Tuesday, March 10, 2026

Jonesin’ 4:13 (Erin) [5.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
LAT untimed (Jenni) [3.33 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
NYT 5:14 (Eric) [2.94 avg; 9 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker untimed (pannonica) [3.80 avg; 10 ratings] rate it
Universal 6:00-something (Eric) [2.75 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Sophia) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Xword Nation tk (Ade) rate it
WSJ untimed (Jim Q) rate it

Matt Jones’s Jonesin’ Crossword, “Rows and Columns” — really, more of the latter. – Erin’s write-up

Jonesin’ solution 3/10/26

Hello lovelies and Happy Birthday to Matt Jones! This week’s Jonesin’ boasts columns of columns…the three longest down entries consists of two words that can precede the word “column.”

• 6d. [Publication with a lot of backbone?] SPINAL NEWSPAPER (spinal column, newspaper column)
• 9d. [“Keep your hands at ten and two,” say?] STEERING ADVICE (steering column, advice column)
• 14d. [Hamilton, when focused on molecular particles?] IONIC ALEXANDER (ionic column, Alexander Column, which is the large monument in Palace Square in St. Petersburg, Russia)

Other things:

• 52d. [“Hyperbole and a Half” writer/illustrator Brosh] ALLIE. Brosh’s combination blog and webcomic combined her thoughts on life and mental health with drawings made in Paintbrush.
• 56d. [Jigsaw starting point, maybe] EDGE. Does anyone start a jigsaw in the middle? How does that even work?

Until next week!

Justin Werfel’s Universal Crossword “Peripheral — Eric’s Review

Justin Werfel’s Universal Crossword “Peripheral Devices” — 3/10/26 (Click to Embiggen)

I cannot explain why I was spelling DEFICIT  with two E’s and one I. I doubt I would have made that mistake if I were using that word in an email or other bit of writing. And yet . . .

A bunch of handy things to have around show up in the ends of otherwise unrelated words:

• 17A [Blue-and-red-faced monkey] MANDRILL
• 21A [Sources for manufacturers] SUPPLIERS
• 34A [Norwegian town that hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics] LILLEHAMMER I was mildly surprised that I got this with only a few crossing letters. 1994 seems like both a long time ago and the recent past.
• 52A [Tribe native to the southeastern United States] CHICKASAW
• 56A [Messages that appear on mouseover … or what 17-, 21-, 34- and 52-Across end with] TOOL TIPS

Drill, pliers, hammer and saw — all undeniably “tools.”

Other stuff:

• 13A [With 23-Across, repeated words in the Tolkien verse “___ to rule them all, ___ to find them, ___ to bring them all and in the darkness bind them”/23A [See 13-Across] ONE/RING I often express my distaste for clues that seem overly wordy, especially in relation to a short answer. But being a Tolkien nerd of long standing, I can’t object to this pairing.
• 20A [Term for “online commerce” that irritates me] ETAIL I admire the honesty of this clue while recognizing the pragmatism of leaving the answer in one’s wordlist.
• 53D [Italian term of endearment that’s an anagram of “orca”] CARO I was prepared to put CARA until the “anagram” made me see my potential error.

Daniel Bodily’s New York Times Crossword — Eric’s Review

Daniel Bodily’s New York Times Crossword — 3/10/26 (Click to Embiggen)

Do you ever solve a crossword puzzle and feel that you can relate almost every answer to something in your own life? That’s how I felt solving this breezy offering, so much so that I forgot to look for the theme until I started writing this.

I’m generally not fond of puzzles with themes answers in the Downs, and I’m glad that Will Shortz only runs them when the theme requires it. And the punny little revealer here requires a vertical theme:

• 72A [Bronx-born star, to fans … or a phonetic hint to 3-, 8- 17-, 32- and 45-Down] J-LO, a/k/a Jennifer Lopez. (But you knew that.) A “phonetic hint” because the J in each theme answer is at the bottom of the answer. (But you knew that too.)
• 3D BRITISH RAJ
• 8D RADIO DJ Much as I prefer short clues to long ones, I’d have like to see something in the clue indicating that spinning records is the old-fashioned way of playing music on the radio. We toured Austin’s classical music station KMFA (which is a fine station if you like classical) over five years ago, and even that nonprofit station was playing almost everything from a digital file. They still had LPs and CDs, but that was not where most of what they aired came from.
• 17D BABA GHANOUJ There are at least three transliterations of بابا غنوج, so I held off on the last several letters. Had I figured out the theme sooner, the J would have been obvious. (Just looking up the Arabic spelling has reminded me how tasty that dish is and how long it’s been since I’ve had it.)
• 32D [All-time best-selling female rapper worldwide] NICKI MINAJ I feel like I saw a very similar clue in another puzzle not long ago, but I have no idea where or when. Not that I would have remembered that little factoid anyway.
• 45D [Drink that’s just been squeezed, say] FRESH OJ My sister-in-law grew up drinking only fresh orange juice and consequently refuses to drink any other kind.

Did I like this puzzle a lot because it’s a fun theme? Because I solved it quickly (for me; I’ve never claimed to be a speed solver)? Because I’m in a good mood because I’m getting up early tomorrow to meet my friends and ski my legs off? (Saturday was one of the best ski days I’ve had this season, and that includes the penultimate run where I found myself somewhere I really shouldn’t have been, especially not skiing alone.) It doesn’t really matter, does it?

Other stuff:

• 1A [___-C cable (computer connector)] USB The move to one cable that fits every device may be the greatest tech innovation since I DUNNO what. Imagine if your refrigerator had a different sort of plug on it than your microwave, and both were different than your TV.
• 13A [Seattle M.L.B. player] MARINER I’ve seen two Major League Baseball games in person, and the first was in Seattle.
• 16A [Cut above the rest?] PRIME RIB Cute clue. My husband and I roast a prime rib for Christmas almost every year. And then we have leftovers for several meals. I need to remind myself how fortunate we are that we can afford that.
• 36A [8-pointer in Scrabble] J-TILE I used to play Scrabble a lot, but never memorized the point values of the different tiles. I think X is also worth eight points, though if you play an eight-point tile and only get eight points for it, you’re a lousy o0r unlucky Scrabble player.
• 44D [Wolf (down)] SNARF Earlier today, I was texting my friend David, who has an excellent explanation of the difference between “scarf” and “snarf” when it comes to eating.
• 50A [Permit for an international traveler] ENTRY VISA Thanks, Mr. Bodily, for reminding me to renew my expired passport — especially if I want to ski in Chile this summer.
• 68A [Like many virtual meetings] ON ZOOM I retired before COVID and consequently haven’t used Zoom as much as a lot of people have. “On Zoom” has a green-painty feel to me, but it makes more sense than my original answer of ONLINE.
• 14D [“Whew! Sweat is dripping off me”] I’M HOT Here in Southwest Colorado, either I don’t sweat like I did in Texas or (more likely) the sweat evaporates before I realize it’s there. Either way, it’s great to go outdoors and not be sopping wet from the least little physical exertion.

Geoffrey Schorkopf & Matthew Luter’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Jenni’s write-up

This was a breezy, fun Tuesday with some interesting trivia! The theme answers:

Los Angeles Times, March 10, 2026, Geoffrey Schorkopf & Matthew Luter, solution grid

• 20a [Road trip activity with yes or no answers] is TWENTY QUESTIONS.
• 34a [Uno’s predecessor] is CRAZY EIGHTS.
• 41a [Hasbro product with yellow and red checkers] is CONNECT FOUR.

And the revealer: 51a [“You must consider the odds,” and what can be said about 20-, 34-, and 41-Across?] is IT‘S A NUMBERS GAME. Fun!

What I didn’t know before I did this puzzle: that Uno is a derivative of CRAZY EIGHTS.

David Distenfeld & Seth Weitberg’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Full Extension” — Jim Q’s write-up

THEME: Things associated with the word “stretch.”

WSJ • 3/10/26 • Tue • “Full Extension” • David Distenfeld • Seth Weitberg • solution • 20260310

THEME ANSWERS:

• [*What you might hit with your car?] THE OPEN ROAD
• [*Sentence structure?] PRISON TERM
• [*Star vehicle?] LIMOUSINE
• [*Flexible start?] CHILD’S POSE
• (revealer) [“Tenuous at best,” or a description of the starred answers] IT’S A STRETCH

Okay. Very Tuesday. By that I mean there’s something that makes me cock my head a bit and say “Huh?” In this case, it’s the sorta-kinda-punny nature of the clues for the themers. I simply don’t get it. Do the puns have anything in common? Do they relate to the revealer? Also, are they really all that punny? I was a tad excited, trying to figure out the connection between the themers prior to hitting the revealer, but when I uncovered it, I said “Oh. Okay.” I mean, they are all different types of STRETCHes, I suppose, so that’s cool. Is a PRISON TERM strongly associated with the word STRETCH moreso than other spans of time? That would be new to me.

Anyway, lots of questions from me. Hence, very Tuesday for me.

OTHER THINGS:

• [Vital arteries] AORTAS. I always forget the plural of this. AORTAS or AORTAE? Looks like both are fine actually!
• [CNN legal analyst Honig] ELIE. New to me.
• [Not down a break, in tennis] ON SERVE. New to me as an in-language tennis term.
• [Philippines port] ILOILO. Not new to me, but boy I can never remember this. Needed every cross, despite the fact that I should at least remember that it’s repetitive.
• [Hold up] ROB. Took me forever to see this one! Was thinking something along the lines of “lasting.”

Wasn’t on the same wavelength as this one today. 2.5 from me.

Chandi Deitmer’s New Yorker crossword — pannonica’s write-up

New Yorker • 3/10/26 • Tue • Deitmer • solution • 20260310

Today’s offering is a themed entry tied the magazine’s special fashion issue. I didn’t catch the theme mechanism until I came to the revealer, and—combined with a couple of early missteps—my solve took longer than usual for a ‘moderately challenging’ regular New Yorker Tuesday.

• • 38a^R [Like some fashionable pants … or what can be found in four of this puzzle’s entries] WIDE LEG. Those entries feature the letter string L-E-G with doubled letters. Alternatively, the letters could be entered—widely—across two squares each.
  • 17a. [Perspective examined by feminist film theorists] MALLEE GGAZE (male gaze).
  • 24a. [Something to chew on] BUBBLLEE GGUM (bubble gum).
  • 52a. [Playground feature] JUNGLLEE GGYM (jungle gym).
  • 61a. [Krypton or xenon, for example] NOBLLEE GGAS (noble gas).

• • 1a [Deplete] DRAIN. Right off the bat I took a flier and tried USE UP, which was … not correct.
  • 32a [Flamboyance : flamingos :: gaggle : __ ] GEESE. Collective nouns.
  • 35a [ __ Golf (Saudi-backed sports tour whose name is fifty-four in Roman numerals)] LIV. Gratuitous promotion for something a bit unsavory. Actresses Ullman and Tyler are solid alternatives, or even cluing the Roman numeral in a less controversial way.
  • 55a [Lacklustre?] MATTE. The anglophone spelling isn’t necessary here.
  • 48a [Rhyming beverage] PALE ALE. 67a [Valley] DALE.
  • 68a [Defeats decisively] STOMPS. hmm.
  • 5d [Word in an alumni newsletter, perhaps] NÉE. 7d [Anne Brontë, __ Acton Bell] AKA. Not quite synonymous, but somewhat AKIN (15a [Similar (to)]). 51d [“__ Grey” (début novel by Anne Brontë)] AGNES.
  • 10d [Early code developer?] HAMMURABI.
  • 18d [[This doesn’t look good …]] GULP, not UH-OH.
  • 33d [“At Last” singer] ETTA JAMES. Full name here, although her actual name was Jamesetta Hawkins.
  • 41d [Getting the __ back together] GANG, not BAND.
  • 63d [Sandwich with strips, leaves, and slices] BLT. Reminded of Eats, Shoots & Leaves here.

A surprisingly refreshing and enjoyable solve.