BEQ 7:17 (Eric) 
[3.00 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
Fireball untimed (Jenni) 
[3.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
LAT 5:19 (Gareth) [3.56 avg; 8 ratings] rate it
NYT 10:28 (ZDL) [3.34 avg; 16 ratings] rate it
Universal 5:39 (Eric) [2.90 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
USA Today 6:21 (Emily) [3.25 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
WSJ n/a (Jim Q) rate it
***The WSJ puzzle will feature an entire week of metas to celebrate its 10th Anniversary of puzzle publication. The puzzle suite will be written about as a whole once the meta answers are released***
Amanda Cook’s Universal Crossword “Different Strokes” — Eric’s Review
Amanda Cook’s Universal Crossword Puzzle “Different Strokes” — 9/18/25
An old-school theme (or maybe an art school theme?) — familiar phrases that include a synonym for illustrate, given punny complete-the-sentence clues:
- 15A [The portrait artist was hired for a massive family reunion to …] DRAW A BIG CROWD
- 33A [The caricaturist went to a stand-up show to …] SKETCH COMEDY
- 47A [The whimsical entomologist liked to daydream and …] DOODLE BUGS
- 60A [The art student who was bored in chemistry class started to …] TRACE ELEMENTS
The first two theme answers didn’t amuse me much, but I like the pair in the bottom half of the grid. For a theme of this sort, if half the answers land, that’s not too bad.
Other stuff:
- 8A [Watch part] FACE DIAL, STEM — you just have to wait for the crosses.
- 12A [Character in the opera “Nixon in China”] MAO Zedong, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Part from 1943—1976. I don’t think you need to know much about John Adams’ opera to get this one.
- 22A [Genre influenced by Spanish, Taino and African music] BACHATA Not quite a gimme, but I’ve heard of it and got the answer with a few letters. It originated in the Dominican Republic.
- 2D [Percussion shaker] MARACA Wikipedia says that traditional bachata music used maracas, but that in recent decades, they’ve mostly been replaced by the güira.
- 10D [Yoga asana done on all fours] COW POSE I don’t do yoga; for all I knew, CAT POSE or DOG POSE (if there’s even such a thing) could have been right.
- 37D [Environmentally responsible lodging] ECO HOTEL
- 38D [Like Christmas merchandise in October, say] TOO EARLY And yet, it’s there.
Jay Silverman’s USA Today Crossword, “All Caps” — Emily’s write-up
Deja vu?
USA Today, September 18, 2025, “All Caps” by Jay Silverman
Theme: each themer contains the name of a capital of a country
Themers:
- 16a. [Vegetables in the cabbage family], BRUSSELSSPROUTS
- 35a. [Paella legumes], LIMABEANS
- 59a. [Yellowish document holders], MANILAENVELOPES
A world class themer set today! BRUSSELSSPROUTS filled easily while LIMABEANS took me a moment–clearly I need more paella in my diet–while the second half of MANILAENVELOPES had me stumped for a bit, since I kept thinking of “folders” instead. For the capitals, we have Belgium, Peru, and the Philippines, respectively.
Favorite fill: TORTES, CARAMEL, PANINIS, and RECIPES
Stumpers: SCALENE (needed crossings) and RANON (also needed crossings)
A quick solve today for me! Clues were clicking and I found a flow this morning. Great grid and fun fill! Loved the theme and themer set, especially with the re-use of the same title hint as yesterday’s but employed in a very different way.
4.25 stars
~Emily
Adam Wagner’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up
Difficulty: Medium (10m28s)
Adam Wagner’s New York Times crossword, 9/18/25, 0918
Today’s theme: stuff in stuff
- OM in TOUCH
- LET in ROUTE
- ID in ACCENT
- REEVE in RANT
- LI in PECAN
Wasn’t so much the theme that gave me fits (I dropped Jet LI into a PECAN pretty quickly [no, here’s Jet LI in a PECAN, how did I get into this huge PECAN, someone help me!]), but the fact that this is a very low word count (70) for a themed puzzle, and it took a bit to wade through those wide open corners.
Cracking: OVER UNDER
Slacking: AGE MATE? I VOTE NO
Sidetracking: the “Immortal Game”, Anderssen v. Kieseritzky, in which the former sacrifices both of his CASTLES (along with his queen and a bishop) for a stunning mate
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1819 “FY Aye” — Eric’s Review
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1819 “FY Aye” — 9/18/25
Maybe the trickiest thing about this puzzle is figuring out the title. Google tells me that “FY” most likely means either “fiscal year” (which I knew, but which seems highly unlikely) or “For You,” a page of stuff that TikTok thinks (probably based on its algorithms) will interest a particular user. Maybe that’s what “FY” means here; if you’ve got a better idea, please let me know.
The “Aye” part of the title seems obvious — the theme answers all have a string of letters that are repeated, with Y as the last letter of each entry:
- 20A [Bring out happiness?] ELICIT FELICITY “Felicity” is a great word that you don’t see too often.
- 25A [Juilliard or RADA?] ACTOR FACTORY “RADA” is the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. I suspect that either institution would chafe at being called a “factory,” with the implication that they’re just churning out graduates who are as indistinguishable from each other as one widget is from another.
- 43A [By any means with deadly results?] AT ALL FATALLY All of these theme answers are “made up” in the sense that they’re not colloquial, but this seems the most made-up of the four.
- 50A [Not the initial piece of praise?] LATTER FLATTERY OK, this one sounds very made-up, too.
A theme like this can lead to a quick solving time because once you have half a theme answer, it’s easy to see what the rest of it is.
Other stuff:
- 1A [Seven of this rapper’s 11 albums were released after his death] TUPAC Shakur I didn’t know this factoid, but once I had the U of 2D U-BOLT, 2Pac seemed obvious.
- 14A [“Cash for clunkers” president] OBAMA I’d forgotten about the 2009 Car Allowance Rebate System, aimed at getting inefficient, polluting vehicles off the road.
17A [Stiffer’s evidence] NO TIP That just seems wrong to me. A server would have to be extremely rude for me to not tip them.- 35A [Benjamin Edward ___ Stiller] MEARA I had enough letters to know the answer, and looked at the clue expecting a more direct reference to Ben Stiller’s talented mother, Anne Meara.
- 59A [When you might use finger paint?] MANI Cute clue.
- 5D [“Following?”] CAPISCE It’s nice to see the Italian spelling and not something like “capeesh.”
- 9D [French newspaper named after “The Barber of Seville”] LE FIGARO Rossini’s opera is based on the play of that name by Pierre Beaumarchais, the first in a trilogy of plays that includes La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro (the basis for Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro).
- 12D [Beat poet Snyder] GARY That’s a new name to me. Apparently, some critics dispute that Snyder was a Beat poet and associate him with the San Francisco Renaissance.
- 38D [“Do I make myself clear?”] YA FEEL ME Sort of a bookend to CAPISCE.
- 56D [Nice title: Abbr.] MME “Nice” as in the French city.
J.R. Willard & Dena R. Verkuil’s LA Times Crossword, Gareth’s theme summary
Willard and Verkuil’s puzzle presents us with four synonyms for “clueless”, with the first three clued literally as clueless, and the fourth, DOESNTHAVEACLUE, explaining helpfully what’s going on. The whole theme is neatly executed and has a strong visual component as well. The other three entries were: ONANOTHERPLANET, INLALALAND and OUTTOLUNCH.
Gareth
Adam Shapiro’s Fireball Crossword “Offshore Deposits”, theme summary
Adam Shapiro’s Fireball Crossword “Offshore Deposits” – September 17, 2026
This week’s Fireball has a words-outside-the-grid-theme:
- (SAN D)IEGO PADRES [Team supported by the Friar
Faithful] - LIMOUSINE D(RIVER) [Busy person during prom season]
- THAT WAS THEN THIS I(S NOW) [“Times have changed”]
- (SEE D)OLLAR SIGNS [Envision future riches]
- OUTER BANKS [East Coast vacation destination
…and a hint to this puzzle’s theme]
So the OUTER BANKS in question are a sand bank, a river bank, a snow bank, and a seed bank.
Puzzle: Universal; Rating: 4 stars
I liked this puzzle – theme, fill and cluing all rose to the level of a standard NYT – probably not a Thursday equivalent, but a jaunty Tuesday or Wednesday effort.
Eric – there is a cat pose! You usually go between doing ‘cats’ and ‘cows’ to really loosen up that spine.
Thanks.
I knew there’s a cat pose. What I’d forgotten was the Downward Dog pose.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 5 stars
NYT: Absolutely brilliant Thursday puzzle. I finished the puzzle but I had no clue regarding the theme. Then I reread “in a sense” and the light bulb 💡 went on. Bravo!
NYT: Loved the concept, but it unfortunately fizzled a bit for me on the last themer. A pecan is a nut, not a nutshell. I had to read the constructor’s notes on Xwordinfo to realize that “shell” is part of the wordplay and that PE _ _ CAN is being conceived of as the “shell” of the new word. Maybe it’s my fault. Still a very good Thursday.
That last themer seemed just a little bit off to me, too. The constructor’s explanation strikes me as a stretch. If that were the intent, then I think it would need to be “nut shell” – two words – not “nutshell.”
That nit aside, I thought it was a fun theme.
Regarding the fill, Google tells me it’s a thing, but in my almost 69 years, I’ve never heard of a PRIZE POT – a “pot,” a “pool,” a “purse” – never a PRIZE POT. And AGEMATE? Adam just made that up, right?
If he made it up, he did a good job of getting the online dictionaries to fall in line. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/agemate
See? Sometimes, even authoritative sources are out to lunch!
Roommate, housemate, classmate, animate (well – maybe not that one), teammate – yes! “AGEMATE” – no!
;-)
Huh… that’s the themer that opened up the puzzle for me; I had the CAN, and realized it was LI inside a PECAN to make PELICAN.
Really enjoyed this Thursday; the NW took me the longest. I wanted STOMACH at first because I had EVADE instead of ELUDE and was looking for a single word instead of two words.
I thought it was a great theme idea and very well executed.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
Lots of good fill today. One nitpick, I didn’t like the clue for 40A. I don’t really think PAR is a goal you shoot for – wouldn’t you be aiming for a birdie or an eagle? I had BAR there and it ended up taking me about 5 minutes to untangle that part of the grid at the end.
If you play golf like I do, PAR is what, in the business world, they refer to as a “stretch goal.” Unlikely to be attained – but every once in a while…
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2.5 stars
I did not enjoy this puzzle but determining why is difficult to say. It may have been too much, (for me) esoteric knowledge. 61A AGE-MATE finished the puzzle on down note because, as I suspected, it doesn’t seem to be in the language. The first two pages of my online search was ads for a dating service.
I’m always bummed out when the puzzle doesn’t give me the enjoyment I expect. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow…
I see, now, that Ethan’s search was more productive. And Gary R. seems to have had the same reaction as I did.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
Liked it! A Thursday that was challenging without relying too much on esoterica and names. And the theme, once grokked, actually helped with solving the puzzle! A few clues/answers were a little “iffy” – my last entry was the P at the crossing of PRIZEPOT and PAR. I’ve never heard the former IRL, and don’t think of the latter in terms of the clue. But this largely hit the Thursday sweet spot for me: tricky and tough but fair. Best Thursday in quite a while, in fact.
Re: BEQ
Eric mis-interpreted the title, and theme a bit. The title is a play on FYI (in that sense “FY” = “for your”), and each theme answer consists of FY, e.g., FY, so we’re saying “yes” = AYE to adding FY to the first word.
Thanks.
My (mis)interpretation of the theme didn’t account for the F’s. Your take on it makes more sense.
Puzzle: LAT; Rating: 4 stars
It wasn’t reviewed, but I thought it was one of the best LAT puzzles in quite a while.
I liked it a lot, too.
Puzzle: LAT; Rating: 1.5 stars
A “-” always annoys the hell out of me. If there’s no clue, just leave it blank.
This seems to me like a very petty reason to give a puzzle a low rating. I should also note the version I solved (on the LAT website) did have blank clues rather than hyphens.
Puzzle: LAT; Rating: 5 stars
High praise! Thank you! 🙏🏼
ZDL: FYI, not sure if you were serious or not, but there’s no piece in chess called a CASTLE (or a HORSIE, for that matter).
It is a ROOK (and KNIGHT).
Good puzzle!
CASTLE is a move, not a piece.