Oh, my favorite theme answers were the ones with silly improper comparative adjectives, such as LITTER instead of “more lit”, SHUTTER instead of “more shut”, and EASTER instead of “more east”. The answer set – how did they come up with these? There is not only silliness, but there’s wit, and I’m guessing plenty of hard work behind creating this theme set. Several of these theme answers gave me jaw-drop smiles. Sure, my brain enjoyed some areas of resistance, with slippery cluing, and it had a great time trying to come up with the theme answers with as few crosses as possible, which I didn’t find easy. But, Dylan and John, give me silly that makes me smile, and I’m on your side for the whole puzzle. And you did, and I was. And that, to me, was the best part of this puzzle. This was a hoot and most satisfying. Please consider pairing again, and thank you!
@Lewis “HYPER” was my favorite. I usually start southeast corner and it was a great intro to the theme.
Love love love that AI Slop is in here! Call it what it is!
@Eli Edwards [Social media feed] AISLOPS FABLES
What’s the difference between a hippo and a Zippo? One’s a little heavy and one’s a little lighter
The gimmick was very fun and we enjoyed it! This week we solved the Saturday and Sunday with no hints and are very proud of ourselves! We are beginners and this took us 45 minutes :)
@Mikaela and Ava You should be proud of yourselves! Sundays are always an endurance challenge, if nothing else, and Saturdays are just beastly. You should go into the week ahead feeling ten feet tall and bulletproof :)
@Mikaela and Ava Well done, good team work. Who ever said two heads are better than one probably had a second head.
@Mikaela and Ava Congrats, M&A. (Why do I suddenly need to read the Business section?) You join a distinguished group of Minnesotans in the commentariat. Is it the long, cold nights that produces such cleverness? Keep us up to date and welcome.
What a silly but totally fun theme. The idea of OLIVER meaning more olive and SHUTTER meaning more shut cracked me up. Very clever. Congratulations, Dylan and John, on a great collaboration! Grindr vis-à-vis Tinder? OUTER SPACE
What is funner, creativer, or amusinger than fake adjectives!
@Cat Lady Margaret at least they weren't verbing.
@Cat Lady Margaret A themer just for you: [Gobekli Tepe vis-a-vis Trajan's Column] CATER PILLAR Oh, ok, besides being awkward and obscure and poorly phrased, that one's lousy. But it has cats!!! <a href="https://archaeotravel.eu/noahs-beasts-released-on-the-hills-of-gobekli-tepe" target="_blank">https://archaeotravel.eu/noahs-beasts-released-on-the-hills-of-gobekli-tepe</a>/
@Cat Lady Margaret -- To answer your exclamation, the witter CLM.
Very cool idea and you guys nailed the landing
Zippers on the back of jeans vs the front? BUTTER FLIES
As someone already pointed out… LAV is not a British term for Loo. Speaking as a Brit.
@Gareth Perhaps the nuance is in the syntax of the clue. Maybe "Throne, to a Brit" would be a LOO vs "A British throne" being a LAV, since lavatory is more British English than American English.
@Gareth See what I just wrote to Maryann in the next-earliest thread.
@Gareth speaking as a Brit, loo came to mind first, but LAV didn’t seem wrong.
For anyone who still doesn't completely get the theme, Jim Horne at xwordinfo.com sums it up in a neat chart: Theme entry Comparative reading LITTERBUG A firefly is a "litter bug"—more lit than a fruit fly. OLIVER STONE Peridot is an "oliver stone"—more olive-colored than jade. BUTCHER BLOCK Muscle Beach is a "butcher block"—a more butch stretch of beachfront. LIGHTER FLUID Oil is a lighter fluid than water. SHUTTERFLY A zipped-up zipper makes for a "shutter fly"—more shut. BUFFER ZONE The weight room is a "buffer zone"—associated with buffer people than the cardio room. EASTER ISLAND Maui is an "easter island"—farther east than Oahu. BOMBER JACKET A blazer is a "bomber jacket"—more bomb, or stylish, than a windbreaker. SOONER STATE Delaware became a state sooner than the other original colonies. HYPERTEXT The exuberant message is "hyper text"—more hype, treating that slang word as an adjective. A very Kugelman puzzle. Andrzej is going to go nuts. [Cover letters, say?] for TEACH had me scratching my head for a long time. And BUTCHER BLOCK and BOMBER JACKET with their clues seemed like quite the stretch for me.
I agree with Jim Horne's list except for the last one, because I have not encountered "hype" as an adjective. Instead, I just think the exuberant message is HYPER in the usual emotional meaning of that word, rather than as a comparative.
Dan, If you didn't know BOMB before looking it up, perhaps you might want to look up HYPE before writing it off... <a href="https://fluentslang.com/hype-meaning" target="_blank">https://fluentslang.com/hype-meaning</a>/
@Steve L Thank you for this list!! I still don’t understand litter bug/firefly??. Got the rest
@Steve L seems Dylan had John join him on finishing construction of the puzzle - I only read the column and comments after I solve and post first thoughts - long time practice. love Jim Horne share I had the same thoughts exactly as the puzzle unfolded.. Sunday funday puzzle for sure..
I enjoyed the theme and got the puzzle in less than 30 hint-free... EXCEPT in the NE corner with the two clues that are linked. I feel like I comment this a lot but if you're going to have a pair of clues relying on each other (ESPECIALLY if one is non-english or a proper noun) then PLEASE don't make it that easy to have one remaining open square where the two join because not knowing one means not knowing the other so all you can do is guess letters until one works. Please.
@Zach That was my last square as well. "something I've never heard of (dal _____), crossed with the english version of the thing I've never heard of"
Zach, et al, I am truly puzzled; what other letter(s) did you consider for the cross of 37A - 25D?
@Zach In this case, I don’t see the problem: once you’re down to SE_NO and SI_N, why is it unreasonable to expect you to *infer* the missing G? I’ve never heard of “dal segno”, but the clue tells you it’s some kind of “notation”, which is a very strong hint in the direction of “sign” (once you’re down to that one missing square). And as soon as “sign” occurs to you as a likely candidate, “segno” looks like a very likely translation in a certain language one might see on a musical score…
@Zach got me, too. The only square I didn’t get.
I can appreciate a good Dad Joke, so I enjoyed the theme. But beyond that, I’m amused by the anticipation for Andrezj’s reaction. When a certain byline appears, I can see Jerry Seinfeld muttering the name of his nemesis, only instead of Jerry it’s Andrezj, and instead of Newman it’s “Kugelman!”
@Heidi, Andrezj’s reaction most likely will be absens ex justa causa. One look at the construction collaborator and he might likely pass. (Having gone through all the comments, indeed I do not see him)
That was fun. Not the hardest Sunday I’ve ever done, but after the beasts we’ve had this week I’ll take it. Just chewy enough to keep me interested. The theme answers were lovely. Getting OLIVER STONE first I wondered if it was a film theme, but was quickly disabused of that idea. BUTCHER BLOCK had me scratching my head for a bit til the penny dropped, then I almost spilt my tea! Re LAV. There’s been enough Brit outrage at this so I won’t go on, except, no. Not since the Victorians has LAVatory been in common usage, except maybe Eton and the like. It’s a very U/none U term I think. Yesterday’s storm, while not as fierce as Friday, did a lot of damage. We’ve lost some garden furniture, which was thrown several feet and smashed to pieces. Worse, the chicken coop, a structure big enough for us to walk into, was completely destroyed overnight. Amazingly the girls all survived, complaining like, well, wet hens. It’s going to be a long Winter. At least the Alpacas were fine, grumbling from their shelter. They can’t hear the mountain lions over the high winds. I keep telling them there are no apex predators here, but the side eye they give me says they know otherwise.
This only works if you have carpool lanes in your community but here goes: Passenger vans vis-à-vis compact sports cars? HOVER CRAFTS
SP, I love the HOVER, but this only works if in your community you also refer to automobiles as CRAFTS.
Is this the first appearance of aislop? I don't recall having seen it before. If it is, it certainly won't be the last.
@Dave It’s been in Minis and Midis, I don’t remember if it’s been in the daily yet.
Second appearance. First was: Wed Jul 8, 2026 23A Low-quality synthetic images, informally Mason Hyunjin Lee
A little tongue-in-cheek advice to aspiring or already aspired constructors: don’t collaborate with John Kugelman. The hate is just going to rub off on you, and any credit for the zaniness and inspired chaos (if there is any) is just going to him. If there’s a more stereotypically Kuglemanesque puzzle out there I can’t remember it. I’m beginning to resonate with Matt’s comment the last Kugelman collaboration. I feel dirty. I feel like an enabler. I feel like we all, solvers and editors alike, let John get away with this because we all sit back and allow it. Seriously, this was just groaner after groaner and in the end I loved it. But I have a warped brain. I don’t want to dwell on the clues—not too hard, thank God, because the theme was the star and I just had to get through it as fast as possible before my brain exploded. (Alas I had to flyspeck YASIR/YASAR/FERRATE/FERRITE—luckily duct tape was handy.) I won’t even mention those odd little clues that only Kugelman comes up with, which again I weirdly enjoy. I do want to say aren’t there SHOFARS on the LA Ram’s helmet? Dylan I know this was your idea and it was a brilliant one, sorry to leave you out but if you are going to play Dean Martin to Jerry Lewis you know who’s going to get the attention, I warned you. (Talk about showing my age).
@SP Nice call back to the RAMSHORN/shofar!
@SP Ugh FERRaTE/YASaR denied me the happy music for thr longest time too! Thankfully I figured it out just before giving up and hitting check puzzle option. Overall I have to say I loved the groaners too! It's taken me a while, but I've groan to enjoy the goofiness of Kugelman puzzles :))
I literally can't remember ever loving a puzzle so much. Often, once you get the gist, the thrill is gone. But in this puzzle the thriller just gets .... thriller. Lots of LOLs. Thank you!!
This was good fun 🤩 Feeling quite proud of myself that I worked out the theme and basically filled the whole puzzle without reading the article! But I did need the article to help me nitpick little errors - thank goodness for the help on BOTTED because I had no idea. Also I have to say that being non-religious, crosswords are really improving my Bible knowledge. Like I know words now like apse and NAVE which I had never heard before. And I’m learning about people like Methuselah and ENOCH and ESAU and Seth. I’m not about to read the whole Bible but if anyone can recommend a nice book that explains some of this stuff, I might check it out! (Otherwise my ex-Catholic husband will continue to help me out every time these clues come up!)
@Nancy If you want a good grounding in the Bible via the rankings of an atheist, start watching <a href="https://youtu.be/xWOaG4Da9iA?is=vAE05DzgUAiP0otk" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/xWOaG4Da9iA?is=vAE05DzgUAiP0otk</a> And then continue with the next one and the next one and so on. The presenter is Hemant Mehta, a multiple-time NYT constructor who calls himself the Friendly Atheist. The series runs through Deuteronomy, which in other words covers the Five Books of Moses, what Jews call the Torah. This corresponds to the first five books of the Old Testament. Although Mehta tells you what’s wrong with each chapter, you also learn a lot about the actual stories. And they’re quite compelling. It’s actually a good Bible education for someone who is not into religion.
17A - As so often with Brit-based clues, it's wrong. A British throne is a loo. No Brit ever calls it a lav. 2D - Query this. Isn't it 'jump the pale' as in 'beyond the pale'? A pale being a fencepost, so illegal to jump over the fence. Why would it be taboo to jump over a pail?
@Maryann Check your answer to 2D. It's not pail.
@Maryann I came on to say the exact same thing - where does this American idea that British people call the toilet the "lav" come from? I've lived here about thirty years and never heard anyone use that term once. I haven't seen it in films, or in books ... They just seem to have made it up!
@Maryann “Loo” instead of LAV had me hung up for the longest time! Thanks for validating my stubbornness.
@Maryann At this point, several Brits have pointed out that LAV is not used in Britain. Six or seven of you, maybe even a dozen, so it seems you must be right. But sevarl British-based dictionaries say otherwise: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/354fstsy" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/354fstsy</a> <a href="https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/lav" target="_blank">https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/lav</a> <a href="https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/lav" target="_blank">https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/lav</a> <a href="https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/lav" target="_blank">https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/lav</a> To reiterate, Cambridge, Collins, Oxford and Longman are all UK-based dictionaries. So the question is then, could there be some other factor here? Could it be generational? Regional? Outdated? (Oxford calls it old-fashioned and informal.) There are so many things Americans say that I never hear, either because I'm older (or otherwise different) than the crowd that uses those words or phrases, like "lit" or "bomb" as slang adjectives, out of date, like "asea," or because those words or phrases are used in another part of the country. While I fully believe that each and every one of you has never heard or used LAV for a bathroom, restroom, WC, loo, or whatever you actually do call it, I'd bet that there's some reason it's listed in British-based dictionaries as a British usage. I don't know what that reason is, but I doubt that all the dictionaries are making it up.
Very clever! Not difficult but such a pleasure and so funny that I chuckled out loud. Nice job!
Note to Blog: If you normally skip Sundays, DON'T SKIP THIS ONE!! Boy, was I slow today! Some of the puns I didn't fully get until I had seen many more of them. The first one, LITTER BUG, was a great big "Huh?" I got BUG of course, but why LITTER? I understood it when I got to the marvelous SHUTTER FLY. A "more shut" FLY!.. Yesss!!! So that means the firefly LITTER BUG is a "more lit" bug. Got it! It's all so wonderful! The LIGHTER FLUID and the OLIVER STONE and the BUFFER ZONE and the SOONER STATE! So clever and imaginative and different! While I usually reserve my POY nominations to completely new puzzle theme-types -- and pun-type Sundays are hardly new -- few pun-type Sundays have ever been this good. So into my POY list it goes. Nor will you be bored working the non-theme parts of the puzzle. There are few names and very little mindless trivia. Most of the answers are vocabulary-based, interestingly clued, and require thinking. Really enjoyed this one a lot! And I bet Dylan and John had a great deal of fun making it. Their joy in the creative process is palpable.
Nancy, Was your lead* a rhetorical device, or do people really read the Rexblog on days they don't solve the puzzle? *You and I are old enough to call a lead a lead, not a lede.
In Köln, a town of monks and bones, And pavements fang'd with murderous stones And rags, and hags, and hideous wenches; I counted two and seventy stenches, All well defined, and several stinks! Ye Nymphs that reign o'er sewers and sinks, The river Rhine, it is well known, Doth wash your city of Cologne; But tell me, Nymphs, what power divine Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine? --Samuel Taylor Coleridge Fun puzzle, Herrn Schiff und Kugelman!
@Bill I listened to Die Walküre yesterday on the radio. You would have thought that would have instantly brought the RHINE to mind for Cologne waters. But no, first I had to whine to myself about not knowing yet another German word. Pretty snarky poem, STC.
[Breaking news vis-à-vis long-form journalism?] LIVER SPOTS (I think the jacket one, like this liver one, was a bit bomber than the others.)
To clarify, I meant “bomber” in the box-office sense. More standardly (standerder) seen as “bombeder”.
Very fun puzzle and a Sunday PB for me!
I managed to get my brain rearranged/twisted/pretzelized enough to follow the -ERs, but in the back of my mind every English teacher I ever had was shrieking "You can't do that!! That's NOT how it works!" I had a difficult time giving up PAL for BRO, and in fact it was my final act of disentanglement, followed by a "Whew!" "Also ran" was LAYLA/LAILA for McGUIRE/McGUYRE. Never having seen/read/cared about "Game of Thrones" is a disadvantage at times... Anyone else kind of sad that JITTERBUG couldn't have been in the puzzle?
@Mean Old Lady Jitterbug would’ve paired nicely with Ma Rainey! 😊
@Mean Old Lady I'm impressed that someone who has Never having seen/read/cared about "Game of Thrones" was able to figure out that the clue was about Game of Thrones.
I love it when I laugh out loud while solving. Thanks!
Pleasantly chewy, and every last themed answer produces an audible groan. What more could I want?
Lot of Biblical names in this one but I suppose it is Sunday
I would like to say something intelligent about magnetism. And by that I mean, I wish I were intellectually capable of doing so. Alas. Magnetism has always baffled me. There are few things about magnetism I'm (mostly) sure of. Like electric fields and magnetic fields are inextricably linked. Shame there's not one more, and it could serve as the Trinity. But I digress. It occurs to me that when we think about electricity, we think about little balls with an electrical charge moving around. But we (or at least I) don't have such an image with a magnetic field. That seems wrong to me--if electricity and magnetism are forever interlocked, why would we think about them so differently? Is it because we're not thinking correctly about either of them? One last thing. Spinning, charged atomic objects produce a magnetic field. We are surrounded by an enormous number of extremely powerful magnets, which, together could create a magnetic field of staggering intensity. But they don't, because almost every one of those magnets is in alignment with another magnet to cancel out the field. What's left is the tiny magnetic field we use for compasses. Or so I think. But I warned you--I'm no good at magnetism.
P. S. Can anyone tell me why I would have written that? I guess I thought something was in the puzzle about magnetism, but now I can't find it. I did another puzzle, earlier, and I have a terrible fear that it was in that one, and now everyone will wonder why in the world that doddering old man is writing about magnetism, about which, by his own testimony, is completely clueless.
@Francis In a 5th or 6th grade science class about magnets we sprinkled iron filings on top of a paper laying on a magnet. The teacher said something like "this shows how the magnet is giving off a magnetic field". I asked why, if it was continually giving off this force, can't we harness that energy to power something. He said "gravity's a force pushing on you right now, are you going to try and harness that too?" in a very condescending way. I felt really stupid and embarrassed. Now I think that man and his personality were just one big ERR. I remember that day pretty much anytime someone mentions magnets.
@Francis You can ask Andrzej — he’s pole-ish!
@Francis I have reservations about sharing this particular video in this forum, but the goods on magnets are at the 1:52 mark: <a href="https://youtu.be/8GyVx28R9-s?si=v-wlYrMWKLcSJrd_" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/8GyVx28R9-s?si=v-wlYrMWKLcSJrd_</a>
@Francis My problem with the E&M text I had is that it was written as a mystery novel. Not until the very end did it explain that magnetism is simply a relativistic effect from an electric current, and that the fields are related by the speed of light: E = cB. At which point I yelled and threw my book across the room: "Now you tell me!" Part of the frustration was years of using the mathematics Ampere used to describe magnetic fields, leaving generations of confused students to memorize the right-hand screw rule. There is another vector algebra that makes a lot more sense to me, but I think I was too old by the time I tried to learn it.
I found ROOM, ZONE, and BOMBER all slightly forced, like oval pegs in round holes. But I'll admit to getting crankier as I age.
Off topic for this puzzle but I thought this might be interesting to those who are focused on words: In the NFL there is a fullback for the San Fransisco 49ers named... Kyle Juszczyk Can't help but wonder how many consecutive consonants might be in any valid Crossword answer. ...
@Rich in Atlanta As a preliminary question, you must decide Y.
I enjoyed this puzzle very much, and only needed two cheats. I found the clues quite imaginative, and certainly tough enough! Thank you for a lovely Sunday puzzle!
Very enjoyable! Particularly smiled at BUTCHER BLOCK. Also made me think of Oliver Sachs which is a pleasing start to the day. Never fond of UH NO or OH OK though and today they crossed... As for LAV as a Londoner I have heard it used back in my childhood. So perhaps more of a Landahn thing though I think Karzi might've been used more...
@Catherine Re LAV. My thoughts exactly. The only people I’ve ever heard use the term were my Northern grandparents and it was antiquated even then.
Liked the theme but not the trivia. Caitlin found it easy, I thought it obscure. unless you listen or watched it you wouldn't have a clue. Is there a new editor? Fill in last few weeks has been really odd.
@Lauren I agree. I can't put my finger on it, but the crosswords have felt a little bit off the last couple of weeks. Not a criticism, just something feels different.
I recently saw a very good production of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom so it was nice to see her show up here.
Enjoyed the cute theme of this puzzle. Was puzzled by BOMBER JACKET because I totally didn't know the adjective "bomb" ... which I just googled before coming here. But always happy to learn more fugacious slang.
goodhearted humor at it's best the theme clues and answers are classic so called 'groaners'. I laughed! - as easy as Sunday's get which is a gift to new solvers.. thanks Dylan & John
This was one of those puzzles which I was truly happy I got the music without flyspecking. I had so many areas that I was only 70%, I was sure one of them would be wrong, and I wouldn't know which one. I enjoyed it, but got nervous several times as I passed clue after clue with nothing to try. Also had a few false starts--like I had "Okay" rather than "OHOK. Also, I noticed earlier than usual that this was at least in part a Kugelman, so that put me on Defcon 3, if not 2.
Playing with words, that's what I'm here for. Great fun trying to figure out what Dylan and John came up with. OLIVER STONE was a favorite, but there wasn't a bad one in the bunch. The only thing that would have made this better is if the nontheme clues were less direct.
Typical tough Sunday for me, and it took me a good long time to finally catch on to the theme trick. And... must confess that there are at least a couple of those that I don't quite grasp how they're working. No big deal - that's just me. And of course my puzzle find today. A Thursday from April 15, 2021 by Brendan Emmett Quigley and Ben Zimmer. Some theme answers, quite straightforwardly clued: TAXICAB CALCIUM PUSSYCAT PRESEASON TOPSECRET HALCYON And then the 'reveal' "Starting point for a piano student or a phonetic hint to 17-, 18-... etc. across" MIDDLEC Always nice to see something different. Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/15/2021&h=58a" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/15/2021&h=58a</a> ...
This was really a dance! I was amazed at how the brain comes up with a phrase that’s been buried for years, and even when the association is vague or fuzzy, it works.
I really enjoyed the theme in this one even if the conceit was stretched to the breaking point in a couple of instances (SHUTTERFLY, BOMBERJACKET). On the other hand OLIVERSTONE induced a big grin. Ditto EASTERISLAND. I didn’t know UVTATTOOs were a thing. I could have lived without that knowledge. BOTTED? That’s not a term I’ve heard in the wild.
Fun puzzle. Fun theme. Nice to get a gold star after struggling on Saturday. I didn't know there were glow-in-the-dark tattoos.
Sometimes Sundays can feel like a slog, but for once I didn't have to flyspeck today, and I thoroughly enjoyed this theme. I think EASTERISLAND was my favorite!
Did we actually make it through a week without ACAI as a clue answer?! Or maybe it just seems like it. Anyway, thank you for the fun puzzle and for not using ACAI! (And for having my MLB team in there!) Go Sox!
I solved in 32 minutes which is one of my fastest times on a Sunday puzzle. Overall, I enjoyed the puzzle and it was nice to see there were no gimmicks.
This just took me forever. All along I was enjoying the clueing and loved the theme answers. But, I never got on a roll. The saving grace, time wise, was zero flyspecking. Truly puzzled!
That's a cute picture of, I assume, a mother and son, but I wonder of there are some freaky-looking photos of what they looked like before they were solved.