Monday, August 17, 2026 — Green Day and Pink Floyd and the Kingsmen, Oh, My! 😎

You would expect that someone who has published 85 (!) NYTimes crosswords, including 31 Mondays, would craft a fine Monday puzzle, and your expectations would be met and then some. Zhouqin Burnikel has produced a picture-perfect Monday, with a lemon meringue of a theme and some awesome clues. Some that did not make into the podcast include 49D, Sound asleep?, SNORE (😀); 36D, "Sounds like a plan!", LETS (😀 😀); and clearly the greatest song of all time, anywhere, 10D, 1963 Kingsmen hit with a r...