Thursday May 28, 2026 Jared Cappel

Jared Cappel has been constructing for several years now, and has appeared in all the major publications including four times here. Today's puzzle is brought to you by the letters U and R.

57. "Correct!," or a phonetic hint to 18-, 24-, 34-, and 52-Across: RIGHT YOU ARE. Rephrased as RIGHT UR, the revealer tips us off that all the theme answers end in UR on the RIGHT.

18. Malaysian capital: KUALA LUMPUR. KUALA LUMPUR's modern skyline is dominated by the 1,483 foot-tall Petronas Towers, a pair of glass-and-steel-clad skyscrapers with a sky-bridge between them at the 41st floor.

24. Flying reptile of the Mesozoic Era: PTEROSAUR. PTEROSAURs were warm-blooded flying reptiles and are the earliest vertebrates known to have evolved powered flight.

34. Required by etiquette: DE RIGUEUR. This is a French loanword meaning if you want to fit into a specific crowd or event, doing certain things is mandatory, such as wearing a fancy hat at the Kentucky Derby.

52. Frothy cocktail from Peru: PISCO SOUR. A PISCO SOUR is a frothy, tart South American cocktail made with pisco (a grape brandy).

It occurs to me that Jared started with the revealing phrase, then looked up a bunch of non sequitur words that fit the pattern. The thing they have most in common, for me anyway, is they're all hard to spell. Do you concur?

Let's scour the rest:

Across: 

1. Command that might precede "paw": SIT. We say SHAKE, not PAW. Who's a good boy?

Buster doing his Wookiee impression

4. Response to "You awake?": I'M UP. Not quite the response I wanted. "I am now!" sounds more like it.

8. Home of the Zambezi: AFRICA. 

14. Logical beginning?: ECO. ECOlogical. 

15. Cosmic explosion: NOVA. Far out, man!

16. Racket: CLAMOR.

17. __ Speedwagon: REO. A rock band named after a car named after a person: Ransom Eli Olds.

Ransom Olds at the wheel of his 1905 Curved Dash Oldsmobile

18. [theme]

20. TV spot sellers: AD REPS. AD REPresentatives. 

22. __ Dhabi: ABU. 

23. Fragrant tree: PINE.

24. [theme]

26. Group people are smart to join?: MENSA. RightBrain is very sharp. She's a member of WOMENSA.

27. Approved of, on social media: HEARTED. If you double-tap on a picture someone sent you, it sends back a HEART emoji which is similar to a "like." ❤️ Unfortunately, I sometimes receive a serious work photo and accidentally double-tap it while trying to enlarge it. 😬

28. "Brokeback Mountain" star Heath: LEDGER. The Australian actor accomplished a lot in his 28 years. He was in 20 movies and won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar posthumously for his iconic portrayal of the Joker in the 2008 film The Dark Night.

29. Method of driving people to the mall?: SALE. Winner: Best Clue. Could've been UBER, LYFT or TAXI.

30. Pig __: LATIN. Ig-pay atin-lay.

33. Unlikely pair?: ELS. A letteral clue. There are two Ls in "unlikely."

34. [theme]

38. Includes on an email: CCS. Carbon CopieS. If you want to include someone on an email without other recipients knowing, you BCC them - Blind Carbon Copy.

41. Physical effort: LABOR.

42. Give off: EMIT. 

46. Request from someone in need of cuddling: HOLD ME.

48. "Way to go!": NICE ONE.

51. Fields of study: AREAS. Here's a field of study:

52. [theme]

54. __ Kringle: KRIS. I liked how this crossed with SLEIGHS, even though it's the beginning of summer.

55. Journalist Rather: DAN. The Texas-born journalist anchored the CBS Evening News for 24 years. He often peppered his speech with folksy phrases like, "Don't taunt the alligator until after you've crossed the creek." 

56. Some dealmakers: AGENTS.

57. [theme]

60. "__ willikers!": GEE. Possibly said by DAN Rather when covering the Watergate Scandal.

61. Stick like glue: ADHERE.

62. Treat like a pariah: SHUN.

63. Surgery ctrs.: ORS. Operating RoomS.

64. Gives lip to: SASSES. 

65. Jet stream direction: EAST. Jet streams are westerlies, which seems counterintuitive, but it just means they blow from the west to the EAST. There are four primary jet streams globally: two polar jets and two subtropical jets that affect everything from weather to airline flights.

66. Ellipsis component: DOT. More to come...

Down:

1. Highest-order angels: SERAPHS. I know them as SERAPHIM. 

2. Lipton beverage: ICED TEA.

3. Uncomfortably close to home: TOO REAL.

4. Place to dip a quill: INK POT. More commonly known as an ink well. As I slooowly work on my great American novel, I joined a writing group called Ink Well, a clever pun (with clever people in it, but they let me join anyway).

5. Creamy chocolate dessert: MOUSSE.

6. Cavaliers sch.: UVA. When I attended the University of Virginia in the 70s, they had a wild blowout in the spring called Easters, ostensibly to shake off the winter doldrums. Thousands of East Coast college students made the pilgrimage to Charlottesville to help celebrate what Playboy called the "Best Party in the Country." My jeans were never quite blue again.

Massive weekend parties and mud slides!

7. Country in Micronesia whose largest city is Koror: PALAU. While Micronesia refers to a broad subregion of Oceania with over 600 islands in the western Pacific Ocean, PALAU is politically distinct from the Federated States of Micronesia. 

8. Org. with a People Power grassroots network: ACLU. The American Civil Liberties Union.

9. Winter bug: FLU. 

10. Increased, with "up": RAMPED.

11. Encroach (on): IMPINGE.

12. Advice: COUNSEL. On advice of COUNSEL, I cannot confirm nor deny that I got pretty drunk on Easters Weekend.

13. Overdue debts: ARREARS.

19. Unlike the OED: ABR. The 20-volume set of the Oxford English Dictionary is about 40" wide, so obviously not ABRidged. You can look it up.

21. Messed up: ERRED.

25. Make up on the spot: AD-LIB. AD-LIB is short for the Latin ad libitum, meaning "at one's pleasure."

26. List that may be opened with a QR code: MENU. A QR (Quick Response) code is similar to a bar code, but it stores 10 times more data. 

Kinda looks like a crossword puzzle!

28. Tell tales: LIE. 

31. Before now: AGO.

32. Spoils: TURNS.

35. Stately trees: ELMS.

36. "Call Me Maybe" singer Carly __ Jepsen: RAE. Carly Rae Jepsen is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actress who first gained attention in 2007 as a third-place finisher on Canadian Idol. Her 2011 single “Call Me Maybe” became the 21st century's best-selling single by a female artist.

37. Angel who plays for Rose BC in the Unrivaled league: REESE. Unrivaled is a professional 3-on-3 women’s basketball league. It gives top players a high-paying, domestic alternative to playing overseas during the WNBA off-season. Men in the NBA are not allowed to play anywhere in the off-season, but they don't need to as they earn 20 times as much.

Angel Reese of the Rose Basketball Club

38. Energy points in yoga: CHAKRAS.

39. Bullfight, in Spain: CORRIDA. Derived from the Spanish phrase CORRIDA de toros, "a running of the bulls."

40. Vehicles with runners: SLEIGHS. A famous red one is helmed by KRIS Kringle.

43. Lunar deity: MOON GOD. Virtually every ancient civilization had a lunar deity. Back then, there was no TV so the moon was the only thing to watch at night.

44. Prenatal: IN UTERO. IN UTERO is Latin for "in the womb."

45. Least loquacious: TERSEST. Yes.

47. Short races: DASHES. Not DOTS...which are ellipses.

49. Mythical figure who flew too close to the sun: ICARUS. He should've gone at night, but he was too busy watching MOON GOD reruns.

50. Convincing: COGENT. As in an argument stating a case.

52. Kung __ shrimp: PAO. Kung PAO Shrimp is a classic Sichuan stir-fry that pairs shrimp with a savory, sweet, and tangy sauce, toasted peanuts, and a spicy kick of dried chilies (which add the POW).

53. Occupied: IN USE.

55. Salon stock: DYES.

58. Three, in Italian: TRE. Derived from the Latin "tres."

59. "I get it now!": AHA. We all had to wait until the end for our AHA moment.

Be good. RB

Wednesday, May 27, 2026, Sala Wanetick

 

Good Morning, Cruciverbalists.  Malodorous Manatee here with the recap of a Wednesday puzzle by Sala Wanetick.  Here is a link to an article published about Sala when she had her NY Times Crossword debut in 2024:  Southfield Native Makes NYT Crossword Debut

For today's offering (and this is not her LAT debut) Sala shakes up seismic matters by turning faults into, well, faults.  Let us start with the reveal:

56 Across:  Fractured spots in the earth's crust, or what 17-, 23-, and 49-Across are: FAULT LINES.

As in earthquake faults.  However, in this case FAULT LINES become what one might say when they are at fault as in being guilty of a misdeed or a mistake.  All are self-explanatory.  The mea culpas (culpae ?) appear at these three places within the grid:

17 Across:  "I messed up": THAT'S MY BAD.  

23 Across:  First words in a confession booth, often: FORGIVE ME FATHER.

49 Across:  "I totally did that, yep": GUILTY AS CHARGED.

Here is the completed grid:

... and below are the other clues and answers:

Across:

1. Measuring device: GAUGE.  Apropos of 42 Across, what was Patrick Stewart's favorite scale of train?  N-gauge.

6. Shred the __: crush a black diamond run, say: GNAR.  Derived from "That's gnarly", dude."

10. Bikini tops: BRAS.  We'll skip fleshing this one out.

14. Stoneworker: MASON.  Apropos of nothing to do with stone work, Dave MASON left us last month.

15. Roof overhang: EAVE.  These hang out frequently in our puzzles.

16. Sound off: RANT.  After he went on a RANT about certain track and field events I asked my dad "Why don't you like the field events ?"  He replied, "I don't want to discus it."

19. Writer Wiesel: ELIE.  Perhaps best known for the book Night, which was based on his experiences as a Jewish prisoner at Auschwitz and Buchenwald during the Holocaust.

20. Half-inning trio: OUTS.  A baseball reference.

21. Go by: ELAPSE.

28. Electric kettle part: SPOUT.

29. Oft-pickled taco topper: RADISH.  I had never come across this until about ten days ago when the accomplished-chef son of a friend served this at his mother's birthday dinner.

30. "Fiddler on the Roof" milkman: TEVYE.

31. Kylo of "Star Wars": REN.  This time, the clue let's us know up front that it's a Star Wars reference.

32. Flows back: EBBS.

36. Mined find: ORE.

37. Piper Cub, e.g.: PLANE.

39. Gloss target: LIP.

40. Pasta topper, for short: PARM.  Parmesan cheese.

Photo by MM

42. "Star Trek" captain Jean-__ Picard: LUC.

43. "Alfie" star Michael: CAINE.  What's it all about?

45. Poses such as happy baby and humble warrior: ASANAS.  Stances frequently assumed in our puzzles.

48. Hardware not found on a sliding door: HINGE.

53. Historic Harlem theater: APOLLO.

54. Put an end to: HALT.

55. Muscle quality: TONE.

62. Currently working the problem: ON IT.

63. Military flute: FIFE.

64. __-bouche: bite-size freebie: AMUSE.  A complimentary, bite-sized portion of food served before a meal or between courses in a restaurant

65. Critics' picks, informally: RECS.  RECommendationS

66. Meal for a pig: SLOP.

67. Consequently: HENCE.

Down:

1. Clock-setting std.: GMT.  Abbreviated clue (std for standard) . . . . abbreviated answer.   Greenwich Mean Time

2. Relaxing sound?: AAH.  "Why the question mark?", I hear you ask.   A sound you might make when relaxing as opposed to a sound that you find relaxing.

3. Olympic ice hockey gold medalists: Abbr.: USA.  1960, 1980 and 2026.  Here, because nothing in the clue is abbreviated Sala alerts us the the answer will be an abbreviation.

4. Right-hand man: GO TO GUY.

5. Like a Jack and Jill bathroom: EN SUITE.  An EN SUITE is a bathroom that can only be accessed from within the bedroom. A Jack and Jill bathroom is a bathroom with two doors, usually accessible from two bedrooms.  There is no door to the hallway.

6. Old Faithful, e.g.: GEYSER.

7. Scoop up: NAB.

8. Director DuVernay: AVA.  A frequent visitor.

9. Change the meaning of: REDEFINE.

10. Get some air?: BREATHE.  A clue to be taken literally (despite the ?)
"
11. Actor Fiennes: RALPH.   He is known for his roles in Schindler's List, The English Patient, Harry Potter, James Bond, and more.

12. Sambuca flavor: ANISE.  Sambuca is an ANISE-flavored liqueur.

13. Turn a corner, perhaps: STEER.

18. "RuPaul's Drag Race" network: MTV.

A Real Drag Racer

22. __ Vegas Aces: LAS.  A WNBA reference.

23. Camera setting that affects depth: F-STOP.  All you might wish to know:  F-STOP Explained

24. Rossini work: OPERA.

25. App that connects pet sitters and pet owners: ROVER.

26. Musical rattles: MARACAS.

27. Old Testament garden: EDEN.

33. Flashy accessories: BLING.

34. Watch episode after episode of: BINGE.

35. Floor it: SPEED.  A reference to pressing an automobile's gas pedal to the floor

37. Some postseason games: PLAYOFFS.

38. Moon goddess: LUNA.  In the future, will LUNA be clued with something along these lines:

41. Whac-a-Mole whackers: MALLETS.

43. Rosh Hashanah bread: CHALLAH.  It's not just for Rosh Hashanah.

44. Broadcast slot: AIRTIME.

46. Letters on a Cardinal: STL.  Not a religious prelate reference.  A baseball reference.

47. Inconvenient trip: SCHLEP.  Today's Yiddish lesson.  Used here as a noun although it is also employed as a verb.

49. Croc kin: GATOR.

50. Holding a small lead: UP ONE.  

51. Like some chemical bonds: IONIC.

52. Lid: HAT.  Slang.

57. Feel crummy: AIL.

58. Blurry craft in tabloid pics: UFO.  Now "re-branded" as UAP - Unidentified aerial Phenomena.

59. Religious sister: NUN.  A member of an order.  Not your sister, Hannah, who keeps kosher.

60. Corner PC key: ESC.

61. Match, in poker: SEE.  When a poker player says “I’ll SEE your bet”, they are choosing to match the current wager and stay in the hand rather than fold or raise.

_________________________________

Well, that will wrap things up for today.  Any errors or omissions were definitely my fault.

MM OUT

Tuesday, May 26, 2026 ~ Stella Zawistowski

It's Taco Tuesday!

Hi All!
First, the elephant in the room: circles vs. no circles. Personally, I don't care.
Or, as DW told the Girls when they were little, "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit."

If you've ever attempted Stella's Saturday puzzles, you know she doesn't go easy on the solver. There's one or two "This is a Tuesday?"s in today's, but overall she constructed a smooth, light on the A&E, and cruft-free grid with a bit of crunch.

So, let's grab a tortilla, toss in some carne, onion, & cilantro and take a stroll.

Fajita beef, onion, & cilantro breakfast taco.

17. Toyota pickup since 1995: TACOMA TRUCK.

Rear view of the 2025 model

26. Sarcastic "Great idea!": WHAT A CONCEPT. Not!

45. Requires sacrifice to achieve: COMES AT A COST.

61. Portable Tex-Mex snack, or a progression depicted in this puzzle: WALKING TACO.

Get it? The [circled] TACO "walks" from left to right in the grid. Cute.

Er, more like a stumbling TACO
after leaving the pub :-)

Across:

1. Treadmill settings: PACES. ??? All my treadmill says is "speed" and "incline."

6. Learn to fit in: ADAPT. Adjust, ADAPT, Overcome.

11. Fuel for some stoves: GAS. I've got a glass cooktop.  You?

14. Enticing scent: AROMA.

15. Brings to the ground: RAZES.

16. "How We Do (Party)" singer Rita: ORA.

Not my cuppa, but you might like it.

17. [See: Theme]

19. Decimal base: TEN. As a child of the '70's, I got the experimental "new math" and the metric system (this was in '77 through '80 (?)). However, both came in quite handy whilst pursing degrees in EE & CS [#6d_STEAM - I married for the Arts :-) ] .

20. "Rooster" network: HBO. Home Box Office. I'd not known of this show but, from the trailer, it looks good.

21. Coin slot directive: INSERT.

Donkey Kong's Directive

22. Bullfrog relative: TOAD.

23. Ironman race, for short: TRI. TRIathlon.

24. "Well, sort of": ISH.

26. [See: Theme]

32. Pre-1917 Russian ruler: TSAR.

34. Molecule part: ATOM.

35. Land parcels: ACRES.

37. Pancake topper: SYRUP. Here's my go-to from grocer H-E-B.

I'm a sucker for cute packaging :-)

39. Take legal action against: SUE.

40. Large herbivore in India's Kaziranga National Park: RHINO.

This Rhino's in Oregon's Zoo.

41. "Cowboy Bebop" genre: ANIME. With a perp & an educated guess...

42. "Logically, this means ... ": ERGO. #Latin

44. "Toy Story" boy: ANDY.

Fun Fact: On Buzz Lightyear's boot,
Andy's N is not written backwards [cite].

45. [See: Theme]

48. Brian of Roxy Music: ENO.

Brian Eno was commissioned by Microsoft for Win95's 3.25 second
startup sound that he composed it on his Mac.

49. Before, in classic ballads: ERE.

50. Confident and courageous: BOLD.

53. Rum cocktail: MAI TAI. A recipe.

57. Embrace: HUG.

60. Cry of realization: AHA.

61. [See: Theme]

63. Grab a chair: SIT.

64. Common feature of flannel shirts: PLAID.

For the fans like me: Python's Lumberjack Song

65. Volunteer's offer: I WILL.

66. Earth-turning tool: HOE.

67. Actress/writer Kaling: MINDY. I would have known "Mork's friend" who, according to WikiP, Kaling was named after.

Mindy Kaling

68. Vanlifer, for one: NOMAD. Not sure that Matt Foley was considered a nomad :-)

Down:

1. Hiker's trail: PATH.

2. Many a Yemeni: ARAB.

3. Pixar film set in Mexico: COCO.

Coco's Trailer

4. Punk subgenre: EMO.

5. Wiley of "The Handmaid's Tale": SAMIRA. You say so...

6. The "A" of STEAM: ARTS. Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Maths.

7. Truth or __: DARE.

8. C te d'__, France: AZUR.

9. Substance that makes jelly gel: PECTIN.

10. "You should know better!": TSK.

11. Favorite choice: GO-TO.

12. District: AREA.

13. Temporary castle material: SAND.

Here's some more really cool ephemeral sculptures..

18. Maria's friend in "West Side Story": ANITA.

22. TV quiz show with Cash Builder rounds: THE CHASE. No clue. A few Googles later I learned that this is another US import of a UK game show. Here's the US trailer...

23. Played monotonously: THRUMMED.

25. Surgical memento: SCAR.

26. Nintendo character in purple overalls: WARIO. On autopilot, I first ink'd mARIO.

27. Completely lost: AT SEA.

28. Tennis venue: COURT.

29. Last Greek letter: OMEGA.

30. "Read the fine __": PRINT.

31. Care for: TEND.

32. Airport org. with wands: TSA.

33. Match, as a laptop and the cloud: SYNC. 

36. Tofu base: SOY.

38. Part of a hammer: PEEN.

43. Bounding main: OCEAN.

46. Mogadishu native: SOMALI.

47. Starting point: ORIGIN.

50. Wild party: BASH.

51. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's state: OHIO. DJ Donna Halper introduced RUSH to the US when she played Working Man on Cleveland, OHIO's WMMS.

Crossword's fav architect, I.M. Pei (and Co.), designed the RRHOF.

52. Not on time: LATE.

54. Astronaut Shepard: ALAN. Husker Gary, can you hit the ball "Miles and miles and miles"?

Alan Shepard slices it ;-)

55. "Just joking!": I KID.

56. In apple-pie order: TIDY.

57. Pop band with sisters Este, Danielle, and Alana: HAIM.

58. Home of the NCAA's Bruins: UCLA.

59. Top Olympic prize: GOLD.

61. Typist's stat: WPM. Words Per Minute. With copious use of the backspace key, I get about 42 wpm.

62. "It takes __ to tango": TWO.

The Grid:

The Grid

My solve:
WO: mARIO -> WARIO
ESPs: ORA, ANIME (as clued), MINDY, SAMIRA, HAIM
Fav: SUE x-ing COURT made me chortle.

Cheers, -T

Most every workday am, I get breakfast tacos
from Moderno's across from the office *chef's kiss*.