LAT 8:34 (Kyle) 
[2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 19:05 (Eric) 
[2.79 avg; 17 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Darby) [2.75 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Universal (Sunday) 9:49 (Jim P) [3.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (Norah) [2.83 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
WaPo 5:06 (Matt G) 
[3.60 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
Lance Enfinger and John Kugelman’s New York Times Crossword “Comical Mutation” — Eric’s Review
Lance Enfinger and John Kugelman’s New York Times Crossword “Comical Mutation” — 2/1/26 (Click to Embiggen)
“Comical” accurately describes this theme, since comedy (like so much else in this world) is a subjective thing. Common phrases get an “ickel” sound added, to wacky effect:
- 23A [Canio in “Pagliacci,” e.g.?] CLASSICAL CLOWN Class clown
- 37A [News hound?] TOPICAL DOG Top dog
- 40A [Atomic bond, essentially?] TWO-PARTICLE HARMONY Two-part harmony
- 65A [Some electrolysis targets?] FOLLICLES ON ONE’S FACE Falls on one’s face I was a little stuck here and used the theme to figure out FOLLICLE.
- 88A [“Mainsail hoisted, check! Hatches battened, check!”?] WE’RE NAUTICAL-WORTHY We’re not worthy
- 94A [Shark’s singing rival in “West Side Story”?] LYRICAL JET Lear jet
- 113A [Frozen treat for Bruins fans?] BOSTON POPSICLE Boston Pops
I didn’t find these particularly amusing, which is sadly too often the case with the themes in Sunday New York Times crosswords of the last few years. I suppose mediocre themes like this one make you appreciate the truly clever themes even more.
Other stuff:
- 20A [Food additive named one of Time’s 50 Worst Inventions] OLESTRA I made an educated guess here. If you don’t remember this fat substitute (also known as Olean), which was introduced in the United States in 1996, consider yourself lucky. And don’t read about the effects of eating foods containing it unless you just want to be grossed out.
- 28A [QB Drew whom Tom Brady ultimately replaced] BLEDSOE That’s not a name I remembered, but figuring that the fourth letter was D let me know that my initial answer for 16D was wrong (I’d had CHAR instead of SHAD).
- 35A [Grab the chips and dip?] CASH IN Cute clue.
- 47A [Messing up on the big screen] DEBRA Nice use of the “veiled capital.”
- 51A [Italy’s third-largest island (after Sicily and Sardinia)] ELBA I’m not sure which country I though Elba was part of, but I probably would not have guessed Italy.
- 86A [Spice Girl alongside Baby, Ginger, Scary and Posh] SPORTY Am I glad to know all the Spice Girls’ stage names (and most of their real ones)? Not particularly.
- 100A [Very rude email, informally] NASTYGRAM I’d not heard this before, but I kinda like it.
- 105A [Never mind?] AMNESIA Cute clue about something that’s not all that funny.
- 121A [Thickets] COPSES Multiple readings of Winnie-the-Pooh over the years have locked this one in.
- 40D [Mother of Helios, in myth] THEA Not RHEA. That R cost me a few minutes by making TWO-PARTICLE HARMONY very hard to see.
- 60D [Rodgers and Hammerstein musical setting] SIAM For the 1944 Broadway show The King and I.
- 95D [Crack open?] YO MAMA As in the opening words of a wisecrack.
Katie Hale’s LA Times crossword “EXTRA PADDING” – Kyle’s write-up
LA Times solution grid “EXTRA PADDING” – Katie Hale – Sunday 02/01/2026
Today’s LA Times crossword comes from assistant editor Katie Hale. Thanks Katie!
The title parses as “extra P-adding”. Each theme answer adds P to create a wacky phrase. The placement of the P varies, creating a bit of added difficulty:
- 23A [Jaunty coast-to-coast race?] CROSS COUNTRY SKIP
- 39A [Arizona running back’s evasive maneuver?] CARDINAL SPIN
- 58A [Incomprehensible peace treaty?] A HARD PACT TO FOLLOW
- 80A [“Sesame Street: Sing the Alphabet,” perhaps?] BEST SPELLING ALBUM
- 99A [Painters who specialize in portraits of imps?] SCAMP ARTISTS
- 120A [“Better not throw a changeup”?] “SCRATCH THAT PITCH”
“Youth Making a Face”, Adriaen Brouwer, c. 1632/35 – National Gallery of Art
I enjoyed this take on a classic 21x-style theme.
Notes on fill/clues:
- 6A [Home of the NWSL’s Royals] UTAH. That’s National Women’s Soccer League. We also have 76D [Winners of the first FIFA Women’s World Cup] for USA.
- 69A [Turned off?] WENT BAD. This one took me a while to get. “Off” in the sense of spoiled food.
- 7D [“Ur correct”] “TRU”. I guess this is meant to be textspeak? I wonder if Katie and Patti wanted to avoid cluing this as a proper noun (Tru Capote, TruTV) since it crosses UTAH and DR NO.
- 106A [Romantasy novelist ___ J. Maas] SARAH. From her Wikipedia page, I gather she’s a very popular writer. Her works include the series Throne of Glass, A Court of Thorns and Roses, and Crescent City.
- 126A [___ de tigre: ceviche marinade] LECHE. Literally, “tiger’s milk”. Now I’m hungry!
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post Crossword “Nanotechnology” — Matt’s Review
Evan Birnholz’ Washington Post crossword solution, “Nanotechnology,” 2/1/2026
Jumbo sized this week, with 23 columns to go with our usual 21 rows. The title is “Nanotechnology,” and whenever I see a reference to size, especially small size, in a title, I’m thinking rebus. That’s what we’ve got:
-
- 26aa [*”What’s the point?””] WHY EVEN [BOT]HER
- 33a [*Who was a subject of their most famous sketch] AB[BOT] AND COSTELLO
- 71a [*Do something that can’t be undone] LET THE GENIE OUT OF THE [BOT]TLE
- 102a [*Cross-checks?] LOOKS [BOT]H WAYS
- 106a [*One who studies the relationship between humans and plans] ETHNO[BOT]ANIST
- 120a [*Brand of small toy cars … and an alternate title for this puzzle] MICROMACHINES
Those small BOTs might also be called MICROMACHINES or examples of “Nanotechnology.” A tried-and-true mechanism done well thanks to some colorful entries, IMO. Well worth the atypical grid size.
And I haven’t seen the movie, and don’t think he’s particularly small, but the first letters of each themer spell WALL E, a noted machine/bot of film, hinted at 134a [“The first letters of the starred answers spell out an apt film character,” e.g.]
Other comments: I suppose it is true that Eeyore is an ASS, but I sure have always used the word “donkey” in my own head // Even knowing the “most famous sketch,” it took me a minute to unwind the lack of a question mark in the clue for ABBOTT AND COSTELLO. “Who” is (Naturally!) the name of the first basemen in the pair’s fictional baseball team, so the clue is a declarative sentence // I should know better than to think we’ll ever run out of quote clues for ART. “The direct measure of man’s spiritual vision” is interesting // Somewhat surprised to see SERVICE PETS, as folks I know with working animals take care to distinguish them from pets. But I am by no means an expert // I couldn’t quite pull the 1994 film in which Jodie Foster played NELL, not that I needed to. Turns out the film is also called “Nell”
Cheers!
Rafael Musa’s Universal crossword, “Mega Freestyle 3”—Jim P’s review
Seems like it’s been a while since we’ve had a Sunday freestyle. Generally these have been quite good, and I’d say this one’s right on up there with tons of fun long entries, although there are a few new-to-me things. I loved the free-following artistic grid design as well.
That opening stack in the NW is wonderful with SPORTS BARS, HIDEY HOLES, and “I CAN RELATE.” Elsewhere we find WATER COOLER, MEGALODON, RAT TRAP, PRONOUN PINS, “SORRY NOT SORRY,” BARGED RIGHT IN, SCREEN NAMES, POLAROID, DRONE SHOTS, “I’M TALKING,” “AS A SIDE NOTE…”, ROOT VEGGIE, GAME HEN, INCA EMPIRE, GOT HITCHED, MANATEE, “IT’S OVER“, TOLL ROAD, and MAKES SENSE.
Heart-shaped leaves of the bo tree (image from Wikipedia)
In the new-to-me category, I’d never heard of BO TREES (also known as sacred fig trees), but I probably should have. It was this type of tree the Buddha was purportedly sitting under when he achieved enlightenment. It has lovely heart-shaped leaves as well.
Clue of note: 44a. [LGBTQ+ advocacy grp.]. HRC. Only two hits for this entry in the Cruciverb database and they both refer to Hilary Clinton. Here it stands for the Human Rights Campaign.
Four stars for this lovely themeless grid.
NYT: This was not for me. It was somewhat promising at first, with CLASS(ICAL) CLOWN and TOP(ICAL) DOG. TWO PART(ICLE) HARMONY was okay. But then we veered off into “kinda sounds like” stuff – the homophonics (if that’s a word) on FOLLICLES and NAUTICAL don’t work for me. And the base phrase “We’re not worthy” doesn’t do much for me, either.
I gave up at that point, in favor of a college basketball game on TV.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
It’s Wayne’s World! Party time! Excellent!
There’s a pretty narrow cultural relevance for “We’re not worthy” which did land with me, so this was one of my favorites of the otherwise forgettable puzzle
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2.5 stars
I’ll be honest, I think I’ve seen about enough John Kugelman Sunday NYTs for awhile. We’re up to 13 (either solo or with a collaborator) since the start of 2024, and they’re all pretty much the same theme, mildly interesting plays on words. They’re certainly competent and solvable and I’ve quite liked a few of them… but it’s a bit like a band that releases an okay double album when they could have been choosier and put out one really good one.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2 stars
I have agree. I usually don’t have problems with the NYT puzzles, but this one was just a little too far afield.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2 stars
The theme is mid, sure. But that’s not the worst thing of the puzzle.
The fills are just bad. OLESTRA? PIMLICO crossing BLEDSOE? Hell, but that’s still not the worst thing of the puzzle.
The worst thing is the flow. Most of the fills are either theme entries, or three- or four-lettered crosswordese. The few non-thematic long fills like RED EARTH are not really amusing, either. (Also they are not that long in a 21×21.)
The only highlight of the puzzle is EYE SOCKET clued as “orbit”.
Quite the contrary on PIMLICO BLEDSOE OLESTRA. Not sure what your bias is, but they are good (but gettable) trivia and not often seen in typical NYT fill. Well maybe OLESTRA more than the others.
My problem today was that it took me 80% of the puzzle to suss out the theme. But I think that was just me. I was fine with it, unlike the early exit-poll posters!
Actually, while I agree with everything else you said, I hated “eye socket” clued as “orbit” –it’s an “orb,” sure, but an “orbit”??
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
The eye socket itself is called an “orbit”. The eyeball could plausibly be called an orb though.
Goodness! One learns things everyday! I had not heard that before. Thanks!
WaPo:
Evan – The Abbott and Costello clue is now up there as one of my all-time favorites! Took me awhile to get it and just loved the moment when it clicked.
Puzzle: WaPo; Rating: 4.5 stars
The Who clue I actually got. The sentence doesn’t parse as a clue – you’d have to figure who the “their” was and then on top of that the “who,” and Evan doesn’t make format/grammar mismatches like that. AHA! Fortunately, LAURELANDHARDY – the mixup I always make – didn’t fit, and once the “A” became clear I got the right comedy team. PETS was off, but it was a minor issue. Rebuses! Rebuses! My favorite :)
The clue parses fine. Replace the noun “Wh0” with any other noun: “Einstein was a subject of their most famous sketch.” Sounds proper to me.
Sorry I was not clear – the clue does not parse when you initially read it – as one automatically does – with “Who” being the start of a question. Either that must be a mistake in the clue, or you must have to rethink how you’re reading it; and it’s Evan Birnholz so it’s not a mistake :)
Sorry. You were clear but I read it too quickly.
Cheers :)
Fun WaPo from Evan!
Fairly often when I try to go to this site, I get a warning box: This site doesn’t support a secure connection.” What’s up with that? I can’t imagine the proprietors of this excellent site would allow it to contain anything dangerous.
I have the same issue. But it also happens with some other sites I visit often, so I don’t know whether the problem is in their system or mine. I use Chrome.
I have a secure connection, so not sure what that’s about.
You might try clearing your SSL state. In the Windows Search box, search for Internet options and click on it in the Best Match window.
Click the Content Tab when the Internet Properties window opens and clear SSL state.
Another common problem is an inaccurate system clock on your computer. Time has to match with the server.
I’ve been running into that, too.