Thursday, July 30, 2026 |

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Brian Callahan’s Universal Crossword — Eric’s Review

Brian Callahan’s Universal Crossword — 7/30/26

Another breezy themeless puzzle, with quite a lot stuff I’ve not often seen in grids:

• 13A [“See ya, senorita!”] ¡ADIOS, AMIGA! I like how “señorita” signals both that the answer is in Spanish and that the person being addressed is female. Very efficient clueing!
• 23A [Product made from cashews or soy] VEGAN CHEESE I eat more cheese than I probably should, but I can’t say that I’ve ever been tempted by the stuff that’s not made from milk.
• 31A [Football maneuver that may involve a touch] TOE TAP My five seconds of internet research suggests that what I assumed to be a gridiron football term I wasn’t familiar with is actually one from association football, and I heard it multiple times watching World Cup matches.
• 34A [Malinin on the ice] ILIA I must have heard of him, since I looked him up after finishing and recognized his nickname of the “Quad God” — unless some earlier figure skater was known by that name.
• 47A [They might be worn for a night out!] PAJAMA PANTS Cute clue. I wondered a week ago if PAJAMA TOP is really a common term. I have less doubt about PAJAMA PANTS, though I would likely use PAJAMA BOTTOMS. It seems like if you’re wearing just part of a pair of PJs, it’s probably the bottoms.
• 61A [Pompous] HOITY-TOITY That’s fun to see in a grid. Not so much fun in real life.
• 10D [Orthodontics brand] INVISALIGN The time I spent whining to myself about the unlikelihood that I knew this answer was wasted; I actually did know that brand’s name. It’s been around since 1999, so it must have seeped under my rock.
• 11D [They’re sometimes crossed to purchase fireworks] STATE LINES Interesting way to clue that, though in my experience (living most of my adult life in Texas), you just needed to get out of a city to buy fireworks.
• 15D [“You’re making me blush!”] AW SHUCKS Not AW, STOP IT!
• 24D [Tour de France champion Bernal] EGAN Despite being a cyclist, I can only name a couple of Tour de France winners, and Señor Bernal is not one of them. (2019, if you’re curious; Wikipedia says that in 2022, he was training and slammed into the back of a stopped bus. I gather he’s lucky he wasn’t killed or paralyzed.)

Other fill I liked seeing: CAN WE GO NOW, NEVER AGAIN and POLYMATH.