Swanky shindig / TUES 5-26-2026 / What a scare might make you do / Game with the goal of running out of cards / What Thomas Carlyle called "the dismal science," for short

Hi, everyone, it’s Clare back for the last Tuesday of May! Hope that everyone had a nice long weekend and that the weather didn’t hamper too many plans (like the rain did for my picnic plans here in DC). I’ve been staying busy with work, as immigration policies keep changing and we keep needing to sue the federal government… Otherwise, I’ve been enjoying the start of the WNBA season — go, Washington Mystics! (And I’m also quite partial to the Dallas Wings.) In the MNBA, I’m rooting for the Spurs to win, as I’ve watched the Knicks and wondered whether they’re really that good or the East is really that bad (I guess we’ll find out). Finally, a shoutout to my sister’s team, Arsenal, which just won the Premier League for the first time in 22 years (my team, Liverpool, did it last year, just for reference😊) and which are in the Champions League final next weekend! Also shoutout again to my sister because she finished walking the 500-mile Camino de Santiago in 26 days! 

Anywho, on to the puzzle…

Constructor: Brad Lively

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: BODY OF KNOWLEDGE (37A: What the answers to the starred clues are, collectively?) — The theme answers combine an adjective describing intelligence with a body part

Theme answers:

• SHARP TEETH (17A: Aids for biting) 
• KEEN EYE (26A: Attribute for spotting what others miss) 
• WISE ASS (49A: Cheeky sort) 
• SMART MOUTH (63A: One given to insolence)

Word of the Day: DENALI (22D: Mountain visible from Anchorage) —

Denali, federally designated as Mount McKinley, is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of 20,310 feet (6,190 m) above sea level. It is the tallest mountain in the world from base to peak on land, measuring 18,000 ft (5,500 m). With a topographic prominence of 20,156 feet (6,144 m) and a topographic isolation of 4,621.1 miles (7,436.9 km), Denali is the third most prominent and third-most isolated peak on Earth, after Mount Everest and Aconcagua. Located in the Alaska Range in the interior of the U.S. state of Alaska, Denali is the centerpiece of Denali National Park and Preserve. The Koyukon people who inhabit the area around the mountain have referred to the peak as "Denali" for centuries... In January 2025, the Department of the Interior under the Trump administration reverted the mountain's official federal name to Mount McKinley. (Wiki)

• • •

That was a fairly straightforward and easy puzzle for a Tuesday. The theme didn’t help my solve, but I enjoyed piecing together the puzzle afterward to figure out what BODY OF KNOWLEDGE (37A) was referring to. The synonyms for KNOWLEDGE all worked nicely. And the BODY parts mostly worked. I do find it a little funny that we’ve got three BODY parts that are all on the face — TEETH, EYE, and MOUTH — and then there’s… ASS. Sure, why not! For some reason, I couldn’t quite wrap my brain around BODY OF KNOWLEDGE at first and wanted to make “book” work in some way, but the easy crossing downs there helped sort me out (especially because of my alma mater, YALE (38D: Connecticut Ivy)). I might have preferred having the revealer at the bottom of the puzzle, but having it span the puzzle in the middle works. 

This puzzle was also one of the easiest Tuesday puzzles for me in recent memory. I’m not sure if it was just on my wavelength or what, but it seemed like the first thing that popped into my head was correct, and nothing gave me more than a few seconds of pause. The place I paused the longest was probably in the SW corner, where I wanted “tie dye” instead of DIP DYE (46D: Technique whereby a shirt is lowered into a pigmented bath) and I briefly forgot TYCO (65A: Tickle Me Elmo toymaker). But everything else flowed smoothly. 

I think the ease was also aided by the fact that this seemed like a proper noun-lite puzzle. I count 13 — ADELE, HONDA, TYCO, OREOS, UTAH, ANA, THAI, SETH, DENALI, UNO, YALE, OHIO and SIMON — and none are obscure for crosswords. I wavered a bit because nothing felt uncommon enough to be a “word of the day.” But I decided on DENALI (22D) because I just think it’s so stupid how the Trump administration re-designated it Mount McKinley, ignoring the name the native Koyukon people had called it for centuries. I guess kudos to the New York Times for continuing to call it DENALI instead of Mount McKinley.

The four longer downs — HOTEL SAFE (5D: Spot to keep a passport while traveling), TARGETED AD (10D: Customized bit of marketing), MAD RESPECT (30D: Huge props), and DWARF STAR (36D: A little sun?) — were fine. I especially like MAD RESPECT, and the clue for DWARF STAR is a bit clever. 

Otherwise, I can’t think of much to say about this puzzle. But I did enjoy it!

Misc.:

• I’ve hiked in Bryce Canyon in UTAH (6A), and it’s absolutely gorgeous. I just wish I’d hiked more of the national parks and actually been into rock climbing when my mom was living there a few years ago so I could’ve explored more! 
• Kind of embarrassingly, I looked at 39D: Home of Xenia, the U.S.'s largest city whose name starts with "X" as OHIO for an inordinately long time. I thought it was telling me that Xenia was the largest city in the U.S., and that was clearly bizarre. After reading the clue a few times, I had my aha moment. Google tells me the population of Xenia, OHIO is 26,372, and Xenia is just about the only city starting with X in the U.S. that I can find. It seems there are some neighborhoods and smaller areas that may start with X, but Xenia is the only city I found (please correct me if I’m wrong). 
• Oh, I know what PREP (19A: Task for a line cook, informally) looks like in a kitchen — I’ve been watching “Top Chef” and subsequently failing to recreate their knife skills in my own kitchen. 
•  I also just finished watching the documentary “The Rescue” about the THAI (43A: Cuisine from Bangkok) soccer team that got stuck in a cave in 2018 and about how incredible an effort it was by so many to get the whole team and their coach out safely. 
• In other news, I went from a reading slump to somehow already being 40% into “Into the Blue” by Emma Brodie, and I just want to keep reading. So I’ll sign off here:)

Hope you all have a great month of June and official start to summer!

Signed, Clare Carroll, who can’t stop singing “head, shoulders, knees, and toes… eyes and ears and mouth and nose…”

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Frothy drink often served with boba / MON 5-25-26 / 1980s hit with the lyric "Me mind on fire, me soul on fire" / Dried poblanos used in mole sauce / California national park known for its dryness / Variety of chili that can reach a Scoville score of 1+ million / Locale for a plastic flamingo / Fruit that makes your lips pucker / Piece of armadillo armor

Constructor: Anthony Grubb

Relative difficulty: Very easy (solved Downs-only)

THEME: "HOT, HOT, HOT" (65A: 1980s hit with the lyric "Me mind on fire, me soul on fire" ... or how one might describe 17-, 30- and 48-Across) — three theme answers are things that could be described as "hot":

Theme answers:

• LOVE SCENE (17A: Steamy segment in a movie)
• GHOST PEPPER (30A: Variety of chili that can reach a Scoville score of 1+ million)
• DEATH VALLEY (48A: California national park known for its dryness)

Word of the Day: "HOT, HOT, HOT" (65A) —

"Hot Hot Hot" is a song written and first recorded by Montserratian musician Arrow, featured on his 1982 studio album Hot Hot Hot. The song was a commercially successful dance floor single, with cover versions subsequently released by artists in several countries, including in 1987 by American singer Buster Poindexter.

The song was Arrow's first chart hit, peaking at No. 59 on the UK Singles Chart. A remix of the song, dubbed as the "World Carnival Mix '94" was later released in 1994 and peaked higher than the original, at number 38 on the UK Singles Chart.

The song was used as the theme song of the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico. // The song was covered in 1987 by American singer David Johansen, as his lounge singer persona Buster Poindexter, and released as the first single from his album Buster Poindexter. It garnered extensive airplay through radio, MTV, and other television appearances.

A music video was produced for Johansen's version of the song, in which he appears both as Buster Poindexter and as himself. The video begins with Johansen mentioning his role as the frontman for the 1970s proto-punk band New York Dolls, showing the band's albums and tossing them aside while talking about the "really outrageous clothes" he wore and how he came to be interested in a "refined and dignified kind of a situation", which leads into the song.

In an interview on National Public Radio, Johansen called the tune "the bane of my life", owing to its pervasive popularity as a karaoke and wedding song. [...] 

The song was used in the movie Beverly Hills Chihuahua. (wikipedia)

• • •

If you came here hoping to hear "HOT, HOT, HOT," sorry, I cannot oblige, as I do not want to subject my ears or brain to it any more than this puzzle already has. I did (slightly) enjoy learning about the song's history, though (see "Word of the Day," above). I had no idea there was a version that preceded Buster Poindexter's version. That's probably because that original version (by Arrow) (?) charted only in the UK (and only got as high as 59 the first time around—it got to 38 when it recharted in the mid-90s). It was apparently the theme song of the FIFA World Cup in 1986, so it must've gotten a lot of international attention, but the only version I know is the Buster Poindexter version (1987), which I (slightly) confuse with "Hot in the City Tonight," a song I remember as being by Buster Poindexter, but which is actually performed by Billy Idol. You can hear that song in that great scene in Big (1988) when Tom Hanks is riding home from a company party in a limo with Elizabeth Perkins and he stands up and pops his head out of the sun roof as they're driving down the streets of NYC. I can't find the scene, which is annoying me. In lieu of that scene, here's Hanks (playing a 13yo who now inhabits an adult's body) trying beluga caviar for the first time:

But back to the puzzle: despite the fact that I do not care for the song in question (which you can hear here in its original version, and here as the Poindexter cover), I thought the theme was perfectly adequate for a Monday. Simple, straightforward, slightly playful. All three of the themers are "hot" in different ways. There's very little else of interest in the puzzle, but despite being somewhat on the dull side, the fill is perfectly serviceable. Very little in the way of dreck. So ... there you go. Clean, basic, fine. 

And as a Downs-only solve, it was quite easy. I assume it was equally easy if you bothered with the Acrosses. As usual, I had trouble with the "word that can precede/follow" clue (6D: Lead-in to maker or breaker). When TIE wouldn't work (although there are most certainly TIE makers in the world), I was out of luck and just waited until I could infer crosses in order to get ICE. It took me a few seconds to remember that boba tea was MILK TEA (9D: Frothy drink often served with boba). I wrote in -O-A at 42D: Coke or Pepsi because I wasn't sure if it was gonna be COLA or SODA (I figured the former, but didn't wanna lock myself in without being sure). I needed a few inferred crosses (mainly the second "A" from DEATH VALLEY) to get ANCHOS (double pepper action today) (49D: Dried poblanos used in mole sauce). But the only real "whoops" of the day came when, off just the "H," I wrote in "I HEAR YOU" for 24D: "Yeah, yeah" ("WHATEVER"). Luckily, the letters from "I HEAR YOU" quickly ended up being pretty obviously bad, so I tore it out and rebuilt it as "WHATEVER" (aided considerably by the "V" from DEATH VALLEY). Otherwise, it was look at clue, write in answer, over and over and over. No resistance whatsoever. 

Bullets:

• 17A: Steamy segment in a movie (LOVE SCENE) — It's weird that we still call these "love scenes" when what we mean is "sex scenes," which is maybe a more common term now.  I'm watching a terrible movie right now called Sliver (1993) for my Movie Club and there are several sex scenes but calling them LOVE SCENEs seems ... really wrong. It's Sharon Stone and the one Baldwin you can kinda remember but can't name. No, not Alec. And no, not Stephen. The other one. Anyway, it's one of the more putrid sex scenes I've ever seen. I hope his character dies before they have the chance to go at it again. (I stopped the movie halfway to come upstairs and write the blog, so I don't know—I'm actually hoping every man in this movie dies a horrible death, as there is not a decent or ever tolerable one among them) 
• 38A: Volcanic spew (ASH) — in Sliver, the Baldwin in Question (OK, it's William) has a dumb crystal volcano sculpture in his apartment and at one point utters the very plausible and definitely seductive line, "I love volcanos. Someday I want to fly into one." (you can see the sculpture in the background at the very beginning of the aforementioned sex scene, which I definitely do not recommend that you watch in full). Apparently the original ending of Sliver actually featured Stone and Baldwin doing just that—flying into a volcano. But apparently they decided to go with a more pedestrian ending (I'm half-heartedly avoiding spoilers at the moment), one where Baldwin does not experience a lava-based death, which is too bad. He deserves it. Did I mention that Academy Award-winning actor Martin Landau is also in this movie? The '90s were wild. All this volcano talk has me thinking of another Tom Hanks movie: Joe Vs. The Volcano (1990). I know that movie was maligned, but it has got to be better than Sliver. 

• 35D: Singer Newman with the hit "You've Got a Friend in Me" (RANDY) — this is a song from Toy Story ... hey, another Tom Hanks movie, and this one's actually in the puzzle! (well, sorta). Anyway, Tom Hanks good, this puzzle fine, Sliver unbearable. 

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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