Thursday, December 4, 2025

BEQ 11:33 (Eric) [3.17 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
Fireball untimed (Jenni) [4.50 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
LAT tk (Gareth) [2.67 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
NYT 8:33 (ZDL) [3.42 avg; 12 ratings] rate it
Universal untimed (Eric) [3.25 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today 8:11 (Emily) [2.25 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
WSJ untimed (Jim Q) [3.60 avg; 5 ratings] rate it

Frederick Lavoie’s Universal Crossword Puzzle “Double Down” — Eric’s Review

Frederick Lavoie’s Universal Crossword “Double Down” — 12/4/25

Technically, this wasn’t an untimed solving experience — I got interrupted while working and paused the timer, but I forgot to start it up again. Based on what the timer says and the ease of solving this, I’m guessing that my actual solving time was between five and six minutes.

There’s no revealer, but the title makes it apparent why certain letters in the theme answers are circled — they’re all doubled and each doubling is repeated:

• 16A [Papa’s papa, perhaps] GRANDDADDY
• 26A [Annual celebration of Hawaiian fashion and heritage] MU’UMU’U MONTH This is a real thing, folks.
• 44A [“What’s cooking, ___?”] GOOD-LOOKING Reverse the answer and the clue and you’ve got a 1951 hit for Hank Williams. I’ve grown to appreciate much of his music, but I still don’t really care for that one.
• 59A [What city streets typically do] CRISS-CROSS

These theme answers are all good, interesting finds. I especially appreciate that none are made-up phrases. I have no idea how limited the universe of possible theme answers is: For A, you’ve got BAA BAA or the Teletubby LAA LAA. There’s nothing for B and only CCCC for  C. That’s as deep into the alphabet as I felt like looking.

Other stuff:

• 1A [___ to none] SLIM It took me a bit to get this, because I wanted SECOND to fit.
• 14A [Fell face-first] ATE IT Ski season is finally here in Southern Colorado. I will do my best to not eat it this year.
• 35A [Professor’s job protection] TENURE/37A [Degree for many profs] PHD
• 52D [___ brothers (“Avengers: Endgame” directors)] RUSSO Not a name I recognize.

Hannah Slovut-Einderston’s Fireball Crossword “Alternate Routes” – Jenni’s write-up

Took me a minute to figure this one out. OK, more than a minute. Once I understood the theme, my solving pace picked up considerably.

Each theme clue has an second word that is capitalized for apparently no good reason. They’re all types of thoroughfares, and each answer ends in an appropriate abbreviation.

Fireball, December 3, 2025, Hannah Slovut-Einertson, “Alternate Routes,” solution grid

• 20a [Family Circle?] is GRANDMASTER  – GRANDMAS TERrace.
• 26a [Happy Place?] is GRINDR – GRIN DRive.
• 27a [Pool Lane?] is DIVEST – DIVE STreet.
• 43a [Cutting Corner?] is SICK LEAVE – SICKLE AVEnue. Had to stare at that one for a while.
• 51a [Musical Loop?] is VERDICT – VERDI CT (court)
• 52a [Dance Walk?] is DISCORD. DISCO RD (road)

That’s a lot of theme material for a 15×15 and amazingly enough the fill did not suffer. It’s a great construction and a lot of fun to solve.

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: never heard of ERICA Garza or her memoir “Getting Off,” which is apparently about her experiences with sex and porn addiction.

Stephan Prock and Jeff Chen’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up

Time: 8m33s

Difficulty: Breezy (<8m)  |  Easy-ish (8-9m30s)  |  Moderate (9m30s-11m)  |  Rough going (11+m)

Stephan Prock and Jeff Chen’s New York Times crossword, 12/4/25, 1204

Today’s theme: joint ventures

• TOO (KNOT) ICE
• NINE (TIE) SKID
• CARA (MELD) ELITE
• CREE (PIN) GOUT
• CAR (BOND) ATE

Testing out difficulty tiers to add a little context to my solve times.  Does anyone care?  Probably not.  This one played closer to a Wednesday (*directed towards the uncaring world*).  Solve into the void!

Cracking: CRANKS IT

Slacking: also, CRANKS IT.  Paradox!

Sidetracking: ELOISE at the Plaza.  Great location, rooms are a little dated.  The Food Hall used to be a destination unto itself, closed post-COVID.

Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “You Said It!” — Jim Q’s write-up

THEME: Phrases/Words that end in -ON are placed vertically in the grid, and make a 90 degree turn to the right for the last two letters

WSJ • 12/4/25 • Thurs • “You Said It!” • Mike Shenk • solution • 20251204

THEME ANSWERS:

• KOMODO DRAGON (Sharing the -(G)ON from ARGON)
• THANKS A TON (Sharing the -(T)ON from the revealer, RIGHT ON)
• REASON (Sharing the -(S)ON from SON)
• GLASS ONION (Sharing the -(I)ON from DION)
• MR. TELEVISION (Sharing the -(I) ON from ORION)
• TYCOON (Sharing the -(O)ON from NOON)
• (revealer) [“You said it!” (and an explanation of six down answers)] RIGHT ON!

Fun one! Didn’t really grok the theme fully until the revealer, which, despite being a central answer, I entered last (struggled with SPAR, the spelling of PEORIA, and ETHER to some extent). I guess in that sense, it’s a constructor’s goal. Nothing fully clicked until I entered the last letter. Only then did I notice the –ON. I initially thought ON was just plain missing, and was wracking my brain for a revealer that hinted at that… NOTHING ON or something like that? I dunno.

I don’t necessarily think TYCOON and REASON were necessary to included. The other four do the heavy lifting and they’re far more engaging to uncover. Those two seem like afterthoughts and the inclusion of TYCOON in particular makes that corner quite unpleasant with ATMO (?) and EBAN. Feels like more strain than necessary was put on those corners in a grid already chock full of more interesting theme.

OTHER STUFF / STUMBLES / ERRATA:

• For some reason, I was 100% certain that it was a KIMONO DRAGON and not KOMODO DRAGON. My lizard wears an obi, apparently.
• [Bond on the run] ELOPE. Good one. I wanted some variation of JAMES.
• [Pharmacy figures] DOSES. Struggled here (especially with my confidence in the ever-so-elusive KIMONO DRAGON) I don’t really think of DOSES as figures, but I get it.
• [Bruins great] ORR. This might be the first time ever that I confidently entered ORR after decades of struggling to remember the difference between ORR and OTT. I’m delighted.
• [Pocket watch part] STEM. Not sure which part this is.
• [Beatles song whose name was used in a 2022 movie title] GLASS ONION. Loved the movie. Had no idea it was a song title.
• [18, for 47-Across] AT NO. next to [S. Dak. neighbor] WYO made that another unpleasant corner (with the SW). But surprisingly, these are the only spots that really suffered from a grid that has that much theme. Impressive!

4 stars from me.

Rafael Musa’s USA Today Crossword, “Crossword (Taylor’s Version) (Freestyle)” — Emily’s write-up

A little bit of this, a little bit of that!

USA Today, December 04, 2025, “Crossword (Taylor’s Version) (Freestyle)” by Rafael Musa

Favorite fill: OUTOFTHEWOODS, ASIANFUSION, GUILTYASSIN, and SCHMEAR

Stumpers: FORTE (misdirected with tricky cluing), EDGES (needed crossings), and REN (cluing threw me off since I didn’t think it was an abbreviation)

What a fun puzzle! With the freestyle, the sweet grid was possible and made room for lots of lengthy fill. Overall fill was great as well, lots of fresh entries and interesting phrases. Nicely done!

4.0 stars

~Emily

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1841 “Baring Some Teeth” — Eric’s Review

Since I spent the day driving from Dallas to Santa Fe, I was happy to see a relatively easy theme. The theme answers all incorporate the letters FANG:

• 15A [Masonry support that transfers the dead load of outer brick into the building frame] SHELF ANGLE I’d not heard of that before and didn’t immediately notice the FANG.
• 17A [Hollywood home] THE CITY OF ANGELS I didn’t notice that FANG, either.
• 37A [Home to the Ents in the Tolkienverse] FANGORN FOREST I somehow skipped this one for a bit and missed a gimme.
• 58A [Dinosaur’s fears] NEW-FANGLED IDEAS
• 63A [Behaving in an overly obsessive way] FAN-GIRLING

The theme answers are all interesting and fresh enough. From a construction standpoint, I prefer the three that split the FANG between two words.

Other stuff:

• 1A [Whence the Buena Vista Social Club] CUBA Always nice to have a gimme at 1A; fortunately HAVANA didn’t fit.
• 21A [Tip jar contents] ONES Not CASH.
• 24A [Fashion designer ___ France] TAN That’s a new name for me. I assume his status as one of the “Fab Five” experts on Queer Eye makes him crossword-worthy.
• 34A [Shakespearean character with the line “Good night, sweet prince”] HORATIO Not LAERTES. Even as I was typing that incorrect answer, part of my brain was telling me that Laertes dies at the end of Hamlet. I’d forgotten that he actually kills Hamlet before dying; it’s been a long time since I’ve seen that play.
• 64A [Film that takes place on the Orca] JAWS A gimme. We watched it again a few years ago and it’s held up pretty well.
• 66A [Original bass player for the Ramones] DEE DEE I don’t know why looked at that clue and thought not of the Sex Pistols, not the Ramones.
• 67A [Young of “Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent”] ADEN Another name that’s new to me.
• 3D [Grub that will eventually have a stinger] BEE LARVA I’m so used to seeing “grub” as food in crossword clues that it took me a bit to think of insects.
• 13D [“Steppenwolf” author] Herman HESSE A gimme; I think I read that novel when I was in high school and was disappointed that “Born to Be Wild” didn’t show up anywhere.
• 22D [Show that once had a lot of Chase scenes, for short] SNL Younger solvers might not get the reference to Chevy Chase.
• 42D [Beat Joey Chestnut at his own game] OUT-EAT I didn’t recognize that name until after I got the answer; I think he has won the hot-dog-eating contest at Coney Island. I find those eating contests repulsive.
• 53D [___ of Antipaxos (“What We Do in the Shadows” vampire)] NADJA Another new name.
• 56D [Email subj. heading] IN RE I don’t like this answer when it’s clued as “Memo subj. heading” or something similar. I really don’t like it as an email subject heading.