Saturday, April 18, 2026

LAT 2:35 (Stella) [3.43 avg; 7 ratings] rate it
Newsday 14:25 (Amy) [4.17 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
NYT 6:17 (Amy) [3.80 avg; 15 ratings] rate it
Universal 5:04 (Adam S) [2.88 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (Matthew) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
WSJ 12:27 (Eric) [2.50 avg; 3 ratings] rate it

Jesse Cohn’s New York Times crossword — Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 4/18/26 – no. 0418

Really nice grid tonight, lots of flow, lots of long answers feeding into each section so you can capitalize on your progress.

Fave fill: SPIN-OFF, SOONER OR LATER, CALIFORNIA ROLL, SAFE WORD, “HANG TIGHT” and “REST EASY,” D-WADE (a good dad who moved his family out of Florida when his tween came out as trans), CROCODILE TEARS, ROOKIE MISTAKE, HASSOCKS (we were a hassock family when I was a kid), POISON DART, FRIED EGGS, BAREFOOT. Big colloquial vibes, thumbs-up.

Five clues:

• Did not know: 8A. [Team with the mascot Big Al, familiarly], BAMA. Makes sense, but I didn’t know they has a mascot with a name.
• 18A. [New outfit or accessory for a character, in video game-speak], MOD(ification). I wanted SKIN, but video game terminology is not my strength. I want credit for thinking of SKIN!
• 46A. [Cause of amusement to a vet, maybe], ROOKIE MISTAKE. Not a veterinarian!
• 8d. [How people get into a swimming pool, typically], BAREFOOT. Unless you’re wearing those pool shoes.
• 18D. [Silky-haired toy], MALTESE. A little toy dog breed.

4.25 stars from me.

Willa Angel Chen Miller’s Universal Crossword “Freestyle 219” – Adam S’s write-up

Willa Angel Chen Miller’s Universal Freestyle – 4/18/26

For the second Saturday in a row, Willa has the Universal Freestyle. And for the second Saturday in a row, I’m HERE FOR IT. Other favorites included SACRED COW, SLEEPER HIT, SCRATCH THAT, SNAIL MAIL, and SOFT SERVE. Hopefully, the soft serve wasn’t sent by snail mail. NICE ONE and FAN ART stood out as the best of the mid-length entries.

Having just said last weekend that I’m not the biggest fan of asymmetry in themelesses, it’s worth noting that I barely noticed the asymmetry in this grid until after I finished solving. It’s a lot less of a distraction for me when it’s basically a symmetric pattern with a handful of asymmetric squares around the edges.

A few notes:

• Nailing 1A to set the tone is a useful construction tip. SAY HI is a perfectly fine entry, but [“Go ahead, greet them!”] seemed like an oddly formal clue for it. Luckily, there wasn’t enough space to write in SAY HOW DO YOU DO.
• 51A ASSET [That’s a good point!]. Good use of a ‘bangit’ clue, where the exclamation mark indicates that a well-known phrase should instead be interpreted very literally, to add some color without crazily upping the difficulty level.
• 61A STE [Abbr. in an office plaza address]. How important is a good last across entry and clue? Sticks finger in the air. Perhaps roughly 1.5 times as important as a typical entry/clue pair, whereas 1A is more like 3 or 4 times as important, since pretty much everyone looks at it first, and it sets the tone. By the time I’m at 61A, I’ve likely pretty much formed my impression as a puzzle, and it’s also unlikely that’s where I’ll end my solve. Still, it’s got a bit more prominence in a post-solve review, so all things being equal, it’s a shame when a generally clean grid has something like STE as the last across. But sometimes, that’s how the cookie crumbles on the best overall fill…
• 2D YELLED [Was a loudmouth?]. Nice!
• 5D IRE [This is madness!]. Very nice bangit to liven up a short repeater. Interestingly, the asymmetric black square underneath that is solely there to enable that clue, since IRES/ISLES would be perfectly fine, but this clue can’t be made to work for IRES. I’ll take that trade for a great clue on a common entry.
• 31D SANTA SUIT [Winter fashion at a mall?]. This one felt a bit strained.

Nice puzzle!

Enrique Henestroza Anguiano’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Los Angeles Times 4/18/26 by Enrique Henestroza Anguiano

I’m going to call this another case of a great puzzle in the wrong venue, because I wouldn’t be slightly mad at it for being easy if it were in Universal instead of LAT. But it is a great puzzle, packed with fun references and clues that are playful if not particularly deceptive:

• 1A [Performer often found with big wigs] Any puzzle that starts off with DRAG QUEEN is all right by me.
• 15A [Soft rock duo from Australia] is AIR SUPPLY. BRB, time to listen to “All Out of Love.”
• 18A [Dough, or what dough becomes] is a cute clue for BREAD, which I totally missed while solving because the puzzle was so easy.
• 33A and 43D RESELLS and REOPEN: I appreciate that both RE-words in this puzzle are words you’d use as such in real life. I was afraid with a clue like [Investigate anew] that REOPEN was going to be some made-up thing like RE-PROBE (yes, I know the letter count is wrong), but it wasn’t.
• 50A BURP [Sound from a peat bog] and 53D GLUG [Pouring sound] made the SE section aurally evocative.
• 60A [Cute nickname for a dachshund] is SHORT KING, which is a great entry and a fun way to clue it. I always call dachshunds “low riders,” but I might start using SHORT KING sometimes now.
• 5D [Snack that may be made with Oaxaca cheese] is QUESADILLA. Nice entry, but a snack? Enrique must have a faster metabolism than I do.
• 12D [Minor character in a musical, say?] is THEATER KID, which is another great clue for a great entry.
• 26D As someone who’s seen the clue [Half of Hispaniola] for HAITI a million times, I enjoyed seeing HISPANIOLA in its full glory as an entry.

Ben Zimmer’s Newsday crossword, “Saturday Stumper”–Amy’s recap

Newsday crossword solution, 4/18/26 – “Saturday Stumper” – Zimmer

Okay, this one played fair. It took me until the end to be able to get anything in the right and mid top section, but it did all come together without any googling or checking for wrong squares. Yay!

Fave fill: “IS THAT ALL?”, SENSIBLE SHOES, DOES A GOOD TURN (with the S and U in place, I tried PASSES THE BUCK, which doesn’t fit the clue), DRIFTING APART, DR MOREAU, LEFT UNSAID, RED PEPPERS, FROST ALERT, DAVENPORT / IOWA, EVERDEEN.

Digging into the clues:

• 5a. [Silken Mist wearable], L’EGGS pantyhose. Accustomed to seeing “wearable” as a tech noun. Are pantyhose still sold in any drugstores?
• 18a. [What one is not], EVEN. The number one, that is.
• 21a. [Tony’s Brit partner for “Body in Soul” on Duets II (2011)], AMY Winehouse. My first guess was ROD Stewart. Apparently Tony Bennett didn’t care for Rod’s vocals on standards.
• 22a. [Noted precursor], DULY. As in “duly noted.” I tried ADAM first, whoops.
• Slangy duo: 50a. [Questionable], SUS (short for suspicious, basically) / 23a. [50-Across type], RANDO (random person unknown to you).
• Part of speech twist: 24a. [Hampers], BINS. Noun, not verb.
• 34a. [WWII reenactment wear], ODS. Olive drabs, yeah?
• 47a. [They’re tops at commencements], TAMS. Generally for graduate degree recipients, in lieu of mortarboards.
• 1d. [Fifth in her family with an Oscar], SOFIA Coppola. Francis Ford Coppola and cousin Nicolas Cage are two of the other four.
• 4d. [“I drag my __ around with me”: Orson Welles], MYTH. Goodness. Not sure I know anyone who has their own myth.
• 9d. [Element in a ring] SPY. Had GEM and KEY first.
• 39d. [Dirt on runners], INTEL. Dirt on people running for office, I guess. Topical, in a week when two congressmen resigned (Swalwell was running for California governor, while Gonzales dropped his reelection bid last month).
• 46d. [Elliptical building], GYM. Place with elliptical machines to exercise on, not a building shaped like an ellipse.

I didn’t notice a cryptic-influenced clue, but I’ll bet there is one in the mix.

None of the clues struck me as unfair, nor the crossings. It’s a treat to be able to subdue the Stumper without any tools and in a reasonable time. 4.25 stars from me.

Gary Larson and Amy Ensz’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Getting in Gear” — Eric’s Review

Gary Larson and Amy Ensz’s Wall Street Journal Crossword — 4/18/26 (Click to Enlarge)

I’m not quite sure what to make of this puzzle’s title, but the theme is obvious enough. Take a familiar simile or other saying that begins with a word that’s also a celebrity’s surname, clue it based on the celebrity, and watch the wackiness follow:

• 23A [Congressional VIP costume for “Hacks” star Jean?] SMART AS A WHIP
• 40A [Angel costume for gravelly-voiced singer Tom?] WAITS IN THE WINGS
• 65A [Poltergeist costume for “Golden Girls” star Betty?] WHITE AS A GHOST
• 90A [Coaching accessory costume for Jefferson Airplane singer Grace?] SLICK AS A WHISTLE That’s not a simile I’m really familiar with. The image it evokes is a little gross.
• 114A [Bovine costume for “Succession” star Jeremy?] STRONG AS AN OX I’ve never seen that show and couldn’t remember the actor’s name. This was the only theme answer where the celebrity’s name wasn’t a gimme or near-gimme.
• 

  The goddess Durga, the protective mother of the universe

  17D [Canine costume for “Cheers” star Shelley?] LONG IN THE TOOTH

• 50D [Hindu deity Durga costume for TV psychologist Joyce?] BROTHERS IN ARMS This is probably my favorite clue/answer pair.

The celebrities here are predominantly people whose fame peaked in the 1960s–1980s. Only Jeremy Strong seems to really be of the 21st century. I’m old enough to recognize all those names, but I wonder if younger solvers are left wondering “Who?” If you knew these celebs, this was probably a quick puzzle to solve. If not . . . The wackiness of the theme answers didn’t amuse me that much, save for the last one.

• Other stuff of note:
• 12A [Governs badly] MISRULES We’ve seen a lot of that in the last 10 years.
• 25A [“Hill Street Blues” star Daniel J.] TRAVANTI I loved that show back in the 1980s; I don’t think I’ve seen Travanti in anything since it ended.
• 36A [Steve of “Fargo”] BUSCEMI The “funny-lookin'” guy from the 1996 Coen Brothers movie. (“[Funny-lookin’ in] what way?” “Oh, just in a general kinda way.”)
• 48A [Hit for Ritchie Valens] LA BAMBA Do you remember 1958? I don’t.
• 72A [“Bad Monkey” author Carl] HIAASEN A gimme; I’ve read one or two of his other novels. Unfortunately, I misspelled his name, putting a second S where the second A goes.
• 86A [Made-up band] KISS Cute clue.
• 88A [Gomer Pyle portrayer Jim] NABORS Fill like this does nothing to offset the mustiness of the theme answers.
• 38D [Violinist Elman] MISCHA Nor does this; he died in 1967. I listen to enough classical music that a lot of the big names are familiar to me, but I didn’t recognize this one.
• 84D [Like JFK] INTL. The airport, not the president after whom it’s named.
• 98D [Numbers game] SUDOKU There’s an answer you wouldn’t have seen 30 years ago.