review #1: favorites from the last month!
Hi! Welcome to the first installment of my reviews, aka "Ryan judges crosswords!" I'll be taking a look at my favorites from the last month (since July 16th). Maybe I'll turn this into a monthly thing.
Disclaimer: I do not solve crosswords from every major outlet so there will be some likely amazing puzzles that I seem to have skipped over; in reality I may have not solved that puzzle. This is also not an exhaustive list of all the outlets I solve from. I compiled this list of puzzles by scanning through puzzles from the last month that I solved, so some memories may have faded; in the future I could write notes about my favorite puzzles right after solving.
Puzzles are separated by outlet. Outlets are ordered alphabetically. Puzzles are ordered chronologically within each outlet. My solving time is in parentheses after puzzle date and author.
And lastly, a quick SPOILER ALERT for the following: The Atlantic 8/9; bewilderingly Puzzle #212; NYT 7/28, 8/2, 8/12, and 8/16; New Yorker 7/26 and 8/11.
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The Atlantic
Wed, August 9, 2023 by Paolo Pasco (0:36)
Most Atlantic puzzles are wonderful (I usually love Paolo's clues) but a little too small to pack the same amount of punch as most 15x15s. This one was my favorite Atlantic puzzle from the last month!
The bottom half of this puzzle had my favorite entries; just looking at the parts of the entries under the row of blocks, there's something funny about seeing JFK stand for Jazz Free Kind. JAZZAGE is a great entry with its J and Z's, and I love the word FREEGAN, whose clue was as good (15A: One who indulges in junk food?).
The clue for 3D (The Office network, originally) at first pointed me to NBC rather than BBC, which was probably an unintentional misdirect but a welcome one nonetheless. My three favorite clues were the first three acrosses:
- 1A: Top 40 hit whose first two words translate to "to dance": LA BAMBA. I've listened to this song maybe once, but I know that it's in Spanish. I like this type of clue, in that it's hard to figure out what's going on initially, but thinking about a top 40 song with 7 letters in a different language, I think it sort of had to be LA BAMBA.
- 8A: Growing apart from one's buds?: IN BLOOM. I like this one, it's a good pun, but it also works well in sequence with the next clue...
- 9A: "Sorry, bud": NO CAN DO. Great use of "bud" in sequential clues, one pointing toward, but not actually meaning "friend," and instead relating to flowers; the next clue using "bud" to indeed mean a friend.
bewilderingly
Mon, July 17, 2023 "Two for the Price of One" by Will Nediger (49:37... plus cheats 😔)
I assume many people know about this one. In short: this was insane. It's been almost a month since I 
solved it so some of the novelty has worn off but this was a ridiculous solve for me.
If you missed this one: one puzzle, one set of clues, two completely distinct solutions. I'd always wondered about whether a puzzle like this was possible. Will showed that it absolutely is possible. But wow, this was a beast to solve. I often found myself filling in a section of one grid that was actually supposed to go on the other one, repeat ad infinitum. I ended up having to check the grid multiple times and maybe (don't fully remember) look some things up but I enjoyed this nonetheless.
Favorite clues:
- 25A/28A: Au alternative, in a Romance language: À LA/ORO. When I realized what was going on here, I was shook. Just for the record: "au" and "À LA" are both French prepositions and I believe they both can be used in similar culinary situations. "Au" is also the symbol for gold, which is ORO in Spanish. Just amazing, and so clever.
- 77A/83A: Compliment on a performance: PLAUDIT/STELLAR. I loved how the first solution uses compliment as a verb, while the second uses it as a noun.
- 89A/92A: Order for when you want something to top things off, but you still want to be sensible: DECAF/IONIC. I literally didn't even understand this clue until now. It's probably because I had TONIC written in there for most of my solve and didn't register the actual answer when I changed it. This clue is wild though. It makes sense for DECAF, and then for IONIC it's because Ionic is an order of columns that has "something" to top it off (there's a bit of an embellishment at the top, as opposed to Doric) but it's still sensible (Corinthian columns are much more ornate). Wow.
- 107A/111A: Milieu for a classic Arthur Miller play: SALES/SALEM. Death of a Salesman and The Crucible. Nice. It's cool that they're just one letter off; that must've helped with filling.
- 113D/118D: No-chill request: NEAT/ASAP. Fun one!
The New York Times
Fri, July 28, 2023 by Rafael Musa and Hoang-Kim Vu (3:22)
So much good stuff in here; standouts include ENGAGEMENT PARTY, THROUPLE, WHO DOES THAT?, PRO GAMER. And you could say this puzzle was an EGO BOOST if it was a breeze to solve.
Favorite clues:
- 34A: Gathering to show off a new rock band?: ENGAGEMENT PARTY. Awesome use of "rock" literally in this case, and "band" to mean a ring.
- 10D: One who gets paid to play: PRO GAMER. I just love the term PRO GAMER. The clue works really well because you could say just about any pro athlete gets paid to play their sport, so the clue is somewhat vague and tricky in that regard.
- 31D/43D: 43-Down alternative/31-Down alternative: PAD/TAMPON. Nice to see feminine hygiene get represented in the crossword, and nice to see a cross-reference between PAD and TAMPON! I sometimes find this type of no-context, no-clue cross-reference a bit tricky but the crosses didn't trip me up at all here.
Wed, August 2, 2023 by Barbara Lin (2:23)
It might be a bit obvious at this point that I prefer themeless puzzles to themed ones, but I still love ones with good themes. This was my favorite themed NYT from the last month!
Theme answers were palindromic in a way, by syllables rather than letters:
- 16A: Starting with an X in the corner, say?: TIC-TAC-TOE TACTIC. This puzzle came shortly after the TIC/TAC vs. TIT/TAT situation from the previous Sunday puzzle and there were a couple other mentions of TIC or TAC or TIC-TACs around that date so this was funny to see as the first themer.
- 25A: Rocket launcher that makes a whimsical buzzing sound?: KAZOO BAZOOKA.
- 46A: Become a leading citizen of North Dakota?: GO FAR IN FARGO.
- 60A: Disrespected adviser?: TORMENTED MENTOR.
It took me a sec even after getting the first themer to figure out exactly how it worked, but once I got that it was a breeze. I love wordplay like this!
Nothing ugly in this grid, and I liked the reference to New Jersey's anti-SELF-SERVE gas law, as well as to CORI Bush, and OUTDOORSY is a fun word. Nice!
Sat, August 12, 2023 by Rachel Fabi and Christina Iverson (2:56)
This one was CROMULENT from the start. Just an all-around amazing and fun solve on this one.
I got lucky in knowing OUROBOROS from the start, and COPYPASTA went in without any thought. Everything was really smooth and quick from there since much of the rest of the grid was short stuff. Altogether it made for my third-fastest Saturday solve. Highlights from the rest inclue I'M SO DONE, DR. DEATH (very evocative title), LABNEH (never heard of that! but it was a nice addition to my vocab), PONY RIDES.
Favorite clues:
- 42A: They're not easy on the eyes: STYES. Good misdirect from figurative eyesores, i.e., what one doesn't want to look at, to literal eyesores, things that are actually on the eye (or the eyelid, I guess, but close enough).
- 10D: Focal length?: ATTENTION SPAN. So good, so clever. Loved it.
I'm also a sucker for diagonal symmetry so this was just right up my alley. Great puzzle!
The New Yorker
Wed, July 26, 2023 by Erik Agard (2:34)
Very conversation and in-the-language feel to this one. I loved the entries in this one, like IT'S PERFECT, WHERE TO BEGIN, I HAD NO IDEA, I MESSED UP, AMIRITE, WHO CARES, BEEN THERE. I generally love the vibe of New Yorker puzzles and this was no different. Nothing particularly ugly in here either. Good puzzle by Erik!
Fri, August 11, 2023 by Kelsey Dixon and Brooke Husic (3:10)
This one was funny and kind of a surprise. Add in the little blurb that the New Yorker puts—Today’s theme: Comedy bang bang—and this was amazing. It's cool that this puzzle was run a major outlet like the New Yorker. I imagine though, wherever this would run, people might complain about it being too racy or whatever. But who cares? Pun-related crosswords are supposed to be funny, so what's the difference if it's sex-related puns? I thought Kelsey and Brooke had some great finds with their theme answers:
- 17A: Baked lay?: HIGH SCORE. I think this one is trying to get at baked Lay's chips—great one.
- 23A: Alternative to Netflix and chill?: CABLE HOOKUP. Nice—repurposing the phrase to relate to sex, and getting it to relate to Netflix and chilling.
- 37A: Activity for someone who fancies Bruce Banner when he’s angry?: HULK SMASH.
- 50A: Quickie before breakfast?: EARLY ACTION.
- 60A: Choppy shag?: BUMPY RIDE. This reminds me of this scene:
Nice bonuses in this one with OH HELL YEAH and I'VE GOT THIS. OH HELL YEAH, this puzzle was a banger.
My most recent solve...
To end it off, here's a review of the puzzle I most recently solved.
NYT Wed, August 16, 2023 by Mangesh Ghogre and Brendan Emmett Quigley (2:37)
A bit of a different offering here on Wednesday. Cool to see BEQ's name in the byline; it sort of felt like a blast from the past even though his last NYT crossword was just this past December. I just recently solved the (in?)famous NATICK puzzle from back in 2008 as I've been working my way through the archives, so that probably contributed to the blast I received from the past.
I wonder if this puzzle might've been best suited for a Sunday. I guess there might not be enough theme material for that, but a 21x21 grid space would provide ample room to fully do this grid art. One thing that just struck me was 58D: Number of 69-Across (MINARETS) surrounding the monument depicted in this puzzle: FOUR. But... there are only two minarets depicted in this puzzle. I get that there isn't enough space to put four minarets in a 15x15 grid, so yeah, maybe this could've been more suited for a Sunday. Another thing is that although I know there isn't that much you can do with shading and coloring in crossword grids, but I'm not sure that just shading the chunk in the middle does that much to suggest an entire building. Aside from that, though, I thought the grid art was nice to look at, if a bit imperfect with respect to the actual building. Nice use of the letters of TAJ MAHAL as the ONION DOME. Nice touch making the SPIRE come out of the top of the ONION DOME, even if that thick line serves no other purpose in the puzzle.
This puzzle was a bit rough around the edges, though, literally. SHAH JAHAN might not be the most known name so that's a pretty tough spot. I was lucky to have known the name from doing quizbowl. I'm not 100% convinced about E-SIGNS. LT GOV is not great. ESMÉ wasn't clued as an actual person or character with the name (I can think of at least two: Esmé from Salinger's "For Esmé—with Love and Squalor" and Esmé Squalor from A Series of Unfortunate Events (whose name is pretty clearly taken from that Salinger work)). The western edge of this puzzle was what I've seen the most comments about. Yeah, it's pretty tough. COTE is not a very common word. ELHI is not a common word and a bit ugly. TRAD is not a great abbreviation. The clue for OAHU was not very descriptive, in my opinion—maybe it could've mentioned something about it being a volcano. I think this section of the grid goes to show that experience helps so, so much in solving crosswords. It was a breeze for me, but it definitely was not an easy section.
And yet, there was some great stuff in this puzzle! AND ONE is a nice phrase that can be used in a pretty hype manner in a basketball game. Crossword debut of Stephanie HSU! EXACTA is a fun word. FJORD is a fun word that gets a nice J in place for VW JETTA. STEVEN Yeun is cool and was great in Beef! This puzzle was a nice change of pace and did a nice job of representing the Taj Mahal even despite some imperfections.
Until next time! Here's a music rec on my way out:
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