Cartoonish bouncing sound / FRI 10-23-26 / Band at a Jimmy Buffett concert? / Annual appraisal statement / Have serious plans / Emma ___, protagonist of "A Woman of Substance" / Poetic device with inexact sound-alikes / Minestrone morsel / Penalty for exceeding a payroll threshold, in sports lingo / Strap-and-buckle shoes named for a comic strip character who wore them / Kind of joint associated with smoking, informally / "America's Largest Classroom"

Constructor: Katie Hoody

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: A Woman of Substance (2D: Emma ___, protagonist of "A Woman of Substance" (HARTE)) —

A Woman of Substance is a novel by Barbara Taylor Bradford, published in 1979. The novel is the first of a seven-book saga about the fortunes of a retail empire and the machinations of the business elite across three generations. The series, featuring Emma Harte and her family, also includes Hold the Dream, To Be the Best, Emma's Secret, Unexpected Blessings, Just Rewards and Breaking the Rules.

A Woman of Substance was adapted in 1985 as an eponymous television miniseries (as were the sequels Hold the Dream and To Be the Best). In 2026, an eight-part television adaptation was released on Channel 4. [...] 

Barbara Taylor Bradford OBE (10 May 1933 – 24 November 2024) was a British-American best-selling novelist. Her debut novel, A Woman of Substance, was published in 1979 and sold over 30 million copies worldwide. (wikipedia)

• • •

Except for SLANT RHYME (nice) (29D: Poetic device with inexact sound-alikes), the fill here wasn't that exciting to me, but I did appreciate how hard the clues were trying to make the puzzle tricky—mission largely accomplished! The grid is very clean, which is another mark in its favor, but it's also loaded with names, many of them, let's say, OLDEN, so I expect the name-haters to out in force today. I capitalize OLDEN, even though it's not in the grid, because it was the first thing I actually put in the grid, at 1D: ___ days (times past) (THOSE). One of several mistakes that kept me from ever getting up a proper whoosh-whoosh / zoom-zoom with this thing. But back to the cavalcade of names: Bobby DARIN! Sonia HENIE! Amanda BYNES! KYRA Sedgwick! Joyce Carol OATES, RON Chernow, somebody named HARTE (checks puzzle...) ... ok, Emma HARTE, in something called A Woman of Substance (!?) (sounds familiar, but I honestly have no idea what that is, let alone what the protagonist's last name is) (see "Word of the Day," above), and finally, team captain, NITRO! IIf I left someone out, I apologize to that person. There's also Jimmy Buffet, about whom I know several things, none of which would've led me to connect him to LEIs (26A: Band at a Jimmy Buffett concert?). I was like "... OBI?" Then after the "L" showed up, I wrote in LSD ("LSD comes in 'bands' now?"). I admire the lack of real crosswordy gunk in the grid, but what I primarily remember about it, besides some clever cluing, is the names (and my mistakes, of course, but that's true with every puzzle).

I started the puzzle ... strangely. The whole OLDEN (wrong) HARTE (who?) thing in the NW forced me to abandon it, and so I ended up following crosses out of that section all the way to the NE corner, in lightly interlocking fashion:

That's about the most zoom I got out of this puzzle, blazing my way across the top, getting each new word off just one letter. After that, things settled back to a slowish but steady pace. Never totally hung up, but never really speeding either. My OLDEN mistake wasn't actually my worst (as you can see, THINK BIG managed to eliminate OLDEN). No, my worst mistake was a compound mistake that no one else on earth is likely to have made. I somehow convinced myself that the clue on 20D: Daughter of one's 9-Across was going to be a foreign-language answer. Like TIA or something. Once I pieced together MOMMA, I sincerely Still Thought 20-Down Was Foreign—like, maybe MOMMA was Italian (!?!?). And so I ultimately convinced myself that SIA was a word, primarily because I had no idea what "America's Largest Classroom" was and had put in first NEA and then PTA. So ... SIA, not SIS. This left me briefly confounded by what the hell was in my minestrone (8D: Minestrone morsel). A GREEN ... TEAL? TEAK? TEAT? I spent many seconds carefully constructing a mental image of minestrone. No TEALs, no TEATs. As I say, I dare you to find a dumber cascade of mistakes today than the one that started with me convincing myself that SIS was going to be in a foreign language, or that SIA was anything but a pop singer. Mercifully, once I fixed all that, I had no other errors for the entire second half of the puzzle.

Bullets:

• 14A: Annual appraisal statement ("WHAT A YEAR!") — cute. I don't know when you say this exactly (sometime in December, probably), but I can definitely imagine someone saying it.
• 16A: Track event won by the fastest four legs (HORSE RACE) — this clue kind of trips over itself because it wants to make you *think* the clue is about human racing, but the syntax is so awkward that it's easy to guess that they're trying to trick you. I actually thought they were trying to reverse-psychology trick me—like, the clue was so obviously suggesting horsiness that it must actually be about a relay race. But no, it's horses.
• 19A: Ensemble piece (ACCESSORY) — from not-humans-but-horses to not-music-but-fashion. I actually thought the answer was about furniture. A living room ... ensemble? Maybe it has ... ACCESSORY pieces. And maybe SIA lives there? (My brain is clearly still sleep-fogged)

• 30A: With whom one pools pounds for quarters (FLATMATE) — the "quarters" misdirect is one of the oldest in the book, so I got this easily. 
• 38A: Boundaries between areas with different coverage (TANLINES) — boring-sounding clue that ends up being pretty clever.
• 55A: Penalty for exceeding a payroll threshold, in sports lingo (LUXURY TAX) — this answer has appeared twice before in the NYTXW, but never with this clue, which is the only way I've ever heard it outside a Monopoly board. A nice answer, an original clue, and, for me, a gimme.
• 59A: They can help one get a leg up, informally (QUADS) — more slanty misdirective ambigu-cluing (Ambicluity!) from this puzzle. 
• 57A: Cartoonish bouncing sound (BOINK) — pretty sure you mean BOING. BOINK means ... something else.
• 11D: One may sit near a bench marking time (METRONOME) — and still more. It never stops (which is fine, it's Friday, bring it on)

• 12D: Strap-and-buckle shoes named for a comic strip character who wore them (MARY JANES) — always proud to be able to slap down anything from women's fashion without tripping all over myself. I don't know why this shoe type is familiar to me, but it is, and I got the answer off the first few letters. I do not, however, as of this second, know the "comic strip character who wore them." Hang on ... oh wow, she was Buster Brown's sweetheart, so we are going way back, comic strip-wise. Buster Brown also had a dog named TIGE, whose name you used to see in crosswords sometimes (69 total appearances, last seen in 2019). Holy cow, TIGE was in one of my puzzles (!?!!?)

[IMONA ELHI TIGE I,TINA and EHUD are killing me rn. I plead "it was 2012"]

Buster Brown is a comic strip character created in 1902 by Richard F. Outcault that was adopted as the mascot of the Brown Shoe Company in 1904. The characters of Buster Brown, Mary Jane, and his dog Tige became well known to the American public in the early 20th century. [...] The comic strip began in the New York Herald on May 4, 1902. Outcault left to work for William Randolph Hearst in January 1906. He continued to produce the comic strip in Hearst's newspapers after a court battle which left it nameless, while the Herald continued their own version of Buster Brown with other artists. The Herald version lasted until January 1911, and Outcault's version until May 13, 1923. (wikipedia)

• 25D: Beat a map app's arrival time estimate, say (SPED) — ambiguity here is in the verb tense—your instincts will tell you "present tense," but this "Beat" is past. 
• 49D: Cellphone hot line? (SEXT) — splitting "hotline," nice. 
• 47D: Writer of the story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" (OATES) — this story was the basis for the movie Smooth Talk (1984), starring Laura Dern in one of her very first movies. Excellent. Gripping. Disturbing. Co-starring the late great Treat Williams in a memorably terrifying role.

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Weapon in "Ivanhoe" / THU 10-22-26 / Region that produces Riesling wine / Island capital that's an anagram for a word meaning "steamy baths" / Small grouse / Some supermarkets, in brief / Her breast milk created the Milky Way, in Greek myth / Instrument heard at Rosh Hashana services /

Constructor: David J. Kahn

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "NO CHANCE!" (60A: "FORGET IT!" ... or phonetic hint to aligning seven answers in this puzzle with their starred clues) — in order for theme answers to make sense, you must take chants (that is, the "OM"s) out of them; so: "No Chants!":

Theme answers:

• TOM HANKS (17A: *It may precede or follow "a million") (thanks)
• AXIOMS (19A: *Line used in plotting points) (axis)
• ALAMO DOME (30A: *Trendy) (à la mode)
• LANCOME (34A: *Weapon in "Ivanhoe") (lance)
• POMPOMS (38A: *Second letter addendum, for short) (P.P.S.)
• HOMEROOMS (45A: *Subs) (heros)
• SALOME (57A: *Inventory clearance option) (sale)

Word of the Day: Peter MAX (9D: Late psychedelic artist Peter) —

 

Peter Max Finkelstein (October 19, 1937 – September 14, 2026), known professionally as Peter Max, was a German-American artist known for using bright colors in his work. Works by Max are associated with the visual arts and culture of the 1960s, particularly psychedelic art and pop art. He was noted for his artwork that ranged from posters of Day-Glo flowers, butterflies, rainbows, stars, and planets, which, according to The New York Times, "expressed the blissed-out exuberance of the countercultural 1960s". His work was often described as symbolic of the 1960s counterculture movement. // Max died from complications of dementia at a hospital in New York, on September 14, 2026, at the age of 88. (wikipedia)

• • •

Got the "OM" gimmick pretty early. Right here:

At this point, I hadn't even looked at the clue for the first themer (TOM HANKS). I tend to work like a termite, just munching away at whatever is in front of me or near me and not really thinking about longer answers until I've chewed up a lot of smaller ones. I also just tend to follow my success, wherever that leads me. Always Be Working Crosses. Better (for me) to keep mowing down short answers, or longer answers where I have a lot of letters in place, then to take a chance on a clue for a longer answer where I don't have so much in place. (I actually had a lot of that first themer in place—half in fact—but I had my head down, as it were, and didn't really think to look at it). I ended up with the LANC- part of LANCOME and the rest just sort of filled itself in; then I looked at it for a few seconds, saw the weapon ("lance") plus the added bit ("OM") and had it. Or had something. At that point I took a trip back up to TOMH- there at 17A: *It may precede or follow "a million" and since I knew the "OM" bit was probably added, I took it out (mentally), and "Thanks" was a cinch (though I don't think I've ever heard someone say "a million thanks"—in my experience, it's exclusively "thanks a million"). And since now it seemed that adding (or subtracting) "OM"s was the only trick to the puzzle, future starred clues presented very few problems.

It's a simple theme but it has its delightful moments. I love that the theme snowballs a bit as it goes along, with the "OM"s doubling up in POMPOMS and HOMEROOMS. POMPOMS is more "OM"s than answer! I also like the revealer a lot. I didn't get it at first. "How does 'OM' represent chance?" I wondered. If there's "NO CHANCE" in those answers, then sure the "OM" must represent "chance" somehow. But no. The key word in the revealer clue is "phonetic." So I started repeating the revealer to myself (like a chant!). "No chance no chance ... chance chance chance ... chants? Oh, chants! No chants!" A silly but funny revealer to brighten an otherwise ordinary "add-a-letter (or two, or four)" theme concept.

The hardest part of the puzzle for me, by far, was the NE. I think HUSTLE was at the heart of the problem, since I kept expecting the answer to 13D: Step on it to be something you step on (stair, scale, etc.) We had this whole discussion recently about whether that type of clue, where the answer is the "it" rather than something synonymous with the entire clue phrase, should get a "!" or not. Historically, yes, but sometimes now. As with "?" clues, the rules seem not to be fixed. Anyway, today, despite the absence of the "!" I went looking for a thing that one steps on. No luck. IS ONTO is such a terrible awkward standalone phrase that I couldn't see it (11D: Understands, despite efforts at concealment). I probably could've gotten NASSAU if I'd taken the time to think about and unlock the clue ("saunas" => NASSAU), but I was working off just "Island capital" and that wasn't enough (16A: Island capital that's an anagram for a word meaning "steamy baths"). [Fraternity letter] is like the least helpful clue imaginable. Every three-letter Greek letter? I dunno. I forgot Peter MAX's name. And oof, INAS. INAS!?!?! That's so bad it makes me want to apologize to IS ONTO, which looks terribly respectable, dapper even, next to slovenly INAS. Who let him in!? So no fun up there. But mostly fun elsewhere.

Bullets:

• 1A: Her breast milk created the Milky Way, in Greek myth (HERA) — I did not know this. Eating the Milky Way minis out of the Halloween candy this year is gonna feel a little different this year.
• 14A: Some supermarkets, in brief (IGAS)— the crosswordesiest supermarket is bad enough (not all parts of the country have them), but in the plural, yeesh. Aside from the SAAR SLRS train wreck at the bottom of the grid, I thought the fill in this one held up OK. But IGAS, not my fav.
• 23A: Small grouse (NIT) — really wanted a bird here. A birdlet. Apparently a baby grouse is just a "chick."
• 64A: Region that produces Riesling wine (SAAR) — why is "wine" in this clue? What else could "Riesling" be? TACOS? 
• 42A: "Oz the Great and Powerful" director, 2013 (RAIMI) — I laughed at this one because I have no idea what this movie is. I already had RAI- in place so the answer was transparent, but wow, that movie—did it happen? Nearly half a billion box office says yes, but do people remember it? Talk about it. It starred James Franco??? 2013 was weird, man. I feel like the Wicked movies are the Oz movies of the century and everything else is an afterthought. But also, the 00's and most of the '10s were admittedly the least movie-goingest time of my life, so my being ignorant of a hit movie from this time period is not terribly surprising. 

• 62A: Like Alban Berg's opera "Lulu" (ATONAL) — another one I got easily despite having zero familiarity with the work in question. The title makes this opera sound fun. ATONAL ... I dunno. But maybe I'll give it a try. Cuing Lulu music ... now.

[whoa, no one told me it was a film noir, I'm in]

• 5D: World capital known as the "City for Peace" (HANOI) — had the "AN" and went with SANA'A (!?). World capital kealoa!*

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*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 or ALOT, ["Git!"] => "SHOO" or "SCAT," etc.   

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