Monday, July 6, 2026, Katie Hale

Theme:  Gravity brings me down!

Katie Hale, assistant crossword editor of the Los Angeles Times and today's constructor, starts the week on a grounded note, with a very down-to-earth puzzle.  The big reveal of the theme occurs here:

54-Across. Fashion house release with autumnal colors, or what the ends of 20-, 34-, and 41-Across are: FALL COLLECTION.  This reviewer is familiar with the cycle of seasonal fashion collections, but the answers referenced here contain a collection of synonyms for a different kind of FALL -- the kind where you plummet to earth.

20-Across. Official clearance to miss class: PERMISSION SLIP.  I remember needing this type of note from the teacher if I had to be in the hallway after the bell rang.  But like so many words in English, SLIP has another meaning -- it's a synonym for FALL.

34-Across. Perform dramatic flips down a sprung track: POWER TUMBLE.  A sprung track is an elevated runway with flexible fiberglass rods or steel springs beneath a padded surface to provide the rebound necessary for the multiple high-speed flips and twists of power tumbling.  (Congrats if you knew this!)  And TUMBLE is another synonym for FALL.

41-Across. Outdoor family getaway: CAMPING TRIP.  I don't go camping with my mom anymore, but I did make a TRIP to the ER with her a couple of weeks ago when she TRIPped.  You will have noticed that TRIP is another synonym for FALL.

As we get older, FALLing is our Kryptonite.  Steady on your feet, there, Solvers!  Let's make our way carefully through the rest of the clues and answers.

Across:

1. Stylish and classy: CHIC.

5. Olivia Rodrigo album with the hit "Vampire": GUTS.  If you say so!  Solved with perps (perpendicular entries).  Here's the official video (with some language not for kids):

9. PD boss: SARGE.  A Sergeant (SARGE) supervises Detectives and Uniformed Officers, but ranks beneath a Lieutenant, Captain, Commander, Deputy Chief (or Assistant Chief), and the Chief of Police.  Your Police Department may vary.

14. Nike's Swoosh, for one: LOGO.

15. Fairy tale brute: OGRE.

16. "Stop the launch!": ABORT.

17. Wall St. investment opportunities: IPOS.  Initial Public Offerings.  These are the moments when private companies transition to publicly traded entities by selling shares on a public stock exchange.  This is also when early investors in the private companies can recoup their money and get out.

18. "The Keep" novelist Jennifer: EGAN.  Ms Egan's 2006 gothic horror thriller was a national bestseller.

19. Makers of mysterious footprints in the Himalayas: YETIS.  You remember Yeti; he's the Himalyan counterpart of our North American Bigfoot (AKA Sasquatch).

Yeti and Bigfoot

20. [Theme clue]

23. Little hellion: IMP.

24. Basketball three-pointer: TREY.  "Trey" is basketball slang for a three-point shot.

25. Happens: OCCURS.  Stuff occurs.

28. "As you wish": SO BE IT.

33. NHL great Bobby: ORR.  A retired champion of the National Hockey League, who is still a favorite in crossword grids.

Bobby Orr, 1970

34. [Theme clue]

37. CBS military law drama: NCIS.   This series portrays a fictional team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.  I delegate the watching thereof to DH.

39. Small battery size: AAA.

40. Nintendo consoles with balance boards: WIIS.

Life is but a dream ... or a video game.

41. [Theme clue]

46. Actress Dennings: KAT.  Kat Dennings is an American actress known for her starring roles as Max Black in the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls (2011–2017) and as Darcy Lewis in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film and television franchise beginning with Thor (2011).

Kat Dennings in 2 Broke Girls

47. Madrid's nación: ESPAÑA.

Madrid is magnificent.

48. Happened after: ENSUED.

50. Boast: BRAG.

53. Bowling pin count: TEN.

54. [Theme clue]

61. Amazon basin bean: CACAO.

Cacao pods and beans

62. Trash: RUIN.  As a verb, "trash" means to throw away, destroy, or severely criticize something.  DH and I once suffered through a night in Reno when the hotel guests in the room next to ours trashed the place, and security personnel seemed loathe to interfere.  Staff members were removing broken furniture from that room when we ventured out in the morning.

63. Org. with a "Know Your Rights" handbook: ACLU.  The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the U.S. constitution.

64. Opener: INTRO.

65. __ off: angry: TEED.  Everyone seems to agree that this expression came from golf, but it's hard to understand how.  The nearest I can come is that when you take a hard swing at someone or something -- even if you use your words! -- you're pretty angy.

66. Bog material: PEAT.  A bog is a wetland where partially decayed plant matter accumulates over thousands of years, forming PEAT.  The water in a bog comes almost entirely from rainfall, and is acidic.  Specialized plants thrive in the low oxygen bog, and their remains trap vast amounts of carbon, helping to regulate the global climate.  Ireland has famously harvested peat for a centuries as an energy source, but is now closing its commercial peat bog operations to slow climate change.

Soaring oil prices have contributed to individuals harvesting peat, 
even while commercial operations are closed by the government.

67. Black tea variety: ASSAM.

68. Puts in: ADDS.

69. Ice cream brand: EDY'S.  We never see EDY'S in L.A.  The same company is called Dreyer's here.

Down:

1. Trim, as fingernails: CLIP.

2. "Fingers crossed" feeling: HOPE.

3. "The Rite of Spring" composer Stravinsky: IGOR.  Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) was a composer and conductor.  His ballet "The Rite of Spring" caused a near-riot at its Paris premiere in 1913 due to its modernist music and choreography.

Igor Stravinsky

4. Astronomical: COSMIC.

5. Becomes a paid athlete: GOES PRO.

6. Fluffy winter boots: UGGS.  "Ugg boots" have a long history in Australia, and have been commercially manufactured there since the 1930s, but the UGG brand was founded in Santa Monica, California in 1978 and primarily marketed to surfers, who were the main users of ugg boots in Australia. I bought Darling Daughter's first pair in a surf shop in L.A. -- but I did once visit New Jersey and see groups of tween girls wearing them in the mall in the winter.

UGG boots in their natural habitat

7. Characteristic: TRAIT.

8. Mister, in 47-Across: SEÑOR.

9. "Well, that's not what I think": SAYS YOU.

10. Eve's second son: ABEL.  

Abel and Cain

11. Indian flatbread: ROTI.

12. Customizable part of a tennis racket: GRIP.

13. Non-earthlings, for short: ETS.  Extraterrestrials.

21. Post-alarm utterance: I'M UP.

22. Wasp's home: NEST.

25. Two-tone ocean predators: ORCAS.

26. Pinch closed, as pie crust: CRIMP.

Basic crimping technique

27. __ bag: party favors: SWAG.

29. Audi competitor: BMW.

30. Chargeable transport: E-BIKE.

31. Homeric saga about the Trojan War: ILIAD.

32. Evaluate: TEST.

33. "In the past ... ": ONCE.

35. Have dinner: EAT.

36. Not often seen: RARE.

38. Mud wrap venue: SPA.

42. Like a flower garden during spring: IN BLOOM.

43. Drug cop: NARC.  Narcotics officer.  Baby boomers also used NARC as a verb meaning to snitch on someone, especially in regard to drug use.

The tee shirt says "Don't be a narc."

44. Means (to): INTENDS.

45. Fraction of a min.: PSEC.  A picosecond is a unit of time equal to one trillionth of a second.  

49. Take off a certain adhesive: UNTAPE.

51. Major artery: AORTA.

52. Put on a certain adhesive: GLUED.

54. Ardent supporters: FANS.

55. Performs in a play: ACTS.

56. Video game archaeologist Croft: LARA.  Lara Croft is the main protagonist of the video game franchise Tomb Raider.  She made the leap to film in 2001, portrayed by Angelina Jolie.

Lara Croft as she appears in the video games

57. Wasn't honest: LIED.

58. Frosted, as a cake: ICED.

59. Regenerist brand: OLAY.

Being a woman requires specialized lotions for various body parts.

60. Snack bowl filler: NUTS.

61. Spy org.: CIA.

Here's the grid:

Solvers,

I DNK (did not know) "The Keep" novelist Jennifer EGAN, the basketball three-pointer TREY, what a sprung track is or the POWER TUMBLE that takes place thereon, or actress KAT Dennings, even though I've covered her in a previous blog post.  I found the middle east block pretty tough, where TUMBLE and KAT both lived.  I'd say that Katie's puzzle was challenging for a Monday!  On the other hand, I FIR (finished it right), thanks to perps (perpendicular entries) and the occasional WAG (wild ass guess). 

How about you?  Were you FANS of this puzzle?  Were you NUTS about it?

Or did you go down to RUIN and defeat, and get TEED off by the exercise?

BRAG about it in the comments!

-- NaomiZ