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New York Times Mini Crossword Puzzle 1-24-22 (contains spoilers)
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Category Archives: NYT Crossword
NYT Crossword Puzzle 1-23-22 Turns of Phrase Complete (contains spoilers)
I pulled out 18A Scorpion, for one: ARACHNIDS because I hadn’t realized that scorpions are arachnids. I had thought that scorpions only have six legs.
But as is clear from this picture, scorpions have eight legs. Wow is that an ugly animal.
The title of this puzzle is Turns of Phrase.
21A Artists sketching pectorals?: DRAWERSOFCHESTS.
33A Vow to remain mum about hotel guests’ secrets?: HONOROFMAIDS.
52A Small distance covered by a naval armada?: FOOTOFFLEET.
73A Boxer lacking a left hook?: MANOFRIGHTS. Extra funny because man of right or mano frights?
89A What brass band music has?: PLENTYOFHORN.
107A Tree feature in winter?: ABSENCEOFLEAVES.
14D What a dog walker and a strong-willed pooch might vie for?: COMMANDOFCHAIN.
45D The Bee Gees’ Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb?: BROTHERSOFBAND.
It’s a turn of phrase of a turn of phrase. You gotta turn the turn of phrase around to get the turn of phrase we know to be the way the phrase is turned.
21A DRAWERSOFCHESTS -> CHESTS OF DRAWERS.
33A HONOROFMAIDES -> MAIDS OF HONOR.
52A FOOTOFFLEET -> FLEET OF FOOT.
73A MANOFRIGHTS -> RIGHTS OF MAN.
89A PLENTYOFHORN -> HORN OF PLENTY (CORNUCOPIA).
107A ABSENCEOFLEAVES -> LEAVES OF ABSENCE.
14D COMMANDOFCHAIN -> CHAIN OF COMMAND.
45D BROTHERSOFBAND -> BAND OF BROTHERS.
Finished this one in 33:57.
NYT Mini Crossword Puzzle 1-23-22 (contains spoilers)
I wrote EMAIL instead of GMAIL. Lame. Poor showing at 56 seconds for this puzzle.
NYT Crossword Puzzle 1-22-22 Complete (contains spoilers)
I pulled out 30D Kind of sandwich: ICECREAM because I’ve been making ice cream recently. We got an ice cream maker for our wedding, and I finally got to using it. So far I’ve made three batches. The first was French vanilla with chocolate chips. The second was a better French vanilla and pieces of chocolate chips and oreo pieces. The one we now have in the freezer is rocky road. I had never had rocky road. I really like Chocolate Malted Krunch. I’ll get a tub of that from Rite Aid, throw in some peanut butter, and my breakfast is taken care of. No experience with rocky road, though. The recipe I found contained pecans. Right before I made it, Calah confirmed that I was using almonds. 😬😬😬. So I roasted some almonds. It’s pretty good.
No theme for this Saturday puzzle.
Finished this one in 24:38.
NYT Crossword Puzzle 1-21-22 Complete (contains spoilers)
I pulled out 30D Helps finish a nursing program?: WEANS because Calah is finally in the last semester of her doctorate of nursing practice program. Completion of the program was delayed due to covid. Hospitals were (and still are!) in desperate need of nurses due to pandemic-related shortages, but since hospital settings were so extra-dangerous and hospitals didn’t have enough PPE for their regular people, nursing schools told their students that they were prohibited from working at hospitals for school credit. They could work for money on their own, but school was staying TF out of it. So it was a year of no clinical hours. Calah used that time to learn to code in Python by taking a Python class through school and by taking classes on udemy, and she learned how to edit video in Adobe Premiere through udemy. She made the best of the situation, but I find this clue to be tone-deaf. If they got a good NYTXW editor, maybe this clue wouldn’t have made it in. So, bad clue, Kyle Dolan. And a no-surprise bad editing job by Will Shortz.
No theme this Friday, so here are answers to some longer clues.
17A Swarmed by mosquitoes, say: EATENALIVE. Story of my life. Ugh. But there was one time when there was a mosquito flying around in our bedroom while we were watching TV. I saw it land on the wall near me, so I slowly rolled to my left and slammed the wall with my open palm. Big splat. What a relief. When I do woodworking, I use my vacmaster to suck up mosquitoes. I’ve stopped trying to catch them in my hands or obliterate them by smacking wherever they’ve landed on me. Given the vacmaster’s 3 horsepower, they never had a chance.
28A Pastry appropriate for a camping trip?: BEARCLAW. Terrifying.
32A One with lots of pull?: BLACKHOLE. Lame.
36A Has a 4.0 average: GETSALLAS. Gets all A’s.
51A What an old car might be sold for: SCRAPMETAL. I originally had SCRAPVALUE, but it was never value.
54A Song title following the lyric “Scuzza me, but you see, back in old Napoli …”: THATSAMORE.
10D Amulets: MAGICCHARMS. As a magician, I can tell you they really work! #misdirection
11D “Sister Outsider” essayist/poet: AUDRELORDE.
22D Antismuggling device: BODYSCANNER. There’s an invasion of them.
27D Means of domestic pest control: RATTERRIER. Are they rats or are they terriers?
32D Grouse: BELLYACHE.
Finished this one in 33:17.
NYT Crossword Puzzle 1-17-22 Complete (contains spoilers)
I pulled out 28D ” _, James _”: BOND because as Calah and I have been going through the Bond movies in order, we saw one where James Bond went under the pseudonym James Stock. I found that to be very funny, especially as said by Roger Moore. Still my opinion is that Pierce Brosnan is the worst James Bond. Sean Connery is the best.
Theme!
17A Teenage military leader canonized in 1920: JOANOFARC -> JOANOFARC.
21A Not inclined to reveal one’s feelings: RETICENT -> RETICENT.
40A Insignificant amount … or hint to this puzzle’s shaded squares: ADROPINTHEOCEAN -> ADROPINTHEOCEAN.
45A Actress Rigg of “The Avengers”: DIANA -> DIANA.
58A Big-dollar election-influencing grp.: SUPERPAC -> SUPERPAC.
64A “Tell someone who gives a hoot”: ASIFICARE -> ASIFICARE.
OCEANS
17A + 21A ARCTIC
40A + 45A INDIAN
58A + 64A PACIFIC
Finished this one in 6:25.
NYT Crossword Puzzle 1-16-22 Playing the Hits Complete (contains spoilers)
I pulled out 78D Upscale watch brand: CITIZEN because I bought a broken Citizen watch a few months ago to try to fix it. It’s a Railroad Approved watch with a 1400 movement. I took it to a local watchmaker to see what it would take to fix it. He returned it to me with a new crystal but said that after he had replaced the crystal he found that the watch was irreparable. I figured there was no loss in me trying to fix it as my first-ever DIY watch repair. It seemed like the stem couldn’t be pushed all the way in, which was why twisting the crown changed the date and day. Maybe cleaning out some stickiness would yield a favorable result?
When I opened it up, I saw the battery loose inside. After a lot of studying it and wondering, I thought maybe there was a piece missing that made contact with the back of the battery. I went to reddit to ask.
A redditor agreed that there was a piece missing that held the battery in place and shared with me the technical manual for the movement.
So I went back to the internet to find that piece.
It’s long out of production, so I looked at ebay and saw another broken watch that has the same movement. I messaged the seller to ask if the piece that was missing from my watch was there, and it was! There were many pieces missing from this ebay watch, but the one I cared about was there.
I popped in that piece, and the second hand started moving! Hooray!
The title of this puzzle is Playing the Hits.
23A THE LADY VANI_ _ _ _ (#2, 1964): SHESNOTTHERE.
29A BILLE (#3, 1972): ILLBEAROUND.
36A x0 (#1, 1985): THEPOWEROFLOVE.
60A VAUDEVILLIAN (#2, 1988): DEVILINSIDE.
71A LOST, E.G. (#1, 1984): LETSGOCRAZY.
93A CHAN_E PPEA_ANCE TO CONCEA _ D MISLEA (#1, 1968): JUDYINDISGUISE.
101A TITTLE-TATTLE (#16, 2011): RUMOURHASIT.
110A ENT I CEMENT (#1, 1983): COMEONEILEEN.
Finished this one in 57:45.
NYT Crossword Puzzle 1-15-22 (contains spoilers)
I pulled out 17A Sympathetic response to dissent: IHEARYOU probably because that’s Sam Ezersky’s refrain every time someone sends a reasonable request to include a word in the Spelling Bee. Like DUDETTE, HORCHATA, ALEE, MOLAL, RAABIDFUN.
Does he ever change? No.
No theme for this Saturday puzzle. Why didn’t Ezersky make a theme?! He should have made a theme.
He’d probably respond: “I hear you.”
Finished this one in 25:05.
NYT Crossword Puzzle 1-14-22 Complete (contains spoilers)
I pulled out 30A Modern source of juice: WIRELESSCHARGER because my Google Pixel 3 has been on the fritz, and I wanted to get the 5A when it was on sale, but I rely on wireless charging. So now I still have a janky phone with no reasonable replacement.
No theme for this Friday puzzle.
Finished this one in 23:10.
NYT Crossword Puzzle 1-13-22 Complete (contains spoilers)
I pulled out 18A _ pan (kitchen utensil): OMELET because I posted a recipe the other day for what really is just an omelet between two slices of bread and promised pictures. Well, here they are!
Theme!
32A 2003 Pixar animated adventure: THEYFOUNDNEMO. (Finding Nemo)
40A 2004 Quentin Tarantino martial arts film: SHEKILLEDBILL. (Kill Bill Vol. 2)
52A 1993 Warner Bros. family drama: HEFREEDWILLY. (Free Willy)
20A Important warning before you answer 32-, 40- and 52-Across?: SPOILERALERT. That’s why I put the notice in the title of the blog and make sure the grid isn’t visible in the preview.
Finished this one in 18:33.