Red accessory for cartoondom's Huckleberry Hound / SUN 1-9-22 / All-in-one purchase from a smoke shop / Mineral used as a flame retardant / Aromatic herbal drink / Spade with a short handle? / Hardly a lover of hot wings / Mexican business magnate who was once the world's richest person

Constructor: Timothy Polin

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (whole NW was a real bear for me)

THEME: "Food for Thought" — a bunch of apple types appear in theme answers; these are supposed to represent the apple(s) that helped Julie NEWMAR discover the LAW OF GRAVITY (116A: Scientific contribution from 98-Down, discovered in a manner suggested by this puzzle's theme) ... wow, between playing Catwoman and doing physics, she was a busy wo- ... oh, sorry, it's NEWTON (98D: Who was famously hit over the head with inspiration?). NEWTON discovered the LAW OF GRAVITY. There are a bunch of long Down answers that I think are also supposed to evoke the whole apple-falling / law-discovering thing, in an indirect way. I think that's it. "I GET IT NOW"? (104A: "Eureka!"):

The Apples:

• JAZZ VOCALIST (24A: Carmen McRae or Anita O'Day, notably)
• MOUNT FUJI (32A: Endpoint of a Shinto pilgrimage)
• GALA AFFAIR (52A: Fete)
• EMPIRE STATE (69A: Birthplace of five U.S. presidents, with "the")
• WHEN IN ROME... (85A: Start of some conventional wisdom)

The related, probably thematic Down answers:

• WEIGHTY MATTER (3D: It's nothing to joke about)
• COME ON DOWN (39D: Game show invitation)
• "FREE FALLIN'" (50D: Tom Petty hit with the opening line "She's a good girl, loves her mama")
• FORCE OF NATURE (60D: Unforgettable, unstoppable sort)

Word of the Day: TRICOT (123A: Lingerie fabric) —

1: a plain warp-knitted fabric (as of nylon, wool, rayon, silk, or cotton) with a close inelastic knit and used especially in clothing (such as underwear)

2: a twilled clothing fabric of wool with fine warp ribs or of wool and cotton with fine weft ribs (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

***HELLO, READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS IN SYNDICATIONLAND*** (if you solve in your local paper, maybe a week or two behind the NYTXW's original publication date, this means You!) . Happy Newish Year! 2022! I hope you are holding up during these cold, dark days. It's early January, which means it's time for my annual week-long pitch for financial contributions to the blog. Every year I ask regular readers to consider what the blog is worth to them on an annual basis and give accordingly. 

2021 was an important year for me, as my blog (this blog, the one you are reading right now) turned 15 years old! [noisemaker sounds!!!!]. That's a lot of years old. For a blog, anyway. 15 is also a pretty important crossword-related anniversary—maybe the only important crossword-related anniversary. The standard US crossword grid is 15x15, and now Rex Parker is also 15! Rex Parker, spanning the grid to give you the constant variety of crossword commentary: the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat (dum dum dum DUM!) The human drama of ... OK now I'm just channeling Jim McKay from the '70s-era introduction to "Wide World of Sports," but I do hope this blog has provided some insight, some entertainment, some commiseration, some solace, some sense of regularity during what are obviously pretty tumultuous and often lonely times. I hope it has enhanced your solving pleasure, giving you something to look forward to even (especially?) when the puzzle lets you down, and someone to celebrate with when the puzzle is wonderful. If it's also given you someone to shout at in disagreement, that's OK too.

A lot of labor goes into producing this blog every day (Every. Day.) and the hours are, let's say, less than ideal (I'm either solving and writing at night, after 10pm, or in the morning, before 6am). Most days, I really do love the writing, but it is work, and once a year (right now!) I acknowledge that fact. As I've said before, I have no interest in "monetizing" the blog beyond a simple, direct contribution request once a year. No ads, no gimmicks. Just here for you, every day, rain or shine, whether you like it or, perhaps, on occasion, not :) It's just me and my laptop and some free blogging software and, you know, a lot of rage, but hopefully there's illumination and levity along the way. I do genuinely love this gig, and whether you're an everyday reader or a Sunday-only reader or a flat-out hatereader, I appreciate you more than you'll ever know.

How much should you give? Whatever you think the blog is worth to you on a yearly basis. Whatever that amount is is fantastic. Some people refuse to pay for what they can get for free. Others just don't have money to spare. All are welcome to read the blog—the site will always be open and free. But if you are able to express your appreciation monetarily, here are two options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar):

Second, a mailing address (checks should be made out to "Rex Parker"):

Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905

I'll throw my Venmo handle in here too, just in case that's your preferred way of moving money around; it's @MichaelDavidSharp (the last four digits of my phone are 4878, in case Venmo asks you, which I guess it does sometimes, when it's not trying to push crypto on you, what the hell?!)

All Paypal contributions will be gratefully acknowledged by email. All snail mail contributions will be gratefully acknowledged with hand-written postcards. I. Love. Snail Mail. I love seeing your gorgeous handwriting and then sending you my awful handwriting. It's all so wonderful. Last year's thank-you postcards featured various portraits of my cat, Alfie, designed by artist Ella Egan, a.k.a. my daughter. They were such a hit that I asked Ella to design this year's thank-you postcard as well, this time featuring both my cats. And this is the result. Behold this year's thank-you card: "Alfie and Olive: Exploring the Grid":

We went back and forth on whether she should add more black squares to make the grid look more plausibly fillable (that's a Lot of white space), but in the end we decided not to crowd the jumping (or hanging?) Olive with more black squares, and instead just to leave the card as is, with the idea that the cats are exploring a grid that is ... under construction. Anyway, this card is personally meaningful to me, and also, I believe, objectively lovely. I can't wait to share it with snail-mailers (and oh, what the hell, if you are a PayPal / Venmo donor and you want one too, just say so in the message). Please note: I don't keep a "mailing list" and don't share my contributor info with anyone. And if you give by snail mail and (for some reason) don't want a thank-you card, just indicate "NO CARD."  Again, as ever, I'm so grateful for your readership and support. Now on to today's puzzle...

• • •

Well this certainly was RAGTAG. Honestly, if you'd told me just before the end, just before the revealer, that the theme was simply "apples," I would've believed you. The circled squares contain apples. That fact was obvious early on, and it continued to be obvious through five not very exciting theme answers. Once I finally pieced together LAW OF GRAVITY, I sort of vaguely remembered seeing NEWTON's name earlier, and yeah, NEWTON, apples, I know the story. Only a bit later did I notice that the long Downs seemed kind of punnily related to the theme. Is everyone going to notice that? There's no part of the puzzle that specifically highlights them as thematic, and the circled squares (maybe they're shaded or something else in the paper / on the app?) really shout "look at us!" so ... why would you look anywhere else? I guess the long Downs are cute or funny, in a dadjoke kind of way. Ironically, the whole thing felt pretty uninspired. Why weren't the *apples* going Down? That ... that would've made sense. This ... well, as I said: RAGTAG. An assortment of loosely related, vaguely thematic material. The apples weren't even hidden inside longer answers; they were just ... words. There just wasn't any joy to be had here. Further, the fill doesn't shine very brightly either. The long Downs are decent enough, just as standalone answers, but the grid was so choppy that most of the fill was short and kind of fussy, and some of it just made me shrug. ANISE TEA? (23A: Aromatic herbal drink). I had the TEA part, but woof no idea people drank ANISE TEA. I guess they drink all kinds of tea, but "aromatic" doesn't add much in the way of specificity. And what is GAS RING? I have a gas stove, and the flames from the elements definitely form ring shapes, but I would not call them "stovetop devices." The NFL / REFS cross-reference was OK because it involved sequential Across answers (58A: With 59-Across, flag bearers, for short?), but the CARLOS / SLIM answer (88A: With 76-Across, Mexican business magnate who was once the world's richest person), ugh, that one is arranged in the grid so that it reads bottom to top *and* right to left—awkward on both counts. There just wasn't much to, uh, sink my teeth into today.

["NEWTON got beaned by the apple good ... yeah yeah yeah yeah"]

The NW corner was by far the hardest part of the puzzle for me. Started there, got nowhere, and ultimately finished there, but only after struggling mightily to see the WEIGHTY part of WEIGHTY MATTER. Had PDF instead of GIF at 5A: JPEG alternative, and since the "F" checked out, boy was I stuck. Also, ew, GIT GO, ugh, bah, yuck, just no idea what was going (sorry, goin') on there (5D: Startin' place). That Dogpatch-speak—unpleasant, for sure. No clue on 1D: Cause of a jolt (SCARE). No clue on 2D: Really busy, perhaps (ORNATE). No idea what awk. country abbr. was gonna go at 31A: Neighbor of S. Sudan (ETH.). No idea that [Kind of writing] would be CREATIVE. And as we've established, no idea anyone drank ANISE TEA. I was having trouble even lower down in the NW too, with UBER (45D: Modern lead-in to "X") and SEAEEL (56A: Anago, on a sushi menu) being at least slightly hard for me to come up with. I did manage, eventually, to remember "MMM, BOP," a song that you absolutely could not get away from in 1997, but also a song that I kinda secretly actually liked. Let's listen to it now.

VAPE KIT made me wince (57D: All-in-one purchase from a smoke shop). It's probably the most original thing in the grid, but still, ugh, vaping and its related accoutrements, can we not? I'll give you VAPE, it's a useful four-letter word, but all the gear and accessories etc. let's just not dwell on it. Moving on: What is the logic behind spelling EPILOG thusly (that is, without a "-UE") (86D: Afterword). EPILOGUE ... yes, that looks right. Is that an entirely different word? Can you just spell it however you want? Is it a UK v. US thing? Hang on ... yep, looks like EPILOG is just a less common variant of "Epilogue." Looks like you can technically write PROLOG too, but wow that looks awful, I have never seen that (I don't think). I remember reading a Raymond Carver story (maybe more than one) where he spelled "cigarette" like this: "cigaret." I remember feeling "who does he think he is?!" and at the same time "that is so cool!" (I was 20, my ideas about literature were all over the map, cut me some slack). I'm not glad that Carver smoked (and consequently died of lung cancer), but I *am* glad that he didn't vape. That would've looked terrible in author photos. My point is: EPILOG has an eerie, alien look about it, despite checking out, dictionary-wise. 

What else? Oh, GALA AFFAIR ... so ... like ... a GALA, then? You mean GALA? It sounds like you mean GALA. Is GALA AFFAIR not redundant somehow? I had no idea until today that GIGI had anything to do with Virginia (52D: Nickname for Virginia) (the name, not the state ... I assume). There's apparently still no industry standard for the AHH / AAH distinction (108A: "That's the spot"). That's enough for today. Oh, no, one last thing. I think my favorite part of the puzzle was the brief moment I thought the puzzle was going to break exciting new ground; that is, the moment I looked at 126A: Defiant refusal and then looked at my grid and saw "--CK NO!" I wrote in HECK NO, because I dared not dream. Then I couldn't make HECK NO works, so I briefly thought, "could it be ....!?" But then no. No it couldn't be. HECK NO was right. Did I find HECK NO satisfying? I think you know the answer. 

Explainers:

• 41A: Spade with a short handle? (SAM)—his name ("handle") is only three letters long, which I guess,  yeah, is pretty short
• 75A: Just roll with it! (DIE)—these "it" clues can be tricky ([Step on it!] for STAIR, for instance, or [Beat it!] for EGG, say). If the answer were an expression meaning "Just roll with it!," then the clue phrase would be in quotation marks. But it's not. So you're looking for the "it."
• 4D: Artist known for his lampooning cartooning (NAST)—Thomas Nast, who popularized the Democratic donkey and the Republican elephant, as well as the modern image of Santa Claus
• 45D: Modern lead-in to "X" (UBER)—UberX is just ... UBER. It's the basic service UBER provides. I guess the "X" distinguishes it from other levels of service (Comfort, Select, Black ... please don't ask me what they mean, I don't work for UBER)
• 9D: Hardly a lover of hot wings? (ICARUS)—OK *this* is the best thing in the grid. ICARUS stole the wax wings his dad (Daedalus) was working on and took them for a spin, famously flying too close to the sun, which caused the wings to melt and ICARUS to fall to his death. "Hot wings" heh ... good one.
• 72D: Hard thing to do? (TIME)—referring to the expression "to do time," i.e. to serve a prison sentence

Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

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