Robert S. Gard’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Exit Stage Left”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar terms whose beginning letters spell out synonyms for the imperative “Move!” The revealer is OPENING MOVE (59a, [Queen’s gambit, e.g., and a hint to each circled imperative]).
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Exit Stage Left” · Robert S. Gard · Wed., 1.22.25
- 17a. [Data display with two axes] SCATTERPLOT.
- 26a. [Have a court date, perhaps?] SHOOT HOOPS.
- 39a. [Breakfast burrito component] SCRAMBLED EGGS. We also would have accepted the clue [Working title for the song that eventually became “Yesterday”].
- 51a. [“Blessed are the poor in spirit…” and others] BEATITUDES.
Solid theme with a good revealer and title. I don’t mind that the last one is two words; in fact, it’s a nice little twist at the end to keep things interesting.
Check out those stacks of 11s in the corners: RADIO SIGNAL, TRESPASSERS, LEISURE SUIT, and DANCE BATTLE. Plus there’s STEPS UP and CABOOSE as well. Very nice. But they come at a little bit of a cost with crosswordese like RTS, ESAU, SIL, ETE, and whatever ARBS is. It’s a trade-off and a judgement call, but I felt ARBS wasn’t worth it.
Other goodies in the grid: “GO TEAM GO!,” ANTEATER, and OAKLAND.
Clue of note: 42d. [Last car]. CABOOSE. I don’t think this hasn’t been the case for many years. Maybe “traditionally” could’ve been thrown in at the end.
3.5 stars.
Landon Horton’s New York Times crossword–Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 1/22/25 – no. 0122
Hooboy, this one played easy, even with the theme entries not being real things, just the outcomes of a wordplay gambit. I filled in the first six Acrosses and raced through the Down crossings.
The MIXED DOUBLES revealer is 51A. [Tennis format … or a description of some of the letters in 20-, 31- and 38-Across]. Three BUxxY words (not including bully or adjective buzzy) trade places (or trade their doubled letters) in three phrases:
- 20A. [Jay Gatsby, to Nick Carraway?], PLAYBOY BUDDY. The base phrase is Playboy bunny.
- 31A. [Mare/hare pair?], HORSE AND BUNNY. Horse and buggy.
- 38A. [Horse-drawn party vehicle?], DRINKING BUGGY. Amish party bus? Drinking buddy.
I like the theme, and it’s always fun to speed-run a crossword when the rows and columns align right.
Fave fill: BREAK THE ICE, GRUDGES, CONEY ISLAND. I’m not sure about PUB GRUB; I went with PUB FOOD first.
Four stars from me.
I’m sorry, I entered a rating under Universal in error. I did not solve that puzzle and the rating needs to be removed. I apologize for the extra work.
agreed on the NYT difficulty level. and solid fill too. I do wish constructors would retire EGOT. And REN and Stimpy is now 30 years old. can’t we go with Kylo REN of Star Wars instead? at least that’s this century. 3.5 stars for me. ELE on the other hand is a word perfectly suited for crosswords that you never see; although i’m not a fan of the letter names as words (WYE, AITCH, ZEE etc.) learning a bit of a foreign language at the same time makes it interesting for me!
The mini has a misspelling at 3D (“restauraNteur”).
That spelling is weird but accepted (and maybe even preferred):
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/restauranteur
(Read the entry and not just the URL.)