Wednesday, August 27, 2025

AV Club untimed (Jenni) [4.00 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
LAT 3:54 (Gareth) rate it
NYT 7:09 (Eric) [3.47 avg; 16 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker 2:37 (Kyle) [4.36 avg; 7 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (pannonica) [3.40 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
USA Today 9:06 (Emily) [3.00 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
WSJ 7:34 (Eric) [3.33 avg; 3 ratings] rate it

Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “What Do You See?” — Eric’s Review

The first theme answers I got made me think this was just another theme based on geometric shapes. But it’s a little more specific than that:

• 17A [Transaction that benefits both parties] SQUARE DEAL
•  21A [Breakout performance] STAR TURN
• 33A [Revisit a previous topic] CIRCLE BACK
• 42A [Greets from a distance] WAVE HELLO
• 55A [XXL, e.g.] PLUS SIZE
• 61A [ESP research tools, featuring the shapes that start 17-, 21-, 33-, 42- and 55-Across] ZENER CARDS

I didn’t find the theme particularly useful in solving the puzzle, but that’s often the case. But given how often ESP shows up a puzzle answer, this is kind of a fun idea for a theme. And given that there are only five shapes in the 25-card Zener deck, it’s a tightly-limited theme set.

Despite having six theme answers, the grid is fairly nicely filled:

• 5A [Church sight] ALTAR Not SPIRE.
• 14A [Room opposite the ballroom on a Clue board] HALL I haven’t played Clue in 50 years, but I can still sort of picture the board. (I do much better with the suspects and weapons.)
• 15A [No-no for un vegetariano] CARNE When I read the clue, I didn’t immediately notice that it was in Spanish. Does that mean I’m a sloppy reader or that I’m so used to seeing Spanish that it barely registers as “foreign”?
• 25A [Google in the comics pages] BARNEY I was surprised to learn that Barney Google and Snuffy Smith is still being published. It’s been decades since I regularly read any newspaper’s comics pages, and that strip felt musty even then. But since it’s over 100 years old, I should cut it some slack.
• 

  Paul Klee, “Angelus Novus” (1920)

  41A [Nation whose anthem is “Sayaun Thunga Phulka”] NEPAL I didn’t know that and probably will have forgotten it by tomorrow.

• 5D [Biting, as a comment] ACERBIC/10D [Bitter attacks] DIATRIBES/30D [Gorsuch’s predecessor] SCALIA Three of a kind!
• 13D [Hard and rough, as skin] HORNY
• 37D [“Angelus Novus” artist] Paul KLEE As many New York Times solvers learned last week, the name is pronounced “Clay.”
• 44D [“Heads” side of a coin] OBVERSE Making the “tails” side the reverse.
• 48D [Soldier of fortune, briefly] MERC

Zhou Zhang’s New York Times Crossword — Eric’s Review

Zhou Zhang’s New York Times Crossword — 8/27/25

A grid that’s 16 rows and 14 columns, four circled Schrödinger rebuses — impressive for a solo NYT debut.

• 18A [“Anything sounds good to me”] I’M {UP/DOWN} FOR WHATEVER/3D [One end of the day] SUN{UP/DOWN}
• 23A [Basic couturier offering] BUTTON-{UP/DOWN} 26D [One aspect to consider in making a decision] {UP/DOWN}SIDE
• 27A [Highs … that could appear four more times in this puzzle] UPS
• 48A [Devour] GOBBLE {UP/DOWN}/33D [One orientation of a playing card during a magic trick] FACE {UP/DOWN}
• 54A [Failing epically] GOING {UP/DOWN} IN FLAMES/55D [One tool for scrolling on a computer] {UP/DOWN} KEY
• 51D [Lows … that could appear four more times in this puzzle] DOWNS

Most of these work reasonably well for me, though DOWN sounds much more natural to my ear than UP in I’M DOWN FOR WHATEVER, GOBBLE DOWN and GOING DOWN IN FLAMES.

I used to be a big fan of Schrödinger puzzles, but I’ve cooled on them somewhat. I’m impressed by the construction chops it takes to pull one off. But too often, I find it easy to solve them without noticing the Schrödinger aspect. That’s what happened here, as I put only DOWN in the rebus squares. Maybe the puzzle-solving software shouldn’t accept that as a correct answer. Perhaps I’d have noticed the Schrödinger feature if any of the phrases had seemed to need UP instead of DOWN. Or maybe I should have just paid more attention to 27A and 51D.

Other stuff:

• 1A [It might be rigged] MAST I’ve seen this clue before. And I used to have a sailboat. Still, I expected the answer to be GAME or something along those lines.
• 63A [Diving position with bent hips and straight legs] PIKE Everything after “position” is just extra words for me, though I’m sure some solvers got the answer more quickly because of the description.
• 

  David Boudia Demonstrates the Pike Dive

  64A [The Prancing Pony and the Admiral Benbow are fictional ones] INNS The first is from The Lord of the Rings; the second is from Treasure Island.

• 69A [Screw them!] LIDS Cute.
• 5D [Hurricane that’s the subject of the 2006 documentary “When the Levees Broke”] KATRINA It was depressing to read recently about how the Federal Emergency Management Agency — considerably improved since Hurricane Katrina — is now being reduced to almost nothing.
• 7D [Statement in a courtroom] OATH/8D [Statement in a courtroom] PLEA Usually, clues that are repeated are a bit disorienting for me. Not this time, as I didn’t read either one.
• 24D [Apt letters missing from “c_ _tom_ _ _”] USERS Surely I’m not the only person who finds clues like this more trouble than they’re worth to make sense of. That’s what the crosses are for!

Patrick Berry’s New Yorker crossword – Kyle’s write-up

The New Yorker solution grid – Patrick Berry – Wednesday 08/27/2025

Patrick Berry returns to the New Yorker Wednesday slot with another stunner of a grid: four sets of long triple stacks full of interesting entries, everything cleanly crossed and pitched exactly at the “beginner-friendly” level. Here’s a closer look at those stacks:

• NW: NEEDLE DROP (was not aware of this as film music terminology), TAILOR-MADE, STRIP MINED
• NE: OF LIKE MIND (I like this a lot), RANGE ROVER, GRAND OPERA
• SW: HAVE DOUBTS, ACE VENTURA, SHEEP’S EYES. I had to get the latter entirely by crosses as I’d never heard the phrase in the clue [Make ___ at (regard lovingly)]. Merriam-Webster defines sheep’s eye as “a shy longing usually amorous glance”. I’m really glad to have learned this!
• SE: LASER BEAMS, ERECTOR SET, DOMAIN NAME

Thanks Patrick!

Dylan Schiff’s AVCX Classic Crossword “Career Pivot” — Jenni’s review

Fun and fairly challenging puzzle! My favorite kind of rebus: each one is a different word. They are symmetrical, which could be helpful.

Each rebus square contains a kind of job and the two answers take a turn at that spot.  knew something odd was happening from the very first.

AVCX, August 28, 2025, Dylan Schiff, “Career Pivot,” solution grid

• 17a [Black-and-white pet] is a TUXEDO CAT, right? And it fits! Then I looked at the crossings and the last few didn’t work at all. The problem was at the crossing for 4d, [Session in a dojo] and I had J U _ A T. I thought that was some kind of specialized term that I didn’t know, and then the light dawned. The crossing square is DOC. 4d takes a right turn to become JU{DO C}LASS and 17a heads down the grid to fill in TUXE{DO C}AT.
• 9d [Dance performed during a contest in “Grease”] crosses 21a [Funky music genre originating in 1980s London]. This time the rebus is DJ so we have ACI{D J}AZZ and HAN{D J}IVE.
• 26d [Call-and-response pool game] intersects 41a [Home of the San Diego Padres] at COP. MAR{CO P}OLO (oh, that kind of pool) and PET{CO P}ARK.
• 45d [“Well, wouldja look at the time…] crosses 55a [Option at many a fast-food chain] and they share VET. I HA{VE T}O GO and DRI{VE T}HRU.
• 54d [Penalty for missing a payment] crosses [Martial arts move also called a knifehand strike] at TECH: LA{TE CH}ARGE and KARA{TE CH}OP. Minor quibble: to me, TECH is a sector, not a job.

That’s a very minor quibble for a really good puzzle. I didn’t notice until I wrote this that the rebi all span two words. Cool.

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: never heard of ACID JAZZ before. I also did not know that “Doctor Who” apparently has a creature called the weeping ANGEL.

Daniel Grinberg’s USA Today Crossword, “Tennis, Anyone?” — Emily’s write-up

Grab your racket!

USA Today, August 27, 2025, “Tennis, Anyone?” by Daniel Grinberg

Theme: ?

Themers:

• 17a. [*Game], DOWNTOCLOWN
• 37a. [*Set], STUDIOBACKLOT
• 59a. [*Match], LIFEPARTNER

I am stumped with today’s puzzle. The theme just isn’t clicking for me, so please let me know if you happened to see it. Given the tennis cluing, it feels like there’s a theme here but I couldn’t figure it out. The themer set is a mix with: DOWNTOCLOWN, STUDIOBACKLOT, and LIFEPARTNER.

Favorite fill: PAWPRINT, AGITATE, LAPAZ, and SKEWER

Stumpers: ASHEN (“paler” came to mind first), AUPAIR (needed crossings), and XENON (also needed crossings)

While a bit challenging for me today, theme aside, overall the puzzle was a nice solve with everything crossed fairly. A fun grid design too!

3.5 stars

~Emily

Aaron Ullman’s LA Times Crossword – Gareth’s theme summary

With the circles in place, it was quickly apparent that each set was spelling out MINI. Why was a-whole-nother question though. I have never heard of the revealing answer, MINISPLITS, they seem to be some kind of air con device? In any case, it suggests each long across entry has a MI and an NI in it, that are not contiguous:

• [Traditional social group], FAMILYUNIT
• [Historic hockey game at Lake Placid], MIRACLEONICE
• [Dress blues, e.g.], MILITARYUNIFORM
• [Setting for amateur hour], OPENMICNIGHT, Amateur autopsy club, e.g.

Gareth