with “the”]). Speaking of a cool phrase that usually isn’t uttered a lot these days, how about CUT NO ICE (37D: [Didn’t make the grade])?
“Sports will make you smarter” moment of the day: MESSIER (26D: [Not as tidy]) – Not counting the two games already played between the New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres in Prague last weekend, today (Tuesday) marks the Opening Night of the 2024-25 NHL season, which means is the perfect time to chat quickly about one of the great players in NHL history, Mark Messier. The man known as “The Captain” or “Captain Mess” in this neck of the woods was the captain when the New York Rangers broke their 54-year championship drought in 1994 and won the Stanley Cup. Messier, who won six Stanley Cups (five with the Edmonton Oilers) ended his career with 694 regular season goals, 1,887 points and is still second all time in NHL history with 295 points in the playoffs.
Thank you so much for the time, everybody! Have a wonderful and safe rest of your day and, as always, keep solving!
Take care!
Shannon Rapp & Will Eisenberg’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Jenni’s write-up
I tried to figure out the theme. I didn’t try too hard, and I didn’t succeed. It’s a good Tuesday theme.
Los Angeles Times, October 8, 2024, Shannon Rapp & Will Eisenberg, solution grid
- 17a [*Martial arts achievement] is a BLACK BELT.
- 23a [*Target range in sports betting] is the POINT SPREAD.
- 35a [*Toolmaking period when bronze was replaced with steel] is the IRON AGE.
- 49a [*Simple drawing of a person] is a STICK FIGURE.
And the revealer: 58a [Complete, or what can follow both parts of the answers to the starred clues] is OUT AND OUT. BLACK OUT, BELT OUT, POINT OUT, SPREAD OUT, IRON OUT, AGE OUT, STICK OUT, and FIGURE OUT. I think that’s pretty impressive – four theme answers that are solidly in the language in themselves and then eight recombinations that also work well.
What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that TESSA Thompson was in “Creed.”
Aimee Lucido’s New Yorker crossword — pannonica’s write-up
New Yorker • 10/8/24 • Tue • Lucido • solution • 20241008
I’m back to being resigned in accepting that Tuesday New Yorker crosswords are too easy for my liking.
This one was overall smooth and flowing, with just a few entries that I may have hiccuped over.
- 8a [Butte relatives] MESAS. Have seen a bunch of such clues/answers lately. We’ve hit a spot. Ditto for 23a [Smidgen] SKOSH, more unexpectedly. 3d [Country whose flag features a double-headed eagle on a red background] ALBANIA—saw this combo once recently, too.
- 21a [Perfect scores, perhaps] TENS.
- 34a [A wrap, so to speak] DONE AND DUSTED. I’ve encountered this phrase only a handful of times. Even so, it was familiar enough.
- 44a [Character who wears an orange turtleneck, red miniskirt, and black-rimmed glasses] VELMA. From the Scooby-Doo gang.
- 48a [What “Middlemarch” and “Ulysses” have a lot of, briefly] PGS. Meh.
- 54a [In the dark] UNAWARE. 29a [Entirely unknown] ANYBODY’S GUESS.
- 59a [Terminal transports?] HEARSES. Somewhat ghoulish.
- 10d [Beginning of a mustache] STUBBLE. Surprised that this is the New Yorker’s spelling choice. Is it per the house style guide?
- 16d [“Zip it!”] HUSH YOUR MOUTH.
- 34d [Like sunlight filtered patchily through treetops] DAPPLED. A closely related word, in Japanese, is komorebi (木漏れ日).
- Oh and right next door we have 35a [Handheld snack of nori-wrapped rice] ONIGIRI (お握り).
- 53d [Explosive letters] TNT. Hey, it’s Nobel Prize season.
Shmuel Schmell’s Universal Crossword, “Twist of Fate” (ed. Taylor Johnson) — Matt F’s Review
Universal Solution 10.08.2024
No revealer today, but you might have anticipated from the title that we’d be searching for “twisted words” – aka anagrams – in today’s puzzle. All of today’s anagrams are 5+ letters long which makes them a tad trickier to unravel. What that meant for me, as a solver, is that I didn’t bother looking for the theme until after I finished the solve, when I could take a minute to remix the letters after the timer stopped.
Theme answers:
- 17A – [NPR music performance video] = TINY DESK CONCERT (destiny)
- 27A – [What a Wisconsinite might call a bubbler] = WATER FOUNTAIN (fortune)
- 47A – [Classic cocktails made with vermouth] = VODKA MARTINIS (karma)
- 59A – [Publisher of Strands and Connections] = THE NEW YORK TIMES (kismet)
Each theme answer hides a synonym for fate: destiny, fortune, karma, and kismet. Theme answers are solid and the grid is cleanly constructed. I hope the Wisconsin “bubbler” fact was fun for solvers outside of the region to learn. I much prefer a gin martini to vodka. Bonus slots are well-utilized with PTERANODON and THE EVIL EYE livening up the grid. Solid puzzle all-around!
NYT: OMG, Amy – 2.5 stars? That’s harsh!
I thought the theme was pretty cute, and just about right for a Tuesday puzzle.
AT A GUESS sucks. And some of the cluing is hard for a Tuesday (“Two up quarks and a down quark” is beyond me), but I thought this was more entertaining than the typical Tuesday.
You ever eat BOAR, Gary? See it on restaurant menus?
I can see this restaurant from my deck. They serve boar. There are two other restaurants that are within walking distance that usually have boar.
I’m pretty sure I had boar once about 30 years ago. But it looks like the restaurant where I had it is gone now.
I’ve eaten BOAR a couple of times. Once when I was a kid and an uncle who was an avid hunter shared some with my family. And more recently when I picked some up at a specialty meats place near home.
My wife and I vacation frequently in the Miami area, and I’ve seen it on several Italian restaurant menus there – generally served as a boar ragu. I’ve not ordered it, but that’s what I did with it when I made it at home. It was fine, but nothing that’s going into my regular menu rotation.
Further, I associate boar with pappardelle.
My husband had & enjoyed pici with a boar ragu in Tuscany around Montepulciano. Boar cheeks seemed a specialty.
The only time I’ve had boar is boar with pappardelle, which is apparently a Tuscan specialty. I think it’s acceptable as a meat, but it’s not a Monday/Tuesday kind of meat, if you know what I mean.
I agree with Amy that tackling a crossword and SOLVing it are not at all the same thing. That was a weird way to clue SOLVE.
I think Amy’s score would have been higher if this puzzle had appeared on a Wednesday. That raises the interesting question that has come up here before: is the puzzle penalized because its difficulty doesn’t match the day of the week where the editors put it? I would say no, but some would say yes.
I once attended a feast of wild foods. It was long ago but I remember they served venison, elk, bison, pheasant, rabbit, bear, duck and others, including wild boar. Regarding the boar — pork is pork.
NYT: I agree with Amy. As I was solving, I was thinking that I must have slept through Tuesday and today is actually Wednesday. And Gary R, I also agree with you: “At a Guess” is really bad. It even made me doubt my entry of “Raise the Steaks”
NYT: I thought this was a very fun Tuesday puzzle, with a clever punny theme. Sure, AT A GUESS was weak, but the themers were pretty good, IMO.
Since the prez debate, we have a new idiomatic phrase. “Horrified response to people consuming the entire NYC deli?”
THEY’RE EATING THE KATZ!
LAT – I’m not sure why I enjoyed yesterday’s NYT more, but I did.
TNY – A much better slotting of the puzzle today. Maybe a little easier than moderately challenging, but not too much.
NYT – Since Wilbur was to be slaughtered there’s a pretty good chance he had been castrated. It’s all about preventing boar taint
“Boar” has two meanings: an uncastrated male hog and a wild hog of either sex. You’re assuming the first, but on a menu, “boar” just means wild pig. In Europe, it’s most likely hunted in the forest. In the US, there are laws against the commercial use of wild game so boar, like venison, is usually farmed on big ranches. Think of it as “free-range pork.”
The first meaning does apply to Wilbur. He was supposed to be slaughtered. In the clue he probably wasn’t a boar in either sense
And I sucked myself into this way more than intended. I solved the puzzle and didn’t give it much thought until a couple of reviews started discussing Wilbur’s testicles. That drug a willing me into the weeds of domestic pigs for slaughter and feral hogs. I couldn’t help myself
Agreed. The discussion veered off from Charlotte and Wilbur to boar on the menu.
Universal: It appears that yesterday I carelessly patched my Monday write-up into today’s queued post. I’ve deleted it and moved it to its rightful place. Apologies.
NYT: I thought the theme was pretty cute, and ATAGUESS seems fine to me (British influence, probably). I’ve eaten BOAR in Germany and (if I remember right) at a German restaurant in Milwaukee.
TNY: Almost exactly the same time as yesterday’s. Their difficulty ratings seem to be depend on the constructor much more than the day of the week.
“Their difficulty ratings seem to be depend on the constructor much more than the day of the week.” Exactly. Always been that way.
NYT: The theme is fun but not fun enough for me to look past its flaws.
I also don’t like MADEback and MAKEendsmeat; dangerously close to a duplication.
I didn’t like MADE_BACK because one never recoups a financial loss. It’s simply lost.
The clue refers to recouping an investment (a common definition of recoup) – seems fine to me
NYT: I agree this was Wednesday-ish in difficulty. Where I grew up, AT A GUESS was in common use, so that went in quickly. Haven’t heard it in a while, though, now that I think about it.
NYT: I enjoyed the puzzle, more difficult than the usual Tues and somewhat amusing plays on words. I’m curious if Amy’s low rating had to do with the day of the week difficulty, or her personal dislike of the meats?
TNY: No comment on 32a Snoo? OMG. That’s all I have to say, I’m sure someone thinks they’re the perfect necessity for baby care.
Well it was created by a celebrated pediatrician
Snoo owner here. It helped my son begin sleeping through the night fairly early on, plus it gave us peace of mind during the night that he wouldn’t turn over onto his stomach before he was able to roll onto his back again.
Granted, we were able to get it and use it completely before the makers started charging for app features that had been free to us, which really sucks. But for the time we needed it, it was very helpful for us.
I thought of you when I was reading about it, and wondered if you had one😊
Looks like SNOO, whether I can stand it or not, is something I should know, so sorry if I complained. (BTW I’d defend the BOAR NYT clue as clever, whatever the debate over the word and Italian food.)
TNY kept feeling off to me, at least but not only in the NW and center, slowing me enough to make it perfectly ok for Tuesday. But, say, I don’t know why ALL CASH offers are better, whether BOBA TEA is bubbly, and what in the world SNOO is about. (My only try of Wirecutter found it offering its ideal choices as all pointless luxury goods.) I didn’t know who VELMA is but got it easily enough. Sam with SARA, who I think we’ve seen before.
But after all that I had first AGH, then GRR, then then GAR, , and finally could’t really believe it when GAH waas forced on me. Didn’t help that I’d forgot SKOSH and can’t make sense of HANGUPS as reservations. I think of hangups as either one’s personal inanities and that’s about it.
Several years ago, when my wife and I sold our previous home, we had several offers (all above asking price). One was an ALL CASH offer and the others were contingent either on the buyer selling their own home or on the seller getting a loan approved. We went with the cash offer, which was for a little less than the best offer, because we would be able to close sooner, and didn’t have to worry about the sale falling through because the seller couldn’t get their loan approved.
I’m never happy to see one of those 3-letter exclamations in the puzzle. This time, I started with GRR, then tried ARG, then had YAH for a bit after I got HUSH YOUR MOUTH and GOAD, and thought 7-D was THANK yOu – something. I think I’ve read about the SNOO, but SNOu seemed plausible.
DONE AND DUSTED was new to me, as was LITTLES (I tried rugrats).
Lots of revisions along the way, but I finished with no errors, and it felt “moderately challenging” to me.
That makes sense about real estate. I was thinking of small purchases or personal income sources, wrongly. Good point about two I didn’t recognize either as well. (I did want SHUT your mouth or just HUSH, but they weren’t fitting. Maybe it’s supposed to sound Southern.)
NYT: I had an error (ROVERS, PROTON), but overall for me it was Monday level but more fun. Enjoyed it though we don’t have meat at home, or maybe because of that.
I did the same. I still don’t understand the cluing for ROVERS…
Curiosity and Perseverance are two robotic ROVERS that NASA and the JPL sent to Mars.
USAT: A boring puzzle that contained info that I found useless.
I didn’t find it boring. It was that weird mix of USA Today’s almost insultingly easy clueing (Largest city in the UK?) and the “huh” (whoever the Olympian in the clue for ALGERIAN was).
It’s annoying that once you have finished a USA Today puzzle on their website, you can’t see the clues.