Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Showcases”—Jim’s review
Broadway musicals are hidden within other phrases. Clues also provide a hint to the musical.
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Showcases” · Mike Shenk · Wed., 10.30.24
- 17a. [Island hotel offering guests a warm Willkommen?] CARIBBEAN RESORT.
- 26a. [Rusk so light it defies gravity?] TWICE-BAKED BREAD.
- 42a. [Place that’s a better hangout on those summer nights?] GREENER PASTURES.
- 53a. [2000s voter registration campaign while June was bustin’ out all over?] DECLARE YOURSELF.
This was not for me. Someone who’s more into Broadway musicals probably enjoyed this more, but most of the references to song lyrics were lost on me. “Grease” within GREENER PASTURES was the highlight for me since the phrase is idiomatic and I got the reference in the clue. But the last one was particularly outside my wheelhouse since I barely have any knowledge of the musical, and never heard of the voter campaign (though it is highly relevant right now).
I also got hung up at PNC PARK which I swore was GNC PARK. Neighboring FEET with the tricky clue [Mules bear them] did not help matters in that section. And knowing that neighboring AMON-RA has multiple possible spellings did not help matters even more.
Clue of note: 60a. [Bear in the air]. URSA. Is it quibbling to argue that there’s no air in space?
Three stars.
Elly Zupko’s AV Club Classic crossword, “Mysterious Case”—Amy’s recap
AV Club Classic crossword solution, 10/30/24 – “Mysterious Case”
Okay! A theme that goes this way and that and has multiple levels, and I have no idea what’s what. Let’s add it up.
37a. [Technical/ethical issue in machine learning regarding the invisibility of some aspects of a solution (and a hint to the challenge presented by solving four sets of four starred clues in this puzzle)] clues BLACK BOX PROBLEM. Long clue! Ah, okay, now I see. 1a clues the movie BLACK ADAM and 1d is Prince’s BLACK ALBUM. There’s an invisible BLACK BOX that works like a rebus to affect those starred entries at 1a and 1d. The next corner has 10a BLACK MASS and 13d BLACK SWANS. In the southwest, 45d BLACK MARKS and 63a BLACK STAR. Last corner, “Fell on BLACK DAYS” crosses BLACK SHOES.
Lots of trivia clues involved in the theme, four of the eight black-box entries. Nope, I didn’t know the three music ones!
New to me: 10d. [“DuckTales” villain ___ De Spell (including *The dark arts, e.g.)], MAGICA. Asterisk, so another black-box item? Wait, there are other asterisks, too, wielded weirdly. 23a. [Slot for a letter (including *Extortion based on illicit knowledge)], MAILDROP incorporating BLACKMAIL, followed by DUCATS embedding BLACK CATS … you get the gist.
Eh, this one’s not really for me. Your mileage may vary!
Josh Kaufmann’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY TImes crossword solution, 10/30/24 – no. 1030
A seasonal movie theme for the pre-Halloween puzzle. Take the circled letters in the midle of the puzzle: BEAT, ULGE, and OOSE. 17a PUT THEM TOGETHER. 59a. SAY IT THREE TIMES. What do you get? 29d. [Ghoulish character who appears after someone follows the instructions at 17- and 59-Across], BEETLEJUICE. For the sake of symmetry, ANTAGONISTS is wedged in at 4d, but it doesn’t strike me as a great fit, a plural linked to singular BEETLEJUICE.
The fill’s got C AS, ENOL, ETO, plenty of other abbreviations since the grid is accommodating a lot of thematic material. I like the “assemble the syllables out loud” gambit, but overall, this one’s not attuned to my sensibilities (other than that I want to see the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice sequel).
3.25 stars from me.
Amie Walker and Geoffrey Schorkopf’s Universal crossword, “Seasonal Ingredients” — pannonica’s write-up
Universal • 10/30/24 • Wed • “Seasonal Ingredients” • Walker, Schorkopf • solution • 20241030
What’s cooking?
- 54aR [Restaurant specializing in online orders … or where you might find 20-, 33-, and 42-Across?] GHOST KITCHEN.
- 20a. [“Invisible” employee incentive] PHANTOM STOCK.
- 33a. [Novelty Halloween song that starts “I was working in the lab late one night”] MONSTER MASH.
- 42a. [Horror story shared around the internet] CREEPYPASTA.
First parts are all “eerie”, second parts are food items: stock, mash, pasta. Fully rendered theme.
- 10d [Remark after a viral hot take, perhaps] DON’T AT ME. Almost always appearing as don’t @ me.
- 24d [One with a shallow lifestyle?] WADER. In the shallows, okay, but a ‘lifestyle’? The question mark is doing some work.
- 30d [Trashy TV character?] OSCAR. 52a [Grouchy] CRANKY.
- 39d [The 205-piece Halloween Barn and others] LEGO SETS. Shoehorning in some extra seasonal content.
- 55d [Bit of highway robbery?] TOLL. Hmm.
- Not part of the theme: 23a [Candy, cannoli and such] SWEETS. 26a [Go over again] REHASH (very close to the similar-feeling —MASH).
David Steinberg’s USA Today Crossword, “First Amendment Freedoms” — Emily’s write-up
A relevant theme going into US election week!
USA Today, October 30, 2024, “First Amendment Freedoms” by David Steinberg
Theme: each themer begins (aka “first”) with one of the First Amendments
Themers:
- 20a. [It surrounds certain text in a comic strip], SPEECHBUBBLE
- 35a. [Game show whose mascot is the Whammy], PRESSYOURLUCK
- 52a. [Efficient factory process], ASSEMBLYLINE
Delightful themer set and theme today! Starting out with SPEECHBUBBLE, though I was stumped on “word bubble”. I needed crossings for PRESSYOURLUCK since the cluing was new to me. ASSEMBLYLINE was an insta-fill for me, which is always a fun win. Also the amendments are listed in the same order as in the First Amendment. Nicely done!
Favorite fill: FAZES, ECLAIR, and LIELOW
Stumpers: GELS (kept thinking about more runny possibilities), APSTATS (didn’t know this was class), and GETBY (needed crossings)
Overall it was a fun solve and felt smooth except for the NE corner. Something about that area just tripped me up until the very end when I finally got a couple of footings and slowly filled it in, not that there was anything particularly tricky but in combination it stumped me for a while. Loved the theme and themer set, plus the title hint. Awesome.
4.5 stars
~Emily
Marshal Hermann’s LA Times Crossword – Gareth’s theme summary
LAT 241030
On reflection, Marshal Hermann’s LA Times crossword theme, though slight at 3 plus 1, is well-executed. The revealer is HELLSKITCHEN and the other three thematic entries: GHOSTPEPPERS, DEVILEDEGGS & a BLOODORANGE; are foodstuffs with Halloween-inspired names.
Gareth
NYT: I finished pretty fast, was left scratching my head, then discovered that Beetle Goose is a thing!
https://www.reddit.com/r/Beetlejuice/comments/1fjpsnl/beetlegoose/?rdt=63187
https://my-store-c65373.creator-spring.com/listing/beetle-goose?product=1386
I couldn’t make sense of it. Between not knowing the character’s story and the issue that Amy raised with antagonists, I was left wondering whether Beetlejuice described some kind of group at war with itself. I’m also not convinced that having the circled letters sound like the theme word is exactly a theme. What is that supposed to say about Beetlejuice? Maybe I’m trying too hard to be logical about this.
AVCX: I don’t mind some mild dupes, but I was hung up at 1D because I thought there was no way the answer could be ALBUM, given that word was also in the clue. This seems egregious. Otherwise, I solved it as a slightly challenging themeless.
USA Today: I’d never done one of this paper’s puzzles, but after seeing four ratings, all one star, I decided to give it a whirl to see if was legitimately crummy or simply the target of our obnoxious one star gang.
Other than being super-easy, which I suppose fits their target audience, it seemed like a reasonable puzzle and had the illustrious Mr. Steinberg as the constructor. I gave two stars because of the simplicity, but I would opine that this was hardly a one star puzzle.
I liked the puzzle’s theme, and to offset the low ratings, I gave it 4 stars.
AVCX: The four BLACK entries in each corner–e.g., in the NW, 1A ADAM, 4D METAL, 23A MAIL, 1D ALBUM–form a (black) box.
Like Jim, this WSJ just wasn’t for me, and unlike him I’m really into musicals. I feel sorry for those who couldn’t know the circled letters were all musicals and that the odd, wordy clues got that way from (mostly) the intrusion of songs from just those musicals as well. As it is, I didn’t remember the one from Grease (which makes me think less of music than of Travolta as a joke for Gilda Radner).
Even for me, I just couldn’t buy the wordiness, the barely meaningful theme entries, the lack of connection between them and the theme, and forced fill elsewhere to allow it all. Maybe it’s one where the construction is so satisfying that the user experience is easy to overlook. Oh, but if it helps appreciate Carousel, Jim, the original male lead was Bonnie Raitt’s father.
I’m a musical theatre superfan. I loved it!