Tuesday, February 3, 2026

Jonesin’ 4:50 (Erin) rate it
LAT untimed (Jenni) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 5:44 (Eric) [3.58 avg; 12 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker untimed (pannonica) [3.36 avg; 7 ratings] rate it
Universal 5:15 (Eric) [4.40 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Sophia) [3.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Xword Nation tk (Ade) rate it
WSJ 6:30 (Jim Q) rate it

Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Who’s Your Baddie?” — they’re villains, to a degree. – Erin’s write-up

Jonesin’ solution, 2/3/26

Hello lovelies! This week we’re adding a medical title to some common phrases to create a little pop culture “Before and After!”

• 17a. [Austin Powers villain who’s way more malicious than quirky?] DR. EVIL INCARNATE (Dr. Evil / evil incarnate)
• 31a. [Inspector Gadget villain who grabs plush toys at an arcade?] DR. CLAW MACHINE. The 2017 Netflix “Inspector Gadget” cartoon reboot is delightful, if you need something clever and funny to binge.
• 49a. [Spider-Man villain reading apprehensively through social media?] DR. DOOMSCROLLING

Other things:

• 3d. [Apprehensive (with a more common opposite starting with “in”)] TREPID. This just looks wrong to me. I’m not sure why, as “intrepid” isn’t used that often but looks normal, and “trepidation” is a normal word and looks fine in my head.
• Today I learned that GASPÉ is the name of a lot of things in Québec (43d.), and NIXIE is USPS slang for undeliverable mail (24d.).

Until next week!

Prasanna Keshava’s Universal Crossword “Get Rich Quick!” — Eric’s Review

Prasanna Keshava’s Universal Crossword Puzzle “Get Rich Quick” — 2/3/26 (Click to Embiggen)

Each theme answer has two common slang terms for “money,” bringing new meaning to the revealer phrase:

• 17A [*Bakers knead it] BREAD DOUGH
• 27A [*Something to write a note on] SCRATCH PAPER
• 44A [*Pesto Gouda, e.g.] GREEN CHEESE
• 59A [Achieve a 100% return on an investment … and a hint to the starred clues’ answers] DOUBLE YOUR MONEY

Kudos to Prasanna Keshava for finding three phrases that contain two monetary synonyms without feeling the least bit artificial. It wasn’t until I finished the grid and gave the revealer a little thought that I saw the duplication in the first three theme answers.

Other stuff:

• 38A [Kind of acid used as an antiseptic] BORIC I’d not heard of boric acid being used that way, though I’ve used it for its insecticidal purposes.
• 10D [French Riviera, in French] CÔTE D’AZUR This should have been a gimme, but I blanked on the name and needed the Z from 36A ZONE to remember it.

Nate Cardin’s New York Times Crossword — Eric’s Review

Nate Cardin’s New York Times Crossword — 2/3/26 (Click to Embiggen)

Circled letters hold famous pop singers from different eras:

• 18A [Narrow, focused perspective] TUNNEL VISION
• 38A [Sign near a freshly applied coat] WET PAINT
• 62A [What children should use at the library … and a literal description of the circled letters in this puzzle] INSIDE VOICES
• 12D [Burger chain with custard-based drinks] SHAKE SHACK
• 30D [Stage of education] GRADE LEVEL

I noticed the circles but paid little attention to the letters that went inside them. It wasn’t until I’d completed the grid that I noticed that the singers.

Other stuff:

• 23A [Assigned a job] TASKED I don’t know why that particular verb irks me, but it does.
• 3D [Pair orbited by the fictional planet Tatooine] SUNS I remember thinking the first time I saw Star Wars that the shot of one sun setting while the other was still well above the horizon was pretty cool.

Hannah Binney’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Jenni’s write-up

I had absolutely no idea what was going on because one of the theme answers ended up being my “what I didn’t know” for this puzzle.

Los Angeles Times, February 3, 2026, Hannah Binney, solution grid

• 17a [Amphibians with sticky toes] are TREE FROGS.
• 27a [“Moonlight” and “Hidden Figures” actress] is JANELLE MONAE.
• 44a [Fishy breakfast combo] is BAGELS AND LOX.

REEF, LEMON, and SAND gave me tropical drink vibes. That was not what they were going for. 60a [Reality show with entrepreneurs, or what each set of circled letters makes 17-, 27-, or 44-Across?) is SHARK TANK. SAND SHARK and REEF SHARK, sure. But LEMON SHARK? Per Wikipedia: “The lemon shark (Negaprion brevirostris) is a species of shark from the family Carcharhinidae, known for its yellowish skin, which inspires its common name.” And per this random video they’re the “golden retriever of sharks.” That’s what I didn’t know before I did this puzzle!

And just for fun: I got this shot of a tree frog in Australia

Andy Kravis’ New Yorker crossword, “The Anniversary Crossword: Sounds Dandy” — pannonica’s write-up

New Yorker • 2/3/26 • Tue • “The Anniversary Crossword: Sounds Dandy” • Kravis • solution • 20260203

• 49a^R [Mascot of The New Yorker, whose name is formed by the final syllables of 19-, 26-, 32-, and 41-Across] EUSTACE TILLEY. So I guess there’s an anniversary thing happening over there. The mechanics of the theme itself are standard in the crossword playbook.
• 19a. [“It’s hopeless!”] WHAT’S THE USE.
• 26a. [Ancient Greek writer known as the father of history] HERODOTUS.
• 32a. [Embezzles, so to speak] DIPS INTO THE TILL.
• 41a. [Author who said, “All I want to be is the Jane Austen of South Alabama”] HARPER LEE.

use-tus-till-lee,  Checks out.

The crossword, judging subjectively from my solving experience and objectively from the timer, was a very easy affair. Never a fan when the magazine’s more challenging offerings (even though I invariably don’t find them challenging enough) are supplanted by themed puzzles.

• 3d [Blueprint] FLOOR MAP. vs floorplan/floor plan: ngram.
• 5d [Newton, tesla, or ampere] UNITS, all eponyms. Isaac Newton, Nikola Tesla, André-Marie Ampère. Unlike 25a [Measure of brightness] LUMEN. which is not named for Jeremiah Lumen.
• 9d [New York county between Queens and Suffolk] NASSAU. Kings (Brooklyn) and Queens counties comprise the western part of Long Island, Suffolk contains the eastern parts, and Nassau is basically the middle section.
  
  In honor of Demond Wilson, recently deceased.
• 14d [Reacted to a massage, perhaps] AAHED. 29d [“How exciting!”] OOH.
• 35d [Having lost one’s shirt] TOPLESS. Not a financial idiom.
• 42d [Constellation also called the Eagle] AQUILA, which is just Latin for eagle.
• 13a [Meditation vocalization] MANTRA.
  
• 17a [Name that rhymes with a South American country] OLIVIA. Amazing because OLIVIA and GUYANA have so few letters in common!
• 22a [Two-time Wimbledon champion Alcaraz] CARLOS. Recently saw a headline that he’s now the youngest person to win all four Grand Slam events. Don’t know if (a) it’s in the same calendar year, or (b) ‘person’ excludes women (this sometimes happens in headlines).
• 47a [“… but some animals are more __ than others”: “Animal Farm”] EQUAL. Timely, but also evergreen.

—whoops, need to help elderly neighbor, got to run!

Zachary Christopher Youngs’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “International Finance” — Jim Q’s write-up

THEME: People whose last name is a currency

WSJ • 2/03/26 • Tue • “International Finance” • Christopher Youngs • solution • 20260203

THEME ANSWERS:

• [“A Fistful of Dollars” director (Freetown)] SERGIO LEONE. 
• [“The Cantos” poet (London)] EZRA POUND. 
• [“Atlas Shrugged” novelist (Pretoria)] AYN RAND. 
• [“Ip Man” action star (Tokyo)] DONNIE YEN. 
• (revealer) [Wealth seekers, or 17-, 21-, 39- and 55-Across, based on their last names?] CAPITALISTS. 

It’s Tuesday!

If I’m being honest, this one just wasn’t for me today. I found it difficult to enjoy. There seemed to be an awful lot of Crosswordese which I really cringe at in early week puzzles (I want puzzles that are accessible to my high school study hall students, and an abundance of Crosswordese/foreign words/specialized terms is a huge turn-off for them).

I had trouble finding a flow during the solve, and the theme in general didn’t seem to justify the bite I encountered in the fill. I also don’t really completely understand how the themers are CAPITALISTS based on their last names. I mean, I understand there is CAPITAL there, but it doesn’t really make them CAPITALISTS any more than it makes James Garfield, Jessica Simpson, and Billy Casper CARTOONISTS (I don’t really know who Billy Casper is… had to look that up… but was unfamiliar with DONNIE YEN as well).

I think the theme was apparent enough without the revealer, so I would’ve preferred another name…  Somebody out there must have the last name KRONA or PESO or something! I might even settle for PEARL S. BUCK!

OTHER THINGS / HANGUPS / MUSINGS:

• [Drug-free disease treatment] NATURE CURE. Seems off to me. “Natural Cure” feels righter. Maybe even NATURE’S CURE…
• [“Star Wars” show that’s a prequel to “Rogue One”] ANDOR. I had ENDOR. As a non-Star Wars person, I glean my knowledge of the franchise through crosswords, which has established ENDOR as the setting to know.
• [Eponymous logician John] VENN. Of Diagram fame.
• [Armor protecting the shin] GREAVE. New word for me, I think.
• AGORA, ASCORBIC, ON TV, NAH, MON AMI, IS TO, GO AS, ESSO, CENTRE, ANDOR, DISS, GREAVE, DEICER, HOMINY, ASEA, EINS, CTRL – fill that I think might pose, perhaps, too much of a hurdle for a new early-week solver: Things that require specialized knowledge or crossword solving chops. I feel like I can write another list just as long though.

2.25 stars from me today.