Sunday, June 23, 2024 | (2024)

LATtk (Gareth)

NYT17:27 (Derek)

WaPo6:33 (Matthew)

Daniel Hrynick and Jeff Chen’s Universal Sunday crossword, “Inclined Not to Believe You”—Jim’s review

Today’s theme consists of commonly-told lies in the circled squares proceeding down and to the right. The revealer is DOWNRIGHT LIE (99a, [Utter fabrication … or any of five lines in this puzzle]). Clues for each lie are found at the top-leftmost circled square after the forward slash. (For the purposes of this review, I’ll ignore the part of the clue before the forward slash.)

• 1a. [*Yank / Classic rent line] “THE CHECK IS IN THE MAIL.”
• 20a. [*Clinch a win / Classic car trouble line] “I HAD A FLAT.” Not so iconic a phrase as the other three main entries, IMO.
• 56a. [*Got together / Classic homework line] “MY DOG ATE IT.”
• 79a. [*Siege ___ / Classic fault line] “WASN’T ME.”
• 112a. [*Ark man / Classic “Is that a 99-Across?” line]. NO. Oof. What? Show me where “Is that a DOWNRIGHT LIE?” is a classic line. This entry feels like an afterthought, and I found that it detracted from the theme. (Unless I’m mistaken and the line is famous somewhere.)

I’m cool with this theme and the punny revealer. The title’s a bit cumbersome though and that last entry could’ve been left out entirely, but on the whole, it’s a solid theme which helped me fill in some squares, which is what a good theme should do.

With all the theme entries on the diagonals, we look to the long Across and Down entries for meaty sparkle (that just sounds gross, eh?). Highlights: GOES ALL IN, COATTAIL, “AFRAID SO,” “CALL ME” (though not clued as the classic Blondie song), OAK RIDGE (though not clued as the “Boys” of country music), “WHO IS IT?,” “SO SOON?,” “OH, I BET,” PIONEERS, TOADIES, and LOOKIE-LOO. However, entries such as MILKEN and “I’M AWAY” get my side-eye.

Clues of note:

• 69a. [Brian of 1984’s “Dune” soundtrack]. ENO. I’ve never seen this cluing angle for crossword staple Brian ENO. Maybe that’s why the film felt so sleepy.
• 105a. [It gives Mario invincibility]. STAR. And now you’re hearing the accompanying music and feeling stressed, right? Hurry! Before it runs out! (Here’s 30 minutes of it for your enjoyment.)
• 59d. [___ Meg (family member in “Twister”)]. AUNT. Really? What a bizarre deep dive for this common word. See also 77d. Sue ___ Mischke (“Seinfeld” character) for ELLEN.

3.5 stars.

Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword, “Themeless No. 24”—Matthew’s review

Themeless week from Evan here. I’ve seen folks fall into two camps with 21×21 themelesses: some find joy in the flavorful entries and increased average length afforded with no theme constraint, and others find those more open spaces difficult to fill with a Sunday’s worth of attention grabbers.

I’m usually in the former, but find myself in the latter with this one. I enjoyed entries like FORK IT OVER, NO RELATION, and ZOMBIE MOVIE. A central stagger stack is certainly more impressive when the entries are 15 letters long instead of 11 or 13 in a smaller grid, but one of my favorite things about a stack like this is the connectivity it allows into the rest of the grid. Here, the longest entries intersecting the middle are CONSTRAINS and GOVERNMENT, I found the areas immediately above and below a bit choppy, and few of the longer entries in the corners really sang to me.

Entirely possible it’s an off day for me.

• 29a [Banish, as a roommate, in order to hook up with someone] SEXILE. I do not miss having roommates. Haven’t heard this portmanteau in a long while.
• 32a [What a book adapted for the screen is made for] E READER. A play on ‘screen’ that I got a chuckle out of.
• 34a [Unsharpens] DULLS. “Unsharpen” is a new one for me, but the meaning was clear.
• 85a [Giants … or some opponents of the Giants] TITANS. The Titans and Giants being NFL teams.
• 49d [Experience all the seasons in a week, say] BINGE. A nice play on (television) ‘seasons.’
• 73d [“Drinkers of the wind,” in horse racing circles] ARABIANS. This phrase is new to me. It comes to us – naturally – from the Bedouin.

Michael Schlossbergs’ New York Times crossword, “Picture Day”—Derek’s review

I forgot to post this review!! This was a weird puzzle, until the revealer at the end:

• 23A [Two Iowans (1930)] – AMERICAN GOTHIC
• 37A [Six Basque villagers (1937)] – GUERNICA
• 42A [12 orbs (1889)] – THE STARRY NIGHT
• 68A [One gemstone (1665)] – GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING
• 86A & 99A [Four timepieces (1931)] –THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY
• 113A [Kind of craft store kit … or a hint to this puzzle’s theme] – PAINT BY NUMBERS

Clever? Perhaps. Different? Very. Underwhelming? Possibly. I know how hard it is to make these puzzles, so I will say, theme issues aside, this was a fun solve. Lots of interesting entries in the fill. But there seems to be something missing; perhaps a reference to the actual artists somewhere? Would that be too much? Maybe my review skills are just rusty! 3.5 stars from me.

A few of those interesting entries:

• 9A [Mechanical catch] – PAWL – I learned a new word! I actually have NEVER heard of this term before.
• 39A [“Real Time with Bill ___”] MAHER – If you haven’t seen the segment from last week with Jiminy Glick (Martin Short!), you’re missing out!
• 74A [Sauce in Philippine cuisine] – ADOBO – I mainly know this in powder form, which may be the Hispanic version? I am not a cook.
• 102A [Instrument “played” in the “Bill & Ted” movies] – AIR GUITAR – Great clue! Didn’t notice “played” was in quotes early enough!
• 120A [They’re comfortable alone or in a crowd] – AMBIVERTS – Another kinda new word, or at least one I don’t use much!
• 3D [Shin armor] – GREAVES – This word I DO know, but only from puzzles!
• 46D [One of two openings under a bridge] – NOSTRIL – Oh, THAT bridge! Nicely done.

Apologies for the late post! It is in here for the archives!