Monday, July 7, 2025

BEQ 10:56 (Eric) [3.33 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
LAT 1:43 (Stella) [2.83 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
NYT 3:37 (Sophia) [2.88 avg; 13 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker 5:04 (Amy) [3.17 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
Universal untimed (pannonica) [4.13 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (?) rate it
WSJ 3:34 (Jim) [3.75 avg; 2 ratings] rate it

Daniel Raymon’s New York Times Crossword — Sophia’s Write-Up

Theme: Each theme answer ends with a piece of dishware that could be in a still life

New York Times, 07 07 2025, By Daniel Raymon

• 17a [Player facing the leadoff batter] – STARTING PITCHER
• 27a [One might read “FASTCAR”] – VANITY PLATE
• 45a [Long-running student quiz show] – COLLEGE BOWL
• 58a [Not yet decided … or an “artful” description for the last words of 17-, 27- and 45-Across?] – STILL ON THE TABLE

I really like the theme answers chosen here, although something about the still life angle of the revealer doesn’t fully work for me. I’m not a big art person, so maybe the combination of PITCHER/PLATE/BOWL feels more natural to folks who are? But my immediate thought when seeing STILL ON THE TABLE in relation to the end of the theme answers was “oh, I guess somebody hasn’t done the dishes yet!”. So I guess I’m saying that I liked that there was a subtle layer to the theme, but without “artfully” highlighted in the clue, I never would have seen it.

I may not be a big art person, but I am a big baseball fan, so I loved starting the puzzle off with STARTING PITCHER. I just got back from a Mariners game before doing this write-up (go M’s!), and our starter George Kirby shut out the Pirates for the third straight game – love to see it. I also loved the clue on VANITY PLATE, it painted a strong picture with a relatively simple clue.

Lots of other fun entries today too – ON TIPTOE, TAG SALE, I’LL STOP, ICE WATER, I OBJECT, EAT LOCAL.  I also liked seeing lol in verb form as LOLED – I use it that way all the time. Some parts of this puzzle felt tricky for a Monday – there were a lot of names I personally didn’t know, like PACO de Lucia, PETULA Clark, GABE Kaplan, and either of the basketball MALONEs. I started with “smash” instead of BOFFO for [Highly successful, on Broadway], and I needed 3/4 crosses for VAIO. I still ended up with only a slightly above average time though, so I’d say everything was clued fairly.

Happy Monday all!

Caroline Hand’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Help!”—Jim’s review

Constructor’s name checks out. Theme answers are familiar phrases that feature a word that is also part of the hand. The revealer is GIVE ME A HAND (63a, [Request for help that might be satisfied with parts of the starred answers]).

Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Help!” · Caroline Hand · Mon., 7.7.25

• 18a. [*Dimwit] KNUCKLEHEAD.
• 24a. [*”Crispety, crunchety” candy bar] BUTTERFINGER.
• 40a. [*Contributing factor in one’s eventual downfall, figuratively] NAIL IN THE COFFIN.
• 52a. [*Edible inner cores of some tropical plant buds] HEARTS OF PALM.

Straightforward and clean, making for a nice Monday outing. Usually it’s less disconcerting when the thematic words all appear at either the beginning or end of each phrase. Here we have both, but as long as we have an even split between the two, I’m fine with it.

The long fill entries, SCENE TWO and INSET MAP, aren’t terribly exciting, but then they each cross three theme answers which is a tall order. I do like OFF DAY and “MY BAD” as well as ANKLES making its presence felt in a theme all about the hand.

Clue of note: 9d. [When Hamlet first appears]. SCENE TWO. Seems incomplete without identifying the act.

Solid grid. Three stars from me.

Personal Note: This is my last week blogging the WSJ. I’ve been covering it four days a week (sometimes five) for nearly ten years now, not long after they started the daily puzzle. I’ve wanted to cut back for some time, but could never bring myself to do it.

With that horribly insensitive puzzle from the other week (made even more horrible by the recent flooding event in Texas), I took that as a sign it was time for me to quit. I blogged last week and I’ll finish up this week, but we go on vacation this Friday and that seemed like the opportunity I needed to take my leave.

I will continue with the two Universal puzzles I blog each week and maybe I’ll pick up another one along the way, but I’m looking forward to not blogging six days a week.

Janice Luttrell’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Los Angeles Times 7/7/25 by Janice Luttrell

Unusually for LAT, there’s no revealer in this puzzle; it’s a little more old-school in that one has to look for the connecting factor without a hint. In this case, every theme answer starts with a way to say you’re giving someone a phone call:

• 18A [Trendy bits of jargon] is BUZZWORDS.
• 24A [Choice spots at a prizefight] is RINGSIDE SEATS.
• 38A [Carol lyric before “Oh! What fun it is to ride / In a one-horse open sleigh”] is JINGLE ALL THE WAY, which is also a so-bad-it’s-great Christmas movie in which Arnold Schwarzenegger punches a reindeer. In said movie, IMO the largest of the many plot holes is the extremely WASP-y name, Howard Langston, of Arnold’s character. C’mon, could they not at least have named him Herbert Müller or something else that would make that unmistakable accent a little more plausible?
• 48A [First line of “Moby-Dick”] is CALL ME ISHMAEL.
• 58A [Do a job half-heartedly] is PHONE IT IN.

On the plus side for this theme, there’s a lot of material; on the minus, IMO it’s a bit inconsistent, even though the theme words are all placed at the beginning of their phrases. You can “give someone” a BUZZ, a RING, a JINGLE, or a CALL, but if you give someone a PHONE, you are making them a present of a phone, not calling them. You can RING, CALL, or PHONE someone, but when you BUZZ someone you are reaching them with an intercom, and I wouldn’t say you can JINGLE someone.

I also wasn’t crazy about the amount of less-than-great short fill:  ALEE, ALIT, KOP, MRE, NOE, OLDE. So: Didn’t hate this puzzle, but it’s not my favorite.

Susan Gelfand’s Universal crossword, “Birds of a Feather” — pannonica’s write-up

Universal • 7/7/25 • Mon • “Birds of a Feather” • Gelfand • solution • 20250707

• 52a^R [“That has no chance of success,” or a fact about the start of each starred clue’s answer] IT’LL NEVER FLY. Not on their own, anyway.
• 20a. [*Tuxedos] PENGUIN SUITS.
• 28a. [*Actress who played Carla Tortelli on “Cheers”] RHEA PERLMAN.
• 46a. [*Green, bite-size fruits] KIWIBERRIES.

Rheas and kiwis are members of the polypheletic group called ratites (etymology: ultimately from Latin ratitus marked with the figure of a raft, from ratis raft (m-w.com). Ratites lack a keel on their sternum, where wing muscles would attach.), while penguins represent another group of flightless birds, though their swimming mechanism is much like flying, underwater.

If you’ll pardon the pun, this puzzle flew by. The clues and answers were almost universally easily gettable.

• 1d [Free TV spot] PSA. 51a [Paid promos] ADS.
• 10d [Hottest planet in our solar system] VENUS. I’ve heard it quipped that there’s no way humans can successfully terraform Mars, but in the meantime we’re doing a fairly good job of venusforming Earth.
• 47d [Sounded like a dog] BARKED. 58a [Made cow sounds] MOOED.
• 54d [Minnesota’s state bird] LOON. They fly, swim, and walk.
• 16a [Wooden duck] DECOY. Flightless, as it were.
• 32a [PBS supporter] NEA. Minimally nowadays, and they’re currently working to strip away even that.
• 44a [On edge] TENSE. 67a [Have a feeling] SENSE.
• 64a [Move stealthily] PROWL, not CRAWL. Crossed by 49d [Oodles] SLEWS, not SCADS.

Natan Last’s New Yorker crossword—Amy’s recap

New Yorker crossword solution, 7/7/25 – Natan Last

This one played easier than I was expecting, a bit closer to the Fri NYT level than the usual Mon TNY challenge.

There were some things I hadn’t known:

• 15a. [2020 John Maynard Keynes biography by Zachary D. Carter], THE PRICE OF PEACE. Just an N off from “The Prince of Peace.”
• 30a. [Dorm-room edifice of empties, in a portmanteau], BEERAMID. Never heard of it, but inferrable.
• 54a. [Title that Toni Morrison said she was “forced” to use for her last novel], GOD HELP THE CHILD. Those who’ve read it, is it great?
• 1d. [1967 Roger Corman film that takes viewers through an LSD experience], THE TRIP. Like 30a, new to me but inferrable.
• 9d. [“___ from 5 to 7” (Agnès Varda film)], CLEO. I took a college class on French New Wave film, but I think the professors assigned only films directed by men. The Wiki plot summary tells me I’d have liked this movie.

Fave fill: CHIPWICH, HOT PINK, N.K. JEMISIN, GOES DARK, CHOREO(graphy).

Four stars from me.

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1798 — Eric’s Review

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1798 — 7/7/25

This was generally the kind of themeless puzzle I most enjoy: A scattering of gimmes to get things rolling and a bunch of answers that took a cross or two to sort out:

Gimmes:

• 24A [Question from someone self-conscious in a certain outfit] DO I LOOK FAT? (I’ve actually heard this more often as “Does this outfit make me look fat?,” but with “outfit” in the clue, I knew that wouldn’t fly.)
• 32A [Neu opposite] ALT German for “new” and “old.” Thanks, Konrad Adenauer, for teaching me ALTE. (He was the first chancellor of West Germany, 1949–1963, and his nickname was “Der Alte” because he was over 70 when he first held that office.)
• 37A [Some two-step notifications] TEXTS Lately, I’ve had trouble with those texts not appearing quickly. It’s almost enough to make me turn off the two-factor identification, though I know all the computer security experts recommend it. Anyone else having this trouble?
• 54A [Latin lover’s line] TE AMO If you love somebody, let them know. Over and over.
• 6D [Degs. for those going into the oil industry?] MFAS OK, this was three-fourths of a gimme. I left the first letter blank until I saw 6A MEAT. Cute clue that didn’t fool me for a second.
• 8D [Power source for the warp drive on “Star Trek’s” Enterprise] ANTI-MATTER In less than two weeks, the third season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premieres. We’ve really enjoyed Anson Mount as Captain Pike and Ethan Peck as Spock. If you’ve not tried any of the recent Star Trek series, this might be a good place to start.
• 25D [Skateboarding trick with a man’s name] OLLIE That’s the only skateboarding trick I can name, but fortunately, it seems to be the only one that shows up in crosswords.
• 49D [“Old Deuteronomy” musical] CATS I’ve never seen it, but I knew that name.

Other stuff:

• 20A [Bad-mouths] SHIT-TALKS I’m more familiar with this as “talking shit about.” But it works.
• 35A [Wing it?] FLAP I tried FLEE first.
• 46A [___ Winston (“Sons of Anarchy” character)] OPIE That series is only vaguely familiar, but it’s nice to give OPIE Taylor from The Andy Griffith Show a rest now and then.
• 10D [Dialect in Lombardy] MILANESE My sense of Italian geography is not great, but I got this off ____NESE.
• 22D [Anthropology or economics, e.g.] SOFT SCIENCE As contrasted with something like physics or chemistry.
• 27D [Some pups] FOXES At breakfast, I glanced at my husband’s iPad and he was watching (with the sound off) a scene from The Little Foxes, with Bette Davis and Herbert Marshall. Great movie.
• 36D [Some exercise bikes] PELOTONS This took me way too long to get. Then I misspelled it, leaving me to wonder for a minute or two if there was really a character on Sons of Anarchy name EPIE.
• 51D [Walter Byers Scholarship org.] NCAA I don’t remember if I’ve heard of that scholarship, but I made an educated guess that was right.