Thursday August 6, 2026 Mark Axel

Mark Axel commented on his last crossword here (a challenging Saturday grid in January) that his next puzzle would be "themed and much easier." Well, here we are, and he's delivered on his promise. Has the pendulum swung too far?

Starting with the reveal:

56. Wildly successful, or what three black squares in this puzzle literally are: GANGBUSTERS. Each of the following pairs contains a "hidden" synonym for GANG, busted apart by a black square:

17. "I want all the juicy details!": SPILL THE TEA + 19. Was introduced to: MET = TEAM.

27. Features of some old socks: HOLES + 29. Figure skating jump that has only been landed in competition by Ilia Malinin: QUAD AXEL = SQUAD.

43. Makes a clutch putt, perhaps: SAVES PAR + 46. Key mistakes?: TYPOS = PARTY.

As Mark alluded to earlier, this is about as straightforward as it gets. A very easy puzzle for a Thursday made even easier by circles. As I worked my way down, I saw TEAM and SQUAD (and REF) and thought "sports". Then PARTY struck rather jarringly, as I was expecting something like CLUB to keep the sports theme going.

Let's see the rest of the line-up:

Across:
1. "To __ their own": EACH. 💁

5. One with a supporting role?: PILLAR. 🗑

11. Giggle syllable: HEE. 🤭

14. Potatoes, in Indian dishes: ALOO. 🥔

15. Nutty Italian cheese: ASIAGO. 🧀

16. Verbal fillers: UMS. 🤔

17. [theme]

19. [theme]

20. Tightens (up): TENSES. 🥨

21. "If I had to bet ... ": ODDS ARE. 🎲

23. "Use your umbrella!": STAY DRY. ☔

26. "Aladdin" figure: GENIE. 🧞‍♂️

27. [theme]

29. [theme]

31. Feature of some old socks: ODOR. 🤢

32. Replay reviewer: REF. Referee. 🦓

33. First aid pro: EMT. Emergency Medical Technician.🚑

34. With 37-Across, place for a pawdicure: PET. A PET SPA. 🐾

35. Emoji from one who's down: SAD FACE. It's "Emoji Day" at the Corner! I remember when it was just :(  Now it's fancy: 😢 What an age we live in!

37. See 34-Across: SPA. ⬆️

40. Fitting: APT. 🧩

41. "Gross!": ICK. 🤮

42. Inner workings: GUTS. 🌣🌣

43. [theme]

46. [theme]

47. Heart chambers: ATRIA. 🫀

48. "Want to play again?": ONE MORE. ☝️

50. Global spirits giant that began as a rum maker in Cuba: BACARDI. BACARDI USA built two iconic office buildings for their headquarters in Miami: a tower (1963) and an adjoining annex (1973). The annex is covered with hammered-glass mosaics.

The landmark Bacardi "Jewel Box"

52. Oscars, e.g.: AWARDS. Because GROUCHS didn't fit.

55. Pretend: ACT. 🎭

56. [theme]

59. __ lodge: SKI. ⛷️

60. Like loose laces: UNTIED. 👞

61. Pulitzer-winning novelist Jennifer: EGAN. Her novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad, won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. I haven't read it, but judging a book by it's cover, it looks award-winning to me!

62. "Exit full screen" key: ESC. Escape. ⌨️

63. Get cozy: NESTLE. 🧸

64. Cries noisily: SOBS. 😭

Down:
1. Direction that plays first in mahjong: EAST. East is a player, not a compass position.🀄

2. Mont Blanc, par exemple: ALPE. As Splynter would say, "From the Frawnche" (apologies for copying from your paper). 😂

3. Place that welcomes change?: COIN SLOT. Winner: Best Clue. 🏆

4. Wild West costume accessory: HOLSTER. 🔫

5. Easy mark: PATSY. 🐐

6. Kinda sorta: ISH.  ≈

7. Falsehood: LIE. 🤥

8. "Stay the Night" singer Jackson: LA TOYA. This 1980 single from La Toya's poorly received second album peaked at #31, and was soon forgotten. Why we should know about it 46 years later is anyone's guess.

9. Like 15-Across: AGED. ⌛

10. Occasion to wear away uniforms: ROAD GAME. 🎽

11. Compassionate: HUMANE. 🫶

12. Celebrity chef with a flagship restaurant in New Orleans: EMERIL. In 2022, EMERIL Lagasse was named as the Chief Culinary Officer for Carnival Cruise Lines. So, now he's made a mess on a new flagship!

13. Cosmetician Lauder: ESTEE. 💄

18. Grassy expanses: LEAS. 🖼️

22. Message one may wish to open in private: SEXT. 🫣

24. Kicked out of a competition, briefly: DQED. Disqualified, because they liked Carvel better.

25. Scoundrel: RUFFIAN. 🦹🏻‍♂️

27. Word with bell or bar: HOP. 🦘

28. Lines of praise: ODE. 🪶

30. Dealer's handful: DECK. 🃏

32. "Aw, shoot!": RATS. 🐀

35. Free diver's weapon: SPEAR GUN. 🦯(this is a blind man's cane, but it kinda looks right)

36. Unit of farmland: ACRE. 🚜

37. Id counterpart: SUPEREGO. For more, talk to you therapist. I'd tell you, but then Id have to charge by the hour.

38. Vacation hrs.: PTO. Paid Time Off. As a small business owner, I've never had this. 🗓️

39. Pack animal: ASS. 🫏

40. Nike rival: AVIA. 👟

42. Takes turns?: GYRATES. 💫

43. Library area: STACKS. 📚

44. Powerfully cold: ARCTIC. 🥶

45. Score units: POINTS. 🎯

46. AAA offerings: TOWS. American Automobile Association.🪝

47. Take down a peg: ABASE. 👎

49. Apatow of "Euphoria": MAUDE. MAUDE struggled to find roles until she remembered that she has famous showbiz parents.

51. Copenhagen native: DANE.

53. Lacking pizzazz: DRAB. 🫒

54. Form W-2 digits: SSNS.  Social Security Numbers. 💸

57. "Scram!": GIT. 👉

58. __ canto: BEL. Italian for "beautiful singing." 𝄟⃝💞

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 July 23, 2026 Ryan Patrick Smith

Ryan Patrick Smith says he's a frequent moviegoer, and that may be his impetus for creating today's theme.

20. Cinematographer's assignment?: SHOOT YOUR SHOT. The cinematographer is the director of photography, and he tells the camera crew what to shot to shoot.

32. Screenwriter's assignment?: FORM A LINE. A screenwriter forms the actor's lines in screenplays for movies.

44. Costume designer's assignment?: PITCH A FIT. A costume designer pitches an idea, then creates the clothes that are custom fit to the actors.

56. Director's assignment?: GET THE PICTURE. The director manages the entire creative and narrative vision of a motion picture, and gets it all on film. 

This was a fun one, although I initially thought the themers might have something to do with ball-playing (SHOOT... and PITCH...). Instead, they are all common phrases clued as assignments for a movie crew. My only nit was their order - I'd like writing first, then costumes, followed by filming and the final picture. But I have some OCD tendencies, so take that with a grain of salt...and some butter!

That was Take 1. Here are the rest of the shots:

Across:

1. Like a specialized committee: AD HOC. AD HOC is a Latin phrase meaning "for this." In English, it describes a solution or committee created for a specific, short-term purpose.

6. Qualified: ABLE. 

10. Sheer delight: GLEE. 

14. Ready to drop: WEARY. 

15. Squander: BLOW. 

16. Wet and squirmy: EELY. 

17. Springsteen portrayer Jeremy __ White: ALLEN. The Boss personally handpicked Jeremy for the lead role, and approved his singing on all of the songs. I recently enjoyed him the in the final season of The Bear about a restaurant in Chicago. 

Bruce Springsteen and Jeremy Allen White

18. __ carotene: BETA. I prefer alpha carotene, it's one better.

19. Athletic brand: NIKE. In 1971, NIKE co-founder Bill Bowerman famously invented the innovative "waffle sole" by pouring liquid urethane directly into his wife's waffle iron. She hit him with a frying pan, and he's been running ever since.

20. [theme]

23. Short greetings: HIS.

24. Straight, for short: HET. HETerosexual. 

25. Make an alliance: TEAM UP.

28. Novel that inspired "There Will Be Blood": OIL. Another great book about how OIL became king is The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power by Daniel Yergin, the Pulitzer Prize winning history of the global petroleum industry from the 1850s to 1990. Although written decades ago, it is still considered the definitive history of Big Oil.

29. Opposite of sans: AVEC. Sans = without; AVEC = with. From the French describing whether to add ketchup to fries or not.

31. Many a Chiwere language student: OTO.

32. [theme]

36. Toys with tails: KITES. Toys with tails: PEKES.

Pekingese flying a colorful tail

38. Nutrient in spinach: IRON. That's why Popeye was strong to the finich.

39. "Srsly!?": OMG NO. Seriously!? This piece of text-speak is dead center in the puzzle!? Oh, My God, No! 

41. iPhone helper: SIRI. iPhone spy: Also SIRI.

42. "Ghostbusters" actor Harold: RAMIS. Harold also co-wrote the screenplay with Dan Aykroyd. 

44. [theme]

46. Question in reply to "omw," maybe: ETA. "On My Way." "What's your Estimated Time of Arrival?"

47. "Anyone __?": ELSE.

49. Detroit labor org.: UAW. United Auto Workers.

50. Town in Ontario County, New York: SENECA. 

52. The works: ALL. 

53. Aves. and blvds.: RDS. Avenues and boulevards are ROADS...but I wrote STS (streets) first.

56. [theme]

60. Low on dough: POOR. Since RightBrain started making sourdough bread, we're never low on dough...except after shopping for it. 

62. Zither kin: HARP. On a zither, the 4 to 5 strings nearest to the player run over a fretted fingerboard and are played like on a guitar to create notes. The remaining 25 to 35 un-fretted accompanying strings stretch across the rest of the soundbox and are plucked by the fingers of the right hand to provide chords and bass.

I think I'll stick to guitar.

63. Sound that comes from on high: YODEL. In 1968, NBC higher-ups famously interrupted an exciting AFL football game between the Oakland Raiders and the New York Jets to air Heidi. While the Alpine movie ran, the Raiders scored two stunning touchdowns in the final minute to win the game. Oh boy, did the fans YODEL! Afterwards, networks were contractually stipulated to show all game telecasts to their conclusion.

64. Volkswagen Group subsidiary: AUDI. The VW Group includes AUDI and ten other brands, as well as Ducati motorcycles and some truck lines. Due to marketing pressures, they recently announced plans to cut their global vehicle lineup by 50%. 

65. Like supervillains: EVIL.

66. Hall of Famer Shaquille: ONEAL. The little fella has 12-inch wide hands that dwarf a water bottle.

67. Get out of bed: RISE.

68. French jeweler and glassmaker Lalique: RENE. RENE may not be familiar to you as he died 80 years ago, but his pieces reside in museums around the world. Let me rephrase that: his creations reside in museums...

69. Bookish sorts: NERDS.

Down:

1. Teeming (with): AWASH.

2. Metropolis in north-central India: DELHI. 

3. The MLB's Angels, to fans: HALOS. Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Angels.

4. Cookie with a limited-edition BTS collaboration: OREO. These OREOS feature purple wafer cookies with a brown sugar pancake flavor inspired by Korean street food (hotteok). And they have 13 different designs! They sound awful, the cookies, not the band.

Collect (but do not eat) them all!

5. "Harriet" and "Wicked" Oscar nominee Erivo: CYNTHIA. The British actress and singer has been nominated for the complete EGOT set, and has won all but the Oscar so far. She only 39, so I'm sure she'll get there.

6. Monastery leader: ABBOT. Although sometimes Costello took the lead.

7. Veal cordon __: BLEU.

8. Tolkien saga, briefly: LOTR. The epic trilogy Lord Of The Rings.

9. Old mice and such: EWASTE. "What did you whippersnappers call us?"

We're not EWASTE!

10. Italian salami city: GENOA. In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue...seeking a shorter route to DELHI for some lunch meat.

11. Recurring melodic phrase: LEITMOTIF. A LEITMOTIF is usually associated with a specific person, place or thing - like the menacing two-note "shark theme" from Jaws.

12. Big grazer: ELK.

13. Cornea locale: EYE.

21. Mello __ soda: YELLO. 

With apologies to Donovan.

22. "Dang!": HECK.

26. Gestation sites: UTERI.

27. Put forth: POSIT.

28. High-end hotel chain: OMNI. 

29. "Concrete Rose" novelist Thomas: ANGIE. ANGIE started by writing lists before becoming a bestselling author. 

30. Dryer outlet: VENT. 

32. S'mores cookers: FIRES. 
 
33. Speak from a rostrum: ORATE. "Friends, ROMANs, countrymen..."

34. Namesakes of most planets: ROMAN GODS. The word "planet" comes from the ancient Greek word for "wanderer." This was later changed to Roamin'.

35. Little devils: IMPS.

37. "That didn't escape my notice": I SAW. I spy through my OCULI...

40. Windows shaped like 13-Downs: OCULI. "Oculus" is a Latin word that translates to "eye". OCULI are circular or oval windows, or a circular opening at the top of a dome. Keep an eye out for one when in Rome.

The Pantheon

43. Product of a schism: SECT.

45. Golden, as bygone days: HALCYON. HALCYON means calm, peaceful, and happy, often used to describe an idyllic time in the past.

48. Foam: LATHER.

51. Otherworldly: EERIE.

52. Waldorf salad fruit: APPLE. Here's a hilarious scene from Farty Towels Faulty Towers, a classic BBC comedy starring John Cleese:

53. Less polite: RUDER. RUDER looks wrong for some reason. 

54. Trepidation: DREAD.

55. Exchanges for money: SELLS. As opposed to bartering, which is the direct exchange of goods or services without using money. Having my own business, I've occasionally bartered my services for things such as kitchen counter tops, a new garage door, and even Dolphin football tickets.

57. Order at a restaurant: HAVE.

58. CNN anchor Burnett: ERIN. The news veteran has been at CNN for 15 years.

59. __ poem: free-form orchestral work: TONE.

60. Target score in disc golf: PAR. Just like regular golf.

61. "Bien sûr": OUI. "Bien sûr" is French for "Of course!" as when asked if you want ketchup on your fries.

And that's a wrap.

Be good. RB