Friday, June 6, 2025

LAT untimed (pannonica) [3.00 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
NYT 7:38 (Amy) [3.89 avg; 9 ratings] rate it
Universal 4:35 (Jim) [3.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
USA Today tk (Emily) rate it

Adrian Johnson’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s write-up

NY Times crossword solution, 6/6/25 – no. 0606

This Friday puzzle felt like a Saturday to me. There are some tricky clues, and also some phrasal answers that were hard to come by. I’m not sold on “I’VE GOT EARS” and “NOT ONE MORE” as fully idiomatic things that lots of people say. There’s also a sports term I didn’t know, HOP STEP (44A. [Point guard’s crafty maneuver]); what’s that look like? If I knew CLAM DIP was a thing, I obliterated it from my mind; not a shellfish fan.

There’s lots of good stuff here, starting with fill: DRAMA COACH, REGULAR JOE, baby’s FIRST WORDS, the SAD KEANU meme, ART SCENE, BONE MARROW, UP AND LEAVE, CANTILEVER, SLOPPY KISS, NATIONAL TV (3D. [Big game medium], my first guess was a NATURE PARK with big game animals rather than a medium on which you watch a big sports matchup), CATWALK, CALL IT A DAY, INSIDE DOPE. I’m particularly fond of UP AND LEAVE and CALL IT A DAY.

A few more clues:

• 55A. [Litter pickup area?], NAPE. Where the mama doggo picks up her litter of pups, the nape of their necks. No trash here.
• 10D
  Dessert with a black-and-white filling], OREO PIE. This was gettable from the clue, but I don’t know that I’ve ever encountered this in real life.
• 36D. [Cupboard component], SILENT P. With the S in place, I tried SHELVES. Fell for it!

3.75 stars from me. Lots to love, but those two long clunkers dampened my enthusiasm a bit. Also? I’ll die inside a little bit when someone inevitably comments that this puzzle was too easy and it felt like a Wednesday.

Baylor Gallagher and Katie Hale’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up

LAT • 6/6/25 • Fri • Gallagher, Hale • solution • 20250606

• 64aR [Out of the ordinary, or, parsed differently, what has been applied to the phrases in 18-, 24-, 41, and 53-Across?] NONSTANDARD, or NO-N STANDARD. That is, the letter N has been excised from the original versions.
• 18a. [False claim about a DIY project?] ASSEMBLY LIE (assembly line)
• 24a. [Overall condition of steel girders and beams?] METAL HEALTH (mental health).
• 41a. [“Do you know who my father is?”?] I’M KID OF A BIG DEAL (I’m kind of a big deal).
• 53a. [“Just put the succulent down an go!”?] LEAVE ME ALOE (leave me alone).

To my mind, the themers start off relatively strong but finish weakly. Also, it definitely would have been more impressive, and perhaps more engaging, if there were phrases featuring more than one N to be dropped.

• 1d [Fairy tale brother] GRIMM. Not in a fairy tale, but associated with many.
• 11d [“I Luh God” gospel singer Campbel] ERICA. New to me.
• 30d [Cognac cocktail with orange liqueur] SIDECAR. 13a [Daiquiri ingredient] RUM.
• 31d [Insult] DIS, sometimes spelled DISS. 9d [Pastoral poem] IDYL, sometimes spelled IDYLL.
• 39d [“__ it wait?”] CAN. 50d [“You __ worry”] NEEDN’T.
• 51d [Mama’s mamas] NANAS. 54d [Reunion attendee] AUNT. 38a [Reunion attendee] NIECE.
  
• 56d [Tour de France stage] ÉTAPE, which I believe is cognate to ‘step’.
• 66d [Emmy winner __ Cephas Jones] RON. New to me. Not to be morbid, but he died at the relatively young age of 66, same number as this clue/entry.
• 8a [Hands over] GIVES.
  
• 34a [ __ large] LOOM, not LIVE.
• 69a [Hit lightly] TAP ON. My least favorite entry here. In fact, I’m realizing there aren’t any standout clues among the ballast fill. Would’ve made for a more engaging crossword, but of course one should be careful not to eclipse the theme with too much showiness!

Frederick Lavoie’s Universal crossword, “Military Leaders”—Jim’s review

Each theme answer is a familiar phrase or name whose first word is also a letter of the NATO alphabet. Clues reflect this by referring to an item in the appropriate category that starts with that letter. The revealer is LETTER OPENER (44a, [Tool used on an envelope, or the first word of 15-, 25- or 60-Across?]).

Universal crossword solution · “Military Leaders” · Frederick Lavoie · Fri., 6.6.25

• 15a. [Shillelagh, but not cudgel] SIERRA CLUB. Shillelagh is a kind of club that starts with S, but cudgel is not.
• 25a. [“How are things?,” but not, “Are you OK?”] HOTEL CHECK-IN. “How are things?” stars with H.
• 60a. [Cinco de Mayo, but not Thanksgiving] CHARLIE DAY. Cinco de Mayo starts with C. But why wouldn’t you go with Christmas here? No disrespect to Cinco de Mayo, but Christmas and Thanksgiving go together.

This is the second time in as many days that I’ve blogged a puzzle with a LETTER OPENER(S) revealer. The other one was yesterday’s WSJ and it had a totally different take on the phrase.

It’s a little odd to have the revealer in the third position with another theme answer after it, but I guess Universal is open to relaxing some of the hard and fast rules we’re used to. Recently they announced they’re opening submissions up to non-symmetrical grids.(!)

I like the concept here and the execution isn’t bad at all. But it seems a bit light when you consider that you could potentially come up with theme answers for every letter of the alphabet. Let’s see…ALPHA DOG is [Akita, but not Beagle], BRAVO…okay, maybe not every letter, but I bet you could do a lot. ECHO LOCATION is [Europe, but not America]. INDIGO GIRLS is [Irene and Ingrid, but not Agnes]. See what I mean? This could’ve been an enjoyable 21x puzzle. (Okay, I went through the alphabet, and there’s really not as many possibilities as I assumed when you consider many of the letters are names like Juliett, Mike, Oscar, Victor, etc.)

It would also have been cool if the letters in question spelled something (as I learned that they did in yesterday’s WSJ puzzle). Ideally if you had four entries spelling out DEAR, that would be incredible, since that word is a different kind of LETTER OPENER, but sadly there’s no good ROMEO ___ phrase (that I found).

So where does that leave us? With a good (maybe a little light) theme that’s solid and enjoyable as is. And the fill is just as pleasant with highlights “ANY TAKERS?”, “IT’S TOO BAD“, ALL TOLD, and “NOT A FAN?”. I’m not so sure about “CC ME“. Is it crossword-worthy? I would try to avoid it if possible, but I’m sure I’ve heard it said. ON FLEEK [Like eyebrows looking more than fine, per Vine] was a tough one for this old guy.

Clues of note:

• 50a. [Unfortunate direction for a morning commute]. EAST. Oddly specific. I guess it’s assuming the sun will be in your eyes. That doesn’t happen too often here in the PNW.
• 20d. [You just lost it!]. THE GAME. Man, that’s a blast from the past. Interestingly, the Wikipedia page has no definitive information on the origins of said game.
• 29d. [Signals “no” in Albania]. NODS. I’ll keep that in mind if I should ever go there.

Good puzzle though I wanted more. 3.5 stars.