BEQ 13:21 (Eric) 
[2.67 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
LAT 1:48 (Stella) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 4:19 (Sophia) [2.50 avg; 12 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker 5:41 (Amy) 
[4.00 avg; 7 ratings] rate it
Universal untimed (pannonica) 
[3.63 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (?) [2.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
WSJ tk (Jim Q) rate it
Ian Livengood’s New York Times crossword — Sophia’s recap
Theme: Each theme answer contains the word/letters ID, with different meanings each time
New York Times, 02 16 2026, By Ian Livengood
- 19a [Longtime comic strip set in a medieval kingdom] – THE WIZARD OF ID
- 36a [Capital of the Gem State, in a mailing address] – BOISE ID.
- 38a [Possible cybercrime, informally] – I.D. THEFT
- 54a [“Makes no difference to me”] – I’D GO EITHER WAY
This puzzle feels so complete in its parsing of the letters ID! Are there any other common ways these letters are used? While I was solving I was surprised that there wasn’t a revealer answer, but now that I’m doing and looking at the puzzle as a whole, I don’t think it needs it.
Overall, this puzzle played pretty hard for me. It started with me being unfamiliar with THE WIZARD OF ID, and continued with me thinking that Arkansas, not Idaho, was the gem state. Even getting the ID gimmick didn’t help me much on I’D GO EITHER WAY, since there could have been a lot of phrases that fit there. I also struggled with the bottom middle section, particularly IN-CROWDS/ANTIGUA/DRUM clued as [Conga, for one] (I was stuck on dance). Never thought I’d say this, but thank goodness for Wyatt EARP bailing me out of that section.
Favorite clues: [M.I.T. Mystery ___ (annual puzzle competition)] for HUNT – I’ve never done this, but I’m sure many of the participants are crossword fans who will appreciate the shout-out. [Art supporter] for EASEL – I loved the subtle misdirect in the clue, my first thought was “patron” or “comissioner”
Fill highlights: PEDIGREE, TRADE GAP, DODO BIRDS, FINE WINES
Tricky spots: LILLE, the ADLER Planetarium (new to me!), and I had “scat” instead of VAMP for [Improvise, in jazz] for a while.
Betsy Ochester & Andrew Gutelle’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up
Los Angeles Times 2/16/26 by Betsy Ochester & Andrew Gutelle
There’s only the briefest of revealers in this puzzle — 65A [Ceremony host, or a phonetic hint to 17-, 23-, 37-, 45-, and 58-Across] is EMCEE, because each theme entry is a two-word phrase with initials M.C.:
- 17A [Communication system with dots and dashes] is MORSE CODE.
- 23A [“Aladdin” transport] is MAGIC CARPET.
- 37A [Early-week newspaper feature] is MONDAY CROSSWORD.
- 45A [Actor who plays Allan in “Barbie”] is MICHAEL CERA.
- 58A [Nickname for Detroit] is MOTOR CITY.
Very straightforward theme that’s elevated by the amount of thematic material (55 thematic letters, not counting the revealer!), the liveliness of the theme answers, and especially the fun meta-ness of having the answer MONDAY CROSSWORD in a Monday crossword.
The fill is mostly Monday-appropriate, although it contains one pet peeve of mine (SO DO I, because there are so many other five-letter entries that can almost always go with the same clue: AS AM I, AS DO I, SO AM I, ME TOO, DITTO) and also RAIL AT, which very much wants to be YELL AT with a clue like [Berate].
I enjoyed the angle [NYC subway between Inwood and Far Rockaway] for A TRAIN instead of the more expected reference to the jazz song, and the ARNO river, on the banks of which my husband asked me to marry him several many years ago.
David Rockow’s Universal crossword, “Just Keep Swimming!” — pannonica’s write-up
Universal • 2/16/26 • Mon • “Just Keep Swimming!” • Rockow • solution • 20260216
Unusual top-bottom mirror symmetry featured in this grid, which helps to accommodate the pattern comprising the backbone of the theme.
- 58aR [Structure alongside a dam … and what can be found in the middle of this puzzle] FISH LADDER.
18a. [Journeys that might be aided by a 58-Across] MIGRATIONS. - 27a. [Outgoing] GREGARIOUS (gar).
- 36a. [Coastal Brazilian state whose letters complete “––ngkok, T–a–l–nd”] BAHIA (ahi). I am once again calling for a categorical moratorium on this style of clue. They’re tedious and ugly and satisfy practically no one.
- 44a. [Donna Summer and Diana Ross, for two] DISCO DIVAS (cod).
So as far as I can tell, aside from the revealer and its companion clue, there are just three three-letter theme elements in the puzzle. Seems light. It’s irrelevant to the mechanics of the theme, but none of those fish varieties require fish ladders, as they’re all exclusively saltwater species.
*see addendum in below section
- 1d [Throw with effort] HEAVE. Some fish ladders employ a “fish cannon”.
- 3d [ __ Nemo (most remote place on Earth)] POINT Nemo.
- 6d [ABC anchor David] MUIR. Seems like a missed opportunity to reference John MUIR or MUIR Woods, in keeping with the environmentally conscious theme.
- 9d [Org. that doesn’t allow bowling pins in your carry-on luggage] TSA. This seems like a very random example, unless I’m missing some notable bit of cultural lore.
- 21d [Mistakes a molly for a guppy, e.g.] ERRS. Not part of the theme.
- 25d. [“Chilean” catch] SEA BASS, aka Patagonian toothfish. 4d [On fire, in Spanish] EN FUEGO. Oh wait, I now see that this entry and 26d [Haddock alternative, in some tacos] TILAPIA are also part of the theme, creating the ‘legs’ of the ladder. Theme redeemed.
- 47d [Disney princess who grew up in Atlantica] ARIEL. Not part of the theme.
- 58d [Shark appendage] FIN. Also not part of the theme.
- 10a [Goalie’s feat] SAVE. Folks, the SAVE Act working its way through Congress is very dangerous and is intended to disenfranchise millions of legal voters.
- 14a [College near Duke] ELON. Enjoying how the other thing with this name (as well as his signature company) has gotten the collective cold shoulder from crossword cluing of late.
- 22a [Caviar] ROE. Also not part of the theme, but since there are a lot of these NPOTT entries I’m wondering if it’s supposed to be bonus content.
- 37a [Hiker’s aid] MAP.
- 61a [Signed] INKED. Mildly surprised to not see another tattooing clue.
- 63a [Lobster __ (popular New England dish] ROLL. Clue misspells Lobstah.
- 64a [Fits together snugly] NESTS. Some fish make bubble nests. 48a [Beach ball filler] AIR.
Kate Chin Park’s New Yorker crossword–Amy’s recap
New Yorker crossword solution, 2/16/26 – Kate Chin Park
As last week with Mollie Cowger, we’ve got Kate Chin Park with the Monday themeless this week. Nice to see the late-week mini/midi constructors getting a crack at the themeless slots. This one’s easier than I was hoping/expecting, though.
Fave fill: TONE-POLICE (that’s telling people they should be polite when they’re fighting for their rights), FORTUNE COOKIE, LAURELS, CODE NAME, SPACE WASTE, TECH SECTOR, AFTERCARE, PROTEST VOTE, CLEARASIL. Not so keen on fill like ON LATE, END AT.
Three more things:
- 19a. [Jimi Hendrix was known to set foot on it], WAH PEDAL. I didn’t really know what that was so I looked it up after solving. Here’s the Wiki.
- 39a. [Movie for which Michelle Yeoh won a 2023 Oscar, to fans], EEAAO. Everything Everywhere All at Once.
- 54a. [Special-ed aide], PARA. Short for paraprofessional, working alongside the professional teacher.
Four stars from me.
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1862 — Eric’s Review
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1862 — 2/16/26 (Click to Embiggen)
This struck me as a little easier than some of Brendan’s recent themeless offerings. Maybe there were just fewer names that I didn’t know (though there were definitely some of those).
Stuff that caught my eye:
- 1A [Psoriasis drug] SKYRIZI I’m thankful that I’m not familiar with that one.
- 17A [Juvenus FC coach Spalletti] LUCIANO I know that Juventus is a perennial powerhouse in the Italian league Serie A, but that’s really all I know. (I thought they were from Rome, not Turin.)
-
Image via the Evolution of Architecture
[Ambulatory neighbor] APSE It took a bit for this to click.
- 32A [Galilee’s province] JUDAEA I lost a bit of time here because I’m more used to seeing it spelled JUDEA.
- 35A [Phrase that amplifies the absurdity of the previous statement] SAID NO ONE EVER I first encountered that phrase on a bumper sticker on a Prius (“‘Nice Prius,’ . . . .”). I’ve always been amused by it.
- 38A [Dinaric Alps nation] BOSNIA I didn’t recognize the mountain range, and until I stumbled onto the correct answer, every possibility was a little too long for the space (MOLDOVA, MORAVIA . . . Sometimes my geography is not as good as I’d like to think it is.)
- 44A [Does some character study?] READS Cute clue.
- 60A [One that chews the scenery?] TERMITE Another cute clue. Are termites really a problem in a theater?
- 62A [Adult content creator, briefly] OF MODEL Presumably as in the website Only Fans.
- 5D [It gains value over time] IRA Well, one hopes that it gains value.
- 7D [Mozart opera that takes place in Crete] IDOMENEO A gimme, as the full title is Idomeneo, re di Creta ossia Ilia e Idamante (Idomeneus, King of Crete, or, Ilia and Idamante). But I perpetually have trouble with the spelling and today was no exception.
- 9D [With 31-Across, classic mic check] ONE/31A [See 9-Down] TWO Well, you knew these weren’t TAP TAP.
- 11D [“Four-Letter Words and Other Secrets of a Crossword Insider” author Michelle] ARNOT Neither the title nor the author sound at all familiar.
- 13D [First military conflict between the British empire and the Qing dynasty] OPIUM WAR I made a lucky semi-educated guess here.
- 26D [Progress by intelligent design] TELESIS That’s a new concept for me. I’m not crazy about the clueing, which evokes creationism to me.
- 37D [“Baby Reindeer” actress Gunning] JESSICA Another name that doesn’t seem familiar, though I have heard of that series.
i.e. ID EST
HOMONID
“I’D GO EITHER WAY” is pretty awkward. Not my favorite
NYT was OK, but I was expecting more of the theme than having ID in four different places. And some of the cluing seemed awkward for a Monday. RUSTS as a plural noun is iffy, especially when it can easily work as a verb. POLLS as ‘voting places’? Not as I use the word – and again, it’s so easy to clue POLLS in a more obvious way.
Some time ago I questioned DODOBIRD as a name for the creature, when DODO works just fine, and one response was that it distinguishes the bird from the epithet. Except now it’s being clued as the epithet, not the bird. Weird.
Voting centers have been called polling stations for a long time. Poll comes from Middle Low German for head, so a poll is basically a head count.
I agree on RUSTS – there wasn’t any particular wordplay or misdirection here, so why not go with a verb?
I was fine with POLLS – “Voters are going to the polls today to determine the makeup of the next Congress.” That works for me.
To me, ‘going to the polls’ means voting, in a general sense. It doesn’t mean that ‘poll’ is a synonym for ‘polling station’.
Seems pretty straightforward to me. This is from The American Heritage Dictionary online:
“3. polls
a. The places where votes are cast and registered during an election, considered as a group: The polls close in this state at 8:00.
b. A place where votes are cast and registered: I went to the polls before work to cast a vote.”
I don’t care for those uses of poll, and wouldn’t use them in that way. Therefore they are wrong.
Well, that settles it – I concede! 🙂
re RUSTS: or colors
TNY: Definitely “challenging” for me – mostly due to the NW corner. No idea on RONAN – movies/actors are not my strong suit. Went with UP TIL before UNTIL (bad on me). TRINI, before PROTEST VOTE convinced me otherwise – but I’ve never heard of TAINO. Didn’t especially care for TONE POLICE – think I’ve heard of TONE POLICING before, but as a verb phrase, this didn’t seem very much in the language to me.
I would have thought that Hendrix used a WAH WAH PEDAL, not a WAH PEDAL. Once again, not being a movie guy, EEAAO seemed like a big ask.
Liked the clues for ANALOGIES, FORTUNE COOKIE, CODE NAME and SPACE WASTE.
I didn’t know or care much for any of that either, or RONAN and TITO, so this was definitely challenging. Come to think of it PARA as short for what I knew wasn’t for me either. I do see in Wiki that just WAH PEDAL is an alternative. I sure knew the longer form.
NYT: Curious if any jazz musicians (or otherwise) use the words “vamp” and “improvise” synonymously. I see it clued this way frequently, yet I would never use those two words to mean the same thing, even if I am mildly improvising whilst vamping.
en accord!
I’m curious too. I hear VAMP used mostly in comedy settings to fill time for a bit…
It’s definitely used in music, but means kinda the same thing. It’s used frequently (in my experience) for pit musicians accompanying a musical. We “vamp” and play the same measure(s) ad nauseam until we are ready to move on.
In jazz, we “vamp” typically when we’re waiting for someone else’s improvised solo to end… which is why I definitely wouldn’t use those two words to mean the same thing. Not only that, but the word I use is “comping.”
Yeah, I think of VAMP as more stalling than improvising. I hesitated to enter that one.
As a musical term, “vamp” is found more in theater scores than jazz. It’s a sequence that’s, yes, written out, and played for as long as needed until the actors are ready to resume the scene. Typically used when something is being rearranged on stage, or some action is moving from offstage to onstage, it fills in as needed.
So while the music not improvised, the duration is. The director signals when the vamp is over and you move on the the next musical number. Because of this indeterminate duration, another sense of “vamp,” “improvise,” has appeared.
I’m not sure if I’d think of a duration of time in a score as “improvised,” even if it’s not a set amount of time. Vamps in theater scores are still planned- often meticulously so in my experience. I see your point though.
The clue specifically refers to jazz though- I’ve seen VAMP clued with respect to jazz improvisation more than a few times. I’ve just never used- nor considered- those terms as a substitutes for one another in any context.
Yeah, I’m fine with vamp = improvise (per M-W) but would prefer a clue not using jazz. Didn’t mean to imply otherwise.
Agreed. Not a very good clue as a meaning for “improvise.” I tried SCAT first.
Puzzle: The New Yorker; Rating: 3.5 stars
I’ve never heard of a wah pedal. Wah-wha pedal? Sure.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2 stars
Using a postal abbreviation as a themer right away seems like a strong hint that it isn’t a good theme.
Puzzle: BEQ; Rating: 3 stars
BEQ: having a random drug, a random coach, AND a random province all cross a random opera (none of which I’d ever heard of) made for a pretty rough NW.
SKYRIZI wasn’t too hard (of course, I’m an old fart and still watch broadcast TV, where drug ads are a constant), but I was uncertain of the spelling. I think I’ve only seen the province spelled JUDEA, so that slowed things down. IDOMENEO was a complete mystery.
Liked SAID NO ONE EVER. Not so sure about NODDED TO – do you “nod” to music?
Nodded *along* to??
Well, I’ve definitely nodded *off* to music a few times. 😴
WSJ is off for Presidents’ Day.
NYT: Constructors, please remove the words OGLE and OGLED from your word lists. Yes, they are legitimate words. But they will never be pleasant to encounter in a crossword puzzle in any context.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3.5 stars
ID GO EITHER WAY *is* the revealer. ID can go either at the beginning of an answer, or the end of an answer — in other words, either way.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3 stars
The theme is meh but so are many other NYT puzzles.
The biggest problem is the clueing. Some are plain inaccurate and some go into the wrong angle (e.g. RUSTS should be clued as a verb.)