Monday, June 22, 2026

BEQ 11:28 (Eric) [3.50 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
LAT 2:36 (Stella) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 3:40 (Sophia) [3.35 avg; 13 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker 5:46 (Amy) [3.21 avg; 7 ratings] rate it
Universal untimed (pannonica) [2.25 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (?) rate it
WSJ 3:46 (Jim Q) rate it

Victoria Fernandez Grande’s New York Times Crossword — Sophia’s Recap

Theme: TRIPLE JUMP – the three theme answers all end with a synonym for “jump”

New York Times, 06 22 2026, By Victoria Fernandez Grande

• 17a [Wave of antigovernment protests in the early 2010s] – ARAB SPRING
• 23a [Heading back to where one lives] – HOMEWARD BOUND
• 51a [Repository of seeds from all corners of the globe, informally] – DOOMSDAY VAULT
• 62a [Track-and-field event with a sandpit … or a hint to the ends of 17-, 23- and 51-Across] – TRIPLE JUMP

This is a very solid Monday puzzle that will help introduce the “common ending synonym” theme style to newer solvers. None of the four theme answers, including TRIPLE JUMP , have ever been in the NYT before, which is great to see! I liked how all of “vault”, “Spring”, and “bound” were used as nouns rather than verbs as well. I was unfamiliar with DOOMSDAY VAULT – it’s a real place in the Svalbard archipelago that stores seeds in gene banks to help preserve the global food supply in the case of disaster. That’s really cool, and I’m always excited to learn something new in the Monday puzzle!

Since there are only four theme answers there is a lot of space in the grid for other interesting answers. I particularly liked MOVIE SET, SHORT FUSE, TV APPS, and FRAT HOUSE (although I had “frat party” first). I also like the KEG sitting just a short way from the FRAT HOUSE, it felt on-theme. The constructor in me wishes that the center of the puzzle was a little more open without the unbroken black-square diagonal through it, but that’s a reasonable trade-off for good fill overall.

Happy Monday all!

Robbie Cottom’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Los Angeles Times 6/22/26 by Robbie Cottom

This puzzle is interesting, but I have notes, the biggest of which is “it shouldn’t have run on Monday.” It’s not just that there are some harder-than-you’d-expect entries in the grid (OCEANIA seems on the edge for Monday; UTA is definitely hard; STIEG Larsson too, since I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s always mixing him up with the spelling of Shrek author William STEIG). It’s not just that the uniting theme is pointed out to the solver only through question-mark clues with no revealer. I think the biggest issue is how those themers are placed: Three are longer Across entries, as one expects, and then there are two 7-letter Downs, which are way shorter than the longest Down entries in the grid. Put all this together and I ended up spending way more time figuring out what the theme was and which answers were themers than I spent solving the puzzle itself!

Anyway, on to the themers themselves, which each pair a word that is, or can mean, a type of bird, with a word for moving around in some way (described in a punny way as a “flightless migration?” in the clues):

• 16A [Flightless migration on a farm?] is CHICKEN RUN.
• 35A [Flightless migration on a pond?] is DUCK TOUR.
• 60A [Flightless migration on Thanksgiving?] is TURKEY TROT.
• 10D [Flightless migration in Toronto?] is JAYWALK.
• 40D [Flightless migration in a cornfield?] is CORN HOP. A what? Google’s not really helping me here. It might be an old-timey term for a corn bin, or…don’t look up the Urban Dictionary definition if you’re at work.

Despite the puzzle being smaller than normal at 14×15, it took me considerably longer than the usual Monday to solve. I think the idea is cute, but it should have run on another day.

Brooke Husic’s New Yorker crossword—Amy’s recap

New Yorker crossword solution, 6/22/26 – Husic

Markedly easier than I was expecting for a Monday New Yorker puzzle, particularly given the Husic byline.

I didn’t know [2025 Jen Percy book about survivors’ responses to gendered violence], GIRLS PLAY DEAD, or [Aftab who won a Grammy for “Mohabbat”], AROOJ, or [Broadway actress Catlett who voices Mrs. Puff on “SpongeBob SquarePants”], MARY JO, nor [___ aloo (slow-cooked curry)], DUM. The crossings filled them in soon enough. Also didn’t know the term PRIOR ART, [Existing work that suggests an invention isn’t novel enough to be patentable]; tried PRIOR USE first.

Fave fill: LEATHER JACKET, TYRANNOSAURUS, MESSY BUN, CLAYMATION, PHANTOM, BAD BREAKUP. Least fave: ‘STRO.

Is the LAN PARTY still a thing, so far into the Wi-Fi era?

Four stars from me.

Eric G Berman’s Universal crossword, “Shredded Cheese” — pannonica’s write-up

Universal • 6/22/26 • Mon • “Shredded Cheese” • Berman • solution • 20260622

I imagine there was some editorial back-and-forth whether to title this ‘Shredded Cheese’ or ‘Sliced Cheese’. The former seems too extreme for what’s happening themewise, while the latter has less cachet as a phrase. My choice would still have been for ‘Sliced Cheese’.

Anyway, courtesy the circled squares, we have the name of a type of cheese composed of the first letters of a row’s left-hand word and the last letters of the same row’s right-hand word.

• 17a. [Historic region of China] MANCHURIA.
  19a. [Frida’s husband] DIEGO. Kahlo, Rivera.
  manchego
• 25a. [University officials] PROVOSTS.
  30a. [“Cheers” bartender Sam] MALONE.
  provolone
• 44a. [Name that’s a synonym of “give off” when its double letters are made single] EMMITT. Clue tells me that there wasn’t a sufficiently famous person to invoke with that name and spelling.
  48a. [Type of guidance] PARENTAL.
  emmental
• 58a. [Rio Grande tributary] PECOS.
  59a. [South Africa : Lesotho :: Italy : __ ] SAN MARINO. Enclaved nations.
  pecorino

Yes, okay.

• 4d [’70s records, today?] ARCHIVES. First I put in ARCHIVAL, then ARCHIVED, and finally the correct answer. The crossings worked it piecemeal.
• 5d [Diverts] AMUSES.
  
• 6d [Data’s brother in “Star Trek: TNG”] LORE. Didn’t know this.
• 8d [Pile] STACK. Eluded me for a while because I was thinking of a pile as being more irregular.
• 11d [Red ones are the closest to the green] TEES. I’m presuming this is golf, and it’s a bit of LORE unfamiliar to me.
• 18d [Great Lake named after a tribe] HURON. But so is Erie. (Michigan and Ontario, nope.)
• 26d [South Indian soup] RASAM. Can’t recall seeing this in a crossword before.
• 27d [Aversion] ODIUM. 20a [Gush] ENTHUSE.
• 29d [Trap] SET-UP. I fell into the trap and put in SNARE.
• 31d [Victor Vasarely‘s trippy works] OP-ART.
• 32a [Nobelist Murad] NADIA.
• 39d [Flower part] PETAL.
  
• 47d [Struck, as a castle wall] RAMMED. Castle … wall? I’m more picturing a castle door, no?
• 51d [Train like a boxer] SPAR.
  
• 1a [Cher or Beyoncé] DIVA. Put this in right away, but then 1d [Curved roof] starting with a D didn’t look promising. However, it turned out to be DOME and everything was right in this tiny corner of the world.
• 24a [Songwriter DioGuardi] KARA. Not someone I know of.
  
• 43a [An Antoinette] MARIE. Odd clue.
• 54a [Country home?] EMBASSY. “Home” doing some heavy lifting, with an assist from the question mark.

Seemed to be a lot of names in this one. I expect some commenters will take offense.

Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal crossword “Share and Share Alike” — Jim Q’s write-up

THEME: The word UP appears twice in common phrases

WSJ • 6/22/26 • Tues • “Share and Share Alike” • Mike Shenk • solution • 20260622

THEME ANSWERS:

• STUPID CUPID
• CUP A SOUP
• SUPER COUPLE
• PUPU PLATTER (UPs going forward and backward here!)
• (revealer) [Share a room meant for one, and a hint to what you can find in each starred answer] DOUBLE UP. 

Fun Monday puzzle, right over the plate for me. Not a heckuva lot to say about the theme, though I did like a lot of thesnazziness of the themers themselves. STUPID CUPID is a great entry- though I prefer the Patsy Cline version :) And CUP A SOUP???? I thought it was CUP O‘ SOUP! Or maybe I’m confusing it with CUP O’ NOODLES. [googles] Yup. That’s where I went wrong. CUP A SOUP is in the red box. I will say SUPER COUPLE sounds made up to me… POWER COUPLE is the more familiar term in my experience.

OTHER THINGS: 

• [Ed of TV’s “Lou Grant”] ASNER. He was also in… wait for it… “UP“!!!!! I suppose it was too difficult to clue him as such without using UP in the clue, but it sure feels like a missed opportunity!
• [It rises and falls with the fashion] HEMLINE. Nice clue!
• [Frequent flier?] BIRD. Not sure if the ? is necessary here- especially if it’s not necessary for the HEMLINE clue!

4 stars from me today!

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1898 — Eric’s Review

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1898 — 6/22/26 (Click to Enlarge)

Sorry for the late write-up. Lionel Messi showed up, plus some real-life things. I’m just now realizing I only watched about a third of the Austria v. Argentina match. (So far during the group stage, I’ve managed to watch a total of two matches start to finish in real time. Maybe the fact that they’re being played in time zones close to mine is less of a help than one would have guessed?)

Tough grid design, with those triple stacks in the NE and SW and the stair step of blocks running through the center. I found the upper third easier than the rest, but that’s because two of the three longer answers up half were pretty easy. My final time was pretty good considering how out of it I have been for the last week.

Stuff:

• 5A [Book about Napoleon] ANIMAL FARM I didn’t thing for one second this had anything to do with Bonaparte.
• 16D [Singer née Elizabeth Woolridge Grant] LANA DEL REY Weren’t there a lot of complaints when she broke out big years ago that “Lana Del Rey isn’t event her real name!”?
• 18A [Data available at census.gov] STATE FACTS I expect that website is full of interesting tidbits for nerds such as myself.
• 22A [Fishing ___] HUT C’mon, you tried ROD too, didn’t you?
• 24A [“The most healthful and most hygienic of beverages,” per Pasteur] WINE The couple who introduced me to the joys of watch the World Cup are also wine snobs. We used to live 20 minutes apart; now it’s 3-½ hours. I miss hanging with them every fourth summer.
• 28A [Angel, often] GIVER I knew this would be an angel investor and not a mythical being with wings and a halo.
• 30A [Jan Hus’s crime] HERESY That name’s only vaguely familiar.
• 32A [Sourdough starter homes] JAR My soccer-loving friend Deborah is very fond of the sourdough pancakes at the lodge we stay at when we ski in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah. I think they’re too sourdough-y. But Deborah scored a jar of their starter the last time we were there.
• 39A [Philosopher who believed reality is not static] Georg Wilhelm Friedrich HEGEL One of the gaps in my education is philosophy. I recognize a lot of the big names but can’t associate them with specific comments.
• 40A [Stroke-count system] MEDAL PLAY I’m guessing this is sports, but I don’t know which one. “Stroke-count” makes me think of crew.
• 42A [Group with a lot of pull] OXEN Pretty predictable.
• 43A [Jurassic Park beast] DINO Not T-REX.
• 46A [Carpet measurement] PILE In about a month, the uncleanable, 25-year-old shag carpet in the bedrooms in our house goes away. We will not miss it.
• 47A [Agronomist Borlaug who won the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize] NORMAN I’m surprised that I don’t recognize his name. Nobels in the hard sciences and medicine? Those don’t surprise me by being Today I Learned stuff.
• 54A [Water aerobics accesspry] POOL NOODLE And I thought they were just for kids playing in backyard pools.
• 2D [Fishing spear] LEISTER It’s got prongs. Now that I see a picture, I’m pretty sure Brendan has used that one before.
• 3D [“The Big Bang Theory” actress Rauch] MELISSA That’s probably a gimme for most solvers but not me.
• 13D [Adjusts between songs] RETUNES I had that in almost immediately and for some reason thought it didn’t work with the crosses.
• 20D [Over-the-counter brand that helps with anemia] GERITOL I saw people pushing that on TV shows all through my childhood. I kinda could use some today.
• 40D [City of Italy’s Sforza Castle] MILANO I’ll have to try to remember that.
• 34D [Popular antidepressant] LEXAPRO Easy enough with a cross or two.
• 46D [Wharton School of Business Ivy] PENN A gimme; my over-achieving niece got her BBA at Penn.