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Rafael Musa’s Universal Crossword “Themeless Sunday 187” – Adam S’s write-up
Rafael Musa’s Universal Crossword “Themeless Sunday 187” – June 7, 2026
Lovely puzzle today. The long stuff was all very good, with VELCRO DOG, SANTA SUIT, SIDEQUEST, EASTER EGGS, and DISS TRACKS standing out for me. But where this puzzle really differentiated itself was in the mid-length fill. 7s are hard to knock out of the park, given they are often single words or prepositional phrases. But today was a grand slam, with EN FUEGO, JUST A MO, MEOW MIX (which is fun enough to transcend being a brand name), BIOTECH, and KOOL AID. Actually, scrap the grand slam – that’s a five-run homer.
My only tiny kvetch about this puzzle is that it was basically two puzzles in one. There are only two routes from the north to the south of the grid, and both of them involve turning a corner. Which led to a slightly disorienting moment when, halfway through the puzzle, I suddenly barely had a toehold anywhere. Not a big deal, but not what you expect to happen in a themeless.
None of which substantively detracted from a really nice puzzle that had interesting cluing for the difficulty level, while still playing smooth and fast.
A few notes:
- 12A AT IT AGAIN [Back to one’s usual shenanigans] Shenanigans is such a fun word. More shenanigans, please!
- 50A FERRY [Transport option between San Francisco and Marin County] Wasn’t expecting to see my home county in the puzzle! Speaking of which, for any Bay Area readers (or readers anywhere that would like to take part in the Virtual tournament), a brief reminder that next Sunday is Westwords. I’m greatly looking forward to this – last year, the puzzles were amazing, and the opportunities to geek out between them were even better. Registration here for anyone interested.
- 57A SANTA SUIT [Holiday outfit that’s often uncomfortably warm in the Southern Hemisphere] Evocative clue. I wonder if Rafa is speaking from personal experience here.
- 3D LILY [Flower that’s highly poisonous to cats] Nice way to liven up a common short answer.
- 26D DISS TRACKS [Pieces of musical criticism?] Another nice clue!