"Fire-breather" in the night sky / TUE 10-20-26 / Letter-shaped part of a blueprint / Old-time winter excursion / Las ___, Canary Islands / Improvised instrument in folk music / One who says "Hell if I know!"? / Pugilist's pain point perhaps / Relatively short Morse code bit

Constructor: David Falkowski

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "ALL KIDDING ASIDE..." (38A: "Seriously, though ..." or a hint to 17-, 25-, 48 and 58-Across) — familiar phrases ending in words that can mean "kid" (as in "tease"):

Theme answers:

• WEENIE ROAST (17A: Campfire cookout, informally)
• SLEIGH RIDE (25A: Old-time winter excursion)
• BRUISE RIB (48A: Pugilist's pain point, perhaps)
• SPACE NEEDLE (58A: Seattle landmark from which Mount Rainier can be seen)

Word of the Day: Las PALMAS (1A: Las ___, Canary Islands) —

Las Palmas (UK: /ˌlæs ˈpælməs, - ˈpɑːl-/, US: /ˌlɑːs ˈpɑːlməs, -mɑːs/; Spanish: [las ˈpalmas]), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of the Canary Islands in Spain. With a population of 383,516 as of 2024, it is the ninth-largest city in Spain. It is also the fifth-most populous urban area in Spain and, depending on sources, ninth or tenth most populous metropolitan area in Spain. [...] The city was founded by Juan Rejón on 24 June 1478, with the name "Real de Las Palmas". Rejón was head of the invading Castilian army, which then engaged in war with the locals. // The struggle lasted for a period of five years, costing a great number of lives, especially on the aboriginal side, which lacked sufficient means to defend itself against the armies sent by the Catholic monarchs. Even so, resistance was fierce. The end of the conquest came in 1483, with the incorporation of the island into the Crown of Castile by Pedro de Vera, who managed to subjugate the natives of Gáldar in the northwest of the island. [...] In 1492, Christopher Columbus (Spanish: Cristóbal Colón) anchored in the port of Las Palmas for a repair of the rudder of his ship Pinta and spent some time on the neighbour island on his first trip to the Americas. [...] In 1595, Francis Drake tried to plunder the town, leading to the Battle of Las Palmas. A Dutch raid under vice-admiral Pieter van der Does in 1599 was only slightly more successful; some of the town was destroyed, but the raiders were repelled. (wikipedia)

• • •

"ALL KIDDING ASIDE" is a great gridspanner and would seem to be a promising revealer, but as far as execution goes, there's one main problem: the "aside" part. There's nothing particularly "aside" about the kidding here. We're dealing with a basic "phrases that end with"-type theme, where the last words in the theme phrases have something in common. I am having trouble seeing anything particularly "side"-y about the last word in a phrase. Yes, the last word is on one "side" of its phrase, but when you're dealing with two-word phrases, every word is always at all times on some "side" of the phrase. The "kidding" words aren't even touching the "side" of the grid half the time. So I feel like I'm missing something crucial about what "ASIDE" is supposed to mean in this context. I also think "KIDDING" is a lot more jocular and lighthearted than what you do when you RIDE or NEEDLE someone, but that's a tonal mismatch that I could easily tolerate and probably wouldn't have been as distracted by if the "ASIDE" part of the theme had been handled more adeptly. 

The fill on this one also felt old. A little stale, but also old in its entire frame of reference. The advertising language alone felt ancient. Are they still using "Hello, MOTO" in ads? And ROLAIDS? That whole idea of "spelling relief" ("R-O-L-A-I-D-S") was a thing when I was a kid, but again, I didn't know it was still around (wow, it's still around). Both those references felt ancient. Morse code always makes a puzzle feel old (no one has even liked writing DIT in the grid; DIT and DAH, always unwelcome). The very idea of a WEENIE ROAST or a SLEIGH RIDE seems quaint and old-fashioned. Raging Bull is a legendary movie but even that is 46 years old now. And then much of the fill felt a little tired (ECIG, COATI, AXELS, ELL, ADOS, DIT, MOTO, ADOUT, OGLED). There's virtually nothing about the puzzle that suggests that it was made in this century. There's Michelle Kwan, I guess, but her competitive skating career ended sometime in the mid-aughts. Oh, there's gymnast Suni LEE. She's more recent. I just wish the puzzle felt a little more "now" and was a little ZANIER. GARBANZO is always a fun word. I want to like SEEMS BAD, but I think that's because I'm hearing it as a social media post—as an understated two-word commentary on a posted story that is in fact manifestly bad. But overall this fell a little short for me, at both the theme and fill levels.

Bullets:

• 30A: Flattering lines? (ODE) — no idea why this has a "?" on it. "Fun" fact!: with the question mark on it, this clue is a debut (!?!?!?!). It's been used three times before, but never with a question mark (For the record, this is the 950th ODE all time, the 521st in the Shortz Era). Since the other, non-"?" instances of [Flattering lines] occurred on later-week puzzles, maybe the idea is that on Tuesday, the solver needs ... I don't know. Some hint that the clue is a play on words? But is it a play on words? I don't really see it. [side note: I just learned that when xwordinfo gives you counts of all the times a clue has been used before, it does not distinguish between "?" and non-"?" versions of that clue—so, for instance, it indicated that [Flattering lines?] had been used four ("(4)") times, when in fact, with that "?," it had been used just this once. Gotta say, if you add a "?," I think it should count as a different clue]
• 42A: One who says "Hell if I know!"? (SATAN) — I get it, SATAN lives in hell, but I don't see how the "if I know" part really evokes .. anything. 

• 51D: "Fire-breather" in the night sky (DRACO) — hardest answer in the puzzle for me. I guess "fire-breather" was supposed to make me think of a dragon, which was supposed to remind me of the constellation DRACO, but not being a constellation aficionado, I had no idea there was a constellation named DRACO. I've probably seen it referred to in past puzzles, but it didn't stick. I never want to see another Harry Potter clue in my life, but it's true that such a clue would've made this answer a lot easier. Ah well, I'm happy to pay the difficulty price. And now I know DRACO is a constellation. Or I reknow it. Either way.

Draco is a constellation in the far northern sky. Its name is derived from the Latin word for dragon. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century Greek astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations today. The north pole of the ecliptic is in Draco. Draco is circumpolar from northern latitudes, meaning that it never sets and can be seen at any time of year. (wikipedia)

• 53D: Shenzi in "The Lion King," e.g. (HYENA) — I take it back—this was the hardest clue for me. I thought Shenzi was an actor, lol. I have had to learn a lot of Lion King names (wasn't NALA in the puzzle just yesterday?), but if I've seen Shenzi before, wow did I forget it today.

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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Urban casual fashion / MON 10-19-26 / Thai currency units / What everyone becomes at the touch of love, per Plato's "Symposium" / New York city, county or river / Pre-1917 Russian autocrat / "Rocky III" actor with a mohawk

Constructor: Michele Govier

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (solved Downs-only)

[8D: Darth Vader's childhood nickname = ANI]

THEME: SHADOWBOXES (57A: Punches the air ... or a hint to what 1-Across creates in this puzzle — the SUN (1A: Center of the solar system, with "the") in the NW corner must be imagined as shining over three elements of the grid that cast "shadows" (represented by shaded squares (or "boxes")) on the answers below them:

Theme answers:

• AWNING (13A: Cafe overhang) casts a "shadow" on FAWNING OVER (18A: Giving excessive praise and flattery)
• TREE (29A: Branch plant?) casts a "shadow" on STREETWEAR (35A: Urban casual fashion)
• HAT (37A: Sombrero or fedora) casts a "shadow" on "THAT'S RIGHT" (41A: "You are correct")

Word of the Day: OSWEGO (38D: New York city, county or river) —

Oswego (/ɒsˈwiːɡoʊ/ oss-WEE-goh, Onondaga: Deyoʼswé·geʼ ) is a city in and the county seat of Oswego County, New York, United States. The population was 16,921 at the 2020 census. Oswego is situated at the mouth of the Oswego River on the southeastern shore of Lake Ontario in Upstate New York, about 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Syracuse and 74 miles (119 km) east-northeast of Rochester by road. The city promotes itself as "The Port City of Central New York".

The first European settlement at Oswego was a British trading post established in 1722, and it was first incorporated as a village in 1828 before becoming a city in 1848. British forces briefly captured the city during the War of 1812, but were defeated nearby later that same month. The canalization of the Oswego River was a major boon to Oswego, attracting settlement and investment; this was later bolstered by its status as a rail hub for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, though this status had begun to decline by the 1940s. During World War II, Fort Ontario was the site of the only Jewish refugee camp in the United States. Today, the city's economy is primarily based around manufacturing and services. (wikipedia)

• • •

Whoa. I was prepared to give this two-and-a-half stars based on the fact that the revealer seemed slightly off (*anything* can cast a "shadow"—what AWNINGs, TREEs and HATs provide is shade) and the fill is quite poor. The latter remains true, but I have a lot greater tolerance for it now that I fully understand the theme. See, I absolutely did not notice, at first, that the "shadows" were created by identical words directly above and slightly to the left of them. I did the puzzle Downs-only, and I was caught up in the intricacies of that struggle, and so somehow never saw doubling. I just saw the "SHADOW BOXES," not what was (in the conceit of the puzzle) causing the shadows. Once I saw the AWNING above the shaded "AWNING" in FAWNING OVER—which was well after I'd finished the puzzle and was already marking up my print-out—I had a real "ohhhhhhhhhh" moment, and revised my rating of the puzzle upward, quite substantially. Now that I fully understand the theme, I see that it's *way* denser than I thought it was, with three themers, a revealer, three shade-casting answers (AWNING, TREE, HAT), and, of course, the SUN. That's 58 squares worth of theme material out of 184 total fillable (i.e. non-black) squares. That makes the grid nearly 1/3 theme. Dense. So the fill, yeah, it's less than great, for sure (IGA NNW ANI BAHTS ASAHI TSAR ARON CST NALA ORO XER OAKEN etc. plus the dreaded EAPOE, ugh), but the theme is Really imaginative and structurally demanding, so I think the puzzle is an overall winner nonetheless.

The Downs-only solve was mostly easy, though the NE gave me some trouble, as IRON LAW is not a phrase that rolls off the (my) tongue—I want it the law to be "iron-clad," and I want it to be a rule, not a law (I knew it wasn't "rule" because "rule" is in the clue, but the phrase really wants to be "iron-clad rule") (9D: Rule with no exceptions). I also imagined that Plato thought that everyone became a FOOL at the touch of love (11D: What everyone becomes at the touch of love, per Plato's "Symposium" => POET). Oh, and that MOVE was SWAP (10D: Change places). In the middle of the grid, I wanted STEAMED before SEETHED (26D: Was fuming mad). OSWEGO would've been hard for me, but a. I live in the state of NY, not *that* far from OSWEGO County, and b. I managed to infer the initial "O" from -AF (OAF). New York has a lot of Native American place names with "O"s. OSWEGO, ONEONTA ... my "local" baker is in OWEGO (about 20 minutes away). I went for a walk in OTSININGO Park this morning. I'm surprised anyone outside NY is expected to know where / what the hell OSWEGO is, especially on a Monday, but the crosses were all fair, right? I can see that answer flummoxing Downs-only solvers, but I lucked out, geographically. 

Bullets:

• 29D: Pre-1917 Russian autocrat (TSAR) — yes, it *could* be CZAR, but if it's a Russian ruler, *always* default to TSAR. Most of the time, if it's CZAR, it'll be in the context of some political appointment, like "Drug CZAR."
• 24D: Work likely to be shown at an independent cinema (ART FILM) — got this easily. I see a lot of ART FILMs, though I'm not sure I'd use that term. I'm watching the 1977 Japanese horror-fantasy film House right now, which feels like an ART FILM, but only in the context of 2026 USA. In 1977 Japan, it was a smash hit. Extremely mainstream, whereas ART FILM to me implies something with less obvious commercial appeal. Yes, the wikipedia entry says that an ART FILM is "not designed for mass appeal." House is the kind of movie that would play at an "art house theater," but I don't know if it's exactly an ART FILM. All the terminology here is, let's say, imprecise. But whatever House is, it's fascinating (and wild, and hilarious), and you should see it. 

• 51D: Winter hrs. in Wichita (CST) — didn't know if Wichita was Central or Mountain, so had to wait on that first letter. In the end, "CAN I GO?" was a lot more plausible than "MAN, I GO!," so I managed to enter the correct letter.

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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