1987 biopic set in China / THU 3-2-23 / Palindromic staple in Indian cuisine / Bon indie band with a platinum debut album of 2008 / Long-running animated TV role that hasn't had a speaking appearance since 2017

Thursday, March 2, 2023

Constructor: Malaika Handa

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium


THEME: STEM CELLS (60A: Subject of some medical research ... or a description of this puzzle's theme?) — a rebus puzzle in which the letter string "STEM" appears in three different squares (or "CELLS"):

Theme answers:
  • SOLAR SYSTEMS / TASTEMAKERS (17A: Sites of many revolutions / 7D: Influencer, as with fashion)
  • GHOST EMOJI / LOSE ONE'S TEMPER (38A: Image in some "Happy Halloween!" texts / 10D: Boil over)
  • IT'S TEMPTING / THE LAST EMPEROR (45A: "Ooh ... I so want to!" / 24D: 1987 biopic set in China)
Word of the Day: UPTALK (11D: Speech that ends sentences with rising tones) 
speech in which each clause, sentence, etc., ends like a question with a rising inflection (merriam-webster.com)
Starting in America with the Valley Girls of the 1980s …, uptalk became common among young women across the country by the 1990s.Douglas Quenqua,  New York Times,  27 Feb. 2012 (merriam-webster.com)
• • •

LOL she did not tell me she had today's puzzle. And I think this is her NYTXW debut. Her name isn't in my database. She writes crosswords for So Many outlets, but somehow she's never had one in the Times? Weird. Anyway, congrats to Mali, who blogs for me every first Wednesday of the month (including yesterday). My first thought on getting the rebus here (which happened early, and easily), was "not another STEM rebus!" I had this strong feeling that I'd Just Seen a STEM rebus, either in the NYTXW or somewhere else, where SCI and TECH and ENG (!?) and MATH were each rebused into their own little cells. So I thought this was just going to be a lesser (or at least less complex) version of that. But that just made the revealer all-the-more surprising—was expecting one kind of STEM, got something Completely Different. It's a nifty find—noticing that the phrase STEM CELLS is a perfect rebus revealer phrase. What are crossword boxes but a bunch of CELLS, in the spreadsheet sense? So just stick STEM in a few of them, and voila! There's nothing especially tricky going on here—it's rather vanilla as rebus puzzles go—but I am a big fan of vanilla. You don't need a ton of whistles and bells and sprinkles and Oreo chunks in your ice cream to make it good. A perfectly executed revealer goes a long way, and STEM CELLS is a real stick-the-landing revealer. 


It also helps that the STEM-containing answers are so colorful. Literally, THE LAST EMPEROR is a very colorful movie, and GHOST EMOJI, omg, that answer alone was worth the price of admission for me. A great answer that is *also* a themer. Is this what "Necessity is the mother of Invention" means? I am not generally a fan of answers with ONE'S in them, as I've seen ONE(S) too many ONE'S-containing grid-spanning answers in my long solving career (most notably, A LOT ON ONE'S PLATE), and ONE'S often feels awkward, or like YOUR should be there instead, but LOSE ONE'S TEMPER gets a pass because it's a themer. Rebus rules! Also, it just doesn't sound that weird. Anyway, the inventiveness of GHOST EMOJI makes any small infelicities, imagined or actual, a lot harder to care about.

[These were all in my first five years of blogging ...
three times in 2011 alone! ... you can see how I lost my mind]



The fill is also pretty solid on this one. It's pretty texty (BRB, the clue on ETA (50A: "about when will u b here?")), and has a youngish vibe overall. Perfect for UPTALKing TAYLOR fans. But then there's also this (ironically?) quaint / old-fashioned thing going on with MA'AM and "HI HO!" Also, as youngish-feeling puzzles go, this one seems very wide-ranging and inclusive. There's not a ton of names or terms that only an extremely online under-30 person is going to know. There's not a ton of names, period. It's a very accessible puzzle overall, no matter your skill level / age. I think it will play on the easy side, as rebus puzzles go, and is not apt to be generationally divisive in any meaningful way.


Not many trouble spots today. No idea who EMMA Raducanu is, but who cares, the crosses were a cinch. I wrote "TEMPTING!" in at 45A: "Ooh ... I so want to!" and I wonder if anyone else did that. It seemed like a perfectly good answer, and that can be so dangerous. Luckily, I'd already discovered the rebus gimmick, so I found my error quickly enough, but if I *hadn't*, oof, TEMPTING would've seemed pretty solid given how many of those crosses work. I wrote TBA in for the ETA clue, which is extremely weird ... I think my brain thought it meant "time of arrival?" or something like that. Again, not a big deal, crosses took care of it. The answer that actually held me up the most was PLUCK, because I got the "U" and then the "K" and assumed that the answer for 9A: Gumption was SPUNK! "You got a lot of SPUNK, kid ... a lot of MOXIE!" PLUCK and SPUNK was not a kealoa* I ever saw coming. And yet, again, the surrounding fill was so easy that I only got delayed, not properly stuck. I like RIDERS over BUSLANE. I like the ambiguous clue on ASIDE (42A: Line at a theater, maybe). I know lots of solvers aren't big rebus fans, but I hope you never GAVE UP and found some way to enjoy this ultimately straightforward and conceptually clever Thursday puzzle. See you tomorrow.

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/ALOT, ["Git!"] "SHOO"/"SCAT," etc.



[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

118 comments:

sf27shirley 5:53 AM  

Doesn't help when you put "brewpub" as a hopping spot.

Conrad 5:59 AM  


Congratulations Malaika! Good Easy-Medium Thursday puzzle, even though I hate rebodes. Medium before I figured out the rebus, easy after.

Hand up for @Rex temPTING before IT[STEM]PTING at 45A. My only other major overwrite was naan before ATTA at 5A, easily corrected by TAYLOR at 6D.

Rgbruno 6:34 AM  

Now its clear what Malaika's “see you tomorrow” comment on Wednesday actually meant

Anonymous 6:44 AM  

I wouldn't have known this without looking up Bon Iver, but his/their debut album was "For Emma, Forever Ago" (see the cross at 54D). This couldn't have been unintentional, could it?

CWT 6:50 AM  

Two straight days of Malaika! What’s not to like-a? Clever, enjoyable, kinda easy. I happen to like a rebus puzzle. Sorry about that, I know we’re not supposed to.

Wanderlust 7:04 AM  

What great timing for a Malaika puzzle! I liked it a lot. As Rex said, the themers were all good (yes, especially GHOST EMOJI), and STEM CELL research is so important! And not just for its potential to bring cures for horrible diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s (which none of us will ever get because we work our brains so hard - he says hopefully). They are also used right now to help people with leukemia, among other diseases. Don’t let the religious right win this debate!

I also thought some of the clues were great. Rex mentioned ASIDE, but I also loved “sites of many revolutions” for SOLAR SYSTEMS, “hopping spots” for LILY PADS and “”places for squatters” for GYMS.

Who else put NAAN for the palindromic Indian food staple?

I liked UPTALK running into OH REALLY, which sounds like an example of it. And the RIDERS atop a BUS LANE.

Got a Bon IVER earworm now.

RJ 7:05 AM  

I really enjoyed this - a mix of old and new and lots of fun for me. Thanks Malaika!

Anonymous 7:09 AM  

Fun puzzle and one I was very stuck on for a good bit, especially in the NW. Not sure why, because once I got a toe hold it fell easily.

My only quibble is that after figuring out the theme/rebus, about halfway through the solve, I was desperately trying to figure out where the other STEMs would go. When there were only three, it felt a little stingy. I would have preferred four, but also I’m not the one who has to come up with a puzzle.

Nicely done Malaika!

Anonymous 7:12 AM  

Loved it! Congrats to Malaika. 🎉

Phillyrad1999 7:22 AM  

Enjoyed the theme and the selection of theme answers were all good. Once you figure it out though there isn’t much else going on in the puzzle. I guess it was a solid Thursday. But the theme top to bottom including the reveal - well played!

kitshef 7:23 AM  

As soon as I saw the constructor’s name I was sure VICHY would be in the puzzle.

Well, no. In fact, I make it a point never to look at the constructor name before solving, in order to avoid prejudging.

My KeaLoa today came right off the bat, with CaLf at 1A.

A nice puzzle, with a "why didn't I think of that?" theme.

SouthsideJohnny 7:24 AM  

Thankfully for poor ODIE, the spot moniker didn’t stick. ODIE is way, way better. It sure seems unfair to Mr. APU that someone has been drawing him up for five plus years but won’t give him any lines to speak - maybe there is a backstory that I am not aware of.

Agree that the clue for PLUCK could cause a struggle - I would also include BROOD over for “Ponder” in that same category, it’s legit, but subtle.

Congrats to Ms. Malaika - hard to believe she kept it a secret from OFL, that’s cool that she surprised him though. It’s also neat the way she crafted a nice Thursday rebus puzzle out of a simple revealer like STEM CELLS. Rex mentioned it, and I definitely agree that you don’t need a cryptic, gimmicky theme to have an excellent puzzle.

Lewis 7:31 AM  

This grid is so polished, it practically shimmers. No mailing-it-in feel here. No questionable areas. Pure beauty.

It becomes clear why if you take a moment to read Malaika’s notes on XwordInfo.com, and see how many iterations of this grid preceded today’s, how much effort was spilled into this puzzle. It spells out that what crafted this puzzle – aside from Malaika’s lovely theme concept with a perfect reveal – was the marriage of Malaika’s admirable persistence, and the expertise by the NYT editing team. Standing O.

Adding to the shine were lovely answers, such as PLUCK and GHOST EMOJI, plus some never-done-before clues on answers that have been clued many times, such as [Scary thing to ask for, maybe] for RAISE, and [Sounds at a poetry slam] for SNAPS, and [Classic cartoon character originally named Spot] for ODIE.

Oh, and I loved the fused palindromes (ATTA and MAAM) with BRB nearby. Plus, I smiled at the most lovely PuzzPair© of SNAPS and LOSE ONE’S TEMPER.

Lately it seems that rebus themes need some fireworks to make it into the Times. Fireworks are fun, so I’m not complaining. But I love simplicity and elegance as well, and here it is today. Congratulations, Malaika, on your NYT debut, and thank you for the sweat you put into this puzzle – it’s truly a beauty!

Mr. Cheese 7:38 AM  

“STEM CELL” = revealer of the year!

Anonymous 7:39 AM  

Hats off, Malaika! How did you keep this debut under your hat yesterday?
A hand up for CaLf and naan. And as with Rex, the first rebus had me all set for a math & sciences puzzle. So the revealer was a big surprise. So happy you went there, Mali!

Joaquin 7:45 AM  

I solved this puzzle Wednesday night and struggled mightily until I realized it was actually a Thursday puzzle (and, therefore, a rebus was permissible). So that was my first "aha moment".

My second aha moment was realizing the constructor was "our" Malaika. Great job, Mali.

Now, add me to the gang of lovers of this puzzle.

Anonymous 7:58 AM  

Did the same!

Gary Jugert 8:00 AM  

Malaika's the bomb. All day yesterday people posted comments indicting her and the American educational system over Vichy trivia (and boy were some busy making it sound like the single most urgent thing every young person must know to survive in this cold unforgiving world)...

And all the while she's sitting on tomorrow's puzzle. She even told us: See you tomorrow!! ;) If I were her I'd've been thinking, "Vichy this grampa." And then boom. Puzzle. In the New York Times. How many things did the pro-Vichy-ites publish today? Boss move Malaika. Very sly.

As for her creation, it beat me up pretty good. Kinda fun searching for the STEMs. I still don't know what a stem cell is, but I remember some Christians getting in a lather over them back in the day. I think you use the cells to create peanut allergies or vegetarians or stuff of that ilk.

In addition to not knowing VICHY yesterday, I didn't know VOLTA, the Baudelaire's, that APU doesn't speak, and holy cow is that beetle a scary looking critter.

Loved the clue for GLUE.

UPTALK doesn't seem like a thing.

Fun puzzle.

Uniclues:

1 Realizing in retrospect you said absolutely nothing worth listening to during the entire day.
2 Horseman's bluff.
3 Princess's body art depicting her prince's home town.
4 Send xi Gucci.
5 Bachelor started sleeping in, you know, since bachelorettes are nocturnal and he felt he specialized in prowling around in the tobacco and whiskey scented steamy darkness listening for their giggles.

1 BLAH RETHINKS
2 RIDER'S RAISE
3 LILY PADS TATTOO
4 ENTITLE TASTE MAKER (~)
5 STAG GAVE UP AMS (~)

Son Volt 8:04 AM  

Neat theme - apt revealer and a handsome grid layout. My solve experience issue is with the overall fill and GLUE. Probably could have used a fourth themer - they were best entries in the grid - liked GHOST EMOJI and ITS TEMPTING.

The A SIDE was the solid Baby Please Don’t Go but the flip side rocked

Figured 6d would be the more informal TAY TAY based on the clue. Either way it was nice to see her and her collaborator Bon IVER together. Liked UP TALK and OH REALLY and PLUCK is cool.

Good example of the rough stuff is the top center block - ATTA, AM SO, AMS, MAAM etc should have been edited better. Not really down with the BROOD - Ponder equivalency. Second chance for EMMA this week. Have been to the Tempio VOLTiano in beautiful Como. Learned the truth about ODIE.

More potential than result. Enjoyable grokking the Thursday theme - but the rest of the solve was flat.

Gillian Welch

Anonymous 8:04 AM  

The backstory has a pretty good documentary (Netflix maybe?) about the white voice actor getting canceled for doing a stereotypical (i.e. racist) Indian voice that caused a lot of harm to our South Asian and Indian American friends.

Anonymous 8:04 AM  

She DID hint, if you read the end of Wednesday’s review carefully: “See you tomorrow ;)”

pabloinnh 8:05 AM  

What a lovely day for erasures! I was happy to see the palindromic NAAN on a palindrome date, 3/2/23, until it was wrong (hi @wanderelust), followed up with SPUNK for PLUCK and then TESLA (it's always TESLA, right?) for VOLTA. Ah, but then I found the rebus at TASTEMAKERS, which gave me SYSTEMS, so I plopped in SOUNDSYSTEMS, because records revolve, which just shows you how old I am.

Worked down to STEMCELLS next and then it was a matter of finding the other STEMS, which was cool. Helpful that some other commenters refer to the boxes that letters are in as CELLS. Not too many WOE's, Ms. LIU being about the only one.

Hey @ROO-there's EMMA again. You've got your B-ROO-D, but it's not stand alone, so a deduction for that.

Just a totally enjoyable Thursday, MH. My Happiness increased as I continued solving, and I was sorry to finish, which is about the best I can say about a puzzle. Thanks for all the fun.

Iris 8:07 AM  

I am usually annoyed by rebus puzzles, which so often shift the solving pleasure away from the solver to the puzzle creator. However this one was fun. Re whether the puzzle was young in a way unfriendly to older solvers, I don’t think so. I’m 70 & I breezed through.

Dr.A 8:14 AM  

Hey hey, congrats to Malaika!!! Great puzzle. I looooooved. GHOST EMOJI as much as Rex did. I also got PLUCK pretty easily because I had PGA and KOREA both of which I thought were straightforward, but UPTALK, CRESTS and LOSE ONES TEMPER didn’t come immediately so I kept questioning it.
Overall, super fun and interesting!!!

kitshef 8:24 AM  

@Anon 8:04 No. The voice actor (Hank Azaria) was not 'cancelled' for this or anything else, and still works on the show doing the voices of, among others, Moe and Chief Wiggum. He voluntarily stopped doing the voice of Apu after doing his own research and talking to people in the Indian-American community.

Laura 8:25 AM  

Great puzzle. I was hoping someone would explain why GoPro helps explain my point of view. Struggled with that corner.

Anonymous 8:32 AM  

Well congrats to Malaika. I enjoy her write up’s but I really did not enjoy this puzzle … but maybe it’s a rebus thing

Gary Jugert 8:44 AM  

@Laura 8:25 AM
GoPro cameras are sometimes strapped to your forehead.

Anonymous 8:44 AM  

Amy: congratulations, Malaika! Very cool surprise. Agree that the puzzle has a fresh vibe. Even willing to overlook the rebuses: it is Thursday. Really glad I didn't skip this one. (Last week, just wasn't in the mood for a Thursday puzzle.)

MarkK 8:47 AM  

@Laura - GoPro is a brand of sport cameras that are mounted on thrill seeking people to show us normies what it would look like to jump off a cliff/ride a motorcycle at dangerous speeds/arm wrestle an alien from space etc. if only we had their chutzpah.

Barbara S. 8:48 AM  

Loved it, found it harder than most did, made the naan/ATTA mistake, made the TEMPTING/IT(STEM)PTING mistake, adore rebuses, wish there had been more (STEM)s but realize that was likely impossible, and I send my congrats to Malaika. With the two palindromic clues early on, I wondered if they figured into the theme somehow, even though they were in nontraditional places. At 1A, I didn’t kealoa CaLf/COLT, but thought at first the young’un was a lamb – ODOR and TEA sorted that out. Didn’t kealoa spUnK/PLUCK either because, fortunately, had the P in place before looking at the 9A clue.

I tumbled to the rebus early at 7D. Once I’d banished “naan” in favor of ATTA, I really wanted TASTEMAKER for the influencer, but there wasn’t enough room. So, I thought, is there any letter string in that word that could make a discrete rebus – hah! STEM! Hmm, what would that do to the across answer? I already had RSY_S, so realized it would make it into something-ending-with-R followed by SY(STEM)S – that seemed plausible. I didn’t have SOLAR yet and envisioned some kind of mechanical SYSTEM with a fan, hence the revolutions. In fact, I didn’t get back to the NW corner until near the end, at which point SOLAR finally got solved.

I’m now wondering why I found this as difficult as I did, even though I got the gimmick early on. I think it was because there were a number of answers I didn’t know at all or didn’t know as clued. I’m unaware of Bon IVER and Simu LIU, for example, and I’ve never heard of UPTALK. And I had a hard time connecting the following with their clues even though, in the case of the character and commercial names, I’m familiar with them otherwise: ODIE (didn’t know about “Spot”), GOPRO (couldn’t fathom “point of view”), ASIDE (fooled by the clever misdirection), ERRS (forgot about that meaning of “whiffs”), SNAPS (don’t know what goes on at a poetry slam), APU (didn’t know he’d become mute). And there were others. Anyway, never mind – there’s all the more satisfaction at solving clean when you find the going a bit rough.

[SB: Tues, 0; yd, -2, which continues my pattern of alternating Queen Bees and misses. These are the two I didn’t get yesterday. The lower one was a genuine miss, but the top one I was sure I’d already entered. That’s the second time in a week I’ve done that: been certain I’d entered a word I’d thought of, only to find it absent when I checked my wordlist against the answers. Grr, getting even more absent-minded than usual. Must nip this trend in the bud.]

Alice Pollard 8:58 AM  

UPTALK is definitely a thing. An annoying thing. People in my office do it all the time. I even asked one young kid who reports to me “Why are you talking like that?” . It is something most people grow out of, but not all. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre does it - it is nails on a chalkboard to me.
Nice puzzle, was not easy for me. I actually almost gave up. Finally saw THELASTEMPORER /ITSTEMPTING and the thing kind of unfolded nicely. Congrats MALAIKA, very enjoyable puzzle!

Anonymous 9:12 AM  

I had SOUNDSYSTEMS as well! And CALF. That took some working around to correct. Lots of written over ink on my grid today.

RooMonster 9:19 AM  

Hey All !
A Malaika MThursday! Who knew. Congrats!

Neat puz, with a Revealer that hits squarely on the nose. Took me a bit of time finding where the multi-letter squares were (avoiding calling them rebuses!) Found out the trick having SY_S at the end of 17A. After a head scratch, saw the opening part, and the lightbulb.

Add me to the temPTING list. Stuck in that SW corner for a bit. Had ESTE and RETRO in, but nothing wanted to work for me down there, so took them out to restart, only to find that they were indeed correct. Odd how that happens.

@pablo
Many Boggle ROOs in that SW.If I had time, I'd go back to puzs started at the beginning of the year, and count the ROOs and EMMAs (and PABLOs!) to see who's ahead. My guess is actually EMMA. Like you said, ROO is in BROOD. I get less stand-alones than inclusions -in-other-words.

BUSLANE went through BUSstop, BUSzone, even BUS(STEM)something. Har.

Again, congrats to Malaika. Good job. But, maybe add an F or two next time? 😁

No F's (GHOSTed, har.)
RooMonster
DarrinV

smalltowndoc 9:20 AM  

Great puzzle Malaika! I love a good Thursday rebus and this was terrific!

Bob Mills 9:21 AM  

Solved it 100% (with one cheat, I looked up LIU). but the computer wouldn't give me credit. Whom do I complain to?

Barbara S. 9:29 AM  

UNICLUES:

Boring musings on which brand of white bread to buy.
Last thought before messing up big-time.
Certain dinosaur biological material.
Frog’s body art?
Playground sulk.

BLAH RETHINKS
“IT’S TEMPTING!”; ERRS
RETRO STEM CELLS
LILYPADS TATTOO
“AM-SO” SNIT

Anonymous 9:34 AM  

Emma Raducanu (unseeded) won the US Open Women’s tennis championship two years ago

Bass 9:36 AM  

Yep, add me to TEMPTING/ITSTEMPTING as well... clever trick.

Tom T 9:43 AM  

Medium challenging for me, with lots of white space until I got a toehold in the SE that led to revealing the STEM CELL revealer.

Like @Barbara, it still wasn't a breeze after that, but eventually fell into place. Finished with a guess on the R from the IVER/ARC cross and delighted to see the "Congratulations!" screen.

Also had TEMPTING without the STEM. Had HIya before HIHO, which really gummed up the East.

To my ear, LOSE ONE's TEMPER is more in the language than LOSE your TEMPER, so I thought that answer worked fine.

Uniclue: Mild rebuke of a valley girl co-worker

UP TALK? OH, REALLY

Excellent debut, Malaika! Hope you will BRB in the nyt!!!

Anonymous 9:59 AM  

Freshened up the Thursday puzzle in more than one way. Appreciated all the AAPI references! ATTA / APU / LIU / KOREA / EGG tar and of course THELA(STEM)PEROR.

crayonbeam 10:08 AM  

Congratulations, Malaika!!

My favorites were when the rebus crossed multiple words.

No, wait, my favorite is that you surprised Rex!!!!

Nice debut!

Diego 10:11 AM  

I don’t like rebuses, I don’t like NTYXW Thursdays, and this puzzle didn’t alter my biases.
BUT. . . it is a marvel of construction and clearly a top-drawer achievement.
BRAVISSIMO, MH, on your feat and I look forward to your Friday debut!
Loved LILYPADS—even the somewhat oblique clue—sorta sounds like some cosmetic or hygienic product, however.

Anonymous 10:23 AM  

Big fan of rebus- type puzzles but this one was rather BLAH . Not much of a challenge. . Is it typical to have an odd number of theme answers? It seems wrong here. I wonder about SolarsystemS. Is there more than one? Found amusing ATTA when I thought of it being used to bake some NAAN. wait! It’s probably used only in ROTI !

To be sure, , there was some good stuff here. With others, wish the constructor the best!

bertoray 10:28 AM  

Thank you Malaika for a fun and satisfying Thursday solve. Congratulations.

Epicurus 10:32 AM  

As much as I despise "rebuses" (I'm a purist and I strongly believe there should only be one character in a cell), and when I saw FOUR letters in the first answer, I was ready to hate this puzzle. On the contrary, I loved it and especially the really clever theme answer. I may have to broaden my horizons and accept a rebus* on Thursday.

*The only rebus I ever heard of was the silly puzzle on the kids menu at the diner; letters, symbols and pictures.

Newboy 10:35 AM  


Great to put a face to a constructor and when it’s a monthly Rex stand-in, even better. SOLAR SYSTEM was a delightful way to enter the grid and then confirm when the reveal dropped. Spent way too much time searching for a fourth STEM CELL& entering tesla instead of VOLTA didn’t help greatly.

Congratulations on your debut Malaika 🎉🌺👏🏼 &thanks for an amusing morning.

Shandra Dykman 10:36 AM  

Great puzz! Here’s an ASIDE: Did anyone else find a typo in the print edition of the cryptogram? Or was it just me?

Nancy 10:38 AM  

A really good, intricate, well-constructed rebus puzzle that I loved! I knew what some of the theme answers should be -- THE LAST EMPEROR; LOSE ONE'S TEMPER -- but couldn't quite get there on my own until I had the revealer. Other themers like IT'S TEMPTING, TASTEMAKER and GHOST EMOJI were completely unclear to me. I already had figured out EMOJI but, knowing zilch about emojis since all those teensy-tiny ugly things look identical to me, I had no idea what kind of emoji we were talking about.

I didn't even -- with SOLARS??S in place -- see SOLAR SYSTEMS. Which is sort of blind of me, I suppose.

I had a TEMP-y feeling throughout my solve rather than a STEM-y one, so the revealer was a b-i-g help!

This is a puzzle from "our" Malaika? Wow, Mailaika, -- this is a really good one and very impressive. Kudos!

Anonymous 10:40 AM  

An absolutely fantastic puzzle!! Thanks Malaika!

Beezer 10:41 AM  

Congrats Malaika! I also do not look at the name of the constructor until after the solve so was pleasantly surprised after I FINALLY finished this gem.
I did NOT find it easy and at one point had a fleeting thought of “is this how age dementia starts”? I mean, I felt more at sea than I do sometimes with a Saturday puzzle. I just kept chipping way to eventual success! Anyway, one of the best Thursdays in a long time!

@Bob Mills…you likely made a typo or mistake entering rebus “cell” so if you don’t care about “streaks” or whatnot you can hit “check puzzle” to see what happened.

Anonymous 10:46 AM  

+1! Loved the puzzle. Congrats!

Kent 10:47 AM  

Great puzzle! GHOSTEMOJI made me hoot, and the revealer really stuck the landing. Rex, I had spUnK for PLUCK, which always reminds me of Lou Grant’s “I hate spunk” and brings a smile.

Carola 10:50 AM  

Malaika! For me, this puzzle was a true contest of wits, and I couldn't have enjoyed it more. I was already a fan of your write-ups; maybe now I've also become a "stan"? :) (known to me only from crosswords). Congratulations!

So, challenging for me for me to crack, for the tricky or ambiguous clues, the unknown names, and, of course, the STEM CELLS. The sequence -AKER finally jogged my brain CELLS to come up with M? et voila, I had the rebus. The other CELLS were not at all easy for me to ferret out, however. Again, loved the struggle.

Do-overs: naan, spUnK, HIya. Rebus idea going wrong: I was really hoping to shoehorn in Tom swift where TAYLOR is. Help from previous puzzles: ATTA. No idea: LIU, EMMA, IVER.

Anonymous 10:52 AM  

I was thinking that the IVER/EMMA crossing would be a Natick but fortunately, the E was the only letter that reasonably fit.
Nicely done!

egsforbreakfast 10:53 AM  

After reading Malaika’s constructing Odyssey on xwordinfo.com, I would like to see her drinks menu and playlist utilized in piecing together this beauty. Also, was a typiST EMloyed? Did she waSTE Much time? I wonder if she eatS TEMpeh?

I think that the premise of the War on Terror was that if we don’t STEMCELLS where they arise, we’ll end up doing it on American soil.

My initial entry for 5A was a NAAN-starter (sorry about this ancient joke. I can never seem to resist it).

For those with morbid bents, there are a large number of GOPRO deaths and near deaths accessible on line.

Thank you and congratulations, Malaika. I feel like a proud parent at graduation. Make good choices!



Anonymous 10:55 AM  

And nice profile of Malaika to boot: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/01/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2023-03-02.html?unlocked_article_code=gk3GfOhT1rwKLA2XnnkGOtZosiw9ZN1DrXrOSFulxhSEpeCsTUaBy2ueTdnLntXNztqHztTIgErQjprHYUC1RQNmt0Z6UFcneU83DnLUA8uJxkE_-RZvW-nuEnLTNtgf6QdqlLkFT7gg79RJAwuifOuaOruOW9RyMx_mYEkx7TTq5LjVfKAPpzviEXspTXKoFuYuZconKZlGkUKzCnSy8U-oqbPnVjf4aq4p45G-RZDniLBDWm9kYa7g30o6JwMOWhBx_tsGJ-8_ATLxAg_5_8mmoqHcbnfGaknI5CWJbA4Wl2Yu6eOFz_fxrvMHoz0C-YQnfWhsFgvP7GN0248ckXhJ&smid=url-share

Whatsername 11:01 AM  

Well now I get the little ;-) from yesterday‘s blog. Way to go Malaika! I understand this is not your first rodeo in the Crossword world but a pretty impressive debut for The Times. Nothing BLAH to be found here. Congratulations and more please.

I love a Thursday rebus so those three little squares made me smile bigly. But I had a REALLY tough go with some of the trivia and must have erased six times before I landed on where the middle rebus went. At first, before I had either of the other two themers, I had LOSE ONES TEMPER with TEMP as the rebus in 10D. Then when that fouled UP the crosses and I saw the J in JAR, it finally made sense. I had to work at the other two as well since I did not know the EMPEROR movie and TASTE MAKER was a mystery. I always have to stifle a laugh when I see the word “influencer.” It just amazes me that some people actually make a living by telling people what to wear.

jae 11:07 AM  

Medium. Me too for spUnK before PLUCK which ate up some time plus the rebus took a little bit of effort. Smooth, fun, and solid, this is what a rebus Thursday should look like, liked it a bunch. Excellent debut, congrats Malaika!

jberg 11:13 AM  

Congratulations, Malaika, for a clever and very enjoyable puzzle. The tennis player crossing the non-Jovi BON was tough for me, but E seemed the only plausible choice, wo I was OK.

I kept finding little complaints as I solved, and then realizing I had the wrong word. NAAN is not really a staple, but rather a typical dish. But look, it's really ATTA! I'd never heard of the latter until seeing a news article a couple of weeks ago -- apparently there's a shortage of it right now. And then there was APEXES, which should have been apices, except that it was really CRESTS. I needed the K from KOREA to see that and get PLUCK.

That left the plural SOLAR SYSTEMS. I think one could argue either way on that: Sol is the name of our particular star, so in that sense there is only lone SOLAR SYSTEM. But on the other hand, sol is just the Latin word for sun (or is it Greek?), and every star is a sun when you get close to it.

The really fun thing about this puzzle is that every single instance, all six of them, of an answer with STEM in it came as a surprise, hard to see at first. It helped that two of the three were in symmetrical downs, rather than acrosses; I went looking at 30A, symmetrical to ITS TEMPTING, but couldn't find anything but RETHINKS.

Congratulations again, Malaika, hope to see more of your work in the future!

GILL I. 11:19 AM  

A tickle my fancy bone didn't wan't to show up today until....it did.
I sensed a whiff of rebus..but where? I'm not even sure when the STEM appeared. THE LA[STEM]PEROR. How do I fit you in. I didn't know about STEM yet...I'll cheat and see if the revealer at 60A will help. It did. I have to figure out how to sneak them in. It wasn't easy. Take a breather,... Go back to bed and TRY TRY again tomorrow. I did...It worked....
Shake a few cobwebs in the morning...drink coffee and hunker down. I did. The AHA's were beginning to emerge. Want to know my first? LOSE ONE[STEM]PER/GHO[STEM}OI. Yup...I even knew the ORPHAN children in Baudelaire even though I wouldn't know Baudelaire from Chaucer.
A two cheat Thursday: IVER/EMMA. Was I the only one who had Bon JOVI?
This took some time and I danced all around. I never GAVE UP. I paused at UP TALK which is probably the most annoying way to speak ever invented by Valley Girls. I smiled at ODIE and APU...the whole thing had PLUCK.
I felt that the two cheats were worth it. Mailaika does have PLUCK!. New words for me today and it felt fresh. It made my fancy tickled once again.
Nice job.....

mathgent 11:29 AM  

I nominate PLUCK/SPUNK as the very best kealoa. Two fun words.

Rebus Thursday! Oh, happy day!

Nancy 11:36 AM  

"I'm sad that my clues about ESTE Haim and INS Choi were cut." So laments Malaika in her Constructor's Notes.

Oh, Malaika, you are so WRONG!!!!! You should get down on your knees and fervently thank the very, very wise puzzle editors at the NYT.

Do you see all the raves on two blogs today? Do you see that there are pretty much NO bad reviews at all? Do you think that would have remained the same had you included for no damned good reason at all two "Who on earth are they???" youth-y pop culture (I'm assuming) proper names that more than half the people on both blogs wouldn't know? What would be the point of it? Why would you want to frustrate and irritate so many perfectly nice people you've never even met? Like me, for instance.

You've got great puzzle-construction chops, Malaika. Don't muck it up with unnecessary proper names arcania -- especially when you've got a plethora of alternative ways to clue your answer.

Anonymous 11:42 AM  

The film is “The Problem with Apu” by Hari Kondabolu. And I wouldn’t say Hank Azaria was “cancelled” at all; his career is doing just fine. They just don’t have him do the Apu voice on The Simpsons anymore.

thfenn 11:43 AM  

So impressed with this, Malaika. A great theme, a rebus, fun fill - just a great puzzle. The first STEM materialized pretty quickly, and all that saved me from temPTING was knowing there had to be a 3rd, or maybe a 4th STEM lying around somewhere. Fun looking for those. Worst mistake - I first went with THEkingandi for the biopic, thinking wait, that wasn't China, and wait, 1987?, but recovered, embarrased at myself, fairly quickly. Chimes rang with the P in the UPTALK/GOPRO cross, with a big AHA after a lazy run through the alphabet.
Really enjoyed this, so thanks and congrats.

Anonymous 11:54 AM  

✋for naan!

Anonymous 12:03 PM  

Unfortunately, UPTALK is a thing and it gets on my last nerve whenever I hear it (way too often!). I wish young professional women would realize how it detracts from what they are saying. "Excuse me, was that a question?"

Nancy from Chicago 12:06 PM  

Congratulations Malaika! I loved your puzzle. I did get hung up on "tempting" for a while as Rex suggested, but I finally sorted it out. As soon as I saw the name I thought "I wonder if that's Malaika the blogger" and it was! Clever of you to keep it a surprise from Rex even.

dragoo 12:08 PM  

She knocked it out of the park! This puzzle was a legitimate challenge (but not impossible), fun, witty, clever, young, old, beautiful, the best puzzle in weeks. I must admit that I normally cringe a bit when it's Malaika Wednesday on the blog, because frankly, I don't want to be "besties" with this blog, I come here every morning for the curmudgeonly rants, the grumpy nitpicks, the delicious irony of a guy who, God knows why, runs a daily crossword blog (and has done for 15-plus years) despite the fact that he seems to absolutely hate working crossword puzzles.

But somehow I now find myself looking forward to solving more Mali-word puzzles, and (can it be?) even looking forward to the April 5 installment of the blog.

Well done, kudos to Malaika. I couldn't be more impressed.

Anonymous 12:11 PM  

Or their PLUCK! 😉

Anonymous 12:17 PM  

Barbara, you may not have heard of the term UPTALK, but I'm sure you've heard it often. It's insidious, much to my displeasure... Making statements sound like questions.

bocamp 12:18 PM  

Thx, Malaika; nice job! it 'held' up very well. :)

Med+

A tad off M.H.'s wavelength, but I STEMmed the tide, and ended up victorious.

Got the rebus at the SOLAR SYSTEM / TASTE MAKER cross, but didn't grok the theme until reaching the revealer much later.

FOal before COLT; mounTS before CRESTS; teMPTING before IT'S TEMPTING; SlAPS before SNAPS; wanted SlavS before SERBS.

IVER / EMMA were both unknowns, but it had to be an 'E'.

Fave clue / answer: 'Hopping spots' / LILY PADS. :)

Liked this one a lot! :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏

Anonymous 12:19 PM  

I'm with you, Alice, re: UPTALK! Fingernails on a chalkboard - exactly!

Anonymous 12:22 PM  

Gotta luv ya, RM! Please remind us why you count "F"s :-)

Diane Joan 12:26 PM  

This puzzle clicked with me. The best part of it was that I felt confident that it required a REBUS. Sometimes these Thursday puzzles just leave me vacillating about that. Anyway congratulations Malaika on getting a puzzle published in The NY Times!

Sir Hillary 12:28 PM  

So, you know Malaika? How she blogs for Rex once a month? Well, it turns she's also a constructor? And she made this really cool rebus puzzle the day after blogging for Rex? And it was really fun to solve except for UPTALK? I know, right?

egsforbreakfast 12:29 PM  

I’ve got to point out that Eeyore employs downtalk. Almost as bad as UPTALK!!!

Wanderlust 12:32 PM  

There are definitely multiple SOLAR SYSTEMS. Every star is a sun in its solar system, I think. Lots of planets other than our eight (or nine, poor Pluto) too.

Wanderlust 12:41 PM  

He only hates working NYT puzzles, and to be fair, he sometimes likes or even loves them.

*&* 12:46 PM  

Congratulations Malaika! I thought this was a lot of fun

GHOST EMOJI!!!

Anonymous 12:56 PM  

I found this one easier than any of the rest of you did, but then, as I have pointed out here again and again and again, I'm much smarter than any of the rest of you. Unfortunately, however, I'm dumb enough to keep on wasting my time posting utter nonsense here again and again and again like the rest of you do. Don't be discouraged, though, because I'll try very hard to post nothing whatever here from now on.(Just kidding).

Anonymous 12:57 PM  

Wouldn't it be sublime if young influencers started a campaign against the exasperating use of UPTALK?

KnittyContessa 12:59 PM  

Congratulations Malaika! Loved it!

Anonymous 1:02 PM  

I don't care what they say, Pluto will always be #9 to me 🌚😍

Teedmn 1:05 PM  

I had a Calf and naan to start, and after finding the STEM, tried to make a GHOST EMblem a thing, luckily too long.

Thanks for the VICHY in-your-face to yesterday's disses, @Gary Jugart. I didn't read all the comments yesterday and would have skipped any harping on VICHY knowledge so I'm glad they all got a mild comeuppance.

I liked the theme and revealer. It's good to see Bon IVER appear in the puzzle, who is a neighbor to the east, in WI. And the RIDERS over the BUS LANE is apt.

Congratulations, Malaika, on your NYTimes debut!

Joe Dipinto 1:17 PM  

I didn't realize the Apu flap was so long ago, it seems more recent?

Per Wikipedia the "official" name for UPTALK or upspeak is High Rising Terminal (HRT)? In Britain it's known as Australian Question Intonation (AQI)? I went back and reread the indignant Vichy-France posts of yesterday in uptalk, which was pretty entertaining? "Like Malaika you should really google Vichy?" "OMG it's WW2 history everyone's heard of it?"

Anyway, this puzzle was a delight. I'm surprised it didn't get Jeff Chen's POW! The mere three rebus boxes might look skimpy at first, but each of the six answers contains a total of ten letters or more, which I found kinda impressive. Very deft and smooth.

This plum has an odor (I think I've played this before but whatevs?)

Anoa Bob 1:21 PM  

I'm on the fence about what the best Latin word to describe this puzzle would be. If one sees it as a "...puzzle in which the letter string "STEM" appears in three different squares (or "CELLS)", as OFL describes it, then litteris---Latin for "with or by way of letters---would be the most appropriate. If one sees it as a puzzle in which the word "STEM" appears in three different squares (or CELLS), then verbis---with or by way of words---would be the go to choice. After further review, I'm going with verbis puzzle

Out of respect to linguists, philologists, historians and other scholars who study how literal pictographs and hieroglyphics evolved into abstract alphabets, I would follow their usage of rebus in its Latin meaning of "with or by way of things". They describe the key element in that giant leap from literal to abstract in the history of human writing as the Rebus Principle. More on this developing controversy at Rebusgate.

Whatsername 1:31 PM  

In honor of SPUNK, here’s a clip of Mary Richards’ classicjob interview with Lou Grant. (👋 @Ken.) It’s less than three minutes, and the spunk moment comes at 2:35 but it’s so worth watching the whole thing.

@Nancy (11:36) “Don't muck it up with unnecessary proper names arcania.” Excellent advice on any puzzle to any constructor.

@Sir Hillary (12:28) Good one! 😆

Trina 1:32 PM  

Congrats Malaika! Loved the puzzle even before I knew it was yours. Love it even more now, I feel like an “insider”!

(I do think NANCY at 11:36 gives good advice, Malaika.)

Anonymous 1:32 PM  

✋✋

Anonymous 1:40 PM  

Interesting. I thought that Sol referred specifically to the Sun and therefore Solar System referred to the Sun and bodies around the Sun. Good clue , though.

Photomatte 1:42 PM  

Did anyone else get a DNF because of the software? I've got every square filled in correctly, checked it three times, and it still says I'm not done.

Bob Mills 1:51 PM  

For Photomette: The same thing happened to me. I figured it out, finally...when you enter a rebus into the grid (in this case, STEM), you have to put the first letter in the square for the computer to recognize it. I didn't think it mattered, but it does for some reason.

Anonymous 2:40 PM  

Great puzzle. I too was won over by GHOSTEMOJI - started with PUMPKIN lol. Best answer I've seen in a long time.

okanaganer 2:53 PM  

At first I hated this, because I was drawing nothing but blanks, and every other clue seemed to use or indicate a name. Finally I saw ------PEROR and its clue, and got the theme! Then I went backwards through the puzzle and enjoyed it a lot more.

SOLAR SYSTEMS is a very timely answer, as last night Jupiter and Venus had a lovely conjunction which I missed cuz clouds. Jupiter is great to look at with a telescope because of its lovely string of 4 moons, discovered by Galileo. Interesting that the latest count of Jupiter's moons is something like 95. 95!!!! I think when I was a kid it was 6 or 7. Ironically there were more planets, which was basically a mistake.

[Spelling Bee: yd 0, my last word this fun 7er. My QB streak is back up to 4 after my previous streak ended at 15 last Saturday.]

Anonymous 3:03 PM  

There are lots of planetary systems but only one Solar System.

Masked and Anonymous 3:11 PM  

"See you tomorrow!! ;", indeedy. Turn around, darlin … good to see yer back!

This here ThursPuz was a real stem-winder of a rodeo. Liked. She threw us under the re-bus, on her debut appearance, yet. And …

This here puzgrid design was outstandin. Even got downright cross-lookin, a coupla times.
Pretty smooth solvequest, tho. Once I caught onto the puz huggin the rebuslane.

faves: GHO(STEM)OJI themer. ORPHAN. OHREALLY. HIHO. LILYPADS clue.

staff weeject pick: BRB. Sorta what Malaika was tryin to tell us all, in code, yesterday. Intriguin alternate BRB clue: {Advanced bra version??}. Luv them double-??-marker clues.

Thanx for the primo rebusride, Ms. Handa darlin. And congratz on yer fine debut. Say, hey -- was "BRB" in the puz another sly Malaika-signal? M&A will now be anxiously awaitin the un-veilin of the FriPuz author...

Masked & Anonymo5Us


**gruntz**

Jen 3:36 PM  

Congratulations WMalika!!!!

albatross shell 4:25 PM  

I thought this was a difficult puzzle. Like @okanaganer I moved all around the grid getting very little. Felt like a Friday or Saturday. Then slowly gathered momentum. A few spurts here and there and then some steady progress and then some more difficulties closing it out. Cleverness and enjoyment all along the way. LILYPADS a wow. I was out in the yard this morning wondering if my small frog pond had any lily pad growth showing up. It's a shallow pond so I always have a few sheltering in the basement.

Wonderful reveal because of the cell-square correspondence. Revealer of the year a bit over the top in my view.

Only one SOLAR SYSTEM strikes me as a bit of fuddy-duddyness but I understand the justification, so not fuddy-nuttyness. And only one Sun so even suns is incorrect. If you insist but don't ask me to follow suit. Why are other "solar systems" planetary systems and not star systems? What if they only have asteroids and comets? Science and common use are often properly inconsistent in usage.

@Malaika congrats on a beauty. If you are busy doing puzzles like this who cares about Nomadland. I also agree with @Nancy about those clues. Would have done me in. What can I say? Will knows his audience. Sigh.

CDilly52 5:31 PM  

Congrats Malaika!!! Well done. Whatever nits exist, they are all forgiven by GHO-STEM-OJI!!! Sheer creative genius. Thank you!.

Anonymous 5:38 PM  

Congrats, Malaika!!!

Beezer 6:01 PM  

LOl @anonymous @12:56!

Also…agree with @anonymous 12:57…my 39 year old daughter can attest to the annoyance of upspeak even though SHE engages in it in restaurants….Can I have he blah, blah. Yes. It’s on he menu. Yes you CAN.

@Egs…YES! Eeyore is emblematic of (possibly) sad life takes.

@Sir Hillary…hilarious last post and agree.

Omg @Nancy… think you right with your advice to Malaika!

Hartley70 6:07 PM  

I love a rebus and this one was great fun. TASTEMAKER gave me the rebus but I had started at the bottom so the revealer gave me a big hint. BON IVER is a favorite of mine (Hi, @Teedman!) The NE held me up but luckily I never considered spunk. I got stymied when my phone refused to enter the rebus in GHOSTEMOJI and it was my very favorite, so most annoying. I’d still be banging on the keyboard if I hadn’t gotten the happy music without it. Nevertheless, it was a memorable Thursday!

egsforbreakfast 6:21 PM  

@Joe DiPinto 1:17 pm. It takes a sick mind to think of putting the indignant Vichy posts into UPTALK.

Admiringly,

egsforbreakfast
Sgt. at Arms
Sick Minds Club

Chimpo 6:52 PM  

Magnificent MWork!

Shecky Wormwood 7:42 PM  

Liked this one, perfect for a Thursday, and it's cool that Maliaka did the writeup for yesterday's puzzle. I like a rebus and this one took me a minute to suss out what was going on and that's fine. Great job...

Shecky Wormwood 7:59 PM  

PS. Didn't notice UPTALK and have never heard of that word; now that I know I'm not sure if I'm super annoyed or not... I guess it's a thing and I'm kind of relieved in a way that there's a word for it. I always just wondered: "Help me understand why this person is pronouncing a declarative sentence as if it is an inquisitive. Why?" This does not answer that question but at least I know what to call it now. So...thanks?

albatross shell 11:03 PM  

UPTALK was new to me as a word. I do an impression of Bob Dylan's singing, that I learned from the now cancelled, Garrison Keillor, doing it on Prairie Home companion, by severely exaggerated upsinging at the end of every line. Moreover it us habit forming and very addictive. It is especially fun with op-eds, news articles, novels and philosophical works. Don't forget the nasal Twang and you are there. Try it on this post.
It's like having a Nobel prize winning author as your personal reader.

Anonymous 11:24 PM  

✋ for both tempting and spunk

kealoa! what a delightful neologism. alongside natick, are there any others of yours i've missed?

Amy 9:00 AM  

Finished up and thought, that was great who’s the constructor, then saw Malaika ! Very cool, as if I knew her personally (and had just hung out with her)! Congrats on a great puzzle. Ghost emoji was very satisfying to get.

Michelle 10:11 AM  

CALF for COLT Andy body? NAAN for ATTA?

Great puzzle!

Anonymous 1:03 PM  

👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻

Anonymous 9:33 AM  

Et moi. I’ve had NAAN my whole life (in crossword puzzles and in takeout). Never heard of ATTA.

Burma Shave 10:21 AM  

OH, GOPRO!

IT’STEMPTING to me MA’AM,
makes me RETHINK my PLUCK,
TASTEMAKER that I AM,
I REALLY like to TALK.

--- EMMA TAYLOR

Anonymous 11:28 AM  

Not bad. But I wish there were four themers. Three is OK, but four would make it PLUM perfect.

spacecraft 12:32 PM  

I had a totally different take on this. I found the rebus very quickly, with SOLARSYSTEMS/TASTEMAKER. Agree that the revealer sticks the landing. But it was the fill that almost did me in. In particular, the clues for LIU and EMMA were unnecessarily obscure. Add to that "Bon IVER?" OHREALLY??? I almost GAVEUP on that one. Top it all off with the natick at GO?RO/U?TALK, neither of which I had any idea. I did manage to guess P as being the most likely, and so finished a very challenging Thursday. Trying just a bit too hard, m'dear. Still, a birdie for that marvelous revealer.

Wordle par. Good luck to all NON-LIV Masters entrants!

Diana, LIW 1:35 PM  

There's a reason why I don't care for the Thursday puzzle books. This is why. The dreaded rebi - which I did find, but... Ugh Just ugh

Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords

PS I've been "traveling" the last few days, but have kept up with the puzzles. Thanks to Teedmn.

Anonymous 5:10 PM  

@Anonymoti 9:33am & 11:54 am:
Atta flour is used to make naan in India.

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