BEQ 10:35 (Eric) 
[3.50 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
LAT 2:17 (Stella) 
[2.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
NYT 3:29 (Sophia) 
[2.88 avg; 17 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker 8:05 (Amy) [3.45 avg; 10 ratings] rate it
Universal untimed (pannonica) [3.00 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (?) [2.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
WSJ 4:57 (Jim Q) rate it
Brian Keller’s New York Times crossword — Sophia’s recap
Theme: GREETING CARDS – each theme answer has “HI [the name of a playing card]” contained within it in circled letters.
New York Times, 09 29 2025, By Brian Keller
- 20a [Fast-food alternative to a nugget] – CHICKEN TENDER
- 28a [Headwear usually worn metaphorically] – THINKING CAP
- 49a [Coach of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant] – PHIL JACKSON
- 70a/10a [With 10-Across, alternative to a fist bump] – HIGH/FIVE
- 56a [Hallmark products … or a hint to what to find in the circled squares] – GREETING CARDS
This is such a creative theme! I love the concept of saying “hi” to each card as a reinterpretation of GREETING CARDS. It’s impressive how the theme answers don’t feel repetitive, even though the HI is in the same place in the first word of each answer. CHICKEN TENDER and THINKING CAP are such fun answers, and even though I’m not familiar with PHIL JACKSON, I was able to figure out his name quickly (plus, the “playing card” angle is basically another clue for the “Jack” half of his name). The HIGH/FIVE split didn’t work as well for me, because the homophone HIGH/HI meant that the answer of HIGH FIVE felt a little too on the nose for me given the theme.
Other notes on the puzzle:
- Lots of fun short fill in the puzzle today! I really liked MERCH, CATTOY, TEENLIT, SAVEALL. EYE KIT is also fun, although I’ve definitely heard the “kit” with “lip” more than “eye” (but I’m not a makeup expert – blame Kylie Jenner for the lip kit SEO?).
- Favorite clues of the day: [Soldier who can stand at attention indefinitely] for GI JOE, and [Run out of clothes?] for STREAK
- My one constructor-y nit to pick about this puzzle is how sectioned off each area is – a lot of the black squares make parts of the puzzle hard to get into. Luckily, the fill in the puzzle is appropriately Monday-level, so I think that even newer solvers will be able to find footholds in each area.
Happy Monday all! Congrats to Brian on a great NYT debut!
Taylor Johnson’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up
Los Angeles Times 9/29/25 by Taylor Johnson
I associate Taylor Johnson more with Universal (since he edits there) than with LAT, and this theme feels very much like something that could have run in Universal. The revealer at 63A [Marketing term for nutrient-rich fare, or what the answers to the starred clues are] is SUPERFOOD, because each theme answer is a phrase that includes an adjective that could be said to be SUPER plus a noun that’s a type of FOOD:
- 16A [*”Neato!”] is COOL BEANS.
- 38A [*Mensch] is a GOOD EGG.
- 9A [*Head honcho] is a TOP BANANA.
- 33A [*Influential person] is BIG CHEESE.
I wish COOL BEANS were replaced with another phrase that means a type of person. It wouldn’t bother me to have two person phrases and two non-person phrases, but three and one feels like COOL BEANS is the odd one out.
The grid has no words, not even theme answers, longer than 9 letters, which should lend itself to very fast solving. On the other hand, we have Taylor Johnson fill, which is sparkly but sometimes a little more Wednesday than Monday. In particular, I thought there were a lot of proper names, including ones that might not be familiar nationally and/or to younger solvers (DOONE, EBSEN, EDY’S, ELIA, ELISE, etc. I also thought Ibram X. KENDI crossing TALENTI gelato was mid- to even late-week-worthy.
My final assessment: Playful and fun, but maybe for a different day of the week.
Tarun Krishnamurthy’s Universal crossword, “Catch My Drift?” — pannonica’s write-up
Universal • 9/29/25 • Mon • “Catch My Drift?” • Krishnamurthy • solution • 20250929
Most striking thing about my experience with this puzzle was the solve time—it took significantly longer than I expect for a Monday Universal offering. Can’t put my finger on any one aspect responsible, but there you have it.
- 37a/39aR [… “Am I making sense?” … or a hint to two pairs of two letters in each starred answer] ARE YOU | WITH ME? That is, each theme answer features RU and ME bigrams.
- 17a. [*When to pull an all-nighter] CRUNCH TIME. (54d [Prepare for an exam] STUDY.)
- 25a. [*It has to be refined] CRUDE METAL.
- 50a. [*Really resonated] STRUCK HOME.
- 60a. [*List including omelets and mimosas, often] BRUNCH MENU.
- None of the theme answers are particularly long, so perhaps that’s why we get a couple of grid-spanners among the down entries: 3d [Opportunities to work on relationships] COUPLES’ RETREATS, 11d [MLB squad in the Pacific Northwest] SEATTLE MARINERS (8d [Emerald, for one] GEM.)
- 12d [Beach bird] SEA EAGLE. That E-A-E sequence is part of a larger all-vowel patch, with SEATTLE MARINERS, NEED, AAAS, and ANTE. (16a, 19a, 22a)
- 27d [Totally wipe out] EAT IT, not ERASE.
- 34d [Super uncool] NOT OK, which is better than my first attempt with NERDY.
- 37d [Enhanced format for a radio talk show] AM STEREO. I … did not know this existed.
- 1a [Rude things to make] FACES. Maybe needs a qualifier?
- 31d [Guitar attachment] STRAP.
- 33a [Glance over] SCAN. One of those treacherous contranyms.
- 66a [Prepare to be photographed] POSE.
So did anyone else have a similarly unexpected protracted experience here?
Stella Zawistowski’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Foul Ends” — Jim Q’s write-up
Fiend’s Stella Zawistowski up to bat! Fun to see that byline.
THEME: Phrases that end in football penalties
WSJ • 9/29/25 • Mon • “Foul Ends” • Stella Zawistowski • solution • 20250929
THEME ANSWERS:
- RNA INTERFERENCE
- COUPON CLIPPING
- KOREAN FACE MASK
- [Result of the no-no found at the end of 17-, 26- or 42-Across] FOOTBALL PENALTY
Moments ago, my 9th grade freshman English class was asking me about my opinion of a Baltimore Ravens football player who was injured over the weekend (if I remember that correctly). I had no clue who or what they were talking about. The name of the player has already left (I know the mascot of the team though!) I told them that my brain- much to my chagrin- seems to actively kick sports terminology and the names of most teams/athletes right out as soon as they come in.
Then I got to work on this football themed puzzle.
And just like a Monday puzzle should, it welcomed me into a world that I’m mostly unfamiliar with. Fun to solve, and *almost* everything inferable (looking at you PAOLI / LYRICA crossing).
Ok ok… like I know the basics, of course. INTERFERENCE is not new to me, and I know pulling at the FACE MASK is a no-no. Not sure what CLIPPING is, but I think I’ve heard of it in passing. CLIPPING doesn’t sound that bad to me though. If I were a ref, I’d probably let it slide.
ERRATA / MISSTEPS:
- 36A [Almost never?] ONCE. Such a simple, lovely clue. ONCE is, in fact, very close to never.
- 39A [Document signed by reality TV contestants: Abbr.] NDA. I assume this goes for game show contestants as well? I wonder how anybody can keep it a secret! Do you at least leak the deets to your closest friends and family? Stella, you’ve been on Jeopardy!, right? Can you weigh in?
- 40A [Amtrak stop west of Philadelphia] PAOLI crossing [Fibromyalgia drug brand] LYRICA seems unfair to me. I initially entered an O, and PAOLO/LYROCA looked fine to me. Ran the vowels until Mr. Happy Pencil appeared.
- 8D [Will Ferrell holiday classic] ELF. That movie was the oxymoronic definition of “instant classic” when it came out for sure. I wonder how that happens for some and not others… like 2022’s Spirited I thought for sure was gonna be the next ELF. Not even close! Really liked that one though…
Speaking of Football/Ravens/English Class/Students… This is about as close as I’ll come to showing off my knowledge of football. Just had this tattoo finished a couple of days ago. It features the Baltimore Ravens mascot… There’s a Steinbeck-related tattoo opposite. We went with a crossword as a segue between the two. Best part is that it was done by a former favorite English student who was in my seventh grade class during my second year of teaching. She drew a lot in my class. I was totally ok with that.
Will Nediger’s New Yorker crossword–Amy’s recap
The New Yorker crossword solution, 9/29/25 – Nediger
The New Yorker crossword has a new online interface, Puzzmo. I think the letters finally show up as black rather than dark gray, and I like that change. Navigation feels a little bit off. And every time I refer back to the puzzle in another browser tab, I have to close a “puzzle paused” pop-up; that’s new.
Tough puzzle from Will Nediger today. I had a few missteps in the NW corner that slowed my start. Tried MAIZE for the Nez Perce staple instead of CAMAS (always glad to learn about North American plants and animals), and somewhat inapt EBBS for DIPS. With the TH at the end of [Occasion for some summer parades], I wanted JUNETEENTH to fit, but it’s PRIDE MONTH. And then there was only one route out of that section!
Didn’t know Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Michelangelo was called MIKEY. Never heard of AMIA, [Philosopher Srinivasan who wrote “The Right to Sex”], nor had I seen the name Amia before. Another unfamiliar: [Concept artist Mead who designed the worlds of “Blade Runner” and “Tron”], SYD. And JACK-FM, on the radio? No idea what that is.
Fave fill: DRAFT CARDS, PRIDE MONTH, OPINION POLLS, “WORDS MEAN THINGS” (though I feel “Words have meanings” might be more familiar), Japanese KAWAII for cutesy things, TWIN SISTER, BALCONETTE bra, BALL HANDLING.
3.75 stars from me.
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1822 — Eric’s Review
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1822 — 9/29/25
I’m patting myself on the back for finishing this one quickly (for me), especially since there was a point when I wasn’t sure I would be able to finish it without a bit of “cheating.” (Unless you’re in a tournament, looking up an answer or using the check feature is not cheating!)
Part of my feeling that I wasn’t going to be able to solve all of this on my own is a bunch of pop culture that I didn’t know. Some of it was answers that seem a bit off in one way or another.
The stuff that jumps out at me:
- 1A [Covert activity run by a government agency] BLACK OP That sounds weird to me without an S on the second word.
- 16A [Pig’s spot] IN A POKE A gimme. A pig in a poke is “something that is bought or accepted without knowing its value or seeing it first.” The phrase goes back to the 16th century, when unscrupulous merchants would sell something like a cat in a bag while claiming to be selling a pig.
- 19A [“I’ll only be a minute,” to the driver] WAIT IN THE CAR I say that to my driver all the time. Don’t you?
- 33A [Maker of Prep & Go containers] OXO I know the company, of course, but I’ve never heard of those containers.
- 36A [Changed gears, say] SHIFTED AWAY FROM A cromulent answer, though it took me a bit to get it.
- 40A [“Educated” memoirist Westover] TARA I had no idea here, though having since Googled Westover, she sounds vaguely familiar.
- 42A [Part examined in a colonoscopy] ILEUM No, it’s not fun, but the prep for a colonoscopy is so much better now than it was when I had my first one in 2009. I lost a good friend to colon cancer just about a year ago. So if you’re over 50, up yours!
- 46A [Org. that offers SpotHero discounts] AAA SpotHero is a parking app, right?
- 49A [Financial freedom to do whatever, no matter the consequences] FUCK YOU MONEY Oddly, my financial advisor doesn’t use this term.
- 55A [“Dance Moms” mom Lukasiak] CHRISTI I don’t know what this is and frankly I don’t care.
- 58A [1983 hit with the lyrics “Rollin’ down Imperial Highway”] I LOVE L.A. I didn’t recognize the lyrics and expected this to be some song I’d never heard of and not an amusing Randy Newman song that I remember well but haven’t heard in years.
- 60A [Jordan promoted it in the ’80s and ’90s] NIKE AIR I’m not sure what the dates are doing here. Did Michael Jordan’s associate with Nike end 25 years ago? Does Nike no longer sell a sneaker called the Air? Do I care? (Not really.)
- 61A [Fagin’s followers in “Oliver Twist”] BOY GANG That’s accurate, based on the film adaptation(s) I’ve seen of the Dickens classic, but man, that looks like green paint.
- 1D [Drink from a keg] BREW Not BEER.
- 2D [Tony-winning actress Hall] LENA Not a name I knew. She won Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Hedwig and the Angry Inch in 2014. I saw the movie version, at least.
- 3D [Conquistador Hernán] CORTES A gimme, though I never know whether it’ll be spelled with an S or a Z.
- 5D [Mathematician Felix with an eponymous one-sided bottle] KLEIN Another name new to me.
- 25D [Big diamond producer] ANGOLA Not AFRICA (at least, not in the grid).
- 29D [Hard worker] TOILER I have a special loathing for that kind of answer.
- 32D [Stark figure?] ARYA Cute clue. Is this the day that I finally remember that the Game of Thrones character is not ANYA? Or was it just that 35A spotted me the R?
- 37D [Improving, as pillows] FLUFFING C’mon, Brendan, no love for the most important person on many porno movie sets? (Though to be honest, I expect Viagra and Cialis have made that job disappear.)
- 46D [West London town neighboring Shepherd’s Bush and Chiswick] ACTON It sounds vaguely familiar. I guess the clue is a nice break from something that would lead to ACT ON.
- 50D [Org. that helps growing businesses?] USDA Cute.
- 52D [YouTube CEO ___ Mohan] NEAL Another name I didn’t know.
- 53D [Fashion desinger Tahiri] ELIE Ditto.
- 56D [“The Rehearsal” network] HBO Not a show I remember hearing of.
NYT: Editing nit on the clue for 63A, the MPAA got renamed to the MPA in 2019. Otherwise this was a nice and smooth Monday puzzle.
Good point, but the clue works. From 1968–2019, the organization rating movies was the MPAA
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
Overall, I thought the puzzle was fun, though the revealer is a bit too much of a groaner for my tastes.
[Run out of clothes] *is* a great clue — it’s been used four times now in the NYT, starting with a 2010 Patrick Berry puzzle.
I don’t have any problem with recycling a good clue, as long as it’s not done too often.
Puzzle: Universal; Rating: 3.5 stars
The theme is dad-joke goofy, which I appreciate. Also some quality fill in there.
thanks, Stella! glad you enjoyed it!
I’m baffled by the NYT theme. HIKING and HIJACK are both meaningful, but HITEN isn’t, as far as I know. And then HI(GH)FIVE off in the corner… It’s a mess, IMO.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 1.5 stars
Yeah I don’t get that either. Hi ten doesn’t work
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
I took HITEN as a homophone for “heighten.”
No. Just … no. That was horrible. You cannot have two real words one homophone based on a non-word. And what the heck is hifive doing?
Same here.
Puzzle gets a 63D from me.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
I think it’s arbitrary whether or not the phrase makes sense with the word HI in it. All of them are meant to be read “Hi, ___!” Coincidental that two of the HI phrases are homophones of familiar words/phrases. To that end, I thought it was a really fun Monday :)
Puzzle: The New Yorker; Rating: 1 star
What a bunch of arcane trivia.
I struggled mightily with this one – took me nearly 3/4 of an hour – but I finished with no errors. I got frustrated with it several times, but looking back at it, it seems mostly fair. There are some entries (e.g., KAWAII) that I didn’t know and don’t care about. BALCONETTE in the SE gave me fits. Asked my wife, who has been wearing and buying bras for about 55 years, and she has never heard the term.
Text-speak often throws me off – SMH=So Much Hate?
But there was also some fun cluing – OPINION POLLS, YEARLY SALARY, TONY, MINT.
Didn’t care for the clue for CINCO (or maybe I don’t understand it). Any number could be a fraction of another number. Mathematically, you could clue it as “A factor of quince,” and that leaves only two choices – tres and cinco – and only one of them fits.
Anyway, I got my Monday morning mental workout.
Oh – and pleased to find that Crossword Scraper is working again with TNY. Thank you to the developer!
It’s actually ‘shaking my head’, but I too at one point thought it was ‘so much hate’.
Took me forever to find a foothold and checked the grid so many times. One of my slowest solves so far.
New Yorker: Still no obvious progress from the Puzzmo folks at fixing what’s wrong with the printing of the puzzle from the New Yorker website–on Firefox via Windows 10, in my case. The grid size is tiny–too small to see–and a “game paused” box opens up after giving the print command even though the puzzle is being printed not played online. I don’t know if those who use Puzzle Scraper have seen an improvement. I certainly have not. If sanfranman59 has heard anything more, please let us know. For now, I guess I’ll have to give up doing the New Yorker puzzle. Damn! David
I am also doing this on Firefox via Windows (10 still, if that makes a difference). It’s not misbehaving so far, just slightly smaller grid and some odd jumping to random squares while typing.
Mightn’t you try solving it online?
Thanks, Amy, for your kind suggestion. But, I only solve on paper. Enough time spent on my computer as is. Let’s hope the Puzzmo folks figure this out. The previous group the New Yorker used–PuzzleMe–had the printing process and the puzzle size working perfectly.
Happy Silent Movie Day! David
I appreciate that Crossword Scraper is still working on it, but won’t be surprised if it proves hard or impossible to defeat. Meanwhile, yes, the built-in print version is smaller, which indeed is what had sent me back when to Crossword Scraper for TNY in the first place. My eyesight was always awful and now worse, so this is hard.
Crossword Scraper is now working for me. All I needed to do was click the button in the upper right of the window to update Chrome and the extension automatically updated as well. I used it to get a .PUZ file of the TNY puzzle a few minutes ago. My understanding is that it should work with both Chrome and Firefox.
The new version of CS is 1.3.27.
Thanks sanfranman59 for your update. Not sure I’m up to learning the intricacies of Crossword Scraper at this point. If you hear anything more back from Puzzmo about configuring a hard copy print in a readable size as PuzzleMe was able to do so well, let us know. The current print size is way, way too small for my eyes. David
The developer of Crossword Scraper won’t be able to do anything with the printing function on The New Yorker website, David. That’s an issue for the TNY crossword folks and Puzzmo.
If you solve on your computer, the extension is very easy to use. You’d need to add it to either Chrome or Firefox, but that’s the toughest part. Once you do, you navigate to a page with a crossword puzzle, click a button to convert it to any of several puzzle formats (I use PUZ files with the online app that I use for solving), and the file downloads to your computer.
There is a print function in AcrossLite, which is the app I use to solve puzzles downloaded through Crossword Scraper. I just printed out a copy of today’s TNY puzzle, and it seems very readable to me.
Maybe this would work for you, David T Steere, Jr. Adds a couple of steps to what you’re used to – but technology continues to make what was simple more complex!
Thanks, Gary R and sanfranman59. I appreciate your patience. I did add Crossword Scraper to Firefox. The toolbar link worked just fine to convert the New Yorker puzzle to formats I could print out. Both the PDF and the PUZ/Across Lite prints are just fine and plenty big enough. Thanks for the help! David
New Yorker: I haven’t tried Crossword Scraper. Using regular printing, Firefox won’t print, but Chrome works well. Chrome is annoying when I deal with the New Yorker because it asks for logins more frequently, but I have to use Chrome. There is a way to enlarge the box sizes in the grid. When I print, I ask for 115% or as large as the page will allow comfortably. This works for PDFs also.
Well, I have to take it back. The PDF stays as it is today and I can’t enlarge it for better boxes. I don’t know what I did successfully before.
I don’t know how to enlarge the puzzle with its boxes but I just did it again.
Puzzle: The New Yorker; Rating: 5 stars
Really enjoyed the New Yorker puzzle … found it challenging but fun (15 minutes to solve).
Uni … Similar experience here, pannonica. I was about 4% above my average solve time and, looking back on it, can’t say what held me up.
Still more evidence of The Great Crossword Constructor Conspiracy: NOT OK {31D: Uncool} also appears in today’s Uni puzzle, clued as “Super uncool”. That’s a pretty crazy coincidence (unless it isn’t … dun-dun-duuunnn!).
TNY: Amy – had to smile at your comment on 17-A. I’m an old fart, so I confidently filled in JULY FOURTH to start. Times change!
Cool to see that pair of non-thematic Down spanners in the Universal. Wonder why we don’t ever see that. Is it because Will and Mike and Patti have an editorial aversion to them (they DO tend to look too theme-y), or because constructors aren’t submitting puzzles with them? I think they can really spice a puzzle up.
I agree with Gary R about the New Yorker puzzle. Very challenging, but I did manage to complete it. I also had trouble in the SE corner, but kept at it.
I always love it when Amy says a puzzle is “tough” – and then it turns out her time is a blazing 8:05.
“I always love it when Amy says a puzzle is “tough” – and then it turns out her time is a blazing 8:05.” … lol … ditto … I used the same adjective for today’s TNY puzzle, but my time was 24:32 and I cheated to get one answer. My easy puzzle times are usually anywhere from about 25% to 75% higher than Amy’s solve times (sometimes more). When she says a puzzle is tough, I often can’t complete them without cheating.
re BEQ — SHIFTED AWAY FROM is a fine answer, but it doesn’t mean “Changed gears, say”.
I can see how it could if we’re being metaphorical and aren’t talking about an actual mechanism such as a car’s transmission.
I agree with pannonica. I think it’s fine. If you’re giving a talk and going on to a new topic, you might say, “I’m changing gears and will start talking about…,” or you might say, “I’m shifting away from that topic and on to a new one…”
I don’t see how it passes a substitution test.
“Shifted away” and “changed gears” could be synonyms, it’s the “from” that makes it problematic.
NYT: I really liked the theme, but I would rather have had a fourth theme answer as a long across answer, rather than the HI/HIGH FIVE split, which doesn’t work so well because FIVE isn’t buried in the theme answer.
Puzzle: The New Yorker; Rating: 5 stars
Silky and zesty at once.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
I didn’t mind HI TEN as much as I loved PHIL JACKSON, THINKING CAP, DICEY, NECTAR, CAT TOY and the overall fill and cluing. Fun debut.