LAT untimed (pannonica) 
[3.00 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
NYT 5:51 (Amy) 
[3.30 avg; 15 ratings] rate it
Universal 4:57 (Jim P) [3.72 avg; 9 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Emily) 
[2.50 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
Kelly Morenus’s New York Times crossword — Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 11/7/25 – no. 1107
I can’t help thinking that a lot of people out there misspell one or both nouns in PEDAL TO THE METAL. Petal, peddle, medal, mettle, meddle …
Fave fill: HEATING PAD, ULTRASUEDE, ROSE GARDEN (clued [Noted feature of Paris’s Parc de Bagatelle] because the White House now has a stone patio for hobnobbing in lieu of a Rose Garden), OVALTINE, OLDIE BUT A GOODIE, RETINA SCAN (though I might prefer RETINAL SCAN), SOLO CAREER, ELOTE (yum!), FLIP OUT ON, LET IT RIDE.
New to me: 1D. [Novelist Fannie who wrote “Imitation of Life” (1933)], HURST. Here’s her Wiki.
For PYLONS, I usually think of traffic cones and other cone-shaped structures. It’s [Wire holders] because the big metal structures that support power lines (“wires”) are also called PYLONS.
39A. [Domesticated insect entirely dependent on humans for reproduction], SILK MOTH. I was envisioning house pets rather than industrially used bugs.
Four stars from me.
Joeseph A Gangi’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up
LAT • 11/7/25 • Fri • Gangi • solution • 20251107
- 56aR [Focused and feeling unstoppable, or an apt description of the answers to the starred clues] IN THE ZONE.
- 17a. [*Comments] {TI}REMARKS.
19a. [*Seasonal malady] FLU{ME}.
Together, the two entries in Row 3 fall within a time zone, per the circled letters at the extremities. - 26a. [*Kinda-sorta] {DAN}ISH.
29a. [*Blacken on the grill] CHAR{GER}.
(danger zone) - 42a. [*Mimic’s talent] {DR}APERY.
44a. [*American Girl buy] DOLL{OP}.
(drop zone).
It’s an elegant theme and I don’t think I’ve seen it before. Overall the crossword was pitched on the easy side, with the clues straightforward and the answers not obscure. 59a [Overalls component] BIB.
- 3d [Goddess whose symbol is a peacock] JUNO. Hence Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock. 5d [Company whose symbol is a peacock] COMCAST; you’d think NBC would consider it an infringement for another telecommunications company to adopt such a logo.
- 8d [Press on] PUSH AHEAD. I’m thinking more of Beckett than Fitzgerald.
- 13d [Acronym on some educational toys] STEM. Didn’t know this, but it makes sense.
- 28d [“In your dreams!”] NEVER. 60a [“In your dreams!”] NO WAY.
- 46d [Didn’t help] SAT BY. 1d [Does something] ACTS.
- 47d [Door __ ] JAMB. Odd to present this as a fill-in-the-blank. Same with 37a [Bug __ ] SPRAY.
- 57d [Where the wild things are] ZOO. Don’t like this clue at all.
- 15a [Homer’s tee] TAU. That’s the Greek Homer, and the letter T. Clue threw me.
- 55a [Only coastal city in Jordan] AQABA.
- 63a [“Hello” and “Bye Bye Bye”] SONGS. They were both massive pop hits, so even I know about them. Of course, there are thousands of SONGS with similar titles that could work here, but again—massive hits.
Justin Werfel’s Universal crossword, “See You on the Flip Side!”—Jim P’s review
Theme answers are individual words that are anadromes (words that spell different words backwards) of other words (or at least, crosswordese). Clues go with the backwards word. The three grid-spanning Down answers are more or less related to this idea: REVERSE ENGINEER, LOOKING BACKWARD, and SMOKE AND MIRRORS.
Universal crossword solution · “See You on the Flip Side” · Justin Werfel · Fri., 11.7.25
- 1a. [*Waterproof covers] SPRAT. Tarps.
- 6a. [*Swallow quickly] PLUG. Gulp.
- 10a. [*Hairstyles, casually] SOD. Dos.
- 16a. [*Party noisily] LEVER. Revel.
- 17a. [*Something used by humans, crows and dolphins] LOOT. Tool.
- 18a. [*Move like a river] WOLF. Flow.
- 24a. [*”The Maltese Falcon” actor Peter] ERROL. Lorre.
- 26a. [*Nobelist Morrison] INOT. Toni.
- 28a. [*Arctic explorer John or actress Issa] EAR. Rae.
- 34a. [*Nautilus captain] OMEN. Nemo.
- 36a. [*Hence] OGRE. Ergo.
- 37a. [*Classic can material] NIT. Tin.
- 41a. [*Chip in chips] ETNA. Ante.
- 42a. [*Information] ATAD. Data.
- 43a. [*Periodontist’s concerns] SMUG. Gums.
- 48a. [*NYSE event] OPI. IPO.
- 49a. [*Ship’s backbone] LEEK. Keel.
- 50a. [*Amusement park transports] SMART. Trams.
- 58a. [*Retain] PEEK. Keep.
- 60a. [*Catches some z’s] SPAN. Naps.
- 62a. [*___ Gay] ALONE. Enola.
- 67a. [*Attract] WARD. Draw.
- 68a. [*Brouhahas] SODA. Ados.
- 69a. [*Positive quality] TESSA. Asset.
Wow! Really impressed at the amount of theme material here yet with a smooth grid and three somewhat-related grid-spanners (certainly the first two, the third one less so). Sure, the main theme answers are all between 3- and 5-letters long, but to have every other row comprised of three theme answers and still have a smooth grid is quite a feat. Even though the aha moment came early on (in the NW corner), filling out the grid was still enjoyable as my brain had to turn each theme word around and plug it in.
Ah, I see the grid is not quite symmetrical. That accounts for the smoothness despite the constraints. Still, it was an enjoyable solve, and if I hadn’t been looking, I probably wouldn’t have noticed the lack of symmetry.
There’s very little in the grid that isn’t crossing or next to a theme answer, so there’s not a lot of extra sparkle, but GETS OPEN and CARESSES aren’t bad considering they cross four theme answers each.
Clues of note:
- 6d. [End of two swimming pool games’ names]. POLO. Fun bit of trivia.
- 12d. [3 letters?]. DEF. Letters on the number 3 on a phone keypad.
Nice puzzle. 3.5 stars.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
Some really nice long entries here. Didn’t love the TNIA/ENNEAD quasi-natick but the other proper names were all gettable.
Amy, your note about PEDALTOTHEMETAL made me think about how many people must subconsciously mispronounce either “pedal” or “metal” in that phrase so they rhyme better. I know I do. (And I did have to stop for a couple seconds and think about the spelling.)
NYT: solid Friday. Seemed hopeless for a while but then it came together.
T’NIA looks like a typo for TINA, but it’s not. PEDALTOTHEMETAL is dying for PUT THE before it. Never heard FLOG used in that context either.
Nicely done, Kelly!
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
A fine Friday.
Lots of false starts. And lots of places where I had the right answer and second guessed myself. For example, I had YURTS and OVALTINE and kept thinking something was wrong because the TN combo at the start of a word seemed impossible. I didn’t know T’NIA and couldn’t conjure up ENNEAD. Definitely a tough spot.
I saw ‘Novelist Fannie’ in the clue for 1D and plunked in FLAGG without reading further. That wasted some time; never heard of HURST. I’ve seen ELOTE in other crosswords but couldn’t tell you what it is, so the NW section slowed me down. I thought TNIA must be wrong but couldn’t see any alternative, so that little area was tricky. Other than that, no real hold-ups. Nice Friday puzzle overall.
NYT I particularly liked blind SPOT.
Puzzle: Universal; Rating: 4 stars
This felt like a solid NYT Thursday puzzle – the double vertical revealers that mirror each other was particularly well done I thought.
Does the Universal get harder through the week? Is Friday their Thursday? I’ve never really noticed.
Their puzzles are generally about the same difficulty throughout the week and for me, similar to NYT Mondays or Tuesdays. Monday through Friday are usually themed, while Saturday and Sunday are themeless.
LAT – NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast. Comcast owns that peacock
Aha! Thank you.
NYT: I didn’t notice it when I was solving because the “A” was already in place from OVA, but OLDIE BUT “A” GOODIE sounds a little unnatural to me.
I had TENTS before YURTS, T’NIA Miller was unfamiliar and didn’t look plausible, and does anyone use the word ENNEAD in real life? So that area was pretty slow for me.
Liked a lot of the long fill. Clues for PINS, LIMO and SOLO CAREER were nice.
In all the respectable pool halls, they play ENNEAD BALL all the time!
Oh, yeah – I forgot about that! 😊
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3 stars
I had the same quibble. In my mind it’s either “oldie but goodie” or “*an* oldie but a goodie”. I enjoyed the solve overall.
+1
Yes Amy. Guilty as charged. I had to correct my entry. I originally had pedal to the medal.
Puzzle: Universal; Rating: 4.5 stars
Delightful puzzle with 24 [!] anadromes — a word I just learned. I was baffled … until I realized that the clues applied to the backward version. This is my kind of wordplay, and I love a puzzle with a minimum of proper names.
Puzzle: Universal; Rating: 5 stars
I was very impressed with the density of the theme material. I believe over 70% of the white squares are involved with the theme, with basically none of it feeling forced. Jim P points out accurately some things Justin Werfel did to ease construction, but hats off to Justin for a puzzle that must have been very difficult to construct, but doesn’t feel that way to the solver.
Puzzle: LAT; Rating: 3.5 stars
Not a super difficult puzzle, but I think it deserves kudos for breaking the circled theme words evenly between the two entries. That was a nice touch.
NYT: NSA appeared in the puzzle two days in a row, with very similar clues. It was clued today as “code-breaking group” and yesterday as “cryptology group.” That’s a dupe I don’t love, particularly since there are other ways of cluing NSA. Some of the other ways it’s been clued include “CIA sister org,” “US intelligence org,” “secretive org,” etc.
I don’t remember seeing back-to-back duping like this before, but maybe I just don’t remember. I know sometimes a relatively obscure answer is in two puzzles several days apart, but I think that’s purposeful to give daily solvers a hint to the obscure answer, and I don’t remember ever seeing that back-to-back like this.
Uni: Other than the asymmetry, I don’t think I’d’ve batted an eye if today’s LAT and Uni puzzles swapped places with how long each one took. Interesting theme, great amount of theme fill and impressive quasi-theme 15s. I was gonna complain about the DEF clue being just an arbitrary segment of the alphabet but with Jim’s review I realize I somehow failed to consider the phone angle.
Universal: That is a truly stunning puzzle. Bravo.
Thanks for your recommendation, Evan. I didn’t see your note until late Friday night. I hadn’t done and hadn’t planned doing Justin Werfel’s puzzle. I am so glad your comment directed me to it. What a GREAT puzzle! Thanks, David
Puzzle: Universal; Rating: 4.5 stars
Incredibly great puzzle by creator Justin Werfel…kudos!
Puzzle: Universal; Rating: 5 stars
Universal:
Great puzzle!
About the grid-spanners, Jim says “certainly the first two, the third one less so”. I think “smoke and mirrors” (especially “mirrors”) fits in quite well. A matter of taste?