Paul Steinberg & Karen Steinberg’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Continuing Education”—Jim P’s overview

Theme: ADVANCED DEGREES (36a, [Post-college goals, e.g., or a hint to what the starred answers are progressively “awarded”]), particularly Masters of Arts levels—or MAs—are “awarded” to acquainted phrases and phrases, turning them into one thing else. Further, these “degrees” are added in such a means in order that they appear to “advance” throughout the grid as in the course of the clear up.

Wall St Journal crossword resolution · “Continuing Education” · Paul Steinberg & Karen Steinberg · Thu., 9.29.22

• 17a. [*More legible, say] MANEATER. Neater.
• 27a. [*Spiral seashells] COMANCHES. Conches.
• 44a. [*Attorney general Garland] MERRIMACK. Merrick.
• 60a. [*Sans-serif font used in Absolut, Best Buy and Supreme logos] FUTURAMA. Futura.

My first intuition was that 1a SEX was concerned within the theme due to its placement and since it may possibly precede the phrase “education” discovered within the title. But that rapidly fell by the wayside after I noticed the asterisked clues.

My second intuition, after hitting the revealer, was that we’d see an development from Bachelor’s levels to Master’s to Doctorates, however that concept was dashed as effectively after unveiling the second theme reply.

The VW EUROVAN. Sounds quite a bit cooler than it appears to be like.

Finally, I noticed what “Advanced” was referring to, and I used to be considerably mollified. I nonetheless needed extra than simply MAs for some motive, however the theme works effectively for what it’s, and the alternatives of theme solutions are actually fairly good, particularly the MERRICK/MERRIMACK discover. All in all, a tidy execution.

Top fill consists of “WE’RE HERE,” EUROVAN, CRESCENT, PATINA, PROCTOR, and “MISS ME?” adopted by a sarcastic “I’M SURE.” Nice job throughout.

Clues of notice:

• 16a. [Interstate speed limit in Montana]. EIGHTY. Prior to 1999, the state-wide pace restrict was no matter was “reasonable and prudent.”
• 43a. [Area behind the stumps, in cricket]. END. No matter what number of instances my previous British neighbour tried to clarify cricket to me, it by no means caught. Maybe if I paid nearer consideration I may’ve gotten this reply appropriate without having crossings.
• 65a. [Vulcan, e.g.]. PLANET. There is not any IRL Vulcan although it was as soon as theorized to exist between Mercury and the Sun. Einstein’s idea of relativity proved that oddities in Mercury’s orbit weren’t brought on by one other planet however by the Sun itself. Per Wikipedia, “Today, the International Astronomical Union has reserved the name ‘Vulcan’ for the hypothetical planet, even though it has been ruled out, and also for the Vulcanoids, a hypothetical population of asteroids that may exist inside the orbit of the planet Mercury.”
• 3d. [Warrior killed fighting a samurai army]. XENA. Wow, spoilers. Though I suppose if I haven’t watched the present within the 20 years because it left the airwaves, I’m most likely by no means going to look at it.

Nice puzzle. Four stars.

Frnk Lng’s Frbll Crsswrd, “Vwllss Crsswrd” – Jnns wrt-p

No, I’m not going to do the entire overview with out vowels. I give it some thought each time. Maybe sometime.

I by no means know fairly what to say about these. I take pleasure in them! It’s a enjoyable problem. I like the best way my mind type of shifts gears partway by means of and I can begin coming into solutions within the grid similar to regular. I just like the odd mixtures of letters and the best way lengthy phrases get a lot shorter than I anticipate. I like working backwards after I’ve crammed in one thing by crossings and I’ve to determine what the phrase is from the consonant sample. They’re not everybody’s cp f t, f crs.

Peter gave us three variations: no assist, with multiword tags, and with enumerations. I did the “no help” model due to course I did. A couple of issues I appreciated:

Fireball Crossword, September 28, 2022, Frank Longo, Vowelless Crossword/Vwlss Crsswrd

• 1a [Date in 2013 when Twitter announced Twttr, a consonant-only service, because “we believe that by eliminating vowels, we’ll encourage a more efficient and ‘dense’ form of communication”]. It’s a Peter Gordon Trademark Very Long Clue and the reply is PRLFRST (April first), which made me snicker.
• TMZ representing ITEMIZE as an alternative of the gossip channel.
• Timely entry and Scrabble-licious QNLZBTH, clued as [Great-grandmother of Princess Charlotte].
• [Real deal] exhibiting up twice. Answers: GNNRTCL and BRGN for GENUINE ARTICLE and BARGAIN, respectively.
• GLTT (glatt) kosher. I appreciated it; I think non-Jews and actually secular Jews didn’t.

Things I remained puzzled about after fixing:

• second [Opposition to the flow of alternating current in a circuit]. The appropriate reply within the grid is RCTNC. I used to be fairly certain it resulted in ANCE and equally certain it wasn’t RESISTANCE. My physical-scientist partner is a geologist who stated, and I quote, “A/C current is not my thing.” Google rescued me. It’s REACTANCE.
• I’m nonetheless undecided about MTPS for [Pork-filled pastries] and it’s not Google-able since I don’t know the beginning letter and there are many pork-filled pastries. Hlp.
• 44a [“Forget about it!”] is NSP. Google was no hope. As I began to kind this, I noticed it’s NO SOAP.

What I didn’t know earlier than I did this puzzle: see above re: REACTANCE. I additionally didn’t know that the redroot, cascara and jujube vegetation are a part of the BUCKTHORN household. To be sincere, I didn’t know there was a jujube plant. I solely know the candies.