Tuesday, May 12, John Ruff

I fell down a rabbit hole after finishing this puzzle. Why does US and UK spelling differ on this particular point - O vs OU? It's a separate question from why British spelling is in general so insane. "Wriothesley" pronounced "Risley." "Auchinleck" pronounced "Affleck." And so on.

This interesting article has some great examples of early inconsistency in the First Folio edition of Shakespeare. It then posits that Samuel Johnson's monumental undertaking of his dictionary standardized spelling in strange ways: why "humour" but also "humorous?" Why "honourable" but also "honorary?" Can you imagine the challenges in creating cryptic crosswords? Or maybe that's the point!

In America, Noah Webster quite properly suggested easy simplifications for the English language, which were adopted. Let's face it. That U is doing nothing helpful.

OGEE, look what I found!

Regardless, today's puzzle has a clever twist on this: OHYOUAREBRITISH, spelling out the circled letters from the other three theme answers. Is it a misdirection that all three cities referenced in the clues have counterparts in the US?

Meanwhile, I could do without STYE as an answer, but I fear that ship has sailed. It's too useful a combination of letters. And I'm sure Mr. Ruff could not have forseen the current issue with Hantavirus when he put OUTBREAKS in the puzzle. 

On the other hand, I love a sackbut, and TROMBONE is another fine instrument. As a Neurologist, I also like seeing ABDUCTORS in the puzzle. It is the lateral rectus muscle that abducts the eye, while the medial rectus adducts it. Useless information is my specialty.

- Colum

Monday, May 11, 2026, Joel Woodford

Well, hello everybody! How exciting to be back. I certainly didn't expect to be writing these blog posts any more, but after the ACPT, and the pleasure of reconnecting with the community of NYT crossword puzzle enthusiasts, it was hard to resist. With a quick glance back, I see my last post was nearly two years ago exactly, on Friday May 24, 2024. 

And now I have returned to review a Monday pangram. I wondered when I hit the middle western section with that Q and Z, and then the J in the lower western corner. It's rare to make a puzzle with every letter of the alphabet represented that is as smooth as this one is. Congratulations, Mr. Woodford!

The theme is a cute reimagination of OHDEAR (45D: "Goodness me!" ... or a phonetic hint to 17-, 31-, 39-, and 55-Across). In each of these four long answers is hidden the letter O and then a synonym for that four-legged woodland creature. Handy-dandy circles tell the discerning solver where they are.

How useful it is to have memorized all the countries of the world

BILLBOARDCHARTS is the least cromulent of the four, only because of the necessary -S at the end. Otherwise, I do love an HORSDOEUVRE, and DROPINTHEBUCKET is very good.

In the fun clue section of the review, I have to recognize 30A: Take fowl foully (POACH). I also liked the duet of 4A: Animal that ranges around Peru (LLAMA) and 8D: Peruvian mountains (ANDES). The fact they intersect makes it more delicious. We also get MER and EAU in another pairing.

Thanks to all who have come back to read our posts again. It's nice to see the readership bounce back. Happy solving all!

- Colum

Sunday, May 10, 2026, Rachel Fabi and Adam Wagner

COME FULL CIRCLE

A Sunday with a trick! The title and the grid art both hint at the solution, which is to complete the circle - turn those Cs in the italicized answers into Os, and then things start to make sense. For example:

32A Wild cats becomes "wild oats," and is answered by YOUTHFULINDISCRETIONS. Likewise 39D Bic filler is not "ink" or anything like that, because the clue is really "bio filler," which is LIFESTORY. Tricky, but you are clued in that something is going on by the italics, and once it becomes clear what that something is, things get easier. 

That said, I still had some difficulty in the middle, where that central, black square C also needs to become an O, and that is done by way of three rebus squares into which the word "block" is entered. So the answer at 64-Across, which is clued with "Large summer delivery, in past times / N.F.L. linemen, at times" turns out to be ICE[BLOCK]ERS, the two answers being both completed and separated by the creation of a black square. Interesting, and kinda cool. And I love how 65-Down is just clued literally, with what needs to go there. Hah!

Even with all the trickiness, my last square was the A in SICARIO and RAMOS. I knew neither the Emily Blunt thriller nor the Philippine president, but while a U seemed plausible in the thriller name, it seemed less so in the human name.  

I don't know that I've ever heard ADNOUN for an adjective used as a noun, and I didn't remember that East Asian fiddles were ERHUS. And what do we think of the clue "Get ad-libby-dibby while singy-ingy-inging?" (SCAT)? Is it just the ZANIEST clue you've ever seen, or is it CORNIER? Honestly, I think it is corny, and I think "Less freshly funny" isn't the right clue for that word. But what do I know, I'm not the funny one at this blog. :P

OK, I think Colum will start up tomorrow, but I'm really not quite sure. We haven't really gotten this thing ironed out again yet. 

Thanks for reading!

- Horace 

Saturday, May 9, 2026, Katie Hoody

This puzzle was chock full of AHA and OHO moments - not in the fill, but in the solve, which is a favorite feature of mine. I love a twist! When you read a clue and have no idea what the answer might be, or sometimes even what the clue means, then, either you figure out what's going on, or the answer is revealed by other answers in the grid, and then you get it. To quote the mother from the show, Miranda, "Such fun!" 

End-of-the-week puzzles often have C/APs that are not in my wheelhouse ATOLL. When, oh when, will there be a puzzle showcasing the ruling houses of France from the Capetians to the House of Bourbon? I'm guessing I'll probably have to construct that one myself. Anyhoo, just looking at the grid with its multiple long entries and sparse black squares gave me ARIL qualm, especially after yesterday's DNF debacle. Fortunately, though, there were enough clues here and there (ALOO & PANEER FTW!) that helped me make a start. Then, it seemed one answer would LEED to another, and before I knew it, Bob was my uncle.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pomegranate_fruit_-_whole_and_piece_with_arils.jpg

Right out of the gate, at 1A, we get the excellent QMC, "Gold meddlers?" for ALCHEMISTS. Ha! That winner was followed by "One making calls on the fly?" (BIRD), "Weighty subject for some children's books" (BABAR), and "Bath seat?" (ARSE -lol), and "Event at which you hope to get good deals?" (POKERPARTY) - I'm sure Horace can relate to that one. Not to mention 38A: the grid spanning "List of qualifications?" (KINDASORTAMAYBE). Triple ha!

Elsewhere, other cluing challenges awaited. Several clues were open to multiple interpretations, like "You or me, e.g." for MEREMORTAL, "Reached new heights" for GREW, "Like something no money can buy" for FREE, and "No time like the present" (YORE). And in the re-evaluate-your-first-semantic-category category, how about "Portable retirement option" (COT)? Maybe the SLYEST non-QMC C/AP of all was "Setup for an extra point" (ALSO).

Add to all of the above the hilarious "Great find in the candy aisle, by the sound of it" (SKOR) and the delicious "Parlor treat typically served with the first five letters of its name" (STRAWBERRYSHAKE) and you've got a puzzle that's a real delight. 

~Frannie.

Friday, May 8, 2026, Rafael Musa and Geoffrey Schorkopf

DNF. So, there's that. I haven't DNF'd in a long time - and maybe I wouldn't have, if I didn't have this blog post to write. In order to get the review done, I had to give up on the puzzle and look up a few squares in the southeast. :( Normally, I would have just put the puzzle aside for a while and come back to it after my little gray cells had woken up. Although, to be honest, short of a complete RESET, I'm not sure they would ever have been able to come up with MANIOC, RONDA, HES, and the cromulent-but-difficult-to-parse TODIEFOR - all in the same quadrant - especially when a solver had confidently entered PLan where PLOT was called for (55D: "Something that's hatched"). Derp. 

I found the rest of the puzzle challenging as well, but, ultimately, gettable. Regular blog readers will know that "quote" clues such as 14A: "'Not to worry ...'" (THERENOW), 7D: "'Good riddance'" (NOLOSS), and 15D: "'It's a date!'" (WEREON) are a SORESPOT for Frannie. Not that she HATESON them, but almost invariably, the "equivalent" expressions in puzzles don't leap to HERS mind. 

I enjoyed both the clues and answers at 16A: "Chichi" / SWANKY, and 37D: "Goofballs" / KOOKS. Also good were "It might bring you to tears" (ONION) and "It's a wrap!" for SARAN. I thought WHENINROME for "Comment from one who's going along" was clever and fun. SLIPS follows MOORS in the puzzle, but they are not tied together. Ha. 

In the QMC category "One away from one's duties?" (TAXEXILE) required a bit of calculation, but that's what we like in a QMC. :) I also liked STARTERKIT for "First gear?" and SINKHOLE for "Great depression?" However, I thought the QMC at 44A: "Really nasty fall?" (ICESTORM) was less successful. 

TWOS as the answer for "All slam dunks" didn't score so well with this non-sporty solver, and neither did its neighbor at 10D: "Accessory turned down on a cap." I assume some people must call that an EARLAP or it wouldn't be in the puzzle, but I am more familiar with an ear flap. Also, "hair stylist's concern" for PART seemed a bit over the top. That is pretty much the least of one's worries at the salon, non? 

A demain! That's my "French exit" - SORTIE.

~Frannie.

Thursday, May 7, 2026, John Guzzetta and Jeff Chen

Today's solvers are meant to figure out what's missing from the four block-letter-and-blanks clues that make up the theme, which are all, in some way, less than they should be. :) Looking at 27A: ___TER, for example, the answer tells us that it is a WINLESSSEASON, meaning that if we add the letters WIN in place of the blanks in the clue, we get WINTER, which is a winless season in more ways than one! Kidding! Who doesn't love winter? Even though the theme is less, it's all win-win because the answers are both apt and common phrases. I especially liked how a CARELESSMISTAKE could be a BAD CAREER MOVE. We've all been there. 

Fortunately, the careless mistakes I made in the puzzle today were easily rectified. I first entered 'urn' for "Coffee container." Even as I did so, I thought, "there are other possibilities ...," and as soon as I read the clue at 7D "Country that boycotted the 1984 Olympics" (USSR), I downsized from 'urn' to MUG. The clue 26A: "Locale in the Christmas story" (INN) helped me correct my initial misspelling of Gary SINISE's name. I also went a little off piste with 54A" "___ bien" filling in 'très' before, frankly, seeing how it made the crosses incomprehensible. A change to Spanish and ESTA bien.

I enjoyed the C/APs "Does to perfection" (NAILS) and "Strike down" (LAYLOW). "Saucer contents, informally" for ETS is fun. I also very much enjoyed the Jeannette Rankin quote "You can no more win a WAR than you can win an earthquake." Talk about apt!

Call me out of touch, but I could have done without "Pedicure target" (TOE). I also don't really think of SLEDS as toys, so that slowed me down a bit. That being said, the puzzle's great cluing and fun fill like SNORKEL, SPRIG, SPEW, KNIT, SKUA, MUSCLECARS, and SORRYSIGHT serve as lessons in puzzle quality construction. 

In keeping with the theme, it's a short review today: less is more! :)

~Frannie.

Wednesday, May 6, 2026, James Mattina

Today's puzzle offers solvers a whole bunch of flowers as theme answers. In each quadrant, two flowers are CROSSPOLINATED at the Across/Down intersection where their shared letter is circled. For example, in the northeast we have ASTER and PEONY. The clues for the flowers convey interesting facts about each blossom. As a long-time crossword puzzle solver, "lei" is well-known to me, but, having never been to Hawaii, I did not know that lei's are made from HIBISCUS. We learn that the AZALEA is a "bloom whose toxic nectar is one source of 'mad honey.'" Coincidentally, I recently read a book ("The Towers of Trebizond" by Rose Macaulay) which featured a camel being driven crazy by "mad honey" from time to time as the main character rode it through mid-20th century Turkey. The theme C/AP that made me most gladiolus  was "Flower found along a metaphorical path of ease" (PRIMROSE). 

Overall, I thought the puzzle featured some colorful clues. I enjoyed "Don't believe it" (LIE), "Narrow margin of victory" (HAIR), "Charging option" (VISA), "First sign of fall" (LIBRA), "Bed cover" (MULCH), and "Alice, in Wonderland" (VISITOR) - so much depends upon a comma.

In the category we here at HAFDTNYTCPFCAWCCFP like to call QMCs, or Question Mark Clues but which, in this context, I'll call posies (heh), I very much enjoyed "Winter coat?" / ICE, "Airdrops?" / MIST - always a bonus when a plural clue results in an answer without an "S" at the end - and the theme C/AP "Flower found at the end of a rainbow?" / VIOLET - an arc de triomphe. :) 

Fill-wise, I liked INTRIGUE, HOLYTOLEDO, and MULCH. The only thorn that arose was the surprising-to-me MEAT for "Nitty-gritty," which I found kind of a weird anther. 

I'm guessing that loyal reader and commenter Huygens enjoyed the two math clues "All primes except 2" (ODDNUMBERS) and "Siete + uno" (OCHO) in the midwest. And possibly also "Pattern based on nature" (CAMO). :)

Myosotis and come back tomorrow for more dandy crossword commentary. :)

~Frannie.