Monday, July 15, 2024 | (2024)

BEQtk (Matthew)

LAT1:55 (Stella)

NYT2:38 (Sophia)

WSJ4:13 (Jim)

Tarun Krishnamurthy’s New York Times crossword — Sophia’s write-up

Theme: Phrases with the letters C N M N E in that order, which sounds like SEA ANEMONE when you say it aloud (try it!)

• 17a [“Don’t you worry about me!”] – I CAN MANAGE
• 23a [Fixture that may hold gumballs] – CANDY MACHINE
• 35a [Supposed sighting in the Scottish Highlands] – LOCH NESS MONSTER
• 48a [Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor with bananas and walnuts] – CHUNKY MONKEY
• 57a [Colorful marine creature … or a phonetic hint to the circled letters in 17-, 23-, 35- and 48-Across] – SEA ANEMONE

This is a very cute theme that is helped out even more by the strength of its stand-alone answers. For some research, I plugged the CNMNE string into my own construction software to see how common this letter pattern is. There are more possibilities than I had initially imagined, but I think Tarun picked a lot of the best ones here. I like how they are all multi-word phrases, LOCH NESS MONSTER is a grid-spanning standout.

While solving I noticed that the same letters were circled each time but I didn’t catch onto the full theme until I reached the revealer and said them aloud. I think this is a great beginner-friendly theme because folks will be able to get some letters directly from figuring out the theme, not only from the crosses themselves.

The rest of the GRID (some crossword-specific knowledge there at 1d!) is very solid. I kind of wish the NW and SE corners were a little less separated from the rest of the puzzle, but the other two corners make up for it. BOCA BURGER was new to me – it’s a Kraft Heinz meat alternative. I liked ANTOINETTE, BOBA TEA, and having both HOLI and HOLEY in the puzzle. I also think the two “ome”s of OMEN and BIOME stacked on top of each other look pretty cool together.

Happy Monday all, and happy NYT debut to Tarun (a fellow Seattleite, love to see it!)

Kevin Christian & Andrea Carla Michaels’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Self-Centered”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar phrases that hide the word EGO in their exact centers. The revealer is EGOS (52d, [They may clash, and what you’ll find in the centers of 20-, 31-, 39- and 50-Across]).

• 20a. [Alliteratively-named image recognition app] GOOGLE GOGGLES.
• 31a. [“Well done!” (said straight or ironically)] “NICE GOING!”
• 39a. [Bucket list items] LIFE GOALS.
• 50a. [Knows where the bodies are buried] HAS THE GOODS ON.

A repetitive theme like this isn’t exactly my favorite, but it’s plenty solid and I enjoyed the theme answers.

But even more I enjoyed the fill entries like DRAG RACES, HANG-DOG, CLOSE CALL, HEADED OUT, LAST LAP, and “I’M WITH YOU!”

Clue of note: 14a. [Look from Groucho]. LEER. I didn’t know this was a Groucho thing, but it seems this comes up in crossword clues on occasion.

Solid theme, but even funner fill. 3.75 stars.

John Beck & Doug Peterson’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Another Monday, another 1:55. The revealer at 57A [“You’re not alone,” and what the first word in the answer to each starred clue can do”] is JOIN THE CLUB, meaning that the first word in each theme entry can be paired with CLUB to form a new word or phrase:

• 17A [Alternative sentencing option] is HOUSE ARREST, leading to CLUBHOUSE.
• 25A [Love for hot rods and drive-in movies] is CAR CULTURE, leading to CLUB CAR. Having traveled by train a fair amount in several European countries and Japan, and also a lot by Amtrak for work, lemme just say: Our CLUB CARs suck. The best one I ever experienced was on Deutsche Bahn from Berlin to Vienna, where the dining car had options like meat cooked with wild mushrooms. Amtrak has basically the same breakfast sandwiches you buy in the freezer case at the supermarket, or a “fruit and cheese plate” that has like three grapes, an apple slice that’s turning brown, and some crappy plastic-wrapped cheese. No thanks.
• 38A [Former name of 30-Down] 30D HAWAII makes this answer SANDWICH ISLANDS, which leads to CLUB SANDWICH.
• 46A [Wayyy past irate] is HOPPING MAD, leading to CLUB HOPPING. This was my favorite theme entry because both the base phrase and the CLUB phrase are fun, and also the usage of “Wayyy” that you don’t typically see in mainstream outlets but that adds a little extra evocativeness and fun to the clue.

The only real pain point in this puzzle was the NE corner, where 11A [Stat for Shohei Ohtani] caused me to doubt and remove my correct AEIOU for the crossing at 11D [Phonics lesson quintet]. AVG is a less-commonly-seen baseball abbreviation in puzzles than ERA, and I still think of Shohei as a pitcher even though he’s not doing that this year.