Sunday, April 19, 2026

I found this puzzle to be a step up in difficulty from the normal Sunday fare (at least as of late); my solving time was double my recent average. **I am not complaining at all! More like this on Sunday please!**

It's days like today I'm really glad I took up this hobby. What a great puzzle! What a great feeling to have solved this puzzle! So I'm enjoying today, because we're ever unsure of the morrow.

Thanks....I hated it

loved this one!

A challenge should be enjoyable when completing a crossword puzzle. This was anything but.

Here's a thought to cheer you long-time solvers eager, AGOG even, for a chewy Sunday puzzle: It *may* be that because of your perseverance in the comments, they decided to leave the circles out today for the tricky squares, just to make it a touch harder. If so, well done!

Loved this one! I adore that feeling of something being "off" at the beginning of a solve, where the straightforward is awry, and having to slowly work things out and into place... The double-rebus realisation was a wonderful gear change that added extra impetus and set the puzzle perfectly for the home stretch. An hour of crossword joy! Many thanks Michael!

About as straightforward as a rebus-containing puzzle can get. Very impressive construction with the rebuses working both across and down. Two thumbs up.

Thanks....I loved it

Lovely touches in the making of this puzzle: • The six fused phrases (such as DEAD HEAT and YARD CARE) are all, elegantly, the same length. • Their first letters are different, as well as their last letters. So, DeaD HeaT works, but DeaD HeaD doesn’t because its last letters are the same. More elegance. • The across answers with rebuses no only fit grid symmetry, but are in-the-language, most of them colorful. • On top of this, there are 15 NYT debut answers – 15! – all interesting and unforced, such as CRÈME EGG, AIR HIGH FIVE, HOLY CANNOLI, PROMPOSAL, and I FEEL GREAT. This theme was, for me, a tough nut to crack. Thorny cluing slowed me up, and while I knew there was a rebus, I wasn’t sure, for quite a while, which square held it. And thus, my brain, which lives for nutcracking moments, was in heaven. Way to push the envelope on this theme, Michael, and thank you for creating a sweet hill to climb. Your excellent creation easily goes on my Sunday POY list. Thank you!

Brilliant! Michael Lieberman has 35 puzzles to his name, but this one is his … RD E B U ST What a gem! POY contender for sure. Thanks, Michael, that was so much fun.

I love the trippy feeling of things not quite working and not knowing why. It's the anticipation that a surprise is in store. This was so well executed and such fun to figure out. Some puzzles wow me with wordplay, others with convoluted clues. This had neither, but the trick was superb. Even after I knew what was going on, I had to pay attention to get everything just right. A big thank you to editing for not circling the boxes where the rebuses were needed.

If you’re going to have a fairly inscrutable theme, you shouldn’t have so many obscure “stuff that only I know” clues as well. Sorry, I like tough solves but this one’s a little too self-indulgent and too clever for its own good for my taste.

Holy Cannoli! If that one wasn't enough for the Sunday Slog Lovers, I don't know what would be. I, for one, am quite proud to have gotten the happy music on this one, albeit after a fair amount of flyspecking and in over two hours I really loved this puzzle, and it goes right along with the discussion yesterday of NEON being a common element, what with "Nuclear Fusion" and all. I hope to see some elite solvers cheers.

Don't know why anyone would hate on this puzzle. Lieberman is a grandmaster at this and we are in good hands. Rasta Pasta was new to me, and I imagine browning the garlic in some CBD oil would be part of a recipe for it. I bet it tastes highly selassie. Also like the pair of ACNE/SKIN DEEP, and the triad of SEEN IT/WRAITH/AIR HIGH FIVE -- I can just see one of the silly ghosts doing that in the Hogwarts dining hall, with Harry looking AGOG. My man Mesmer, in his day was like one of those celebrity Hollywood doctors who get exposed once in a while as a fraud, but not before socking away $100 million. In Paris, Mesmer treated groups of patients using a device called a baquet (a tub filled with magnetized water and iron rods). People sat around it holding rods or ropes as mood music played in the background, often glass harmonicas, and in these group hypnosis theatricals his patients would frequently go into convulsions, trances, and panicked outbursts. But hypnosis was secondary to his theory of why such behavior occurred -- animal magnetism, an invisible force that flowed through all things and which Mesmer thought could be manipulated, principally by using magnets in creative ways. So his contribution to history was just a side effect, based on his innate understanding of human suggestibility, of his debunked life's work.

YES! Ask and you shall receive. SO EXCITED to review this—anything but HOHUM. This had everything I could ask for in a Sunday Puzzle. Fresh, innovative idea that’s a challenge for both constructor and solver—and one that contributes to the solve once you get it but still isn’t a lay-up. The theme entries are smooth as silk and great accessory fill as well—PROMPOSAL, AIRHIGHFIVE (what you give after the proposal is accepted?) GOESROGUE, HOLYCANNOLI. (Good choice not to crowd this grid and the double themer in the middle is masterful). Just about the right difficulty of clues for me—an occasional easy clue to get over the tricky spots but plenty to stump over. And a few clever misdirections—PRISM, COSTAR, SCALP. Even a sly connection between Ned Flanders and Bouvier DES Flandres. I am so sorry that folks solving on the magazine had an issue and I hope they got to solve it elsewhere, that’s unforgivable for a such a wonderful puzzle. I had an interesting path to get the theme—had the rebus at ISLANDHOPPED but had PLAYEDHARD so had DEAD but not HEAT—figured the heat might come from the nuclear fusion! Then WHATATREAT before IFEELGREAT—which seemed to work with Pizza HUT. SECRETPLOTS finally broke it open. One minor nit and one observation—when you PAWN an item you are officially lending it for security on a loan, not selling it. And last, our British friends would argue that the answer to most words ending in “ize” is MISSPELLED.

Did not enjoy this at all. Rebus option takes the fun out of it.

I have this naive notion that the puzzles are published for my pleasure, that I come to them with myriad words, associations, identifications, and skill to work a crossword puzzle, not to bow to the whimsy of a constructor with some wacko idea of rebuses that go in one direction, nor to tweeze out a method from clues with fills that don't fit the grid. For puzzle after puzzle, I have stayed the course and done my best to go with what is offered, but this one just seems silly and I'm done. Hats off to the brainy types who find this fun. I don't.

I have missed rebuses but this is a bit much and inelegant.

Impenetrable theme with tedious cluing. I don't even mind rebuses but this... meh. Title was no help either.

Honestly - not a very enjoyable Sunday solve. Too intricate, too long, really a slog.

Ah yes. I immediately knew KIWI for Chinese Gooseberry. It's filed away with other culinary marketing rebranding examples, such as Chilean Sea Bass (Patagonian Toothfish) and canola oil (rapeseed oil). Great puzzle. Now off to do some self help yard work.

Wow! That was hard!! And fun!! And there were a couple points toward the end where I didn't think I was going to be able to pull it off, but pull it off I did! Huzzah!! HIPHIPHURRUM, even! What a thrill!! I absolutely hate Cadbury eggs, and now I hate them even more because I have no idea they were CREME, not CREaM. Har! That messed me up a bit and was my last little bit to clean up. Even though I was certain they were cream eggs, I just took the cream out and then I could see METRO and everything else. Had no idea that MESMERize was eponymous. So fun!!!

Let’s go people! We are all now stronger solvers!! I thought this was an amazing, solvable, painful, wonderful puzzle.

I’m a 35+ year vegetarian. But I still like to indulge in a meaty crossword.

IMO A good themed rebus puzzle should not need such an elaborate explanation. Too much contrivance in this one. 👎

I don't usually comment but there are so many haters out today that I feel compelled to express my appreciation. What a fun and chewy Sunday puzzle! I'm always disappointed when then Sundays are too easy because I love a nice long crossword sesh with my Sunday coffee, and this one was just tricky enough that I got to spend some real quality time with it. The theme was simple enough once it clicked to make hunting for the rest of the rebuses (rebi?) fun. Got into one sticky spot with what felt like a particularly naticky cross but I worked it out with some good old-fashioned educated guessing. The best kind of crossword puzzle: it made me feel smart AND it taught me some stuff!

I almost never comment here but just had to say I loved this puzzle.

In contrast to the complainers, I was one of the HAPPYCAMPERS who enjoyed the heck out of this puzzle. I love rebuses, especially when done well -- this theme was delightful! -- and while it would have solved /faster/ with an indicator for the rebus location, I wasn't bothered by not having that. HOLYCANNOLI was a quick fill for me because I had -OLI from my first pass through the acrosses, and really what else could it be. I grinned entering it; it's such a fun phrase. Personally I tend to use holy guacamole, but that didn't fit and anyway isn't Italian.

Ugh. And here I thought filling out tax forms would be the most tedious chore of the week.

Yes! A Sunday that got me SO EXCITED! Beautiful rebi all over the place! I had a hard time getting a toe hold in the North (always a good sign!), and so worked this from the bottom up. SELF HELP was the themer that cracked it open for me. At first I simply had SELF in that spot, thinking that it might be shorthand in some bookstores, based on the magazine. But when TEXA[S H]OLD 'EM became apparent, the cat was out of the bag, and I was on my way. But I'm so glad that they didn't tip us off to the location of the rebodes with some silly circles! As a result I had to go nice and slow, not knowing where the next rebum might pop up. Nice and slow is OK by me! I feel like I'm getting more value for my money that way. I'm a HAPP[Y C]AMPER this morning! Thanks, Michael Lieberman, for a Sunday Beauty!

I FEEL GREAT. I saw a rebus, got SO EXCITED, and PLAYED TO WIN. Now I’m a HAPPY CAMPER. Anyone who doesn’t think this was a valid Sunday puzzle, I’ve got a CINDER BLOCK for you. Everyone else: AIR HIGH FIVE!!

Loved it! So clever! Am I in the select minority that loves rebus puzzles?

Wow. Just wow. So much hard work. Well played on a double rr using the middle one. Such a mental workout. 🙏🏼 thanks!

I never thought I'd see a puzzle I actively hated. It didn't start well with the muffed print edition, over which I labored thinking it was some kind of hidden start word trick (e.g. no 5A), or the answers were split across black squares. But the rebuses just never really clicked and after having to look up too many answers, bailed out. "Nuclear Fusion" turned out to be a red herring. I'm sure there is a fun theme here and it looks like a lot of people caught on to it and enjoyed it, but mine is in the trash.

I had a great time with this puzzle and appreciated the clever two word construction of the down entries with two rebuses. I also appreciated that the rebus entries were not signaled. This is the type of Sunday puzzle that gives me hope for mankind, or at least the NYT puzzle crew. FAE had me discombobulated because I kept trying to rebusize (made up VERB) it into faeries somehow, not knowing that FAE was acceptable on its own. I did so even though there was no way to do that consistent with the pattern of the other rebuses. Not knowing that RERACK was a beer pong term as well as a billiards term compounded the problem. Eventually I went with the A, and lo and behold, success!

I entered only the letter for the first meaning... like ISLANDOPPED... and I just left all of those with the second letter of rebus unfilled... I certainly wanted to enter DH (in that case) as a rebus, but I didn't figure out that DEAD had an adjacent HEAT of one entered both DH and DT. But I got the music... and learned how to work the rebus entries with parallel reads from the column. That first occurrence... DH and DT are also names of some fusion reactions... deuterium-hydrogen, and deuterium-tritium.

More annoying than fun and interesting. Got 2/3 through and didn’t care enough to finish.

What an amazing Sunday puzzle! It's been a while since I enjoyed one this much. I had to go back after I completed the grid, but didn't get the happy music, to see where I had entered the rebus squares incorrectly. It was only then that I saw the entirety of the theme. I love it when a puzzle puzzles me like that! I *never* get angry when a puzzle is puzzling! More like this, please!

I was amazed at all the phrases Michael found with the form “axyb cxyd”. I tried, and failed, to find some others. So instead, here are some ridiculous ones using other four letter words from the puzzle. HAIR MAIL: a wig you order online FLEX CLEF: for use in writing music that goes all over the place BRAG CRAW: that boastful fool in the office who gets on your last nerve HERO VERB: words like strive, risk, or dare, to make your ad copy really sing

A refreshingly tough Sunday! First, the trick. My experience was similar to a few Thursdays of years past, in that I partially “figured it out” early, but only *actually* figured it out late — and the long swath in between was maddening. In this case, I realized early on that I would need to drop certain letters from certain across entries in order to make things work. How the letters got dropped felt somewhat random, and I went through all sorts of false beliefs about what dictated it (the borrowed letter being shoved above or below? duplicate letters being fused? pure chaos?!!) as I dutifully flogged through. Along the way, of course, I felt irritated by what I perceived as “bad clues” to some vertical entries (items in Ace are HARD? a near tie is DEAD? a final effort is a GASP? Ok, sure, maybe in some looser idiomatic sense, but come on!). It was only when I decided to actually enter my dropped letters in rebus form (for bookkeeping) that I realized how the two intersected, and sped through all the theme answers. But second, I just feel like this Sunday had properly challenging clues in a way that I haven’t seen in some time. That whole section around WAPITI crossing PALISADE sent me on so many false starts, as did the section around BRANCA crossing METRO and SIERRA. Felt so gratifying when I cracked em!

Usually a rebus hater (though never enough to not do the puzzle or complain about them, just a personal tick) but this one was too fun. Thanks for the great Sunday morning!

Just another tedious and tiresome rebus that sadly happens to be the NYT Sunday crossword puzzle.

A sweet capital-P Puzzle. It is titled NUCLEAR FUSION, but for a delicious while, I could title my solving experience UNCLEAR FUSION. More like this, please!

Don’t do this again, please. Ever.

Here is an idea: Don't have rebuses on Sundays.

HOLY CANNOLI, what a great puzzle. I do love a rebus. "Half of a candy duo" must be KIT or KAT again, right? Oh, Mike and IKE. Never liked those.

Great theme, and as others have noted, I absolutely loved the lack of either a revealer or overlays to indicate exactly where the funny business was happening (i.e. no training wheels). Had there been “insert rebus here” indicators, I would have finished this in half the time…but had only half the fun! The main thing that prolonged my solve so much was having never heard of PROMPOSAL, and being *very* slow to realize I was looking at a new (to me) internet portmanteau (i.e. I was thoroughly convinced I had to find a way to fit “prom proposal” into there). Along with minor missteps on a couple other theme entries, this had me thinking the theme was a double-whammy, with some truly mysterious trick accompanying the “two-word phrases with rebus first/last letters and a shared a nucleus” gimmick. Thanks to Mr Lieberman and the editors — keep ‘em coming!

Dear Will Shortz: Dude. Dude, can I just have a puzzle that doesn't require me looking up addenda and holding the grid up to the mirror and getting out a cryptography manual? A Sunday puzzle with clues and responses and a gentle little clever gimmick? Today's puzzle is an absolute brick wall to me, and I've been solving the NYT for 40 years. Eugene T. Maleska would have never perpetrated such torture, I can tell ya that. The phrase that appears in the composer's bio is quite telling. It says, "Good puzzlemakers are always pushing boundaries." Wait. Why? What's wrong with the old boundaries? I think that editors of puzzles get bored and so do super sleuths, but they are not the only audience here. Sure, I've always enjoyed a gimmick, but not if that gimmick is too much work. After all, it's already a challenge to find out what the answers are. That's what I enjoy doing when I sit down in the morning sun with my morning tea and my radish-tofu smoothie. I know that some solvers enjoyed today's puzzle, and can anticipate that they land on the other side of the innovation question. To them I say "EXEUTI MII FROY LATA GHERKIN." They'll figure it out. Dude, for the rest of us, can you just give us puzzles we can spend our mornings on, not our souls?

As a retired nuclear fusion researcher, I was struck by the title of this one! I was led astray, however, by the first two rebuses I encountered : DH and DT. I assumed these represented hydrogen, deuterium, and tritium — the atoms involved in nuclear fusion — and that all the other rebuses would be the same letters!