Friend of Nancy Drew / FRI 5-15-26 / Edible algae dubbed "green caviar" / Jarring film transition to a new scene / Language of southern India / Mother of Don Juan / Good name for a yoga instructor / Civil rights activist Williams, an associate of Martin Luther King Jr. / Blind followers, informally / Competitor of the early Chevrolet 490 / Big name in meal prep kits / Use of a popular song to make a scene iconic, in film-speak / Vintage bike feature

Constructor: Maddy Ziegler

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: TELUGU (41A: Language of southern India) —

[red = majority or plurality of native TELUGU speakers]

Telugu (/ˈtɛlʊɡuː/ ^ⓘ; తెలుగు, Telugu pronunciation: [ˈt̪eluɡu]) is a Dravidian language native to the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where it is also the official language. Telugu is a classical language with a recorded history of at least 2,000 years. Spoken by about 100 million people, Telugu is the most widely spoken member of the Dravidian language family, and one of the twenty-two scheduled languages of the Republic of India // It is one of the few languages that has primary official status in more than one Indian state, alongside Hindi and Bengali. Telugu is one of the languages designated as a classical language by the Government of India. It is the fourteenth most spoken native language in the world. (wikipedia)

• • •

Tale of two puzzles. Well, three quarters of a puzzle and then one quarter of a puzzle. I was crushing this puzzle, a puzzle that at times seemed specifically designed for me, flying along with only slight hesitations here and there, no real difficulty ... and then I hit TELUGU. What made me mad was not the answer itself (it is, after all, "the fourteenth most spoken native language in the world," I can hardly begrudge its presence here) but my knowing it, or at least having seen it before, and just not being able to get a grip on it. That answer was like a wet bar of soap and I kept thinking I had it and it kept popping out of my hands. And then, because it was crossed by BESS (whom I did Not know) and something called SEA GRAPES (ditto), I really spun out (39D: Friend of Nancy Drew + 32D: Edible algae dubbed "green caviar"). I mean, comparatively spun out. I still managed to work around the chaos without too much trouble, but I have to acknowledge that there was, indeed, chaos there, for a bit. TELUGU is a language I learned about not from crosswords (TELUGU hasn't appeared in the NYTXW for 35 years) but from cinema. Specifically, once I started going to the movies in earnest (so, ca. 2023, after the pandemic had lightened up considerably), I noticed that my local Regal cinema frequently showed Indian-language movies I'd never heard of. Not old movies—current movies. There seemed to be a booming industry in Indian-language films that were showing right alongside all the western films at the cineplex, but with none of the commercial hype (that I could see). And I know that at some point I noticed that the languages of some of these films were not ones I had heard of (i.e. not Hindi or Bengali or URDU). TELUGU is definitely one of those languages (apparently there's a whole TELUGU-language film industry, called (unsurprisingly) "Tollywood"). Here's an example—a movie released earlier this month called Jetlee:

Yes, I learned about TELUGU at (or while preparing to go to) the movies. I then forgot it, obviously, but now I am remembering it. Speaking of movies, man, this puzzle really brings the cinematic content. None of your run-of-the-mill movie stuff, this puzzle's got FRED MacMurray in Double Indemnity (the quintessential film noir) and SMASH CUTs (37A: Jarring film transition to a new scene) and NEEDLE DROPs (55A: Use of a popular song to make a scene iconic, in film-speak) and an APE COSTUME!? You had me at FRED MacMurray, puzzle. Cinematic STUNNERS, everywhere I looked. And then lots of other wonderful stuff as well. That opening corner—I don't love that the clue for HOME CHEF reads like a paid ad, but it's still a good phrase, and its partners, "I'M ALL EARS" and "LET ME AT 'EM," are even better. Usually, if I'm compelled to take a screenshot early in a puzzle, it's because the fill is so bad and I feel the need to document it. But today, the opposite. I said "nice" out loud and decided, "you know, I should take a snapshot of niceness, for once."

And then there was "IT'S UP TO YOU," ROGUE WAVE, BACKWOODS, VACANT LOT, LIVE WIRES ... the puzzle delivers on all fronts. The only objection I had along the way was to APE COSTUME ... not to the thing itself, but to the phrasing. I feel like APE SUIT is le mot juste (are les mots justes?). I had APE and immediately thought "how am I going to make SUIT stretch to seven letters." I do like that APE is underneath BANANA, though. Very nice touch.

Bullets:

• 16A: Good name for a yoga instructor (MATT) — cute. I had the terminal "-T" and sincerely (if briefly) thought "... BENT? Are guys named BENT now?" (Bengt, yes, BENT, probably not)

[in which Bengt Ekerot plays Death]

• 1A: To the ___ (as much as possible) (HILT) — MAX! NTH! NINES! It took at least (1 2 3) four stabs at this thing before I got it right.
• 20A: Civil rights activist Williams, an associate of Martin Luther King Jr. (HOSEA) — no idea. A simple biblical clue would've made this easier (for me) but the puzzle was already so easy (for me) that I didn't mind getting slowed down by a mystery proper noun here or there ("there" being TELUGU and BESS). 
• 6D: Mother of Don Juan (INEZ) — not sure I'll ever learn whether this is INES or INEZ, but luckily today I had the "Z" in place (thanks to ELIZA) (19A: Miss Doolittle of "Pygmalion").
• 24D: Setting for the graphic novel series "Persepolis" (IRAN) — yet another way in which this puzzle seemed custom-made for me. I'm finishing up grading for my Comics class just this week, and I (literally!) gave away my copy of Persepolis to a curious student last week. 
• 34D: Break the ice? (THAW) — thawing seems like a completely different phenomenon from breaking, but I guess ice does break up during a spring THAW so ... OK!
• 38D: Blind followers, informally (SHEEPLE) — I thought this was going to be some poker terminology ("blind" is a poker term, right?) (yes). But no, "blind followers" are "those who follow blindly," thus, SHEEPLE. Speaking of people who act like sheep—or vice versa, I guess—looks like I'm going to be seeing The Sheep Detectives this weekend. When I saw the trailer, I was a very hard "no," but friends, and especially this Defector review, have convinced me to push through my extreme reluctance and just go. So I am going to give the talking-sheep movie a try. I do teach a crime fiction course from time to time, so ... maybe it will be relevant. Fingers crossed!

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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

• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

=============================
✏️ Upcoming Crossword Tournaments ✏️

• Westwords (Berkeley, CA, Jun. 14, 2026)

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

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...

Cliff formed by a fault / THU 5-14-26 / Ruthless Athenian lawgiver / Prolifically posting about one's kids online, in a neologism / Member of a sluglike "Star Wars" species / September to April, in the oyster industry / Penultimate Greek letter / Biblical locale guarded by a flaming sword / Trellis piece / Alternatives to hourly wages / Former small-sized G.M. cars / Heather genus that's also a woman's name / Ancient book of divination

Constructor: Simeon Seigel

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

[45D: Member of a sluglike "Star Wars" species]

THEME: WATER (62A: Compound with a caret-shaped molecule, as depicted by this puzzle's circled letters) — "H2O" is represented visually four times in the grid (H-O-H), standing in for the word "water" in two Across answers each time:

Theme answers:

• STANDING [WATER] / [WATER]MARK (19A: Prime breeding environment for mosquitoes / 20A: Impression on some fancy sheets)
• ON THE [WATER] / [WATER] CANNONS (24A: At sea, say / 27A: Powerful fireboat gear)
• RETAINS [WATER] / [WATER] WINGS (43A: Gets bloated, say / 45A: Pair for a pool)
• RAIN[WATER] / [WATER] PITCHERS (48A: What collects in a puddle / 49A: Things often getting free refills)

Word of the Day: KITHARA (42D: Seven-stringed instrument that gave the guitar its name) —

The kithara (Greek: κιθάρα, romanized: kithára), Latinized as cithara, was an ancient Greek musical instrument in the yoke lutes family. It was a seven-stringed professional version of the lyre, which was regarded as a rustic, or folk instrument, appropriate for teaching music to beginners. As opposed to the simpler lyre, the cithara was primarily used by professional musicians, called kitharodes. In modern Greek, the word kithara has come to mean "guitar"; etymologically, the word guitar derives from kithara. (wikipedia)

• • •

Again with the extremely underwhelming revealers! That's like three days in a row now. This was possibly the underwhelmingest of the lot, as the WATER conceit was clear very early on. How early? This early:

As you can see, in my unthinking haste, I imagined that the "2" in "H2O" applied to the oxygen and not the hydrogen molecules, but that was easily fixed. And there it was H-O-H. I thought "maybe the other molecules will be ... different?" But they weren't. They were all water. And they represented water in eight different answers. Water water everywhere. And then I get to the end for the big reveal and it's ... WATER? It's just WATER? That's all you've got for me. No funny phrase, no wordplay, nothing that evokes the way the H-O-H molecules here actually connect two "WATER" answers each time (WATER BRIDGE? Is that a thing?)? Just ... WATER. WATER. A thing I already knew. A thing that was already obvious. Why even include WATER? It seems like such a sad afterthought here.

I've seen H2O puzzles before. This one is interesting / original because of the way the molecules bridge two different "WATER" answers. Again, I really wish there were some rationale for this bridging that could be expressed in revealer form. It would make the whole theme make much more sense. As is, H-O-H just seems like an architectural flourish. Who cares? Worse, you get a lot of actually fairly dull WATER answers. Like ... that's a lot of WATER, and hardly any of the answers are taking that WATER in an interesting direction. At least WATERMARK gets us out of a liquid form for a little bit. But otherwise, the WATER is just ordinary WATER. All wet. I will say, though, that the fill on this one is more interesting than usual, and lifts the puzzle somewhat out of boring territory. I mean, I don't *love* "R" MONTHS or PER DIEMS (plural), but at least they have a little flash, a little energy, a little sass. See also SHARENTING, a portmanteau that makes me cringe, but at least the puzzle's trying to keep things interesting (11D: Prolifically posting about one's kids online, in a neologism). And then it throws a KITHARA at me at the end, that was unexpected! I had the KI- and absolutely no idea what was happening. "Did ... did the KEYTAR give the guitar its name? I must have that backward." Indeed.

I do not eat oysters and know about the "R"-month thing only from crosswords—not because of the answer "'R' MONTHS" (4D: September to April, in the oyster industry) but because of "'R'-LESS" months! That's right, RLESS is a thing you used to see in crosswords to describe the months that oysters are out of season, when you're not supposed to eat them. Hmm, looks like RLESS is still alive and well and I've just mentally blocked that fact out. Ten appearances since I started blogging, though none for about five years now. I imagined RLESS as a relic of the Maleska days, but in fact RLESS has been used almost exclusively in the Shortz Era. The one pre-Shortz appearance (1989) actually clued RLESS as [Like speech in New England?]. Anyway, if you had no clue about the connection between "R"s and oysters, now you do.

Bullets:

• 25D: Had to have right away (NEEDED ASAP) — NEED ASAP would be a clunky and awkward answer, so NEEDED ASAP ... yeah, that's worse. The one clunker among the longer non-theme answers today. I keep reading it as NEEDED A SAP. [Yearned to con someone]?
• 1A: Cliff formed by a fault (SCARP) — I think I know the term "escarpment." But SCARP definitely gave me trouble today. I'm sure I've seen SCARP in crosswords before ... [checks database] ... yes, I have, a handful of times, but not for about five years. I got the "SCA" easily but the last two letters eluded me for a bit, in part because "ALL ME!" (not a thing people say) kept giving me "RM-" at the beginning of 4D: September to April, in the oyster industry, and that seemed impossible.
• 13A: "My fault entirely" ("ALL ME") — cannot imagine this as a standalone phrase. "That was ALL ME." "It's ALL ME." Maybe. But the standalone phrase is "MY BAD." "ALL ME" sounds more like you're bragging about an accomplishment than taking responsibility for a screw-up.

• 55A: Broadcasting giant with hundreds of stations (I HEART RADIO) — technically the whole thing is one word: "iHeartRadio." "iHeartRadio is owned by iHeartMedia, which was rebranded from Clear Channel in 2014" (wikipedia).
• 10D: A peeling that's appealing? (POTATO SKIN) — I mean ... if you like POTATO SKINs, I guess they're "appealing." Weird clue, though. "Appealing" doesn't really get at ... anything. I'm not sure the pun here is worth it.
• 3D: Palindrome on an Italian restaurant menu (ALLA) — crosswordese, and a gimme. I do not like this answer, but I do like that the puzzle decided to get a little inventive with the clue by linking it to the other culinary crosswordese palindrome in the puzzle, NAAN (39D: Palindrome on an Indian restaurant menu). Nice little echo there. Makes the crosswordese go down a little easier.

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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

• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

=============================
✏️ Upcoming Crossword Tournaments ✏️

• Westwords (Berkeley, CA, Jun. 14, 2026)

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

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...