Sunday, September 6 2026, John Kugelman

Hi folks!  Philbo here, back from a three-week hiatus from not just crossword blogging but crosswords altogether.  It's been a busy time.  Jumping straight back into it, today's puzzle promised to be a fun one, with six theme clues presented pictorially.  The theme being "Crossover Films", I was looking for movie-related wordplay, and so it was.  Each is an artist's rendition of the silly phrase resulting from two overlapping movie titles.  I found them all pretty funny - I wanted to put my favourite in here, but I can't decide, so here's one at random : A SHOT IN THE DARK, overlapping THE DARK KNIGHT, yields A SHOT IN THE DARK KNIGHT, depicted by a drawing of Batman getting an injection.  Ha!  

If I'd been more on my game, I'd have tried harder to guess the movies from the pictorial clues, but as it was, I just worked around them with the filler clues until the answers were obvious.  Probably cost me a few fun points in doing so, but oh well.

The rest of the grid was fine, more or less.  I found a few points of awkwardness; e.g. YESANDS ("Follows the first rule of improv") - not sure this is a pluralizable phrase.  And UNITER seems a bit clunky as a "sort of person who brings people together".  But I quibble.  There was much to like - a handful of clever QMCs like "Clearing account?" (ALIBI) (my fave!) and "Burn unit?" (KILN) - and also a couple of evocative entries for me:  In 1988 I toured Europe with my then-girlfriend (now my wife of 9-days-away-from-35-years) via EURAIL passes.  More recently, my ACPT friends Horace and Frannie and Colum and I, plus assorted plus-ones and other friends, have made it a bit of a habit to dine on Indian food on Tournament Saturday, which of course features NAAN along with aloo gobi.

SCLERA ("White of the eye") is an excellent word.  As for ANYHOO for "So-o-o, as I was saying...", I like it better as the anagrammatic ANYWHO.  Canadian thing?  Speaking of national identities, are DANES just so naturally polite that they don't need the word "please" in their language?

That's it for this review.  I didn't exactly CRUSHIT, I know, but I'll blog my way back into fighting form.

-philbo

Saturday, September 5, 2026, Fritz Juhnke

Wait, what?

He's learned his lesson? He managed to get his review published in the morning? An old dog can learn new tricks, it turns out.

And what a fun Saturday. Easier for me than Friday's, but very enjoyable. It boasts four grid-spanners, which in time-honored fashion, I will now rank based on how much I personally liked them.

4. 12D: Primary follower (GENERALELECTION). A fine answer, with no trickiness to the clue.

3. 3D: Incident so dramatic it feels like a movie (HOLLYWOODMOMENT). A better phrase, with a clue that essentially gives it away.

2. 17A: Nay sayers (ALLTHOSEAGAINST). A nice clue, using a recognizable idiom in a literal way, and a good answer.

1. 63A: Sarcastic response to boasting (ARENTYOUSPECIAL). Just a great phrase.

LION Dance

I had any number of errors during the solve which slowed me down. I wanted ICEcAstlE instead of ICEPALACE. I had Ette at 62D: Diminishing return? (ECHO). I do like my answer, but it doesn't quite work ("ette" as a diminutive, you see). I had TErn instead of TEAL (which should have been more obvious with the clue).

I very much liked 52D: The sound that concludes "The Sound and the Fury" (LONGE). So good! Also, 16A: What you might hear when you get someone's goat? (BLEAT). Hah! Did you get 46A: Toy popularized by Queen Victoria, familiarly (POM)? Referring to the dog breed, Pomeranian.

Well, this was a fun week. Philbo, take it away!

- Colum

Friday, September 4, 2026, Julian Xiao

And no lessons were learned. 

Yesterday's fiasco is repeated today. Who needs reviews posted in the morning? Apparently not me, who found the morning slipping away from him due to the need to walk dogs and get ready for work. Are there any other possible solutions?

Tune in tomorrow to find out!

Meanwhile, a really challenging Friday crossword puzzle made me work double hard for a solution. Literally, it took me about twice as long as usual. Start with 1A: Result of a tense build-up? (JENGATOWER). And with NATIONALTV just a couple of rows below, the NW corner was a real challenge, despite the gimme of NATASHA Lyonne. 

The amazing ETTAJAMES is the link into the NE corner, where SOJOURNER and 28A: Cooking term whose name is composed of two synonyms for "criticize (PANROAST) are excellent entries. I also liked 13D: Adjective that becomes its own synonym after its first letter is dropped (EVILEST). Hah!

GUINEA and Sierra Leone

I know Horace enjoyed the unexpected pairing of DATIVE and LATIN. He's not actually the well-known Roman poet, but he has studied the works of his namesake.

ATARIGAMES is a callback to my youth. We played both of these games on my Atari 800 in the early 80s. That's a long time ago now.

SRILANKA and 46A: Longtime Pixar character who says "I might be old, but I still got a spring in my step!" (SLINKYDOG) round out this chunky and beautifully constructed grid.

How can Saturday top this?!

- Colum

Thursday, September 3, 2026, Zhou Zhang

Turns out I'm not very good at remembering to write these posts in the morning when I'm on service in the hospital! My apologies for the delayed review. We work hard to get these things out early so that people can refer to them if they so please. And I need yet another angry email from Horace like I need another hole in the head!

Just kidding. The emails are more disappointed than angry.

But speaking of holes in the head, the theme today is phrases with the word "hole" in them, but where the word is replaced with the letter O. To add to the complexity, the phrases refer to objects that can be found inside of the corresponding answer which contains the O in the across direction.

Sometimes I think explaining themes is more complex than practicing Neurology.

You see, 2D: Slangy "mouth" found in a 20-Across (PIEO) refers to a "piehole," which can be found inside 20A: Noodle (NOGGIN). Cleverly, 32A: School unit (CLASSROOM) contains both a CUBBYO and a OPUNCH. I particularly like that the two phrases start and end with "hole."

The other two are OCARDS, found in a POKERGAME, and MANO, found in a ROAD.

HYENACUB

For fun clues, we get 5A: She's possessive (HER) - very nice; 72A: Letters found near some bars (LTE) - that's on a cellphone, you see; and the vague 47D: 2, 4, 6 and 8, e.g. (AGES).

I do like me a tricksy Thursday.

- Colum

Wednesday, September 2, 2026, Mac Motz

Many merry manifestations made by Mac Motz!

Doesn't it feel like this should have been a Monday puzzle?

Likely inspired by his own name, Mr. Motz has created a puzzle where every clue has two words that start with the letter M, and four "theme" answers which are made of two word phrases both starting with M. The revealer is helpfully placed at 1A: "Melts in your mouth" candies ... or a hint to this puzzle's theme (MANDMS).

It's an incredible feat of construction, even if it doesn't necessarily translate into the most entertaining of themes. So, hats off to the constructor. I bow in respect.

SAM Cooke

I read an interesting web comic about one mother's reaction to J.K. Rowling and her anti-trans sentiments; to the point - what should a parent do when a child is interested in the Harry Potter series? I bring this up due to 38A, an excellent example of the double M clue and answer. In the end, her point was that we can be honest with our children and point them towards better fiction, and not continue to support the Pottermerch universe.

Meanwhile, I think we can still continue to support MICKEYMANTLE.

Great clue at 39D: Mild-mannered characteristic? (HYPHEN). Very nice.

- Colum

Tuesday, September 1, 2026, Paul Hudes and Margot Kohn

Rabbit, rabbit!

Is what I did not say this morning, at the same time as I did not write this blog post. Delayed in every sense. I blame Washington.

But on the positive side, we have a nicely absurd theme today, where actual URLs are the clues, but the answers are silly puns based on different synonyms for a webpage. Thus, 17A:  https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil? is BURIALSITE, while 26A: https://www.hot-dog.org is SAUSAGELINK.

I applaud the use of the secure version of the websites (https), but also am reminded of the scene in Only Murders In The Building (call back to yesterday!) where the two old guys laboriously type in https and www only to be told by the young woman that it's not necessary.

ADELA Rogers St. Johns

I love the setup of this grid. It's got a great flow from section to section so that the solver is rarely relying on a single letter wide entry into a segment. There are a nice pair of long down answers in the NE and SW corners, including NOSPOILERS and SETHMEYERS. 

And for the overall win, you get 39D: Pulled down a pair? (PANTSED). Hah!

Fun Tuesday.

- Colum

Monday, August 31, 2026, Christopher Youngs

I wonder sometimes, as I solve another crossword puzzle, how much of an individual constructor's personality is encompassed within the clues. I know that the editors have a varying degree of input into the cluing, as they ensure that the level of difficulty is standardized to the day of the week the puzzle is published on. But does Mr. Youngs enjoy modern music so that ATONAL led to IGOR being clued by Stravinsky? Or is that simply association by closeness in this primate's brain?

After all, I was also tickled by coming across 28A: Role for Selena Gomez on "Only Murders in the Building" (MABEL) just after watching two episodes of the latest season last night. Considering the season in particular came out over a year ago, this is more of a coincidence than me and the constructor being on the same wavelength.

Andrea Bocelli singing to ELMO

Today's theme is cute: SPREADTHEWORD is taken to note that the first word of the other three theme answers are spreadable condiments. BUTTERFINGERS, JELLYFISH, and HONEYMOON are the phrases in question. I enjoy the odd candy bar of the same name as the first; we had run-ins with the second when we were at the Delaware Beaches this summer; and I very much enjoyed my third in Hawaii back in 1996. Which makes this year my 30th anniversary!

In any case, a smooth and enjoyable Monday puzzle.

- Colum

Sunday, August 30, 2026, Daniel Grinberg

WRITTEN IN THE STARS

Hey folks! Can you believe the summer is almost over? I'm enjoying the last weekend in August sitting on our screened porch in Albany, taking a break from the city. I wouldn't say it's been the most relaxing summer I've ever had because of reasons, but we enjoy what we can when we can.

Speaking of which, how about enjoying the NYT crossword? The Sunday edition is always a bit of an outlier for a number of reasons: it can accommodate more and longer theme answers, which allows for more absurdity, which I like. But it is also larger, which can make the solve a bit of a slog sometimes, and it may be tilted towards an early-week level of difficulty.

Sadly, today's puzzle is not one for absurdity. The theme is revealed at 69A: Ones making periodic appearances ... or the link between the capitalized clues and their answers (RECURRINGCHARACTERS). In essence, the connection is that the names of the individuals in the clue and the associated answer are made up of combinations of the same limited set of letters. This sort of theme is interesting but not intellectually stimulating. Knowing that Martin Sheen and HENRIMATISSE use all of and only A, E, H, I, M, N, R, S, and T makes me say, "OHREALLY?" And that's it.

POLOCOATS - something I've never heard of

In the rest of the fill, I liked the clue 61A: Four to two, e.g. (SQUARE) - not odds, not ratio, not a moment in time. 15D: Stout figure? (BREWER) is a cute QMC. 

Having FUNNYGIRL and GIGI in the same grid, along with ARIA and SOLI all scratched my music itch. 

So it's a fine Sunday, not the best, but I did get to solve it sitting on my porch in nice weather, so I'm happy.

- Colum

Saturday, August 29, 2026, Rafael Musa and Kate Chin Park

Although I entered the answer to 1 Across as easy as ABCS, most of the rest of my solve was SORANDOM. I can't count the number of times I had to run the alphabet to generate ideas for what an answer might be. Fortunately, the system worked, and aside from the occasional USERERROR, I figured out the twisty or tricky answers, which very often elicited a pleasing 'aha' moment. My last entry was at the cross between CHENG ("Romanization of the common Chinese surname 程") and "Work, as a joke." My brain, it PARSES 'work' as a noun not a verb, and it continues to do so for the entire puzzle. I only made sense of it after the puzzle was complete. 

Other misinterpretation PITTs I fell into include "Ones giving a toast at an outdoor party?" (PATIOHEATERS) - even with the question mark, it took me a bit to arrive at the correct meaning of toast. Another such was "Stepped-on instrument" for SCALE. I was thinking musical rather than gravitational. Another problem was simply not understanding the clue, as in "Green day star, for short" for STPAT. Derp.

I enjoyed the pairing of SUSHIBOAT and ALIENSHIP. C/AP-wise, I liked "Court session, perhaps" for TENNISLESSON, "Naturally concluded" for RANITSCOURSE, "Depicts stylishly" for PAINTS, "It goes on top" for SHIRT, and the tricky-for-me, "Nearly 90" for BPLUS. 

The grid-spanning BULLINACHINASHOP was excellent. Fill-wise, I also enjoyed LOGARITHM, MOHAIR, ERSTWHILE, and the amusing - and slightly OUTRE - BIGASS for "Humongous, slangily." Ha. 

It's the end of my week here at HAFDTNYTCPFCAWCFPT-F, so "A word in closing": THUS.

~Frannie.

Friday, August 28, 2026, Jack Hatchett

Today, it seemed to me as if every clue was either a trick I didn't get or something I straight up didn't know. When I did finally complete the grid, I had a FWOE that caused several problems, which I then rationalized away. One of the things I didn't know was the "Mythical figure in 'Doctor Faustus.'" After I got HAROLDRAMIS ("Frequent collaborator with Bill Murray" - a space into which Rick Moranis and Wes Anderson also fit, just FYI), I knew the answer started with an H. I guessed 'HadEs' and accepted the resulting Down answers because, from where I sat, aGIRLS was as likely to be correct as the actual answer EGIRLS. After that, I decided I'd ask Horace later why "Screen capture?" was dINT, then I cavalierly dismissed sEED because it *is* a valid word... Anyhoo, those of you who are following along at home know that 'HadEs should have been HELEN, 'dINT' should have been the clever and amusing LINT and that 'sEED' should have been NEED ("Sine qua non"). Derp. 

There were plenty of other clever QMCs, unknown answers, and multi-dimensional clues that contributed to the challenging nature of the puzzle. IMO, the best of the nicely ambiguous clues were "Step in the shower" for RINSE, "Certain elastic band" (SINEW), "Something read at a table" (TELL), "Spirit seen on el Dia de los Muertos" (MEZCAL), and the one that had me stalled for some time, "Jazz aficionado, e.g." (NBAFAN) because I couldn't give up on jazz-as-music reference. 

Some stellar QMCs were "Flame proof?" for ASH,  "Lightning conductor?" for THOR, and my favorite, "Unprofessional letters?" (DIY). Fill-wise, I admired RONALDINHO, AMALGAMATE, and SCREAMO. 

This solver is not a big fan of "quotation clues," as I call them. I never seem to be able to find the proper equivalents for the quoted phrases in question. There were at least five in this grid, which left me type-tied for a bit, but I did end up enjoying the answers WELLWELLWELL ("'Would ya look at that ...'") as well a sentiment that was not an apt representation of my solve experience today, ITSABREEZE ("'Easy-peasy!'"). :)

~Frannie.

Thursday, August 27, 2026, Zachary David Levy

A ZESTFUL puzzle today, crammed with Z's, thanks to today's theme featuring the band ZZ Top. In order to correspond with the theme's directive, ZZTOP (2004 inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ... and a hint to 3-, 10-, 29-, and 33-Down), four theme entries that include pairs of Z's have had those Z's moved to the top of the answer, so instead of BUZZALDRIN ("Astronaut for whom a Pixar character is named"), we have ZZBUALDRIN. No other alterations are made. In the case of the theme clue, "Bear of children's rhyme," two pairs of Z's are moved to the top for the interesting looking answer ZZZZFUYWUY. Now that's what I call an eye twister. :) 

Elsewhere, the pizzazz of ZZ tops made for some zippy Across answers like TOPAZ, OOZIER, LAZED, and the amusing QMC "Open with one's teeth?" (UNZIP). 

I was dazzled by "Bed threads" for PJS and the nicely ambiguous "Put out" for SORE. The QMCs "Make a right turn?" for ATONE, STEREO for "Start to type?" and HEN for "One sitting on a coop board?" are also fun QMCs.

OTOH, I was a bit ATSEA with "Pre-Inca civilization known for its underground aqueducts and geoglphys" (NAZCA), "CNBC subj." (IPO), "Tropical fruta" (PINA), and "Colombian offerings that may be served with hogao" (AREPAS), the latter becoming a real problem when I didn't know if the answer to 47D: "'It makes sense now!'" should be oHISEE or AHISEE. Elsewhere, I really wanted "Currently being tried" to be 'in beta' but that was a non-starter for several reasons, principally because there weren't enough squares. The correct interpretation of 'tried' finally led to ATBAR. I thought the pairing of the science-y "Microscopic" in the clue with the cutesy WEE as the answer was a little bit zany.

 In short, a puzzle ablaze with the letter Z (or zed for those following along in Canada :) made for a zingy grid for zealous solvers. 

~Frannie.

Wednesday, August 26, 2026, John Kugelman and Lance Enfinger

SOMEPEOPLE are so EDUMACATEd that they able to come up with four perfectly cromulent theme answers in a crossword puzzle that are each composed of three or four first names. It took me some time to recognize both the gist of the revealer ("'Unbelieveable!' ... or what 17-, 25-, 35- and 46-Across are made from, letter-wise?") and the names of people therein. It turns out that within each theme answer, we have a crowd of some people's first names: BEAU/TY/MARK, ED/UMA/CATE, SAL/TED/CARA/MEL, MAC/ADA/MIA.

I made a few bad character judgments during the solve. I rashly entered the usual 'esc' for "PC key" (ALT) and 'tick' for "Bug on a pug" (FLEA), but otherwise, I GLAAD-handed my way through the grid.

One of my favorite C/APs today was 34A:"Wait for it!" (TIP) - ha! I also enjoyed various old timey references including MRSLATE, of Flintstone fame and the expression "Belly up to the BAR" as well as the amusing new-timey QMC, "Got it all off his chest?" (MANSCAPED). Interesting that "Almost a quarter of the Super Bowl's run time" is ADS. :/

Fun that MARACA crossed CARACAS and that there was room for both IAMBS and FEET. In short, IDSAY today's puzzle contained a host of good clues and fine fill. 

~Frannie.

Tuesday, August 25, 2026, Bryan Kaproth-Gerecht

A big theme today, encompassing the whole solar system! The sun sits in the center of the grid, and each of its eight planets is named in the grid, and one letter in each is circled. That circle then represents the celestial wanderer and sits on its proper orbital ring. Really nice construction, and the constructor has even managed to work in some bonus material - the somewhat confusing, in this context, SUNS (Symbols of fair weather), the PERSEIDS (Summer meteor shower named for a mythological hero), AEON (Billion years, astronomically), and TITAN (Moon believed to have a subsurface ocean). 

My favorite clue today was "Something told with two hands?" (TIME). And maybe that's yet another bonus entry, because you can't think about the solar system without thinking about TIME, can you? And I suppose if we include that we'll have to also include ATOM (Focus of some physicists), because if you're thinking about the solar system and time, you're probably also thinking about science.

I didn't realize that a RAT could be "trained for bomb detection." Just another reminder that animals are smarter than we give them credit for. And it's always nice to have a little Emily Dickinson in the morning "'HOPE' is the thing with feathers -."

Nice Tuesday puzzle. 

- Horace 

Monday, August 24, 2026, Steven Jopek

An amusing theme today of HELLORHIGHWATER. Two theme entries describing Hell, and two high water:

UNDERWORLD - Criminals' sphere
PUGATORY - Stop in the afterlife

and

TIDALWAVE - Tsunami
ANGELFALLS - Natural wonder in Venezuela

It's almost unfortunate that one of the water references includes "angel," isn't it?, but still, I like the weirdness of the theme.

Lots of older references today - NADIA Comaneci, Yassir ARAFAT, ARETHA Franklin, ESTEE Lauder, ELLA Fitzgerald. Even APU Nahasapeemapetilon hasn't been heard from since 2017. I'd include Edgar Allan POE in that list, too, but he transcends time, and ERNIE Els might still be playing, for all I know, but any golfer gives old, right? (Sorry, ERNIE!).

Well, it's only Monday, and I don't want to keep you any longer than 18 minutes, so I'll see you on MARDI!

- Horace 

 

Sunday, August 23, 2026, Jill Singer

SMALL CHANGE

Today we have a tribute to the lowly, no-longer-produced-but-not-yet-demonetized (but has it been demonized?) penny. We've got two entries using two penny rebī apiece, a couple factoids about the penny, four Down answers that make use of said penny rebuses, and a quasi-revealer of PUTINYOURTWOCENTS. I thought the bonus "Where this puzzle's subject was last made for circulation (in November 2025)" answer, USMINT, was a little vague, but I guess fitting Philadelphia into the grid might have caused some issues. 

Having rebus squares in the puzzle, and the fact that they are used in both the Across and Down answers, made me think a little more about the use of a capital I as both an I and as the number 1. Does the crossing of PHASEI (Early stage of a drug trial) and KIDS (Offspring) feel slightly inelegant in this puzzle? And if we're going there, should we also worry about the crossing of ACS (Cooling units, in brief) and CCLEF (Musical staff symbol)? Probably not. I mean, the whole point of this puzzling business is to train our brains to be a little more plastic, isn't it?  

And speaking of clues, is OHFUN really the same as "Sounds like a blast!"? And have you ever heard anyone called NEOS (Modernists, informally)? No. You haven't. And what about "Protected space for women in the Ottoman Empire" (HAREM)? I mean, it's not wrong, but it also kind of is.

They drew from the playing card deck a few times today: ANTEUP (Get in the game?) (Penny ante?); "Deuce topper" (THREE) (Would have preferred "trey" here); and HITME ("I'll take another card"). And it gets a little aggressive in the SE with WISEOFF (Say something fresh) and SASSY (Cheeky).

Not my favorite puzzle ever, but they keep coming every day, so I'm not complaining. Much.

- Horace 

 

 

Saturday, August 22, 2026, Adrian Johnson

Looney Tunes has once again stood me in good stead. "Dish such as Germany's hasenpfeffer" (RABBITSTEW), at 1-Across, was made easier by having seen the animated short "Shishkabugs," in which Yosemite Sam tries to get Bugs Bunny into a large stewpot. As I remember things, Bugs survived. (I hope that doesn't cause you to yell NOSPOILERS!)

In other news, what is up with the box jellyfish having 24 EYES?! The ocean is full of weird things, but DONTSTRESS, only some of the things are deadly enough to put you INEXTREMIS. 

BRETHREN (Fellow fellows) is nice and uncommon. As, for that matter, is BOXPLOT (Analytical graphic that divides data into quartiles). I'm not SOLDON YESNODOUBT ("Absolutely, positively!") being a real thing, and "Anybody home?" is more common to me than ANYONEHOME, but I'll let them pass, because there were lots of fun and tricky clues today. 

"Volume control device?" (EREADER) stumped me twice! Once when I did the puzzle on paper, and then again when I re-did it online (quite a while later) in order to more easily review the clues while writing this review. (It's just the way I work sometimes!) "Tidbits of Greek culture?" (FETACHEESE) was tasty, "Success in another's field, say" (ROADWIN) was cute, and KEEPITPG (Refrain from foul language, say) has that great "ITPG" ending!

Best of the Turn, I'd say. How about you? What'd you think?

- Horace 

p.s. The Midi puzzle today is excellent. Beautiful work Mssrs. Newton and Livengood.

Friday, August 21, 2026, Adryel W. Robles Ojeda

Is a MEATBALLSUB really the same as an Italian hero? Perhaps the question mark in this case means "not exactly right, but we thought it was SODARNCUTE."

I'm done with following major league sports, so LAMELO Ball was unknown to me, and I couldn't even remember RYANCOOGLER's name, so the 2006 Fields medal winner (Terence TAO) was always going to be an "all crosses" answer. I'm not CRASHINGOUT or in a RAGE about it, I'm just giving my side.

Also, I took the time to figure out "La ti do, musically," but I wondered about the key of C being understood like that. Is it always? Should it be? "La ti do" in the key of A, for example, is F#G#A, and how are you going to fit that into a grid? 

JOSTLE (What big crowds do) is a nice word, it's somewhat amusing to learn that there is a spot called OOHAAHPOINT at the Grand Canyon, and the paired clues continue today with "Neighbor of Colo." (NEB) and "Neighbor of Ark." (TEX). 

- Horace 

 

Thursday, August 20, 2026, Hoang-Kim Vu

If you've been doing crosswords for a while, you've come across one where there's something a little off about the clues, and eventually you need to figure out what that is. Well, this is one of those crosswords. The Downs are all normal, but the Across clues must be PUTINREVERSE to work correctly for the answers. Oddly, though, 1-Across "Sound like heaven (HARP) kind of works either way. Maybe that was left intentionally vague to keep us from figuring it out too soon! Oh, and now that I look at it again, I see that "Game of observation for travel" could get one thinking about thinks like "I Spy!," but by the time I got there I had figured out the trick, and knew that SAFARI worked better for the inverted clue - "Travel for observation of game."

So once the trick is worked out, this plays like a themeless. The long Downs are technically revealers, but they work just fine as regular entries. And there are some fun shorter entries, like DEFRAY (Set off), TROU (Brief in pants), NEIGH (Nags about noise?).

Is it a problem that, after getting crosses leaving "ALA__" I put in ALIbi for "It's worth remembering!" Hah! Also worth remembering, at least during one's school or fighting years, is ALAMO. 

I think of the term "cuss out" more than CUSSAT (Into light), but it's not wrong wrong. SPOTON (Correct thoroughly), on the other hand, was SPOTON.

- Horace 

 

Wednesday, August 19, 2026, Kareem Ayas

Let me not be known as one who BURIESTHELEDE. At least not today. Today's puzzle hides berries in the leading word of the theme answers. Gooseberries, elderberries, strawberries, blackberries, and even burberries (also known as "barberry"). Getting that last one in is a real coup, in my opinion, and might well have been the impetus for this theme in the first place. If I ever meet Mr. Ayas, I will ask him.

In the fill we have some nice moderny things like IMNOTOK (My mood is pretty low), UNSEE (Wipe from one's memory, so to speak), and AVA Max. I like the long Downs: CURRICULUM and LOSTCAUSES, and I like the paired clues "Drop" for LOWER and DIP, and "___ Minor" for ASIA and URSA, but I do not like "'A drop of golden sun,' in song" for RAY. It's "re" she sings, and we must interpret it as the homophone. When it's written as "ray" it takes all the fun out of it.

Finally, I had not heard of BLACKBART before, so I looked him up. Apparently, one of the two authenticated poems he left ran as follows:

I've labored long and hard for bread
For honor and for riches
But on my corns too long you've tread
You fine-haired sons of bitches.

 I also found this:

Upon his release from prison in January 1888, Black Bart was asked by reporters if he planned to resume robbing stagecoaches, and he replied with a smile on his face: "No, gentlemen."  Then another reporter asked if he would write more poetry. He laughed and said: "Now, didn't you hear me say that I am through with crime?" 

 

Nice. 

 

- Horace 

Tuesday, August 18, 2026, Jeremy Venook

Today's MUSICOFTHENIGHT theme collects four SONGS, all having something to do with the night in their title. MOONLIGHTSONATA (Classic Beethoven piano piece) (and a song of a sort), CITYOFSTARS (Academy Award-winning tune from "La La Land"), SWEETDREAMS (1983 Eurythmics hit whose full title includes "(Are Made of This)"), and the revealer/title itself, from "The Phantom of the Opera." That last, by the way, I had never heard of, but luckily, I didn't need a DEUS ex machina to figure it out. 

Doesn't UNICEF (International aid org.) always make you think of Halloween? Do kids still go out with those orange boxes the day before Halloween collecting change? I'm guessing the answer is no, but I wish it weren't.

I loved the clue for ACORNS (Nuts whose shells look like they have little berets). I hadn't ever thought of them in quite that way, but now I won't ever think of them otherwise. Hah! And "What gossipers and tall buildings are full of" (STORIES) was fun. And I can't let this puzzle go without mentioning the cross of LUBE and SEXY, and the added bonus of BITEME.

OK, that's probably enough outta me. See you tomorrow.

- Horace 

Monday, August 17, 2026, Zhouquin Burnikel

To this theme, I say YESANDYES. Ms. Burnikel has found entries in which foreign equivalents of the word "yes" appear twice. Such as:

DAPPERDAN (Well-dressed guy) (Serbian, and others)
LOUIELOUIE (1963 Kingsmen hit with a repetitive title) (French)
JAMJARS (Containers for fruit preserves) (Dutch, and others)
SITEVISITS (On-location inspections) (Spanish, Italian, and sometimes French)

Nice theme. What else? I had MARINARA sauce a couple nights ago at a restaurant, not as a "Sauce for mozzarella sticks," but for arancini. But then I thought about it, and the arancini were filled with mozzarella... and sure they have a little rice, but it's pretty much the same thing. Mozzarella sticks, mozzarella balls... it's all good.

And speaking of food, it was interesting to learn that the HABANERO was named for Havana. It seems obvious once you know it. Like so many things, I suppose. 

And speaking of "not food," since when are people tossing PETALS at newlyweds. I am so old as to have been pelted with rice! And speaking of old, are they still making TROLL dolls?

Lastly, love "Lengthy rants" being called SCREEDS, but don't want to make this into one. See you tomorrow!

- Horace 

Sunday, August 16, 2026, Sam Brody

TAKE THE EDGE OFF

Fun theme today that was part definition, part rebus. Take the first one, 23A, "_ATSO_ and _EKYL_." You might know that the missing letters spell Watson and Jekyll, two doctors without the first and last letters of their names, or DOCTORSWITHOUTBORDERS, and that answer is, itself, an international organization. Classic crossword puzzle theme, that. And it continues with all the other theme answers. NEEDSNOINTRODUCTION (_RAVES), and HEADLESSHORSEMAN (_NIGHT) are probably my favorite two.

In fill today, I like the word VALISE (57D, "Travel bag). It's just a nice word, isn't it? I've got to start using it more. "Yes, I'd like to check my VALISE, please." "Oh, I handed my VALISE to the redcap. It's the one with ATONOF stickers on it from various travel destinations..."

Seems almost wrong to call GONGS "Suspended musical instruments," doesn't it? Musical instrument... I suppose every bell is a musical instrument, but to put one in the same category with, say, a piano, seems odd. But I suppose it's no odder than putting me and algae in the category of "things that are alive." 

Where was I? I suppose we might as well just remove the S from BICEP once and for all. And I looked up "Granita." It's about a guy named "Umberto Umberto" who lusts after older women. An amusing parody idea. 

Favorite clue today: "Chemistry test?" (SPEEDDATE). Heh.

- Horace 

Saturday, August 15 2026, Blake Slonecker

Hello all!  Rounding out my week of blogging is a real cracker of a Saturday crossword, with a clean supersymmetric grid bisected both horizontally and vertically by stacks of long answers, and content that came THIS close to breaking me in two separate places.

A bit of a soccer theme was detected, with French soccer star Kylian MBAPPE making his NYT crossword debut (as far as I can recall), and reference made to ENGland's national team the Three Lions.  It reminded me that I did enjoy this year's FIFA World Cup, despite the off-the-charts corruption of its organizing body and (ahem) other related entities...

Back to the crossword!  A fantastic new word was added to my vocabulary today : AESOPICA ("Fabulous collection")!  I needed all the crossers to make any sense of it.  It didn't help that I originally had OPENED in 1A ("Began") instead of DAWNED.  I'd also never heard of OSAKA being referred to as "Japan's kitchen"... But my real near-nemesis was the NE corner, where I blithely wrote in ORAGEL as a "Toothache care option" and then wondering how the devil "7/" could be GUL.  The penny finally dropped with ORAJEL and JUL - phew!  

I loved the factoid about the Statue of Liberty's second TOE being longer than its first one.  I'm looking at an image right now and yes, so it is - and also, there's only one foot exposed so the singular reference in the clue makes sense.   

HOLLA as "Say 'Hey', say" was new to me, though I liked the terse symmetry of the clue. And I smiled at the clever and oh-so-familiar "Oil wells?" (PORES).  

Much else to say .. e.g. my take on bullfighting, unfamiliarity with the TEXASTWOSTEP, ETCETERA.. But I have a vacation to pack for, so you're own your own.  I now leave you in Horace's more-than-capable hands..

-philbo

Friday, August 14 2026, Zhou Zhang

A nice solid Friday themeless today, with an interesting layout (more long Down answers than Across), great cluing - and, a mere Q and a V away from pangram-dom, which would have been two NYT puzzles in a row.  I assume Ms. Zhang was aware how close she was, and I imagine it might have been tough to resist the temptation to force those two missing letters in there..  

With no theme to describe today, I'll go scattershot around the grid, highlighting the points of special interest - starting with the beautiful IRIDESCE at 35D ("Shimmer colorfully").  Not that it's the clue of the year or anything - I just find the word so evocative.   Two great C/APs side by side on the right - CONFABULATE ("Shoot the breeze") and OCCAMSRAZOR ("Philosophy of 'Keep things simple', in a sense").  Occam's Razor is a great tool to have in one's philosophical belt, I think - if we all embraced it, about a million conspiracy theories would vanish overnight.

AYCARAMBA carries the indelible whiff of The Simpsons, and right below it, BREAKUPSEX is about as lascivious as these crosswords ever get.  Speaking of Simpson, IMEANCOMEON was a phrase often used when discussing the guilt/innocence of O.J. back in the mid '90s.  I liked the brisk imperative "Scratch that!" (ITCH), and "Guard for some time?" is a clever QMC for RENTACOP.

"Huddling, as teammates" (INCLOSE) and "Good places for a deep dive into research?" (SEALABS) seemed a bit contrived to me.  And is THATSMYJAM a generational thing?

Well, that concludes my "drunkard's walk" (look it up!  It's related to how stars shine, amazingly) around the Friday grid.  Hope you enjoyed the solve as much as I did!

-philbo

Thursday, August 13 2026, Killian Olson

A delightful puzzle today, with a clever theme that was opaque to me until the revealer made it all make sense in the end.  Going through the Across clues, we encounter four in italics, straightforward enough except their (evident) answers either don't match the crossers, or don't fit the available squares:

• 17A "Mafia members, e.g." should be MOBSTERS but it's LOBSTERS
• 26A "Alimony recipients, say" should be EXSPOUSES (too long!) but it's ESPOUSES
• 41A "Drinks at a pub" should be ALES (too short!) but it's AXLES
• 53A "11th of a noted 12" should be AQUARIUS but it's AQUARIUM

I had all this written in by the time I encountered the revealer "Evaluating, as an opponent", whose answer SIZINGUP makes the above make sense - the 'M' in MOBSTERS is 'sized up' to 'L' to make LOBSTERS, and so on.  Very neat, and the idea to include XS and XL as 'sizes' is downright brilliant!

The very first letter of the grid is a 'Z' (say it with me : ZED) and of course, that gets the ol' antennae quivering - and sure enough, the crossword is a pangram!!  Always impressive and I didn't find it forced at all.

No big snags to report here, aside from some initial theme-related confusion.  I had a false start with ZIPPO at 1D for '0' (it's ZILCH) but other than that, everything flowed nicely.

Elsewhere in the news:  We've all seen the RICOLA commercials, right?  Is that really yodeling? .. I got a kick out of the clue for PBJ ("Sandwich that may be a bit crunchy.." <-- emphasis on MAY, for those of us in the smooth-PB camp). This, by the way, joins BRRS ("Verbalized shivers") as the Vowelless Answers o' the Day.  And there's EKE again, this time clued as "Pull (out), as a narrow victory"!  We need some sort of bureau of standards to weigh in on this word, finally.

Signing off till tomorrow..

-philbo

Wednesday, August 12 2026, Adrienne Baik

Today's puzzle is right up my alley as an old computer nerd, AND as a licenced operator of automobiles.  The dual theme is revealed by the central grid-spanning answer INTERNETTRAFFIC, and the theme answers, reading top to bottom, tell a little driving story, couched in IT terms:

Went for a GOOGLEDRIVE ...
Drove at excessive NETWORKSPEEDS...
Caused a COMPUTERCRASH...
And now there's a SERVERDELAY

Fun!  There's such a thing as PACKETCOLLISION in network-speak, which would also have been apt!  PRINTERJAM perhaps less so, though most printers *are* networked these days. 

Elsewhere, I tip my hat to the inventive cluing of the pedestrian words ONE ("Only number to appear twice in the Fibonacci sequence") and THE ("Hot French beverage").  Another short one - RUG ("Throw, for instance") - actually threw (SWIDT(*)) me for a moment:  I thought it was RIG, which would have also made sense.  And CTRLC ("PC 'copy' shortcut) was downright vowellessly cheeky, if you ask me.

I had to look up ARO to make sense of why it means "feeling little to no amorous attraction".  Learn something new every day!

That's all I got.  See you tomorrow!

-philbo

(*) See What I Did There

Tuesday, August 11 2026, Wade Bednar

Today's crossword is of the "embedded word" variety, with the longer answers containing theme words, tied together with the standard revealer down near the bottom of the grid.  And the theme?  Chinese dynasties - to wit:

• FLAMINGLIPS (psychedelic rock band)
• HANSZIMMER (German film composer)
• WUTANGCLAN (Hip-hop group)

...all revealed by SONGDYNASTY - apparently the first Chinese government to establish a permanent navy.  Nice factoid!  There's cleverness here that I didn't get right away - at first I thought, ho hum, embedded dynasty names - but lo! the substrates are all musically connected, and the revealer dynasty is SONG - aha!  So I take back my "ho hum".  

Outside the theme - I liked the hyperbolic clue for DOI ("Abso-freaking-lutely!") ... interesting intersection of ELMO and ELM in the NE corner ... "People hold complicated positions on it" was a great clue for TWISTERMAT,  I have vague recollections of playing Twister as a kid, blissfully unaware that it's really more of an adult game.  

I take slight issue with the C/AP "Duck down" = EIDER at 33D.  Yes, "eider down" is a thing, but an EIDER is a type of duck.  I feel like this not an EIDER-or thing.  (Or maybe I just wanted to slip this groaner in, here)

There was an odd moment in the SE corner when it looked like the "big export of Myanmar" was going to be RABIES.  "What the heck?" I thought.  (It's RUBIES.)

All in all a nice puzzle, which would not have been out of place on Monday.

Onwards and upwards!

-philbo

Monday, August 10 2026, Nate Cardin

The notable thing about today's puzzle is that Mr. Cardin has managed to incorporate six theme clues into the grid, including the revealer, which does double duty as a theme answer itself.  Great construction, and I do love me some good recursion!!

It wasn't hard to see what was going on.  As I worked my way down the grid, gentle even for a Monday, I encountered SIDEBYSIDE ("Next to each other, like many washers and dryers"), PLAYBYPLAY ("Detailed, real-time description of events") and then STEPBYSTEP, apparently both a 1990's sitcom title and a New Kids on the Block hit (I knew neither of these) - so it was clear what the pattern was.  Sure enough, the revealer "Many an off-road vehicle..." is of course FOURBYFOUR, which describes the theme perfectly - two four-letter words side by side - and is also pleasingly self-referential.  Big kudos from me!

Not much to report otherwise.  I did not know that Anne Lamott recommends tackling big writing projects BIRDBYBIRD.  Seems kind of weird but I'm sure there's some sort of case-in-point, or metaphor, underlying it.  And "Foggy mental state" (HAZE) made me sad as that's the state of the air in our westernmost province right now.  My brother's there, trying to cope and helping out however he can.  Thoughts and prayers, for what they're worth...

Anyway.  Fun, easy Monday puzzle with a great theme.

-philbo

Sunday, August 9 2026, Erik Agard

Howdy out there in Crossword-land!  Philbo here, back for another week of blogging - and what do I get right out of the gate, but a rare themeless Sunday puzzle authored by Erik Agard, who absolutely slayed at this year's ACPT!  And a chunky puzzle it is, with a paucity of black squares, two grid-spanning double-stacks at top and bottom and a big fat block of intersecting long answers occupying the centre of the grid.  Somewhat intimidating out of the box!

I needn't have worried, though.  Thanks to really fair cluing and nothing terribly obscure, this turned into a pleasant, gentle solve on my sun bench, with family helping out with a clue or two.  At the top of that chunky centre block, LIFESPAN was my way in ("Up to 150 years, for a tortioise" - what else could it have been?).  I worked my way downwards to the very amusing and excellently-clued BEESTING ("Honey boo-boo?" - who can forget that reality show from a decade+ ago?).

Aside from entering AWOKEN instead of ARISEN for "Up for the day", my only real problem was with the very first grid-spanning clue "Swimmer's invitation" (COMEONINTHEWATERSFINE) - I had it ending with WARM, and then NICE, until the crossers finally came to the rescue, one of which was another great QMC - "12 letters?" (XII), and another - AFROMAN - a rapper of whom I've never heard. Much messy scribbling in the NE corner!

I feel like I'm not able to do this puzzle proper justice here - there are just too many satisfying moments, especially in the longer clues, to enumerate.  There's no "trick" or gimmick to explain - just a solid, satisfying experience top to bottom. If you're reading this, I hope you can relate to what I'm saying.

Just one little nit at the bottom.  I'm pretty sure there should be an extra 'D' in "ODS bodkins!" as a bygone oath, although the the search I did on alternate spellings was, admittedly, somewhat cursory (see what I did there?).

Off to enjoy the sunny day, tempered somewhat by the fact that the western end of my country is on fire right now :(   Back atcha tomorrow!

-philbo

Saturday, August 8, 2026, Kameron Austin Collins

Ooh! Any time I see Mr. Collins' byline, I know I'm in for a fun solve with interesting choices of entries and clues, in a chunky grid. And today does not disappoint!

I found myself drifting through the grid, filling in what I could to get a more solid entry. I found my stride in the fourth corner I worked to in a clockwise fashion, the southwest, and then worked my way back around counterclockwise to finish up in the northwest.

The very fun 21A: Summertime top (SLEEVELESST) was one of the challenges for sure. That last ____SST just didn't make sense for a long time. 18A: Slippery slope (WATERSLIDE) is my favorite kind of clue, the non-QMC, tricky but not with the obvious signifier of a "?". SERIESE is another tough get at 5D. Two answers in the same region with a single letter word!

PENG

Finding EVITAPERON crossing SPANAKOPITA is just lovely. And how about 36A: They're taken off for boudoir photos (LENSCAPS)? Another great non-QMC, teasing at a blue answer but veering off to the literal instead.

The pair of French answers in the southwest are just as pretty as the BELLEAMIE referred to. ENPASSANT has entered the English language in its own right.

STEEVE is an unusual word, which remains in the term "stevedore," the person responsible for loading or unloading cargo on a ship in port. I questioned it initially, but accepted it to complete the puzzle.

Fun week! Philbo will take over the blogging. 

- Colum

Friday, August 7, 2026, Jesse Cohn

Let's start with the great clue at 2D: Cuisine with the #1 dish in a CNN "World's 50 Best Foods" poll (THAI). Not that I would complain - I just had Thai food last night, and it was great. But what is this poll, and how does it have the authority to show up in a Friday NYT Xword? 

Poll might be a strong word here. It seems it was the travel staff of the CNN website who came up with this list. It's an odd one: buttered popcorn is #50, and poutine is higher ranked than potato chips. Donuts are ranked higher than croissants (very questionable). Anyway, Massaman curry takes the top spot. Hmmm. It was fun reading, anyway!

Meanwhile, the puzzle has a lot of fun colloquial phrases, like CATSOUTOFTHEBAG, AREWEATHING, IHADNOIDEA, and ABITETOEAT. 

TOONS

1A: What suggests relief is at hand? (STRESSBALL) is a great way to start the puzzle. I love the literalism of the "at hand" here. 42A: Opportunity on Mars, say (ROVER) is a good example of a hidden capital. 

It's a smooth themeless puzzle, and I always enjoy that. 

- Colum

Thursday, August 6, 2026, Dena R. Verkuil and John Kugelman

What a fun theme today! The revealer comes at 60A: Chock-full ... like three squares (and foods) in this puzzle (JAMPACKED). There are three rebus squares for the letters JAM, which in the across answers simply are part of the phrases. In the crossing down answers however, the JAM just becomes a filling for the food items. Thus 11D: Temptation for Homer Simpson (DOUG[JAM]HNUT). 

Two points why this is such a good theme. First, the rebus square is in the center of each food item, just where the filling ought to be. Second, in the across answers, the JAM is in no way related to its meaning in the down answers, its just those letters in the correct order. For example, 48A: Pillow fight setting (PA[JAM]APARTY). Nicely done!

AIMEE Lou Wood

I'm a little split in my mind about 36D: "OK, that makes sense" (AHIGOTCHA). I love how it looks in the grid. On reviewing the puzzle after the solve, I had to remind myself how to parse it. On the other hand, I have a feeling that the clue should somehow indicate the alternate spelling for "got you." I'm not sure how to accomplish that, to be fair. But I recall when solving thinking it was going to be AHIseenow, or something like that.

8D: Short blue person? (DEM) is hilarious. So much better than using "abbr." or such like. I also enjoyed 59D: Nickname that drops "hard" (RIC). Just an odd clue.

- Colum

Wednesday, August 5, 2026, Daniel Bodily

Well, we know what Wednesday is for. It's for puzzles that don't fit into any other day. Today's is an odd 15 x 14 grid, where the theme is... two word phrases split into separate answers, where the second answer is clued in reference to the first. And it's carried down all 14 rows.

I think I would find this more rewarding if there were a revealer theme somewhere along the way. But there's no real reason for these phrases being chosen in particular. And the very large number of black squares needed to make the grid work means that the puzzle is extremely segmented as well, making the solve not terribly smooth.

I like CARBON / STORAGE and WESTERN / SAHARA. In my book, BOOLEAN usually goes with logic, not ALGEBRA. But it "searches up" better than logic, although that might be due to the large number of searches today for answers to the puzzle.

I would more typically look for INDIANA / HOOSIER(s) in the plural than an individual. 

ABIE's Irish Rose

And sadly, the fact that the solver is so reliant on the down answers to figure out the split across answers, the cluing is on a very straightforward level. LON is a cute "apt ____ name" clue. And 56D: Word that becomes its own synonym when "p" is added to the end (GOO) is an amusingly large number of words to clue a 3-letter answer.

I really don't like 50D: Pen letters? (BIC). I was thinking AKA or some other sort of initialism. It would work if the name of the company was an acronym, but in fact it's from Marcel Bich, the entrepreneur who monetized László Biró's design. He dropped the H to make a more pronounceable name for his company.

Ah well, they can't all be designed for my pleasure. What was your mileage?

- Colum

Tuesday, August 4, 2026, Vasu Seralathan

Today's theme is an amusing concoction of puns based on words from the Indian subcontinent. It turns out that "sari," "Holi," and "Delhi" are all Hindi words with Sanskrit origins, while "naan" comes from Farsi. Etymology is fascinating!

It's amusing that the puns start with SARINOTSARI and end with NAANAPOLOGY.  It's also cute that all four answers relate to a wedding, so that they tell a little story from choosing a wedding gown, to planning the reception, to the ceremony itself, followed by a minor catering failure at the reception. Hah!

How many different ways can we come up with to clue the humble OREO? An enrobed version just means chocolate or fudge covered. We have them in the US as well. But the cookie will stay with us crossword solvers forever, given its forgiving collection of vowels. 

DUMBLEDORE

Would you argue that 25D: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler vis-à-vis "Saturday Night Live" (ALUMNI) is incorrect? Should the male gendered word be available to refer to all genders? Should we care? Perhaps it is fine to move away from gendering, and it is certainly problematic to use "alumni" for mixed-gender groups but "alumnae" for female only. What do you think?

- Colum

Monday, August 3, 2026, Willa Angel Chen Miller

Yesterday I mentioned the flexibility of the English language. Today we get a demonstration where the word CHILLING is interpreted three different ways: first as relaxing, as a BEACHBUM might do while idling along the seashore, second as making something grow colder, as one might do with an ICECREAMMAKER, and finally as sending an eerie feeling through your soul, as might occur while watching a TRUECRIMESHOW.

I did two of those three things while on vacation in Delaware last week! Well, I didn't make ice cream, but I certainly devoured it. I'll let you guess which of the other two I did.

I started out slow with 1A: What's paid (COST). I tried "bill" first, but ODIE put paid to that (see what I did there?). I had to fill in the rest of the corner to get the obvious answer. Sometimes you can overthink things, I suppose. 

MILNE

Even in a Monday puzzle, you can find character and pizzazz in cluing. My two examples today are:

26D: First two syllables of "I am what I am," aptly (IAMB). Apt!

49A: Surgery that leaves the patient looking better? (LASIK). Hah!

Very nice Monday.

- Colum

Sunday, August 2, 2026, Ralph Sharaga and Doug Peterson

GOING FOR A SPIN

Hello, all you NYT Xword solvers! And others who have stumbled onto a blog looking for collaborations between Latin poets and Boston cooks? I'm back to pen a week of reviews, after a lovely vacation on the Delaware beaches. We had it all! Tornado warnings, impressive full moons, and mostly sunny days battling jellyfishes in the warm Atlantic waters.

But what a Sunday puzzle to come back to! The theme is silliness - an exercise in misleading adspeak for a broken down hooptie (a word we learned from the Urban Dictionary in years past), where each characteristic is represented in glowing terms. Thus, the fact that the car was found in a ditch gets it called an OFFROADVEHICLE. I particularly liked 82A: "... and the broken door locks?" (KEYLESSENTRY), and 110A: "... and finally, the missing front tires?" (REARWHEELDRIVE). Fun stuff, especially with the bonus clue at 37D: How the car in this puzzle's theme would be sold (ASIS).

Beyond the theme, though, there were a plethora of fun clues, befitting a punny style of grid construction. 1A: Pen name (BIC) starts us off in the right frame of mind. Take nothing at face value! Or, with 9D: What someone flat-footed lacks (ARCH), take it exactly at face value. 

19A: It's right around the present (WRAP) is a great example of how the English language lends itself to misleading clue writing. 97A: Safari destinations? (URLS) is a nice hidden capital. I was also amused by 117A: Legend who occasionally used his head to achieve greatness (PELE). 

Maybe my favorite clue is 45D: It has a rind but supposedly no rhyme (ORANGE). It reminds me of the great late Tom Lehrer, who came up with this:

Eating an orange
While making love 
Makes for bizarre enj-
Oyment thereof

Can't beat that, and so I end my review there. See you tomorrow!

- Colum

Saturday, August 1, 2026, Zachary David Levy

Color me surprised that I was able to finish this puzzle. When I started, I had only VAGUEIDEAS and a growing sense of unease as I read clue after clue. It wasn't until I got to 38A and its call for a Rabelais character that I could get started with any confidence. In hind sight, I should have known 20A off the clue ("21-time Emmy nominee for 'All My Children'" (SUSANLUCCI)), but I hadn't thought about soap operas in so long that I skipped that one without really thinking about it, assuming I wouldn't know the answer. Anyhoo, after putting GARGANTUA to bed, things went more smoothly. From APSE to ELSE, by way of the fun AMAZEBALLS, I METPAYROLL, which made me think I would be able to complete the solve and helped settle my grid-based DYSPEPSIA. :)

But, I still had to go back to the beginning. On the second pass, I took a little more time with each clue and was able to make sense of the tricky and clever "Dis/cuss?" for TRASHTALK, "Precipitous?" for RAINY, and its neighbor "Source of some classic rock bands" (AGATE) - all of which required a little mind shift for this solver. I guessed that "Result of bad service, maybe" related to tennis, but without anything to go on, I had too many five-letter options to commit to one. I was hesitant to enter KAMASUTRA at 9D because it was just in yesterday's puzzle, but eventually that was the only possible option.

I had the most trouble in the north- and southeast. I didn't know the 'Island of a Thousand Temples' label for BALI. I was totally stumped by the clue "Bugling game." which turned out to be ELK - I have the Across answers to thank for that one. "Base unit" in the southeast was another such clue. I had to get all the Downs to fill in COT, which made sense only after I thought about base as in army.

Overall, it was a nice mix of tricky QMC and non-QMC clues and quite a dense grid with only 29 black squares, including two grid-spanning entries and lots of other big and unusual fill like DANGERZONE, ABRUPTNESS, PATCHWORK, and RIVERAS.

Saturday signals the end of the cycle. I know without ADOUT that you'll be in better hands next week with our friend and co-blogger, Colum. Until next time, dear Readers.

~Frannie.

Friday, July 31, 2026, Rafael Musa

This solver found today's puzzle fun but less TAXing than some Friday puzzles, and I don't think it's because I'm a SMARTYPANTS but maybe because there were some straightforward entry points into almost every section including 2D: "Assenting chorus" (AMENS) in the northwest, "Style secured with a scrunchie" (PONYTAIL) in the northeast, "___ incognita" (TERRA) and "Denial in Aberdeen" (NAE) in the southeast, and in the southwest "Formal pause in a line of poetry" (CAESURA). :) 

That being said, there were many clever, trixy, and entertaining Clue/Answer pairs throughout. In the Question Mark Clue (QMC) category we have the amusing "Withholding something? (TAX) and "Where to be above all the drama?" (OPERABOX), with best in class - in MIME opinion - being "Sex work?" (KAMASUTRA). In the non-QMC category, I enjoyed "It'll pass!" (FAD), "Cry when shaking hands" (DEAL), and "Change for a bill" (AMENDMENT). Two highly ambiguous clues took their TOLLS on my time: "Make one" (FUSE) and "Rings" (TOLLS). Challenging for me was "Genre for Logic" until I actively noticed the capital L and realized Logic referred to a human entity known for RAP. Then I was ALLSMILES.

The puzzle also featured an ACRE of fun fill like PETNAME, SERENASLAM, XANADU, and SLEEPOVERS. I am always happy to see a nod to Pride and Prejudice, in this case, the youngest Bennet sister, LYDIA. I was less happy to consider the highlighted ingredient in the salad yum khai mod daeng (ANTEGG). My POV on that one is ICANTEVEN. 

In sum, a fun and fast Friday. YAYME! :)

~Frannie.

Thursday, July 30, 2026, Joel Woodford

Today's puzzle spells success in more ways than one. There's the excellent theme/trick and some capital clue/answer pairs. As indicated in the revealer, italicized clues needed a little assistance from the NATOALPHABET to help make sense of them. The solver must substitute the first letter of each of them with its NATO Alphabet (NA) equivalent, then find a synonym for the remaining word to get the correct answer. For example, parsing "Cluster" as 'C' and 'luster,' we take Charlie from the NA and a 'sheen' as a synonym for "luster" and the result is CHARLIESHEEN. It's a cool trick to come up with perfectly natural clue words that transform in this way to common phrases. It's seems to me that coming up with these four examples AND working them into a solid crossword is not as easy as ABC. My favorite was "Agent" for ALPHAMALE. Ha! I read up a bit on the NA in the Wikipedia and found that the international spelling for Alpha is Alfa, to assist non-native English speakers with pronunciation, but in this case, obviously, one needs the traditional English spelling to make it work. I also read that in Indonesia, LONDON is used in place of "Lima", because lima is the Malay word for 'five' so there's some tangential bonus material for you. :)

There was plenty of the "write" stuff elsewhere in the grid. I enjoyed "One who doesn't speak while in a cast" (EXTRA), "Training aids for a lab, say" (TREATS), and "That's the whole point!" (PRONG). Heh. Some grade A QMC's include "Do you read me?" (NOVEL), "High achievers?" (STONERS), and best in class "Biblical second coming? (EVE). APT! :)

29D: "Puts down" was a nicely ambiguous clue for PLACES. I also enjoyed the LOCAL reference to HARVARD ("University of Cambridge"), and, who doesn't love a reference to Bob ROSS? GRIM, PATSY, and PTOLEMY are strong fill. I didn't love OVERT for "Plain" but it certainly doesn't spell disaster for this fine puzzle. Bravo.

~Frannie.

Wednesday, July 29, 2026, Emily Biegas and Sala Wanetick

If, as the Wikipedia suggests, VENIVIDIVICI, or I came, I saw, I conquered, is generally used to indicate a quick and decisive victory then it is apt in more ways than one for today's puzzle. For me,  today's solve was a case of "read the clue, enter the answer" for all but two clues: 31D: "Chips with a 'Blue Heat' flavor" (TAKIS) and 38D. "___ Wilson, four-time W.N.B.A. M.V.P." (AJA), which didn't matter because they were filled in by the Acrosses. More amazing and unusual for me was that I entered only one wrong letter in the entire grid. I don't know if that's ever happened to me before. Of course, I wish it had been no wrong letters, but I'm happy with that. The error came at 58D. "Get on (with)." I thought jIBE, but, as you, dear readers, already know, the answer was VIBE, which became super obvious when I looked a second later at the revealer at 58A: "Classic quotation that might be said by 20-, 34- and 41-Across" (VENIVIDIVICI). Irony? Anyhoo, the theme answers were a triumvirate of persons who might each have spoken one third of the famous phrase: The PARTYCRASHER, the one who came (VENI), NOSTRADAMUS, the one who saw (VIDI), and KENJENNINGS, the one who conquered (VICI) - winning 74 days straight (!) on Jeopardy! I like that the theme answers and revealer are associative, rather than the more common strictly literal tactic (e.g. GRAYSCALE on Monday) - which I also enjoy, but this makes a nice change. :)

Elsewhere in the empire, I enjoyed two self-referential QMCs "Head of Kronos?" (KAPPA) and "Name inside a libretto?" (BRETT). I also liked the C/APs "It's unlikely to happen again" (FLUKE) and  "Corp. shake-up?" for REORG. ASSET, with the clue "It's of use" reminded me of the bit in The Princess Bride when Westley is recovering from being almost dead and is vexed when the others fail to mention the Holocaust cloak among their assets. :) Fill-wise, I like PLOTPOINT, RIPENED, and EGGEDON. Less popular with this solver are any references to MITES, and my personal pet peeve, the answer AGO for "In the past."

Horace and I were in Rome just a few weeks ago and were surrounded at every turn by t-shirts, tote bags, and keychains boasting Caesar's famous phrase. We bought ourselves a fridge magnet.

~Frannie.

Tuesday, July 28, 2026, Adam Vincent

So, when does a joke become a dad joke? When it becomes apparent. I'm actually a big fan of the so-called "dad-joke" but, partly because I'm such a big fan, I don't like that it's been tarred by that epithet. I like to think the fondness for and appreciation of these types of jokes belongs to everyone. :)

In today's puzzle we have four sibilant-forward grid entries (PATCHOULI, MASSACHUSETTS, CATCHYOULATER, STATUETTE) that might, under the correct circumstances, elicit the "dad-joke" response ITSNOTHING TOSNEEZEAT. Sometimes a joke gets old when it's repeated, and sometimes it gets funnier. You be the judge. :) IMHO, the "sneeze" joke, at its most amusing, is situational and relies on the most important part of telling a joke: timing. I prefer it when someone says a 'wet' word and someone else says "Gezundheit." That's when hilarity ensues. But, not everyone can tell a joke. [32!]

But, that's KNOT why I called you all here. A good puzzle can't just ELI on theme material. Fortunately, we have some fun clue/answer pairs like "Evian, Perrier or Badoit" for EAU, "Muss and fuss" for HOOPLA, and "Alcoholic equivalent of a fun-size candy bar" (NIP), plus some fine fill like SCANT, AUTEUR, EXCLAVE, and STYMIE.

Knowing Scott ODELL, the Spanish for "Primer mes del anõ" (ENERO), and CHOCO Taco resulted in AGAIN of time, but I did have a little trouble in the top left where I entered SKIclub for "Sporting group at a cold-weather school" until "Myrmecology subject" (ANT) forced the correction to SKITEAM. I also first entered KNit for "Word with cap or socks" until I got the clue "Six-line poems" (SESTETS) and had to change the i to an E (KNEE). Otherwise, no gotchas. :)

Now, I'm going to make like a tree and leaf. 

~Frannie.

Bonus material:

Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field.

When is a door not a door? When it's a jar.