Tuesday

Barry Silk's NYT features theme entries containing LLL. I'd like to see some of those entries pop up as tricky non-theme fill more often—when faced with ****LL***, who's gonna slap another L before the two L's they've already got?

Over in the NYS, Sarah Keller's "Add-Ons" adds ONs in the theme entries. I don't know why, but I particularly liked YON CHROMOSOME. Kudos to the constructor for those solid bricks of 6-letter entries in the SW and NE corners. I'm guessing it was Peter Gordon who tossed in that obscure STYX clue ("Blue Collar Man" band)—I was a teenybopper during Styx's heyday, and I sure don't remember that song. If you're going with 1978 Styx songs, clearly "Renegade" is the most memorable. ("Hangman is coming down from the gallows"? C'mon, that's classic!)

NYS 4:36
NYT 3:30
CS 3:26
LAT Tues 3:19
LAT Mon 2:45