Colin Ernst’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Score!”—Jim P’s assessment

The grid options an EXTRA / POINT (1d, [With 55-Down, kicker’s contribution, and what’s found in the circled letters). The circled letters spell out POINT and those letters are “extra” within their respective familiar phrases.

Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Score!” · Colin Ernst · Thu., 9.22.22

• 17a. [Food bank worker, to some?] SUPPER HERO.
• 23a. [“Keep Off” on a front porch?] STOOP SIGN.
• 37a. [Comical Kristen wearing a fat suit?] BIG WIIG.
• 47a. [Famous reason to sleep in the stable?] CLOSED INN. Technically, it was famously full, not closed.
• 58a. [Task at the framing shop?] CHECK MATTE.

(We’re speaking American soccer right here, in case you weren’t conscious.) I actually wished the additional letters to go “right down the middle” like an excellent point-after kick, and I wished some black squares within the form of a objective publish. Maybe it wasn’t potential, however it certain would’ve been good. Otherwise, the theme is okay. I didn’t chuckle, however YMMV.

Maybe I didn’t chuckle as a result of I used to be a bit grumpy about entries like RACE TO, ULNAR, dated I’M A PC, and I.T. PRO which might’ve been IT GUY, IT GAL, or IT REP. On the plus aspect, I favored the SOAP OPERA and KISSCAM stack in addition to MAHALO.

True story: I used to be simply wrestling yesterday with the identify ORMOND in a grid of my very own making. The identify hasn’t appeared fairly often, however when it does, it’s at all times in reference to the actress [Julia of “Smilla’s Sense of Snow”]. But I used to be going to go along with a special angle with a clue like [Great ___ Street Hospital, owner of the “Peter Pan” copyright]. Maybe simply as troublesome a clue, however a minimum of it’s one thing totally different. Anyway, I’ll in all probability scuttle the fill in that grid and attempt to easy it out.

Other clues of notice:

• 16a. [Broadway Rose after Ethel and Angela]. TYNE. Needed the crossings for this one. And “Broadway Rose” appears a bit deceptive. I assumed it was the identify of a personality, however the one “character” I might discover with that identify was an precise famed panhandler from the Nineteen Forties. The clue refers back to the musical Gypsy and the character of Rose Hovick, which is taken into account by many to be a task of a lifetime. So possibly a greater clue is likely to be [Broadway’s Rose after Ethel and Angela].
• 8d. [“Did you try rebooting?” asker]. I.T. PRO. Reminds me of the sitcom, The IT Crowd (see beneath).

3.25 stars.