Monday, 6/4

NYS 3:32
LAT 3:23
CS 3:14
NYT 2:34

(updated at 11 a.m. Monday)

Oddball crossword-related link of the day: It's LOLPresident. This plays on the lolcats "krazy-spelled words on a picture" meme that's been floating around the internet of late, often with cute kitties but also with my nemesis, the tapir, and assorted people. I have an unreasonable affection for this type of goofiness. And the intersection between mangled English and working a standard crossword, as in the first image—I like it. I'm picturing someone struggling through an ACPT puzzle 5 and asking, lol-style, I CAN HAZ ANSER? KTHXBYE.

I think the Monday NYT crossword may represent a debut. Or is Steve Kahn the same as the Steven Kahn who published a few puzzles last year? Either way, a fine, breezy Monday offering, with an R AND R theme that comprises four RO*RO* phrases: ROTO-ROOTER, ROLLS ROYCE, ROMPER ROOM, and ROUNDROBIN. Good longer fill: ALSO-RAN, HEROINE, BOTTOMS UP. And ORANGE! Clued here as [Like pumpkins and traffic cones]. I also liked the pairing of ADOBE and ACROBAT.

Updated:

My husband woke me up 10 minutes before our son was due to leave the house for school! So I started the day a little behind schedule and didn't get to the other crosswords until now.

Gary Steinmehl's Sun puzzle, "Noteworthy Reminder," has one of those music themes that tend to elude me, but this one came to me not too long after I'd finished the crossword. The five theme entries begin with the words EVERY, GOOD, BOY, DOES, and FINE—a mnemonic for the EGBDF order of the notes.

The LA Times puzzle by Jerome Gunderson and Nancy Salomon has a great theme! Take a phrase like SOUL BROTHERS that doubles as a pair of famous people's last names and clue it accordingly: [David and Joyce are great buds?]. As in David Soul (of the original Starsky and Hutch) and Dr. Joyce Brothers. Fun little puzzle-within-a-puzzle. Highlighted, like Harvey Estes' CrosSynergy crossword, with long non-theme fill: MOB SCENES, IN LIMBO, and ON A STREAK in the LA Times, and MINT CHIP (yum!), CASHES IN ON, and COAL MINER in the CrosSynergy puzzle.