Gary Larson’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Plus One”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases that feature a number, except that each number has been incremented by one, hence the title.
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Plus One” · Gary Larson · Wed., 10.9.24
- 20a. [Part of a complete bedroom furniture ensemble?] TWO NIGHTSTANDS.
- 31a. [Some losing throws at a craps table?] TERRIBLE THREES.
- 39a. [Centaurs?] FOUR-LEGGED RACE.
- 53a. [Not a fan of bills depicting Lincoln?] DOWN ON ALL FIVES.
That works, and I like how the entries are in sequential order. They’re not wholly consistent however in that the non-number words change meaning in only three of the four phrases (the second entry is the outlier). But I’ll admit that’s being a little nit-picky.
The fill is solid as well, though there isn’t anything especially flashy. I struggled at the crossing of CALIBER and BONESET (at the B) mainly because I’ve never heard of the latter [Perennial used in herbal medicine], and the former’s clue is particularly opaque [Bore]. I’ve lived most of my life in the West, and BONESET is apparently only found in the eastern half of the country. As for CALIBER, M-W lists one definition as “diameter of a round or cylindrical body” which doesn’t match the clue in my book. However, M-W also defines a “bore” as “the size of a bore”, making it interchangeable with CALIBER. Meh. Still, it’s a tough crossing; I considered using P for a bit.
Clues of note:
- 29d. [Champagne pop?]. PERE. Referring to the region of France, not the bubbly drink.
- 31d. [Cat’s-paw]. TOOL. Hmm. Got this one off the crossings. Wikipedia says “Cat’s paw” means “the dupe (or unwitting tool) of another”. I’m not 100% that this is what the clue is referring to.
- 54d. [Life preserver?]. OBIT. Nah. I’m not buying this one.
3.25 stars.
Hanh Huynh’s AV Club Classic crossword, “Butt Out!”—Amy’s recap
Fun theme! The revealer in the middle is 36a. [“Awesome!” … or instructions for how to handle the answers to the starred clues], KICK-ASS. Each themer is clued straightforwardly, but you have to insert a synonym for ASS into each one to make a new entry:
- 17a. [*Sharpening], HOARSENING. That’s HONING with an ARSE in it.
- 23a. [*Sign of the Ram], CANARIES. CAN and ARIES.
- 49a. [*Type of bean or horse], BUMP INTO. BUM + PINTO.
- 58a. [*Stove tops], REARRANGES. REAR + RANGES.
- 11d. [*Hold on tight\, CRUMPLING. CLING + RUMP.
- 32d. [*Remedied], CURTAILED. CURED + TAIL.
Fave clue: 65a. [Wood bearer up Mount Doom?], ASTIN. Elijah Wood, that is. His character Frodo was borne up Mount Doom by Samwise, played by Sean Astin.
Fave fill: COSPLAY. Not a ton of space for jazzy fill when there are seven thematic entries in the grid.
New to me: 40a. [Basketball stat that measures overall performance], PER. Apparently that’s short for player efficiency rating.
Lively vibes in the clues overall. Four stars from me.
Jeffrey Lease’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 10/9/24 – no. 1009
Raise your hand if you paid no mind to the circled letters and the connect-the-dots/coloring part of the solve (which is mostly beside the point when you solve online or on mobile). I finished the puzzle and clicked over to the blog tab in my browser, and only saw the lightning picture when I went back to the puzzle for a screenshot.
The revealer is LIGHTNING BOLT, [What’s formed by connecting this puzzle’s circled letters from A to F and then back to A]. I never even saw that clue, really; CHARGERS clued as [N.F.L. team whose helmet features a 37-Across] told me 37a was lightning. The other themers are a CAMERA FLASH icon (as on an iPhone), GATORADE (you’d think the electric-sounding Powerade would be the sports drink with lightning in its logo), and the scar of HARRY POTTER.
3.75 stars from me.
Paolo Pasco’s New Yorker crossword – Kyle’s write-up
The New Yorker solution grid – Paolo Pasco – Wednesday 10/09/2024
Good to see Paolo’s byline on the puzzle today. Nice array of entries, some of the highlights for me being CHAPPELL ROAN (I was just reading about her the other day for my own puzzle research! Felt great to drop this into the grid with only a couple letters), BLANKET FORTS, ZONE DEFENSE, SCOUT TROOPS, TACO TRUCK. I got tripped up slightly by entering LUMINOUS instead of LUSTROUS at 20A.
Blair Hassett’s LA Times crossword – Gareth’s theme summary
LA Times
241009
THATSRICH is the summary of today’s puzzle by Blair Hassett. I can see the connection to richness fairly clearly in two of the entries. The other two I’m squinting at:
- [*Layered dessert with coffee buttercream and chocolate ganache], OPERACAKE. Never heard of this, but the description is certainly rich.
- [*Evergreen used to make incense], SANDALWOOD. Eh?
- [*Silicon Valley success story], TECHBILLIONAIRE.
- [*Triangular landform], RIVERDELTA. Because the soil is rich??
Zhouqin Burnikel’s USA Today Crossword, “Hot in Here” — Emily’s write-up
Stay cool!
USA Today, October 09, 2024, “Hot in Here” by Zhouqin Burnikel
Theme: each themer contains —HOT—
Themers:
- 17a. [Mental health professional], PSYCHOTHERAPIST
- 27a. [Guac, salsa, sour cream, etc.], NACHOTOPPINGS
- 51a. [“How did this rumor spread?!”], WHOTOLDYOUTHAT
A mixed of themers in this set with: PSYCHOTHERAPIST, NACHOTOPPINGS, and WHOTOLDYOUTHAT. Also loved that the —HOT— in PHOTOS crossed with the —HOT—in the first themer, sharing the —H—. Nicely done!
Favorite fill: CHEATCODE, TOTEMS, and ANYA
Stumpers: PINUP (“pin to”, “pinned”, and “pins” came to mind), BURGLARS (needing crossings), and PRIM (needed a couple of crossings)
I found the cluing more challenging today—how did you all do? Great fill and nice cluing, even with its slight difficultly for me. Enjoyed the grid and flow to it.
4.0 stars
~Emily
NYT: For me, the HARRY POTTER clue was the one that told me it was a LIGHTNING BOLT, but as with Amy, I did not try to find the lightning bolt picture at all. I give Jeffrey Lease credit for the straightforward A/B/C/D/E/F layout of the lightning bolt itself, and that the lightning bolt is symmetric, even if its placement within the grid is not symmetric.
In the WSJ, I hadn’t heard of BONESET either (and I’m an easterner) and got caught up in CALI(P/B)ER. But “poneset” looked obviously wrong, so I finished.
BEEMER is a BMW motorcycle, not a car. The car is a BIMMER.
Huh?? Must be a regional thing. I’ve only heard BEEMER referred to in the car sense, especially since I rarely if ever see a BMW cycle around Philadelphia.
I have seen BIMMER in print, but have never heard it in real life – always BEEMER. Great Lakes region for me. Plenty of BMW cars, but not many bikes.
Y’all feel free to look it up. Just because people use it incorrectly does not make it right. If I have to learn modern text talk and slang, the least constructors can do is clue existing slang properly. All that was needed was a tweak to the clue.
“Just because people use it incorrectly does not make it right.”
LOL… I think most dictionary editors would disagree with you there, Mr. Grumpy.
irregardless would like a word
Good luck trying to enforce slang use. The evidence does suggest that most BMW owners use “Bimmer,” but IRL amongst us plebeians, I’d have to say that pretty much everybody in my neck of the woods uses “Beemer” to refer to both car and bike.
NYT: The theme is well-designed, but is it fun? Maybe not as fun as yesterday’s.
That said, the solve is much smoother than yesterdays, with less crosswordese. With a big gimme like HARRYPOTTER, this puzzle is probably tuesday in difficulty.
Agree. This was a perfectly serviceable puzzle that was just too easy for its time slot. It was certainly easier than yesterday’s puzzle, which was on the harder side for a Tuesday. If the two puzzles had been switched, both would have been more appropriately placed, and this one would’ve gotten more respect.
agreed,
But I thought it was fun, enjoyed the solve and the flash at the end :)
AVXC: I truly enjoyed the cheeky theme. It was more fun than any theme I’ve seen in a while.
That’s despite hitting a rough patch in the NE. I knew 10D was STREEP, but I had REPAY for 22A [Use Venmo, say]. That made it difficult to see 11D CRUMPLING and 12D AUDI. I’ve probably seen an e-tron GT, but I didn’t recognize the name. GT should have pointed me in the direction of an auto manufacturer, but it didn’t. Eventually, though, the theme came to the rescue and I saw the RUMP.
NYT: I got thrown briefly by the idea that BOBO was a common clown name, and not BOZO…
Same!