Friday, June 19, 2026

LAT untimed (pannonica) [3.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT tk (Amy) [3.00 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (Jim P) rate it
USA Today tk (?) rate it

No WSJ contest puzzle today, as it’s Juneteenth. ·p·

Elizabeth Duker-Gold’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up

LAT • 6/19/26 • Fri • Duker-Gold • solution • 20260619

• 18a. [To: Comedian Michael, bedding salesman <__.com>] CHEAT SHEETS ([email protected])
• 14a. [To: Athlete Johnson, lawn products salesman <__.com>] BOAT YARDS ([email protected])
• 36a. [To: Broadcast journalist Anderson, surgical supply salesman <[email protected]> COOPERATORS ([email protected])
• 50a. [To: Actor Cheadle, chemistry lab supply salesman <__.com>] DONATIONS ([email protected])
• 57a. [To: Singer Bruno, bulletin board salesman <__.com>] MARS ATTACKS (mars@tacks)

So basically it’s words and phrases containing the bigram A-T, which can be divorced from the surrounding letters, leaving a name to the left and some sort of noun to the right. Hm, it sounds more complicated when I try to describe it!

All guys, all salesmen—that seems weird.

Uploader has the title incorrectly—it’s “Tale of a 280 Pound Shoe Salesman”

Theme-adjacent: 51a [Provide an address] ORATE.

• 2d [Defiant reply] ARE TOO, but I only thought of ARE NOT, so attempted that first.
• 8d [These, in Spanish] ESTOS. “This and these have Ts”
• 11d [Cutesy name for paw pads] TOE BEANS. More specifically they are digital pads, and the complementary carpal and metacarpal pads are generally not called ‘beans’, I wanna say?
• 36d [New fans] CONVERTS. Such as many for the New York Knicks, now. Or perhaps they’re bandwagoneers?
• 40d [“Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” poet Stevens] WALLACE. I was going to say that his day job was as a salesman, but no he was an insurance executive.
• 1a [Jaguar or Charger] CAR. Nothing to do with NFL players. Clue is a little fast-and-loose, as Jaguar is a make and Charger is a model.
• 10a [Gillette brand] ATRA. The product is discontinued, but sure the company still retains rights to the brand name.
• 15a [“Reckon maybe, yeah”] I S’POSE, but somehow I was trying to make IS POSS work.
• 16a [Urge on] GOAD. 25a [Texter’s encouragement to try something new] YOLO (you only live once).
• 20a [Jazz great James] ETTA. No, she dabbled in the jazz idiom, but her successes were in r&b, blues, and rock/pop.
• 30a [Queerplatonic orientation, briefly] ARO-ACE, aromantic, asexual.
• 35a [Bills replaced by coins in Canada and Australia] ONES. I did not know that.
  
• 42a [People in the background of a selfie, perhaps] RANDOS. Does RANDOS not carry a slight pejorative connotation, suggesting someone sinister or creepy?
• 49a [Juvenile eel] ELVER. The shared etymology is noticeable. m-w.com informs me that it dates from 1640 and is an alteration of eelfare migration of eels. It doesn’t say but I’m speculating that it comes from Old English and perhaps ultimately from Old German.
• 54a [Beloved, in Bordeaux] CHERI.
  
• 64a [Part of a rock band?] ORE. I feel as though I should have gotten this more readily.

Solid crossword.