Friday, April 24, 2026

LAT untimed (pannonica) [3.20 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
NYT 5:54 (Amy) [3.50 avg; 17 ratings] rate it
Universal 4:27 (Jim P) [3.30 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (tk) [2.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it

Andrew Spooner’s New York Times crossword — Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 4/24/26 – no. 0424

Short write-up today because (a) I have a headache and (b) I underwent sedation for a medical procedure today. Oof!

Fave fill: DO NOT DISTURB, DESERT ISLAND, DAFFODIL, LIE AWAKE, DAWDLE, TOFFEE, THE LAST STRAW, UNAFRAID. Could do without DOTER; who ever uses that inflection?

Three clues:

• 7A. [They might have good track records], ATHLETES. Such as the late Kelvin Kiptum, fastest marathoner ever.
• 18A. [Low volume?], TEASPOON. Lower amount than a cup, pint, or quart.
• DId not know: 11D. [Half of hip-hop’s Run the Jewels, alongside Killer Mike], ELP. That’s El-P, not Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

Fun puzzle. Four stars from me.

Jeffrey Wechsler’s Universal crossword, “Quite So”—Jim P’s review

The letters VERY are added to various phrases resulting in crossword wackiness. The revealer is VERY INTERESTING (36a, [“Intriguing,” or a hint to the starred clues’ answers]).

Universal crossword solution · “Quite So” · Jeffrey Wechsler · Fri., 4.24.26

• 17a. [*Courage shown during instruction?] TRAINING BRAVERY. Training bra.
• 23a. [*What might cover a local story?] NOT EVERY PAPER. Notepaper.
• 49a. [*Fancy party for the “MythBusters” network?] DISCOVERY BALL. Disco ball.
• 59a. [*Tabulation device for a UPS driver?] DELIVERY COUNTER. Deli counter.

Some fun wordplay here especially BRA becoming BRAVERY and DISCO becoming DISCOVERY. I’m not as keen on NOTE becoming NOT EVERY mainly because it’s different than the others and the entry feels a bit forced, but a quick search at onelook.com doesn’t come up with a good fourth entry, so there you go.

Do you feel the revealer is a crossword-worthy phrase? Maybe it’s not as much anymore but way back in the Laugh-In days, I’d say it was pretty commonly heard. Kids today won’t know comedian Arte Johnson (except maybe as a crossword clue), but one of his catchphrases was “Verrry interesting!” when in character as a Nazi soldier.

Moving to the long fill, we have a collection of solid entries: BRAWNIER, HAPPIEST, EMPEROR, DISSOLVE, and ISOLATES. Nothing especially sparkly there, but note that each of those crosses three theme answers, so I’m sure choices were limited. Less interesting is crosswordese like ILS, URI, and NRC.

Clue of note: 60d. [Carnaval city, for short]. RIO. I thought “Carnaval” was a typo, and an initial internet search seemed to bear that out. But it does look like it’s spelled this way in Portuguese.

Solid wordplay in the theme, but not a lot of sparkle beyond. Three stars.

James Mattina’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up

LAT • 4/24/26 • Fri • Mattina • solution • 20260424

It’s a 16×15 grid, but it turns out that that still wasn’t enough breadth because it’s really 20 squares wide(!).

• 54a^R [Equestrian style, or, when parsed differently, a three-part instruction for making 19 clues in this puzzle match their answers] SIDESADDLE, sides add LE. No wonder I was having trouble with edges and got my best footholds near the middle longitudes of the grid!

Not going to list all 19 clues and answers here, because they’re easy to see and in the main are unremarkable on their own. It’s more of a holistic theme. A very ambitious and well-executed one, too.

Two exceptions would be the grid-spanning marquee entries:

• 25a. [Heavy reptile with a flexible carapace] {LE{ATHERBACK SEA TURT{LE}. It’s the heaviest extant non-crocodilian reptile, often weighing more than half a ton.
• 44a. [Ring leader?] {LE}T’S GET READY TO RUMB{LE}, which is a catchphrase for one of the professional kayfabe wrestling leagues.

Moving on to the rest of the puzzle (including some theme answers) …

• 10a [Range that measures acidity and alkalinity] PH SCA{LE}. Would have been extra impressive if the answers shorn of their LEs still made for valid crossword entries, and I’m sure that was an ambition at one point, but clearly it wasn’t feasible.
• 24a [Round bump on a cactus] AREO{LE}. 44d [Seed covering] TESTA.
• 31a [Sink annoyance] DRIP. 32a [Sink annoyances] {LE}AKS.
• Some noticeable glue holding the grid together: 50a [Heritage gp. celebrated in May] AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander), 51a [Month during which the shofar is blown daily] ELUL.
• 52a [Person represented by the sunset flag] {LE}SBIAN.
• 59a [Reorders a draft?] EDITS. Nice clue. Despite the question mark, I was thinking of beer.
• 7d [Guernsey, for one] MILK COW.
  
  
• 10d [Abbr. for a rained-out event] PPD, postponed. More glue.
• 36d [Like businesses with no overhead?] OPEN-AIR. Cute.
• 42d [“¡Ándale!”] RÁPIDO. Going to classify this as glue too.
• 57a [Subside] EBB. And thus we drift away.