Monday, December 2, 2024

Andrea Carla Michaels and Kevin Christian’s New York Times crossword— Sophia’s write-up

Theme: A/E/I/O/U vowel progression with the letters P_SS

New York Times, 12 02 2024, By Andrea Carla Michaels and Kevin Christian

• 16a [Trend that’s here today, gone tomorrow] – PASSING FAD
• 23a [Seeing the glass half-empty] – PESSIMISTIC
• 33a [Beyond irritated] – PISSED OFF
• 47a [Potential option] – POSSIBILITY
• 56a [Tiptoes, as around a touchy subject] – PUSSYFOOTS

The paradox of the vowel progression theme in the New York Times – it’s a pretty standard, even tired, concept… but also because of that, I haven’t actually solved one in the NYT for a while. So in some ways, it actually counts as a change of pace? Anyways, PISSED OFF was my favorite answer, since I enjoy whenever the puzzle gets even a little PG-13. PESSIMISTIC and POSSIBILITY aren’t thrilling answers, but it is the first time either of those words have ever been in an NYT puzzle, so that’s kind of cool.

The puzzle had a lot of clean mid-length fill, albeit a lot of multiword phrases like GAVE OUT, HAS AN IN, THIS IS FUN. Is it still possible to SUPERSIZE at McDonald’s? I thought that ended in the mid 2000’s. There weren’t any crosses that I think will give Monday folks too much trouble – the proper nouns like Lovely RITA, Glenn FREY, NOEL Coward, and TERI Garr (who died last month, RIP) are pretty spaced out from each other.

My personal favorite entries in this puzzle were the “Murder on the ORIENT Express” clue, since I absolutely love that book, and the clever [Heights of fashion?] for HEMLINE. I also liked the X-heavy TREX and VAX, and the seasonally appropriate [Kids make them for Santa] for LISTS. And as Team Fiend’s resident GEN-Zer, I appreciated that one too.

Happy Monday all!

Kathy Lowden’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “How Colorful!”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are idiomatic phrases that describe feelings with color.

Wall St Journal crossword solution · “How Colorful!” · Kathy Lowden · Mon., 12.2.24

• 20a. [Colorfully jealous] GREEN WITH ENVY.
• 37a. [Colorfully healthy] IN THE PINK.
• 43a. [Colorfully angry] SEEING RED.
• 58a. [Colorfully exasperated] BLUE IN THE FACE.

Straightforward theme with fun phrases. I especially like the cluing consistency. I did want them all to be emotions, but “healthy” is an outlier. Also, it’s interesting that we use “blue” to mean sad but also BLUE IN THE FACE to refer to someone who’s talking so much that they’re lacking oxygen.

Fill highlights include JURY TRIAL, UMPTEEN, “NO SWEAT,” and USE AS BAIT. I only know ELIHU Yale from crosswords, so that might be a tough entry for new solvers. (Same with ECLAT.)  NITR is an unsightly entry.

Clues of note:

• 14a. [“Dear me!”]. “ALAS” Hmm. I don’t equate these. The clue is used more in shock (especially since it’s presented with an exclamation mark) where ALAS is used more in resignation.
• 13d. [___ gestae (admissible evidence)]. RES. Tough clue for your Monday morning. Thankfully the crossers made it simple.

Straightforward theme to get the week started. Three stars from me.

Janice Luttrell’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Los Angeles Times 12/2/24 by Janice Luttrell

This puzzle went by so fast that I didn’t notice the theme at all while solving. The revealer at 52A [“In all honesty, … ” and what the starts of 20-, 27-, and 44-Across might say?] is LET ME BE FRANK, because each of the theme answers starts with a word that means FRANK, in its “honest” sense:

• 20A [Classic Allen Funt series with practical jokes] is CANDID CAMERA, which feels musty in that the show hasn’t been on the air regularly since the 1970s, and yet feels like something Gen Xers at least might know about, if maybe not Millennials and younger.
• 27A [Shortest ways to travel] is DIRECT ROUTES.
• 44A [Like detectives sporting civvies] is PLAINCLOTHES.

I didn’t love the theme answers themselves, which felt not so evocative, but I did enjoy a lot of the surrounding fill. The fact that all the themers and the revealer are 12s leads to an unusual grid layout with 9s going across — NAIL-BITER was a favorite. ROMANCE and TINDER were my favorites among the Downs.

Zachary David Levy’s Universal crossword, “Is Everything All Right?” — pannonica’s write-up

Universal • 12/2/24 • Mon • “Is Everything All Right?” • Levy • solution • 20241202

• 57a^R [Question when checking on a friend … or a hint to two pairs of letters in 17-, 30- or 43-Across] ARE YOU OKAY (RU OK).
• 17a. [Mixed drink that is essentially a Cuba libre] RUM AND COKE.
• 30a. [Mark made on a canvas] BRUSHSTROKE.
• 43a. [Going off the rails] RUNNING AMOK.

I like this theme. It’s elegant, and all the relevant answers are very strong.

• 11d [“Relax, I’m kidding!”] IT’S A JOKE. There’s an OK in there, no lie.
• 12d [Refrigerator feature] ICE MAKER. 6d [Sierra or Yukon maker] GMC.
• 25d [Not just my] OUR. I took a wrong spin here and confidently put in THE. Until I looked at the first crossing and quickly corrected.
• 30d [Hon] BAE.
  
• 34d [Dark blue] CERULEAN. Cerulean comes from Latin caeruleus, which means ‘dark blue’ and is most likely from caelum, ‘sky’ (mw.com)
• 36d [Age of the Marquis de Lafayette when he became a major general] NINETEEN. This seems like a bit of trivia that the constructor was just itching to share.
• 14a [Smell of hot cider, say] AROMA. ’Tis the season.
• 21a [Skedaddles] SCRAMS, not SCOOTS.
• 63a [Sequence of musical notes] SCALE. Interpreted another way, I think the clue could mean a melody? Help me out here, musically literate people. Either way, the clue is of course fine.
• 64a [Big Apple address letters] NY NY. 48d [Enthusiastic agreement] YES YES. 20a [Giggly outburst] TEE HEE.