Michael S. Maurer and Pawel Fludzinski’s New York Times crossword—Jenni’s write-up
I am among those who thought Tuesday’s puzzle was a bit harder than usual. Wednesday’s felt a bit Tuesday-ish to me. I like the theme, which is scattered (symmetrically) around the grid.
NYT 7/19, solution grid
- 5a [Spanish toast] is SALUD.
- 10d [Hebrew toast] is L’CHAIM.
- 20a [Formal toast] is TO YOUR HEALTH.
- 44d [Japanese toast] is KANPAI.
- 49a [Informal toast] is DOWN THE HATCH.
- 62a [German toast] is PROST.
and the grid-spanner in the middle: 32a [Line from “The Student Prince” appropriate for this puzzle] is DRINK DRINK DRINK.
I like the consistency of the non-English toasts around the periphery with the longer English sayings in the middle, flanking the central entry. Very satisfying.
A few other things:
- 15a [“Oh, quit your joshin’!”] is not a phrase I’ve ever heard. The answer is C’MON. I half expect the clue to be “yer” instead of “your” for maxim yokel-ness.
- 12d [Attorneys’ favorite desserts?] are TORTES. Steve saw that one coming a mile away. So did I, and I’m not even a lawyer.
- 23d [Blue Jay but not Cardinal, for short] is ALER. I have followed baseball all my life. I read the sports pages. I listen to sports radio. I have read books about baseball. I have seen movies about baseball. I watched all nine innings of the Ken Burns show on baseball. I have never heard or seen ALER or NLER outside of crosswords. C’mon.
- 46d [Start of a fairy tale] and 51d [Penultimate word of a fairy tale] are ONCE and EVER, situated close to each other in the grid.
- 45a [Bare-naked Lady] is GODIVA. Nice nod to the band name.
What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: I’ve never heard of KANPAI before. Wikipedia tells me its literal meaning is “dry cup.”
Gary Cee’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Love Story” — Jim’s review
At first I thought we were dealing with a synonym theme with the ends of each phrase roughly related to “love.” But the title is more apt than that. We are treated to a full-on love story in 225 squares. (Actually, in just five words—the ends of the theme answers.)
Who is the couple in question? That’s up to you, dear solver. Perhaps they’re young students beginning to test their wings in a cruel and fast-paced world. Or office drones looking for an escape from their workaday lives. Or swamp tourist guides feeling the heat on the Louisiana bayou.
WSJ – Wed, 7.19.17 – “Love Story” by Gary Cee
- 18a [Addictive match-three game] CANDY CRUSH. And so the adventure begins with our young couple exchanging furtive glances over the library carrel/water cooler/airboat. Will they or won’t they? (I love this entry since my wife is still addicted to this game. Seriously, that is so 2012!)
- 23a [Happy time for a home buyer] CLOSING DATE. They will! They’ve taken the big step and gone on a date. Perhaps bumper cars and boardwalk games? Maybe dinner and a movie? Or else alligator rasslin’ and pig callin’. Hey! You never know! (Does CLOSING DATE sound legit to you? It didn’t to me at first, but now that I think on it, it seems okay.)
- 37a [Personal matter] PRIVATE AFFAIR. Wow! Whuh happened? First they were dating and now an affair?! Who cheated on whom? Did they ever get married? We need details! Inquiring minds want to know! (PRIVATE AFFAIR! Hey, I knew him when I was in the Army. That was a joke. I was in the Air Force; I would never join the Army.)
- 51a [Diet-busting dessert] BANANA SPLIT. Sadness. What once was a budding schooltime/office/backwoods romance filled with giddy hope and karmic promise has ended in soul-crushing splitsville. Will our once-happy couple ever find peace?
- 59a [The CPU has direct access to it] MAIN MEMORY. Alas, ’twas not to be. Our star-crossed lovers never reunited and have naught but nostalgia left. At least…they will always have bumper cars/water coolers/alligators. (I’m not so sure that MEMORY is the right way to end this chronological set, but it would have been sad to end on SPLIT, and the theme was fun enough that I’m willing to go along with it.)
There’s plenty of good fill in the grid with the likes of ABU DHABI, OREGANO, and RIESLING. Rieslings are the favorite white wine of my wife and me, especially those originating along the Mosel and Rhine in Germany.
We have a trio of prepositional phrases in the grid. But rather than a distasteful entry like RAN AT, these actually work nicely: LOAD UP, STEP IN, and MOVE ON.
One dislike: ORANG. Calling all constructors: Please retire this already. (He said until he needed it to complete a tricky corner in some future construction.)
All in all though, a pretty fun, if slightly sad, theme makes this one work. Add a nice, clean grid and you have a winner.
Bruce Venzke and Gail Grabowski’s LA Times crossword – Gareth’s write-up
LA Times
17 07 19
Today’s theme is a not very consistent N?T vowel run… All are in longer words, but some are short vowels some long – and not all pronounce the ‘T’ as a ‘T’ either. On the plus side, they’re all at least somewhat punchy as entries, the most important aspect of doing a basic theme like this. We have NATuralaptitude, NETworkfeed, NITrogendioxide, NOThingflat, and NUTcrackersuite. Wasn’t personally familiar with the name of the piece in the Tchaikovsky clue. Here it is, and the music is definitely familiar!
Bits:
- AZOV/AZUR is a pretty cheap ‘Z’, and a tad unfair on less geographically minded new solvers!
- How do you feel about SQUAW? That’s certainly the best clueing angle, but does that mean it’s acceptable as an entry?
- SNARF – [Wolf (down)]. We all put SCARF, yes?
- [Harbor sight], PIER – Wanted SEAL…
3 Stars
Gareth
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s AVCX crossword, “Stall Tactics” — Ben’s Review
It’s BEQ’s turn at the AVCX helm, so I get double my weekly dose of his great themed puzzles. This week’s AV entry, “Stall Tactics”, was a pretty breezy solve for me, though I’m not sure I can fully explain how the theme trick relates to the title of the puzzle:
- 15A: Condiment invented in New Hampshire (not Nizhny Novgorod) — RUSSIAN DRESSING
- 22A: Frictionless — AS SMOOTH AS SILK
- 41A: Pageant held in Vicksburg — MISS MISSISSIPPI
- 54A: 2016 Pulitzer Prize winner for Public Service– ASSOCIATED PRESS
Like I said, I get what’s going on, but I’m not spotting the revealer I’d need in the grid to give me an a-ha between the puzzle title and the grid. As noted above, all of the double S portions of the theme entries are stacked in consecutive vertical squares, leading to things like MISS MISSISSIPPI (the entry that seems to truly relish this theme) being entered as MISMISISIPPI. Do the ESSES form stalls? Does this have something to do with the SS (I hope not, but it’s the first SS thing coming to mind, so…)? I leave this as an exercise for you to do for me. Tell me what I’m missing in the comments.
(I can stack ESSES too)
Other things I liked in the puzzle: BIZ Markie, TEETHE, AL-ANON, WELDER, BANGLE, PAINTINGS by Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, OGRESS, LESS-KNOWN, TOILETRY
I’m clearly missing something, but thought this was a good grid.
3.75/5 stars.
I have no idea what The Student Prince is, nor have I heard of the line/phrase, “Drink drink drink.” A simple reference to the 80s sitcom, Cheers, would have sufficed. Weird clue/answer to build a puzzle around. Would love to hear from others about the (un)popularity of this film.
Sigmund Romberg’s “Student Prince ‘ was a hit Broadway musical in the 1920’s.
The Drinking Song is a popular survival on many campuses here and abroad.
Some of the lyrics:
Drink! Drink! Drink!
To eyes that are bright as stars when they’re shining on me!
Drink! Drink! Drink!
To lips that are red and sweet as the fruit on the tree!
Here’s a hope that those bright eyes will shine
Lovingly, longingly soon into mine!
May those lips that are red and sweet,
Tonight with joy my own lips meet!
Let the toast start!
May young hearts never part!
Drink! Drink! Drink!
Let every true lover salute his sweetheart!
Let’s drink!
Drink! Drink! Drink!
To eyes that are bright as stars when they’re shining on me!
Drink! Drink! Drink!
To lips that are red and sweet as the fruit on the tree!
Here’s a hope that those soft arms will twine
Tenderly, trustingly soon around mine!
All I ask is a right to see those smiling eyes beguiling me
Drink! Drink!
Let the toast start!
May young hearts never part!
Drink! Drink! Drink!
Let every true lover salute his sweetheart!
Let’s drink!
“The Drinking Song is a popular survival on many campuses here and abroad.”
lol no
I’m also “lol no” but somehow I’d actually heard of it …. once. My choir rehearsed it on a single night several years ago in prep for an event for Philly Beer Week. I messed up many of the notes and rhythms despite being completely sober, so I prefer other drinking songs.
I know the song — it’s been recorded in many versions — and I’ve heard of the Student Prince, though I don’t know that I would have connected the two.
I take this as an old person’s clue and answer, in contrast to all that so-called rock and roll, or whatever you kids call it, that I find mystifying in BEQ’s puzzles.
Amen! I’m an “old person” too, but wasn’t actually here in the 20’s!
I don’t think that “Chubby” is a good clue for OVERWEIGHT. I think you can be chubby without being overweight and vice versa. Why even step into the minefield of body weight when you can just clue it as something like, “Like a suitcase that incurs an airline fee”?
nice clue
Yes, exactly.
WSJ: Could we also add ROMP, JOY, GAGA, WOW, and ADORE to the early part of the love story? And JOIN would precede SPLIT, the cause of which might have been too many FLAPs. It’s sad when a love turns to RUST.
Thanks for pointing those out!
Didn’t care for the pessimist theme of WSJ.
I hear ya, and agree to an extent. But what love story (i.e. a fictionalized story in print or on screen) doesn’t include turmoil? If it was “fall in love” then “live happily ever after,” it wouldn’t be much of a story. Thankfully, such things do happen in real life, but not usually on paper.
AV Club – Ben, I read the title as S-tall Tactics, to explain how the double SS’s all go up.
That was my take.
Did the theme have anything to do with the non-symmetrical grid?
I was also confused by BEQ’s title’s connection to the theme. My best guess it’s meant to be parsed as S-Tall. As in, the S’s are tall, because they rise up from the theme entries. Still doesn’t feel very satisfying.
Anyone have an insight as to if and when Cruciverb will be able to be back with the LAT?
I seem to remember this happened last year for a while, but then they came back. People do go on vacation. There is a link for JPZs, but I hesitate to post it, for fear that if lots of people use it, they will be hidden more carefully by the content provider.
AV Club: Maybe aerobatics?