Thursday, May 14, 2026 |

BEQ tk (Eric) rate it
Fireball untimed (Jenni) rate it
LAT tk (Gareth) rate it
NYT 17:27 (ZDL) rate it
Universal tk (Eric) rate it
USA Today tk (Emily) rate it
WSJ tk (Jim Q) rate it

Zachary David Levy’s Fireball Crossword “Ah, That’s the Spot” – Jenni’s write-up

I finished this one relatively quickly and then stared it for a looong time before I finally asked my husband what he thought. Each theme answer has an X substituting for a string of letters.

Fireball crossword, May 13, 2026, Zachary David Levy, “Ah, That’s the Spot,” solution grid

• 17a [Offering from a help desk] is TX SUPPORT – T{ECH S}UPPORT.
• 24a [Academic field also known as Bohemistics] is CZX STUDIES – CZ{ECH S}TUDIES.
• 36a [Faster than fast] is AT BREAKNXPEED  – AT BREAKN{ECK S}PEED.
• 51a [Designated area for practice swings] is ON DXIRCLE – ON-D{ECK C}IRCLE.

And a revealer which didn’t help me much: 61a [Variables that come into play four times in this puzzle] is X FACTORS.

The Xs stand in for ECHS, ECHS, ECKS, and ECKC. My husband said “Well, they’re all a hard-C sound – ECK” and I finally realized they all sound like X. Duh. Well played, ZDL (no relation)(that I know of).

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that CNN has a show called “United Shades of America.”

Simeon Seigel’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up

Time: 17m27s

Difficulty: Breezy (<8m)  |  Easy-ish (8-9m30s)  |  Working on it (9m30s-11m)  |  Rough going (11+m)

Simeon Seigel’s New York Times crossword, 5/14/26, 0514

Today’s theme: WATER (Compound with a caret-shaped molecule, as depicted by this puzzle’s circled letters)

• STANDING (water) MARK
• ON THE (water) CANNONS
• RETAINS (water) WINGS
• RAIN (water) PITCHERS

Took me quite a while to wrap my head around this one, and even when I figured out the molecular angle, I still had a hard time putting all of the pieces together (despite the circles practically begging you to follow them down the prim-rows path).  I will also never know the difference between a SCARP and an escarpment.

Cracking: I HEART RADIO

Slacking: NEEDED ASAP, something about the awkward marriage of past tense and abbreviation

Sidetracking: TITO