Monday, August 17, 2026, Kelly Morenus

Theme:  Get back!

back-to-back meerkats

Constructor Kelly Morenus has authored four Friday puzzles in the New York Times, as well as one Saturday puzzle there.  She co-authored a puzzle in the LA Times on Saturday, November 8, 2025, with devilishly difficult co-constructor Erik Agard.  Today, Kelly's puzzle appears on Monday, the easy-peasy day of the week.  Let's see how that worked out.

Some solvers enjoy a puzzle where the theme is discernible and actually helps with the solve.  Yours truly found today's theme to be invisible until the big reveal.  That's OK, because some solvers like a theme that comes as a big surprise at the end.  The big reveal happened here:

58-Across. Consecutive, or a hint to what can follow the first parts and precede the second parts of 17-, 25-, 38-, 40-, and 49-Across: BACK TO BACK.  Let's break this down.  "Back-to-back" is a synonym for "consecutive."  Think of back-to-back meetings, one right after another.  That works.  Next, we look at the first and second parts of the cited entries, and see what happens when we stick "back" in there a couple of times ... back-to-back, so to speak.  Thus:

17-Across. Attraction in a neighborhood park: PLAYGROUND.  PLAYBACK / BACKGROUND.

25-Across. Illuminating item in an emergency kit: FLASHLIGHT.  FLASHBACK / BACKLIGHT.

38-Across. Phone history list: CALL LOG.  CALLBACK / BACKLOG.

40-Across. Fail to show up for: BLOW OFF.  BLOWBACK / BACK OFF.

49-Across. Outing for two couples: DOUBLE DATE. DOUBLE BACK / BACKDATE.

An elegant feature of the theme entries is their symmetrical placement in the grid.  Well done.

Across:

1. Magic: The Gathering fan's collection: CARDS.  Yours truly is not familiar with the collectible "Magic: The Gathering" cards, introduced in 1993.  Inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, the game has attracted fifty million or more players.  

A game of Magic: The Gathering in process.

6. "You are __": map message: HERE.

10. Slugger Sammy: SOSA.  Sammy Sosa is a Dominican former professional baseball right fielder.  He played in Major League Baseball for 18 seasons, primarily with the Chicago Cubs.  He hit his 400th home run in his 1,354th game and his 5,273rd at-bat, reaching this milestone quicker than any player in National League history.  Sosa is one of nine players in MLB history to hit 600 career home runs.

Sammy Sosa

14. Capital of Ghana: ACCRA.  Formed from the merger of settlements around British Fort James, Dutch Fort Crêvecoeur, and Danish Fort Christiansborg, Accra served as the capital of the British Gold Coast between 1877 and 1957 and has since become a modern metropolis ... in spite of all the European colonizers.

Accra, Ghana

15. Yemen neighbor: OMAN.  Speaking of European colonizers, the Sultanate of Oman expelled the Portuguese in the 17th century.  It has been continuously ruled by the Al Bu Said dynasty since 1744, and is an absolute monarchy with Islam as the state religion.

Note that the northernmost part of Oman is on the Strait of Hormuz.

16. Birds associated with wisdom: OWLS.

17. [Theme clue]

19. Skewed view: BIAS.

20. Flow slowly: SEEP.

21. General idea: SENSE.

22. Lobby group for seniors: AARP.  Originally an initialism for the American Association of Retired Persons, it's now just AARP, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization helping people aged 50 and older with concerns related to health, personal finances, and daily living.

25. [Theme clue]

29. Word before metal and music: SHEET.

31. Buoyant: AFLOAT.

32. Kitchen tool needed for some potato dishes: PEELER.

34. Commuter's fee: TOLL.  DH and I have transponders on our cars to facilitate automatic payment of tolls on California toll roads, but it can be confusing to encounter tolls in other states, especially where there are no payment stations on the road.

35. Garden implement: HOE.  Hoes have been used since ancient times to clear weeds, shape soil, and harvest crops.

Weeding the vegetable garden with a hoe.

38. [Theme clue]

40. [Theme clue]

42. Streaming interruptions: ADS.  We tolerate ads on some streaming platforms, and pay for premium access without ads on others.  Television today has many options, and can be very expensive.

43. Argentine author Jorge __ Borges: LUIS.  Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, educated in Geneva, Switzerland, and returned to Buenos Aires as a young adult.  His groundbreaking short stories are surrealistic explorations of dreams, labyrinths, mirrors, and myths.  His eyesight dimmed as his career blossomed, and he became completely blind about the time he was appointed director of the National Public Library and professor of English Literature at the University of Buenos Aires in 1955.  His familiarity with many languages allowed him to write his own stories with a view to their future translations, which were many.

45. Italian town with a namesake coast: AMALFI.

Amalfi, Italy -- a bit south of Naples,
and surrounded by towns just as lovely on the "Amalfi coast."

46. "Go Birds!" NFL team: EAGLES.  The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. 

48. Iron alloy: STEEL.  Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon.  It is one of the most commonly manufactured materials in the world.

49. [Theme clue]

53. Literary governess Jane: EYRE.  Jane Eyre is the heroine of an 1847 novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë.  Wonderful book.

54. Up to: UNTIL.

55. Love, in Spanish: AMOR.

57. Actor Estrada: ERIK.  Erik Estrada played Frank "Ponch" Poncherello, a California Highway Patrol officer, on the television series CHiPs, which aired from 1977 to 1983.  He was voted one of "The 10 Sexiest Bachelors in the World" by People in 1979.  Not an Oscar, but still flattering!

Erik Estrada poster from the 1970s

58. [Theme clue]

64. Country singer Lovett: LYLE.  Lyle Lovett has recorded 14 albums, released 25 singles, and won four Grammy Awards, including Best Male Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Album.

Lyle Lovett

65. Shrek, for one: OGRE.  Fictional ogre Shrek got his start in a book of the same name by William Steig, and then became the star of a series of animated films, in which he was voiced by Mike Myers.  The films are charming.  If you haven't seen them, start with Shrek (2001).  The stories make wonderful use of familiar fairy tale characters.

Shrek

66. Nintendo's The Legend of __: ZELDA.  Everything I know about Nintendo's video game adventure series The Legend of Zelda, I learned from watching my son play the game.  He was born in 1978.  The first game was released in 1986.  Could my son really have been only 8 years old?  Am I a bad parent?

The Legend of Zelda

67. Notices: SEES.

68. Some small dogs: TOYS.  Toy dogs have been bred to be so small they look like playthings.  Various kennel clubs list different breeds in the toy category, but none seem to give specific guidelines for qualification.  Almost all toy dogs will weigh less than 15 pounds as adults.  As with other breeds promoted by kennel clubs, breeding for appearance often outweighs breeding for good health or temperament.  Toy breeds have fragile bones and yet live in a world where they continually leap from tall furniture and laps.  Flat faced dogs experience severe breathing trouble.  Tiny spaniels suffer early onset heart disease.  And tiny "teacup" dogs live very short lives.

69. Official order: EDICT.

Down:

1. Lid: CAP.

2. Knee surgery target, for short: ACL.  The anterior cruciate ligament is a stabilizing element in the knee, connecting the thighbone to the shinbone. Tears or sprains occur with sudden stops, jumping, or rapid changes in direction.  Or in the case of my beautiful bonus daughter, when some guy coming down the slope behind you rams into you and knocks you off your skis.

3. Color TV pioneer: RCA.

4. Unproductive period: DRY SPELL.

5. Mint family herb: SAGE.

6. Fuss: HOOPLA.

7. Down Under bird: EMU.  "Down Under" is a nickname for Australia.  The emu is a tall flightless bird endemic to Australia.

When emus go rogue.

8. Appeared in print: RAN.

9. Cease: END.

10. "That's that, then": SO BE IT.

11. In debt: OWING.

12. Cut drastically, as prices: SLASH.

13. Valuable quality: ASSET.

18. Gridiron official: REF.

21. Ski races with gates: SLALOMS.  Slalom gates are flexible plastic poles used in alpine ski racing. Skiers must turn around each pole in a specific order.

slalom skiing

22. Pet welfare org.: ASPCA.  The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

23. On track to win: AHEAD.

24. Film spools: REELS.

26. Away from the bow, on a boat: AFT.

27. Untidy one: SLOB.

28. Say hi, in slang: HOLLA.  An urban slang variant of "holler."  

30. Dishy memoir: TELL ALL.

33. Cheek colorer: ROUGE.

35. Like moth-eaten clothing: HOLEY.

The holes in this toy dog's sweater are caused by moth larvae.
Eww!  Time to clean the closet.

36. Buyer's proposal: OFFER.

37. Submit taxes online: E-FILE.

39. __ the lily: add unnecessary decor: GILD.  A popular phrase based on a misquotation from Shakespeare's play King John:

To gild refinèd gold, to paint the lily,

To throw a perfume on the violet,

To smooth the ice or add another hue

Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light

To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,

Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.

41. Sloshy mattress: WATERBED.  Waterbeds accounted for more than one out of of five mattresses sold at the height of their popularity in 1987.  Having to run a hose into your bedroom to fill the mattress, pump the water out to move it, and risk flooding in case of a leak, reduced their popularity.

44. Salty expanse: SEA.

46. Chargeable two-wheelers: EBIKES.

47. Poles in a tomato garden: STAKES.

49. Old-fashioned showdowns: DUELS.

50. Sandwich request: ON RYE.

51. Purposeful: UTILE.

52. First responder: Abbr.: EMT.  Emergency Medical Technician.

56. Flow slowly: OOZE.  Imagine sap oozing from a tree.  A waterbed leak is likely to go faster.

58. Droid: BOT.  Droid is short for android, a humanlike robot.  Bot is short for robot.  A droid is always a physical robot.  A bot is usually a software program that runs online.  So ... not the same.

Droids ... or robots ... but not bots!

59. In the past: AGO.

60. Get weepy: CRY.

61. "__ Baba and the Forty Thieves": ALI.  "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" is an Arabic folk tale that was added to the other tales of the One Thousand and One Nights by French translator Antoine Galland in the 18th century.

62. Public health agcy.: CDC.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the national public health agency of the United States.

63. Dennings of "WandaVision": KAT.  Kat Dennings has appeared in a long list of films and TV shows.  She is best known for starring roles in the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls and as Darcy Lewis in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero films.

Kat Dennings

Here's the grid:

Solvers,

Did Kelly's puzzle end a DRY SPELL for you?  Or give you BACK TO BACK wins?

Did it all make SENSE to you?

HOLLA at your fellow solvers in the comments!

-- NaomiZ