Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “You Down With That?” – Erin’s write-up
Jonesin’ answer 12/13/22
Hello lovelies! We’re bringing it again to the Nineteen Nineties, with Matt inserting the 31-year-old (!) Naughty By Nature hit “O.P.P” throughout some two-word theme entries:
- 17a. [Poster phrase discouraging theft of intellectual property] STOP PIRACY
- 35a. [Most important items] TOP PRIORTIES
- 42a. [Easy-to-understand self-help genre] POP PSYCHOLOGY
- 62a. [Markable spots on the map showing where to land on the island, in Fortnite] DROP POINTS
Time to maneuver away from different individuals’s…property, and speak about another issues within the grid:
- 18d. [“When ___, the world gets better, and the world is better, but then it’s not, and I need to do it again” (2009 Isla Fisher movie line)] I SHOP. From Confessions of a Shopaholic.
- 38a. [Twinkie filling] CREME. This received me pondering whether or not filling in a Twinkie (or an Oreo, for that matter), could be known as “creme” if there isn’t a dairy concerned. According to Merriam-Webster, CREME could be outlined as “cream or a preparation made with or resembling cream used in cooking.” I assume it resembles cream sufficient.
- 30d. [Guru Nanak’s followers] SIKHS. Guru Nanak based Sikhism throughout his lifetime within the 1400s-1500s. He is named the primary of the ten Sihk gurus.
That’s all till subsequent week!
Regis Cleary’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Home Improvement”—Jim P’s evaluation
Theme: MOVIN’ ON UP (66a, [“The Jeffersons” theme song, exemplified by this puzzle’s improvements]). The different theme solutions are acquainted phrases whose final phrases can be dwellings. As the solver proceeds down the grid, there’s a marked enchancment in dwelling sort.
Wall St Journal crossword answer · “Home Improvement” · Regis Cleary · Tue., 12.13.22
- 17a. [Couple’s crib?] LOVE SHACK.
- 24a. [First-class home?] AIRPLANE CABIN.
- 40a. [Journalist’s pad?] THE FOURTH ESTATE.
- 52a. [House of cards?] CAESAR’S PALACE.
My first thought on hitting the revealer was that I anticipated every theme reply to have a self-contained enchancment, i.e. some apparent change to the unique phrase. But that’s clearly not the case because the phrases are well-known in-the-language phrases. It took an additional beat to appreciate that the abodes had been enhancing as we go down the grid. It’s an unlucky actuality of fixing a grid that the solver normally progresses downward, which on this case implies that the nicest house is on the backside, antithetical to the MOVIN’ ON UP premise. But it’s not exhausting to take that further psychological step to place issues proper.
The different factor is that I used to be a bit of confused on the cluing. The first and third clues seem to be issues that might really work. A pair (sans children presumably) would possibly name their dwelling a LOVE SHACK. A journalist would possibly name their dwelling THE FOURTH ESTATE. But I can’t actually make sense of the opposite two in the identical means.
HAVE A BEER (don’t thoughts if I do) and EASTERNER are our lengthy choices at present. Not unhealthy contemplating they every cross three theme solutions. I like seeing it in a grid, however it all the time saddens me that Europeans, who write their dates day-first, can by no means expertise the enjoyment of PI DAY.
The remainder of the grid is stable although I might do with out seeing SSRS [Lith. and Latv., once] ever once more.
Of course, we will’t get out of right here with out that Jeffersonian earworm, can we? Please, get pleasure from.
Oh, this can be a debut, so congrats to our latest constructor! 3.5 stars on this one.
Tiffany Chong’s Universal Crossword – “Break a Leg!” – Matt F’s write up
Universal Solution 12.13.2022, “Break a Leg!” by Tiffany Chong
Theme: As the title says, this grid is actually breaking a leg throughout black squares. Ouch! Here are the “broken” theme pairs:
- 17A [Vanish Gradually] + 19A [Alpaca relative] = DISSI(PATE/LLA)MA
- 28A [Largest French Polynesian island] + 32A [Every 26 weeks] = TAHI(TI/BIA)NNUAL
- 44A [Fantasy’s opposite] + 46A [Group of crows] = REALLI(FE/MUR)DER
- 56A [Broken heart remedy, briefly?] + 59A [Former spelling of Mongolia’s capital] = DE(FIB/ULA)NBATOR
First, it appears this can be a world debut for Tiffany (if our tags are any indicator), so congratulations on that! I actually like that every theme pair fills a full row, and the set is symmetrical (effectively, the circles aren’t, however that’s fantastic). Those two constraints in all probability made this one a bit tough for Tiffany to tug collectively. This leads into what I don’t actually like, which is using the anglicized (it’s a bit of deceptive for the clue to say “former”) spelling for the capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar. To be honest, we’re arrange for this from the bounce with the choice spelling of Macao at 1A. And, despite the fact that everyone knows a gaggle of crows is known as a homicide, it’s a type of phrases that stands out in a grid for the mistaken causes irrespective of the way you clue it.
The fill will get the job accomplished and stays clear for essentially the most half. Some solvers actually despise textspeak like CYA, and hanging prepositions like RULE ON and HINT AT; however, fortunately for me, I’m not terribly snobby about this stuff. The math nerd in me loved ALGEBRA and EUCLID, and I additionally favored DAY USE and AUDIBLE.
In the clues: I hadn’t actually considered PBJ as a [Vegan sandwich, for short], so I loved that angle. [Balancing act?] was a enjoyable clue for AUDIT. Including a real-life pun at 38A [“The bicycle collapsed because it was two-tired” and others] was a pleasant contact. Initially I had considered IST for [Extreme suffix], as a result of, you understand, extremist, however the clue is absolutely hinting on the superlative type of an adjective (i.e. bravest). Very sneaky nod to the theme at 3D clued as [Broken leg covering] for CAST.
All in all, I loved uncovering one damaged bone after the opposite as I cracked my means by way of this puzzle. And congrats once more to Tiffany on the debut!
See you subsequent week!
