Lead role in 1978's "La Cage aux Folles" / SUN 1-7-24 / Dawn figure, in myth / Athleisure portmanteau / Rap's ___ Chyna / Bird also known as a lapwing / Purchase at a cannabis dispensary / Chuck ___, TV director/producer who's known as the "King of Sitcoms" / Start of a classic request for advice / Internet harvesting tool / Late winter/early spring, weather-wise

Constructor: Michael Schlossberg

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Gimme a Second!" — on four occasions, successive Across clues are clued identically, but in each case, the second of the two answers has a "feeling" hidden inside it. So ... you get one clue/answer, and then you get the same clue again, but this time you get an answer with (a) feeling inside it: thus, ONCE MORE WITH FEELING (68A: Bandleader's urging ... or an alternative title for this puzzle):

Theme answers:

• POWER SUIT / SNOOZE ALARM (23 and 24A: It might be pressed before work)
• SPIDER WEBS / P.R. AGENCIES (42 and 46A: They're home to spinners)
• SEA CAPTAIN / AVID READER (91 and 95A: One sailing through long passages)
• GENERATION Z / FLU STRAIN (117 and 119A: Target of many a viral marketing campaign)

Word of the Day: CAT'S EAR (92D: Plant that may be mistaken for a dandelion) —

Hypochaeris is a genus of plants in the family Asteraceae. Many species are known as cat's ear. These are annual and perennial herbs generally bearing flower heads with yellow ray florets. These plants may resemble or be confused with dandelions and so some are called false dandelions.

Estimates of the number of species range from about 50 up to about 100. Most species are native to South America, but some are found in Eurasia and North Africa. (wikipedia)

• • •

***ATTENTION: READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS*** : Hello from the first properly snowy day of Winter 2024! 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... 

• • •

This may seem a weird place to start, but: is ZEAL a feeling? If I say "I feel rage," you get it. "I feel dread," sure, "I feel lust," hmm, TMI, maybe, but OK. But "I feel zeal." I don't think anyone has ever said or typed those words until I typed them there just now. Of all the feelings in the world, it is Bizarre that ZEAL made the cut. So this theme is 25% questionable, right off the bat. And yet even if ZEAL were the feelingest feeling that ever felt, there's still something off about this theme. My main issue is that I never, ever solve the puzzle in order, i.e. actually reading all the Across clues, one after the next. I get an answer, then I build on it, and I keep going like that, wherever, the puzzle takes me, generally following the path of least resistance. I had a whole bunch of themers done on the east side of the puzzle (well, two, I had two), complete with their feelings, *and* I had the revealer, but still had zero idea what the revealer was supposed to reveal. That's because by the time I got those answers in the east, I'd forgotten I'd seen the identical clues in the west! I could see the "feelings" there in the marked squares, but the ONCE MORE part!?!?! No clue. Literally, I could not see / did not remember the clue that was the First clue, the one that makes the "ONCE MORE" part make sense. There's an assumption about solving progression here that just doesn't hold. Not for me, anyway. So getting my head around the whole concept proved awkward, and in the end, not terribly worth it. No great ahas or anything like that. More of a shrug. My favorite moment was actually a stumble on my part, when I confidently strode out into the middle of the grid with what I thought was the write revealer answer, only to find myself ... a letter short:

But what was really off-putting about the puzzle was the fill, which absolutely reeked of giant, uncurated wordlist. So many answers just felt awkward and strange, like things an ordinary human wouldn't put in a puzzle if the A.I. hadn't encouraged them. OXTEAM!? (114A: The yoke's on them). I stopped and literally said, out loud, "that is *not* an answer!" (turns out I complained about this answer six years ago, when I said OXTEAM sounded like "some kind of weird bovine rivals of The X-Men"). Similar things happened at UPPISH (!?) and, especially, MUD SEASON (59A: Late winter/early spring, weather-wise), where I have to believe at least one solver out there is going to end up with MIDSEASON because they don't know "Aladdin" that well (as I don't), and ABI looks ... plausible? (48D: "Aladdin" sidekick). I know that the clue on MUD SEASON indicates "late" winter and "early" spring, which would seem to explicitly preclude the answer *MID* SEASON, but MIDSEASON has one noteworthy virtue, which is that it is actually a common term. I am looking at the wikipedia page for MUD SEASON, so OK, it's a thing, technically. Looks like it's primarily a New England and northern Great Lakes thing. You don't want to take your OXTEAM out in MUD SEASON. Not in Maine, anyway. Things could get very messy, and the UPPISH might look down on you. 

Other WTF answers: SFMOMA. CAT'S EYE. LORRE (as clued) (116A: Chuck ___, TV director/producer who's known as the "King of Sitcoms"). And ARIKARA— I generally think any tribe name is fair game, and everyone including me can just deal, but there were only 792 members of the ARIKARA tribe as of 2010, and their territory is dang tiny, so that one was very hard for me. Only the second time it's been in the grid since I started blogging (the other appearance was on a *Tuesday*, yikes). Seems like VELLUM and TACITUS and PEWIT might've proved hard for some solvers as well. I was lucky enough to know all those; grad school rarely comes in handy, but for those first two, grad school really came through today—as for PEWIT, I feel like we just had that. Also, I'm currently reading Tove Jansson's Finn Family Moomintroll, and I'm almost certain there's a PEWIT reference in there, somewhere. Yes, here we go. The Moomin family and various hangers-on are discussing the naming of a new boat:

"It must have a name!" cried the Snork Maiden. "Wouldn't The Pee-wit be rather sweet"?

"Pee-wit yourself," said the Snork rudely. "I prefer The Sea-Eagle."

"No, it must be Latin," cried the Hemulen. "Moominates Maritima."

"I saw it first!" squeaked Sniff. "I must choose a name for it. Wouldn't it be fun to call it SNIFF? That's so short and sweet."

"Just like you—I don't think!" said Moomintroll, jeeringly. (FSG/Sunburst, 1990, p. 62)

I was just thinking that TOVE has only ever been in the puzzle as a Lewis Carrolism (from "Jabberwocky": "Twas brillig, and the slithy toves" etc.). And JANSSON has been in the puzzle never. Moomins are certainly internationally famous, and Tove Jansson is a significant enough artist/writer that her name should be considered crossworthy. More crossworthy than UPPISH or OXTEAM or whoever this KRYSTEN person is, that's for sure. 

AMAHL and AGER and REA and ENYA were giving off big-time 20th-century crosswordese vibes. I did appreciate DASHCAM (which somehow hasn't been seen in the NYTXW for well over six years). Also LUCKY NUMBER and THE CURSE (though that last one really means less and less as time goes on—no team has won more World Series in the 21st century than the Boston Red Sox (4)). SWIMSHIRT is also a nice one. Can't remember seeing that before (sure enough, it's a debut). "WE'RE SAVED!" isn't bad. So the puzzle had its merits, fill-wise. And now I worry I'm being too hard on the OX TEAM. There were definitely OX TEAMs ... you know, in OX TEAM Days. 

But come on, RENATO? I'm supposed to RENA-know that? RENA-no! Crossing the absolutely mystifying CAT'S EAR, RENATO nearly killed me (Lead role in 1978's "La Cage aux Folles"). And it was the last square! But the "A" was totally inferrable, so that was that. All done, no errors. What needs explaining? The ANN in "DEAR ANN..." is Ann Landers (I assume) (14D: Start of a classic request for advice) (We just had a whole theme built around her and her sister). Nothing else seems potentially confusing. Anything else that warrants explaining is just trivia you can look up if you're so inclined. I wish the theme had done more for me. It does ... what it says it does. But kind of awkwardly and drearily. And even though there are eight answers involved in the theme, only four really seem like they're involved (the ones with the "feelings"), and since those have their "feelings" marked out so clearly by shaded (or in my case circled) squares, the theme really felt slight. The toughest thing was, as I say, figuring out that I was supposed to read those themer clues in order. 

Time for the last of the Holiday Pet Pics. I ended up having more than I can get to, so I'm sorry if you sent in a picture and your beloved pet never appeared. Maybe I'll do another photo dump next week, just 'cause I love your pets so much. At any rate, if your pet hasn't appeared and you haven't heard from me yet, expect an apologetic email from me soon. Aw ... who am I kidding, I'm gonna keep doing this til all the photos are out of my Inbox (hopefully by Memorial Day). OK. Here we go:

["Silly humans, your cones cannot stop me. These ornaments are mine, Mine!" You tell 'em, Coco (thanks, Carol)]

[This is Frieda. Doesn't look like a "Holiday" pic, but Elizabeth says that it's a "Christmas miracle" that Frieda is seen here actually using the bed that was purchased specifically for her] 

[Holiday kitties! I don't know their names! (thanks, Susan)]

[Sorry, this isn't a holiday pet pic; this is me and Ida, just days after we rescued her (bloody face and all); I accidentally uploaded it with all the other pet pics, and now I can't bring myself to delete it]

[Paczki! Pronounced "Poonch-key!" Look how happy! (thanks, Nick)]

[Penelope! That's my wife's name! Good girl! (that's for the dog, not you, honey ... though you are also good) (thanks, Philippa)]

[Pumpernickel says "Isn't it enough you named me after bread, must I suffer the further indignity of your constant photographic intrusion?" (yes, Pumpernickel, you must) (thanks, Martin)]

[It's Remy! Also pictured, hindquarters of some mystery dog (thanks, Sarah)]

[I would write a caption, but I'm dying due to the absurdly high levels of cuteness here. I don't even know how my fingers are managing to hit the keyboard, as I am dead from the cuteness, as described above. Post-mortemically I say to you that this little guy's name is ALFIE! Just like my kitty! I have now redied, good day to you all (and thanks, Kristen, with an "i" as god intended!]

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]