Wednesday, June 10, 2026, David J. Kahn and Ethan Quigley

The World Cup is coming to North America! It's first games were in 1930, and have been happening every four years since. So it's astonishing to find out that only eight countries have joined the exclusive club of WORLDCUPWINNERS. They are represented by their country code in the circled letters, each hidden in an answer that crosses the central spanning 8D answer. The first was Uruguay, and the most recent Argentina, with Brazil the most winningest club, with five victories. Germany and Italy each have four wins.

And to top it off, there's a bit of crosswordese that actually is theme related at 56D: Only player on three victorious teams in this puzzle (PELE). Nice!

I wonder if the USA will ever make it onto this list. I doubt it!

Museo REINA Sofía, in ESPaña

I find that when a puzzle is this dense with theme material, the clues for the non-theme entries tend towards the straightforward. I can see why that would need to happen: it can be challenging to find your way into a puzzle like this, and on a Wednesday, which is meant to be more difficult than the early weekdays but not to the level of a tricksy Thursday, it's important to give solvers a chance.

So I will overlook the questionable entries (TYS, I see you!), and note 45A: Cousin of a flugelhorn (CORNET) - very nice - and The Marvelous MIRIAM Maisel. I also look fondly on NOWISE, which reminds me of Pogo and of Foghorn Leghorn.

On to The Turn!

- Colum

Tuesday, June 9, 2026, Rebecca Goldstein

I was slowed down in my understanding of the theme by entering RUBSRed at 21A: Chafes excessively (RUBSRAW - a much more apt answer), but when that was corrected I saw the connection between the theme answers. But I still chuckled when I entered the revealer at 58A: Prediction of a negative outcome that is true of 21-, 28- and 47-Across (THISWONTENDWELL). That's a great twist, that also, incidentally, completes the progression of how done you like your meat.

Sadly, I FWOE'd today's puzzle. 64A: Sound of a cartoon hit (BOINK) I entered somewhat confidently BOINg. I don't think I've seen the actual answer much in a cartoon, but the other meaning of the word is likely too blue for the NYT!

LANA Del Rey

Funny that the "carnivorous cinematic alien" is the BLOB, a creature I haven't thought about in decades. But then I couldn't fit "xenomorph" into four squares.

I am always happy to see GNU in the grid. 

BYENOW!

Monday, June 8, 2026, Tom McCoy

Now this is what I call the ultimate in excellence in a Monday puzzle. What we're looking for in an early week grid is straightforward fill, smoothness of solve, and a clever but not too clever theme. 

Let's take the last first: the theme is revealed at 50A: Of the highest importance ... or, when parsed differently, what each bracketed number in the clues indicates? (PARAMOUNT). And then, when you look at 18A, 23A, and 41A, you find the numbers in the bracket increase from 1 to 3, indicating the number of "PAR" in each answer. Thus PARCHEESI, PARALLELPARKING, and PARTYPARTYPARTY. Nicely done!

An Inuit KAYAK

The solve flows nicely through the puzzle for the most part. The NW and SE corners are somewhat isolated, but the answers and clues in those regions are very straightforward, so it's not a problem. Outside of AGER, I don't find much of anything to complain about.

On the other hand, some lovely fill includes 43D: What misers take to an extreme (THRIFT), which always reminds me of Hamlet:

"Thrift, thrift, Horatio. The funeral baked meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables."

What an amazing line.

Also, the fact that Bert Lahr was a LEO. Apt. Apt! 

And 13D: Characterize? (SPELL). Hah!

- Colum

Sunday, June 7, 2026, Adam Wagner and Simeon Seigel

 SPLIT SECONDS

While some are whiling away time in what seems like sunny Italia (if the pictures on Horace's BeReal are anything to go by), I have to make do with New York City in the early Summer. It's nothing to sneeze at! Unless you are dealing with allergies, like some bloggers. Ah well, there's alway the New York Times Crossword to take your mind off of sniffling.

Today we have the ingenious idea of a series of three answers which can be reparsed into two answers by putting them all together and then split them somewhere in the middle. So 22A (GATECH - that's Georgia Tech), 23A (ANGELIC) and 24 (ENSURE) can be split into GATECH/ANGE and LIC/ENSURE. 

I am impressed with the way the words recombine in these creations! SOLI/STEN and CHES/STABLES is nice in the way the T changes from a silent sound to a sounded one. The reverse happens with the C in CHIAS/MUS and CLEMEN/TINES. We even lose a syllable in THEREST/IME and then regain it in ANTIT/HEFT.

To top it off, we get a revealer in the middle at 66A: Amount that "ain't bad," so to speak ... or what to make with six sets of answers in this puzzle? (TWOOUTOFTHREE).

A classic SCONE

It was fun to figure out what was going on with each set of answers, which drove the enjoyment of the solve. But we had room for some fun clues as well! How about 7D: Lofty pitches (HIGHCS) - challenging to see that clearly! And 112: Chest beaters? (HEARTS) was nice. 

I'll also give a shout out to SONOFA, and to PHOEBE, who I hope can enjoy a good Sunday puzzle even as she's dealing with an unwell pet.

- Colum

Saturday, June 6, 2026, Daniel Bodily

Although I was a little daunted by the sheer volume of white squares when I first looked at today's grid, I got going like a hot ICESAW through butter, even with a quantity of unknown-to-me items like MOMALA, NCISLA, EMILIANO, LUISE Rainer, and INTELSAT. However, I came to a grinding halt in the top left. This, despite the fact that I confidently entered UHAULVAN for "Moving day rental" right off the bat, and guessed what I thought was the tricky - and fun - SCHMEARS ("Spreads out in the morning?). The Stravinsky quote took me a while to figure out, I am unfamiliar with MUNSHI ("Hindu clerk"), the tricky QMC "T-slots?" for ARMHOLES stumped me, and I didn't rub up against the idea of ROSINED right away. I was on the RAGGEDEDGE for some time, but eventually, I was able to BURNSAGE and cleanse the negative energy in that quadrant. 

Fill-wise, I enjoyed CORNCRIB, WAYFARER,  and ERSATZ. In addition to the kickoff QMC mentioned above, I also liked "Religious right?" (AMENDMENTI), but my favorite C/AP today was a non-QMC "Ce n'est pas du fast food" ESCARGOT. Ha! 

~Frannie. 

Friday, June 5, 2026, Kelly Morenus

I could blame it on any number of things – a slightly drugged state, lack of sleep, jet lag, or the fact that I’d just landed in Rome – but one thing is for sure, I had a tough time with today’s puzzle. I looked at clues at random (see drugged state above) and found none that I could drop right in and very few that I had a guess for. I’m not complaining – it is Friday after all – just describing the situation as I experienced it. About the third time through, and after a caffè ristretto, things began to look up.:)

Loyal readers of this blog know I don’t favor “quotation” clues and we have two grid-spanning whoppers almost right out of the gate (not to mention another one in the bottom half). I chipped away at the crossing Downs and finally made some enough headway so I could guess the answers. The S from EMTS forced me to consider SIS for “Gal pal” but, as something of a woman myself, and a sister several times over, I found that an odd clue/answer pair. Also, DIAPERS must have been upgraded some since I last changed ‘em. My only experience was with pins and tape, not snaps. And GRR for [Get away]” was odd, unless it was vocalized from the point of view of a dog, maybe? 

Anyhoo, here are a few of the clues that lead me down the garden path: “Lecture setting” (DAIS) - I had hall - “Round striker” (PEEN), “Something you could see right through” (IRIS), Not so rich, so to speak” (LITE), "Fjji, e.g." (REDAPPLE), “Kind of figure” (PLANE), and “Summons” (HAILS). Also odd-to me was the clue “Destination” for AIM. Add all that to the variety of “fact” clues that I didn’t know (CAVA, the so-called Champagne of Spain, ROALD Hoffman, ANNA Arnold Hedgemen, etc.) and you have a recipe for disaster, at least until this reviewer GOOSES themselves up with some strong coffee. 

I did enjoy Where 22-Across is” (HERE). Heh. Also “Canal entry” (EAR) because ERIE. Ha. I thought the QMC “Coat on a tip?” POLISH was trixy.

I’ll close with a shout out to local Clover restaurants in the Boston/Cambridge area. Their last day was  going to be Thursday, May 28 due to financial difficulties, but we learned yesterday that due to an outpouring of support, they REOPENED this week. 

~Frannie

Thursday, June 4, 2026,

Four squares in today's grid are larger than the rest. What does each one represent? A BIGBOXSTORE. The name of a nationwide retail establishment is to be entered, in rebus form, inside each big box: ALDI, LOWES, IKEA, and GAP. I particularly liked the minimalist 11A: "Last over the line, say" that needed to add only two letters to LOWES for S[LOWES]T. Also fun that the composer of "The Four Seasons" contains an ALDI (VIV[ALDI]). Except for those two answers, the store names bridge the other two-word phrases, which I think is neat. I thought all the two-word phrases worked L[IKEA]CHARM. Its partner STR[IKEA]POSE and the pair ME[GAP]LEXES and YO[GAP]OSES were good. 

While the theme answers anchor the puzzle, there's a lot more to look at elsewhere in the mall - I mean grid. I enjoyed "Middlemen in illicit transactions" for FENCES, "Become enamored with" for TAKETO, "It's a matter of degrees" for ANGLE, and "Disguise in a way" for ENCODE. I was pleased to see that Shakespeare and his signature ACTV showed up again today. :) And who doesn't love a Bob ROSS reference? 

For the first time ever, I think, there was a directional clue that I could figure out and enter instead of just waiting to see how it filled in: "Montreal-to-Boston dir." (SSE). A small, but satisfying personal victory. :) OTOH, "Nursery purchases" for SOILS really threw me for a loop, even when I had S_ILS. I was rocking the wrong cradle on that one. 

I enjoyed the French-leaning ALACARTE, SOIREE, and EST ("Part of the conjugation of être") and fill-wise CHASM, SERAPHS, and SMARM are excellent. My favorite QMC clue was "Soft rock?" for MAGMA, but I've got to give a shout out to what I think is a fun non-QMC clue "Small square" (ONE). Mathtacular!

~Frannie.