Thursday, April 23, 2026

BEQ 10:48 (Eric) [3.83 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
Fireball untimed (Jenni) [3.75 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
LAT 4:21 (Gareth) [1.83 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
NYT 7:55 (ZDL) [4.25 avg; 16 ratings] rate it
Universal 5:31 (Eric) [3.30 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
USA Today 7:35 (Emily) [3.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
WSJ 20+ Minutes 😳 (Jim Q) [3.33 avg; 3 ratings] rate it

Daniel Hrynick’s Universal Crossword “Loaded With Carbs” — Eric’s Review

I don’t know why I’m so averse to reading a puzzle’s title before I start it. But I missed this one and didn’t fully understand the significance of the circled letters until I was done.

Energy-packed foods are “hidden” in the theme answers:

• 20A [Planetary zones of “extreme” cold] POLAR ICE CAPS
• 36A [1964 Beach Boys hit] I GET AROUND
• 42A [Belt out with some vocal chords?] THROAT SING I remember 30-ish years ago, when Tuvan throat singing was the latest exotic music to have its 15 minutes of fame in the United States. I’ll admit it’s unusual by “Western” standards.
• 58A [Crypto.com Arena, formerly … and a hint to the middle four letters in 20-, 36- and 42-Across] STAPLES CENTER

So far as I know, I’ve never eaten TARO, but I know that taro corms are a staple crop in many parts of the world. I like that each “hidden” carbohydrate is in the middle of the theme answer, making CENTER literally true.

Other stuff:

• 9A [Country south of Libya] CHAD Of the 10 countries with four-letter names, three are in Africa. Maybe my African geography isn’t as bad as I thought, because I was pretty sure CHAD was correct here.
• 14A [Name that’s an anagram of “nomad”] DAMON I briefly considered MANDO (short for “Armando”).
• 18A [Desirable pancake batter features] LUMPS You don’t want to overdevelop the gluten by beating the batter. My pumpkin pancakes are pretty tasty — even when I mistakenly used cumin instead of cinnamon.
• 29A [Yearly movie event in Canada’s largest city] TIFF The Toronto International Film Festival began in 1976 as the “Festival of Festivals,” showing movies that had been popular at other film festivals around the world.
• 56A [28 grams, roughly] OUNCE I should probably have known this.
• 3D [Possible question from someone getting their first tattoo] WILL IT HURT? Don’t believe them when they say “No.”
• 12D [Bobs and weaves, for short?] DOS You knew this wasn’t about boxing, right?
• 26D [Yellow ribbon at construction sites] CAUTION TAPE The house across the street from us and the one behind it burned up on Monday; that whole “pod” (four houses sharing a common driveway) is surrounded by caution tape. I’m glad no one was hurt and that the fire department kept the fire from taking out more than two houses.
• 32D [Biome that often borders tundra] TAIGA I no longer remember what distinguishes those two habitats from each other. Maybe taiga has more trees?
• 35D [Org. concerned with fall protection] OSHA I don’t remember reading of that agency being gutted, but it wouldn’t surprise me if has been.

Zhou Zhang and Kevin Curry’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up

Time: 7m55s

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

Today’s theme: HAND ME DOWN (Something that’s kept in the family … or a hint to making sense of three pairs of answers in this puzzle)

• SOmeWHAT donates ME to COUPON
• CEmeNT donates ME  to BEEF LOIN
• HOmeLINESS donates ME to POLO

Didn’t quite catch what was going on with the theme until after I finished.  I understood we were moving ME around, but was thrown off by the wording of the revealer — I read HAND ME DOWN as an instruction, rather than an explanation of what was already done.

Cracking: IF I MUST

Slacking: AMT, solving it, paying it, etc.

Sidetracking: Fring’s COATI monologue

 

 

 

 

Peter Gordon’s Fireball Crossword “Themeless 187” – Jenni’s write-up

Solved this on a plane and it helped me enjoy the trip.

As he so often does, Peter plays look-alike with the first and last entries. 1a [Connecticut College city] is NEW LONDON and 66a [John Gotti nickname, with “the”] is TEFLON DON.

Other things I noticed:

• 11d [Hanger-on who doesn’t want to experience a net loss?] is a TRAPEZIST. I’m sure it’s in some dictionary or other. Still.
• 33a [Phone service?] is the APP STORE. Hah.
• 34d [Pro at a networking event] is a SCHMOOZER. Love that.
• Happy to see Joe TORRE at 49a.
• 42d [Organs used at organ recitals] are EARS. I was lucky enough to attend an organ recital at St. Stephen’s Church in Mainz, Germany. We went initially to see the Chagall windows. Highly recommend (although one TripAdvisor review says the organ pipes are too shiny. You have been warned).

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that ANHEDONIA was the working title for “Annie Hall” and that the Barenaked Ladies recorded a song called ENID.

Faren Roth’s USA Today Crossword, “Sideburns” — Emily’s write-up

Just a little off the sides, please.

Theme: each themer is contained (on the “sides”) within BURN, with different splits in the word

Themers:

• 19a. [Doesn’t follow the lineup, in baseball], BATSOUTOFTURN
• 37a. [Salty movie theater snack], BUTTERPOPCORN
• 58a. [Snake native to Southeast Asia], BURMESEPYTHON

What a themer set today with BATSOUTOFTURN, BUTTERPOPCORN, and BURMESEPYTHON. Only the second was an instafill for me today, while the first and third took me several crossings to fill, though depending on one’s knowledge those would be easier for some solvers.

Favorite fill: TACOBELL, ALPACA, and ALERT

Stumpers: ELCAP (new to me), CLEO (wasn’t sure who was the last), and UMNO (needed crossings)

Great, classic puzzle with lots of fun fill and cluing. Smooth solve for me today. How’d you all do?

4.0 stars

~Emily

Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal crossword “Going by the Board” — Jim Q’s write-up

THEME: Types of trees can be found in common phrases, and the corresponding clues only make sense if the trees are removed

THEME ANSWERS:

• [Join the choir] SOAKING. Remove OAK to get SING.
• [Strongbox] CASH OFFER. Remove ASH to get COFFER. 
• [Austria’s currency before the euro] SPINE CHILLING. Remove PINE to get SCHILLING. 
• [Approached] CAMEL MEAT. Remove ELM to get CAME AT. 
• [Print type, and what’s been done to four Across answers before they were clued] WOOD CUT. 

This was a tough one (for me). Progress was slow to the point of near-stasis, followed by a strange turnaround where everything suddenly clicked right after I’d more or less given up (seconds after I took the screenshot). Not my proudest trajectory. It’s been a while since I crossed the 20-minute mark.

We’ve seen this tree-removal concept (and its many variations) from Mike Shenk before, but it reliably delivers Thursday-level resistance. This one certainly did.

At 68 words, the grid edges into themeless territory, but it stays impressively clean. That said, I can’t imagine getting UKIAH without crosses. NEO–RICAN and GREEN UP were both new to me as well. These were part of the section where I stalled out, though in fairness, both are reasonably inferable with enough patience.

OTHER THINGS:

• [Print type, and what’s been done…] WOODCUT. I initially read this as a font clue, which didn’t help. It’s referring to the printmaking technique, not typography.
• CAMEL MEAT — Something about this phrase is deeply unappealing. Not the idea, exactly—the sound of it. A “moist”-level reaction.
• [Lodge activities] APRES SKI — New to me. Seems to mean “post-ski socializing,” which I assume ranges from refined cocktails to less refined keggers (those are reserved for the less erudite snowboarders).
• [Arthur C. Clarke’s “Rendezvous With ___”] RAMA. Also new. That R felt like a coin flip, which made AERATED tougher than it should’ve been.
• [It leaves some floorboards visible] AREA RUG. More importantly, it really ties the room together. The Dude abides.
• [Sign of guilt, perhaps] FLIGHT — Tricky clue, but a good one.

---

Despite the struggle, there’s a particular satisfaction in finally getting the all-clear. Frustrating while it lasts, but worthwhile in hindsight.

3.75 stars

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1881 “Inner Reflection” — Eric’s Review

The theme’s right there in the title. Imagine a mirror in the middle of each of the wacky theme phrases, and each half is more or less a reflection of the other:

• 20A [Tenth-anniversary release of a record that is more persnickety?] FUSSIER REISSUE Has any industry ever milked more money out of loyal fans than record labels? They’ve certainly gotten their fair share of my disposable income over the years.
• 25A [Sticker identifying actor Jason?] BATEMAN NAME TAG I got the right half of this first. before I’d cottoned to the theme, and was struggling to think of an actor named “Jason.” I came up with Jason Statham and Jason Isaacs before thinking of Bateman, whom I’ve enjoyed in stuff like Arrested Development and Ozark.
• 41A [What to say to snap Hamlet’s foil out of it?] GET REAL, LAERTES I like this because “get real” seems so far removed from what we think of as Shakespearean language.
• 47A [Foe of the Magi?] WISE MEN NEMESIS

The theme answers are all decidedly goofy, but sometimes I’m okay with goofiness. One could quibble that the first and last letters of each theme answer aren’t reflections, but it’s a lot to ask for each complete phrase to be a perfect reflection.

Other stuff:

• 1A [Grey Goose rival, for short] STOLI I’m not sure I’ve seen another vodka brand in a crossword puzzle.
• 6A [Lumibricks rival] LEGO I skipped this because “Lumibricks” didn’t sound familiar, but as soon as I moved on to the next clue, the “bricks” part of it clicked.
• 23A [___ suprême (French God)] ETRE “Supreme being,” I suppose. I tried PÈRE first.
• 

  Jorge Selarón painting on the Escadaria Selarón

  33A [Escadaria Selarón city] RIO de Janiero. Wikipedia describes these steps as “world-famous,” but they’re new to me.

• 34A [Big do] GALA Not AFRO.
• 35A [Haynes of the Butthole Surfers] GIBBY A near gimme; I almost went with GABBY.
• 53A [“Bury Me in Georgia” singer Brown] KANE Not a song or singer I’m familiar with.
• 2D [“Heart and Soul” 1980s band who took their name from “Star Trek”] T’PAU Another musical act and song that don’t sound familiar.
• 27D [Award for María Corina Machado] NOBEL I should have remembered this Venezuelan activist, if for nothing other than giving her Nobel medal to Donald Trump after the United States invaded Venezuela.
• 40D [Monkey house resident] PRIMATE I expected this answer to be a species, not an order.

Jeffrey Wechsler’s LA Times Crossword – Gareth’s summary

I’m not sure if there is more to this puzzle theme that what I can see, but it seems to be a list of people’s names – real, pseudonymous and fictional – that have a surname ending in GG. That’s it. I guess it has a kind of soothing visual effect?

1. [“Fried Green Tomatoes…” author], FANNIEFLAGG. The book is way better than the film (of course). Real name Patricia Neal.
2. [Rapper featured on… “Nuthing But a G Thang”], SNOOPDOGG. Real name Calvin Broadus.
3. [Circumnavigator in a Jules Verne novel], PHILEASFOGG
4. […Emma Peel on the Avengers], DIANARIGG
5. […role for Anthony Hopkins], JOHNKELLOGG

I wonder if JACOBREESMOGG is famous enough among Americans for the theme? He’s pretty memorable in a toxic kind of way…

Gareth