LAT 3:12 (Stella) 
[3.50 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
Newsday 7:32 (Amy) [3.33 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
NYT 6:38 (Amy) 
[2.97 avg; 17 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (Matthew) 
[4.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
USA Today tk (Matthew) [3.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
WSJ 17:26 (Eric) [4.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Barbara Lin’s New York Times crossword–Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 6/14/25 – no. 0614
We’ve got an extra row in this 16×15 puzzle, to accommodate a FRIENDLY REMINDER.
Fave fill: READ PALMS, a pet’s GOTCHA DAY, GALUMPHED, EASY-PEASY, HIBERNATE, SNAKE EYES, GROUP DATE, AIR GUITAR, DECATHLETE, SKYDIVERS, HYACINTHS, SEED MONEY, and NINA SIMONE.
Seven more things:
- 15A. [Hedgehog-like mammal of Madagascar], TENREC. Not one of those animals most of us know, I think.
- 59A. [Trouble spots?], STAINS. Get your Tide Pen out!
- 5D. [“As if!”], PAH. Not wild about this one.
- 10D. [OK signals, of a sort], BEEPS. Not sure what the context is here. Anyone?
- 12D. [Sticky-footed amphibians], TREE TOADS. I absolutely filled in TREE FROGS. There are tree toads?
- 32D. [Crowded amorous outing], GROUP DATE. “Amorous” sounds a little sexier than I envision group dates to be.
- 48D. [Apt name for a professional gambler], BETTE. Could’ve been BETTY, too.
Four stars from me.
Bettina Elias Siegel’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Hopeless House Hunt” — Eric’s review
Bettina Elias Siegel’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Hopeless House Hunt” — 6/14/25
A nice punny theme for this Father’s Day weekend that tells the story of a realtor showing a finicky client a variety of spaces that he deems unacceptable:
- 23A [The realty agent showed her client a luxury apartment, but he dismissed it as a ___ ] NOTHING FLAT
- 30A [They toured a penthouse with amazing views, but he said it was just a ___ ] HIGH DIVE
- 47A [She showed him a grand colonial, and he called it a ___ ] FEDERAL CRIME
- 65A [She found him a quaint thatched-roof home, but he declared it ___ ] COTTAGE CHEESE Fun facts: There are thousands of thatched roofs in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, and a thatched roof made by a skilled thatcher can last up to 50 years.
- 82A [She showed him a house with lovely Corinthian columns, and he called it a ___ ] GREEK TRAGEDY
- 101A [They toured a techy smart home, and he called it a ___ ] DATA DUMP
- 112A [She even showed him some Frank Lloyd Wright houses, but he declared them ___ ] PRAIRIE DOGS
Several of the theme answers amused me; they’re all nice re-imaginings of the base phrases. That was enough to sustain my interest all the way through, which sometimes wanes before I finish a 21X21 grid.
Other things:
- 6A [Country with the most vending machines per person] JAPAN Not knowing this factoid, I started with CHINA. Then I immediately realized that couldn’t be right and left the answer to fill in from the crosses. In hindsight, JAPAN makes the most sense (not that I have ever been there).
- 36A [Main character of Stephen King’s “Christine”] ARNIE I read that a long time ago. If you’re not familiar with the story, Christine is a 1958 Plymouth Fury that’s possessed by evil forces.
37A [Moderate conservatives, derisively] RINOS “Republicans in Name Only” I used to work for the Texas Legislature, and I remember that term being used there long before I heard it used in reference to national politics.- 43A [Country that grows more than 3,000 varieties of potatoes] PERU I’m going out on limb here, but I expect that makes PERU the country with the most potato varieties per person.
- 51A [Benjamin Moore paint color akin to China Blue] BIRD’S EGG
- 63A [Chocolate-filled Kellogg’s cereal] KRAVE That’s new to me, though it’s been around in the United Kingdom since 2010 and the United States since 2012.
- 117A [Any episode of “Gilligan’s Island,” now] RERUN I really wanted that answer to be INANE, but that would make the “now” superfluous.
- 4D [Wood largely supplanted by maple for baseball bats] ASH I don’t follow baseball, but I knew that ASH is no longer used for bats, presumably because the emerald ash borer has devastated many ASH groves. Now I’m just waiting for a crossword puzzle that has the now-popular torpedo bats as an answer.
- 46D [Fingerprint feature] RIDGE I had WHORL first, having just seen it in another puzzle.
- 83D [Online provocateur] EDGELORD
Adrian Johnson’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up
Los Angeles Times 6/14/25 by Adrian Johnson
I liked the corners of this puzzle (in particular BRING IT ON, LAB TECHS, and OPEN SWIM) better than I liked the central stack of 11s, THAT’S TOO BAD, POOL HUSTLER, and DON’T LIE TO ME.
Notable clues:
- 18A [Timepiece useful in lunar gardening] is a MOONDIAL. New to me and interesting!
- 60A [Outdoor tables?] is a cute clue for MESAS.
- 7D [“The Backyard Bird Chronicles” writer/illustrator Tan] is AMY; I have enjoyed her as a novelist and am pretty impressed that she basically taught herself to draw during COVID lockdowns. I haven’t read The Backyard Bird Chronicles yet, but I feel like I should.
- 33D [Perkins who co-hosted “The Great British Baking Show”] is SUE. Sigh, I miss the days of Sue and Mel. “As Anne of Cleves said to Henry the Eighth, ‘you’re about two-thirds of the way through’!” remains my favorite thing ever said on a reality show. (Don’t @ me if I got the order of Anne and Henry wrong; it’s been a while since I watched that episode!)
- 55D [“Weetzie Bat” writer Francesca __ Block] is LIA. Raise your hand if you’re old enough to remember Sassy magazine, which is how I first heard about Weetzie Bat.
Doug Peterson & Brad Wilber’s Newsday crossword, “Saturday Stumper”—Amy’s recap
Newsday “Saturday Stumper” crossword solution, 6/14/25
Byline note: “Lars G. Doubleday” is an anagram of Bradley and Doug.
Markedly easier than the typical Stumper, no? Great flow throughout the grid so it’s harder to get completely stumped by a section.
First up, editorial error: 30a. [Shapes into impressive shapes] is a clue for SCULPTS, not SCULPT.
Fave fill: ON THE BACK BURNER, THORN IN ONE’S SIDE, FORTUNE MAGAZINE, UNDERSTATEMENTS, PANTSUITS (so ridiculous that women in Congress were not allowed to wear pants till the 1990s!), SCORPIO, DREAM DATE, and the pair of SEDITION and TREASON.
Three more things:
- 8d. [Myth-fitting riser as Orion sets], SCORPIO. I didn’t know that Orion was killed by a scorpion. The two are never seen in the sky at the same time.
- 16d BEAN is clued [___ soup], but 30d is SOUP BONE ([Stock market purchase], tricky). The soup spilleth over.
- 53a. [Stores like Tupperware], NESTS. Nice clue angle for a word that pops up a lot in crosswords.
Four stars from me.
Amy, I’m guessing that “beep“ in the Times, as an answer to “OK signals, of a sort“ is a reference to cars honking their horns in approval of some sign or phenomenon (as in “honk if you love [whatever]!”)
First thing that came to mind was the “beep” from the card reader when my credit card is accepted at a store. Seems like there might be lots of things that beep when your PIN or password or badge is accepted. Not a fan of that particular clue/answer.
First thing I thought of was, “OK, your leftovers are warmed.”
I thought of the signal that it’s OK to begin recording: “Leave your message after the beep.” That was one of several devious, but fair, clues.
NYT: This was a struggle for me – had to leave it overnight and finish this morning with fresh eyes. Could not see READ PALMS because I had HAH instead of PAH (PAH sucks, IMHO).
Struggled with the NE. Did not know TENREC – though I think maybe I’ve seen it in a puzzle before. Had SMUCKER instead of CROCKER. Was parsing the clue for 11-D incorrectly, thinking that I was looking for two last names. BEEPS still seems like a stretch to me (see above) – had BUMPS (as in fist-bumps) for a while.
I like a chewy Saturday, but this is not a favorite.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
NE defeated me, too. Had to look up first name of someone I’ve never heard of to finish it. Couldn’t convince myself that SMUCKER was wrong. TENREC is the worst thing I’ve maybe ever seen in a crossword. The rest of the puzzle was great, though.
You’re saying this li’l guy is the worst thing you’ve ever seen in a crossword?
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
That’s – disturbing.
A much cuter TENREC:
https://www.lvzoo.org/animals/lesser-madagascar-hedgehog-tenrec
I am on Team Tenrec. Am also a Desman Disciple.
Puzzle: USA Today; Rating: 5 stars
clever theme that made me laugh when i figured it out!
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2.5 stars
I don’t understand 41 across, “words from a prof, maybe”. I got the answer but not at all sure what it means? Anyone? Thanks!
A recommendation…
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
Letter of recommendation.
3.5 stars. I hated “pah”, but otherwise thought this was a fair puzzle. Having a background in biology helped.
(My first post, after a long time lurking!)
I took it to refer to a letter of RECommendation. (Another entry I was not enthralled with.)
NYT – GOTCHA DAY isn’t just for adopted pets. Good friends of mine adopted a child from somewhere in Eastern Europe several years ago and celebrate Gotcha Day instead of his birthday.
Not uncommon in adoptive families. Also not uncommon for adoptees to find it troubling.
My kid was adopted at birth and has friends who tolerated “Gotcha Day” because they were afraid to tell their parents how they really felt. I was relieved to see it clued in reference to animals (although I really don’t like the language around “adopting” pets and have not succeeded in finding a substitute).
GOTCHA DAY seems reasonable for pets, since we often might not know their birth dates – so the day they join the family is the most reasonable thing to celebrate. I can see how the term might be off-putting for an adopted child.
I’ve never been bothered by the idea of “adopting” a pet, but find the idea of “pet ownership” amusing. My wife and I adopted a couple of retired racing greyhounds (they’re wonderful housemates, BTW), and it was pretty clear to me who owned whom.
Agreed on ‘ownership’, which feels too materialistic.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 1 star
NYT was also a struggle for me. Does anyone else try to guess the generation of the constructor as they fill? In this case, I was right.
Tough NYT. I had READAGAIN at 1A and ONCEDAILY at 14A, but they clearly weren’t going to work. Never heard of GOTCHADAY (and I have adopted many cats over the years). Couldn’t come up with ANNE and MEARA until I’d finished the NW section, but her first name finally allowed me to get into the NE. I had CANETOAD before TREETOAD — another creature I’ve never heard of — although I did eventually recall TENREC. I thought CROCKER was going to be the name of a supermarket chain.
Almost a DNF but I got there after a second wind.
Puzzle: Newsday; Rating: 3 stars
Nsd: HEET is hopelessly desperate IMO (not sure if this is well-known anywhere—first time seeing it in any crossword.) Off the top of my head EDAMS/EINS/DEET gets rid of it, but EDAMS plural isn’t great either.
[Shapes into impressive shapes] should be SCULPTS instead of SCULPT, no?
Virtually nobody celebrates TET here in Singapore (I had EID.) It’s called Chinese New Year. This reeks of “Asian holiday = put random Asian country in the clue.” Really lazy cluing.
Rest was typical, solid Stumper. Chuffed to get WHAT FUN from just the T, and there were a couple of fun misdirects as usual: [Band with Japanese CDs] had me for a long, long time even with ?BI in place. Now that’s a beautiful clue!
I didn’t know that about Singapore and appreciate your perspective.
Puzzle: Newsday; Rating: 4 stars
In the Stumper: can someone gloss “Book bought by Barnes & Noble”? Why DOTCOM? What am I missing?
They bought the domain book.com, which indeed redirects to their website.
Ah, thank you.
Thanks from me, too! I wondered about that one.
Stumper: Pannonica nailed it again, just I would disagree with her level of hardness — I thought it pretty challenging. She mentioned the annoying 30A discrepancy and Dave W explained 1D, so that just leaves my puzzlement with 4D and 6D. I’m not sure how “three” is a “small diamond,” nor heard of a band called”Obi,” although bands call themselves almost anything, so I’m sure some band did.
Obi bands or obi strips are common side bars on Japanese CDs meant to convey additional info. They also appear on books in Asian markets.
Ah! A type of obi I have not heard of!
In the credit where it’s due department: Amy reviewed the Stumper this week.
I haven’t read her review, but I’m sure she nailed it.
I just noticed that Amy did it when I came back just now. Yes, she nailed it as well as pannonica usually does! (Which is probably why I did not notice the change.)
I had the opportunity to sub for pannonica on the Stumper, but passed it up on the grounds that I don’t want to review a puzzle that’s likely to take me half the day to finish.
pannonica should be back next week.
And she was! The Stumper can definitely be challenging at times, that’s for sure!
Regarding 4D, I took “diamond” here to refer to the suit in a deck of playing cards so ‘three” is a small (i.e., low) diamond.
I think that the diamond clue may be referring to playing cards, where three would be a “small diamond.”
Oooooooh! I should have thought of that! I was stuck thinking of baseball and gems. Thanks!
Stumper: “Markedly easier than the typical Stumper, no?” Um, no, not at all! Guessed at about a dozen clues to start out and only a few turned out to be correct. But it all came together once I revealed about half the answers.
Puzzle: Newsday; Rating: 3.5 stars
@Twangster – hah, I liked that one and related to it. I agree with Amy that it was a tad easier than most Stumpers, but had a struggle in the SE because I was sure Tito’s name was Fuentes.
One benefit of having a percussionist husband is knowing (and having seen play) Tito Puente. However, we had not seen the movie, so guessed another drummer first.
Yep! My one quibble with Amy’s review. It was NOT easy for us (my husband and I usually collaborate).
Stumper: Where is the cryptic clue?
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
A Saturday puzzle worthy of its slot, I thought; an occurrence that seems to be a rarity of late. I absolutely enjoyed the struggle with this one. There were some truly devious but completely fair clues, and I thought the unknowns were fairly crossed.
PAH, ELIA, HAWS and TENREC felt like throwbacks to an earlier era of the NYTXW. The adorable TENREC was last sighted in 1993, apparently, near the end of Eugene Maleska’s tenure as editor.
I hadn’t heard of GOTCHA DAY before today, and I have to say I find it a bit disturbing in the way it asserts a sense of absolute ownership, rather than custodial responsibility.
My only real hold up in the Stumper was SOUP BasE. I couldn’t think of any newsstand offerings that started wit FaRT.
Very easy today, didn’t spin my wheels hardly at all.
Yes, I went down that rabbit hole, too!
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2.5 stars
I loved 1 across READPALMS (both the answer and clue), but unfortunately it mostly went downhill from there for me. A few good longs (EASYPEASY, SNAKEYES, GROUPDATE) but also a lot I didn’t like or understand (GALUMPHED, REC, HAWS, TENREC, ERST, PAH, ELIA). Also not sure what I think about the clue on CROCKER … but it’s Saturday, whatevs. Overall, not bad but not as good as I’d expect for a Saturday in the NYT.
NYT: Lots of fun wordplay, lots of difficulty, lots of inscrutability (PAH!, for instance). One clue-and-answer makes me livid: 26a, “Film lover’s haven, in brief,” with the answer being TMC. The constructor and editors must not like movies at all! The film haven is TCM, Turner Classic Movies. If TMC (“The Movie Channel,” unfortunately for crosswords) was ever any kind of movie haven, it must have been about 20 years ago. It is just an average channel, not a haven. I Googled “TMC schedule” just now, and the first few Google results were for TCM. So this is just an error. Just looked up Rex Parker. He said it better! Thanks, Rex!
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
Surprised at the low ratings for NYT puzzle. I really liked it and it seemed like an appropriate level of difficulty for a Saturday.