Tuesday, June 3, 2025

Jonesin’ 5:39 (Erin) [4.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
LAT untimed (Jenni) [3.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
NYT 3:51 (Evan) [3.00 avg; 10 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker untimed (pannonica) [4.20 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
Universal 5:43 (Eric) [3.25 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Sophia) rate it
Xword Nation untimed (Ade) [3.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
WSJ 3:58 (Jim) [3.33 avg; 3 ratings] rate it

Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Inner Harmony” — taking on a title. – Erin’s write-up

Jonesin’ solution 6/3/25

Hello lovelies! Let’s see what’s going on with this week’s Jonesin’ puzzle…

• 20a. [Boat vacation around the top of South America?] SURINAME CRUISE
• 25a. [Deep hollow where monikers are created?] NICKNAME CAVE
• 47a. [Pottery surfaces for a Sesame Street resident?] ERNIE ENAMELS
• 54a. [Generic placeholder phrase demonstrated by the three theme answers?] INSERT NAME HERE. We get the theme entries by adding the word NAME to celebrities Suri Cruise, Nick Cave, and Ernie Els.

Other things:

• We have some British abbreviations this week, with the RAF (Royal Air Force) and OBE (Order of the British Empire).
• 57d. [Celebrity chef Matsuhisa, or his restaurant] NOBU. The chef has a collection of restaurants named Nobu as well as some named Matsuhisa. They all feature Japanese cuisine made with Peruvian ingredients.

Until next week!

Jonathan Raskin and Jeff Chen’s Universal Crossword “Amped Up” — Eric’s review

Jonathan Raksin and Jeff Chen’s Universal Crossoword “Amped Up” — 6/3/25

Four long or longish Down answers have circled letters that, when read from the bottom up, spell well-known rock bands:

• 8D [“Uh-huh, I bet”] YEAH SURE Rush
• 17D [“Could be worse”] IT’S NOT SO BAD Boston
• 24D [Montessori mosaic medium] MACARONI ART Train
• 37D [Certain hunting lure] DEER CALL Creed

I filled in the gaps in 10D ROCK CLIMBER [Type of mountaineer … or a theme hint] without reading the clue, so it took me a long time after solving the puzzle to recognize those four words as band names. Rush and Boston are the only ones whose music I know at all, and while I’d heard of the band Creed, Train is new to me. (Yeah, I have some big gaps in my knowledge of pop music.)

On the one hand, there are probably many well-known rock bands one could have used for this them. On the other hand, the band names get progressively higher in the grid as you go from left to right (giving an extra meaning to the CLIMBER part of 10D. And three of the four phrases are nice finds and would be fine answers in a themeless puzzle (which is how I solved it). I’m not too excited by DEER CALL as an answer, but it’s not objectively bad.

Despite missing the theme while solving, I didn’t have much trouble filling in the grid. MACARONI ART took a bit because while I know what a Montessori school is, I blanked on the name and didn’t connect it to young children.

Other things I noticed:

• 1A [Pastry that was one of 2013’s best inventions, per Time] CRONUT I dropped this in immediately, despite not knowing that factoid. I don’t remember when I first heard of a CRONUT, but it’s only been in the last five or so years.
• 33A [Soft drink whose name once contained a title] MR PIBB That’s kind of an odd clue, as the answer does contain a title. The soda is now called Pibb Xtra.
• 39A MUY crossing the second half of the answer, 34D BUENO. ¡Me gusta!

Dena R. Verkuil & Carina da Rosa’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Startup Hurdles”—Jim’s review

Circled letters spell out words that might precede the word “entry” in other phrases. Each circled word is in two parts with a black square forming a barrier between each part. The revealer is BARRIERS TO ENTRY (38a, [Impediments to newcomers, illustrated by black squares in rows 2, 4, 12 and 14]).

Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Startup Hurdles” · Dena R. Verkuil & Carina da Rosa · Tue., 6.3.25

• 15a/16a. ALDA / TAMER form “data entry”.
• 20a/22a. WHISKEY / LESSONS form “keyless entry”.
• 51a/54a. POP ICON / TESTIFY form “contest entry”.
• 62a/63a. NADIA / RYES form “diary entry”.

Solid, though I confess I don’t get a lot of joy from a theme like this. The most interesting of these theme entries is POP ICON, while the rest are all standard crossword fare. And “contest entry” doesn’t feel as in-the-language as the others. Still, I don’t mind this theme and it does the job well.

So we turn to the fill to look for some sparkle and we get it in OVER EASY and “SAME HERE” (which is so much nicer than more often seen “as do I”). MANSION, INVASIVE, and TRIAL RUN are just as good. Not such a fan of REHANG and AREEL, however.

All in all, a good Tuesday grid and a nice debut for Carina da Rosa. Congrats!

Three stars.

Elizabeth C. Gorski’s Cr♥ssw♥rd Nation puzzle (Week 731), “Heartfelt Gratitude”—Ade’s take

Crossword Nation puzzle solution, Week 731: “Heartfelt Gratitude”

Hello there, everybody! Ready for one more ride on the Crossword Nation train? Well, even if you’re not, we have arrived at the last stop. Stand clear of the closing doors, please!

I expressed my gratitude to Liz and Crossword Nation in last week’s review, and I honestly believe it’s Liz’s stage in expressing her thoughts, first with her beautiful essay on her blog. I urge you to click here to head to her blog and read her words expressing thanks to her subscribers and everyone involved in making the magic that is Crossword Nation for 14 years. 

Liz also expresses thanks to her solvers in today’s grid, and if you have the PDF version, you’ll see that some of the boxes are shaded. (If you’re solving online, those boxes will have circles in them.) Starting with the final letter of 6-Down, AMUST, and reading those boxes clockwise, the message that you’ll read is THANK YOU KINDLY! That message, along with the one at 9-Down, are for the people aimed at 3-Down!

• • • • • DEAR SUBSCRIBERS (3D: [Message to Crossword Nation solvers: Part I])
        • YOU ARE BRILLIANT (9D: [Message: Part II])

  It’s always fun to have some long, non-themed fill in a grid, and UKRAINIAN (34D: [Native of Kyiv]) and NOMADLAND taking center stage on that front, though the latter thought for a second it was “La La Land” (2D: [2020 film for which Frances McDormand won an Oscar]). Then we have some actual tasty and crunchy long answers with CARAMELS (18A: [Sticky, filling-removing candies]) and the absolutely yummy CROSTINI that has me thinking of the last time I was in Little Italy (Manhattan, not the Bronx) and couldn’t stop devouring those pieces and/or dipping them in oil or pasta sauce (54A: [Small Italian toasts served as appetizers]). Loved the clue to BIC, which was my pen of choice for so many years before a couple of Paper Mate products won me over years ago (30D: [Corporate “pen” name]). Again, there’s so much to appreciate from a Liz puzzle, and, as always, I’m most appreciative of the time she spends on this for our enjoyment.  

  “Sports will make you smarter” moment of the day: PAOLO (5D: [Italian soccer star Maldini]) – The last SWMYS entry is all about Il Capitano, former AC Milan and Italian national football (soccer) team legend and defender Paolo Maldini, widely regarded as one of the greatest soccer players of all time. Maldini spent all 25 seasons of his playing career in Italian’s top soccer division, Serie A, with Milan, and retired at the age of 41 in 2009 having won 26 trophies with the club while playing more than 900 games total in the Milan shirt. He also played in 126 games for the Italian national team, and was captain for Gli Azzurri on 75 of those occasions.

  Thank you so much for the time, everybody! Have a wonderful and safe rest of your day and, as always, and to quote Janie Smulyan, one of the DAMES (13A: [Titled women]) of Crossword Nation who more than ably held down this space as the original essayist of this crossword before I took over …

• “Keep solving!”Take care!Ade/AOK

Boaz Moser’s Tuesday New York Times crossword—Evan M’s review

Hi all! Evan M reporting for Tuesday puzzle review duty. Boaz Moser’s puzzle was definitely “light” and “airy” for me, but I had to look at the NYT Wordplay blog about it to understand the theme entries, oop.

Apparently, the revealer LIGHT SLEEPER is tied to the 3 themers SHEET OF PAPER, AIR CUSHION, and CLOUD COVER by literally imagining bedcovers that aren’t heavy. Works for me, it’s a pretty standard crosswordy type literal interpretation of a common phrase, then reimagined with other phrases in a clever way. I related to the revealer, especially being a light sleeper myself. Or is it really called being a light sleeper when it’s more like, I sleep fine when I am asleep but I literally get up to pee 2 or more times every night? I usually even munch on a midnight snack (much to my dentist’s chagrin) before I fall back to sleep. I was happy with my fastest Tuesday solve in recent memory, and perhaps all time (3:51, baybee).

Moser topped off the puzzle with some fun longer fill like PANIC ROOM (a lovely NYT debut), POP ART, OSCAR SNUB, and DOG PARK. A nice puzzle all around, 4.5 stars from me.

George Simpson & Zhouqin Burnikel’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Jenni’s write-up

I don’t love circles in crossword. This time the circles are part of the fun. As always, the circles will be represented by red letters.

Los Angeles Times, June 3, 2025, George Simpson & Zhouqin Burnikel, solution grid

1. 17a [Seasoning in a grinder] is BLACK PEPPER.
2. 24a [Exorcist’s target] is EVIL SPIRIT.
3. 35a [Phone setting that dims the screen] is NIGHT MODE.
4. 52a [Hush-hush agreement] is SECRET DEAL.

And the revealer: 59a [Signs of fatigue, and what can be found in 17-, 24-, 25-, and 52-Across] is DARK CIRCLES. Not sure that SECRET is a precise synonym for DARK. I liked it anyway.

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: never heard of Ella MAI or “Boo’d Up.”

Wyna Liu’s New Yorker crossword — pannonica’s write-up

New Yorker • 6/3/25 • Tue • Liu • solution • 20250603

Very easy offering for today’s ‘moderately challenging’ crossword; when I solve it comfortably under five minutes, that’s not a good sign!

• 1a [Game with an annual World Series] POKER. Just took a moment to clear BASEBALL from my mental cache.
• 6a [Duds] TOGS. 6d [Pants, slangily] TROU.
• 14a [Steamy spot] BOILER ROOM. I guess I kind of thought that boiler rooms were on the dry side, but it seems that humidity is an issue with them.
• 17a. [“The nerve!”] SOME PEOPLE.
  
• 19a [Plant eater?] VENUS FLYTRAP. Fortunately I already had a few crossings in place, which made this answer plain to see.
• 24a [Idiomatically happy creature] CLAM. Crucially, at high tide.
• 25a [Target of a palette cleanser?] PAINT. Did you catch the spelling difference? I didn’t. The usual phrase is palate cleanser.
• 26a [Question to an unfamiliar face] WHO ARE YOU.
  
• 32a [Dispenser at a breakfast buffet] TEA URN. Can’t say I’ve seen this in a crossword before. 50a [Quaff with cloves and cardamom] CHAI,
• 42a [José Carreras or Luciano Pavarotti, e.g.] TENOR. Two of the lauded Three. Missing: Placido Domingo.
• 44a [Usual extras, colloquially] FIXIN’S, or maybe just FIXINS. Anyway, I tried MIX-INS first.
• 45a [Cool whips?] CONVERTIBLES. Very happy to have gotten this without looking at the clue, as I don’t understand it. Ah, per m-w.com: “Whip has been used as a slang word for ‘car’ since the late 20th century. It’s also used as a verb meaning ‘to drive (a car).'”
• 58a [Gave the once-over] EYED. 4d [Term for the vertical wrinkles between one’s eyebrows] ELEVENS. News to me. I’m sure there’s a more technical term.
• 2d [On vacation, briefly] OOO, out of office.
• Nice longish stacks in the grid: GOLF COURSE/SMELL A RAT, TAPE DRIVE/WENT ASTRAY, IRS AUDITOR/VALLEY GIRL, and the previously mentioned BOILER ROOM/SOME PEOPLE.
• 11d [A thing of the past] OVER. Works with substitution.
• 13d [ __ bass (funky playing style)] SLAP.
• 29d [Shakespeare character who says, “What thou seest when though dost wake / Do it for thy true love take”] OBERON. That madness of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
  
• 32d [Device for archival data storage] TAPE DRIVE. Are they still used?
• 35d [“Au Revoir les Enfants” director Louis] MALLE. Took a couple of beats to remember his name.
• 39d [Piece of Pennsylvania Dutch folk art that might resemble a flower or a star] HEX SIGN. Might have taken longer to remember the correct name for these had I not encountered it recently in another crossword.
• 45d [Letters on an old Soyuz spacecraft] CCCP, or at least that’s what similar English letters look like.
• 49d [Like Home Simpson or Stewie Griffin] BALD, not TWO-D.