Saturday, May 11, 2024 | (2024)

Posted on May 10, 2024 by Amy Reynaldo

LAT2:55 (Stella)

NYT7:36 (Amy)

WSJuntimed (pannonica)

Billy Bratton’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap

Maybe a smidgen harder than expected for a Saturday? fa*glianoWatch continues!

Gorgeous grid with that big diamond anchored by six intersecting 11s. Fave fill: MEETUPS, CASH GRAB, GOT THE SHAFT, “SAMESIES,” MIX TAPE (ah! from my generation. a question about rappers’ mixtapes these days: are they strictly digital or is there ever a physical object to obtain?), GOAT YOGA (I’ll pass; prefer to enjoy baby goats on video), the show I never watched called “SAMANTHA WHO?”, BATTLE SCARS (got plenty of ’em), DAR ES SALAAM (the current capital of Tanzania is Dodoma; did not know the prior capital meant “house of peace”), and “I WOULDN’T.”

Three more things:

• 19a. [Ring-shaped bone that supports the skull], ATLAS. Did I ever know this? I’m not sure I did. I assume the bone is shaped like a mythological strongman bearing the skull on his shoulder.
• 35a. [The N.B.A.’s Hornets, on scoreboards], CHA. Really? I did find an ESPN page showing the scores for CHA vs DET, so I guess so. Charlotte Hornets.
• 42a. [Burgess ___ (rock bed noted for its fossils)], SHALE. Now I’m wondering if Billy took Geo 10 at Carleton like I did. Not that I recall ever learning about Burgess shale.

Four stars from me.

Freddie Cheng’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “That Is It!” — pannonica’s write-up

“That is”, that is,id est., that is,i.e.
It’s been inserted into extant phrases to wacky result.

• 23a. [Headline marking “Space Oddity” singer’s Grammy exit?] BOWIE OUT OF THE RACE (bow out of the race).
• 30a. [Another amp?] ONE MORE FOR THE ROADIE (… for the road). After these first two, I thought it might also be a musical theme …
• 50a. [Stowaway addict in a car?] JUNKIE IN THE TRUNK (junk …) … but that was not the case.
• 63a. [Advice on finding a certain Korean sect?] ASK FOR THE MOONIE.
• 72a. [Photographers for a marker company’s ads?] SHARPIE SHOOTER.
• 87a. [Dispenser of fruit concoctions?] SMOOTHIE OPERATOR. Amused at imagining Sade singing a sellout ad version of the song.
• 102a. [Advice on finding a moody teenager’s sullen look?] CHECK UNDER THE HOODIE.
• 116. [School to train scouts?] BROWNIE UNIVERSITY.

Cutesy/Australian vibe here.

• 5d [Stooge with a bowl cut] MOE. 31d [Laugh from a Stooge] NYUK.
  
• 8d [Fellow in a monkey suit?] SCOPES.
• 10d [ATM input] AMT. C’mon, everyone tried PIN first, right?
• Two long down entries flank the grid and intersect three theme entries each: 16d [Royal bodyguards, e.g.] ARMED ATTENDANTS, 42d [Dove’s drive] ANTIWAR MOVEMENT. (65d [Peace advocate Yoko] ONO.
• 18d [“Oh, that smarts!”] YOWIE. Not part of the theme, but strongly adjacent.
• 32d [Counting rhyme start] EENIE. Ditto, but perhaps a little less so, as EEN isn’t a related thing.
• 34d [Naive player at the poker table] FISH. Seems that between FISH and whales, there’s a bit of the ecological web unaccounted for—ah, but I’ve just realized that both are captured/hunted by human predators, so it checks out.
• 48d [Perfume ingredient] ORRIS ROOT. “The fragrant rootstock of any of three European irises (Iris florentina, I. germanica, and I. pallida)” (m-w)
• 89d [Party leader] HOST. Clever little clue, tucked in among a bunch of straightforward ones.
• 102d [Monk music] CHANT. First I was distracted in a way that folks who know me can guess, and then—because I had SST for 126a [Boomer, of a sort] I decided that KOANS might also be sung on occasion? But 103d [“Come aboard!”] wasn’t working out, so I needed to do some revisionary work in this, my last area to complete. The correct answers are TNT and HOP ON.
  
• 20a [Retreat located within Catoctin Mountain Park] CAMP DAVID. Had never heard the park name before.
• 58a [Those who certify] ATTESTERS. <side-eye> Is this a legal term, because I can’t say that I’ve ever heard it in regular speech.
• 109a [Diamond feature] HOME. The baseball kind. This was also tangled up in my difficulties in that lower left corner.
• 128a [Don’t-speak-about-this contracts, for short] NDAS. Blech. These are far too rampant and abused, in my opinion.

(Not really my jam, but it checks the boxes.)

Matthew Sewell’s Newsday crossword, Saturday Stumper — pannonica’s write-up

Very stumpery, this one. Many missteps.

• 32a [Fully exploit] GET THE MOST OUT OF, which has the same letter count as the less extreme TAKE ADVANTAGE OF. 21a [Less than 100%] PART.
• 4a [Top spots for advertisers] CABS. Those advertisem*nts on the roofs of the cars.
• 13a [Primates with claws] MARMOSETS. Because of the clue’s phrasing, I was thinking of prosimians, going through the list of lemurs, bushbabies, tarsiers, lorises, galagos.
• 16a [NATO alphabet flier] DELTA, the airline that is also represented in the NATO alphabet. But I was stuck on the V shape of GEESE—and that wasn’t the only time I was distracted in that direction: 27d [Canadian road sign icon] turned out to be MOOSE, though.
• 17a [What might cause hissing] STEAM HEAT.
  
• 18a [Jefferson’s tyranny-swearing site] ALTAR. It’s this quote. 33d [What’s taken while swearing] THE STAND. Okay, I guess.
• 19a [Louisiana’s state amphibian] TREE FROG, specifically the green TREE FROG, Hyla cinerea. “ciner-” in scientific nomenclature refers to ashes and typically indicates grey organisms, but taxonomic history is often convoluted. 5d [Pit bits] ASHES (47a [Needing a good sweep] SOOTY).
• 22a [Hera’s observant servant] ARGUS. Oh,that kind of observant. Argus of the hundred eyes.
• 23a [James Stewart’s whistleblower. MR SMITH, my first entry in the grid, and I was able to get 15d [Emulate Godzilla] STOMP off of it.
  
• 31a [Ocean, sea, raft …] TON. Sneakily tricky clue.
• 40a [Follow a stat?] HIE. I feel this one is too much of a stretch, even with the question mark.
• 41a [Capsule contents] OVERVIEW. Also, EVACUEES happens to fit here and matches on the V and an E.
• 44a [Animal in an abundance metaphor] WHALE. But not that there are an abundance of whales. Tricky again.
• 54a [Weblog with an Eyre Apparent exhibit post] BRONTËANA. So, I’d had Kingsley AMIS for 50d [His ’59 bestseller begins with a Deuteronomy quote] rather than URIS—but after a while and some additional crossings I guess that BRONTË would figure in to this answer, and guessed the ending.
• 57a [It’s Sanskrit for “seat”] ASANA. Very helpful that I learned this just the other week from another crossword.
• 59d [Behind] TARDY, not FANNY.
• 2d [Car __ ] MAT. Comeon.
• 4d [Underscore?] COME UP SHORT. Nice.
• 9d [Advice column] HELP MENU. Also nice.
• 20d [underground hideaway] GROTTO. Went back and forth on this one several times before the crossings really clinched it. Ditto with 41d [Rodeo circuit city] ODESSA.
• 24d [Beyond beautiful] SWOON-WORTHY. Not sure that I’ve ever encountered this, but it was eventually gettable, after having the -WORTHY part for a while.
• 26d [Banyan cousin] ELM. They’re merely in the same taxonomic Order, which is not particularly close.
• 36d [Hard to handle] OILY, not EELY.
• 43d [Above and below] IAMBS. Very tough.
• 56d [“Applying another __ to her arm” (Bard stage direction)] ASP.
  

Rich Norris’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

I was shocked to look up at the byline after what felt like a pretty zippy solve and see Rich Norris’s name there — I generally associate him with a harder fight. Notables:

• 15A [New and improved, say] isTWO POINT O, which…Rich, I love you and consider you a mentor, but this entry is a big no for me. The spelling out of “2.0” feels very contrived.
• 18A [Mookie who was the 2018 AL MVP] isBETTS; baseball = Patti-bait. See also:‘STRO at 1D and JasonGIAMBI at 22D.
• 19A [Miner concern] is a fun clue for the oh-so-ubiquitousORE.
• 29A [Knockoffs of the 1980s and 1990s] isPC CLONES, which I enjoyed both for the unusual string of four consonants in a row and because I am always here for a Gen X-friendly reference.
• 43A [Violinist Kafavian] is anANI I hadn’t been acquainted with.
• 58A [Summer Daze cologne brand] isCK ONE; see above re: Gen X.
• 5D If you’re going to have a probably-not-said-out-loud-very-often adverb likeBOSSILY in your grid, [Word in a Tom Swifty about Bruce Springsteen] is the way to clue it. Cute!
• 9D Also liked [Taped message from the police?] as a clue forDO NOT CROSS.
• 28DAM I AN IDIOT was one of my favorite entries.
• 29DPAULA ABDUL is the other. A fact about me that sometimes surprises people is that I can reel off all of MC Skat Kat’s raps in “Opposites Attract.”

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