LAT tk (Gareth) 
[3.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 24:32 (Eric) 
[3.92 avg; 19 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Darby) rate it
Universal (Sunday) 13:34 (Jim) [3.67 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (Norah) [4.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
WaPo tk (Matt G) [3.83 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword, “Triple Threat”—Matt’s recap
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword, “Triple Threat” solution, 5/25/2025
A meta this week from Evan. We’re prompted to identify “a famous athlete.” The grid is somewhat choppy, to say the least, and themers aren’t immediately clear, but two clues point us in a direction:
- 64a [With 68 Across, player often running the offense] POINT / GUARD
- 125a [Org. with athletes who take many 3’s] NBA
This narrows our next steps down pretty quickly, particularly the explicit reference to “3”s.
I initially tried to extract letters from all squares whose numbers are multiples of three (SNSR…) and all whose numbers contain a three (SWNI…) but both were quickly and obviously nonstarters. So what other ways do ‘3’s show up in crosswords? How about in three-letter entries?
Reading the three-letter entries of this puzzle in grid order, we get ITS/ AN N/BA S/TAR/ WHO/ FOR/ HIS/ ENT/IRE /CAR/EER / HAS/ MAD/E MO/RE T/HRE/ES T/HAN/ ANY/ONE/ ELS/E IN/ THE/ NBA.
That NBA star, and our meta answer, is Steph Curry, fittingly a POINT GUARD.
I found this one straightforward, in part because I know Evan likes to slip theme nods and meta hints into either the last across or last down clue, as he did here. And it’s pretty much just the one step, but I wonder how long I might have grappled if I didn’t know what to do with the “many 3’s” hint. “ITS ANN BAS TAR” across the top is hopefully a pretty clear click for anyone who stumbles across it, I’d think.
Cheers!
Dylan Schiff”s New York Times Crossword “Travel Bug” — Eric’s Review
Dylan Schiff’s New York Times Crossword “Travel Bug” — 5/25/25
I’m going to try to be brief tonight, as I’m sleepy and writing this on a computer borrowed from the friend we’re staying with.
It’s a high-concept puzzle: The upper and lower halves of the grid each have four circled letters, with one circle in each half shaded either pink, blue or yellow. Each circle contains a rebus, but the tricky part is that the circles all represent 69A [Theoretical paths depicted by the circled squares] WORMHOLES. Thus, for each circle, an answer goes into the wormhole at the top of the grid and out the corresponding colored hole at the bottom of the grid, whether going Across or Down:
- 28A [Exam in which using notes is allowed] OPEN goes through a {BOOK} wormhole to emerge at 118A with TEST, giving us OPEN-BOOK TEST
- 30A [Inventor’s pride] BRA goes through an {INCH} wormhole to emerge at 110A with ILD, giving us BRAINCHILD
- 43A [Harry Houdini and David Blaine, for two] ESCAP goes through an EAR wormhole to emerge at 97A with TISTS, giving us ESCAPE ARTISTS
- 97A [Brand known as “The San Francisco Treat”] RIC goes through the {EAR} wormhole to emerge at 43A with ONI, giving us RICE-A-RONI
- 110A [Not breaking, as an actor] STAYING goes through an {INCH} wormhole to emerge at 30A ARACTER, giving us STAYING IN CHARACTER
- 118A [Lightweight Apple laptop] MAC goes through a {BOOK} wormhole to emerge at 28A with AIR, giving us MACBOOK AIR
Three pairs of Down answers work exactly the same way. Each rebus, when added to WORM, is a type of real or figurative WORM.
I was a bit distracted while trying to solve this, as I didn’t want to totally ignore my hosts. I made a typo in 23A [Gaming company whose logo is known as “the Fuji”] ATARI, putting an O instead of an I, and spent a few minutes trying to find that mistake. This is the sort of theme that requires more attention than I was giving it, since each theme answer as it appears in the grid is gibberishy. Until you get the wormhole trick, it’s hard to make sense of those kinds of answers.
It’s a nice concept, though one I’ve seen a few times before.
Other things:
- 25A [Melittologist’s study] BEES I didn’t know that word.
- 35A [Search around, as a truffle-hunting pig] ROOTLE Nice word that you don’t often see.
- 127A [Oprah delivered them for Rosa Parks and Toni Morrison] EULOGIES I didn’t know that little factoid.
- 62D [What spinach leaves and beets can be used as] DYES I knew that about beets, but not spinach.
- 80D [What disbudding prevents the growth of] HORN Until I had a few letters and saw what the answer had to be, I assumed “disbudding” was a horticultural practice.
Dena R. Verkuil and Jeff Chen’s Universal Sunday crossword, “Under Pressure”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar words and phrases whose final few letters spell out emotions. These emotions are separated from the main entries by black squares which collectively form the shape of a bottle. The revealer is BOTTLED-UP EMOTIONS (102a, [Repressed feelings that may erupt … as they do six times in this puzzle]).
Universal Sunday crossword solution · “Under Pressure” · Dena R. Verkuil and Jeff Chen · 5.25.25
- 8d. [*Whiz through, like a book] SPEE /D READ.
- 10d. [*Decorated with a certain ornamental design] FILI / GREED.
- 27d. [*Part of an edible bulb] GARLIC C / LOVE.
- 30d. [*Unexpected good luck] SERENDI / PITY.
- 38d. [*”For me, forgiveness and ___ are always linked” (bell hooks quote)] COM / PASSION.
- 42d. [*Epiphany] REV / ELATION.
Two other long entries serve as additional hints: COME TO A BOIL (60d, [Doesn’t just simmer, like 102-Across]) and BREAKOUT STAR (65d, [Sudden A-lister … or a hint to understanding each marked clue’s answer]). I actually came across the latter entry first and was confused by it, as I was looking for words that related to “star”.
Aside from that confusion, nice theme! I love the grid art which is reminiscent of a bottle filled with some magic elixir. The bottle itself is stuffed full with all six emotions, and despite that, has decent fill. I struggled with RRR crossing ORYX (couldn’t remember the animal and didn’t know the film; I kept trying RUR and RNR). Excellent grid design with the main theme entries starting up top, the emotions in the bottle, and the supporting entries down below.
Elsewhere, fill highlights include the BASHFUL / PORPOISES / EXCELLENT stack, TAX HAVEN, MESMERIC, “SEARCH ME,” “NOT A BAD IDEA,” and “AS A REMINDER…” I’m doubtful that anyone uses the phrases ICE BAG (I’ve only ever heard “ice pack”), but the crosses sorted that out.
Clues of note:
- 123a. [Anna Torv’s role on “The Last of Us”]. TESS. Ah, another cluing angle for this name. I enjoy both the show and Anna Torv, the Australian actress who nails an American accent in that show and in Fringe.
- 77d. [Like Saturn’s atmosphere]. GASSY. Wouldn’t the more appropriate adjective be “gaseous”? Unless perhaps the clue is referring to the Roman god after a visit to Taco Bell?
- 100d. [Italian volcano aka Mongibello]. ETNA. Ooh, didn’t know this name. It translates to “beautiful mountain.”
Very nice puzzle. Four stars.
LAT
Good morning and happy Sunday, Fiend community. Quick question that has had me puzzled (pun intended) for a while now. Why is there never a review of the Sunday LAT? I realize that all reviewers are volunteers who generously do this for enjoyment only. So, is it that no one has volunteered for this particular puzzle on Sundays? This is not a complaint. I am just honestly curious. Thank you to anyone who answers and thank you to everyone on Team Fiend.
As far as I can recall, the regular reviewer is a doctor in South Africa named Gareth who can’t post on a regular basis due to his job requirements. That’s all I know.
I found the LAT is reviewed in its own blog. Don’t know why it’s not reviewed by fiends.
https://crosswordcorner.blogspot.com/?m=1
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
The theme is good and skillfully constructed, but it’s way too difficult with rebuses and entries jumping from one corner of the grid to another. Too many proper nouns.
But the most unforgivable thing must be the CAPRA/HANGRY cross. Does this count as a natick? maybe worse than a natick.
Frank CAPRA is a very well-known film director, so I have trouble seeing that as a Natick.
I think CAPRA/HANGRY is fair, but one person’s gimme is another person’s Natick. For me, it’s usually the intersection of proper nouns.
I agree CAPRA is slightly obscure to some, but HANGRY is as current as CAPRA is old, so I think it’s fair. Plus a good portmanteau is always welcome!
I had exactly the same thought about CAPRA and HANGRY – one old, one new. I checked out hangry and its first use, according to Merriam-Webster Collegiate, was in 1918. That really surprised me. I thought Snickers coined it
My wife lives it!
I print out on paper so there were no colors to guide me. I wish the NYT had an alternative for us old fashioned types. Made it much harder than it had to be.
I didn’t notice the colors online until the end, so I can’t say it was too necessary to solve.
I’m sure that it was much harder to solve the NYT puzzle without the colors to show you how the theme answers were paired.
You might want to get in the habit of looking at the grid that appears on the main puzzle page and noting if there’s something unusual that might not print.
Newspaper Version prints with colors, if you don’t choose black and white printing.
NYT: Really liked this puzzle a lot. I could tell early on there was something going on with the split entries (especially after getting WORMHOLES), but I just tried to fill out the beginning parts of each and kept going with the rest of the puzzle till I got to the bottom. Then I went back to work the theme answers; it was really satisfying to see BOOK, EAR, and INCH. I’m not a big rebus fan, but I think this worked really well. Great bit of construction, and fun to solve; great puzzle!
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
Totally agree!
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 5 stars
This one was a treat. Yes, it was difficult, and it took me twice my average Sunday time, but come on, isn’t this why we enjoy crossword puzzles? I’d far rather spend a chunk of Sunday morning puzzling out an interesting theme than breezing through something obvious or something done before. Great job, Dylan!
NYT: I solve in AL, so I had the circles, but no colors. Once I got to the revealer, I had some idea of how the circles were supposed to work, but didn’t know which ones were paired up. (There was a note warning me that AL might not yield the best solving experience.)
I was also thrown off a bit by the pair of theme entries in the NE corner. It was clear that the rebus needed to be BOOK, but for that pair of entries, if you just skip the rebus square, you have two legitimate entries – OPEN AIR and PRE-POST. So I was expecting all the other pairs of theme entries to work the same way. Add in the fact that PRE-POST is a testing method, and I was thoroughly confused.
Did you ever stop to consider that the circles were symmetrical?? Because they were.
Actually, that crossed my mind – I looked at whether there seemed to be pairs vertically or horizontally, and that didn’t get me anywhere. I know that rotational symmetry is very (maybe most) common, but for some reason I often don’t notice it.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
I solve on paper, so no colors to give me hints. Made it a lot harder, which I liked better! Sunday puzzles are usually too easy and this one had some bite for sure! 4.5 stars from me.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2 stars
NY was tedious and annoying. Excellent construction, I guess. but not fun. And I’m never really happy when the grid ends up with garbage entries.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 5 stars
NYT fun solve
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 1.5 stars
Tedious and ugly puzzle with nonsense entries. I’ve also never heard of the term WORMHOLE, so this was especially maddening to me.
And did we really need CATHETER on a Sunday morning?
This was my favorite Sunday in ages. I never saw any colors, but the wormhole portals were findable without them and, has been mentioned, even more fun that way. I love a puzzle with my crossword.
We’re in Long Beach for a week with family. Can’t beat it. But the drive down on Friday was epic. The interstate was a 100-mile parking lot. Maps got us here through 50 miles of back streets that we shared with tens of thousands of other Maps users. One left turn from a side street onto an arterial was joined by four other side streets dumping masses of cars onto the same arterial. It looked like a demolition derby, but everybody eventually got there safely.
Re: nav systems – after the solar eclipse last year we found ourselves with a lot of people on the backroads of southeastern Missouri who, judging by the license plates, didn’t normally take them
Not everybody got there safely: “This year, NSC estimates there will be about 443 traffic deaths this weekend – 6% higher than last year’s.”
Sorry for the downer.
Drive safely.
Me too. I just kept going til the end and then I was able to put my dangling “ristian” with “born aga” and exposed the elusive INCH. Clear sailing after that.
104A Caen in lieu StLo.
Congrats Dylan Schiff 1
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 5 stars
Dylan Schiff’s NYT may be the greatest puzzle I’ve ever encountered. I cannot believe he managed to make three sets of rebuses running 4 ways. Bravo!
In the NYT, the first themer I got was 90D, for which FACEBOOKING would have been a perfectly legitimate answer. Did not twig to the wormholes right away, because the colors behaved strangely in the Android app. They did not show at all, then showed as squares offset from the circles. Once I twigged that the colors were supposed to line up with the circles, I got the proverbial aha moment, but still thought the rebuses only worked across, so was still somewhat stymied. Got there eventually. Interesting solve, from slow and very frustrating to, oh, I get it, after which I zipped to the end. I was going to give a star rating, but I don’t really know how to rate it! On the high side, for sure.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3 stars
From a faithful doer of NY Times Sunday Magazine crosswords: I’m cross, and some words come to mind. But not for these theme clues. “BRA ARACTER” TO “STAYING ILD”, I couldn’t figure out the theme even though I had “WORMHOLES”. Not a favorite, this one.
Puzzle: WaPo; Rating: 4.5 stars
This is one of my favorite WaPo puzzles in a long time, and the symmetry of the answers to the themer-solution is beautiful.
TY Evan for this great crossword, and you’re still my favorite “cagey gridder”!