Thursday, August 13 2026, Killian Olson

A delightful puzzle today, with a clever theme that was opaque to me until the revealer made it all make sense in the end.  Going through the Across clues, we encounter four in italics, straightforward enough except their (evident) answers either don't match the crossers, or don't fit the available squares:

• 17A "Mafia members, e.g." should be MOBSTERS but it's LOBSTERS
• 26A "Alimony recipients, say" should be EXSPOUSES (too long!) but it's ESPOUSES
• 41A "Drinks at a pub" should be ALES (too short!) but it's AXLES
• 53A "11th of a noted 12" should be AQUARIUS but it's AQUARIUM

I had all this written in by the time I encountered the revealer "Evaluating, as an opponent", whose answer SIZINGUP makes the above make sense - the 'M' in MOBSTERS is 'sized up' to 'L' to make LOBSTERS, and so on.  Very neat, and the idea to include XS and XL as 'sizes' is downright brilliant!

The very first letter of the grid is a 'Z' (say it with me : ZED) and of course, that gets the ol' antennae quivering - and sure enough, the crossword is a pangram!!  Always impressive and I didn't find it forced at all.

No big snags to report here, aside from some initial theme-related confusion.  I had a false start with ZIPPO at 1D for '0' (it's ZILCH) but other than that, everything flowed nicely.

Elsewhere in the news:  We've all seen the RICOLA commercials, right?  Is that really yodeling? .. I got a kick out of the clue for PBJ ("Sandwich that may be a bit crunchy.." <-- emphasis on MAY, for those of us in the smooth-PB camp). This, by the way, joins BRRS ("Verbalized shivers") as the Vowelless Answers o' the Day.  And there's EKE again, this time clued as "Pull (out), as a narrow victory"!  We need some sort of bureau of standards to weigh in on this word, finally.

Signing off till tomorrow..

-philbo

Wednesday, August 12 2026, Adrienne Baik

Today's puzzle is right up my alley as an old computer nerd, AND as a licenced operator of automobiles.  The dual theme is revealed by the central grid-spanning answer INTERNETTRAFFIC, and the theme answers, reading top to bottom, tell a little driving story, couched in IT terms:

Went for a GOOGLEDRIVE ...
Drove at excessive NETWORKSPEEDS...
Caused a COMPUTERCRASH...
And now there's a SERVERDELAY

Fun!  There's such a thing as PACKETCOLLISION in network-speak, which would also have been apt!  PRINTERJAM perhaps less so, though most printers *are* networked these days. 

Elsewhere, I tip my hat to the inventive cluing of the pedestrian words ONE ("Only number to appear twice in the Fibonacci sequence") and THE ("Hot French beverage").  Another short one - RUG ("Throw, for instance") - actually threw (SWIDT(*)) me for a moment:  I thought it was RIG, which would have also made sense.  And CTRLC ("PC 'copy' shortcut) was downright vowellessly cheeky, if you ask me.

I had to look up ARO to make sense of why it means "feeling little to no amorous attraction".  Learn something new every day!

That's all I got.  See you tomorrow!

-philbo

(*) See What I Did There

Tuesday, August 11 2026, Wade Bednar

Today's crossword is of the "embedded word" variety, with the longer answers containing theme words, tied together with the standard revealer down near the bottom of the grid.  And the theme?  Chinese dynasties - to wit:

• FLAMINGLIPS (psychedelic rock band)
• HANSZIMMER (German film composer)
• WUTANGCLAN (Hip-hop group)

...all revealed by SONGDYNASTY - apparently the first Chinese government to establish a permanent navy.  Nice factoid!  There's cleverness here that I didn't get right away - at first I thought, ho hum, embedded dynasty names - but lo! the substrates are all musically connected, and the revealer dynasty is SONG - aha!  So I take back my "ho hum".  

Outside the theme - I liked the hyperbolic clue for DOI ("Abso-freaking-lutely!") ... interesting intersection of ELMO and ELM in the NE corner ... "People hold complicated positions on it" was a great clue for TWISTERMAT,  I have vague recollections of playing Twister as a kid, blissfully unaware that it's really more of an adult game.  

I take slight issue with the C/AP "Duck down" = EIDER at 33D.  Yes, "eider down" is a thing, but an EIDER is a type of duck.  I feel like this not an EIDER-or thing.  (Or maybe I just wanted to slip this groaner in, here)

There was an odd moment in the SE corner when it looked like the "big export of Myanmar" was going to be RABIES.  "What the heck?" I thought.  (It's RUBIES.)

All in all a nice puzzle, which would not have been out of place on Monday.

Onwards and upwards!

-philbo

Monday, August 10 2026, Nate Cardin

The notable thing about today's puzzle is that Mr. Cardin has managed to incorporate six theme clues into the grid, including the revealer, which does double duty as a theme answer itself.  Great construction, and I do love me some good recursion!!

It wasn't hard to see what was going on.  As I worked my way down the grid, gentle even for a Monday, I encountered SIDEBYSIDE ("Next to each other, like many washers and dryers"), PLAYBYPLAY ("Detailed, real-time description of events") and then STEPBYSTEP, apparently both a 1990's sitcom title and a New Kids on the Block hit (I knew neither of these) - so it was clear what the pattern was.  Sure enough, the revealer "Many an off-road vehicle..." is of course FOURBYFOUR, which describes the theme perfectly - two four-letter words side by side - and is also pleasingly self-referential.  Big kudos from me!

Not much to report otherwise.  I did not know that Anne Lamott recommends tackling big writing projects BIRDBYBIRD.  Seems kind of weird but I'm sure there's some sort of case-in-point, or metaphor, underlying it.  And "Foggy mental state" (HAZE) made me sad as that's the state of the air in our westernmost province right now.  My brother's there, trying to cope and helping out however he can.  Thoughts and prayers, for what they're worth...

Anyway.  Fun, easy Monday puzzle with a great theme.

-philbo

Sunday, August 9 2026, Erik Agard

Howdy out there in Crossword-land!  Philbo here, back for another week of blogging - and what do I get right out of the gate, but a rare themeless Sunday puzzle authored by Erik Agard, who absolutely slayed at this year's ACPT!  And a chunky puzzle it is, with a paucity of black squares, two grid-spanning double-stacks at top and bottom and a big fat block of intersecting long answers occupying the centre of the grid.  Somewhat intimidating out of the box!

I needn't have worried, though.  Thanks to really fair cluing and nothing terribly obscure, this turned into a pleasant, gentle solve on my sun bench, with family helping out with a clue or two.  At the top of that chunky centre block, LIFESPAN was my way in ("Up to 150 years, for a tortioise" - what else could it have been?).  I worked my way downwards to the very amusing and excellently-clued BEESTING ("Honey boo-boo?" - who can forget that reality show from a decade+ ago?).

Aside from entering AWOKEN instead of ARISEN for "Up for the day", my only real problem was with the very first grid-spanning clue "Swimmer's invitation" (COMEONINTHEWATERSFINE) - I had it ending with WARM, and then NICE, until the crossers finally came to the rescue, one of which was another great QMC - "12 letters?" (XII), and another - AFROMAN - a rapper of whom I've never heard. Much messy scribbling in the NE corner!

I feel like I'm not able to do this puzzle proper justice here - there are just too many satisfying moments, especially in the longer clues, to enumerate.  There's no "trick" or gimmick to explain - just a solid, satisfying experience top to bottom. If you're reading this, I hope you can relate to what I'm saying.

Just one little nit at the bottom.  I'm pretty sure there should be an extra 'D' in "ODS bodkins!" as a bygone oath, although the the search I did on alternate spellings was, admittedly, somewhat cursory (see what I did there?).

Off to enjoy the sunny day, tempered somewhat by the fact that the western end of my country is on fire right now :(   Back atcha tomorrow!

-philbo

Saturday, August 8, 2026, Kameron Austin Collins

Ooh! Any time I see Mr. Collins' byline, I know I'm in for a fun solve with interesting choices of entries and clues, in a chunky grid. And today does not disappoint!

I found myself drifting through the grid, filling in what I could to get a more solid entry. I found my stride in the fourth corner I worked to in a clockwise fashion, the southwest, and then worked my way back around counterclockwise to finish up in the northwest.

The very fun 21A: Summertime top (SLEEVELESST) was one of the challenges for sure. That last ____SST just didn't make sense for a long time. 18A: Slippery slope (WATERSLIDE) is my favorite kind of clue, the non-QMC, tricky but not with the obvious signifier of a "?". SERIESE is another tough get at 5D. Two answers in the same region with a single letter word!

PENG

Finding EVITAPERON crossing SPANAKOPITA is just lovely. And how about 36A: They're taken off for boudoir photos (LENSCAPS)? Another great non-QMC, teasing at a blue answer but veering off to the literal instead.

The pair of French answers in the southwest are just as pretty as the BELLEAMIE referred to. ENPASSANT has entered the English language in its own right.

STEEVE is an unusual word, which remains in the term "stevedore," the person responsible for loading or unloading cargo on a ship in port. I questioned it initially, but accepted it to complete the puzzle.

Fun week! Philbo will take over the blogging. 

- Colum

Friday, August 7, 2026, Jesse Cohn

Let's start with the great clue at 2D: Cuisine with the #1 dish in a CNN "World's 50 Best Foods" poll (THAI). Not that I would complain - I just had Thai food last night, and it was great. But what is this poll, and how does it have the authority to show up in a Friday NYT Xword? 

Poll might be a strong word here. It seems it was the travel staff of the CNN website who came up with this list. It's an odd one: buttered popcorn is #50, and poutine is higher ranked than potato chips. Donuts are ranked higher than croissants (very questionable). Anyway, Massaman curry takes the top spot. Hmmm. It was fun reading, anyway!

Meanwhile, the puzzle has a lot of fun colloquial phrases, like CATSOUTOFTHEBAG, AREWEATHING, IHADNOIDEA, and ABITETOEAT. 

TOONS

1A: What suggests relief is at hand? (STRESSBALL) is a great way to start the puzzle. I love the literalism of the "at hand" here. 42A: Opportunity on Mars, say (ROVER) is a good example of a hidden capital. 

It's a smooth themeless puzzle, and I always enjoy that. 

- Colum