Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Jonesin’ 5:13 (Erin) rate it
LAT untimed (Jenni) [3.83 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
NYT 6:10 (Eric) [2.56 avg; 9 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker untimed (pannonica) [4.30 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
Universal 5:23 (Eric) [3.33 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Sophia) rate it
Xword Nation untitled (Ade) [3.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
WSJ 7-something (Jim) [2.25 avg; 2 ratings] rate it

Chad Hazen’s Universal Crossword “Blundered” — Eric’s Review

Chad Hazen’s Universal Crossword Puzzle “Blundered” — 5/27/25

It took me a minute to see how this theme worked; it’s maybe more subtle than the circled letter themes that I’ve seen in many recent Universal puzzles. It wasn’t until I noticed the terminal I in CHAI that it clicked:

• 16A [*Tallest Japanese peak] MOUNT FUJI
• 23A [*Spiced Indian beverage] MASALA CHAI
• 34A [*Particular method] MODUS OPERANDI
• 46A [*Fruity Indian beverage] MANGO LASSI
• 54A [Made a wrong move, say … or when parsed differently, a hint to the starred clues’ answers] MISPLAYED The different parsing is M [and] I SPLAYED.

It’s a nice idea for a theme, though one I appreciated only after I had filled in the grid. I particularly enjoyed the paired Indian beverages, which make the grid feel both slightly exotic (in a good way) and modern. Neither answer is one you’d have seen in a puzzle 20 years ago.

Other things:

• • 61A [‘Tis in the past] TWAS That clue includes the answer, doesn’t it?
  • 8D [Vegan meat substitute] SEITAN Another answer that you wouldn’t have seen a decade or so back, even though it’s been around for centuries.
  • 7D [Common lunchbox sandwich, briefly] PBJ/51D [Simple diner orders, for short] BLTS When done well, both sandwiches are some of my favorites.
  • 10D [What Obama used to sign legislation] LEFT HAND Sigh.
  • 25D [Ocean creatures that don’t say “oink,” despite their name] SEA PIG Apparently, this can refer to various creatures, including sea cucumbers, dugongs and a fish also known as the Hawaiian flagtail.
  • 44D [Word before “dip” or “curl”] CHEESE A nice bit of misdirection there, with “dip” and “curl” suggesting exercises.
  • 45D [Welding alloy] SOLDER Um, no. As Wikipedia puts it, “Metal welding is distinct from lower temperature bonding techniques such as brazing and soldering, which do not melt the base metal (parent metal) and instead require flowing a filler metal to solidify their bonds.”

Ginny Too’s New York Times Crossword — Eric’s Review

Ginny Too’s New York Times Crossword — 5/27/25

The problem with a homonym theme is that there’s almost always someone who claims that they don’t pronounce one of the words in the way that matches the others:

• • • 17A [Like a subsidiary with only one parent] WHOLLY-OWNED I drew a bit of a blank here and used the theme to help me get the first part of the answer.
    • 27A [Swiss and Jarlsberg] HOLEY CHEESES
    • 44A [Colorful Hindu celebration] HOLI FESTIVAL
    • 60A [Central Christian belief … or a phonetic hint to 17-, 27- and 44-Across] HOLY TRINITY

These all sound alike to me, but let me know in the comments if you pronounce them differently.

I’m not fond of religious content in crosswords, but you don’t need to know much about Christianity to know that the Holy Trinity is a “central belief.”

Other stuff:

• • • 1A [Puccini heroine who “lived for art, lived for love”] TOSCA I’m more familiar with opera titles than characters, but I somewhere learned that she’s the title character, so I made a guess that turned out to be correct.
    • 2D [Earthy pigment] OCHRE With the O from TOSCA, I had a 50/50 chance of getting the right spelling. I guessed wrong.
    • 5D [Hunky-dory] ALL GOOD I tried ALL OKAY, but the cutely-clued 21A [Glam rocks?] GEODES fixed that.
    • 11D [Acts that are tough, rebellious and cool, in slang] BAD-ASSERY I like it, but it’s not an answer I really expect to see in a NYT puzzle.
    • 38D [Frozen, black-and-white Nabisco treat] OREO CONE Put “black-and-white” and “Nabisco” in the clue and the only question is whether the OREO is the first half or the second.

Elizabeth C. Gorski’s Cr♥ssw♥rd Nation puzzle (Week 730), “Extras, Extras!”—Ade’s take

Crossword Nation puzzle solution, Week 730: “Extras, Extras!”

Hello there, everybody! I hope you are doing well today and starting the new week on the right foot.

It’s been said that the true judge of a person’s character is by how they help others, and, I want to start today’s blog by saying that for 14 years, Elizabeth Gorski has helped others enjoy words and games with her Crossword Nation puzzle series! She’s been helping many word and puzzle enthusiasts for longer than that, and amongst her many accomplishments, what she’s done for those who want to solve easy, laugh-inducing puzzles is nothing short of spectacular. Hence why it is extremely sad to hear that Crossword Nation, in large part to administrative issues beyond her control that have robbed subscribers of the timely delivery of the puzzles, will cease the email delivery of the puzzles after next week. I feel horrible that there’s a number of solvers who come on here to read the reviews of this puzzle who either had a rough time of it getting the puzzles delivered and/or didn’t get puzzles at all. That’s heartbreaking, and I’m so sorry for those who have been frustrated by the goings-on that led the tough decision that Liz has made going forward with Crossword Nation. 

You can read more about this, from Elizabeth herself, using the link here. I am so hoping this isn’t the end of Crossword Nation for good, but, if it is, I can say that it’s been an absolute honor to have spent so many years blogging about it and experiencing Liz’s talents with her crossword constructing and wordplay every single week! OK, saving more of those sentiments for next week, which I’m sure will be even more emotional when writing about it. Time to talk a bit about today’s grid.

In this puzzle, a common phrase and/or a proper noun is reimagined in each theme answer as a plural noun while being turned into puns given the corresponding clues.

• • • • • FULL BORES (16A: [Sated and yawn-inducing dinner guests?])
        • OLD DEVIL MOONS (22A: [New York Post headline about a rascally senior who streaks?])
        • CUT ME SOME SLACKS (37A: [Customer’s demand for a pair of tailor-made pants?])
        • PLYMOUTH ROCKS (49A: [Rave review for the maker of muscle cars?])
        • BLUE NILES (60A: [Sad “Frasier” character?])

  I don’t give myself kudos a lot, but I will for when I went to VEGAS in February 2024 for the Super Bowl and did not gamble even once for the almost two weeks while I was there despite staying in a hotel that had a casino on the main floor (33A: [Setting for betting]). Still don’t know how I did it. Seeing MY HERO made me think about the anime My Hero Academia, which I’ve never watched before but is like can’t-miss-TV for so many of my friends as well as celebrities like Coco Gauff (45D: [“You saved me!”]). And I’ve heard a couple of my friends refer to their talents as “quirks,” which is what the characters on the show call their superpowers. Again, I know barely anything about anime outside of a little bit of Dragon Ball Z, but I think I need to brush up on this one because of its widespread popularity.  

  “Sports will make you smarter” moment of the day: COLTS (52D: [Indianapolis footballers]) – On May 21, Jim Irsay, the owner of the Indianapolis Colts, died in his sleep at the age of 65. Irsay inherited the team from his father, Robert, who had bought the team in 1972 when it was in Baltimore and was the owner when the team famously moved to Indianapolis in 1984. Under Jim’s ownership, the Colts made two Super Bowl appearances, winning in Super Bowl XLI in 2007 and losing Super Bowl XLIV in 2010.

  Thank you so much for the time, everybody! Have a wonderful and safe rest of your day and, as always, keep solving!

  Take care!

  Ade/AOK

Alan Massengill & Doug Peterson’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Jenni’s write-up

I like this theme for a variety of reasons. For one thing, I am ridiculously pleased by themes that show up in the Down answers. This one holds together very nicely and is solid and Tuesday-smooth.

Los Angeles Times, May 27, 2025, Alan Massengill & Doug Peterson, solution grid

In order L-to-R rather than numerical:

• 17d [“Relax and take things as they come”] is ONE DAY AT A TIME.
• 4d [“Things are going well, so avoid sudden changes”] is DON‘T ROCK THE BOAT.
• 8d [“If you rush, you won’t do it right”] is HASTE MAKES WASTE.

and the revealer at 9d [“Dear Abby,” “Ask Amy,” et al., and an apt description of 4-, 8-, and 17-Down] is ADVICE COLUMNS. The other reason I mentioned above is that I love advice columns. I read Carolyn Hax and Ask a Manager every morning without fail, and I read most of Slate’s advice columns on the regular. Captain Awkward is the best resource I know for people trying to learn about boundaries.

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: never heard of Hall-of-Fame hockey player Adam OATES. Sorry, Ade.

Gary Larson & Amy Ensz’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Consumer Reports”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar two-word phrases clued as if the second words were synonymous with “sustenance.”

Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Consumer Reports” · Gary Larson & Amy Ensz · Tue., 5.27.25

• 17a. [Sustenance for an astronomer?] STAR BOARD.
• 25a. [Sustenance for a plumber?] SNAKE BITE.
• 39a. [Sustenance for a vintner?] CAB FARE.
• 50a. [Sustenance for a Jedi?] FORCE FEED.
• 60a. [Sustenance for a gallery owner?] PIECE MEAL.

This didn’t do a lot for me. Why would a plumber’s food be called SNAKE BITE? Said plumber has many tools in their truck in addition to snakes. Now if the clue referred to a herpetologist, that would make more sense. The others are similarly nonsensical, and not in a good way. In what world does an art gallery owner call their food PIECE MEAL?

The rest of the grid is filled quite cleanly, though I can’t see why 66a AYLA [“The Clan of the Cave Bear” protagonist] can’t be replaced with something better. Other than that the fill is fine though not especially sparkly. And since I’m already late in getting this posted, I’m going to leave it there.

2.5 stars.

Paolo Pasco’s New Yorker crossword — pannonica’s write-up

New Yorker • 5/27/25 • Tue • Pasco • solution • 20250527

Were in an easy phase again. This was a well-integrated grid with just a few tough entries. Features some longer entries not often seen in crosswords—some mentioned below, but also including the symmetrical pair LONG-EARED and RADIAL SAW, full-length HAVA NAGILA, and NANNY STATE.

• 1a [Structure that disincentivizes lying?] BED OF NAILS. Seems to me it encourages it, for certain individuals. Anyway, better to lie on one and distribute the pressure evenly than do something foolish like trying to walk on it.
• 15a [Body of water that includes the Gulf of Aden and the Gulf of Oman] ARABIAN SEA. We often see ADEN and OMAN in crosswords, but rarely this.
• 16a [Outburst of pride?] ROAR. Lions. This was primed by 11a [Black-and-white predator] ORCA, immediately above.
• 33a [Country whose name is rhymed with “El Salvador, too,” in the “Animaniacs” song “Yakko’s World“] PERU. 23d [Chase the __ (card game with a rhyming name)] ACE. Both of these were handed to me via the rhyming hints.
• 35a [Promise that’s not made lightly] VOW. Unless the one doing it is a pathological liar.
• 46a [“All happy families __ alike” (“Anna Karenina” opening)] ARE. “… each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
• 55a [Predicated on feel rather than facts] VIBES-BASED. It’s a dangerous practice, especially as our society becomes more anti-science and ‘post-truth’.
• 58a [Mathematician pictured on Britain’s fifty-pound notes] ALAN TURING. Somewhat cold comfort after they chemically castrated him and drove him to suicide.
• 5d [Trying times?] FITTINGS. Nice.
• 6d [“Unh-unh”] NAH. 8d [“Unh-unh!”] IS NOT.
• 10d [Like Charlie Brown when he’s walking with his head hung low] SAD. Kind of an ambitious clue.
  
• 12d [“The Wall” and “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars,” for two] ROCK OPERAS. If asked, I would have said that they’re concept albums, but Wikipedia deems otherwise.
• 21d [Bit of equipment for sepak takraw, a.k.a. kick volleyball] NET. Learn something new everyday.
• 26d [Decorations that might leave a lover on?] ROSE PETALS. Literally.
  
• 45d [Like a Habanero] CUBAN. Note the capitalization.
• 53d [Crispy part of a tray of brownies] EDGE. The preference of many, hence the existence of the Edge Brownie Pan.
  

Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Well Sorta” — not quite all there. – Erin’s write-up

Jonesin’ solution 5/27/25

Hello lovelies! This week’s kinda-theme involves adding ISH to some common phrases.

• 17a. [Dejected area where the rugs go?] FLOOR MOPISH
• 19a. [Animal’s back crossing the line first in a race?] DORSAL FINISH
• 36a. [Kinda boring one-vegetable salad?] TOTALLY RADISH
• 55a. [Magic words to make an RV disappear?] CAMPER VANISH
• 58a. [Just under a Louisiana subdivision?] BELOW PARISH

Other things:

• 20d. [Kraken’s home] SEATTLE. I dropped in SEA right away but didn’t know what four-letter word fit after. Sea deep? Then I realized it was the hockey team’s city.
• 53d. [Threefold] TRINE. I’m glad I can still learn new words at my age.

Until next week!