Wednesday, February 11, 2026

AV Club 6:00 (Amy) [4.08 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
LAT 6:44 (Gareth) [2.50 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 4:25 (Amy) [3.05 avg; 11 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker 4:02 (Jim Q) [3.90 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (pannonica) [2.00 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
USA Today 10:12 (Emily) [2.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
WSJ 6:15 (Eric) [3.17 avg; 3 ratings] rate it

Lynn Lempel’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “X Factor” — Eric’s Review

Lynn Lempel’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “X Factor” — 2/11/26 (Click to Embiggen)

Add TEN (for which X is of course the Roman numeral) to some common compound nouns and crossword wackiness results:

• 20A [Cuddly therapy animal?] FIRST AID KITTEN
• 26A [How TV reaches the North Pole?] SANTA ANTENNA That double A threw me for a bit; “antenna” didn’t seem like it would fit.
• 43A [Mighty pungent entrees?] POTENT ROASTS
• 52A [Highly successful evaluation?] HEARTENING TEST As someone who’s undergone almost every cardiac examination around (I’ll see your stress EKG and raise you a transesophageal echocardiogram), “heart test” seems uselessly vague.

None of the wackified theme answers much amuse me, but they also don’t irk me, which makes this theme moderately successful for me. It helps that despite the X/TEN dichotomy, I grasped the theme immediately. That’s also a plus.

Other stuff:

• 14A [Civic-minded company?] HONDA Cute clue.
• 34A [Audiophile’s collection] LPs I left this blank until I had a cross on the off-chance that it might have been CDs. I’ve still got both and rarely listen to either.
• 49A [Volcanic output] GAS Not ASH.
• 8D [“The Devil in the White City” author Larson] ERIK The author’s name is vaguely familiar; the nonfiction book’s title isn’t. According to Wikipedia, “The book interweaves the true tales of Daniel Burnham, the architect behind the 1893 World’s Fair [in Chicago], and H. H. Holmes, a serial killer who lured his victims to their deaths in his elaborately constructed ‘Murder Castle’.” Except for this one, all the proper names were gimmes.
• 55D [Paper patcher] TAPE I considered GLUE first.

Adryel W. Robles Ojeda’s AV Club Classic crossword, “AV Classic Themeless #86”–Amy’s recap

AV Club Classic crossword solution, 2/11/26 – “AV Classic Themeless #86”

Fun themeless, not as easy as billed. Maybe in part because I needed lots of crossings for 19a. [Intuitive, as it were], VIBES-BASED.

Seven things:

• 33a. [Old-timey aesthetic trope similar to saying YOLO], MEMENTO MORI. Huh? Merriam-Webster says that’s a “reminder of death,” while “you only live once” isn’t screaming death at you.
• 25a. [“___ des fleurs” (Stravinsky piece)], VALSE. A concert waltz, it means. I needed crossings.
• 34a. [What one might use to pay for a tour of Machu Picchu], SOLES. Plural of the Peruvian sol.
• 35a. [Imagine Dragons track featuring JID], ENEMY. Needed crossings to know it wasn’t “Enema.” A top-10 hit five years ago. Never heard of JID; Wikipedia says he’s known for the wordplay in his rap.
• 33d. [Room where a parent might invite her friends to hang out], MOMCAVE. Haven’t seen this one before.
• 49d. [Web language concerned with presentation: Abbr.], CSS. New to me.
• 7d. [“___ Don’t Dance” (1997 animated musical)], CATS. Came out before I was a parent, and they didn’t market it well enough for me to have heard of it.

3.5 stars from me.

Joseph Gangi’s New York Times crossword–Amy’s recap

NY Times crossword solution, 2/11/26 – no. 0211

This 16×15 grid features the lyrics “GOODNESS GRACIOUS” and “GREAT BALLS OF FIRE,” with the circles in the midsection spelling out FIRE in four different clockwise layouts. The fill in the middle is surprisingly smooth given the constraints of crossing the balls of FIRE; EEO and CEE are the worst bits there (25D. [It’s for “cookie,” to Cookie Monster], CEE? No. C is for cookie. Sesame Street does not use crosswordese letters!). It’s a catchy song, but the singer married his cousin when she was 13, eww.

Fave fill: “YOU LOST ME,” BEST OF ALL, CAPS OFF. Not a lot of space for juicy fill with the FIRE balls locking things down.

Three things:

• 7A. [Something you might leave at the front door when entering a house], SHOE. If you’ve only got one leg, maybe. Otherwise you’ll be leaving two shoeS.
• 32D. [What pants come in that shirts don’t], PAIRS. Not loving this clue. Single pairs of pants are sold like single shirts are. Yes, I know “pair of pants” is a thing.
• 51D. [Pride Month letters], LGBT. Feels incomplete without a Q.

3.5 stars from me.

Robyn Weintraub’s New Yorker crossword — Jim Q’s write-up

Another stellar grid this week!

New Yorker • 2/11/26 • Wed • Robyn Weintraub • solution • 20260211

FAVE FILL:

• PIANO BAR [Venue for cocktails and live music]. Ok, I’m biased. I’ve been a PIANO BAR piano player since I was 14. Clue seems a bit vague though… I feel like there’s a good opportunity for a [?] type clue with a play on the word “grand,” but it’s eluding me at the moment.
• OVER THE TOP [Extravagant].
• TSUNAMI [Japanese word that literally translates to “harbor wave”]. I like when easy-level puzzles still find ways to include new information. I was unfamiliar with the literal translation, but the answer is still completely inferable.
• MAC [Short pasta?]. MAC being “short” for MACaroni.
• [Result of a lead-off single] ONE ON… which would ruin the NO HIT game being pitched in 10-Down.
• [“Been in this kind of situation before”] NOT MY FIRST RODEO. Yes. Great grid-spanner. I really like that the word “IT’S” is missing from the beginning. I hear it / use it sans IT’S more often than not
• [First verb in “Little Miss Muffet”] SAT. Fun clue that I’m just seeing now!
• [Picture taken overseas?] PASSPORT PHOTO. Great clue. One does indeed “take” their passport (and therefore their PASSPORT PHOTO) with them when traveling  overseas.
• [Complained loudly] MADE A STINK. I experienced pushback only in the SE corner of this puzzle, largely due to confidently entering MADE A SCENE here.
• [Rawhide, for Ronald Reagan, and Renegade, for Barack Obama, e.g.] CODENAME. I can think of a few CODENAMEs I’d like to use lately. I wonder what the current “official” ones are. Strike that. I don’t care.

Nearly crud-free grid. I’ll take the IS ON partial (not to be confused with ONE ON) as a perfect trade for the snazziness that comes to fruition as a result.

4.25 stars.

Jill Singer’s LA Times Crossword – Gareth’s theme summary

I have a pet peeve: those giant lists of “correct” collective nouns for various things almost none of which exist naturally in English. So today’s crossword features words for various groups of animals. Two of those four, pride and murder, are exceptions that started on those lists and actually became excepted. I’m not sure band of gorillas is quite as watertight as those and the fourth, school of fish. Anyway:

• PRIVATESCHOOL is a [Fish exhibit only viewable by appointment]
• A PRIDEPARADE is a [Procession of new arrivals in a lion sanctuary]
• [Gorillas who give glowing testimonies] is a TRIBUTEBAND
• [The Case of the Disappearing Crows, e.g.] is a MURDERMYSTERY

Gareth

Adryel W. Robles Ojeda’s USA Today Crossword, “Passing Remarks” — Emily’s write-up

Let me help you with that!

USA Today, February 11, 2026, “Passing Remarks” by Adryel W. Robles Ojeda

Theme: each themer is a phrase about passing

Themers:

• 20a. [“Appreciate the offer, but i don’t need any”], NONEFORMETHANKS
• 35a. [Quarterback’s before-the-snap phrase], HUTHUTHIKE
• 53a. [Polite request for some seasoning, perhaps], MAYIHAVETHESALT

Today’s themer set included NONEFORMETHANKS, HUTHUTHIKE, and MAYIHAVETHESALT. I needed a few crossings for each but none were too tricky. With the theme, the first themer represents
refusal, the second a football throw, and the third is a request. Three fun “passes”!

Favorite fill: LAVA, ALBA, and HONEYBEE

Stumpers: BLAB (“spill” and “tell” came to mind first) and MANTIS (needed crossings)

A fun puzzle today with an intriguing theme and delightful themer set! Lots of great, fresh fill and entertaining cluing. Took me a bit longer to solve today but it didn’t feel that long. How’d you all do?

4.0 stars

~Emily