Napkin, to Brits / SAT 8-8-2026 / Giant bird of Chinese mythology that is transformed from a fish called Kun / Hard French cheese / Instrument measuring liquid density

Constructor: Kameron Austin Collins

Relative difficulty: not much harder than yesterday, and too straightforward for a Saturday


Word of the Day: SPANAKOPITA [Greek dish made with an abundance of spinach] —

I finally conquered my fear of making spanakopita, the Greek savory spinach and feta pie, and yes, this means I’m going to tell you all about it. It took me so long because, however pathetically, I find filo/phyllo, the thin dough used to produce the flaky layers in many Middle Eastern and Balkan pastries, stressful: the tissue-like sheets can dry into crumbles in what feels like seconds. Having to brush each layer with butter or oil before using it is challenging in a small kitchen, and a lot of work in any size. Over the years, I’ve auditioned many spanakopitaish pies that allowed me to hedge a bit on the phyllo — triangles (only one sheet at a time made it less scary), spirals (ditto with one sheet; this recipe is in Smitten Kitchen Every Day), galettes (using a pie-like dough), and even “skillets” where I just messily crumbled some phyllo on top. All were good. None were this. This is exact spanakopita I crave, more doable than I thought possible. [smitten kitchen]

• • •

Hey hi howdy hello, Christopher Adams here, filling in for a second time this weekend. I love me some spanakopita, but didn't really enjoy the puzzle anywhere as much; a lot of it felt like Monday clues on a Saturday puzzle. I had some hope from the byline and grid shape that this would be a meatier, crunchier solve than yesterday; it was just as straightforward, but at least some of the entries here were interesting.

In addition to SPANAKOPITA, I really loved SLEEVELESS T, especially since I started filling it in at the end of the entry, and for a hot second thought I'd gone wrong with the -SST ending before I realized how to parse it. WATERSLIDE, with an excellent clue that takes the common phrase [Slippery slope] and interprets it quite literally, was also a standout. ERIC CARLE is nice, if only for reminding me of a lovely book, and TRAGICOMIC / HYDROMETER are (imo) good examples of long, single-word entries. 

the title track from a Porridge Radio album I quite enjoy; the follow-up album to that is also well worth a listen

Unfortunately, that's about as much as I liked; as noted above, a large number of these clues were just too straightforward. Here's my top bottom five list of clues that could, and should, have been toughened up and/or felt insultingly easy:

5) EVITA PERON [Founder of Argentina's first female-led political party, familiarly] — basically "name a famous woman from Argentina", and "familiarly" tells you it's EVITA and not EVA, but at least you could learn something here

4) HOOTS [Nocturnal sounds in the woods] — at least one could think of other animals, though owls are most likely the first nocturnal animal to come to mind

3) MAGI [O. Henry's "The Gift of the ___"] — very well known story, and it's made even easier by including the author

2) BREA [La ___ Tar Pits] — another fill in the blank of a well-known name, but it beats MAGI because the answer is even more obviously restricted from the clue

1) MINARET [Tower with daily calls to prayer] — straightforward definition, no attempt at misdirection, and it points at one specific answer (compare, say, [Map lines: Abbr.]; also straightforward, but could easily also be STS). In short, this is the [Perfect example] of a clue that's too easy for this (and actually, I should probably slot EPITOME in this list somewhere).

Olio:

• ESP [For a medium, it's easy!] — hard no on this clue; it's fakery, not easy.
• LENS CAPS [They're taken off for boudoir photos] — they're also taken off for non-boudoir photos; I appreciate the attempt at misdirection, but it didn't really land for me.
• SWEETY [Term of endearment, in one spelling] and OOLALA ["Fancy!"] — why the "in one spelling" for one entry and not the other? IMO, neither should have that note, and both are the inferior spellings (with SWEETIE and OOHLALA being better).
• STEEVE [Load from the dock] — not an easy word, but not necessarily bad; inferrable if you've heard of stevedores, but if you haven't, good luck with the crosses on SERVIETTES and (especially) SERIES E (pick a random letter to end the entry lol).
• In general I did not like the southwest corner of this grid; PENG was new to me and interesting to learn about, but RDS ESP AAH BREA GABBER weren't great, and I felt IT HELPS and BELLE AMIE were among the lesser of the long entries. EN PASSANT is nice, but the straightforward cluing drags it down a little.

Yours truly, Christopher Adams, Court Jester of CrossWorld

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