Gary Larson & Amy Ensz’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Starter Programs”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases with the letters APP added to the starts. The revealer is APP (62d, [Phone download that’s been installed in the theme answers]).
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Starter Programs” · Gary Larson and Amy Ensz · Wed., 3.5.25
- 17a. [Set a value on a shingling job?] APPRAISE THE ROOF. Raise the roof.
- 26a. [Flight simulator video for landing practice?] APPROACH CLIP. Roach clip.
- 46a. [Seem to be the kind of decks employed by cheats?] APPEAR MARKED. Earmarked.
- 62a. [Submitting admission forms to local colleges?] APPLYING IN-STATE. Lying in state.
Solid, consistent, and with good wordplay. I’ll admit to my naiveté in saying I wasn’t 100% sure what a roach clip was but my suspicions proved correct. (If interested, you can get a “vintage” Jimmy Carter roach clip on eBay. Only $100. (Uncleaned.))
With only four theme answers, I would have hoped for some long sparkly fill, but none is in evidence. I do like SWOLE, VASSAR, and GARBLE though. Nothing too questionable, so that’s a good thing.
Clue of note: 25a. [Corpse, to a cop show cop]. VIC. Rather dark for a clue, no? Especially when there are enough other possibilities.
Solid theme. The fill gets the job done but doesn’t sparkle. 3.5 stars.
Priyanka Sethy & Rajiv Sethy’s AV Club Classic crossword, “Digital Image”—Amy’s recap
AV Club Classic crossword solution, “Digital Image” – 3/5/25
The theme revealer in this 19×16 crossword is 1d. [With 13-Down, what the first parts of five entries in this puzzle visually represent, in order], LEFT / HAND. Well, if you don’t have your palm facing you. The circled words are LITTLE, RING, MIDDLE, INDEX, and THUMB, five fingers. It would have been cooler to have THUMB further down in its entry, as if RETHUMBING or NO THUMBS UP were a thing–the thumb is a lot lower than the pinkie.
Some of these clues taught me things, or fooled me:
- 85d. [Common stocking stuffers], TOYS. I thought I’d outwitted the puzzle, but TOES wasn’t working with the tax LEVY.
- 53d. [Customer support platform with a chill name], ZENDESK. Sounds vaguely familiar but I couldn’t tell you anything it.
- 44d. [State capital home to the Quapaw Quarter], LITTLE ROCK. Historic district with lots of building preservation. The area is named after the indigenous people who preceded the Europeans. I’d never heard of the Quapaw but their story is interesting.
- 20a. [Crew schlepping Marshalls, e.g.], ROADIES. Took me a while to make sense of this. Marshall is a big brand of amps.
- 41d. [Shinobi, by another name], NINJA. Synonym!
Fave fill: MATH PHD, TOTORO, RING LIGHT, VELOUR.
Four stars from me.
Rebecca Goldstein’s New York Times crossword–Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 3/5/25 – no. 0305
Rebecca combines real estate and spookiness, and it comes out rather horrifying! Four terms that don’t relate at all to residential real estate get tied to a HAUNTED / MANSION. I like the ZOMBIE OFFICE (office space that’s been underpopulated since COVID began) and the GHOST KITCHEN ([Restaurant offering delivery and pickup only], I’ve had carryout from a couple of those). Marvel’s DEADPOOL movies are funny but gory. And then there’s the BLOODBATH, clued mildly as [Blowout victory, metaphorically] but still looking horrific in the grid when the theme says to picture it being a literal part of a house. You know the photos in a real estate listing? You don’t want to see a DEADPOOL or BLOODBATH, I promise you.
Fave fill: KOMBUCHA, GAY BAR and the Stonewall INN, TOTAL ECLIPSE, and DOG RUNS. New to me: 29D. [Spinning, feathered lures], ROOSTER TAILS. I checked with my catch-and-release angler husband, though, and he not only knows what these lures are, he’s used them.
3.75 stars from me.
Robyn Weintraub’s New Yorker crossword – Kyle’s write-up
The New Yorker solution grid – Robyn Weintraub – Wednesday 03/05/2025
Thank you Robyn for today’s New Yorker puzzle. The grid is a variant of a standard Weintraub design with a 10/11/12 vertical stack on either side; most of Robyn’s grids in this vein have 70 entries, but this one has 72 thanks to extra blocks above CIRCUS TENT and below HIT A NEW LOW. The long entries generally shine, as usual, with ALL THE FEELS, SPA TREATMENT, “YOU GUESSED IT” and the aforementioned pair all being standouts for me.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the superfluous preposition at the end of HAVE A SAY IN. Such “roll-your-own verb phrases” are nothing new in crosswords, of course, but with the enormous range of vocabulary and the power of modern construction software, constructors don’t need to rely on them as heavily to achieve a good fill.
The plural abbreviation ASSTS also grated a bit. It’s a bit of a necessary evil to achieve the BESTSELLERS / ALL THE RAGE / “YOU GUESSED IT” stack, and at a glance I can’t see an easy replacement for it. What do you think–is the stack worth the cost of ASSTS?
Carly Schuna’s Universal crossword, “Roll With It” — pannonica’s write-up
Universal • 3/5/25 • Wed • “Roll With It” • Schuna • solution • 20250305
- 61aR [Enjoy a great time … or what the starred clues’ answers each do?] HAVE A BALL.
- 17a. [*’50s sitcom featuring a real-life married couple] I LOVE LUCY. Lucille Ball.
- 27a. [*Groovy, funky event] DISCO PARTY. Mirror ball.
- 46a. [*Disney movie with a fairy godmother] CINDERELLA. Royal ball, is that what you’d call it?
Straight-ahead theme that works very well.
- 7d [Rodents that can jump more than a foot high] MICE. There are over 800 species of murids, and several dozen in the Mus genus alone.
- 9d [Irish or Scottish instruments] BAGPIPES. “The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, Northern Africa, Western Asia, around the Persian Gulf and northern parts of South Asia.” (Wikipedia)
- 28d [Height units for newborns] INCHES. I would have said length, but sure.
- 29d [Marine shackle material] STEEL. Less likely to rust?
- 30d [Animal with a nose horn, familiarly] RHINO. Rhinoceros, of course, translates literally to ‘nose-horn’.
- 40d [Soda can opener] POP TAB. I tried POP TOP first.
- 1a [Org. with which to e-file] IRS. Is that still feasible, or has it been eliminated?
- 14a [Catchy song] BOP. Not a term I use in this exact sense.
- 15a [Virus once treated with an iron lung] POLIO. Don’t be surprised if it makes a comeback. It’s possible things are going to get that bad, yes.
- 16a [Like a dog racing through tunnels and weave poles] AGILE. It’s called an agility course, of course.
- 60a [Popular dating app] HINGE. Huh, ok.
Quick solve, the sign of a smooth and well-integrated crossword.
Sala Wanetick & Emily Biegas’ LA Times crossword – Gareth’s summary
I really enjoyed the somewhat loose, yet playful concept in today’s puzzle by Sala Wanetick & Emily Biegas. Four songs are “COVERSONGS” in that involve a cover of some sort… LITTLELIES (as lies can be covers), CARDIGAN (as cardigans cover the body?), DEVILINDISGUISE (as a disguise is a cover), and UMBRELLA (as an umbrella covers you from rain or sun). I also appreciated the way the theme clues were written: […that features a sweater metaphor], […about someone who only looks like an angel], […about friends who stick together rain or shine].
I guessed correctly, but I was less than enthused about the intersections of names ELORDI and DANO as neither is inferrable as a consonant.
Gareth
Zhouqin Burnikel’s USA Today Crossword, “Build a Snowman” — Emily’s write-up
Yes! Let’s build one, although, I’m partial to a snow Totoro.
USA Today, March 05, 2025, “Build a Snowman” by Zhouqin Burnikel
Theme: the first word of each themer slows builds to form YETI— by the final one
Themers:
- 17a. [One half of some genetic pairings], YCHROMOSOME
- 24a. [Quaint store name in tourist towns], YEOLDESHOPPE
- 46a. [“… but it still happened”], YETHEREWEARE
- 56a. [Insulated containers named for a mythical beast], YETICOOLERS
A variety of themers in today’s set build to a delightful end with the theme: YCHROMOSOME, YEOLDESHOPPE, YETHEREWEARE, and YETICOOLERS. With each succeeding themer, a YETI—slowly forms. Not a standard snowman for a front yard but a perfect choice for a crossword one! Loved it!
Favorite fill: LOVEPOTION, GLOWSTICK, and TROLL
Stumpers: BAHT (needed crossings), ONCE (cluing had me thinking about “eras” so also needed some crossings), and TROVE (“chest” and “hoard” came to mind first)
Loved the puzzle and overall flow. Smooth, fairly quick solve for me today, which if great midweek. Nice cluing and bonus fill. The theme and title hint were amazing too!
4.5 stars
~Emily
NYT: That was FUN! I’d have expected it to appear near Halloween, it would have been perfect. I had heard of ZOMBIE OFFICE but not GHOST KITCHEN though it was easily inferable. Shades of Covid that linger in our lives and our public consciousness five years later.
The long downs: TOTAL ECLIPSE and ROOSTER TAILS were terrific. Very cool construction.
Yes, nice NYT, but I spent too long fixing SOLARECLIPSE/TOTALECLIPSE. And PRECESSIONOFMERCURY didn’t fit.
SOLARECLIPSE got me too!
Me as well!
Very enjoyable. Definitely expected something like this around Halloween as well. Also: anyone else feel like the grid itself kind of looks like a skull (especially when you get the highlighted theme-related fill)?
Rebecca, you’re a genius (NYT). I loved this theme – just such a great reveal that had me laughing. Sometimes a puzzle just gets you the right way and at the right time! :)
+1 – this is a great theme!
Just noting that the NYT is a 15×16 grid, so there’s a little extra something lurking in the real estate department.
NYT: Found this to be harder than the average Wednesday NYT puzzles have been any time recently. Had some trouble getting the E, NE, and N regions. It may not have helped that I never heard of GHOST KITCHEN, a ROOSTER TAIL lure, OOO for “Out Of Office”, or ZOMBIE OFFICE. Nor INBOUND AS a verb or DEADPOOL as a superhero.
Yikes, it’s amazing that my puzzle ever got finished at all!
Looking at the puzzle upon completion, I had to check my calendar to see if it was, in fact, late October. (It isn’t.)
WSJ: It’s been a while since I genuinely laughed at loud at the aha moment of a theme. Gary Larson has that special touch (and I’ll keep an eye out for more from Amy too).
I also found the NYT tougher than a typical Wednesday. The NE corner was troublesome – I don’t know what BABKA is, found the connection between ‘small contribution’ and ADDIN (a noun?) hard to figure, and despite playing bridge frequently took a while to come up with BID.
I’ve seen GHOSTKITCHEN before, in another crossword probably, but I don’t understand what it is. Isn’t a place that prepares food for delivery and pick-up only pretty much a standard take-out restaurant? I guess not all take-out places do delivery, but many do.
Most take-out places allow you to pick up your order in person. A ghost kitchen has no storefront, much less dine-in facility, and only does delivery, usually using DoorDash or such services.
I agree with your explanation of GHOST KITCHEN, Martin.
But, to David’s point, the clue says “delivery and pickup only”. I have to agree, that describes a standard take-out restaurant. If you know where to go to pick up your order, it’s not “ghost”.
Yeah, I guess that clue isn’t the best.
I really appreciated USAToday’s crossword puzzle today – Build a Snowman. The initial letters of the long across words progressively spelled out YETI. Why this delighted me? My snow service is, as I write this, clearing the 9″ of snow we removed overnight!
Very clever and skillfully created NYT puzzle. Enjoyed learning about ghost kitchens and zombie offices. Rooster tails I was familiar with are the result of water or snow skiing.