Monday, July 14, 2025, Christina Iverson

If you know this blog, you know I like goofy, so this play on HARRYSTYLES name is a-ok with me. :) Ms. Iverson gives us four hairy styles at the ends of BASKETWEAVE, PRETZELBUN, THEREDPONY, and MONOBOB. And what's more, it's in sort of a pinwheel shape, going both across and down, which I also enjoy. So thumbs up on theme. Very LIKABLE.

It's Monday, so the fill can't be too fancy, but we get a few more interesting words like COWER (Crouch down in fear), IONIC (Like some chemical bonds), KHAKI (Color for some business casual pants), and ROBUST (Vigorously strong). "We are family!" (KIN) was amusing, and I enjoyed the quaintness of GOSHNO contrasting with NUDE and INHEAT. 

Fun Monday.

- Horace 

Sunday, July 13, 2025, Brandon Koppy

This is one of those tricks where it looks like the puzzle is "wrong," in that there is a complete disconnect between East and West, but then, of course, answers are revealed at the end by revealing hidden letters under the black squares. And these letters, as luck would have it, spell out "the doors." 

While the eight "bonus clues" seem anti-climactic, the hiding of the hidden words is pretty clever in some spots. BEET and OVEN turning into "Beethoven" is nice, and DISHON as two words, combining with RING to make "dishonoring" is pretty good too. The change from HONE and TWOMAN to "honest woman" is marred by the very clue and answer themselves. "New bride, quaintly." Ick.

The other two pieces of theme material are the Doors song BREAKONTHROUGH TOTHEOTHERSIDE and the phrase HOLESIN THEWALL.

Overall, not a bad theme, I just had a few issues with it. But maybe that's just me.

What else? HADLUNCH (Took an hour off mid-day, say) seemed a bit random. INPAWN (Traded for cash) - I am familiar with pawn shops, of course, but "in pawn" isn't something I hear. On the other hand, SCHISM, ECHELON, TADPOLE, TUSHIE, SCOURED, and ATELOCAL - all strong.

- Horace 

Saturday, July 12, 2025, Katie Hoody

WHATABLAST. This is the second time I have seen Ms. Hoody's byline, and it's the second time I will be giving her a rave review. 

Clever cluing was everywhere today: "Skipping music, say" (ABSENT), "Adjunct faculty?" (SIXTHSENSE), "What might be seen around a star" (POSSE), "Spot for newborn care" (NEST), "Period ender" (HORN) (think: hocky game), "Wit's end?" (NESS), and my personal favorite - and the one that took me so, so long to see - "Rush to find a mate?" (SPEEDCHESS). So good.

Then there were the connected "Waste" clues for DEBRIS and BLOW, the interesting trivia clues like "Kind of spider believed to spread to distant areas via railway" (HOBO) and "Its official languages are Chamorro and English" (GUAM). 

ICONOCLAST (Convention challenger) is a lovely entry. LINGO (Terms of a trade) and RIGAMAROLE (Series of hoops and hurdles) are fun. Overall, just a really solid Saturday. WHATABLAST indeed.

- Horace 

Friday, July 11, 2025, James McCarron

I admit it, I prefer themeless puzzles. Sure, sometimes there's a really clever idea, and sometimes those clever ideas are well done, but there's nothing quite so enjoyable than working through a themeless. Clues like "Tales are related about them," that seem so opaque, suddenly bring a smile when enough crosses allow you to see CAMPFIRES. Or "What might come with a twist or two," which gets you thinking about cocktails, but really refers to BALLOONANIMALS. And then there are clues like "Colonial group" are old standbys, but still maybe take the beginning A to remind you that they want ANTS. 

And then there are the answers like "You're warm" where you know what they mean, but you're not sure if it's going to be GETTINGnearER or GETTINGCLOSER.  

It's always nice to get an OGDEN Nash quote "The cow is of the bovine ilk; / One end is moo, the other, milk." I think the first Nash I can remember learning, back when I was under ten, was "If called by a panther / Don't anther." Which I see now comes from a slightly longer poem:

The Panther is like a leopard,

Except it hasn't been peppered.

Should you behold a panther crouch,

Prepare to say Ouch.

Better yet, if called by a panther,

Don't anther.

 

So anyway, I don't have a ton of time this morning, but sitting in this cafe doing this puzzle gave the day an excellent start.

 

- Horace 

Thursday, July 10, 2025, Emily Biegas and Sala Wanetick

Today's forced theme is four playing cards interpreted as clues. The ace of spades is used for MASTERGARDENER. That's cute. Then we get TIGERWOODS, who hasn't been the king of clubs for many years now. The queen of hearts is a MATCHMAKER, and then the jack of diamonds is, apparently, JACKIEROBINSON. Hmm.

"Curve that gives one pause?" is a cute clue for COMMA, and likewise "Big race that's no longer around" for DINOSAURS. 

After I got "CO..." at the start of "Urban housing option," I thought there must be a rebus because "condo" wouldn't fit. I guess I'm not much of an urbanite, because COOP didn't come to me for quite some time. Hah.

Is DEUCE bonus material?

- Horace 

Wednesday, July 9, 2025, Desirée Penner and Jeff Sinnock

Kind of an odd, positionally-clued theme today. The top row clues all included the word "top" in them: "Top dog?" (MUTT), "Top hat?" (LID), and "Top gun?" (PISTOL). And the sides all included the word "side" in the clue: "Side dish?" (PLATE), "Side kick?" (PUNT), etc. And likewise at the bottom: "Bottom feeder?" (TROUGH). I thought the weakest were "Bottom line?" for RAY and "Side plank?" for BOARD. What is a "side plank?" Oh wait... unless it's a yoga move... Anyway, EDGES serves as a highlighter, of sorts, in the very center. Nice.

LEVITATE (Get off the ground?) is a fun one. And I didn't realize that D.F.W. taught at POMONA. Someone I know when to POMONA around the time he could have been there. If I ever see her again I'll ask whether or not she had a class with him. 

What else? My brother Rich used to say YOUDIRTYRAT in a bad Cagney voice when I was little. And it's funny that MOOLAH is in again today.

The second and second-to-last lines today strike me as very crosswordy - EPEE ETE OCTOPI and NANANA ATO AGES. 

Happy Wednesday!

- Horace
 

Tuesday, July 8, 2025, Jesse Guzman

OK, this was clever. APLUSWORK explains "a guard," "a barber," "a chef," and "a miner," all hidden within longer theme entries. Brilliant. And all split across two words. Really, it's quite something. APLUSWORK!

And on top of that, we have some nice longer Down entries - TRUTHIS ("To be honest ..."), LESSEREVIL (Better choice, given the options), MAKESPEACE (Lets bygones be bygones) (if only!), and MOHAWKS (Spiky hairdos).  

"Cheddar, dough, bacon or cabbage" for MOOLAH brings to mind that widely circulated Native American quote: "Only after the last tree has been cut down, only after the last river has been poisoned, only after the last fish been caught, only then will you find that money cannot be eaten." 

Sigh. 

But at least we have bread and circuses. And crosswords.

- Horace 

Monday, July 7, 2025, Daniel Raymon

The theme is STILLONTHETABLE, and on that table are a pitcher, a plate, and a bowl. Interesting. Since I had no idea what was going on as I was solving it, it played almost like a themeless. 

IOBJECT ("That's not fair, Your Honor!") and AMSTEREO (Band for news radio?) look odd, don't they? It's kind of fun when you look back and can't remember what the heck something is. Also, what does that even mean, "Band for news radio?" Well, it might mean that the failed experiment that was AMSTEREO has been repurposed to talk news stations that don't even use the stereo component, but is that a Monday clue? Does anyone who hasn't just spent a few minutes on Wikipedia even realize this? Am I missing something else? Probably...

It took me a long time, even after knowing the nursery song "FRERE Jacques" and knowing French, to realize that the first word was actually FRERE. Because in spoken French, FRERE is one syllable, but in the song, it is given two syllables. The same is true for Jacques. But then the next two words are spoken normally (dormez-vous?). Language is weird.

See you tomorrow. 

- Horace 

Sunday, July 6, 2025, Zhou Zhang and Kevin Curry

I filled in everything but the lock in about 13 minutes, but then I couldn't figure out the lock, so I let Frannie look at it. She realized that FOURSQUARE could point to the square with the four in it in the puzzle, and put an X into the second spot. Once that was in, she knew it was EXIT. Then we went back to figuring out why.

Working from the end, DOESNTHAVEACLUE refers to 76-Across, TEE, which has only a dash for a clue, so that's the T. UNDERTHESEA, phonetically, refers to the only C in the grid, and under that letter is an I. For ENDOFTHEROAD, all we could come up with is the "Famed street in Beverly Hills," RODEODRIVE, which ends with an E. And there you have it.

The puzzle starts strong with the MARX quote "The bureaucracy is a circle from which no one can escape," and it's interesting to learn that ELPASO is the "Only major Texas city not in the Central time zone." "Lover of Shakespeare" is a cute clue for ROMEO. Likewise "Fruit picker of old" for EVE. 

I never was a fan of the switch from TAN to blue in M&Ms. TAN is just a better color for food, especially a chocolate food. There, I said it.

- Horace 

Saturday, July 5, 2025, Tracy Bennett

This is just what we want in a Saturday puzzle. Misdirections like "It's a straight shot" (NEATVODKA), "Uniform shade" (CADETBLUE), and "Alley oops" (GUTTERBALL) (think "bowling alley) totally worked on me. And I did not know that QUEERTHEOLOGY was the subject of "Jonathan Loved David" and "Take back the World." Nor did I know that UNCANNYVALLEY was an "Eerie phenomenon when a robot seems too lifelike." A solid challenge.

"Swell" for NIFTY was tricky. RINKYDINK (Small-time) was fun. "Oil smugglers?" (ARTTHIEVES) was cute. ... but I thought that "Keeps greasing that squeaky wheel?" (REOILS) was a little weak. I mean, oil and grease are different things...

But if that's all we have to suffer for a challenging Saturday, then that's fine with me.

- Horace 

Friday, July 4, 2025, Colin Adams

A breezy Friday that has nothing to do with the Fourth of July. Unless, of course, we consider CORPORATE (Like many higher-ups), MUSCLECAR (Mustang, for one), and OXES (Oafs). 

FRUITBAT (A flying fox is actually a type of this) was interesting, "Major for someone who can correctly distinguish between Manet and Monet" (ARTHISTORY) was fun, and the double "Vibe" clues for ATMOSPHERE and MOOD were good. And speaking of the vibe, it's definitely off for me today. Go have a veggie burger and try to think about something other than the state of the country today.

- Horace 

Thursday, July 3, 2025, Adam Wagner

Clever BLINKERS theme today, where two letters in each Across themer and one in each Down blink on and off to make different answers. As in the answer LOVERDONE (Friend or family member / Clichéd) - in the first case, the R blinks out to make "loved one," and in the second the L steps out of the way of "overdone." And in the Downs, the L is involved in IDEAL (Perfect / Concept) and the R is in RANDRY (Was exhausted / Lustful). It's a lot to keep track of, and an impressive feat.

Aside from that, let's see... I spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to guess what a "back tire burn" might mean in a drag show. See, I didn't read "drag race" correctly, and didn't get that they meant a literal back tire of a dragster. But I feel like I should write to RuPaul and ask him to turn it into a thing. "Make that back tire burn, girl!"... sigh. The things my mind gets up to.

 

They got me on "City on the Seine." I knew it wouldn't be Paris and it wasn't, but I still put it in and then had to change it to ROUEN. FORREAL. And speaking of France, ENGARDE (Them's fighting words!) was fun. And yesterday we had "saboteurs," today we have MARAUD. Are they trying to start something?

 

- Horace 

 

Wednesday, July 2, 2025, Dan Caprera

Very nice theme today.

PUBTRIVIA - Did you know?! The most common bar name in the U.K. is The Red Lion
GRAPHICDETAIL - Did you know?! The oldest known porno movie is the 1907 short film "El Satario"
FUNFACT - Did you know?! Engaging in leisure activities has been shown to reduce stress levels by over 30%
RAWDATA - Did you know?! Before mastering fire, cave men ate uncooked meat for the first million years of human existence
BANKSTATEMENT - Did you know?! America's first chartered money supplier opened in Philadelphia on January 7, 1782
HARDTRUTH - Did you know?! Diamonds are 58 times more resistant to pressure than rubies or sapphires?

So much text! I feel like I may have crossed the "free use" line...

It's fun to imagine the discussions in the NYT Games office as they were trying to come up with a way to say "bank" without saying "bank." "Chartered money supplier..." Makes me wonder what "chartered" means...

Anywhoo, it was fun wasn't it? And absolutely packed with theme. And still there was room for more amusement - "Creator of a lot of buzz in the music scene" (KAZOO) (Hah!), "One who gives a hoot" (OWL) (guffaw.), and "Room for growth?" (WOMB). 

And speaking of PUBTRIVIA, "Official currency of Ecuador and Guam" (USD) and "Cabinet department since 1913" (LABOR) might be worth stashing away.

A fine Wednesday.

- Horace

Tuesday, July 1, 2025, Adam Aaronson and Michael Garbus

Fun and clever theme today, and it's especially nice that HORSERADISH and CRABAPPLE are right on top of each other. I guess, come to think of it, that no fill word has to cross more than two theme words anywhere, but still it's cool that the top two worked out that way.

Speaking of stacked entries, I also like STOMACH (Handle, as a tough piece of information) and PIRANHA (Omnivorous fish of the Amazon) together. Both are interesting enough on their own.  

"There might be a fork in it" was an amusing clue for ROAD, and it was fun to know NOCAP ("Dead serious," in modern lingo) thanks to my nephew Scott. (Hi Scott!) 

This was a fun Tuesday.

- Horace 

Monday, June 30, 2025, Dena R. Verkuil and Andrea Carla Michaels

I am not familiar with BYEFELICIA ("I'm done with you") as a phrase, but I am familiar with the other three. And I guess YOUTALKINTOME (Classic Robert De Niro line in "Taxi Driver" ... ) is hinting that the four expressions are spoken? Or maybe the "me" at the end signifies that they are all addressed to a particular name? Who knows? It's Monday, and if I hadn't made the mistake of guessing AcES for "Certain draft picks?" instead of the "better-with-the-Down-answer" ALES, I would have been finished in about three minutes. As it is, I had to hunt around for the typo.

Anywhooo, there's some quality fill in here. CATPERSON, of course, and GUARANTEE is nice. "A milk drinker may have one" (MUSTACHE) is gross. I was never a big fan of that ad campaign. Wipe your damn mouth off. 

"Carping" is a really oblique clue for FLAK, don't you think? And I don't think I have ever heard anyone say "HOLY camoly!" But let's end on a good one - I loved TWISTY (Serpentine). :)

- Horace 

Sunday, June 29, 2025, Mike Hobin

ALL-IN-CLUE-SIVE

Today's theme features seven long entries that contain both clue and answer. One must get enough crosses to figure them out. Not my favorite type of theme, but somewhat clever. NINETIMESOUTOFTEN is probably my favorite, and MOUSEERADICATOR is also good. More forced-seeming were PACIFISTSRENOUNCEMENT and CASTAREALLYLONGLOOK. But, I mean, they're fine.

UNSHUT (Ajar, say) was bold. DANSK (Copenhagen language, to locals) was interesting. "Eight more than a dozen" (SCORE) was fun. But I have never once worried about the APPETITES of dinner guests.  

- Horace 

Saturday, June 28, 2025, Jesse Guzman

Tough puzzle today with less than satisfying payoff. The "Mario universe" is alien to me, so BOWSER and KOOPATROOPA needed to be filled in almost entirely by crosses. Sometimes this happens, and it's not a big deal, but often, when I don't know a word and it is slowly filled in, there is a realization and and understanding that I have been tricked. This happened with OCARINAS (Light winds), for example. But having game characters slowly filled in isn't the same.

"Deer stalking aid?" for SANTATRACKER seems a little disingenuous. And "They focus on subjects of interest" (CAMERALENSES) was just weird. I know that clues are meant to be indirect, but sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. At least for me. "Layer of gold?" (GOOSE) was better. And ooh, "Crushing, in a way" (MOONY) was very good. 

DAWDLED (Killed time) is a good word. KABLOOEY (Shot) was excellent. 

Tough Saturday, and I suppose that's what I'm looking for on a Saturday.

- Horace 

Friday, June 27, 2025, Carolyn Davies Lynch

Learned a few things today - that SISEPUEDE is the Motto of the United Farm Workers of America. It was Dolores Huerta who, in response to those who said No, no se puede ("No, it can't be done") when asked if it was possible for the Latino farm workers to stand up to the Arizona government, countered Si, se puede!

I also learned that LITHUANIA was the first nation to restore its independence from the Soviet Union. And that "Hypocorism" means "nickname." It's from the Greek.

As for the Jungian syzygy of ANIMA vs. Animus, I wonder about the utility of labeling things as "feminine" or "masculine." Can't we just call each other "human" and work together? It's all so sad sometimes.

- Horace 

Thursday, June 26, 2025, Simeon Seigel

The good thing about most crossword puzzles is that even when there is a trick like this, where the entries must be interpreted in a certain way to make sense with the clues, they will still be recognizable entries. SORESPOTS, for example, is an entry that looks fine per se, but in order for it to correspond to the clue "Sees / Espies," it must be read as "'S' or 'E' Spots." This strikes me as just the kind of thing that my friend Rob likes to complain about - as if wordplay were some kind of offensive or tedious thing. But he will never read this review, and so I can say that he is an idiot for thinking that. :) (Hi Rob!)

So anyway, because of this feature of most puzzles, I was able to complete the grid without fully realizing what was going on. Once I was finished, though, and could unlock the rest of my brain (I don't really know what goes on up there while I'm solving, but it's definitely shutting down certain processing centers), I could figure it out. And then once I did, I started thinking "Who comes up with this stuff?" And "Is Rob right?" :)

I liked the cluing on PATENTEE (Bell for the telephone, for one) and STEEPLE (Bell location, often). I'm not familiar with the PALOMA (Cocktail of tequila, lime juice and grapefruit soda) but I would not turn it down if someone bought one for me. Oh, and what the heck is a SAMLET (Baby fish with pink, coho and sockeye varieties)! Since when is that a word? (And don't even start with "parr.")

- Horace 

Wednesday, June 25, 2025, Ben Zimmer and Zach Sherwin

A surprise Wednesday rebus perfect for finishing off the heat wave. CENTRALAC is something that I have never had. This morning at 6:45 or so, in fact, the thermometer in our house was at 85 when I looked at it. We will leave the windows open until around 8:00, then close everything down so it doesn't get any hotter. 

I enjoyed learning the term "California SOBER," and I went for RAGtAG instead of RAGBAG for "Miscellaneous collection." I guess the former is more of a pejorative for people, whereas the latter is, as here, for things. At least that's my ten-second research assessment.

If you haven't heard MAM[AC]CASS sing "Dream a Little Dream of Me," it's worth a listen. 

Good cluing today. "Bill promoting science education" (NYE) was an excellent example of a hidden capital, "Wear on earth?" (ERODE) was clever, and "A person's soul mate, with 'the'" was an excellent way to spice up ONE.

- Horace 

Tuesday, June 24, 2025, Ingrid Steffensen

Kind of a rebus-y Tuesday theme today. Old-school rebus, I mean, where you have to play with the words on the page. DOCKSDOCKS weirdly works with the first half of the clue, "A couple of places to secure boats ..." but you have to think of it as a "pair o' docks" for it to work with "a logical contradiction" (paradox). Fun! The other three work the same way, and then there's a little revealer at 54-Down, "Law firm aides, informally ... " (PARAS).  

In other news, it's always fun to be reminded of The Waste Land (APRIL (T.S. Eliot's (and the I.R.S.'s) "cruellest month")), and I love how "What's the USE?" is in the very center of the grid. A message for our times? Or mere coincidence...

Speaking of escapism, OPERAFAN reminds me that I haven't seen an opera in a while. Doing so might keep me from letting the news ENRAGE me to the point that I become a RIOTER.  

Ugh. I've got to stop caring. 

YEA (Word said in passing?) was clever, and ASSAI (Very, in music) was some deep notation trivia.

Fun Tuesday.

- Horace 

Monday, June 23, 2025, Zhouqin Burnikel

The theme today is a type of clue we decided to call a FIC, or a False Imperative Clue. To wit:

"Can it!" (DILLPICKLE)
"Zip it!" (SLEEPINGBAG)"
"Shut it!" (BEDROOMDOOR)
"Button it!" (DRESSSHIRT)

All four mean the English equivalent of ta gueule!, or, be quiet. Very nice.

Interesting inclusion of Steven Vincent BENÉT, of "John Brown's Body" fame. It's a funny thing that it became so famous with that first line: "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave." 

SEAL (Stamp for a notary public) was timely for me, as I just used the services of a mobile notary public this past weekend. And I will never forget that the capital of Samoa is APIA. It's classic crosswordese, and at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament a few years ago I met someone who had lived there for a while. Apt!

OK, I gotta run. IHADABLAST. 

- Horace 

Sunday, June 22, 2025, Ruth Bloomfield and Hannah Margolin

BRINGING A PLUS ONE

One letter has been added to each wedding-related theme answer, and the result has been clued to fit the new meaning. As in,

SHAVETHEDATE - Make a partner's beard presentable for all the photos?
WEDDINGDURESS - Cause of many headaches while planning the big day?
and
GRIFTREGISTRY - Tool for a couple who intend to return everything and keep the money?

It's nice that they were able to do this with so many typical wedding things. My favorite is one of the shortest - CASHBARD (Poet hired to write the couple's vows in flowery verse?)

In other news, I enjoyed the negativity of NONE (Survey option) and "What's broken for a record?" (LAW). And I guess you could add INTER (Lay low?) to that list. Strange C/APs include "Much" for FAR and "Little nobodies" for TWERPS. And we haven't seen ONER (Real lulu) in ages, so that was a nice throwback. And to have it cross EELER is extra fun. 

I always appreciate quotes from Shakespeare, and today we got two: "'OWOE is me, to hvae seen what I have seen': Ophelia" and "'DENY thy father and refuse thy name': Juliet."

Didn't love it, didn't hate it.

- Horace 

Saturday, June 21, 2025, Christina Iverson and Doug Peterson

Knowing BOBSLED (Olympics event in which Germany is the traditional powerhouse) and then guessing BARBIEDREAMHOUSE (Crib for a doll) off of it really started things off well today, but putting in Strewn for "Scattered" (SPARSE), slowed things right back down again. Heh. That's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. You just have to LETITGO.

I had four siblings, but I never felt any SIBLINGRIVALRY (Fuel for a family feud). And isn't it funny how the diphthongs in "fuel" and "feud" are pronounced exactly the same but spelled differently? 

Another thing about me is that I loved putting KARO syrup on my pancakes when I was little. The clear one. It just looked so cool. Also when I was little, we sat at a "kids table" during big holiday meals, and some grown-up would come around and fill up our water glasses. Or milk glasses... or whatever we were drinking. And for some reason, if one of us thought we might get skipped, we would call out "Magic pour-er-er." But it would sound more like "magic pour-euh-euh." And my sister and I and my cousin still say it to this day when we want a refill. Wow. That's the kind of thing that goes through my mind when I see POURER (Sommelier, e.g.) in the grid.

So that's my review. I really enjoyed this one.

- Horace 

Friday, June 20, 2025, Adrianne Baik

Triple stacks today, all common enough. Not a "one" in sight. Here's the ranking:

WORDONTHESTREET  
HATERSGONNAHATE
ROYALOPERAHOUSE
EVERYVOTECOUNTS
THATANSWERSTHAT
ONINTIMATETERMS

"Part of many a car's dashboard" (CDSLOT) seems a tad dated, and this from someone who has both a CDSLOT and a cassette player in his car. TROMP (Trudge) is fun. "Its first sale was a flamingo-print zip pouch for $8" (ETSY) was some interesting trivia. As was "Queen Elizabeth owned over 30 of them" (CORGIS), but it makes me wonder what the exact number was. 

I guessed AYEayecapn for "Mate's reply" (AYECAPTAIN), and tried SpOOKed for "In a state" (SHOOKUP), but things righted themselves fairly quickly.

Overall, a quick, decent Friday.

- Horace 

Thursday, June 19, 2025, Hannah Slovut-Einertson

Took me a while to finally parse the "answers" as "this TO that," but once I did, the right side fell into place tidily. 

Surprising to find Chelsea PERETTI instead of Chelsea Handler today. We recently finished watching "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," and her role was a little controversial in this household. And perhaps on the network, too, as she left the show a little past the mid-way point, I think. 

PARADEREST (Silent marching band position) was a deep cut. STALER (More likely to be marked down, say) was a little sad. And I never have thought of APSES as "Sites for mosaics in cathedrals, often." I will keep an eye out the next time I visit one. And what the heck is a TOETAP exercise?

Nice to see Richard SERRA in the grid. 

- Horace

Wednesday, June 18, 2025, Eli Cotham

Well, I never played THEFLOORISLAVA, nor have I ever been anywhere where anyone played it, so this theme is not for me. 

When I do count the clock that tells the time, 

And see the brave day sunk in hideous night; 

When I behold the violet past prime, 

And sable curls all silver’d o’er with white;

When lofty trees I see barren of leaves 

Which ERST from heat did canopy the herd,

And summer’s green all girded up in sheaves 

Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard, 

Then of thy beauty do I question make, 

That thou among the wastes of time must go,

Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake

And die as fast as they see others grow; 

   And nothing ‘gainst Time’s scythe can make defence

   Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence. 

ATOB (Short first step) caught me by surprise, and I liked three of the Downs starting on the top edge of the puzzle. NOCANDO ("Impossible!") was fun, BACCHUS (Wine god of myth) is always welcome at my house, and EYESORE (House with a long-unmowed lawn, e.g.) was good. But I have never been a fan of April Fools' Day jokes (IGOTYOU), and GLUMMER (Not so happy) is not so good.

It feels a little weird to see APU in the puzzle so often when he has been silenced in the TV show, and there hasn't been an SST flight in over twenty years.

- Horace 

Tuesday, June 17, 2025, Tarun Krishnamurthy

Today's theme relies on the inferior candy REESES PIECES, and finds the word REESES into three longer entries:

HERECOMESTHESUN
RENEDESCARTES
PRESSESTHEFLESH

Neat. 

As long-time readers of this blog know, I prefer themeless puzzles, and sometimes I question the whole idea of themes. I know, I'm just being ornery. Themes can be surprising and fun...

Anywhooo, I didn't know that a TEMPEST was primarily a "Windstorm often accompanied by rain." I thought it was just a general storm. And I kind of liked the familiarity of TENPAST (A sixth of the way through the hour). Interesting non-duplication with ILE (Suffix with percent) and ISLE (Tahiti, e.g.).  

- Horace 

Monday, June 16, 2025, Jill Rafaloff and Michelle Sontarp

It's a cuteness overload this morning, with a grid filled with BABY animals - kitten, joey, puppy, calf, and chick. And, of course, that old crossword babies ETUI and SKAT. It's been quite a while since I have seen either in the wild.

Interesting clue for EPEES (Swords whose points were once dipped in dye before a duel), and kind of a loopy clue for LOOPY (Like cursive handwriting, typically). I mean, I guess that's true, but I never think of it that way for some reason. And it was also interesting to posit the invention of the HOE in a clue (Groundbreaking invention for ancient farmers?). 

OFFDUTY (Not working, as a police officer) and INLIMBO (Left hanging between two stages) were nice. POPSICLE (Treat on a stick that you lick) was fun. 

A fine Monday.

- Horace

Saturday, June 14, 2025, Barbara Lin

Tough Saturday! That upper right corner took me forever! On the bright side, it’s nice to now know about the existence of the TENREC (Hedgehog-like mammal of Madagascar). There are no CROCKER grocery stores near me, and I was not turned on to TVSET (Wall hanging, maybe). Finally VENEER came to me somehow, and that broke it open.

In other areas, GALUMPHED (Moved clumsily) was fun. And “Go out in the winter?” (HIBERNATE) was clever. “Fly-by-night” (REDEYE) was cute. 

It was interesting to learn that HYACINTHS were “Flowers in the same family as asparagus and agave.” And come to think of it, I have never really thought about what the SPLEEN did. When I think of SPLEEN, I think of Charles Baudelaire. “Quand le ciel bas et lourd…” and all that.

And speaking of a low, heavy sky, that's what it looks like here in Portland. Hopefully, it's pouring rain in Washington. Happy protesting, all.

- Horace 

Friday, June 13, 2025, Evan Mulvihill

Quite the start today, with HOTPANTS and SASHAY. Let's cut right to the tape:

After that we have the trickily-worded "Light shower?" (APERTURE), and the adorable SEAOTTER (Aquatic eater of shellfish). Not bad. Not bad at all.

The central stagger-stack starts mildly with COMESOUTAHEAD (Ultimately succeeds), then ultimately succeeds with the fun and modern GOESBEASTMODE (Runs wild, in gamer-speak), and the Big Lebowski-evoking WHITERUSSIANS (Cocktails that might make for poor nightcaps). 

COINPURSE (What might be pinched for pennies) is fun, UNICORNS (Majorly successful business start-ups) is nice, and things finish salty in the South with AGEGAP (Feature of a May-December romance).

Solid Friday.

- Horace 

Thursday, June 12, 2025, Daniel Bodily

Hakeem OLAJUWON came into the N.B.A. just around the time I stopped watching professional basketball. The Celtics had just won their 16th championship, and I was headed off to college. So I vaguely remember hearing about the QUADRUPLEDOUBLE achieved in 1990, but until today, I didn't actually know that it meant recording ten in four of these five stats: points; assists; rebounds; blocks; or steals. OLAJUWON, back on that late March day in 1990, got 18 points, 10 assists, 16 rebounds, and 11 blocks. Meh.

As far as this puzzle goes, I got the feeling there might be a double-letter rebus when I hit "'Weeping' giant" (WI[LL]OW), and then all the other rebuses fell into place. To be honest, I was a little disappointed when I hit the revealer and realized that there would be no more of them. 

"Farmer's squeeze?" (UDDER) was amusing, and there were a few literary entries - OWEN Wister and EDNA Ferber - but overall, this was sport-heavy.

- Horace 

Wednesday, June 11, 2025, Sam Koperwas and Jeff Chen

The MISSISSIPPI river runs down the middle of the grid, just like it runs down the middle of the country, dividing the country in half. The circled letters represent states that are separated by the river, and they are placed accurately from north to south. Pretty cool. The only downside, I guess, is that the clue for TERRE Haute, Ind. had to appear west of the river. :P DENALI, on the other hand, is accurate. 

PLAGIARISMS (Copyright wrongs) is an odd construction, but I understand that finding a word with both LA and MS must have been challenging. And as with so many early week puzzles, a lot is done in service to a theme. Here, the theme merits it, and so we tolerate the odd EKED and TTOP, and the somewhat outdated term SIAMESETWIN. 

- Horace

 

Tuesday, June 10, 2025, Zachary David Levy

It's all about the cell service these days, but who actually wants to make a GOODCALL? And when I saw GOODCALL for the first time and then looked up and saw "service" at the end of STREAMINGSERVICE I thought the theme might be a reference to tennis. I didn't see the French Open final, because I was away in a place with no TV and very few bars, but I was able to read about it after the fact. Quite a good match.

Anywhooo, this one was nice. PLOTZED (Was verklempt) will always make me think of Mike Myers, for better or for worse. And BREXIT seems a positively mild form of isolationism and xenophobia compared to what we see every day in this so-called country... sigh.

I've never heard of "Steak DIANE (dish flambéed tableside), but if I never do again it will be too soon. My brother went on and on this weekend about how his favorite thing to do is to slowly eat a rare steak with a glass of red wine. Gross.

It seemed weird to clue REARTIRE with "It helps give a car traction." I mean, sure, it does, but so do the front tires. The vast majority of compact, mid-size, and full size cars are sold with front wheel drive.

- Horace

Monday, June 9, 2025, Aimee Lucido

This one made me smile. The last words in each theme answer are LASTBUTNOTLEAST. Only the last word in the revealer is that. And there's something satisfying about the "but not" part, because it is! HEH.

"Pond honker" (GOOSE) got a chuckle. And you know what? I shared an art studio with a woman whose last name was SITAR, but until this very moment, I had not thought of her name as being the same as this "Instrument used in Hindustani classical music." Perhaps because the first vowel is pronounced so differently - "ee" instead of "ih." 

Anywayyyyy....  I will never remember that GOBAG (It's often packed during the final few weeks of pregnancy) is a thing. And the pregnancy angle threw me off even more. And I hadn't heard that the rating for PSYCHO was changed so long after the fact. Interesting.

OK, last comment - "Stretches of baking days?" (HEATWAVES) was good!

- Horace 

Sunday, June 8, 2025, John Kugelman

MEETING THEIR MATCH

Seems like a long way to go for these animal pairs. Eel and Rat, Ass and Elk, Ant and Dog... Would these things attract one another? What about Doe and Stag? Mare and Stallion? Sure, it would have been harder, but as it is, well, I don't know.

I have never run into the work BORK used to mean "Break, slangily." I looked it up and found that to some it means to obstruct, defame, or villify, surely stemming from the confirmation hearings of Robert Bork. Perhaps they mean "break" in the sense of "ruin the chances of," or something like that...

I liked FIXITINPOST (Deal with a problem later, as a filmmaker). And the plural seems a bit gratuitous in FRENCHOPENS, but it is timely. STEERTO (Point in the direction of) and LEDTO (Yielded) are a little duplicative. 

I like GLAMAZON (Tall, chic woman) as a word, and GOBANANAS (Lose it) is fun. And wouldn't it be nice if we had more use for the word RATIONAL these days? 

- Horace 

Saturday, June 7, 2025, Blake Slonecker

There are TSTORMS predicted today on the southern coast of Maine where I am today, but tomorrow promises to be sunny. Right now I am at a cafe that offers free wifi and I have to finish this review before my 93-year-old dad decides it's time to go home.

So let's see... this one is held together by eight - count 'em - eight grid spanners intersecting in the corners. The most surprising to me was ARMAGEDDONCHESS (Board game variant used as a last-resort tiebreaker). Like chess-boxing the other day, this is a new concept to me. Is it something that happens in actual chess? Or is it a different thing entirely? Ordinarily, I'd look it up, but the clock is ticking here. 

Things I liked: MAKEAFRESHSTART (Leave everything behind); RENEWEDINTEREST (What a retrospective aims to produce); "Annoyance in the middle of a season, perhaps" (SPOILER) surprised me; "Takes the field" (MOWS) was cute, as was "Leaves aside?" (PILE). "Change seats?" though, for SOFAS, might have been trying a little too hard.

My difficulty today came from guessing BEAsT for "Doozy" (BEAUT), which made SOURSON (Stops digging) difficult to see.

Overall, though, a fine Saturday. Played a lot easier than yesterday for me, but sometimes you'll have that.

I hope you enjoy your weekend.

- Horace 

Friday, June 6, 2025, Adrian Johnson

Egad this was a hard one! That lower left corner nearly did me in! And really, a lot of it was not in my wheelhouse at all.

ENCASE (Keep from being touched, in a way) made me chuckle, because one of my friends is the head of a library, and we used to joke about him making lucite cases to enclose all the stacks so no one could access the books. Not really all that funny out of context. Or maybe even in context...

I wanted ARTSzone for "Cultural draw of Shanghai's M50 district" (ARTSCENE), but DEVILRY (Some Halloween mischief) made that pretty much impossible. I tried "tee" for "Culture center?," but it was LAB. And who knew a "Flavor enhancer in many pho recipes" was BONEMARROW? Remind me not to eat any more pho...

UPANDLEAVE (Split without warning) was what I did toward the end of the party last night. And SLOPPYKISS (Overly warm welcome, maybe), while slightly amusing, seems unlikely. I mean, who does that?
 

- Horace 

Thursday, June 5, 2025, Timothy Gaetz

In today's offering we need to keep in mind that there are NOIFSANDSORBUTS in any of the theme answers. So to "*Confirm to be true" is not to "verify" but VERY, "*Armed thieves" are not "bandits" but BITS, and "*Someone who knows how the sausage gets made?" is not a "butcher" but, simply, CHER. Come to think of it, she might also know. 

Clues like "Companionship?" (ARK) and "L'il belly" (TUM) seemed of a slightly different style, and I welcome them. There was a nice pairing of "Supporting" (FOR) and "Not supporting" (ANTI), and it still managed to get in some solid crosswordese with ATRA and OSLO.

Overall, I liked it. I didn't count to check whether there were equal numbers of words without if, and, and but, but it hardly matters. 

Nice Thursday.

- Horace 

Wednesday, June 4, 2025, Danna Rosenberg

There were a few things that I disliked in this one. OSAKAN (Resident of Japan's third-largest city) is reaching. Isn't every documentary an OPDOC? And BACKATYOU (Remark that may immediately follow an insult or a compliment) is something I've only heard used in a positive way. 

And that NW corner is just so ... ugh. AJAR, ALAMO, TINCT, ATIT, TEL...

HALFASS (Done without much care, informally) should probably be half-assed, but who would notice? 

And so we are made to MAKELEMONADE from the lemons found hidden in the theme answers. Here's one thing I liked - learning that the OPAH is the "Only known warm-blooded fish." They do not maintain a constant temperature, like humans, but are able to maintain a body temperature slightly above whatever water they are in. Additionally, they keep the temperature of their brains and eyes at a temperature slightly above that of the rest of their body. Weird and interesting.

- Horace 

Tuesday, June 3, 2025, Boaz Moser

Hmmm.... would you have been happier if the bedding strata had been positioned accurately? With the cushion on the bottom, the sheet in the middle, and the cover on the top? I would have been. But as it is, all three "light" theme answers contain elements of a traditional bed, so it works as a theme.

It's odd that three of the longer, non-theme answers are things that would not benefit sound sleep at all -ARMAGEDDON, PANICROOM, and OSCARSNUB. And I can add to that "Mean" STREETS, a DOGPARK with its CHORUS of barks, and the noise and excitement of an ACTIONHERO movie. Am I taking this too far? Yes, definitely. 

I did appreciate that both ASSES and HELL were included in the grid. LOLS.

- Horace

Monday, June 2, 2025, Anthony V. Grubb

04:52

Interesting theme today of expressions that include an article of clothing. 

EATMYSHORTS
PUTASOCKINIT
SUITYOURSELF

Each, a CLOTHESLINE, as it were. Not bad.

I was not familiar with KIRBY (Pink Nintendo character from Planet Popstar), and I was not expecting COHABIT (Live together) to be missing the "ate" at the end, but the crosses were fair. 

We saw a production of "The Odyssey" recently, so CIRCE (Greek sorceress who took the phrase "men are pigs" literally) went right in. And do you think there is an unwritten challenge in the crossword world to come up with new clues for things like "Erie" and OREOS? Well, today's clue for the latter "It's nearly impossible to split their creme equally, per M.I.T." was a new one. So congrats there.

So what else... "'Explosive' expletive" (FBOMB) was fun. I chuckled at "Like the name Parker, for a valet" (APT). And little trivia bits like "Only U.S. state whose capital has a three-word name" (UTAH) are always welcome. Solid Monday.

- Horace