Jonesin’ 5:37 (Erin) 
[2.75 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
LAT untimed (Jenni) 
[3.17 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
NYT 4:37 (Eric) 
[3.55 avg; 11 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker untimed (pannonica) 
[4.14 avg; 7 ratings] rate it
Universal 7:24 (Eric) [3.13 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Sophia) [3.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Xword Nation tk (Ade) rate it
WSJ 4:55 (Jim Q) rate it
Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Keywords” — one way to stop. – Erin’s write-up
Jonesin’ solution 10/21/25
Hello lovelies! If you’re looking for a reboot, look no further than this week’s Jonesin’ puzzle!
- 17a. [Social psychology topic] MIND CONTROL
- 36a. [“The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science” author] KENJI LÓPEZ-ALT
- 60a. [Remove a controversial post without warning (thereby removing the resulting discussion)] DIRTY DELETE
Take the last word of each theme entry and we have CONTROL-ALT-DELETE, or the three-key combination on a Windows computer that brings up the login screen or Task Manager, or in the past restarted the computer.
Other things (aka Erin’s Ode to T-Pain):
T-Pain holding the Crocs Unfurgettable Leopard Knee High Boo, credit crocs.com
- 30d. [“I’m on ___” (late-2000s “SNL” song)] A BOAT. The artists? Lonely Island, featuring T-Pain.
- 28a. [“___ with the fur”] BOOTS. It’s a line from “Low” by Flo Rida, featuring…T-Pain! It’s now also the tallest pair of Crocs shoes ever. The fuzzy collaboration between T-Pain and Crocs debuts for sale on October 23.
I wish T-Pain and his amazing voice and his vegan leopard-print fur boots nothing but the best.
Until next week!
Jim Heane’s Universal Crossword Puzzle “That’s a Stretch!” — Eric’s Review
Jim Heane’s Universal Crossword “That’s a Stretch?” — 10/21/25
I don’t care for grids that look like gibberish when they’re filled in. A really outstanding theme sometimes overcomes that objection. This theme, while easy enough to understand and moderately amusing, isn’t quite enough to outweigh the negatives of the nonsensical answers:
- 17A [*Concisely] INBBRRIIEEF Brie
- 27A [*Meryl Streep is often regarded as one in the film industry] GRANDEEDDAAMME Edam
- 45A [*Some bistro furniture] CAFFEETTAABLES Feta
- 59A [Visual cliches in pizza commercials … as seen in 17-, 27- and 45-Across?] CHEESE PULLS I stopped watching broadcast TV in the 1990s, and I remember commercials from that time playing on the banality of the cheese pull. Are pizza chains still using those?
3D APBS and 4D NEBULA let me see the doubled Bs in 17A. But I didn’t notice right away that the nonsense came from a string of doubled letters, which slowed me down in filling in 27A and 45A. I also didn’t realize that each such string was a type of cheese until I solved the revealer.
Other stuff:
- 33A [It’s faster than an e-bike] MOPED I lost some time here because I misread “than” as “on.”
- 35A [Dweeb] TWERP I don’t buy these as equivalent. The dictionary I checked defines “dweeb” as “a boring, studious, or socially inept person” and “twerp” as “a silly or annoying person.”
- 42A [Red Sox manager Alex] CORA That’s a new name to me.
- 58A [With 61-Across, some peaceful protests] LIE/61A INS It could just as easily have been SIT-INS or DIE-INS, so I put in INS and waited.
- 1D [Maurice, Mort and Clover in “Madagascar,” e.g.] TRIO/48D [Maurice, Mort and Clover in “Madagascar,” e.g.] LEMURS I guess that’s a new way to clue TRIO.
- 9D [Going berserk] ON A RAMPAGE
- 11D [Listings of dishes that might include beefsteak tomatoes but not beefsteak] VEGAN MENU Kind of a wordy clue, but I like it.
- 18D [Site that held the recurring social experiment r/place] REDDIT That “collaborative art project” sounded vaguely familiar when I looked it up.
- 27D [Became courageous] GREW A SPINE I got GREW A and was relieved that the rest of the answer wasn’t four letters, because that is such a sexist phrase.
- 28D [Temperate or tropical biome] RAIN FOREST I’d always thought of rain forests as tropical until I visited the Hoh rain forest on the Olympic Peninsula back in the 1990s.
Spencer Leach’s New York Times Crossword — Eric’s Review
Spencer Leach’s New York Times Crossword — 10/21/25
Is there a name for these themed puzzles that solve like themeless puzzles? I seem to encounter a lot of them. That’s fine; I’d much rather solve a themeless puzzle than one with a groaner of a theme.
This theme, while not at all relevant to my solving process, nicely unites the otherwise unrelated theme answers. And it’s probably more cohesive than my initial take on it led me to think. A well-known phrase is applied to other things in a more literal way:
- 19A [Device for capturing thermal images] INFRARED CAMERA
- 24A [Where you might dance to some underground music?] BASEMENT PARTY
- 41A [Venue for combatants wearing vests with sensors] LASER-TAG ARENA
- 47A [Wild guess … or what 19-, 24- and 41-Across let you take?] A SHOT IN THE DARK
I quite like that “shot” appears in three different senses in the other theme answers, though it took a quick glance at the dictionary for me to remember the alcoholic meaning of “shot” that I assume is being used in 24A. (It’s been a very long time since I’ve “done shots.” I drink mostly beer anymore.) About the only common meaning of “shot” that’s not represented here is “vaccination,” and my dictionary suggests that sense is an offshoot (sorry not sorry) of the drink sense.
Other stuff:
- 44A [Maki or temaki ] SUSHI/2D [Seaweed wrap for maki] NORI 90% of what I know about sushi comes from crosswords.
- 6D [One doing stellar work?] ASTRONOMER Cute clue.
- 10D [“Bravo!”] NICELY DONE Compliment people when you can. It doesn’t cost you anything and you just might make somebody’s day.
-
Late Afternoon Sunlight in Ashdown Forest (The real “Hundred Acre Wood”)
20D [Tinder account datum that can’t be edited] AGE I’ve never used a dating app, and I originally put SEX. I thought that was a bit reactionary of Match Group, the company that owns Tinder. I was glad to be wrong.
- 21D [The Hundred ___ Wood (storybook setting)] ACRE From Winnie the Pooh (but you knew that, right?)
- 25D [Org. for seniors] AARP But they’ll start hitting you up to join when you turn 50.
- 33D [Actor Wilson] OWEN It could have been LUKE or even CRUZ. Wait for the crosses!
Kieran Boyd & Brian Callahan’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Jenni’s write-up
The pattern in the theme was obvious and I didn’t predict the revealer. Enjoyable Tuesday!
We have circles.
Los Angeles Times, Tuesday, October 21, 2025, Kieran Boyd & Brian Callahan, solution grid
- 18a [Animated Disney film set in an arcade] is WRECK–IT RALPH.
- 25a [Hole in an argument] is a LOGICAL FALLACY.
- 40a [Rock group with flashy outfits] is a GLAM BAND.
- 53a [“Consider this…”] is NOW LET‘S SUPPOSE.
KIT, CALF, LAMB, OWLET. Where are we going? 64a [Feeling like age is just a number, and an apt description of 18-, 25-, 40-, and 53-Across] is YOUNG AT HEART. Baby animals in the middle of each answer. Fun! Also extra points for OWLET because I think it’s a great word.
What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that CHINA dominates badminton in the Olympics.
Richard Liu’s & Katherine Xiong’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Centerpieces” — Jim Q’s write-up
This appears to be a debut for Richard Liu as he has not been tagged on this site as of yet. If that is accurate, Congrats, Richard!
THEME: The word PART can be found in the middle of common phrases
WSJ • 10/21/25 • Mon • “Final Contests” • Richard Liu • Katherine Xiong • solution • 20251021
THEME ANSWERS:
- 17A [Jung Kook, for one] K-POP ARTIST
- 27A [Afternoon affairs with scones and clotted cream] TEA PARTIES
- 45A [Undesirable race result] SUBPAR TIME
- 58A [Woman’s hairstyle option, and a feature of 17-, 27- and 45-Across] MIDDLE PART
Tuesdays are funny creatures. In venues that ramp up difficulty through the week, Tuesday often feels like the puzzle that doesn’t know what it wants to be when it grows up. That’s my long way of saying: this one didn’t fully land for me, though I appreciate the care behind it.
The theme is tidy — PART lands squarely in the middle of each phrase, which is undeniably elegant. But for hidden-word themes, I like when the hidden element bridges the two parts of the phrase, linking them together. That works beautifully in K-POP ARTIST and SUBPAR TIME, but not in TEA PARTIES, where PART sits entirely within one word, leaving TEA out of the fun.
That said, K-POP ARTIST is easily the standout entry — lively, modern, and colorful. I had just POP ARTIST in place for a bit and briefly wondered if Jung Kook was a Warhol-era experimentalist. (Imagine the fan cams.)
SUBPAR TIME feels less like a solid phrase and more like two words hanging out. Perfectly understandable, but maybe not quite “in the language” enough for a marquee slot.
OTHER THINGS / NEW TO ME
- Realized today that DING / DENT / and DINT can mean the same thing [Minor car scar]
- IGA Swiatek is new to me. That’s a welcome name!
Wyna Liu’s New Yorker crossword — pannonica’s write-up
New Yorker • 10/21/25 • Tue • Liu • solution • 20251021
Once again, I’m unsure how much of my protracted solving experience was due to intrinsic difficulty with the crossword and how much was due to the clonky interface. I should probably give it the benefit of the doubt?
- 16a [Meeting point?] AGENDA ITEM. Great clue, tough entry. As crossings filled in, a viable answer looked less likely, until it didn’t.
- 20a [Taking home] EARNING, which I reflexively entered but then replaced with NETTING, before eventually going back to the original answer at the very end after being informed via popup that the grid was complete but not correct.
- 31a [Potentate] DYNAST. Had DESPOT first because that’s on my mind these days because {waves arms at everything}. I’m not the only one.
- 60a [Twisted sucker] SILLY STRAW. Clue just sounds strange, but ok I get it.
- 5d [Sticker applied by a boxer] ADDRESS LABEL. The clue is obviously attempting to misdirect us but ultimately that misdirection is nonsensical, so the real gist of it is rather obvious.
- 9d [Style] TREND. 64a [What fashions and fads do] COME AND GO.
- 11d [Creator of ChatGPT] OPENAI. Kids, don’t use AI if you can possibly help it.
- 32d [Noisy weather events, for short] T-STORMS.
- 34d [It’s often clear and sticky] TAPE. Eluded me, surprisingly.
- 48d [“I’m dying of suspense!”] TELL ME.
- 51d [Floppy __ ] DISKS. 22d [Some bootlegged media] DVDS.
- 62d [Concert-venue cheer] WOO. >squints<
NYT: I’ve never participated in laser tag, but is it really played in the dark?
Also, I don’t think of myself as particularly prudish, but I’m getting very tired of seeing ASS in the puzzle. It’s as if Will decided it was OK then constructors all went, ooh, we can use a (very slightly) naughty word! Tiresome and childish.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
Spare a thought for constructors trying to give you clean grids. Filling an American-style crossword cleanly is hard, and ASS has about as friendly a set of letter combinations as you can imagine. I can promise you no one is setting out to put ASS into their crosswords (unless it is a word in a revealer or something), but it’s naturally going to come up a lot, and the donkey usage is not the one that is in the current language.
Another way to look at it is that, given a two-way choice, ASS is self-evidently better fill than ESS, BSS, ISS, OSS, MSS, RSS, SSS, USS, ACS, AES, AFS, AGS, AIS, ALS, AMS, ANS, APS, ATS, AUS, AVS, ASA, ASC, ASE, ASI, ASL, ASD, ASR, AST, and ASU (all of which have appeared in Shortz-era NYTs, many with relatively high frequency).
Interesting counter-argument :)
Thanks for that response. It makes sense. I just feel (without having done any statistics) that there’s been a higher than usual degree of ass-flinging in the puzzle recently.
Appreciate your response, too! FWIW, the XWInfo stats support your impression that it has become somewhat more prevalent over the past four years, although usage still runs below the levels of 3-letter hall of famers like ATE.
I think the reason for the increase is that many constructor prefer not to use either out of the language usages or synonyms for ‘idiot,’ so the decision to allow the body part means that constructors who would previously have accepted a minor downgrade on the crossing and surrounding fill to get, say, ASH, ASK, or ABS, will now accept ASS to get better surrounding fill.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3 stars
It’s pretty dark in there, at least for the few games of laser tag I’ve ever played. Mostly blacklights and effects to help you find your way around the course, and the LEDs on the vests so you know who’s on your team.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
Like Amy, I liked the fact that I had to stop for a second and process the multiple meanings of SHOT. Added texture to the theme, especially on a Tuesday.
I always assumed that the use of SHOT for an injection comes from something like shooting an arrow, when you aim at something and pierce it. No?
See sense 10.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shot
Maybe I’m putting too much faith in the way the various definitions are arranged, but to me, this suggests that a shot of flu vaccine is etymologically closer to a shot of whiskey than a shot from a bow.
Actually, the M-W list includes (at 1e) the implication that the injection meaning of shot indeed relatives to shooting projectiles. Sounds like they’re not really sure.
Oops. I missed that.
Thanks.
Like Eric, apparently, I blew through this puzzle with no attention to the theme. Faster than the average NYT Monday (but not faster than yesterday!).
Looking back, I am baffled by how 24A fits the theme. Why is a “basement party” necessarily darker than a party anywhere else? Lots of people have basements that are set up to host parties. The lighting can be bright or dim depending on the mood, but I don’t see how that relates to what part of the house it’s in. Is there some post-modern allusion that I’m missing here? If so, I don’t find it when I do a web search.
This type of pedantic comment will not get you invited to many basement parties.
It was an honest question. No need to be rude.
I suspect Mutman was joking and meant no offense. I see your point, though. Basement party is dark if you turn the lights off, but so is an evening party upstairs.
Back in the day, a basement party usually meant a “make-out party”. The lighting for such affairs was usually dim.
That was my experience in my high school days (early 1970’s). But nobody was drinking shots – the illegal beverage of choice was beer.
TNY: A fun puzzle – just about right for a “Moderately Challenging” Tuesday. I’m often not on Ms. Liu’s wavelength – but I thought this was pretty smooth. Lots of entertaining wordplay.