Monday, December 15, 2025

BEQ 11:08 (Eric) [3.50 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
LAT 1:47 (Stella) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 3:05 (Amy) [3.25 avg; 12 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker 5:10 (Amy) [4.39 avg; 14 ratings] rate it
Universal untimed (pannonica) [3.17 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (?) rate it
WSJ untimed (Jim Q) [3.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it

Jeff Jerome & Andrea Carla Michaels’s New York Times crossword — Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 12/15/25 – no. 1215

(It’s Amy stepping in for Sophia tonight.) Except for the revealer, this one feels like an unthemed crossword, since the circled letters are just fragments of unrelated phrases. BUNK BEDS are 59A. [Camp sleeping spots … or a hint to this puzzle’s circled letters], and those circled letters are two BEDs stacked together. DISROBED and SUBBED, lively HOBNOBBED and STUBBED TOE, DUBBED FILM and BEDAZZLED.

Fave fill outside of the BEDbugs: SEIZES UP, TERM LIMIT.

Answer that has pretty much outlived its usefulness: 11D. [On ___ (looking great, in slang)], FLEEK. This came from a young woman who posted a getting-ready video on social media and declared “Eyebrows on fleek.” I don’t know where she came up with that term, but I don’t think anybody much is using that any more, even ironically.

Pop trends: 17D. [Mr. ___ (Dr Pepper competitor)], PIBB. Until this fall, they’d been marketing Pibb XTRA as a “spicy cherry” soda. They just revived the Mr. Pibb brand name, now with more caffeine.

3D. [“Ridiculous!”], “IT’S ABSURD.” This feels a little clunky. Not so much an idiomatic phrase that people say as “it’s + adjective.” It’s green paint.

3.5 stars from me.

Doug Peterson’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Los Angeles Times 12/15/25 by Doug Peterson

The revealer at 65A [Paul Reiser sitcom, and what can be found in the answers to the starred clues] is MY TWO DADS, because each theme entry consists of TWO entries that start with PA, a name you might call your DAD:

• 17A [*”Tennessee Waltz” singer] is PATTI PAGE.
• 24A [*Bottoms worn as loungewear] is PAJAMA PANTS. 2020 vibes!
• 40A [*Maneuvering into a tight curbside spot] is PARALLEL PARKING, a skill I can say from experience that, unlike riding a bicycle, one can very much forget how to do. Back in the early aughts I lived in Astoria and owned a car, and I was a parallel parking ninja. Now that I haven’t owned a car since 2003, I can maybe park a car in a lot. If there aren’t cars in the neighboring spaces. Maybe.
• 51A [*Wide receiver’s route] is PASS PATTERN. This was my favorite theme entry because I don’t know very much about sports, and it’s fun to learn a term, rather than someone’s name, from a puzzle.

I never look at the byline of a Monday puzzle before I start solving — that’s like two seconds I could be using to put words in! — but when I was done, I saw it was a Doug Peterson and thought, “That tracks,” given how clean everything is. Nice lively theme entries and very clean fill. As an art lover, my favorite nontheme fill was SCULPTOR. Good show!

Mollie Cowger’s New Yorker crossword, “Rough Copy”–Amy’s recap

New Yorker crossword solution, 12/15/25 – “Rough Copy”

The cartoons and puzzles issue of the New Yorker is out this week, so instead of the usual tough Monday themeless, we get a themed puzzle which imagines nobody had time to copyedit the clues. Fun gambit! Here are the “typo” clues:

• 15a. [Opposite of mint], MAXI. Mini is the word that should be in the clue.
• 17a. [Large shake], PYTHON. Snake.
• 18a. [Where to find hobbies], THE SHIRE. Hobbits.
• 27a. [Creatures protected by spells], CLAMS. Shells.
• 32a. [Right, in Spanish], OCHO. Eight.
• 36a. [Newlyweds’ trios], HONEYMOONS. Trips, no throuples.
• 45a. [Robbery, perhaps], OVERCOOKED. Rubbery.
• 48a. [Strife], STEP. Stride.
• 61. [Unruly horse], MOB. Horde.
• 64. [Frequently used space in an Indian restaurant], TURMERIC. Spice.
• 71. [Earrings], PAY. Earnings.
• 73a. [Item with horizontal runes], LADDER. Rungs.

I didn’t see all of these clues while working the puzzle, as the crossings filled in some of those answers. Fun theme! It would have been “NICE!” to have the thematic answers in symmetrical spots. AXE could have been clued shorter, with simply [Hatched], and WACO with [Texas city that’s home to the Baylor Beats (or Boars, or Fears, or Pears)]. INK, maybe [Pet filler]. That would have remedied much of the thematic asymmetry, though PYTHON and LADDER are still unpaired.

Favorite clue: 67d. [What a Stanley cup has that the Stanley Cup doesn’t], LID. Stanley cups are a brand of water bottle, while the Stanley Cup is an NHL trophy.

28d. [Food-marketing phrase akin to “lite”], LO-FAT. What? No. There’s a medication named Lofat, a “Street Fighter” character named Lo Fat, and a Kuwaiti meal plan service called Lofat. Find me “lo fat” or “lo-fat” used in actual American food marketing instead of “low fat,” I challenge you. (Constructors, consider deleting LOFAT from your word lists.)

Four stars from me.

Tarun Krishnamurthy’s Universal crossword, “School Assembly” — pannonica’s write-up

Universal • 12/15/25 • Mon • “School Assembly” • Krishnamurthy • solution • 20251215

The three circled letters converge as we progress through the theme answers.

• 58a^R [Gathering at which a bake sale may be planned … or a theme hint] PTA MEETING.
• 17a. [Checkout counter option] PLASTIC BAG. Some states and cities have banned using-use plastic bags as wasteful and environmentally unfriendly. Some may consider it a hassle, but it’s relatively easy to adapt. And on an aesthetic level, it’s good not to see the inevitable wind-blown empty bags caught in tree branches.
• 25a. [Newspaper section with stats and scores] SPORTS PAGE.
• 38a. [“Don’t slouch!”] STAND UP STRAIGHT.
  
• 46a. [Treated as trivial] SWEPT ASIDE.

There’s nothing wrong with the theme per se, but to me it just feels kind of slight as a subject.

• 2d [Stranger in many a family holiday photo] MALL SANTA. Slightly sinister framing.
• 6d [Take the top off] UNCAP. Heh, just realized that DECAP [sic] would work too.
• 7d [Socially off-limits] TABOO. 22d [“Naughty!”] TSK.
• 11d [Enticing smell] AROMA. 46d [Fragrance] SCENT.
• 12d [Shoot for the moon] GO BIG “… or go home.”
• 35d [Posts visible for only a day, familiarly] IG STORIES. Instagram Stories, and I did not really know this.
• 45d [It may be buried, in journalism] LEDE.
• 60d [Uncommon “sense”] ESP, extrasensory perception. Kinda dupey.
• 1a [Urge forward] IMPEL. An auspicious gimme at one-across.
• 14a [Island near Sicily] MALTA. Rashly put in CAPRI as a first attempt.
• 28a [Bet that puts your winnings at risk] PARLAY. Know the word, wouldn’t have been able to define it.
• 45a [Chinese philosopher] LAO-TSE. If you squint your eyes—or have dyslexia, I guess—this could look like LACTOSE, so now I’m thinking of someone or some institution being LAO-TSE INTOLERANT.
• 57a [Canal that gave rise to Syracuse] ERIE. Some concise history there.

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1844 — Eric’s Review

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1844 — 12/15/25

I don’t know my fastest time on one of Brendan’s themeless puzzles, but this has got to be near the top. I zipped through most of it, slowing down only a little in the SW area.

It’s an interesting pinwheel grid, with quad stacks of nine-letter Across answers in the NW and SE corners and triple stacks of nine-letter Down answers in the other corners. The block placement creates four midi-sized grids, but at least for me, the grid flowed well.

Stuff of interest:

• 1A [Matches where an opponent might overlook a lesser opponent to their detriment] TRAP GAMES I don’t follow sports and hadn’t heard this term before. It seems to me that the “trap” is overconfidence.
• 16A [SNL comic with the classic line “Simmer down, Summer Donna”] Cheri OTERI I don’t know what character might have uttered this “classic line,” but Ms Oteri has the most grid-friendly name of any SNL alum.
• 17A [Accolades won by “Baby Reindeer” and “Anora” in 2024] AFI AWARDS AFI is the American Film Institute, which publishes lists of the 100 Greatest Whatevers — action movies, movie quotes, etc. I play their daily “Get the Picture” quiz, in which you have to identify a movie from a still that might or might not include some star you recognize. It’s a well-designed quiz; the wrong answers often seem likely to be correct. If you like movies, the site is worth investigating.
• 24A [Effective means of enforcement] TEETH I drafted legislation for the Texas Legislature for years. It wasn’t our job to to make policy recommendations, but we frequently had to suggest to legislators an appropriate means of enforcing whatever policy they had in mind.
• 27A [Baker’s tool] SIFTER It took me a long time to see that answer, possibly because when I bother to sift flour, I use a sieve and a spoon. Our kitchen has enough junk in it as it is.
• 35A [Material used in all-natural fire starters] CORNCOB I didn’t know this, but it makes sense.
• 39A [Former wide receiver with a pun-worthy nickname “Bad Moon”] Andre RISON That name is not familiar to me, and the I was the last letter I entered. But any Creedence Clearwater Revival reference, no matter how oblique, is OK with me.
• 52A [“Hundo p”] TOTES I can’t imagine saying either the clue or the answer, except in an ironic way. But I have been known quote Pat Hingle in The Grifters: “One thousand percent.”
• 53A [Lab habituê] ALBINO RAT If I were picky, I’d note that that circumflex ought to be an acute accent.
• 57A [Acts the sycophant] KISSES ASS I’m trying to remember if I’ve ever seen that phrase in a mainstream crossword.
• 1D [___ Marrow (Ice-T)] TRACY I don’t know many rappers’ birth names, but I remembered this one.
• 2D [“A Christmas Story” wish] RIFLE That’s a little vague, isn’t it? Ralphie lusts over a “Red Ryder” model BB Gun.
• 3D [“See ya!] ADIOS/4D [“See ya!”] PEACE I briefly had PEACE in the 3D slot, but TRP____ for 1A was not promising.
• 7D [Disco producer Giorgio] MORODER It took me a bit to come up with the last two or three letters. The 1970s were a long time ago.
• 12D [Lowest tone that can be sounded on a brass instrument] PEDAL NOTE I don’t remember hearing that before, and my initial reaction was “Brass instruments don’t have pedals!” Wikipedia seems to have a different idea of what the term means.
• 27D [1987 Kool & the Gang hit] STONE LOVE I remember the band but don’t recognize that title.
• 28D [Watered down] IRRIGATED Cute.
• 29D [Crush Diet alterantive] FANTA ZERO Ugh.
• 36D [Engage in intermittent fasting and bulletproof coffee, say] BIOHACK That’s a new term for me.
• 47D [Latte ingredients?] FOAMS I was lucky guessing here. The question mark gave me a bit of confidence that I was correct

Kevin Christian & Andrea Carla Michaels’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “M-N at Work” — Jim Q’s write-up

Wall Street Journal, December 15, 2025, Kevin Christian & Andrea Carla Michaels, “M-N at Work,” solution grid

THEME: Changing sounds of M…N words

THEME ANSWER:

• MAINSTREAM
• MEAN GIRLS
• MINESWEEPER
• MOAN ABOUT
• MOONSTRUCK

Two veteran constructors teaming up! That was all I needed to see in order to look forward to this grid. As expected, it did not disappoint. Perfect Monday. Clean grid, simple yet thoughtful clues, and not a partial in sight, which have been conspicuously plentiful in early week WSJ puzzles.

And a perfect Monday theme to boot. Consistent without trying to hard. MAIN, MEAN, MINE, MOAN, MOON. Sounds like the words to a typical high school chorus vocal warm up.

I noticed the M-N-ness of the themers, but MINE(SWEEPER) threw me off because it follows a different pattern M?N? instead of M??N. That’s when I figured out it’s about how the words sound rather than how they look.

Funny enough, in a puzzle called “M-N at Work,” we have both a MAN and MEN hanging out in the grid (OMANI and MENLO).

MISSTEPS / ERRATA

• [Middle of the road] MAIN STREAM. Totally misread this clue. My mind changed it to something like [Road in the middle of town] so I put in MAIN STREET. Thankfully, if you do enough crosswords you know the name Stephen REA, so that helped me out.
• [Football Hall of Famer Dawson] LEN. *Gasp* There’s another LEN in town? Move over Mr. Cariou. Side note: I met LEN Cariou not too long ago after a staging of Tuesdays with Morrie. He’s aware of how popular his name is in crosswords. I asked.
• [Saoirse of “Brooklyn”] RONAN. New to me! Perfectly crossed.
• [Bay Area nickname never used by locals] FRISCO/TROLLEY combo! Shout out to Andrea’s stomping grounds for sure!
• [Sure winner] SHOO IN. I was today years old when I learned it wasn’t SHOE IN.
• Great fill all around! Especially liked MEGA-MALL, TOO REAL, POWERBAR. 

What’s not to like about this one for a Monday? 4.5 stars from me.