Saturday, July 11, 2026

LAT 2:36 (Stella) rate it
Newsday 24:21 (Kyle) [4.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 6:09 (Amy) [4.33 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
Universal 5:59 (Adam S) rate it
USA Today tk (ZEB) rate it
WSJ untimed (Jim Q) rate it

Jim Quinlan’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 7/11/26 – no. 0711

Hey! It’s Team Fiend’s Jim Q! His day job is teaching high school English and stewarding the theater kids, so it’s fun that SKIPS CLASS is clued 5A. [Eschews English, say]. What else fits with that? We’ve got PIES from Sweeney Todd; 27A. [“Splendid” things in a Khaled Hosseini title], SUNS; PAP clued as 47A. [Huck Finn’s father]; grammar lesson in 57A. [Isn’t wrong?], AIN’T (though Twain certainly used “ain’t” plenty in his books); 37D. [Some characters in the Tony winning play “Doubt”], NUNS (thinking that’s not a play that gets staged at high schools); 46D. [Voltaire’s penultimate play], IRENE (that doesn’t strike me as high school reading//drama).

Fave fill: LEGAL LIMIT (.08 blood alcohol content), SAVANNAH BANANAS, “WHAT THE HEY,” LOVERS’ LANE, SEA MONSTER, PLOT TWISTS, “I GUESS THAT’S THAT,” BON APPETIT, and BOSSYPANTS. On the down side, OBEYER isn’t an inflection you encounter.

Five more things:

• 6D. [Military hats that may be worn with epaulets], KEPIS. This one I know from old crosswordese. Take a peek at the Wikipedia page if you want to see what a kepi looks like.
• 23A. [Statue in East Asian temples], JOSS. Okay, I’ve heard of joss sticks, incense sort of things. Here’s info about the statues.
• 3D. [Bandleader who mentored Louis Armstrong], KING OLIVER. The name is a little familiar to me. Would you like to listen to a couple hours of the King Oliver Creole Jazz Band? Here you go.
• 36D. [Arkansas : Nebraska :: Argon : ___], NEON. AR/Ar, NE/Ne.
• 51D. [Some creatures in the ocean’s “midnight zone”], EELS. The midnight zone is also known as the bathypelagic zone, and it’s dark and cold down there. Wiki says “The bathypelagic zone contains sharks, squid, octopuses, and many species of fish, including deep-water anglerfish, gulper eel, amphipods, and dragonfish. The fish are characterized by weak muscles, soft skin, and slimy bodies.” Appealing!

Four stars from me.

Rafael Musa’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Los Angeles Times 7/11/26 by Rafael Musa

The only hard part of this puzzle was the NW corner, so I started out thinking this might actually be a challenging solve only to race through once I found a foothold in the middle.

• 14A I didn’t love the clue [“Fingers crossed!”] for I HOPE SO TOO: It feels hard in a slightly unfair way because the TOO part of the answer isn’t indicated by the clue.
• 17A [Where classes proceed on a case-by-case basis] is LAW SCHOOLS. This clue, on the other hand, was lovely.
• 19A [Strong showing from 2012 to 2022, for short?] is SNL. As someone who doesn’t watch the show, I had no idea what was going on here while solving; the deception is the placement of Strong (as in Cecily Strong, who was on SNL from 2012 to 2022) at the front of the clue.
• 31A [Area most people can’t stand to be in] is CRAWL SPACE. Cute! Literal meaning of “stand” here.
• 60A [Defend aggressively] is TRIPLE-TEAM. Even if you know what’s going on here (which I did, because I had ????LETEAM in by the time I got to the clue), you might put in DOUBLE-TEAM at first, like I did.
• 10D [Title for David Attenborough] is SIR. Mostly I’m including this on my list because any reference to David Attenborough makes me think of the times he’s been spoofed on RuPaul’s Drag Race, once disastrously and once hilariously.
• 27D [Three-story abode in Barbie pink] is DREAM HOUSE, which is a thing I begged for as a child and got a no every time.
• The solve went too fast for me to notice until after the fact, but 11D [Areas affected by current events] and 28D [Structure affected by current events], which are COASTLINES and SAND CASTLE, respectively, are a cute pair.
• 33D [Feature of type 4 hair] is COIL, which is my favorite clue in the puzzle because it rewards a knowledge category not typically seen in puzzles.

Alan Cole’s Universal Crossword “Universal Freestyle 231” – Adam S’s write-up

Alan Cole’s Universal Crossword “Universal Freestyle 231” – July 11, 2026

Congratulations to Alan Cole on what, according to Fiend tags, appears to be a debut in the publications we cover (if we missed one, make that belated congratulations!).

And a very promising debut it is, too. I particularly liked the counterpoint of THAT’S A WRAP and IT ISN’T OVER in the top stack. Other favorites included HAMMER HOME, LOOKIE HERE, NO ONE CARES, AMEN BREAK, REN FAIRE. ROLLED R and FAT CAT added some nice mid-length color. I did look slightly side-eye at FOOD STAPLE, since the food part seemed a little redundant, but that was only a minor ding.

The construction is more ambitious than the Universal specs require, with 72 words (compared to a maximum of 74) and maintaining symmetry. This led to a few bits of strain here and there, with a touch more than ideal SER, A SET, TMS, CAPN, KPH, HOO, UNE, etc. than ideal. But I’m glad that the Universal editor teams grade on a curve and don’t expect the same degree of refinement from symmetric grids as they do from asymmetric ones. Many solvers really care about maintaining symmetry (I had the pleasure of listening to a highly entertaining rant from Quiara Vazquez on the subject at Westwords), and the Universal team does a good job in balancing what they accept to respect those constructors that do maintain regular symmetry.

A few notes:

• 7D WHORL [Fingerprint feature] This is just a fun word!
• 34D IRIS [Goo Goo Dolls hit that shares its name with a flower] Nice way to liven up a common repeater without unnecessarily upping difficulty. These sorts of “and” clues are a good way to add color in easier puzzles.
• 38D ROLLED R [Something a perro has that a dog doesn’t?] This felt overly tricky. ROLLED R clued as X but not Y is always going to be a harder clue, so requiring Spanish vocab as well felt much more like a Saturday NYT/Fireball difficulty level (especially as the puzzle had already leaned into Spanish vocab with SER, SIETE, and LOS).

Matthew Sewell’s Newsday Saturday Stumper – Kyle’s write-up

Newsday Saturday Stumper solution grid – Matthew Sewell – 07/11/2026

Stumper regular Matthew Sewell and editor Stan Newman cooked up a doozy of a Stumper today. More than once during my solve I had gaps of minutes between filling in any squares. Thanks Matthew and Stan for a real mental workout.

• The highlighted letter in the screenshot at right was the last one I filled in. The central area was very challenging for me: I got “TAKE THAT”, FREE STATES and SCHOOLED early on, but my first guess at 30A [Digs beneath one’s level] was CHEAP SEATS (digs > residence > seats??) which gave me the correct answer A TEE for the FITB [To ___] (28D), but also led me to EYRE for [Party host of Brit lit] at 31D. I tried to make sense of Y_E for 34A [Rock with a performance]–is it a proper name?–before finally backing out and starting over from A TEE. That allowed me to come up with the correct answer for 30A CHEAP SHOTS. HARE was the only thing that made sense at 31D, though it wasn’t until I finished the puzzle that I understood the reference to Alice In Wonderland. Finally I tried TOTED for 27D [Dragged in], but didn’t get the “puzzle correct” alert. Changing to TOWED and success at last. This made 34A AWE, so “rock” in the clue is a verb. Phew!
• The top left corner was also pretty tough sledding. I had the lower left and upper right figured out so I knew the end of 20A [High-profile gridiron performer] was ___LEBRITY. NFL CELEBRITY fit, but I didn’t trust it enough to put in. Meanwhile I had also deduced that 3D [Loses successfully for a competition] would be ___S WEIGHT, but I couldn’t be sure what would go in the blank. The breakthrough began when I got OWE ME for 26A [“I’ve got it for now”] and SPOIL for 22A [Yearn (for)] as in “they’re spoiling for a fight.” This gave me enough to finally crack 4D [Enjoy night courses?] as SLEEPEAT, which opened up some crossing short answers in the top-left and finally solving CHEERLEBRITY for 20A and MAKES WEIGHT (as in wrestling) for 3D. Some real toughies among the short fill clues up there: 1A [Intro for the word] MUM’S, 14A [Inventory reduction] ET AL., and pop culture trivia 1D [Stallone in The Expendables] MERC (I needed every cross).
• My first entry in the grid was 18A LIME WEDGES [Mojito adjuncts], which quickly gave me several crossing Downs in the top-right. I enjoyed the clue [Roaming browsers] for DEER (8D) and the etymological [Word from Old Norse for “rod”] for LIMB (7D). Tougher definitional clue at 16A [Paint a picture] ENACT.

Other clues/fill that caught my eye:

• Nice combination on COUTURIERE (51A) [Vera Wang but not Christian Dior]
• Fresh clue for the commonplace EDSEL (55A) [Transport launched on “E Day” (1957)]
• CLAN (56A) over KILT (59A) was nice. That CLAN clue is a tricky one: [Campbells, for instance], which cries out for SOUP.
• 47D [Small score] NICK, 48D [Small store] DELI. Cute!
• 35A [Abbreviated exemplar] gives us the contemporary INSPO.
• Great clue for 36D NAMETAGS [Networking attachments], because you attach them to your clothes at a networking event.
• 30D [Service members] CUPS. Think tea service.
• 37A [Part of a rooting section] CHEERLEBRITY PIG

Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal crossword “Standard-Bearer” — Jim Q’s write-up

THEME: The word PAR is inserted into common words/phrases. Wackiness ensues.

WSJ • 7/11/26 • Sat • “Standard-Bearer” • Mike Shenk • solution • 20260711

THEME ANSWERS:

• [Victor’s award in an ancient Greek city?] SPARTAN LAUREL. Stan Laurel.
• [Knife on a flint?] SPARKY SCRAPER. Skyscraper.
• [Early ’60s gatherings with Chubby Checker records?] TWIST PARTIES. Twist ties. 
• [March through the marsh?] GATOR PARADE. Gatorade. 
• [Jargon that’s easygoing?] FREE PARLANCE. Freelance.
• [Browsing on Zillow, say?] HOME COMPARING. Homecoming.
• [Pastiche combining Dalí’s watches and Warhol’s soup cans?] MELTING POP-ART. Melting pot.I ended up enjoying this puzzle much more than I expected.

  For quite a while I just wandered aimlessly around the grid, and it felt like an eternity before I found any kind of foothold. Or maybe I never really found one. Somehow everything just… resolved itself. My last letter was a very tentative N at the LEAN IN / NOTH crossing.

  That seems to happen to me fairly often with Mike Shenk puzzles. The clues leave me completely adrift at first, but they almost always untangle themselves by the end.

  The theme is a classic, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. I caught on at GATOR PARADE, and once the gimmick clicked it helped me escape several sticky spots. Once you know PAR belongs somewhere, finding that P becomes is useful to figuring out nearby tricky fill.

  MELTING POP-ART was my favorite themer simply because of the mental image it creates.

  NOTABLE SOLVE MOMENTS / MUSINGS:

  • [They have no notes] RESTS. Collective eye-roll from musicians everywhere.
  • [Donkey beaten with a stick, perhaps] PIÑATA. Phew. No need to alert PITA.
  • [Where gladiators fought] OLD ROME. Also known simply as… ROME?
  • [Eats] CHOW. Nice misleading plural.
  • [Get ready to run] EDIT. Great clue. Might deserve a question mark?
  • [Title character of song who “walked like a woman but talked like a man”] LOLA. It’s been a while since I’ve thought about that song. I’m a little surprised it hasn’t fallen out of favor. Or maybe it has.
  • [Spots for swingers] TRAPEZES. I can’t be the only one who instinctively pluralizes TRAPEZE as… TRAPEZE.
  • [8.5-pound award] OSCAR. More substantial than I would’ve guessed.
  • [Delights?] DIMS. Slow clap.
  • 

    My nerdy tat. Other side of the arm is somehow nerdier.

    [“East of Eden” brother] CAL. Complete brain freeze despite having an East of Eden-themed tattoo on my left bicep.

  • [Premium chips ingredient] SEA SALT. If sea salt is “premium,” then I’m bougie AF.
  • [“Funky Cold Medina” rapper] TONE LOC. I confidently entered YOUNG MC with only the C in place. It fit! Wrong rapper, wrong song. Also… he isn’t so young anymore.
  • [Twins-lion go-between] CRAB. Ah yes. Astrology.
  • [Bass part] SCALE. Presumably the fish, though a music clue *almost* works as well.
  • [Magistrate in 18-Across] PRAETOR. Sure. I’ll take your word for it.
  • [Dice, say] CHOP. I stubbornly clung to CUBE until the crossings staged an intervention.

  3.75 stars from me today.