NYT Daily Crossword - Thursday, May 28, 2026

I ultimately made all the right choices to solve today's clever themed puzzle by John Kugelman! THINGS I MISSED: 16A - the correct question: "What is a rake?" 27A - a rector, as it turns out, is an administrator, not a preacher 50A - Dodge City, Kansas, is in fact a real place, and he got out of there in 1879 (though not necessarily to escape danger as the common expression suggests) 18D - invented in or before 1885 by a pharmacist, it's actually older than Coca Cola! 26D - literally "the warrior's way", this is the samurai moral code 36D - this phrase comes from a prune-like fruit which I guess has a "sultry" dark purple-ish colour