Thursday, October 16, 2025

BEQ 6:54 (Eric) [2.83 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
Fireball 10:24 (Amy) [2.88 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
LAT tk (Gareth) [2.75 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
NYT 9:16 (ZDL) [4.05 avg; 21 ratings] rate it
Universal 6:31 (Eric) [2.50 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today 6:18 (Emily) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
WSJ 9:05 (Jim Q) [3.50 avg; 4 ratings] rate it

Aidan Deshong’s Universal Crossword Puzzle “Bad Actors” — Eric’s Review

Today’s puzzle features a grid with vertical symmetry and four movie-based theme answers:

• 17A [Hunter of “The Hunger Games”] KATNISS EVERDEEN
• 27A [Faith of “The Exorcist”] CATHOLICISM
• 39A [Ivy of “Legally Blonde”] HARVARD
• 51A [Hope of “E.T.”] GETTING HOME

I spent far longer pondering this theme than I did solving the puzzle. I saw a backwards “bad act” — SIN — in KATNISS, but none of the other theme answers held anything similar. I looked at the clues for the theme answers (which are consistently and a bit oddly worded). The KATNISS EVERDEEN clue uses “Hunter,” which made me think of the 1950s movie hunk Tab Hunter (who I misremembered as being fairly incompetent as an actor). But “Faith,” “Ivy” and “Hope” didn’t lead to any second-rate thespians.

I Googled “Hunter Faith Ivy Hope” and found to a 2009 YA novel Faith, Hope, and Ivy June by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, but that was clearly irrelevant.

I finally gave in and contacted the friendly editors at Universal. David Steinberg’s explanation is that the theme riffs on the common crossword clueing convention whereby a clue like [Harrison of “Star Wars”] leads to the answer FORD. The trick/joke here is two-fold. First, none of the ambiguous words in the clues (Hunter, Faith, etc.) is to be read as a name (though it could be), they’re to be read as regular nouns. Second, none of the answers is an actor’s surname. There are, however, several other straightforward clue/answer pairs of that sort (described below).

The theme works, but I think a different title or some sort of revealer in the grid would have helped me figure it out on my own.

Other stuff:

• 42A [Long of “The Best Man”] NIA More movie trivia.
• 64A [Hoss of “Tar”] NINA And more movie trivia.
• 47A [Met expectations?] OPERAS As in New York’s Metropolitan Opera company, of course. Cute clue.
• 58A [From ancient Scandinavia] NORSE/53D [Telecom giant headquartered in Espoo, Finland] NOKIA I like this pairing.
• 69A [Mr___ (most-subscribed-to YouTuber)] BEAST I’d not heard of this channel, which Wikipedia says features “fast-paced . . . videos built around elaborate challenges and grandiose philanthropic efforts.” From the little I watched of one video, it’s not for me.
• 5D [Gore of “One Night in Miami…”] ELI Movies again.
• 28D [Fiona, for one] OGRE From the animated movie Shrek. I like movies a lot, but by this point, the puzzle seemed a bit heavy on the movie clues. None of the movie answers were gimmes, though I had a pretty good idea about OGRE even without any crosses.
• 37D [California county known for its cabs?] NAPA As in Cabernets, natch.

Peter Gordon’s Fireball crossword, “Baseball Tradse”–Amy’s recap

Aww, it’s a shame Jenni’s on vacation and isn’t blogging this one, because the theme is right up her alley. The revealer is 57a. [White elephant gift exchanges … and a hint to this puzzle’s theme], YANKEE SWAPS. (Note: I bet a lot of us, maybe most?, don’t live somewhere that uses the Yankee swap term.) The theme answers swap letter strings that spell out the last name of a former member of the Yankees:

• 17a. [Feature of modern cars], DMARISSSIST. Pull out Roger MARIS and put in Mariano RIVERA to get driver assist.
• 23a. [Aioli or marinara, often], CALARIVERAAUCE. Trade MARIS and RIVERA the other way to get calamari sauce.
• 36a. [They have excellent returns], SBERRAVESTMENTS. Pull out Yogi BERRA and put in MARTIN (Billy??) for smart investments.
• 48a. [Threat of military force], SAMARTINTTLING. BERRA comes in for saber rattling.

It was tricky to piece the theme answers together sincce there were crazy letter strings to work with. ISSSIST? AAUCE? SBERRA? TINTTLING? Especially where the crossings were borderline hostile. 46d. [Brand of birth control pill], ALESSE? That brand wasn’t around when I was using the pill, and it was taken off the market “for business reasons” at some point, so not a good entry at all. 47d. [“Keep on finishing” sloganeer], MINWAX? It’s a brand of wood stains. I’ve not needed to stain any wood so this was unknown to me.

I liked the theme after I finally grasped what was going on, but overall not a particularly fun solve for me. 3.5 stars from me.

Kareem Ayas’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up

Difficulty: Easy (9m16s)

Today’s theme: NEAT (How whiskey might be served … with a hint to the answers to the seven starred clues)

• NOT(ice)ABLE
• BEN(ice)TO
• OFF(ice) HOURS
• PR(ice)Y
• SL(ice)R
• APPEND(ice)S
• D(ice)ROLL

Bonus themer — ROCKS OUT (Enjoys oneself uninhibitedly … or a punny title for this puzzle).  Though I’ll say, there’s something aesthetically pleasing about a glass of whisky/bourbon/whatever with one of those giant square-shaped ice cubes.  Also goes down smoother.  Also, nothing about me or my immediate surroundings is NEAT.

Cracking: SET IN STONE, it is written

Slacking: WEND this become an actual word?

Sidetracking: FAUN

Morton J. Mendelson’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Language Barriers” — Jim Q’s write-up

THEME: Phrases (*having to do with ROADs) are interrupted by a pesky black square

THEME ANSWERS:

• 16A [City strays] ALLEY / CATS
• 30A [Hot rod contests] DRAG / RACES \
• 36A [Practical knowledge] STREET / SMARTS
• 46A [Be defensive in traffic, e.g.] DRIVE / SAFE
• 62A [Barricade… or something present in five answers (including this one)] ROAD / BLOCK

*Okay, confession: I didn’t catch the ROAD connection until embarrassingly late in the solve (i.e. just now). I originally thought, “Oh, neat, two-word phrases split by black squares,” even with the  ROAD BLOCK revealer, but now that it suddenly clicked, it’s much more satisfying than I first realized.

Really fun concept, and I appreciate how the second words are clued independently rather than with a lazy dash. I’ve never been a huge fan of those “–” clues—they telegraph too much and kill the mystery.

It took me about half the grid before realizing something was up, mostly because I solved the east side first, where everything looks totally normal (since the “split” word sits to the west). I even convinced myself DRAG was a plausible plural for [Hot rod contests]. So when the revealer dropped, it was one of those genuine “Ohhhhhh” moments—exactly what a Thursday should deliver.

OTHER STUFF / HANG-UPS:

• [One part of a temperature oscillation] LA NINA. Until now, I was reading it as LANINA and had no clue what it was. Victim of the lack of a tilde in crosswords, I suppose.
• [Mercurius et Mars, e.g.] DEI. Conspicuously clued as a Latin word rather than the acronym that was, until quite recently, not very controversial.
• [Talk about this, that, or the other] IDLE CHAT. “Talk” being a noun here. Nice deception.
• [It might result in a TD or an int.] ATT. Guessing “attempt”? Football still not my home turf.
• CARLOS Alcaraz- new for me! But I’m sure tennis folks had a gimme here.
• [Opening in a theater] TRAP DOOR. Great clue. Hopefully the cast knows when it’s open. Best onstage use of one: Life of Pi. That “dive” scene? Unreal.
• [Bar candidates?] DRINKS. Cute, but seems like the clue is tying a bit too hard.

Clever and fun Thursday with some playful bite. 4 stars.

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1827 “The Consequences” — Eric’s Review

An new-to-me acronym hints at the two-word theme answers, each of which has a first word beginning with FA- and a second word beginning with FO-:

• 17A [Look to what’s ahead of you] FACE FORWARD
• 25A [DoorDash delivery, often] FAST FOOD
• 37A [Dream team game?] FANTASY FOOTBALL It’s sobering to realize that the original Dream Team — the United States men’s basketball team in the 1992 Olympics, which was the first to feature professional athletes — was half a lifetime ago.
• 48A [Accordion-style pleats] FAN FOLDS
• 

  Colorado Highway 145, near Ophir

  59A [What a leaf peeper peeps] FALL FOLIAGE My husband and I drove up to Telluride, Colorado, last week and saw some nice color along the way.

• 1D [Acronym that means foolish actions will lead to negative consequences, and the theme of this puzzle] FAFO Fuck Around and Find Out It’s a parenting style that’s the opposite of helicopter parenting, though there are probably other usages.

I like this simple theme, though it took me a bit to get FACE FORWARD because I hadn’t yet figured out the FA-/FO- pattern. FAN FOLDS is not exactly a common phrase, but the other three are all nice, well-known phrases/compound nouns.

Other stuff of note:

• 5A [Govt. testing site for green policies] EPA LAB Do we still have an Environmental Protection Agency?
• 11A [Brazilian musician Gilberto ___] GIL A pure gimme that makes me miss Horizontes, a weekly radio program I used to listen to in the 1990s on Austin’s NPR affiliate. An hour of Brazilian music and an hour of music from other countries in Latin America. I first heard a lot of good artists on that show.
• 15A [Big name in baseball caps] NEW ERA I don’t remembered where I learned that that company makes all the MLB caps. It doesn’t matter, as the name didn’t stick in my head.
• 68A [It’s almost always right] EAST Cute clue.
• 4D [Gregg specialist, for short] STENOG When I worked in an office supply store in the mid 1980s, we sold both Pitman and Gregg shorthand pads. I never really knew the difference, but I figured that anyone who ordered steno pads knew which kind they wanted.
• 12D [Bruneau Dunes State Park state] IDAHO I’d never heard of that park, but IDAHO seemed a likely answer even without the I from GIL.
• 13D [Like brains and leaves] LOBED “Some leaves” would be better, no?
• 24D [Slightly drunk] TIPSY Such a nice feeling. Too bad it’s so easy to take it too far.
• 25D [Unauthorized stories of well-known characters] FAN FICS I could do without the S here.
• 31D [Establishment with a TouchTunes machine, maybe] BAR I’ve never heard of a “TouchTunes machine,” but this was an easy guess.
• 32D [Childish and inexperienced] SNOT-NOSED To me, SNOT-NOSED connotes brattiness more than inexperience.
• 35D [Cheer during El Clásico] OLÉ You don’t need to have heard of the rivalry between the Spanish soccer teams Barcelona and Real Madrid to be able to guess this.
• 45D [1996 Beck album with a nonsense title] ODELAY A gimme.
• 49D [2025 Best Picture winner] ANORA I needed the first A to remember that title.

John McClung’s USA Today Crossword, “It’s a Setup” — Emily’s write-up

Watch out!

Theme: each downs themer contains –TES– (aka “set” going up)

Themers:

• 4d. [Ocean predator with around 300 teeth], GREATWHITESHARK
• 10d. [Gooey sundae topping], CHOCOLATESYRUP
• 17d. [Vessels with cannons in a Disneyland water ride], PIRATESHIPS

Today’s themer set almost reminds me of a day at an amusement park with a GREATWHITESHARK, CHOCOLATESYRUP, and PIRATESHIPS. As it was in the downs, all were filled in for me by the time I got to them, as I always solve acrosses first and everything filled in easily for me today.

Favorite fill: VAMPIRE, ATBAY, and FIASCO

Stumpers: SOYOUSAY (needed crossings), BUNGLES (only “messes up”, “ruins”, and “fails at” came to mind), and SPOTON (kept thinking of terms related to grading such as “aced it” or “passed”)

A super smooth, quick solve for me today. How’d you all do? The cluing overall just clicked and the majority of acrosses filled in for me on the first pass. Not quite my fastest time but certainly one of them. Fun fill and I enjoyed the grid design.

4.25 stars

~Emily