LAT untimed (pannonica) 
[3.00 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
NYT 5:12 (Amy) 
[3.88 avg; 16 ratings] rate it
Universal 4:13 (Jim P) 
[3.50 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (tk) 
[2.75 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Hemant Mehta’s New York Times crossword — Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 5/29/26 – no. 0529
Breezy but not too easy themeless from Hemant here.
Fave fill: ALL TOO SOON, SMALL WORLD, MAHOMES, SCORPIO, “WHAT’D I MISS?”, TERRY GROSS, ROLLING STOPS, EAT KOSHER (though “keep kosher” sounds more right to me), SAPIOSEXUAL.
Five things:
- 17A. [“We have a mutual friend?!”], “SMALL WORLD!” Nice conversational clue.
- 28A. [Apt anagram of NOTES], TONES. I started to fill in the also-apt STENO before I hit a crossing that refuted that.
- 30A. [Breezy things enjoyed at the beach], EASY READS. ??? Feel like they’re light reads or beach reads rather than EASY READS. Do you use that term?
- 1D. [It is king, in a phrase], CASH. Cash is king, but some businesses don’t take cash!
- 5D. [Road maneuvers featuring lazy braking], ROLLING STOPS. Yeah, that pretty well describes it.
- 8D. [“Yowzers!”], “HOLY MOSES!” I tried MOLEY first, no dice. Gotta go Old Testament here.
- 22D. [Traps in a laundry room], LINT SCREENS. I like that the clue sounds like a verb instead of a noun.
Four stars from me.
Pam Klawitter’s Universal crossword, “A Spoonful of Advice”—Jim P’s review
Theme answers were originally familiar phrases of the form ___ THE ___, but they’ve been spoonerized to create wacky phrases clued as bits of sage advice. Spellings are changed as needed.
Universal crossword solution · “A Spoonful of Advice” · Pam Klawitter · Fri., 5.29.26
- 20a. [Tip for maintaining sand traps on the golf course?] RAKE THE MOUNDS. Make the rounds. Good one.
- 28a. [Tip for shortening a story collection?] SKIP THE TALES. Tip the scales. Hmm. This one’s a bit awkward given the clue. Maybe it would be more apt as a tip for writing a succinct speech?
- 49a. [Tip for propelling oneself at sea?] WAVE THE SAILS. Save the whales. This one I don’t really get at all. I’m no sailor, but sailing’s about rotating the boom around the mast so the sail catches the wind. Once you find the wind and are going the direction you want, there’s little need for adjustments. I’m not sure how any of that can be construed as “waving” the sails. But maybe someone here knows better.
- 59a. [Tip for keeping gardens productive?] WEED’EM and REAP. Read’em and weep. This one is excellent and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the seed entry for the theme.
I like a good spoonerism, and that last one is wonderful since both new words are associated with gardening (or farming—close enough). I just wish the others were as good. Still, I enjoyed the wordplay and being perplexed by the theme at first until the penny dropped at the end.
Solid fill with highlights GOES ALL IN, DRIVEWAYS, SMOOCH, and AMENITY. There’s very little in the way of crosswordese and clues are straightforward enough for a quick solve, barring any proper name stumbling blocks.
Overall, some enjoyable wordplay and a solid grid. 3.5 stars.
Zachary David Levy’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up
LAT • 5/29/26 • Fri • Levy • solution • 20260529
- 38aR [“That’s someone else’s problem,” or an apt title for this puzzle] NOT MY JOB. The theme answers are job titles that, if you look sideways at them, could describe another occupation.
- 18a. [Photographer?] CHEESEMONGER.
- 26a. [Police officer?] TICKET AGENT.
- 52a. [Carpenter?] FLOOR TRADER.
- 63a. [Realtor?] STREET VENDOR.
I dunno, kind of meh? Doesn’t seem like the sort of extraordinary theme that would merit a special 16×15 grid, but perhaps that’s just me.
- 7d [Entered] CAME IN. 10d [Attends] GOES TO.
- 32d [Kotero of “Purple Rain”] APOLLONIA. Not someone I know of, but then again I’ve never seen Purple Rain.
- 40d [Fragrance] ODOR. Yes! (I’m obligated to highlight non-disparaging clues for ODOR.)
- 47d [Erode] EAT INTO. Waited to see whether it might be AWAY.
- 49d [Purple 13-Downs] IRISES. (13d [Reliable plant] PERENNIAL) My IRISES have recently finished blooming and the flowers are now all but gone.
- 16a [Make smooth] IRON. I immediately filled in SAND, but 8d [Capital of Belarus] MINSK helped me correct that quickly enough.
- 30a [mRNA vaccine maker] MODERNA. -ODE—
- 48a [Retro] OLD TIME. I’m not convinced these have the same connotation, but that isn’t a firm lack of conviction.
That’s all I’ve got here.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
Too easy for a Friday, imo. Not my fastest Friday but close to it.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
Decent Fri NYT, but two major nits to pick: WHATDIMISS is terrible, and the S in SARA x SAPIOSEXUAL could be many letters if you didn’t know either one (like me). I suppose sapio is vaguely reminiscent of being associated with brains once I entered the S (after running the alphabet), but it was still pretty annoying.
I get that English isn’t a root and pattern language like Hebrew, and most English speakers don’t think along those lines, but having “kashrut” in the clue for EAT KOSHER is a lot like using “Maintain silence” as a clue for KEEP SILENT.
I thought the same thing!
Yup. Stopped me for a minute until I realized most non-Jews wouldn’t get that.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
I agree that it was troubling for the adjective “kosher” to be a clue for the noun form of the same word. Perhaps the goal was to teach the noun to more people, as the adjective is so common in English. Still, I can use any help I can get for weekend puzzles.
Sorry, I reversed clue and answer in my comment but my time expired before I could correct it.
Turns out that using the same root for clue and answer can be blamed on the editors, not the constructor. In the Times Wordplay column, Hemant Mehta gives us his original clue for 30d: “Pig out, pig out?”
NYT: nice Friday for me, very enjoyable and found all the crosses fair.
With all the *ASS entries of late, is WTF taking us to the next level?!??
Thank you for noticing the use of semi-offensive words. I expect a little more class from the NYT.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
I liked the NYT puzzle and found it relatively easy (I finished 9 minutes faster than usual) but still tricky. I got SAPIOSEXUAL relatively early on but struggled with the left-center area until I figured out ACRE, and then the rest fell into place.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
Give it up for WHATDIMISS!
NYT: I wonder if Will Shortz and his staff read comments like these and laugh because they know something we don’t know. I’m thinking of the Saturday a few weeks ago where there was a 10-letter entry clued to a radio journalist. People were a little disappointed the answer was not TERRYGROSS… but of course we didn’t know she was already set to appear in this grid.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
Today’s puzzle was definitely the best we had all week! I started off fast in the smaller sections, but slowed down towards the end. Personally, my favorite entry was probably WHEREDOISIGN. So relatable!
The last thing I want to say is that my family and I call LINTSCREENS LINTTRAPS (don’t get mad at me, that’s just how I say it). I looked it up after I finished the puzzle (since I hadn’t heard this term before), and it’s interchangeable, it seems. Neat-o!
All in all, 4 stars for me. Nice puzzle!
Puzzle: Universal; Rating: 5 stars
About “wave the sails” – when sailing into the wind, a technique known as tacking is used, and it involves following a zig-zag path which requires major sail and rudder adjustments at every turn.