Robert Logan’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s write-up
Instead of a themeless, we get a form of doubly-themed stunt puzzle. In addition to the “Yes!”/”Yes”/”All proper”/”Maybe” sequence within the 9s and 10s (YOU BETCHA! – YES, INDEEDY – OKEY-DOKEY – HARD TO TELL) the complete grid is thematic:
- 64a. [A 50/50 chance … or a description of the lengths of this puzzle’s Across and Down answers, respectively], EVEN ODDS. The Acrosses are all 4, 6, 8, or 10 letters lengthy, and the Downs are 3, 5, 7, or 9. I don’t suppose I’d have picked up on that with out the revealer.
It’s an interesting-looking grid with numerous stream between sections, and usually clean fill all through. BESOT, OCTAD, and EEO are kinda blah, and there’s a “YES, YOU” that dupes each YOU BETCHA and YES INDEEDY. But I do just like the 4 longest solutions in addition to ALPHA DOG, OVER-PLAN, BOOGIE board, SCHMALTZ, TRAVOLTA, and SHELTIE.
Four extra issues:
- 9a. [Aidy of “Saturday Night Live”], BRYANT. Make that previously. She completed her SNL run in May, together with Pete Davidson (*eyeroll*) and the nice Kate McKinnon. Will undoubtedly miss Aidy and Kate’s work on SNL.
- 23a. [Retirement spots], DENS. Is that as in “we’ll retire to the den after dinner” or what? Feels bizarre to me.
- 10d. [Joey who doesn’t wear pants], ROO. As within the younger kangaroo within the Winnie the Pooh universe, and never Joey Tribbiani. (I Googled it. I believe his pants factor was needing to vary into maternity pants to accommodate a Thanksgiving feast.)
- 26d. [Free movie starring yourself?], DREAM. This morning I dreamed I used to be kicked out of an artwork class as a result of I used to be sporting a masks, received a journey house in a truck that one way or the other was being pushed by my cousin (she isn’t a truck fan), and attended a marriage reception on the house of somebody I comply with on Twitter. This film is horrible!
Four stars from me.