Wednesday, February 18, 2026

AV Club 5:55 (Amy) [3.00 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
LAT 6:51 (Gareth) [2.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
NYT 4:15 (Amy) [2.03 avg; 15 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker 4:01 (Jim Q) [3.94 avg; 8 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (pannonica) [2.75 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today 9:09 (Emily) [2.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
WSJ 7:39 (Eric) [2.30 avg; 5 ratings] rate it

Andrea Carla Michaels & Kevin Christian’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Parting Shots” — Eric’s Review

Andrea Carla Michaels & Kevin Christian’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Parting Shots” — 2/18/26
(Click to Embiggen)

The theme is sort-of punny, sort-of straightforward. Phrases used on leaving (some dated slang, some still in use) are clued as “parting words” from a particular person, whose use of the phrase we’re to assume is particularly apt:

17A [Parting words from a herpetologist?] LATER GATOR I lost too much time trying to think of something with “snake” in it, forgetting that herpetology is the study of other reptiles, too.

• 26A [Parting words from a marathoner?] GOTTA RUN
• 28A [Parting word from a tennis champ?] GOODBYE I wasn’t aware that “bye” had any special meaning in tennis, and it doesn’t. Tennis, like many sports that have multiple-round tournaments, sometimes gives a “bye” – an automatic advancement to the next round — to a top-seeded player or team.
• 38A [Parting words from an optometrist?] I’LL SEE YOU AROUND
• 46A [Parting word from a cereal maker?] CHEERIO
• 49A [Parting words from an antiwar activist?] PEACE OUT
• 59A [Parting words from a Spanish teacher?] ADIOS AMIGO

Since there’s no real any wordplay here, I guess we’re supposed to be amused by the appropriateness of these people using these salutations. OK. Themes are hard to come up with, and this works well enough to hold the grid together.

Other stuff:

• 1A [Faux chocolate] CAROB A nice, honest clue for some stuff tha
• 

  Shako from the 6th company of the Royal guard of France, (1822-1830 ?)

  15A [Garr with a “Tootsie” role] TERI Cute.

• 21A [Military cap with a plume] SHAKO You might not recognize that word, but I’ll bet you’ve seen the hat.
• 30A [Luke’s buddy] HAN Solo, for the two people who have not seen Star Wars. (Confession: Nothing came to mind when I read the clue, so I moved on and the answer filled in automagically.)
• 32A [Niamey’s nation] NIGER That city didn’t sound familiar, but it’s the capital and largest city of Niger. My African geography could be a lot better.
• 54A [Sorkin who voiced the animated Harley Quinn] ARLEEN No idea here. She’s apparently no relation to either the producer-writer Aaron Sorkin or the journalist Adam Ross Sorkin, but she was married to Christopher Lloyd for almost 30 years.
• 1D [Latin jazz great Tjader] CAL Not someone who’s music I know.
• 5D [It’s used for tracking shots] BAR TAB I blame my undergrad degree in Radio-TV-Film for making it hard for me to see this one.
• 12D [“I adore crosswords/filling in the little squares/so satisfying,” e.g.” HAIKU I’m going to take the constructor’s word for it and not count the syllables.
• 36D [Twentieth of a ream of paper] QUIRE I knew that a ream is 500 sheets, but I don’t think I knew a quire is 25.

Leonard Williams’s AV Club Classic crossword, “Natural Cycle”–Amy’s recap

AV Club Classic Crossword solution, 2/18/26 – ‘Natural Cycle”

This 16×17 puzzle has a basic theme that entirely eluded me while I was solving, since the themers are clued straightforwardly and the answers don’t have any shaded letters. The revealer is OPEN SEASON, and the four seasons are “opened” in the middle to allow more letters. Winter expands to WINE TASTER, spring to SPRAY TANNING, summer to STEEL DRUMMER, and fall to FLY ON THE WALL. A fairly lively, if disparate, set of theme answers.

What I like best about the theme is the reminder that spring comes after winter. We’ve had some unusually warm February weather, which restores our hope that winter doesn’t last forever, even when there are three straight weeks of subfreezing weather. Sunset is creeping later by the day, and it’s a treat to have daylight at 5:30 pm instead of pitch dark.

Back to the puzzle; Fave fill: BIG WHEEL, THOREAU, POST-OP with a top surgery clue, GLOSSARY with a Clockwork Orange clue (I loved studying the glossary of Nadsat vocab alongside the novel; if you liked that too, I hope you’ve read Russell Hoban’s Riddley Walker), French soccer star Kylian MBAPPÉ, ARUGULA.

Three more things:

• 64a. [Canadian anti-tariff rallying cry], ELBOWS UP. Apparently, it’s a hockey term attributed to Gordie Howe. Put your elbows up to defend yourself when an aggressor is crowding you. This was entirely new to me.
• 1a. [Creators and tricksters, e.g.], GODS. Terrific clue.
• 34a. [“Mother of the Blues”], Ma RAINEY. Don’t come complaining to me if you didn’t know this name and you didn’t know the Tanzanian city DAR es Salaam that crosses it.

Four stars from me.

Victor Schmitt’s New York Times crossword–Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 2/18/26 – no. 0218

If you printed this puzzle out, I hope you peeked at the online version for the color pictures/emojis in the theme clues:

• SIGNS OF THE TIMES (feels weird to have that plural SIGNS) is clued with a wall clock, hourglass, and alarm clock emoji: 🕘⏳⏰.
• SYMBOLIC GESTURES is clued with three hand gesture emojis, the Hawaiian/surfer’s shaka, waving, and clapping: 🤙👏👋.
• FIGURES OF SPEECH is clued with three options for voice bubbles: 💬🗣️🗯️.

Interesting idea for evoking crossword answers, but I don’t know that I really enjoyed the theme.

Names, words in titles, initialisms, and other proper nouns: ARAM crossing ALDO and MOTHRA. AMES crossing AMORE crossing BERNARDO crossing RIO. SAMUS Aran of a video game I’ve never played (I know the name from Sporcle trivia quizzes). USDA, IRENE, EHOW, FICA, EFRON, TERRENCE, KESHA, PUR. That’s 16 right there, and the “please don’t quiz me on trivia I don’t know” solvers are scowling up a storm. Constructors, if your fill in a 15×15 exceeds a dozen propers, you’re gonna frustrate a lot of folks. At least there weren’t any Star Wars or Harry Potter names this time?

This one’s not a proper noun: 29D. [Demon of Japanese folklore], ONI. I know I’ve linked to this Wikipedia page before, and that helped me to remember that the last letter is an I this time. Looking up things that you didn’t know is educational, and it can improve your solving skills in the future. Take advantage of your curiosity and fill your head with additional stuff! “Trivia I don’t know” can stop stymieing you if you … make a point of learning new things. (I don’t think you should care about ALDO Gucci or Samus ARAM, necessarily …)

Fave fill: PETERED OUT, SCREENSHOT, SORCERERS, HUMDINGERS. Least favorite: 46D. [New workmates], HIREES. Have you ever in your life referred to a new colleague as a HIREE? Now, “new hire” is a familiar phrase, but not “hiree.” HIREE is a subpar entry and you might consider sharply downgrading it in your wordlists, constructors.

3.5 stars from me.

Erik Agard’s New Yorker crossword — Jim Q’s write-up

Another fantastic grid today, which is expected now. I really look forward to the Wednesday New Yorker solve!

New Yorker • 2/18/26 • Wed • Erik Agard • solution • 20260218

HIGHLIGHTS:

• [Words spoken before hanging up on a telemarketer] I’M NOT INTERESTED. There’s way more fun things to say than that! I like the see-how-long-you-can-keep-them-on-the-phone game on occasion. Or my favorite: Answer the phone during class and put the person on speaker. Let the high schoolers take care of it. They come up with some colorful things to say.
• [“This might sound like hyperbole . . .”] NOT TO EXAGGERATE…
• [Person who always thinks things will turn out well] ETERNAL OPTIMIST.
• [Singer of “I’m Every Woman” and “What Cha’ Gonna Do for Me”] CHAKA KHAN. Such a great name.
• [“___ the Science Kid” (PBS show with a rhyming title)] SID. I tried to squeeze Bill NYE in there for way too long.
• [Seasoning often added to caramel] SEA SALT. Yum.
• [Custard-and-caramel dessert] FLAN. Add some SEA SALT.
• [“Yes, ___!” (“You betcha!”)] INDEEDY. Cute.

Coulda done without UP A, but that’s the minor-est of all the nits.

4 stars.

Prasanna Keshava’s USA Today Crossword, “Wrong Turn” — Emily’s write-up

Intro

Theme: each themer contains “turn” scrambled

Themers:

• 23a. [Store fixture for sale items], DISCOUNTRACK
• 37a. [“Okay, I already know I messed up!”], DONTRUBITIN
• 48a. [Slow, celebratory trips around the bases], HOMERUNTROTS

Today’s themer set includes a wide range: DISCOUNTRACK, DONTRUBITIN, and HOMERUNTROTS. None were instafills but all were pretty easy and fairly crossed. Excellent theme!

Favorite fill: RAMEN, SAKECUP, and KATSU

Stumpers: OHYOU (needed crossings), CLEA (needed crossings–it’s been a while since I’ve seen the movie) and SHARPEI (also needed crossings)

An overall smooth solve, though a few of the cluings tripped me up and added to my time. Love the fresh fill and multi-world phrase entries. Lots of food and beverages, which I always enjoy too!

4.0 stars

~Emily

Craig Stowe’s LA Times Crossword – Gareth’s theme summary

Craig Stowe’s theme is rather narrowly defined, if somewhat arbitrary. Each of three long across answers end in a synonym for “instruction” and start with a word related to classical music. This is tied together with the phrase ITSIMPERATIVE, which explains the second part of the theme, but not where the conductor part of the theme comes from. So:

• [“Second oboe, play the right notes this time!”], WINDDIRECTION
• [“Sing your solo correctly, for once!”], VOICECOMMAND
• [“Perform the music as wrtten! No sharps or flats!”], NATURALORDER

There were several rather opaque entries today:

• [Online markerting strategy, for short], SEO is apparently search engine optimization…
• If you haven’t done crosswords for long, you won’t have seen [Sea eagle], ERNE as it’s an archaic term for a white-tailed eagle and you won’t see it on say eBird.
• [Backyard feature for a water-loving pup], DOGPOND. ???. When did that become a thing?
• [___ reflex: infant’s instinctive protective response], MORO. Although most of this is explained in the definition.

Gareth