Division of labor: Universal Sunday Crossword of March 2

March 11, 2025

One of my weekend newspapers carries a syndicated crossword, and this past weekend, it featured the Universal Sunday Crossword for March 2, titled Division of Labor by Priyanka Sethy and Rajiv Sethy.

In this puzzle, six acrosses had circles in some squares. I didn’t notice these circles until I came across 116-Across: [Difficult job … such as each divided set of circled letters]. I’d already solved much of the puzzle and saw that for some of the clues, the circled letters spelled an animal or animals: LION, HYDRA, BIRDS. From crosses, I could see that the last four letters of 116-Across were probably TASK, and with some more fills I could surmise it was HERCULEANTASK. I didn’t know what Herculean tasks had to do with animals, but this helped me get 65-Across’s [Curved tubes in the kitchen], since I could deduce the circled letters spelled BOAR, and eventually got ELBOWMACARONI. Later, I looked it up and learned that the Twelve Herculean Tasks weren’t all about animals—though this misconception actually helped me solve the puzzle.

I’d almost solved the puzzle without research but got stuck on a ring of intersecting clues that I could not make progress on even with partial fills for all of them. Here’s what I missed:

• The Lakota are one of the three prominent subcultures of the Sioux people. I may have been able to get this if I had noticed the similarity to Dakota. The other two prominent subcultures are the Eastern Dakota and Western Dakota.
• The Nae Nae is a hip-hop dance move, popularized by the 2013 song “Drop That NaeNae” by We Are Toonz.
• Cousin Itt is one of the characters in the Addams Family, which I’ve never watched.
• Lake Como is a major lake in the region of Lombardy, Italy.
• I probably should have been able to guess OHSANTA for [Mariah Carey Christmas Song], since I had some letters filled and guessed it started with “Oh”. But I ended up looking at her Apple Music song list to find “Oh Santa!” from her second Christmas album, Merry Christmas II You (2010).
• I also should have been able to get that 62-Across’s [Dish that may be steamed in banana leaves] was TAMALE, but got stuck because I had the first letter as D, having incorrectly guessed that “dat” was a word that could fit for 62-Down’s [A bit of ink], as in a spill or splash. The correct answer was TAT.

Words

Some words I was unfamiliar with.

• I did not know that Trenta is the largest Starbucks size for iced drinks, at 31 ounces, and is Italian for thirty. The Trenta size is not offered in Japan, where I live.
• The word paisan or paisano, is an informal word for a fellow countryman or compatriot. It doesn’t appear in Merriam-Webster. It crossed with AROAR, the answer to 10-Down’s [Like an excited crowd], as aroar means “loud, booming”. I had rejected AROAR because I thought it would be for the phrase “a roar” which didn’t make sense.
• The okapi is an animal also known as the forest giraffe, Congolese giraffe and zebra giraffe.

People

People who appeared in the puzzle, most of whom I got mainly by guessing or through crosses:

• Wes Anderson is an American filmmaker (Rushmore (1998), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)).
• Erin Burnnett is a news anchor on CNN (the answer here was CNN which I could guess).
• Truman Capote (1924–1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, and actor.
• Cara Delevingne is an English model and actress.
• Ani DiFranco is a singer-songwriter.
• Adriana Gascoigne is the founder and CEO of Girls in Tech.
• Shah Rukh Khan is an Indian actor and one of the most successful film stars in the world. Maybe I subconsciously knew this, since I guessed KHAN for [Shah Rukh ____] despite having no crosses.
• Rita Ora is a British singer.
• Guo Pei is a Chinese fashion designer.
• Iga Swiatek is a Polish tennis player formerly ranked #1 in women’s singles.

Final thoughts

I found this puzzle significantly easier than the New York Times ones that I’ve been trying. Although I didn’t solve it entirely without research, I got closer than I have with the Times puzzles. The Herculean task mechanism helped me solve one clue in particular, and knowing that the circled letters formed words was useful throughout.