BEQ 14:45 (Eric) 
[3.88 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
LAT 2:39 (Stella) 
[3.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 3:01 (Sophia) [3.05 avg; 11 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker 5:55 (Amy) [3.06 avg; 8 ratings] rate it
Universal untimed (pannonica) 
[2.50 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
USA Today tk (?) 
[2.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
WSJ tk (Jim Q) [2.00 avg; 1 rating] rate it
Rena Cohen’s New York Times crossword–Sophia’s recap
Theme: START SMALL – each theme answer begins with a synonym for “small”
New York Times, 05 18 2026, By Rena Cohen
- 17a [Like the Code of Hammurabi] – BABYLONIAN (starts with “baby”)
- 25a [Pioneering hybrid car] – TOYOTA PRIUS (starts with “toy”)
- 40a [Governing body in the Harry Potter universe] – MINISTRY OF MAGIC (starts with “mini”)
- 50a [Gardener’s tool] – WEED WHACKER (starts with “wee”)
- 63a [Advice for the overambitious … or a hint to 17-, 25-, 40- and 50-Across] – START SMALL
Solid Monday theme – I was kind of surprised that the puzzle didn’t use circles/shading/some other way of highlighting the “small” synonyms since they are fully embedded in the answers. I guess since they are all at the start of the theme answer it isn’t necessary, but it did take me a minute even after getting the revealer to fully realize what was going on. TOYOTA PRIUS and WEED WHACKER are my two favorite theme answers. (MINISTRY OF MAGIC not so much as it’s a pretty specific reference within the HP universe for a Monday — and overall, the fewer Rowling references in a puzzle, the better).
Quick hits on the rest of the puzzle:
- SNAKE EYES and GIVE IT A GO are great pieces of fill! Overall the fill is Monday-clean, with the exception of MOUE, which I never remember even though it pops up every so often. As a Mariners fan, I also hate seeing ASTRO, but I think that’s a me problem :)
- Trouble spots for me: “stood” instead of AROSE for [Got to one’s feet]. I also found the clue of [Zinnia or sunflower] for ANNUAL to be quite tricky.
- I just got back from a trip to London last week so it was cool/timely to have two different Britain-related clues in [English town famous for its salts] for EPSOM, and [“___ Calm and Carry On”] for KEEP.
- Other clues I liked: [Marsupial often mistermed a “bear”] for KOALA, [The “terrible twos” and the “threenager” years, for example] for PHASES, [There are 100 of these in every Scrabble game] for TILES, [Outlandishly over the top, in modern slang] for EXTRA. Lots of fun clues today!
Happy Monday all!
Brian Callahan & Amie Walker’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up
Los Angeles Times 5/18/26 by Brian Callahan & Amie Walker
The revealer at 61A [Advice for adding power to a golf swing, or what can be said about 17-, 27-, and 50-Across] tells us IT’S ALL IN THE HIPS, meaning that the letters HIPS appear on the outer edges of each theme entry, as marked by the circled squares:
- 17A [“Let me give you a few pointers … “] is HERE ARE SOME TIPS. This felt a little green paint-y to me: I think it would be more natural to say HERE’S A TIP or LET ME GIVE YOU SOME TIPS. But HERE ARE SOME TIPS gets 67M Google hits in quotation marks, so I am wrong (but it still took me longer to get this themer than I’d expect on Monday).
- 27A [Some track-and-field attempts] is HIGH JUMPS.
- 50A [VW adorned with decals from the flower power era, e.g.] is HIPPIE BUS.
It’s nice that the division in HIPS moves from left to right as you go down the list: H/IPS, then HI/PS, and finally HIP/S.
It took me longer to solve this puzzle than the one that ran on Saturday the 16th, and I feel pretty confident in saying it’s not me, it’s the puzzle. We’ve got some tough trivia, like ASHA, the heroine of a Disney movie that made $64M domestic box office (compare with, say, Hoppers, which made $165M). We’ve got words like ETRE, well known to crossword veterans but maybe not so much to beginners who aren’t French speakers. The clue [“Same here”] for I AM TOO, which could easily be I AGREE (which is what I had for a while) or I DO TOO as clued. And then clues like [Breakfast mascot’s rank] for CAP’N, which could have had a much easier fill-in-the-blank on a Monday.
So I think this puzzle is fine, but placed on the wrong day of the week — or, more likely, could have benefited from some easing up on the clues since the theme lends itself to Monday.
Liz Gorski’s New Yorker crossword—Amy’s recap
New Yorker crossword solution, 5/18/26 – Gorski
Quicker than most Monday New Yorker puzzles for me, but then I’m good with names and there are plenty of proper nouns here.
Fave fill: GROOMS-TO-BE, NAHUATL (the language that brought us chocolate and avocado), CARAVAGGIO, FOOT-LONG SUB, CROSSOVER, THE PRESTIGE.
New to me:
- 11d. [Lara of the girl group Katseye], RAJ. Stage name is short for Rajagopalan. Katseye is a pop group formed by a competition series I’d never heard of, which aired on YouTube.
- 29a. [“Dalla ___ pace” (“Don Giovanni” aria)], SUA. Heaven help the younger solvers who don’t know YUL Brynner or lesser-known Italian words in opera.
Could do without: Chrysler LEBARON, ANODE, DYER, ERTE, APPEALINGLY, SUA.
Three stars from me.
Kaela Curry, Zhou Zhang, and Kevin Curry’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up
Universal • 5/18/26 • Mon • Curry, Zhang • solution • 20260518
- 55aR [Meditation or mindfulness, e.g. … or what the starred clues’ answers could engage in?] SPIRITUAL WORK. So those three entries are familiar phrases that feature a type of supernatural being + a job title.
- 20a. [*Early-stage startup funder] ANGEL INVESTOR.
- 34a. [*Anonymous author] GHOST WRITER.
- 41a. [*Saja Boy’s rival in a blockbuster 2025 movie] DEMON HUNTER.
Solid (or not, as the case may be).
- 4d [“I __ declare …”] HEREBY. Despite the six-letter requirement and the lack of an exclamation point, I still reflexively thought of and wanted DO.
- 7d [Weighty] HEAVY, not GRAVE, as I first tried.
- 11d [“Hang on a sec …”] BEAR WITH ME. 28d [Kraken, for example] SEA MONSTER. Both of these long entries contain certain entities (one needs to be willfully misinterpreted), but neither would be considered a spirit.
- 13d [Word often wrongly apostrophized] ITS. 23a [Conjunction that kids sometimes snicker at] BUT.
- 42d [Request on a birthday party invitation] NO GIFTS. I’d prefer a “perhaps”-style qualifier.
- 53d [One of 1,665 in the Eiffel Tower] STAIR. I laughably tried STRUT first, which would no doubt be an absurdly low quantity.
- 61d [*Shrug*] MEH; not one of the “starred clues”. 62d [World Cup cheer]¡OLÉ!
- 15a [Weapon for an athlete who’s en garde] EPÉE. 16a [On guard] ALERT.
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1888 — Eric’s Review
Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Crossword #1888 — 5/18/26 (Click to Enlarge)
Brendan’s website seems a bit messed up this morning, and the more I try to figure out what’s what, the more confused I get. Going by his puzzle numbers, if last Thursday’s “All Toyed Up” was #1885, today’s should be #1886. (There might be a second #1885, “Breakfast Box.”) But this grid is labelled as #1888, with a posting date of May 11. [?]
Whatever. I hadn’t previously solved this one and I assume it’s the correct one for today.
Clues, answers and other stuff:
- 1A [Watered down] THIN Not WEAK, which I stuck with too long.
- 9A [Short rhythmic chords] STABS I love music, but have zero experience playing it. I’ll take Brendan’s word for it that musicians use this term.
- 19A [“Something doesn’t add up,” with “the”] MATH AIN’T MATHING I’d not heard this somewhat cutesy phrase. If you’re going to say “ain’t” rather than “isn’t,” wouldn’t you say “mathin'” instead of “mathing”?
- 21A [Three-time Newbery Honor winner Eleanor] ESTES That’s a new name to me, and I’m mildly surprised that I never encountered her growing up. Her children’s books that won that award are The Middle Moffat (1942), Rufus M. (1943) and The Hundred Dresses (1944).
- 23A [“Sinners” actor Lindo] DELROY A gimme. I guess the first thing I saw him in was Malcolm X (1993), but I really took note of him in The Cider House Rules (1999).
- 34A [Colorado Rapids’ league] MLS I didn’t know that Denver had a Major League Soccer team, but I’m not surprised.
- 46A [Troops’ quarters] BILLET Today’s obscure usage.
- 50A [Island where more than half the land is dedicated to olive groves] CRETE I hadn’t known that, but it seems obvious that the answer would be somewhere in the Mediterranean.
- 52A [Blame-game phrase] IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT Ouch. Not recommended as a way to foster open communication.
- 62A [Cornered-animal cry] HISS “Cry” implied something of greater volume than a hiss.
- 5D [Fodder for trivia] ODDITY Not SPORTS.
- 8D [Academic abbr.] STEM Not EMERitus.
- 9D [Showed disrespect towards] SPAT ON Yikes!
- 12D [Halloumi preserver] BRINE Halloumi sounds vaguely familiar; it’s a “mild, firm, white Cypriot cheese, used especially in cooked dishes.”
- 25D [It’s just one thing after another] LIST Cute clue.
- 26D [Minuteman’s home] SILO The missile, not the Revolutionary War militiaman.
- 31D [Color de algunos ojos] AZUL My Spanish vocabulary includes “ojos” (“eyes”) and “azul” (“blue”), but not “algunos” (in this context “someone,” I think).
- 33D [All together now?] NEAT I guess that clue means “together” as in tidily arranged or something.
- 47D [Biathlete’s prop] RIFLE Not BIPOD, which biathletes use (I think) to support their rifles.
- 49D [Tests that take exactly two hours and fourteen minutes: Abbr.] PSATS More accurately, a test for which the maximum time is 2:14?
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3 stars
Well, at least I enjoyed this more than yesterday’s puzzle… 😒
In all seriousness, though, I enjoyed today’s puzzle and got a PR while jamming out to some Elton John – so that’s nice. The theme was pretty simple, yet well executed. The HP grid-spanner will definitely take off some points for some people, though, so that’s unfortunate. Just wait until they release the new HP show, and even more HP references will appear in the grid (oh no…). I’m not saying that MINISTRYOFMAGIC is a bad entry. It’s only that Rowling’s opinions get in the way of its freshness.
Overall, a nice and easy Monday to kick off the new week. The award for favorite entry goes to 33D for me, btw.
I think Rowling’s opinions are in reality pretty mainstream. I know trans people who are fans. I’m a lesbian, albeit an older one, who’s also a fan.
I welcome references to her and her work.
I’m not saying that HP references are bad. I personally think they add a splash of life to the grid. I only mentioned it because crossword constructors in recent times have started to draw away from HP references due to her anti-pride views. I don’t mean that HP is evil and He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. I only made that comment because I’m aware of the HP negativity in the crossword community.
Btw, the books are better than the films. ;)
Yes, I’ve seen that negativity in the crossword community. Like any community, there is a pull to the bubble where unanimity of opinion is expected and outrage when there is dissent.
While getting older sucks in many ways, I’m very happy that I don’t rely on any social media but rather I read books and newspapers with distinctively different viewpoints. There is no Georgina algorithm.
The crossword community is mostly much younger than me where intentional exposure to differing perspectives and being uncomfortable with facts are not as much the norm as they used to be.
JK Rowling doing just about everything she can to eliminate trans people from public life is a way, way worse thing than crossword constructors saying they don’t want to see references to her work in puzzles.
I’d take anything “Georgina” says with a grain of salt.
It’s funny you feel the need to tell others how to interpret me.
It’s also funny how you have intentionally misgendered me multiple times. It’s ok. I can handle it. I was a tomboy growing up and have dealt with your kind of nastiness all my life. I know who I am. I think I also know who you are.
Yeh I don’t think extreme antipathy and well-funded assaults on basic rights are pretty mainstream. Furthermore it’s my opinion that her writing is derivative and substandard, a view I’ve held since long before her ugly views regarding transgender people emerged.
Too much troll-feeding here lately.
Differo, ergo trollus sum.
Diversity of opinions is tolerated, but be prepared for pushback.
I can handle pushback.
But for the proud ani-intellectuals, a differing opinion means a troll. It’s sad I had to explain that.
+1
Rowling’s opinions don’t get in the way of her freshness – it’s the anger, hatred, and intolerance of some people that do. You are free to agree or disagree with her opinions, as we all are – but some understand that her political opinions have nothing to do with her art. And when did crossword puzzles become a forum for political discourse?
She’s not some harmless soul expressing her opinions. She’s a multibillionaire influencing politics with vast sums of money, infecting her hateful, bigoted, uninformed notions upon millions of people.
Her ‘art’, as I mentioned in another comment, is derivative and inferior—she is a hack at best. Unfortunately, it resonates with a lot of people.
But I’ll bet that she gets irony.
Probably, in a limited sense.
Multimillionaires are free to express their opinions.
I assume when it’s a left-of-center Hollywood type doing so it’s more acceptable to many.
Not sure why that even enters the conversation.
I know you don’t have a reading comprehension issue, so I must conclude that you’re being willfully obdurate.
Nice dodge.
Dodge how? You’re the one not responding to what I wrote above: “She’s a multibillionaire influencing politics with vast sums of money”.
Do you see any lefty Hollywoodians effecting something remotely comparable?
Because I’m such an expert solver, I immediately put in INOT at 1A and GUCCI at 5A…
Nice Monday puzzle!
New Yorker: I’d like to defend the Italian word SUA. This is the only thing I got wrong, because I didn’t get its last square, crossing TEAWARE. The square was gettable with the crossing. (I have some small sympathy, very small, with young solvers and YUL, since I think that young people should watch old movies just as I did when I was young.) Moreover, I had the joy of looking up that aria, whose name I didn’t know but which is so beautiful.
Puzzle: The New Yorker; Rating: 2 stars
crossing INSANA and CADY with CARAVAGGIO did not work well with me
I like a difficult crossword, and this one was a beast. Took me forever and I finished with one letter wrong – which in retrospect, I shouldn’t have screwed up. I always try to solve without looking anything up (though I confess that I asked my wife if UGG is an Australian brand).
But I couldn’t help thinking all during the solve, how many of these clues/entries did Ms. Gorski know without looking them up somewhere? If she is a polymath and her answer to that question is “all of them,” then I’m willing to say I was just overmatched. But if she needed to consult reference works or the internet to come up with more than a few of these, then I wonder whether this is a good crossword.
I didn’t know sua or Insana, but I would categorize Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Caravaggio as broadly known, especially among the New Yorker audience. I generally find Gorski’s ‘challenging’ puzzles not very challenging, and this was no exception.
Puzzle: The New Yorker; Rating: 3 stars
I love Liz, but too many fairly unknown names crossing other names made it less fun for me today.
Where is the BEQ puzzle? His site still shows the puzzle from Thursday. I’ve used a different browser, deleted my history and cache – but still just get Thursday’s offering.
Re: JK Rowling and HP – give it a rest, will ya? References to Chairman Mao and Che Guevara seem to be fine in CWP, as noted by the dearth of complaints – even though they were responsible for millions of deaths, ethnic cleansing, political genocide and worse. Rowling is guilty only of voicing an opinion that you may disagree with. How about Picasso? Do you enjoy his paintings, even though he was a philanderer and (some say) a sexual predator? Rowling wrote some immensely popular books (Not my style, actually), and expressed personal opinions (which I may or may not agree/disagree with). Are crossword puzzles repositories for political correctness? Or are they about trivia, pop culture, wordplay, and entertainment? (One of Sunday’s puzzles referenced John Galt, a character in “Atlas Shrugged”, and I fully expected this kind of response. Happily, I was wrong, but I still don’t know why.)
Nevermind about the BEQ puzzle – I went to the “cruciverb” site and found it there. Must be some kind of cache detritus on my machine.
d
Never mind references to Mao and Che. They never trigger the outrage that Rowling does. The desperately offended can’t do the moral math so they just ignore it.
Rowling’s outrageous actions continue. Mao and Che are dead. Might make a difference to some.
Where’s the WSJ solution? This site is lame.
I thought it was quite hard for a Monday, especially 28A. Never heard of 20A either.
So lame that you depend on it to check your work?