Saturday, June 13, 2026, Ryan McCarty

To finish my week of reviews, the Saturday grid offered a pinwheel shape, with a chunky middle section of mostly 8- and 9-letter entries. It was a fun solve, with the hardest portion for me coming in the southwest corner.

I was delighted that MWAHAHA was correct, but even though the rest of the corner filled in fairly easily, I was stuck with a challenge exiting the corner with THE___ at 23A and AL___ at 27A. So I skipped to the top of the middle section, where SEGO and OXO, old crossword standbys, helped me out.

The great REGGIEJACKSON anchors the middle of this grid. He is 80 years old this year, working for the Astros. As a Red Sox fan in the 1970s, he struck fear into my little boy heart when he batted for the hated Yankees. I was just at a Yankees game, and a friend of mine and I reminisced about those teams. I especially remember the feuds between Thurman Munson and Carlton Fisk. So long ago, now!

MAANDPA looks amazing in the puzzle. I was uncertain for a split second about those consecutive As, but reparsed and saw what I was looking for. And 19A: "Right?," in British lingo (INNIT) is a lot of fun.

IGGY Azalea

After that, I finished parts of the middle section, completed the southeast corner, then worked my way back to the southwest corner. My problem here came from a typo: I put in AMaROSO at 32D: Lovingly, in a score (AMOROSO), so 40A: Blew up (GOTMAD) was very unclear. 

Only two QMCs in a Saturday puzzle, and both are fine, not great. 38A: Show to be fabricating? (CATCHINALIE) is a great answer, but I'm not even sure the question mark is needed. 16D: Flight restriction? (SEATBELT) is pretty good.

Turning over to Philbo for tomorrow, when he'll be coming off of an extremely long bike ride for charity. Good luck!

- Colum

Friday, June 12, 2026, Amanda Winters

I like the look of today's grid, with the northwest and southwest corners cut off, and the scattered single black squares in the middle. It looks a bit like a lace doily!

The upper left corner gave me fits to begin with. I tried "trite" at 3D: Passé (DATED), but took it out after putting SRI in. That gave me DUDS, and allowed me to bypass the various possibilities at 2D: Cab alternative (UBER) - could have been "Lyft," could have been "rosé" or "asti," etc. But what should have been a gimme wouldn't come at 12A: Children's book title character in a green suit (BABAR). So I moved down the middle of the puzzle.

15D: Site of America's first roller coaster (CONEYISLAND) is lovely. 31D: Quality establishments (INNS) is a great hidden capital. These brought me straight down to the bottom of the puzzle.

From here, I worked the southwest corner. 49D: Do business? (SALON) was nice, and 63A: Cone holders (RETINAS) is a great example of misleading non-QMC. I don't particularly like UPTURN crossing UPTOPAR, but I appreciate PORTLANDOREGON as an answer, and as a shoutout for independent booksellers - Powell's Books, in this situation.

At this point I worked up the east side of the puzzle. MAGGIE Smith was a treasure, and I'm happy to say I saw her play Rosalind in As You Like It in Stratford, Ontario, in the 70s. I don't remember that much about it, but I hear she was wonderful.

ICECREAMPARLOR echoed the other business clue. I finally figured out 34A: Style with spotty coverage (POINTILLISM) - hah!, and then GENETICLOTTERY got me back in the Northwest, where I finished off the puzzle. 

Lovely themeless. It's been a great week so far. Let's hope Saturday doesn't disappoint!

- Colum

Thursday, June 11, 2026, Nikhil Bailey

So much fun this Thursday! A clever theme, fun clues, and good entries.

Let's start with the theme. Take standard phrases, and reinterpret the first part as if it were written in Roman numerals, and replace that part with the English version of that number. 

Simple, right?

Okay, okay, we can do an example. The phrase "aye, aye, Captain!" can be reinterpreted as II Captain, or TWOCAPTAIN if the II were translated from Roman numerals to the English word.

So HUNDREDLEGS is "sea legs," FORTYSHEETS is "Excel Sheets," and FOURLEAGUE is "Ivy League." Very nice!

For clues, I enjoyed 33A: Met someone? (OPERAGOER). It's been too long since I saw an opera at the Met, but our friends recently saw Eugen Onegin. I am envious!

17A: It might have many sides (MENU) is a lovely example of a non-question mark clue (non-QMC, per our glossary, see side pinned post). 

CHLOE Kim

I'm not convinced by OPTICLOBE. As a Neurologist, I would instead refer to the Occipital lobe, where visual information is processed. The closest equivalent to the amphibian optic lobe is the superior colliculus, a tiny bump on the dorsal surface of the midbrain which helps reflexive eye movements get to where they need to get to. As such, it is not the human "mind's eye," but I get what we're trying to do here.

Dang, a lot of Neurologic information for a Thursday post! But that's what you get when you ask a Neurologist to review the NYT Xword. I blame Horace and Frances.

Anyhoo, a lot of fun. See you tomorrow!

- Colum

Wednesday, June 10, 2026, David J. Kahn and Ethan Quigley

The World Cup is coming to North America! It's first games were in 1930, and have been happening every four years since. So it's astonishing to find out that only eight countries have joined the exclusive club of WORLDCUPWINNERS. They are represented by their country code in the circled letters, each hidden in an answer that crosses the central spanning 8D answer. The first was Uruguay, and the most recent Argentina, with Brazil the most winningest club, with five victories. Germany and Italy each have four wins.

And to top it off, there's a bit of crosswordese that actually is theme related at 56D: Only player on three victorious teams in this puzzle (PELE). Nice!

I wonder if the USA will ever make it onto this list. I doubt it!

Museo REINA Sofía, in ESPaña

I find that when a puzzle is this dense with theme material, the clues for the non-theme entries tend towards the straightforward. I can see why that would need to happen: it can be challenging to find your way into a puzzle like this, and on a Wednesday, which is meant to be more difficult than the early weekdays but not to the level of a tricksy Thursday, it's important to give solvers a chance.

So I will overlook the questionable entries (TYS, I see you!), and note 45A: Cousin of a flugelhorn (CORNET) - very nice - and The Marvelous MIRIAM Maisel. I also look fondly on NOWISE, which reminds me of Pogo and of Foghorn Leghorn.

On to The Turn!

- Colum

Tuesday, June 9, 2026, Rebecca Goldstein

I was slowed down in my understanding of the theme by entering RUBSRed at 21A: Chafes excessively (RUBSRAW - a much more apt answer), but when that was corrected I saw the connection between the theme answers. But I still chuckled when I entered the revealer at 58A: Prediction of a negative outcome that is true of 21-, 28- and 47-Across (THISWONTENDWELL). That's a great twist, that also, incidentally, completes the progression of how done you like your meat.

Sadly, I FWOE'd today's puzzle. 64A: Sound of a cartoon hit (BOINK) I entered somewhat confidently BOINg. I don't think I've seen the actual answer much in a cartoon, but the other meaning of the word is likely too blue for the NYT!

LANA Del Rey

Funny that the "carnivorous cinematic alien" is the BLOB, a creature I haven't thought about in decades. But then I couldn't fit "xenomorph" into four squares.

I am always happy to see GNU in the grid. 

BYENOW!

Monday, June 8, 2026, Tom McCoy

Now this is what I call the ultimate in excellence in a Monday puzzle. What we're looking for in an early week grid is straightforward fill, smoothness of solve, and a clever but not too clever theme. 

Let's take the last first: the theme is revealed at 50A: Of the highest importance ... or, when parsed differently, what each bracketed number in the clues indicates? (PARAMOUNT). And then, when you look at 18A, 23A, and 41A, you find the numbers in the bracket increase from 1 to 3, indicating the number of "PAR" in each answer. Thus PARCHEESI, PARALLELPARKING, and PARTYPARTYPARTY. Nicely done!

An Inuit KAYAK

The solve flows nicely through the puzzle for the most part. The NW and SE corners are somewhat isolated, but the answers and clues in those regions are very straightforward, so it's not a problem. Outside of AGER, I don't find much of anything to complain about.

On the other hand, some lovely fill includes 43D: What misers take to an extreme (THRIFT), which always reminds me of Hamlet:

"Thrift, thrift, Horatio. The funeral baked meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables."

What an amazing line.

Also, the fact that Bert Lahr was a LEO. Apt. Apt! 

And 13D: Characterize? (SPELL). Hah!

- Colum

Sunday, June 7, 2026, Adam Wagner and Simeon Seigel

 SPLIT SECONDS

While some are whiling away time in what seems like sunny Italia (if the pictures on Horace's BeReal are anything to go by), I have to make do with New York City in the early Summer. It's nothing to sneeze at! Unless you are dealing with allergies, like some bloggers. Ah well, there's alway the New York Times Crossword to take your mind off of sniffling.

Today we have the ingenious idea of a series of three answers which can be reparsed into two answers by putting them all together and then split them somewhere in the middle. So 22A (GATECH - that's Georgia Tech), 23A (ANGELIC) and 24 (ENSURE) can be split into GATECH/ANGE and LIC/ENSURE. 

I am impressed with the way the words recombine in these creations! SOLI/STEN and CHES/STABLES is nice in the way the T changes from a silent sound to a sounded one. The reverse happens with the C in CHIAS/MUS and CLEMEN/TINES. We even lose a syllable in THEREST/IME and then regain it in ANTIT/HEFT.

To top it off, we get a revealer in the middle at 66A: Amount that "ain't bad," so to speak ... or what to make with six sets of answers in this puzzle? (TWOOUTOFTHREE).

A classic SCONE

It was fun to figure out what was going on with each set of answers, which drove the enjoyment of the solve. But we had room for some fun clues as well! How about 7D: Lofty pitches (HIGHCS) - challenging to see that clearly! And 112: Chest beaters? (HEARTS) was nice. 

I'll also give a shout out to SONOFA, and to PHOEBE, who I hope can enjoy a good Sunday puzzle even as she's dealing with an unwell pet.

- Colum