Saturday

Joe DiPietro's NYT, by the numbers:

words: 66
black squares: 25
3-letter words: a mere 6
entries I was completely guessing on: 2 (LA PUENTE and LA NOTTE)
pro wrestling entries: 1 (and it was my first gimme—oh, the shame!)
non-PETA-approved entries: 1 (VEAL STEW, on the heels of yesterday's controversial MILKFED veal)
entries and clues I liked: countless (but especially "hooked up and left" for TOWED, "what an A is not" for NLER, "seasonal recurrence" for MONSOON, MISS KANSAS and POPE LEO XI, and "upset" for MAL DE MER)

Updated Sat. morning:

Lynn Lempel's LA Times puzzle is a lot more tractable than the NYT. Good stuff like MR CLEAN and NEW MOON, plus a great-looking grid.

Looking ahead to the Sunday puzzles, Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon's LA Weekly puzzle has a knotty NOSTRADAMUS anagram theme. I didn't feel like I had my anagramming MOJO working this morning—it felt like hard work.

In the Washington Post, Deb Amlen provides a thoroughly enjoyable puzzle with a letter-switch theme. So many of the clues were fresh and fun, there are too many to list here. Near the top, there's "Tweed twitter" for NAST, and at the bottom we have "It's well-produced" for OIL; in between, the puzzle's just jam-packed with goodies. Thanks, Deb (and Fred Piscop)—excellent work!

15x15's
NYT 8:23
Stumper 5:44
LAT 4:46
CS 3:16

21x21's
LAW 11:02
WaPo 8:09