LAT tk (pannonica) 
[2.88 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
NYT 4:55 (Amy) 
[4.03 avg; 18 ratings] rate it
Universal 5:10 (Jim P) 
[3.70 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Emily) rate it
Programming note: Crossword constructor Paolo Pasco is on Jeopardy! Tune in.
Joe Marquez’s New York Times crossword — Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 9/12/25 – no. 0912
Happy birthday to today’s constructor!
On the easier end of the Friday spectrum, I thought.
Fave fill: SAN ANTONIO, ON ESTROGEN (our trans friends are often ON E or ON T), COUPLES COSTUME, “ALRIGHT ALREADY!” (I don’t insist on “all right”), CULT LEADER, stressful ORAL REPORT (I never liked speaking in front of the class), BEHEMOTH, FOOD DESERT, CORAL SNAKE, LONGBOWS, SMART MONEY.
Did not know: 7D. [Website for finding home services], ANGI. I knew it when it was called Angie’s List.
Fave clues:
- 34A. [Case load?], BEERS. Or, say, Diet Cokes.
- 38A. [Things left at the entrance of a mosque], SHOES. Many people prefer to take their shoes off at home, too, while others don’t mind tracking street dirt and germs around the house. I married into a shoes-off family.
- 45A. [French for “dainty”], MIGNON. I’d pay money to a restaurant that listed “dainty filet” on the steak menu. I think a lot of guys would give up filet mignon if it were labeled as dainty.
Four stars from me.
Sarah Butkovic’s Universal crossword, “I Hear You!”—Jim P’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases that feature a music genre which rises diagonally either at the end or the beginning of each phrase. The revealer is CRESCENDO (55a, [Gradual increase in volume … or a hint to the diagonal part of each starred clue’s answer]).
Universal crossword solution · “I Hear You!” · Sarah Butkovic · Fri., 9.12.25
- 20a. [*Kitchen foil brand] REYNOLD’S W(RAP).
- 33a. [*Dessert with a variation called “flame on the iceberg”] BAKED ALA(SKA).
- 42a. [*Al Gore won it in the 2000 election] (POP)ULAR VOTE. Minor ding on this one since “pop” is already short for “popular”. “Popcorn ball” might have been a workable alternative.
Nice theme! After a time, I figured out what was going on with the first theme answer, but I didn’t get the musical connection until the satisfying revealer. I was hoping for another theme answer, but three + the revealer fills the grid sufficiently.
ODDBALLS and “ORDER UP!” are my favorite bits of fill with CUL-DE-SAC and CITY-WIDE following closely behind. I don’t know that I’ve heard the term LAPDESK, but it was inferable with a few crossings.
Clue of note: 8d. [Passover’s mo. in 2025]. APR. I was expecting the Jewish month to go in here (though I admit I didn’t know what it would be, nor how you’d abbreviate it).
Satisfying theme and fun fill. 3.5 stars.
NYT: I’m not a native French speaker, although I spent a year living in Paris. I thought cluing MIGNON as “dainty” seemed odd. “Dainty” is certainly correct, but I don’t think that’s the most common way people use MIGNON. I think it’s used much more to mean “cute” (like a child or a kitten is cute or MIGNON). Google Translate gives “delicat” (with an acute accent on the e) as the first translation for “dainty,” but acknowledges MIGNON is an option.
Someone who’s a native French speaker or knows more about the language is a better reference than me, so I may be off-base here.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
Generally agree re current use of “mignon” as meaning cute. It can also refer to a small size– hence the daintiness connotation. In an older meaning, mignon can be a noun, and it was given at one point to members of the king’s court. I double checked in French Larousse and the translation is
“Name given to the effeminate favorites of Henry III, notably the Dukes of Épernon and Joyeuse, the Counts of Quélus and Saint-Mégrin and Ph. de Gramont, Count of Guiche.”
Interestingly, in France Filet Mignon is not beef, it’s pork or veal. Applying it to beef is an American thing.
Of course “mignon” as a name for Henry III’s favorites conveyed more information in French. It applies only to men; a cute woman would be une mignonne.
“Dainty” is certainly correct, but I don’t think that’s the most common way people use MIGNON.
I think most Americans use “mignon” only in “filet mignon,” where “dainty” is a reasonable translation. So this goes in the “no good deed goes unpunished” file.
It’s been a long time since I was able to crack a WSJ meta. I guess it’s an easy warmup for the Meta Week next week that celebrates the 10th anniversary of the WSJ contest.
The grid is a slog, though. Fills like 41D, 45A, and 57A are satanically bad.
I don’t even try to figure out the Friday metas, but I do solve the puzzles. This week’s was a bear for me and since there’s no solution available yet, I’m not sure if I got everything right or not. It took me about 60% longer than my median WSJ Friday solve time.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
I’m surprised that Italians use a literal translation of our “Home sweet home.” Maybe a native Italian speaker can chime in.
ON ESTROGEN seems to open the door to any phrase that begins with ON…but otherwise, I liked the longer stuff in this one.
Huh?? Are you ON DRUGS??
Or ONE STRO GEN!
Puzzle: Universal; Rating: 4.5 stars
Interesting theme that must of been incredibly difficult to construct! Finished the puzzle and figured I’d have to circle back to put in some rebuses (rebi?) and was surprised to be finished. Had to go review more carefully to see what the constructor had engineered. Very cool.
Easyish NYT. Is COUPLESCOSTUME really a thing? It’s obvious what it means but I haven’t seen the phrase before.
I’m not thrilled with the cluing of ENTROPY as ‘chaotic state.’ Entropy is a measurable quantity, not a state. On the other hand, it’s not an easy concept to grasp, and its meaning in non-technical English is pretty loose.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
I don’t know how often they’re sold together but they’re a big deal for childless adults going to Halloween parties, or maybe parents taking their kids trick or treating together. Last year my wife and I got two Yip Yip Muppets outfits as a COUPLESCOSTUME.
Re: the puzzle, happy birthday Joe! Hope it’s even better than your grid.
Then I didn’t understand what a COUPLESCOSTUME would be after all. I was thinking of two people going as the front and back ends of a horse!
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
Whenever I see “eye parts” in the clues, I always fear it will be spelled “irides”. But after checking the database, I find it has not appeared in NYT for 20 years already.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3 stars
Well. I appreciated how sparse the Proper Nouns were, and that the trivia was not too deep. I’m not a French speaker, so I had to wait for crosses to give me MIGNON, and thought: “really?” (Comments here, and Google, reveal that the answer to that question is “sorta, but not really”). But, unfortunately for a Friday, the cluing was mostly very straight-forward, I thought; see esp.: “____ incognita (unexplored area)”. All those factors made this the fastest Friday for me since back at the end of June.