Friday, November 13, 2026, Mike Graczyk

0:09:53

Solid Friday puzzle. Nice 11-stacks top and bottom, and two meaty diagonals connecting them. Let's rank the 11s, as Colum likes to do.

The best one for me was "Total area" (CEREALAISLE). This had me misdirected badly until I had at least seven or eight crossers. All the rest of them are quote clues, which are often hit or miss. I'd rank them thus:

ALONEATLAST - "Finally! Me time!" (There have been strangers in the house for two months!)
MOVEITALONG - "Pick up the pace!" (I walk fast.)
IMETSOMEONE - "So, there's this special person ..." (Ahh, romance ...)
LETSHOPENOT - "Heaven forbid!" (I prefer "Heaven forfend!")
CANTTOPTHAT - "Nothing better!" (Can't help preferring "Can't touch this.")

So that's that DRAMA dealt with. As for QMCs, "Formal guidance?" (DRESSCODE) was very good, "What a deck may be stacked with?" (SAILORS) was solid, "Lays waste to?" (LITTERS) was maybe trying a little too hard, and "Relief pitcher?" (ROLAIDS) didn't fool me for a minute! But I did grow up in the heyday of those old "Nothing spells relief, like ..." ads. On the other hand, the non QMC "Way off, sometimes" (RAMP) had me fooled right up until the end! And I also quite enjoyed "Major hunk" (SLAB)

Overall, a fun Friday, but I can't help thinking they're in cahoots with Sam Ezersky in trying to legitimize "IDUNNO."

- Horace 

Thursday, November 12, 2026, Jared Cappel

0:08:56

I just did a quick search for VEGETABLEMEDLEY and did not find any that included the four items that "grew" out of the top of today's grid: beet, corn, kale, and pea. So first of all, no. And second of all, I would be surprised to see corn growing in a real rooftop garden, but that's less of an issue for me, for some reason. And really, I did enjoy doing the puzzle. I just didn't buy the justification for the trick.

Tricky start with SMH ("Unbelievable," in a text). It stands for "shaking my head," and while I am familiar with the acronym, I'm not sure I would have come up with such a good way to clue it. I might have gone with "Egad," but maybe that just shows my age.

ETRE (French verb with a circumflex) made me think a little about the circumflex and how it often appears where an S has been lost, as in forêt and hôpital. I wondered if that were the case here, and indeed it is! The word came originally (of course) from Latin esse, by way of Late Latin essere and then Old French estre. 

It's a little weird that RABE was very near the top of the puzzle, and that it was clued with "Broccoli ____." Seems a little too close to the theme, doesn't it? And once I had that E at the end of it in place, I dropped in levEr for "One of the six so-called 'simple machines'" (SCREW), which caused a bit of a slowdown in the NE. 

Toughest clue for me today was "Turns" (ROTS). I filled it in with crosses and thought "Is that some new shortening of "rotates?" But no, it's "spoils" or "goes bad." Derp.

So I had a little issue with the theme, but I do generally like playing with the boundaries, and there were plenty of good entries. What'd you think?

- Horace 

Wednesday, November 11, 2026, Damon Gulcynski

0:05:03

A nod to the tabloids of old, today, with four BLURRYPHOTOs of a ghost, a yeti, a UFO, and Elvis, complete with grid art in the online version making those entries appear blurry. The print version filled them with a textured gray. Nice enough, I suppose. Each "blurred" entry spans the words in a two-word answer, and three of those two-word answers are being used for the first time in a NYTX - GOODBYETIME (1988 Conway Twitty country hit ...), PLAYINGHOST (Welcoming people to a party, say), and TRAVELVISAS (Requirements for many vacationers abroad). 

I still smile at C/APs like "Cried sheepishly?" (BAAED) and "Cries cattily?" (MEWS). And speaking of fun, I also enjoyed "Place to end an engagement without breaking up" (ALTAR). Ahh, marriage... is that one paired with MAANDPA (The folks, folksily)? [Ba-dum-tss] (RIMSHOT)! And finally, in the fun department, I also enjoy somewhat wacky C/APs like "Like an oak tree vis-à-vis a fir" (LEAFIER). Who needs EDYS ("A Reason to Smile" ice cream brand)?

It's a Wednesday, and the theme was novel. I spent a little time looking around before I corrected Run to RBI (A solo homer is worth one), but other than that, it moved right along. Onward to the Turn!

- Horace 

Tuesday, November 10, 2026, Sam Koperwas and Jeff Chen

0:07:57

One can hardly object to the the object of today's theme: heteronyms! It's quite the exploit to exploit them five times like this. For quick review, I now present the theme entries present in the puzzle:

TEARSHEET - Kleenex?
DOESTHATMATTER - Important female deer?
PUTTINGITMILDLY - Soft touch on a golf course green?
GETSTHELEADOUT - Prepares for a dog walk?
TAKESABOW - Prepare to shoot like Cupid?

It's a pity that such an august achievement should appear outside the month of August, but it must be supposed that November is where this is supposed to have run.

Ok, I'll stop. I shan't tarry in getting on with the review, lest I end up tarry from angry comments.

One often sees heteronyms in clues (see: "Appropriate" (APT)), especially in cryptic crosswords, so it's fun to find them in the answers today. My favorite is the absurd DOESTHATMATTER, but TEARSHEET is also strong. And I found myself looking around the grid for more that could be theme adjacent. At first I thought I couldn't find any, but then I said, "I CANTO!" Yeesh. Sorry. 

I'm probably close to losing you with all this tortured wordplay, so I'll close now, but I hope you will, like me, refuse to say that there was any refuse in this puzzle.  

- Horace 

Monday, November 9, 2026, Leslie Benson

0:04:01

FAIRANDSQUARE is the revealer today, clued with "Honestly ... or a description of the shaded letters?" The shaded letters, arranged in squares, spell out "expo," "so so," "pale," and "just," all words that can be interpreted as "fair." 

I had several missteps today, including "shot up" for SOARED (Rose quickly, as prices), "pAcE" instead of RATE (A mile a minute, e.g.), DJing instead of DJSET (Performance with turntables at a nightclub, say), but they were all corrected by crosses. 

A clutch of quality C-level entries included CAVORT (Prance about), CONJURE (Make appear as if by magic), and CHASTE (Pure as the driven snow). And I enjoy any reference to Horace (ARS Poetica), but speaking of language arts, I fear the clue "Something that 'perks up' when you're attentive" (EAR) only serves to dull the keen edge of English. There's no reason to avoid "prick up" there.

- Horace

Sunday, November 8, 2026, Simeon Seigel

MIXED RESULTS

It took me a long while to grok the theme today, but once it came into focus I enjoyed it quite a bit. I will try to explain it like this - Where the equals signs appear in the grid, one side of the equation is given an additive clue, the answers to which are combined (one circled, one not) into a new word or phrase, and that new phrase becomes the clue for the word on the other side of the equals sign. Phew! Perhaps an example might help.

96-Across is clued with "Online broadcasts + Obvious," and the answers, "streams" and "patent" are combined into SPATREATMENTS, which in turn clues 100-Across, FACIALS. See? Nothing to it.

One more: "The Great Lakes, e.g. + Computer gurus" yields "quintet" and "it pros," which are combined into QUITINPROTEST which clues WALKOUT. It's really quite convoluted, yet there's a beauty in it.

In addition to all that, the puzzle had a lot of really nice cluing. My thinking was far removed from AACELLS when I read "Remote power sources," and "Take an inch from a yard, say" (MOW) took me a while too, but got a laugh when it finally did come together. Speaking of laughing - "Impaler of note" (VLAD) is just so absurd, isn't it? And "'I'm done explaining myself!,' to a mathematician" was an amusing way to get to QED. Hah!

For me, ALIVE didn't quite equal "'Bumping,' as a party," but "Petty cash holder?" for MISER was inspired, and "Attempt at a royal flush?" (PALACECOUP) was cute. I also enjoyed the paired clues "Washington, but not Lincoln" (STATE) and "Washington or Lincoln" (CITY), and the (sort of) paired answers BEMUSE (Stump) and BEFALL (Come upon) that came one after the other.

It's interesting that TWOBIT means "Third-rate" isn't it? And is "Bean or gourd" (MELON) referring to the head? If so, that's a really nice Non-QMC.

Overall, I found this to be a very satisfying Sunday. I hope you liked it too. It's good to be back at the keyboard, and I'll see you all again tomorrow!

- Horace 

Saturday, November 7 2026, Adrian Johnson

Rounding out my blogging week is a gem of a Saturday crossword.  Not that it was super difficult - the solve itself was only moderately challenging - but I tip my hat to the two quadruple stacks in the NW and SE corners, with long Down clue pairs in the other two corners.  Furthermore, I felt like I learned way more stuff than usual from this puzzle.

Stuff like TREEPOSE, where one leg is perpendicular to the other.  (I don't do yoga.)   Or that EPEE literally means "sword".  Or the Hawaiian word for "family" is OHANA.  Or a group of Mediterranean appetizers is called a MEZE.  Or that THEWHO's "Live at Leeds" album went double-platinum.

The cleverest clue today, I think, was "Someone who might need to get a life?" (GAMER) - which works on multiple levels - in a gaming context and also from a broader perspective.  Another fun QMC was "One looking over a shoulder?" (ROADWORKER). But not "First to seven?" (ESS).  Boo!!! 

My brother ran a GOATFARM of sorts for a while in the interior of British Columbia.

For those not familiar - in pro tennis, a SERENASLAM is what you call four Grand Slam titles in a row *ending with* the Australian open, which in the modern era takes place in January, so the "Slam" spans two calendar years, as opposed to a "Grand Slam", which must be contained in a single year, and was last accomplished by the incomparable Steffi Graf back in 1988.  Serena Williams completed her eponymous Slam twice - in 2002-2003 (defeating her sister Venus in all four finals!) and again in 2014-2015.  Testament to the longevity of her dominance!   And, per the clue, Novak Djokovic picked up where Serena left off and did it in 2015-2016.

I leave you with that little tennis nerd-out.  Horace takes the reins tomorrow!