Tuesday, May 26, 2026, Brad Lively

The revealer today is BODYOFKNOWLEDGE (What the answers to the starred clues are, collectively?), and it refers to the following entries:

SHARPTEETH - *Aids for biting
KEENEYE - *Attribute for spotting what others miss
WISEASS - *Cheeky sort
SMARTMOUTH - *One given to insolence 

The thinking is that the first parts of all the theme answers - sharp, keen, wise, smart - are synonyms for knowledge, and the second parts are all parts of the body. OK. And three of the phrases are in fairly common usage. SHARPTEETH is just kind of a random thing, and the last two - WISEASS and SMARTMOUTH - are synonyms themselves, and these things muddy the waters a bit for me, but still, it works on one level, and it's Tuesday, so let's move on.

When I do an early week puzzle, I will often try to get the first three Across answers and then move immediately to the Downs that run off of them. This worked well today until I got to 5D - "Spot to keep a passport while traveling." I had the H, and so I entered Hippocket without a second thought. It took several crosses to get me to realize that they actually wanted HOTELSAFE, which is pretty much the polar opposite of my original answer. For the record, I have never put my passport in a hotel safe. I leave for more passport travel in a little over a week, and I will update you if I end up doing so.

Best clues today: "A little sun?" (DWARFSTAR) and "Number not representable by Roman numerals" (ZERO). 

Overall, I liked it.

- Horace 

Monday, May 25, 2026, Anthony Grubb

The week is starting off HOTHOTHOT! Which is nice, because the weekend has been pretty cool and rainy up here in "other New England," as it's referred to at the A.C.P.T. Harrumph!

Today's tidy theme, courtesy of Buster Poindexter, is three things that are hot - DEATHVALLEY, GHOSTPEPPER, and a good old R-rated LOVESCENE. Nice. Is it relevant that SALIVA is just under the GHOSTPEPPER? Or that the LOVESCENE connects with DARKNESS? Hmm... HOTHOTHOT sits ATOP OBOE and HIVE... mayyybe HIVE could work.

OK, enough on that. Let's turn now to a few of the QMCs - "Paper cut?" for EDIT was good, "De-tension center?" was cute for SPA, "Go off the deep end" (DIVE) worked in a similar vein, and "Place of buzziness" was just plain kwazy for HIVE. In non-QMCs, I was amused by the oddness of "Back of a car or front of an elephant" (TRUNK). 

I was a little surprised to see HOBO (Drifter in search of work) in the grid. (Do we still use that term?) It reminded me of when I was a college student, making my way from campus to the small town of Beloit, Wisconsin. As I passed a young boy walking with his mother, he turned to her and said, excitedly, "Look, Mom, a HOBO!" True story.

I enjoyed this one.  

- Horace 

Sunday, May 24, 2026, David Steinberg

NEXT, PLEASE!

It's Sunday, and we have a puzzle with the theme of advancing one letter in a phrase one step, alphabetically. The affected letter is circled, but the change only happens in the Across answers. The original phrases vary from good - "controlled chaos" and "give me one reason" - to mundane - "contact lens" and "first class mail," and the converted phrases and wacky cluing vary similarly. The best are, maybe, FIRSTCLASSNAIL (Good name for a salon specializing in mani-pedis?) and GIVEMEONESEASON (Exasperated television producer's plea?). 

There were some bright spots in the fill - FORE (Warning after a slice), CAST (Musical group?), and LIPREADERS (Experts in body language?). And ONTHEAPPS (Using Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, etc.) was nice. But I took issue with the awkwardly clued AGO (Earlier), the rando DISK (coin, commonly), and "Stance that resembles a ballerina on one leg" (DANCERPOSE). I mean, isn't a ballerina standing on one leg a person in a DANCERPOSE? And yes, I know it's yoga.

Oh, I don't know. I got up on the wrong side of the bed, maybe, and this puzzle didn't do it for me. The theme answers all work fine, and the changed letters spell out "plus one," which is a nice touch, but somehow it just didn't sing to me. I won't say IHATEDIT, but I did say EWE a few times. At least it GOTDONE, and now I'm GUANACO on to tomorrow. See you then.

 

- Horace 

Saturday, May 23 2026, Kameron Austin Collins

Love the  layout today!!  A chunky solve, especially in the middle of the grid, where a full dozen long-ish clues intersect.  Very impressive construction - though the price paid is the almost-orphaning of the top left and lower right corners.

Right off the bat in that top corner, there's misdirection afoot with "They might be settled atop stools" - BARBETS, after a moment's thought. Just below that, "A boxer's might knock you out" did not fool old ex-boxer-owner me - DOGBREATH.    Those answers helped with a Down entry  RIGVEDA ("Ancient collection of Hindu hymns") that was a learning for me.

Other learnings - German novelist Theodor FONTANE ... MARLSTONE as an ingredient in cement ... the SANDSNAKE which preys on lizards in Africa ... Edward GOREY's "The Gashleycrumb Tinies" - what a fabulous book title!!

38A "Sugar ____" was a write-in for me, who grew up in the Eastern Townships, home of the world's best MAPLE syrup.   Raised my eyebrows at MATEINONE as a "Chess puzzle challenge, maybe".  Stress the "maybe" - it's hard to make a one-move chess puzzle that is much of a challenge!  "Walk on water?" (GANGPLANK) was amusing :)

Finally, how many of you wrote in TIC instead of SEA for "Tac preceder"?  (I did!)

This was a really great Saturday puzzle on which to end a week of blogging.  Horace takes the reins tomorrow.  Enjoy your weekend everybody!

-philbo

Friday, May 22 2026, Gene Louise de Vera

A pleasant, not too difficult themeless Friday puzzle that just seemed to flow from top to bottom, with a somewhat unusual 16x15 grid bisected vertically by a pair of long entries side by side.  (What do we call "stacks" when they're vertical?)  One of these really piqued my interest : Beethoven's MOONLIGHTSONATA, clued at 7D as "an inspiration for Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu".  I'd not heard that before, so as I write this, I am listening to the Chopin piece with that in mind.  It's lovely, but do I hear echoes of the Moonlight Sonata in there?  I dunno.  Maybe I need a better musical ear.

I particularly liked a couple of the other long entries as well.  18A "Qualifier to an embarrassing question" (ASKINGFORAFRIEND) made me smile; I use that phrase all the time.  And the other long Down entry 8D "Kepler-22b or Kepler-186f, e.g." (EARTHLIKEPLANET) tickles my science-y fancy.  Amazing that we can make that determination from impossibly far away!

Other nuggets in the grid .. 15A "Footnote phrase" is ETALII, which one rarely sees in its unabbreviated form.  I was a little Shocked at the 65A QMC "What some streakers are charged with?" (TASER) - I definitely did not expect that!  A bit of unusual construction in the lower left corner, with CLOT and CLOY side by side.  Neat!  I also had to do a double-take before accepting MEANS as the answer to "Is" at 26D.  

Finally, a shoutout to William of OCCAM, he of the eponymous Razor.  In the spirit of simplicity, I shall end here.

Cheerio!

-philbo

Thursday, May 21 2026, Zhou Zhang and Mallory Montgomery

A fun rebus-y theme in this Thursday's puzzle, with four Across clues clearly requiring a bit of lateral thinking:

• 20A "timiL" = BACKWARDSCAP
• 35A "Golfer's suppor-" = CUTOFFTEE
• 42A "Evade" = MINISKIRT
• 55A "P | u | n | c | h | e | s" = STRIPEDSOCKS

I like the clothing motif, and until I reached STRIPEDSOCKS, thought there was also a bit of a punky thing going on.  These are all cute and fun, and I only wish the trailing dash had been left off the clue for CUTOFFTEE, to make it less explicit and leave the solver wondering if a typo could have crept its way into the puzzle!  

Theme aside, the puzzle didn't put up much of a fight, although the top right corner was problematic with a term that was new to me (AO DAI - "Traditional Vietnamese garment").  Good thing the crossers were all knowable - at least once I realized that the "Pineapple Isle" is LANAI and not KAUAI, and the animal that spits when angry is a LLAMA and not a KOALA (really, Philbo??).  Still in that corner, I don't love AIS for "ChatGPT, Claude, etc."  Doesn't seem right.  But I shrug and move on.

Down in the lower left, I thought "Increase, as interest" (PIQUE) was very clever, especally as I had the 'U' early and was sure it was going to end in 'UP'.  And 3D "'Bingo!'" (EXACTAMUNDO) brought back vague memories - was that something the Fonz used to say?  (resisting the urge to just Google it, here)  Oh and I don't believe I've ever seen GOOIER in a crossword before..

All in all a pleasant, gentle Thursday solve.  On to rougher waters tomorrow!

-philbo

Wednesday, May 20 2026, Kathleen Duncan

I gotta say right up front, I loved today's puzzle.  Really fun and just the right amount of crunch for a Wednesday. The well-disguised theme turned out to be quite SPECIAL!  To wit - the first three long Across clues all looked ordinary and had straightforward answers, but they all had something in common:

• 16A : "Nontraditional time for voting someone into office" (OFFYEARELECTION)
• 26A : "What a waiter might offer to start you off" (SOUPOFTHEDAY)
• 44A : "Bit of movie magic" (VISUALEFFECT)

Unclear until the revealer at 58A : "Condescending rhetorical question" (ISNTTHATSPECIAL) brings it together - the theme answers are all "special" things; in fact, you could replace their leftmost parts with the word SPECIAL and they would make as much sense.  I think this is neat, and a very worthy idea as a theme.

The revealer, incidentally and as many of you surely know, was the catchphrase of Dana Carvey's recurring Church Lady character on Saturday Night Live some years ago.  And in that sketch-comedy vein, a reference to Monty Python's "Fish-Slapping Dance" was a creative way to clue John CLEESE, whose piscatory antics with Michael Palin were great silly fun.  I was a big fan of the Flying Circus as a kid!

Elsewhere...I had difficulty getting an initial toehold, thanks to the opaqueness of the opening clue at 1A "Establishment that serves zombies, perhaps" (TIKIBAR), and, right below that, the great term HATERADE that I'd somehow never heard of ("'Drink' for vocal critics").  Not helping matters was 3D "Gets hyped", which I originally had as AMPSUP, instead of KEYSUP. 

 I liked the circular references in 26D and 27D (SEAL and ORCA, ocean prey and predator).  And I must take issue with 38D MOLASSES, as to be an "epitome of slowness", of course it must be IN JANUARY. 🙂

Finally, the perennial crossword favourite EKE for the very last clue "Just get (by)".  I've been putting EKE into crossword grids since time immemorial, without really knowing its definition.  It basically means "to supplement", which is rarely how it is used in common parlance.  So I think about that now, whenever I see the word.

And on to the themelesses tomorrow (the stretch I believe we refer to as "the turn")!  See ya then

-philbo

Tuesday, May 19 2026, Brad Wiegmann

Just for fun, I printed today's puzzle out and solved it the old-fashioned way.  So much slower this way!  And no catchy little jingle at the end.  But ultimately quite satisfying - I should do it more often.

Working down the grid, it quickly became apparent what was going on.  The four longest Across entries each have two letter groups highlighted with heavy borders, and the first one, "Standard musical progression", revealed itself as PENTA[TONIC]SC[ALE] (brackets mine). Next was "High court judge?" (my favourite clue today!) as [CHAI][RUM]PIRE.  And so on.  Clearly there are drinks embedded in these answers!  By the time I reached the revealer "Requirement at some comedy clubs", the answer was a write-in : TWODRINKMINIMUM.  Hah!  I suppose this makes sense, to make the crowd more receptive, though it might have the same effect on belligerence.  And surely you wouldn't see much CHAI at a comedy club?  What do I know.  Haven't seen a comedy show in decades.

It's a mixed bag in the rest of the grid.  There are five all-consonant answers (CCCP, KGS, MTN, TBS and TCBY), which seems a bit much.  Interesting wrinkle in 39D "Term of friendship for a French woman" - MONAMIE looks weird, with the masculine possessive in front of a clearly feminine word, but that's what you do when the word begins with a vowel.  (Try saying "MA AMIE"!)  I'd never heard of the term "gut course" to describe an EASY A.  I think we used to call them "bird courses", back in the day.

Back atcha tomorrow!

-philbo

Monday, May 18 2026, Rena Cohen

Up here in this part of Canada, Monday is a holiday - "Victoria Day" - a shoutout to our English roots, also known as "May 2-4 Weekend" - a shoutout to our irresponsible youthful days.  You get your Memorial Day, we have this day.  But enough stalling - on to today's puzzle!

Monday puzzles, by design, don't generally put up too much of a fight, and this one was no exception, though I did stumble out of the starting gate at 1A ("Like a game that has gone into a penalty shootout") with INOT instead of TIED.  That sorted out, I made my way down a fairly straightforward grid and only afterward looked back to see what the theme was.  The "revealer" at 63A - "Advice for the overambitious" - is STARTSMALL and sure enough, the four theme answers all "start small", or with synonyms thereof.  What makes it neater is that none of them are words as such; for example, 50A "Gardener's tool" is WEEDWHACKER, which indeed begins with WEE but not the word "WEE".  If you see what I mean.  (An old physics prof used to say that.  Sometimes I did see.  Sometimes I didn't.)

Elsewhere ... 41D "Distorts, as data" caused a hiccup - I entered SPINS, not SKEWS.  I liked the fun facts sprinkled throughout; e.g. 54D reminds us that a KOALA is not a "bear"; 22D points out that there is an actual English town named EPSOM, whence the salts.

I have a CAT, and can attest to the accuracy of 71A "Stereotypically antisocial pets".

Ciao for now!

-philbo

Sunday, May 17 2026, Derrick Niederman

Greetings Earthlings!  Philbo here, back on the blog after a hiatus that seems to have lasted forever.  Bear with me, willya, while I find my stride...What a great puzzle to start back with!  Among the Across clues we have 11 that are italicized - short and punchy little QMCs, familiar phrases, all of them.  But at first glance they don't match the grid.  Or do they?  Look at 65A: "Yellow submarine?".  A Beatles reference?  Not at all - it's another seemingly unrelated phrase CHICKENSANDWICH.  But look!  It does make sense - the clue DOES describe the answer, just in a whole different way.  (Hence the "Double Meanings" theme.)

This is so brilliant!  Mr. Niederman's managed to do this almost a dozen times.  They're not puns...it's just really clever wordplay, and it really tickled my funny bone.  I won't enumerate them here - you'll discover them for yourself and I hope you experience the same delicious "aha" moments that I did!

There were other nice touches too.  I liked the double "Intl. group formed in 1945/1949" (19A and 106D), and "Iconic role for Harrison Ford" (6D and 10D).  HAN and INDIANA - first names - nice touch!  A couple of misleading food references were amusing : 74D "Packed like sardines, say" (INOIL) and 81D "Experienced a bit of turnover?" (ATE).  

I was going to take issue with 18A "____ polaris" (AURORA), thinking "surely that's not right" - but no, "aurora polaris" is a general term referring to both aurorae, "borealis" to the North and "australis" to the South.  File that under "old dogs, new tricks"!  

On that note, I'll sign off till tomorrow.  It's great to be back!

-philbo

Saturday, May 16, 2026, Byron Walden

One should be on his or her toes (their toes? what's the better modern construction here?) upon encountering Mr. Walden's byline. And indeed today was a challenging Saturday, which I FWOE'd (finished with one error). 

It's filled with tricksy clues - see, for example 24D: Trigger hair (MANE), playing on hair trigger, and the fact that Trigger is a classic horse name, with the hidden capital. And also please see 22A: Matches with forensics (DEBATECONTESTS) where the presumed verb at the start of the clue is actually a plural noun. Here, "forensics" is the art of public speaking, namely speaking in order to convince a group of people who will judge based on the evidence. It has latterly come to apply to forensic science, where evidence is treated scientifically in order to convince in a court of law.

In follow up to yesterday's exclamation point clue (and Horace, I agree in retrospect with your analysis of that clue), today we have 39A: Don't start with me! (SECONDSTRINGER). So much better! The "me" here is the answer, and it is literally true. Love it.

Cynthia ERIVO

I loved 38D: They're concerned with feeding kits (VIXENS), where kits is the name for juvenile foxes, and the answer the name for their mothers. But who's ever heard of the word ZARFS? It comes from Arabic. But it's nice to know what to call the sleeves around your coffee cup.

My error came at the intersection of WATTLED and INTWOACTS. I had INTrOACTS, a real stretch, but I imagined these individuals getting their break on Broadway by opening for the more popular headliner. The actual answer merits the question mark. rATTLED seemed as likely as anything else, I guess.

Well, that's my week done and dusted. I turn you over to the capable hands of Philbo, starting tomorrow!

- Colum

Friday, May 15, 2026, Maddy Ziegler

Let's start with the really lovely combination of BANANASEAT above APECOSTUME. A great pair of answers, both fun and interesting, and with an unexpected connection. You know you're going to have a good time with a puzzle that has that pairing, and certainly this puzzle does not disappoint!

All of the long answers here are strong. Several great colloquialisms, such as LETMEATEM (with the bonus here that if you're not careful, it looks like "let meat em"), IMALLEARS, and ITSUPTOYOU. 

SMASHCUT intersects with SEGUE. NEEDLEDROP and SHEEPLE.

I also enjoyed the cluing on 28D: Competitor of the early Chevrolet 490 (MODELT). I was unaware that Chevrolet was that old! In fact, the company was started in 1911, and the car mentioned was first produced in 1915. Its name referred to the price of the auto. The Model T, meanwhile, went for $495.

50D: Food item whose name comes from the Greek for "turn" (GYRO) was another good trivia clue. I put it in without even thinking of the etymology, but in retrospect it should be obvious.

I'm not fully convinced by 7D: Here goes nothing! (VACANTLOT). The exclamation type clue defines its answer by literally explaining it. In this case, I don't exactly see how the lot "goes" at all. Thoughts?

Other than that, it's an outstanding Friday. Seems like I picked a good week to start reviewing again!

- Colum

Thursday, May 14, Simeon Seigel

"Water, water, every where, / Nor any drop to drink."

So goes The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. And likewise goes the Thursday puzzle. 

Here water is represented by its chemical formula, correctly displayed in its bent shape in the grid four times, with one O and two Hs, each diagonally displaced. I have read why this is the case, and I have been reminded of the complexity of chemistry. You see, the Oxygen atom still has two pairs of electrons which must take up some space in the space surrounding the nucleus, pushing the Hydrogen atoms into their characteristic locations.

As Tom Lehrer said, "Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer."

There are eight answers in the puzzle that either end or start with WATER, but is replaced by the H of the water molecule. Thus, 19A: Prime breeding environment for mosquitoes is STANDINGH, and 20A: Impression on some fancy sheets is HMARK. Nicely done!

1A: Cliff formed by a fault (SCARP) is a tough outset. Close to Albany, we have the Helderberg Escarpment, which typifies this geologic formation.

And how about 4D: September to April, in the oyster industry (RMONTHS)? Challenging corner. 

I liked having ALLA and NAAN clued through their cuisine's menus. ICHING and KITHARA were lovely answers. Overall a fun puzzle. Here's looking forward to our themeless puzzles!

- Colum

Wednesday, May 13, 2026, Brian Keller

What a clever theme! And odd as well, befitting Wednesday, the hump-day red-headed stepchild of the week's crossword puzzles. A theme that is too challenging for Monday and Tuesday, but not tricksy like Thursday.

Today we must press the SHIFTKEY in order for the answers to the starred clues to work. Thus, instead of "equals" for 17A: *Peers, we get PLUSSIGN. Instead of "Slash" for 47A: *Guns N' Roses guitarist, we get QUESTIONMARK. The grid spanning OPENPARENTHESIS is the icing on the cake. I particularly like that Mr. Keller chose to use non-numbers for two of his answers.

SANSA Stark, a boon to Crossword constructors

The Northeast corner is delightful. I entered into with 24A and 30A already in place, and I saw that I had ____MT at 10D. How could that work? In one way only, with DREAMT. Then, 11D: Toothbrush handle? (ORALB) is very good. And how about 19A: Order to relax (ATEASE)? So good how the first word of the clue could be either a noun or a verb, confusing the solver.

With SAKE and a COSMO in the mix, it's a puzzle that helps to take the edge off.

- Colum

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.

Tuesday, May 5, 2026, Max Schlenker

Today's theme answers were all as easy as ABC. After all, to solve a crossword puzzle, it's only necessary to put the correct letter in each box in the grid and TADA! Bob's your uncle. Of course, the clues the constructors come up with make it a little more challenging than that, and to come up with this puzzle's theme answers, you had to equate four idioms for simplicity with alternate, more literal interpretations, such as LADYFINGER for "It's a piece of cake," and NATUREHIKE for "It's a walk in the park." The grid-spanning "It's a no-brainer" might have had the most amusing answer (HEADLESSHORESEMAN), but it also the only one that doesn't actually exist. Why I thought that was odd, I don't really know, but I did. 

As much as this puzzle celebrated lack of difficulty, this solver encountered a couple of potholes on easy street. At the start, before I figured out the theme, the top middle section was unENRICHED by answers. I didn't immediately get which Greek letter was meant by the description ("Greek letter that looks like an 'O' superimposed with an 'I'"), while the answer to the Down clue "Prohibited in Islam" was also prohibited in my brain, leaving me with _OOH_ for "Ruckus." Fortunately, there are limited options for Greek letters and once I had the initial H, the correct answer, HOOHA jumped out at me. 

The rest of the solve was like taking candy from a baby - without the crying that usually follows. I was entertained by the C/APs (Clue/Answer Pairs) "Intermittently offered fast-food pork sandwich" (MCRIB), "Lipstick blunder" (SMEAR), and "English facilities" (LOOS). Both the clue "Effrontery" and the answer GALL are great words. I also TOTES enjoy BEEF for complaint. ADHERE, DATUM, and PACKANIMAL were fun fill. 

I do have a slight nit to pick with LICE for "Pet pests." The more obvious answer seemed like it would have been flea, but the plural in the clue precluded that option. Maybe I don't know enough about pet pests, although, come to think about it, I know as much as I ever want to. 

Now I think I'll go take a walk in the park.

~Frannie.

Monday, May 4, 2026, Kate Schutzengel

Greetings fellow puzzlers! It's been some time since I was here last. I'm not sure I remember how to do this, but I'll give it the old college try. 

Even though this is only Monday, I didn't COAST to victory. I had some trouble - not PANIC-level but not IDEAL - in a couple of places. I didn't know PADMA ("Culinary personality Lakshmi"), HBO ("Network for 'Succession' and 'The Wire'"), or SCAR ("'The Lion King' villain") right off the bat, but the crosses were good, and there were many answers, such as ABBA, LUMET, EEL, and an easy one in my native language, Latin, (AMAT) that helped this OLDIE complete the grid. :)

A fun puzzle despite being filled with ICK - and I mean that in a letter-al way, not a repulsed way. The solver who GETSTHEICK has an easy time completing four the theme answers, including the perhaps dated-but-popular CHICKFLICK, the sturdy BRICKBYBRICK, the catchy-but-possibly-rarely-enforced CLICKITORTICKET mandate, and the classic PICKUPSTICKS game. Overall, slick, without too much gimmick. The opposite, perhaps, of this review. :/

Fill-wise, I enjoyed GALORE, FOBS, BELAY, and MOPTOP. I felt lucky to be aware of the theme revealer thanks to seeing the show "Nobody Wants This," which Horace and I watched on a whim in the winter. As it turns out, keeping up with current cinema, TV, and news is a good way to maintain cultural knowledge that helps solve crossword puzzles. A good grasp of geography doesn't hurt, either. You're welcome. Come back here soon for more hot tips on puzzle solving: ITSLIT. 

~Frannie. 

Sunday, May 3, 2026, Mark Diehl

WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

I finished today's puzzle without understanding the theme, but it's a good one, and today's title, as usual on a Sunday, sets it up perfectly. Six pairs of answers work together in a clever way. It'll be easiest to explain with examples, so let's start at the top. 23-Across is "Moisture barrier supplies" (PLASTICSHEETS), and then 26-Across is "23-Across, oddly?" which is answered with GIVESADARN, a perfectly good phrase on it's own, but here, it refers to the word you get if you only take the odd letters from the answer to 23-Across, which spell the word "patches." What a complex and beautiful thing. I'll just give one more - 55-Across is clued with "Fictional diary writer" (BRIDGETJONES), and the answer to 60-Across is LOWDIGIT, and when you take the odd letters of BRIDGETJONES you get "big toe." Hah!

For such a good theme, we are asked to tolerate entries like LEAPERS (The lords in "The 12 Days of Christmas," e.g.), HOR (Vert. counterpart), the ACC, the AEC, and TCU, BANQUE (French financial institution) and BELIKE (Mimic), three German words, a German chocolate company, and a German actress who starred in such hits as "When Women Had Tails," and PARI (___-mutuel betting), to name some. 

And while I don't know that I have ever used GAH to mean "Why, why, why?!," I did enjoy some clues. "Blue blood vessels?" for YACHTS was nice, "Pert blurt" (SASS) was cute, and the best might be "You smelt it!" for ORE. Anybody have a different favorite?

Overall, I liked the theme so much that I let the rest go without having to cry out AHME or ALAS too frequently. 

- Horace 

p.s. Was it coincidence or design that put OBTUSER just below the circled "Acute?" 

Saturday, May 2, 2026, Hanna Slovut-Einerston

Phew! This was one of those Saturdays where, a couple minutes in, I was panicking that I wouldn't finish. I started on the top with just ORA ("How We Do (Party)" singer Rita) and ARABIAN (Preceder of Sea or horse), and then RARER (Like the Aian elephant vis-à-vis the African elephant). And then just the BAN part of PERMABAN (Harshest punishment a website can give. And then nothing. I had considered "too long" for "How an annoying conversation might go," so I smiled when the answer turned out to be ONANDON. 

 

Finally the more interesting answers started to come in. AUNATUREL (Bare), TEMPORARYTATTOO (Disappearing ink?) (Should have seen this one sooner!), TENANTS (Residents without a title). They all seem to make perfect sense now.

I love me some Hamlet, so WORDS (When tripled, a response from Hamlet to Polonius) ("What do you read, my lord?") went right in. "One wrapping up a meal before eating anything" (BOA) was fun, and "Rounded up?" (DOMED) was cute. RAWBAR (Establishment that might have a "buck-a-shuck" promotion) reminded me that I haven't had oysters in quite a long time. The same is true for YORK Peppermint Patties, but somehow those don't have quite the same appeal.

SOANYWAYS, GOLDSTARS all around for finishing this one. Good job!

- Horace 

 

Friday, May 1, 2026, Rena Cohen

It's Friday, and the themed puzzles are over, but this one, anchored as it is by that COLLEGEROOMMATE running down the middle, feels like it may have a mini-theme. Or at least a vibe. To back this theory up I present as evidence THEMUNCHIES (A craving for snacks), the AP Bio trio - "Myosin's partner protein" (ACTIN), "Oxygen-dependent micro-organism" (AEROBE), and "There are approximately 30 trillion of these in the human body" (CELLS) - and then there's "Angle variable, in math" (THETA), and, well, that's it. Unless you will also allow the amusing and young-sounding COLDTAKES (Uncontroversial opinions). 

Us Olds don't need to hang down our heads, though, because we've got that classic #1 from 1958, Tom DOOLEY, the very mature sounding BANKAUDIT (Annual F.D.I.C. requirement), and everybody's favorite Dad-joke types, the PUNSTERS. 

I love the Aztec's "turtle-rabbit" name for ARMADILLOS. That is how I will be referring to them from now on. OCCAM would have loved it, had he ever seen one. 

There's a slight violence vibe with LOCKANDLOAD (Prepare, in military slang), CIAASSET (Plant overseas, perhaps) (nice clue), and "Combat sport, for short" (MMA), which, in this time of war, isn't the greatest, but I can MAKEBELIEVE it's all ok and focus on ART - the only thing that really matters in this crazy world. 

Best clue: "Announcements before giveaways" (SPOILERALERTS). 

- Horace

Thursday, April 30, 2026, Lance Enfinger and John Kugelman

Why have I never heard of the "Seafood dish known as the King of Salads," the CRABLOUIE? Why!? Google tells me it's a west coast thing, but I have a brother out there. Dave, why have you kept this from me?!

OK, rant over. 

What an odd theme! Three Oscar-winning movies are found in the shape of fish hooks, and they are "catching" three kinds of fish. Who thinks of these things? Anyway, I like it and I applaud it. Nice work messieurs Enfinger and Kugelman. 

There's a little bonus material, perhaps, in SHREK (First movie to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature), and in Oscar-winner CHER. 

I loved DOTBOMB (Mocking name for failed businesses of the early 2000s) - Hah! - and it's odd, isn't it, that an insurance company would name itself after a volcano (AETNA)? Would they even cover damage caused by an eruption? 

"What 'R' might stand for on an envelope" (RHODE) was fun. And "Class that might be all play and no work?" (DRAMA) was cute, and I get that they're just trying to be funny, but acting is work! 

Best clue: "Tag line" (YOUREIT) 
Runners up: "References as references" (CITES) and "Toys for tots, perhaps" (TYPO) 

- Horace 

Wednesday, April 29, 2026, Joseph Gangi

Another amusing theme. Is it just me being happy to be back blogging these puzzles? Or have the themes been extra fun lately? Today’s is a cute play on dot coms, with normal words beginning with “com” being clued wackily to make them sound tech-related. As in, “*Assurance from an internet company?” (COMPROMISE), “*Exposure for an internet company” (COMPRESS), and my personal favorite, “*Illustrative story from an internet company” (COMPARABLE). Hah! 

In the fill, there were two entries that made me feel it was Wednesday – SPARGE, which is, apparently, to “Rinse with water, as grain in the brewing process,” and CABERS, the “Poles tossed in a Highland competition.” I vaguely remembered the second, but not the first. In my paper Webster’s from the ‘90s, it just gives “to splash or sprinkle,” from the Latin spargere, which means the same thing. I suppose it makes sense. I’m more familiar with the non-S variety, parge, which means to apply a thin coat of plaster or mortar to seal a wall. Interesting, right? This is what keeps you coming back to this blog! :)

To the list of things I didn’t know you may add the fact that Yoko ONO wrote something called “Mrs. Lennon,” and that Mao Zedong’s successor was named HUA Guofeng. Hopefully, I will now remember both. All.

Best clue: “Where seeds might be placed” (TOURNAMENT). But "Trait for a good waiter?" (PATIENCE) was also good, and funny, I'm guessing, because it's true.

- Horace

Tuesday, April 28, 2026, Hal Moore

This theme amused me. I smiled at CLOSEENOUGH (Not perfect, but acceptable) before I had any idea what was going on, and I laughed again at the revealer – “Like children, ideally, in an old adage … or a hint …” (SEENANDNOTHEARD). Hah! And upon further inspection, the word “seen” can be seen in the three long theme answers. What will they think of next? 

In the fill we have some nice entries in STRINGENT (Rigorous), GRAMMAR (Linguist’s concern), and PAPAYAS (Ingredients in some tropical smoothies). And a quality clue for the quaint word CANST (“____ thou not minister to a mind diseased?”: Macbeth). I recently saw a fantastic production of Macbeth at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. They really played up the dark side of the Scottish play.

It feels odd to see ARREAR (Overdue debt) in the singular, but there’s nothing wrong with it, I suppose. Everybody seems to like ARREAR. And speaking of - BRAS was a surprising answer to the innocent-sounding “Some supports.”

Speaking of clues, “Sink-or-swim competition?” was cute for WATERPOLO, if a little too much.

Had a couple little missteps, guessing TApaS instead of TACOS for “Some cantina fare,” and seeIN in place of ASKIN for “Welcome at the door, say,” but nothing that wasn’t fixed up in a jiffy. 

The amusing theme was good enough for me today. Nice Tuesday. What'd you think? 

- Horace 

Monday, April 27, 2026, Neville Fogarty

Four two-word answers where the first word starts with V an the second with R anchor the puzzle today, all lit up by the revealer answer VRHEADSET (Device worn by a video gamer ... or a hint to ...). I'm not all that familiar with the "Spinoff of 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills'" (VANDERPUMPRULES), but it is a Monday, and the crosses were all fair, as long as you remember that ELON is that North Carolina university.

I was actually happy to see the "dubious medical advice" ("Feed a cold, STARVE a fever"), because I think about that phrase every time I have a cold, and I can never remember which goes with which. I think usually I think about it as though it were alliterative and ending with "feed a fever," but I never actually do either, so I'm not sure why it rattles around in my head at all. Sigh.

Lots of classics today - EKE, UGG, ERMA, OHARE, RAVI, ITSY. A nice cozy Monday.

- Horace 

Sunday, April 26, 2026, Rebecca Goldstein

WELL-SUITED

Clever clues are given to normal phrases, most of which are not actually clothing-related, making them sound like things you could wear. KIDGLOVES, of course, are actual articles of clothing, but the phrase has become generic, and the use of the word "nanny" in the clue makes this one extra punny. I especially liked DUSTJACKET (Fashion item for an aspiring housekeeper?), and MARKETWATCH (... for an aspiring grocer?), but they're all pretty good.

I enjoyed ICETRAYS (Freeze frames?), and the fact that there are 14,000 species of ANT was interesting to learn. ATSIGNS (Name tags?) was cute, and "One clicking with an audience?" got a little guffaw.

I'm pretty sure I've never used the word DUAD (Pair), but maybe, just maybe, I have uttered OCTAD before. And I guess I just wasn't wowed by the fill in general. TITER, ESTA, TERABIT, INKMARK, INRE, YULES... 

Any mention of Tom LEHRER is good, though, and the theme did make me smile several times. So let's call it a wash.

SEEYA! 

- Horace 

 

Saturday, April 25, 2026, Sam Ezersky

OK, so, if you bend your head to the left and look at this grid sideways, you can almost imagine that it is meant to represent an IOMOTH (Showy insect with dark eyespots on its wings). 

See what I mean? No? Harrumph. VERYWELLTHEN!

"Start of an old request for advice" (DEARANN) was tricky, and I was fooled, yet again, by "Driving necessity" (GOLFTEE). And how about "feel seen" debuting yesterday, and FEELHEARD (Be validated for vocalizing one's opinion) debuting today! Nice. 

Personally, I prefer the word "murse" to MANBAG (Guy's carryall), but I am not, sadly, the one who gets to name everything. 

Remember LEGGS eggs? Mom used to knit covers for them and make them into Humpty Dumpty-like characters. 

What else? I don't know from DOCOCK (Spider-Man foe with metal "tentacles," familiarly). Oh wait, is that short for Doctor Octopus? Who comes up with these things? Oh right... the one who gets to name everything.

I keep seeing PRAGENCY (Image editor, informally?) as some weird misspelling of "pregnancy," and INFLIGHTWIFI (Air traveler's connection) never works for me. Of course, I never pay for it ... maybe that has something to do with it. And finally, "Helpful pointer, say?" is cute for SEEINGEYEDOG, but they're usually German Shepherds, aren't they? 

Still, a fun, challenging Saturday. Just like we like.

- Horace 

Friday, April 24, 2026, Andrew Spooner

Fun Friday. I LOL'd when I finally sorted out "Acrobat's display" (PDFFILES) to finish this one off. Whew! 

Interesting that Orwell enjoyed STILTON. Or did he? That "The best cheese of its type in the world," could be somewhat backhanded ... but I don't know the whole story. I guess it's more likely that he actually did like it, because it's a pretty damn good cheese. Anywhooo...

There were some nice gimmes in "Oscar winner for "The African Queen" (BOGART), and "Surname of a Tolstoy heroine" (KARENINA). VINNIE (Role for John Travolta on "Welcome Back, Kotter") should also have been a gimme, but it took me too long to remember Mr. Barbarino's first name. Sigh. 

I'll tell you what wasn't a gimme - DAFFODIL (It has a light bulb). Sheesh. And "Low volume?" was a tricky way to get to TEASPOON. But overall, things came clear pretty quickly. I even guessed BIRTHS off the clue (Once-in-a-lifetime events), although I realize now that "deaths" would also have fit. But BOBSLEDS went right in after that, and I was off and running.

There are three entries today that remind me of "The Great British Sewing Bee," which is all Frannie and I have been watching for weeks: OHISEE is something that host Esme Young is wont to say; FIT is what it's all about in the "Made to Measure" segment, and DRESS, well, that's obvious. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I suggest you watch an episode or two. (Esme comes into it in Season four.)

Best clue: "Game" (UNAFRAID)

Best word: DAWDLE (Dillydally)

- Horace  

 

Thursday, April 23, 2026, Zhou Zhang and Kevin Curry

This is a clever one!

The revealer appears, unusually, in a Down answer in the top right corner of the grid. It makes sense for it to be in a Down answer, though, because the theme is so vertical. So what's going on? The answer HANDMEDOWN (Something that's kept in the family ... or a hint to making sense of three pairs of answers in this puzzle) is interpreted to mean that the letters "ME" must be removed from the upper answer and inserted into the lower one, in the same column, but for the clues to work with the answers that appear in the grid, you must imagine that the removal and insertion never happened. Simple, right? Let's look at one example: 3D is "*Material for a sidewalk," and the answer that is forced into the grid by the crosses turns out to be CENT. Makes no sense, but if we imagine that ME is still in the word, we get "cement," which works perfectly well. For the entry directly below that, the answer BEEFLOMEIN doesn't work with the clue "*Choice cut," but if we remove the ME, we get "beef loin," which does work. Ahh, Thursdays. 

It would have been kind of cool if the revealer could have been somehow spread across both Down answers in its column, but I can't really think of a way that could have been achieved, so it's hardly worth mentioning. Heh.

I had a bit of a misstep in the beginning by guessing "infact" instead of FACTIS ("Truth be told ..."), and then running "nike" off the "n" for "Adidas competitor" (AVIA). But NAT Geo cleared that up pretty quickly. And in the top right, the revealer was slow in coming to me because I had entered ScAM for "Hoax" instead of the correct SHAM. 

I liked FEELSEEN (Experience deep affirmation, in modern lingo), and it's hard to believe that this is the first time it has appeared in a grid. (But if xwordinfo says it is, then it is!) 

I just listened to "Under Pressure" yesterday in the car. Such a good song. 

Also, why do I insist on entering "bolos" when faced with the clue "Alternative to bow ties" (PENNE). When will I learn?!?

Best clue: "Test release?" (TIMESUP). 

Really good Thursday.

- Horace 

Wednesday, April 22, 2026, Hoang-Kim Vu

Happy Earth Day, Everyone! We've got a heck of a puzzle to celebrate it with, so let's get right to it.

The classic refrain of REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE is invoked today to create a very clever puzzle. Each of the three pillars of the environmental motto is represented in a different way in the grid. First, the three Across answers with circles in them take one answer and REDUCE it to a synonym, as in "Spurred on" being answered with ENCOURAGED first, and then the circled URGED, or "One offering lessons" being answered with INSTRUCTOR and then TUTOR. Beautiful. Second, REUSE is represented by the word CAN being used four different times. Hah. And finally, for RECYCLE, four answers are created by reusing the first three or four letters of a word in the second half of the answer in a different order, as in REAPPEAR for "Emerge once more" and TEAMMATE for "You might pass to one." The more I write and think about this, the better it gets. It's just really, really well done. 

What else is there to say? Well, I suppose I should add that for all that beautiful theme, it doesn't even feel like there's much slop or glue. Sure, our old crossword friends Teri GARR and UTA Hagen make appearances, but there's nothing wrong with that. And there's the usual smattering of abbreviations: USC, UPC, NSC, ATVS, VSOP, etc. Again, nothing outrageous. We even get some entries that feel like bonuses - GOODALL (Jane ____ Institute (wildlife conservation group), some nice pairings - CELTIC and GAELIC for "Like some Scots" - and some fancy words - LOUCHE (Rakish) and AVERSE (Opposed (to)). 

Really, just a lovely, lovely puzzle. 

- Horace 

Tuesday, April 21, 2026, Victoria Fernandez Grande

The day is off to a FLYINGSTART, with airline companies beginning each theme answer: Spirit, United, Frontier, and Delta. Nice, tidy Tuesday theme. I have no complaints.

How is it that I have never before heard of the Haitian currency unit, the GOURDE? (You don't need to answer that.) Seems like that would have come up somewhere along the way, but no, you may count me among the IDIOTS. No SAGE, I. Another thing that hasn't come up a lot for me is TEAURN (Steeping container), and while I believe that the GOURDE is a thing, I am more skeptical about a TEAURN. Coffee urn, sure, but I wanted tea pot, or even tea cup. Anywhoo...

What about the things that I did like? Well, I enjoyed seeing YIELDS for "Surrenders" at the outset. Nice to have something other than "cedes." And SPURN (Snub) is a nice word. Well, not a nice word, but you know what I mean. And we watch a lot of BritBox, so it was fun to see ERM (Hesitation sound across the pond) in the grid. 

No actual CONS to speak of in this one, and that makes for a quick review, but "ITLL have to do."

- Horace 

p.s. I went looking for images of ASPS on papyrus to use for the photo today, but they're not all that easy to find! 

Monday, April 20, 2026, Freddie Cheng

Kind of a funny theme today where NATURECALLS are hidden in theme answers. As in:

T[WOOF]HEARTS - Low red card in a deck
CHOOC[HOOT]RAINS - Locomotives, to kids
T[HISS]UCKS (!) - "The worst!"  
MET[ROAR]EA - City and its surroundings
NOTROU[BLEAT]ALL - "Don't mention it – it was easy"

BLEAT is a nice word, isn't it? 

Continuing one of my hobby horses since restarting the blog, there are several entries that might not have passed the Sunday Morning Test a decade or so ago. First is the theme entry THISSUCKS. It's a little crass, but times have changed. ASS has been in puzzles for a long time, but usually clued with something like "donkey," not "____-backward." And I'll also include EARWIG in this category, because they are such disturbing creatures. EWW! And really, the revealer itself, with its "I need to use the bathroom" clue... OK, I know I'm coming off as something of a prude (and as someone who uses the phrase "something of a...") but I am just doin' my job! (ITRY).

And here's another thing... I love the word TRAIPSE, but never have I thought of it as meaning "Walk wearily." Sure, the AI summary will support this clue, but if you look in Merriam-Webster it just says "To go on foot: Walk," and "to walk or travel about without apparent plan." This is more how I think of it, and how I use it. I like its lighter meaning. And sure, I know that it's fair game to use third and fourth level definitions, but this one has such a nice primary definition, why not use "Wander," or "Meander?"  

But apart from that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?

- Horace 

Sunday, April 19, 2026, Michael Lieberman

NUCLEAR FUSION

It's a Sunday puzzle with a rebus, but I'm not exactly sure what the rebus is doing, or why the puzzle is titled "Nuclear Fusion." A first, with ISLAN[DH]OPPED (Traveled from Syros to Naxos to Mykonos, say), I thought, OK, the center two letters are fused into one square, and that idea sort of still works with IFEE[LG]REAT ("That was rejuvenating!"), but it's three words instead of just two, making it a little less elegant. But then we look at the Downs that run off the rebuses, and we find that they are all four-letter, two-word answers, with rebuses at both ends and the same two letters in the middle. As in: [DH]EA[DT] (Race that's too close to call) (to be read as "dead heat"). Maybe this is the real theme? The nuclei of both Down words are fused? But then what of the Acrosses? They are just working in service of the Downs. (And yes, I am fully ready for there to be some beautiful explanation that I just didn't GET on this early Sunday morning, and if you know what that explanation is, please tell me in the comments.)

So, the theme is a little hard to figure out, at least for this rusty blogger, but taken as a themeless with a ton of variable rebus squares, it was a lot of fun. So we're all HAPP[YC]AMPERS, right? Or was it HOHUM?

"Locks up?" (HAIR) didn't quite work for me. I would have preferred something like "coif." Hair just seems to general for that "up" in the clue. On the other hand, I did like the aha moment when PRISM (What might be found at the end of a rainbow) came clear. Nice one.

PALISADE (Defensive fortification) is a lovely word, isn't it? I prefer the plural version that doesn't have anything to do with conflict, but still... and just after that in the puzzle was a word I did not know: FAE (Winged beings of folklore). I see from xwordinfo.com that it has appeared three times before this, in puzzles that I probably completed, but I did not remember it. Perhaps this time I will. 

And finally, another word I don't remember hearing before, but that I enjoyed learning: PROMPOSAL (Elaborate invitation from a senior, maybe). Hah!

Overall, I enjoyed figuring out the rebuses, and there were some fun entries. What did you think of it?

- Horace