Young otter's home / WED 1-8-20 / Workplace of Jack Bauer on 24 for short / Economic legislative capital of Sri Lanka / Sacred lamb from Latin / Now-discontinued Chili's appetizer with rhyming name / Echoic soup slogan

Constructor: Amanda Yesnowitz and Joon Pahk

Relative difficulty: Medium (well, very easy and then bizarrely hard around the answer CTU, which I still don't really know the meaning of and I watched "24" for years ... is it "counter-terrorism unit"??? OK)

THEME: AB POSITIVE (60A: What's an uncommon blood type ... or a hint to this puzzle's theme)— theme answers are two-word phrases where first word starts with "A" and second starts with "B"; the POSITIVE makes no real sense unless you know the original context for which the puzzle was constructed, about which, more below...

Theme answers:

• ALARM BELLS (17A: Early warnings of danger)
• AURORA BOREALIS (26A: Radiant display also called the Northern Lights)
• AWESOME BLOSSOM (47A: Now-discontinued Chili's appetizer with a rhyming name)

Word of the Day: CTU (51A: Workplace of Jack Bauer on "24," for short) —

[well, in dictionaries, it stand for the Conference of Trade Unions (NZ), but in the context of the TV show "24," it stands for "Counter-terrorism Unit" ... I can't tell if this abbr. has any real currency outside the TV show]

Dutchess, 2002-2019

HELLO, READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS. It's early January and that means it's time for my annual pitch for financial contributions to the blog, during which I ask regular readers to consider what the blog is worth to them on an annual basis and give accordingly. It's kind of a melancholy January this year, what with the world in, let's say, turmoil. Also, on a personal note, 2019 was the year I lost Dutchess, who was officially The Best Dog, and who was with me well before I was "Rex Parker." Somehow the turning of the calendar to 2020 felt like ... I was leaving her behind. It's not a rational sentiment, but love's not rational, especially pet love. Speaking of love—I try hard to bring a passion and enthusiasm to our shared pastime every time I sit down to this here keyboard. I love what I do here, but it is a lot of work, put in at terrible hours—I'm either writing late at night, or very early in the morning, so that I can have the blog up and ready to go by the time your day starts (9am at the very latest, usually much earlier). I have no major expenses, just my time. Well, I do pay Annabel and Claire, respectively, to write for me once a month, but beyond that, it's just my time. This blog is a source of joy and genuine community to me (and I hope to you) but it is also work, and this is the time of year when I acknowledge that! All I want to do is write and make that writing available to everyone, for free, no restrictions. I have heard any number of suggestions over the years about how I might "monetize" (oof, that word) the blog, but honestly, the only one I want anything to do with is the one I already use—once a year, for one week, I just ask readers to contribute directly. And then I let 51 weeks go by before I bring up the subject again. No ads, no gimmicks. It's just me creating this thing and then people who enjoy the thing supporting the work that goes into creating the thing. It's simple. I like simple. Your support means a lot to me. Knowing that I have a loyal readership really is the gas in the tank, the thing that keeps me solving and writing and never missing a day for 13+ years. I will continue to post the solved grid every day, tell you my feelings about the puzzle every day, make you laugh or wince or furrow your brow or shout at your screen every day, bring you news from the Wider World of Crosswords (beyond the NYT) every day. The Word of the Day is: Quotidian. Occurring every day. Daily. Whether you choose to contribute or not, I'm all yours. Daily.

How much should you give? Whatever you think the blog is worth to you on a yearly basis. Whatever that amount is is fantastic. Some people refuse to pay for what they can get for free. Others just don't have money to spare. All are welcome to read the blog—the site will always be open and free. But if you are able to express your appreciation monetarily, here are two options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar):

Second, a mailing address (checks should be made out to "Rex Parker"):

Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905
All Paypal contributions will be gratefully acknowledged by email. All snail mail contributions will be gratefully acknowledged with hand-written postcards. I. Love. Snail Mail. I love seeing your gorgeous handwriting and then sending you my awful handwriting. It's all so wonderful. This year's cards are illustrations from the covers of classic Puffin Books—Penguin's children's book imprint.  Watership Down, Charlotte's Web, The Phantom Tollbooth, A Wrinkle in Time, How to Play Cricket ... you know, the classics. There are a hundred different covers and they are truly gorgeous. Please note: I don't keep a "mailing list" and don't share my contributor info with anyone. And if you give by snail mail and (for some reason) don't want a thank-you card, just say NO CARD.  As ever, I'm so grateful for your readership and support.

Now on to the puzzle!
I'm going to be very brief today, since this isn't really a puzzle constructed primarily for public consumption. It was constructed for the occasion of the recent wedding of one of the constructors (Ms. Yesnowitz) (read about the wedding-specific details here). The names of the bride and groom are hidden in it (AMAN / DAB / REN / DAN), and there is a touching hidden message spelled out by the first letters of the clues, when read in order, Across then Down). I will say that the "first-letters" message was startling, not because I didn't see it (if you're not looking for it, why would you see it?), but because *usually* puzzles with "first-letters" messages (yes, they've been in NYTXW puzzles before) have a very awkward feel to them, like the clues have been compromised (because, well, they have, for the sake of the message). But this puzzle did not feel as if they clues had anything weird or off about them. In fact, the whole solve was eerily smooth and fast *until* I hit the STYNE / CTU row. At that point, the puzzle jumped from Monday to Thursday level for me.


I can never remember if it's STINE or STYNE (composers, ugh, so many), and even with ARMY I couldn't really get CAMP from [End point of a military march] (I figured they were marching to war ... then I figured the "march" was musical and the end point was an ... ARMY CODA???!). The real killer of this puzzle, though, was CTU, an answer that has never appeared in the NYTXW before. I kept putting in and taking out GSUIT, but the "U" just made no sense. And then I could Not remember the exact spelling of AOC's middle name (49D: Elected congresswoman of 2018, Alexandria ___-Cortez => OCASIO). I always want it to be OCTAVIO. And then there's the very clever but Absolutely Brutal clue on CASTLING (39D: Rookie move?) (because CASTLING in chess involves the ... rook ... so it's more rook-y, but still, that is good). Finally, I had no idea DAN was a [Tribe of Israel]. My bad. Anyway, the net result was somewhat jarring—a very easy puzzle up top, a much rougher thing down below. But as I say, I have no interest in picking this puzzle apart on a technical level. It works OK on its own, but it wasn't meant to be solved on its own. It was written for a joyous occasion. So go read about the joyous occasion, and enjoy the rest of your day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]