LAT 2:36 (Stella) 
[2.75 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
Newsday 10:00 (pannonica) 
[3.33 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
NYT 6:11 (Amy) 
[3.87 avg; 15 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (Matthew) [3.63 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Matthew) [2.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
WSJ untimed (pannonica) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Robert Logan’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 8/2/25 – no. 0802
Gorgeous grid, tons of flow. Not too many 3s and 4s, a ton of 5s.
Fave fill: Chuck MANGIONE (who just died recently), ST. BARTS, TRIFECTA, HEINEKEN, MANI-PEDI, crème ANGLAISE, A DROP IN THE OCEAN, THE NEXT BIG THING, HOME-BAKED COOKIES, “ONE MOMENT, PLEASE.”
Five more things:
- 30A. [It’s most beautiful when broken], GEODE. Generally a scruffy rock on the outside, concealing the sparkly crystals.
- 37A. [Verb that appears the same when rotated 180º], SWIMS. Well, not in the font in the NYT puzzle.
- 51A. [What goes on goes here], CLOSET. As in the clothes that go on you, not what happens.
- 7D. [“Agreed?”], “AMIRITE?” We don’t see this one much anymore, amirite?
- 35D. [Preadolescent, informally], TWEENIE. Not so familiar with this extension of TWEEN.
Adrian Johnson & Will Nediger’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up
Los Angeles Times 8/2/25 by Adrian Johnson & Will Nediger
This is a really impressive construction — I really like the interlocking long answers, especially WHAT’S COOKING, SCANTILY CLAD, I’LL ASK AROUND, SEASONAL BEERS, AND SAMBA DANCERS. (I also loved the 9s CORN SALSA and PUPUSERÍA.) But I wish it had been clued harder, or run in Universal instead of LAT, because this puzzle was easy enough that there wasn’t a lot of time to savor the fill, if that makes sense.
Looking over the clues after the fact, I guess there were a few harder ones in there, like [“Glad and big” protagonist of an e.e. cummings poem] for OLAF and the clever [Shell casing?] for PIE TIN. But the rest of the puzzle was so easy that I never even saw the best clues while solving.
One clue I did enjoy even though it was easy: [Element of a security grid in many an action film] for LASER. When did this trope start? I do love that it seems to appear in at least one challenge every season of Wie Is de Mol.
Michael Priestley’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Jobs ‘R’ Us” — pannonica’s write-up
WSJ • 8/2/25 • Sat • “Jobs ‘R’ Us” • Priestley • solution • 20250802
We’re inserting the letter R into job titles, for wacky results.
- 27a. [Babbling critic?] BROOK REVIEWER (book reviewer).
- 51a. [Life coach on social media?] GOAL TRENDER (goaltender).
- 70a. [Dishonest diner employee?] SHORT ORDER CROOK.
- 92a. [Road builder?] LANDSCRAPER (landscaper).
- 115a. [Janitor?] BROOM OPERATOR (boom operator).
- 15d. [Undersea herder?] CRAB DRIVER (cab driver).
- 76d. [Marine prospector?] CORAL MINER (coal miner).
Okay, these work well enough. It would be asking a lot to have no additional Rs in the grid, and the fill would no doubt be severely compromised. Besides, some of the theme answers originally have Rs as well. So really a non-starter.
- 2d [Lyft alternative] UBER, crossing 18a [Kriegsmarine vessel] U-BOAT, unterboot.
- 4d [Con quest?] PAROLE, or, say, transfer to a cushy minimum security facility, followed by a full pardon.
- 28d [Unimaginative dog name] ROVER. 112d [Unimaginative dog name] SPOT. No sign of FIDO in the puzzle, by the way. Counterpoint: such names might be considered 23a [Smartly old-fashioned] RETRO.
- 31d [Players may break them] TIES. Clue befuddled me while I was solving.
- 49d [Pertaining to part of the lung] LOBAR. Can’t recall seeing this in a crossword prior. Its symmetrical counterpart 71d [Make a second record of] RELOG is weak also.
- 55d [Writer Ruth with three Edgar awards] RENDELL, with 67d [Street in mysteries] DELLA abutting.
- 72 [Mirthful] RIANT. A useful word that we don’t see too much of.
- 75d [Drag racing pro Enders] ERICA. That’s a change from the go-to author Jong.
- 79d [Leaves for Canada] MAPLE. Nicely turned.
- 91d [Neighborhood that was home to the Brooklyn Dodgers] FLATBUSH. Did one of the team nicknames include that?
- 103d [Utah city named for a Canadian fur trader] PROVO. Did not know this origin.
- 104d [Canoodle] SMOOCH. 106d [Do some gamboling] PRANCE. Whoa whoa whoa, it’s against the bylaws to have canoodle and gambol in the same crossword, much less in sequential clues!
- 66a [Flea market unit] STAND, not STALL.
- 77a [“Hanging up” author Ephron] DELIA. Is that too close to DELLA, which it crosses?
- 90a [Gable or gambrel, e.g.] ROOF.
106a [King prawn of the Muppets] PEPE. Must be a latter day character.- 107a [Bill of fare] MENU. 12d [Dinner summoner] GONG. Tried BELL first.
- 110a [Limburger cheese feature] ODOR; more or less a neutral framing. 118d [Sinister sign] OMEN; omens can be good too.
- 124a [Garden guardian] GNOME. Wasn’t until recently via another crossword that I learned of this supposed purpose, rather than garden GNOMEs being merely decorative, for those who like that sort of thing.
- 131a [Jerry Adler’s role in “The Sopranos”] HESH. Unknown to me.
Anna Stiga’s Newsday crossword, Saturday Stumper — pannonica’s write-up
Newsday • 8/2/25 • Saturday Stumper • Stiga, Newman • solution • 20250802
This must be my fast solve time ever for a Stumper. Finished in the southwest section; the rest of the grid was more or less all together, but very roughly clockwise from the northwest. It doesn’t seem like an especially integrated grid, but I did in fact breeze through it.
- 1a [Group of windflowers] ANEMONE. I should have remembered this from a crossword several months ago, but I needed crossings to get it.
- 16a [Rather cold] UNLOVING, not UNCARING.
- 17a [Rays play there] ST PETE. Baseball. 41a [Ball storage areas for Rockies and Diamondbacks] HUMIDORS. Did not know this, and I assume it’s true for all major league teams.
- 18a [Runner who ran the London Olympics] COE. Sebastian, who was an Olympian himself back in the 1970s and ’80s.
- 22a [Oktoberfest participants] TUBAS. Sneaky.
- 30a [ __ globe (retina locale)] OCULAR. One of my first entries filled, though I had a crossing letter or two.
- 32a [Data sharing protocol] NEED-TO-KNOW BASIS. Fell into the trap of trying PEER-TO-PEER somethingorother.
- 63a [Shipped before settlement] SENT COD, cash on delivery. Is that still a thing somewhere?
- 2d [Shade close to sapphire] NILE BLUE. Interesting to look at the Ngram for NILE BLUE vs. nile green.
- 4d [Rocket rival, reduced] MAV. Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks. NBA.
- 5d [Most popular people mover] OTIS. Interesting fact.
- 9d [What a troubleshooter might fix] SET FEE. Li’l tricky.
- 11d [Planetary circler with Juliet] OBERON.
- 12d [Make better, as a mandolin] RETUNE. Another early get in my solve.
- 20d [Piece of an edible boat] NACHO. Uh, ok.
- 23d [“In the days of __…”] AULD, not YORE.
26d [Gets too close to] CROWDS. 55a [Hang over] MENACE.- 28d [Money depicting Garbo] KRONOR, which I initially misspelled KRONER. Nevertheless, the K and R were helpful in getting me to 27a [Favored somehow] IN LUCK and the aforementioned 30a OCULAR.
- 29d [Noted works] SONGS. Almost too straightforward for a Stumper clue.
- 33d [Pumpkin kin homophone] KARAT. I must assume we’re talking colors more than vegetation.
- 37d [With rather high frequency] INFRARED. Fooled me, and I was mulling whether the crossing 54a [National Soup Mo.] would be JAN or JUN. Had I stopped to consider the weather in the two months, the correct answer would’ve been obvious!
- 56d [Certain ovis aries] EWE. I understand that the .puz format (which I use for Stumpers) can’t display italics, so I won’t fault the clue there. But in scientific binomial names, the genus—here Ovis—must always be capitalized (and the species must always be lowercase).
- 58d [Warm benches] SIT. Another one that’s almost too straightforward.
- 59d [Press participant] PEC. Nothing to do with the fourth estate.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2.5 stars
Pretty nice grid, worthy of a Saturday. Not a lot of names, which is also good.
That said:
16A MANGIONE. If not for the fact that Chuck Mangione died recently, I would have assumed an ulterior motive for this fill. But what I don’t like is that 11D CIO could easily be CTO, thus producing a potential natick for those who aren’t familiar with the name.
43A HAREM. No matter in the classical sense of “women secluded from male strangers and thus all social life” or in the modern sense of “multiple wives”, this is offensive. I don’t like the clue either, which is technically correct but quite an understatement. I find myself pretty merciful in giving this puzzle 2.5 stars instead of 1.
I’m not sure what sort of “ulterior motive” there might be for including Chuck MANGIONE in a grid. Regardless, I don’t see how that crossing would constitute a Natick. CTO is certainly a reasonable alternative to CIO, but if you have to pick between MANGTONE and MANGIONE (and 1978 is before most of the creative names we see from rap/hip-hop artists), is there not a fairly clear choice?
You forgot to demand Will Shortz’s immediate retirement.
Liked the NYT. Slow start with few footholds persisted for a while, but the open grid was a big help. I knew CIO from the comments of an old friend in IT who would say that it stood for ‘Career Is Over’.
I liked it too! Great looking grid, really got into a nice flow moving in a NE direction through it. I got briefly slowed down putting in DAD JOKES instead of BAD JOKES (and couldn’t figure out what DATTED would mean), and also misspelled ANGLAISE with an E at the front… but overall a really fun Saturday!
Ditto for me re DAD/DATTED head scratcher. Nice aha moment to finish though, since I knew that was where the error was.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
HAREM was definitely a little jarring; I feel like that could have been softened with a different clue. I wish the clue for AMIRITE had some sort of nod to the slangy spelling. And I truly have never heard of TWEENIE, just “tween” and, rarely, “tweener”.
Other than those issues I thought it was really solid!
Very good NYT. I started with DADJOKES but changed it when 1A became apparent. I don’t share the objections voiced above to HAREM. It’s a legit word and was clued appropriately. The fact that it’s acquired a salacious reputation in common usage shouldn’t mean it can’t be used at all.
Re Stumper:
37D “With rather high frequency” – “rather high” must be pretty subjective here, since INFRARED is on the lower frequency part of the electromagnetic spectrum; e.g., lower than that of visible light.
Also, fun fact – 17A “Rays play there” is not STPETE (currently). Due to hurricane damage at Tropicana Field, the Rays are playing in Tampa.
pannonica: the humidors for all mlb teams is a recent thing
the rockies were the first in 2002, followed by the d-backs in 2019
nothing overly challenging, but some good cluing IMO
Stumper: definitely one of the easier ones that I can recall. I share Pilgrim’s perplexity about the clue for INFRARED — ‘infra’ means ‘below,’ since IR is lower in frequency than visible light.
Like pannonica, I had KRONER at first, until I eventually sussed out HUMIDORS.
Mystifying clue of the week: “#2 in literary character portrayals” for HOLMES. I have no idea what this refers to. And who is #1?
I wondered as well. I did a little searching and came up with Dracula at #1. This source also lists Holmes at #2
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/97587-most-portrayed-literary-character-in-film
Thanks. Makes sense, but not something I would ever have come up with.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
I reset my Saturday PB with this one. The trivia that probably slowed some people down hit me perfectly. The schoolyard montage in Donnie DARKO set to “Head Over Heels” by Tears For Fears has always been one of my favorite movie theater moments, with the end of that song just blasting out of the speakers. I knew Beyonce and Selena were TEXAN because I keep a playlist of Texas musicians to use at corporate events and they’re on it back to back. I was a KIX enjoyer once upon a time, I remembered DREXEL is in Philly (although I did enter TEMPLE at first), and I knew KAREN Bass is the mayor of Los Angeles without needing any crosses.
Even SWIMS was a quick one because I’m going through the archive, and I recently did the Simeon Siegel grid where you had to turn the letters clockwise to enter the themers. That one didn’t really work with the NYT Games font, either.
https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/20/2023
Anyway, I really liked it. But I’m already bracing for a brain destroyer tomorrow.
WSJ … @pannonica re FLATBUSH … None of the official Brooklyn nicknames had FLATBUSH in them. It’s possible that they were unofficially referred to as something to do with the neighborhood but I’m not aware of it. (Disclaimer: I wasn’t born until two years after they moved to LA. ) You may be thinking of Duke Snider’s nickname, “The Duke of Flatbush”.
There’s also the HBO documentary, “The Ghosts of Flatbush.”
May I ask for help in the NYT? What’s the logic in “what goes on goes here” for CLOSET or in “pitch” as the setting for “love” as nil? I think of love as 0 in tennis and pitch in baseball. Thanks.
What goes on your body is clothes, and clothes go in the closet.
The pitch also refers to the field in soccer. Love is 0 in tennis, so the equivalent for soccer is nil (such as a score of 1-0 is the same as 1-nil).
Newsday: Like pannonica I found this incredibly easy as well. Finished in under 20 minutes, probably a PB too but I don’t keep track of my times.
Started in the SE with the “is-it-ASAP-or-is-it-STAT” [Alacrity order]; either way the A gave me S[C/N]ARFS and DASANI and the rest of the corner fell in short order. -BASIS was enough to get the long across, then I systematically filled in the NE, SW then finally the NW which took me the longest.
I also had KRONER (and didn’t even know KRONOR was a possibility), but at least I’ve heard the word HUMIDORS before even though I’ve completely forgotten what they were, so I knew something was off there. I was slowed down quite a bit at the end by having UNMOVING instead of UNLOVING for [Rather cold], so I had _IM_ BLUE for a while (never heard of this COE guy)—was starting to convince myself LIME BLUE was a thing.
Fun puzzle, good clues.
Puzzle: Newsday; Rating: 4 stars
COE has appeared in puzzles many, many times, and when it’s not clued as the Iowa college it’s almost always some variation of [Runner Sebastian].
I agree with everyone that this edition of Anna Stiga was far less rough than many Les Ruffs. Good fun though.
Thank you, Pannonica, for your delightful analyses. You mentioned that you solve Stumpers in .puz format. How does one access these files?
Why does Matthew (or anyone else) never post a solution to the Saturday Universal?