Thursday November 12, 2026 Chris Gross & Zhouqin Burnikel

It is my pleasure to review this duet from two of our own, Chris Gross and Zhouqin Burnikel, better known around here as Chairman Moe and C.C. Our hostess is very generous with her talents, and has constructed numerous puzzles with folks from the Corner, including myself. Chris often works solo, and his crosswords have appeared in several major publications. Together, they are a formidable team.

The revealer tells all:

37. With 40-Across, salad staple, or what a black square creates in rows 3, 5, 11, and 13 of this puzzle?: CHOPPED ⬛ LETTUCE. Hidden inside each of four pairs of theme answers are the names of common LETTUCE varieties, "CHOPPED" (BISECTed!) by a black square. Thursday appropriate with no circles - thanks, guys!

With what are essentially five grid-spanners, it chopped up the rest of the fill into small pieces. I guess that's the price you pay for going green. Sometimes when we get a puzzle such as this, the theme is only realized after the fact. This time, however, it helped with the solve. I temporarily skipped the GOBI part of ALOO GOBI, but when I filled in BBC ONE, I saw the double Bs. Theme to the rescue, I divined BIBB and back-tracked for the win. Good fun.

Lettuce not delay endive right in. Chop-chop! The rest will make your head spin. 

Across:

1. Snatch suddenly: GRAB.

5. Spot protected by a sun hat: NAPE. 

9. Coding shortcut: MACRO. A MACRO is a saved sequence of commands or keystrokes that can be played back with a single trigger to automate repetitive tasks.

14. Home of the "American Gothic" house: IOWA. Grant Wood's 1930 painting depicts an IOWA farmer and his daughter standing before a house with a Gothic-arched window. Because the expression on their faces is emotionless and severe, viewers can never quite tell if Wood is celebrating these rural figures or quietly mocking their lifestyle. This ambiguity has made it iconic (and won the artist a $300 prize).

Wood used his sister and his dentist as models.

15. Woes: ILLS.

16. Filmmaker Coen: ETHAN. ETHAN, along with his brother Joel, have written, directed and produced such classics as Fargo and The Big Lebowski.

ETHAN (left) and Joel Coen winning Oscars for No Country for Old Men in 2008

17. First experience with screen sharing?: FILM DEBUT. 1st half of BUTTER lettuce. Fun clue. The Coen brother's FILM DEBUT was Blood Simple in 1984.

19. Semesters and quarters: TERMS. 

20. Turned into: BECAME. My youngest son BECAME an amateur magician (true!). He once turned my car into a driveway (sorta true!).

21. Multnomah Falls st.: ORE. On one of our family jaunts to the Pacific Northwest (our son lives in Seattle), we climbed to the top of Multnomah Falls in Oregon. Our reward was spectacular views of the Columbia River Gorge just east of Portland. The pedestrian bridge in the background is about halfway up.

The hat looks like it's keeping my brain from getting rusty!

22. Heads or tails, e.g.: CHOICE. 1st half of ICEBERG lettuce.

25. Citrus flavor in Earl Grey tea: BERGAMOT. Not my cup of tea, but learning new things is one reason I love crosswords (as long as they're fairly crossed as here). A BERGAMONT orange is a fragrant, natural hybrid of sour orange and lemon. 

29. Owns: HAS. We own mango and avocado trees, but have no oranges. 

30. GPS heading: SSE. South-SouthEast is a random compass point, yes, but preferable the direction between two unknown places, such as from Springfield to Centerville.

32. Encouraged: URGED.

33. Writer/actress Rae: ISSA. Additionally, ISSA Rae is an advocate for civil rights and women's rights movements. She's been listed twice in the annual Time list of the most influential people in the world.

35. World's largest peninsula: ARABIA.

37. [theme]

40. [theme]

44. Cut in half: BISECT.

46. One-named New Age singer: ENYA. She's a popular gal in xword land. With 80 million records sold, she's also popular with everyone else. That's why she can live in a castle.

ENYA's Manderley Castle near Dublin, Ireland

47. Guarded areas in soccer: SHINS. Winner: Best Clue. 🏆

49. Condo management gp.: HOA. Home Owner's Association aka "Condo Commandos."

51. German article for neuter nouns: DAS. Equivalent to "the" in English.

52. Curry dish with potatoes and cauliflower: ALOO GOBI. 1st half of BIBB lettuce. ALOO GOBI  is a simple Indian vegetarian dish made with potatoes (aloo) and cauliflower (gobi), along with spices and herbs.

54. The U.K.'s oldest TV network: BBC ONE. The flagship channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation. 

57. Ballerina's hairdo: BUN. They wear their hair in a BUN for safety, balance and unobstructed vision. The identical hairstyles also keep the audience's eye focused on group symmetry rather than individual distractions.

58. Venue for shucked oysters: RAW BAR. As you'd expect, there are some great ones on the water down here in South Florida. 

The ever-popular Southport Raw Bar in Fort Lauderdale.

60. Scent: AROMA. 1st half of ROMAINE lettuce.

63. Comment after a big meal, perhaps: I NEED A NAP. Especially on Thanksgiving in a few weeks!

67. Small bouquet: SPRAY. Now available in cans*.

* not recommended for prom dates.

68. Site for artisans: ETSY.

69. Common mixer: COLA.

70. Shiitake Happens nail polish brand: ESSIE.

It'll make your nails look like shiitake!

71. Suits: FITS. This clue gave me FITS!

72. Understood: KNEW. But this one I KNEW. 

Down:

1. Animated pic: GIF. Graphics Interchange Format for short, looping animations. I was thinking CEL. 

2. King, in Marseille: ROI. Return On Investment? It's good to be the king! Unless you're in France, that is.

3. Tool used in manual lockstitch sewing: AWL. The lockstitch sewing manual says, "AWLways use the pointy end."

4. Thumper's deer friend: BAMBI. Punny clue!

Thumper with his "dear" friend Bambi.

5. Some reunion attendees: NIECES.

6. Jessica of "Machete": ALBA. Jessica is an actress, entrepreneur, and advocate for health and wellness.

7. Pipe pro: PLUMBER. Nice alliteration.

8. Cosmetician Lauder: ESTEE. ESTÉE and her husband Joseph founded the beauty company in 1946.

9. Sat: MET. I needed to add "with" to figure this one out. Sat with or MET with. 

10. Put away: ATE.

11. Safari alternative: CHROME. Two popular web browsers.

12. Muzzle-loading aid: RAMROD. During the American Civil War, well-trained infantrymen using standard muzzle-loading rifles were expected to complete a full loading and firing cycle in 15 or 20 seconds. That's amazingly quick for a soldier under fire.

13. First wave: ONSET.

18. Mo. for Advent calendars: DEC. Advent calendars count down the days of December leading up to Christmas. They often have little doors that are opened each day to reveal a surprise.

I'm starting my Santa wish list early...

22. In vogue: CHIC.

23. Resolve, with "out": HASH.

24. __ buco: OSSO. An Italian dish traditionally made with veal shank.

26. __ Goldberg machine: RUBE. RUBE Goldberg was American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor. He created drawings of complicated gadgets performing simple tasks in convoluted ways.

Here's his pencil sharpener.

27. Tenacious quality: GRIT. It's true!

28. Banded rock: AGATE. Rock band: AGATE.

AGATE is a progressive rock band from Norway.

31. One-named smooth jazz singer: SADE. The Nigerian singer/songwriter is one of the most successful British female artists in history.

SADE proved to be a Smooth Operator with this hit release in 1984.

34. HS class covering genetics: AP BIO. A high school Advanced Placement Biology class.

36. Silicon Valley city Palo __: ALTO.

38. Signal: PING. A PING is a notification in chat platforms. It's also a test signal sent by a computer network to an individual computer.

39. Canadian gas brand: ESSO. The regional name derived from S.O., the initials for Standard Oil, following the 1911 U.S. Supreme Court breakup of John D. Rockefeller's monopoly.

They now call it Exxon, but it's still the same old gas.

41. Walk back: UNDO.

42. One shade in the CMYK color model: CYAN. CYAN, Magenta, Yellow and Key (a term used for the black plate in traditional printing).

43. Lack of difficulty: EASE.

45. Tuscan red: CHIANTI. As we learned last week, CHIANTI is made from Sangiovese grapes. 

47. Noisily enjoys soup, say: SLURPS. It's also a great way to eat oysters at a RAW BAR.

Some add a drop of lemon juice and a dash Tabasco. 

48. Pays tribute to: HONORS.

50. Homes for brothers or sisters: ABBEYS.

52. Cut down to size: ABASE.

53. To the point: BRIEF. This is a terse answer.

55. Like moldy food: BAD. Try these sandwich bags if someone is stealing your lunch at work!

56. Sound from a bat: CRACK. Sound from my bat: WHIFF.

59. Dominic of "The Wire": WEST. Dominic is an English actor, director, producer, and musician.

As Detective Jimmy McNulty in HBO's The Wire

61. Juin preceder: MAI. May and June in Marseille.

62. "Yes, sailor!": AYE. "Hello, sailor...": EYE.

64. Persona __ grata: NON.

65. Taproom pour: ALE. 

66. Bear hand: PAW. Another fun clue.

Thanks to Chairman Moe and C.C. for their soulful ballad. I mean bowlful salad!

Be good. RB

Wednesday, November 11, 2026, Robbie Cottom

  Theme: Southbound.

The reveal:

11 Down. Following the path of a snowbird, perhaps, or what the answers to the starred clues are, in two ways: SOUTHBOUND.

Obligatory musical interlude...

CrossEyedDave here,  I found the puzzle fairly simple, with one speed bump. (See 38 across). But having this visual impediment (I.E.: Mentally CrossEyed...) I find I have great difficulty in visualizing vertical crossword answers. So, when the reveal stated, Southbound "in two ways," I was very much relieved to think, "oh, that's easy! the theme answers are vertical, starting at the top, and heading South!" But when it came time to explain the second way they were Southbound, I was completely dumbfounded... yes I could see they all started with S, and ended with TH, but there wasn't a complete, or even repeating partial southbound anywhere... so eventually, I texted my family, thinking, one of the four must see what's going on here.

This was their response...

So in desperation, I texted CC for help. She responded with, "In the 4 Down slots, SOUTH bookends each theme entry. so they are bound by SOUTH. This is also a 16x15 grid, so it has 81 words." 

Well, I would have seen the grid size eventually, and even the 17 three letter words. But I still think horizontally, and bookends surround books in a shelf, so I went looking in the wrong direction,

Text #2: um, I still don't get it..,

So here is the explanation, direct from C.C. herself:

"The middle one has 16 letters, that's why this grid is a 16x15 grid. Each theme entry has S*OUTH or SOU*TH pattern. So  each theme entry is bound by SOUTH. And the theme entries are placed in the down slots for visual effects."

4 Down. *Manhattan Ingredient. SWEET VERMOUTH.

7 Down. *Personal asset during a crisis: SOURCE OF STRENGTH.

23 Down. *"Zip it!": SHUT YOUR MOUTH.

36 Down. *Recording studio space: SOUND BOOTH.

Personally, I think it was that there were no continuous or repeating SOUTHs that made it invisible to me. And I am hoping that I am not the only one that had so much trouble as I did in visualizing this.

So, to borrow from 56 down, and sum this up, SOUTH bounds (or bookends) each theme answer by (one) S*OUTH, or (two) SOU*TH.

But hey, wait a sec,, if you include my original guess being vertically read in its entirety from top to bottom as being read southbound, WOULDN'T THAT BE THREE WAYS???

Oh well, onward! (Or should I say Southbound....)

Across:
1. Draconian: HARSH. (Sorry,  nothing funny about this...)

6. Yoga pose: ASANA. 

11. With 73-Across, semiaquatic mammal that uses rocks as tools: SEA.

Who, me?

14. Gawking, perhaps: IN AWE.

12 minutes of this, but very funny Sulu bit near end.

15. Spy's assumed identity: COVER.

16. Bozo: OAF.

17. New York City's "Crossroads of the World": TIMES SQUARE.

Having lived in NYC, I would avoid this like the plague.

19. G7 member: USA.

20. "Gotcha": I SEE.

21. Belonging to us: OUR.

22. With less delay: FASTER. When one of my Daughters was in Grammer School, some one got the bright idea to put in speed bumps all through the pick up area. Well meaning, but not thought thru. They were 2 inch by 2 inch strips, hard plastic. So I told the Principal they were incredibly uncomfortable to crawl over, but no problem of you drive really fast... (they were gone the next day.) kind of redundant since the pick up area was a square of 90 degree turns.

24. Camping shelter: TENT.

25. "I like it!": NICE.

27. Sibilant "Zip it!": SHH.

28. Most expansive: VASTEST.

6 hours of aerial panoramas for your viewing pleasure.

31. Ultra-: UBER.Ubers who pimped their rides...

34. "Booped" body parts: NOSES. Normally, I would post a cute "Dog" video here. But things have a habit of winding up backwards... I am reminded of the (irreverent) movie Dogma, where God, (played by Alanis Morrisette) when asked "why are we here," simply "boops" the questioner on the nose.

It has an all star cast!

The entire movie is now available on YouTube, free with Ads.

Do not watch if you don't want to be "booped."

37. Not bad, not great: SO SO.

38. Zipped along: TORE. I automatically inked "sped" before erasing it for "tore." (My speed bump.) Crosswordese #3,141 - you will not trip me up again... (wait, is that Pi? Ack! It goes on forever!)

39. Unprincipled: AMORAL.

41. Sworn enemy: FOE.

42. Glamping shelter: YURT. I have followed Girl in the Woods for about ten years now. If you don't know what to cook in the woods, check out her month long cook in the woods challenge, where she went out every day in February, and showed how to cook a different meal every day! 28 days, 28 meals!

Of course, with age, sleeping in a makeshift wooden shelter with your dog can get a little tiresome...

43. "The Wizard of Oz" creator: BAUM. L. Frank Baum

44. Meditation sounds: OMS. Why Om, and not some other sound...

46. With less delay: SOONER.

48. Cry of dismay: OH NO.

49. Solemn vow: OATH.

51. Red in the face: RUDDY.

52. Singer Erykah known as the "Queen of Neo-Soul": BADU. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  Follow this link for more info...

53. Seattle MLB player: MARINER. Major League Baseball.

55. "Mic Drop" K-pop band: BTS. Learning experience: What BTS stands for...

57. Ultra-: MEGA.

58. Office dispatch: MEMO. 

62. Greeting between dudes: BRO HUG. Just be sure your Manssiers dont get in the way...

65. British medical sys.: NHS. National Health Service.

66. Patron saint of Norway: OLAV. Believe it or not, both Olaf, and Olav are acceptable spellings.

67. "The Bear" Emmy winner Edebiri: AYO. 

You may know her as "this character..."

68. Engineer from a Cambridge sch., e.g.: MIT GRADUATE.  Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

71. Airport arrival: JET. 

The First One?

72. Come together: UNITE.

73. See 11-Across: OTTER. 

74. Barbecue residue: ASH. 

75. Long and winding roads, e.g.: PATHS.

76. Trunk: CHEST.

Down:
1. "Let's rock!": HIT IT.

2. Carrot family plant: ANISE.

3. Instant noodles option: RAMEN.

4. [theme]

5. Chaps: HE'S.

6. Finds not guilty: ACQUITS. 

7. [Theme.]

8. "Selma" director DuVernay: AVA. More info here...

9. Brand of spongy toys: NERF.

10. Spaces: AREAS. Meh?

11. [Theme Reveal]

12. Slide (into): EASE.

13. Way out there: AFAR. 

18. Family boys: SONS.

23. [Theme]

26. Petro-Canada rival: ESSO.

29. Quick __ wink: AS A.

30. Small digits: TOES. (Not ones...)

32. Made a mistake: ERRED.

33. Second attempt: RETRY.

34. Big shot: NABOB. One definition: 

Another definition...

35. Nebraska home of the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium: OMAHA.

36. [Theme]

40. Weaving machine: LOOM. 

45. Title of respect: MA'AM. (If you want to use respect, you must include the apostrophe.)

47. Metal-bearing material: ORE.

50. Like some screens, for short: HIGH RES. (high Resolution.)

54. Mars rover org.: NASA.

56. Provide an overview: SUM UP.

59. Exhilarate: ELATE. 

Elate = you missed your Zoom meeting...

60. Partners: MATES.  (Unless you are Co-Owners in a business...)

61. For all to see: OVERT. 

62. __ Fresh: Tex-Mex chain: BAJA.

63. Marbled loaves: RYES. 

Catcher in the Rye?

64. Actress Lollobrigida: GINA. Images:

69. __ for tat: TIT.

70. "What's up, __?": DOC.

Bugs Bunny Southbound...

The 15x16 Grid

CE:D down and out...

Tuesday, November 10, 2026 Joe Marquez

What, me worry?  The profession in each theme clue has a major worry, which is explained in the answer.

19-Across. Worry for a campaign manager?: PRIMARY CONCERN.  Thank goodness the election is over and we don't have to worry about the next primaries for another year or so.

25-Across. Worry for a stunt performer?: DOUBLE TROUBLE.

43-Across. Worry for a winemaker?: PRESSING ISSUE.

52-Across. Worry for a dry cleaner?: DELICATE MATTER.

Here's the Grid:

What other concerns can be found in today's puzzle?

Across:

1. Largest of the Three Bears: PAPA.

5. Golf ball prop: TEE.

8. Moon's path: ORBIT.

13. Last (and next) U.S. state to host the Winter Olympics: UTAH.  The Winter Olympics were last held in Utah in 2002.  The games will return to Utah in 2034.  I'll probably be too old by then to compete in the down hill racing.  At least, that's my excuse.

14. Drive-__ window: THRU.

15. "Still Alice" Oscar winner Julianne: MOORE.  Julianne Moore (née Julie Anne Smith; b. Dec. 3, 1960) is a talented actress.  She made many independent films in the 1990s.  Still Alice was a 2914 film about a professor, played by Julianne Moore, who developed Alzheimer's disease.

16. Lacking color: PALE.

17. Name in a will: HEIR.  Technically speaking, one is not an heir while the donor is still alive.  An heir is specifically a person legally entitled to inherit from someone after they have died

18. Physicist Newton: ISAAC.  That's Sir Isaac Newton (Jan. 4, 1643 ~ Mar. 31, 1727) to you.

22. __ and yang: YIN.

23. Day on Mars: SOL.  For a detailed explanation of what this means, check out this site.

24. "Your Song" singer Rita: ORA.  Rita Ora (née Rita Sahatçiu Ora; b. Nov. 26, 1990) makes frequent guest appearances in the puzzles.  She is a British singer.  She was born in Pristina, Yugoslavia (present-day Kosovo), but her family moved to England when she was just an infant.

32. Quibbles: CARPS.

34. Gradually withdraw: WEAN.

35. AirPod holder: EAR.

36. Universal modes of transport?: UFOs.

37. Trojan War epic by Homer: ILIAD.  Hand up if you have read The Iliad in the original Greek.  

39. Tex-Mex snack: TACO.  Yummers!

40. Froot Loops mascot Toucan __: SAM.

41. Actor Alda: ALAN.  Alan Alda (né Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo; b. Jan. 28, 1936) is probably best remembered for portraying Hawkeye Pierce on the long-running sit-com M*A*S*H.

42. Roof overhangs: EAVES.  At the place to hang the icicles.

47. Federal org. employing ecologists: EPA.  As in the Environmental Protection Agency.

48. Feline: CAT.  As if I needed an excuse to post a cat cartoon ...

49. "Notorious" SCOTUS justice: RBG.  Ruth Bader Ginsburg (née Joan Ruth Bader; b. Mar. 15, 1933 ~ Sept. 18, 2020) became known as Notorious RGB due to her many scathing dissenting opinions.

57. Taylor Swift album with the hit "Cruel Summer": LOVER.

58. Grumpy sort: CRAB.

59. Source of misery: BANE.

60. Pie serving: SLICE.

61. Enormous: MEGA.

62. Web developer's creation: SITE.

63. Shoulder muscles, briefly: DELTS.  Short for Deltoid muscles.

64. PC file suffix: EXE.

65. Walk heavily: PLOD.

Down:

1. Young dog: PUPPY.

2. Video game pioneer: ATARI.  Atari has been around since the early 1970's.   The name Atari comes from a term in the board game Go. 

3. Eve, but not Adam: PALINDROME.  However, Madam, I am Adam is a palindrome.

4. "Beg pardon": AHEM.

5. "__ Never Catch Us": Jessica Goodman bestseller: THEY'LL.  They'll Never Catch Us is a young adult thriller.

6. Actor Stoltz: ERIC.  Eric Cameron Stoltz (b. Sept. 30, 1961) has been in many films since the 1980s. 

7. French money: EURO.  One side of the Euro coin is the "national" side and has a symbol of its country of origin.

8. Letter between xi and pi: OMICRON.  //  And 39-Down. Letter between sigma and upsilon: TAU.

9. Capital of Dominica: ROSEAU.  Dominica is an island in the Caribbean.

10. Wild hog with tusks: BOAR.

11. Tehran's country: IRAN.  I strongly recommend the book The Lion Women of Tehran, by Marjan Kamali.  A novel that follows events in Iran, from the 1953 coup, through the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and after.

12. Sleuth, in old slang: TEC.

14. Pulsate: THROB.

20. Tech giant based in Taiwan: ASUS.  I am not familiar with this company.

21. Santa-tracking org.: NORAD.

26. Photo __: some PR events: OPS.

27. Basketball Hall of Famer Patrick: EWING.  Although Patrick Aloysius Ewing (b. Aug. 5, 1962) was born in Jamaica, his family moved to Boston when he was a young child.  He was a student at Cambridge Rindge and Latin where he learned to play basketball.  He never played for the Boston Celtics, however.

28. Lipton product: TEA.

29. Canadian treat that resembles a certain animal part: BEAVERTAIL.  Hi, CanadianEh!

30. Lingerie trim: LACE.  Followed by 31-Down. Greek Cupid: EROS.

32. Turning point: CUSP.

33. Miles off: AFAR.

37. Hipbone-related: ILIAC.  Not to be confused with 37-Across.

38. PC-to-PC hookup: LAN.  As in Local Area Network.

41. Has high hopes: ASPIRES.

42. "¿Cómo está usted?": ESTA.  Today's Spanish lesson.  I am doing very well, thank you.

44. Exclusive: SELECT.

45. Stretch of glacial growth: ICE AGE.

46. Brazilian dance: SAMBA.

50. Japanese box lunch: BENTO.

51. Avarice: GREED.

52. Mete (out): DOLE.

53. Like Doctor Doom: EVIL.  A reference to one of the supervillains in Marvel Comics history.

54. Pinnacle: ACME.

55. Sue at Chicago's Field Museum, e.g.: T-REX.  Sue the Tyrannosaurus rex is at the Field Museum in Chicago.  The dino skeleton was found in South Dakota by Susan Hendrickson in 1990. 

56. Baking amt.: TBSP.  As in a Tablespoon.

57. 1960s hallucinogen, for short: LSD.

חתולה

 

 

 

Notes from C.C.:

Happy 80th birthday to Husker Gary's wife Joann and her twin sister Joyce! Here's a lovely picture of them with their mom Martha, who passed away in 2023 at the age of 100.

Gary and Joann had to say goodbye to their beloved cat Lily on Sunday. Such a sad time for them. Hope all the happy memories of Lily bring them some comfort.