Wednesday, November 26, 2025

AV Club 5:46 (Amy) [3.50 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
LAT 5:34 (Gareth) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 3:56 (Amy) [3.55 avg; 11 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker 5:38 (one-handed typing, with one error) (Kyle) [3.80 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
Universal untimed (pannonica) [3.17 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
USA Today 7:06 (Emily) [2.92 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
WSJ 9:53 (Eric) [1.60 avg; 5 ratings] rate it

Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Mixed Vegetables” — Eric’s Review

Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Mixed Vegetables” — 11/26/25

As I was solving, I has no idea where this theme was going:

• 16A [One of the two ingredients in 56-Across] LIMA BEANS The other “ingredient” is corn. I would have said “main ingredients” because corn and lima beans because succotash often contains onions, potatoes, turnips, tomatoes, bell peppers, corned beef, salt pork, or okra.
• 19A [Some skilled Balearic Islanders?] ABLE MINORCANS It took me a second to remember where the Balearic Islands are; they’re a Spanish province in the Mediterranean. (The other large islands are Majorca, Ibiza and Formentera.)
• 33A [Signal shining from Miami’s LoanDepot Park?] MARLINS’ BEACON
• 51A [Nutritional listing on some Hormel packages?] BACON MINERALS
• 56A [Mixed vegetable dish whose ingredients are mixed in the three longest Across answers] SUCCOTASH

And once I was done, I had no idea where this theme had taken me until I noticed the otherwise unmentioned CORN. Goofy as they are, 19A, 33A and 51A are apparently anagrams of LIMA BEANS [and] CORN. I’m too tired this evening to do a letter-by-letter comparison.

Or maybe it’s just that this theme appeals to me as much as lima beans did the last time anyone served me succotash, which is to say not much. (I love most legumes now, but lima beans still don’t hold much appeal.)

Other stuff:

• 38A [People change them on a regular basis] BABIES Cute clue, I guess.
• 39A [Cavaliers center Mobley] EVAN Not a name I knew.
• 

  Yves Tangyuy, “Indefinite Divisibility,” 1942

  45A [“Fawlty Towers” star] John CLEESE That’s a name I’ve known for a very long time.

• 61A [Surrealist Tanguy] YVES I’ve probably seen some of his paintings, but he’s nowhere near as familiar to me as someone like Dalí or Magritte.
• 3D [Hindu epic composed of 24,000 couplets] RAMAYANA I don’t think I know that title, but my knowledge of ancient India is spotty. Wikipedia says it’s “one of the two important epics of Hinduism known as the Itihasas, the other being the Mahabharata.” I’ve heard of that one.

John McClung’s New York Times crossword–Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 11/26/25 – no. 1126

I grew up with ROGER EBERT (54A. [Pulitzer-winning critic known for his perceptive, sometimes sharply worded reviews, as seen in 18-, 28-/34-, 38- and 43-Across]) reviews in the newspaper and on our local PBS station, alongside Gene Siskel. I also met him at a book signing and have a friend who became friendly with him in his later years. Roger had a gift for writing engaging movie reviews, particularly when he did not care for the movie at all. There’s even a book collection of his pans, called I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie, that may be on my bookshelf. So! This theme was right up my alley.

• 18A. [“An assault on the eyes, the ears, the brain, common sense and the human desire to be entertained” (1998)], ARMAGEDDON.
• 28A. [With 34-Across, “Like taking a bus trip with someone who has needed a bath for a long time” (2000)], BATTLEFIELD / EARTH.
• 38A. [“I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie. Hated it.”  (1994)], NORTH. Children deserved better.
• 43A. [“A two-hour movie squeezed into three hours” (2001)], PEARL HARBOR. Savage!

Now, what the theme revealer doesn’t mention is that this month is the 50th anniversary of the first Ebert & Siskel show. The Chicago Cultural Center has been celebrating that with a series of movie screenings and talks. Only good movies! One of them was Lone Star, which Roger loved. You can watch it for $3.99 on several streaming services. Eve’s Bayou is another one, also worth your time and rentable on streaming; another quiet indie film I might not have seen if Roger hadn’t written a rave review of it.

Back to the puzzle. Fave fill: relevant AUTEURS, SCARLET, DOGPILE.

14A. [Psalm starter], “O GOD…” I’m working my way through the bible in a scrambled-word app called IBBLE that I don’t think is still available for download. I happen to be in the Psalms book now! I can confirm that the phrase “O God” pops up in various places, but where I’m at, psalm 68, it does not begin with those words and neither do 66 or 67. [Sentence starter or middle in some psalms]?

Four stars from me.

Joe Rodini’s Universal crossword, “Linguistic Gymnastics” — pannonica’s write-up

Universal • 11/26/25 • Wed • “Linguistic Gymnastics” • Rodini • solution • 20251126

• 55a^R [The theme of this puzzle, as exhibited by the clues and answers for 19-, 25- and 45-Across] TONGUE TWISTERS.
• 19a. [Colorful Californian cocktail] TEQUILA SUNRISE (Russian).
• 25a. [Unusually hued mute musical dudes] BLUE MAN GROUP (German).
• 45a. [Erotic Kubrick flick] EYES WIDE SHUT (Swedish).

So we’ve got ‘tongue twisters’ in two senses. The clues themselves are meant to be difficult to say quickly, and the answers contain letter strings that can be anagrammed to name languages. Not too shabby.

• 6d [Really cool] AWESOME. 42a [“Terrif!”] FAB.
• 39d [Like a children’s Dr.] SEUSSIAN. Weird angle on the clue. I would have tried to something SEUSSIAN, or at least phrased this as something like [Characteristic of a noted children’s Dr.]
• 47d [What happy dogs’ tails do] WAG. `Well, then,’ the Cat went on, `you see, a dog growls when it’s angry, and wags its tail when it’s pleased. Now I growl when I’m pleased, and wag my tail when I’m angry. Therefore I’m mad.’
  
• 14a [Like the beginning of a triathlon] SWUM. Deft way to clue this.
• 15a [Long part of a neuron] AXON. Surprised this doesn’t appear in crosswords more often.
• 24a [Antipollution org.] EPA. Nope, not in its current incarnation.
• 64a [Got to one’s feet] AROSE. 65a [Standing __ ] DESK.
• 67a [Composition for nine musicians] NONET. I was unaware of this secondary definition, but it checks out.

Robyn Weintraub’s New Yorker crossword – Kyle’s write-up

The New Yorker solution grid – Robyn Weintraub – Wednesday 11/26/2025

Thanks Robyn for today’s New Yorker. Ironically for a Thanksgiving week puzzle, I detected a mini-theme around Oct-Dec holidays that are not Thanksgiving:

• [Big mo. for Spirit Halloween stores] OCT
• [Mariah with the recurring No. 1 hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You”] CAREY
• [___ de los Muertos] DIA
• [___ for apples (played a Halloween party game)] BOBBED

Now I feel like a bowl of WARM POTATO SOUP!

Dan Zarin’s AV Club Classic crossword, “Can You Dig It?”–Amy’s recap

AV Club Classic crossword solution, 11/26/25 – “Can You Dig It?” – Zarin

Root vegetables are the name of the game. Four song titles are tweaked to include a similar-sounding root veggie, with a revealer of the ROOTS MUSIC genre tying together the veg and songs.

• 18a. [“All the kids eat borscht right after school / Purple vegetables are always cool” (the Go-Go’s, 1980)], “We Got the Beat” becomes WE GOT THE BEET. 
• 30a. [“Roast it, mash it, every day / Goes down better with sauce” (Autograph, 1984)], TURNIP THE RADIO. Assume that’s “Turn Up the Radio” but despite turning 18 that year, I don’t know this glam metal/hard rock band. The song peaked at #29 on the pop chart so it wouldn’t have made a dent for non-metalheads.
• 48a. [“Candied is good, or I guess that I could / Also roast them or mash them (motherfuckers!)” (MC5, 1969)], KICK OUT THE YAMS. Originally Jams. I don’t know this one, either. Peaked at #82.
• 64a. [“Talk about a veggie that you put in pot pie / Use the British name, just give it a try” (Aerosmith, 1975)], SWEDE EMOTION. I know “Sweet Emotion” but I sure don’t recall what vegetable the Brits call SWEDE. Ah, it’s rutabaga. Don’t think I’ve ever eaten that.

I sure would have appreciated the theme better if I knew all four songs.

Three stars from me.

Rafael Musa’s USA Today Crossword, “The Irony! (Freestyle)” — Emily’s write-up

Check out the multitude of lengthy bonus fill!

alt=”Completed USA Today crossword for Wednesday November 26, 2025”
USA Today, November 26, 2025, “The Irony! (Freestyle)” by Rafael Musa[/caption]

CAP

Favorite fill: COMINGINHOT, RICECAKE, HONEYDEW, and PHONEITIN

Stumpers: CAPO (new to me), BARE (needed crossings), and ESSAY (also needed crossings)

Lots of delicious, fresh fill in this puzzle today. The fun grid added to the smooth solve. Great cluing and an overall quicker time for me, which is always enjoyable.

4.0 stars

~Emily

Daniel Hrynick’s LA Times Crossword – Gareth’s theme summary

Daniel Hrynick’s puzzle has a strong explaining answer, and an interesting idea. It’s also presented in a quirky fashion, with left-right symmetry and three down answers. The final of these is SHAPEOFYOU, and three other entries are quintessentially U-shaped:

• [Device whose poles are close together], HORSESHOEMAGNET
• [Commuter’s cushion], NECKPILLOW
• [Polish sausage], KIELBASA

KINGSBISHOP has no asterisk, and is not U-shaped.

Gareth