LAT 9:38 (Eric) 
[4.00 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
Newsday 13:53 (pannonica) [3.83 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
NYT 7:52 (Amy) [3.77 avg; 11 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (Matthew) [4.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
USA Today tk (Matthew) rate it
WSJ untimed (pannonica) 
[4.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
Adam Aaronson & Ricky Cruz’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 5/31/25 – no. 0531
Oof! This one fought me. A couple things were beyond my ken:
- 11A. [Edgar Degas’s “Miss ___ at the Cirque Fernando”], LA LA. It’s Degas’s only circus painting.
- 47A. [Participant in a hybrid sport that requires both brains and brawn], CHESS-BOXER. I’ll pass on both components.
- 54A. [Male influencer archetype] E-BOY. Wha? This. My son is Gen Z but this isn’t his vibe.
Fave fill: KARAOKE BAR, “I CAN RELATE,” BACKSPLASH, DUNG BEETLE, U.S. STEEL, TURING TEST, ZEITGEISTY, KIBOSH, ALLEY-OOP, BRATZ, SNARFING, LOIS LANE, FLOATY. So much zest!
Three more things:
- 39A. [Country whose predominant language is Bambara], MALI. Interesting. My college French professor was from Mali. Apparently French is no longer one of Mali’s official languages, and 80% of people can communicate in Bambara.
- 29A. [Subatomic particle named after an Indian physicist], BOSON. Satyendra Nath Bose.
- 3D. [500 people?], RACERS. As in the Indianapolis 500.
Overall an enjoyable challenge. Four stars from me.
Stella Zawistowski’s Los Angeles Times Crossword — Eric’s review
Stella Zawistowski’s Los Angeles Times Crossword — 5/31/25
It’s always fun to see a fellow Team Fiend reviewer’s byline. I’ve solved many of Stella’s puzzles over the past few years, so I expected a bit of a challenge. Since I rarely do the Saturday Los Angeles Times puzzle, I wasn’t entirely sure how challenging this would be. Given the amount of jumping around and direction-switching I did, I’d say it was moderately challenging.
There’s a lot of nice stuff in this grid, including ALOHA TOWER, SPLASHDOWN, PICKY EATER, OVER-TOURISM, COME IN LAST, BONUS ROUNDS, THERE IT IS and CANNELLONI. I don’t remember seeing any of those in a puzzle before.
The area in the center right of the grid was the stickiest part for me. I got COME IN LAST fairly quickly, but I’m not sure I’ve heard OVER-TOURISM before. Some of the Across answers there were either a bit vaguely clued, such as 23A [Question of desire] WANT IN. Others were pop culture references that I didn’t remember, like 27A [“Inside the Actors Studio” host] James LIPTON or didn’t know, like 35A [Miu Miu parent company] PRADA.
Other random thoughts:
- 28A [Rogan josh accompaniment] NAAN I didn’t recognize Rogan josh as a Kashmiri dish, but it sounds tasty.
- 29A [Slow roller across the infield] TARPAULIN is nicely clued; I expected it to be a name for a grounder that I hadn’t heard of (I don’t follow baseball much) and was mildly surprised to see the less-common version of “tarp.”
- 42A [“Grief Is for People” memoirist Crosley] SLOANE I don’t know the title or the author.
- 28D [2019 W.S. champ] NAT More baseball! I didn’t recognize the abbreviation as meaning World Series, not that I would have remembered who won it five-and-a-half years ago.
- 51D [Apt rhyme for 52-Down]/52D [Apt rhyme for 51-Down] SPA/AAH The only question here was the spelling of “aah.”
Vasu Seralathan’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Downsizing” — pannonica’s write-up
WSJ • 5/31/25 • Sat • “Downsizing” • Seralathan • solution • 20250531
This is a cute and clever theme, and I don’t know whether it’s been done before. Regardless, it’s executed very well here.
We’ve taken a metaphorical shrink ray to common phrases.
- 23a. [Interrogation of the housekeeper about available in-room beverages?] MINIBAR EXAM (bar exam).
- 28a. [Like a student who thinks a B and C are the same?] SEMITONE DEAF (tone deaf). Not mentioned: that this is a music student.
- 42a. [Briefest bit of respite on a sweltering day?] NANOSECOND WIND (second wind).
- 64a. [Showcase images of historical newspapers?] MICROFILM FESTIVAL (film festival).
- 87a. [Cleaning wipe provided at a shore diner?] BEACH TOWELETTE (beach towel).
- 105a. [Trickle off an icicle?] EAVES DROPLET (eavesdrop). The only theme answer that requires respacing.
- 113a. [Auspicious start to a day on the links?] EARLY BIRDIE (early bird).
See? Nice.
- 5d [Taken out of account] DEBITED. The clue is fiendishly worded to suggest that it’s the similar to ‘taken out of context’.
- 16d [Diet banning grains and processed foods] PALEO. At this point I’m longing to get back to seeing a majority of clues for this as the prefix.
- 26d [Crumb catchers, at times] BEARDS. 36d [Crumb carrier, at times] ANT.
- 29d [MLB team with a suspension bridge in its logo] METS. I assume it’s the Whitestone Bridge?
- 39d [Hung in a gallery, say] ON EXHIBIT. The entry’s symmetrical partner also has an X: 49d [Turn over, in a way] EXTRADITE.
- 68d [Canine cross] LABRADOODLE. Was nonplussed by the ‘cross’ of the clue until the LABR- start came via crossings.
- 80d [Group overseeing school boards?] CHESS CLUB. It might be that CHESS BOXER from today’s NYT crossword primed me for this one.
- 88d [Sloppy smooches] WET ONES, which is also the brand name of a kind of moist TOWELETTE.
- 1a [Wee sap sucker] APHID. Contra an avian sapsucker.
- 11a [Many a three-hour movie] EPIC. But also many films of all sorts these days are just longer. Have a look at this analysis from five years ago.
- 25a [Haunted doll in a horror franchise] ANNABELLE. No idea about this, but here’s a creepy song:
- 54a [Cartoon feline who was one of the first images shown on television] FELIX. Interesting trivia.
- 58a [Tom’s counterparts] SHE-CATS. I prefer molly, grimalkin, or queen. There must be other terms as well.
- 71a [First lady after Martha] ABIGAIL Adams.
- 84a [Made three three-pointers in a row, say] GOT HOT. Not so hot.
- 96a [Loon’s cousin] GREBE. This was a gimme for me, but I wonder if the average solver knows it.
- 122a [They know what’s in the cards] SEERS. Tarot cards, presumably.
S.N.’s Newsday crossword, Saturday Stumper — pannonica’s write-up
Newsday • 5/31/25 • Saturday Stumper • S.N., Newman • solution • 20250531
Surprised myself with a very quick time on this “S.N.” supposed toughie. In fact, it was about the same time it took me to complete the NYT today.
In contrast to recent Stumpers where I could even identify the lone cryptic-style clue that usually lurks, this time it was my very first bit of fill: 10d [He’s into financial analysis] ALAN, and that northwest section was completely filled in a jiffy. I was next able to put in 25a [Coffee cup holder] ZARF without any crossings, then in rapid succession—I can’t quite recall the order—16a [Mutated gene] ALLELE, 18a [Valencian frypan, or a meal cooked in it] PAELLA (which I had just last week, yum), 13d [Mold spores, to many] ALLERGEN—there are a lot of double-Ls hereabout.
Over on the left flank, 35a [Sheik’s “Peace”] SALAAM was easy—it’s an obvious cognate of shalom. 37a [Poe culprit] was pretty obviously a reference to “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” so in went the less-than-ideal shortened form ORANG. Interestingly, the symmetrically paired entry, 28a [Disney doggie daddy] PONGO happens to be the genus for orangutans. I had no idea about the answer as clued, but it turns out that that PONGO is the father of many of the puppies in 101 Dalmatians.
Anyway, with those two stacked acrosses in place, I took a few successful risks and in short order the southwest corner was done. 32d [Korean compacts] ELANTRAS was easy enough, but 31d [Sped rashly] CAREERED was a bit more daring with only the -AR—– down. Then the tricky geography of 43a [It’s northeast of Sacramento on I-80] RENO. Then SORBATE, EDSELS, and so on.
The central across answer is, aptly enough, CENTRAL LONDON (31a [BBC’s home, as often announced]). From there I worked my way into the lower right corner.
First to go in, without any crossings, was 41d [Tech scraps] E-WASTE. 48a [Valueless?] was obviously AMORAL—I was in the zone with this puzzle—and 49d [Far from megalo-] sure looked to be MINI-. The CG starting 38-across was not auspicious, but the crossings up front were solid, so I kept them. [Ergs, dynes, etc.] are part of the CGS SYSTEM—that’s centimeters, grams, and seconds for distance, mass, and time. I now had enough letters to see that 39d [First in episodic drama creation] was SHONDA Rhimes. And maybe I was primed by the [Canine cross] LABRADOODLE bit in the WSJ, but I quickly saw through the clue at 51a [Maltese cross candidate] PEKINESE, noticing that cross wasn’t capitalized (although it turns out I was mistaken about that!).
So now it was the upper left, and I really felt stymied. I had 2d [Titularly] IN NAME and 21a [Sheik’s peer] EMIR, but not much else. Incredibly, with objectively not enough crossings, I got 26a [Upped the pressure on] DENSIFIED, easily my least favorite entry of the entire grid. At 3d [Any of a country music trio] I mistakenly had GOSDIN, but was fortunate that the G was correct. With -IG—– at 1-across [Where locks are picked] I thus found WIG SHOPS, which really broke open that final corner. ORDER FORM went in at 6d, STEERS, HUNS, and PAT—and now it was enough to see that 17a [Plan on it] wasn’t about a schedule or organizer but more simply INTEND TO. And the country group was the GATLIN Brothers.
I’m still not quite sure how it all came together so quickly, but there you go.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
Totally kicked my butt, had to cheat a couple of times before it flowed.
I’m rising above my frustration to give it a good rating. Because there was a lot to admire about this puzzle- sometimes along the way, definitely after the fact.
That’s pretty generous given the SW corner, where everything was tricky (usually a plus), but also had one guess (39A) and two things I’ve never heard of (47A and 54A). Ultimately, it was the 40A/37D cross that got me (C vs N).
Me, too, regarding butt kicking.
NYT: No crossword for old men (and old women, most likely). I struggled to complete the SW section, and finished with an error, SCARFING instead of SNARFING. ARCIE didn’t seem right, so that was an easy fix. Although I don’t know why an AUX cable would be associated with cars as opposed to other locations.
The length of Norway’s coastline seems pretty arbitrary, depending on how you measure it (fractals!)
If I were asked to participate in chessboxing, I would put on a glove, whack the chessboard and all the men across the floor, then run away.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
NYT – A little chewier for me but doable and enjoyable. As for the SW, I saw through the “?” clues quickly. That helped a lot. Took a minute to correct ACAI at 59a. I resisted LAY because I thought it was Lay’s. 34d and 55d took care of ACAI. I got 35d but to me calling an ALLEY OOP a two person shot is like calling any basket that is preceded by an assist a two person shot.
Very tough NYT that stayed nearly all blank for quite a while. But… I got BOSON at last and fought from there to the finish, with one error (SCARFING/SNARFING). Counts as a win, IMO.
I found the Stumper really difficult today. Seeing WIGSHOPS, and not SALON or STORE got me to the finish.
I learned after the fact that Pekinese is a variant of Pekingese. Who knew?
Stumper: Went pretty much the same path as pannonica, but much slower. Hard solve, perhaps because we’ve had a bunch of rain here and my mold allergy is activated and slowing my brain. Got “allergen” easy, but the rest of that corner was harder — never heard of a “zarf” and am not sure how a “casbah” is a citadel, but it came together. Also, it didn’t help that I’ve never heard of Shonda (have to look that up) and had “lord” for the longest while, instead of “Howe.” Put in “e-waste” twice and took it out twice, then managed to think of “Howe.” Kept thinking about afros for 1A and that didn’t help, either.
Shonda Rhimes, the brains behind “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Bridgerton,” “Scandal,” “How to Get Away With Murder,” etc. Massively successful TV producer, creator, show-runner.
So I found out! She sounds like she’s very talented! I don’t watch much (if any) TV, so usually I learn the TV and movie stuff from crosswords. 😀
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2.5 stars
Not a fan. EBOY, really?
Puzzle: LAT; Rating: 5 stars
I’ve never had a dull moment in any Stella puzzle — they always sparkle. Another fun ride today.
Eric,
Rogan josh is indeed tasty. One derivation of the name is “red meat” (there are several), and the most authentic recipes get the color from a root. It doesn’t take much, so when I finally scored some ratan jot it was a lifetime supply. I think I’ll make some this week. Thanks.
There’s a restaurant here called Himalayan Kitchen that I’d like to try. Sadly, rogan josh isn’t on the menu.
Not surprised. Himalayan food is usually Nepalese or Tibetan, and quite different from North Indian/Kashmiri/Pakistani. You might need to take a trip to Denver some day.
The place here claims to have food from Nepal, India and Tibet. My mental map of that part of the world needs some work; I see now that Kashmir is not really that close to the area around Tibet and Nepal.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
I’m envious! Plenty of great Indian restaurants around here, but no Himalayan ones. I would dearly love to try yak meat, and that would probably be the only possible source. I’ve had a decades-long interest in yaks, and may have the world’s only hand-blown glass yak. But I can’t find it on any menus in these parts.
Rogan josh is a wonderful entree.
Yes, the Whitestone Bridge
Nope. Queensboro Bridge (aka 59th Street Bridge). The connection of Queens to Manhattan is the idea. The Whitestone connects Queens and the Bronx.
Feeling Groovy.
Not my favorite Stumper. Bottom half was normal, but got totally shut down by the top. Top right, there were so many things I was never going to know: spat as a thing on your leg, zarf (????? that is the most made-up word I’ve ever seen), Pongo (who?), sleazoid (figured it should be SLEAZ something, but nothing fit, and I’ve never ever heard that version of that word), bel canto (meaningless foreign words), casbah (only ever heard this word in “Rock the Casbah” and nowhere else), caped makes no sense to me (no image of Sherlock in my mind ever has a cape. Long coat, yes. Cape, no. And “turned out” means what exactly?).
And in the top left, I just couldn’t get into the section. I had NAME but didn’t know if it was IN or BY, had ED but wanted STAYED before WAITED, Gatlin is meaningless to me, actually guessed STEERS but it didn’t help, Huns doesn’t make sense to me, didn’t know what kind of FORM (could be basically anything), PAT I couldn’t see, SLO I’ve never heard of, INTEND TO is just plain the wrong tense in my ears (you “intend to” do something, so you “plan to” do something. The “it” in the clue is incorrect to me.), no idea who Talese is…
You get the idea. The top half of the puzzle was just full full full of stuff I’d never know or never figure out. Oh well, can’t fully enjoy them all!
Similar experience for me, although I got the NE section finished. I believe that in some portrayals Sherlock Holmes wears an over-the-shoulder cape that’s about waist length — I’m sure there must be a particular name for it but I don’t know what it is.
The NW section defeated me, though. I had EMIR and __NAME (IN or BY?), but couldn’t come up with TALESE or GATLIN. I had an inkling that 26A might be something like DENSIFIED, but I thought even the Stumper wouldn’t stoop to that. SLO (for San Luis Obispo, I assume) is pretty obscure.
The short cloak is often part of Halloween-costume portrayals, but it’s inaccurate. In fact, it’s integrated with a long coat as part of the two-piece Inverness cape. The cloak was meant to be weather proofing. Or at least, doubling the amount of wool the rain had to get through to reach your neck. Sherlock never wore just a short cape.
Accurate or not, Sherlock Holmes wearing an Inverness cape has been memorialized in stone.
That’s the whole Ulster cape. The inaccurate version is something like this.
Not sure if it matters whether the cape is an integral part of a larger coat – it’s a cape. And I think in Doyle’s work, it’s an Ulster.
That could be –I read it LONG ago. I was thinking of the movie images.
Yes, I forgot to mention that above. It added to the confusion in that corner. Official canon is the Inverness.
“[Coffee in Turkey] was served in small cups without handles (known as fincan, pronounced /finˈd͡ʒan/), which were placed in holders known as zarf (from the Arabic: ظرف, romanized: ẓarf; plural ظُرُوف ẓurūf, meaning ‘container’ or ‘envelope’) to protect the cup and also the fingers of the drinker from the hot liquid.” (Wikipedia)
The word is also now sometimes used to describe the cardboard sleeves for contemporary paper cups. I think even those old-time metal holders for Coca-Cola glasses can be called zarfs.
I looked that up, too. (I learn so much from crosswords!) The wikipedia images are beautiful!
“I plan on it.” = “I intend to.” Substitution works just fine.
Puzzle: Newsday; Rating: 4.5 stars
Stumper – I loved this one. Followed similar paths to Pannonica. Interesting remembering Pongo of 101 Dalmatians.