Thursday, June 25, 2026

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Matthew Sherman’s Universal Crossword “One for All, and All for One” — Eric’s Review

Matthew Sherman’s Universal Crossword “One for All, and All for One” — 6/25/26

Congratulations to Matthew Sherman, who appears to be making his crossword constructing debut in a venue covered by Fiend! Have a beer or two in celebration, sir!

Actually, considering the source of the quote that makes up today’s theme, a glass of a nice Côtes du Rhône or Cabernet Sauvignon might be more appropriate. Les Trois Mousquetaires have us twice switching ONE for ALL twice and ALL for ONE:

• 20A [Slipped up while assembling a dinosaur skeleton?] DROPPED THE BONE I’ve been watching bits and pieces of the World Cup. As most people know, goalkeepers are the only players who generally speaking are permitted to touch the ball with their hands. Consequently, you don’t see much ball-dropping on the pitch.
• 32A [Decision about which route to take on a road trip?] TRAFFIC CALL
• 43A [Manner of speaking] WALKING TONE
• 

  Left to right: Time, Power, Space, Mind, Reality, and Soul

  52A [Boundless restroom features?] INFINITY STALLS I lost a bit here with INFINITE ____. (I don’t spend much time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and don’t remember these gems.)

Three somewhat goofy theme answers and one (traffic call) that’s sort of like something that is really a thing.

Other stuff:

• 28A [Like playing the song “D-I-V-O-R-C-E” at a wedding] INAPT I’d call something like that tasteless or at best pessimistic.
• 4D [___ the trail (mislead)] THROW OFF This kind of “partial” never sits well with me. It seems like you can take any semi-well-known phrase and slice it into pieces to create an entry. (That said, it’s only a partial because of how it’s clued. A quick look at crossword tracker.com reminds me that THROW OFF is perfectly legit for a clue like [Confuse] or [Mislead].
• 9D [Nickname for Alexander] SASHA I only learned that a few years ago.
• 56D [A wise Jedi he was] YODA Also in the last few years, I learned that Yoda’s characteristic speech pattern is an example of anastrophe, a rhetorical device in which the the usual order of words or clauses are inverted.