BEQ 9:06 (Eric) 
[4.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
LAT tk (Gareth) 
[2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 7:27 (ZDL) 
[3.64 avg; 11 ratings] rate it
Universal 5:17 (Eric) [2.70 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
USA Today 8:25 (Emily) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
WSJ 9:08 (Jim Q) [2.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
The Fireball is on vacation until September.
Daniel Grinberg’s Universal Crossword “Drawing Conclusions” — Eric’s Review
Daniel Grinberg’s Universal Crossword “Drawing Conclusions” — 8/28/25
A very basic theme that with good reason runs in the Down answers:
- 3D [Alternative to Debbie Downer] NEGATIVE NANCY
- 8D [Cushioning for fragile shipments] PACKING PEANUTS I think we still have some left from our move a year ago, if anyone needs some.
- 12D [“The Amazing Spider-Man” star] ANDREW GARFIELD I haven’t seen any of his Spider-Man performances, but I knew he’d taken that role. And I remember him from The Social Network and Tick, Tick…Boom!. So I have no excuse for trying to squish GARFINKEL in there.
- 16D [Funny performers … or the ends of 3-, 8- and 12-Down?] STAND-UP COMICS
Each of these comic strips has run in newspapers long enough to be considered “classic,” so I assume most solvers will recognize the titles. I wasn’t particularly surprised that the oldest one — Nancy, which started in 1938 — is still around. Some of that stuff just never goes away.
Other stuff:
- 1A [ “Yeah … but not exactly”] KINDA Not SORTA.
- 6A [Made some calls at home?] UMPED Cute clue that didn’t fool me a bit.
- 29A [Complete, as a tattoo] INK IN I’m kinda sorta surprised this wasn’t given a comic strip clue.
- 52A [Longtime Japanese carmaker] ISUZU They haven’t sold cars or trucks in the United States since 2009. Do younger solvers recognize the brand?
- 50D [Indirectly nasty] SNIDE I just now learned that indirection is a component of snideness. And I also learned that in British English, “snide” can mean “counterfeit” or “inferior.”
Joel Woodford’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up
Difficulty: Easy (7m27s)
Joel Woodford’s New York Times crossword, 08/28/25, 0828
Today’s theme: SPOONERISM (Feature of the clues for 17-, 25-, 41- and 52-Across)
- GOOD ENOUGH — decently rated
- FREAK OUT — go nuts
- CHAIN LINK FENCES — cattle barriers
- FELL FLAT — lacked punch
Willie Spooner, that’s his legacy. Doting old man with an adorable form of mild expressive aphasia. Apparently, he wasn’t keen on the reputation. But if he knew that, a century later, puzzles would be made in his honor(ish).. maybe he’d reconsider?
Cracking: I CALL DIBS
Slacking: If “How are you?” in Italian is “Come STA?”, then Italian is objectively an incorrect and bad language, spoken by incorrect and bad people, Q.E.D.
Sidetracking: There is a 75% chance that you read FREAK OUT to the tune of this song
Ayesha Agarwal’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Backtalk” — Jim Q’s write-up
THEME: Synonyms for “talk” are found backwards (going up, rather) in common phrases
WSJ • 8/28/25 • Thurs • “Speaks Up” • Ayesha Agarwal • solution • 20250828
THEME ANSWERS:
- UTAH COUNTIES. CHAT.
- EASY AS PIE. SAY.
- HOSPITAL WARD. DRAWL.
- GET A ROOM. ORATE.
- (revealer) SPEAKS UP
Almost looks like a themeless with the layout! A themed puzzle with 74 words is impressive. I was flying through it too until I hit the east side. Then I crashed and burned.
Anyway, the theme doesn’t seem as “Thursday hard” as they have been in the WSJ since I’ve been solving them. I suppose the structure and the theme together are what earned its slot. Really enjoyed GET A ROOM! as a phrase. HOSPITAL WARD and EASY AS PIE were solid too. UTAH COUNTIES is definitely not as in-language as the others. Rather vague- too bad it had to occupy the spot that many solvers are likely to uncover first.
As much as I struggled with one whole side of the puzzle, it’s a sign of solid construction when I can suss out *most* of the unfamiliar stuff with some logic and crosses. I say “most” because I guessed at the PAISANOS / NIAMEY, though I should’ve known PAISANOS. I think there’s a pizza joint near me with that name.
STUMBLES / NEW TO ME / FORGOT:
- 14A [Trumpet fanfare] TANTARA. Needed every cross. My spell-check didn’t like it either.
- 8D [Detachment] SQUAD.Military sense. Blank mid-solve.
- 22A [Jay-Z nickname] HOVA.If you say so, Jay-Z. (Apparently short for Jay-Hova, like Jehovah.)
- 46A [Called out on X, informally] ATTED. Am I supposed to know this? I feel 30 years older just reading it.
- 54A [Miami suburb whose name means “look at the sea”] MIRAMAR. Gettable from “look at the sea” nudge.
- 57A [Rupert of “My Best Friend’s Wedding”] EVERETT.
- 43D [Niger’s capital] NIAMEY.
- 11D [Tool also called an arterial forceps] HEMOSTAT.
That SE corner feels like it’s a lot to ask of a solver. A bit odd to have MER there too crossing the “look at the sea” suburb. The challenge was nice, but I’m wondering if I would’ve enjoyed it more were there one more black square somewhere.
The nearly symmetrical onomatopoeic PLINK / CLACK entries made me smile :)
3.25 stars from me.
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1813 “Underfunded” — Eric’s Review
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1813 “Underfunded” — 8/28/25
Nice misdirection in the title, which at first had me thinking of things that are perennially underfunded — public schools, social services, take your pick. But instead, we get theme answers that run Down and off the grid, with the “missing” letters spelling a monetary amount (indicated with italics):
- 3D [Chock full o’Nuts rival] MAXWELL HOUSE COFFEE I should have caught on to the off the grid aspect here, as the letter pattern got me MAXWELL, but MAXWELL HOUSE by itself was too short.
- 9D [Unrecoverable business expenses, and a hint to this puzzle’s theme] SUNK COSTS I’m more familiar with the term SUNKEN COSTS.
- 11D [Severe punishment for a soldier] DISHONORABLE DISCHARGE
- 37D [Cleaned up and became more professional] WENT CORPORATE I’ve not heard that phrase before, but it’s certainly inferable.
I generally like puzzles where the trick is that some answers extend beyond the grid. Often, as here, the parts of the theme answers that are in the grid are gibberish, which usually irks me. But I give such themes a pass because it’s usually easy to imagine the letters that you can’t enter into the grid.
Other stuff:
- 17A [Crime for those avoiding their duties] TAX EVASION Probably not a crime that’s going to be prosecuted much anymore.
- 21A [It might have a pole vault] SKI SHOP As a skier, I’m chagrined that it took me until now to make sense of that answer. “Vault” here means “a chamber used for storage.” Most ski shops have poles, which are cheap in comparison to skis and boots, hanging on a rack or wall.
- 30A [Constructive toys?] LEGOS Officially, the plural is LEGO. Good luck enforcing that, Lego Group.
- 35A [Mineral residue] CALX The Word of the Day, meaning “a powdery metallic oxide formed when an ore or mineral has been heated.” It was floating around somewhere in my head.
- 52A [WiFi problem] LAG/2D [Server problem] CRASH Kinda makes me wonder if Brendan’s been having computer issues.
- 58A [Woman’s name that anagrams to a good horseshoe throw] ARLENE The horseshoe throw is a “leaner.” I didn’t think too hard about horseshoe throws, but waited to get enough letters to spell a woman’s name.
61A [1990 AC/DC album, with “The”] RAZOR’S EDGE I had absolutely no idea on this one, but being able to get such answers from crosses is one reason I like crosswords.- 67A [Longtime rival of Djoker] RAFA That’s Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. I used to pay more attention to men’s tennis than I do now.
- 13D [Jump over a track] SKIP As in skipping a track on an LP or CD.
- 25D [Chuck’s partner in Public Enemy] FLAVOR More fully, FLAVOR Flav, né William Jonathan Drayton Jr. I should have remembered this, but my knowledge of rap music is weak.
- 26D [Soft drink with a red circle in its logo] SEVEN UP I was a little slow to get this one, too, because I almost never drink soda and when I do, it’s rarely 7 Up.
Emma Oxford’s USA Today Crossword, “Superstar(t)” — Emily’s write-up
Anyone else thinking of that ’90s movie reference? lol
USA Today, August 28, 2025, “Superstar(t)” by Emma Oxford
Theme: the first word of each themer can be prepended with SUPER— to form a new phrase
Themers:
- 20a. [Screenwriter who makes revisions], SCRIPTDOCTOR
- 36a. [Dreamer’s collage], VISIONBOARD
- 54a. [Measures of businesses’ dominance], MARKETSHARES
Today’s themer set inclues SCRIPTDOCTOR, VISIONBOARD, MARKETSHARES. With the theme, we get SUPERSCRIPT, SUPERVISION, and SUPERMARKET. Great title hint, too!
Favorite fill: LOLCAT, IMEANT, SEENIT and OVERHEARS
Stumpers: CABAL (needed crossings), SCHMO (also needed crossings), and EATHERE (“open” and “closed” came to mind)
A smooth solve today with just a bit of a challenge with the cluing. Lots of fun, fresh fill with a great grid too. Nice puzzle!
4.25 stars
~Emily
“Come sta” is the formal way of saying “how are you”. The much more used and more known informal way is “come stai”
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
I completely missed the “clues” part of the revealer and was very confused, since the answers are not Spoonerisms. Duh. Enjoyed it even though I prefer a harder Thursday.
I agree; pretty fast Thursday, where I got the theme answers from the crosses, and only got the revealer near the very end. Even with that, played pretty fast. Nice Thursday!
Same!
Took me a while to see what was going on in the NYT, but I liked the journey.
8D: I was all set to complain about yet another appearance of the hoary and dubious answer TYPEA for ‘go-getter’ but was pleasantly surprised to find I was wrong.
To add to ZDL’s ‘slacking’ comment, this puzzle has both MARIO and LUIGI and a wholly unnecessary LOTR reference (I wonder whether constructors genuinely like these things or if Shortz et al stick them in at every opportunity).
NYT: This is the second time I’ve seen LAGS used as a plural noun in the NYT crossword, which is annoying because LAG in this sense is an uncountable noun. It’s not generally used in a way that allows for a plural. Cluing it as a verb would not have the same problem.
This seems fine/idiomatic to me. If you Google “streaming ‘a lag'” that are a lot of results of people using it as a countable noun. I wonder if there is some kind of regional or generational variation.
I’m in between RCook and Joe here… I’m fine with the plural noun LAGS. But the clue [Problems with a livestream, maybe] implies (to me) that you’re normally counting (and referring) to each “lag event” simply as a “lag”. “There were two major lag events during the livestream” is totally normal, but “there were two lags” sounds odd to me. (“Lags due to both low RAM and the overcrowded server” would sound normal, but even with both, folks just complain “we had a lot of lag” vs LAGS.) Here’s an analogy: Although there are many FOODS one can prepare, you’d tend to say “I had a lot of FOOD at that reception” or “I had a lot of LAG during the livestream”. You could certainly have said you had “a lot of FOODS” in the sentence above, but then it would imply different types of foods. So far, as a parent of a teen, with whom I’d had this discussion the last time NYT used this LAGS usage, it just seems a bit awkward, while it surely aims to be cool. (Is it fair to call this “clueing drift”? or is it truly “usage drift”?)
Perhaps it is just regional or generational, as Joe suspects.
‘Lags’ are an issue for on-line gaming. It’s the non-techie term for latency and is a real concern for networked gaming.
No one says I CALL DIBS. You just say DIBS or I CALL WHATEVER. Terrible clue.
Maybe it’s regional. It sounds ok to me and M-W.
I have definitely said and heard “I call dibs” many times.
also very idiomatic to me.