Monday, January 5, 2026

BEQ 14:47 (Eric) [3.17 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
LAT 2:02 (Stella) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 3:16 (Sophia) [3.94 avg; 9 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker 6:13 (Amy) [3.42 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
Universal untimed (pannonica) [3.92 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (?) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
WSJ untimed (Jim Q) [3.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it

Lynn Lempel’s New York Times crossword — Sophia’s recap

New York Times, 01 05 2026, By Lynn Lempel

Happy new year and happy Monday all! Today’s crossword theme is all about air travel, which is apt for the many folks like myself doing some holiday travel this weekend. The start of each theme answer is a phase during a plane flight, culminating in a final TOUCH DOWN:

• 16a [Meeting spot for a company’s overseers] – BOARDROOM
• 24a [1976 film with Robert De Niro as an alienated cabbie] – TAXI DRIVER
• 34a [Enjoy a vacation day, say] – TAKE OFF FROM WORK
• 48a [Bug killer that goes “smack!”] – FLYSWATTER
• 57a [Gridiron success … or, when read as two words, the conclusion to the sequence formed by the starts of 16-, 24-, 34- and 48-Across] – TOUCHDOWN

BOARD –> TAXI –> TAKE OFF –> FLY –> TOUCH DOWN. The sequence is solid, and I liked BOARDROOM and FLYSWATTER a lot both as answers and as meaning-changes from the plane-related words. TAKE OFF FROM WORK feels kind of retro to me as a phrase, but I do like having three F’s in a row in the puzzle. TOUCHDOWN also feels appropriate as an answer since today’s the last day of the NFL regular season! (and hey, NFL is also smack in the center of the grid).

My favorite clues today were [Label as G or R, say] for RATE and [Overhead light?] for HALO. The puzzle felt a bit segmented to me, particularly in the top left and bottom right corners. There was a lot of nice long fill; STOWAWAYS and PEN NAME are standouts to me. There is also some fill that felt harder than usual for Monday, for example the EFFETE/FILIAL cross. However, I ended with a pretty average solve time, so sound off in the comments about if this played harder than usual for you.

Morton J. Mendelson’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Los Angeles Times 1/5/26 by Morton J. Mendelson

We have an unusual combo today of a theme that uses both a revealer and punny clues to show the connection between the theme entries, which each have the name of a college of university as the first word in the theme phrase. The revealer at 39A [Time for extracurricular activities, or where the ends of 17-, 26-, 52-, and 62-Across literally are], AFTER SCHOOL, states this explicitly, but the clues also point to the connection:

• 17A [Sweetener used on a Providence campus?] is BROWN SUGAR.
• 26A [Horse that’s saddled up for a tour of a Philadelphia campus?] is TEMPLE MOUNT. (Feels like half of my family are Temple alumni, btw.)
• 52A [Quad found on a Portland campus?] is REED SECTION.
• 62A [Kitchen appliance used at a Houston campus?] is RICE COOKER.

I found the combo of the revealer and the theme clues to be too much for me — the clues are plenty, although I suppose when AFTER SCHOOL is built right into the middle of the grid you can’t just clue it normally. I would’ve preferred this puzzle with a fifth theme entry in place of the revealer. You could also clue the theme entries straightforwardly and use the revealer to link them, although in that case I think the fact that BROWN, TEMPLE, REED, and RICE are all universities might not be clear enough for a Monday puzzle.

I enjoyed the long Downs of RODEO CLOWN and GIFTED KIDS!

Liz Gorski’s New Yorker crossword–Amy’s recap

New Yorker crossword solution, 1/5/26 – Gorski

Need to do some editing before treatment, so short notes today.

Fave bits: The biome clues for HUMIDITY and SEMIARID, FINGER CYMBALS, SKEDADDLED, BIODEGRADABLE, DEMIGLACE.

EDENS as a plural noun feels iffy, but in Chicagoland, the Edens is a stretch of I-94. Kelsey Dixon could use that angle in her weekly Chicagocentric mini crossword in the Chicago Sun-Times and it would be a gimme for everyone.

Roughly 18 proper nouns? That’s gonna frustrate some solvers. Especially when quizzed on names like YSER and ADELA.

3.25 stars from me.

Drew Schmenner’s Universal crossword, Poetry in Motion” — pannnonica’s write-up

Universal • 1/5/26 • Mon • “Poetry in Motion” • Schmenner • solution • 20260105

The circled letters of the theme answers spell VERSE. As they progress, the letters rotate, or loop, through
VERSE
EVERS
SEVER
RSEVE
ERSEV

• 17a. [Where teens learn the rules of the road] DRIVER’S ED.
• 26a. [“There’s still hope”] NEVER SAY DIE.
• 38a. [“The Hunger Games” heroine] KATNISS EVERDEEN.
• 50a. [When “Auld Lang Syne” is sung] NEW YEAR’S EVE.
• 62a. [Digit on Mantle and Elway’s jerseys] NUMBER SEVEN.

Sure, that’s a theme, and solid enough.

• 1a [Poet, in Shakespearean times] BARD. Apt for the first entry. 68a [Before, to a poet] ERE.
• 35a [Like a skilled  mechanic] HANDY. 66a [More competent] ABLER.
• 45a [“… happily __ after”] EVER. Appears as part of the circled letters in two of the theme answers. nb: this does not constitute a duplication.
• 6d [Surgery sites: Abbr.] ORS. 64d [Med. drama settings] ERS.
• 8d [Third-party politico Ralph] NADER. grr
• 10d [In the distance] OVER YONDER. Is this crossworthy? I’m coming down on the side of ‘yes’. 28d [In the distance] AFAR.
• 48d [In a very serious manner] GRIMLY. Reflexive thought was GRAVELY but it was obvious that it wouldn’t fit, so I nimbly adapted.
• 53d [’80s home theater device] VCR. My only true mis-fill, where I tried the slangier (for the player) VHS.

 Zhouqin Burnikel’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Able to Change” — Jim Q’s write-up

Revealer in the title today!

WSJ • 1/5/25 • Mon • Able to Change • Zhouqin Burnikel • solution • 20250105

THEME ANSWERS:

• ELBA ISLAND
• BALE OF HAY
• BELA FLECK
• ABEL TASMAN

Simple, fun theme and a clean grid. What else would one expect from a veteran like CC Burnikel? I like the word play of the title. Sometimes (read: often) titles can feel quite forced when the theme is not dependent on them. As it’s the revealer in this case, the opposite is true. It’s likely that ABLE TO CHANGE might have been included in the grid itself at one point (at 11 letters it’s relatively simple to place), but smartly taking advantage of a publication that allows for titles and omitting it can lead to a much cleaner grid, which is apparent here.

PRUNE JUICE, TIME LAPSES, SMART HOMES, and COMES ALIVE were clear standouts in the fill, which filled in very smoothly for me. New-to-me things like IGA Swiatek couldn’t be more fairly crossed.

ABEL TASMAN is also new for me, but the name is quite inferable (ABEL from the theme itself, and I’m assuming ABEL lent his name to the Tasmanian devil and Tasmania itself.

If I had to have a nit it would be that I feel like I’ve seen nearly all of these clues before, which definitely makes for a fast solve, but I’ve been enjoying the early week puzzles that are still finding unique ways to clue as of late.

Overall though, quite difficult to complain. 3.75 stars.

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword # 1850 — Eric’s Review

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1850 — 1/5/25 (Click to Embiggen)

Most of this wasn’t too challenging, but I got stuck at the end having to almost run the alphabet on the final square.

Stuff that stood out for me:

• 1A [Intentionally doing things so as to appear cool] AURA FARMING I was annoyed with myself because I encountered this term (possibly for the first time) just last week and I knew I’d seen it, but I couldn’t remember what it was.
• 26A [Honeylove product] BRA Was this a lucky guess or have I seen that company’s name somewhere?
• 28A [TV agent Will played by Ramón Rodriguez] TRENT I think I’ve seen this actor once, in the 2009 remake of The Taking of Pelham 123. The TV show Will Trent doesn’t sound at all familiar.
• 35A [Persian’s sleeping quarters] CAT BEDS I guess one Persian cat might have multiple beds, but I’d like that clue better if “Persian” were plural.
• 40A [Wrecking Crew musician who rejected a 2025 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame] CAROL KAYE I’m embarrassed that I don’t recognize this bass guitarist’s name. I’ve certainly heard her work.
• 47A [One who stereotypically eats leftovers nobody else wants] DAD Not DOG.
• 50A [Director Trachtenberg] DAN Another name that’s new to me, but the movies he makes are not the type of movies I usually see.
• 55A [Magnum opus time] SHINING HOUR That idiom is new to me.
• 60A [Like laws] ENFORCEABLE Well, maybe. I used to draft legislation and sometimes it was difficult to get the legislator authoring a proposal to settle on an enforcement mechanism.
• 62A [Sweaters with openings that stop in the chest] QUARTER-ZIPS I guess it’s fitting that the last Across answer, like the first one, was something that I recently learned about but couldn’t remember.
• 6D [Rival of Bigelow and Celestial Seasonings] AHMAD TEA I don’t regularly drink tea and hadn’t heard of this brand.
• 8D [Fête du Travail month] MAI Luckily, there’s only one month with a four-letter name in French.
• 29D [Change one’s story?] RETCON, or “retroactive continuity,” “a literary device in fictional story telling whereby facts and events established through the narrative are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subsequently published work that recontextualizes or breaks continuity with the former.” Cute clue.
• 41D [Floored] KO’D The K is where I got stuck; I don’t know why it took me so long to think of the shortening for “knocked out.”
• 57D [Jotunheimen National Park nat.] NOR That name just looks Scandanavian, doesn’t it?