Thursday July 9, 2026 Robin Stears

Robin Stears is cutting the rug today. After constructing crosswords for 30 years, she's still got the moves!

17. Dance move performed when entering a room?: DOORSTEP. A DOORSTEP is just outside a door, while a threshold is the bottom of the doorframe itself. 

21. Cancan move performed while skydiving?: DROP KICK. A DROP KICK is a rarely used tactic in American football, it's only been used successfully once since 1941. Doug Flutie, in his last play in the NFL, kicked it in a game between the Patriots and the Dolphins in 2006.

35. Tango move on "Yellowstone"?: RANCH DIP. Yellowstone, the TV show, takes place on a ranch, where RANCH DIP is presumably served at parties.

46. Five-point spin on the dance floor?: STAR TURN. A STAR TURN is an idiom that refers to the most prominent performance in a show.

56. Leap at a military ballet?: BASE JUMP. BASE JUMPing is an extreme sport where participants parachute from a fixed object rather than an aircraft. BASE is an acronym for Buildings, Antennas, Spans (bridges), and Earth (cliffs).

66. Pas de deux move performed where the road divides?: FORKLIFT. Pas de deux is a ballet term referring to an intricate dance duet, probably much more graceful than a warehouse FORKLIFT.

While there is no revealer, we have six (!) themers that all end in a dance move: STEP; KICK; DIP; TURN; JUMP and LIFT. With this many themers, the grid was pretty crowded leaving a lot of short fill which made this easier than usual for a Thursday. I have two left feet, so I found it better to play in the band than be out on the dance floor. 

Let's take the rest for a spin:

Across:

1. Hotel waiters: CABS. Nice misdirect for the dance's opening number.

5. Carried the day: WON.

8. Cuts it close: SHAVES. Literally, it's using a razor - figuratively, it means a narrow escape.

14. Skip past: OMIT.

15. "__ takers?": ANY.

16. Nikon product: CAMERA. 

17. [theme]

19. Unexpectedly funny: IRONIC. Funny strange, not funny haha, I ASSUME.

20. Adopt, as an alias: ASSUME. Believe it or not, my name isn't RustyBrain. 

21. [theme]

23. Makeshift swing: TIRE. Some are fancier than others.

Oh, yours was just a round one?

25. Bard's before: ERE.

26. Network supported by "viewers like you": PBS. And viewers like me! I've volunteered to man the phones at a Public Broadcasting Service fundraiser.

29. Number of legs on a prawn: TEN. Prawns are the larger biological cousins to shrimp.

If you like legs more than wings, these are for you.

30. Shows up: ARRIVES.

35. [theme]

38. Half an Everest expedition: ASCENT. The other half, the descent, is considered more dangerous because after reaching their goal, climbers are exhausted and less focused.

39. Actor Sharif: OMAR. Everyone's favorite OMAR was also a world-class bridge player.

He apparently liked backgammon as well.

40. Club VIPs: DJS. Disc Jockeys. 

42. Inner: Prefix: ENTO. I wanted the more common ENDO, as in ENDOscope and ENDOskeleton. 

43. Curt: ABRUPT.

46. [theme]

49. James M. Cain's "__ Pierce": MILDRED. The film version of his novel won Joan Crawford the Best Actress Oscar for the title role in 1945.

51. Spanish gold: ORO. Lots of ORO at the bottom of the ocean from sunken Spanish galleons off the Gold Coast of Florida.

52. Contact site: EYE. As in contact lens. 

53. Singer Yoko: ONO. The first time Paul McCartney met Yoko, he said, "Oh, no!"

Here she is making EYE contact.

54. Wasabi __: PEAS.

56. [theme]

61. Coffee shop emanations: AROMAS.

65. Artful dodger?: EVADER.

66. [theme]

68. Spot: NOTICE.

69. Apple core, for short: CPU. Central Processing Unit, a computer's "brain" (no relation). 

70. Store that sells Frakta shopping bags: IKEA. It's Kits in Every Aisle.

71. Sounds like a bird: TWEETS. Seems like only yesterday when TWEETS only applied to birds.

72. Slump: SAG.

73. Like a lawn at dawn: DEWY. This is when it dawned on him that he lost.

Truman celebrating his upset victory in 1948.

Down:

1. Led Zeppelin's final studio album: CODA. Like the output from many groups, I like the early albums better.

2. Famous __ cookies: AMOS. Much more famous than these cookies, which are for the Byrd's.

3. "About me" summaries: BIOS.

4. Move with a swagger: STRUT.

5. Used sprinklers on: WATERED. Unless your lawn is already DEWY.

6. United: ONE.

7. "Blue Bloods" org.: NYPD. Blue Bloods was a TV series about the New York Police Department starring Tom Selleck.

8. Annabella of "The Sopranos": SCIORRA. She played Gloria Trillo, Tony Soprano's mistress in Season 3.

9. __ Ferry, West Virginia: HARPERS. HARPERS Ferry is famous as the site of abolitionist John Brown's 1859 raid, which helped spark the Civil War. Because of its strategic location between North and South, the town changed hands eight times during the conflict.

10. Wildly out of control: AMOK. I wanted to spell it AMUK, which was IRONIC because it didn't fit.

11. Start of Caesar's boast: VENI. "VENI, vidi, vici" translates to "I came, I saw, I conquered." It was spoken by Julius Caesar in a report to the Roman Senate over a quick and decisive victory. That's as succinct as it gets. 

12. Actor Bana: ERIC. ERIC Banadinovich is an actor from Down Under who came out on top!

13. Burlap bag: SACK.

18. Suffix that means "maker": SMITH. I grew up in Williamsburg, VA where there are many craft shops plying colonial trades, such as: blackSMITH, tinSMITH and gunSMITH. A friend mine from high school apprenticed as a silverSMITH. 

Amazing quality from only simple tools.

22. Mens __: criminal intent: REA. Oddly, I learned this phrase from watching Legally Blonde.

24. Wednesday's roommate at Nevermore: ENID. From the Addam's Family spinoff, Wednesday. Jenna Ortega plays Wednesday, and Emma Myers plays Thursday ENID.

Wednesday and Enid

26. Many a charity tourney: PRO-AM.

27. Deer friend of Flower and Thumper: BAMBI.

28. Warning from a doghouse: SNARL.

31. "Rhyme Pays" rapper: ICE-T. The Grammy-winning rapper also carved out a successful acting career and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

i
32. Locale: VENUE.

33. Log passage: ENTRY.

34. Granite or marble: STONE.

36. Yucky stuff: CRUD.

37. Comfy loungewear: PJS. Short for Pajamas.

Pajama shorts

41. "Enough!": STOP.

44. Assignment: PROJECT.

45. Terms of service: TENURES.

47. Accent piece: AREA RUG.

48. "The Fountainhead" protagonist: ROARK. The Fountainhead is a 1943 philosophical novel by Ayn Rand that champions individualism, egoism, and artistic integrity.

50. __ Pérignon: DOM. I can think of better ways to spend $250+ than a bottle of champagne. 

55. Utterly reliable: SOLID.

56. Not erect: BENT.

57. Solemnly swear: AVOW.

58. Fully appease: SATE.

59. Falco of "The Sopranos": EDIE. EDIE played Carmela Soprano, Tony's wife. 

You better not mention Gloria.

60. Some USO patrons: PFCS. Private First Class soldiers may attend shows put on by United Service Organizations, an American nonprofit-charitable corporation that provides live entertainment and other programs to members of the U.S. Armed Forces and their families.

Bob Hope spent 50 Christmases overseas!

62. Podcaster's purchase: MIKE. Bzzzt! No one spells it this way. It's MIC, short for microphone.

63. Several: A FEW.

64. Remain: STAY.

67. Happy Greek cry: OPA. Oh, Pa! I'm so happy!!

Be good. RB

Notes from C.C.:

Happy 56th birthday to our sweet Tony (Anon-T)! Every time I need someone to cover the blog, Tony is there without hesitation. Thank you for always being so generous with your time and willing to help. Hope you have a wonderful birthday, Tony!

 

 

Tony At Wit's End near Carmel on Father's Day 2017

 

Thursday July 2, 2026 Ella Dershowitz

Ella Dershowitz followed in her father's footsteps and constructs crossword puzzles. Wait, that's not right. She's was inspired by her dad to become an actress! Hmm, that's not right either. Well, you can look up Alan Dershowitz, but in the meantime, Ella keeps providing entertainment for us.

11D. Engage in some strength training, or what this puzzle's circled letters do: LIFT WEIGHTS. The revealer sort of tells us that the WEIGHTS will LIFT i.e. spell vertically from the bottom up.

7D. Skeptical remark: YOU'RE NOT SERIOUS. STONE, from the Imperial System used Britain. 

9D. Key influencers?: PIANO TEACHERS. TON, from U.S. Customary and Imperial Systems. Also a great clue!

18D. Cartesian concept that questions the reality of waking life: DREAM ARGUMENT. GRAM, from the Metric System. A DREAM ARGUMENT is a philosophical thought experiment that questions whether we can distinguish waking reality from a highly vivid dream.

24D. "Can you believe this scam?": WHAT A RACKET. CARAT, from the Metric System specifically for gemstones.

This puzzle was hard enough with the hidden weights being presented vertically and upside down. It would've been near impossible without the circles. For instance, if you somehow caught the theme, you might confusingly note that 7D also has TON (part of STONE) inside of it.

On the plus side of the scale, I like how these units of mass are typically used to measure different things, from cargo to gems, and they range from very large to very small. I'd have liked her to toss in a DRAM (Apothecary) or GRAIN (Troy weight) to add a variety of measuring systems.

Let's see how the rest balances out:

Across:

1. Jazzy improvisation: RIFF. I wrote SCAT, and was off to a roaring stop!

5. Taylor-Joy of "The Queen's Gambit": ANYA. In the popular mini-series, ANYA played a pawn who was rooked. 

9. Whimper: PULE. Unknown, but PULE also refers to a rare Serbian cheese made from donkey milk, and is considered the most expensive cheese in the world. You'll whimper when you see the price tag.

13. Vulgar one: BOOR.

14. Bird on the Canadian dollar coin: LOON. These coins are often called Loonies.

15. Hard to erase, perhaps: IN INK.

17. "Today was rough": I NEED A HUG.

19. High cost for the Super Bowl: AD FEE. And up to $50k for great seats!

20. "... at the very least": OR MORE.

21. Dame introduction?: NOTRE. Have you met Our Lady, Notre Dame?

22. "Parks and Recreation" town: PAWNEE. From the popular TV show that served as a springboard for Chris Pratt, Aubrey Plaza, Nick Offerman and Aziz Ansari. 

25. Red friend of Cookie Monster: ELMO. Also, Natasha Lance Rogoff, author of Muppets in Moscow.

Have you also met my Red friend?

27. Was first: WON.

28. "Close enough": ISH. This clue is okayISH.

29. Yemen port that faces the Somaliland port Berbera: ADEN.

31. "I am in this meme": IT ME. I'll never get used to this.

33. Checkpoint for the terminally on line?: TSA. Fun clue #1. Transportation Security Administration at a terminal security line in an airport.

34. Banh mi spread: MAYO. 

35. Fashion week focus: DESIGN. This year, their focus was on the historic 100+ degree heatwave in Paris. Models were misted and given cooling towels, ice packs and folding fans to keep from passing out, especially when showcasing the winter collections.

"Hot" couture?

38. Health insurance giant: AETNA.

40. Update from a Lyft driver: ETA. Estimated Time of Arrival.

42. Big mad and not hiding it: AGGRO. A slang abbreviation for aggravation or aggression.

43. Floor connectors: STAIRS.

45. Architect's constraint, for short: SPEC. Specifications are important! 

47. Feminine pronoun: HER.

48. Meaty sauce: RAGU.

49. Engrave on glass: ETCH.

50. Kilt companion: TAM. They were plentiful on Miami Beach last week. Go USA!

51. HS fundraiser: PTA. A Parent Teacher Association may hold a high school fundraiser, such as a car wash or a bake sale.

53. Very, informally: UBER. This is a very nice taxi, usually.

55. Ocean escapades?: HEISTS. Danny Ocean's gang robbed casinos in the Ocean's Eleven film franchise. Ocean was originally played by Frank Sinatra, and later by George Clooney.

57. Command to attack: SIC 'EM.

59. Middle-distance runners: MILERS. 

61. Bracelet spot: ANKLE.

62. Potbelly that needs constant feeding?: COAL STOVE. Ye olde potbelly STOVE...or the family pig from Hooterville.

Arnold Ziffel on Green Acres

66. Oktoberfest souvenir: STEIN.

67. Bread for an Italian sandwich?: EURO. Fun clue #2. 

68. Boo-boo: OWIE. 

69. "Like, yesterday": STAT.

70. "The Pat McAfee Show" network: ESPN. Former NFL punter Pat McAfee highlights the day's top stories in sports.

71. Turow book set at Harvard: ONE L. OK, class. We went over this last Thursday and it'll be on this week's test.

Down:

1. Sac fly result: RBI. 

2. Atom with a sign: ION. IONS may be positive or negative, denoted by + and - signs.

Atom Ant with signs

3. Adversary: FOE.

4. Refrigerant trademark since the 1930s: FREON. DuPont Freon®. It's a gas, gas, gas!

The Stones are cool!

5. Tree-lined walkway: ALAMEDA. The Spanish word ALAMEDA can also mean a public promenade. The city of ALAMEDA, Calif. was the original west coast terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad, which could be thought of as America's first major cross-country promenade.

6. NYC nabe below Union Square: NOHO. The neighborhood North of Houston [Street] in Lower Manhattan, New York City.

7. [theme]

8. Figure in a halo: ANGEL. Figure in Halo: CHIEF, the most popular action figure from the Halo video game.

9. [theme]

10. Go back a step: UNDO. CTRL + Z on a PC keyboard, Command + Z on a Mac.

11. [theme]

12. First page of el calendario: ENERO. January is the first month on a Spanish calendar. 

16. Peachy follower: KEEN. Peachy (meaning excellent or fine) and KEEN (meaning enthusiastic or splendid), expressing a highly positive, cheerful state of being.

18. [theme]

22. Deli pockets: PITAS. Watch your pockets in Delhi! Street thieves frequent busy markets and train stations there.

23. Portfolio piece: ASSET.

24. [theme]

26. Prefix with day or way: MID. Like half-day or halfway, but one letter shorter.
 
30. __ shadow: EYE. 

32. Umami enhancer, briefly: MSG. MonoSodium Glutamate has generally been found to be safe and is healthier than table salt. It was stigmatized in 1968 when a doctor wrote a since debunked letter to a medical journal claiming he felt unwell after eating at a Chinese restaurant. I got sick after eating too much Easter chocolate as a kid. My mom thought it was some sort of reaction so she only got me white chocolate bunnies for years afterward while my brothers got the tasty real ones!

Don't bet on it!

36. Dane introduction?: GREAT. This clue is clechoISH with 21A. The Great Dane is a massive, gentle German breed renowned as the "Apollo of Dogs." Buster sometimes thinks he's a Greek god.

It's good to be the king!

37. Social rules: NORMS.

39. Actress Vardalos: NIA. NIA is a Canadian actress and screenwriter of Greek descent. You may remember her wedding.

41. Fitting: APT.

44. Long sammich: SUB.

46. Level of authority: ECHELON.

51. Spots for education?: PSAS. Fun clue #3. Public Service Announcements. 

52. Subtle hair dyes: TINTS.

54. Awards ceremony host: EMCEE. 

56. Childish comeback: IS TOO. There are a lot of childish comebacks on the crossword playground. 

58. Director Kazan: ELIA. Mr. Kazan was described by the NYT as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history."

60. Take part in an outdoor fantasy game: LARP. Live Action Role-Play ranging from murder mystery dinner parties to massive weekend-long fantasy campaigns with hundreds of participants.

63. Possess: OWN. 

64. Contend (for): VIE.

65. Nigiri topper never served raw: EEL. I prefer nigiri, just a slice of fresh fish on a small mound of rice, over rolled sushi.

Have a safe and happy 4th, everyone!

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