Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Et Al” — some extra stuff. – Erin’s write-up

Jonesin’ solution 2/11/25

Hello lovelies! In this week’s Jonesin’ grid, we’re adding ET to common words and phrases and allowing hilarity to ensue.

• 20a. [Pail exclusively for celebrities?] STAR BUCKET (STARBUCK + ET)
• 60a. [Squishy space shuttle propeller?] SOFT ROCKET (SOFT ROCK + ET)
• 10d. [The average cricket player?] JOHN WICKET (JOHN WICK + ET)
• 27d. [Cold-weather wear that’ll help you get off the ground?] FLAP JACKET (FLAPJACK + ET)

I don’t love that COMET 49a. [One of Santa’s reindeer] is present but not part of the theme.

Other things:

• 65a. [Company behind “Space Invaders” and ” Bubble Bobble”] I filled in Atari right away, but it’s actually TAITO.
• 11d. [Cookie with a limited-edition Post Malone flavor] OREO. Per their website, “Posty’s Swirled Salted Caramel and Shortbread Flavor Creme is sandwiched between a bottom Golden OREO wafer and a top OREO chocolate wafer embossed with one of nine unique designs.”

Until next week!

Jay Silverman’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Bathketball”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are sports phrases that employ cleaning imagery. The revealer is SPORTSWASHING (52a, [Country’s use of athletics to distract from rights abuses, and what can literally be found in each starred answer]).

Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Bathketball” · Jay Silverman · Tue., 2.11.25

• 1a. [*In softball: Pitch the final innings when wiping the floor with the other team] MOP UP. Not really just a softball term.
• 20a. [*In baseball: A slugger to clear the bases] CLEAN-UP HITTER.
• 28a. [*In football: A celebratory bath] GATORADE SHOWER. As seen on Sunday during the Super Bowl (see below).
• 44a. [*In hockey: Wipe a team out of the playoffs] SWEEP THE SERIES. Again, not used only in this sport.
• 66a. [*In basketball: Player who rarely makes a splash] SCRUB.

A nice set. It’s interesting how different sports use the metaphor of cleaning up, as if competition is such a messy activity that a successful team will come in and make things all nice and tidy.

I’d never heard of the revealer phrase which is a rather recent neologism. Apparently it came into popularity in 2018 when Russia was hosting the Sochi Olympics while engaging in various human rights violations. It’s also been applied retroactively, most notably to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. The revealer makes sense, given the theme. But it was a definite sobering note that contrasted with the fun and games of the theme answers.

Fill highlights include POSEURS, PRICE TAG, and GOING FAR. I’m giving EASERS the side-eye, and I needed the crossings for proper names REB Beach and ARAM Saroyan.

Clue of note: 60d. [Whitesnake guitarist Beach]. REB. Hair metal wasn’t my thing, but here’s a cool video I stumbled upon regarding REB Beach’s riff-writing prowess.

3.25 stars.

Paul Coulter’s New York Times crossword–Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 2/11/25 – no. 0211

OK, I didn’t pay attention to how the theme works while solving, and I’m super sleepy so … let’s figure it out here. The revealer is TWO-PART, or 35A. [Like some harmony … or a hint to 17-, 30-, 47- and 59-Across]. The emoji HEART EYES, the musical instrument MOUTH ORGAN, the [Obsessive bodybuilder] called a MUSCLEHEAD (not convinced I’ve seen this term before), and the verb phrase HANDS BACK. Ah, I get it, each one has two body parts … except for EYES and HANDS being two parts so their phrases are THREE-PART.

Fave fill: BAHAMAS, the River SHANNON because Michael Shannon was funny in a Super Bowl ad, PUPPIES, ISSA RAE, VERSACE, and a ROOM KEY. Not keen on that corner held together by CEE and EDY.

3.25 stars from me. Good night!

Elizabeth C. Gorski’s Cr♥ssw♥rd Nation puzzle (Week 715), “C-Worthy Fun “—Ade’s take

Crossword Nation puzzle solution, Week 715: “C-Worthy Fun”

Hello there, everyone! Hope you’re all feeling the love as Valentine’s Day is fast approaching! 

We have more fin with puns with today’s puzzle, as they’re created when a word in a phrase that starts with an “r” syllable is replaced by a rhyming word that has a “hard c” syllable to begin.. 

• • • • JOLLY CODGER (15A: [Pirate flage of a happy geezer at sea?])
      • CAINE DELAY (23A: [Baseball game interruption caused by actor Michael?])
      • CAW TALENT (33A: [Natural bird-calling ability that one can crow about?])
      • DIAPER CASH (47A: [Money allocated for a bum rap?])
      • LENDING CATE (57A: [Business name of actress-turned-creditor Blanchett?])

Almost a perfect bit of timing with MUTI, given that he was just in town in New York at Carnegie Hall just a couple weeks back (51A: [Conductor Riccardo ___]). Maybe our fearless leader got a chance to see him perform in town before making this grid?!  As always, any grid that has ADE in it is already a great puzzle, today’s one included (36A: [Sports drink suffix]). Lots of seven-letter goodness in each of the corners, with WILD ONE (2D: [Unruly child, say]) standing out amongst that group for me.

“Sports will make you smarter” moment of the day: DARWIN (53A: [“Origin of Species” author]) – Former Major League Baseball pitcher Danny Darwin played 21 seasons in the bigs for eight different teams from 1978 to 1998. In 1990, while a member of the Houston Astros, he went 11-4 with a 2.21 ERA, and despite only starting 18 of his 48 games that year, he threw enough innings (162) to qualify for, and win, the ERA title in the National League.

Thank you so much for the time, everybody! Have a wonderful and safe rest of your day and, as always, keep solving!

Take care!

Ade/AOK

Noelle Griskey’s Universal Crossword, “Open Season” (ed. David Steinberg) — Matt F’s Review

Universal Solution 02.11.2025

No revealer necessary in today’s puzzle, the title says it all. Each theme answer is book-ended by a season, making the entry an “open” season:

• 20A: [Glass container for a sommelier] = WINE DECANTER
• 33A: [Sunless bronzing] = SPRAY TANNING
• 42A: [Certain percussionist] = SNARE DRUMMER
• 57A: [Noncontact sport with belts] = FLAG FOOTBALL

I like how the theme entries are arranged in calendar order – winter, spring, summer, fall – that’s a nice touch! The arrangement of the 4 12’s makes the grid feel a little closed off, but I’m only counting 8 3-letter words, so it’s not completely choked down. We have CATERER, SPATULA, DAMAGES, and MIMOSA as the longest non-theme answers. 3 out of 4 make an amusing brunch-related mini-theme. [“Roger that”] solving to IGOTYA felt a tad stilted, but otherwise I didn’t hit many snags in the grid. Nice puzzle all around!

Natan Last and Robyn Weintraub’s New Yorker crossword — pannonica’s write-up

New Yorker • 2/11/25 • Tue • Last, Weintraub • solution • 20250211

Today’s offering comes with a note:

This puzzle was constructed as part of The New Yorker’s master class “The Art of the Crossword.” Take a behind-the-scenes-look at how it was made.

After last week’s welcome tougher excursion, we’re back to a not-so-challenging “moderately challenging” crossword.

• 1a [Immigration policy concerning Dreamers: Abbr.] DACA. Under severe threat.
• 15a [“A little,” in Ávila] UN POCO. As heard prominently in the lyrics to “La Bamba”, for instance.
• 17a [Product whose history provides the loose basis for the 2024 film “Unfrosted”] POP-TARTS. I heard it was awful.
• 18a [“You can’t __ with your heart; it has its own laws, and thumps about things which the intellect scorns”: Mark Twain] REASON. Sing it, Sammy.
• 20a [Zoom in?] MEETING LINK, which sounds almost nonsensical to me, like a theme answer, except this is a themeless crossword. But! I re-parsed the clue with in as a noun rather than a preposition and it straightened things out well enough. A MEETING LINK is something you’d click on to enter a Zoom session.
• 24a [Show first hosted by George Carlin, familiarly] SNL. Purists and pedants will say that he was just another guest on that first episode, and the host relationship wasn’t formalized until several episodes into the series.
• 33a [Novel heralded by the Times as “the first great perimenopause novel”] ALL FOURS, from last year. I’m genuinely surprised at this claim’ seems as if there should have been several before now.
• 37a [Oil worker’s profession?] ARTIST STATEMENT. Excellent clue, best of the puzzle.
• 53a [“This place sucks”] I HATE IT HERE. Also a meme phrase, along with the simpatico “Thanks I hate it.”
• 61a [Italian fried rice balls] ARANCINI. Feels as if we’re seeing this entry rather a bit lately? The magazine chose it as the preview clue for the crossword page.
• 63a [Illuminating observation] APERÇU. I like this word a lot, and used it just yesterday.
• 

  Henry Fuseli | The Nightmare (1781)

  65a [ __-paralysis demon (creature seen during a hypnopompic hallucination)] SLEEP. Ha, I glossed the parenthetical during the solve and intended to mention the hypnopompic association. So instead I’ll highlight the difference between hypnopompic (associated with the semiconsciousness preceding waking) and hypnogogic (of, relating to, or occurring in the period of drowsiness immediately preceding sleep).

• 1d [Tricep-training exercises] DIPS. Just noting ‘tricep’ here, rather than triceps. m-w lists that inflection as dating from 1940, whereas the latter goes back at least to the 17th century.
• 12d [“Feed two birds with one __”(PETA-approved alternative to a classic idiom] SCONE. Okay, better than killing with a stone, but I wonder how healthy a SCONE is for birds. It’s pretty well-known nowadays that feeding bread especially to ducks is a bad idea.
• 27d [Meat salad in Lao and Thai cuisine] LARB. First time of seen this in a crossword, I believe. Maybe second? Anyway, I’ve had the dish and it’s usually quite hot in the ‘spicy’ sense.
• 30d [ __ Valley (San Francisco neighborhood next to the Castro] NOE. You’d think this would be more common in crosswords.
• 51d [“I grow old … I grow old … / I __ wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled”: T.S. Eliot] SHALL. It’s from “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”.
  
• And the last entry, appropriately: 62d [“I’m off,” in texts] CYA (see ya).