Sunday, May 24, 2026

LAT 6:44 (Kyle) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 11:05 (Nate) [3.75 avg; 14 ratings] rate it
USA Today untimed (ZEB) [2.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Universal (Sunday) 10:26 (Jim P) [3.63 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
Universal 5:03 (Adam S) [2.33 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
WaPo 4:37 (Matt G) [3.00 avg; 4 ratings] rate it

David Steinberg’s New York Times crossword, “Next, Please!” — Nate’s write-up

05.24.2026 Sunday New York Times Crossword Puzzle

22A: CONTROLLED CHAPS [Stoical British guys?] (O –> P)
37A: THAT’S SO NOT OLAY [“The skin cream you’re using must be Neutrogena or CeraVe!”?] (K –> L)
51A: MISSED A BEAU [Pined for an ex-boyfriend?] (T –> U)
64A: GIVE ME ONE SEASON [Exasperated television producer’s plea?] (R –> S)
80A: CONTACT LEOS [Reach out to people born between July 23 and August 22?] (N –> O)
94A: FIRST CLASS NAIL [Good name for a salon specializing in mani-pedis?] (M –> N)
111A: DISSONANT CHORES [Loading the dishes and unloading the dishes, e.g.?]  (D –> E)

Each of this puzzle’s theme entries is a normal phrase with one of its letters replaced with the next letter in the alphabet (hence, the puzzle’s “Next, Please!” title). Controlled chaos becomes CONTROLLED CHAPS, missed a beat becomes MISSED A BEAU, etc. And! When you look at the circled / replacement letters sequentially, it spells out PLUS ONE, a nice reference back to the theme mechanism of going one further letter in the alphabet at each circled square – nice!

This puzzle was a fun, smooth solve for me, and I hope it was for you, too. I appreciated that, with the theme entries having relatively few constraints, the constructor stayed consistent in only modifying a letter in the last word of each entry. That attention to detail makes me appreciate his constructing craft all the more. His skill should be no surprise, given that this is his 113th(!) puzzle for NYT and that he makes his living editing crosswords.  Thanks for the great puzzle, David!

What did you think of the puzzle?  Let us know in the comments – and for those of you in the US, have a great holiday weekend!

Willa Angel Chen Miller’s Universal Crossword “Themeless Sunday 185” – Adam S’s write-up

Willa Angel Chen Miller’s Universal Crossword “Themeless Sunday 185” – 5/24/26

Willa is an amazing constructor, but this wasn’t my favorite of her puzzles. It took a little bit of time to work out why, since the puzzle has plenty of fun entries such as INSIDE OUT, ARTSY FARTSY, ABOUT TIME, I CAN’T EVEN, GRAND SLAM, and the fresh STRAVA, a very popular fitness tracking and planning app with only one previous appearance in the outlets tracked in the Crosserville database. And I absolutely adored the clue/answer pair of [No-strings attached declaration?] for I’M A REAL BOY.

In the end, it mainly came down to the grid structure. The combination of the long barrier across the middle and the black square edifices in the north and south effectively splits the grid into four sections, with only two ways in and out of each. Those ways in and out all required getting long answers, and connecting the NW to the SE required going through the excellent but brutally hard by Universal standards I’M A REAL BOY or the totally unknown-to-me MS RACHEL [Overall-wearing YouTuber for tots] (nothing against her inclusion – her work seems very cool from her Wikipedia, but I’d rather have learned about her not at a grid chokepoint!) As a result, I never got the fun feeling of flow that often comes from easier themelesses.

Further, there was something aesthetically jarring about the asymmetry on this one, mainly because the bottom fingers on the sides have three more blocks than the top fingers, making the whole thing feel a bit unbalanced.

All of that may simply be a me thing. If you solved it, I hope you loved it as much as I normally love Willa’s puzzles.

A few notes:

• 18A TASTE THIS [“Try what I just cooked!”] There’s a delicate balance in spoken-word clues that gets harder as intended-cluing levels get easier, between producing idiomatic-sounding language and giving the solver enough info to solve. This felt a little bit unbalanced in favor of the info component.
• 52A ABOUT TIME [“FINALLY!”] By contrast, this one landed perfectly for me.
• 59A LETS [“I’m up for that”] Willa did a nice job of getting conversational color into some shorter answers. See also [What a scorcher] for IT’S HOT.
• 42D EASTER [Lamb cake’s spring holiday]. Lamb cake was a TIL. Based on some googling, they are very cute! Nice, colorful clue.

Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword, “Taking Cues” — Matthew’s write-up

Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword solution, “Taking Cues,” 5/24/2026

Our themers this weekare common phrases with a QU- sound added in. Classic, and one of my favorites when done well. 

• 22a [Written passages on dice?] ROLLED QUOTES
• 33a [Friends with good judgement?] WISE QUAKERS
• 52a [Faculty member’s very own actor Dennis or Jack?] TEACHER’S QUAID
• 68a [Response to “These muscles on your thigh can be strengthened by lunges and box jumps” on “Jeopardy!”?] WHAT ARE THE QUADS
• 87a [Actor Aidan, when he’s cursing like a sailor?] SWEARING QUINN
• 103a [Redheaded game bird?] GINGER QUAIL?
• 120a [Ducks’ war cries?] BATTLE QUACKS 

Just the right balance of corny, genuinely funny, and unpredictable for me. By the bottom half I was mostly able to figure out the themers from the clues, which are nicely pinned, as is typical for Evan. 

Other highlights: Big doubletake at 39a, where we learn about BONES from Sesame Street’s Count von Count: “They are not outside but in / Yes they’re underneath your skin.” Apparently not too macabre for the show! // Speaking of Sesame Street, “Hellmo” in the clue for MEME is a new-to-me name for “Elmo Rise.” It’s an image of a crude Elmo with his arms spread in front of a wall of flames, used to represent chaos. If you know it, you know it. The whole viability of memes is that they express something difficult to do in words // I quite liked the proximity of [Puts down steaks, say] (EATS) and [Put up stakes] (BET) at 127a and 120d 

I’ve never nailed down STANCH (64d) from STAUNCH, so for my purposes here, I’m glad they’re different lengths // [Record labels?] for LEGAL NAMES is particularly tricky, so much so that it feels out of place anywhere but a late-week themeless 

Cheers!

Zachary Gallardo and Joe Marquez’s LA Times crossword “TRACK RECORDS” – Kyle’s write-up

LA Times solution grid “TRACK RECORDS” – Zachary Gallardo & Joe Marquez – Sunday 05/24/2026

We have a collaboration puzzle by the duo of Zachary Gallardo and Joe Marquez today. As suggested by the title, the theme deals in song titles, each clued by a pun on a phrase involving the word “record”:

• 24A [Permanent record?] TOGETHER FOREVER. Rick Astley, 1988.
• 32A [Criminal record?] MACK THE KNIFE. From The Threepenny Opera, music by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Bertolt Brecht, 1928. Famous recordings of the English translation have been made by Bobby Darin, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Armstrong.
• 51A [Historical record?] BACK IN THE USSR. The Beatles, 1968.
• 71A [World record?] HEAVEN IS A PLACE ON EARTH. Belinda Carlisle, 1987.
• 85A [Broken record?] I FALL TO PIECES. Patsy Cline, 1961.
• 108A [Medical record?] LIKE A SURGEON. Weird Al Yankovic, 1985. The song parodies Madonna’s “Like a Virgin”. It peaked at #47 on the Billboard Hot 100.
• 116A [Fossil record?] WALK THE DINOSAUR. Was (Not Was), 1987. Haven’t heard of it but apparently it was a top ten hit in the US and UK.

The connection between the clue and song title is at times a bit stretchy (especially 51A and 71A), but overall it works.

Notes on fill and clues:

• Nice pair of long Downs at 3D “MUSIC TO MY EARS!” and 60D “FOR SOME REASON…”. The constructors were able to place the shorter themers at 51A and 85A toward the central axis of the grid, meaning those Downs only cross two theme entries which allows for much more flexibility in filling.
• Cool to see the cluster of consonants at 4D SNL SKIT, though I don’t buy this as a valid standalone phrase.
• I’ve been seeing 25D TTFN more often in crosswords lately. While it’s often clued (as here) as textspeak, it apparently originated in the UK during World War II as military slang.
• I remembered cat food brand SHEBA from this TV commercial that ran when I was a kid:
  
• The AL batting title was renamed in 2016 in honor of ROD CAREW, who won the award seven times (second only to Ty Cobb).
• It was a bit tricky to see EMAIL as the answer to 110D [Part of a thread], given the number of meanings in play.

August Miller’s Universal Sunday crossword, “Mega Freestyle 5”—Jim P’s review

How can you not love a good, meaty Sunday-sized themeless grid? This one fits the bill in just about every way possible.

Universal Sunday crossword solution · “Mega Freestyle 5” · August Miller · 5.24.26

That central stack is absolutely lovely with RAILROAD CROSSINGS, BEST-CASE SCENARIOS, and my favorite bit of fill “JUST LET ME HAVE THIS.” Elsewhere are highlights “MISTAKES WERE MADE“, GOING-AWAY PARTIES, “EVERYONE’S A CRITIC“, REGISTERED TO VOTE, “OF ALL THINGS“, LAVA FIELDS, “JESSIE’S GIRL“, CELESTIAL OBJECTS, football’s SPECIAL TEAMS, CHEESE SCONES, PRESS PLAY, PIGGY BANK crossing PORK RIB, and TAKES IT AS IT COMES (I tried TAKES IT ON THE CHIN at first—which fit, by the way). The only long bit of fill that felt a little iffy was “BETCHA I CAN” but in light of all the other goodies, it’s easy to let it slide. Also good: SHIATSU, ACOLYTE, BIG DAY.

There’s very little in the way of crosswordese and only a few proper names. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that all this was done while maintaining grid symmetry.

Clues of note:

• 41a. [Rite aide]. ACOLYTE. Lovely clue.
• 16d. [Outraged “And this is what you chose?!”]. “OF ALL THINGS!” It strikes me that this is would be a hard phrase to clue, but I think the chosen one is spot on.

I’m having a hard time finding fault with this excellent grid. Five stars from me.

Amie Walker and Kareem Ayas’s USA Today Crossword “It’s BTS!” – Zachary Edward-Brown’s write-up

Amie Walker and Kareem Ayas’s USA Today Crossword “It’s BTS!” – 5/24/26

I’m always impressed with USA Today themes where each themer starts with the same three letters, like last Sunday’s WOW puzzle. This one is BTS:

20A – [Like many a model train] = BUILT TO SCALE
40A – [Out of public view] = BEHIND THE SCENES
56A – [Invasive reptile that poses a threat to Guam’s native birds] = BROWN TREE SNAKE

With BTS making their massive comeback, this puzzle is super timely and fun, which I love.

I’m still impressed by the theme set – I imagine there weren’t a ton of solid options to choose from. However, I will say that BROWN TREE SNAKE didn’t thrill me as much as I would have liked it to. It certainly seems like a totally random snake, chosen just for its letter pattern and not because it is super interesting. Although I will admit that it got an excellent trivia clue, which saved it at least a little bit for me.

I really liked the fill and cluing throughout. NICE WORK and LOVE IT were particularly nice bonuses. 68A and 69A both mentioned “The Pitt”: [Emma Nolan and Dana Evans on “The Pitt” (Abbr.)] = RNS; [Some sets on “The Pitt”] = ERS.

Favorite clue (by far): 17A [“I need to just stay home and ___ today” (“I’m spent”)] ROT Even having RO_ I couldn’t immediately put it in. Excellent, excellent clue.

4.75 stars