AV Club untimed (Eric) 
[3.25 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
LAT tk (Gareth) 
[2.75 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 4:31 (Amy) [3.32 avg; 11 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker 3:19 (Jim Q) 
[3.92 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (pannonica) [2.25 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today 7:08 (Emily) [2.75 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
WSJ 6:54 (Eric) 
[2.00 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
David Alfred Bywaters’ Wall Street Journal Crossword “Hidden Asset” — Eric’s Review
David Alfred Bywaters’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Hidden Asset” — 1/7/26 (Click to Embiggen)
The “set” of the letters AS are “hidden” in the wackified theme answers (or at least that’s how I interpret the title):
- 17A [Dog show winners?] BEST BEASTS Best bets
- 26A [How Sherpas might be paid?] PER ASCENT Percent
- 40A [Killing with kindness?] SMOOTH ASSAILING Smooth sailing I can’t help but parse that as “smooth-ass ailing.” (Note to constructors: If you want to distract me, put an ASS in the center of the grid.)
- 52A [Nut-shaped gift for a child?] CASHEW TOY Chew toy
- 65A [Prom queen’s shoe rental contract?] SPIKE LEASE Spike Lee
A theme that has wacky theme answers always takes me a little longer to solve, probably because the answers are not as familiar as the phrases and names that they riff on. And as always, whether the theme answers 11D AMUSE the solver is highly subjective. I sort of like CASHEW TOY and am of mixed feeling about SPIKE LEASE. The other three didn’t do much for me.
Other stuff:
- 4A [Often-removed car part] GAS CAP/37D [Engine opening] AIR INTAKE/43D [Game often played from the back seat] I SPY Somebody itching to take a road trip?
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The Major Arcana in the Rider–Waite Tarot deck
14A [Pre-testimony words] I DO It’s nice to not see this clued as wedding vows, but do I really need a reminder that I have jury duty in two weeks? No, I DO not.
- 15A [Mysterious stuff] ARCANA
- 22A [Like the characters in “The Outsiders”] TULSANS I tried to get TEENAGE to work before I realized that the answer was so much more specific.
- 28A [Long division, of a sort] BORDER Nice misdirection.
- 10D [You may hear “here” here] ROLL CALL Cute clue with all those homophones.
- 27D [Dustin’s “Midnight Cowboy” role] RATSO I’ve seen that movie at least twice, and Ratso Rizzo is an iconic character. But when he was an answer in a puzzle just a few days ago, I foolishly tried to get RAZZO to work.
- 34D [Bonnie with 13 Grammys] RAITT A pure gimme, though she started winning Grammys about the time I stopped listening to her music. That’s probably not a coincidence.
Adrianne Baik’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 1/7/26 – no. 0107
Here’s the theme, female characters you can clue by (somewhat) familiar phrases:
- 17A. [Wing woman?], TINKER BELL. She has wings. Clue is a riff on wingman, but maybe presented as two words because the dictionary hasn’t caught up.
- 25A. [Cover girl?], NANCY DREW. The cover of a series of books, I guess.
- 35A. [Homecoming queen?], DOROTHY GALE. Whirls away from Kansas to Oz, clicks her heels to return home.
- 48A. [Sister-in-law?], ELLE WOODS. REESE Witherspoon’s role in Legally Blonde.
- 57A. [Cat lady?], HELLO KITTY. Like Tinker Bell, this one’s drawn.
Woman, girl, queen, sister, and lady are all words that can be used in addressing a woman. My queen!
Fave fill: JET LAG, STEALTH, comforting CONGEE.
Question: Is POWER TIE, 11D. [Bold accessory for a suit], still a thing?
Another question: Is 4D. [“Oh no!,” in comics], ACK, a thing anywhere outside of the Cathy comic strip?
3.75 stars from me.
Caitlin Reid’s New Yorker crossword — Jim Q’s write-up
I’m not a regular solver of The New Yorker puzzles, but I’ve almost always enjoyed them when I have solved. Today was definitely no exception. This ran very smoothly for me with little pushback.
New Yorker • 1/07/26 • Tue • Caitlin Reid • solution • 20260107
ENTRIES OF NOTE:
- [“I could have predicted that”] NO SURPRISE THERE! Nice central grid-spanner.
- [Adam Sandler “S.N.L” character who delivered the news in the form of arias] OPERA MAN. Throwback for me, as the era of SNL that featured Opera Man was right in my early high school years… you know… the years that everyone thinks is “When SNL Was At Its Best” before going on to trash how downhill its gone since. That said, I watched an Opera Man segment recently. It was pretty cringey, but I remember loving it circa 1994.
- [Looked up using a certain search engine] GOOGLED. Anyone using Bing out there?
- [“We shook on it, and that’s all there is to it”] A DEAL’S A DEAL!
- [Speech that Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered at the 1963 March on Washington] I HAVE A DREAM. Somewhat surprised this wasn’t run, say, a week from now so that it was closer to MLK Jr. Day with this highlighted entry.
- [Tall order at an ice-cream parlor?] TWO SCOOPS. I thought two scoops was still a pretty modest order! Tall makes it sound excessive… maybe I should cut back a scoop.
- [Computer’s temporary-storage capacity] MEMORY. Seems like an awfully specific clue for a not-as-specific entry!
- [“I dunno”] BEATS ME!
- [Rhinoplasty, familiarly] NOSE JOB.
The only thing that sticks out as funky is BOO AT, but that’s just cuz it looks odd as one word in the grid: BOOAT.
Fun grid to solve! 4 stars.
Michael Schlossberg’s AV Club Crossword “Search History” — Eric’s Review
Michael Schlossberg’s AV Club Crossword “Search History” — 1/7/26 (Click to Embiggen)
There’s nothing like solving a crossword on paper to remind me just how accustomed I am to solving on a computer or tablet. But AVCX didn’t give an online option for this grid, and once you see the “trick,” it’s not too hard to see why. (If you find my handwriting too difficult to read, click here for a nicely-printed solution, courtesy of AVCX.)
The map of the world (or most of it) is the first indication of what’s going on. Several clues in italics also point to the theme, but I was almost completely finished before I fully understood it:
- 24A [Obsession of explorer Percy Fawcett [69-Down]] LOST CITY OF Z I’d never heard of this British “geographer, artillery officer, cartographer/surveyor, archaeologist and explorer” or his quest to find an ancient city he believed to be in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil. 69D [Weird ___ (odd thing to brag about)] FLEX was a gimme thanks to having seen it in other crosswords, but it wasn’t until later that I noticed the X in FLEX is more or less in western Brazil.
- 32A [Sacred container last seen circa 600 B.C.E. [61-Down]] THE ARK OF THE COVENANT I mostly know of that from Raiders of the Lost Ark. 61D [Dr. J, Chuck, AI, or Wilt] SIXER puts the X in the Holy Land. It took me longer than it should have to identify Dr. J (Julius Erving) and Wilt Chamberlain as member of the Philadelphia 76ers. I assume “Chuck” is Charles Barkley and “AI” is Allen Iverson. Those are both names I know but don’t associate with a specific NBA team.
- 115A [Hint to (possibly) locating the answers to this puzzle’s italicized clues] X MARKS THE SPOT I solved top to bottom, so I was well into the puzzle before I got this. I’m not sure how much it would have helped to have gotten it sooner, but it does tie everything together nicely.
- 43D [Object of a 16th-century expedition [55-Down]] FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH 55D [“Ideas worth spreading” spinoff] TEDX puts the X in Florida.
- 51D [Location described as a source of four tributaries [65-Down]] THE GARDEN OF EDEN That clue meant nothing to me; the “four tributaries” probably include the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. 65D [Part of a door knob] AXLE puts the X in the Holy Land.
- 86D [Some present-day islanders say they live on it [46-Down]] ATLANTIS 46D [Mountain goats] puts the X in the middle of the Atlantic, which is where Plato thought it was.
This is an elaborate theme that took some construction chops to pull off. I like that all the places/things sought probably never existed in the first place. It’s nice that the only X’s in the grid (as far as I can see) are the “markings” on the map, but that’s perhaps not that unusual given how uncommon X is in English.
The “history” aspect of the theme was (probably unintentionally) reinforced by a few answers that seemed to have been placed by the Ghost of Crosswords Past, including 76A SELA Ward, 28D SAL SODA (has anyone living used that stuff?) 46D IBEXES, 77D MITCH Albom, 83D ADO ANNIE (a character I know only from crosswords) and 114D UNU.
Other stuff:
- 21A [She bid farewell from the Casa Rosada] EVITA I saw a production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice musical decades ago and didn’t remember where Eva Peron was when she sang “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.”
- 40A [Star cluster?] A-LIST Cute clue.
- 45A [“Death of a ___” (1977 Leonard Cohen album)] LADIES’ MAN A gimme, though it’s not in my limited collection of Leonard Cohen records.
- 57A [Chinese practice whose name translates literally as “wind-water”] FENG SHUI A gimme, though I mistakenly put the U in the first part and the E in the second. (38D [Certain short-form videos, until their app shut down in 2016] VINES could have just as easily been VINUS for all I knew.)
- 64A [Pregnancy condition also called preeclampsia] TOXEMIA It’s been years since I’ve read John Irving’s The Cider House Rules, much of which is an argument in favor of legalized abortion and discusses the dangers of pregnancy. I remember the character of Dr. Wilbur Larch explaining preeclampsia, but if he or Irving’s other characters ever called it toxemia, I’ve forgotten that term. (And I don’t really remember that the condition involves, other than it can be fatal to the mother.)
- 68A [Alien or cryptid report, on TV] X-FILE The X-Files was a popular series in the 1990s. As with most old TV shows, I never know whether anyone still watches it in reruns or on YouTube.
- 82A [Disallow, as a book you’re afraid people will read and learn from] BAN I’m normally not fond of clues that are disproportionately long as compared to their answers, but I like this one. A lot.
- 102A [Crapper] THRONE Not THE CAN.
- 113A [Country legend Joe who died in December 2025] ELY I’m really embarrassed that this one didn’t come to me immediately.
- 8D [Football stat that figures into CMP%] ATT “Completion percentage” and “attempts,” right? An educated guess here.
- 15D [City 22 miles west of the Florida Strawberry Festival] TAMPA Tip of the Day: When you see a weird clue like this, nine times of ten, the answer is something you’ve heard of.
- 42D [“Name a more ___ duo. I’ll wait.”] ICONIC I’m guessing this is a line from a movie or TV show that I’ve never seen.
- 79A [Actor who played an astronaut in both 2014 and 2015] MATT DAMON Another educated guess. Those years sounded about right for The Martian, but the other title eludes me.
Matthew Luter’s USA Today Crossword, “Storage Unit” — Emily’s write-up
Save some space!
USA Today, January 07, 2026, “Storage Unit” by Matthew Luter
Theme: each themer contains –BYTE–
Themers:
- 18a. [Groups that compete in the Six Nations Championship], RUGBYTEAMS
- 34a. [Kids start losing them around age 6], BABYTEETH
- 56a. [Common headshot dimensions], EIGHTBYTEN
Today’s themer set includes RUGBYTEAMS, BABYTEETH, and EIGHTBYTEN. Such a mix of items and topics, though all interestingly share the theme. I needed a few crossings for the first and the third (I’ve only ever known digital headshots) but the second was an easy fill for me.
Favorite fill: SAKE, UPEND, and RAMBLES
Stumpers: AINT (new to me), SPLEEN (thought of “liver”, “kidneys”, and “gall bladder”), and RENE (only think of him as by his last name)
Enjoyed this puzzle! It was a quicker solve for me though some of the cluing and entries tripped me up a little. Love the grid and lengthy bonus fill.
4.0 stars
~Emily
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
The editorial board certainly heard all the flak from Wordplay column, Rex Parker’s blog, this blog, reddit, and whatever social media out there about yesterday’s puzzle. Today they probably hit the emergency switch and toned down the difficulty of today’s puzzle by at least two notches.
In any other week, I probably would have said, “the theme is mid and the fills are mid. Overall it’s smooth for me but only because I’m familiar with Terry Tao.” But given what happened yesterday, I think I should show more appreciation and thankfulness for a “mid and smooth” puzzle.
I am willing to bet that the editors don’t really care about the “flak” they got from any of those places about Tuesday’s puzzle being harder than you expected. Certainly not to the point of making the Wednesday puzzle significantly easier at the last minute.
At least someone is based in reality.
Not to be contentious, Evan, truly, but it’s just interesting to me that here you are, a crossword editor [yeah, it’s YOUR crossword, but whatever–you’re Shortz-level], responding to a comment on a crossword blog–a comment about crossword editors’ responses to the blogosphere; and this particular crossword editor’s (your) comment on this crossword blog opines that crossword editors probably aren’t affected by blogosphere comments enough to shape some sort of response.
Evan’s not saying that editors ignore public opinions in the long-run — only that it’s a fever dream to think that public opinion yesterday can affect today’s crossword. Today’s puzzle was in the hands of the many people responsible for getting it published in hard copy in multiple newspapers, online in the app, online as a pdf, analyzed on xwordwordinfo.com and who-knows-where-else weeks ago.
placematfan:
I’m flattered that you think I’m “Shortz-level,” as though I have anywhere near the same name recognition as Will, but you’re responding to a point that I never made.
I didn’t say the NYT editors never read Crossword Fiend; I wouldn’t know for sure if they do, because they don’t ever comment here themselves, but that’s not the point. The claim I was responding to was that the editors must have seen negative feedback about yesterday’s puzzle on this site, on Reddit, on social media, etc., and then decided right then to make the Wednesday puzzle much easier because of that. This is not how the NYT or any newspaper crossword operates. They finalize their puzzles at least a couple of weeks in advance.
Pretty much the only time you’ll see them make last-minute changes to clues is if there was a clue that went into the newspaper with a factual mistake. And that’s just for one clue at a time; they’re definitely not making wholesale changes to a crossword because some people complained that yesterday’s puzzle was harder than they expected.
(Edited to add that I hit Post Comment before seeing Martin’s reply, but he said it well.)
Thanks for that input. Makes sense.
Sure. Evan’s voice should be silenced.
Brilliant.
I don’t want this to take up that much more oxygen but that’s not what placematfan was arguing, either.
After seeing your explanation below, I agree that the puzzle itself won’t be re-edited. But I think what happened is more likely 1) they rescheduled a future puzzle into this Wednesday, or 2) they used a “safe choice” out of the “finalized puzzle” pool, or 3) they already anticipated a possible problem in Tuesday and pre-emptively scheduled an easier puzzle this Wednesday.
Au contraire, I am willing to bet that the editors very much care about the flak. Not only the editors, but also their bosses. In the Year of the Lord 2025, metrics like ad revenue and visitor traffic are updated instantaneously and if people are ragequitting on too many puzzles, Shortz would need to explain it to some Excel crunchers, just like any other employee in a publicly traded company.
This is also why NYT crosswords become easier than say 10 years ago. It’s all about the business and analytics.
I’m pretty sure puzzle publication is scheduled well in advance. I can’t imagine Shortz et al looking at comments on yesterday’s and deciding at the last minute to yank today’s and replace it with something easier.
I agree yesterday’s puzzle was something of an outlier, but on the whole the NYT difficulty rating is pretty reasonable, especially compared to the New Yorker puzzles, which are all over the place.
Do the editors lurk studiously here at this blog? I have no idea. Are they in touch with this world enough to sense if a puzzle draws a strong, consistent reaction? No doubt. Would they make a Wednesday puzzle easy if the previous day’s was a tad harder than expected? Surely not. I sure wouldn’t if I were in charge. It would only defeat reader expectations.
Could they even do so, swapping puzzles in and out on a couple of hours’ notice, in defiance of publication schedules and processes set well in advance? Hardly, short of to avoid serious legal liability, and maybe not even then. Was Tuesday’s hard? Not for me. Is today’s easy? No, I’m finding it hard for a Wednesday, with proper names galore. That, ambiguous phrases, and a challenging theme. Do I know a stupid post when I see it? Maybe, and thanks to those who challenged it.
Puzzle: The New Yorker; Rating: 4 stars
New Yorker: What a welcome treat to have a Wednesday New Yorker review in the morning! Thanks, Jim Q! We know that Kyle has tried to fit the reviews into his schedule, but they haven’t been working out so well for him. I hope Jim Q can do this regularly. It was a nice, thorough review, including the mention of BOOAT, which I didn’t mind because it looked cute and added a smidgen of difficulty. By the way, I was also grateful for pannonica’s late review on Tuesday, and her telling us it was coming and to come back to find it.
I circled back for the TNY review and was glad I did. The music choices were great!
Appreciate it, Lois. I’ll try my best. I was up uncannily early this morning (it’s not often I’m the one who shuts off the alarm system at my school when I come in). With any luck I can get to it as early as possible!
No stress! It was just fun to get your review right away.
WSJ: Because the string “AS” is critical to the theme, I would have preferred to see it excluded from non-theme answers. It appears three other times in across answers: GASCAP, ASEA and PASSED.
Puzzle: WSJ; Rating: 3 stars
WSJ: I was seeing finance/money terms in the theme answers such as 26A CENT, 52A CASH, 65A LEASE. This seemed to be in keeping with a “Hidden Asset”. Couldn’t make it work for 17A, or 40A. I came here to get Eric’s take on the theme and I sorta understand but am just mildly satisfied.
NYT: Nothing major to complain about. The themers were all in the language, though the only ones that elicited a smile were DOROTHY GALE and ELLE WOODS. I still don’t understand the clue for NANCY DREW.
The crossing of TAO and TARO was my last letter in. I didn’t know Terence TAO (but probably should) and I don’t know much about boba tea (and I don’t care).
Seemed about right for a Wednesday.
An image of Nancy Drew was/is on the covers of the books. Or at least she was when I was a child way back when
I guess that works – kinda, sorta.
I was a Hardy Boys guy, so I don’t know that much about Nancy.
What gets me is, the pun doesn’t work. A “cover girl” is so called because the model is appearing on magazine covers; when you make a joke that Nancy Drew is a cover girl because she appeared on the cover of her books, you’re RETAINING the original paradigmatic usage of “cover” and thereby precluding legitimate punnery. Semantically, the humor fails.
New Yorker: I had the first three letters in place for 21D and said to myself, would they really use “LABIA of love” as an answer?
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
I liked this one – felt like a miniature Sunday to me.
NYT: In answer to your question, ACK was also the catchphrase of Bill the Cat from Bloom County, and later Outlands. Though what Bill was trying to communicate with ACK was much less clear…
Bill the Cat was my only reference for ACK! Not clear to me, either, that Bill mean “Oh, no!”
.
I’ve been unable access the LAT all week. Does anyone know if Kevin is okay?
p.j.: I’ve simply been scraping it from the Times’ site. One does not have to be a subscriber.
Puzzle: AV Club; Rating: 3.5 stars
I appreciate Eric’s comments. I struggled in places even though I eventually caught on to the theme answers and their marked locations. I got 72A DART from crosses and had to look up why one would rub a dart on the back of a toad when hunting.
Thanks!
I almost mentioned 72A DART. It took me a bit to get that — and then a bit to remember that some toads secrete a toxin that would be useful for hunting with “primitive” weapons.
Puzzle: USA Today; Rating: 4 stars
I’m rating this puzzle 1/2 higher than its value because constructor Matthew Luter publishes puzzles weekly on his personal website, and he responds to comments from solvers.