Tuesday, March 24, 2026

Jonesin’ 4:11 (Erin) [2.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
LAT tk (Jenni) [3.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 5:59 (Eric) [3.07 avg; 7 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker untimed (pannonica) [3.69 avg; 8 ratings] rate it
Universal untimed (Eric) [2.63 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today 10:19 (Emily) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Xword Nation tk (Ade) rate it
WSJ tk (Jim Q) [3.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it

Tarun Krishnamurthy’s Universal Crossword “It’s Greek to Me” — Eric’s Review

Tarun Krishnamurthy’s Universal Crossword “It’s Greek To — 3/24/26 (Click to Embiggen)

As I often do, I ignored the circled letters in the theme answers until I had filled in the grid and was trying to make sense of the theme. The puzzle’s title is the only revealer:

• 17A [Illegal lottery] NUMBERS GAME
• 26A [Nostalgic place to visit] CHILDHOOD HOME
• 40A [Halloween outfit that may come with an eye patch] PIRATE COSTUME
• 53A [Certain fragrance] MUSK PERFUME

The “Greek” part of the title refers to the Greek letters that begin each theme answer (but you knew that). I imagine that many compound nouns ending with ME start with a Greek letter, but the ones here are mostly entertaining. (MUSK PERFUME doesn’t spark joy for me, but it’s not objectionable.)

Other stuff:

• 22A [Literary device used to address plot inconsistencies] RETCON It’s from crosswords that I learned this word and the concept of retroactive continuity.
• 32A [Opposite of A.D.] BCE That pairing seems a little odd to me, since the C in BCE is for “Common.” Technically, I guess it works.
• 49A [What might be requested after an iPad is spun around] TIP I try to be nice to the people who work customer service jobs, but tipping a sales clerk always seems like a bit much.
• 58A [Emergency kit] GO BAG It will soon be wildfire season where I live. I’m not too worried about it, but it’s not something I ignore. Maybe this year we’ll actually assemble a go bag.
• 60A [“My Good Side: A Memoir” author Scheana] SHAY I didn’t recognize the author or her book. Per Wikipedia, Shay is “an American television personality, singer, podcast host, and actress [who] was an original cast member on the Bravo reality television series Vanderpump Rules for eleven seasons.” Reality shows don’t appeal to me, which explains why I’ve never heard of her.
• 11D [Apple skin?] IPHONE CASE Cute clue.
• 27D [Getting a move on] HAULING ASS That phrase doesn’t bother me, but I’m moderately surprised to see it in a Universal grid.

Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “The Power of Three” — buy one, get two free. – Erin’s write-up

Jonesin’ solution 3/24/26

Hello lovelies! This week’s theme involves tripling the last word in some common phrases.

• 7a. [Mic check you can feel in your vertebrae?] SPINAL TAP TAP TAP
• 27a. [Bird feature for Buster Poindexter?] HOT HOT HOT WINGS
• 43a. [Grouch eating like Cookie Monster?] OSCAR NOM NOM NOM
• 54a. [Bottom-of-the-page section about a devilish number?] SIX SIX SIX FOOTER

Other things:

• 40a. [Certain Wall St. trader] ARB, short for arbitrageur. It looks like these folks trade quickly to take advantage of small price differences between markets.

Until next week!

Killian Olson’s New York Times Crossword — Eric’s Review

Killian Olson’s New York Times Crossword — 3/24/26 (Click to Embiggen)

One for the art lovers here:

• 17A [“The Last Supper” painter] LEONARDO DA VINCI
• 27A [“The Luncheon” painter] CLAUDE MONET
• 48A [“The Buffet” painter] PAUL CEZANNE
• 60A [What you might punnily call 17-, 27- and 48-Across, given the paintings in their clues?] STARVING ARTISTS

The paintings in the theme clues all depict meals, but the leap to “starving” seems a bit of a stretch. But it’s a reasonably well-filled grid.

Other stuff:

• 16A [“Escape (The ___ Colada Song)” (last Billboard #1 hit of the 1970s)] PINA Ugh. Now I’ll have that song stuck in my head all day or longer.
• 43A [Very large number] MYRIAD That’s kind of a neat-looking word. As I just learned, it comes from the Greek murioi, meaning “10,000.”
• 30D [___ Cruz, at 6′7″ the tallest shortstop in M.L.B. history] ONEIL That name is new to me; he plays for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Wikipedia tells me that another 6′7″ athlete, Joel Guzmán, played nine innings at shortstop for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2007.
• 31D [“Wha?! … That makes no sense”] I’M CONFUSED I can relate.
• 38D [Unscripted comedy] IMPROV Not AD LIBS.

Paolo Pasco’s New Yorker crossword — pannonica’s write-up

New Yorker • 3/24/26 • Tue • Pasco • solution • 20260324

Dispensing with the standard observations: (1) annoying applet interface, (2) not challenging enough to be ‘moderately challenging’

Continuing:

The grid features a striking triple-fifteen stack across the grid’s equator, and there are a pair of additional load-bearing vertical fifteens off to either side. The latter were gimmes: 3d [Actress who wrote the memoir “Beyond Uhura”] NICHELLE NICHOLS (22a [Civil-rights leader who convinced 3-Down not to quit “Star Trek,” for short] MLK), 9d [What a stretched spring or a drawn bow has, in physics] POTENTIAL ENERGY.

The trio of acrosses were another matter, and I needed significant crossing entries to complete them. 27a [It may poke at someone in a seat] POLITICAL SATIRE, 32a [Sierra Nevada product] AMERICAN PALE ALE, 33a [“Help my post do numbers, y’all!”] DON’T LET THIS FLOP. Is that last an actual saying?

• 1a [“Echar una __” (“Lend a hand,” in Spanish)] MANO. La mano, like el día, is an exception in the language. Most Spanish nouns that end in o are masculine and most that end in a are feminine.
• 18a [Birds known for impaling their prey] SHRIKES. Small insects and the like on thorns. There are several reasons, but “[t]he primary function of conspicuously impaling prey on thorny vegetation is however thought to be for males to display their fitness and the quality of the territory held to prospective mates.” (Wikipedia)
• NYC: 19a [Store where you might get a chopped cheese] BODEGA. 15d [Took the L, say] RODE (but 46a [“It wasn’t my day”] I LOST).
• 21a [Site of a cathedral painted more than thirty times by Monet] ROUEN. He painted its likeness on canvas, not the stone exterior itself.
• 23a [Vessels for frying okonomiyaki] PANS. Clue is more specific than necessary, possibly in an attempt to confuse some solvers. Similar, but less effective, approach at 19d [Art form in which yamadori trees are prized] BONSAI.
• 37a [Inform] CUE IN. Not a word pairing (can’t remember the grammatical term at the moment) that seems common to me.
• 42a [City where Jafar Panahi’s 2025 film “It Was Just an Accident” is set] TEHRAN. 8d [Org. that uses X-ray scanners] TSA. 31d [Nickname for the mobster John Gotti, with “the”] TEFLON DON.
• 47a [Average contributor in baseball?] EARNED RUN. The ERA (earned run average) is a standard statistic in the sport.
• 50a [Weird Al single that’s an ode to lunch meat] MY BOLOGNA, a parody of “My Sharona”.
  

  Pascal Comelade, “Red Bologna”

• 4d [Detachable layer for a versatile wedding dress] OVERSKIRT. 5a [Leg-revealing cut] SLIT.
• 13d [Polish language?] EDIT. An oldie but a goodie.
• 25d [Synthetic fibre trademarked by DuPont] ORLON. Oh New Yorker, never change.
• 44d [2025 Best New Artist Grammy nominee with the song “WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!”] RAYE. Completely new to me.
• 45d [Circumbinary planets orbit two of them] SUNS. Nifty!
  

Kiran Pandey’s USA Today Crossword, “Normcore” — Emily’s write-up

Be square.

USA Today, March 24, 2026, “Normcore” by Kiran Pandey

Theme: each themed contains —NORM—

Themers:

• 20a. [Highly improbable positive occurrence], MINORMIRACLE
• 36a. [2011 Oscar-winning song about identity whose music video includes Kermit the Frog], MANORMUPPET
• 53a. [“The Weir” playwright], CONORMCPHERSON

Today’s themed set has a little bit of this and that with: MINORMIRACLE, MANORMUPPET, and CONORMCPHERSON. I needed a few crossings to get each started but everything was fairly crossed so they were too challenging.

Favorite fill: HOTPOT, PREGAMES, and PALMETTO

Stumpers: EGIRL (new to me), WRAPITUP (needed crossings), and APSCORE (also needed crossings)

A long solve for me, as I found the clueing more challenging than usual. How’d you all do?

3.5 stars

~Emily