Cute and clever! Loved it! Well done! Just the right level of difficulty for a Thursday. Delightful!
Another creative and fun offering from the couple that brought us “Escape Room”, which was a favorite not only of our columnist, but was also voted Sunday Puzzle of the Year by this community. I’m impressed by how the constructors came up with words that created other valid words by the addition or removal of “ME”. I’m most impressed with BEEF LOIN becoming BEEF LO MEIN and HOMELINESS becoming HOLINESS. Very clever and well executed.
Very fun as always. Thank you, Zhou and Kevin! And for all you Wordplayers who might've wondered whether Zhou ended up meeting her cross-country crossword friend at the 2026 ACPT, yes! Zhou successfully bullied me into going and I can confirm she's delightful in person.
I didn't like this puzzle very much. I found the theme clunky. It did not aid my solving nor make me grin so much as delay my solving and make me frown. don't always solve in some linear across fashion, so getting an answer like "POMELO" didn't make sense even knowing that something was up with the "ME." I thought I was meant to imagine the "ME" sliding down and out of the word. I now get that word is meant as a recipient of the ME from above, but I didn't know that at the time. Having written some notes in this space in the past, I feel it necessary to provide responses to questions I strongly suspect will be forthcoming. FAQ: Q. If you didn't like it, why are you writing in? A. A philosophical question. Why does anyone write in? I suppose to seek community and validation. It is not my view that the only sentiments worth sharing in this life are support and glee. Q. Would you like me to explain the puzzle, because obviously you didn't really get it? A. I didn't say I didn't get it, but if you need to explain it, you do you. Q. Are you just a hateful grump? A. No. Q. Do you ever like any of the puzzles? A. Yes. Q. Isn't this little FAQ of yours a straw-man argument, positing that there are those who object to your not liking the puzzle when in fact no one cares? A. Very much not. Every single time I've written in to this column, I have received multiple responses effectively asking all of the above. Q. Why don't you ever write in saying positive things? A. I do.
Sorry the puzzling of this puzzle wasn't personally pleasing.
@Asher B.: just to give you some novel feedback, I love the FAQs. Hee!
@Asher B. Well written. For the record I only try to explain what I think the poster might be missing is if there’s something in the post that suggests that—you were very clear and I think this was an exemplary negative post with or without the FAQs
@Asher B. Please don't try to put words in the mouths of your fellow Puzzlers (or Sufferers)... but on the other hand, I really enjoyed this post from you (and don't recall others.) Being in a "weakened condition," I found the puzzle baffling for longer than usual...(or so I flatter myself.) But at my age, I find myself puzzled quite often, by many things.....
@Asher B. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I think you got it; I don't know why you didn't like it. But you do you.
@Asher B. I liked the puzzle, but appreciate the way you explained your experience. It provides a window onto your solve. Thank you.
@Asher B. - I disagree with most of your complaints about this puzzle, and I've castigated you before for invalid complaints, but I have no beef with this posting of yours. It's an example of the kind of criticism that is so lacking among the whiners who have become so common in the comments these days. My own complaint about this puzzle is that the theme is too simple for a Thursday. Most of us prefer something more puzzling in our Thursday puzzles. See? Sometimes we complain too. Your FAQ was passive-aggressive and probably unnecessary, but it was fun to read so I won't nitpick it any further.
@Captain Quahog How do you distinguish between necessary and unnecessary posts? What is the metric? And I dispute that my post is passive-aggressive, which I understand to be an elliptical remark made to induce others to say what I will not. I don’t see that. Seems like a direct post.
@Asher B. OK, I've gotta weigh in and say I liked your FAQs! They were grumpy and humorous. But of course, I'm a connoisseur of grumpiness. It's always a relief to be around grumpy+humor rather than grumpy+blame. Lord knows I've been around both.
IFIMUST say so, the FACTIS, I found this puzzle quite fun, but was not under pressure because of its relative ease. The trick was well executed, although it took ME some time to figure out. I got most of the themed answers through brute force, and only caught on to the trick when filling in the ce in CENT at the very last. Speaking of Under Pressure, I now have that great baseline running through my head. Apologies if I’ve told this story before, but in 1972, as a senior in high school, my friend and I borrowed his parents’ car and drove from Lawrenceville, NJ to Philly (technically Upper Darby) to see BOWIE on the Ziggy Stardust tour. It opened my eyes and ears to the fact that there were more things in heaven and earth than dreamt of in my (neat little suburban world). Mind blown!
@Marshall Walthew Thanks for sharing...that maddening earworm of a bass line. I know that there are plenty of candidates for best bass line ever, each with its own vociferous proponents, but this one is unavoidably propulsively the best.
@Marshall Walthew Upper Darby means the old Tower Theater! Saw some shows there.
@Marshall Walthew Lawrenceville, New Jersey? That's where Jamie Jeopardy is from. Do you know him? Oh my God, I'm fainting!
The puzzle was insanely hard for me in places, but I managed to complete it without lookups. I enjoyed the theme - I got the revealer instantly, yet figuring out how to use it to decode the themed entries was not obvious right away. I like it when a Thursday makes me think without the trick being overly convoluted. I also appreciated how all the themed entries made sense, rather than looking like gibberish, which happens on Thursdays, occasionally, and always annoys me. Overall I thought this was a very elegant theme. My difficulties were cultural, obviously. Pickle SPEARS is not terminology we use over here. We like our pickles, but we just call them by what's been pickled - grzyby (mushrooms), ogórki (cucumbers), etc. Do your American pickles usually involve vinegar? Over here the most common, pickled food are "ogórki kiszone", brined cucumbers, and they never come with any vinegar. Neither does "kapusta kiszona" (sauerkraut). Mushrooms, however, are pickled with vinegar, as are "korniszony" (that one shouldn't need a translation). The clue for the NFL thing was a total mystery, and I was (justifiably!) very proud of myself when I figured out the entry. I was glad crosses revealed most of AVE_NO. The crossing with the unknown media person may have been a natick but thankfully posed no problems in the end: AVE(E)NO and T(E)D was much more likekly than any other option. I'm no good with clothing terminology, co CAMIS were another obstacle handled by crosses.
@Andrzej Glad to see you, not least because your Polish references summon up the kitchen talk of my youth. I grew up with grzybes as mushrooms, ogorkes as pickled cukes ( but yes, vinegar was involved as I recall), and one you mentioned recently -- szczerkes for dishcloths. I am continually surprised by how much the Yiddish I thought I was speaking was actually Polish!
@Andrzej Hey Andrzej, welcome back! Does this mean we will be hearing from you an a regular basis again? Also, I've missed the photos of Lucek.
Andrzej, To be clear, we in North America use the *noun* pickle to refer to "a small cucumber preserved in vinegar, brine, or a similar solution." But we are happy to pickle lots of other things and call them "pickled *thing*" or sauerkraut or whatever. And I, personally, like my pickles whole, not cut into spears. I save "spears" for asaparagus.
@Andrzej I trust you've already learned about pickle spears. In America, pickles generally refer to vinegar-pickled cucumbers that come in bottles, either whole (my preference), sliced into discs (sometimes called "chips"), or sliced the long way into SPEARS. But Americans make a distinction between pickles and "pickling". Pickling got a promotion about ten years ago when people started talking about the health value of fermented foods for the "gut biome". Hipsters took off on the trend, creating home-made sauerkraut, kim chi, and kombucha. Hence, the following clip from the often-amusing show "Portlandia": <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKJCi6M8-rY" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKJCi6M8-rY</a>
@Andrzej My dad always used AVEENO for soothing baths, so oddly enough I knew what it was.
hi @Andrzej! i look for your posts every day. when i'm filling a grid, i sometimes say to myself WWAT (What Will Andrzej Think?) 😆 because of you, i'm much more aware of potential cross-cultural pitfalls and words that might be trickier for non-native English speakers. so thank you for that, and thanks for bringing your perspective to this community!
I need to be more observant. Last week? It was the Ts blacked out on the grid. This week. I never realized the starred clues were in the same column. I got the ‘revealer’ early. But the trick fell very very late for me. Always a bonus when the themers spell actual words. Constructor level of difficulty goes up a lot, I would imagine. Fun, creative, and just enough Thursday to make my brain tingle, but not hurt. Thanks constructors!
Things are finally looking up for Thursdays! I have had few POY contenders in my mind this year, but have have added this one along with last week (and yesterday and Sunday to boot, what a great week). Not surprised when I saw the byline of two of my favorite constructors, together or apart. Loved the texts in the comments, and like Zhou would have been daunted by the task of three pairs of words that had ME in and out with perfect meanings either way (so three pairs is six words but you really need 12 because each has two alternatives. Extra points for difficulty! And these were all smooth and not obvious. Then add to that fun entries in the longer across spots and you have a real winner. It didn’t take me too long—again, the editors seem to be overcompensating on some fill to make sure it’s doable for everyone—but I still had a ton of fun and some chewy spots. I loved that this week’s mini-animal theme continues with fun clues for COATI and COLT and FAWN. (On the first themer I wondered if we were headed for animal rebuses with (ASP)HALT.) Other inspired clues like DO(UGH)NUT, and misdirected plurals like PENNE and USO. Last, thanks for recognizing that this DAD has certainly my kissed his share of owies in his time in addition to MOM.
@SP I liked the DADS thing, too, although I will say that in my experience Moms do seem to have a certain magical touch when it comes to owies and booboos..
This puzzle kept me guessing for a good long while, a gift that makes me feel, IMHO, IMHO(ME). Speaking of being at home, as I’m writing this, my cat Wiley is very comfortably nestled on a WINDOWSILL, making for a lovely meta-moment. There was a crossword lingo moment too, when I was thinking NIKE for [Adidas competitor] at 2D, and then it turned up later at 32D. The term for when that happens is “malapop”, invented by Andrea Carla Michaels. Then came a pair of reaction moments to a single answer – a happy jaw-drop at the terrific FEEL SEEN, and an amazed jaw-drop that it has never been in in a Times crossword before. Finally came the “Life is good!” moment when the riddle of the theme cracked open. Thus, a momentous puzzle, a staccato of lovely pings. Thank you so much for making this, Zhou and Kevin!
@Lewis I think it's malaprop.
Who liked this? ME! Was it coincidence or by design that two of the Down MEs shared an M with a ME Across? (The third shares an E with the backwards ME in PRIDE MONTH, but since that’s a time to celebrate nonconformity I’ll allow it.) Speaking of crossings, the cross of ALDA with SHAM sparked my second M.A.S.H. memory in two days: “Here’s some shampoo. Because we couldn’t find any real poo.”
@SBK in TO: It was a late post, but I did reply to your question about yesterday’s M.A.S.H. comment if you missed it.
This husband and wife Dynamic Duo hits the crossword idea-and-execution bullseye yet again! So impressive. Thank you, Zhou and Kevin, for both the puzzle and the heartwarming constructor notes. Your puzzles being POY contenders has become the NORM!
This theme revealer brought a smile to my face, as it reminded me of an exchange my wife had several decades ago with our then five-year-old son. He was used to finding regular additions to his wardrobe that were in fact clothes that his older brother had outgrown. When my wife asked him whether he would like to have a little sister, she was taken aback when he answered “No” quite forcefully. My wife asked him why not and he said, “Because then I would have to start wearing girl’s clothes.”
I enjoyed this puzzle if for no other reason than the trick involved the Downs, which I feel are too often second-class citizens in Crosswordland. Thanks for the fun!
You know how I like to fool around with the unclued entries. Today’s best image: the POLO player comes galloping down the field, aims the mallet, and smashes it into…a POMELO. New sport?
@Cat Lady Margaret You could call it squash if the pomelo crumples to mush.
@Cat Lady Margaret Reminds me of the old prop comic Gallagher and his mallet-meets-melon routine.
This is what I want every time: a puzzle that's right for the day and one that's fresh and tough enough to be both fun and challenging. This dynamic duo's delight in constructing the puzzle makes it sparkle. Thank you, Zhou and Kevin. (This a perfect way to Curry favor.)
BEEF LO-MEIN. Doesn't that sound awful? Would you use a "choice cut" of beef for such a dish? No, you certainly wouldn't! BEEF LO-MEIN is one of the theme answers that falls into place as you make sense of this deliciously intricate and clever puzzle. I noticed the "ME"s -- some added, some subtracted -- immediately, but initially missed the fact that they were subtracted at the top and added at the bottom. When I got to HAND-ME-DOWN, I almost did cartwheels. What an inspired revealer! And the execution is superb. How good is HOLINESS to HOMELINESS and BEEF LO-MEIN to BEEF LOIN and COME UPON to COUPON! This reminds me of Lewis and Jeff's NAME DROPPING puzzle which had the same trick and was brilliant too. Into my running list for Thursday POY it goes! Kudos!
@Nancy What do you have against BEEF LO MEIN? It's a lovely dish, almost as good as BEEF chow fun!
My biggest struggle was to fit ME into HOLINESS. Story of my life. A fun one today (and yesterday too).
At the Vatican team meetings, when someone is pompously pontificating, do they piously proffer this cautious corrective: “May i remind Your Grace, there is no “ME” in HOLINESS?” (Anyway, i hope they will from now on!)
@Petrol The NFL was in the puzzle too--and there is no ME in team. LOL.
Zhou Zhang and Kevin Curry....let's remember to keep these two separated! You can see what mischief they get up to when allowed to scheme together! The clever, never-before-SEEN trick had me ...well, puzzled...and dawned on me slowly. I had to give up my original idea of what was going on. I was close to giving up when it occurred to me to give up SCAM and try SPAM and then SHAM.... The clouds parted, bluebirds sang....(well, I may be exaggerating. This IS Seattle, after all.) Additonal news: I was enjoying the walk between our son/DiL's house and our VRBO in early evening....until I tripped on the stubby-stone sidewalk and fell down. I AM FINE! My palms and one knee took the brunt of the impact, and a young man rushed to offer help. (If I'd been 50 years younger....well, maybe 55 yrs.... I might have decided I needed a lot of help!) But I limped the rest of the way and all is well--just a bit banged up. Tylenol Xtra is my friend. You can bet I'll be at Cloud City Coffee on Sunday!
@Mean Old Lady Nice try keeping them apart, as they live at the same address.
@Mean Old Lady You describe my solve as well. Having ScAM meant that I didn't figure out the revealer until the very end. Which finally rescued me from trying to find a way to insert an extra ME into the bottom half of the theme pairs. Additional news: Sorry about that fall! And while on a trip, too. Can't wait to hear about your Sunday experience with the locals.
MOL, While you were posting about your Seattle trip and fall, I was having lunch with my sister and brother-in-law, and one of the topics discussed was hospitals in Seattle. They're quite good, but I'm delighted you didn't need them!
@Mean Old Lady So glad to hear it wasn't worse! From recent personal experience, ice is your friend!!
@Mean Old Lady Ouch! Please follow Heathie's advice and be well soon!
.... HANDMEDOWN and DARKSECRET have the same amount of letters. Great puzzle!!
@Tristan For a while I had HandSecret and thought it might be Handshake.
As a Nashvillian, I perked up when I saw [Music City Miracle...]. However, I first filled in STADIUMS, then FOOTBALL, then PLAYOFFS before deleting it all, putting it in the [Kinkajou's cousin] pile, and working on the down clues. I think it took getting BEEF LO MEIN near the very end before figuring out the right answer. (That required getting POMELO from the crosses and reverse engineering the theme because I had SCAM for 10A and couldn't get 11D from that.) Very enjoyable regardless!
@Kimble I also had ScAM initially, and was wondering if cAN for the down was the start to, idk, canning recipes. (It wasn't.)
@Kimble, I had NFLdoMES at first. Seemed plausible.
If you COME UPON a COATI It might seem ALOOF, even snotty, But rarely will you find such HOLINESS Inside such snouty HOMELINESS.* *For the record, I think they are adorable, not homely.
@Puzzlemucker And I think you're adorable! Stop by more often, if possible.
Spent too long asking myself what SO-ME-WHAT meant 🤦🏾♂️
Regarding 37A.... Somewhere along the line I learned the term spaghetti straps, and ever since I have found them to be perhaps the most alluring and pulchritudinous bit of female fashion. Oh, to be 65 again....
@Francis I grow old ... I grow old ... I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me. -Prufrock
How can so few people know about kinkajous and coatis? Two of the most appealing creatures on earth!
@Beverly My first guess here was lemur, another incredibly cute inhabitant of faraway parts. I've read that we are biologically programmed to adore big-eyed, small-chinned beings. Let's hope the Betelgeusians don't figure this out or they'll have us enslaved before you can say "Baby talk!"
@Beverly This is how I got it: I saw what I recognized as an animal in the clue, and from crosses, I already had -OAT-. It could only be one thing.
@Beverly I knew that it was an animal. I just couldn't remember what kind. Turns out it's the cute kind. I've added it to my List of Cutest Animals. (Everyone has a list like this, right?)
FACT IS, a very nice combo is P I N T O S with P I M E N T O S
Another fantastic collab! Way to bring me down without bringing me down. (Collab, srsly?)
Brilliant puzzle! Impossible until it all fell into place. A real hokey-kokey: First i left ME in Then i left ME out In out in out Shake it all about Anyway, there was room for ME in the lower depths — such is life!
I found that ridiculously difficult. Needed all the help I could get here and was still amazed when I got the happy music. Companies, names and the obligatory sports references were my downfall. Not to mention the unknown animal (both clue and answer !) I put Reiki in to start, that’s how ASEA I was. OOF.
I loved how they stuck NIKE on the east side after it derailed the northwest corner.
Fun puzzle. Not overly difficult (“COATI” notwithstanding) but it did take me a little while to understand the theme. I actually got more hung up with “ZONK” instead of “CONK” and had difficulty finding my mistake.
Just brilliant, my favourite puzzle for a long while! Took me two sittings to finish, and the "aha" moment halfway through the second was wonderful. Very happy: a super crossword means it's gonna be a super day!
@Alex Would that that were so!
Ah well - this one was beyond me. I’ll come over to the comments to learn how easy it was 😊
@Richard I actually thought of you poor Brits not understanding HO(ME)LINESS because "homely" in American English is a euphemism for unattractive. And then there's "sidewalk" but I suppose you know what those are. 😊
Thumbs up. A typical slow Thursday start for me, but then finally working out the reveal and finally tumbling to the trick was a huge turning point. That's always a nice touch. And of course a puzzle find today. A Sunday from January 1, 2012 by Patrick Berry with the title: "Addendum." A couple of theme clue and answer examples: "High-mounted window you can't stop looking at?" HYPNOTICTRANSOM "Part of a watch touching the breastbone?" STEMTOSTERNUM "Inhuman group of golfers?" BRUTEFOURSOME And some other theme answers: THELIONSDENIM PIEALAMODEM HEADOFHAREM PARTICLEBOREDOM PIEALAMODEM And there were more. Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/1/2012&g=46&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/1/2012&g=46&d=A</a> ....
@Rich in Atlanta Why is PIEALAMODEM listed twice?
@Rich in Atlanta I suspect that this puzzle's trick is very specific geographically. In a mid-Atlantic or mid-American accent, all those closing syllables are schwas -- ə -- that nonspecific weak but still pronounced vowel. But for many local accidents, some are UMs, some are EMs, and some are OMs.
Ms. Billie M. Spaight, Why do you think it is listed twice?
What a fun puzzle, though I knew it would be when I saw it was from Zhou and Kevin! I don't think I've ever met one of their puzzles that I didn't really dig! At 3D, I knew I was going to dig this one too, but I was patient, as I always am when I suspect there is a rebus in town. It took me a tad longer than it should have to get the revealer because I had ScAM instead of SHAM and I didn't know the curling answer, though END seemed the most likely, but it kept making me think of cANDleDOWN, so I took it out and finally thought of SHAM. How very clever and fun to work this out. Once I cracked it, it did help me finish COMEUPON, as I was struggling a bit around there. Regarding kinkajou... I honestly thought that it must be a Pokémon thing. Didn't matter either way, it was going to have to be gotten on the crosses. (I briefly had COrgI there.) Anyhow, very fun Thursday!! ☺️
@HeathieJ Almost exactly ditto for me — like 99.5%! Everything you said except that for me, the theme helped me finish BEEF LO MEIN. (And filling in COME UPON was my first lower-half theme solve, and my first inkling of what was afoot!) I can *never* remember the meaning of [pulchritude], because it sounds so awful — like "putrid" or "pestilence" or "peculant". 😳 And that DONUT clue stole the show! ✨
Today's poem made from words found in today's puzzle <br> <br> a/ the truth of the city is in the release of density <br> from trawling in a middle mass of chances… <br> a little music of d/ here <br> a sidewalk jumping game <br> over and over and over <br> looking up <br> counting <br> a/ one two <br> one two <br> one two<br> <br>
Even though it was fast, I have to say that it was fun. A nice little trick. I’m glad I looked for the clue that was the helper. It helped. Thanks for a fun time before I hit the rack.
I really hate that the new iOS app opens the column IN THE APP and not in the browser. Please fix this.
@Chet That really is a nuisance - the Android app does it as well. It would be nice to be able to toggle back and forth between the column and the puzzle.
@Chet When the first person complained about this weeks ago, I just didn't get it...because I was already working around it without even realizing it, and wasn't finding it a big chore. (Never thought to click to Wordplay directly from the app.) Just open your browser once, set the main Games page as a Favorite or bookmark, and once finished with the puzzle in the app, open Safari. On the main Games page, it's only one click to Wordplay (just below the crossword puzzle icons), and you're in. Not that difficult. Or you can curse the darkness.
Two puzzles, for me. Filling the grid, then pulling up the revealer to find the pairs of non-sensical answers and make sense of them. Both were breezy and charming. Side note- I’m so jealous that some folks have a co-constructor in da howz! I like my hubby too much to swap him out, so I gotta find a buddy. Anybody wanna be my constructing cohort for a bit? I offer: - Notebooks chock-full of theme ideas and themers ( that may or may not look like a twitchy squirrel was given a pen ) - 14 puzzles on my laptop I need to refine - A fairly “quirky” but pleasant disposition..? Maybe..? Anyone..? Bueller..?
I was hung up on the revealer for a long time because I had SCAM for 10A.
@NanuNanu yep, I was ScAMmed as well
@NanuNanu I also had SCAM for a bit.
@NanuNanu - Same here. Very frustrating!
Very nice puzzle. And to say that on a Thursday means that it's a truly meaningful experience. Thursdays should be a time for puzzle celebrations, and this one fits the bill. Not much to say about the puzzle that hasn't already been said, but I'll add that I love that the constructors are married and can work on them together...peacefully and respectfully, I hope. But one question: How long are your vacations if you go through the first container of dishwasher pods and need to find the back-ups?
Ach so! Coincidentally, I just got back from Germany and had a week's worth of puzzles to catch up on. This one took me forever, and I loved every minute! I saw we were giving and taking MEs, but didn't get the revealer until the end (ScAM before SHAM.... Sigh). Excellent column and constructor notes today! I hope to see you two back soon. (And thank you for reminding me I need dish pods)
@Ash - I held on to ScAM for far too long, too. I'm sure it delayed my completion of the puzzle, but probably not for much. That section was the last to fall for me, for this very reason.
@Ash And they have entirely different constructor notes over at xwordinfo! <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/23/2026" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/23/2026</a>
The donut clue was good and the theme was clever. :)
The bare bones of a Thursday without an abundance of meat to chew on. A bit of gristle here and there. 2026 remedial clueing, of course. But at least all the theme components made actual words and phrases and our late-week intelligence was not overly impugned by circles or shades.
I cursed throughout, but in the end I “sowhat” admire this puzzle.
Very fun puzzle! Loved how the 'me's were handed down to a bottom half clue instead of just to the next word down. Well done!