Hi, everyone, it’s Clare for the last Tuesday of the month and the last crossword of the year! I hope everyone is having a happy holiday season. I went home to California for the first time in a couple of years, which was lovely. I packed a full suitcase and then proceeded to wear the same, like, three outfits the entire time (read: sweats). I also had my hands very, very full… ’cause I got a puppy!! I picked her up (along with her brother for my mom) and took her to California, then brought her back to D.C., so Christmas was full of “Oh, no’s” and “Awws” and “I’m tired’s” and lots of puppy cuddles (and nips). I’m now back in D.C. trying to get my puppy used to the loud noises and people and sirens and a new place with my sister’s dog, who’s 14 and doesn’t really play the same way as my puppy's brother. But my dog, Red, is super adorable, and I’m just trying to be a good puppy mom to her!
Anywho, I’ll shut up about puppy stuff (maybe, at least until the end) and get on to the puzzle…
Relative difficulty:Medium-ish
Theme answers:
- POWER COUPLE (17A: VOLT, AMP)
- PAIR OF SOCKS (32A: PUNCH, WALLOP)
- DOUBLE DIGIT (40A: FINGER, TOE)
- TWO POINTERS (59A: HINT, TIP)
Nixon in China is an opera in three acts by John Adams with a libretto by Alice Goodman. Adams's first opera, it was inspired by U.S. president Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to the People's Republic of China. The work premiered at the Houston Grand Opera on October 22, 1987, in a production by Peter Sellars with choreography by Mark Morris. When Sellars approached Adams with the idea for the opera in 1983, Adams was initially reluctant, but eventually decided that the work could be a study in how myths come to be, and accepted the project. Goodman's libretto was the result of considerable research into Nixon's visit, though she disregarded most sources published after the 1972 trip. (Wiki)
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That was a solid puzzle to end the year. It was a cute theme (even if I do have some nits). And it has a lot of nice, uncommon fill (even if there was some typical crosswordese). There wasn’t a revealer, which didn’t affect the solve but which (selfishly speaking) left it much harder for me to try to accurately describe the theme! Like, how do you say the theme is words synonymous with “two” when one of the actual words is TWO? But that description was the best I could come up with.
The idea of having two words in the clue lead to answers that involve pairings worked. And I liked the theme phrases, my favorite being POWER COUPLE (17A). But I kept finding nits with the theme (maybe blame my lack of sleep because of the puppy). Why are PAIR, DOUBLE, and TWO at the start for the three of the answers but COUPLE is at the end of one of the theme answers? And the answers being plural or singular felt arbitrary to me. My main issue is withDOUBLE DIGIT (40D), which I think should have been made plural. It just doesn’t make sense to have that one singular while also having TWO POINTERS.
After my original annoyance, as I kept looking at the puzzle, I found more and more that I liked. There were a lot of words that are uncommon in puzzles that zhuzhed this one up. You don’t see COFFEE CAKE (11D), SPOOKY (46A), TOPSY (15A), KIWI (3D), DEXTER (48D), ADIÓS AMIGO (28D), SHIVA (14A), JAFAR (22A), etc. in a crossword every day. And then there was LORETTA Lynn (41D: Country legend), who’s amazing. The aforementioned POWER COUPLE (17A) is a fun phrase. CLEAR SKIES (12D) and IT’S UP TO YOU (29D) also work well.
The punny clue/answers were also good. 54: Present day, in brief as XMAS got me for a while before it hit me that it meant the day for, well, opening presents. I was all set to rail against this clue/answer being in the puzzle on New Year’s Eve instead of Christmas and then had to backtrack. 26A: Apple gadgets as CORERS confused me so much at first, but that was clever — I’m just so used to seeing products made by Apple in the puzzle. 6A: Drive crazy? as SPEED felt straightforward to me, so I did originally wonder about there being a question mark. My biggest “aha” moment was well after I’d completed the puzzle and just couldn’t figure out why 30D: Police work? was SONG, and then it hit me that the clue was referring to the band.
I’ve been playing gin rummy (or, more often in my household, gin 500) for most of my life, and I’ve somehow never heard of MELD (27D: Gin rummy combo) before. You learn something new every day! 49D: Gold, silver, or bronze got me when I typed in “metal” instead of MEDAL. 18D: “Nixon in ___" (John Adams opera) with CHINA wasn’t overly familiar to me, especially not in relation to John Adams. For 36A: Member of K-pop’s Blackpink, I originally typed in ROSÉ, the other member of Blackpink with four letters in her name (and with an “s” as the third letter, to add to my confusion) instead of LISA. I wonder if this gave some people pause, as those of you who aren’t as familiar with K-pop and Blackpink probably don’t know the names of the individual members (though they all have launched solo careers). And if we want to get technical, TUT (44D: Boy king of Egypt) is actually a nickname (full name is Tutankhamun), so the clue could indicate that (even if the name commonly used is King Tut). Anyway, that answer did play off nicely with ROI (34A: French king).
There was some mundane crosswordese thrown in the puzzle, of course. But overall, the puzzle was a good one to end the year on. Now on to another year of crosswords (and write-ups)!
Misc.:
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Red took a pause from eating the nice tree to pose for this pic. ![]()
Here’s Red lazily chewing on a bone in the airport on our Red-eye back to D.C. ![]()
And finally, here's Red intently planning how she would get from the bench to chew my phone (again).![]()
And that's all from me. Have a Happy New Year!
Misc.:
- To quote the iconic Edna Mode in response to 50D: Certain superhero accessories as CAPES—
- Pshhh, a game of WAR is never “simple” (5D: Simple two-player card game). These can last hours — and obviously require intense skill and focus!
- I would like to use this opportunity presented to me by 13D: Fortunetellers to plug the show “Agatha All Along.” It’s absolutely incredible, and one of the characters is a SEER (technically a divination witch) played by Patti LuPone. She’s fantastic in the show, and the show itself is unique and incredible. I’ve now run out of adjectives.
- My DYE JOBS (10D: Certain salon offerings) don’t involve going to a salon but instead involve me using a box dye over my sink. It kinda sorta works.
- So sorry to my sister, who didn’t win the MEGA Millions (55D) (and share it with me, of course) pot of something like $1.2 billion. It went to some other person in Northern California. Ugh.
Finally, in keeping with Rex, here’s my own version of Holiday Pet Pics, where it’s just my new puppy, Red! When I grew up skiing in Lake Tahoe, my home mountain had a chairlift that was one of my favorites and was memorable in other ways, too. My races were often held there. While on that lift, my dad got a call from a soccer coach saying that I’d made a team that was quite important to me. I watched a World Cup race there, and Mikaela Shiffrin and I practically became BFFs at the bottom. (I swear she smiled into the crowd while looking straight at me.) Anyway, the lift is called Red Dog. So I now have a Red dog!
I’ve been having fun with puns now. My pup is black and white and “Red” all over. My dad told me that when I was close to getting her, he was issuing a “Red” alert. My sister and I love books, so she’ll be a well-“Red” dog… etc.
Here’s Red trying to eat the holiday decor as we were taking it down.
