LAT untimed (pannonica)
NYT 5:57 (Amy)
Universal tk (Jim)
USA Today tk (Emily)
Robert Logan’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 1/10/25 – no. 0110
Lots of entertaining fill throughout this puzzle. My faves: “WHO KNEW?”, “YEAH, I’M SURE,” SPITBALL as a verb, BENDY STRAW, “HIT ME UP,” KEPT IT REAL, SPAMBOTS, PARTY BUS, and NERFING.
I wonder whether plural SISALS ([Natural rug fibers]) is really legit.
Clue I liked: 14D. [It stands out in a print], WHORL. In a fingerprint, not an art print.
Four stars from me.
Amanda Cook’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up
LAT • 1/10/25 • Fri • Cook • solution • 20250110
nb: This was written on Wednesday, before the horrific fires that have been devastating the Los Angeles area. Just felt the need to acknowledge the tragedy and express sympathies.
- 35aR [Third base, in baseball lingo, or one of four in this puzzle] HOT CORNER. Both of the entries meeting at each of the four corners can be preceded by ‘hot’. They’re clued normally, not in their ‘hot’ sense.
- 1a. [Valued entity] COMMODITY.
1d. [Gâteaux] CAKES. - 10a. [Chances] SHOTS.
14d. [Take off and run?] STREAK. - 43d. [Trade secrets?] GOSSIP. Hot gossip isn’t a phrase I’ve heard much, but maybe I don’t travel in such circles.
64a. [Breathes heavily] PANTS. - 65a. [See’s Candies candy] CHOCOLATE.
53d. [Arrange for serving, as a meal] PLATE.
- 2d [Sheep] OVINES. Plural of the less-seen noun form.
- 39d [One who practices minimal consumption] FREEGAN. Not necessarily minimal personal consumption of, say, food, but as a component of a broader philosophy of limiting participation in a hyperconsumerist economy. Of course that includes minimizing contributions to food waste and so forth.
- 42d [Awareness of wrongdoing, in criminal law] MENS REA, criminal intent, literally ‘guilty mind’.
- 45d [Shakshouka base] TOMATO. Looks tasty, and I don’t even really care for poached eggs.
- 51d [Totes absurd] RIDICulous (totally). 62a [Completely silly] INANE.
- 56d [“Duuuude …”] BRAH, a colloquial form of bro.
- 17a [Result of slaying it at the gym] KILLER ABS. Not sure how common this phrase is, but I note that ‘slaying’ is in the clue to help the solver along.
- 22a [Google rankings metric: Abbr.] SEO, search engine optimization.
- 41a [Hardly cheerful] GRIM. My current métier for the foreseeable future. 11d [“Grimsburg” voice actor Jon] HAMM.
- 52a [The __ Ministry: “Rest is Resistance” organization] NAP. I’m intrigued. As I like to remind people: “the first nap of the day is the most important nap of the day.”
- 56a [Composers’ rights org.] BMI, Broadcast Music, Inc.
- 58a [Magical symbol] SIGIL. etymology: Middle English sigulle, from Latin sigillum — more at SEAL (m-w)
- 63a [Quiz with bona fide answers?] LATIN TEST. Bona fide is, literally, ‘in good faith’ so that’s an apt contrast to the crossing 42-down MENS REA.
NERF (as a verb) and BENDY STRAW seem like familiar entries of late.
BENDYSTRAW made its NYT debut 3 weeks ago, on Dec 21. (Thank you, xwordinfo!)
There have been times in the past when it seems that the editors have deliberately put a potentially obscure answer in the grid twice in a short amount of time. But I feel like that’s generally happened when it’s a short entry in a late-week puzzle. BENDY STRAW, at 10 letters, is one of the 4 longest entries in this themeless puzzle, and it’s almost like duplicating a theme answer within 3 weeks. It was also 1A on Saturday, Dec 21, so its original appearance was more prominent and in a later-in-the-week puzzle.
What’s up with Crossword Scraper? Not working this morning.
Actually, the issue may be Across Lite. Is it not compatible with the latest Microsoft update? Where do I find other solving platforms?