Sunday, January 11, 2026

LAT 7:06 (Kyle) [2.50 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
NYT 28:30 (including a lot of time finding my mistakes) (Eric) [4.09 avg; 22 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Darby) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Universal (Sunday) 10:10 (Jim P) [3.75 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (Norah) [2.50 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
WaPo 5:33 (Matt G) [3.50 avg; 4 ratings] rate it

Dylan Schiff’s New York Times Crossword — Eric’s Review

Dylan Schiff’s New York Times Crossword “It’s All Greek” — 1/10/26 (Click to Embiggen)

There was a mistake in my grid somewhere, but for the longest time, I was damned if I could find it. This is one of those puzzles that makes you understand why people get annoyed with simple rebuses.

But this is not a simple rebus. The Greek letter Φ — a/k/a Phi — sometimes acts as PHI and sometimes acts as an I or an O. It’s rebus squares plus Schroëdinger squares! There’s a giant hint to the rebus in the grid art, which I somehow overlooked (not that it would have mattered much).

I got the rebus concept quickly, though the Schroëdinger aspect confounded me for a while. Overall, it’s a clever idea for a puzzle.

But I didn’t know for certain how the New York Times puzzle interface wanted me to enter the Φs. At the end, in trying to fix the rebuses, I somehow typed a B in the place of the P in 61A TEMPT. (I know what I was TEMPTed to do earlier: It involved a kinda pricey, kinda new laptop flying through the air.)

But having “cheated” my way to the gold star, I’m ready to judge the puzzle on its merits and look past the annoying part of the online solving.

Those Φs (represented below as RED letters):

• 22A [Article of sports equipment that typically has two rubber sheets of different colors] PING-PONG PADDLE crossing 2D [Class with frogs] AMPHIBIA First: Go see Marty Supreme. Timothée Chalamet is fantastic and just might win the Oscar. Second: In a grid that’s already this complex, “Class with frogs” is a bad clue. The misdirection towards “school class” instead of “taxonomical class” is fine for a more straightforward grid, but crossing the Schroëdingered “sports equipment,” the clue should be unambiguous.
• 32An [Game on some kids’ menus] CRISS-CROSS PUZZLE crossing 20D  [Classical Greek precinct with a noted oracle] DELPHI Before I understood how the Φs worked, I thought 32A had to somehow be CROSSWORD PUZZLE.
• 46A [Birthstone before opal] SAPPHIRE crossing 38D [Prank of doorbell ringing and running] DING-DONG DITCH Here’s something else to up the challenge: The previous pair of answers had the PHI in the Down answer, but now we get it in the Across answer. That’s not bad, but it does make the trick harder to grasp if you haven’t got it yet. And DING-DONG DITCH is either regional or post-dates my childhood; I know that name only from crosswords in the last five years or so.
• 51A [Ladybug’s prey] APHID crossing 41D [Modern social media craze] TIK-TOK DANCE My ladybug ate an ANT before I got the trick. And isn’t “modern social media” full of crazes?
• 53A [Debaters who use deceptive arguments] SOPHISTS crossing 43D [Melodic way of speaking]  SING-SONG VOICE I typically roll my eyes when someone complains that a particular word is too difficult for an early-week crossword. But SOPHISTS has only three previous NYT appearances, all on Friday or Saturday. The singular has 12 appearances, including a Tuesday and a Wednesday. I know the word, but it’s really a late-week word. (So why did I waste time trying to get the Down to work as SONORITY or SONOROUSNESS?)
• 56A [Oscar-winning actress Loren] SOPHIA crossing 50D[Perfect condition] TIP-TOP SHAPE Ms Loren was in another puzzle I did a few days ago, which prompted me to look up her filmography. I didn’t see any movies that I know I’ve watched, but her name has been familiar to me for decades.
• 97A [Beachy footwear] FLIP-FLOP SANDALS crossing 99D [Longtime TV personality Regis] PHILBIN They’re just FLIP-FLOPs and I don’t like the sound they make.
• 111A [Tupac and Eminem, for two] HIP-HOP ARTISTS crossing 92D [Intelligent sea mammal] DOLPHIN The Across clue is fine — even old folks like me have heard of Tupac Shakur and Marshall Mathers. But the Down clue is another example of a clue ambiguity that’s a bit too much. OTTERs are intelligent, aren’t they? Or are they just adorable?

I probably would have enjoyed this more as a Thursday puzzle. 21X21 grids can be overwhelming sometimes, even when they’re not as tricky as this one is.

Other stuff:

• 1A [Tennis superstar Nadal, familiarly] RAFA Well, at least they started the grid with a softball.
• 26A [Division signs, more formally] OBELI Another highfalutin answer that I sort of knew.
• 35A [What might pop up from time to time?] TOASTER Cute clue.
• 42A [Patient watchers] NURSES Ditto.
• 64A [Rubber end of a golf club] GRIP I must have been disoriented by the trickiness of this puzzle, because for the longest time, I was focused on the wrong end of the club.
• 79A [No Shave November growth, informally] ‘STACHE A gimme and a more genteel clue for this answer than the last one I saw.
• 83A [N.B.A. team that plays at Gainbridge Fieldhouse] PACERS Not LAKERS (which I knew didn’t sound right, but who can keep up with the names of stadiums, arenas and ballparks?)
• 84A [Compound that ripens bananas] ETHENE A/k/a ethylene. We buy an avocados that is rock-hard and stick them in a bag with a greenish banana. In two or three days, the avocado is perfect for guacamole.
• 115A [___ Montoya, “The Princess Bride” swordsman] INIGO Mandy Patinkin is damned funny in that part. RIP, Rob Reiner.
• 6D [Roman emperor with a namesake wall] HADRIAN A gimme thanks to the historical atlas I had as a kid, showing Hadrian’s Wall cutting across Britannia.
• 11D [Birthstone after opal] TOPAZ I know my birthstone (emerald) and that’s about it.
• 23D [Imagine] PICTURE Not PRETEND.
• 44D [Turn off] ESTRANGE/47D [Make an enemy of] ALIENATE You could flop those clues and no one would know the difference.
• 48D [Identifies digitally?] POINTS AT Cute clue.
• 54D [Leaf-turning mo.] SEP That’s a bit Northern Hemisphere-centric, isn’t it?
• 93D [Composer of the “Raindrop” prelude] Frédéric CHOPIN I was about to write that I didn’t know that piece — then I found it my Apple Music library. It’s just the relaxing thing I need now.

Evan Birnholz’s Washington Post Crossword, “On/Off Switch” — Matthew’s Review

Evan Birnholz’s Washington Post Crossword, “On/Off Switch” solution, 1/11/2026

This week’s puzzle from Evan is titled “On/Off Switch”, and we’ve get ten theme entries with (on) or (off) at the end of their clues, arranged in pairs to share a row. 

• 22a [Cause outrage while wearing some cravat? (on)] OFFEND IN A TIE
• 24a [Rapid greeting from an excited dog?] SPEED WAG
• 44a [Blood and guts in a butcher shop (on)] OFFAL GORE
• 47a [Where groupers can become grooms? (off)] WEDDING SEAS
• 70a [Comment from the protagonist of “The Handmaid’s Tale”? (on)] OFFRED LINE
• 72a [Ball game played when feeling lustful? (off)] RANDY JACKS
• 93a [Physician making a proposition? (on)] OFFER DOCTOR
• 97a [Entertainment with charming kings and queens? (off)] MAGIC DRAG
• 120a [Chopper at the workplace? (on)] OFFICE AX
• 122a [Behind in a political race? (off)] CAMPAIGN BUTT

Full disclosure: I decided early on in my solve to focus on the down entries and not worry about the theme. But it’s not as complicated as I feared: in each row of paired themers, the left entry is a familiar phrase with OFF added to the beginning, while the right is a familiar phrase with ON removed from the end – OFF is “on” and ON is “off” (the quoted on/off there is what’s in parens in each theme clue.)

OFFAL GORE is my favorite of the set, but I think it’s a pretty consistent group in recognizability and humor factor. I’m flabbergasted to learn that Randy Jackson hasn’t been on “American Idol” in 12 years, but I’m happy to see him here.

Other highlights: Most “Avatar: The Last Airbender” references in puzzles are either the title character AANG or his pet bison APPA, but one of his other companions, MOMO, is an alternative cluing angle to the dumplings // I filled in BIAFRA without seeing the clue [Jello ___, former Dead Kennedys lead singer] but I will take the opportunity to plug both Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel “Half of a Yellow Sun,” set amid the Biafran War // Fun wordplay on “sharp” as a musical term to get from “Unsharpen” to TUNE // I enjoy thinking about Buddy EBSEN, who played Jed Clampett in “The Beverley Hillbillies,” but I don’t think any of us would mind if a more contemporary EBSEN emerged // OLD MOON, apparently the immediate precursor to “new moon,” is a new phrase to me. At least it was immediately clear that “crescent” or “waning crescent” were no-gos 

Cheers!

Jill Singer’s LA Times crossword “REPAIR WORK” – Kyle’s write-up

LA Times solution grid – Jill Singer – Sunday 01/11/2026

Jill Singer brings us this week’s Sunday LA Times crossword. The theme involves substituting letter pairs to create wacky phrases:

• 27A [Irresistibly cute river animal?] AN OTTER YOU CAN’T REFUSE (offer). Dawwww, otters!
• 42A [“Get that pool float out of my way!”?] “MOVE THE NOODLE!” (needle)
• 55A [Question about a new romantic partner?] “WHO ARE YOU KISSING?” (kidding). Funny to imagine the awkwardness of being on the receiving end of this question.
• 78A [Photo taken as milk spreads over a table?] THE SPILLING IMAGE (spitting)
• 91A [Goo or ga, for a baby?] HALF THE BABBLE (battle)
• 108A [Working the barbecue at the corn festival?] GRILLING FROM EAR TO EAR (grinning)

I enjoyed discovering the themers and working backward to figure out the original phrases. There’s no hidden word spelled out by the double letters in the theme entries or the original phrases, but it’s still an entertaining set.

Notes on fill and clues:

“Four Seasons”, Marc Chagall (1974). By Saalebaer – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=79841755

• 114A [Unit in Chagall’s “Four Seasons”] MOSAIC TILE. Wow, I didn’t realize that this is in downtown Chicago! It’s housed in the Chase Tower Plaza. I’ve only visited the building once, for a taping of “Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me”. I don’t remember seeing the Chagall piece.
• 30A [Video game thief Sandiego] CARMEN. Loved playing this game as a kid.
• 83A [Figure skating gold medalist Nathan] CHEN. He won gold in the 2022 Winter Olympics but won’t be defending his title in next month’s Games in Italy. The US men’s team will have high hopes for current world champ “Quad God” Ilia Malinin.
• 16D [Home of the Spectacled Bear Conservation Society] PERU. Given a four-letter entry, I made a correct educated guess on PERU, as I seemed to recall that Paddington Bear is a spectacled bear.
• 29D [The Tritons of the NCAA] UCSD. I nearly entered UCLA out of habit! The UCSD Tritons should not be confused with the SDSU Aztecs.

Sara Cantor’s Universal Sunday crossword, “Wanna Trade?”—Jim P’s review

Theme answers come in pairs that cross one another. The Across entries are of the form X FOR Y with the clues telling us to swap in X in place of Y in the Down entries. The Down entries are clued as if they had Y in them, but instead have X. Both versions of the Down entries (with X or with Y) are familiar phrases, though the phrases actually in the grid (i.e. with X) are unclued.

Universal Sunday crossword solution · “Wanna Trade?” · Sara Cantor · 1.11.26

• 26a [“Put your pajamas on!” or a hint to the “swap” at 5-Down] “TIME FOR BED” and 5d [Where a guest may sleep] SPARE TIME (spare bed).
• 41a [Appropriate to show to your boss, or a hint to the “swap” at 24-Down] SAFE FOR WORK and 24d [Office space] SAFE ROOM (workroom).
• 68a [Sprint to safety, or a hint to the “swap” at 55-Down] RUN FOR COVER and 55d [Get better] RERUN (recover).
• 94a [Permanently away, or a hint to the “swap” at 90-Down] GONE FOR GOOD and 90d [Words of praise from a pup owner] GONE GIRL (“good girl!“)
• 112a [Obtainable, or a hint to the “swap” at 92-Down] UP FOR GRABS and 92d [Attempts to take control] POWER UP (power grabs).

Very nice! This must have been a pretty complicated construction with all those crossing theme answers, especially with most of them being lengthy. Something I just noticed is that all the crosses occur at the R in FOR except for one crossing at the O. I wouldn’t really call that an inconsistency; the theme is quite tight as it is and finding enough theme pairs to play nicely together was probably difficult enough. The fact that we got five such pairings is impressive work.

And there’s so much nice fill on top of that. My highlights include MARMOSETS, AMINO ACID, RIVER BEND, LEAPFROG, SEMINAR, SEAFARER, SWEENEY Todd, NUTMEG, PET STORES, OFF-RAMP, and “NO CLUE“. All of that and the grid maintains traditional symmetry. Only one entry threw me for a loop: OWEGO [Town hidden in “Where do we go from here?”]. It last made an appearance in the NYT in 2003. I do appreciate the helpful clue in this case.

Other clues of note:

• • 101a. [___ the Bear (Muppet)]. BOBO. Typically this name gets a clue referring to a “classic clown name”. This is the first instance of it referring to the Muppet bear. I didn’t know his name, but I recognize him as one of Tex Richman’s henchmen in 2011’s The Muppets.

Oscar-winner Chris Cooper, Uncle Deadly, and BOBO the Bear in “The Muppets”

• • 83d. [Places to buy parrots]. PET STORES. Just make sure they’re not pining for the fjords.
  • 111d. [Royal such as Lear or Dedede]. KING. Dedede is from the Kirby video game franchise.

Lovely puzzle. Four stars.