Take fowl foully / MON 5-11-26 / Listened, poetically / Cameroon neighbor / Contents of l'océan / Movie production facilities with controlled acoustics / Winning a blue ribbon / Request from someone craving more

Constructor: Joel Woodford

Relative difficulty: Easyish (solved Downs-only)

[54D: Jabba the ___ ("Star Wars" villain)]

THEME: "OH, DEAR!" (45D: "Goodness me!" ... or a phonetic hint to 17-, 31-, 39- and 55-Across) — in four answers, an "O" ("oh!") is followed (many letters later) by a string of letters that spells out a type of deer ("dear!"):

Theme answers:

• BILLBOARD CHARTS (17A: Rankings of song popularity used as the music industry standard)
• HORS D'OEUVRE (31A: Canapé or deviled egg, for example)
• SOUND STAGES (39A: Movie production facilities with controlled acoustics)
• DROP IN THE BUCKET (55A: Insignificant amount)

Word of the Day: GABON (15A: Cameroon neighbor) —

Gabon (/ɡəˈbɒn/ gə-BON; French pronunciation: [ɡabɔ̃] ^ⓘ), officially the Gabonese Republic (French: République gabonaise), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and the Gulf of Guinea to the west. It has an area of 270,000 square kilometres (100,000 sq mi) and a population of 2.3 million people. There are coastal plains, mountains (the Cristal Mountains and the Chaillu Massif in the centre), and a savanna in the east. Libreville is the country's capital and largest city. // Gabon's original inhabitants were the Bambenga. In the 14th century, Bantu migrants also began settling in the area. The Kingdom of Orungu was established around 1700. France colonised the region in the late 19th century. Since its independence from France in 1960, Gabon has had four presidents. In the 1990s, it introduced a multi-party system and a democratic constitution that aimed for a more transparent electoral process and reformed some governmental institutions. Despite this, the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) remained the dominant party until its removal from power during the 2023 Gabonese coup d'état. (wikipedia)

• • •

What, no HIND? With three males to one female, the herd could use a little evening out. But then "hind" is not exactly an everyday word. The only reason I know it is that it appears in the first line of a fairly famous sonnet by Sir Thomas Wyatt called "Whoso List to Hunt..."

Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,

But as for me, hélas, I may no more.

The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,

I am of them that farthest cometh behind.

Yet may I by no means my wearied mind

Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore

Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore,

Sithens in a net I seek to hold the wind.

Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,

As well as I may spend his time in vain.

And graven with diamonds in letters plain

There is written, her fair neck round about:

Noli me tangere, for Caesar's I am,

And wild for to hold, though I seem tame. (poetryfoundation)

The more you read it, the weirder the deer gets. But back to the puzzle—it was bizarre, so I liked it. It's a nice, light, bright, quirky, easy puzzle. Yes, it involves non-consecutive circled squares, and those things often fail to yield very interesting results, but here, the double pun (on "oh" and "dear") makes the circled squares make perfect sense. And as a Downs-only solver, I was able to actually use the theme to help me get to the finish line, writing in BUCK in those last four circled squares as soon as I got the "B" in there. It's a charming idea for a theme and it was fun to solve (at least it was fun to solve Downs-only). Maybe it doesn't seem spectacular, but I honestly don't have any serious complaints about it. Didn't even find the short stuff that grating, perhaps because it was tempered by some interesting 7s and 8s and a boatload of 6s in the NW and SE corner. And then ACQUITS and UMPTEEN to boot. This one just has a lot more character than most Mondays.

There were precisely four Down answers that gave me trouble today. The first was "I WANT OUT!" (10D: "Don't involve me anymore"). Really wanted that one to start "I'M A..." (the "M" giving me SMEAR at S-EAR, which seemed more than plausible). But then ... stuckness. "I'M ALL OUT"? No, that makes no sense. "I'M A NO, BRO"? Oof, worse. Needed to get most of the crosses before I saw that the "M" was really supposed to be a "W," which made SMEAR into SWEAR (16A: Yell "#$%!"), and finally let me see "I WANT OUT!" The hardest thing for me to see today, though, was FIRST (23D: Winning a blue ribbon). Something about the ambiguity of the clue was throwing me; specifically, I couldn't tell what part of speech the answer wanted. "Winning" ... like, currently winning, in the process of winning? Or ... having won? I wanted AHEAD at first, but that implies the race (or whatever) hasn't been completed yet, and the clue specifically says "Winning." I kinda wanted an -ING word, but at five letters, that seemed unlikely. You wouldn't think a simple word like FIRST could flummox me like this, but ... that's what happened. I think the (apparent) unlikeliness of "F" as the correct start of "-ESS" also made FIRST hard to see. MESS BESS TESS LESS, all of them were in line before FESS. Another longer answer—in fact literally "ANOTHER!"—held me up for a bit down south (40D: Request from someone craving more). And then there was LIDS (52D: Tube tops?). I am a firm believer that tubes have CAPS, not LIDS. Jars have LIDS. Tubes (of toothpaste) have CAPS. So boo to that clue. My lone boo for the day.

[Swayze!]

Bullets:

• 15A: Cameroon neighbor (GABON) — got this from crosses, obviously (since I solved Downs-only), but I'm not sure I would've gotten it easily even if I had read the clue. My knowledge of African (particularly west African) geography remains pretty sketchy. GABON sits right on the equator (see map, above, under "Word of the Day"). Its capital, Libreville is the second-closest world capital to the equator (only crossword favorite QUITO, Ecuador—43 lifetime NYTXW appearances—is closer).
• 30A: Take fowl foully (POACH) — solving Downs-only means sometimes you miss fun clues. This one is funny to me not just because of the silly rhyme, but because when I think of poaching (as in illegal hunting), I think of ... deer! Wrote a whole chapter of my dissertation on the portrayal of poaching (deer) in late medieval England (specifically, in a poem called The Parlement of the Thre Ages). Looks like Parlement, like the aforementioned "Whoso List to Hunt...," also contains a "hynde" ("hind") in addition to a "hert" ("hart"). It's an appropriate poem for May. It opens:

In the monethe of Maye when mirthes bene fele,
And the sesone of somere when softe bene the wedres,
Als I went to the wodde my werdes to dreghe,
Into the schawes myselfe a schotte me to gete
At ane hert or ane hynde, happen as it myghte ... 

    (from The Parlement of the Thre Ages)

• 11D: French for "sea" (MER) — our second three-letter watery French answer. Surprised the clue for EAU wasn't [Contents of 11-Down] instead of [Contents of l'océan].
• 43D: Fashionable (CHIC) — I wonder how long it's going to take now before I look at the word CHIC without thinking of OHIO (see yesterday's puzzle...)
• 44D: Listened, poetically (HARKED) — [Listened, yuletidily]. If Parlement of the Thre Ages was appropriate for May, this song ... isn't. 

• 34D: Rapper ___ Rocky (A$AP) — Always Strive and Prosper. Good to know what the acronym means and get that dollar sign in there. Otherwise it just seems like Rocky is an efficient gofer or personal assistant: As Soon As Possible Rocky!

[starring Winona Ryder] [warning: profanity]

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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East Asian fiddles / SUN 5-10-26 / Reply feigning guiltlessness / Extraterrestrial British TV villain that debuted in 1963 / "Meek" in "Blessed are the meek," e.g. / Ensure that a task is finished / Arsenic's realm, in years past / Dad, in a euphemism / Baby gift bearing the alphabet, maybe / His first star turn was in the 1995 film "Devil in a Blue Dress" / Slant made with a table saw / Numbskull in Yiddish / Travel guide writer Eugene

Constructor: Rachel Fabi and Adam Wagner

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Come Full Circle" — theme clues have "c"s that must be "closed" to make "o"s for the clues to make sense; also, *you* have to CLOSE THE LOOP on the black-square "C" at the center of the puzzle by entering "block" in three squares (113A: Ensure that a task is finished ... and a hint that might help with finishing this puzzle); those "block" squares are clued as 65D: ◾◾◾, and if you actually fill them in with black, you get a black-square formation that makes an "O" instead of a "C":

Theme answers:

• SPACE INVADER (23A: U.F.C. (i.e. [UFO] fighter)
• MEGAMALL (25A: Where many large cutlets [i.e. outlets] are seen)
• YOUTHFUL INDISCRETIONS (32A: Wild cats [i.e. oats])
• ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME (99A: Chic [i.e. Ohio!] venue that features great bands]
• AWAY TEAM (111A: They're frequently bcced [i.e. booed])
• LIFE STORY (39D: Bic [i.e. bio] filler)
• LATE NIGHT (43D: Arsenic's [i.e. Arsenio's] realm, in years past)
• REST STOPS (40D: Traveler's cases [i.e. oases])

The "BLOCK"s:

• ICE BLOCK / BLOCKERS (64A: Large summer delivery, in past times / N.F.L. linemen, at times)
• SUN BLOCK / BLOCK SET (69A: Lifeguard's tubeful / Baby gift bearing the alphabet, maybe)
• OLD BLOCK / BLOCKADE (73A: Dad, in a euphemism / Naval barrier preventing entering and leaving) 

Word of the Day: CHEWELRY (119A: Gnawable, wearable items that might help with A.D.H.D.) —

Soft, chewable jewelry such as necklaces and bracelets, intended as an oral stim toy to calm and soothe the wearer. (wiktionary)

• • •

OK so Rachel is my friend and I think this theme is quite charming but oh boy did I squeal in non-delight at ADNOUN (6D: "Meek" in "Blessed are the meek," e.g.). What in tarnation and also on god's green earth and/or the world is this word? I learned the term for what you call "meek" in the phrase "the meek shall inherit the earth" when I was in high school and I have never forgotten it and I have occasion to use it from time to time in my teaching and that term is "substantive adjective." Today is the first day in my entire life, to say nothing of my English-teaching life, that I have seen the extremely ugly and awkward and confusing term ADNOUN. It's like that word was someone's very first assignment at portmanteau school. "OK, Billy, what if you combine 'adjective' and 'noun,' what would you call that?" "Uh ... ADNOUN?" "Hmm. OK. Well ... you keep trying, Billy." I'd sooner believe ADNOUN was a noun invented entirely for the purpose of advertising, like "Wessonality" or "Retsyn" (ask your parents, kids!). ADNOUN? And that "D" was crossing SUNSHADE which ... I don't really know that term either (18A: It might hang during the summer). Something that provides shade ... from the sun? As opposed to, what, a MOONSHADE? At least I could infer the "D," so no harm done, ultimately, but oof and ack. SUNSHADE hasn't appeared in over 10 years, and before that the gap was almost 20 years! And as for ADNOUN, it will surprise no one that that word hasn't been seen in the NYTXW since before I was born—nine days before Kennedy was assassinated, to be precise. I know there are various conspiracy theories about who really killed JFK (I once made a crossword on this topic for the playbill of an off-Broadway play, true story!), but ... are we sure ADNOUN wasn't involved somehow? Lee Harvey ADNOUN? Man, that "word" ... I can barely see straight rn (as you can possibly tell).

But let's leave that aside and get to the theme, which is actually quite lovely. It's simple and cute, with an added surprise flourish in the middle (the "block" bit), and some of the cluing is quite clever. Very impressed by some of these finds, esp. "Chic" -> "Ohio"—nice twofer! The surface meaning on many of  the clues works really well. I think it would've been more fun not to italicize the relevant clues and just let us stumble all over the place trying to find them and figure them out, but this way is fine too. Arsenic -> Arsenio, bcced -> booed ... these work so well. I just wish they'd had a chance to fool me, but after I got the first themer (MEGAMALL), I could see that "cutlets" had to be "outlets" and ... there went the whole gimmick. After that nothing about the theme is tricky ... that is, until you get to the "block" bits toward the center. That gave the theme a much-needed extra twist. Anyway, I basically liked it. There were some stray answers that made me roll my eyes or groan, and ... again, there's ADNOUN, pffffffffft ... but overall, I thought this puzzle was far more entertaining than most Sundays have been of late (or ever). 

I'm trying to remember the game Space Invaders in order to make sense of the clue for SPACE INVADER (23A: U.F.C. [i.e. UFO] fighter). I thought the UFOs were the "invaders?" Oh ... wait ... I thought "fighter" was being used to mean "one who fights against," as in "firefighter" or "crime fighter," but I guess it just means "one who fights" (in the case of Space Invaders, the UFO is one who fights against you, the player). OK, I feel better about that one now. I feel less good about CHEWELRY, which I had a hard time finding a credible definition for that wasn't coming from someone trying to sell me CHEWELRY. Are people really gnawing on "jewelry" in public? No judgment, I promise, I just haven't seen (or heard of) such a thing. But there is a chewelryworld dot com, so if it merits an entire website—a website that promises an entire world!—then it would appear that *I* am the one from an alternate universe. "What if ... what if I'm the SPACE INVADER?! ... what if I'm the UFO, man?" At least CHEWELRY is a good portmanteau. I'd give Billy at least a B+ for that one.  

Choked on L'IL OL' ME (92D: Reply feigning guiltlessness). By "choked" I don't mean "failed to solve it easily," I mean "literally choked and sputtered at the preposterousness of the letter string LILOLME." I of course know the phrase "little old me," but was not aware that you could do this particular variation, which, without its folksy letter-droppin' apostrophes, looks like something the SPACE INVADER dragged in. I also keep double-taking on SOILIED, which looks like a cutesy way of saying "dirty." "Did dolly's dress get all SOILIED because Rover buried her in the backyard? It's OK, daddy will wash it." So some of the fill got weird for me, but I appreciate that the constructors seemed to be at least trying to keep things interesting—not easy to do over the entirety of an enormous Sunday-sized canvas. Have I seen that particular spelling of SEE-THRU before? I have not. Does it make sense? Yes. Is it more interesting than, say, SEETHED? It is. So good. Fine. I'll take it.

Bullets:

• 21A: "Well, lah-di-dah!" ("OHO!") — so ... not "OOH!"? Sigh, OK. I don't think I've ever had OOH/OHO confusion before, but there's always a first time...
• 29A: Dadaism, it's said (ANTI-ART) — quite a week for the anti-arts. We had ANTICOMEDY on Friday and now ANTI-ART. Dadaism was "A cultural movement that began in neutral Zürich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1920, which involved visual arts, literature (poetry, art manifestos, art theory), theatre, and graphic design, which concentrated its anti-war politic through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works." (wordnik)

[The Art Critic, Raoul Hausmann, ca. 1919]

• 37A: Extraterrestrial British TV villain that debuted in 1963 (DALEK) — me, instantly, reflexively, off the "D," without reading the entire clue, let alone understanding it: "DR. WHO!" I have never watched this particular TV show, in any of its many, many incarnations, but I do recognize DALEK.
• 94A: Get ad-libby-dibby while singy-ingy-inging? (SCAT) — I appreciate the effort, clue, but that hurt my eary-wearies. You gotta be careful with cutesy. Look at the EWES clue: 120A: Baa-baa mamas. Now that's cutesy done right. Concise and precise. Presentable. Whereas "singy-ingy-inging" is not even a plausible approximation of what a drunk person would make up while attempting to SCAT. Try saying "singy-ingy-inging." It's unnatural. Even with the silliness turned to 11, my mouth doesn't want to do it.
• 108D: 2015 thriller starring Emily Blunt as an F.B.I. agent (SICARIO) — of all the '10s movies I didn't see, I think I didn't see this one the most. I know the title, but I (clearly) had no idea what the movie was about. I think I had it confused with SYRIANA (2005) (which I also, clearly, did not see)
• 7D: Slant made with a table saw (BEVEL) — younger me would've put BEVEL in no problem, but older me knows that the word BEZEL exists and can never remember exactly what it means or how it differs from BEVEL, so I left that middle letter blank and waited for help from the cross (thank you, SPACE INVADER!)
• 9D: His first star turn was in the 1995 film "Devil in a Blue Dress" (CHEADLE) — the "star" of Devil in a Blue Dress was Denzel Washington. The other "star" was Jennifer Beals (of Flashdance fame). CHEADLE isn't even on the poster. It's true, he is *amazing* in Devil, playing Easy Rawlins's loyal but unpredictably violent old friend Mouse; the performance got CHEADLE several critics circle awards for Best Supporting Actor. It's a breakout role. I just ... apparently I'm unclear about what the parameters of "star turn" are. Anyway, good movie, also a good book, worth checking out.

• 84D: Travel guide writer Eugene (FODOR) — started out spelling this guy's name like a shortened form of FEDERER, but came to my senses eventually.
• 86A: East Asian fiddles (ERHUS) — did not remember this, but once crosses started going in, I was like "oh, right, the instrument that looks like four letters chosen from the alphabet at random, I remember this ... sorta."

• 102D: Fidel ___, Philippine president in the 1990s (RAMOS) — got this easily, but only just now realized that I'd been thinking of Ferdinand MARCOS. Luckily, crosswords do not force you to explain your thinking. That ... could get embarrassing (see ... virtually everything I've ever written) 

Good day to you fine people. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. texting with Rachel Fabi just now and … apparently there are no “c”s or “o”s in any of the clues today. This is an added level of constructing difficulty that seems … insane. Something only dogs can hear. Crossword-constructing dogs. Anyway, this dog didn’t hear it. I love the commitment to the bit, though. 

P.P.S. Rachel is one of the founders of These Puzzles Fund Abortion, a series of crossword puzzle collections the proceeds from which go to various abortion funds around the country. To date they've raised almost $400,000 (!!!). These Puzzles Fund Abortion 6 is available now. Go here to learn more about how you can support abortion access *and* get some excellent crosswords in the bargain.

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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