BTS fandom / MON 6-29-26 / Vishnu avatar / Word after B or D / Big inits. in pickup trucks and vans

Constructor: Ginny Too and Rajeswari Rajamani

Relative difficulty: Easy (7:02 on my phone while waiting for my Popeye's order)

THEME: Repeating letters — Two word phrases where the second word is the same as the final syllable of the first word

Theme answers:

• [Screen addiction, e.g.] for DEVICE VICE
• The final syllable of the first word is "vice" and the second word is the same: "vice"
• [Where boxers trade jabs] for SPARRING RING
• [Clever chap] for INTELLIGENT GENT
• [Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzai, Linus Pauling, Martin Luther King Jr. and so on] for NOBELIST LIST
• ["Meow, meow, meow!," e.g.] for FELINE LINE

Word of the Day: CBGB (N.Y.C. club that hosted Blondie and the Ramones) —

CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal and his ex-wife Karen Kristal at 315 Bowery in the East Village in Manhattan, New York City. The club was previously a biker bar and before that it was a dive bar. The letters CBGB were for Country, Bluegrass, Blues, Kristal's original vision for the club, but CBGB soon emerged as a famed and iconic venue for punk rock and new wave bands [wiki]

• • •

Hi friends!! Malaika here, and I'm happy to be subbing for Rex on a Monday, a day that I almost never cover. When I am focused and solving on a computer, I can solve most Mondays in about four minutes. I think this would have been the same, but I was solving on my phone while perking my head up every time a Popeye's employee made a movement, in case that indicated that my order (spicy chicken sandwich, small fries, not a combo bc I don't want a drink) was ready, so I ended up at seven minutes.

I like a theme that has a revealer. I think it is the raison d'etre for a puzzle; it grounds and centers it. This puzzle didn't have one but I also acknowledge it didn't really need one. The reason for the theme is laid out for solvers and it is basically that... it's a neat pattern! I agree it's neat, by the way! I don't like puzzles where the entries are wacky, and this walked an interesting line where I could almost almost believe that these phrases might actually be used in a conversation. Maybe as a New York Post headline? (SPARRING RING was the weak link to me because I felt the clue was describing jargon and the entry was not the appropriate term (presumably it's just "boxing ring"?) but if someone in the comments knows better than me, please correct me if I'm wrong!)

It's a nice touch that this theme went with spelling and sounds. E.g. "vice" is the same as the last four letters of "device" and it also sounds the same. (Compare to something like "praline line" which has the same letters but different pronunciation, or "minnows nose" that has the same pronunciation but different letters.) The more constraints there are, the harder it is to come up with entries that work-- this was constrained, but at the same time I bet there are other entires not in this puzzle that would work just fine and I bet people in the comments will brainstorm some of them.

I was very briefly confused while solving because I thought JALAPENOS was going to be a theme answers. It's a little unusual to see such a long entry not part of the theme, but it does follow one of the unspoken rules: it (as well as PET PEEVES) is shorter (at nine letters) than all of the other theme entries (ten, twelve, and fifteen letters). Both are great entries, by the way!

Bullets:

• [Long sandwich with cold cuts, maybe] for SUB — One of my favorite questions is: If you had a sandwich named after you, what it would it be? (There's a good Curb Your Enthusiasm episode about this.) Mine would be soppressata, genoa salami, fontina, olive tapenade, and pesto on a hero roll toasted. Then when it comes off the sandwich press, open it up and add some dressed arugula.
• [A quarter or more of one's life, typically] for SLEEP — This stat made me stop in my tracks. I love sleeping but wow, a whole quarter!!!??? Kind of feels like a waste!
• The CBGB / GMC cross was a total guess from me, and so was the IONE / ROUE cross. Really tough for a Monday!
  

xoxo Malaika

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Carpet on the forest floor / SUN 6-28-26 / Intellectual gathering / Architectural feature above a belfry / Little redhead in a long-running Broadway show / Oily fruits / Summary of a contract's details / Souvenir from the seashore / Catchall phrase from Latin

Constructor: Rebecca Goldstein and Christina Iverson

Relative difficulty: Easy



THEME: Down in the Valley — Phrases with the word "like" indicating comparison are reinterpreted as if the "like" were a filler word

Word of the Day: QUARK (11D: Hadron component) —

A quark (/ˈkwɔːrk, ˈkwɑːrk/ ^ⓘ) is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nuclei.^[1] All commonly observable matter is composed of up quarks, down quarks, and electrons. Owing to a phenomenon known as color confinement, quarks are never found in isolation; they can be found only within hadrons, which include baryons (such as protons and neutrons) and mesons, or in quark–gluon plasmas.^{[2][3][nb 1]} For this reason, much of what is known about quarks has been drawn from observations of hadrons.

• • •

Theme answers:

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

It's Rafa back again for the last installment of Rafa Rexplacement Weekend™-- I hope you've enjoyed my musings over the last few days. The sun is finally out in San Francisco, it's pride weekend, the vibes are immaculate, and we have a crossword to talk about. Let's get into it.

For some reason it took a while for this theme to click for me, but I really appreciated it once it did. There was something very satisfying in imagining all the theme answers said aloud in a Valley accent, and the scenarios in the clues struck the right balance of amusing but not absurdly far-fetched. Picturing someone sticking out a literal sore thumb to hitch a ride made me chuckle. Themes reinterpreting words are very common to come across, but I've never seen anything playing on filler words, so this felt really fresh. I also appreciated how all the phrases were very well-known. SHOOK LIKE A LEAF is the only one that I don't hear all the time, but it still felt familiar enough.

NIGIRI -- yum!

One thing I noted is that some of the entries had words change meaning and others didn't. HOT CAKES has the same meaning in the idiom and the clue, but FLIES means the insects in the idiom, and the baseball term in the clue. Similarly, HAWK (same) and TANK (different -- military vehicle vs. container for fish). Not a bad thing, just something I noticed.

OJS -- yum!

The fill was ultra smooth for a Sunday -- truly world-class work. Not a lot of contrived entries or crosswordese ... just loads of smooth short fill with lots of possible cluing angles. I find that makes it so much easier to stay engaged with the bigger Sunday-size grids when you're not wincing at all the glue that's holding the theme together. We even get loads of lively bonus entries in GOOD LOSER, SOAP STARS, ABOUT TIME, KNEE-DEEP, etc.

KRILL -- yum! (if you're a whale)

The puzzle was on the easier side for a Sunday for me. This whole weekend felt significantly easier than usual. I wonder if other people also had this experience. Or maybe I was locked in because I knew I was blogging these puzzles. I love feeling Smart and Competent, though, so definitely no complaints about it from me!

Thanks for tuning in for three consecutive Rafa blogs. I'm done with my stint, but I hope to be back soon!

Bullets:

• SALADA (22D: Course in a Brazilian meal) — First time I've seen this clued like this (it means salad in Portuguese) instead of a tea brand, and I'm extremely here for it!
• HELIOS (5D: Greek sun god) — I've been playing Hades 2 on Switch on and off for the last year, and it has taught me pretty much everything I know about Greek mythology. Helios isn't in that game, but now I really appreciate seeing stuff like HERA and ARES in crosswords.
• RAJAH (1A: Counterpart of a rani) — Rajah is a title for a king, while rani is a title for a queen.
• MEN (98A: "It's Raining ___" (gay anthem) — Fun pride month tie-in.

Signed, Rafa

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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❤️ Support this blog ❤️: 

• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

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• Westwords (Berkeley, CA, Jun. 14, 2026)

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• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

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