Sunday, May 24, 2026, David Steinberg

NEXT, PLEASE!

It's Sunday, and we have a puzzle with the theme of advancing one letter in a phrase one step, alphabetically. The affected letter is circled, but the change only happens in the Across answers. The original phrases vary from good - "controlled chaos" and "give me one reason" - to mundane - "contact lens" and "first class mail," and the converted phrases and wacky cluing vary similarly. The best are, maybe, FIRSTCLASSNAIL (Good name for a salon specializing in mani-pedis?) and GIVEMEONESEASON (Exasperated television producer's plea?). 

There were some bright spots in the fill - FORE (Warning after a slice), CAST (Musical group?), and LIPREADERS (Experts in body language?). And ONTHEAPPS (Using Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, etc.) was nice. But I took issue with the awkwardly clued AGO (Earlier), the rando DISK (coin, commonly), and "Stance that resembles a ballerina on one leg" (DANCERPOSE). I mean, isn't a ballerina standing on one leg a person in a DANCERPOSE? And yes, I know it's yoga.

Oh, I don't know. I got up on the wrong side of the bed, maybe, and this puzzle didn't do it for me. The theme answers all work fine, and the changed letters spell out "plus one," which is a nice touch, but somehow it just didn't sing to me. I won't say IHATEDIT, but I did say EWE a few times. At least it GOTDONE, and now I'm GUANACO on to tomorrow. See you then.

 

- Horace 

Saturday, May 23 2026, Kameron Austin Collins

Love the  layout today!!  A chunky solve, especially in the middle of the grid, where a full dozen long-ish clues intersect.  Very impressive construction - though the price paid is the almost-orphaning of the top left and lower right corners.

Right off the bat in that top corner, there's misdirection afoot with "They might be settled atop stools" - BARBETS, after a moment's thought. Just below that, "A boxer's might knock you out" did not fool old ex-boxer-owner me - DOGBREATH.    Those answers helped with a Down entry  RIGVEDA ("Ancient collection of Hindu hymns") that was a learning for me.

Other learnings - German novelist Theodor FONTANE ... MARLSTONE as an ingredient in cement ... the SANDSNAKE which preys on lizards in Africa ... Edward GOREY's "The Gashleycrumb Tinies" - what a fabulous book title!!

38A "Sugar ____" was a write-in for me, who grew up in the Eastern Townships, home of the world's best MAPLE syrup.   Raised my eyebrows at MATEINONE as a "Chess puzzle challenge, maybe".  Stress the "maybe" - it's hard to make a one-move chess puzzle that is much of a challenge!  "Walk on water?" (GANGPLANK) was amusing :)

Finally, how many of you wrote in TIC instead of SEA for "Tac preceder"?  (I did!)

This was a really great Saturday puzzle on which to end a week of blogging.  Horace takes the reins tomorrow.  Enjoy your weekend everybody!

-philbo

Friday, May 22 2026, Gene Louise de Vera

A pleasant, not too difficult themeless Friday puzzle that just seemed to flow from top to bottom, with a somewhat unusual 16x15 grid bisected vertically by a pair of long entries side by side.  (What do we call "stacks" when they're vertical?)  One of these really piqued my interest : Beethoven's MOONLIGHTSONATA, clued at 7D as "an inspiration for Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu".  I'd not heard that before, so as I write this, I am listening to the Chopin piece with that in mind.  It's lovely, but do I hear echoes of the Moonlight Sonata in there?  I dunno.  Maybe I need a better musical ear.

I particularly liked a couple of the other long entries as well.  18A "Qualifier to an embarrassing question" (ASKINGFORAFRIEND) made me smile; I use that phrase all the time.  And the other long Down entry 8D "Kepler-22b or Kepler-186f, e.g." (EARTHLIKEPLANET) tickles my science-y fancy.  Amazing that we can make that determination from impossibly far away!

Other nuggets in the grid .. 15A "Footnote phrase" is ETALII, which one rarely sees in its unabbreviated form.  I was a little Shocked at the 65A QMC "What some streakers are charged with?" (TASER) - I definitely did not expect that!  A bit of unusual construction in the lower left corner, with CLOT and CLOY side by side.  Neat!  I also had to do a double-take before accepting MEANS as the answer to "Is" at 26D.  

Finally, a shoutout to William of OCCAM, he of the eponymous Razor.  In the spirit of simplicity, I shall end here.

Cheerio!

-philbo

Thursday, May 21 2026, Zhou Zhang and Mallory Montgomery

A fun rebus-y theme in this Thursday's puzzle, with four Across clues clearly requiring a bit of lateral thinking:

• 20A "timiL" = BACKWARDSCAP
• 35A "Golfer's suppor-" = CUTOFFTEE
• 42A "Evade" = MINISKIRT
• 55A "P | u | n | c | h | e | s" = STRIPEDSOCKS

I like the clothing motif, and until I reached STRIPEDSOCKS, thought there was also a bit of a punky thing going on.  These are all cute and fun, and I only wish the trailing dash had been left off the clue for CUTOFFTEE, to make it less explicit and leave the solver wondering if a typo could have crept its way into the puzzle!  

Theme aside, the puzzle didn't put up much of a fight, although the top right corner was problematic with a term that was new to me (AO DAI - "Traditional Vietnamese garment").  Good thing the crossers were all knowable - at least once I realized that the "Pineapple Isle" is LANAI and not KAUAI, and the animal that spits when angry is a LLAMA and not a KOALA (really, Philbo??).  Still in that corner, I don't love AIS for "ChatGPT, Claude, etc."  Doesn't seem right.  But I shrug and move on.

Down in the lower left, I thought "Increase, as interest" (PIQUE) was very clever, especally as I had the 'U' early and was sure it was going to end in 'UP'.  And 3D "'Bingo!'" (EXACTAMUNDO) brought back vague memories - was that something the Fonz used to say?  (resisting the urge to just Google it, here)  Oh and I don't believe I've ever seen GOOIER in a crossword before..

All in all a pleasant, gentle Thursday solve.  On to rougher waters tomorrow!

-philbo

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