Wednesday, April 22, 2026, Hoang-Kim Vu

Happy Earth Day, Everyone! We've got a heck of a puzzle to celebrate it with, so let's get right to it.

The classic refrain of REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE is invoked today to create a very clever puzzle. Each of the three pillars of the environmental motto is represented in a different way in the grid. First, the three Across answers with circles in them take one answer and REDUCE it to a synonym, as in "Spurred on" being answered with ENCOURAGED first, and then the circled URGED, or "One offering lessons" being answered with INSTRUCTOR and then TUTOR. Beautiful. Second, REUSE is represented by the word CAN being used four different times. Hah. And finally, for RECYCLE, four answers are created by reusing the first three or four letters of a word in the second half of the answer in a different order, as in REAPPEAR for "Emerge once more" and TEAMMATE for "You might pass to one." The more I write and think about this, the better it gets. It's just really, really well done. 

What else is there to say? Well, I suppose I should add that for all that beautiful theme, it doesn't even feel like there's much slop or glue. Sure, our old crossword friends Teri GARR and UTA Hagen make appearances, but there's nothing wrong with that. And there's the usual smattering of abbreviations: USC, UPC, NSC, ATVS, VSOP, etc. Again, nothing outrageous. We even get some entries that feel like bonuses - GOODALL (Jane ____ Institute (wildlife conservation group), some nice pairings - CELTIC and GAELIC for "Like some Scots" - and some fancy words - LOUCHE (Rakish) and AVERSE (Opposed (to)). 

Really, just a lovely, lovely puzzle. 

- Horace 

Tuesday, April 21, 2026, Victoria Fernandez Grande

The day is off to a FLYINGSTART, with airline companies beginning each theme answer: Spirit, United, Frontier, and Delta. Nice, tidy Tuesday theme. I have no complaints.

How is it that I have never before heard of the Haitian currency unit, the GOURDE? (You don't need to answer that.) Seems like that would have come up somewhere along the way, but no, you may count me among the IDIOTS. No SAGE, I. Another thing that hasn't come up a lot for me is TEAURN (Steeping container), and while I believe that the GOURDE is a thing, I am more skeptical about a TEAURN. Coffee urn, sure, but I wanted tea pot, or even tea cup. Anywhoo...

What about the things that I did like? Well, I enjoyed seeing YIELDS for "Surrenders" at the outset. Nice to have something other than "cedes." And SPURN (Snub) is a nice word. Well, not a nice word, but you know what I mean. And we watch a lot of BritBox, so it was fun to see ERM (Hesitation sound across the pond) in the grid. 

No actual CONS to speak of in this one, and that makes for a quick review, but "ITLL have to do."

- Horace 

p.s. I went looking for images of ASPS on papyrus to use for the photo today, but they're not all that easy to find! 

Monday, April 20, 2026, Freddie Cheng

Kind of a funny theme today where NATURECALLS are hidden in theme answers. As in:

T[WOOF]HEARTS - Low red card in a deck
CHOOC[HOOT]RAINS - Locomotives, to kids
T[HISS]UCKS (!) - "The worst!"  
MET[ROAR]EA - City and its surroundings
NOTROU[BLEAT]ALL - "Don't mention it – it was easy"

BLEAT is a nice word, isn't it? 

Continuing one of my hobby horses since restarting the blog, there are several entries that might not have passed the Sunday Morning Test a decade or so ago. First is the theme entry THISSUCKS. It's a little crass, but times have changed. ASS has been in puzzles for a long time, but usually clued with something like "donkey," not "____-backward." And I'll also include EARWIG in this category, because they are such disturbing creatures. EWW! And really, the revealer itself, with its "I need to use the bathroom" clue... OK, I know I'm coming off as something of a prude (and as someone who uses the phrase "something of a...") but I am just doin' my job! (ITRY).

And here's another thing... I love the word TRAIPSE, but never have I thought of it as meaning "Walk wearily." Sure, the AI summary will support this clue, but if you look in Merriam-Webster it just says "To go on foot: Walk," and "to walk or travel about without apparent plan." This is more how I think of it, and how I use it. I like its lighter meaning. And sure, I know that it's fair game to use third and fourth level definitions, but this one has such a nice primary definition, why not use "Wander," or "Meander?"  

But apart from that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?

- Horace 

Sunday, April 19, 2026, Michael Lieberman

NUCLEAR FUSION

It's a Sunday puzzle with a rebus, but I'm not exactly sure what the rebus is doing, or why the puzzle is titled "Nuclear Fusion." A first, with ISLAN[DH]OPPED (Traveled from Syros to Naxos to Mykonos, say), I thought, OK, the center two letters are fused into one square, and that idea sort of still works with IFEE[LG]REAT ("That was rejuvenating!"), but it's three words instead of just two, making it a little less elegant. But then we look at the Downs that run off the rebuses, and we find that they are all four-letter, two-word answers, with rebuses at both ends and the same two letters in the middle. As in: [DH]EA[DT] (Race that's too close to call) (to be read as "dead heat"). Maybe this is the real theme? The nuclei of both Down words are fused? But then what of the Acrosses? They are just working in service of the Downs. (And yes, I am fully ready for there to be some beautiful explanation that I just didn't GET on this early Sunday morning, and if you know what that explanation is, please tell me in the comments.)

So, the theme is a little hard to figure out, at least for this rusty blogger, but taken as a themeless with a ton of variable rebus squares, it was a lot of fun. So we're all HAPP[YC]AMPERS, right? Or was it HOHUM?

"Locks up?" (HAIR) didn't quite work for me. I would have preferred something like "coif." Hair just seems to general for that "up" in the clue. On the other hand, I did like the aha moment when PRISM (What might be found at the end of a rainbow) came clear. Nice one.

PALISADE (Defensive fortification) is a lovely word, isn't it? I prefer the plural version that doesn't have anything to do with conflict, but still... and just after that in the puzzle was a word I did not know: FAE (Winged beings of folklore). I see from xwordinfo.com that it has appeared three times before this, in puzzles that I probably completed, but I did not remember it. Perhaps this time I will. 

And finally, another word I don't remember hearing before, but that I enjoyed learning: PROMPOSAL (Elaborate invitation from a senior, maybe). Hah!

Overall, I enjoyed figuring out the rebuses, and there were some fun entries. What did you think of it?

- Horace 

Saturday, April 18, 2026, Jesse Cohn

What was I just saying about large areas of white in a Saturday puzzle? This grid features stacked thirteens and fourteens with a nice nine-letter entry dead center. Not the chunkiest, but not bad at all. For me, the top went a lot easier than the bottom, and I ended in the SE, where I knew neither DWADE (All-time scoring leader for the Miami Heat, familiarly) nor MARTIN (Mathematics writer Gardner), but was saved by three fine clues - "Cutting stuff" (SATIRE), "Cuts a line?" (EDITS), and "It takes two hands to show" (TEN). Hah!

The long entries were all solid. Interesting, but not surprising, to learn that the CALIFORNIAROLL is a "Dish purportedly invented in Los Angeles's Little Tokyo neighborhood." CROCODILETEARS (Make-believe sorrow) is as close to a gimme as you're going to get on a Saturday, but ROOKIEMISTAKE (Cause of amusement to a vet, maybe) took a few crosses, and got a smile when it finally came clear.

More evidence of the bar for acceptable words and phrases being lowered over the past decade in SAFEWORD (Term in the bedroom, maybe). When that topic comes up, ODDS are you can RESTEASY, and you know you're INFOR "a treat." Ahem.

My favorite clue today was "How people get into a swimming pool, typically." It made me think of things like "all at once," or "little by little," but no, it was BAREFOOT. Hah! "Silky-haired toy," tricked me too, although I don't know why, as "toy" is used so frequently to mean "dog." Anyway, that one is MALTESE, not Barbie, or anything like that. And finally into the "false start" category I put "Breakfast dish that might go over well?" I dropped in FlapjackS off the F in SPINOFF ("The Jeffersons" or "The Simpsons," notably) (OK, that was also a gimme...), but no, the answer was FRIEDEGGS. 

Overall, a fun, challenging puzzle with very little slop (I'm looking at you, LIM and GEOS).

- Horace     

 

Friday, April 17, 2026, Rachel Fabi

A solid Friday puzzle pinned by two grid spanners running through the middle. ONAPOSITIVENOTE ("Bad news aside ...") is, well, positive, but I have never heard anyone use the term DARKESTTIMELINE (Worst of all imaginable chronologies). That could well just be me, though. Speaking of, I'm not sure I run with a crowd that uses DEADASS (Seriously, in modern slang) either. I'm getting up to the age where people are more likely to be talking about PARTB (Medicare subsection covering ambulance services). But before we get off of the topic of ass, if you haven't already seen it, this is pretty funny.

But back to the puzzle. The clue for ORCA (Sea creature known to mourn its dead) is troubling, isn't it? Elephants do this too, and crows. More and more we are made to realize that we are not the only animals on Earth who have emotions. And while this should not be surprising, since we sometimes act as though other humans have no emotions, every time I hear it, it makes me emotional. 

I thought the clue for REOIL (Start to season, as a skillet) didn't work well, but there were several others that were clever and/or fun, to wit, "Sticker that usually comes in sets of three or four?" (PRONG), "Get to the point?" (TAPER), "Stop being such a baby" (GROWUP), "What's going around?" (GIRTH), and the classic "Student center" (DEE). Ahhh ... crosswords.

- Horace 

Thursday, April 16, 2026, Rafael Musa and Sala Wanetick

What better day to return to blogging than a Thursday? It's the start of The Turn, as we call the Thursday-Friday-Saturday string of puzzles, and it's a perfect one for our restart, because I get to mention Bruce Haight again. He created a puzzle with two large black-square Is in 2016, and I gave it a not-very-positive review. I met him in person a couple months after posting that review, and we discussed that puzzle, my review, and the whole idea of "stunt puzzles." It gave me a better understanding of the constructor's art, and it made try to be a more balanced reviewer. So, thanks again, Bruce.

 

Now then, on to today's T-ridden grid. You'd think after all this time that I'd take a look at the shape of the grid right away. And to be fair, sometimes I do, but it's usually on a Saturday, when I marvel at huge swaths of open space. Today, I was so bent on finishing quickly so I could start the review (he offers as an excuse), that I just tried to get a foothold anywhere I could. When I finally realized what was going on and widened my view to see the six bold Ts staring out at me... well, I felt like an idiot. 

So what am I talking about? The revealer, DOWN TOAT explains that fifteen (!) Down answers use those large black-square Ts to complete the answers. And all the entries are valid and mostly normal. Some are quite good, even - "Source of a deal with The Devil?" (TAROT), and the nice geologic clue "Igneous rock that makes up most of Venus's surface" (BASALT). Sure, I can come up with that quickly, but could I remember that TOPAZ was number 8 on the Mohs Scale at the A.C.P.T? Not until it was almost too late! ... grumble grumble... 

Sorry, sidebar. 

OK, so the best clue today was "This isn't working!" for LEISURE. That's beautiful.

- Horace