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Joan known for his "dream paintings" / THU 8-6-26 / Alternate nickname for the "Hollywood of the South" / Chà giò, on a Vietnamese menu / Northern Italian city known for its cheese
Thursday, August 6, 2026
Constructor: Dena R. Verkuil and John Kugelman
Relative difficulty: Easy (closer to a Wednesday time, and that's with rebus squares)
THEME: JAM PACKED — The puzzle contains three rebus squares that contain the word "JAM." The down entries for these squares is a food that can contain jam, with the rebus square breaking it apart in the center.
Word of the Day: ELENA (33A: ___ Ferrante, author of the "Neapolitan Novels") —
Elena Ferrante (Italian pronunciation: [ˈɛːlena ferˈrante]) is a pseudonymous Italian novelist. Ferrante's books, originally published in Italian, have been translated into many languages. Her four-book series of Neapolitan Novels are her most widely known works.[1][2] Time magazine called Ferrante one of the 100 most influential people in 2016.[3]
Ferrante has kept her identity secret since her 1992 debut, stating that anonymity is key to her writing process and that "books, once they are written, have no need of their authors". Speculation and several theories as to her true identity, based on information Ferrante has given in interviews as well as analysis drawn from the content of her novels, have been put forth, and routinely denied.• • •
Hello again, it's Eli back after our regular Malaika MWednesday. I always enjoy reading her posts, and I hope you do to. We've got a pretty simple rebus today, so after a puzzle yesterday that maybe felt more like a Thursday, today we have a Wednesday puzzle with a Thursday style gimmick. |
| No jammie dodger today? |
Theme answers:
- [JAM]AICAN RUM / TA[JAM]RT (17A: Spirit of the Caribeean / 1D: Fruity pastry)
- LEBRON [JAM]ES / DOUG[JAM]HNUT (23A: Four-time N.B.A. M.V.P. / 11D: Temptation for Homer Simpson)
- PA[JAM]A PARTY / SAND[JAM]WICH (46A: Pillow fight setting / 34D: Brown-bag item)
- JAM PACKED (60A: Chock-full ... like three squares (and foods) in this puzzle)
 |
| Speaking of high tea... |
 |
| Pretty much the opposite of 26D, and a good representation of 11D. Mmmmm, forbidden donut. |
Not sure what is going on with the two White Lotus clues. I adore AIMEE (49D: "The White Lotus" acress ___ Lou Wood) but there's no reason that ETNA has to be clued to the show (66A: Volcano seen on HBO's "The White Lotus") without there being a specific cross-reference. It's also interesting that Aimee Lou Wood is not in the season of the show with Mount Etna. And why did they specify it was an HBO show in one of the clues but not the other? Interesting editorial choices there. For more HBO content in today's puzzle, you can watch My Brilliant Friend, the adaptation of Elena (33A) Ferrante's Neapolitan Trilogy.
Mein 39D
 |
| The only way I'd clue "Sesame" |
Stray Thoughts:
- 50D: Arabia Felix, now (YEMEN) — I probably haven't watched an episode of Friends in decades, but my first thought when I hear Yemen is still that Chandler lied about moving to in order to get away from Janice. I even remember the fake address he gave her (15 Yemen Road, Yemen). Memory is weird.
- 21D: Not accept an outrade, say (PROTEST) — Like posting about a subject you find objectionable when you substitute on a crossword blog on Tuesday, maybe?
- 65A: Feelings of getting older (ACHES) — I turn 44 in a couple of weeks, and I'm definitely starting to feel this one.
Thanks for reading! I'll be back again for one more spin this weekend. See you then!
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70 comments:
A tad easier than medium for me. I caught the rebus at PAJAMA PARTY and went straight to revealer which saved me from looking for non-existent JAMs.
I did not know ECHODOT, AIMEE, and YEMEN (as clued).
Costly erasure - EGGsoup before ROLL.
@Eli - Me too for the wrong definition of enervate at first.
Clever, fun, and tasty, liked it.
Easy. Got the theme at LEBRON [JAM]ES x DOUG[JAM]HNUT. Not bad, for a rebus.
* * * _ _
Overwrites:
For at the helm (4D) I had IN COntrol before IN COMMAND.
How many times have I seen the name LEBRON [JAM]ES (23A)? A lot. So why did I initially spell it LaBRON?!?
WOEs:
I didn't know that Chả giò is an EGG ROLL (9D), nor that YEMEN (50D) used to be called Arabia Felix.
Cute but just so straightforward - @Gary will be dealing with the adverbs again today. Eli pretty much nails it - I’d put it early rather than midweek difficulty. Don’t know if I like the JAM stuck into the down entry or not - I do appreciate a two way rebus typically.
JAMAICA Say You Will
Overall fill is fine. IN COMMAND, EGG ROLL, AH I GOTCHA are all solid. Huge product placement dead center is questionable. Another Office reference I didn’t know - along with ELENA. The crosses helped. Love Appleton with some lime and a splash of ginger beer. Walk the Mall in the park whenever I get the chance - the ELMs are magical.
Roy Buchanan
Enjoyable - but far too easy Thursday morning solve.
HOT ‘LANTA
Certainly not easy today IMO. Finished it quicker than usual but that got a little tricky at times. Really enjoyed the construction though.
Jam EGGROLL, anyone?
Easy except for the NE. Got the rebus trick quickly with LEBRON(JAM)ES, but needed cheat for EDDIE (Bauer)/EGGROLL cross (Didn't see GROOM...my bad).
Didn't see the rebus at first, so that was a minor hiccup. I know my StarWars, but I really think I need to know The Office. It seems to pop up quite often nowadays!
Very nice touch to have the theme answers placed vertically, with the JAM packed right in the middle – the perfect visual, as sandwiches, doughnuts, and tarts have a top and bottom, with the jam in the center.
Well, Dena and John had me right at the start, in the NW, with [Number for December] for CAROL, [Spirit of the Caribbean] for JAMAICAN RUM, and [Short blue person] for DEM (where I really wanted to squeeze in “Smurf” somehow).
Clever, clever, and clever. And then they clinched it in the SE with [Make out, perhaps], where I was looking for synonyms for “snog”, or words meaning “see”, but TAG turned what I thought was a direct clue into a magnificent misdirect.
I liked seeing GAUNT, a great word, encored after its appearance on Tuesday. I also liked seeing a rare-in-crosswords semordnilap (ELENA). And the mini-theme of long-E enders, with an impressive eleven: TONI, EDDIE, TRY ME, SESAME, ELMTREE, DICEY, NOISY, ONE G, AIMEE, EATME, and EMT.
Fun to uncover the theme and all these extras, a sparkling start to the day. Dena and John, thank you, and how about putting together some more?
Hey All !
Quick Rebus ThursPuz. Got the Revealer first, then saw LEBRON (JAM)ES, and the gig was up.
Writeovers were parts - SCRAP, Torte - TA(JAM)RT, EelROLL - EGGROLL. Tricky clue for SEDAN.
Interesting puz. Some tough-ish cluing that I managed to see through, after a few rereads, mind you. Wouldn't call it PRIMO, wouldn't call it DICEY.
COOL above HOT was neat.
Welp, hope y'all have a great Thursday!
No F's - O, NEG!
RooMonster
DarrinV
How is "sedan" answer for civics course?
Doing my civic Atlien duty: We don't say Hotlanta. See, also (I hear): Frisco, Nola, Chitown.
At best, Atlanna. Lemon pepper wet city.
My kind of a Thursday, with a discernible theme and a reveal that is a nice cherry on top (the somewhat unpleasant thought of a JAM SANDWICH notwithstanding).
I hope I am missing something re “Make out, perhaps?” for TAG. At first I was wondering if the Brits had some slang that I wasn’t aware of (think SNOG) but that doesn’t appear to be the case. I still don’t see where the constructor was going with that one.
This was kind of hard for me. I liked the theme and got it pretty easily, but in general the cluing was just not in my wheelhouse. I forgot about LEBRONJAMES (sorry, not a sports person) and several things in that area were WoEs: EGGROLL (had soup at first), HOTLANTA (did not know there even was a “Hollywood of the South”), ECHODOT (I know ECHO, but the DOT part?)
And, I really hate modern slang clues because I rarely know them - getting old, I guess, with the ACHES to prove it.
I understood the theme by reading the downs as, e.g., JAM-filled TART, but Lewis's physical description of them is even better. Pretty original way of treating a rebus, I think. And lots of nice clues, like "Civic's class." I had PRIMe before PRIMO, but that's what crosses are for.
It is always called a jelly doughnut, in my experience. I have never ever heard it called a “jam doughnut” in all my 57 years.
Doctor: You seem to have food poisoning. What'd you eat for dinner.
Egs: Just a bunch of tuna at a sushi place.
Doctor: AHIGOTCHA.
I'm flabbergasted that the anti-abortion movement has taken things so far that they're trying to outlaw pregnancy tests. So I went to a PROTEST rally, like a good DEM.
My Caribbean friend was distilling something the other day so I asked him, "What JAMAICANRUM?"
Easy puzzle, but JAMPACKED with nice cluing. Thanks, Dena R. Verkuil and John Kugelman.
I enjoy a puzzle that starts out properly difficult and then turns into a whoosh as soon as I figure out what's going on. This happened today.
I figured Rebus early on but things didn't click until SAND[JAM]WICH. Then it was all go, go, go.
What stood out for me today was the treasure chest of brilliant cluing and mis-directs that made some short fill a *lot* of fun. I'm looking at you CAROL, DEM, TAG, JOE, COOL, and SEDAN (my favorite of the day).
I'm with Eli on the whole Enervate thing, I too always think it means the opposite of its definition and needed crosses.
Fun theme with great cluing, what's not to like? Thank you Dena and John!
I thought “uh oh… sportsball at the LEBRONJAMES clue and skipped past it, then later cracked up when I plugged the JAM in the doughnut and doh!
And yep! I absolutely think of Chandler when Yemen comes into play!
When a player is tagged they are then “out,” as in, “you’re out!”
How did you do on the links today, Son? PARMA.
Back in college if it came down to a choice between essay or exam, I was always PROTEST.
Happy to learn about King Tut's SESAME seeds. It seems like useless knowledge, but I'm going to tuck it in there somewhere. You never know when it may come in handy. (You're telling the cute bagel girl how you want your dozen made up: ". . . and 3 sesame -- hey did you know . . . .?")
Thanks for Chandler's Yemen line, Eli -- very funny!
The misdirects were coming at me like missles. Loved them plus the jam rebus.🎈🎈🎊🎊
@Southside, in baseball for example, when you TAG the runner they are out. So you make them out... kinda...
"TAG out" in baseball (when it isn't a force out).
My understanding is that a jam sandwich is fare for an afternoon tea vs hearty supper type fare for a high tea. The high refers to table height.
“Make out” refers to tagging the runner out in baseball.
That is also where my head goes when I read, hear or think of YEMEN. See also "pivot!" and "he's her lobster" and many other Friends references that will live rent-free and unevictable in my head.
Agree that the White Lotus dupe was very odd. I double-taked (double-took? doubled-take?) when I got to ETNA.
I liked this puzzle
Eli, I loved the EAT ME / Do not eat Disney Alice / Homer juxtaposition. That made my morning.
https://youtu.be/KAQyt79OHdg?is=rLkvqttnJ96-Aa9m>https://youtu.be/KAQyt79OHdg?is=rLkvqttnJ96-Aa9m
Only now, at this late hour (decades later) did I notice that the angry devil is taken from the Night on Bald Mountain section of Fantasia. Golden age Simpsons, a real classic.
And oh yeah, I enjoyed the puzzle, too. I liked figuring out the theme, and the revealer was solid (well, as solid as jelly can be).
Never heard of an ATlien until today, but I have definitely heard Atlanta referred to as Hotlanta (I’m in NY)
Yes!! I put "jelly" in the rebus square at first, until I saw that LEBRONJellyES didn't exactly work.
Honda Civic automobile type
The car!
perfectly suitable for a wednesday (more so than yeaterday's tuesday-level "puzzle") but a waste of a thursday.
The clue is Civic’s (possessive) class (not course) referring to the Honda Civic.
Good one! On the easy side, but I went all the way down on the left and halfway up the right before I saw Jamaican and could fill in the empty rebus squares and saw the visuals on the tart, sandwich and doughnut. It may be the first time I ever thought “adorbs” about a rebus. Nice start to the day!
“Civic’s class” refers to a Honda Civic’s class: sedan.
Lots of fun, and I sailed through it, because as soon as I saw the JAM in PAJAMA PARTY, I looked back up at 17A and knew it had to be JAMAICAN RUM.
Great clue for TAG...but I'm not sure I like the clue for THOSE ("Unspecified ones"), because, in a way, when you point to THOSE, you are exactly specifying which ones.
Wish all the themers could have been foot items like TART, SANDWICH, and DOUGHNUT, but I liked it anyway. Thanks for a fun Thursday, Dena and John!
Anonymous: the clue is Civic's class hence sedan is the class of Honda civics.
One more with the 180-degree wrong misunderstanding of enervate; love having esteemed company!
Civics class = Honda Civic
We entered Larry Bird (with the starting L, but before getting the rebus), even though I knew he was "only" a 3-time MVP (though 2 more in NBA Finals).
I had season tickets during his career span (ticket prices were laughably less expensive then; my roommate and I were poor, but we shelled out the (did the math) $342 per ticket PER YEAR!
Psychologically hurt to had to erase LB and correctly enter LJ.
Eli, I can relate to your feelings about ENERVATE; I think most people think it means energize. The word that hangs me up in that same way is temerity. To me it sounds as though it should mean timidity. But it means just the opposite, recklessness or boldness. I'm sure there are other words that bring to mind the opposite of what they mean.
@anon7:41, a Honda Civic is considered a SEDAN class of cars; our favorite clue in the puzzle.
Started with EDDIE Bauer and went straight down with the DOUGHNUT, ran into LEBRON and the rebus made it a JAM DOUGHNUT, which I entered under PROTEST. as I am with Anon 8:22 that this is always a jelly DOUGHNUT, and I even have a few more years of experience. I'm not crazy about a JAMTART either, and a JAMSANDWICH without the peanut butter may exist, but who wants one?
Names and pop stuff the unknowns again today. Knew SLAYS right away but it was wrong, hooray for HUMP day which made it into the unknown SLAPS. Sort of knew TONI after the name went in, no clue on The Office person, hello to AIMEE and ELENA and ECHODOT, and nice to know how to say EGGROLL in Vietnamese, I guess.
Nice breezy Thursday, DVR and JK. Some Dubious Variations Resulted in my nit picking, Jelly Rolls also comes to mind but not Jam Rolls--anyway, thanks for a fun Thursdecito.
I'm sure there were many wry smiles among this group in response to Eli's feeling rather glum about turning (gasp!) 44. I have 70 coming up in a few weeks. That feels like a big one.
Agreed. That one clanged for me.
"I had a date with a pretty girl in Kingston."
"Jamaica?"
"No. We just held hands. But I'm seeing her again tonight."
I entered ERNIE [Bauer], with Ernie Ball in the back of my guitar-string brain. Then, when RRAIN didn't make sense, I escaped that corner and moved south of HOTLANTA. Finally, EDDIE slid home.
I didn't think it was so easy. Maybe a lot of stuff not on my wavelength. And the placing of JAM? Does anyone put jam in a doughnut? Or in a tart? Or a sandwich, unless its PB and J?
I needed to fill in a lot of the grid before I saw the JAM rebus. It took some work. When I saw one at JAMAICANRUM, I started looking for the other two and found them rather quickly. Not easy and quite enjoyable.
Always am on guard for a possible ThursPuz rebus, so caught on to the puztheme pretty darn fast. JAM on yer TART, DOUGHNUT, and SANDWICH. Great. Not real sold, re: JAM on my pajamas, tho. Messy, dude.
staff weeject picks: TAG & DEM, cuz of their clues -- the puz's sole two shots at a ?-marker clue.
some fave stuff: HOTLANTA with COOL on it. AHIGOTCHA. SEDAN clue [Honda Civic, I presume].
Not so HOT and ain't real COOL: Startin the puz out with a no-know name [TONI], at our house.
Thanx for gangin up on us, Ms. Verkuil darlin & Mr. Kugelman dude. Nice JAMfest.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
p.s.
**gruntz**
M&A
As in Honda Civic
As in Honda Civic
Duh ! Thanks all, I’m usually pretty good with sports related clues. I missed the connection today.
Agreed. But, in truth, the filling is neither jam nor jelly. It's more like a semi-jelled sugar syrup with artificial flavour and red food colour.
"Civic's class": the class of automobile for the Honda Civic.
Think Honda Civic. The misdirection works because the first letters of the clues are always capitalized . The apostrophe also helps give it away (the clue is actually Civic’s class, not course).
I thought the JAMmy centers were very clever, and I really liked the meaning change of JAM-PACKED in the reveal. Thanks to @Eli for pointing out the nice complement of EAT ME. Even though I saw the JAM in JAMAICAN and TA[JAM]RT right off, I managed to forget all about the JAM when I wrote in DOUGHNUTs and wondered why SANDWICH had an extra letter. Fortunately, LEBRON JAMES and PAJAMA PARTY set me right.
NOLA (all caps) is OK written, but not spoken, usually.
It sounds as though you've missed out on a lot of good eats in your lifetime!
Thought this was easier than yesterday’s puzzle. Had a tough time yesterday,
SE_AM_, That's what I had in place at 32A for a while. I thought to myself, "Really? Succulent seeds in Tut's tomb?!" because I was mentally misspelling SEDuM. The jam-packed SANDWICH had me rethink that one.
I like that the down theme answers were items that have jam in them and the acrosses are just words/phrases/names that have the letters JAM in them. A nice touch.
Not knowing Vietnamese, I threw in EGG sOup for a while but 30A ending in U wasn't working. No idea on PRIG.
Nice Thursday puzzle, Dena and John!
Well put together, easy for a Thursday, but 30 seconds over my average Wednesday time so seems appropriate for today. Nice cluing made fill above average.3 1/2 stars.
Honda us offers the Civic as a sedan for a while, but for most of its half century Production run it was a hatchback. The new civic was ment to invoke citizens and cities. But in ‘74 or ‘75 Honda redesigned the engine to meet new emissions standards. They called their design CVCCC—- Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion. Really clever name and terrific engineering that allowed them to skip the catalytic converters other manufacturers were using to mer the new standards and brutalizing power and performance.
@jae etc, ditto for enervate.
Too easy for a Thursday, but a fun rebus. JAMPACKED with decent fill.
59d: nickname that drops "hard" ???
I just happened to get the rebus trick right away at square 17, when TORTE for 1 down didn't work with the crosses, and 17 across "Caribbean" suggested JAMAICA. Woohoo! Actually it was nice that there are only 3 total rebii (sp?), and that the down themers are the "packed" things (foods). Nice Thursday, not too tough.
Way too many names though. TONI EDDIE LEBRON HAL HOTLANTA ECHODOT ELENA MIRO AIMEE PARMA YEMEN ETNA LPGA DEERE HERA ADEN!!! That's 16, and I'm not even counting JAMAICA.
No the high refers to the fact it’s a full evening meal. It’s a working class thing in England, for folks who almost never have afternoon tea with jam tarts and dainty little sandwiches.
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