Tuesday, July 23, 2024 | (2024)

LATuntimed (Jenni)

NYT3:08 (Amy)

WSJuntimed (Jim)

Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Create New Folder” — contains five. – Erin’s write-up

Hello lovelies! In this week’s Jonesin’ we don’t have to worry about the old “file not found” error, because there is a FILE evenly flanking each of the theme entries:

• 17a. [Her latest album is 2020’s “Fetch the Bolt Cutters”]FIONA APPLE. If the rest of the album is like the single “Shameika,” it’s worth a listen.
• 26a. [Unofficial title for Stuart Sutcliffe or Pete Best]FIFTH BEATLE
• 42a. [Underground signal carrier, maybe]FIBER OPTIC CABLE
• 53a. [Culmination of a hero-versus-villain arc]FINAL BATTLE
• 65a. [Completely healthy, with “in”]FINE FETTLE

Other things:

• 45a. [Her “Hello” is used in the new “Weird” Al polka medley]ADELE. “Polkamania” was released last Friday, on July 19, 2024. Here’s the link if you’d like to check it out.
• 71. [Brightly colored aquarium fish]TETRA. This could have been a tie-in with 47-Across, NEON.

Until next week!

Joe O’Neill’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Amidst It All”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar phrases with the letters DAB in their exact centers. The revealers are SMACK / DAB (36a, [With 33-Down, precisely, as in the middle of 17-, 23-, 51- and 62-Across]).

• 17a. [Bamboo muncher, familiarly] PANDA BEAR.
• 23a. [Bedrock bellow] “YABBA DABBA DOO!”
• 51a. [Successfully evaded something unpleasant] DODGED A BULLET.
• 62a. [Really into] WILD ABOUT.

The theme is fine and the theme answers are fun entries. I also like how both SMACK and DAB are in the exact center of the grid.

But I wasn’t exactly WILD ABOUT this puzzle. For one, the hidden word is duplicated in each theme answer unlike yesterday where each hidden word was different. Maybe the two puzzles should have been swapped?

Secondly, the fill is decidedly less smooth with entries like ABCDE, UNLET, IS IN ON, ASHED, and REDOS. The long Down anchors are nice, though: UNCTUOUS, THE BEEB, and DANDYISH.

Clues of note:

• 50a. [Start of a kindergarten song]. ABCDE. Where do you draw the line when listing the alphabet. I would’ve thought C was the cutoff.
• 56a. [Pillow puddle]. DROOL. Blech. What kind of pillow repels liquid enough to form a puddle?
• 25d. [“___ plaisir”]. AVEC. The phrase means “with pleasure.”
• 34d. [English channel, familiarly]. THE BEEB. Good clue.
• 47d. [Spam source]. HORMEL. For those keeping track at home, there’s a brand new Spam flavor: Korean BBQ.

3.25 stars.

Sarah Sinclair & Amie Walker’s New York Times crossword–Amy’s recap

Cute theme. (Editorial note: When I say something is cute, it’s praise. If you thinkcute is an insult, that’s on you.) The revealer CHORAL GROUP unites TONY SOPRANO, PALO ALTO, EVEN TENOR, and ROCK BASS (which sounds like a musical instrument except for being pronounced to rhyme with “ass” and not “base”) through their second words. Sorry, baritones.

Easy puzzle overall.

4a. [Pampering place for purring pets], CAT SPA. Is this a thing for actual cats to be pampered, or for cat lovers to luxuriate among kitties?

Not in every state: 23a. [Kind of lane marked with a diamond], HOV, that’s not a thing in Illinois. I learned the term from crosswords.

Fave fill: MATTHEW, TOO CUTE, GHERKIN, PRAIRIE, TOEHOLD, OFFROAD, and TEAM USA with a Simone Biles clue. You could do worse than watch Netflix’s two-episode Biles docuseries; I enjoyed it.

Four stars from me.

Elizabeth C. Gorski’s Cr♥ssw♥rd Nation puzzle (Week 687), “Extra Ef-fort”—Ade’s take

Hello there, everybody! Here is hoping you are doing well today as we sail through the last full week of July! Before you know it, it will be back-to-school time!

Speaking of school, today’s puzzle most certainly gets an “F,” and that’s because the theme answers are phrases that are turned into puns with a strategic addition of the letter “F” in each of them.

• FRUMP ROAST (16A: [Friars Club tribute to the dowdiest comic?])
• FRANK BEGINNER (22A: [Rookie at Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating contest?])
• CALCULATED FRISK (35A: [Pat-down whose dangers have been carefully assessed?])
• FRAZZLE DAZZLE (46A: [Glitzy “Chicago” song that’s exhausting to perform?])
• DESERT FRAT (57A: [Student residence in the Mojave?])

Whew, that MFR (30A: Product maker: Abbr.]) and MARU intersection was an absolute trip to close out the solve, going through the alphabet before realizing that “M” had to be in that crossing (30D: [Merchant ship, in Tokyo]). Making a garlic chicken recipe at the time of writing this, but seeing PASTRAMIS is making me think that that’s going to be an option for me in the very near future, especially since I’m way overdue for a visit to Katz’s Deli to get some pastrami (10D: [Deli sandwich needs]).

“Sports will make you smarter” moment of the day: FTD (33D: [Bouquets-to-order co.]) – What in the world does a bouquet company have to do with sports? Well, if you’re of a certain vintage like me, and grew up in the 1980s, then you’ll remember the FTD commercials that ran on television and the pitch man you saw on those ads: Pro Football Hall-of-Fame defensive lineman and broadcaster Merlin Olsen, a member of the famed Fearsome Foursome defensive line of the Los Angeles Rams of the 1960s and 1970s. Here he was, in all his gentle, FTD-pitching glory (and not in his quarterback-sacking glory)! Oh, the memories!

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

Patrick Berry’s New Yorker crossword — pannonica’s write-up

A big step down from Monday’s actually-challenging crossword. Today’s offering is more typical of the not-“moderately challenging” puzzles we’ve seen from the New Yorker.

• 1a [What Venice’s streets lack] CARS. Are Vespas allowed? 31d [Italian song on which Elis’s “It’s Now or Never” was based] O SOLE MIO. 22a [Logical place for a canal] ISTHMUS.
• 10a [Include covertly in a thread] BCC. 46a [Subtly canvassed the opinions of] FELT OUT.
• 15a [dance associated with the goddess Laka] HULA.
• 16a [Attraction where people lose their money and their lives] ARCADE GAME. Not as morbid as the clue seemingly implies.
• 18a [Heavy load] ONUS.
  
• 19a [Not troubled by obligations] LEISURED. A less-common inflection.
• 23a [Send to Davy Jones’s locker] SCUTTLE. “to cut a hole through the bottom, deck, or side of (a ship) specifically : to sink or attempt to sink by making holes through the bottom” (m-w.com)
• 30a [Football strategy in which strategy isn’t discussed] NO-HUDDLE OFFENSE, which I believe is distinct from ahurry-up offense.
• 35a [“Chop-chop!”] ASAP. I believe this phrase has racist overtones?
• 48a [Brilliant quality] RADIANCE. 56a [Bright] SMART.
• 50a [Food product once marketed as an option for people with a “fear of frying”] SHAKE ’N BAKE. Introduced in 1965. Erica Jong’s watershed novel was published in 1973. The general phenomenon long predates both, but had an uptick in the 1950s.
  
• 1d [Drug with ads featuring side-by-side bathtubs] CIALIS. Do I want to know? No, I don’t want to know.
• 10d [Batter’s circle?] BUNDT PAN. Cute.

Overall, a smooth, enjoyable, relatively easy crossword.

Joe Rodini’s Universal Crossword, “Takeout Food” — Matt F’s Review

The 4-letter string, L-I-N-G, needs to be ignored in theme answers to make sense of the clues.

{Stay tuned for the full write up!}

Thank you for the puzzle, Joe! And thank you, David Steinberg, for the editorial touch.

Agnes Davidson and Zhouqin Burnikel’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Jenni’s write-up

It’s late, I’m still playing catchup after a week away, and I didn’t understand the theme until just now.

• 17a [Vocalist who expresses unrequited love] is aTORCH SINGER.
• 28a [Early sci-fi adventure hero] isBUCK ROGERS.
• 35a [Hockey feats] are HAT TRICKS.
• 46a [co*cktail makers] areBARKEEPERS.

And the revealer. 57a [Kill a few hours, and an apt title for this puzzle?] is PASS THE TIME.PASStheTORCH/BUCK/HAT/BAR. Not entirely sure if “time” plays a role here.

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: thatKARATEwas developed in Okinawa.