Thursday, February 5, 2026

BEQ 10:12 (Eric) [3.00 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
Fireball tk (Jenni) [4.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
LAT 4:09 (Gareth) [3.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 10:47 (ZDL) [2.78 avg; 18 ratings] rate it
Universal 6:23 (Eric) [3.00 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today 9:23 (Emily) [2.83 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
WSJ untimed (Jim Q) [2.25 avg; 2 ratings] rate it

Daniel Hrynick’s Universal Crossword “New Music” — Eric’s Review

Daniel Hrynick’s Universal Crossword “New Music” — 2/5/26 (Cllck to Embiggen)

Common phrases and compound nouns get clued as popular songs from the last 100 years:

• 15A [“Alright” by Kendrick Lamar?] FINE-TUNE
• 23A [“Chattanooga Choo Choo” by Glenn Miller?] TRAIN TRACK I’m not sure what song I would have chosen for this clue, but I don’t think it would be one with the lyric “Pardon me, boy.”
• 37A [“867-5309/Jenny” by Tommy Tutone?] TELEPHONE NUMBER
• 47A [“Zombie” by the Cranberries?] MONSTER JAM
• 60A [Cheaply … or how 15-, 23-, 37- or 47-Across is clued?] FOR A SONG

It’s a solid if unexciting theme set that doesn’t require any real knowledge of the songs in the clues.

Other stuff:

• 13A [Line that intersects a curve at multiple points] SECANT High school math was a long time ago; I needed some crosses to get this.
• 56A [Andy who coaches Travis Kelce] REID I don’t pay much attention to sports, especially gridiron football, and couldn’t remember the name of the Kansas City Chiefs.
• 58A [Hockey legend Serge] SAVARD Despite not being interested in pro sports, I do recognize most of the “legends.” Not this one. He played for the Montreal Canadiens and the Winnipeg Jets from 1966–1983.
• 8D [Blizzards, for the most part] ICE CREAM I started with ICE STORM before realizing that the clue was about the Dairy Queen dessert.
• 53D [___ Stavro Blofeld (Bond villain)] ERNST Does that parenthetical help anyone? If you know James Bond, you probably know Blofeld. If you don’t know Bond, then you probably didn’t know this one anyway.

Hannah Slovut-Einertson’s USA Today Crossword, “Entertain Me (Freestyle)” — Emily’s write-up

Get a snack and settle in!

USA Today, January 05, 2026, “Entertain Me (Freestyle)” by Hannah Slovut-Einertson

Favorite fill: ESCAPEPOD, MINIDONUTS, MISOPASTE, and YOUBETIAM

Stumpers: IMDOINGIT (needed crossings), TEETH (seems obvious once filled but it got me), and SCAT (“git”, “shoo”, and “scram” came to mind first)

Success! I’m very entertained with this puzzle today. So many “entertaining” entries, including: DRUMROLL, MOVIEREEL, SOUNDBITE, TAEKWONDO, BATON, INGA, etc. There are entries for activities, media, actors, travel, and even food! It’s ONKEY, at least for me. And if you need a break, grab a ROBE at the SPA and enjoy some relaxation too. A fantastic example of a freestyle that is cohesive and feels very satisfying. Also, another great grid that really allowed for awesome fill, especially lengthy. Nicely done!

4.75 stars

~Emily

Dario Salvucci’s New York Times crossword — Zachary David Levy’s write-up

Time: 10m47s

Difficulty: Breezy (<8m)  |  Easy-ish (8-9m30s)  |  Working on it (9m30s-11m)  |  Rough going (11+m)

Dario Salvucci’s New York Times crossword, 2/5/26

Today’s theme: ON THE ROAD (Classic Jack Kerouac novel … or where you’ll find 17-, 24-, 49- and 58-Across)

• | $ | $ | $ | $ | — TOLL BOOTHS
• | : : : | / / — FREEWAY EXIT
• | : : :–| — LANE CLOSURE
• |X:X:X:X| |X:X:X:X| |X:X:X:X| — TRAFFIC JAM

I lament the loss of TOLL BOOTHS, the acrobatics sometimes necessary to fling a fistful of exact change at a basket from a moving vehicle at a distance, the salute from a dutiful attendant when you’ve stuck the landing, the continued relevance of nickels and dimes and well-stocked change trays.  Nothing gold can stay.

Cracking: HOT DOGS, hot dogs, hot diggity dogs, we’re splittin the scene, we’re full of beans

Slacking: ADIN spooning ADUE

Sidetracking: the MAESTRO

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TArKkP-4mTQ

Richard Liu & Katherine Xiong’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Down the Line” — Jim Q’s write-up

THEME: “Guys” appear in the grid, but disconnected from the “Guy” part of their name, which is instead descending in circled letters at the end of the entry.

WSJ • 2/05/26 • Thur • “Down the Line” • Richard Liu • Katherine Xiong • solution • 20260205

THEME ANSWERS:

• [*He seeks romance, but only finds platonic friendship] NICE (GUY)
• [*He has a reputation for being handy and reliable] GO-TO (GUY)
• [*He wears a mask and robe in Nintendo games] SHY (GUY)
• [*He thinks he’s very clever and tries to seem smarter than everyone else] WISE (GUY)
• (revealer) [Scapegoat, or a hint to the starred answers] FALL GUY. 

SHY GUY. Deadly. But adorable.

Nifty idea today! I didn’t grok the theme until I found SHY (GUY), a relatively minor character in the Mario Bros.’ World whose name I know and I can picture quite clearly, despite my lack of gaming knowledge. My biggest hangup was entering NIKE for NICE [*He seeks romance, but only finds platonic friendship], thinking it was some kind of mythological reference, and I was able to accept the resulting spelling of KAREEN for CAREEN. Catching that error when Mr. Happy Pencil didn’t show up took me forever. I thought for sure I had something wrong in the IGBO area [Nigerian ethnic group and language] because I’ve never seen that before. BRACT was another new word:

1. a modified leaf or scale, typically small, with a flower or flower cluster in its axil. Bracts are sometimes larger and more brightly colored than the true flower, as in poinsettia

So some new terms that were tough to infer! Still, a fun (mostly fair) grid. This theme type is deceiving because there is much more constraint on the grid than it may appear due to G-U-Y being necessary in 12 different entries in addition to the 5 overt themers. That said, I always found GO TO pretty ugly as fill. Highlighting it as a themer doesn’t make it look much better, despite it actually being GO-TO “GUY.“

MUSINGS / HANGUPS / ERRATA:

• [Car bar] AXLE. Any pneumonics for helping to remember the difference between AXLE and AXEL? It’s always a 50/50 guess for me.
• [Element of change?] COIN. Cute clue. A COIN is an element of change that a cashier may give to you.
• [War loser, probably] TREY. Tough to put up a fight with a three in the world’s dumbest card game.
• [Forcefully throw, in Gen Z slang] YEET. A regular in crosswords now, although no one I know uses this word anymore. It was around for a hot second, then disappeared. Kinda like PHAT, which still lives on in crosswords. YEET is still not accepted in Spelling Bee.
• [Warming in relations] THAW. I’m not sure I get how the clue substitutes for the answer. This area was tricky because I had no clue what a pika was ([Pika’s cousin] HARE) and didn’t know Houdini’s last name (WEISS), yet it was strangely inferrable.
• [Expression of affection, in texts] ILY. I love you, I assume. Is this common initialism in texts?
• [“Slow Churned” brand] ELY’S. I read “band” instead of “brand.” I mean, Slow Churned sounds like a good enough name for a song from an 80s hair band…

3.5 stars from me

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1859 “‘AI’ Slop” — Eric’s Review

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1859 “‘AI’ Slop” — 2/5/26 (Click to embiggen)

Clues containing  all caps hint at anagrams, but the twist is that you have to add the letters A and I to the capitalized portion to get the answers, all of which are normal-sounding words and phrases:

• 18A [“Ugh, I wanted to find out what a STREET CAR was, but with AI, all I got was …”] SECRETARIAT (The thoroughbred that won horse racing’s Triple Crown in 1973)
• 24A [“… SERGEANTS …”] GREASE STAIN
• 38A [“… SPRING CHICKEN …”] SHRINKING ICE CAP
• 48A [“… HARRELSON …] ARIEL SHARON (Prime minister of Israel from 2001–2006)
• 58A [“… HOME FRONT …”] FAITH NO MORE

The not-quite-anagrams are an interesting twist, but my facility with anagrams maxes out around six or seven letters. So I mostly filled in the theme answers using the letter patterns.

Other stuff:

• 28A [Wired group, for short] EDS The clue refers to the bimonthly magazine about the effects of technology on culture, the economy and politics.
• 11D [Risotto ingredient] WHITE RICE I lost time here trying to get ARBORIO to work.
• 33D [Point guard nicknamed “Point God”] CHRIS PAUL I didn’t know this nickname for the guy now playing for the Toronto Raptors, but at some point, I had enough letters to fill in a name that I sorta knew.

Rich Katz’s LA Times Crossword – Gareth’s summary

This is one of the more interesting and subtle crossword themes I’ve encountered in a bit. The final answer is BLUESCLUES. Each of four answers seemingly have no commonality. However, each is clued in relation to something with a different blue hue. Colour themes are often hackneyed, but this was a very creative take! So:

• [Aquaman star], JASONMOMOA. Cool full name to get in a grid too. Aqua
• [Cocktail that may be made with Bombay Sapphire], GINANDTONIC. I assume that’s a gin brand? Sapphire.
• [Band with the hit “In the Navy”], VILLAGEPEOPLE. Navy.
• [Microsoft Azure competitor], GOOGLECLOUD. Azure

Cute clues of the day [Accounts with round numbers?], BARTABS; [Visitor in a knock-knock joke that ends, “It’s nothing to cry about!”, BOO. (BOO WHO?)

Gareth