Constructor: Kareem Ayas
Relative difficulty: Medium
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THEME:"All Things Change" — expressions involving "change" (i.e. coins: a "dime" a "penny" a "nickel" and a "quarter") are represented visually in the grid by coin-squares (or, in the case of "quarter," a lack of such a square). Those coin squares must be filled by the number of cents represented by each coin (TEN, ONE, FIVE):
Theme answers:![]()
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***ATTENTION: READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS*** : 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. Writing this blog is a joy, but it is also a job—an everyday, up-by-4am job. My morning schedule is regular as hell. So regular that my cats know my routine and will start walking all over me if I even *stir* after 3am. You ever lie there in the early morning, dying to simply roll over or stretch, but knowing that the second you do, the second you so much as budge, the cats will take it as a signal that you're through with sleep and ready to serve them? So you just lie perfectly still, trying to get every ounce of bedrest you can before the cats ruin it all? That's me, every morning. I guess you could say they "help" get me up on time to write, but come on, I have an alarm for that. The cats are adorable, but frankly they're no help at all. After I feed them, I go upstairs to write, and what do they do? They go straight back to sleep. Here I'll show you. This was two days ago, when I came downstairs after writing:![]()
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Whatever kind of reader you are, you're a reader, and I would appreciate your support. This blog has covered the NYTXW every day, without fail, for over eighteen (18!?) 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. 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. And maybe I'd make more money that way, I don't know, but that sort of thing has never felt right for me. And honestly, does anyone really need yet another subscription to manage? As I've said in years past, 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 card, and once again the card features (wait for it) cats! ![]()
Ida & Alfie, my little yin/yang sleepers! (They're slowly becoming friends, but don't tell them that—it makes them mad and they will deny 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. Please know that your support means a lot to me and my family. Now on to today's puzzle...
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I think my favorite part of the puzzle is the missing quarter. I mean, it's the most awkward, and also the least ... coiny (the QUARTER in NO QUARTER is not a coin, as the DIME, NICKEL and PENNY are, in the other expressions). But there's something so bizarre, almost dada-esque, about having a theme answer rooted in non-existence. I dig it. PERCENT is not gonna get anyone's pulse racing as an answer on its own, but the *idea* of the missing TWENTY-FIVE ... that's kind of cool. The one wonky part of the theme execution today is the nickel ("FIVE"), which I turn "back" in order for TREVI FOUNTAIN to work, but I don't turn back in the cross?? (FAB FIVE). TEN works in its cross, ONE works in its cross, but EVIF does not work in its cross. Unless they're called "The Fab EVIF" now. That would be cool. Or at least way less cliché (the Fab Five already exist, get your own name). The only other note I have on the theme is that I don't think TENSIONS should've gotten its own clue. It's redundant. HAIR EX[TEN]SIONS exists, so there's no need to treat TENSIONS like a separate answer. Just give it one of those non-clues ([—]) and let people figure it out. Otherwise, I thought this was a clever theme. TAKE A PENNY, LEAVE A PENNY is an incredible grid-spanner. And though the rest of the grid doesn't have nearly so much sparkle, it holds up just fine.
Bullets:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
- TURN ON A DIME
- HAIR EX[TEN]SIONS (the answer literally "turns" (down) at the "dime" (TEN))
- TAKE A PENNY, LEAVE A PENNY
- BUY GET [ONE] FREE (the phrase "buy one, get one free" has one of its "pennies" (ONEs) taken and another one ... left in place)
- NICKELBACK
- TR[EVI F]OUNTAIN (the "nickel" (FIVE) has been reversed, or turned "back")
- NO QUARTER
- PERCENT (the "quarter" (TWENTY-FIVE) has been omitted from the answer completely)
The Trevi Fountain (Italian: Fontana di Trevi) is an 18th-century fountain in the Trevi district in Rome, Italy, designed by Italian architect Nicola Salvi and completed by Giuseppe Pannini in 1762 and several others. Standing 26.3 metres (86 ft) high and 49.15 metres (161.3 ft) wide, it is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world. (wikipedia)
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And this was yesterday, same time:
Those pictures are from two different days, I swear. And I'm guessing when I go downstairs this morning, I'll find much the same thing. They are beautiful creatures, but they cannot solve or type or bring me warm beverages. When it comes to blogging, I'm on my own. And look, I'm not asking for pity. The truth is, I love my life (and my cats), but the truth *also* is that writing this blog involves a lot of work. I get up and I solve and I write, hoping each day to give you all some idea of what that experience was like for me, as well as some insight into the puzzle's finer (or less fine) qualities—the intricacies of its design, the trickiness of its clues, etc. The real value of the blog, though, is that it offers a sort of commiseration. While I like to think my writing is (at its best) entertaining, I know that sometimes all people need is someone who shares their joy or feels their pain. If you hate a clue, or get stuck and struggle, or otherwise want to throw the puzzle across the room, you know I'm here for you, and that even if my experience is not identical to yours, I Understand! I understand that even though "it's just a puzzle," it's also a friend and a constant companion and a ritual and sometimes a Betrayer! I don't give you objective commentary—I give you my sincere (if occasionally hyperbolic) feelings about the puzzle, what it felt like to solve it. I can dress those feelings up in analytical clothes, sure, but still, ultimately, I'm just one human being out here feeling my puzzle feelings. And hopefully that makes you feel something too—ideally, something good, but hey I'm not picky. Whatever keeps you coming back! Hate-readers are readers too!
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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[Early music videos were wild, in an extremely low-budget kind of way]
I don't like tanning beds per se (ask me about my family history of skin cancer...), but I do like TANNING BED as an answer, and I love it paired with BARES IT ALL (its symmetrical counterpart). I assume you bare it all in a tanning bed, why would you want tan lines? But tanning, like haircare products, is not something I know a ton about. I also don't like cars (as a regular pedestrian, I feel like I spend much of my day trying not to be killed by them), but I like the CAMAROS and IMPALAS up there revving their engines alongside one another. There are also these weird car echoes—the CAMAROS have a CAMEO right next to them, and the IMPALAS have their IMPALE counterpart on the other side of the grid. I also like that a "ducat" is a coin, because that means that a coin has been .... thrown in the fountain (DUCATI (45D: Italian motorcycle brand) crossing TREVI FOUNTAIN). Some days, I just enjoy watching the words bounce off one another in strange and serendipitous ways. And I'm not even drunk right now! (alcohol is out this month).
What I didn't like was all the "IT"s. That's a weird thing to notice or even care about, you say? Shove IT, I say. I FELT IT. I FELT IT at FELT IT and AT IT and BARES IT ALL. I think that's all the standalone "IT"s but I can't be sure as two-letter strings are hard to find in a Sunday-sized grid and my eyes are tired. There were a few trouble spots where fill was concerned. I wrote in SNELL, but as I was writing in, I thought "is this even a word? it looks insane? am I confusing it with CREEL, which also looks weird?" But SNELL worked out, lucky me (41A: Part of a fishing line to which a hook is attached). I had less of a clue about NERFED (39A: Made less effective, in gamer slang). Needed the crosses for that one. "Gamer slang" is always gonna miss me. I was not aware that young bats were called BAT PUPs (10D: Baby in a cave). I thought maybe ... BATLET? Like OWLET? BAT PUP sounds like Batman's dog. So ... like another name for Robin, maybe. Today I learned that Shakira had a "2024 single" (!) with a parenthetical title that has "parentheses" in it! (33D: 2024 Shakira single "(___ Paréntesis)" => ENTRE). Needed most of the crosses to get that one. I was floored by SUVARI because I haven't seen or thought about that name in forever. She's got a name like an Italian motorcycle. The DUCATI SUVARI! Has she been in anything since the American Pie stuff. Hmm, she seems to work a lot, just not in anything I've seen in the past twenty years. Holy cow, this is the NYTXW debut of her name! Well, her last name, anyway. MENA has been in the puzzle ... "dime" times in the Shortz era. It also appeared four times in the pre-Shortz era, but then it was a [Manufacturing city in Ark.]. How would any non-Arkansan know that!?
Bullets:
- 43A: Characters from Homer and Herodotus? (ETAS) — "characters" here are (Greek) letters.
- 92A: European capital said to be the site of the first decorated Christmas tree (RIGA) — LOL I love rumor / hearsay clues. "Said to be" (???). This clue would've been cool in December, but feels dramatically out of season in the immediate post-Holiday period. Oh, and RIGA is the capital of Latvia, in case that was still a mystery.
- 106A: Musician once nicknamed "The Beale Street Blues Boy" (B.B. KING) — wait, is that what the "B.B." stands for!? Blues Boy? Whoa, the answer is "yes," according to American Blues Scene Dot Com:
It was as a guitarist and radio DJ that King adopted the nickname “Beale Street Blues Boy,” which shortened to “Blues Boy” and finally, B.B
Glad he dropped the B.S., that wouldn't have worked so well.
- 99D: Storing, as some ashes (URNING) — I have only one URNING desire / Throw this answer in the fire! (srsly, it's weird)
- 44A: Goes higher, at an auction (REBIDS)— I wanted this to be RAISES, but that's probably poker, right?
- 77D: Major K-pop septet (BTS) — there are seven of them? I get all my K-pop news from the crossword, and this is news to me.
- 80D: The Flash's civilian identity ___ Allen (BARRY) — I blanked on this. Which wouldn't be sooooo bad, except I start teaching a Comics course in about two weeks. Might be time to do some brushing up!
I hope you visit the blog regularly this week, as starting tomorrow, I will be announcing my Top Puzzles of 2024 for each day of the week. Tomorrow, the three best Mondays! See you then.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]