Thursday, June 18, 2026

BEQ untimed (Eric) [3.00 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
Fireball untimed (Jenni) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
LAT 6:25 (Gareth) rate it
NYT 8:41 (ZDL) [2.56 avg; 9 ratings] rate it
Universal 6:19 (Eric) rate it
USA Today 7:34 (Emily) rate it
WSJ DNF (Jim Q) [2.60 avg; 5 ratings] rate it

Peter Gordon’s Fireball Crossword “Themeless 189” – Jenni’s write-up

This one felt pretty tough to me – how did you find it? One long entry completely unknown to me and transliterated from Chinese, one long word that is unusual (although not unknown to me) and the usual brain-breaking FB clues.

Fireball, June 17, 2026, Peter Gordon, “Themeless 189,” solution grid

• As he so often does, Peter links the first and last entries. 1a [Garth Brooks #1 album of 2001] is SCARECROW. 63a [Something above criticism] is a SACRED COW.
  • 6d [Restaurant specializing in a South American barbecued steak dish] is a CHURRASCARIA. I knew the word and had no idea how to spell it, so I had to wait for a bunch of crossings.
• 21a [Author of the 2021 #1 best-selling YA novel “Iron Widow”] is XIRAN JAY ZHAO. See what I mean? It’s a great entry and entirely valid; the book was evidently a huge sensation and I completely missed it.
• 30d [Animation wheels] are ZOETROPES, very cool devices that created a simulation of movement before actual moving pictures were a thing. Here’s a very cool example using 3-d printed roosters. Nifty!
• 31a [Insectivorous bird with bright plumage] is a BEEEATER which just looks wrong because of the three consecutive Es.
• 53a [Rustic] is HICK because “rustic” can also be a noun meaning resident of a rural area.

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: see about re: XIRAN JAY ZHAO. Also have never heard of ELLA Mai or her song “Boo’d Up.”

Scott Hogan’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up

Time: 8m41s

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

Scott Hogan’s New York Times crossword, 6/18/26, 0618

Today’s theme: start, middle, finish

• BROADWAY OPENING (Bro?)
• VISITOR CENTER (Sit?)
• FAIRYTALE ENDING (Ale?)

What really jumps out is the architecture — 70 words and 30 blocks is Friday-level territory.  And here I am, solving on a Wednesday, anachronisms amplified and with only a fleeting grasp on reality.

Cracking: CLASS A MORON

Slacking: ETCHANT, they get into the walls, marching two by two, engraving the backside of your baseboard

Sidetracking: Coyote vs ACME, coming soon to a theater near you, once cancelled by Warner Bros for the sole purpose of taking a tax write-off, please Lord let us turn it into a summer blockbuster

Ella Dershowitz’s Wall Street Journal crossword “Not a Straight Answer” — Jim Q’s write-up

THEME: Certain down entries “drop” and across entries have to drop with ’em to make answer

WSJ • 6/18/26 • Thurs • “Not a Straight Answer” • Ella Dershowitz • solution • 20260618

THEME ANSWERS:

• CO-CH(AIR)ED / AIR(DROP)
• OVER TH(E YE)ARS / EYE(DROP)
• LATI(N AME)RICA / NAME (DROP)
• (revealer) [Suggests indirectly, or, when you add an apostrophe, statement about this puzzle’s theme] DROPS A HINT (“DROP” *IS* A HINT!)

Cool idea for sure, but boy I bit it hard. Did not see the theme until I was done. Just saw the “dropped” words and grokked that part. Was really curious what COCHA was but just assumed it was a word I didn’t know. LATIN didn’t seem accurate for [Region in which Spanish and Portuguese are the main languages], but I shrugged it off since LATIN is definitely a word. OVER THE was the biggest hint that I was actually missing something. I figured it out from there, but only post solve.

I sorta ran out of steam and gave up on this one today, so it’s a DNF. Not the puzzle’s fault. I haven’t stopped with work tasks in weeks. I’m in charge of a lot of graduation for my school and was just promoted into a new position where I have to run all the things media related, so I’m struggling to keep up! One more week and I’ll be able to breathe!

ERRATA:

• [Apples and oranges] TREES. FRUIT was the answer I entered- I’m sure I wasn’t alone.
• [Food drive?] APPETITE. Good clue!
• [Out of style] UNCHIC. I had UNCOOL. I don’t think I’ve hear UNCHIC.
• [Some Army NCOs] S SGTS. Staff sergeants I assume? Looks pretty ugly imo
• [Jeremy of CBS’s “FBI”] SISTO. New to me.

Puzzle is nicely done, although the LATIN as a stand alone entry doesn’t seem fair in a puzzle with this level of trickiness since the others (COCHA and OVERTHE) are not stand alones. That’s my only gripe. DNF is on me, not the puzzle.

Li Ding’s USA Today Crossword, “Muddy the Waters” — Emily’s write-up

Don’t muck it up!

USA Today, June 18, 2026, “Muddy the Waters” by Li Ding

Theme: each themer contains –WATERS– mixed up

Themers:

• 20a. [Floral nickname for Kansas], SUNFLOWERSTATE
• 36a. [Piece of reporting], NEWSARTICLE
• 53a. [Birds with a musical name], TRUMPETERSWANS

Today’s themer set included: SUNFLOWERSTATE, NEWSARTICLE, and TRUMPETERSWANS. Only the second themer was an insta-fill for me, though a few crossings allowed me to fill the others so I found nothing to be too tough. Loved the theme and the title hint too!

Favorite fill: PERPLEX, HINGE, and SONIA

Stumpers: STIMULI (needed crossings), POET (cluing new to me), and UGANDA (needed crossings)

A fun end-of-the-week puzzle. Enjoyable fill, cluing, and grid! Delightful theme with a nice set of themers and a great title hint. Just what I needed today!

4.5 stars

~Emily

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1897 “Shorty” (a/k/a “Hey Shorty”) — Eric’s Review

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1897 “Hey Shorty” — 6/18/29 (Click to Enlarge)

I wish the timer in AcrossLite (hell, in every crossword puzzle-solving interface) turned on and off automatically. I forgot to pause the clock after entering 1A and don’t know how to reset it (if that’s even possible) On the other hand, AcrossLite’s clock stops when you fill the last square, even when you have a mistake. Let’s call this an even 10 minutes, which is probably about right.

I assume the intended title for this one is “Hey Shorty,” since that can be parsed as “Hey, Short E.” But now that I think about it, “Short E” makes just as much sense. (Don’t leave us hanging, Brendan — which is it?)

Anyway, compound nouns with a short E sound get change to a short A, and the wackiness ensues:

• 17A [Cover exactly 50% with a flour and egg mixture?] BATTER HALF Do straight married men still use “better half” to refer to their wives? I get that it’s arguably complimentary, but man, it’s so 1950s-sounding.
• 49A [Unruly crowd ready for action?] RABBLE ARMY I wonder if Brendan had a specific rebellion in mind here.
• 11D [Trellis that goes around the body?] LATTICE WRAP
• 25D [Puts a levy on a Madison Square Garden player?] TAXES RANGER With the Knicks recent NBA championship, I temporarily blanked on the NHL tenant of MSG. And yes, the Texas Rangers still exist and they’re pretty smug about their position in the Department of Public Safety of the State of Texas.

Other stuff:

• 5A [“The Mandalorian and ___”] GROGU A gimme. That was sort of on my list of movies to see until Disclosure Day showed up, with The Odyssey coming out soon and Toy Story 5 already out. Sorry, Disney (thought you’ve probably got your hand in all three).
• 14A [Like something weird, cringey, or awkward] OHIO I’d not heard that before. My dad was born in Cleveland and lived there until he went to grad school in Troy, New York. I should take offense in his memory, but I can see how that maybe fits.
• 26A [Congresswoman whose stock holdings regularly outperform the S&P 500] PELOSI I would have put “Former” or “Retired” in that clue.
• 28A [Chooses personally] HAND-PICKS I thought this was a theme answer. “Henpecks” works, but that’s got an extra short E. Then I realized the theme is in both the Across and the Down answers. (Mostly, I realized there was no way 40A TIRED EYES works as a theme answer.)
• 34A [Cheer in el estadio] OLÉ As I type this, the second half of Mexico v. South Korea has just started. Will the crowd in Guadalajara go wild if Mexico scores? Is the lavender kit the South Koreans are wearing not much to look at?
• 28D [Spiny lizards] HORNED TOADS One of the few things I miss about Texas (not that I saw them that often).

Zachary David Levy’s LA Times crossword – Gareth’s summary

The puzzle is creative in a number of directions. It has left/right symmetry to fit in its unusual theme lengths of 10/11/10/7. Each is a phrase about learning, re-imagined to be taken overly literally. So:

• [“Hug the shore…”] is SOUNDADVICE about a geographical sound.
• [“Pair it with thyme…”] is SAGEWISDOM about actual sage.
• [“The cinnamon version…”] is a LIFELESSON, presumably about the American cereal.
• [“Say ‘aye’ forcefully and…] are PROTIPS, about being PRO in an argument.

The design forces a middle section where SOUNDADVICE is flanked by two non-thematic 11s. The [Professional who specializes in oil cleanups?], ARTRESTORER in particular is a masterful clue/answer pair. Crossing that is another long non-thematic answer: FIREDRILL clued as [Exercise that may wind up in a playground?], also cunningly clued.

Gareth