Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Day After Day” – Erin’s write-up

Jonesin’ answer 10/25/22

Hello everybody! Hope you’re all doing nicely. The fall season consists of holidays from a variety of religions and cultures. Matt’s grid this week isn’t any totally different, because it consists of pairs of various days, each vacation and in any other case.

• 17a. [Rise in the ranks of prizefighters?] BOXING ASCENSION, a mix of Boxing Day (celebrated December 26 in Great Britain and elsewhere) and Ascension Day (the fortieth day after Easter as celebrated by Christians).
• 34a. [What to say to get a Missouri city’s attention?] HEY INDEPENDENCE, combining heyday (which isn’t a vacation however continues to be a constructive time in somebody’s life), and Independence Day, celebrated in lots of international locations on totally different days.
• 41a. [“Ill swap your Disneyland for Tuscany,” e.g.?] VACATION TRADING, a mixture of trip day, which sounds good proper now, and buying and selling day, or the time a inventory market is open in a 24 hour interval.
• 62a. [Magazine for the worldly woodchuck?] MODERN GROUNDHOG, together with modern-day, or now, and Groundhog Day, celebrated February 2nd within the United States and Canada.

Other issues:

• Love how 9a. [Fish sauce taste] UMAMI sits atop 16a. [Nissin noodle] RAMEN.
• Enjoyed the timeliness of 19a. [Truss’s lasted 45 days] STINT.
• There’s a medical tie-in to 66a. [Bug that releases poisonous droplets] OIL BEETLE. They are additionally referred to as blister beetles as a result of they secrete cantharidin, which is toxic if eaten and causes blistering if it is available in contact with the pores and skin. Dermatologists really use cantharidin, or “beetle juice,” to deal with the bumps brought on by a standard viral pores and skin an infection, molluscum contagiosum.

Thanks for studying. Until subsequent week!

Azriel Wasser’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Stairing Contest”—Jim P’s assessment

Today we have now a debut puzzle all about…stairs. Each theme reply is a well-recognized phrase that includes a phrase that may even have one thing to do with stairs.

Wall St Journal crossword answer · “Stairing Contest” · Azriel Wasser · Tue., 10.25.22

• 16a. [Celebrations on the stairs?] LANDING PARTIES. An odd place for a celebration, however conceivable.
• 28a. [Spill on the stairs?] TREAD WATER. Safety is paramount. Better clear that up, pronto.
• 33a. [Stairs for a tot?] BABY STEPS. This, too, is an accident ready to occur.
• 43a. [Stair that comes sooner than expected?] EARLY RISER. Hmm. Not a variety of floor sense on this. However, in case your stairs are uneven, like those I put in happening the hill behind our home, you may encounter the following step ahead of anticipated.
• 54a. [Stairs in a dream house?] FLIGHTS OF FANCY. Best entry of the lot. I googled “fancy stairs” and located this web site with some wonderful (and a few terrible) concepts. I just like the Star Wars crawl stairs.

Not unhealthy. I by no means thought-about that anybody would make a theme about stairs, but it surely works. There are even some stairway-looking black squares within the grid, in order that’s a pleasant visible bonus.

Interesting configuration with the 14-letter entries within the third and thirteenth rows inflicting the units of blocks within the NE and SW corners. But it does permit for some separation between theme solutions thereby decreasing the constraints on the fill, most of which was fairly good. Highlights embrace TREE POSE, BUG SPRAY, RED-EYED, ORVILLE, IRAQ WAR, and PIER ONE.

Clues of be aware:

• 15a. [“Cherchez la ___”]. FEMME. Didn’t know this French phrase. Wikipedia says it “literally means ‘look for the woman’. It is a cliche in detective fiction, used to suggest that a mystery can be resolved by identifying a femme fatale or female love interest.”
• 32a. [Dedicatee of a Beethoven bagatelle]. ELISE. I do know that “bagatelle” means a lightweight piece of music, however don’t maintain it in opposition to me if the phrase makes me hungry.
• 6d. [Off brand product?]. BUG SPRAY (which could make BUGS PRAY, in the event you like). Nice clue.

A tremendous debut. Congrats! 3.5 stars.