Tuesday, September 23, 2025

Jonesin’ 4:19 (Erin) rate it
LAT untimed (Jenni) [3.20 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
NYT tk (Evan) [2.82 avg; 11 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker untimed (pannonica) [3.41 avg; 11 ratings] rate it
Universal 4:58 (Eric) [2.70 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Sophia) [2.00 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
Xword Nation tk (Ade) rate it
WSJ 4:22 (Jim Q) [2.25 avg; 2 ratings] rate it

Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Seasons Change” — yet it seems like yesterday. – Erin’s write-up

Jonesin’ solution 9/23/25

Hello lovelies! To celebrate the first day of fall, Matt has provided us with a timely grid where the theme entries contain  a scrambled season.

• 17a. [They encapsulate the story] HEADLINE WRITERS (winter)
• 29a. [Kitchen utensils often linked in a group of 4-6] MEASURING SPOONS (spring)
• 39a. [L.A. art gallery home to van Gogh’s “Hospital at Saint-Rémy”] THE HAMMER MUSEUM (summer)
• 54a. [Baked breakfast item with a pair of main ingredients] BANANA NUT MUFFIN (autumn)

Other things:

• 38a. [Obey Bob Barker, in a way] SPAY. The former “The Price Is Right” host would end every episode with “Help control the pet population—have your pets spayed or neutered.”
• 41d. [Bits of metal?] UMLAUTS. The metal umlaut refers to the dots over random vowels in some rock and metal bands, like Blue Öyster Cult, Mötley Crüe, and Motörhead.

Until next week!

Alexander Liebeskind’s Universal Crossword “Shut It” — Eric’s Review

Alexander Liebeskind’s Universal Crossword “Shut It” — 9/23/25

A theme with a nice, progressive agenda — I like it, mirror symmetry, circled letters and all:

• 17A [Just be honest!”] SPARE ME YOUR LIES
• 24A [Caveats with some videos] CONTENT WARNINGS
• 42A [Body part that produces amylase] SALIVARY GLAND
• 55A [Dante work whose first section is “Inferno”] THE DIVINE COMEDY
• 61A [Disparity feminists aim to close, as illustrated throughout this puzzle?] WAGE GAP

I didn’t pay much attention to the circled letters and solved this like a themeless puzzle. I suppose the theme might help if a solver didn’t get enough letters to see CONTENT WARNINGS or SALIVARY GLAND or if they don’t know anything about Dante. SALIVARY GLAND seems a bit blah for a theme answer, especially as SALIVARY itself holds SALARY. I do like how the WAGE synonyms are separated by four letters in the first theme answer, three in the second, and so on.

Other stuff:

• 5A [Boats often made of logs] RAFTS I’m two-thirds through The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I wanted to re-read it before reading Percival Everett’s James, which I’ve heard good things about.
• 15A [D sharp, by another name] E FLAT I don’t play any instruments and don’t really understand why one note has two names. At least I knew enough to put in FLAT.
• 20A [New Haven school for an aspiring justice] YALE LAW On the current court, we have Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor and Brett Kavanaugh. Maybe I’m bitter because I didn’t go to an Ivy League law school, but Harvard, Yale and Columbia seem overrepresented on the Supreme Court.
• 34A [Slimy fish] EEL I know that eels are reputed to be slippery, but are they really slimy?
• 4D [NYC’s Broadway and Canal, e.g.] STREETS/38D [NYC’s Fifth, e.g., briefly] AVE Hey, if I wanted New York City-centrism, I’d do the NYT or New Yorker puzzle.
• 26D [Reason for a caterer to eschew cashews] NUT ALLERGY I love all kinds of nuts, especially cashews, and feel a bit sorry for anyone who can’t have them.
• 30D [Feminist movement started in Argentina] NI UNA MENOS I’m a bit embarrassed that I needed a lot of crosses for this, though I think I’ve heard of this campaign against gender-based violence before.

Ben Zimmer’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Jenni’s write-up

Shanah tovah to all who celebrate! I thoroughly enJOYed Ben’s puzzle.

All the theme answers have circles.

Los Angeles Times, September 23, 2025, Ben Zimmer, solution grid

• 20a [*Lines on a family tree] are RELATIONSHIPS.
• 36a [*Treated unseriously] is MADE LIGHT OF.
• 42a [*App with layered satellite images] is GOOGLE EARTH.

And the revealer: 57a [Feeling euphoric, and what the answers to the starred clues literally are] is FILLED WITH JOY. See what I did there? It’s nice to have a puzzle made by a lexicographer so we can trust that he uses “literally” correctly.

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that there was a 2020 film called SCOOB.

Paolo Pasco’s New Yorker crossword — pannonica’s write-up

New Yorker • 9/23/25 • Pasco • solution • 20250923

Overall my solve time was pretty quick, even for a (not so) ‘moderately challenging’ crossword, but I did have trouble transitioning from one section to the next, principally because many of the connecting entries were longer than usual and required additional crossings. The result was that I couldn’t ooze my way fluidly through the grid; rather, several times I needed to decamp to another area and work my way back to the previous section.

• 19a [Irrigation devices that are commonly used to combat sinus infections] NETI POTS. They need to be used properly, though, to reduce the risk of infections or worse.
• 23a [Stilted or uncomfortable, for short] AWK, which itself is rather more awkward than the full word. In that light, it serves its purpose well.
• And now we come to the marquee section of the grid, three long stacked entries. 27a [Guiding principle to be followed above all else, in “Star Trek”] PRIME DIRECTIVE. 31a [Setting for a video series in which celebrities select copies of their favorite films] CRITERION CLOSET. 32a [People who find good spots for shooting stars?] LOCATION SCOUTS; nice clue.
• 36a [“No man that’s born of woman ? Shall __ have power upon thee”: “Macbeth”] E’ER. Ridiculous loophole. But maybe born was more specific in Shakespeare’s day?
• 38a [Jacobson who starred in “A League of Their Own” (2022)] ABBI. 18a [Davis who starred in “A League of Their Own” (1992)] GEENA.
• 41a [Collections of repeatable graphical elements, in video-game design] TILE SETS. New to me, but ultimately inferable.
• 52a [Farm verb … or farm animal] SOW. Pronounced differently.
• 1d [Steamer alternative] IRON. I was thinking bivalves.
• 3d [Synonym for “hurl” that was popularized on Vine] YEET. 37d [Throw with force] HEAVE.
  
• 4d [“Young Einstein” filmmaker who unsuccessfully sued a search-engine company for trademark infringement] YAHOO SERIOUS. Time-capsule trivia!
• 5d [This is madness!] WRATH. Indeed.
• 10d [Cuban neighborhood with a famous musical social club] BUENA VISTA. If memory serves, it wasn’t an actual social club, but more of a convenient moniker for the recording sessions.
  
• 13d [Occult idol typically depicted as a winged figure with the head of a goat] BAPHOMET. Discussion of etymology here.
• 15d [Part of the web that can only be accessed with specialty software] DARK NET. Sinister!
• 17d [1942 Aboott and Costello film set at resort on the U.S.-Mexico border] RIO RITA. Never heard of it, but it’s certainly useful crossword fill.
• 24d [Window for a shopper] PRICE RANGE. Another great clue.
• 27d [Composition with verse-like qualities] PROSE POEM.
• 28d [Moon of Saturn named for a daughter of Oceanus] DIONE. I’d forgotten about that one.
• 30d [Person who’s tripping and seeing things?] TOURIST. Maybe a little too forced?

Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Conversation Pieces” — Jim Q’s write-up

THEME: The word ICE is “broken” in common phrases

THEME ANSWERS:

• PONZI SCHEME
• SID CAESAR
• PIT CREW
• RAIN CHECK
• [Conversation starters, and a hint to this puzzle’s theme] ICE BREAKERS

The word ICE isn’t evoking much joy from me as of late, so a bit tough to get that out of my head as I filled it in repeatedly here.

Puzzle was pretty much right on my wavelength though with the exception of ABECEDARIAN, which is a completely new word for me. Like, I was certain I had something wrong there and kept checking the crosses. Looks like it’s been around for a while too. From Merriam-Webster:

 …its oldest documented English uses in the early 1600s, abecedarian was a noun meaning “one learning the rudiments of something”; it specifically referred to someone who was learning the alphabet. The adjective began appearing in English texts a few decades after the noun.

Looking forward to using that word.

Enjoyed the clue for PIT CREW [Retiring group?].

Lastly, the name MENOTTI is always tough for me to recall, despite being very familiar with Amahl and the Night Visitors. I mean, who doesn’t love a good rendition of “This is My Box”?

3 stars from me.