Thursday May 14, 2026 Sam Brody

Sam Brody doesn't ABIDE by "measure twice and cut once," so he cut each piece of wood twice instead. At least he was consistent! He's been constructing for a few years, but this is his LAT debut. Welcome!

A woodcut of a wood cutter.

39. Artistic printing method, and a feature of rows 2, 5, 11, and 14 in this puzzle: WOODCUT. A WOODCUT is a relief printing technique where an artist carves an image into the surface of a wooden block leaving raised areas to be inked and printed. For this puzzle, however, it means the four types of WOOD hidden in the grid (HICKORY, MAHOGANY, CHERRY and CHESTNUT), are CUT into pieces.

May must be circles-on-Thursday month, but without them, they would be hard to find (hard wood?). Also, circles are cross-sections of logs, so there's that. This puzzle had appropriate difficulty for today, so I wasn't board. My only hang-up was the intersections of TORTA, ARCH and WAR, which took some guessing.

Lumbering on...

Across:

1. Novice gamers, informally: NEWBS. Slang term for beginners, similar to "newbies." 

6. Thurman of "Pretty Lethal": UMA. She has appeared in more than 50 films and television shows since the 1980s. Perhaps because she is 5'-11" tall, UMA is often cast as a tough cookie.  

9. Pizzeria array: PIES.

13. Moral principle: ETHIC.

14. "M*A*S*H" setting, for short: KOR. KORea. Both the movie and the TV show took place in South Korea during the Korean War.

15. "Butterfly Dance" artist: YANNI. We don't play this at out house because RightBrain has lepidopterophobia, the fear of butterflies. I don't think she likes the way they flit around near her.

16. Put away: STASH.

17. Under a spell: ENTRANCED. Out for a spell: EXITED.

19. College where Robert Frost taught English: AMHERST. “Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.” ― Robert Frost.

21. "Let's do it!": I'M GAME.

22. NYC home of Matisse's "Landscape at Collioure": MOMA. The Museum Of Modern Art in New York City.

"Landscape at Collioure"

23. Fail to share: HOG.

25. Taylor-Joy of "The Northman": ANYA. Her wide-set eyes were a point of insecurity growing up, so she stopped looking in mirrors and became a star. Excellent advice.

26. Skillets: FRY PANS.

29. Area exposed by an updo: NAPE. When hair is tied up, it exposes the NAPE of the neck.

31. Teases: RIBS.

32. "__ it down!": TONE. Could also be TURN.

34. "Downton Abbey" cook: DAISY. DAISY is played by actress Sophie McShera. Never seen it; never will.

38. Here, in Honduras: ACA. "Here" is a little Spanish for you.

39. [theme]

41. Mod About You polish maker: OPI. OPI nail polish is famous for its creative, pun-heavy shade names, such as Polly Want a Lacquer? and Let Me Bayou a Drink. I have no idea what colors they are, but they sound like fun!

42. Mexican sandwich: TORTA. A TORTA is a popular and hearty Mexican sandwich served on a crusty roll and filled with ingredients like refried beans, avocado, cheese, and a protein such as carne asada, often topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, and jalapeños. Gotta try it!

44. Like a bowstring: TAUT.

45. Trade: SWAP. Swap: TRADE. Yep, it works.

46. Playfully sly: ARCH. I filled in the word, but had to look it up to see how it meant "playfully shy." An ARCH person or expression is playfully roguish or mischievous. It combines a sense of being sly or cunning with a witty, often impish demeanor. So, not your ARCH enemy.

48. Endearment: PET NAME. 

50. Electrically adaptable: AC/DC. In the late 19th century "War of Currents," there was intense competition about building power grids. Thomas Edison championed DC, while George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla promoted AC. AC won due to its superior long-distance efficiency, while DC is common in battery-powered devices. 

53. __ Majesty: HER. Or HIS - only your perps know for sure. 

55. Sazerac options: RYES. The Sazerac is a historic New Orleans cocktail, often considered America's first, traditionally made with RYE whiskey or cognac, bitters, sugar, and an absinthe rinse.

56. Carefree: BLITHE.

58. Abu Dhabi, e.g.: EMIRATE. At the beginning of this month, the United Arab EMIRATEs (UAE)—representing Abu Dhabi's oil interests—formally exited OPEC after nearly 60 years of membership.

61. Expanse crossed by Odysseus: IONIAN SEA. The latest remake of the Odyssey, starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, will be released in a few months. I rarely see movies in a theater, but this one may be the exception.

63. Sanctions: OKAYS.

65. Like van Gogh and Vermeer: DUTCH. He went double DUTCH on this one.

66. Superlative suffix: EST. That's the bestest there is!

67. __-Grain: NUTRI.

68. Breyers rival: EDYS. EDY'S and Dreyer's are the exact same ice cream sold under different names based on geography. Dreyer's is sold west of the Rocky Mountains and in Texas, while EDY'S is sold in the eastern/midwestern United States to avoid confusion with Breyers. 

69. Tiny: WEE.

70. Blades for some Olympians: EPEES. 

Down:

1. Super Mario Bros. console: NES. Nintendo Entertainment System.

2. Jazzy James: ETTA. She needs no introduction.

3. Guitar accessory that may create vibrato: WHAMMY BAR. Vibrato is an oscillation in pitch, which on a guitar is caused by stretching or loosening the strings with a lever popularly known as a WHAMMY BAR. Leo Fender famously misnamed his a "tremolo" arm, which should be oscillations in volume. 

Press down to lower pitch, pull up to raise it.

4. Knights' neighbors: BISHOPS. 

5. Blueprint: SCHEMA. I wanted SCHEMe. A SCHEMA is a structured framework—mental or technical—that organizes information to facilitate understanding, efficiency, or data management. I guess a blueprint falls under that definition.

6. Luau instruments: UKES.

7. May, say: MONTH. 

8. Skill: ART.

9. Prehistoric supercontinent: PANGAEA. You can see how everything fit together like a puzzle before continental drift moved them to their present locations over 300 million years. The landmasses shift at the same speed as fingernails grow. 

10. Like some pyramids: INCAN.

11. Moriarty, to Holmes: ENEMY.

12. Musician's better half?: SIDE A. The first side of a vinyl record, but sometimes DJs flipped them over and SIDE B became the unexpected hit, like "Wipe Out" by the Surfaris, with every drummers' dream solo.

 "Surfer Joe" on SIDE A wiped out.

15. Sweet potato: YAM.

18. Latvian capital: RIGA.

20. Cost: RAN TO.

24. Recipe quantity: ONE CUP.

26. Greek life group: FRAT. FRATernities and sororities use Greek letters to represent secret, values-based mottos that often define their principles, such as leadership, charity, and friendship. The tradition originated with Phi Beta Kappa in 1776 at the College of William & Mary (where I met RightBrain 200 years later!).

27. Part of P.R.: RICO. Puerto RICO. I tried to abbreviate Public Relations, but to no avail.

28. Calm: SOOTHE.

30. S.F. summer hrs.: PDT. Pacific Daylight Time in San Francisco.

33. Leak prevention measure, briefly: NDA. A Non-Disclosure Agreement usually hides something that should be known to all.

35. Home of the Cyclones: IOWA STATE. Aptly named as their campus in Ames, Iowa is in Tornado Alley.

36. Hormel product: SPAM.

37. Cry in pain: YIPE. Similar to"yikes," I guess.

39. Biblical rider of a red horse: WAR. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are biblical figures from Revelation 6:1–8, representing divine judgment. Their horses appear as White (Conquest/Christ), Red (War), Black (Famine), and Pale (Death).

40. Development sites: UTERI.

43. Elements of a strategy: TACTICS.

45. Move stealthily: SNEAK UP.

47. Steve who co-founded YouTube: CHEN. He sold YouTube to Google for the bargain price of $1.65 billion in 2006. Don't worry, he made out okay.

49. Power of classic films: TYRONE. TYRONE was an American actor who became a matinee idol in the 1930s and ’40s and was best known for his action-adventure film roles.

50. Stand: ABIDE.

51. Easy part of a sky in a jigsaw puzzle, maybe: CLOUD. RightBrain took a photo of our fam on vacay in Key West, and had it turned into a puzzle. We put the pieces into another jigsaw box, and saved it for a family night. Part way through, my DIL exclaimed, "Hey, I have a dress with this same pattern!" Then it began to dawn on them...

52. __ Moore: canned stew brand: DINTY.

54. Oscar winner Witherspoon: REESE. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of June Carter in the biopic Walk the Line in 2005. REESE did all her own singing and that helped put her over the line. 

Reese with Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash

57. "As if!": HAH.

59. Londoner's pal: MATE.

60. Brontë orphan: EYRE. To EYRE is human...

62. Darn: SEW. This answer is so clever.

64. Certain sib: SIS. A sibling may be a SISter.

Be good. RB

Thursday May 7, 2026 Zachary David Levy

Zachary David Levy is a man with a plan. We last saw him here a few months ago in January with "Speak Up," another synonym theme where words spelled upwards on the grid.

The master plan becomes clear with the revealer:

37. "Let's do this thing!," or what can be said about each set of circles in this puzzle: SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN. The circled letters create made-up sound-alikes for words that mean PLAN. They all can fill in the blank, "What is your ____?" 

17. Some tissue in the central nervous system: GRAY MATTER. AYM sounds like AIM.

23. Quantum mechanics phenomenon: SUPER POSITION. PERPOS sounds like PURPOSE. For those of you that aren't physicists, a SUPER POSITION is the principle that physical systems can exist in multiple states, locations, or configurations simultaneously. Got it?

47. Sweet and tart fruit drink: MANGO LEMONADE. GOL sounds like GOAL.

58. Therapeutic canopy for some respiratory ailments: OXYGEN TENT. ENTENT sounds like INTENT.

I don't mind circles, but I'm bad at anagrams. However, the first one was easy, only three letters - either MAY or YAM. Now I'm looking for months or tubers. When I couldn't unscramble PERPOS, I figured it must be some foreign name I'd never heard of. Fortunately, the revealer came up in the middle and saved me from tearing my hair out on the rest of them. No anagrams, just imaginary homophones for synonyms of "PLAN". And you have to use your imagination to see beyond their spelling to hopefully pronounce them correctly. So, this puzzle was OKAY, although like last Thursday, it seems a bit easy for this late in the week.

Let's see how his strategy plays out:

Across:

1. Hajj destination: MECCA.

6. Foxtrot follower: GOLF. Actually, after the Foxtrot came the Charleston. But in this case, the letters "F" and "G" are from the NATO alphabet. 

10. Took off: LEFT.

14. Brilliance: ECLAT. ÉCLAT (pronounced "ay-KLAH") is a French term meaning doing something with great style.

15. Actress Taylor-Joy: ANYA. I liked ANYA in The Queens' Gambit, then was disappointed in The Gorge. She and a single Russian counterpart are tasked with protecting all of mankind from unknown evils that reside in a gorge. With humanity at stake, wouldn't you assign more than two people to do this?

16. Land division: ACRE. Land division: GORGE. 

17. [theme]

19. Brit's trunk: BOOT. Britt's trunk: BOOTY.

Brittany Spears

20. Not to be trusted, in slang: SUS. I SUSpect this sounds SUSpicious.

21. Condo gp.: HOA. HomeOwners Association.

22. Elusive picture book character: WALDO. Hiding in plain sight was a skill he learned as a child when there were chores to do.

Waldo, please take out the trash. Waldo? Waldo!

23. [theme]

28. Frozen gutter problem: ICE DAM. Not a problem in Florida.

30. "Saturday Night Live" unit: SKIT. "Saturday Night Live" is abbreviated SNL. Oh wait, it's usually the other way around.

31. "Ditto": SO DO I.

32. Not great, say: OKAY.

34. Sanskrit title of respect: SRI.

37. [theme]

41. Mont Blanc, e.g.: ALP. Mont Blanc, e.g.: PEN.

42. Mystery writer Buchanan: EDNA. In addition to crime novelist, EDNA is a journalist who won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting "for her versatile and consistently excellent police beat reporting."

43. Lego unit: BRICK.

44. Yogurt bowl berry: ACAI.

46. Homes: ABODES.

47. [theme]

52. Not of this world: ALIEN.

53. Messy class, often: ART. I've noticed that many artistic people seem to thrive in organized mess.

54. Uno y uno: DOS. 1+1=2 lección de matemáticas (math lesson in Spanish). 

57. __ diagram: VENN.

58. [theme]

62. Board VIP: EXEC. An EXECutive is a Very Important Person, or so they think.

63. McEntire of country: REBA. REBA, also known as "The Queen of Country," has sold more than 75 million records worldwide. She's had over 100 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, with 25 reaching number one. In spite of all that, she seems very down-to-earth.

She's a real VIP.

64. Italian bowling game: BOCCE. It's like curling without the ice!

65. __ a soul: NARY.

66. Tree of Knowledge location: EDEN.

67. A bit off: ASKEW. Just look up "RustyBrain" in the dictionary.

Down:

1. Gig segments: MEGS. My first thought was SETS, as in a band playing music for the evening. But this is a computer reference to Gigabytes which are made up of 1000 Megabytes.

2. Earth tone: ECRU.

3. Brought elegance to: CLASSED UP. It's what happens when I walk into any joint. So I'm told.

4. Sandy island: CAY. Same as a key. 

5. Outer bank?: ATM. Nice clue. Automated Teller Machine.

6. "Later, __!": GATOR. In a while, crocodile!

7. Ready to go: ON TAP.

8. NaOH, more familiarly: LYE. RightBrain took a break from perfecting sourdough breads and decided to try her hand at Bavarian pretzels. The recipe called for soaking them in LYE (sodium hydroxide), just like bagels. It's highly caustic so she made a baking soda bath instead, but if used, the LYE will break down in the oven. 

The knots were hard to do...but they tasted great!

9. Not walkable, say: FAR.

10. Canadian brewery: LABATT. LABATT is now part of the Anheuser-Busch InBev family.

11. Cause of some food poisoning: E. COLI.

12. Baggins of the Shire: FRODO. This also could have been Bilbo Baggins from The Lord of the Rings. Frodo is Bilbo's second cousin, once removed, but Bilbo affectionately considers him a nephew.

13. "Grand" peak visible from eastern Idaho: TETON.

18. "Standing right here!": AHEM. "You know I can hear you, right?"

22. Mario Kart platform: WII. WII was a popular Nintendo gaming console discontinued in 2013. It lives on here because it has two "I"s. Like most of us.

24. Soba alternative: UDON. UDON and soba are staple Japanese noodles with distinct differences: Udon is thick, chewy, and white (wheat-based), while soba is thin, earthy, and brownish (buckwheat-based).

25. No longer in arrears: PAID.

26. Port city east of Kobe: OSAKA.

27. __ terrier: SKYE. SKYE Terriers were originally bred in the 1600s on Scotland's Isle of Skye to protect farms and livestock by hunting and killing predators, such as foxes and badgers. Their low-slung, sturdy bodies,, tough, long double coats, and fierce, intelligent nature allowed them to tackle prey and thrive in harsh, rocky Scottish weather.

28. Actress Rae: ISSA. ISSA Rae is an Emmy-nominated actress, writer, producer, director and entrepreneur. And she has lots of usable letters in her name.

29. Refrigerate: COOL.

32. Tune rarely played on Top 40 radio: OLDIE. Unfortunately, every song I used to listen to on Top 40 radio is now an oldie. I wonder what that says about me?

33. Family: KIN.

34. PowerPoint file, essentially: SLIDE DECK.  I wanted SLIDE SHOW.

35. Zoom: RACE.

36. Signs, as a contract: INKS.

38. Animal that goes with the floe?: SEAL. Winner: Best Clue.

39. "Fernando" band: ABBA. Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden, and 400 million albums later...

ABBA won singing "Waterloo"

40. Egg on: PROD.

44. Ability to shape one's own future: AGENCY.

45. Fleece: CON.

46. Poker stake: ANTE.

47. Whiz: MAVEN.

48. Wrestler Bliss known as "Five Feet of Fury": ALEXA. What made her furious was her Amazon Echo that answered every time someone called her.

49. West Coast NFLer: NINER. The San Franciso 49ers, named after the thousands of prospectors who flocked to Northern California in 1849 during the Gold Rush. "Dwelt a miner, forty-NINER..."

50. "It's always possible": MAYBE.

51. Church fixture: ORGAN. I love the massive sound of a pipe organ in a large church. And if one ever breaks, call 1-800-SPLYNTER.

55. __ in a while: ONCE.

56. Hearty bowlful: STEW.

58. Seam contents: ORE.

59. Crossed (out): XED. "X" is often used as shorthand for "cross," as in xwords.

60. Org. for Jazz quintets?: NBA. The Utah JAZZ from the National Basketball Association. Basketball is played with five players on each side.

61. Talking-__: TOS. And in the "terrible twos," the tots talk back!

Be good. RB

Thursday April 30, 2026 Joseph A. Gangi

We interrupt our regularly scheduled puzzle for this special coverage. Joseph Gangi has been constructing for several years now, and this time he has delivered our morning paper with headlines that become attention grabbers to hook readers.

17. "Local Couple Makes a Commitment," e.g.: EXCLUSIVE REPORT. When a couple decides to be EXCLUSIVE, it means they won't be seeing other people. It's a stepping stone between casual dating and a committed relationship.

27. "China Falls From Top Spot," e.g.: BREAKING NEWS. My favorite themer with a fun play on words with that country being in the NEWS all the time. Here, "China" is dishware BREAKING when dropped on the floor. 

48. "Final Finalist Finally Arrives," e.g.: LATEST UPDATE. LATEST as in the last one time-wise.

63. "Photographer Embraces Traditional Darkroom Techniques," e.g.: DEVELOPING STORY. DEVELOPING pictures the old-fashioned way.

A fun outing where most of the names were very common instead of obscure, and no reveler was needed. For a Thursday, this was pretty easy...plenty of "E"s but no "Z"s - almost a pangram! At first, I thought all the"X"s would play into the theme, but that was incorrect.

Let's see what's in the rest of the paper:

Across:

1. Gimli's weapon in "The Lord of the Rings": AXE. Grimli is a dwarf warrior, and a major character in Tolkien's fantasy trilogy.

4. Mine passage: SHAFT. Some miners get the elevator, others get the SHAFT.

9. Healthy side: SALAD. Unless it's loaded with excessive toppings and high-calorie dressings.

14. __ lunch: BOX. I don't remember having a lunch BOX. I guess we were a brown bag family.

15. Peninsular Arab state: QATAR. One of the few answers with a "Q" not followed by "U". These words are usually anglicized from other languages that do not use the English alphabet.

16. Act with feeling: EMOTE.

17. [theme]

20. Nephew of Donald Duck: LOUIE. Huey, Dewey and LOUIE are the triplet nephews of Donald Duck and grand-nephews of Scrooge McDuck, 

Huey (red), Dewey (blue), & LOUIE (green)

21. Word with tea and toast: TEXAS. TEXAS tea always reminds me of the theme song to The Beverly Hillbillies.

22. Diner slice: PIE.

23. Meat product with a museum in Minnesota: SPAM. I keep getting unsolicited emails to go visit it.

25. July's namesake: CAESAR. Julius CAESAR. His great-nephew CAESAR Augustus got the following month.

27. [theme]

32. Civil rights leader Wilkins: ROY. ROY Wilkins led the NAACP as executive secretary and director for over 20 years (1955–1977).

33. Emotionless: STONY. Emotionless: STOIC.

34. Olympic skater Cohen: SASHA. Not to be confused with Sacha Baron Cohen. 

Skater vs. Jester

38. Lotion additive: ALOE.

40. Carriers powered by pantographs and overhead lines: TRAMS. A pantograph is a roof-mounted apparatus on electric trains, TRAMS, and trolleybuses used to collect electricity from overhead wires.

42. Early operating system: UNIX. My dear RightBrain was an early UNIX programmer who developed accounting software for small businesses. The real brain in the family!

43. Drink carelessly: SLURP. Meanwhile, I just SLURP and make a mess.

45. Puts one foot in front of the other: STEPS. And pretty soon, you're walking!

47. Conduit shape: ELL. Having worked with electrical conduit most of my life, I thought it's a tube shape, not how it is bent.

48. [theme]

51. Video meeting need: CAMERA. But not pants.

54. Cozy alcove: NOOK. A good place to curl up with an e-book.

55. Prefix with meter: ODO. ODO (by itself) is probably the weakest answer in the grid. An ODOmeter measures distance traveled.

56. "The Three-Body Problem" genre: SCI-FI. The Three-Body Problem is the first book in Cixin Liu's Hugo Award-winning Remembrance of Earth's Past science fiction trilogy. Volume 1 has been made into a TV series on Netflix.

60. "Cannot __": slangy expression of mock horror: UNSEE.

63. [theme]

66. Flared dress style: A-LINE. As the name implies, it's a dress that flairs like the letter “A” -otherwise known as "a dress" to me. I'm a modemuffel, a German colloquial term for someone who disregards fashion, typically wearing whatever they want, focusing on comfort, or having no interest in current trends.

67. Timed perfectly: ON CUE.

68. Cone-bearing tree: FIR. Cone-wearing dog - with fur. 

69. Disreputable: SEEDY.

70. Tandem pair: SEATS. On a bicycle built for two (unless you have a toddler).

71. Start of a giant recital?: FEE. This clue was my FAVE. 

The giant from Jack and the Beanstalk

Down:

1. Genesis brother: ABEL. Funny how all these early guys have 4-letters in their names.

2. Love letters?: XOXO.

3. "Did I just hear what I think I heard?": EXCUSE YOU.

4. Rodent proof?: SQUEAKS. Fun clue. Rodent-proof (with a hyphen) is something completely different.

5. Gives birth to: HAS. 

6. Bumping heads: AT IT.

7. Bestest: FAVE. Words like "bestest" are my least FAVE.

8. Predatory dino: T-REX. Dino is short for dinosaur, and T-REX is short for Tyrannosaurus REX, just like its arms. That's why it has trouble playing the piano. 

9. Goes back and forth: SEESAWS.

10. Psych (up): AMP.

11. Cereal shapes: LOOPS. They also make other shapes.

12. Open-air rooms: ATRIA.

13. Try to stop: DETER.

18. "Radical Optimism" singer Dua: LIPA. Dua LIPA is an English singer and songwriter who describes her style as "dark pop."

Best New Artist Grammy in 2019

19. 5K, for one: RACE. A five kilometer RACE is just over three miles.

24. Baker's protection: MITT.

26. Genesis twin: ESAU. Almost a Biblical clecho.

27. Some undergarments: BRAS.  Some other undergarments: BVDS.

28. $2 worth of nickels, e.g.: ROLL. It costs the U.S. Mint 13.78 cents to produce and distribute a single nickel, thus this roll of 40 is worth $5.54. A penny for your thoughts?

29. Like Vikings: NORSE.

30. Swarming pests: GNATS. 

31. Citi Field MLBer: NY MET. From Major League Baseball's New York Metropolitan Baseball Club.

35. Leaves unnoticed: SNEAKS OFF.

36. Dagger handle: HILT.

37. Wheelbarrow part: AXLE.

39. Dashiell contemporary: ERLE. Dashiell Hammett and ERLE Stanley Gardner both wrote hard-boiled crime novels. They were egg-cellent.

41. Twirled: SPUN.

44. Pesto option: PARSLEY.

46. Marriage partners: SPOUSES.

49. Folded fare: TACO.

50. Word of warning: DON'T.

51. Musical endings: CODAS.

52. One-named singer whose surname is Adkins: ADELE. 

Who's your Grammy?

53. Theater showing: MOVIE.

57. NYSE investment opportunities: IPOS. An Initial Public Offering from the New York Stock Exchange.

58. "Whatever": FINE.

59. Highlander of ancient Peru: INCA. Highlander of ancient Loch: NESS.

61. Cleveland's lake: ERIE. Speaking of lakes, they never ask about the other Cleveland area lakes, like Wallace, Coe or Shaker Lakes. 

62. Brontë governess: EYRE. Jane EYRE from the novel by Charlotte Brontë.

64. Frame : bowling :: __ : curling: END. And a split END may result from curling.

65. Tear down to the studs: GUT.

Be good. RB