LAT untimed (pannonica) 
[3.13 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
NYT 5:34 (Amy) [3.07 avg; 22 ratings] rate it
Universal 4:10 (Jim P) 
[3.63 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Emily) 
[2.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Juliana Tringali Golden’s New York Times crossword — Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 10/31/25 – no. 1031
Were you glad that the Halloween themeless is just a themeless, with no Halloween angle? I’ll be honest, I was.
Fave fill: HUZZAH, GIRL SCOUT TROOPS, “LET’S BOUNCE,” “I GOTTA RUN,” NEEDLE DROP, SIDE-EYES, OPENED DOORS, “THAT’S SO COOL,” JUAREZ, and the multi-talented AYO EDEBIRI (acting, comedy, directing, screenwriting)
Dozens of ways to clue CRETE without that “olive tree” duping LAUREL TREE. More glaring dupe, of two entries: RUN and I GOTTA RUN, with the “go fast” meaning used in both.
Never keen on clunky phrasal verb answers like HOP TO and END AT. If you construct with a wordlist, please downgrade such entries and try not to use them!
Learned a little Latin: 39A. [Opposite of the Latin “odi”], AMO. Hate and love, related to odium and amore.
3.25 stars from me.
Wendy L Brandes’ Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up
LAT • 10/31/25 • Fri • Brandes • solution • 20251031
It’s a letter-insertion theme.
- 48aR [Benefited from the end of daylight saving time, or a hint to 20-, 28-, and 42-Across] GAINED AN HOUR. There’s been serious talk in recent years about fixing the whole DST thing, but the approach that’s been gaining the most traction is unfortunately the wrong one: they want to make daylight saving time permanent, when the correct solution that most experts agree on is to make standard time permanent. Anyway, in this crossword, the bigram HR has been added into the theme answers, to wacky effect. I’ve helpfully circled the letters.
- 20a. [Tees off closer to the hole in mini golf?] SHRINKS A PUTT (sinks a putt).
- 28a. [Place to get rid of broken furniture and pictures of exes?] THROW-AWAY ZONE (tow-away zone).
- 42a. [Car used to transport boxwoods and hydrangeas?] SHRUB COMPACT (subcompact). Hm, I would have clued this as something like [Agreement about boxwoods and hydrangeas?], but perhaps—looking again at the other theme answers—the intent is to not stray too far from the original sense? If that’s the case, I disagree with that decision.
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5d [Tree with fan-shaped leaves] GINKGO. I’m put in mind of the ginkgo-toothed whale, Mesoplodon ginkgodens.
- 6d [Arctic fishing tool] ICE SAW. I was not thinking about preparation. 28d [Arctic expanse] TUNDRA. 45d [State with no native snakes or lizards] ALASKA.
- 21d [Luxury cosmetics brand] NARS. Now thinking of the narwhal, Monodon monoceros.
- 38d [Phenoms] HOTSHOTS. These aren’t quite synonyms, to my thinking.
- 53d [City on the Tiber] ROME. Somehow I misread this as Tigris.
5a [Tanqueray, Bombay, etc.] GINS. And now thinking of Gray Whale gin from California, which I recently tried. It’s rather good, and the logo is well-designed, incorporating a tail fluke as well as a map indicating supposed locations of the six botanicals used in its creation.- 17a [Phishing line?] SCAM. As in line of work.
- 24a [Land on the sea] REEL IN. The clue only made sense to me after I got the answer.
- 62a [Loo door sign] GENTS. Clue successfully conveys the casualness of the answer.
Paul Coulter’s Universal crossword, “Plus or Minus”—Jim P’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases that hint at a literal addition or deletion to a word in each theme clue.
Universal crossword solution · “Plus or Minus” · Paul Coulter · Fri., 10.31.25
- 17a. [Bra –> Brain?] IN ADDITION. Add “in” to “bra” to get “brain.”
- 28a. [Donkey –> Don?] DELETE KEY.
- 44a. [Center –> Centimeter?] EXTRA TIME.
- 59a. [Agitate –> Agate?] TAKE IT AWAY.
Cute little theme with a pleasant aha moment, yet it still delivered with each theme entry.
Never heard of HELISKIERS but it sounds like a team of Bond villains chasing our hero down a mountain (what film was that?). TRUST FALLS is good but would be better in the singular. BIG TALK, TIDE POD, SET POINT, and “THAT’S A GO” are all fun, so kudos on the long fill.
I’m going to cut things short there. Between multiple vet appointments today and prepping for Halloween, time is short. Happy Haunting!
3.5 stars.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
I know the NYT seems to be relaxing its stance on dupes, but i’m with you on RUN, Amy. and if you’re gonna do it with a word that has multiple common meanings, at least use both. RUN could easily have been “Bleed, as dye” or “Operate, as a computer program” or “Iteration.”
“Odi et amo” — “I hate and i love” —is the opening of one of Catullus’ most famous poems, addressed (like many) to his lover Lesbia. It’s just two lines but such a good capturing of love’s torment i still remember it decades after reading it in school. Hopefully my recollection of the translation isn’t too off:
I hate and i love. Why do I, you ask?
I don’t know, but I am tortured.
I remember our Latin teacher exploring that poem with a room of teenagers who had crushes, jealousy, envy the like and damn did it resonate.
3.5 stars. bonus for the poem for me.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 1 star
Unacceptable dupe. NYT has fallen.
NYT: First time I can remember leaving four squares blank and asking AcrossLite to reveal the solution. NEEDLE_R_P, A_OEDEBIRI. ER_ _, AM_, AM_L – all unknowns to me.
I suppose NEEDLE DROP makes some sense. But _R_P could be drip, drop, trip, trap, wrap (or maybe crap). I’ve pretty much never heard these movie terms before, and when “cute meet” is the one I run into most often, there’s nothing particularly inferable about NEEDLE DROP.
In retrospect, I think I’ve seen AYO EDEBIRI in a puzzle before. But I was parsing it as someone with the last name DE BIRI – and while YOU made more sense for the novel, ALOE seemed to make more sense for the first name of the actress.
So, quite a mess of a Friday for me. Maybe Saturday will treat me better this week.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2.5 stars
All these, plus the PUe/oRT spot. Why is ACED “easily crushed”?? I guess ACOD is unlikely to be an answer. So. Many. Confusing. Vowels.
Oh. Got it. Crushed as in “did very well on.” Ok — that’s fair. Still: the others weren’t great.
Thanks for this. I came here for ACED, as I couldn’t get actually being crushed out of my head.
NEEDLE DROP refers to putting the needle down on a phonograph to start the record. Google Ngram seems to tag the usage to the 60’s, the 80’s, and then again to the early 2010’s. I suspect the clued usage is from the 2010’s, while the earlier would be to playing a record; but relating as it is to music, only DROP really makes any sense (unless you don’t know what a record is…).
I’m old enough to know what a record is, and have dropped many needles on them. The difficulty here for me is that we’re talking about a description of some “point in a movie.” My reference for that is “cute meet,” which is largely meaningless (to me). So NEEDLE CRAP seems as reasonable as anything else. :-)
I think you mean “meet cute”. Thanks for the giggles. :)
You’re absolutely right! Maybe that reinforces my point – that some of these phrases just don’t make a lot of sense. Like DROP NEEDLE. ;-)
For a “Point in a movie where an iconic song sets the scene,” I guess you could imagine NEEDLE CRAP, as opposed to how you DROP the NEEDLE onto a record to start it playing. But okay.
NYT: ERDA crossing AMAL was obscure to me as was NEEDLE DROP.
I think the carping about dupes should go to a separate ‘Who gives a sh*t’ thread. Seriously, it’s not going to stop so why the constant complaints?? I honestly didn’t even notice the RUN dupe until I came here.
Nice Friday for me!
That dupe ruined my whole week.
I’m not sure if you meant this as a joke or not but wow did it make me laugh. So in a way this whole episode made my week lol
An edifying NYT. NEEDLEDROP was new to me— and arguably, the clue is not quite accurate. As I (now) understand it, ‘needledrop’ means a pre-existing iconic song. An interesting word. Also, honestly, I don’t notice the dupes. Guess I’m not a purist.
Toughest Friday NYT for me in a long while. The clue for LAURELTREE was pretty oblique, and I didn’t understand ACED until I saw the explanation above. NEEDLEDROP is new to me, and hard to figure out with the mysterious ERDA cross. I don’t understand what the clue for ADORATION is getting at — is it referencing some particular church practice?
I didn’t notice the RUN dupe.
I got lucky on LAUREL TREE. Probably because I’m a native Cheesehead, I noticed the lack of a capital “B” in the clue. And I enjoy cooking, so I’m aware that bay leaves come from LAUREL TREEs (or maybe laurel bushes?).
ADORATION is a Catholic term. To be precise, it is when the Eucharist is exposed during ‘off hours’ and all are invited to pray in its presence.
Thanks, I didn’t know that.
NYT: Got held up for a while with FAN for FAD [It’s cool when it’s hot]. I also didn’t have the D from ERDA, so it was difficult to see NEEDLE DROP when my letters were NEENLE–ROP.
Thanks to you HUZZAH was an easy get
Haha, I do say it more than the average person, but I feel it isn’t so often?
No, not too often. It’s a word I like so I notice it. I have learned that my thinking of it as a colonial era cheer was off base. Apparently people then used HUZZA with a long A sound
That’s interesting!
Okay – I’m feeling better. Even one of the pros got a little messed up on this one!
Same here with FAN/FAD. NEEN… isn’t a good start for a word.
I was familiar with NEEDLEDROP already, which seems to have given me a leg up on the field. I hadn’t noticed the dupes Amy noticed, but the dupe I found annoying was using two long entries on different phrases said before leaving a place.
Rated 3.5 earlier, maybe a little too high in retrospect.
I wasn’t familiar with NEEDLE DROP as clued, but rather as a way of assessing the quality or condition of recorded music.
I’m a fan of WKRP in Cincinnati, which had a terrible time dealing with all the NEEDLEDROPS of real rock music they used in the show. They found a loophole in licensing rules back then to make them less expensive, but now they cost an absolute fortune, which is why you never see reruns of that show these days.
Here’s the creator of the show talking about how all that went, although he calls them “needle downs.”
https://youtu.be/PExGo9b1K44?si=9AV9fDq-Tmq2BJ4u
For me, needle drop is what the huge old douglas-fir near my house does this time of year. If I don’t clear the gutters, it will be a mess when the winter rains come.
😂
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
I loved the NYT as a classic Friday, but my gripe today was with the WaPo in-app version of the (LAT) puzzle: no circles indicating the added letters! Fortunately crossings on the longer clues were relatively accessible, but it still made uncovering the puns more of a ‘get this with downs’ rather than the typical xword ‘aha’…I think our eyes tend to look to the beginnings and ends of longer phrases, and even after finishing on par with usual wapo Fridays, I came here to crack the themer!
In case Jim’s tied up today, I’m posting a self-write-up of today’s Uni, “Plus or Minus.” This is the kind of mildly cryptic theme that appeals to me. Clues alternate between implied additions and deletions. The theme answers and their clues are:
INADDITION Bra –> brain?
DELETEKEY Donkey –> don?
EXTRATIME Center –> centimeter?
TAKEITAWAY Agitate –> agate?
Here are a few hard clues of this type (with enumerations provided.) I’ll return with the answers later, if anyone would like to take a shot at these:
Cabin – – > Cab? (16)
Collars – – > Collators? (12)
Niagara – – > Nia? (15)
View – – > Vie? (12)
Indeed, time got the better of me this morning. Thanks for stepping in.
No problem, Jim. Here are the answers to the bonus clues I posted earlier:
HOMEAWAYFROMHOME – Cabin – – > Cab?
GETSAROUNDTO – Collars – – > Collators?
AFISHOUTOFWATER – Niagara – – > Nia?
NOENDINSIGHT – View – – > Vie?
I thought that I’d see other comments to this effect but none. In today’s NYT, isn’t there a tense disagreement between the clue and answer for40A? Clue says “handled” but answer ends with an “S” (hopefully not considered a spoiler). Am I missing something? 9 out of 10 times, I am… 😅
“Handled” is not a verb here; it’s an adjective. Irons are things (agents that press) with handles.
I took it handled mean the object has a handle, not took care of something
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
I found this puzzle appropriately challenging for a Friday. I have never heard the phrase “Let’s bounce” used by anyone, ever. I’ve never heard “needle drop” before, but at least that makes sense to me. But “let’s bounce”? Where have I been these past 65 years?
And I admit to the guilty pleasure of chuckling over how seriously puzzlers take their hobby. The presence of “dupes” in a crossword puzzle seems to me to be something even less minor than a first-world problem. I hesitate to carp about any puzzle constructor’s clues because I respect how challenging the task is.
It’s fine for people to dislike dupes on some sort of esthetic grounds, but I am puzzled when they claim their solve has been ruined by an imaginary rule violation. It’s editorial style, of course, but Will Shortz has said that he will avoid a dupe only if it’s likely to spoil one of the entries for the solver. That makes sense, and I really don’t see “Hurry!” or “See ya!” telegraphing the answer even after getting the other one. And certainly “tree” in a clue didn’t ruin LAUREL TREE for me.
I get that some solvers find dupes inelegant, and if they ever get to edit crosswords, they should feel free to include that view in their style. But saying that this is a reason for a puzzle to be rejected, or calling for the editor’s resignation, that’s just loony. You don’t get to invent rules and howl when they’re violated.
+1
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2.5 stars
NYT: Decent puzzle, but why would they accept one with RUN and IGOTTARUN? I don’t get it.
Per my comment above, did one of those really “give” you the answer to the other one during your solve? If not, that’s why it was accepted. If it did, the editor misjudged.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
I guess it’s sort of the opposite for me – I got RUN and then thought it couldn’t be I GOTTA RUN because it was a dupe. So I would definitely be better off if I stopped thinking that was a thing.
Yeah, I can see that.
Could be I GOTTA JET, for example.
Or I GOTTA JAM.