Friday, April 19, 2024 | (2024)

LATuntimed (pannonica)

NYT5:47 (Amy)

Kate Hawkins’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap

Hey! A Friday puzzle within the expected difficulty range for me. Maybe a skosh harder, but not “holy schnikes, this is Saturday-plus” level.

Fave fill: “I DON’T HAVE ALL DAY,” RHUBARB, FELT GOOD (a bit green-painty because there are a ton of adjectives that can go with “feel,” but who doesn’t like feel-good phrases?), “SOMETHING CAME UP,” CABIN FEVER, Korean drink SOJU, the movie GATTACA, “PROVE IT,” DUE DATE, FAULT LINES. I also like HUNDO, part of a whole family of newish -o words (rando, doggo, sando) that appeal to me.

I had no idea what was going on with 5a. [Things attached to spines: Abbr.] until just now. PGS would be pages, attached to paperback book spines. (In hardcovers, the stack of pages are attached, but the individual pages don’t really contact the spines, no?)

Never heard of SADIES as shorthand for turnabout dances, aka Sadie Hawkins dances, where girls ask the boys to be their dates. My high school had a different name for them, but I’ll be be damned if I can remember what it was.

As for 29d, “AH ME,” boy, I wish I’d never see this entry in another puzzle. Constructors, won’t you consider just straight-up deleting this from your word lists? Maybe ditch OH ME too.

3.9 stars from me.

David Levinson Wilk’s Universal crossword, “Film Blocking”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are the eight entries around the corners that are all missing the word BABY. The revealer in three parts is NOBODY / PUTS BABY IN A / CORNER (20a, [With 38- and 57-Across, “Dirty Dancing” quote … and why four black squares are keeping you from completing this puzzle]).

• NW:
  1a. [Rolls around during infancy?] (BABY) FAT
  12d. [Steinway product] (BABY) GRAND
• NE:
  8a. [Small primate with large eyes] BUSH (BABY)
  15d. [Party before a delivery] (BABY) SHOWER
• SW:
  41d. [1990 rap hit with a “cool” title] “ICE ICE (BABY)”
  68a. [Tentative first effort] (BABY) STEP
• SE:
  51d. [Eartha Kitt Christmas song] “SANTA (BABY)”
  70a. [Whiner] CRY(BABY)

Breaking a revealer into three parts is never ideal, but this quote probably comes easily to a lot of solvers, and therefore provides an accessible and enjoyable aha moment. What’s different in this grid than in other corner-based themes I’ve done is the use of the black square in each corner—presumably to represent BABY, but in reality making it easier for our constructor to put in words that don’t have to have a letter in common. (For example, if 1a is FAT then 1d would have to start with F.) The cheater square becomes a BABY square and makes filling the corners so much easier. Nice design!

Top fill around the grid includes SEÑORITA, PLAYLIST, HOT DATE, NUDISTS (opposite DRESSED, haha), and SWOOSH.

Clues of note:

• 4a. [“My ___ are burning!”]. EARS. Anyone else go with EYES at first? This, along with wanting T-REX for 5d [Pixar dinosaur], really put me off to a bad start.
• 31a. [Fashion item in mid-Manhattan?] HAT. There it is.
• 66a. [In a chemistry joke, it’s what a female has that a male lacks]. IRON. The chemical symbol for IRON is Fe. Ergo, add IRON to “male” to get “female.” (I didn’t get the joke; I had to look it up.)
• 9d. [Sch. in Kingston]. URI. Didn’t know there was a Kingston, Rhode Island.

Good puzzle all around. 3.75 stars.

Rebecca Goldstein’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up

No title, as per usual in this venue, but also no revealers or explicit reference to a theme.

• 17a. [American cheese?] POTUS.
• 19a. [Irish cream?] EUROS.
• 36a. [Spanish inquisition?] COMO ESTÁS?
• 7d. [Australian open?] G’DAY MATE.
• 41d. [French press?] LE MONDE.
• 43a. [English channel?] THE BEEB.
• 49d. [German mark?] UMLAUT.

These are kind of interesting.

• 21a [Long-horned grasshopper] KATYDID. That alternative name is new to me.
• 46a [Walk through knee-deep snow, say] TREK. 9d [Toy in the final “Calvin and Hobbes” panel] SLED.
  
• 55a [Letter before sigma] RHO. 10d [Letter after sigma] TAU.
• 56a [Spicy sausage] HOT LINK. Also, as one word, an internet concept. 26d [Blowout patch, at a diner] PANCAKE. New slang to me.
• 61a [Tiny powerhouses?] AAS, batteries. 45d [Real powerhouses] DYNAMOS.
• 1d [Food with a a national holiday in El Salvador] PUPUSA.
• 3d [Reflective effect in some gemstones] CAT’S EYE. In an actual CAT’S EYE, the tapetum lucidumis responsible for that.
• 13d [Trick] FAST ONE. 66a [Sell a bill of goods] LIE TO.
• 35d [Pt. of Loran] NAV. I believe LORAN (‘long-range navigation’) should be in all caps. As it is, the clue looks to read “Port of Loran” rather than {Part of LORAN}.
• 56d [Women’s health brand] HERS. Makes sense.
• 57d [Decide not to run] KILL. Hm, like a computer program?