Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle

Constructor: Alex Eaton-Salners

Relative difficulty: Medium (9-something)

THEME:"IT ALL ADDS UP" — themers cross at letter strings that spell out numbers, but instead of getting the actual letters of the number (say, "-EIGHT-"), we get one number spelled out in the Across and another spelled out in the Down, and those two *total* the number that's supposed to provide the letter string. Sooooooo....

Theme answers:

SONEOPOOL / NINEDED BAR ((9+1= 10, i.e. TEN, thus STENO POOL / TENDED BAR)
THE LASONERD / IONENTHURT (1+1 = 2, i.e. TWO, thus THE LAST WORD / "IT WON'T HURT")
"DAYS OTWO LIVES" / "SKIN OTWO TEETH" (2+2 = 4, i.e. FOUR, thus "DAYS OF OUR LIVES" / "SKIN OF OUR TEETH")
FRFOUR TRAIN / MAKES WFOUR (4+4 = 8, i.e. EIGHT, thus FREIGHT TRAIN / MAKES WEIGHT)
BREAKZERO / PRESSEVENT (0+7 = 7, i.e. SEVEN, thus BREAKS EVEN / PRESS EVENT)

Word of the Day:"F-TROOP" (53D: 1960s sitcom set at Fort Courage) —

F Troop is a satirical American television sitcom western about U.S. soldiers and Native Americans in the Wild West during the 1860s that originally aired for two seasons on ABC. It debuted in the United States on September 14, 1965 and concluded its run on April 6, 1967 with a total of 65 episodes. The first season of 34 episodes was broadcast in black-and-white, the second season in color.
The series relied heavily on character-based humor; verbal and visual gags, slapstick, physical comedy and burlesque comedy make up the prime ingredients of F Troop. The series played fast and loose with historical events and persons, and often parodied them for comical effect.^[1] There were some indirect references made to the culture of the 1960s such as a "Playbrave Club" (a parody of a Playboy Club) and two rock and roll bands (one which performs songs written in the 1960s). (wikipedia)

• • •

I have, sadly, come to expect a certain product from this constructor, a product I have never cared for, and this one unfortunately fulfilled all my expectations: architecturally intricate, conceptually ambitious, but in execution, a total mess, and the pleasure factor, near nil. Here's the thing. You are doing addition, right? You've even got a reference to the plus SIGN in the dang grid (108D: + or -). And so when the intersecting numbers in the themers here form an *actual* plus SIGN, well, OK, bam, you nailed it. Nice work (see ONE x/w ONE, TWO x/w TWO). But when the crossing numbers cross off-center, creating one upside-down and two lop-sided crosses that are decided not plus SIGNs, well, then, you've gone and made a mockery of your own concept. Please don't tell me that the formation of a plus SIGN is not the point. You cannot reasonably expect to pull a whole plus gimmick, create two obvious plus SIGNs in the course of executing that gimmick, and then expect me to just ignore that as mere coincidence—a meaningless byproduct of a theme that cares only about crosses and not plus SIGNs. Once you have given me the perfect plus SIGN execution, you have now made all non-plus SIGN instances of the theme look silly and misshapen. So even if you are among the people who believe that gibberish in the grid can be redeemed by math, you are faced with having to explain the awkward, inconsistent mathiness of it all. All the ambition in the world doesn't mean jack if you don't stick the landing.

Never heard of this allegedly "Pulitzer-winning Thornton Wilder play." There's "Our Town" and then there's "etc." as far as Thornton Wilder is concerned, come on. Actually, for me, there's also The Bridge of San Luis Rey, which I read in 11th grade. It's the novel that taught me the word "gesticulating." I think that was the word used to refer to the bodies as they fell from the bridge. "Gesticulating ants," maybe? Some things stick with you, and "gesticulating" stuck with me (not a lot else did from that novel, though I think it's multi-perspectival ... I really loved that English teacher, anyway, even though he was tough as nails and probably, in retrospect, quite sexist. You take the good, you take the bad, etc. Where was I? Oh, yeah, no one knows that play, Pulitzer or no Pulitzer. But that's not really a problem. The phrase is familiar enough, and gettable here.

Bullets:

39A: Gave birth (HAD A KID) — if you're a goat, sure. Otherwise, too informal.
53D: 1960s sitcom set at Fort Courage ("F-TROOP")— struggled mightily to recall this because I had to the FT. and kept telling myself the title was "Fort ... something!" Nevermind that "Fort" was in the clue, argh.
11D: Not custom-tailored (PREMADE) — do you mean "off-the-rack?" Food comes PREMADE. Clothes, ugh, what?
84A: Had a heaping helping of humility (ATE CROW) — I ate dirt at first.
100A: Emotive brass sound ("Wah WAH") — how was this not OOM-PAH, how? I guess there's not enough emotion in OOM-PAH for you? Well, I guessed OOM-PAH because the first two crosses I got were the "-AH."

See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Stanley Newman

Relative difficulty: Hard to say since I solved it untimed *and* Downs-Only ... seemed like it might play slightly harder than the typical Monday

THEME: IDS (62D: Two forms of them are found in 18-, 38- and 60-Across)— the letter pair "ID" appears twice in each of the longer theme answers:

Theme answers:

DIDGERIDOO (18A: Australian wind instrument)
MID-OCEAN RIDGE (38A: System of underwater mountains)
BRIDESMAID (60A: Wedding attendant)

Word of the Day: PARIETAL lobe (28D: ___ lobe (part of the brain)) —

The parietal lobe is one of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the brain of mammals. The parietal lobe is positioned above the temporal lobe and behind the frontal lobe and central sulcus.
The parietal lobe integrates sensory information among various modalities, including spatial sense and navigation (proprioception), the main sensory receptive area for the sense of touch in the somatosensory cortex which is just posterior to the central sulcus in the postcentral gyrus, and the dorsal stream of the visual system. The major sensory inputs from the skin (touch, temperature, and pain receptors), relay through the thalamus to the parietal lobe.
Several areas of the parietal lobe are important in language processing. The somatosensory cortex can be illustrated as a distorted figure – the cortical homunculus (Latin: "little man") in which the body parts are rendered according to how much of the somatosensory cortex is devoted to them. The superior parietal lobule and inferior parietal lobule are the primary areas of body or spatial awareness. A lesion commonly in the right superior or inferior parietal lobule leads to hemineglect.
The name comes from the parietal bone, which is named from the Latin paries-, meaning "wall". (wikipedia)

• • •

Hello. Very short write-up today because I already went over this puzzle in detail while co-solving it (Downs-Only!) on Zoom with my friend Rachel Fabi, which you can watch here:

Here are the highlights, for the video-averse:

Bullets:

The revealer clue is not accurate — There are not "two forms" of ID found in the theme answers. There is one form, found twice. There's just ID ... two times. Not, not, decidedly not "two forms." I get why the "forms of ... " phrasing is there, in terms of trying to evoke a common phrase related to IDs, but when your themers don't have "two forms," best not to say they do.
What the heck is a MID-OCEAN RIDGE?— I have no doubt that it's a real thing, but that is not a thing that either Rachel or I had ever heard of. Seems kinda weird that you have to get that technical on a Monday, when the only theme restriction is 2xID.
Some of the fill is less than great— this is true esp. for YALEU, which, when you're solving Downs-only, is particularly gruesome ("What 5-letter answer ends -LEU?" A: nothing good). Lots of very common crosswordy stuff. Solid and inoffensive overall, though, for the most part, and the rather large / open corners kept the fill from being boring.
Neither of us knew PARIETAL — or, in my case, how to pronounce it :(
There are so many ways this puzzle could've included more women and it just chose not to— CHRIS, DANA, PEARL, OSAKA, OBAMA ... lots of opportunities for cluing these answers as women. It seems like a low-stakes thing to many of you, I know, but just a little attention, a little thoughtfulness, even having the issue (of gender parity) on your radar, would go a long way. Please check out this visual essay from the website The Pudding ("Who's In The Crossword?"), which uses data gleaned from several major daily crosswords to illustrate the tendency of puzzles to underrepresent women and people of color.

That's all. I'll be taping Zoom solves with Rachel on the 23rd of every month from now on, so, yeah, we'll be back with another of these on Christmas Eve Eve, I guess. But I'll be back to regular blogging tomorrow. Wait, nope. It's a Clare Tuesday tomorrow, I'm pretty sure. So Clare will be here. I'll be somewhere–and then back here on Wednesday. Cheers.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Hello, it’s Clare for the last Tuesday in November! Hope everyone has been staying safe and will be over Thanksgiving. I’m done with classes for the semester (it seriously flew by — even on Zoom U), which means I’ve only got one semester left of law school. That is seriously mind-boggling (and terrifying) to me! Maybe when I graduate I’ll just move to South Korea and become a full-time BTS fan. (Dad, if you’re reading this, I’m kidding. Mostly.) For your dose of holiday cheer (BTS-related, of course), I recommend this new article from the cover of Esquire about them (and how amazing they are)!

Constructor: Caitlin Reid

Relative difficulty:Medium

THEME: Sea animal wordplay

Theme answers:

WHALE ILL BE DARNED (19A: "An Orca is actually a dolphin?!")
OH THE HUGE MANATEE (37A: "Wow, that's a giant sea cow!")
GREAT COD ALMIGHTY (55A: "This is the best fish I've ever had!")

Word of the Day:AHAB (7A: Husband of Jezebel in the Bible) —

Ahab was the seventh king of Israel, the son and successor of King Omri and the husband of Jezebel of Sidon, according to the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew Bible presents Ahab as a wicked king, particularly for condoning Jezebel's influence on religious policies and his principal role behind Naboth's arbitrary execution. (Wikipedia)

• • •

I don’t have a ton to say about this puzzle overall. I found the theme to be groan-inducing (literally), though I could appreciate how it might be sort of halfway maybe funny to some? Maybe…? But even if you liked the theme, the middle themer — OH THE HUGE MANATEE— did not really work. Sorry, but that is just too much of a reach to be a play on “Oh, the humanity.” The other two involved a slight change in a word to fit a pun (well → whale and god → cod), but for some reason the theme answer smack dab in the middle of the puzzle involved dropping two letters (the “ge”). That one made me annoyed and may have colored my whole view of the puzzle (or maybe I”m just tired and hangry; yeah, that’s probably it).

The puzzle took me longer than a usual Tuesday takes me, and I’m not entirely sure why. I thought it was decently challenging but not a ton more than a normal Tuesday, so I was a little surprised when I saw my time. It just somehow felt like things I usually get immediately took way longer to click for me.

The long downs were nice, for the most part — I especially liked BLIND DATE (10D: It may be a setup) and BAT SIGNAL (36D: Summons in Gotham City), though I’m not sure the clue for AVALANCHE (3D: Deluge) quite works, does it? I think of a deluge as a severe flood, and that doesn't quite match up with AVALANCHE. Overall, my favorite clue/answer was 24A: Column with an angle as OPED. 57A: Light wind? as OBOE was also pretty clever.

The rest of my thoughts on the puzzle are just a jumbled mess of things I didn’t particularly like (maybe I should go make myself some food or something). 41A as TUDE is pretty ugly and not really something people say. I don’t love split clues, and having SASHA (1D) be so far away from OBAMA (61A) seems random to me. I originally put “grasp” instead of CLASP for 17A: Hold on tight, which threw me for a bit. UHUH (33D) and NYNY (54D) seem kind of lazy to me. Also, I had a weirdly hard time coming up with LAWN for 13D: What a sprinkler may sprinkle, even though, looking back, it seems very obvious now. I also had a hard time coming up with SALADS (47D: Make-it-yourself dishes from bars) for some reason — though maybe it’s because salad bars just don’t exist in a time of COVID.

Misc.:

5D: CYCLES reminded me of a bike ride the other day where I was feeling so great and fast on the way out, thinking I was just crushing it, and then I turned around to go back and realized I’d been benefitting from a major tailwind… The huge headwind on the way back was not fun at all.
NCIS (25A: Long-running CBS drama) is one show where I feel like the spinoff, NCIS: Los Angeles, is actually better than the original.
It’s nice that this puzzle mentions a Billboard CHART (5A), because that means I can now return to talking about BTS, who just came out with a new album called “BE” that’s going to debut next week at No. 1 on the chart. BTS also has a song called “Life Goes On” that may debut (fingers crossed!) at No. 1 on the Billboard chart next week, as well — you should listen to it!

And... that's it! Have a great week.

Signed, Clare Carroll, your resident BTS fan

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: John Guzzetta and Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (untimed)

THEME: "flipped" — themers are reverse homophones of other themers, where 1st and 2nd words of two-word themers swap places, aurally, in other themers. So:

Theme answers:

MALE HEIR / AIR MAIL (16A: Prince, e.g. / 25A: Stamp on an envelope [and 16-Across flipped])
TOW PLANE / PLAIN TOE (31A: It takes a glider up to launch altitude / 44A: Basic kind of shoe [and 31-Across flipped])
TEE TIME / THYME TEA (50A: Golf reservation / 63A: Herbal drink full of antioxidants [and 50-Across flipped])

Word of the Day: Buck O'NEIL (4D: Buck ___, first African-American coach in Major League Baseball) —

Buck O'Neil (né John Jordan O'Neil Jr.; November 13, 1911 – October 6, 2006) was a first baseman and manager in the Negro American League, mostly with the Kansas City Monarchs. After his playing days, he worked as a scout, and became the first African American coach in Major League Baseball. In his later years he became a popular and renowned speaker and interview subject, helping to renew widespread interest in the Negro leagues, and played a major role in establishing the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.
O'Neil's life was documented in Joe Posnanski's award-winning 2007 book The Soul of Baseball. (wikipedia)

• • •

Not sure how a puzzle manages six themers *and* eight 8+ long Downs *and* still manages to be this dull, but here we are. The theme gimmick is slight and leads to odd fill like TOW PLANE (you'll forgive me if I'm not up on my glider-related terminology), PLAIN TOE (looks like it's used in the shoe world but I can't find a good, solid definition of what it is) and worst of all THYME TEA, what the hell? People can make tea out of any old crap, but just because they can doesn't mean you should deem it puzzle-worthy. Also TEE TIME, while solid, is weird because it's also a very solid thing when you replace TEE with the homophone TEA. So the whole thing came off as both trivial and wobbly. But then there are allllllll those long Downs, and you'd expect to get some kind of juice out of those, right? But no. Something like VARIETY ACT, I pieced it together and thought "uh, OK." Too generic and slightly old-fashioned to be zingy. Worse was the even more generic TEAM MEMBER. I wrote in TEAM MASCOT and was semi-pleased with that. Having to replace MASCOT with the mere MEMBER was pretty disappointing. I guess I'm glad the longer answers were there, as thinking about them is undoubtedly more interesting than thinking about a whole passel of 3-to-5-letter answers ... but, today, not much more interesting. Weird day when SLOUCHED is the most interesting thing in the grid. Or maybe BALL GOWNS is more your speed. There's just an inexplicable lifelessness to this thing.

ECON is not a H.S. class, not consistently at any rate (36D: H.S. class). I have no doubt that some HSs offer it, but not mine (30+ years ago) and not my daughter's (3 years ago). My wife has ECON as a unit in the Social Studies course she teaches seniors, and I can Guarantee you none of them have had an ECON class before. It is very much a Univ. or Coll. course, so why not just clue it that way. ENG is a HS course (taught at all HSs). BIO, CHEM, CALC, all HS courses. Everywhere (or nearly everywhere, probably, in the case of CALC). Not ECON. Cluing accuracy is important. Not much left to talk about. I always enjoy remembering Manhattans, so keep the Manhattan clues coming (26D: Traditional ingredient in a manhattan => RYE). Probably have one tonight. Happy Thanksgiving Eve! Also, Happy MyBirthday Eve! It's a twofer this year!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Neville Fogarty

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (something under 5)

THEME: LONG (71A: Word interpreted literally in completing four of this puzzle's answers) — Across answers are all two-word phrases beginning with "LONG," but instead of appearing in the grid, "LONG" is represented literally; that is, the word following "Long" is actually, physically made long by having each letter stretched over the length of two squares instead of the usual one:

Theme answers:

VVOOWWEELL (18A: Oboe or flute sound) (i.e. "long vowel")
IISSLLAANNDD (29A: Home to around eight million Americans) (i.e. "Long Island")
WWIINNDDEEDD (47A: Circumlocutory) (i.e. "long-winded")
JJOOHHNNSS (61A: Some winter wear) (i.e. "long johns")

Word of the Day: ANNA of Arendelle (Disney heroine) (57D) —

Anna of Arendelle (/ˈɑːnə/) is a fictional character who appears in Walt Disney Animation Studios' 53rd animated film Frozen and its sequel Frozen II. She is voiced by Kristen Bell as an adult. At the beginning of the film, Livvy Stubenrauch and Katie Lopez provide her speaking and singing voice as a young child, respectively. Agatha Lee Monn portrayed her as a nine-year-old (singing). In Frozen II, Hadley Gannaway provided her voice as a young child while Stubenrauch is the archive audio.
Created by co-directors Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck, Anna is loosely based on Gerda, a character from the Danish fairytale "The Snow Queen" by Hans Christian Andersen. In the Disney film adaptation, Anna is depicted as the princess of Arendelle, a fictional Scandinavian kingdom, and the younger sister of Princess Elsa (Idina Menzel), who is the heiress to the throne and possesses the elemental ability to create and control ice and snow. When Elsa exiles herself from the kingdom after inadvertently sending Arendelle into an eternal winter on the evening of her coronation, fearless and faithful Anna is determined to set out on a dangerous adventure to bring her sister back and save both her kingdom and her family. (wikipedia)

• • •

Delighted to see this byline today (my birthday), as Neville is one of the loveliest people I know in the entire world of crosswords. This is an absolutely solid little ROMP (17A: Play like a puppy), even if it does have two elements that notoriously annoy the heck out of me, i.e. a [See notes] instruction when I open the puzzle file, and also just the word NATANT, yuck, why does it exist, kill it (32D: Swimming). Anyway, the puzzle notes tell me that:

In the print version of this puzzle, every two squares in 18-, 29-, 47- and 61-Across are joined as one.

So instead of writing in the letters twice, as I've had to, you can just write them in once, and draw them all fun-house mirrory (i.e. "long"). Since I never read puzzle notes before I solve, I was left to piece together why there were repeating letters, why the first themer started VVOO-. After not being able to make anything out of it, I decided to just test the two-letter theory, so when I got a "W" I put in another "W" and so on. That led me to "VOWEL," and that led me to grasping the theme (the "o"s and "u" in the words "oboe" and "flute" are long vowels). The themers were easier thereafter, obviously, and each one easier than the next, it seemed. There wasn't much pizzazz outside the theme itself, but there was also very little garbage (NATANT notwithstanding), and I liked the cute little nod to the actual holiday that it is today, in addition to my birthday. Happy Thanksgiving! (40A: Celebrated Thanksgiving, say = FEASTED).

Neville tells me that this puzzle is really a secret tribute to actress Shelley LONG of "Troop Beverly Hills" fame. He didn't actually say that, but I want to believe that subconsciously, that is what he was trying to do here.

Ironically, the one part of this puzzle that was not a ROMP for me was the ROMP section. I wanted GATE at 1A: Info for an air traveler, but then Could Not make the first two Downs happen off the "G" and "A," so figured GATE was wrong. [Mystery writer, for short] is a cute but Brutal clue for ANON. (if the name of a writer is unknown, i.e. a mystery, then the writer is anonymous, or ANON.). I also had --EASY at 20A: Experiencing agita (UNEASY) and wanted only QUEASY. The most unlikely thing to happen today was the first thing I put into the grid was UNIX (14A: Operating system from Bell Labs). LOL I am pretty tech-stupid but somehow my brain was like "it's UNIX, put it in, *do it*!" and my brain was right. Had the usual LAVS v LOOS trouble (7D: Places to go in England), and then some EWE v. SOW confusion (9D: Female on a farm). I have never seen "Frozen" (daughter was too old by then to be overrun by the phenomenon), so the whole ANNA clue was actually baffling to me. I enjoyed remembering "Happy Days," and remembering Potsy in particular (31D: Actor Williams of "Happy Days" = ANSON). In case it's not clear, the first letter in "Gym," the "G," is a SOFT G, unlike the HARD G that starts GATE, GURU, gag order, or Gary Cooper. I hope you have a lovely, feastful day. Mwah!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Robyn Weintraub

Relative difficulty: medium

THEME: nope

Word of the Day: EEK A MOUSE (19A: Pioneering Reggae artist whose name is an exclamation) —

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Eek-A-Mouse began his music career when he was in college, releasing two roots reggae singles under his own name, which were produced by his mathematics tutor, Mr. Dehaney. These early works were influenced by the music of Pablo Moses. He then went on to work for various sound systems over the next few years and also released a few more singles. He adopted the stage name"Eek-A-Mouse" in 1979, taking the name of a racehorse he always bet on; it was a nickname his friends had used for some time. (wikipedia)

• • •

There’s been plenty to criticize in recent NYT crosswords, so I was fired up to start some shit on Rex’s blog while he snoozed away his Thanksgiving feast. But as soon as I saw that it was a Robyn Weintraub puzzle I was pretty certain that I’d be gushing instead. I was not wrong. Robyn is one of my favorite constructors and today’s puzzle is a perfectly enjoyable themeless Friday. If you like this puzzle, be sure to check out The New Yorker’s crosswords. They are a blast to solve and Robyn contributes about once a month. I really, really love those puzzles and wish that they had an app similar to the NYT one. Are you listening, The New Yorker folks? I would pay good money for that subscription!

So, yeah. This puzzle is great. Very little predictable fill with a lot of clever cluing that felt fresh and interesting.

I really wanted to show you an EEK A MOUSE video for “Virgin Girl” because it’s a great song, but all of the YouTube videos I could find for that song are absolute crap. Here's a Spinal Tap video about STONEHENGE (16A) that is one of the funniest scenes ever:

Notable:

11D: Common character in The Far Side (ALIEN) was a nice, smart comic strip pairing with 53A: “Bloom County” character whose vocabulary consists mostly of “Thbbft!” and “Ack!” (BILL THE CAT)
28D Echo responder (ALEXA). I’m personally sick of all of the Apple references in crosswords this year (IMAC, IPOD, NANO, SIRI, etc), so was happy to see a different FANG product get a little facetime (hehe).
5D: 1984 comedy horror film that contributed to the creation of the PG-13 rating (GREMLINS). I did not know this and will gladly drop this fact sometime in the near future.
30A: Thanksgiving Preference (LEG) was a bit forced, but I will give it a pass because, well, it IS Thanksgiving.

I had a little bit of trouble with the northeast, with the vague-ish SURE WHY NOT and not-certain-why-it was-so-hard THROWN. Maybe the massive amounts of Thanksgiving carbs and wine had something to do with it. I was not on my game. It reminded me a little of the time a few years ago when I was super jetlagged and fell asleep on my iPad. I woke up to this:

MmmmK. Anyway, on this Thanksgiving the world continues to be upside down, and I am thankful that there will be a more decent human in the White House in less than two months. With any luck, we’ll get this virus under control by spring. Please wear a mask and keep social distancing, and understand that these small sacrifices are at least as much about protecting others as about protecting yourself.

I’m also thankful for the small daily ritual of the NYT crossword and this community.

Thank you Rex for being a voice so many of us love to read (nearly) every day.

Signed, Amy Seidenwurm, Undersecretary of CrossWorld

[Follow me on Twitter and Instagram]

Constructor: Nam Jin Yoon

Relative difficulty: Easy (untimed, but I'm somehow up at 4am (???) and still solved it with very little trouble, *well* under 10, probably closer to 5)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: FORTY (27D: Beer purchase in a large bottle, informally) —

4or 40, US, informal : a forty-ounce bottle or other container of an alcoholic beverage (such as beer or malt liquor) Kelvin finished his forty in seven or eight long gulps. Tossed the bottle in the median carpeted with brown grass.— Dave Byrne… smoking weed and drinking 40s while her kids run loose.— Jim Schutze (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

Wow, this was excellent. I'm genuinely taken aback by how good this is, especially since I've never seen this constructor's name on a byline before (that I can remember). Talk about making the most of your marquee (8+ answers). Once I hit FAIR'S FAIR I was very much rooting for this puzzle, and then by the time I circled around, through the SW corner, over to PITY PARTY, I was completely won over (with half the puzzle still to go). That is a very nice feeling: to be midway through a puzzle whose quality you are confident of, and to be able to genuinely look forward to finishing off the second half. I struggled a bit more in the SE than I did elsewhere, but that had no effect on how nice I thought that corner was, and then I finished up in the NE, which was just as clean and snappy as the rest of it. A nearly perfect counterclockwise solve, with no anomalously grueling parts and no ugly parts to haunt my memory of the solving experience. If I'm being honest, I think it's the slang clue on FORTY, at the heart of the puzzle, that really let me know I could relax; I was in good hands. This puzzle's sensibility was going to be my kind of thing.

How to start a Saturday? Well, 1D: Designates looked like it had to end in an "S" so I wrote that in, then saw the clue on 19A: Originator of parody ads for 5-hour Empathy and Tylenol BM, in brief, and honestly all I needed to read was "parody" to know the answer was SNL. Guessed MEWL (3D: Little cry) and IRON (2D: Shellfish have lots of this) off their last letters right away. Then 15A: "Any interest in doing this?" looked like it was going to start "ARE YOU...?" so I tested the "Y," which led me to a cross-referenced clue at 34A: 4-Down, for CBS ... so obviously the "Y" was in the middle of EYE, which is the CBS LOGO. I think I dropped RUSHERS off just the "U" (6D: Running backs and defensive ends). TOE was easy. TORTOISE fell in line after that (5D: Fabled beneficiary of a nap). The short Downs at the end of the longer answers up there were all pretty easy (VAIN EMT LES), and before I knew it, I had a lovely NW corner all sewn up.

First real challenge came at 29A: Style guide? I had -RESS and figured the answer had something to do with the ... PRESS. I did not take that "P" out for a comparatively looooong time. I was honestly willing to believe there was such a thing as a PRESS CODE. The problem was I had PROPALINE at 29D: Write, and I just couldn't make it make sense. I'm always willing to believe there is a word out there I just haven't heard of, but PROPALINE, yeah, that seemed dubious. Then all at once my one-letter error became clear. Not one-word PROPALINE but three-word DROP A LINE, gah! OK, back to work. SE corner was toughest, as I didn't know what followed SURE at 33D: It can't miss and had trouble getting both GPAS and PRAT. This made getting into that SE corner tricky. I guessed OPT and TRY on those first short Downs with identical clues ([Go (for)]). TRY was wrong, but once I put SHOT after SURE and then wrote in ALA at 51D: Like, the correct "P" from OPT was weirdly enough for me to be able to see PIÑA COLADA, and that pretty much took care of that corner. Finished up in the NE, where there was virtually no resistance. Knowing Donna TARTT very much helped. Made up for not having known Jacky ROSEN in the SW (40D: Nevada senator Jacky). Anyway, done and done and very content. Hurray. Hope you're enjoying your post-Thanksgiving weekend. Cheers.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Eric Berlin

Relative difficulty: Easy (9:20)

THEME:"Six-Pack"— wacky phrases where first and second parts of the phrase have 6-letter overlap; in the grid, the overlap is represented literally, with the words entered into the grid as if they were actually overlapping. Thus:

Theme answers:

EPHEMERAL EMERALDS => EPHEMERALDS (23A: Very short-lived gemstones?)
AIREDALE RED ALERT => AIREDALERT (3D: Emergency situation caused by a terrier?)
GILGAMESH GAME SHOW => GILGAMESHOW (34A: TV quiz program about an epic poem?)
SUPERMAN PERMANENT => SUPERMANENT (11D: Salon job named after a comic book hero?)
FIRST-RATE STRATEGY => FIRSTRATEGY (93A: Magnificent plan of action?)
HAMMERING MERINGUE => HAMMERINGUE (63D: Pounding on a pie topping?)
OBAMACARE MACARENA => OBAMACARENA (107A: Dance celebrating 2010 legislation?)
WISEACRE SEACREST => WISEACREST (74D: Entertainment host Ryan, that smart aleck!?)

Word of the Day: Nicolas PÉPÉ (25A: Nicolas ___, standout player in soccer's Premier League) —

Nicolas Pépé (born 29 May 1995) is a professional footballer who plays as a winger for Premier League club Arsenal and the Ivory Coast national team.
Pépé began his senior club career with Poitiers in the Championnat de France Amateur 2. He signed for Angers in 2013, aged 18, and spent a season on loan at Orléans in 2015. He signed for Lille in 2017, and was named to the UNFP Ligue 1 Team of the Year in the 2018–19 season. That summer, Pépé joined Arsenal for a club-record fee of £72 million, and won the FA Cup in his debut season.
Pépé, who was born in France to parents of Ivorian descent, made his debut for the Ivory Coast on 15 November 2016 in a friendly against France. (wikipedia)

• • •

80D: Mustachioed
Springfield resident

I see what the puzzle is doing, but I don't quite know why it is doing it, considering there's no real humor or wackiness payoff. There's just a kind of grid gibberish. "Ephemeral emeralds" is kinda fun to say, but EPHEMERALDS ... actually, you know what, that's almost fun to say. That one may be the best of the lot. But take SUPERMANENT. There's just no way to make that funny as one word. I get that the way that the answers are entered in the grid is merely a visual representation of the full phrase, but even then ... is FIRST-RATE STRATEGY fun ... on any level? This is an architectural exercise. On that level, I guess it's a success. But as a bit of entertainment, it's something of a thud. You do have to do some fancy thinking to get everything to work out, but ultimately it's pretty easy. In fact, probably much easier than if the theme phrases had appeared in the grid completely. This way, every time you get *one* of those six letters in the overlap, you're actually getting *two* letters of the entire phrase. So, yeah, the theme felt very easy to untangle once you tumbled to the core concept. Beyond that, you've got a solid if fairly old-fashioned grid. When's the last time anyone said PEP PILL? Sounds like some kind of '50s/''60s euphemism for speed. When's the last time someone was STINKO? (aside from in the '40s/'50s movies I watch all the time)? Still, beyond the always-awful INAPILE and the plural suffix -ENES, nothing really grates today. I really liked SIDEMAN on the "side" of the grid with its plus one, PLUS ONE. Quite a pair, those two. Mostly, though, this was a thrill-less task.

I didn't even have interesting struggles or mistakes today. No idea who PÉPÉ was. Seems very very hard as proper nouns go, but in an easy puzzle, why not? Why not teach me about a PÉPÉ who is not LePew? Can't hurt. I actually knew TYLER, The Creator, so that somewhat toughish (depending on your musical knowledge / tastes) clue didn't faze me. Had my usual RHINE v RHONE confusion (24D: River near Rotterdam). Thought the clue on METRONOME was clever (76A: Beat box?). Sorry, really wish there were interesting things to talk about today, but if they're here, I can't see them.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Russ. Hey, Russ. Yeah, you. Your wife Jennifer says "Happy Anniversary!" There's no one she'd rather crossword with than you. Aren't you lucky? The answer is 'yes.' Happy anniversary, you two.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Emma Craven-Matthews

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (2:49)

THEME: CANADA (71A: Place associated with the answers to the starred clues) — just what the clue says. Here are the "starred clues":

Theme answers:

HOCKEY NIGHT (4D: *Leafs-watching time, maybe) (because the Leafs are short for the hockey team the Toronto Maple Leafs) (also because "HOCKEY NIGHT in CANADA" is "a branding used for Canadian television presentations of the National Hockey League" (wikipedia)
TIM HORTONS (18A: *Restaurant chain known for its coffee and doughnuts)
SAYING SORRY (27D: *Important step after erring)
MAPLE SYRUP (62A: Pancake topping) (??? I associate this with New York and the U.S. northeast, where I live, and where the MAPLE SYRUP supply is ample)

Word of the Day:"HOCKEY NIGHT in CANADA" (see 4D) —

Hockey Night in Canada (often abbreviated Hockey Night or HNIC) is a branding used for Canadian television presentations of the National Hockey League. While the name has been used for all NHL broadcasts on CBC Television (regardless of the time of day), Hockey Night in Canada is primarily associated with its Saturday night NHL broadcasts, a practice originating from Saturday NHL broadcasts that began in 1931 on the CNR Radio network and continued on its successors, and debuting on television beginning in 1952. Initially only airing a single game weekly, the modern incarnation airs a weekly double-header, with game times normally at 7 and 10 p.m. (ET). The broadcast features various segments during the intermissions and between games, as well as pre- and post-game coverage of the night's games, and player interviews. It also shows the hosts' opinions on news and issues occurring in the league.
The Hockey Night in Canada brand is owned by the CBC and was exclusively used by CBC Sports through the end of the 2013–14 NHL season. Beginning in the 2014–15 NHL season, the brand is being licensed to Rogers Communications for Sportsnet-produced Saturday NHL broadcasts airing on CBC Television as well as the Rogers-owned Citytv and Sportsnet networks. Rogers had secured exclusive national multimedia rights to NHL games beginning in 2014–15, and sublicensed Saturday night and playoff games to CBC. This sub-license agreement runs through the end of the Rogers deal with the NHL. (wikipedia)

• • •

This theme seems pretty remedial. "Here are some things people associate with CANADA." OK, so. Why? What is the point? The list could've been longer or shorter or ... tighter, I don't know. The point is, it's completely arbitrary and purposeless (it's not some kind of Canada Day, is it??). I like SAYING SORRY, as it's totally unexpected in a list like this. Perfectly apt, but original. It's the one bright spot in a lackluster, by-the-numbers, old-fashioned theme. I don't think HOCKEY NIGHT stands very well on its own. I've only ever heard the whole phrase "HOCKEY NIGHT in CANADA," but I'm not Canadian, so maybe it's shortened all the time. For a puzzle with a largely US audience, that answer (as it appears in the grid) felt wobbly. Wobblier was MAPLE SYRUP, which I've never associated with CANADA. The maple leaf, sure, but the syrup, yeah, we've got that in abundance, all over the dang place. The only syrups we ever use are NYS syrups. This is what I mean about the themers being arbitrary. Would've been cooler to have another asterisked clue at 8-Across instead of just boring old OTTAWA (8A: Capital of 71-Across). The theme's just not tight enough, and there's not enough oomph to what's there.

Worse, probably, is the fill, which is ultra-throwback stuff. Too often, you see the kind of short fill that used to roam wild across the grids of North America before constructors got more conscientious about this sort of thing (and software helped them bring it down to a bare minimum). SSA DDE ENE EPI ONA HEB TRALA ELEA EROO (oof, EROO), this is the kind of stuff I'm talking about. OCASIO gives you a little frisson of currentness, and the clue on STUTTER is timely and interesting (50A: Early challenge overcome by Joe Biden), but too much of the fill here is a slog. This one ticks all the boxes for your run-of-the-mill crossword, but it's got a long way to go before it's got that Monday Zing that I like so well. Pretty sure this is the constructor's debut, so some rough patches are to be expected, and I do look forward to seeing zingier work in the future.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Byron Walden

Relative difficulty: Medium, leaning Medium-Challenging (?) (untimed, but with all those longer answer, I dunno, it felt like it played a little bit slower than usual)

THEME: REC CENTER (33D: Community sports facility ... or a hint to the answers to the five starred clues) — themers are phrases that all have the letter string "REC" sitting dead center:

Theme answers:

SOFTWARE COMPANY (17A: *Many a Silicon Valley business)
HOME FORECLOSURE (39A: *Devastating event in a real estate bust)
"WHAT MORE CAN I SAY?" (61A: *Question suggesting "That just about sums things up")
IMPRECISE (10D: *Like a guesstimate, by nature)
PRESSURE COOKERS (7D: *Highly stressful situations, metaphorically)

Word of the Day: EMBAR (16A: Put a stop to) —

: to stop, check, or hinder by or as if by enclosing with bars: such as
aobsolete : to interrupt or impede (something, such as commerce) by an embargo
barchaic : ENCLOSE, IMPRISON
cobsolete : to put a stop to by legal means : BARembar a claim (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

Ironically, not dreck! Thought this one was really NIFTY. The meaning of the revealer is precise (those RECs are very much in the CENTER of their respective answers) and the arrangement of the long themers in a relatively intricate interlock pattern (with every themer intersecting at least *two* others) makes this puzzle that rare feat: an architectural achievement that is also a pleasure to solve. While the themers aren't always scintillating, they hold up fine, and since the requirements for inclusion in the theme set are so narrow (needing REC at the center and needing to cross two other themers at exactly the right letters), it's slightly surprising the themers hold up as well as they do. I found the puzzle a little tougher than usual largely because I had trouble finishing off the long themers. Got SOFTWARE, couldn't finish it off without crosses. Got FORECLOSURE, couldn't finish it off without crosses. The question "WHAT MORE CAN I SAY?" seems very much the right phrase and yet my brain fumbled with it for a bit. But these were all very small hangups. The difficulty level felt more or less appropriate for a Tuesday. Nice to have a Tuesday (i.e. an "easy") grid that has so many interesting longer answers. There's a lot of your typical 3-to-5-letter stuff, but it's mostly clean and you don't really notice it. The theme is the attention-grabber, and when your theme is successful, the rest of the puzzle simply has to not fall on its face. Mission Accomplished.

Weirdly, the toughest answer for me today was CHANGETO (5D: Replace with). Something about the verb-preposition arrangement was so unexpected that even when it was clear that the first word was CHANGE, I wasn't quite sure what the next two letters were going to be (?). CHANGETO sounds like the arch-nemesis of "X-Men" villain Magneto. Although if CHANGETO is made entirely of change, i.e. coins, seems like Magneto might have an advantage, but only if the coins were magnetic, like the 1943 steel cent, and certain UK coins. Against ordinary US pocket change, Magneto would be powerless. CHANGETO! Copyright Rex Parker 2020! Moving on: EMBAR, yikes (16A: Put a stop to). I had the "E" and confidently wrote in ENDED. I made EMBAR the Word of the Day today, and you will notice that the three definitions Merriam-Webster.com provides begin "obsolete""archaic""obsolete," respectively. This suggests to me that no one should use this word ever. Never ever. Unless you are writing a novel about the past, or about a fellow who likes to sound smart but isn't. I could've also done without the prosperity-gospel huckster (not naming him, ultra-wealthy televangelists can rot). College football is the least interesting thing on the planet to me, sports-wise, so GINO ... well, I know I've heard the name, but I had to get the top half to guess the bottom (26D: Heisman winner Torretta). I had no idea LAGOS was the most populous city in Africa (23A: Africa's most populous city (21+ million)). Really wanted CAIRO there at first (population a mere 20.9M). Oh, I just noticed RCAS, which is unfortunate, as I never saw it while solving, and it's easily the worst thing in the grid. I'm going to go try to forget about it now. Puzzle: good. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Will Nediger

Relative difficulty: Medium (well under 5 to finish, but then another two point five minutes finding the bad square ... that's two complete checks of the Acrosses and Downs before I noticed the screw-up, bah)

THEME: FRUIT (60A: Type of food whose outsides are suggested by the outsides of 17-, 29-, 43- and 55-Across) — "outsides" of the themers are letters that spell out "outsides" of FRUIT:

Theme answers:

"SKETCHES OF SPAIN" (17A: Classic 1960 platinum-selling Miles Davis album)
PEA GRAVEL (29A: Small stones used for driveways)
ZEITGEIST (43A: Spirit of the age)
RIGHT THIS SECOND (55A: "Like ... now!")

Word of the Day: HAYAO Miyazaki (14A: Film auteur Miyazaki) —

Hayao Miyazaki (宮崎駿, Miyazaki Hayao, [mijaꜜzaki hajaꜜo]; born 5 January 1941) is a Japanese animator, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and manga artist. A co-founder of Studio Ghibli, a film and animation studio, he has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and as a maker of animated feature films, and is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished filmmakers in the history of animation. [...] Miyazaki co-founded Studio Ghibli in 1985. He directed numerous films with Ghibli, including Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Kiki's Delivery Service(1989), and Porco Rosso (1992). The films were met with critical and commercial success in Japan. Miyazaki's film Princess Mononoke was the first animated film ever to win the Japan Academy Prize for Picture of the Year, and briefly became the highest-grossing film in Japan following its release in 1997; its distribution to the Western world greatly increased Ghibli's popularity and influence outside Japan. His 2001 film Spirited Awaybecame the highest-grossing film in Japanese history, winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards and is frequently ranked among the greatest films of the 2000s. Miyazaki's later films—Howl's Moving Castle (2004), Ponyo(2008), and The Wind Rises (2013)—also enjoyed critical and commercial success. Following the release of The Wind Rises, Miyazaki announced his retirement from feature films, though he returned to work on a new feature film in 2016. (wikipedia)

• • •

We'll start with the one significant problem with this theme, which is one of these four is not like the others, and that one is "zest." There's no doubt that "zest" does indeed come from the outside of a FRUIT (commonly, a lemon or lime), but zest the other three (peel rind skin) are complete outer coverings, whereas "zest" is only the very outer layer of that covering. It's not akin to peel, it is, in fact, a subset of peel. It's part of the peel. Again, a lawyer for this puzzle will tell you that the clue only says "outside" and you can't deny blah blah blah but this is the outside of something you have already labeled as an outside and so "zest" suffers from non-equivalency, boo. Luckily, this is really the only complaint I have about this theme, which is nicely executed. Really feels like I've seen it before, but when the execution (that is to say, the actual answers you use for your FRUIT outsides) is so colorful and vivid, that's really all that matters. You can take a basic, even a fairly tired, theme-type and execute it so originally and neatly that no one will care about theme originality. If the execution's original, there you go. And every one of these themers is a shiny little answer in its own right, theme or no theme. It's always nice to have the revealer produce a genuine "aha," as this one did, but it's also important that the solving experience was enjoyable on the way to that "aha," and today, for me, for the most part, it was.

Felt bad that I got very badly crushed by HAYAO. I know Miyazaki's work reasonably well. I watched "Spirited Away" (not for the first time) just a few months ago. But it turns out I know him *only* by his last name. I knew his first name started with "H" and ended in "O," but after that I was lost. Kept wanting HIDEO, which I knew was wrong (HIDEO Nomo is a former baseball pitcher of some note ... pitched a couple no-hitters, I think). So I really struggled in NW, far more than anywhere else. Found "OH, SNAP!" (1D: Comment after a zinger) and "MAKE ME!" (2D: "You and whose army?!") pretty hard too, and EYEWEAR, oof, that's where I had my wrong square (3D: Shades and such). Before I got the EYE part, I had -EAR and decided the "and such" of the clue indicated some kind of GEAR. And then I never checked the cross. Big mistake. Ended with NEG at 20A: Green (NEW). And because NEG is a not-uncommon xword answer, I didn't register it as wrong the first time I scanned the grid for my error. None of this is the puzzle's fault. I'm just glad I knew what PEA GRAVEL was, because without that PEA, the NW would've been truly harrowing.

Really dislike the clue on OMENS, which, again, you gotta get the puzzle's lawyer involved to justify that clue. "Breaking" is singular. It refers to a singular event or to a general practice. Either way, pluralizing "mirrors" doesn't get you to OMENS. Still a singular "omen." This is an exceedingly cheap way to create confusion. It's literally a singular noun phrase, and the answer is plural. Nope. No. "Broken mirrors" = OMENS? Sure. "Breaking of mirrors" = OMENS? Extremely not. Beyond that, I had my usual "A" / "E" hesitation with DEFOE (9D: "Robinson Crusoe" novelist) despite the fact that I regularly teach "Robinson Crusoe," and I had a ton of trouble coming up with WRITHES (wanted only WRIGGLES, and as the first few letters fell into place, well, I still wanted WRIGGLES, despite the fact that it obviously didn't fit) (33D: Squirms). Most of the rest of the solve went much more smoothly. I love the expression "NO SOAP!" I've decided (50A: "Not gonna happen"). It's old-timey in a way I enjoy. Reminds me of Edward G. Robinson exclaiming "NO SOAP!" in "Double Indemnity" (1944) during his explanation of why his insurance company boss's suicide theory in the Dietrichson case is complete hogwash. Please enjoy one of the greatest monologues in movie history:

And good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Jake Halperin

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (untimed)

THEME: UNLUCKY BREAK (57A: Bad fortune ... as suggested by 19-, 30- and 47-Across?) — the number "13," which is (to some) "unlucky," is represented in the theme answers by the letter "B," which, if "broken" into two pieces, kinda resembles the number "13"— so ""13" looks like "B" broken or, to put it another way, "B" looks like "13" if its two numerals were pushed together:

Theme answers:

FRIDAY THE BTH (19A: This occurs at least once - and never more than three times - in a year)
APOLLO B (30A: Memorable launch of April 11, 1970)
OCEAN'S B (47A: 2007 heist film sequel)

Word of the Day: EZER Weizman (67A: Weizman who once headed the Israeli Air Force) —

Ezer Weizman (Hebrew: עֵזֶר וַיצְמָן‎ Ezer Vaytsman; 15 June 1924 – 24 April 2005) was the seventh President of Israel, first elected in 1993 and re-elected in 1998. Before the presidency, Weizman was commander of the Israeli Air Force and Minister of Defense. (wikipedia)

• • •

One of those themes that probably seemed like a good idea initially. But in practice, it's a thud for two reasons. First, the themers, which are not at all interesting. Two of them are just items in a numerical sequence. Bunch of Apollos. Bunch of Oceans. Here's "13." Pfft. It's a simple number swap, but the number doesn't feel particularly special. It's just one of the numbers of that thing. At least FRIDAY THE BTH is a unique thing (yes, there is a "Friday the 12th" at least once a year, but no one ever talks about that). So the number thing is just blah. Further, one of the themers *involves* the number 13's unluckiness (again, the good themer, the first themer). The others ... don't. So you've got inconsistency and wonkiness. And then the phrasing on the revealer (and its clue) doesn't quite make sense, doesn't really land. The "as suggested" by" is odd. So if I "break" the "B" in two I get an ("unlucky") "13"? But if I solved the puzzle correctly, then it's kind of hard to think of that move as "unlucky." Is it my "Bad fortune" to solve this puzzle? I mean, maybe, but that's no way to talk about your own puzzle. And again, with "13" being "unlucky" in only one of the themers, the revealer really lacks punch. "Unlucky" to whom? How? Not with a bang but a fizzle, this one.

PUN INTENDED is, by far, the best thing in this grid (3D: Parenthetical comment after an ambiguous witticism). I got thrown off the (theme) scent a little bit early on because I assumed that the answer was a themer, being so long and unusual. After I got FRIDAY THE BTH (having had at that point no idea how to get from "B" to "13") I thought maybe PUN INTENDED was going to have some weird aspect to it as well, but then all the crosses checked out and all I had to do was find a couple more "B" / "13" squares, it turns out. The grid seems solid for the most part, though the Scrabble-f'ing in the SW and SE is pretty glaring, although I guess the "Z" in the SE is from a long (good) answer, FLASH FREEZE, so it's not really gratuitous the way the "J" is. And the "J" is handled well enough. Just seeing that "J" crammed into a tiny space where it's functioning initially in both directions is triggering for me. Makes me think someone's priorities aren't straight. Or someone's idea of a good time is different from mine. But in the end, EZER is the only thing that feels truly unfortunate / crosswordesey (I couldn't name a single person who ever headed the *U.S.* Air Force, so ... yeah, no hope here. Also, Israeli prime ministers seem like very fair game; presidents (as Weizman once was), much less so). Oh, I almost forgot the absolute thing in the grid, which is POT TOP, which looks more like a typo of POP-TOP (or "pop-pop," I guess (see 63A)) than anything else (15D: Palindromic kitchen item). I think those are just called ... lids? Never heard POT TOP. I know y'all like palindromes, but know when to say when.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Patti Varol and Doug Peterson

Relative difficulty: Easy or Easy-Medium, maybe (solved methodically, early in the morning, and still came in only a shade over 5)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: Donald FAGEN (11D: Steely Dan singer Donald) —

Donald Jay Fagen (born January 10, 1948) is an American musician best known as the co-founder, lead singer, co-songwriter, and keyboardist of the band Steely Dan, formed in the early 1970s. He has also released four albums as a solo artist and in 2001 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The 2017 death of Steely Dan's co-founder Walter Beckerleft Fagen as the only remaining original member. (wikipedia)

• • •

These two! I know and love them both, and know they are friends, but I don't think I've ever seen them on the same byline, which seems bizarre. They are both veteran puzzle-makers (and editors), and they both live in the L.A. area (hence, I assume, the little GLENDALE wink in this puzzle) (36D: Los Angeles suburb bordering Griffith Park). Anyway, they are delightful and this puzzle was delightful. Friday, best day, so happy. Patti and Doug are both roughly my age (uh ... grownup age) so I'm not too surprised that I was right on this puzzle's cultural wavelength, right from the beginning. Best of all, the proper names gave me almost no trouble—it is a little name-heavy, which is the only (admittedly mild) criticism I have. Maybe FAGEN crossing NEAL might've roughed some solvers up? I don't know how that box could be anything but an "N," but still, when you cross names like that, you gotta make sure the cross is at least inferrable. Me, I own three of Donald FAGEN's solo albums and one of my good friends (mystery writer and former student of mine, Libby Cudmore) is a Steely Dan superfan. She actually gave me one of my Donald FAGEN albums—his most recent one, Stolen Condos (2012). My sister loves Steely Dan and FAGEN's solo albums too. And they say Steely Dan is just for dudes. Shrug. So FAGEN's name, easy for me, and NEAL Stephenson, same, as I just read the gigantic and slightly harrowing Fall; or Dodge in Hell last summer. I also read Snow Crash back in grad school (aka the '90s). Hey, Stephenson wrote Snow Crash, and Donald FAGEN has a song on Kamakiriad (1993) called "Snowbound," so ... Snow Crash crossing "Snowbound." This pleases me.

Grew up listening to Jim Croce (one of my dad's favorites) so "I GOT A NAME," also a piece of cake. GRETA GERWIG! Nice one. Just watched her Little Women for the first time a couple months ago. Basically everything was coming up Rex today. Some days, you get lucky.

The one name that did give me trouble was NATALIE COLE, and only because NAT KING COLE fits in the same number of boxes (56A: "Unforgettable ... With Love" Grammy recipient). I know she sang "Unforgettable" as a duet with her father, who had been dead well over two decades at that point. So because he made the song famous, and I had NAT- in place, I just automatically dropped in KING COLE. But then KING started chafing (as wrong answers will), and the "K" in particular became impossible, and then click, oh yeah, NATALIE! ("Unforgettable ... With Love" is actually the name of a Grammy-winning *album*). Only other thing I struggled at all with was CAMPY, actually (1D: Absurdly exaggerated). Needed every cross. The clue is accurate enough, it's just ... without proper context, I couldn't find my way from the clue to the answer. These things happen. I'm glad I already had the "C" in place by the time I saw the clue for MARCO (45D: One of the racing Andrettis) because I would definitely have dropped in MARIO and it would've felt *very* right ... until it wasn't. I didn't even know there *was* a MARCO, but the "C" was solid and MARCO was the only name I could make there. Again, lucky. It was a good day.

Just in case the logic escaped you:

37A: 6-9 months (SUMMER)— because 6 = June, 7= July, 8 = August
42A: Pair of skivvies? (VEES)— because there are a "pair" of VEES in the word "skivvies"

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Happy Birthday to Jay-Z, who turns 51 today.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Brendan Emmett Quigley

Relative difficulty: Medium to Medium-Challenging, depending on how well you know the work of John Le Carré (untimed)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: Bathymetry (42D: Bathymetry measurements => DEPTHS) —

Bathymetry (/bəˈθɪmətriː/) is the study of underwater depth of ocean floors or lake floors. In other words, bathymetry is the underwater equivalent to hypsometry or topography. The name comes from Greekβαθύς (bathus), "deep", and μέτρον (metron), "measure".Bathymetric (or hydrographic) charts are typically produced to support safety of surface or sub-surface navigation, and usually show seafloor relief or terrain as contour lines (called depth contours or isobaths) and selected depths (soundings), and typically also provide surface navigational information. Bathymetric maps (a more general term where navigational safety is not a concern) may also use a Digital Terrain Modeland artificial illumination techniques to illustrate the depths being portrayed. The global bathymetry is sometimes combined with topography data to yield a Global Relief Model. Paleobathymetry is the study of past underwater depths. (wikipedia)

• • •

Normally don't care for the highly-sequestered corners type of construction, but it turns out these corners were pretty easy to get into and so didn't feel like four separate puzzles, the way they can when the entry point from other parts of the grid is exceeding narrow (say, one square wide). This one kept its feeling of flow from section to section, which I like and appreciate. The NE looks like it would be the hardest to get into from the center, since you'd just have a few not very telling letters at the back ends of those long Downs to help you, but today, BARBECUE and ETAILERS were easy to pick up even with very little help from the crosses, so I just zoomed right up into that corner (although, as you can see, I "mis"spelled BARBEQUE at first pass—please note that my software is currently accepting the "wrong" spelling and redlining the "correct" spelling of this word (11D: Occasion for smoking). If I hadn't had to give into QED, no way I put a "Q" there) (30A: Letters for a proof reader) (because QED, short for quod erat demonstrandum, are letters you might see at the end of a mathematical proof). The toughest part for me was actually the entire middle of the grid. Had to work for all four of those marquee 12-letter answers that cross each other around that center black square. Frustrating. Here's a shot of the grid from the moment of peak frustration:

Felt pretty confident heading out of that NW corner, which was no trouble at all—put down MESAS (4D: Features of Hopi lands in Arizona) and then educatedly guessed GOYAS (19A: The "Black Paintings" and others), which was correct and got me IN SYNC, etc. But after that, yeesh, even getting the full front ends of those long Downs didn't help. MURDER HORNET is what happens when you make a puzzle at the peak of what turns out to be a very short-lived media phenomenon (7D: Informal name for Vespa mandarinia). Historians will be able to date the creation of this puzzle to summer 2020, is what I'm saying. I haven't thought about the MURDER HORNET since that week earlier this year when everyone (on social media) was guffawing in that "2020, amirite?" kind of way about this insect. So far had the hornet receded into my memory, that even having MURDER in place did nothing for me. The absurd Latin (I assume) taxonomical clue did nothing either. To me a Vespa is a motorbike. And GEORGE SM- ... honestly, the clue suggested totally different genres / hero types to me (21D: Long-running fictional hero who made his debut in "Call for the Dead"). I was thinking some kind of franchise-anchoring "hero," but it's just ... a spy who was in a lot of novels. This is all to say that I know very well who GEORGE SMILEY is and still did not suspect he was the answer here (at least not immediately) even when I had GEORGE SM- in place. Further, as you can see above, I had TONTO instead of TANTO (I assumed that they had found a non-Lone Ranger way to clue that word, finally). So TONTO blocked MOTHER NATURE for a bit. The other musical answer, QUARTER RESTS, I have heard of but couldn't get to from the info I had in the grid (36A: Squiggly musical symbols). So, in somewhat unexpected fashion, the puzzle was hard in the middle and easy in the corners. Weird.

Ultimately, I LIKED IT. It's very much a Saturday, and probably above average in terms of quality. Saturdays are almost always gonna feel like sloggier Fridays to me. I usually approach them with a "let's just get through this" attitude. When you put the premium on difficulty and not entertainment, the result is less enjoyable to me. Hence Friday > Saturday. But this one had more nice / original moments than most Saturdays. What's more, it had no real weak spots. Grid was solid and varied and interesting throughout.

Five more things:

5D: Dashes (off) (JETS)— wrote this in first, only ... I thought the answer was JOTS (like when you "dash (off)" a note?? Weird to have the totally wrong answer get me three correct letters including a "J"
6D: Start of some thoughts shared on social media (IMO) — wrote in IDK. I virtually never see IMO ... except in crosswords, obviously
50A: Dive (SWOOP) — off the SW-, wrote in SWOON. This left me with DENTHS for the [Bathymetry measurements]. I was very much prepared not to question it; figured it must be some horrible technical term I'd never heard of. Then I thought "no, it's *too* awful," and then I rethought the crosses and SWOOP presented itself
24D: Heebie-jeebies (JITTERS) — As you can see in the partially filled grid, above, I had JI- and still no idea this was JITTERS. To me, "heebie jeebies" is the creeps, whereas JITTERS are the shakes. The former comes more from fear of something threatening, ghostly, monstrous, Lovecraftian, the latter from, say, coffee, or anxiety / nervousness about something more quotidian. Shudder with fear, heebie-jeebies; shake with anxiety, JITTERS. That is how my brain taxonomizes this stuff, it seems.
39A: Tenor part in Donizetti's "Don Pasquale" (ERNESTO) — clue may as well have been [Some guy's name].

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Tony Orbach

Relative difficulty: Easy (near-record time ... though I had to make a blind guess for the very last square) (high 7s)

THEME:"Get Out Of Here!"— phrases that go "___ OF ___" have the "OF" removed, and then are reclued, wackily:

Theme answers:

BONE CONTENTION (23A: Archaeologist's assertion about a finding?)
STROKE GENIUS (33A: Swim team guru?)
BOOK GENESIS (40A: Hire Phil Collins's longtime band for a gig?)
PRIDE PLACE (51A: The Serengeti, e.g.?)
STREAM CONSCIOUSNESS (63A: Knowing everything that's available to view on Netflix?)
FREE CHARGE (77A: Amenity offered at an internet cafe?)
RITE PASSAGE (84A: Bit of reading at a bar mitzvah?)
COMEDY ERRORS (90A: Stand-up's bombs?)
FRAME REFERENCE (106A: Art shop worker's manual?)

Word of the Day: ISTRIA (104A: Peninsula shared by Italy, Slovenia and Croatia) —

Istria (/ˈɪstriə/ ISS-tree-ə; Croatian, Slovene: Istra; Istriot: Eîstria; Istro Romanian: Istrie, Italian: Istria; German: Istrien), formerly Histria (Latin), Ίστρια (Ancient Greek), is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Kvarner Gulf. It is shared by three countries: Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy. Croatia encapsulates most of the Istrian peninsula with its Istria County (Regione istriana in Italian). (wikipedia)

• • •

Literally the only thing I remember about this puzzle is ISTRIA. There was a theme, but it just involved the removal of "OF" from the middle of common phrases, and once I knew that, I didn't even have to look at the clues (which, in a theme that is Entirely about the ha-ha quality of the clues, is kind of a problem). I just got crosses, and once I could infer either the first or second word of the theme phrase, I could pretty easily guess the rest. Had some trouble with PRIDE PLACE, as I tried PRIDE LIONS before letting crosses get me to PLACE. But otherwise, FREE got me CHARGE w/ no looking, ERRORS got me COMEDY w/ no looking, etc. Absolutely blew through this, so fast that hardly any of it registered. And then there's ... well not "Maude," she came earlier (29D: "When the country was fallin' apart, Betsy Ross got it all ___ up" ("Maude" theme lyric)). No, then there's ... ISTRIA. Not just ISTRIA, but ISTRIA crossing ... AYS, was it? AYS? Wow. I have never heard of ISTRIA. I know I am not alone here, as many people are already echoing my "????" sentiments on Twitter. But I look at a map and see that ISTRIA exists, OK ... but that final "A," my god, that is such a rough crossing. Seems like OYS could very easily be [Exclamations of regret]. In fact, I'm much much much more used to hearing OY as an exclamation than I am to hearing AY, what the hell? ISTRIA is such an incredible outlier, familiarity-wise, vis-a-vis the rest of the puzzle, that you really should redo the corner, or at the very least do better with that final "A" cross. The other crosses were all solid and unambiguous, but I flat-out guessed on the last letter of ISTRIA. It just ... seemed like a peninsula was more likely to end in an "A" than an "O." I have no data for that. Just felt that way. Maybe that's because the only peninsula I know that fits here is IBERIA, which, by the way, is the answer my brain kept wanting, even when I kept telling it "that's Spain and Portugal, shut up!" So, there was a theme, I forget what it was, and also, ISTRIA. The end.

My friend Parker improved that SW corner in virtually no time. This is just the first thing he came up with, and it's already an improvement (in that it doesn't have ISTRIA and the rest of the answers are recognizable things):

And here, he just tweeted out another:

Sooooo ... what else? I actually think MIND BLOWN is good fill. It's an annoying cliché, but it's still got real currency and if I've seen it in grids, I haven't seen it often enough to remember it. I also thought JAM SESH was clever (1A: Impromptu musical get-together, informally). I don't think SESH was ever meant to be spelled, 'cause it truly looks horrid in print, but I like the slanginess of the phrase in general. DEAR SANTA is timely. Had some trouble getting to AUGER from 78D: Helical bit, mainly because I know AUGER (vaguely) by what it does, not what it looks like. But yes, it is spiral-shaped, since it bores, so I guess that's ... helical. Sure. Yes. I don't remember slowing down really anywhere else. Oh, I did half-hope that the NYT would get the DURAG spelling right this time. But no. We're still stuck on DO. D'oh! Oh, the GOSSIP clue was hard; I have no idea what is going on there (70A: Clishmaclaver or bavardage, to use some fancy language). I don't know why "to use some fancy language" is in there. Don't try to get winky or ironic with your fancy language. You're using it, use it. Own it. Run with it. Or get another clue. Anyway, "bavardage" is vaguely familiar, though I would've defined that ... nope, I'm thinking of "badinage," never mind. Sigh. Clishmaclaver sounds like a Dickens character. Again, no idea. But like I said, otherwise, there's almost no difficulty to this one at all. The theme made it super-easy to race through the whole thing with a minimum of hesitation. Really wish I hadn't had to end this thing on a blind guess, but you get what you get. Talk to you later.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: BARBARA LIN

Relative difficulty: MEDIUM

THEME: BRIT-ISH — Theme answers end in British words.

Theme answers:

WENT DOWN THE TUBE (17A: Travel by subway?)
CAN I GET A LIFT (27A: "Would you call the elevator for me?")
PASS THE TORCH (48A: "Hand me a flashlight"?)
CASH IN ONE'S CHIPS (63A: Use French fries as legal tender?)

Word of the Day: OSSO (62D: ____ buco) —

Ossobuco or osso buco (pronounced [ˌɔssoˈbuːko]; Milanese: òss bus [ˌɔzˈbyːs]) is a specialty of Lombard cuisine of cross-cut veal shanks braised with vegetables, white wine and broth. It is often garnished with gremolata and traditionally served with either risotto alla milanese or polenta, depending on the regional variation.^[1] The marrow in the hole in the bone, a prized delicacy, is the defining feature of the dish.^[2]^[3]

• • •

It's another August Monday! This one in December. It's getting really cold out, and it's the busy season for the bookstore! Remember to go to your local bookstore when you're buying holiday gifts. Their employees might be really tired, but that's only because it's also finals season! And they'll be more than happy to take care of you. And one of them just might write for a crossword blog!

Speaking of crosswords, the crossword. I've seen better fill, honestly, but I've definitely seen worse. No ERA this time at least. POST-OP belongs right above CAN I GET A (face) LIFT. I haven't had sushi in awhile, it would be nice to pull up a STOOL for some ROE. And really, that's about all I have to say about this one. It's a nice little Monday, but not anything particularly special.

The theme was...amusing? British-isms are definitely fun. Again, perfect for a Monday, but nothing really new. And it left me wanting fish and chips.

Bullets:

METZ (Chrissy of "This Is Us") — This was such a tough cross, I almost broke down and looked it up. Does that make me old, or young? I know nothing about "This Is Us" or its target demographic.
PESTS (9A: Mosquitoes and gnats) — My personal favorite PEST is actually a parasite! The trematode Dicrocoelium dendriticum is a kind of parasite that lives on ants and "zombifies" them at night, giving them the urge to climb on top of stalks of grass so cattle will eat them. Weird, right? Nature is amazing.
ACE IT (30D: Nail the test) — Speaking of which, wish me luck on my finals! It's more like "nail the paper" than "nail the test", but still.
DASH (37D: Dot's counterpart in Morse code) — I've been watching too much Animaniacs, because I know my mind went to "the Warner brothers" first when I saw "Dot's counterpart."

Signed, August Thompson, tired graduate student.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

[Follow August Thompson on Twitter]

Constructor: Enrique Henestroza Anguiano

Relative difficulty: Medium to slightly harder than Medium (high 3s?)

THEME: POLAR OPPOSITE (37A: One totally unlike another ... or what each answer on the edge of this puzzle has?) — pairs of edge answers are opposites in terms of meaning *and* are physically opposite one another in the grid

Theme answers:

WORK / PLAY (1A: 9-to-5 activity / 69A: Off-hours activity)
ABOVE / BELOW (5A: In heaven, say / 68A: In hell, say)
HARD / EASY (10A: Like a Saturday crossword / 67A: Like a Monday crossword)
OLD / NEW (23D: Like the year you ring out on December 31 / 43D: Like the year you ring in on January 1)
DEPART / ARRIVE (13D: Take off, as a plane / 44D: Land, as a plane)

Word of the Day: BEERY (6D: Drunken, in a way) —

1: affected or caused by beer beery voices
2: smelling or tasting of beerbeery tavern (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

Conceptually interesting, in that "opposite" plays out in two ways. I do object to POLAR, in that only ABOVE and BELOW are truly polar opposites, positionally. I also don't really like the winky crossword clues on HARD and EASY. Getting in your little self-congratulatory meta-cluing isn't worth sacrificing the clue phrasing pattern you've got going on: on hours, off hours; heaven, hell; ring out, ring in; take off, land ... but then Monday, Saturday? Those aren't "opposites." Yes, Monday *NYTXW* tend to be (relatively) easy and Saturday *NYTXW* tend to be (relatively) hard, but that pair needed a better set of clues more in keeping with the others. More oppositey. The fill is iffy in places, but mainly it's just very PLAIN. A few long Downs give it a little zazz, but those highly, highly segmented areas, yikes, it's just a bunch of sequestered short stuff. The grid shape is the easily the most irritating thing about the puzzle. Having only the tiniest of passages into the corners, particularly the NW / SE, makes the puzzle lose its sense of flow; it's no fun to have to dive into a corner that is wholly cut off and where nothing more interesting than 3- and 4-letter words are happening. But everything is the way it is to accommodate a pretty elaborate theme, and I think the thematic payoff warrants the cost in dull short fill / grid segmentation.

Having DEVIL in the grid made me want ANGEL in the grid. Also weird that DEVIL is up next to ABOVE consider ABOVE is clued as [In heaven, say] (hell, where you might expect to find the DEVIL, is down BELOW). PLAIN makes me want FANCY. MICRO, MACRO. Etc. Can of worms, this theme. Not sure why this played a little slow, but it did. Part of that was grid segmentation (really is a speed-killer for me). Part of it was theme cluing—because the clues had to follow this kind of singsongy oppositey phrasing pattern in every case, they were not always as direct or straightforward as you'd expect short answers in a puzzle to be. Then there's the clue on ITERATION, which makes no sense to me (21D: Method of successive improvement). I guess in math (?) there's some def of ITERATION that involves a sense of "improvement," but the basic def of ITERATION has zero to do with "improvement." It's just a repetition, or a (new) version or incarnation. Improvement not implied. So, yuck. Also, I had ITERATING at first, which made the SW corner icky to get into. Took me a bit to get SOTOSPEAK because I didn't have the first letters, because (again) of the grid segmentation. I could've just jumped up into the NE corner and tried to solve my way back out, but, again, I like flow. I hate just jumping into a corner where I've got nothing if I don't have to. Clue on EST was baffling to me (32A: Gare de l'___, Paris railway station). Spelled DITZY with a (correct) "Z" and not the much dumber "S" (50D: Bubbleheaded). No major trouble. A very plausible Tuesday experience overall.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Owen Travis and Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: LIMBO (64A: Contest described by 19-, 30/41- and 51-Across)— common phrases which also describe what you do when you LIMBO:

Theme answers:

SET THE BAR LOW (19A: Establish a standard that's easy to reach)
BEND OVER / BACKWARD (30A: With 41-Across, make every effort to be accommodating)
UNDERACHIEVE (51A: Not meet expectations)

Word of the Day: Veronica ROTH (6D: "Divergent" author Veronica) —

Veronica Anne Roth (born August 19, 1988) is an American novelist and short story writer, known for her debut New York Times bestselling Divergent trilogy, consisting of Divergent, Insurgent, and Allegiant; and Four: A Divergent Collection. (wikipedia)

• • •

Mike LEE (36A: Utah senator Mike) is a dishonest, dishonorable defender of fascism, a full-throated supporter of the *out*going president. Currently, today, Mike LEE is working to undermine the US electoral system. He won't acknowledge that Biden won the November presidential election and is actively supporting court cases that push the idea of (non-existent) voter fraud. He is actively, currently, today, trying to pass a bill to punish social media for (non-existent) "anti-conservative bias." There are, what, tens of millions of LEEs in the world? Surely one of them would make a better clue than this guy, who, I repeat, is garbage. Dishonest. He acts in bad faith, against the interests of the country, against the integrity of the government, every day of his life. The only defense for having Mike LEE in this puzzle is that, like the LIMBO, I associate Mike LEE with the question "How low can you go?" I don't resent the so-called "conservatism." I resent the fraud, the dishonesty, the extreme bad-faith arguments ... which have now become synonymous with contemporary American conservatism.

This puzzle doesn't really evoke the LIMBO that well, mostly because there is nothing evoking a bar, except SET THE BAR LOW, which ... is set very *high* in the grid, and at any rate does not visually represent a bar. You get a dad-joke pun with the final theme answer (UNDERACHIEVE, hardy har, knee slap), so if you're into that, there you go. And the themers do comprise a kind of orderly process, setting the bar, bending over backwards, going under, 1, 2, 3, and so the execution makes a kind of sense. But it just wasn't very LIMBOy for me. Also, I think of it as having a definite article in front of it when it's the "contest": *the* LIMBO. You can LIMBO, I think, so it can be a verb, but as a noun, I think you do *the* LIMBO. I've never heard anyone say "let's play LIMBO." The first thing I wrote in that slot, not really thinking about all the themers I'd written in already, was LOTTO. For me, LIMBO is a place in hell. Virgil and all the "virtuous pagans" live there, if you believe Dante, which I have been known to do, though my belief relates more to ideas of good and evil, truth and lies, than the doctrines of medieval Christianity or the literalness of hell. Here's the thing about Dante's "Inferno" that has stuck with me most: You know who Dante puts at the bottom of hell, in levels 8 and 9, beneath even the murderers? It's the fraudulent. The fraudulent and the treasonous. Which, hey, brings us back to Mike LEE again. Maybe he does belong in this puzzle after all ...

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Jack Murtagh

Relative difficulty: Easy (untimed, but only the (initially) inexplicable themers posed a significant challenge)

THEME: Element-ary! — themer clues have to be reimagined as [Chemical symbol] + [remaining letters in the clue]; thus:

Theme answers:

SILICON CHIP (16A: Siding?) ("Si" = symbol for SILICON, "ding" = CHIP)
OXYGEN SUPPLY (27A: Oration?) ("O" = symbol for OXYGEN, "ration" = SUPPLY)
IRON MAN (36A: Female?) ("Fe" = symbol for IRON, "male" = MAN)
SILVER BULLET (43A: Aground?) ("Ag" = symbol for SILVER, "round" = BULLET (think ammo))
CARBON-DATED (57A: Cold?) ("C" = symbol for CARBON, "old" = DATED)

Word of the Day: URIAH Heep (25A: ___ Heep, David Copperfield rival) —

Uriah Heep is a fictional character created by Charles Dickens in his 1850 novel David Copperfield. Heep is one of the main antagonists of the novel. His character is notable for his cloying humility, unctuousness, obsequiousness, and insincerity, making frequent references to his own "'umbleness". His name has become synonymous with sycophancy. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well, there was no [Clicking sound?]. Never got an AHA out of this one. Not while I was solving, anyway. This one played like an easy, Tuesday-ish puzzle with five absolutely random, may-as-well-have-been-unclued long answers plunked down in the middle of it. I just waited for the themers to look like actual phrases and then filled them in. Didn't bother to stop (for more than a few seconds) to think about how I was supposed to get from the clue to the answer. Figured the more I solved, the more it would become clear, but it never did. It only took me about thirty seconds, probably, after I was finished to figure out the theme, which ... thank god. If I finish the puzzle and have no idea what was going on theme-wise, the clock is ticking, and the longer it ticks, the more enjoyment ebbs out. Luckily I caught this one soon enough to be impressed by the cluing cleverness. I'm never going to adore a puzzle where the *entirety* of its interestingness is in the clue writing, but as that type of puzzle goes, this seems a fine example. I am quite aware, however, that much of the reason I am able to appreciate what the puzzle is trying to do is because the puzzle was a. very easy to handle, and b. not laden with gunk fill. If a puzzle is doable and the grid is polished, the puzzle has a lot of leeway to get loopy with the theme. If you allow me to get through it without grueling effort and you don't throw garbage in my face along the way, I will follow where you lead.

Unsurprisingly, the hardest part of the puzzle for me happened around the oddest theme phrase: CARBON-DATED. I still don't know if it's an adjective or verb. I am going with adjective. Before I figured out the theme (but after I'd finished the puzzle) my first thought was "oh, CARBON-DATED, that's one letter off from "carbonated," maybe that's something ..." (it wasn't). Anyway, the DATED part was hard for me, especially the last letter. Since the clue on it meant nothing to me at that point, I was just trying to make a real phrase. CARBON ... DATES? DATER? It's clear now that DATED is the best option, but you see, that "D" runs through the hardest clue in the entire puzzle: 52D: A constant celebration? (PI DAY). Because "Pi" is a constant and you "celebrate" it (really, do you?) on Mar. 14 (i.e. 3/14 i.e. 3.14 ugh it's so dumb). Anyway, at first pass I ended up with PISAY in that slot. Checked all the crosses, realized the "S" was the problem, ta da. End of puzzle. Beyond that, my only missteps were writing in SAUDIS before SOMALI (14A: Like some residents on the Gulf of Aden) and writing in EAR CANDY before EAR CANAL (22A: Sound track?). No SAUDIS on the Gulf of Aden unless they're visiting Yemen, which ... ugh, let's not go there today (or, what the hell, go there if you like). Not too thrilled that something that looks like a themer (8-letter Across) and has a "?" clue like the other themers ended up Not being a themer. Unnecessary confusion, bad editing. Made it weird when I got to TALK SHOP and ... no "?" clue (49A: Discuss work outside of work, say). But this didn't hold me up too much, so no big deal. Best wrong guess on the themers (which, again, I had to build entirely from crosses, having no idea how the clues worked): I had the -VERBU- in the middle of 43A: Aground? and the first plausible thing my brain rolodexed to was GO OVER BUDGET. SILVER BULLET is better.

Favorite answer today was SMELL TEST, and this puzzle passed it. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Ari Richter

Relative difficulty: Mediumish? (cluing seemed to be trying really (too) hard to be tricksy, but puzzle was still pretty pliable)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: MOONQUAKE (3D: Phenomenon discovered by Apollo astronauts) —

: a seismic event on the moon (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

I liked this grid pretty well, but the cluing ... for the first 1/4 of the solve, I found it incredibly irritating, with clue after clue just trying oh so hard to confuse you by using words in unexpected ways, which, yes, is what crossword clues do on the hard days, but it's a matter of degree. There were three clues all bunched up that were doing awkward things with "it" or "something." [Can you believe it?] = TENET? Yuck. That "?" clue needs a "?" clue, so tenuous is the connection here. Why are you asking me? What TENET? There is no context for this. A TENET is something you believe, great, but the interrogative here is a nightmare. Then, "it" again: [It requires some assembly] = QUORUM. At least that one isn't ridiculous, but still. You try to make me think of some furniture or something but it's not, yes, ha ha, good one. Then "something": [Something about which you might say "It's good!"] = EXTRA POINT. This is the best of the three, but I still felt like I was in a child's book of riddles with this one. Speaking of child, POTTY HUMOR, ew, what? My "ew" is for the infantilizing use of "potty"—if the clue doesn't indicate that you are specifically talking to a child, then the clue is off-putting ... like adults who use the word "potty" with anyone other than children. Also, I'm trying to see how you get from "crack" to POTTY. Is this supposed to be about butt cracks, aka plumber's cracks, i.e. the cleft in the upper buttocks? There's nothing POTTY about the mere fact of a butt crack. If this is some other "crack," then I don't know. Can't be drugs, that is even less POTTY. See, this is what happens when you want so bad to be the king of wordplay that you have lost all perspective.

Struggled with DAMP (1A: Still on the line) (again, clue designed to look like it's about the phone, or maybe fishing, but no ... drying clothes ... which, honestly, there is no necessary connection between being DAMP and being "still on the line"; dry clothes are often (always?) "still on the line"). Struggled with WOOT (the clue desperately needs the word "online" somewhere) (17A: Informal cheer). Another pat-myself-on-the-back-for-my-cleverness clue on STAY (9D: Command that one shouldn't follow). Ah you thought "that" was a relative pronoun well what an idiot you are. It's a conjunction, sucker. So fun :(

Had CITY at the bottom of 21D: Penguin's home and struggled mightily to remember the nickname for Pittsburgh. Charm City ... nope, Baltimore. Rip City ... Portland. Gah. But then the Penguin wasn't a hockey player from Pittsburgh—he was a Batman villain. I never think of Gotham as anything but Gotham, but technically GOTHAM CITY is correct. Weirdly, I later encountered a very similar-sounding clue, 35A: A home?, that was, in fact, about a member of a sports team (MLB's A's play in OAKLAND). No idea who the HONORÉ person was (43D: French printmaker ___ Daumier). Just inferred a French name after I got some crosses. Had IN A SECOND and IN A MOMENT before IN A MINUTE because of course I did, that's exactly how that is always going to go (31D: Shortly). LEMONADES before LEMON ICES (32D: Cool summer treats).

Really loved DON'T GET ANY IDEAS (always good to stick the landing with those marquee answers), as well as PET TURTLE (no idea why I like this, but I do). INONEGO (38A: Without stopping) and STJAMES (40D: Name on an orange Monopoly property) have funny letter combinations if you aren't parsing them right, so I like them too. The grid is very clean and polished, which I appreciate. Its (cluing) voice was not at all to my taste, but it still seems like a very respectable Friday effort.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Spanish resort island to locals / MON 11-23-20 / Pink-flowering shrub / Horror film villain with knife / Locale of Oakland and Alameda

Turquoise or Topaz / TUES 11-24-20 / Henna and others / Bobs and weaves / Billboard magazine feature

1986 celebrity autobiography / WED 11-25-20 / Indian state along the Himalayas / Herbal drink full of antioxidants / Concerns for Cinderella and her stepsisters

Operating system from Bell Labs / THU 11-26-20 / 1992 biopic starring Jack Nicholson / Early TV network that competed with NBC and CBS / Precursor of rocksteady / 2019 voice role for Beyoncé

Classic British rock group/FRI 11-27-20/Pioneering Reggae artist whose name is an exclamation/1000 in the military/Spot removers/Discoveries of Michael Faraday/

Beer purchase in large bottle informally / SAT 11-28-20 / Liquido vital / '80s work wear with shoulder pads / Fabled beneficiary of nap / Air traveler in early winter

Nicolas standout player in soccer's Premier League / SUN 11-29-20 / Brand of cologne with literary name / Cloth used in theater backdrops / Compulsive thieves informally / Dancer with glowsticks often / Supporting musician in jazz band

Leafs-watching time maybe / MON 11-30-20 / Restaurant chain known for its coffee doughnuts / Corporate shuffle for short / Early challenge overcome by Joe Biden

Classic 1980s space warfare video game / TUE 12-1-20 / Heisman winner Torretta / Ollie's partner in old comedy / South American palm cultivated for its fruit / Automotive brand with oval logo

Rapper who forms one half of duo Black Star / WED 12-2-20 / Channel that became Spike TV / Film auteur Miyazaki / Classic 1960 platinum-selling Miles Davis album

Memorable launch of April 11, 1970 / THU 12-3-20 / College named after a Scottish island / 2007 heist film sequel / Parenthetical comment after an ambiguous witticism

Los Angeles suburb bordering Griffith Park / FRI 12-4-20 / 6-9 months / 1986 sci-fi film sequel / Trees symbolizing death in Celtic culture / Survivor at the end of Hamlet / Brand for determining if you're expecting

Tenor part in Donizetti's Don Pasquale / SAT 12-5-20 / Comics character with pug nose / Informal name for Vespa mandarinia / Nickname for a man whose name means merciful / Squiggly musical symbols

Japanese sash / MON 12-7-2020 / Pouty expression / Insurance giant / Letters after nus

French conductor Boulez / TUE 12-8-20 / Where the sheep is in Little Boy Blue / Gare de l' Paris railway station / Complete stranger slangily / Bird whose beak inspired Darwin's theory of evolution / Venomous snakes with zigzag patterns on their backs / Fancy notebook brand

Mideast port that was home to Sinbad the sailor / WED 12-9-20 / Remnant of an oceanic volcano / Utensil farthest left in a five-piece place setting / One taking a bow for getting couples together

Podcast host Maron / THU 12-10-20 / Grassy plain of Southwest / Discussed over Slack say / Main squeeze in modern lingo

French printmaker Daumier / FRI 12-11-20 / Ziff antagonist on The Simpsons / Shrubland sight / Point on a vane in Spain / Feel the onetime political slogan / Phenomenon discovered by Apollo astronauts / drop British sweet treat / Set of awards won by John Legend and Rita Moreno for short