BEQ 24:54 (Eric) 
[3.17 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
LAT 1:59 (Matt) [3.00 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
NYT 2:24 (Sophia) 
[3.36 avg; 14 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker 7:46 (Amy) 
[4.25 avg; 10 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (pannonica) 
[3.92 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (?) [3.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
WSJ untimed (Jim Q) rate it
John Ewbank and Colin Thomas’s New York Times crossword — Sophia’s recap
Theme: GROUNDHOG DAY – the answer GROUNDHOG DAY repeats itself several times in the grid
New York Times, 02 02 2026, By John Ewbank and Colin Thomas
- 20a [Cult classic co-starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell] – GROUNDHOG DAY
- 33a [Inspiration for a 2017 Tony-nominated musical] – GROUNDHOG DAY
- 41a [1993 film that featured “I Got You Babe”] – GROUNDHOG DAY
- 56a [Film about which Harold Ramis said “He goes from being a prisoner of that time and place to being master of that time and place”] – GROUNDHOG DAY
This was very close to being a personal best NYT time for me, on any puzzle. As soon as I saw that the first theme answer was GROUNDHOG DAY, I was able to guess at what was going on, and once the second theme clue confirmed it, I dropped in the rest of the GROUNDHOG DAY‘s without any crosses. It’s a cute idea – in case anyone here isn’t familiar with the film Groundhog Day that’s referenced by the clues, it’s a movie where Bill Murray gets stuck in a time loop and is forced to relive February 2nd over and over, hence the repetition in answers here. So the gimmick is uniquely thematic, but this puzzle may play very easy for folks even by Monday standards (assuming folks have some amount of familiarity with the source material). I thought it was interesting to have all the clues be in direct reference to the movie, as opposed to the day itself or the musical, but I guess it’s consistent with the time-loop concept.
Fill highlights: ENCANTO, DO SHOTS, NLF REFS (next Sunday’s write-up may be posted on the later side due to the Super Bowl – go Hawks!!)
Clue highlights: [Bird that scientists are trying to bring back from extinction] for DODO, [Uncle of Huey, Dewey and Louie] for DONALD. Lots of bird content in that corner. Also [First word in two U.S. state names] is a tricky clue for NORTH since it also works perfectly for “south”, and the two share 3 of 5 letters!
Happy Monday all! This looks to be Colin’s first NYT puzzle, congrats on a great debut.
Zachary Edward-Brown & Jude White’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Matt’s recap
Zachary Edward Brown & Jude White’s Los Angeles Times crossword solution, 2/2/2026
Matt subbing for Stella today. We’ve got three themers and a revealer:
- 16a [Work promoted by the American Library Association every autumn] BANNED BOOK
- 27a [Color associated with tutus] BALLERINA PINK
- 39a [Euphemism that conveys disapproval] BLANKETY BLANK
- 52a [Drama set on the North Carolina coast, and what 16-, 27-, and 39-Across have?] OUTER BANKS
Each themer contains the letters of “bank” in order on its edges. Neatly, the first themer has it as BAN- at the start and -K at the end; the second BA- and -NK; and the third B- and -ANK. Nicely done.
This played a little tough for me for a Monday. I’m familiar with BLANKETY BLANK (a relative of saying something like “that old so-and-so” in place of vulgarity) but the clue didn’t quite get me there, and I struggled to piece together NEOSOUL, which is a pretty key entry in the bottom half of the grid.
Faves: BAD HAIR DAY, SAFARI PARK, the themer BANNED BOOK, YOKO ONO‘s full name.
Cheers!
Zachary David Levy’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “How Appropriate!” — Jim Q’s write-up
There’s a familiar name! Fiend contributer Zachary David Levy is up to bat today. No PINCH HITTER required!
THEME: Phrases that begin with synonyms for STEAL
WSJ • 1/27/26 • Mon • “How Appropriate!” • Zachary David Levy • solution • 20260202
THEME ANSWERS:
- SWIPE RIGHT
- LIFT TICKET
- PINCH HITTER
- POCKETBOOK
- (revealer) [Bargain hunter’s exclamation, and a hint to the starts of 17-, 25-, 36- and 49-Across] WHAT A STEAL!
Solid Monday today with some lively themers! Perfectly over-the-plate and with a theme that is self explanatory. Everything a Monday should be: clean, clear, fun. Some exciting longer non-theme entries also ( I especially liked LEAP SECOND as clued and THE OK CORRAL).
New to me: The movie REPO MAN with EMILIO Estevez and KETCH [Two-masted sailboat]. Was looking for CUTTY on the latter. Needed all the crosses (but crossed very fairly).
3.5 stars from me today.
Kameron Austin Collins’s New Yorker crossword–Amy’s recap
New Yorker crossword solution, 2/2/26 – Collins
Lots of challenging clues, as you expect from Kameron. It’s where he really excels, alongside crafting smooth grids.
Fave fill: GET A MOVE ON. The center stack where a BEARSKIN RUG, WARTS AND ALL, is worn by a FASHIONISTA. DISCO BALL and WITNESS BOX, these things belong together. FRISSON, MOTHER HENS, CHOP-O-MATIC, a (mutual?) AID SOCIETY, coded CARNATIONS, BAUBLE.
Five clues:
- 31a. [Hide in a cabin, perhaps], BEARSKIN RUG. Clue reads like a verb phrase rather than a noun.
- 37a. [___ et moi (kind of ring with side-by-side stones)], TOI. You and me. This is new to me, New trend in the jewelry business? It lacks the customary symmetry, takes some getting used to.
- 45a. [“Looking for something casual,” on a dating app], NSA. No strings attached.
- 2d. [Infamous surname in Chicago history], O’LEARY. I tried CAPONE first.
- 11d. [Phrase that can mean both “not many” and “too much”], A HANDFUL. Great clue!
4.25 stars from me.
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1858 — Eric’s Review
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1858 — 2/2/26
I’m tired from skiing all day and had to cheat a bit to get unstuck in a few places. The grid is broken into four discrete sections, with only a few short answers tying things together in the middle.
I skipped answer after answer until I finally made an educated guess on 22A [“Socrate” composer] SATIE to get started. I don’t know if that piece is something I’ve heard before or if the title just sounded like something Satie might have written. But it worked with 23D [NFL players injury] TURF TOE, a malady I know of only from crossword puzzles.
More guessing:
- 52A [“Daughter of Fortune” author] Isabelle ALLENDE
- 11D [“Gansevoort, Number 1” painter Lee ___] KRASNER She’s not nearly as well known as her husband Jackson Pollock.
Things I still don’t know the meaning of:
- 17A [Some sweet corn] MEALIES
- 28A [Section of a posse cut] VERSE
Also:
- 20A [Home wrecker] TRYSTER That might be a word, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
- 59A [Product that promises you’ll come out on top?] ROGAINE Cute clue.
- 2D [Hartwick College home] ONEONTA This is where I caved and looked in Wikipedia. That college is not at all familiar to me.
- 46D [Art Deco artist ___ de Lempicka] TAMARA Not a name I know.
- 50D [Rodríguez of “Will Trent”] RAMÓN Also unfamiliar-sounding.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3 stars
Don’t forget your booties, cause it’s cooooooollllllld out there!
The NYT theme is just obnoxious. I love it.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 5 stars
+1 and also “why didn’t I think of that????” rage
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 5 stars
Same here. I started laughing when I saw the second GROUNDHOG DAY entry. The repetition was totally appropriate, the fill was lively, and I can really use a good laugh right now.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 5 stars
Close to my best time for a Monday (2 seconds off) and I have to say that I loved this puzzle so much more than yesterday’s puzzle. It definitely made me smile. I found the Sunday theme to be kind of dumb, plus the fact that some of the answers required homophones. It definitely didn’t click with me, but this one surely did.
NYT: 2:24?!?!!?! TWO??? and less than 30?!?!? Sheeeesh (complimentary)
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 1.5 stars
Dumb. Repetitive. Boring.
I’d agree with Mr. Grumpy. Yes, it was as easy as puzzles will ever get, but do I really want to be reminded of it all. Thankfully, I forget which versions of this I actually forced myself to see.
Just like GROUNDHOG DAY itself, Mr Grumpy’s comments just repeat themselves over and over and …
TNY: Seemed about right for a Monday. I liked the clues for LAPTOP, A HANDFUL and WARTS BE DAMNED.
Not so sure about the cluing for BB SHOT, nor for FLY OUT.
I know VEG-A-MATIC, but not CHOP-A-MATIC – I’m guessing a rip-off product?
FASHIONISTA is always kind of fun. It took a few crosses to get BEARSKIN RUG, but I wasn’t fooled by the clue.
Could have done without ARCSEC – trig class was over 50 years ago, and this would not have been top-of-mind even then.
ETA: Think I conflated the clue and the answer – WARTS AND ALL.
I don’t even understand the clue/answer combo for FLY OUT. “Bring to an overseas conference, say”? That T at the crossing with SETS (“Groups of reps”) was my last letter in the grid. I couldn’t get my mind off of government groups for “reps”. Once I got my brain to think otherwise, gym SETS and reps gave me a little “aha”.
I posted an unusually fast solve time for a non-Berry/non-Gorski TNY Monday. BEQ puzzles are typically quite slow for me.
Puzzle: The New Yorker; Rating: 4 stars
More commonly “flying out”? I’m flying out our CFO to join us. I suppose that could also be I’m going to fly out our CFO…
I’ve attended overseas conferences, and might tell someone I’m going to FLY OUT to Stockholm for a conference (but actually, I wouldn’t say that). I’ve also organized a couple of overseas conferences that involved invited guests – I’d be more apt to say I’m going to FLY them IN than OUT. But regardless, why go with something that iffy when there is a straightforward baseball clue?
On BB SHOT – in my experience, there are BB guns and pellet guns. BB guns shoot BBs and pellet guns shoot pellets. Shotguns (a whole different animal) use shells that sometimes contain BBs of various sizes. I’ve heard shotgun shells containing small BBs referred to as “bird shot,” but I don’t think I’ve run across the term BB SHOT. Maybe this something regional?
I didn’t know CHOP-A-MATIC and wished that Veg-a-Matic fit, too. I took a bit to accept FLY OUT, but I think I do. And I as well took a while after finishing to make sense of sets of reps. It’s a laudably misleading clue.
Yes, there were a few names that mean nothing to me, like the dating app feature. I struggled longest with the lower SW, where I didn’t know APT and felt the rest strained things a bit. But mostly it was an unusually nice Monday TNY. And personally I’m delighted by a clue about trig. It’s ultimately basic or important info, even if math. If people can applaud Groundhog Day and Star Wars, surely they can tolerate it.
New Yorker: Thought there’d be a lot of complaints about how easy it was. Mondays are generally way beyond me. If I’m not mistaken, I think I got everything right, but I’d better recheck. 5 stars.
Puzzle: LAT; Rating: 3.5 stars
Not a bad Monday puzzle. I didn’t care for the inheritor ANK in BLANKETY BLANK. It took away from the theme for me
NYT: My solving time was about 20% faster than my previous personal record. But I must admit it feels a bit unearned because I got the first and third theme answer right away, realized the gimmick, and filled in the other two theme answers immediately. I didn’t even read the clue for the fourth theme answer.
So not so surprising that my solving time smashed my previous best, but it’s easy to achieve a new personal best when you’re not even reading the clues to the longest answers…
Puzzle: Universal; Rating: 4 stars
Very fun puzzle!
Puzzle: Universal; Rating: 5 stars
Cool puzzle! Only six “I”‘s in the whole thing!