LAT 4:50 (Stella) 
[3.79 avg; 7 ratings] rate it
Newsday 14:37 (Amy) [3.80 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
NYT 8:12 (Amy) [4.03 avg; 18 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (Matthew) 
[3.33 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Matthew) 
[2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
WSJ untimed (Eric) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Vinyl Exam” — Eric’s Review
Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Vinyl Exam” — 2/21/26 (Click to Embiggen)
With a title like “Vinyl Exam,” is there any way a crossword puzzle won’t have a pun theme? No. I had guessed the puns would be education-related, but instead, they all involve the substitution of V for F (plus spelling changes as necessary):
- 23A [Person who prefers sharing fellowship from across the room?] COMMUNION WAVER Communion wafer “Waver” as in “a person who waves.” That alone is enough to make me dislike this answer.
- 32A [Knowledgeable bunch of students?] VERSED CLASS First class
- 50A [Like a giantess at her wedding?] TOO BIG TO VEIL Too big to fail This is my favorite, for some reason.
- 65A [Groups of gymnasts waiting for their turns?] VAULT LINES Fault lines
- 68A [GE’s double-oven model, to KitchenAid’s?] RIVAL RANGE Rifle range Definitely the weakest of the bunch.
- 82A [Drinking spree by a salesman?] VENDOR BENDER Fender bender
- 95A [Group of directors at Acme Digging Tools, Inc.?] SHOVEL BOARD Shuffle board OK, this is almost as bad as RIVAL RANGE.
- 111A [Friction between members of the military?] SERVICE TENSION Surface tension
Too many pun-themed crosswords in the last several years of solving multiple puzzles every day have killed most of the joy I once took in such themes. This set of puns has one winner, a couple of pretty bad ones, and a few so-so ones. That makes it more or less about what I expect from such themes. But maybe the puns amused you more than they did me?
Other stuff:
- 1A [It has a string attached] TEA BAG/41A [It has a string attached] YO-YO Nice use of double clueing; nice literal use of an idiomatic phrase. I’d have put YO-YO at 1A if it had fit.
- 20A [Joint tenant?] INMATE Another pun! And this time, it’s about the criminal justice system! (If you know anything about the socioeconomic disparities between who goes to prison in the United States and who doesn’t, you know it’s no laughing matter.)
- 21A [Strong and regal] LEONINE Great word that’s not as common in crosswords as you’d expect, based on its very common letters.
- 27A [“Beautiful Things” singer Boone] BENSON I don’t recognize the song or the singer and can’t tell which name is first and which is last.
- 53A [Wants for nothing] HAS IT ALL I must have repeatedly misread the tense of the clue because I had IT ALL and couldn’t figure out why HAVE didn’t fit.
- 63A [Notre Dame honoree] DIEU It took me way too long to realize that the correct answer was simply the French word for “God.”
- 108A [Boxer Serrano] AMANDA That’s a new name to me.
- 6D [It may be displayed in a tree] GENEALOGY I knew right away what sort of “tree” the clue referred to, but blanked on remembering the actual word.
- 62D [Dix cubed] MILLE More French! 10 X 10 X 10 =1,000
- 103D [“Strait Is the Gate” author André] GIDE I was mildly surprised to see this name in the grid; the only thing I’ve read by him is Les cahiers d’André Walter – (The Notebooks of André Walter). But I hadn’t realized (hadn’t remembered?) that he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1947.
Josh Knapp’s New York Times crossword–Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 2/21/26 – no. 0221
Excellent themeless here. Lots of zippy 8s and 10s, five Xs in the grid, fairly tough clues that made me work for the answers.
Fave fill: BLANK STARE, BODY HORROR (this genre applies to The Substance, the creepy movie starring Demi Moore, which turned out to have far more body horror than I was expecting), QUESADILLA, T-SQUARE, ASUNDER, EXOTICA, “ZIP IT,” ROCK BOTTOM, EXHILARATE, EXORCISE, TRIVIA TEAM, STARTER KIT, POP QUIZ, IRONCLAD, CAR SHARE, POP TAB.
Five clues:
- 37D. [Free spirits?], EXORCISE. The clue is a verb phrase, not a noun.
- 11A. [European city on the Bay of Angels], NICE. Baie des Anges in French. I’d never heard of the bay.
- 36A. [A cow can produce about 200 pounds of it a year], METHANE. Science! 200 pounds of a gas sounds like an awful lot. It’s burped out, not farted, apparently.
- 41A. [Rachel ___, author of “Heated Rivalry”], REID. I hope she’s making a lot of money now that the TV adaptation has drawn so many people to her steamy book series.
- 64A. [Item for purchase with a question mark on its side], MYSTERY BOX. Where are people buying mystery boxes? I haven’t a clue. Is this the Labubu format?
Kyle Dolan’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up
Los Angeles Times 2/21/26 by Kyle Dolan
Here is an experience I definitely don’t expect out of LAT (but I’m not complaining): A solve during which I have to remind myself that there is no such thing as a mainstream crossword puzzle that I can’t finish. I will say that I wish the difficulty were more evenly distributed throughout the puzzle — for me the SW corner was pretty easy, and the NW was nearly impossible.
- 14A A large part of the difficulty in the NW for me was the cluing of IF YOU WANT with [“It’s not up to me”], which led me more in a “fate will decide/there are factors beyond choice” direction.
- 41A [Sportscaster Dick with the catchphrase “Touch ’em all!”] is ENBERG. Well, that catchphrase didn’t age well.
- 61A As someone who frequently answers “Do you want this or that?” type questions with “yes,” I liked the entry YES AND YES, clued as [“Why not both”].
- 3D [Pianist McCoy who played with the John Coltrane Quartet] is TYNER. Did I mention the NW was hard?
- 32D [Get tanked on a tropical vacation?] is SCUBA DIVE. Nice entry, nice clue.
Rafael Musa’s Newsday “Saturday Stumper”–Amy’s recap
Newsday crossword solution, 2/21/26 “Saturday Stumper” – Musa
I really liked this Stumper. About twice as hard as a Saturday NYT, which means it was rather pliant as Stumpers go. None of the clues felt impossible, and there wasn’t a section that really resisted filling. Stan, keep buying themelesses from Rafael!
Ten things:
- 9a. [Corn holders], CRIBS. As in the farm structure used to store ears of corn. I wanted HUSKS but didn’t fill in anything but the final S.
- 14a. [Cross-sectional side piece], ONION RING. A sliced cross-section of an onion, in the side dish onion rings.
- 30a. [Word from the French for “cure in brine”], MARINADE. Didn’t know this etymology.
- 42a. [Battle of Hastings participant], LANCE. Meaning a soldier armed with a lance?
- 46a. [Spot-checked?], DOGSAT. The question mark told me this related to a dog named Spot.
- 1d. [She’s related to Joey], JODI. Hmm, really? I see an AI site that claims Jodi is short for Joanne (and has a disclaimer that it’s just AI, so it may be hallucinated), but numerous other baby name sites connecting Jodi to Judah instead. It’s too bad there is so much slop on the internet now.
- 15d. [Performers with horses], GYMNASTS. “Performers” rather than athletes? Hm.
- 47d. [Official language of Brunei and Singapore], MALAY. Also spoken in Malaysia, of course. Singapore has four official languages,
- 61a. [Hairy situation], SNARL / 8d. [Hairy situation], SNAG / 48d. [Hairy situations], WEBS. The rare threefer clue!
- 52d. [What might take your thyme], RACK. Spice rack.
4.25 stars from me.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
Mystery boxes is a huge business now. The Chinese mystery box seller Pop Mart reported a revenue of almost 2 billion USD (yes billion, not million) in 2024.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
I stared at this one for a while and basically had no clue. Then took a stab at some answers that turned out to be wrong– e.g. Stalked instead of TRAILED. Finally got a foothold in the bottom and worked my way up. Remarkably, I finished faster than average because the puzzle is woven together very well and once you get going, it gathers steam. Letters like X’s and Q are actually great because they limit choices. And you sort of get a feeling for how the clues work.
All of this made for a very nice sense of accomplishment without much frustration. On top of it are all the great, in the language, phrases Amy highlighted. Nice!
PS. and I learned a new modern phrase today in the Mini. My grandkids are always very impressed when I know what they mean!
Similar for me. Hard to get a foothold but ended up with a better than average time. Good puzzle
Pretty much my experience, too. Tough one.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
I really enjoyed the NYT except….who puts LOX on a latke? Sour cream or apple sauce. I mean, really.
When Acme, Brooklyn’s venerable purveyor of lox for over a century, accepts it, it’s a thing.
Add a bit of caviar, and it’s heavenly.
Haha… we do lox and crème fraiche on our latkes, but I thought that was just us, so I didn’t fill it in at first :-) It’s delicious.
Pretty fun Saturday!
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2 stars
Too many names and showing off with Xs and other letters of that ilk. Ugh.
LAT – Stella, if you’re not familiar with McCoy Tyner, I encourage you to check him out. One of the most influential and brilliant pianists in jazz history.
I found the NT just about right for a Saturday, but there were several things that puzzled me. No idea what a MYSTERYBOX might be, and hadn’t heard of the BODYHORROR genre, although both were inferable. The clue for EXOTICA doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. And I’m not sure what CARSHARE refers to — an informal arrangement among friends, or something like Zip? (which you rarely hear about now we have Uber and Lyft etc…)
An OK puzzle but I’m not as enamored of it as others were. But it’s not as bad as Mr Grumpy says it is…
I mean, it’s *never* as bad as Grumpy says.
Fair comments for me, too. With BODY HORROR, I guessed for a long time that the first word would limit the horror to insects. And I had “erotica” for EXOTICA.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
I was maybe fortunate to come up with BLANKSTARE and some of the other longer ones right away, so I never really got stuck. Five Xs, two Qs, almost zero junk. Excellent puzzle.
MYSTERYBOX made me think of a classic Sesame Street bit with Kermit and Cookie Monster:
https://youtu.be/shbgRyColvE?si=Fifq2CQr73-D4rd4
I really liked the X’s and Q’s! I think it just missed a W to get the whole alphabet?
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4.5 stars
Fantastic Saturday for both the NYT and LAT.
LAT: Stella, we were perfect opposites. I had the NW down pat, and the NE gave me quite the time. ENBERG was a crossings-only affair for me. I found this one resistant through the end but quite fun.
NYT: this is a great Saturday. Tough but fair, not reliant on trivia, cluing, or other esoterica to stymie all but a few narrow years of a single generation. Great cluing throughout. Inventive, zippy fill with Saturday letters. LUMET i had to get with crossings, though I’ve seen the movie. I found the east side of the puzzle to be very consistent. MYSTERYBOX nods enough to video game and quest lore, very modern imo, so it meshes well and complements the more dated trivia, which is not an easy balancing act. Few gimmes, but fun to suss out. AESOP and LAV were fun to learn. I hope they continue to publish Saturdays in this wheelhouse.
Stumper: Assume a grid and review are on the way. I didn’t find it to be too bad, although it took a while to get a foothold. I finally got that foothold with 30A’s “marinade.” I’m still trying to understand 14A “cross-sectional side piece” — I think that’s something pannonica would squint at. I think the “side piece” part refers to onion rings being a side dish (not for me, thanks!) and the “cross-sectional” refers to what a slice of onion is, but I’m not connecting a slice directly to a ring, other than slices fall apart into rings. Also wasn’t fond of 33A and 52D clues — the rack doesn’t “take” my thyme — I put it there, but they’re minor.
Puzzle: Newsday; Rating: 4.5 stars
I think cross-sectional side piece might be my favorite clue in a long time. You have the elements correct in my book. There’s a lot of crap onion rings out there but the good ones are delicious
I found it as advertised. Not too easy nor unsolvable. Got off to a bad start at 22A. I don’t understand 1D or 52D. I guess 52D could be a spice rack or a rack of lamb. I occasionally grill a rack of lamb but I always use a rosemary/crushed garlic rub
I thought it was on the easy-medium side for a Stumper. I’m baffled by KILOS for ‘British pounds.’ Huh? Pounds are pounds and kilos are kilos. No idea what the clue is aiming for.
I think what was meant was the British equivalent for pounds. Not great, but I started with the “k” there, so got the answer.
I guess that’s the idea — this is the Stumper after all. But pounds have not entirely gone away in the UK, so it’s a tortured equivalence.
I’m sure Brits’ weight will be measured in stones long after we’re gone; tortured equivalence is a feature for the Stumper, not a bug.
Re 22A: Yes, my husband’s one contribution to our effort was “acre,” which I obviously had to take out. 1D stinks, but I took that one as the usual name nonsense that the Stumper does, so didn’t bother noting it. I took 52D as a spice rack, which (as I mentioned) didn’t thrill me. Amy did, too, when she published her grid and commentary.
NYT: I’m not sure how I feel about the dupe of POP appearing in both POP QUIZ and POP TAB. I know the NYT editors don’t care about dupes, and I realize that POP doesn’t have the same meaning in the two answers, but, to me, duping POP feels different than duping UP or ON or other small words like that.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
Yeah, I usually miss the dupes that others see, but this one was hard to miss! Is there a rule on this kind of thing in the NYT? If POP was used twice but it was like POP QUIZ and MOM AND POP, maybe it wouldn’t bother us as much. But two two-syllable answers that start with POP is pretty glaring.
Still, I liked this puzzle overall, especially seeing unusual words like QUESADILLA, ASUNDER and EXORCISE.
Stumper: Yes, Amy, they mean a soldier armed with a lance. I wasn’t sure myself if they had lances at the Battle of Hastings, but the image used in Wikipedia’s lance entry is of the Battle of Hastings ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lance ), to that confirms it.
So I have a non-Saturday puzzle question… I’m thinking about trying the ACPT next year (might do the virtual one this year for fun to try it out). My goal would be to hopefully finish all 7 puzzles by the time limit. I downloaded 2025 and 2024 puzzles to practice, and have now completed all of 2025 on paper. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised to finish all of them under the time limit *except* for puzzle 5. I understand that puzzle 5 is known to be quite tricky; I’m wondering if there’s a good resource for that type of puzzle? The past two years it’s a largish (17×17) themed puzzle that seems to be clued around Saturday NYT difficulty to me. I currently do NYT every day, and Sunday WaPo, but I’d like to find other “puzzle 5” equivalents to practice, besides just going back through the full ACPT archive? Thanks for any advice solvers here may have to offer!
I don’t know about 17×17 themed puzzles, but if you’re just looking to practice hard puzzles, here are the best ones, all harder than Sat NYT:
– Tim Croce’s freestyle puzzles, found here: https://club72.wordpress.com/
– Stella Zawistowski’s themelesses, found here: https://inteltainment.org/
– The weekly Newsday Saturday Stumper
What makes puzzle 5 hard is the theme, so hard themelesses might or might not help. They will definitely help you with the final puzzle if you want to tackle the A division clues. You might look at some of the other competition puzzles – the first Westwords had a puzzle that was very similar, and I’m pretty sure you can buy those puzzle packs. Same with Lollapuzoola.
Okay this helps—it was definitely the theme in puzzle 5 that made it harder for me. I was able to finish the entire puzzle, but *not* in the 30 minutes allotted so I’m on the lookout for harder-than-Thursday themed puzzles. The size is probably less important, though that is definitely adding to the difficulty.
But it sounds like there might not be a weekly themed puzzle at Saturday difficulty available? I don’t mind puzzle packs, I was hoping for something I could add into my weekly puzzle rotation.
I have no illusions about getting anywhere near the final competition… just hoping to be able to finish all the 7 within the time constraints, and puzzle 5 was my biggest weakness on my first try.
You might want to check out Fireball Crosswords, which has tricky themed puzzles (and themelesses) for I think 45 weeks a year, and AVCX has themed puzzles of varying difficulty each week.
The hallmark of the ACPT’s Puzzle 5 and Lollapuzzoola’s Puzzle 4 is that the theme answers just won’t work with their clues at face value, like the puzzle is broken in a certain way, and you have to figure out how to put it back together to make sense of the theme.
Yes, Fireball was my first thought (but then I didn’t know Seth’s links, which I bookmarked). Yes, it’s 45 weeks a year at $42/year (last price in 12/2025).
Thanks Evan and BlueIris; I’ll look at Fireball and AVCX! Adding in one tricky themed puzzle per week is what I was looking for.