Constructor: Hemant Mehta
Relative difficulty: Easy
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: HI-HAT (29A: Pair of percussion pieces) —
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***ATTENTION: READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS*** : Hello from the first properly snowy day of Winter 2024! It's early January, which means it's time once again for my annual week-long pitch for financial contributions to the blog. Every year I ask readers to consider what the blog is worth to them on an annual basis and give accordingly. So ... 17 years ... not bad. At this time last year, I was recovering from COVID and still dealing with the very fresh grief brought on by the untimely death of my cat, Olive. I was very grateful for the blog at that point, since it grounded me in routine and gave me a place where I could lose myself in a pastime I love, and share that love with others. OK, yes, true, I don't always *love* crosswords. Sometimes it's more hate-love or love-hate or "Why are you being like this, you stupid puzzle!?" It ain't all positive vibes, as you know. But I realized last year that part of what makes this blog so fun for me, and what makes it a solace to many readers, is the sense of commiseration it provides. Sometimes the puzzle thrills you, and maybe I agree with you, and maybe I don't; and sometimes it infuriates you, and maybe I agree with you, and maybe I don't. But either way, the blog is here; it's *always* here. You get to have your feelings validated, or you get to shake your head at my errant judgment and often breathtaking ignorance, but either way, you get to share an experience that's an important part of your daily life, and maybe you learn something new. Above all, I hope you feel that there is a real person with a real life and real emotions and (very) real human flaws who's telling you what it was *really* like for him to solve the puzzle. I never wanted to be an expert, offering some kind of bloodless know-it-all advice and analysis. I wanted blood. Blood on the page. There will be blood! ... But also, music videos. And Words of the Day. And, if you hang around long enough, cat pictures. Like this one:
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This is Ida (she put herself in the bin, I swear). Ida is the happy sequel to last year's grief. At the beginning of January, I was mourning. By the end of January, I was still mourning, but now I had a new companion (as did my other cat, Alfie, who *really* needed one). Why am I talking about my cats? Because they are constant, they give shape and rhythm to my day, and I love them even if they sometimes drive me crazy. Just like crossword puzzles! (See that! Segue! This is why you should pay me the big bucks!)
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However much I love writing this blog (and I do, a lot), it is, in fact, a job. This blog has covered the NYTXW every day, without fail, for 17 years, and except for two days a month (when my regular stand-ins Mali and Clare write for me), and an occasional vacation or sick day (when I hire substitutes to write for me), it's me who's doing the writing. Every day. At very ... let's say, inconvenient hours (my alarm goes off most mornings at 3:45am). Over the years, I have received all kinds of advice about "monetizing" the blog, invitations to turn it into a subscription-type deal à la Substack or Patreon. But that sort of thing has never felt right for me. I like being out here on Main, on this super old-school blogging platform, just giving it away for free and relying on conscientious addicts like yourselves to pay me what you think the blog's worth. It's just nicer that way.
All Paypal contributions will be gratefully acknowledged by email. All Venmo contributions will get a little heart emoji, at a minimum :) 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. My daughter (Ella Egan) has once again designed my annual thank-you cards, and once again those cards feature (wait for it) cats! My cats: Alfie & Ida. This year, an elegant set of five!
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These really capture the combination of beauty and goofiness that I love in cats (and puzzles, frankly). I'd say "Collect All Five!" but every snail-mail contributor will get just one and (hopefully) like it! 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 indicate "NO CARD." Again, as ever, I'm so grateful for your readership and support. Please know that your support means a lot to me and my family. Now on to today's puzzle...
Lots to enjoy here, but again, as with yesterday's, there's no late-week bite. No difficulty, no challenge, no wrestling with demons, nothing of the sort. Lots of whoosh-whoosh (hurray), but unallayed whoosh-whoosh is like a meal of Skittles. I love Skittles, but I cannot live on them. I need ... what's the nutritional equivalent of puzzle difficulty? Fiber? Vitamins? Anyway, I need the puzzle to push back a little, and this one simply didn't. I had a few hesitations: "Is TV CAM really a thing people say?" (1A: What might make the news, for short?). "What is this surgery prep term that isn't SCRUBS UP or SCRUBS IN or SHAVES THE PATIENT or the like?" (15D: Preps for surgery). "Why won't BLACK OUT fit in these squares!?" (35D: Eclipse). "What is a Futura? Is it a FORD? ... no? ... is it a FIAT? ... no. Not a car, eh?" (38D: Futura, for one = FONT). But that's it? I think that's literally it. Yes, I had to wait for a few crosses to get the ostentatiously wordplayish clue at 17A: It doesn't run below the bridge (STUFFY NOSE), but the crosses came easily, in abundance, and when the crosses come that way, the longer answers just don't stand a chance, no matter how hard they're trying to be clever. I don't think of a STUFFY NOSE as not running. The Mayo Clinic says:
Relative difficulty: Easy
Word of the Day: HI-HAT (29A: Pair of percussion pieces) —
A hi-hat (hihat, high-hat, etc.) is a combination of two cymbals and a pedal, all mounted on a metal stand. It is a part of the standard drum kit used by drummers in many styles of music including rock, pop, jazz, and blues. Hi-hats consist of a matching pair of small to medium-sized cymbals mounted on a stand, with the two cymbals facing each other. The bottom cymbal is fixed and the top is mounted on a rod which moves the top cymbal toward the bottom one when the pedal is depressed (a hi-hat that is in this position is said to be "closed" or "closed hi-hats").The hi-hat evolved from a "sock cymbal", a pair of similar cymbals mounted at ground level on a hinged, spring-loaded foot apparatus. Drummers invented the first sock cymbals to enable one drummer to play multiple percussion instruments at the same time. Over time these became mounted on short stands—also known as "low-boys"—and activated by pedals similar to those used in modern hi-hats. When extended upward roughly 3 feet (76 cm) they were originally known as "high sock" cymbals, which evolved over time to the familiar "high-hat" term. [...]
While the term hi-hat normally refers to the entire setup (two cymbals, stand, pedal, rod mechanism), in some cases, drummers use it to refer exclusively to the two cymbals themselves. (wikipedia)
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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 three options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar on the homepage):
Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905
Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905
The third, increasingly popular option is Venmo; if that's your preferred way of moving money around, my handle is @MichaelDavidSharp (the last four digits of my phone are 4878, in case Venmo asks you, which I guess it does sometimes, when it's not trying to push crypto on you, what the hell?!)
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| [these are the best Skittles and I can't find them anymore!] |
Nasal congestion, also called stuffy nose, is a feeling of fullness in the nose or face. There also might be fluid running or dripping out of the nose or down the back of the throat. (mayoclinic.org) (my emph.)
This would seem to contradict today's clue, at least a little, but points for effort, man, that clue is really giving you all it's got. Once I got out of the NW and started zinging around the grid, I found a lot to like about this puzzle, particularly SHOOK THINGS UP and UP TO NO GOOD (yes, the "UP"s are doubled, and no I didn't really care—somehow the word is small enough, and the expressions long and vivid enough, that the double-UP is not really something I noticed as I sailed along; whereas the doubled THATs from Wednesday's puzzle were conspicuous and jarring, perhaps because there were just fewer long (non-theme) answers to distract me ... also THAT is twice as long as UP, so that ... probably had something to do with my different reactions as well).
I think BORE THE COST is probably a fine answer (24D: Covered expenses), but it feels like it has some EAT-A-SANDWICH DNA in it, somehow. It's a real thing but doesn't *quite* want to stand on its own (though, to be fair, it stands alone much better than EAT A SANDWICH, which is why it's more a distant relative than a sibling or first cousin). "MY FAULT" doesn't want to stand on its own nearly as much as "MY BAD" (5D: "Sorry, I messed up"). This clue also has that issue I complained about recently where a complete sentence is used to clue a fragment (or vice versa). The equivalent "Sorry, I messed up" is "It was my fault." So there are two reasons why "MY FAULT" felt off to MY EARS. Ooh, SPOILED ROTTEN, I forgot to include that in the list of Loved answers. The longer answers really do have a lot of sassy, mischievous energy today. I also like the clue on BANNED BOOKS—fun to go in unexpected rather than predictable directions with the examples (6D: Merriam-Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary and "Where's Waldo?," once). What did people think Waldo ... was up to? No good? Hmm, gotta reread that one ...
A list of other things!:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
- 21A: Temper, quaintly (DANDER)— this made me smile. "Quaintly" is exactly right, right on the money. I've only ever heard this meaning of DANDER in the phrase "get one's DANDER up." I think IRISH was once used this way too ("get one's IRISH up"), but maybe that was considered a slur (??) and people stopped using it. I don't mind the quaintness today. I don't need more pet DANDER in my life.
- 36A: "Bridgerton" actor Regé-___ Page (JEAN) — no idea, but with the French-looking first part and then the hyphen, I figured JEAN was more likely than, say, JOAN.
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- 45A: Figures that are best kept low, in brief (ERAS) — baseball stat that I just assume everyone knows but if not, "Earned Run Average" is a pitching stat that's good if it's low because it means the pitcher gives up fewer runs, on average (the "average" is over a nine-inning period) (please don't carp with this definition, I just haven't got time to explain earned v. unearned runs, let alone the morass of other stats I'd surely run into if I kept writing about this topic, I mean, pretty soon you're explaining FIP and people start quietly leaving the room so they can get on with their lives...).
- 8D: High ways? (ELS) — the elevated (or "el") trains, specifically in Chicago. Second plural ELS this week. Ernie ELS sits sadly by wondering what he did wrong.
- 16A: First American woman in space (RIDE)— Sally Ride (forever musically linked with "Heavy Metal Suicide")
- 9D: Response to an approaching embarrassment (CRINGE) — I think I do not understand what "approaching" is doing here. Don't you CRINGE when the embarrassment is already upon you? Or upon someone else, and you are embarrassed on their behalf? Or is the "approaching embarrassment," like, your uncle, coming toward you, making puns and discussing his political, uh, insights?
- 37A: A-list guest, to a host (GET)— nice use of verb as noun here. Very in-the-language.
- 50D: The Big Apple's "bravest," in brief (FDNY) — the quotation marks around "bravest" made me laugh, as they look like ironic "air quotes." Guess the NYT doesn't think the FDNY are actually brave. If I were a really bored writer at a conservative website, I would make a big deal of this.
I found a stray (!) Holiday Pet Pic, so please enjoy Felix and Chester basking in the warmth of holiday cheer and their own obvious greatness. To a cat, Everything is a throne. These two make adorable co-regents:
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| [Thanks, Liam] |
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]