Wednesday, April 29, 2026

AV Club untimed (Amy) [2.60 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
LAT tk (Gareth) [2.25 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT untimed (Amy) [3.25 avg; 12 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker 4:56 (Jim Q) [4.29 avg; 7 ratings] rate it
Universal untimed (pannonica) [3.33 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
USA Today 7:22 (Emily) [3.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
WSJ 5:34 (Eric) [3.00 avg; 3 ratings] rate it

Zhou Zhang & Kevin Curry’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Yada, Yada, Yada” — Eric’s Review

Zhou Zhang & Kevin Curry’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Yada, Yada, Yada” — 4/29/26 (Click to Enlarge)

One of my favorite words learned in the past few years is “anapodoton” — “a rhetorical device that involves a thought being interrupted or discontinued before it is fully expressed.” (Thanks to whoever used that word in a comment here last fall, because that’s where I picked it up.)

Each of the first three theme answers is a familiar anapodoton:

• 19A [*”…and he shall appear”] SPEAK OF THE DEVIL Also in my late-in-life learning was the completion of that phrase.
• 27A [*”…master of none”] JACK OF ALL TRADES My neighbor runs a home repair business under the name “Jill of All Trades.” I wonder if she considered the entire saying when she chose that name, or if she did that simply because her name is Jill.
• 38A [*”…flock together”] BIRDS OF A FEATHER
• 53A [“We’ll continue this discussion, but first I need to do something,” or what those saying the starred answers usually do with the starred clues] HOLD THAT THOUGHT

This theme felt a little different to me, which was nice. Other anapodotons that come to mind are “Great minds . . .” and “When in Rome, . . .” but neither is 15 letters long. I’m sure you can think of others, so  please put them in the comments.

Other stuff:

• 43A [Disney princess voiced by Kristen Bell] ANNA From Frozen, I believe, which I’ve never seen.
• 60A [Dirt-encrusted] GRIMY
• 1D [In need of rinsing] SUDSY Not SOAPY.
• 2D [Folded French food] CRÊPE It needed more letters to get that than I care to admit.
• 9D [Embarrassing tumbles] FACE PLANTS Been there . . .
• 11D [Flight component] STAIR This got me; I thought only of air travel for a while.
• 25D [Made a run for it] SKEDADDLED That word feels a bit old-timey to me, but in a good way.
• 41D [Phileas Fogg’s allotment of days] EIGHTY Fogg is the central character in Jules Verne’s 1872 novel Around the World in Eighty Days. I’ve never read it, but I might have seen the 1956 film version with David Niven as Fogg.
• 48D [Get naked] STRIP What with GRIMY and SUDSY, I wonder if this theme idea came to either constructor while they were in the shower.
• 49D [Express checkout count] ITEMS If a supermarket sign like “15 Items or Less” annoys you, give up. The less/fewer distinction was lost long ago.

Joseph Gangi’s New York Times crossword–Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 4/29/26 – no. 0429

The theme revealer is 58D. [Preceder of the answer to each of this puzzle’s starred clues], DOT, an the themers are made by adding COM to a word and cluing it as if it relates to a dotcom company:

• 1A. [*Failed internet company?], COM BUST.
• 25A. [*Assurance from an internet company?], COM PROMISE.
• 31A. [*Puzzling question for an internet company?], COM POSER.
• 39A. [*Exposure for an internet company?], COM PRESS.
• 46A. [*Illustrative story from an internet company?], COM PARABLE. I feel like there are a lot of com parables out there!
• 62A. [*Blog message from an internet company?], COM POST.

Solid theme.

Fave fill: OVERSOLD, STILETTO, METONYM (though a bit tough vocab for a Wednesday, maybe, [“Wall Street,” for the U.S. financial industry]), TOURNAMENT, PHOTO DUMPS. A little weird: TAP AT, I DO CARE, GO TO SEE, ELOPERS.

Old or niche vocab: 8A. [Rinse with water, as grain in the brewing process], SPARGE. This is not a word I have any need for. Can’t the brewers just use the word “rince”?

3.25 stars from me.

Matigan King’s AV Club Classic crossword, “Dropping Some Knowledge”–Amy’s recap

AV Club Classic crossword solution, 4/29/26 – “Dropping Some Knowledge”

The upright theme revealer is the title of a 1991 album by A Tribe Called Quest, THE LOW END THEORY. The three Down themers have words at their “low end” that can precede “theory”:

• 3d. [Apparently wild situation with an ultimate order], CONTROLLED CHAOS.
• 5d. [Prefab art kit], PAINT-BY-NUMBER.
• 19d. [Personal stakes], SKIN IN THE GAME.

I didn’t know the album title, so I pieced that together with crossings and made sense of the theme afterwards.

Fave fill: ELOTE, HOODOO, DAPHNE. Not keen on SIGNEES, tried SIGNERS there.

Semi-new to me, seen it before but needed some crossings to assemble it: 56a. [Ancient Indian board game that’s an ancestor of chess], CHATURANGA.

3.4 stars from me.

Robyn Weintraub’s The New Yorker crossword — Jim Q’s write-up

New Yorker • 4/29/26 • Wed • Robyn Weintraub • solution • 20260429

GRID SPANNERS:

• REVERSE ENGINEER
• MNEMONIC DEVICES
• I TRIED TO TELL YOU!
• THANKS IN ADVANCE

Really fun set of entries here, confidently standing in pairs like Doric columns holding up the Parthenon. I’m not entirely sure which one served as the seed entry. Maybe if I REVERSE ENGINEERed the construction I could figure it out, but that sounds suspiciously like work. Hard pass.

Other standout entries include MOTHER’S DAY and CAREGIVERS, which- now that I think about it- feel awfully intentional in their symmetrical placement. Coincidence? Maybe. Or maybe those were the actual seeds of the puzzle. 🤷‍♂️

We’ve been so spoiled by the sparkling cleanliness of The New Yorker grids that a few entries stood out more than they normally would as less-than-ideal fill. SIRS and DWELT in particular both come clued with a sort of “yes, we know nobody says this anymore” vibes. Then there’s COCA, IT SO, DIEM, EIEIO, and TOR– all a touch crosswordy, at least compared to the standard Wednesday smoothness we’ve been pampered with here.

OTHER THINGS:

• [“Wonder Woman” star Carter] LYNDA. New to me!
• [Feline zodiac sign] LEO. I only just realized the mane-less zodiac lion is female. Go figure.
• [Like New York-style pizza crust] THIN. Hold on. What? Is New York-style pizza considered thin crust? I live in New York, and while we (Jersey too) absolutely have better pizza than the other 48 states (I’ll fight you if you disagree… go pound sand Chicagoans), part of the appeal is that glorious chewy crust. Maybe I’m misunderstanding what “thin crust” means. Or what “New York-style pizza” means. One of the two.
• LANE [Nathan who plays Willy Loman in the 2026 Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman]. I keep hearing this production is excellent, though Salesman has never been one of my favorite Miller plays. I actually have tickets, but a work party was just announced for the same night. I skipped the retirement party last year and received enough passive-aggressive comments afterward that I probably can’t get away with it twice.

3 stars from me today.

Chase Dittrich’s Universal crossword, “Music Release” — pannonica’s write-up

Universal • 4/29/26 • Wed • “Music Release” • Dittrich • solution • 20260429

• 64a^R [What a DJ might do, or what you must do to understand 18-, 28-, 39- and 49-Across?] DROP THE BEAT. DJs, mostly in hip-hop and electronic genres, will drop the beat or drop the bass, meaning to play a section of a record containing a notable or impactful percussion or bass section. (Conversely, a traditional drummer might make an error and thus drop the beat in a way that throws off the rest of the band.)
• 18a. [Safecracker?] {B}LOCKBUSTER.
• 28a. [Alaska Purchase, for one?] {E}STATE SALE.
• 39a. [Greeting to a big fish?] {A}HI TUNA.
• 49a. [Important part of medieval battle training?] {T}AX EVASION.

So we’re to ‘drop’ out (rather than drop in) the initial letters, which spell B-E-A-T, to make relevant sense of the theme answers.

It’s a good little theme.

My sense of the rest of the puzzle is that the clues are SORTA (13d [More or less, familiarly]) bipolar: either extremely just-the-facts-ma’am or just a little playful. Most crosswords have more variety in tone, I feel.

• 11d [Be a cast member of] ACT IN. 4a [One sharing a top billing] COSTAR.
• 12d [“__ Dreams” (Heart song)] THESE. 30d [Wilson of Heart] ANN (not Nancy).
• 37d [Forester or Palisade] SUV.
  
• 66d [Piece of baseball gear] BAT, and I initially filled in HAT, perhaps influenced by 45d [Like many referees’ shirts] STRIPED.
• 20a [Something to remove before taking a shot] LENS CAP. Pleased to report that I got this with no crosses.
• 34a [“Ducks” in poker] TWOS. Not a term I’ve heard, but I don’t play poker or follow gambling.
  

Okay, that’s all I’ve got.

Jared Cappel’s USA Today Crossword, “Superfoods” — Emily’s write-up

A tasty solve!

USA Today, April 29, 2026, “Superfoods” by Jared Cappel

Theme: each themer is a food that begins with a synonym for “super”

Themers:

• 20a. [Kids’ game with a quickly passed object], HOTPOTATO
• 37a. [Extremely good, casually], AWESOMESAUCE
• 59a. [“That sounds great to me!”], COOLBEANS

Today’s themer set may make you hungry with HOTPOTATO, AWESOMESAUCE, and COOLBEANS. The first was an easy fill but I needed crossings for the second a third; though the entires are common enough, the cluing tripped me up. How’d you all do?

Favorite fill: BLOOPER, ADAGIO, and FONDA

Stumpers: DOLE (first tried “mete”), CPA (new cluing for me), and PLUMP (needed crossings)

This puzzle is a veritable feast! In addition to the themer set, there’s even more food served on the PLATTER of this grid with SLAW, HOUSESALADS, COCOANIB, EMPANADA, PARSLEY, LAMB, to list a few. There’s even EVIAN to wash it all down. I’m always up for a stuffed puzzle.

4.5 stars

~Emily