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Ginny Too and Rajeswari Rajamani’s New York Times Crossword — Sophia’s Recap
Theme: Each theme phrase is two words. The second word is the last four letters of the first word.
New York Times, 06 29 2026, By Ginny Too and Rajeswari Rajamani
- 17a [Screen addiction, e.g.] – DEVICE VICE
- 23a [Where boxers trade jabs] – SPARRING RING
- 37a [Clever chap] – INTELLIGENT GENT
- 45a [Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzai, Linus Pauling, Martin Luther King Jr. and so on] – NOBELIST LIST
- 57a [“Meow, meow, meow!,” e.g.] – FELINE LINE
I didn’t really have an “aha” moment, more of an “oh, I see what’s going on here” at the start of the puzzle. Because these phrases don’t exist outside of the puzzle – no one is out here saying FELINE LINE or INTELLIGENT GENT on a daily basis – it was easy for me to figure out what was happening as soon as I got the first theme answer. It’s an interesting gimmick, but I wish there had been something more tying it together – some reason for this particular set of answers, since I’d bet there are a lot of options for this setup.
That being said, I think the constructors did a good job of creating phrases that are easy to understand and clue simply. DEVICE VICE as a term for screen addiction is a particularly fun choice, and I loved the TONI Morrison tie-in to the NOBELIST LIST at the bottom of the puzzle.
Overall I thought the fill was appropriate for a Monday – great across bonuses (rare!) for JALAPEñOS and PET PEEVES. The IONE/ROUE crossing might play hard for some folks, though (unless you are as big of a “Say Anything” fan as I am). My partner is named NEAL, so I always like seeing that name in the puzzle. I also thought it was fun to have both LEVY and LEVI in the puzzle, and I learned that the name LEILA means “night”.
Happy Monday all!
I asked an acquaintance named Leila if she were named for the night. She told me that it can also mean “drunken,” and that’s what her father named her for. I quickly dropped the topic, but subsequently learned it was most likely not an excuse for her conception, but an allusion to being besotted with love. Perhaps Huda can extricate me.