February 26, 2026

Title: MIDDLE SCHOOL

Constructors: Sally Hoelscher & Olivia Mitra Framke

Editor: Amie Walker

Theme synopsis:

• WHERE TO NOW (17A: "What's our next destination?)
• SLIP OF THE TONGUE (38A: Verbal goof)
• GET ON WITH IT (57A: "I don't have all day")

MIDDLE SCHOOL: The word ETON, a SCHOOL in England, is found in each theme answer: WHERE TO NOW, SLIP OF THE TONGUE, and GET ON WITH IT. 

And now a word from our constructors:

Sally: Well, hello again! What's more fun than making a puzzle with Olivia? Making two puzzles with Olivia! We're back with another SCHOOL-themed puzzle. We've graduated from PRESCHOOL and moved on to MIDDLE SCHOOL.

Olivia: This is another puzzle in which I did the gridding and Sally did the clueing. When approaching this task, I tried to keep Sally's interests and perspective in mind, not just my own! Thus the inclusion of fill such as IOWA and PAW. As for me, I was especially happy to include TABLETOP, QUEST, and GROUP HUG!

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• FOMO (15A: Anxiety sometimes associated with declining an invitation (Abbr.)) FOMO = fear of missing out
• HIPS (19A: "___ Don't Lie" (Shakira hit)) "HIPS Don't Lie" is 2006 song by Shakira, featuring rap artist Wyclef Jean. The song won a Latin Billboard Music Award for Hot Latin Song of the Year-Vocal Duet or Collaboration. The music video for "HIPS Don't Lie" won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography in a Video.
• BOWL (24A: Attempt a strike, say) Not a labor strike, but an attempt to knock down all the pins in one go in BOWLing.
• OPI (30A: "I Sea You" nail polish brand) "I Sea You" is a sparkly blue gel nail polish by OPI. I don't wear much nail polish, but I kind of want this color. It's very sparkly and pretty.
• TANIA (32A: Raymonde who portrayed Alex Rousseau on "Lost") Lost is a sci-fi TV series that originally aired on ABC from 2004 to 2010. The show follows the survivors of a plane crash on a mysterious island somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean. TANIA Raymonde portrays Alex Rousseau.
• RWANDA (36A: Kigali's country) RWANDA is a landlocked country in East Africa. Kigali is its capital and largest city.
• ONE (48A: "Rogue ___: A Star Wars Story") Rogue ONE: A Star Wars Story is a 2016 movie. It serves as a prequel to the 1977 movie Star Wars, and is set a week before the events of that movie. ONE is making back-to-back puzzle appearances, as we saw it yesterday clued as ["I am ___ with the Force, and the Force is with me"]. I should have noted this yesterday: Although I wrote the majority of the clues for yesterday's puzzle and today's, Olivia gets credit for these Star Wars clues! 
• AIR (50A: Hot ___ balloon) My husband and I took a hot AIR balloon ride to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. (That was a few years ago...) It was incredible. It's so peaceful.
• TED (63A: AFC Richmond coach Lasso) TED Lasso is the title character of the TV series of the same name. On the show, Jason Sudeikis portrays TED Lasso, coach of the fictional soccer team, AFC Richmond.
• PAW (1D: Feline foot) and FERAL (4D: Like some outdoor cats) Both my cat, Willow, and Olivia's cat, Whiskey, are indoor cats. And, of course, they have adorable PAWs.

Whiskey showing off her paws

Willow showing off her paw

• IOWA (9D: State in which pigs outnumber people) When I saw that Olivia had put IOWA in the grid, I immediately knew what angle I wanted to use for the clue. (Thanks to the editors for keeping this clue!) If you are a regular reader of the blog, you may remember that on February 6 when we saw COWS clued as [Animals that outnumber people in Montana] I shared the fact that in IOWA there are roughly seven to eight pigs for each person in the state.
• UMPED (12D: Worked from home?) The question mark in the clue alerts solvers to expect some trickiness and wordplay. The work being done from home here is being an UMP behind home base in a baseball game.
• PIANO (29D: "Grand" instrument) and ABODE (50D: "Humble" dwelling) When a word in a clue appears in quotation marks, that indicates the word can be directly paired with the answer. These clues are referring to a grand PIANO and a humble ABODE, respectively.
• EPIPEN (35D: Device for treating anaphylaxis) EPIPEN is the trademark name for a brand of epinephrine autoinjector, a medical device used to inject a measured dose of epinephrine to treat anaphylaxis (a life-threatening type of allergic reaction).
• GROUP HUG (40D: Crowd-sourced show of affection?) Bring it in ... it's time for a GROUP HUG. 
• TOE (59D: Low digit?) This low digit is not a low number, but a TOE.

This hidden word theme requires an extra step to discover. (I'm a fan of this, as I've mentioned occasionally.) The SCHOOL hidden somewhere in the MIDDLE of each theme answer is ETON. So one needs to identify the shared letter string of ETON in the theme answers and recognize that's a SCHOOL to get the "Aha!" moment. 

One of the many things I like about USA Today is their willingness to run consecutive puzzles that relate to each other. Although each puzzle can stand on its own, the connection between the puzzles simply adds another layer of interest (in my opinion). I hope you enjoyed our MIDDLE SCHOOL follow up to PRESCHOOL. Thanks for solving and reading!