Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Jonesin’ 4:49 (Erin) [3.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
LAT untimed (Jenni) [3.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 6:01 (Eric) [2.82 avg; 11 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker tk (pannonica) [2.75 avg; 8 ratings] rate it
Universal untimed (Eric) [3.93 avg; 7 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Sophia) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Xword Nation tk (Ade) rate it
WSJ 5:12 (Jim Q) [1.75 avg; 2 ratings] rate it

Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Orbit-rary” — a sphere, divided. – Erin’s write-up

Jonesin’ solution 1/27/26

Hello lovelies! It may feel like Earth is falling apart these days to many people, but this week some other planets follow suit in the Jonesin’ grid.

• 17a. [Degraded] MADE WORSE
• 24a. [Study unfamiliar material, say] LEARN NEW THINGS
• 39a. [They may be laminated to protect against spills] RESTAURANT MENUS
• 48a. [Disco, early punk, funk, etc.} SEVENTIES MUSIC
• 61a. [Like the circled letters in the long entries (or the clustered groups)] SPACED OUT. The planets MARS, EARTH, URANUS, AND VENUS are divided among the words in the theme entries.

Other things:

• 8d. [Network with LeVar Burton hosting “Trivial Pursuit”] THE CW. Crossword constructor (and overall great guy) Neville Fogarty will be on the show May 21! Also, LeVar Burton is a national treasure.

Until next week! Stay safe and warm if you were affected by the weekend winter mess.

Miranda Kany and Tracy Bennett’s New York Times Crossword — Eric’s Review

Miranda Kany and Tracy Bennett’s New York Times Crossword — 1/27/26 (Click to Embiggen)

Together, the theme answers tell a little story:

• 21A [Far from any urban center, colloquially] IN THE STICKS
• 33A [Potentially at risk, metaphorically] OUT ON A LIMB
• 41A [In a soaring mood, so to speak] FLYING HIGH
• 54A [Metaphor for a parent whose youngest has “launched” … like the little bird whose progress is suggested by 21-, 33- and 41-Across] EMPTY NESTER

I’m not sure “sticks” really suggest a bird’s nest to me — I would call that particular material “twigs” — but the theme holds together well enough.

Other stuff:

• 10A [Cry from a crib, perhaps] MAMA/56D [Cry from a crib, perhaps] PAPA What can you do? Put in the A’s and wait for a cross.
• 45A [“Moving right along …”] ANYHOO Not ANYWAY.
• 61A [“Yay me!”] I RULE I ROCK would have worked, too.
• 10D [Cuban rum cocktail] MOJITO My original answer of MAI-TAI didn’t seem likely even as I typed it in.

Aidan Deshong and Adam Levav’s Universal Crossword “Amiss” — Eric’s Review

Aidan Deshong and Adam Levav’s Universal Crossword “Amiss” — 1/27/26 (Click to Embiggen)

I didn’t understand the theme until after I was finished:

• 17A [*First stage in a video game] LEAVE ALONE Level One
• 24A [*Puffs up] AS WELL AS Swell
• 31A [*Bonkers] SCARE AWAY Screwy 
• 44A [*Impressive shot in horseshoes] RAIN GEAR Ringer
• 49A [*Solidly built] SATURDAY Sturdy I filled in half of this from the letter pattern and never read the clue. At the time, I thought it looked like a ho-hum answer for a theme answer.
• [To the max … or, read differently, a hint to the starred clues’ answers?] AS ALL GET OUT Re-think it as “A’s all get out.’

The theme falls into the category of “Eventually, the mismatch between clue and answer will all make sense.” And it did make sense, though I didn’t need that understanding to finish the puzzle.

Other stuff:

• 

  Reverie, 1965

  52A [What’s never free of charge?] ION Cute clue. Maybe too cute?

• 5D [Deep-fried Oreos’ event] STATE FAIR I’ve never quite understood the obsession with deep-fried foods at so many state fairs.
• 22D [Land on the sea?] REEL IN “Land” being a verb here (but you knew that).
• 44D [Pop artist Lichtenstein] ROY You might not know the name, but you have probably seen his work somewhere.

Craig Stowe’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Jenni’s write-up

I didn’t see this one coming. I tried to figure out what the revealer was going to be and I failed.

Los Angeles Times, January 27, 2026, Craig Stowe, solution grid

• 20a [*Special report] is a NEWS BULLETIN.
• 27a [*Document for some immigrants] is a GREEN CARD.
• 38a [*The sun, for one] is a DAY STAR. I haven’t heard this term before so I did a search. I had to re-word the search three times to get rid of brand names and finally got to Merriam-Webster which has “sun” as the second definition after “morning star.” Giving this one a little side-eye. On the one hand, it’s obscure. On the other, it’s inferrable, the crossings are fair, and they’re common words.
• 46a [*Panic button for computer users] is the ESCAPE KEY.

And the revealer: 51a [Part of an au pair’s compensation, or what can respectively follow the two parts of the answers to the starred clues] is ROOM AND BOARD. NEWS ROOM, BULLETIN BOARD, GREEN ROOM, CARDBOARD, DAY ROOM, STARBOARD, ESCAPE ROOM, KEYBOARD. All solid!

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that there are seven NHL teams in CANADA.

Ron Ammirante’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Assorted Baked Goods” — Jim Q’s write-up

No sign of Ron Ammirante’s name in Fiend’s database, so a likely debut! Congrats, Ron!

THEME: Anagrams of things you might find in a bakery? Assuming your bakery is peddling SALTINES, that is.

THEME ANSWERS: 

• TRAIPSES. PASTRIES.
  

  WSJ • 1/27/26 • Tues • “Assorted Baked Goods” • Ron Ammirante • solution • 20260127

• DEBAR. BREAD. 
• GABLES. BAGELS. 
• RUSTLED. STRUDEL. 
• ENTAILS. SALTINE. 
• LACIER. ECLAIR. 
• START. TARTS.
• UNPLACED. PAN DULCE.
• (revealer… I think) Ingredient pack for making dough-based foods, like the answers to the capitalized clues: MIX. 

I kept thinking today was Monday. I had a snow day yesterday, so it still felt like the weekend.

This puzzle reminded me it’s Tuesday.

After a brief reprieve from some oddness that I often associate with WSJ Tuesday, it’s back in full force today. A puzzle that makes me cock my head like my dog does when she’s trying to comprehend why she doesn’t get an equal share of the Ben & Jerry’s pint (I think 70/30 is more than fair).

The theme is easy to grok, of course. Anagrams. The anagrams themselves were very easy to suss out, with the exception of PAN DOLCE, which is new to me, and I’m assuming is a sweet bread of some sort.

But there is quite a bit of weirdness going on.

• 82 words? That’s quite high. In my experience, editors rarely publish a grid with more than 78 unless the theme absolutely demands it. I’m not entirely sure this one does.
• MIX is the revealer? Or maybe the title is the revealer and MIX is a bonus themer? It’s in a proper revealer spot, being the last “themer” to uncover. But it’s so vague and anti-climactic it’s bordering on comical.
• Speaking of the revealer, which is clued [Ingredient pack for making dough-based foods, like the answers to the capitalized clues], when’s the last time you used an ingredient pack to make a SALTINE?
• I’m trying to figure out why PASTRIES is in the same category as ECLAIR and STRUDEL, which are both PASTRIES. And then there’s TARTS, which seems like a sub-category of PASTRIES, but still isn’t as specific as ECLAIR or STRUDEL.
• And BAGELS! Are there BAGEL ingredient packs? If so, let’s get rid of the cinnamon raisin ones.

NEW TO ME / HANGUPS:

• RID X [Septic treatment brand]. I don’t see much usage of this in past crosswords. Common brand? I browse for septic treatment brands less than I do SALTINE mix.
• KYL [Former Arizona senator Jon]. New to me. Good three-letter combo to know.
• WROTH [Extremely angry, biblically]. Don’t see much usage of this in past either. Sounds like a fun word. Reminds me of that origin story from Exodus, Chapter 2:  Moses grew WROTH when his BAGEL MIX packet had a hole in it. And now, all BAGELs have holes in them.
• R AND D [New products div.] Research and Development. New to me.

I don’t want to be mistaken here… I rather enjoyed this one, as I do most Tuesdays. I look forward to Cock-My-Head-Tuesday. It’s hard to hate a puzzle that makes me smile so much in spite of itself.

3 stars.