Thursday, August 27, 2026, Zachary David Levy

A ZESTFUL puzzle today, crammed with Z's, thanks to today's theme featuring the band ZZ Top. In order to correspond with the theme's directive, ZZTOP (2004 inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ... and a hint to 3-, 10-, 29-, and 33-Down), four theme entries that include pairs of Z's have had those Z's moved to the top of the answer, so instead of BUZZALDRIN ("Astronaut for whom a Pixar character is named"), we have ZZBUALDRIN. No other alterations are made. In the case of the theme clue, "Bear of children's rhyme," two pairs of Z's are moved to the top for the interesting looking answer ZZZZFUYWUY. Now that's what I call an eye twister. :) 

Elsewhere, the pizzazz of ZZ tops made for some zippy Across answers like TOPAZ, OOZIER, LAZED, and the amusing QMC "Open with one's teeth?" (UNZIP). 

I was dazzled by "Bed threads" for PJS and the nicely ambiguous "Put out" for SORE. The QMCs "Make a right turn?" for ATONE, STEREO for "Start to type?" and HEN for "One sitting on a coop board?" are also fun QMCs.

OTOH, I was a bit ATSEA with "Pre-Inca civilization known for its underground aqueducts and geoglphys" (NAZCA), "CNBC subj." (IPO), "Tropical fruta" (PINA), and "Colombian offerings that may be served with hogao" (AREPAS), the latter becoming a real problem when I didn't know if the answer to 47D: "'It makes sense now!'" should be oHISEE or AHISEE. Elsewhere, I really wanted "Currently being tried" to be 'in beta' but that was a non-starter for several reasons, principally because there weren't enough squares. The correct interpretation of 'tried' finally led to ATBAR. I thought the pairing of the science-y "Microscopic" in the clue with the cutesy WEE as the answer was a little bit zany.

 In short, a puzzle ablaze with the letter Z (or zed for those following along in Canada :) made for a zingy grid for zealous solvers. 

~Frannie.

Wednesday, August 26, 2026, John Kugelman and Lance Enfinger

SOMEPEOPLE are so EDUMACATEd that they able to come up with four perfectly cromulent theme answers in a crossword puzzle that are each composed of three or four first names. It took me some time to recognize both the gist of the revealer ("'Unbelieveable!' ... or what 17-, 25-, 35- and 46-Across are made from, letter-wise?") and the names of people therein. It turns out that within each theme answer, we have a crowd of some people's first names: BEAU/TY/MARK, ED/UMA/CATE, SAL/TED/CARA/MEL, MAC/ADA/MIA.

I made a few bad character judgments during the solve. I rashly entered the usual 'esc' for "PC key" (ALT) and 'tick' for "Bug on a pug" (FLEA), but otherwise, I GLAAD-handed my way through the grid.

One of my favorite C/APs today was 34A:"Wait for it!" (TIP) - ha! I also enjoyed various old timey references including MRSLATE, of Flintstone fame and the expression "Belly up to the BAR" as well as the amusing new-timey QMC, "Got it all off his chest?" (MANSCAPED). Interesting that "Almost a quarter of the Super Bowl's run time" is ADS. :/

Fun that MARACA crossed CARACAS and that there was room for both IAMBS and FEET. In short, IDSAY today's puzzle contained a host of good clues and fine fill. 

~Frannie.

Tuesday, August 25, 2026, Bryan Kaproth-Gerecht

A big theme today, encompassing the whole solar system! The sun sits in the center of the grid, and each of its eight planets is named in the grid, and one letter in each is circled. That circle then represents the celestial wanderer and sits on its proper orbital ring. Really nice construction, and the constructor has even managed to work in some bonus material - the somewhat confusing, in this context, SUNS (Symbols of fair weather), the PERSEIDS (Summer meteor shower named for a mythological hero), AEON (Billion years, astronomically), and TITAN (Moon believed to have a subsurface ocean). 

My favorite clue today was "Something told with two hands?" (TIME). And maybe that's yet another bonus entry, because you can't think about the solar system without thinking about TIME, can you? And I suppose if we include that we'll have to also include ATOM (Focus of some physicists), because if you're thinking about the solar system and time, you're probably also thinking about science.

I didn't realize that a RAT could be "trained for bomb detection." Just another reminder that animals are smarter than we give them credit for. And it's always nice to have a little Emily Dickinson in the morning "'HOPE' is the thing with feathers -."

Nice Tuesday puzzle. 

- Horace 

Monday, August 24, 2026, Steven Jopek

An amusing theme today of HELLORHIGHWATER. Two theme entries describing Hell, and two high water:

UNDERWORLD - Criminals' sphere
PUGATORY - Stop in the afterlife

and

TIDALWAVE - Tsunami
ANGELFALLS - Natural wonder in Venezuela

It's almost unfortunate that one of the water references includes "angel," isn't it?, but still, I like the weirdness of the theme.

Lots of older references today - NADIA Comaneci, Yassir ARAFAT, ARETHA Franklin, ESTEE Lauder, ELLA Fitzgerald. Even APU Nahasapeemapetilon hasn't been heard from since 2017. I'd include Edgar Allan POE in that list, too, but he transcends time, and ERNIE Els might still be playing, for all I know, but any golfer gives old, right? (Sorry, ERNIE!).

Well, it's only Monday, and I don't want to keep you any longer than 18 minutes, so I'll see you on MARDI!

- Horace 

 

Sunday, August 23, 2026, Jill Singer

SMALL CHANGE

Today we have a tribute to the lowly, no-longer-produced-but-not-yet-demonetized (but has it been demonized?) penny. We've got two entries using two penny rebī apiece, a couple factoids about the penny, four Down answers that make use of said penny rebuses, and a quasi-revealer of PUTINYOURTWOCENTS. I thought the bonus "Where this puzzle's subject was last made for circulation (in November 2025)" answer, USMINT, was a little vague, but I guess fitting Philadelphia into the grid might have caused some issues. 

Having rebus squares in the puzzle, and the fact that they are used in both the Across and Down answers, made me think a little more about the use of a capital I as both an I and as the number 1. Does the crossing of PHASEI (Early stage of a drug trial) and KIDS (Offspring) feel slightly inelegant in this puzzle? And if we're going there, should we also worry about the crossing of ACS (Cooling units, in brief) and CCLEF (Musical staff symbol)? Probably not. I mean, the whole point of this puzzling business is to train our brains to be a little more plastic, isn't it?  

And speaking of clues, is OHFUN really the same as "Sounds like a blast!"? And have you ever heard anyone called NEOS (Modernists, informally)? No. You haven't. And what about "Protected space for women in the Ottoman Empire" (HAREM)? I mean, it's not wrong, but it also kind of is.

They drew from the playing card deck a few times today: ANTEUP (Get in the game?) (Penny ante?); "Deuce topper" (THREE) (Would have preferred "trey" here); and HITME ("I'll take another card"). And it gets a little aggressive in the SE with WISEOFF (Say something fresh) and SASSY (Cheeky).

Not my favorite puzzle ever, but they keep coming every day, so I'm not complaining. Much.

- Horace 

 

 

Saturday, August 22, 2026, Adrian Johnson

Looney Tunes has once again stood me in good stead. "Dish such as Germany's hasenpfeffer" (RABBITSTEW), at 1-Across, was made easier by having seen the animated short "Shishkabugs," in which Yosemite Sam tries to get Bugs Bunny into a large stewpot. As I remember things, Bugs survived. (I hope that doesn't cause you to yell NOSPOILERS!)

In other news, what is up with the box jellyfish having 24 EYES?! The ocean is full of weird things, but DONTSTRESS, only some of the things are deadly enough to put you INEXTREMIS. 

BRETHREN (Fellow fellows) is nice and uncommon. As, for that matter, is BOXPLOT (Analytical graphic that divides data into quartiles). I'm not SOLDON YESNODOUBT ("Absolutely, positively!") being a real thing, and "Anybody home?" is more common to me than ANYONEHOME, but I'll let them pass, because there were lots of fun and tricky clues today. 

"Volume control device?" (EREADER) stumped me twice! Once when I did the puzzle on paper, and then again when I re-did it online (quite a while later) in order to more easily review the clues while writing this review. (It's just the way I work sometimes!) "Tidbits of Greek culture?" (FETACHEESE) was tasty, "Success in another's field, say" (ROADWIN) was cute, and KEEPITPG (Refrain from foul language, say) has that great "ITPG" ending!

Best of the Turn, I'd say. How about you? What'd you think?

- Horace 

p.s. The Midi puzzle today is excellent. Beautiful work Mssrs. Newton and Livengood.

Friday, August 21, 2026, Adryel W. Robles Ojeda

Is a MEATBALLSUB really the same as an Italian hero? Perhaps the question mark in this case means "not exactly right, but we thought it was SODARNCUTE."

I'm done with following major league sports, so LAMELO Ball was unknown to me, and I couldn't even remember RYANCOOGLER's name, so the 2006 Fields medal winner (Terence TAO) was always going to be an "all crosses" answer. I'm not CRASHINGOUT or in a RAGE about it, I'm just giving my side.

Also, I took the time to figure out "La ti do, musically," but I wondered about the key of C being understood like that. Is it always? Should it be? "La ti do" in the key of A, for example, is F#G#A, and how are you going to fit that into a grid? 

JOSTLE (What big crowds do) is a nice word, it's somewhat amusing to learn that there is a spot called OOHAAHPOINT at the Grand Canyon, and the paired clues continue today with "Neighbor of Colo." (NEB) and "Neighbor of Ark." (TEX). 

- Horace