Thursday, April 24, 2025 |

Word: Fireball is a contest this week. We’ll publish a assessment after the submission interval closes.

Wall St Journal crossword answer · “Simply Ignore It” · Zhouqin Burnikel · Thu., 4.24.25

• 16a. [___ ape (tailless monkey of Gibraltar)] BARBARITY. Barbary.
• 24a. [Swank with two Oscars] HILARITY. Hilary.
• 37a. [Drag to court] SUITE. Sue.
• 51a. [Glare blockers in cars] VISITORS. Visors.
• 62a. [Took testimony from] DEPOSITED. Deposed.
• 3d. [Canyon pack animals] BURRITOS. Burros.
• 11d. [Tennis great Sampras] PETITE. Pete.
• 34d. [Good-but-not-great grade] BIT. B. Fairly potential the shortest theme reply ever.
• 39d. [Nuanced] SUBTITLE. Delicate.
• 46d. [Works with a shovel] DIGITS. Digs.

Good. The Down entries caught me unexpectedly. Normally we’d have fewer however longer Throughout entries that includes the theme. This felt like a pleasant change of tempo because it unfold the theme out everywhere in the grid and made you hunt for it (although sure, the whole lot remains to be symmetrical). I loved sussing every one out.

Because the theme is nearly in every single place, there’s little room for lengthy sparkly fill, particularly with theme solutions crossing one another as they do. However we get stable fill all through with little gems like PRESTO and ISOGON. I’m by no means a fan of SST particularly crossing awkwardly plural TAUS, however what are you able to do? VETCH [Leguminous plant] is new to me, in order that’s your vocab phrase of the day.

Clue of word: 2nd. [Punt, e.g.]. BOAT. In the event you ever end up in Cambridge, England, you’re virtually required to go “punting on the Cam”. You possibly can have one of many native school children pole you alongside (often the safer selection since they’re skilled), or you are able to do it your self.

Good puzzle. 3.75 stars.

Kathleen Duncan’s New York Instances crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up

Issue: Common (9m41s)

Kathleen Duncan’s New York Instances crossword, 4/24/25, 0424

As we speak’s theme: GENR /E/ BENDING (Mixing thematic parts and tropes … or a characteristic of this puzzle?)

• DARK /F/ ANTASY
• MOCKUME /N/ TARY
• COMING /O/ F AGE
• COZY /M/ YSTERY
• PERIOD /P/ IECE

Performed more durable for me for quite a lot of causes: 1) I’ve heard of “gender bending”, however not GENRE BENDING (is that this a winky spinoff?), 2) I swore MOCKUMENTARY was spelled with out the Ok for some purpose, and three) I’m unfamiliar with COZY MYSTERYs (are they Homicide, She Wrote-adjoining?)

Cracking: not the least OBEISAN(ce) made he, not a minute stopped or stayed he, however with mien of lord or woman, perched above my chamber door — Perched upon a bust of Pallas simply above my chamber door — Perched, and sat, and nothing extra.

Slacking: CEN

Sidetracking: ED KOCH

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1777 “A DJ At The Races” — Eric’s Assessment

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1777 “A DJ on the Races” — 4/24/25

Right here’s Brendan’s intro to the puzzle: “[T]oday’s is a rerun of a traditional I made with Francis Heaney for the AVCX means again when.” In honor of Saturday being File Retailer Day, we get a music-filled grid with a circle of circled letters within the center. Total, a stable puzzle with just a few blemishes.

I’m typically not a fan of circled letters in a grid. Particularly when fixing on my iPad, as soon as I’ve a letter in a circle, it’s tough to see what it’s. However as we speak, I noticed that the larger circle, studying clockwise from sq. 39, contained BONUS TRACK because the circled letters. Filling within the final a part of that pseudo-meta helped me within the trickiest a part of the grid, the center-left portion.

I’m keen on music, so just a few of the solutions had been gimmes:

• 1A [With 132-Across, tartan-wearing teen idols of the ’70s]/132A BAY CITY/ROLLERS “Tartan-wearing” gave it away; they hailed from Edinburgh.
• 74A [Neil Young’s backup band] CRAZY HORSE
• 114A [Conor Oberst’s label] SADDLE CREEK

However a number of different musical solutions required just a few letters to be obvious:

• 23A [The Who song that was the first to be played twice on MTV] YOU BETTER YOU BET The Who had been the primary band I noticed stay, in 1977, when drummer Keith Moon was nonetheless alive. I didn’t know this factoid, although.
• 28A [Pixies spinoff that’s way better than the Pixies (to our ears)] THE BREEDERS I’m embarrassed to confess that I don’t know both band’s music very nicely.
• 45A [Bill S. Preston, Esq., and Ted “Theodore” Logan’s band] WYLD STALLYNS From the 1989 comedy Invoice and Ted’s Glorious Journey, which I’ve by no means seen. I assumed the reply needed to do with the film, however given the inventive spelling of the band, it was exhausting to fill in from letter patterns.
• 71A [Metal band whose mascot is Eddie] IRON MAIDEN
• 87A [“Let It Be” song recorded on a rooftop] DIG A PONY I assumed all the Beatles’ Let It Be was recorded on a rooftop in London. It’s been so lengthy since I’ve heard the album that I don’t know how this tune goes.
• 122A [Titan of Jamaican dub production] LEE “SCRATCH” PERRY

Another issues that I famous:

• 108A [Talk Like a Pirate Day interjection of indeterminate meaning] YAR/103D [Sites for French summers?] LYCÉES I ended up revealing that Y as a result of I’ve often seen the pirate’s interjection as “AAR” or “ARR.” I’ve seen the moderately-annoying “summer time” as “one who sums” clue sufficient that it shouldn’t have shocked me that the reply was the French equal of our “excessive colleges.”
• 16D [Machine at a dry cleaner, perhaps] SHIRT IRONER I suppose this can be a factor and never inexperienced paint; I finished taking gown shirts to the cleaners a very long time in the past.
• 59D [One laying down the law?] DECREER I attempt to not let random solutions in crossword puzzles hassle me; each phrase a constructor takes out of their wordlist makes it slightly more durable to fill a grid. However I actually dislike verb+ER constructions that nobody ever makes use of exterior of a crossword puzzle.
• 73D [National monument near the California border] OREGON CAVES I had bother parsing this as a result of I used to be considering of the California/Mexico border.
• 107D [Year of Charles V’s reign] MDLII About the one factor extra annoying in a grid than phrases like DECREER are random Roman numerals.

Zachary Edward-Brown’s USA As we speak Crossword, “Break up the Pole” — Emily’s write-up

Summer season is across the nook—I can really feel it!

USA As we speak, April 24, 2025, “Break up the Pole” by Zachary Edward-Brown

Theme: every themer in contained inside PO—LE (or a “break up pole”)

Themers:

• 17a. [Buoyant, pasta-shaped toy], POOLNOODLE
• 36a. [Duo such a sTaylor Swift and Travis Kelce], POWERCOUPLE
• 58a. [Place to play Omaha Hold ‘em], POKERTABLE

What a themer set as we speak! Together with my climate right here as we speak, I really feel prefer it’s time for a swanky summer time poolside celebration with POOLNOODLE, POWERCOUPLE, and POKERTABLE.

Favourite fill: EDUCATORS, YOGAMAT, HASTO, and IMNEW

Stumpers: YAP (“gab” and “jaw” got here to thoughts first), OHIO (new to me), and HIPPOS (considered “rhinos” so wanted just a few crossings)

First, I really like this grid design! It has such a pleasant move and I loved the recent fill, together with some nice prolonged bonus fill. A number of the cluing was a bit difficult nevertheless it was an excellent degree for me as we speak that took me an excellent period of time. A enjoyable remedy that’s put me in a summer time temper!

4.0 stars

~Emily

Zachary Schiff’s LA Instances Crossword, Gareth’s theme abstract

Apr 24 2025

As we speak’s puzzle by Zachary Schiff options issues named after US cities. Funnily sufficient, most US cities have issues named for them…

• [Boston, e.g.], CLASSICROCKBAND. See additionally, Chicago.
• [Tacoma, e.g.], PICKUPTRUCK. See additionally, Tucson.
• [Philadelphia, e.g.], CREAMCHEESE.
• [Manhattan, e.g.], BOURBONCOCKTAIL

As we speak I learnt… [Yankee ___], SWAP is seemingly a Christmas custom in components of the US? As we speak I forgot… [Flour for roti or naan] is ATTA; I by no means keep in mind that.

Gareth