Saturday, April 13, 2024 | (2024)

LAT2:38 (Stella)

NYTuntimed (Amy)

WSJuntimed (pannonica)

Jess Rucks’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap

Hoo-boy, I’m tired. So let’s get right into it.

Fave fill: ANGEL HAIR pasta, “YOU TELL ME,” “I’M WELL AWARE,” HOT MICS, DOLLY PARTON, NARWHALS, GAY BAR, “SAY AGAIN?”, “HAPPY NOW?”

Never heard of 1d. [Game played on a road trip], PADIDDLE. No idea what sort of road-trip game this might me. Does anyone know what it is without googling?

Not sure about SNOWNADO. Googling that … OK, it’s a swirling wind thing, not really a tornado. Also called a snow devil. Updrafts are involved.

Could do without the NO dupe of neighboring “IS THAT A NO?” and YES/NO.

Would you consider hairstyling [Mousse, e.g.] to be a GOO? I feel like a goo has more viscosity and drippiness, while mousse is a light foam.

3.5 stars from me.

Enrique Henestroza Anguiano’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Here’s something one doesn’t see too much in the 2020s: a triple stack of 15s. I can see why this one made it into LAT: Often triple and quad stacks came at the cost of questionable fill (A LOT ON ONE’S PLATE, anyone?), but in this case we get the livelySALT FAT ACID HEAT andPAPERLESS VOTING, withI GOT A BETTER IDEA feeling a smidge contrived but not a bad price to pay for the other two 15s.

PIROUETTE,TABLET APPS, andHIT SNOOZEare also fun longer entries.

The cluing was too easy IMO, but some good ones were [Pushes boundaries?] forWIDENS, [Tesla stock?] forCOILS, [Threads owner] forMETA, and [Prepare to go out again?] for the aforementionedHIT SNOOZE.

Randolph Ross’ Wall Street Journal crossword, “Say That Again” — pannonica’s write-up

Today’s theme involves hom*onyms. I wasn’t going to mess around with being explicit about the pronunciations, believing I could just indicate the part of speech of the affected word in the theme phrases, but I see that most remain the same in that regard. So I’ll, uh, play it by ear and see how it goes.

• 22a. [TV broadcaster of Oklahoma City NBA games?] THUNDER SHOWER. From rainstorm to long-O airer.
• 26a. [Paltry amount of applause?] MINUTE HAND. Once again, the revised version has a long vowel sound, in this case a U.
• 34a. [Buff some bratwurst?] POLISH SAUSAGES. From long-O to short this time.
• 50a. [Work for Audible?] RECORD BOOKS. This one contains not only a vowel shift, but a change in stress from the first syllable to the second.
• 62a. [Something that ends with 17325?] GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. Stress change again, from second syllable to first.nb: I often pronounce the location sense of ‘address’ the same way as the oral presentation, so for me this is a partially correct themer.
• 80a. [First in a Macy’s parade?] LEAD BALLOON. Short- to long-E.
• 91a. [Bring a Sondheim musical to the stage?] PRESENT COMPANY. Stress change, first to second syllable.
• 100a. [Inseams, e.g.?] SEWER LINES. Vowel change. Short-E to long-O.
• 109a. [Enforcer of parking rules on Downing Street?] TOWER OF LONDON. The O is now long here too.

Easier to witness and understand this theme than explain it, which if done properly would be quite long-winded, with definitions and pronunciations being communicated explicitly.

• 15d [Chilled Slavic soup] SCHAV. First time I’ve seen this in a crossword.
• 20d [Baloney] TRIPE. Yes, but be specific when dealing with the delicatessen proprietor.
• 27d [Trojan War advisor] NESTOR. Wise counsel, blah blah blah.
• 35d [Paris runway setting] ORLY. Only now appreciating that this was a mild misdirection toward the fashion world.
• 39d [Soul mate] BODY.
  
• 54d [Clinker] SOUR NOTE. I’m reminded of the plethora of quotes, mostly from jazz musicians, along the lines of “there are no wrong notes …” with various versions of what follows. You can look ’em up if you’re interested.
• 79d [Player in the World Golf Hall of Fame] GARY. Player is his surname.
• 93d [Spoken] ORAL. Theme-adjacent.
• 102d [Cubs’ home] LAIR. Not the baseball team. Fooled me.
• 25a [Port of Baja California] ENSENADA.
  
• 53a [Conqueror of Tenochtitlan] CORTES, which I had spelled with a Z. Anyway, unpretty history there.
• 70a [Cheery] RIANT. Not accepted by Spelling Bee. BAH (29a).
• 90a [Spenser’s “Epithalamion,” e.g.] ODE. An epithalamium is a song or poem written specifically for a bride on her way to the marital chamber.

Enjoyed this one.

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

Solved this one significantly more quickly than is typical from this constructor. And somewhere between ⅓ and ½ of the time was spent completing the lower left and bottom center sections.

• 1a [Minimal info] DATUM, not DEETS as I’d tried first.
• 9a [Residential healthcare provider] DR MOM. Not what I was thinking of for residential. 4d [Not the parental disciplinarian] UNCLE DAD—not even sure what this means. Because I had HELICOPTER at 32a [Fliers named for their blades] rather than HEXACOPTER, my initial try for this one was UNCLE KID. Eventually I realized that 34d [Alien monster] was XENOMORPH, and everything began to resolve from there.
  §
  I see now that UNCLE DAD is a certain kind of divorced father with minimal custody and responsibilities. And a hexacopter is a more exorbitant analog of the relatively familiar quadcopter.
• 17a [Many a United team supporter] MANCUNIAN. This is the demonym for Manchester, England. 8d [co*ckney, e.g.] LONDONESE—I was thinking of an individual, not the argot.
• 20a [9 or 10, but not 11] CARD. Tough clue.
• 24a [Oscar nominee in six categories (2006–2013)] CLOONEY. Impressive. Rather than list them, I’ve simply clipped the table from Wikipedia.
• 28a [With a single flat] IN F. Okay, I’ll take your word for it. 57a [Score starter] CLEF.
• 37a [Fluff] ERR, not AIR.
• 42a [Go together] EXIT EN MASSE. Nice clue/answer combo.
• 51a [Small apartment] CABIN. I’m thinking this is specifically about something like you’d find on an ocean liner?
• 60a [Big band] HORDE. Neither OCTET nor NONET, as we were certainly meant to think.
• 64a [Base of some martial arts] TATAMI MAT. Had the MAT part early, but took some time relinquishing the notion that the first part might be KARATE.
• 65a [Eisenhower Memorial designer] GEHRY. Somewhat predictably, I tried the ever-popular IM PEI first.
• 3d [One of many in a night table drawer] TENON. Ouch, sneaky. Back when I thought one-across was DEETS, I was inclined to say that this might be E-BOOK, and that the many might be contained within the same reader.
• 11d [Green fish-and-chips side dish] MUSHY PEAS. Big UK vibe in the puzzle, innit?
• 13d [Like M. north of New York] MASC. Comeon. I get it, we’re talking about French and gender in language, but the clue was so opaque to me.
• 23d [Italian word for “bowls”] BOCCE. Oho, the action, not the shape.
• 50d [Address] SEE TO. Got this exclusively from crosses, and had been trying to get words like ORATE or SPEAK to work.
• 53d [Many a pop] IN-LAW. Ispop a hypocorism for grandfather here? I believe so?
• 55d [Fullest Bangs, e.g.] SHAG. Haircut speak. Don’t know what the context is for the proper noun here. Also don’t really care.