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