Constructor: Margaret Seikel
Relative difficulty: Easy
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THEME: MATCHING PJS (57A: Some Xmas card attire ... or a hint to 18-, 23-, 37- and 48-Across) — four two-word phrases: first word "P," second word "J":
Theme answers:
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Opened the puzzle, saw Margaret Seikel's name on the byline, and actually, or possibly just in mind, exclaimed, "Ooh, I'm Seik'd!" So, two things. One, I assume I'm pronouncing that right (rhymes with "psyched") but for all I know it's SAY-kel and I botched the whole pun. Two, I don't know why her name should've provoked such an ecstatic response in me. I think I've done some of her puzzles and liked them well enough, but I just had this weird feeling of "Yes, this is the one! Come on, Tuesday!" It's like I really needed a win and thought, "Yes, I trust Margaret!" Well, whatever the hell was going on in my brain, I got what I wanted, which is a largely delightful Tuesday puzzle, praise all the crossword gods, even OOXTEPLERNON, the God of Bad Fill, hallowed be his name. Hardly any offerings to OOXTEPLERNON today—you're supposed to throw him at least some kind of sacrifice or he returns to wreak havoc on your grids and your children's grids, as it was told. Today, I guess he was satisfied with, I dunno, KAT? OWS? GNC? There's really nothing particularly crosswordesey here. It's really a very clean grid. And the theme is simple and seasonal and right on the money ... except ... (Sorry, there's one "except," there's always at least one, you know the deal) ... while I love the phrase MATCHING PJS, both on its own and as a revealer *concept*, it seems ... either off or redundant in this case. The "MATCHING" part I mean. The answers are just ... PJs. There's nothing "MATCHING" about them except their "PJ"-ness. That is, if these are MATCHING PJS ... what do un-MATCHING PJS look like? My guess is ... the same. Since the answers themselves are not identical (which ... would be weird ... what would that look like? PIZZA JOINT PIZZA JOINT PIZZA JOINT?), I'm not really getting the "MATCHING" part. Everyone is wearing PJs, yes, but nothing about the PJS says "MATCHING." So ... there. Still had a good time. It just ended with a bit of a headcock / puzzled-face / three question marks in the margin of my puzzle print-out. But it left me wanting to curl up on the couch with my cats and a mug of cocoa and John Denver's Rocky Mountain Christmas on the hi-fi, so yes, I call that a win.
The joyous feeling was helped along considerably by the first long Down:
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Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- PICKLE JUICE (18A: One remedy for a hangover, supposedly)
- PIZZA JOINT (23A: Place to pick up a pepperoni pie, perhaps)
- POLITICAL JUNKIE (37A: Close follower of the "horse race")
- PRIVATE JET (48A: Aircraft that's 1% full?) [i.e. full of the very wealthy, i.e. "the 1%"]
Ilana Glazer (born April 12, 1987) is an American comedian, director, producer, writer, and actress. She co-created and co-starred, with Abbi Jacobson, in the Comedy Central series Broad City, which is based on the web series of the same name. She was twice nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series for the series. Glazer also starred in the 2017 film Rough Night and released her debut stand-up comedy special, The Planet Is Burning, in January 2020. (wikipedia)
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The joyous feeling was helped along considerably by the first long Down:
And, later, the second long Down:
I don't use NECK PILLOWs when I fly—they're awkward and don't work for me, so I just resign myself to not sleeping—but it's a vivid object with a very specific purpose and I enjoyed recalling it, even if it did remind me of all the dopes who wear theirs around the terminal (sorry if you're one of those dopes, you gotta carry them somewhere, I guess!). As for "MAKE IT WORK," it's such a beautiful low-key signature phrase, and it made me miss that show, which I haven't thought about for a long time, and which is probably the last "reality" show I ever watched (besides "The Great British Bake-Off," which is religion, not "reality TV," how dare you!). When you've got a cute, simple theme *and* you nail the two long Downs, you are cooking. TIP OUT—also wonderfully original (as clued) (63A: Distribute cash at the end of a shift in restaurant lingo).
The only "difficulty" I had was with the latter ends of the themers. I solved straight down the west coast of the puzzle without even trying to throw themers across, and then the first time I looked at them, I could see POLITICAL but had no idea what came next, PIZZA, same, and I wanted PICKLE to end with BRINE. It would help if I could remember JEN *&#$^% Psaki's dang first name (19D: Biden White House press secretary Psaki). Her last name is on lock, but despite seeing her first name in puzzles a bunch, I keep botching it. Today I had her as a DEB (!?). I ended up getting the JUICE part of PICKLE JUICE from crosses in the far NE, and then once I got the JOINT of PIZZA JOINT, I was like "oh, PJs! cool!" and so the other themers fell much more easily. But again, it was never not easy. Just had to work crosses a little on the back ends of the themers. That's all. Light work even for a Tuesday. Beyond that, I went with STOIC before STONY (a kealoa* I hadn't yet come across since coining the term) (41A: Poker-faced), but made no other errors that I can recall. Breezy! Beautiful! Tuesday! Your turn, Wednesday!
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld