BEQ 8:48 + too long contemplating the theme (Eric)
Fireball untimed (Jenni) 
[4.25 avg; 2 ratings]
LAT 5:09 (Gareth)
NYT 15:56 (ZDL) 
[3.35 avg; 13 ratings]
Universal untimed (Eric) 
[4.00 avg; 1 rating]
USA Today 8:26 (Emily) [4.00 avg; 1 rating]
WSJ 5:04 (Jim) [3.83 avg; 3 ratings]
Jane Silverman and Jeff Chen’s Fireball Crossword, “Count On It!” – Jenni’s write-up
I freely admit that I had to look at Peter’s answer sheet to figure out the theme. I didn’t spend a whole lot of time trying to figure it out and I wish I had because it’s a lot of fun – I gave up too soon. And if our tags are any indication, this is Jane Silverman’s debut for a Fiend-reviewed puzzle! Welcome!
I did understand what the theme answers were based on.
Fireball, May 7, 2025, Jane Silverman and Jeff Chen, “Count On It!,” solution grid
- 20a [Financial demand] is SHOW ME ONE – SHOW ME THE MONEY. This threw me off because ONE is inside MONEY so I thought that was where we were headed. It was not.
- 32a [Upstaging a headliner] is STEALING TWO – STEALING THE SHOW.
- 47a [Trademarked fight starter] is LET‘S THREE TO RUMBLE – LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE.
- 60a [Exhortation to risk it for the biscuit] is FOUR BIG OR FOUR HOME – GO BIG OR GO HOME.
Ever heard ONE FOR THE MONEY, TWO FOR THE SHOW, THREE TO GET READY, AND FOUR TO GO? I have and didn’t recognize it here. ONE stands for THE MONEY. TWO stands for THE SHOW. THREE stands for GET READY and FOUR stands for GO. Very clever!
Could have done without LOB SHOT and ENROOTED.
What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that Andrew Johnson’s wife was ELIZA.
Ryan Mathiason’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Give It Up!”—Jim’s review
Theme: Four groups of circled squares spell out CLAP and the letters appear to rotate in their relative positions as you proceed around the grid. The revealer is ROUND OF APPLAUSE (37a, [Hand, as depicted by the circled letters]).
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Give It Up!” · Ryan Mathiason · Thu., 5.8.25
Yet another great grid-spanning revealer! I was able to guess what it would be after finding the first CLAP, and the second one all but confirmed it. While I didn’t find this overall theme as engaging as the previous two, it’s plenty solid, and I enjoyed the solve.
With only the revealer as a true theme answer, the grid feels like a themeless. As such, we do get some lovely long goodies throughout like ASPARAGUS, HOME PLATE, INTERLUDE, IOWA STATE, FANATICS, and BREAKS UP. Didn’t know baller IMAN Schumpert, and crossing the name with Spanish AMOR wasn’t obvious at first, but it made sense in the end.
Clues of note:
- 23a. [Aid for a mower user]. GAS CAN. I would change this clue to [Aid for some mower users]. There are plenty of plug-in and battery-powered mowers in use out there.
- 66a. [pr2, for a circle]. AREA. Mathematicians, is this standard notation? I’ve never seen pi shortened to just p.
Solid grid. Three stars.
Daniel Grinberg’s Universal Crossword puzzle “Inside Information” — Eric’s review
Once again, the theme is contained in circled letters, with a revealer to tie the apparently unrelated answers together:
- 17A [*Director of “Barbie” and “Lady Bird”] GRETA GERWIG Age
- 27A [*Hot and cheesy fish sandwich] TUNA MELT Name That combination has never appealed to me.
- 36A [*”Russian” or “Italian” condiment] SALAD DRESSING Address
- 51A [*Energizer rival] DURACELL Race I lost a bit of time here trying to think of brands of batteries; using the theme might have saved me a bit.
- 59A [Buildings with a lot of servers … or what the starred clues’ answers have?] DATA CENTERS
This is a nice, tight theme. I can’t off the top of my head think of other bits of data that one might find at the center of a longer word.
Other stuff I noted:
- 32A [Oscar winner Portman] NATALIE She won Best Actress for the 2010 movie Black Swan, making her the first person born in the 1980s to win Best Actress.
- 43A [Title for a retired professor] EMERITA I only learned this word a few years ago. I had always assumed that “emeritus” applied to both male and female professors.
If duplicates bother you, I hope 14A MOP UP and 47A DOLLS UP and 68A NOT SO and 48D SO BE IT didn’t cause too much agita.
Dan Caprera’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up
Difficulty: Challenging (15m56s)
Dan Caprera’s New York Times crossword, 5/8/25, 0508
Today’s theme: BUTT OUT (“Mind your own business!” … or a hint to the four sides of this puzzle)
- RUMP above the top margin
- TUSH outside the left margin
- SEAT outside the right margin
- REAR below the bottom margin
Played very hard; might have had an easier time if I caught on to the fact that the marginalia was symmetric, which I’m just noticing at this moment. But them’s the breaks. Or should I say cracks?
Cracking: URANUS and SATURN
Slacking: O GEE, that word again!
Sidetracking: “When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and BEREFT of hope..”
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1781 “Boring Puzzle” — Eric’s review
The most difficult part of this one is figuring out the theme. On his website, Brendan writes, “I believe this gimmick has never been done before.”
Three grid-spanning entries include the letters F, L, A and T, separated in various ways:
- 17A [Colorful introduction to a puzzle about Antarctica?] POLAR FLAVOR TEXT
- 34A [Chauffeurs for author Gustave?] FLAUBERT DRIVERS
- 52A [Out-in-the-open sightseeing in Barcelona?] FLAGRANT TURISMO
These odd phrases are supposedly explained by 59A [Boring, and the word that wraps around other words in this puzzle’s theme] FLAT.
I don’t see any logical relationship between the “other words,” which are respectively POLAR VORTEX (or maybe just VORTEX), UBER DRIVERS (or maybe just UBER), and GRAN TURISMO (or maybe just GRAN, which is a little weird by itself). And I don’t see how the puzzle’s title relates to the gimmick.
Help me out here: If you know what’s going on, please explain in the comments. Thanks.
New to me:
- 58A [Long-running Nintendo tactical RPG series set in the Kingdom of Altea] FIRE EMBLEM
- 7D [TV show that Stephen Colbert and Kevin Hart unsuccessfully auditioned for] SNL A bit of trivia I’d never heard before.
- 22D [“Amish Paradise” parodist] WEIRD AL Yankovich (I know his name but don’t recognize that title, nor do I know what song he parodied.)
- 29D [Commissioner’s Cup league] WNBA It’s officially the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup Presented by Coinbase.
Other stuff:
- 47A [Pharma’s goal] CURE I wanted to cram PROFIT in there.
- 60A [“Let me show you how it’s done”] STAND ASIDE I would say “step aside,” except that I would most likely just watch in silent frustration until the person gave up.
- 23D [Like Biden’s and Carter’s presidencies] ONE-TERM Maybe instead of figuring out the theme, I’ll contemplate how the world would have been different if either had served two terms.
- 36D [“9-1-1” or “The Rookie,” e.g.] ABC DRAMA Kinda green painty, no? “Hey, hon, whatcha wanna watch tonight?” “Oh, how about a nice ABC drama?”
Enrique Henestroza Anguiano’s LA Times Crossword – Gareth’s theme summary
Despite having circles in the centres of long across answers, Enrique Henestroza Anguiano’s puzzle theme is a bit different to the usual LA Times tropes. The revealing entry is WESTERNUNION, and three other answers have a central area with three pairs of western states abutting: Utah/Colorado in FOLDO[UT/CO]UCH, Idaho/Wyoming in AC[ID/WA]SHJEANS and Oregon/California in LIQU[OR/CA]BINET.
If you include a Q, then having the intersecting down be AIRQUOTES is the way to do it. The opposite stack included CLOUDNINE, so it did seem there was extra effort put into the grid fill today…
Gareth
Zhouqin Burnikel’s USA Today Crossword, “Double Date” — Emily’s write-up
Time for a night out!
USA Today, May 08, 2025, “Double Date” by Zhouqin Burnikel
Theme: each themer begins with a word that can prepend “date” to form a new phrase
Themers:
- 16a. [Pack of sightseers], TOURGROUP
- 29a. [Results of hotting the snooze button too many times], LATESTART
- 45a. [Brief moment], HOTSECOND
- 59a. [Scientific test designed to reduce bias], BLINDSTUDY
What a fun set of themers with TOURGROUP, LATESTART, HOTSECOND, and BLINDSTUDY. With the theme we get TOUR DATE, LATE DATE, HOT DATE, and BLIND DATE.
Favorite fill: OPTSIN, ONICE, TALKSUP, and DROPSAHINT
Stumpers: USAGE (needed some crossings), HARDPASS (needed crossings), and STANDS (also needed some crossings)
A lovely puzzle with great overall fill and nice lengthy bonus fill, with a fun theme and themer set. Also, the cluing was a good challenge level for me today. How’d you all do?
4.0 stars
~Emily
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2.5 stars
Would have been easier to keep track of the letters outside the grid if solved on paper.
+1
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
Yes, trying to keep track of those extra letters while solving online was annoying. Someone suggested utilizing the ability of the software to put more than one letter into a square (rebus-style) to keep track, which I’ll do next time.
Despite the annoyance, I thought the theme was fun, and the symmetric placement of the extra letters is an added plus.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
I used the rebus feature on the app to add the outside letters because it was just easier to see what was going on that way. I knew I would have to remove the rebuses to finish the puzzle.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2.5 stars
NYT: Solve was a pain in the a$$.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
Was gone for a few days (life in academia is interesting at the moment…). So, I’m just figuring out that we have a new rating system. I imagine it’s to prevent people from multiple votes, and I appreciate the effort to ensure accuracy while allowing the feedback to the constructors.
I tumbled early to the fact that some letters were sticking out of the edges and I wondered if they spelled something (a phrase or quote?). The revealer was, well, revealing. But I didn’t bother to go back to parse what was already there and guess what might still come, so I kept solving blindly. Which did make it feel harder, but I also enjoyed figuring out what BUTTs were exposed in the end (ouch).
“but I also enjoyed figuring out what BUTTs were exposed in the end (ouch).”
😁
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
I found this to be pretty easy except for the SW corner. Since the letters outside the grid were only in my head, I didn’t notice their symmetrical locations nor the fact that they spelled butt synonyms. That left me a bit uncertain as to what letters were outside the grid in that corner and which words they affected.
I had MENU at 55D for too long. It took me a long time to see 62A THOU and 56D IOTA, and 68A MIA Goth is not a name I know.
Puzzle: WSJ; Rating: 3 stars
👍🏽
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
Did I miss a Groundhog Day reference in the puzzle? In any case it was delightful to relive that scene from my favorite movie of all time.
As for the puzzle, since I solve on paper, it was fun to see the marginalized letters one by one stick their cute butts out. After I realized the symmetry of it, I had another 8 or 9 butt holes to plug, so I drew circles right where they would show up in the fanny frame. This was a tough solve for me, and extending the grid to 16×16 made it doable.
The clip begins with the Checkov quote that immediately precedes it.
that monologue comes to mind any time i hear the word “bereft”
“Bereft” triggers Monty Python’s “Dead Parrot” sketch for me: “Bereft of life, ’e rests in peace. If you hadn’t nailed ’im to the perch, ’e’d be pushing up the daisies.”
I’m not a big fan of puzzles with letters that fall outside the grid – I solve in AL, so it’s a pain to keep track of those “outsiders.” But this one is kinda cute, and I appreciated that all of the entries that stretched beyond the grid were legitimate words without the outside letter.
I haven’t been able to download the LAT puzzle from cruciverb.com all week. Anyone else having difficulty or is this a me problem?
If you really want the .puz version, you can install Crossword Scraper on your Firefox or Chrome browser. https://github.com/jpd236/CrosswordScraper?tab=readme-ov-file. Go to the LAT site https://www.latimes.com/games/daily-crossword, then run the extension. It didn’t work for .puz in Firefox for me (I have lots of add-ons, maybe some interfered?), but it did work in the Chrome browser. It also gives you the puzzle in .jpuz, .ipuz, and .pdf formats.
I noticed in the cruciverb archive that they occasionally do not have the LAT puzzle. Don’t expect one tomorrow, but Saturday looks like it’s back on track. https://www.cruciverb.com/puzzles.php?op=showarch&pub=lat BTW, I have an old version of Chrome, so YMMV.
The word I got is Kevin(?), has been ill.
I’m not a fan of today’s NYT. Too much hassle in Across Lite.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
I really enjoyed the NYT! This is what a Thursday should be. I got the revealer early and then solved without thinking about the missing letters until I got to the SW and got stuck. Went back up that side, realized I was looking for an H to complete TUSH, and that gave me (H)EATS and the corner finally fell. Also took me a while to see THOU because I was thinking dough as in bread.
You were on the right track, Jenni — dough as in bread, bread as in money, money as THOU. ;)
I thought the NYT was unusual and tough for a Wednesday, then realized it’s Thursday. The perils of being retired!
I didn’t care for it that much, though. I found some of the clues obscure, and solving it online produced an animated grid that came and went too fast for me to see what the words outside the grid were.
Jim Horne at xwordinfo.com produced a static version of the letters outside the grid that I found much more useful than the disappearing ones the NYT used.
Jim does great work.
I thought it was a clever NYT, but hard, which I didn’t mind at all. I often disagree with Eric, who finds EVERY puzzle easy, but here the SW was actually an aid to me, since I got IOTA right away and saw THOU as promising. But then I haven’t commented this week because my judgment is off. I’m solving in ink as always (and putting the dropped letters outside the grid), but I’m so low on toner that much of a puzzle is illegible. (I’m getting good at guessing.) I should have a new cartridge by today’s end.
I’m not sure why facets must be “taken into consideration.” Or at least no more than anything else. (I did consider just “face.”)
Puzzle: WSJ
The Greek letter for pi appeared correctly in the print edition.
Oh, thanks for that. I see it’s correct in both their pdf and their online versions of the puzzle as well.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3 stars
I don’t mind the “letters outside the grid” trick when solving on paper, but solving one in the NYT app is just really, really annoying.
I finished with an error, assumed it was somewhere in the words with invisible letters, went through the grid word-by-word, couldn’t find it, printed out the grid and filled it in, and still couldn’t find it. Gave up and hit “check puzzle”, only to discover that I don’t know how to spell either PELOTON or TOTORO. Blindsided by the Proper Nouns while I was distracted by the Thursday gimmick!
Even with the time spent searching for my one-letter error, I finished in very close to my Thursday average, so other than the Proper Nouns, the fill and the Thursday gimmick both seemed on the easy side for me. I’m trying to separate my annoyance with the app from the quality of the construction, but still don’t think I can go higher than 3 stars.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 1 star
NYT 1 star. Way too many proper nouns for me
Jose – what would you say is the maximum number of proper nouns a puzzle could have in order to get multiple stars in your book?
definitely less than ten
I personally reserve 1-star ratings for puzzles that are so bad or ill-advised, they never should have been published. I don’t know that I’ve ever given any crossword a 1-star rating.
As for proper nouns, my observations over the last couple decades are that most solvers don’t complain too much about propers until the count tops 14. Are you anti-names in general, or just against names that you don’t know? Is ABE Lincoln a problem, or the city ROME?
I love how you so often advocate for acceptance of different lifestyles yet are so quick to demean people’s intelligence.
?
I don’t see any demeaning. I interpret her question re: ABE and ROME as asking whether you dislike proper noun entries that all solvers will certainly know, or only those that some demographic will be unfamiliar with.
How this question has anything to do with tolerance of life styles is lost on me.
Puzzle: Fireball; Rating: 4.5 stars
FB – ONE in the first theme answer sidetracked me as I looked for a way to make ONE into MONEY. The second one was little help as I had stealing a scene in my head. It started to click on the third one and by the fourth it became clear.
The clue for ILL was a tough one for me but it’s a Fireball puzzle so that’s ok. The row with HOLESAW and YALELAW is fun to say even though hole saw is a new one for me. I started with POLE SAW.
A good FB. 4.5*
Puzzle: Fireball; Rating: 4 stars
Finding those two grid-spanning entries is some serendipity right there, even though our constructors had to go to a 14×17 grid. Impressive.
I will admit to being bothered by the fact that one and two use “for” in the rhyme (“One for the money”, etc.), which explains why the numbers replace the words in the grid. But three and four use “to” (“Three to get ready”, etc.) so it doesn’t quite work. But some leeway is called for with a fun theme and impressive grid.
I noticed the “for” and “to” points you mentioned. I interpreted the “to” in a sense of mapping THREE to GET READY and FOUR to GO.
May be a stretch
BEQ – I had a Peggy Lee moment when I finished. I was counting on Eric to help me see what I had overlooked
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9pS7iZzNgQ#ddg-play
I got a kick out of Eric’s review, which may be summarized as “this theme is boring and I don’t understand how the title Boring Puzzle relates.”
Ha!
Sorry to disappoint.
For what it’s worth, there are no comments about this puzzle on BEQ’s website. Maybe nobody else understood it, either
Hope you don’t count me as disappointed. You more than did justice to this, which wasn’t among BEQ’s finest.
I was just shaking my head at POLAR FLAVOR TEXT. Not only is that tough to parse, but the “flattened” vortex yields two words, not one like the others. BEQ does us a great, free, service, so I don’t mind an occasional clinker.
Thanks.
Just so there’s no confusion, I echo Martin’s comment
Thanks.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 5 stars
NYT: I usually solve puzzles from Thursday forwards on paper, so I didn’t have online issues. However, I still found the puzzle very hard to break into. The revealer was a big help. I was delighted to break through and found it in the end close to a perfect Thursday experience. I wish I’d taken a little less time, but that’s on me (no Spanish, no knowledge of geography or songs from the last half-century, and so on). Studying the comments, I would say the puzzle would have had a higher average rating if only solvers on paper were doing the ratings.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
I agree this one ideally needed to be solved on paper, which thankfully I did. I wonder if the editing team considered a note to that effect but then decided against it…?
As mentioned elsewhere, the completed grid makes for an elegant visual as presented at xwordinfo, with the symmetrical extra letters placed outside the grid. That they are appended to actual words to make new words is a really nice touch.
And it’s always a pleasure to be reminded of the wonderful “My Neighbor TOTORO.” Bravo, Dan.
Can someone explain 34 across Mayo to mayo say answer ano
Mayo is Spanish for the month of May. May to May is 1 year (año).
And probably worth noting, months are not capitalized in Spanish, so the second, uncapitalized mayo is as it should be.
Puzzle: WSJ; Rating: 5 stars
A brisk, charming solve.
Puzzle: WSJ; Rating: 3.5 stars
This was fun–figured out the theme then worked backward. My only ding is too many sports clues in the upper section.
Thanks so much for explaining the Mayo clue.
Puzzle: USA Today; Rating: 4 stars
Hi Emily — I believe the title of the puzzle (Double Date) tells us that both words in the themers can precede “date”. So here are the four groups of two words each: TOUR/GROUP, LATE/START, HOT/SECOND, and BLIND/STUDY.
The second set of “dates” would be group date, start date, second date, and study date.
Puzzle: Universal; Rating: 4 stars
I thought this puzzle was enjoyable and very well crafted.