Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Jonesin’ 5:29 (Erin) [3.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
LAT untimed (Jenni) rate it
NYT 6:52 (Eric) [3.14 avg; 11 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker untimed (pannonica) [3.50 avg; 10 ratings] rate it
Universal 6:59 (Eric) [2.75 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Sophia) [2.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
Xword Nation tk (Ade) rate it
WSJ untimed (Jim) [3.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it

Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Say It Ain’t Snow” — it’s way too hot for that. – Erin’s write-up

Jonesin’ solution 7/22/25

Hello lovelies! We have a straightforward theme this week of adding an N after an S in common phrases.

• 17a. [Casual shoe for professional use?] JOB SNEAKER (job seeker)
• 24a. [Person asking too much about a BLT ingredient?] TOMATO SNOOP (tomato soup)
• 36a. [The viper of virtue?] GOODNESS SNAKE (goodness’ sake)
• 51a. [Gastropod that works on cars?] GARAGE SNAIL (garage sale)
• 60a. [Peak achoo?] HIGH SNEEZE (high seas). Love the Pikachu nod here.

Other things:

• 64a. [Cookies making up an entire wall display at the Museum of Failure] OREOS. The traveling museum features products that didn’t quite make it.

Until next week!

Robbie Cottom’s Univeral Crossword Puzzle “Open-Minded” — Eric’s Review

Robbie Cottom’s Universal Crossword Puzzle “Open-Minded” — 7/22/25

Punny clues! Tennis! Tolkien! What more could we want?

Common phrases are reimagined and clued as things a tennis player might say:

• 17A [“You’re holding such a nice piece of equipment!”] WHAT A RACKET Let’s just say that when I read the clue, I hadn’t yet figured out the theme. A tennis racket was not what I pictured being held.
• 27A [“I don’t think I’ve scored in this game yet!”] IT MUST BE LOVE
• 42A [“Starting a point is the best!”] I LIVE TO SERVE
• 56A [“There are two of us on this doubles team!”] GIVE ME A SHOT

For a punny theme, this one amused me. The answers are all familiar phrases, so they’re not too difficult to fill in once you have a few letters.

Other stuff:

• 31A [Hobbits have seven of them a day] MEALS Tolkien reference #1
• 45A [Logical proposition hidden in “Salem, Massachusetts”] LEMMA Somehow the combination of logic and a city best known for its witch trials doesn’t compute.
• 60A [Wynwood Walls’ Florida city] MIAMI I’d never heard of this before. Wikipedia describes it as “an outdoor exhibition of rotating street art.” It sounds interesting, but maybe not enough to prompt me to go to Florida.
• 7D [Brutes in Sauron’s hordes] ORCS Tolkien reference #2
• 31D [“Lobster Telephone” sculptor Salvador] DALÍ Does the inclusion of one of the artist’s works make it any easier for anyone?
  

  Salvador Dalí, “Lobster Telephone” (1936)

• 32D [“Let’s hear your ideas”] I’M ALL EARS
• 43D [Prize that Lady Gaga once accepted in a meat dress, briefly] VMA MTV’s Video Music Award
• 49D [“The Lord of the Rings” actor Sean] ASTIN Tolkien reference #3

As a Tolkien geek of long standing, I don’t object to the three references, but I know others might.

Jeremy Newton’s New York Times Crossword — Eric’s Review

Jeremy Newton’s New York Times Crossword — 7/22/25

You scream! I scream! We all scream for ice cream!

It took me a minute after filling the grid to make sense of the theme. The first column has one gray square, the fourth has two, the eighth has three and the 12th has three:

• 1D [Big winery fixture] VAT
• 8D [Enjoys immensely] GOES CUCKOO OVER
• 13D [Words that express a deep-felt affection] I LOVE YOU SO MUCH
• 24D [Shook it to the beat] GROOVED

Everything is explained by the two revealers:

• 16A [Big ask … or a hint to this puzzle’s shaded squares?] TALL ORDER
• 59A [Eagerly obtained … or a hint to the contents of this puzzle’s shaded squares?] SCOOPED UP

The O’s and V’s in the theme answers depict ice cream cones. The cones fill from left to right. They also appear progressively lower in the grid, though that doesn’t seem essential to the theme. But two scoops are heavier than one and three are heavier than two.

I filled my cones with orange sherbet, though I’d much prefer something chocolate. Two sc00ps if I’m pretending to count calories.

It’s a cute theme, unlike anything I remember seeing. I like how the two revealers include a little wordplay.

I lost a little time with the theme, though, having GOES [SOMETHING] OVER instead of GOES CUCKOO OVER and significantly, SNAPPED UP rather than SCOOPED UP. The latter mistake meant I got the annoying message at the end that I wasn’t quite finished, and it took me a bit to notice that 60D CPA and 61D OAT made no sense as NPA and AAT. Ah, such is life!

Other stuff:

• 20A [“Come again??,” casually] SCUSE ME
• 25A [Inits. of the first female presidential candidate for a major party] HRC As in Hilary Rodham Clinton, if you’ve forgotten. For many years, I was a member of the LGBTQ advocacy group called the Human Rights Campaign, and that’s what I think of when I see those initials.
• 37A [Accessory for Batman or Robin] CAPE Even as I typed that answer, I realized MASK also fits. At least UTILITY BELT doesn’t.
• 45A [Company whose business is picking up?] UBER Cute clue for a company that has an entire Wikipedia entry devoted to “controversies” surrounding it.
• 64A [Some hoppy drinks at happy hour, in brief] IPAS The trendiness of IPAs shows no sign of ending. I wouldn’t mind except that it makes it nearly impossible to find a nice, balanced, malty brown ale.
• 11D [“This roller coaster is awes-o-o-o-ome!”] WHEE I can’t hear that word without thinking of a scene in the novel Naked Lunch. If you’re curious, I expect you can find it on the internet. It was spoofed in Mystery Science Theater 3000, though probably not many viewers got the joke. Definitely NSFW.

The mural at Jo’s Coffee, Austin

Ed Sessa’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Jenni’s write-up

Now I’m hungry.

Each theme answer has a circle.

Los Angeles Times, July 20, 2025, Ed Sessa, solution grid

• 20a [Indonesian archipelago now known as the Moluccas] are the SPICE ISLANDS
• 27a [Thorny garden flowers] are TEA ROSES.
• 35a [Shake, rattle, and roll at a concert] is ROCK OUT.
• 45a [Absorb, as spilled milk] is SPONGE UP. I wanted SOP.

And the revealer: 51a [“Nothing to it!” and what each circled letter literally is?] is A PIECE OF CAKE. Yum.

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that the SPICE ISLANDS are now known as the Moluccas.

Erik Agard’s New Yorker crossword — pannonica’s write-up

New Yorker • 7/22/25 • Agard • solution • 20250722

A relatively flowing themeless grid—the northwest and southeast corners have moderate bottlenecks—anchored by three grid-spanning across entries, one for each third.

Once again, by my lights too yielding for a ‘moderately challenging’ crossword.

• 4d [Singer with the 1967 album “Hello, I’m Dolly”] PARTON. Capitalizing no doubt on the hit 1964 Broadway musical Hello, Dolly.
• 6d [Place to lie low] HIDEY HOLE. Fun entry.
• 7d [Trash-can emanation] ODOR, 8d [Trash-can-dwelling Muppet] OSCAR. Okay, I’ll allow it, this one time. 16a [Tantalizing smell] AROMA.
• 11d [Say aloud] VOCALIZE.
  
• 12d [Kuwait and Sarjah, for two] EMIRATES.
• 13d [Metaphor for something messy or complicated] RAT’S NEST. Not to be confused with the rare phenomenon of a rat king, which in turn is not to be confused with the sometimes messy and complicated, but always despicable, modern political practice of ratfucking.
• 47d [With 21-Down, “Doctor Who” and “Sex Education” star] NCUTI | GATWA. New to me.
• 29d [Bit of writing on a record sleeve] LINER NOTE. >side-eye< Singular, really?
• 33d [“How can any deny themselves the __ of my company! It’s beyond me”: Zora Neale Hurston] PLEASURE. Heh.
• 44d [Spotted wildcat] OCELOT, Leopardus pardalis; some etymological duplication, as the pard- root (Greek for ‘leopard’ (the English name itself derives from a deprecated binomial for that cat: Leo pardalis (now Panthera pardalis)). But anyway I came here to observe that we rarely hear of Leopardus wiedii, the MARGAY, which is very similar in appearance to its aforementioned congener and has a similar distribution. Would be a useful crossword entry!
• 17a [“It matters to me”] I CARE.
  
• 20a [Before being retired, they were frequently re-tired] VINTAGE RACECARS. All those pit stops. Also, >groan<
• 24a [Member of a “Star Trek” race whose home world has a sister planet named Remus] ROMULAN. Skimmed the clue and plopped in ROMULUS, which only lasted for a few moments before being corrected. 37a [Out of this world?] ALIEN.
• 32a [Source of joy for an autistic person] SPECIAL INTEREST. I wonder if there’s a different clinical term.
• 52a [ __ León (Mexican state)] NUEVO, crossed by 35d [Hundredths of a peso] CENTAVOS. Speaking of lions (old genus name Leo, mentioned above).
• 55a [Word that can refer to a West African oral historian or a Haitian pork dish] GRIOT. Knew the former but not the latter.
• 58a [“… if that makes __”] SENSE. Odd clue. It’s so seemingly open-ended, yet it just, uh, makes sense.

Dan Kamman and Zhouqin Burnike’s WSJ Crossword “Let’s Take a Tea Break” — Jim Q’s Review

THEME:
Tea varieties are split across two entries — a theme that’s deceptively complex to construct and quite satisfying when done well.

Dan Kammann * Zhouqin Brunikel * WSJ Puzzle Solution Grid * 7.22.25

THEME ANSWERS:

• 16A/18A: GOOD CATCH / AISLE — CHAI

• 26A/31A: OH BOO HOO / LONGER — OOLONG

• 45A/47A: GYM MAT / CHALK ART — MATCHA

• 62A/63A: MAMBO / BARE SPOTS — BOBA

If you’re having déjà brew, you’re not alone — NYT solvers will note a very similar theme ran last Wednesday, with two overlapping tea types. But despite the shared concept, the puzzles felt totally distinct in tone and execution.

This one features eight discrete theme entries compared to the NYT’s five, which is a sneaky bit of construction sleight-of-hand — the theme looks lighter than it is, because each tea is broken across two separate entries. That’s tough to pull off cleanly, and it’s handled impressively here.

Honestly, I preferred this version. There’s a lot of color and personality packed into the theme phrases — OH BOO HOO, GOOD CATCH, and CHALK ART were all highlights. A fresh steep (see what I did there?).

FAVORITE FILL:

• BAD MOOD put me in a good mood 🙂

• OK CUPID

• TACO — a word that invokes joy these days

NEW TO ME / TRICKY SPOTS:

• CHIRON — the learned centaur of Greek mythology

• Lake Volta of GHANA

• PATTON was the Oscar-winning role for George C. Scott

• CHIPATI — a flatbread cooked on a tava

• LILA McCann crossing ALOO — needed a few letter runs here, but it worked itself out

This one hit the steep spot. 3.75 stars for me.