Alex Bajcx’s Fireball Crossword, “It’s All Greek To Me” – Jenni’s write-up

The title tells us that the Greek alphabet will determine within the theme clues and certainly it does in a method I don’t bear in mind seeing earlier than. I like this theme lots; it consists of one additional twist that provides to the enjoyable. And the puzzle is mostly good and crunchy.

Each theme reply insert a Greek letter right into a phrase. Wackiness outcomes.

Fireball, October 26, 2022, Alex Bajcz, “It’s All Greek to Me,” answer grid

• 17a [Secret orchard pest?] is a CLASSIFIED APHID. Classified advert.
• 23a [Vacation retreat where a lot gets left unsaid?] is an ELLIPSIS ISLAND. Ellis Island. Can’t you simply see the dysfunctional household group ignoring one another? Or is that simply my household?
• 41a [Certain terrier during a scorcher?] is a BAKING TIBETAN. Baking tin.
• 61a [Confederation of Labyrinth dwellers?] is the MINOTAUR LEAGUE. Minor league.
• 66a [Trump daughter with Crunchtadas?] is TIFFANY & DEL TACO. This is sheer brilliance. The surprising rebus crossing UP & UP. The picture of Tiffany Trump at Del Taco. I’m in awe.

Some puzzles are feats of development and never very a lot enjoyable to resolve. This one is a feat of development that was an excessive amount of enjoyable to resolve. Thanks to Peter and Alex for livening up my afternoon.

A number of different issues:

• The central northern part was the final to fall for me. I attempted CHAFING for 6d [Rubbing the wrong way] and couldn’t see MIFFING for the longest time.
• 10d [Manchester-by-the-Sea locale] is CAPE ANN. Massachusetts, not the UK. I’m certain I’ve talked about that geography will not be my smartest thing.
• I’m certain I’m not the one one who crammed in IRA_I for 25d [Olympic wrestler Hassan Yazdani, for one] and ready for the crossing to inform me which nation I used to be on the lookout for. The Middle East model of Mauna __a.
• Foxes! REYNARD and the ARCTIC FOX, hunter of lemmings.
• I preferred the puzzle a lot that even the Roman numeral math at 63a didn’t hassle me. Much.

What I didn’t know earlier than I did this puzzle: that RILKE was as soon as Rodin’s secretary. This is the type of trivia I reside for.

Alan Arbesfeld’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Outnumbered”—Jim P’s evaluate

Let’s have a look at our theme entries earlier than we kind it out, lets?

Wall St Journal crossword answer · “Outnumbered” · Alan Arbesfeld · Thu., 10.27.22

• 17a. [Act 1] MISBEHAVE.
• 25a. [Take 5] ELIMINATE.
• 36a. [Pick 6] RECOGNIZE.
• 49a. [Figure 8] DETERMINE.
• 59a. [Hang 10] SOCIALIZE.

I completed the puzzle not totally understanding the theme. You can see every theme reply is said to the phrase within the clue, however it’s not fairly on course. Let’s have a look at the primary one. “Act” doesn’t fairly imply MISBEHAVE. “Act up” does, nevertheless. “Take out” might imply ELIMINATE. “Pick up on” appears to go together with RECOGNIZE, “Figure out” for DETERMINE, and “Hang with” for SOCIALIZE. Those have been my first takes.

But there’s no consistency there, and it nonetheless appears off.

Somewhere alongside the way in which, I had my aha second. “Out” is the key phrase (as famous within the title). Yes “act up” can imply MISBEHAVE, however so can “act out.” Similarly, we get “take out,” “pick out,” “figure out,” and “hang out.” So there’s your theme. Remove the quantity and exchange it with “out.”

Pretty nifty in the long run. I needed the numbers to imply one thing (I stored trying to these numbered squares within the grid for assist, to no avail), however it’s ample that they be a part of with the phrases to kind phrases and that they are often changed by “out” to kind completely different phrases. And it’s mildly superb that the numbers are in numerical order. It helps that each one the theme entries are the identical variety of letters (9), however they didn’t essentially need to be. I suppose theme entries have been particularly chosen to permit the numerical development. That’s a sublime element that I respect regardless that the entries themselves fall on the ho-hum facet.

The fill feels fairly dense although there are not any entries longer than seven letters. I like HOMAGES, “SO SORRY,” MASCARA, ICE MELT, EARLOBE, RIDES UP, MUTANT, DID TIME, and DENIZEN. I’d by no means heard of TILSIT cheese earlier than, however don’t thoughts studying about it. It got here initially from East Prussia, and this web site says it’s much like Havarti however with a “more intense flavor.”

Clues of be aware:

• 26d. [Troopers on highways, e.g.]. ISUZUS. Got me considering of “staties” for a very long time.
• 57d. [401(k) cousin]. IRA. Note that contribution limits to retirement accounts are going up for subsequent 12 months.

I needed to suss out this theme, however I preferred it in the long run. 3.75 stars.