Thursday, March 12, 2026

BEQ 10:02 (Eric) [3.92 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
Fireball untimed (Jenni) [3.38 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
LAT tk (Gareth) [3.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 9:58 (ZDL) [3.00 avg; 8 ratings] rate it
Universal 6:25 (Eric) [2.38 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today 8:42 (Emily) [3.17 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
WSJ 10:32 (Jim Q) [2.83 avg; 3 ratings] rate it

Justin Werfel’s Fireball Crossword “Two-Story Building” – Jenni’s write-up

This wasn’t as hard as some of the recent FB puzzles. I enjoyed solving it and had a lovely aha! moment at the end.

I filled in the revealer early on since 1d is [With 58-Down, fish story…or something found in four places in the grid] and the answer is TALL/TALE.

From left to right, we have

• 17d [“Ugh, déjà vu”] is THISSAAGGAAIN (this again).
• 4d [Friendly] is AFFAABBLLEE (affable).
• 22d [Tools for some sculptors] are ICEEPPIICCKS (ice picks).
• 9d [Classic Nickelodeon animated series] is HEYYAARRNNOLD (“Hey, Arnold!”)

At first I thought the ends of all the words would be doubled and that clearly didn’t work. Then I realized the doubled letters are SAGA, FABLE, EPIC, and YARN – all TALL TALES. Very nice!

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that there’s a scholarship at UCLA named after Arthur ASHE.

Will Eisenberg and Kareem Ayas’s Universal Crossword “It’s Alive!” — Eric’s Review

Two compound nouns and a song title are linked in a jokey way that fits the revealer:

• 15A [*”South Park” or “Futurama,”e.g.] ADULT ANIMATION
• 28A [*Pursuit for a future Mr. Olympia competitor] BODY-BUILDING
• 34A [*2003 Evanescence hit] BRING ME TO LIFE I’ve heard of the band but don’t know the names of any of their songs, but this was easy enough to solve with a few key crosses.
• 53A [Mary Shelley character who created a monster … and who might’ve been inspired by the starred clues’ answers, in modern times?] DR. FRANKENSTEINThe four theme answers are reasonably interesting to see in a puzzle and the Frankenstein link works well enough.

Other stuff:

• 1A [Flakes when it’s cold outside] SNOW Sigh. Here in southwest Colorado, the snowfall has made for a disappointing ski season. I did have a few good days in the last week, but it’s getting warm enough that those may have been the final ones for this season. The thawing and freezing of early spring weather don’t make for good ski conditions.
• 12A [___ moco (rhyming Hawaiian dish)] LOCO Just last week, I questioned whether parenthetical phrases in clues were all that helpful. The “rhyming” here helped me, as I’ve no memory of ever hearing of that dish. But (as one commenter noted), I did learn something from the clue, and from post-puzzle research, I’ve learned that the dish consists of a hamburger served on a bed of white rice and topped with brown gravy and a fried egg. I like all those ingredients, so maybe it’s worth trying sometime.
• 33A [Trippy drug] LSD/7D [Dose of a trippy drug] ACID TAB
• 57A [World’s second-tallest birds] EMUS I assume ostriches are the tallest birds; Wikipedia calls them “the heaviest and largest living birds.”
• 3D [___ Rift (VR headset)] OCULAR I was familiar enough with that item to try ORACLE and then OCULUS before finally hitting on the correct answer. I wonder how well a VR headset pairs with LSD? (And yes, the parenthetical in the clue was helpful, even if it still took me a bit to get the answer.)

Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Get the Complete Picture” — Jim Q’s write-up

THEME: “UN” must be removed from theme answers in order for the corresponding clues to make sense.

THEME ANSWERS:

• [Like some tans] SPUN RAYON. Spray on. 
• [Spud] TAUNTER. Tater. 
• [Negligible] SUNLIGHT. Slight. 
• [Bars on roofs] LIGHTNING ROUNDS. Lightning rods. 
• [Strong suits] FORTUNES. Fortes. 
• [Sharps’ counterparts] FLAUNTS. Flats.
• [Title page follower] PRUNEFACE. Preface. 
• (revealer) [Free of censorship, and a clue to what was done before cluing seven Across answers] UNCUT.

As familiar as I am with this theme-type, it gets me every time, perfectly exacerbated by the general trickiness of WSJ’s Thursday cluing. I’m unfamiliar with SPUN RAYON, which I’m too lazy to google but must be a specific type of material, so I was befuddled up there. Aha moment as I jumped to the revealer a bit earlier than I typically like to, but there it is: UN CUT. Understood the gimmick immediately after without trying to interpret the cumbersome wording in the clue: [Free of censorship, and a clue to what was done before cluing seven Across answers]. That makes my head hurt.

With the exception of SPUN RAYON, the other base phrases were all familiar to me and none felt forced at all. Bonus points for PRUNEFACE/PREFACE. Brings me back to the Drive-In theater where I saw Dick Tracy with Warren Beatty as a kid.

 

OTHER THINGS / STUMBLES:

• [Red-nosed resident of Sesame Street] ERNIE. Not ELMO. His is orange.
• [Spud] TAUNTER. Currently directing Spamalot. Love me the French Taunter!
• [Songwriter Bacharach] BURT. Not ERNIE‘s BAE. That one is BERT.
• [Dresses like, for a Halloween party] GOES AS. Don’t know how I feel about this as an entry.
• [Rustic destination] INN. Are all INNs rustic?
• [Unsightly, in slang] UGGO. Hands up if you’ve ever used this word…. [*cricket* *cricket*]
• [Having no class?] TRUANCY. Feel like the grammatically correct answer would be TRUANT, no?

3.5 stars from me today

 

Joe Marquez’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up

Time: 9:58

Difficulty: Breezy (<8m)  |  Easy-ish (8-9m30s)  |  Working on it (9m30s-11m)  |  Rough going (11+m)

Today’s theme: FALLEN ANGEL (Heavenly outcast … or a hint to something found three times in this puzzle)

• BR(ANGEL)INA
• T(ANGEL)O
• LOS (ANGEL)ES

Incidentally, I just finished reading A Canticle for Leibowitz (long overdue), in which “Lucifer is fallen” carries an ominous connotation, unfortunately as relevant today as it ever was.  On a far less dire front, I can’t explain my plodding solve (the revealer is unequivocal) except to say that I’m just off my game today.

Cracking: STRANGELOVE

Slacking: his name is DOCTOR STRANGELOVE.. he didn’t spend 2 years getting his doctorate from the University of Berlin to be referred to simply as STRANGELOVE

Sidetracking: ERG, argh, ugh.

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1869 “Metal Work” — Eric’s Review

I’m always up for a pop music theme, even if metal rock is not something I listen to often (or at all). I knew only two or three out of the five bands here, but that was enough to almost let me finish in less than 10 minutes.

Common phrases/compound nouns that include a metal band’s name get jokily clued:

• 18A [Molly for the “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” band?] POISON PILL
• 23A [Google info on what band did “Cherry Pie”?] SEARCH WARRANT
• 37A [“Behind the Music” episode about the “Nobody’s Fool” band?] CINDERELLA STORY
• 48A [Pair of things you notice at a “Detroit Rock City” band’s concert?] KISS AND MAKE UP I know a little that band’s music and recognized this song title. Filling this in reminded me of a 2023 NYT crossword where the same answer was clued [Two things associated with Gene Simmons?], but there’s also a 2001 Patrick Berry NYT puzzle with [Things linked in the minds of 70’s music fans?]. I have a good story about an overheard argument followed by a bit more than a make-up kiss, but my friend Deborah won’t let me tell it anymore.
• 55A [Quit the band that did “Seventeen”?] LEFT-WINGER

I enjoyed this theme because understanding it helped me solve the puzzle. I don’t think a solver who correctly fills in a crossword grid necessarily has to understand a theme to be able to say that they “solved” it, but understanding a theme is usually better than missing it entirely. (Speaking of which: I will pay a dollar to anyone who can explain the theme of Brendan’s #1865 “Stoned Writings,” which ran a few weeks ago.)

Other stuff:

• 1A [Eleven’s favorite snack on “Stranger Things”] EGGO It’s been a few years since we watched the first season of Stranger Things, and I came close to putting OREO in until I remembered El’s fondness for the tasteless toaster waffles. (I’m spoiled; my husband makes waffles from scratch about once a month.)
• 18A [“You serious?”] AW MAN In my head, those words are always followed by Jeff Lebowski lamenting the theft of his Creedence tapes.
• 30A [No longer fresh] OFF Not OLD.
• 41A [Squirrel’s stash] ACORNS Fun fact: Squirrels often forget where they buried acorns. But then, those annoying rodents are nothing but machine for converting acorns into more squirrels.
• 43A [Denebola’s constellation] LEO Not ARA, which was the first three-letter constellation that came to mind.
• 44A [Apple leftovers] CORES Another fun fact: Despite what you might have heard, eating an apple core, seeds and all, will not hurt you as long as you don’t do it too often.
• 53A [Bronco bump] DENT As in the Ford Bronco, which is commonly seen where I live.
• 61A [2013 Oscar winner] ARGO There aren’t many movies with four-letter titles that have won the Best Picture Oscar. I wonder how many of them beat out better movies? Ben Affleck’s movies shows up enough in crosswords that this was a near gimme (2013, 2015, 2007 — all seem simultaneously like decades ago and last year)
• 2D [Achieved excellence] GOATED Not GOT AN A. I’m sure that in the world of sports ball, “goat” is not uncommonly used as a verb. But this is the real world.
• 10D [Quaking ___ (Utah state tree)] ASPEN One of my favorite trees, and I feel fortunate to have them growing all around my neighborhood. I was surprised to learn just now that “Populus tremuloides is the most widely distributed tree in North America, being found from Canada to central Mexico.”
• 13D [Org. with nine out of the ten most-watched telecasts of 2025] NFL I assume that statistic refers only to the United States. The fact that gridiron football is the most popular spectator sport in this country says a lot about us (and it’s not good).
• 27D [“Africa” band] TOTO That song makes my Top Ten list: “Top Ten songs I hate that get stuck in my head if I even think about them.”
• 36D [Short stop?] STA As in a railroad station, abbreviated. Nice clue.
• 37D [Mariners catcher Raleigh with the nickname “Big Dumper”] CAL Given the other meanings of “dump,” I can’t hear this as a flattering nickname.
• 52D [“Hyperion” poet] John KEATS I rarely read poetry and didn’t recognize that title. And of course the last letter I got was the K.

Matthew Luter’s USA Today Crossword, “Easter(n) Island” — Emily’s write-up

INTRO

Theme: the end of each themer (i.e. “eastern”) is the name of an island chain

Themers:

• 20a. [“Hold on, this crew is onto something…”], LETTHEMCOOK
• 38a. [Network that airs “Phineas and Ferb“], DISNEYCHANNEL
• 58a. [Madonna’s first No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100], LIKEAVIRGIN

A variety of themers in today’s set with: LETTHEMCOOK, DISNEYCHANNEL, and LIKEAVIRGIN. I needed some crossings for each but everything was fairly crossed and filled in quickly once I had starts. My age feels like its showing given the cluing but some days are like that. With the theme, we get the COOK ISLANDS, CHANNEL ISLANDS, and VIRGIN ISLANDS.

Favorite fill: IMINLOVE, THESES, and ROMP

Stumpers: BARE (“pure” and “real” came to mind first), ABRASIVE (needed crossings), and SEGUES (also needed crossings)

A fun puzzle over all with a great grid that allowed for a lot of lengthy bonus fill. Nice! Cluing was a bit trickier but not too difficult. Even with my slightly longer time, it still felt like a smooth solve.

4.0 stars

~Emily