Monday, October 27, 2025

BEQ 11:03 (Eric) [3.33 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
LAT 2:00 (Stella) [1.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
NYT 3:07 (Sophia) [3.61 avg; 9 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker 6:38 (Amy) [3.60 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
Universal untimed (pannonica) [2.33 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
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Tarun Krishnamurthy’s New York Times Crossword — Sophia’s Recap

Theme: Side “F-X” – phrases that begin with an F and end with an X

New York Times, 10 27 2025, By Tarun Krishnamurthy

• 18a [Celestial event on September 22 or 23, typically] – FALL EQUINOX
• 24a [Application that might be put on with a spray mop] – FLOOR WAX
• 40a [Browser that competes with Chrome] – FIREFOX
• 51a [Location of many gold reserves] – FORT KNOX
• 60a [Secondary medication results … or a phonetic hint to 18-, 24-, 40- and 51-Across] – SIDE EFFECTS

Very cute theme that I was surprised that I hadn’t seen before! The reinterpretation of “effects” into “F-X” really works, and because F and X aren’t particularly common letters, the resulting entries are all pretty interesting choices. It took me a while to get FLOOR WAX from the clue – I think I was imagining a spray bottle and a cloth rather than a spray mop? But FALL EQUINOX and FIREFOX fell quickly, and by then I knew enough of what was going on in the puzzle to drop in FORT KNOX with very few crosses.

Quick hits on the rest of the puzzle:

• Lots of great bonus fill today! WINE STORE, BEST OF ALL, MIAMI HEAT, I REPEAT. Some people are bothered when there are across answers longer than theme answers, but it doesn’t bother me as long as they are fun pieces of fill. All in service of a good solving experience!
• The only place I was tripped up was [Computer-controlled players, in gaming lingo] – I initially had “NPCs” rather than the correct BOTS. I also initially wanted “pamphlet” instead of FLIER for [Ad that’s handed out on the street], but that was too long.
• Lots of scrabble content today – TEN clued as [Number of points “Q” is worth in Scrabble] and XENON clued with [Chemical element whose name starts with an 8-point Scrabble letter].
• Clue highlights: [Words set in stone?] for EPITAPH, [Service symbolized by a dot and three curved lines] for WIFI – I liked how this was a totally legit breakdown of the wifi symbol, and yet it still took a minute for me to create a mental picture of the symbol to solve the clue.

Happy Monday all!

Guilherme Gilioli’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Los Angeles Times 10/27/25 by Guilherme Gilioli

The revealer at 52A [Cord in some cardio workouts, or an apt description of each set of circled letters in this puzzle] is SKIPPING ROPE. The noun sense of the phrase is in the dictionary, but I think this would have read a lot more naturally in the verb sense, like [Performing double Dutch, or…]. In any case, the revealer refers to the fact that each theme entry’s circled squares spell out the word ROPE, but with other letters intercalated, such that the word ROPE “skips” through the theme entry. Not necessary, but a really cool touch: the letters R, O, P, and E always appear in the same column of the grid.

• 20A [Cornucopia] is HORN OF PLENTY. Unusual and nice to see a one-word clue for a theme entry on a Monday.
• 28A [“Can’t Fight This Feeling” band] is REO SPEEDWAGON. For all of the children who’ve never heard of them: This song is a banger. Thank you to the constructor for the Gen X representation!
• 45A [Device for inflating tires] is AIR COMPRESSOR.

I wasn’t crazy about a couple of the puzzle’s mid-length entries: YUK-FESTS feels a little dated, and ACES OUT…in the dictionary, I guess, but have you ever said it out loud? On the other hand, CROP TOP and WE’LL SEE are great.

Natan Last’s New Yorker crossword–Amy’s recap

New Yorker crossword solution, 10/27/25 – Natan Last

Natan’s got a book available for preorder now, due out 11/25. It’s called Across the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of the Crossword Puzzle, and it looks interesting.

Natan anchors this puzzle with a central 13 who’s new to me: 31a. [Author of the 2025 novel “Audition”], KATIE KITAMURA. Book’s been out since spring and Barack Obama included it on his summer reading list. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Looks interesting!

Fave fill: ELPHABA (the second part of the Wicked movie duology comes out next month), PRO-LABOR, RIDE OR DIE, DABBLED IN, new-to-me HALLOWEEKEND, TEENAGE DREAM, NONBINARY.

Educational: 5d. [Term for the vowel pattern in some irregular verb tenses, such as “sink, sank, sunk”], ABLAUT. Extra, extra, read all about it.

The puzzle felt maybe a bit drier than Natan’s usual, but I still liked it. Four stars from me.

Ryan Judge’s Universal crossword, “Outside Help” — pannonica’s write-up

Universal • 10/27/25 • Mon • “Outside Help” • Judge • solution • 20251027

The fronts and ends of the theme answers can be extracted to spell synonyms of “help”.

• 17a. [Created by ChatGPT, say] AI GENERATED (aid). Once again, don’t use AI if you don’t have to.
• 29a. [Like some motorcycles] SUPER SPORT (support).
• 47a. [Like an extreme economy] BOOM OR BUST (boost). Utilizing the extremities of the phrase!
• 62a. [RC car’s power source] BATTERY PACK (back).

Aside from the last themer, which is unequivocally a verb in context, all of these answers can be either nouns or verbs, as can help itself.

• 11d [“Unacceptable”] THAT WON’T DO. Like Guadalajara, in a song.
• 28d [It can be held during a conversation] EYE CONTACT. But not for too long, if you please.
• 38d [Pranks with bath tissue, for short] TPS. Not a particularly imaginative prank.
• 49d [Like dark chocolate, maybe] BITTER.
  
• 54d [2003 Outkast song whose title is a casual greeting] HEY-YA. “I am your neighbor!”
• 11a [Meaning of “chai” in Hindi] TEA. I believe I’ve shared this interesting map before?
• 32a [“Seize the __!”] DAY next to 33a [Limited-time employee] TEMP makes me think of tempus fugit.
• 35a [Alpha’s opposite] OMEGA. Opposite? I’d be happier with counterpart, or even complement. 63d [Letter after sigma] TAU.
• 67a [Doc with three specialties] ENT. Ear, nose and throat. But they’re all connected. And why aren’t they called otorhinolaryngologists? Ask your 2d [French gal pal] AMIE, because over there they say oto-rhino-laryngiste. And in case you’re wondering, in German it’s (boringly) HNO-Arzt, where HNO is short for Hals-Nasen-Ohren (throat, nose, ears). And NOW, in case you’re wondering—it’s mere coincidence that Halls throat drops is a homophone of a German word for throat. “The Hall Brothers company was founded in 1893 [in England] by the brothers Edwin Franklin Hall, Thomas Harold Hall, and Norman Smith Hall” (Wikipedia)

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1830 — Eric’s Review

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1830 — 10/27/25

I bounced through this at a decent pace for a Monday morning, with most of the “trivia” being stuff that I knew or could figure out without too much trouble. But the grid is a bit segmented, with triple-stacked nine-letter words in the NW and SE. When I tried to finish up the SE corner, I hit a wall with an empty square for which no letter seemed appropriate.

I decided to get started on my review, and when I came back to the puzzle, a clue that had eluded me suddenly made sense. It’s fun when that happens.

Stuff that grabbed my attention:

• 1A [Fictional spy whose favorite meal is scrambled eggs] JAMES BOND I read all of Ian Fleming’s novels (and even the book of short stories) and don’t remember that detail. But then, I was about 12 at the time. I’ve seen most of the Bond movies and I somehow doubt that Bond’s “favorite meal” made it into any of the scripts. (Speaking of fictional spies, last night, we watched the penultimate episode of the current season of Slow Horses. We’ve watched all the previous episodes and this was the best of the entire series. If you don’t have AppleTV, do a 30-day free trial and watch that show.)
• 15A [“The Autobiography of Malcolm X” ghostwriter] ALEX HALEY A gimme of nine squares is always welcome. Yes, the guy who wrote Roots worked with Malcolm X. That’s another book I read decades ago and one I could probably revisit.
• 18A [Neutral color] KHAKI My first guess was BEIGE, but 14D needed to be LAIR. I don’t really think of “khaki” as neutral.
• 19A [It rates 1,641,183 on the Scoville scale] CAROLINA REAPER I had -EAPER and knew the preceding letter was an R, but I needed a few crosses to get CAROLINA. I’ve never had a pepper that hot and I’m not sure I want to.
• 28A [View with disdain?] HATE WATCH Nice clue. I’ve never deliberately hate-watched a show; I think I’ve always managed to convince myself that whatever it was had some redeeming qualities.
• 33A [Marshall who is the voice of Sheila Broflovski on “South Park”] MONA The few episodes of that show I’ve seen didn’t do a lot for me. I had no idea on this one.
• 34A [Scientist who warns of Krypton’s doom in the “Superman” series] JOR-EL Father of Kal-El, a/k/a Clark Kent a/k/a Superman. But you knew that.
• 38A [Gastropub selection] STOUT It’s now cool enough where I live to drink stouts and porters again.
• 45A [Some cosmetic store papers] COLOGNE SAMPLES I’m not sure what the “paper” refers to, but I’ve never been fond of perfume-like products. Why does every mall anchor store put the perfume counter right in front of the outside entrance? Ugh.
• 53A [Palestinian symbol] OLIVE TREE I got the double E’s and knew it was something TREE. I could only think of CEDAR, which I knew was Lebanon.
• 55A [Have a carefree rest] SLEEP EASY For reasons I can’t explain, I’ve not been sleeping well lately. Any suggestions for getting back to sleep after waking up at 3 AM?
• 5D [Chinese monastery with a kung fu style] SHAOLIN This took me longer to get than it should have.
• 11D [Actor Cutkosky] ETHAN Best known, maybe, for playing Carl Gallagher on Shameless.
• 13D [Pulitzer Prizen winning Poet Laureate Conrad] AIKEN Not a name I know.
• 29D [For the common folk] ANTI-ELITE I just now properly parsed that one. Those longer Down answers can really slow me down, especially when they’re multiple words.
• 31D [You’re looking at it] CLUE Is it just me, or did Brendan use the same clue just last week or the week before?
• 37D [Canada city nicknamed “Cowtown”] CALGARY A gimme, though I’ve never been to that whole stretch of Canada between Sault Ste. Marie and Vancouver.
• 44D [Actress Gummer] MAMIE One of Meryl Streep’s daughters.
• 45D [“La ___ de la alegría” (Spanish translation of an Edith Wharton classic)] CASA The English title is The House of Mirth. I’ve never read any Wharton.
• 47D [“Shotgun” singer George] EZRA I don’t know that song, but I like Ezra’s “Budapest.” The man’s got a nice voice.

Jonesin’ 5:57 (Erin) rate it
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Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “My Wish List” — some numbered items. – Erin’s write-up

Jonesin’ solution 10/28/25

Hello lovelies! This week’s Jonesin’ puzzle makes use of homophones of English numbers.

• 20a. [“First, a favorable lottery ticket would be nice…”] ONE THE POWERBALL (won the Powerball)
• 25a. [“Next, I’d like something hand-written…”] TWO THE LETTER (to the letter)
• 42a. [“A little later, I’d like my own aviary…”] FOUR THE BIRDS (for the birds)
• 48a. [“And further down my list, a beautiful panoramic view”] EIGHT THE SCENERY (ate the scenery)

Other things:

• 10d. [Songwriting partner of Stoller] LEIBER. Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller created hits in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, including “Yakety Yak,” “Hound Dog,” and “Stand By Me” (with Ben E. King).
• 19a. [“Could ___…Satan?” (mid-1980s “SNL” catchphrase)] IT BE. Dana Carvey was hilarious as The Church Lady.

Until next week!

Zhoukin Burnikel’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Quick Start” — Jim Q’s write-up

THEME: Phrases that start with synonyms for “quick”

THEME ANSWERS:

• SWIFT EFFECT
• RAPID CITY
• PROMPT ENGINEER
• FLEET WEEK
• FAST FRIENDS

Sorry for the delay in writing up!

I’ll have to leave it as a simple theme explanation.

PROMPT ENGINEER is new to me, but I could use a few classes in that… just now realizing that I’ve never used PROMPT as a synonym for “quick.”

Enjoyable puzzle as always from CC Burnikel. Ideal Monday.

3.5 stars from me!