Thursday, June 25, 2026, Tarun Krishnamurthy

Wasn't I just talking about how I marvel at new theme ideas? Well you can add this one to the list. INSIDER TRADING is re-imagined to mean exchanging the positioning of groups of letters within an answer to form another acceptable entry. As is often the case, it's easier to see than to explain, as in:

*They may result in people wrongly being sent to jail - BRAP|ADS. In order to get the correct answer, "bad raps," you need to swap the positions of the underlined letters on either side of the pipe. 

There are five more such theme answers, and I am left, once again, asking myself how people come up with this stuff!

Aside from the theme, there were many good features of this one. GAWK (Get an eyeful) is an excellent word, "Get a lode of these!" (ORES) was cute, and RUNUP (Preceding time) was a nice alternate to the more commonly seen "eve." My last square was the B of ROB (____ blind) and BLEEPS (Removes a curse?) (Excellent), both of which surprised me.

Lastly, I feel I should really mention that I have seen quite a few ESSO stations over here in Italy. :)

Fun Thursday!

- Horace 

Wednesday, June 24, 2026, Kevin Curry and Zhou Zhang

I was disappointed early in this one when my initial guess at 1-Down (Kind of pants worn on a rainy day, perhaps) "floods," turned out to be incorrect (PAJAMA), but things quickly picked up, and I smiled at each and every one of the theme answers. And what was that theme? WALKIETALKIES!

"Sleigh's loaded and ready! How are you feeling, Santa?" JOLLYROGER
"I'm at the bakery - what kind of doughnut do you want?" GLAZEDOVER
"What's tomorrow's chemistry exam about again?" CARBONCOPY
"Before you go, what animal crosses the road in that old joke?" CHICKENOUT

You know, I often say that I prefer themeless puzzles, but that's a pretty funny set, and as usual, I marvel that people keep coming up with these clever ideas! 

GMOS (Pinkglow pineapples and GloFish, for short) and SPUN (Like cotton candy) made me think of the "cotton candy" grapes I had recently. They were green grapes, but they really tasted like cotton candy! And so, ok, I just looked it up, and after taking a little sip of water, the AI told me that cotton candy grapes are not genetically modified, but are the result of traditional cross-breeding. So you can feel good about it when you go get some to try. 

Another thing I looked up was TAEBO (Workout program that's a portmanteau of two different sports). Turns out it was invented by a guy named Billy Blanks, and is a mash-up of Taekwondo and Boxing. Later, it was acronymized, and then it also stood for "Total Awareness Excellence Body Obedience." I'm not sure it was worth coming up with that.

I feel like this review is getting long, and I only really adressed things in the top half! Well, I will quickly add that I liked PICANTE (Very spicy) and PRBUZZ (Marketing team's goal with a new product launch, informally), and I didn't know that Paul SIMON had been inducted twice into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. 

Fun puzzle.

- Horace 

Tuesday, June 23, 2026, Kathy Bloomer

I love this theme. I didn't see it coming until the very end, and I even took out TOES (Things stepped on by bad ballroom dancers) because I didn't like 50-Across ending with "ETR." It was only then that I considered looking at the circled letters. Hah! I like how only the revealer uses the bent word (BENDSTHETRUTH), and the others are just sort of hanging around the grid. 

It can't be a coincidence, can it, that in a puzzle with truth as its theme, there are so many C/APs on the other side of the line, like "One might involve false accounts" (TAXSCANDAL), "One might involve a false account" (COVERSTORY) (nice clue-pairing), "Alias" (FAKENAME), and "Bad calls?" (PHONESCAMS). 

Funny about 1-Across (Swiss currency), because just yesterday the topic came up of whether Switzerland used the Euro. They don't, obviously, as is shown by the answer, FRANC. 

OHHEY, speaking of Europe... BOOK (Reserve in advance) really hit the CSPOTS for me, because I waited too long to reserve a spot to go up Mount Vesuvius, and today is our last day in Salerno. TSKS all around. Who knew you even needed a ticket to go up a mountain? Well... I should have. YEESH! There is a slight chance for last-minute ticket purchases, and they start in ten minutes, so I'd better ARRET here. 

VALE!

- Horace 

Monday, June 22, 2026, Victoria Fernandez Grande

This sprightly Monday theme practically hops off the page! We've got themers ending in a TRIPLEJUMP: ARABSPRING; HOMEWARDBOUND; and DOOMSDAYVAULT. Very nice. 

Since I will probably drop that I am in Italy at least once per review this week, I'll get it out of the way quickly by saying that I hope ERUPT (What volcanoes do) is not apt, because I am staying very near that famous active volcano, Mount Vesuvius. There are plans to hike up and stare down in to it tomorrow. Ora pro nobis. Oh, and speaking of Latin, I tripped up early by dropping Ibid into 16A (Scholarly "same") instead of IDEM. Classic Latin mistake. 

Some fun, not-often-seen entries today, like OBLIGE (Compel), RAMPANT (Spreading unchecked), and SHREWD (Brilliant at negotiating). ROOK (King's partner in castling), while somewhat unusual in a puzzle, was not as welcome to me, as it served to remind me of the many BRUTAL losses I have suffered in the game of kings.

Today we are catching the train to Naples, or at least we hope to. Yesterday, some work on the tracks halted service, but supposedly today will be different. We shall see. Anyway, I should bounce. So I will bid you all ADIEU until tomorrow.

- Horace 

Sunday, June 21, 2026, Hannah Slovut-Einertson

BIG DRAW

Greetings, from Salerno, Italy, where many a COFFEERUN has been made, but where you won't find any giraffes. Unless it's WORLDGIRAFFEDAY and there is a cute one drawn into a specially-shaped 17x27 Sunday grid! 

This puzzle didn't put up a ton of resistance in the Acrosses, and although there were some nice, long Downs, they tended to COMEEASY, as there were usually at least a few crosses in place. Things got trickier toward the bottom, with the uncommon CORNPIT (Farm play area) (?), LOTUSROOT (Starchy plant part in Asian cooking) and ALMONDOIL (Nutty extract), but again, crosses helped! 

I enjoyed the not-often-seen BENTS (Natural predispositions) and BEHELD (Looked upon). Nice old-fashioned, slightly formal answers. Maybe BEARWITNESS (Testify) could be added to that group. All the Bs. And speaking of old-fashioned, I also enjoyed "Threads around a forum?" (TOGA). Hah! I will be at the Forum in Rome later this week, and I'll let you know if I see any togae.  

"Spoke sheepishly" (BAAED) was fun, and I had never considered that fact that YODA was a "'Star Wars' character whose species is never named." And speaking of trivia, I was a little surprised that the word "ossicone" didn't make it into the grid. 

 Oh, and one last thing - I loved seeing disc golf get into the clues with TEEPADS. I have played a lot of rounds in the past couple years! 

- Horace 

Saturday, June 20 2026, Katie Hoody

When I'm not on blogging duty, I do the NYT puzzles online, which is a faster but somewhat less satisfying experience; solving with pen and paper lends itself to a better appreciation of theme, clever clues, and overall construction.  Today, as I worked my way through the grid and put little tick marks beside my favourite clues, I felt like my cup runneth over - such great cluing today!!

My entry point was Soprano RENEE Fleming, right in the middle of the grid.  Immediately below that, the grid-spanning "'I've done better" was obviously NOTMYFINESTHOUR, except, as it turned out, it was actually NOTMYFINESTWORK - my only misstep today.  

Back up at the very top, the high-quality clues began immediately.  1A "Dad's pop, perhaps" (CREAMSODA) took me a while to "get" - I thought it was a questionable generational reference, but no, it's a branding thing.  Right below that, I needed most of the crossers to figure out 15A "One might be used to launch promotional materials" (AIRCANNON - brilliant!!).  And right below THAT, 17A "That's not the whole story!" (PLOTPOINT) was very clever.

I could narrate practically the entire grid like this.  7D "Bulb that becomes translucent when heated" (ONION).  23D "Stories of college students?" (DORM).  34D "Man's name whose first four letters spell a word describing its last letter" (RINGO) - also very clever!  31D "Fair weather followers" (SNOWBIRDS) - indeed - a whole contigent of Canadians can be classified this way...

The only thing approaching a "nit" for me is Hall-of-Fame football coach WEEB Ewbank at 43A. A tiny bit of a reach, no?  

A fitting finale at 61D "Sound made when something snaps into place?" (AHA) - a suitable anagram for AAH, the sound I made upon completing this puzzle.  Well done Ms. Hoody, well done indeed!

It's been a slice this week!  And now, over to Horace's capable hands.....

-philbo

Friday, June 19 2026, Jack Hatchett

A really nice construction today, with eight long Across entries and four long Downs, with nothing spanning the entire grid.  This led to a pleasant, steady solve, all the way to the very end where I failed in the SE corner and FWOE'd.  More on that later.

Things were promising from the very get-go, with 17A "Chef's complimentary bite" (AMUSEBOUCHE).   After such morsels, I like to sit back and announce "Well, my bouche is amused", to the amusement of nobody.  Right above that was a nicely oblique QMC "Field trip", whose answer HOMERUNTROT definitely did not jump out at me. 

 

Lavish use of contractions was in evidence; e.g. 20A "Dish often served with tartar sauce, informally" (FISHNCHIPS) and 35A "___ Green (Kermit the Frog song)" (BEIN).  I don't necessarily object, but it did stand out a little bit.  

What's the deal with SHOWERBEER ("Cold one enjoyed during a hot wash")?  Never heard of such a thing.  BEERSHOWER, on the other hand, in my younger days, yes maybe...

My very last entry was the diabolical QMC at 32A "Off-grid connection?".  I thought it had to be IRL (you know, "in real life") until getting the real answer from the crossers : THE.  Brilliant!  When was the last time you saw this word in a crossword?

Finally, the very last Across clue "Chinese revolutionary Sun ____" was lost on me.  I guessed YATSEE but it's actually YATSEN.  I should have known - my guess was too similar to the dice game Yahtzee to really be plausible.  If anybody asks, I'll say I ATECROW on this one, hoping for the response OHCOMEONNOW...

See ya on the weekend!

-philbo