Steve Faiella’s Wall Road Journal crossword, “Rooster Little”—Jim P’s assessment
I gave an audible chuckle after I received to the second theme reply and the penny sky dropped. I’m glad there was no extra revealer past the title.
Wall St Journal crossword resolution · “Rooster Little” · Steve Faiella · Wed., 8.3.22
- 3d. [Windows to the heavens] SKYLIGHTS.
- 14d. [Speculative stock buys, e.g.] RISKY MOVES.
- 6d. [Father of Padmé Amidala’s twins] ANAKIN SKYWALKER.
- 27d. [“If it’s not too personal…”] “MAY I ASK YOU…”
- 35d. [Acted like a catnip-sated calico] GOT FRISKY.
It’s not an ideal theme set; “sky” is used with its unique that means in SKYLIGHTS and arguably in SKYWALKER and never within the others. And “MAY I ASK YOU” strikes me as an ungainly phrase for a puzzle. However the humorous aha second outshone any negatives within the theme, and I used to be nonetheless received over by the top.
Elsewhere, highlights embrace MACRAME and AMAZON clued with respect to Surprise Girl, not the net behemoth. There appeared to be a excessive variety of correct names within the grid, which could show troublesome for some solvers.
Clues of observe:
- 40a. [Follower of “This isn’t a hand, it’s a foot!”]. I FOLD. Is that this quote from someplace particular? I’m not discovering any sources on-line.
- 47a. [Mil. high fliers]. USAF. Did anybody else learn the clue as “mile-high fliers,” as within the mile-high membership? No? Simply me, then?
- 46d. [It often leads to an early touchdown]. RED-EYE. I used to be considering “tailwind” so at the least I used to be heading in the right direction.
An pleasing theme. 3.75 stars.
Daniel Bodily’s New York Instances crossword—Amy’s write-up
NY Instances crossword resolution, 8 3 22, no. 0803
I exploit Crossword Scraper to generate a .puz file of the NYT, and that turned out to be an unsatisfying possibility for this puzzle. There didn’t appear to be an accepted resolution! The answer within the Net model of the puzzle fills a specific sq. with the phrase SHADE, however the theme clue says to “fill in” the proper circle, to not SHADE it. A tad dissatisfying as an endgame. Curious to know if the Net/app variations offer you any trace that the phrase SHADE is what’s anticipated. Right here’s the theme:
- 16a. [With 30- and 49-Across, test question to be answered by filling in the correct circle], IN A SCRABBLE GAME, / WHAT TILE IS WORTH / TWO POINTS?
The circled letters within the backside row are A, B, C, (D), and E, with the A B C E working with the Downs and 40d’s clue in search of a singular PASTEL, so you need to fill in that circle together with your pencil … although standardized take a look at papers don’t usually put the multiple-choice letter contained in the bubble you fill in, so the idea right here feels a bit off. At any fee, A and E are price 1 level every, C and B are 3 apiece, and solely D is 2 factors amongst these 5 letters.
The general vibe felt a bit crosswordese-ish, with ADZ, ONT, RITARD., EPODE and -ODIC, together with the awkward I SAY NO.
Fave fill: ZEBRA FISH, A CAPPELLA.
Three extra issues:
- 30d. [Rushing sound], WOOSH. Merriam-Webster tags this as a variant of whoosh, which is the spelling I’m accustomed to.
- 18d. [Trudeau’s party: Abbr.], LIB. Quick for Liberal. Anybody else attempt abbreviating Labor as LAB, assigning Canada a political celebration it doesn’t appear to have at present?
- 29d. [Genetic variant], STRAIN. I wished one thing like ALLELE or MUTANT right here, however actually viruses have variant STRAINs. Rattling that SARS-COV-2 and all its STRAINs!
3.5 stars from me.
