Sunday, April 26, 2026

LAT 6:50 (Kyle) [2.83 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
NYT 11:38 (Nate) [2.56 avg; 18 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Darby) [1.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
Universal (Sunday) 8:51 (Jim P) [2.63 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
Universal 5:02 (Adam S) [2.75 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
WaPo 4:46 (Matt G) [3.13 avg; 4 ratings] rate it

Rebecca Goldstein’s New York Times crossword, “Well-Suited” — Nate’s write-up

04.25.26 Sunday New York Times Crossword

For anyone on the job market, this Sunday NYT is for you. In the spirit of speaking things into the universe, we have this puzzle’s spanning central revealer:

66A: DRESS FOR THE JOB YOU WANT [Corporate fashion advice embraced by the candidates in eight clues]

Let’s meet our candidates!

23A: MARKET WATCH [Fashion item for an aspiring grocer?]
25A: KID GLOVES [… for an aspiring nanny?]
34A: DIGITAL SHORTS [… for an aspiring manicurist?]
50A: DUST JACKET [… for an aspiring housekeeper?]
81A: VENTURE CAP [… for an aspiring travel agent?]
96A: STEAMER TRUNKS [… for an aspiring dry cleaner?]
110A: WIND SOCKS [… for an aspiring flutist?]  (Flutist? Flautist? Comment below!)
112A: SHOT GLASSES [… for an aspiring photographer?]

Each of the themer candidates is indeed “Well-Suited” (nice title!) to their aspirations and, for my money, they’re all hired! DIGITAL SHORTS and STEAMER TRUNKS felt particularly fun, but I appreciated that each themer had personality and a fun, unexpected reinterpretation.

This puzzle also featured a lot of fun cluing! Some of my favorites included:

44A: BAKED [Did some doughnuts?]
33D: ICE TRAYS [Freeze frames?]
37D: LAC [Standing eau?]
54D: LES [From abroad?] (the word “from,” as spoken abroad)
65D: AT SIGNS [Name tags?]
90D: TAP SHOE [One clicking with an audience?]

Trumpeter THAD Jones

I got a bit stuck in the top STOOL / SOWN / THAD / OAT / LEHRER section at the top of the grid, so I wanted to learn more about one of the proper nouns that was new to me: THAD [Trumpeter Jones]. According to Wikipedia, Jones was “an American jazz trumpeter, composer and bandleader who has been called “one of the all-time greatest jazz trumpet soloists”.” TIL! I just listened to “April in Paris” while I finished writing this post and I’d recommend it (even with the surprising Pop Goes the Weasel interlude!). I’ll look forward to seeing his name in a future puzzle.

What did you like about this puzzle? Let us know in the comments. For now, SEE YA! CIAO!

Matthew Stock’s Universal Crossword “Themeless Sunday 181” – Adam S’s write-up

Matthew Stock’s Universal “Themeless Sunday 181 – 4/26/26

Matthew Stock brings his sweet tooth for the Sunday themeless. Want a CAKE POP? It’s in the COOKIE TIN – that’s right next to the CHOCOLATE in the cupboard. Your father is on a CALORIE count, so maybe cut him a slice of that delicious ripe MUSK MELON. For those who prefer savory, try the ALOO PIE or the STINKY TOFU. Whew. Now I’m hungry!

Lots of other good stuff in this one. I particularly liked OFF THE MAP, HOUSE RULE, NO BRAINER, TRUE STORY, and the MONA LISA smiling at the sweet treats in her surroundings.

One small nit: the puzzle seemed to need to SCRAPE BY a bit in the SE corner. That’s a lot of black squares to support a lot of short answers, including some of the weaker elements of the fill. I tend to agree with Universal’s house style that texting abbreviations are among the better abbreviations, but it helps when they are a bit more spread out than IKR and IMO are here. And while IBISES, ET AL, AS ONE, and the slightly awkward plural LEFTS are perfectly OK, that’s quite a lot of less-than-optimal entries in a small space in a section with only one longer answer. I’d have loved the puzzle a little more if a few more of its goodies had been saved for the section I (and likely many others) ended on.

Notwithstanding that, the cornucopia of good stuff in the rest of the puzzle made for a pleasant solve overall.

A few notes:

• 32A SACK RACE [Competition that you have in the bag?] Nice clue!
• 38A OH HELLO [“What a nice surprise!”] Feels more like a slightly dismissive greeting to my ear than the happy utterance suggested by the clue.
• 61A PETE [Politician Buttigieg who was played by his college dormmate on “SNL”]. Colin Jost, if, like me, you didn’t know and were wondering.
• 38A NEST [Sticks together for raising chicks?]. This one felt a little tortured.

Evan Birnholz’s Washington Post crossword, “Inside Track” — Matthew’s write-up

Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword solution, “Inside Track,” 4/26/2026

Good morning from Newfoundland, where I am quite jet-lagged. Today’s puzzle from Evan is titled “Inside Track”  and features song titles hidden inside theme answers, hinted at in their clues by the artist in parens. 

They’re relatively short song titles, which allows for eleven to fit in the grid, and the typical final touch (hinted at in the final across entry, FIRST), is that the first letter of each hidden song spells out MUSIC CENTER. 

I found this pretty breezy with interesting entries in both fill (HAMSTEAK, SEMPER FI, SLIM ODDS) and theme options (WERE SO SORRY, APOCRYPHA, OPERA SERIA). I especially liked having both EARGASMS and EYE CANDY in the same grid. 

Cheers!

Zhou Zhang and Kevin Curry’s LA Times crossword “A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT” – Kyle’s write-up

LA Times solution grid “A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT” – Zhou Zhang & Kevin Curry – Sunday 04/26/2026

Thanks Zhou and Kevin for today’s puzzle. This is a neat idea for a theme, with a couple layers that tie together:

Five Down entries–AMAZON, SNAKE, YELLOW, NILE, HUDSON–are the names of rivers. Each is clued without reference to the river, e.g. AMAZON is [Seattle-based retail giant].

Each river name crosses an Across entry between the letters I-T (circled in the grid). The point of intersection changes a word in a common phrase to create a wacky entry. I’ve put the I-T in parentheses and underlined the inserted letter to show how it works:

• 26A [Performs for only one side of the audience?] EX(I)S(T)S STAGE RIGHT, crossing SNAKE.
• 35A [Support for a fractured fruit?] BANANA SPL(I)N(T), crossing AMAZON.
• 69A [Sew angry?] RAGE QU(I)L(T), crossing YELLOW. The grammar pedant in me wants the clue to be [Sew angrily?] or [Sew while angry?].
• 94A [Mass celebrations?] P(I)E(T)Y PARTIES, crossing NILE.
• 110A [Needs size EEEEEE shoes?] HAS A PROBLEM W(I)D(T)H, crossing HUDSON.

The crossing letters themselves (SNLED) don’t spell out anything, though I guess they anagram to LENDS(?). It would have elevated the theme even more if they could have served as another element to discover but granted that would impose a lot of constraints on the choices of thematic entries.

Notes on fill and clues:

• Science! The clue for NILE is [___ blue: biology stain]. I worked with several types of tissue stains during my postdoctoral research, but I don’t recall using Nile Blue (lots of hematoxylin and eosin, though). Apparently, it’s good for distinguishing different classes of lipids, such as those found in cell membranes.
• New-to-me OREOS (17A) trivia: [Cookies that debuted with a lemon meringue variety]
• Some nice longer entries in “SAVE IT FOR LATER”, DOUBLE ESPRESSO, “I’M SPEAKING”, TRAINED EYE, WATERBED.
• The Latin phrase “A maximis ad MINIMA” (10D) doesn’t return many hits on Google. It looks like it would translate to “greatest to least”. Do any commenters know the context for this?

George Simpson and Zhouqin Burnikel’s Universal Sunday crossword, “Part of Speech”—Jim P’s review

Theme answers are familiar two-word phrases whose second words can also be synonyms for “part” (as in a part of something else). The first words serve as fodder where a three-letter “part” (which spells a word or a name) becomes the question-marked clue.

Universal Sunday crossword solution · “Part of Speech” · George Simpson and Zhouqin Burnikel · 4.26.26

• 22a [Ate?] CHOCOLATE CHUNK. Mmm. Cookies…
• 53a [Lex?] COMPLEX FRACTION.
• 69a [Ale?] TALENT PORTION. As in some sort of individual competition.
• 88a [Hem?] CHEMICAL ELEMENT.
• 120a [Kin?] SMOKING SECTION.
• 15d [Rio?] PERIOD PIECE.
• 68d [Lin?] LINE SEGMENT.

I didn’t catch what was going on with the first theme answer because of the connection between CHOCOLATE CHUNK and eating, what with the clue being [Ate?] and all. But I sure don’t mind being befuddled by the theme for a while. The second answer cleared things up however and the rest fell more easily. Nice, tidy theme.

Let’s see, what’s fun in the fill? Ah, LION DANCE. Very colorful and lively. Great fill. “I SURE WILL” is its counterpart and feels like signature Burnikel with its vernacularity. Other goodies: CAHOOTS, RAH RAH, LEAD ROLE, LAUDABLE, and ARIZONA. Not very excited about GAS TAP, but it fell easily with the crosses.

Clue of note: 13a. [Tiny tastes of sencha]. SIPS. I enjoy Japanese green tea, but the word “sencha” has never registered with me. Apparently, it’s the most popular tea in Japan.

Good puzzle. 3.5 stars.