Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle

Constructor: Bruce Haight

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: DEVIOUS (45D: Tricky ... or a tricky description of 18-, 29-, 36-, 48- and 59-Across)— two-word answers where first word starts with "D" and second with "V" (get it? wordplay!)

Theme answers:

DEATH VALLEY (18A: Lowest point for Americans?)
DODGE VIPER (29A: American-made sports car with a V-10 engine)
DEEP VOICE (36A: Bass, e.g.)
DARTH VADER (48A: Film character who says "Give yourself to the dark side")
DEMO VERSION (59A: Prototype, maybe)

Word of the Day: ORONYMS (46D: Words and phrases that sound approximately alike, like "ice scream" and "I scream") —

A word or phrase that sounds the same as another word or phrase.
The toponym of a mountain (wiktionary)

• • •

D + V ... DEE VEE-ous ... Sure, OK. It's a very thin concept that feels like it belongs on a Monday, but it's a cutesy bit of wordplay that functions as an acceptably playful little revealer, so fine. Totally inoffensive at a minimum, clever if you're being very generous. The theme answers aren't terribly interesting, as they are simply D.V. phrases that fit symmetrically into the grid (not like there are a ton of good ones to choose from), but the mid-length fill (the 7s in the corners) are decent. Varied, colloquial, unforced. I enjoyed "I'LL BITE,""SAY WHEN, ADOPT ME, etc. But honestly the only thing I remembered about the puzzle when I'd finished, the only part that made itself felt in any way, was the SE corner, where a. I figured out the theme via DEVIOUS, and b. I ran into ORONYMS, a word so wildly out of place on a Tuesday that I had to check all the crosses just to make sure I hadn't screwed something up. If you thought maybe 53A: From the beginning: Lat. was DE NOVA ... well, you might've had a small problem there, especially if you (as seems quite possible) didn't know what ORONYMS were. The word was so strange that I thought for sure it had something to do with the theme (which I hadn't bothered to try to figure out yet). If DEVIOUS hadn't been right next door, I might've persisted in that mistaken thought for a while (seems a better physical location for a revealer than the one occupied by DEVIOUS, frankly).

Only hold-ups, besides ORONYMS was NO CAN DO, which I had to shoot through with crosses before I recognized it (3D: "Sorry, Charlie!"), and then EVIE (26D: ___ Wilcox, daughter in E. M. Forster's "Howard's End"). I read "Howard's End" several years ago, but remember very little about it—certainly none of the character names. I wrote in BEDEW before BLEAR (65A: Dim with tears). Perhaps one day I will run into this puzzle's evil twin, ODIOUS. Peace ~~OATOTT~~ OUT!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor: Stu Ockman

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (disconnected sections + classic names = ?)

THEME: THE TIES THAT BIND (56A: Shared beliefs ... like this puzzle's circled four-letter words) — circled words are things you can "bind" with, and they MAKE CONNECTIONS (17A: Network) between the upper and lower sections to the center section (which is otherwise free-floating)

The binds:

ROPE
LACE
WIRE
CORD

Word of the Day: LENE (16A: Voiceless consonant like "b" or "p") —

[I honestly can't even find a good definition of this online ... they're all circular and weird an unhelpful. If I google [lene voiceless], almost all I get are crossword sites... I mean, look:

Noun
(plural lenes)
(phonetics) The smooth breathing (spiritus lenis).
(phonetics) Any of the lene consonants, such as p, k, or i (Greek pi, kappa, tau). (yourdictionary.com)

• • •

Once this was done, I noticed the gimmick and thought, "Oh, clever." But while I was solving, hoo boy, "clever" was not the word on my mind. The concept here is lovely but the execution is brutal. The fill was rough and dated all over. Everywhere. The worst part for me was flat-out guessing LENE (all the crosses checked, which is the only way I got even a single letter of that answer) and then discovering that the *only* reason LENE was even in the grid (I assume) was that PLIERS / LENE could not be turned to PRIERS / RENE because (astonishingly) PRIER was already in the grid (?) (28D: Inquisitive one) (28D: Inquisitive one). It just feels like whole corners should've been torn down and rebuilt. And the center in particular is really rough. PULLA? ALTAI? WIS? YOS? ALLEWIS!?!?! This was very unpleasant to solve. Discovering the theme at the end was kind of sad—no reason this concept couldn't have been executed smoothly.

Soooo many pop culture names. I've never seen "Frozen" or "Real Housewives of Atlanta," so this didn't start so well for me, what with HANS (1A: Prince in "Frozen") crossing SHEREE (?) (4D: Whitfield of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta") in the NW. Please don't try to sell me on SHEREE's being good or modern or whatever. It's here because it's 5/6 super-common letters (a good sign that a grid section is under considerable stress). Then there's the bully in "Calvin & Hobbes" (forgot him) (MOE), some character from "Veep" (GARY), Grandpa forkin' Munster (ALLEWIS), EDIE Sedgwick. ANNETTE Bening is legit famous (12D: Actress Bening), but the rest of those names are varying degrees of rough. It's not any one of them that's the issue—it's just that there are so many of them. And then two "old" or "classic" gas brands in the same corner!? (AMOCO / ESSO). To say nothing of the ordinary crosswordese that abounds (SRTA, DER, ONCD,two kinds of ELY/I, ORI (?), ADO, RADII, ETA, RATA, DYS, HIE). This might've been interesting and doable as a Sunday puzzle concept, with more sections to bind, more binders, etc., and then much more room for the grid to breathe.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor: Erik Agard

Relative difficulty: Medium (Easy, w/ hardness around the proper nouns, maybe)

THEME:"HOLLYWOOD / SHUFFLE" (57A: With 61-Across, 1987 Robert Townsend satire ... or a hint to deciphering four clues in this puzzle) — actors' names are clued via a "shuffling" (i.e. anagram) of their names:

Theme answers:

MEG RYAN (18A: Germany)
TAYE DIGGS (19A: Steady gig)
ANSEL ELGORT (33A: Ernest Gallo)
MARISA TOMEI (43A: "It's-a me, Mario!") (wow, slow clap for that one)

Word of the Day:"HOLLYWOOD SHUFFLE" —

Hollywood Shuffle is a 1987 satirical comedy film about the racial stereotypes of African Americans in film and television. The film tracks the attempts of Bobby Taylor to become a successful actor and the mental and external roadblocks he encounters, represented through a series of interspersed vignettes and fantasies. Produced, directed, and co-written by Robert Townsend, the film is semi-autobiographical, reflecting Townsend's experiences as a black actor when he was told he was not “black enough” for certain roles. (wikipedia)

• • •

This is a funny puzzle, because at its core, the theme is almost ridiculously basic. It's just an anagram puzzle. Clues are anagrams of answers. Who the hell cares? Well, if you can nail the revealer, such that you can adequately answer the question "Who the hell cares?" (or at least "Why?"), and if your anagram clues are interesting / ridiculous enough, and your grid is clean enough, then yeah, your ultra-basic concept can actually fly. I was in college when "HOLLYWOOD SHUFFLE" came out and remember it well; plus, I watched almost every major motion picture from 1987 back in 2012 (I do weird, year-long things like that sometimes), so the movie is relatively fresh in my memory. There will be many solvers who have never heard of it, just as there will be many who either haven't heard of or, for the life of them, can't remember how to spell ANSEL ELGORT (the star of "Baby Driver" (2017)). I hate-loved seeing his name because I am among those who know who he is but will never, ever remember his name. He was in some teen thing that my daughter knows about ("The Fault in Our Stars," the Divergent series), and so I love torturing her by absolutely butchering his name. Athol Endswort? Engelbert Ampersand? But the truth is, I honestly *can't* remember what it is, and Eggbeard Athelstan sounds just as plausible as ANSEL ELGORT to me.

I am generally opposed to mining a show like "Game of Thrones" for every name its got because it's a cheap way to get bad fill into the grid. Also, I don't watch "Game of Thrones," and resent being asked to know stuff about it time and time again (can I get some clues about "Better Call Saul" or "Atlanta" or "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," please?). Anyway, ELIA (2D: ___ Martell, "Game of Thrones" princess) was a mystery, as was TAYE DIGGS for a while (until I realized what was going on). So starting out was slightly rough, but the fill around those answers was all very easy, so off I went. Only two real struggles. First, I wrote in RAMS and ARAPAHO ... then second-guessed everything when I couldn't figure out how 7D: Total arithmetically could fit the -R- pattern. SUM or ADD, I thought (it's ARE). Then I didn't know 6A: Month before Shawwal and of course there was the still enigmatic [Germany] (MEG RYAN), so I froze a little. Also wanted the Elisabeth on the Rolling Stone cover to be SHUE (my go-to "s"-spelling Elisabeth after Elisabeth Sanxay Holding (look her up!)) (21A: Actress Elisabeth who's been on the cover of Rolling Stone, ironically ... is a great clue). Also don't really understand NON- as a prefix for "denial" (?). So slower up there than I would've liked, and slow again in the SW, where I couldn't see OFFER (50D: Word that becomes its own synonym if you add "pr" to the front) or WHIT (55D: Tiny amount) and guessed SUN for LYE (62D: Burn cause). Two Acrosses down there were cross-referenced, adding to the slowness. But as I say, this was mostly easy everywhere else.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. AM RADIO (63A: Band not known for music?) was definitely known for music at one point, so that clue was weird

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Constructor: Brendan Emmett Quigley

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: ELDON (42A: Iowa town where Grant Wood's "American Gothic" is set) —

Eldon is a city in Wapello County, Iowa, United States. The population was 927 at the 2010 census. Eldon is the site of the small Carpenter Gothic style house that has come to be known as the American Gothic Housebecause Grant Wood used it for the background in his famous 1930 painting American Gothic. (wikipedia)

• • •

ZIPPER / IPA / NARUTO / ELTON / ROOM ... is what I would've done in the west.

As of 2017, Naruto is the third best-selling manga series in history, selling more than 220 million copies worldwide in 35 countries outside Japan. It has become one of Viz Media's best-selling manga series; their English translations of the volumes have appeared on USA Today and The New York Times bestseller list several times, and the seventh volume won a Quill Award in 2006. Reviewers praised the manga's character development, strong storylines, and well-executed fight scenes, though some felt the fight scenes slowed the story down. Critics noted that the manga, which has a coming-of-age theme, makes use of cultural references from Japanese mythology and Confucianism. (EMPHASIS MINE)

I mean I literally would've done *anything* to get ELDON (???) out of there. Also, SCENEII is meaningless without an Act number (59A: When Caesar says "Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look"). I mean, I assume the clue means Act I, SCENE II, but you'd never just say SCENEII to refer to happenings in a Shakespearean play. That said, I found this puzzle immensely entertaining and just the right level of difficulty—pugnacious, but not grueling. Tons and tons of "?" clues (or so it seemed), and yet none of them made me want to throw my computer across the room. I don't think [High-minded sort?] is great for AVIATOR because there's not a great connection between "minded" and flying, but it was easy enough to get. I kinda like [Scare quote?] for BOO. "Quoth the raven, 'BOO'!" Speaking of Poe, as you can see from the posted grid, above, my last square was in that damned "TO HELEN" poem, which I don't know at all (61A: 1831 Poe work). Poe has a bevy of poems that one might see in a grid. "Ulalume,""Annabel Lee,""Lenore" ... in the olden days, "Eulalie." And now apparently this one, which I'm sure is not new to the NYT, I just couldn't remember it.

EMPHASIS MINE is fantastic (19A: [Can you believe they wrote this?!]). Puzzle is worth it for that answer alone. I know SQUAT THRUSTS but not SQUAT JUMPs (20D: Exercise started by crouching), but no matter; I could piece it together. LATE CALL is also nice, though I hesitated after LATE because LATE FLAG is a thing in (American) football (11D: It may come long after the play). Biggest slowdown for me (or one of them) was SETS ABOUT for 6D: Aspires to do something (SETS A GOAL). The "O" worked (from BOLA), and so I got bogged down and only worked my way out because of PLURAL (39A: What "they" can only be, to grammar sticklers) (sticklers are losing this one, btw).

["Stop your messin' around"]

OK I'm off to the gym, hopefully not to do SQUAT JUMPs. Mwah.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Finn Vigeland

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: Finn's adoration of the creator of "Hamilton" ... or, none

Word of the Day: THESSALY (17D: Region near Mount Olympus) —

Thessaly (Greek: Θεσσαλία, Thessalía; ancient Thessalian: Πετθαλία, Petthalía) is a traditional geographicand modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia (Greek: Αἰολία, Aíolía), and appears thus in Homer's Odyssey.
Thessaly became part of the modern Greek state in 1881, after four and a half centuries of Ottoman rule. Since 1987 it has formed one of the country's 13 regions^[2] and is further (since the Kallikratis reform of 2010) sub-divided into 5 regional units and 25 municipalities. The capital of the region is Larissa. Thessaly lies in central Greece and borders the regions of Macedonia on the north, Epirus on the west, Central Greece on the south and the Aegean Sea on the east. The Thessaly region also includes the Sporadesislands. (wikipedia)

• • •

My first thought on opening the puzzle was, "Why ... is this themeless 16-wide? Oh, god, it's not *themed*, is it? Please god no..." My second thought was, "Oh, god ... 15 stacks are (often) bad enough, but 16 stacks?" My third thought was "woo hoo, ORGAN, nailed it!" (1A: Player in a baseball stadium). I don't remember the thought order from there. I've never seen a Revealer in a themeless puzzle before, but LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA (29A: Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama) functioned precisely that way, giving me a huge aha moment, as I suddenly realized why the damn grid was 16 wide: Finn's tremendous love for Mr. Miranda. And a. why not? and b. he's certainly not alone there. It's slightly adorable, this puzzle. It's also just very solid, stem to stern, with some really delightful moments (not MOs, though, dear god who says that!?!?!) (11A: "Hold on ___!" => A MO). I somehow struggled all over the place *and* finished in a better-than-average time. Weird.

OK, SO I had trouble with OK, SO, for sure, especially the "K," as, despite the fact that I listened to "Serial" three years ago or whenever that was, I totally forgot Sarah KOENIG's name. Also the "G" was no help with GENET (embarrassingly) (3D: French novelist/dramatist associated with the Theater of the Absurd). My brain kept going "try GODOT!" while my second brain kept going "shut up, first brain!" Spelled NIHAU thusly. Had no idea what two-letter word followed STOOD (23A: Went to bat (for)). Never ever ever heard of GOLDEN PEN. So there was flailing, but I got out OK, and as soon as I saw that 29A clue, I knew the answer and had a crucial, central base of operations from which to solve the rest of the puzzle. Still, forgot LIZ was anyone's "boss" on "30 Rock" and so kept trying to remember Jack's name, and since I had the "L" all I could come up with was LEO, which is somebody's boss's name, right? Maybe on "West Wing" or something (never watched it). Threw down MYNAHS for MACAWS (34D: Colorful birds), so that hurt, but not as bad as throwing down SWISHER for SWIFFER (45A: Big name in mops). Yikes. That one nearly destroyed me in the SE, where I could see neither FLIED nor FOCAL. That NICOLE clue was no help, either (58A: Wife in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Tender Is the Night"). SW was pleasantly pliable. Not too thrilled about the "ha-ha, alcoholism is hilarious" clue onDTS (36D: Letters that come before AA?), but overall I found this immensely entertaining.

Most improbable solving success came when I went at the northern section via successive short Downs and ... got All Of Them Wrong. Starting with 6D, I went LAG / SEAR / MOMA / ABIT. No / No / No / No. And *yet*, the "R" from (wrong) SEAR helped me see REDEEMER (22A: Jesus, with "the"), and I managed to correct everything from there. Lucky. Dumb lucky. OK, bye!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor: Matt Ginsberg

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: PARONOMASIA — this is a word that means "play on words; pun" ... I don't know if PARONOMASIA is supposed to sound like something else, or ... what. The theme answers appear to be oronyms, which is a word I just learned from the crossword a few days ago ("a string of words or a phrase that sounds the same as another string of words or phrase, but is spelt differently")

Theme answers:

ORCHESTRATES (orca straits)
LOCOMOTION (Lowe commotion)
LOCKSMITH (lox myth)
GROUPIES (grew peas)
GERIATRICIAN (Jerry attrition)
WHEATIES (wee tees)
BORDEAUX (bore dough)
MOUSETRAPS (Mao straps)
IDEALOGUES (idea logs) (isn't the word "ideologues"?)
STRATOSPHERE (stratus fear)
MISTLETOE (missile tow)
DULCIMER (dull simmer)
PROFITEERING (prophet earring)
PHARMACIST (farm assist)

Word of the Day: EDH (4D: Old English letter) —

noun
noun: edh
an Old English letter, ð or Ð, representing the dental fricatives T͟H and TH. It was superseded by the digraph th, but is now used as a phonetic symbol for the voiced dental fricative T͟H in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) system. (google)

• • •

So, these Sunday numbers just got worse:

["Did Rex Parker like the puzzle?"]

I have no idea why it is so hard to make a decent Sunday puzzle, but it sure seems to be. This was a death march. Just a horrible, painful idea that Would Not End. Imagine thinking you were going to make it better by *adding* theme answers—as many as you can, crossing each other, in every nook and cranny. "Idea logs? Hilarious!" quips someone I cannot imagine. "Jerry attrition" is as close to clever as these paranomawhatevers ever come, and nothing else about the grid is even remotely endearing. I got some mail in January that essentially said "you should lighten up on the Sunday puzzles." No. No. Sundays should lighten up on me. This is abuse. The marquee puzzle has become a joke. Again, I refer you to Evan Birnholz's WaPo Sunday Crossword, which even on a so-so day is better than this. Why don't more people recognize this objective reality? (marketing, inertia, blah blah blah, I actually know the answers here, but it's still annoying).

[SAIL, HO!] [??]

Can't you do this crap with tons of words. From this grid alone: DINETTES (dye nets?); SENILE (scene aisle?); O'CASEY (okay, see...?); ARLENE (are lean?); RAMBO (ram beau?). Etc. The theme stuff is sooooo dense that none of the rest of the puzzle can breathe. The grid is strangulated by theme overgrowth. An invasive species of theme. Theme kudzu. It's an ecotastrophe. I could assail the overly common and crosswordesey stuff in this grid, but why bother? It's a bust. A total bust. Gonna go watch some minor Olympic sports to wash the taste of this puzzle out of my brain. Before you go saying "oh, you're getting so negative blah blah blah," I liked Thursday and Friday and Saturday a whole lot, and my puzzle approval trendline is actually up this year, and markedly so.

So there.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor: Michael Black

Relative difficulty: normal Monday

THEME: CARDHOLDER (59A: One with credit ... or a literal hint to 17-, 27- and 44-Across) — answers "hold" credit "card" names:

Theme answers:

"ELVIS AND ME" (17A: Best-selling autobiography by Priscilla Presley)
OAXACA, MEXICO (27A: State capital ESE of Guadalajara)
DISCO VERSION (44A: Many a 1970s remix)

Word of the Day: ERIC Burdon (47A: Rock's Clapton or Burdon) —

Of all the British Invasion singers, Eric Burdon had the most physically imposing voice. When he burst onto the scene in 1964, his voice was "big and dark," says Steve Van Zandt. "He invented the genre of the white guy singing low." Nor was the depth of Burdon's pitch lost on Steven Tyler when he first heard Burdon sing "The House of the Rising Sun": "I thought, 'Aha! You start off the song an octave lower so you can flambé the tail end of it an octave higher.'" After his run of hits with the Animals ("It's My Life,""Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood") ended, Burdon showed he could handle Seventies funk during his stint in War, recording the torrid "Spill the Wine" and a souled-out version of "Tobacco Road." (RollingStone.com)

• • •

What, no PLUM ASTER CARDINAL?

This is straightforward and fine. I have no strong feelings about it. Very few themers, but they do what they're supposed to do, consistently, and the revealer is, you know, apt, so it works. TOGAED is pretty bad, and something about spelling out OKAY in "IT'S OKAY" is rubbing me the wrong way. I-TEN spelled out like that is never a winner. And overall the thing is a bit proper noun-heavy. SAWII at 1-Across was not a great beginning—that is a crutch of an answer, and it's up with other proper nouns INI, ALLIE, WIE, ELVIS, SEDAKA, EDNA, CADY, AJAX, OJAY, OPERAMAN (note: few of these are *recent* proper nouns). None of these are objectionable (except INI). I'm just trying to figure out why the vibe of this puzzle wasn't more pleasant. Themers were harder than normal to get because, again, proper nouns. Didn't know the "ELVIS AND ME" autbio (1985), needed many crosses to see OAXACA (and didn't expect the MEXICO part at all), and could not fathom the word that came after DISCO. And yet ... there's nothing wrong here. Totally adequate. Gets a pass.

Would've been nice to have had a bouncier grid, given how light the theme was. Grid is mostly familiar 4- and 5-letter stuff, which rarely results in bounce. Haven't been through a car wash in forever and thought the [Machine near the end of a car wash] might be a WIPER. Thought the horror sequel of 2005 might be "SAW VI" or "SAW IV" or "SAW however they made of those." I never saw (...) any of them. Wrote in FADED for FAINT (64A: Barely visible, as a star) and A BIT for ABUT (11D: Touch) (I think I was thinking in the sense of "just a touch..."). Couldn't remember if it was LAU or LAO (61D: "7 Faces of Dr. ___" (1964 film)) (another dated proper noun). So I muddled through it, but my time was pretty normal. "High muckety-muck" for ADEXEC? I know what it means, but I think the last person I heard say it was Mr. C on "Happy Days." So weird (and, again, dated). Anyway, time for curling. Oh, and please enjoy the most bizarre fridge magnet yet:

(two of my more creative readers make illustrated magnets for me every year; not sure this is an accurate representation of what I do, but I *do* love Arthurian literature, so I'm)

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor: Bruce Haight

Relative difficulty: Well, I was slow, but this oversized, so who knows: Medium-Challenging for a Tuesday, maybe?

THEME: BOXED / ROSES (41A: With 44-Across, Valentine's Day gift ... or a hint to the circled squares) — circled squares form a kind of box and contain the letters R, O, S, E

Bonus theme answers:

HAVE A HEART (10D: Try some Valentine's Day candy?)
STEAL A KISS (37D: Try some Valentine's Day candy, sneakily?)

Word of the Day: ARIKARA (57A: Dakota tribe that attacked "The Revenant" trappers) —

Arikara (English: /əˈrɪkərə/), also known as Sahnish,^[2] Arikaree or Ree, are a tribe of Native Americans in North Dakota. Today, they are enrolled with the Mandan and the Hidatsa as the federally recognized tribeknown as the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. // The Arikara's name is believed to mean "horns," in reference to the ancient custom of wearing two upright bones in their hair. The name also could mean "elk people" or "corn eaters." (wikipedia)

• • •

This feels exactly like a February *13* puzzle, i.e. off. The revealer isn't exactly classic. I have seen roses come in boxes only in old movies. "Long-stemmed roses,""a dozen roses," these are phrases that sound right. Who says "Oh, you got her *boxed* roses, ooh la la!"? You just Got Her Roses. The whole BOXED thing is weird, just as a phrase—so much so, that I had BOX OF ROSES written in there at first. And then to try to get the little ROSE squares into the grid *along* with pseudo-valentinish themers ... it was too much, and the grid strained. Kind of nice to have the themers be the candy to accompany the roses (that *is* a pretty classic combo), but HAVE A HEART is not a romance-oriented phrase, whereas STEAL A KISS is. It's just wonky, this thing. But that's not what made the solving experience so unpleasant. No, the real puzzle ruiner came with BATCHED IT, which ... is batsh*t. Batsh*t crazy. That's simply not a thing. And if it were a thing, it would be a vomitous thing. I googled ["batched it"] and first of all, this is not a good number of hits:

And second of all, *none* of the first page of hits had *anything to do* with the meaning of the phrase that the clue is positing. Literally, none. Which means that the real number of hits is way, way less than the already meager 4,160 returned by the search. That answer added eons to my time, because I kept looking at BATCH and thinking, "that ... is not how you spell that." Just horrible. And what's worse, it *thinks* it's good. It thinks it's cute. Like, this is surely a debut answer, and apparently both the constructor and editor thought: "Nailed it!" And now it will go into databases everywhere for unscrupulous solvers of the future to use in their puzzles, on the grounds that, "it was used before ... and in the Times!" Lord help me.

[Jacob fixed it!]

Now people are telling me that young people say BATCHED IT (?) but spelled differently (?!) like ... Bached It!?!? I often Bach it, but, you know, I like Bach. BACHED IT is even more hilarious. Here, Evan found a 1907 usage of BACHED IT for you to enjoy:

Mediocre fill abounds, so why go into it? I have no idea what ARIKARA is (57A: Dakota tribe that attacked "The Revenant" trappers), except probably not a Tuesday answer. I've also never seen "The Revenant," but my ignorance of these particular things really isn't the problem today. It's an off theme for an off-holiday puzzle. It's trying too hard to be clever, it's trying to do too much, and everything just, let's say, wilts. There better be one Hell of a Valentine's Day puzzle planned for tomorrow—what else could explain this thing's appearing today? Maybe I don't want to know. We'll see... Hey, next time you put cookies into the oven, I think you should shout, "BATCHED IT!" Oh, better yet—if someone asks you what you did last night, and what you did was waste your evening watching ABC's"The Bachelor," I insist you reply, "Oh, you know ... just BATCHED IT." Then high-five yourself. OK. Bye.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Elvis's official middle name is AARON. It's even on his tombstone. The ARON / AARON thing is a bit complicated, but cluing ARON simply as [Elvis's middle name] is wrong. Read more here.

P.P.S. "Batching it" googles much better. It's hilarious to see feedback I'm getting on this: roughly 3/4 "what the hell kind of answer is that?" and 1/4 "it's common, what is wrong with you?!"

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Constructor: Mary Lou Guizzo

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Valentine's Day — grid is heart-shaped, and then there are three theme answers:

Theme answers:

HEARTSTRINGS (1D: Deepest feelings)
CUPID'S ARROWS (8D: They lead to love at first sight)
SAINT VALENTINE (19D: February honoree)

Word of the Day: POPOV (38A: Vodka with a Russian name) —

Popov is a brand of vodka produced by British drinks giant Diageo plc's Diageo North America subsidiary. It commands a significant marketshare among vodkas in the United States and competes in the low range pricing niche,^[3] and because of this it is also affectionately (and ironically) known as "Russia's Finest" among college students. (wikipedia)

• • •

Not sure what I'd think of this puzzle under normal conditions, but following as it does yesterday's inedible off-brand puzzle-trocity, this one looks pretty good. In fact, the second I looked at the grid, I thought, "Yep, already better." This one's not trying to do anything but be pretty and stay clean. it's already got the grid shape going for it, so it can go light on the theme material, thereby easing up on the grid, thereby not torturing the solver with nonsense (except TIRO, LOL). It's best not to look at the grid too hard, because otherwise you will notice that it is irritatingly non-symmetrical. Give it a quick look, seems fine. Stare at it, and the black squares just don't match up. Heart failure! It's like a picture on the wall that is just *slightly* crooked—it's gonna drive me a lot more crazy than the picture that is just obviously crooked. This one is somewhere in the uncanny valley of symmetricality. Off-puttingly shy of the real deal. But, yeah, most people aren't going to notice this at all, or, if they do notice, care.

["Cupid by the hour sends valentines / To my sweet lover and me"]

The thing about the Swiss canton is I always forget if it's ULM or URI and then I think, "no, URI is the mentalist spoon-bender guy, so it must be ULM." And then it isn't (ULM is the city in Germany where Einstein was born). And yet I somehow remembered it was EEO today (I'm never quite sure where the Es an Os go (59A: Fair-hiring initials). I struggled in only a few places. I had -ASTER and still no idea what 25A: Furniture mover? was after (CASTER). Those are little wheels on furniture that lets you push it around easily. Seems like they are literally furniture movers, so the "?" is weird, but I guess the temptation to echo the VAN clue was just irresistible? (32D: Furniture mover, maybe). Took me a while to get ROTISSERIE (35D: Game's turning point?). Only after I was done did I look back and go "Oh, *game*'s turning point." Wrote in SAO PAULO for SANTIAGO, whoops (45D: World capital founded by a conquistador). Couldn't remember the letter of the STREET at 29A: Part of Washington, D.C., known for lobbying firms (K STREET). Wanted to wiggle my EARS (54D: Parts of the body that may be wiggled => TOES). Didn't know DINGE was a "shade"—I thought it just meant, like, "griminess" (58A: Dark, dirty shade). Don't really know POPOV. Lots of vodkas in crosswords, most notably STOLI and SKYY. This appears to be just the second NYT appearance for POPOV. Anyway, happy V-day. Hope you got boxed roses galore!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Peter Gordon

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: And the Osprey goes to ... — themers are all Oscar-nominated roles where the character's last name is a type of bird

Theme answers:

SCOUT FINCH (3D: Mary Badham's Oscar-nominated role in "To Kill a Mockingbird")
MARION CRANE (30D: Janet Leigh's Oscar-nominated role in "Psycho")
JACK SPARROW (31D: Johnny Depp's Oscar-nominated role in "Pirates of the Caribbean")
LUKE MARTIN (11D: Jon Voigt's Oscar-winning role in "Coming Home")
CLARICE STARLING (53A: Jodie Foster's Oscar-winning role in "The Silence of the Lambs")

Word of the Day: NERTS (57D: Old-fashioned cry of disgust)—

[My favorite part of this is the picture—thanks for the visual aid, Google]

• • •

I guess Lesley Manville's nomination for playing Cyril WOODCOCK came too late to make the grid. She doesn't look happy, Peter:

[currently nominated for "The Phantom Thread"]

Also, you could've done this one with all women and then had the revealer be Saoirse Ronan's Oscar-nominated role: LADY BIRD. The 2017 nominations opened up all kinds of possibilities! But what we've got is just fine.

Easy because easy, Medium because proper-noun minefields can be unexpectedly brutal, depending on your knowledge/ignorance. I flew (!) through this one, except for Every Letter of LUKE MARTIN (I finished the puzzle at 32A: RASP), and the tail end of ABIDJAN, which I have heard of but did not trust myself to remember, mostly because I wasn't sure that my brain wasn't just misremembering the name of the country AZERBAIJAN. Otherwise, pretty easy and loads of fun. I have no problem with a non-tricksy Thursday where the theme is just some oddly-related set of answers and the grid looks a little nuts (here, 16 tall and mirror-symmetrical). Really impressive that Peter could get this very narrowly-defined set of themers to be symmetrical while also having CLARICE STARLING slicing across the grid straight through two other themers. But why isn't the grid shaped like a bird, Peter!? Where are the wings!? You need to step up your game, man. Until then, this will do. Oh, but one question: What the hell is going on with TOM KITE? (67A: Golfer who you might think plays best on windy days?). Like yesterday's non-symmetry, today's TOM KITE is scratching the blackboard in my brain a little. Is it or isn't it a themer? Against: the fact that TOM KITE was never, to my knowledge, nominated for an Oscar; and he's not in a theme position (no symmetrical partner); and he's got a "?" clue instead of straight clues like all the other themers. For: well, there's only one "For," and that's the fact that KITE is sure enough a last name that is also a bird. You'd think that in a last name = bird puzzle, you could *somehow* avoid other complete names where the last name was a bird. But apparently not. Rex BEMOANS TOM KITE. Everything else is fine.

Trouble spots:

BAMBI (4D: Symbol of gentle innocence) — had the B then the MB, then the AMB, and each time could think only of LAMB(S)
ENAMELS (22A: Canine coats) — not hard, I just mistyped it as ENANELS, which only made my LUKE MARTIN struggles worse
MINAJ (30A: Rapper with the double-platinum album "The Pinkprint") — I am not used to seeing MINAJ on its own. My brain treats NICKIMINAJ like one word
63D: Tear (JAG)— brutal, both because of the (at least) dual meaning of the word "tear," and because of the "J" cross from ABIDJAN, which, as we've already established, I just couldn't get a handle on

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: David Steinberg

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none

Word of the Day: James B. EADS (52D: James B. ___, diving bell inventor) —

Captain James Buchanan Eads (May 23, 1820 – March 8, 1887) was a world-renowned American civil engineer and inventor, holding more than 50 patents. [...] When he was twenty-two, Eads designed a salvage boat and showed the drawings to two shipbuilders, Calvin Case and William Nelson. Although Eads had no previous experience and no capital for the project, Case and Nelson were impressed with him and the three became partners.
At that time, salvaging wrecks from the Mississippi River was nearly impossible because of strong currents. Eads made his initial fortune in salvage by creating a diving bell, using a forty-gallon wine barrel to retrieve goods sunk in riverboatdisasters. He also devised special boats for raising the remains of sunken ships from the river bed. Eads did much of the diving himself because the work was so dangerous. His work gave Eads an intimate knowledge of the river, as he explored its depths from the Gulf of Mexico to Iowa. Because of his detailed knowledge of the Mississippi (the equal of any professional river pilot), his exceptional ability at navigating the most treacherous parts of the river system, and his personal fleet of snag-boats and salvage craft, he was afforded the much prized courtesy title of "Captain" by the rivermen of the Mississippi and was addressed as Captain Eads throughout his life. (wikipedia)

• • •

Found this one more irritating than interesting, largely because of short proper nouns I had no idea about that really slowed me down. South AMBOY (?) and James B. EADS both mean zero to me. Actually, I've vaguely heard of AMBOY, but mainly as part of the title of the book "The AMBOY Dukes" by Irving Shulman, which I must own a copy of (somewhere deep in my 3000+-strong collection of vintage paperbacks). Cluing was hard and then fussy and straining-clever all over. Lots of four-letter "Star Trek" characters, so that TROI clue was pffft (1A: Sci-fi character who graduated from Starfleet Academy in 2359). SALARY is a "sensitive subject"? OK, I guess, for some, but not like AGE or WEIGHT, so ...??? Kind of forced to say a D STUDENT *is* 60-something, even with the "?" on the clue (9D: One who's 60-something). No idea that COLADA (bad on its own) meant "strained" (43A: Strained, at the bar). Very rough clue on STRAY (57A: Part of a pound?) crossing an exceedingly rough clue on AGENA (which is a thing I barely know, and have only ever seen referenced in crosswords) (44D: It was boosted by Atlas). I don't even really know how the whole Atlas-AGENA thingamajig was supposed to work. I guess AGENA was a "satellite bus" (?) and one of the rockets used was the Atlas? In days of yore? Jeez, trying to get all cutesy with your Atlas clue on what is really the crosswordesiest answer in the grid seems like a horrible idea. ONE NO will always be bad fill to me. Nothing says "Maleskaesque" like bridge slang. GOMER? (45D: Cloddish sort, in slang). Sigh, I guess. There just weren't a lot of "cool!" moments, and bunch of DIRE ones, so this one just didn't work for me, especially considering where I expect Friday (the greatest puzzle day of the week) to be.

["Space Singular Thing"]

The whole grid has a dusty feel about it. Back from when people had BOX CAMERAs and used words like BEAU and INAMORATA. Almost nothing feels fresh or current, despite the fact that there are some very solid answers, like PENTHOUSE SUITE and YOGURT SMOOTHIE and FLAMBOYANT. Much of the rest of the grid, though, seems tossed off. Whole center feels irrelevant and dull. Very idea of the "Honey-do" list always gives me the creeps 'cause it's grossly sexist, and the whole point is you don't say "NO, DEAR" anyway, so what is this clue even doing? (32D: Rejection of a honey-do list). Again, the whole premise feels both implausible and dated, like it's out of some bygone era. PIXELATED clue is pretty good (56A: Like privates, often), though the euphemism "privates" also feels old-fashioned (and semi-childish). Again, as with that Atlas clue on AGENA, the cluer is trying haaaaard to go for the misdirect, and ... well, I just keep making this wrinkled-nose expression as I try to describe my feelings about this puzzle, and I think the expression probably says more than my words ever could. The grid is reasonably well put-together, but it feels stale and off rather than zingy and exciting. The cluing is not the only problem, but it's the main one.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Peter Wentz

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: Jung CHANG (29A: Jung ___, author of the 1991 best seller "Wild Swans") —

Jung Chang (simplified Chinese: 张戎; traditional Chinese: 張戎; pinyin: Zhāng Róng; Wade–Giles: Chang Jung, Mandarin pronunciation: [tʂɑ́ŋ ɻʊ̌ŋ], born 25 March 1952) is a Chinese-born British writer now living in London, best known for her family autobiography Wild Swans, selling over 10 million copies worldwide but banned in the People's Republic of China. (wikipedia)

• • •

Oh yeah, this had everything yesterday's puzzle didn't. Zing and zazz and freshness and all the good stuff. In fact, I finished it faster than yesterday's puzzle, so really this is the Friday puzzle I wanted. I got it a day late, which is better than not at all. Wentz puzzles are very often very hard, but sometimes I get right on that Wentz wavelength and it feels pretty great—leads to maximum appreciation of artistry. Actually, a grueling puzzle can leave me very impressed, it's just that the difficulty has to feel earned. I have to respect it. I don't want to get destroyed by obscurities or icky cluing that was trying too hard to be clever. The great brutal clue will have me baffled, and then when I finally get it, I have to admit, "yeah, that's good." Anyway, not sure what I'm on about, because this puzzle wasn't brutal, but it was wonderful. Stacks and columns other flashes of 7- and 8-letter answers, and all of it solid-to-brilliant (even if I don't really know what a STATIC LINE is) (12D: Fixed cord for a paratrooper). In fact, there was lots I didn't know in this puzzle that I loved. Never heard of Jung CHANG *or* the "1991 best seller "Wild Swans" that she (she?) supposedly wrote. I want to thank Jung, though, because she put ERICA *JONG* in my head well before I encountered her in the SE (where I recognized her instantly). No idea about a G&S opera with YEOMAN in the title. No idea about BOONE, NC (40A). And hoo boy, TREFOIL (22A: Three-lobed design). That word is vaguely familiar, but that didn't stop TRIFORM from getting in there and mucking things up. But these obstacles are what make puzzles fun—assuming there is gold to be found in the grid. If a grid is just workmanlike, or worse, sad and limp, then all the ??? and difficulty feels not challenging, but punishing.

Had some good luck getting a few long answers easily, like "I AM AMERICA" (by Stephen Colbert) from just the "I" (27D: 2007 satirical best seller) and ANTS ON A LOG from the -L-G (would've gotten it from nothing) (11D: Celery sticks topped with peanut butter and raisins). Had a few mishaps, though. Stared at SAMADA- (42A: Brand with the slogan "Fill your glass") and wondered what kind of exotic wine or tea brand it was going to be. Then got to 31A: "Breaking Bad" protagonist, had -A--, and wrote in ... HANK. [Sad emoji]! Loved the clue on OPTICS (5D: Public perception). So wonderfully current. Loved the clue onFOAL (30A: It's generally up and running within a few hours). Fantastic misdirection. Super-loved the MBA DEGREE / NBA GAMES crossing. And FARM TEAMS, oh man. Talk about an answer that destroys you but forces you to respect it. I had FARMT and absolutely believed that the [Professional feeders] worked on a farm, possibly feeding the livestock. FARM TEAMS are of course minor league teams that "feed" the pro leagues. Just great stuff.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Elizabeth A. Long

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME:"SEE 68-ACROSS" (68A: Supercilious sort ... or the title for this puzzle) — Across themers are wacky "?"-clued phrases that are really ordinary phrases that have had a common "name""dropped" from them. The dropped name can be found literally dropped (i.e. hanging, appended) to the Across themer:

Theme answers:

SPEAKS FLY / SPEAKS FRANKLY
BING ERROR / BILLING ERROR
SLUMBER PAY / SLUMBER PARTY
PRIM COLORS / PRIMARY COLORS
EARLY AMEN / EARLY AMERICAN
PHONE MARS / PHONE MANNERS (omg what the hell are "phone manners????")

Word of the Day: TAMMIE Green (37D: Green of the L.P.G.A.) —

Tammie Green (born December 17, 1959) is an American professional golfer. //
She started her professional career on the Futures Tour, on which she won 11 tournaments and was Player of the Year in 1985 and 1986. In 1986, she qualified for the LPGA Tour by finishing tied for second at the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament. She was LPGA Tour Rookie of the Year in 1987. She was named Most Improved Player by Golf Digest in 1989. She won seven times on the LPGA Tour, including one major championship, the 1989 du Maurier Classic. Her best placing on the money list was 5th in 1997, which was one of four top ten seasons. She played for the United States in the Solheim Cup in 1994 and 1998. She was a member of the LPGA Tour Player Executive Committee from 1992–94. In 2004, she was inducted into the Ohio Golf Hall of Fame. (wikipedia)

• • •

Puzzle tries to make me hate it from the jump by naming itself after the worst kind of crossword clue: the cross-reference. "SEE 68-ACROSS" is a horrendous title. Horrendous. It's like ... "Uh, I give up, just look at the revealer, here it is, bye." I have no idea why you decide to go with a title so singularly unimaginative, so repulsive in its evocation of the worst that crosswords have to offer. Mind-boggling.* That said, this puzzle, while not terribly enjoyable, was certainly better than most Sunday puzzles have been of late. There's an interesting two-tiered quality to the themers, with both the wackiness and the "name" getting their own clues, and with the "names" literally "dropping" down from the wacky answers. I love the fact that the theme answer with BING in it is clued [Search engine failure?]. So true, so true. I haven't the faintest what "phone manners" are. "Table manners" are a thing. "Phone manners" is from god-knows-when. Before my time, for sure. People don't even talk on the phone much any more, and when they do ... I mean, have you seen people? "Manners"? LOL, no. "Phone manners" is a. not an in-the-language phrase, and b. utterly irrelevant to the times in which we live. But the other themers seems to work just fine. Theme's not too dense, so the grid doesn't get tooooo bogged down in junk, though it could've been a Lot less junky. There's like half a dozen French words alone. DEUX AMIES spent HIER on an ALPE? OUI. This is still a ways from "enjoyable," but by recent standards, it's a definition improvement. So let's just call it even.

I found this one harder than normal because of the way the theme was structured. Was hard for me to get theme footing for a while. But then some of the hardness was of my own making, like when I thought 36D: Left only the exterior of (GUTTED) was PITTED, or when I wrote in the French MES at 70D: Mine, in Milano (MIO). Thank god I grew up in and went to college in California, because TORRANCE?! (25A: City in Los Angeles County) Really, people know that place? People from California barely know that place. URETHANE was not easy for me (21D: Pesticide ingredient). Seems like there's probably a lot of crap in pesticides. AFLERS hurt, as did TAMMIE, and UNLEARN, and ARREAR (just one!?). And there's nothing like that special feeling you get when you discover ONE?CAT in your puzzle and leave that one square blank because who the hell knows if this amazingly bygone game found only in crosswords will be spelled with an "A" or an "O." A special, special feeling.

On the plus side, DEE got a cool and very contemporary clue (101A: "Mudbound" director Rees). Can't believe ["Mudbound" director Rees] made it into the puzzle before ["Mudbound" director Dee]. That's a name that's gonna get good crossword use for some time. My favorite part of Lent is the PIEROGI part (42D: Polish dumpling). Wife picks them up every Friday from St. Michael's. Had our first batch last night. So buttery and oniony and potatoey and glorious. Mmm, Lenten! See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*It occurs to me that perhaps the idea with the puzzle title ("SEE 68-ACROSS") was supposed to be that the NAME of the puzzle was being DROPPED (from its normal place) *into* the grid. There are several problems with this idea: the puzzle hasn't "dropped' its name, but has substituted one name ("SEE 68-ACROSS") for another; further, this new title now simply points to the revealer, which, eliminates the possibility that the solver will have the pleasure of discovering the trick on her own; and lastly, most importantly, cross-reference clues are a joyless void that are never enjoyed, but merely endured, even under the best of circumstances. This is like naming your kid TBD. Actually, no, I take that back. That would at least be interesting.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Bruce Haight

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (for a Monday) (30 seconds over average time)

THEME: president names + a random letter, anagrammed for some reason...

Theme answers:

LIFEGUARD (17A: GARFIELD + U = Beach V.I.P.)
AND SO AM I (26A: MADISON + A = "Me, too!")
FILM LOVER (39A: FILLMORE + V = Movie buff)
HAND GRIP (54A: HARDING + P = Squeezable exercise tool)
POLICE DOG (66A: COOLIDGE + P = Narc's four-footed helper)

U + A + V + P + P = ............ ?????? UV APP? VA PUP? I'm sure it's something presidential...

Word of the Day: Queen of SHEBA (58D: Queen of ___ (visitor of King Solomon, in the Bible)) —

The Queen of Sheba is a Biblical and Quranic figure. The tale of her visit to King Solomon has undergone extensive Jewish, Islamic, and Ethiopian elaborations, and has become the subject of one of the most widespread and fertile cycles of legends in the Orient. // The queen of Sheba (מַלְכַּת־שְׁבָא‬, "malkat-šəḇā" in the Hebrew Bible, βασίλισσα Σαβὰ in the Septuagint, Syriac ܡܠܟܬ ܫܒܐ, Ethiopic ንግሥተ፡ሳባእ፡) came to Jerusalem "with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices, and very much gold, and precious stones" (I Kings 10:2). "Never again came such an abundance of spices" (10:10; II Chron. 9:1–9) as those she gave to Solomon. She came "to prove him with hard questions," which Solomon answered to her satisfaction. They exchanged gifts, after which she returned to her land. (wikipedia)

• • •

We need to talk about how objectively bad this puzzle is. Is it performance art? That is the only reasonable explanation I can think of. It's a parody of a bad idea designed to elicit bafflement and anger in people who actually care about good puzzles. Maybe I'm on camera right now? I'm not even angry, I'm just blinking in stunned bemusement. The theme clues are bonkers, esp. for a Monday. Visually painful and confusing. Further: totally unnecessary. I mercifully figured out fairly early on that I did not need to even look at the first part of the theme clues. I just read the post-"=" part and that ended up working just fine. Let's talk specifically about why this is a substandard puzzle. There are two main reasons: the added letters have no rationale, and the anagramming has no rationale. Random added letters, anagrams happening for no reason. Add to that the fact that you can do what I did—just ignore the presidential word math part—and still solve it (i.e. the fact that the theme is irrelevant and ignorable) and, I hope, you can see why this just isn't up to snuff. It's quite baffling that this puzzle was accepted for publication by anyone, let alone the outlet that continues to call itself "The Best Puzzle in the World." People seem to think that I have it in for Will, or for this constructor, or blah blah blah, but I promise you, talk to *any* experienced constructor, and, while they may not use language as strong as mine, they will tell you what's wrong with this puzzle right quick, and the reasons they give will overlap substantially with my own.

AND SO AM I is so weak, especially as a themer. Forced and awkward and anti-climactic. And HANDGRIP isn't much better—I had no idea those squeezy thingies even had a name. Are there really no better PRESIDENT + LETTER anagrams out there? These themers are generally a SAD LOT. Why doesn't this puzzle do *anything* well?! I can't stop laughing at LAY EGGS (48D: What hens do), which is about as scintillating and stand-alone worthy as EAT FOOD or DRIVE CARS. Also, and this is an undeniable editing gaffe, you can't have a clue with "eggs" in it anywhere when EGGS is in the grid, and you *especially* can't have it in the clue for an answer that both means "EGGS" *and* crosses your EGGS answer (53A: Lab eggs = OVA). I teach Shakespeare and had no idea AYS were [Shakespearean cries]. Don't blame Shakespeare for your bad fill. I will say one nice thing about this puzzle: it has a dog in it. Nothing with dog in it can be all bad. Just, you know, substantially bad. I DIG and I FOLD right next to each other? Really. OK, I FOLD, good night.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Joel Fagliano

Relative difficulty: Challenging (for a Tuesday)

THEME: LEXICOGRAPHERS (51A: Ones who produced the clues for 20-, 25- and 45-Across)— theme clues are written as dictionary definitions; theme answers are familiar phrases that, when taken differently, can appear to be asking for a literal definition of one of the words in those phrases. Thus:

Theme answers:

"HIGH" DEFINITION (20A: adj. under the influence of a drug) (the clue is a definition of "high")
"OVER" EXPLAINED (25A: adv. across a barrier or intervening space) (the clue is an explanation of "over")
MEANING OF "LIFE" (45A: n. spirit, animation) (the clue is the dictionary meaning of "life")

Word of the Day: GOGO (58A: Big name in in-flight internet) —

Gogo Inc. is a provider of in-flight broadband Internet service and other connectivity services for commercial and business aircraft, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. 17 airlines partner with Gogo to provide in-flight WiFi, including British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia, Gol linhas aereas, Beijing Capital, Aeromexico, American Airlines, Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Japan Airlines, JTA, United Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Virgin America, Vietnam Airlines and Virgin Atlantic. Gogo Inc. is a holding company, operating through its two subsidiaries, Gogo LLC and Aircell Business Aviation Services LLC (now Gogo Business Aviation Inc.). According to Gogo, over 2,500 commercial aircraft and 6,600 business aircraft have been equipped with its onboard Wi-Fi services. The company is also the developer of 2Ku, the new in-flight (satellite solution) Wi-Fi technology. (wikipedia)

• • •

Cute, but (for me) hilariously misplaced on a Tuesday. I was north of my average Wednesday time, nowhere my normal Tuesday range of times. I had zero conception of the theme until I was done. I just knew that the clues had nothing to do with the answers in any way that I could see, so I had to get every one of them via crosses, hacking at them until they looked like something, and then filling in the blanks. This meant I also had trouble with the front end of LEXICOGRAPHERS. (P.S. LEXICOGRAPHERS did not "produce the clues"; only editors or constructors can do that, so the clue is simply wrong without a "?" on it). There was also a lot of hard stuff and "?" stuff in the N/NE that slowed me down considerably. But no matter. The concept is pretty good. The first themer is the best one, because it repurposes the meaning of "definition." The others are literalizations without the concomitant shift in the meaning of the lexicographical word, i.e. that is, no new meaning for "meaning," no new meaning for "explained." But insofar as "high,""over," and "life" are all being isolated and treated as words, in dictionary definition fashion, the theme is consistent and fine.

[XTC should be in puzzles more often]

That whole area east of (and including) BLUDGEON was very rough for me. Needed half the crosses even to see BLUDGEON, and then CAHILL (????) (8D: U.S. marshal role for John Wayne). No idea. None. Not even a movie in the clue? (Not that that would've helped). Have watched many John Wayne movies. Many. No idea about CAHILL. Zero. . . OK, now that I look it up, the name of the movie *is* "CAHILL"??? Since when is that famous, let alone Tuesday famous? Dear lord. Full title: "CAHILL: U.S. Marshal" (1973). This isn't even in the top half of Wayne movies, fame-wise, success-wise, I'm gonna guess quality-wise. No idea why you'd put it in a Tuesday. Or even a Wednesday (which, as we've established, this puzzle should've been). So that was a disaster. Moving east from there, the two "?" clues both stymied me. They're both OK clues, but BARTENDS (10D: Makes the rounds?) and SUMO (12D: Battle of the bulges?) held me up and made CAMUS and TROMP much harder to get. Also, like I know who makes Bounty paper towels (PANDG = P&G = Proctor & Gamble —that type of answer, letter+AND+letter = "ampersandwich"; see, for example, BANDB, AANDP, RANDB, etc.). I don't use "in-flight internet" so GOGO was nono for me. And I had no (literally no) idea that The Huffington Post was HUFFPOST at all, let alone *officially* (38D: Popular left-leaning news site). I have only ever heard HUFFPO, which still seems like a much much better, more in-the-language abbr. for that org.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Ori Brian and Zachary Spitz

Relative difficulty: Medium (once you get past that initial ??? period and realize there's a bleeping rebus on a bleeping Wednesday)

THEME: PO BOX (41A: Certain mailing address, for short ... or a hint to 14 squares in this puzzle) — rebus puzzle where "PO" are squeezed into 14 different squares

Word of the Day: AMAL Clooney (58A: ___ Clooney, human rights lawyer) —

Amal Clooney (née Alamuddin, Arabic: أمل علم الدين‎; born 3 February 1978) is a Lebanese-British barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, specialising in international law and human rights. Her clients include Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, in his fight against extradition. She has also represented the former prime minister of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, and Egyptian-Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy. She is married to the American actor George Clooney. (wikipedia)

• • •

This is a puzzle with 14 PO BOXES. That, it is. It is that. My feelings couldn't be more neutral. It is what it says it is. There it is, take it or leave it. Take or leave 14 of these PO BOXES, why don't you? The concept is one that sounds like it would be cool, or cute, or clever, but it most just ... is. The fill also is. There it is. Fill never gets worse than, say, LOLO (16A: Obama's stepfather ___ Soetoro), but it never gets better than, say, MAGNETO, either (27A: Ian McKellen's role in "X-Men" movies). Just a lot of PO BOXES, in a grid, on a Wednesday. The end.

[these tweets were posted independently of one another, almost simultaneously]

I flailed at first, not surprisingly, since when's the last time there was a Wednesday rebus? Feels like ages. I only look for a rebus on Thursdays, and maybe Sundays. I've seen them on other days, but I don't like them on other days. This one, though, ended up being Wednesday easy once you figured out what was going on. Just ... remember there are "PO" boxes out there to be found, and you're fine. I actually had a good 1/5 or so of the grid filled in before I finally hit a "PO" box. Went down from the NW, through the center and all the way over to 37D: Salk vaccine target (POLIO) before the theme shoved its way into view. I must've gotten PO BOX along the way but no really registered that it was a revealer. No matter. After that, it was just a matter of going back over earlier trouble spots, filling in "PO"s, and then proceeding with "PO"-search powers activated. Honestly, nothing about this puzzle stood out as remarkable to me, one way or the other, except AMAL Clooney, whose name I had literally just (seconds earlier) read on the NYT's home page—she and George are donating $500,000 to the student March Against Gun Violence. Her work with Yazidi refugees was pretty much the centerpiece of David Letterman's recent interview with George Clooney (the second episode of his new Netflix show, "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction..."). I'm writing about this because, again, there's nothing in the puzzle to write about. Good night.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Zhouqin Burnikel

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: REVERSING COURSE (60A: Backtracking ... or what 17-, 27- and 46-Across are doing?)— theme answers are three different kinds of "courses," all appearing backwards (or "reversed") in the grid:

Theme answers:

LANOITANATSUGUA (17A: Home of the Masters) (Augusta National)
ARBEGLAERP (27A: Something unknowns are introduced in) (pre-algebra)
SREZITEPPA (46A: Starters) (appetizers)

Word of the Day: Alfred ADLER (1D: Alfred who coined the term "inferiority complex") —

Alfred W. Adler(/ˈædlər/; German: [ˈaːdlɐ]; 7 February 1870 – 28 May 1937) was an Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of the school of individual psychology. His emphasis on the importance of feelings of inferiority, the inferiority complex, is recognized as an isolating element which plays a key role in personality development. Alfred Adler considered human beings as an individual whole, therefore he called his psychology "Individual Psychology" (Orgler 1976).
Adler was the first to emphasize the importance of the social element in the re-adjustment process of the individual and who carried psychiatry into the community.^[5]A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Adler as the 67th most cited psychologist of the 20th century. (wikipedia)

• • •

First, let's talk about why this theme is good and that Presidents Day theme a few days ago isn't. So, President's Day! "Let's put presidents' names in the clues!""OK, that is fine. That gives the theme a kind of unity. What next?""OK ... let's anagram them!""Wait, what? Why? Is there a title or a revealer or some catchy play on words that's going to explain why you're doing that?""No!" Well, that doesn't ma-""Also, let's add a letter to the president's names before we anagram them!""[blank stare]""Random letters!""[exasperated sigh] Do those letters at least spell someth-""No! They spell nothing! Random letterssssss!" And ... scene. Now today's. Answers go backwards. OK, why? Well, there's a play on words with the revealer: REVERSING COURSE. OK, but that's hardly enough, just running answers backwards. What's the hook? Each theme answer is actually a different kind of "course" that is being (literally, in the grid) reversed. So the REVERSING part makes sense, and the COURSE part makes sense, and everything you're doing ... makes sense? Sense!? What an idea.

["Set a course for adventure...."]

I woke this morning to NRA in my grid (31D: Publisher of American Hunter magazine, for short) and this in my Twitter feed:

That's not just a sitting member of the US House of Representatives, that's *my* sitting member of the US House of Representatives. She takes gobs of NRA money and they've given her an "A" rating. So, constructors, if there's a way you can, I don't know, avoid NRA, or at least give it a clue that doesn't look like it was written by the NRA PR department, that would be cool.

I found the spelling backward gimmick easy to pick up, but then hard to enter into the grid. Typing words backwards is nuts, and I must've spent 10-25 seconds stumbling over the front (i.e. back?) end of "Augusta." Just couldn't get the letters, particularly the "U"s, in the right place. Also had SPAT for 19D: Bicker (with), and so ended up with PTE ALGREBRA (reversed) at first. Briefly considered AP ALGEBRA (impossible) and then realized SPAR was a better answer than SPAT. Some trouble getting fron AUN- to AU NATUREL at 33D: Nude, but otherwise not much trouble today at all. A brisk and pleasant solve. See you tomorrow...

Oh, wait, one more thing. So I wrote a bit about the AMAL Clooney clue yesterday because she's a human rights lawyer (which the clue mentioned) and I'd seen her name a bunch recently etc. Well, I only just found out, and I really need everyone to know, that the original clue there (the one that actually appeared in the damned paper, the one that some wise person made a late-change to for the digital editions) was [Mrs. George Clooney]. Just like it appears on her checks, I'm sure (!?).

God bless the non-famous crossword people at the Times who scramble to fix tone-deaf junk like this. Not the first time. Almost certainly not the last.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Trenton Charlson

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: ROSE CUT diamond (15A: In a classic form of diamond) —

Various forms of the rose cut have been in use since the mid-16th century. Like the step cuts, they were derived from older types of cuts. The basic rose cut has a flat base—that is, it lacks a pavilion—and has a crown composed of triangular facets (usually 12 or 24) rising to form a point (there is no table facet) in an arrangement with sixfold rotational symmetry. The so-called double rose cut is a variation that adds six kite facets at the margin of the base. The classic rose cut is circular in outline; non-circular variations on the rose cut include the briolette (oval), Antwerp rose (hexagonal), and double Dutch rose (resembling two rose cuts united back-to-back). Rose-cut diamonds are seldom seen nowadays, except in antique jewelry. Like the older style brilliants and step cuts, there is a growing demand for the purpose of repairing or reproducing antique pieces. (wikipedia)

• • •

I warmed to this puzzle as it went on. At first, it was very DAD PUZZLE (puzz equiv of DAD JOKE), with its ROSE CUT diamonds and NOXZEMA and kinda limp fill like OXIDATE and DNA LABS and BUTNO and the long crosswordese ASTARTE (13D: Phoenician goddess of fertility). But somewhere around the SWAGGER line it found its swagger and once CTHULHU took the BAIT CAR, I was in. Speaking of CTHULHU, a thousand monkeys typing for a thousand years could probably type out that letter combination but I could not, and cannot, and I *know* the Lovecraftian creature in cwestion. Anyway, that whole SW corner, clues and fill and all of it, is just lovely. AMIRITE? Yes, I am. The rest of the puzzle was just fine, but that's the corner that sold me. [Modern screen test] is especially good for CAPTCHA—it's all kinds of deceptive because of the more common, cinematic meaning of "screen test" (CAPTCHA is the text you have to enter sometimes online to prove you are not a robot—lately I've just had to check "I am not a robot" boxes rather than actually write in a CAPTCHA element ... is CAPTCHA becoming bygone?). The only thing I don't quite understand about this puzzle is why ABU / BIT as opposed to APU / SIT. You can come at APU at least two ways, where ABU there's just the one, and it's not the moooost familiar of proper nouns. Speaking of unfamiliar proper nouns: BJ NOVAK! (8A: Co-star of "The Office" who played Ryan Howard) (jk, I knew him ... but, I mean, he's no MINDY KALING ... where is KALING??? Seriously, I should've seen KALING in a puzzle by now, folks. Work on it.).

Struggled to get started, with BUTNO and XII and OPINE being especially tricky to come up with, for me. Also, NUDE is somehow not on the list of adjectives that quickly come to mind when I think of "The Thinker," despite the fact that he's clearly NUDE, so that was odd. Had real trouble later on with 64A: Places in the field (DEPLOYS) (was "places" a verb or noun? what kind of 'field'?). Last square was the "R" in MARKS (30D: Targets). Again, the verb / noun problem thwarted me, and 36A: Shaker's cry? ("BRR!")was no help until I had that final square surrounded—then the "R" was obvious. I briefly tried to convince myself that UGLI was three syllables, so that was fun (5D: Four-letter fruit pronounced in three syllables => AÇAI). Not sure anything needs explaining today. A POL is a "Party person" in the sense of "political party." Aren't peas an "ingredient," singular? (23A: Shepherd's pie ingredients). Would you really refer to each individual pea as a separate ingredient? Please chew on that. Good night.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: John Guzzetta

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none

Word of the Day: REA Irvin (16A: ___ Irvin, early cartoonist designer for The New Yorker) —

Rea Irvin (August 26, 1881—May 28, 1972) was an American graphic artist. Although never formally credited as such, he served de facto as the first art editor of The New Yorker. He created the Eustace Tilley cover portrait and the New Yorkertypeface. He first drew Tilley for the cover of the magazine's first issue on February 21, 1925. Tilley appeared annually on the magazine's cover every February until 1994. As one commentator has written, "a truly modern bon vivant, Irvin (1881–1972) was also a keen appreciator of the century of his birth. His high regard for both the careful artistry of the past and the gleam of the modern metropolis shines from the very first issue of the magazine..." (wikipedia)

• • •

Hello and good morning. Surprisingly good puzzle today. I wasn't so sure about it as I was exiting, or failing to exit, the NW corner, where HORS and AVGAS (whatever that is) had me wondering what I was wandering, or failing to wander, into. Turned out my failure to move down into the center of the grid from up top was due to a little (big) misplay there at 8D: Picker-upper (TONIC). Had the TON-, wrote in ... TONGS! Apt! But wrong. But then, when I couldn't get either of those little Acrosses, I pulled TONGS for TONIC, got PACS, threw down SLOGANEER, and was off: ASIN PIGLET AIRPLAY EDDY IDEAS PLODDER, in case you want to know the exact order of progression. My affection for the puzzle picked up when I picked up SLIPPERY SLOPE—"Alright, the puzzle came to play!" I thought. Sometimes a themeless will just ... lie there. All competent and sturdy and sad. But SLIPPERY SLOPE / PAROLE HEARING / BINGE-WATCHING (!) was a delightfully creamy discovery at the center of my puzzle snack. Nice modern clue on MACRON, up the east coast HEADLONG into the SAD SONG. At this point I'm having so much fun that I don't even scowl at the ETALI? pothole. AESTHETIC drops down easily, MAHI slides over, and I clean up the SE in Monday time—I remembered RIAA today, for possibly the first time ever! And AMATI and RAVI just sort of walked over and said, "Hey ... yeah, we don't know why we're here, all out in the open on a Saturday either. But go ahead, take us." And I did. That corner required only my most BASIC SKILLS. Total PRE-K stuff.

Only a couple tricky areas once I jumped down from the NNW. Blanked on SNOPES (a site I know well) and only half-knew COLLET (as with ROSECUT diamonds yesterday, my jewelry knowledge, she is not so good). Those were easy enough problems to overcome. The real bear down there was the basic word SCIENCE, which had such an odd clue on it (32D: Prestigious academic journal). This "very general category as clue for something specific in that category" is a SLIPPERY SLOPE. [Food] = SOUP? I mean, it's accurate, but ... I think I'm just saying that "Prestigious" and "academic" doesn't really narrow this down much. Not that I could name a ton of "prestigious academic journals" ... but neither did I know that SCIENCE was one. I guess the puzzle was so easy that underclued weirdness was considered necessary. OK. I also had a strange amount of trouble with RESHIPS, mostly because I thought 21D: Forwards was referring to a direction ... on a ship. Like, MIDSHIPS? Is that an area on a ship? Fore, aft, ABAFT, ABEAM ... I was looking for something in that category. UPSHIPS? But "Forwards" was a verb, which I realized only after (finally) getting the "R" from REDS (21A: Section of a Crayola box). So it's just ... RESHIPS. My nautical fantasies, dashed.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Will Nediger

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME:"Letter Recycling"— pairs of intersecting answers with identical clues are made up of the same set of letters:

IRON AGE (2D: Historical period) / GEORGIAN ERA (22A: Historical period spelled using only the letters of 2-Down)
ETHAN ALLEN (13D: Revolutionary War hero) / NATHAN HALE (28A: Revolutionary War hero spelled using etc.)
POTATO CHIPS (36D: Snack items) / PISTACHIOS
OUTSTANDING (39D: Really impressive) / ASTOUNDING
DETESTABLE (71D: No-good) / DAD-BLASTED
SCHMEAR (89D: Bagel topping) / CREAM CHEESE

Word of the Day: EGBERT (18D: Grandfather of Alfred the Great) —

Ecgberht (771/775 – 839), also spelled Egbert, Ecgbert, or Ecgbriht, was King of Wessex from 802 until his death in 839. His father was Ealhmund of Kent. In the 780s Ecgberht was forced into exile by Offa of Mercia and Beorhtric of Wessex, but on Beorhtric's death in 802 Ecgberht returned and took the throne.
Little is known of the first 20 years of Ecgberht's reign, but it is thought that he was able to maintain the independence of Wessex against the kingdom of Mercia, which at that time dominated the other southern English kingdoms. In 825 Ecgberht defeated Beornwulf of Mercia, ended Mercia's supremacy at the Battle of Ellandun, and proceeded to take control of the Mercian dependencies in southeastern England. In 829 he defeated Wiglaf of Mercia and drove him out of his kingdom, temporarily ruling Mercia directly. Later that year Ecgberht received the submission of the Northumbrian king at Dore. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle subsequently described Ecgberht as a bretwalda or 'wide-ruler' of Anglo-Saxon lands.
Ecgberht was unable to maintain this dominant position, and within a year Wiglaf regained the throne of Mercia. However, Wessex did retain control of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey; these territories were given to Ecgberht's son Æthelwulf to rule as a subking under Ecgberht. When Ecgberht died in 839, Æthelwulf succeeded him; the southeastern kingdoms were finally absorbed into the kingdom of Wessex after Æthelwulf's death in 858. (wikipedia)

• • •

This grid looks like it was architecturally challenging to put together: all themers are part of intersecting pairs, and some of those pairs actually abut. ABUT, I say! There's hardly any part of the grid that isn't affected by / impinged on by a theme answer. It's actually astonishing that the grid is as clean as it is, given how grid-pressuring this theme is. That said, I found it really lifeless, so much so that I just ignored the theme, for the most part. You didn't really need to know that the word pairs used the same letter bank. You could just solve them based on their rather general clues. The fact that OUTSTANDING and ASTOUNDING use the same letters just isn't that interesting. I think CREAM CHEESE / SCHMEAR is my favorite pairing, with PISTACHIOS / POTATO CHIPS a close second, but as I say, it's nothing I thought about (or had to think about, for that matter), as I was solving.

RODE ON
WE'RE ON
ADD-ONS
BENT ON
LURES IN
WADE IN
IN MIDAIR

Final score: ON 4, IN 3. Good game, fellas.

Trouble spots:

31A: Order to go (MUSH) — wanted SHOO or SCAT or something related to fast food
34A: Woman's name that sounds like its second and first letters, respectively (ELLY) — solving this was like trying to spell AUGUSTA backward the other day: brain-breaking
107A: Bygone deliverer (ICEMEN) — went looking for some folksy, olde-tymey term for OB/GYN
120A: "Aw rats!" ("DARN!") — DRAT, DANG, etc. the usual suspects
6D: Was dateless (WENT STAG) — had the WENT, went with SOLO
47D: Seaweed in Japanese culture (KOMBU) — wait, is this where "kombucha" comes from??? [yes and no: here's an explainer] The only seaweed I know very well is NORI, though KOMBU as crossed my field of vision somewhere before...
103D: Lead role in "Boys Don't Cry," 1999 (TEENA) — I saw this in the theater and don't remember it at all, except Swank was in it. But the puzzle was generally so easy that I didn't have to spend any time wondering about this clue; it filled in via crosses very quickly.

Check out Will Nediger's puzzle blog, "Bewilderingly." You should especially check out 21-Down in his latest puzzle (Puzzle 70: "Not With a Bang"): a cluing choice that other constructors and editors would do well to imitate.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Wilcox daughter in Howards' End / TUE 2-6-18 / Words phrases that sound approximately alike / Yeshiva leader / Some schlumpy male physiques

Voiceless consonant like b or p / WED 2-7-18 / Old Happy Motoring brand / Actor who played Grandpa Munster / Bucolic hotel / Personal aide to Selina Meyer on Veep / Starz competitor / Sedgwick of Warhol films

1987 Robert Townsend satire / THU 2-8-18 / Month before Shawwal / Goddess often pictured in chariot / Biblical king who sought counsel of Witch of Endor

1831 Poe work / FRI 2-9-18 / Iowa town where American Gothic is set / Cyclops killer of myth / Good genre for maze maker / Pro-sustainability in lingo / Online hilarity / Literary nickname for Dolores / Battle of Soissons setting

Odysseus' rescuer / SAT 2-10-18 / Marvel series depicting Tet Offensive with The / Beer pong receptacle / Tracy Jenna's boss on 30 Rock / Serial podcast host Sarah / Backdrop to AMC's Walking Dead / Bauhaus-influenced typeface / Oenophile's criterion

Mark Twain farce about painter who fakes his own demise / SUN 2-11-18 / As-yet-undeciphered Cretan script / First mass consumer product offering wifi / Buoyant cadences / Runner Liddell depicted in Chariots of Fire

State capital ESE of Guadalajara / MON 2-12-18 / Onetime competitor of the WB / Tennis tournament since 1900 / High muckety-muck on Madison ave / Singer Kamoze with 1994 hit Here Comes Hotstepper / Actor John of Problem Child

Dakota tribe that attacked Revenant trappers / TUE 2-13-18 / Top Trappist maybe / Airer of Bachelor Catch

World capital founded by conquistador / WED 2-14-18 / 2003 #1 hit for OutKast / Expressionist Schiele / Dark dirty shade

Young ferret / THU 2-15-18 / Jung's inner self / Cold medicine brand for kids / Old-fashioned cry of disgust

It was boosted by Atlas / FRI 2-16-18 / Most populous city in Oceania / Sci-fi character who graduated from Starfleet Academy in 2359 / Plastic Clue weapon / Name related to Rex

Three-lobed design / SAT 2-17-18 / Brand with slogan fill your glass / Fixed cord for paratrooper / Book in which Israelites are rebuked for idolatry / 2007 satirical best seller

Rufous ruminant / SUN 2-18-18 / Simple variant of baseball / Rani's raiment / Suggestion of what to do slangily

Shakespearean cries / MON 2-19-18 / Uncle Sam's land for short / Hybrid picnic utensil / Onetime Pontiac muscle car

US marshal role for John Wayne / TUE 2-20-18 / Consumer giant that makes Bounty / Credit card designation / French author who said intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself

Obama's stepfather Soetoro / WED 2-21-18 / Mixed martial arts cage shape / Tandoor-baked bread / pre-1917 autocrats / Dr Seuss book that introduces phonics

Request to be connected on social media / THU 2-22-18 / Something unknowns are introduced in / Nonmonetary donation

Phoenician goddess of fertility / FRI 2-23-18 / Vehicle used by police to catch thieves / Cream in cobalt blue jar / In classic form of diamond / Co-star of Office who played Ryan Howard

Dolphinfish informally / SAT 2-24-18 / Pennsylvania city where Delaware Lehigh rivers meet / Irvin early cartoonist designer for New Yorker / Italian sculptor Lorenzo Bernini / Hollande's successor

Lead role in Boys Don't Cry 1999 / SUN 2-25-18 / Nanki-poo's father / Neighbor of Montenegrin / TV demonstrator at 1939 World's Fair / Bygone deliverers / Seaweed in Japanese cuisine