Adrian Johnson’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 1/31/25 – no. 0131
My solving time suggests hardish Saturday (or early “Joel covering for Will” Friday), but it didn’t feel all that tough. I just entered a few too many answers in the wrong squares, slowed myself down.
Starting 1-Across with SRS didn’t bode well, but there was a lot of good stuff to offset that. Fave fill: “THAT’S A WRAP,” SMART PILLS, TO BE HONEST, BARNYARD, MARRIED MAN ([He’s taken!]), “I DON’T BUY IT,” EMPTY STARE, SPIN DOCTOR, RAP BATTLES.
Fave clues:
- 26D. [It’s followed by an extra point], “ALSO …” The clue screamed sports!
- 19A. [Number of countries whose names both start and end with “A”], NINE. Let’s see: Algeria Albania Austria Australia Argentina Azerbaijan Armenia … Angola … and Antigua and Barbuda. I like geography trivia and rote learning, so sue me.
- 37A. [Hinduism’s “king of fruits”], MANGO. I had myself convinced I was looking for a Hindu deity rather than a fruit. Whoops.
- 54A. [Focus group?], CAMERA CREW.
- 57A. [Wanders around a terminal, for short?], TSA. They might wand air travelers with a metal detector.
I’ve never liked 8d. “SO THERE!” The clue is [“Deal with it!”], and a high school classmate once signed my yearbook with the phrase. At that time, I hadn’t really encountered the phrase, and I still don’t know if she was being friendly or rude. The clue feels maybe a little off to me, but I am still not an expert on the phrase’s meaning. What’s your take?
Four stars from me.
Ricky J Sirois’ Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up
LAT • 1/31/25 • Fri • Sirois • solution • 20250131
Is there an echo in here? SORTA (52d [“More or less”]) The last word (two-letters, second is O) of the original phrases is repeated to wackify matters. This is more of an orthographic theme than a phonetic one, since pronunciations change, for half of the themers.
- 21a. [Dorothy’s musing before heading back to Kansas?] DO I HAVE TOTO.
- 33a. [All-clear before the big dance competition?] GOOD TO GO-GO.
- 42a. [Advice on how to prevent undue interest from influencers?] MAKE IT SO-SO.
- 53a. [Enthusiastic reply from a certain bird impersonator?] INDEED I DODO. Clue for this one doesn’t seem quite right. “Impersonator”? “I DODO”? It might make slightly more sense as “I do dodo”, but even that isn’t very good.
Anyway, I mostly enjoyed the theme.
- 1d [Ring leader?] CHAMP. Boxing, wrestling, whatever.
- 2d [Help in keeping things straight] RULER, but it could also be a clue for 17a [Suspect’s story] ALIBI.
- 8d [Mega- squared] TERA-. 20a [Memory unit, informally] MEG.
- 40d [Short stay] STOPOVER.
- 43d [Coffee order] ICED. Feels incomplete, but it’s certainly comprehensible.
- 54d [U.S. weather agency] NOAA, which provides the underlying data for almost all domestic weather forecasts, and which the current administration wants to destroy and replace with inferior private ventures.
- 13a [Dark matter?] HUMOR. Some humor is dark. That’s it.
- 63a [Say hello quietly] WAVE. Strangely my mind first went to WINK.
NYT: I found today’s puzzle to be Wednesday easy. I’m not a pro and still flew through it like nothing, which is to say something for someone who, for many, many years, couldn’t even begin to tackle Fridays and Saturdays.
I challenged myself now to go back in the archives to solve all those last week monsters I was too afraid to face (I’m now in 2014) and, man if they’re fu**ing hard!! Honestly, there’d been a couple where no amount of googling could take me to the finish line. So…yeah, I find late week puzzles nowadays to be, how shall I put it…not the challenge they used to be.