LAT untimed (pannonica) 
[3.38 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
NYT untimed (Jenni) 
[3.08 avg; 20 ratings] rate it
Universal 5:15 (Jim P) 
[2.25 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (?) rate it
No WSJ contest puzzle today, as it’s Juneteenth. ·p·
Elizabeth Duker-Gold’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up
LAT • 6/19/26 • Fri • Duker-Gold • solution • 20260619
- 18a. [To: Comedian Michael, bedding salesman <__.com>] CHEAT SHEETS ([email protected])
- 14a. [To: Athlete Johnson, lawn products salesman <__.com>] BOAT YARDS ([email protected])
- 36a. [To: Broadcast journalist Anderson, surgical supply salesman <[email protected]> COOPERATORS ([email protected])
- 50a. [To: Actor Cheadle, chemistry lab supply salesman <__.com>] DONATIONS ([email protected])
- 57a. [To: Singer Bruno, bulletin board salesman <__.com>] MARS ATTACKS (mars@tacks)
So basically it’s words and phrases containing the bigram A-T, which can be divorced from the surrounding letters, leaving a name to the left and some sort of noun to the right. Hm, it sounds more complicated when I try to describe it!
All guys, all salesmen—that seems weird.
Uploader has the title incorrectly—it’s “Tale of a 280 Pound Shoe Salesman”
Theme-adjacent: 51a [Provide an address] ORATE.
- 2d [Defiant reply] ARE TOO, but I only thought of ARE NOT, so attempted that first.
- 8d [These, in Spanish] ESTOS. “This and these have Ts”
- 11d [Cutesy name for paw pads] TOE BEANS. More specifically they are digital pads, and the complementary carpal and metacarpal pads are generally not called ‘beans’, I wanna say?
- 36d [New fans] CONVERTS. Such as many for the New York Knicks, now. Or perhaps they’re bandwagoneers?
- 40d [“Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” poet Stevens] WALLACE. I was going to say that his day job was as a salesman, but no he was an insurance executive.
- 1a [Jaguar or Charger] CAR. Nothing to do with NFL players. Clue is a little fast-and-loose, as Jaguar is a make and Charger is a model.
- 10a [Gillette brand] ATRA. The product is discontinued, but sure the company still retains rights to the brand name.
- 15a [“Reckon maybe, yeah”] I S’POSE, but somehow I was trying to make IS POSS work.
- 16a [Urge on] GOAD. 25a [Texter’s encouragement to try something new] YOLO (you only live once).
- 20a [Jazz great James] ETTA. No, she dabbled in the jazz idiom, but her successes were in r&b, blues, and rock/pop.
- 30a [Queerplatonic orientation, briefly] ARO-ACE, aromantic, asexual.
- 35a [Bills replaced by coins in Canada and Australia] ONES. I did not know that.
- 42a [People in the background of a selfie, perhaps] RANDOS. Does RANDOS not carry a slight pejorative connotation, suggesting someone sinister or creepy?
- 49a [Juvenile eel] ELVER. The shared etymology is noticeable. m-w.com informs me that it dates from 1640 and is an alteration of eelfare migration of eels. It doesn’t say but I’m speculating that it comes from Old English and perhaps ultimately from Old German.
- 54a [Beloved, in Bordeaux] CHERI.
- 64a [Part of a rock band?] ORE. I feel as though I should have gotten this more readily.
Solid crossword.
Adrian Johnson’s Universal crossword, “Themeless Friday 1”—Jim P’s review
I think this is my first time encountering an asymmetrical themeless grid, and…I can’t say I’m crazy about it. Maybe if I was completely wowed by the fill, I’d feel differently, but it just feels like a constructor’s cheat to give up on symmetry when there’s not even a theme to accommodate. I would expect super smooth fill from top to bottom without anything like ABV or LOCI or REDID.
Universal crossword solution · “Themeless Friday 1” · Adrian Johnson · Fri., 6.19.26
Of course, there are plenty of wonderful entries here like EVEREST BASE CAMP, THE BOOK OF MORMON, MARGE SIMPSON, BAD PUBLICITY, “IT WASN’T ME,” SPEEDBAG, PROSE POET, LEG RESTS, and PEEPHOLE. That 4×10 stack in the SE is excellent.
But then I glance again at the grid, and it’s simply inelegant.
Clues of note:
- 16d. [Stains that a spin cycle fades?]. BAD PUBLICITY. This clue is trying too hard. People don’t usually refer to BAD PUBLICITY as “stains.”
- 38d. [Lookout point?]. PEEPHOLE. This clue is excellent.
Some outstanding fill in this themeless grid, but we’ve seen plenty of themeless grids with outstanding fill and they’re typically still symmetrical. Why lower the standards here when there’s no theme causing constraints? 2.5 stars.
Jack Hatchett’s New York Times crossword — Jenni’s write-up
I enjoyed this one! It was a good start to a Friday morning – neither too hard nor too easy. It was just right, Papa Bear – with one glaring exception. We didn’t have a tag for Jack Hatchett so welcome to the Fiend-a-verse, Jack! I look forward to more of your work.
I really liked HOME RUN TROT, AMUSE–BOUCHE, OH COME ON NOW, and DON’T BE A HERO. Other things I noticed:
New York Times, June 19, 2026, Jack Hatchett, solution grid
- 19a [Reacted to capturing a championship, perhaps] is WEPT. There’s been a lot of that in my daughter’s neighborhood recently. Go Knicks!
- Glaring exception referenced above: 10d [Sudden reversal of fortune, in literature] is PERIPETEIA. Whoa. I’m glad all the crossings were either obvious or easily inferred because, as I said, whoa. I realize my English major days are decades behind me. I think I would remember that word if it had ever come up. I presume it’s related to “peripatetic.”
- My husband who knows nothing about movies and doesn’t follow the WNBA would like to register a complaint about the crossing of AJA Wilson and JOHN WOO. I wasn’t concerned. I’ve heard of Woo and honestly it’s the only letter that could complete his name once you have the others.
- On the other hand, both of us chuckled happily at 57a [One concerned with transparency in the workplace?]: GLASSBLOWER. Check out my husband’s website to see why.
- I really enjoyed 41a [Maker of sole music?] for TAP SHOE.
What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: see above re: PERIPETEIA. I had also never heard of a SHOWER BEER. I’m more of a hot tub bourbon gal.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 1 star
Little-known names plus obscure trivia equals pain in the derriere.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
Me too! PERIPETEIA, THOMASPAINE (I had NOD instead of NOM, which had me trying to think of a Greek philosopher at 37a), a Pokémon name that could be anything, and tough/tricky clues for 57a, 35d and 39d created a wall into which I ran. Got it in the end by basically erasing everything and starting over. At least it was challenging.
Very good NYT. Tougher than usual but in a good way. Some unfamiliar stuff but it was all gettable/guessable.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3 stars
Today’s NYT was tough on a vegetarian who knows nothing about the NHL (other than ORR, of course) and very little about Chinese revolutionaries.
Yeah, getting that OREE/YATSEN crossing was just going through the vowels. I liked parts of the rest, but that was awful.
I’d an easier time than others here with the bottom of the NYT. Sun Yat Sin was actually my foothold, and I worked y way north from there. (I was surprised by Paine. I don’t associate him with potential praise for a king. BTW, there’s a show now centered on a copy of Common Sense right now at the Brooklyn Museum.)
My huge obstacles were in the NW, including the crossing of the athlete and director at top center, but also still the far corner. But overall I’m not as put off as some.
Got it. Didn’t recognize TRITIP or HOME RUN TROT, but there you go. Also started with “leap” for a more punny answer to “spring event.”
Yeah, I enjoyed this one— although there were certainly some obscurities. But they all ended up being solvable, and there was an overall breezy tone that I liked.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
Although many historians might hold different opinions, at least in the official Chinese historiography, Sun Yat-Sen is still the Father of the Nation, the man who ended the Imperial Era which had lasted more than 2000 years in China. He is to China as George Washington is to USA, or Simon Bolivar to Latin America.
As for the puzzle, there are too many proper names. Besides, there was PERIPETEIA, which if I didn’t know, I would have rated this puzzle 2.5 stars instead, probably.
Apologies above of misspelling him, doubly so since that’s the troublesome crossing. I just don’t take the care I should, no doubt with that dumb gut feeling about “only social media.” I really have to try harder.
“No WSJ”
I find it strange that some puzzles are not available on holidays. You’d think there would be more solvers on holidays because they have more leisure time to solve them.
Just a thought…
Perhaps instead take comfort in knowing that, since the Journal doesn’t publish on the holiday, surely at least some of its staff get a day off. Then cast a tear for those elsewhere.
That’s why the NYT puzzle is hardest on Saturday, or at least that’s what I’ve been told. The WSJ publishes puzzles in the dead-tree edition and they don’t have a dead-tree edition on Federal holidays.
The NYT has a dead-tree edition every day.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3 stars
I was not on this wavelength at all. After I finally struggled across the finish line and looked it over, the good stuff was terrific but there was a lot of old-school Saturday fill as well. It felt a little too computer generated.
Docked a half star for referencing Bill “the President can do anything he wants” BARR.
Too squeamish. Good clue.
NYT: PERIPETEIA and “peripatetic” have the same prefix, “peri-” meaning “around,” but probably no more than that in common (for example, periscope, perimeter, periodontal) (though A.I. gave me a little doubt about this declaration, I didn’t see the connection between the other parts of the words using online dictionary sources). The suffix “-peteia” comes from the Greek “piptein,” meaning “to fall.” Further words that might be related to the “-peteia” root are hard to find in a similar form. “Peripatetic” comes from “peri-,” meaning “around” and the Greek “patein,” meaning “to walk.” Again, quick research didn’t show me companion words coming from “patein.” I found the puzzle very hard, though I was happy to know JOHN WOO. I used the Times Easy Mode to finish–thanks, Christina Iverson.
I want to say I was thrilled to know both directors’ names and films, Clair and Woo, but otherwise the sports and other areas of knowledge killed me. T. Paine had a fun clue. I wanted to give the crossword a good rating out of gratitude, but my performance was too poor, without Christina, to be able to rate the puzzle.
UNI: Chicago Sun-Times uses the Universal as a patternless puzzle, so the asymmetry adds a degree of difficulty!