Sunday, March 22, 2026

LAT 7:37 (Kyle) [3.00 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
NYT 15:00 (Eric) [2.79 avg; 14 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Darby) [3.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
Universal (Sunday) 8:02 (Jim P) [2.50 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (Norah) [2.75 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
WaPo 505, meta 20 minutes (Matt G) [3.44 avg; 9 ratings] rate it

Alex Eaton-Salners’ New York Times Crossword “Sound It Out” — Eric’s Review

Alex Eaton-Salners’ New York Times Crossword “Sound It Out” — 3/22/26 (Click to Embiggen)

The theme answers hold circled letters that don’t spell anything, per se, but that are explained with a punny clue and answer pair elsewhere in the grid:

• 22A [Triangle, for one] INSTRUMENT Good choice for the clue; I spent a minute or two expecting the answer to have something to do with the geometric shape.
• 27A [The circles in 22-Across?] ARE YOU WITH ME R/U with ME
• 41A [Modern trend of employees doing the bare minimum] QUIET QUITTING I take issue with this clue; some employees have been doing the bare minimum probably as long as paid employment has existed. What’s “modern” is the kinda cutesy alliterative name.
• 45A [The circles in 41-Across?] CUE TIPS
• 64A [Highchair wear] BABY BIB
• 67A [The circles in 64-Across?] BEELINE
• 91A [The circles in 93-Across?] TEA SETS
• 93A [On easy street] SITTING PRETTY
• 108A [The circles in 115-Across?] SEES EYE-TO-EYE
• 115A [Nickname of Oak Ridge, Tenn., built in 1942 for the Manhattan Project] ATOMIC CITY

This theme didn’t do a lot for me, but the paired answers aren’t offensive and they consistently apply the “sound[ing] it out” of the title. And the circled letters in each theme answer work together differently and align with the cross-reference answer.

Other stuff:

• 30A [Nauru’s capital] YAREN I don’t expect to know the capital of every country, particularly a Pacific island nation of about 12,000 people. But I do expect those capitals to sound familiar, and this one doesn’t. Wikipedia calls it the “de facto” capital; there’s apparently no legal document that names it as the capital.
• 39A [Liturgical book] MISSAL Apropos of the “sound it out” theme, I was confused as a kid that our church had so many missiles.
• 56A [Gussied (up)] DUDED If that word is good enough for Springsteen, why isn’t it good enough for Spelling Bee?
• 62A [Tony winner ___ Lenya] LOTTE 1956, for Jenny in The Threepenny Opera, which is a great show.
• 97A [1980s video game character who hops between cubes] Q*BERT I was of an age to get hooked on arcade games when they first became popular, but being a practical sort, I spent my money on boring things like rent and groceries.
• 100A [Numbers game] LOTTO No, that’s not a dupe of LOTTE.
• 89D [Sb, on the periodic table] ANTIMONY From the Latin stibnium; stibnite is the most common ore that contains antimony. Antimony sulfide was commonly used as kohl.
• 100D [Surge protector?] LEVEE. Cute. Maybe a little too cute.

Jeffrey Wechsler’s LA Times crossword “WE DID IT!” – Kyle’s write-up

LA Times solution grid “WE DID IT!” – Jeffrey Wechsler – Sunday 03/22/2026

This is Jeffrey Wechsler’s first LA Times crossword since July 2023. Thanks Jeffrey for today’s puzzle.

The theme involves inserting “we” into words to make wacky phrases:

• 22A [Motto of an intrepid cotton farmer?] I WILL FEAR NO WEEVIL (evil)
• 33A [Presentation on professorial fashion trends?] TWEED TALK (Ted)
• 38A [Light lunch in a haunted cafe?] COBWEB SALAD (Cobb)
• 66A [Like text anyone is allowed to edit?] YOURS FOR THE TWEAKING (taking)
• 96A [Data from a middle school track meet?] TWEEN SPEEDS (ten)
• 117A [Take new profile pics at the gym?] SWEAT FOR A PORTRAIT (sat)

I liked figuring out what the altered word would be. After solving the first themer, I thought all the entries would involve adding “we” to the start of a word. Interestingly, all but the first themer involve a vowel sound change (or in the case of Cobb > cobweb, adding a syllable).

Notes on fill and clues:

• Really unfortunate timing to have CESAR clued as [Civil rights activist Chavez]. I hit this clue about two-thirds of the way through my solve and immediately thought “oooof”. The New York Times this week reported an investigation into multiple allegations of sexual abuse against Chavez, including abuse of girls whose families were active in the United Farm Workers movement in the 1960s. In response, multiple planned events bearing Chavez’s name have been cancelled or rebranded, and some states have moved to end recognition of March 31st as Cesar Chavez Day.
• 5D [Basis for standard timekeeping] proved a bit tricky for me. I initially put in SOLAR RAY instead of SOLAR DAY.
• 65D [Skyscraper beams] is GIRDERS, not the more commonly seen I-bar, or the like.
• 72D [Saturn or Mercury] CAR. The Saturn make was discontinued by GM in 2010; Ford Motor Company discontinued the Mercury brand in 2011.

Sean Ziebarth’s Universal Sunday crossword, “Star Search”—Jim P’s review

Theme answers are familiar phrases with scrambled names of musical artists hidden within. The revealer is IPOD SHUFFLE (118a, [Bygone Apple audio player, or a hint to finding the six artists hidden in this puzzle]). Parenthetical hints in the clues identify hit songs by said artists.

Universal Sunday crossword solution · “Star Search” · Sean Ziebarth · 3.22.26

• 23a. [Miners’ jackpots (“Royals”)] MOTHER LODES. Lorde.
• 33a. [Ancient Roman equestrian events (“R.I.P.”)] CHARIOT RACES. Rita Ora.
• 48a. [Equine-shaped space cloud (“Shape of You”)] HORSEHEAD NEBULA. Ed Sheeran. Wow! That’s a heckuva find.
• 67a. [Phenomenon that causes many people to misspell “Looney Tunes” (“Hello”)] MANDELA EFFECT. Adele.
• 85a. [Provides a sporting chance (“Hips Don’t Lie”)] GIVES A FAIR SHAKE. Shakira. This is the only one I could suss out on sight alone.
• 102a. [Bellyache (“Vogue”)] MOAN AND GROAN. Madonna. Hey! One for us geriatrics!

Some impressive finds there, though I confess I completely ignored the theme (i.e. the song titles and letter scrambles) and solved as a themeless, which was pretty fun in itself. Clearly the artists presented are for solvers younger than I, but they’re all hugely well-known with big hit songs.

As I said, even aside from the fun set of theme answers, the long fill was enjoyable as well. As good as it was, I was sure there was some non-symmetry in the grid, so I was quite surprised (and pleased) to be proven wrong. It’s an impressive grid for sure. Check out these highlights: RABBIT EARS, MESA VERDE, THE WAVE, UP FOR SALE, ORGAN DONOR, SMOKED HAM, JANE AUSTEN, TOP BANANAS, and RADIO EDIT. I didn’t know journalist Katy TUR but the only entry that I thought was a bit awkward was WARN ME [“I’d appreciate a tipoff”] which feels like it’s missing a “next time.”

Overall, long scrambled names don’t lend themselves to a quick solve but thankfully the grid isn’t hard to fill while ignoring the theme and the fill is excellent. Going back and rediscovering the theme answers made for some impressive aha moments. Lovely puzzle, especially given the symmetrical constraints. Four stars.

Evan Birnholz’s Washington Post Crossword “Join the Clubs” — Matthew’s Review

Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post Crossword solution, “Join the Clubs,” 3/22/2026

A meta this week from Evan, titled “Join the Clubs,” where we’re challenged to find a five-letter word. We’ve got an asymmetric grid that at first doesn’t leave any obvious clues where to start, but a pattern emerges from five rows in the grid.

• • 22a [Song from “The Pajama Game” with the lyric “The radiator’s hissin’, still I need your kissin’”] STEAM HEAT
  • 24a [Beams] RAYS OF LIGHT
  • 35a [Board game set in a mythical version of feudal Japan] RISING SUN
  • 39a [Remembers] BEARS IN MIND 
  • 64a [Excitement during a mid-19th-century rush] GOLD FEVER
  • 68a [Rock band whose song “Day Seeker” has the lyric “I used to waste my precious days away / Wishing I could sleep forever” … or a Dayseeker song with the lyric “nothing is real when I’m awake”] DREAM STATE
  • 89a [Athletic conference that aptly includes the University of Montana] BIG SKY
  • 91a [Compton Mackenzie novel about the local resistance to a government plan to build a missile base in Scotland] ROCKETS GALORE
  • 114a [2008 comedy about making a war film while stranded in the jungle] TROPIC THUNDER
  • 117a [Make an angry entrance] STORM IN

In each row, the last word of one themer and the first of the next are names of American sports teams – the “clubs” referenced in the title. Combined, each pair is a recognizable phrase: HEAT RAYS, SUN BEARS, FEVER DREAM, SKYROCKETS, THUNDER STORM. And there’s five pairs to line up with our five-letter meta answer.

The next step took me quite a while, until I remembered two odd clues from elsewhere in the puzzle: [Devastating weaponry of sci-fi] for DEATH STAR and [Furry Asian creatures] for RED PANDAS. The other three pairs also have similar counterparts: 

• [Experience often producing vivid and bizarre images] ACID TRIP
• [Goes soaring] FLIES
• [Reason for some severe weather alerts] TORNADO

The first five letters of these entries spell DRAFT, and appropriate word for “Join[ing] the [sports] Clubs.” A fun meta. This trick of finding other entries in the grid that could also fit your themers is somewhat common in metas, but this is one of Evan’s tougher metas of the last few. I’m very glad I pushed through for that last step.

Cheers!