Monday, April 29, 2024 | (2024)

BEQtk (Matthew)

LAT2:00 (Stella)

NYT2:50 (Sophia)

WSJ3:58 (Jim)

Adam Vincent’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “A Chicken in Every Spot”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar phrases re-imagined as being wacky servings of chicken.

• 17a. [Chicken dish best served in an exam hall?] TEST STRIPS.
• 27a. [Chicken dish best served during a prize fight?] RING FINGERS.
• 43a. [Chicken dish best served at the top of the awards stand?] GOLD NUGGETS.
• 59a. [Chicken dish best served at a law firm?] BAR TENDERS.

Enjoyable, accessible theme to get your Monday going, though I admit I pretty much ignored the clues once I got the gist of it. What I liked best about these theme choices is that none of the chicken servings is an actual body part—no breast, legs, or wings here, just chicken non-parts.

Fun long fill in ZIG-ZAGGED, JUKEBOX, INSIPID, DARK WEB, and DIDDY KONG. I’m a longtime Nintendo fan, so that last one was a gimme for me. “IN OR OUT?” [Question to a pet at the door] is pretty fun as well, though I will say training our pup to use the doggie door has been a godsend for us.

Clues of note:

• 61a. [“I coulda ___ a contender!”]. BEEN. Certainly it’s not a dupe, but having this clue immediately after BARTENDERS was distracting.
• 34d. [“Donkey’s little nephew wannabe” in Nintendo games]. DIDDY KONG. Though I’m a longtime Nintendo fan, I’ve never heard that description. Hard to clue the character with respect to Donkey Kong without duplicating “Kong.” I might’ve gone with [Monkey in many a Mario game].
• 52d. [Informal property claim]. DIBS. Ha. Thanks for including “Informal” in the clue. I was going to go with LIEN.

Enjoyable, smooth puzzle. 3.75 stars.

Tom Locke’s New York Times crossword — Sophia’s write-up

Theme: HUE AND CRY – each theme answer is a color followed by a hom*ophone of a word meaning “cry”.

• 17a [Marine creature that can weigh over 400,000 pounds] – BLUE WHALE
• 28a [Bar from joining a private club, e.g.] – BLACKBALL
• 48a [Chardonnay or pinot grigio, e.g.] – WHITE WINE
• 65a [Public uproar … or a phonetic hint to the two words in 17-, 28- and 48-Across?] – HUE AND CRY

This is a cool two part theme! Unfortunately I have never heard of the term HUE AND CRY before, so the revealer meant basically nothing to me. Wikipedia tells me that besides public uproar, it can also mean “a common law practice where bystanders are summoned to help a criminal”, and it also seems to be the name of a popular band. Curious if other folks knew this term before this puzzle.

BLACKBALL is my favorite theme answer from a construction perspective, because the color isn’t just being used as a descriptive adjective for the second word. BLUE WHALEs are cool as heck though, so that’s my actual favorite answer.

There’s some good stuff in the rest of the puzzle (which makes sense given that there are only 28 theme squares in the whole puzzle! 4 nine letter answers just isn’t that much). I liked DOG TREAT and OUTTAKE especially. AUDIENCE is also nice, although I wish the clue was more interesting than just [What Nielsen ratings measure]. That was the second hardest clue in the puzzle for me, after [Radio reply after “Roger”] for WILCO. Some other clueing highlights were [“We only use 10% of our brain,” e.g.] for MYTH and [Reasons to scratch one’s head, say] for ITCHES. I didn’t love the singular TAPA or the awkward MISAIM, but everything else was smooth.

Happy Monday all, and congrats to Tom on his NYT debut!

Jeffrey K Martinovic’s Universal crossword, “Sorry!” — pannonica’s write-up

Some gamey puns.

• 17a. [It’s game night, and you’re on a roll! You started with Scrabble, but your opponents were …] AT A LOSS FOR WORDS.
• 27a. [… then you played Twister, which left your opponents …] TIED UP IN KNOTS.
• 48a. [… so you moved on to Catan, and made your opponents …] SETTLE FOR LESS.
• 63a. [… finally, you ended the night with Jenga, which left your opponents …] FALLING TO PIECES.

… and of course the puzzle’s title is another game one might play with others.

• 8d [C in biology class] CARBON. An essential component of organic chemistry, too.
• 38d [Jazzy James] ETTA. I still consider her primarily an R&B/blues artist, despite her later explorations. ETTA Jones, on the other hand …
• 44d [“I’m not sharing with you!”] ALL MINE.
• 65d [Avocado discard] PIT, although it’s possible to use one to grow an actual avocado TREE (37a).

Will Nediger’s New Yorker crossword—Amy’s recap

Yay! Back to having a tough themeless on Monday. Fingers crossed that it remains thus.

Overall, the cluing was tough throughout, and the long answers were slow to complete themselves for me. Fave fill: “IT’S A BLUR,” BOONIES, “IF YOU’RE LUCKY” ([“. . . but I wouldn’t count on it”]), IBRAM X. Kendi, MORE THAN A LITTLE, PARTY BUS (terrific clue, [Dance coach?]), DESIGNER STUBBLE.

Didn’t know but feel like I’ve seen it before: 39d. [Wistful longing, in Portuguese culture], SAUDADE. Another tougher noun: 58a. [Hardwood stick used for percussion], CLAVE.

Not entirely sure that “THAT’S MY THING” rises to the level of crosswordable phrases. The clue, [Trademark-infringement complaint?], isn’t meant literally. Somebody trips and spills their drink everywhere, and a klutzy onlooker might say “Hey! That’s my thing. How dare he steal my move.”

3.75 stars from me.

Harry Doernberg’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

F this puzzle! Not really, that’s just what the constructor was doing with the theme. The revealer at 46D [Camera lens setting, and a feature of both ends of 17-, 23-, 46-, and 57-Across?] isF-STOP, because each theme answer begins and ends with the letter F:

• 17A [Closely held conviction] is aFIRM BELIEF.
• 23A [Sport with flying saucers] is the nicely evocativeFRISBEE GOLF, and the clue is fun too.
• 46A [Blue toon in green overalls and a straw hat] isFARMER SMURF, which I as a Gen Xer who grew up with the Smurfs would say is a deep cut. Clued inferably, though.
• 57A [Formal sleeve style] isFRENCH CUFF.

Some nice stuff in the fill, like the evocativeROSE GARDEN, LUNCHMEATS, andDOG TREAT. I like!