Thursday, February 27, 2025

(1.78 avg; 16 ratings) rate it

(3.37 avg; 53 ratings) rate it

(2.61 avg; 9 ratings) rate it

(2.30 avg; 5 ratings) rate it

(3.33 avg; 6 ratings) rate it

(1.68 avg; 28 ratings) rate it

Note: Fireball is a contest this week. We’ll post a review after the submission period closes.

Gary Larson & Amy Ensz’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Make a Long Story Short”—Jim’s review

Theme answers were originally familiar two-word phrases where each word featured a long vowel sound. The vowel sounds have been shortened giving rise to completely different words and therefore phrases, though the resultant entries are still crossword-viable (though wacky).

Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Make a Long Story Short” · Gary Larson & Amy Ensz · Thu., 2.27.25

• 18a. [Baby feature, once the fontanels have closed?] KNIT SKULL. Night school.
• 23a. [Look for one wearing tartan leggings?] PLAID GAMS. Played games.
• 37a. [Fellow who’s spent too much time in the pub?] LIT BRIT. Lite-Brite.
• 50a. [Identifying mark for Bo Peep’s flock?] LAMB BRAND. Lame-brained.
• 59a. [Tie for a traditional hula skirt?] GRASS KNOT. Gracenote.

Good Thursday theme. I was perplexed for quite a while until I sorted out the middle entry, and appropriately had my aha moment (seeing as how it’s based on light bulbs). I was then able to piece together all three middle entries which, as it turns out, feature the same vowel sound in both beginning and ending words. This isn’t the case with the first or last entry, so I was thrown off by this fact. Not a dealbreaker, but as a solver, I think it would have been more elegant, if there was more consistency on this front. However, it probably wasn’t easy finding potential entries for this theme; it’s not one you can easily search on, so you’d have to just pore through many possible phrases looking for ones that could be altered and still make sense. So kudos to our constructors for finding a nice set, even if they might feel a little forced (looking at KNIT SKULL, e.g.).

I love the NE corner stack of MOUNT FUJI and ISLE OF MAN. The corresponding SW corner with RURAL AREA and THE TITANS isn’t quite so sparkly, but it’s solid. New to me is NATES as clued [Buttocks, anatomically] which is pronounced nay-teez and is the plural of natis.

Clues of note:

• 7d. [Record label co-founded by Herb Alpert]. A AND M. Tough to put together with this clue. Would’ve been much easier referring to the Aggies’ school.
• 12d. [Birthplace of the Bee Gees members]. ISLE OF MAN. Huh. Neat little factoid there.
• 21d. [Private instructor, for short]. SGT. Good clue. I waffled between this answer and NCO.
• 31d. [Apt-sounding name for a chef]. STU. I wanted Sue. Anyone else?

Good puzzle. 3.75 stars.

David Steinberg’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up

Difficulty: Easy (9m07s)

David Steinberg’s New York Times crossword, 2/27/25, 0227

Today’s theme: hot POCKETS (What the U’s in this puzzle’s solution represent)

• BI(G LOVE) / BLUE JEANS
• GOT O(PEN) / TROUSERS
• MIC(KEY) / JODHPURS
• PERSE(PHONE) / CORDUROYS

My biggest struggle was trying to remember how the hell to spell JODHPURS, but we got there in one piece.  I was little surprised that the rebus content of each U square is explicitly spelled out in the cross-referenced clue (Pants in which you may carry a pen, Pants in which you may carry a glove, etc.), which made the solve easier.

I noticed after the fact that those POCKETS are the only Us that appear in the grid — good execution.

Cracking: TABERNACLE

Slacking: kinda SRTA

Sidetracking: parsley sage rosemary and THYME

Doug Peterson’s LA Times crossword – Gareth’s summary

Today’s puzzle by Doug Peterson features a common LA Times theme trope: a letter string spans between two parts of several long multi-part answers. Today’s string is COME, and the revealer is a perhaps forgotten early 80’s tune, COMEDANCING. [Kinks hit about the local palais]. It’s one of my father’s favourite songs, but it actually has a poignant edge to it, as it was partly a tribute by Ray Davies to his older sister, who died of a heart attack while dancing aged 31 when he was only 13 years old.

• Entries:
  [Chimp aboard a rocket, say], SPA{CEMO}NKEY. Should we go down the road of the ethics of that?
• [Entertainment systems sold with controllers], GA{MECO}NTROLLERS.
• [Storage area in a dashboard], GLOV{ECOM}PARTMENT
• [Garage employee], AUT{OMEC}HANIC

Other: Been wondering if [Calico’s outdoor enclosure], CATIO has become a mainstream thing…

Gareth

Janice Luttrell’s USA Today Crossword, “Ashfall” — Emily’s write-up

Be sure to take cover!

USA Today, February 27, 2025, “Ashfall” by Janice Luttrell

Theme: each themer contains –ASH– in the downs (aka “fall”ing)

Themers:

• 3d. [Popular poker variant, or a Beyonce hit], TEXASHOLDEM
• 19d. [Songs sung by sailors], SEASHANTIES
• 26d. [Tops that may be worn at luaus], ALOHASHIRTS

Today’s themer set includes TEXASHOLDEM, SEASHANTIES, and ALOHASHIRTS. The second was the easiest for me to fill, though the other two weren’t too difficult, which is always nice for themers. Loved the theme! Plus, –ASH– descends from left to right as well which is icing on this puzzle. Excellent!

Favorite fill: LOBSTERROLL, HEARTSMART, and POPTART

Stumpers: NAMEAPRICE (“name your price” and “name the price” came to mind first), IFEELOK (needed crossings as the cluing just didn’t click for me), and TIMECAPSULE (needed a couple of crossings as I was thinking about archives or other resources though looking back on it the cluing was spot on so perhaps it wasn’t a stumper for most solvers)

Wow! This lengthy bonus fill is unbelievably plentiful and I loved it. Despite the title hint, at first, I questioned whether or not it’d be an across theme instead.

4.5 stars

~Emily

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1761 “No Loose Ends” — Eric’s review

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1761 “No Loose Ends” — 2/27/25

My apologies for posting this so late. I spent the day skiing and everything was fine until just before 3. We were getting off a lift when my husband Les and our ski buddy got tangled up. Les went down pretty hard on his right knee (the one attached to his snowboard). He got a ride down to the bottom on the ski patrol sled. Nothing serious, though he won’t be back on his board for a few days.

I’m not a fan of themes that use Down answers because it’s difficult for me to read the longest answers. Today we get four spanners:

• 3D [Bit of personal growth] SELF-ADVANCEMENT
• 5D [Collection at some liquor stores] BOTTLE RECYCLING
• 9D [Empty billboard’s come-on] PLACE YOUR AD HERE This slowed me for a bit because I’m used to seeing that message without the PLACE.
• 10D [Successfully complete a task, and a hint to the endings of the other theme answers] STICK THE LANDING

The revealer is a phrase that is solidly in the language and clearly points to the bottoms of the three spanners as being the theme material. Probably because I am tired and had a stressful few hours late in the day, it took me longer than it should have to see that the ends of the first three spanners are synonyms for STICK, respectively, CEMENT, CLING, and ADHERE. I like that each of those words is either part of a longer word or two short words smushed together.

I got a bit bogged down in the middle, where ESPNU (the obvious answer) wasn’t playing well with IT GUY and OB-GY. Things got better once I realized it was GYNO and IT PRO, it got much smoother.