BEQ untimed (Eric) 
[3.25 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
LAT 3:40 (Gareth) 
[3.17 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
NYT 8:44 (ZDL) 
[4.09 avg; 17 ratings] rate it
Universal 6:05 (Eric) [3.13 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today 15:46 (Emily) 
[2.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
WSJ 9:56 (Jim Q) [3.38 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
Note: This week’s Fireball puzzle is a contest. We’ll have a review after Sunday’s deadline for contest entries.
Brian Callahan’s Universal Crossword “Collection Connection” — Eric’s Review
Brian Callahan’s Universal Crossword “Collection Connection” — 3/5/26 (Click to Embiggen)
I haven’t studied math in decades or even used it much, other than simple arithmetic and a little algebra. And I’m not sure how much I learned about mathematical sets anyways. None of which may be relevant, as I’m not even sure the “sets” in the circled letters here are mathematical sets:
- 17A [*2013 Wimbledon men’s singles champion] ANDY MURRAY
- 25A [*Connection spot for a landline] PHONE JACK What percentage of solvers is unfamiliar with the term “landline”?
- 36A [Establish personal limits … or a hint to this puzzle’s theme] SET BOUNDARIES “Set” because, well, everything spelled by the circled letters is arguably a set and “boundaries” because the circled letters are all at the beginning or end of a theme entry.
- 51A [*Maturing] GROWING UP
- 62A [*Get through a whole season in one sitting, say] BINGE WATCH
It’s not the sort of theme that is likely to help solvers who can’t figure an answer out from the clue, or from the clue plus a few letters, but the theme answers all fit within the parameters of the revealer.
Other stuff:
- 1A [Wally ___ (“Famous” cookie maker)] AMOS Just two days ago, I questioned a New York Times clue that had what I thought was a parenthetical statement that was unlikely to help many solvers. This one is the opposite of that: Without it, I would have needed a few crosses to come up with an answer. (The only other “Wally” who comes immediately to mind is Wally Cleaver of the sitcom Leave It to Beaver, which I saw in syndication 10 years after its network run ended.) But thanks to the addition to the fill-in-the-blank clue, this was a gimme.
- 19A [___ check (reading of the room’s mood)] VIBE I just now read this clue, but the parenthetical would steer one away from the perfectly logical FACT.
- 30A [Sleeveless tops, informally] TANKS/31A [They’re exposed by sleeveless tops] ARMS Nice pairing. If it’s warming up wherever you live, I hope you’re OK with that.
- 65A [Rocks, in slang] SLAPS I might’ve seen that bit of slang before?
- 68A [Future J.D.’s exam] LSAT Absolutely the worst test-taking experience of my life. Taking the bar exam in a building next to a construction site in downtown Chicago doesn’t even come close.
- 3D [Former lover] OLD FLAME If Spike Jones hadn’t ruined the Mae West/Duke Ellington classic for me, you’d be getting that instead of The Boss.
- 39D [Skyscraper amenity with many buttons] ELEVATOR “Amenity” seemed an understatement; it wasn’t until the introduction of Elisha Otis’s elevator safety brake that skyscrapers began appearing. An elevator seems more of a “necessity” in that context. But my dictionary defines “amenity” as “a desirable or useful feature or facility of a building or place,” so I withdraw my objection.
- 44D [Acquires canines, say] TEETHES Cute clue, though as I would have guessed, incisors typically erupt earlier than canines.
- 45D [Feature of a May-December romance] AGE GAP OK, gonna have to toss in some Kurt Weill to balance out Bruce.
Hanh Huynh’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up
Time: 8:44
Difficulty: Breezy (<8m) | Easy-ish (8-9m30s) | Working on it (9m30s-11m) | Rough going (11+m)
Hanh Huynh’s New York Times crossword, 3/5/26, 0305
Today’s theme: DARK / HORSES (With 68-Across, long-shot candidates … or a hint to six squares in this puzzle)
- H-O-R-S-E-S squares are DARK, i.e. under 6 black squares in the grid
I wasn’t sure why the middle of the grid was so segmented, until you realize that the DARK HORSES are actually enabling some pretty impressive long entries, including ORCHESTRATE, PASSING SHOT, and EVER PRESENT. Not sure how this comes across to the average solver, but it must have made the construction quite tricky.
Cracking: MOJO
Slacking: RES staring down REC
Sidetracking: EINSTEIN
Joah Macosko’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “AWOL” — Jim Q’s write-up
THEME: The letters D-R-O-P are missing from the ends of grid-spanning phrases, and should be considered “off the grid.”
WSJ • 3/5/26 • Thurs • “Meet the Parents” • Joah Macosko • solution • 20260305
THEME ANSWERS:
- (D)ON’T MAKE THIS WEIR(D)
- (R)OCK AND ROLL SINGE(R)
- (O)SCAR PETERSON TRI(O)
- (P)UTTING ONE’S FEET U(P)
- (revealer) [Vanishes without a trace, and a hint to the answers to 17-, 23-, 39- and 49-Across] DROPS OFF THE GRID (which could be read as D-R-O-P (iS) OFF THE GRID)
Thoroughly enjoyed this playful grid today. Took me longer than it probably should’ve to grok the theme. Figured something WEIRD was happening went ONTM… looked so ugly as I started to uncover the first themer. But shrugged it off and jumped around. Then I wondered if random letters were being DROPped willy-nilly. Thankfully not. Great revealer and another level of tightness with the DROPped letters bookending the “17-letter” phrases.
Loved finding DON’T MAKE THIS WEIRD and I’m never gonna complain about a nod to the GOAT of jazz piano, OSCAR PETERSON. Not a huge fan of the vague ONE as a pronoun in PUTTING ONE’S FEET UP, but it’s a solid phrase. ROCK AND ROLL SINGER [Joplin or Jagger, e.g.] is the only one that felt truly stilted. No one says AND– it’s ‘N. And I had LEGEND for SINGER, which makes for a snazzier phrase imo. I mean, let’s make a huge distinction between Mick and Janice versus the dad in a mid-life crisis who is jamming in his garage.
OTHER THINGS:
- [To the moon and back] A LOT. I didn’t know that phrase meant that. I thought it just meant “far.”
- [Chain with a “beep beep” in its ads] AAMCO. I see “beep beep” I think the Road Runner.
- [Gag reflex?] LAUGH. Great clue! “Gag” referring to a joke in this context.
- [Lead role in “1776”] ADAMS. I really don’t like this musical. There. I said it.
- [Joint stock?] POT. A little too cute for me.
- [Alternative to naan] ROTI. I love that the clue told me which one I was looking for!
- [“Wavin’ Flag” rapper] KNAAN. New for me. Not to be confused with his rival, RROTI.
- [Fixed at a particular level, as a price] PEGGED. Sounds vaguely familiar as a term, but not something that I use regularly.
- [Clock-changing time, for daylight saving time] TWO AM. Can we do away with time change nonsense? Didn’t we start to do that and then… what happened?
- [Title for a monk] DOM. Perfect for a monk who’s also into a bit of kink.
4 stars.
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1867 “Tickers” — Eric’s Review
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1867 “Tickers” — 3/5/26 (Click to Embiggen)
The title made me think the theme was heart-related, but instead, the circled letters hold various types of clocks:
- 16A [Maker of Tonale and Giulia cars] ALFA ROMEO Alarm I didn’t recognize either model, but I don’t pay much attention to cars as long as they’re not endangering me.
- 22A [Where Superman debuted in issue #1] ACTION COMICS Atomic
- 36A [Circadian rhythms, and a hint to this puzzle’s theme] INTERNAL CLOCKS
- 44A [“I date women on T.V. with the help of ___” (“Hey Ladies” lyric)] CHUCK WOOLERY Cuckoo My familiarity with that the Beastie Boys song is limited to Girl Talk having sampled it, but I remember Chuck Woolery from some 1960s game show.
- 56A [One who’s hard to understand] MUSH MOUTH Shot
Yep, those are all kinds of clocks. If you can’t get some of the theme answers from the clues and letter patterns, maybe the circled letters help.
Other stuff:
- 5A [Hammer part] CLAW Not PEEN.
- 13A [Moon shot?] REAR Well, I knew that a bare butt would be involved here.
- 18A [Minor boo-boo] SLIP Not OWIE.
- 20A [BOLO alternative] ABP “Be on the Lookout” and “All Points Bulletin.” I don’t know what it is about the acronym BOLO that makes me unable to remember what it means.
- 31A [Javits Center architect] PEI I can’t think of another crossword-worthy architect with a three-letter name who’s not I.M. Pei.
- 41A [Home to some call centers] INDIA That’s been my experience, although it seems like in the last year or so, many of my customer service calls are answered by someone in the United States who’s working from home.
- 5D [Frédéric who composed nocturnes] CHOPIN I momentarily blanked on that name, but I knew it didn’t start with P and that thus PEEN was wrong.
- 10D [Ribs at a Korean BBQ] GALBI I don’t recall ever seeing that word before. They’re typically made from beef short ribs.
- 17D [Like “Bugonia” or “One Battle After Another”] RATED R The last two letter made me question 28A CUBED.
- 43D [“Uptown Top Ranking” duo ___ & Donna] ALTHEA A reggae tune from 1977? I don’t recognize that song.
Emma Oxford’s USA Today Crossword, “Tee Off” — Emily’s write-up
Fore!
USA Today, March 05, 2026, “Tee Off” by Emma Oxford
Theme: the first word can be prefixed with T- to form a new phrase
Themers:
- 19a. [Convenience offered by Capital One or Truist], MOBILEBANKING
- 36a. [Audrey Hepburn’s “My Fair Lady” co-star], REXHARRISON
- 54a. [Nuisance], PAININTHENECK
Another wide range of themers in this set with MOBILEBANKING, REXHARRISON, and PAININTHENECK. I needed some crossings for each but with the fair crossings, none were too tough to fill. With the theme, we get T-MOBILE, T-REX, and T-PAIN.
Favorite fill: WINGSPAN, ROLEPLAY, and PRIES
Stumpers: KIR (new to me), UNI (needed crossings), and XACTO (also needed crossings–wasn’t sure on spelling)
This was a tricky puzzle for me today! I found the cluing more difficult and several of the entries were unknown to me so even crossings were hard to get and didn’t help as much as they usually do. Due to the difficulty for me, it ended up being less enjoyable but I can appreciate it as a nice puzzle. I just didn’t have the skill set nor knowledge for it today. What did you all think?
3.75 stars
~Emily
Susan Gelfand’s LA Times Crossword – Gareth’s theme summary
In Susan Gelfand’s puzzle, five entries start with a word related to electricity supply, and are crowned “electrician’s favourite”. To whit:
[…method of payment], CHARGECARD
[…exercise], POWERWALK. Had POWERLIFT first.
[…sweater], CABLEKNIT
[…eyeglasses], WIREFRAME
[…shopping venue], OUTLETMALL
Gareth
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 5 stars
NYT: I thought this was an excellent puzzle. Hanh Huynh avoided my pet peeve of having nonsense answers of the FONEINGROCKZALL variety. Despite the difficulty in getting the H-O-R-S-E-S in the proper order in the grid, and trying to get nine theme answers to work, including three that used more than one of the theme’s black squares, the puzzle didn’t have a lot of stuff that was clearly forced into the puzzle to make the grid work, so it added an extra layer of challenge to the puzzle to figure out which six squares were the affected ones. The biggest clunker to me is BESILENT, but it could have been much worse with a less skilled constructor.
I’ll bite, Me. What the hell is FONEINGROCKZALL? I find it enigmatic, and I want to know its source.
F[ALL]ING ROCK Z[ONE] with “ALL for ONE and ONE for ALL” (from a 2020 NYT puzzle by Jon Olson)
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 5 stars
This is a work of genius. No, this is a work of EINSTEIN.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
This rating is a tale of two scales- one is for construction, and the puzzle gets a 5. And the other is for how it felt to solve it and it gets a 3,
The construction is spectacular and the revealer is perfect. But the solve felt disjointed with all the short entries, many not matching the clue, until you figure out what is going on.
As I’m solving, a rating is forming in my head and I generally trust it–not as being right in an absolute sense but as reflecting my experience. But on Thursdays, I go back and rethink because frustration is baked into the equation. Sometimes, the aha moment more than makes up for the feeling, and sometimes not quite.
That matches my reaction pretty well. I caught on to the “hidden letter” idea fairly quickly – with ORCHESTRATE. So I was on the lookout for entries that needed to stretch across black squares. When it became evident that the hidden letters weren’t all the same, I assumed they were going to spell something, but I didn’t bother to keep track of which letters they were.
Kind of an old-timey vibe – HOME EC, NATE Archibald, Peewee REESE, typewriter TAB SET (I used to use a typewriter a lot, and it took quite a while to dredge that up).
Liked the clues for SHOVEL and INSOLE.
I’m with you, Huda. A feat of construction that didn’t make for a satisfying solve. It took me a while to catch on, even after getting DARK HORSES. And I didn’t notice until after I’d finished that the ‘Winning hit at Wimbledon’ was PASSINGSHOT, rather than just PASS, which seemed fine on it own.
NYT: I didn’t like that the dark horse letters were used inconsistently for the rows and columns. Sometimes it’s used for both, sometimes only the row or the column.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
Go back and look again. The hidden letters work in all directions. And in three cases it spans across two such squares. Pretty impressive construction imo.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
We both really liked this puzzle! David (my husband) is a relatively new solver (relative to me, at least – five years to my 55). Don’t think he’s the “average solver” ZDL is talking about – he can usually finish the Saturday without help and thinks Thursday rebus puzzles are too easy. He figured it out after a fair amount of struggle and getting the revealer and that helped him finish the last 25% of the puzzle. I figured out the gimmick about halfway through (thanks to ORCHESTRATE) and was wondering about the significance of the specific letters. I was delighted when I got the revealer. This is a feat of construction that was a lot of fun to solve, which is not always the case.
Agree that it skewed old, especially OPER and TAB SET – David said that helped him since he’s an old guy. Also agree that BE SILENT was the lone real clunker in the fill. Worth it.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
NYT: Not sure the theme was worth it with all the short junk fill. OPER, SRA, RES, REC, ELAL, ITT, TUE, EPI, SSN, AGS. Maybe?
Puzzle: BEQ; Rating: 4 stars
BEQ: I didn’t enjoy the constellation of proper nouns in the S. MEL, LISA, and ALTHEA all crossing one another. Probably my biggest pet peeve is where two proper nouns cross and I haven’t heard of either. Here it was all 3.
I thought it was pretty fair because all three crossings really can’t be anything else. ALTHEA is the rarest of the names, but because of Althea Gibson, fairly known to solvers. If they were unknown and weird names, like MER crossing RISA, that would be bad.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 5 stars
The more i looked at it the more I liked it(NYT.) Really no less than brilliant, a Thursday twisty that was gettable (I saw something was afoot with Orchestrating, so early on) but still interesting to find and figure out the whole theme (which I didn’t get until reading here). Great construction doesn’t always lead to a fun puzzle, but THIS ONE DOES…. IMO :)