Saturday, August 1, 2026, Zachary David Levy

Color me surprised that I was able to finish this puzzle. When I started, I had only VAGUEIDEAS and a growing sense of unease as I read clue after clue. It wasn't until I got to 38A and its call for a Rabelais character that I could get started with any confidence. In hind sight, I should have known 20A off the clue ("21-time Emmy nominee for 'All My Children'" (SUSANLUCCI)), but I hadn't thought about soap operas in so long that I skipped that one without really thinking about it, assuming I wouldn't know the answer. Anyhoo, after putting GARGANTUA to bed, things went more smoothly. From APSE to ELSE, by way of the fun AMAZEBALLS, I METPAYROLL, which made me think I would be able to complete the solve and helped settle my grid-based DYSPEPSIA. :)

But, I still had to go back to the beginning. On the second pass, I took a little more time with each clue and was able to make sense of the tricky and clever "Dis/cuss?" for TRASHTALK, "Precipitous?" for RAINY, and its neighbor "Source of some classic rock bands" (AGATE) - all of which required a little mind shift for this solver. I guessed that "Result of bad service, maybe" related to tennis, but without anything to go on, I had too many five-letter options to commit to one. I was hesitant to enter KAMASUTRA at 9D because it was just in yesterday's puzzle, but eventually that was the only possible option.

I had the most trouble in the north- and southeast. I didn't know the 'Island of a Thousand Temples' label for BALI. I was totally stumped by the clue "Bugling game." which turned out to be ELK - I have the Across answers to thank for that one. "Base unit" in the southeast was another such clue. I had to get all the Downs to fill in COT, which made sense only after I thought about base as in army.

Overall, it was a nice mix of tricky QMC and non-QMC clues and quite a dense grid with only 29 black squares, including two grid-spanning entries and lots of other big and unusual fill like DANGERZONE, ABRUPTNESS, PATCHWORK, and RIVERAS.

Saturday signals the end of the cycle. I know without ADOUT that you'll be in better hands next week with our friend and co-blogger, Colum. Until next time, dear Readers.

~Frannie.

Friday, July 31, 2026, Rafael Musa

This solver found today's puzzle fun but less TAXing than some Friday puzzles, and I don't think it's because I'm a SMARTYPANTS but maybe because there were some straightforward entry points into almost every section including 2D: "Assenting chorus" (AMENS) in the northwest, "Style secured with a scrunchie" (PONYTAIL) in the northeast, "___ incognita" (TERRA) and "Denial in Aberdeen" (NAE) in the southeast, and in the southwest "Formal pause in a line of poetry" (CAESURA). :) 

That being said, there were many clever, trixy, and entertaining Clue/Answer pairs throughout. In the Question Mark Clue (QMC) category we have the amusing "Withholding something? (TAX) and "Where to be above all the drama?" (OPERABOX), with best in class - in MIME opinion - being "Sex work?" (KAMASUTRA). In the non-QMC category, I enjoyed "It'll pass!" (FAD), "Cry when shaking hands" (DEAL), and "Change for a bill" (AMENDMENT). Two highly ambiguous clues took their TOLLS on my time: "Make one" (FUSE) and "Rings" (TOLLS). Challenging for me was "Genre for Logic" until I actively noticed the capital L and realized Logic referred to a human entity known for RAP. Then I was ALLSMILES.

The puzzle also featured an ACRE of fun fill like PETNAME, SERENASLAM, XANADU, and SLEEPOVERS. I am always happy to see a nod to Pride and Prejudice, in this case, the youngest Bennet sister, LYDIA. I was less happy to consider the highlighted ingredient in the salad yum khai mod daeng (ANTEGG). My POV on that one is ICANTEVEN. 

In sum, a fun and fast Friday. YAYME! :)

~Frannie.

Thursday, July 30, 2026, Joel Woodford

Today's puzzle spells success in more ways than one. There's the excellent theme/trick and some capital clue/answer pairs. As indicated in the revealer, italicized clues needed a little assistance from the NATOALPHABET to help make sense of them. The solver must substitute the first letter of each of them with its NATO Alphabet (NA) equivalent, then find a synonym for the remaining word to get the correct answer. For example, parsing "Cluster" as 'C' and 'luster,' we take Charlie from the NA and a 'sheen' as a synonym for "luster" and the result is CHARLIESHEEN. It's a cool trick to come up with perfectly natural clue words that transform in this way to common phrases. It's seems to me that coming up with these four examples AND working them into a solid crossword is not as easy as ABC. My favorite was "Agent" for ALPHAMALE. Ha! I read up a bit on the NA in the Wikipedia and found that the international spelling for Alpha is Alfa, to assist non-native English speakers with pronunciation, but in this case, obviously, one needs the traditional English spelling to make it work. I also read that in Indonesia, LONDON is used in place of "Lima", because lima is the Malay word for 'five' so there's some tangential bonus material for you. :)

There was plenty of the "write" stuff elsewhere in the grid. I enjoyed "One who doesn't speak while in a cast" (EXTRA), "Training aids for a lab, say" (TREATS), and "That's the whole point!" (PRONG). Heh. Some grade A QMC's include "Do you read me?" (NOVEL), "High achievers?" (STONERS), and best in class "Biblical second coming? (EVE). APT! :)

29D: "Puts down" was a nicely ambiguous clue for PLACES. I also enjoyed the LOCAL reference to HARVARD ("University of Cambridge"), and, who doesn't love a reference to Bob ROSS? GRIM, PATSY, and PTOLEMY are strong fill. I didn't love OVERT for "Plain" but it certainly doesn't spell disaster for this fine puzzle. Bravo.

~Frannie.

Wednesday, July 29, 2026, Emily Biegas and Sala Wanetick

If, as the Wikipedia suggests, VENIVIDIVICI, or I came, I saw, I conquered, is generally used to indicate a quick and decisive victory then it is apt in more ways than one for today's puzzle. For me,  today's solve was a case of "read the clue, enter the answer" for all but two clues: 31D: "Chips with a 'Blue Heat' flavor" (TAKIS) and 38D. "___ Wilson, four-time W.N.B.A. M.V.P." (AJA), which didn't matter because they were filled in by the Acrosses. More amazing and unusual for me was that I entered only one wrong letter in the entire grid. I don't know if that's ever happened to me before. Of course, I wish it had been no wrong letters, but I'm happy with that. The error came at 58D. "Get on (with)." I thought jIBE, but, as you, dear readers, already know, the answer was VIBE, which became super obvious when I looked a second later at the revealer at 58A: "Classic quotation that might be said by 20-, 34- and 41-Across" (VENIVIDIVICI). Irony? Anyhoo, the theme answers were a triumvirate of persons who might each have spoken one third of the famous phrase: The PARTYCRASHER, the one who came (VENI), NOSTRADAMUS, the one who saw (VIDI), and KENJENNINGS, the one who conquered (VICI) - winning 74 days straight (!) on Jeopardy! I like that the theme answers and revealer are associative, rather than the more common strictly literal tactic (e.g. GRAYSCALE on Monday) - which I also enjoy, but this makes a nice change. :)

Elsewhere in the empire, I enjoyed two self-referential QMCs "Head of Kronos?" (KAPPA) and "Name inside a libretto?" (BRETT). I also liked the C/APs "It's unlikely to happen again" (FLUKE) and  "Corp. shake-up?" for REORG. ASSET, with the clue "It's of use" reminded me of the bit in The Princess Bride when Westley is recovering from being almost dead and is vexed when the others fail to mention the Holocaust cloak among their assets. :) Fill-wise, I like PLOTPOINT, RIPENED, and EGGEDON. Less popular with this solver are any references to MITES, and my personal pet peeve, the answer AGO for "In the past."

Horace and I were in Rome just a few weeks ago and were surrounded at every turn by t-shirts, tote bags, and keychains boasting Caesar's famous phrase. We bought ourselves a fridge magnet.

~Frannie.

Tuesday, July 28, 2026, Adam Vincent

So, when does a joke become a dad joke? When it becomes apparent. I'm actually a big fan of the so-called "dad-joke" but, partly because I'm such a big fan, I don't like that it's been tarred by that epithet. I like to think the fondness for and appreciation of these types of jokes belongs to everyone. :)

In today's puzzle we have four sibilant-forward grid entries (PATCHOULI, MASSACHUSETTS, CATCHYOULATER, STATUETTE) that might, under the correct circumstances, elicit the "dad-joke" response ITSNOTHING TOSNEEZEAT. Sometimes a joke gets old when it's repeated, and sometimes it gets funnier. You be the judge. :) IMHO, the "sneeze" joke, at its most amusing, is situational and relies on the most important part of telling a joke: timing. I prefer it when someone says a 'wet' word and someone else says "Gezundheit." That's when hilarity ensues. But, not everyone can tell a joke. [32!]

But, that's KNOT why I called you all here. A good puzzle can't just ELI on theme material. Fortunately, we have some fun clue/answer pairs like "Evian, Perrier or Badoit" for EAU, "Muss and fuss" for HOOPLA, and "Alcoholic equivalent of a fun-size candy bar" (NIP), plus some fine fill like SCANT, AUTEUR, EXCLAVE, and STYMIE.

Knowing Scott ODELL, the Spanish for "Primer mes del anõ" (ENERO), and CHOCO Taco resulted in AGAIN of time, but I did have a little trouble in the top left where I entered SKIclub for "Sporting group at a cold-weather school" until "Myrmecology subject" (ANT) forced the correction to SKITEAM. I also first entered KNit for "Word with cap or socks" until I got the clue "Six-line poems" (SESTETS) and had to change the i to an E (KNEE). Otherwise, no gotchas. :)

Now, I'm going to make like a tree and leaf. 

~Frannie.

Bonus material:

Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field.

When is a door not a door? When it's a jar.

Monday, July 27, 2026, Aidan Deshong

In today's puzzle, we find a literal GRAYSCALE: the solfège scale - made famous by Julie Andrews - appears, in order, within shaded boxes, two in each of four of the longer Across answers. So we have DO and RE in IDONTCARE and MI and FA in SMILEYFACE. A number of the other answers felt like they could be part of it including SUMO, SOHO, KYLO, PESO, TODO, and LYSOL. O sole mio! I suppose I should LEGO of that now.

Some fine fill scored points with me, including GASLIGHT, SOOTHE, OUSTED, and COVET, but what makes this puzzle sing are the fun overlaps, intended or otherwise, between the fill and the theme. In the top left corner we have a Post-it NOTE. Also in that corner with DO, instead of a female deer, we have a "Male deer" or STAG crashing the party. The QMC, "Things to be taken on a walk?" (STEPS) could be considered theme material - in the whole or half sense, but the one that's off the scale is the QMC in the top left, "Pitch that's hard to hit?" (HIGHC). Ha! That one took me a minute because it looked so weird when at first I had only __GHC.

Another C/AP I had trouble with was EVEN for "All tied up." Instead of the sports category, my brain could think only of 'busy', or 'held together as with string'. Make of that what you will. 

The one element I found out of tune was the clue for 30A. I would have preferred that it read "Title for a married woman, maybe" (MRS).

~Frannie.

Sunday, July 26, 2026, Kim Alswager

DOWN THE TUBES

When I was a teen, video arcades were big. On the weekend, I would take the #2 bus downtown to the Silver Ball, and I would turn the money that I made on my paper route into tokens. My best game was Asteroids, but Donkey Kong was there too, and I played it sometimes when somebody else was on the Asteroids machine. Since then, Asteroids faded into a footnote, while Donkey Kong spawned a whole universe of characters and games, and now this puzzle.

I should maybe also add that after college I pretty much stopped playing video games altogether, and so my knowledge of all things Mario is pretty much limited to what I have picked up through previous crossword puzzles, and it turns out that didn't amount to much. I had no idea that he could use a FIREF LOWER (weird cut) to throw flames, that there was a character named PRINCESSPEACH, or that she was held captive in BOWSERCASTLE. I had never heard the name WARIO before, and I think I confused YOSHI with Yoshimi, from the Flaming Lips song. So, as you can see, I was not the target audience for this one. And that's fine. I still learned the words ENTHALPY (Total heat content of a thermodynamic system), VINYASA (Yoga style in which each movement is synchronized with a breath), and PEEPTOE (Shoe style with a small opening in the front), so that's good.

"Short hand?" (HOUR) was my favorite clue.

Frannie takes over tomorrow. For real this time! I'll see you in a while. Happy Summer! 

- Horace