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.   

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

• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

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

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...

Teacher's pet, say, in slang / WED 10-21-26 / ___ saltado (Peruvian stir-fry dish) / Tender bend-er / Fabulous, in slang / Bird that gives pebbles as a courtship gesture / Crop whose trade contributed to the Opium Wars / Chemical suffix that indicates a double bond / Actress Dowd of "The Handmaid's Tale"

Constructor: Rebecca Goldstein

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: report card — clues are courses and grades; answers are familiar phrases that would seem to describe them:

Theme answers:

• PARKING FINE (17A: Driver's Ed: B)
• MOVING AVERAGE (28A: Gym: B+)
• BUILDING SUPER (42A: Wood shop: A)
• PAST PERFECT (56A: History: A+)

Word of the Day: LOMO saltado (39A: ___ saltado (Peruvian stir-fry dish)) —

Lomo saltado is a traditional Peruvian dish, a stir-fry that typically combines marinated strips of sirloin (or other beef steak) with onions, tomatoes, french fries, and other ingredients, and is typically served with rice. The dish originated as part of the chifa tradition, the Chinese cuisine of Peru, though its popularity has made it part of the mainstream culture. (wikipedia)

• • •

I'm stuck on MOVING AVERAGE. Like, really stuck. First off, there's the "moving" part, which took me forever because I was looking for a gym activity, the way PARKING is a driver's ed activity, not an extremely vague general term for what one does in gym class. That was weird. But the real issue for me is the AVERAGE part. When did B+ become AVERAGE. I mean, let's all acknowledge that grade inflation is real, still, I have never seen any association between "B+" and AVERAGE. Even saying "B" is FINE is kinda weird and non-intuitive. But "B+" = average? There's no official or unofficial precedent for that, that I know of, and I've been putting grades on things for thirty years. Is there some kind of math in-joke here about grade inflation, i.e. that the "average" has "moved" over time from "C" (official "average") to B+ ("average" in practice)? I just can't square "B+ and AVERAGE. The latter two themers work much better than the first two. I believe that "A" = SUPER (despite the informality of that term) and "A+" = PERFECT, and BUILDING and PAST seem like very good descriptions of what one does in Wood shop and what one studies in History. But PARKING FINE is strange because PARKING is just one small element of Driver's Ed. The other themers have words that describe the totality of what's done or studied (MOVING, BUILDING, PAST), whereas PARKING is just a fragment. The theme seems half-busted to me today, despite the cleverness of the concept.

The puzzle was also way harder than I expected in parts. The entire NW was a bust for me at first. KISS-UP, yikes. I had -SUP at one point and still no idea. And KAPUT means "dead" to me. [Wrecked] is adjacent, but not really dead on, so those "K" crosses, oof. Killed me. Also, the cutesy injoke clue on IRATE meant nothing to me. Long clue that I didn't really understand (2D: Like a passionate solver discovering a filled-in airline magazine crossword, say). "Passionate" to IRATE, not a distance I was able to travel. IRATE seems insane, not "passionate." People solve the crosswords. That's what they're there fore. Yeesh. I always like finding a solve (or, more typically, partially solved) crossword in an in-flight magazine. You really learn ... a lot. About what people do ... and sometimes shockingly do not ... know. If not for the Münch painting up in that corner, I would've been really stuck. Another brutal clue: 26A: Tender bend-er (BUM KNEE). I am so confused about why there is a hyphen in "bend-er." Also, why there is no "?" on this clue, since it's clearly playing on "fender bender" (see how you don't hyphenate "bender"!!). I would not have minded this clue: [Tender bender?]. Still would've been tough, but at the least the punctuation would've made sense. I thought "Tender" was money, so I was quite lost. It's a cute clue, but confusing. 

Another difficulty: LOMO, which is quickly becoming neo-crosswordese, though since I still can't remember it, ever, it clearly hasn't achieved that status yet (this is its third NYTXW appearance, all since 2023). Stop convincing yourself that a partial Peruvian dish is good fill (LOMO means "spine" (?)—it seems to refer to the cut of beef: loin or tenderloin). Also, UTA, which was already crosswordese (see UTA Hagen), now apparently has a new clue. If only I knew the Mammoth played in UTAh. What an awful way to abbr. that state. More trouble with "WANNA SEE?," which did not clearly match its clue (37D: "Are you ready for this?"). If those colloquial imagined-speech clues don't land perfectly, they get very tough. I had fewer problems with the equally hyper-colloquial "IT'S LEGIT" (12D: "That checks out"). The clue on ACED, also tough in this odd adjectival form (52A: Like a tennis player who didn't even swing). I had ACHY. Made sense at the time. My boat had a SEA DECK before it had a SUN DECK (41D: Open-air part of a cruise ship). Very hard for me to get from [Nutrition sources] to DIETS. It's accurate enough, but again, the phrasing just felt ... odd. 

Bullets:

• 47A: Chemical suffix that indicates a double bond (ENE) — ugh, chemical suffixes. Bottom-rung fill. ENE is never going to be "good," so just make it a direction. Have fun with maps! [Memphis-to-Nashville dir.], something like that. Chemical suffix? Meh.
• 24A: Crop whose trade contributed to the Opium Wars (TEA) — one of those answers that I get in retrospect but that I absolutely did Not get during the solve. "Crop" "uh ... POPPIES? No? I'm out." 
• 61A: Stephen King's telekinetic teen of horror (CARRIE) — easy, but again, I do not understand the clue-writing at all. There's absolutely no need for "of horror" here. It's Stephen King. His name already says "horror." If you know CARRIE at all, you know what genre you're in. [Stephen King's telekinetic teen] is concise and has a beautiful rhythm to it. "Of horror" kills that, and for no good reason. Nobody's in danger of thinking CARRIE is [Stephen King's telekinetic teen of romantic comedy]. Come on. This is a harmless issue, but come on. 

• 6D: Bird that gives pebbles as a courtship gesture (PENGUIN) — I love bird clues but man this could've been anything as far as I was concerned. Luckily, by the time I saw the clue, I had the "-NGU-" in place, so no problem. 
• 9D: Actress Dowd of "The Handmaid's Tale" (ANN) — actress I've never heard of on show I've never seen and have no desire to see (I read the book, I'm good). Crosses were easy, ANN was inferable. no harm no foul.
• 50D: Fellow crew member (MATEY) —a [Fellow crew member] is a MATE. "MATEY" is some pirate-y, Popeye-esque slang, isn't it? I've only heard it in fictional contexts. The dictionary (m-w) has MATEY as an adjective ("companionable, sociable"). Every MATEY clue before this seems to have understood and appreciated and *indicated* the slanginess:

[xwordinfo]

• 38D: Fabulous, in slang (DOPE) — I went blank. With DO- staring at me, my brain completely emptied out. When I eventually got DOPE, I thought "... that's obvious. Why didn't you think of that immediately, you DOPE?" But I was talking to an empty brain, so ... no reply.

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)]

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

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...