Thursday August 20, 2026 Jeffrey Wechsler

Jeffrey Wechsler, my old friend, we meet again. His puzzles always land on Thursdays, once a month like clockwork. This is his fourth since April! I don't know why, but I suspect he likes my reviews. 😍

No reveal today, just a bunch of hard clues.

17. Hard stuff in rings: NATURAL DIAMONDS. Not just "hard stuff", but the hardest stuff!

26. Hard stuff in school: ROCKET SCIENCE. Just as hard as brain surgery, apparently.

40. Hard stuff in a bar: ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. Made from hard liquor.

60. Hard stuff for a sweet tooth: JAWBREAKER CANDY. They're hard as a rock. I haven't had one in years, but my jaw aches just thinking about them.

Jeffrey knows how to make a puzzle. He often creates unique grid designs, like this one, with mirror symmetry and multiple grid-spanners. And some of the best cluing this side of LA.

I hope the rest aren't as hard, but I doubt it.

Across:

1. Error: MISSTEP. I wrote MISTEAK, but that was a mistake.

8. Radio static sound: CRACKLE. Occasionally, you'll also hear a Snap or Pop.

Rice Krispies Treats radio!

15. Do the same as: IMITATE.

16. Peaceful getaway spot: RETREAT.

17. [theme]

19. "You said it!": AMEN.

20. Ignited: LIT.

21. Small floral bundle: POSY.

22. Robin Hood foe: SHERIFF. As a royal officer, the SHERIFF of Nottingham viewed Robin as a threat to his authority. Robin interfered with tax collection and outwitted his attempts to capture him.

26. [theme]

32. Gets even with: REPAYS. The SHERIFF of Nottingham was frequently embarrassed by Robin's exploits, so vowed to get even with him.

33. Relativity, for one: THEORY. That's one THEORY, anyway.

35. Bucks and does: DEER. 

36. Org. that oversees food recalls: FDA. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

39. Half a sextet: TRIO. 

40. [theme]

45. Utterly exhausted: BONE-TIRED. As if your fatigue has seeped deep into your skeleton, reaching your core.

46. "How amusing": HEH. A sarcastic response to something mildly interesting. Like my review.

49. __ culpa: MEA. MEA culpa is "my fault" in Latin. 

50. Marina __ Rey, California: DEL. As the name implies, much of this town near Los Angeles is a marina.

51. Proper: APT.

54. Fuming: IRATE.

56. Nocturnal flapper: BAT. Could've been an OWL.

58. Word with circle and tube: INNER. An INNER tube is the INNER circle of a tire.

60. [theme]

63. Doesn't just assume: ASKS.

64. Licoricelike herb: ANISE. It is used in cooking and in health remedies, and may be distilled with natural spirits and sugar to produce Anisette.

65. Ore-rich vein: SEAM.

66. Appliance alert: BEEP.

67. Numbers for letters: RENTS. Great clue. Letters are renters, people who let an apartment.

68. Tollbooth pricing unit: AXLE. 

Down:

1. Sports analyst Kimes: MINA. MINA is an award-winning journalist, NFL analyst, and senior writer for ESPN.

2. Mosque leader: IMAM.

3. Place: SITE.

4. Leave speechless: STUN.

5. Fossil-preserving gunk: TAR. 

6. Unreliable stat from the fashionably late: ETA. Estimated Time of Arrival. I've instructed RightBrain to wheel my coffin in a few minutes late at my funeral. Aside from that, I have no last wishes.

7. Bit of hamster food: PELLET.

8. One who always gives star treatment?: CRITIC. Another great clue.

9. Belfast-born actor Stephen: REA. The Irish Times ranked REA the 13th greatest Irish film actor of all time.

10. Bread machine: ATM. Fun clue for an Automated Teller machine...or a toaster.

11. Trim, as a photo: CROP.

12. Casino game: KENO.

13. Boyos: LADS. Oh, boyos. I take back what I said about great cluing.

14. Marketplace with personalized gifts: ETSY.

18. NNE, SSW, etc.: DIRS. This clue is asking for DIRections.

22. Contrail location: SKY. A contrail (short for condensation trail) is a line-shaped ice cloud that forms behind jet aircraft flying at high altitudes.

Busy day near an airport with planes flying in different DIRS.

23. Bucks, but not does: HES. A pseudo-clecho of 35A.

24. In shape: FIT.

25. Dismissive syllable: FEH. FEH is a Yiddish interjection used to express disgust, contempt, disapproval, or dismissive annoyance, similar to "yuck" or "bah", which is my reaction to this answer.

26. Bit of fishing gear: REEL.

27. Well-financed gp.?: OPEC. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is financed by oil wells.

28. Chocolate substitute: CAROB.

29. Online access username within universities, briefly: NETID. This shouldn't say "briefly." NetID is the full name of this service that provides a unique digital identity to students, faculty and staff for all their campus systems.

30. Grain ground to make masa: CORN. Since masa is a dough used in Latin America, I thought this should be MAÍZ, which is Spanish for CORN.

31. "The Devil in the White City" writer Larson: ERIK. Larson's book The Devil in the White City won the 2004 Edgar Award in the Best Fact Crime category, among other awards.

32. Nutritional amt.: RDA. Recommended Dietary Allowance.

34. Casual hellos: YOS. If you meet two people, it's a YOYO.

36. Flowering plant once believed to repel pests: FLEABANE. FLEABANE is a large group of native wildflowers in the aster family. Turns out that contrary to folklore, it doesn't repel insects but actually attracts beneficial pollinators like bees and butterflies. Be gentle when you break this news to your grandma.

37. E, in Morse code: DIT. The sound of a DOT. 

38. Rigorous evaluation: ACID TEST. Ken Kesey’s psychedelic bus, immortalized in The Electric Kool-Aid ACID TEST, was in the news recently. It will be on display for the first time since the '60s as part of a Grateful Dead show at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

Furthur [sic] and the Merry Pranksters

41. Big hit at the ballpark: HOMER.

Homer Simpson

42. Unspecified person: ONE.

43. Hip-hop pioneer Dr. __: DRE. Andre Romell Young, known professionally as Dr. DRE, is a legendary producer, billionaire entrepreneur, and cultural force in hip-hop.

44. Thing of the past: RELIC.

46. Muslim headscarf: HIJAB.

47. Create a clean slate?: ERASE. Anyone remember clapping erasers after class?

48. Ethan of the "Before" trilogy: HAWKE. Ethan is an American actor, director, and writer who has worked across film, stage, and independent productions.

He's been at this for a looong time.

51. Secondary structure: ANNEX.

52. "Bike faster!": PEDAL. 

Are you pedaling back there?

53. Defiant response to a threat: TRY ME.

55. Ingredient meas.: TBSP. Tablespoon measure.

57. Similar (to): AKIN.

59. Mars rover org.: NASA. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 

61. "My conscience whispers in your __": "King John": EAR.

62. High or low follower, in graphics: RES.

Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?

Be good. RB

Thursday July 30, 2026 Jeffrey Wechsler

In keeping with MalMan's second-in-a-row from Sala and Dena yesterday, I raise him a Jeffery Wechsler. This is his third Thursday puzzle that I've reviewed. People are starting to talk! 

No reveal, just answers that start with CHE plus one letter in an alphabet run: V, W, X, Y and Z. Why CHE? Maybe Jeffrey was trying to be revolutionary! He certainly revolved through some letters.

17. Car named for a California beach city: CHEVROLET MALIBU. For a while there, Chevy named several of its models after trendy places on or near the ocean: Laguna [Beach], Biscayne [Bay], and Bel Air (upscale coastal neighborhood).

23. Carefully considering something: CHEWING IT OVER. This idiom may have derived from how farm animals like cows "ruminate" by bringing up food and chewing it a second time.

35. Cereal-based snack: CHEX MIX. An old friend in Kansas sends us a batch every Christmas so we can get our annual CHEX MIX fix. 

46. Home of the Frontier Days rodeo: CHEYENNE WYOMING. The capital city of Wyoming.

55. California restaurant opened by Alice Waters in 1971: CHEZ PANISSE. The Berkley restaurant lost it Michelin star years ago, but apparently, it's still pretty good.

The solve went smoothly with only one monkey wrench - I'm looking at you, TITI. The mirror image symmetry and extra-tall grid made for an interesting visual. Is that CHE's face?

Let's CHEck out the rest:

Across:

1. Thompson of "Creed": TESSA. She played Bianca Taylor in 3 Creed movies that spun off from the Rocky franchise.

6. One crunch, e.g.: REP. A single REPetition. 

9. Accord, for one: SEDAN. It's also available as a 2-door coupe.

14. Dined on, quaintly: ATE OF.

15. Big bird: EMU. 

16. Año Nuevo month: ENERO. ENERO is January en español, the beginning of a New Year.

17. [theme]

20. South American monkey: TITI. TIL that TITIs are small furry primates also known as "jumping monkeys" because of how the leap from branch to branch.

21. In and of itself: PER SE. I found PER SE hard to PARSE.

22. Toolbar image: ICON. Tool ICONs prior to personal computers:

23. [theme]

26. Alien-seeking field: Abbr.: SETI. The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence. They didn't find any down here, so they started looking elsewhere. 

27. Pin number?: TEN. Fun clue, as in bowling pins.

28. Loch with a legend: NESS. Lock with a legend: ELVIS. A lock from his pompadour sold for $115,000 at an auction in 2002!

29. Mach 1 breaker: SST. SuperSonic Transports are jets that exceed the speed of sound (approx. 767mph = 1 Mach).

31. Author Rand: AYN. Her novel, Atlas Shrugged, constantly ranks near the top in reader's polls. I read it but it wasn't my cup of tea.

32. Catch a few winks: NAP.

35. [theme]

39. With 59-Down, "Tommy" band: THE. THE? THE who?

42. Land measure: ACRE.

44. Strong suit?: ARMOR.

45. Due, as an apology: OWED.

46. [theme]

49. "__ hoping!": HERE'S.

50. Nav. rank: ENS. Naval ranks in xwords are always ENS (Ensign) or ADM (Admiral), which is odd because Ensigns are the lowest ranking officers in the Navy, while Admirals are the highest.

51. __-nez: PINCE. When I first start wearing reading glasses, I found them uncomfortable when using headphones. I briefly tried PINCE-nez that "pinch the nose", but they were even more annoying and kept falling off. Growing old is no fun.

Besides, I didn't look cool like Morpheus.

52. West Texas city: ODESSA.

54. Having raised surfaces, as teeth: CUSPED. Cuspids have one point (aka canine teeth) while bicuspids have two.

55. [theme]

59. "Hold your horses!": WHOA.

61. Yank at: TUG ON. How my dentist removed my bicuspid. Note to self: get better dental insurance.

62. Pet food brand: IAMS. This is as good a place as any to pander to the crowd:

Buster and his cuspids

65. Like some cheese: HARD.

66. Revise, as prose: EMEND.

67. Gumbo vegetable: OKRA.

68. Shoppe adjective: OLDE. It could've been a MALT shoppe.

69. "Mighty" batter who strikes out in a classic poem: CASEY. As a high school English project, I made an 8mm movie of this poem starring several classmates. I narrated over the edited film and got an A. Watch out Spielberg!

70. Tiny amt. of time: NSEC. A Nanosecond is one billionth of a second. In that time, light travels one foot!

Down:

 1. Social finesse: TACT. 

2. Standards of right and wrong: ETHICS. 

3. Stew: SEETHE. SEETHE seems a lot stronger than stew, but  I SEE THE ire.

4. Sputnik launchers: SOVIETS. I thought of ROCKETS at first, but dismissed it while waiting for the Russian equivalent. Turns out he wanted the people who launched it, not the vehicle.

5. Chad's continent: Abbr.: AFR. Chad, officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central AFRICA.

6. Cave: RELENT. Ah, cave as a verb, not a NOUN.

7. Come to light: EMERGE.

8. Antes up: PUTS IN. "You put your right chip in, you take your right chip out"...wait, that's Hokey Poker. 

9. Zooplankton habitat: SEA. Zooplankton are tiny, drifting animals in oceans, but they are also found in lakes and rivers.

10. Jazz up: ENLIVEN.

11. Frees of frost: DEICES. Frees of Frost: NIXON. Richard Nixon rued the day in 1977, three years after the Watergate scandal brought him down, when he selected British TV personality David Frost to conduct a series of interviews believing it will be easy to mislead Frost and rehab his image. It didn't turn out well for Tricky Dick when he publicly admitted abusing power and obstructing justice.

Frost vs. Nixon

12. Leafy retreats: ARBORS.

13. Gin or tonic: NOUN. NOUN for me, thanks. 

18. Nail polish brand: OPI. It's taken years, but I finally wrote this in without hesitation. What can I say, my brain is rusty.

19. Came together: MET. This couple MET at the Met.

24. Cheesehead's st.: WISC. Wisconsin is the largest cheese-producing state, so I guess residents there are born this way. 

25. Semiprecious stone with black-and-white bands: ONYX.

30. Holier-__-thou: THAN.

31. Well-ventilated: AIRY.

32. __ cheese: NACHO. In Wisconsin, they say, "It's NACHO cheese, it's mine." 

33. Was sore: ACHED.

34. Prepare for later broadcast: PRERECORD. 

36. Coastal raptor: ERNE.

37. Marvel Comics mutants: X-MEN. And as we've recently learned, X-Men are a cohort.

38. Does lawn work: MOWS.

39. Cult classic of 1990s TV: TWIN PEAKS. I missed this quirky crime-drama when it first aired on ABC, but have seen it since. I liked the surreal aspects of it.

40. Therefore: HENCE.

41. "O, turn thy __ sword another way; / Strike those that hurt, and hurt not those that help": "Henry VI, Part 1": EDGED. Your daily dose of Shakespeare.

43. Sun visor: EYESHADE. Turns out that OPI only makes nail shades, not eyeshades.

45. Sin of __: OMISSION. I could've done without this one.

47. To be, in Latin: ESSE.

48. Cataloged work: OPUS.

53. Pyramid builders of Mexico: AZTEC. I'm hoping to visit these or the Mayan ones this fall.

Aztec (L) and Mayan (R)

54. Supermodel Crawford: CINDY. How can it be that she just turned 60? I guess it's time to take down her poster.

Cindy with her daughter Kaia Gerber

56. Big cat: PUMA.

57. Seemingly forever: AGES. That's when Crawford first appeared on poster.

58. Zip: NONE.

59. See 39-Across: WHO. Oh, THE WHO!

60. Shakespearean prince: HAL. "I'm Henry the Fifth, but you can call me HAL." Prince HAL is William Shakespeare's dramatic name for the young Henry V of England. Not to be confused with Henry VI quoted above. 

63. Army fare, briefly: MRE. A Meal, Ready-to-Eat is a self-contained individual U.S. military ration.

64. Cul-de-__: SAC. And we've reached the end of the road.

Be good. RB

Thursday June 25, 2026 Jeffrey Wechsler

Jeffrey Wechsler is pretty sharp. He was here last month with a CORNY puzzle, but this one has more of an edge to it. CUTTING CORNERS is never a good idea, but in this case, I'll make an exception!

Always hire licensed contractors (like me)!

40A. With 42-Across, risky business practice, or what can be found in this puzzle's circles?: CUTTING CORNERS. Wrapping each of the grid's CORNERS are types of CUTTING implements: KNIFE, SNIPS, SWORD and BLADE. Circles made them easy to find.

I like that the corners are read clockwise around the grid, and that each cutter comes to a sharp point at the corner. No long themers; the grid is broken up and nothing is longer than seven letters. Very breezy for a Thursday.

And now, I'll go through the rest with a scalpel.

Across:

1. Positive reply to "How's your health?": I FEEL OK. This doesn't sound very positive, or even the proper response to this odd question. Most people would ask, "How do you feel?" but that would spoil the answer so I guess he was stuck.

8. Carrot relative: PARSNIP.

15. Reminiscent of an almond's flavor, say: NUTLIKE. If you look up NUTLIKE in the dictionary, you'll see a picture of me!

16. Guises for gamers: AVATARS. Maybe I should change my AVATAR to an almond.

17. Activity of a rogue: KNAVERY. Trickery or deceit from a Knave, originally a servant boy, the lowest rank in a royal court. In the 19th century, American card decks switched this to Jack, because Kn and K (for "King") were confused when fanning out hands. "Jack" was colloquialism for a common man, one also at the bottom of the pecking order. Originally a domain of royalty, the King was the highest card until mass production let even commoners play, and they elevated the lowly Ace during the French Revolution to reflect their rise to the top. 

This a Swedish deck: Kn = Knekt (Knave), K = Kung (King), D = Dam (Queen), E = Ess (Ace).

18. Voids: NEGATES.

19. Dazed and confused: IN A SPIN. I don't use this phrase, but the Google says it's popular in Britain.

21. Superlative suffix: EST. This is the averagest 21A clue ever!

22. Outfits: RIGS.

25. Sharp: ACUTE.

28. "Sorry, but it's __ from me": A NO. Simon Cowell's catchphrase on the Idol and Talent TV shows.

29. Shea successor: CITI. Shea Stadium was the iconic, multipurpose home of the New York Mets from 1964 until it closed in 2008. It was demolished in 2009 and replaced by CITI Field, a modern baseball stadium built on the former site's parking lots.

Citi (left) and Shea (right) briefly coexisted.

32. Tax cheat: EVADER.

36. Hush-hush doc: NDA. A Non-Disclosure Agreement protects information that's on a need-to-know basis...and you don't need to know!

37. Carmichael who plays Lady Edith on "Downton Abbey": LAURA. Laura Carmichael is an English actress, most widely known for her performance as Lady Edith Crawley. Since I've never seen this show, I now know how others feel when a clue is about Game of Thrones.

39. Land of the Minotaur: CRETE. The Minotaur is a mythical creature (I hope) from Greece with the body of a man and the head of a bull.

40. [theme pt1]

42. [theme pt2]

44. "Will all great Neptune's __ wash this blood / Clean from my hand?": Macbeth: OCEAN. Your daily dose of Shakespeare. 

45. "__ bleu!": SACRE. This French exclamation originated from "Sacré Dieu" (Holy God). But because Christians feared taking the Lord's name in vain, they substituted the rhyming word "bleu" (blue) for "Dieu" (God) to avoid blasphemy.

47. Actress Whitman: MAE. MAE was a childhood actor who has appeared in numerous films and TV shows. I've somehow missed most of them, but liked her in Good Girls, a crime/comedy drama about three suburban mothers who resort to robbery.

48. Bring out the blue pencil again: REEDIT. First you REED IT, then you RE-EDIT it.

50. Slow-cooked dish: STEW.

51. Mass. summer hrs.: EDT. Massachusetts summer hours are in Eastern Daylight Time.

52. Sings like Ella Fitzgerald: SCATS. Doo-be-doo-bah!

54. Laudatory lines: ODES. 

Not laundry lines...

55. "Captain's __, stardate ... ": LOG. Famous opening line from Star Trek.

58. Cause of a blank photo: LENS CAP. We had a very small wedding, and my future brother-in-law told us he had the photography covered...by the LENS CAP. That's right, we have no pictures from the big day. 46 years later we look back and laugh.

62. Really gets to: ENRAGES. While a screw-up like that ENRAGES some brides, RightBrain took it all in stride. That's when I knew I had married the right girl.

65. Backless tops: HALTERS.

69. Makes softer, as sound: DEADENS.

70. Electric current units: AMPERES.

71. Montana neighbor: ALBERTA.

72. First name of the 28th U.S. president: WOODROW. WOODROW Wilson. In Hollywood, FL, where the longer streets are named sequentially after presidents, Wilson Street follows the much busier Taft Street. I guess Taft was more popular!

Down:

1. Calligraphy supply: INK. It takes a lot of INK to spell "calligraphy."

2. Merriment: FUN. Are we having merriment, yet?

3. Fig. texted en route: ETA. Estimated Time of Arrival.

4. "Jailhouse Rock" star: ELVIS. Here he is dancing away, right out of jail!

Hey! Someone left the door open!

5. Property claim: LIEN. This lean will lead to a property claim.

6. Gumbo vegetable: OKRA.

7. Things on rings: KEYS. Things on rings: GEMS. Well, that's half right.

8. Lose it under pressure: PANIC.

9. Path: AVENUE.

10. Old cloth: RAG. Linen made from flax fibers was used in Egypt thousands of years ago, but the cloth he's referring to is probably not that old.

11. RR stop: STA. A RailRoad STAtion. 

12. "The Greatest Average American" host Bargatze: NATE. I haven't seen his new game show, but I really like his stand-up specials. He is a "clean comedian" who pokes fun at everyday life.

13. Really gets to: IRES. This really gets us to a clecho of 62A.

14. Furtive call: PSST.

20. Impetus for a bluff, perhaps: PAIR. Two Knaves, perhaps?

22. Animosity: RANCOR.

23. Bring about: INDUCE.

24. Vandyke kin: GOATEE. "Van Dyke" is usually two words, just like the facial hair is in two parts.

26. Team working off camera: TV CREW. When a TV reporter comes upon a bunch of rubbernecks at a crime scene, the accompanying team is all business, lest they become CREW necks.

27. Come by honestly: EARN.

29. Care center: CLINIC. 

30. Actor McKellen: IAN. 87 year-old Sir IAN McKellen has won a Tony Award, a Golden Globe, and seven Laurence Olivier Awards, and has been nominated for two Academy Awards and five Emmys. In spite of all that, he is perhaps best known for his role as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings.

31. Helpers in harbors: TUGS.

33. Thought to be: DEEMED.

34. Online NYSE choice: E*TRADE. E*TRADE is a digital investment brokerage that allows people to lose money on the New York Stock Exchange.

35. Puts back to zero: RESETS.

38. Bank holding: Abbr.: ACCT. Please enter your bank account number in the space provided: __________ I will keep this data strictly confidential. Trust me. 

41. Small amounts: TADS. This is what's in my ACCT right now.

43. Bauxite, e.g.: ORE. Bauxite is the primary ORE for aluminum.

46. Org.: ASSN. An Organization can be an Association.

49. __ scout: TALENT. Have I been discovered yet?

53. Thompson of "Selma": TESSA. TESSA has appeared in numerous TV shows and movies over her 20+ year career including as civil rights activist Diane Nash in the 2014 historical film Selma.

54. Chose: OPTED.

55. Helen of Troy's mother: LEDA. According to the most legends, Zeus, the king of the gods, transformed into a swan and seduced (or assaulted) LEDA, the Queen of Sparta. As a result, LEDA laid an egg from which Helen hatched. I'm not sure I buy this.

56. Scott Turow work: ONE L. ONE L is an autobiographical book by Turow that chronicles his grueling first year at Harvard Law School. It is the only one of his 14 novels that is of interest to crossword constructors.

57. Seize: GRAB.

59. "Saint Joan" playwright: SHAW. George Bernard SHAW's play about the 15th-century French military figure Joan of Arc.

60. Mil. print: CAMO. Military print is CAMOuflage. 

61. Blue Buffalo rival: ALPO. Here's Buster as a pup getting ready for dinner.

63. Beverage suffix: ADE.

64. Austrian lang.: GER. The official language of Austria is GERman.

Wait, that's not right.

66. Do the wrong thing: ERR. Jim Carrey meant Australia. 

67. __ Speedwagon: REO. Here REO again!

68. NNE U-turn: SSW. Making a wide U-turn in a Speedwagon was like navigating a boat. It definitely wasn't a Sportwagon.

Happy Birthday, Mom! Wish you were around to see how I turned Dad's corny jokes into even cornier blog posts. The apple didn't fall far from the tree! I miss you both.

Be good. RB