LAT tk (Gareth) 
[3.00 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
NYT 15:09 (Eric) 
[3.68 avg; 20 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Darby) 
[2.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Universal (Sunday) 8:33 (Jim P) [3.33 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (Norah) [3.50 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
WaPo 5:34 (Matt G) [3.36 avg; 7 ratings] rate it
Adam Wagner and Chandi Deitmer’s NYT Crossword “Passing Glances” — Eric’s Review
Rebuses! Eight of them, though as I was solving it felt like more. (That could have just been me being unused to having to hit the ESC key to enter them. Yes, I know that simply entering the first letter works, but what’s the fun in that?)
Adam Wagner and Chandi Deitmer’s New York Times Crossword — 8/10/25
And this was really fun:
- 21A [… something big and rocky with a Space Force base in it] CH👁️ENNE MOUNTAIN I knew Cheyenne Mountain had been a missile site or something like that, but I didn’t know the newest branch of the military was running it now.
- 29A [… something pointy grown by Pinocchio] DONK👁️ARS
- 39A [… something conical in a chemistry lab] ERLENM👁️R FLASK
- 46A [… something round and metallic with kanji written on it] JAPANES👁️N
- 63A [Children’s game phrase that should start the italicized clues … or a hint to eight squares in this puzzle] I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE (a/k/a I Spy)
- 84A [… something yellow and happy in a text message] SMIL👁️MOJI
- 87A [… something soft and melty in a black tub] BR👁️R’S ICE CREAM We’re perfectly happy with the Kroger Private Selection stuff we’ve been buying for the last year. Wonderful mouthfeel!
- 96A [… something feathery sipping on nectar] HON👁️ATER This was the hardest of the theme answers for me because I really wanted to fit HUMMINGBIRD in there somehow.
- 111A [… something long and painted on a highway] DOUBL👁️LLOW LINE I can’t help but be reminded of the
late1990s Texas agriculture commissioner Jim Hightower.
If this puzzle doesn’t win at least a few converts to Team Rebus, I don’t know what puzzle will. (1) The rebuses are all the same. (2) It’s clear from the structure of the clues (and the unnecessary italicization) which Across answers have rebuses. (3) It’s just so damned cute (and I mean that in the best possible way). I almost wish I’d solved on paper so I could have actually drawn eight tiny eyeballs. I’m no artist, but even I can manage a rudimentary eyeball.
I like when constructors find a revealer for a rebus puzzle that somehow incorporates the small size of the letters that most solvers will squeeze into a square. “My little eye” is perfect from that perspective.
On top of the fun rebuses, the puzzle was full of entries that felt like they were aimed right at me:
- 18A [Mann who wrote songs for 1999’s “Magnolia”] AIMEE That clue is almost an understatement; I think Paul Thomas Anderson has been quoted that the movie grew out of Mann’s lines “Now that I’ve met you/Would you object to/Never seeing each other/Again?” Love that movie, love that music.
- 25A [Norse mythology’s equivalent of Olympus] ASGARD I think that name sticks in my head because Erik Agard’s surname appears to be frequently autocorrected to Asgard.
- 38A [Music genre associated with the tellum, or reverse mullet] EMO Never heard of that hairstyle. I’m guessing long in the front, short in the back?
- 55A [Many a hangout in Boystown, Chicago] GAY BAR I never spent much time in the bar scene because I was lucky enough to meet my husband when we were both 18. (Thank you, Lubbock, for being flat and relatively treeless.)
- 72A [Alfred E. ___, mascot of Mad magazine] NEUMAN In the 1960s, I read every issue of Mad multiple times. That’s where I learned a lot of stuff that’s helpful in crossword solving.
- 81A [Hall’s music partner] OATES The less said about the ski trip where the only music we heard at the resort was Hall & Oates, the better. I don’t remember how the snow was that trip, but I remember the music. (My apologies to any Hall & Oates fan out there.)
- 91A [Locale for a Snapple fact] CAP Not LID.
- 93A [___ Hammarskjöld, only posthumous winner of a Nobel Peace Prize] DAG That’s a nice fact to know, but if that surname doesn’t get you the answer, you’re gonna need the crosses.
- 104A [Single facial feature] UNIBROW That’s why they invented tweezers. (Trust me, I know.)
- 3D [Showy daisies] OXEYES This isn’t a particularly interesting entry, but it did help me quickly realize that this was a rebus puzzle.
- 13D [Iowan, by another name] HAWKEYE I blanked on that until my 👁️ 👁️ were opened.
- 26A [Fast-food chain founded in New Orleans] POPEYE’S The origin of that chain was fresh in my mind from some other puzzle in the last week or so.
- 30D [Happy, dopey, sneezy, sleepy, grumpy and bashful: Abbr.] ADJS. Cute clue that would have worked much better had the NYT clueing conventions allowed for capitalizing Dopey, Sneezy et al.
- 68D [Sort who won’t heed the advice “Don’t look down”?] SNOB Guilty as charged, depending on the subject.
- 98A [Brand of wafer] NILLA My younger brother loved those cookies even as an adult. My husband makes a mean rum ball using them, but otherwise, you can have them.
- 100D [Animated daughter of King Triton] ARIEL From Disney’s The Little Mermaid. If you were offended by the casting of Halle Bailey in the live-action remake, get over it.
- 108D [Radiohead’s first #1 album (2000)] KID A When I was trying to find the typo I’d made in the grid, I wondered briefly what a KIDA was.
Evan Birnholz’s Washington Post Crossword “See You Around” — Matt’s Review
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword solution, “See You Around”, 8/10/2025
This week’s puzzle from Evan mixes it up a bit – the theme is in the clues. Our title is “See You Around.” I initially thought we might have themers that begin with C- and end with -U but was unsurprised to be wrong, as that’s a pretty tough letter combo to work with. What we do have:
- 23a [*Symbol associated with a mouth] BIRTHSTONE
- 34a [*Lauder in 1997 headlines] MARS PATHFINDER
- 47a [*Locale for an auklet] JEWELRY STORE
- 58a [*Horus can be seen in one] BRASS BAND
- 69a [*Pious, for example] PARTICLES
- 76a [*Couch, e.g.] GASTROPOD
- 82a [*Reuters network] TENANTS UNION
- 102a [*In a suit] BENT OUT OF SHAPE
- 115a [Change direction on the road 180 degrees … and what you must literally do in each starred clue to understand its answer] MAKE A U TURN
Pretty tricky bit going on, but also a spot-on revealer that hopefully clears it up quickly for stuck solvers. In order to make the starred clues match the answer, we must ‘make a “u” turn.’ So [*Lauder in 1997 headlines] becomes “Lander in 1997 headlines” after flipping the ‘n’ into a ‘u’, and MARS PATHFINDER makes plenty more sense than trying to remember whether Estee Lauder made any particular headlines in her late 80s.
I’m partial among this theme set to the clues: hiding “conch” in “couch” and “renters” in “Reuters.”
Since the theme has little effect on the grid itself, there’s room for pretty flexible fill. I didn’t have a lot that really tickled me, but I also found the puzzle plenty smooth and had almost nothing to quibble with. Other highlights: [Way up high?] for AISLE stumped me for a good bit, but I think it’s in reference to an AISLE in an airplane, which gets “up high” // RISIBLE at 52d is just a fun word. Here it’s clued [Eliciting laughter]
Cheers!
Zhouqin Burnikel’s Universal Sunday crossword, “Passion Play”—Jim P’s review
We have two sets of theme answers today. The starred entries around the perimeter of the grid are all words that can partner with LOVE to satisfy their clues. The second set comprises a quartet of longer phrases whose outer letters spell LOVE. The apt revealer is LOVE IS ALL AROUND (69a, [Theme song for “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” … or a hint to 32-, 51-, 86- and 103-Across, and to the starred clues]).
Universal Sunday crossword solution · “Passion Play” · Zhouqin Burnikel · 8.10.25
Perimeter words:
- 1a. [*Unhappily pining] (Love) SICK
- 5a. [*Marriage based on passion] (Love) MATCH
- 10a. [*Song such as “(You’re) Timeless to Me”] (Love) DUET
- 14a. [*Hickeys] (Love) BITES
- 18d. [*Attractive bit of magic] (Love) SPELL
- 49d. [*Tryst location] (Love) NEST
- 79d. [*Light bumps in a parking lot] (Love) TAPS
- 109d. [*Intimate part of a play] (Love) SCENE
- 128a. [*Mathematician Ada] (Love)LACE
- 127a. [*Hippie’s accessory] (Love) BEADS
- 126a. [*6-0 tennis victories] (Love) SETS
- 125a. [*Sofas for two] (Love) SEATS
- 100d. [*Doting couple] (Love) BIRDS
- 72d. [*Kamadeva and Eros] (Love) GODS
- 42d. [*Manipulate with tons of affection] (Love) BOMB
- 1d. [*Romantic 2018 film starring Nick Robinson] (Love,) SIMON
Longer phrases:
- 32a. [Citrusy orchard] LEMON GROVE
- 51a. [Bar in the neighborhood] LOCAL DIVE
- 86a. [“Don’t laze about!”] “LOOK ALIVE!”
- 103a. [“Time to boogie!”] “LET’S GROOVE!”
While solving, I absolutely skipped the revealer clue, so I didn’t know about those longer phrases until after the solve, but I enjoyed the aha moment that came with them, as well as the entries themselves. Some of those perimeter phrases aren’t as in-the-language as others (“love duet”?), and they have love scenes in plays?
As usual with a Burnikel grid, the fill is smooth and lively. Top honors go to TOP HONORS, SEA OTTERS, BALOONED, DO OR DIE, and PHENOMENA.
OOGIE Boogie
Clues of note:
- 66a. U.S. state closest to Africa]. MAINE. One of those factoids you’d never guess, but someone must’ve done the math.
- 80a. ___ Boogie (animated villain with a rhyming name)]. OOGIE. From The Nightmare Before Christmas.
3.5 stars.
Eric,
Inquiring minds need to know how the lack of trees in Lubbock presents romantic opportunities.
In grade school I had a pen pal in Lubbock. He sent me a Reddy Kilowatt pin, which I treasured. We had no such mascot in New York.
Martin,
I spent most of my childhood in Vermont. Lots of trees and New England-scale mountains colored my idea of a livable landscape.
My husband and I both started college as architecture majors. For financial reasons, I looked only at colleges in Texas. In the 1970s, Texas had three state universities with architecture schools: Texas Tech in Lubbock, A&M in College Station, and UT Austin. A&M was never in the running for me.
But Tech was until I did a campus visit to Lubbock and the lack of trees immediately convinced me that I simply couldn’t spend five years there. (I’ve since come to appreciate the stark beauty of West Texas, but I still don’t want to live there.)
So I ended up at UT. I’m not sure why my future husband chose UT, except that his mother was from Austin and her parents still lived there, so he had been visiting Austin all his life.
UT put us in the same dormitory. The RA for our wing made sure that all the freshman architecture majors (who included our respective roommates) met each other very early on.
And one thing led to another, as it so often does in life.
Thanks for asking.
Got it. Thanks. Funny how those things happen. The main thing that my son got out of his college experience was a wife. Well worth the investment, I will add.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
What a Sunday NYT puzzle should do…
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 5 stars
Completely agree. Classic rebus. Very well executed. Unique theme answers. Reasonably clean fill.
NYT: The rebus was pretty easy to 51A out, but I found the cluing a little tougher than usual. ERLENMEYERFLASK was a gimme for me, but I wonder how widely known it is.
WaPo: I was completely baffled by the starred clues until I got to the revealer, but I filled in almost all of them before that. One clue perplexed me: ‘Wheel on a pizza, perhaps’ – OLIVE. Huh? Don’t get it.
Puzzle: WaPo; Rating: 4 stars
Picture a pitted olive, diced. I appreciate evocative clues like this one. And pizza clues in general… 😋
I found the NYT’s theme perfectly straightforward but the fill harder than usual for a Sunday. No strong feelings about either one.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3 stars
So it’s just a bunch of long across and short down answers with “eye” in them? I guess the fill was decent, so it isn’t like it was a bad puzzle, and I suppose having the hint entry was an added feat, but I still have to ask “so what?” I find rebus puzzles where there’s a trick sometimes enjoyable (like the black/white thing, or different numbers), but here it’s just EYE. Not even “an EYE for an I” or something. It did feel like less of a slog than most Sundays, and I got to use my HS and college chemistry knowledge for maybe the first time in my life by entering ERLENMEYER FLASK without missing a beat, so I’ll give it that.
I think you’re being too harsh on the theme. Basing the substitution on “an eye for an eye” is no different in construction terms from basing it on pop culture (including pop culture, as in today’s reference to Frozen, suitable for small children and their parents}. Besides, in many constructions the rebus is its own reward.
I’ve no strong feeling about the choices made, only to note that it’s on the easy side and cleanly carried out. My only qualm is that crosswords are hurtling toward the kind of basis of which I speak.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
4.5 stars because this is what NYT quality looks like. I find the theme a bit tame though.
CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN: This is one of the iconic doomsday bunkers in movies where the US top brass led a counterattack against Soviets or aliens.
ERLENMEYER FLASK: This is why it is called a “conical flask” across the pond.
I’d never heard of the mountains, and somehow I’d forgotten the flask. But solvable regardless. Usually less familiar theme entries come off as a flaw. It didn’t bother me here.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 5 stars
I had so much fun completing this puzzle!
Puzzle: WaPo; Rating: 1.5 stars
Neither the title nor the “revealer” made any sense. Puzzle was fine, but things like that annoy the heck out of me.
Yes how could anyone possibly understand the concept of a lowercase letter turning upside-down to make another lowercase letter. It’s totally inscrutable.
You mean inscrntable
Haha
Stupid me couldn’t scrute out the meaning of the title or the revealer either. All I figured was that the u’s were changed to n’s in the theme clues (i.e., See “you” around and Make a “U” turn), and I thought “okay, whatever. At least it was clever that he found words that made sense with either u’s or n’s.”
It wasn’t until I read the write-up here that I saw what the conceit was.
I feel like Chevy Chase a long time ago – “It was my understanding that there would be no [meta].”
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
The theme idea was really neat, but the theme entries felt a little forced. Maybe there just aren’t that many phrases with EYE somewhere in them.
Also Lubbock is a horrible place. Hard to get to, nothing to do unless you’re a college student, full of crazies.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2 stars
Forced theme entrties.
Puzzle: WaPo; Rating: 4.5 stars
Beautiful…the construction is, as to be expected, wonderful. But the clues are absolutely masterful. Thank you, Evan, for a super solving experience.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 5 stars
Always enjoy Chandi’s puzzles when I run across them.
Eric – Jim Hightower is still alive and kicking, and has a Substack that replaced his monthly newsletter some time back.
Oops!
Thanks. I don’t know where I got the idea he’d died. Thanks for the correction.
WaPo: fun Sunday puzzle! Agreed that there’s lots of good fill, and it was a fun theme to the clues. I also like seeing Evan’s personality and likes in the puzzle… I feel like there are multiple Ani Difranco’s per year, but clued in a way that he seems to be a real fan not just using it to make the fill work.
Puzzle: WaPo; Rating: 3 stars
I don’t understand 104D: “Wheel on a pizza” is an “olive”. Any help please?
I didn’t get that either. See my comment above and a (possible) explanation that I don’t find very convincing.
Like these. Pitted American black olives don’t belong on pizza, or really anywhere else. American black olives are a throwback to the fifties before we learned how to eat, but people still use them. I don’t know why. They have no olive flavor, just a bit of taste like a bottle of iron supplement smells.
Omigosh Martin, you continue to amaze all of us with your vast knowledge of every topic! (And BTW, I’ve never smelled iron supplements, lol!)
But as for me, I put black olives on my pizzas because I like their taste — and they are good for our health (according to med reports). And I’m sure you know that olives come in all sorts of colors, which mostly depends on when they’re plucked. (Also, I put diced carrots on my pizzas to add some healthy crunch.)
Back to the topic of olives looking like wheels on a pizza, I suppose that only occurs if you slice them, ritht?
(Ack, the timer elapsed before I could finish my comment.)
But what I meant to add was that black olives that are pitted and sliced into rings resemble tires, but not necessarily wheels, right?
I trust you’ll ignore my dogmatism. If you like ’em, eat ’em.
And Here’s a spokeless wheel that looks like a black olive.
BTW, I love black olives, but the real cured ones. Italian, Spanish, French, middle eastern, they all make my mouth water. But those American canned ones aren’t in the same league. FYI, they are picked green, treated with lye and then chemically oxidized to turn them black. First oxygen is bubbled through them and then an iron salt is added to make them uniform and shiny. Why they’re allowed to be called “ripe olives” is a mystery. A real black olive is cured when it’s ripe and black. Those are the healthy ones.
Thx again for edifying us who are among the “great unwashed masses” regarding things unknown!