Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Lettuce Wraps” – Erin’s write-up

Jonesin’ answer 9/6/22

Hello lovelies! This week’s theme is…varieties of lettuce flanking the longer entries? Hmm. Lettuce see what’s occurring on this grid.

• 17a. [Stewed meat dish with a French name] FRICASÉE. The circled letters spell FRISÉE, which is in any other case often known as curly endive, and is a part of the chicory household, which belongs to the identical taxonomic subfamily as lettuce.
• 20a. [Handheld flame starter] BUTANE LIGHTER, which hides BUTTER lettuce.
• 35a. [“Stayin’ Alive” singer] BARRY GIBB of the Bee Gees, whose title incorporates BIBB.
• 54a. [Northeastern U.S. locale known as an art colony] ROCKPORT MAINE, containing ROMAINE lettuce.
• 59a. [Typical offerings from compilation channels like “Aww Animals” and “Pets Awesome”] CAT VIDEOS. The circled letters spell COS, which is…a British time period for Romaine lettuce. It is alleged to come back from the Greek island Kos.

Is all of it proper to incorporate two names for a similar factor in a theme? FRISÉE could be very intently associated to lettuce so I believe that’s acceptable for a theme, however ROMAINE and COS are the identical sort of lettuce.

Other issues:

• 16a. [“Pass Out” rapper ___ Tempah] TINIE.  The British rapper’s start title is Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu, and “Pass Out” was his debut single in 2009.
• 38a. [Antidote source] SERUM. Some antidotes are made by injecting venom or one other toxin into an animal and extracting the antibodies made out of the animal’s blood. After the blood cells and clotting elements are faraway from complete blood, serum is what stays.
• 41a. [Alkaloid in tomatoes] NICOTINE. TIL that different vegetation than tobacco comprise nicotine. Tomatoes comprise about 7.1 micrograms of nicotine per gram, whereas tobacco in a cigarette has about 10-15 milligrams per gram, which is over 1,000 instances better.
• 60d. [“And I ___” (Jasmine Masters meme)] OOP. The meme went viral in 2019 however is from a 2015 video. I gained’t publish the video right here as a result of I really feel sympathy pains once I watch it, however it’s simple to seek out.

Until subsequent week!

Seth Geltman & Jeff Chen’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Could Go Either Way”—Jim P’s overview

We have two revealers at present bookending the 4 fundamental theme entries in the course of the grid. Each of these 4 entries is a well-known phrase that STARTS WELL [What each of 22-, 27-, 37- and 46-Across does] however ENDS POORLY [What each of 22-, 27-, 37- and 46-Across does].

Wall St Journal crossword answer · “Could Go Either Way” · Seth Geltman & Jeff Chen · Tue., 9.6.22

• 22a. [Heist that leaves no clues behind] PERFECT CRIME.
• 27a. [It may be of considerable interest] OUTSTANDING DEBT.
• 37a. [Decade following Black Tuesday] GREAT DEPRESSION.
• 46a. [Highly inappropriate appropriation] GRAND LARCENY.

Nifty theme! I used to be stunned to come back throughout a revealer so early within the remedy however then realized it was solely telling half the story. I appeared ahead to uncovering every theme entry to see what was subsequent. And I amused myself by saying every first phrase excitedly then every second phrase dejectedly. Try it it, it’s enjoyable!

Really impressed that our constructors managed to suit that a lot theme materials (together with two grid-spanners) in a single grid, and all within the Across course. Good grief!

The lengthy fill isn’t particularly sparkly—one wouldn’t anticipate it to be with that a lot theme materials. But it will get the job performed. HOT SEAT is actually good, as is RAMROD, and the film OH GOD!, which I discovered was directed by Carl Reiner. I keep in mind seeing that within the theater with my household when it got here out again in 1977 and loved the chemistry between John Denver and George Burns. Oh and hey, crossword staple Teri Garr was in that, too, enjoying the long-suffering spouse (much like her different 1977 function in Close Encounters of the Third Kind).

Anyhoo, again to the grid. I really feel I have to level out A COG for example of an unsavory partial, however it’s shortly gotten previous and the remainder of the fill is okay. Again, with a whole lot of theme materials, there’s sure to be some compromises.

Clue of word: 59d. [Milk type]. OAT. Speaking of OAT milk, it does very properly when evaluating the environmental affect of the productions of assorted varieties of milk. You can learn extra about it right here.

Good puzzle. Four stars.