Monday, April 28, 2025 |

Sue Fracker’s New York Occasions crossword—Sophia’s write-up

Theme: MULTIHYPHENATES – every theme reply comprises multiple hyphen.

New York Occasions, 04 28 2025, By Sue Fracker

• 17a [Versatile yet unspecialized sort] – JACK-OF-ALL-TRADES
• 24a [Typical kindergartner] – FIVE-YEAR-OLD
• 35a [Smarty-pants] – KNOW-IT-ALL
• 51a [The Bible’s Naomi vis-à-vis Ruth] – MOTHER-IN-LAW
• 58a [Ones with many talents … and a hint to 17-, 24-, 35- and 51-Across] – MULTIHYPHENATES

This theme is a enjoyable repurposing of the time period MULTIHYPHENATES, which I primarily hear used about celebrities that do a bunch of various issues. Take Rihanna for example: she’s a singer-actress-beauty mogul. So it was neat immediately to see the time period used to actually imply “phrases that use a number of hyphens”. JACK-OF-ALL-TRADES was my favourite, as a result of it’s a grid-spanning 15 letters and is such a selected time period. For a similar cause, FIVE-YEAR-OLD and MOTHER-IN-LAW didn’t hit as exhausting for me, as a result of the primary phrase might have been many various issues in these phrases (clearly not as clued, however any quantity in entrance of “yea-old” is a legitimate phrase, so it felt much less particular to me). I additionally favored how the NYT net app added hyphens into the grid as soon as I used to be achieved fixing!

Second Monday in a row filled with corners with 7 letter solutions! Right now, I particularly favored MOJITOS, NEMESIS, I’M THERE, and TOTAL UP. I additionally favored the duplicate clue of [Bread box?] and [Bread box, for short?] for TOASTER and ATM, respectively. When it comes to popular culture clues, I knew SETH Rogen and Cheri OTERI, however Marcus LOEW and DEBI Thomas had been each new to me.

Glad Monday all!

Yuuya Prepare dinner’s Wall Road Journal crossword, “Figures of Speech”—Jim’s evaluation

Theme solutions are acquainted phrases about speech or the written phrase interpreted actually.

Wall St Journal crossword resolution · “Figures of Speech” · Yuuya Prepare dinner · Mon., 4.28.25

• 17a. [“I do,” e.g.?] SWEAR WORDS.
• 52a. [“I got hypoallergenic, soft and firm,” e.g.?] PILLOW TALK.
• 11d. [“Let’s throw the ball around,” e.g.?] CATCH PHRASE.
• 25d. [“This appendage has five digits, including a thumb,” e.g.?] HAND WRITING.

That is nearly the reverse model of my very own puzzle which ran within the NYT about 5 years in the past. I didn’t use any of those phrases within the completed puzzle, however I did have THINK FAST as my entry for the clue [Catch phrase?] in my notes.

Anyway, this isn’t about my puzzle, however about this good debut grid. I just like the play on phrases (clearly, since I made an analogous puzzle), and the alternatives of theme entries are good. I do suppose it’s odd that three of the entries appear to be about verbal speech and one is concerning the written phrase. And I really feel just like the clues may very well be livelier by using colloquial phrases (as the primary one does) or extra performs on phrases if doable (maybe “Let’s get down tonight” for the pillow one).

Elsewhere, DEAD ENDS, PREDATOR, and WIDE OPEN are property to the grid, although I’m much less eager on odd entries like STOA, ETAT, RARES, and PROT, particularly in a Monday puzzle.

A great debut puzzle although I’d hope for somewhat extra consistency within the theme entries and a few spunkier clues. 3.25 stars.

Emet Ozar’s Los Angeles Occasions crossword — Stella’s write-up

Los Angeles Occasions 4/28/25 by Emet Ozar

I’m a fan of Emet Ozar’s puzzles — I used to edit her at Planet Crossword and I’ve all the time discovered her grids recent and enjoyable. She’s right here with a cute Monday theme, wherein the revealer at 63A [Morning person, or a feature of the answer to each starred clue?] is EARLY BIRD, that means that every theme reply begins with the title of a chook:

• 17A [*Defiantly petty retaliation] is TIT FOR TAT. I’ve entered TIT right into a puzzle who is aware of what number of occasions, however I by no means bothered to look them up till now. They’re actually cute birds!
• 26A [*Figure used for counting] is CARDINAL NUMBER. (Ordinals are “first, second, third,” and so on.; cardinals are “one, two, three,” and so on.)
• 47A [*Wrecking ball swingers on a construction site] is CRANE OPERATORS. “Wrecking ball swingers” is a little bit of an ungainly phrasing, however the entry works.
• 52A [*Ride the waves using wind power] is KITE-SURF. Right now I additionally realized what a KITE seems to be like within the chook sense.

I favored the quantity of thematic materials and that, in all instances, there’s a giant distinction in that means within the “chook” phrase within the theme phrase from its chook sense. Good breezy Monday!

Anna Shechtman’s New Yorker crossword—Amy’s recap

New Yorker crossword resolution, 4/28/25 – Shechtman

Fairly a handful of “by no means heard of it” solutions on this one:

• 21a. [“The Green Hat” novelist Michael], ARLEN. A 1924 British novel in ARLEN‘s clue.
• 24a. [“Un Señor Muy Viejo con ___ Alas Enormes” (Gabriel García Márquez story)], UNAS. Not not possible to guess the lacking phrase is an article, however untranslated quick story titles usually are not widespread crossword fodder. There’s one other “Spanish phrase in a title” clue, a Unhealthy Bunny track for OTRA.
• 39a. [Filmmaker and critic who has been called the godfather of American avant-garde cinema], JONAS MEKAS. His first letter crosses JARGON, [“The ___ of Authenticity” (Theodor Adorno book that critiques the language of existentialist philosophy)], which in flip crosses one other title that many solvers, I wager, don’t know: [Writer Xingjian who was the 2000 Nobelist in literature], GAO. Not loving the constructor/editor’s determination to make use of a extra arcane clue for JARGON the place the phrase crosses two names. If you happen to didn’t wrestle with these crossings, please converse up!
• 23d. [Condition also known as word blindness], ALEXIA. Additionally a model of frozen greens!

Fave fill: David CRONENBERG, HAIROGRAPHY (right here’s a short explanatory video), HOUSEDRESS, THEATER KIDS, ARCHETYPES, POCONOS. May’ve achieved with out PST OAS CLE PRES EGAD NRC GYNT TSETSE FRAS TOLEASE (the standard signal says FOR LEASE, not TO) ACH. If you happen to depend up the correct nouns, you get sufficient to frustrate solvers who don’t excel at studying/remembering/encountering names. I normally know the names in puzzles, however this crossword threw loads of unfamiliar issues at me.

Three stars.

Matthew Luter’s Common crossword, “Ta-Da!” — pannonica’s write-up

Common • 4/28/25 • Mon • “Ta-Da!” • Luter • resolution • ,font measurement=1>20250428

• 65a^R [While … or, read differently, a letter pattern shared by the starred clues’ answers] EVEN AS, or even As. That’s, the second, fourth, sixth, and so forth areas are the letter A. To maintain it constant (and rhythmic), these are the one vowels in these entries.
• 20a. [*”You know the rest,” as popularized by “Seinfeld”] YADA YADA YADA.
• 31a. [*Rum cocktail with a rhyming name] BAHAMA MAMA.
• 44a. [*”I Heard a Rumour” girl group] BANANARAMA. The ‘woman’ qualifier isn’t actually mandatory, but it surely helps the solver.
• 52a. [*Greek dip of pureed roe, olive oil and lemon juice] TARAMASALATA.

It’s a neat thought to re-parse that little phrase, and the theme solutions are all strong.

• 4d ]Legendary forest nymphs] DRYADS. 5d [University of Michigan city] ANN ARBOR.
• 11d [Word before “date” or “process”] DUE. The latter of which the present administration appears to consider is non-obligatory at finest.
• 12d [UFO passengers (allegedly)] ETS. Most such clues don’t embody that qualifier (see additionally Santa Claus, cryptids, et al.), however I recognize it.
• 30d [Water brand owned by Coca-Cola] DASANI. Did a cursory test on-line and may discover no consensus on what the title means. The official web site didn’t appear to have any details about that both.
• 61a [Most visible stars] A-LISTERS. A wink to the theme? Anyway, 36a [Famous person, informally] CELEB, 42d [Letters to an idol] FAN MAIL.

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1778 — Eric’s Assessment

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1178

Principally, I didn’t discover this overly difficult, however neither was it a breeze. In different phrases, it was typically the type of puzzle I most get pleasure from, one wherein I can use the crosses to fill within the gaps in my data.

And there have been loads of gaps, beginning proper on the high:

• 1A [Jörmungandr of Norse mythology, e.g.] SEA MONSTER I used to be into Greek and Roman mythology for a bit as a tween, after we studied it in fifth grade or every time. However I’ve by no means formally studied mythologies from different cultures, and I don’t actually know the way I do know what little I find out about these topics.

Jörmungandr as drawn by the Norwegian illustrator Louis Moe (1898)

• 15A [Scarlett’s mother] ELLEN O’HARA I knew this was a Gone With the Wind reference, but it surely’s been a long time since I’ve seen the film and whereas I’m not shocked that Scarlett’s mom is a personality within the story, I don’t keep in mind her. I used to be somewhat shocked that her final title was a part of the reply.
• 17A [Protest by subverting mainstream media] CULTURE JAM That’s a brand new time period to me.
• 23A [Attorney Honig on CNN] ELIE He’s apparently their chief authorized analyst.
• 37A [Rimshot/cymbal sound, in some cartoons] BADUMTSS This was reasonably annoying, as that sound might most likely be spelled 100 other ways. I completed filling within the grid there and didn’t get the AcrossLite blissful pencil, so I attempted a number of letters for that T as a result of I didn’t know 38D [Max series set in an ER] THE PITT.
• 4D [Canadian indigenous tribe whose name means “mixed”] MÉTIS I do know the Latin American time period mestizo for somebody of combined European and indigenous American heritage, however I don’t keep in mind listening to the Canadian equal.

The triple stack of 10-letter phrases within the SE nook is way much less trivia-oriented than the NW nook:

• 53A [Putting on the list] CATALOGING
• 56A [Head shop purchase] E-CIGARETTE I had the G from MARRIAGE and anticipated this to be BONG-something.
• 58A [Good judge of character?] TYPESETTER A punny clue that I type of favored.

Different notable stuff:

• 27A [Actress Barbeau] ADRIENNE A gimme, as I keep in mind her because the daughter on the 1970’s collection Maude. In her Wikipedia entry to see what she’s achieved since that folks youthful than 50 may keep in mind, I see she was married to horror director John Carpenter for about 5 years. I may need recognized that on the time, however I’d forgotten it.
• 35D [“___ is not just spiritual communion, it is also remembering to take out the trash” (Dr. Joyce Brothers)] MARRIAGE I don’t suppose it’s notably troublesome to fill in that clean even in case you have any thought who Joyce Brothers was. My mother subscribed to a few “women’ magazines” and I’d learn absolutely anything once I was a child.
• 39D [Flute feature?] SILENT E I nearly by no means get this type of reply with out a few crosses, regardless of having seen related clues many occasions.

Crossword blogs have warped my thoughts; I used to be reasonably peeved by some duplication:

• 22A [Louse eggs] NITS
• 35A [It’s a head-scratcher] LICE

Lastly, we get a bit boozy within the SW nook:

• 48A [Imbibes] HAS A NIP
• 36D [Knock one back] DO A SHOT

I simply completed breakfast, so I’ll cross, thanks.