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Jake Halperin’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Where Do I Begin?”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases but clued as if the letters FOR precede the starting words. The revealer is FOR STARTERS (36a, [“To begin…” and what the theme answers need in order to make sense]).
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Where Do I Begin?” · Jake Halperin · Thu., 4.10.25
- 17a. [Take a vow of silence?] (FOR)SWEAR WORDS.
- 27a. [What observant barbers never do?] (FOR)GET A HEAD.
- 46a. [Refrain from showing affection?] (FOR)BEAR HUGS.
- 57a. [Categorically pacifistic?] (FOR)BIDDING WAR.
Nice theme! A fun theme set and a satisfying aha moment when the penny dropped. Fave entry is the barber one for its required re-parsing.
Top bits of fill: UKULELES, a resigned “IT’S OVER!,” GO KARTS, “HURRY UP!,” the STATE LINE, ERSATZ, “WOW ME,” and new-to-me MIDWIT. I love that one, especially the fact that “mid” (meaning “average” or “middling”) is “dim” reversed.
Clues of note:
- 1a. [Mnemosyne is spelled with two]. ETAS. What’s this Stumper-level clue doing here at the start of the grid? One, I don’t know what the word means (turns out it’s the goddess of memory), and two, I’m supposed to know it’s spelled with two ETAS? Right.
- 42a. [Slide rule experts]. UMPS. Good clue.
- 6d. [Unscripted dramas]. ADOS. I realize we’re all getting tired of this entry and the usual entries for it, but this seems a bit of a stretch.
- 13d. [Like most Mario titles]. RATED E. Huh. Today I learned there are two Mario games rated E10+: the huge Super Mario Odyssey, and the much smaller game Mario and Luigi: Dream Team.
Good puzzle. Four stars.
David Steinberg’s Fireball Crossword, “Full Circle” – Jenni’s write-up
Hope everyone is recovered from ACPT and enjoying the week! Happy Pesach Cleaning Frenzy to all who celebrate. I really liked this puzzle and felt very smart when I figured it out.
There are three circles in the grid. Each one represents HOLE in the Down answer and something else in the Across spot. I’m showing you Peter’s grid because it’s neater than mine.
Fireball Crossword, April 9, 2024, David Steinberg, “Full Circle,” solution grid
- 7d [What a driver may swerve around] is a POT{HOLE} crossed by 19a [Words before a confession], I HAVE {TO AD}MIT.
- 18d [Hamster ball features] are AIR{HOLE}S and the crossing is 26a [Cork location] which is REPUBLIC O{F IRE}LAND.
- 28d [Game of throws] is CORNHOLE and that one intersects 47a [Luxury SUV that can weigh over three tons], CADILL{AC E}SCALADE.
And the revealer: 54a [Financially behind, or a hint to this puzzle’s theme], IN THE HOLE.
So we have TOAD in the HOLE, FIRE in the HOLE, and ACE in the HOLE. Very nice! All six answers are solildly in the language and the whole things works delightfully well.
What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: the weight of a CADILLAC ESCALADE. Also did not know that Ian MCSHANE co-starred in the John Wick movies.
Adam Wagner’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up
Difficulty: Easy (6m54s)
Adam Wagner’s New York Times crossword, 4/10/25, 0410
Today’s theme: smol
- GENTLE NUDGE (shove-ling)
- VENDING MACHINE (mart-ini)
- PINKY RING (band-ito)
- FINGER SANDWICH (sub-let)
- GRAIN OF SAND (rock-ette)
Very cute. A bunch of LIL guys. The 4×3 cheater Ls throw me, but otherwise the grid is pretty wide open. Incidentally, hotels in Mexico always offer you an ARRIVAL CERVEZA.
Cracking: I can hear JA RULE‘s voice in my head before I even finish reading U-L-E.
Slacking: TYR, oh you must mean try — no, I meant TYR — oh you must mean try — no, I meant TYR — oh you must mean try — [repeat forever]
Sidetracking: it took me four days to hitchhike from SAGINAW
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Puzzle #1773 Marching Bands — Eric’s Review
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Puzzle #1773 – Bands Answers Highlighted
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Puzzle #1773 4/10/25 — Rows Answers highlighted
I haven’t done many of these Marching Band puzzles and find them difficult to do. “Difficult” ≠ “fun” in my book. I do admire the construction skills this kind of puzzle requires, but I wish I enjoyed them more.
I got the central part without too much trouble, and then the bottom half filled in.
But the top was stubborn, as I was sure the first row started with YOGA. I eventually caved and checked it, only to see that it was wrong. The second row wasn’t much better, as I held on to ETHOS for too long.
I looked up a few answers that in a traditional crossword I’d have been able to fill in from the crosses, things like KENOSHA, CORAL SEA and HALE-BOPP. There’s really not much here that’s difficult to get once you figure out where the words begin and end.
New to me:
- A [Sakura ____ (Japanese cherry blossom festival) . . .] MATSURI Today I learned that “sakura” is Japanese for “cherry blossom” and “matsuri” means “festival” or “celebration.”
- B [. . . Cynthia of “And Just Like That…” . . .] NIXON I know the name but don’t recognize that title.
- C [. . . “Colorfully” named rapper Trippie ___ . . .] REDD
Other things that caught my eye:
- 10 [Item worn to handle sensitive topics? . . .] KID GLOVE I’ve never seen this in the singular.
- 11 [. . . ___ paste (goop for fixing drywall)] SPACKLING I’ve done my share of drywall repair, so this should have been a gimme, but it took a few letters to fill in.
Ricky J. Sirois’ LA Times crossword – Gareth’s summary
Ricky J. Sirois’ puzzle today features five long across entries ending a word that can also be a type of scam. A lot of the elegance is in the clues, which rework each phrase as they really were a type of swindle…
- […swap fries for a salad], SIDEHUSTLE
- […obtain a beefeater’s headgear], HATTRICK
- […swipe someone’s crayons], COLORSCHEME
- […put on a bogus open mic night], COMICCON
- […get down], PILLOWSHAM. This one tried a little too hard IMO.
With five across entries, there’s less room for flashy entries. There wasn’t anything too weird, provided you believe in the existence of EMPATHIC rather than empathetic…
Gareth
Amie Walker and Amanda Rafkin’s USA Today Crossword, “WITNESS Presents: True Crime” — Emily’s write-up
Takes me back to my Serial days!
USA Today, April 10, 2025, “WITNESS Presents: True Crime” by Amie Walker and Amanda Rafkin
Theme: true crime components
Themers:
- 18a. [Documents that might start off some journalistic investigations], PUBLICRECORDS
- 33a. [Tools that allow users to explore crime statistics in detail], INTERACTIVEMAPS
- 52a. [Underlying motives that might be exposed by investigative journalism], HIDDENTRUTHS
A great themer set today with PUBLICRECORDS, INTERACTIVEMAPS, and HIDDENTRUTHS. I needed a few crossings to get each but none were too tough. h/t to Sally for more insights and background on the title reference–Witness is a new subscription-based service from USA Today for all things true crime in a variety of media formats with investigative journalism. My younger self would have loved this service, though now I’m not as interested in true crime. Perhaps some of you are though.
Favorite fill: MASALA, TELETHON, and HERESMYTWOCENTS
Stumpers: AWCOMEON (needed crossings), HIMOM (kept thinking of phrases for buzzing in), and ANDSOAMI (also needed crossings)
This one took me a while today but it didn’t feel long while solving since I really enjoyed it. For starts, it’s a gorgeous grid with fun bonus fill, especially the lengthy ones. Also, there are a lot of additional crime-related entries and cluing throughout, including NOIR and CASES. A delightful solve, even though it was a tougher one for me today.
4.5 stars
~Emily
NYT: 50D and 57A both have “grain”? Why not change the clue at 50D?
Nice catch. But I believe I’ve seen it mentioned a number of times that there’s no crossword dictum requiring that the clues and answers need to avoid that kind of repetition between them.
Agree that it’s not verboten, but it’s certainly inelegant. It would be an easy change to make, so why not make it?
The only dupes that count for the NYT editing team are spoilers. They obviously don’t think that “grain” in a clue telegraphs the punny entry for “Rock-ette,” even though they cross.
That said, I would argue that the GRIST clue is fairly elegant. Rewriting it to omit “grain” would probably make it less so. Some previous examples are “Meal” and “Useful information, metaphorically.” So it’s certainly possible to write a “gluten free” clue for GRIST, but not as helpful a one. I suspect with GRIST crossing two theme entries, a straightforward clue was purposely chosen.
Does anybody TIVO anymore?
NYT: Cute theme. Had JAYZEE instead of JARULE, which slowed me down.
Boo to the MOET/ORE cross. Gettable crosswordese (after a couple tries) but ugly if you don’t know it.
Hand up for JAYZEE before JARULE (this is not my bailiwick).
Knew MOET, and have been to Sweden several times, so that crossing was gimme.
I do know that MOET is a Champagne label, partly and not entirely from past crosswords. So seeing I needed a French luxury good that has four letters and, from the examples in the clue, might or might not be alcoholic, I needed only one crossing letter. The hard crossing for me was JA RULE and JAG.
Clever puzzle indeed. I had to work out the theme answers slowly, which I appreciate, even after I caught on. And of course there’s no revealer apart from LIL.
I put EMINEM in first, then got JAG, so switched to JAYZEE as well. Made that block the last to fall…
Why is BUB = MAC?
A generic nickname for another (usually male) person. Bub, Mac, Pal, maybe Guy or Bro.
Because they are both 1940s slang that nobody uses any more
NYT: Cute theme, which I grasped only after filling in GRAIN OF SAND, FINGER SANDWICH (a phrase I did not know), and PINKY RING from crosses. A pleasant solve until I was naticked at square 4 by not knowing either the rapper or the NFL team, and being unable to envision AC UNIT from the letters I had. (ACidIC —> ACETIC did dawn on me.) So I looked up and learned some pop culture trivia.
All in all, an almost satisfying solve!
NYT: 39a Letters aptly missing from “d__a_ state” = REM
Clue doesn’t parse correctly to me; shouldn’t it read something like “Apt letters missing from…”? REM *is* a dream state; it is not apt that the letters are missing from the phrase.
I think you nailed it!
This reminds me of a one-sentence referee’s report I’ve read about regarding an academic submission: “This paper fills a much-needed gap in the literature.”
I grew up in Cincinnati, and a local radio station there had jokey, fake commercials that we brought to you by “Brute Force, Industries. We create a need, then we fill it.”
Ha!