Sunday, May 3, 2026, Mark Diehl

WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

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

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

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

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

- Horace 

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