Basic linear expression / THU 1-11-24 / Mohammed's third and youngest wife / Finnish tech giant / Way down in the nether regions / Instrument notably featured in George Michael's 1984 hit "Careless Whisper"

Constructor: Damon Gulczynski

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: Y = X (69A: Basic linear expression with a hint to answering the five starred clues in this puzzle) — change "y" to "x" in each of the starred clues; only then do their answers make sense:

Theme answers:

• BAD BREAK-UP (17A: *Cause of irritated eyes) [Cause of irritated exes]
• CAT PEOPLE (26A: *Many lovers, e.g.) [Manx lovers, e.g.]
• "THE SHOW MUST GO ON" (38A: *Mayim of entertainment) [Maxim of entertainment]
• BRAZILIAN (49A: *Way down in the nether regions) [Wax down in the nether regions]
• DAS KAPITAL (59A: *Book of Mary) [Book of Marx]

Word of the Day: Chris REDD (18D: Former "S.N.L." comic Chris) —

 

Christopher Jerell Redd (born March 25, 1985) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, rapper, and singer. After several years performing stand-up comedy, Redd was hired to join the cast of the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live ahead of the show's 43rd season in 2017, making his debut alongside Heidi Gardner and Luke Null, and serving as a cast member for five seasons until 2022. For his work on the show, he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics in 2018 for co-writing the SNL song "Come Back Barack". He is also known for his roles in Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016), Disjointed (2017–2018), and Kenan (2021–2022). (wikipedia)

• • •

***ATTENTION: READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS*** : Hello from Central New York and the first properly wintry week of the season! It's early January, which means it's time once again for my annual week-long pitch for financial contributions to the blog. Every year I ask readers to consider what the blog is worth to them on an annual basis and give accordingly. So ... 17 years ... not bad. At this time last year, I was recovering from COVID and still dealing with the very fresh grief brought on by the untimely death of my cat, Olive. I was very grateful for the blog at that point, since it grounded me in routine and gave me a place where I could lose myself in a pastime I love, and share that love with others. OK, yes, true, I don't always *love* crosswords. Sometimes it's more hate-love or love-hate or "Why are you being like this, you stupid puzzle!?" It ain't all positive vibes, as you know. But I realized last year that part of what makes this blog so fun for me, and what makes it a solace to many readers, is the sense of commiseration it provides. Sometimes the puzzle thrills you, and maybe I agree with you, and maybe I don't; and sometimes it infuriates you, and maybe I agree with you, and maybe I don't. But either way, the blog is here; it's *always* here. You get to have your feelings validated, or you get to shake your head at my errant judgment and often breathtaking ignorance, but either way, you get to share an experience that's an important part of your daily life, and maybe you learn something new. Above all, I hope you feel that there is a real person with a real life and real emotions and (very) real human flaws who's telling you what it was *really* like for him to solve the puzzle. I never wanted to be an expert, offering some kind of bloodless know-it-all advice and analysis. I wanted blood. Blood on the page. There will be blood! ... But also, music videos. And Words of the Day. And, if you hang around long enough, cat pictures. Like this one:

This is Ida (she put herself in the bin, I swear). Ida is the happy sequel to last year's grief. At the beginning of January, I was mourning. By the end of January, I was still mourning, but now I had a new companion (as did my other cat, Alfie, who *really* needed one). Why am I talking about my cats? Because they are constant, they give shape and rhythm to my day, and I love them even if they sometimes drive me crazy. Just like crossword puzzles! (See that! Segue! This is why you should pay me the big bucks!) 

However much I love writing this blog (and I do, a lot), it is, in fact, a job. This blog has covered the NYTXW every day, without fail, for 17 years, and except for two days a month (when my regular stand-ins Mali and Clare write for me), and an occasional vacation or sick day (when I hire substitutes to write for me), it's me who's doing the writing. Every day. At very ... let's say, inconvenient hours (my alarm goes off most mornings at 3:45am). Over the years, I have received all kinds of advice about "monetizing" the blog, invitations to turn it into a subscription-type deal à la Substack or Patreon. But that sort of thing has never felt right for me. I like being out here on Main, on this super old-school blogging platform, just giving it away for free and relying on conscientious addicts like yourselves to pay me what you think the blog's worth. It's just nicer that way. 

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 three options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar on the homepage):

Second, a mailing address (checks can be made out to "Michael Sharp" or "Rex Parker"):

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

The third, increasingly popular option is Venmo; if that's your preferred way of moving money around, my handle is @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 Venmo contributions will get a little heart emoji, at a minimum :) 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. My daughter (Ella Egan) has once again designed my annual thank-you cards, and once again those cards feature (wait for it) cats! My cats: Alfie & Ida. This year, an elegant set of five!

These really capture the combination of beauty and goofiness that I love in cats (and puzzles, frankly). I'd say "Collect All Five!" but every snail-mail contributor will get just one and (hopefully) like it! 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. Please know that your support means a lot to me and my family. Now on to today's puzzle... 

• • •

Well this was fun, but really, really, dismayingly easy. The theme answers are, of course, going to give you some trouble for a while, but even before I knew what the gimmick was, I was able to put together BAD BREAK-UP from crosses without much trouble. I didn't *get* it—thought maybe there was some kind of sound change going on, the "real" answer was supposed to be BAD MAKE-UP (!?!?) (17A: *Cause of irritated eyes), but my point is that I could plow ahead without my theme incomprehension impeding my solve much at all. The fill was so easy that I just floated down the grid without even bothering with the themers at first. My solve ran like water down a staircase ... I don't like that simile, but that's how it felt. Down IBSEN and then across ASUNDER and then down EMO and across MEGA, down AUDEN and SAX and across EXACTED and down ATOP CHOIR until I hit the bottom of the staircase, which (magically!) was the location of the revealer. And this, for me, was the only part of the puzzle that was even remotely tough—figuring out what "Basic linear expression" meant in 69A: Basic linear expression with a hint to answering the five starred clues in this puzzle. I got the "Y" and "X" easily enough, but that box in between??? Somehow "expression" did not have me looking for an equation, so I had to rely on the cross to get that mystery box between "X" and "Y" and that cross ... was also not clear to me (62D: How peers should be treated). "Peers should be treated ... AS I ... am treated??? But then what the hell is YIX!? Is that come damn chess thing or coding thing or math thing I know zero about?" (this is always my first guess when I don't understand something—puzzle-makers lean heavy into chess/tech/math in a way that I ... do not; I did, as a child and teen, but then I ... drifted). I could tell that "Y" became "X" in the clues, but I still didn't understand the mystery box until I started thinking of words suggesting equivalency (Y IS X? Y TO X?) and then bam, there it was: EQUALS ("="). 

After getting the [EQUALS] trick, the puzzle had no more resistance to offer. I barely remember solving it. Except ... well, speaking of "barely" ... most of the themers didn't do much for me, in the way of amusement, but I will admit I laughed hard at BRAZILIAN, mainly because I thought "ah, ok, so *this* is the reason this puzzle exists! This answer right here! Well ... bravo, well played. Pubic grooming joke, noted!" The other "Y"-to-"X" changes were solid and well hidden —that is, the surface level meaning of the clue remained totally plausible—but none of them have the "wow, bold!" feeling that the BRAZILIAN clue did. Also, that [*Mayim of entertainment] clue was not gonna fool anyone. There's only one "Mayim of entertainment" that anyone knows, and her last name is not fifteen letters long. So if you didn't know something was wrong before that point, you should have then. Maybe this is where you figured out that "Y"-to-"X" gimmick. I don't know what it would've been like to figure it out on the fly because I didn't get the chance—hit the revealer too early. Might've been fun to suss it out without the revealer's help. But I enjoyed and appreciated the theme nonetheless.

The fill felt a little bit on the over-common (i.e. stale) side much of the time. HELI ORA ACAI HIREE IBIS NEATO ANODE EMO, that kind of thing. But nothing made me wince, and I never felt like my patience was being tried (perhaps because it was all so easy to move through). ASAHI, the official beer of Crossworld! (24D: Japanese beer). Did you know it's an anagram of AISHA? (53D: Mohammed's third and youngest wife). I did not, until this puzzle made me think about it, and there it was. There's some other doubling in this puzzle: the Steinbeck doubling ("EAST of EDEN") (27D: Steinbeck title starter / 67A: Steinbeck title ender) and then ... well, there's a bit of wedding doubling, I think (from WOO to BRIDE). And more doubleness at 21A: Inits. of (not one but) two schools in the Missouri Valley Conference] (ISU) (that's Illinois State and Indiana State). Beyond all this doubling, I don't know if there are any other remarkable features to point out today. REDD was the only answer that was not immediately familiar to me (there've been too many SNL cast members to count and I stopped paying attention to that show a better part of a decade ago, when political satire started seeing not only redundant and useless, but ... complicit, somehow). I just realized that this puzzle must've been strange to write, since you basically have to start with a list of "words that become other words when you swap 'Y' for 'X'" and work from there, trying to fashion "X" clues that lead to some set of theme answers (arranged symmetrically), while also maintaining a plausible "Y"-level surface meaning. The elegant simplicity of the gimmick masks (I think) a fairly complicated construction process. 

Just realized that yesterday really did mark the end of the Holiday Pet Pics! I'm kinda sad. Here are two last ones of reader Laura's late cat Ziggy. They weren't submitted as part of the Pet Pics extravaganza, just attached to regular old correspondence, but I think they capture the cozy, wintry vibe of the whole endeavor.

[Why would you make your cat shovel the walkway!? Seems both cruel and inefficient.]

[After a hard day of shoveling (and who knows what other household tasks his owners make him do!), Ziggy has truly earned his snack and crossword]

See you next time.  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. I don't think I would've used "Supervillain" in my LEX Luthor clue (63D: Supervillain Luthor), what with SUPERLATIVE already in the grid. Seems ... I dunno, superfluous?

P.P.S. ROSE is [Flower girl?] simply because it's a "girl's" name that is also a "flower."

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