[.puz][PDF][Solution] Difficulty: 3.5/5
Happy holiday weekend! Just a few puzzle world odds and ends to share today.
-First, Natan Last is writing a book that promises to be required reading for the modern puzzle enthusiast!
-The New York Times has paused crossword submissions for the month of July, so if you’re a constructor looking to peddle your wares elsewhere, check out this submission spreadsheet maintained by puzzle maker Matthew Stock.
-Tournament crosswording is right around the corner! You can now officially register for both Boswords (Boston, 7/24) and Lollapuzzoola (NYC, 8/27), at the latter of which you should feel free to approach me for one (1) crisp high five.
Warm appreciation to this week’s test solvers, Mike, Anna-Marie, Dave, and Diary of a Crossword Fiend‘s own Amy! Thoughts and spoilers for “Join the Chorus” below…
With apologies to one of my all-time favorite box-to-box midfielders, the inimitable Toni Kroos, the homophone puzzle genre really only has two essential features.
First, the sounds-like words need to sound pretty ding-dang close. Obviously “Cruz” won’t always be pronounced just like “crus,” but they’re both a lot closer to “crews” than even your average American soccer fan’s pronunciation of “Kroos.”
Second, the pattern needs to have a raison d’être expressed via an apt revealer. In this case, MOTLEY CREWS [Ragtag bunches … and an apt description of the ends of 17-, 25-, 35-, and 47-Across] expresses the base sound *and* unifies the collection of relevant words as, well, a motley assortment. Which they are! Unless, of course, your BOOZE CRUISE happens to be serving nothing but GRAND CRUS, which… sounds like a pretty rough hangover in the making.
Kudos to those of you who noticed the callback to last week’s puzzle with the clues for EAZY-E and CELIA CRUZ. Is there an echo in here?
Happy solving, friends!
-Ross
A good start to a Holiday Sunday. 63A taught me a new meaning for “garage sale”–made me laugh at the image. Thank you and Happy Fourth!
Thanks, Denise! I’ve also heard “yardsaled” as a verb in this context. Equally pleasing to me 😀
I like the Mötley Crüe callback to the Brontë sisters and the übermensch!
MOTLEY CRUE was in the original version of that puzzle! (revealer: ROCK DOTS)
Haha, I was wondering where the boys were but decided it might have messed up the revealer. Glad they still made it to the blog!
Very nice… it’s been quite a Cruise weekend here, what with my having seen Top Gun Maverick last night (awesome btw, go see it on a big screen).
I’m a diehard skier but had never heard “garagesales” before (I always used “yard sale”). I love metaphors like those.
The clue for 16A seems a little unkind.
“Fantods” (22D clue) is not a word I’d heard before but am going to try to add it to my regular vocabulary.
Happy Fourth everyone!
Happy fourth, Rich! I expect “yardsales” is probably more common; I like ’em both!
I cringed on 16A as well. I had CON first, which seemed appropriately silly for the clue.
It’s not a Rossword without at least one cringeworthy cluing angle!
45A surprised me. I figured JFK –> DDE and Jack —> Ike. Still new to crosswords, but I thought that that was the custom.
Hi, Cheryl! JFK could very well be indicating DDE, in the initialism -> initialism convention, so this was something of a cruel misdirect. In some cases (as in this one), an initialism might simply be indicating informality, a la the word “prez.” Thanks for solving!
That was a fun puzzle Ross. Although I admit I laughed/cringed when I got SNOT ROCKET.
The cringe/laugh is exactly what we’re going for, Jim. Thanks for stopping by 😀
Probably too obscure for the East Coast crowd, but I wanted a Madison Bumgarner clue there. I was trying to find a GIF, and it looks like someone has devoted an entire blog to his masterpieces.
https://bumgarnersnotrockets.wordpress.com/
Okay, I must be dim. I don’t ski, I do go to garage sales. I don’t understand the clue. Please help me.
Hi, Consuelo! This is sort of a niche term. It refers to the common occurrence of a skier scattering their hat/gloves/skis/etc all over the slope when take a tumble.