Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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)

• • •

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

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Brad Wilber and Doug Peterson

Relative difficulty: Easy (well, 3/4 easy for me, and then a bit of a freefall in the NE that was largely stupidity-driven, so I'm just gonna call it Easy overall)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: TARN (42A: Alpine lake) —

: a small steep-banked mountain lake or pool (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

Really enjoyed this one, despite its faint patina of crosswordese (INES SST RAE LETT SETTO DAH OLEG OLES etc). The long answers really hold up—nothing particularly current or flashy, but solid winners nonetheless. Seriously, all the groupings of longer answers are truly fine. And it's worth noting, or confessing, that even though excessive crosswordese bugs me, it's often what gives me my toeholds in tough puzzles, so maybe I should be a little nicer to it. You know, here and there. Not too nice. It's just that the overfamiliar stuff, if doled out in moderation, can be a big help. I mean, I got started by going SOPS SST LETT, not the prettiest combo, but then that opened up SILK BOXERS "ONE FINE DAY"and PET CARRIER, so I mostly forgot about the first few words I put in the grid. Do people really pay a lot of money for SILK BOXERS? Huh. Live and learn. It was definitely a quick solve that went predominantly counterclockwise, starting in the NW and ending up in the NE, and it was in the NE that the wheels came totally off my speedsolvingmobile. If I could eliminate Morse code units from all future puzzles, boy would I? DITs and DAHs ... Gah! Anyway, [T as in telegraph?] just didn't register for me—if it had, I likely would've seen THE CITADEL much sooner (12D: South Carolina college). I had CARPS for CRABS, which was probably the most fatal mistake I made in that quadrant (34A: Kvetches). I really think my answer fits the clue better, and I had the "C" and the "S," so I was reluctant to doubt it. Wanted SNOOTY at 30A: Nose-in-the-air, but then when it didn't work well with CARPS, I doubted SNOOTY, not CARPS, ugh. Thought maybe SNOBBY (?). Again ugh. The biggest ugh, though, was actually having the "IC-" at 21A: Something hanging near Christmas lights and ... coming up with nothing. In retrospect, that seems impossible. I think at that point I was doubting so much, I started to doubt that "C" (from CROCK). But I even tried ICE-something at one point. It's true that the clue is kinda stretching the meaning of "near," but still, ICICLE should've been close to instant with that "IC-" in place, and I just blanked. Embarrassing.

Here are some other things that happened:

Other Things:

24A: Pirates' terms of address (HEARTIES)— I put this in but never felt totally confident of it until I finally sorted out the SNOOTY CRABS part. Piratespeak always seems so contrived to me, and I'm never sure if I have it right.
20A: Sticky pad? (NEST)— Had the "N" and "S" and honestly thought NASA at first (like ... a launch pad?); but this is pretty good, as "?" clues go: nests are made of "sticks," a "pad" is slang for a home ...
40A: Larva of a dragonfly, named after Greek myth (NAIAD) — it's the "named after Greek myth" part of this clue that bugged me; it's not named after "Greek myth," it's named after a *particular figure* from Greek myth that you should've specified in some way.
28D: Spring or fall, e.g. (ACTION VERB) — proud to figure this one out very quickly, less proud that I thought the phrase was ACTIVE VERB.
37D: Post master? (ADMIN) — Had AD MAN for a bit and didn't really get it, but AD MAN is crosswordese and they're always doing wacky "?" clues for ad-related stuff so I wasn't gonna question it ... until it didn't work. I guess here the ADMIN is the person who oversees "posts" (to online forums).
27D: What robots might be used to reduce (HUMAN ERROR)— if scifi has taught me anything, this is a pipe dream. The only thing robots are going to "reduce" is the human population. Stay on your toes, people.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. a message from one of today's constructors, Brad Wilber, about the Boswords 2020 Fall Themeless League:

John Lieb and Andrew Kingsley, the creators of the Boswords summer tournament, now present The Boswords 2020 Fall Themeless League. The League will play out every Monday night at 9 p.m. Eastern in October and November. Solvers may compete as individuals or as a pair. Contestants can also choose a preferred difficulty level. The entire collection of the themeless crosswords will be edited by Brad Wilber. To register, to view the constructor line-up, and to get more information, go to www.boswords.org.

Registration closes on Sunday, Oct. 4, so act now.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Sam Ezersky

Relative difficulty: Medium (11-something)

THEME:"You're Telling Me!"— Phrases starting with "You're," all of which are reimagined in some punny way:

Theme answers:

"... MAKING ME BLUSH" (24A: To a cosmetician: "You're...")
"... OUT OF YOUR GOURD" (30A: To a produce vendor near closing time: "You're...")
"... MISSING THE POINT" (47A: To a bad free throw shooter: "You're...")
"... IN FOR IT NOW" (63A: To a temp worker: "You're...")
"... DARN TOOTIN'" (65A: To a rude driver: "You're...")
"... ONLY AS GOOD AS THE / COMPANY YOU KEEP" (76A: With 98-Across, to an aspiring entrepreneur: "You're...")
"... SOMETHING ELSE" (104A: To anyone who wasn't addressed above: "You're...")

Word of the Day: DR. BOB (20D: Physician who co-founded A.A., familiarly) —

Robert Holbrook Smith (August 8, 1879 – November 16, 1950), also known as Dr. Bob, was an American physician and surgeon who founded Alcoholics Anonymous with Bill Wilson (more commonly known as Bill W.), and a nurse, Sister Ignatia. (wikipedia)

• • •

Leaving aside how very, very loose the theme concept is, there's one lethal problem with this theme, which is that virtually none of themers really land. I think MISSING THE POINT comes close, but everything is awkward or stilted or forced. I don't even know what the pun is supposed to be with IN FOR IT NOW. You fill "in" for someone when you are a temp, but ... yeesh, the "it" is really making this one not work. Cosmeticians might use blush, but they don't make people blush (unless, I guess, they are creating custom, bespoke cosmetics with, like, a mortar & pestle or something). Why is a rude driver *DARN* TOOTIN'?? I get that a "rude driver" might honk their horn, but the "Darn" makes no sense. You would never say "your gourd"—as if the produce vendor only ever carried just one. The "aspiring entrepreneur" one takes up so much real estate and is just limp. None of these have spice or character or zing. It's just old, cornball punning. With the set of alleged addressees / professions not nearly tight enough, and the humor absolutely missing left and right, there's nothing left here. HANGRY, that's a good answer (73A: Itching to eat and irritable about it, in slang). That's nice. But wow, otherwise, a whole lot of nothing here today. Miss on Sunday, and you miss very big.

I struggled with a lot of the fill. Most of the struggle was (surprise) proper nouns, specifically HSIA (so many dynasties...), and SHAN-YU (I saw "Mulan" but no way in hell could I remember that), and "OUR SONG" (not so familiar with the '00s Swift oeuvre) (71A: Taylor Swift's first #1 country hit, 2007). The worst, though, was STARR, like ... what? How is anyone outside of a very small part of Texas supposed to know this [Texas county on the Mexico border]??? There are at least four famous STARRs I can think of, but we get a ... county? Of no note? Bizarre. The entire *county* has 61K people. The county seat is ... Rio Grande City? My own dumb, small-ass county, which you definitely can't name, has over 200K people in it. This is the worst kind of cluing. Zero chance for an aha or any kind of good feeling. All crosses, and then a shrug. Solely here to provide a speed bump, as far as I can tell. No idea why anyone would make that editing call. Clue in MUMBAI tells me nothing about the place; just a piece of trivia I've already forgotten (26A: Home to Antilla, the world's most valuable private residence (27 floors, $2.2 billion)). I had no idea the "L" in "The L WORD" could be anything *but* "lesbian," so I really struggled with that answer (61D: What might be "love" or "lesbian" in a TV show title). Had ELDER before ENEMY (6D: "Never interrupt your ___ when he's making a mistake" (old aphorism)). Weirdly had no idea that the Titanic had MASTs (!?!?!) (47D: One of two on the Titanic). If there was some notably good fill here to write about, I would, but there really isn't, so good day!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. a reminder that *today* (Oct. 4, 2020) is the last day to register for the Boswords Fall Themeless League (a weekly online crossword tournament with over 500 entrants so far). Get the info here.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Evan Mahnken

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Culinary phrases — ...Yeah that was the best I could do for describing the theme. Theme answers begin by describing what stage food is in the done-ness process.

Theme answers:

RAW FOOTAGE (17A: Unedited film)
HALF BAKED IDEAS (29A: Off-the-wall concepts)
COOKED THE BOOKS (45A: Committed accounting fraud)
BURNT UMBER (59A: Shade of brown)

Word of the Day: CIS (13A: Opposite of trans, in gender studies) —

referring or relating to people whose sense of personal identity and gender corresponds with their birth sex.

(Oxford Dictionary)

• • •

You were expecting an Annabel Monday, huh? Well, sorry. Last month was the last Annabel Monday.

Because I'm not Annabel anymore. My name's August now. I'm not CIS. Turns out, you can learn a lot about yourself when you're stuck inside all the time! Don't worry, I'm still the same graduate student you've been following since high school. Do worry that I'm still tired. Graduate school plus work equals some late nights. Ooh, work has been so awesome though! I work in a bookstore, and we've been moving to a new location, and I spent all of yesterday just unpacking books. It was amazing.

Oh yeah there was a puzzle too. GEE I really enjoyed this one! Fun fill that you don't always see on a Monday like TRUSS and PISAN and the lovely PRIG. I also liked that we got "friend in France" for AMI rather than the tired "___ doing okay?" type clues. (Wish I could say the same for ESE; I'm growing very sick of cardinal-direction clues.) Oh, and I'd never heard of the koh-i-NOOR diamond before; I would've made that my word of the day if there wasn't another word that was more relevant. Did you know it weighs 105.6 carats? That'd make a heck of an engagement ring.

The theme honestly didn't do a whole lot for me this week, other than making me crave Ben and Jerry's Half-Baked ice cream. I didn't really get it until I read the writeup. BURNT UMBER is great fill, though. I think we should have crayon colors every week! Gimme the CERULEAN and GOLDENROD and CORNFLOWER!

Bullets:

REN (60D: Kylo ____, Jedi-in-training seduced to the dark side) — Okay, I'll bite. What's the deal with this guy? Why do so many people think he's so cute? I mean, I kinda get it, I used to be the world's biggest Benedict Cumberbatch fan, but Adam Driver just doesn't have a weird enough face for me to get it. Also I think a bunch of people want him to kiss Rey but I thought he was the bad guy? I dunno. I guess people like bad boys, huh.
TIT (6D: Relative of a chickadee)— No comment.
DICE (51A: Equipment in Monopoly and Yahtzee) — Okay, I finally broke down and bought my first set of Dungeons and Dragons dice. I've been playing the darn game for years, but I usually just bum dice off my friends or, in dire circumstances, Google "roll 1d20". But I got a really pretty set and I'm super excited for them to come in! Oh, you want to know more about my D&D character? Well his name is Tad, he's a third-level barbarian, and he has a pet mouse and he's really scary-looking but he has a big heart. Are there any D&D crossword-doers out there? What are your characters like?
IKE (25D: "I like ___"[1950s political slogan]) — So does everybody!

Signed, August Thompson, tired--but happier--graduate student.

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Constructor: Alan Massengill and Andrea Carla Michaels

Relative difficulty: Easy (very, 2:50)

THEME: Frazzle dazzle— just put an "F" in front of phrases where the first word starts with "R," then clue it wackily, tada:

Theme answers:

FRIGHTFUL OWNER (19A: Scary landlord?)
FRACK AND RUIN (24A: Anti-fuel extraction slogan?)
FRANK AMATEUR (48A: One who freely admits not being any good?)
FRISKY BUSINESS (55A: What Fancy Feast and Meow Mix compete in?)

Word of the Day: ANJOU pear (64A: Green-skinned variety of pear) —

The D'Anjou pear, sometimes referred to as the Beurré d'Anjou or simply Anjou, is a short-necked cultivar of European pear. The variety was originally named 'Nec Plus Meuris' in Europe and the name 'Anjou' or 'd'Anjou' was erroneously applied to the variety when introduced to America and England. It is thought to have originated in the mid-19th century, in Belgium or France. // The two cultivars that comprise d'Anjou pears are the 'Green Anjou' pear and the 'Red Anjou' pear. The 'Green Anjou' pear has a pale green skin that does not change color as the pear ripens, unlike most other cultivars of green pears, which turn yellow as they ripen. The 'Red Anjou' pear originated as a naturally occurring bud sport found on 'Green Anjou' trees. 'Red Anjou' pears are very similar to the original Anjou other than color. (wikipedia)

• • •

There's really not much to say about this one. It feels extremely last-century, in every way. There's a corny one-note theme, with answers that aren't terribly funny, and a grid overloaded with overfamiliar fill of the mostly 4- and 5-letter variety. If you like the theme, you like the theme, I guess, that's a matter of taste, but the grid is truly bottom 10% when it comes to fill. A grid this undemanding, theme-wise, should not have so much tedious old common fill and absolutely nothing snazzy or even interesting going on. "YES WE DO" is, by a mile, the best non-theme answer in the grid (8D: Possible response to "You take credit cards?"), and, well ... that is saying something. This feels like it was written for a lesser paper. It would truly be right at home in any far less prestigious outlet. It's dime a dozen. It works fine, for what it is, but there's just nothing special about what it is. It's filler. It's bygone. I don't get it. And ICERS UIES AEROS SSGTS SSS is a lot to take in a puzzle that isn't offering you anything by way of compensation. So many listless four-letter answers. When your theme has no heft, your grid Needs to be interesting. And today, it definitely is not.

I never saw the theme clues. Can't remember them. I must've looked at the first one, initially, but after that I solved all of them from the back end, based on crosses I had in place, and I honestly didn't even need to look at the clues. I could infer the base phrase, and thus its wacky version, pretty easily from the tail ends of all the answers. -TEUR got me all of FRANK AMATEUR, no sweat. I'm glad I was able to work around those clues, because they are painfully straightforward "?" clues. Not inherently funny, not made funny by the clues. HAHA. Seems like you could've found funnier answers. I wanna say FROTH IRA or FRAILROAD, but then actually don't want to say those things because even an optimal expression of this thing isn't going to be very satisfying.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor: Ross Trudeau

Relative difficulty: Easy (3:23)

THEME:"LOOK MA, NO HANDS" (51A: Cry while doing a stunt ... or a hint to 2-, 7- and 12-Down) — answers are things you could describe as having "no hands" (with a different meaning of "hands" in each instance):

Theme answers:

WATER CLOCK (2D: Something the ancient Egyptians used for keeping time)
GHOST SHIP (7D: Vessel found drifting without a crew)
TOUGH CROWD (12D: Audience unlikely to applaud)

Word of the Day: WATER CLOCK (2D) —

A water clock or clepsydra (Greek κλεψύδρα from κλέπτειν kleptein, 'to steal'; ὕδωρhydor, 'water') is any timepiece by which time is measured by the regulated flow of liquid into (inflow type) or out from (outflow type) a vessel, and where the amount is then measured.
Water clocks are one of the oldest time-measuring instruments. The bowl-shaped outflow is the simplest form of a water clock and is known to have existed in Babylon, Egypt, and Persia around the 16th century BC. Other regions of the world, including India and China, also have early evidence of water clocks, but the earliest dates are less certain. Some authors, however, claim that water clocks appeared in China as early as 4000 BC. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well Tuesday felt like Monday and today felt like Tuesday so the NYTXW appears to be on some kind of one-day difficulty lag this week, but I don't mind. It's confidence-building. Today's theme is nicely executed, but corny in a way I just don't like, as you probably could've guessed. This was a big dad-joke groan to me. No hands on two of these things, no hands ... offered by the other thing. OK. "Ma" doesn't really factor in, but she doesn't have to. She's just along for the ride. This puzzle's theme is basically an elaborate way of expressing the basic fact that "hand" can mean several different things—an unusual grid and unusual set of themers built on top of some pretty standard wordplay. This got more of an "I see what you did there" than a genuine amused response from me, but I did appreciate the grid structure—themers hanging vertically above an Across revealer is not something you see very often. The additional non-theme long answers hanging alongside the themers give the grid some color, and the fill is generally solid. The only cringey moment I had was at 9D: "___ queen!" ("Fabulous!") ("YAS!"), mostly because that phrase feels very wrong (in the sense of "culturally appropriative") coming from a puzzle made and edited overwhelmingly by straight white guys (the term comes from drag ball culture and "was likely first used by black trans women"). But the term is definitely (white, cis) mainstream now, so I guess it's fair game. I wouldn't put it in a puzzle, but I'm not outraged either. It's just a little nails + chalkboard for me.

Never heard of a WATER CLOCK before today (I don't think). Everything else about the puzzle was very familiar. The only issues I had all related to names. I wanted Miss ELLIE (from "Dallas"?) and later put in Miss PEGGY (from ... some show I imagined) before finally (and I mean literally finally) figuring out it was Miss PIGGY. I have read and even taught Sherlock Holmes stories, and I listened to "Scandal in Bohemia" (featuring IRENE ADLER) just this summer on one of my infinite quarantine walks, but somehow still screwed up her last name and spelled it like the tree at first (ALDER). Am never sure what the second vowel in MALEK is going to be (I have similar issues with the *first* vowel in that guy's *first* name), and I turned Lisa BONET into a relative of crosswordese writer Stephen Vincent BENÉT. But that's it for trouble. My only other note on this puzzle is wow Frank GEHRY seems to be having a crossword moment (two appearances inside of four days!). Also, as someone pointed out to me on Twitter, the ACC is Duke's *conference* (so, conf.) not its division (div.) (31A: Duke's N.C.A.A. div.).

Stay safe, take care, etc.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Francesca Goldston and Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (high 6s?) (early morning solve)

THEME: TIME IS MONEY (56A: Benjamin Franklin adage ... or a hint to interpreting the answers to the four starred clues) — clues refer to familiar phrases that include "TIME," but in the grid, "TIME" has been replaced by some form of money, resulting in equally familiar phrases:

Theme answers:

SPARE CHANGE (from 'spare time') (16A: *When many people solve crosswords)
HARD CASH (from 'hard time) (28A: *Rough patch)
PASSED THE BUCK (from 'passed the time') (33A: *Occupied oneself)
TWO CENTS (from 'two-time') (42A: *Cheat on, say)

Word of the Day: CITRINES (37D: Gemstones resembling topaz) —

n.
1. A pale yellow variety of crystalline quartz resembling topaz.
2. A light to moderate olive. (thefreedictionary.com)

• • •

Appreciated this one much more after the fact than I did during the solve. Never ever grasped the essential concept while I was solving, and since I (stupidly, today) worked methodically from top to bottom, I didn't hit the revealer til very late, and at first I botched *that* answer quite bad as well. I think I was able to use (half-) knowledge of the theme to get TWO CENTS, but at that point I still wasn't fully aware that all of the themers, despite the "time" change, were still genuine, in-the-language phrases—that was the part that only came into view after I was done and reviewing the grid. I should remember on Thursdays to jump straight to the revealer as soon as I have trouble grasping the theme. Might've helped. Of course, might not have helped, as I would've been jumping into total blank space (always a time killer) and in the case of today's puzzle I wouldn't have actually known the revealer. In fact, even with many crosses in place, my first stab at the revealer was hilariously wrong. I had -MEIS- and I wrote in HOMEIISHEART, thinking ... somehow ... that that answer was an expression of "Home is where the heart is" (beat *that* for epic wrongness, folks!). So the cleverness of the theme concept came to me very slowly, and never fully arrived during the solving time, which made the whole thing a bit frustrating. In retrospect, I can admire the concept.

It's weird how I fell into *perfectly* hidden traps (or "traps," I guess) over and over today. The worst was EATS IT UP for 2D: Loves every second of something (LAPS IT UP). This worked for so many of the crosses (all but two, in fact) that I didn't question it. I had tried and failed to understand 1A: Relief from the desert? (ALOE), and so I'd forgotten about it, and having STARE CHANGE in the theme answer ... well, it's a theme answer; I just figured something weird was going on that I didn't understand yet. Brutal, brutal mistake. I also wrote in (the much more appropriate) HAR HAR instead of HAH HAH at 5D: "Everybody's a comedian," resulting in yet another wrong letter in that first themer (STARE CRANGE!), as well as a wrong letter in the first position of the *second* themer. It was as if these mistakes were designed to cause maximum theme miscomprehension, though I think they were just results of bad luck and the malfunctioning of my own dumb brain. I actually wrote in PASSED THE TIME at 33A and couldn't get it to work at one point, stumbling onto the theme without even knowing it. Fun. Never heard of CITRINES (the blog software is red-underlining it right now) and couldn't parse the Beatles clue so ended up with Lennon writing the opening lines of "I Am the Walrus" ON A COD (which seems like something you might actually try to do ON ACID). Had HOOT for RIOT, yet another theme answer-wrecking mistake (52D: Thigh-slapper). Everything that could go wrong did, themewise, and yet my time was still within reasonable Thursday range, so it's possible the puzzle was actually much easier than it seemed to me. As far as the fill goes, it seemed solid enough. I thought the SHOAL was the shore and not the fish swimming off of it (48A: Group of fish), which it is—primary meaning is sandbank or sandbar, particularly one that constitutes a navigation hazard. But it can also mean a large group of something, particularly fish. You gotta go down the definition list, but it's there.

Favorite clue today was 51A: "It" factor? (HORROR) ("It" is a HORROR novel (by Stephen King) and movie, in case you didn't know). Bye now.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Sam Buchbinder

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (5:49)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: ARMATA di Mare (Italian fashion label) (41A) —

• • •

Found this one solid, if a bit drab. Attempts at currency and hipness and slanginess occasionally felt forced (who has *ever* responded to a door knock with "WHO DAT?"??) (is AXE-throwing genuinely faddish? Was it ever?), and the longer fill could've been a lot snazzier, but the puzzle holds up OK, for the most part. Sadly, the part that didn't hold up, for me, was the part where I finished up, so I was left at the end with a pretty bad aftertaste. I'm talking about the SW corner, which is a heap of cobbled-together abbrs. (GWBUSH) and awkwardly written-out numbers (U.S. TEN) and singulars that should never be singular (MOB ... TIE? Just one?) and whatever you wanna call "AH, I SEE." Yipes and yeesh to all that. There was no other concentrated winciness, though, that I could see. ARMATA di Mare was a total "????" and of course I wrote in ARMANI there at first, but I'm gonna assume that that "fashion label" is *massive* and that I just don't know it because I don't really follow fashion labels (actually, I don't have to assume that last part because it's definitely true). CALICOES looks super-dumb with the "E" in the plural, but I guess those are the pluralizing rules ... I think I just don't like fabrics in the plural (cats in the plural, however, would've been just fine). I just didn't have the usual number of "cool!" moments while solving this one. In fact, I don't think I had a single one. Sorry, I mean, "I believe that I had NARY A ONE." Feel the quaintness!

Why are there OLIVE PITS in your Greek salad? Are most Greek salads made with unpitted olives?? Or is the idea that the pits are "left over" in the course of *making* the salad? And what is with the clue on ATE? Why!? The NYTXW relies so heavily on "groaner joke" humor in general, in so many of its themed puzzles, does it really have to steer *into* the "groaner joke" here for a simple word like ATE? Also, the "joke" ... is terrible, even from a "groaner" perspective, because ATE is a homophone of EIGHT so I assumed initially there was some actual time-of-day joke happening ("ATE a clock" / 8 o'clock???). But no, the ATE joke is the "consuming" part ... it's so bad, on so many levels. Hardest thing for me to get today was HANGS—it is a very reasonable (if highly slangy) synonym for "Chills," but wow I needed every cross. I think that's it for me today. Please enjoy the splendor of autumn!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Brian Thomas

Relative difficulty: Easyish (6:23)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: INTER MILAN (12D: Italian soccer club with three Champions League titles) —

Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale(pronounced [ˌinternattsjoˈnaːle]) or simply Inter, and known as Inter Milan outside Italy, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter is the only Italian club never to have been relegated from the top flight of Italian football.
Founded in 1908 following a schism within the Milan Cricket and Football Club (now A.C. Milan), Inter won its first championship in 1910. Since its formation, the club has won 30 domestic trophies, including 18 league titles, 7 Coppa Italia and 5 Supercoppa Italiana. From 2006 to 2010, the club won five successive league titles, equalling the all-time record at that time. They have won the Champions League three times: two back-to-back in 1964 and 1965 and then another in 2010. Their latest win completed an unprecedented Italian seasonal treble, with Inter winning the Coppa Italia and the Scudetto the same year. The club has also won three UEFA Cups, two Intercontinental Cups and one FIFA Club World Cup. (wikipedia)

• • •

Couple of answers I found too grim for my tastes (EBOLA SCARE, "I'M HIT!"), and there's an obsession with Scrabbliness that I find a little cutesy (especially when it results in not-so-great-results like JESU / MACJR). Not a huge fan of the extra choppy grid. But in the main, the fill is solid, and there are some nice longer answers (FOOD DESERT, HOVERCRAFT, AFROBEAT, BOO BIRDS, I'M SURE OF IT) that make the experience feel worth it. Also helps (my mood) that it's on the easy side. Most of my trouble was in the NE and SW—especially the SW, where I had trouble with OL' MAN RIVER and then wrote in OLD and screwed everything up, however briefly. Also had "NOT on good terms" and COMPELS down there for a bit, and never fully grasped RIM until I was done (even now, it seems pretty tenuous; I guess the "corona" is the RIM of whatever object is doing the eclipsing...). Also thought the [Far-off explorer] was a SPACE CADET. And there was no way I was going to get from "weaponry,"CAST IRON being known to me only as a pair words that can precede "skillet." But crosswordese fluency / experience with ambiguous dental clues got me DDS, and OVID was a gimme and EROS wasn't tough, and, I don't know, I guess FATS DOMINO eventually got me out of trouble. In the NE, my problems were fewer, but wow, *INTER* MILAN? Never heard of it. I know of AC MILAN, which seems to be the (much) more successful team. INTER MILAN won three Champions League titles, OK, but two of them were in the '60s. I had to get every bit of INTER from crosses. Otherwise, no real holdups with this one.

I don't want to accept WHAP as a thing (1A: Smack!). My start in the NW was a little sticky because of that, but more because of a very unfortunate mistake one-two. The "one" was RAIL and the "two" was OLIVE. I really thought RAIL spider was a slam dunk, and then when OLIVE worked in the cross, and seemed a defensible answer for 19A: Vodka go-with, I just went with it. But no, it was HOBO TONIC all along. Do you put olives in a vodka martini? I would never drink a vodka martini, so I don't know. The way I fixed that corner was weird: I worked backward from CYAN (23A: Color in a color printer) ... CYAN to RACY to TONIC to HOBO. And then off I went. And now, to bed. See you Sunday.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Gary Larson

Relative difficulty: Medium (10:16)

THEME:"Pi R Squared"— "PI R" appears in ... squares ... several times :/

Theme answers:

CONSPIRACY THEORY / EMPIRE STATE
PUMP IRON / PIRATE'S BOOTY
VAMPIRE BAT / SPIRE
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM / PIROUETTES
SPIRO AGNEW / SPIRIT
TAPIRS / AWE-INSPIRING
MISSISSIPPI RIVER / BABY ASPIRIN

Word of the Day: MARGO Price (73D: Country singer Price) —

Margo Rae Price (born April 15, 1983) is an American country singer-songwriter and producer based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Fader has called her "country's next star."Her debut solo album Midwest Farmer's Daughter was released on Third Man Records on March 25, 2016.^[8]^[9] The album was recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, and was engineered by Matt Ross-Spang. The album was recorded in three days. On tour, she is backed by her band the Pricetags.
In December 2018, Price received a nomination for Best New Artist at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards. (wikipedia)

• • •

Wow, this really needed ... something. Something ... else. Something besides a relentless succession of randomly-placed PIRs.Not sure how you do something like this, on a Sunday, with all that real estate, and somehow *don't* incorporate a circle into the mix somehow. At a minimum, the PIR squares should be laid out in a way where they form a circle, or ... I don't know, *something*! Also, the title is just "uh, here's the gimmick, we're just gonna put it in the title because we have no ideas, yeah it's dumb and unimaginative, whaddyagonnadoabout it?" Some of the themers would be perfectly fine, good even, as stand-alone answers, but as a Sunday theme concept, this PIR-square stuff is pretty weak. Took a while for me to figure out the gimmick, largely because I didn't look at the title first. Ran into the theme at RESPIRATORY system, when I had a few seconds of "wait ... it's spelled RESPATORY??! ... am I being Punk'd?" followed by "ohhhhhhhh, ok." And then it was just PIR after PIR after PIR after PIR. I looked at the title when I got PIR because I had no idea why you would rebus those letters, which look stupid in a square all by themselves. I figured maybe there was some meta-puzzle going on where all the rebus squares were going to spell out some message. But nope, PIR PIR PIR PIR PIR PIR PIR, that's the message, enjoy.

Not much trouble today, difficulty-wise ... speed was impeded almost entirely by finding and then entering the rebus squares (lots of extra keystrokes). There were a few hesitations, but that's about it. I think I get BITMAP confused with SITEMAP (?) so though I wanted BITMAP, I had to leave the last three letters blank because I just didn't trust myself (107A: Computer image format). Wasn't entirely sure if Lily ALLEN was -EN or -AN (also, haven't thought about her in like a decade, so it took me a few beats just to retrieve her name) (20A: British pop singer Lily). I have listened to MARGO Price a bunch and still had no idea who [Country singer Price] was until I had MARG-. I don't really slot her as a country singer, though I guess she's got some Venn-diagram overlap with that genre, sure. I had OPA before OMA (both of them answers I would be happy never to see again ... OPA being the male equivalent of OMA) (114D: German granny). Last thing in the grid was TOY (104A: Kiddy litter?), which I honestly didn't understand at all ... I'm not entirely sure I get it now. I think the idea is that children, i.e. kiddies, leave their TOYs everywhere, i.e. litter the ground ... with them. The issue is that a TOY is a word for small breeds of dogs and "litter" is a group of puppies and between that and the "kitty litter" homophone, I assumed the whole thing was pet-related, maybe. Pfffft. All that confusion for three dumb squares. Two long RE-answers is one two many (REIGNITE, REENGAGE). What is a REE Drummond??? (125D: Food writer/TV personality ___ Drummond). Oh ... "The Pioneer Woman," whose actual name isn't even REE. Mkay. If you think this makes it OK for you to put REE in your grid, please, I beg of you, think again. ENO ONO ONEG ONEL ORO, this write-up is Over.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Joe Hansen

Relative difficulty: Challenging (nearly 4, lol)

THEME: FLOWER / GARDEN (5D: With 50-Down, place that this puzzle grid represents) — circled (or shaded) squares spell out kinds of flowers, and (I ... guess?) are flower-shaped:

FLOWERS:

VIOLET
DAHLIA
AZALEA
ORCHID

Word of the Day: LIA Fáil (ancient crowning stone) (28D) —

The Lia Fáil (Irish: [ˌl̠ʲiə ˈfˠaːlʲ], meaning Stone of Destiny (or also "Speaking Stone" to account for its oracular legend) is a stone at the Inauguration Mound (Irish: an Forrad) on the Hill of Tara in County Meath, Ireland, which served as the coronation stone for the High Kings of Ireland. It is also known as the Coronation Stone of Tara. According to legend, all of the kings of Ireland were crowned on the stone up to Muirchertach mac Ercae, c. AD 500. (wikipedia)

• • •

So many things had to go wrong for this to be as unpleasant as it was. First, it's Monday, and Mondays are often very good—the best themes are simple, with a nice, tight, interesting themer grouping, and then squeaky clean fill as far as the eye can see. If you blow a Monday, I get extra mad because it's clearly a day that can routinely be executed to a high degree of precision, overcoming even the occasional editorial malfeasance. But this puzzle ... wow. First, it's way way way too theme-dense for a Monday. What this does is make the grid buckle. The fill is just bad, all over. No one should have to endure stuff like LIA AINTI AGRI YAYAS EKEBY ACIDY ASA ISTO ONTV etc on a Monday. A couple of those, OK, but it was like being assaulted, over and over. Worse, there are no themers with actual ... theme in them? So the revealer was a bear to get without a ton of crosses. And then the cluing, it just didn't compute, over and over. Usually on a Monday I can run the first three Acrosses easily. Maybe I can't get one of them right away, fine, but the clues tend to make sense, anyway. Today, right off the bat, I couldn't understand any of the clues. Whiffed on first two Acrosses and only tentatively guessed the third. BEST ... from that present participle to a simple adjective was yikes (1A: Winning a blue ribbon). And FRAN!?!? I was born there, LOL. Seriously, no idea until (very late, toward the end) I got the "F" from FLOWER. Is it AVOW or AVER!? (14A: State as fact) Who can say? RATED R or RATED X? Shrug. A LEGO is a "toy"? Don't most toys hurt when you step on them barefoot? Four-letter word for [Sweetie]? Lots of options. Just flailing around. Obviously there are easy answers in that NW section too, so it was all ultimately gettable, but only after flopping around, with no real reward for the flopping. Ugh, the longer answers not being themers is so annoying. SERVE TIME instead of DO TIME (3D: Be in jail) ... it's just irksomeness all over. A very hot case of Trying To Do Too Much and just face-planting as a result. If this had been a Tue or a Wed, I'll admit it would've been a little easier to take. But only a little.

Further, AZALEA is a flowering *bush*, and seems slightly out of place in your FLOWER / GARDEN. At any rate, I think of them as flower shrubs more than as flowers, per se. Beyond the theme (and all the yuck fill and vague cluing), I don't get why you give a good word like NICHE such an awful, bizarre "business" (???) clue (11D: Limited kind of market). A NICHE is a "market"? Isn't NICHE the adjective, as in "a NICHE market"? Seems like NICHE goes with "limited," but it's not clued that way. I mean ... your clue could just as easily have been [Limited], tbh. But even that is terrible. The authorial / editorial voice on this one just way far away from my idea of a good time. Take your show-offy "feat of construction" puzzles and ... well, put them somewhere I never see them, but above all keep them far away from Monday (or Friday, for that matter—some days are sacred).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sam who directed the "Evil Dead" series / MON 10-5-2020 / Worker for a feudal lord / Like Galileo, by birth / One-named singer with the 2014 hit "Chandelier" / Md. home to the U.S. Cyber Command

Former Houston hockey team / TUE 10-6-20 / Green-skinned variety of pear / Element extracted from kelp

Something ancient Egyptians used for keeping time / WED 10-7-20 / queen fabulous / Jackson Jr Straight Outta Compton star / 1995 gangster comedy with John Travolta Rene Russo

Gemstones resembling topaz / THU 10-8-20 / Benjamin Franklin adage / Much-litigated 2010 law for short / How Lennon wrote opening lines of I am the Walrus

Gymnastics rings feat with arms fully extended / FRI 10-9-20 / throwing faddish sport / Prez with same initials as NYC landmark / Tribe that traditionally spoke Chiwere

British pop singer Lily / SUN 10-11-20 / Missouri site of Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival / Acronym for North American Quintet / Subject of 199 silkscreen paintings by Warhol / Sapa title for Atahualpa / When doubled 1934 Cole Porter comedy short

Fail ancient crowning stone / MON 10-12-20 / Special Forces headgear / College in Cedar Rapids Iowa