Thursday, May 28, 2026

BEQ 7:44 (Eric) [3.17 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
LAT 6:23 (Gareth) [2.50 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
NYT 6:35 (ZDL) [3.36 avg; 14 ratings] rate it
Universal 5:24 (Eric) [3.25 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today 7:38 (Emily) [2.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
WSJ 12:28 (Jim Q) [3.17 avg; 3 ratings] rate it

The Fireball puzzle this week is a contest. We’ll have a review after the contest deadline (6 p.m. EDT, Sunday, May 31.)

Jake Halperin’s Universal Crossword Puzzle “007”— Eric’s Review

I decided a few days ago that the next time I solved a themed puzzle, I’d concentrate on getting the theme answers first and see if that made any difference. Of course, I didn’t actually remember to do that, though I did notice halfway through how the theme answers worked:

• 16A [*Choosing not to join] OPTING OUT
• 27A [*Pesto ingredient] OLIVE OIL
• 38A [*From long ago] OF OLD
• 45A [*Quick look] ONCE OVER
• 54A [*Vast blue expanse] OPEN OCEAN
• 15D [*Performs surgery for] OPERATES ON
• 25D [*Famous room in the West Wing] OVAL OFFICE Would that the gilding of half the Oval Office were the worst thing to come out of the current administration.

The “00” in the title is obvious enough, with each theme answer consisting of two words that begin with the letter O. And as I’ve just now noticed, there are seven theme answers, making the rest of the title relevant. (I had expected the “7” to relate to the theme answers’ lengths, but none are seven letters. This works just fine, though.)

Other stuff:

• 12A [New Zealand language in which “waka” means “canoe”] MAORI Neato! I now know a word of Maori.
• 42A [Back half of a vinyl] B-SIDE Kudos for “B-Side” rather than “Side B.” Points off for using “a vinyl.”
• 50A [Lavish homes] MANORS Even as I typed MANSE, I was thinking that it didn’t fit the clue too well. Oops.
• 4D [Nickname that drops “stotle”] ARI I guess, though I’d think most “Ari’s” are formally “Ariels.” Or even just “Ari’s.”
• 5D [“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” actress Kate] WINSLET We watched that for the second time a few years ago; it holds up pretty well.
• 23D [Mexican grilled corn dish topped with cotija cheese] ELOTE It’s been too long since I’ve grilled corn on the cob. We can’t find asadero cheese anywhere around here, but I think we can get cotija.
• 32D [EGOT winner Menken] ALAN Since there are so few EGOT winners, I always get curious: A 2020 Emmy for Outstanding Original Song in a Children’s, Young Adult or Animated Program for a song called “Waiting in the Wings”; eight Grammys for scores or songs from Disney movies; eight Oscars for Disney scores or songs (probably some overlap with the Grammys); and a 2012 Tony for the score to Newsies. Not too shabby.
• 48D [Two-wheeler with a pedal assist mode] E-BIKE Cycling is big where I live, and because it’s mountainous, you see a lot of of e-bikes. I’m hoping to keep riding my “regular” bicycle for at least a few more years.

John Kugelman’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up

Time: 6m35s

Difficulty: Breezy (<8m)  |  Easy-ish (8-9m30s)  |  Working on it (9m30s-11m)  |  Rough going (11+m)

Today’s theme: or not to be

• TEN|OR TWENTY
• PAST|OR PRESENT
• FACT|OR FICTION
• MAY|OR MAY NOT

No slings or arrows this morning!

Cracking: OH NO REASON clued as (Answer to “Why’s your report card in the trash?”)

Slacking: OVERARM instead of OVERHAND, technically not wrong, the worst kind of not wrong

Sidetracking: EARP

Jake Halperin’s Wall Street Journal crossword “Capital Gains” — Jim Q’s write-up

THEME: A wacky exploration of repetition possible in world capitals… or something like that.

THEME ANSWERS:

• [Prominent Baltic lodging?] TALL TALLINN INN
• [Where a Balkan rooster might direct its gaze?] AT ATHENS HENS
• [Past Central European conflict?] WAR WARSAW SAW
• [Join a Central American navy?] MAN MANAGUA AGUA

While I don’t totally love the cutesiness of the WAR WARSAW SAW entry (turning war into a wordplay toy feels off to me) I thoroughly enjoyed pretty much everything else about this puzzle.

The WSJ Thursday bite was fully present, and this is exactly the kind of theme that pairs well with difficult fill. The repetition creates a sort of built-in backsolving mechanism where, once your brain locks into the pattern, you can reverse-engineer answers from partial information. Satisfying when faced with a difficult puzzle.

The theme also commits completely to its absurdity. No half measures. It’s tightly consistent, deeply goofy, and fully aware of how ridiculous it is.

My solve moved pleasantly from north to south without ever becoming easy. Plenty of resistance, but the good kind.

ARBITRARY NOTES:

• [Old jukebox insert] DIME. I confidently entered DISC once the DI- appeared. That confidence was misplaced.
• [Get smart, in a way] TOG UP — “Get smart” meaning “dress sharply.” I have never once used the phrase “TOG UP” in real life, nor do I expect that streak to end anytime soon. (SIDE NOTE: I am currently TOGged UP in a Big League Chew Hawaiian-style shirt as a 45-year-old man, so perhaps I’m not the ideal authority on stylish dressing.)
• [Wise mystic] YOGI. I had YODA at first. Naturally.
• [Bishop’s bailiwick] SEE . “Bailiwick” feels like one of those words that exists primarily to clue crossword entries. Bit of an eye-roll at this clue… feels like it’s trying a bit too hard to avoid the definition of SEE that we’re most familiar with.
• [He told Will Smith, ‘You’re almost pretty enough to play me’] ALI. Fantastic bit of trivia.
• [Here comes the sun?] EAST. Great clue.
• [What friends might share as they get closer] ETA. Clever misdirection. The clue initially sounds emotional; instead it’s logistical.
• [Drew in a book] NANCY. Nice one. Nancy Drew, of course.
• [Where you might take notes] ATM. Another strong clue, though I can’t remember the last time I heard anyone refer to cash as “notes.”
• [Silent film figure?] EXTRA. Outstanding clue.
• [Three-men-and-a-baby group?] MAGI. Excellent. Also: more biblical references than usual today.
• [Like the writers of “White Christmas” and “The Christmas Song”] JEWISH. Great fact. Irving Berlin and Mel Tormé, respectively.
• [Like a clown’s smile] PAINTED ON. Genuinely unsettling imagery.
• [Reason for some heated road trips] NO AC. Pretty ugly fill (read: horrific), honestly, but easily forgiven given how strong the rest of the puzzle is.
• [“For” words] AYES. Yet another terrific clue.

A really enjoyable Thursday.

Looks like Jake has the Universal today to! Sweet!

4.5 stars

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1891 “Intelligence Agents” — Eric’s Review

I had to look at the completed grid for a minute or so before the theme sort of clicked. I don’t follow developments in artificial intelligence as closely as I probably should, so it wasn’t until I recognized “Claude” as a name associated with AI that I made sense of things:

• 19A [Spacecraft that Gus Grissom and John Young were the first to ride] GEMINI CAPSULE Gemini is a family of large language models developed by Google.
• 34A [With 36-Across, classic bumper sticker message]/36A [See 34-across] GOD IS/MY COPILOT Copilot is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Microsoft.
• 48A [“La Mer” composer] CLAUDE DEBUSSY Claude is a series of LLMs developed by Anthropic.
• 9D [Smooth, open, U-shaped mathematical curve] HYPERBOLA The only AI connection I could find is that hyper-personalization is a “a business strategy that uses advanced technologies to deliver highly tailored experiences, products or services based on individual customer behavior and preferences.”
• 31D [“It’s all the same to me”] I DON’T CARE The only AI connection I could find is that apparently many people don’t care about AI.

This theme didn’t do much for me, but the theme answers were all fairly gettable either because I knew enough about them (GEMINI CAPSULE; DEBUSSY) or I could piece theme together from the crosses.

Other stuff:

• 15A [Brief periods] YRS When I filled that in, I thought, “Yeah, the years really do fly by anymore.” But now I see that “brief” is just pointing to the abbreviation.
• 18A [Sammy with three letters] PBJ That cutesy name for “sandwich” is beginning to get pretty irritating.
• 27A [Harry Potter character who rides a flying motorbike] HAGRID I had no idea about the flying motorbike, and I DON’T CARE. But I got this immediately thanks to a spoiler I saw.
• 44A [Team building?] ARENA Cute clue, but I’ve seen it before.
• 59A [Traffic driving strategy, briefly] SEO Search engine optimization, for driving internet traffic.
• 2D [Going helper] ENEMA Ugh.
• 13D [Places where some women’s cycles often line up?] SPIN GYMS I kind of like this clue, but I can see how some might find it trivializing.

Rebecca Goldstein’s USA Today Crossword, “The End of an Era” — Emily’s write-up

A fun solve with lots of excellent overall fill and fantastic themers.

Theme: the last word of each themer is a type of an era

Themers:

• 20a. [Disaster movie?], BOXOFFICEFLOP
• 40a. [Band that released “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out (20th Anniversary Deluxe)” in 2026], PANICATTHEDISCO
• 58a. [“XYZ, buddy”], YOURFLYISOPEN

A wide variety of themers in the set today with BOXOFFICEFLOP, PANICATTHEDISCO, and YOURFLYISOPEN. Too fun! With the theme, we get FLOP ERA, DISCO ERA, and OPEN ERA. Top-notch cluing too!

Favorite fill: JAMS, SLICE, STRIKETHAT, and CRAFT

Stumpers: THEFACTIS (needed crossings), MAYBEDONT (also needed crossings), and DIRTYRICE (also needed crossings)

A sweet puzzle today that ended up being a quicker solve for me. I was flying through the clings for the fresh, fun fill and enjoyed the grid design too, which I felt really opened up the puzzle too.

4.5 stars

~Emily

Jared Cappel’s LA Times Crossword – Gareth’s summary

This puzzle’s theme seems a tad, slight? The final answer is RIGHTYOUARE, and each of answers’ second parts end in UR. They are interesting entries, but is that enough?

• [Malaysian capital], KUALALUMPUR
• [Flying reptile of the Mesozoic era], PTEROSAUR
• [Required by etiquette], DERIGUEUR
• [Frothy cocktail from Peru], PISCOSOUR

Gareth