Tuesday, July 29, 2025

Jonesin’ 10:21 (Erin) [2.75 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
LAT untimed (Jenni) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 5:59 (Evan) [3.31 avg; 13 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker untimed (pannonica) [3.64 avg; 11 ratings] rate it
Universal 5:35 (Eric) [2.60 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Sophia) [2.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
Xword Nation tk (Ade) rate it
WSJ 7:52 (Jim Q) rate it

Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Spoiler: Free” — another themeless for what ails you. – Erin’s write-up

Hello lovelies! This week we have a Jonesin’ themeless that played difficult for me, taking twice as long as a typical themed puzzle. Not gonna lie, I had to Google my way through the NW corner, thanks to my lack of TV knowledge.

• 1a. [Nickelodeon character with a heartbreaking video in which he finds out his show has been canceled] TINY CHEF. Apparently the Paramount-Skydance merger did him in after three seasons.
• 2d. [Capital of the territory featured in Netflix’s “North of North” (2025)] IQALUIT. It’s the capital of Nunavut and the northernmost Canadian city.
• 26a. [Ltd., across the Chunnel] CIE. It’s apparently short for “Compagnie.”
• 4d. [Certain locks] YALES. It’s a brand of lock that has nothing to do with the university.

Today I also learned:

• 41d. [Small opening where spores are released] OSTIOLE.

My favorite clue:

• 11d. [Diversion where the walls may have ears?] CORN MAZES.

Until next week!

Joe Rodini’s Universal Crossword “Six Degrees of Separation” — Eric’s Review

There’s a word ladder of sorts here, though if you’re relying on circled letters in longer words, does it count as a word ladder? On the other hand, I doubt it’s otherwise possible to morph KEVIN into BACON in six steps:

• 12A [Giant bird in “Up” … or the beginning of a word ladder inspired by a trivia game] KEVIN Until I reached the bottom of the ladder, I expected this answer to be some bird species, not a proper name. I saw Up (which is quite good) several years ago and don’t remember a bird. Dogs, yes; bird, no.
• 20A [Puff from Gandalf’s pipe] SMOKE RING
• 24A [Opener on a popular CB radio channel] BREAKER ONE NINER CW McCall had an annoying novelty song in 1975 called “Convoy” that was laden with CB lingo, including this phrase. If not for that song, I wouldn’t have recognized this line.
• 36A [“Gotta Catch ‘Em All” franchise] POKÉMON I know that tagline only from crossword puzzles. My memory of it was just reinforced when it was the revealer in a recent New York Times puzzle.
• 44A [Do some networking] MAKE CONNECTIONS
• 50A [Short order?] BE CONCISE Nice clue. Good advice to writers everywhere.
• 63A [Breakfast meat … or the end of the word ladder] BACON

John Guare’s 1990 play popularized the idea that there are no more than “six degrees of separation” between any two people on earth. That concept morphed into the parlor game of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, in which a players links a Hollywood actor to Bacon by way of movies in which two identified actors appeared.

Here’s an example borrowed from Wikipedia: Ian McKellen was in X-Men: Days of Future Past with James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender. McAvoy and Fassbender were in X-Men: First Class with Kevin Bacon. Therefore, McAvoy and Fassbender have Bacon numbers of 1, and McKellen has a Bacon number of 2.

Kevin Bacon was in a lot of movies in the 1980s and 1990s, but not surprisingly, he doesn’t get many roles these days. Thus, I wonder whether people much younger than me will be amused by the idea of a word ladder in which KEVIN becomes BACON.

The rest of the grid is a mixed bag:

• 17A [Gives top marks to at the Olympics] RATES A TEN Straightforward and not all that interesting an answer for such a longish slot in the grid.
• 33A [Popeyes rival] KFC I’d never noticed the lack of an apostrophe in the fried chicken restaurant chain’s name.
• 60A [Japan’s third-most populous city] OSAKA Number one is of course Tokyo; number two is Yokohama. The clue perhaps uses “city” a bit loosely, as the local government structure in Japan includes many prefectures, which seem to include what we might think of as “cities.”
• 3D [Noxious fumes] MIASMA Such a fine, underused word.
• 8D [Letter opener?] DEAR SIR/9D [Play opener] ACT I
• 11D [Instrument hit with a mallet] GONG Sunday, we saw a nice performance of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5. We could hear the tam-tam, but because we were so close to the stage, we couldn’t see half the musicians, including the percussionist. Lesson learned, I hope.
• 22D [Alt-country crooner Case] NEKO We’ve been fans of hers for years. Calling her music “alt-country” sells it short. Her lyrics are often off-beat but fascinating.
• 45D [Award won four times by Katharine Hepburn] OSCAR She won Best Actress for Morning Glory, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter and On Golden Pond. I’ve never seen the first one and would only really recommend The Lion in Winter.
• 54D [“Around the Horn” channel, until May 2025] ESPN It’s odd that the clue refers to a show that so recently ended. Why not change it to a current show?

Peter Gorman’s New York Times Crossword — Evan M’s Review

Today’s NYT puzzle plays on the interestingly named town of Bend, Oregon, and contorts the state name into various patterns. It ends up being a pretty straightforward theme, and I liked it all-in-all. The one thing I will say is that, especially with the revealer of BEND OREGON, it felt like a lot of OREGON for one puzzle.

The style of the puzzle also limited the amount of fun longer entries, and I think with the OREGONian blobs taking up so much space in the puzzle, I think it limited how fun they could be. NORSE GODS and INERT GAS are nice, but POLICEMAN, ENORMOUS, PASSED ON, RUSHMORE are kind of bland.

All in all, 3.5 stars from me!

Alexander Liebeskind’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Land and Sea” — Jim Q’s write-up

Yesterday was dessert. Today we’re on to the main entree. I can get behind eating in that order. 

THEME: SURF & TURF – Creatures that have a name that is reminiscent of both land and sea

THEME ANSWERS:

17A: [Arthropod with the largest leg span (up to 12 feet)] SPIDER CRAB

24A: [Predator along the Pacific coast of North America] LEOPARD SHARK

36A: [Specially prepared prawn dish] BUTTERFLY SHRIMP

47A: [Marine mammal with an inflatable snout] ELEPHANT SEAL

57A: [Colorful reef inhabitant] PARROT FISH

13A: [Paired with 51-Down, restaurant offering mixing land and sea, as 17-, 24-, 36-, 47- and 57-Across do] SURF (and) TURF

Strikingly similar in structure to yesterday’s puzzle — that one served up [fabric] + [dessert], and this one brings a not-quite-edible but still food-adjacent SURF & TURF vibe. The theme here isn’t about actual menu items (well, not all of them), but the title still cues a culinary mood.  

Also like yesterday, I can’t say I’m overly familiar with the (mostly inferrable and fairly crossed) themers. PARROT FISH and LEOPARD SHARK were definitely new to me. I’ve definitely heard of a SPIDER CRAB and pretty sure I’ve come across ELEPHANT SEAL a few times. BUTTERFLY SHRIMP is an odd one as it’s the only one that is clued as a dish– the BUTTERFLY in this case being the way the shrimp is prepared… cut it in half lengthwise and watch it cook super fast.  

Also– like yesterday– there may or may not be some interesting bonus themers: Looking at [Small hybrid canines] CHIWEENIES and [Marine creatures found in fossils] TRILOBITES. I mean, one is SURF, one is TURF. That’s more overt than yesterday’s maybe/maybe not secret menu items. Both of those were completely new to me as well, making the SE quadrant of the puzzle particularly difficult for a Tuesday! 

 

OTHER THINGS:

16A: [Bad thing to drop in public] TROU. Clue seems subjective to me! 

20A: [Proverbially slippery creature] EEL. There’s a chef at a local restaurant who tells me to stop by every Christmas eve as he cooks EEL and wants me to try it. I keep forgetting. On purpose. 

35A: [XXX] Had TENS and didn’t want to change it. 

54A: [Soul singer Thomas] IRMA. New to me. 

26A: [Cartoon brother of Dewey and Louie] HUEY. More TURF. Huey a l’Orange. 

33D: [Title sea-monster boy in a 2021 Pixar movie] LUCA. Never saw it. Vaguely remember a trailer. Any good?

35D: [Popular slip-on shoes] CROCS. Was just talking about these today, and how they appeared in the movie Idiocracy as a craze well before they were a craze. 

37D: [They may await your return] RECEIPTS. Tough clue for a Tuesday!

50D: [Christine of “Chicago Hope”] LAHTI. I saw part of the name and assumed my go-to five-letter Christin*, RICCI, of course. This really screwed me up. 

I don’t think any of these potential meals piques the curiosity of my tastebuds in comparison to yesterday’s desserts, but this was another palatable puzzle. 

Appetizers tomorrow?

3.75 stars

Paolo Pasco’s New Yorker crossword — pannonica’s write-up

This week’s Tuesday offering is closer to the ‘moderately challenging’ label, which is to say that I had to rely on working crossings a bit more than usual in order to complete the solve. Of course this is how crosswords are supposed to work.

• 1a [Fantasy being whose kind “never are roused unless it is clear to us that our trees and our lives are in great danger”] ENT. Not really the kind of clue/answer that I want to see opening a puzzle, but on the other hand it’s apt as an ENTry point.
• 12a [Structure that’s typically one story but might have multiple levels] TOOL SHED. Oh, that’s clever.
• 15a [Olympic soccer medallist Carli or Olympic volleyball medallist Carli (no relation)] LLOYD. Knew of the former but not the latter.
• 19a [Ceremonies that honor forebears] ANCESTRAL RITES.
  
• 21a [“I didn’t know that factoid!”] NEAT. The reason I use factette instead of factoid is because the suffix -oid is ambiguous, indicating, per m-w.com, “something resembling a (specified) object or having a (specified) quality” [emphasis mine; noun], and “resembling : having the form or appearance of” [adjective]. In this era of widespread dubious veracity, the possibility that one can legitimately interpret factoid as something that resembles a fact feels treacherous. The suffix -ette, on the other hand, clearly means “little one”, with the secondary sense of “female” more or less obsolescent.
• 24a [Hurry in the direction of] RUSH TO.
  
  rush to, rush for, whatever
• [Cartoon creature described as being three apples high] SMURF. Is this established lore, or part of the recent film?
• 37a [Look around the room?] DÉCOR. Nice.
• 39a [What one might idly do while on a call] PACE, not DRAW and certainly not DOODLE.
• 45a [Hiragana alternative, in Japanese writing] KATAKANA. Both systems are used for phonetic transliteration, while the older, more complex and expansive KANJI is ideography.
• 47a [First name shared by the heroines of “Tomb Raider” and “Doctor Zhivago”] LARA. I just relistened to the once wildly popular “Lara’s Theme” and it was … underwhelming.
• 54a [Grandiloquent but vapid, so to speak] GASSY. Maybe this describes me, sometimes.
• 7d [Noah’s lover, in “The Notebook”] ALLIE. Have neither read the book nor seen the film.
• 8d [Major character’s figurative protection from being killed] PLOT ARMOR. A term I’m familiar with but don’t recall seeing in a crossword before. Per Wikipedia, the Oxford English Dictionary identified the the term as emerging only within the past quarter-century.
• 13d [Internet language that’s the source of “pwned” and “n00b”] LEET, or l33t. Isn’t it more of a lingo than a language?
• 24d [Get some cereal, say?] REAP. Yeah, okay.
• 29d [Hiding spot for a beachgoer’s valuables, perhaps] SHOE. Not a very good one, it must be said.
• 32d [Brouhahas] RUCKUSES.
  
• 46d [Not in the mood for high jinks] TESTY. Thought it might be TENSE.
• 47d [“Riverdale” actress Reinhart] LILI. A more contemporary reference than “Lili Marlene“.

I’d be happy if all of the Tuesday New Yorker crosswords were as good as this one, happier still if they were just a bit more challenging.

Kelly Richardson’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Jenni’s write-up

I had no idea where this theme was going and solved without paying attention to the circles. It was a smooth solve nonetheless. I offer the theme answers in the order I encountered them.

• 4d [Unauthorized rock recordings] are BOOTLEG ALBUMS. I always think of these as tapes because I am old.
• 25d [Retail rep’s quota] is a SALES TARGET.
• 8d [“SNL” sketch featuring Christopher Walken and a percussion instrument] is MORE COWBELL. That made me giggle.

And the revealer: 19d [Grammy-winning metal band, or what can be found three times in this puzzle?] is SYSTEM OF A DOWN. LEGAL, STAR, and ECO systems. Solid! Didn’t realize until I was typing this that the systems span the two words of each answer.

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: not really anything. This is the second time I’ve encountered EARLAPS in the recent past; is it just me or is that obscure enough to count as crosswordese?