Wed, 1/25/2023 — Hard and Easy

These are syndicated crosswords from Seattle Times. The links here will take you to the appropriate website, but you will have to search for the crossword by searching for the date on NYTimes or searching by name for Universal.

Today, it was a mixed bag. I found the NY Times puzzle a lot harder (as expected), but I was able to do this with a little help. The Too Much of a Good Thing on the other hand turned out to be easier than expected. I find this pattern typical of mid-week for me.

So, without much ado, let’s jump in.

New York Times Syndicated (1/25/2023)

I needed help, a lot of it. I got frustrated on Wednesday and finished it on Thursday. The bad news is that it was hard but the good news is that I was able to finish it with a little help. So here we go:

Interesting Guesses:

1. Belabor, with “on”: I kept on thinking that it was goes on and struggled with it a bit. I figured it was not it. Instead, it turned out to be harp on.
2. ___ setter: I thought it was trend setter but as I progressed, it figured it to be wrong. After I got the middle three letters, I remember Irish setter.
3. Sheepish answer to “Who broke this?”: I thought it would be Itsme but that doesn’t fit. Eventually I did.
4. The duck in “Peter and the Wolf”: I had no clue, but once the word started forming, Oboe was an easy guess. IIRC, Oboe does show up often as an answer to different clues, often as a musical instrument.
5. Peach or plum: These are no fruits, these are shades of colors or hue!
6. Enthusiastic response to “Wanna come?”: Yes! Yea! — Nah, none of these. Let’s ask a question back; do I? Heck yes!
7. “Fudge,” “fie” and “fiddlesticks” are some of the printable ones: I thought curse words, swear words, etc. — none of them fit. F**k — ah, that’s it; these are the few F words that can actually be printed!
8. Manhattan, on an envelop: Well Manhattan is in New York City in the state of New York; so obviously an envelop addressed to someone in Manhattan is going to say Ny, Ny
9. Signal to play: Not a gun or a whistle, but if you want to start playing music, then the signal is hit it
10. Antelope with chin hair: Another staple answer of these crosswords is Gnu. They love their bisons which is a relative of antelopes!
11. Blue shade: So, Aqua is a staple of crosswords, but this one was our old navy

Things that I had to search:

1. “A fickle food,” per Emily Dickinson: Is she famous? Maybe her fame was fickle enough.
2. US theater awards: Emmys? Oscars? Nah, these are the Obies
3. UK acting award: Yep BAFTA
4. Brouhahas: All that brouhaha or ado about nothing
5. Field for Maria Callas: Ok, this is a common answer always with names of people that I don’t know, but opera is often a good guess.
6. One side of a page: Recto? Really? Learnt another new word today.

Tricks:

1. Sign in a clearance section: Ok. This was easy and I guessed fairly quickly. I guess I visit this section often in stores. 50% off always gets me!
2. Stretch: I still don’t get the answer as stint. I guess a stint is a stretch of time when you do something; so here we go. By mid-week, the language clues start getting harder.
3. Like flourless cake: Who knew that this cake was denser than regular cakes?
4. Conquer a hero?: I still find it comprehend. But then this is a Seinfeld reference to eating a hoagie.
5. Food: Not entirely a trick but fare wasn’t the first one to come to mind. I guess I shouldn’t have been doing this on a full stomach!
6. Party people, for short: So, my head spun when I finally figured out this one. This is not the party that you and I go to on Friday night, but this is the one that we help on Tuesdays once every 4 years. This is party as in politicial party which has politicians or pols for short.
7. Large-scale corporate union: I found this easy too. Once I got to merger, mega merger was easy. And yes, I didn’t have to crack the master clue yet. That won’t work the next few days :/
8. “Why are you making such a fuss?” … or a hint to 17-, 36- and 43-Across: Really, What’s the big deal of this clue? I guess all the three clues are about big deals!

This was hard but still doable. I had to search a couple, but the rest just took time. Rest of the week is going to be crazy hard (and frustrating)!

Universal syndicated (Too Much of a Good Thing):

Ok — this was surprisingly easy; maybe the easiest of the week (afaik, Mondays are supposed to be the easiest — this was similar).

• Spas always find a way into the answers; this time it was as Places to unwind
• Kurylenko of “Black Widow”: I had no idea but Olga just formed up once others one done.
• Similarly, Trent is the Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and it just formed up as an answer.

The rest wasn’t very eventful either; there were quite a few standard staples like Ahi tuna, PSA, Adele, OSU, and DNA. I am certain I have seen a few more answers in the past too; so I am going to not expand on this one. Maybe if people are interested and someone requests, then I will capture a few more, but this one is straightforward.