Sunday, November 23, 2025

LAT tk (Gareth) [2.50 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
NYT 20:19 (Eric) [2.68 avg; 17 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Darby) [3.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
Universal (Sunday) 7:51 (Jim P) [3.00 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (Norah) [3.17 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
WaPo 4:28 (Matt G) [3.56 avg; 8 ratings] rate it

New Yorker crossword constructor Natan Last has a book due out on Tuesday called Across the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of the Crossword Puzzle. The Nation ran an engaging excerpt last week. You can (pre)order it from Bookshop.org, which networks independent bookstores, or check your local library. New Yorkers, you might enjoy the book launch event on Tuesday evening, in conversation with New Yorker critic Doreen St. Félix.

Trenton Charlson’s New York Times Crossword “Second in Command” — Eric’s Review

Trenton Charlson’s New York Times Crossword “Second in Command” — 11/23/25

I was happy to see Trenton Charlson’s byline, as I’ve enjoyed many of his previous puzzles. But as I was solving this one, I never got a handle on the theme. That made it difficult to solve the theme answers except by pattern recognition.

Just now, picking out the well-marked theme answers (all the theme clues are in italics), I see that in each theme answer, the first two letters of one word (or, at the end, two words) have their positions flipped:

• 20A [Certain vacation booking in Madrid?] SPANISH RAMADA I don’t know exactly what I thought the clue said, but for a brief moment, when SPANISH ARMADA didn’t seem to fit, I tried a rebus of HA in the last square of 3D. But no, it’s just that the AR of ARMADA is now the RA of RAMADA.
• 28A [Billions and billions of boutique items?] OCTILLION DRESSES COTILLION > OCTILLION
• 44A [What Wile E. Coyote thinks before his new purchase backfires?] ACME TO THE RESCUE CAME > ACME
• 63A [Activity for a nimble-footed noble in Imperial Russia?] DANCING WITH THE TSARS The only explanation I have for not grokking the theme here with STARS turning into TSARS is that I’ve not slept well lately. It’s pretty obvious in hindsight what’s going on here.
• 79A [Figure who might say “Look at me on the cover of all these fashion magazines!”?] EGOCENTRIC MODEL GEOCENTRIC > EGOCENTRIC
• 96A [What bridesmaids might point out as the inferior choice while shopping?] LESSER OF TWO VEILS EVILS > VEILS
• 109A [Contents of a murky cauldron? (twice!)] UNCLEAR POTION NUCLEAR > UNCLEAR and OPTION > POTION

I don’t know how many words in English are anagrams when only the first two letters get moved. My guess is that there are many such words, which means the puzzle lands or doesn’t based in large part on whether the theme answers amuse the solver. These are fine,  but only DANCING WITH THE TSARS gave me much of a chuckle.

Other stuff:

• 1A [Departed unceremoniously?] ELOPED This was so obvious to me that I thought I’d be in for a very quick solving process. It wasn’t quick.
• 18A [“Couldn’t agree more!”] HOW TRUE Not TOO TRUE. The correct answer sounds better than what I tried for too long.
• 23A [Samwise ___, companion of Frodo Baggins] GAMGEE Since I’ve been a Tolkien geek longer than Trenton Charlson has been alive, this was as gimme as gimmes get. But it wasn’t until Peter Jackson’s first Lord of the Rings movie that I stopped pronouncing Sam’s surname with a hard G in the second syllable.
• 38A [Snooped (around)] NOSED If I’d payed attention to the parentheses around “around,” I wouldn’t have tried PRIED. (There’s a pop song in that last sentence. Not a very good one, though. Which is why I’m an unpaid crossword blogger and not a wealthy lyricist.)
• 43A [Actress Conn who played Frenchy in “Grease”] DIDI I almost skipped that one because I thought there was no way I knew it (not my sort of movie). Then, I suddenly realized that I did know Ms Conn’s first name. Sometimes the useless stuff in my head isn’t totally useless.
• 51A [Nashville-to-Asheville dir.] ESE I usually try to figure out these kinds of directional clues, especially if they’re about a part of the country I’ve driven through. Too bad I inexplicably started with SSE.
• 60A [Bedamn] ACCURSE I like the parallel fustyism between clue and answer.
• 67A [Cocktails with curaçao] MAI TAIS. A lucky guess here. I’d always assumed the MAI TAI was a “Polynesian” recipe, but I know where Curaçao is it’s not anywhere near the western Pacific.
• 74A [Many a Yeshiva student] JEW I’d have guessed that Yeshiva students were exclusively Jewish, but what does a lapse Catholic know about Yeshivas? On the other hand, I knew that some parents who aren’t Catholic send their kids to Catholic schools.
• 105A [Country singer Yearwood] TRISHA A gimme despite my complete inability to name a single song by Ms Yearwood. If it’s not on SiriusXm’s “Outlaw Country” or “Bakersfield Beat,” the odds that I’ve heard a country song plummet.
• 116A [Sargasso Sea quartet] ESSES Cute.
• 7D [Mark who portrayed Luke Skywalker] HAMILL Mark Hamill in that A-shirt running around Dagobah giving Yoda a piggy-back ride. Did I need any other reason to see The Empire Strikes Back? Not really.
• 14D [When the first mammals and dinosaurs appeared] TRIASSIC PERIOD I should know more about the evolution of life on earth than I do.
• 18D [Mind] HEED Not TEND.
• 46D [It opened in 1835 with a Chamber of Horrors] MADAME TUSSAUDS That wasn’t on our London itinerary 20+ years ago and it won’t be on the next one if we ever go back there. But between the date and “Chamber of Horrors,” I filled this in without any crosses.
• 49D [The national fruit of Japan, the kaki, is a variety of it] PERSIMMON I’d never hear of  a “kaki” before (other than the color or the fabric).
• 72D [Reminiscent of a certain French author’s work] ZOLAESQUE I haven’t read anything by Émile Zola other than J’Accuse, so I’m not really sure what something that’s “Zolaesque” would be like. But isn’t it a fantastic word anyway?

Evan Birnholz’s Washington Post Crossword “There’s Something in the Water” — Matt’s Review

Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword solution, “There’s Something in the Water,” 11/23/2025

It’s not immediately apparent how our themers come together this week, but a helpful revealers clears up the blur:

• 23a [*Portrayer of Frankenstein’s monster in “The Ghost of Frankenstein” (1942)] LON CHANEY JR
• 32a [*Violinist who, at age 15, was appointed as the youngest ever artist in residence of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra] CHLOE CHUA
• 18d [*Grammy-winning composer who wrote the theme to “Mission: Impossible”] LALO SCHIFRIN
• 21d [*Composer who founded the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico] CARLOS CHAVEZ
• 69a [*PIcture reproducing the natural colors of a subject (literally, “colored by the sun”)] HELIOCHROME
• 91a [*Style of some ancient frescoes with religious iconography in the catacombs of Rome] PALEOCHRISTIAN ART
• 118a [Image once believed to depict a legendary monster, reportedly taken in 1934 by Dr. Robert Kenneth Wilson] THE SURGEONS PHOTOGRAPH
• 129a [Body of water whose letters are found in the starred answers (look inside those letters to spell out the monster within] LOCH

The clue for LOCH points us to the key parts of each starred answer – the letter string LOCH, interrupted by a single letter. Those interruptions spell NESSIE, the cryptid purportedly the subject of our last themer, THE SURGEONS PHOTOGRAPH 

I’m very glad for the payoff after reaching the end of this grid, as I spent much of my solve wondering how these relatively obscure (for Evan’s puzzles) theme entries connected together. THE SURGEONS PHOTOGRAPH is a bit of an odd entry out, but it also fleshes out a theme set that would otherwise struggle to meaningfully fill a 21×21 grid, and it’s certainly on topic.

Other highlights: While it wasn’t disguised as any particular misdirection, I liked the play on “Jaguar” and “roar” for ENGINE // I always roll my eyes at clues for NO ONE like [Who lives on Mars] but this one, which tied a hermit’s lack of roommates to Herman’s Hermits’ Peter NOONE made me chuckle in all its dad-joke splendor // NIL is indeed 0 in a soccer match, as for my preferred NWSL team the Washington Spirit, who didn’t score in last night’s championship match // [Commanders’ org.] for NFC refers to football’s Washington Commanders, who changed their name from a derogatory slur a few years ago 

Cheers!

Kevin Christian’s Universal Sunday crossword, “Playing With Matches”—Jim P’s review

Theme answers are phrases that have three instances of doubled letters (i.e. a single letter that’s appears doubled three times). The revealer is TRIPLE DOUBLE (108a, [Basketball feat, or a hint to the starred clues’ answers]).

Universal Sunday crossword solution · “Playing With Matches” · Kevin Christian · 11.23.25

• 22a. [*With 31-Across, “Victory!”] WINNER, WINNER, / CHICKEN DINNER.
• 46a. [*Casting director’s dismissive words] DON’T CALL US, WE’LL CALL YOU.
• 61a. [*MLBer who supported Jackie Robinson] PEE-WEE REESE.
• 81a. [*Trait of someone who makes backhanded compliments] PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVENESS. (Shame about the extra double-G.)
• 95a. [*Didn’t just glance] TOOK A GOOD LOOK.

Together, the letters in question spell out NLESO which isn’t anything, but if you rearrange them, they spell out OLSEN which…also isn’t anything with regards to the theme. So you can forget I said anything.

Good theme with a fun theme set. I mean, WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER is worth the price of admission in my book, so everything else is a bonus.

Fantastic long fill, too, with highlights SIMON SAYS, GET NAKED, MR. TOAD, HORSESHOE, NEON TUBE, ASTROLOGY, TATTOO GUN, CENOZOIC, and VANGUARD.

Clues of note:

• 40a. [Ukulele clamps]. CAPOS. I only got this because of crosswords, which usually clue this word with respect to guitars. Now I know it applies to ukes, too.
• 44a. [Spooky FX franchise initials]. AHS. Couldn’t think of the whole initialism, but after getting the crossings I remembered it stood for American Horror Story.
• 98a. [Partner of 98-Down]. BORN (and BRED). The B was my very last letter to enter.

Nice lively puzzle. 3.5 stars.