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.

Wednesday, June 3, 2026, Jiahe Men

Today's theme revealer is TRIPLE THREAT, and one could say that today's puzzle is, itself, a triple threat, as the theme is multi-faceted. I looked it up and "triple threat" is defined as "highly skilled in three distinct but related areas," which I think is a fun fit with the "EGOT contender" element of the clue. Additionally, the puzzle has six theme answers in which one letter appears three times in a row. Add to that the fact that the tripled letters in each of the shaded areas spell out OR ELSE, a threat of its own and there you go, a trifecta. The theme answers were all good, although I personally prefer the term "Tree Book" to DEADTREEEDITION, but that would in no way suit today's theme. 

Solve-wise, I found this puzzle more challenging than the average Wednesday. It included a lot of people and things unknown to me like SADIE Sink, Linda PERRY, negitoro roll, SHAKA and, PADSEEEW, but, fortunately, still enough stuff for me to make a tri-dent. 

I noticed a welcome number of female references, the two referenced above, plus RIOTGRRRL, CARLY Rae Jepson, MAAM, and Tu Youyou, discoverer of a lifesaving treatment for MALARIA. I thought for a minute that there might be no "male" answers in the puzzle, but we do have IAGO, and NYY is clued by referencing Mssrs. October and November. Still, WOOT! :) 

I enjoyed the idea of a "dank" or "deep-fried" MEME, even though I'm not 100% sure exactly what about a meme would engender either of those descriptions. Perhaps because IMTOOOLDFORTHIS. I was amused by the reality check on transport options in the CARS movies that don't really make sense if "everyone" is a car. Heh. In a nice crossover event, we have AHAB intersecting with SHIP. My favorite C/AP today was "Give a makeup test?" for ASSAY. Ha! 

OTOH, perhaps because the constructor had to tri so hard to get the all the theme material in, the grid was a little choppy, with a prevalence of three- and four-letter answers. More specifically, I was tripped up by the clue for 34A. I get that one might want to make a trickier clue for crossword stalwart EDAM but citing a Czech dish for a Dutch cheese seemed like not such a gouda idea. 

~Frannie.

Tuesday, June 2, 2026, Rich Katz

Got off to OSLO start today so it took me a minute to grok the theme of this puzzle, but once I did, I let out a cheer. The first words of four theme answers are homonyms of 2-4-6-8 which lead up to the big finish at the end of the puzzle: WHODOWE APPRECIATE. The C/APs for the theme answers were entertaining, especially "Gets a pooch to attack" SICSTHEDOGON, although, that's no good when you think of it FORREAL. :(

Overall, the clueing was clean and precise, by which I mean my progress through the grid was pretty much, read a clue, enter the answer with very few hesitations or skips, and no incorrect entries. Now that's something to celebrate!

In clues 38A and 42A, I liked the pairing of seemingly disparate entities that share a common feature. A house and a mouth (38A) both have a ROOF, and both shoes and bras (42A) can have LACE. Also, perhaps coincidental but fun, 7D: WON ("Was victorious") crosses ATWAR (5A). 

There were a couple of QMCs that brought a smile, including "Babies that are supposed to be up all night?" (OWLETS) and "What helps you get a leg up?" (HEEL). "The decline of Russia?" for NYET was my favorite. 

Extra points to this puzzle for supplying me with some new information. I learned that UBERPOOL was the original name of Uber, that a baseball infield is about 8,100 square feet in AREA, that glycol spray is used to DEICE an airplane wing, and that all of Shakespeare's 37 surviving plays have 5 ACTS. Winning!

And, on ANEW tangent, I'll state here that, although I don't watch much football, I APPRECIATE ROMO as a commentator when I do watch a game. Go team!

~Frannie.

Monday, June 1, 2026, Kenneth Cortes

Today’s theme answer, CAMEOUTONTOP, ("Emerged victorious ... or what this puzzle's constructor did, as indicated by the shaded squares") is one literal way to summarize what the shaded words, MOM DAD IM QUEER, each of which occurred at the top of a two-word phrase in the top half of the puzzle, might literally represent - an apt way to OPEN Pride Month. 

Nice that we didn't have to SETTLE for the same OLD grid format today. The grid pattern broke out of the usual mode and featured some fun longer Down answers like the theme answers as well as SEASONPASS, HATSTAND, and the amusing CLAPOMETER.

Overall, a Monday puzzle that wasn't TUTU difficult, but I did make one ERROR as I completed the grid. I first entered APtest at 14A “High school assessment scored from 1 to 5” but, when I got to 17A “Despise” and figured the answer had to be DETEST, I realized that two "tests" couldn't rightly ABUT each other. Fortunately, I was able to RYES to the occasion and correct APtest to APEXAM. 

Clue-wise, I thought “archaically” in 21A ("'You,' archaically" (THEE)) could, and maybe should, have been extended to 23A “One taking office dictation” (STENO). In today’s world, the real answer would probably be Siri or Claude, or some other such means of automated transcription of the spoken word. I was amused to think that people find "lifelike dolls" to be CREEPY. In the QMC category, “Filing job, for short?” (MANI) was clever, and I enjoyed both the clue and answer for 37D “Give a tut-tut, e.g." (ADMONISH). Fill-wise, SPREE, DYSTOPIA, and OCULAR were a good TRIO.

Out of curiosity, I looked up the Wales village with the world's longest NAME (58 letters). Here it is for your viewing pleasure: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

~Frannie.

Sunday, May 31, 2026, Jeffrey Martinovic and Evan Park

TARGET PRACTICE

After a bit of a slow start, this one won me over. The shaded arrow and bow aim nicely at the rebus apple on the right edge. And one can imagine that the backwards L of black squares that the apple rests on is someone sitting with their back against a tree. All in all, it's a pretty nice construction.  

And in addition to the theme, there are a few 4-star clues, my favorite of which is "Appointments that may lead to better contacts" (EYEEXAMS). That's very good. Others that got a chuckle were "Apt name for a lawyer" (SUE), "Bucket list item?" (MOP), and "Help wanted letters" (SOS). Hah! And it took me forever to realize that "Gets lost" had to be SCATS. So tricksy!

Lots of theme, the best of which, I think, is "What WILLIAMTELL did before and after this puzzle's feat?" (TAKEABOW). That's nice. And I didn't remember that it was ROSSINI who wrote the WILLIAMTELL overture. 

A solid Sunday. Frannie takes over tomorrow, and I'll see you in a few weeks!

- Horace 

 

Saturday, May 30, 2026, Malaika Handa and Erik Agard

We did indeed get a good, hard Saturday puzzle today. I have never heard of OVENBAGS (They hold roasts), and I guess maybe I've heard BREADANDROSES (Old political slogan of the women's suffrage and labor movements), but it did not come to mind until I had almost all of it in place. I think more about the "bread and circuses" that the Romans (and others...) used to keep the population superficially pacified. 

As far as cluing goes, "Vet's report" for WARSTORY was very good, and "Perpetual homebody?" was a cute way of getting to SNAIL. And then there's the "You've learned something" type clues like "Mutual aid event that originated in 1920s Harlem" (RENTPARTY) and "Fabric debuted by DuPont in the 1940s" (ORLON). And I knew neither LYDIA Ko nor Jessie REYEZ, so I learned something with those, too.

Overall, I guess I didn't love it though. I mean, it was good enough, and it was hard, but entries like STU (Music recording space, informally) and NODSAT (Acknowledges, in a way) left me a little cold. What'd you think?

- Horace