Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Jonesin’ 4:13 (Erin) [3.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
LAT untimed (Jenni) [3.00 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
NYT 5:35 (Eric) [3.05 avg; 10 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker untimed (pannonica) [3.50 avg; 8 ratings] rate it
Universal 6:49 (Eric) [3.25 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Sophia) [2.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
Xword Nation tk (Ade) rate it
WSJ 4:16 (Jim Q) rate it

Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Letters Across the Atlantic” — just the last one. – Erin’s write-up

Jonesin’ solution 2/17/26

Hello lovelies! This week’s puzzle celebrates the difference between the letter Z in American English (“zee”) and British English (“zed”) by substituting ED for EE in some three-letter words.

• 1a. [70-Across’s U.S. equivalent] ZEE
• 70a. [1-Across’s U.K. equivalent (and inspiration for this puzzle)] ZED
• 16a. [Where words are formed letter by letter in dreams?] SPELLING BED (spelling bee)
• 63a. [Menswear delivery for Danson or Lange?] SUITS TO A TED  (suits to a tee)
• 10d. [Hide-and-seek players being provided snacks?] FINDERS FED (finder’s fee)
• 28d. [Romance author Monaghan took over?] ANNABEL LED (Annabel Lee)

Oter things:

• 7d. [Bender, for example] ROBOT. Bender is one of the main characters in the show “Futurama.”
• 40d. [Smørrebrød bread] RYE. It’s a Danish open-face sandwich on a slice of dense rye bread, and there are rules on both how to layer it and how to eat it.

Until next week!

Jeffrey Martinovic’s Universal Crossword “DuoLingo” — Eric’s Review

Jeffrey Martinovic’s Universal Crosword “DuoLingo” — 2/17/26 (Click to Embiggen)

Common phrases that contain doubled letters get punny clues regarding those letters:

• 16A [The s’s in “association”?] BODY DOUBLE
• 24A [The f’s in “huffs”?] PAIR OF PANTS This is my favorite of the theme answers because the “short quick breaths” in the answer are so far removed from the article of clothing.
• 39A [The f’s in “offense”?] PARTNERS IN CRIME
• 49A [The t’s in “wattage”?] POWER COUPLE
• 62A [The e’s in “breed”?] TWO OF A KIND

I don’t remember how far into the puzzle I was when I fully grasped the theme. I was well-enough amused by the punny clues and enjoyed the theme. It’s a nice break from themes relying on circled letters.

Other stuff:

• 9A [Sandwiches with two spreads, briefly] PBJS It’s been too long since I’ve had a nice, tasty peanut butter and jelly sandwich, because nothing came to mind until I had a cross or two.
• 19A [Genre for some bands signed to Drive-Thru Records] EMO I didn’t recognize that record label; from the list of artists in the label’s Wikipedia page, I recognized only New Found Glory, which to me is more pop-punk than emo.
• 28A [Digital art piece: Abbr.] NFT For “non-fungible token.” I didn’t see that clue while solving, but if I had, I likely wouldn’t have remembered the initialism. NFTs are one of those things like cryptocurrency that I know exist but don’t really care to understand how they work.
• 61A [Koi, for one] CARP I held off on that because FISH would have worked, too.
• 3D [Triage pros] ER DOCTORS/27D [Defib experts] EMTS I’ve had my share of experiences with both types of medical professionals. Kudos to them for taking on such stressful jobs.
• 36D [Goal for a carnival game player] WIN A PRIZE Like maybe a can of nice green paint?
• 41D [Political movement of the ’60s-’70s] NEW LEFT Not NEW DEAL, which of course goes back to Franklin D. Roosevelt. (I must’ve conflated it with John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier.)
• 50D [Catherine of “Home Alone”] O’HARA I think of After Hours, SCTV and Schitt’s Creek when I think of Ms O’Hara, but I know that for many people younger than me, her role as Kevin’s mom is iconic.

Stephan Prock and Jeff Chen’s New York Times Crossword — Eric’s Review

Stephan Prock and Jeff Chen’s New York Times Crossword — 2/17/26 (Click to Embiggen)

For once, I saw what sort of things the circled letters spelled. And because I listen to a fair amount of classical music, filling in the circles first on the last few theme answers might have saved me a few seconds:

• 17A [White rodent often used in lab research] ALBINO RAT/19A [Hunter in the night sky] ORION Oratorio
• 24A [Complete fiasco] SNAFU/26A [“I suppose that’s right”] GUESS SO Fugue
• 39A [Music genre for the words hidden in this puzzle’s circled letters … or a punny description for them?] BAROQUE The “baroque”/”broke” pun probably goes way back.
• 52A [Someone’s public identity] PERSONA/55A [Workout inspired by martial arts] TAE BO Sonata
• 61A [“The Addams Family” butler] LURCH/63A [Spoken evaluations] ORAL EXAMS Chorale

If you know the musical forms, the “hidden” words might help you get whatever else you wouldn’t have gotten from the clue. LURCH and TAE BO seem like the theme answers most likely to cause difficulty.

Other stuff:

• 15A [“L’Orfeo” or “Idomeneo”] OPERA Monteverdi’s opera telling the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice is Late Renaissance/Baroque; Mozart’s Idomeneo, King of Crete, is from the Classical period.
• 28A [Some fancy finger painting] NAIL ART Cute clue.
• 32A [Film performers’ union, for short] SAG Technically, it’s SAG-AFTRA. The Screen Actors’ Guild and the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists merged in 2012.
• 18D [Boot out of Europe?] ITALY Cute clue. Maybe too cute.
• 35D [Tough-but-loving fathers, informally] PAPA BEARS I didn’t know that term. “Bear” has a somewhat different meaning among the gay male community.
• 52D [Physicist Wolfgang who proposed the “exclusion principle”] PAULI I don’t recognize the name or that bit of quantum mechanics (for which Pauli won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1945).

Katherine Simonson’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Jenni’s write-up

I have been solving a lot of cryptics lately, so when I got to the revealer I tried to make this much more complicated than it was. I’ll explain.

Los Angeles Times, February 17, 2026, Katherine Simonson, solution grid

The theme clues:

• 18a [*Celebration of Mexico’s victory in the Battle of Puebla] is CINCO DE MAYO.
• 24a [*Only woman to serve as prime minister of India] is INDIRA GANDHI.
• 39a [*Evaluates] is SIZES UP.
• 52a [*Punxsatawney Phil’s big moment] is GROUNDHOG DAY.

And the revealer: 61a [“So glad you’ve returned!,” or a feature of the answer to each starred clue?] is WELCOME BACK. Since I was apparently in cryptic mode, I started looking for words of greeting spelled backwards. This is a Tuesday LAT, though, so there are words of greeting at the back of each answer: YO, HI, ‘SUP, and G’DAY. I like the variety and colloqualism (is that a word?) of that list!

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that the airport in DELHI is named after INDIRA GANDHI.

Aimee Lucido’s New Yorker crossword — pannonica’s write-up

New Yorker • 2/17/26 • Tue • Lucido • solution • 20260217

Maaaybe I’d peg this one as moderately challenging, as advertised? There were some answers I didn’t really know, and some mildly tricky clue/answer pairs. On the other hand, it didn’t take too long to solve it, so I dunno.

• 15a [“Well, that was rude!”] EXCUSE YOU. The inversion is quite pointed.
• 17a [Totes absurd] RIDIC. Totally, ridiculous.
• 18a [More than just a baby wipe?] DEEP CLEAN. I’m feeling that the clue takes the wordplay too far here.
• 22a [Enjoys a bully stick, say] CHEWS. Apparently this is a product for dogs. However, when I searched Wikipedia, this is the page that was returned.
• 24a [“One __” (manga series)] PIECE. Unknown to me.
• 25a [Noodle shape whose name comes from the Italian for “pierced”] BUCATINI. One of my favorites.
• 29a [Full of passion] FIERY. 24d [Devoutness] PIETY.
• 33a [Keeper of the keys?] VALET. Kinda cute.
• 36a [Twelve-ounce Starbucks orders] TALLS. These I believe are mediums.
• 43a [Practice for so-called energy healers] REIKI. Appropriate skepticism.
• 48a [“¡Muy bien!”] MAGNÍFICO. 48d [“¡Dios __!”] MIO. 41a [Frequent greeting on “Dora the Explorer”] HOLA. Quite a bit of Spanish in that lower left corner.
• 53a [Stench] ODOR. /My standard plaint/
• 3d [It may involve time machines, shrink rays, teleportation, and the like] MAD SCIENCE. Sure, mad scientists are a thing in fiction and popular culture, but can that notion be grammatically extended in this way?
• 4d [Odysseus or King Arthur, e.g.] EPIC HERO, but now I’m thinking of an epichero, perhaps akin to a caballero?
  
• 9d [Compilation of video clips] SUPERCUT. Definitely a thing.
• 12d [Water repellent?] MOAT. Nice, took me a few beats to see it.
• 26d [Wilhelm __ (much used stock sound effect)] SCREAM. It’s long since passed from a cinematic inside joke to general knowledge, I think.
• 26d [Winter Olympics event in which competitors perform twizzles and lifts] ICE DANCING. Timely.
• 27d [“Five stars, no __”] NOTES. This is a meme-y phrase. Also can serve as a punny review of John Cage’s 4′33″.
• 33d [Person who’s at home on the road] VAN LIFER, not VAGABOND.
  
• 36d [Adopted] TOOK IN. A few possibilities for the preposition there, so crosses were needed.
• 42d [Real jerk, for short] A-HOLE. Ah, but ahole turns out to be a conjugated form of ‘to drag’ or ‘to lead’ in Zulu.
• 46d [On an ocean voyage] ASEA.
  

Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Supply Chain” — Jim Q’s write-up

THEME: Word ladder

WSJ • 2/17/26 • Tues • “Supply Chain” • Mike Shenk • solution • 20260217

THEME ANSWERS:

• STOCKYARD
• YARDARM
• ARMBAND
• BANDBOX
• BOXWOOD
• WOODSTOCK

It’s a “supply chain,” I suppose, because it starts and ends with STOCK. I’m not entirely sure whether or not the rest of the words have anything really to do with it… it would be a tall order to ask that every component of a word ladder puzzle have an extra thematic layer and relate to the word “supply.”

Anyway, this is not my favorite theme type… but you know what? It’s been a long time since I’ve solved a word ladder, which I feel used to be much more common back in the day. I don’t miss seeing them as frequently, but a little throwback now and again ain’t gonna hurt.

Some solid clues like [Camp uniform?] DRAG (I had DRAB initially, as I think of Army DRAB colors at a base camp… so that one got me good), [You can part with them] COMBS, and [Makes a blanket?] for SNOWS.

I’m befuddled as to how AN AX gets a pass [Have ___ to grind]. Partials are gonna partial, but this one. Wowza, that’s ugly. Minimally, I want to throw an E at the end of AX. But I’d elect to oust it from the word list.

NE corner was tough with ONEIDA/OSAKA right next to one another. [Crowbar, essentially] was initially PRYER for me instead of the correct LEVER, and that made [Motel amenities] SOAPS for me instead of the correct POOLS. So that was a hot mess that I made.

2.75 stars from me.