Sunday, February 11, 2024 | (2024)

LATuntimed (Jack)

NYT12:28 (Nate)

WaPo5:14 (Matthew)

Peter Koetters New York Times crossword, “Bright Ideas” — Nate’s write-up

We have a birthday tribute puzzle this week, with light bulb and light rays-shaped grid art to go with it:

– 27A: MOVIE CAMERA [It helps you get the picture]
– 3D: MIMEOGRAPH [Duplicating machine]
– 15D: MICROPHONE [The “thing” in “Is this thing on?”]
– 38D: POWER PLANT [Something that’s big with the current generation?]
– 64D: STOCK TICKER [Bygone tape dispenser]
– 66D: SPIRIT PHONE [Failed device meant to communicate with the dead]
– 69D: PHONOGRAPH [Object in the classic painting “His Master’s Voice”]

– 36D: INVENTIONS [Legacy of 72-Down, seven of which appear among this puzzle’s answers and one more suggested by the black squares in the middle of the grid]
– 72D: THOMAS ALVA (E)(D)(I)(S)(O)(N) [With [circled letters reading clockwise], American icon born on 2/11/1847]

I am genuinely surprised that NYT accepted this grid with SANDUSKY in it. Even though they’ve clued it differently, the way that many folks will know the name will be via notorious, convicted Penn State pedophile Jerry Sandusky, who founded a charity for at-risk youth and was later “arrested and charged with 52 counts of sexual abuse of young boys over a 15-year period from 1994 to 2009,” many of whom he met through his very same charity. “On June 22, 2012, Sandusky was found guilty on 45 of the 48 remaining charges.” (All quotes are from his Wikipedia page, which I won’t include here.) I appreciate that not everyone will experience this entry the same way I did, but I’ll admit that its inclusion put me off the puzzle and didn’t seem (theme-related pun intended) like a bright idea.

This puzzle also had its fair share of crosswordese, including REPINE, ASH CAN, ERENOW, and T SLOT, as well as some crossings that felt they might be tough for some, including: GAMELAN / POL, REPINE / NICOLE, TSLOT / LORCA / TE AMO, RAOUL / OREL, and TOJO / RAMOS.

That’s all I’ve got. I hope you had a pleasant time solving and, at the very least, are having a nice weekend. For those who enjoy the sports ball, please say hello to the Superb Owl for me!

LA Times crossword “Center of Attention” by Chandi Deitmer & Matthew Stock — Jack’s write-up

Theme: Common phrases have a circled letter added in the central position to create silly phrases with silly clues. The added letters spell HALF TIME SHOW

• 21A. [Growling or barking, e.g.?] = DOG T(H)REAT (dog treat)
• 28A. [Existence fueled by rotini and tagliatelle?] = PAST(A) LIFE (past life)
• 30A. [Driveway mistake?] = GRAVE(L) ERROR (grave error)
• 43A. [“You’re talking to a haunted house expert here”?] = I KNOW (F)RIGHT (I know, right?)
• 47A. [Obnoxious poster in the r/wellsfargo Reddit?] = BANK (T)ROLL (bank roll)
• 63A. [Rant against the sun?] = DAY T(I)RADE = (day trade)
• 69A. [Providers of room service for musicians’ tours?] = BAND (M)AIDS (band-aids)
• 81A. [Intense “don’t blink” contests?] = STAR(E) WARS (star wars)
• 86A. [Opening dis at a roast?] = FIRST (S)LIGHT (first light)
• 101A. [Erratic radiator?] = FUSSY (H)EATER (fussy eater)
• 103A. [Gigs as conductors and percussionists?] = TEMP(O) JOBS
• 112A. [Casualwear at the pub?] = BAR S(W)EATS (bar seats)

Twelve themers! While they’re not the longest themers crosswords have ever seen, we’re not talking four or five letters either. This is a staggering amount of pre-laid furniture to fill around. It’s remarkable that the rest of the grid isn’t full of gunk to hold everything together. It must have been a tough task to keep this smooth. I need to borrow Chandi and Matthew’s word list — or better yet their grit and patience.

It’s nice to have a Super Bowl theme on Super Bowl Sunday. Especially one that doesn’t rely on football trivia, which might alienate some solvers. The half time show is a big deal and it deserves a theme too. It’s a good (and critical) detail that all of the circled letters fall exactly in the middle of their entries.

I liked uncovering PIG LATIN, DON’T LIE, ARTS PAGE, and even the colloquial WE CARD (44D. [“Be ready to prove your age”]) during my solve.

Other thoughts:

• 55A. [Unit in many a Zillow listing] = ACRE. Nice misdirection. “Unit” is meant to evoke apartment unit, but it’s actually referring to the unit of land area that one might see on a house listing.
• One of the theme entry clues was 47A. [Obnoxious poster in the r/wellsfargo Reddit?] = BANK (T)ROLL. This is a nitpick, but shouldn’t that read “subreddit?” Reddit is the website, but the specific topics are categorized in subreddits. Maybe this was an editorial decision because subreddit might sound too jargony for non-Redditors. Or maybe I have a false understanding of Reddit taxonomy.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday. I hope that your team wins.

Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword, “Loss of Down” — Matt’s write-up

Something different from Evan this week, and no, it’s not a Something Different. Apologies in advance for however the eight-part midi suite displays in this post – I’m used to typing and not worrying about layout.

None of the puzzles this week come with down clues — the title “Loss of Down” is a football reference for today’s Super Bowl. We’re told up front that there are two metas: First, “something you can use to overcome the loss of Down,” and second, “a phrase that eight of the Down entries might say to eight of the Across entries.

Before the meta, the puzzles themselves weren’t much of a challenge. Some solvers like to challenge themselves by solving grids downs-only. I believe that downs as opposed to acrosses is to avoid theme material, which commonly runs across. If this is new for you, this is nice on-ramp. Theme material is light, and runs in both directions.

I pretty much solved beginning-to-end, and didn’t need to consider plausible downs to help with a tricky clue. Usually I find the tougher spots in a downs-only solve to be adjacent long entries, and that’s really not an issue in midis like we have here.

Two things jump out while solving: first, the grid designs are pretty unconventional, and second, each grid contains an intersecting pair of NFL team names. In the final puzzle, two clues point toward the meta answers:

13 [Sports org. whose members may run crossing patterns (which is how to find Meta Answer 1)] NFL
42 [Final tally of points in a game, represented by a pair of clue numbers in each grid (convert the higher number in each pair to a letter to find Meta Answer 2] SCORE

As the first meta hint points to “crossing patterns,” we can look to the squares at the intersection of team names in each grid. Together, they spell TEAMWORK, “something you can use to overcome the loss of Down.”

The second meta hint points us to a “pair of clue numbers,” namely, the clue numbers for each of the team names. Taking the higher (across) numbers from each pair, we have 15-11-25-15-21-23-9-14, which converted to letters, spells OK YOU WIN, a phrase that the eight Down-entry teams (with the lower clue numbers) might say to the the eight Across-entry teams. Thus the funky grids — Evan needed to not only spell a phrase from intersecting entries, but simultaneously slot a meta answer in squares with particular numbers.

Solving payoff aside, I’ll once again express admiration and gratitude for the ways that Evan mixes it up from week to week, whether it’s metas, suites, downs-only, Somethings Different, harder puzzles, easier puzzles, Captain Obvious, whatever else.

Have a good Sunday!

Zhouqin Burnikel and Tom Pepper’s Universal Sunday crossword, “Hues on First?”—Jim’s review

Fun title! Each theme answer is a familiar phrase whose first word is normally a color, however one letter of each color has been changed resulting in crossword wackiness. The newly-altered letters spell out COLOR CHANGE. A revealer of sorts is at 97d: RIPENS [Shifts hue, in a way … and what the set of circled letters does].

• 23a. [*Caption of actor Owen shooting craps?] CLIVE ROLLS. Olive.
• 25a. [*Crossword tournament champion?] SOLVER STAR. Silver.
• 37a. [*Big players in little bulbs?] LED GIANTS. Red.
• 46a. [*Quick trip for tavern supplies?] SALOON RUN. Salmon.
• 54a. [*Not print the truth?] WRITE LIES. White.
• 66a. [*Detective’s heavenly helper?] CLUE ANGEL. Blue.
• 80a. [*Guard shift in a cargo boat?] HOLD WATCH. Gold.
• 89a. [*Sheen from shiny fabric?] LAMÉ LIGHT. Lime.
• 96a. [*Stoic stoolies?] BLANK RATS. Black.
• 112a. [*Cash crop?] GROWN BREAD. Brown.
• 114a. [*Warning that the campfire hasn’t been fully extinguished?] EMBER ALERT. Amber.

This mostly works. I found it just a bit inconsistent where some of the original “color” words aren’t actually colors in their unchanged usage (salmon run, olive rolls) whereas others obviously are (red giant, blue angel). That may be a bit of a nit, but this bothered me more: Closing out the set with EMBER ALERT — an alteration of “Amber Alert” — is such a downer that I felt myself a little saddened.

Eleven theme answers plus a revealer is a lot of theme material, but I didn’t feel the fill suffered from those constraints. Highlights include: CRIME DRAMA, NAVY PILOT, ERADICATES, “HERE’S WHY…,” BOGEY-FREE (new-to-me, though), and “I’M SPENT.”

Didn’t know ARYNA Sabalenka, but that’s on me. She’s won two Australian Opens and is a former No. 1 tennis player.

Clues of note:

• 17d. [Cheese that’s made backward?]. EDAM. An oldie but a goodie. (EDAM is “made” backward.)
• 82d. [Cry’s partner]. HUE. Huh. It’s in the title of the puzzle, and the theme is all about colors, yet this is trying to sneak by to avoid being noticed.
• 86d. [French toast]. SALUT. Very nice clue. But I couldn’t remember if it was SALUT or “salud.” (It’s “salud” in Spanish-speaking countries.)

Good puzzle. 3.25 stars.