Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Wakey Wakey!” —  don’t sleep on the clues, either. – Erin’s write-up

Jonesin’ solution 12/3/24

Hello lovelies! I’m not sure if you need a nap after this week’s Jonesin’ puzzle, but I sure do. There are so many Zs to catch here! I knew there was something going on at 6a. [Sweetie___ (term like “darling” or “Baez”)]. The answer is PIE, but what’s a Baez? Could it be a typo, because “bae” is one letter off and another term of endearment? Anyway, it turns out there are many other clues that don’t make sense unless you remove the Zs. On top of this we have three longer entries without any Zs as well as a short entry that seems thematic:

• 1a. [Sound designed to wake you up] ALARM
• 19a. [Hauler bound to wake you up in the morning] GARBAGE TRUCK
• 36a. [It may wake you up energetically] RAMBUNCTIOUS PET
• 55a. [Animal noise that’ll wake you up on a farm] ROOSTER’S CROW

Finally, at the SE corner we get a revealer:

• 70a. [Caffeine pill brand to keep you awake (or, when respaced, instructions on how to handle many of the clues] NODOZ, which can be respaced to NO DO Z. This confirms that we should ignore the Zs in the clues.

Overall this was a fun exercise, and a difficult one to clue as Z isn’t an easy letter to add to words in order to make new ones. For example, I’d never heard of the candy Zotz (56d.) and I don’t thing lazyaway (27a.) is a word. Props for 51a. [Onze, in Spanish], though. Onze is French for eleven, and the Spanish counterpart is once. However, we have to remove the Z, so the correct answer is Spanish for one, or UNO.

Until next week!

Robert Wemischner’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “What’s the Angle?”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar words and phrases whose first letters (or indeed, first word) can also mean “tilt”.

Wall St Journal crossword solution · “What’s the Angle?” · Robert Wemischner · Tue., 12.3.24

• 17a. [Fruit with orangy flesh] CANTALOUPE. Not familiar with the word “cant”, or at least I haven’t heard it in a long, long time. Thankfully, the crossings made it easy. You know what would fit better here in my opinion? “Voices Carry” band, TIL’ TUESDAY.
• 25a. [Being an eavesdropper] LISTENING IN.
• 47a. [Sister brand of Stouffer’s] LEAN CUISINE.
• 57a. [Extremely dark] PITCH BLACK.

A little inconsistent in that two entries use only the beginnings of the first words where the other two use the whole first words, but at least it’s an even split. I can’t say that a synonym theme gets me excited, but it did the job and gave me insight toward the bottom of the grid.

The fill lacks anything longer than a seven in which to sink your teeth into, but I do like HAUNTED and BADDIE. Proper name ANTON crossing NONCE and BANTU might be a thorny section for some solvers.

Clues of note:

• 33d. [“Samesies”]. “AS DO I.” Oof. I suppose they have the same meaning, but no one who says one of these would say the other.
• 48d. [Stay away from]. ELUDE. I went with EVADE this time and the crosses were still real crossword answers (E-VITE instead of ELITE and GASH instead of GUSH).

A straightforward synonym theme and a lack of sparkly fill mean this one was fine but not compelling. 2.75 stars.

Henry Lin-David’s New York Times Crossword — Emily’s write-up

Midnight snack, anyone?

12.02.2024 Monday New York Times Crossword by Henry Lin-David

Today’s theme: each themer contains M–T– (a.k.a. “empty”) and is the name of a food (which have “calories”)

Themers:

• 17a. [Clue], MOOSETRACKS
• 25a. [Clue], MAPOTOFU
• 48a. [Clue], MINITWIX
• 56a. [Clue], MEATTORNADO

A tasty themer set today with a little bit of something for everyone, no matter what the craving: MOOSETRACKS, MAPOTOFU, MINITWIX, and MEATTORNADO. Each took me a few crossings but filled in fairly easily. The cleaver revealer EMPTYCALORIES is nicely centered and I think works well in this grid layout. I must say, however, this puzzle following Thanksgiving so closely is giving me a stomach ache–it all sounds delish but it feels too soon to think about a glut of food. Or is that just me? :D

Favorite fill: DIALUP, TENDAYS, and UNSAID

Stumpers: LAVED (new to me), TOOLROOM (kept thinking “tool box”), and EMBALM (had “enbalm” until I realized the crossing didn’t work for the candy themer)

Overall a smooth solve, though it took me a bit to complete. Nothing was too tricky and everything was fairly crossed. Loved all the lengthy bonus fill and the extra food and drink fill in addition to the themers; perhaps that’s also why it feels so “stuffed”. Still a fun one!

4.25 stars
~Emily

Elizabeth C. Gorski’s Cr♥ssw♥rd Nation puzzle (Week 705), “Jaywalking”—Ade’s take

Crossword Nation puzzle solution, Week 705: “Jaywalking!”

Hello there, everyone! Hope all of you are doing well and staying as warm as possible! Let’s close out this final month of 2024 in style!

We have some fun with the letters “J” and “M” with today’s theme, with phrases that usually contain a “J” in them being substituted with “M” to create some interesting puns. 

• MESSY JAMES (17A: [Nickname of an untidy outlaw?])
• I DREAM OF MEANIE (23A: [Sitcom starring Barbara Eden as Mrs. Grinch?])
• MOB SATISFACTION (37A: [“I love my work” feeling among underworld figures?])
• HIT THE ROAD MACK (48A: [Ray Charles song about a truck that’s ordered to leave?])
• JUDGE MOODY (59A: [Temperamental TV jurist])

The crossing of ADJ (41A: [Pt. of speech]) and OBJET D’ART could have been a tricky one, especially if one didn’t know the latter and had to decide between adjective and adverb for the former (31D: [Small museum piece]). That said, objet d’art was fine fill in a grid that also had another favorite of mine, ALSORANS (4D: [Losers]). Has anyone out here ever tried doing the LIMBO, as I’m asking that because I literally was urged to and did do one round about two decades ago when I was at a West Indian party in NYC (7D: [Back-bending dance]). Obviously, a 6-foot-4 person with a somewhat protruding belly, as I had then, wasn’t conducive to me even trying to clear the bar, even when it was almost at shoulder level. But it was a totally fun experience that I can’t wait to watch again and thank my lucky stars that I won’t be participating ever again.

“Sports will make you smarter” moment of the day: FLUFF (25D: [Trivial news piece]) – It wasn’t just Tiger Woods who gained notoriety when he first made major headlines on the PGA Tour. Woods’ caddie from 1996 to 1999 was Mike “Fluff” Cowan, whose distinctive gray walrus mustache made him as recognizable as any player on the tour outside of Woods. As a matter of fact, his popularity was such that he had his own starring role in the popular “This is SportsCenter” series. Here you go!

Thank you so much for the time, everybody! Have a wonderful and safe rest of your day and, as always, keep solving!

Take care!

Ade/AOK

Wyna Liu’s New Yorker crossword — pannonica’s write-up

New Yorker • 12/3/24 • Tue • Liu • solution • 20241203

Pretty easy on the ‘moderately challenging’ scale this week. I was eating breakfast as I solved, so there wasn’t a discernible flow.

• 18a [Partial steak holder?] DOGGIE BAG. 4d [Grounds for telling scary stories?] CAMPSITES. 8d [Aerie-al view?] EAGLE CAM. 20d [Bear children?] CUBS. Enough! Basta!
• 19a [Minions’ vehicle] DESPICABLE ME. The vehicle being the film itself.
• 38a [Word with change or cucumber] SEA. It remained obscure to me until I got the crossings. I like when this type of clue isn’t painfully obvious.
• 46a [What a number on an envelope might signify] UNREAD EMAILS. That would be a badge over an icon. 24d [Deal with attachment issues, in a way?] RESEND.
• 51a [Tradition during which performers pretend to eat and spit out lettuce for good luck] LION DANCE.
  
• 5d [Gift for someone looking to lay down tracks at home] TRAIN SET. Not sure whether the clue is supposed to be some sort of wordplay. It just seems a bit odd.
• 11d [Classroom with instruments] LAB. Yup.
• 33d [Appeared without a credit, say] HAD A CAMEO. Is that a crossworthy phrase?
  
• 42d [Backstage requests] RIDERS. I was originally looking for something like autographs.

Fine puzzle, I just wish it had put up a little more resistance.

Michele Govier’s Universal Crossword, “Spitting Hairs” (ed. David Steinberg) — Matt F’s Review

Universal Solution 12.3.2024

Sorry I’m late on this one – hope you all managed today without my thorough review! Today’s theme revolves around a list of items that share something in common, as explained by a punny revealer:

• 56A – [Central Christian doctrine that sounds like a description of 17-, 29-, and 42-Across?] = HOLY TRINITY

The theme answers comprise a holy trinity because they can be categorized as “things with holes.” Three things with holes!

• 17A – [Ingredient in some French onion soup recipes, ironically] = SWISS CHEESE
• 29A – [Wax sculpture?] = HONEYCOMB
• 42A – [Fry cook at the Krusty Krab] = SPONGEBOB

I like the jocularity of this theme. It’s light, funny, and doesn’t take itself too seriously. The theme clues were nice, particularly the first one – when I came across it I thought the theme might be based around other ironic things (until I figured out that it wasn’t). Plenty of open space in the grid, too, making the puzzle flow smoothly with some decent longer stuff like LOSE NO TIME, MISTLETOE, TEE SHOT, and LIFE STORY. Can’t knock HISTORIANS, they do great work, it’s just not a super exciting entry especially with the straightforward clue. I like the single black square dead center of the grid that allowed for 4 nice 7’s going out in all directions. LOGE is a weird word, but the fill is pretty smooth overall.