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David Alfred Bywaters’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “When in Rome…”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar words and phrases whose final letter is also a Roman numeral. The entire entry should be re-parsed as such. The revealer is IMAGINARY NUMBER (6d, [What ends each of five answers in this puzzle, in a way?]).
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “When in Rome…” · David Alfred Bywaters · Wed., 3.26.25
- 16a. [Top of an old Roman most-wanted list?] SCAMP I. Your number one most-wanted (presumed) criminal is nothing more than a scamp?
- 22a. [Declaration of support for Proposition Five, in old Rome?] I. M. PRO V. Ok, there’s a couple things wrong with this. Why wouldn’t your declaration be “I am pro V”. (Obviously because in our world, “iamprov” is not a word.) But then that creates another problem: Are we just to ignore that both I and M are Roman numerals? So to your average Roman, this statement would be read as “One one-thousand pro five.” Huh?
- 36a. [Tenth in a series of old Roman waterfront pens?] RIVER STY X. I try not to say bad things about a puzzle, but this one just plain hurts.
- 55a. [Perform miserably on the old Roman SAT?] SCORE D. This one I like. Imagining Roman teens taking the SAT is humorous.
- 62a. [Resolved not to cash out at the old Roman casino before winning a cool thousand?] IN FOR M. This one isn’t terrible either.
Oof. As you can tell, this one wasn’t for me despite those last two squeaking by. I just found it more problematic than fun or funny.
The fill is solid though maybe not especially sparkly with MASHED UP topping the highlights. METONYM and AVARICE are nice as well. REUNE is one of those words you only see in crosswords.
2.5 stars from me.
Nathan Hale’s New York Times crossword–Amy’s recap
New York Times crossword solution, 3/26/25 – no. 0326
Fun theme, but maybe a Thursdayish vibe to it? The revealer across the middle is COVER ALL THE BASES, and your baseball bases are covered by black squares in the themers:
- 19A. [“I’ve done this before”], NOT MY first RODEO.
- 25A. [Not so sure about a wedding, say], HAVING second THOUGHTS.
- 54A. [Thoroughly interrogates], GIVES THE third DEGREE.
- 63A. [Rave over, metaphorically], WRITE home ABOUT.
I appreciate a baseball theme that doesn’t require any actual expertise in baseball topics.
Fave fill: JONESED, street preacher PAMPHLETS, the BEER ME/PBR party corner. Not sure that PBR is precisely an alternative to a Sam Adams or a Stella … I’d for sure drink a Stella Artois but not so much the other brews.
Surprised to see 31A. [She, in São Paulo], ELA. Know your Portuguese pronouns, I guess?
An awful lot of abbreviations in the grid, IMO.
3.75 stars from me.
August Miller’s AV Club Classic crossword, “AV Classic Themeless #81”–Amy’s recap
AV Club Classic crossword solution, 3/26/25 – “AV Classic Themeless #81”
Crisp and fresh, a welcome offering from August Miller this week. I’m always happy when it’s time for a themeless puzzle in the rotation.
Fave fill: figurative DERAILS, NON SEQUITUR, FALL EQUINOX (mere days after the vernal equinox), NAHUATL, DRACULA, ANISHANAABE (needed the crossings, wasn’t sure where the double-A was), SEQUOIAS, SIZE QUEEN.
New to me and all gettable with crossings)):
- 53a. [FURSONA, [Habit of creature?]. Persona for someone who’s a furry.
- 40d. [Logic circuit component that outputs true if any of its inputs is true], OR GATE. Or ORGATE?
- 49a. [Emily ___, singer with the band Broken Social Scene], HAINES. Not a huge name.
- 6d. [Harvard astrophysicist Randall], LISA. I’m not up on my astrophysicists.
- 11d. [Netflix kids’ series set during the (fictional) Mechazoic Era], DINOTRUX. They’re trucks and they’re dinosaurs, of course.
Four stars from me.
Leo Tsai’s Universal crossword, “Spring Themeless Week, Puzzle 3” — pannonica’s write-up
Universal • 3/26/25 • Wed • “Spring Themeless Week, puzzle 3” • Tsai • solution • 20250326
A good mix of answer lengths here, and strong cluing. Only two cross references, but they both felt substantial.
- 17a [“Good to know, but wish you’d told me sooner”] GLAD I ASKED. Captures that backhanded quality.
- 23a [Sudden jerk] TWINGE, not TWITCH. The correct answer is significantly better.
- 27a [African antelope] ELAND. There are roughly eighty species of African antelope.
- 29a [Computer code?] IP ADDRESS. Don’t care for the clue here, but at least it has a question mark.
- 41a [“Wii Sports __”] RESORT. Were it not for the crossing, my inclination was to fill in REPORT.
- 44a [Risotto’s drier relative] PILAF. 41d [Kitchen device that isn’t suited for a 44-Across, surprisingly] RICER.
- 50a [Huge figure, or a small figure] ICON. Real life and computerdom.
- 51a [Toy whose “Mr.” was dropped in 2021] POTATO HEAD. Political conservatives were of course outraged.
- 54a [Sushi whose avocado slices resemble scales] DRAGON ROLL. I never knew that was the naming rationale. Not something I’d be likely to order, since I’m not a fan of avocado.
- 2d [“The One and __ Ivan” (novel by Katherine Applegate)] ONLY. Whenever I see such a specific clue for a relatively ordinary entry, I assume the constructor is sharing some personal favorite item or knowledge.
- 8d [Didn’t wake up until noon, say] SLEPT LATE. 10d [“Night, night!”] SWEET DREAMS. 15d [Shows tiredness] YAWNS.
- 22d [Gift-giving game] SECRET SANTA. Is it a ‘game’ or a tradition? Maybe I’d go so far as to call it a diversion?
- 26d [Greenland native] INUK, the singular of the plural INUIT. Here is a collaboration between the (former?) Bulgarian State Radio Women’s Choir (aka “Le Mystere des Voxe Bulgares” aka Angelite) and the Mongolian throat singers band Huun-Huur-Tu, which was used on the soundtrack to the pioneering EPIC (see 27-down) film Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001):
- 51d [Adobe file extension] PDF, portable document format.
Beth Rubin’s USA Today Crossword, “Check Back” — Emily’s write-up
alt=”Completed USA Today crossword for Wednesday March 26, 2025”
USA Today, March 26, 2025, “Check Back” by Beth Rubin[/caption]
CAP
Theme: the last word (aka “back”) of each themer can be appended with –CHECK to form a new phrase
Themers:
- 19a. [Test format], FILLINTHEBLANK
- 27a. [Perfectly fit and well], RIGHTASRAIN
- 57a. [Simulated 3D experience used in some video games], VIRTUALREALITY
Today’s themer set includes FILLINTHEBLANK, RIGHTASRAIN, and VIRTUALREALITY. I needed a few crossings to get each other them but nothing was too tricky. With the theme, we get: BLANK CHECK, RAIN CHECK, AND REALITY CHECK.
Favorite fill: CHAITEA, ILIKEIT, ATEUP, and LETSGO
Stumpers: SLYEST (misdirected and was thinking about arts and crafts), PLANTAIN (needed a few crossings), and MESA (new to me)
A fairly smooth solve today though it took me slightly longer than usual. Everything was fairly crossed though, with lots of delightful cluing and fresh fill.
4.0 stars
~Emily
Zhou Zhang’s LA Times crossword – Gareth’s summary
Zhou Zhang’s LA Times theme is playful, if quite loose. It includes four nouns with exceptionally tortured clues used to link them to [body part to body part] idioms…
- ROYALFLUSH, [Chance to have a heart to heart?]. Because one in four have hearts arranged in a row?
- MAKEUPMIRROR, [Spot to meet face to face?]. Because you see your face in the mirror. This works better than some of the others…
- POTATOFARMER, [Professional who is willing to see eye to eye?}. Because potatoes have eyes??
- PEDICURIST, [Person who will go toe to toe]. Because they work with toes??
Other top entries: BARHOP, EATMYDUST, BARHOP. Still want to know who skips the ‘t’ to make EGOISM…
Gareth
NYT: Liked it a lot, was a little disappointed that there wasn’t some kind of cutesy animation to explain the theme on the solving app. I don’t know if 63/66A is a real standalone phrase without “nothing to” before it, but I don’t really mind.
NYT: Generally fun and not difficult, although I am struggling with “ONEG” being “Downward force on earth, informally.” Maybe it’s the fog of retirement but all I can do with ONEG is some kind of blood type.
And . . . Just like that, it hits. Not O-NEG but ONE-G.
Gotta make that first cup a little stronger I think. :/
1 G is the value of the ordinary force of gravity. Someone accelerated may feel a sensation as if a greater force were pressing back, of several G’s. Cue Einstein on the equivalence of gravity and acceleration and on the laws of physics holding in all reference frames, accelerated frames included (which requires also seeing instead curved spacetime.
Of course, in science and in various classifications you’d probably use a numeral rather than spelling out ONE. I dislike entries such as ONE-A, ONE-L, U-TWO, and ONE G.
NYT: Liked the theme, and the puzzle more generally, but agree with Amy that it seems a little Thursday-ish. And since tomorrow is opening day for MLB, it might have made sense to run it then.
For some reason, I’ve always liked the phrase “not my first rodeo.” Maybe because a good (unfortunately, departed) friend used to use it.
Recently someone said that about me and I thought, “I wish it was my first rodeo”
I’m familiar with the dismissive phrase ‘nothing to write home about’ but does anyone ever use it in a positive sense? How did you like the movie? It was really something to write home about. I can’t imagine that at all.
Also not a fan of the adjectival clue ‘hackneyed’ for CLICHE. It would be CLICHED in my book.
I don’t know what the ‘pre-covenant’ reference means in the clue for ABRAM, but it was easily gettable.
I didn’t care for the upbeat clue to WRITE [home] ABOUT, but I suppose it makes sense as what it must mean taken by itself, without “nothing to,” even if no one ever uses it alone. So one can think of it as clever. I too also struggled to fit “cliched” in, at least before I got the theme and found that square wasn’t included in it. But in all fairness CLICHE as adjective is in the usual dictionaries.
ABRAM in Genesis undergoes a name change upon the “covenant” of his descendants with a higher power.
Evidently my Methodist Sunday School didn’t get into such theological niceties.
FWIW, it’s the subject of Genesis 17 and foundational to Judaism. That chapter sets out God’s convenant.
In a footnote to his translation of the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament), Robert Alter (also an accomplished literary critic) says that the two forms of the name really mean the same thing (exalted father, he explains to those like me who don’t know Hebrew) and the longer form is just a dialectical variant, but Abram had to undergo a name change much like a king assuming a throne.
The additional syllable can be read as “multitude,” changing exalted father to exalted father of multitides.
His wife’s name was also changed, with similar meaning. Originally Sarai, it is derived from “princess.” Her new name, Sarah, also means princess, but the -ai suffix can denote possession, “my princess.” To stress that significance of her becoming the mother of nations, her role is clarified as no longer Abram/Abraham’s princess.
You can find almost anything in dictionaries these days. It’s a conspiracy to enable the firing of proofreaders! Anyway, it would have felt so much more pleasant if clue 1-down had been clued as a noun. I thought the theme was cute, though I had trouble with the last clue of the series.
WSJ: There’s an implied apostrophe in 22-A: I’M PRO V. So it works just fine. That said, I have to concur with Jim that this set of themers is “more problematic than fun or funny.” 36-A is the worst of the bunch. River sty? Yikes.
Okay, I got ya. That I-apostrophe-M didn’t occur to me, especially when both letters are Roman numerals, but I grudgingly admit it works.