LAT tk (pannonica) 
[2.67 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
NYT 5:15 (Amy) 
[3.96 avg; 14 ratings] rate it
Universal 3:38 (Jim P) 
[3.13 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Emily) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Adrian Johnson’s New York Times Crossword — Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 3/6/26- no. 0306
Fun, fresh puzzle to start the weekend off right.
Fave fill: AERIAL PHOTO, “LET’S DO LUNCH,” DATING UP, POTTER as a [Worker involved in firings?] (still mad that HBO Max stopped airing Great Pottery Throw Down, which is just GBBO with hotter ovens and creations you can’t eat), LIVING LARGE, ICE CREAM BAR, PINKY-SWEARS, BLOVIATES, COWLICK, TAX DODGES, PRINT RUN, SEX SHOP.
Five other bits:
- 32D. [The good life, in Spanish vernacular], PURA VIDA. It’s particularly important to Costa Ricans.
- 28A. [Grain that once fed the Roman army], FARRO. Tasty grain. Somehow I misread the clue as being about the Russian army of yore.
- 29A. [Heroic tale of romance], GEST. Crosswordese! I have rarely ever encountered this word anywhere but in crosswords.
- 48A. [Device such as a qamutiik, an Inuk means of Arctic transportation], SLED. My first guess was BOAT. “Device” is a weird word to use here. [Means of Arctic transportation such as a qamutiik]?
- 29D. [Some yellowish canines], GOLD TEETH. I was half thinking gold incisors were more a thing than gold canines, but the photo illustrating this Ebony article on grillz does indeed feature a gold canine.
Four stars from me.
Jake Halperin’s Universal crossword, “Buy-In”—Jim P’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases that hide a shopping locale within. The revealer is SHOPPING CENTER (51a, [Complex with many retailers … and what each starred clue’s answer has, roughly speaking?]).
Universal crossword solution · “Buy-In” · Jake Halperin · Fri., 3.6.26
- 20a. [*Makes sense] STANDS TO REASON.
- 31a. [*Zoologist’s subject] ANIMAL LIFE.
- 41a. [*Fraudster] SCAM ARTIST.
Solid. ANIMAL LIFE feels a bit green painty but it works. It would have been nice if each entry’s hidden word was in the exact center, but that didn’t quite happen with the first one (where we find a 5-letter word hidden in a 14-letter entry). But that’s the only nit. At least we get grid symmetry.
And we also get a lot of lively long fill starting with SEX SELLS and moving on to “I’M A LOSER,” APPALOOSA, “IT’S A START,” BUTTERNUT, and MASSAGING, with those final two crossing three theme answers each. Very nice.
Clues of note:
- 11d. [Cookies that come in “party size”]. OREOS. I assume this means the packaging is “party size”, not the cookies themselves. Although I would like to see a party-sized Oreo.
- 34d. [___ court (airport terminal feature)]. FOOD. These are more commonly associated with malls, of course, but then this entry actually crosses the MALL entry.
Three stars from me.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 5 stars
NYT: Great Friday! No notes ;) Wish every puzzle could all be like this one. BLOVIATES! Excellent!
Amy wonders about encountering GEST in the wild. I had gests coming out the wazoo in French lit in college. It was not my strongest subject, to put it mildly, and was grateful when the professor (rarely) explained something the class was struggling with in English. She was Italian and her English wasn’t great, but it was something,
We were beginning to study chansons de geste, like the Chanson de Roland, and were already lost. She gave a bit of introduction in English, and translated geste as “gest.” That didn’t help much. Next class, a bunch of us had looked it up and shared with the rest that it meant “heroic deed.” We spent the semester dropping “gest” in conversation as often as we could. Not bogarding was a gest, for instance.
I checked my 1913 Webster’s dictionary, and for the four definitions of GEST (derived from the French “geste”), three are marked as obscure, and then final one as archaic. So there’s that…
They must have had a change of heart. The current entry has no such tags.
This is why you’ve got to hold on to a real dictionary ;-)
Gest \\Gest\\, n. [OF. geste exploit. See {Jest}.]
1. Something done or achieved; a deed or an action; an adventure. [Obs.] –Chaucer.
2. An action represented in sports, plays, or on the stage; show; ceremony. [Obs.] –Mede.
3. A tale of achievements or adventures; a stock story.
[Obs.] –Chaucer. Spenser.
4. Gesture; bearing; deportment. [Archaic]
Through his heroic grace and honorable gest.
–Spenser.
Yes, the Second Edition made great use of obs, which Gove corrected in the Third Edition as “overuse.” 2 assigned the tag where the editors thought a word shouldn’t be used. For instance, you’ll find it on “nauseous,” in the sense of causing nausea. For 3, Gove redefined obs to mean “hasn’t been used since 1755,” a more objective criterion. It is part of the proscriptive vs descriptive debate.
NYT: Nice puzzle – just about right for a Friday, I thought. Some cute clues – START BUTTON, CUL DE SAC, PINKY SWEARS, BLOVIATES, SEX SHOP, PET DOOR, TAX DODGES all made me smile. And “Lab access point” had me thinking in the wrong direction when I got to “Some yellowish canines.”
The clue for PURA VIDA seemed a little off. Certainly a “pure life” could be considered a good life, but it seems like “The good life” should be “la buena vida.”
NYT: I found this challenging, but fair, for a Friday. Very enjoyable!!
I’ll vouch for PURA VIDA, having visited Costa Rica (great trip, country!). It is their motto!
From what AI googie tells me, it sounds almost like it means the same as “Aloha” is for Hawaiian.
“Pura Vida” is a quintessential Costa Rican (“Tico”) phrase… etc.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3 stars
I thought others might share my distaste for the 14D entry “Pleasurable place to do business?”(SEX SHOP), but I guess not. I must be more prudish than I thought.
For me, this was a too-easy puzzle for a Friday; I prefer something more challenging.