Faddish 1980s plush toy / MON 3-23-26 / Reggae-adjacent genre / Off-putting aura / Popular character actor in both "The Godfather" and "Barney Miller" / Avian metaphor for a romantic couple / Kind of terrier named after a Scottish island

Constructor: Matthew Luter

Relative difficulty: very Easy (solved Downs-only)

[7D: Pascal of "The Mandalorian"]

THEME: WEIRD VIBE (64A: Off-putting aura ... or what 17-, 25-, 40- and 50-Across each have?) — theme answers contain letters strings that are "weird "VIBE"s (i.e. scrambled versions of "VIBE"):

Theme answers:

• ABE VIGODA (17A: Popular character actor in both "The Godfather" and "Barney Miller")
• LOVE BIRDS (25A: Avian metaphor for a romantic couple)
• EXECUTIVE BRANCH (40A: Part of the federal government that includes the presidency)
• MOVIE BUFF (50A: Cinema lover)

Word of the Day: CARE BEAR (9D: Faddish 1980s plush toy) —

Care Bears are multi-colored bears, painted in 1981 by artist Elena Kucharik to be used on greeting cards from American Greetings. They were turned into plush teddy bears and featured in the animated TV specials The Care Bears in the Land Without Feelings (1983) and The Care Bears Battle the Freeze Machine (1984) before headlining their own television series called Care Bears from 1985 to 1988. They also had multiple feature films, including The Care Bears Movie (1985), Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation (1986), and The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland (1987).

Each Care Bear is a different color or shade and has a unique image on their stomach (referred to in various media as "tummy symbols" or "belly badges") that represents their personality or specialty. The Care Bears family also include the Care Bear Cousins, which feature different animals, such as a lion, sheep, penguin, elephant, rabbit, raccoon, dog, cat, monkey, pig and horse created in the same style as the Care Bears. (wikipedia)

• • •

Very basic theme concept, but well executed. Felt like a three-star puzzle, but I gave it a little bump because the theme answers themselves are really nice answers on their own, and because the weird "VIBE"s were embedded in the proper manner (i.e. broken across both parts of a two-part phrase). The revealer itself is a fresh phrase. In short, a fine Monday puzzle. Also, a bizarrely easy Monday puzzle to solve Down-only. Usually, the longer answers will give me at least a little trouble on a Downs-only solve, but today, I got three out of four of them at first glance, off just their first one or two letters. AMENITIES, UNSEATED, INCENTIVE—all of them went right in and ended up being correct. The only answer that gave me the slightest bit of trouble was CARE BEAR, and that's largely because I think of the Care Bears as a cartoon, not as faddish 1980s plush toys. They must have started as faddish 1980s plush toys and then moved into cartoondom. I don't remember. By the 1980s, I was already (way) too old to care about CARE BEARs. But even CARE BEAR didn't take much effort, in the end. Got a few crosses by inference and bam, there it was. Can't see a single answer that could've caused anyone any real trouble. Remedial even for a Monday. But still pretty nicely done, overall. I'd rather not think about the EXECUTIVE BRANCH of government at this point, or for the next 2.5 years, but that's hardly the puzzle's fault.

One of the things I liked about today's puzzle, especially solving it Downs-only, was that the theme actually helped me out. I mean, it's possible I wouldn't have needed the help at all, since the puzzle was generally so easy, but after the first two themers fell into place, I could tell that we were just dealing with a letter scramble ("V" "E" "B" "I") and so when I was working my way into the SW corner, after getting the "E" and "B" in what ended up being MOVIE BUFF, I knew the remaining two circled letters were going to be "I" and "V," and since EXECUTIVE BRANCH already had the "IVEB" string, I reasoned that the strings wouldn't duplicate, and so the last string must be "VIEB." Wrote those letters in and those Downs became that much easier. It's always a little more fun to solve when understanding the theme helps you out somewhat. 

Bullets:

• 17A: Popular character actor in both "The Godfather" and "Barney Miller" (ABE VIGODA) — do the kids know ABE VIGODA? Do they do ABE VIGODA Tik-Toks or whatever? If you are of a certain age (45+, maybe), or are a real MOVIE BUFF (or just a Godfather fan), then ABE VIGODA is basically a household name. I don't think he's been in anything culturally noteworthy since the late '70s. He was in a Super Bowl commercial for Snickers in 2010 with Betty White. That has to have been the most-viewed thing he did since Barney Miller. I was stunned (just now) to learn that he didn't die until 2016. Turns out, thinking ABE VIGODA was dead was a running gag since the early '80s:

Prior to his actual death in January 2016, Vigoda was a repeated victim of mistaken death announcements. These led to jokes, often with Vigoda as a participant. // In 1982, People magazine mistakenly referred to Vigoda as dead. At the time, Vigoda, aged 60, was performing in a stage play in Calgary. He took the mistake with good humor, posing for a photograph published in Variety, in which he is sitting up in a coffin, holding the erroneous issue of People. (wikipedia)

• 1D: Sounds made with the fingers (quick!) (SNAPS) — I got this easily enough, but was confused by the "(quick!)" part. Is the clue telling me to be quick? Is it saying the SNAPS mean "be quick!"? Are SNAPS made with quick fingers? I love the quirky energy of the "(quick!)" part, but you shouldn't sacrifice clarity for quirkiness.
• 13A: "The ___ Game" (song that begins "Shirley Shirley bo-berley, bonana fanna fo-ferley") ("NAME") — funny that the longest clue in the puzzle is for an answer that's only four letters long. I admire the commitment to the bit—could've stopped at "bo-berley" and the answer would've still been gettable, but clearly someone thought, "you know what, it's Monday, not a hell of a lot else going on, so let's keep going." I only wish they'd had the courage to go all the "fee fy mo-merley ... Shirley" way. You've got room, and if not, just take some words away from that long-ass MOTOR clue (11D: ___ Trend (magazine that chooses a Car of the Year annually)).

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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People of the Mexican altiplano / SUN 3-22-26 / Canon competitor / Catalyst for reckless behavior / Eliminated for not following the rules, informally / Sb, on the periodic table / 1980s video game character who hops between cubes / Duo with the 1999 hit "Steal My Sunshine" / Each of the tiny tufts on a dandelion has one

Constructor: Alex Eaton-Salners

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "Sound It Out" — letter puns: circled squares in some theme answers are punny hints to other theme answers:

Theme answers:

• "ARE YOU WITH ME?" / INSTRUMENT (the letters "R" and "U" are "with" (i.e. next to) the letters "ME") (27A: The circles in 22-Across? / 22A: Triangle, for one)
• CUE TIPS / QUIET QUITTING ("Q"s are on the "tips," i.e. at the front, of their respective words) (45A: The circles in 41-Across? / 41A: Modern trend of employees doing the bare minimum)
• BEELINE / BABY BIB (there's a "line" (I guess ...?) of "B"s) (67A: The circles in 64-Across? / 54A: Highchair wear)
• TEA SETS / SITTING PRETTY (there are two "sets" of "T"s) (91A: The circles in 93-Across? / 93A: On easy street)
• SEES EYE TO EYE / ATOMIC CITY (there are "C"s running from one "I" to the other) (108A: The circles in 115-Across? / 115A: Nickname of Oak Ridge, Tenn., built in 1942 for the Manhattan Project)

Word of the Day: YAREN (30A: Nauru's capital) —

Yaren (in earlier times Makwa or Moqua) is a district of the Pacific island country of Nauru [population: 803]. It is the de facto capital of Nauru and is coextensive with Yaren Constituency. Yaren is located on the southern coast of the island and is the location of Nauru's government offices. // The district was created in 1968. Its original name, Makwa (or Moqua), refers to Moqua Well, an underground lake and primary source of drinking water for the Nauruan people. // Yaren is located in the south of the island. Its area is 1.5 km² (0.58 sq mi), and its elevation was 25 metres (82 feet) as of 2007. To the north of Yaren is Buada, to the east is Meneng, and to the west is Boe. // Yaren has a marine tropical rainforest climate (Köppen Af) with hot, humid conditions across the year. // Yaren (and sometimes Aiwo) is usually listed as the capital of Nauru. However, this is incorrect; the republic does not have cities nor an official capital. Yaren is accepted by the United Nations as the "main district". (wikipedia) (my emph.)

• • •

Corny letter-pun theme and a lot of garbage fill. Perhaps not the worst of times, but definitely not the best of times either. There was one semi-cool moment where I actually used a theme answer (SEES EYE TO EYE) to get another theme answer (ATOMIC CITY). Other than that, I didn't enjoy this one much at all. Some of the theme answers are pretty decent answers on their own. QUIET QUITTING I quite like, and SITTING PRETTY isn't bad at all. But that's all the joy the theme yields. And I've got major problems with at least two of the "Sound It Out" answer. First, if I'm taking the puzzle at its word, and the point is literally to "sound out" the letters, then what the hell is going on with the "ME" in INSTRUMENT!? In literally every other case in the whole danged puzzle, the puns work because you "sound out" the circled letters as letters. "R" = "ARE," "U" = "YOU," etc. etc. etc. But not so with that "ME." If you want to use "RUME" as your circled letters, then the answer should be "ARE YOU WITH EMMY?" It's true. Come on, you know I'm right. You may not care that the puzzle ignores its own dang rule, but you cannot deny that it does, in fact, ignore it. Precisely once. Just ... because. Also, how are those "B"s a "line?" There are four of them, but they do not form a "line" in any meaningful sense of that word. If they were consecutive, great, that's a "line." but "B" other letter "B" other letter "B" other letter "B" is not a "B" line. It's not. Again, you may not care, but it's definitely not. Any more than any number of "B"s (>1) in any answer is a "B" line. Even if this letter-pun stuff were my cup of tea, I'd still have to say the theme is poorly executed. And this letter-pun stuff is not my cup of tea. So ... bad day to "B" me, I guess.

And the fill, oof. Here's what I said about YAREN the last time I saw it, seven+ years ago , which remains the only other time I've ever seen it in my life in any context (my feelings about the answer have not changed):

I'm still laughing at YAREN. I mean ... what? It's bad enough I have to remember NAURU, a very very very tiny country. But its so-called capital? More people live In My Neighborhood than live in YAREN. I got YAREN and gaped at it. Checked the crosses. Shrugged. Thank god for crosses. Beyond that, the fill was rough all over.

And once again the fill was, in fact, rough all over. Exhibit A: RAN IT, which, astonishingly, crosses YAREN! Exhibit B: DUDED. Exhibit C: SEEDLET. And so on. The plural of "mafioso" is MAFIOSI, not MAFIOSOS (111A: Family members). See for yourself. If you're gonna go and get all Italian on us, at least finish the job, yeesh. I nearly died on the SEMANA / ANTIMONY cross, first because I misspelled SEMANA as SEMENA (making some kind of sound analogy from Fr. "semaine") (87A: Seven days in San Juan) and second because I never can really believe that ANTIMONY is an element and not, you know, a feeling (89D: Sb, on the periodic table). As in "I feel great ANTIMONY for this puzzle."  RAN IT, ON IT, "SO THIS IS IT" ... Cousin ITT. Lottta "IT's in this grid. Also, lotta LOTTEs (just the one, but that's more than zero, and thus a lot more than I care to see) (old school crosswordese, though, so not a big problem). Distracting to see TEASE in a letter-pun puzzle when it has nothing to do with "T"s. Also to see Q-BERT, which has a "sounded-out" "Q" in it (97A: 1980s video game character who hops between cubes). See also "DQED" (36D: Eliminated for not following the rules, informally). Weak concept, weak execution, whaddyagonnado? (go back to watching March Madness basketball as fast as I can, actually).

Bullets:

• 90D: Tufted parts of horses' legs (FETLOCKS) — I am no horse anatomy expert, but I like this word. Briefly got it confused with HOLLYHOCK because that's the name of Bojack Horse(!)man's half-sister on Bojack Horseman. (they both think she's his daughter for much of the series, which is why he says "daughter" in this clip)

• 31A: Digital ID? (SSN) — because it's composed of ... digits. I assume.
• 101D: People of the Mexican altiplano (OTOMI) — I've definitely seen OTOMI in the grid before (you couldn't invent a more crossword-friendly 5—alternating v-c-v-c-v, terminal "I" ... just amazing), but I have to admit I could not tell you what the "altiplano" is. So, for me, and maybe for you ... 

The Central Mexican Plateau, also known as the Mexican Altiplano (Spanish: Altiplano mexicano), is a large arid-to-semiarid plateau occupying much of northern and central Mexico. Averaging 1,825 m (5,988 ft) above sea level, it extends from the United States border in the north to the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt in the south, and is bounded by the Sierra Madre Occidental and Sierra Madre Oriental to the west and east, respectively.

[there's also an antiplano in South America—the Andean Plateau—which I mistakenly posted earlier]

• 1D: Jay Gatsby's obsession in "The Great Gatsby" (DAISY) — read this last year for the 100th anniversary. I was spared having to read it in high school, and I didn't get around to reading it until I was in my 40s. I liked it OK, but I blew through it and didn't think much about it that first time. This time, I paid more attention, and I really really loved it. Not sure it's great high school reading material, but it is a genuinely beautifully written book. 

• 8D: Duo with the 1999 hit "Steal My Sunshine" (LEN) — come on. The great spy novelist LEN Deighton just died and instead of referring to him you're giving me an admittedly catchy but very old song by a band that had zero other hit songs? Bah. I'm reading Deighton for the first time right now, after seeing many people, including several friends, profess their admiration for him over the years. I've started with The Berlin Game and so far, I'm loving it. It's got sentences that stop you in your tracks they're so well written. Not many writers in any genre write sentences that can do that.

On the other hand, "Steal My Sunshine" is a pretty fun song, I have to admit...

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. fictional crossword tournament representation alert!

You can stream Elsbeth on Hulu (at least that's what I did).

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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