Friday, August 16, 2024 | (2024)

LATuntimed (pannonica)

NYT6:25 (Amy)

Kate Hawkins’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap

Yet another Joel-edited Friday puzzle with harder cluing overall than Fridays have traditionally had.

Fave fill: “STAY TUNED,” SPUNKIER, ZEN GARDEN, MEN’S ROOMS, EMBROIDER, PLAYED MIND GAMES, “IT DEPENDS,” ZOOLANDER (still haven’t seen the movie!), SHONDA Rhimes, “ALL KIDDING ASIDE,”and PILSENER (I had a Pulaski pilsner, the more common spelling, at my birthday dinner tonight).

I’m not familiar with Cindy SHERMAN‘s artwork (24d. [Artist Cindy known for her photographic self-portraits]), so I looked her up. Her more recent work involves digital collage of photos of her own face, with and without makeup, giving some off-putting cubist vibes. Here’s some of her earlier work.

Four stars from me.

Aidan Deshong’s Universal crossword, “PR Stunt”—Jim’s review

Theme entries are answers to the starred clues but only if you change the beginning R to a P in each clue. The revealer is DROP A LINE (58a, [Say hi to in writing … or what to do to the first letter of each starred clue?]). The line we’re dropping is the right leg of each starting R, thus changing it to a P.

• 17a. [*Round, like a steak] TENDERIZE. Pound.
• 24a. [*Role in a science lab, once] MARIE CURIE. Pole. I honestly didn’t know she was Polish.
• 35a. [*Rep groups in gyms] MARCHING BANDS. Pep.
• 50a. [*Rile up] ACCUMULATE. Pile.

Solved without grokking the theme, and even then I still needed a minute to figure out what was going on. At first, the revealer made me think something would be on the row below each theme answer in the grid itself. But that didn’t exactly gibe with the revealer clue. Then I considered dropping the first letter of each starred clue down into the clue below. But that made no sense either.

Finally, I considered a literal interpretation of the clue and the light bulb went off, although it was more of an oh, okay moment rather than an aha moment. I do like the title, and maybe if I had considered it earlier, I would’ve caught on quicker and enjoyed the puzzle more.

Fill highlights: IMMACULATE, SACRAMENTO, ANEMONE, CHELSEA, and RASPUTIN. I don’t think I’ve seen AAPI [___ Heritage Month (May)] in a puzzle before and needed help with the last letter (even though I’m a member of that demographic).

Clue of note: 57d. [Pin number]. TEN. Think bowling. Nice clue.

3.5 stars

Ella Dershowitz’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up

Fortunately, the first long theme answer was a gimme, so—with a few crossings already in place—I was able to fill it in properly, despite the shenanigans.

• 34a/38a^R [… annual compilation often shared on social media, and an apt place for four of this puzzle’s long answers?] SPOTIFY | WRAPPED. Each of the theme answers is a 16-letter entry that’s the name of a music artist; instead of starting normally in Column 1, however, they begin in the center at Column 8, and wrap back around to the front, concluding again at Column 8, because they each start and end with the same letter(!).
• 17a. [“Son of a Preacher Man” artist] INGFIEL|D|USTYSPR (Dusty Springfield). I listened to Dusty in Memphis just last night!
• 28a. [“September” artist] DANDFIR|E|ARTHWIND (Earth, Wind and Fire).
• 42a. [“Bullet With Butterfly Wings” artist] PUMPKIN|S|MASHING (Smashing Pumpkins).
• 55a. [“Crash Into Me” artist] HEWSBAN|D|AVEMATT (Dave Matthews Band).

Good job finding well-known acts that fit the criteria!

I don’t use Spotify, but I’m familiar with the Wrapped thing. Not sure I agree with the revealer clue’s reference to it as a ‘place’.

• 3d [Small skillet] EGG PAN, crossed by 14a [Seasonal drink] NOG.
• 5d [Merch table tops] TEES. Tops on a merchandise table, not /table tops/.
• 29d [Search after a metal detector beeps, perhaps] FRISKS. I was thinking of digging in sand or earth, rather than about people.
• 20a [Some online animation] POPUPS. Nobody likes these. Hardly anyone likes the AI that’s being foisted upon us from every quarter, either.
• 24a [Antidepressant, for short] SSRI, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor is one class of antidepressants.
• 33a [Jazz drummer Max] ROACH. Perhaps it would have been less intrusive to pick a non-musician framing here?
• 60a [Live feed from the San Diego Zoo] APE CAM. Is this like the Gorilla Channel?
• 65a [Wood __ mushrooms] EAR. This can refer to several species in a couple of genera.

Rafael Musa’s USA Today crossword, “But Daddy I Love Crosswords—Darby’s recap

Theme: Three of the five longest answers in this puzzle relate to (or are) Taylor Swift.

Theme Answers

• 16a & 35a [With 35-Across, 2024 album that led to a new era in the Eras Tour] THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT
• 55a [16- and 35-Across artist] TAYLOR SWIFT

I love TAYLOR SWIFT, so I was stoked to see this puzzle’s name pop up this morning on Daily Crossword Links. It’s a great use of how you can break up super long answers (like THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT) into shorter segments, which worked out to make TAYLOR SWIFT symmetrical with THE TORTURED. Even though the whole puzzle isn’t symmetrical in itself, it may have started that way with some some tweaks to allow for clean fill. The title is also a reference to “But Daddy I Love Him,” a song on the 2024 album. Also, as a bonus, 51a [Eras Tour venues] ARENAS and 53d [Person losing their freakin’ mind at the Eras Tour] STAN were also cute.

This puzzle isn’t necessarily themed in the way that many of the USA Today puzzles are, since it’s a related set. However, the grid also included some really great spanning fill, like KEEP ON KEEPING ON andCOPING MECHANISM. I also really liked DRINKS ON ME (especially since it aptly crosses 21a [Unit for ice cream or beer] PINT) and SNOWSTORMS.