Tuesday, December 30, 2025 |
Jonesin’ 6:45 (Erin) rate it
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Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “The Best of 2025” — it’s that time of year. – Erin’s write-up
Jonesin’ solution 12/30/25
Hello lovelies! Somehow another year has passed and it’s time for Matt’s homage to some of 2025’s superlatives.
- 1a. [Doll central to a popular (and weird) trend of 2025] LABUBU. They remind me of troll dolls, except less cute and more evil-looking.
- 17a. [IGN’s Best Horror Movie of 2025, directed by Zach Cregger] WEAPONS
- 18a. [Medical drama on multipleBjörk TV of 2025 lists] THE PITT
- 36a. [“___: Expedition 33” (Game of the Year at 2025’s The Game Awards)] CLAIR OBSCUR
- 46a. [Lady Gaga hit that topped Rolling Stone’s Best Songs of 2025 list] ABRACADABRA
- 66a. [Ryan Coogler film on The Hollywood Reporter’s list of Best Movies of 2025] SINNERS
- 69a. [Performer of “Berghain,” the #1 best song of 2025 in the Pitchfork Readers’ Poll] ROSALIA, along with Björk and Yves Tumor.
- 75a. [2025 hit song featured in “K-Pop Demon Hunters”] GOLDEN
What are some of your bests from 2025? Did something amazing happen, or was surviving your major achievement? Both are valid. I hope that 2026 brings as many good things as possible, and that surviving turns into thriving where it can.
CJ Tan’s Universal Crossword “Mission Accomplished” — Eric’s Review
CJ Tan’s Universal Crossword “Mission Accomplished” — 12/30/25 (Click to Embiggen)
The clue for each theme answer sets up an assignment and the answer punnily describes the completion of that assignment:
- 19A [Mission: Stand in the middle for a picture. Status: ___ ] SELF-CENTERED
- 27A [Mission: Monitor your schedule of not eating. Status: ___ ] FAST-TRACKED
- 34A [Mission: Cram 150 mL of spread into a 100 mL container. Status: ___ ] JAM-PACKED
- 45A [Mission: Dye a romantic flower. Status: ___ ] ROSE-COLORED
- 54A [Mission: Ride a bucket down to an aquifer. Status: ___ ] WELL-TRAVELED
I don’t think I used the theme to help me solve the puzzle, but it’s different than other themes I’m accustomed to seeing. The theme answers are all lively phrases, and I found the theme clue/answer pairs reasonably amusing (especially 19A). What more could you want from an early-week puzzle?
Other stuff:
- 8A [“For Better or Worse” actress Smith] TASHA I knew neither the actress nor the Tyler Perry TV series, which ran from 2011–2017.
- 14A [French city that isn’t a homonym of a roaring feline] LYON Kind of a cute clue. It’s not a homonym of “lion” because the Y has a long E sound. (But you knew that, right?)
- 38A [2000s teen drama set in SoCal] THE OC I spent far too long trying to remember the name of that show (which I’ve never seen). I should have followed my rule of skipping any answer that doesn’t come quickly.
- 52A [Simple machine with a rope] PULLEY It’s fascinating to me that such a simple thing can make lifting something very heavy so much easier.
- 10D [Achievements maintained by logging in daily] STREAKS How many of us would care about consecutive completions of crosswords or Wordle games if the publishers didn’t track our streaks?
Geoffrey Schorkopf and Will Eisenberg’s New York Times Crossword — Eric’s Review
As is often the case, I didn’t notice how the theme worked until after I finished the puzzle. In that sense, this played like an easy themeless puzzle for me.
The five theme answers have circled letters that constitute the “nucleus of a syllable,” according to one definition:
- 17A [Something to wave with pride?] LGBTQ FLAG Somewhere in our garage is the Pride Flag we flew at our old house. We eventually gave up looking for it and bought a new flag. The old one will show up some day.
- 21A [Fizzled out completely] WENT PFFT That’s a fun answer to see in a grid.
- 36A [Flashy cycling maneuvers] BMX TRICKS
- 41A [“Sunday Night Football” producer] NBC SPORTS
- 53A [They’re pulled to garner media attention, informally] PR STUNTS
- 60A [Spend money on “Wheel of Fortune” … which won’t help much for solving 17-, 21-, 36-, 41- and 53-Across!] BUY A VOWEL Fun fact: You can do prtty wll rdng txt tht hs n vwls.
Call me persnickety, but I like that the five vowels appear in alphabetical order. The theme answers are mostly pretty zippy (filling in NBC SPORTS interests me about as much as watching NBC Sports, which is to say not much).
Other stuff:
- 26A [Brand of cooler named for a mythical beast] YETI A gimme as I used to cycle past their flagship store two or three times a week.
- 40A [“That’s not good!] OH NO/45A [“That’s not good!] YIKES So many possibilities for those two answers.
- 6D [Dr. Seuss’ “And to Think That ___ It on Mulberry Street”] I SAW Odd choice of a clue: A book that the publisher no longer publishes because of its racist imagery.
- 8D [Hard-to-clean-up sparkly stuff] GLITTER Every year, we get at least one holiday card that has glitter on it.
- 9D [Like good omens] AUSPICIOUS That’s a nice word to see in a grid now and then.
- 27D [Climactic fight in a video game] BOSS BATTLE I don’t play video games, and know of “boss” in that context only from crosswords. I can’t remember if I’d actually seen “boss battle” before or if I just made a lucky guess.