LAT tk (Gareth) 
[1.67 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
NYT DNF (Eric) 
[3.53 avg; 33 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Darby) 
[2.25 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Universal (Sunday) 10:46 (Jim) [3.38 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (Norah) [1.63 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
WaPo 5:39 (Matt G) [3.50 avg; 8 ratings] rate it
Zhou Zhang and Kevin Curry’s New York Times Crossword “Escape Room” — Eric’s Review
Zhou Zhang and Kevin Curry’s New York Times Crossword “Escape Room” — 7/6/25
[Note: After writing this review, I got a few hints to the answer for 69D, and even an outright spoiler. Updated commentary is in red type.]
Even someone as oblivious to grid design as me could hardly fail to notice the central set of four squares which are conventionally unchecked, and which, with a little extra white at the top, are shaped like an old-fashioned keyhole. (If you see something else there, that’s on you.)
Those four squares are also effectively unclued (69D [Insert key here]), but other clues throughout the grid give us hints:
- 31A [Is completely oblivious … or a hint to finding the fourth key letter in this puzzle] DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE That would be me. This points us to 76A TEE, which has a dash for a clue.
- 37A [“The Little Mermaid” hit … or a phonetic hint to finding the third key letter in this puzzle] UNDER THE SEA The “phonetic hint” suggested the “third key letter” is C. But that ignores the UNDER part of the song title. There’s only one C in the grid, and directly under it in square 41 is the I of IGNOBLE. Very nice!
- 109A [Kids’ ball game played on a court… or a hint to finding the second key letter in this puzzle] FOUR SQUARE I see that this game has been around since the 1950s, but it doesn’t sound at all familiar to me. The four squares might be numbered, or they might be labeled A, B, C and D. Since a crossword is theoretically about words, I assumed the “second key letter” is one of those four. A seemed the most likely letter to precede C. This literally tells us to go to square 4, which has the letter X. (Thanks to Fiend commenter Barnyard for pointing this out.)
- 39D [Final stop … or a hint to finding the first key letter in this puzzle] END OF THE ROAD I tried END OF THE LINE and END OF THE RIDE before 87A [Philosopher’s “way”] TAO made the O necessary. This hint made me consider Z as that “first key letter,” but I couldn’t find a likely word starting with Z. This might be the trickiest hint. The END OF THE ROAD is the 117D, the final Down answer, which is ERS. Thus, the “first key letter” is E.
- 42D [Person everyone’s talking about … or what you’ll be after unlocking the lock and completing this puzzle?] BREAK-OUT STAR Since this clue wasn’t italicized, and doesn’t include the word “hint,” I assumed it wasn’t a hint.
Except for 37A, none of the hints made any sense to me. And the trick illustrates just how much I solve by relying on crosses and letter patterns. I checked at xwordinfo.com for four letter words fitting the pattern _AC_ and didn’t find anything that sounded like a possible answer.
I considered that I might be misinterpreting the hints and that the answer for 69D might simply be HOLE or LOCK. It wasn’t.
At this point, I gave up on trying to figure out 69D. Congratulations if you interpreted the clues and got the “key.”
The answer, of course, is EXIT, which makes perfect sense in the context of an escape room.
Aside from 69D, there wasn’t anything troublesome in the grid. Other stuff:
- 119A [One taking the words right out of your mouth?] LIP READER I can’t decide whether I like this clue or hate it.
- 3D [“Midnight’s Children” author, 1981] Salman RUSHDIE The title was vaguely familiar, and if I’d thought more about the date, I might not have needed so many crosses for the author’s name.
- 51D [Breaking maneuver] HANDSTAND I misread the clue as “Braking maneuver” and it wasn’t until I had the answer that I saw the break-dancing aspect.
- 99D [Negative reputation, informally] BAD RAP This clue seems off to me. I put BAD REP, even though that violates the “rule” that the answer shouldn’t be in the clue. To me, a BAD RAP is a criminal charge that’s unsupported by evidence.
It occurred to me as I was eating dinner that this is essentially a meta puzzle. Maybe if I had thought of it that way, I’d have been less frustrated while solving it. I’m at best a mediocre meta solver, and don’t usually get upset with myself when I can’t get the meta answer.
It might have helped if the hints (both clues and answers) had been highlighted. I had trouble finding them in the clue list when I was down to just 69D.
It doesn’t bother me much that they’re in reverse order in relation to EXIT; that almost seems like an extra twist, though I don’t know if it was intentional.
For me, solving a crossword puzzle is very much about where my mind and psyche are while I’m solving. I can admire the clever construction of a puzzle like this, but the 20 minutes I spent trying to solve the puzzle were not fun.
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post Crossword “Borderlines” — Matt’s Review
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post Crossword “Borderlines” solution, 7/6/2025
Before I get into it, I believe Evan has some words about the Post’s new solving interface at his weekly column today. I prepare and post this review before that goes up, but once it is indeed up, it will be here.
Kind of fun-looking grid this week, with odd amounts of space around the edges and few obvious theme slots: there are more long downs than long acrosses, and only two entries are longer than nine letters in the whole puzzle.
Fortunately, our four-part revealers are clear from their clues. Mostly in the middle of the grid:
- 32a [Kitchen surface, and a hint to the words in the first row] COUNTER TOP
- 60a [Certain theater space, and a hint to the words in the first column] STAGE LEFT
- 77a [Absolutely, and a hint to the words in the last column] DOWNRIGHT
- 108a [Lowest point, and a hint to the words in the last row] ROCK BOTTOM
The entries in the first row are DEFY, INVERSE, and ABACUS, all synonyms of different meanings of “counter,” In the first column, PLATFORM, ENACT, and STEP, for “stage.”
On the right edge of the grid, GAME, DRINK, and SADDENED, synonyms of “down,” and on the bottom, synonyms of “rock” in TEETER, DIAMOND, and STUN.
I’m sure structurally something like this has been done before – we’ve got a themeset of four, each serving as a revealer for a (simple) theme set of three – but I haven’t seen something like it in a while. Add on the grid arrangement such that theme entries are all around the edge, and it’s certainly something different.
Theme aside, those edge structures mean plenty of white space around the edges of the grids, and plenty of juicy long entries. We don’t see that as often in Evan’s grids given how often he’s fitting eight or more theme entries in the acrosses. The harder I look at the grid, the more I see less-than-ideal entries that make it work, but mid-solve I was very much enjoying every long down. Let’s point to MONOLITH, FIREDOGS, ITS FOR YOU as particular highlights.
Other highlights: MYST is a little before my time, such that I didn’t recognize “Broderbund,” but I’m surprised we don’t see it in grids more often // Cute play on “Oh, it’s you” with [Oh, it’s hue] for COLOR // I don’t think I’ve ever seen the word SNOOD outside of puzzles, but I’ve certainly seen it plenty clued as here by [Hairnet] // Interesting quotes in [“Poison” shrub] for SUMAC. As I understand it, ‘poison sumac’ is very much ‘poisonous’ but questionably ‘sumac’
Jim Heane’s Universal Sunday crossword, “Undergrowth”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases in the Across direction that hide a fruit. Said fruit is turned in the Down direction before the entry finishes horizontally. The revealer is LOW HANGING FRUIT (116a, [Simple things to pick, or a hint to understanding the starred clues’ answers]).
Universal Sunday crossword solution · “Undergrowth” · Jim Heane · 7.6.25
- 22a [*Stops worrying] SET ONE’S MIN(D AT E)ASE with 24d [Pitted food] DATE.
- 38a [*Blessing associated with the Vulcan salute] LIVE (LONG AN)D PROSPER with 39d [Food whose name means “dragon’s eye”] LONGAN.
- 54a [*Their trade secrets are getting out?] ESCA(PE AR)TISTS with 55d [Bartlett food] PEAR.
- 80a [*Lady Gaga’s fans] LITT(LE MON)STERS with 84d [Sour food] LEMON.
- 94a [*Greasy sandwiches named after a city] PHIL(LY CHEE)SE STEAKS with 96d [Food aka the alligator strawberry] LYCHEE.
LONGAN fruit
I’ve seen LOW HANGING FRUIT used as a theme revealer multiple times over the years, but I don’t think I’ve seen this take on it. Pretty nice! I especially like that LYCHEE find. Very cool. I don’t know the LONGAN fruit, but as a Star Trek fan, the Vulcan quote is a cool place to find it. I’ll look for it the next time I’m at one of my local Asian supermarkets.
I’m loving the long fill in this grid as well. Lots to like, starting with “NOT A CHANCE!,” “MR. SANDMAN,” SELL-A-THON, “I MEAN SURE,” TEASES OUT, and TEA BISCUIT. I didn’t know a SUSHI PARTY was a thing, but it sounds like a good time (as longs as there’s plenty of wasabi). And I loved the Spirited Away reference with SOOT SPRITE (although in my haste I tried to make it a SHINE SPRITE which is a Super Mario reference).
A SOOT SPRITE from “Spirited Away”
Did not know liquor SOJU, nor the cocktail in the clue (Poktanju), so I needed every crossing letter. MOI, DJS, and LOUT aren’t necessarily the easiest crossers either. Wikipedia tells me SOJU is a Korean liquor similar in taste to vodka.
Clues of note:
- 1a. [Unsettled emotion in “OK Computer”]. ANGST. The highly acclaimed Radiohead album, in case you didn’t know.
- 13a. [___ Rica]. COSTA. Hey, guess what! We’re going there on vacation next week. Want me to pick anything up for you?
- 105a. [Springtime destination?]. SPA. Referring I guess to spring water?
- 108a. [___’s (potato chip brand)]. CLANCY. I don’t think I’ve seen these brand in any store I’ve been to on the west coast. Is it more regional?
- 41d. [“___’s Puffs, ___’s Puffs / Eat ’em up, eat ’em up, eat ’em up, eat ’em up”]. REESE. I didn’t know a clue could be annoying, but here we are.
Good puzzle. 3.5 stars.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
I only got two of the key letters but it led me to the solution First, the letter in puzzle box #4 is X so that works for Box 2. Second, there is only one letter “C” in the puzzle and the letter under it is “I”. That led me to EXIT, the right answer. I have ideas about the other two letters after the fact but I don’t like them so I will leave their explanation to others. Cute puzzle. Cute idea. Pretty easy solve.
Also, the square labeled ‘4’ has an ‘X’ and the end of THE is ‘E’, so that’s all four letters. I was hoping for some animation at the end, but no such luck.
E is end of the road (RODEODRIVE)
X is in “square 4.”
I is in the square below the only C in the grid.
T is TEE, 76-Across which has no clue.
At least those are my guesses.
Thanks! I think you are right, that is what I parsed as well.
RODEO DRIVE hadn’t occurred to me as the END OF THE ROAD. As I said in my update to my review, I got the E from 117D ERS.
Your way of getting it makes as much sense as mine.
Not sure I see your way, but what do I know?
What do you know? Probably more than me. :-)
I don’t know how to expand on what I said in my update about why I think ERS is the source of the E. But like any meta answer, does it really matter how you got there if you get the right answer?
For what it’s worth, Martin, Caitlin Lovinger over at Wordplay wrote that the E comes from RODEO DRIVE.
The letter E is literally the END OF THE ROAD (the ROAD is RODEO DRIVE, the last letter of which is E). 117D / ERS equating to the END OF THE ROAD doesn’t make sense?
It made sense to me yesterday evening, but I’m now convinced END OF THE ROAD points to RODEO DRIVE.
Exit is right. I think the E comes from the “end of the”… ?
Still thinking about where the T comes from out of “doesnt have a clue.”
Martin had the answer for where the T came from, good one.
Martin’s got the right answer on the T. (At least, I thought the same thing.)
To be a little clearer, RODEO DRIVE is the only road in the fill and E is the last letter of the entry.
NYT – I don’t understand the puzzle. I got the key and it says I finished, but then nothing happens. What’s unlocked? What are those gray squares above the key? Is this a bug in the app?
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
Equally as confused. I was so into it and totally excited to see what the gray square was all about. Womp womp.
Such a cool idea though.
I think the gray squares are just there to make the central grid shape look like a lock. I figured they made them gray because if that lighter gray square had been white, more people might have assumed you’re supposed to enter a letter there too, but gray makes it easier to ignore them. (I solved it on paper, for what it’s worth.)
I think (though not sure) that it’s supposed to be the door you EXIT from.
Really cute puzzle! Loved having a meta (albeit a simple one) too!
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2 stars
This theme for a Sunday was underwhelming. Lots of work to suss out the word EXIT.
No animation, no aha moment. BFD.
E is the last letter or RODEO DRIVE (END OF THE ROAD)
X is in square 4
I is the letter contained below the single C in the puzzle (see 12D, MEDICI)
T is the unclued entry, 76A (TEE)
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
I found the key to be simple but maybe that’s because I love escape rooms! The “T” is because the only answer that “doesn’t have a clue” is 76 across, TEE.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
fun nyt! cute gimmick. gonna be a polarizing puzzle i bet.
Jeez, let’s look at the big picture. The posts of confusion above indicate the fatal flaw of this puzzle that will leave most solvers with a DNF.
For me it played like a way oversized blah Tuesday with too easy clues (I start my solving with Wednesdays cause Mondays and Tuesdays are boring to me.) I solved everything but the keyhole in what I imagine would be Tuesday time and figured there must be an amazing payoff for this puzzle to be published. But I had little interest in jumping through the hoops to get the stupid word but looked at the 4 clues, worked hard to get two of them ( – – IT) and had more than enough.
If it turns out to be true that most solvers will DNF without cheating, wouldn’t that mean the puzzle was an abject failure?
For me it was the most unsatisfying Sunday puzzle experience ever, tho I salute Zhou and Kevin for their hard and dedicated work that made a handful of people get their freedom while I’m still stuck in the goddamn boring room.
Now to watch ep. 10 of The Bear and see if Carmy finds his exit key.
“Like a way oversized blah Tuesday.” That’s how I often feel about the Saturday WSJ. Here, as it happens, I found a lot that was hard, mostly because there was more than one possible fill.
My thought process in searching for an escape may not say much about the puzzle, but here goes. I didn’t immediately translate “under the sea/C” and couldn’t think of checking to see that there’s only one C. (Impressive.) Wondered why something was clued by a hyphen. Was I supposed to pun on “dash,” maybe with a word meaning ace? Oops, I was in variety cryptic mode.
Had not heard of FOUR SQUARE, which slowed me even further in translating that as “square 4.” Had “trend” rather than VOGUE, which was a shame as then I couldn’t come up a philosopher that fit. Been a long time since an age for board games and never did think of what a recommendation could be. So there I was. But I do feel stupid, which rarely happens when I routinely fail on WSJ contest puzzles. I wouldn’t dare rate it.
Have you tried solving Monday and Tuesday “downs only”? It makes it a fun challenge.
NYT: Put me in the “liked it” camp. I gave up on trying to figure out the key while I was solving the rest of the puzzle and decided I’d just come back to it after everything else was filled in.
Had an inkling of the trick when I took a second look at FOUR SQUARE, then I remembered that TEE didn’t have a clue, and it was fairly straightforward from there.
Not a typical crossword, in that we have to do more than just fill in answers to the clues to finish – there’s another step. I thought it was fun and a better-than-average Sunday.
I just can’t figure out the gray squares. Why are there two different shades of gray? And what is that shape? Are they supposed to represent a doorknob or something?
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2.5 stars
No idea either. If it’s a doorknob, very disappointing. Wondering if the constructors needed to break up the long answers that would have resulted by not having those black and gray squares. Let’s call it artistic license to achieve the break.
IMO creative idea, but not my cup of tea. Solved everything other than EXIT in a fast time for a Sunday.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 1.5 stars
BTW, the payoff WAS brilliant, though from a whole different puzzle genre not my interest. My final guess with the – – IT was DOIT, as in “DO IT! Stick the key in the hole and open the door!”
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
The gray squares form the hasp of the padlock the solver is attempting to unlock. I too thought there might be some animated final payoff like the key clue rotating to open the the hasp, but alas.
I still had fun and it was nice to not have to dedicate my usual Sunday solve time for a change. I don’t mind an easier solve once in a while.
Naturally I failed yet again, as with WSJ contest puzzles. I just can’t seem to think like meta puzzles, and here my favorite puzzles are variety cryptics. I found the whole thing difficult, maybe because of the unusual diagram and confusion over the themers. Not my week.
WaPo:
Since Matthew brought it up, I can’t really go into detail but what ended up being published on my blog isn’t really new information. So I’ll just reiterate what was published here: I encourage readers to be patient with the Post as they make improvements to the page, and if you have changes you’d like to see implemented, please email [email protected] about it.
Just a warning to all, the new format prints out on 3 pages, unusable for old timers like me, who enjoy pen and paper solving. WaPo should restore providing in pdf as it has for years. Will send this to WaPo.
Just a reminder that the pdf is posted here, on the Today’s Puzzles page.
Thanks. unaware.
NYT: “If you see something else”
I mean, the keyhole is 69(D).
Also, I didn’t notice until you mentioned it but I can’t unsee.
Sorry. But only a little.
NYT: I too filled the puzzle last night but did not suss out what was in the keyhole. I was too tired to work it out, and decided someone (s) smarter than me will explain it, which of course is exactly what happened.
Can’t decide on rating. On the one hand, if a puzzle frustrates many solvers, should it be highly rated? On the other hand, points for creativity and for exposing someone like me (who doesn’t do meta puzzles) to the genre. Plus Escape rooms are intended to challenge you and frustrate in some ways– so, meta.
And this is by far better than the Sundays with the wacky wordplays that I usually find to be unfunny and rather annoying.
It’s interesting how this meta causes such consternation, while — as far as I know — the Friday Wall Street Journal meta seems to be much appreciated. Eric’s right that the solution is essentially a meta, or perhaps four metas.
I think the difference is that this meta is in-your-face. Unless you solve it, the puzzle is not finished. On the other hand, I imagine many (most?) WSJ solvers complete the Friday puzzle as a themeless and don’t attempt the “contest” solution. Those who are addicted to the metas don’t stop with the finished grid, but one can and can feel some accomplishment.
I really enjoyed finding the four hidden clues, but I’m a meta addict.
Yeah. I am not a fan of metas so I skip the Friday WSJ and the FB contests. People who choose to solve metas know what they’re getting into. I am willing to bet the majority of NYT Sunday solvers are not in that camp.
Amen to that. I guessed that FOURSQUARE (which I know as a style of house, not as a game) indicated the X, but I wanted ENDOFTHEROAD to be D (too literal!), but that made the key word begin DX, which didn’t seem promising. So I gave up at that point.
“People who choose to solve metas know what they’re getting into.”
That’s a big part of the dissatisfaction. I enjoy metas, though I frequently don’t get the meta answer. I wasn’t expecting a meta when I started solving this puzzle.
I think another factor is that the NYT, with its gold stars and streak tracking, has conditioned online solvers to expect to hear the San Jose Strut on completing the puzzle. But with this incorporated meta, you don’t get those things until you fill in 69D correctly.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 5 stars
NYT: I loved this puzzle from start to finish. I had no trouble finding the key letters, although I did think that the clue to 76A, which was a dash, was the Morse code letter T, so I wrote in TEE. So for me, it did have a clue, but it was easy to figure out that T was what the constructors meant.
I agree with those who thought the E came from the last letter of RODEO DRIVE, which made sense to me as the end of the road.
I think it helped to solve on paper, also.
And kudos! I loved the fill as much as the theme. I also love grid art, so the squares above the keyhole did not bother me. This puzzle really made my Sunday morning. Thanks for the fun!
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
I got EXIT rather quickly as I reasoned that the dash for 76-A referred to “DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE” and it being TEE made it a T for the last letter. After going through the clues and grid after completing, I saw that there was only one C. I didn’t get the E and I until reading the write-up with the spoilers. That said, this was a really fun solve, even without the gimmick. 4 stars
Puzzle: WaPo; Rating: 4 stars
Any other older solvers see the M*A*S*H/Klinger reference?
(94A)Toledo/Lebanese (89D)
Made me smile! 😊
Really fun WaPo!
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3 stars
I got the “I” in the most convoluted way. I thought, the gray squares form a sideways C, and underneath them it kind of looks like an eye, so… I?
I agree it would have been helpful to highlight the theme clues. I spent 2-3 minutes just trying to find them at the end. Otherwise, no strong feelings about this one. It was fine.
Oops! Wrong puzzle folks 🤦🙈☺️
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 5 stars
My favorite Sunday puzzle of the year! Fun gimmick with little or no gunk. Love it.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
Loved this one, but I took 0.5 off due to the BAD REP/RAP error that Eric notes. That one bugged me. I had no trouble finding the “C” and other clues. Super fun.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
The meta is good although it’s an easy meta. I generally like this puzzle.
What I don’t like is the huge swathe of black squares in the middle. For any crossword, you don’t want a lot of black squares and certainly not a large contiguous zone of it.
If it’s constructed like the usual practice of meta puzzles, then the center black squares are unnecessary.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2.5 stars
I don’t know if I’m doing this right. All I wanted to do was rate this puzzle, but I’m sent to this comment box. Sesh! What was wrong with the old way of rating?
NYT puzzle 2,5 rating.
It was simply no fun for me — too complicated. Since Erik had to resort to using red and black fonts to explain seems to make my point.
The solve wasn’t very challenging but I never did figure what the hell was going on.
What was wrong with the old way was that someone (some people?) were trolling the ratings – putting 1 star on every puzzle as soon as the post went live. So we took them down and people wanted them back, so Dave Sullivan came up with this as an alternative.
You can just rate without commenting, I think.
By putting a . in the comment box.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
Highly enjoyable solve. I agree with qualms on BAD RAP/REP, but other than that, wall-to-wall fresh clean fill, fun clues, and a neatly knitted together theme.
I semi-agree that it was not so easy to wade through all the clues to find the four “key” (ha!) clues, but I note that they did at least make those four clues italic (in the online version, or quoted in the pdf version).
As a meta aficionado, I liked the NYT, but I struggled with the FOUR SQUARE clue – somehow I was sure that it meant that there’s be a square of four of the same letter somewhere in the grid, and I searched the grid twice to try to find it with no luck.
NYT: I really liked the puzzle, but I can see why others did not. It’s not just a meta when many NYT readers don’t want to solve a meta necessarily, but it’s actually 4 different ways of getting to the meta answer, all of which were pretty tricky for people without any meta experience at all. So you’re kind of doing 4 tricky metas in one puzzle. I’ve gotten much better at metas from having done the Muller Monthly Music Meta for a few years now and Evan’s WaPo ones, but I think I would have found the metas very challenging if I hadn’t been tackling those for a while.
I hope the NYT does more puzzles like this, but maybe they have to warn people that the metas will be tough.
When I saw FOUR SQUARE, it took me to the square in the answer grid with the “4” in it, which was X. X is the Roman numeral for 10, so I squared that to get C (or 100). And then I couldn’t figure out what ECIT meant. What a crazy coincidence that the letter in the box labelled with a 4 was a Roman numeral, and that Roman numeral squared is another Roman numeral! I believe the only other option for that box that would have worked with Roman numerals is I, which would have been strange to have been asked to square.
It seems that it is another crazy coincidence that the answer that is supposed to be without a clue (because the clue is just a single dash) is TEE, when a single dash is the Morse code for T. Which makes it actually NOT an answer without a clue, but too much thinking along that line will make my head hurt.
We see evidence that bad rap and bad rep are used interchangeably, and our definition of rap reflects that.
Which is why Nero Wolfe once burned Webster’s Third.
More gripes — on the NYT site, my completed puzzle, with every square filled, does not show the puzzle completed. It marked one error, the letter E in EXIT the keyhole.
For those of you who wondered why the low ratings, I think I’ve done a pretty good job of saying why I didn’t like this puzzle.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2.5 stars
NYT 2.5
That seems to work. Now all I
need to do is remember how it’s done.
NYT: Had not heard of FOURSQUARE, but when I was growing up in Montreal, we called this game champ.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 5 stars
Delightful puzzle (I do like metas). Immediately saw that FOUR SQUARE = square 4 for the X. Finally remembered wondering why the clue for 76A, TEE was a dash, for the T. Scoured the grid for a SEA, but failed to look for a ROAD, d’uh. But with _X_T, what else could it be? No junk in the fill. Loved it!
Puzzle: WaPo; Rating: 4.5 stars
Evan just doesn’t know how to disappoint! I enjoyed the solve very much, and by looking at the finished product and theme “hint” clues I was even more overjoyed…his creativity is amazing. Almost as much as is his obvious care for his solvers. Thank you, Evan!
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
I am normally wretched (to put it mildly) on those WSJ metas, but for some bizarre reason the mystery word was a relatively easy inference. I hope stuff like this doesn’t become a regular occurrence, but as a rare departure from the norm it was a delightful Sunday solve.
Puzzle: Universal (Sunday); Rating: 4 stars
I enjoyed this creative puzzle and constructor Jim Heane should feel proud.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 1 star
Hats off to anybody who got the NYT meta puzzle. My wife and I were jointly frustrated and ultimately unsatisfied by this one. Such is often the case with Shorz’s amateur authors. It seems that talent for puzzle-making should include a modicum of consideration for those who labor in vain. Being able frustrate the vast majority of regular solvers should not be a “plus”.
NYT My belated two cents; I thought this was excellent and kudos to the constructors.
I saved 69D for last as a separate solve and enjoyed the bonus. I must confess, I was a radio operator in the Army but did not equate the dash to a “T”, the letters were there from the downs. I also should mention I liked the “E” reference which I had but had to come here to verify but then again the reviewer seemed a little perplexed, hence the rarity of crimson ink. 5 stars in my book.
Puzzle: WaPo; Rating: 4 stars
WaPo — we generally enjoy Evan’s puzzles but this one printed very awkwardly for those of us old-timers who prefer solving on paper vs on a screen. Eliminate all the Boomers from your fan club and where will you be?