LAT tk (Gareth) 
[2.88 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
NYT 15:52 (Eric) [2.84 avg; 19 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Darby) 
[1.67 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
Universal (Sunday) 7:02 (Jim P) [3.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (Norah) 
[3.60 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
WaPo 5:02(Matt G) [3.25 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
Rich Katz’s New York Times Crossword “Central Perk” — Eric’s Review
Rich Katz’s New York Times Crossword “Central Perk” — 9/28/25
I guess some old TV shows just never go away. The NBC sitcom Friends ran from 1994–2004, and the gang is here in pairs that intersect various employment pluses:
- 24A [Alternative to a nanny] DAY CARE/10D [Mother of Joseph and Benjamin, in the Bible] RACHEL
- 39A [Class that might cause some high schoolers to blush] HEALTH/3D [Fly-catching bird with a name derived from Greek] PHOEBE
- 41A [Like some bridges] DENTAL/17D [Santa ___] MONICA
- 73A [Extra] BONUS/51D [City SE of Phoenix] CHANDLER
- 86A [Outback baby] JOEY/47D [Time out, perhaps] VACATION
- 90A [Sewer in American history] ROSS/56D [Holistic contentment] WELLNESS I’d argue that wellness benefits have more to do with reducing the cost of employee health insurance than in providing “holistic contentment,” but I made the most of mine.
- 101A [Relationship featuring casual intimacy … or a hint to six pairs of intersecting answers in this puzzle] FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS
The sitcom characters and perks are highlighted, which was moderately confusing. The clues for the characters don’t have anything to do with the show (for which I’m grateful, as I’ve never seen a complete episode.) I didn’t look for a revealer and when I filled it in, I grasped the TV connection quickly and the fringe benefits aspect a little more slowly.
I’m impressed that Mr. Katz got all six characters in the grid and had them crossing actual employment perks. But not being a Friends fan, I missed the “Central Perk” reference in the puzzle’s title (the character Rachel works at a coffee house by that name in the first few seasons). And I didn’t get the warm fuzzies thinking about the characters that I’m sure many solvers did.
I have to wonder how the puzzle plays for someone with even less knowledge of the show than I have. And I expect not everyone is familiar with the phrase “Friends with benefits,” which might have slowed them down.
But speaking of friends, my houseguest just arrived, so I’m going to cut this short. I might be back later with some more thoughts on the puzzle.
Evan Birnholz’s Washington Post Crossword “Elements of Style” — Matt’s Review
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword solution, “Elements of Style,” 9/28/2025
We’ve got a different shape this week. At 18×25, it’s shade bigger than a typical square Sunday grid. But in both grid shape and a few other concessions, I think the theme payoff is well worth it.
Our title is “Elements of Style,” and themers contain circled letters which spell chemical elements.
- 27a [*Garment worn while performing pirouette] LEOTARD
- 37d [*Shoes featuring the Jumpman logo] AIR JORDANS
- 38a [*Traditional Scottish hats] BALMORAL BONNETS
- 45d [*Multi-pocketed garment originally designed for the British military] CARGO PANTS
- 60a [*Sweater that’s larger than ordinary] OVERSIZED PULLOVER
- 84a [*Flared formal dress] A LINE GOWN
- 104a [*Boots that Notorious B.I.G. wore and referenced in some of his lyrics] TIMBERLANDS
- 118a [Person who would wear the article of clothing spelled out in the first letters of the starred entries] SCIENTIST. Those letters, in grid order and the order I’ve presented them here, spell LABCOAT
This was a really fun theme to work through. The themers themselves include exciting (AIR JORDANS), in-the-language (CARGO PANTS), new-to-me-but-inferable (BALMORAL BONNET), and maybe a bit green-painty (OVERSIZED PULLOVER), but any dings I can come up with are well offset by how constrained I know this theme must be to even find workable entries, let alone to arrange them in a particular order for that extra LAB COAT payoff.
(Indeed, Evan let me know that he considered TARZAN LOINCLOTH (zinc) at one point. I think that may have been stretching it just a bit too far!)
For that up and down, ending with a solid ‘up’ in the theme, I can’t overstate how much I enjoyed the fill on this one. I’ll just get right to other highlights:
Right off the bat, GAY ICONS / AVE MARIA / DATE PALM is as strong of a 3×8 stack as I’ve seen in a bit. I may have extra rose-colored glasses because I had to undo initially entering AGNUS DEI and DATE TREE to make it fit together // I was a pretty avid coin collector when I was younger, so always enjoy getting to use the word OBVERSE [Heads of the U.S. Mint?] // Nostalgia alert, at least for those of us of a certain age, cluing EARTH to Captain Planet and the Planeteers, a short-lived, ecologically-minded cartoon from the early ‘90s // NOISE POP is new to me (a quick Google tells me it’s indeed two words), but the clue [Musical subgenre that combines catchy melodies with loud, distorted sounds] gave plenty of context to help me get there // Evan’s son is nearly two now, but still nice to see ITS A BOY and SON cross referenced to it // [You have to meet them!] for NEEDS is deft. I liked it // Ditto for [Rub hub] cluing SPA
Cheers!
Michael Schlossberg’s Universal Sunday crossword, “Stop the Presses!”—Jim P’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases clued as though they chronicle the travails of a hapless printing department.
Universal Sunday crossword solution · “Stop the Presses!” · Michael Schlossberg · 9.28.25
- 23a. [“This print shop is the worst! When we tried to print novels, our machines caught fire and ___”] COOKED THE BOOKS.
- 36a. [“When we tried to print sheet music, the machine sputtered and ___”] WENT OUT ON A HIGH NOTE.
- 51a. [“Each mailing address is off-center because the printers ___”] PUSH THE ENVELOPE.
- 70a. [“We mixed up the inks for the comic strips and made ___”] OFF-COLOR JOKES.
- 92a. [“I saw gum fall into our newspaper press and ___”] STICK TO THE STORY.
- 103a. [“Someone shredded the interview! Now we only have ___”] CONVERSATION PIECES.
- 125a. [“And to top it all off, the magazine printer jammed, causing ___”] A WRINKLE IN TIME.
Cute and imaginative. Once I realized the phrases were idiomatic, I solved without regard to the theme and just went with the crossing entries to help me fill in each one. (Those long clues aren’t so conducive to solving for time.) But I enjoyed the story once I finished and put everything together.
The grid is filled smoothly though some long entries (ACTIVATION, KNOTTING) are just meh. Others are livelier (PLOT HOLE, LITERARY, MARTINI BAR), though I didn’t know there were bars that focused solely on the martini. SHOW TO is rather clunky.
Clues of note:
- 100a. [FDR’s is 000-00-0001, on “The Simpsons”]. SSN. Mr. Burns reveals his is 000-00-0002 and curses FDR for getting the first number.
- 133a. [Kiss, to a Brit]. SNOG. It’s really more akin to what we would call “making out” than just kissing.
3.5 stars.
NYT: I predict the 95D clue and answer is going to cause a few complaints on social media. If there’s one thing I know about LEFTISTs, it’s that they hate being grouped in with liberals.
I’ve always thought of “leftists” as being on the extreme left, while “liberal” to me means somewhat closer to center in varying degrees. I think one can be fiscally conservative, for example, but socially liberal – but in my understanding of the word there’s nothing conservative or even “left of center” about a leftist. Nothing “leaning” about it. (this is all just from contextual usage, not explicitly a dictionary definition).
As such, I put “Leftish” in there at first.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2.5 stars
Meh theme, meh fill… just meh.
For me it was, most unfortunately, a themeless puzzle. I can’t recite the names on “Friends” and am stumped by the benefits. What do they mean, and what about their placement?
They’re all job benefits – VACATION time, HEALTH insurance, a BONUS plan, etc.
the benefits are all employment benefits – vacation, dental, bonus, wellness, etc. I never watched the show either, but hear about it so much that while like you, I don’t think I could recite the names – but I could certainly pick them out of a lineup. We did the puzzle as a themeless, but figured out the theme after the fact. Kinda like a beginner’s meta.
Is there a particular reason for job benefits? It’s set in a bar. I realize it does have PERK in the title. (I live just four blocks from an entertainment center based on “Friends,” which is not to say I could use that to complete a theme.)
I think there are multiple plays on words here. “Central Perk” (itself a play on words) was the coffee shop in the TV program. “Friends with benefits” is a relationship phrase familiar to many of us. One part of each theme pair is the name of one of the “friends” from the show. The other part is a job “benefit,” or “perk” (for perquisite).
That’s helpful, thanks.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 1 star
Weak “theme”; disappointing puzzle — and I was a devoted watcher.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3 stars
I had a “split screen” experience with puzzle. Like Eric, I’ve never seen more than occasional snippets of the sitcom, so the theme was mostly lost on me. But the fill and clues were better, and more interesting, than your typical Sunday, and kept me engaged until the end. That was when I finally “got” the theme, which was — I don’t know — kinda cute I guess? If you’re a fan, maybe? But I’m definitely not, so it was more of a let down for me. Based on the quality of the fill, I was hoping for a more of an Aha! experience when the theme was revealed. But nope.
But having said that the fill was above average for a Sunday, I will also stipulate that the clue for LEFTIST was bad. And I suspect that I-RAIL is a made-up word.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3 stars
Agree on all counts
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3 stars
I was completely lost in the NW of the NYT because the clue for 33a is just wrong. ABLATION and removal are not the same thing in a surgical context. ABLATION means the body part no longer does the thing it was doing. It is not removed. Nerve ABLATION stops the nerve from transmitting signals. It’s not the same as removing the nerve.
I’m sure someone can find a non-medical dictionary that supports that and maybe this is one of those things where people not familiar with the field had no issue with the clue. Unfortunately it really colored my experience of the puzzle. Sigh.
Jenni – thank you for this. My wife had a heart ABLATION procedure earlier this year. I was pretty sure something was “zapped,” but nothing was removed. I resisted that entry for quite a while.
RESECT had that area messed up for me for a while.
Jenni, you are no doubt correct about the specific type of ablation you mention. There are quite a few types of ablation, however, that do involve surgical removal of tissue.
From Wikipedia: “Ablation (Latin: ablatio – removal) is the removal or destruction of something from an object by vaporization, chipping, erosive processes, or by other means.” And also: “In medicine, ablation is the removal of a part of biological tissue, usually by surgery.”
I recommend the Wikipedia article for its concise but thorough explication of the many types of ablation.
+1 … surgical ablation is definitely a thing … as are radio frequency ablation, laser ablation, cryoablation and chemical ablation (off the top of my head … I’m pretty sure there are other ways of ablating body tissue as well)
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
An extra point for the fact that the theme felt unique and quirky. I understand that the literal interpretation of FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS may not appeal to everyone, but I thought it was funny, original and a welcome change from the more typical Sunday play on words that falls flat for me. And the fill was above average.
Made me smile, so thank you to Rich Katz.
Totally, totally agree. I think what makes the puzzle (theme) really work is the obnoxious wordplay of the revealer, the clumsy, delightful, charmingly ersatz threshold-crossing that FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS achieves; I mean, that’s just good crossword.
I liked it; and it helped me check the crossing of CHANDLER with ANDRA since I didn’t know the city or the actress, but did know the character at least :-) Pretty fun Sunday!
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3 stars
Played completely like a themeless for me: I’ve never seen any of the show, so the names didn’t pop out to me at all. Plus, I solve on paper and, on Sundays, use their “large print” format, which sadly doesn’t include the italicization of the key clues, so I really didn’t have anything pointing to a theme. I thought maybe the central 66A entry might reveal a clue, but no, it was hilariously almost exactly in EAT A SANDWICH territory. When I finally got down to the revealer, I understood, but yeah, pretty underwhelming.
WaPo: Another fun puzzle from Evan Birnholz, and one in which the theme actually helped me solve the puzzle.
Like Matt, I had never heard of a BALMORAL BONNET. I thought it sounded kind of green-painty. But looking it up, I learned that it’s a specific type of cap.
According to Wikipedia, “Use of the Balmoral has been championed by songwriter Richard Thompson, who uses it on stage.” I’ve been a big fan of Thompson for the last 35 years, I’ve seen him live five or six times, and I always thought he was wearing a beret.
Thanks, Evan!
Agreed—a fun Sunday, with the theme contributing to the solve, and a cute mini-meta to boot. Great stuff!
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
I enjoy the fact that a very large proportion of those who comment on this site have evidently never interacted with one of the most popular TV shows of the past 30 years even enough to recognize the names of characters and one of the 3 main sets. The Venn diagram evidently has little overlap! 😂 As someone who both has watched a lot of Friends, and enjoys crossword puzzles, I was in the dark until the revealer (having not looked at the title), at which point I had a nice chuckle. One of the few Sundays in recent memory that didn’t feel like a slog.
Puzzle: USA Today; Rating: 1.5 stars
This puzzle should not have been published. Who wants to see entries such as TSUI Hark, UGALI, HALA Alyan, and BISAN Owda in their crossword?