LAT untimed (pannonica) 
[2.67 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
NYT 4:24 (Amy) 
[3.69 avg; 13 ratings] rate it
Universal 3:48 (Jim P) 
[3.92 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (tk) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
New mini project for the month of May. To celebrate Asian Pacific Islander Heritage month, API constructors Alisya Reza and Terry Sun have launched APIHMinis.com, a site where you’ll find a new mini crossword every day, each written by a different API constructor. You’ll see some familiar Team Fiend names, other big names from around the crossword community, and even some new voices making their debuts. Puzzles will drop each day around 5 am ET, and you can sign up to receive email reminders.
Rena Cohen’s New York Times crossword — Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 5/1/26 – no. 0501
Pretty quick one today, it is nice to feel smart again after some weekends of tougher (for me) NYT themelesses.
Fave fill: ARMADILLOS, LOCK AND LOAD (metaphorically only), MAKE-BELIEVE, SPOILER ALERTS, COUPLES-ONLY, THE MUNCHIES, SONOROUS (I just like the word), PUNSTERS, crunchy MILLET, COLLEGE ROOMMATE, APPLE TVS.
Not so keen on plural abbrev DIRS or ESSO. Is COLD TAKES a thing people say? Because hot takes, sure, but COLD? And FREE PR, is that a term in use?
Three clues:
- 5A. [Philosopher who championed simple explanations], OCCAM. Occam’s Razor is that the most simple explanation is likely to be correct. Also known in medical circles as “when you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras.” Named for medieval friar William of Ockham.
- 17A. [Animals whose Aztec name translates to “turtle-rabbit”], ARMADILLOS. That’s delightful!
- 53A. [Myosin’s partner protein], ACTIN. I think the NYT Spelling Bee bars ACTIN from its word lists. Also CUTIN, rejected again today. If you’ve been trying those ones every time and sighing when they’re nixed, I see you.
4.25 stars from me.
Anthony Gisonda’s Universal crossword, “End of the Tunnel”—Jim P’s review
Theme answers are familiar two-word phrases where both words can precede “light” to form other phrases. The revealer is TAILLIGHT (62a, [Brake indicator … or what can be attached to both halves of each starred clue’s answer]).
Universal crossword solution · “End of the Tunnel” · Anthony Gisonda · Fri., 5.1.26
- 17a. [*Peridot shade] LIME GREEN. Limelight, Green light.
- 28a. [*Reality show once hosted by Ed McMahon] STAR SEARCH. Starlight, searchlight.
- 38a. [*Florence Welch or Amy Adams, in terms of hair] REDHEAD. Red light, headlight.
- 46a. [*Potential tropical storm result] FLASH FLOOD. Flashlight, floodlight.
I enjoy this kind of theme, especially when all associated phrases are firmly in the language, and that’s definitely the case here. I suppose what I like about it is that the theme remains inscrutable until you hit upon the revealer, at which point everything falls into place so cleanly. Kudos to our constructor for putting together an impressive theme set.
In addition to that we get some really lovely long fill entries: “COME TO PAPA,” ARCHENEMY, RUNNING GAG, and CHIA SEEDS are all strong assets to the grid. Surely we can all get past ARE NOT in light of such strong fill.
Clues of note:
- 30d. [Joke that may get funnier each time it’s repeated]. RUNNING GAG. Or it may wear out its welcome. Such a delicate balance.
- 49d. [Enter a phone number]. DIAL. I needed several crossings for this despite my age and having used rotary telephones when I was a kid.
- 55d. [Reason to say “P.U.”]. ODOR. Fun clue. In case you were wondering, “P.U.” is not an initialism.
Lovely puzzle. Four stars.
John Michael Currie’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up
LAT • 5/1/26 • Fri • Currie • solution • 20260501
Some initial reduplication.
- 20a. [A color commentator’s remark about a zebra on the field] REF REFERENCE. Zebra is common slang for sports referees, who often wear striped garb.
- 29a. [Pickling, canning, headspace, annealing, etc.?] JAR JARGON.
- 37a. [Like clockwork?] ANALOG ANALOGY.
- 45a. [Pressing the “permanent press” button?] IRON IRONY.
- 56a. [“Words are but wind”?] META METAPHOR.
Not too thrilled this time. Three of the five share etymologies, so it isn’t too interesting. And then, there’s no consistency or regular pattern in lengths: 3, 3, 6, 4, 4.
- 6d [Club record holder?] LIVE DJ. A little strained, but it’s fine.
- 13d [Boom operator’s need?] TNT. Ditto.
- 51d [Film compositions] SCORES. Ah, [musical] compositions for film. I’d been considering constituent materials of various types of film, organic and manufactured. (59d [Not natural] MADE.) 60a [Place to find one’s credit history?] IMDB, the Internet Movie Database. 22a [Audit firm exec] CPA.
- 58d [Out of control] AMOK. 25d [Spellbound] AGOG.
- 5a [“Of course,” in Oviedo] CLARO. An alternative might be por supuesto.
- 18a [St. Teresa’s birthplace] AVILA.
- 24a [Two-digit sign] PEACE. The clue had me confused for some time.
- 65a [Tarot figure carrying a bindle] FOOL. No HOBOs in tarot, I gather. It’s likely that bindle is an alteration of bundle.
- 67d [Gastropub pours] ALES. ‘Gastropub’ is a singularly unpretty word.
- 70a [Try out] TEST. “Test… test…”
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
Zipped through this one too. THEMUNCHIES was solid.
COLDTAKES doesn’t quite mean what the clue says. If you predict something on social media and that thing doesn’t happen at all, and another user reposts it later to laugh at how wrong you were, they are “cold taking” you. (You can get cold taked even years after the fact. Another example of the senseless mob mentality of social media.) An uncontroversial opinion is more like a mild take.
I’ve seen COLD TAKES used in the clued sense, often written as “Coldest of takes: hot chocolate is delicious” or something of that nature.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
“Not so keen on plural abbrev…”
Not so keen on single abbreviation “abbrev”. ;)
Puzzle: Universal; Rating: 4.5 stars
For all the reasons Jim P. gave. Really nice work.
Puzzle: LAT; Rating: 1.5 stars
Bad choice by the editor to publish this puzzle, and then not editing the clues coherently.
Puzzle: LAT; Rating: 4 stars
I don’t solve the LAT puzzle every day, but your comment piqued my interest (as your comments often do).
I didn’t think much of the theme — without checking, I would guess there are an awful lot of words that fit the pattern of REF REFERENCE and JAR JARGON. (Though I’m just now noticing that the longer word in each sentence has something to do with language, which significantly limits the number of possibilities.) And while the theme answers are a little wacky, none of them are really amusing.
What about the clues did you find “not coherent”? [Growing alarm] PANIC doesn’t work well for me, but otherwise the clues vary between straightforward ones and some novel (to me, anyway) ones for common entries.
While I would never choose tater TOTS over French fries, the former are indeed an “alternative.”
[Place to find one’s credit history?] IMDB and [Club record holder] LIVE DJ are excellent clues.
Any puzzle that makes me think of the fantastic JOAN Cusack can’t be all bad.