Wednesday, July 16, 2025

AV Club 8:20 (Amy) [3.40 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
LAT 4:17 (Gareth) [3.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
NYT 3:54 (Amy) [3.25 avg; 12 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker 2:25 (Kyle) [4.00 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
Universal untimed (pannonica) [3.38 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today 9:02 (Emily) [3.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
WSJ 6:54 (Eric) [3.67 avg; 3 ratings] rate it

Gary Larson & Amy Ensz’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Getaway Plans” — Eric’s review

Gary Larson & Amy Ensz’s Wall Street Journal Crossword — 7/16/25

Well-known phrases and names (or maybe not so well-known) are given wacky new definitions in which the first word is a synonym for “get away:”

• 17A [Avoid day laborers?] SHAKE HANDS
• 26A [Avoid Ann and Nancy Wilson’s band?] LOSE HEART Yes, the Wilson sisters are still at it, but their heyday was in the late 1970s.
• 35A [Avoid former Utah senator Orrin?] ESCAPE HATCH Possibly a bit unfair to younger solvers; Hatch left the Senate in 2019 and died in 2022.
• 51A [Avoid unpaid invoices?] DUCK BILLS
• 61A [Avoid blowgun projectiles?] DODGE DARTS Today I Learned that Dodge built the original Dart from 1969–1976 and a front-wheel drive version from 2013–2016. Still, it seems a little musty.

I did find the theme somewhat helpful in filling in the grid, especially for coming up with the verbs in the theme answers. And I appreciate that in the last two theme answers, a noun in the original phrase becomes a verb in the answer.

Other stuff:

• 16A [Coward who was knighted] NOËL Kind of a cute clue. Wikipedia describes him as an “English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit [and] flamboyance.” He died in 1973, so that’s another answer that might be easier for older solvers. He was also a gay man at a time when few celebrities were out of the closet.
• 28A [State capital founded 20 years before Boston] SANTA FE More fully La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asís, the Royal Town of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis of Assisi.
• 7D [Portrayer of Dickens in “The Muppet Christmas Carol”] GONZO I might have been a second or two quicker if I’d notice “Muppet” in that clue. On the other hand, maybe not, since I’ve never seen the movie and can only guess at which Muppet played Scrooge, Marley, Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim et al.

Jasin Cekinmez’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 7/16/25 – no. 0716

The theme revealer is TEA BREAK, [Worker’s timeout in Westminster … or something tucked between this puzzle’s shaded squares?], and the theme answers contain broken names of tea types in the shaded letters. Better yet, the teas are all broken by the letter T, in FOOTLONG, “WHAT’S THE MATTER?”, BOBTAIL, and THE LAST SAMURAI (oolong, mate, boba, Assam). Solid theme. I don’t know how much the Brits call it TEA BREAK; maybe David L can weigh in.

Fave fill: “DON’T EVEN,” REN FAIRE, CANOEING, comedian HASAN Minhaj (pronunciation note: stress the first syllable in each of his names), BADASSES, NEONATAL, BS METER. Not so keen on ENO in a Wednesday puzzle, but hey, it’s not Monday or Tuesday.

Three more things:

• 8A. [See 11-Down], ON BASE / 11d. [Chance to get 8-Across], AT BAT. I wasn’t loving the intersecting cross-references here, but overall the puzzle was easy enough that it wasn’t too vexing.
• 48A. [Snake eyes and boxcars, e.g.], ROLLS. Nice to have the noun relating to dice throws rather than the various other meanings of ROLLS.
• 15D. [Chargrilled corn-on-the-cob dish in Mexico], ELOTE. Yum! There may be Parkay or mayonnaise slathered on it; don’t ask.

In college, I bought a couple Brian Eno cassettes. Was it due to the influence of classmates, or was it crosswords? Here’s one of the only songs I recall:

3.75 stars from me.

Robyn Weintraub’s New Yorker crossword – Kyle’s write-up

The New Yorker solution grid – Robyn Weintraub – Wednesday 07/16/2025

Thanks Robyn for today’s puzzle. It’s an impressively constructed grid, with 16 entries of 9+ letters. Two corners have triple stacks, and the other two feature double-stacked Down entries intersecting three long Acrosses. Some of the longer entries are lesser-seen gems like WHITE RABBIT and FREE SAMPLE. All with nary a crosswordese entry or rough crossing in sight.

Clues that caught my eye:

• • 56A [Chili con carne, for Texas] STATE DISH. Nice piece of trivia! Illinois doesn’t appear to have an official state dish, though popcorn is the state’s official snack food.
  • 57A [“Make like a ___ and get outta here” (bungled idiom in “Back to the Future”)] TREE. Spoken by Biff Tannen, would-be punster. Here’s another of his malapropisms:

Brian Callahan’s AV Club Classic crossword, “Baloney Sandwiches”–Amy’s recap

AV Club Classic crossword solutin, 7/1625 – “Baloney Sandwiches”

The theme revealer is CUT THE CRAP, and the word CRAP is “cut” by other letters in COUNTRY RAP, CREDIBILITY GAP, and CRACKED THE WHIP, in a nice C-RAP, CR-AP, CRA-P sequence.

I did not find myself on the constructor’s wavelength here. Accidentally made it MAPU tofu instead of MAPO, which made it nigh impossible to figure out the [Fries alternative] that is tater TOTS, and I sure didn’t remember the fake band on Parks and Rec called Mouse RAT. Oof!

Fave fill: SHAZAMS as a verb, KATSU (have had chicken katsu, never tofu or pork, but I’m open to tofu; but SOY DOGS are a no), RIESEN candy (didn’t recall ever learning that that’s German for “giant”), AMY POEHLER, TANK TOP, PEAS IN A POD.

Four more things:

• I think I learned why the things thrown up in the air in SKEET ([Bluesky post (that shares its name with a clay shooting sport)]) shooting are called pigeons. In a Bridgerton episode (yes, I’m behind, just started watching it this summer), the Duke of Hastings was doing some skeet shooting and when someone shouts “pull,” another person throws a live bird up into the air. Horrifying!
• Slowed myself down by entering SARAN instead of SHAWL for 14a. [That’s a wrap!].
• 26d. [Pete Davidson “SNL” character whose main lines are “OK” and “cool”], CHAD. Did not recall that, if I had actually seen the Chad sketches.
• 11d. [Mouth stuff], ORAL. Took me a while to make sense out of this. You won’t find this in a newspaper crossword! Mouth stuff, sexually, is called ORAL rather than spelling out “oral sex.”

3.75 stars from me.

Sam Brody’s Universal crossword, “Alien Invasion” — pannonica’s write-up

Universal • 7/16/25 • Wed • “Alien Invasion” • Brody • solution • 20250716

Aside from the title, there’s a strong theme hint long before we get to the economical revealer: 1a [Flying saucer in a text message, say] EMOJI.

• 67a^R [Question from Caesar, or a phonetic hint to the starred clues’ answers] ET TU (ET two). The letters ET have been suffixed to word components or phrases to make new, wackier ones. Incidentally, 59d [Bygone Russian ruler] TSAR derives from ‘Caesar’.
• 20a. [*Space-themed billfold?] ROCKET WALLET (rock wall).
• 33a. [*Musical performance featuring a horn solo?] CORNET BALLET (cornball).
• 42a. [*Hammer at a shipping warehouse?] PALLET MALLET (Pall Mall).
• 56a. [*Niche shop in the Garment District?] POCKET MARKET (pockmark). POCKET MARKET s0unds as if it could be a viable name for a hole-in-the-wall boutique, just as there are pocket parks. I’ve seen more than a few tiny stores in Manhattan, in the alleyspace between neighboring buildings.

It’s a solid theme. There are a few stray ETs in the grid, such as ABET and MONET, and ETC ETC (51a) is notable for its doubling. These don’t significantly impact or detract from the theme.

• 6d [Follows up on “Ready or not, here I come!”] SEEKS. Evocative.
  
• 24d [De-crease?] IRON. Yup.
• 25d [Filth] DIRT. Or the partial title of a novel by Jane Gardam, where ‘filth’ is an acronym for failed in London? Try Hong Kong. (30d [Washed out] FADED)
• 57d [Facebook’s parent company] META, whose logo looks to me like the outline of a Pringle.
• 27a [Run out, as a subscription] EXPIRE. My synapses got crossed and I tried to put in ELAPSE, combining EXPIRE and LAPSE.
• 52a [Midday nap in 47-Down] SIESTA. 47d [Nación de Barcelona] ESPAÑA. These aren’t remarkable, but for layout reasons I need to pad this section a little so that there isn’t a gap preceding the embedded video below.
• 61a [Protagonist] HERO. Sometimes it’s an antihero.
• 62d [No problem at all] A SNAP.
  
• 68a [Furry animal native to Siberia] SABLE. I dislike this clue because it’s reductionist in evoking this mustelid‘s tragic history as part of the fur industry. This is not offset by 23d [Org. that shelters strays] SPCA.
• 71a [Practice for a competition] TRAIN. 15a [Comfort] EASE.
  

Guilherme Gilioli’s USA Today Crossword, “Why Me?” — Emily’s write-up

Let’s discuss.

USA Today, July 16, 2025, “Why Me?” by Guilherme Gilioli

Theme: each themer contains –YME–

Themers:

• 20a. [“And that’s the truth!”], IREALLYMEANIT
• 36a. [“I’m playing the world’s smallest violin”], CRYMEARIVER
• 55a. [McDonald’s collectibles for kids], HAPPYMEALTOY

A wide variety in this themer set with IREALLYMEANIT, CRYMEARIVER, and HAPPYMEALTOY. Each was fairly crossed, which is nice since they may be more recognizable phrases to some than others.

Favorite fill: SYDNEY, LIN, KIX, and ARGYLE

Stumpers: AGATE (“jewel” and “stone” came to mind first), PAYEES (needed crossings), and CAPLET (new to me)

What a fun puzzle and excellent grid! Loved the themer and that fact that the –Y– in theme for each crossed with another entry. Cluing was a good level, a little challenging but not too much which I enjoyed today. What did you all think?

4.0 stars

~Emily

Sam Cordes’ LA Times Crossword – Gareth’s theme summary

The theme is explained at TAILENDS – 5 theme entries start and end with bigrams that when combined make an answer that satisfies “TAIL___”:

• [New Jersey nickname], GARDENSTATE. GATE
• [Vino that doesn’t require a corkscrew], BOXEDWINE. BONE
• [Headwear at a >RODEO<], COWBOYHAT. COAT
• [Full house, at times], WINNINGHAND. WIND
• [Lifting a beer bottle with just a straw, e.g.], BARTRICK. BACK.

Gareth