Wednesday, May 20 2026, Kathleen Duncan

I gotta say right up front, I loved today's puzzle.  Really fun and just the right amount of crunch for a Wednesday. The well-disguised theme turned out to be quite SPECIAL!  To wit - the first three long Across clues all looked ordinary and had straightforward answers, but they all had something in common:

• 16A : "Nontraditional time for voting someone into office" (OFFYEARELECTION)
• 26A : "What a waiter might offer to start you off" (SOUPOFTHEDAY)
• 44A : "Bit of movie magic" (VISUALEFFECT)

Unclear until the revealer at 58A : "Condescending rhetorical question" (ISNTTHATSPECIAL) brings it together - the theme answers are all "special" things; in fact, you could replace their leftmost parts with the word SPECIAL and they would make as much sense.  I think this is neat, and a very worthy idea as a theme.

The revealer, incidentally and as many of you surely know, was the catchphrase of Dana Carvey's recurring Church Lady character on Saturday Night Live some years ago.  And in that sketch-comedy vein, a reference to Monty Python's "Fish-Slapping Dance" was a creative way to clue John CLEESE, whose piscatory antics with Michael Palin were great silly fun.  I was a big fan of the Flying Circus as a kid!

Elsewhere...I had difficulty getting an initial toehold, thanks to the opaqueness of the opening clue at 1A "Establishment that serves zombies, perhaps" (TIKIBAR), and, right below that, the great term HATERADE that I'd somehow never heard of ("'Drink' for vocal critics").  Not helping matters was 3D "Gets hyped", which I originally had as AMPSUP, instead of KEYSUP. 

 I liked the circular references in 26D and 27D (SEAL and ORCA, ocean prey and predator).  And I must take issue with 38D MOLASSES, as to be an "epitome of slowness", of course it must be IN JANUARY. 🙂

Finally, the perennial crossword favourite EKE for the very last clue "Just get (by)".  I've been putting EKE into crossword grids since time immemorial, without really knowing its definition.  It basically means "to supplement", which is rarely how it is used in common parlance.  So I think about that now, whenever I see the word.

And on to the themelesses tomorrow (the stretch I believe we refer to as "the turn")!  See ya then

-philbo

Tuesday, May 19 2026, Brad Wiegmann

Just for fun, I printed today's puzzle out and solved it the old-fashioned way.  So much slower this way!  And no catchy little jingle at the end.  But ultimately quite satisfying - I should do it more often.

Working down the grid, it quickly became apparent what was going on.  The four longest Across entries each have two letter groups highlighted with heavy borders, and the first one, "Standard musical progression", revealed itself as PENTA[TONIC]SC[ALE] (brackets mine). Next was "High court judge?" (my favourite clue today!) as [CHAI][RUM]PIRE.  And so on.  Clearly there are drinks embedded in these answers!  By the time I reached the revealer "Requirement at some comedy clubs", the answer was a write-in : TWODRINKMINIMUM.  Hah!  I suppose this makes sense, to make the crowd more receptive, though it might have the same effect on belligerence.  And surely you wouldn't see much CHAI at a comedy club?  What do I know.  Haven't seen a comedy show in decades.

It's a mixed bag in the rest of the grid.  There are five all-consonant answers (CCCP, KGS, MTN, TBS and TCBY), which seems a bit much.  Interesting wrinkle in 39D "Term of friendship for a French woman" - MONAMIE looks weird, with the masculine possessive in front of a clearly feminine word, but that's what you do when the word begins with a vowel.  (Try saying "MA AMIE"!)  I'd never heard of the term "gut course" to describe an EASY A.  I think we used to call them "bird courses", back in the day.

Back atcha tomorrow!

-philbo

Monday, May 18 2026, Rena Cohen

Up here in this part of Canada, Monday is a holiday - "Victoria Day" - a shoutout to our English roots, also known as "May 2-4 Weekend" - a shoutout to our irresponsible youthful days.  You get your Memorial Day, we have this day.  But enough stalling - on to today's puzzle!

Monday puzzles, by design, don't generally put up too much of a fight, and this one was no exception, though I did stumble out of the starting gate at 1A ("Like a game that has gone into a penalty shootout") with INOT instead of TIED.  That sorted out, I made my way down a fairly straightforward grid and only afterward looked back to see what the theme was.  The "revealer" at 63A - "Advice for the overambitious" - is STARTSMALL and sure enough, the four theme answers all "start small", or with synonyms thereof.  What makes it neater is that none of them are words as such; for example, 50A "Gardener's tool" is WEEDWHACKER, which indeed begins with WEE but not the word "WEE".  If you see what I mean.  (An old physics prof used to say that.  Sometimes I did see.  Sometimes I didn't.)

Elsewhere ... 41D "Distorts, as data" caused a hiccup - I entered SPINS, not SKEWS.  I liked the fun facts sprinkled throughout; e.g. 54D reminds us that a KOALA is not a "bear"; 22D points out that there is an actual English town named EPSOM, whence the salts.

I have a CAT, and can attest to the accuracy of 71A "Stereotypically antisocial pets".

Ciao for now!

-philbo

Sunday, May 17 2026, Derrick Niederman

Greetings Earthlings!  Philbo here, back on the blog after a hiatus that seems to have lasted forever.  Bear with me, willya, while I find my stride...What a great puzzle to start back with!  Among the Across clues we have 11 that are italicized - short and punchy little QMCs, familiar phrases, all of them.  But at first glance they don't match the grid.  Or do they?  Look at 65A: "Yellow submarine?".  A Beatles reference?  Not at all - it's another seemingly unrelated phrase CHICKENSANDWICH.  But look!  It does make sense - the clue DOES describe the answer, just in a whole different way.  (Hence the "Double Meanings" theme.)

This is so brilliant!  Mr. Niederman's managed to do this almost a dozen times.  They're not puns...it's just really clever wordplay, and it really tickled my funny bone.  I won't enumerate them here - you'll discover them for yourself and I hope you experience the same delicious "aha" moments that I did!

There were other nice touches too.  I liked the double "Intl. group formed in 1945/1949" (19A and 106D), and "Iconic role for Harrison Ford" (6D and 10D).  HAN and INDIANA - first names - nice touch!  A couple of misleading food references were amusing : 74D "Packed like sardines, say" (INOIL) and 81D "Experienced a bit of turnover?" (ATE).  

I was going to take issue with 18A "____ polaris" (AURORA), thinking "surely that's not right" - but no, "aurora polaris" is a general term referring to both aurorae, "borealis" to the North and "australis" to the South.  File that under "old dogs, new tricks"!  

On that note, I'll sign off till tomorrow.  It's great to be back!

-philbo

Saturday, May 16, 2026, Byron Walden

One should be on his or her toes (their toes? what's the better modern construction here?) upon encountering Mr. Walden's byline. And indeed today was a challenging Saturday, which I FWOE'd (finished with one error). 

It's filled with tricksy clues - see, for example 24D: Trigger hair (MANE), playing on hair trigger, and the fact that Trigger is a classic horse name, with the hidden capital. And also please see 22A: Matches with forensics (DEBATECONTESTS) where the presumed verb at the start of the clue is actually a plural noun. Here, "forensics" is the art of public speaking, namely speaking in order to convince a group of people who will judge based on the evidence. It has latterly come to apply to forensic science, where evidence is treated scientifically in order to convince in a court of law.

In follow up to yesterday's exclamation point clue (and Horace, I agree in retrospect with your analysis of that clue), today we have 39A: Don't start with me! (SECONDSTRINGER). So much better! The "me" here is the answer, and it is literally true. Love it.

Cynthia ERIVO

I loved 38D: They're concerned with feeding kits (VIXENS), where kits is the name for juvenile foxes, and the answer the name for their mothers. But who's ever heard of the word ZARFS? It comes from Arabic. But it's nice to know what to call the sleeves around your coffee cup.

My error came at the intersection of WATTLED and INTWOACTS. I had INTrOACTS, a real stretch, but I imagined these individuals getting their break on Broadway by opening for the more popular headliner. The actual answer merits the question mark. rATTLED seemed as likely as anything else, I guess.

Well, that's my week done and dusted. I turn you over to the capable hands of Philbo, starting tomorrow!

- Colum

Friday, May 15, 2026, Maddy Ziegler

Let's start with the really lovely combination of BANANASEAT above APECOSTUME. A great pair of answers, both fun and interesting, and with an unexpected connection. You know you're going to have a good time with a puzzle that has that pairing, and certainly this puzzle does not disappoint!

All of the long answers here are strong. Several great colloquialisms, such as LETMEATEM (with the bonus here that if you're not careful, it looks like "let meat em"), IMALLEARS, and ITSUPTOYOU. 

SMASHCUT intersects with SEGUE. NEEDLEDROP and SHEEPLE.

I also enjoyed the cluing on 28D: Competitor of the early Chevrolet 490 (MODELT). I was unaware that Chevrolet was that old! In fact, the company was started in 1911, and the car mentioned was first produced in 1915. Its name referred to the price of the auto. The Model T, meanwhile, went for $495.

50D: Food item whose name comes from the Greek for "turn" (GYRO) was another good trivia clue. I put it in without even thinking of the etymology, but in retrospect it should be obvious.

I'm not fully convinced by 7D: Here goes nothing! (VACANTLOT). The exclamation type clue defines its answer by literally explaining it. In this case, I don't exactly see how the lot "goes" at all. Thoughts?

Other than that, it's an outstanding Friday. Seems like I picked a good week to start reviewing again!

- Colum

Thursday, May 14, Simeon Seigel

"Water, water, every where, / Nor any drop to drink."

So goes The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. And likewise goes the Thursday puzzle. 

Here water is represented by its chemical formula, correctly displayed in its bent shape in the grid four times, with one O and two Hs, each diagonally displaced. I have read why this is the case, and I have been reminded of the complexity of chemistry. You see, the Oxygen atom still has two pairs of electrons which must take up some space in the space surrounding the nucleus, pushing the Hydrogen atoms into their characteristic locations.

As Tom Lehrer said, "Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer."

There are eight answers in the puzzle that either end or start with WATER, but is replaced by the H of the water molecule. Thus, 19A: Prime breeding environment for mosquitoes is STANDINGH, and 20A: Impression on some fancy sheets is HMARK. Nicely done!

1A: Cliff formed by a fault (SCARP) is a tough outset. Close to Albany, we have the Helderberg Escarpment, which typifies this geologic formation.

And how about 4D: September to April, in the oyster industry (RMONTHS)? Challenging corner. 

I liked having ALLA and NAAN clued through their cuisine's menus. ICHING and KITHARA were lovely answers. Overall a fun puzzle. Here's looking forward to our themeless puzzles!

- Colum