Wednesday, June 3, 2026

AV Club untimed (Amy) rate it
LAT 3:41 (Gareth) rate it
NYT 4:08 (Amy) [3.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker 4:31 (Jim Q) rate it
Universal tk (pannonica) rate it
USA Today 5:22 (Emily) rate it
WSJ 7:42 (Eric) rate it

Gary Larson & Amy Ensz’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Secret Society” — Eric’s Review

Gary Larson and Amy Ensz’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Secret Society” — 6/3/26 (Click to Enlarge)

I feel like I’ve seen a lot of puzzles lately from these two constructors, and they definitely have a notable style. This time, the punny reimaginings of familiar phrases all involve the world of espionage:

• 17A [Spy working undercover at a massage parlor?] RUBBER PLANT
• 28A [Spy working undercover at a maid service?] CLEANING AGENT
• 44A [Spy working undercover on an army base?] POST-OPERATIVE
• 57A [Spy working undercover on a Disney film?] FROZEN ASSET

As always with this sort of theme, if the clue/answer pairs amuse you, you might enjoy the puzzle. They didn’t do a lot for me, but I didn’t really expect them to.

Other stuff:

• 14A [Sheikdom of song] ARABY Whoa, that’s older than I remembered! It was written in response to the success of  a 1921 Rudolph Valentino movie, The Sheik.
• 19A [Sheehy, Scott or Kaine, in the Senate] TIM OK, my initial answer of SEN was just dumb. My second answer of DEM was almost as dumb; I know that Tim Scott is one of the few Black Republicans in the senate. It would have helped if I had noticed I was misspelling 12D EMINENCE.
• 32A [Coward with a knighthood] NOËL A tough clue if you haven’t heard of the English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer (1899–1973).
• 49A [Pitchout pass] LATERAL I didn’t recognize the term “pitchout,” but luckily I have some idea of what a lateral is in football.
• 55A [One of Frank’s wives] AVA Gardner, who was married to Frank Sinatra from 1951 to 1957.
• 11D [Christian follower?] MUTINEER That’s Fletcher Christian of the HMS Bounty mutiny in 1789.
• 36D [How some circus performers get high] ON STILTS A little too cute, maybe.

Jiahe Men’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 6/3/26 – no. 0603

I didn’t look to see what the shaded letter triplets were about until after I finished the puzzle. The EGOT clue points to TRIPLE / THREAT, and the letter triads feature O-R-E-L-S-E, a mildly menacing threat.

The phrases in which the triplets are embedded are great: “I’M TOO OLD FOR THIS,” RIOT GRRRL, PAD SEE EW (not a lot of menu items with three E’s in a row), BELL LABS, CHESS SETS, and DEAD TREE EDITION.

Other fave fill: THE COPA (childhood memories of “Copacabana”), HOT TODDY, RARE BIRD.

Three more things:

• 15A. [Online “Yay!”], WOOT. Originally spelled with zeroes, I think? W00T?
• 38A. [Disease for which China’s Tu Youyou discovered a lifesaving treatment, earning her a Nobel Prize], MALARIA. Here she is. Won the 2015 Nobel.
• 64A. [Rustic verse], IDYL. Also spelled, as NYT Spelling Bee players know, idyll. One of a lot of types of poem that never really got mentioned in my college English classes.

Four stars from me.

Jeffrey Martinovic & William Yuan’s AV Club Classic crossword, “Jockeying for Position”—Amy’s recap

AV Club Classic crossword solution, 6/3/26 – “Jockeying for Position”

Complex theme here. In addition to having the thematic entries BUST A MOVE, CHESS PIECES clued [Objects indicated in six squares of this puzzle, which move to take the letters in six other squares], and SCREEN CAPTURE, there are dark shaded letters Q (queen), K (king), N (knight), B (bishop), P (pawn), and R (rook). Each of those “pieces” move where the thin lines indicate, based on the piece’s legal chess moves. The paths end on light circled letters. As the solution PDF says, “(The captured letters, from top to bottom, spell SCREEN.) Before the capture, the first halves of the affected clues apply; after the capture, the second halves apply. For instance, after the rook in BEAVERS [Creatures that appear on the Canadian nickel] moves to capture the E, leaving its original square empty, the result is BRAVES [Faces courageously].”

26a‘s Q in Q-TIP slides to the far corner of the grid where there’s an N in 127a. [Nunavut native –> “That’s enough for me”], INUIT and I QUIT crossing 121d. [Source of some wind –> Common set of inquiries, for short], FAN and FAQ. The other chess pieces monkey around with the words that become different answers when the chess piece letter ends up there, with clues applying to both options. Intricacies!

Fave fill: SNAKE PITS, EL CAPITAN, PILFERS. There are also some clunkers like ALOP, plural WESTS, RESNAP, GIPP, TORII, and ECASH. It’s hard to avoid such fill in a 21×21, particularly when there are so many constraints involved in building a grid around all those captured Schrödinger squares that have to work in two crossing entries.

No rating from me because I didn’t solve the puzzle, just worked from the PDF solution for blogging purposes. I don’t dig 21x puzzles and chess isn’t my thing, either.

Patrick Berry’s New Yorker crossword — Jim Q’s write-up

New Yorker • 6/03/26 • Wed • Patrick Berry • solution • 20260603

FAVE ENTRIES:

• KARATE CHOP
• SOFTBALLS
• IVORY SOAP
• TEXARKANA
• SEAL TEAMS
• OPTING OUT
• SPELUNKS
• ROLD GOLD
• OYSTER BAR
• GAME PLAN

So much to love here that I could keep adding to the list until somebody took away my keyboard.

Another stunning grid from The New Yorker. Smooth, lively fill, sharp clues, and an impressive balance between originality and Wednesday-level accessibility.

MUSINGS / STUMBLES:

• [Dojo move also called a knife-hand strike] KARATE CHOP. “Knife-hand strike” may be technically correct, but it sounds like something written by a lawyer trying not to get sued.
• [“Don’t believe the ___!”] HYPE. I hate that my first thought was NEWS.
• [Iconic red desktop gadget in the film “Office Space”] STAPLER. Always happy to see an Office Space reference. For some reason I initially pictured the Staples “That Was Easy” button instead. Wrong office supply.
• [Boxer who’s a bungler] PALOOKA. Wonderful word. Fun to say, fun to spell.
• [“I read the news today, oh, boy / Four thousand holes in Blackburn, ___”: The Beatles] LANCASHIRE. I can hear the first seven words of that song perfectly. And then… nothing.
• [Strategy discussed in a locker room] GAME PLAN. I briefly had GUY TALK before realizing neither letter count nor logic was on my side.
• [Blood of the gods] ICHOR. Completely new to me. Not even sure how to pronounce that.
• [Electing not to receive any more robotexts, say] OPTING OUT. OPTING OUT is one of life’s simple pleasures.
• [Person who suits you?] TAILOR. Excellent clue.
• [Brand-name bath bar that expands into a fluffy cloud when microwaved] IVORY SOAP. Excuse me, what? Who is microwaving soap? Patrick, this feels suspiciously firsthand.
• [Town name that’s a portmanteau of three U.S. state names] TEXARKANA. Considerably friendlier than PENNSYLTUCKY.
• [Pretzel brand owned by Frito-Lay] ROLD GOLD. This made me think of Quinlan Pretzels, which I don’t believe exist anymore. Naturally, I preferred the pretzels named Quinlan (my full last name).
• [The five ___ (New York City, in other words)] BOROUGHS. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard someone refer to NYC this way, though it’s entirely possible I have and just wasn’t paying attention.
• [Des ___, Iowa] MOINES. Probably the least attractive entry in the grid, and even that feels like nitpicking.

This is one of those puzzles where everything just works. Great entries, great clues, almost no dead spots, and a solve that stayed enjoyable from beginning to end.

And enjoy this:

5 stars. Again.

Enrique Henestroza’s USA Today Crossword, “Ooh, It’s Going Down!” — Emily’s write-up

Get the popcorn!

USA Today, June 03, 2026, “Ooh, It’s Going Down!” by Enrique Henestroza

Theme: each downs themer contains –OOH–

Themers:

• 4d. [Like an overwhelmingly attractive person], TOOHOTTOHANDLE
• 21d. [“Cry me a river!”], OHBOOHOO
• 16d. [“Hunny”-loving cartoon bear], WINNIETHEPOOH

Today’s themer set is a wide variety with TOOHOTTOHANDLE, OHBOOHOO, and WINNIETHEPOOH. Having started with acrosses, these were mostly filled in when I got to them though I feel like only the last one would have been an insta-fill for me. The title hint is spot on today, and the commonality –OOH– shifts down the screen in each consecutive themer.

Favorite fill: ANKHS, POBLANO, and CACKLE

Stumpers: INROADS (needed crossings), SHORTHOPS (also needed crossings), and IMAWARE (also needed crossings)

My fastest solve yet! I was in the zone and in sync with the cluing today. Loved the overall, fresh fill too. Today’s puzzle felt very playful, which I always enjoy. Nicely done!

4.5 stars

~Emily

Shmuel Schmell’s LA Times Crossword – Gareth’s theme summary

Shmuel Schmell’s puzzle features classic anagram action, although the first answer is easily more elegant than the next two. The revealer is SWEEPINGCHANGES, and each of three entries have sweeping tools that are scrambled. The first is discretely in the phrase STANDUP, hiding DUSTPAN for STANDUPCOMEDIAN. The other two are HAIGHTASHBURY with a BRUSH and SLIDETROMBONE with a concealed BROOM.

Gareth