Small anatomical opening as in bone / SUN 9-13-20 / Ground-dwelling songbird / Stark who was crowned king in Game of Thrones finale / Japanese city where Lexus is headquartered

September 12, 2020, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Fig of total economic output / MON 9-14-20 / Jeans brand popular in the 1980s / Green-fleshed fruit / Lamented princess of Wales

≪ Previous: Score marking to play higher or lower than written / SAT 9-12-20 / Slangy sedative / Mesoamerican language family with about half a million speakers / Onetime airer of Music City Tonight / Dolohov one of Death Eaters in Harry Potter books / Early movie mogul Marcus

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Constructor: MaryEllen Uthlaut

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (not sure why, just slow, ~12min ... maybe the drink?)

THEME:"Final Offer"— the final "ER" is taken "OFF" of familiar phrases, creating wacky phrases, blah blah blah:

Theme answers:

• HAPPILY EVER AFT (23A: Always glad to be seated in the back of the boat?)
• ABSOLUTE POW (28A: Perfectly placed "Batman" punch?)
• RECYCLING CENT (50A: Penny going through the wash once again?)
• AMEN, BROTH (56A: Soup served at the church social?)
• BRAIN TEAS (77A: Afternoon gatherings of Mensa?) (ugh, Mensa, stop promoting that crap as shorthand for "intelligence")
• CELLPHONE NUMB (85A: Having no feeling in one's texting hand?)
• RELIEF PITCH (103A: Ad for heartburn medication?)
• NO LAUGHING, MATT (15A: "Quit your snickering, Damon!"?)

Word of the Day: FENESTRA (93A: Small anatomical opening, as in a bone) —

n. pl. fe·nes·trae (-trē′)

1. Anatomy A small anatomical opening, as in a bone. [emph. mine] :( :( :(

2. An opening in a bone made by surgical fenestration.

3. Zoology A transparent spot or marking, as on the wing of a moth or butterfly.

• • •

This was pretty gruesome. Felt like a throwback puzzle. Very 1990s. It's just ... a variation on the remove-a-letter theme. The oldest theme type in the book, and one to which we have not been subjected in what feels like (merciful) eons. Somehow manages to combine monotonous and predictable with difficult, as some of these theme phrases were weirdly hard to dredge up from the wacky "?" clues. the BROTH part of AMEN, BROTH(ER). The BRAIN part of BRAIN TEAS(ER). I kept getting stuck wondering what the hell the base phrase could be. And never, not once, did I feel rewarded or happy when I finally got the answer. "NO LAUGHING, MATT!" is probably the best of the lot, and if they'd all been that good ... maybe. But they weren't, not even close, so this one was just shrug after eye roll after shrug. Further, there is zero interest in the non-theme fill. In fact, there are hardly any non-theme answers longer than seven letters. There's just nothing to sink your teeth into, nothing to enjoy. And you absolutely blow one of your few longer answers on the rank obscurity FENESTRA!?!?! I just don't understand the mindset here. 

I'm looking around for things to admire and just not finding very many. I guess the fill could've been worse. It's reasonably solid. But it's just fill. Space filler. Not weak, exactly, but not wowing anyone either. The only things I have to remark on today are trouble spots / wrong answers. Not sure I knew CALICO was a fabric (26A: Printed cotton fabric). I know it only as a cat (26A: Printed cotton fabric). Had to guess most of PHENOL (33D: Caustic compound). Wanted CRUSTY and (especially) CRABBY before CRANKY (60D: Irascible). Holy moly I could not get to the very very general REGION from the weirdly oddly specific 59D: Map section. I will never understand why the puzzle thinks everyone watches "GOT" or why anyone thinks it's better to clue BRAN as a "GOT" character than as the ordinary English word that it is. Ugh. ANONYM is [frowny face]. How is a DOG like a canary? I honestly don't know, and was totally baffled by that clue / answer (82D: Animal for which the Canary Islands are named). Here's wikipedia on the subject:

The name Islas Canarias is likely derived from the Latin name Canariae Insulae, meaning "Islands of the Dogs", a name that was evidently generalized from the ancient name of one of these islands, Canaria – presumably Gran Canaria. According to the historian Pliny the Elder, the island Canaria contained "vast multitudes of dogs of very large size". 

I think that's all I have the energy for today. I wish the puzzle could find some happy medium between the wildly ambitious but kinda solver-hating Sunday puzzle of last week with the very clear but very dull puzzle of this week. All with a sprinkling of sparkle. That would be cool. Take care.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Fig of total economic output / MON 9-14-20 / Jeans brand popular in the 1980s / Green-fleshed fruit / Lamented princess of Wales

September 13, 2020, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Mountain nymph / TUE 9-15-20 / Giant in media streaming / Disney character based on Dickens character / Like gunpowder and seismometer by origin

≪ Previous: Small anatomical opening as in bone / SUN 9-13-20 / Ground-dwelling songbird / Stark who was crowned king in Game of Thrones finale / Japanese city where Lexus is headquartered

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Constructor: John Guzzetta

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (2:50)

THEME: HAS IT BOTH WAYS (55A: Comes out ahead in either case ... as exemplified by 19-, 29-, 36- and 44-Across?) — theme answers have "IT" running "BOTH WAYS," i.e. they contain the letter string "ITTI" (mirrored "IT"s):

Theme answers:

• DETROIT TIGERS (19A: Major-league team from the Motor City)
• SIT TIGHT (29A: "Hold your horses!")
• SPLIT TICKET (36A: Ballot for candidates of more than one party)
• WAIT TIME (44A: Number of minutes on hold before getting a customer representative)

Word of the Day: GNP (10A: Fig. of total economic output) —

The gross national income (GNI), previously known as gross national product (GNP), is the total domestic and foreign output claimed by residents of a country, consisting of gross domestic product (GDP), plus factor incomes earned by foreign residents, minus income earned in the domestic economy by nonresidents (Todaro & Smith, 2011: 44).Comparing GNI to GDP shows the degree to which a nation's GDP represents domestic or international activity. GNI has gradually replaced GNP in international statistics. While being conceptually identical, it is calculated differently. GNI is the basis of calculation of the largest part of contributions to the budget of the European Union. In February 2017, Ireland's GDP became so distorted from the base erosion and profit shifting ("BEPS") tax planning tools of U.S. multinationals, that the Central Bank of Ireland replaced Irish GDP with a new metric, Irish Modified GNI*. In 2017, Irish GDP was 162% of Irish Modified GNI*. (wikipedia) (emph. mine)

• • •

Yeah, you know what, this actually works. I'm slightly distracted by the four answers that have "IT" just the one way (WIT TIM KEITH ELITE), but that's just because I have ridiculously high elegance standards (i.e. in this puzzle I want "IT" and "TI" to appear *exclusively* in the themers ... just seems ideal, somehow). But I really like that these answers don't just have "IT" both ways, but have "IT" palindromically, split (!) across two words each time. Also, the DETROIT TIGERS are my team, which has been a miserable experience for the better part of the last decade, thanks for asking, but still I enjoyed seeing them here. Wish the clue had somehow been more Tigers-specific, but I'll take what I can get. Anyway, themewise, I thought this was a very clever revealer, and the execution of the theme was very tight. No iffy or ragged answers, and a real "nailed-it" (!!) consistency across the board. 

[wait ... Lou ... Lou Piniella??]

So according to wikipedia, GNP is a dated term. It's GNI now (so, crossword constructors—go nuts!). I am dinging the puzzle for this error (that is, for not cluing GNP as erstwhile). But I didn't know. I didn't know about the terminology change. Never heard of GNI. In fact, I clearly don't know the difference between GNP and GDP, which is the answer that I wrote into the grid at first. But even if GNP were a current term, I still think you yank it from that corner. GNP / NEV isn't doing you any favors. There are cleaner ways to go. Other things that slowed me down a bit: ODELL (because I really really misunderstood "Pro Bowler") (20D: Three-time Pro Bowler ___ Beckham Jr.); SETTE (because Italian numbers, blargh; I went with the wrong language: SIETE) (29D: Italian for "seven"); TEASE (because I didn't catch the "trailers" part of the clue and instead read [What good movies do]) (45D: What good movie trailers do); and SASSON (because I just forgot my '80s jeans brands ... I remember Gloria Vanderbilt and Chemin de Fer being big-deal girl jeans ... but SASSON, I forgot) (50D: Jeans brand popular in the 1980s). Otherwise, a pretty typically easy Monday puzzle, this was. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Mountain nymph / TUE 9-15-20 / Giant in media streaming / Disney character based on Dickens character / Like gunpowder and seismometer by origin

September 14, 2020, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Drum used in Indian music / WED 9-16-20 / Country from which name Buttigieg comes / Number written in parentheses on income statement / Archipelago that's part of Portugal

≪ Previous: Fig of total economic output / MON 9-14-20 / Jeans brand popular in the 1980s / Green-fleshed fruit / Lamented princess of Wales

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Constructor: Amanda Rafkin and Ross Trudeau

Relative difficulty: Medium (high 3s)

THEME: "KEEP YOUR PANTS ON!" (38A: "Be patient!" ... or advice seemingly ignored by 17-, 24-, 52- and 62-Across) — cartoon characters that don't wear pants, largely because they're all animals, but whatever:

Theme answers:

• PORKY PIG (17A: Who says "Th-th-th-that's all, folks!")
• SCROOGE MCDUCK (24A: Disney character based on a Dickens character)
• WINNIE THE POOH (52A: "Hunny"-loving A.A. Milne character)
• YOGI BEAR (62A: Jellystone Park "pic-a-nic basket" thief)

Word of the Day: ALDO (57A: Brand of shoes or handbags) —

The ALDO Group is a Canadian retailer that owns and operates a worldwide chain of shoe and accessories stores. The company was founded by Aldo Bensadoun in Montreal, Quebec, in 1972, where its corporate headquarters remain today. It has grown to become a worldwide corporation, with nearly 3,000 stores across 100 countries, under three retail banners: ALDO, Call It Spring/Spring and GLOBO. Stores in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., and Ireland are owned by the Group, while international stores are franchised. The company once operated the now closed or rebranded banners Little Burgundy (which it sold to Genesco), Simard & Voyer, Christian Shoes, Access, Pegabo, Transit, Stoneridge, Locale, Feetfirst and FIRST (which was the American version of Feetfirst). (wikipedia) [the word "handbag" doesn't even appear on the wikipedia page, but I'm sure that's just an oversight]

• • •

Garfield doesn't wear pants. Snoopy doesn't wear pants. Huckleberry Hound doesn't wear pants. Snagglepuss doesn't wear pants. Bugs Bunny? Pantsless. Cartoon animals frequently don't wear pants. And now there's a theme about that, for some reason. I guess that since the themers all wear tops of some kind (???) they seem particularly pantsless. Really seems like a phrase as colorful as "KEEP YOUR PANTS ON!" deserves a better theme than this. These aren't even all different animals. I don't know. Cartoons are fun. The revealer phrase on its own is great. But the connection between them here seems really very forced. But honestly this puzzle never stood a chance because of a fill decision I can't believe neither of the constructors, none of the editors or proofers, no one, vetoed: that is, the OUT / OUTLIE crossing. You cannot just straight up cross OUT with OUT. I mean, if "OUT" were part of a word like STOUT, where the letter string had nothing to do with the word OUT, then fine, but OUTLIE is a compound word, and one of its parts is OUT. And that part crosses ... OUT. I wouldn't put OUT and OUTLIE in the same grid *at all*, let alone crossing one another. I'm now scanning the grid to see if LIE is in there somewhere. This feels like Constructing 101 stuff, which is weird, because no one involved in the making of this is a novice. I honestly thought I had an error, but then everything checked out and I didn't know what to do, so I moved on. And yeah, no error. Just OUT crossing OUT...LIE. That's just not good.

The longer Downs are OK, a little interesting, I guess, but the rest of the full is average or worse. Having to deal with TORIC and ALIA *and* OOP before ever departing the NW is not a fun way to open things. Why would you put a wacky "?" clue on weak fill like SNARER?? (47D: One catching the game?). You make people have to work for something very anticlimactic—never a good thing. I thought HULU was the streaming giant (15A: Giant in media streaming = ROKU). Needed every cross to get ALDO. No other real struggles, and the fill overall ... it's tolerable. Lots of crosswordese if you start to count it up (OREAD ORA OYE INHD and so on), but the theme answers are bright enough as stand-alone answers, and the long Downs are prominent enough, that the short fill doesn't have much opportunity to make a negative impression. I just thought the theme was a shrug, conceptually, and the OUT / OUTLIE cross was a total dealbreaker.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Drum used in Indian music / WED 9-16-20 / Country from which name Buttigieg comes / Number written in parentheses on income statement / Archipelago that's part of Portugal

September 15, 2020, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Savings bank informally / THU 9-17-20 / Superfan of certain 2010s pop star / Food item whose name is derived from comic strip / Gluten-free noodle variety / Thoughtless sender of emails

≪ Previous: Mountain nymph / TUE 9-15-20 / Giant in media streaming / Disney character based on Dickens character / Like gunpowder and seismometer by origin

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Constructor: Paul Coulter

Relative difficulty: Easy (3:56)

THEME: HAPPY MEAL (64A: Certain fast-food offering ... or what 17-, 27- and 47-Across certainly don't add up to?) — themers are phrases that sound kinda like "negative fast-food reviews" (allegedly):

Theme answers:

• WEAK SAUCE (17A: Negative fast-food review?)
• NOTHING BURGER (27A: Negative fast-food review?)
• NO GREAT SHAKES (48A: Negative fast-food review?)

Word of the Day: mulligan (9D: Do-over) —

: a free shot sometimes given a golfer in informal play when the previous shot was poorly played (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

WEAK SAUCE is in no way a plausible "fast-food review," negative or otherwise. "Sauce" is not a fast-food item, the way that BURGERs and SHAKES are. I just don't understand how this isn't totally and completely obvious to everyone involved in the making of this puzzle. Sometimes you have a theme that you think would be a really good idea, and you want it to work out, but you Just Don't Have The Right Themers to pull it off. The great constructors don't force it. Others ... do, I guess. Yeah, yeah, there's "sauce" on a Big Mac or whatever, stop your lawyering. That answer is so much of an outlier it ruins the whole shebang. With HAPPY MEAL as your revealer, I don't think you have to be *perfect* (i.e. you don't need the three themers all to be the exact elements of a HAPPY MEAL), but since you've already got two themers that land very cleanly and solidly in the "fast food" column, you need your third to do so as well. Here, watch. "Is a burger fast food?""Yes.""Is a milkshake fast food?""Yes.""Is sauce fast food?""What?" End scene. You see how this doesn't work, right? It's fine if you like the concept—so do I—but execution matters and bad execution just ruins everything. This thing isn't a full-on TRAIN WRECK, but it's definitely some kind of train malfunction where you have to detrain and get on a different train or maybe get bused to the next train station ... something non-fatal but incredibly annoying like that.

In fairly typical fashion, I started slowish and then really sped up. Under 4 is pretty fast for me on a Wednesday, and honestly I thought I was much faster. I must've been much slower to start than I imagined, because by about 1/3 of the way in I was flying, writing answers in as fast as I could look at the clues. I didn't even see many of the clues—for MALTA, for instance (52D: Country from which the name "Buttigieg" comes) (such a weird clue). I like the symmetry of RUBBERNECK and TRAIN WRECK since you might do one while driving by the other. Fill seems mostly OK, though there were moments (GRU SOLI CIE SRO AMS) that were slightly rough, and man could I do without horrid (criminal!) right-wing idiots in my puzzle. Again. Editor really loves to plug those guys. Not sure what's going on there. Didn't have many outright mistakes. Wrote in OMSK (!?) before OSLO (28D: City called a "kommune" by its inhabitants). Oh, and I wrote in CARTS for MARTS because I didn't read the clue accurately (9A: Shoppers' stops). Had a lot of trouble getting to COAL from 3D: Rock around the Christmas tree? I get it, you get COAL in your stocking if you're bad ... by legend ... though no one solving this puzzle has actually ever gotten COAL, and if they had it would've been in their stocking, not "around the tree," and COAL just isn't exactly iconically Christmasy. Sigh. I hate when try-hard "?" clues don't land. I also like when they do land, as is the case with the clue on ASIA (10D: Polo grounds?) (Marco Polo, that is). Looking forward to tomorrow's puzzle shenanigans. Have a nice day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Savings bank informally / THU 9-17-20 / Superfan of certain 2010s pop star / Food item whose name is derived from comic strip / Gluten-free noodle variety / Thoughtless sender of emails

September 17, 2020, 3:06 am

≫ Next: Typographer's gap / FRI 9-18-20 / Fortification-breaching bomb / Vacation locale for President Gerald Ford / Lucky thing to hit in ping-pong / Member of South Asian diaspora

≪ Previous: Drum used in Indian music / WED 9-16-20 / Country from which name Buttigieg comes / Number written in parentheses on income statement / Archipelago that's part of Portugal

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Constructor: Simeon Seigel

Relative difficulty: Medium (6:07) (felt easier, but it's Very early in the morning, so I must be running slow)

THEME: AND (39A: + ... with a hint to four pairs of answers in this puzzle) — the black-square formations that look like "+" stand for the letter string "AND" in the answers that run directly into and out of them. So:

Theme answers:

• THE GRAND OLE OPRY (6D: Major Nashville landmark)
• GOLDEN HANDCUFFS (9D: Financial incentive for an executive to stay at a company)
• SHENANDOAH RIVER (34A: Tributary of the Potomac)
• DAGWOOD SANDWICH (41A: Food item whose name is derived from a comic strip)

Word of the Day: APOLLO XI (15A: About 600 million viewers watched its pilot in 1969) —

Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin formed the American crew that landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC. Armstrong became the first person to step onto the lunar surface six hours and 39 minutes later on July 21 at 02:56 UTC; Aldrin joined him 19 minutes later. They spent about two and a quarter hours together outside the spacecraft, and they collected 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) of lunar material to bring back to Earth. Command module pilot Michael Collins flew the Command Module Columbia alone in lunar orbit while they were on the Moon's surface. Armstrong and Aldrin spent 21 hours, 36 minutes on the lunar surface at a site they named Tranquility Base before lifting off to rejoin Columbia in lunar orbit. (wikipedia)

• • •

Quick write-up today. The theme concept was MEH (easy to ferret out, repetitive) but the actual theme answers are all really colorful and interesting, so the monotony of all the AND AND AND business was made up in large part by the AND answers themselves. This looks like an architectural feat—finding words with "AND" strings that line up at just the write places to make the little "+" signs, but honestly there's probably some pretty easy computer hack that lets you search all the 15s in some database and for answers with "AND" strings, and then you can just pick and choose from there. Still, the concept is cute, even if the "black squares-represent-letters" thing isn't particularly original. So I'm more warm than cold on the overall theme. The fill was just middling. Felt weirdly dated. Like, I'm 50 and have never heard THRIFT used this way (1A: Savings bank, informally). I was born the year of APOLLO XI, which I think is normally written with Arabic numerals, not Roman. There are no BELIEBERs any more. They all restocked their CD STANDs long ago, and then threw out their CD STANDs because they either stream their music or have gotten really into vinyl. Only someone Dagwood's age says "YESSIREE" unironically. Or HOORAH instead of "hooray!" Etc. But there's nothing particularly groan-y about the fill. Except BRAHS, wow, no (33D: Guy friends, in slang). That is not a plural noun. At best (very best), "brah" is something you'd use as a form of "bro" when speaking to some guy. But even that is usually "bruh." Your guy friends are not your BRAHS, and if they are, what are you even doing? Get help. 

"FEEL ME?" still feels current, so that was a nice little colloquial flourish. Otherwise, the fill just sat there, mostly unobtrusively, holding the marquee theme answers in place. Today, that was probably enough. OK, gotta go. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Typographer's gap / FRI 9-18-20 / Fortification-breaching bomb / Vacation locale for President Gerald Ford / Lucky thing to hit in ping-pong / Member of South Asian diaspora

September 18, 2020, 3:16 am

≫ Next: Russian letter in spelling of tsar / SAT 9-19-20 / Symbols of hope during American French revolutions / Georgia who played Georgette on 1970s TV / Historic sites in Hot Springs Ark / Classic couples retreat / Treatment during sandal season informally

≪ Previous: Savings bank informally / THU 9-17-20 / Superfan of certain 2010s pop star / Food item whose name is derived from comic strip / Gluten-free noodle variety / Thoughtless sender of emails

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Constructor: Anne and Daniel Larsen

Relative difficulty: Easy (very, 4:46, first thing in the morning)

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: EM SPACE (40D: Typographer's gap) —

An em is a unit in the field of typography, equal to the currently specified point size. For example, one em in a 16-point typeface is 16 points. Therefore, this unit is the same for all typefaces at a given point size.

The em dash (—) and em space ( ) are each one em wide. 

Typographic measurements using this unit are frequently expressed in decimal notation (e.g., 0.7 em) or as fractions of 100 or 1000 (e.g., 70/100 em or 700/1000 em). The name em was originally a reference to the width of the capital M in the typeface and size being used, which was often the same as the point size. (wikipedia) (emph. mine)

• • •

Totally acceptable if not terribly exciting offering today. A few nice, fresh phrases in a sea of tolerable if frequently overfamiliar stuff. There's something about certain phrases like NOT A HOPE and I DARE SAY and YOU BET I CAN that seem stiff and dated, and therefore seem as if they are arising from the graveyard of crosswords past (or a very extensive wordlist, which can amount to the same thing, since those are typically based on what's been in the puzzles before). Even IN A PANIC, which is a solid enough phrase, has an oddly crosswordy vibe to it—it's appeared eight times in the past decade, which doesn't sound like a lot, but for an eight-letter phrase, it's kind of a lot.. The grid shape here isn't helping. There aren't enough free-standing marquee answers; by "free-standing," I mean, "not tethered to another long answer of similar length" (see the pairs of long Downs in the NE and SW, which are noticeably less zingy than the best stuff, which in every case today (imho) is a longer answer that pops against the shorter fill surrounding it: DREAM ACT, BEYOND MEAT, NET NEUTRALITY. There was just something about this grid that felt closed in, like it couldn't quite breathe properly: too segmented, not built for the fill to really sing. But still, as I say, it holds up fine. I winced almost no times. You can send ATTA and ORANG back where they came from, but otherwise the grid is quite clean. And maybe I'm not giving enough credit to CHE GUEVARA / HOME PLANET as a colorful pair of answers, which I like more now than I did mid-solve. Anyway, good work. Just not as fresh and fun as the best Fridays.

TOE CAP ... I can't put my finger on it, or articulate it very well this morning, but this is another answer that feels squirmy to me—one of those "sure, whatever" phrases that I wouldn't use and haven't heard used. RICE BELT is interesting, but if I'd had to pick a belt to describe that area, I'd've gone with BIBLE. Honestly, needed crosses to get RICE. I've heard of em dashes but not EM SPACEs, though that wasn't hard to infer. Not thrilled about the dupe of "ACT" (DREAM ACT, ACTS ON), but at least today those answers are on opposite sides of the grids, i.e. the "ACT"s don't *intersect* the way those "OUT"s did earlier in the week, yeesh. I misread "South Asian" as "South African" so getting DESI was a real "D'oh!" moment (49D: Member of the South Asian diaspora). I had TOWED before TOTED (36A: Hauled), but that was the only mistake of the day, which may explain the sizzling fast time. Oh, no, sorry, one other mistake, of the utterly mundane and predictable variety: SODA before COLA (4D: Fountain option). Honestly, coming out of that NW corner, I was not terribly hopeful about where this puzzle was going, but it definitely wound up more enjoyable than not.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Russian letter in spelling of tsar / SAT 9-19-20 / Symbols of hope during American French revolutions / Georgia who played Georgette on 1970s TV / Historic sites in Hot Springs Ark / Classic couples retreat / Treatment during sandal season informally

September 18, 2020, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Childcare expert LeShan / SUN 9-20-20 / Jazz composer Beiderbecke / Yellow variety of quartz / 14th-century king of Aragon / Unpopular legislation of 1773 / Internet meme with grammatically incorrect captions / Philosopher who tutored Nero / Tokyo before it was Tokyo / Game in which each player starts with score of 501 / Norse troublemaker

≪ Previous: Typographer's gap / FRI 9-18-20 / Fortification-breaching bomb / Vacation locale for President Gerald Ford / Lucky thing to hit in ping-pong / Member of South Asian diaspora

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Constructor: Robyn Weintraub

Relative difficulty: Easy (over 9 minutes lol but I was co-solving over zoom and chatting the whole time, so ... probably, realistically, more of a six-minute solve (fast)—this felt very much like a Friday puzzle)

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Hot Springs, Ark. (20D: Historic sites in Hot Springs, Ark. => BATH HOUSES) —

Hot Springs is a resort city in the state of Arkansas and the county seat of Garland County. The city is located in the Ouachita Mountains among the U.S. Interior Highlands, and is set among several natural hot springs for which the city is named. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a population of 35,193. In 2019 the estimated population was 38,797.

The center of Hot Springs is the oldest federal reserve in the United States, today preserved as Hot Springs National Park. The hot spring water has been popularly believed for centuries to possess healing properties, and was a subject of legend among several Native American tribes. Following federal protection in 1832, the city developed into a successful spa town. Incorporated January 10, 1851, the city has been home to Major League Baseball spring training, illegal gambling, speakeasies and gangsters such as Al Capone, horse racing at Oaklawn Park, the Army and Navy Hospital, and 42nd President Bill Clinton. One of the largest Pentecostal denominations in the United States, the Assemblies of God, traces its beginnings to Hot Springs.

Today, much of Hot Springs's history is preserved by various government entities. Hot Springs National Park is maintained by the National Park Service, including Bathhouse Row, which preserves the eight historic bathhouse buildings and gardens along Central Avenue. Downtown Hot Springs is preserved as the Central Avenue Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The city also contains dozens of historic hotels and motor courts, built during the Great Depression in the Art Deco style. Due to the popularity of the thermal waters, Hot Springs benefited from rapid growth during a period when many cities saw a sharp decline in building; much like Miami's art deco districts. As a result, Hot Springs's architecture is a key part of the city's blend of cultures, including a reputation as a tourist town and a Southern city. Also a destination for the arts, Hot Springs features the Hot Springs Music Festival, Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, and the Valley of the Vapors Independent Music Festival annually. (wikipedia) (emph. mine)

• • •

[NOTE: YouTube videos seem to not be showing up for people on mobile devices (???). I hope this is a temporary problem that just fixes itself. I'm on my laptop and the videos play just fine. Apologies for the mobile weirdness]

Well I've had two drinks, which is one hundred percent more drinks than I typically have on a weekend night. The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg just kinda pushed me into two-drink land, what can I say, I'm human? Also, I had a 9pm Zoom meet-up with my professor / crossword friends and it's the closest thing I'm going to have to "drinks with friends" for a long time, so I drank. Bourbon. Rocks. Annnnnnyway, I was in no mood to solve / blog, but then I found out that the Saturday puzzle was going to be by my favorite *Friday* constructor, Robyn Weintraub, and so my will to solve returned. I'm always incredibly happy to see her byline because I know there's a high likelihood that the puzzle will be delightful. And once again, it was. Even her Saturdays feel like Fridays. That is, even when they're on the tougher side, they're joyful. Entertaining. Fun. 

I co-solved this one on Zoom with my friend Rachel Fabi, so I'm just gonna post that video, but I'll give you some of the highlights here:

Highlights:

• ICEES— we were really unsure what product the clue was referring to. ICEES are Slurpee-like drinks. I think ice pops come in (long thin plastic) "pouches," but ICEES? Not familiar. So we looked it up. And lo + behold, the ICEES (drink) brand also comes in pouches that you can buy? Weird.

• TSE / HEME / KOA / HEP — this is just about the only stuff in the grid that I / we didn't like. There's a Russian letter called TSE?? Wow. OK. You can bet I double-checked every cross on that one.
• Every Long Answer — LOL there are fifteen (15!!?!?!) 8+-letter answers in this puzzle, and none (0) of them are bad. I balked at RARE BOOK STORE just because something about an entire brick & mortar establishment dedicated to *rare* books seemed ... unlikely? (as you can hear me say in the video: "Rare book *room*, *used* book store!"). But everything else about the longer fill was fantastic. Highlights: HALF ASLEEP, NEVER FEAR, DON'T BE SO HASTY, DARK MONEY, DROP THE BALL. But honestly, they're all good, even the quaint WOEBEGONE. This thing is just crammed with marquee answers. Insane.
• HEP (48D: Like the latest, in the past)— I can't quite tell what "Like" is doing here. Like, is it doing the normal thing where it means "akin to" or is it some kind of beatnik colloquialism where it's "Like, the latest, man!"? Not crazy about HEP, or about ENGEL, whom I loved on "MTM," but she's a very niche (and crosswordesey) proper name answer that lots of (younger) people will need every cross for.

Had DASHED before DARTED (23A: Ran rapidly) and AAA before KOA (47D: Roadside initials), but if you want to know what the solve was really like, you can just watch, here (side note: I say that it's the "Friday" puzzle—obviously, it's not):

See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Childcare expert LeShan / SUN 9-20-20 / Jazz composer Beiderbecke / Yellow variety of quartz / 14th-century king of Aragon / Unpopular legislation of 1773 / Internet meme with grammatically incorrect captions / Philosopher who tutored Nero / Tokyo before it was Tokyo / Game in which each player starts with score of 501 / Norse troublemaker

September 19, 2020, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Tony who played 15 seasons with Minnesota Twins / MON 9-21-20 / Foamy drink invented in Taiwan / Horse developed in desert / Hawaiian kind of porch

≪ Previous: Russian letter in spelling of tsar / SAT 9-19-20 / Symbols of hope during American French revolutions / Georgia who played Georgette on 1970s TV / Historic sites in Hot Springs Ark / Classic couples retreat / Treatment during sandal season informally

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Constructor: Sam Trabucco

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (mid-11s)

THEME: "Word Ladders" — the words in the word ladder (succession of four-letter answers where one letter is changed with each iteration) are actually "ladders," in the sense that they act as paths along which a couple of Across answers drop or rise three levels respectively:

Theme answers:

• SURPRISE PARTY / UNDESIRABLE
• STERILE GLOVE / TRAVEL IRON
• PROFILE PIC / FOR THE LIFE OF ME
• FRUIT FILLING / MOLLIFYING
• ROOT OF ALL EVIL / VANILLA FLAN

Word of the Day: LESTOIL (99A: Clorox cleanser) —

Lestoil is a registered trade name of Clorox for a heavy-duty multipurpose cleanser product, used to remove extremely difficult laundry stains, dissolve water-based and oil-based paints, and clean grease, oil, paint, and adhesives from floors and surfaces.

It was introduced as a dry cleaning fluid for laundry in 1933. (wikipedia)

• • •

Not sure how to describe my feelings here. As an architectural feat, it's pretty impressive. Takes the (awful, shopworn) theme concept of the word ladder (which here goes from RISE to FALL) and soups it up by making the rungs of the "ladder" into actual ladders by which themers "rise" and "fall" (three rows in either direction). Conceptually it is tight and interesting. And yet I found solving it tedious. Once I got the gist of the theme, I just had to remember that there was going to be rising and falling, so nothing interesting really happened except the fussiness of keeping the rising and falling straight, and then, further, there was so much jarring fill that it just ate into any of the whimsical pleasure the theme might have provided. LESTOIL ... ??? ... never heard of it. Never seen it. Hasn't appeared in the NYTXW since I started blogging (fourteen years ago this week!). CITRINE? (71A: Yellow variety of quartz) I'm sure it is what the puzzle says it is, but again, I got the answer and just had no way of knowing if what I had was right (though CITRINE at least sounded plausible—LESTOIL looked wrong as hell). And what year is "I Love It" even from? You could've at least included that in the clue, because ICONA (!?!?!?!), yeeow, no (36D: "I Love It" duo ___ Pop). One hit, eight years ago. I mean, even if ICONA Pop were somehow ABBA-famous, ICONA on its own is never, ever, ever gonna be good fill. There's also lots of crosswordesey stuff that made me make faces (PETERIV ATEIN USRDA ADREP EDO ETTU NEE EES (ugh) CINES EDA NOE LGS AOL ESAU ELL ESO ETC. etc.). So I acknowledge the architectural feat, but as frequently happens with architectural feats, the payoff at the level of solving pleasure just wasn't there. Maybe if the fill had been stronger, the thematic workmanship could've carried the day, I don't know.

Really hate the idea that asterisks are somehow stars. Also *, *** and ***** are not MIXED REVIEWS (66D) . Each is its own review. REVIEWS, maybe, maybe, but you'd need something like "collectively" to make this clue work, though even then it wouldn't work because, as I say, an asterisk is not a star. I read Jane Eyre but not in school so wow I really missed the fact that fire is somehow a MOTIF. Not among the first five or ten things I think of when I think of Jane Eyre but OK. Is LOLCAT still a thing? (105D: Internet meme with grammatically incorrect captions). Is BRODATE? (43A: Occasion for male bonding, in modern lingo). If it's a thing, it's an awful thing. "Modern lingo," my eye. Stop bro-ing everything. The NYTXW is enough of a brofest as it is. It's a date. Just say "date." Also not a thing, for future reference: MANCRUSH. Like, you have a crush on a dude. Accept it. Embrace it. It's a CRUSH. It's OK. You can still be straight or whatever. Yeesh. Twice today I had to wait for the cross to see what gender some word was gonna be—never fun. So it was CARA not CARO, and OTRO not OTRA. I think my favorite part of the puzzle was actually "I CALL DIBS!" (123A: "That one's mine!") though again, I do acknowledge that the theme is thoughtful and reasonably well executed. Just not as fun to solve as I'd like. OK bye.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Tony who played 15 seasons with Minnesota Twins / MON 9-21-20 / Foamy drink invented in Taiwan / Horse developed in desert / Hawaiian kind of porch

September 20, 2020, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Comic book character with title role in blockbuster 2018 film / TUE 9-22-20 / Captors of Frodo Baggins / Will Smith Tommy Lee Jones sci-fi hit for short

≪ Previous: Childcare expert LeShan / SUN 9-20-20 / Jazz composer Beiderbecke / Yellow variety of quartz / 14th-century king of Aragon / Unpopular legislation of 1773 / Internet meme with grammatically incorrect captions / Philosopher who tutored Nero / Tokyo before it was Tokyo / Game in which each player starts with score of 501 / Norse troublemaker

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Constructor: Daniel Larsen and The Wave Learning Festival Crossword Class

Relative difficulty: Medium (2:59)

THEME: two-word phrases where both words are "-ITE" rhymes 

Theme answers:

• FIGHT NIGHT (17A: Time to watch boxing on TV)
• WHITE KNIGHT (30A: One rushing in to save the day)
• BRIGHT LIGHT (47A: It makes your pupils constrict)
• QUITE RIGHT (64A: "Precisely!")

Word of the Day: BUBBLE TEA (33D: Foamy drink invented in Taiwan) —

Bubble tea (also known as pearl milk tea, bubble milk tea, or boba) (Chinese: 珍珠奶茶; pinyin: zhēn zhū nǎi chá; 波霸奶茶; bō bà nǎi chá or 泡泡茶; pào pào chá) is a tea-based drink invented in Taiwan in the 1980s that includes chewy tapioca balls ("boba" or "pearls") or a wide range of other toppings.

Ice-blended versions are frozen and put into a blender, resulting in a slushy consistency.^[3]There are many varieties of the drink with a wide range of flavors. The two most popular varieties are black pearl milk tea and green pearl milk tea. (wikipedia)

• • •

Look, I don't know what the backstory is here, but this isn't a NYTXW-worthy theme. It's way, way, way too basic. Maybe, *maybe*, if the theme answers were, on their own, really vibrant phrases, you could get away with this, but as is, this isn't playful or interesting enough for *any* major daily crossword, let alone the "best puzzle in the world" or whatever. And the fill is oddly old and cruddy for a Monday. As I've said before, you can often gauge the overall quality of the puzzle before you're out of the NW corner, and that corner today, yeesh. I love baseball and knew OLIVA (2D: Tony who played for 15 seasons with the Minnesota Twins), but that is dated baseball crosswordese (esp. for a Monday), and LIGER and EVERSO had me worried that the fill was not headed anywhere good. It's certainly not much worse than average, I guess, but I expect much cleaner on a Monday. I mean, every Across from LANAI on down in the SW is just straight out of crossword central casting. The puzzle is also clumsily built, with giant Friday/Saturday-like corners in the NE and SW, as if the puzzle were trying to be a themeless and an easy Monday themed puzzle simultaneously, but succeeding at neither. Actually, the big corners are far better done than the themed portion of the puzzle. No idea how you can have that much wide open space and still end up at the maximum word count (78), but this puzzle did it. It just didn't feel like an experienced or careful hand was at the helm. I don't get it. If somehow a bunch of fourth-graders made this, then sure, I'll feel a little bad. But I never read constructor's notes at the Times' site and I'm not going to start today. This just isn't up to (what should be) NYTXW standards, theme-wise. 

Are we still expected to know things about "Desperate Housewives"? When will that show's "currency" run out? I outlived the "Ally McBeal" era (when you would occasionally be asked to know tertiary characters on that show for some reason), but sadly it seems the "Desperate Housewives" era is still upon us. Anyway, I didn't know BREE (38A: One of the housewives on "Desperate Housewives"). Beyond that, and OLIVA, there's not much here that's going to throw anyone off their game. I weirdly don't like NIGHT and KNIGHT being successive last words in theme phrases. Feels like cheating. They're homophones. After I got them, I was like, "How many other homophones are there??" But then that wasn't the theme after all. I also think that there should be *no* other "-ight"-sounding words in the grid, outside of the themers, for the sake of elegance. So I'm finding EVITE slightly annoying. In short: keep the NE / SW corners, tear out everything else, and make a themeless. Thank you, goodbye. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Comic book character with title role in blockbuster 2018 film / TUE 9-22-20 / Captors of Frodo Baggins / Will Smith Tommy Lee Jones sci-fi hit for short

September 21, 2020, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Series of documents that trace a path / WED 9-23-20 / Immunity-boosting element / Old-fashioned newsboy's assignment / Kitchen item on a roll / Flavor imparter to chardonnay / Toy with tabs and interchangeable outfits

≪ Previous: Tony who played 15 seasons with Minnesota Twins / MON 9-21-20 / Foamy drink invented in Taiwan / Horse developed in desert / Hawaiian kind of porch

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Constructor: Jeremy Newton

Relative difficulty: Easy (or Challenging, if superhero movies aren't really your thing) (3:11)

THEME: CHADWICK BOSEMAN (7D: Late portrayer of 40-Across)— I'd say it's a tribute puzzle to the late actor, but honestly it's just a rather boring THE BLACK PANTHER PUZZLE with the actor as just one element ... :( 

Theme answers:

• HEART-SHAPED HERB (17A: Source of 40-Across's 63-Across)
• SUPERHUMAN POWER (63A: See 17-Across)
• T'CHALLA (24D: Alter ego of 40-Across)
• WAKANDA (25D: Home of 40-Across)

Word of the Day: Carli LLOYD (48A: U.S. women's soccer star Carli) —

Carli Anne Hollins (née Lloyd; born July 16, 1982), known as Carli Lloyd, is an American soccer player for the Sky Blue FC in the National Women's Soccer League and the United States women's national soccer team as a midfielder. She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist (2008 and 2012), two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion (2015 and 2019), two-time FIFA Player of the Year (2015 and 2016), and a three-time Olympian (2008, 2012, and 2016). Lloyd scored the gold medal-winning goals in the finals of the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics. Lloyd also helped the United States win their titles at the 2015 and 2019 FIFA Women's World Cups and she played for the team at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup where the U.S. finished in second place. Lloyd has made over 290 appearances for the U.S. national team, placing her third in caps, and has the fourth-most goals and seventh-most assists for the team. (wikipedia)

• • •

I know this looks like a tribute, but I have misgivings about tribute puzzles in general, and this one in particular feels thin, opportunistic, and just generally vulture-y. It's a rather ordinary, straightforward, pure trivia puzzle about a movie masquerading as a tribute puzzle. Feels like it was made before Boseman's death and was hastily trotted out in order to ... what, capitalize on some post mortem newsworthiness? Or else it was actually composed as a tribute, in which case it is a very weak example of the kind. Boseman was an accomplished actor who played many noteworthy roles, but this puzzle just defines him by one. An actual *Boseman* tribute might have dwelt on the actor's career in some way; even if it was just one of these typical plug-in-the-data-type tributes, it could have showcased the breadth of his career in some way. But no, what we get is a puzzle composed solely because the central Across and Down are 15s that cross perfectly at the center "K." However well-intentioned this was, it does a disservice to Boseman, and it's just not a great puzzle, conceptually. And the fill, yikes. Way below average. Then you've got FRENCH OPEN and "AMEN TO THAT!" out there looking weirdly like theme answers (longer than both the actual Down themers), but they're not. The whole thing plays real awkward. I was (morbidly, sadly, slightly drunkenly) joking with friends immediately after RBG's death about how long it would take [constructor's name redacted] to get a tribute puzzle into the NYTXW, but then one of my friends reminded me that there was already an RBG-themed puzzle very recently, so we would be spared that particular worst-case death-puzzle scenario. You don't "honor" anyone by churning out a mediocre puzzle. Or by pretending that your mediocre movie puzzle is actually a tribute puzzle. 

And SUPERHUMAN POWER is a clunker. The word is SUPERPOWER. That is the word. When required word length forces you into bad or off answers, rethink things, please! And fillwise, rethink virtually everything here today. I mean, OSHA SLOE as ASDOI before I even got out of the gate? Red flag. And then MSS SOHOT DDE ALB AMFM ATAD OWIE FEMA (*and* OSHA!?) NOS and on and on. Plus an unfortunate and cringey "YO MAMA" (49D: Playground joke intro). In different hands, I can imagine a Boseman tribute (or a "Black Panther"-inspired puzzle) coming off quite well. But tributes actually have to be *better* than average to do what they're supposed to do, i.e. truly honor the deceased. Don't think just because you deign to build a puzzle around someone that you are perforce honoring them. You honor by doing good work. Period.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Series of documents that trace a path / WED 9-23-20 / Immunity-boosting element / Old-fashioned newsboy's assignment / Kitchen item on a roll / Flavor imparter to chardonnay / Toy with tabs and interchangeable outfits

September 23, 2020, 3:19 am

≫ Next: Altiplano locale / THU 9-24-20 / Supermodel born Melissa Miller / Enthusiastic flamenco cry

≪ Previous: Comic book character with title role in blockbuster 2018 film / TUE 9-22-20 / Captors of Frodo Baggins / Will Smith Tommy Lee Jones sci-fi hit for short

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Constructor: Margit Christenson

Relative difficulty: Medium (4:34)

THEME: PAPER TRAIL (56A: Series of documents that trace a path, as suggested by this puzzle) — circled-square answers contain words that can follow "paper" in a familiar phrase, and those answers form a kind of winding "trail" across the grid

Paper "trail":

• TOWEL (1A: Kitchen item on a roll)
• BACK (15D: Lower-priced edition of a book)
• CUT (25A: Minor injury for an office clerk)
• CLIP (31D: Alternative to a staple)
• TIGER (45A: One making empty threats)
• ROUTE (27D: Old-fashioned newsboy's assignment)
• PLANE (23A: Classroom missile that might be grounds for detention)
• DOLL (28D: Toy with tabs and interchangeable outfits)
• BAG (44A: Lunch carrier, often)
• WORK (47D: Forms to process)

Word of the Day: MEZE (48D: Mediterranean appetizer) —

Meze, mezze, or mazza (/ˈmɛzeɪ/) is a selection of small dishes served as appetizers in parts of the Middle East, the Balkans, Greece, and North Africa. In some Middle Eastern and African regions where it is present, especially predominantly Muslim regions where alcohol is less common, meze is often served as a part of multi-course meals, while in Greece, Turkey, and the Balkans, they function more as snacks while drinking or talking.

• • •

The concept is cute: an actual "trail" made out of "paper" (answers). Solving it was somewhat less than pleasing, though, as a. once you grok the theme you can fill in every theme answer without much thinking, bam bam bam bam etc., and b. the fill (in places), yikes. But then the longer answers are kinda nice overall (INK-STAINED LOW CEILING CAT-SITTING SLACK LINES etc.), so in the end, I think the puzzle probably comes out ahead of your average Wednesday. Wednesday was never my favorite day to begin with, but whatever, ahead is ahead. If I liked Wednesday this well every Wednesday, that would be an improvement, is what I'm saying. Just, you know, spare me garbage like -IANA (about the worst suffix answer imaginable), and maybe tone down the crosswordesey / overfamiliar short stuff (ISAK and EWOK and OCCAM, OH NO!). But I'll take a cute concept, solidly executed, with good long fill for days. Yes I will.

And now a word on Scrabble-f***ing (i.e. trying to cram a higher-value Scrabble tile into the grid just 'cause, regardless of consequences): Carolyn KEENE might be a slightly better choice than Geoffrey BEENE, but KOO is a better choice than absolutely nothing. KOO is nonsense. So the better cross here is BEENE / BOO. I mean ... KOO, come on. You could also flag the "Z" in the SW as Scrabble-f***ing, I suppose, but ... well, a few things. First, MEZE, though entirely new to me and completely new to the NYTXW, is actually a legitimate food thing. Expect to see MEZE a lot more now that someone has broken the seal on it. It seems to have pretty widespread currency, and if we can let TAPA(S) in the puzzle on a regular basis (and we do), then there's probably room for MEZE as well. Also, the "Z" from ZINC feels pretty natural in that position—certainly the best letter to fill the _INC hole. So I'm not blowing the Scrabble-f***ing whistle there. I reviewed the play. No foul. 

Weird that this one turned out to be Medium in difficulty considering how easy the theme stuff was to get. I attribute this to how hard it was to get started in the NW. For 1A: Kitchen item on a roll ([paper] TOWEL), I had SARAN, as (probably) many longtime solvers did, as the clue writer probably suspected we would. Then I "confirmed" SARAN with SIMP at 1D: Ninny (TWIT). My answers there are absolutely solid and plausible, the highest likelihood guesses, to be honest. I also used SARAN to lock in REAR at 3D: What's aft a ship's aft (WAKE), which I'll admit is less plausible than SARAN and SIMP, but once you've got things fixed in the grid, it can be a little hard to unfix them. Anyway, after some fussing about, I got unstuck, got the theme, and then filled in every themer with almost no thought. I also struggled at LADY'S / DYE LOT (not the prettiest part of the grid). Misspelled SKAT (I think of SCAT as animal droppings) (30A: Musical riffing from Ella Fitzgerald). Also struggled with BOTTLE (up) (44D: Hide, with "up"), which I guess kinda means "hide" (your feelings), but the action there feels more like one of forcing or cramming rather than merely "hiding." My brain just wasn't processing the clue right. That's it for the difficulty though: hard up front, mostly easy the rest of the way. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Altiplano locale / THU 9-24-20 / Supermodel born Melissa Miller / Enthusiastic flamenco cry

September 24, 2020, 3:31 am

≫ Next: Lowest rating in showbiz's Ulmer Scale / FRI 9-25-20 / Sister channel of HGTV / Basketball highlight informally / Kind of paste in East Asian cuisine / Half bird half woman creature / Subject of J.J. Thomson's "plum pudding" model / Star Wars spinoff set five years after Emperor Palpatine's fall / Fantasy Focus podcast airer

≪ Previous: Series of documents that trace a path / WED 9-23-20 / Immunity-boosting element / Old-fashioned newsboy's assignment / Kitchen item on a roll / Flavor imparter to chardonnay / Toy with tabs and interchangeable outfits

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Constructor: Trenton Charlson

Relative difficulty: Medium (6:43, first thing in the a.m.) (grid is oversized, 16x)

THEME: SPELLED OUT (63A: Explained in great detail ... or what four of this puzzle's clues are?) — if you *sound* out the the clue, it spells a word ... and *that* is your clue. Thus:

Theme answers:

• 18A: Kay, e.g. = K, E, G = [Keg] = BEER BARREL
• 22A: Elle, e.g. = L, E, G = [Leg] = DRUMSTICK
• 38A: Pea, e.g. = P, E, G = [Peg] = CRIBBAGE MARKER
• 57A: Bee, e.g. = B, E, G = [Beg] = PANHANDLE

Word of the Day: Roger TANEY (66A: Roger ___, second-longest-serving chief justice of the Supreme Court) —

Roger Brooke Taney (/ˈtɔːni/; March 17, 1777 – October 12, 1864) was the fifth Chief Justice of the United States, holding that office from 1836 until his death in 1864. He delivered the majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), ruling that African-Americans could not be considered citizens and that Congress could not prohibit slavery in the territories of the United States. Prior to joining the Supreme Court, Taney served as the United States Attorney General and United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Andrew Jackson. (wikipedia) (emph. mine)

• • •

We really got the Dred Scott guy (TANEY) in the puzzle the day after the Breonna Taylor decision? I mean, on any day he's unwelcome, but today, especially, yikes. 

This is a perfectly acceptable Thursday puzzle that left me perfectly cold. Well, not cold, exactly. Just unmoved. Unexcited. Felt like work. Not much to fault in the concept though. Gotta do some word / letter-play to reimagine the clue, and then it's just straightforward from there. The whole set-up has a very familiar, very traditional "punny" vibe to it. I definitely had an "aha" moment at some point, though I don't remember when it came. I could see that the clue words sounded like letters very early on, but I didn't put it all together until ... actually, probably CRIBBAGE MARKER. I reasoned backward to [Peg] and then saw what was going on with all the theme clues. By that point I had most of three themers filled in. And then I got PANHANDLE without really thinking about the clue (crosses took care of things). Something about the revealer seems off to me. The clues are only SPELLED OUT if you *sound* them out. You have to say them. There's just ... a step left off. I see that there's a "?" on all the themers, so maybe that's the "we left a step off" indicator today, and it's not too hard to figure out what you had to do to make the clues work, but something about sound / speaking being left out of the explanation made it seem inadequate. Definitely contributed to a feeling of anticlimax. But, again, this is very much in keeping, quality-wise and excitement-wise, with the long history of NYTXW Thursdays that have come before it. Right over the plate.

Had a bunch of missteps today. Blanked completely on GAUSS, even with -USS in place (53D: Magnetic induction unit). I knew I'd seen it, but it was getting mixed up in my head with, I don't know, GNEISS, maybe? SCHUSS? Just couldn't find the handle (ironic, as the answer literally crosses "-HANDLE"). Wrote O'BRIEN before O'BRIAN (35D: Novelist Patrick who wrote "Master and Commander"). Spelled LOUIE like that (15A: One whose charges are sarges). No idea who DEB Fischer is (25A: Nebraska senator Fischer). Probably some horrible (R) ... oh yeah, a Kavanaugh-supporting woman, super. Most of the other names were pretty crosswordesey, so I didn't have as much trouble. EDIE, EMME, EVA ... even PROKEDS and LESPAUL felt straight out of crossword central casting. That TANEY / LEN cross was potentially Natick territory for people. I couldn't be less interested in "Dancing with the Stars" if I tried (64D: "Dancing With the Stars" judge Goodman), and that's probably true of lots of NYTXW solvers, and then TANEY ... he's not exactly current. I think "E" is the only good guess there, but still, crossing non-household names at vowel, not normally advised. Embarrassed it took me as long as it did to get MARS (4D: Land of Opportunity?), CHASE (9D: Go after) (I had ENSUE!?), and ADIEU (62A: Closing bid?), which, weirdly, is probably my favorite clue in the puzzle. The misdirection phrase is perfect, and the wordplay all seems exactly right (you "bid" someone ADIEU when you "close" the conversation with them. Nice. The rest, as I say, was just OK for me.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Lowest rating in showbiz's Ulmer Scale / FRI 9-25-20 / Sister channel of HGTV / Basketball highlight informally / Kind of paste in East Asian cuisine / Half bird half woman creature / Subject of J.J. Thomson's "plum pudding" model / Star Wars spinoff set five years after Emperor Palpatine's fall / Fantasy Focus podcast airer

September 24, 2020, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Finance reporter Ron / SAT 9-26-20 / Atoms that have same number of neutrons / Click the X when vexed maybe / HSN alternative / Classic makeshift solution / Rachel seven-season TV role for Meghan Markle

≪ Previous: Altiplano locale / THU 9-24-20 / Supermodel born Melissa Miller / Enthusiastic flamenco cry

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Constructor: Rachel Fabi

Relative difficulty: Easy (4:39)

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Stanley TUCCI (34D: Actor Stanley) —

Stanley Tucci (/ˈtuːtʃi/; born November 11, 1960) is an American actor, writer, producer, film director and former fashion model. Involved in acting from a young age, he made his film debut in John Huston's Prizzi's Honor (1985), and continued to play a wide variety of supporting roles in films such as Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry (1997), Sam Mendes' Road to Perdition (2002) and Steven Spielberg's The Terminal (2004). In 1996, he made his directorial debut with the cult comedy Big Night which he also wrote and starred in alongside Tony Shalhoub. He also played Stanley Kubrick in the television film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. Tucci is also known for his collaborations with Meryl Streep in films such as The Devil Wears Prada (2006), and Julie & Julia (2009). Tucci gained further acclaim and success with such films as Easy A (2010), Captain America: The First Avenger(2011), Margin Call (2011), The Hunger Games film series (2012-2015), Spotlight (2015), and Beauty and the Beast (2017).

He has won three Emmy Awards. One for Winchell (1998); one for a guest appearance on the USA Network comedy series Monk; and one for being a producer of the web series Park Bench with Steve Buscemi. (wikipedia)

• • •

I could not have asked for a better blog anniversary present! Today, my blog turns 14, the big one four, and, as if favored personally by the crossword gods, I am blessed with a puzzle by one of the best friends I have in all of Crossworddom (you may remember Rachel from the video of her and me co-solving a Saturday puzzle that I posted here recently). Also, this puzzle is really clearly obviously a good puzzle, so I can mostly just celebrate. I'm looking around for Things That Normally Irritate Rex and honestly there are only a few and they're all three letters long, so pfffffffffft, don't care. And so many things I like ... like POSTERIORS and PRIDE PARADES,OCEANOGRAPHERS and TURING TESTS, Elvis Costello lyrics ("DON'T GET CUTE...") and cheesy Gino Vanelli songs ("INTO THE NIGHT") and mythological metamorphoses (ACTAEON) and olde-timey ways of saying numbers (THREE SCORE), it's all here! I don't give a damn about that "Star Wars" show, but it seems popular, and it's certainly current, so throw that in the Good column too. In short, I was rarely stuck and rarely unhappy while solving this baby. The thing that held me up the most was actually a stupid typo—I wrote in LATES for LATEX and then kept wondering what this fantastic word could be that's 12 letters long, means "Avant-garde," and starts ESPER-... ESPERANTOISH! That would be pretty avant-garde. 

["DON'T GET CUTE ..."]

Rachel just sent me this screen shot, which I found pretty funny. It's xwordinfo data about her puzzle. Apparently she and this "Michael Sharp" guy think a lot alike, huh, weird:

This is a max word-count themeless (72), which I find often leads to maximum awesomeness precisely because you can get a lot of marquee stuff in there and still have wiggle room to make sure that your fill comes out squeaky clean. No stacks here, just a lot of interlocking gorgeousness—six 10+ answers crossing four 10+ answers, for a total of ten 10+ answers, none of which are weak. The only places I had trouble were RED BEAN (just couldn't come up with it, not sure why) (23A: Kind of paste in East Asian cuisine) and OOP (I get that this is a shortening of "alley-oop," but I can't recall hearing anyone say this ... then again, my basketball fandom is mildly out of date, so what do I know?) (31A: Basketball highlight, informally). Oh, and I wanted a few other things before INTO THE NIGHT. INTO THIN ... something? INTO THE ... MISTS? I don't know, don't remember. But THE NIGHT required crosses. Other than that, this puzzle ran mostly resistance-free. So congratulations to Rachel, and congratulations to me on writing this dang blog for 14 years, and congratulations to you ... for I don't know what, but surely you can think of something. Have a great day, everyone.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Finance reporter Ron / SAT 9-26-20 / Atoms that have same number of neutrons / Click the X when vexed maybe / HSN alternative / Classic makeshift solution / Rachel seven-season TV role for Meghan Markle

September 26, 2020, 3:59 am

≫ Next: Silver screen actress known as British Bombshell / SAT 9-27-20 / Philippine port with reduplicative name / Bony projection found just behind ear / Father of Anne Frank / So-called Pearl of the Black Sea

≪ Previous: Lowest rating in showbiz's Ulmer Scale / FRI 9-25-20 / Sister channel of HGTV / Basketball highlight informally / Kind of paste in East Asian cuisine / Half bird half woman creature / Subject of J.J. Thomson's "plum pudding" model / Star Wars spinoff set five years after Emperor Palpatine's fall / Fantasy Focus podcast airer

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Constructor: Kristian House

Relative difficulty: Medium (8 to 9, somewhere in there, solving slowly, early in the a.m.)

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: KIRI Te Kanawa (9D: Soprano ___ Te Kanawa) —

Dame Kiri Jeanette Claire Te Kanawa ONZ CH DBE AC (/ˈkɪri təˈkɑːnəwə/; born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron, 6 March 1944) is a New Zealand former opera singer. She had a full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as "mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced".

Te Kanawa has received accolades in many countries, singing a wide array of works in many languages dating from the 17th to the 20th centuries. She is particularly associated with the works of Mozart, Strauss, Verdi, Handel and Puccini, and found considerable success in portraying princesses, nobility, and other similar characters on stage.

Though she rarely sang opera later in her career, Te Kanawa frequently performed in concert and recital, gave masterclasses, and supported young opera singers in launching their careers. Her final performance was in Ballarat, Australia, in October 2016, but she did not reveal her retirement until September 2017. (wikipedia)

• • •

Proper names made this one a real minefield, or potential minefield, I guess. I'm not real big on using marginal names to achieve difficulty, and I don't know what INSANA and (as clued) ZANE are here if not marginal. Seven seasons on a TV show that the clue doesn't even name ... doesn't strike me as a thing. Did anyone really watch "Suits"? That "Z" took me a weird lot of time, as I scrolled the alphabet (all the way to "Z"!) to figure out how WI- could be [Virtuoso, informally]. Of course when I got it, it was a 'duh,' so maybe if I'd just been quicker i.e. more awake I would've blown past the ZANE thing too quick to be irked by it, who knows? INSANA was way more of a problem. No way I'm guessing any of those letters, and in terms of a "field from which names come," you couldn't pick one farther from my realm of caring than "hedge fund manager." Again, not even a show or a network to go on with INSANA (not that it would've helped). RAPINOE is very (recently) famous. LUCINDA ... well, she's very famous to me (saw her at the Beacon in '05) but even if you somehow don't know her, and least LUCINDA is ultimately a recognizable name (unlike, say, INSANA). It just seemed like there were a lot of places in the grid where solvers could into Name Trouble, which honestly is not the most enjoyable kind of trouble. KIRI / ROMERO? Gimmes for me, but I can imagine possibly not for others. 

On the other hand, there are some delightful moments, like CHEERIOS sticking together (never saw that coming, really looking for something science-y there), or the simple backyard pleasures of CORNHOLE (it's my understanding that you can watch competitive CORNHOLE on one of the ESPNs, during CORNHOLE season, whenever that is—the guys on my favorite baseball podcast talked about getting weirdly into it during the early pandemic, when all normal traditional sports had been effectively brought to a halt). And if you're gonna cross proper names at a vowel, then RAPINOE crossing LUCINDA in the dead center of your grid is probably the most glorious way to do that. Some of the relative current fill today actually felt weirdly ... well, kinda old already. That may be because I've already seen it in grids and therefore its novelty isn't as striking to me. Stuff like GLAMPING and RAGEQUIT (perfectly good fill, just lacking the zing it likely once had). NERD CRED ... is just an odd phrase to say (67A: Something you might earn by having a long crossword-solving streak, informally). Say it. NERD CRED. It's like much in your mouth. Reminds me of the "30 Rock" episode where everyone kept having to say the ridiculous movie title "The Rural Juror" over and over. Awkward. 

Biggest struggle was in the SW. I blame INSANA, though I also blame my inexplicable failure to come up with the BIKE part of ROAD BIKE (35D: Transport not meant for trails). Oh, and worst of all down there, I had PLIÉ instead of KNEE (56D: It's a real bender). Really really wanted EARS right from the jump, but I guess PLIÉ must've prevented me from going for it. Oh, sorry, there's another worst of all, which is, worst of all, PLIÉ baited me into putting RAISIN (!!!) in KAISER's place (64A: Kind of roll). When four letters "confirm" your answer, your answer is *usually* safe. Usually. No other real issues today. PENCIL before PENCAP, that's about it (7D: Ink saver). Have a lovely Saturday.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Silver screen actress known as British Bombshell / SAT 9-27-20 / Philippine port with reduplicative name / Bony projection found just behind ear / Father of Anne Frank / So-called Pearl of the Black Sea

September 26, 2020, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Criticize Sega's hedgehog design / MON 9-28-20 / Priestly Gaul or Celt / Small lobsterlike crustacean

≪ Previous: Finance reporter Ron / SAT 9-26-20 / Atoms that have same number of neutrons / Click the X when vexed maybe / HSN alternative / Classic makeshift solution / Rachel seven-season TV role for Meghan Markle

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Constructor: Alex Eaton-Salners

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (not sure why, but it played really slow, esp at first) (~12:00?!)

THEME:"Playing with Food"— four themers have circled squares that contain food items; four other themers are actually cryptic clues that explain why the food in the other formers is presented the way that it is:

Theme answers:

• BANK OF GUYANA (24A: South American financial institution since 1965)
• T(O LIVE) AND DIE IN L.A. (31A: 1985 thriller with the tagline "A federal agent is dead. A killer is loose, And the City of Angels is about to explode.") 
• [2D: TV host with two Peabodys (JOHN OLIVER)]
• BASEBALL CARD (49A: Collectible item with stats)
• FOOT PATROL (59A: Elements of neighborhood watch programs)
• -----
• BANANA SPLIT (72A: Food depicted cryptically at 24-Across)
• STUFFED OLIVE (78: Food depicted cryptically at 31-Across)
• CHOPPED SALAD (98A: Food depicted cryptically at 49-Across)
• MASHED POTATO (106A: Food depicted cryptically at 59-Across)

Word of the Day: MASTOID (67D: Bony projection found just behind the ear) —

1: being the process of the temporal bone behind the earalso : being any of several bony elements that occupy a similar position in the skull of lower vertebrates

2: of, relating to, or occurring in the region of the mastoid process (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

Today is my 17th wedding anniversary. Glad I solved this on Saturday evening so it didn't tarnish this otherwise joyous day with its particular blend of oldness and sadness. I don't understand even accepting this puzzle. This type of (very rudimentary) wordplay is the stuff of last century. The "salad" isn't even "chopped" evenly. And is anagramming really a good example of "mashing"? And all the cryptic-clue themers, once you get to them, are totally anti-climactic. It's just belated groan after belated groan. Not even groan. Groan would imply that the answer was at least surprising enough to merit an eye-roll. But all these punny cryptic-clue themers are more afterthoughts than revelations. "Oh, yeah, I guess that is what is happening in those circled squares. Huh. OK." Just cornball "humor." There are no good, exciting, interesting, current answers in the entirety of this 21x21 grid. What passes for "colloquial" dialogue in some of the fill feels awfully forced ("OH I DUNNO,""I S'POSE," [grimace]). I think I like I.T. BAND, in that it is a real thing, and a real (tight) issue for many people. But I DARE SAY there's nothing else here to really cheer for. And so much wasted real estate. The whole eastern chunk, for instance—three 7s all line up alongside each other ... and all of them mere filler (super-common letters, boring answers). The worst thing about the theme is the idea that anyone should know what the BANK OF GUYANA is. What in the world? Are all the random banks of the world just fair game now? Awful. And on top of all that, the puzzle played hard, which makes me even more resentful. If I gotta work for something, it should be worth it. But this was just a grind. And a letdown. 

Was the "Star Wars" onslaught supposed to be cute. Because it felt abusive. I knew all the answers, but yeesh. Mostly what you're doing there is screaming to the world that you are using all the familiar "Star Wars" crosswordese all at once. REY? REN? Why are you highlighting these by making them all "Star Wars" clues? Bizarre. I mean, YODA, sure, you've only got one frame of reference for that. But just continuing to throw "Star Wars" clues at the solver betrays a lack of imagination. REDOES, REOILS, rethink your grid. Also, REDOES and UNDID ... same base verb, too close. Also "say" is in the clues (23A: "Hmm ... hard to say") and the answers (DARE SAY). ILO ILO and ODESSA are too very crosswordesey place names and They're In The Same Tiny Section (SE). Ooh, though it may seem ... improbable / contradictory / ironic, I like GO LIMPandORGIES. CIALIS, I like less. My god, FUDDLE? I'm now remembering why I was so slow up top. The JOHN (OLIVE)R clue is totally lacking in specificity ... and FUDDLE. Are FUDDLEs always "drunken"? I don't know this word, unless it's part of the phrase "in a FUDDLE" (?) in which case I would've thought it just meant something like "lost" or "addled" or "at sea."FUDDLE, wow. FUDDLE only means something to me with a "Be-" in front of it. What else? Oh, ANAKIN ... andANACIN? Really not trying too hard for lexical variety today, I guess. Disappointing.

Happy Anniversary, sweetheart. Your commiseration makes bad puzzles worthwhile. xo

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Criticize Sega's hedgehog design / MON 9-28-20 / Priestly Gaul or Celt / Small lobsterlike crustacean

September 27, 2020, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Gray in the face / TUES 9-29-20 / Subject of una balada / They do dos / Not be serious

≪ Previous: Silver screen actress known as British Bombshell / SAT 9-27-20 / Philippine port with reduplicative name / Bony projection found just behind ear / Father of Anne Frank / So-called Pearl of the Black Sea

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Constructor: Lynn Lempel

Relative difficulty: Easy (2:42) 

THEME: "verb A noun"— common words are clued as if they were three-word verb phrases with the second word "A":

Theme answers:

• PROPAGATE (18A: Support the pasture entrance?)
• CARDAMOM (24A: Check someone's parent to make sure she's of drinking age?)
• METAPHYSICIAN (37A: Was introduced to the doctor?)
• CASTANET (53A: Do some trawling at sea?)
• PANASONIC (60A: Criticize Sega's hedgehog design?)

Word of the Day: CARDAMOM (24A) —

Cardamom (/ˈkɑːrdəməm/), sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genera Elettaria and Amomum in the family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to the Indian subcontinent and Indonesia. They are recognized by their small seed pods: triangular in cross-section and spindle-shaped, with a thin, papery outer shell and small, black seeds; Elettaria pods are light green and smaller, while Amomum pods are larger and dark brown. // Species used for cardamom are native throughout tropical and subtropical Asia. The first references to cardamom are found in Sumer, and in the Ayurvedic literatures of India. Nowadays it is also cultivated in Guatemala, Malaysia, and Tanzania. The German coffee planter Oscar Majus Klöffer introduced Indian cardamom to cultivation in Guatemala before World War I; by 2000, that country had become the biggest producer and exporter of cardamom in the world, followed by India. // Cardamom is the world's third-most expensive spice, surpassed in price per weight only by vanilla and saffron. [...] Cardamom has a strong, unique taste, with an intensely aromatic, resinous fragrance. Black cardamom has a distinctly more smoky, though not bitter, aroma, with a coolness some consider similar to mint. (wikipedia)

• • •

I finished this in "Easy" time, but the themers themselves were probably harder to get than your typical Monday themers. Question-mark clues always involve extra thought, and reparsings can be particularly tricky. Today's weren't exactly tough, but they might've been tough enough to slow you down a little. Luckily (if you enjoy solving quickly), the non-theme stuff was incredibly easy. I blazed through it with only slight hesitations here and there. The theme is solid, the fill anemic but inoffensive. It's a perfectly acceptable Monday effort. But here are the things that kept this theme from really sizzling. They are little things, but cumulatively, they cause a lot of wobble. Let's start with the tiniest thing—I'm really distracted by CAB A RET in what looks almost like a theme position (longer Across answer). CRAWDAD is the same length but doesn't bug me at all. Why? Because CRAWDAD doesn't sound like it follows the theme pattern (three-part phrase with "A" in the middle). Obviously CAB A RET is meaningless as a three-word phrase, but I'd've gutted my grid of all "blank A blank" words *except* the themers, just to ensure that they really pop. Next, the clue on CARDAMOM is really clunky. It's chiefly the "someone's parent" part. There's gotta be a better way to do that. It's clear that you're trying not to have "mom" or a synonym of "mom" in the clue, and that is very hard to do, but still, "someone's parent" feels vague and tortured. Also, all the reimagined verb phrases are in the present tense *except* MET A PHYSICIAN, which is past tense, which makes it a noticeable clanking outlier. Lastly, and worst of all, you can't use an indefinite article ("a") for SONIC. There's just the one. Unless there's a planet of hedgehogs, all named SONIC, that I don't know about. I get that the clue is asking you to imagine one of a bunch of potential designs, but that's pretty contrived. Other than all those things, the theme is fine. Just fine.

Guessed all the top Acrosses correctly on the first go, which (once again) may account for my faster-than-average Monday time. Actually, I didn't just get them immediately, I also got Every Single Down Cross immediately. So first three Acrosses, first thirteen Downs, very little hesitation. I was kind of methodical and slowish with my typing from there on out, and still came within 15 seconds or so of my record. The only answers I can remember not getting immediately and having to come back to are ORCHID, STIGMA, and CHAPEL. Looked at the ORCHID clue with only the "C" in place and nothing registered. Wanted something more Hawthorne-specific for the [Scarlet letter, e.g.] answer. And I guess I never gave the actual *size* of a CHAPEL any thought (45D: Small place of worship). Not much else to say about the fill here. It's very out-of-a-can. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Gray in the face / TUES 9-29-20 / Subject of una balada / They do dos / Not be serious

September 28, 2020, 9:22 pm

≫ Next: Arm-flapping dance of the early 1970s / WED 9-30-20 / Chess whizzes for short / Country whose flag is solid red with emerald pentagram

≪ Previous: Criticize Sega's hedgehog design / MON 9-28-20 / Priestly Gaul or Celt / Small lobsterlike crustacean

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Hello! It's Clare — here for yet another Tuesday crossword! I'm one million weeks into my final year of law school (at least that's how it feels), and things have been mostly running smoothly with online classes after some early problems. I did almost die of secondhand embarrassment the other day in class when a girl started complaining about how boring and useless the class was... and her microphone was turned on! (Now I always triple check my mic is off; and I have this fear that my camera will just randomly turn on, so I bought a lens cover!) Hope everyone is staying safe in these continually weird times...

Now to the puzzle!

Constructor: Ricky Cruz

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: BREAKS CHARACTER (38A: Can't hold back laughter while performing, say ... or a hint to the circled letters) — Each of the theme answers is a symbol whose name is broken up between two answers.

Theme answers:

• TILDE (18A: unTIL and 19A: DEnse)
• HYPHEN (24A: asHY and 25A: PHENoms)
• AMPERSAND (51A: cAMPERS and 53A: ANDy)
• ASTERISK (61A: hASTE and 62A: RISKy)

Word of the Day: LYDIA (21D) —

Lydia Ko (born 24 April 1997) is a Korean-born New Zealand professional golfer who became the No. 1-ranked woman professional golfer on February 2, 2015 at 17 years, 9 months and 9 days of age, making her the youngest player of either gender to be ranked No. 1 in professional golf. (WIki) 

• • •

Overall, I quite liked this puzzle. The theme was clever; the puzzle was nicely executed; and there was a good revealer. I'm not always a huge fan of puzzles with circles in them, but I think the constructor here made really good use of them. As a whole, I found the puzzle engaging and amusing.

That being said, I didn't find that there were a lot of interesting or clever words/clues in the puzzle. There wasn't much junk in the puzzle, either, but I'm having a much harder time than usual figuring out what to say about this puzzle. There just isn't much of note about the individual words, even those that provide the theme (UNTIL, DENSE, ASHY, PHENOMS, etc...).

Some of the more "punny" answers, like OVENS (2D: Devices relied upon to a high degree?), BASE (12D: It might be stolen in full view), and DARE (27A: Alternative to truth?), livened things up a tad. My favorite clue/answer might have been 8D: They do dos as SALONS. I also liked some of the longer acrosses: COLONIAL, EMULATED, and ROSARIES. I don't think this was intended, but I got a slight mythological theme from the puzzle (maybe it's because I just read the book "A Song of Achilles," which I highly recommend — seriously, everyone should read this!) with SPARTA, OMEN, and HERC. Because I had mythology on the brain, when I got to 60A: A siren's wail, e.g., it took me a while to realize the answer was BLARE and not something else having to do with Odysseus.

As much as I liked the slight mythological feel, it does cue up the first of two nits I had with the puzzle. The clue for 26D: Nickname for a mythological hero as HERC just didn't sit right, because Hercules was only ever called HERC in the Disney movie version; cluing this nickname as being a mythological hero is pretty misleading. The second nit is bigger: Why in the world is the answer for 37A: One of many for baking soda: USE ? Is that the best clue for the word we could find? Why single out baking powder for many uses? It just strikes me as random and slightly bizarre.

Bullets:

• When I first went through the puzzle, I put "up til" for 18A: No later than rather instead of UNTIL. It took me a bit to find my mistake, as I realized "map" made absolutely no sense for 5D: "Whew!"
• I remember taking part in Greek Games when I was in elementary school, as we were all assigned different city-states to be in. I remember I was in... actually, I don't remember. I just know it wasn't SPARTA or Athens. I also know my city-state ended up winning, and my toga was epic.
• Fun fact: "Hercules" is the Roman version of the name, which became more popular with the Disney movie. He's Heracles to the Greeks. As he was the product of one of Zeus' 14 million affairs, the goddess Hera hated him and tried to mess with him on every occasion, She sent snakes to kill him when he was a baby (he strangled the snakes in his crib), and she drove him crazy. He killed his wife and their kids, so he went to an oracle and was told to atone by performing the 12 labors he's famous for. See what Disney doesn't tell you?!
• And now, as a treat for reading this whole thing, here's your monthly BTS update — my favorite artist, a K-pop group, is going to be on The Tonight Show all week long, so I highly suggest tuning in!! It should be a blast and a half.

Happy almost October! Stay safe.

Signed, Clare Carroll, toga queen

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Arm-flapping dance of the early 1970s / WED 9-30-20 / Chess whizzes for short / Country whose flag is solid red with emerald pentagram

September 29, 2020, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Coral island nation north of Fiji / THU 10-1-20 / Aunt despised relative of Harry Potter / French daily founded in 1826 / Lum aka actress comedian Awkwafina / Titular married lady in funny girl song / Classic checker-dropping game

≪ Previous: Gray in the face / TUES 9-29-20 / Subject of una balada / They do dos / Not be serious

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Constructor: Erik Agard and Andy Kravis

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (high 4s) (oversized grid, 16x15)

THEME: FOUL LANGUAGE (62A: Profanity ... or what 17-, 24-, 36- and 52-Across start with?)— phrases where the first word can also be a synonym of "foul" (as in "smelly"):

Theme answers:

• RANK AMATEURS (17A: They're the opposite of consummate professionals)
• STINKING RICH (24A: Disgustingly wealthy)
• RIPE OLD AGE (36A: Wonderfully high number of years to have lived)
• FUNKY CHICKEN (52A: Arm-flapping dance of the early 1970s)

Word of the Day:"NANETTE" (42D: Hit 2018 Netflix stand-up special for Hannah Gadsby) —

Hannah Gadsby: Nanette is a live comedy performance written and performed by Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby, which debuted in 2017. The work includes social commentary (especially about LGBTQ and women's perspectives, and mental illness), evocative speech punctuated by comedy and emotive narration of Gadsby's life, learnings and what her story offers to the world. In June 2018, Netflix released a video of Gadsby's performance of the work at the Sydney Opera House. Gadsby's live performances and the video have received critical acclaim for casting light on the realities behind several success stories that are only told from singular perspectives, and reflecting on inequality and oppression. In April 2019, the special won a Peabody Award. In September 2019, Gadsby won Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special for Nanette at the annual Primetime Emmy Awards. (wikipedia)

• • •

Spent much of this solve annoyed that they made a Tuesday puzzle so hard. Only after I was done did I realize it was not a Tuesday puzzle. Still, felt tough, especially the NW, where I absolutely died. I could not get traction, so help me. Starting off a puzzle is often the hardest part (after all, that's the one point at which you truly have nothing to go on), but wow right out of the box I wanted "AND HOW!" instead of "I'LL SAY" (both of them equally hilariously olde-timey "Our Gang"-y expressions that no one really says anymore except in some kind of quaint ironic way) (1A: "You've got THAT right!"). Couldn't decide between AYE or YEA (6D: Congressional approval). Had no zero none no idea what a LUKE Bryan was (3D: ___ Bryan, "American Idol" judge). Couldn't decide WRATH or ANGER (20A: Ire). Needed many crosses to see GRAPPA (14D: Italian brandy). And had no idea how to take the clue at 14A: Band follower (GROUPIE)—I thought it was going to be something like "word that can follow 'band'." Didn't know intended meaning of "band," didn't know intended meaning of "follower." Just a straight-up train wreck up there. NE also stumped me a bit to start. GMS is not an abbr. I know (though I can infer that it stands for "grandmasters") (11A: Chess whizzes, for short). Couldn't get to "OOH!" from 16A: "Intriguing!" Winced after finally getting GOT WIND (which looks kinda awful on its own) (11D: Learned (of)). No idea how to take "buns" in 35A: Some buns (UPDOS). If we're talking hair, then *all* buns are UPDOS. It's a weird clue. So all my green ink* is up top. Down below, the only issues I had were ZAGS for ZIGS (44A: Makes a sharp turn), and ... just a "???" reaction to 70A: What "radio wave,""foregone" and "main event" all hide (STATES). Not a fan of cryptic clues like this. I love cryptic puzzles, but only when I know that they are cryptic puzzles. It's a contractual thing—I did not agree to cryptic clues. So this kinda clue feels cheap to me. Needlessly cutesy. Out of order. 

The theme, though, is fun. I mean, very simple, Monday-type theme, but well done for what it is. Take a common phrase, use it as a revealer in a way that twists the meaning of the phrase. Get together a spot-on set of themers. TADA! Plus I got to remember "SIR DUKE," which is never not a good thing. "Songs in the Key of Life," man. It's the antidote.

Gonna go read in bed so I don't have to hear about how the stupid debate went. I hope you all are well. Happy last day of September.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

*After I solve the puzzle, I print it out and mark it up with a green felt-tip pen. I tend to highlight trouble areas, so "green ink" mostly signifies trouble

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Coral island nation north of Fiji / THU 10-1-20 / Aunt despised relative of Harry Potter / French daily founded in 1826 / Lum aka actress comedian Awkwafina / Titular married lady in funny girl song / Classic checker-dropping game

October 1, 2020, 3:26 am

≫ Next: Eastern gambling mecca / FRI 10-2-20 / Giant actor of 1955 / Red peg in game Battleship / Modify so as to bypass a device's restrictions, in hacker lingo

≪ Previous: Arm-flapping dance of the early 1970s / WED 9-30-20 / Chess whizzes for short / Country whose flag is solid red with emerald pentagram

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Constructor: Adam Fromm

Relative difficulty: Medium? (don't know, had to slow down and fuss with rebus squares—couldn't remember the exact keystroke pattern I needed—so my time ended up in the 7s but it probably should've been in the 6s)

THEME: TOUCH TONE PHONES (37A: Products since the 1960s ... on which you can see five "key" things depicted in this puzzle) — rebus squares contain a number (for the Down answer) and the letter string associated with that number on a touch tone keypad (for the Across)

Theme answers:

• GRAB CONTROL / IN 2 (17A: Stage a coup / 3D: Bisected)
• DEFLATE / 3 DOG NIGHT (9A: Let the air out of / 9D: Band with the 1970 #1 hit "Mama Told Me (Not to Come)")
• GENGHIS / CONNECT 4 (64A: First name of a famous Mongol ruler / 38D: Classic checker-dropping game)
• FILM NOIR / 6ERS (52A: Genre of "The Big Sleep" and "Kiss Me Deadly" / 55D: Dr. J's team)
• TUVALU / 8 TRACK (46A: Coral island nation north of Fiji / 46D: Cassette tape predecessor)

Word of the Day: ARGOS (23D: City of the Peloponnese) —

Argos (/ˈɑːrɡɒs, -ɡəs/; Greek: Άργος [ˈarɣos]; Ancient Greek: Ἄργος [árɡos]) is a city in Argolis, the Peloponnese, Greece and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It is the largest city in Argolis and a major center for the area.

Since the 2011 local government reform it has been part of the municipality of Argos-Mykines, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 138.138 km². It is 11 kilometres (7 miles) from Nafplion, which was its historic harbour. A settlement of great antiquity, Argos has been continuously inhabited as at least a substantial village for the past 7,000 years.^– The city is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network.

A resident of the city of Argos is known as an Argive (/ˈɑːrɡaɪv/ AR-ghyve, /-dʒaɪv/-⁠jyve; Greek: Ἀργεῖος). However, this term is also used to refer to those ancient Greeks generally who assaulted the city of Troy during the Trojan War; the term is more widely applied by the Homeric bards. (wikipedia)

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TOUCH TONE PHONES! You know ... for the kids. I think this would've been much cooler in a Sunday-size grid with the keys roughly where they're supposed to be (the keypad is a *grid* after all). Also, a larger grid probably would've allowed for more interesting long theme answers. As is, this was a bit of a grind—a bit of effort to figure out what the hell was going on, and then just that extended minefield feeling as you move semi-carefully through the grid trying to dig up the next rebus square before it destroys you. As usual, getting started was the hard part. Got IN (TWO) easily, but then had no idea what the (TWO) was supposed to be doing in the Across, even when I had most of it. I think I actually got the DEF square first, *then* the revealer, *then* was able to fill in the ABC part of GRAB CONTROL. Because ABC and DEF appeared in succession (reading L to R across the top of the grid), I made the reasonable assumption that these rebus "buttons" were going to appear in order. But no. Almost, though, I guess. ABC DEF GHI and MNO appear in successive quadrants, but then you get that weird TUV crammed in there in this strange position; that one was by far the hardest of the keys to turn up, first because it took me a while to remember that 8 TRACKs ever existed and then because I couldn't remember the country name and sorta had to run the alphabet to figure out what letter string could go there. TUVALU sprang to mind, but for some reason felt wrong. But it wasn't. The end.

Some notes on the fill ... TWEENAGER, still not a thing. At all. You call them TWEENs if you must call them a demographic name. Literally never heard anyone use TWEENAGER, which feels like a word someone invented under the assumption that it must have predated the shortened TWEEN. Blargh. Drop it from your wordlists, it's superdumb. Also, how have you not dropped UNPC from your wordlist by now. It's such a bigoted concept. You're offensive. You want to call yourself UNPC because you imagine yourself some kind of free-speech hero, but you're just a run-of-the-mill asshole. The whole "PC" thing is a self-exonerating defensive lie. Stop. The proper names today were weirdly obscure, almost as if they were designed to make many solvers just have to infer Some kind of name from crosses. I had to do this inferring four different times. For character names (MIA, MARGE), and for some "Funny Girl" song (SADIE) (22A: Titular "married lady" in a "Funny Girl" song) and for the real name of a person not-at-all known by her real name? (NORA) (15A: ___ Lum, a.k.a. actress/comedian Awkwafina). Luckily, the crosses were easy enough to make all the names gettable, but yikes. Some hoary crosswordese in this one (NAE, ENLAI). Oh and a note on ENG(lish). The clue [Grade school subj.] is absurd, as it's also a high school subj. and a university subj., a grad school subj. Hell, I will be teaching two ENG. courses later *today*. The clue [Grade school subj.] is fine for SCI., as in grade school you haven't moved onto specific science courses yet. But for ENG. ... it's not wrong, obviously, but it's misleadingly specific. 

My favorite answer today was LE FIGARO (10D: French daily founded in 1826). The rest was workmanlike and oddly bygone in its general cultural orientation. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Eastern gambling mecca / FRI 10-2-20 / Giant actor of 1955 / Red peg in game Battleship / Modify so as to bypass a device's restrictions, in hacker lingo

October 2, 2020, 3:42 am

≫ Next: Hairstyle that's short on the sides / SAT 10-3-20 / Larva of dragonfly named after Greek myth / Sauce ingredient in Londoner's pie mash / Neighbor of Belarusian / Chemical compounds in bubble gum

≪ Previous: Coral island nation north of Fiji / THU 10-1-20 / Aunt despised relative of Harry Potter / French daily founded in 1826 / Lum aka actress comedian Awkwafina / Titular married lady in funny girl song / Classic checker-dropping game

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Constructor: Debbie Ellerin

Relative difficulty: Easy (4:27) (wasn't really speeding even, *and* it's first thing in the morning)

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: GNAR (61A: Growl like an angry dog) —

intr.v. gnarred, gnar·ring, gnars also gnarrs

To snarl; growl. (thefreedictionary.com)

• • •

An easy, smooth solve today. The longer answers stay pretty tame, but they're also uniformly solid, and even the puzzle's clear fascination with high-value Scrabble tiles (a potentially deadly distraction) doesn't derail the overall quality of the grid, which is mercifully free of junk. Well, there's Ben SASSE, but *otherwise* free of junk. This puzzle makes a good case for the Easy Themeless puzzle, which the NYT rarely has. I know I call Fridays "Easy" all the time, but that's "Easy if you are a constant solver" easy, "Easy relative to the norm" easy. It's nice to give beginners, people who have trouble getting past, say, a Wednesday puzzle, a taste of how delightful a really well-made wide-open themeless can be. The New Yorker already does this (it only serves up themelesses, and they get easier as the week progresses). This is to say that I think I would not mind the occasional Tuesday or Wednesday themeless. Raise the bar on theme quality, and then (since you will lose some mediocre themed puzzles through the bar-raising) replace them with *fun* *current* *creative* *original* themelesses. Just a thought. Anyway, this one felt really doable; part of that doability is how few proper nouns there are here. SAL / MINEO makes a (for me, very helpful) appearance (25A: With 17-Across, "Giant" actor of 1956), but virtually everything else is ordinary vocabulary, common phrases, etc. There's really not much to lock someone out, generationally or culturally. It's a warm cup of cocoa on a crisp autumn day, this one. And who doesn't like that? 

I had minor trouble in a number of places, but nothing substantial. Getting from [Tips] to ACMES took some thinking (and some crosses). Wanted TIES to be TWOS (!?) (12D: Deuces, e.g.). [Dress] was ambiguous enough that it took some time to get to FROCK. Had the BINGO and couldn't fathom what followed it ("event" not leading me easily to NIGHT (3D: Event with a room full of people). I feel like they play Bingo in the daytime in "Better Call Saul" ... the sun seems to be out, anyway; maybe I'm misremembering). I spelled KWIK like that at first (31D: Classic cocoa powder brand). I thought Bundt pans were *always* MOLDS (44A: Possible uses for Bundt pans) (the term "cake molds" exists ... so ... wait, when are Bundt pans *not* molds? Are you feeding your dog out of a Bundt pan?). Easily the most confusing answer (also, arguably, the worst answer) in the grid was RAKER (47D: Fall person, perhaps). Random ER-ification of a verb. Defensible, but unpleasant. Also slightly unpleasant: GNAR, which is a word no one uses and also a word I confuse with ... what are the bumps on trees called? KNARs? Yes, I confuse it with that. Luckily RBG set me straight. Hope you found this one at least pleasant. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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