Sunday, August 30, 2026, Daniel Grinberg

WRITTEN IN THE STARS

Hey folks! Can you believe the summer is almost over? I'm enjoying the last weekend in August sitting on our screened porch in Albany, taking a break from the city. I wouldn't say it's been the most relaxing summer I've ever had because of reasons, but we enjoy what we can when we can.

Speaking of which, how about enjoying the NYT crossword? The Sunday edition is always a bit of an outlier for a number of reasons: it can accommodate more and longer theme answers, which allows for more absurdity, which I like. But it is also larger, which can make the solve a bit of a slog sometimes, and it may be tilted towards an early-week level of difficulty.

Sadly, today's puzzle is not one for absurdity. The theme is revealed at 69A: Ones making periodic appearances ... or the link between the capitalized clues and their answers (RECURRINGCHARACTERS). In essence, the connection is that the names of the individuals in the clue and the associated answer are made up of combinations of the same limited set of letters. This sort of theme is interesting but not intellectually stimulating. Knowing that Martin Sheen and HENRIMATISSE use all of and only A, E, H, I, M, N, R, S, and T makes me say, "OHREALLY?" And that's it.

POLOCOATS - something I've never heard of

In the rest of the fill, I liked the clue 61A: Four to two, e.g. (SQUARE) - not odds, not ratio, not a moment in time. 15D: Stout figure? (BREWER) is a cute QMC. 

Having FUNNYGIRL and GIGI in the same grid, along with ARIA and SOLI all scratched my music itch. 

So it's a fine Sunday, not the best, but I did get to solve it sitting on my porch in nice weather, so I'm happy.

- Colum

Saturday, August 29, 2026, Rafael Musa and Kate Chin Park

Although I entered the answer to 1 Across as easy as ABCS, most of the rest of my solve was SORANDOM. I can't count the number of times I had to run the alphabet to generate ideas for what an answer might be. Fortunately, the system worked, and aside from the occasional USERERROR, I figured out the twisty or tricky answers, which very often elicited a pleasing 'aha' moment. My last entry was at the cross between CHENG ("Romanization of the common Chinese surname 程") and "Work, as a joke." My brain, it PARSES 'work' as a noun not a verb, and it continues to do so for the entire puzzle. I only made sense of it after the puzzle was complete. 

Other misinterpretation PITTs I fell into include "Ones giving a toast at an outdoor party?" (PATIOHEATERS) - even with the question mark, it took me a bit to arrive at the correct meaning of toast. Another such was "Stepped-on instrument" for SCALE. I was thinking musical rather than gravitational. Another problem was simply not understanding the clue, as in "Green day star, for short" for STPAT. Derp.

I enjoyed the pairing of SUSHIBOAT and ALIENSHIP. C/AP-wise, I liked "Court session, perhaps" for TENNISLESSON, "Naturally concluded" for RANITSCOURSE, "Depicts stylishly" for PAINTS, "It goes on top" for SHIRT, and the tricky-for-me, "Nearly 90" for BPLUS. 

The grid-spanning BULLINACHINASHOP was excellent. Fill-wise, I also enjoyed LOGARITHM, MOHAIR, ERSTWHILE, and the amusing - and slightly OUTRE - BIGASS for "Humongous, slangily." Ha. 

It's the end of my week here at HAFDTNYTCPFCAWCFPT-F, so "A word in closing": THUS.

~Frannie.

Friday, August 28, 2026, Jack Hatchett

Today, it seemed to me as if every clue was either a trick I didn't get or something I straight up didn't know. When I did finally complete the grid, I had a FWOE that caused several problems, which I then rationalized away. One of the things I didn't know was the "Mythical figure in 'Doctor Faustus.'" After I got HAROLDRAMIS ("Frequent collaborator with Bill Murray" - a space into which Rick Moranis and Wes Anderson also fit, just FYI), I knew the answer started with an H. I guessed 'HadEs' and accepted the resulting Down answers because, from where I sat, aGIRLS was as likely to be correct as the actual answer EGIRLS. After that, I decided I'd ask Horace later why "Screen capture?" was dINT, then I cavalierly dismissed sEED because it *is* a valid word... Anyhoo, those of you who are following along at home know that 'HadEs should have been HELEN, 'dINT' should have been the clever and amusing LINT and that 'sEED' should have been NEED ("Sine qua non"). Derp. 

There were plenty of other clever QMCs, unknown answers, and multi-dimensional clues that contributed to the challenging nature of the puzzle. IMO, the best of the nicely ambiguous clues were "Step in the shower" for RINSE, "Certain elastic band" (SINEW), "Something read at a table" (TELL), "Spirit seen on el Dia de los Muertos" (MEZCAL), and the one that had me stalled for some time, "Jazz aficionado, e.g." (NBAFAN) because I couldn't give up on jazz-as-music reference. 

Some stellar QMCs were "Flame proof?" for ASH,  "Lightning conductor?" for THOR, and my favorite, "Unprofessional letters?" (DIY). Fill-wise, I admired RONALDINHO, AMALGAMATE, and SCREAMO. 

This solver is not a big fan of "quotation clues," as I call them. I never seem to be able to find the proper equivalents for the quoted phrases in question. There were at least five in this grid, which left me type-tied for a bit, but I did end up enjoying the answers WELLWELLWELL ("'Would ya look at that ...'") as well a sentiment that was not an apt representation of my solve experience today, ITSABREEZE ("'Easy-peasy!'"). :)

~Frannie.

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