Saturday, July 18 2026, Ryan Judge

Dear readers, I cannot lie : I was somewhat underwhelmed by Saturday's puzzle.  What do I look for on Saturday, and to a lesser extent on Friday?  Difficulty.  Misleading clues, echoing my esteemed co-blogger Colum.  I want to have to chew and chew on a corner until the answers finally reveal themselves.  (This is less fun, mind you, when there's a timer counting down the seconds in the corner of one's eye.)  I wasn't feeling it today, as I filled in the grid, and I don't think it's "me" - I know I've plateaued as a solver.  I do know this asks a lot of setter + editors.  Maybe I'm guilty of taking some things for granted, y'know?

So to the puzzle.  Like probably all of you, I was inclined to enter ORC at the very top as a "Lord of the Rings" extra.  But no, I thought, too obvious - so I entered ENT instead, and that wasn't right either - it was ELF.  Hmmm .. maybe I should rethink the opinions stated above, at least on the misleadingness front...

To be sure, there were many neat discoveries today.  My family donated to OXFAM every year and I never really knew much about it.  Collection of NGOs based in Nairobi??!  Huh.  If I did SITUPS regularly, maybe I'd know about the "butterfly" variation with one's soles pressed together.  Sounds kinda painful...  

QBERT was one of the many video games separating me from my quarters in my feckless youth.  I was surprised to see it pop up today!  To clue a SITAR as "held at about a 45-degree angle from the player's body" is to plumb deep into the canon of sitar knowlege... I liked HOARDED for "Overtook?", which would also be a good clue for "ODED".  And indeed, a BONGO could certainly add flavour to a salsa.  I was going to get all worked up about the extra 'Y' in BLUEY, the "titular animated dog of children's TV", but Google rescued me - there is such a TV show and it's not Blue's Clues at all.  

I have a few friends who do ULTRA marathons.  They're crazy, all of them.

And on that scattershot note, my week of blogging ends; Horace takes over this Bat Channel tomorrow.  Have a great week everyone!

-philbo

Friday, July 17 2026, Coz Berlin

Initial thought on Friday's puzzle : You have to hand it to Coz Berlin, and any setter capable of *three* full-width triple stacks in a single 15x15 grid!  Today's geometry led to a sandwich of those stacks, almost completely decoupled from one another - connected by only three single-letter overlaps between layers.  Almost like solving three separate mini-puzzles!  Ordinarily I'd expect this to necessitate some awkwardness in the crossers, but not the case today - I found this to be silky smooth from top to bottom, a six-stop solve, in units of my subway commute home from work.

The very first clue was a mystery to me:  "Savory Chinese dish prepared on a griddle".  Thanks to the fairly straightforward Down content, it was quickly revealed as SCALLIONPANCAKE, which I've never heard of, though my lovely wife has.  That was really the only thing resembling a hiccup today, if you don't count my entering EARTHA ("Kitt who played Catwoman") in the wrong place.  

The French seafood topping SAUCEAMERICAINE was not known to me either. Next time I'm in a French restaurant, I now plan to try it out.  I had heard about LEONARDODAVINCI's means of learning human anatomy (via dissection of corpses).  Gruesome!  Did the ends justify the means?  I'm thinking probably yes.

I appreciated some inventive cluing today.  Who knew that a Martian DUNE was commonly crescent-shaped?  Well, we do now!   On the QMC front, "Dated many years ago?" (OLDE) was clever, as was "Unearthed?" (ERODED, where I originally entered EARTHA). "It lacks a permanent host, for short" was a clever way to clue the near-ubiquitous SNL.  And tragedies do indeed often start with ACTI!

I have opinions about the word EKED, but I think I'll just keep them to myself today.  Very fine smooth crossword overall.  See ya on the flip side!

-philbo

Thursday, July 16 2026, Zhou Zhang and Mallory Montgomery

One thing I've learned from chatting with the elite solvers at the NYT crossword tournament is - if speed matters to you, it pays to figure out the theme early, if there is one. But that's not how I roll (to my detriment at the tourney) - I like things to reveal themselves, either by deduction from the theme answers (satisfying) or finally via the revealer clue (a nice aha! moment).  And so it was with the Thursday crossword, with its interesting 16x15 grid.

Today's journey was especially rewarding.  The theme clues seemed to be Yes/No answers, each with a qualifier of sorts; I had to leave them unsolved as I worked my way through the grid, all the way to the revealer near the bottom - "Question during a brainstorm session..." - DOESTHISHAVELEGS - and it all made sense, as the question being answered by the theme clues.  Does an IRONMANTRIATHLON have legs?  Yes - three arduous ones!  Does a MILLIPEDE have legs?  Yes - sometimes more than 1,000!  Does a DIRECTFLIGHT?  Yes - exactly one!  And finally and funniest, does a YARDSTICK?  No - but it does have three feet!  (Sounds like a kids' riddle..)

My favourite C/AP today was NOONE ("Who knows what preceded the Big Bang") as it evokes for me the mind-bending geometry of space-time and the postulation that the concept of "before" is meaningless in the context of the Big Bang, which runs counter to our conventional notion of what "time" even is.  On a lighter note, "Mince words?" (EDIT) was cute and I bet/hope brought a smile to our fearless leader Will S.   I want to try Chirashi sushi now that I know it's garnished with ROE.  I didn't know IHOP issues "Stackholder Perks" as part of its employee rewards program.  When I saw the clue, I was hoping the answer would somehow be LEGO. 

I saw my parents sing in a choral performance of HANDEL's "Messiah" some years back.  It remains one of the most moving things I've ever experienced. 

Ok, this review's INTHEBAG.  A demain, mes amis!

-philbo

Wednesday, July 15 2026, Jonathan Raksin and Jeff Chen

Wednesday's puzzle is an homage to one of the greatest toys ever, and its inventor - Erno Rubik and his eponymous Cube.  I remember getting my first Cube in high school, wasting countless hours learning how to solve it, and am enthralled to this day by the mechanism of the thing and its variants.

Seeing the little nine-letter square with circled letters in the middle, I thought I'd work my way inward and leave it till the end, so I hit the theme clues kind of at random ..

• TURNINGPRO ("Giving up one's amateur status")
• MADSCRAMBLES ("Frantic rushes")
• FLYINGCOLORS ("Something it's good to pass with")

which weren't hinting at much until the revealer at the bottom : SPEEDCUBER, which could only refer to one type of "cube".  I particularly like this - if you read the first theme answer a certain way, it's basically synonymous!  (Have you ever seen a SPEEDCUBER in action?  It's mind-boggling.)

Filling in the nine centre squares reveals the inventor's name, all scrambled up.  Nice payoff!

Of course, he says pedantically, the scrambled 3x3 in the middle could never be re-arranged to spell ERNO RUBIK.  The 'E' would have to transform from an edge piece to a corner piece, and so on and so forth.  (Irritated with me yet?  😁 )

Outside the theme, other clever C/APs were "Vampire double feature?" (FANGS) and especially "Days or Knights follower" (INN) - the latter had me trying to justify PIP as an answer.  "Botheration" was a quaint clue for ADO.  Finally, as an avid cyclist, I appreciated PEDALPOWER as "Standard bicycle propulsion".  As it should be!

A fun crossword, all in all, maybe a touch on the easy side for a Wednesday.  On to tomorrow, where the Turn awaits!

-philbo

Tuesday, July 14 2026, Gus Bloxham and Bharati Hemmady

Hello!  As a solver who's only ever dreamed of trying his hand at crossword creation, I'm always so impressed at the seemingly inexhaustible list of inventive themes that the setting community comes up with.  That said, today's theme particularly tickled me with its cleverness, bringing together four theme answers..

• BADAPPLES ("Corrupting sorts, in an orchard metaphor")
• SPOILEDBRATS ("Nightmares for nannies")
• ROTTENTOMATOES ("Movie review site with a percentage rating scale")
• FUNKYCHICKEN ("Novelty dance with comical elbow-flapping")

...and ties them together with "Heading the wrong way..." (OFFCOURSE).  Of course - delightful!  I particularly loved SPOILEDBRATS, which requires a second look before even being food-related, and FUNKYCHICKEN, which in its common sense uses FUNKY in a whole other way.  This is quality stuff.  My only nit might be, I don't think the revealer clue needed to say "interpreted culinarily" - it slightly diluted the "aha" experience, I thought.

Random other notes .. Shrek's beloved FIONA brings back fond memories... I loved REN and Stimpy in my (relative) youth... ALA mode, literally "in the fashionable style", is pretty much synonymous nowadays with "with a scoop of ice cream on top".  I frown on this practice.  My family teases me for it, but I find it makes my desserts soggy...

Favourite non-theme clue is the excellent "Slice of Life or nick of Time" (PAPERCUT)... In"Supportive advocate, as for L.G.B.T.Q. rights" (ALLY), surely the qualifier in the clue is a bit gratuitous?  ... I've always wondered about the origins of DOXing, one of the many wonderful things made possible by social media.  Looking it up - turns out it's just a neologism based on "docs".  Ho hum.

That's it for me.  Nice work Gus and Bharati!  "See" ya tmrw..

-philbo

Monday, July 13 2026, Lynn Lempel

This week starts off with a straightforward, quick-solve puzzle with a theatrical theme.  Working down the grid, we encounter..

• ERECTORSET ("Meccano offering for budding builders")
• ORALSTAGE ("Human's earliest phase, according to Freud")
• IRONCURTAIN ("Metaphorical Cold War barrier")
• TURBOPROP ("Small aircraft for short flights")

Tying these together is the revealer, clued simply as "Toys..." - PLAYTHINGS - and everything makes sense!

OK, not going to lie - before even a minute had gone by, besides ERECTORSET and ORALSTAGE, I also had RACY ("Titillating") and SEXIEST ("Like the man on an annual People magazine cover") entered in the grid, and I was really starting to get the wrong idea about the theme...

Aside from entering SATIRE instead of SENDUP for "Humorous parody", which led to a bit of a mess in the middle of the grid, I didn't encounter any sticky spots today.  I'd never heard of Brooklyn's MEDGAR Evers College, but the crossers came to my rescue there.  

Otherwise I got nuthin'.  Just a gentle few minutes with pen and paper.  On to Tuesday!

-philbo

Sunday, July 12 2026, Collin Drown

Hey out there in Crossword Land!  Philbo here, for another week of quality NYTXWD blogging...

"Not a terrible first try, Collin."  I say this in the spirit of today's puzzle, whose theme features nastiness and disagreeability, all the way from cattiness to out-and-out mendaciousness, all with entertainingly punny cluing.  For example, the Dracula-evoking "I vant to suck your blood" is a BITINGREMARK, and (approriately today on Wimbledon Finals Weekend), "Wow!  With form like that, you're headed to Wimbledon" is a BACKHANDEDCOMPLIMENT.  I grew up knowing this as a LEFTHANDEDCOMPLIMENT - part of the systematic persecution of us left-handers, of course - which could have been clued something like "You're our star southpaw pitcher".  All very amusing, and I mean this as neither a PATRONIZINGCOMMENT nor a BALDFACEDLIE.

Outside the theme, there were many clever clues to appreciate.  "Lap, maybe" (REPASS) was super misleading, as was "One looking after pupils, for short" (EYEDOC).  "Turkey part" isn't BREAST - it's ANKARA.  I thought "Puts away" would be EATS, but no, it's ICES.  My favourite QMC today was "Bull rings?" - PRANKCALLS.  Brilliant!

My only hiccup today was FAB for "Groovy", instead of the requisite FLY, which caused a bit of confusion near the NW corner.  Over to the East, SEITAN was new to me as a "Tofu alternative" (it's made from wheat gluten). Fortunately, the crossers came to the rescue, including OUIJA, questionably clued as a "Device for sending group messages?" - isn't it more for RECEIVING messages? But I quibble.  And while I'm on my quibblin' wagon, at 84D I think a "Baking recipe instruction" would be just KNEAD, not KNEADIT.  Right before that, surely ACIDIC isn't necessarily "Far from basic"?  Also, a YETI is a "Himalayan menace" to only the most credulous...

EOIN Colfer is a hero of mine.  His Artemis Fowl series was the source of many hours of excellent entertainment, reading to my kids.

Incidentally, ABES as "Fivers" isn't a thing up here in our neck of the woods.  We don't have a nickname for our "fivers".  They could be WILFS, I suppose (look it up!).  

Fun Sunday puzzle! 

-philbo