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

Wednesday, May 13, 2026, Brian Keller

What a clever theme! And odd as well, befitting Wednesday, the hump-day red-headed stepchild of the week's crossword puzzles. A theme that is too challenging for Monday and Tuesday, but not tricksy like Thursday.

Today we must press the SHIFTKEY in order for the answers to the starred clues to work. Thus, instead of "equals" for 17A: *Peers, we get PLUSSIGN. Instead of "Slash" for 47A: *Guns N' Roses guitarist, we get QUESTIONMARK. The grid spanning OPENPARENTHESIS is the icing on the cake. I particularly like that Mr. Keller chose to use non-numbers for two of his answers.

SANSA Stark, a boon to Crossword constructors

The Northeast corner is delightful. I entered into with 24A and 30A already in place, and I saw that I had ____MT at 10D. How could that work? In one way only, with DREAMT. Then, 11D: Toothbrush handle? (ORALB) is very good. And how about 19A: Order to relax (ATEASE)? So good how the first word of the clue could be either a noun or a verb, confusing the solver.

With SAKE and a COSMO in the mix, it's a puzzle that helps to take the edge off.

- Colum

Tuesday, May 12, John Ruff

I fell down a rabbit hole after finishing this puzzle. Why does US and UK spelling differ on this particular point - O vs OU? It's a separate question from why British spelling is in general so insane. "Wriothesley" pronounced "Risley." "Auchinleck" pronounced "Affleck." And so on.

This interesting article has some great examples of early inconsistency in the First Folio edition of Shakespeare. It then posits that Samuel Johnson's monumental undertaking of his dictionary standardized spelling in strange ways: why "humour" but also "humorous?" Why "honourable" but also "honorary?" Can you imagine the challenges in creating cryptic crosswords? Or maybe that's the point!

In America, Noah Webster quite properly suggested easy simplifications for the English language, which were adopted. Let's face it. That U is doing nothing helpful.

OGEE, look what I found!

Regardless, today's puzzle has a clever twist on this: OHYOUAREBRITISH, spelling out the circled letters from the other three theme answers. Is it a misdirection that all three cities referenced in the clues have counterparts in the US?

Meanwhile, I could do without STYE as an answer, but I fear that ship has sailed. It's too useful a combination of letters. And I'm sure Mr. Ruff could not have forseen the current issue with Hantavirus when he put OUTBREAKS in the puzzle. 

On the other hand, I love a sackbut, and TROMBONE is another fine instrument. As a Neurologist, I also like seeing ABDUCTORS in the puzzle. It is the lateral rectus muscle that abducts the eye, while the medial rectus adducts it. Useless information is my specialty.

- Colum