Monday, May 5, 2025

BEQ 8-something (Eric) [4.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
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NYT 3:00 (Sophia) [3.81 avg; 16 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker 6:43 (Amy) [3.75 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Universal untimed (pannonica) [4.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
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WSJ 5:39 (Jim) [3.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it

Eric Rollfing’s New York Times crossword—Sophia’s write-up

Theme: each theme answer “goes way back”, in different meanings of the phrase

New York Times, 05 05 2025, By Eric Rollfing

• 17a [The DeLorean in “Back to the Future,” e.g.] – TIME MACHINE
• 28a [Furniture item that’s usually next to a drill] – DENTIST’S CHAIR
•  45a [Information for a loan officer] – CREDIT HISTORY
• 59a [“I’ve known them forever!”… or what 17-, 28- and 45-Across can collectively claim?] – WE GO WAY BACK

I thought this was a super cute theme! I liked all the different meanings of “going back”, particularly DENTIST’S CHAIR and TIME MACHINE. CREDIT HISTORY doesn’t do as much for me in terms of either wordplay or as a stand-alone answer, but it’s a high bar to be as good as the other two. I didn’t figure out the connection between the theme answers until I had WE GO WAY BACK, so it was a satisfying “aha” moment for me at the end of the puzzle.

There’s a deceptively large amount of longer down answers in the puzzle than I noticed at first glance. REMIND ME, CAR TITLE, ABRASION, PROM DATE, INHALERS are all fun 8 letter entries. Special shout out to AREA CODE, whose clue of [406, for the entire state of Montana] is a fun fact that I’m actually interested to know! I also liked PET SPA as midlength fill.

Not too much held me up here, which is good on a Monday. I started with “credo” instead of MOTTO for [Words to live by]. I actually saw the musical “Lempicka” on Broadway during its very short run, so I knew TAMARA after just a letter or two – I think that will play much harder for some folks. Clue highlight of the puzzle: [Govt. org. known for its constructive criticism?] for OSHA.

Happy Monday all!

Dan Caprera’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Extra! Extra!”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar(ish) names and phrases with circled letters that spell out well-known American newspapers. These circles are mostly spread out throughout each entry. The revealer is START SPREADIN‘ / THE NEWS (51a, [With 65-Across, beginning of Sinatra’s “New York, New York,” and an apt instruction for this puzzle]).

Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Extra! Extra!” · Dan Caprera · Mon., 5.5.25

• 1a. [Foe of Gandalf] SARUMAN. Well, SAURON didn’t fit. Sun.
• 20a. [Destructive event of Genesis] THE GREAT FLOOD. Herald.
• 28a. [Finally settles] PUTS TO REST. Post.
• 43a. [Some eco-unfriendly coal sources] STRIP MINES. Times.

Maybe not the most exciting of themes, but it did the job for me since it helped me piece together the last theme entry. I wonder what it would’ve taken to get JOURNAL in there somewhere. (Welp, per Onelook.com: The top hit is John Burdon Sanderson Haldane. The top hit most of us have heard of is Joshua Tree National Park.)

I like the NW/SE stacks of 7 since they’re pretty unusual to see on a Monday, and they’re filled quite nicely. There are however some decidedly un-Monday bits of fill sprinkled throughout the grid like EDO and SHIRR. Theme answer SARUMAN is probably new to good number of solvers. But highlights include AS IT STANDS, PASS MUSTER, and AND SUCH.

Clues of note:

• 6d. [Extremely eager]. AGOG. This is the top meaning in a number of online dictionaries I looked at, but it’s not the usage I’m most familiar with. I usually see this word as a synonym for “agape” or “goggling”.
• 44d. [Pre-flat-screen electronic component]. TV TUBE. Tough to clue this one without using TV, but this gets the job done.

Solid puzzle.

Kevin Christian & Andrea Carla Michaels’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Los Angeles Times 5/5/25 by Kevin Christian & Andrea Carla Michaels

Here’s a puzzle that can’t exactly line up with when it’s most timely, but close enough. Why? The revealer at 50A [First leg of the Triple Crown, whose levels of success can be found in this puzzle’s circled letters] is KENTUCKY DERBY, which happened on Saturday; this puzzle has a theme and is too easy to run on Saturday. Too easy for the day before the Derby also, and a little bit harder than one expects on Monday — but today is just about the last day you can run a puzzle like this and have it make sense. Anyway, the circled letters in the three theme entries spell out WIN, PLACE, and SHOW, which are the “levels of success” mentioned in the revealer.

• 20A [Offerings at some cocktail parties] is WINE AND CHEESE, with WIN up front.
• 27A [Improvement that may be based on psychology instead of medicine] is PLACEBO EFFECT, with PLACE up front.
• 44A [Accessory that may coordinate with bath mats] is SHOWER CURTAIN, with SHOW up front.

I liked that WIN, PLACE, and SHOW were somewhat obscured by not being clued in a whole-word sense, although that’s one of the reasons I would call this puzzle a smidge harder than Monday. The other is the longer nontheme entries like FLEW PAST and DISENCHANT, which gave the fill a bit more friction than usual on Monday.

Guilherme Gilioli’s Universal crossword, “Retails” — pannonica’s write-up

Universal • 5/5/25 • Mon • “Retails” • Gilioli • solution • 20250505

I’m a bit vexed here. If I were ascertaining the theme purely from the theme entries, I’d have said they all involved a -TURE suffix. The title and the ‘bonus’ theme entry point to it simply being -RE at the end of both words of each themer.

• 15a. [Major art lover] CULTURE VULTURE.
• 27a. [Twisted metal artwork] WIRE SCULPTURE.
• 41a. [Pre-makeover shot] BEFORE PICTURE.
• 54a. [Seller of sofas and chairs] FURNITURE STORE.

10d [“Yeah, right” (Note: This is a bonus theme answer)] SURE SURE. This eliminates the -TURE hypothesis but not an -URE one. Factette: ur, frequently modified to ura or uro, is the Greek root for ‘tail’.

It’s rather slight as themes go, and as expressed I found the repeated -TURE/-URE endings very distracting. So, some dings.

As for the crossword on the whole, the grid flowed well and the clues were pitched on the easy side, smooth.

• 11d [Word before “Doors” or “Black Keys”] THE. Both are band names.
• 23d [Items dunked in water during a hot dog eating contest] BUNS. I don’t know when this innovation was introduced, but it certainly makes a big difference for the contestants.
• 56d [Devilish cartoon character] TAZ, Looney Tunes’ Tasmanian Devil. I feel quote marks are in order for devilish in the clue. Incidentally, the binomen for the namesake species is Sarcophilus harrisii, with the generic name Greek for ‘flesh-lover’. Their jaws are very strong, somewhat like miniature spotted hyenas, Crocuta crocuta.
• 13a [Curitiba’s currency, or a synonym of “genuine”] REAL. Curitiba is in Brazil; it’s the largest city and capital of Paraná state.
• 33a [Double-__ sword] EDGED. I sometimes like to intentionally mix or compound metaphors, and ‘double-edged Sword of Damocles’ is a good standby.
• 36a [Big Mac fans eschew them] PCS. Veiled capital there. Nothing to do with burgers, or chewing for that matter.
• 57a [Cookie with a flavor inspired by Post Malone] OREO. I really don’t need to learn any more about that. Really.

Kate Chin Park’s New Yorker crossword, “City blocks”—Amy’s recap

New Yorker crossword solution, “City Blocks” – 5/5/25

Themed puzzle today instead of the usual challenging themeless. The colored bits each provide a visual for NYC locations. There’s a CENTRAL PARK in the pink letters within central entry SPARKS. Blue LINE in the top row is a HIGH LINE. Yellow W-A-Y spaced out broadly, BROADWAY. And the green rebus square with TIMES in it, TIMES SQUARE.

Fave fill: PLATELET (we need those), EDNA / FERBER, DENIM clued as [Material that makes up a Canadian tuxedo].

Did not know: [“Oh, Mary!” writer and star Escola], COLE. Cole Escola is nonbinary, uses “they” pronouns, and is up for two Tony awards (best play, best lead actor) for Oh, Mary! They play Mary Todd Lincoln in a comedic spoof.

Four stars from me. Wish it were a themeless today, though!

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1780 — Eric’s review

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1780 — 5/5/25

Happy Cinco de Mayo to those who celebrate! Today’s puzzle is labeled “Hard,” but I found it to be fairly easy. Maybe I knew just enough of the proper nouns to fill in the grid quickly, or maybe there just wasn’t a part of the grid where not being able to get one answer kept me from getting everything around it.

There are triple stacks of nine-letter answers in the NW and SE corners. All those answers are adequate, but only 17A [Further along on a black diamond] DOWNSLOPE really grabbed me, and only because I enjoy skiing. (For those of you who don’t ski, a “black diamond” rating is for a ski trail for experienced skiers and snowboarders.)

I got a quick start with the groaner of a clue at 1A [Crypt o’ currencies] BANK VAULT, then jumped around the grid for the easy answers. Before I knew it, I was finishing up with an easy-to-spot error.

A few of my gimmes:

• 29D [James who wrote “L.A. Confidential” and “The Black Dahlia”] ELLROY I’ve not read either novel, but the film version of L.A. Confidential is a favorite.
• 38D [Busy night for NORAD, shortly] X-MAS EVE Busy because of the Santa-tracking radar.
• 39D [Jedi-in-training] PADAWAN Yes, I’m a minor-league Star Wars geek.
• 55D [What a wahine does] SURF “Wahine” looks like the kind of word that might be considered offensive, but as near as I can tell, it’s a neutral term for a woman who surfs. A typo in SURF — G instead of F — made it a little difficult to see 64A [Crash warning] ROAD FLARE, especially since GLARE is a word. (Does anyone still actually use road flares now that battery-powered lights are so much better than they were?)

New to me:

• • 57A [Singer-songwriter Capaldi] LEWIS He’s been around for several years, so I’m a little surprised that I don’t recognize the name.
  • 13D [Simple synopsis of a screenplay used in pitches] LOG LINE A single sentence, according to Wikipedia.
  • 41D [State flower of Idaho] SYRINGA
  • 49D [Craig who won the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine] MELLO He shared the prize with Andrew Z. Fire, for their work on RNA interference (whatever that is).

Stuff that caught my eye:

• 24A [Giant in “The Princess Bride”] FEZZIK Another good movie, with the wrestler Andre the Giant in that role.
• 33A [Like the film “Sinners”] R-RATED I don’t know a whole lot about that movie, but I’m intrigued. Maybe we’ll see it soon.
• 12D [Twist-on connector in electronics] WIRE NUT Not a particularly exciting answer, but we’ve got electricians doing some work here today.
• 14D [Refined] SMELTED I thought of “elegant and cultured” first, but we’re talking ores here.
• 21D [Liquid element used in cryogenics] NITROGEN I put HYDROGEN first, though I should know better. Fortunately, PEEH isn’t a word, which made it easy to find my error at the end.