AV Club tk (Amy) 
[3.75 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
LAT 5:11 (Gareth) 
[3.00 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
NYT 6:00 (Amy) [3.32 avg; 14 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker tk (Kyle) [3.75 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (pannonica) [2.88 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today 7:09 (Emily) 
[2.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
WSJ 6:23 (Eric) [2.83 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
Kaela Curry & Kevin Curry’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Whistling a Tune” — Eric’s Review
Kaela Curry & Kevin Curry’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Whistle a Tune” — 9/24/25
Co-constructor Kaela Curry is a relative newcomer — she’s had one puzzle published in the New York Times, but that’s not bad for someone younger than 10 years old. Her dad Kevin Curry has a bit more experience.
I’m guessing that this theme idea was Kaela’s, even though it throws out lyrics of some songs that predate her:
- 17A [“I could be a better boyfriend than him”] DOVE CAMERON I didn’t recognize this singer or her hit “Boyfriend,” from 2023.
- 21A [“Upside, inside out, she’s livin’ la vida loca”] RICKY MARTIN “Livin’ la Vida Loca” is from 1999.
- 38A [Enchanting fliers, or, in a punny way, this puzzle’s featured artists] SONGBIRDS
- 56A [“I hate these blurred lines”] ROBIN THICKE “Blurred Lines” is from 2013.
- 62A [“It’s a cruel summer with you”] TAYLOR SWIFT “Cruel Summer” is from 2023.
I’m always up for a musical theme, even though these four artists aren’t ones I regularly listen to. I might have preferred that the theme set include four artists whose first names are birds or four whose last names are birds, but splitting it two and two — and doing it in each half of the grid — is perfectly acceptable given the requirements of symmetry and name recognition. Solvers who don’t recognize these singers will probably not have much trouble with the theme answers.
Other stuff:
- 15A [Subj. in which Ben Bernanke won a Nobel Prize] ECON The former chair of the Federal Reserve shared the 2022 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel with Philip H. Dybvig and Douglas Diamond for their “for research on banks and financial crises,” which dealt with the causes of the Great Depression.
- 42A [Porpoise or dolphin, datedly] SEA PIG My late sister-in-law was convinced that wild animals all needed to be fed; I once saw her trying to feed Cheetos to a dolphin in the Gulf of Mexico.
- 49A [Ghana neighbor] TOGO Of the 10 countries with four-letter names (Chad, Cuba, Fiji, Iran, Iraq, Laos, Mali, Oman, Peru and Togo), three are in Africa. My knowledge of African geography is not great, but I made a lucky guess here and didn’t need any crosses to eliminate Chad or Mali.
- 3D [Get up and down from the bunker, perhaps] SAVE PAR I don’t golf, but at least “bunker” and “par” are words I know in that context. See also 23A [Putting target] CUP.
- 27D [Peak called Jabal Musa by the Arabs] MT. SINAI An educational clue, at least for me.
- 44D [Fault line?] I GOOFED Cute clue.
Peter Collins’s New York Times crossword–Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 9/24/25 – no. 0924
The theme here centers on the circled letters which spell out the intersecting diagonals MIDDLE and INDEX. Those are FINGERS / CROSSED (though you can’t really make those fingers cross perpendicularly as seen in the grid). If you cross your fingers visibly, it means “I HOPE SO.” Behind your back, it means “I’M LYING.” What an odd thing to have ever devised, an unseen signal that you think excuses you from telling the truth.
Fave fill: the CHARLESTON, PENELOPE (there’s a new Odyssey movie coming out next fall, Matt Damon as Odysseus), RED PANDAS, STONEWORK (though I wanted BRICKWORK). Not keen on XOX clued as a fond sign-off (your options are x if you’re in a Commonwealth nation, xo, xoxo, or xoxoxo for the US), singular WARE (just clue it as the suffix), FMAJ, TENG (meaning 10 G, looks dumb with the number spelled out), AEROS with nary a hint that it’s not an American candy bar, and the inclusion of eight abbrevs.
Time to finish up Spelling Bee with my honey. 3.25 starts from me.
Adrianne Baik & Aidan Deshong’s USA Today Crossword, “Airport Terminals” — Emily’s write-up
Please fasten your seats belts and secure your own mask before helping others.
USA Today, September 24, 2025, “Airport Terminals” by Adrianne Baik & Aidan Deshong
Theme: the end (aka “terminal”) of each themer is an airport code
Themers:
- 20a. [“Just so you know…”], FORTHERECORD
- 38a. [“Make yourself comfortable”], SITBACKANDRELAX
- 55a. [Deity whose name means “Feathered Serpent” in Nahuatl], QUETZALCOATL
What a themer set today. FORTHERECORD and SITBACKANDRELAX took me a few crossings but QUETZALCOATL was an insta-fill. You never know what knowledge crosswords will tap into and that was a fun themer to fill this morning indeed! With the theme, we are flying to Chicago O’Hare, Los Angeles, and Atlanta.
Favorite fill: CLARINETIST, EGO, POI, TUNDRA, and ARCTIC
Stumpers: STATS (needed crossings), DIVA (only “idol” and “celeb” came to mind), and LOSS (also needed crossings)
Great puzzle today, with a fantastic grid, lengthy bonus fill, and fun cluing that made for a smooth solve! Also loved the title hint for the theme.
4.5 stars
~Emily
Ricky J. Sirois’s LA Times Crossword – Gareth’s theme summary
I like the concept / revealing answer Ricky J. Sirois’s puzzle is built around. BACKBURNER is the last entry, and each of four long across entries ends with something that is burn. What felt slightly off was the choice of BURNERs. Technically, most things can burn, so finding a set with more consistency may have made the payoff more. What we get is two flammable materials – PAPER and WOOD. A WICK you light on fire; and a MATCH you strike to light other things on fire:
- [Battle over a board], CHESSMATCH
- [Peyton Place and Diamonds are Forever actress], LANAWOOD
- [Semester-long writing assignment], TERMPAPER
- [Film hitman played by KEANUREEVES], JOHNWICK
- [Place for a non-urgent issue…], BACKBURNER
Gareth
Strange, but Crossword Scraper reports it can’t find a New Yorker puzzle, although I’m seeing one, both clues and a grid. The correct one, too, I presume, as it’s dated today and labeled beginner friendly. Restarting the computer didn’t help.
Appears to be related to a different program supporting the puzzle site.
I don’t follow. Are you saying that another add on has taken over Firefox? That doesn’t seem possible. No event has taken place, I haven’t asked for it, and the Crossword Sraper icon still shows. Indeed, as I say, it reports not seeing a puzzle.
I think Jenni is saying that the software on TNY’s website has changed so that Crossword Scraper doesn’t recognize the puzzle as a puzzle. I use Scraper in Chrome – worked fine Monday and yesterday, but not today.
I hope this isn’t permanent (or that Scraper will adapt) – I rely on the Monday TNY for my morning mental workout. But we may be screwed. I only occasionally do the Saturday Stumper, and I find it at the brainsonly site. Scraper doesn’t recognize it as a puzzle, so I have to solve in the app brainsonly uses – kind of a pain because keys for moving around the grid and deleting letters are a little different.
Thanks. Oh, dear. I guessed something had changed for the worse and just now removed Crossword Scraper and then ad-added it. No help. Anyhow, keep me posted how subsequent days or strategies go.
Quick update. I tried the TNY crossword Web page’s print option. It’s not ideal, but I remember having turned to Crossword Scraper in the first place because TNY’s print options were terrible fits to the printed page. It’s not ideal now either, but closer to working at “letter,” I think.
If you look at the fine print under today’s grid on the TNY web site, it says “Powered by Puzzmo”. Before today, it was “Powered by PuzzleMe”. That’s probably the explanation for why Crossword Scraper doesn’t recognize it. I’ve left feedback on GitHub for the developer. Hopefully, he’ll be able to tweak things.
I hope the PUZZMO folks listen to your feedback, Sanfranman59. I don’t use Crossword Scraper but rather just print the puzzle out from the New Yorker page. Worked fine until today. Size and formatting is all messed up. Plus, an odd message “Game Paused” comes up…even though I’m not playing online but rather just doing a hard copy print from Firefox. I went over to GritHub and quickly got lost there. I hope they listen to you and fix all of the problems. Thanks. David
New Yorker puzzle is not printing properly this morning. Puzzle grid is too small and sits in the upper right. The clues are printing way too light. Yesterday’s puzzle by Pablo still printing out beautifully from the New Yorker website. Not so with Caitlin’s puzzle today. David
New Yorker: This is my report on the New Yorker crosswords today and earlier after coming back from Jewish holidays to the desktop world. I don’t use Crossword Scraper, and am having the same trouble printing as others, depending on my browser. Firefox won’t print the Wednesday and Thursday crosswords at all, but I can get the new version you describe on Chrome. I can’t print a solution. With the New Yorker’s previous puzzle software, I had different new problems before Wednesday that did not happen before, say, last year. On Firefox, all of a sudden I had to reduce the size of the puzzle to 72%, which I previously didn’t have to do, but that worked. On Chrome, my previous new problem was that I was always printing two pages (one blank), and I had to remember to ask for only one page.
NYT: Maybe I got up on the wrong side of the bed – this one just seems very “meh!” to me. Figured out what was going on with the theme after getting I HOPE SO from crosses and a little pattern recognition. Not much excitement after that.
Didn’t care for NARKED or AEROS. Seemed like there was a lot of short fill and nothing very entertaining in the longer fill. Though I did like the clue for BLONDES.
Eric always says he’s not slowed by pop trivia, so allow me to disagree wholeheartedly where it’s full on too of the theme on the WSJ. I was thrown by the golf term and RUMS crossing SINGERS, but also SUCRA and ICRY. I showed ito a 20-something, too, who was unable to help.
I get slowed by pop trivia all the time. I didn’t remember the Flo Rida song (and I only know of it from crosswords).
I’m lucky, I guess, in that all sorts of trivia sticks in my head.