Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle

Constructor: Sam Trabucco

Relative difficulty: Easy (4:01) (personal record by over a minute)*

THEME: TEAM! — just kidding, there's no theme, but there are two TEAMs ... and lots and lots of sports, generally ...

Word of the Day: LICTORS (44A: Roman magistrate's attendants) —

noun
(in ancient Rome) an officer attending the consul or other magistrate, bearing the fasces, and executing sentences on offenders. (google)

• • •

Hello! It's the first full week after New Year's Day and that means it's time for my annual pitch for financial contributions to the blog, during which I ask regular readers to consider what the blog is worth to them on an annual basis and give accordingly. As you know, I write this blog every. Single. Day. OK, two days a month I pay young people to write it, but every other day, all me. OK sometimes I take vacations and generous friends of mine sit in, but otherwise, I'm a non-stop blogging machine. Seriously, it's a lot of work. It's at least as much work as my day job, and unlike my day job, the hours *kinda* suck—I typically solve and write between 10pm and midnight, or in the early hours of the morning, so that the blog can be up and ready for you to read with your breakfast or on the train or in a forest or wherever it is you enjoy the internet. I have no major expenses, just my time. As I've said before, I have no interest in "monetizing" the blog in any way beyond simply asking for money once a year. I hate ads in real life, so why would I subject you all to them. I actually considered redesigning the site earlier this year, making it slicker or fancier somehow. I even got the process partly underway, but then when I let slip that I was considering it, feedback was brisk and clear: don't change. Turns out people don't really want whistles and bells. Just the plain, internet-retro style of a blogger blog. So that's what you're getting. No amount of technical tinkering is gonna change the blog, which is essentially just my voice. My ridiculous opinionated voice yelling at you, cheerfully and angrily, about how much I love / hate crosswords. I hope that this site has made you laugh or taught you things or given you a feeling of shared joy, or anger, or failure, or even given you someone to yell at. I'm fine with that. I also hope I've introduced some of you to the Wider World of Crosswords, beyond the NYT. I am passionate about puzzles and I (mostly) adore the people who solve them—so many of my friends, and the thousands of you I've never met. I can't stop, and I won't stop, and I hope you find that effort worth supporting.

Some people refuse to pay for what they can get for free. Others just don't have money to spare. All are welcome to read the blog—the site will always be open and free. But if you are able to express your appreciation monetarily, here are two options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar):
Second, a mailing address:

Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905

All Paypal contributions will be gratefully acknowledged by email. All snail mail contributions (I. Love. Snail mail!) will be gratefully acknowledged with hand-written postcards. This year's cards are illustrations from "Alice in Wonderland"—all kinds of illustrations from throughout the book's publication history. Who will get the coveted, crosswordesey "EATME!" card!? Someone, I'm sure. You, I hope. Please note: I don't keep a "mailing list" and don't share my contributor info with anyone. And if you give by snail mail and (for some reason) don't want a thank-you card, just say NO CARD. As ever, I'm so grateful for your readership and support.

Now on to the puzzle!

• • •

Wow this was easy. For me. Beyond easy. This was that-dude-playing-golf-in-the-rain-storm-in-"Caddyshack" easy for me—everything was just going in. I could do no wrong. Every clue I looked at turned into an answer. It's like it was written especially for me. I mean, The City I Live In Is In The Dang Clues. I wasn't even focused on going particularly fast, and I nearly broke 4 minutes. My Saturday record (since April '18) is now faster than my Friday record, that's how fast I went. I was within 11 seconds of my *Tuesday* time, that's how fast I went. I'M SPEECHLESS! Figuratively! It definitely helped to have some basic sports knowledge, and this puzzle will break hard along sports knowledge lines. Between two TEAMs (SKI and NFC, what the hell?) and THE ESPYS, and PUT ON A CLINIC and MIRACLE ON ICE, yeah, yikes, it's sports-tastic. But all those things were solidly in my sporty lexicon, and only PUT ON A CLINIC caused me even a moment's hesitation. Just when I was thinking I was getting slower and slower and would never approach a personal record again ... this happens. Completely unexpected and weird. I have many Tuesday times that are slower than this. But I know that we are all only one or two proper nouns or slang phrases away from total destruction on any puzzle, so your experience may be very, very different.

Got POGS and EVOKE right away, which meant ESP and SKITEAM and NOLA and ABLE and most of the NW very quickly followed. I had OVERRODE at first instead of OVERBORE (13A: Domineered). Other than that, fast work up there. If you didn't know GORILLAZ ... that's a generational thing, for sure (15A: Grammy-winning group whose name is an homage to the Monkees). I think of them as a fictional / animated band because of their first famous video from circa 2001, "Clint Eastwood." Maybe they are less fictional and animated now. I really haven't been paying close enough attention.

I went diagonally thru this thing to the SE, where "Y" in THEESPYS gave me SYSTOLE which game me TEAM, MATS, CCUP etc. Shot up through MIRACLE ON ICE (very easy when you've got ON ICE in place). Then PUT ON A CLINIC to VANILLI (way too easy) (9D: Music's Milli ___) and from there the rest of the NE went down, despite BENETS being (to me) not familiar (16A: ___ Reader's Encyclopedia (classic literary reference)). That just left the SW, where LICTORS was the only true "???" in the whole grid, and briefly prevented me from storming the corner. But then God sat in my lap with 50A: New York city west of Binghamton (!!) (ELMIRA), and that whole corner went down fast. Looked at timer. 4:01. Bonkers.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*personal record since I started keeping consistent records, April '18

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Constructor: Andy Kravis

Relative difficulty: Medium (10:33)

THEME:"Parlor Tricks" — familiar phrases clued as if they were orders at an ice cream parlor:

Theme answers:

PARADE FLOAT (23A: At the ice cream parlor, the grand marshal ordered a ...)
SINGLE MALT (39A: The confirmed bachelor ordered a ...)
TRAFFIC CONE (42A: The crossing guard ordered a ...)
KARAOKE BAR (67A: The amateur singer ordered a ...)
SUCTION CUP (70A: The dental hygienist ordered a ...)
HARLEM SHAKE (92A: The Apollo Theater usher ordered a ...)
BAKING SODA (97A: The pastry chef ordered a ...)
INSIDE SCOOP (115A: And the homebody ordered an ...)

Word of the Day: EYEPIT (101A: Ocular socket) —

(now rare) The eye socket; the concave area of the face around each eye. (wiktionary)

• • •

THANK YOU to all who contributed to my blog this past week. It's been lovely to hear from so many different people from around the country (the world, even). I really appreciate the support, as well as the warm words, not-so-warm words, encouragement, comments, suggestions, memories, and the occasional cartoon!

I have no good way of gauging how many readers I have or where they are, so it's nice to have a week where people check in from all over. You are of course free to contribute at any time during the year—you can always find the PayPal button and snail mail address in the sidebar of this blog. But this is the last time I'll put this info in the body of my write-up until 2020 (!):

Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp

54 Matthews St

Binghamton, NY 13905

Here's to a challenging, entertaining, representative, and inclusive NYT crossword experience in 2019! (Hey, I can hope!). Now on to the puzzle!

• • •

I love this type of theme—it's the good kind of whimsy—but this one in particular got very confusing to me because ... well, there are not one not two but three valences for ever themer. There's the ice cream order word, the final word (1), which is repurposed in the context of the overall phrase (2), but then there's the repurposing of the *first* word in the phrase, which often took things into yet another context. At first, I thought it was gonna be a simple two-context deal, because a float is an ice cream parlor order as well as something in a parade. A grand marshal might also ride a PARADE FLOAT. So, two contexts—ice cream shop, and parade. But then the others. A malt is an ice cream parlor order, and a SINGLE MALT is a kind of scotch, but then there's this bachelor ... he's just single. No necessary connection to the scotch. So ice cream, scotch, unmarried dude: three contexts. I kept getting turned around, wondering what, for instance, a dental hygienist had to do with SUCTION CUPs (nothing, of course—the hygienist provides suction; nothing in the clue relates to the plain meaning of the answer in the grid). So this is all misperception on my part; since the first themer had a clear connection between the person ordering at the parlor and the *complete* answer in the grid, I kept wanting subsequent answers to do the same, and they just wouldn't. It was weird.

Also there were names that were just beyond me. All supermodels? Beyond me. Don't care. Do not follow, do not care. Don't even like the dumb term "supermodel." I guess I know some classic supermodels, like say IMAN or GISELE, but the rest, pfft, pass. So ADRIANA? No way. Also no way (for a bit): ASHLEE Simpson. How long has it been since she had a hit. I barely remember. 2004 hit? Wasn't really paying attention back then. Also, didn't know SULLIVAN at all. Is that the SULLIVAN of "Gilbert and Sullivan?" Yup, it is. "Yeomen of the Guard" = meaningless to me. I assume it's from "HMS Pinafore" or some such musical. COHIBA totally eluded me (weirdly, I know ELROPO much better). There's a HARD ROCK *HOTEL*? LOL, I was like "Cafe.... nope." And that was the end of that. No idea. What is an EYEPIT? What (I mean *whaaaat*) is a BOATLIFT? Oof, that was the worst. I had BOATLINE (I mean, why not, makes as much sense) and thus TRANSIT CONE (!@?!?!?!0) for a while. Rough. It's not that the puzzle was hard; it wasn't. It just felt bumpy and odd to me. Not bad by any means. I just didn't groove on it the way I wish I had.

Five things:

28A: Weak-minded type (DOTARD)— had the D- and wrote in .... DIMWIT! I really really didn't want to let that one go.
92A: The Apollo Theater usher ordered a ... (HARLEM SHAKE)— LOL six-year-old memes that were popular for a nanosecond (i.e less than two months). Nice. I'm all for being "current," but this ... we need a name for this. Something that's current but then becomes decidedly dated almost before you can finish putting it into a puzzle...
56D: Writing of W.S. Gilbert (LIBRETTO)— Oh, hey, look ... a little hidden Gilbert & SULLIVAN dealie. (I struggled a bit with this one, too, shocker)
22A: I.S.P. option (AOL) — I get ISP and IPO confused. I would like to think that is why (having the "L" in place) I wrote in URL here, but ... honestly URL doesn't make sense either way
78A: Home planet of TV's Alf (MELMAC)— again? Again with MELMAC? That is two times in less than two months. And ... I mean ... that last time (in November) was 27 years (!!!!) after its last appearance (a 1991 debut—Gene Maleska at his wildest!). Let's put it back in the time capsule. ORK is more than enough 80s-sitcom-home-planet knowledge for one solver to have to carry around.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld (Twitter @rexparker / #NYTXW)

P.S. here are some ballerinas backstage at the NYC ballet solving the recent NYT Super Mega Crossword (photo via Brendan Emmett Quigley)

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Constructor: Craig Stowe

Relative difficulty: Easy-medium

THEME: DISGUSTING— Theme answers contain words you'd say when you find something gross (highlighted by the bubbles).

Theme answers:

DOUBLECHIN (17A: Facial feature that could be eliminated by cosmetic surgery)
MAGICKINGDOM (23A: Disney World attraction)
JUGHEAD (36A: Friend of Archie and Betty in the comics)
SAYAFEWWORDS (48A: Speak briefly)
DISGUSTING (57A: "Gross" title for this puzzle)

Word of the Day: PECTIN (6D: Marmalade ingredient) —

Pectin (from Ancient Greek: πηκτικός pēktikós, "congealed, curdled"^[1]) is a structural heteropolysaccharide contained in the primary cell walls of terrestrial plants. It was first isolated and described in 1825 by Henri Braconnot.^[2]^[3] It is produced commercially as a white to light brown powder, mainly extracted from citrus fruits, and is used in food as a gelling agent, particularly in jams and jellies. It is also used in dessert fillings, medicines, sweets, as a stabilizer in fruit juices and milk drinks, and as a source of dietary fiber.

• • •

It's a surprise Annabel Monday! I had to look up why Rex wanted me to write this week instead of last week and was reminded that that was because last week was his donation pitch. I hope he's ok with me thanking everyone that donated! You're the ones who keep Annabel Mondays financially viable at all!!!! Also thanks to everyone else too for just looking at the days when I blog, even the ones who only come complain that I missed something Rex would've gotten, because hey you're usually 100% right and I appreciate constructive criticism. For real, I don't want to get sappy but I love doing this. I love words.

Anyway, today's puzzle left me with...mixed feelings? I didn't even know whether to call it easy or medium, because while there weren't any quadrants that left me staring blankly at the screen for ages, it took me way more go-throughs and wrong guesses than it usually takes to really get into the groove. I found myself scratching my head at vague clues like "__ put it another way..." and "Come to __" (I was so sure that was MAMA!) and "Metropolitan ___." I guess the puzzle suffered from Blank Overload a little bit. The cluing for ESTA also hit one of my pet peeves; just say the language you're referring to, you don't need to name a region or city to try and be clever, honestly. But I did like parts of the setup, like ABCS on top of SINE. And although I had issues with some clues there were some clues I really liked--the one for WINO was funny! One time my local radio station changed their name to WOMB for a day as a prank, I think it was for Mother's Day? It was funny.

The theme was, y'know, a Monday theme. I don't like when letters are circled but you're not going to really do anything with them--write a phrase, do some unscrambling, what have you--but it did help me with SAY A FEW WORDS and MAGIC KINGDOM (I was so sure the latter was going to be one of the rides), and I've always had sort of a weakness for gross stuff. The word choices kind of reminded me of Garbage Pail Kids, which I never had but always eagerly pored over the ads for in my comic books. I guess I'm a grown-up now and can buy them for myself, but they don't hold quite the same appeal as they did when I was ten and thought anything slimy was the coolest thing on earth.

this is actually the only Garbage Pail Kid I could find on Google Images that didn't make me a little nauseous

Bullets:

JUGHEAD (36A: Friend of Archie and Betty in the comics) — Speaking of things I loved when I was ten I used to absolutely devour Archie comics! I feel like I've discussed this before on this blog but I never really "got" Jughead until I became a teenager and truly discovered the appeal of food and naps. I can't find it now, but there was this comic where Jughead discovered a crawlspace and made it into a little secret hideaway where he could stash snacks and hide out from his responsibilities to take naps in privacy, and I really admire that. I think we all deserve secret nap rooms.
ELLE (41A: Fashion monthly founded in France) — Hey! See? This is how I would clue a word that also means something in a foreign language! Not just "Her, in Paris.">:P
SETA (31A: ___ good example) — I had thought for sure this looked familiar, like I had seen it as a word in other contexts, but when I did some digging I found out it meant "in biology...any of a number of different bristle- or hair-like structures on living organisms," according to Wikipedia. Apparently geckos have them on the pads of their feet to keep them sticky. So I guess that's a bonus Word Of The Day because I already picked out the first Word of the Day.
OGRE (55D: Menacing fairy tale figure) — Actually these days I think most people's first thoughts when they think of ogres are a little more...layered. (Unrelated to Shrek, but the same goes for orcs, because I feel like 99% of my friends are playing half-orcs in at least one Dungeons and Dragons campaign.)

Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired college student. For one more semester. Gulp.

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Constructor: Samuel A. Donaldson

Relative difficulty: Challenging (for a Tuesday) (4:19)

THEME: welcome comments at a bar— phrases indicating that someone else is paying for your drink:

Theme answers:

"IT'S MY TREAT"
"DRINKS ON ME"
"I'LL GET THE BILL"
"YOUR MONEY'S / NO GOOD HERE"

Word of the Day: CHICO'S (1D: Women's clothing chain since 1983) —

Chico's is a retail women's clothing chain founded in 1983 by a three-person operation on Sanibel Island, Florida. Chico's FAS, Inc. is an American women’s clothing and accessories retailer. The company was founded by Marvin and Helene Gralnick and is headquartered in Fort Myers, Florida. Chico's FAS operates three brands: its namesake Chico's, White House Black Market and Soma. As of November 1, 2014, Chico's FAS operated 1,557 women's clothing stores in the US and Canada and sold merchandise through franchise locations in Mexico. (wikipedia)

• • •

Ouch. Very rough Tuesday. Rough as in "difficult," rough as in "ouch, I am wincing at this fill and these answers." Let's start with the theme, which is completely colloquial, and so when the phrasing isn't just right, it's grating. Feels like an alien life form has learned our language and is trying awkwardly to fit in. Actually, these aren't *that* off, but they veer sharply from the complete-sentence formal of "IT'S MY TREAT" to the where's-the-verb awkward of "DRINKS ON ME." Then there's "I'LL GET THE BILL," which ... ok one might say that, but it's not very bar-y, and like "IT'S MY TREAT" it's got that weird complete-sentence thing going on that you probably wouldn't actually here. "I GOT IT.""IT'S ON ME.""MY TREAT." I can hear these. The others have a weird formalism. Then there's the last one, YOUR MONEY'S / NO GOOD HERE, which is also the best one ... and the one total outlier, since it's the only themer that a bartender / owner would say. The other phrases are things your friends or colleagues might say. So it's all over the map as a theme. Not very tight, not very bar-specific. Also, how is the most common "welcome comment" of all not even in this grid? No ON THE HOUSE? No IT'S ON THE HOUSE? No IT IS ON THE HOUSE? The puzzle needed another answer with something drinky in it, like ROUND, and an answer with ON THE HOUSE in it. The theme as it is just clunks and lurches all over the place.

Then there's the fill / clues, which were super-hard for me, for a Tuesday. I have somehow lived almost half a century and never heard of CHICO'S. There has never been a CHICO'S anywhere I've lived. I have a sister and a mother and a wife and a daughter, so women's clothing chains aren't *entirely* unfamiliar to me, but yeah we found the giant hole in my knowledge base today, for sure. The NW was a disaster for that reason, and also because I misspelled HENNE and also because UNSNAG wtf!?!?! *And* with a "?" clue (3D: Let off the hook?). "CAN I SEE?" is a question and ["Ooh, ooh, let me look!"] is *not*, so that's fun (i.e. terrible). Don't watch that sitcom but guessed SEGAL buuuut the crosses were so weird to me that I kept taking him out when I couldn't get things to work. Pure disaster. And then when I'd go to other parts of the grid, I also couldn't get traction. Ask me about NETH, LOL, wow that is the Worst abbr., and I had NET- and still couldn't get it. My brain wouldn't allow it to exist. Up there with ICEL as Worst Euro Abbr. Wanted an *actual* wood for 28D: Wood in a fireplace, not the hilariously anticlimactic LOG. Cassius and Brutus are on my mind a lot (they figure prominently in Dante's "Inferno") but CASCA??? Totally forgot him (45A: Caesar's first stabber). Again. Just ... ugh. ATOY is horrendous fill and the clue did nothing for me (39A: "This is not ___" (warning to kids)). I have no idea what NCC even is (42A: ___-1701 (U.S.S. Enterprise registry). Seriously?? An abbr. that's cluable only in relation to an *adjacent* abbr.???? It stands for Naval Construction Contract and no, you did not know that.

Then there's ORIENTAL (11D: Avenue between Reading Railroad and Chance) ... I guess nothing says "hey, guys, sorry for BEANER" like ORIENTAL! Which is painfully dated, at best. It's a term that rubs a lot of Asian people the wrong way for reasons I Do Not Have Space or Time or Energy To Get Into. Here is an interview on NPR from ten years ago that puts things in non-inflammatory terms. My favorite part of the interview is when Linda Wertheimer asks Jeff Yang if anyone really *uses* the term ORIENTAL any more (in 2009) and he just laughs. People Still Use It To Describe Asian Things And People In This the Year of Our Lord Twenty Nineteen. ORIENTAL is not BEANER-level jarring, but I wouldn't put it in a puzzle. I mean, you can point to a Monopoly board and yup, there it is. But why are you including terms that need defense? It's common sense. You know it's a racially-loaded term, a term that has been used in racist ways, so why include it at all. Drive Around It. Take a different ... avenue, as it were. Thank you and good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld (Twitter @rexparker / #NYTXW)

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Bruce Haight

Relative difficulty: Medium (4:12)

THEME: double puns — so ... imagined spoken phrases where the first part is left blank, and instead of a familiar two-word phrase, there is a phrase made up of homophones of both words, i.e. a wacky phrase, which is suggested by the rest of the imagined spoken phrase in the theme clue (note: any theme that takes this long to accurately describe is almost certainly a hot mess):

Theme answers:

"BUTT WEIGHT" (17A: "___, do these jeans make me look fat?")
"AISLE BEE" (25A: "___! The flight attendant just swatted a bug!")
"BUY CHANTS" (36A: "___, would you like to purchase some religious music?")
"EWE GUISE" (53A: "___ and those crazy sheep costumes!")
"CZECH PLEAS" (62A: "___! Petr, I'm begging you again to let me get this!")

Word of the Day: SCREAMO (46D: Loud subgenre of punk) —

Screamo (also referred to as skramz) is an aggressive subgenre of emo that emerged in the early 1990s, emphasizing "willfully experimental dissonance and dynamics."^[2] It was pioneered by San Diego bands Heroin and Antioch Arrow and developed in the late 1990s mainly by bands from the East Coast of the United Statessuch as Orchid, Saetia, and Pg. 99. Screamo is strongly influenced by hardcore punkand characterized by the use of screamed vocals. Lyrical themes usually include emotional pain, romantic interest, politics, and human rights. "Screamo" has often been mistakenly used as an umbrella term for any music that features screamed vocals. (wikipedia)

• • •

Painful from start to finish, but particularly painful in the themers. There is no concept here. There is nothing clever holding this together, giving it definition, making it ... in any way meaningful. The homophonic phrases are totally random, have nothing in common, are not the same part of speech even ... make no sense on a grammatical level ... The cluing concept is atrocious. This is the editor's job. Doesn't matter if the constructor doesn't know what he's doing, the editor has to make this thing work, and its "working" depends *entirely* on the clues. And what do we get? Horrendously forced and awkward sounding quotes. The answers appear to want to be plays on words *and* work within the context of the imagined quote, but they just can't do both. And the relationship between the answer and the rest of the quotation is all over the map. What is the rest of the quotation supposed to be doing? It's providing a context, but what kind and how much? "Do these jeans make me look fat?" is a question aboutBUTT WEIGHT, but "Petr, I'm begging you again to let me get this" appears to be the CZECH PLEASthemselves. The worst and most confusing of these is the "by chance" / BUY CHANTS substitutions, since it's asking you to imagine an imperative (BUY CHANTS!) followed by an interrogative ??? ("would you like to purchase some religious music?"). It's all just so sloppy. There has to be some better way to tie all this double-homophone stuff together. Ugh, EWE GUISE is off too. "Those crazy sheep costumes!"? The wording just makes no sense. It's all torture. Any wordplay fun is completed drained out by the incompetent cluing. These kinds of clues have to work TOAT (ugh, one of my least fav crossword answers), and they have to be Funny; these failed on both counts.

This kind of cornball clunker should not be seeing the light of day in 2019. Also the fill is all over the map. THE? EELY? ITTY? SOAMI? TOAT? But then SCREAMO? (46D: Loud subgenre of punk) A genre literally none of you (OK, maybe like 6 of you) know anything about? Why put that in a puzzle? Because it's "new?" New is not inherently good. It should resonate with someone, somewhere. I might buy it in a different puzzle with a different vibe, but here it just looks like "Hello, fellow youths! What dope sounds are you listening to? SCREAMO, right?" Don't just throw something in because you think it looks hip and cool. A robust wordlist is not a substitute for a good eye and a good ear. Again: discernment. Where is the discernment? The personality? The craft? The Everything Good About Puzzles??? I want to challenge someone to take this *exact* set of theme answers and make an actually good puzzle. I believe it can be done. But this ain't it.

Difficulty-wise, it was a little rough up top for me, esp. in the NW. The clue at 1D: Research assistant, informally was not nearly specific enough to get me LAB TECH and I know nothing about Billy the Kid's ALIAS and the clue on HAT didn't mean much to me etc. But once I got out of there, it got a lot easier, themers aside.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld (Twitter @rexparker / #NYTXW)

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Ross Trudeau

Relative difficulty: Easy (4:12—the only thing keeping me from being even faster was the weirdness of trying to spell answers backward)

THEME: THE LOOKING GLASS (7D: What Alice goes through to find "Jabberwocky" printed backward) — when you go through THE LOOKING GLASS (from W to E) you find the *grid* "printed backward").

Word of the Day: Bay of YACSIB (25A: Bay of ___, body separating Spain and France)—

The Bay of Biscay (/ˈbɪskeɪ, -ki/; French: Golfe de Gascogne, Spanish: Golfo de Vizcaya, Occitan: Golf de Gasconha, Breton: Pleg-mor Gwaskogn, Basque: Bizkaiko Golkoa) is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. It lies along the western coast of France from Point Penmarc'h to the Spanishborder, and the northern coast of Spain west to Cape Ortegal.
The south area of the Bay of Biscay washes over the northern coast of Spain and is known as the Cantabrian Sea.
The average depth is 1,744 metres (5,722 ft) and the greatest depth is 4,735 metres (15,535 ft). (wikipedia)

• • •

I've been handling Alice in Wonderland thank-you postcards all week, so seeing Alice in a puzzle today was a nice bit of coincidence. This theme works because the clue works. Without the clue, this is a puzzle that doesn't know how a mirror works (east would have to be the *west* in reverse, not its own thing in reverse). So this is a good example of how theme cluing can make a puzzle. Please see yesterday's puzzle for how theme cluing can ruin a puzzle. Today's puzzle is whimsical and super duper triple-scooper easy, so it is bound to be a crowd-pleaser (people Lovvvve puzzles they can crush, esp. self-styled "tricky" ones, in my experience—take a note of that, you constructors who are in love with difficulty porn). My main problem with this one was how rudimentary it was. I solved straight out of bed in the morning (slowest mode I have) and I couldn't write in the answers (especially the backward answers) fast enough. Sincerely, there was just a single answer that I had to work for even a little, and that was 1A: Made jokes (JESTED). Wanted KIDDED. Wrote in JOSHED. But my trouble there didn't last long, as ECO DANSEALPACA MELLON PAIL all fell without my trying. And then the key: wrote in SOLOS ANTIHERO SOS, then WACO, then tried 7A: Slim amphibian, which read "blank W blank blank." Nothing. No idea. Huh. Weird. And *then* I looked at the long Down clue. With LOO- in place, that answer was impossible not to get. I'd've gotten it with nothing in place. Then I looked back at the slim amphibian answer: TW--. And that was that. Wrote in NEWT backward, and then wrote in *literally* every other Across answer on the east side that I looked at, As Soon As I Looked At It. The easiest east half of a grid I've Ever worked on, Despite every answer's being backward.

I loooove crushing puzzles and coming near record times, but today's success felt very much unearned. I tied my Wednesday and beat my Tuesday time. And honestly there's nothing to this grid but backwardsness. As word-redirecting themes go (and I've seen a lot), this is very simple. The element I actually really like is the palindromification of the central Acrosses (the ones that cross the "glass"). These *kind* of violate the spirit of the puzzle (i.e. they're operating on the (apt) principle of reflection when no other answers in the grid are). But whatever. It's a neat way of handling the problem of mirror-straddling words. The concept may be simple, it definitely works, and has nothing irksome about it. So hurray.

The fill isn't really commentary-worthy. Pretty plain. ESCORTEE is certainly weird (39D: One taken by the arm), as is OXES, which ... has only this context, which is not even a good / common one (65A: Dumb ___ (oafs)). I know "X"s are cool and all, but better to go German city ESSEN and ONES here, I think. Real thing x/w real thing. But this is a tiny thing. This puzzle isn't really about the fill at all (again, except those central Acrosses, which is why I appreciate them).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld (Twitter @rexparker / #NYTXW)

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Andrew Ries

Relative difficulty: Challenging (7:03)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: PAPAWS (1A: Relatives of custard apples) —

noun
plural noun: papaws
1.
another term for papaya.
2.
a North American tree of the custard apple family, with purple flowers and edible oblong yellow fruit with sweet pulp. (google)

CUSTARD APPLE (noun)

1.
a large fleshy tropical fruit with a sweet yellow pulp.
2.
the tree which bears the custard apple, native to Central and South America. (google)

• • •

Always disappointed when my favorite day of the solving week doesn't really deliver the goods. There's nothing particularly wrong with this grid, but solving it was a chore rather than a joy. Very few "ooh" or "aha" moments (except, ironically, LEAD BALLOON). Mostly just shrugs and "oh"s. Many answers where I had all but one letter and still wasn't too sure. Needed -ILE to get PILE (1D: Laundry room accumulation). Needed -DS and still kinda guessed at MDS (50A: "Code Black" figures, for short). Had to get to -AGS before I got HAGS (47D: Storied pot stirrers). Had PAPER-OSS and thought "well, T, I guess, but ?" (41A: Time-killing office game involving a trash can). Still not really sure how briefs are "delivered in" the American Bar Association (4D). And PAPAWS ... ? ... I barely know what those are, and the clue was zero help. Other times I'd just get handed an answer, like LISA LOEB, but there was just no joy or interest in the cluing. Attempts at joy or interest, though, often fell flat. Took a while to get BLOOD VESSEL (17D: Needle point?) but even after getting it I had to kinda think about how the clue worked: "So ... it's the 'point' where the needle enters your body?" If you just step back and look at the grid, without even considering the cluing, it's pretty lifeless. The cluing just made it worse for me, as what the puzzle thought was interesting, I did not. No idea why you boringly techify answers like ADS (7D: Google ___) and HOSTING (45A: Web service), or why you turn a perfectly good word like VAT into a foreign abbr. (37A: Price add-on in Eur.) Bizarre. You know the puzzle is not really going to sizzle when the clue the puzzle decides to double up on is ... [1040 abbr.]??? I just don't share this puzzle's idea of a good time.

Five things:

33D: Rental unit, often (MONTH)— First, this is a Saturday clue, and it's too clever by 3/4. There's a bunch of this in the grid (see the BOX clue at 56D: Work on hooks, say), but this "ooh, what do I mean by 'unit,' you'll never guess" just thuds when the meaning of "unit" is so badly stretched. This was probably the roughest answer in the grid for me, weirdly, as I had 39A: Norton Sound and such as ISLETS (that's my bad), and this answer crossed PAPER TOSS (?) and HOSTING, which I had trouble with as clued.
27D: "D4" dice in role-playing games, e.g. (TETRAHEDRA) — had the TETRA- early and easily but the rest was weirdly eluding me. Wanted only TETRAHYDRA, which sounded like a plausible D&D monster, but ... this clue was about dice, so ...
24: Time of one's life (TEENS)— it's hard to think of a more boring way to clue this

23A: Post, e.g. (SEND OUT)— again, the difficulty here is just enormous ambiguity about the meaning of the clue word, and then when the actual answer comes, it's really mundane and anticlimactic. Also, I had to play the not-at-all-enjoyable "is it SENDOUT or SENDOFF" game.
50D: ___ point (MOOT) — oh, sorry, [1040 abbr.] wasn't the only repeated clue. We've also got this one, repeated with a capital P at 32A: ___ Point (WEST). This pair is hair's breadth more exciting than the IRS one. At least the "P" changes case. You take your excitement where you can find it.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld (Twitter @rexparker / #NYTXW)

P.S. NYT constructor count for 2019: Men: 17 / Women: 1

P.P.S. The Inkubator is a brand-new crossword edited and constructed entirely by women. The first Inkubator crossword came out just last night and it is a very good Easy (Monday/Tuesday-level) puzzle (difficulty levels will vary). As you can see by my first P.S., and (if you look it up) by the Very Dismal record the NYT has of publishing women in the last decade+ of the Shortz era, the Inkubator is filling a giant hole in the puzzling world. They're recruiting and mentoring new constructors and creating a cool, inclusive crossword culture, while also trying to turn out innovative and entertaining puzzles. The puzzle I solved last night was definitely women-centric, and I learned a thing or two, but mainly it was just a good, solid, fun, breezy puzzle. One that had a grid and cluing where women's lives and perspectives and achievements were prominently represented. If you're not already a subscriber, check it out. And congrats to editors Laura Braunstein and Tracy Bennett on the successful launch!

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Erik Agard and Paolo Pasco

Relative difficulty: Easy (5:58) (over a minute faster than yesterday) (shoulda been faster)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: KATIE Ledecky (3D: Olympic swimming gold medalist Ledecky) —

Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky (/ləˈdɛki/; Czech pronunciation: [ˈlɛdɛtskiː]; born March 17, 1997) is an American competitive swimmer. She has won five Olympic gold medals and 14 world championship gold medals, the most in history for a female swimmer. She is the current world record holder in the women's 400-, 800-, and 1500-meter freestyle (long course). She also holds the fastest-ever times in the women's 500-, 1000-, and 1650-yard freestyle events. (wikipedia)

• • •

Inexplicably terrible start had me feeling like I was pretty slow, but apparently everything outside the NW of the grid went very well for me, and I finished with my 4th best Saturday time of the Modern Era (i.e. since I started keeping official records in April '18). I think the longer answers in the NE were easy off just the first few letters, and unlike many central stagger-stacks (those 13s in the middle of the grid), this one presented no problem at all. I feel like I did another puzzle just yesterday with MICHELLE OBAMA clued in relation to "Becoming," so that answer went in easily. Had the -TIVE so CASE SENSITIVE, also easy. PERSONAL SPACE took a tad longer, but not much. Some slight slowing in the SE, but otherwise, this one was very pliant—that is, once I finally got out of the NW and started going. I'm pretty mad at myself about the NW because, in retrospect, I should not have been floundering. I have this dumb habit of not looking at the clues for longer answers until I've gotten a bunch of the shorter crosses. This is a pretty good habit to get into—you're much more likely to know a short answer than a long one, so why not look there first?—but sometimes, like today, I get stuck fighting the short stuff when, if I'd just looked at a longer Across, I'd be able to crack things open. I had ELBA TEE ISLET and SHIA, but for some reason I got bogged down getting made at myself for not remembering Ledecky's name. Then I put in ANION (!?) instead of ANODE (2D: One of two poles). This made me want the bizarre ANO for 22A: Third of a dozen? (ZEE), my logic being that the third letter of "a dozen" was AN O. If I'd just looked at 15A: Under tight control, then ON A LEASH would've gone in easy. Or maybe I actually did do that and it didn't help at all. I really should record my solves for better recall.

Is ERMINES / LEAR / MMA better than ENGINES / LEAN / GMA? I feel like ENGINES and LEAN are both better, in that there are broader, better cluing possibilities for both. MMA / GMA is kind of a push. I love that MMA is in here, though. True story: I tried to include MMA in a NYT puzzle once and it got Edited Out! See 11-Down here:

grid via xwordinfo

SMA, ugh. Anyway, just thinking out loud here about choices. I don't think the choices here were bad at all. Just wondering why these choices over others. Only thing I didn't really like was the Latin plural on UVULAE (I never like Latin plurals on words that are fully English words, looking at you ULNAE). Overall, I really enjoyed this one. No idea about "HALLOWEEN II" (6D: Film with the tagline "The nightmare isn't over!"). Wasn't even sure about the Roman numeral. Thought maybe IV? Couldn't get logic on 40A: Start of a cry that ends "bah!" ... until I did (SIS ... as in "SIS, boom, bah!" which I guess is an olde timey cheer). So SIS got me the II of "HALLOWEEN II." Had PAC for RNC for a bit. GIT for OUT (11D: "Scram!"). DONA for ADIA (19A: Three-syllable woman's name meaning "gift") (me: "is it three syllables because it's DOÑA ... doh-nee-ya!?") (Your brain can sell you on terrrrrible ideas when you're stuck). That's it for wrong initial answers.

Loved the clue on PERSONAL SPACE (35A: Mine field?), and generally loved this puzzle. These are two of the best in the business right now. I'm not sure I've ever disliked a Paolo Pasco puzzle in my life, and Erik's batting something close to 1.000 as well.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Richard Crowe

Relative difficulty: Medium (11:16)

THEME:"Question of Responsibility" — so I guess the idea is that the theme answers are familiar interrogative sentences clued (based on the reorienting of key words in the answers) via the profession that might be (wackily) saying them:

Theme answers:

"IS THAT A FACT?" (23A: Copy editor)
"WHERE'S THE PARTY?" (33A: Political strategist)
"HOW'S IT HANGING?" (45A: Museum curator)
"WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?" (63A: Football line judge)
"WHO'S CRYING NOW?" (80A: Maternity room nurse)
"WHAT'S EATING HIM?" (96A: Parasitologist)
"ANYBODY HOME?" (108A: Baseball scorekeeper)

Word of the Day: EADS Bridge (64D: ___ Bridge (historic span across the Mississippi)) —

Eads Bridge is a combined road and railway bridge over the Mississippi Riverconnecting the cities of St. Louis, Missouri and East St. Louis, Illinois. It is located on the St. Louis riverfront between Laclede's Landing, to the north, and the grounds of the Gateway Arch, to the south. The bridge is named for its designer and builder, James Buchanan Eads.
Opened in 1874, Eads Bridge was the first bridge erected across the Mississippi south of the Missouri River. Earlier bridges were located north of the Missouri, where the Mississippi is smaller. None of the earlier bridges survive, Eads Bridge is the oldest bridge on the river. (wikipedia)

• • •

Kept trying, and failing, to find the joy in this one. Took me a while to figure out exactly what was going on with the theme, and even then, it felt hit-or-miss. Not very coherent. You just need a bunch of questions? You could've kept this theme going for a long, long time. "WHERE'S THE BEEF?" [Rancher] or [Mediator]. "AIN'T THAT A KICK IN THE HEAD?" [Soccer referee] Etc. Also, the title "Question of Responsibility" seems only to fit for the "Who" questions. Not sure how "responsibility" fits in with most of the themers. Is it that the clue professional in the clue is the one "responsible" for asking the question? That is ... tenuous, and rough.

EEW is always eww (as in it's gross and also I never know how to spell it). Ditto the tilde-less ANOS. ASASON is bleeping ridiculous, especially crossing TOAMAN which is crossing NOPAR (???). That SE corner needs lots of help. INKA? There's no call for stuff like that. What does ADA-compliant even mean? Compliant ... with the American Dental Association? Oh, the Americans with Disabilities Act. Wow. OK, if you say so. CLAMS and CHI-CHI had me wondering what year it was. GLI x/w GARY is some nonsense. Tertiary SpongeBob character and Italian def. article? GOAS is awkward. SSR RRS ENNE SYNS. . . There's just nothing very pleasing about this. It's a puzzle to be endured, not savored. It's not that there's zero charm in the theme, it's just not very tight, and the answers are more polite-nod or maybe light-chuckle. Not wacky enough to carry the day. Also, I could really have done without cat poop in my puzzle (40D: Where to get the latest poop?). And "the latest"? Like you're just hanging out by your cat's LITTER BOX waiting for the fresh stuff? We've done cat feces, like, well, at least twice in the past couple months (remember that "litter box" puzzle a while back?). I wonder what new and glorious types of feces we have to look forward to in the new year. I mean, the seal's broken on feces-land, so why not go nuts?

Five things:

57A: Sartorial choice for Lieutenant Columbo (RAINCOAT)— that's not a TRENCHCOAT he's wearing? RAINCOAT just sounds way too pedestrian. He's a detective. Detectives wear TRENCHCOATs. Which are a type of RAINCOAT, it's true ... still.
33D: Year of the ___ (2018) (WOMAN)— yeah, no, that was 1992. You can look it up. There's zero consensus that 2018 was the Year of the WOMAN. Why isn't this even attributed? It seems dumb and condescending, like "here's your one year, enjoy it, ladies, see you in another quarter century! [burp!!]." I wanted this to be MONKEY but it wouldn't fit and also that was 2016.
37D: Thrilled cries (OOHS)— oof. I had OLES
39A: Make toast? (DOOM) — this stumped me and is also a good clue
5D: Fab Four name (STARR)— so bad did I want RINGO that I literally just now wrote in RINGO as the correct answer in this bullet point

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld (Twitter @rexparker / #NYTXW)

P.S. 2019 constructor count—Men: 19 / Women: 1

P.P.S. the NYT eds. really have to stop tripping over themselves with their race / gender / sexuality cluing. Check out this gem from a recent mini:

You could've just Stopped The Clue after "pronoun." Just stopped. There, it's accurate. After that, it is fundamentally inaccurate. Fuddy-duddy prescriptivist sticklers are not "grammarians."Actual grammarians have no problem with THEY as a singular pronoun. No problem. No "chagrin." None. Zero. The American Dialect Organization MADE SINGULAR "THEY" THEIR GOSH DANG WORD OF THE YEAR in 2015. This clue has not only gone and made something normal look like it's "controversial," it has gone and done it with a stupid, inaccurate clue. Total own goal. Mysteriously incompetent cluing. Baffling.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Sean Biggins

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (2:51)

THEME: CIVIL RIGHTS (57A: Cause championed by the figures named at the ends of 16-, 22- and 47-Across) — Martin Luther KING, Jr., Rosa PARKS, Sojourner TRUTH

Theme answers:

16A: Regal (FIT FOR A KING)
22A: Yosemite and Yellowstone (NATIONAL PARKS)
47A: Something promised in a court oath (THE WHOLE TRUTH)

Word of the Day: John CABOT (14D: Early North American explorer John) —

John Cabot (Italian: Giovanni Caboto; c. 1450 – c. 1500) was an Italian navigator and explorer. His 1497 discovery of the coast of North America under the commission of Henry VII of England is the earliest known European exploration of coastal North America since the Norse visits to Vinland in the eleventh century. To mark the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Cabot's expedition, both the Canadian and British governments elected Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland, as representing Cabot's first landing site. However, alternative locations have also been proposed. (wikipedia)

• • •

As an MLK Day tribute puzzle, I think this is fine. It's a slightly weird set of CIVIL RIGHTS leaders, since Parks and King were contemporaries, while Truth was active a full century earlier. But maybe there aren't a ton of CIVIL RIGHTS leaders whose last names are also be other things. I might've tried to get WISHING WELLS or something like that in the grid, but again, it's hard to impugn the set. They're all iconic. The fill is reasonably clean and even zingy in some places (HIT THE HAY! SKETCH UP! HELLA!). If anything, it's the themers that aren't lively enough (this is the opposite of most puzzles' problem, which is that the themers are the *only* real interest in the grid). Maybe there weren't better answers to be had. I don't mind the first two, but the third felt oddly partial. It only exists as part of a larger phrase, and so it doesn't quite feel right standing alone. I really wish YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH were 15. It *is* 21, and it's never been used before, so Sunday constructors: have at it!

Five things:

1A: Turkish bigwig (PASHA) — This is the kind of 1A gimme that makes me feel slightly guilty. Relatively sure that word would never occur to me in a world without crosswords. As it is, I know AGA and AGHA and SATRAP and PASHA and BEY and DEY and EMIR and etc.
25D: Green building certification, for short (LEED)— I learned this from crosswords, and by "learned" I mean "experienced for the first time but still routinely forget"
41D: U.S.C. or U.C.L.A. (SCH.) — down near the bottom of my list of Crosswordese Ranked from Beloved to Despised. I remember the first time I saw it in a grid—I just stared at it, first disbelieving, and then seething. It feels fantastically fake.
40D: Native New Zealander (KIWI)— fun fact: my wife is a Native New Zealander. Not a *native* native New Zealander, though. That would be a MAORI. A white New Zealander is a PAKEHA. Put *that* in your grid and smoke it!
46D: "It's c-c-cold!" (BRRR) — normally I'd be up in arms about the stupid extra "R" but the fact that a. the clue tries to tip us to the three "R"s with the three "c"s in the clue, and b. it is HELLA cold right now where I live (5º and falling) means that today, I'll allow it

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld (Twitter @rexparker / #NYTXW)

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: John E. Bennett and Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Challenging (for a Tuesday) (4:05)

THEME:"WATCH YOUR STEP" (35A: "Look out!" ... and warning when encountering the circled things in this puzzle) — there are four snakes in the puzzle, spelled out in four sets of winding circled squares: KINGCOBRA / SIDEWINDER / COPPERHEAD / PUFFADDER

Word of the Day: ROSCOE Lee Browne, actor director in the Theater Hall of Fame (5D) —

Roscoe Lee Browne (May 2, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American actor and directorknown for his rich voice and dignified bearing. He resisted playing stereotypically black roles, instead performing in several productions with New York City's Shakespeare Festival Theater, Leland Hayward's satirical NBC series That Was the Week That Was, and a poetry performance tour of the United States in addition to his work in television and film.
In 1976, Browne was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Drama Series for his work on ABC's Barney Miller. In 1986, he won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Performer in a Comedy Series for his work on NBC's The Cosby Show. In 1992, he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance as "Holloway" in August Wilson's Two Trains Running.
In 1995, he received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program for his performance as "The Kingpin" in Spider-Man.
Browne was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1977 and posthumouslyinducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2008. (wikipedia)

• • •

I was on Twitter before and after solving this puzzle and let me tell you the reaction to 21A: Certain close-knit social media group (TWIBE) was a swift and definitive hell no.

I really don't understand this cavalier indulgence of slang. It's clearly not a word the constructors themselves use, as it's a "word" I've never seen used at all, despite the fact that I'm on that "certain" social media site ... a lot. I've seen "tweeps" a bunch, but never ever TWIBE. Again, *this* is the problem with giiiiigantic word lists compiled indiscriminately—they convince constructors that all the words are perfectly *good* words, or that they are fresh or hip or have currency. Wordlists can discourage constructors from using their ears, and from exercising good judgment. The grid is already in trouble because it's severely stressed by the theme—a majority of answers have theme squares in them, making the grid very very hard to fill cleanly. Given that level of difficulty, the grid isn't bad. But ... it's still not good. Plural TSKS and esp plural WHAMS (?) and LII and ADREPS and TIEBAR SSN AFC x/w UFC, ERRandERE ... DURA ESAU ERAT ... it's a lot to take. And all for a theme that's no help at all when solving. There's really only one theme answer. Hard to see the snakes til your done. The idea is cute, but the actual solve wasn't fun.

Five things:

33D: Ore, for one? (TYPO) — this is what happens when you're so in love with your own cleverness that you ignore plausibility. I get that you're trying to do a cute play on the "for one" (i.e. "for example") convention in crossword cluing, but, see, "ore" is not a plausible TYPO for "one"—look where "r" is on a keyboard. Now look where "n" is. Oh god I just saw ELEA—man, the fill in this thing is not good...
51D: What follows the semis (FINAL) — this is correct, but man did I / do I want FINAL*S*
32A: Guinness record holder for the U.S. city with the most consecutive days of sun (768), informally (ST. PETE) — I got so bored reading this clue that I never got to the end, so I kept expecting it to look like an actual city name (not an abbr. city name).
2D: Super Bowl of 2018 (LII)— there are few clues I resent more than "Surely You Know The Roman Numerals Associated With All 52 Super Bowls!" clues. Super Bowl III was the last one where the Roman numeral seems historical and noteworthy. (UNITAS v. Namath, the year I was born)
10D: YouTube popularity metric (VIEWS) — wanted LIKES. Then ... well, this answer got all caught up in the TWIBE nonsense. Since I had TRIBE, I ended up with VIERS ... which I was hoping and praying was not some horrid now-speak contraction of "viewers"

2019 NYT Crossword constructor count:

M: 21 (including four (!!!?) all-male teams)
W: 1

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Amanda Chung and Karl Ni

Relative difficulty: Medium for me (4:15), but Easy for everyone else, apparently

THEME: GENDER NEUTRAL (56A: Like 20-, 28- and 45-Across vis-à-vis the female-sounding phrases they're based on?) — a familiar base phrase has its final "-ESS" removed and then the aural remnants are reimagined and reclued, wackily:

Theme answers:

DELIVERY ADDER (from "delivery address") (20A: Maternity ward worker who counts each day's births?)
FLYING BUTTER (from "flying buttress") (28A: Dairy item thrown in a food fight?)
BLOW-UP MATTER (from "blow-up mattress") (45A: Dynamite?)

Word of the Day: KREWE (27D: Group organizing a Mardi Gras parade) —

noun
(in the US) an organization or association that stages a parade or other event for a carnival celebration. Krewes are associated especially with Mardi Gras in New Orleans. (google)

• • •

First off, hurray for half of a woman constructor! It's now 22.5 men and 1.5 women. Parity, here we come! (But seriously, hurray). Big non-hurray for this theme though, which clunks the way only an off-the-mark sound-based theme can clunk. That extra syllable is just a horrible dealbreaker. ADDRESS is two syllables. Removing its "female-sounding" part (!) just leaves ADDR-, which sounds like "uh-DRUH-" The idea that taking away the "-ESS" leaves ADDER is completely preposterous. An "address" is something. An "adder" is something. An "adderess" is ... like, a female snake? I dunno. I just know that all of these themers simply do not work at the level at which humans form sounds with their mouths and larynxes. Matteress? Butteress? How is "delivery address" a "female-sounding phrase." It's barely a phrase at all. Has anyone ever thought, "'mattress' ... that's kind of like feminine 'matter'?" And by "anyone" I mean "anyone who wasn't super high." The great thing about watching instant reaction to the puzzle on Twitter at #NYTXW is that you can see trends. This puzzle was apparently very easy and also, to a good number of people, completely baffling. So many people out there are like, "I set a personal record time for a Wednesday but I do Not understand the theme." I too couldn't understand it for something close to a minute (roughly).

The fill also shouldn't be this blah when the theme isn't taxing the grid that much. The long non-theme answers are fairly dull and the short stuff is overrun with NYSE AONE STLEO ADREP ENS ACAI SSS NNE-level gunk. It's funny that people found this so easy. These imaginary-phrase themes always slow me down. Also, I just didn't see any of the answers clearly. CRAB no CLODS no VOL no ... had NAVE for APSE (not a big churchgoer, or church-understander, apparently), SPRUNG for SPRANG, blanked on KREWE, balked at AMEN and WEST, wasn't entirely sure about MEEMAW, had LET ME instead of LEMME (which ... what the hell is with that corner!? LEMME is so bad and unnecessary; you could do a million other things down there—you could also just change it to DEMME and turn LAV (ugh, again?) into DAD. OK, that's all. I'll leave you with a couple of interesting solver gripes. Good night:

4D: Agnostic's lack => BELIEF

5A: Some lines drawn with protractors => ARCS

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Stu Ockman

Relative difficulty: Medium (6-something, almost a minute of which was spent trying to dig myself out of a terrible predicament in the SW corner ...)

THEME: GOO GOO EYES (66A: Adoring looks seen 10 times in this puzzle's grid) — rebus puzzle where "OO" appears in a single box ten different times (including inside GOO GOO EYES itself)

Theme answers:

VOODOO DOLL (17A: One stuck abroad?)
FOOLPROOF (26A: Risk-free)
TOO RICH FOR MY BLOOD (41A: "I'm out")
FOOTSTOOL (50A: Ottoman)

Word of the Day: STAG beetle (53A: ___ beetle) —

Stag beetles are a group of about 1,200 species of beetles in the family Lucanidae, presently classified in four subfamilies. Some species grow to over 12 cm (4.7 in), but most are about 5 cm (2.0 in). // The English name is derived from the large and distinctive mandibles found on the males of most species, which resemble the antlers of stags. (wikipedia)

• • •

Sincere question: what makes the eyes "GOO GOO"? I see that two "O"s can represent eyes, fine, but how are those eyes "GOO GOO"? They look like wide open or surprised eyes, maybe? But I honestly don't see how two "O"s next to each other gets you an "adoring look." I do see that "GOO GOO" gets you two sets of eyes inside the revealer itself, which is a cute touch, but the central idea—that the "OO"s represent specifically GOO GOO eyes, and not just, uh, eyes—that, I don't get. I got the theme very early, after CROON wouldn't fit and then VOODOO DOLL was indisputably a right answer. Still struggled a bit here and there trying to find the "eyes"—didn't know there would necessarily be such an orderly distribution. Slightly (read: very) odd to have non-theme answers (CRITICAL, MOUSSAKA longer than two of the themers, but I guesssss the rationale is that if you count all the letters in those themers, and not just the boxes, then they are longer. I love how TOO RICH FOR MY BLOOD fits so neatly across the middle; it's a wonderful, colorful phrase, and my favorite thing about the puzzle by far. Doesn't change the fact that the theme doesn't really deliver what it says it delivers, though. Mostly I am mad that, between the revealer and VOODOO DOLL, this puzzle has made me remember the Goo Goo Dolls, and so now this will be in my head all night:

Had trouble with SEAL (23A: It can make an impression in correspondence) and wrote PEONS for PLEBS (28D: Commoners). Balked at I CAN'T because I kept wondering "you can't *what*!?" (36D: "That's beyond me") Also had to talk myself into REGINAL, because ??? Didn't really know what a STAG beetle was, so getting into the SE corner was a little challenging. DESI, not a term I remember hearing / seeing before. But by far the toughest hurdle for me was the SW, where everything was going great until TAX---. I had zero zip no idea about EVA Air (!??!) (64D: ___ Air, carrier to Taiwan), and—the real issue—I wrote in REF instead of REC (65D: Supporting letter, informally). REC is better, but "letter of reference" is a common enough term. I write these things all the time, and somehow when looking at RE- my brain couldn't come up with anything but REF. This was unfortunate, not just because it was wrong, but because it made me think TAX--- had to be TARIFF (71A: Revenue-raising measure). But TIMEX *had* to be right. Blargh. Eventually worked it out, but the corner ate up way way more time than it should've.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor: Zhouqin Burnikel

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (5:05)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: ADP (43A: Payroll service co.) —

Automatic Data Processing, Inc., commonly known as ADP, is an American provider of human resources management software and services. As of 2010, ADP was one of four American companies to have a AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor's (S&P) and Moody's. (wikipedia)

• • •

Wow this one ran the gamut ... or my emotions ran the gamut, maybe that's the better way to put it. Dizzying highs, terrifying lows, creamy centers. There were a couple things, like TRUE-TO-SIZE and "ME AGAIN!," that seemed delightful. Interesting and different. But then the whole NE corner was pretty blah, what with STUPES (people say that?) over ATTA, crossing TETE-A-TETE (a 9-letter word I weirdly feel like I see a lot). Then there was stuff like RAN TRACK, which felt slightly "green paint"-ish (i.e. like a phrase someone might say, but not so great as a stand-alone answer), and MALAPROP, which really feels like its missing its -ISM. A [Language blooper] is a noun, and the noun is "malapropism." From Mrs. MALAPROP. Or so I thought. I got that one easily enough, it just felt weirdly incomplete.

[64A: Reveler's cry => "LET'S PARTY!"]

Then there was the "what? ... oh ... oh yeah, that's pretty cool" feeling of letting the clue for SOCIETY kinda wash over me (39A: Upper crust). Then there was the harrowing near-trauma of not one but two total-guess crosses. NE- / -OREY had me guessing "C" solely because COREY was the only name I could make from -OREY (that, and COREY Pavin *kinda* rang a bell). And then there was EMM- / -DP. Even though I've seen ADP before, it's such a horrible boring bad corporate initialism that there's no way I'm ever going to remember it. And as for EMMA, I just *could not* figure out what the clue was on about: [31D: Top name in a Social Security Administration list every year from 2014 to 2017]. It was the "a SSA list" bit that confused me. I think of social security as something you collect. When you're older. I don't think of SSA as a keeper of *baby name* records. I mean, it makes sense. but the vague "a list" left me at sea. As with COREY, I guessed EMMA just because EMMA is a name. I thought maybe EMMY or even EMME (is that someone?) but in the end I just went with the odds (i.e. the most common name I could make). And, bingo! So I was pretty fast, and I guessed right twice. So the adrenaline rush of near-failure and the quick completion kind of offset my annoyance at having to guess in the first (and second) place. Whole thing felt uneven but not unsatisfying.

Five things:

23A: "Planet Money" producer (NPR)— wrote in CNN, ugh. Having NPR and IRA Glass in the same grid should be illegal based on too much on-brandness, NYT.
44A: Figures by a float (PARADERS) — even though my first thought was a *parade* float, PARADERS ... was not a word I considered, or would consider in ordinary conversation, I don't think.
1D: Draft pick (STEIN) — you 'pick' the *container* ... of your 'draft'? This feels odd.
18A: Possible reply to "Who's responsible?" ("NOT I") — and then there's the possible reply to "NOT I," which is of course NORI.
50D: Lacking face value (NO PAR) — shoot all the --PAR answers into the sun. Well, both of them: NO and his brother AT. Also all weird bridge answers, while you're at it. Bye bye, ONENO! See ya, TENACE! Not sure why I'm going after bridge, since it didn't do anything to me. Not today, anyway.

Constructor count: Men: 22.5 / Women 2.5 (today's constructor accounts for two of those)

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. I love baseball but that's an Awful lot of four-letter baseball names: MAYS and then *stacked* AROD / RYNE. Lots of people aren't so conversant in sports, so crowding a small area with names from the *same* sport seems a little mean

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Grant Thackray

Relative difficulty: Easy (5:18)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: Giovanni RIBISI (3D: Actor Giovanni of "Avatar") —

Antonino Giovanni Ribisi (Italian pronunciation: [antoˈniːno dʒoˈvanni riˈbizi]; born December 17, 1974) is an American film and television actor known for his roles in the TV series Sneaky Pete, and the films Avatar, A Million Ways to Die in the West and Ted. He also had recurring roles in My Name Is Earl and Friends. (wikipedia)

• • •

I solved this at the kitchen table and so of course my wife and dogs walked in in the middle and my wife tried to talk to me and I was like "SHHHH! I'm sorry I'm sorry..." but she understands. Still, I blame that very minor distraction for my not solving this even faster than I did. Looking back over it, I'm not sure why it took me even a second longer than yesterday's (in fact it took me 13 seconds longer than yesterday's). I had the usual minor trouble getting started, but after that, it was a quick reverse "S" path from start to finish. It's a very solid, but to me not-at-all exciting grid. I've seen ALABAMASLAMMERS before a bunch (I mean, a "bunch" as 15s go, so maybe a few times). Other people have done IT'SAMEMARIO, so it feels not-so-fresh now. Everything works but nothing goes pow. I think my favorite thing was the clue on CESAREAN SECTION (48A: Short cut that bypasses a canal?). There are three "IT"s in this grid. An ITCREW, if you will. I don't care that there are three "IT"s, but I noticed, so I'm telling you.

There wasn't much in the way of difficulty here for me, but I did stumble or struggle a few times. First, I had a mistaken aha moment when I threw down GASPAR at 13D: Who stabs the beast in "Beauty and the Beast" (GASTON). If I'd just sung the damn song to myself, I would've remembered that no one fights like GASTON, and that would've been that. Who the hell is GASPAR??? Hmm, no one? GASPARD is a character in "Tale of Two Cities." Gah. Anyway, flubbed that. Next trouble came in SW, where "I'M A PC" was very slow to fall (not intuitively an *Apple* expression). Not sure I like the idea of "statements" in "old ads" very much. At all. Slogans, sure. But just ... statements?? Not good fill. Also had weird trouble getting MEIN (38A: Lo ___). But I bypassed my issues there by putting the "S" at the end of what would end up being PRUNES (45A: Trims), and then from that dropping SECS (46D: Ticks), and then from there, with just the "D" and "C" in place, dropping DEMOCRATICALLY, then DELANY, then BID BENE BASAL, all without much hesitation. No idea who BECCA was and absolutely no idea about BERTHA (47A: Big name in weaponry), so that whole "these answers start w/ B" section was a minor slog. But eventually I came back across the bottom pretty easily and dusted off the SW. And done

Five things:

7D: Letters for potential college students (ETS)— just go with the aliens. ETS are not letters anyone really *knows*, even if they have to deal with them (Education Testing Service)
51D: ___ Genevieve (Missouri county or its seat) (STE) — had the "T" so this was my first guess, but with nothing indicating an "abbr." in the clue, I was really unsure.
41A: Grocery chain that closed in 2015 after 156 years in business (A AND P) — ah. Classic ampersandwich.
5D: Whip wielders, for short (DOMS) — pretty racy...
14D: First, in Latin (PRIMUS) — this might be a clue most people can suss out, but I still don't know how you put PRIMUS in a grid and you *don't* clue it via the band:

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld (Twitter @rexparker / #NYTXW)

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Randolph Ross

Relative difficulty: Medium to Medium-Challenging (11:31)

THEME:"Unemployment Lines" — I don't even know how to describe this ... so themers are nonsense phrases, where first word has an apparently but not always actually negative prefix like DIS- or DE- and second word is a kind of profession ... and then the clue is [Unemployed [synonym for the second word]?] and then the verb that follows the negative prefix is somehow related to the profession, in different ways for each theme answer, dear lord, this theme is a mess...

Theme answers:

DISTRESSED HAIRDRESSER (22A: Unemployed salon worker?)
DEFILED MANICURIST (29A: Unemployed nail polisher?)
DISPATCHED TAILOR (46A: Unemployed men's clothier?) (why "men's"?)
DEGRADED TEACHER (63A: Unemployed educator?)
DISTRUSTED BANKER (83A: Unemployed loan officer?)
DERANGED CATTLEMAN (100A: Unemployed rancher?)
DISILLUSIONED MAGICIAN (111A: Unemployed prestidigitator?)

Word of the Day: PUT (71A: Wall Street order) —

A put is an option which gives the owner the right, but not the obligation, to sell an asset at a pre-determined price within a given time period. (Wall Street Oasis) (?)

• • •

DISCARDED DEALER? DEMORALIZED PREACHER? DISBANDED SINGER? DISCOVERED SPY? Am I doing this right? Who even knows? What a disaster this is. It took me forever to get even a single complete theme answer because I kept expecting actual phrases, or twists on actual phrases, to materialize, And They Never Did. The wordplay involved here is so loose and messy and convoluted, I don't even know how this cleared standards. Grading is what a teacher *does*, a *tress* is a thing a hairdresser works *on*, a range is place *where* a cattleman works. I don't even know *what* a banker's relation to trust is supposed to be, exactly. He/she works there? And with the prefixes ... it's DIS-, or it's DE- ... but is the DIS- in DISPATCHED even negative? Can you be patched? I'm tired of wondering aloud about this thing. Grinding, grueling, joyless work, this one. Never got a rhythm going, never hit an answer I genuinely liked, got stuck over and over on lousy fill. Oh, MISS ME!? I like (72A: Question after "I'm back"). Ha! Said a nice thing! And I do enjoy some CASEY KASEM whenever I get the chance (his old shows are in various places online). Some of the other long Downs are also OK. But hoooo boy no to *all* of the theme stuff and most of the rest of it.

Here is the large patch of grid where I just died ... like ... dead calm, no wind, no real idea what was happening:

ATTHAT ... means "In addition"??? Er ... OK ... I must never or almost never use that phrase. I just couldn't parse it at all. Had AS PIE for 11D: Easy ___ (ASABC). THIEU, LOL, no. I just am not up on my Vietnam War-era presidents that are not US presidents (12D: President during the Vietnam War). RARE GEM (24D: Beauty that's seldom seen) makes me GROAN. ADMIRED is not the same as [Used as a role model]. I ADMIRED Ted Williams, but role model? No. Forgot Bob BEAMON existed (27A: Bob ___, 1968 record-setting long jumper), possibly because, like THIEU and the overall cultural center of gravity of this puzzle, he is from the Vietnam era. So so so rough. Also rough: BEEPERS (lol) / PUT (what the?). I ran the alphabet at that crossing once and came up with *nothing*. Only on the second run did BEEPERS make any sense to me. That clue, ugh (53D: You can page through them). BEEPERS does deserve some praise, at least, for being hella modern compared to the rest of this grid. Did they have BEEPERS when THIEU and BEAMON were knocking around? I like to think of BEAMON just paging THIEU every once in a while, just to see what's up. They were good friends, in my imagination. As I was typing the last sentence, this Tweet popped into my feed:

The THIEU / BEAMON bond is quite rarefied and not understood by many.

And lastly, ARMET (103D: Headgear for a knight). ARMET. ARMET. ARMET. That's a word. There it is. You can't deny its wordlike qualities. Put it on. Try it out. Wear it on your head. ARMET. Did you know the ARMET originated in NAHA? (31D: Okinawa port) Well, it didn't. I just wanted to work NAHA into the conversation. NAHAHAHAHA bye.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor: Thomas van Geel

Relative difficulty: Medium (3:03)

THEME: KICKSTARTER (62A: Crowdfunding site ... or a hint to the beginnings of 17-, 30- and 46-Across) — first words (or "starters") in themers are also types of "kicks":

Theme answers:

FREECYCLING (17A: Giving away unwanted items rather than trashing them)
SIDE HUSTLE (30A: Extra job in the gig economy)
DROP THE MIC (46A: Dramatically end a speech, in a way)

Word of the Day: OLIVETTI (40D: Classic typewriter brand)—

Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of typewriters, computers, tablets, smartphones, printersand other such business products as calculators and fax machines. Headquartered in Ivrea, in the Metropolitan City of Turin, the company has been part of the Telecom Italia Group since 2003. The first commercial programmable "desktop computer", the Programma 101, was produced by Olivetti in 1964 and was a commercial success. (wikipedia)

• • •

This felt so much harder than it was. I think the very long Downs in the NW and SE made it feel ... actually, it was pretty low word-count for a Monday (74)—that's just a couple black squares away from a themeless-style grid (72 is max word count for themelesses). And then the themers were really very contemporary phrases, which means I really had to think about them (well, the first two—I had the MIC part before I ever read the DROP THE MIC clue, so that was easier). I also got slowed by wanting only KNEECAP for 3D: Patella, and not really understanding what was going on. KNEEBONE ... OK, I guess that's a thing. Seems like there are maybe multiple "bones" in your knee, whereas "patella" is specifically the kneeCap, but OK. Sure. Had a little trouble with SEEST, and, since literally all laugh syllables are vile, terrible answers, I struggled a bit with HEH (31D: When repeated, a sneaky laugh). But I knew OLIVETTI, as I love both typewriters and great graphic design (for which their ads were very well known). I can see that answer potentially derailing some people, as it crosses a couple of proper nouns (namely FILAS and EVAN). Finished up in the SW and was surprised to see the clock at only a shade over 3 minutes—a very normal Monday time. Because the revealer and all the themers are quite fresh, and the wordplay in the revealer really works, and the puzzle was Monday-easy overall while still being interesting, I really liked this.

I think I put ANAL in a grid once, but I would never do it again. Maybe once is enough. I've tried it. Check. Moving on. INESSE is hot garbage, but seriously the only part of this grid I really don't like. I think SIDE HUSTLE is really good as fill, though I really don't like the term, as it's a lousy attempt to make job insecurity and lack of benefits sound Sex-ay! Boooo. Speaking of KICKSTARTER, Peter Gordon's Newsflash Crossword made its KICKSTARTER goal yesterday after I wrote about it, and as I said yesterday, you should definitely get in on that. Much fun. I think I don't have much more to say about this one. Let's just let it be. It's nice. See you tomorrow.

2019 NYT Crossword Constructor Count: Men: 25.5 / Women 2.5

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Hi, all! It's Clare — back for another Tuesday. Hope everyone is staying warm and preparing for what very well could be record lows in much of the country this week! In D.C., I think we're supposed to avoid the worst of it, but I'm still hoping for a snow day, even though in law school they make you make up any classes you miss! I'm also prepping for the Super Bowl on Sunday, and, because I know you all to be smart people, I know you all hate the Patriots as much as I do. Go, Rams!

Constructor: Benjamin Kramer

Relative difficulty: On the easier side

THEME: VOLLEYBALL (57A: Sport hinted at by the ends of 17-, 24-, 36- and 47-Across) — Phrases that end in words that all relate to volleyball

Theme answers:

LIP SERVICE (17A: Empty talk not backed by action)
COLBERT BUMP (24A: Boost after appearing on a certain old Comedy Central show)
TELEVISION SET (36A: Product from RGA or LG)
GOLDEN SPIKE (47A: Symbol of the completion of the Transcontinental railroad)

Word of the Day: Tatooine (36D: Luke Skywalker's home planet)

Tatooine is a fictional desert planet that appears in the Star Wars space opera franchise. It is beige-coloured and is depicted as a remote, desolate world orbiting a pair of binary stars and inhabited by human settlers and a variety of other life forms. The planet was first seen in the original 1977 film Star Wars and has to date featured in a total of six Star Wars theatrical films. (Wikipedia)

• • •

I thought this puzzle was just meh. While I liked the idea behind the theme, the execution wasn't overly inspiring. VOLLEYBALL wasn't clued very cleverly, and I found it was pretty easy to get the theme description and the ends of the theme answers once I got SPIKE and then SET at the ends of 47A and 36A, respectively. Even just getting the "b" in VOLLEYBALL made me realize the word would most likely end in "ball." It was pretty clever, though, how the themes work in sequence — you have a SERVICE, then the BUMP, SET, and SPIKE. My favorite theme answer was COLBERT BUMP— it's something I haven't seen clued before, and I do always love Stephen Colbert. I would've thought that more of a bump would have come from Jon Stewart's Daily Show, but what do I know?

A lot of the fill was just pretty bland, I thought. Especially the three-letter answers, like: BTW; ITS; BAG; BYE; ODE; BED. Those are all so basic and, frankly, boring. DEER MEAT (12D: Venison) was also dull. And, AS TO (35D: Apropos of) should just be banned from crosswords, in my opinion. (Am I starting to sound like Rex yet?) LEI (55A: Gift for which you might reply "Mahalo") was at least clued a little bit differently this time, which I liked.

There was a bit of international flavor in this puzzle, which was fun. There was QUINOA and OUZO crossing each other in the northwest corner. Then there were COUPE, UMLAUT, and PAELLA all in the southeast corner. Not to mention DEGAULLE (11D: Airport named for a president) and, I suppose TATOOINE, if you count an alien planet as being international.

I found MARLO and ADLER crossing each other to be kind of weird. I've heard of ADLER (15A: Psychologist Alfred), but I've never seen The Wire, so MARLO (5D: Kingpin on "The Wire") took some guessing on my part. The Wire is that show that's always at the top of my "to-watch" list, but I always seem to pass it over for something a little lighter and, more likely than not, for something that I've already seen a million times before. I also struggled in a few random places because I put in the wrong words originally: Had "thin" instead of SLIM for 21A: Slender, which hurt me some at the top; had "blast" instead of BLARE for 22A: Play loudly, as music; and wanted "rew" instead of REC for 8D: DVR button. It took me a bit to get airports like Kennedy and Reagan out of my head for 11D:DEGAULLE and realize that the puzzle wasn't referring to an American airport.

Misc.:

MACRO: Please don't remind me of my introduction to economics days from freshman year of college. Those were dark times.
I'm not sure I really need slaves in a puzzles with ENSLAVED (37D: Forced into bondage)
54A: Work without __ A NETthrew me for a bit of a loop. I kept trying to tie this into current events and really wanted to somehow make this about working without "pay."
QUINOA— I've never jumped on this trend and don't really have a taste for it, but other people seem to love it... (like, ahem, my sister, who keeps trying to make me like it)
OUZO— Legit never heard of this before — maybe my tastes just aren't refined enough yet. We certainly weren't drinking OUZO in college.

Signed, Clare Carroll, brrrraving the cold in DC

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Constructor: Emily Carroll

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (4:46, but just woke up and brain is moving like molasses)

THEME: FRUITLESS (35A: Unproductive ... or, literally, a hint to the answers to this puzzle's starred clues) — phrases where first word is a fruit and second word means "departs," so that each phrase can be read as if it pertained to a "fruit" that goes away, leaving you FRUITLESS:

Theme answers:

GRAPE LEAVES (18A: *They get stuffed at Greek restaurants)
BANANA / SPLITS (23A: *With 50-Across, classic ice cream treats)
LEMON / DROPS (30A: *With 44-Across, sour candies)
ORANGE PEELS (55A: *Garnishes for old-fashioneds)

Word of the Day: LA PLATA (2D: Seaport near Buenos Aires) —

La Plata (Spanish pronunciation: [la ˈplata]) is the capital city of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. According to the 2001 census [INDEC], it has a population of 765,378 and its metropolitan area has 899,523 inhabitants.
La Plata was planned and developed to serve as the provincial capital after the city of Buenos Aires was federalized in 1880. It was officially founded by Governor Dardo Rocha on 19 November 1882. Its construction is fully documented in photographs by Tomás Bradley Sutton. La Plata was briefly known as Ciudad Eva Perón (Eva Perón City) between 1952 and 1955. (wikipedia)

• • •

Sleepy morning solve, and was quite worried right up front that I wasn't going to get anywhere today. Brain: "Well, it's Wednesday, and you're stuck ... I guess we had a good run. Let's stop and go drink coffee." But I persisted, and that NW corner finally crumbled, and none of the rest of the grid was that hard, except maybe the FRAT ROW / TEENIE / INES area, which I fumbled around in for a bit. As I was solving, I had no idea what was going on, theme-wise. I could tell fruits were involved. I hit FRUITLESS and though "uh ... don't get *that* but alright ..." Then finished and thought "I have no idea how FRUITLESS makes sense. I think there's a slight design / execution problem here. The first issue is that the first themer one is likely to encounter (and for me, the first and second themers I encountered) were broken. Split. Divided. Making it look like something had been broken off the end of a fruit. BANANA ... SPLITS really looks like the theme has something to do with the answer "splitting" in two. So I thought the FRUITLESSness had to do with the themer division. Then I noticed those two that *aren't* divided, and I was back to non-understanding. Then I got it. The other problem is "literally a hint" doesn't quite help enough with clarifying what's going on. Here's a somewhat better suggestion, I think:

You wouldn't have brackets in the actual clue, but you get the idea

The reason I think the revealer clue needs to be a tad more specific is that ORANGE PEELS really doesn't work nearly as well as the others. "Leaves" and "splits" are right on the money, "drops" is in the ballpark, but "peels" is lost somewhere uptown. If "peel" can mean "depart" all on its own, then it's not a usage I've heard. Bail, bounce, jet, scoot ... but peel off? peel out?" It's harder to lawyer that one into alignment. I think the concept here is really nice, actually, and am surprised you can get even *three* themers to behave this way. But the execution here is somewhat clunky / messy.

Five things:

27A: Something divided in W.W. II (ATOM) — hard and gruesome. Again, that corner ... KIN for FAM (21D: Relatives, casually), MRI or CAT (scan?) for TAT (32A: Body image). ACROBAT clued toughly. OLD FOES??? (20A: Enemies from way back) Glad I eventually escaped that wasp's nest
34D: Emulated Pinocchio (TELLS A LIE) — this is the OLD FOES of the southern half of the grid. Actually, this is just green paint* (the verb-phrase version of which I always think of as "eats a sandwich").
48A: Wedding gown designer Di Santo (INES)— Can't find anything about her that isn't promotional copy. No wikipedia page, somehow??? Anyway, apparently she designs wedding gowns.
8D: South American corn cakes (AREPAS) — so good! I only learned what these were in the past few years. Had them first, weirdly (?), in Minneapolis. There's a guy who makes them at our local farmers market every weekend now. Mwah!
9D: Air race marker (PYLON) — I couldn't describe an "air race" to you if I tried. Also, I read this as "Air Race maker" and thought I was looking for some brand of model airplane.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld (Twitter @rexparker / #NYTXW)

Constructor count: Men: 26.5 / Women: 3.5

*a phrase you might use in conversation but that doesn't seem strong enough to be a stand-alone answer

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Constructor: Peter A. Collins

Relative difficulty: Easy, I think (I solved on paper, on a clipboard, in a comfy chair, untimed)

THEME: 212 (68D: Palindromic number) — Two long answers have this answer (212), as their clue. You have to figure out that numbers go in the "212" squares. Uh ... that's it.

Theme answers:

NEW YORK'S AREA CODE (18A: 68-Down)
LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY (42A: 68-Down with a "/" inside it)
H20'S BOILING POINT (67A: 68-Down with a "º" after it)

Word of the Day: KIEV (49A: Capital on the Dnieper)—

Kiev (/ˈkiːɛf, -ɛv/ KEE-ef, -⁠ev) or Kyiv (Ukrainian: Київ, translit. Kyiv [ˈkɪjiu̯] (listen); Russian: Киев, translit. Kiyev [ˈkʲi(j)ɪf]; Old East Slavic: Кыѥвъ, translit. Kyjev) is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine, located in the north-central part of the country on the Dnieper. The population in July 2015 was 2,887,974 (though higher estimated numbers have been cited in the press), making Kiev the 7th most populous city in Europe. (wikipedia)

• • •

Got up very early and decided to forego speed-solving and just print the thing out and solve it on the clipboard. A minute or so in I was wondering what had happened to my Thursday puzzle. This felt verrrry easy and pretty non-tricksy, despite the fact that the long themers had only [Panlidromic number] as their clue and I didn't know what that number was. I balked at NEW YORK'S AREA CODE because it was my understanding that y'all had *several*. Kinda weird to just declare that 212 is it. But I digress. This was ridiculously easy, making me wish I had been speed-solving. There wasn't even any particularly hard fill or names or nothing. Even with that grid at an oversized 16x15, I feel like I'd've set a record. Oh well. There was just the one tough part for me—those 9 squares in the SW. HAW seemed obvious, but I still wasn't sure what the palindromic number was, or what three-letter thing's BOILING POINT I was dealing with, and (the real problem) I had COLA at 62D: Part of a white script on a red can (COCA), which meant my [Steak accompanier] read A--AULE. I thought maybe it was some French sauce I was unfamiliar with. I then wrote in OSS and could see the H20 thing, then I wrote in 212 and everything was cool. Moved on to the mostly empty NE corner, which was Monday-easy, and finished up there. The end. Since New York (City) has more than one area code and today *isn't* LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY, I don't really get the theme. "Here's a thing I can do with a number" is not, on its own, that interesting to me. And since the theme is so slight, and the fill unremarkable, the only joy I got from this was the joy a lot of people will have experienced: the joy of crushing a Thursday puzzle.

[The Cold War was wild, man]

Five things:

33A: Novelty singer/songwriter ___ Sherman (ALLAN) — I know this from "The Simpsons," which is true of roughly half the answers in any given puzzle, and half the things I know, period

57D: Teaser that may include pluses and minuses (REBUS)— ok this was slightly tricky, largely because "teaser" can mean a lot of things (I think of it as a promotional ad of some kind)
34D: Self-reflective question ("AM I?) — Something about this paired (in my mind) with "I DID" (43D) is making me laugh and I'm not sure why.
12A: Leaves after dinner? (TEA)— who has TEA after dinner? I've seen this play on "leaves" a bunch before. Pretty OLDSCHOOL way to clue SALAD, actually (e.g. [Leaves before dinner?])
6D: Old plume source (EGRET)— the ladies hat industry at one point (around the turn of the last century, I think) actually decimated bird life in the Everglades, if I'm remembering my documentaries correctly (though now I can't remember if it was a bird documentary or a fashion documentary or what ...). Here's an article about the feather trade from the Smithsonian.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Roman magistrate's attendants / SAT 1-12-19 / Onetime California fort / Nickname for Adrianus / Grammy-winning group whose name is an homage to the Monkees / Reader's Encyclopedia classic literary reference

Supermodel Lima / SUN 1-13-19 / Frequent co-star of Mastroianni / Arthur who composed Yeoman of Guard / Eponym of Courage Award given at ESPYs / Females whose gender identities match their gender assignments at birth / Wine from Central Tuscany / Vegas establishment with giant guitar sign

Architect I.M. _ / MON 1-14-19 / "_ ad Eurydice" (Greek opera) / Tippler's favorite radio station? / Peter Fonda title character

Caesar's first stabber / TUE 1-15-19 / Women's clothing chain since 1983 / 1982 film inspired by Pong / 1701 USS Enterprise registry / Eponymous scale inventor

Loud subgenre of punk / WED 1-16-19 / Dubious Tibetan sighting / Bakery-cafe chain

Yugoslav-American tennis great / THU 1-17-19 / What Alice goes through to find Jabberwocky printed backward / Movie franchise that set record opening weekend gross in 2018

Old Asian capital / FRI 1-18-19 / D4 dice in role-playing games / Nickname of subzero 1967 N.F.L. Championship Game / California title locale of 1950s-'60s TV series / Figure in Plato's Parmenides / Hack's modern-day rival

Film with tagline Nightmare isn't over / SAT 1-19-19 / Three-syllable woman's name meaning gift / Persian word from which chess comes / Traditional drink with sedative euphoriant properties

Turkish bigwig / MON 1-21-19 / Early North American explorer John / Green building certification for short

YouTube popularity metric / TUE 1-22-19 / Lee Browne actor director in Theater Hall of Fame / Certain close-knit social media group / Hobbyists' racers controlled remotely

Group organizing Mardi Gras parade / WED 1-23-19 / First pope to be called Great / Trotter's course / Bowl trendy healthful food / Maternity ward worker who counts each day's births / Cable airer of NBA games / Scraped knee in totspeak

Air carrier from Taiwan / THU 1-24-19 / Unlikely source of Top 40 song / Instrument that opens Stravinsky's rite of spring / Spamalot lyricist

Stern competitor once / FRI 1-25-19 / Big name in cookware / Longtime Yankee teammate of Sandman / Where TV's Flo waitressed

Statement in old Apple ad / SAT 1-26-19 / Grocery chain that closed in 2015 after 156 years in business / Classic video game hero's catchphrase / Underlying as metabolism / Short cut that bypasses a canal

Headgear for knight / SUN 1-27-19 / Okinawa port / Bob 1968 record-setting long jumper / Royal Charlotte's father / Two-masted sailing vessel

Classic typewriter brand / MON 1-28-19 / Extra job in gig economy / Giving away unwanted items rather than trashing them / Obsessive to fault

Lion in the heavens / TUES 1-29-2019 / Paragon / Orange Muppet / German mark

South American corn cakes / WED 1-30-19 / Dallas hoopster / Wedding gown designer Di Santo

Cambridgeshire cathedral city / THU 1-31-19 / Old plume source / Soccer star Chastain / Symbol in logo of Democratic Socialists of America / 1986 Elton John love song / Aesir trickster / Palindromic number / Part of white script on red can