LAT untimed (pannonica) 
[2.30 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
NYT 6:21 (Amy) 
[3.60 avg; 15 ratings] rate it
Universal 4:24 (Jim P) 
[3.00 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (tk) rate it
Maddy Ziegler’s New York Times crossword — Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 5/15/26 – no. 0515
Fun puzzle, and I’m not sure why it took me more of a Saturdayish time than a Friday. Maybe I’m just losing speed overall, on account of solving so few puzzles over the past couple years? Sigh.
Fave fill: LIVE WIRES, BANANA SEAT, BELABORS, SMASH CUT (new to me), “IT’S UP TO YOU,” NEEDLE DROP, DRY SEASON, “I’M ALL EARS,” VACANT LOT, WASHTUB, BACKWOODS, ROGUE WAVE, SEA GRAPES, SHEEPLE.
Five things:
- 34A. [Throw in at the end], TAG ON. Not thinking of the context in which this works out.
- 41A. [Language of southern India], TELUGU. Spoken by 100 million people, in the South Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
- 55A. [Use of a popular song to make a scene iconic, in film-speak], NEEDLE DROP. What’s your favorite example?
- 1D. [Big name in meal prep kits], HOME CHEF. I’ve tried and tired of Blue Apron, Marley Spoon, and Hello Fresh. Any recommendations for meal kits?
- 7D. [Here goes nothing!], VACANT LOT. What an odd clue. How is it “going”? At a real estate auction or something?
3.75 stars from me.
Jeffrey Wechsler’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up
LAT • 5/15/26 • Fri • Wechsler • solution • 20260515
It’s a 16×15 grid, and it took me significantly longer than I would have expected to solve. The reason wasn’t the size but the cluing, as well as the theme (which eluded me for a time), and especially because there was a crossing in the lower right that truly stymied me.
- 56aR [Shakespearean “Listen up!,” or an apt title for this puzzle?] LEND ME YOUR EARS. “Friends, Romans, countrymen …” The gimmick here is that CORN has been inserted into familiar phrases to wackify them.
- 21a. [Apparel worn between December 22 and January 19?] CAPRICORN PANTS (capri pants).
- 30a. [Unappreciative of St. Louis’s hockey team?] SCORNING THE BLUES (sing the blues).
- 46a. [Starts a top-to-bottom demolition of an old facade?] BREAKS THE CORNICE (breaks the ice).
If you haven’t seen the eye-opening 2008 documentary King Corn, it’s well worth a watch. Unequal parts fascinating and frightening. 23d [Causes to gasp, perhaps] AWES.
- 1d [“I’m sort of disappointed”] SHUCKS. Winkingly theme-adjacent, but I’ve never heard the word in this context. m-w.com says the interjection is “used especially to express mild disappointment or embarrassment”. I’ve only encountered the latter sense.
- 5d [Try to access, as the back of a closet] REACH IN. Uh, okay.
- 10d [Rub shoulders (with)] HOBNOB. 11d [Be next to] ABUT.
- 14d [Protected fig.] SSN. Poorly protected, in truth. Especially when so many organizations and agencies want/’need’ it.
- 33d [“Lord, what fools __ mortals be!”] THESE. Another Shakespeare quote, this time from Ariel in The Tempest.
- 40d [Guilty expression] I FEEL BAD. A verbal expression, not a facial one.
- 44d [Cornerstone abbr.] ESTD. Not theme-adjacent.
- 47d [Place to keep toys?] KENNEL. meh.
- 50d [“Developed With Dermatologists” lotion brand] CERAVE, stylized CeraVe. I vaguely recall this, but the name eluded me. Combined with the tough crossing 55a Largest U.S. union] NEA and the moderately tough 67a [Cover, in a way] PAVE, this was a very difficult section that held me up for quite some time. It’s crossing I spoke about earlier.
- 59d [Nonsense word similar to “blah”] YADA. Both often occur in triplicate.
- 1a [Urban haze] SMOG, 5a [Urban network] ROADS.
- 15a [Boring outcome?] HOLE. The question mark clued me in right away.
- 25a [Mortgage agcy.] FHC. The crossings gave me this one automagically. Grateful also that 7d [Hebrew month after Shevat] ADAR and 61a [Longtime college football coach Nick] SABAN were similarly handled.
- 38a [“Four Quartets” poet] ELIOT.
- 41a [Writer Harte or wrestler Hart] BRET. Interesting juxtaposition.
- 68a [Alpine song] YODEL.
- 70a [Big Apple resident, for short] NYER. Personally, I go with NYCER (which is pronounced ‘New-York-Citier’, not ‘nicer’, as you might have questioned).
Shannon Rapp and Will Eisenberg’s Universal crossword, “Rocky III”—Jim P’s review
Theme answers are familiar names and phrases that might be referred to as “The rock”.
Universal crossword solution · “Rocky III” · Shannon Rapp and Will Eisenberg · Fri., 5.15.26
- 19a. [“The Rock,” off the coast of Canada] NEWFOUNDLAND.
- 37a. [“The Rock,” in Hollywood] DWAYNE JOHNSON. Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery might take issue with this clue.
- 56a. [The “rock,” at a bonspiel] CURLING STONE.
I’m only familiar with one of these monikers, but the grid was still easy enough to solve. I like that each use is slightly different; we don’t, for example, have both NEWFOUNDLAND and “Gibraltar” here since they’re both land formations.
We only get three theme answers, but that leaves more room for fun long fill such as LEAF PILES, MAYA RUDOLPH, DRAWS STRAWS, LOTUS TREE, and the quaint SODA POP.
Sliced mango drenched in TAJIN
Clues of note:
- 51a. [Rodent such as Master Splinter]. RAT. I didn’t know this and got it off the crossings, but guessed correctly the character is from TMNT.
- 3d. [Org. for Anthony Edwards]. NBA. Showing my age, but my go-to Anthony Edwards is the affable actor from ER and Top Gun.
- 29d. [Spicy mango seasoning]. TAJIN. Not to be confused with a Middle Eastern tagine, TAJIN is a brand of seasoning from Mexico. In sauce form, it might be poured over a cup of sliced mango and sold from street vendors.
Solid (haha) puzzle. 3.5 stars.
Puzzle: Universal; Rating: 4 stars
I needed to check that this puzzle’s authors weren’t Canadian given that the theme generated three Canadian-linked fill. I enjoyed the theme – too bad they couldn’t squeeze in a Nick Cage reference. :)
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
This one took me longer than usual with the NW section last to fall. HOMECHEF didn’t land with me as I don’t use these services and haven’t seen this industry’s ads in a while. The BELABORS / TAGON stack also slowed me down. BANANASEAT gave me a smile.
Good NYT. Fridays and Saturdays have been a little tougher recently, which I like. Like Amy, I didn’t know SMASHCUT, thought the clue for VACANTLOT was strange, and don’t see how the clue for TAGON works (I think of ‘tag on’ as a last-minute decision to join a group of friends going to the movies, for example). But those are minor complaints in an interesting and enjoyable puzzle.
I had CANE at first for the magician’s accessory, but SEAGRANES are clearly not a thing.
I had CANE/SEAGRANES until the very end. I’ve never heard of SEAGRAPES, either, so SEAGRANES sounded plausible to me.
I’m surprised that tag on, as in “let me tag on some fries to my order,” doesn’t sound natural to some people. I suspect that it originated as a corruption of “tack on,” which I presume would be preferred by those same people.
Your example certainly doesn’t sound natural to me. And come to think of it, I wouldn’t say ‘tack on’ either. I’d just use the old-fashioned word ‘add’ :)
I’m also “add.”
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
+1 raising hand for “tack on” preference…when add on didn’t work I was at a loss for a long time since my next thought was tack and didn’t fit.
Enjoyed the difficulty level…. tough for me today which is good. Telugu was completely new to me.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
Just your standard very good Friday. I edit a lot of video in my career field so SMASHCUT and NEEDLEDROP were gimmes.
I feel like we had NEEDLE DROP is a recent-ish Friday puzzle. HOME CHEF was a gimme as it’s the one we use; we had done Blue Apron years ago and then bailed on it after the quality really seemed to dip (before COVID). We get a discount through work; we’ve been mostly happy with it though our 10 yo noted that it’s almost always “fish with vegetables” (I’m pescitarian so we usually get two seafood and one vegetarian). He still really likes it, though. My wife picks the meals, and I cook ‘em.
Thanks, Dallas. I’m irked that I can’t review the menu choices without first giving payment info.
Horrors!
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
MODELT? Oh Model T. Duh. Why do I always do this.
33d [“Lord, what fools __ mortals be!”] THESE. Another Shakespeare quote, this time from Ariel in The Tempest.
Nope. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Puck, 3:2