BEQ 12:54 (Eric) 
[2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
LAT tk (Gareth) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 17:37 (ZDL) 
[3.70 avg; 20 ratings] rate it
Universal 3:35 (Eric) 
[3.13 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today 9:42 (Emily) [3.38 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
WSJ 9:02 (Jim Q) [3.00 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
The Fireball is on vacation until September.
Guilherme Gilioli’s Universal Crossword “Quick Tips” — Eric’s Review
Guilherme Gilioli’s Universal Crossword “Quick Tips” — 8/21/25
Circled letters spell out synonyms for “rapid”:
- 17A [Spot for vintage finds] FLEA MARKETS Getting a couple of key letters allowed me to fill in the rest without reading the clue. That’s fun when it works.
- 29A [Hosts a festivity] HAS A PARTY That answer strikes me as borderline green paint, though THROW A PARTY would be fine.
- 43D [Tinker Bell’s trail] FAIRY DUST
- 57A [Rejects someone on Tinder] SWIPES LEFT
Except for the second one, the theme answers are all nice finds that incorporate the synonyms. There are lots of synonyms for “quick,” making this perhaps not the tightest of theme sets.
Other stuff:
- 10A [“Yeah, right!”] I BET Not AS IF.
- 14A [Owllike ’90s toy] FURBY I got this off the F in 1D PFFT. I don’t know much about the toy, but the word comes to mind every time I see some guy with a lot of body hair.
- 40A [The word “clue,” for this clue] END Because “clue” is the last word in the clue.
- 62A [Film director Almodovar] PEDRO He’s been one of my favorite directors for a long time.
- 2D [Regulation] RULE “Rules and regulations”? Just pick one, please.
- 4D [Suns and Heat, e.g.] NBA TEAMS Nice pairing that might have been moderately misdirecting if I’d read the clue while solving the puzzle.
- 9D [Slithery housemate] PET SNAKE/10D [Spiny-crested reptile] IGUANA We’ve met our reptile quota for the day.
- 12D [“Sunny-side up” breakfast staples] EGGS One of my favorite foods for breakfast or dinner. Fried eggs with runny yolks are great on top of a bowl of creamy polenta.
- 28D [“I’ll take that!”] HAND IT OVER No “please”? Where are your manners?
- 37D [What something tacky is in] BAD TASTE I was interested to read this etymology for “tacky”: “early 19th century: of unknown origin. Early use was as a noun denoting a horse of little value, later applied to a poor white in some Southern states of the US.” That last part makes me want to strike the word from my vocabulary
- 39D [“Do the Right Thing” director] SPIKE LEE Another favorite director of mine. If you’ve never seen Do the Right Thing, it’s probably the best movie about race relations in the United States in the late 20th century. Sadly, it’s still quite relevant today.
Joe Rodini’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Just Me and Myself” — Jim Q’s write-up
Looks like the NAYS have it today—no AYES in sight.
THEME: The letter “I” doesn’t appear
WSJ • 8/20/25 • Thurs • “Just Me and Myself” • Joe Rodini • Jeff Chen • solution • 20250820
THEME ANSWERS:
erm… none, really? I mean, there’s a revealer….
70A Spectacle, or (as a homophone) what you can’t call today’s puzzle: EYELESS
Not sure how I feel about this one. I stumbled into the southeast corner early (before uncovering any of the longer answers), so the big reveal didn’t really feel like much of a reveal. Once “EYELESS” was in place, the rest of the puzzle was just me thinking: “Okay, so we’re avoiding the letter I. Got it. Looking forward to what the 4 theme-looking answers have to do with the theme…”
Turns out, the answer to that last thought is… as far as I can tell… nothing. XYLOPHONE MALLET, GO FOR THE JUGULAR, CHEVROLET BLAZER, and QWERTY KEYBOARD (total gimme off of the Q). Anything to specifically do do with a lack of I’s that I’m missing? If not, I think we should call this puzzle what it really is: A themeless that is one vowel shy of a pangram.
So if I were judging it as a themeless, where crud should be very minimal, I would take issue with a few things in the fill: E FOR as a partial, SRO, NOH, RBS, ATTA, SLRS, SYL, DRU, TROD ON, KPH, ANAG, A BEE (partial #2), LEDE. To be clear, I wouldn’t mind most of this in a themed puzzle (although I still wouldn’t like the two partials), but that’s not how this puzzle plays. The word count at 76 is higher than the typical themeless limit as well.
MISSTEPS / STUMBLES / THINGS I FORGOT OR DIDN’T KNOW:
- 10A: [Costly beef] KOBE. Really wanted WAGU, which I now realize is WAGYU.
ELLERY Queen. Pseudonym for these two!
That’s the new trendy expensive stuff, right?
- 34A [“The Flounder” author Grass] GÜNTER — Found this name buried in my brain’s attic. Never read him. Should I?
- 36A [Drum brand from Japan] TAMA — I play with drummers all the time and still didn’t know this one. Apparently I’ve never looked at their kits closely.
- 52A [Harem guard of old] EUNUCH — A word that feels like it should come with a puff of dust when opened.
- 65A [Commanded, long ago] BADE — Ditto.
- 67A [Queen of mystery] ELLERY — Crossing the unfamiliar (to me) Joanne DRU made this one my final “please be right” guess with the R crossing. Luckily it was. ***This is actually really interesting! Brand new to me.
- 14A [Usually dry creek] ARROYO. I’ve seen this as a last name on my class rosters a few times… now I have a fun fact to share with my next Arroyo.
- 20A [Sweetums] TOOTS. This feels especially dated as clued. Unless we’re going full satire, I can’t think of a context where that word isn’t cringe inducing… Why not just clue it as [Train sounds] or something?
MUSINGS:
- 69A [Degree of success?] PHD — Still not sure I get this one. Are we saying anyone with a PhD = success? If so, tell that to my grad-school friends drowning in adjunct paychecks.
- 4D [Plant malady that results from too much water] ROOT ROT. Been doing a lot of research on this malady lately. I bought and planted a young Japanese maple in my yard ($$$!) and the person who sold it to me told me “Just when you think you watered it enough, water it more!” I took that advice waaaaay to literally. Left a hose on it and forgot about it. 6 hours later… well… all signs point to ROOT ROT. The awful smell has now dissipated… but can’t find a clear answer on whether or not it can fix itself without me digging it up and doing emergency surgery. Can I just leave it and hope for the best?
- 7D [Photogs] LENSMEN — This one feels as dated as TOOTS. Has anyone actually said “lensmen” outside of a 1940s pulp magazine?
- 19D [Hasten for Athens: Abbr.] ANAG — These tricksy anagram clues always slow me down, but I secretly love them.
- Lastly, the revealer EYEFUL is a bit strange to me… to point out what something isn’t rather than what it is.
I do appreciate the idea and the audacity of the construction. But from a solving perspective, I would’ve enjoyed it way more if it followed all the regular guidelines of what is expected from a themeless (low word count, minimal crud, interesting fill) while still keeping “I” out of it… which may be impossible.
2 stars from me.
I must admit… great title.
Simeon Seigel’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up
Difficulty: Tricky (17m37s)
Simeon Seigel’s New York Times crossword, 8/21/25, 0821
Today’s theme: WHAT GOES UP (Start of a popular saying about gravity … or a hint to completing the answers to the starred clues)
- BITTER ENDER
- GAME RESERVE
- TAKE IT IN
- LIVE RADAR
- TONY AWARD
- ORGANIZING
Massive disparity between how quickly I threw down the revealer (instantaneously) and how long it took me to trudge through the puzzle, never exactly getting how the themers worked until I was a third of the way through. Also probably didn’t help that it’s an oversized grid (16×15), which is the only way to center WHAT GOES UP and give the other theme entries room to breath (and rise, and fall.)
Cracking: ALI BABA
Slacking: I BEEN HAD? I been? Eye bin? Ibn?
Sidetracking: George TAKEI
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1811 “Going To The Dogs” — Eric’s Review
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1811 “Going To The Dogs” — 8/21/25
Three fictional pups show up in wacky answers with repeating letter patterns:
- 20A [Collie that’s into Rastafarianism] SELASSIE LASSIE Haile Selassie was the emperor of Ethiopia from 1930–1974. Rastafarians consider him a divine figure (but you knew that).
- 37A [Short horror tales of a mystery dog shared on the Internet?] CREEPY PASTA ASTA I’m just now learning of the existence of creepypasta.com, which is an outlet for all that short horror fiction you’ve been writing. Asta, as any true crossword fan knows, is the wire-hair fox terrier belonging to Nick and Nora Charles of The Thin Man film series. (I read Dashiell Hammett’s novel decades ago and don’t remember if the Charleses had a dog in the book.)
- 57A [Yellow slobbery dog in a Bond film?] A TIME TO DIE ODIE Asta’s popularity in crosswords is possibly rivaled by Odie from the Garfield comics.
SELASSIE LASSIE is kind of fun in a very goofy way, but the other two theme answers don’t really amuse me. At least the first one made the repeating letters obvious, which probably helped a lot with CREEPY PASTA.
Other stuff:
- 15A [Bump or scrape, to a babe] OWIE/16A [Germophobic comic Mandel] HOWIE The juxtaposition of OWIE and HOWIE tickles me more than it should.
- 23A [Preposition that’s a homophone of one of the ancient elements] ERE Possibly this week’s winner for the longest clue-to-answer ratio. (Note to constructors and editors: That’s not an honor you really want.)
- 42A [Naval base?] HULL/29D [Naval bases?] KEELS I might have enjoyed these repeating clues more if I hadn’t struggled slightly in that whole section, with the unfamiliar CREEPY PASTA, 45A [Years and years] AGES that could easily have been EONS and 37A [Exchange of ideas] not suggesting CHAT.
- 48A [Christian Pulisic’s team, for short] USMNT Soccer is one of the few sports I pay any attention to, so I recognized Pulisic’s name. But I briefly had USMST, with an S for “Soccer” instead of N for “National.”
- 56A [Spot for jhumkas] EAR A jhumka is an elaborate earring worn in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. That’s a new word for me.
63A [Natalie’s “Black Swan” costar] MILA Kunis It’s been 15 years since I saw that movie and I blanked on everyone in cast except Natalie Portman.- 2D [“Les Misérables” inspector] JAVERT I’ve never read Victor Hugo’s novel nor seen the Broadway show based on it, but Inspector Javert is lodged in my brain anyway.
- 8D [Iconic office park that stands in for Lumon in “Severance”] BELL LABS/12D [Like the first season of “Severance”] NINE-PART Having watched Severance probably helped me with the first one, but I couldn’t have told you how many episodes there were in either season.
- 27D [___ Bridge (walkway behing Citi Field’s center field wall)] SHEA It might be only because of crosswords that I know that Shea Stadium was torn down years ago after they built Citi Field next to it.
- 32D [“The Second Coming” poet] William Butler YEATS For some reason, I always want to associate that poem with T.S. Eliot.
- 39D [Chosen course] ELECTIVE I thought only of a “course” as part of a meal for the longest time.
- 49D [Noble Italian family name] MEDICI It was only a few years ago that I learned I’d been mispronouncing that name.
Brian Callahan’s USA Today Crossword, “Unrivaled (Freestyle)” — Emily’s write-up
Check this out!
USA Today, August 21, 2025, “Unrivaled (Freestyle)” by Brian Callahan
Favorite fill: BADU, TARMAC, and NAPHEESACOLLIER
Stumpers: INEEDAHAND (needed some crossings), THISAGAIN (also needed some crossings), and TIEFIGHTER (didn’t know off-hand though many probably did)
Lots of fresh fill and cluing in today’s puzzle. Took me a bit more time, though not too long since everything was fairly crossed. I also enjoyed the grid design–it could have felt potentially choppy but with the plethora of lengthy fill and the center spanner, it had great flow for me.
3.5 stars
~Emily
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
Somehow I got the NYT theme quickly, making my solve in my usual in my usual Thursday timeframe (11 minutes or so). Showing my age, but loved seeing ZORK in the puzzle. Never knew how the name came to be, but definitely played a lot of it and other Infocom games in the 80s
Tricky NYT, satisfying to finish. Some covertly ambiguous clues, impressive Thursday trick.
It took me a while to figure out the NYT theme, even after (quickly) getting the revealer. Very cleverly done, although I stumbled over IBEENHAD and SAYOVER — the latter is not really in my language, although I’m sure other people say it. No idea about ZORK, and that was the one spot where I needed the theme to suss out the missing ‘Z.’
I don’t know that I buy the clue for PERP – ‘crime show extra, informally.’ The PERP would be a main character, no? The extras are the people milling about in the background, typically with no lines.
I didn’t buy PERM either and don’t know about I BEEN HAD rather than I’VE. I was not aware of TONYA, ZORK, or TSENG; wasn’t sure that one would use “relationship” with the things implied by KEEPERS; and of course had to hold off entering SERTAS or Sealys without crossings. So the bottom was a rough finish.
Interesting, though. Now I know two things about ballet.
I’ve heard people use the phrase “He’s/She’s a keeper” as an expression of approval of someone’s boy/girlfriend. This is one you want to hold onto.
I had the same reaction to PERP. Years ago, it seemed like the “perp of the week” in a lot of crime shows would be a well-known actor. I don’t see that much any more (but I don’t watch as much TV as I used to), but even so, the perps are more than just background actors.
Overall, I thought this was a fun puzzle. Seemed like the appropriate level of trickiness for a Thursday.
“TONYA” is a themer — TONY AWARD
The main characters are the cops. Mariska Hargitay, Richard Belzer, Ice-T, BD Wong — these are the main characters on SVU, for instance. Often the perp is hardly seen. Sometimes he might even wind up dead before he gets to utter a line.
Duh, I know all that. But the perp is the guy they are looking for, the one who did the crime. The victim may be dead on first appearance, but that’s not the perp.
I agree that the main characters are the cops. Victims are often dead before uttering a line, but perps? I don’t watch SVU, but if the perp winds up dead early on, what’s the point of the episode?
But if you have a perp being pursued, cuffed, brought in for interrogation and maybe prosecuted (what I am more accustomed to seeing) he/she is not an “extra.” Extras are actors who show up in the background of scenes – generally with nothing directly to do with the plot
Perp may derive from “perpetrator,” but to a cop all suspects are perps. It’s quite common for the first suspect to “prove” his innocence by winding up dead.
Oh, please. Now you’re just making stuff up.
I’m not sure cops consider all suspects to be “perps.” And I’m not sure how common it is for the first suspect in a crime drama to prove their innocence by winding up dead. And how exactly does winding up dead prove their innocence?
But either way, that first suspect isn’t likely to be just an “extra” in the show.
NYT: how does KLEE sound like an art medium? I don’t get it
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
It’s pronounced like CLAY.
Haha I had no idea. Another one of those words I’ve only ever read but never heard
I, too, learned that today
Don’t ya hate that?!?!
It’s pronounced “clay”- which is a sculpting art medium
NYT – This was excellent. Really satisfying solve, and really hard to pull off well. I love that the theme answers also had legitimate entries in the Across and Down pieces. That they’re mostly unrelated to the whole answers is a bonus. Great job, Simeon.
I agree; really nice Thursday
Me three.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
Another satisfying Simeon Seigel creation. I did struggle with some of the names in the fill, but I put that down as a me problem. (I don’t think I could name more than one or two women golfers these days – it’s become such a low-profile sport.)
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
Nice puzzle.
NYT: I BEEN HAD?!? What the hell?!?
No real ngram support for it; but “we been had” comes up a little bit. I seem to recall that from old films and cartoons.
I love ngram! :-) You can type in “i’ve been had”, too, to compare.
With a huge/obvious opening caveat that AI is not consistently trustworthy, I have slowly warmed up to “Claude”. Anyway, Claude (also) could not find a single concrete example but did note it “could theoretically appear in: * African American Vernacular English (AAVE) where auxiliary verbs are sometimes dropped”.
Hmm. If there’s not a particular match, maybe that’s not exactly where you want to be, in validating fill…
Claude also wrote:
I pushed back that it was the 5th usage. The reply was:
Finally, I asked Claude examples, and it came up with a few, including “I DO SO”. (Good example…)
Great puzzle, btw!!!!! (And don’t blindly trust AI, of course. Just interesting to see its take.)
Response to a ChatGPT query:
“The phrase “I been had” is a colloquial expression often used in African American Vernacular English (AAVE). It typically means that someone has been deceived or tricked, often in a way that suggests they should have known better.”
AAVE is not my vernacular, but I’ve heard this IRL as well as in movies and such. It strikes me as being just as legitimate as a lot of the other colloquialisms and slang that we see in crosswords.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
An outstanding puzzle, and the best Thursday in some time.
I gave some side-eye to “Crime show extra, informally” as the clue for PERP, but at the other end of the scale, “Fictional character with a great opening line” was one of the best clues in recent memory!
Kudos, Mr. Seigel! This was the kind of puzzle that I always hope for on Thursdays.
WSJ: Joe cleverly did include the other 25 letters – as you say one shy of a pangram.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
Really conflicted on NYT. I enjoyed the mechanism a lot, but some of the resulting fill was a real slog to the point where once I had the “aha” for how it worked I almost stopped.
Puzzle: WSJ; Rating: 4 stars
WSJ: The title elevates it to four stars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AXdCgoyUXs
WSJ:
I hadn’t noticed this until after solving but it may be worth mentioning that there are no I’s in the clues either, which explains why [Train sounds] couldn’t be the clue for TOOTS (not that there weren’t alternatives to the actual clue which I wasn’t wild about, myself). But anyhow, they carried the “no I” bit throughout the entire puzzle.
Nice observation. Now I see the puzzle in a better light.