Saturday, December 13, 2025

LAT 19:32 (Eric) [2.72 avg; 9 ratings] rate it
Newsday 27:58 (pannonica) [4.17 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
NYT 6:37 (Amy) [3.76 avg; 17 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (Matthew) [3.33 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Matthew) [2.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
WSJ untimed (pannonica) [3.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it

Stella Zawistowski’s Los Angeles Times Crossword — Eric’s Review

Oof. There’s some arcane vocabulary in this one, made more so by a variant spelling of a long word most of us don’t encounter often. My guesses spotted me letters that helped me fill in the blanks. And I learned a few things.

• 15A [Target of some copyright infringement lawsuits] OPEN AI That’s not a particularly helpful clue, as there are many targets of copyright infringement suits. Because I didn’t know the tennis player at 10D, I needed the P from 6D EPIC HERO to get me OPEN and then AI. Having FOLK HERO was only marginally helpful.
• 16A [Hard wood] ASH Not OAK.
• 17A [Dad, in Korean] APPA I’ve seen this a few times before. I knew the vowels were A’s but couldn’t remember the consonants. Maybe now I’ll finally remember that it’s an anagram of “papa.”
• 18A [Jarring tonal shifts] DISSONANCE/19D [Full of jarring tonal shifts] ALL OVER THE MAP  DISSONANCE is not an especially difficult word or clue, but nothing came to mind until I had a few crosses. For 19D, I tried to get ALL OVER THE PLACE to fit.
• 20A [Two-part bet] PERFECTA I don’t gamble, so while I’ve heard this term before, it didn’t come easily.
• 22A [Union station?] ALTAR Cute clue, though the misdirection towards trains gets lost when “station” isn’t capitalized.
• 23A [__ Drafthouse Cinema: movie chain based in Austin] ALAMO A welcome gimme; I remember when the only Alamo Drafthouse was on Colorado Street in downtown Austin. (I’ve been told the quality of their food has dropped since Sony purchased the chain. True?)
• 27A [Unsatisfactory explanation] BECAUSE REASONS The whole “Because [noun]” construction is something I don’t encounter much. I had REASONS long before BECAUSE.
• 32A [Year of the Four Emperors emperor] OTHO My Roman history is practically nonexistent. The “Year of the Four Emperors” could have related to any empire, though now that I think about it, I’ve seen references to it in other crosswords. The year in question is 69 CE and the other three emperors were Galba, Vitellius and Vespasian. Once I had a couple of letters, I could see OTHO, which is a more or less familiar name.
• 34A [Only city in Samoa] APIA I plunked that down immediately and then promptly took it out because I couldn’t remember if it’s in Samoa or American Samoa.
• 39A [Self-awareness?] PROPRIOCEPTION That’s the “perception or awareness of the position and movement of the body.” While it’s something we all rely on constantly, it’s not an easy word to remember. I’m still not sure how it differs from kinesthesia, the “awareness of the position and movement of the parts of the body by means of sensory organs (proprioceptors) in the muscles and joints.”
• 41A [Alison Bechdel’s “Fun __: A Family Tragicomic”] HOME Another welcome gimme. I might have read the graphic novel when it was published.
• 43A [“Lilo & Stitch” theme] ʻOHANA Though I’m slightly familiar with the Disney animated film, I’d not heard this word, which is the Hawaiian word for “family.”
• 44A [Shinto shrine gateway] TORII A gimme thanks to computer Scrabble and Spelling Bee.
• 46A [“Day by Day” musical] GODSPELL It took me longer that it should have to recall the musical’s title, though the tune is very catchy.
• 48A [Make no progress] TREAD WATER Metaphorically, the clue works. Literally, I would consider “not drowning” to be a positive, if not exactly “progress.”
• 50A [Work hard] MOIL Not TOIL.
• 1D [Name on a JFK hotel designed by Eero Saarinen] TWA A gimme. It looks like a cool place to stay if you don’t mind being in Queens.
• 4D [Reference in a doctor’s office] PHARMACOPOEIA That spelling has more consecutive vowels than any word needs. That second O can just go away, please.
• 10D [First Asian player inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame] LI NA This is another name that I don’t recognize. She won the women’s singles titles in the French Open (2011) and the Australian Open (2014).
• 11D [Color of the Year company] PANTONE My husband was a graphic designer and we used to have a Pantone swatch book around the house.
• 23D [Singer Carter who won “American Idol” in 2024] ABI I’ve never seen that show.
• 29D [Moxie, e.g.] SODA POP Pick one word or the other.
• 34D [Subject of some air battles?] ARM REST That’s a cute clue, but it was in a New York Times puzzle not that long ago.

Gene Louise De Vera’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 12/13/25 – no. 1213

This one’s kind of a constructorial stunt puzzle: All the possible entry lengths are included in the grid, from the 3-letter words to the 15-letter revealer, 48A. [Gluttonous request … or what this puzzle has vis-à-vis the possible answer lengths?], ONE OF EVERYTHING. The top has the 9, 11, and 13, while the sides have the 10s, 12s, and 14s. The 4- to 8-letter entries are in the middle-ish.

Fave fill: BAD BREATH, FOOD ADDITIVES, a HOT PINK triangle, GET THE MEMO, CORPORATE GREED, STUDENT LOANS, SNORKELING.

New to me: 10A. [Spicy shellfish dish], CURRIED CRAB. I take my curry sans shellfish.

Questionable: 5D. [Orangutan, by another name], RED APE. Back in the day? In other places? A couple book titles cited in the references at the orangutan Wikipedia page use the term, but I don’t recall seeing it before.

Meh: NOT DO, RILL, NO I, EELER. And also SEA DOVES; the clue is 31D. [Birds also known as “little auks”], but that feels backwards, as little auks, aka dovekies (in North America), had an old name, “sea doves.” They don’t even look like doves, people!

3.5 stars from me.

Matthew Sewell’s Newsday crossword, Saturday Stumper — pannonica’s write-up

Newsday • 12/13/25 • Saturday Stumper • Sewell • solution • 20251213

A really good and chewy offering, maybe the epitome of a Stumper crossword. Even many of the “gimmes” needed to wait quite a time for crossings.

For a while I had just a few entries, then I managed to fill in the the top stratum. Relatively quickly I got all of the grid’s midriff, save for a little on the left flank. The bottom third proved to be toughest, with the southeast corner falling last.

• 1a [Led to lineally] BEGAT. So simple in retrospect.
• 10a [Side of ribs] SLAW. Side for ribs would be more straightforward, but this is the Stumper.
• 14a [Tools for hand-made products] ABACI. Mathematical products!
• 15a [Eminently pickable] RIPE. One of my first fills, and I’m glad I filled it in long before seeing 16a [Eminently pickable] A-ONE.
• 17a [Capital within 500 mi. of 40% of all in the US] COLUMBUS, OH. Would have seen this one much sooner had I not answered IPAD for 8d [Where Taylor Swift kept “many indie bands”] IPOD; —BUSAH became —BUSOH and I was off to the races, sort of.
• 20a [Performing in concert] ON A TEAM. IN TANDEM didn’t fit, and I went with AS A TEAM before arriving at the intended answer.
• 21a [Dadgum] DRATTED. Hitting on this answer with about half the letters in place was very helpful. I’d had 12d [Islander redhead in Canadian kid lit] ANNE (of Green Gables) as my very first answer, and the DR— from IP[A/O]D plus the R from 9d [Prime minister at Elizabeth II’s coronation] NEHRU.
• 26a [Bugs Bunny wore its uniform in ’43] USMC. Pretty easy with U already in place.
• 27a [Look-both-ways guy] JANUS. A gimme. 55a [Look-both-ways traveler] RACECAR. Not a gimme; the clue is referring to its palindromic quality.
• 29a [Purity standard] KARAT. One of those gimmes that needed to wait.
• 32a [Head of a table] ARTHUR. Had the –UR ending for a long while before my perspective changed and the answer became obvious. Especially since I was practically convinced that 35d [You be the judge] was going to start with PLAY-something, when in fact it was simply HEAR A CASE.
• 38a [“I’m stumped”] GIVE ME THE ANSWER. My problems in this area were compounded by my having started this phrase with TELL rather than GIVE. Also, an apropos Stumper clue.
• 41a [Effortful freighting] SCHLEP. You just have to laugh sometimes at the hifalutin Stumper cluing style.
• 43a [Move low and slow] SNAKE. Not CREEP or CRAWL, and certainly not SNEAK.
• 45a [Hand salute] MA’AM. Not the hand on the end of your arm, but a hand as a crew member.
• 47a [Small change] SUB, short for substitution. 56d [Small change] CENT.
• 48a [Sophia, shortly] FIFI. Oh.
• 57a [Many minutos] HORA, not ORAS.
• 62a [Medieval marauders] NORSE, not NINJA.
• 63a [Take for a ride] HOSE. Thought for a time that it might be HOST.
• 64a [Bit of bioplastic] ALGA. ???
• 65a [Caught up?] TREED. Great clue.
• 5d [Poor Richard’s cure-all herb] TIME. Of course not actually a herb. Is it metaphorically referrred to as such in the Almanack?
• 7d [Not a thread in all __ raiment”: Poe] HIS. Pretty easy to guess this one.
• 10d [Coastal ecosystem] SALT MARSH. Should have gotten this much sooner, but was hung up thinking about littoral zones and the like.
• 11d [Gamer’s acquisition activity] LOOT CRAWL. Didn’t really know this, but I recognize that it’s an established term.
• 18d [Nine counties around Western estuaries] BAY AREA. The B from COLUMBUS and the Y from 24a [Staple of West African cuisine] YAM made this one quite easy to get.
• 25d [Fowl much mistaken for ducks] MUD HENS. With the MU— firmly in place, I couldn’t get MUSCOVY out of my head, even though I knew that it’s an actual duck species.
• 28d [Vsicocity std. setter] SAE, that’s the Society of Automotive Engineers, ok.
• 30d [Swatch of suiting?] A TEE. Ouch, really tough clue for a relatively easy answer.
• 34d [What the Emmys are named for] TV CAMERA. “Greetings through your orthicon tube!”
• 39d [Vikes’ strikes] TDS. Knew it would be either this or FGS.
• 44d [Much-watched after-dark streaming] AURORA. Immediately grasped what the clue was getting at, but thought it might be COMETS.
• 46d [Head honchos?] MENSA. meh.
• 53d [Book of Marvels of the World author (c. 1300] POLO. Reasoning/remembering the answer for this was pivotal in resolving the lower left section.

Whew!

Desirée Penner and Jeff Sinnock’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “I Didn’t Catch Your Name” — pannonica’s write-up

WSJ • 12/13/25 • Sat • “I Didn’t Catch Your Name” • Penner, Sinnock • solution • 20251213

Some parsing hijinks today.

• 23a. [“Well, Mr. Jennings, that fashion consists of florals, ruffles and ribbons] PRAIRIE CHIC, KEN (prairie chicken).
• 32a. [“Well, Mr. Danson, you’re supposed to make a toast honoring the family matriarch”] FOR GRAN, TED (for granted).
• 33a. [“Well, Ms. de Armas, there’s a reason nobody’s wearing shirts”] TOP BAN, ANA (top banana).
• 60a. [“Well, Ms. Winslet, no one is surprised you won the Oscar”] FIGURES, KATE (figure skate).
• 65a. [“Well, Mr. Brady, there’s a reason you were a victim of internet fraud”] FALSE BOT, TOM (false bottom). I predict there will be quibbling in the comments about ‘false bot’.
• 92a. [“Well, Mr. Newton, there’s an easy way to keep in touch with your teammates] EMAILS, CAM (email scam).
• 94a. [“Well, Ms. Gadot, let me explain what ‘wet blanket’ implies”] ANTI-FUN, GAL (antifungal).
• 108a. [“Well, Mr. Paul, there’s a solution to not getting lost on your north-of-the-border tour”] CANADIAN MAP, LES (Canadian maples). This bottom right corner was the only section of the grid that held me up, because I was trying to make CANADIAN APP, LES (Canadian apples) work, even while not being at all satisfied with it.

Mildly fun theme, felt strained collectively.

• 5d [Brilliant celestial displays] AURORAE. I was primed by the Stumper today.
• 29d [Text sequence you frequency you can check in a Google “viewer”] NGRAM. I don’t recall seeing this in a crossword before, but it must have been in lots already.
• 32d [Notes after mis] FAS. The solfege.
• 48d [Spaniard’s cheer] ARRIBA. Already had crossings, so OLÉ OLÉ was a non-starter.
• 68d [Editor’s “keep it”] STET. 52d [Take out] DELETE.
• 89d [Prevailing conditions] CLIMATE. My failure to perceive this easy answer helped contribute to the stymification over in that section.
• 40a [“I Love Lucy” episodes, now] RERUNS. Seems like a positively ancient choice.
• 50a [Ham carrier] RADIO. … is there really no more concise name for “Indian head wiggle”? That’s what my reaction is here.
• 62a [Company that offers little training] LIONEL. >groan<
• 89a [Dried coconut meat] COPRA. Did not know this word.
• 99a [Seaside Italian resort] AMALFI.
• 102a [“Yeah, right!”] I’M SURE. Another entry that held me up over here. I just couldn’t strike OK SURE from my brain.
• 111a [Some Dior dresses] A-LINES. The style was created by Christian Dior himself back in 1955.
• 116a [Field of vision?] EYE CARE. Not exactly a tricky clue, but sly enough to trouble me when I was already experiencing obstacles there in the southeast of the grid.

Not a bad puzzle at all, and a fairly brisk romp for a 21×21 grid.