Saturday, June 20, 2026

LAT 2:40 (Stella) [3.33 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
Newsday tk someday (Eric) rate it
NYT 9:40 (Amy) [3.71 avg; 7 ratings] rate it
Universal 5:40 (Adam S) [4.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
USA Today untimed (ZEB) rate it
WSJ 14:10 (Adam S) rate it

Katie Hoody’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 6/20/26 – no. 0620

Katie Hoody just might be my crossword nemesis. Her Boswords Spring Themeless League puzzle kicked my ass, and so did this puzzle. Oof! NOT MY FINEST WORK, as 37a says. The northeast quadrant was the pokiest for me.

Sorry I missed blogging the Friday NYT last night. I was sick to my stomach and languished in bed around puzzle time, completely forgot.

Fave fill: CREAM SODA (they changed the color of the cream soda Dum-Dum sucker and I don’t know how I feel about that), PLOT POINT, SEA DRAGON, “OR SO I HEAR,” SNOWBIRDS, POWER TOOL, “I’M ONTO YOU,” NERD ALERT, and my friendly neighborhood GREAT LAKE. A treat to see that in the grid rather than the usual ERIE.

New to me:

• 21A. [___ Howard, activist known as the “Mother of Pride”], BRENDA. If you didn’t know the name either, have a look at her Wikipedia page.
• 56A. [Helen with the podcast “Go Fact Yourself”], HONG. Here’s her Wiki. I’m not one for podcasts, but if it’s available on YouTube with captions I could get into it.

Three more things:

• 26A. [Turnovers, but not crumpets], STAT. Turning over the ball, say, not an apple turnover.
• 42A. [What might lead to a pile of dirty laundry], CHUTE. I’ve never lived anywhere with a laundry chute to the basement.
• 7D. [Bulb that becomes translucent when heated], ONION. Not a light bulb, nope.

Four stars from me.

Bhupunn Ingpalangsrikul’s Universal Crossword “Universal Freestyle 228” – Adam S’s write-up

Bhupunn Ingpalangsrikul’s Universal Crossword “Universal Freestyle 228” – 6/20/26

At least according to Fiend records, this appears to be a debut. Congratulations to Bhupunn Ingpalangsrikul, and may this be the first of many!

This was an impressively polished grid that is deceptively hard to fill. Many themelesses have sections of long answers where the separation between the stacks can help create smooth fill. Here, every single one of the 14(!) 9+ letter answers cross at least 2 other long answers, with 2 of them crossing 6(!!).

Despite that, the long entries generally shine and the glue is kept to a minimum. My favorite entries were AD NAUSEUM, FUSION FOOD, GRASS JELLY, SOCIAL CUE, and ROUGH EDGES. SHOT PUT was a nice mid-length bonus.

I also appreciated that the grid is only a Q short of a pangram, yet Bhupunn resisted the temptation to jam one in somewhere at the cost of worse fill. Looking forward to seeing more from this constructor.

A few notes:

• 1A TAEBO [Fitness craze experiencing a resurgence in 2026] This was news to me! Some googling confirmed it – apparently, if I were on TikTok, I’d have known all about this.
• 25A TGIF [“NO SCHOOL TOMORROW!!!”] The conversational clues were generally really nice in this puzzle. This appears to be an original angle among the 333 occurrences of TGIF in the Crosserville database.
• 36A GLAD [“Orange you ___ I didn’t say banana?”] This was a long way to go for GLAD, but I liked the energy.
• 11D LADY [Macbeth or Marmalade] That’s definitely a contrast!

Mike Shenk’s WSJ “Six-Packs” – Adam S’s write-up

Mike Shenk’s WSJ “Six-Packs” – 6/20/26

We have theme answers in which familiar phrases have VI added to create zaniness. Did the Romans have six packs? And did they buy them at VII-XI? Enquiring minds would like to know.

There are 8 theme answers. Perhaps there was a buy 6, get 2 free deal going on:

• SPELLING BEVIES [Covens of witchy quails?] – Spelling bees
• FUNNY BOVINE [Holstein who’s a hoot?] – Funny bone
• ARMORED VICAR [Clergyman joining the Crusades?] – Armored car
• AVID AGENCY [Department of keen energy?] – Ad agency
• LOVING SHOT [Wedding photographer’s capture?] – Long shot
• DIVINING ROOM [The oracle’s chamber in Delphi’s temple?] – Dining room
• VISAGE BRUSH [Tool for applying facial foundation?] – Sage brush
• TRIVIAL BALLOON [Insignificant bit of party decoration?] – Trial balloon

This was a well-made crossword, as one would expect from Mike Shenk. However, at least for me, the entertainment value of this sort of theme stands or falls with whether the resulting transformations have enough zany humor to carry the expanse of a 21×21 grid. ARMORED VICAR raised a laugh and FUNNY BOVINE a smile, but other than that, these transformations felt a little flat for me. Hopefully, they landed with more impact for you.

For a 21×21 grid, the fill was nice and clean. I enjoyed I FEEL BAD, but beyond that, there wasn’t a ton of sparkle in the longer fill. I might have traded off a little more gunk for some more sparkle in the long bonuses. YMMV.

A few notes:

• 14A RABBIS [Bar mitzvah parties] The misdirect is technically unimpeachable, but left me thinking “I guess so” rather than “Aha”
• 57A LEAD ORE [Galena, chiefly] Needed pretty much every cross to parse this one.
• 61A HELEN [Paris visitor?] Nice clue! (Brain now spinning, looking for an apt Paris/Nice pun)
• 71A SERIN [Yellow finch] I’ll take your word for it!
• 31D FAN ART [Some unsanctioned animation images] This clue felt a little off. “Animation images” just doesn’t feel like an in-the-language phrase. “Anime” might have worked better.
• 47D ORANGE [Color of a plane’s black box] TIL. Interesting trivia (and makes a lot of sense).
• 52D SOPHOMORE [Junior’s junior] Nice clue, which got me to fall for the family misdirect.
• 97D PEARS [Harry & David’s Royal Rivieras, e.g] Needed every cross for this one.

Craig Stowe’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Los Angeles Times 6/20/26 by Craig Stowe

I enjoyed this puzzle, with one small annoyance. Here’s what I found notable:

• 5A [Kenny Chesney hit about living in the moment] is HERE AND NOW, and the way we know I’m an old fart is that if I had clued this phrase with reference to a hit song, it would’ve been with reference to Luther Vandross. (The Kenny Chesney song is from 2020.)
• 16A [Birthstone for many Pisces] is AQUAMARINE, my favorite! (Gemstone, that is.)
• 28A [Comment after using a new expression] is AS THE KIDS SAY. Oh boy did this entry make me feel seen. (See above re: I’m an old fart.)
• 67A [Photography collection subtitled “Mathematicians and Their Chalkboards”] is DO NOT ERASE. Funny! Also, I guess that book came out in 2021, which is IIRC around when companies (or at least the ad agencies I used to work for) started cracking down on leaving stuff on a whiteboard when a meeting is over because it’s a data security risk. Math people doing this is probably evergreen though!
• 2D [A on a German test?] is EINE. Here’s the small annoyance: I’ve seen this variety of clue (think [Article in Le Monde?] for UNE) enough times that it doesn’t feel fresh at all to me. Also, it’s one of two similarly clued German entries, and I think 66A DREI, clued as [Three, in Kindergarten] does it better.
• 4D [Oscar-winning film based on an Alasdair Gray novel] is POOR THINGS. I’m usually way behind on seeing Oscar bait movies, but I did see this one and I don’t care who else she was up against, Emma Stone earned that Oscar for playing such an unusual character.
• 13D [Live in a studio?] is a clever clue for ON AIR. Wish I’d seen it while solving!
• 14D [Site with health advice] is WEBMD, which those in the know say is taking a beating from people asking ChatGPT et al. instead of WEBMD.
• 34D [Application with persistent pop-ups] is ANNOYWARE, which is a fun entry even if it describes an unfun concept.

Matthew Sewell’s Newsday crossword, Saturday Stumper — Eric’s review

Matthew Sewell’s Newsday Crossword — 6/20/26 (Click to Enlarge)

8:30 MDT: Please patient, Stumper fans. I’ve gotten little sleep this week and unlike last week (when I beat the amazing pannonica by a few seconds), this one looks to be a bear.

More later (unless my head explodes).

Rafael Musa’s USA Today Crossword “It’s Hot in Here! (Freestyle)” – Zachary Edward-Brown’s write-up

Rafael Musa’s USA Today Crossword “It’s Hot in Here! (Freestyle)” – 6/20/26

Hooray!! Themeless Saturday! This one was a lot of fun. CLIMATE JUSTICE and CHEROKEE NATION anchoring the grid as long 14s, plus THATS NOT OK, YOU LOST ME, and ITS ME AGAIN for some nice conversational vibes. I also loved K-DRAMAS, Chappell Roan’s HOT TO GO!, and ELASTIGIRL from “The Incredibles.”

Really nice work with the grid. One thing I particularly like, and I think I sense this as a pattern with Rafael Musa’s work, is that the mid-length fill is put together really thoughtfully. I count mid-length fill as entries of six and seven letters, so in this grid that includes SILENT, LACOSTE, TWISTY, HAHAHA, SKILLED, MORELS, KDRAMAS, SHRILL, KEENLY, DIESEL, APIECE, and HOTTOGO. That’s a lot of midlength fill, but more than that, most of these are assets in a themeless, which is very impressive to me.

Favorite clue: 62A [Predator that shares a color scheme with Oreos and crosswords] ORCA

4.75 stars