LAT tk (Gareth) 
[2.67 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
NYT 13-something that turned into 26:37 (Eric) 
[3.59 avg; 16 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Darby) 
[1.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
Universal (Sunday) untimed (Jim P) 
[3.17 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (Norah) [3.38 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
WaPo untimed (Matt G) [3.75 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
Daniel Grinberg’s New York Times Crossword “Same Difference” — Eric’s Review
Daniel Grinberg’s New York Times Crossword “Same Difference” — 10/19/25
This might have been a fun puzzle, but I made it an unpleasant slog by ignoring the circled letters until I couldn’t find my error. It solved as a quick themeless — until I got the error message at the end. I went through each answer and there wasn’t anything obviously wrong. So I cleared the grid and retyped everything (at the risk of introducing new typos), and still got the error message.
Finally, I paid attention to the circled letters and knew what was wrong when I saw they spelled SROPIT. Change 26A COMPANY CARs to COMPANY CARD and you get DROP IT.
9D [Go downhill fast, say] should have been SKID, not SKIs. I didn’t pay enough attention the tense and put what I wanted to see. (Ski season is almost here, which makes me very happy.)
I frankly have no idea what the theme is. The title “Same Difference” made me think that the circled letters were Schrödinger squares, but one look at 28A COUNTRIES crossing 22D BURSTS disabused me of that notion — the R where they cross can’t be any other letter.
I’m going to cook dinner. Maybe I’ll figure out the theme and come back here. Sorry.
Update: Thanks to Martin for pointing out that the circles are Schrödinger squares, with the other “letter” being nothing — i.e. BUST fits the clue for BURST, COUNTIES fits for COUNTRIES, etc. I had the right idea and just didn’t follow through.
It’s a clever theme that I would have enjoyed more had it not been for my hard-to-find error.
Jared Goudsmit’s Universal Sunday crossword, “Creative Thinking”—Jim P’s review
Theme answers come in pairs. Phrases in the top half of the grid hint at something to do with the brain, while phrases in the lower half implement the hints presented up top. The revealer is BRAIN GAMES (114a, [Educational TV series about cognitive science, or an alternate title for this puzzle]).
Universal Sunday crossword solution · “Creative Thinking” · Jared Goudsmit’s · 10.19.25
- 22a. [Pho, e.g., or a hint to 68-Across] NOODLE SOUP with 68a [68a. Hit song from way back when] GOLDEN OLDIE, featuring “noodle” scrambled.
- 32a. [“Consider new perspectives!,” or a hint to 84-Across] “OPEN YOUR MIND” with 84a [84a. Dancer in the documentary “A Ballerina’s Tale”] MISTY COPELAND, featuring outer letters spelling out “mind”.
- 48a. [Situated in the main office, or a hint to 98-Across] HEADQUARTERED with 98a [98a. Be a crafty businessperson] WHEEL AND DEAL, featuring “head” separated by other letters (i.e. quartered).
Good wordplay, and I appreciate the symmetrical grid. If I’m going to pick a nit, it’s that “mind” doesn’t change meaning in the way “noodle” and “head” do. But aside from that, a good theme set.
The long fill is very nice as well, anchored by COOKIES AND CREAM and POLITICAL ANIMAL, but with other goodies like REST AREA, “NICE SAVE,” and OVERPAID. Not so keen on A-OKAY which looks all kinds of wrong.
Clue of note: 45d. [Person who may watch a lot of C-SPAN]. POLITICAL ANIMAL. Not a fan of this clue. It made me want POLITICAL JUNKIE because it hints at someone addicted to absorbing politics. POLITICAL ANIMAL suggests someone who doesn’t just watch politics, but lives it.
Nice puzzle. 3.5 stars.
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post Crossword “Family Ties” — Solution Grid
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword solution, “Family Ties,” 10/19/2025
Apologies to all, unexpected issues this weekend mean all I can do is throw the solution grid up.
Eric jumping in here (hope you don’t mind, Matt).
Theres’s another level to this puzzle that I missed when I solved it. Thanks to commenter John Malcolm for mentioning it. And great work, Evan!
This was terrific. Such cool finds, and then there was the extra level. This is exactly what a Sunday puzzle should be. Great job, Daniel.
Eric,
They are Schrodinger squares, but the other state is empty.
Thanks. I figured it was something like that.
I made the exact same SKIs / SKID error you did and I figured out the theme… I realized the meta angle as well. Fun puzzle!
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
Nexus solver didn’t put in the circles, so I had no idea there was anything non-routine about this puzzle. I tried Across Lite after reading the review, and got the circles. Normally the two solving programs behave identically.
NYT: So, I think I get the theme – DROP IT is a directive to me regarding what to do with the Sunday NYT crossword. Roger, Wilco.
ROFL
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
Ok i loved this one. (NYT). a Sunday-size Thursday as it were.
Great theme and well executed. i can forgive SORORAL and SEROTYPE; the rest of the fill is solid to very good, especially for Sunday size.
I also liked there was no revealer. you had to puzzle at it a bit and you really got the AHA when you noticed. I have a soft spot for Shrödinger puzzles and this was a fun one.
4.5 stars for me.
Puzzle: WaPo; Rating: 5 stars
WaPo: another exceptional achievement from Evan. Not a huge fan of the series, but so smooth and well constructed
NYT: Nice puzzle and some interesting fill as well (‘lower case is’ was pretty sharp).
In the dead tree version, they commented on the density of the fill. At first it didn’t seem so, but I guess if you consider each answer as two, you get 24 entries, though they only take up space for 12.
Well done!
NYT: My experience was pretty much the opposite of Eric’s. Luckily for me, I remembered to note the title and pay attention to the circles (I don’t always), and saw immediately what was going on. From there on, it was just read the clues, fill in the blanks. Not much mystery or challenge there. Easiest and fastest Sunday in a very, very long time. XWSTATS tells me it’s my 4th fastest Sunday of all time. (“All time” being the last 5 years, which is when I switched from solving on paper to solving online.)
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2.5 stars
NY: I had the exact same experience SKIS and CARS and could not figure out until I looked at the circled letters. I feel that crossing could have been better but I get that the theme reenforces the cross. Still wasn’t crazy about it
Thanks for letting me know I wasn’t the only one who made that mistake. It took me as long to find it as it did to solve the rest of the puzzle.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 5 stars
Bravo. When was the last time the theme letters actually spelled something in an NYT grid? This grid does it. Very well constructed.
Puzzle: WaPo; Rating: 5 stars
Evan still makes the best crosswords, and this one had NINE themers!
Puzzle: USA Today; Rating: 1.5 stars
Editor Amanda Rafkin runs a lot of puzzles written by herself and her friends. She might need to expand her submission base (and tighten up her editing skills).
Puzzle: Universal; Rating: 4 stars
I liked the wide variety of answers!
Puzzle: WaPo; Rating: 4 stars
WaPo — wifie and I can’t find all the names of the Addams family members in this grid. A little help, somebody?
OK — I’d forgotten that Birnholz has his own site and there we learned the secret: if you focus around the circled letters and ignore the spaces (and have a good memory for names), you can find the nine Addams Family members. For example, 24 across starts GOMEZ.
Thanks for mentioning this, John.
I didn’t read Evan’s column. Where’s the reference in the puzzle to the “hidden” Addams family members?
I made a grid where I highlighted all nine names. I will try to figure out how to post it.
Nice work, Evan!
Thanks, Eric.
Just FYI, the sixth Addams family member in the grid is UNCLE FESTER, spanning PRONOUN/CLEF/ESTER in the 13th row. It’s easy to miss the UNCLE part since the circled T is in FESTER, but it’s there.
UNCLE FESTER. Of course. We tried watching Wednesday and didn’t get past the third or four episode. And I haven’t seen the 1960s show since, um, the 1960s.
I had to jump through a few hoops, but I found the clue for 130A ADDAMS [Surname of a family whose members can be found in nine rows in this puzzle … and whose names contain circled letters that, reading down, spell a word describing them].
I don’t know how I missed the part of the clue that precedes the ellipsis, except that I’m sometimes a sloppy and lazy reader.
Sorry, Evan. I’m sure it wasn’t easy getting those names in there, and I bollixed it by sloppy solving. (And I’m glad to see a theme-based explanation for MEZCAL with a Z. I lost some time by spelling it with an S originally)