Note from Amy: Hey, folks. I can’t guarantee I won’t get bounced back to the hospital, but I’m cautiously optimistic that I’ll be popping in to write about puzzles at something close to my prior schedule. It’s good to be back(ish)! I’m planning to write up the AV Club Classic on Wednesday unless someone beats me to it.
There may be some upcoming log-in changes here at Crossword Fiend to provide a better experience for commenters who aren’t keen on making personal attacks or being attacked personally. I apologize for the inconvenience Tuesday afternoon and in the future, and for any obscenities you’ve run into before they were deleted.
Gary Larson’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “All Rise”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases but with wacky clues that don’t really make sense…until you add the word UP to the end. The revealer is UPENDING (37d, [Toppling over, and what’s missing from the starred answers]).
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “All Rise” · Gary Larson · Wed., 12.4.24
- 17a. [*Row of mooning suspects at the police station?] BOTTOM LINE(-UP).
- 25a. [*Quick divorce?] FAST BREAK(UP).
- 35a. [*Initiation rite for the Mile High Club?] SKY HOOK(-UP).
- 47a. [*Profit margin on a piece of furniture?] BENCH MARK(UP).
- 56a. [*Light truck in mint condition?] CHERRY PICK(-UP).
I don’t recall seeing a gimmick quite like this before where the wacky clues don’t match the entry as given. It’s not until we get to the revealer that we can have our aha moment. Points awarded for novelty for sure, even if I didn’t get any chuckles from the clues. RAW DEAL and NEW LEFT make for grid highlights along with IN THE WAY and ALLERGY. I wanted BOOTIE instead of BOOTEE, however. Clues of note:
- 29a. [“Hard Hearted Hannah” composer]. AGER. Oof. From 1924? The dude wrote “Ain’t She Sweet” and “Happy Days Are Here Again.” At least give us a song we may have heard of. (Okay, maybe some of you know “Hard Hearted Hannah,” but those other songs must be far more well known.)
- 43a. [Heated competition?]. MEET. Good clue. See also [Someone who splits the bill?] for CO-STAR.
3.5 stars.
Daniel Raymon’s New York Times puzzle — Eric’s Review
Daniel Raymon’s NY Times crossword 12/4/24
Today’s theme: Typographical marks read as words:
- 20A [“] (“Quote”) PRICE ESTIMATE
- 26A [.] (“Period”) STRETCH OF TIME
- 48A [–] (“Dash”) MAKE A RUN FOR IT
- 56A [/] (“Slash”) ROCK GUITARIST
I didn’t pay much attention to the theme clues until I got ROCK GUITARIST. Even after making that connection, I got most of the theme answers by filling in the gaps left after getting some of the Down answers.
The grid design leaves only two Down slots longer than seven letters, but those two entries are fine:
- 11D [What self-driving cars and spell check are meant to compensate for] HUMAN ERROR
- 28D [Genuine articles] REAL MCCOYS
There’s a bit of wordplay in a few of the clues:
- 6A [They might be jam-packed] JARS
- 17A [Bank of New Orleans?] LEVEE
- 32A [You might pick one to get gold] ORE
And there’s an opportunity for me to fill a gap in my pop music knowledge, with 33A [One-named singer featured on the 2013 hit “Play Hard”] AKON/66A [One-named singer featured on the 2013 hit “Play Hard”] NE-YO
A curiosity: On the NYT website, 53D CONEY has the clue [___ dog, food specialty topped with meat sauce]; at xwordinfo.com, the clue is [___ dog (Brooklyn food specialty)]. I wonder what the clue was in the print edition; the Brooklyn reference would have kept me from making a misstep with CHILI.
A solid if not particularly exciting puzzle.
Joe Rodini’s USA Today Crossword, “Au Pair” — Emily’s write-up
Need a hand?
USA Today, December 04, 2024, “Au Pair” by Joe Rodini
Theme: each themer contains AU—AU—
Themers:
- 20a. [“Amelie” star], AUDREYTAUTOU
- 37a. [Design philosophy that had a profound influence on modernist architecture], BAUHAUSMOVEMENT
- 51a. [Endonym for the Iroquois people], HAUDENOSAUNEE
Quite a mix of themers in the set today and I needed lots of crossings. It’s been a while since I’ve seen “Amelie” with AUDREYTAUTOU but she is certainly recognizable for that role in particular. BAUHAUSMOVEMENT and HAUDENOSAUNEE were new to me. The theme ties them all together and it’s fascinating that they each contain two AU— so the title hint is the perfect punny nod to the theme and for a hot second had me thinking about children.
Favorite fill: GROKS, MOOTPOINT, and ACCOSTOM
Stumpers: NOTSO (cluing didn’t quite get me there), TICTACTOE (first had “celebrities”), and LEGO (only “SEGA” came to mind based on length so needed crossings)
Overall a solid puzzle but one that I found tricker, both in the cluing and the fill, at least for me. The SW corner was my biggest stumper for some reason and that was the last portion that filled in. How did you all do today?
3.5 stars
~Emily
Mike Torch’s Universal crossword, “Just for Kicks” — pannonica’s write-up
Universal • 12/4/24 • Wed • “Just for Kicks” • Torch • solution • 20241204
Shoe puns. For each two-word theme entry, the type of footwear appears second.
- 17a. [Backless shoe worn in Russia’s capital] MOSCOW MULE, which is a vodka-based cocktail.
- 24a. [High-heeled shoe for peddling around?] BICYCLE PUMP. Clue should read pedaling. Incidentally, I just noticed that today’s crossword is edited by Taylor Johnson rather than David Steinberg, but I haven’t looked at that credit in quite some time. Coincidentally, perhaps, I remarked several weeks ago that the Universal puzzle had stopped cluing AXE as a variant spelling. Will need to dig into this.
- 40a. [Shoe with a thick sole for train travel?] RAILWAY PLATFORM.
- 52a. [Shoe with a continuous solid heel made from a tuber?] POTATO WEDGE.
- 65a. [Shoe with little arch support worn around the MGM lot?] STUDIO FLAT.
These are fine.
- 59d [E.T. crafts] UFOS. But what about ET arts?
- 61d [Blurry mental state[ HAZE. 45a [Brain __ (clouding of consciousness)] FOG.
- 66d [Discussion starter] DEE. Just the letter.
- 5a [“Excuse me,” in Parma] SCUSI. Pretty much a direct cognate.
- 14a [Wrinkly citrus fruit] UGLI. I feel that this word appears often in this specific location, that is, the first across entry in the second row.
- 44a [Modify] ALTER. 5d [Use a needle and thread] SEW. 10d [Tailing expert] SPY.
- 69a [Records on video] TAPES. 6d [Recording device, for short] CAM.
Okay.
Robyn Weintraub’s New Yorker crossword – Kyle’s write-up
The New Yorker solution grid – Wednesday 12/04/24 – Robyn Weintraub
I’m on a train, so this will be quick. Easy puzzle with a mix of long entries that were fun and less often seen (TRIPLE CHECKS, GHOST STORIES) and others that are treading on overuse (AMEN TO THAT, LOOKIE HERE). Good for a few minutes of diversion. Thanks Robyn!
Jay Silverman’s LA Times crossword – Gareth’s summary
4 Dec
Today’s puzzle theme by Jay Silverman felt a tad one-dimensional. We have FASTFOOD as the central explaining answer and then four products that are named after that self-same quality, because that’s a popular thing to market food around. INSTANTRAMEN, QUICKGRITS, MINUTERICE & BRISKICEDTEA… They’re clued as a “Speedy X?”, but I don’t know why, because that is literally what they are.
Notable clues answers:
-
- SCOTCH, [Whisky, e.g.]. Wait. Whisky is a type of SCOTCH; I thought it was the other way around.
- SHIN, [Lower leg]
As someone who works with quadrupeds, this was way more confusing.
Gareth
Richard D. Allen’s AVCX puzzle “All-Around Incredible”— Eric’s Review
Richard D. Allen’s AVCX Puzzle 12/4/24
Four shaded circles in the grid told me something was going on. I was surprised when the circles turned out to contain rebuses; usually, except in easy puzzles, rebuses are more hidden. The theme answers (and the rebuses) were all over the place:
- 17A [With feathers worse than ruffled] MAD AS {A WE}T HEN
- 25A [Antics meant to draw TV coverage, say] PRESS {STUN}TS
- 31A [Native events which may feature fancy dancing] POW{WOW}S (That “which” should be a “that” in my book.)
- 39A [Wheel with teeth] SP{ROCK}ET
I couldn’t connect these answers until I reached the revealer: 59A [Totes incredible, or a hint to four squares in this puzzle] AMAZEBALLS (Here’s some history on that unfortunate term.) All the rebuses are synonyms for “amaze” and what I saw as circles are actually spheres.
Nice theme, despite the cringy word that apparently inspired it. (If “amazeballs” is part of your vocabulary, I apologize. I wouldn’t know it but for crosswords.)
Some highlights:
- 40A [“O lo uno o lo _____” (“either/or,” in Spanish)] OTRO I enjoy learning new phrases in languages other than English and appreciate that this one obviously uses the masculine form of the word for “other.”
- 43A [Catch the vapors, say] SWOON I don’t recommend trying this. My husband swooned at a party about 10 years ago and broke his jaw in two places.
- 46A [Witless] ASININE
- 51A [Automotive obsessive] GEARHEAD
- 9D [Attribution for many a Renaissance painting] ARTI{ST UN}KNOWN
- 48D [Props for Marcel Marceau] MERCI I wonder how many people under 50 remember the French mime, who died in 2007.
One of the fill words in one of today’s puzzles (I don’t remember which) was about a sign on a studio door – “ON AIR” was the answer. Last night we saw a commercial about some streaming show, and one of the comments was, “Can you say that you “air” a streaming show?” It began an interesting tidbit of a conversation around here.
This is a good example of specific terminology hanging around well into its obsolescence – but in this case it may be coming around full-circle. The idea of “airing” a TV show was nearly universal when all shows were broadcast over the air – but with the advent of cable TV it became much less so. Same with streaming shows coming in via cable or fiber – but now more and more these shows are being received by wifi, satellite, or 5G. Full circle.
I wonder if we’ll revert back to dials on our cell phones? Or if they’ll ever change the little floppy-disk icon on computers representing “save”?
People still refer to recording as taping or ‘on tape’. Anachronisms sometimes prevail.
that’s funny, i had the same question recently but with the “on” instead of the “air” – does it still make sense to say “she played X character on Y show” if it was a streaming show?
My in-house style is “she played X character on Y” where Y is a broadcast, cable, or streaming series; and “she played X character in Z” where Z is a movie (cinema release or streaming release). I honestly don’t know if we’ve had to style a clue to accommodate a made-for-TV movie from a broadcast network; not sure whether those are still a thing or if they’d just call it a limited series now and run it across 2+ weeks.
A TV series is still a TV series whether it’s streaming or on network/cable TV, imo.
That’s kind of interesting. I would definitely go with “in” a movie. And probably “on” a TV series. Does it have something to do with the phrasing that movies are “in” theaters and series are “on” TV?
But then there’s that grey area. I’m old enough to remember “Roots,” which I think may have been billed as a “mini-series.” Ran for seven or eight episodes, I believe. I would say that LeVar Burton was “in” Roots.
I’m sure everyone continues to “hang up”. I feel sorry for the younger folks who will never have the satisfaction of actually banging a phone handset down onto the base when hanging up on somebody who needed hanging up on. Poking that icon just doesn’t do it. 🤣
Oh YAY… I can comment.
About yesterday’s NYT… up up and away was all I could think about the three “ups” endings. Then I saw Miramax, which to me equates to WEINSTEIN (as in Harvey) (sorry, I know the company made some good films but he and what he did with his power and his Miramax company are so very offensive I don’t like seeing them, I’d like to erase/cancel both!)
Today’s NYT… I thought it was good fun once I caught on to the theme. :)
I agree with your sentiment.
(But SETUP, DIAL-UP, INK UP, and PONY UP make a full *four* UPs.)
oops… thought I missed one but didn’t go back to count. The “ups” seem on purpose, maybe? I haven’t read the construtors notes on it.
NYT: I liked this theme. Caught on fairly quickly when I could see PRICE ESTIMATE from the crosses I had in place. After that, it was fun to figure out how each symbol was going to be interpreted.
Several new things for me that needed all the crosses – AKON, NEYO, SKEG – but overall pretty good fill. Nice Wednesday!
AKON and DANI almost defeated me. But the name concentration (along with SKEG) in the SW did.
NYT: A fun puzzle whose theme I didn’t even think about until after finishing.
I felt funny about the 57D clue “Feature of a bow tie or a bowline” for KNOT, because a bowline actually IS a knot. So it’s hard for me to view knot as a “feature” of a knot.
(And “bowtie” is now spelled as two words???)
PS A bowline is lots of fun to learn to tie; it was the only thing I learned as a Boy Scout.
A bowline, two half-hitches and a clove hitch are the only knots I learned in Boy Scouts that I still remember.
The clue for KNOT didn’t bother me. The first definition of “bowline” in my dictionary is “a rope attached to the weather leech of a square sail to hold the leech forward when sailing close-hauled.”
But I’m glad your comment prompted me to look it up, because I was conflating “bowline” with “painter.” I haven’t been sailing in a long while.
Most dictionaries have bow tie as two words. It definitely wants to be a solid “bowtie,” though, I agree.
We should ask Matt Smith’s Doctor. Bow ties are cool.