Thursday, June 11, 2026

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Rebecca Goldstein’s Universal Crossword “The Beast in Me” — Eric’s Review

Rebecca Goldstein’s Universal Crossword “The Beast in Me” — 6/11/26 (Click to Enlarge)

I got about halfway through and noticed that the circled letters held animals and thought, “Is that all there is?” But of course, there was more; as the title hints, each theme answer begins with M and ends with E:

• 16A [“Who Wants To Be a ___?”] MILLIONAIRE I haven’t watched game shows in a long time, but this title was a gimme.
• 27A [Dictation machine insert] MINI-CASSETTE Can you even get a dictation machine anymore?
• 42A [Localized weather conditions] MICROCLIMATE
• 55A [Frantic rush] MAD SCRAMBLE

The theme answers split between the first two, which I found so-so in terms of interesting grid entries, and the last two, which were more fun for me.

Other stuff:

• 5A [Airship used to promote “Marty Supreme” in 2025] BLIMP I don’t remember reading about this, but really, what other airship would it have been?
• 15A [National dish of Vietnam] PHƠ/5D BÁNH MÌ Yum and yummier.
• 38A [“Jump” duo ___ Kross] KRIS That’s a name I hadn’t heard in a long while.
• 46A [One parent of a mule] DONKEY An extraneous animal? A duplicate of sorts of ASS?
• 49A [Singer and actress Janelle] MONAE The extraneous M____E word bothers me a tiny bit; I wonder what kind of beast an ONA is.
• 14D [Trig ratio] COTAN I’ve long since forgotten what a cotangent is. I have also forgotten what a cosecant is, but I remembered COSEC (which slowed me down a bit).
• 32D [Times spent out before time spent out] DISCO NAPS I hadn’t heard that term before and got it from the crosses. I never was much of a bar-goer.
• 44D [Celebrity chef Samuelsson] MARCUS That’s a new name for me.