Wednesday, June 26, 2024 | (2024)

LAT5:11 (Gareth)

NYT4:07 (Amy)

WSJuntimed (Jim)

Rebecca Goldstein’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap

Ha! I didn’t know where the theme was going till I reached the funny revealer: 52a. [Memorable ad-lib in “Midnight Cowboy” … or what the starred clues would say about their answers] clues “I’M WALKIN’ HERE” (see clip here). Jesus might say that while walking on water in the SEA OF GALILEE, Dorothy Gale on the YELLOW BRICK ROAD to Oz, and astronaut Neil Armstrong on the moon’s TRANQUILITY BASE. The punch line of the revealer is terrific.

Fave fill: SMOOSHING, WENT WILD, basketball SET SHOTS, CAULDRON.

Three things:

• 43d. [Comedian Wanda], SYKES. She’s in the documentary Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution, about queer comedy. The doc is funny, informative, at times sobering. 4.5 stars from me. (Trailer below.)
• 3d. [Women’s health care brand], HERS. I think it’s an online/app-based way to connect women with prescribers? Yes, here’s the site. There’s also a His that I’ve seen ads for, featuring treatments for hair loss, depression, and ED, iirc.
• 18d. [Small drum], TABOR. I tried TABLA (also a small drum) first. Here’s info on tabors. Tabor is also a place name, and there’s a Michigan winery called Tabor Hill that I visited as a child. (What? Your folks didn’t take you to wineries on vacation? True confession: I did take my kid to a winery near Niagara Falls. The one place I ever tried a palatable red!)

Four stars from me.

Jeff Stillman’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Shoot!”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar phrases that add letters, one at a time, reminiscent of the basketball game “Horse.” The revealer is PLAY HORSE (58a, [Take part in an add-a-letter basketball game, as demonstrated by this puzzle’s theme answers]).

• 17a. [Working out carpet coverage, say?] FLOOR MATH.
• 20a. [Last call during a fox hunt?] FINAL TALLY-HO.
• 36a. [Action figure of a Marvel character?] MODEL THOR.
• 54a. [Aromatic substances for keeping cowboy footwear fresh?] BOOT CAMPHORS.

Fun basis for a theme; I enjoyed the aha moment once I realized what was going on. But if you’ve never played “Horse” this probably didn’t do much for you. If I recall correctly, players take turns shooting a basket from different positions around the key. When a player makes a basket they get a letter. If they miss a basket from that position, they have to keep using their turns from that position until they get that letter. First person to spell out HORSE wins. (Whoa [haha]. Apparently, I played it differently than the way other people played it.)

Grid highlights: The Lion King‘s PRIDE ROCK, a TWO-INCOME household, PELOTON, OBSOLETE, and The Eagles’ “Take It To THE LIMIT” (even though it really feels like a long partial). A fair amount of crosswordese makes its presence felt: EDDA, A LIE, EMO, ICI, NOH.

Clue of note: 12d. [Exercise equipment brand named for a pack of bikers] PELOTON. Per M-W.com: “In French, “peloton” literally means “ball,” but it is most often used with the meaning “group.” It’s frequently used in the bicycling context, just as in English, but it can also refer to a group in a marathon or other sporting event.”

3.5 stars.

Kyle Dolan’s Universal crossword, Summer Themeless Week, Puzzle 3 — pannonica’s write-up

Quickly this morning, as I have a lot on my plate already.

• 5a [ __-P (PC’s paste command)] CTRL. Umm, ctrl-V is paste, while ctrl-P typically means print. No?
• 22a [Southeast Asian cuisine with larb] LAO. I know larb as a northeast Thai dish, from the Isan region, but that’s close to Laos so it stands to reason that it would be there as well. (After consulting Wikipedia I’ve learned that the origin is Lao and it’s in fact the national dish.)
• 36a [Course with a lecture on sin?] TRIG. Very nice.
• 38a [People to whom Pikes Peak is sacred] UTE. Tava (“sun”) is their word for the mountain. 29d [Zion National Park’s state] UTAH.
• 49a [Language that gave us “whiskey”] GAELIC. 7d [Some loaves or whiskeys] RYES.
• 60a [Jazz singer James] ETTA. I maintain that she isn’t really a jazz singer, despite a few of her albums in that mode.
• 23d [Biomedical researcher’s goal] CURE. But often not the actual goal of their employer.
• 26d [It has a root … or can be found on a root] HAIR.
• 46d [Handheld game of quick reflexes] BOP IT. New to me. But there are plenty of reflex-type games you can play with another person.

Aimee Lucido’s AV Club Classic crossword, “Unsavory Business”–Amy’s recap

First up, some links. Read this Medical Mysteries column to learn about pregnancy- and lactation-associated osteoporosis (PLO), which is rare but afflicted constructor Aimee Lucido. If you hear of someone who’s having terrible back pain while pregnant or breastfeeding, please point them towards info on PLO so they can avoid months of misdiagnosis. Also, here’s Aimee’s books page, where we find her new pasta picture book for little kids and her middle-grade novel whose title is the same as this puzzle’s theme revealer!

[With 64-Across, accident waiting to happen, or a description of the clue for 17-, 25-, 38-, or 41-Across] clues RECIPE FOR / DISASTER, and four synonyms of disaster are clued via “recipes” involving taking certain letters from other words, cryptic crossword–style. For example, [Remove salami from its casing and stuff it inside Gouda, for example, to make …] CALAMITY. The letters ALAM are left when you remove the outside letters (“casing”) of sALAMi, and Gouda is a CITY as well as a cheese. [Take the core of broccoli and mash it together with yam and salt to make …] CATACLYSM. The two C’s from the middle of broCColi anagrammed (“mash together”) with YAM and SALT. [Remove tuna’s tail from ultra-aged yellowfin, then sift through what’s left to make …] TRAGEDY. Remove TUNA’s A from ulTRA-aGED Yellowfin and extract the capitalized letters. [Layer together the first two bites of dessert, three slices of bacon, and the last two shreds of kale to make …] DEBACLE. DEssert, BACon, kaLE. Clever, and not so easy.

Fave fill: JELLYBEAN, CRYBABY, SCHMALTZY. Could’ve done without crusty bits like BRAE, ALER, and ENTR. It’s harder to fill smoothly around six theme entries in the grid.

3.25 stars from me.

Caitlin Reid’s New Yorker crossword – Kyle’s write-up

Thanks Caitlin for today’s puzzle. My solve hit a snag in the middle of the grid where I first entered LAGS and then LATE for 31A [Bringing up the rear] LAST. Should have gone with the crossing entries which would have nailed those last two letters down, especially the gimme clue on THOU. Oh well, some days the brain doesn’t want to cooperate.

The SW corner of the puzzle made me hungry! 43A [Round, flaky pastry that’s a hybrid of two breakfast treats] CRONUT – yes, but have you tried a cruffin? The bakery around the corner makes them on weekends, usually with a delicious filling like lemon curd or whipped cream. This entry crosses at the C with CRISTO from the Monte Cristo sandwich. I have to say, cluing this as a [ham and cheese sandwich] feels like it’s underselling it a bit.

Going to get a snack! See you next week.

Shannon Rapp & Will Eisenberg’s LA Times crossword – Gareth’s summary

Shannon Rapp & Will Eisenberg puzzle is completed by WRAPPARTIES, a colourful entry, which today is interpreted that the beginnings and endings of the other long across answers spell out synonyms for PARTY:

• [*Swimmer that can expand to three times its normal size], BALLOONFISH. bash. I’ve never heard of this, but apparently it’s another name for a pufferfish.
• [*Dreamhouse occupant], BARBIEDOLL. ball.
• [*Employee responsible for minimizing negative outcomes], RISKMANAGER. riser.
• [*Greek salad component], FETACHEESE. fete. Over here, fete a synonym for bazaar.

Tricky entries:

• [Front-end alignment], TOEIN. As defined. Usefully vowelly entry.
• [CGI-heavy superhero franchise], MCU. Is that comic or cinematic? I can never remember what the middle letter is anyway…
• [“The Possibilities Are Beautiful” retailer], ULTA. Never seen this anywhere before, not being American. It appears to be a cosmetics retailer.
• Pic above a username], AVI. News to me, but must be some variant of avatar.
• [Black currant liqueur], CASSIS. One of those things only encountered in certain co*cktail recipes?

Gareth

Noelle Griskey’s USA Today Crossword, “Rear Window” — Emily’s write-up

Nothing to be suspicious of today’s puzzle.

Theme: the last part (or “rear) of each themer can be combined with “window” to form a new phrase

Themers:

• 20a. [Situation caused by a bad combination of events],PERFECTSTORM
• 36a. [Body of water near the Golden Gate Bridge],SANFRANCISCOBAY
• 53a. [Actress who voiced Tiana],ANIKANONIROSE

A fun themer set with PERFECTSTORM, SANFRANCISCOBAY, and ANIKANONIROSE. With the theme, we get: STORM WINDOW, BAY WINDOW, and ROSE WINDOW.

Favorite fill: PINTS, RESALE, and AESOP

Stumpers: AERIE (only “nests” came to mind), REORDER (“restock” and “reup”), and NFLGAMES (needed crossings)

Beautiful grid with a nice layout to allow for the theme and lots of bonus fill. Loved to see the completed pair with NESTS later on in the puzzle, as well as the pairs AROMA and ODOR

3.75 stars

~Emily