Note: Fireball is a contest this week. We’ll post a review after the submission period closes.
Kelvin Zhou’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Penned In”—Jim’s review
We don’t see a straight-up rebus puzzle in the WSJ too often, so this made for a nice change of pace. Theme answers all have the word BALL squeezed into one square. The revealer is BALLPOINTS (62a, [Some Pilots, and a hint to five squares in this puzzle]).
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Penned in” · Kelvin Zhou · Thu., 1.30.25
- 1a. [Monarchs, presidents, prime ministers, etc.] GLO(BAL L)EADERS crossing (BALL)ETS.
- 22a. [Flying into a rage] GOING (BALL)ISTIC crossing (BALL)OON.
- 33a. [Typical number of troubadours?] (BALL)AD crossing (BALL)AST.
- 39a. [You can cast this] (BALL)OT crossing ODD(BALL).
- 45a. [Oscar-winning role for Anthony Hopkins] HANNI(BAL L)ECTER crossing LOW(BALL).
This is a debut puzzle and I’m mightily impressed. Not only do we have the BALL rebus smoothly executed with both Across and Down components, but we have stacks of 10s in two corners which is crazy to see when they involve theme answers. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a long theme answer involving a rebus at 1a. Who does that? But it’s pulled off with very little in the way of clunky fill. And how fun was it to find HANNIBAL LECTER as a theme answer? Nice.
Yes, there’s GDPS, OGEE, RUMI, and RESNAP as some of the crosses, but they’re all gettable, and it is Thursday, so some challenging fill is par of the course. All in all, big thumbs up from me.
Fill highlights: DIGESTIVES (make sure you try McVities Dark Chocolate variety) and DRAFT BILL. I gave UNALARMING the side-eye, but as I look on it more, I find it less objectionable.
Clues of note:
-
- 30a. [Lot site scheduled for demolition?]. SODOM. Maybe this clue’s trying a little too hard. I know it’s Biblical and it’s trying to direct us away from Abraham’s nephew, but why would you demolish a vacant lot?
- 59a. [End for who, what, when or how]. EVER. “Where” didn’t make the cut? I think it’s high time we created the word “whyever”. Who’s with me?! Edit: Turns out “whyever” is already a word. I had just assumed it was always written as two words and didn’t bother to check. But we definitely need to drastically increase its usage, perhaps as an interjection accompanied with an eyeroll. Thanks to commenter Dan for correcting me.
- 21d. [Where Anna Leonowens taught]. SIAM. Needed every crossing before realizing this was a The King and I reference.
Lovely debut puzzle. 4.25 stars.
Joe Marquez’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up
Difficulty: Average (9m20s)
Joe Marquez’s New York Times crossword, 1/30/25, 0130
Today’s theme: UPS AND DOWNS (Uncertainties of life … or a feature of four answers in this puzzle?)
- SOLDIE(R OF FO)RTUNE
- HE(ART TR)ANSPLANT
- US(ER RE)SEARCH
- CAN(T SEE S)TRAIGHT
Up, up, down, down (left right left right BA start). Lost my sense of direction at THEFTS, which I wanted badly to be THIEVES based on the cluing angle (They might sound the alarm), and then briefly toyed with the idea that THIEFS is a word.
Cracking: TED LASSO, even though the show kind of fell flat after the first few episodes
Slacking: IST UTA EST, which is Latin for “the fill has been cast”
Sidetracking: sunrise at MESA arch, Canyonlands National Park, Island in the Sky
NYT: A cute, slightly innovative theme that turned out to be grokkable almost instantly yet was always fun to work out in each case.
The rest of the clues were on average, for me, way too easy for a Thursday.
Confidential to reviewer Jim: Whyever did you think that was not a word?
NYT: Thursday record for me, closer to my Tuesday average. Fun and satisfying, but I agree probably a little too easy for Thursday. I also figured out the theme before I got to the revealer which definitely helped, though. Maybe it would have been easy to get stuck without catching the theme.
I took more time to work out the themers, although I got the theme quickly enough (with the first). Fun and well executed.
I did spend forever on the TED LASSO / HOLT segment.
WSJ puzzle is brilliant
Thanks for pointing it out, Barry. Lot’s of fun, and I never look at the daily WSJ puzzles. Do they also increase in difficulty as the week rolls on?
Yes. WSJ consistently puts out high-quality puzzles, and they’re free. It’s surprising how few of the regulars here do them, judging by the number of ratings and comments.
Only so much time for so many puzzles (and so many sources in the ORCA list I never heard of). WSJ has been on my rotation though since they went daily. Always enjoyed them for most part.
I do the WSJ every day and yes, their puzzles increase in difficulty from Monday through Thursday. Friday is a contest puzzle and my solve times average around the same as Wednesdays (give or take). Saturdays are 21x (usually), themed puzzles. I average about the same solve times on their Monday through Wednesday puzzles as I do NYT puzzles. Their Thursdays are faster for me, but they don’t routinely do the same types of funky themes that the NYT often does.
NYT: fun, albeit easy, Thursday.
ZDL, I think you’re in the minority with the TED LASSO comment. I thought it was one of the best TV shows to come out of the pandemic, and never jumped the shark. Not sure what you expected from it …
Agreed
Judged relative to its own high standards, it arguably jumped the shark sometime around the Beard After Hours episode in season 2. And the Pep Guardiola cameo in the penultimate episode was cringeworthy.
Even with all that, it remained a pleasure to watch relative to pretty much everything else.
NYT: I think the theme-elucidating parentheses in ZDL’s writeup should contain 6 letters each (rather than 4 or 5): 3 up and 3 down.
I have no idea what that parenthetical bit means anyway.
SOLDIE{ROF|FOR}TUNE
HE{ART|TRA}NSPLANT
U{SER|RES}EARCH
CAN{TSE|EST}RAIGHT
up, then down
Oh, I understand the theme fine. It’s “left right left right BA start” that baffles me.
Oh, I was only looking at the preceding comment.
ZDL was making a joke:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konami_Code
Far outside my realm of knowledge….
Can anyone explain the theme of today’s Universal puzzle? Thanks.
The answers to the themers take the clues literally as indicated by the title “Do Your Part”.
ET is one fifth of [beEThovens]. AD is one fourth of [acADemic]. AL is one third of [steALs].
Can’t say I like the theme very much. But that’s what it is.
Thank you. But … ugh. Not one of Zhouqin’s better puzzles IMHO.