Hello again! Last year, I made a Crossword Calendar (where every month’s calendar grid doubled as a crossword grid). The response was pretty positive, but after some hemming and hawing, I decided not to make another one for the year 2026. I could say my excuse is that I’ve been busy doing things like:

  • Moving from Manhattan to Brooklyn, seemingly a canon event for young New Yorkers
  • Attending the inaugural WikiGameJam, where I started building a trivia-based incremental game called Mind Palace and ended up on an official Wikipedia Instagram reel
  • Making two or three 10x10 music-themed crosswords a week for Billboard (with a full archive of my puzzles there available here!)

But in reality, I started working on a 2026 calendar and realized it was shaping up to be pretty much the same thing as last year, which wasn’t inspiring much passion. I will put out some feelers though: if anyone works for some sort of publisher and wants to partner on a future Crossword Calendar, my email is in the footer!

However, one thing is special about 2026: the month of February, starting on Sunday and ending on Saturday, forms a perfect 4x7 rectangle. So I couldn’t resist honoring this momentous occasion with a puzzle in the shape of the February 2026 calendar grid. Hope you enjoy!

Finally, a little meta: this puzzle is hiding something extra. Can you find it?