Tuesday, February 10, 2026

Jonesin’ 5:11 (Erin) [4.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
LAT tk (Jenni) [2.25 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 6:04 (Eric) [3.11 avg; 9 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker untimed (pannonica) [3.40 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
Universal 6:19 (Eric) [3.63 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Sophia) [2.75 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Xword Nation tk (Ade) rate it
WSJ untimed (Jim Q) [3.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it

Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Born and Bread” — going with the grain. – Erin’s write-up

Jonesin’ solution 2/10/26

Hello lovelies! I think you’ll eat this week’s Jonesin’ grid right up, considering there’s a bread theme.

• 17a. [Stranded, in a baseball game] LEFT ON BASE (LEFSE)
• 30a. [Site of the 1998 Winter Olympics] NAGANO JAPAN (NAAN)
• 40a. [Bar soap alternative, maybe] BATH GEL (BAGEL)
• 47a. [One of 32 works by Beethoven] PIANO SONATA (PITA)
• 65a. [Sign near crossing guards] SCHOOL ZONE (SCONE)

Other things:

• 22d. [“Star Trek” actress Barrett married to Gene Roddenberry] MAJEL. Off the top of my head, she played Nurse Chapel in the original series, Deanna Troi’s mother Lwaxana in Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, and was the voice of the freaking computer from the beginning until long after Roddenberry’s death. But yes, she married the show’s creator.

Until next week!

Seb Swann and Jeff Chen’s Universal Crossword “Delayed Gratification” — Eric’s Review

Seb Swann and Jeff Chen’s Universal Crossword “Delayed Gratification” — 2/10/26 (Click to Embiggen)

Some big names from the world of designer clothing and accessories get split up, filling in the ever-popular circles:

• 17A [*They’re served at bar mitzvahs] KOSHER MÈALS
• 23A [*Hit rock bottom] REACH A NEW LOW
• 37A [Intentionally tardy … and a hint to this puzzle’s theme] FASHIONABLY LATE
• 50A [*Jimi Hendrix played one] FENDER GUITAR
• 61A [*iPod, e.g.] AUDIO PLAYER

The pricey designer lines didn’t help me in solving the puzzle, but this kind of theme rarely helps much in that manner. I like that the “late” part of each fashion name is a single letter. I’m not surprised that there’s little consistency regarding the number of intervening letters. And I appreciate that the theme answers are themselves mostly interesting.

Other stuff:

• 11A [Org. that regulates “forever chemicals”] EPA Is there really any federal agency regulating anything anymore?
• 27A [“Material Girl” singer] MADONNA That’s one of the few songs of hers that I remember clearly from the days when MTV played music videos.
• 11D [Online thread] EMAIL TRAIL I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone refer to a series of email as a “trail.” To me, “trail” connotes a series of incriminating emails.

Sarah Sinclair and Amie Walker’s New York Times Crossword — Eric’s Review

Sarah Sinclair and Amie Walker’s New York Times Crossword — 2/10/26 (Click to Embiggen)

A variety of people (using the term loosely) who might use the revealer phrase are gathered together:

• 17A [Certain casino regular] POKER PLAYER
• 25A [Psychic who examines lifelines and heart lines] PALM READER
• 37A [“Toy Story 2” character who says “I’m packing you an extra pair of shoes, and your angry eyes, just in case”] MRS. POTATO HEAD
• 50A [Device measuring audience approval] CLAP-O-METER I’ve only heard such a device referred to as an “applause meter.”
• 59A [“I could use some help here” … or a hint to 17-, 25-, 37- and 50-Across] GIVE ME A HAND

I like that the theme answers incorporate two literal hands and two figurative ones.

Other stuff:

• 21A [First Oscar winner to be born in the 21st century (for Best Original Song)] Billie EILISH I didn’t know (or maybe just didn’t remember) this factoid; Ms Eilish won for her song “No Time to Die” from the 2021 James Bond movie of that name. She won a second Oscar for “What Was I Made For?” from the 2023 movie Barbie.
• 54A [Denisovich or Ilyich of Russian literature] IVAN I read Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich in high school English and remember little beyond its being set in a Soviet gulag. The Death of Ivan Ilyich is a novella by Tolstoy that I’m not familiar with.
• 48D [Birkin bag maker] HERMÈS By coincidence, that luxury brand was part of a theme answer in today’s Universal puzzle.

Wyna Liu’s New Yorker crossword — pannonica’s write-up

New Yorker • 2/10/26 • Tue • Liu • solution • 20260210

I’ll say that this week’s offering pretty much hit the mark for ‘moderately challenging’. For much of the solve I found myself working the grid in the weaving fashion that I associate with such crosswords. This technique falls between the trying-to-fill-in-as-fast-as-I-can-read style of too-easy puzzles and the pulling-teeth-and-making-tentative-guesses of more difficult ones.

I know also that my assessment is influenced by the experience of tackling the ‘first’ corner in the top left, where it took some doing to let go of MECCA at 1d [Most sacred site in Islam] and to eventually make visible KEMPT for 1a [Tidy]. (The former is KAABA.)

• 6a [“The Zone of Interest” author Martin] AMIS. Still need to see the Jonathan Glaser movie. I have a feeling that it’s even more powerful a statement now.
• 18a [Junk-drawer contents] BRIC-À-BRAC. As you might imagine, it’s a borrowing from French, where the words are “are expressive onomatopoeias of obscure origin”. So, not much insight there.
• 21a [Disbelievers] ATHEISTS. Some might quibble with the use of disbelieve but it seems apt enough. The key is to make it understood that atheism is not in opposition to theism but holds itself outside the equation altogether.
• 23a [Some attachments, casually] DOCS. Those would be Microsoft Word documents.
• 28a [Maker of the most-produced aircraft of all time] CESSNA. See, I would have thought it was one of the makers of commercial airliners like Boeing or Airbus.
• 31a [Sound accompanied by chatter?] BRR. Chattering teeth. 46a [Dog’s “I don’t like that!”] GRR.
• 34a [Tweeter or woofer, e.g.] SPEAKER. The majority of speakers are composite speakers containing both woofers and tweeters; many will have midrange driver too. Subwoofers tend to be separate units.
• 41a [Puerto Rican string instruments similar to the Cuban tres] CUATRO. No idea if one appeared in Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime performance, which I understand was quite the amazing production.
• 43a [Animal with a distinctive pouch] PELICAN. A very deliberate misdirection.
• 47a [Sticky treat, in two senses?] POPSICLE, because it’s frozen on a stick, so it’s ‘stick-y’.
• 51a [Conditions well suited to layering] SWEATER WEATHER.
  
• 56a [Back home, to a Yank] STATESIDE. When I was young, I somehow came across the 1950s novelty oldie “Stranded in the Jungle” by the Cadets and I really liked it. Nowadays its racism is clear to see, but dammit it’s still a fun song despite being problematic. GRR.
  
• 57a [Subject of a Rockefeller Center statue] ATLAS. You know it, very iconic. Apparently it was used in many establishing shots for the sitcom 30 Rock (which I’ve never seen) and, less savory, it’s been adopted by Ayn Rand acolytes as a symbol of her Objectivist so-called philosophy.
• 4d [Sneaker line launched to compete with Chuck Taylors] PRO-KEDS. Didn’t know that but it makes sense.
• 9d [Something passed down in the family, perhaps] SECRET RECIPE. Weak misdirection, but great entry, along with its symmetrical partner 20d [Breakout star?] ESCAPE ARTIST. In fact all four of the grid’s long entries are excellent.
• 13d [Government grp. that advises the President on foreign policy] NSC. I feel like the more correct answer is FSB.
• 27d [Muppet with an orange nose] ELMO. Seems like we’re really running dry on Muppet ELMO clues.
  
• 30d [Stuff in a pot] SOIL. Kind of a weird clue, right?
• 39d [Breaks down] DIGESTS. 40d [Rile up] AGITATE.
• 47d [Miu Miu founder Miuccia] PRADA. In 1992.
• 51d [Annual Presidential address, for short] SOTU, State of the Union.

Adrian Johnson’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Face the Music” — Jim Q’s write-up

THEME: Common phrases where the second part of the phrase is a building block to song creation

WSJ • 2/10/26 • Tue • “Face the Music” • Adrian Johnson • solution • 20260210

THEME ANSWERS:

• MENTAL NOTE
• TAPE MEASURE
• SPIDER VERSE
• BRENDA SONG

Apologies for the late write-up. You never know what’s going to happen in the course of a day of high school that throws off the schedule completely. I guess that makes the job exciting?

Anyway, I’ll be brief. Monday theme vibes today- basic and cut-and-dry. NOTEs make up MEASUREs which in turn can lead to a VERSE and eventually a SONG. Guess there’s no BRIDGE. I feel like the theme sorta pivoted in the middle when I realized it was a song with lyrics that it was referring to. In that sense, I think WORD, LYRIC, VERSE, SONG might be tighter. But this works too.

BRENDA SONG was new to me.

I think I would’ve enjoyed this puzzle a bit more with snappier fill, especially those longer pillars. NEW PARENT, TOWELETTE, THE STRAND… felt kinda bland. I’M ALIVE was fun!

3 stars from me.