Sunday, June 28, 2026

LAT tk (Kyle) rate it
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Rebecca Goldstein and Christina Iverson’s New York Times crossword, “Down in the Valley” — Nate’s write-up

06.28.2026 Sunday New York Times Crossword

23A: SOLD, LIKE, HOTCAKES [Was an employee at IHOP, in Valleyspeak?]
32A: SHOOK, LIKE, A LEAF [Fanned some Egyptian royalty, in Valleyspeak?]
47A: WATCHED, LIKE, A HAWK [Did some birding, in Valleyspeak?]
70A: STUCK OUT, LIKE, A SORE THUMB [Hitchhiked with a hangnail, in Valleyspeak?]
89A: DROPPED, LIKE, FLIES [Made some outfielder errors, in Valleyspeak?]
108A: BUILT, LIKE, A TANK [Prepared for some new pet fish, in Valleyspeak?]
121A: WORKED, LIKE, A CHARM [Performed some witchcraft, in Valleyspeak?]

Iconic Valley Girl character Cher Horowitz in “Clueless”

Valleyspeak on SNL’s “The Californians”

As someone who, like, lives squarely in the Valley (specifically, the San Fernando Valley in the Los Angeles area), I really, like, enjoyed this theme and its visit to Valleyspeak. Simple but, like, effective!

For those who don’t see what’s going on, treat “like” as a discourse marker (emphatic verbal pause of sorts) in the base phrase. For example, SOLD LIKE HOTCAKES would be understood here as “Sold hotcakes,” with a filler pause in the middle.  My favorite among this set is STUCK OUT, LIKE, A SORE THUMB as a very Valley way of describing hitchhiking (or, at least, the Valley of Millennials’ childhood).

My only pause with this puzzle (or something I’m missing) is the connection of the full title (“Down in the Valley”) to the puzzle itself. Unless “Down” is doing something else here, it’d have been neat to see the theme entries literally go down instead of across, as a nod to this title. (Let me know in the comments if I’m missing something obvious here!)

How did this puzzle go for you? Did you, like, resonate with it? Either way, you might have also found it a wonderfully quick solve, which hopefully brought a boost to your day. Let us know what you thought of the puzzle – and have a great weekend!

Amie Walker’s Universal Crossword “Themeless Sunday 189” – Adam S’s write-up

Amie Walker’s Universal Crossword “Themeless Sunday 189” – 6/28/26

Lots of lively fill in this one. My favorites were WISH I HADN’T*, OTTER POP, DROP THE ACT*, ASK ME LATER, THAT’S A GO, BODY SCRUB, CUTIE PIES, and AMEN BREAK. The starred entries, plus MINI OREOS, are all-outlet debuts according to the Crosserville database, and at least three of the others have appeared only once. So the longer entries were both numerous and fresh.

There was a little more gunky stuff as a result. ATK [“_merica’s _est _itchen” (PBS cooking show)] is also an all-outlets debut – and isn’t one I feel I need to see again. But the long stuff makes the scattered IBMS, IOS, SDSU, etc., a good trade-off, and Amie did a nice job of spacing that stuff out.

A few notes:

• 28A NYT [Pips publisher, for short ] Very generous of Amie, who is on the editorial team at USAT and AVCX, and the Universal team to be promoting the work of smaller indie puzzle publishers.
• 61A TSKS [“Judging you right now” sounds] Fun way to liven up a common repeater.
• 3D MODEL HOME [Developer’s prototype] Totally fell for the software misdirect here and ended up letting the crosses do the work.
• 25D SDSU [SoCal school] Given the existence of the better-known UCLA and UCSD, a little more specificity would have been nice.
• 37D FARE [“___-thee-well, ogre” (“Shrek” quote)] I like the color of this one – would not have guessed that it was plausible to get “Shrek” into a clue for FARE! Feels like there is a good bar game involving constructors challenging each other to get unlikely words into clues for specific entries. I’ll kick it off by offering to buy a beer at next year’s ACPT to anyone who can get “Frankenstein” into a published clue for POTATO.

Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword, “On the Bright Side” — Matthew’s write-up

Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword, “On the Bright Side” solution, 6/28/26

Our themers this week are bracketed by circled letters. After a few fall into place, it’s clear that each set of circled letters is something that’s typically yellow in color. An apt revealer, the Showtime series YELLOWJACKETS, ties it together. 

• 23a [Perfect state for collectors] MINT CONDITION (MINION)
• 32a [Camper’s tool for starting a fire] BUTANE LIGHTER (BUTTER)
• 41a [“Pot, meet kettle!] YOURE ONE TO TALK (YOLK)
• 62a [Joint with joints] CANNABIS DISPENSARY (CANARY)
• 71a [“Sounds like it was a real pain”] MUST HAVE BEEN SO HARD (MUSTARD)
• 92a [“I shouldn’t get too excited about this”] BE STILL MY HEART (BERT)
• 100a [“The Wire” detective played by Clarke Peters] LESTER FREAMON (LEMON)
• 119a [Showtime series featuring a girls’ soccer team trying to survive in the wilderness … or what seven answers in this puzzle hard?] YELLOWJACKETS

I’m told YELLOWJACKETS is an excellent series, if somewhat dark (too dark for me). This was a fun theme set – the “yellow” angle was clear early on and helped in the second half the puzzle with some harder themers, both in longer spoken phrases, and a television character. (As highly regarded as The Wire is, I haven’t seen that either.)

Other highlights: I initially had CLUE for [“___ me in! (“I want to know more!”)] and chuckled as I erased it that it would be apt for a puzzle. But FILL is also in the same genre, isn’t it? // Lots of spoken phrases clued in quotes this puzzle. LATER BRO [“See ya, buddy!”] was a fun one for me // Crossworders may know [Artist Andrew or N.C.] WYETH from the original “Natick” puzzle. I certainly learned the name there first, but I’ve had a chance to see some of their work in museums and I’m a fan // 

Cheers!