google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, Jun 26th, 2026 ~ Jeremy Venook

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Jun 26, 2026

Friday, Jun 26th, 2026 ~ Jeremy Venook

  DISMISSED A SPOT

See Spot run . . . out the door

This is Jeremy's second LA Times puzzle; RB had the first one a year ago.  Today we have the addition of "DIS" to phrases that I found to be not as common as I would have liked, and therefore left me feeling a little DISsatisfied with the results.  YMMV.  Ektorp returns with two examples, a standard grid, one-third the # of 3LWs to four-letter words, a handful of names, and I'm DISappointed that the crossword had no circles - we already had two this week.  The three themers and reveal;

20. Hours at an art gallery?: DISPLAYING TIME - The base phrase refers to the equal distribution of on-field activity for all team members of a little league, etc.  - and here's the Dissed version . . . 

Salvador Dali, "The Persistence of Memory"

25. Factory that produces bad vibes?: DISCONTENT MILL - The base phrase is more broadly recognized as "Content Farm" - with more here from Wiki; the Dissed version . . .

Santa's Elves Unite~! Local N.P. 33

44. Admit to wearing a dental prosthetic?: DISCLOSE THE GAP - The "gap" being a wide variety of things, but mostly bringing technology and eductaion to those without - and the Dissed version . . .

He was my first thought - here's a list of other 'gap-toothed' people

51. Process of detachment, or an apt title for this puzzle: DISASSOCIATION - what's the difference between ignorance and apathy~?  I don't know, and I don't care . . .

But . . .

Wait , , ,

There's . . .

More~! ! !


ACROSS:

1. Carrefour's country: HAITI - Jeremy likes Haiti - it appeared in his first LA Times puzzle, too - geo name #1

6. Cuticle oil spot: NAIL - this made no sense until I looked up cuticle oil - it's lotion for the unguis


10. Trellis part: SLAT - I had to rebuild one in April


14. "Snowy" bird rarely found in snowy places: EGRET - five-letter snowy bird~? - Ektorp

15. Hindu mentor: GURU

16. Pixar film set partially in the afterlife: COCO - half-filled via perps

17. Inner self, to Jung: ANIMA - Mentioned frequently in Jordan Peterson's Psychology of the Bible series

18. Soup noodle: UDON - crossword staple

19. Bicycle attachment: HORN - training wheels didn't fit

I like this attachment - the wire basket, that is 🙄

23. Munich article: EINE - Deutsch - we saw this last Saturday

24. Memoji platform: IOS - I am PC ( Android ) - so I didn't get this one

32. Irrefutable point: FACT

33. Fad: RAGE - memoji~?  obvi it's totes all the rage

34. Trout's team, on scoreboards: LAA - I had _ AA from perps, and not being into baseball . . .

35. Concise concession: "I LOST."

37. Part of some uniforms: HAT

38. Judicial pauses: STAYS - I get it, but pauses~? . . . meh

40. Mum's mum: NAN

41. Word in a Samin Nosrat cookbook title: ACID - HEAT, and two others I couldn't recall


43. Burden: ONUS

49. Broadcast: AIR

50. Ivy in New Haven: YALE - collegial reference

58. Slam dance: MOSH - now this one I knew, but I do not participate - seems a bit silly to me; guess I'm old now

59. Viola clef: ALTO - filled via perps

60. Getty Images download: PHOTO - Getty being one of the image sites that sometimes "license" a photo, and therefore, ones I avoid at all costs when writing the blog . . .

61. Otherwise: ELSE

62. Standard choice: GO-TO

63. Took effect: SET IN

64. Shredded side: SLAW - I'm a fries / onion rings kind of guy

65. School founded in 1440: ETON - four letter old school~? = Ektorp

66. Clear one's name, perhaps?: ERASE


DOWN:

1. Eye site: HEAD - Once again, had most of my Downs wrong; starting with filling in FACE

2. Hindu god of fire: AGNI - more here

3. Eye piece: IRIS - Dah~!  Not LENS

4. Storms: TEMPESTS - I love this album cover image

Nanci Griffith  - storms

5. Bold alternative: ITALIC - Ah.  Referring to fonts / type

6. "The Sympathizer" Pulitzer winner Viet Thanh: NGUYEN - Friday name, #2, filled via perps

7. German auto: AUDI - Yay~! I got a Down answer right~!

8. Nutrient in beans and rice: IRON - Ah.  My mind had "protein" polarity

9. Putting one foot forward, in a way: LUNGING - some of the most difficult exercises working with my gym trainer involve lunges and squats - my knees are aging faster than the rest of me . . . 

10. Doctrinal rupture: SCHISM - I read this as "doctoral", and went with HERNIA . . .😜 It's also one of my favorite "Tool" songs; 

Tool, from Lateralus, "Schism"

11. Arachne's device: LOOM - I knew we got "arachnid" from this myth, but WEB didn't fit

12. Land division: ACRE

13. Boatload: TON - thank you for not being the A TON Twurd~!

21. "It's __-brainer!": A NO - aaaaand I spoke too soon . . . 

22. "For sure!": "TOTES~!" - 21st century-speak for totally, dude . . .

25. Start of a Tibetan religious title: DALAI - a gimme; "ocean" master / teacher

26. Taskbar lineup: ICONS - I was forced to upgrade to Windows 11 while writing this blog - but so far, I have not had any issues . . . 🤞

27. Swap: TRADE

28. Consume: EAT

29. Glazer of "Broad City": ILANA - the single, opening cel where I didn't bother to do the alphabet run - A~? E~? - in retrospect, I needed to see MILL as the logical end of the themer.  Sigh.  Her IMDb; Name #3

30. Easy bucket: LAYUP - Wiki says it's one word

31. Miss: LASS

32. Happen across: FIND - Ah, right - I "happened across" an article I saved from a Cincinnati newspaper detailing the movie "The Golem" that I worked on half my life ago . . . 

Most likely the best time of my life

36. "The Godfather" actress Shire: TALIA - a, a, name, #4

37. Third-person possessive: HIS - I got locked into OUR

39. As one: TOGETHER - as in the next clue/asnwer

42. Boutonnière partner: CORSAGE - nailed this Frawnche pair - buttonhole and bodice in English

Awww, matching . . . 

45. Nut used to make cheese or butter: CASHEW - this and ALMOND fit, but I waited on perps

46. Titan of industry: TYCOON - crossword staple

47. Japanese assent: HAI - the equivalent of "yes"

48. Pass: ELAPSE

51. Barbie or Ken: DOLL - it could have been a, a, a NAME

52. Rae of "Barbie": ISSA - a NAME, a crossword staple, aaaand #5

53. Opening at the post office: SLOT - not an employment opportunity, but this 🠋


54. Springfield Elementary bus driver: OTTO - knew it, "The Simpsons", still name #6

55. Wee bit: IOTA - Yay~! not the Twurd ATAD

56. Elevator name: OTIS - aaaaand #7

57. __ of the above: NONE - which name did I like most in today's puzzle~? . . . 

58. Mayo o diciembre: MES - I knew what we were looking for, didn't know Español for 'month'


Splynter

Grid Flow 32.6

11 comments:

  1. The fact that the gimmick
    was evident right away (that is, with sussing the first themer) made this puzzle a little easier to solve, though there were a few “toughies” like the first name of that Vietnamese author.
    Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.

    And, by the way, the annoying “extra steps” to post continues!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am not sure what extra steps you are referring to.

      Would you care to add the specifics?

      Delete
    2. It doesn't recognize me when I arrive. I have to select "Google account" before entering my comment, otherwise there'll be no avatar -- see my comment at 6:26.

      Delete
  2. Good morning!

    Crunchy cereal today. I briefly thought today would turn into a DNF. Whew. I could've showed up in that list of GAPpers. Mine slowly developed after the wisdom teeth were removed. Thanx, Jeremy and Splynter.

    No floods, no tornadoes, no severe thunderstorms, but the hot muggy air is killin' me. Yesterday was a three-shirt day.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the enjoyable puzzle and review, but I don't get the connection (there's a, ahem, gap in my understanding) between a dental prosthetic and a gap. Letterman's goofy-looking grin is surely natural. What am I missing?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A dental prosthetic may have prevented (or closed) the GAP in his front teeth.

      Delete
    2. Thx, still seems far-fetched to me.

      Delete
  4. FIR, but cap-> HAT, thunders->TEMPESTS, dalhi->DALAI (UNTIE!) and hie->HAI (UNTIE!)

    Is NGUYEN pronounced "win?"

    Thanks to Jeremy for the Friday challenge. And thanks to Splynter for another fun review. Remember the junior high joke "why did the hooker buy a bicycle? So she could peddle it all over town."

    ReplyDelete
  5. FIR. Typical Friday difficulty as can be expected.
    I spent a great amount of time trying to understand "content mill". Totes didn't compute for me, and Ilana, one of too many proper names, was unknown to me. A WAG made it happen.
    I got the theme from the get-go and that helped a lot.
    Overall an OK puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Took 7:43 today to play the diss track.

    I knew two of the Actresses of the Day (Talia & Issa, but not Ilana). I did not know today's writer (Nguyen) or Hindu god (Agni).

    I really wish the LAT would do away with the "foreign language or foreign city article" as a clue. Those are ugly and generally highly unhelpful. So, I did not know "eine". I did get "mes" with only 2 of the 3 letters filled in.

    I also found this puzzle dissatisfying. I am not familiar with "content mill" or "close the gap."

    ReplyDelete

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