Thursday, January 23, 2025

Samantha Podos Nowak’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Just Visiting”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar phrases featuring the bigram BY, but the solver must mentally remove those letters to make sense of the clues. The revealer is DROPPING BY (62a, [Visiting, and a hint to making sense of 17-, 25-, 36- and 52-Across]).

Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Just Visiting” · Samantha Podos Nowak · Thu., 1.23.25

• 17a. [Coordination needed when replacing a piece of carpet?] RUG(BY) MATCH.
• 25a. [Arcing throw over overnight lodging?] HOTEL LOB(BY).
• 36a. [Black-haired donkey?] DARK A(BY)SS.
• 52a. [Reward for a Halloween costume contest winner?] BOO(BY) PRIZE.

These are okay, but they don’t feel as natural as I’d like. A “hotel lob” doesn’t make a lot of sense and DARK ABYSS is about as green paintish as a phrase could get. “Rug match” comes closest in feeling like a real thing, and BOOBY PRIZE is just a fun phrase to have in a puzzle, so that’s a good one to end on.

The nine-letter central entry bisects the grid and takes away opportunities for long Down fill. Corner highlights include: ANGELOU and EROTICA.

Clues of note:

• 1a. [Black jack, sometimes]. SPADE. Good clue to start with that made me think for a second before plunking down the correct answer.
• 34d. [Tad’s dad]. ABE. Got me with this one. My mind went to The Simpsons and I went with NED. But nope, the Flanders boys are Todd and Rod.

Solid puzzle, but it just didn’t tickle me as I’d hoped. 3.25 stars.

Peter Gordon’s Fireball Crossword, “Themeless 174” – Jenni’s write-up

This is one of the harder FB themelesses in my recent memory. One long entry I didn’t know how to spell, one I’d never heard of, one clue that can charitably be called obscure, plus the usual entertaining misdirection we expect from Peter.

Fireball, January 22, 2025, Peter Gordon, “Themeless 174,” solution grid

• The entry I didn’t know how to spell: 22a [Pink spread at a Greek restaurant] is TARAMASALATA.
• The one I’d never heard of: 47a [India’s national anthem] is JANAGANAMANA.The only reason I avoided the dreaded Natick is that I know the Brewers are in the NL (and here’s my ritual objection to the term NLERS, only seen in crosswords).
• The one that I will charitably call obscure: 5d [Gibus] is an OPERA HAT. I thought maybe it had something to do with the moon. Nope. That’s gibbous.
• Entertaining misdirection #1: 15a [Painkiller alternative] is a PINA COLAD.
• Entertaining misdirection #2: 65a [Very long flower] is the NILE.

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: see above. I also did not know Alessia CARA (and was smart enough to look her up because for all I knew she was CARA Alessia).

Natan Last and the J.A.S.A. Crossword Class’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up

Difficulty: Easy (6m58s)

Natan Last and the J.A.S.A. Crossword Class’s New York Times crossword, 1/23/24, 0123

Today’s theme: out, damn (s)pot.. also, POTHOLES (Obstacles for a driver … or what this puzzle’s circled squares represent)

• SEE S(POT) RUN with ROAD containing the POTHOLE
• NE(POT)ISM with BOULEVARD containing the POTHOLE
• MESO(POT)AMIA with AVENUE containing the POTHOLE
• MA (PO T)OFU with STREET containing the POTHOLE

Fun theme.  I suspect it will play on the easier side for a lot of people, as dropping those POTs in really opens up most of the puzzle, and the revealer isn’t clued too obliquely.  And MA PO TOFU is back for the second time in a month, having just made its NYTXW debut in December.  I approve on behalf of vegetarians everywhere.

Cracking: DELOUSE sitting right below BARFLY

Slacking: ECSEGAR, mostly because E.C. is such an unusual lead-in to a surname, and ECSEGAR looks so very awkward in sequence without the punctuation

Sidetracking: she’s a MANEATER