(2.56 avg; 9 ratings) rate it
(4.04 avg; 55 ratings) rate it
(3.00 avg; 3 ratings) rate it
(3.00 avg; 8 ratings) rate it
(2.88 avg; 4 ratings) rate it
(3.68 avg; 19 ratings) rate it
Kareem Ayas’ New York Times Crossword “Course Correction” — Eric’s Review
Kareem Ayas’ New York Times Crossword “Course Correction” — 4/6/25
I’m not the most observant person, but even I couldn’t miss the unique features of today’s grid: Six areas of nine black squares, each of which has a grey circle and two answer slots running through with a lighter grey shading. Three Across clues and three Down clues are marked with asterisks and make no sense until you figured out the trick, which is explained by the revealer at 69A [Intense cycling sessions … or what you must do to complete the answers to this puzzle’s starred clues] SPIN CLASSES
The three letters in the grey circles — all of which make sense as part of one entry, and all of which are shorthand references to high school classes — need to rotate 90º to become part of the other entry and to make that entry fit the clue:
- 18A [*”Oh, what’s the point?”] WHY DO I BOTHER/5D [Genre of the 2024 film “Bob Marley: One Love”] BIOPIC Biology
- 38A [*Voids]/ EMPTY SPACES/12D [Post-mortem order] AUTOPSY Psychology
- 53A [Descendants] SCIONS/31D [*Part of the funnies page] COMICS Science
- 83A [Bestow, as a quality] IMPART/51D [*Like restaurants in a famed dining guide] ZAGAT RATED Art
- 99A [*Number with 18 zeros] QUINTILLION/91D [Chinese fruits with leathery rinds] LITCHIS Literature
- 122A [*Recap] BRIEF SUMMARY/102D [Pita dip made from chickpeas and tahini] HUMMUS Music
This is the kind of theme that makes me wonder how the constructor came up with the idea and then wonder how in the world they were able to pull it off.
Solving online, the circles spun when I completed the puzzle, making all the answers clear. If you solved on paper, go online and see the animation. It’s not the most eyecatching animation the New York Times crossword has featured, but it does show the solution clearly.
As I usually do when faced with a puzzle that doesn’t make sense, I focused at first on the answers I could be sure of, things like 6D BOTH, 7D ATRIA and 8D SHIRLEY. Answers like those got me through the grid fairly quickly, despite leaving large gaps. It wasn’t until I hit BRIEF SUMMARY and HUMMUS that the spinning trick hit. (I can’t see the word HUMMUS without remembering the food truck I saw in Austin a few years ago with the sign advertising “humus.” Spelling matters, folks!)
I have to thank Mr. Ayas for 92A DARK ALE. I’m almost as tired of seeing IPA in crossword puzzles as I am seeing it on beer menus. I’ll take a nicely balanced brown ale any day — or a porter or stout if the weather is right.
I’d grown a little weary of the Sunday New York Times puzzles — too often, the themes were marginal at best — but so far this year, I’ve been impressed by those puzzles. I hope they keep it up.
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post Crossword “Fork In the Road” — Matt’s Review
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post Crossword “Fork In the Road” solution, 4/6/2025
Hello from ACPT weekend! If you’re here or following online, I hope you’re having a good time.
This week’s puzzle from Evan has circles along diagonals, car makes in parens at the end of some clues, and no obviously theme-length entries in the grid. A key realization here is that each entry with a car make tag ends in a circle, and needs more space than it has in its clued spot.
That space is found by following the circled path up or down to continue on another entry, and the circled letters contain a model from the make indicated in the first clue:
- 23a [Places where people may be caught speeding (Dodge)] RADAR TRAP
- 32a [Rots (Kia)] DETERIORATES
- 44a [Object collecting loose leaves (Opel)] TEASTRAINER
- 49a [Implements with thermosensitive ink (Mercury)] ERASABLE PENS
- 58a [Campaigning in small towns, say (Geo)] BARNSTORMING
- 91a [Event that may feature a king and queen (Dodge)] PROM NIGHT
- 97a [Don’t be a stranger! (Ford)] KEEP IN TOUCH
- 117a [Sacred First Nations monument (Ford)] TOTEMPOLE
A fun get-together of car models we see often in puzzles, with a few – the Mercury SABLE and Ford TEMPO that were new to me.
A revealer in the lower left highlights that these eight entries also sort themselves into four pairs, the intersections of which spell RAMP, nicely nodding to the up/down aspect of the theme.
Other highlights: [Measuring up?] even with a question mark is a tricky, twisty clue for HEIGHT that was satisfying to gain confidence in // I’m always pleased as a baseball fan to see OREL Hershiser in grids, even as he becomes less frequent (long) after his retirement // I like the echoed clues [“Wild” thing of a drawing game, e.g.] for UNO CARD and DEUCE // [V six or V eight] for GEESE was a nice play on V6 and V8 engines
Will Nediger’s Universal Sunday crossword, “A++”—Jim’s review
This puzzle is by none other than Will Nediger who, as I write this, is currently in second place at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament after seven puzzles. The finals are about to begin…
The title is a nice hint that we’re adding two A’s to familiar phrases to create new wacky terms. There’s a main revealer at 110a [Repeatedly … or, when read differently, a hint to this puzzle’s theme]: AGAIN AND AGAIN or rather, A-GAIN AND A-GAIN. Cute!
Universal Sunday crossword solution · “A++” · Will Nediger · 4.6.25
- 21a. [*Steam room that’s open late?] MIDNIGHT SAUNA. Midnight sun.
- 37a. [*”Yeah, I like ChatGPT and Midjourney too”?] “AGREED, AI IS GOOD.” From the Wall Street quote, “Greed is good.” I don’t know that there are many people who would agree with either statement.
- 42a. [*Hoisting the mainsail, dropping anchor, etc.?] SEA ACTIONS. Sections.
- 63a. [*Member of a polycule?] SHARED DEAR. Shredder. This one’s a little bit of a stretch.
- 65a. [*Lavish meal from Pizza Hut or Taco Bell?] CHAIN FEAST. Chinfest.
- 86a. [*Song such as “Ode to the Merino”?] SHEEP PAEAN. Sheep pen.
- 88a. [*Stuck on the shore, just like the other boats?] AGROUND AS WELL. Groundswell.
Pretty good, yeah? Some interesting finds and unexpected re-parsings that kept me engaged throughout.
Looking at the long fill, I’m liking LANCE BASS, FLAMINGOS, a SLY WINK, EMPATHS, GO ALL IN, and BEST BET. Fill was smooth throughout allowing for a quick solve, though the CAPOS/SOSA section slowed me down a bit.
Clues of note:
- 22d. [Popular stocking stuffer]. TOY. I’ll admit that my first instinct was to put TOE here.
- 54d. [Artfully avoid]. DODGE. I see what they did here. A subtle extra hint in the clue.
Okay, I’m off to watch the finals. Good luck to all the finalists! 3.5 stars for this puzzle.
One of the best Sunday NYT puzzles!
LOTSA fun in the NYT today! worth noting that not only do the unrotated entries work to make valid entries: HUM+MUS , etc. BUT each of the two parts of those entries is itself a valid crossword entry. oh my god i just realized they’re all (school) classes that spin. wow. an ORCA candidate for sure
Damn I was a dry for humor and never figure it out.
NYT: I solved it, thought it was very cool that you had to SPIN the cycle wheel to get an answer to the starred clue that makes sense. But wondered about the revealer. I got SPIN but why CLASSES? It was only after I got here that I realized that inside the wheels were abbreviations for classes! That elevated it an entire notch!
Truly clever and impressive.
NYT: Speaking of Eric’s comment about a food trucks- This past week, I was in cab from LGA to NYC and the cabbie (an older gentleman originally from Columbia) stopped in the middle of traffic right at the corner of 43rd and 6th and hollered in Spanish. A woman came running from the food truck and handed him something. He turned back to me an said: “You gonna like this!” And handed me a little bag with “NUTS 4 NUTS” on it, filled with warm peanuts covered in sugar. It was delicious!
He and I had been chatting about being immigrants, and I guess this was his gesture of solidarity. Totally made my week.
There are some awesome people in this world.
Great story! Great cab ride, too!
NYT: Wow!
I liked the NYT a lot, although I filled it differently: I just shifted from reading across, say, to reading up the letters in the nearby down entry before resuming across. I took that act as changing direction and so spinning. (Of course, when needed I read the down clue, shifting to three letters from the nearby across.) At least I think that’s what I did, as I finished it Saturday.
HUCKS made a lot more sense once I looked online for it.
NYT: This was fun, with an innovative theme that was pretty easy to suss out, with fresh clueing. The one thing that detracted from the fun was the totally unnecessary animation at the end, which felt a bit condescending, as though the solver needed to have the theme explained. I also agree that the revealer (also totally unnecessary!) felt off, since “classes” seems to have nothing to do with the theme.
Each rotating three-letter group is shorthand for a high school or college class. That seems to have plenty to do with the theme.
Thanks. (But I never count or take the trouble to notice anything that doesn’t enter into my solving experience.)
I get that. I frequently miss stuff that is not relevant to my ability to solve a puzzle.
Judging from the comments on Wordplay, many people hadn’t encountered the spelling LITCHI. Some used the LIT class to figure out LITCHI.
Ah, thanks, Eric and good catch. I saw the course names but didn’t connect it to the revealer. (I just took the latter to mean that the puzzle would be enough hard work that it’d be teaching us something.)
You’re welcome.
By the way, I saw your comment about your CBGB days. I have to say that changed my mental image of you at least a little.
I’m not familiar with the term CAMP SHIRT in any other sense than this one:
https://clipart-library.com/img/1768393.jpg
Is the meaning as clued an East Coast thing? A little online research shows examples of both uses, but honestly, the intended one was completely unknown to me.
The clue contemplates something like this:
https://www.landsend.com/products/mens-short-sleeve-linen-hawaiian-camp-collar-shirt/id_391980?attributes=10526,43307,43322,43868,44255,44967,45024
I used to have a bunch of these, but after 30 or 40 years, only a few still survive (and still fit).
Wow! After reading the comments here, I feel even dumber than I did while working the NYT puzzle. I have no idea what the puzzle is about, how to suss it out or how to correctly enter the fill. Overkill of the thematic gimmick. Just wow.
BTW, I wasn’t able to type anything in the darkened squares.
NYT was very clever, although there were several things I didn’t know: CAMPSHIRT (see above), HUCKS, MAGNA (tiles), and of course ERHU.
SPYBOT sounds like a bad thing to have on your computer, not something that will root out bad things. Not a brand name I would have chosen.
I had the same thought about the name, but I do have the free version and run it weekly.
By far, this is one of the cleverest puzzles I can remember. The theme came readily to me, most likely because I have been a high school English Literature teacher for 34 years. I hope even the nitpickers among us will recognize the brilliance of this puzzle. Congratulations, Mr. Ayas.
LAT: Patti Varol is one of the last holdouts who still clues AHI as “Sushi fish.” I really hate that clue. Why is SOLE never “Sushi fish”?
Hmm… I don’t know that I’ve had SOLE for sushi, but that may speak to the limited sushi menus I’ve encountered, so it sounds interesting :-)
I’ve had flounder. I believe it was called hirame
My point is that there are a lot of “sushi fishes.” AHI is used because it sounds Japanese. It’s not. It’s Hawaiian. It’s also not considered a good sushi fish. Bluefin tuna, or maguro, is, but yellowfin or bigeye (the species marketed as ahi from Hawaii) are inferior.
It’s a clue based on ignorance.
WaPo had it clued as “Poke bowl fish” which is better :-)
Yep. It’s been a crusade of mine for years, and most editors have been persuaded. Evan is a recent convert. The Times occasionally slips, but the last 15 AHI clues have been sushi-free.
I love poke clues, because they reference the word’s real origin. BTW, a’hi is the Polynesian word for “fire.” Traditional outrigger fishing boats would have the line get very hot when a large tuna was hooked, so the fish were given this honorific. It’s such a great word that treating it as faux-Japanese seems insulting to both cultures.
NYT, I get that the spin letters are classes, but what class in the SE corner is SUM or MUS?
Music.
WaPo: great puzzle from Evan! Fun multiple layers to the theme; some makes I knew, and others I didn’t. I caught on relatively quickly. It’s also great that all of the pieces are still valid crosswords, even with the diagonal “ramps”. Nicely done!