Saturday, May 16, 2026

LAT 2:24 (Stella) [2.75 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
Newsday 13:52* (Amy) [3.92 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
NYT 7:16 (Amy) [3.03 avg; 18 ratings] rate it
Universal 4:43 (Adam S) [3.88 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today untimed (ZEB) [2.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
WSJ 12:20 (Eric) [2.25 avg; 2 ratings] rate it

Zhouquin Burnikel’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “F is For…” — Eric’s Review

Zhouquin Burnikel’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “F Is For…” — 5/16/26 (Click to Enlarge)

I’m a devoted player of the New York Times Connections game, but the “What [Random Letter] Might Stand For” is a type of connection I almost always struggle with. I didn’t have that kind of trouble with this puzzle, as it’s right there in the title. The obviousness of the theme might have helped me solve this relatively quickly.

As promised, “F” is for:

• 22A [System of degrees] FAHRENHEIT SCALE
• 32A [One might control a PC’s volume or brightness] FUNCTION KEY
• 56A [Prime time for a high school game] FRIDAY NIGHT
• 74A [Antagonistic presence in a fantasy novel] FORCE OF EVIL Okay, if you say so.
• 97A [Lightest halogen] FLUORINE GAS F is the chemical symbol for fluorine, which is a gas at normal temperatures and pressures, so yeah.
• 112A [Choke at a critical moment] FAIL IN THE CLUTCH That’s another one that feels a little off to me. Maybe F is for Forced Answer?

This theme didn’t really work for me. Too many answers take something F really stands for  — Friday, Fluorine, Fail — and tack on a second word that fits but doesn’t really make sense in terms of being replaced by F.

Throw in a few clues that don’t quite work, and clues that do work but that I’ve seen many times before, and this was a quick slog (yes, that’s a contradiction in terms).

Stuff other than the theme:

• 26A [TV Hall of fame] ARSENIO Cute clue, but The Arsenio Hall Show ran from 1989-1994. It was revived for the 2013–2014 season, but in my mind, that doesn’t do much to scrape the mold off that answer. (No disrespect to Mr Hall; I feel that way about all “old” TV shows.)
• 28A [Sang like Crosby] CROONED Presumably, we’re talking about Bing and not David. Yes, if I were consistent, I’d complain even more vociferously about this answer being past its prime. But even old music still feels relevant to me, and Crosby was one of the first singers to really figure out how to use a microphone.
• 30A [NHL team that plays in the same arena as the NBA’s Mavericks] STARS This should have been a gimme, but I needed a bit to think of it. I went to high school in Dallas and my late brother lived there later on. He was a big fan of both teams.
• 34A [Mass-consumed item] Communion WAFER Cute clue. Tasteless item, but not that’s not really the point.
• 44A [Jemima of “Girls”] KIRKE I don’t recognize that name and foolishly didn’t realize I was looking for a surname.
• 45A [What a buzzkill kills] FUN That’s what F is for!
• 49A [Designer of the internal structural framework for the Statue of Liberty] Gustave EIFFEL I used to know that.
• 81A [Complete disaster] FIASCO Another non-thematic F, which bothers me more than it probably should.
• 91A [Azadi Tower site] TEHRAN Are we sure about that?
• 104A [Beast of Borden] ELSIE Groan.
• 107A [Alternatives to mutton chops] GOATEES Not for me, anyway.
• 2D [Lift for snowboarders] T-BAR You’re not a snowboarder, are you, Ms Burnikel? I ski; my husband boards. T-bars and other surface lifts were designed long before snowboards were invented; they’re extremely awkward for boarders to use.
• 36D [Stone part, often] FEMALE LEAD That’s Emma Stone, of course.
• 45D [Annoyance for firefighters] FALSE ALARM It’s more than a mere annoyance; firefighters might be responding to one when somewhere else, someone’s house might be burning down. (The house across the street from us caught fire about a month ago, and it’s a total loss.)

Byron Walden’s New York Times crossword—Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 5/16/26 – no. 0516

I feel like two apostrophized entries rarely pop up in the same grid. Here we have LITTLE OL’ ME and ROUND ’EM UP, nice.

Fave fill: ANDY KIM, DEBATE CONTESTS, ZARFS (I call cardboard sleeves for hot cups of coffee “zarfs” despite their not being metal), SECOND STRINGER, EVEN-STEVEN, STAY BACK, DEEP SLEEP, MELANGES, W HOTEL, IN FOREVER.

Not wild about E.T. PHONES HOME, (feel like “calls home” is more standard), DICER (there are few kitchen gadgets actually labeled “dicer”), EPT, FEUDIST (M-W definition 1 is “specialist in feudal law,” with def 2 matching the clue), somewhat arbitrary IN TWO ACTS (maybe theater types will disagree). What do we think about LANDED OUT, is that a thing?

Three clues:

• 21A. [Double-___ cassowary (bird of Indonesia and Australia)], WATTLED. No, you’re a double-wattled cassowary.
• 39A. [Don’t start with me!], SECOND STRINGER. They’re on the bench till a starter needs to cycle out.
• 24D. [Trigger hair], MANE. Capital-T Trigger, Roy Rogers’s horse.

3.75 stars from me.

Karen Steinberg’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

Los Angeles Times 5/16/26 by Karen Steinberg

Maybe by the time I finish this writeup, I’ll have decided how I feel about this puzzle. First, the stuff I didn’t like:

• Overall, it was too easy, although I won’t make my usual comment about easy themelesses that they belong in UAMM, since I think some entries like ACTAEON would qualify as too hard for that venue.
• I didn’t love that the very first entry in the puzzle is GAZES AT. For about the first 20 years of my solving life I wasn’t bothered by phrases that include AT (or TO, or IN) at the end, but I’ve gotten feedback (as a constructor) when I’ve included such entries in my own puzzles that such phrases often don’t feel “in the language” and are thus hard to clue cleanly. (Compare, for example, FIT IN, which is easily clued as [Belong], to SLIDE IN, which requires some awkwardness like [Reach base feet first].) I’ve come to agree with that assessment of what constitutes ideal fill, and although I would have considered GAZES AT to be not-ideal but fine elsewhere in the puzzle, I wish 1-Across were more fun.
• 8A APP GAME, which felt a little green paint-y. Admittedly, it gets more than 3 million hits when Googled with quotation marks, but when was the last time you called a game an APP GAME? MOBILE GAME, VIDEO GAME, or COMPUTER GAME, sure (and those all have higher Google hit counts to go with my intuition).
• 55A [Cunning] is SLYNESS, which is mostly boring because of its letter pattern.

And here’s the stuff I did like:

• 17A [Navel brass?] is BELLY BUTTON RING, which is a great clue for a lively entry.
• 32A JEMIMA, clued with a nice kiddie-lit reference as [“The Tale of __ Puddle-Duck”].
• 48A [Yoga pose that alternates between arching and rounding the spine] is CAT-COW, which is nice and evocative.
• 53A [Shows some major respect?] is a clever clue for SALUTES.
• 54A [Mythical hunter transformed into a stag] is ACTAEON. I liked that this entry provided one of the only bits of difficulty in the puzzle in that I came at it from the right, thus seeing the unusual combo of AEO and wondering whether it was correct. I also enjoy Greek mythology references, so it’s nice to see one beyond the usual EROS and ARES.
• 3D [Microgeneration of the 1990s] is ZILLENNIAL, a fun neologism.
• 27D and 28D are VISUAL CUES and IMAGE, respectively, which is a serendipitous pairing of adjacent entries.
• 34D [Mid-party errand] is DRINK RUN, which was probably my favorite entry in the puzzle.
• 52D [Vegetable related to lilies] is YAM. I didn’t see this clue while solving (see above re: too easy), but it’s a nice TIL fact.

So…I guess in balance, I liked it — it’s just that, between 1A and 8A, I disliked the way this puzzle started enough to have it color the rest of my solve.

Zachary Edward-Brown Universal Crossword “Universal Freestyle 223” – Adam S’s write-up

Zachary Edward-Brown Universal Crossword “Universal Freestyle 223” – 5/15/26

One of the occupational hazards of writing these reviews is that parts of the Crossworld are a pretty small place. In this case, not only is Zachary a fellow Fiend contributor, but he’s also someone I’ve recently collaborated with on two puzzles. So when I saw his name, I was very much hoping I would like the puzzle.

Thankfully, I did like it a lot! The excellent central spanner of IT’S SO BAD IT’S GOOD (a debut at any outlet tracked by Crosserville) paired nicely with its clue of [“This meme is a masterpiece of terribleness”]. Beyond that, the long fill was all good to great, with my particular favorites being POLAR BEARS, DON’T STARE, WE’RE COOKED, ROAD HOG, THERE’S MORE, LESBIAN BAR, and GET A ROOM. That’s five apostrophes in the listed entries alone, which speaks to the conversational tone that Zachary is so good at.

The short stuff was clean, and so the puzzle played very smoothly. Despite 3 names I had literally zero idea about and a fourth I needed crosses to see because of the cluing angle, my time was pretty much average.

On the cluing front, the conversational clues were great, and there were some nice pieces of trivia thrown in. Being picky, I would have liked to see a bit more wordplay in the mix. Obviously, Universal constructors need to be careful not to go wild with the stretchier end of question mark clues. But there’s still a lot of scope to liven things up with puns, alliteration, and rhyming to complement Zachary’s excellent ear for conversational phrases and ability to find apt and fun facts.

A few notes:

• 14A END OF AN ERA [What a vibe shift might signal] This one got me. I was thinking of a vibe shift as the mood of an event, not at the level of societal change. Nicely judged clue that gave me a good aha moment when I got it.
• 20A ED SHEERAN [Singer who’s already planning his posthumous album, “Eject”] Excellent trivia, which helped provide a little welcome crunch compared to since these plans were a TIL.
• 15D FREE [Central bingo square]. I initially entered “star” here. Ya think I’ve played a lot more Scrabble than bingo in my life?
• 30D PRIVATE JET [Fancy transport] I initially wrote in “PRIVATE car” and thought – “cmon – that’s not THAT fancy.” 🤦‍♂️
• 53D OREO [Cookie launched into space in April 2025]. Tip of the cap on this one! At the time of writing, there are 1,776 clues for OREO in the Crosserville database, and AFAICT, this is a totally fresh angle. ORCA award suggestion for next year – award a packet of Golden Oreos to the most original new cluing angle for OREO. The competition would be surprisingly stiff!

David P. Williams’s Newsday crossword, “Saturday Stumper”—Amy’s recap

Newsday crossword solution, 5/16/26 – “Saturday Stumper” – David P. Williams

It’s Amy stepping in for pannonica.

The asterisk in my solving time is because I had an iffy trouble spot and used the “check” function to highlight my two wrong squares. Overall, a fairly pliable Stumper as those things go.

First up, the quasi-cryptic clue of the day: 38d. [Lap up]. PAL. Spell “lap” upwards to get PAL. It’s only quasi-cryptic because an actual cryptic crossword clue would include a definition of PAL.

Fave fill: COLOR-CODED, SMOKE AND MIRRORS, CASH COWS, ELDER MILLENNIAL (I’m an elder Gen Xer and there were “Oregon Trail” video games before Millennials were old enough to play), BRAIN CANDY, PENUMBRA, STONEWALL, PODIATRY.

Onward:

• 6a. [Be a bounder], SKIP. Wanted LOPE.
• 10a. [Person who’s short and lacks credit], ANON is short for anonymous, and a writer whose quote is attributed to “Anon.” isn’t getting credit for it.
• 14a. [Back up announcement], “IT’S ON.” When the power comes back on, does anyone say “it’s on”? Feel like “Power’s back,” “It’s back on,” and such are more plausible.
• 15a. [Alberto, to amigos], TITO. Did not know this. Could Uncle Alberto be Tito Tito?
• 22a. [Flatter, perhaps], APE. As in “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
• 36a. [Rotation unit], SLOT. As in a spot in the batting lineup, perhaps?
• 38a. [Questionable action?], POSE. As in “pose a question.” Meh.
• 39a. [Reason to get hitched], TOW. Connected to a truck’s trailer hitch, not married.
• 40a. [Cell starter], HELLO. Not a prefix but a word that may start a cellphone conversation.
• 46a. [Semolina with the sound of a Southeastern school city], DURUM. Sounds like Durham.
• 48a. [What talks need to be heard], AIR. If you’re giving a talk, it’ll be audible if you send air out through your vocal cords. If you’re Stephen Hawking, this doesn’t apply.
• 59a. [Big name in Rationalism and Mind-Body Dualism], RENE Descartes. Those capital letters look so wrong; “rationalism” and “mind-body dualism” are fine.
• 1d. [Miniaturized hearing aids], MICS. Little microphones are aids to hearing rather than being devices called hearing aids.
• 2d. [Half the alphabet], A TO M. So ugly. Just clue it as an atom!
• 11d. [Small time piece], NANOSECOND. Since “time piece” isn’t one word, I should’ve known better than to try WRISTWATCH.
• 24d. [Drop a line], CAST. Think fishing, not correspondence. The -ST is where I had wrong letters.
• 27d. [Hair piece], HAT. I’m sorry (not sorry), how does this clue make sense?
• 30d. [Seasonal concern?], TASTE. As in seasonings, not seasons of the year. Not sure I’ve ever seen “seasonal” used in relating to herbs and spices.
• 41d. [Inner ear], CORNCOB. Not COCHLEA despite that CO leading me there!

I’m surprised my solve wasn’t more arduous given all the Stumpery clues that are hard to parse the intended way.

3.5 stars from me.

Alice Liang’s USA Today Crossword “Second Rate” – Zachary Edward-Brown’s write-up

Alice Liang’s USA Today Crossword “Second Rate” – 5/16/26

Themed today!

19A – [Object of romantic affection] = LOVE INTEREST
35A – [Super-quickly] = IN NO TIME FLAT
51A – [One of many on a gallery wall] = PICTURE FRAME

The title SECOND RATE seems to mean the second word is a type of rate – INTEREST RATE, FLAT RATE, and FRAME RATE. But FLAT is actually the fourth word of that themer, so I guess it’s supposed to be taken as the second part of each themer is a type of rate? Seems slightly inconsistent. Maybe a two-word themer would have been better instead of IN NO TIME FLAT.

Besides that minor quibble, the themers are in-the-language and I like the theme in general. Of course, the symmetrical bonus answers are excellently chosen: I HAVE NO IDEA and ITS A MIRACLE. Nice!

Other notes:

• 8A [Theme park where 11 country pavilions can be visited] EPCOT Interesting and fun clue. I got caught up a bit in the top-right between EPCOT, actor Ben PLATT, having NAGS AT instead of EATS AT [Really bothers] and failing to see OMG as [“!?!”], which in hindsight is a perfectly fine clue.
• 44A [Olympic gold medalist Lee] SUNISA Love seeing the last name SUNISA in the puzzle over the much-seen LEE. She’s perhaps better known as Suni Lee, and she was the first Asian-American woman to win an all-around gold medal.
• 49A [“For sure”] DEF Nice bit of slang there, but maybe it could have used a slang indicator, like “in slang” or something similar?
• 59A [___ Parade (June celebration)] PRIDE Nice clue! We’re coming up on June as well, so it’s timely!
• 60A [2016 collection of praise poems by Sharon Olds] ODES Nice bit of trivia! Way to elevate the answer with a fun clue!
• 27D [Not gross?] NET Fun bit of wordplay.
• 38D [Sabrina Carpenter’s genre] POP I like clues like this when the constructor uses them to inject something personal into the puzzle. In this case, I’d like to assume the constructor is a Sabrina Carpenter fan – if so, nicely done!
• 21D [Paperless Post or Partiful notice] EVITE Favorite clue in the puzzle! Nice way to elevate an answer I otherwise wouldn’t have loved seeing. Really fun clue, and nice alliteration!

4.25 stars