Wallow moodily / TUES 2-27-24 / Oscar winner Mahershala / Machu Picchu resident / "Defend the rights of all people nationwide" org. / :-(

Hi, everyone! It’s Clare, here for the last Tuesday in February. My wonderful, wonderful Liverpool just won the men’s League Cup (a tournament among the English clubs), and it was glorious. This is the last season for Liverpool with the best manager of all time, Jurgen Klopp, so we’re trying to make sure he goes out with a bang. I’m also getting ready for “The Slam,” when Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz play each other in Vegas in a week. (I’ve certainly seen enough ads for it.) I’m still adjusting to being back from Mexico — after eating my body weight in tacos and drinking my body weight in margaritas.

Anywho, on to the puzzle…

Constructor: Nate Cardin

Relative difficulty: A great day for personal bests (I checked to make sure I wasn’t accidentally solving a Monday puzzle)

THEME: Two-word answers where the first word in each answer ends in -INKY 

Theme answers:

• SLINKY DOG (18A: "Toy Story" dachshund with a springy body) 
• WINKY FACE (20A: This emoticon: ;-)) 
• STINKY TOFU (35A: Vegetarian street food known for its distinct smell) 
• KINKY BOOTS (40A: Tony Award-winning musical with the song "Sex Is in the Heel") 
• PINKY RING (56A: Little finger adornment) 
• RINKY DINK (59A: Small-time)

Word of the Day: STINKY TOFU (35A: Vegetarian street food known for its distinct smell) —

Stinky tofu is a Chinese form of fermented tofu that has a strong odor. It is usually sold at night markets or roadside stands as a snack, or in lunch bars as a side dish, rather than in restaurants. Traditionally, the dish is fermented in a brine with vegetables and meat, sometimes for months. Modern factory-produced stinky tofu is marinated in brine for one or two days to add odor. According to a Chinese legend, a scholar named Wang Zhihe hailing from Huang Shan in Anhui Province invented stinky tofu during the Qing dynasty. After failing the imperial examination, Wang stayed in Beijing and relied on selling tofu to make a living. One day, having a huge quantity of unsold tofu on his hands, he cut the tofu into small cubes and put them into an earthen jar. The stinky tofu that Wang Zhihe invented gained popularity and was later served at the imperial Qing Dynasty palace. The dish has now become extremely popular in Taiwan. (Wiki)

• • •

I solved this puzzle so quickly that I didn’t have time to either enjoy it or find it annoying. My solve was the epitome of “no thoughts, just vibes.” I suppose it’s impressive to come up with six words that end in -INKY and fit them into a puzzle (when there aren’t that many possible words for this)? And it’s impressive to end the puzzle with two -INK words? But that’s about the best I can do for the theme. The rhyming felt rudimentary, and I was missing some sort of revealer. 

KINKY BOOTS (40A) as a theme answer was at least fun. It’s an absolutely amazing musical (my sister saw it on Broadway and has a picture at the stage door with Billy Porter). RINKY DINK (59A) is also a pleasant phrase — makes me think of “co-inky-dink,” which is an objectively fun thing to say. WAGS (13D: Moves excitedly, like a puppy's tail) crossing SLINKY DOG (18A) was clever, and 6D (:-() and 20A (This emoticon: ;-)) crossed. I also liked ALTRUIST (45A: One with unselfish motivations) and ASYMMETRICAL (10D: Like a dress with a diagonal hemline, say), as they’re words not commonly in puzzles. I actually wore an ASYMMETRICAL skirt to work today, so this was especially fitting for me. The hardest part of the puzzle may have been trying to remember how to spell ASYMMETRICAL. 

We had a mini theme of musicals in the puzzle with “KINKY BOOTS,” “Mamma MIA,” “It’s Raining MEN” (in the jukebox musical, “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”), ANNA (of the “Frozen” musical), and AGONY (a song featured in “Into the Woods”). If the shoe FITS could have been a song in “Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella” (yes, I’m reaching). 

PODIA (2D: Speakers' platforms) was maybe the only word that gave me pause. It’s obviously legit, just ugly. I liked seeing the WNBA in the puzzle, but we can probably get a little more creative than the __ Vegas Aces (23A for LAS), which is about the most obvious clue of all time. I really didn’t like the clue/answer for 66A: Top part as HEAD. The answers for 41D (YUCKY), 6D (I’M SAD), and 44A (I’M OK) didn’t thrill me. And having two I’Ms in the puzzle seems odd. In general, the blockiness of the grid meant there were a ton of three-, four-, and five-letter words, none of which did anything for me other than fill space and which contributed to the easiness of the puzzle. 

Overall, the puzzle felt much more like a Monday. It was my fastest Tuesday solve ever, which I suppose counts for something. But there just wasn’t much to it.

Misc.

• AGONY (52D: Ecstasy's opposite) is one of the all-time great songs. The actors in videos of stage performances I’ve seen are great. But this version by Chris PINE (56D: Christmas tree, often) and Billy Magnussen is everything to me. I can’t see the word AGONY anymore without immediately wanting to sing it out loud dramatically.  
• 43D “Wallow moodily” is a perfect clue. 10/10 no notes. 
• The answer for 43D: SULK crosses USC (46A: Trojans' sch.), which is coincidentally what USC does a lot after they play Cal (obligatory mention for the sake of my sister, who says the initials stand for the University of Spoiled Children) 
• NADA (11D: Nothing, in Mexico) was fun in the puzzle coming off the trip to Mexico. I was just thinking about it, though, and I’m not sure that I said NADA once while I was there, and I spoke a decent amount of Spanish. (Don’t ask anyone how my accent is, though…)
• As long as you insist, here is a clip from Liverpool winning the trophy:)

• The celebrations 🏆😍pic.twitter.com/TB6b35T4RU

  — Liverpool FC USA (@LFCUSA) February 25, 2024

And that’s all from me! Have a great leap day, and I’ll see ya in March. 

Signed, Clare Carroll, off to take a DRINKY DRINK of my chai

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]