Expressive cartoon avatar / FRI 1-10-20 / 1954 Patti Page hit that begins it was winter when you told me you were leaving / TV character who went to high school for 122 years / Admit defeat in modern slang / Mononymous model

Constructor: Brendan Emmett Quigley

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (6:26)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: BITMOJI (1A: Expressive cartoon avatar) —

a brand name for a digital cartoon image that is intended to looklike and represent you, used in electronic communication (Cambridge English Dictionary)

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!
Mildly enjoyable, this one. It ultimately won me over on the strength of its flashy fill (particularly JUULPODS, TAKE THE L, and AFROFUTURISM). There's also some pretty clever and devious cluing along the way. I fell into a couple of pretty bad holes, which was frustrating, but they weren't the kind of holes I RESENTed ... except for one. I did, in fact, resent PLAYAREA. If you are going specify *McDonald's restaurants* as the locale, then the proper answer can only be PLAYLAND. Here, I have proof:

"Well, Playland is a *type* of PLAY AREA, so technically the clue is..." Stop. No. Get real. Don't try to LAWYER me here; this clue is cheap nonsense. Get your difficulty some other way—like with the clue on LAWYER, for instance (64A: One who goes through the motions?). Or the seemingly vague but actually very specific clue on OAKLAND (15A: A home in the major leagues?) (because OAKLAND is the home of the ... A's). But this "ha ha, I fooled you by cluing a very specific thing but then having a very general thing as the actual answer" is annoying. More annoying things: ON THE LAST DAY (18A: When some contest entries are submitted, just in time) ... which is borderline "green paint," in that, yes, it's a phrase you might say, but it doesn't stand alone so well. Further, there are no shortcakes that are not strawberry. Having your marquee, middle-of-the-grid answer be some off-fruit shortcake is unfortunate, to put it kindly. Also unfortunate, having APPLE cross APPLET (27D: Java product). I realized that they are not etymologically related, but crossing identical five-letter strings, *any* five-letter strings, isn't great form, and it's especially not great when the letter string makes a complete word like APPLE. Glaring intersecting strings! No, don't.


The fill in this thing is mostly good, but ITAL OOP? I CRIED. (I just like how that row is kind of a complete thought). I legit thought that SPYRING was, in fact, a [Term for a group of moles], i.e. the animals that burrow underground. A murder of crows, a SPYRING of moles, why not? It was several minutes after I'd finished the puzzle that I realized, "Oh ..... *moles*! Like, the spy kind of mole. Oh, yeah, that makes much more sense." As for the holes that I fell into. The first was PLAY AREA (see above). Related to that (intersecting it, in fact) was the other trap I fell into in the NE: had the PI- at 17A: Steals (PIRATES) and wrote in PILFERS. Boo hoo. The worst trap of them all, however, was in the SE, where I had UC- at 54D: Golden State school inits. and dropped in -LA, which gave me the "LE-" at the front of 63A: Not as likely to hold water, which seemed to make LEAKIER a lock. UCLA to LEAKIER to ... sputterville. PUREE and STRIPS eventually yelled loud enough for me to hear them, but man that UCLA/LEAKIER combo was brutal (also, common, I'm guessing, as two people have already confirmed to me that they did the same thing). Kind of unfortunate to find the real answer is SEEPIER, which is barely a word, but it is what it is.

As I say, the overall solving experience was still enjoyable. And the puzzle was hard in a way that was totally acceptable for a Friday.

Some Notes:

• Knowing IEOH definitely helped (R.I.P. I.M PEI) (34D: The "I" of I.M. Pei).
• It took me forever (well after the puzzle was done) to figure out how PINKIE made sense for 23D: P's and q's typer. I thought "typer" meant ... well, "type," as in "the type to mind their P's and q's," so I was looking for a word that basically meant "someone with good manners." But no, "typer" here is literally the finger that you type the letter "P" and the letter "Q" with (assuming you can touch-type). 
• ISSA Rae has come on very strong in recent months, all across Crossworddom (7D: "Insecure" creator Rae). I feel like I see her name once a day now, which surely I don't, but ... it's a lot. She is a future Crossword Pantheon member for sure. Also, "Insecure" is a wonderful show.
• The "smack" in 59D: Smack on the street, e.g., for short (PDA) is a kiss, and PDA = "public display of affection"
• I'm never going to like EPT, no matter how "jocular" you tell me it is (50A: Capable, jocularly) (it's a back formation from "inept"; see also "gruntled")

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. I actually liked Brendan's themeless puzzle from his own website this week better than I liked this one. Check it out.

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