Friday, September 25, 2026, Rafael Musa

0:15:05

Those NW and SE corners were a struggle, IKIDYOUNOT. The clue "Olympic slalom equipment" is tricky in two ways - wrong sport and wrong season! I though Winter Olympics and skiing, but it's Summer Olympics and CANOE! And because I skipped around so much while solving, "U2 producer Brian" was the absolute last clue I saw, probably about ten minutes in. I didn't know he produced U2, but "producer" plus "Brian" plus "music" plus "three-letters" can only be one answer. Say it with me, ENO. That kind of clue is an easy way to GAMETHESYSTEM in crosswords.

In the opposite corner, I spent an eternity thinking about Hell before TAROT was finally made clear by crosses (The Devil's domain). And "Ptolemaic royal, familiarly" is not how I usually think of CLEOpatra. Likewise, "Poke alternative" was nicely misleading, as I thought only of food until, again, crosses forced my pen.

Some nice long answers today. ASKSNICELY (Says "please," say), ORALHEALTH (Focus for the foul-mouthed?) (gross), and "Invasive plants?" (ENEMYSPIES) were all good. The geographic cluster of AMMAN (World capital once known as Philadelphia) ROME (Forum setting), and SAIGON (Ho Chi Minh City's former name) was fun, with NANTES (Port on the Loire) and ASIA Minor not far away. 

This has been a bit of a crazy week, but Frannie should BERIGHTBACK with you again tomorrow.

- Horace 

Thursday, September 24, 2026, Jeff Stillman

Today's constructor scores big on the chutzpah scale for putting together a set of CRISSCROSSWORDS that celebrate Scrabble. The theme answers spell out points of interest in the game's history - from ATT to ZA - including its original inventor, ALFREDBUTTS, the above mentioned original name of the game, and the bonus score for using all seven letters on one's tray (FIFTYPOINTS), not to mention two highly unusual two-letter entries, one for ZA at 1A and two [BLANK]s at 67A, in proper Thursday-puzzle rebus format, that complete the corresponding Down answers WENT[BLANK] ("Forgot what you intended to say") and LEFT[BLANK] ("Didn't fill in, as a field on an application"). The presence of the letters Z, X, and a copious number of W's made me think the puzzle might, to score extra points, contain all letters, but no. Such a feat would have been tray difficile. :)

Solvers were kept entertained between game-related entries by amusing clue/answer pairs like "Hanger-on" (LEECH), "Ones who have trouble finishing sentences?" (ESCAPEES) and "Hamburger connection?" (UND), and the lovely "Wish undone" for RUE.

Ambiguous clues like "Ring" (4D), "Doctor" (9D), and "Ford or Lincoln" (41A) made me rack my brains for the correct semantic categories, in theses cases TOLL, EDIT, and AUTO, respectively. I was only able to enter some of the exotic fill such as GAEL, EIDETIC, and ORYXES after a process of tile and error. :)

OTOH, some fill scored less well with this solver, including STEPWISE ("From one tone to the next adjacent tone, in music"), RES ("Some scale members"), and INF ("Like Brahms's Symphony No. 3"), but I give them a pass considering the high value of the rest of the puzzle. 

~Frannie.

Wednesday, September 23, 2026, Dana Edwards

0:06:11

The theme today is three things about which one might say THATSFAIRGAME: SPORTSMANSHIP, OPENSEASON, and BALLOONPOP. Weird. SPORTSMANSHIP sort of works. OPENSEASON is a little off. I mean, when it's OPENSEASON the game that you shoot is fair game, or it's fair to shoot game... and BALLOONPOP is fine, I guess. I haven't been to a fair recently, so I can't be sure that's the name for it, but it certainly is what you need to do. So I guess a comment I might make about the theme is, UHNO.

What about the rest of the grid? I noticed the other day that ENBY had made it into the accepted word list in the Spelling Bee, so it was fun to see it in the puzzle again. And I liked that AHYES ran Down right next to the UHNO I used above. That was a nice touch. 

The most interesting clue for me today was "Rural structure seen in a Grant Wood lithograph." If you've heard of Grant Wood, you know "American Gothic," but in that painting there is only a house. But still, you know that it depicts a farmer holding a hay fork, and you think "midwest" and that gets you to SILO, even though you've never seen a lithograph by the artist in your life. That's cool, isn't it?

The Turn starts tomorrow. I'll see you again then.

- Horace 

Tuesday, September 22, 2026, Erik Agard

0:05:20

Today's puzzle comes to us from the reigning champion of the A.C.P.T., Erik Agard. I was in attendance when he won this year's final by more than a minute and a half over the second place finisher. His time in that puzzle, incidentally, was more than a minute faster than my time on his puzzle today, and that final was not a Tuesday-level grid.

But let's get to the puzzle - a tribute to the legendary album SONGSIN THEKEYOFLIFE by STEVIEWONDER. The song SIRDUKE, especially, from that album, makes me smile every time I hear it. Next time it's on, listen during the last runs to hear Stevie shout with joy, and then I'm pretty sure he yells "Down with the love!" just before the final descent. I challenge you to find a more joyful and exuberant moment in pop music.

In other news, how have I missed that TUESDAYS are "popular times for tacos?" Is it simply the alliteration? I suppose I might have paid more attention if I ate tacos with any regularity. Me, I'm more prone to eating foods flipped with a SPATULA. You know, galettes, ployes ... those sorts of things. Also, "Vase with a base" seemed odd for URN. "Vase with a cover" might have been more appropriate, no?

And speaking of ARENAS, you can still get a ticket to see the 50th anniversary tour for this album at Madison Square Garden. The cheapest seat I found on StubHub was $1,089.00 - Oy VEY!, but it might just be worth it.

- Horace 

 

Monday, September 21, 2026, Alexander Liebeskind

0:04:05

An ODE to the FORTIES, or, more to the point, "the four Ts." Four theme answers are strings of four words each, and all the words start with the letter T. In cases like these, Colum often likes to rank the entries, so today I will do the same.

TOOTIREDTOTHINK (Mentally pooped) - This is my favorite because it is where I am right now.
TOTELLTHETRUTH (If I'm being honest ...) - Even though the TV show of the same name debuted in the decade after the forties, this one is still very much alive.
TEACHTOTHETEST (Deliberately give instruction in a way that targets an exam) - This one needed too much of a clue, and who wants to think about taking a test?
TAKESTWOTOTANGO ("A fight requires more than one person") - Again, the clue is a bit forced, and the expression often includes a fifth word, "it."

So there's the ranking, what else? I liked TROPE (Familiar narrative device), USEME ("I'm available to help"), and even RADIOAD (Commercial that may come with a jingle). But what did you think about "Any Olympian" as a clue for ATHLETE? Don't they have skeet shooting in the Summer Olympics? Can we call someone who fires a gun an ATHLETE? Oh, what do I know, I'm just sitting here on the couch.

- Horace 

Sunday, September 20, 2026, Tracy Gray

RISE TO THE POWER

This puzzle answers the question "How can math be entered into the crossword solving experience?" Five answers include a BASE and an associated EXPONENT that must be put together to make the proper answer. For example, SWEETTWO works with FOUR to make "sweet sixteen" (March Madness tournament round), and WHENIMFOUR and THREE working out to "When I'm Sixty-Four" (Beatles classic with the lyric "Will you still need me / Will you still feed me"). My favorite of the theme answers was the unexpected NINEARMEDBANDIT and ZERO adding up to "One-armed bandit."

I liked learning about TONETAGS (Online forum qualifiers such as /j ("joking") or /s ("sarcastic")), and RICOCHET (It's off the wall!) was nice. I don't use the term TOPFLIGHT nor its clue "A-one" very much. TAKEARAINCHECK (Reschedule, so to speak) was good, and I like the expression ITSFORTHEBIRDS, but is "Don't pay any mind to this" the right clue for it? "Tables," on the other hand, was perfect for PUTSASIDE.

Tricky clues included "Things that drivers sometimes leave behind?" (TEES), and "Sped or bled ... or led" (RAN). 

I liked this one.

- Horace 

Saturday, September 19, 2026, Hannah Slovut-Einertson

0:20:53

You know it's a Saturday because you have learned there's something called a GUITALELE (Instrument also known as a ukitar), and that Siva SAMOA is a (traditional dance named for its country of origin). And speaking of learning things, who knew that a sawtooth shark is actually just called a SAWSHARK? Or that there's a narrative device called RETCON? It's short for "retroactive continuity," and I'm guessing it comes from tweaks to the timelines of franchises like Star Wars or X-Men. 

Interesting to find the full TEEHEEHEE ([Giggle]) in the grid instead of just a "tee" or a "hee." Speaking of, there are a lot of "spoken" answers today: GODHELPME (Request for assistance from a higher-up?), IMEANYEAH ("Sure ... that's true ..."), LIGHTENUP ("Just relax!"), LETS ("I'm in!"), SHAPEUP ("Behave!"), ORELSE (Intimidating words),  SMARTMOVE ("That's good thinking"), and ILLSHUTUP (End of a rant, perhaps). And are the answers TALKSENSE and OSCARSPEECH related to all this somehow? I suppose I'm the reviewer, I should be able to DECODE it for you, but, again, speaking of talking - I am sitting in a room full of people who are all talking, and it's hard to concentrate on writing this, so I may MISS things. Like how SETS is equivalent to "Goes down." 

I'm either an EMPTYSUIT or a PEON full of HOTAIR, but I hope you get the GIST.

- Horace