Jonesin’ 5:25 (Erin)
LAT untimed (Jenni)
NYT untimed (Sophia) 
[3.58 avg; 6 ratings]
The New Yorker untimed (pannonica) [3.75 avg; 4 ratings]
Universal 5:05 (Eric)
USA Today tk (Sophia)
Xword Nation untimed (Ade)
WSJ 5:29 (Jim) 
[4.17 avg; 3 ratings]
Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Double, Double” — the powers of two compel you! – Erin’s write-up
Jonesin’ solution 5/6/25
Hello lovelies! The fun multiplies in this week’s puzzle, as we replace the word DOUBLE with increasing multiples of two.
- 17a. [Eyeglass prescription effect times 4?] QUADRUPLE VISION (double vision)
- 31a. [Saying that has about 8 different meanings, some of them dirty?] OCTUPLE ENTENDRE (double entendre)
- 39a. [Con game run 16 different ways?] SEXDECUPLE CROSS] (double cross)
- 54a. [Hybrid letter with 32 peaks that just looks like a long zigzag?] DUOTRIGINTUPLE U (double u)
Other things:
- 48d. [“Rock Me Amadeus” musician] FALCO. I love the original German-language version of this song. Fight me.
- 25d. [“The Last of Us” star Pascal] PEDRO. This man is a treasure and should be protected at all costs. Fight me again.
- 28d. [“Seinfeld” character portrayed by Patrick Warburton] PUDDY. This show went off the air 27 years ago this month.
Until next week!
Dan Zarin’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Never a Sour Note”—Jim’s review
Now there’s a title that gave me a good laugh…after I finished the grid and grokked the revealer. I have never once claimed to be above sophomoric fart humor.
What? Oh yeah…the theme. Theme answers are musicians or musical groups whose names end in a fruit. The reveler is THE MUSICAL FRUIT (36a, [Beans, according to a playground rhyme, and a clue to 17-, 25-, 46- and 57-Across]).
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Never a Sour Note” · Dan Zarin · Tue., 5.6.25
- 17a. [Singer of “Johnny B. Goode” and “Maybellene”] CHUCK BERRY.
- 25a. [Band with the 1977 album “Electrified Funk”] WILD CHERRY.
- 46a. [Singer with the 1996 multiplatinum debut album “Tidal”] FIONA APPLE.
- 57a. [Band whose video for 1993’s “No Rain” featured a girl in a bee costume] BLIND MELON.
I love this theme! Kudos to our constructor for finding the grid-spanning revealer and building a theme around it. And kudos to Mike Shenk for running what is essentially a fart-based puzzle. I’m still chuckling.
I never learned the “Beans” rhyme on the playground as the clue suggests. I learned it from my mom when I was a kid. What about you?
The fill is almost as lovely with sparkly long Down stacks in the NW/SE: MAHARISHI with BRUNETTES and FUNICULAR with LIKE A ROCK. Other goodies: DRUM PAD, STYMIED, and SIT IDLE. Didn’t know DREA De Matteo, and GMAC probably should be retired (else younger solvers might think it’s a Google Mac).
Clues of note:
- 20a. [One of the two three-letter colors in the Crayola 64 box]. TAN. 23a. [The other of the two three-letter colors in the Crayola 64 box]. RED. Cool way to connect two otherwise unconnected entries in the grid.
- 2d. [Hindu sage]. MAHARISHI. I tried MAHARAJAH at first and I bet a lot of other people did as well, but that’s a royal title (equivalent to a prince).
- 45d. [Something to do behind bars?]. TEND. Do you do the Minute Cryptic clue each day? The clue from the other day was “More cops moving someone behind bars? (8)”. After initially thinking of criminals and convicts, my mind went to bartenders as our clue today does, but that weren’t it neither. First commenter with the answer gets a thumbs-up from me. (BTW, I highly recommend the Minute Cryptic if you want to learn cryptic cluing with great explanations.)
Wonderful puzzle. 4.5 stars from me.
There’s a lot of music in this grid when you include the theme answers, ELO‘s “Mr. Blue Sky” and LIKE A ROCK. But I gotta go with this one (I love the sweat-stained janitor guy):
Tarun Krishnamurthy’s Universal Crossword Puzzle “Spread Holiday Cheer” — Eric’s review
Tarun Krishnamurthy’s Universal Crossword “Spread Holiday Cheer” — 5/6/25
The beginning of May seems like an odd time to run a holiday puzzle (unless the holiday is Cinco de Mayo), but this is only marginally holiday-themed.
Four of the five theme answers contain circled letters, with a centrally-place theme revealer:
- 17A [Clown’s hairpiece] RAINBOW WIG Ring
- 24A [Mincemeat dessert] CHRISTMAS PIE Chime
- 37A [1996 holiday comedy, or a theme hint] JINGLE ALL THE WAY
- 47A [Indiana Fever star] CAITLIN CLARK Clink
- 58A [Great minds may do it] THINK ALIKE Tinkle
The circled letters are sounds a bell makes, “spread” out by having at least some of those letters separated by uncircled letters.
It’s a serviceable theme, though not one that I relied on much. Maybe if I hadn’t been familiar with the WNBA star, but even I pay enough attention to sports to recognize Ms Clark’s name.
The grid provides only for two long Down answers, and unfortunately both are ho-hum:
- 9D [Quarrel] ARGUMENT
- 38D [Soldier-to-be] ENLISTEE
There are a few more interesting pieces of fill that you don’t frequently see:
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- 1A [Removed with one’s chompers] BIT OFF
- 22A [They may help you make your move] U-HAULS
- 27A [Symbolic hand gestures in Hinduism] MUDRAS Either I sort of knew this or my last letter was the first vowel, and I knew MADRAS was wrong. Some might consider this a challenging word for an early-week puzzle, but the crossings are all gentle.
- 64A [Steamy] EROTIC
Enrique Henestroza Anguiano’s New York Times crossword—Sophia’s write-up
New York Times, 05 06 2025, By Enrique Henestroza Anguiano
Hey folks, Sophia here covering for the NYT Tuesday slot. Today’s theme re-parses the phrase COTTON CANDY into “COTT ON C AND Y” – that is, the string “cott” sits directly on top of the string “cy”, three different times in the puzzle. That’s 6 constrained entries, plus the revealer of COTTON CANDY itself! An impressive crossword construction CRAFT to be sure.
I liked all of the answers Enrique chose for the COTTs and CYs. SPACY is the shortest at only 5 letters, but all the rest made great stacks. APRICOT TART/FALLACY and COTTAGE CHEESE/ICY STARES were fun and I liked how the COTT/CY were in very different parts of the words, it kept it from feeling repetitive. I had heard of “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”, but I didn’t know GIL SCOTT-HERON‘s name.
The puzzle is slightly oversize, 15×16, so if you take a little longer than average to solve that’s probably why.
Fill highlights: HIT PARADE, STOOGES, ON TILT, STYMIE (I just like that word). POUTY LIPS is nice too but I really wanted “duckface” there
Clue highlights: [Tank top?] for GAS CAP, [O.T. high point?] for MT SINAI (O.T. = Old Testament – such a sneaky way to work in the abbreviation!)
Janice Luttrell’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Jenni’s write-up
I got the first two theme answers and had no idea what the connection was. The revealer was cute and the theme hangs together. Yes, I went there.
Los Angeles Times, May 6, 2025, Janice Luttrell, solution grid
- 17a [Driver’s concern while merging] is the BLIND SPOT. I had a conversation with someone recently who wanted to buy their teenager an old car when they got their license so they “would really learn to drive” and not rely on all the new-fangled technology like blind-spot detectors and back-up cameras. I was grateful my kid learned to drive with all the safety tech in the five-year-old car I handed down to her because, well, safety.
- 24a [Hairstyle that frames the face] are CURTAIN BANGS.
- 51a [Exposure-determining setting, in photography] is the SHUTTER SPEED.
- 63a [Mature growth in backyard] is a SHADE TREE.
And the revealer: 38a [Storefront merchandise displays, or what the starts of 17-, 24-, 51-, and 63-Across are] is WINDOW DRESSINGS. The plural bothered me a bit because I don’t think WINDOW DRESSING is a collective term that applies to all the windows of a store. It didn’t bother me enough to ruin my experience.
What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that Robert DeNiro is a co-owner of NOBU.
Elizabeth C. Gorski’s Cr♥ssw♥rd Nation puzzle (Week 727), “It’s a Pun Deal!”—Ade’s take
Crossword Nation puzzle solution, Week 727: “It’s a Pun Deal”
Good day, everyone! Hope you’re having a good day and you’re coming across those May flowers in full bloom these days. Although, at least yesterday, those April showers have spilled over into the new month up here in the Northeast.
We have a straightforward theme of phrases turned into puns by replacing words in the original phrase with other rhyming words. Of course, pulling off this sort of grid and making it feel enjoyable is the clueing, which might be dated for any younger solvers with some of the answers but was down my wheelhouse.
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- NUDE RANCH (17A: [Western vacation spot for folks who aren’t into clothes?]) – Dude ranch
- THE NERDY DOZEN (23A: [War film about twelve adorkable geeks?]) – The Dirty Dozen
- HANDSOME NEVILLE (35A: [Attractive “Tell It Like It Is” singer Aaron?]) – Handsome devil
- NARC CHOCOLATE (48A: [Confection created by a moonlighting DEA agent?]) – Dark chocolate
- DAPPER NAN (58A: [Smartly-dressed Bobbsey twin?]) – Dapper Dan
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Only real hangup was wanting to put amoeba (or some form of that word) where MONADS ended up being (6D: [Simple organisms]). Oh, and EMDEN as well because the second one sees German city in a crossword grid, Essen always pops into the mind first (42D: [German seaport]). That, and seeing German seaport makes me think of the few days I spent in one of the most amazing cities I’ve been to, Hamburg, and falling in love being by the Elbe. Can’t complain too much about the earworm-causing entry for today’s grid, which is BONITA (22A: [Madonna’s “La Isla ___”]). I locked in my entry for the next graph before making the link from BEACONS to the mascot/nickname change that recently took place at Valparaiso University, as they got rid of the “Crusaders” nickname in favor of Beacons (43A: [Lighthouse lights]). Given the gory nature of the actual Crusades, that was a good move, Valpo!
“Sports will make you smarter” moment of the day: FEW (33D: [Hardly any]) – It would not be a stretch to call Mark Few, the current head men’s basketball coach at Gonzaga University, the best men’s college basketball coach today. In a quarter century, the school’s profile has skyrocketed because of Few’s success, leading the men’s basketball team to 26 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances (a streak that’s still active), the last 25 as head coach after he was an assistant in the 1998-99 season. Few has led the Bulldogs to the national championship game in 2017 and 2021.
Thank you so much for the time, everybody! Have a wonderful and safe rest of your day and, as always, keep solving!
Take care!
Ade/AOK
Erik Agard’s New Yorker crossword — pannonica’s write-up
New Yorker • 5/6/25 • Agard • solution • 20250506
Unfortunately I have an upcoming appointment and won’t be able to submit a full-length assessment until later on in the day.
Very quickly then: even though this was easier than I prefer for the advertised ‘moderately challenging’ level, I really enjoyed it because the cluing was spot-on, from the updated 24a [Once predominant wood in baseball-bat production] for ASH to the punny 21a [Stop-motion command?] BE STILL to the breezy 32a [“Nothing to it!”] for EASY, everything felt perfectly pitched and engaging. Even the entries that were new to me, such as 20a [Disability-representation framework whose namesake creator was inspired by Alison Bechdel] FRIES TEST and 57a [R. & B. singer-songwriter with the albums “Shea Butter Baby” and “Age/Sex/Location”] ARI LENNOX, had very amenable crossings that made the whole affair a snap. Aside: gotta love the house style guide that renders R&B with spaces and periods!
- 3d [“Sad, really”] IT’S A SHAME.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2.5 stars
NYT: The stretch to parsing the theme was too far for such an unfulfilling reward. SW corner clues and answers pretty dense for a Tuesday. Liked the GS-H shout-out and the GAS CAP clue/answer.
Puzzle: WSJ; Rating: 4.5 stars
Fun puzzle which gave me a laugh.
I never expected to discuss nursery rhymes about flatulence in this community. Growing up, I knew the rhyme as: “Beans beans, they’re good for your heart; the more you eat them, the more you fart.” I learned today that it’s actually: “Beans, beans, the musical fruit; the more you eat, the more you toot.” I’m wondering if anyone else learned it the way I did. Perhaps it’s a strictly millennial thing?
I learned it that way first, too. I’m most assuredly not a Millennial
We have dried beans most Mondays and this ditty makes an occasional appearance
I learned both versions at the same time growing up, except the fist was a little more streamlined (same as the latter), which I feel scans better: “Beans beans, good for your heart / The more you eat the more you fart”
I learned pannonica’s version, and I didn’t realize there was another version. So it didn’t hit me that the clue was talking a out something I more or less knew. I was puzzled. Indeed, I’m kind of surprised there’s a “cleaner” version, since I assumed its whole point was to be halfway offensive.
In TNY, I didn’t know the crossing of FRIES TEST and CAP SHEET, but it was east enough to guess. Not so the crossing of NOPES out and MINARI, which I had to leave unfinished. (REESE down there was another reasonable guess.)
@Zach et al – I learned both versions (fart and fruit), but as far as I know, only the first one had two more lines: “The more you fart, the better you feel/ So eat some beans at every meal.” (Is there also one for fruit?)
Yes with “toot” instead of “fart”.
BTW, the word “fart” was never used in the polite household run by my mother, so once I started hearing it in the wild, I felt scandalized. The term she used and had us using was “blow out” which I thought everyone used. Needless to say this caused much amusement when the 1981 John Travolta film of that name came out.
Never in a million years did I think I’d be sharing this on this site.
The version I learned was the “good for the heart” (minus the “them” that throws off the meter in the second line).
Perhaps it’s regional. I grew up in Burlington, Vermont; my husband is from southeast Texas and learned the “musical fruit” version. (We’re both Generation Jones.)
I’m wondering if this is a regional thing. Today is the very first time I’ve seen the “good for your heart” version, I’m on the West Coast.
My mother taught me
Bean, beans,
Good for your heart,
The more you eat them the more you fart,
The more you fart the better you feel,
So eat your beans with every meal.
Pretty sure I’ve heard it east and west.
This is actually the way I heard it first. I was on my phone earlier and didn’t provide additional detail. So add south to the list.
What a topic for Fiend to connect on!
Now that I’ve read the explanation, I very much appreciate the NYT puzzle. I was already familiar with the riddle about spelling candy with only two letters (c and y), but I didn’t see the connection while doing the puzzle. Wake up, Barry!
WSJ – the Minute Cryptic answer was “composer”. My thumbs-up may be sent to my home address.
👍🏾 Sorry. I’m all out of stamps.
Interesting to learn it exists. New to me. I did the Saturday WSJ variety, though, which this week was a cryptic (my favorite type of puzzle).
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
Funny to learn last night in Jeopardy! the poker meaning of TILT and then see it in today’s NYT. Always a treat to see your name in the middle of a puzzle too. Thanks!
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
The punny theme is groan-worthy, but the grid is beautifully filled.
It took me a couple of moments to understand the theme, but when I did I thought it was so silly that it was admirable.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3 stars
The theme is silly in a good way but I’m not really a fan of the fills. Or maybe it’s the clues, which is the job of the editor.
Like, MAIN clued as “ocean, poetically”? Is it appropriate for a Tuesday?
Not in my book. A similar clue for MAIN came up years ago, and I had no idea what the reference was. Another commenter explained that there’s a poem or sea shanty that includes the phrase ‘bounding main,’ which apparently every American learns in kindergarten or something. A strange bit of crosswordese, IMO.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
MAIN as clued right on top of APPA moves this puzzle from Tuesday into Wednesday in my book. That being said, this would have been a great Wednesday puzzle. I had no idea where we were going with the COTT / CY until the revealer. I was also impressed that the COTT was symmetrically placed on top of the CY each time.
The poem (and song) is actually English.
Unknown in my primary school, alas.
There’s also this:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Spanish%20Main
Puzzle: The New Yorker; Rating: 4 stars
As always, I enjoyed Erik’s New Yorker puzzle. I do miss the high-level trickery in his clues when he’s slotted on a Monday, though.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
Note: You can still rate a puzzle without writing a comment, as long as you put some text in the comment box. We do all appreciate context for a rating, though.
Little help? What is the best source of easy-to-access, high-quality cryptic crosswords nowadays. I grew up doing them in Games Magazine after I’d done most everything else, and I’d always think, Man, I love these! I should do these first next time! But then I’d forget the revelation by next month.
I’m a big fan of Out of Left Field cryptics:
https://www.patreon.com/leftfieldcryptics
Thanks!
Puzzle: WSJ; Rating: 4 stars
I’m less of a fan of fart humor than Jim, but I do like music. CHUCK BERRY was the only theme answer that was a gimme, but I recognized the others well enough to have filled them in without too many crosses.
The overall fill is really nice — STYMIED, FUNICULAR, MAHARISHI are all words I don’t remember seeing in other puzzles.
In answer to Jim’s question about where I learned that rhyme, I’m pretty sure my Texas-born husband taught me the “musical fruit” version. Where I grew up (Burlington, Vermont), the rhyme began “Beans, beans, good for your heart/The more you eat, the more you fart.”
As much as I laughed during the campfire scene in “Blazing Saddles,” I was irked by the fact that the conversion of beans into flatus doesn’t happen as quickly as the movie suggests.
Gotta figure that wasn’t their first bowl of beans :)
Good point.
I’m hereby petitioning to make “This wasn’t my first bowl of beans,” a standard American idiom.
Seconded, with provisional amendment, as:
“This ain’t my first bean bowl”
We mustn’t forget those lovely beignets, Nuns’ farts. They’ll always be the French.
(While we call them French for “lions’ teeth,” the French call dandelions “pee in bed.” If you’ve ever spent an hour digging them out of a lawn, you too will salute the French.)
Puzzle: The New Yorker; Rating: 4 stars
Nice puzzle and in my wheelhouse so quicker than usual for a Tuesday.
Puzzle: WSJ; Rating: 4 stars
WSJ – Cute theme, good fill. I appreciated that the theme answers were from different eras.
Good puzzle day!
Puzzle: The New Yorker; Rating: 4.5 stars
I liked TNY though it wasn’t as crunchy as a usual EA offering even for a Tuesday. Still a smooth and enjoyable fill as described above.
New to me: 56A: ____ out = Nopes . Is this a new slang or is there another way to parse this?
slang
Nope.
Puzzle: The New Yorker; Rating: 2.5 stars
I guess to “Nope out” is to say “Nope” and then leave quickly. I’ve never heard the singular or plural version, and it’s stuff like this that I wish wouldn’t appear in puzzles.
“Nope out” has a more specific meaning. It derives from “nope” or “just nope” as a reaction to something disgusting or scary. It’s a response to a social media posting of a giant spider in your kitchen, for instance. The implication is “no way I would continue to live there.”
So “nope out” means to leave a physical space for similar gross, disgusting, scary or unpleasant reasons. Too many unsavory looking guests at a party: nope out.