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Conventioneer's passport / THU 6-25-26 / Sharansky who wrote the memoir "Fear No Evil" / Country rocker Steve with the album "Exit 0" / Gamer's state of invincibility enabled by a cheat code / 1492 caravel Spanner of 11 time zones / Cantina freebie / The Science Kid, in children's television / Front-line hero during the 2020 pandemic
Thursday, June 25, 2026
Constructor: Tarun Krishnamurthy
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: INSIDER / TRADING (63A: With 65-Across, market no-no ... or a hint to entering the answers to the starred clues) — blocks of letters "inside" the theme answers (in shaded squares) "trade" places, creating new (unclued) words and phrases
Theme answers:
Gotta get out of the house very early today, so this'll have to be quick. Quickish. Despite the fact that the theme answers were probably discovered by a computer program, and despite the puzzle's interest in things I'm not personally that interested in (gaming, Marvel movies), and despite the puzzle's being a little on the easy side for my tastes, I really enjoyed this. At first I was like "why do the shaded squares spell out gibberish, I hate gibberish!?" but then I realized that the entire reconfigured answer was a viable (if unclued) answer, and the shaded squares weren't supposed to, and didn't need to, spell anything. The dark bars between the "traded" parts of the answer create a bit of visual confusion (me, rearranging BAD RAPS: "What the hell are BRAP ADS? What's a "brap" and why does it need ads?"), but once you get your bearings, this theme is actually very easy to work through. Six themers and a long revealer, and the fill holds up OK. Yes, I will take this. Again, would've liked more of a challenge, but I say that almost every Thursday (and other days ending in "day") now, so there's no surprise there. If it has to be easier than I'd like, at least the experience of solving it was pleasant.
- BAD / RAPS => BRA P/ADS (17A: *They may result in people being wrongly sent to jail)
- WEE L/ASS => WEAS/ELS (18A: *Bonny young girl)
- TRAIN/ERS => TER/RAINS (23A: *Exercise experts)
- FEM/INIST => FINE / MIST (35A: *Advocate of women's equality)
- "STEP / ON IT!" => STON/E PIT (43A: *"Let's pick up the pace!"
- WEB/INARS => WIN/E BARS (54A: *Some online courses)
Natan Sharansky (Hebrew: נתן שרנסקי; born 20 January 1948) is a Ukrainian-born, Israeli politician, professional chess player and author. He served as Chairman of the Executive for the Jewish Agency from June 2009 to August 2018, and currently serves as Chairman for the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), an American non-partisan organization. A former Soviet dissident, he spent nine years imprisoned as a refusenik during the 1970s and 1980s. [...] Fear No Evil is a book by the Soviet-Israeli activist and politician Natan Sharansky about his struggle to immigrate to Israel from the former Soviet Union (USSR). The book tells the story of the Jewish refuseniks in the USSR in the 1970s, his show trial on charges of espionage, incarceration by the KGB and liberation. (wikipedia)
• • •
There's a lot of overcommon fill (ESSO ESA SID NSYNC ATBAT ANODES PTA NEA TSP BAA ORES OREOS NEO NSA), but somehow that never became grating today. Nothing ever made me recoil or cringe or groan or any of the other negative reactions I sometimes have with creakily filled puzzles. Mostly I just liked watching the answers change into other answers, and I was happy that whatever subpar fill there was didn't interfere with that. I didn't get bogged down in the less-than-lovely stuff, and so I was better able to appreciate the theme, and the other nice bits of fill as they came along (like EGO BOOSTS and OVERTHINK and the HOT GLUE BLEEPS, which would be a great band name, though it's actually pretty hard to say without tripping over your tongue. My main negative feeling today was the indignation I felt on behalf of NATAN Last, who really should've been the subject of the NATAN clue. I mean, imagine you work for Will and then write tons of crosswords for the NYTXW (and elsewhere) and then write a whole-ass book about crosswords (a well-received book, I might add—Across the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of the Crossword Puzzle) and then your not-terribly-common / not-shared-with-a-celebrity name shows up in the puzzle and the clue is somehow not about you? What's a guy gotta do to get some grid recognition!?
This is just the third appearance of NATAN, with the previous two clues going once to this same Sharansky guy we got in today's puzzle (1993) and then once to no one in particular (2018) ([Hebrew name meaning "he has given"]). I guess Saransky remains the more (most?) famous NATAN, but I have no way of measuring NATAN fame, as the only NATAN I know is Last. If his fame outside crosswords seems limited—who cares? We're not outside crosswords. We're inside crosswords. Literally, that is where we are. Anyway, I learned about a new NATAN today. He seems like a crossworthy NATAN. He's just not my NATAN.
Bullets:
- 7A: Gamer's state of invincibility enabled by a cheat code (GOD MODE) — I tried LOOK and PEEK before GAWK (7D: Get an eyeful), so though I was fairly certain I was dealing with a "mode," the GOD part eluded me for a bit. As soon as I got the "G" I was like "d'oh! GOD MODE. Yes, I've at least heard of that" (this is not always the case with video game clues).
- 56D: Preceding time (RUN-UP) — as five-letter answers go, this one's great. Hard to make me like, or even notice, a short answer like this, but there's something about RUN-UP that's slightly slangy and very bright. Peppy, even. Why AT BAT feels limp but RUN-UP feels snappy, I don't really know. (side note: I had AWAKE before AT BAT (1D: Up)).
- 21D: Falcons' group (USAF) — so not the football Falcons (the ATL Falcons), but the Falcons of the United States Air Force Academy. They're the Falcons, the way Michigan is the Wolverines. I thought maybe there was some famous USAF squadron called the Falcons, but no, just the team name. Here's a new clue for NOVA:
- 58D: 1492 caravel (NINA) — a caravel is a small sailing ship. Even if you didn't know that, 1492 should've kinda given this one away. NINA leads all Columbus's ships in terms of total crossword appearances, though PINTA has shown up an awful lot (122 appearances), and for a ten-letter answer, SANTA MARIA also gets a ton of action (19 appearances, though not seen since 2009).
That's all for today. See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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17 comments:
Average Thursday time, no real resistance, figured out the theme as soon as I worked my way down to the revealer, and finished the puzzle before finally realizing that the unknown-to-me WEB INARS was in fact WEBINARS. Fun Thursday solve while watching El Tri handle Czechia Wednesday night.
Very Easy. Didn't read the clue for any of the acrosses with shaded squares. Cute theme.
* * * _ _
One overwrite, @Rex looK before GAWK at 7D, and only one WOE, Country rocker Steve EARLE at 37D.
Pretty cute little trick - the shaded squares were annoying but the idea is neat and the reveal works. Since both entries are valid - it took a few to understand the game - FINE MIST/ FEMINIST worked for me.
My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama
Densely packed with theme stuff - the overall fill suffered somewhat. Rex summarizes nicely. I liked OVER THINK and EGO BOOSTS but there was a lot of short stuff that fell flat. The SIR - RONALD cross reminded me of RONALD FISHER - so that was cool.
An enjoyable Thursday morning solve.
Steve and Iris
Easy, yes. I figured out the theme quickly, except I had "inapt" instead of INAPP and falsely assumed the system had failed to produce the music. So...a Natick.
Cute, densely packed theme. 18 minutes for me.... but it was just complex/slow. I wouldn't have been able to do it, I don't think, without that nice revealer.... Not hard, just couldn't whoosh around this grid much. Nice puzzle, Tarun! 4 days w/o SW!
So you had STONE TIT? That is not a Natick.
The revealer was so easy and so clear (thanks to the shaded squares) that even though it took me awhile to parse the themers, it was obvious what needed to be done to make sense of them.
Very typical Thursday for me - I finally got the theme when I entered the reveal and picked up on webinars. Unfortunately, that meant that about 80% of my solve was spent parsing together the gibberish theme answers. I thought I was getting better at discerning themes, and this one really wasn’t all that difficult, so obviously I still have a ways to go.
As I look back on it post-solve, it actually looks like a decent grid and a clever concept. SHIP was a WoE. I notice that they chose the word “pairing” in the clue (instead of RELATIONSHIP), so I can only guess that SHIP is somehow derived from RELATIONSHIP, but that’s all I’ve got for that one - I’m trying to imagine how one would use it in a sentence, but I’ve got nothing, not even a wild guess.
Hey All !
Tough to get clean fill with open corners such as those in this puz, especially with Themers running rampant through them. So kudos on that, Tarun. Only needed one cheater square to pull it off.
SHIP has an odd clue. Must be young 'un speak. Ah, clue does state "in modern lingo".
Had ptA for NEA, only to find that PTA needed to be in the connecting Down.
Nice, easy side ThursPuz. Different type idea. Good times were had by all. 😁
Hope y'all have a great Thursday!
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
I thought the wierd answers that morphed into real answers were great fun to suss out. Quite a feat of construction. And the last clue for BLEEPS was super. But above all I was touched by Rex’s praise of NATAN Last—Rex may have occasional fun jabbing the editors of the NYT puzzle, but at heart he seems to appreciate the dedication and skill that goes into its daily publication. I feel the same about Rex’s long dedication to this blog.
TERRAINS uses a different pattern than all the others. That seems like a flaw.
Mostly easy, but then there is that NATAN/EARLE mess.
I did not know SHIP last time and, sad to say, there is a good chance I won't know it next time.
GAze before GAWK.
Well, the brain that saw the phrase INSIDER TRADING, then stopped and mulled for a bit, and envisioned conjoining letter sets within actual words switching places to form other actual words – that’s constructor brain of the highest order.
Uber-high-quality playful themes have marked all four of Tarun’s Times puzzles (his first published two years ago when he was 16). That is, he’s the real deal.
Today’s puzzle brought not zero, not one, but two resounding ahas.
The first came upon seeing the trick, which was followed by great pleasure, because it made my brain think in an out-of-ordinary way – reversing letter-groups in words – to suss out the remaining theme answers. My brain loves switching gears like that.
The second came at getting the elegant, perfect revealer.
Tarun, I’m glad you are keeping your crosswords talents active as you pursue your medical studies (as you describe in your notes), because you’ve got the knack. Thank you for a splendid outing today!
OK. Then it's a Worcester.
Respect the theme idea and got some joy out of much of the longer fill, but I didn't have as much fun with this as @Rex did. The revealer came fairly easily and for me, and then it was a real Thursday level experience trying to grok the themers. Those bold lines kinda got in my brain's way and hindered rather than helped. I should have had more fun trying to figure them all out, but for whatever reason, I didn't. Not sure why, as it's nice that the themers all form real words with the letter "trading"... and very good words at that. Each would stand very well on their own as non-themers. So I think it's just me today.
Speaking of non-themers, some good fill with the longer stuff, OVERTHINK, EGOBOOSTS, and HOTGLUE are all very solid. I also got a little kick out of the double YUKON/UCONN, that was cool.
I for one was very happy to see NATAN Sharansky getting some crossword recognition. Look him up if you're not familiar with him when you have the time.
Even though my personal joy meter didn't hit terribly high today, I know that there was a *lot* to like about your puzzle, Tarun. There was some serious and deep crossword thinking to make this all work, much respect and thank you!
What was the reason for the dark lines? Jumbled letters were shaded and bars didn’t split equally or create meaningful words, so why include them?
My well-below-average finish time tells me this must have been an easy-ish puzzle, but my solving experience felt more medium-challenging, in a good way. The crosses gave me WEASEL, but I couldn’t see how that answer could possibly fit the clue. (By the way, I don’t mind stale fill when it supplies badly needed crosses.) Had to work around all the themers till I got to the revealer. Then the lightbulb came on and I tinkered with the themers until they all fell in place. TERRAINS was the last to fall, maybe because it varied from the pattern of the others, as kitshef has noted. Unlike Southside Johnny, I found that a fun little brain teaser—just what I enjoy on a Thursday. Nice work, Tarun!
I’ve read NATAN Last’s book and greatly enjoyed his excellent puzzles, but I can see why Will Shortz may have nixed using his name as a clue. I did many, many puzzles for more than a decade before I ever paid attention to a constructor’s name. Now I can savor the personality that shines through a well-made puzzle, but I suspect that most solvers (not the ones here, of course) are more like me in those early years. I’ll bet there are many, many people who have done Natan’s puzzles with pleasure but with no idea who he is. Sad but true.
Tarun must be a Huskies fan: Both YUKON and UCONN appear in the grid.
Years ago my wife and I had tickets to see a concert by a popular boy band, but it was such a nice day we had a hard time tearing ourselves away from the pool. It was a question of NSYNC or swim.
Re: ID BADGE. A funny tour guide in Killarney told this joke at which I was the only one on the bus who laughed. Tough crowd.
A Irish farmer is visited by a government inspector who tells him his farm has been selected to undergo an inspection by the farming commission (or whatever). The farmer says "Help yourself. Just don't go into that area behind the barn." At that the inspector takes out his badge and says "Sir. This badge signifies that I am an agent of the great Irish Republic fully authorized to investigate every inch of this facility and I will not be deterred from carrying out my duties in their entirety." The farmer says, "Go right ahead then" and returns to his chores.
About twenty minutes later a great commotion can be heard coming from behind the barn. The farmer turns and sees the inspector being chased across a field by a very angry bull. The inspector has thrown his clipboard and hat away and is running for his life. The farmer cups his hands around his mouth and yells: "Show him your badge! Show him your badge!"
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