Paul Coulter’s New York Times Crossword, “Have It Both Ways” — Eric’s review
Paul Coulter’s NYT Crossword, “Have It Both Ways” — 3/16/25
This is a clever theme that I don’t remember seeing before, based on what the constructor Lewis Rothlein calls a “semiordnilap” — a word that isn’t a palindrome, but that, when read backwards, forms a different word.
I typically don’t read the titles of New York Times Sunday puzzles, so I wasn’t prepared for how this one worked. The theme plays out in paired Across answers linked by a Down answer and hits you right at the start:
- 1A [Jeans material]/29A [Dug through for digital analysis]/5D [-] BLUE DENIM/DATA MINED DENIM by itself is a perfectly fine answer for 1A. But I knew that 1D [Cornrow or challah feature] had to be BRAID, which prompted me to move the DENIM to 5D. It wasn’t until later that I saw how DENIM became MINED.
- 10A [Leaves a relationship]/32A [Subway commuters, informally]/10D [-] PARTS COMPANY/STRAPHANGERS This was my first hint that the theme was a bit more complicate than having a Down entry dangle of the end of an Across entry. STRAPHANGERS seemed the obvious answer for 32A, but there wasn’t a way to make it work until I figured out the trick.
- 40A [Old-fashioned garnishes]/64A [Something one might need to look good in the morning]/46D [-] ORANGE PEELS/BEAUTY SLEEP
- 69A [Not-so-joltin’ Joe?]/89A [Got up and at ’em]/69D [-] DECAF COFFEE/FACED THE DAY
- 94A [Secretly communicating in class]/120A [Felt absolutely determined about]/94D [-] PASSING NOTES/DEAD SET ON
- 100A [Settings for telling some ghost stories]/122A [Like the typefaces Helvetica and Arial]/100D [-] CAMPFIRES/SANS SERIF
I don’t often care for themes that result in a grid full of gibberish, and that’s what we have here from 1A appearing as BLUED to 122A as SANSS. But once you’re onto the trick, it’s easy to make sense of that kind of nonsense. I appreciate the construction chops it took to pull this theme off.
Other stuff I noted:
- 18A [14-line poem with only two rhymes across three stanzas] RONDEL I always think a RONDEL is some sort of circular window.
- 115A [Blade runner?] SPEED SKATER I read somewhere recently that Eric Heiden, an American speed skater who won five gold medals in the 1980 Olympics, had thighs that were something like 28″ in circumference when he was competing. The mind boggles.
- 36D [Frodo’s enchanting friend] GANDALF As a longtime Lord of the Rings fan, it took me an embarrassingly long time to get that answer.
- 63D [Brit’s jolly cry of approval] GOOD OH I’ll take their word for it.
- 102D [Morning in Monaco] MATIN This would have been a lot easier if I’d remembered that the official language in Monaco is French, not Spanish.
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post Crossword, “Folk Groups” — Matt’s review
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post Crossword solution, “Folk Groups,” 3/16/2025
In “Folk Groups” this week, we’re playing with turns of phrase that can be reparsed as if they contain last names, and we’re given pairs of celebs to help us along to identify the punny “group names:”
- 23a [Furniture-based group name for MLB legend Pete and model/actress Ruby?] BED OF ROSES
- 33a [Regal group name for comedian David and fashion designer Kate?] QUEEN OF SPADES
- 50a [Competitive group name for singer-songwriter Carole and author Stephen?] SPORT OF KINGS
- 66a [Shapeful group name for poet Adrienne and jazz drummer Buddy?] EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES
- 86a [Metropolitan group name for magician Criss and actress Vanessa?] CITY OF ANGELS
- 101a [Committee-based group name for outfielder Aaron and animator Mike?] PANEL OF JUDGES
- 116a [Rule-based group name for actor Jude and cornerback Ty?] CODE OF LAWS
Fun set. I recognized all the names. It helps that they’re decently common crossword entries in their own right; while I haven’t read anything by Adrienne Rich, I have seen her in puzzles plenty. The phrases are all recognizable, too. Nothing that feels forced.
I found this a speedy and accessible grid, generally, with lots of horizontal connectivity and longer downs nearer to the edges than the center. GERONIMO and I DONT BUY IT were particular highlights in the non-theme fill.
Other highlights: I quite liked
[Book of secrets, maybe] for DIARY. I initially was thinking something much more sinister or weighty // CHIPOTLE is named for a jalapeno, but a smoked one, specifically. Many different peppers are simply named for dried and fresh – anchos are dried poblanos, for example // [Meet space] is straightforward for POOL, where a swim meet might be, unless you’re distracted by the pun on “meatspace,” an internet term for “real” life rather than virtual interactions // A fun TIL, that OMNI HOTELS was once owned by Aer Lingus // Clues for TYPO can be pretty devilish. [Means of making money from honey and cash from hash] I think wasn’t too bad, and fit the overall difficulty of the grid
Jeffrey Martinovic’s Universal Sunday crossword, “Humorous Tones”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases with circled letters the spell out a color that’s off by one letter. The revealer is OFF-COLOR JOKE (116a, [Bit of vulgar humor … or a hint to the nine-letter term hidden in this puzzle]).
Universal Sunday crossword solution · “Humorous Tones” · Jeffrey Martinovic · 3.16.25
- 21a. [Jet-setter’s convenience] PRIVATE PLANE. Teal with a P.
- 27a. [Deities such as Hanuman] HINDU GODS. Indigo with a U.
- 28a. [Tart hybrid fruits] LOGANBERRIES. Amber with an N.
- 51a. [Star that’s closest to the sun] PROXIMA CENTAURI. Magenta with a C.
- 60a. [Present something innovative] PITCH AN IDEA. Cyan with an H.
- 73a. [Part of the postal address for the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame] KNOXVILLE, TN. Violet with an L.
- 83a. [Widely available information] PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE. Black with an I.
- 103a. [Some Chinese New Year performances] DRAGON DANCES. Gold with an N.
- 108a. [___ section (area with cheap seats)] NOSEBLEED. Blue with an E.
Collectively, those out-of-place letters spell PUNCHLINE. Very apt and very nice!
I’m impressed with this puzzle. We have nice wordplay with the revealer, ten full theme answers, most of them quite lively and fun, some nifty finds (looking at PROXIMA CENTAURI here especially), and a secret payoff that lands just like a PUNCHLINE. Really nicely done.
If that wasn’t enough there’s plenty of fun long fill to sink your teeth into: ATOMIC AGE, HARD DRIVE, EAT IT UP, MOOSEJAW, HANDMAID, RAT RACES, and DEVIL DOG. You’d expect a lot of clunky short entries in a grid like this with 10 theme answers and some nice long fill, but there’s not a lot to scowl at except maybe LUI, WAS HAD, and OREAD. But the good stuff more than makes up for these small challenges.
Clues of note:
- 4d. [U.S. Marine, slangily]. DEVIL DOG. Welp, JARHEAD didn’t fit.
- 10d. [Fix, like a bow]. RETIE. I could only picture an archer’s or violinist’s bow. But I think the clue is getting at a bow like you might put on a wrapped gift.
Impressive grid with a great concept and clean execution. 4.5 stars from me.
Nice theme in the NYT. Speaking of it as gibberish seems a bit harsh, no? After all, the answers read consecutively, only with a 90 degree turn.
At first I sought more consistency. Perhaps the ones bordering on the left would have the up/down word following the across entry, the ones bordering on the right preceding. Or perhaps there’d be an equal number of each, symmetrically placed. But no problem. No doubt I was asking too much.
Easy puzzle, but with two or three awkward proper names. Tolkein haters might object that a vowel was ambiguous, since puzzles go back and forth between genders, et ALIA and et ALII, with no rule I’ve been able to determine.
I thought the NYT theme was very ingenious, although it took me a while to suss out some of the answers. The downside was AAHSAT and EATOF, but the rest of the fill was pretty clean.
The cross at RE_/G_BOREE was not obvious to me. I don’t know the store name, and is it REI or REY? I went with Y because GYMBOREE seemed more plausible than the alternative.
Evan’s puzzle was entertaining. CODEOFLAWS is a stretch, but the rest were funny.
I enjoyed it as well. Some times the tradeoff of suspect fill and theme are worth it. I think it was today.
Eric – After 30 or more years in Austin your first thought when it comes to massive thighs should be Earl Campbell. His measured out at 34.5 inches
Thanks. I didn’t know that particular factoid about Earl Campbell, though my freshman year at UT was the same year that Campbell won the Heisman Trophy. I paid almost zero attention to UT football, but some of it was inescapable (especially since my dorm was two blocks from the stadium).
I went with Y, too. Same thinking
The outdoor store is REI and the children’s clothing store is GYMBOREE.
But the REY that crosses GYMBOREE is the Spanish word for king.
The Portuguese for “king” is also REI. I know better but always pause a bit when I have to put in the Spanish word, maybe because the Spanish for “queen” is REINA.
Luckily, I’ve seen enough GYMBOREE stores that I didn’t have trouble with that crossing.
I know there can be a very long lag between construction and publication, so I’m not mad at the constructor. But let’s all of us agree not to put TESLAS in a puzzle ever again since it can’t very well be clued to the inventor. This should be placed in the same category as racial slurs and other absolute puzzle-killing entries. Nazi content in my puzzles is most unwelcome. Maybe I’m the only one but I had to say it.
TESLAS can be clued as units of magnetic flux density instead of the cars, for what it’s worth.
Or as inventor Nikola.
The plural or possessive makes for cumbersome clues. “Inventor Nikola and his parents.” “Whose patent is the AC motor’s?” Evan’s suggestion is an elegant way to clue the plural.
Dude sucks but this feels like an overreaction
Maybe we could ask Mr. Shortz to post trigger warnings with the puzzle.
I made my way down the puzzle until I got to Tesla and I quit and ripped it up – (I solve on paper). I don’t want my puzzle to normalize or acknowledge anyone who believes that Stalin, Mao, and Hitler didn’t murder millions of people, that the public sector employees did. And that’s ony the latest vomit-inducing opinion from this person. Zero stars from me.
+1
Incidentally, the NYT for March 14 has an article headlined “Famous Climate Observatory’s Lease May End Because of DOGE.” I clicked to read further, and for once I didn’t need more crossings to know if it would be Mauna Kea or Mauna Loa.