Billionaire philanthropist Broad / WED 12-11-24 / Field for a Fortnite pro / Keto diet no-no / Actor who narrates "The Big Lebowski" / Detergent in a red bottle / Villainous animal in "The Lion King" / Car stolen by Jerry's mechanic on an episode of "Seinfeld"

Constructor: Kathy Bloomer and Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: IN ONE SENSE (28D: Description of this puzzle's circled letters, and a clue to what they spell) — circled letters spell "SORTA," and each of those letters can be found (literally) IN ONE SENSE (i.e. embedded inside one of the five senses, which are found in shaded squares inside longer answers): 

Theme answers:

• REHEARSING (5D: Doing a musical read-through)
• TOASTER OVEN (23D: Appliance with a door and a crumb tray)
• FREELOADERS (24D: Moochers)
• HANGS TIGHT (10D: Waits patiently)
• SAM ELLIOTT (30D: Actor who narrates "The Big Lebowski")

Word of the Day: SAM ELLIOTT (30D) —

Samuel Pack Elliott (born August 9, 1944) is an American actor. With a career spanning over five decades of film and television, he is recognized for his deep sonorous voice. Elliott has received various accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild Award and a National Board of Review Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. [...] He achieved commercial success with his role in the biopic Mask (1985) and received Golden Globe nominations for starring in Louis L'Amour's adaptation of Conagher (1991) and the miniseries Buffalo Girls (1995), the latter of which also earned him his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination. Throughout the 1990s, he portrayed John Buford in the historical drama Gettysburg (1993), Virgil Earp in the western Tombstone (1993), and the Stranger in the crime comedy The Big Lebowski (1998). [...] In the 2010s, he had guest starring roles in the FX neo-western series Justified (2015) and the Netflix comedy series Grace and Frankie (2016) and subsequently starred in the Netflix sitcom The Ranch (2016–2020). He went on to headline the comedy drama film The Hero (2017) and star opposite Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper in Cooper's 2018 adaptation of A Star Is Born, for which he received critical acclaim and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His role in the Paramount+ western miniseries 1883 (2021–2022) earned him further praise and a SAG Award. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well this puzzle was certainly more elaborate than Monday's or Tuesday's, but more elaborate (in this case, in many cases) does not mean more entertaining. I found this one fussy and clunky—a puzzle built entirely around a complicated visual "joke" that doesn't really land. The revealer has no zing and comes too early—it's positioning is weirdly, and ineffectively, all the way over on the left, so I got it before I got any of the themers except REHEARSING, and then from there was able to write in "SORTA," see the "sense" in REHEARSING (i.e. "hearing"), and figure out the rest of the themers really easily. I never even saw the clue for SAM ELLIOTT (which would've been no help at all)—I just looked up and saw most of his name already written in, and since I know who he is, and I knew what the theme was, the clue was superfluous. Getting an answer without looking at a clue isn't so unusual, but the revealer placement here just made everything about the theme execution somewhat anticlimactic. Real cart-before-the-horse energy. Further, the revealer is IN ONE SENSE, but we are clearly dealing with All Five Senses, so there's an inherent disconnect between the revealer (which, again, is such a tepid, unpunchy phrase...) and the themers. ONE SENSE in the revealer, five senses in the grid. The revealer only works if you take SORTA letter by letter, i.e. it only SORTA works. Lastly, that fourth sense should be "touch," not FEEL. You have a sense of taste, a sense of smell, and a sense of touch, not a sense of FEEL. This puzzle has great thematic ambition and a lot of moving parts, but as a finished product, it's pretty wobbly and not terribly exciting.

The theme answers themselves, as standalone answers (regardless of the theme) are very nice. Well, REHEARSING is kinda neutral, but the others have real zing, and would be more than welcome in any themeless grid, or anywhere. Outside the themers, though, there's not much of interest, despite there being a hell of a lot of real estate given over to seven-letter words (ten of them!). The most exciting part of the grid was probably the part where the VEHICLE CRASHER RAN PAST the GOOSE, but the rest of those corners (where all the 7s are found) just kinda lie there, as does most of the fill overall. Not offensively bad or rough, just ... there. There is one answer, however, that was so jarring it derailed my solve, not in the sense that I got stuck, but in the sense that I found it so disruptive that I literally stopped my forward momentum to stare at the damage. What slammed into me hard enough to make me stop and make sure everything was OK? The answer: A LOAD OF. Doesn't look that menacing, I know, and it's not ... except with the LOAD part literally crosses *another LOAD* part (at FREELOADERS). So it's not just that the grid has "LOAD" in it twice (not great, but forgivable), it's that the LOADs literally crash into each other. Awkward, ugly, bad (like OWED TO running into PRIOR TO, but worse). A secondarily bad part of A LOAD OF is that it doesn't really mean what the clue says it means. A LOT OF, yes; A LOAD OF, er, eh ... SORTA? But A LOAD OF is much more common as a phrase meaning "a look at," as in the phrase "get A LOAD OF this," used when you are directing someone's attention to ... something. Someone. Whatever. It's A LOT OF for "many" (today, the weirdly French [Beaucoup]), and A LOAD OF for "an eyeful of." So A LOAD OF is doubly bad today—triply bad if you think (as I do) that the slangy / Frenchy [Beaucoup] doesn't really match its much plainer answer.

Bullets:

• 35A: Billionaire philanthropist Broad (ELI) — can we not? There are so many fine ELIs in the world, why are you foregrounding a so-called "billionaire philanthropist?" It's easy to give some of your money away when you're a ****ing billionaire. The idea that anyone is famous for this is nauseating. Hey, why don't you become famous for Giving It All Away? You are never going to sell me on the virtuous aspects of *any* billionaire, whatever their politics. Billionaire. Philanthropy. Is. A. Scam. I have never actively wished to see ELI Manning in the grid before, but here we are.
• 39A: Fresno-to-San Diego dir. (SSE) — I am never going to love seeing a three-letter direction in the grid, but I love this clue for two reasons. First, I grew up in Fresno, so I got a little pang of nostalgia, and second, the clue is somewhat counterintuitive—you really have to know CA geography to get the "E" part, because Fresno is inland and SD is coastal, so it seems like SD should be "W," not "E." But California juts eastward as it approaches Mexico along the coast, so SD ends up being east of Fresno, not west. This is somewhat like Detroit being east of Atlanta (a fact that my brain still can't quite accept). 
• 51A: Keto diet no-no (BREAD) — [Keto no-no] is a much, much better clue. Just sounds better. The "diet" part is superfluous. Everyone knows "Keto" is a diet. You gotta have a good ear to write good clues. This one clanks. 

• 23D: Appliance with a door and a crumb tray (TOASTER OVEN) — this one made me smile because I use mine every day despite the fact that it's kinda old and banged up. But we hang onto it because of its backstory: one year we went to Colorado for Christmas and our daughter (age 10? 11?) decided to get us a TOASTER OVEN for Christmas (?!) and so somehow acquired one and ... packed it in her luggage (!?!) and gave it to us in Colorado. I do not recommend packing a TOASTER OVEN in your suitcase. It got dented in transit. And then, of course, we had to ship it back home. The shipping probably ended up costing more than the oven itself (it's not a "nice" oven). But the sheer bizarre ambition of the girl's whole gift-giving scheme endeared the oven to us, so until it conks out or explodes, we're keeping it. Good memories. 
• 50D: Epic work that begins "Sing, goddess, of the anger of Achilles" (ILIAD) — I always heard it translated as "wrath," which is ... somewhat stronger, more evocative of Achilles's destructive power, than mere "anger." If you've seen Achilles go ham on the Trojans after Patroclus is killed, you'll know what I'm talking about. 

Alright, time for more Holiday Pet Pics!

Pi Pi has never seen A Christmas Story, so he doesn't know why wearing Ralphie's bunny ears is funny, but his human insists that it is, so here we are:

[Thanks, Max]

Freya is concerned this sweater makes her butt look big. (How do you people even get your cats into these get-ups? When I imagine trying to put a sweater on either of my cats, I can already feel claws slashing my arms and (probably) face)

[Thanks, Jan]

Dogs love to show off their tongues, but cats ... you gotta time it right. Here we get some subtle cat tongue action from Lydia... 

[Thanks, Joan]

... and some loopier and more manic tongue action from Sugar

[Thanks, Emma]

Oliver's owner insists that her fur spells out the word "HOPE"—Oliver just "hopes" that you leave her in peace so she can continue maniacally shredding her spectacular quadruple-wide scratchpost platform, thank you very much...

[Thanks, Emma]

Finally, here's a cat willing to fight back against all these tyrannical holiday impositions on catdom. Kill, Remy, Kill! Fight the power, Remy!

[Thanks, Max]

And lastly, there's Woody, who's just glad to be here. He thinks his left side is his good side. All your sides are good, Woody! 

[Thanks, Matt]

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]

Read more...

Czech lager, informally / TUE 12-10-24 / T-shaped contraceptive, for short / Rich liquid added to curries / Period of accountability since 2017 / Fitness discipline for thousands of years / Dramatic cry in paintball / Mythical lamp dweller / Doha dignitary / "No can do, lassie!"

Constructor: Brian Callahan and Geoffrey Schorkopf

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: MAKE-UP ARTISTS (14D: Some movie set workers ... or what you do when filling in the shaded squares?) — shaded squares are artist names turned "up" (i.e. they run backward inside Down theme answers), so when you fill them in, you "make" "artists" ... "up":

Theme answers:

• HATHA YOGA (33D: Fitness discipline for thousands of years) (Francisco GOYA)

• COCONUT MILK (5D: Rich liquid added to curries) (Gustav KLIMT)

• MIRROR IMAGE (24D: Reflection) (Joan MIRÓ)

• HEEL KICKS (10D: Taekwondo moves done with an outstretched leg) (Paul KLEE)

Word of the Day: HATHA YOGA (33D: Fitness discipline for thousands of years) —

Hatha yoga (/ˈhʌtə, ˈhɑːtə/; IAST: Haṭha-yoga) is a branch of yoga that uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel vital force or energy. The Sanskrit word हठ haṭha literally means "force", alluding to a system of physical techniques. Some hatha yoga style techniques can be traced back at least to the 1st-century CE, in texts such as the Hindu Sanskrit epics and Buddhism's Pali canon. The oldest dated text so far found to describe hatha yoga, the 11th-century Amṛtasiddhi, comes from a tantric Buddhist milieu. The oldest texts to use the terminology of hatha are also Vajrayana Buddhist. Hindu hatha yoga texts appear from the 11th century onward. [...] In the 20th century, a development of hatha yoga focusing particularly on asanas (the physical postures) became popular throughout the world as a form of physical exercise. This modern form of yoga is now widely known simply as "yoga". [...] In Western culture, Haṭha yoga is typically understood as exercise using asanas and it can be practiced as such. In the Indian and Tibetan traditions, Haṭha yoga integrates ideas of ethics, diet, cleansing, pranayama (breathing exercises), meditation and a system for spiritual development of the yogi. (wikipedia)

• • •

OK, I know I often say "quick write-up today" and then do a regular-sized write-up because apparently muscle memory and the strength of pure habit will not be denied, but today, Today it really will be short(ish), as I have a very (ridiculously) early final exam to give. I literally apologized to my students for the 8am start time ("I did not choose this time, it was randomly assigned to me, I'm so sorry"). I mean, the class itself usually starts at 8:30am, so it's not such a stretch for them to be up that early, but during Finals week ... they really should let students sleep and not start any exams til 9am at the earliest. But I digress. See, I digress, and then the write-up gets longer, and all of a sudden poof, it's a regular-sized write-up, and my best-laid plans for shortness lie in ruins. 

Moving on: the puzzle! Back-to-back days of clever concepts and solid fill. You love to see it! The revealer here requires a little creative syntactical and grammatical maneuvering ("make artists (go) up"), but by the Power of Greyskull, I mean Wordplay, I think it works just fine. Those are all artists (specifically painters) and their names all go "up" inside those shaded squares. Moreover, as an elegant bonus, those shaded squares touch every element in their respective themers, i.e. they bridge the two words (or word parts). Often in these "buried word" themes, you get theme answers that have these extraneous words that don't involve the "buried word" at all. Like if you were hiding "PRO"s and "CON"s in your answers and one of the answers was COCONUT MILK ... you see how "MILK" is just left hanging there? No involvement with the hidden word? That's just sad. You gotta bring all the theme-answer words into the mix, as this puzzle does. Hidden words should bridge *all* the words in their themers. This is my (often disregarded) rule! (handed down to me by the great Patrick Berry, as he was rejecting / offering feedback on one of my early constructing efforts). The theme answers themselves are also vivid and interesting, not just vehicles for reversed artist names. And the fill is rock solid. A fine effort overall.

I encountered almost no resistance today. I can't tell if that's because the puzzle is simply inherently easy, or if I just got really lucky with my first guesses—the solving equivalent of hitting all the green lights. I was careening along unimpeded, first guess after first guess going right in, thinking "how am I doing this? I feel like the wheels are gonna come off here any second." But with one exception, the wheels stayed firmly attached. The one exception actually came early, and my slowing down was due to a brain glitch on my part rather than the inherent difficulty of the puzzle. I couldn't get the second part of COCONUT ___ (!?!?!). Something about "Rich liquid" ... I dunno. Even with the assist from "added to curries," nothing was happening. Started before I had COCONUT, actually. I initially thought the liquid involved COCOA ... yeah, no idea what happened there. Weird how my brain can just fly through much tougher stuff but then spin out on obvious stuff like this. The MILK part crossed SWARM, which crossed MWAH, which crossed AHH, and all of those answers were, to varying degrees, a problem. AHH and AAH always both seem valid (44A: "That hits the spot!"). "MWAH!" feels one level of meaning removed from [You're gorgeous darling!]—sufficiently adjacent, but not a perfect fit—and SWARM, well, I don't feel bad about struggling there: that's the hardest clue in the puzzle (36A: Fly ball?) (because a SWARM = a "ball" of "flies" (or bees or gnats or what have you)). Do you see how this write-up is already approaching regular length? Do you? Moving on to "Bullet Points" now, and then Holiday Pet Pics (yay!) and then I'm out.

Bullets:

• 14A: Period of accountability since 2017 (#METOO ERA) — are we still in this era? Are people being held accountable? The incoming administration (really really) suggests otherwise. Not that this isn't a good crossword answer. It's original, current, lively, etc. Just ... has me thinking about what "accountability" means.
• 21A: Do some modeling for a figure drawing class (POSE NUDE) — another great longer answer. I misread the clue at first as [Do some yodeling for a figure drawing class] and thought about what the class's reaction might be. "Uh huh ... that's ... nice ... can you just stand still? Thanks."

• 37A: Ben Solo's father in "Star Wars" (HAN) — HAN was not a father in "Star Wars"—that's some later "Star Wars" universe stuff (yes, I resolutely refuse to recognize any movie as "Star Wars" besides Star Wars (1977), which was never ever called "A New Hope" among people who saw it seven times in the theater (guilty)—that "Chapter IV: A New Hope" crap is never gonna fly with me.). If the clue had read "in the 'Star Wars' universe," I'd have had no beef with it.
• 33D: Fitness discipline for thousands of years (HATHA YOGA) — The "Fitness" angle is very modern and western, very asana-based. For "thousands of years" it was primarily a spiritual practice. See "Word of the Day," above.
• 50D: "No can do, lassie!" ("NAE!") — this made me laugh, mainly because it made me imagine Groundskeeper Willie covering Hall & Oates:

• 56D: Czech lager, informally (PILS) — oh we're doing this again, are we? It's only been eleven days. Well, at least I was prepared.

OK, time for a quick round of Holiday Pet Pics!

First, we have the "patiently enduring your holiday tyranny" variety of picture. I mean, look at poor Sally here. Come on. She can't fly or pull a sled, but she deserves at least six treats.

[Thanks, Hilary]

Churro and Juno do not know this man. Release them from his white-gloved captivity and give them treats!

[Thanks, Dave]

And Creature ... well, Creature is going to make you pay for this. You can see it in her eyes. "You better sleep with one eye open tonight, lady."

[Thanks, Stephanie]

Next we have the "I said *holiday* pics" category, where people send pics that are "holiday" only by a certain stretch of the imagination. I mean, just because Sabrina the Greyhound has sour cream on her nose from leftover Thanksgiving dinner does not make this a "Holiday" picture (though any chance to consume sour cream is a "holiday" for a dog, so I'll allow it)

[Thanks, Graeme] 

And hey, MisterBuddy and Bird, I see what you're doing here and I'm not buying it. This is fraud. No treats for you! ... OK, I'm sorry, you're adorable, sixteen treats each!

[Thanks, Liz]

And finally ... I'd love to show you a picture of Nico and Diego, but their epic holiday shenanigans cannot be contained in just one photo, so I give you a suite of photos entitled "Nico and Diego Save Christmas, Then Get Sleepy"

Enjoy the rest of your day. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]

Read more...