Sunday, June 16, 2024 | (2024)

LATuntimed (Jack)

NYT9:32 (Kyle)

WaPo7:30 (Matthew)

Aidan Deshong’s Universal Sunday crossword, “Auto Biographies”—Jim’s review

Traveling this weekend without much time for blogging, so this will be brief.

Theme answers are makes and models of cars clued with familiar phrases of the form “___ car” and relating punnily to each model.

• 22a. [*Sports car?] VOLKSWAGEN GOLF. Solid.
• 31a. [*Estate car?] SUBARU LEGACY. Good one, though “estate car” is primarily a British term referring to what we call a station wagon.
• 50a. [*Town car?] HYUNDAI TUCSON. Good, though I think there are a lot of cars named after cities.
• 71a. [*Compact car?] HONDA ACCORD. Extra-good wordplay on this one.
• 90a. [*Sprint car?] CHEVROLET BOLT. Meh. I doubt anyone says anything other than “Chevy Bolt”.
• 105a. [*Scout car?] FORD EXPLORER. Had to look up “scout car” which had its origins in the military in the 1930s.
• 120a. [*Hot car?] PORSCHE CAYENNE. Muy caliente!

Good theme, executed well. Now I’m wishing there was a good match for the phrase “stock car”. If only there was a Toyota Heifer.

Plenty of good long fill to sink one’s teeth into: WINE GLASSES, NEAR AND DEAR, OVEREAGER, SWISS ALPS, PAKISTANI, ABHORRENT, SOLAR CELL, CALYPSO, BAY AREA, “I SURE AM!,” and CAME EASY. I’m on the fence with “‘SCUSE ME” but it wasn’t too difficult to plunk in with enough crossings. Needed to check and double-check AROACE [Like someone who experiences little attraction, for short], before I was satisfied it wasn’t erroneous, but I’m always happy to learn new stuff!

Good puzzle. 3.75 stars.

Chandi Deitmer and Wyna Liu’s New York Times crossword “Connections” – Kyle’s write-up

Thanks Chandi and Wyna for today’s puzzle. The theme has a familiar look to it:

• 22A [APP, CONVENIENCE, GENERAL, THRIFT?] STORE FRONTS
• 32A [HOLIDAY, MONSOON, TAX, TOURIST?] SEASON OPENERS
• 40A[A-, DREAM, SWAT, TAG?] TEAM LEADERS
• 61A [B-, DATE, LIFETIME, SILENT?] MOVIE PREMIERES
• 70A [BOOSTER, BOTTLE, HOUSTON, MODEL?] ROCKET LAUNCHES
• 85A [CERTIFIED, FUNKY, MINTY, POPPIN’?] FRESH STARTS
• 95A [BRAND, LIKE, NOTHING, WHAT’S?] NEW BEGINNINGS
• 109A [BRIDAL, COLD, GATORADE, METEOR?] SHOWER HEADS

For those not regularly playing New York Times Games, Connections is a game (incidentally, edited by Wyna Liu) where players must figure out the common link between sets of four words. Here, that link is that each of the four words can precede another word: eg app store, convenience store, general store, thrift store. Nice way to play on the many synonyms for beginning/front. The final theme entry, SHOWER HEADS, stands out from the rest because it repurposes the word head from its original connotation, which gave me a satisfying click at the end.

Lots of nice selections in the fill, with strong bonus entries like “SERVES ME RIGHT”, PANCAKE MAKEUP, “HARD PASS”, “I FIGURED”. Clues were overall fairly straightforward. I like the misdirection in the clue for POOL HALL: [Where you might say “That’s my cue!”]. The last letter I entered in the grid was the E at the crossing of EASE/DES–I had to think about how EASE worked as a [Word that sounds like its first and last letters]. I guess the hom*ophone here is E’s and not just E, given that the final E is silent.

Enjoy your Sunday!

LA Times crossword, “Get Cooking” by Katy Steinmetz & Rich Katz — Jack’s write-up

Theme: Common recipe instructions are reinterpreted for comedic effect.

• 22A. [Instruction for the host of a comedic takedown?] = ROAST UNTIL TENDER
• 37A. [Meditate ahead of a big tennis match?] = CHILL BEFORE SERVING
• 56A. [An icy winter?] = SEASON WITH SALT
• 65A. [Open a joint savings account?] = MIX THE DOUGH
• 77A. [Toss and turn all night?] = STIR FREQUENTLY
• 96A. [Defect to the prosecution midtrial?] = FLIP HALFWAY THROUGH
• 115A. [What the best mystery writers know how to do?] = FINISH WITH A TWIST

It’s a simple idea that works quite well. All of the themers are legitimate instructions you might see in a recipe. The re-imaginings change the meanings significantly and maintain an amusing tone throughout the puzzle. My favorite was probably 56A. [An icy winter?] = SEASON WITH SALT — that’s a tight pun!

The solve was smooth for me. Clean fill and enough colloquial flair to uncover (e.g. “NICE PUTT!” and “STOP THAT!“) 8-Down taught me something new: apparently chins are unique to humans. There’s always something to learn in a crossword.

Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword, “Rising Stars”—Matthew’s review

Thanks to Matt F for covering for me last week! Circles on a slant catch our eyes quickly in this week’s grid from Evan. It’s a bit of a Chutes and Ladders theme, with the circled strings extending across entries that don’t seem long enough for their clues, and themselves containing show biz names:

• 25a [Olive-based spread (“Cesar Chavez” actor Michael)] TA PENA DE
• 33a [Express gratitude (“Big” actor Tom) GIVE T HANKS
• 63a [Carts full of dirt, maybe (“Luther” actor Idris)] WHE ELBA RROW
• 65a [Bad place for an idiomatic bull (“Claws” actress Niecy)] CHI NASH OP
• 99a [Old fair game in which people collect starchy food items as quickly as possible (“Anywhere” singer Rita)] POTAT ORA CE
• 102a [Facial features with prominent bridges (“Save Me” singer Aimee)] RO MANN OSES
• 113a [Rising star, and what’s spelled out by the first letter of this puzzle’s rising stars] PHENOM

It’s a surprise when Evan doesn’t spell something with his themers, but I still appreciate it each time. This type of theme can take a while to break into, but the parenthetical secondary clues really made it clear that theme entries needed to somehow extend longer than their standard across entries allowed. It’s also nice that each of the too-short across entries are valid words in their own right.

I did find the grid pretty segmented and difficult to move through smoothly, but the theme was interesting enough that I feel it was worth it.

Notes:

• 34a [Pear-shaped fruit] FIG. I guess this is true. Can’t say I’ve ever thought about it before!
• 45a [Standardised test subject] MATHS. Sneaky – I missed the British spelling in the clue in my first pass through
• 79a [CCC divided by C] III. If we must have Roman numeral clues, I would like them to be more like this, thanks in advance. (You know who you are)
• 89d [YouTube CEO Mohan] NEAL. On one hand, this is a deep cut for me – I don’t pay attention to CEOs, and I probably won’t start even if it costs me solving time – and on the other, I never saw this clue, filling it entirely off the crossings.