Monday, August 31, 2026, Justin Werfel

Theme:  Idiot box

How does today's constructor, Justin Werfel, find time for TV?  When he's not publishing crossword puzzles -- at least 27 so far, including two in the LA Times -- he is skiing, diving, juggling, storytelling, glassblowing, blacksmithing, writing, mountain unicyling, and -- oh, yeah -- running a robotics lab at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.  I am not worthy to review his puzzle, and yet, here I am.  Check him out at: people.seas.harvard.edu/~jkwerfel/

Justin Werfel, homo extraordinarius

In case you missed it while solving, Justin kindly provided a key to the theme here:

72-Across. Screen found in many a living room, or what 16-, 29-, 49-, and 63-Across can be called: TV SET.  Indeed, each of the theme entries is a SET in which the first word begins with T, and the second word begins with V.

16-Across. Avian scavengers with red heads: TURKEY VULTURES.

29-Across. Demo release: TRIAL VERSION.

49-Across. Paperwork for leisure travelers: TOURIST VISAS.

63-Across. Part of speech that requires a direct object: TRANSITIVE VERB.

The theme entries are symmetrically placed in the grid.  Yours truly is a sucker for symmetry.  There are exceptional solvers among us who like a hidden theme that comes as a delightful surprise when revealed, but I appreciate a theme that is plain to see, and that helps with the solving process, so this one was right up my alley.  Or on my TV wavelength.  Let's see what other shows are on ....

Across:

1. Confess (to): ADMIT.

6. __ at the moon: HOWL.

10. 23-Down fig.: POL.  A member of the SENATE (answer to 23-Down) is a POLitician -- abbreviated in the answer because of the abbreviation in the clue.

13. Extract, as minerals from soil: LEACH.  When water (or another liquid) passes through a material, chemical substances may leach out.  I have always thought of this in terms of a natural process, like rain washing minerals out of soil, but in industry and chemistry, people may deliberately extract substances by leaching.  

14. Gobi Desert continent: ASIA.  A vast, cold desert in southern Mongolia and northern China.

But it's a dry cold ... !

15. Egg cells: OVA.

16. [Theme clue]

19. Tread the boards: ACT.  This idiom for acting comes from walking on the floorboards of the stage.

20. Feathery neckwear: BOA.

21. Smitten Kitchen blogger Perelman: DEB.  Deb Perelman's food blog, Smitten Kitchen, is 16 years old, and has generated several print cookbooks along with a good deal of press (all of it under this blogger's radar).  Deb's NYC kitchen is only 80 square feet, which presents challenges, but also suggests that you can probably achieve her results in your kitchen, too.

Deb Perelman's Smitten Kitchen

22. Some QB protectors: RTS.  Some quarterback protectors are Right Tackles.  Football aficionados, please discuss.

24. Neatens up text boxes, say: REALIGNS.  I don't know about you, but I sometimes have to add a text box to an Adobe PDF, and after composing the contents, I take a moment to align it with other text blocks on the page.  If you have managed to avoid this particular task, the answer might not have come as quickly.

27. Hangry plea: FEED ME.  Have we all encountered the word "hangry," a blend of "hungry" and "angry"?  We have probably all encountered a hangry person, who is irritable because they are hungry.

29. [Theme entry]

31. Secretly included on an email: BCCED.  Abbreviations look weird when conjugated as verbs!  Merriam-Webster prefers BCC'D.  (For blind carbon copied -- an anachronism preserved in email.)

34. Pop singer Carly __ Jepsen: RAE.  Carly Rae Jepsen is a Canadian singer/songwriter who came into the public eye when she placed third on the fifth season of Canadian Idol in 2007.  Her first hit song was "Call Me Maybe" in 2012.

35. "The Incredibles" supersuit designer Mode: EDNA.  In Pixar's animated Incredibles movies, the character Edna Mode designs costumes for superheroes.  For instance, a superhero who can turn invisible needs a suit that turns invisible along with her.  And no capes!  Edna considers them dangerous; costumes should not get sucked into jet engines or caught in elevators.

Edna Mode

36. Portuguese phone greeting: ALO.

37. Health retreat: SPA.

40. Recipe amt.: TSP.  I searched "tsp" at SmittenKitchen.com and found 717 results.  The abbreviation for teaspoon is common in recipes.

42. Addams cousin: ITT.  The fictional Addams Family was created by cartoonist Charles Addams, and originally appeared in a series of 150 single panel comics, many of which were published in The New Yorker between 1938 and 1988.  Actors portrayed the characters in a live action television series in 1964-65, and then in various films and animated series.  The very hairy cousin Itt debuted in a cartoon in 1963, before the TV producers changed his name from It to Itt.

The New Yorker, October 12, 1963
"This is It speaking."

43. Gambling town near Tahoe: RENO.

45. One of eight on an octopus: ARM.

47. Supple: LITHE.

49. [Theme clue]

53. Nonprofit journalism agcy.: AP NEWS.  The Associated Press is a not-for-profit agency headquartered in New York City.  It operates as a cooperative association, producing news reports distributed to its members, which include newspapers and radio and TV broadcasters.

54. Most civil: POLITEST.  Two syllable adjectives usually take "most" in the superlative -- i.e. MOST POLITE -- but POLITEST appears to be blessed by Merriam-Webster.  They like "civilest," too!

58. Rotten: BAD.  POLITEST isn't the BADDEST word we've seen in a grid.

59. 20-vol. lexicon: OED.  I wonder what the Oxford English Dictionary says about POLITEST?  I don't have an online subscription and can't tell.  Long ago, I owned the two volume, micro print edition that came with a big magnifying glass.  I sometimes miss that set.

61. Karate rank: DAN.  Kyu ranks are student level, and the belts are various colors.  Dan ranks are all black belts, and are refined by: 1st Dan (Shodan): Junior black belt; 2nd Dan (Nidan): Second-degree black belt; 3rd Dan (Sandan): Third-degree black belt; 4th to 10th Dan (Yondan to Judan): High-level expert and master ranks.

62. Dallas City Hall architect I.M. __: PEI.  I. M. Pei (1917-2019) was born in China and moved to the United States to attend college.  He became a highly productive and distinguished modern architect with major buildings in the United States and abroad.  Unfortunately, Dallas City Hall, opened in 1978, is under consideration for demolition due to the high cost of deferred maintenance.   

Dallas City Hall

63. [Theme clue]

67. Enter a race: RUN.

68. Benefit: GAIN.

69. Baking tool with holes: SIEVE.  This simple mesh tool helps break up lumps in flour.

sieve

70. Actress Adams of "The Muppets": AMY.  Amy Adams achieved stardom in 2007's Enchanted, and went on to act in many more films and plays, portraying Lois Lane in DC Extended Universe superhero movies.  She played a primary school teacher in The Muppets (2011).

I remember being Enchanted by the 2007 film.

71. Fairy tale opening: ONCE.

72. [Theme clue]

Down:

1. "I do" location: ALTAR.

2. Card with two pips: DEUCE.  A playing card with two pips has the value of two and is called a deuce, from the French "deux" which comes from the Latin "duo."

Deuces

3. "Knives Out" protagonist: MARTA.  In the 2019 film Knives Out, Ana de Armas plays Marta Cabrera, the nurse of a wealthy mystery novelist who dies under suspicious circumstances on the night of his big birthday party.

Stunning beauty as plain Jane.

4. "Grody!": ICK.  Oh, didn't we love the word "grody" in the 1980s!  It is said to have started in 1960s surf culture as a clipped form of "grotesque," and then surged in pop culture thanks to Moon Unit Zappa's 1982 song "Valley Girl."  Immortal words from that track:

Like, my mother, like, makes me do the dishes

It's, like, so gross, like, all the stuff, like, sticks to the plates

And it's like, it's like somebody else's food, y'know

It's like grody, grody to the max

I'm sure, it's, like, really nauseating

Like, barf out

Gag me with a spoon, gross

I am sure, totally

5. Hitchcock film with nonhuman villains: THE BIRDS.  Things that terrified audiences in 1963 seem tame today.

Tippi Hedren in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds

6. Capital of Cuba: HAVANA.

7. Columbus sch.: OSU.  Ohio State University.

8. Untamed: WILD.

9. Penalties for missing due dates: LATE FEES.  From library books to credit card payments, you've got to pay on time to avoid late fees.  They encourage us to act in a timely manner.

10. __ favor: "please," in Spanish: POR.  The English "please" comes from Latin placere, to be acceptable -- e.g. "if it please you" -- while the Spanish "por favor" means "by way of a favor."

11. Indulged too much: OVERDID IT.  And this is how we learn our limits.

You can only party so hearty.

12. May, in June: LAST MONTH.

17. Bear who steals "pic-a-nic" baskets: YOGI.  The animated Yogi Bear was introduced as a supporting character on The Huckleberry Hound Show in 1958, and got his own show in 1961.  

18. __ Eats: DoorDash rival: UBER.  Food delivery services that boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic and have remained popular.

23. Upper house of Congress: SENATE.

25. Cell service initials: LTE.  Long Term Evolution is a standard for wireless communication for cellular devices.

26. High-end camera, for short: SLR.  A single-lens reflex camera uses a mirror and prism system to allow photographers to view through the lens and see what will be captured.  These days, mirrorless cameras are higher-end than SLRs.

28. Language ending: ESE.  Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese ... English sometimes adds "ese" to a place name, based on the Latin "ensis," "belonging to a place."   We use these forms to refer not just to the language of a place, but also to the people who live there.

30. Large cask: VAT.

31. Running tally of drinks at a pub: BAR TAB.

32. Pharaoh played by Elizabeth Taylor: CLEOPATRA.  Cleopatra was the last pharoah of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt.  With her death, Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire.

Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra

33. Puzzle: CONUNDRUM.

38. Collects $200 in Monopoly: PASSES GO.  Parker Brothers published the first edition of this board game in 1935.

39. Class with easels: ART.

41. Least fancy: PLAINEST.

44. Valuable excavation find: ORE.

46. Team VIP: MVP.  One very important person on a team is the most valuable player.

48. Real or ideal suffix: IST.

50. Cry of victory: I WON.

51. Antiseptic fluid: IODINE.

52. Czech or Pole: SLAV.  Slavs are defined as groups of people who speak Slavic languages.  The three groups of present-day Slavs include: 

- West Slavs (Czechs, Kashubians, Moravians, Poles, Silesians, Slovaks, and Sorbs);

- East Slavs (Belarusians, Russians, Rusyns, and Ukrainians);

- South Slavs (Bosniaks, Bulgarians, Croats, Gorani, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Pomaks, Serbs, Slovenes and Torbeši).

Did you Czech the list for Poles? 

55. Olympic swords: ÉPÉES.  Olympic fencing uses three types of sword:  the épée, the foil, and the sabre.  Of these, the épée is the largest and heaviest.  Épée and foil are “point thrusting” weapons, while the sabre can both thrust and slash with its blade edge.

Olympic swords and their target areas

56. Start a tennis rally: SERVE.

57. Neighbor of Nepal: TIBET.

60. Gorilla researcher Fossey: DIAN.  American primatologist Dian Fossey devoted her life to the study and conservation of mountain gorillas in Rwanda from 1966 until she was murdered in 1985.

Dian Fossey

64. Indefinite amount: ANY.

65. Nervous twitch: TIC.

66. "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" aunt, familiarly: VIV.  Vivian Banks was portrayed by Janet Hubert from 1990 to 1993, and then by Daphne Maxwell Reid from 1993 to 1996.

Will Smith and Janet Hubert on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Here's the grid:

Solvers,

I'll ADMIT to a few names I could not have filled without the help of perpendicular entries:  the Smitten Kitchen blogger DEB Perelman; "The Incredibles" supersuit designer EDNA Mode; "Knives Out" protagonist MARTA Cabrera, and "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" aunt VIV.  The karate rank DAN was also unfamiliar.  But I WON because the "perps" were fair!  

How about you?  Did you think this puzzle was for THE BIRDS?  Or were you WILD about it?

Tell us in your PLAINEST yet POLITEST words in the comments!

-- NaomiZ