LAT untimed (pannonica) 
[4.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
NYT 5:31 (Amy) 
[4.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
Universal 2:50 (Jim) [4.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Emily) rate it
August Lee-Kovach’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s write-up
NY Times crossword solution, 5/16/25 – no. 0516
Fun Friday puzzle! With a themeless puzzle, I generally start by reading the Across clues till I find something I know. In this case, … it was crosswordese AGORA. Opened that whole corner up for me! Just a little mad to be rewarded for knowing the word.
Fave fill: SPACESHIP, MEGASTORE, and “I CAN’T EVEN” make a great stack. “LET ME GO,” DOOMSDAY MACHINE, and LEGO ART populate the middle. Also liked EASY MONEY, GOOGLEBOT, STEFFI Graf, hypnotist’s PENDULUM, “FOR THE WIN” (which I usually see just in its written, abbreviated form of “ftw”), and a sports FREE AGENT.
Answer that took a beat to assemble: 32D. [Tough draw], LOSE A TURN. Now, you lose a turn in Uno if someone plays a SKIP card on you. In what game(s) do you draw a LOSE A TURN card? I’m blanking on it.
I need a mnemonic to remember that Mary-Kate and Ashley (and their MCU sister Elizabeth) are the OLSENS and not OlsOns. There’s an E because Mary-KatE and AshlEy each have an E?
Not convinced that I NAILED IT is any better than the too-commonly seen I RULE. Thoughts? Also not keen on LINE A. Somebody find me some IRS schedule forms that actually start with a “line A.” Schedule A starts with line 1. So do some other schedule forms I glanced at.
Four stars from me.
Lewis Rothlein’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up
LAT • 5/16/22 • Fri • Rothlein • solution • 20250516
The theme clues are all single words with an typographical gap introduced, and the answers address that peculiarity.
- 17a. [Pa ss] SPLIT TICKET.
- 25a. [Fi rm] PARTED COMPANY.
- 43a. [Shis hito] CRACKED PEPPER.
- 56a. [Bo nds] SEVERED TIES.
Simple, elegant.
- 6a [Verb with thou] SAYST. Oof. And in the first row, too.
- 19a [Dark site of the moon?] SEA. The seas, or mares, or maria, appear darker than other parts of the moon’s topography.
- 20a [Members of a sub group] HOAGIES. <groan again> No question mark on this clue, hmm.
- 34a [Overlord of the rings, for short?] IOC, the International Olympic Committee; the games’ logo is of course five interconnected rings.
40a [Planters] SOWERS. I should probably read Octavia Butler’s prescient Parable of the Sower, which many people say quite eerily predicted our current state of affairs.- 2d [Intel collected during a race] OPPO. 32a [Sought office] RAN. 62a [Campaign topic] ISSUE.
- 5d [Fortes] MÉTIERS. 53d [French noun suffix] -IERE. Too close?
- 22d [Best or bests] TOPS. I like this one.
- 25d [Minor offense] PECCADILLO. etymology: Spanish pecadillo, diminutive of pecado sin, from Latin peccatum, from neuter of peccatus, past participle of peccare (m-w.com)
- 28d [Cain genre] NOIR. James M.
- 38d [Get the drift, perhaps] SCAN. I’m always wary of this contranym. Oversight is another dangerous one.
- 39d [Folks who might say, “Cruses! Foiled again!”?] FENCERS. <groan>
- 48d [Kick] TANG. Had BANG for a moment.
- 50d [Some NASA missions] EVAS. Extravehicular activities.
- 57d [Gettysburg address feature?] EDU.
Drew Schmenner’s Universal crossword, “Conversion Table”—Jim’s review
Theme answers were originally familiar phrases with the bigram IT present, except IT has been replaced with letters spelling out units of weight. The revealer is “WAIT FOR IT” (57a, [“Be patient … we’re almost there,” and a homophonic hint to the substitutions in the starred clues’ answers?]).
Universal crossword solution · “Conversion Table” · Drew Schmenner · Fri., 5.16.25
- 18a. [*Roo’s first jump?] WEE BOUNCE. Wee bit.
- 27a. [*Present survey results in detail?] EXPOUND POLLS. Exit polls.
- 45a. [*Steal a conducting stick?] TAKE THE BATON. Take the bait.
This was a somewhat confusing theme with a couple theme answers that presented some red herrings. The payoff didn’t seem worth it once I finally understood it.
A casual look at the first theme answer made it seem like WEEB OUNCE and since I knew “weeb” is a slang term (derogatorily referring to a fan obsessed with Japanese culture), I was trying to square that with the clue and failing. The final theme answer is itself a known idiom (though I usually hear it as “take up the baton”). So that was not helpful in sorting out the theme, especially when TON is difficult to notice as a unit of weight hidden within a long theme answer. EXPOUND POLLS isn’t without problems either as it feels rather tortured.
So…not my favorite theme, but I’m really digging the fill: ROOTED OUT, TOURIST TRAP, “WHAT A PITY!” and HAT TIP are all lively, sparkly entries. I’ve never heard of FOREST BATHS [Therapeutic walks in the woods], but I’m happy to learn the phrase. since it’s something I’ve done and am apt to do again.
Clues were fairly straightforward, allowing for a speedy solve time (for me), yet they still felt fresh.
I didn’t get a lot of joy from the theme, but I did from the fill. Three stars.
NYT: Amy, you can lose a turn in Monopoly.
WSJ: Fun puzzle, theme and meta. Can’t say it’s easy though.
Puzzle: Universal; Rating: 4 stars
UC – I liked the theme. The homophone works.
4*
NYT: I started with AGORA also. Was fine until I hit NW 3×4 corner. Took a third of my time to get those 12 squares. Having LOOS instead of CANS did not help.
Solid Friday!
Puzzle: Universal; Rating: 4 stars
Clever theme. And I agree with Jim that some of the fill was fun, too.
Lively and enjoyable NYT, if somewhat easy for a Friday. STEFFI was my first entry, although I remember reading somewhere — perhaps here — that she loathed the nickname. At 3D I tried INAWE before AGAPE before AGASP, which I seriously doubt anyone in real life ever says or uses.
Is TREY for ‘long shot’ a basketball thing? It doesn’t make sense with cards.
Yes, a trey is a 3-point shot from a longer distance.
Agree on AGASP.
LAT: 25D PECCADILLO – Believe it or not I learned that word in the late ’90s from the “George & Alana” show. Why I’m remembering that now I have no idea.
Puzzle: LAT; Rating: 4.5 stars
More LAT flashback – I lived in Philadelphia’s Center City for a year in 1975-76. There was a sandwich shop, Al’s Just a HOAGIE I believe was the name, just around the corner. I bet I ate over 50 hoagies in the year I was there. I haven’t been satisfied with subs since. I do have a source for excellent Po’ Boys, though and that helps
4.5 *
I learned PECCADILLO from Mad magazine. They had a cartoon of an armadillo using a typewriter.
NYT: I was feeling pretty smart as I entered PAPARAZZI at 1-A – oops! It worked okay for RBI at 5-D, but STEFFI changed my mind.
AGORA and SITE gave me a foothold in the NE, worked back into the NW from there. It was a slow start, but the bottom half went pretty quickly, so it ended up being a relatively easy Friday.
Amy – I think I NAILED IT is much better than I RULE. I’ve actually spoken the former a few times (though just NAILED IT! is more likely).
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
Amy. i was curious about LINE A. Some googling suggests though that it is valid. found an irs doc saying “enter total on Line A of Schedule SE” so i’ll accept it.
fun friday; maybe a tad easy
Lots of simpler forms are labeled this way. Here’s one.
On the forms that I fill out, there looks like a pattern, although I’m not a CPA so I could be wrong. Looks like if the form starts by asking for an amount of money, such as wages on a 1040, then it starts with line 1. But if it wants something descriptive, such as the kind of business on a schedule C (profit or loss from business), then it’s line A. When you’re done with a few lines like that, and you come to income, you’re back to line 1.
Maybe an age thing, but I’d never say I rule (or, for that matter, owns him or her, both of which sound so nasty to me), whereas nailed it (though not the same thing, which is to say it refers to something like a test rather than a person) feels at least a bit closer to crosswordese.
AGASP sounds forced to me, but alas crosswords go heavy on A- words like AROAR (which a Spelling Bee usually doesn’t mention).
The form I linked seems to violate your pattern.
I think it’s more about number of lines — a few are lettered while many are numbered.
We’ve set the calendar back to March?
Fixed, although I think the ratings may have been affected by the edit.