LAT tk (pannonica) 
[3.00 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
NYT 5:09 (Amy) [3.19 avg; 18 ratings] rate it
Universal Probably 4-something, I forget (Jim) 
[2.67 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Emily) [2.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
James McCarron’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s write-up
NY Times crossword solution, 7/11/25 – no. 0711
When you see an unfamiliar name in the byline, you have no idea what to expect from the puzzle. I’m pleased to report that I’ll now expect to enjoy the puzzle if it has James McCarron’s name up top. Fifteen entries in the 8- to 13-letter range, some of them particularly nice to see. The grid is super-open, with every section flowing into at least two others.
Fave fill: READ AHEAD ([Outpace the syllabus, say]—raise your hand if you were one of those kids), DRILLS DOWN, GETTING CLOSER figuratively, CAMPFIRES, VOICEOVERS, BENIHANA, SOLAR ECLIPSE, SHAKE ON IT, HARRISON FORD, Pedro ALMODOVAR.
Five more things:
- 6A. [Big-eyed, in a way], OWLY. Is that a thing, really?
- 21A. [Laughfest], HOOT. This is one of those ones where you fill in part of it and wait for the crossings to help you decide which word to put down. RIOT or HOOT, both end with OT. See also: AVER and AVOW. (Glad that AVER seems to show up less these days.)
- No idea about this one: 41A. [Isaac Asimov novel “Murder at the ___”], ABA. Here, American Booksellers Association convention. As for Asimov, sounds like he was a creep.
- 2D. [Four-___ (like some shells)], OARED. Shells being racing boats, not seashells or taco shells. Meh.
- Neat bit of trivia: 9D. [Kind of coin that features a Buddhist temple on one side], YEN. Didn’t know this, pleased to learn it.
Four stars from me. The constructor is off to a good start!
Jay Silverman’s Universal crossword, “Tear Off Sheets”—Jim’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases that start with one of the standard bed sizes, except those particular words should be ignored in order to make sense of the clues. The revealer is STRIP THE BED (48a, [Remove certain linens, or how to understand each starred clue’s answer?]).
Universal crossword solution · “Tear Off Sheets” · Jay Silverman · Fri., 7.11.25
- 3d. [*Beaks] TWIN BILLS. Not a phrase I’ve heard very much but it’s a sports term synonymous with “doubleheaders.”
- 5d. [*Woo] FULL COURT.
- 7d. [*Spelling competitions] QUEEN BEES.
- 9d. [*Grumpy folks] KING CRABS.
Works for me. I wasn’t sure what was going on during the solve, but I noticed the endings of the phrases matched the clues, so that’s how I proceeded, using the crossings to get the first words. I like the grid design with black squares looking vaguely like a bed with some folded-down sheets (although to be fair, my first thought was that we were looking at an evil grin). Nice job.
SELTZERS and AIREDALE terriers are our longest bits of fill. “YOU’RE OK” is nice, and CHICAGO gets in there with a good clue [Location for the running of the Bulls?].
Clues of note:
- 12a. [Out of ___ (on a trip). TOWN. I am heading out of TOWN (on a trip) later today to Costa Rica, for a week+, but I should be able to fulfill my meager blogging obligations during down time.
- 19a. [They’re often stolen from banks]. PENS. “Stolen” is a harsh word. How about “mistakenly appropriated”? Wait. Do people still regularly go to banks?
- 21a. [Inspirations for Adele’s album titles]. AGES. Nice cluing angle. If you didn’t know, her album titles are all her AGES at the time (19, 21, 25, 30). Can’t wait for “88”.
Solid puzzle. Three stars.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2 stars
25D is wrong in the puzzle though. The 52 Olympics were in Finland not Norway.
Not sure where you got that non-factoid.
Per Wikipedia, the 1952 games were held in Oslo, Norway.
The 1952 summer games were in Finland but the winter games were in Oslo, Norway.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
The interwebs begs to differ with you about the location of the ’52 Olympics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1952_Winter_Olympics.
Otherwise, a breeze of a Friday. Nice easyish puzzle for me, but seeing the comment about WALTxWEK, I agree that if I didn’t know WALT from Breaking Bad, I’d be pretty annoyed at crossing one random pop culture reference with another, so I’ll lower my rating out of solidarity, even though I wasn’t affected.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2 stars
I breezed through this puzzle, which I found [too?] easy for a Friday. But I had one mistake. As I may be the only person never to have watched “Breaking Bad,” apparently, and know next to nothing about supermodels, I guessed GEK/GALT, not WEK/WALT. (I thought the main character might have been named after Ayn Rand’s character as some kind of symbolism.) Only after checking the solution did I recall having heard the name “Walt.” Bryan Cranston will always be the dentist Tim Watley to me.
I was just disappointed that Heisenberg didn’t fit.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
My husband had the same complaint. I know WEK from crosswords.
I liked the grid and would have preferred more challenging clues.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2.5 stars
Well, that makes at least two of us who never watched “Breaking Bad,” and had no idea about the supermodel. The W was about my 14th guess for that square. Sadly (for a Friday) that was the only thing that was difficult about this puzzle, so it stood out like a sore thumb.
I guessed, early on, that 6A was going to be OWLY, but resisted until it became inevitable, all the while thinking “owlish is the word you’re looking for”. But no.
I didn’t know WEK/WALT either and was annoyed. That and seeing it as part of three consecutive across clues with show biz answers. But my last to fall was the S/SE with RENEE, IVER, ABA, and COCO, doubly hard in that ASSES could have been many things and that I had ERA before EON.
So a terribly proper name puzzles, which I couldn’t enjoy. But do have to admit it was in interesting diagram with many good answers, too.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3 stars
I crushed my Friday PB. I didn’t put the time in the Wordplay comments because it feels like I’m taunting the more casual solvers, but I was done in 5:53. Fun grid, much too easy with the cluing.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
Nice NYT debut! 4 stars
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
I like some of the longer answers. A little bit of junk in the small stuff, but nothing crazy. Congrats on your debut puzzle, James!
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2 stars
NYT: I found this one to be quite unpleasant (more polite than I really feel) with the plethora of names, including crossing names. I had to run the alphabet to get the W in the crossing that others have cited.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3 stars
ARENA / ABA was a Natick for me.
No LA puzzle? I’m disappointed. I was hoping for an explanation of 36D, so had to do an Internet search for “sando.” If anyone else is interested, it’s the Japanese word for sandwich: https://kokorocares.com/blogs/blog/sando-the-iconic-japanese-sandwich?srsltid=AfmBOoqM46IFj3UNSix2G2hGJgcfk3xQVKeNk75EbHafSPv9tsUm8iFd
I’m just surprised that a PBJ is one (not listed at that link), but who know?