Sunday, 10/15

NYT 10:37
WaPo 8:25
Sun LAT 7:01
BG 6:40

Sat LAT 6:22
CS 4:22

The Sunday NYT's by Norma Johnson and Nancy Salomon; Norma Johnson's byline has shown up before on early-week NYTs 2+ years ago, but I like the fill she and Nancy devised for this "Help Wanted" puzzle. The theme didn't do much for me personally, but the fill had a fresh feel to it: entries like DAEMON, CUPCAKE, BRENDA and STARR, TOE SHOE, TO DIE FOR, NO MATTER, DOWNTOWN, and NO EXIT. And it's always good to be reminded of Calvin TRILLIN—I recommend his food- and travel-related books, such as Travels with Alice and The Tummy Trilogy.

Updated:

The themeless Saturday LA Times puzzle by Robert Wolfe includes four 15-letter entries, three of which are colloquial phrases.

Rich Norris's CrosSynergy Sunday Challenge includes a mini-theme of three 9-letter entries.

Easy Boston Globe puzzle from Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon—"Getting It Backwards" reverses the last word in a phrase. Wasn't there a similar theme elsewhere in the past couple of weeks?

Gail Grabowski's Sunday LA Times puzzle also fell quickly.

Robert Wolfe's Washington Post puzzle, "Sign Language," adds a word (or syllable) to change a common sign into something else.