Saturday, July 25, 2026

LAT tk (Stella) rate it
Newsday tk (pannonica) rate it
NYT 6:27 (Amy) [4.60 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
Universal 4:41 (Adam S) rate it
USA Today tk (ZEB) rate it
WSJ tk (pannonica) rate it

Katie Hoody’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 7/25/26 – no. 0725

I’ve been feeling like Katie Hoody is a bit of a constructor nemesis, whose puzzles work me over. Felt like this one came together in a reasonable time, though!

Fave fill: POLKA DOTS (anyone watching these mountain stages of the Tour de France?), GARAGE SALE, ROUND ROBIN, ETSY SHOPS, “NICE GOING,” OMELET BAR (I knew A.M. meant morning in the [A.M. station] clue!), PINK NOISE, airplane ELBOW ROOM and HEAD RESTS, BLIMP.

Did not know that ICE CRUSHER was a term. “I’M IN THE SAME BOAT” feels arbitrary with that “I’m” bit. “ISN’T IT TIME?” doesn’t feel too idiomatic, and neither does “THAT DOESN’T COUNT.” I’ve said before that “I RULE” feels bogus and nobody says this. Do you agree on these spoken phrases or am I overly critical?

Three clues:

• 23A. [Shared fantasies?], LIED. Feel like “fantasies” are more make-believe than deception.
• 57A. [Second person seen in “Hamlet”], THOU. The pronoun, not the second character on stage.
• 61A. [The so-called “hurricane bird,” because of its reputation for seeking shelter from storms at the last possible moment], IBIS. There are ibises in Florida, apparently.

3.5 stars from me.

Adrian Johnson’s Universal Crossword “Universal Freestyle 233” – Adam S’s write-up

Adrian Johnson’s Universal Crossword “Universal Freestyle 233”

Reviewing Universal themelesses forces thought about what makes for a good radically asymmetric grid. Here’s my current theory of the case:

1. It does something that couldn’t reasonably be done with regular symmetry.
2. It achieves a higher standard of fill than an equivalent wordcount symmetric puzzle can.
3. The grid is visually appealing (this one is obviously particularly in the eye of the beholder).

How does this grid stand up?

1. Big yes. That wide-open, clean quad stack in the SW, with 5 7+ letter answers running through it, is a minor miracle in itself. It’s highly unlikely anyone mortal could match it at all well in the NE in a symmetric grid.

2. Yes. Lots of fun fill. My favorites were I CAN CHANGE, WILD ONIONS (yum!), NO ONE ASKED, I NEED HELP, VILLAIN ARC, POLENTA (yum!), LAKSA (triple yum!), THERE I GO, RAISED HELL, and BUTT DIALS. Even more impressively, this was achieved with a minimum of gunk. When ACA, HRS, and CITI are fighting to be the worst entry in a 68-word grid, it’s impressively clean.

3 At least somewhat. The white space all the way down the west of the grid is pleasing to my eye.

For me, this grid is a good advertisement for Universal’s decision to allow asymmetric grids a seat at the table. It was also a very smooth solve – my time was in spite of solving tiredly on my second 6+ hour flight of the day with my son in my peripheral vision energetically playing peekaboo with the baby in front of us!

A few notes:

• 31A ASIA [Home to the 188 tallest mountains in the world] Bonus fun fact: the tallest mountain outside of Asia is Mount Aconcagua in Argentina.
• 3D VILLAIN ARC [Character’s antagonistic turn] This is the second time an Adrian grid has contained VILLAIN ARC in the last 3 months. Coincidence or him telling us something? You decide!
• 7D VAT [What you might be dyeing to use?] The sort of gentle misdirection that is well-judged for Universal difficulty.
• 24D LAKSA [Curried noodle soup sometimes served with asam gelugur] I love laksa and would welcome it in more grids (this is only its 4th appearance in outlets tracked by Crosserville). TIL that asam gelugur is a tropical fruit with sour properties that are somewhat akin to tamarind.
• 31 CALLER IDS [They inform how you answer] Nice!