Monday, May 18, 2026, Brian Callahan, Amie Walker

Theme:  Swing for the fences!

A scene from Happy Gilmore starring Adam Sandler, 1996

Brian Callahan and Amie Walker are frequent crossword contributors to the LA Times, solo or teamed up with others, and at least once in the past, together.  How do they make great moves in the grid?  Today's big reveal is:

61-Across. Advice for adding power to a golf swing, or what can be said about 17-, 27-, and 50-Across: IT'S ALL IN THE HIPS.  In the listed entries, the answers are contained within the word HIPS, written in helpful circles at either end of each answer.  Note the progression of the letter breaks from 1:3, to 2:2, to 3:1.  Are the HIPS moving from one side to the other, as in a golf swing?

17-Across. "Let me give you a few pointers ... ": HERE ARE SOME TIPS.

27-Across. Some track-and-field attempts: HIGH JUMPS.

50-Across. VW adorned with decals from the flower power era, e.g.: HIPPIE BUS.

We can expect some groaning in the comments today about circles, but yours truly feels they are needed to see the theme.  Aside from that, I think we can all appreciate the symmetry of the grid and the theme answers, and the fact that two of the themers span the grid.  I did have one little problem with the solve, which I'll share when we get there.  Shake a leg!

Across:

1. Annoying ordeal: HASSLE.

7. Reddit tell-all sesh: AMA.  Ask Me Anything question-and-answer session on Reddit, a news aggregator and social media platform.

10. Veil material: LACE.

14. Fiction influenced by net culture: ALT LIT.  Alternative literature (or alt-lit) is a literary movement influenced by internet culture and online publishing.  It is characterized by autofiction (telling an altered story of one's own life in the third person), self-publication, and a presence on social media networks.

15. Grass roll: SOD.

16. __ hygiene: ORAL.

17. [Theme clue]

20. Pointed (at): AIMED.

21. Galápagos lizard: IGUANA.  The marine iguana is found only on the Galápagos Islands. It forages in the sea for algae, which make up almost all of its diet.  There are land iguanas in the Galápagos as well.

Marine iguana, Isla Española, Galápagos, 2022

22. Small stick in a bird's nest: TWIG.

24. Yoga poses: ASANAS.

27. [Theme clue]

30. First step of a home reno: DEMO.  Home RENOvation shows make DEMOlition look like fun.

33. Beatty/Hoffman film flop: ISHTAR.  Ishtar is a 1987 comedy film written and directed by Elaine May, and produced by Warren Beatty, who co-stars with Dustin Hoffman.  The story revolves around a pair of talentless songwriters who travel to a gig in Morocco and stumble into international intrigue.  Shot on location in Morocco and New York City, the production drew media attention for cost overruns on top of a lavish budget.  A change in management at Columbia Pictures also hurt the film's release, which was a notorious failure at the box office.  Initially considered it to be one of the worst films ever made, it has since had better reviews.

34. "I'm not sure" sounds: UHS.  UH ... did anyone else put UMS here, and then wonder what kind of heroine at 26-Down could be named ASMA?  I did.  FIW (finished it wrong) by one square.

36. Phoenix NBA team: SUNS.

38. Pickleball barrier: NET.

Pickleball court divided by a net.

39. Overt: BLATANT.

42. Fuel additive brand: STP.  STP is a brand of automotive products, including motor oil, fuel additives, and brake fluids.  The name STP originally stood for "Scientifically Treated Petroleum."

43. Avocado dip, for short: GUAC.  Short for guacamole, a Mexican Spanish word which comes from the Nahuatl word āhuacamōlli meaning "avocado sauce."

45. Oft-protected personal ID: SSN.

46. "Same here": I AM TOO.

48. College Board exam for sophs: PSAT.  The Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test has been administered to high school sophomores since Fall 1971.  

50. [Theme clue]

52. Capital of Kansas: TOPEKA.

54. Richard of "Chicago": GERE.  Chicago is a 2002 musical crime film based on the 1975 stage musical, which in turn originated in the 1926 play.  It explores celebrity, scandal, and corruption in Chicago during the Jazz Age, and stars Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Richard Gere. 

55. These days: LATELY.

58. "Gavel-to-gavel" coverage provider: C-SPAN.  Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network is an American cable and satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service.  C-SPAN provides unfiltered coverage of the U.S. House, Senate, and major congressional hearings from the beginning of each session to the end.

61. [Theme clue]

66. Lion's sound: ROAR.

67. Pop singer Rita: ORA.  Thank you, crossword puzzles, for teaching me this one.

68. Call forth, as memories: ELICIT.

69. Car loan figs.: APRS.  The Annual Percentage Rate (APR) is the total cost of borrowing to pay for a vehicle over the course of one year.  It serves as a comparison tool between loan offers.  Imagine that Bank A has a low interest rate, but also has a large fixed fee for car loans. The fee will be figured into the APR.  Bank B has a slightly higher interest rate, but lower or no fees.  Bank B's overall APR may be lower than Bank A's, and therefore a better deal.

70. __ and improved: NEW.

71. Show up for: ATTEND.

Down:

1. Laugh syllable: HAH.

2. Tavern beer: ALE.

3. Likely feature of a valedictorian's report card: STRAIGHT A'S.  The highest mark in all school subjects.

4. __ of hand: magician's knack: SLEIGHT.  "Sleight" refers to a deceitful kind of craftiness, or to skill and dexterity.

5. Actor Neeson: LIAM.  Liam Neeson is an actor from Northern Ireland who has garnered many accolades over forty years in films.  He rose to prominence portraying Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg's Holocaust drama Schindler's List (1993), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Liam Neeson

6. To be, in French: ÊTRE.  Oh, to be a French verb ... how wonderful that would be.  Here's a phrase you know using être:  "C'est la vie."  "That is life."

Present tense conjugation of the verb "to be" in French.

7. Donkey: ASS.

8. Dairy sound: MOO.

9. Online moderator, briefly: ADMIN.

10. Pink blooms sacred to Buddhists: LOTUSES.  Rooted in mud but blooming above water, the lotus flower symbolizes the purity of an enlightened mind rising above suffering.  According to legend, everywhere the baby Buddha stepped, a lotus flower bloomed.

Lotus flower

11. Solo for an opera diva: ARIA.

12. Breakfast mascot's rank: CAP'N.  "Cap'n" is a contraction of the word captain, and is used to represent a sailor's pronunciation: "Aye aye, cap'n!"

Can you spot the verb être on this box of Canadian Cap'n Crunch?
It is crunchificent!

13. "Frozen" ice queen: ELSA.  Frozen is a 2013 animated musical film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's 1844 fairy tale, "The Snow Queen."

The characters of this film often show up in our puzzles.
It might be helpful to watch it sometime.

18. Dutch cheese: EDAM.

19. "Yikes!": EGAD.

22. Category of noun: THING.  Nouns are words that name people, places, things, or ideas. 

23. Get smart: WISE UP.

25. Soviet satellite launched in 1957: SPUTNIK.  Sputnik 1 was the world's first artificial Earth satellite. A 23-inch metal sphere with four antennas, it orbited for three months, emitting a radio signal.

26. "Wish" heroine voiced by Ariana DeBose: ASHA.  Here's the other half of my downfall at 34-Across, where I wrote UMS, not UHS.  Asha is the protagonist of the animated film Wish (2023) produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios.  She is voiced by American actress Ariana DeBose.  The idea for the film was hatched during the creation of Frozen II.

Ariana           and           Asha

28. Quick punch: JAB.

29. Web addresses: URLS.

31. "Wish we all had that kind of luck": MUST BE NICE.

32. Moving from gig to gig: ON TOUR.  What the protagonists of Ishtar were hoping to be doing.

35. Scissors sound: SNIP.

37. Slangy "Let's say ... ": SPOSE.  An informal contraction of the word "suppose."  In the sense of "let's say," you can imagine a phrase like, "Spose we pay higher interest to Bank B, but there are no other fees ..."

40. Arthur in the International Tennis Hall of Fame: ASHE.

41. __ chi: martial art: TAI.

44. Part of a "Gabby's Dollhouse" costume: CAT EARS.  I have twin grandchildren who are 12 years old, and a grandbaby who is 8 months, so I'm perfectly positioned to know absolutely nothing about Gabby's Dollhouse, a television show for preschoolers aged 3 to 6 years.

Gabby's Dollhouse

47. Smash success: MEGA HIT.  Not Ishtar.

49. Bridge charge: TOLL.

51. Treaty: PACT.

53. Traffic marker: PYLON.  Usually just a good old fashioned orange cone.

55. Money of Italy, once: LIRA.

56. Resting on: ATOP.

57. Former Russian ruler: TSAR.

59. __ butter: skin care ingredient: SHEA.  Shea butter is a fat extracted from nuts of the African shea tree.  It is a popular ingredient in skin care products.

Shea butter

60. Pepper (with): PELT.

62. Furious feeling: IRE.

63. Casual refusal: NAW.

64. Brooch: PIN.

65. Norm: Abbr.: STD.  Another word for norm is standard, abbreviated std.

Here's the grid:

To cap off our theme:

Shakira and friends:  "Hips Don't Lie."

Solvers, was this puzzle a HASSLE for you, with BLATANT obscurities ELICITing groans?

Or do you SPOSE it will be considered a MEGAHIT for its fine qualities?

MUST BE NICE to win them all.  Let's hear from you in the comments.

-- NaomiZ