LAT 3:30 (Stella) 
[3.08 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
Newsday 21:51 (Amy) 
[3.86 avg; 7 ratings] rate it
NYT untimed (Amy) [3.24 avg; 19 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (Matthew) 
[3.50 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Matthew) [3.50 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
WSJ 13:59 (Eric) 
[2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Howard Neuthaler’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Body Language” — Eric’s Review
Howard Neuthaler’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Body Language” — 9/20/25
Double-clues for idioms that all follow the pattern “X in the Y,” where Y is a body part:
- 23A [Dejected…or like a frenulum?] DOWN IN THE MOUTH
- 37A [Spur…or a bum rap?] KICK IN THE BUTT
- 50A [Sure thing…or a falconer’s hawk?] BIRD IN THE HAND
- 67A [Dopey…or like babies, what with their fontanels?] SOFT IN THE HEAD
- 85A [Annoyance…or a result of watching a long tennis match?] PAIN IN THE NECK
- 95A [Exasperated…or like a man who’s a member of a certain performance Group?] BLUE IN THE FACE
- 117A [Lacking resolve…or like a retired catcher?] WEAK IN THE KNEES
I’m not sure I understand the point of the double clues: The first clue is idiomatic, the second is literal. Maybe we’re just supposed to find that literalism amusing?
In any case, the theme answers are all phrases that are solidly in the language, which usually leads to a shorter solving time than wacky “made-up” phrases.
Other stuff:
- 5A [Cry of shear terror?] BAA That kind of pun should make one sheepish. (And so should that kind of pun.)
- 19A [Baseball family with a combined 11 All-Star nods] ALOU “Baseball + family + ALOU.” Crossword Sports 101. (For the record, Felipe (1962, 1966, 1968); Felipe’s younger brother Matty (1968, 1969); and Felipe’s son, Moisés (1994, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2005). The fourth baseball-playing Alou, Felipe’s youngest brother Jésus, never made an All-Star team.)
22A [Eight-time Best Actor nominee whose only Oscar was honorary] Peter O’TOOLE I’m much better with movie trivia than sports trivia, but only Lawrence of Arabia and My Favorite Year come to mind as possibilities for O’Toole’s many Best Actor noms. The others were for Becket; The Lion in Winter; Goodbye, Mr. Chips; The Ruling Class; The Stuntman; and Venus.- 45A [Winfrey’s favorite things] THE O LIST This was new to me; I don’t think I’ll be subscribing.
- 57A [Like a typical building by architect Henry Hobson Richardson] NEO-ROMAN You don’t see many 19th century architects in crosswords.
- 108A [Miniature hanger?] BAT PUP Kind of a cute clue.
- 111A [It’s between hundreds and thousands] COMMA Also cute.
- 116A [Jim Palmer, for his whole MLB career] ORIOLE This is advanced crossword puzzle baseball trivia.
- 6D [Where lost luggage might be found] ATTIC If you’re really soft in the head, you might forget where you put those suitcases.
12D [Maker of Orange Krate bikes] SCHWINN Not a model I’d heard of; when I coveted a bike with a banana saddle, Schwinn just called it a Sting-Ray.- 51D [Basketball’s Baylor] ELGIN The Minnesota/Los Angeles Laker was fresh in my mind following a recent appearance in a New York Times crossword.
- 60D [Families full of characters?] FONTS Being married to a graphic designer, I am obliged to note that technically speaking, a “font” is a particular size, weight and style of a “typeface.” Cute clue, though.
- 89D [Swedish model Elsa] HOSK Not a name I’d encountered before.
- 106D [Ventimiglia of “This Is Us”] MILO I don’t know how many times it will take for me to remember this one.
Katie Hoody’s New York Times crossword–Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 9/20/26 – no. 0920
I’m calling my solve time “untimed” because this week has worn me out and the arrival of puzzle time at 9 pm found me nodding off. I hate when that happens! It’s not you, Katie, it’s me.
What sure didn’t help my solving time was hitting the ECHOISM / MENO MOSSO crossing at the bottom. I’d never seen the musical term (60A. [Slower, musically]) before, nor the unfamiliar ECHOISM that that -ISM ending (38D. [Self-effacing personality trait]). Merriam-Webster defines echoism two ways: 1) the formation of echoic words : onomatopoeia; and 2) the phonetic assimilation of a following to a preceding sound (such as a vowel). Well! That clears nothing up.
Fave fill: “SCREW THAT,” TRADE WARS, “I GOTTA JET,” SMOKE RING, “KING ME,” EGOTS.
3.75 stars from me.
Time for bed! Good night, all.
Zhouqin Burnikel’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up
Los Angeles Times 9/20/25 by Zhouqin Burnikel
When I see Zhouqin Burnikel’s byline, I expect an easy solve and a lot of food references; what I got was a moderately hard puzzle, a couple of food references, and a whole bunch of multi-word phrases like HERE’S AN IDEA and THE RACE IS ON. Notables:
- 16A [Left out words?] is a clever clue for WHY NOT ME?, and had me stumped for longer than I care to admit.
- 25A [Montana motto] is ORO Y PLATA, which…meh. Do you know any state mottos except a) that of your own state and b) Montana’s, because it’s been used to clue the words ORO and, to a lesser extent, PLATA for years? (Okay, maybe California too, since y’all’s is just one word.)
- 27A [Fighting chance?] is a fun clue for BOUT.
- 33A [“Days of Our Lives” actress on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”] is LISA RINNA. Don’t forget “Notable Snatch Game character on ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ season 10”!
- 50A [Fly-by-night operation?] is a nice clue for RED-EYE.
- 1D [Spelunking site] is GROTTO, but I Pavlov’ed CAVERN in here and I bet others did, too. Totally legit to do to people on Saturday.
- 19D [Beach resort locale] is COASTAL TOWN, which feels a little green-paint to me. It’s also easy to try COASTAL ZONE or COASTAL AREA in this slot. Which is fair on Saturday as noted above, but feels less satisfying here when the answer is green-paintier than the alternatives.
- 37D [Aston Martin DB12, for one] is a GT CAR. A what what? Guess I have some Googling to do.
Matthew Sewell’s Newsday “Saturday Stumper”–Amy’s recap
Stumper, halfway through and only a third done
This was harder than I was expecting. It’s been a subpar week for me, so I’m guessing some of you will say that this is easier than most Stumpers. I got off to an uncommonly slow start, not finding an Across I could fill in until LEAVE ME BE near the bottom. And then that turned out to be LET ME COOK, which sounds weird to me. I feel like “let her/him/them cook” is more common than someone demanding to be allowed to continue the roll that they’re on. After the 10-minute mark, vast swaths of grid remained bare. Oof! It took until 21:51 to finish up, with a few rounds of checking eventually finding some wrong squares to redirect me. You can see the corrected squares in the NW corner below,
Fave fill: BOAT SLIPS (though the entry was elusive), APP STORE, old-school CHEESE CAVE, BREAD CRUMB, IN-FLIGHT MOVIE (took so long to grasp “American” meant the airline rather than the demonym), TRUE TO SIZE.
Newsday “Saturday Stumper” crossword solution, 9/20/25 – Sewell
Not sure about: FRYOLOGIST. This is a thing? A HEN is a [Ranch ranger]? OTOH with nary a whisper that it’s an abbreviated term? Are [Nickels and dimes] ALLOYS, or are they made of alloys?
I assumed [Name on the cover of “Team of Rivals”] referred to a video game and was surprised when the crossings yielded DORIS. Doris Day? Turns out it’s Doris Kearns Goodwin, the historian who wrote a 2005 book about Lincoln called “Team of Rivals.”
Three stars from me. The clues felt like they went a bit further in the misleading direction than they needed to. Very few gimmes anywhere! Yes, I know, I know, it’s called “Stumper” for a reason. But sometimes it feels more annoying than challenging,
NYT: Enter ECHOISM in the Wikipedia search field and you’ll see that in psychological terms, it’s the opposite of narcissism. (The link actually leads to the entry on narcissism; the source of the word seems to be the myth of Echo the nymph spurned by Narcissus.) I didn’t know ECHOISM or MENO MOSSO.
I found the grid a bit broken up; I’d have been sunk in the NE without RECTO and sunk in the SW without NO ME GUSTA.
NYT was rather tough, particularly the SE. Several ‘Well, I suppose so’ entries. Looked up STAVE (archery carving argot, IMO) and was then able to finish.
Saturday NYT was the most difficult I have solved in quite a while. And that includes a bit of googling.
I supposed I should be happy I finished the NYT but I can’t say I found the effort enjoyable. Lots of obscurity, both in the cluing and the fill. ECHOISM, MENOMOSSO and IGOTTAJET made the SE very unpleasant.
I thought about 3/4 of this puzzle was really good. Some interesting fill and some fun clues. But that SE corner was a bit of a crap-fest. If I ever hear anyone say I GOTTA JET, I’ll roll my eyes and tell them not to let the door hit them in the backside on their way out. Never heard that usage of STAVE – are we carving a bow out of a barrel stave? I suppose that might work, but I’m mostly familiar with barrels made of oak, and I don’t know that oak would be good bow material. I’m passingly familiar with a variety of notations on musical scores, but have never run across MENO MOSSO. An unfortunate end to a good puzzle.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3 stars
pretty much the same experience for me… a little challenging til I got to the SE…. then WHAM impossible and unfair (IMO). I’m familiar with adagio, lento and largo, as well as ritardando, for slowing tempi, but no meno masso at all.
On a side note, my local station aired THE WRONG JEOPARDY! last night!! arrgggghhh… I knew Paolo had won the night before but here was some female in the champs spot…. thank goodness for streaming Hulu the next day (don’t tell me how he did, I haven’t watched yet)… I peeked and there was Paolo being introduced.
Stumper: Pretty good one and not too awful. Although I was initially daunted, I got 11D (a nice long one) from having only three letters, including the crucial “z.” I should note that I did have to look up 6D — I kept thinking it was on the Arabian peninsula and it’s not.
I enjoyed it. It took me a while, mainly due to the subtle(?) cluing. Pretty much what I want from a Stumper
Re Stumper – I agree – not too bad (Mr. Sewell’s usually give me lots of trouble).
The bottom left fell first – 57A was a gimme, given we just had “Island Dantes visits in . . . Monte Cristo” two weeks ago. (The cryptic clue for 47D confirmed which spelling to use.) 42A was also a gimme, since we just had “Boxster competitor” last week.
The bottom right corner was the last to fall. I kept reading the clue for 53D as “Oral nuisance” even after I finished filling everything in.
Re 44A, I’m with Amy that HEN doesn’t make much sense for “Ranch ranger.” Unless I’m missing something, I can’t imagine anyone letting their chickens range over their ranch.
Also, I kept thinking CATIO had to be wrong (I couldn’t get the pronunciation). Now that I see it on Google, it makes purrfect sense!
I agree with you (and Amy) regarding a hen as a ranch animal. I didn’t put thst in for a while because I couldn’t believe that was the answer. You might let hens loose in the barnyard, but that’s it.
I couldn’t figure out the crossing of HAVEA_OW and LETME_OOK. I wanted R for the down and L for the across. I agree with Amy that LETMECOOK sounds pretty darn strange.
Also, the CATIOs that I’ve seen are large, enclosed outdoor areas — more than just a ‘window box.’
I only got it due to Bart Simpson. Didn’t like the cross.
NYT: Did not attempt. I haven’t enjoyed any of this constructor’s previous Saturdays, which I find tough to the point of being mean. This appears to be more of the same. I don’t relish the idea of spending double my Saturday average on something I do for fun that instead will leave me annoyed and frustrated.
Ironically, I really liked the only non-Saturday Katie’s had published in NYT. https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=11/21/2024
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2 stars
I’m with you. NYT was a complete slog. MENO MOSSO, ST LEO, ECHOISM, OSMIC. I know it’s a Saturday, but good grief.
Puzzle: Newsday; Rating: 4 stars
Amy, this may have been a wee tad bit easier other Stumpers, but man, the footholds were tough to find.
Stumper: Ha, I came to say that this was one of my easiest Stumpers ever! Just in my wheelhouse I guess. And this is exactly why I don’t think “Lester Ruff” should be a thing — those things usually kick my butt!
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
NYT: Having pored over musical scores for orchestra and for piano forever, I was vaguely aware of MENO MOSSO. And somehow OSMIC came to mind. But St. Leo and Echoism were certainly unknown, making that SE corner a toughie. Good workout – I enjoyed the puzzle.
Puzzle: Newsday; Rating: 4.5 stars
I thought that LETMECOOK might have resulted from someone’s moment of domestic tension. But I used the Google, and it turns out that “Let me cook” is part of today’s slang.
After I read your comment, I had to check because I hadn’t heard that one, but you are right! (Sigh!) English is changing!
Newsday: Must be the only one who found this one much easier than usual (but had two big roadblocks, so ended up taking ~30 minutes, still faster than the usual hour or so.) Good to finish without cheating as usual.
Lots of “gimmes” for me in every corner to start:
NW: ALAS gave ALBA, LOOP/APP STORE/ASAP/LOSE/BOAT-/SETS-/CAIRO;
NE: SIR/HINDI gave OHO/ORGAN and the wrong [HON]DA (though I quickly realized also fit MAZDA). But didn’t know what word would fit -TOSIZE so I had nothing in the top-right;
SE: NOME/OMNI gave the whole corner but I wrote …[l]OOK (DO NOT LOOK?) and couldn’t see anything out of H[o]-[l]OW or HA-[l]OW for a long time. The L really tripped me up there;
SW: RCA and AKBAR gave ROUS[e] (later ROUST)/BOOK/obvious cryptic HOSTA/BREADCRUMB and that was enough to solve the whole west section, which eventually went into the middle and the rest of the puzzle.
Biggest two stumbling blocks were also the best two parts of the solve:
1. Love LET ME COOK as an answer and the fact that it opened up everything for me (biggest “aha” moment there was taking off the taking the L after being stuck for a long time and seeing it right away) but I was definitely tripped up by the missing “in slang” or something indicator. Tho that would have made it too easy I think, so I like this version.
2. [American entertainment] was also great for INFLIGHT MOVIE. Had -IGHT MOVIE for a while and thought this might be [gunf]IGHT MOVIE or [midn]IGHT MOVIE or something (knew “American” could be a company here, but had to think a bit to get to the airline.) That was crucial to solving the NE.
– Had ANIME for ALIEN [Common cosplayer costume]. Seemed not quite on-the-mark so was very happy to be wrong.
– I think I’ve heard FRYOLOGIST before, probably on Reddit. Didn’t come easy tho even with FRYOL-. Needed the second O to see it.
– Never heard of BOAT SLIPS or CATIO but the latter was inferable.
– Is DORIS Kearns Goodwin really too well-known for the Stumper that the clue has to be “name on the cover of XYZ” (typical way to avoid giving the last name)? I feel like the clue could literally have been [“No Ordinary Time” Pulitzer-winning biographist ___ Kearns Goodwin] and it still wouldn’t have been a gimme to too many people, but maybe I’m underestimating how well-known she is. She’s been in the NYT once as a FITB on a Wednesday in 2009. I see [Day to remember] in the archives— there’s a beautiful clue.
Regarding “true to size,” it helped that I’ve completed online reviews for clothing I’ve purchased — it’s one of the possible responses. Also, Mazda was a given for me with Boxster (a Porsche reference) in the clue.