Tuesday, June 25, 2024 | (2024)

LATuntimed (Jenni)

NYT3:35 (Amy)

WSJ4:15 (Jim)

Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “10, 9…” — from start to finish. – Erin’s write-up

Hello lovelies! This week’s Jonesin’ theme took me a moment to get. The theme entries begin with J, then 10th letter of the alphabet, and end with I, which is the 9th.

• 17a. [Guest list for a private party?]JUST YOU AND I
• 28a. [Author of “The Namesake” and “Whereabouts”]JHUMPA LAHIRI
• 43a. [Indescribable thing] JE NE SAIS QUOI
• 58a. [Australian actor in “Saltburn”]JACOB ELORDI

Other things:

• 32a. [Wild diving duck]SCAUP. There are apparently greater and lesser scaup, with slight differences in size, wing coloring, and head shape.
• 37a. [Sorta academic-sounding, in a way]SCIENCEY. This looks weird to me. SCIENCY doesn’t look “correct” to me, but it looks less wrong than SCIENCEY for some reason.
• 15a. [Nearsighted horned beast] RHINO. Their eyes are on opposite sides of their head, and they are myopic and colorblind. Their senses of smell and hearing, on the other hand, are great and the adult rhino’s only real predators are humans, so they don’t need to see that well.

Until next week!

Zhouqin Burnikel’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “What’s the Damage?”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar(ish) phrases whose first words indicate some kind of damage.

• 17a. [Possible result of an ended relationship] BROKEN HEART.
• 28a. [Singer’s nightmare on stage] CRACKED VOICE.
• 47a. [Features of some multiplayer games] SPLIT SCREENS.
• 62a. [Thin-sliced meat served in white sauce] CHIPPED BEEF.

Ha! I solved this puzzle while waiting for a tow truck to come and take me away. How apt. The damage to my vehicle isn’t covered in this puzzle though; it’s a puncture wound to a tire in my new Kia EV9. (Kia, in their infinite wisdom, doesn’t give you a spare, but a tire sealant kit instead which…didn’t work.)

Aside from the serendipity of the theme to my particular situation, it’s great to see Zhouqin’s byline again! It’s been a while.

Fun theme, but I’m not so keen on CRACKED VOICE as a theme entry; it feels like green paint. “Cracked wheat” would’ve fit here or else “cracked wise” or “cracked down” would’ve been good substitutes by singularizing 47a.

We have impressive stacked 9s in the corners: OHIO RIVER and FULL-SCALE as well as ICE PELLET and NAIL SALON. Also good: BARCODE and PSYCHIC.

Clue of note: 7d. [Number divided by two?]. DUET. Very nice clue. Nothing to do with math at all.

3.75 stars.

Elizabeth C. Gorski’s Cr♥ssw♥rd Nation puzzle (Week 683), “Grrrrr!”—Ade’s take

Hello there, everybody! Here is hoping that you’re doing well and, for those experiencing a heat wave in the location that you reside, you’re making it out just fine!

Today’s puzzle will definitely leave people growling about it, in a way! The theme answers are puns that are created by changing a word in the original phrase/noun that leads to the “grr” syllable being added to the end.

• • • COMIC CONGER (17A: [Eel that tickles your funny bone?]) – ComicCon
    • STAND-UP GEIGER (23A: [Courageously-loyal Hans, inventor of a counter?]) – Stand-up guy
    • ME MYSELF AND IGER (37A: [Yours truly, along with Disney exec Bob?]) – Me, Myself and I (an awesome song by De La Soul, by the way!)
    • MOTLEY KRUEGER (48A: [Kaleidoscopic rock band founded by Freddy of Elm Street?]) – Mötley Crüe
    • AARON BURGER (60A: [Fast food favorite named for a dueling Vice President?]) – Aaron Burr

The non-themed long answers of UNDERDOGS (11D: [Winners in an upset]) and I’M ON MY WAY definitely stood out in a good way with this grid (33D: [Message from someone who’s en route]). Can’t say that I’ve ever had ONIONS on a pizza before, but there’s a lot of toppings I haven’t had on pizzas in the past since I’m pretty conservative with my choices of toppings (4D: [Rings on a pizza]). Initially put Malmo instead of ESPOO given that the first letter I had filled in the grid was the last O, even though we’re talking two different Scandinavian countries with those cities mentioned (20D: [Finland’s second-largest city]).

“Sports will make you smarter” moment of the day: MAYS (55A: [Baseball great Willie, who wowed the crowd with “The Catch”]) – We lost Willie Mays last week, who passed away at the age of 93 last Tuesday. He was, arguably, the greatest baseball player of all time. I could go on and on about his exploits, but I’ll just talk quickly about the event mentioned in the clue, “The Catch.” In the 8th inning of Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, Mays, playing for the New York Giants, made a near miraculous over-the-shoulder catch (and throw back to the infield) in deep center field off the bat of Cleveland’s Vic Wertz. The play occurred with runners on first and second and no one out, which made the play even more crucial to keep Cleveland from taking the lead. The Giants won the game in extra innings on the way to sweeping Cleveland, who went a staggering 111-43 during the regular season and set an American League record for wins in a season. (That wins record wasn’t broken until 1998.) Oh, here’s the catch by the Say Hey Kid! Rest in power, Mr. Mays.

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

Seth Bisen-Hersh & Jeff Chen’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap

I liked the theme except for the fact that BLACKJACK has the same number of letters as the synonymous revealer, 33a. [Card game whose winning hands can be found hidden in 17-, 27-, 42- and 54-Across], TWENTY-ONE. I grew up in a blackjack home. The four other entries contain a king and ace in SUCKING FACE, ten and ace in TENNIS BRACELET, queen and ace in QUEEN ANNE’S LACE, and ace and jack in RACER JACKET. That last one, clued via [Sleek leather outerwear], is an unfamiliar term for me. Is this the same as a motorcycle or biker jacket, or is it worn by car racers?

Overall, an easy puzzle. I was able to fill in most of the grid by just marching through the Across clues in order. Didn’t read many of the Down clues along the way, nor notice that fill.

Fave fill: SIM CITY, ice cream SWIRLS, COLGATE, Rep. ELISSA Slotkin, “GAME ON” (though awkward to have this crossing SIM CITY with “game” in its clue), QUEASY, RARE GEM, and an ACL TEAR.

Four stars from me.

Anna Shechtman’s New Yorker crossword — pannonica’s write-up

… and this week the pendulum has swung back to the ‘easy’ side.

• 1a [Algorithmic measure of relevance] PAGE RANK. Would like a ‘certain’ modifier in the clue.
• 16a [Misogynistic online harassment campaign used as a recruiting tool for the alt-right] GAMERGATE. I feel that the general public is not aware enough of this event and pall it casts over the political landscape to this day.
• 18a [Literary protagonist who “ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls”] LEOPOLD BLOOM. Bloomsday (16 June) was a mere week-and-a-half ago.
• 24a [Prime Minister whose birth was announced by the Prime Minister’s office] TRUDEAU. Justin, son of Pierre. 62a [Relatively helpful path to success?] NEPOTISM.
• 26a [1930 drama in which Marlene Dietrich kisses another woman] MOROCCO. I had SIROCCO at first.
• 39a [Campus grp. for aspiring ensigns] NROTC. So this must be the same initialism as the Army’s ROTC, but withNavy orNaval added to the beginning. It ends up looking like a vowel-challenged rendering ofneurotic.
• 41a [Island in the Seine] ÎLE, which is a direct cognate.
• 48a [Dalmatians, for example] CROATS. Not the dog breed but the people.
• 49a [Body of Supreme Court matters that are often ruled upon via unsigned order] SHADOW DOCKET. Sounds suitably nefarious.
• 1d [Individual scoring average: Abbr.] PPG, points per game.
• 10d [Fellini film from which the term “paparazzi” originated] LA DOLCE VITA. Actress ANOUK AIMEE died very recently.
• 19d [British mil. award just below the Victoria Cross] DSO, Distinguished Service Order.
• 46d [“The rich must live more simply, ___ the poor may simply live”] SO THAT. This completes an unofficial triumvirate (along with 16a and 49a) that I perceive in the crossword. Is the quote from Mahatma Gandhi? Charles Birch? Some other source?
• 51d [Psychiatrist’s ref. book] DSM, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (of Mental Disorders).
• 53d [Murderous ending] -CIDE. “Middle French, from Latin -cida, from caedere to cut, kill” (m-w.com)

Amie Walker’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Jenni’s write-up

Well, if I have to be stuck, there are worse places than the SF Bay Area and worse reasons that going to Westwords, which was AWESOME. I thought I’d be blogging this puzzle from the airport before my flight this morning. I’m in an airport hotel instead waiting for my flighttomorrow morning. Not complaining! Totally worth it.

This puzzle was fun for a tired Tuesday. For some reason I like it when theme answers go down. It’s – different. In this case it’s also integral to the theme.

• 1d [Temporary housing-cost regulation] is aRENT FREEZE.
• 4d [“What’s with the dad jokes all of a sudden?”] isYOU USED TO BE COOL. This was my favorite.
• 7d [Streamlined date?] isNETFLIX AND CHILL.

And the revealer: 28d [Post-workout water therapy option, or a description of the ends of 1-, 4-, and 7-Down] isCOLD PLUNGE. I started with SHOWER. PLUNGE is better. Obvs.

A few other things:

• Since vinyl is hip again,RPMS isn’t a fusty reference.
• METAVERSE is a fun word.
• I like havingOREO andOUZO stacked together. It’s very pleasing.
• 62a [Reason to branch out during yoga class?] is a fun clue forTREE POSE.
• BOND was not my first thought for 57d [Open up to, with “with”]. Not sure what my first thought was, but it wasn’t that.

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle (or at least hadn’t remembered): thatBURL Ives recorded “Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer.” Hey, I didn’t grow up doing Christmas and my mother didn’t tolerate Christmas television except for Charlie Brown.

Amie Walker + Shannon Rapp’s Universal Crossword, “Summer Themeless Week, Puzzle 2” — Matt F’s Review

It looks like we are in the midst of a themeless week at Universal! This is a nice change of pace from the typical themed puzzles, and I am all for it. Given the title, maybe we can expect a week like this every season? We’ll see!

This grid has good flow, with nice long answers in every corner and clean fill throughout. Given the recency of the film, I suspect 22A LILY GLADSTONE (“Killers of the Flower Moon” star nominated for the best actress Oscar) might have been the seed for this puzzle. The lack of proper names elsewhere in the grid really makes this entry stand out. The crossing words are fairly clued to help solvers get a toehold on the entry even if they have zero knowledge of the actress or the film – a sign of careful craftsmanship! There are some fun crosses through this entry, too: 4D LAVA LAMP (Novelty light with bubbles), 17D BIG KID BEDS (Cute name for a toddler’s post-crib sleeping spot), and 24D SUCH A MOOD (“This is exactly what I’m feeling!”). I also like the stacked 9’s at 10/11D PARTNER UP / SPARE TIME (Break stuff? <–excellent clue!); and 29/30D TOP-BILLED / EMPANADAS. My favorite clue in the puzzle is 35D – Pass up? – for ALLEY-OOP. The fill is so clean I can’t find a single entry worth complaining about. Great puzzle all around!

Thank you to Amie and Shannon for building this grid, and to David Steinberg for the editorial touch.