Sunday, January 18, 2026

LAT 6:47 (Kyle) [3.50 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
NYT 19:37 (Eric) [2.80 avg; 10 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Darby) rate it
Universal (Sunday) 9:57 (Jim P) [2.17 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (Norah) [3.38 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
WaPo 4:18 (Matt G) [3.63 avg; 4 ratings] rate it

Rena Cohen’s New York Times Crossword “Use Your Words” — Eric’s Review

Rena Cohen’s NYT Puzzle “Use Your Words”

This will be brief because I need to leave shortly.

Take common phrases and stick a U sound on one end or the other:

• 23A AFTER MATTHEW
• 33A REVIEW THE ENGINE Or maybe put that U near the middle?
• 58A THE SETTLERS OF YUCATAN Ditto.
• 67A SOUNDS LIKE A YOU PROBLEM The theme is a nice reimagining of that modern way of saying “I don’t care.”
• 79A UNITES IN SHINING ARMOR
• 103A TWO-AND-A-HALF MENU Cute.

More later, maybe.

Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post Crossword “Captain Obvious, Financial Advisor” — Matt’s Review

Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword solution, “Captain Obvious, Financial Advisor,” 1/18/2026

Captain Obvious is back! Apparently he comes every six months, and I hadn’t been paying close enough attention to notice. This time ‘round, it’s “Captain Obvious, Financial Advisor”:

• 23a [“___ will make that bill longer”] STRETCHING A DOLLAR
• 32a [“___, and you’ll have refused to donate 25 cents”] GIVE NO QUARTER
• 49a [“___? Then people will race to win cash from one of us (but not me, though)”] A RUN FOR YOUR MONEY
• 67a [“___, and then you can deposit that”] TAKE IT TO THE BANK
• 88a [“___? That’s the what you have to spend on laces”] SHOESTRING BUDGET
• 102a [“___? They grip coins tightly between their fingers”] PENNY PINCHERS
• 115a [“___, and cash will emerge from your schnoz”] PAY THROUGH THE NOSE

I enjoy Captain Obvious puzzles, but I also don’t have much to say in theme commentary. For me, the trick is always to find common enough phrases to re-parse. I do like how those in this batch that are more financial in their base meaning are given more play in the other words – STRETCHING and “longer” – while the more figurative base phrases have the wordplay on the “money” word – QUARTER and “25 cents.” 

SHOESTRING BUDGET is my favorite of the bunch, in large part because it was the hardest to suss out and the most sudden aha moment.

Other comments:  I’m ramping up my solving before this year’s ACPT, and I’m seeing clues like [This is pointless!] INANE more and more often. I think it’s a bit different than something like [Darn it!] for SOCK, and I think I like it // Merriam-Webster gives SWAMP and “marsh” as synonyms for each other, but I think there’s a difference in plant life // You know, for as much as I learned about BEN / HUR in my early crosswording years, I don’t think I knew it’s set in Jerusalem // DAIS (here, DAISES) doesn’t show up very often when people grumble about crosswordese, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard the word off the grid // EYE LENS caught my … eye. No trouble … seeing what was intended, but I’ve only ever encountered “lens” before 

New paragraph for this one: I moved to Hawai’i two and a half years ago, and have learned something important for crosswords: one LEI, two LEI. You might remind me that English creates plurals by adding -S and point to examples of “LEIS” being used, but (1) it’s “I bought lei for the graduating seniors” in English, too and (2) English is full of exceptions: consider “moose” and the like. NENE acts the same way. No S in Hawaiian or Hawaiian loanwords to English. It’s real tough to pass up LEIS and downscore in my wordlist when I construct, but such is life.

There are so many dogs with geographic names that I set 15D aside and see now that it’s GREAT DANES who misnamed and originally from Germany // Two weeks ago I was thrilled to see Martin LANDAU again and here he is after a much shorter wait, clued here to the original “Mission: Impossible” // I’m a sucker for Sherlock Holmes, and I’ve been meaning to dig in to CBS’ “Watson” adaptation. It’s midway through its second season right now.

Cheers!

Aidan Deshong’s Universal Sunday crossword, “Let Me Cook!”—Jim P’s review

Theme answers are familiar phrases that can be reinterpreted as activities or items at a CULINARY SCHOOL (113a, [Place to learn knife skills, or where you may expect to find the starred clues’ answers]).

Universal Sunday crossword solution · “Let Me Cook!” · Aidan Deshong · 1.18.26

• 21a. [*Collection of investments] STOCK PORTFOLIO. A collection of soup stocks.
• 40a. [*Outgoing brown dog] CHOCOLATE LAB. A room where chefs experiment with chocolate.
• 48a. [*Pinata material] CREPE PAPER. An essay on the versatility of crepes, perhaps.
• 63a. [*Musicians’ casual meetups] JAM SESSIONS. Jam tastings, I presume.
• 85a. [*Surprise assessments] POP QUIZZES. Short exams on the types and characteristics of soda, I guess.
• 91a. [*Pursuits that are separate from your main job] SIDE PROJECTS. Efforts to produce side dishes.

At first I thought the theme just involved the first words in each answer and was a little disappointed. It felt very basic, to be honest. But going back and reading the revealer’s clue corrected my mistake and I was able to see the theme answers anew. And I liked what I saw. What we’re left with is a two-layer theme where the first word is related to food, and the second word connects the food to a school setting. Unexpected, fun, and inventive. Very nice all around. I will say that the “knife skills” part of the revealer’s clue was distracting and I was trying to connect knives to the theme answer. I would change that part of the clue to [Place where you can learn how to really cook] or something like that.

The grid lacks total symmetry with individual black squares seemingly moved here and there to allow for smoother fill. And that’s what we get for the most part. Highlights include TARGETED AD, VERONICA, HALF-MOON, “HARD AGREE,” SQUISHY, and STARTLING. Three answers were new to me: I GOTCHU with a U, HMU [“plz text!”] which I had to look up and means “hit me up”, and “BLAZE IT” [“Smoke weed every day”]. Of course, the latter made me recall the classic reggae song “Smoke Two Joints“. Today I learned that the originators of that song, the band The Toyes, is based in Grants Pass, OR, which is my halfway stopping point between my home in Tacoma, WA, and my mom in the Bay Area.

Clues of note:

• 26a. [“Drink fast!”]. CHUG. Can you imagine chanting “Drink fast. Drink fast. Drink fast.”? I can’t.
• 32a. [“Have a nice ___!”]. DAY. This line was used in My Neighbor Totoro and is a long-standing go-to phrase in our family. Looking it up just now led me to the music video of Japanese group World Order, which has nothing to do with the film, but is fun for its impressive robotic choreography (see below).
• 83a. [Country by the Gulf of Oman]. IRAN. I had the N in place which made me think “OMAN?”.

3.5 stars.

Samuel A. Donaldson’s LA Times crossword “THE ROAD TO SELF-DISCOVERY” – Kyle’s write-up

LA Times solution grid – Samuel A. Donaldson – Sunday 01/18/2026

Apologies for the late post. Veteran constructor Samuel A. Donaldson brings us this week’s Sunday LA Times. Follow along on this journey of linguistic self-discovery:

• 23A [Part of an executive job offer] STARTING SALARY
• 30A [Game lost in the blink of an eye] STARING CONTEST. Fun clue! A very similar clue for this entry appeared last year in another LAT puzzle.
• 45A [Chamber group] STRING QUARTET
• 63A [Undercover setups] STING OPERATIONS
• 76A [Tell all to the police] SING LIKE A CANARY. Feels like a “roll-your-own phrase” to borrow Amy’s parlance.
• 94A [Break divine law] SIN AGAINST GOD. Also a bit iffy as a standalone phrase.
• 107 [Having celebrity status] IN THE PUBLIC EYE
• 120A [Backstreet Boys hit] “I WANT IT THAT WAY”. Interesting factoid I’ve just read: the song’s highest position on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart was #6. I’d have thought it would have gone higher (although it was #1 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary and Mainstream Top 40 charts). It did reach #1 overall in a lot of other countries.

So each theme answer’s first word progressively loses a letter to go from starting (a nice touch) to I. Clever, and tidy.

Notes on fill and clues:

• • • 9D [OpenAI bot since 2022] CHATGPT. Still feels like a relatively fresh entry (only 6 prior appearances in the Cruciverb database) and that run of consonants at the end is something.
    • 11D [Brazilian city that sounds like Maryland’s capital] ANAPOLIS. Definitely not a place I was familiar with, but the clue made it practically a gimme.
    • 14D [Where snowbirds flock in winter] DOWN SOUTH. I had DEEP SOUTH first.
    • 38D [Oasts] HOP KILNS. If you’ve done a lot of crosswords, you’ve likely come across OAST as an entry clued by [Hop kiln]. Nice to see them trading places here.
    • 102A [Soft cloth] CHAMOIS – obviously, time for a ShamWow reference:
  • 123D [Triumphant shout] “YES!” Aptly, the last clue in the puzzle.