LAT untimed (pannonica) 
[3.50 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
NYT 5:50 (Amy) 
[4.25 avg; 10 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (Jim P) [3.70 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Emily) rate it
Rafael Musa & Matthew Stock’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s write-up
NY Times crossword solution, 8/8/25 – no. 0808
Not a super-common grid diagram, with an opening 5×5 corner.
Fave fill: BAR TRIVIA, “GEE, THANKS,” SCAM ALERT, “YOU CAN COUNT ON ME” (also an indie film in 2000, Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo), SHEET PANS, NORTH STAR, WRITE BACK, CUSS WORDS, BENGAL CAT, COED SPORT.
Not sure I knew this term: 55A. [Events akin to streaks], UNDIE RUNS. Boystown in Chicago has a Santa Speedo run each winter, probably the same concept.
Five more things:
- 1A. [Who wrote in an 1852 novel “Any mind that is capable of a real sorrow is capable of good”] STOWE. Have most of read, or not read, Uncle Tom’s Cabin? I’m in the “not” group.
- 6A. [Stick around camp?], TENTPOLE. I like the “this clue is a verb phrase” fakeout.
- 23A. [Way to the left?], WEST. There’s a meme on Bluesky today, listing the furthest N, E, S, and W that you’ve been. It’s an interesting task to figure out what your personal directional extremes are. I’ve got Liverpool, Prague, St. Croix, and Vancouver.
- 23D. [Caregiver known as a “nutrix” in ancient Rome], WET NURSE. Giving nutrition.
- 32D. [Sister of Helios], EOS, the goddess of dawn. They’re also siblings of Selene, the moon goddess—SELENE was in another puzzle recently, clued as Helios’s sister.
Four stars from me.
Jess Rucks’ Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up
LAT • 8/8/25 • Fri • Rucks • solution • 20250808
A 16×15 grid to accommodate the two longer theme answers.
- 16a. [3D film?] DROP DEAD GORGEOUS. From 1999.
- 25a. [3D puzzle?] WORD LADDER.
- 47a. [3D animation?] DONALD DUCK.
- 59a. [3D printing?] DAVID COPPERFIELD.
Nice finds, nice interpretations of the “3D” phrases. The crossword would’ve been a dab more impressive if those twelve were the only Ds in the grid, but we all appreciate the difficulty that sort of restriction places on the constructor.
- 1d [High point of hospitality?[ ROOFTOP BAR. I amusingly (?) tried ROOFTOP SPA first, even though I’ve never heard of such an establishment.
- 2d [“My b!”] OOPS. Didn’t realize b was standing for ‘bad’. Not a formulation I like, either abbreviated or in full.
- 6d [Nonprofit domain] ORG. 23d [Academic domain] EDU.
- 7d [Nocturnal cat?] LEO. The constellation. Terrestrial lions are predominantly diurnal.
- 8d [Seed money investor?] FARMER. Ha-ha. 38d [ __ rotation] CROP.
- 27d [Sink hole] DRAIN. Note that the clue is two words rather than a single compound word.
- 28d [Hindu goddess whose name means “impassable”] DURGA. A lesser-known deity, I think. 39d [Many unhappy returns?] BAD KARMA, not something about income tax.
- 30d [Dish that resembles a jellied meatloaf] HEAD CHEESE. >shudder<
- 58d [Real hoot] RIOT. 60d [Real hooter] OWL.
- 1a [Blush wine] ROSÉ. All rosés are blushes, but not all blushes are rosés. More.
- 13a [Loot] BOOTY, not LUCRE.
- 15a [Harmonizer, often] ALTO. 21a [Soprano’s part, usually] MELODY. I’m enjoying the many implicitly linked, but not cross-referenced clues and entries here.
- 34a [Throw on the floor] RUG. Fooled me.
- 43a [Hang out after checking for rain?] AIR DRY. Pretty easy to see this one.
- 52a [Cuban ingredient] HAM. That’s a Cubano sandwich.
- 65a [Animal whose name means “eater of bark” in Algonquian] MOOSE. I never knew this. In the Old World, the name for moose Alces alces is, confusingly for us North Americans, elk. etymology: Middle English, probably from Old English eolh; akin to Old High German elaho elk, Greek elaphos deer. In fact, its scientific name is Cervus elaphus, which combines the Latin and Greek words for ‘deer’.
- 66a [Entitled men?] SIRS. Just literally. Okay, maybe figuratively too.
- 68a [Field for Kahlo y Burga] ARTE.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
I also enjoyed this grid a lot except for UNDIERUNS, which may be real but still sounds a little made up. Remembering YOUCANALWAYSCOUNTONME from Sunday’s Star Trek grid was a big help.
As for directional extremes… west is Fort Stevens State Park at the northwestern tip of Oregon, where the Columbia River meets the ocean. South is downtown Miami. East and north are both Charles du Gaulle airport, a little bit northeast of Paris.
Yesterday was SABLE and today was STOAT’s turn… “Their tracks diffract light into rainbows” / CDS took me a little bit to get. I also wasn’t entirely sure that SUMO was the plural for SUMO. I lived with a BENGAL CAT for a year in grad school; they’re a lot of fun to have around.
For me, my compass points are:
N: Sheffield, UK
E: Budapest
W: Singapore
S: Galapagos
So just barely south of the equator.
I’ve straddled the meridian at Greenwich. Does that count as most east and west?
My south is Te Anau, NZ and north is Fairbanks. Would love to expand on those, like Antarctica and maybe Greenland.
I’ve straddled that as well. But in terms of east/west, I’m unclear. I would think the point of reference is the international date line, not Greenwich. E.g. Tokyo seems more ‘east’ than being in England.
Puzzle was great, btw.
I would assume it’s from where *you* are, since it’s thinking about distance you’ve traveled, no?
Standard measure of longitude is degrees east or west of the prime meridian.
So I guess Rotorua, NZ is my most east. Cool that the North Island gave me most east and the South Island gave me most south. Most west would be probably be somewhere fishing out of Seward, AK, so Alaska gives me both north and west.
Vancouver
Vancouver Huế
Huế
N – Coventry
S – Montserrat
E – Venice
W – San Francisco
LAT – Leo is up there during some daylight hours, we just can’t see him. I think that’s the case now
N: Helsinki
S: Sao Paulo
E: Seoul
W: Honolulu
N: Dawson City, Yukon
W: Dawson City, Yukon
E: Dalat, Vietnam
S: Saigon, Vietnam
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
NYT: Fun puzzle with enough challenge and plenty of upbeat fill! Happy Friday!
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
Yes breezy Friday–the alternative to streaking was new to me as well, and hard to parse even with all the correct letters in place.
NYT: I tried NUDIERUNS — but that would be exactly the same as streaking, I guess. Nice puzzle but on the easy side for a Friday.
N: tiny place in Finland that I can’t remember the name of
S: Tulum, Mexico
E: Krakow, Poland
W: Seattle
Also, I have not read Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Oh, having consulted a map, I realize Finland is east of Poland, as is Greece. So my easternmost point is either somewhere in Finland or somewhere on Crete.
NYT: good Friday puzzle. Add me to those who had never heard of NUDIE RUNS.
I haven’t read Uncle Tom’s Cabin. I don’t know if it’s taught much anymore. According to a BAR TRIVIA contest I went to about a month ago, it was the first novel to sell more than a million copies in the US.
My directional extremes:
N – Tromso, Norway, which is the largest city above the Arctic Circle outside of Russia
E – Tokyo
W – Waimea, Hawaii
S – Sydney
Amy, thank you for mentioning this! I don’t typically think about how countries in different areas of the world fit in relationship to each other, and it was fun to look at the map of the world for a while. Like David L, I didn’t realize that Scandinavia was so far east. Stockholm is east of Prague. Europe in general is also farther north than I realized. Berlin is north of Calgary.
My first time in Paris, I was there right around the summer solstice, and it was still light around 10pm… that’s when I realized how north Europe is. I remember reading that European settlers were generally thrown off by the weather in “new world” because the climates at the same latitudes were quite a bit different, and the weather was generally more unpredictable too.
Dallas, that’s interesting. I didn’t know that about the “new world” weather. It’s certainly true that similar latitudes seem much colder in the US and Canada than in Europe.
Blame that on the Gulf Stream.
It was about the history of weather prediction… turns out that the telegraph played a huge role in early prediction, as bored telegraph operators started messaging each other about the weather, and then started to realize that the weather was moving across the country. This led to much more data collection as well. I wish I could remember where I read about this…
Enjoyed the NYT. The grid’s separate blocks were challenging enough regardless of the fill, which was fun. My last to fall was the SW because, as it sounds like with others, of UNDIE RUNS. In my case the problem was reflexively entering NUDE RACES first.
This was a fun exercise. For me it’s:
North — Whistler in British Columbia or Adak, Alaska (fly over)
South – Honduras
East – New York City
West – Da Nang, Viet Nam
North – Eagle, Alaska
South – Tierra del Fuego
East – Fiji (just across the dateline)
West – Hawaii
And I enjoyed the LAT and NYT
Thanks Amy, what a fun exercise!
I learned that my North and South extremes are on the exact same meridian!
N – Willow, Alaska
S -Pape’ete, Tahiti
E – Seoul, Korea
W – Kaua’i (just 10 degrees west of Willow and Pape’ete!)