LAT 3:26 (Stella) 
[4.10 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
NYT 5:55 (Amy) 
[3.71 avg; 12 ratings] rate it
Universal 3:42 (Jim P) [3.33 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Emily) 
[3.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
Geoffrey Schorkopf & Rafael Musa’s New York Times Crossword — Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 2/6/26 – no. 0206
Quick write-up because I just spent five hours unraveling a work issue and bedtime is screaming my name.
Fave fill: IT’S A SMALL WORLD, GHOSTED, video game BOSS BATTLE, sarcastic “ooh, I’M SO SCARED,” HOOLIGAN, REALID state IDs/driver’s licenses, RED FLAGS, JICAMA, TINY HOME, OVER-PACK (guilty as charged), STOP DEAD. Not sure about TOTAL LIE as a semantic unit.
New to me:
- 49A. [Phenomenon through which luxuries become necessities], LIFESTYLE CREEP. Got an example, anyone?
- 7D. [Derisive term for unattractive public sculptures], PLOP ART. Got examples you hate that have been called PLOP ART?
Four stars from me.
Hunter Polmar’s Universal crossword, “To the Highest Degree”—Jim P’s review
Theme answers are familiar phrases whose final words also the names of fictional doctors. The revealer is DOCTOR WHO (58a, [Longtime British sci-fi show, or a question answered by the end of 16-, 25- or 45-Across]).
Universal crossword solution · “To the Highest Degree” · Hunter Polmar · Fri., 2.6.26
- 16a. [Volcano in Mordor] MOUNT DOOM. Doctor Doom, Marvel villain opposite the Fantastic Four and/or Spider-Man.
- 25a. [Love of money, per the Bible] ROOT OF ALL EVIL. Doctor Evil, Austin Powers’s foil.
- 45a. [Bartender’s generous line] “IT’S ON THE HOUSE.” Doctor House, Hugh Laurie’s titular TV character.
Straightforward and enjoyable, if you don’t mind pop culture references, that is. I for one don’t, and all the entries fell easily enough, even though I didn’t get the connection until hitting the revealer.
Speaking of pop culture, the fill stacks POKEMON CARD and MINIONS quite nicely. The other long highlight is GOOGLE GLASS. Are those things still around? Nothing much to balk at; smooth all around.
Clue of note: 46d. [Prime time]. HEY DAY. I enjoyed the rhyming nature of both clue and entry. I needed a lot of crosses to put it together though.
Good puzzle. And a debut, too! Congratulations to our newest constructor. 3.5 stars.
Brian Callahan & Geoffrey Schorkopf’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up
Los Angeles Times 2/6/26 by Brian Callahan & Geoffrey Schorkopf
Some really cool finds in this puzzle! The revealer, which goes through the three central entries in the grid at 35-, 36-, and 37-Across, is clued [With 36- and 37-Across, get by, or how to find a second answer to each starred clue], and the three words together are MAKE ENDS MEET. That’s because, if you take the circled squares at the ENDS of each theme answer and MAKE them MEET (i.e., remove all the letters in between), you get another answer that fits the clue:
- 17A [*Get one over on] is PULL A PRANK, with the circled letters leading to PUNK. This isn’t quite perfect, since PULL A PRANK is intransitive and the clue leads to a transitive verb (which PUNK is); I wonder whether there is a clue that could have worked equally well for both.
- 23A [*Action blockbuster with several sequels] is THE TERMINATOR, with the circled letters yielding THOR. Thanks to MCU’s eagerness to pump out as much money from any one superhero as possible, THOR already has “several” sequels despite THE TERMINATOR having a 27-year head start.
- 46A [*Antioxidant-rich treat] is DARK CHOCOLATE, with the circled letters yielding DATE.
- 56A [*Chin-wag] is CHEW THE FAT, with the circled letters yielding CHAT.
Anyway — this is a really neat trick that I suspect is the result of collecting examples over the course of months or years, and not something I personally have the patience for as a constructor but that I therefore really appreciate as a solver.
I also enjoyed the fight this puzzle put up, more so than most Saturdays do. The NW corner was especially sticky, with several answers that had plausible wrongs of the right length. And if you think 1A [Android, for one] is cluing PHONE and the crossing 2D [Weight] is HEFT rather than the correct ROBOT and ONUS, as I did for a while, you can really mess yourself up! On Friday that’s a feature, not a bug. (See also: 10A [Genesis name], which could just as easily be CAIN or ABEL or SETH as the correct ADAM.)
I also really enjoyed a lot of the cluing in this puzzle, especially for the long Downs: 11D [Student group that may encourage members to go pro?] is DEBATE TEAM and 27D [Part of a crack team?] is JOKE WRITER. Great stuff.
I usually avoid star ratings because I find them too reductive, but I’m gonna go ahead and say five stars because I had such a good time with this one.
NYT: Amy – re: examples of LIFESTYLE CREEP, I’ll cite massages (for my wife), snow removal service (for me), and flying vs. driving (for both of us).
PLOP ART? No clue.
More gaming references than I would like to see in a puzzle (which is to say that there is at least one gaming reference), but overall, a good Friday.
As far as examples of LIFESTYLE CREEP, some would also argue cell phones and the internet in general.
No clue about PLOP ART. Actually thought it was SLOP ART (which sounds better). But it didn’t fit.
My favorite plop art is our local sculpture of Quetzalcoatl in San Jose. Unlike much other maligned urban art, this one looks like a giant animal plopped it. Plop art always looks like it was thoughtlessly dropped in place, but great plop art mimics excrement.
ROTFL! How much did the artist have to pay the city to let him put that there?
I thought the NYT was so-so, for a number of reasons. I’m getting tired of seeing BOSSthis and BOSSthat in puzzles — ok, it’s new and (maybe) current, but it’s being overdone. At the other end of the scale, we have good old ETTA — who lives on in crosswords, at least. Is HARDHAT supposed to mean a person who wears a hard hat? As it happens, I watch a couple of YouTube masons (because I’m rehabbing an old house) and they never wear hard hats. Framers do, and maybe drywallers, but I think the majority of trades rarely feel the need.
It was mostly a good puzzle but had too many detractions for me to really like. Maybe I’m just grumpy this morning (not Mr Grumpy, however).
The notion of a BOSS BATTLE is over 50 years old and predates video games. I did encounter it when I played video games but that’s been a while.
Etta is great but first name in soul? First I consider Etta R&B. Yes she’s had some blues and jazz forays, even some soul. But she’s R&B. As for a first name in soul I’d have to say Ray or Aretha with Otis, Marvin, Sam, and Stevie earning honorable mentions
That’s interesting, thanks. I had no idea. Google says ‘boss battle’ originated with kung fu flicks, which were all the rage back in the day. I watched “Enter the Dragon,” because we all did, but that was about it.
I agree with your take on Etta. I was all set to put in Aretha when I saw the clue.
I think OSHA regulations require ANYONE on a major construction site to wear a hard hat up until the point in the project where there is little risk of injury from falling objects. The workers doing rough carpentry, rough plumbing, rough electrical would all be wearing hard hats. Masons, too – but I’m not sure why they would be singled out in the clue.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
Rafael had some interesting constructor notes about the trouble with 14-letter seeds and the problems they can cause the grid. This one did feel a bit less smooth than normal but there was still some good stuff.