Sterling MacLean’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Signs”—Jim P’s evaluate

New byline alert! Pretty cool that it incorporates close to synonyms (sterling/clear). With that sort of a reputation, this higher be a brilliant easy grid (simply kidding).

Wall St Journal crossword answer · “Signs” · Sterling MacLean · Wed., 12.7.22

But it’s a good theme primarily based on CROP CIRCLES (43a, [Phenomenon represented four times in this puzzle]) with the (roughly) circular-shaped teams of circles spelling out numerous six-letter crops. These are COFFEE, ORANGE, COTTON, and POTATO.

Bothered by the truth that the CROP CIRCLES within the grid aren’t precise circles? Well, do not forget that precise CROP CIRCLES are available a wide range of shapes.

In addition to all that stuff, we have now ALIEN VISITS [What some think 43-Across are signs of]. Kind of a bizarre entry (I wished ALIEN VISITORS), however I’m not too bothered by it. I additionally picked up on the very fact the puzzle shares a title with M. Night Shyamalan’s 2002 movie which concerned—you guessed it—CROP CIRCLES. Fun theme which I loved sussing out.

Elsewhere, we’re handled to COCONUT OIL FAVORITE SON, OFF AND ON, and WIDESCREENS. I additionally appreciated sussing out INDISCRETE [Not divided into parts] which I incorrectly stuffed in as IN ONE PIECE to start with.

I don’t recall seeing EVS [Lightning and Bolt, for short] in a puzzle earlier than, and cruciverb.com reveals solely 4 earlier makes use of—the most recent from 2019. I count on we’ll be seeing it extra sooner or later. (FYI, the Ford Lightning is a pickup truck and the Chevy Bolt is subcompact.)

Clues of be aware:

• 4a. [Pebbles’s pop]. FRED. From The Flintstones, my younger ones.
• 39a. [Head turner, of a sort]. REIN. Nice clue.
• 13d. [Diminutive, for short]. SYNONYM. Very good clue. I want a majority of the crossings earlier than the penny dropped.
• 26d. [Hit from a spray hitter]. LINER. Baseball? Yup, baseball. A “spray hitter” is a batter who has the flexibility to hit the ball to any of the assorted fields.

Nice puzzle. 3.75 stars.

Karen Steinberg’s New York Times crossword–Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword answer, 12 7 22, no. 1207

What an attention-grabbing phrase theme–English phrases which have solely completely different meanings in different languages:

• 16a. [Vintage car, in German … or veteran,
  in English], OLDTIMER. This one bugs me as a result of they clearly borrowed the time period from English and gave it a barely completely different that means. Alt = previous, so Oldtimer should be a loanword.
• 25a. [High school, in Danish … or building
  for indoor sports, in English], GYMNASIUM. It’s additionally the German phrase for highschool.
• 35a. [Competition, in French … or agreement, in English], CONCURRENCE. Whoa.
• 47a. [Plywood, in Dutch … or theater with several screens, in English], MULTIPLEX. I ought to ask my Dutch-born uncle, who builds issues, to verify this.
• 58a. [Vacation, in Swedish … or half of an academic year, in English], SEMESTER. Cool.

Enjoyed the general vibe right here, with SWOOSH and SKOSH, a SAMOSA and GINGER cookies, CALLER ID. Timely, when running a blog right here in my JOURNAL after the Georgia Senate runoff was referred to as: [Was defeated by], LOST TO. Did not know the Vegas on line casino referred to as O’SHEAS (and I need that to have a possessive apostrophe too, although a two-apostrophe wouldn’t’ve seemed good).

Four stars from me.