AV Club untimed (Amy) 
[3.40 avg; 5 ratings] rate it
LAT 4:23 (Gareth) 
[2.75 avg; 2 ratings] rate it
NYT 5:53 (Amy) [3.50 avg; 10 ratings] rate it
The New Yorker 4:10 (Jim Q) 
[4.21 avg; 7 ratings] rate it
Universal tk (pannonica) [2.75 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
USA Today 7:32 (Emily) [2.50 avg; 1 rating] rate it
WSJ 6:09 (Eric) [4.13 avg; 4 ratings] rate it
Geoffrey Schorkopf & Amie Walker’s AV Club Classic crossword, “Leaves a Legacy” — Amy’s recap
AV Club Classic crossword solution, 2/25/26 – “Leaves a Legacy”
The name of the game is the Shel Silverstein story, THE GIVING TREE, clued [Classic children’s book whose story arc is illustrated by this puzzle’s circled squares]. The circled squares show the boy proceeding from B to BO to BOY, while the tree is diminished from TREE to TRE to TR to T. In the book, the boy takes and takes, using the tree’s APPLES (spelled out in the circled squares) and shade and then hacking her down altogether to make wooden furniture or something. An allegory of maternal sacrifice (the tree is female)? Usually the protagonist in a kid’s book isn’t a villain, but here it is.
Other thematic material: “HOW ABOUT THEM APPLES?” The tree trunk is anchored by CARBON NEUTRALITY, but chopping down a mature tree is the opposite of that. Not sure anything else is tied to the theme, besides the blacck squares colored green and brown, the answers containing the shaded BOY and TREE squares, and the circled APPLES.
Fave fill: NO SWEAT, EMPTY THREAT, “SAME HERE,” HIGHLIGHT REEL, ME TOO ERA, PHONE TAG, TRIPLE OT, COWBOY CARTER.
3.5 stars from me.
Alexander Liebeskind’s Wall Street Journal Crossword — Eric’s Review
Alexander Liebeskind’s Wall Street Journal Crossword “Going Halfsies” — 2/25/26 (Click to Embiggen)
A punny revealer for a straightforward theme:
- 17A [Seat, perhaps] POLITICAL OFFICE
- 23A [Georgian who’s the youngest incumbent senator] JON OSSOF He’s now 39; the minimum age for a United States senator is 30. (The youngest ever senator was John Eaton, who was 28½ when he took office in 1818. Apparently, everyone just ignored the fact that he didn’t meet the constitutional age requirement.)
- 36A [Some negotiation figures] COUNTER-OFFERS
- 52A [Morning energy source] HOT COFFEE
- 58A [Certain sale markdown, and a description of the ends of 17-,23-, 36- and 52-Across] FIFTY PERCENT OFF “Fifty percent” because half the letters in the second word of each theme answer spell OFF.
I like that this theme is easy to grasp and that the theme answers are all relatively interesting. I could tell after JON OSSOFF that the remaining theme answers would all incorporate OFF, but I wasn’t sure where those letters would fall (which would have made the puzzle much easier).
Other stuff:
- 10A [“The Game of Strategic Conquest”] RISK I don’t remember that tagline, though I had that board game as a kid. My siblings were rarely interested in playing it, though.
- 30A [Spare in a boot] TYRE I like how the use of “boot” (British English for a car’s trunk) signals the British English spelling of “tire.”
- 41A [Oscar winner for “The Queen”] Dame Helen MIRREN I somehow read that clue with “African” between “The” and “Queen.”
- 3D [Guacamole ingredient] CILANTRO I don’t have anything against cilantro; it doesn’t taste soapy to me. But I’ve never put it in guacamole.
- 26D [Chocolatier that produces Nutella] FERRERO I just learned that Ferrero now owns WK Kellogg Co., the cereal maker. I’m not particularly surprised.
Brad Lively’s New York Times crossword–Amy’s recap
NY Times crossword solution, 2/25/26 – no. 0225
One big advantage of solving the puzzle in one of the NYT’s preferred digital formats is that you can get a visual spotlighting of the theme. You fill in a T, V, and C where the little BREAKDANCES moves resemble a T, V, and C, and when you finish solving, boop, the three dances that are broken by the figures are seen in tan: D(t)ISCO, T(v)ANGO, and BALLE(c)T. Nice! Without that subtle color show, I’d have missed seeing the DISCO, TANGO, and BALLET here. (Bet I’m not alone.) The revealer clue is [Emulates the three figures in this puzzle … or what the figures do within the answers to 17-, 27- and 46-Across?], and I wasn’t seeing it.
The themers containing those broken dances are a Lively™ bunch: CREDIT SCORE, VINCENT VAN GOGH, and HANNIBAL LECTER. In the fill, there’s further sparkle in MADONNA, VISUAL AIDS, “I HAD NO IDEA,” ECHOLOCATE, slangy STANNED, and MMA FIGHTER. I also liked the Steven YEUN clue, [Actor Steven of “Beef” and “Nope”]; kudos to Mr. Yeun for having critically acclaimed performances in not one but two projects with tiny 4-letter titles, he knows what cluers are looking for.
Four stars from me.
New Yorker crossword — Jim Q’s write-up
New Yorker • 2/25/26 • Wed • Robyn Weintraub • solution • 20260225
FAVE ENTRIES:
- [“Spring forward” or “fall back” occurrence] TIME CHANGE. I hate the clock games we play in this country for reasons that no one seems to be able to explain well.
- [Off-road vehicle with skis] SNOWMOBILE. This is a good time of year to have one near me!
- [“Yo, pass a cold one over here”] BEER ME!
- [Reindeer after Dancer, alphabetically] DASHER. Were you able to enter this without singing the song in your head?
- [“Move over so I can share this bench with you”] “SCOOCH!”
- [Forested area home to Winnie-the-Pooh and hispals] HUNDRED ACRE WOOD. It’s got me singing that James Taylor song… (oops… Kenny Loggins, I mean)
- [Betting game in which you might literally lose your shirt] STRIP POKER. Does anyone actually play this?
- [Girl whose mom “has got it goin’ on,” in a Fountains of Wayne hit] STACY. Band named for a store near me in Jersey.
- [Recent recruits with fresh ideas, metaphorically] NEW BLOOD.
- [Refuge for vulnerable wildlife] ANIMAL SANCTUARY.
PLENTY OF STUMBLES FOR ME/OTHER THINGS:
Selfie Lin Manuel took on my phone.
- [“Nana Roja Para Mi Hijo ___ Manuel” (poem for which a Broadway composer was named)] LIN. I entered LIL. Thought it was looking for a rapper. I tapped Lin Manuel on the shoulder once (not knowing it was him) and asked him to take a picture of me and someone else. Unbeknownst to me at the time, he also took a selfie on my phone.
- SLOW MOBILE for SNOW MOBILE. Convinced myself this was correct for a second. L due to stumble in last bullet point.
- [The “D” in the title of the 2021 film “CODA”] DEAF. Ooooh I forgot I was supposed to watch this move and haven’t yet!
- [Brewery containers] VATS for KEGS.
- NEW HIRES for NEW BLOOD.
Another solid one. 4 stars.
Sally Hoelscher & Olivia Mitra Framke’s USA Today Crossword, “Preschool” — Emily’s write-up
Pack your backpack!
USA Today, February 25, 2026, “Preschool” by Sally Hoelscher & Olivia Mitra Framke
Theme: the first word (“pre”) of each themer is a type of school
Themers:
- 15a. [Firsthand account, for example], PRIMARYSOURCE
- 33a. [Area of compromise], MIDDLEGROUND
- 56a. [Needing a lot of care and attention], HIGHMAINTENANCE
What a themer set with PRIMARYSOURCE, MIDDLEGROUND, and HIGHMAINTENANCE. I needed a few crossings for the first and third to get stared but the second themer filled in easily. With today’s theme we get: PRIMARY school, MIDDLE school, and HIGH school.
Favorite fill: COSMIC, ONTIME, and UPCYCLE
Stumpers: CHAPEL (tried “church” first), RAPINOE (new to me), and METRIC (misdirected–I kept thinking about other units)
Carrying on with the school theme, there’s also ABCS, SMARTY, CITING, and MISTYPE among the overall fill, and likely more that could be related too. Cute! I loved the gird and the solve was smooth for me today with great cluing that meant a fairly quick time for me today. Lots of fresh fill too! How’d you all do?
4.0 stars
~Emily
Brian Callahan’s LA Times crossword – Gareth’s theme summary
Brian Callahan’s set theme is very neatly tied together. The final answer is PSILOVEYOU, clued as a Beatles song, and each of four previous artists are oldies singers with initials PS: PATTISMITH, PETESEEGER, PAULSIMON & PHOEBESNOW.
Other highlights are GODTIER (will we see / have we seen STIER yet?), MOMAGER and timeless DRSEUSS.
Gareth
NYT: I solved in AL, so I didn’t have the little dancer figures – just circled squares flanking the squares where the dancers would have been. I noticed the three dances as I solved, but didn’t grok the theme until I got to the revealer – so that was a nice “aha!” moment.
The fill seemed very smooth – no complaints. I thought it was a little on the easy side. Difficulty-wise, I think I’d have swapped yesterday’s puzzle and this one.
if you solve on an iPhone with the New York Times app (as I do), the little breakdance figures are present, forming the appropriate letters. Neat.
But beware. Because of an inane technical glitch, you actually have to type the letter over the image in order for the puzzle to complete.
Once again, I had no pleasure solving today’s NYT due the dancing figures that were in my version in AL. Typing the letters in the rebus squares
didn’t work for me. I never did get a complete reveal for the puzzle. Too much machination and it ain’t even Thursday!
And I ran across something I’ve never seen before. One of the squares had a thin red line on the perimeter of the square.
The WSJ was an easy puzzle, but I don’t understand the theme. Yes, they all have OFF in them, but what is the relevance of “fifty-percent”?
The three letters O-F-F constitute 50% of the last six letters of each theme entry.
Having an extra O in OSSOFF perhaps muddies the waters a bit.
I thought “Hot Coffee” was a little messy – seems like lopping 50% off of anything would come either at the beginning or the end like the other theme entries, but this one was C – OFF – EE. Yes, yes, I know, it’s still technically half the letters – but it’s an outlier.