Tuesday, July 21, 2026

Jonesin’ 4:03 (Erin) rate it
LAT 3:53 (Erin) rate it
NYT 4:30ish (Sophia) [3.13 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker untimed (pannonica) [1.67 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
Universal 6:20 (Eric) [4.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
USA Today 6:03 (Jeffrey) rate it
Xword Nation tk (Ade) rate it
WSJ 10:18 (Jim Q) [3.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it

Emily Biegas and Sala Wanetick’s Universal Crossword “Pony Tales” — Eric’s Review

A trio of equines and a punny revealer make up today’s theme:

• 16A [Adult animated series about a cranky humanoid] BOJACK HORSEMAN
• 27A [2010 biographical sports drama] SECRETARIAT
• 41A [Young adult classic that teaches animal welfare] BLACK BEAUTY
• 54A [Protagonists, and a phonetic description of 16-, 27- and 41-Across?] MAIN CHARACTERS

I’m vaguely familiar with the three protagonists, though none were gimmes. But with a few crossing letters, it was easy enough to get those answers.

Other stuff:

• 1A [Grindr and Caviar, e.g.] APPS I’ve heard of the “social networking” application Grindr, but I’m not sure whether, in this clue, “Caviar” means the appetizer. There appears to be an application by that name that provides AI graphic design, but that seems a bit obscure.
• 49A [Caterpillar phase] LARVA I lost a few seconds here reading “phase” as “phrase.” Oops.
• 59A [Outkast album with the song “Ms. Jackson”] STANKONIA I know of that rap duo but didn’t recognize the song or the album.
• 1D [Opportunities from home?] AT-BATS Cute clue.
• 3D [Word before “party” or “top”] PAJAMA Just last week, in reviewing another puzzle, I questioned whether “pajama top” was really an in-the-language compound noun. I guess it is.
• 9D [Woman’s name in No. 1 hits from 1962 and 1985] SHEILA The 1962 song was Tommy Roe’s #1 “Sheila,” which I don’t really recognize and which owes a big debt to Buddy Holly. The 1985 song was Ready for the World’s #1 “Oh Sheila,” which I definitely don’t know, and which sounds more than a little like a Prince song.
• 24D [Guy in Suite D?] TED This clue made no sense to me. Then it finally clicked when I realized it used “Guy” in place of the “Name hidden in” that the Universal editors seem so fond of.

“

Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “No Notes” — except for those seven. – Erin’s write-up

Hello lovelies! I’m filling in for Jenni again. Let’s see what’s going on with this odd puzzle. For starters, there are two across 15s and two down 9s, but they appear unrelated. Second, where are all the Es? And the As? Why are there so many Ss and Ts? The answer lies in the center of the grid at 41a. [Notes that appear here and nowhere else in the solved grid] ABCDEFG. The rest of the puzzle omits the seven musical notes. Generally these grid constraints lead to subpar fill like I WHO and OR I and the Roman numeral XLI, but overall the fill didn’t really suffer. Well, SRI and SSRI in the same grid isn’t great either.

Other things:

• 44a. [Sleep aid brand] “NYTOL…will help you get your Zs!” Psst…each pill is just 25mg of diphenhydramine, aka Benadryl.

Kenneth Cortes’s New York Times Crossword — Sophia’s Review

Theme: GO OUT WITH A BANG – each theme answer ends with an explosive synonym

• 17a [“Easy-peasy!”] – BADA BING BADA BOOM
• 28a [Clean with a rough spray] – SANDBLAST
• 43a [Colorful taffy candy brand] – STARBURST
• 56a [2023 double-platinum Chappell Roan record] – RED WINE SUPERNOVA
• 34a [Finish flamboyantly … like 17-, 28-, 43- and 56-Across?] – GO OUT WITH A BANG

Hi folks, Sophia here on a Tuesday filling in for Eric! The theme today is simple but effective – I feel like the explosion synonyms just inherently lend themselves to interesting words/phrases, right? Even the shorter entries of SANDBLAST and STARBURST feel exciting, and they build nicely to the final SUPERNOVA.

Today’s grid is 16 letters across, which affords two great theme answers in BADA BING BADA BOOM and RED WINE SUPERNOVA. The latter is actually my favorite Chappell Roan song, so it was an immediate gimme for me – I’m guessing it will play harder on a Tuesday for other folks. (Actually, I’m probably in the minority who saw the clue about a “Chappell Roan record” and thought “how is this puzzle going to fit The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess in the grid?”)

The grid did feel a little segmented off to me due to the diagonal black square line across the middle and the 5 black squares on each side, but the design does give fun down answers like THAT HURT, HABANERA, and OH GROW UP. I also appreciated other fill choices like BODEGA, RHINOS, and the AUGHTS. Trickiest clue for me was also my favorite: [Gave a hand] for DEALT.

Happy Tuesday all!

Kinan Alsheikh’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Erin’s write-up

Hello again! Let’s just jump into the essential, primary, major entries of this Tuesday’s LA Times puzzle:

• 17a. [Shampoo for horses as well as humans] MANE ‘N TAIL
• 24a. [Meatless Chinese noodle dish] VEGETABLE LO MEIN
• 36a. [“The Theory of Everything” Best Actor Oscar winner] EDDIE REDMAYNE
• 52a. [Tender salad greens] HEARTS OF ROMAINE
• 61a. [Principal draw on fight night, or an apt title for this puzzle] MAIN EVENT. The theme entries all contain a syllable pronounced “main.”

Other things:

• 34d. [___ of the woods mushrooms] HEN. The ruffled caps apparently look like a nesting hen. Also known as maitake in Japanese, or Grifola frondosa if you like proper names.

Aimee Lucido’s New Yorker crossword — pannonica’s write-up

Wow it’s been a while since I’ve had time to sit down and solve a crossword, much less write about it for FiendCo.

I found this offering to be at The New Yorker’s regular level for a Tuesday “moderately challenging” puzzle, which is to say that I think it’s too easy.

• 1a [Place to relax during a getaway] HOTEL SPA. Nice, succinct clue.
• 15a [Word that comes from the Russian for “council”] SOVIET. Makes sense.
• 17a [Inflatable flamingos, e.g.] FLOATIES. Kind of glossed the clue and assumed it would be something like LAWN KITSCH, especially because at the time I’d had HILTS rather than HAFTS for 1d [Axe handles].
• 18a [Kind of citadel referenced in a hit song by the Clash] CASBAH. 29a [Aaron whose name is spoken through a mouthful of peanut butter in the first “Got Milk” commercial] BURR. These are both very specific pop culture references. At least the former is part of the song’s title.
• 19a [Result of minor sun damage] TAN. There’s a cheerful framing.
• 22a [Person in charge: Abbr.] LDR. meh.
• 25a [ __ take (dramatic reaction)] SPIT. More comedic than dramatic, in my opinion.
• 31a [Means of supporting oneself?] INNER STRENGTH. Okay, sure.
• 35a [Former Kansas City Royals manager Ned] YOST. Not in my wheelhouse, but Dennis YOST was the LDR of the music group Classics IV.
  
  “Spooky” is a better song, but since it’s suppose to rain today where I am …
• 36a [More than just venting] TRAUMA DUMPING. I keep misreading this as trauma dumpling, which would definitely be a relative of a sad salad.
• 41a [With 42-Across, “No need to panic”] YOU’RE | OKAY. The you’re part feels weak. The bit of substance boost derived from the entries being sequential isn’t quite enough.
• 59a [Long-running manga whose protagonist is named Monkey D. Luffy] ONE PIECE. Never heard of it, but looking it up, I’ve definitely seen images of that protagonist.
• 60a [Gets high?] SOARS. Odd clue, but I suppose it’s mean to play off of 37d [Butts of joints] ROACHES.
• 3d [Late-night “wave” of animated programming on Adult Swim] TOONAMI. Like a dummy I simply put in TSUNAMI.
• 7d [Edifice in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Kubla Kahn”] PLEASURE DOME. It was stately, and in Xanadu.
• 12d [Gender-neutral term for niece or nephew] NIBLING. I thought it was niebling, but a quick internet search reveals that no one else does.
• 13d [Firmly resolved[ DEAD SET. 5d [“Doesn’t bother me if that happens”] LET IT.
• 21d [Briny beverage] DIRTY MARTINI. blech
• 24d [Japanese rice bowl] DONBURI.
• 26d [Individual bests, for short] PRS, personal records.
• 27d [Purveyor of reds and whites] VINTNER. 33d [Like thick vines] ROPY.
• 38d [Certain monthly visitor, so to speak] AUNT FLO. oo, edgy.
• 55d [“The Pitt” actress Briones] ISA. Would like to see this show.

Tone of the crossword felt a little weird, and I liked the grid construction, with those four long entries pinwheeling around the center.

Daniel Hrynick’s Wall Street Journal crossword “Hold On!” — Jim Q’s write-up

THEME: Things that “cling on”

THEME ANSWERS:

• WOOD TICK
• SARAN WRAP
• TREE HUGGERS
• VELCRO DOG
• (revealer) [“Star Trek” group of a punny description of (the themers)] KLINGONS

Similar vibe in NY Times today… things that belong in a certain category. Theirs was things in the “bang” category. This one is things in the “clingy” category.

Is calling these (C)KLINGONS really all that punny, though? Regardless of how you spell it, “cling-ons” is a pretty literal description of the theme entries. Without a stronger Star Trek connection, the joke didn’t quite land for me. I like a good pun. This one felt like it was only halfway there.

VELCRO DOG was completely new to me. In my experience, a dog that follows you from room to room is just… a dog. That’s kind of the job description. Not to get too personal, but it’s been a long time since I’ve used the bathroom without my enormous Great Dane providing live commentary. So I guess I own a spectacularly oversized VELCRO DOG.

TREE HUGGER also struck me as a somewhat dated term. It feels like it carries a negative connotation, though I could be wrong.

The rest of the puzzle felt surprisingly difficult for a Tuesday, especially the west side.

CREAM RINSE sounds like something you’d order at Dairy Queen. I’d never heard the term as a hair product. Sounds… thick.

CADIZ is still fairly new to me, and having LIAM Gallagher cross DIMITRI Mitropoulos, conductor of the New York Philharmonic in the 1950s, made for a pretty rough crossing on an early-week puzzle. Throw OSWALD into that same area, and the entire corner felt downright diabolical.

OTHER THINGS:

• [Gonna soon] ABOUT TO. Not sure the informality of the clue quite matches the answer.
• [Clarke of “Game of Thrones”] EMILIA. I watched the whole series. Apparently I should’ve paid more attention to the credits.
• [Number of feet between baseball bases] NINETY. Huh. That sounds farther than I would’ve guessed.
• The puzzle managed to hit all the nerd sweet spots: LOTR, Star Wars, and Star Trek.
• [Strung out, say] ON DOPE. Puh-leeze. First of all, who says ON DOPE anymore? And if I’m not mistaken (and I don’t care if I am), DOPE commonly refers to marijuana… and who uses “strung out” to refer to marijuana users? I’m sure there’s a pearl clutcher out there who may tsk-tsk at the notion of using marijuana, but I assure you I wasn’t “strung out” last night before going to bed. I was pleasantly stoned.

3 stars from me today.

***Puzzle is labeled on WSJ Website as 7/20, which is the online release date. Not sure if that’s wrong or if we’re just going with that from now on… it’s been like that since the new interface debuted, and seems like an easy fix. Someone must’ve noticed, right?***

Ed Sessa’s USA Today crossword—Jeffrey’s review

Hey folks, happy Tuesday made all the more great by Ed Sessa’s USA Today offering!

I made steady progress through the grid, but didn’t catch onto the theme until late in the solve. As a big fan of puzzles that explore “language architecture”, this was right in my wheelhouse! The theme was made up of a revealer and three supporting entries:

58A – SPELLING BEE {Word-based contest, and what the starred answers are doing, collectively, when read as clues fo

r single letters}, which combines the letters hinted at by each theme clue to literally spell “BEE”

20A – URBAN CENTER {*City hub}, identifies the central B of URBAN

36A – LOOSE END {*Bit of unfinished business}, identifies the trailing E of LOOSE

46A – COMEBACK {*Career revival}, identifies the final E of COME

All-in-all, despite a slightly clunky revealer clue, everything works well for a nice breezy Tuesday theme. The surrounding fill was generally clean with a few longer entries, such as WHO CARES, COLD CEREAL, and BANANA SEAT (which is a new concept to me). As a big fan of the genre, SCI-FI was my favourite entry in the grid. Hope you all enjoyed solving as much as I did!