LAT 2:36 (Stella) 
[3.64 avg; 7 ratings] rate it
Newsday 9:55 (Amy) 
[4.28 avg; 9 ratings] rate it
NYT 7:52 (Amy) 
[3.77 avg; 13 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (Matthew) [3.50 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Matthew) 
[2.75 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
WSJ 14:04 (Eric) [2.75 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Closing Bell” — Eric’s Review
Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Closing Bell” — 3/28/26 (Click to Embiggen)
Someday, maybe, I’ll remember to read a puzzle’s title when there is one. I’m not sure if it would have helped me with this, as it was fairly obvious that the theme answers all had DING tacked on the end of something familiar, with crossword wackiness ensuing:
- 21A [Job for Sun-Maid’s marketing department?] RAISIN BRANDING
- 32A [Sewing up a rip before it gets any bigger, say?] WISE MENDING If your mother or grandmother told you “A stitch in time saves nine,” I hope you were listening.
- 45A [Airline chaos resulting from no assigned seating?] WILD BOARDING “Wild boar” is probably the least common of the compound nouns played with, but it’s not completely unfamiliar to me.
- 64A [Making sense of some abstract pieces?] ART DECODING
- 77A [Ski boot grip made from recycled material?] TRASH BINDING
- 93A [Spotting the person who’s covertly following you?] TAIL FINDING
- 106A [ID check at the vacation inn’s bar?] GET-AWAY CARDING
I like the two in which a short I becomes a long I the best, maybe the changed sound takes the wacky answer further from the original noun. But all the theme answers work reasonably well.
Other stuff:
- 18A [Mobile cells] AMOEBAE Cute clue. “Ameba” always looks weird to me, though I generally don’t care for the “oe” and “ae” spellings where the O or A is silent. You can keep the Latin plurals, though.
19A [Predator with a mask, e.g.] GOALIE Of the four major professional sports in the United States, ice hockey is the one I ignore the most. The Nashville Predators have yet to engrain themselves in my consciousness. They have kind of a cool logo, though (as far as sports logos go).- 26A [1971 title role for Donald Sutherland] KLUTE A gimme with the last two letters in place. I remember that being a pretty good movie; Jane Fonda won an Oscar for her portrayal of a prostitute named Bree Daniel.
- 48A [“La Belle Excentrique” composer] Erik SATIE I expect M. Satie shows up in crosswords more than he does in concert halls.
- 61A [Numismatist’s rating better than “good” but worse than “about uncirculated”] FINE This week’s winner of my award for the clue that’s disproportionately long in comparison to its answer.
- 66A [Colleague of Salt and DJ Spinderella] PEPA It took me way too long to get that one.
- 69A [Star of 10 Scorsese films] Robert DENIRO And I’ve probably seen every one of those movies.
- 95A [Big hit for Al Jolson] SWANEE Written by George and Ira Gershwin and not to be confused with Stephen Foster’s “Old Folks at Home (Swanee River).”
- 13D [Last surviving star from AFI’s 100 Years…100 Stars list] Sophia LOREN I made an educated guess that turned out to be correct. She’s 91. (Oddly, the AFI’s list only has 50 stars, 25 men and 25 women.)
- 68D [Word below Monticello, on a coin] FIVE It’s been a long time since I’ve had a nickel; nothing came to mind here.
Katie Hoody’s New York Times crossword–Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 3/28/26 – no. 0328
Huh. I was expecting this puzzle to be more than just a little bit easier than yesterday’s puzzle, but it also put up a fight despite the grid being conducive to building on your footholds.
There’s a term I sure didn’t know: 8D. [Short addition above or below a musical staff], LEDGER LINE. Here’s the Wiki explanation. (By the way: Wikipedia just announced that it’s a no-AI venture, so what you read there is written and edited by actual people.)
Also new to me: 54D. [Dominican poet Pedro ___], MIR. You can read an English translation of part of his epic poem about the Dominican Republic here.
Fave fill: “ARE WE COOL?”, POOL NOODLE, SNORLAX, YET TO COME, SWEAR ON IT, SAUNTERS, up the WAZOO, TSA PRE (the “check” part is a checkmark), TOO FAR GONE, TOY POODLE, TOP DOLLAR. Really nice fill overall—the many 7- to 10-letter entries draw the eye away from the 3-letter abbreviations and such.
Four stars from me.
Grant Conley’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up
Los Angeles Times 3/28/26 by Grant Conley
I enjoyed this puzzle despite it being easy, and therefore despite my not having a lot of time to savor it:
- 22A [Astaire and Rogers] is FREDS. Man, this might be the only plural-name clue I’ve ever liked. Usually, at best plural-name clues are neutral but strained, when you really do have two famous people of the same name, like [Eilish and Holiday] for BILLIES. At worst, an old-school trope I’m glad is mostly not used any more, you’d get something like [Actor Idris and family] for ELBAS. But this clue actually appears, on its surface, to be pointing to the dance team of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, when it is in fact pointing to FREDS Astaire of dance and Rogers of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. I’m into it!
- 48A [Achievement last set in 1997 in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert] is LAND SPEED RECORD. I like when I learn something interesting from a puzzle without having to look anything up afterward, and I was surprised to learn it’s been nearly 30 years since the record was set.
- 51A [Dramatic introduction] is DRUM ROLL, PLEASE, which is a fun entry.
- 12D [Cassettes that may spark nostalgia] is MIX TAPES. May spark nostalgia? Kids, listen: MIX TAPES were how you showed your crush you were really into them, or put your absolute favorite bangers together for yourself. You couldn’t just throw one together the way you can a Spotify playlist. They were like jewels to be placed into the setting of the tape deck of my mom’s Toyota Tercel. That’s my nostalgia; what’s yours?
- 43D [British cellist Jacqueline] is DU PRE, which I suspect I’m in a small minority of solvers who don’t need any crossings to drop.
Trip Payne’s Newsday crossword, “Saturday Stumper”–Amy’s recap
Newsday crossword solution, “Saturday Stumper” – 3/28/26 – Trip Payne
Whoo! Just under 10 minutes, really fast for me on a Stumper and it’s not labeled “Les Ruff.” Great to see Trip’s byline here.
Fave fill: IN A REVERIE, “LORD KNOWS,” SCREEN NAME, THIRST TRAP, the PIRATES and the MARINERS linked as maritime-named teams, DIME NOVEL.
Did not know:
- 19a. [Legislation increasing the power of Canadian MPs (2014)], REFORM ACT.
- 38a. [Certain silent-era films], PHOTODRAMAS. The term is in Merriam-Webster, tied to motion picture.
Eight more things:
- 23a. [Stir-fry staple], CELERY. Is it, though? Bok choy, sure. But celery? I feel like this wasn’t Trip’s clue.
- 24a. [One of three pieces that’s a pair], PANTS. In a three-piece suit, jacket, vest, and a pair of pants.
- 36a. [Sticky situation?], MIRE. Why the question mark, I wonder.
- 48a. [Mongoose cousin], HYENA. Surprising, since hyenas are African and mongooses Asian. They’re both in the superfamily Herpestoidea, along with assorted animals classed as Malagasy carnivorans.
- 6d. [“The Big Shamrock” as a Celtic], O’NEAL. Towards the end of Shaq’s career. My sports-fan husband hadn’t heard the nickname before.
- 28d. [Einstein’s beautiful], SCHON. Really, a German word with an umlauted vowel should add an e (schoen) if the umlaut is gone. Without the umlaut, schon is an entirely different German word, meaning “yet.” Beautiful is schön.
- 31d. [Turn down], DIM / 31a. [Low volume], DIME NOVEL. 31a’s clue called out for muting, the sound equivalent of dimming, but is entirely unrelated to sense intensity.
- 33d. [Land with a caprock top], MESA. Hundreds of MESA clues over the years, and I don’t think I’d seen caprock before.
Usually a Stumper has me looking all over the clue list for something accessible, trying to expand off the footholds I have but finding the crossing clues impenetrable for a while. This one played more like a regular non-stumpery themeless.
Four stars from me.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
That was satisfyingly hard. My time stunk but I still enjoyed it.
I had COOKIES in the middle and couldn’t get off it. I’m familiar with Andrew Jackson’s Kitchen Cabinet, though most sources capitalize the term which would have helped here.
I also found the Times to be tougher than usual and my time was accordingly slow. Snorlax and inurn were new to me. Still, a fair and fun voyage.
NYT was a tad tougher than yesterday. I started off on the wrong foot by plunking in SALON at 1D and congratulating myself on seeing through the misleading clue. I liked the various phrases, all of which were idiomatic to my ear. SNORLAX was the only unknown. I am very slightly irked at the plural TROUTS but that was my only minor issue with the puzzle.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
I penciled in SALON immediately as well. It wasn’t until I read the clue for 28D: Salon choices that I went back and revised. NW was last to fall. The puzzle played like an older end of week. A toe hold here, link a connection to another part of the grid, another toe hold, repeat. I enjoyed it.
A couple of minutes tougher than yesterday, I spent a while at the end staring at blank space in the NW. I had TOTTER/TEETER and LORETTA (with a vague childhood memory of the Loretta Young Show), the rest came all at once with CANOE. A few unknown words in the puzzle, but pretty fair overall.
I thought SALON right away when I read the clue, but LORETTA was already in place and I was confident of that.
I considered TOTTER, but fortunately, went with TEETER.
SNORLAX was completely unknown, but crossings seemed fair.
It seems like there was a conversation here some time ago on TROUTS. Works okay for me.
Great NYT – found much easier than yesterday, but LEDGER LINES and SNORLAX were gimmes for me. 4.5
I too felt it a lot easier; almost all of my guesses turned out to be right, starting with WAZOO. I got messed up putting REPS instead of SETS and MUON instead of PION. I guess since they had TAU, they didn’t want *another* lepton in the puzzle. I was worried that I didn’t know SNORLAX, but got it from the crossings. LEDGER LINES was a gimme, too. Less than half my average time.
Re Stumper:
Thanks, Amy, for posting the grid! I do it on paper, so I had to be sure my answer for 42D was right – A HOST. The actual Byron quote is “A NEST” of tuneful persons (from the Dedication to “Don Juan”), but that doesn’t fit.
I’m not familiar with the quote, but Google confirms “a nest” as part of the Don Juan dedication and “Bob Southey” is mention, so you’re correct!
“Nest” is more consistent with the context and Byron’s sarcasm directed at these other poets. The whole thing is pretty humorous.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43828/don-juan-dedication
I think that’s the site that I found it on, too, and I was noticing the sarcasm! :)
Stumper: Totally agree with Amy, with the exception that I found the bottom harder than the top. The top part was easy enough that my husband got most of it and I got the rest of the top with no problems. Then there was a pause until I managed the upper portion of the bottom and 44D and 40D and the lower right, then passed it back to my husband, who got the rest of the lower left.
Celery is not used in a traditional Chinese stir-fry (that I know of), but might be in non-Chinese one. Never heard of the terms “photodrama” or “thirst trap.” Not sure why “certain” applies to “photodrama,” though. I thought “hyena” as a “cousin” for mongoose was a stretch, but it makes sense with Amy’s explanation.
Celery is very common in stir-fried dishes. Not surprisingly, it was Chinese celery that was first used. It’s more aromatic and crisper than western celery, but both are used now in China. Of course, western celery is more common in Chinese cooking in this country.
Amy’s suggestion that bok choy is a likely replacement won’t work either. Bok choy releases a lot more water during stir frying than celery. So, as an example, Singapore-style rice noodles (lightly curried and not from Singapore!) always includes western celery for crunch but would become a gloppy mess if bok choy were included. It’s celery’s ability to release its water in your mouth and not the wok that makes it so valuable in stir fries.
OK — I would just say that I haven’t see it used in Chinese restaurants (actually slightly surprising since you say it is used and it’s pretty cheap) and at least the Chinese recipes that I’ve looked up — doesn’t mean that there aren’t 10 zillion Chinese recipes that I haven’t looked up. :)
Michael Leddy below indicates that celery is used in Kung Pao chicken, which could explain why I haven’t seen it used — I don’t eat anything spicy and Kung Pao chicken qualifies as spicy!
Made with Lau is a great series with all kinds of Chinese recipes, mostly Cantonese and not spicy. This chicken stir fry is an example and uses celery.
Thanks for the link! I’ll check it out.
My wife doesn’t like spicy food, either. KPC is still her go to dish at our favorite restaurant. She meticulously picks out the peppers
I have tried that with salt-and-pepper shrimp, but with other dishes the pepper would flavor the sauce to the point where I couldn’t eat it. :)
Just finished the mise for tonight’s Chinese meal. One dish is Ants Climbing up a Tree (bean threads with spicy pork sauce). It’s made with Pixian dobanjiang, Szechuan chili and fava bean paste. Very spicy and addictive stuff. Not for BlueIris or Mrs. PJ, but we love it.
Puzzle: Newsday; Rating: 5 stars
Loved this Stumper – hard but solvable. I had to reveal my wrong letters to finish up the bottom (had MARINERS instead of PIRATES).
Oops, meant MARLINS for PIRATES!
I was wondering, but now I understand. I thought of Marlins, too. :)
I almost always put CELERY in a stir fry because I like the crunch.
SW corner was a beast. Was confident of PIRATES and ON RETAINER. Had to rely on my 15-year old grandson for THIRST TRAP. With that, I was able to see ANT and then SCREEN NAME. The grandson, who is a zoophile, deemed the clue for HYENA “really obscure.”
Puzzle: Newsday; Rating: 4 stars
I almost got the Stumper by starting with “Emulate Douglass or Demosthenes” and getting every word from one I had already filled in. Is there a name for that?
I was flummoxed by “’70s Ginsburg employer”: I had the C and the L and thought it must have been UCLA. I should’ve remembered that it was the ACLU.
Fun facts for the Stumper clue “Dictionary entry abbr.”: The abbreviation ant, for antonym, appears in the list of abbreviations used in the dictionary in Merriam-Webster’s Second Unabridged. It’s not in the Third. It appears in the 10th and 11th editions of the M-W Collegiate but not in the brand-new 12th. In the OED, Ant., capitalized, is an abbreviation for Antiquities. The abbreviation ant is, of course, a dictionary abbreviation, but perhaps not as common as it might seem.
I was puzzled by PHOTODRAMAS. Photodrama appears to be an early name for a motion picture, in which case any silent might be considered a photodrama, no?
CELERY and stir-fry: the first thing that comes to my mind is Kung Pao chicken. Yes, please.
I don’t know if there’s a name for starting with one answer and getting everything else from it, but “easy” is one word that comes to mind! It’s usually the easier puzzles that that happens to me, not the Stumper. :)
Regarding “photodramas,” yes, that’s why I indicated “Not sure why “certain” applies to “photodrama,” though.” in a previous post.
Hmmm… if celery is used in Kung Pao chicken, that could explain why I haven’t seen it used — I don’t eat anything spicy and Kung Pao chicken qualifies as spicy!