Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Laura Oppenheimer’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Concessions”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are two-word candies you might find at a movie theater and whose first words are also titles of films. Wacky clues relate the star of each film with whatever the second word implies. The revealer is MOVIE CANDY (60a, [Best part of going to the theater…and a hint to the starred clues]).

Note that this is a debut puzzle from a constructor whose first and last names are both film titles. I wonder if that had anything to do with the creation of this puzzle.

Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Concessions” · Laura Oppenheimer · Wed., 3.19.25

• 17a. [*Jake Gyllenhaal and Rebecca Ferguson in space…act frugally?] LIFE SAVERS.
• 26a. [*Helen Mirren as a retired MI6 assassin…makes short-form videos?] RED VINES.
• 36a. [*Pregnant Arnold…makes coins?] JUNIOR MINTS.
• 49a. [*Sean Penn as an activist city supervisor…has some failures?] MILK DUDS.

Fun theme! It didn’t take too long to cotton on to the fact that the answers are the names of candies, so that helped in filling in those entries. But I have to say that I did have trouble trying to make sense of the clues as written. Are they supposed to be descriptions of fictitious movies? Perhaps sequels? If so, I think it would help if the clues said as much. For example, [Sequel in which Arnold gets pregnant again and starts a money-making operation?]. Not as succinct as the actual clue but more understandable…at least for me.

Fill highlight has to be SILENT BS. During the solve it made sense as the plural form of the silent letter B, but I’m now choosing to interpret it as actual silent bulls**t, because that’s much funnier — and it’s a lot less worrisome than bulls**t that is emanating some sort of sound.

Elsewhere, other goodies include JEALOUSY, “SO I HEAR“, and SHOGUN. On the tougher side: CAICOS, QUARTO, and ELISHA Cuthbert.

Hiroyuki Sanada of “SHOGUN”

Clue of note: 18d. [2024 Emmy winner for Outstanding Drama Series]. SHOGUN. Yay for this show which I quite enjoyed. Not only did it win that Emmy, but it won in 17 other categories as well, setting the record for most wins of a single season of a TV show. I love actor (and producer) Hiroyuki Sanada and I’ll watch anything he’s in.

Nice debut puzzle. 3.25 stars.

Evan Park & Jeffrey Martinovic’s New York Times crossword–Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 3/19/25 – no. 0319

This puzzle’s got diagonal symmetry across the NW-to-SE axis. The theme is described by 10d and 59a, STARBURST and SUPERNOVA. The bursting/expanding star starts in a rebus square, where RE{ST AR}EA and LO{ST AR}TS meet. The next step, the S T A and R all have their own squares, bunched together. Then the S T A R letters are spaced out a little. The bottom corner has S T A R spaced out by two squares. This is lovely! Cool theme, executed neatly.

Fave fill: MAKE IT POP really pops. This and HAD A BLAST are also thematic, aren’t they? They’re clued without reference to the popping, blasting star, though.

There are some awkward entries squeezed into this busy grid: “OH ME,” “I RULE,” SNAP IN, and maybe ENDS IT. The latter is clued [50D
Puts the game away, so to speak] and I don’t know that I’m picking up the meaning it’s putting out. Is ENDS IT a sports usage? Is “puts the game away” some other sort of usage?

3.75 stars from me.

Hanh Huynh’s AV Club Classic crossword, “Back in Black”–Amy’s recap

AV Club Classic crossword solution, 3/19/25 – “Back in Black”

I’m glad I wasn’t watching the clock with this puzzle, because too much of it didn’t make sense as I went through it. Eventually I realized that the theme centers on those three solo black squares, where “Back in Black” means you put an ASS in those boxes so that the clues above and to the left make sense after being joined to the ASS and the following entry, regardless of the following entry being a legit stand-alone answer.

• 20a. [Special chess move] clues EN PASSANT, not just ENP.
• 22a. [Arouse enthusiasm], IMPASSION, not IMP. This one mired me. Does AMP work without UP? If so, why is our Italian city then ASTA rather than ASTI?
• 57a. [Holiday activity], CHRISTMAS SHOPPING, not CHRISTM.
• The crossings give us ATLAS STONE, [Boulder used in strongman competitions]. Did not know it; haven’t watched a strongman competition in maybe 25 years. Also the VEGAS STRIP, [Popular stretch in the Mojave Desert, familiarly], and SAFE PASSAGE, [Protected travel]. Oof! With SAFEx as the apparent space for that latter clue, and not knowing the crossing song “Apt.“, [Rosé/Bruno Mars hit based on a Korean drinking game], I had to go back and study the entire theme to make this out. Good thing I’m not heading towards an ACPT puzzle 5.
• The little revealer bailed me out: 73a. [Initialism describing actions to avoid future repercussions … and what three blocks in this puzzle do], CYA, cover your ass. Such subtly covered asses!

Some nice fill here, like HEARTTHROB.

Four well-challenged stars from me.