Zhouqin Burnikel’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Cast a Spell”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases that collectively have the letters W, I, T, C, and H added to the beginnings. The revealer is WITCH (46d, [Halloween figure who cast a spell on this puzzle]).
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Cast a Spell” · Zhouqin Burnikel · Thu., 10.31.24
- 17a. [What farmers view during harvest season?] WHEAT WAVES.
- 26a. [Screen image designer?] ICON ARTIST.
- 36a. [Minimal but sufficient amount of medicine?] TRACE FOR THE CURE.
- 43a. [Checks of a reef’s health?] CORAL EXAMS.
- 57a. [Wig store service?] HAIR SUPPLY.
Always happy to see Zhouqin’s byline. She invariably delivers professional, smooth, and lively grids.
This one’s theme is more on the straightforward side than I would have expected for a Thursday, but the wordplay is good, the puns are solid without being eyeroll-worthy, and the clues are on target. I will admit to hoping for some other connection between the phrases or some other layer to the theme, but sometimes a clean, smooth grid with a solid theme is sufficient.
SKEPTICAL and BURST OPEN are our anchor points today. I stumbled at MIC’D with its clue that I felt was awkward [___ up (audible to viewers, like some athletes)]. I would have called it a “feature of some sports broadcasts”.
Other clues of note:
- 62a. [Caine’s “Deathtrap” co-star]. REEVE. I have not seen this film, but would be interested in hearing from others who have. Any good?
- 2d. [Phoenix surroundings?]. ASHES. I immediately went for MESAS, just as I tried to go for TARPS for [Turf protectors] (instead of GANGS). Good clues.
Peter Gordon’s Fireball Crossword, “Themeless 172” – Jenni’s write-up
Not the hardest Fireball themeless I’ve ever done and still fun.
A few highlights:
Fireball, October 30, 2024, Peter Gordon, “Themeless 172,” solution grid
- I have always been too old for HOT TOPIC.
- I solved the puzzle while watching the World Series and thus the barrage of political SMEARS masquerading as ads. Life in a swing state six days before the election.
- Film pairs: 18a [Noted film role the same year as Borat] is IDI and 23a [Noted film role the same year as Alvy] is HAN. Alvy Singer is the Woody Allen character in “Annie Hall.” I don’t think I need to explain the other, do I?
- More movies: 34a [Amy Adams played his mother in a 2020 film] is J D VANCE. Speaking of political SMEARS.
- 40a [Puffer, e.g.] is the WINTER COAT, not the deadly fish.
What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that Leo was Bert Lahr’s STAR SIGN.
Sarah Sinclair and Paolo Pasco’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up
Difficulty: Average (13m34s)
Sarah Sinclair and Paolo Pasco’s New York Times crossword, 10/31/24, 1031
Today’s theme: MONSTER MASH (Halloween-themed hit, with a hint to four squares in this puzzle)
- PRI(DE MON)TH / DES(DEMON)A
- CRESCEN(T ROLL) / TEA (TROLL)EY
- PR(OGRE)SS BAR / MICR(O GRE)ENS
- MAN(GO LEM)ONADE / MON(GOL EM)PIRE
I stared and stared and stared at MONGOLEMPIRE and could not get the letters to parse themselves into coherence, but we got there. Also, what’s the difference between MONET and MANET? In this case, three columns and two rows, which is a better answer than I could muster if you confined me to the world of fine art.
Cracking: BABE RITH, the Sultan of Swat, the Caliph of Clout, the Great Bambino (who also, FYI, won 23 games and had a 1.76 ERA in 1916)
Slacking: the orphaned MANCHA
Sidetracking: the only thing CAPOTE ever did that was worth a damn
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1727: Jump Scare — Eric’s review
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1727 “Jump Scare”
It’s Halloween, so we get a puzzle with a seasonally-appropriate title, but which Brendan describes as “this themed themeless thingy.”
It’s not without some spooky-ish content:
19A [Scary stuff that sticks with you] NIGHTMARE FUEL
47A [Red Bull rival] MONSTER ENERGY
38D [Film where people are looking for a Chevrolet Malibu] REPO MAN (It’s sort of spooky because the car supposedly has extraterrestrials in the trunk.) (We watched this again a few months ago; I can’t say that it has held up all that well.)
But there’s nothing too scary about the other long answers:
5D [Time when busy people take things slow] TANTRIC SEX
12D [Big name in breadsticks] STELLA D’ORO
27D [Dating words] ANNO DOMINI
29D [Find out information about] GET A LINE ON
There’s a few nice answers: NIGHTMARE FUEL and TANTRIC SEX, but nothing that really grabbed me.
The puzzle seems like have more than a normal amount of pop culture, some of it a bit moldy:
26A [“Going Back to ___” (1989 LL Cool J single)] CALI
30A [Stand-up comic with the album “Harmful If Swallowed”] DANE COOK (a 2003 album)
39A [Rapper of the “Fast & Furious” franchise] LUDACRIS
59A [Actor Choi of “9-1-1”] KENNETH
6D [“Summer of ’69” singer] Bryan ADAMS (a 1985 song)
20D [“Hairspray” star] RICKI LAKE (a 1988 movie)
The only place I got a little tangled up was in the NE corner. I had no idea about 8A [QB who was benched for Brady while on the Patriots] Drew BLEDSOE. For 8D [Litters], it took me far too long to read the clue as “gives birth.” For 13D [Kayak rental] OAR, I got clever and put CAR. (That clue annoys me; the few kayaks I have used have always had paddles, not oars.)
After filling in the grid, I looked for some sort of “jump” trick that I had missed. I never found one, but let me know in the comments if I missed the theme.
Juliana Tringali Golden’s USA Today Crossword, “What’s With the Getup?” — Emily’s write-up
Happy Halloween!
USA Today, October 31, 2024, “What’s With the Getup?” by Juliana Tringali Golden
Theme: each themer begins with a Halloween costume (aka “getup”)
Themers:
- 19a. [Bare-bones staff], SKELETONCREW
- 38a. [Greenery with leaves that resemble legs], SPIDERPLANT
- 57a. [Huge vehicle with heavy-duty suspension], MONSTERTRUCK
The perfect theme for Halloween today! We’ve got SKELETONCREW, SPIDERPLANT, and MONSTERTRUCK. Lots of spooky options.
Favorite fill: BACKLOT, BODEGA, and ENOKI
Stumpers: USMAP (needed crossings), TACO (seems obvious now but “treat” misdirected me to think of something sweet like an ice cream truck), and OFUSE (was trying to think of a word instead of a phrase)
Awesome lengthy bonus fill BEETLEJUICE! It fits so well and tonight there were certainly a few group and single costumes with these movie characters, especially the titular character. The rest of the fill was solid though the cluing was a bit tough for me tonight, though perhaps that’s due to my later-in-the-day solve.
4.0 stars
~Emily
NYT: I am having trouble finishing this puzzle mainly because of the large number of trivia clues — which is particularly unfortunate in a tricky Thursday puzzle. Oh well.
PS So I gave in and looked up the pop duo who sang “Last Christmas” and that was enough to finish the puzzle. I doubt I could have finished it without at least one lookup. Though I try to never use any if at all possible.
I had a similar experience.
I know that what is esoteric to me might be right down someone else’s alley, and I like learning.
But it was more the intersection of some of them that made it challenging.
Same.
So much trivia made finding the rebuses tough.
I’ve liked the work of these constructors in the past, but I don’t enjoy this much trivia in my puzzles.
I didn’t have much trouble seeing where the rebuses went. My downfall was the crossing of OR DON’T and HER. I thought “OK, DON’T” fit the clue at least as well, and while “HEK” as a dating site didn’t make a lot of sense, some of the dating apps have nonsensical (to me) names anyway so, what the hek?
I got hung up on PROPER. PROPER noun? I’m still unsure. Anyhow, I got all the monsters… having just (re-)read Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal, GOLEM was a gimme.
Isn’t a proper noun any noun that is always capitalized?
Typically the names of people and places. And related words like Polish (but not polish).
A shame, but this one just wasn’t for me either. Thursday’s my favorite day, with themes, often the dreaded rebuses, but also harder than other themed puzzles. But this one just isn’t my vocabulary. I always finish a Thursday, but not this time. Just meant nothing.
It was a good choice to not highlight the 4 rebus squares in today’s NYT. It made for a more fun and engaging solve.
I definitely agree.
I liked the cemetery vibe with the two tombs in the middle of the grid 👻
Wanted GOBLIN for so long. GOLEM really isn’t in the same class as the others, IMO.
I agree. Golem isn’t as much “in the language” as the other monsters (at least to me, I know it but not as familiar as the others) , and in looking it up, I see that a golem can be a force of good or evil… not so the other monsters. Goblin would have been better.
That was the one rebus that held me up. Otherwise I liked the puzzle a lot.
Yes. I thought including GOLEM as a MONSTER was insulting and inappropriate.
How so? Wikipedia lists Frankenstein’s monster as a golem. From Merriam-Webster: “In the Middle Ages, golems were thought to be the perfect servants; their only fault was that they were sometimes too literal or mechanical in fulfilling their masters’ orders. In the 16th century, the golem was thought of as a protector of the Jews in times of persecution. But following its entrance into English, golem acquired a less friendly second sense, referring to a man-made monster that inspired many of the back-from-the-dead creations of classic horror fiction.”
I couldn’t figure out what monster would fit there, but when I entered G (the last blank square in my grid) I got the Happy Pencil saying everything was correct. GOLEM was kindly filled in so I finally learned what I should have entered.
31D was kind of a guess … OKDONT sounded better at 37A, but I didn’t know what the HEK 31D was.
RE BEQ 10/31/2024
Kayak rental: OAR
You would never rent an oar for a kayak. You would rent a PADDLE.
Agreed. I put CAR instead of OAR (thinking of Kayak the travel-booking website) and that C made BLEDSOE (which I didn’t know) almost impossible to figure out.
Right you are, John. An oar fastens to the boat, whereas a paddle does not.
LAT: I am confused by the 22D clue/answer “full of beans”/ALLWET. Do I have something wrong? I think full of beans means peppy and energetic, while all wet means mistaken. I’ve checked my crossings and I think I have the correct letters?
Per M-W:
1; ” full of energy and life”
2; “not correct or truthful: full of nonsense”
BEQ: I never saw anything that made me “jump” here, though nightmares and monsters can be scary. Maybe just that you have to jump a long way between the themers…:D I was suprised at only two theme answers, but I didn’t see the write up about “themeless theme”. I’ve never seen Repo Man so didn’t get any connection however big a stretch :D .
I’ve seen the discussion about oars and paddles for kayaks before, so I was leery. I also would have thought that if you rented a kayak it would come with whichever means were used for locomotion (i.e. paddles)… I could be wrong on that.
If “golem” is worthy of The Simpsons, it’s okay for a Halloween Thursday puzzle by my calculations.
It also gave us Gollum, with a bit of Saxonizing.
Claude Monet and Eduardo Manet are two well known painters of the Impressionism era.
ZDL knows that. It is noteworthy when they both appear in a grid. We’re all familiar with entering MxNET. Today we get to do it twice.
I haven’t seen Deathtrap in years but remember it being a very clever thriller with a solid cast.
Same here. We saw it in the theater, but haven’t seen it again.
Irene Worth as the nosy neighbor Helga ten Dorp was really funny (or at least that’s what I remember).
MANet usually painted people (Olympia) & MONet usually painted things (Lilies.)
And Man Ray painted a little of both!