BEQ 12:54 (Eric) 
[4.50 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
Fireball tk (Jenni) rate it
LAT 3:58 (Gareth) 
[3.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
NYT 13:41 (ZDL) [4.43 avg; 14 ratings] rate it
Universal 5:24 (Eric) [3.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
USA Today 7:58 (Emily) rate it
WSJ 7:48 (Jim) [4.33 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
Jeff Stillman’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Fit to a T”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are phrases that employ the word “cross” except each cross is replaced with a lowercase-t-shaped group of black squares (hence the title). In a departure from the norm, there is no symmetry in the grid whatsoever.
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Fit to a T” · Jeff Stillman · Thu., 5.22.25
- 24a. [Star grouping consisting of Acrux, Mimosa, Gacrux and Imai] SOUTHERN ✝.
- 26a. [Delete] ✝ OUT.
- 40a. [Start to boil] GET ✝.
- 41a. [Men shopping in the women’s department, sometimes] ✝ DRESSERS.
- 8d. [Emergency group] RED ✝.
- 14d. [Irish symbol believed to have been introduced by pagans] CELTIC ✝.
- 42d. [Embroidery style with overlapping threads] ✝ STITCH.
- 57d. [Railroad piece] ✝ TIE.
At first I only noticed the Across entries and thought it was a fine but thin theme. Then I noticed the Down entries as well, and suddenly the grid was that much more dense. Impressive to get all those in there, especially the ones that cross (haha), as SOUTHERN and CELTIC do. I gotta say I’m not a fan of having an entry like “get cross” as a theme answer, but with the amount of theme material here, I’m not too bothered by it.
PAUL REVERE’S RIDE is the big highlight in the fill, but those corner stacks aren’t shabby either: PTEROSAUR/EARGUARDS and “ARE WE DONE?”/LATE GAMES. Also good: LIONESS and DUE DATE. I’m giving my sidiest side-eye to [“I don’t give ___!”] A RAP. I’ve heard this with “a rip” but never “a rap” and a quick Google search agrees with me.
Clue of note: 3d. [Early cousin of lotto]. BEANO. The things you learn in crosswords…Bingo was originally called BEANO.
Nice puzzle. 3.5 stars.
Adrian Johnson’s Universal Crossword “Turn Up the Music” — Eric’s review
Adrian Johnson’s Universal Crossword “Turn Up the Music” — 5/22/25
I’m a big fan of Adrian Johnson’s themeless crosswords, so I was interested to see something from him that has a theme. However, I was so unobservant that I didn’t notice what was going on theme-wise until I was finished, and it took another minute for the title to click.
I like the concept. It’s an old-fashioned word ladder, working from SOFT to LOUD:
- 17A [*Ginger ale, for one] SOFT DRINK Ginger ale was my mother’s go-to remedy for a mild nausea. It really works!
- 21A [*Separate into piles] SORT THROUGH Kind of a Marie Kondo vibe here.
- 32A [*Indiana’s second-largest city] FORT WAYNE I might’ve guessed Terre Haute.
- 38A [*Detroit Lions’ stadium, so named for a local automaker] FORD FIELD I missed the second part of the clue, but I’m not sure it’s really necessary.
- 48A [*”I hope to God!”] LORD WILLING
- 54A [*Tacky top] LOUD SHIRT I’m not sure I agree that loud necessarily equals tacky, but I enjoyed the theme enough that I will overlook that.
As I’d expect from one of Adrian Johnson’s grid, the fill is clean (though not particularly fresh):
- 16A [“And I Love You So” singer ___ Como] PERRY I’m not familiar with the song title, but there’s only one singing Como, right?
- 37A [Coach Andy who’s a 3x Super Bowl champion] REID I got that entirely from the crosses; he’s the head coach for the Kansas City Chiefs.
- 14D [Comment misidentifying a superhero] IT’S A BIRD How did anyone ever buy George Reeves as Superman? But I like this clue.
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- 22D [Opera house cheers] BRAVOS Savvy crossword solvers know to leave that penultimate letter blank.
- 29D [Vegetables in the “holy trinity” of Creole cuisine] ONIONS I did my religious duty last night and devoured a bowl of homemade gumbo. The other two veggies are bell peppers and celery; don’t go overboard with the celery or you’ll ruin your gumbo, red beans, or jambalaya. Most recipes I’ve seen recommend equal parts.
- 56A [Outdoor co-op since 1938] REI My part of southwestern Colorado is getting an REI soon; it was supposed to open this spring, but it’s been delayed until summer for reasons unknown to me.
David J. Kahn’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up
Difficulty: Challengingish (13m41s)
David J. Kahn’s New York Times crossword, 5/22/25, 0522
Today’s theme: MONEY / CHANGES / EVERYTHING (With 11-Down and 58-Across, aphorism about the effect of sudden wealth … or a hint to the answers to the starred clues)
-
-
- STAND T(RIAL)ALL
- OR(DINAR)ALLY
- FIREB(RAND)ALL
- (COLON)ALLIES
- (WON)ALL OVER
-
There were a lot of moving pieces here, between the triple-split revealer and the buried currency. I knew RAND, RIAL, and DINAR right away (mostly from other crosswords!) but had no clue about the COLON (named after Christopher Columbus, apparently) and was only dimly aware of the WON. I also wasn’t sure what kind of alchemy we were performing, because technically, we’re changing the money into everything (it all becomes ALL). It probably took me a full minute to get the EZER / DEDE corner.. thought the most-applied-to college might be Yale, and I had “Man!” instead of UGH.
Cracking: ONE LOVE, let’s join together and feel alright
Slacking: are you majorin’ in ee-co-nomics? naw, i’m just MINORIN‘
Sidetracking: tales from the CREPT
Matthew Luter’s USA Today Crossword, “Connect Four” — Emily’s write-up
Ready for a game?
USA Today, May 22, 2025, “Connect Four” by Matthew Luter
Theme: each themer contains F—OUR
Themers:
- 20a. [Audrey II’s command in “Little Shop of Horrors”], FEEDMESEYMOUR
- 38a. [Traveling band’s last hurrah], FAREWELLTOUR
- 58a. [Time to do your most admirable deeds], FINESTHOUR
FEEDMESEYMOUR, FAREWELLTOUR, and FINESTHOUR.
Favorite fill: FISHTACO, EYELINER, and ASKEW
Stumpers: ALLEGE (needed some crossings), LOSEIT (needed crossings), and SICKDAY (great cluing—needed crossings)
Excellent puzzle with a fun grid, great overall fill and lengthy bonus fill, plus a delightful themer set and theme!
4.5 stars
~Emily
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1785 “Going Too Far” — Eric’s review
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1785 “Going Too Far” — 5/22/25
I should have paid more attention to the title. When the obvious answers were too long to fit their spaces, my immediate reaction was to try a rebus. Instead, the extra letters are in the black squares, as indicated by the red letters below:
- 9A [Big name in grills] WEBER I saw this clue as I was downloading the puzzle and was surprised that the answer appeared to be four letters. I thought there might be some “big name” I didn’t know, but my initial instinct was correct.
- 13A [Hospital delivery] LIVE BIRTH
- 18A [Classic Chevy named after an African antelope] IMPALA I remember those cars from my long-ago childhood. My dad didn’t like the Chevrolet dealer in our town, so he bought a 1968 Buick LeSabre, which was essentially the same car.
- 19A [Board game with the character Cavity Sam] OPERATION Another throwback to my childhood. I didn’t remember the name of the patient, but it wasn’t hard to guess which game it was.
- 29A [“Wow, didn’t know you arrived!”] OH HI
- 36A [2001 #1 hit for Usher] U REMIND ME Assuming I’m able to remember this title, I’ll now be able to name an Usher song.
- 48A [Cocaine, slangily] NOSE CANDY
- 49A [Wide awake] ALERT
- 2D [Yearned (for)] PINED
- 7D [Caddy’s suggestion] IRON
- 12D [Place to clean up?] REHAB
- 18D [Arab ruler] EMIR
- 20D [Ronnie Reagan’s first Secretary of State] AL HAIG It took me longer than it should have to come up with that name. It might have helped if I hadn’t missed the hint in “Ronnie” that we’re looking for first and last name, with the first name a nickname of sorts.
- 22D [Siestas] NAPS
- 23D [Cold hard cash maker?] MINT I tried ATM before I figured out the missing letter trick.
- 26D [Internet addresses] URLS
- 27D [Bears do it] SELL This one threw me a bit until I remembered KYLE from South Park, a show I’ve only seen once or twice. I initially toyed with putting the S in the black square, as I hadn’t figured out REHAB.
- 29D [Those people] THEM
- 33D [Actor Postlethwaite] PETE
- 34D [Arsenic partner in a 1944 film] OLD LACE
- 37D [Acquired via heredity] INBRED
- 38D [Clinton-backed pact] NAFTA Any mention of that treaty brings back horrible memories of a group project when I worked for the Texas Legislature and the lieutenant governor wanted my agency to identify every Texas statute that could conceivably be superseded by NAFTA.
- 42D [Gives temporarily] LENDS
- 45D [“The shoe ___ the other foot”] IS ON
Please cut me some slack if I missed a theme entry. There are a lot of them.
Although most of the answers weren’t too hard for me to get, I found it challenging to figure out which letter was missing from some of the answers. There seemed to be a randomness to the placement of the missing letters, as some were at the beginning of a word and some were at the end, and some were in Across answers and some were in Down answers.
That randomness vanished when I started putting the letters in the black squares. What’s impressive about this grid is that every black square contains a letter; read from top to bottom and left to right, they spell a bit of good advice: WHEN IN DOUBT, LOOK INTELLIGENT.
BEQ Solution with Missing Letters
I’m usually not fond of puzzles where the answers in the grid look like gibberish, but every once in a while, I can set aside that bias for a really good theme. And this is a really good theme; I hate to think about how difficult it must have been to get it to work.
Other things:
- 25A [Some D&D players in the wild] LARPERS Live-action role-players. Now that I’ve looked it up, it sounds somewhat familar, but not remembering it slowed me down at the end. I wondered for a bit if it too was missing a letter.
- 45A [1988 musical about the Soweto Riots] SARAFINA I’d forgotten that name, but it came back to me after I had a few crucial letters.
- 50A [State of bearing (sic) all] NUDENESS Uh, no. It’s NUDITY, as I’m sure Brendan knows.
- 24D [Kid’s song with the lyrics “je te plumerai”] ALOUETTE Don’t read the lyrics.
- 34D [Character builder?] WRITER Cute clue.
- 35D [Stan’s announcement] I’M A FAN From the 2000 Eminem song.
Joe Marquez & Boaz Moser’s LA Times crossword – Gareth’s summary
This puzzle is so clever and everything is just >chef’s kiss< tied up so neatly. The revealer is TAKEYOURPICK, and each of three professions are listed where one would use a different kind of pick:
- [One who’s bound to get away?], ESCAPEARTIST. Lockpick
- [Fiddler accompanist in bluegrass, often], BANJOPLAYER. Musical pick.
- [Artist who makes some pretty cool pieces], ICESCULPTOR. Miner’s pick.
Gareth
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
ok that was a fun NYT. stars probably not needed given you get the country in brackets. would have just said “With xx and yy, aphorism about the effect of sudden wealth … or s hint to solving five entries in this puzzle” and let you realize the brackets. this would have made a GREAT Themed Saturday too, if you’d clued the altered answers as just “Ubiquitously, in Korea” and the like and left solvers to figure out those were the ones altered and how.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 5 stars
NYT: Agreed. An absolutely brilliant puzzle. I am ashamed to say that I had to look up “aphorism” just to get me started. Thank you David for such a wonderful puzzle 😎
I agree that it was a very clever and enjoyable puzzle, but I found some sections pretty tough (the area including COLON especially), and I think it would have been much more challenging if the clues hadn’t included the names of the countries.
I disagree with ZDL’s assessment of the revealer. The clues apply to words or phrases including ALL, and those three letters have to be changed into a currency to make the answer fit the grid.
Agreed, revealer works just fine.
Pretty fast Thursday for me. It helped that the revealer phrase came to me right away, and all of the currencies were familiar. But it took me until FIREB(RAND)(ALL) to grasp how the theme works.
Thought it was a fun puzzle.
Sam is allergic to opah? After accepting it 17 times, the Bee has rejected it 10 times since 12/26/23. How is opah obscure? My supermarket carries it often.
Unknown on the east coast, per my experience.
I guess that explains tenpenny as in tenpenny nail. I also don’t think loblolly (pine) is accepted
fwiw, OPAH has appeared in the NYT crossword 175 times.
That’s pretty much the only place I’ve seen it.
I’ve run across opah on a menu a few times and have seen some recipes for how to prepare it.
Not an everyday word for me, but less obscure (to me) than today’s pangram, which I typed in as a SWAG (Silly, Wild-Assed Guess). I tried it because I’ve heard of a lumber company with the word in their name.
Spending a lot of time in Seattle, the pangram is a familiar word. It’s a brand of salmon sold at the airport, for instance. But I mainly know it as a Spelling Bee pangram, and am ready for it.
Opah is a very neat fish. It’s the only fish known to be warm-blooded, and can outswim both prey and predators. It’s a very pretty red and it makes great sushi. Like tuna, the lean dorsal loin and fatty ventral meat taste very different. It’s also a great game fish, and hits a line like a locomotive. They are very rarely encountered by sport fishermen, so fighting one is a rare privilege.
I’ve gotten it before from Catalina Offshore Products when I’ve ordered uni
I learned the pangram a few years ago, probably from a crossword.
I assumed at the time (and ever since) that it was a variant name for a meal at which guests each bring a dish to share.
I learned today that only the meal part was correct.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
NYT: To David’s review, MINORIN’ would be slacking but to MINOR IN something is perfectly acceptable.
I think ZDL was just joshin’ around.
Universal Crossword: Eric questioned George Reeves as Superman. I’m obviously much older than Eric because that picture says “Superman” to me. Actors didn’t work out then. No one had a muscle. Men had soft bodies (and their pants were pulled up above their waists). Take a look at the movie stars from the time–no one had a clue about six-pack abs. Reeves was probably a more believable Clark Kent than more recent versions.
I realize actors don’t have personal trainers the way they do now.
But let’s be honest: If you were back in the 1950s, who would you rather see shirtless: George Reeves or William Holden? Brando?
I stick by my judgement, which was formed in the 1960s when “Superman” reruns were in syndication (and when buff bodies were still pretty rare).
I never missed an episode, but since I was 6 or 7 or 8 I really never thought about his body. In retrospect, I probably would have thought that ordinary Kryptonian musculature was super-powerful on Earth. The whole point is that he was a normal guy whose superpowers came from a change of venue.
I suspect the audience for that incarnation of Superman tilted heavily towards seven-year old boys. I suppose some boys would care more than others to see shirtless actors, but I’m pretty sure I wasn’t crushing on anyone yet. I do remember being very fond of Penny on Sky King, but that was a bit later.
Sky’s niece Penny? Do you wish you had a pencil thin mustache, too?
The mustache is Boston Blackie’s, which was before we had a TV, so I’ll have to take Jimmy’s word for it.
But that’s the same Penny who might have been my first crush.
I watched Reeves’s Superman mostly in (relatively recent) reruns. Never thought that much about his physique, but was always a little skeptical about whether those glasses were a sufficient disguise that Jimmy and Lois couldn’t tell that he was Clark.
There were some buff actors on TV around that time. Clint Walker in “Cheyenne” and Ron Ely as “Tarzan” come to mind.
I wasn’t crushing on anyone at seven or eight, either. But George Reeves had such a mushy-looking body under that costume — and his muscles were so fake-looking — that I didn’t buy him as the guy I knew from the comic books.
I was an avid reader of the Hardy Boys. In one story, the boys and their girlfriends are out on dad’s boat when Iola Morton, girlfriend of the younger Hardy brother Joe, falls in.
Joe, being brave and gallant and all, jumps up, rips off his shirt to reveal his “lithe” torso, and goes into the water to save Iola.
I had little idea what “lithe” meant. When I looked it up, the mental image it created made me a little tingly. It only took me about another 10 or 15 years to realize that I’m primarily attracted to men.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 5 stars
.Five stars. Brilliant execution of an idea that could have been done in many other less inspired ways.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 5 stars
What a theme
BEQ: I was afraid I might have missed a theme answer, and I did: 30A KYLE, with the K in the black square.
By the way: The solution shown on BEQ’s website includes all the letters in the black squares.
Also: This would have been a lot easier if I’d seen and read Brendan’s note:
Twenty-six of the answers in this crossword are too long and won’t fit in the spaces provided. Each of these answers will either begin or end in the gray square immediately before or after it. When the puzzle is done, all the gray squares will have been used exactly once, and the letters in them (reading left to right, line by line) will spell out a quote by Garrison Keillor.
Puzzle: BEQ; Rating: 4.5 stars
BEQ – Loved the puzzle. I’ve seen Brendan do this type of theme before, and read his blurb giving the rules for his grid to make sure. But shouldn’t the clue for 50A be [State of baring all]?
Good catch!
As far as I know, Brendan is the only person to see his puzzles before he posts them. Minor mistakes like that are bound to get through. (Monday’s puzzle had an Italian word that was clearly misspelled.)
It’s possible that he intentionally used the homophone as a bit of misdirection.
Someone (you under a different screen name, maybe) asked this question on Brendan’s website. So far, Brendan hasn’t replied. I’ll try to remember to check his site when I review Monday’s puzzle, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he didn’t respond.
Puzzle: BEQ; Rating: 4.5 stars
This puzzle pissed me off and I almost wadded it up and threw it away. But I gave it a 2nd try and finished with no errors, but I still couldn’t make sense of what BEQ was trying to do.
After reading Eric Hougland’s (same person as commenter Eric H ?) review and seeing the revealer, I was like “OMG, how did BEQ do this?”. Incredible work of art!
As far as I know, I’m the only reviewer and commenter here using the name “Eric.” I try to always include my surname, but I sometimes accidentally tab from the comment window to the name field and accidentally mess up my username.
Congratulations on sticking with the BEQ puzzle! The quote is a nice payoff. As I commented after writing my review, I missed Brendan’s note about the letters in the black squares. I wonder if figuring out the trick on my own didn’t make the puzzle even more fun than it would have been if I had seen the note.
Puzzle: WSJ; Rating: 4.5 stars
Brilliant use of horizontal & vertical “crosses” by creator Jeff Stillman!