Sunday, May 18, 2025

LAT tk (Gareth) [3.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
NYT 15:27 (Eric) [3.23 avg; 11 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Darby) rate it
Universal (Sunday) 7:43 (Jim) [4.00 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (Norah) [4.50 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
WaPo 6:14 (Matt G) [4.30 avg; 5 ratings] rate it

Fiend readers: If you haven’t already, please read the “About Ratings” tab at the top of this page. Thanks!

Garrett Chalfin’s New York Times Crossword Puzzle “Halving the Last Word” — Eric’s review

Garrett Chalfin’s New York Times Crossword “Halving the Last Word” — 5/18/25

Today’s theme hinges on a quirk of English in that there are many two-syllable words that can be split into separate words of equal length. Garrett Chalfin has found seven familiar phrases and names that end this way and for the most part given them amusing clues:

• 23A [Hip-hop’s “Puba” and “Daddy I.U.”?] GRAND RAP IDS Grand Rapids
• 28A [Remove from the champagne bucket?] TAKE OFF ICE Take office
• 42A [Casting a total brat in the school play] MAKING AN IMP ACT Making an impact
• 65A [“The co-star of ‘Duck Soup’ has to be sore after that!”?] GROUCHO MARX MUST ACHE Groucho Marx mustache It’s amazing how iconic a bit of grease paint can be. This might be my favorite of the theme answers, mainly because (A) I recognized Duck Soup as a Marx Brothers movie and (B) Groucho could be pretty funny sometimes.

• 87A [“How long have beavers blocked this river?”?] WHAT’S THE DAM AGE? What’s the damage? This is the silliest of the them answers, but sometimes silly is OK.
• 103A [Be crazy about Chicago trains with broken A.C.s?] LOVE HOT ELS Love hotels
• 111A [Metric in a competitive family business?] SALES PER SON Salesperson

These are all solid answers, some more amusing than others. And it’s the kind of theme I appreciate because figuring out how it worked helped me get through a few of the more challenging spots.

The rest of the grid is filled nicely, with cultural reference ranging from pop to classic. Most of it I knew, either from real life or crosswords. Some highlights:

• • 1A [Verso’s counterpart] RECTO It’s always nice to have a gimme at 1A. These are printing terms that I learned somewhere a long time ago. Verso is the left-hand page of an open book and as you can guess, recto is the right-hand page.
  • 34A [Hip-hop artist with the 2019 hit “My Type”] SAWEETIE I had no idea on the song, but the W and a few other letters got me the name, which I picked up somewhere.
  • 57A [Dante’s guide in the “Inferno”] VIRGIL Maybe someday I’ll read The Inferno, but probably not.
  • 82A [Late singer Payne of One Direction] LIAM I’m not into boy bands, but his death got so much press that this was a gimme.
  • 121A [Head of Slytherin House in the Harry Potter books] Severus SNAPE It’s a little scary how many names from Harry Potter are stuck in my head, since I’ve never read any of the books and have only seen a bit of one of the movies.
  • 10D [Last word of James Joyce’s “Ulysses”] YES I read Ulysses about 40 years ago. I don’t remember a whole lot about it, but I knew this one.
• • 13D [Son of Aphrodite] AENEAS I’ve never read The Aeneid either, but I know the original is in Latin, so I assumed that Aeneas was strictly a hero from Roman mythology. But he was a Trojan hero, which I should have remembered from The Iliad, a book I did read about five years ago.
  • 15D [Time for a pick-me-up, humorously] COFFEE O’CLOCK If I had written that clue, I’d have substituted “cutesily” for “humorously.” I guess it’s the counterpart to “beer-thirty.”
  • 46D [Drag-and-drop disposal icon] TRASH I hesitated on this one because I would call that icon the “trash can,” but “trash” by itself works.
  • 61D [Arbiters of taste] CONNOISSEURS From the French verb “connaître,” meaning “to know.” And now I know that I cannot reliably spell either of those words.
  • 82D [Exam with an argumentative writing section, in brief] LSAT I graduated from law school almost 40 years ago, and I mostly remember the LSAT as the most stressful exam I’ve ever taken, due to a Scantron entry error on my part.
  • 112D [Queer identity, in brief] ARO Given the vague clue, I put in the A and waited for the crosses. It seems like ARO has been in every puzzle I’ve solved this week, which is fine by me.

Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post Crossword Puzzle “School’s Out” — Matt’s review

Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post Crossword Puzzle “School’s Out” solution, 5/18/2025

We’ve got a few circles and mirror symmetry in this week’s grid, but the themers are a little less clear until we get into the solve. The longest entries are marked with asterisks in their clues, and we also need the entries beginning with those circled letters:

• 22a [*Tech company subsidiary that employs nanas?] GRANNY APPLE
• 43a [*That woman’s pet crustacean?] HER CRAB
• 67a [*Actor Hanks when he’s making a pledge for himself?] COMMITTING TOM
• 78a [*Quintessential sulky expression for everyone in an economic system?] POUT OF THE MARKET
• 3d [*Slinky that’s meant to keep you safe, say?] SECURITY COIL
• 14d [*Cause an audience to lose all perspective?] WARP THE CROWD

Those are a bit odd even for crossword themers, but other clues help us out:

• 28a [Northampton school that’s been removed from 22 Across] SMITH, forming GRANNY SMITH APPLE
• 62a [Chapel Hill sch. that’s been removed from 3 Down] UNC, forming SECURITY COUNCIL
• 101a [Atlanta school that’s been removed from 67 Across] EMORY, forming COMMITTING TO MEMORY
• 85d [Cambridge sch. that’s been removed from 43 Across] MIT, forming HERMIT CRAB
• 92d [East Lansing sch. that’s been removed from 14 Down] MSU, forming WARMS UP THE CROWD
• 113d [Houston school that’s been removed from 78 Across] RICE, forming PRICE OUT OF THE MARKET

A fun bit of wordplay, and nice to have a wider variety of schools than the typical university-based theme. 

Outside of the theme, I had some choppiness working through the middle where there’s a lot of theme material and shorter entries. I often find that mirror-symmetry grids end up with smoother and less-smooth sections just as a function of grid design. I think the theme is worth it here – it’s not the same letter string being removed for each themer, and I think it would have been a bit tough if the schools weren’t also in the grid. 

Other highlights: It’s been a minute since a “Scrubs” reference in a puzzle – here at 72a, KELSO. I’m not sure if the show was good or whether it just holds a nostalgic place for me // Speaking of nostalgia, SIT ON IT and “Happy Days” are before my time but it’s certainly a piece of pop culture that’s stuck around // [Jazz player, e.g.] for ATHLETE is a reference to the NBA’s Utah Jazz // I had a feeling we’d see Pope Leo – in this case LEO XIV – in an Evan grid before too long // Fun to have TRES, clued to the French word, and TRE, clued to the Green Day album / drummer Tre Cool without any etymological overlap // Why yes, that capitalization of “The Mamas & the Papas” in the clue for ELLIOT is correct. I’d never noticed that before // 

Zhouqin Burnikel’s Universal Sunday crossword, “Sign Language”—Jim’s review

Theme clues are familiar phrases of the form “___ sign”. Theme answers use these terms punnily to refer to actual signs you might encounter.

Universal Sunday crossword solution · “Sign Language” · Zhouqin Burnikel · 5.18.25

• 23a. [Fire sign?] DANGER: FLAMMABLE.
• 46a. [Minus sign?] PRICE REDUCED. Good one.
• 68a. [Pound sign?] WEIGHT LIMIT. This one seems truncated without a number.
• 93a. [Peace sign?] DO NOT DISTURB. Love this one.
• 116a. [Water sign?] CAUTION: WET FLOOR.
• 16d. [Star sign?] VIP PARKING ONLY.
• 51d. [Call sign?] EMERGENCY PHONE.

This is one of those “why didn’t I think of that?” themes. Lovely concept and excellent execution as you would expect from a veteran constructor.

An EASY READ, a SOFT TACO, and a TAX AUDIT make for fill highlights. Also good: FILM CREW and a LONG WAIT. Not much to balk at though some proper names and less common food items did require a fair amount of crossings.

Clue of note: 86d. [Check from the IRS]. TAX AUDIT. The clue makes it sound like a good thing. :(

Lovely puzzle. Four stars.