Thursday, June 6, 2024 | (2024)

BEQtk (Darby)

LAT4:29 (Gareth)

NYT9:37 (ZDL)

WSJ6:51 (Jim)

Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Lost Opportunities”—Jim’s review

Theme answers feature the letters OUT, but those letters should be ignored in the crossing Down answers to make sense of those clues. However, those Down entries (with those letters included) still make valid—though unclued—crossword words.

• 17a. [Disrespect, in a way] MOUTH OFF TO crossing ALOE, FAUN, TITTLES.
• 21a. [Neither here nor there?] ENROUTE crossing CORONER, LIEU, ALIT. Nice clue.
• 39a. [Salad bar offering] SPROUTS crossing DENOTED, SUIT, TREADING.
• 54a. [Salad bar offering] CROUTON crossing OLEO, POPULAR, START.
• Revealer: 62a. [Losing an opportunity, and an explanation for 15 of the Down answers] MISSING OUT crossing MOAT, AUNT, STAY.

This was fun. I stumbled around in the NW at first but had my aha moment with the second answer. After that, things progressed swimmingly, and for another week, my Thursday solve time was quicker than my Wednesday time. But even knowing the gimmick, it was still satisfying to come across entries like POPULAR/POPLAR and CORONER/CORNER.

Lots of theme material in both directions leaves little room for long fill, but SHORES UP and LASAGNA stand out. Nothing too clunky except maybe AES crossing ERN.

Clues of note:

• 46a. [Trade magazines?]. RELOAD. I’m certainly not big into gun culture, but that’s a good clue.
• 50a. [Like a new parent]. PROUD. Based off the D, I went with TIRED.

Good puzzle. 4.25 stars.

Peter Gordon’s Fireball Crossword, “Take My Advice” – Jenni’s write-up

Since I’m still a little jet-lagged and had an odd day at work today I really appreciated this puzzle. It’s funny and clever and not particularly difficult. It felt like a cold drink after a hot afternoon.

On the face of it, the theme answers make no sense – that’s how I knew they were theme answers.

• 11d [Beat up a blockhead?] isMAUL CHUMP.
• 17a [Allure of a popcorn topping?] isBUTTER PULL.
• 27a [Simple shelter where fruit drinks are stored?] isPUNCH HUT.
• 24d [Groaners such as “For their midday meal, the honeymooners ordered ‘Lettuce alone, no dressing’ ” isLUNCH PUNS.
• 38a [Shoot Ziggy’s dog?] isGUN FUZZ.

The revealer explains all. 62a [Introductory words of advice…and a phonetic hint to this puzzle’s theme] isIF I WERE YOU. Sub I for U in the theme answers and you getMAIL CHIMP,BITTER PILL,PINCH HIT,LINCHPINS, andGIN FIZZ. All solid base phrases and funny transformations and Peter gets extra points for spelling out YOU.

A few other things:

• 2d [Music from the guitar Lucille] isBLUES. BB King and his beloved Gibson.
• I filled in 6d without thinking about it and DOPR looked wrong. Nope. The clue is [Promote a movie on talk shows, say].
• I enjoyed the crossing ofUNO andUNU.
• 30d [X: cut :: Z: ___] isUNDO. Add CTRL to the letters.
• 60d [Sushi fish never served raw] isEELS. I know this because I watched “Chopped.”

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: oh, so many things. I didn’t know Ziggy had a dog namedFUZZ. I was not aware the Jack Lord died onOAHUor that JayCHOU played Kato when Seth Rogen played the Green Hornet. And I’ve never heard of JonRAHM and certainly didn’t know that he won the Masters in 2023.

Michael Lieberman’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up

Difficulty: Easy (9m37s)

Today’s theme: I’VE CHANGED (“The old me is gone” … or what happened between the first and second parts of 19-, 28-, 37- and 48-Across?)

• MASSIVE MASSES
• CURSIVE CURSES
• PASSIVE PASSES
• MISSIVE MISSES

Apropos of the Utah blocks in the grid — if you happen to travel to the Beehive State, make sure you take a lot of pictures. You know, dive into Moab, really ARCHIVE ARCHES. Don’t be afraid to get into every nook and cranny either — give yourself up to the back country, RECEIVE RECESSES, etc. Am I doing it right?? (You’re doing great. — Ed.)

Cracking:GOSSIP SESH

Slacking: Attests? No,ATESTS.

Sidetracking: the BOLSHOI

Freddie Cheng’s USA Today Crossword, “Center Court” — Emily’s write-up

This sweet-talking puzzle will make your day!

Theme: the middle of each themer contains —WOO—

Themers:

• 19a. [Heavy-duty kitchen scourers],STEELWOOLPADS
• 33a. [Speaker for low bass frequencies],SUBWOOFER
• 56a. [Silver screen legend],HOLLYWOODSTAR

A variety of topics in the themer set today, with STEELWOOLPADS, SUBWOOFER, and HOLLYWOODSTAR. The title is fun because it offers a slight misdirection and made me think of basketball but the commonality lines up not only in the middle of the themers but also in the middle of the grid as well as being centered with each other so it pops out one they are filled in, just in case it didn’t stand out sooner.

Favorite fill: TOOTRUE, BEEHIVE, STROKES, and PLOP

Stumpers: SCRAM (needed a couple of crossings), HEADSIN (needed all crossings), and SAYSHI (also needed crossings)

Check out this grid design! Enjoyed the lengthy bonus fill that the design allowed. I had a little helper this morning so my time is longer than it should be but it still took a me a while, since some of the fill was new to me, or phrases that I don’t use/hear often) plus some of the cluing was a little tricky for me. Overall, everything was fairly crossed and the solve still felt smooth even with the extra time it took for me to solve.

3.5 stars

~Emily

Paul Voge & Katie Hale’s LA Times crossword – Gareth’s summary

Human beings Paul Voge & Katie Hale give us a puzzle about HUMAN/BEANS – people whose last name are a variety of “bean”:

• [Actor who voices the panda in the “Kung Fu Panda” films], JACKBLACK. Black bean usually refers to a variety of common bean.
• [Brazilian supermodel who’s a face of Maybelline], ADRIANALIMA. The lima bean is better known as a butter bean here.
• [“Slumdog Millionaire” actress], FREIDAPINTO. A second variety of the common bean.
• [“Family Guy” voice actor who co-created “Robot Chicken”], SETHGREEN. Green beans are unripe common beans.

Today’s mystery answer: [QB protectors], OLINE. It seems to be a shortening of “offensive linemen”.

Gareth