AV Club 7:22 (Amy) 
[2.50 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
LAT 4:05 (Gareth) 
[2.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 4:14 (Amy) [2.54 avg; 12 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker 2:38 (Kyle) 
[4.08 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
Universal untimed (pannonica) 
[3.50 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
USA Today 11:54 (Emily) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
WSJ 5:43 (Jim) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Alan Siegel’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Slippery Slopes”—Jim’s review
Circled letters tumbling down and to the right spell out words that can precede “oil” in other phrases. The revealer is OIL SPILLS (70a, [Slick spots, and what you’ll find in the circles]). The oils in question are SOYBEAN, BABY, MOTOR, and PALM.
Wall St Journal crossword solution · “Slippery Slopes” · Alan Siegel · Wed., 7.9.25
I solved this mostly as a themeless with only a few furtive glances at the circled words. Once I hit the revealer, I think it helped me complete MOTOR but by then I was nearly done with the grid. Solid theme with a fun title.
So, since it solves as a themeless, let’s look at that long fill. POLICE CAR and ANY MINTUE make for a fun stack at the start. Other goodies include TRAIL BIKE, TANDOORI, HOEDOWNS, MARY KAY, DOG TOY, the current POPE LEO, and a Scrabble TILE SET. I’m not a golfer so not sure how relevant (or otherwise) the entry TWO-IRONS is.
Some less than stellar fill made its presence known, like IBANK crossing proper name RAIMI, as well as OENO, YES OR, and SNEE. Another iffy crossing is Bollywood star Aishwarya RAI and French FINI. I’ve never heard the phrase RAW-BONED [Gaunt], but it checks out, though it sure sounds like it would mean something else in the modern age. Had to guess at the B in crosser BIG MO.
Also, I’d never heard of old actor Kirk ALYN (first actor to play Superman on film). I had no idea there was anyone before George Reeves, but he played the role on TV in the 50s while ALYN was on the silver screen starting in 1948.
Clues of note:
- 41a. [Nickname of ring announcer Kody Mommaerts]. BIG MO. I would’ve thought the nickname for the battleship USS Missouri, would be more well known, but that shows you what I know. That ship was nicknamed “Mighty Mo”.
- 52a. [Vatican head]. POPE LEO. We also would’ve accepted [Pontiff who recently autographed a Popplio Pokémon card].
Solid theme with a mix of sparkly and iffy fill. Three stars.
Sarah Butkovic’s AV Club Classic crossword, “Fly by Night”—Amy’s recap
AV Club Classic crossword solution, 7/9/25 – “Fly by Night”
This 15×16 puzzle’s theme makes use of some black squares, hiding BLACKBIRDS in them. The birds were not all easy to find:
- 20a. [Spooky Disneyland Paris mansion], RAVENSWOOD MANOR with a hidden RAVEN. Apparently the attraction is called Phantom Manor and the story is that you’re in Ravenswood Manor. Okay? Never heard of it. Can’t imagine even 1% of solvers have gone to Disneyland Paris. However! There’s a neighborhood on Chicago’s North Side called Ravenswood Manor, and there’s a decent chance that some kids there have attended Disney Magnet School, so the vibes weirdly work for me though the puzzle frustrated me here.
- 26a. [Neighborhood across the East River from Two Bridges, Manhattan], DUMBO, BROOKLYN. I think the ROOK is more a European bird, but hey, I know it from crosswords.
- 47a. [Billfolds that stick together], VELCRO WALLETS. Before I grasped the theme’s birds lurking in the night, I thought of EEL wallets, but SMART TE wasn’t making any sense.
- THe revealer is 54a. [Nursery rhyme pie-filler, or things included (in two senses) in this puzzle’s grid], BLACKBIRDS.
Neat theme idea, but RAVENSWOOD MANOR feels far too unfamous to pass muster.
Lots of nice longer fill, such as NIBBLES, SILHOUETTE (never heard of the designer in the clue, [Striking feature of many a Charles James dress]), SOLITAIRE, and SMART TV.
3.5 stars from me.
Desiree Penner & Jeff Sinnock’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 7/9/25 – no. 0709
Lots of short theme answers here, clued in relation to their location around the EDGES of the puzzle. The top row has [Top dog?], [Top hat?], and [Top gun?] cluing a MUTT, LID, and PISTOL; they’re synonyms for the clues’ nouns, not for the “top ___” phrases.
[Bottom feeder?], [Bottom line?], and [Bottom dollar?] give us TROUGH, geometry RAY, and BUCK. On the left, there’s [Side note?], MEMO; [Side plank?], BOARD, though I’m not sure what the phrase “side plank” means, maybe an exercise?; and [Side kick?], PUNT. On the right, [Side arm?], LIMB; [Side dish?], PLATE; [Side job?], TASK.
It’s kinda fun to have a dozen theme clues to interpret instead of the usual three to five.
While the longer fill adds sparkle—ONE TRILLION, CASHAPP, “YOU DIRTY RAT,” YIN/YANG, SUPERBOY—much of the shorter fill is meh. EPEE-ETE-EAU for your “French Words Starting With E for $400, Please” category, SERA, ANODE, NA NA NA, ETA, STS, rusty SKYLAB, GNAR, ARNO. It’s tough to nail down terrific fill with that much of the grid’s real estate locked down.
3.25 stars from me.
Prasanna Keshava’s Universal crossword, “Keep It Inside” — pannonica’s write-up
Universal • 7/9/25 • Wed • “Keep It Inside” • Keshava • solution • 20250709
No explicitly discernible reason why the theme entries are found among the down answers; perhaps it just worked better that way. Or maybe it’s simply for variety’s sake.
- 33dR [Suppressed … or like the ends of the starred clues’ answers, perhaps?] BOTTLED UP.
- 3d. [*NES cheat cartridge] GAME GENIE.
- 5d. [*One has no crew] ABANDONED SHIP.
- 19d. [*Answering machine’s request] LEAVE A MESSAGE.
Genie in a bottle, ship in a bottle, message in a bottle. All checks out.
- 17a [Not much] SOME. 43d [Plenty] A LOT.
- 21a [Starter follower] ENTRÉE. How is it that the main dish got that designation, anyway?
- 29a [Embassy employee] ENVOY.
- 31a [Container whose name consists of two containers] TIN CAN. For some reason the clue doesn’t sit right with me.
- 42a [ __ Sheen, or Dean __ ] MARTIN. Some rhyming action.
- 64a [Insomniac’s desire] SLEEP.
- 66a [Cheetah marking] SPOT. Cheetahs, Acinonyx jubatus, suffer from very low genetic diversity resulting from two historical population bottlenecks and are thus further susceptible to extinction, in addition to more usual factors such as habitat loss, poaching, and roadkill incidents.
- 7d [Contented feline’s sound] PURR. A cheetah’s purr is called a whirr.
- 9d [Fed health law] ACA. Speaking of threatened.
- 10d [Rubber mouse, say] CAT TOY. 59d [Toy that’s one letter different from “toy”] TOP.
Patrick Berry’s New Yorker crossword – Kyle’s write-up
The New Yorker solution grid – Patrick Berry – Wednesday 07/09/2025
Late post today, due to family and work demands encroaching on this morning’s solving/blogging time. There’s a silver lining which is that I got to enjoy this nice Patrick Berry puzzle over lunch. Some quick observations:
- Raise your hand if, like me, you put in BIENNIAL for 26A [Occuring 25-Across times per year] (that’s TWO) and later had to correct it to BIANNUAL *shakes fist*.
- I’ve taken to writing in MACA_ whenever I see a clue like 28D [Chinese gambling hot spot], and use the crossing entry for the final letter. My sense is that either O (as in this puzzle) or U works in the final slot, and both appear to be acceptable spellings. No fist shaking needed!
- This is the first I can recall seeing the conversational entry “I JUST WORK HERE” ([“This is all above my pay grade”]) in a puzzle–nice!
Gerry Wildenberg’s LA Times crossword – Gareth’s summary
When solving a mid-week LA Times puzzle these days, it’s always worth asking, “what’s in the centre of the long across answers this time?” In today’s case, it’s RERE or, as explained at the final answer – REDOUBLED. These are:
- [Bills wide receiver…], ANDREREED
- [Wildlife sanctuary], NATURERESERVE
- [Meh evaluations], MEDIOCREREVIEWS
- [Like material that slows flames], FIRERETARDANT
The not yet crossword-ese answer of the day is [South Asian rice cake], IDLI.
Gareth
Aidan Deshong’s USA Today Crossword, “Sports Cars” — Emily’s write-up
Check out that ride!
USA Today, July 09, 2025, “Sports Cars” by Aidan Deshong
Theme: each themer is make of vehicle with a model the same name as an athletic team
Themers:
- 20a. [Coupe whose name includes a Los Angeles football player], DODGECHARGER
- 37a. [Van whose name includes a Houston baseball player], CHEVROLETASTRO
- 58a. [Truck whose name includes a Toronto basketball player], FORDRAPTOR
What a fun theme and themer set with fantastic cluing! For car people these were likely insta-fills, though the crossings were fair in case a solver needed the assist. We’ve got a little bit of everything with DODGECHARGER, CHEVROLETASTRO, and FORDRAPTOR. Nice wheels!
Favorite fill: CORRELATION, AMPUP, and GLADTO
Stumpers: SLOP (new cluing to me), ENTAILED (needed crossings), and STIM (also needed crossings)
Overall, this was a more challenging puzzle for me today. The combo of the slightly tricker cluing, at least for me, combined with a tougher SW corner that held me up a bit since I didn’t have multiple crossings but I got there eventually. How’d you all do?
4.0 stars
~Emily
How dull was that?!
How dull was what?
I see WSJ hasn’t run out of puzzles with uplifting themes
Dystopian puzzles for dystopian times, rather than a break from reality.
Looking forward to the grid with POPO, FIVEO, and COPPER hidden in the theme answers with a twelve letter revealer clued as Stasi, e.g.
“Ice, Ice, Baby”
Once again, I’m missing the whole gist of this thread. Sigh…
A couple of weeks ago the theme of the WSJ puzzle was Missing Children. Many, me included, were very put off by that puzzle. Today the theme was Oil Spills. That one didn’t sit well with me, either. Amy’s comment was that the themes reflected a general mood many have. I piled on wondering when we’d have a Secret Police theme and Pannonica was referencing ICE acting as a secret police force.
I figured I complained enough about That Other Puzzle, so I gave this one a break.
Your reaction was appropriate
I feel like it couldn’t have been that hard to make the revealer OIL SLICKS…
UNI – I thought the theme answers were downs to go with the UP in the revealer.
I learned years ago when our cat ingested something poisonous that purring is not always a sound of contentment for a cat. They can purr when they are in distress. I’m sure Pannonica knows this as she seems to know quite a bit about animals in general and cats in particular. Not a ding on the clue or the review, just something that surprised me when I learned it
Yep, I’ve mentioned it more than once here (e.g. way back at NYT 15 December 2014) and didn’t want to sound like a broken record.
NYT: Nice puzzle, though I agree with Amy that some of the shorter fill was less than inspiring.
I liked the theme, but I probably would have appreciated it more if I hadn’t solved Evan’s Sunday WaPo over the weekend. His was a little more elegant, with the three entries along each edge linked by a common meaning, each revealed with an in-the-language entry.
Uni re “ENTRÉE How is it that the main dish got that designation, anyway?” …
From M-W.com: “The culinary sense of entrée can be traced back to 18th-century Britain. In those days a formal dinner could include not only the principal courses of soup, fish, meat, and dessert, but also an impressive array of side dishes. Between the fish and meat courses would come a small side dish, and because this secondary dish came immediately before the centerpiece of the meal, it was called the entrée, being, in effect, the entrance to the really important part of the meal. As dining habits have changed, meals have become simpler, and fewer courses are served. However, in the US, the course following the appetizer continued to be called the entrée, perhaps because it is a French word, and anything French always sounds elegant.”
I still don’t really get it.
I’m suspicious. That last sentence in quotes sounds much more likely to have been written by a blog commenter than Merriam-Webster.
19th-century meals began with a soup or such, followed by a “remove” and a series of courses that were served on platters for the table. The remove was served on a plate which was taken away as the first platter was brought in, hence it’s name.
The entrée was the first set of courses delivered on platters. It was followed by the most substantial course, the “roast.”
Over time, the meal was simplified and the roast was deleted since the earlier courses were quite substantial.
I have a copy of the 1,100+ page Epicurean cookbook, with hundreds of menus as suggested by the owner and chef of Delmonico’s in New York, circa 1862 through 1893.
Here’s one.
Grr, it’s.
Martin, are you familiar with The Unprejudiced Palate (1948), by Angelo Pellegrini? Especially as he was a Pacific Northwesterner.
No, but I am now. Thanks.
Seems like something you’d appreciate.
spoiler: he’s quite prejudiced, culinarily speaking.
New Yorker: Something that happens once every two years is biennial. Something that occurs twice a year is semiannual.
The problem with biannual is that while it usually means semiannual, it sometimes means biennial.
Fun puzzle, but that’s what I expect from Patrick Berry.
AVCX: I don’t understand the parenthetical in the revealer clue.
54a. [Nursery rhyme pie-filler, or things included (in two senses) in this puzzle’s grid]
The birds are hidden in the black squares. What is the second sense?
They’re all black-colored birds.
Universal –
The revealer is “bottled UP”, but the theme words are written downwards. ;)
I don’t perceive a connection. Usually ‘up’ in a vertical clue signals a reversal.
Puzzle: The New Yorker; Rating: 4.5 stars
Patrick Berry is fast-becoming one of my favorite creators, and this puzzle contained VERY little filler or crosswordese!