Sunday, July 26, 2026, Kim Alswager

DOWN THE TUBES

When I was a teen, video arcades were big. On the weekend, I would take the #2 bus downtown to the Silver Ball, and I would turn the money that I made on my paper route into tokens. My best game was Asteroids, but Donkey Kong was there too, and I played it sometimes when somebody else was on the Asteroids machine. Since then, Asteroids faded into a footnote, while Donkey Kong spawned a whole universe of characters and games, and now this puzzle.

I should maybe also add that after college I pretty much stopped playing video games altogether, and so my knowledge of all things Mario is pretty much limited to what I have picked up through previous crossword puzzles, and it turns out that didn't amount to much. I had no idea that he could use a FIREF LOWER (weird cut) to throw flames, that there was a character named PRINCESSPEACH, or that she was held captive in BOWSERCASTLE. I had never heard the name WARIO before, and I think I confused YOSHI with Yoshimi, from the Flaming Lips song. So, as you can see, I was not the target audience for this one. And that's fine. I still learned the words ENTHALPY (Total heat content of a thermodynamic system), VINYASA (Yoga style in which each movement is synchronized with a breath), and PEEPTOE (Shoe style with a small opening in the front), so that's good.

"Short hand?" (HOUR) was my favorite clue.

Frannie takes over tomorrow. For real this time! I'll see you in a while. Happy Summer! 

- Horace 

Saturday, July 25, 2026, Katie Hoody

YAY! It's a Katie Hoody puzzle! She's got the kind of record any wannabe constructor would dream of - she's done ten NYTX puzzles, one Thursday and nine Saturdays. 

It's all about the cluing. Fine examples today include "Let on a court, say" (CALL) (a decision on a tennis court - this one took me forever!), "It's made of diamonds" (ARGYLE), "Coach's lack, often" (ELBOWROOM) (so, so good), and my favorite of the day "Second person seen in 'Hamlet'" (THOU). I put that in and for a moment I thought, "I don't remember anyone named THOU." Sigh. Not a person, "you."

Speaking of misdirection, for "Fashionable spots?" I was thinking of a night club or a swanky restaurant, but no, it's POLKADOTS. Ha! And "Predigital recording devices" had me thinking of abaci and stone tablets, but it wasn't that far back, no, it was just PENS. And how about "One might check a box for it" (MAIL)? I just did that very thing yesterday, but did it come to me without crosses? No. No it didn't. I did, however, put HOSE (They might be thrown out if they run) in right away, and it's been at least a few years since I wore any. :)

It's always a pleasure seeing Ms. Hoody's byline, and this one didn't disappoint. I hope you enjoyed it too.

- Horace 

Friday, July 24, 2026, Geoffrey Schorkopf

The turn continues today with this stagger-stack themeless. Today I much preferred the non-QMCs to the QMCs. "Criminals in the oil industry?" (ARTFORGERS), "Not show-stopping" (BINGEWATCHING), and "Group with defining traits?" (WORDNERDS) were all trying pretty hard, but "It makes one red in the face" (CLOWNNOSE) and "Start of a protest" (BUT) were both solid. At least that's my take.

But I'm in a bit of a SNIT, so perhaps you should take this all with that in mind. I'm not in a full RAGE, but I'll be surprised if I don't give myself an ULCER worrying about things I cannot control. I though OVERLONG about things last night, and I really need to tell myself to PUTTHATDOWN because LIFEISTOOSHORT. I'll be dead soon enough, but BEFOREIGO, and since I have mentioned paired clues all week, it seems, I'll say that I enjoyed that both HIRE (Bring on) and CAN (Fire) were in the grid together. And it's also nice that ARGOT and ARGON are symmetrical.

That is all.

- Horace 

 

Thursday, July 23, 2026, Damon Gulcynski

Greetings, solvers! Welcome to the Turn - those late-week puzzles that we love so much. It starts with Thursday, where there is often a trick of some sort, and today is no exception. Six letters in this grid are hidden in black squares and must be understood to exist while solving. If you are solving electronically, the letters will show up as white on black when you finish.

So what are we talking about? DARKENERGY (Proposed cosmological phenomenon that could make up 70% of the universe - and six squares in this puzzle's grid?). The "hidden" letters spell out "energy" in order, and are used in both Across and Down answers. And in typical, good-constructing fashion, the entries that use the letters end up being valid entries on their own without them, so while DEATHSTAR[E] is the actual answer to "More than just a disapproving look," the letters without the final E spell "death star." Really nice work, but then, I would expect nothing less from a veteran like Mr. Gulcynski.

In non-theme, I enjoyed "The Devil's radio" (IDLEGOSSIP), "Strong suit?" (ARMOR), "Sphere, e.g." (SOLID), and WACKO (Totally bizarre). We also get another set of paired clues: "Unleavened South Asian flatbread" for POORI (yum!) and ROTI. And I thought it was interesting that "unread" worked just as well as UNREAD[Y] for "Ill-prepared." But, of course, "den" did not work for "Not admit" (DEN[Y]).

How'd you like it?

- Horace 

 

Wednesday, July 22, 2026, Rebecca Goldstein

It's summer, and a traveling carnival could be coming to your town. Or, you might be vacationing in a seaside locale with an amusement park. If either of those things is true, you could find yourself going there on a HOTDATE (Organic chemistry experiment?) (excellent clue), and maybe you'll TRYYOURLUCK at the RINGTOSS. Well, I'd say you'd be better off doing this puzzle instead, because it looks like those circled letters are heading straight for the rebus bottle. And a big PLUSHTOY is just hanging there waiting for you at 11-Down. Hah! It's a fun little Wednesday theme. 

So, I was going to put up a photo of LOX (Deli supply), because I like it, but then while looking for a photo, I came across a page that told the difference between LOX and smoked salmon, and since it was something I didn't know before, I thought I'd share it with you. LOX is brined, never smoked, and smoked salmon is either brined or cured in some other way, and then smoked. So LOX ends up being a little saltier and a little less tough than smoked salmon. I mean, sure, now that I've said that it all seems obvious, but, well, I didn't know it.

In other news, UPC (Seller's bottom lines, for short?) got another cute clue. "Get in bad with?" was a fun one for ABET. And we always enjoy paired clues, as seen at 9-Down and 33-Across today, with "You are correct about that" cluing both TRUE and ITIS. My favorite clue today might be the non-QMC "They're typical" (NORMS). Sometimes those straightforward ones can be very satisfying.

And hey, did I mention that I was in Italy recently? While there, I drank quite a bit of APEROL.

Hope you enjoyed this puzzle. I'll see you again tomorrow for the start of the Turn!

- Horace 

 

Tuesday, July 21, 2026, Kenneth Cortes

Sometimes puzzles clarify the meaning of a phrase for me. Take BADABINGBADABOOM, for example. Would I have been able to say it was the equal of "Easy-peasy!"? I might have just said it meant something like "There's that thing, done." But yeah, I guess it usually does imply simplicity.

So anyway, that was the first answer in today's GOOUTWITHABANG theme. (I like it when the revealer also works with the theme.) The others were SANDBLAST, STARBURST, and REDWINESUPERNOVA, the Chappell Roan song. All solid entries, so full marks there, as I've heard them say on BritBox. 

I was not familiar with the HABANERA Cuban dance style. I see it was popular in the 19th century, which is longer ago than the AUGHTS. (OHYEAH, worked in another entry!) (OHGROWUP, I hear you groan, to which I reply, THATHURT.) 

Funny that RHINOS is in the grid, as I am just now reading Rhinoceros by Ionesco in anticipation of seeing a performance of same at the A.R.T. in Cambridge in a month or so. I am plowing through it in the original French, though the performance, I believe, will be in English.

HER/she (chocolate bar's pronouns in a corny joke) was amusing. I hadn't heard that before. And I'm not too familiar with the term "Backcomb" (TEASE), so that was interesting to learn.

Overall, a fine Tuesday.

- Horace 

Monday, July 20, 2026, Eric Rollfing

I like the theme, but it assumes that one is playing the travel edition of Scrabble, where the tiles are often kept in a bag, and not the more standard board game variety, where the tiles are laid out on the table and don't really need to be groped for. POCKETCHANGE (Cause of some rescreenings in an airport) is the best one by far, because how often are you actually groping for a light switch? Sure, I did it almost every day over the past six weeks while I was staying in hotels, AirBnBs and friends' houses... but normally your hand goes right to it, doesn't it? Also, who plays SKAT? Oh, why am I fussing? 

GROVE (Small orchard) is a nice word, isn't it? So evocative. And that's a nice misleading clue for WOE (Blue state?). It's true on two levels nowadays... sigh. I also liked the long Downs in the SW and NE.

ATHEISM (Faith no more?) made a rare appearance today. Only the sixth time it's been an entry in a Modern Era NYTX. And nice to have it in the same grid with ETHICS.

The other day, my esteemed co-blogger Philbo was on the verge of telling us what he thought about the word EKE, and now we have both it and DEKES in the same puzzle! Though the latter, being clued with "Hockey feints," might be more to our resident Canadian's liking. Could a player EKE out a deke? 

- Horace

Sunday, July 19, 2026, Michael Lieberman

RAISING CAPITAL

What a cool theme! I had no idea what was going on with this theme for a long time. I knew that dash clues usually mean that an entry is continued into that space, but it took a long time to realize that they were going up, and it wasn't until after solving that I realized that the vertical section of each twisting answer, read from top to bottom, was a world capital. Wow. Let's see if I can find them all:

Lima (Peru)
Bern (Switzerland)
Cairo (Egypt)
Oslo (Norway)
Rabat (Morocco)
Rome (Italy)
Riga (Latvia) 

The crooked entries containing the capitals vary in "goodness," with THANKS/AMIL/LION ("I really, really appreciate it!") and VICT/ORIAC/ROSS (Britain's most prestigious military decoration) being on one end, and EREC/TABAR/RIER (Block someone's passage, say) being on the other. But none is terrible, and really, for this kind of a stunt, they're all perfectly acceptable. And I guess I will say the same for DECLARANT (Person providing a sworn account), and OUTSCORE (Defeat in competition). 

 I enjoyed the literalness, literally, of "Word order" for PHRASING, and in QMCs: "Judge of diamond value?" (AARON) was very good, "Plastic cap?" (CREDITLIMIT) was fun, and "Peak of religion?" (SINAI) got a chuckle. My favorite Non-QMCs were "It's in the pipeline" (GAS) and "They're often covered with dirt" (SEEDS). Apt! 

As for "You're doing it every day" (AGING) ... Too soon!

- Horace 

 

Saturday, July 18 2026, Ryan Judge

Dear readers, I cannot lie : I was somewhat underwhelmed by Saturday's puzzle.  What do I look for on Saturday, and to a lesser extent on Friday?  Difficulty.  Misleading clues, echoing my esteemed co-blogger Colum.  I want to have to chew and chew on a corner until the answers finally reveal themselves.  (This is less fun, mind you, when there's a timer counting down the seconds in the corner of one's eye.)  I wasn't feeling it today, as I filled in the grid, and I don't think it's "me" - I know I've plateaued as a solver.  I do know this asks a lot of setter + editors.  Maybe I'm guilty of taking some things for granted, y'know?

So to the puzzle.  Like probably all of you, I was inclined to enter ORC at the very top as a "Lord of the Rings" extra.  But no, I thought, too obvious - so I entered ENT instead, and that wasn't right either - it was ELF.  Hmmm .. maybe I should rethink the opinions stated above, at least on the misleadingness front...

To be sure, there were many neat discoveries today.  My family donated to OXFAM every year and I never really knew much about it.  Collection of NGOs based in Nairobi??!  Huh.  If I did SITUPS regularly, maybe I'd know about the "butterfly" variation with one's soles pressed together.  Sounds kinda painful...  

QBERT was one of the many video games separating me from my quarters in my feckless youth.  I was surprised to see it pop up today!  To clue a SITAR as "held at about a 45-degree angle from the player's body" is to plumb deep into the canon of sitar knowlege... I liked HOARDED for "Overtook?", which would also be a good clue for "ODED".  And indeed, a BONGO could certainly add flavour to a salsa.  I was going to get all worked up about the extra 'Y' in BLUEY, the "titular animated dog of children's TV", but Google rescued me - there is such a TV show and it's not Blue's Clues at all.  

I have a few friends who do ULTRA marathons.  They're crazy, all of them.

And on that scattershot note, my week of blogging ends; Horace takes over this Bat Channel tomorrow.  Have a great week everyone!

-philbo

Friday, July 17 2026, Coz Berlin

Initial thought on Friday's puzzle : You have to hand it to Coz Berlin, and any setter capable of *three* full-width triple stacks in a single 15x15 grid!  Today's geometry led to a sandwich of those stacks, almost completely decoupled from one another - connected by only three single-letter overlaps between layers.  Almost like solving three separate mini-puzzles!  Ordinarily I'd expect this to necessitate some awkwardness in the crossers, but not the case today - I found this to be silky smooth from top to bottom, a six-stop solve, in units of my subway commute home from work.

The very first clue was a mystery to me:  "Savory Chinese dish prepared on a griddle".  Thanks to the fairly straightforward Down content, it was quickly revealed as SCALLIONPANCAKE, which I've never heard of, though my lovely wife has.  That was really the only thing resembling a hiccup today, if you don't count my entering EARTHA ("Kitt who played Catwoman") in the wrong place.  

The French seafood topping SAUCEAMERICAINE was not known to me either. Next time I'm in a French restaurant, I now plan to try it out.  I had heard about LEONARDODAVINCI's means of learning human anatomy (via dissection of corpses).  Gruesome!  Did the ends justify the means?  I'm thinking probably yes.

I appreciated some inventive cluing today.  Who knew that a Martian DUNE was commonly crescent-shaped?  Well, we do now!   On the QMC front, "Dated many years ago?" (OLDE) was clever, as was "Unearthed?" (ERODED, where I originally entered EARTHA). "It lacks a permanent host, for short" was a clever way to clue the near-ubiquitous SNL.  And tragedies do indeed often start with ACTI!

I have opinions about the word EKED, but I think I'll just keep them to myself today.  Very fine smooth crossword overall.  See ya on the flip side!

-philbo

Thursday, July 16 2026, Zhou Zhang and Mallory Montgomery

One thing I've learned from chatting with the elite solvers at the NYT crossword tournament is - if speed matters to you, it pays to figure out the theme early, if there is one. But that's not how I roll (to my detriment at the tourney) - I like things to reveal themselves, either by deduction from the theme answers (satisfying) or finally via the revealer clue (a nice aha! moment).  And so it was with the Thursday crossword, with its interesting 16x15 grid.

Today's journey was especially rewarding.  The theme clues seemed to be Yes/No answers, each with a qualifier of sorts; I had to leave them unsolved as I worked my way through the grid, all the way to the revealer near the bottom - "Question during a brainstorm session..." - DOESTHISHAVELEGS - and it all made sense, as the question being answered by the theme clues.  Does an IRONMANTRIATHLON have legs?  Yes - three arduous ones!  Does a MILLIPEDE have legs?  Yes - sometimes more than 1,000!  Does a DIRECTFLIGHT?  Yes - exactly one!  And finally and funniest, does a YARDSTICK?  No - but it does have three feet!  (Sounds like a kids' riddle..)

My favourite C/AP today was NOONE ("Who knows what preceded the Big Bang") as it evokes for me the mind-bending geometry of space-time and the postulation that the concept of "before" is meaningless in the context of the Big Bang, which runs counter to our conventional notion of what "time" even is.  On a lighter note, "Mince words?" (EDIT) was cute and I bet/hope brought a smile to our fearless leader Will S.   I want to try Chirashi sushi now that I know it's garnished with ROE.  I didn't know IHOP issues "Stackholder Perks" as part of its employee rewards program.  When I saw the clue, I was hoping the answer would somehow be LEGO. 

I saw my parents sing in a choral performance of HANDEL's "Messiah" some years back.  It remains one of the most moving things I've ever experienced. 

Ok, this review's INTHEBAG.  A demain, mes amis!

-philbo

Wednesday, July 15 2026, Jonathan Raksin and Jeff Chen

Wednesday's puzzle is an homage to one of the greatest toys ever, and its inventor - Erno Rubik and his eponymous Cube.  I remember getting my first Cube in high school, wasting countless hours learning how to solve it, and am enthralled to this day by the mechanism of the thing and its variants.

Seeing the little nine-letter square with circled letters in the middle, I thought I'd work my way inward and leave it till the end, so I hit the theme clues kind of at random ..

• TURNINGPRO ("Giving up one's amateur status")
• MADSCRAMBLES ("Frantic rushes")
• FLYINGCOLORS ("Something it's good to pass with")

which weren't hinting at much until the revealer at the bottom : SPEEDCUBER, which could only refer to one type of "cube".  I particularly like this - if you read the first theme answer a certain way, it's basically synonymous!  (Have you ever seen a SPEEDCUBER in action?  It's mind-boggling.)

Filling in the nine centre squares reveals the inventor's name, all scrambled up.  Nice payoff!

Of course, he says pedantically, the scrambled 3x3 in the middle could never be re-arranged to spell ERNO RUBIK.  The 'E' would have to transform from an edge piece to a corner piece, and so on and so forth.  (Irritated with me yet?  😁 )

Outside the theme, other clever C/APs were "Vampire double feature?" (FANGS) and especially "Days or Knights follower" (INN) - the latter had me trying to justify PIP as an answer.  "Botheration" was a quaint clue for ADO.  Finally, as an avid cyclist, I appreciated PEDALPOWER as "Standard bicycle propulsion".  As it should be!

A fun crossword, all in all, maybe a touch on the easy side for a Wednesday.  On to tomorrow, where the Turn awaits!

-philbo

Tuesday, July 14 2026, Gus Bloxham and Bharati Hemmady

Hello!  As a solver who's only ever dreamed of trying his hand at crossword creation, I'm always so impressed at the seemingly inexhaustible list of inventive themes that the setting community comes up with.  That said, today's theme particularly tickled me with its cleverness, bringing together four theme answers..

• BADAPPLES ("Corrupting sorts, in an orchard metaphor")
• SPOILEDBRATS ("Nightmares for nannies")
• ROTTENTOMATOES ("Movie review site with a percentage rating scale")
• FUNKYCHICKEN ("Novelty dance with comical elbow-flapping")

...and ties them together with "Heading the wrong way..." (OFFCOURSE).  Of course - delightful!  I particularly loved SPOILEDBRATS, which requires a second look before even being food-related, and FUNKYCHICKEN, which in its common sense uses FUNKY in a whole other way.  This is quality stuff.  My only nit might be, I don't think the revealer clue needed to say "interpreted culinarily" - it slightly diluted the "aha" experience, I thought.

Random other notes .. Shrek's beloved FIONA brings back fond memories... I loved REN and Stimpy in my (relative) youth... ALA mode, literally "in the fashionable style", is pretty much synonymous nowadays with "with a scoop of ice cream on top".  I frown on this practice.  My family teases me for it, but I find it makes my desserts soggy...

Favourite non-theme clue is the excellent "Slice of Life or nick of Time" (PAPERCUT)... In"Supportive advocate, as for L.G.B.T.Q. rights" (ALLY), surely the qualifier in the clue is a bit gratuitous?  ... I've always wondered about the origins of DOXing, one of the many wonderful things made possible by social media.  Looking it up - turns out it's just a neologism based on "docs".  Ho hum.

That's it for me.  Nice work Gus and Bharati!  "See" ya tmrw..

-philbo

Monday, July 13 2026, Lynn Lempel

This week starts off with a straightforward, quick-solve puzzle with a theatrical theme.  Working down the grid, we encounter..

• ERECTORSET ("Meccano offering for budding builders")
• ORALSTAGE ("Human's earliest phase, according to Freud")
• IRONCURTAIN ("Metaphorical Cold War barrier")
• TURBOPROP ("Small aircraft for short flights")

Tying these together is the revealer, clued simply as "Toys..." - PLAYTHINGS - and everything makes sense!

OK, not going to lie - before even a minute had gone by, besides ERECTORSET and ORALSTAGE, I also had RACY ("Titillating") and SEXIEST ("Like the man on an annual People magazine cover") entered in the grid, and I was really starting to get the wrong idea about the theme...

Aside from entering SATIRE instead of SENDUP for "Humorous parody", which led to a bit of a mess in the middle of the grid, I didn't encounter any sticky spots today.  I'd never heard of Brooklyn's MEDGAR Evers College, but the crossers came to my rescue there.  

Otherwise I got nuthin'.  Just a gentle few minutes with pen and paper.  On to Tuesday!

-philbo

Sunday, July 12 2026, Collin Drown

Hey out there in Crossword Land!  Philbo here, for another week of quality NYTXWD blogging...

"Not a terrible first try, Collin."  I say this in the spirit of today's puzzle, whose theme features nastiness and disagreeability, all the way from cattiness to out-and-out mendaciousness, all with entertainingly punny cluing.  For example, the Dracula-evoking "I vant to suck your blood" is a BITINGREMARK, and (approriately today on Wimbledon Finals Weekend), "Wow!  With form like that, you're headed to Wimbledon" is a BACKHANDEDCOMPLIMENT.  I grew up knowing this as a LEFTHANDEDCOMPLIMENT - part of the systematic persecution of us left-handers, of course - which could have been clued something like "You're our star southpaw pitcher".  All very amusing, and I mean this as neither a PATRONIZINGCOMMENT nor a BALDFACEDLIE.

Outside the theme, there were many clever clues to appreciate.  "Lap, maybe" (REPASS) was super misleading, as was "One looking after pupils, for short" (EYEDOC).  "Turkey part" isn't BREAST - it's ANKARA.  I thought "Puts away" would be EATS, but no, it's ICES.  My favourite QMC today was "Bull rings?" - PRANKCALLS.  Brilliant!

My only hiccup today was FAB for "Groovy", instead of the requisite FLY, which caused a bit of confusion near the NW corner.  Over to the East, SEITAN was new to me as a "Tofu alternative" (it's made from wheat gluten). Fortunately, the crossers came to the rescue, including OUIJA, questionably clued as a "Device for sending group messages?" - isn't it more for RECEIVING messages? But I quibble.  And while I'm on my quibblin' wagon, at 84D I think a "Baking recipe instruction" would be just KNEAD, not KNEADIT.  Right before that, surely ACIDIC isn't necessarily "Far from basic"?  Also, a YETI is a "Himalayan menace" to only the most credulous...

EOIN Colfer is a hero of mine.  His Artemis Fowl series was the source of many hours of excellent entertainment, reading to my kids.

Incidentally, ABES as "Fivers" isn't a thing up here in our neck of the woods.  We don't have a nickname for our "fivers".  They could be WILFS, I suppose (look it up!).  

Fun Sunday puzzle! 

-philbo

Saturday, July 11, 2026, Jim Quinlan

I found today's puzzle to be an easier solve than yesterday's. I have often wondered how our friends at the NYT determine which puzzles should go on which days. I expect that Fridays and Saturdays should be the most challenging to figure out as they are both themeless, and so you don't have a simple metric like how difficult the theme is to help you out. There is also the dial of how tricky the cluing is, which can take the same grid from straightforward to infernally mind-twisting, which we see in the final puzzle at the ACPT, with its three levels of clues.

But then, at the same time, I enter into solving Saturday's puzzle with the mindset that the clues are going to be misleading and surprising. So I might be undermining the editors' classification through putting on my "Saturday clue" solving hat (metaphorically. I don't actually have such a hat. Just to be perfectly clear).

With all that out of the way, I still think this was easier than yesterday. 1D: Features of many M. Night Shyamalan films (PLOTTWISTS) is really a gimme, as is at least the start of 2D: Home to Pearl Harbor (OAHUHAWAII) - I initially had OAHUisland, but it wasn't hard to correct. 4D gave me 12D. 

JOSS statue - the word comes from the Portuguese "deos" 

I like the clue at 5A: Eschews English, say (SKIPCLASS) - a very nice non-QMC. But LEGALLIMIT was also straightforward. 

I suppose that my "Saturday clue" solving hat (again I don't actually own one. Really) helped with 28D: Some ports, for short (USBS). 48A: Metaphorical beginning or ending (ASHES) is a good clue, if depressing. I also chuckled at 58A: What's kraken? (SEAMONSTER), but then I have a calendar of just Dad jokes, so that's me.

Well, I've finished a week of blogging, so IGUESSTHATSTHAT. Time to put away my "Saturday clue" solving hat and turn the reviewing duties over to Philbo.

- Colum

Friday, July 10, 2026, Willa Angel Chen Miller

An almost perfectly symmetric grid on this Friday themeless, with six 15-letter grid-spanning answers. The solve was delightful, with some challenges happening for this solver in the lower middle section, but the rest moving smoothly along.

I amusingly had made an assumption when reading the clue at 14A: Hot shot producer (ESPRESSOMACHINE) that it would start with EStRogen____. I put in 17A: What late-night partying might lead to (NOISECOMPLAINTS), and had a fair amount moving down the right side before I saw that 5D: Short Instgram video (REEL) couldn't start with RoE_. I literally had StILLEDTHEB___ before I figured out my mistake!

A similar issue happened in the northeast of the grid, where I put in gEe at 20A: "Jeepers!" (EEK). I still think my answer is more apt. Apt! When I finally figured out 13D: Typewriter settings (DESKS) - cute - and 9A: Intro course? (SALAD) - should have gotten that earlier - LINEOFREASONING came into sight.

Diego RIVERA murals in Detroit

My final challenge came with 54A: "It hasn't happened to me, but ... wow!" (ICANONLYIMAGINE), where I had ICANjustIMAGINE. The actual answer here beats mine, for sure. I figured it out with THEYRE. I remember that video! But I'm not going to post it here due to how annoying it is. On the other hand, FANINTERFERENCE is an amusing clue and answer.

I love love love 45D: Proceed with a game plan (HUNT). Oh, man, that's a great non-QMC. So clever!

- Colum

Thursday, July 9, 2026, Brad Wiegmann and Nat Wiegmann

The "i" button on my iPad app tells me that upon completion, an animation will show up. It did not on my device, and if it didn't on yours, you might be uncertain what the theme was actually about. Thank goodness then, that there are dedicated bloggers who take the time to figure these things out for you! 

The revealer is at 38A: Renounced ... or a phonetic hint to reading the answers to the starred clues (FORGONE). What you need to do in each of the indicated answers is to remove the four instances of a repeated letter, and the remaining letters in order will spell the actual response to the clue. Thus, 17A: *Honeybunch (STUTTGART) has 4 Ts. Removing them will leave "sugar," the answer to the clue. The other three are:

25A: *Afternoon socials (TELLALLS) - "teas."

49A: *Worms or flies, often (BASSISTS) - "bait."

60A: *____ Beach, Calif. (APIASAMOA) - "Pismo." This one is particularly impressive, utilizing the capital of the Oceania country to hide the answer.

I know that there are algorithms that will do this work for you, but the concept is still human born. You have to come up with the idea, formulate your query, and then find examples that will fit into a grid in symmetric fashion. We're a long way from AI doing this sort of thing on its own, folks!

IGUANODON

Some may CAVIL at the fact that there are answers in the grid longer than the theme answers, such as 21A: Back-to-basics regimen (PALEODIET) (nice non-QMC!) or 54A: Right now (ASWESPEAK), but that doesn't bother me.

A couple of very nice QMCs on the long downs at 8D: Sketchy activities? (ARTLESSONS) and 28D: Show that ends in disarray? (STRIPTEASE). Very nice, and a great start to The Turn!

- Colum

Wednesday, July 8, 2026, Mason Hyunjin Lee

Today is the first day this week that I actually paid attention to my advice from Sunday. I took a little extra time to see what the theme was, and then tried to figure out the theme answers rather than just fill them in from crosses in order to get the best possible time. Turns out (at least today) that solving this way is still quick!

The theme answers are all clued with a single word whose first letter you have two options for, which can then be interpreted in a phrase of the form "blank or blank." For example (because my explanation looks pretty darned thorny in hindsight), 17A: [C/P]ause (MAKEORBREAK) is "cause" (make) or "pause" (break). The other three are just as clever:

27A: [L/C]ure (TRICKORTREAT)

46A: [M/H]inds (HEADSORTAILS)

62A: [Z/R]est (LIFEORDEATH)

I am really impressed by this theme. The only one I have any (minor) complaint about is "rest" being "death," but it's acceptable.

Mia HAMM, World Cup winner (unlike the USMNT)

Otherwise, I like how AISLOP looks in the grid (but not in real life). I smiled at 43D: First in a race? (ADAM). And TODO crossing AGENDA was a nice touch.

- Colum

Tuesday, July 7, 2026, Brad Lively

Well, I'll tell you what it's not right now, here in Albany, and that's WARMANDFUZZY. More like cool and rainy. Although I can't complain. At least I don't have to be in Italy, like some.

The theme takes that concept and interprets it literally with two word phrases where the first word is warm, and the second fuzzy, as in 20A: *Surfer girls, in old lingo (BEACHBUNNIES). The other three are HOTDOGS, SUNBEAR, and FIREFOX. The first is apt, given the contest that happens annually on July 4th. Congratulations to Miki Sudo!

Who knew the AVOCADO tree could self-pollinate? I learn something new with many NYT puzzles with the trivia clues they utilize. Another example is 52D: Number of years that George Washington lived in the White House (ZERO) - that's because it wasn't completed until 1800. Let's not think about the current grotesque expansion.

Has anyone heard of a CATIO? I can imagine what it is, but a picture is worth a thousand words so here goes:

Good clue for 30D: Start a long drive, in a way (TEEOFF). 

- Colum

Monday, July 6, 2026, Alex Eaton-Salners

It's nice to stop and appreciate the theme, but it's also fun to get the full "aha" moment by not paying too close attention. I saw the circled letters today, but I didn't bother to see what they represented until I had completed the entire grid.

The revealer is 56A: Sections of a choir ... as hinted at by this puzzle's circled letters (VOICEPARTS). In each of the long answers is one of the standard chorus voices: alto, bass, soprano, tenor, all in order but split into "parts" by scattering their letters across the answer. The theme would have been better had the parts been in order from high to low as you move down the grid, but that's a tough ask when the highest part has seven letters! I very much appreciate finding soprano inside of STOPDROPANDROLL.

Chappell ROAN

There are some lovely long down answers, including three place names (GALAPAGOS, COPENHAGEN, and TEHRANIRAN). I would like to go to two of those three places. And even the third, but not in the current climate, I'm afraid. I have been to the ALAMO, but not ANGOLA.

It's been rather HUMID around here, not like Italy, where some are. 

- Colum

Sunday , July 5, 2026, Rich Katz

BOXED SETS

Hey, folks. I'm back for another week of blogging. Kudos to Horace for writing two weeks while on a challenging slog through Italy! I'm sure we all have a lot of sympathy for his plight.

I've been really enjoying solving the puzzle lately. I've decided to take pressure off of myself and not worry about solve times, and simply enjoy the process. It's a very different approach from, for example, solving at the ACPT. Mondays and Tuesdays still go by very quickly, often too quickly to appreciate the theme during the solve, but still, being in the moment is worth it!

Today's puzzle has a really fun theme. Each theme answer is presented using the mathematical symbols for a set, and has three items in it. The relationship of these items to each other can be interpreted using a common phrase. For example, 23A: {Elijah, Ruth, Natalie} is BABEINTHEWOODS, referring to Babe Ruth between Elijah and Natalie Woods. 

They're all really well done, not a LAME one in the BEVY of answers. I particularly liked HONORAMONGTHIEVES (with Oscar referring to the Academy Awards), and POWERBEHINDTHETHRONE (AC/DC after the water closet - Hah!). 

Perhaps my favorite clue today was 32D: Flatter feet? (ODE). How to make this bit of crosswordese fresh again? With an outrageous pun, that's how. It will always win me over.

I also enjoyed 89D: You won't actually die of it (BOREDOM). 

Otherwise this was an enjoyable Sunday grid, and a lovely time spent with the puzzle. See you tomorrow!

- Colum

Saturday, July 4, 2026, Kareem Ayas

I don't usually talk about solve times, but this week The Turn went in reverse order for me: Thursday took longer than Friday, which took longer than today's. And the odd thing is that this one felt the hardest at the beginning, but then things started to fall into place.

In the NW, I did not know the word OCEANARIA (Expansive marine exhibits), but I guessed that it would start with "ocean," so that helped. And although I thought "Grand Tour, e.g." was a bit of a stretch as a clue, after a few downs it sure looked like it would be BIKERACE. I would prefer to have seen the name of an actual race, rather than an umbrella term, but hey, it's Saturday.

Over in the NE, I broke in with "Peacock's home" (NBC), and CEL (Piece of cartoon memorabilia), before the long Downs started to res in. GREENBERET came to mind immediately, but I didn't realize that it was only a nickname. The real name is United States Army Special Forces. Oh, and speaking of trivia, Montpelier is smaller than PIERRE (Second-smallest U.S. state capital by population (about 14,000 people)), but Vermont is only second in the least populous state category, to Wyoming.

I liked the Wilde quote (LIFEIMITATESART), and it was interesting to learn about CREAMSODA (Soft drink originally made with egg whites). 

Colum takes over tomorrow! Until then, happy puzzling!

- Horace
 

Friday, July 3, 2026, Barbara Lin

Welp, I was wrong about the hemiquincentennial and themed puzzles. Aside from PRESIDENTIALRUN (Race to the top), there's nothing particularly patriotic about this one. And I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, because, duh, Friday and Saturday are themeless. Ever find yourself in a situation where you forget everything that you've been talking about for ten years and SPEW out some CANARD, only to realize it the next morning? Well, IKNOWTHEFEELING. 

So, Aside from that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the puzzle? Well, some of clues seemed straightforward ("Accepts accolades onstage, say" (TAKESABOW), "Opposite side" (FOE)), and some are that type which can be contorted to make sense, but which are less satisfying (N.A.A.C.P. member?: Abbr. (ASSN) (the abbreviation ASSN being a "member" of the shorter abbreviation), and "Play pieces?" (SETDESIGNS) (Sure, they're part of the construction of a play, but are they often considered "pieces?"). I know, I know, it's a game and part of the game is that the constructors and the clue writers try to trick the solvers, but sometimes it works better than other times. I have gone back and forth a bit on "Makes a return that hits the net?" (EFILES), because it's a fun tennis decoy, but agreeing that "hits the net" is normal to mean "travels via the internet" is ... well, is it a SRSLY? situation or is it a YES?

On the other hand, I did enjoy "Item that's not on the list, say" (IMPULSEBUY), "Shelling" (MORTARFIRE), and "Claims not to have known" (PLEADSIGNORANCE) (although I first wanted "feigns" here), and the puzzle as a whole was satisfying. What did you think?

- Horace 

 

Thursday, July 2, 2026, David J. Kahn

The semiquincentennial is starting early! Today we have the postal code for all thirteen original colonies in rebus form scattered throughout the grid. I caught on to the trick on the BE[NJ]AMIN (10 Hamiltons) / [PA]T[RI]OTS (American Revolution heroes) line, and really, it might have been [PA]ULA (Comedian Poundstone) that really forced my hand, as there can only be one answer to that, and it doesn't fit in four boxes. In other places, like 3-Down, I was able to answer "Ordinary" with PLAInold instead of PLAI[NJ]ANE.

I like how Mr. Kahn was able to include so many bonus, America-related words, like [MA]DISONS, [DE]LE[GA]TIONS, ELE[CT], U[SC]ENSUS, SENATOR, and even IOWA. And for good measure, and I'm sure because I am in Italy, he also threw in PIZZA and CANNOLI. Thanks, Dave! :)

I look forward to two more 'Murica-related puzzles on Friday and Saturday, and maybe even a big, colorful one full of fireworks on Sunday, but if that happens, it'll be Colum who gets to talk about it.

See you tomorrow!

- Horace
 

Wednesday, July 1, 2026, Jeffrey Martinovic

Wormholes do exist! Today one snakes through the middle of the grid, connecting two completely walled off segments that are mirror images of each other. And we have, essentially, two revealers at the bottom - PARALLELUNIVERSE and ALTERNATEREALITY. It's pretty cool. When I realized that all the Downs in the NW and NE were the same, I half expected a similar thing to occur elsewhere in the puzzle, but no, it's just those two sections. The rest plays like a themeless, aside from the two 16-letter grid spanners.

"Bed for fish?" (SUSHIRICE) was very good. SALIVATE (Get ready for dinner, say) was a little much. And "Position in a bridge game" (SEAT) was odd, and tricky, as I wanted a compass point there.

Is it just me, or were there a lot of deception-related entries, like "Double-crosser" (RAT), WHITELIE (It's just a little bit off), "Dodge deceptively" (EVADE), "Trickster" (CONARTIST), and "Places where people are usually lying, for short" (ERS). Hah!

Fun Wednesday.

- Horace 

Tuesday, June 30, 2026, John Liber

My favorite clue today as I was solving was "Warning before your breaking point?" (ADOUT). That's a clever clue. Aside from that, though, most of them are fairly straightforward. I was briefly mad about "Easily broken" for FRAIL, because I mostly think about that adjective being used for people, but I looked it up and they gave some examples like "frail boats in a storm," and "a nations's frail economy," so I had to reconsider.

The theme of EMPTYWORDS, or "words that start with M and T" was fine. MACHINETOOLS was maybe the least "in the language," but it's perfectly cromulent. I have been meaning to sign up for an introductory class to learn to use the MACHINETOOLS at a maker space I joined, but I have not yet found the time.

I thought the upper middle was the weirdest, with its WIIU (Nintendo Switch predecessor), HOGCALLS ("Sooooey!" and "Here, piggy, piggy!"), and OUGHTTO (Really should). And can you look at GODARK (Suddenly cease all communication) without seeing it as "God ark?"

OK, I need to get on the road. Today's seven-hour drive from Rome to the Veneto will be a test of just how many espressos one human body can endure. 

See you tomorrow! Hopefully.

- Horace 

Monday, June 29, 2026, Ginny Too and Rajeswari Rajamani

A smile-inducing, reduplicative theme today. The only theme answer that I have heard in normal conversation is SPARRINGRING, but the others are all valid, at least in a crossword puzzle valid kind of way. 

DEVICEVICE - Screen addiction, e.g.
SPARRINGRING - Where boxers trade jabs
INTELLIGENTGENT - Clever chap
NOBELISTLIST - Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzai, Linus Pauling, Martin Luther King Jr. and so on
FELINELINE - "Meow, meow, meow!," e.g.

OK, FELINELINE is borderline. And speaking of, my niece's son is trying to get us to a cat cafe today. It's his last day with us in Rome, and the two items on the agenda are getting into the Pantheon, and getting to the cat cafe. And then if there's time, maybe the Appian Way. 

Doesn't it seem like a cat cafe would be a better fit in EGYPT? 

ROUE (Hedonistic sort) is a bit of an outlier on a Monday, and I wasn't sure whether they'd want ISLES or islas for "Majorca and Minorca," but things worked themselves out. 

A breezy Monday. I think Frannie takes over tomorrow, and I'll see you in a few.

- Horace 

Sunday, June 28, 2026, Rebecca Goldstein and Christina Iverson

DOWN IN THE VALLEY

Remember Valley Girl speak? When was that? The eighties? It always makes me think of Moon Unit Zappa, I guess because her father had that hit song about it... Anyway, I hope you do remember it, because the theme today relies on the use of the word "like." It's like, in every theme answer, but then it's like a normal phrase that's, like, clued to make it like, totally mean something different. 

Let's like, check them out.

"Was an employee at IHOP, in Valleyspeak? SOLDLIKEHOTCAKES
"Fanned some Egyptian royalty, in Valleyspeak? SHOOKLIKEALEAF
"Did some birding, in Valleyspeak?" WATCHEDLIKEAHAWK
"Hitchhiked with a hangnail, in Valleyspeak? STUCKOUTLIKEASORETHUMB
"Made some outfielder errors, in Valleyspeak? DROPPEDLIKEFLIES
"Prepared some new pet fish, in Valleyspeak? BUILTLIKEATANK
"Performed some witchcraft, in Valleyspeak? WORKEDLIKEACHARM

Fer sure, those are all totally bitchin'. I shouldn't be surprised, though, when I look at the byline. Rebecca Goldstein and Christina Iverson are like, crossword superstars or whatever. And there's hardly any grody fill at all. Nothing to be SOREAT or LASHAT, and LOTSOF C/APs to LAUD like "One acting on impulse?" (AXON), "They shine during the day" (SOAPSTARS), and "Time to give up?" (LENT). 

Finally, I will say that it was nice to see PAX in the puzzle, because I don't think I've mentioned lately that we are in Rome, birthplace of the PAX Romana! I used to have a t-shirt when I was younger that I bought out of the back pages of Soldier of Fortune magazine that read "Peace through superior firepower." I wore it ironically, but it's kind of like, true or whatever. 

- Horace 

 

Saturday, June 27, 2026, Adrian Johnson

WHATATREAT to get two good themeless puzzles back-to-back. That NW stack is so good. DESERTISLE, ONEPOTMEAL, and the fabulous HOWABOUTNO ("What if we just ... didn't?"). I'm guessing Adrian Johnson was pretty happy when that came together. 

In other areas, my favorite entries were LEGOBATMAN (Toy adorned with a tiny rubber cape), THROWBACKS (Homages to a prior era), and "Dancer's restraint?" (REIN) (hidden capital!). I could have done without WARCABINET (Defense council?) and RAJ (British ____ (colonial rule of India)), but it's all just words, right? 

And I loved the straightforwardness of "Out" (NOTIN). And I've never heard "Cock-a-hoop" (GLAD) before. Where did that come from?

Looking forward to being able to say I ATE a HEN when I get back to the States. :)

Ciao for niao! 

- Horace 

Friday, June 26, 2026, Spencer Leach

OKSO, all week I've been saying that I have been enjoying the themed puzzles, and I've been thinking maybe I should stop saying I prefer themeless after all, but then I do a puzzle like today's and I'm back where I started. This thing was great right from the start. The paired 2- and 3-Down - "Expert on cosmos" (MIXOLOGIST) (a great clue on its own) and "Expert on the cosmos" (ASTRONOMER). Laying those side-by-side, and then running the Scrabbly XMAS and EXTRALARGEPIZZA (Biggest restaurant size that nevertheless is often topped?) (Very nice) through them is a real coup.

It got a little computer-nerdy with "Logic gate that is only on when neither input is in" (NOR) and "Unlikely scenarios, in techspeak" (EDGECASES), but then I really liked "Current affairs" (ELECTRODYNAMICS), so I shouldn't complain too much.

I really have to run, because we are going to get to St. Peter's as early as possible this morning to try to beat the torrents of tourists swarming in Rome despite the 90+ degree weather. I know, I know, I'm part of the problem... but still... I'm not sure WAYMO exists in Rome, so we're taking a local train one stop, from Trastevere to San Pietro. Wish us luck.

Seriously, though, this was great. Thanks, Mr. Leach. I'll be watching for your name in the future.

- Horace 

Thursday, June 25, 2026, Tarun Krishnamurthy

Wasn't I just talking about how I marvel at new theme ideas? Well you can add this one to the list. INSIDER TRADING is re-imagined to mean exchanging the positioning of groups of letters within an answer to form another acceptable entry. As is often the case, it's easier to see than to explain, as in:

*They may result in people wrongly being sent to jail - BRAP|ADS. In order to get the correct answer, "bad raps," you need to swap the positions of the underlined letters on either side of the pipe. 

There are five more such theme answers, and I am left, once again, asking myself how people come up with this stuff!

Aside from the theme, there were many good features of this one. GAWK (Get an eyeful) is an excellent word, "Get a lode of these!" (ORES) was cute, and RUNUP (Preceding time) was a nice alternate to the more commonly seen "eve." My last square was the B of ROB (____ blind) and BLEEPS (Removes a curse?) (Excellent), both of which surprised me.

Lastly, I feel I should really mention that I have seen quite a few ESSO stations over here in Italy. :)

Fun Thursday!

- Horace 

Wednesday, June 24, 2026, Kevin Curry and Zhou Zhang

I was disappointed early in this one when my initial guess at 1-Down (Kind of pants worn on a rainy day, perhaps) "floods," turned out to be incorrect (PAJAMA), but things quickly picked up, and I smiled at each and every one of the theme answers. And what was that theme? WALKIETALKIES!

"Sleigh's loaded and ready! How are you feeling, Santa?" JOLLYROGER
"I'm at the bakery - what kind of doughnut do you want?" GLAZEDOVER
"What's tomorrow's chemistry exam about again?" CARBONCOPY
"Before you go, what animal crosses the road in that old joke?" CHICKENOUT

You know, I often say that I prefer themeless puzzles, but that's a pretty funny set, and as usual, I marvel that people keep coming up with these clever ideas! 

GMOS (Pinkglow pineapples and GloFish, for short) and SPUN (Like cotton candy) made me think of the "cotton candy" grapes I had recently. They were green grapes, but they really tasted like cotton candy! And so, ok, I just looked it up, and after taking a little sip of water, the AI told me that cotton candy grapes are not genetically modified, but are the result of traditional cross-breeding. So you can feel good about it when you go get some to try. 

Another thing I looked up was TAEBO (Workout program that's a portmanteau of two different sports). Turns out it was invented by a guy named Billy Blanks, and is a mash-up of Taekwondo and Boxing. Later, it was acronymized, and then it also stood for "Total Awareness Excellence Body Obedience." I'm not sure it was worth coming up with that.

I feel like this review is getting long, and I only really adressed things in the top half! Well, I will quickly add that I liked PICANTE (Very spicy) and PRBUZZ (Marketing team's goal with a new product launch, informally), and I didn't know that Paul SIMON had been inducted twice into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. 

Fun puzzle.

- Horace 

Tuesday, June 23, 2026, Kathy Bloomer

I love this theme. I didn't see it coming until the very end, and I even took out TOES (Things stepped on by bad ballroom dancers) because I didn't like 50-Across ending with "ETR." It was only then that I considered looking at the circled letters. Hah! I like how only the revealer uses the bent word (BENDSTHETRUTH), and the others are just sort of hanging around the grid. 

It can't be a coincidence, can it, that in a puzzle with truth as its theme, there are so many C/APs on the other side of the line, like "One might involve false accounts" (TAXSCANDAL), "One might involve a false account" (COVERSTORY) (nice clue-pairing), "Alias" (FAKENAME), and "Bad calls?" (PHONESCAMS). 

Funny about 1-Across (Swiss currency), because just yesterday the topic came up of whether Switzerland used the Euro. They don't, obviously, as is shown by the answer, FRANC. 

OHHEY, speaking of Europe... BOOK (Reserve in advance) really hit the CSPOTS for me, because I waited too long to reserve a spot to go up Mount Vesuvius, and today is our last day in Salerno. TSKS all around. Who knew you even needed a ticket to go up a mountain? Well... I should have. YEESH! There is a slight chance for last-minute ticket purchases, and they start in ten minutes, so I'd better ARRET here. 

VALE!

- Horace 

Monday, June 22, 2026, Victoria Fernandez Grande

This sprightly Monday theme practically hops off the page! We've got themers ending in a TRIPLEJUMP: ARABSPRING; HOMEWARDBOUND; and DOOMSDAYVAULT. Very nice. 

Since I will probably drop that I am in Italy at least once per review this week, I'll get it out of the way quickly by saying that I hope ERUPT (What volcanoes do) is not apt, because I am staying very near that famous active volcano, Mount Vesuvius. There are plans to hike up and stare down in to it tomorrow. Ora pro nobis. Oh, and speaking of Latin, I tripped up early by dropping Ibid into 16A (Scholarly "same") instead of IDEM. Classic Latin mistake. 

Some fun, not-often-seen entries today, like OBLIGE (Compel), RAMPANT (Spreading unchecked), and SHREWD (Brilliant at negotiating). ROOK (King's partner in castling), while somewhat unusual in a puzzle, was not as welcome to me, as it served to remind me of the many BRUTAL losses I have suffered in the game of kings.

Today we are catching the train to Naples, or at least we hope to. Yesterday, some work on the tracks halted service, but supposedly today will be different. We shall see. Anyway, I should bounce. So I will bid you all ADIEU until tomorrow.

- Horace 

Sunday, June 21, 2026, Hannah Slovut-Einertson

BIG DRAW

Greetings, from Salerno, Italy, where many a COFFEERUN has been made, but where you won't find any giraffes. Unless it's WORLDGIRAFFEDAY and there is a cute one drawn into a specially-shaped 17x27 Sunday grid! 

This puzzle didn't put up a ton of resistance in the Acrosses, and although there were some nice, long Downs, they tended to COMEEASY, as there were usually at least a few crosses in place. Things got trickier toward the bottom, with the uncommon CORNPIT (Farm play area) (?), LOTUSROOT (Starchy plant part in Asian cooking) and ALMONDOIL (Nutty extract), but again, crosses helped! 

I enjoyed the not-often-seen BENTS (Natural predispositions) and BEHELD (Looked upon). Nice old-fashioned, slightly formal answers. Maybe BEARWITNESS (Testify) could be added to that group. All the Bs. And speaking of old-fashioned, I also enjoyed "Threads around a forum?" (TOGA). Hah! I will be at the Forum in Rome later this week, and I'll let you know if I see any togae.  

"Spoke sheepishly" (BAAED) was fun, and I had never considered that fact that YODA was a "'Star Wars' character whose species is never named." And speaking of trivia, I was a little surprised that the word "ossicone" didn't make it into the grid. 

 Oh, and one last thing - I loved seeing disc golf get into the clues with TEEPADS. I have played a lot of rounds in the past couple years! 

- Horace 

Saturday, June 20 2026, Katie Hoody

When I'm not on blogging duty, I do the NYT puzzles online, which is a faster but somewhat less satisfying experience; solving with pen and paper lends itself to a better appreciation of theme, clever clues, and overall construction.  Today, as I worked my way through the grid and put little tick marks beside my favourite clues, I felt like my cup runneth over - such great cluing today!!

My entry point was Soprano RENEE Fleming, right in the middle of the grid.  Immediately below that, the grid-spanning "'I've done better" was obviously NOTMYFINESTHOUR, except, as it turned out, it was actually NOTMYFINESTWORK - my only misstep today.  

Back up at the very top, the high-quality clues began immediately.  1A "Dad's pop, perhaps" (CREAMSODA) took me a while to "get" - I thought it was a questionable generational reference, but no, it's a branding thing.  Right below that, I needed most of the crossers to figure out 15A "One might be used to launch promotional materials" (AIRCANNON - brilliant!!).  And right below THAT, 17A "That's not the whole story!" (PLOTPOINT) was very clever.

I could narrate practically the entire grid like this.  7D "Bulb that becomes translucent when heated" (ONION).  23D "Stories of college students?" (DORM).  34D "Man's name whose first four letters spell a word describing its last letter" (RINGO) - also very clever!  31D "Fair weather followers" (SNOWBIRDS) - indeed - a whole contigent of Canadians can be classified this way...

The only thing approaching a "nit" for me is Hall-of-Fame football coach WEEB Ewbank at 43A. A tiny bit of a reach, no?  

A fitting finale at 61D "Sound made when something snaps into place?" (AHA) - a suitable anagram for AAH, the sound I made upon completing this puzzle.  Well done Ms. Hoody, well done indeed!

It's been a slice this week!  And now, over to Horace's capable hands.....

-philbo

Friday, June 19 2026, Jack Hatchett

A really nice construction today, with eight long Across entries and four long Downs, with nothing spanning the entire grid.  This led to a pleasant, steady solve, all the way to the very end where I failed in the SE corner and FWOE'd.  More on that later.

Things were promising from the very get-go, with 17A "Chef's complimentary bite" (AMUSEBOUCHE).   After such morsels, I like to sit back and announce "Well, my bouche is amused", to the amusement of nobody.  Right above that was a nicely oblique QMC "Field trip", whose answer HOMERUNTROT definitely did not jump out at me. 

 

Lavish use of contractions was in evidence; e.g. 20A "Dish often served with tartar sauce, informally" (FISHNCHIPS) and 35A "___ Green (Kermit the Frog song)" (BEIN).  I don't necessarily object, but it did stand out a little bit.  

What's the deal with SHOWERBEER ("Cold one enjoyed during a hot wash")?  Never heard of such a thing.  BEERSHOWER, on the other hand, in my younger days, yes maybe...

My very last entry was the diabolical QMC at 32A "Off-grid connection?".  I thought it had to be IRL (you know, "in real life") until getting the real answer from the crossers : THE.  Brilliant!  When was the last time you saw this word in a crossword?

Finally, the very last Across clue "Chinese revolutionary Sun ____" was lost on me.  I guessed YATSEE but it's actually YATSEN.  I should have known - my guess was too similar to the dice game Yahtzee to really be plausible.  If anybody asks, I'll say I ATECROW on this one, hoping for the response OHCOMEONNOW...

See ya on the weekend!

-philbo

Thursday, June 18 2026, Scott Hogan

A pleasant, gentle stroll through Crosswordland today, with a fun, somewhat cryptic-y theme distinguished by its super-short clues, which then appear in the answers in a self-referential way.  I'm having difficulty using my words, here, so I'll just write them out..

• "Bro?" is BROADWAYOPENING
• "Sit?" is VISITORCENTER
• "Ale?" is FAIRYTALEENDING

See how the answers describe the clues!  This is standard cryptic crossword fodder, which I've never seen in a "regular" crossword before.  Once I got the first one, the last two were very easy to write in; hence, this was a bit less challenging than a typical Thursday puzzle.

Regular readers of the blog may recall my comment yesterday babout the word MANEUVER, which appeared in a clue, and here it is again today as an answer to "Skillful move", right beside COINCIDE ("Occur at the same time")!  I fnd that ever so slightly eerie.  

The term FMRI, clued as "Mind-reading scan, in a way", was new to me.  "Functional MRI", it is, measuring brain activity via tracking blood flow.  The clue raises questions about what the "mind" really is.  If our neurologist Colum were blogging this, I'm sure he'd have plenty to say on the matter.

As a Canadian, 45D "$2 coin, eh?" was a write-in (TOONIE).  I don't mind the stereotyping.  I'm used to being pegged as a Canuck within two minutes of meeting any English-speaking foreigner.  Fun fact - our $1 coin features a loon on its Tail side and is called a LOONIE.  When the $2 coin was introduced, there was a bit of a movement to have it named a DOUBLOON, which for my money is a much better name.  But duller heads prevailed, ultimately. 

Are inert gases really referred to as NOBLES?  Is that some sort of chemistry insider thing? Noble gases, sure, but really?

Not a huge fan of the two pluralized beverages near the top:  3D "Absolut alternatives" (STOLIS) and 9D "Colas in the 'cola wars'" (PEPSIS).  Surely STOLID and SEPSIS could have somehow been worked into those positions?

I liked the in-your-face-ness of CLASSAMORON ("Bona fide numbskull")!

Well, I've managed to WINGIT through another blog.  Nice puzzle today!

-philbo

Wednesday, June 17 2026, Jonathan Raksin

 

Today's crossword features a really neat device, revealed by the central Across answer RIFFLESHUFFLES ("Casino maneuvers (*) carried out three times in this puzzle?").  In a properly done riffle shuffle, a deck of cards is cut into two equal piles, and then shuffled so that the cards from each pile are exactly interleaved, the cards from pile 1 now 1st, 3rd, 5th, etc. from the top and those from pile 1 now 2nd, 4th, 6th and so on.  Somehow, Mr. Raksin has come up with three different eight-letter words/phrases, which can be split into halves and riffle-shuffled letter-wise and still be valid English :

• CONSOLES --> COOLNESS
• STONEPITS --> SETPOINT
  ...and my favourite for its absolute cheekiness:
• GOOFOFFS --> GOOFOFFS

If you're like me, this is the first NYT puzzle you've ever solved with an answer appearing twice in the grid.  It was even clued the same ("Slackers")!!  What chutzpah!  But of course it works here - and I fully approve.

Amazing!  I can only imagine how these pairs were discovered.  If it were me, I'd have used software somehow.

Incidentally, if you perfectly riffle-shuffle a deck of cards 8 times, you restore it to its original order! A neat and not necessarily intuitive outcome.

Despite a bit of an odd grid configuration, with the NE and SW corners almost completely isolated from the rest of the grid, it was a smooth, midweek-appropriate solve.  I was nearly done in right at the start by a couple of intersecting clues in the NW corner that I had no idea about : Paul MESCAL, who played Shakespeare in "Hamnet", and the Disney film ENCANTO.  I also thought Tom Cruise was ILL-CAST, not MISCAST, as Jack Reacher, and that the Complete Works of anything would be CANON, not TOMES.  But it all worked out with a lucky guess or two, and no damage done.

I liked the little Supernatural Corner at the bottom, with "Telepathy, e.g." (PSI) in close proximity with "'Ability' that's hard to believe, for short" (ESP).  Popcorn TOFU sounds terrible.  Well, regular popcorn ain't all that either.  I was not familiar with the term SHORTCON for a fast-paced scam. I love Osso BUCO.  Maybe I'll make it this weekend, in between bike rides...

And with that, on to the "turn"!

-philbo

(*) known in these parts as "manoeuvres"

Tuesday, June 16 2026, Brad Lively

I must kick off today's review by perpetuating the Canadian stereotype and saying "sorry" - sorry that Tuesday's puzzle didn't really do it for me.  The four theme entries are distinguishable by their circled letters - a short consecutive string and an extra circled letter on its own.  I didn't pay much attention until hitting the revealer clue spanning the middle of the grid : "Hemingway tale about an elderly fisherman, with 'The'...", at which point OLDMANANDTHESEA was an easy write-in.  And sure enough, the theme answers all contain some form of OLD MAN (in the fatherly sense), plus an extra 'C', as indicated by the circles.  To wit:

17A "Pontiff's emblem with three horizontal bars" = PAPALCROSS
29A "Amigo" = COMPADRE
42A "Crustaceans sometimes called 'mudbugs'" = CRAWDADS (I did not know this!)
57A "Open some bubbly with a bang" = POPTHECORK

All makes sense but I felt a bit "meh" about it.  To be fair, none of the embedded "old men" have a fatherly connotation in the context of the words/phrases in which they're embedded, which is a plus.  

Notable stuff in the fill : 8A "Place for the highest-scoring golfer" (LAST) was amusing.  Interesting factoid in 55D about WHO being sung over 100 times in the WHO's WHO Are You"...  Speaking of 100, there must be that many ways of cluing ORCS (here in 36D as "Green-skinned World of Warcraft characters").  LALALA (18D "Fingers-in-ears syllables") was cute too.  I still find it an effective tool in an office context, given the right audience. 🙂

My only misstep was IMEANTO for 53A "That's my next move" - quickly corrected to IPLANTO.  

That's all she wrote!  Hoping for sunnier skies (or, maybe just a better attitude) tomorrow..

-philbo

Monday, June 15 2026, Eric Rollfing

I thought this was a great Monday puzzle, and I'll tell you why.  It wasn't so much the fill, which was quite straightforward, even for a Monday.  It was the unexpectedness of the theme - I couldn't see what the three long answers had in common until solving the revealer, which made me chuckle out loud.

• "Device that helps you make a point in class?"  (PENCILSHARPENER)
• "Toy likely to be found at a pop-up store?"  (JACKINTHEBOX)
• "Revolutionary kitchen gadget?" (SALADSPINNER)

Excellent QMC-type cluing but then the revealer "Response to a series of complaints..." turns out to be SOMEBODYSCRANKY.  So THAT's what connected those clues!  Love it!!  Not for the first time, I say "who thinks of these things?"  

As noted above, aside from that lovely surprise, not much jumps out of the grid.  ESCHEWS ("Forgoes") is a grand word.  Maybe a niggle with 30A "Wished (for)" (HOPED):  Are hoping and wishing really the same thing?  With regards to 57D "Gumbo ingredient" (OKRA) - I made gumbo for the first time just recently and that was my introduction to gumbo.  I'm not sold.  It's kinda slimy.  Maybe there's a special way to prepare it.  (Anyone?)  

See ya tomorrow!  

-philbo