AV Club 5:23 (Amy) 
[3.75 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
LAT 4:58 (Gareth) 
[2.50 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
NYT 4:40 (Amy) 
[2.88 avg; 12 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker tk (Kyle) 
[3.90 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (pannonica) [2.83 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
USA Today 9:32 (Emily) [2.67 avg; 3 ratings] rate it
WSJ 8:35 (Eric) 
[2.00 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Good Intentions” — Eric’s Review
Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Good Intentions” — 12/31/25 (Click to Embiggen)
Familiar phrases get an extra RE, to wacky effect:
- 17A [Auto gear thrown in at no extra cost?] FREE REVERSE Free verse
- 25A [Trash pile that’s only a few inches high?] SHORT REFUSE Short fuse
- 39A [A new baby?] MATERNITY REWARD Maternity ward
- 48A [Some pet spas?] DOG RETREATS Dog treats
- 58A [New Year’s plans, and a punny explanation of this puzzle’s theme] RESOLUTIONS Punny, I suppose, because you can parse it as “RE solutions.”
As always with a theme of this type, how well it plays for you depends on how amusing you find the theme answers. I didn’t think they were particularly amusing, but knowing that each theme answer had an added RE may have helped me solve a little more easily. Oddly, though, I found it a bit challenging for an early-week puzzle, probably because I had a few perfectly plausible answers that were just wrong.
Other stuff of note:
- 15A [Cause to feel embarrassed] ABASH Not ABASE.
- 31A [Poet portrayed in “Il Postino”] The Chilean Pablo NERUDA, who was also a senator and ambassador (and admitted rapist).
- 32A [They may be fixed in second printings] ERRATA Not ERRORS.
- 45A [Cars on some late-1950s lots] EDSELS The E from 40D ICER was enough to let me know this was Ford’s famous flop.
- 64A [Letter after upsilon] PHI/51D [Letter before upsilon] TAU I more or less know the names of the Greek letters, but not where they fall in the alphabet, so I needed a cross or two in each case.
- 68A [Veep after Humphrey] Spiro AGNEW Just in case you needed a bit of 1970s to go with your 1950s.
- 2D [Group led by Nasser, briefly] UAR For United Arab Republic, which lasted from 1958–1971 (although Syria, the only country in the union besides Egypt, left in 1961). I’ve seen this entry in 30-year-old New York Times crosswords, but I don’t see it much in newer ones.
- 6D [1958 Buddy Holly song] RAVE ON Okay, it’s older than I am. I’m willing to cut some slack here because it’s still a good song.
- 10D [Port Sudan is on its shore] THE RED SEA I don’t really object when the definite article appears as part of a crossword answer, but neither do I expect to see it.
- 26D [Give a makeover] RESTYLE Not RESTORE.
- 33D [Where a company does most of its business] TRADE AREA I wasn’t crazy about this answer, but that’s how the term is defined.
- 48D [Action star Lundgren] DOLPH Adding to the retro feel of the grid. But though he’s older than I am, only one of us is still working . . .
Jeffrey Martinovic’s New York Times crossword–Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 12/31/25 – no. 1231
If you use Across Lite or Black Ink to solve the NYT, you’re missing the visuals that can be included on the NYT’s site. This puzzle is adorned with party hats and balloons in some of the black squares. So the theme entries are all clued [Gathering for this puzzle’s attendees], and the answers are SQUARE DANCE, CELL RECEPTION, BOX SOCIAL, and BLOCK / PARTY. The first word can be applied to the divisions of a crossword grid, while the second word is a festive gathering.
It feels jarring to have CELL RECEPTION redefined so significantly (not meaning signal reception for a cell phone here), while the other three things are actual social events.
It’s also jarring to have BOX SOCIAL, which I’ll wager most solvers aren’t familiar with. Wikipedia mentions the early 1900s and Vermont, with some supposed resurgence in recent years. I had never seen the term before. Those of you who have seen Oklahoma! might know it, but will you have experienced a box social in person?
Fave fill: MANSCAPED (get out your shaver!), PAPA BEAR (he’s sorely in need of manscaping, no?), and LIBERACE. I’d like GETS COMFY better without the S.
Three stars from me. Happy New Year!
Mat Holmes’s AV Club Classic crossword, “Ray of Hope”–Amy’s recap
AV Club Classic crossword solution, 12/31/25 – “Ray of Hope”
So the cover letter the puzzle was attached to advised solvers to print out the PDF rather than solving via the .puz file. I took a look at the PDF and hey! Am I the only one who has a laser printer rather than a color inkjet? I’d have enjoyed a printed puzzle with various gradations of gray in place of the colored squares. Solved the .puz in Crossword Nexus, and then screenshotted (is that the past tense of screenshot?) the answer page to display the colors and theme exposition:
In addition to the lyric SEA TO SHINING SEA, the grid features several depictions of other imagery from “America the Beautiful”: spacious SKIES; amber waves of grain (CORN and RICE); purple mountains (colored in GRAPE and LILAC); and fruited plains (where PEAR, APPLE, and PLUM can be seen).
The SKIES are sky blue, the “purple mountain majesties” are both LILAC-colored even though one spells out GRAPE. The fruited plains get three fruits and their colors, though these fruits aren’t specified in the song.
May I grouse that OCHER is in the grid, detracting from the colorful theme? Go away, OCHER!
52a. [Credit for Gloria Stuart in “Titanic,” who drops her necklace into the water], OLD ROSE. Ha! It really does say Old Rose in IMDb. The actress was born two years before the Titanic sailed, so she wouldn’t have been a 17-year-old. Guess James Cameron couldn’t find any working actresses born in 1895.
It is nice to hold on to the good parts of the U.S., even when bad things are going on. Three stars from me.
Stella Zawistowski’s USA Today Crossword, “Ball Drop” — Emily’s write-up
3…2…1!
USA Today, December 31, 2025, “Ball Drop” by Stella Zawistowski
Theme: each downs themer contains –BALL–
Themers:
- 4d. [Alternatives to pointe shoes], BALLETSLIPPERS
- 14d. [Prime ministers, presidents, etc.], GLOBALLEADERS
- 15d. [Fancy costume party], MASQUERADEBALL
A fancial themer set today that’s fit for the occasion, with entertainment, guests, and an event to ring in the New Year: BALLETSLIPPERS, GLOBALLEADERS, and MASQUERADEBALL. An extra delight with BALL– starting at the top in the first themer and descending to the bottom on the grid with the last in the perfect cruciverbalist’s celebratory drop for today.
Favorite fill: LOSTARTS, UNCLIP, SEAWEED, and BOOP
Stumpers: FINSTA (needed crossings), LTE (needed crossings, and a bit perturbed that I couldn’t fill this in easily–has it been that long already?), and TRITE (“trope” came to mind first)
What a way to celebrate today! A fantastic puzzle that was a smooth solve for me with a great grid, excellent fill, and despite it’s slightly challenging cluing my time wasn’t too long today. Impressive for a Stella puzzle for me–how’d you all do today?
As this is the last USA Today crossword for 2025, I’ll wish you all a Happy New Year! Be safe and have fun tonight ringing in the new one!
4.5 stars
~Emily
Rebecca Goldstein’s LA Times Crossword – Gareth’s summary
My favourite LA Times theme of the year drops on the last day… The final revealing entry is CALENDARTETRIS. And Ms. Goldstein works all seven tetrominoes into the puzzle using circles to spell out typical calendar entries. The opposite spanning entry of PLAYINGFORTIME is less essential. The 4×1 is GAME, the block is GALA, the T is WORK, the L’s are CALL and trip, and the diagonals are YOGA and DATE…
Other highlights were [Beefy, casually] SWOLE although I was trying to think of something meaning beef-flavoured? And [Bow alternative], CURTSY where I read it to rhyme with “mow” initially, which I guess is the point
Gareth
Wednesday Universal:
https://herbach.dnsalias.com/wsj/uc251231.puz
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3 stars
So what were everyone’s favorite crosswords of 2025? I have a few:
The Minesweeper grid was my #1, just an absolute joy:
https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=10/02/2025
The April Fools crossword was also great. I liked how some of the scribbled in entries were actually right:
https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=04/01/2025
I know she works for TNY… but I wish we could have had more than one Robyn Weintraub Friday. It was terrific as always.
https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/2/2025
And of course I have to shout out HEADLESSBODY INTOPLESSBAR again.
https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/9/2025
We’ll be posting a survey for CF visitors to vote on their favorite puzzles of 2025 shortly. Winners will be announced as part of the 2026 ORCAS presentation.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 3 stars
I agree on the inaptness of CELL RECEPTION in the NYT theme set. Perhaps the theme might work better as just punny entries or legit ones, but not a mixture of the 2.
+1. I think the theme set could have sung if CELL RECEPTION was somehow finagled into a revealer, thereby reckoning with its outsiderness.
NYT: I liked the simple, festive theme!
Honestly I was hoping for a little animation when I was finished, but it was not to be.
On to 2026!
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 4 stars
Agree on the animation. I solve in Black Ink which displayed the party hats and balloons. When I didn’t get any animation after solving I went to the NYT site and solved there. I expected confetti
If you’re a disappointed Across Lite solver, rest assured that at least this print solver was totally flummoxed by the NYT. In the crude black and white of my priner, the icons could be most anyth9ng or nothing. I still don’t really get the idea of refering to each and every time to “this puzzle’s attendees.” Are they all the same place?
I also had “hijab” for NIQAB and ran into more than my share of things to do with Star War, pick-up trucks, home shopping, wrestling, and other unfriendly domains, although I realize that Knights from Star Wars were in a puzzle only recently.
I also thought the repeated, “this puzzle’s attendees,” was confusing. And I thought that having the theme answers be a mix of actual social events and non-social events was also confusing.
I was underwhelmed by the NYT puz, for the reasons Amy mentions. SQUAREDANCE is a get-together, CELLRECEPTION is not, and what a BOXSOCIAL might be I had no idea.
I keep meaning to start a log of how often the puzzle has a Star Wars reference, but I’ve been too lazy to do it. Ok, it’ll be my New Year’s resolution, starting tomorrow!
The start of a New Year has so much potential – A New Hope!
Touché!
It’s too late for me to put you on Santa’s naughty list for 2025…
My wife says she’s got your back
Star Wars isn’t the only thing that Will Shortz is unduly obsessed with, but no question it’s the worst (especially since he’s eased up on Harry Potter in the last couple of years).
To a degree his love of sci-fi quite generally reflects an age thing I can’t (and don’t wish to) emulate. For an older nerd, sci-fi is most often something light for which you lose points, while for someone younger it’s a sign you ‘re a geek.
Now that we don’t have a monoculture, a lot of pop culture entries are out the window. Star Wars is one of the fleeting things that everyone generally knows about.
Puzzle: NYT; Rating: 2.5 stars
Oh come now. Between Star Wars and Harry Potter, the yearly total cannot be much more than some insignificant number, say 300.
NYT: Mom always told me if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.
Had to work at this for a while, but I did like MANSCAPED.
Silly graphics that have only the most remote link to solving the puzzle. The central themer that is basically just a “Wha?” A DAB, X-IN, NO-GOS, AM I?
Guess that does it for today – hope Mom is okay with this.
Puzzle: AV Club; Rating: 5 stars
Amazing puzzle…a work of art!