Wednesday, February 26, 2025

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Similarly, the fill goes a little too far with outdated and tired fill.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.