Joe Deeney’s New York Times crossword, “Fan Clubs” —Sophia’s write-up

Hi all! Sophia right here filling in for Nate this Sunday.

Theme: “Fan Clubs” – widespread phrases are reparsed such that they sound like descriptions of people that actually like sure issues.

New York Times, 11 20 2022, “Fan Clubs” By Joe Deeney

• 21a [Geometrophiles …] LOVE TRIANGLES
• 31a [Imagophiles …] PRIZE DRAWINGS
• 46a [Gastrophiles …] FANCY RESTAURANTS
• 63a [Dextropodophiles …] GET OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT
• 79a [Autotumulophiles …] DIG THEIR OWN GRAVE
• 94a [Aurophiles …] GO FOR THE GOLD
• 109a [Chronomechanophiles …] LIKE CLOCKWORK

This is Sunday wackiness at its best, and I’m right here for it. I discovered the theme early on after LOVE TRIANGLES, however I nonetheless appreciated discovering every of the brand new theme solutions alongside the best way and seeing simply how loopy the re-parsing may get. I’m shocked (however not in a foul approach!) that the NYT is prepared to make use of this that means of GET OFF in a puzzle, however it made me smile essentially the most, despite the fact that I realllly needed the phrase to be “get off on the wrong foot” and was sure I had an error.

I’ll have an interest to see how this performs issue sensible for folk, since I feel it would rely closely on one’s means to grasp the theme clues themselves. I don’t know sufficient Greek/Latin roots to know simply how nicely the “fan” translations are performed, however once I knew one in all them it made the reply fairly straightforward to get. On the opposite hand, if I didn’t know one, I used to be just about at the hours of darkness till the bottom phrase confirmed itself (DIG THEIR OWN GRAVE is one of the best instance of this; I nonetheless solely perceive the “auto” half). Despite that, the puzzle felt straightforward to me, I spent my final two minutes error searching.

Sunday puzzles can really feel like a slog if the one thrilling factor about them is the theme, so listed below are another random issues that I appreciated/thought of!

• Fill highlights: STINK EYES, WANNA BES, ITALIAN HERO. I feel the quantity of theme materials within the puzzle made it tougher to have standout fill; I want there was extra of it. We do, nonetheless get to see the total size variations of oft-used-crosswordese all stars TSE TSE FLIES and JAI ALAI.
• Great clues: 79d [Announcement of a split decision?] for DEAR JOHN, 23a [A little off?] for ON SALE.
• Things that I knew instantly that different individuals might need bother with: 35d [Seasons of Love” musical] for RENT, 90d [2005 Scott Westerfeld sci-fi novel with the sequel “Pretties”] for UGLIES
• Things I didn’t know that different individuals would possibly do higher with: 115a [Actress Kaitlin of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”] for OLSON, 62 [Fall behind the pack] for STRAGGLE – I used to be sure it was “struggle”, easy methods to spell SLEAZY (it’s not with two Es 🙁 )
• Cross that I discover considerably unforgivable with the clues given: SNOOTS/COO with 116a [Schnozzes] and 110d [Co.’s second-in-command, usually] – This may so simply be “snouts/cou” in the event you’re like me and aren’t instantly pondering of Chief Operations Officer. Just clue them as snooty individuals and/or the dove sound, it’s way more truthful.

Sound off together with your ideas within the feedback! Happy Thanksgiving week to these within the US!