Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Take It Back!”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar(ish) phrases that feature the word GIFT spelled backwards. The revealer is GIFT RETURNS (53a, [Post-Christmas take-backs, as found in 17-, 26- and 41-Across]).
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Take It Back!” · Mike Shenk · Thu., 12.26.24
- 17a. [“No surprise there!”] “THAT FIGURES!”
- 26a. [1993 picture book by Chris Van Allsburg] THE SWEETEST FIG.
- 41a. [Rumble participants] STREET FIGHTERS.
If someone had asked me if I could come up with enough phrases that feature the letters TFIG to support a puzzle theme, I would not have thought it possible. But this works, even though I had never heard of the picture book (looks like a good one, though). So while it’s a somewhat repetitive theme, it gets the job done.
If the theme didn’t float your boat, at least there’s some enjoyable long fill along the way: HOLES-IN-ONE, ERIC THE RED, HOT SAUCE, FUEL LINE, and DEAR SIR. I’m not so sure that ENEMY SPY and GO WELL are really crossword-worthy, but the other long entries more than make up for it.
Clues of note:
- 60a. [Father of Robb, Sansa, Arya, Bran and Rickon]. NED. From Game of Thrones in case you were wondering…and even if you weren’t.
- 9d. [Dangerous plant, perhaps]. ENEMY SPY. Needed a lot of crossings for this as I could only think of poisonous or carnivorous plants.
3.5 stars.
Ella Dershowitz’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up
Difficulty: Average (9m56s)
Ella Dershowitz’s New York Times crossword, 12/26/24, 1226
Today’s theme: SKI LIFT (Peak picker-uppers, as depicted three times in this puzzle’s grid)
- THI(S KI)SS
- PENCIL (SKI)RT
- CASH I(S KI)NG
I actually had to look back over the grid to find the third themer, as I had casually plunked down PENCILS assuming it was a slang abbreviation for PENCIL (SKI)RT, and not even noticing the ski lift to the next line. That’s okay. Winter sports were never my thing.
Cracking: RUBIKS CUBES, still inscrutable to me despite being solvable in less than 10 seconds, with a thousand YouTube videos explicitly walking you through it.
Slacking: PEN crossing PENCILS, technically two different implements, but only just
Sidetracking: “DODGSON! WE GOT DODGSON HERE!”
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1743 “Boxing Day” — Eric’s review
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1743 12/26/24
The title suggests the English holiday of the day after Christmas, which now seems to be similar to Black Friday in the United States. But no, the theme is pugilistic, with punny answers incorporating the surnames of famous professional boxers:
- 17A [Old comic inspired by boxer Muhammad?] ALI HARDY (Oliver “Ollie” Hardy of Laurel and Hardy)
- 23A [Fruit for boxer Rocky?] MARCIANO CHERRY Maraschino cherry
- 34A [“Is there a problem?,” to boxer Jake] WHAT’S LAMOTTA YOU? What’s the matter with you? I’m not sure about this one; it doesn’t work as well for me as the others.
- 48A [Consider sound advice, like boxer Sonny?] LISTON TO REASON This is probably my favorite of the theme answers.
- 56A [Neckwear for boxer Riddick?] BOWE TIES
I’m no fan of boxing, but I was more or less familiar with all these names. I suspect that if I hadn’t known some of them, I’d have struggled with the theme answers.
The length of the theme answers leads to a grid with two eight-letter Down answers as the only sizeable bonus answers. The two here are fine but not exciting:
- 9D [Pastry with a hole] DOUGHNUT
- 35D [Do exactly what’s expected at] SHOOT PAR
A few other notable answers:
- 14A [Part of a peloton] BIKE I’m writing this on a borrowed computer; my hosts are big Tour de France fans who long ago introduced me to the concept of a peloton.
- 41A [Coverage in a hospital] GOWN Nice little misdirection there.
- 63A [Computer language that shares its name with a drink] JAVA I initially blanked on this and briefly wondered if there was a programming language called NEHI.
- 12D [ Italian playhouse] TEATRO
- 57D [Whole Foods rival, to fans] TJ’S That’s Trader Joe’s, a store I’ve only been in a few times.
I was slowed in the SE by a few authors I’m not very familiar with:
- 37D [“The Memory Police” author Ogawa] YŌKO Nice change from Ms Ono. The novel sounds interesting.
- 58D [Crime writer Rankin] IAN
- 59D [“Which Witch?” author Ibbotson] EVA
Will Nediger’s New Yorker Crossword—Eric’s review
Will Nediger’s New Yorker Crossword 12/26/24
It’s the fourth installment of The New Yorker‘s holiday crossword series, with a theme of 2024 in movies. I saw two movies in theaters this year, Megalopolis and Wicked, neither of which showed up here.
Despite my lack of familiarity with most of the movies in the theme answers, this was pretty smooth to solve:
- 9A [Abbr. for the franchise that includes “Deadpool & Wolverine” (July, 2024)] MCU Not really my kind of movies,
- 15A [Star of the action comedy “Hit Man” (May, 2024) and the disaster-film sequel “Twisters” (July, 2024)] GLEN POWELL His name just came up somewhere a few days ago; I’m not sure I’d have gotten it easily otherwise.
- 17A [“It ___ With Us” (drama released amid strife between stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, in August, 2024)] ENDS
- 18A [“The ___ of the Sacred Fig” (film directed by Mohammad Rasoulof, who fled Iran shortly before attending its Cannes première, in May, 2024)] SEED
- 21A [Horror-film prequel “The First ___” (April, 2024] OMEN
- 34A [State home to an annual film festival that could relocate to Colorado or Ohio, per an announcement by the Sundance Institute (September, 2024)] UTAH By coincidence, my friends and I were discussing this earlier this morning. But they couldn’t remember where the Sundance Film Festival might be moving, and neither my husband nor I had heard of the proposed move.
- 48A [Survival thriller, set on an idyllic island in the Galápagos, that had its première at TIFF (September, 2024)] EDEN
- 55A [Luca who directed “Challengers” (April, 2024)] GUAGADINO I knew the name but struggled with the spelling. This movie was one I was sorry I missed.
- 57A [“The ___ of You” (May, 2024, rom-com starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine)] IDEA
- 4D [Da’Vine Joy ___ (actress whose triumphant awards season culminated in an Oscar win in March, 2024)] RANDOLPH She won for her performance in The Holdovers, another movie I’m sorry I missed.
- 7D [Cannes award that went to Sean Baker’s “Anora” (May, 2024)] PALME D’OR
- 8D [“___ We Imagine as Light” (winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes in May, 2024)] ALL
- 9D [Action film in which Dev Patel plays a fighter who wears a simian mask (April, 2024)] MONKEY MAN
- 13D [Protagonist of “I Saw the TV Glow” (May, 2024)] OWEN
- 14D [Plemons who plays three roles in “Kinds of Kindness” (June, 2024)] JESSE I’ve enjoyed Jesse Plemons in Breaking Bad and several other things, so this was a gimme.
- 20D [James ___ Jones (actor who passed away in September, 2024)] EARL
- 31D [Superhero film in which Dakota Johnson’s character seeks answers about her mother, who was researching spiders in the Amazon right before she died (February, 2024)] MADAME WEB This doesn’t sound familiar but was completely guessable.
- 37D [“A Woman Under the Influence” star Gena, who died in August, 2024] ROWLANDS
- 43D [John who appeared nearly naked to present the Academy Award for Best Costume Design (March, 2024)] CENA
- 47D [Coming-of-age film by Sean Wang whose title means “younger brother” (July, 2024)] DÌDI
- 51D [“Bad Boys: ___ or Die” (Will Smith and Martin Lawrence blockbuster that was released in June, 2024)] RIDE
- 53D [Avenging brothers Caleb and Junior, to James Sykes, in “Horizon: An American Saga—Chapter 1” (June, 2024)] SONS
That’s a lot of thematic material, but a much it is short. Most of the clues for the non-theme answers are pretty straightforward, so if you’re not into movies, this puzzle probably isn’t a lot of fun.
Greg Snitkin’s USA Today Crossword, “It’s Lit” — Emily’s write-up
Let’s go!
USA Today, December 26, 2024, “It’s Lit” by Greg Snitkin
Theme: each themer is a different type of “lit”
Themers:
- 19a. [Holiday candelabrum with nine branches], HANUKKIAH
- 36a. [Children’s story divided into sections], CHAPTERBOOK
- 57a. [Event organized by campus bros], FRATPARTY
What a themer set with a fun theme and title hint. The HANUKKIAH candles are lighted. A CHAPTERBOOK is literature. A FRATPARTY is meant to be a wild time. I needed a few crossings for each but everything was fairly crossed and easy enough to fill.
Favorite fill: SLYDOG, SUSHIBAR, SOBA, and ALLTALK
Stumpers: INKS (“pens” and “font” came to mind first), SRY (I thought cluing referred to a pet name like “bae”), and ROAD (new to me)
Overall a fun puzzle, though it look me a bit longer today. Some of the cluing was a bit tricker for me and several entries to new to me too, which took me more time to get. Still a fun one!
4.0 stars
~Emily
I have a new Thursday PB with this puzzle, even though I didn’t figure out the entire theme until after it was over. The cluing was extremely straightforward, especially the Downs, so even though some of the Across answers didn’t match the clues, I didn’t notice.
I had 3 daily PBs in 2024 — one in January for a Friday, one in August for a Monday, and today.
I hope everyone is having a good holiday season!
I agree; felt like a bit of an easier Thursday… I was dropping in answers rather quickly for a Thursday. I somehow tried RUBIK CUBES instead of RUBIKS the first time, and so I thought it was something else till I had enough crosses. When I got to THIS KISS, I worried it was going to be a rebus, but the revealer clued me in. Only real hiccup at the end was when I had BAN instead of BIN for “Hamper”, but that got me to SNIDE. Fun puzzle!
JohnH, you were right. No one seems to have yet been assigned the Thursday New Yorker crossword as of 8:30 a.m.
I’m sure we’ll get there. I bet this will be a rough one for me. Somehow Gorski made yesterday’s a quick solve, and I had a edge with language skills (Monday) and literature (Tuesday), despite the proper names. But today (and likely tomorrow) will push me.
May I mention something that won’t apply to most anyone else here? A pdf solver this week faces clues with lots of words, which translates into tiny print. And I wouldn’t want it otherwise at that, since solving in print with two pages is so awkward.
The New Yorker has regular puzzles (not minis) each weekday this week. So you should have blogged today and should again Friday.
I didn’t spot the NYT theme until the end, with the CASHIS entry. THIS on its own seemed like a plausible song title, and like ZDL I thought PENCILS might be a shorthand for those skirts (I didn’t notice that the clue called for a singular answer).
Still, a pleasant, gentle solve for a lazy morning.
BEQ – my guess is 34a was inspired by Bullwinkle (Wossamotta U)
Thanks. I haven’t seen Bullwinkle in 50+ years and don’t remember that.
New Yorker: GLEN POWELL’s name came up recently in the New York Times faces-of-the-year test. The test is fun, but I’m getting worse and worse at it, because my memory for names comes and goes and is getting worse, and because I just don’t know some of these actors and singers–and, as you say, some of the movies referenced in the puzzle are just not for everybody. They’re kind of macho–horror, comics series etc. Even the foreign film I did see that was mentioned in the puzzle at 18A is kind of a horror movie (apparently, think of “The Shining”), but I’m glad I saw that one and knew the name.
Thanks! That NYT faces quiz was where I saw GLEN POWELL. I didn’t recognize him (or a lot of the other entertainers and athletes) and eventually got bored with the quiz.
I think I got 33 out of 50 faces. Did well on political/business people and athletes. Did poorly on actors (I recognized Powell from Top Gun: Maverick, but couldn’t come up with the name) and musicians – but at least with the musicians, I recognized the names. And I’m supposed to recognize the faces of podcasters??
In the JURASSIC PARK clip put up here, the other actor with Wayne Knight is Cameron Thor, who was a pleasant co-worker with me when I was in L.A. as a limo company airport rep at LAX (we were the go-betweens for clients from plane to limo driver, or vice-versa.) He still did the job even though he was getting great work, like this film, and A FEW GOOD MEN.
But, um…………his life took a weird turn in the decades since. You can Google it, I’m sure, especially with a Hollywood Reporter article that detailed all.
Yikes…….
In the USA Today puzzle, I have never seen HANUKKIAH spelled with an I. I have always seen it spelled HANUKKAH. Also, I do not see any connection between FRAT PARTY and the IT’S LIT theme. Can anyone explain this?