Monday, January 19, 2026

BEQ untimed (Eric) [3.75 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
LAT 2:00 (Stella) [2.75 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 3:45 (Sophia) [2.86 avg; 7 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker 9:52 (Amy) [4.00 avg; 10 ratings] rate it
Universal untimed (pannonica) [3.17 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (?) [3.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
WSJ (no puzzle due to holiday) (Jim Q) rate it

Peter Gorman’s New York Times crossword — Sophia’s recap

Theme: LITTLE ROCK – song titles that begin with synonyms for “little”

New York Times, 01 19 2026, By Peter Gorman

• 17a [1972 song by Elton John] – TINY DANCER
• 29a [1985 song by John Cougar Mellencamp] – SMALL TOWN
• 50a [1987 song by Billy Joel and Ray Charles] – BABY GRAND
• 66a [Capital of Arkansas … or a description of 17-, 29- and 50-Across?] – LITTLE ROCK

Cute theme! “Easy” crosswords like the NYT Monday can have problems when the themes are proper noun centric like this (I’m counting song titles as proper nouns here :) ). I think this puzzle sidesteps a lot of that with the revealer – LITTLE ROCK explains what’s going on here well, and will give solvers unfamiliar with the songs a little more help with the first word.

My biggest complaint is that I’d have liked to have seen a little more variety in the songs that are chosen, especially given how many synonyms there are for “little”. The three songs here are all from the same era, the most recent still being from nearly 40 years ago. I have a feeling that folks are either going to know all these songs immediately or struggle with all of them (I say, and then immediately disprove that by being unfamiliar with BABY GRAND even as a huge Billy Joel fan).

Lots of great long/midlength fill today! SPARKPLUG, NORMALIZE, QUALITY, TRYOUTS, EYE EXAMS, CURACAO, SMILEYS. I appreciated that since the theme had so much pop culture/proper nouns in it, the rest of the puzzle didn’t have a ton. I did need to learn how to spell Pete DOCTER’s name correctly, though! I had it spelled with a second O instead of an E. Clue highlights today include: [___ Jail (space on a Monopoly board)] for GO TO, and [Word before space or Mongolia] for SPACE, just for being a very surprising combo of two words for this clue type.

Happy Monday all!

Agnes Davidson & Zhouqin Burnikel’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Los Angeles Times 1/19/26 by Agnes Davidson & Zhouqin Burnikel

Ooooooh, this puzzle frustrates me. Don’t worry, I’ll tell you why in a minute. But first, the explanation: 36A [Scapegoating scheme, or what the ends of the answers to the starred clues may be part of?] is FRAME JOB, because you might use the ends of the theme answers to do the JOB of hanging a picture FRAME:

• 22D [*Earlobe sparkler] is a DIAMOND STUD. I am so the opposite of handy, so I had to look up exactly what a STUD means in the context of hanging. It’s a piece of hardware already present in the wall that helps bear the weight of a heavy FRAME.
• 23D [*Fashion accessory attached at a salon] is an ACRYLIC NAIL. At least I know what a NAIL does in a hardware context.
• 33D [*”U Can’t Touch This” rapper] is MC HAMMER, and you use the HAMMER to bang the NAIL into the wall.

Now! I find this puzzle frustrating because there’s so much to like about the theme — the theme entries are evocative and fun. This Gen X solver especially enjoyed the MC HAMMER reference. (I vividly remember a DARE assembly at which my middle-school art teacher did a dance to “2 Legit 2 Quit.”) My beef is that there’s not enough thematic material — 30 letters, 38 if you count the revealer, but IMO revealers provide confirmation more so than help while solving. Especially since themers are more commonly placed in the Acrosses and you have one grid-spanning Across entry plus another that’s longer than the shortest theme entry, I can see a beginning solver having trouble understanding what’s going on here.

No complaints with the fill; I thought ICE BLUE and TAN LINE were some nice non-theme answers.

Jake Halperin’s Universal crossword, “Saw Stars” — pannonica’s write-up

Universal • 1/19/26 • Mon • “Saw Stars” • Halperin • solution • 20260119

Wasn’t until after I’d completed the grid, referred to the title, then looked again at the theme answers, that I understood what was going on. I’ve gone and circled the relevant squares, which spell out STARS. Note also how the point of division migrates fluidly from left to right through the themers.

• 17a. [Curved swords] SCIMITARS.
• 29a. [Tornado bunkers] STORM CELLARS.
• 44a. [New York’s rose and others] STATE FLOWERS.
• 60a. [Dunkin’ rival] STARBUCKS.

Tidy.

• 1d [Orzo or ziti] PASTA. 5d [Pimple] ZIT. Not a dupe, but it feels a bit weird to me since they’re relatively close in the grid. 53d [Like acne-prone skin] OILY.
• 7d [Viscous veggie in gumbo] OKRA. Not making it sound appealing!
• 8d [Like Sufism or Kabbalah] MYSTICAL.
  
• 12d [R&B diva Chaka] KHAN, 22d [Pop diva whose name sounds like a stock purchase] CHER, 41a [Jazz diva Fitzgerald] ELLA. 40d [“I like It” rapper] CARDI B, not a diva apparently.
• 26d [Particle such as I-] ION. Choosing the element iodine telegraphs the answer via suggestion.
• 34d [Lose vitality in a vase] WILT. The clue flummoxed me for a moment.
• 46d [Paste served with sushi] WASABI. That’s kind of a dupe with 1d PASTA in my book.
• 5a [Company that ironically ordered employees back to its offices in 2023] ZOOM. Ha.
• 15a [Pen-stained] INKY. Yeah, ok.
• 23a [Pro vaxxers?] RNS. I feel ‘vaxxers’ connotes disparagement. Does it not appear far more frequently in the term ‘anti-vaxxers’?
• 24a [It goes by “they”] ARE. Locationally.
• 36a [Mask holder] EAR. Odd clue, if you ask me.
• 47a [Back-to-basics diet] PALEO. Such an innocuous description of something that’s rather dubious.
• 48a [How is that even relevant?] AND. Okay, I like that one.
• 63a [46-Down container] TUBE. I’d like an ‘oftentimes’-type qualifier here.
• 64a [Jewish American food vendor] DELI. Editorial question: should “Jewish American” be hyphenated?
• 65a [“Punch-Out” boxer Mike] TYSON. I believe that was an old video game. Perhaps if you were hit too many times you SAW STARS?
  

Erik Agard’s New Yorker crossword–Amy’s recap

New Yorker crossword solution, 1/19/26 – Agard

As we expect from Erik’s themeless puzzles, this one’s got a lot of great clues. What other current constructors are in that echelon of clever clue writers?

Fave fill & clues: HONOR ROLL (clued [A-list?], list of A students), Queen LATIFAH, PRO WRESTLING ([Holds for applause?]), SUBTRACTION ([9-5 operation?]), CGI’ING, PORTA-POTTIES ([Where leaks often occur at construction sites?]!), REFURBISHED electronics.

32d. [Like some air-conditioners and classroom-seating layouts], U-SHAPED. Air conditioners?? Not familiar with that. But certainly I’ve sat at a classroom desk in a U configuration.

I doubt that the puzzle was as hard as my comparative solving times would suggest. One of those drowsy mornings.

4.25 stars from me.

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword Puzzle #1854 — Eric’s Review

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1854 — 1/19/26

A reflective Martin Luther King Day to all who observe it. And to those who don’t, what is wrong with you?

It’s not even noon yet and because I’ve been sleeping so badly for the last week, I’m dozing off at the keyboard and typing all sorts of junk. I wasn’t really in the mood for a pop culture fest like this puzzle, and I don’t care to finish it. And maybe WordPress (the blogging app we use here) was trying to tell me something when instead of saving my draft, it put it in the trash.

Stuff that put me to sleep and sometimes woke me up:

• 1A [Giant nickname] BIG BLUE Some baseball player I’ve never heard of? The only “Big Blue” I know is IBM.
• 8A [Ancients, for instance] ANCIENTS I should have gotten this sooner. I’ve seen the clue before.
• 17A [Hall with three NAACP Image Awards] ARSENIO I didn’t think of the 1990’s talk show host for a long time because I was expecting a more contemporary figure. Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign got a boost when Clinton when on The Arsenio Hall Show and played his sax.
• 19A [Create derivative work, say] REHEAT NACHOS I had everything but the N and the C, and those were the only letters that seemed to fit. But with half my brain somewhere else, I can’t make any sense of the clue.
• 21A [Energy] ZIP Not VIM.
• 22A [Susanna’s husband in opera] FIGARO I know enough about opera that I could guess at this one.
• 23A [Strip under duress?] GAZA. Cute clue. Tacky as hell, too.
• 36A [Figure good with figures] HUMAN CALCULATOR It makes me think of the mentats in Dune.
• 40A [Anchor Dokoupil] TONY That name means nothing to me. Sorry, dude.
• 42A [Cellphone setting] ALERT Do I really care whether this answer is ALARM or ALERT? I do not, especially when Apple updates all its operating systems and things like reminders no longer work properly.
• 43A [Ultramarathoner’s sound] PANT Not PHEW.
• 44A [Singer-songwriter McCombs] CASS I should have had this sooner; I’ve got a few songs of his.
• 49A [It can’t be done alone] TWO-PERSON JOB That answer makes more send than my TWO-PERSON ACT.
• 55A [“Either the camera will dance, or I will” speaker] ASTAIRE Another clue I’ve seen before. Would I have gotten the answer off the bat if I were more awake? Who knows?
• 59A [“Bad, real bad”] NO LIKEY Ha! A meta answer!
• 60A [Dungeon Master’s sack] DICE SACK Didn’t Brendan use this clue last week? If I cared at all about D&D, maybe I’d get this answer sooner.
• 8D [Oft-sampled Incredible Bongo Band song named after a native American tribe] APACHE I don’t recognize the title,  and the music is only vaguely familiar. Kinda nice, thought.
• 9D [Día’s opposite] NOCHE A gimme. My Spanish is very limited, but I know a lot of the basics.
• 10D [Bajo’s opposite] ALTO Ditto.
• 24D [Miss Trunchbull of “Matilda”] AGATHA  I think that’s a Roald Dahl novel? For whatever reason, we didn’t have his stuff around my childhood home.
• 28D [Quinceañera guest] ABUELA In Austin, the Texas Capitol is often the backdrop for quinceañera phot shoots. It’s a handsome edifice, and one of my favorite “engagement” pictures of my husband and me involves the gate from the long-gone fence on the north side of the building. It’s rife with symbolism. Plus, we both look good; usually at least one of us looks like a dork in a photo.
• 35D [Portmanteau that means “awesome and then some”] FUNTASTIC. Whatfuckingever.
• 43D [Wimpy friend] POPEYE I like this clue, though it didn’t fool me one bit.
• 46D [“Never Enough” singer Allred] LOREN Neither sounds familiar.
• 50D [Collaborative website whose name means “fast” in Hawaiian] WIKI I’ll allow this even though the clue is long in relation to the answer because this was such a gimme.
• 53D [“Doc” actor Metwally] OMAR More of that pop culture.