Monday, August 5, 2024 | (2024)

BEQtk (Matthew)

LAT2:14 (Stella)

NYT3:27 (Sophia)

WSJuntimed (Jim)

Andy Walker’s New York Times crossword — Sophia’s write-up

Theme: DINER’S CLUB – each theme answer is phrase made up of a type of food followed by a type of golf club

• 18a [Garnish for a glass of iced tea] – LEMON WEDGE
• 32a [Appliance at a hotel breakfast bar] – WAFFLE IRON
• 42a [Expensive cabinet material] – CHERRY WOOD
• 57a [Credit card industry pioneer … or a hint to 18-, 32- and 42-Across] – DINER’S CLUB

I have heard of DINER’S CLUB before, but couldn’t name anything about it other than “it’s a thing”. It still exists though, and is now owned by Discover. The “club” part of each phrase works well for me, and I noticed it as I solved the puzzle. I did not pick up on the “diner’s” part of the theme, though. It… almost works for me? My hangup is just that CHERRY and LEMON feel less like “things to dine on” than a WAFFLE does… almost more like a flavor. But that’s pretty minor, and WAFFLE IRON was my favorite of the theme answers anyways. So overall – I liked the two-part theme answers, but the second part was a lot stronger for me.

Other notes on today’s puzzle:

• Some overall fill highlights: ALL DONE, ROOMBAS, COBRAS
• A lot of cat content, between [Be a chatty catty?] for MEOW, and [Feline foot] for PAW.
• New to me: TREY Anastasio of Phish (I wasn’t even sure if “Anastasio” was his first or last name).
• IGA Swiatek won the bronze medal in women’s singles tennis this weekend at the Paris Olympics – congrats to her! It’s Poland’s first tennis medal.
• Best clue in the puzzle: [Legendary stoner?] for MEDUSA.

Happy Monday, and congrats to Andy on a great NYT debut!

Shaun Phillips & Ben Wildman-Tobriner’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Looks like half of this constructing duo is making their Olympic debut! Sort of, anyway — this puzzle is a timely nod toward the Olympics, and in particularTEAM USAat 38A [Olympic delegation cheered on by the chant found in 16-, 22-, 49-, and 60-Across]. USA! USA! That is, you’ll find the letters USA running through each of the theme entries:

• 16A [Performance in the center ring, e.g.] isCIRCUS ACT.
• 22A [Facetious “Do not disturb” sign] isGENIUS AT WORK.
• 49A [Year-end feat for a star student]isA-PLUS AVERAGE.
• 60A [Leafy dish that may be topped with vegan ranch dressing] isTOFU SALAD.

In each entry,USA is split across two words, which is kind of a must these days when your theme word is only three letters long. Grid was pretty smooth, with some nice mid-length entries likeDRUM SET,TOP SEED, andPRIME RIB, which is amusingly near that clue about vegan ranch dressing.

Dylan Schiff’s Universal crossword, “Political Spectrum” — pannonica’s write-up

A theme that surely developed from the revealer.

• 55a^R [Post-filming celebration … or each set of noted letters?] WRAP PARTY. The clues explicitly mention the relevant squares, but my grid as usual has them circled.
• 16a. [Extreme extent] NTH DEGREE (Green). The name begins at the rear of the entry, then wraps around to the beginning.
• 21a. [Asana expert] YOGA INSTRUCTOR (Tory).
• 34a. [Poker variant with two winning hands] HIGH-LOW (Whig).
• 49a. [Boozy-sounding baking extract] BOURBON VANILLA (Labour). “The majority of the world’s vanilla is the Vanilla planifolia species, more commonly known as Bourbon vanilla (after the former name of Réunion, Île Bourbon) or Madagascar vanilla, which is produced in Madagascar and neighboring islands in the southwestern Indian Ocean, and in Indonesia.” (Wikipedia)

An interesting selection. With the exception of WHIG, these are all extant and viable British political parties. Why waste a good theme idea when the US political parties have such unwieldy names, right?

• 7d [Water cooler?] ICE. A double entendre.
• 10d [King’s realm?] HORROR. Stephen King, the author.
• 11d [Goes in] ENTERS.
  
• 23d [Underwater “lung”] GILL. They’re roughly analogous in function but not structure or process.
• 35d [“Dancing With the Stars” judge Carrie Ann] INABA. New to me, unsurprisingly.
• 40a [Forbidding words] DO NOT. Literally.

Interesting theme. Crossword cluing pitched at an easy level.

Matt Forster’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Containment”—Jim’s review

Each theme answer is a familiar two-word phrase with the first word being an item that HOLDS WATER (58a, [What a plausible theory does (and what the start of each of 17-, 28- and 43-Across does)]).

• 17a. [Traffic jam cause, often] BOTTLENECK.
• 28a. [Collected items to do before dying] BUCKET LIST.
• 43a. [Maneuver at an air show] BARREL ROLL.

Solid theme which I didn’t pick up on until I got to the revealer. Frankly, some of the other long Across entries seemed like they could be part of a theme, so I waited for the revealer to make sense of it.

There were a few entries in the fill that were less than ideal (RETORE and RECOOK mainly), but there was so much more to like, starting with those two 7s in the center, FAN BASE and THE WAVE which make for a great pairing despite seeming like they might be theme-related. Other goodies: SON-IN-LAW, BAR SCENE, EREBUS, PEN NAME, and EYESORE. I didn’t recall the poet Derek WALCOTT (if I ever knew his name), but I do know the song by Vampire Weekend.

Clues of note:

• 14a. [It won’t go off without a hitch]. U-HAUL. Cute clue.
• 50d. [Loads of housework]. WASH. I figured this would be laundry-related but “laundry” itself wouldn’t fit, obviously. One could pick a nit and argue it would normally be called “the wash” but I think it’s close enough.

Solid theme and strong fill. 3.75 stars.

Natan Last’s New Yorker crossword–Amy’s grid

Hi! This one took me 16:27 because I kept dozing off whilst solving. A little sedation in the morning really packs a punch!

New to me: HANYA YANAGIHARA, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanya_Yanagihara.

Can’t talk sensibly about the puzzle because I was so out of it. Seemed fine to me!