Monday, November 10, 2025

BEQ 12:50 (Eric) [3.50 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
LAT 2:01 (Stella) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 3:37 (Sophia) [3.15 avg; 13 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker 4:47 (Amy) [3.58 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (pannonica) [3.10 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (?) [2.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
WSJ 4:13 (Jim Q) rate it

Zhouqin Burnikel’s New York Times Crossword — Sophia’s Recap

Theme: Phrases where the outer letters spell out types of animal… hides? coverings? I don’t know what the scientific word is for this!

New York Times, 11 10 2025, By Zhouqin Burnikel

• 18a [Roman Forum greeting] – HAIL CAESAR (hair)
• 23a [Head rubs that relieve tension] – SCALP MASSAGES (scales)
• 51a [People spouting zealous rhetoric] – FIRE BREATHERS (feathers)
• 63a [Brief period of time] – SHORT SPELL (shell)
• 39a [“Leave it to me” … and a hint to the circled letters in this puzzle] – I’VE GOT YOU COVERED

A solid Monday theme from a veteran constructor. SCALP MASSAGES and SHORT SPELL were my two favorite answers, because they’re fun phrases that split the hidden word pretty much equally. FIRE BREATHERS in this context was a new phrase for me, but it was easy enough to figure out and I like the picture it paints. Looking at all the answers together now, I kind of wish the first answer used “fur” rather than “hair”, which feels a little too… human.. as to be off-putting. But maybe that’s just my personal taste. HAIL CAESAR is a nice answer anyways, even if it does just make me think of the George Clooney movie.

The grid today is non-standard size, 16×15. If it takes you a little longer that average to solve it, that’s why!

Fill highlights: WHAT A TREAT, TORN TENDON, SWOLE, AVAST stacked on ZIPPO (I just like both of these words).

Clue highlights: [Blog commenter who is best ignored] for TROLL, [Awards with a Best Boxer category] for ESPYS (at first I wondered if this was going to be dog show related!)

Trouble Spots: I had “morns” for DAWNS clued as [Beginnings of days], and I started with “Nestle” instead of LIPTON for [Pure Leaf tea distributor]

New to me: that the POPE has a Swiss guard detail

Happy Monday all!

Michael Hobin’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Los Angeles Times 11/10/2025 by Michael Hobin

The revealer at 62A, [Unexpectedly enlightening, and what can be found at the starts of 17-, 24-, 38-, and 49-Across], is EYE-OPENING, because each theme entry OPENs with a word that can be placed before EYE to make a new phrase:

• 17A [Superhero nemesis, often] is EVIL GENIUS, leading to EVIL EYE.
• 24A [Massive dark spots in outer space] is BLACK HOLES, leading to BLACK EYE.
• 38A [Place for a “No Trespassing” sign] is PRIVATE PROPERTY, leading to PRIVATE EYE (and leading me to listen to “Private Eyes” by Hall & Oates while writing this post; you should, too!).
• 49A [William S. Burroughs work] is NAKED LUNCH, leading to NAKED EYE.

I wish the BLACK entry hadn’t been a plural, since none of the others are, but otherwise this is a nice evocative set of theme entries.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a couple of question-mark clues, which typically aren’t seen on Mondays: [One that takes turns making dinner?] is ROTISSERIE (because a ROTISSERIE literally turns as the food cooks), and 48A [Suits found on many a beach bum?] is THONGS. The latter actually tripped me up for a bit as I figured out that “bum” here means “buttocks.” Anyway, it’s nice when beginning solvers can get a little taste of what happens later in the week in an accessible way.

I mostly liked the fill (SCI-FI NOVEL, ROTISSERIE, LEELA, and NIFTY stood out to me as fun), but there were a few clunkers: the partial A VOTE, the contrived-feeling DIY-ER, the crosswordese-y OASTS, and the abbreviation NLE. Although with that last one, I’m kinda shocked that the clue is about my baseball team of choice [Div. for the Phillies] rather than Patti’s beloved Mets.

Anna Shechtman’s New Yorker crossword—Amy’s recap

New Yorker crossword solution, 11/10/25 – Shechtman

Fave fill: THE PILL, CANNOLI, Don RICKLES, COFFEE KLATCH (one-time Secretary of Labor Robert Reich has a video “Saturday Coffee Klatch” via his Substack that I enjoy each week), LYRIC POETS, Pepys’s “AND SO TO BED,” the hideous GENERATIVE AI (one of the latest trends in generative AI is videos that appear to show a woman or teenage girl being strangled, thanks OpenAI for showing us that blowing billions of dollars on AI isn’t worth a damn), VERMEER, PEACE SIGNS, JOHN WATERS, PANOPTICON. The flavorful fill is offset by blah bits like BASE FEE, SHEAVED, IN A BOW, LANED, Latin EST RES AMOR, and abbrevs ENCLS ELEC.

Did not know ADELINE was Virginia Woolf’s given name.

3.25 stars from me.

Dylan Fugel’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Back and Forth” — Jim Q’s write-up

THEME: Things that can be associated with the word “Swing”

THEME ANSWERS: 

• 18A KEY PARTY
• 23A PURPLE STATE
• 48A BATTING CAGE
• 55A JAZZ CLUB
• (revealer) [1936 Astaire/Rogers classic that 18-, 23-, 48- and 55-Across might also feature] SWING STATE

Worth it just for KEY PARTY. I’ve never heard it called that, but the phrase “Throw your keys in the bowl” certainly suggests swinging!

Swing also has a different definition in each context, and completely avoids any reference to the low-hanging fruit that would be associated with a playground. Elegant!

Clean puzzle and a smooth solve for me, with a casual hairy eyeball thrown to UP IS and A POP. Not my favorite partials in the world.

Also loved the fun clue for [Hit bottom?]- SPANKED. 

Not much more to say, but a 4.25 star solve for me!

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1834 — Eric’s Review

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1834 — 11/10/25

A not-too-difficult themeless Monday, despite some intersecting longer answers that were new to me and a few missteps.

Stuff that caught my eye:

• 14A [Sporty Fords] MUSTANGS I took a chance here with no crossings and it paid off, which doesn’t always happen.
• 15A [Poke bowl fruit] TOMATO Having never eaten poke, but knowing it was Hawaiian, I guessed PAPAYA.
• 18A [Feminist Dworkin] ANDREA A gimme, though I know next to nothing about her writings.
• 21A [Stages where REM was popular?] SLEEP PHASES  A nice if not entirely successful attempt at misdirection.
• 27A [“Pluribus” research grp.] SETI The quotation marks didn’t register when I read the clue. The clue refers to a new Apple TV series that’s on our watch list, given the Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul backgrounds of creator/showrunner Vince Gilligan and star Rhea Seehorn. It sounds a bit different than those earlier shows.
• 40A [Use of AI to generate text messages while dating, e.g.] CHATFISHING That’s a new term for me.
• 47A [Bow tie alternative] ROTINI I knew this was about pasta, but I tried FUSILI first.
• 56A [Beer named after a river] AMSTEL I learned this from some previous crossword; the river flows through Amsterdam (hence the city’s name).
• 7D [Boston suburb where Nancy Kerrigan was born] STONEHAM I had no idea where the former figure skater was from, but a few letters gave me a pattern that looked like a Massachusetts town.
• 9D [Estée Lauder cologne named after a musketeer] ARAMIS “Porthos” and “Athos” don’t exactly sound like fragrances.
• 11D [Biker bars?] SPOKES Cute clue, but are spokes really “bars”?
• 12D [Arsenal’s soccer club, to fans] GUNNERS A gimme; my friend Greg frequently wears his Arsenal cap.
• 19D [Fermented Mexican drink made with pineapple] TEPACHE That’s new to me.
• 33D [Robot that does the work of humans, perjoratively] CLANKER Also new to me.