Henry Josephson’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 12/20/24 – no. 1220
Six interlocking 15s, with the central Across flanked by a pair of 14s? That brings us a lot of lively long entries, albeit crossed by a smattering of short answers that don’t bring any fun to the party.
MARIJUANA LEAVES are indeed a popular motif for things like laptop stickers for stoners. [Common motifs in high art?] might be giving too much credit to stoner decorations being “art.” UNICORN START-UPS, THE GOLDEN SPIKE of railroad history, TONGUE TWISTERS, and “I’D HAVE TO KILL YOU [if I told you]” also lend flavor. On the Down side, fil like JOAO, prefix SUR-, SATIE, SER, ESSO, ETRE, SSN, ODEA, and ELLY did not bring the flavor.
Two more things:
- 46d. [Member of the Golden Horde], TATAR. Awkward to have GOLDEN up above in one of the 14s.
- 47d. [2024 M.L.B. All-Star ___ De La Cruz], ELLY. Make a note of his name, because crossword constructors can always use a fresh angle for DE LA, and we don’t have much in the way of contemporary ELLYs. He’s new in MLB.
3.5 stars from me.
Alan Siegel’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up
LAT • 12/20/24 • Fri • Siegel • solution • 20241220
Spoonerisms are the name of the game here, and each of the theme entries has the same structure of “X and Y”.
- 20a. [Au pair with a sinister sidekick] CROOK AND NANNY (nook and cranny).
- 27a. [Purchases for an organized gardener] SHED AND HOLDERS (head and shoulders).
- 43a. [Common sights in the Caribbean] KEYS AND PARROTS (peas and carrots).
- 51a. [Some pieces in an avian-themed chess set] CROWS AND PAWNS (pros and cons). This one doesn’t work for me, as I don’t rhyme cons and pawns.
87.5% success rate, I guess?
- 1d [Finished up?] WON. Deft.
- 6d [Like Maldon sea salt] FLAKED. Seems kind of famous? 8d [Bath flower?] AVON. Distance from Maldon to Bath: 275km.
- 13d [OutKast hit that asks, “What’s cooler than being cool?”] HEY YA. “I AM your neighbor”. 5a [A neighbor] B FLAT.
- 53d [L.A. nabe with an arts district] NOHO. I’m guessing it isn’t short for NOrth of HOuston … aha, it’s NOrth HOllywood. 46d [Warhol genre] POP ART.
- 54d [Animal on “XING” signs] DEER, which was my first try at 1-across [Bunches of bucks] WADS.
- 23a [Big name in battery-powered lawn equipment] EGO. New to me.
- 32a [Danger] PERIL. 47d [Scares] ALARMS.
- 41a [Symbol on a dressing room door] STAR. 44d [Prima ballerina] ÉTOILE.
- 61a [TV component?] TELE-. ok
Matthew Luter’s Universal crossword, “Winter Themeless Week, Puzzle 5”—Jim’s review
I guess I’ve been missing out on Themeless Week as this is my first time doing the Universal since last Friday. But we have a lovely grid to enjoy today.
Universal crossword solution · “Winter Themeless Week, Puzzle 5” · Matthew Luter · Fri., 12.20.24
Check out these highlights: CUT IT CLOSE, ONE DAY ONLY, DEAD PIXEL, GANGSTARAP, ROCK OF AGES, ICE DANCER, POOL PLAYER, PURPLE RAIN, “YOU SLY DOG,” SLEEP MASK, and ANOMALOUS. I want to like “NEED I GO ON?” but it feels like “Need I say more?” is much more common. Google’s ngram viewer bears this out.
Clues of note:
- 54a. [Word after “big” or “raw”]. DATA. I really wanted DEAL here. Is “big data” actually a phrase?
- 12d. [“What a cheeky move!”]. “YOU SLY DOG?” Has this phrase made a comeback among the kids today? Because how do you clue this without referring to Peppermint Patty and Charlie Brown?
Fun themeless grid. 3.75 stars.
NYT seemed crazy easy today, I blew away my prior Friday record (I was even slightly below my Tuesday average!).
FWIW, I also blew my Friday record out of the water — turns out this guy just writes clues in the same way my brain works.
Jokes aside, I’m glad y’all didn’t hate it! The eds definitely made some clues easier than in my draft. I think this broadly to their credit: it’s very easy to fall into the https://xkcd.com/2501/ trap, so my initial submission was clued at a level I thought was hard, and which was thus almost certainly not a good general-audience level. e.g. 21A clued with a reference to UVA during their infamous 2018 March Madness loss to UMBC in my initial submission.
Given that they adapted clues for Easy Mode (I think this is also on-balance good, though I’d never heard of it before and it feels a tad odd to repurpose Fridays?), I’m probably going to re-clue a “Hard Mode” version, just for fun. Will post link here when I get around to it.
Nice puzzle! I don’t think I set any record, but probably would have preferred the “hard” version. But then, I’m a Tony Bennett fan (both the coach and the singer – two class acts), so 21-A would have been a gimme.
And we Cleveland sports fans are loving Ty Jerome’s play this season. He’s been a very pleasant surprise. I guess he likes playing for Cavaliers.
“…this guy just writes clues in the same way my brain works.” LOL – but that’s pretty much how this felt to me.
I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle, and thought the long acrosses (and 1 vertical grid-spanner!) were worth the inevitable 3- and 4-letter fill.
Didn’t break my Friday record, but I did finish faster than either Wednesday or Thursday of this week, so I definitely would have liked to have had a crack at the original clues.
Yes, I was more than a minute faster than Amy, something that doesn’t really happen (even in her current, reduced state).
LAT – Follow along if you can
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0tz98kt-f0