Organ-related item in a wallet / THU 9-17-26 / Annual e-sport fighting competition, in brief / Twill-woven worsted wool garment / Addendum to the five W's / Side mirrors on a car, anthropomorphically / Chocolatier with the tagline "Life is a ball" / Pre-K building blocks / Expert employed by a sportsbook / Digital security credential / Plant that thrives in a terra-cotta pot

Constructor: Enrique Henestroza Anguiano

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: INFINITE SCROLL (38A: Web design feature that may cycle back to earlier sections .. or a hint to this puzzle's theme) — Down answers at the bottom of the grid "cycle back" to the top (where the Down answer were apparently unclued):

Theme answers:

• ODDSMAKER (56D: Expert employed by a sportsbook / 1D: —)
• LOOK ALIVE (57D: "Show me some real effort!" / 2D: —)
• SEMICOLON (58D: It's not a full stop / 3D: —)
• CLOSED SET (46D: Film production environment for an intimate scene / 4D: —)
• HOT MESSES (63D: Absolute train wrecks / 5D: —)
• PHONE APPS (51D: Telegram and Simple Dialer, for two / 6D: —)
• OPEN SEATS (60D: Room in the audience up for grabs / 7D: —)
• ACCESS KEY (48D: Digital security credential / 8D: —)
• POP ARTIST (64D: Andy Warhol, e.g. / 9D: —)
• WHITE BEAN (53D: Cannellini, e.g. / 10D: —)
• DONOR CARD (54D: Organ-related item in a wallet / 11D: —)
• SWEET / SPOT (55D: Perfect place / 12D: —)

Word of the Day: "'HOPE' is the thing with feathers" (63A: "'___' is the thing with feathers" (Emily Dickinson poem)) —

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me. (poetryfoundation.org)

• • •

Definite, genuine 'aha' from me when I got the trick, but ultimately, however impressive the architecture of the puzzle is here, the mostly dreary solving experience did not make it all seem worth it. I stopped halfway through this thing and took a picture because I could not believe how bad the fill got through the middle...

EKED made me wince, ABRA felt like too much, and then I got hit with IPSO. At that point, I hadn't seen an answer longer than six letters, and most of what I'd been hacking at had been a bunch of boring 4s. Given this horrible beginning, the end (with its theme revelation) did come as a kind of relief, as a gush of "longer" answers burst forth from the bottom of the grid (and back up to the top), but even those weren't as interesting as they might've been. Just a bunch of compound words. The phrases themselves aren't particularly interesting, and what you're left with is a truly dull-looking grid with no real sparkly or original longer answer. 

Also, for the second day in a row, your left with a theme that is *entirely* architectural. There's no theme content at all. I'm just supposed to be satisfied with an architectural trick alone. I can see how this would be enough for some solvers, but not for this one. Lastly, the very concept of INFINITE SCROLL seems both sinister (about as appealing as "doomscrolling") and kind of misapplied here. The "scroll" here is very finite. So while I slightly enjoyed the "aha," I can't say I enjoyed the revealer phrase itself ... which is really the only original phrase in the whole puzzle. (Finding a "Word of the Day" today was virtually impossible, so flat-out dull was most of the fill ... I've already used EVO before, reasonably recently, so ... you get a full Emily Dickinson poem today ... which ... hmm ... seems maybe to have a secret connection to the theme???!: "And sings the tune without the words - [the first 12 Down clues?] / And never stops - at all -" [the last 12 Down clues?] ... All right, in honor of Emily Dickinson and her eerily apt puzzle commentary, I'm gonna raise this puzzle's rating a half star (from 2.5 to 3). The power of poetry! 

As you can see from my partially-filled grid, above, my first pass at Acrosses-only up top was only semi-successful. LEGO before ABCS (9A: Pre-K building blocks) and EARN before REAP (15A: Bring in) really sunk me there in the NE. Oh, and PALS at 1A: Buds instead of MACS. That is such an awkward plural. When would you use this definition of "mac" in the plural???? "Mac" is some rando you're talking to (if you live in a movie or cartoon in 1955). But it's only ever a single person, and it's a term of address. MACS defined this way nonsense. Just go with the computer clue. Anyway, the only "difficulty" happened if you stubbornly tried to solve the top before you knew what was going on with the theme. Once the Downs kick in, the puzzle becomes Monday simple.

Bullets:

• 53D: Cannellini, e.g. (WHITE BEAN) — I had WHOLE BEAN ... which, in my defense, is true.
• 54D: Organ-related item in a wallet (DONOR / CARD) — "Organ-related item" ... yeah, that threw me. I was like "what kind of serial killer owns this wallet? Is there a credit card-shaped slice of someone's liver in there?"
• 21A: Chocolatier with the tagline "Life is a ball" (LINDT) — they make these little ball-shaped candies ("Lindor")

• 32A: Ferry or wherry (BOAT) — oh, dang, I probably should've made "wherry" my Word of the Day, as I have no idea what that is. But if I'd done that, I'd never have discovered the mystical Emily Dickinson, so ... I'll just look up "wherry" now: 

1. a light rowboat for one person; skiff.

2. any of various barges, fishing vessels, etc., used locally in England. (dictionary.com)

• 61A: Addendum to the five W's (HOW) — who where what when why ... journalistic pentad
• 25D: Side mirrors on a car, anthropomorphically (EARS) — wow, I have never once in my life thought of them that way. Wings, maybe, but EARS ... yes, I see how if you were looking at your car from the front, and saw the headlights as EYES, then sure. Still, when I search [side mirrors ears], The first *six* hits are crossword-answer bot sites dealing with this exact clue. Then an Amazon ad for side mirrors. Then an Amazon ad for cat ears that you put on your side mirrors. Ah web searches. So useful.

That's all for today. See you next time. Well, I'll see a few of you tonight (see event notice, below):

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[all proceeds go to WFMU, the best listener-supported radio in the whole dang world]

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Pharynx setting / WED 9-16-26 / Mononymous Irish singer / Dip target, maybe / Pho soup garnishes / Gas brand seen in Edward Hopper's "Portrait of Orleans" / Fruits named after a mythical drink / "A form of madness," it's said / Small hound that doesn't bark

Constructor: Peter Gorman

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (more fussy than hard, though)

THEME: [UT]AH (68A: State whose outline can be made by connecting seven particular squares in this puzzle) — those seven squares have the state code for Utah (UT) inside them:

Theme answers:

• SH[UT] / A[UT]OPSY (14A: Close / 3D: Post-mortem)
• SPRO[UT]S / L[UT]E (15A: Pho soup garnishes / 8D: Guitar relative)
• ASTRONA[UT] / [UT]URN (24A: The remotest of remote jobs? / 26D: Remedy for a missed exit)
• YO[UT]H / EXEC[UT]ION (27A: Kid / 11D: Concern for a gymnastics judge)
• PL[UT]O / ANY MIN[UT]E (66A: Noted cartoon dog / 39D: Very soon)
• YO[UT]UBE / CREWC[UT]S (67A: Its first video, "Me at the zoo," has over 400 million views / 45D: Military hairstyles)
• [UT]AH /PEAN[UT]S" (68A [see above] / 51D: Classic comic strip that's the source for nine Emmys and two Tonys)

Word of the Day: "Portrait of Orleans" (9D: Gas brand seen in Edward Hopper's "Portrait of Orleans" = ESSO) —

 

1950 // View looking across an intersection in a rural town, with an Esso gas station on the right, and a row of shops across the street. The streets are deserted except for a woman looking in a store window, and two cars parked along a tree-lined street in the distance. (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco M. H. de Young Memorial Museum Golden Gate Park San Francisco California 94118 Accession Number: 1991.32) [Smithsonian]

• • •

If you're a Utah enthusiast, I guess today's your lucky day, because this ... is definitely the outline of Utah. Yep, that it is. You cannot deny the resemblance. And those squares are all Utah (UT) squares. And so ... there you are. Well, not me, I'm in the Southern Tier of NY, but figuratively, there you are. Unless you're a Utah(a)n, in which case, literally and figuratively, there you are. I wish I had anything to say about this puzzle. Utah. Welcome to Utah. There is nothing specifically "Utah" about this puzzle beyond the state code and shape. No Utah content. Just a picture of Utah formed by connecting [UT] squares. No OGDEN, no MOAB, no MORMONS. Just a blocky state outline. There are words, of course, but nothing particularly interesting. The answers come, the answers go. Nothing notably weak, nothing notably strong. I can't tell if this puzzle is a fan of Utah or is trying to tell us Utah is singularly unremarkable. 

Your job is to track down "UT' squares. It's a good old-fashioned "UT" hunt. Like they have in Utah. I assume. So there's at least some challenge. I mean, your brain has something to do besides simply answer fairly straightforward clues. But the (mild) challenge of the "UT" hunt was the only thing that kept me awake. It's an easy puzzle, but the "UT-iness" (or "U"-"T"-ness) (rhymes with "fruitiness") keeps you on your toes. Still, once you get that first "UT" (for me, the one at SH[UT] / A[UT]OPSY), and you know what you're looking for, even the challenge of the "UT" hunt isn't that challenging. I guess I learned a few things. Like the fact that Coco Gauff's name is CORI. "Coco" is no shorter than CORI, but I suppose it's more fun to say. I also learned that TANGERINES has the same number of letters as NECTARINES (63A: Fruits named after a mythical drink). Really glad NECTARINES ended up being the answer 'cause I was really struggling to believe that "Tang" was a "mythical drink." Lastly, I learned that the first video on YOUTUBE was called "Me at the zoo." Sounds boring, but ... let's find out.

Wow. Somehow even more boring than I'd imagined. Amazing. Real trouble spots today were few. Getting that initial "UT" took a bit of struggle, a bit of thinking. I thought the [Guitar relative] (L[UT]E) was a UKE and so screwed up the second "UT" square, though in my defense, at that point I didn't know I was hunting "UT"s specifically. It seemed possible that any state code might pop out at me. What else? I started writing in BASSETT before fully reading the clue, backing up, and writing in BASENJI (one of the cooler dog breed names) (36D: Small hound that doesn't bark). My most consequential screw-up was certain writing in PET for 44A: Dip target, maybe (PEC). Isn't a "flea dip" a thing that PETs get? Yes, it is. A kind of medicated bath to eliminate flea infestations. But sadly (for me) the "dip" in question is the kind I actually (occasionally) do at the gym. This kind:

[Yes, that is me pictured, I am young and very muscular and transparent]

Bullets:

• 2D: Pharynx setting (THROAT) — "Pharynx" is one of those words ... seems familiar, but ... I keep staring at it thinking "I know I know that word ... why does it look like it's missing a letter? ... wait, am I thinking of 'larynx,' I might be thinking of 'larynx'..." It doesn't help that "Sphinx" is also in this puzzle (49D: The Sphinx, for one). Does the Sphinx have a pharynx? We'll never know...
• 59A: "A form of madness," it's said (WAR) — by whom? When? I need names. I had -AR and thought "EAR ... Van Gogh cut off his EAR, was he 'mad'? Or CAR? Our dependence on CARs is a form of madness, but ..."

• 12D: Certain pickleball shot (FOREHAND) — not everything has to be pickleball. There should be some spaces where pickleball isn't. The U.S. Open just concluded, you've got Coco Gauff in here, come on, just give us regular old tennis why don't you?
• 15A: Pho soup garnishes (SPRO[UT]S) — isn't pho "soup" by definition? Is there a non-soup pho? "Pho soup" seems like a ridiculous redundancy.
• 7D: Grab-and-go breakfast option (POP TART) — did Andy Warhol ever paint POP TARTs. Did Lichtenstein? It seems like the perfect subject. Bright. Commercial. One letter off from Pop Art. About this clue, though—don't like "option" here when OPT is in the grid (two answers over => 5D: Decide one will (OPT TO)).

That's all for today. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[all proceeds go to WFMU, the best listener-supported radio in the whole dang world]

 

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
=============================
❤️ Support this blog ❤️: 

• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

=============================
✏️Upcoming Crossword Events✏️:

• NEW! Words Are For Crossing—a WFMU Crossword Meet-Up (a WFMU fundraiser) (Jersey City, NJ, Thur., Sep. 17, 2026)
• Midwest Crossword Tournament (Chicago, IL, Sat., Oct. 3, 2026)

=============================
📘 My other blog 📘:

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...