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