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Geoff Brown’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Cereal Fiction”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases whose last words are types of grains though the clues have undergone crossword wackification.
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Cereal Fiction” · Geoff Brown · Wed., 2.26.25
- 20a. [Grain that has great definition?] SHREDDED WHEAT. A little far fetched, but still plausible.
- 34a. [Grain that’s been robbed while intoxicated?] ROLLED OATS. No to this one. There’s just no surface sense here.
- 41a. [Grain that’s been acclaimed?] TOASTED RYE. Plausible.
- 54a. [Grain that’s seen the light?] CONVERTED RICE. For one, I’ve never heard this phrase, but more importantly, we’re expected to believe the rice has found God? Meh.
This one wasn’t for me as noted above. I don’t mind some wackiness or silliness in a theme, but drunk oats and religious rice goes a little too far IMO.
Similarly, the fill goes a little too far with outdated and tired fill. I was officially lost at RIV, but there’s also ALAI, ESAU, AROAR, LINE A, and DC CAB. Looking at the long fill, I’ve never even heard of ONSHORING, so its clue with its wordplay [Bringing work home?] was lost on me. However, I loved DON’T ERASE, and there are other goodies like LIFE VESTS, SERENADE, and CRASH CART, but these weren’t enough to bring me back.
Clues of note:
- 15a. [“The Lincoln Highway” author ___ Towles]. AMOR. This clue is in a small section with trivia (5d) and clues with wordplay (5a, 7d, and 8d). I wouldn’t have minded a more common clue such as [Love, in Spanish] in this case.
- 59d. [Start of an apology]. MEA. From the phrase “Mea culpa”.
2.75 stars.
Zachary Edward-Brown’s AV Club Classic crossword, “Taking an Oath”—Amy’s recap
AV Club Classic crossword, “Taking an Oath” – 2/26/25
I could easily see a five-piece theme with 53 squares being crammed into a 15×15 grid and having a number of compromises in the fill as a result. Here, the grid expands to 17×17 and leace room for lots of sparkling fill, very little crap (I’m never going to like ANIS). Well played.
The first four themers are made by dropping the first letter of a familiar phrase. (F)ACE BLINDNESS becomes [Inability to see the highest card in poker?] once the F is removed. Udon becomes the verb DON in DON NOODLES. Ben Affleck’s ARGO PANTS arise from cargo pants, and a little trash is ITTY LITTER rather than kitty. Those deleted letters spell out F-U-C-K, and the revealer is DROP THE F-BOMB, [Swear, in a way … or what this puzzle’s four theme answers do, collectively].
Lots of fresh content, like FUEGO clued in reference to Takis chips. Fave fill: new-to-me SNAPMAP, SACRED COW, ARCHIMEDES with an intersecting EUREKA, GAY ACTIVIST, and RAFAEL NADAL. I also like “CC ME,” which is very much a thing you might say to a colleague.
4.25 stars from me.
Dan Caprera’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 2/26/25 – no. 0226
Phrases with “long ___” in them have the word that fills in the blank stretched out to double length in lieu of showing LONG.
- 4D. [Inspiration for a seafood chain], (LONG) JOHN SILVER, entered in the grid as JJOOHHNN SILVER.
- 17D. [“It’s been ages!”], “(LONG) TIME, NO SEE!”
- 9D. [Creepy crawler], DADDY (LONG)LEGS.
- 15D. [What a stereotypical bartender asks after a horse walks into a bar], “WHY THE (LONG) FACE?”
Solid.
Fave fill: MOSH PIT, SEERSUCKER. These go together perfectly! ELIS, SNES, CINE, ACER clued as a person hitting aces, OBIE, ALF … meh.
59D. [Org. with the Acid Rain Program], EPA. Can’t help wondering if the program is heading for deletion this year. It targets coal-burning power plants that produce emissions, after all, and gosh, how woke do you have to be to want cleaner air? Every EPA clue these days feels elegiac, valedictory, obsolescent.
Four stars from me.
John Ewbank’s Universal crossword, “What Did I Say?” — pannonica’s write-up
Universal • 2/26/25 • Wed • “What Did I Say?” • Ewbank • solution • 20250226
- 58aR [Short gags … or the characters in the 17-, 33- and 39-Across clues?] ONE-LINERS.
- 17a. [Only thing said by the raven in “The Raven”] NEVERMORE. The meaning of this word changes, especially in the mind of the narrator, depending on context. Poe provided a kind of precursor to the Kuleshov effect in cinema.
- 33a. [Only thing said by the treelike character ub “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”] I AM GROOT. But apparently it can mean very different things if you understand the character’s intonation and other aspects of delivery.
- 39a. [Only thing said by Road Runner in “Looney Tunes” (Note: Our solution uses the alphabetically first answer)] BEEP BEEP. The caveat is presumably because the catchphrase could also be rendered as MEEP MEEP.
Cute.
- 2d [Slangy summons] C’MERE.
- 8d [Order from a regular] THE USUAL. Even when I was a regular at various establishments, with a regular order, I don’t believe I ever said THE USUAL, even in an intentional, ironic way. But I’m sure people do!
- 12d [Global crime-fighting organization] INTERPOL.
- 13d [Vehicle used on a ski slope] SNOWCAT. It looks like a SNOWCAT, a portmanteau of snow and caterpillar, is a slightly different beast that the trademarked SNO-CAT. And neither is a snowmobile.
- 9a [Indian flatbreads] ROTIS. Is that the proper plural, or is it just ROTI again?
- 15a [“Obviously!”] DUH. Toyed with YUP for a few moments.
- 19a [Relish] GUSTO. First considered GLOAT.
- 29a [Conned, or contained] HAD.
- 43a [Superficially cultured] ARTY. I like those economical clues that nail the definition.
- 61a [Flag bearer?] REF. I did think about ROD, so the wordplay worked a little.
Solid.
Max Schlenker’s USA Today Crossword, “Written in the Stars” — Emily’s write-up
Look to the sky today!
USA Today, February 26, 2025, “Written in the Stars” by Max Schlenker
Theme: each themer is contained within ST—AR
Themers:
- 17a. [Underground bunker for tornado season], STORMCELLAR
- 34a. [“Just park here! I’ll walk!”], STOPTHECAR
- 59a. [Instrument in some Hawaiian music], STEELGUITAR
A variety of themers in today’s set. Starting off with STORMCELLAR which stumped me for a bit since growing up we either went to the basement or tornado shelters so this took me a bit to get and even when it started to fill in I thought of “root cellar”, STOPTHECAR also took me a while since “let me out” and “I’ll get out here” were all that I came up with, wrapping up with a sweet STEELGUITAR. Enjoyed the title hint for the theme as well.
Favorite fill: ENCANTO, STIR, TRINKETS, and ARTDECO
Stumpers: KNOBS (thought of “butlers” and “keys” first), DETRACT (only “remove” and “redact” came to mind), and RICO (new to me)
The SE gave me a challenge today, mostly due to my not knowing several clues so the crossings stumped me for a bit though I finally got RICO then ONEIDA and the rest fell into place. The lengthy bonus fill was delightful but some were tricky for me, particularly in that section, though once completed none seemed like real stumpers, just not common words in my day-to-day so took longer to get. Overall a great puzzle with a nice flow, fun cluing and fill!
4.0 stars
~Emily
Rebecca Goldstein’s LA Times crossword, – Gareth’s summary
LA Times regular Rebecca Goldstein gives us four idioms that mean laughing to excess: CRACKINGUP, BUSTINGAGUT, ROLLING/INTHEAISLES and INSTITCHES. The clues add a nice touch as they imagine an open mike night (worst night at the amateur autopsy club) and appropriate professions that fit each idiom.
There was a bit of an odd conversational mini-drama in the longer downs: HIHONEY / WHOSTHERE / ITSME / FANCYTHAT.
Gareth
NYT: This is the kind of Wednesday puzzle I can really appreciate!
After noticing some oddly doubled letters, I found the gimmick to be far from clear. But at around halfway through, when I got to the horse-in-a-bar clue I knew what it had to be (having just read that joke for the nth time quite recently, in Garrison Keillor’s “6th Pretty Good Joke Book” — which, I’m sorry to say, I cannot recommend due to its very large number of both not-good-at-all and/or offensive jokes). Then I tried with some difficulty to fill in the other themers, which did the trick pretty soon.
A cute theme that is not nigh-obvious, and one that when it dawns actually plays a role in the solve, with well-calibrated clues that don’t just say Uncle! at first glance. What more could one ask of a Wednesday puzzle.
NYT: Agree! Very clever theme
. At first the two consecutive Js, confused me, but then I remembered Long John Silver and then it was off to the races. Thanks Dan for a nice Wednesday puzzle!
I liked it a lot, too; in fact, at about the half way point when I had part of LONG JOHN SILVER filled in and I saw the double H’s and double N’s, I went back to “fix” the down entry, which then screwed up a bunch of the acrosses… which made it click. I had already incorrectly entered DADDY LONG LEGS and WHY THE LONG FACE, so I corrected those to the doubled entries. Really nice. I know I’ve seen something like this mechanism before, probably as an across instead? I ended up faster than my average Wednesday time, though I could see that it would be very frustrating if you didn’t grok the theme… and without a revealer, and that every “long” word is also 4 letters long, I can appreciate this possibly working as a Thursday instead with some harder cluing instead.
Clever theme, and fun catching onto it only slowly. Far too many names, but I guess you can’t have everything.
NYT: Way way way too difficult as a Wednesday. HAJI as trekker, TSHIRT as cannon ammo, and COMA as something induced?
Didn’t finish even half of it.
I just wrote someone that I didn’t finish half of it. The combo of clues and tough theme did me in.
I wondered if a Muslim would find the “trekker” clue trivializing, not on account of the Star Trek misdirection, but because it suggested a vacation wilderness hike.
There appear to be no Long John Silver in New York City, although there are several in New Jersey. One of the things that made the puzzle harder and the theme less rewarding.
NYT Spelling Bee: Could not sleep, so arose and worked the Spelling Bee for Wednesday.
It was not fun, just as the past three Bees have not been fun for me.
If this continues, I will stop doing it.
I was up at 4:00 am (normal rising time is around 7:00). Cooked breakfast and went to work on the day’s word games. A better experience with the Spelling Bee for me. Got the pangram pretty quickly and am two words away from the Queen Bee (not sure if I’ll go back to it or not).
But Monday and Tuesday were pretty miserable.
At least there weren’t any obscure food items this morning.
Curious why you found this one so unpleasant.
I was pleased to have a short one with no obscurities for a change – no bizarre Asian stews, for example. Had my QB in roughly 7 minutes, which is a lot better than my normal struggle to reach QB.
I’m not sure of the exact reason, but maybe the paucity of words to make played a role.
Like the previous three days, it felt like a chore rather than fun.
It seems as if a decision was made to make the Bee tougher. Though I generally enjoy tough puzzles, the experiences I’ve had with the last four Bees just weren’t fun.
NYT: Cute theme, made a little tricker by the fact that the base phrases for the themers all fit length-wise – threw me off for a while, until crosses said something was up.
Did not care at all for that SW corner. Movies are just not my thing, but I’m pretty sure I’ve heard of Jean Luc Godard (probably in a crossword). Really embarrassed to admit I don’t know anything about “Jackass.” And I suppose I should be up on Pixar rodents. But ACER?? Just, no!
I don’t think it’s embarrassing to not know anything about “Jackass!” I wear it as a badge of honor. And the clue for ACER was dismal. I didn’t notice until reading discussions that the themers also fit without removing LONG from the phrase, as I filled them in from crosses and noticed the double letters pretty quickly.
“I don’t think it’s embarrassing to not know anything about “Jackass!””
Yeah – that was a bit of sarcasm. :-)
Took me a long time to figure out the trick in the NYT, in large part because DADDYLONGLEGS fits just fine. And there was several clues that held me up: the section with REIN, SETA and TSHIRT was the last to drop. No idea about STEVEO, couldn’t decide between LIEN and LOAN, don’t know the Elvis song…
Yeah, DADDY LONGLEGS was definitely the hardest one to get right.
WSJ: Strongly disagree with Jim’s take and all the low ratings. Lots of cleverness seems to have gone unappreciated here. To wit: the droll clues for the four themers. While Jim is hung up on plausibility, that clearly is not what the constructor is going for in this entertaining puzzle.
Yes, and ONSHORING and CONVERTED RICE are common terms, I believe.
And as you say, the theme answers were intended to be silly.
I live in the town where Polaris snowmobiles originated. Up here, everyone calls them SNOWCATS.
can someone please explain tshirt as “ammo” for modern-day cannon?
Thanks!
They shoot t-shirts into the crowd from air-powered “cannons” at sporting events, etc.
I found this felt more like a Thursday puzzle than a Wednesday. Took me a while to get the double letters because all of the long answers “fit” without them. The crossing answers set me straight.
T-shirt “cannons” (basically, air guns) are used at a lot of sporting events to shoot wadded up souvenir t-shirts into the crowd.
ETA – like Iggy said!
At live events (sports, concerts, etc.), they sometimes use “cannons” to propel rolled up t-shirts into the crowd as freebie souvenirs.
thanks to all who answered my query!