Monday, December 23, 2024

Glenn Cook’s New York Times crossword— Sophia’s write-up

Theme: AFTER MIDNIGHT – the answers to the starred clues can follow the word “midnight”

New York Times, 12 23 2024, By Glenn Cook

• 17a [*Hodgepodge bowlful of munchies] – SNACK MIX (midnight snack)
• 25a [*Buses, trains, subways, etc.] – MASS TRANSIT (midnight mass)
• 48a [*Rodeo footwear] – COWBOY BOOTS (midnight cowboy)
• 58a [*Portrait artist’s medium] – OIL PAINT (midnight oil)
• 34a [CBS late show hosted by Taylor Tomlinson … or where to find the first words of the answers to the starred clues] – AFTER MIDNIGHT

Fun theme and revealer! I’m a big Taylor Tomlinson fan (definitely check out her comedy specials if you haven’t seen them), so AFTER MIDNIGHT was a total gimme for me. I think that the clue as written will help folks unfamiliar with the show, though – “late show” definitely helps point to “midnight” as the second word in the answer.

The theme is a tinyyy bit simple – oftentimes Monday themes involve both pieces of a phrase following a given word, or some other extra layer like that – but given that MIDNIGHT is not used in a ton of different phrases, that didn’t bother me much. I liked that the midnight phrases used “midnight” in different ways: midnight mass and snack refer directly to the time of night, Midnight Cowboy is a proper noun, midnight oil is an idiom. I also liked all the base phrases Glenn picked, since with a simple theme the fill needs to really shine. MASS TRANSIT and COWBOY BOOTS were my favorites here.

As mentioned above, the fill here is pretty strong, although by necessity a lot of it is pretty short – see how AFTER MIDNIGHT’s 13-letter length requires the line of black squares through the middle of the puzzle? BLAST OFF and HALFSIES are fun, and I literally ate a chocolate MOUSSE less than 10 minutes before solving this puzzle so that was apt!

I had a lot of trouble with the first row of across answers – none of ORBS/CBC/CAROMS came to me on a first pass. (After learning Glenn is Canadian from his constructor notes, I especially appreciate the CBC answer). My only other error was for the clue [Unwavering] trying to put in “stable” rather than STEADY, and then realizing “wait, I just used STABLES for [Horses’ homes], that can’t be right”. But after that it was Monday-smooth for me.

Congrats to Glenn on his NYT debut!

Desirée Penner & Jeff Sinnock’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Big Deal”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar(ish) phrases that feature a word that is also a playing card. Phrases are presented vertically with the ACE at the top and the JACK at the bottom. The revealer is HIGHEST CARD WINS (37a, [Tiebreaker rule in poker, represented visually by the starred answers]).

Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Big Deal” · Desirée Penner & Jeff Sinnock · Mon., 12.23.24

• 11d. [*Beat, as the competition] ACE OUT.
• 19d. [*Alaskan crustacean] KING CRAB.
• 29d. [*”You go, girl!”] “YAS, QUEEN!”
• 48d. [*Commandeer, in a way] HIJACK.

I feel like I’m missing something because this just seems like a listing of phrases with cards in them with the added constraint of their placement. I solved this without regard to the theme, so it made no difference to my solve, and it is Monday, so a theme shouldn’t be complicated. But this seems rather light to me. Also, I don’t know that I’ve ever heard anyone use ACE OUT as a phrase.

Oh yeah, there’s an added revealer of POT at 66d [What may be at stake as a result of the ruling at 37-Across]. This feels quite unconnected from the rest of the theme, almost as if it was added in just to boost the number of theme squares. I do like that its counterpart is PAN at 1d.

I quite enjoyed the fill though with ICE SKATERS, ABU DHABI, ON A TANGENT, and STRAY DOGS topping the list. OLD DAYS is okay, but it would be much better as “good old days.”

Three stars.