Constructor: Rebecca Goldstein and Rafael Musa
Relative difficulty: Easy
![]()
THEME: none
Word of the Day: ANAIS Mitchell (64A: Tony and Grammy winner Mitchell) —
![]()
Once again, I find my beloved Friday puzzle running on a Saturday. Better late than never! This was breezy and bright and loaded with pop and fizz, and with the exception of TOADETTE (!?) felt broadly accessible. Deep cuts from the Greater Mario Universe feel extremely generationally exclusionary, but as long as the crosses are fair (they are), and as long as the puzzle isn't drowning in proper nouns of a similar nature, then whatever, it's Saturday, you can deal. I can deal. I did deal. Sometimes, if you are older and you squawk about gaming terms or YouTubers or whatever, younger solvers retort (!) that "well if I have to know all these older names, then it's only fair blah blah blah" but the difference is, TOSCA (say) or Bjorn BORG is not a niche name, not a name that only aficionados / players / fans would know. It's not like I'm a damn opera fan—I know TOSCA from doing crosswords, not from being Gen X. And BORG (who will be an unknown to many younger solvers) was just ... on the planet playing TENNIS when I was alive. These "old" names aren't being set forth as generational markers, as some kind of old-signaling. They're there because they fit in the grid, and are legitimately broadly famous (even if BORG's fame has mayb faded slightly). Whereas TOADETTE is an absolutely intentional "look at this millennial/GenZ answer I managed to put in the grid!" Which is fine ... in highly limited amounts. Annnnyway, all constructors should be careful with names At All Times, and puzzles should be broadly inviting to all demographics. And I think this one is. Truth be told, I actually kinda like TOADETTE. Makes me slightly happy that younger (than me) people are making puzzles that have their own vibe and that include some things that don't interest me at all. Makes me happy for the state of puzzling. Just give us olds a chance, is all I'm saying... (TOADETTE made her debut in 2003, I'm told, in something called Mario Kart: Double Dash (!?), so she's getting on in years herself)
![]()
Notes:![]()
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easy
Word of the Day: ANAIS Mitchell (64A: Tony and Grammy winner Mitchell) —
Anaïs Mitchell (/əˈneɪ.ɪs/; born March 26, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and playwright. Mitchell has released eight studio albums, including Hadestown (2010), Young Man in America (2012), Child Ballads (2013), and Anaïs Mitchell (2022).
[Bonny Light Horseman (2020)] She developed her album Hadestown into a stage musical (together with director Rachel Chavkin), which received its US debut at New York Theatre Workshop in summer 2016, and its Canadian debut at the Citadel Theatre, Edmonton the following year.The show opened at London's National Theatre in November 2018 and then on Broadway on April 17, 2019, at the Walter Kerr Theatre. The Broadway production of Hadestown won eight Tony Awards in 2019 including the Tony Award for Best Musical. Mitchell received the Tony Award for Best Original Score; she was also nominated for Best Book of a Musical. The Broadway cast album of the show took home the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album in 2020. Mitchell's first book, Working on a Song: The Lyrics of Hadestown, was published by Plume Books on October 6, 2020. Mitchell was included in Time's 100 Most Influential People of 2020.
Mitchell is a member of the band Bonny Light Horseman, whose self-titled debut was released in 2020. The band's second album, "Golden Rolling Holy", was released in 2022. (wikipedia)
• • •
There were other fairly contemporary names in the puzzle as well, but these were mostly recognizable as normal human names (LARA, ANAIS, NANCY). Then there's actor John CENA, whom you should just commit to memory, just like actor Michael CERA, who doesn't appear today, but will appear again, someday (it's hilarious that I confuse these two, because if you saw them side by side ... they do not seem confusable). But the lovely thing about this puzzle is that the non-TOADETTE names in this puzzle are actually short and few in number. What shines forth is the marquee stuff, which is what marquees are supposed to do: shine. GOLDEN HOUR! Literally shining! RUNS POINT, "OH GOD, YES!," RENT STRIKE—all strong. My favorite answer of the day, though, is "I HATE TO ASK..." which I had as "I HAVE TO ASK..." until (completely ironically) TOADETTE came to the rescue! (I didn't know TOADETTE, but figured TOADEVTE had to be wrong).
The puzzle is fun in part because it's drawing from so many cultural spheres, and seems to take a real delight in language. From the two funky portmanteaus (PLUOT, TIGONS) to the "go to waste" wordplay in the COMPOST BIN clue (62A: What may go to waste? No! What waste may go to), to some of the clever short clues (22A: The cab is here!, or 50D: Who says?), this puzzle had a playful energy that I really liked. It also has a relatively wide-open and flowing grid, which allowed for a lot of zoom-zooming and not a lot of stuck slogging in dreary sequestered corners. Plus, it had colloquial sass: "AW, GEE!""COME NOW" ... it has the pronoun "I" in it three times, but I ... yeah, I'm pretty sure I don't care. Put as many "I"s in your grid as you want, I won't stop you.
Notes:
- 2D: State (AVOW)— classic kealoa*. I was definitely Team AVER today.
- 41A: Love scene? (TENNIS) — "Love" is just a possible TENNIS score, so the "scene" where such a "love" is found ... is TENNIS.
- 10A: Perfume named after a pop star (RIRI) — this is Rihanna
- 22A: The cab's here! (NAPA) — wanted CURB. Wrong kind of cab! ("cab" here = "cabernet")
- 4D: Basketball player's cry while being fouled on the shot ("AND ONE!") — only if they make the shot. If you're fouled on the shot, it's one free throw if you made the shot, two if you missed it (assuming it's not a three-point shot, in which case you get three free throws).
- 36A: Historic husband of Claudia Octavia (NERO) — "Historic husband" is awkward. Like ... he was historically great at being a husband? Or ... he just ... existed ... in history? You can lose "Historic" and the clue works Just Fine.
- 8D: Hybrid fruit akin to an aprium (PLUOT)— I thought the word was PLUCOT, but hybrids (and their names) have apparently run amok, so PLUOT and PLUCOT are both things, but somehow ... different. I saw one of these hybrids in the grid several years ago and was like "WTF is that?" and then went to Wegmans and found out WTF that was, namely, delicious.
- 21D: Person who's left, for short? (DEM) — Lotta leftists I know are shaking their heads at this one, but yeah, OK, generally, Democrats are left of center (wherever that is) on the political spectrum.
- 46A: Made a sound with a flute (CLINKED) — the "flute" is a champagne glass.
- 50D: Who says? (SIMON) — Who says? SIMON Says. Per the game of the same name.
- 35D: Adjective that, when its lone vowel is doubled, becomes an advocacy organization (GLAD) — the advocacy org. is GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation). I once (long ago, in the twentieth century) wrote an article about Braveheart and the widely divergent responses it occasioned from two organizations in particular—the SNP (Scottish National Party) on the one hand, and GLAAD on the other. And ... yeah, that is the story of how I know GLAAD and what it stands for. Good day!
P.S. just noticed the ONE dupe (AND ONE / ONES). Not ideal. But they’re on opposite sides of the grid, and I didn’t notice at first, so not a catastrophic misstep
*kealoa = a pair of words (normally short, common answers) that can be clued identically and that share at least one letter in common (in the same position). These are answers you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] ATON/ALOT, ["Git!"] "SHOO"/"SCAT," etc.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]