Tuesday, July 2, 2024 | (2024)

LATuntimed (Jenni)

NYTuntimed (Amy)

WSJ4:22 (Jim)

Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “That Sounds Rough” — y’know, those four letters. – Erin’s write-up

Hello lovelies! Before we get into this week’s solution, here’s an update about the puzzle reviewed a couple of weeks ago here…it was written as a crossword proposal puzzle for a Santa Barbara couple, and they’re now engaged! Congrats to the happy fianceés June and Lauren!

As for this week’s puzzle, the theme involves replacing OUGH with UFF.

• 17a. [A “Sesame Street” monster’s butt?] COOKIE DUFF (cookie dough)
• 27a. [U.K. city with a lot of bridge discards?] SLUFF ENGLAND (Slough, England)
• 45a. [Prescription taken while in restraints?] CUFF MEDICINE (cough medicine)
• 53a./60a. [With 60-Across, possibility with shoddy “Survivor” merchandise?] WHEN THE BUFF BREAKS (when the bough breaks). Buff is the brand of versatile neckwear featured on the show.

Other things:

• 18d. [Fireplace nook] INGLE. The word INGLE can refer to the fire itself, or a recessed area around the fire where people can gather and keep warm.

Until next week!

Jamey Smith’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Key Features”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar phrases that feature the letters TAB hidden consecutively within. The revealer is TABBY (67a, [Certain lap warmer, or how one might playfully describe this puzzle’s longest answers]).

• 17a. [Resort region of northeastern Spain] COSTA BRAVA.
• 23a. [Fib from a needle-wielding nurse] “WON’T HURT A BIT.”
• 35a. [Seattle Mariners coverage, at times] RETRACTABLE ROOF.
• 48a. [Some heart meds] BETA BLOCKERS.
• 59a. [Circus laborer]. ROUSTABOUT.

Didn’t see the theme at all until I got to the revealer, which I found to be cute once I went back and sussed it out. I would have liked it just a little bit better if each of the five entries split the tab (haha) among multiple words. ROUSTABOUT is a pretty fun word, and it’s a compound word, so it’s almost like the others, but DELTA BLUES would’ve been a good substitute. RETRACTABLE ROOF on the other hand doesn’t really have any business being here. Its only saving grace is that TAB is right in the middle of the entry, but that doesn’t seem to be a factor in the theme. You could put a 7-letter entry in its place—something like ATTA BOY.

A shorter middle entry might have also allowed for some sparkly long fill as well. As it is, aside from the theme answers, everything else is six letters long or less. There are some nice entries there (PORTIA, ICE AGE, T-BIRDS, “BE COOL“), but still, long non-theme entries are opportunities to boost the puzzle’s fun factor.

Clues of note:

• 41a. [Like the midnight when the raven visits]. DREARY. Feels a bit awkward, eh? How about [Like Poe’s midnight]. Does that work?
• 54a. [Fabric with interwoven metallic threads]. LAMÉ. I saw “Fabric” and went with LACE. That’ll teach me to read the whole clue.
• 62a. [Old Venetian magistrate]. DOGE. News you can use: The shiba inu that gave rise to the DOGE meme passed away just over a month ago.

Three stars.

Elizabeth C. Gorski’s Cr♥ssw♥rd Nation puzzle (Week 684), “Are Too!”—Ade’s take

Good day everyone! Once again, I’m left in awe that time’s flying so fast and that we’ve already started the second half of 2024! Hope you’re well and that the first half of the year has treated you as well as you could have possibly hoped.

Today’s puzzle could have left you saying “R U kidding,” as the letter R is added to phrases/nouns to create the four puns that feature in the theme answers.

• • • DREAD GIVEAWAYS (16A: [Be fearful of freebies?]) – Dead giveaways.
    • ALL HANDS ON DRECK (24A: [“Everyone aboard this ship is ordered to grab a piece of worthless junk!”]) – All hands on deck
    • DRAY OF RECKONING (44A: [Horse-drawn vehicle on which one’s actions and behaviors are judged?]) – Day of reckoning
    • DAME JUDI DRENCH (61A: [Titled stage actress who throws cold water on hecklers?]) – Dame Judi Dench

I’m trying to think how look it took from the time I first heard of the word YEOMAN, in reference to the phrase about doing yeoman’s work , to when I actually knew what a yeoman actually is and does (47D: [Naval clerk]). Love the clue for TERMITE, and thank goodness that I’ve never had to experience that at any house that I’ve lived in/been in (36A: [One who may eat you out of house and home?]). Oh, and I just came across the news that a Brooklyn (NY) native, who was a public high school and NCAA champion in the EPEE discipline, has made the U.S. Olympic team (31D: [Fencing sword]). Her name is Anne Cebula, and she, like our fearless constructor, is a Barnard College alum! Read more about her and her journey that has led her to Paris here and here! Congratulations, Anne, and we’re all rooting for you! Brooklyn, stand up!!!

“Sports will make you smarter” moment of the day: RHODES (45D: [Greek Island]) – In this space last week, I talked about Willie Mays and his famous running, over-the-shoulder catch in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series for the New York Giants. The Giants won that game in the 10th inning, when pinch-hitter Dusty Rhodes hit a walk-off three-run homer! Rhodes then hit a another home run, plus a run-scoring hit in Game 2 during New York’s 3-1 win. Rhodes’ career only lasted 576 games, all as a Giant, but his 1954 postseason is one of the great individual performances in the history of the Fall Classic.

Thank you so much for the time, everybody! Have a wonderful and safe rest of your day and, as always, keep solving!

Take care!

Ade/AOK

Josh Goodman’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap

The word YES is 38a. [What all signs point to in this puzzle], and the circled letters are all “___ sign” phrases. CALL sign (like WXRT or KRLX), PLUS sign, DOLLAR sign, STAR sign (in astrology), NEON sign, STOP sign, PEACE sign, and EXIT sign.

So, aside from 38a, none of the Acrosses and Downs are thematic, right? Felt a lot like an unthemed puzzle since those thematic words are unclued diagonals.

Fave fill: STUNT PILOT, EARTHRISE, “THAT’S AMORE,” UGLY CRYING, PROWESS, and BLAMESTORM.

Three stars from me because there just wasn’t much excitement working through the puzzle, not much interplay with the theme concept.

Susan Gelfand’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Jenni’s write-up

And just like that it’s July! I enjoyed this puzzle. Seems like it’s been a long time since we had a Tuesday puzzle without a revealer. More room for theme fun!

• 20a [Custom timepiece for a meteorologist?] is aSTORM WATCH. I grew up listening to Storm Field do the weather on WPLJ. Ah, youth.
• 33a [Custom necklace for a chef?] is aFOOD CHAIN.
• 41a [Custom brooch for a defensive back in the NFL?] isaSAFETY PIN.
• 52a [Custom band for a barista?] is aCOFFEE RING.

All of these work for me and I appreciate the fact that we have four different pieces of jewelry.

A few other things:

• The puzzle feels pretty Scrabbly to me for a Tuesday. Js, Xs, Qs, Zs…
• 10a [Dazzling figure skating feat] is aQUAD, not an AXEL. I suspect I’m not the only one who started there.
• My daughter is looking at furniture for her new apartment, so when I saw 33d [Fancy dressers] I was thinking about bureaus. Nope. It’sFOPS.
• I filled in 42d from crossings, which is good because I don’t know Spanish. [“¿Qué ___?”: Spanish “What’s up?”] is TAL.
• JOSTLE is a fun word.

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that Abbott Elementary is onABC.

Wyna Liu’s New Yorker crossword — pannonica’s write-up

I’m not entirely trusting my assessments today, so with that caveat it feels as if this one wasalmost moderately challenging?

My big misstep was at 23-across: [Defense against a very small attack?] IMMUNE RESPONSE; with several letters in place I surmised that it was {something} POSSE. Not all that big a misstep, considering that abstractly it’s a one-letter difference.

• 22a [Palm-fruit seed chewed as a stimulant] BETEL NUT. It’s also quite staining.
• 41a [Extra source?] CENTRAL CASTING. Nice, economical clue.
• 52a [Muse of lyric poetry] ERATO. Pretty much the only one we regularly see in crosswords, save the very occasional non-advertising CLIO. Kind of like ENERO is the only Spanish month, with MAYO typically being clued as the>cough< condiment.
• 58a [Letters read initially in “Love’s Labour’s Lost”?] ELS. Quasi-cryptic cluing.
• 2d [Grendel’s Biblical ancestor, in “Beowulf”] CAIN. I would have thought that element was pre-Christian. Maybe retconned?
• 9d [Fall short] COME UP EMPTY. Way short, then.
• 22d [Line without a contract] BURNER PHONE. It crosses the CENTRAL CASTING entry, so that’s some misdirection.
• 27d [Singapore __ (gin-based co*cktail)] SLING. I’ve never had one, but the reclaimed version described here is intriguing.
• 29d [En __ (with all judges present)] BANC.Grr. 51d [Judgmental sounds] TSKS. Or something significantly stronger.
• 54d [Tech that outputs written material as audio: Abbr.] TTS,text-to-speech.