Oscar season is upon us and so are our version of the awards for crossword puzzles, the ORCAS. Check out the nominated puzzles and vote for your favorites here on this page. Voting closes tomorrow!, Monday, February 17th with winners announced in a livestream a week later.
John Kugelman’s New York Times crossword, “Square to Begin”–Dave’s recap
Dave here again, subbing for Nate this week. Nate will be off blogging duty for weeks or months after losing his home to the California wildfires. There’s a GoFundMe raising money to help Nate and Ben rebuild their lives in the aftermath.
NYT crossword solution – Sunday 2/16/25 (sorry for the mistake of DYKE crossing DECON)
Today’s NYT takes phrases which have a word that begins with W and changes that to a rhyming word that begins with SQU. I have a feeling this has been done before, but perhaps this theme set provides a fresh take on the mechanism. Let’s see:
- 23A: [Omigod, omigod, jackpot!] is SQUEAL OF FORTUNE (“wheel”) – what are folks’ thoughts about Ryan Seacrest taking over for Pat Sajak as host of the primetime gameshow? The jury is still out in our household.
- 45A: [Tempest in a teapot?] is GREAT SQUALL OF CHINA (“wall”) – something about this phrase doesn’t seem to match the clue, one doesn’t say something is “of” something if it’s happening inside of it
- 58A: [Religious gymgoer on leg day?] is HOLY SQUATTER (“water”) – I hear this as an exclamation from Robin to his sidekick Batman and is “gymgoer” really one word?
- 70A: [Sound from some freshly cleaned floors?] is PLEDGE SQUEAK (“week”) – isn’t Pledge used solely on furniture or do they have a floor cleaner now?
- 83A: [Money under the mattress, e.g.?] is SQUIRRELLED CAPITAL (“world”) – I’m not completely sold that “squirrelled” and “world” rhyme exactly, but perhaps that’s my New England ear for these things
- 107A: [Repeat something clever, as parrots might?] is SQUAWK A FINE LINE (“walk”)
I should probably add the clever title SQUARE TO BEGIN (“where”), which aptly describes solving crosswords!
Seems after the first entry the others are rather predictable and don’t add much oomph to the overall solving experience.
I did particularly enjoy though the longer fill entries, WALRUS MUSTACHE, SEUSSIAN, BILGE PUMP, HUMBLE PIE, HOI POLLOI, (Count) CHOCULA and DEEP FRIED OREOS. BLUE HOLES for [Deep, dark sea caverns] was inferable, but a bit of a head-scratcher. And is MADE BANK something folks say these days (I had MADE A LOT at first)? Finally, I guess we’ll be seeing a lot of AI ART these days, both due to the prevalence of AI as well as that sequence of 3 vowels!
À la prochaine!
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword, “Letters of Introduction”–Matt’s recap
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword, “Letters of Introduction” solution, 2/16/2025
A little different from Evan this week: a taller, narrower grid with substantially more black squares than we’re used to. The specific dimensions are 26 rows by 18 columns, but as I didn’t count these up before solving, it wasn’t the helpful flag that it otherwise could have been.
There’s nothing explicit in the way of theme entries here despite a few long entries like COMMON ROOMS, JOTTED DOWN, and QANTAS AIRWAYS. In general, the fill is shorter than we’re used to, especially in the down entries, especially on the left side of the grid. In retrospect, this could have been another helpful flag for me.
The puzzle is themed: with the exception of one square, each of the the entries start with the letter of the alphabet corresponding to that entry’s row in the grid: the third row’s entries are CARRY and COMMON ROOMS, the ninth’s IONE, ITO, IAN. I didn’t notice this in my solve until ZEN and ZESTED at the very bottom.
The puzzle comes with the prompt: “One letter in the finished grid must be changed to complete this puzzle’s theme. Which letter is it, and which letter should it be changed to?” Helpfully, that letter is likely the first place you’ll look, at the intersection of 1A BBC and 1D BERATE. The theme would dictate an A- to form ABC and AERATE. While it’s likely that many solvers spotted the trick here long before I did, hiding it in the first square helps delay the aha moment.
I thought this was well-done. Obviously I didn’t have the same experience as a typical 21×21 Sunday puzzle, but I also found the puzzle smooth enough to not even notice the constraint on the fill.
Jonathan Raksin and Jeff Chen’s Universal Sunday crossword, “The Outsiders”—Jim’s review
Theme answers come in pairs spread throughout the grid. Each pair consists of an artist and a phrase that hides that artist’s name. Each phrase is clued in two parts: the first part of the clue is written as if the artist name is missing, and the latter part clues the entire phrase as entered in the grid. The revealer is ESCAPE / ARTIST (65a, [With 67-Across, certain daring performer, or a hint to this puzzle’s theme]).
Universal Sunday crossword solution · “The Outsiders” · Jonathan Raksin and Jeff Chen · 2.16.25
- 107d. [MISSING: “Lobster Telephone” creator Salvador] / 5d. [A few … no, wait … carbon dioxide-absorbing substance] DALI / SODA LIME.
- 109d. [MISSING: He designed costumes for Mata Hari] / 12d. [Crooked … no, wait … outdoor festival shelter] ERTE / BEER TENT.
- 113d. [MISSING: “Bag Piece” creative Yoko] / 19d. [Wicked person … no, wait … principle represented by the monkey Sezaru] ONO / DO NO EVIL.
- 114d. [MISSING: “Pagoda Fruit” sculptor Jean] / 20d. [Shopping aids … no, wait … sun visors, hoods, etc.] ARP / CAR PARTS.
- 72d. [MISSING: “Memory Lost” photographer Nan] / 78d. [Received … no, wait … valuable bar] GOLDIN / GOLD INGOT.
- 73d. [MISSING: “Flora” painter] / 83d. [Peter out … no, wait … nutrition expert] TITIAN / DIETITIAN.
A rather involved theme, so I mostly ignored it throughout the solve. Still, I put bits and pieces together here and there, and by the time I got to TITIAN it had gelled in my mind. A post-solve review cemented everything in place.
I’m impressed at the symmetry our constructors were able to achieve, and wow! I just noticed the treasure chest/trunk-shaped box at the bottom of the grid that contains all the artists’ names within. Very cool. I’m not so excited at some of the usual suspects we typically find as artists included in crosswords (ERTE, ARP, ONO), but the theme necessarily requires some artists with short names, and overall, it’s impressively designed and executed. The box containing the artists is an elegant cherry on top.
Despite the involved theme, we get some long meaty entries: YODELERS, PREMIERE, YARDBIRDS, PENANCE, AUTO LEASE, BASS DRUM, NONSENSE. I’ve never heard of TWIG TEA, so that needed a lot of crossings. I’m giving my strongest side-eye to REALER [More authentic] and only lessening it a notch for ENSEAL [Stamp, like a document].
Clues of note:
- 76a. [Frodo’s friend] SAM and 98a. [“Stranger Things” actor Sean] ASTIN. Interesting non-cross-reference as Sean ASTIN portrayed SAM in the LOTR films.
- 10d. [Community of creatives (like the group of six “trapped” in the bottom section of this puzzle)]. COLONY. Just noticed this clue, or rather, I had noticed it during the solve then completely lost it until now. Not sure how being trapped in a box makes the group a COLONY.
- 46d. [Energy-boosting goos]. GEL. New to me. I guess long-distance runners use these to replenish carbs.
Congrats to Jonathan Raksin who debuted just the other day with this week’s Fireball puzzle. Some impressive theme design in both grids. This one gets four stars from me.
NYT: The theme is meh. I don’t think the theme warrants a 21×21 grid. DEEP FRIED OREOS and WALRUS MUSTACHE are excellent, though.
WaPo: I first thought it’s the start of each row that’s in alphabetical order. But then there’s a second aha moment when I realized that every entry in the row was starting with the same letter.
NYT: Enjoyable, somewhat easy Sunday — except for the area around His AIRNESS, which makes sense, but I have never actually heard it, and I am in that age category.
Perhaps Dave, as I did this puzzle in Maine this weekend, we could have a New England version that used SQUAD CAPITAL instead :)
Also fellow fiends, try not to comment on two puzzles in same post. I have yet to do WaPo and detected a spoiler above. It’s easier to avoid if separated — thanks!!!
NYT: A fine but not very challenging Sunday puzzle with a Qte theme that inserts a K sound into a familiar phrase containing a W sound so it becomes a Q sound.
The only sour note for me was the theme entry PLEDGES WEEK: Having heard a version of this phrase at least since college began for me 60+ years ago, I have never once heard anything but PLEDGE WEEK (no S).
Confidential to Amy: I never realized until your recent comment about hail that hail tends to be a *summer* weather phenomenon, which indeed it does — thanks. (Yet a friend in Portland, Oreg. just told me that it hailed there last week!)
It’s pledge week, the SQU replaces the W.
You are right — thanks. My apologies to the constructor and editors.
This is a lesson for me: Don’t be so quick to criticize.
Dumb-de-dumb-dumb, dumb-de-dumb-dumb Dumb! is how I now feel (nothing to do with Dragnet).
WaPo: Evan, I tip my hat to you for 33A
+1
+2
SQUIRRELLED doesn’t even approximately rhyme with ‘world’ for me, but I understand that for some people it will, and it was easy enough to see what was intended. Not a very interesting theme overall, though.
And SQUEAL OF FORTUNE replaces a WH, not just a W. That annoyed me.
Now I have to know how you pronounce “squirrelled”. I can’t think of any pronunciation where squirrelled and world and (whirled, for that matter) don’t rhyme. “Skwer uld” & “whirr uld” (too lazy to copy the phonetic versions with the schwas).
I still have a strong British accent despite 40+ years in the US. ‘World’ is one syllable, identical to ‘whirled.’ ‘Squirrelled’ is very clearly two syllables, with a short i, as in ‘bit’, in the first. I can’t think of anything it sounds like, except maybe the name Tyrell with a d on the end.
Sunday Universal – I’m not sure if I liked this one today or not. I had to get out paper and pencil to figure out the theme. These are the answers of the theme –
Soda Lime minus Dali = Some
Beer Tent minus Erte = Bent
Do No Evil minus Ono = Devil
Car Parts minus Arp = Carts
Gold Ingot minus Goldin = Got
Dietitian minus Titian = Die
I couldn’t make any sense of the theme until I finished, took a screenshot, and marked it up.
I kinda like the theme, but the grid doesn’t appeal to me.
Sorry for the late posting, but my review is up now.
van dyke… not ryke
Yes I saw that after I posted the grid and mentioned it in the credit below the image. I think RECON is more common than DECON and didn’t check the crossing.
Hi,
I assume the answers Ryke and recon were misprints in the puzzle answers for 2/16 and Dyke and Devon were correct. Is that right?
Thanks. We always check our answers through crossword fiend.
Yes, my mistake.
The NYT’s answer key does show DYKE crossing DEVON, yes. Occasionally a Team Fiend writer will inadvertently get a typo in their grid after solving correctly and before screenshotting their answer grid. We’re all mere mortals!
And it’s DECON not DEVON