Sunday, May 12, 2024 | (2024)

LATtk (Gareth)

NYT20:25 (Nate)

WaPo6:54 (Matthew)

Avery Gee Katz’s New York Times crossword, “Pixar Box Set” — Nate’s write-up

25A: (CARS)ON DALY [Original host of MTV’s “Total Request Live”]
11D: OS(CAR S)TATUE [Prominent figure at the Academy Awards]

35A: CABO SAN (LUCA)S [Tourist destination in Baja California Sur]
27D: HU(LU CA)TALOG [Certain streaming library]

61A: E(UP)HORIA [Cloud nine, so to speak]
57D: D(UP)LEX [Two-family dwelling]

85A: (SOUL)FOOD [Fried chicken, cornbread, collard greens, etc.]
62D: MIS(SOUL)A [Home to the University of Montana]

96A: CRYPTO(WALL-E)T [Digital “container” associated with Bitcoin]
67D: STONE(WALL-E)D [Refused to answer questions]

98A: (BRAVE) NEW WORLD [Dystopian classic whose title comes from “The Tempest”]
98D: (BRAVE)HEART [1995 Blockbuster with numerous historical inaccuracies]

117A: (COCO)NUT OIL [Palm tree product used in skin care]
100D: HOT (COCO)A [Drink often served with marshmallows]

This week’s Sunday puzzle sees seven Pixar movies in a box set … or rather, as rebuses contained in individual boxes of the grid. I appreciated the subject matter, sheer quantity of theme-related answers, and modern feel of many of the theme entries, but some of the rebuses felt tough if you don’t know the names of the Pixar movies themselves. BRAVE, for example, was a rebus that crossed at the title of two separate works, with clues that weren’t the easiest context for less aware solvers.

The periphery of the grid felt accessible, but much of the center of the grid felt relatively challenging and my overall solve time was much longer than average. Even though it’s all fair in retrospect, the LABEL MATE, JEN, JIM, MUMMIES section was tough for me to crack, as were a few other sections. Was this a slower solve for anyone else? Not necessarily less enjoyable, though certainly felt stickier. Let us know in the comments section how your solve went … and have a great weekend!

PS: An interesting line from the constructor’s notes, from this debut constructor: “A diligent constructor, she worked and reworked this puzzle for months, ultimately ending up with 19 versions of the grid. You’re solving version #16!”

Evan Birnholz’s Washington Post crossword, “Return on Investment” — Matthew’s write-up

Nothing too tricky from Evan this week: our themers are all monetary in nature, and contain (in circled letters) different currencies in reverse. A two-part revealer CASH / BACK helps out the already on-the-nose title.

• 23a [First financial stake that one hopes will produce a good return on investment] INITIAL OUTLAY (YUAN)
• 30a [Employees’ options that, when the shares are sold, provide a return on investment] STOCK PURCHASE PLANS (PESO)
• 51a [Situation in which there’s a danger of financial loss but also the possibility of a good return on investment] SPECULATIVE RISK (RIAL)
• 69a [Return on investment] BANG FOR YOUR BUCK (KRONA)
• 92a [Index that might tell you if you’ve made a good return on investment] DOW JONES AVERAGE (RAND)
• 107a [One seeking a good return on investment] CORPORATE EXECUTIVE (EURO)
• 123a [Those seeking a good return on investment] ENTREPRENEURS (RUPEE)

A nice set. I used the currencies and a strategic focus on their crossings for one or two of the themers. As best I can tell, there’s not a second layer here, but if there is, let me know and I’ll edit it in.

• 1a [Bohr model particle] ATOM. If you see “Bohr” and you have four letters, it’s ATOM. Five, and it’s NIELS. Very rarely it might be DANE or NOBEL, I suppose. But this is one of those where I rarely reach the end of the clue.
• 29a [Sch. with majoring Miners] UTEP. ‘Miners’ being the name for the school’s sports team. I find myself more lax than most on what requires an abbreviation tag, and don’t particularly think UTEP requires ‘Sch.’ here.
• 83a [Soufflé ___ reine (dish served at the 1867 Three Emperors Dinner in Paris)] ALA. This event is new to me – on first glance looks like a fun read when I have time.
• 84d [Power-driven mechanism, for short] SERVO. Short for ‘servomotor’ – new to me.

Garrett Chalfin’s Universal Sunday crossword, “Above Water”—Jim’s review

The circled letters in the grid are all world seas found within unclued words. The clues for these entries are only satisfied with the use of the letters that are above each sea. The revealer is GO OVERSEAS (110a, [Travel abroad … and what 21-, 38-, 52-, 78- and 90-Across do]).

• 21a. [*Became readily apparent] Look above MACHINATED to get the letters NIFES from KNIFE SETS to make MANIFESTED.
• 38a. [*Rock type similar to dolomite] LIMBERING + BEST ONE = LIMESTONE.
• 52a. [*Last-resort program shutdown method] FOR CREDIT + EQUAL = FORCE QUIT.
• 78a. [*Title match, often] MADE A DENT + WINE VAT = MAIN EVENT.
• 90a. [*People shipwrecked on an island] CROSSWAYS + PASTA = CASTAWAYS.

This played pretty sloggy for me. I saw the seas early on, but didn’t catch on to the theme until maybe the third theme entry. Add in some weird theme entries (FOR CREDIT, BEST ONE), uncommon fill entries, and purposefully ambiguous cluing and you’ve got a rough solve (or at least I did). Once I caught on, things progressed better, but still…

Fill highlights include HOT SAUCES, RED RUSSIANS (new to me; I only know the white and black varieties), CHAT GPT, POWER NAPS, PIT-A-PAT, TARHEELS, COURTROOM, “ZIP IT!,” “FRET NOT,” and SO TO BED. Trying to fill in “IT ISN’T SO” took some doing, and I’d never heard of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in the clue for FIRE TRAP.

Clues of note:

• 17d. [Closer’s goal]. SAVE. I was thinking real estate, not baseball, and thus had SALE here for far too long.
• 60d. [Sports commentator Yates]. FIELD. With the F contributing to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory clue, I think it would have been fairer to clue this as a normal word.
• 71d. [Cerebral]. HEADY. Hmm. I’ve never heard HEADY used that way.
• 112d. [First word in the names of three large California cities]. SAN. Diego, Jose, and Francisco by order of population.

I have no doubt this was a difficult construction, and really, the long fill is nice. But it wasn’t a joy to solve mainly due to cluing. With a slow-developing theme, it might’ve been fairer to throw solvers a bone by going a little more straightforward with the cluing. 3.5 stars.