Thursday: This Grid Paints a Picture - 27 June 2024 New York Times Crossword 

My first Thursday solve without any hints. Big day 😅❤️ Thanks for all your content, Chris!

The three MCU Chrises are Evans (Captain America), Hemsworth (Thor) and Pratt (Star-Lord). Chris Pine is not in the MCU (unless you count the Spider-Verse movies with their multiverse shenanigans) but was in the two DC Wonder Woman movies. Given their positions, I think the four lines of black squares represent the beginning of cutting the pizza into quarter slices!

I kept waiting for you to notice 28 down! [Mixed bag? = tea] :)

There’s something very soothing about hearing the rebus explanation every time.

This one was high Art!

Holy rebus, Batman!

Very fun puzzle today! Putting the rebus in on mobile was a pain though lol

Good to know about the Esc key for inserting a rebus. You can also use the insert key.

this is my first week with the crossword subscription, but i somehow managed to solve it without the rebus lol, i didn't know that was a thing

Bit late commenting on this, but don't the yellow squares at the end represent the cheese topping?

I thought this was a really fun puzzle. Lately, I have been working my way through the crossword by doing as many across clues as I could, then down, then randomly filling the rest in. I knew something was going on early on, but then I encountered the toppings clue and thought that the extra letter(s) that I didn't have room for were being "absorbed" into the black squares somehow. It wasn't until I crossed Dr. Ruth with throb (oh my!) and thought, "how am I going to remember the double letters in these boxes?" that I remembered that I can use a rebus! (It's been a long week and my brain is tired!). Chris mentions this all the time about rebuses - there isn't any specific indicator when a rebus is in play, but if you're coming up with answers you could swear are correct but don't fit, that's a good sign that a rebus is involved.

The esc key tip was v handy!

Paolo Pasco is also the reigning champion of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, at the ripe old age of 23.

Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pratt. Greetings from a fellow Chris.

I thougt it was a soccer ball at first, for the Copa America :)

Isn't Illini pronounced Ill-EYE-Nigh?