August 28, 2026

Title: THAT DOESN'T SOUND LIKE ENOUGH

Constructor: Mike Graczyk

Editor: Amie Walker

Theme synopsis:

• RAW COOKIE DOUGH (16A: Unbaked batch in a mixing bowl)
• FEEDING TROUGH (35A: Dining spot about which you might say "It's a total sty around here!")
• THINK IT THROUGH (58A: "Don't just say the first thing that comes to mind!")

THAT DOESN'T SOUND LIKE ENOUGH: The last word of each theme answer ends in the letters -OUGH – like the word ENOUGH – but is pronounced differently: DOUGH, TROUGH, and THROUGH.

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• WNBA (4A: Org. where you could see a Fever-Dream matchup) Ha! Nice choice of WNBA teams here. The Indiana Fever and the Atlanta Dream are WNBA teams.
• DRONE (15A: Male honeybee) We saw the plural DRONES in yesterday's puzzle clued as [They serve the queen].
• MOO (33A: "I'm the best cow ever!") and EWES (66A: Mas that baa) These types of goofy animal clues always make me happy.
• BAT (40A: Club on a diamond?) That's a baseball diamond, where one would use a BAT as a club (of sorts). This clue pairs nicely with SWING (56A: "___ and a miss!") and TROT (9D: Home run hitter's pace, perhaps).
• LAO (41A: Sai kok cuisine) Sai kok is a type of sour sausage in LAO cuisine. It uses sticky rice as part of the sausage filling.
• POET (42A: One who converts feet into meter?) That's meter as in poetic verse, and feet as in units of verse. 
• EMAIL (62A: The first one was sent in 1971) Thank you, puzzle, for this reminder that I am older than EMAIL! Roy Tomlinson is considered to be the person who sent the first EMAIL message. This first EMAIL was a test message sent between two side-by-side computers. Although I couldn't confirm the content of that first EMAIL, it's speculated that it was the exciting message, "QWERTYUIOP" (the top row of letters on a QWERTY keyboard).
• HEEL (63A: Lab order?) Not an order in a scientific lab, but an order one might give to a Labrador retriever, "HEEL!"
• CHO (17D: "Fire Island" actor Margaret) Fire Island is a 2022 movie about a group of gay friends on vacation. In writing the screenplay for the queer, Asian rom-com, Joel Kim Booster took inspiration from Jane Austen's 1813 novel, Pride and Prejudice. Margaret CHO portrays Erin, the "house mother" of the vacation house. Her character is based on the Pride and Prejudice character Mr Bennet. 
• LOAF (23D: ___ pose (resting cat's position)) Here's my cat, Willow, helpfully demonstrating LOAF pose.

• SEBASTIAN (32D: Crab who sings "Under the Sea") "Under the Sea" is a calypso-style song sung by the crab SEBASTIAN (voiced by Samuel E. Wright) in Disney's animated 1989 movie The Little Mermaid. The song is SEBASTIAN's attempt to dissuade Ariel from her plan to go after Prince Eric. "Under the sea / Under the sea / Darling it's better / Down where it's wetter / Take it from me..."
• MAGI (47D: "The Gift of the ___" (O. Henry story)) We saw essentially the reverse of this clue on August 22, when we saw ["The Gift of the Magi" author] used as a clue for O. HENRY.
• ENO (53D: "Music for Airports" artist Brian) Ambient 1: Music for Airports is Brian ENO's 1979 studio album. This album was the first album Brian ENO specifically released with the label of ambient music, a genre intended to be "as ignorable as it is interesting."
• WHEE (57D: "I am having so much fun on Goofy's Sky School!") Goofy's Sky School is a roller coaster at Disney California Adventure, a theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California.
• THE (59D: Common article) THE is so common it's making back-to-back puzzle appearances. We saw it yesterday clued as [Word before "Clash" or "Cure"].
• A few other clues and answers I particularly enjoyed:
• NEWS TO ME (3D: "First I'm hearing of this")
• GO FIGURE (38D: "Who'd've thunk it?")
• WASH ME (46D: Phrase written on a dirty car)

This is a fun theme! I had a nice "Aha!" moment when I filled in RAW COOKIE DOUGH and realized what was happening. Thank you, Mike, for this clever puzzle.