Thursday, July 24, 2025

BEQ 14:49 with checks (Eric) [2.75 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Fireball untimed (Jenni) [3.33 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
LAT tk (Gareth) [3.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 7:58 (ZDL) [2.58 avg; 18 ratings] rate it
Universal 4:22 (Eric) [2.88 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today 9:01 (Emily) [2.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
WSJ untimed– over 10 minutes tho (Jim Q) [2.88 avg; 4 ratings] rate it

Fans of variety puzzles, metas, and puzzle suites, rejoice! Patrick Berry has released a new set of puzzles. “It’s a Mystery” is a mini-puzzle extravaganza set in a film-noir detective milieu, consisting of 24 variety puzzles plus 3 metapuzzles and 4 bonus puzzles. Cost is $15. Visit Patrick’s store, A-Frame Games, to buy these puzzles or his previous extravaganzas. (There’s also his Crossword Constructor’s Handbook, an essential guide for budding constructors, for a mere $10.)

Joe Rodini’s Universal Crossword “I Couldn’t Possibly” — Eric’s Review

I know I shouldn’t ignore things like circled letters in a grid. But if I start solving a puzzle and the answers come with little difficulty, I’m not going to stop and ponder the theme.

Three theme answers incorporate the letters A, M (twice) R and Y:

• 17A [*Big brand of cognac] RÉMY MARTIN
• 23A [*2001 hit featured in the film “Moulin Rouge!”] LADY MARMALADE
• 50A [*Woman of the New Testament] MARY MAGDALENE
• 62A [Ironic way of saying “You don’t have to tell me twice!” … or what the starred clues’ answers do?] TWIST MY ARM 

I’m having trouble imagining the tone of voice in which “You don’t have to tell me twice” is equivalent to TWIST MY ARM. To me, TWIST MY ARM is something one says when one is pretending to be reluctant to do something but they’re really willing to do it. That doesn’t seem to correspond to the clue’s phrase.

That quibble aside, the theme works well enough. There’s a sort of cryptic aspect to the use of “twist.” The revealer is a well-known phrase, and the other three names are interesting finds — I don’t know how many words or  phrases would have worked for this theme.

Other stuff:

• 29A [Gumbo pod] OKRA We use filé in our gumbo.
• 31A [Kind of bean in succotash] LIMA I mentally toyed with FAVA here; I’m not sure I’ve ever had succotash.
• 44A [Mufasa or Simba] LION They’re characters from The Lion King.
• 3D [World’s oldest tennis tournament] WIMBLEDON I didn’t know this factoid, but it makes sense. The event dates to 1877.
• 5D [Casually mention a famous friend] NAME-DROP This puzzle has a bit of that, what with Erica JONG, Lindsay LOHAN and AMY Poehler all hanging around the grid.
• 60D [Contacted privately on Insta] DMED I can’t keep straight which social media platforms use “instant messaging” and which use “direct messaging.” It doesn’t much matter, and in this case, I had 58A DAD spotting me the D. Nice job, Pops!

David P. Williams’s Fireball Crossword, “Different Perspectives” – Jenni’s write-up

It all depends on where you stand in this puzzle. Anyone else know about the cone in the box?

I knew there was a rebus of some sort pretty early on and didn’t figure it out until I got to the SW corner. Even Peter’s grid doesn’t really show it so I’ve included his explanation as well.

• 12d [Campaign strategist’s arena] is POLITICAL _  and the blank crosses 50a [Unite to defend a common interest] _ THE WAGONS. SPHERE and CIRCLE, respectively.
• 13a [Mysterious place in the Atlantic] is the BERMUDA _ where the blank crosses 15d [Investing scams], _ SCHEMES. We fill in the blank with TRIANGLE and PYRAMID.
• 36d [National Toy Hall of Fame inductee of 2014] is RUBIK‘S _ crossing 65a [Hoedown activities] which are _ DANCES. CUBE and SQUARE. That was the first one that fell for me.

We have a pair of revealers: 1a [Subject…or what some Across answers have that some Down answers don’t] is AREA. 66a [Book…or what some Down answers have that some Across answers don’t] is VOLUME. 2d/3d. This is clever and was fun to solve and I have a mathematical nit to pick. Three-dimensional figures do have area. They have surface area. It’s not the same formula. It’s still area.

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that IKEA named electric blue as the 2025 color of the year.

Ginny Too’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up

Difficulty: I guess not as tricky as it felt? (7m58s)

Today’s theme: BIRD / CALLS (With 41-Across, a hint to this puzzle’s theme)

• COMMON SNIPE (“Nice of you to show up”)
• AMERICAN CROW (“Hey, England, happy Fourth of July!”)
• AMAZON PARROT (“Say ‘goodnight’ Alexa.” “Goodnight Alexa”)
• COOPERS HAWK (“Bottom-of-the-barrel barrel prices! Buy today!”)

SNIPE, CROW, PARROT, HAWK — here: dig, boast, mimic, sell.  Watch the birdie!  Poo-tee-weet?

Cracking: SPELUNK, the sound your phone makes when you drop it into the kitchen sink

Slacking: ordering a single CLAM casino (long night at the roulette wheel?)

Sidetracking: Double Indemnity, screenplay courtesy of Raymond Chandler, godfather of NOIR

Justin Werfel’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Stick Around” — Jim Q’s

Review

THEME:
The trigram PIN is inserted into common words/phrases to create wackified answers.

THEME ENTRIES:

• 17A: [Self-playing piano?] SMART SPINET. SMART SET. 

• 29A: [Chalet?] ALPINE HOUSE. ALE HOUSE. 

• 44A: [“This call is being recorded for quality and training purposes”?] PHONE TAPING. PHONE TAG. 

• 48A: [“Hold that thought,” and what we’ve done to this puzzle’s theme answers] PUT A PIN IN IT

This one took me a while to get a foothold—especially in the NW, which I ended up finishing last. Oddly enough, I got the revealer before any of the themers, despite not being super familiar with the phrase PUT A PIN IN IT. But that helped me backsolve the gimmick and start jamming some P’s, I’s, and N’s into likely spots, which cracked it open.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard the phrase SMART SET (which is likely the base phrase for SMART SPINET). But SMART SPINET sounds like a thing! There are lots of self-playing pianos out there. I moonlight as a cocktail/lounge pianist, and I get asked more often than you’d think, “Are you really playing?” As if I was hired just to fake it. 🙃

That said… I don’t like spinets. They’re decent starter instruments, but they produce kind of a flat, boxy tone—not great for nuance.

NEW TO ME / TRICKY STUFF:

• STU Burguiere — tough name, especially crossing DEUS. I guessed the U (fairly!).

• Power slide as a type of SKID — new concept to me.

• TOTORO — [Title neighbor in a Studio Ghibli classic]

• EXETER — [Colonial capital of New Hampshire]

• BERYL — knew it once, forgot it.

• ALTS — [Secondary social media accounts]

• PIE PAN — apparently the OG Frisbee!

• LEGATE — [Papal envoy]

• APES — [Fossey’s study]. I always default to Goodall.

• KNOX — [Fort in Goldfinger]

FAVORITE FILL / FUN CLUES:

• EPIC WIN — fun modern entry.

• [General assembly?] = BATTLE — needed every cross, but great misdirect.

• JOB — [Exemplar of patience] (Old Testament vibes!)

• JUNEAU — [State capital on the Canada border]. I was thinking south, not north.

• OREO — [New “biscuit” of 1912] — got me!

• HARD G — [Good start?] — As in, literally, the “G” that starts “good.”

• SKI CAP — [Top of a mountain?] — The one you wear, not the summit.

OVERALL:
The toughness-to-joy ratio was a little off for me today, but there’s satisfaction in finally cracking a hard one. The theme mechanic is tight, and the revealer works well. Some crunchy fill, some clever misdirects, and enough “aha!” to make the grind worthwhile.

3.5 stars from me.

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1803 “Beat That” — Eric’s Review

Last night, I thought about the BEQ puzzle I was going to see today and hoped that this would be the one with a theme that blew me away. Instead, we get a quote that purports to be from novelist Stephen King.

Quotes and quips are my least favorite theme type. If you know the quote, you can fill it in quickly. If you don’t, it can take a while. And the amusement factor in most quotes and quips is in part a matter of timing, but the piecemeal nature of crossword solving destroys that.

I’ve read this quote before, and should have been able to get the beginning of it more easily. I got frustrated (and a bit bored) around the 10-minute mark and started checking answers. 

The quote:

• 18A [Start of a Stephen King quote] I HAVE THE
• 23A [Quote, part 2] HEART OF A SMALL
• 40A [Quote, part 3] CHILD
• 52A [Quote, part 4] I KEEP IT IN A JAR
• 62A [End of the quote] ON MY DESK Wow! That’s so funny!

Does it matter that this isn’t really a Stephen King quote? King borrowed it (with attribution) from Robert Bloch, who wrote the horror novel Psycho.

The various citations for Bloch’s quote go back to the 1940s, which may be one reason this theme feels covered in cobwebs. King’s earliest use of it may have been 1983, which is beginning to feel almost as far in the past. 

That the quote is broken into five entries means that a high percentage of the Down answers cross one or two theme answers. If one of those Downs doesn’t come easily, it can make it that much harder to get the theme answers.

Other stuff:

• 1A [Sells steeply] SCALPS This clue is fine, but I didn’t immediately translate it to “Sells at a steep mark-up.” I’ve only heard of scalping in the context of tickets to concerts and games; is it used in other contexts?
• 7A [Alpha bro] CHAD That’s new to me, though it makes sense.
• 28A [Navigated through Tinder] SWIPED Dating apps came along way too late for me, but I’ve read enough about how they work.

• 37A [Animated cowboy of movies] WOODY From Toy Story.
• 43A [Title with a tilde] SEÑOR I hope that even solvers with the most limited Spanish vocabularies knew this one.
• 45A [One of three players to win NBA MVP, All-Star Game MVP and Finals MVP awards in the same year] Shaquille O’NEAL I didn’t know this trivia. Shaq’s feat was in 2000. The others were Willis Reed (1970) and Michael Jordan (1996). 
• 48A [President nicknamed “Old Rough and Ready”] Zachary TAYLOR My childhood interest in American history comes in handy sometimes. Taylor is one of those forgettable 19th century presidents. 
• 64A [“This doesn’t look good!”] ZOINKS Is that what that means?
• 67A [Private, in Panama City] INTIMO That wasn’t in my limited Spanish vocabulary.
• 3D [Uzo of “Painkiller”] ADUBA I don’t recognize that title, but she was fantastic in Orange is the New Black.
• 4D [Actress with a patent] Hedy LAMARR She co-invented a radio guidance system for torpedos during WWII.
• 9D [Smartphone settings] ALARMS This was part of my difficulty finishing the grid. I had the cromulent answer ALERTS for too long, which messed up two lines of the quote.
• 19D [___ Alderson (“Mr. Robot” protagonist)] ELLIOT That show or whatever it is doesn’t ring any bells for me.
• 24D [Crude dudes] OPEC This one got me. I had APES for several minutes.
• 29D [Mode who says “No capes!” EDNA Possibly the best character in The Incredibles, and that was full of good characters. Don’t write off animated movies until you’ve seen Toy Story, The Incredibles, Up, Coco . . .
• 33D [Longtime guitarist for Black Sabbath] TONY IOMMI I’ve never cared for metal rock and that name didn’t look familiar, though I’m sure I’ve seen it before. 
• 41D [“Swans Reflecting Elephants” painter] Salvador DALÍ I held off entering the name I guessed was right, which might have slowed me down a little.
• 51D [The former New Tokyo International Airport] NARITA I probably learned this name from a crossword puzzle, but it was a welcome gimme in the SE corner.
• 55D [“At Seventeen” singer Ian] JANIS I was 16 when that song was a hit.
• 64D [Spot on the face] ZIT That’s the second time this week I’ve seen ZIT as an answer in a puzzle. Constructors, please get some Accutane or something.

Sam Cordes’ USA Today Crossword, “Romance Trope (Freestyle)” — Emily’s write-up

Love is in the air!

Favorite fill: NOTARIES, REDROVER, EUROVISION, and FROS

Stumpers: CHEESELOG (need crossings), MLEM (new to me), and DIARIST (also need crossings)

There’s almost a mini-theme going on here starts with BITTERENEMIES to later LOVEINTERESTS–a beloved romance or romantasy trope (as hinted at by the title)! One common complaint of booktubers is that it’s usually not genuine enemies to lovers, ha ha! If you’ve got any great examples that you enjoy, please share them in the comments. Fun puzzle with a great grid and nice overall fill, plus the lengthy bonus fill.

4.0 stars

~Emily