Friday, October 25, 2024

Alex Murphy’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 10/25/24 – no. 1025

Hey! A Friday NYT that strikes me as having the modest difficulty level I’ve long expected from Friday NYTs. And it’s got lots of fun entries in the grid, to boot.

Fave fill: The 1a/1d combo of flavorful ROBUST and RIBALD, MASTER CLASS, CONE OF SHAME, BRAIN FREEZE, Lily TOMLIN, GRANITE, SEX TOY, BRO CODE, BESTIE, a rating of TEN OUT OF TEN, etymological FALSE FRIEND ([Misleading cognate, like the German “Gift” which actually means “poison”]), OVERSELLING, DRAMEDY (I deplore Wikipedia’s eschewal of this descriptor!), and “OH, PLEASE.”

I cast a jaundiced eye at TUNA OIL. Apparently this [Canned liquid rich in essential fatty acids] is sold as a dietary supplement?

Messed with my head: 52a. [Another name for C##], which I misinterpreted as the programming language C++, and the answer was starting with DNA … but no, it’s musical terminology, D NATURAL. (See also: 16a. [Cello parts are written in it], BASS CLEF.) One of my least favorite categories of fill! Your mileage may vary wildly.

Four stars from me.

Hoang-Kim Vu’s Universal crossword, “Sound Check”—Jim’s review

Sight rhymes (or eye rhymes) are on order today. Each theme answer is a made-up phrase consisting of three words that look like they should rhyme, but don’t.

Universal crossword solution · “Sound Check” · Hoang-Kim Vu · Fri., 10.25.24

• 17a. [*Danger of an extremely hot day?] GREAT HEAT THREAT
• 24d. [*”Which person gave you that gift, Mr. Hanks?”] “FROM WHOM TOM?”
• 26d. [*Result of a slow day at the pet store?] ONE BONE GONE
• 32d. [*Question for a hitting coach?] “SWAT AT WHAT?”

The phrases are a little tortured, but I found this kind of cute. The first one felt the most natural to me so I liked that one best, but the bone one is pretty good too. Nice theme.

Impressive stacks down the middle of the grid, too. We have POWER SEATS and UNSANITARY sandwiching a theme answer, plus CHEW TOY as a crossing entry. Very nice. Other goodies: TRICKSY, HIDEOUT, and “NO FAIR!”. Did not know sculptor Ruth ASAWA, but that was about the only hangup I had.

Clues of note:

• 1a. [Org. concerned with NIL policies for student athletes]. NCAA. NIL is in the clue mainly to indicate that the answer is an initialism, but I looked it up and it stands for Name, Image, and Likeness.
• 35a. [Surprised, slangily]. SHOOK. I like this modern usage.
• 60a. [Knot again?]. RETIE. Cute way to redeem a blah entry.

3.5 stars.

Patti Varol’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up

LAT • 10/25/24 • Fri • Varol • solution • 20241025

It’s a ‘before and after’ type theme, with the first parts the names of musical instruments.

• 16a. [Publications dedicated to the history of a jazz instrument?] SAXOPHONE BOOKS (saxophone, phone books).
• 22a. [Particles from a percussion instrument that may start a sneezing fit?] COWBELL PEPPER (cowbell, bell pepper).
• 34a. [Windfall from the sale of wind instruments?] CLARINET PROFITS (clarinet, net profits).
• 48a. [Fantasies about being the best player of a Scottish instrument?] BAGPIPE DREAMS (bagpipe, pipe dreams).
• 54a. [Endeavor to improve a brass instrument?] TRUMPET PROJECT (trumpet, pet project). Originally I went down the wrong path with TROMBONE.

Note that the second parts, in their combined form, are not referenced in the clues. It’s just the wacky surface meaning.

• 2d [Tower of note] AAA. Some homonymic misdirection, but not too tricky because, e.g., PISA and BABEL are too long.
• 7d [Creation by a locks smith?] CANAL. Definitely assumed this would be about hair styling.
• 18d [Not against entertaining] OPEN TO. As an idea or notion.
• 26d [Jazz home, initially] SLC. The “initially” removed any ambiguity as to what the answer would be.
• 33d [Violinist Zimbalist] EFREM. Some old-school crosswordese, as is 62a [Hockey Hall of Famer Willie] O’REE.
• 49d [“Into the Water” novelist Hawkins] PAULA. Her first novel, probably more well known, is The Girl on the Train.
• 56d [Indoor rower, for short] ERG. I’ve finally internalized this information.
• 59d [Local source of produce: Abbr.] CSA, community-supported agriculture.
• 1a [Exhaust] EAT UP. 51d [Get ready to eat] RIPEN.
• 52a [Thorny shrub] BRIAR. Needed to hunt this up to finish the crossword correctly; I’d had BRIER (PEULA at 49-down was obviously incorrect).

Some pockets of the grid were a little tough, but there were enough easy-mode clues to pull everything together.