Saturday, January 3, 2026

LAT 2:30 (Stella) [3.80 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
Newsday 21:55 (pannonica) [3.80 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
NYT 7:16 (Amy) [4.12 avg; 17 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (Matthew) [3.20 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Matthew) [2.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
WSJ untimed (pannonica) [3.33 avg; 3 ratings] rate it

Hannah Slovut-Einertson’s New York Times crossword — Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 1/3/26 – no. 0103

I enjoyed this one.

First up, some clues that caught my eye:

• 1A. [Spoilers that ruin a whole lot], BAD APPLES. As in “one bad apple spoils the lot.”
• 41A. [“Allow me!”], “I CAN HELP!” That doesn’t feel entirely idiomatic to me. Did anyone else try I CAN DO IT?
• 53A. [“Your point being …?”], “OK, AND?” Not sure it’s fully idiomatic but I kinda like it?
• 58A. [Exaggerated speaking style that promotes language development], PARENTESE. Don’t think I’ve seen the term before.
• 6D. [Opposite of “with the works”], PLAIN. I’m far more likely to order a sandwich plain. Not a fan of mayo, mustard, pickles …
• 10D. [Corner piece], STAPLE. Ha! I was torn between KNIGHT and BISHOP but maybe the rook takes the corner?

Fave fill: LIKE-LIKED, MNEMONICS, RICE COOKER, ONE-MAN BAND, PLANKTON.

Four stars from me.

Kyle Dolan’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Los Angeles Times 1/3/26 by Kyle Dolan

liked a lot of the cluing here even though the result was easier than I’d like for Saturday.

• 27A [Two pieces?] is DUETS, which I thought was cute.
• 34A [Question asked by a fan?] is HOT ENOUGH FOR YOU? Which…IDK, even with the question mark in the clue, this was a little too stretchy for me, as I couldn’t think of a context in which the “fan” could be a person asking the question. Fanner, yes, but that would’ve spoiled the surface reading.
• 46A [Olympic archer?] is EROS, a clue that I didn’t see while solving but I think is clever.
• 55A [Scenario just before a board takeover?] is MATE IN TWO, where the “board” referred to in the clue is a chess board.
• 58A I also loved [Sharp kicks?] for ICE SKATES — i.e., “kicks” as slang for shoes, and ICE SKATES have sharp blades. I think 55A and 58A are clever enough that I can forgive this puzzle for the crossing entry R-LESS, which for me falls into the category of “okay in the aughts when word lists and constructing software weren’t as powerful as they are now.”
• 4D [Former “The Great British Baking Show” co-host Giedroyc] is MEL. Damn, I miss MEL and Sue. I believe it was MEL who delivered my favorite reality-show commentary of all time: “As Henry VIII said to Anne of Cleves, you’re about two-thirds of the way through!”
• 22D [“Queen of Creole Cuisine” Chase] is LEAH. Always here for a reference to Louisiana cooking!
• 26D …and for a reference to LITE BRITES, because I’m old enough to have played with them in their original incarnation.

Randolph Ross’ Wall Street journal crossword, “Not Business as Usual” — pannonica’s write-up

WSJ • 1/3/26 • Sat • “Not Business as Usual” • Ross • solution • 20260103

The theme concept is easy to grasp: familiar words and phrases recontextualized because they contain the names of companies.

• 23a. [Theme park contributor?] UNIVERSAL DONOR.
• 31a. [Romantic meetings in a big retail store?] TARGET DATES.
• 48a. [Checkup required by a tech company?] META PHYSICAL. The original is one word, so a physical reparse is necessary.
• 67a. [Sardonic title for Jeff Bezos’s spouse?] AMAZON QUEEN. (1) unlike the other clues, the company is invoked by naming its owner, (2) I feel a better choice would have been AMAZON BASIN.
• 83a. [Impact of a sugar company?] DOMINO EFFECT.
• 101a. [Those who benefited by investing early in a transportation app?] UBER WEALTHY. One word or two? Ngram shows very similar frequencies.
• 112a. [Additional charge from an insurance company?] PROGRESSIVE TAX.
• 17d. [What keeps the HR department busy at a tech company?] APPLE TURNOVER.
• 57d. [Members of the design team for an airline] UNITED ARTISTS, which is the name of another company. A bit weird, then.

Yeah, it’s a solid theme.

• 3d [Illegal door opener] SLIM JIM. Not the meat jerky snack.
• 13d [Frats coll. counterpart] SOR. Kind of ugly all around.
• 16d [Bet preceder] ALEF. Cute.
• 32d [Valium maker] ROCHE. Since I didn’t get to play this last month, and it’s very much winter still:
  
• 50d [Agrees to join] SIGNS ON. 1d [Went for another hitch] REUPPED.
• 52d [Philippine island] CEBU. I knew this from prior experience in biogeography, but I bet it was tough for the general solver.
• 53d [Dress in] DON. 103d [Dresses in] HAS ON.
• 80d [Louis XIV, to himself] L’ETAT. I fell into the trap of LE ROI, and cleaning up that section was my last act to complete the grid.
• 92d [Buddhist state] NIRVANA. 96d [Tranquil state] REPOSE. I was also misled by 55a [Aid for deep breathing] SCUBA; great clue, by the way.
• 30a [Three-letter sandwich] PBJ, but I was fooled and entered BLT, which appeared later with the same clue at 45-across.
• 35a [Jeff Lynne’s group] ELO. Roy Wood was in the group at the very beginning, and I feel that this song from his 1975 solo album Mustard is a lost classic:
  
• 41a [Split evenly] BISECT, which does not rhyme with dissect, people.
• 62a [Grown-up kit] FOX. Was misled by this clue too.
• 71a [“West Point of the South,” for short] VMI, which I’m just going to assume stands for Virginia Military Institute.
• 94a [Put back on] REHIRE. Unrelated to the two clothing clues mentioned above.
• 105a [Some new arrivals] EMIGRES. We don’t have those anymore in this country, aside from racist White South Africans and a smattering of Russians.
• 117a [Give, as a citation] ISSUE TO. Parsed this clue incorrectly too. Different kind of citation!
• 120a [Boy in a blended family] STEPSON.
  
• 121a [Pythagorean squares?] AGORAS. Cute.

About standard difficulty for a 21×21 WSJ crossword.

???’s Newsday crossword, Saturday Stumper — pannonica’s write-up

Newsday • 1/3/26 • Saturday Stumper • [constructor] • solution • 20260103

In any event, this was a fairly tough offering. The lower left section was the last to fall, with a few mis-fills that needed to be corrected.

Fittingly—and I’m sure intentionally—the grid-spanning across entry in the center provided a WATERSHED MOMENT for my solve, opening up a couple of regions that I’d otherwise failed to make headway with.

• 1a [Occasions for crumpets] TEA BREAKS. I certainly knew what it was getting at, but still needed several crossings.
• 15a [Cameo role in eight 007 films] ANGORA CAT. Ernst Stavro Blofeld’s lap-sitting familiar. I’m honestly surprised the number is so high.
• 16a [Aural ID] THEME. Okay, yes, accurate, but the clue sure made it sound as if we were talking about something else.
• 17a [Illustration option] GRAYSCALE. Made the mistake of thinking the answer was some sort of  -SCAPE.
• 19a [Stuhl or Bank of Germany] SITZ. I don’t understand this one.
• 21a [Reading on concert hall walls] DONORS. Oof. Anyway, OTIS didn’t fit.
• 22a [Keep from skiing, say] ICE IN, not ICE UP. Which leads to my major problem in the northwest section: 4d Billboard biggest young-male group, 1987–2012] BOYZ II MEN. I was pretty sure I knew the answer (turns out it was correct), but didn’t know the orthography of it, and all my speculations didn’t seem to work with the crossing entries.
• 24a [Form-fitting fabric] RIB KNIT. Figured this one out after crosses wouldn’t work with any kind of lycra, orlon, dacron-type synthetic.
• 25a [Relatively probing] NOSIER. An easy one, and an early entry.
• 27a [Special disposal] SALE. Stumperesque obliquity.
• 29a [Springtime-sounding she] MAE. Wording of the clue eliminated the MAY spelling of the name.
• 31a [End of seven UN member names] -STAN. Another early get.
• 37a [Guy embodied by nonchalance] ALAN. Don’t understand this one, and I held on to RYAN (inexplicably confusing it with Riley) for the longest time. I blame Monty Python’s Life of Brian, maybe?
• 38a [Flat tip] TOE. Flat being a style of shoe, and TOE being a part of a shoe. 54a [With no point] INANE.
• 39a [On Guerrilla Warfare author (1939)] MAO. I suspected the correct answer, but waited for crosses.
• 41a [What some crickets create] SILK. Did not know this. Tough clue!
• 42a [“Where our people stand,” per Odin (2017)] ASGARD. The date threw me off, unlike in 39-across where it was helpful, until I realized the clue was referencing a Marvel movie.
• 46a [Audio studio router] TIE LINE. Uh, ok.
• 49a [Recipe’s kick addition] LACING. Eh.
• 57a [Thread with a head] SCREW. Sure, easy, when I finally stopped to think about it.
• 58a [Andean Explorer amenity] PARLOR CAR. How quaint. I bet they have TEA BREAKS there.
• 2d [Name on the cover of The Pope of Physics] ENRICO Fermi. Another early get. Same with its neighbor 3d [Rocks with bands] AGATES.
• 6d [A person] EACH. My very first filled entry.
• 11d [Prodigious portion] CHUNK.
  
• 13d [Mac partner] AMERICAN cheese.
• 14d [Where Alda shouts “I’ve eaten a river of liver”] MESS TENT. Why ‘Alda’ and not ‘Hawkeye’?
• 27d [Eely or froggy] SLEEK. Pleased with this answer, though I unhappily auditioned SLIMY and SLICK before arriving correctly.
• 31d [STORM + GALE weathery anagram] SMOG ALERT. Was thinking of something a little more natural. Nevertheless, knowing the letters involved was helpful in filling out the southwest there.
• 36d [Word from Old English for “fire”] OAST. 👀
• 41d [What Longfellow calls his blacksmith’s hands] SINEWY. oh, c’mon.
• 47d [Warm, neutral shade] LINEN. Experimented with TAUPE, even tried OCHER with the E in place.
• 50d [Hook model] AHAB. Wavelengthed this one early.
• 56d [UK airport-search code] LON.
  

Okay, gotta run!