Wednesday, June 25, 2025

AV Club 5:43 (Amy) [3.67 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
LAT 4:27 (Gareth) [3.67 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
NYT 5:57 (Amy) [3.58 avg; 12 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker 3:45 (Kyle) [3.67 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
Universal untimed (pannonica) [2.75 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
USA Today 8:29 (Emily) [3.00 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
WSJ 3:58 (Jim) [2.88 avg; 4 ratings] rate it

Zhouqin Burnikel’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Boomerang Effect”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar phrases that hide a synonym of “fire” (i.e. to dismiss someone from their job) spelled backwards. The revealer is BACKFIRE (59a, [Have exactly the wrong effect, and what 17-, 19-, 36- and 55-Across all have]).

Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Boomerang Effect” · Zhouqin Burnikel · Wed., 6.25.25

• 17a. [Blood vessel to the heart] VENA CAVA. Can.
• 19a. [Mocking words of sympathy] “TOO BAD FOR YOU.” Boot.
• 36a. [Alluring trait] SEX APPEAL. Axe.
• 55a. [Brown v. Board of Education, for one] LANDMARK CASE. Sack.

Works for me. Other than first trying “TOO BAD SO SAD” for the second one, everything went swimmingly.

I feel like one of the trademarks of a Burnikel grid is the presence of colloquialisms. In this case though, it seems only the one theme answer fits that category. Otherwise we get CRIB SETS and LATE CALL which are nice enough, but not quite as sparkly as I’ve become accustomed to seeing.

Clues of note:

• 32a. [Scoring result?]. MUSIC. Needed 80% of the crossings because my brain went to sports and then cutting with a knife.
• 58d. [Makeup of underwater forests]. KELP. This past weekend I learned that sea otters were hunted to extinction off the coast of Oregon in the early 1900s and since then the purple sea urchin population has grown wildly thereby causing the destruction of many KELP forests in the area. Efforts like the Elakha Alliance are hoping to reintroduce the sea otters back to the region.

3.5 stars.

Olivia Mitra Framke & Sally Hoelscher’s AV Club Classic crossword, “Spill the Beans”—Amy’s recap

American Values Club Classic crossword, 6/25/25 – “Spill the Beans”

Sometimes I appreciate a theme that trusts the solver to find the theme without circled squares, without a revealer. Here, the theme ties to the title, “Spill the Beans,” because the three long theme answers “spill” downward into the name of a bean before continuing on:

• 17a. [Ilhan Omar or Negin Farsad, e.g], MUSLIM AMERICAN. MUS-LIMA-MERICAN. Farsad is new to me but she’s been around in comedy. The LIMA bean is [Small, oval, often green, native to South America].S
• 35a. [Ornate post-Baroque building style], ROCOCO ARCHITECTURE. The embedded bean is 37d. [Large, oblong, often brown, native to the Amazon rainforest], COCOA. There’s now more cacao production in Africa and Asia than in South America.
• 55a. [“As a heads-up …”], JUST SO YOU KNOW. The spilled bean is 56d. [Small, round, often yellow, native to East Asia], SOY.

What a nutritious theme! Yes, chocolate is nutritious.

I liked the overall young/fresh vibe in the puzzle, clues especially.

Fave fill: DANGLED, RED-EYES, SAMOSA, “OM-NOM-NOM,” TIRAMISU, ROOT BEER.

Three more things:

• 16a. [One might be settled by a Venmo transaction], IOU. See? Fresh.
• 24a. [Place to go through the daily grind?], MILL. I hope the folks who work at mills all have their “daily grind” mugs to keep them focused on the task at hand.
• 46a. [It might get booped], SNOOT. As in a dog’s nose. *boop*

Fun puzzle. Four stars from me.

Ben Zimmer & Zach Sherwin’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 6/25/25 – no. 0625

Wednesday is the new Thursday, eh? The editors received too many rebus puzzles to be spaced out on the Thursday schedule, so Wednesdays are also home to rebuses. Here, ’tis the season! CENTRAL AC is the revealer, timely given the heat dome that’s been oppressing much of the U.S. There’s an {AC} rebus in middle (it’s CENTRAL AC, after all) of four pairs of entries: MAGNA CARTA/TRACTS, MAMA CASS/TERRA CHIPS, SNAP CRACKLE POP/ORACLE, and AREA CODE/SANTA CLAUS. Nicely conceived and executed, particularly with the Across and Down themers having AC right in the middle.

Zimmer and Zach made room for longer fill throughout, though there’s nary a Z in the grid. Fave fill: ALBATROSS, SAO PAULO.

Three more things:

• New to me: 6D. [Tool for removing a tree stump], UPROOTER. That’s a thing? Apparently that is a brand-name tool. Made in USA!
• Also didn’t know: 54A. [2008 romantic drama starring Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow], TWO LOVERS. Did OK at the box office for a film festival indie.
• 37D. [Tripled, then tripled again], NINEFOLD. This … is not a term I find myself in need of much.

5 stars for central AC (which I do not have), 4 stars for the puzzle.

Adam Simpson’s Universal crossword, “Raising the Temperature” — pannonica’s write-up

Universal • 6/25/25 • Wed • “Raising the Temperature” • Simpson • solution • 20250625

Unusual grid pattern for this one.

• 62a^R [System for keeping a house nice and cozy, or a theme hint] CENTRAL HEATING. The circled letters, at the interiors of the theme answers, progress in heat from top to bottom. Whose idea was it to run this during the summertime (unfortunately in the midst of an intense national heat wave)?!
• 16a. [He was president in 1925] CALVIN COOLIDGE.
• 26a. [Peace campaign] ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT. (9d [Social activist Muhammad] ALI)
• 47a. [One who listens a lot at work] PSYCHOTHERAPIST.

It seems practically unavoidable to contrive an answer containing C-O-O-L that’s measurably different from the word COOL itself, unlike what we see in the other two themers.

• 4d [Spear] JAVELIN. etymology: Middle English chafeveleyn, from Middle French javeline, alteration of javelot, of Celtic origin; akin to Old Irish gabul forked stick (m-w.com). Just for fun, here’s the etymology of the unrelated javelina: American Spanish jabalina, from Spanish, feminine of jabalí wild boar, from Arabic jabalī (m-w.com)
• 10d [When to go undercover?] BEDTIME. In this heat? Better crank up your air conditioner, I guess.
• 28d [Like Sriracha sauce] TANGY. I don’t believe it needs to be capitalized anymore.
• 34d [By a meal for] TREAT. 60d [“I’ll pay”] ON ME.
• 53d [Word after “dessert” or “hamburger”] MENU. Didn’t see that one coming.
• 64d [“… just wow!”] AAH. Clue not working for me here; doesn’t seem the same or substitutable for the answer. There’s a mismatch of intensity. But 14a [“Wow …”] OOH works. And I don’t feel 64d works if you consider it to be a continuation of 14a, either.
• 15a [An editor might bury it] LEDE. A bit of publishing lingo that’s found its way into common discourse.
• 39a [“__ is never finished, only abandoned” (Leonardo da Vinci)] ART. Poignant.
• 54a [Current location?] OCEAN. That’ll work.

Adam Aaronson’s New Yorker crossword – Kyle’s write-up

The New Yorker solution grid – Adam Aaronson – Wednesday 06/25/2025

We have a themed puzzle from Adam Aaronson in place of the regular Wednesday themeless. On opening the New Yorker’s solving applet, we’re given a short description of the theme (“Closing the book”) and we’re told the puzzle is also running in the print version of the New Yorker’s fiction issue. The theme is aptly literary:

• 20A [1977 erotica collection by Anais Nin] DELTA OF VENUS
• 32A [2003 coming-of-age novel by Chimananda Ngozi Adichie] PURPLE HIBISCUS
• 40A [2011 historical-fantasy novel by Erin Morgenstern] THE NIGHT CIRCUS
• 55A [2016 novel by Colleen Hoover…or a description of each of the titles at 20-, 32-, and 40-Across] IT ENDS WITH US

I clocked the theme only upon solving the revealer, despite the quasi-titular hint. For some reason, after the first two themers, my mind wanted to make a connection between DELTA and PURPLE.

As themes go, this is fairly light from a wordplay standpoint. Limiting the scope to literature gives the theme a bit more tightness, though I gather there are likely many book titles that end in -US. It’s nice that the thematic titles are drawn from a variety of genres as well. If you don’t know the book references, the theme entries are fairly crossed. That said, I’d guess that solvers will respond to the theme based on whether they’ve read the books or not.

The literary vibe carries through the rest of the puzzle with references to “Macbeth”, Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, Erica Jong, Jane EYRE, the six-word story “For SALE: baby shoes, never worn” (commonly misattributed to Hemingway), Burundian author Roland Rugero, “To Kill a Mockingbird”…there’s more, but I’m out of time.

Dana Edwards’s LA Times Crossword – Gareth’s theme summary

Dana Edwards’s puzzle today is creative and unique. The central revealing answer is UCANTTOUCHTHIS, and the four long across answers are things one is either not supposed to touch or shouldn’t touch due to unpleasant consequences. To wit:

1. [Plant that can cause an itchy rash], POISONIVY
2. [Piece at the Met or the Louvre], MUSEUMARTWORK
3. [Furry helper who often wears a vest], SERVICEANIMAL
4. [Power source for some trains], THIRDRAIL

Gareth

Dan Kammann & Zhouqin Burnikel’s USA Today Crossword, “Take a Trip” — Emily’s write-up

Where to?

USA Today, June 25, 2025, “Take a Trip” by Dan Kammann & Zhouqin Burnikel

Theme: each themer begins with a word that can prepend “trip” to create a type of trip

Themers:

• 20a. [Secondary source of income], SIDEBUSINESS
• 38a. [Outdoor school event with games], FIELDDAY
• 57a. [Grandparents, aunts, cousins, etc.], EXTENDEDFAMILY

A mix of themers in this set today with: SIDEBUSINESS, FIELDDAY, and EXTENDEDFAMILY. I needed a few crossings with each, though the cluing seemed like I should have insta-fills and maybe for you they were. With the theme, we get SIDE TRIP, FIELD TRIP (fun that it’s also school related!), and EXTENDED TRIP.

Favorite fill: CANDYCANES, LOOSETEA, and GLASSDOOR

Stumpers: TRACE (first thought of “little”, “a tad”, and “a bit”), ROLE (“cels” and “scene” came to mind), and FELINES (needed crossings as only “big cats”)

A fun puzzle that was a fairly quick solve. I flew through the top half and then the bottom half had a mix of quick fills and ones that needed crossings. Loved the fresh fill, especially the lengthy bonus ones. A fun theme too!

4.0 stars

~Emily