Monday, March 3, 2025

Harrison Walden’s New York Times crossword— Sophia’s write-up

Happy Monday everyone! This puzzle is the solo debut of 13 year old Harrison Walden – major congrats to him.

New York Times, 03 03 2025, By Harrison Walden

Each theme answer starts with a gear setting found on an automatic car. What’s more, they’re all in the correct order – PRNDL, for all of us Zack and Cody fans. We’ve got:

• 17a [Authority figure in Yellowstone or Grand Teton] – PARK RANGER
• 25a [Iconic basketball move of Kobe Bryant] – REVERSE DUNK
• 37a [Hues unlikely to cause clashes] – NEUTRAL COLORS
• 52a [Annoy to a maddening extent] – DRIVE INSANE
• 61a [Downer feeling] – LOW SPIRITS

Great picks for a pretty constrained theme set here – REVERSE DUNK is such a fun image, and I liked PARK RANGER and LOW SPIRITS as well. NEUTRAL COLORS is aptly enough a bit bland as an answer, but works well enough in its place.

That’s a lot of thematic material, and having answers in a particular order constrains the grid even more. Overall I was impressed with the quality of the fill. AIRPLANE clued as the movie and RAMI Malek felt apt for tonight, since I’m writing this after watching the Oscars ceremony. A few tricky spots might be DENISE Richards – I’ve never heard of “The World is Not Enough”, the movie mentioned in the clue – and ERLE Stanley Gardiner, who was also new to me. Favorite clues included [Jigsaw puzzle element] for PIECE and [A strawberry has about 200 of these] for SEEDS.

Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Hooked”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar phrases that hide types of fish. The revealer is CATCH A FISH (64a, [Have success angling, and what this puzzle’s theme answers do]).

Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Hooked” · Mike Shenk · Mon., 3.3.25

• 17a. [Law student’s struggle, informally] PAPER CHASE.
• 27a. [The Hustle or the Robot, e.g.] DISCO DANCE.
• 39a. [Beeline, say] DIRECT ROUTE.
• 53a. [Annual event for movie fans] OSCAR PARTY. Timely.

Not much to say here. Pretty straightforward. I don’t know that I would ever say these phrases “catch” fish, but you know, it’s a crossword puzzle; some leeway is allowed.

I ended with an error at the crossing of ERVING and CREST where I had IRVING and CRIST. I guess [Colgate rival] made me think of universities and CRIST seemed plausible (though I’d never heard of it). I never even questioned IRVING, though I should have known better, knowing it was a last name, not a first name.

The fill is clean though I’ve never heard of DOG CARTS, and I only know ADO ANNIE from crosswords. Plus, I had to keep double- and triple-checking RIMY. I do like the Italian mini-theme with CALAMARI, SICILIA, and LA SCALA.

Clues of note:

• 39d. [Oddly-named horse-drawn vehicles]. DOG CARTS. Apparently they were intended to carry hunters and their hunting dogs who were kept in a box under the driver’s seat.
• 54d. [Sulky puller]. PACER. This one is also about horse-drawn carriages, but that’s a tough clue for a Monday.

3.25 stars.

Janice Luttrell & Katie Hale’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Los Angeles Times 3/3/25 by Janice Luttrell & Katie Hale

Unusually, there’s a two-part revealer today at 47A and 59A, [(W)hat one might say when entering the starts of 16-, 24-, and 38-Across?]; these two entries spell out WELCOME TO MY HUMBLE ABODE, because each theme entry starts out with a type of low-budget dwelling:

• 16A [Choose as a live-in romantic partner] is SHACK UP WITH; the humble abode is a SHACK.
• 24A [Loose frocks with wide bottoms] is TENT DRESSES; the humble abode is a TENT.
• 38A [Count in a marching command] is HUT TWO THREE FOUR; the humble abode is a HUT.

Feels like the theme entries from top to bottom are a progression in how close the meaning of each theme word is in the theme to its meaning in its theme phrase, with SHACK the closest and HUT the furthest away.

I didn’t love the fill in this grid; there was a bit too much crosswordese (AGRA, AMIE, ANI, EAVED, OAST, OVUM, UHS, UTA) and more abbreviations (LSATS, MBAS, MOS., ORS) than I’d expect out of a Monday these days, especially from two experienced constructors.

Rebecca Goldstein’s Universal crossword, “Team Leader” — pannonica’s write-up

Universal • 3/3/25 • Mon • “Team Leader” • Goldstein • solution • 20250303

• 58a^R [Curated list on Bluesky, or the first word of 17-, 24-, 36- or 48-Across] STARTER PACK. It’s a helpful list of recommended accounts to follow, because the main timeline of Bluesky has no algorithm. If you still have an account on the stinking carcass that was once Twitter, it’s time to leave! (Facebook too, if you can manage it.)
• 17a. [Really fantastic] GANGBUSTERS (gang).
• 24a. [Mental capacity] BANDWIDTH (band).
• 36a. [Hit close to home?] CROWD THE PLATE (crowd).
• 48a. [Footwear preferred by Gen Z] CREW SOCKS (crew). The audacity of kids these days!

To spell it out: synonyms for ‘pack’ starting the theme entries.

56a. [Squad] POSSE. Are you lost, little DOGGO (4d)?

• 12d [Like some peanut butter] SMOOTH. 13d [Snag in the plans] HITCH.
• 24d [“The __ of Venus”] BIRTH. Probably referencing the famous Botticelli painting.
• 31d [Hairstyle that’s short on the sides] MOHAWK. Understatement alert.
• 39d [It lets you keep an eye on sharp-eyed birds] EAGLE CAM. I like this clue.
• 49d [Visionary?] OPTIC. Also nice.
• 51d [Buddhist principle of cause and effect] KARMA. Common to Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism.
  
• 16a [[“pls stop sharing’] TMI, too much information, for anyone who hasn’t yet internalized this initialism.
  
• 22a [Voting group] BLOC. The largest voting BLOC—if we can call it that—by far last November was registered voters who did not vote. Upwards of 90 million people.
• 32a [Craft space] ART ROOM, where one might make a papier-mâché spacecraft.
• 62a [It’s meant to be] KISMET. Turkish, from Arabic qisma portion, lot. 19a [Parking place] LOT.
• 63a [Epitome of happiness] CLAM. The full phrase “happy as a clam in mud at high tide” makes more sense. For the unluckier ones there’s …

Kameron Austin Collins’s New Yorker crossword—Amy’s recap

New Yorker crossword solution, 3/3/25 – Collins

New to me: YAP SESSION, [Time to gab]. I googled and you know what? (If you’re in your 20s, you probably already know.) It’s in the title of a comedy podcast and a bunch of videos. Yapping has picked up a new vibe in the TikTok era.

Fave fill: BIG TOBACCO, DISCO NAP, GET OUT MORE, ADAPT OR DIE, MALAYSIANS, HOT DESKS (where workers grab an open desk rather than having one assigned desk), CULTURAL CAPITAL, DIANE LADD, ODYSSEUS.

Too much university business: OLE MISS, AUBURN, AMES, UTAH UTES.

Quicker solve than I was expecting, perhaps because there are so many proper nouns in the grid. DIDO ENID ESAI IGOR ORR and about twenty other people, places, brands. That’s a lot! No knotty crossings are jumping out at me, though.

3.75 stars from me.

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1762 — Eric’s review

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1762 — 3/3/25

This is one of those days when I wish I had turned the timer off before starting the puzzle, but having let it run, I feel honor-bound to report my truly unimpressive time. I’ve not slept well lately, and it’s affecting my puzzle-solving skills.

I struggled with much of this one and had to set it aside a couple of times. I usually don’t do that unless I get stuck somewhere, and I got very stuck in the NW corner. (That part of the grid felt like it took as long as the rest of the puzzle. I really hate that sort of solving experience.)

When I got to the half-hour mark, I started checking answers because I wanted to finish sometime today.

Most of my guesses, some educated and some just lucky, worked out. Some didn’t, as you can see from the grid.

Some notable clue and answer pairs:

• 6A [Best Dog in a Drama award, e.g.] PAWSCAR A timely entry, given that the Oscars were last night. My husband and I joke about the Tuffnell-St. Hubbins line, after the wonderful scene in This Is Spinal Tap about the fine line between stupid and clever. I gotta say that PAWSCAR crosses that line by quite a bit.
• 16A [Prepare for a moon shot?] DEBRIEF I spotted the pun in the clue quickly enough, but I wasn’t expecting the answer to be another pun. On my third or fourth attempt to finish the puzzle, DEBRIEF suddenly became obvious and I was finished in less than a minute.
• 19A [Comedic actor Rick who was classmates with Rush’s Geddy Lee in elementary school] MORANIS I hadn’t known that little factoid, but I know Rush and the cast of SCTV are Canadians, so this was a gimme.
• 33A [Talk about music?] SPEAK-SING I’m not sure I’d heard of this before. I kinda prefer the German term for it, sprechsegang. It pairs nicely with 38A [Talk about music?] RAP.
• 34A [Launch with some assistance] JUMPSTART I guess this clue works, but I needed a lot of crosses even with the J from 34D JARREAU.
• 47A [Facetious expression that abruptly ends a conversation] K THX BYE I’ve never heard anyone say this; I had the X from 44D OXLIP and couldn’t imagine what the expression was.
• 49A [It’ll keep you going] INERTIA C’mon, you thought of peeing, right?
• 51A [German mathematician David who wrote a list of 23 problems (most of which have been solved since)] HILBERT Not a name I was familiar with.
• Spiritual godfather of the Justicialist Party PERÓN Juan, not Eva. I should’ve recognize that party’s name, but I didn’t.
• 2D [Guitar effect] TREMOLO A lucky guess from my original answer for 1A, ITEMS.
• 3D [___ oneself (confide feelings)] UNBOSOM OK, whatever. The last known use is probably in the 19th century.
• 4d [Animal that makes a “dooking” sound] FERRET For too long, I was stuck on this being some sort of RAT.
• 5D [Swinging ___ (San Diego Padres mascot)] FRIAR I’m embarrassed it took me as long as it did to get this. It’s fairly obvious, but what’s worse is that the Padres are one of the few MLB teams I’ve actually seen live.

• 9D [“Where there is ___, there is no true knowledge” (Leonardo da Vinci)] SHOUTING I prefer my original answer, RELIGION.
• 17D [Japanese restaurant condiment] FISH PASTE I had FISH SAUCE for too long.
• 20D [TV show with angels] SHARK TANK I’ve never seen it, but I sort of like the clue.
• 38D [Original “SNL” member] The incomparable Gilda RADNER, a gimme for me once I had RAP.