Iron-rich molecule in blood / THU 11-14-24 / Titular horror movie town / Blanquette de ___ (French stew) / Game show billed as the "world's largest obstacle course" / Element between bromine and rubidium / Heraldic animal / Like the majority of products sold at H Mart / Whom Count von Count is a parody of

Thursday, November 14, 2024

Constructor: Matthew Faiella

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium


THEME: BACK IN BLACK (46A: Hit rock album of 1980 depicted three times by this puzzle) — three black squares must mentally be turned to "BACK" for the answers that precede and follow them to make sense:

Theme answers:
  • SETBACK 3D: Temporary defeat)
  • OUTBACK (18A: Uninhabited wilderness)
  • BACKPEDAL (22D: Recant an opinion)
  • BACKSEAT DRIVER (19A: Motor coaches?)
  • KICKBACK (17D: Certain bribe)
  • DIDN'T HOLD BACK (30A: Went all out)
  • BACK TRACK (35D: Retrace one's steps)
  • BACKBONE (32A: Trait of a courageous person)
  • STAND BACK (19D: "Out of my way!")
  • FULLBACK (36A: Position in soccer and football)
  • BACK FLIP (40D: Move famously performed by figure skater Surya Bonaly at the 1988 Winter Olympics)
  • BACKLESS DRESS (37A: Red carpet attire)
Word of the Day: LAS Posadas (1A: ___ Posadas (annual Latin American celebration)) —
Las Posadas
 is a novenario (an extended devotional prayer). It is celebrated chiefly in Latin AmericaEl SalvadorMexicoGuatemalaHonduras, and by Latin Americans in the United States. It is typically celebrated each year between December 16 and December 24. Latin American countries have continued to celebrate the holiday, with very few changes to the tradition. // Las Posadas derives from the Spanish word posada (lodging, or accommodation) which, in this case, refers to the inn from the Nativity story. It uses the plural form as the celebration lasts for a nine-day interval (called the novena) during the Christmas season, which represents the nine-month pregnancy of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. // This celebration has been a Mexican tradition for over 400 years, starting in 1586. Many Mexican holidays include dramatizations of original events, a tradition which has its roots in the ritual of Bible plays used to teach religious doctrine to a largely illiterate population in 10th- and 11th-century Europe. The plays lost favor with the Church and were eventually banned as they became popular through the addition of folk music and other non-religious elements; they were reintroduced in the 16th century [...] as the Christmas pageant — a new kind of religious ceremony to accompany the Christmas holiday. [...] Two people dress up as Mary and Joseph and certain houses are designated to be "inns"; the head of the procession carries a candle inside a paper shade. The actors travel to one house each night for nine nights. At each house, the resident responds by singing a song and the pair are recognized and allowed to enter; the group of guests come into the home and kneel around the Nativity scene to pray (typically, the Rosary). The final location may be a church instead of a home. // Individuals may play the various parts of Mary (María) and Joseph (José), with the expectant mother riding a real donkey, attendants such as angels and shepherds joining along the way, or pilgrims who may carry images of the holy personages instead, while children may carry poinsettias. The procession is followed by musicians, with the entire procession singing posadas such as pedir posada. At the end of each night, Christmas carols are sung, children break open star-shaped piñatas and everyone sits for a feast. The piñatas used during the holiday are traditionally made out of clay. (wikipedia)
• • •


To be clear, the "Medium" part of the "Easy-Medium" difficulty rating comes almost entirely from one little patch of fill (HEME HOOK KRYPTON WIPEOUT VEAU). The rest of it is about the easiest rebus (or trick rebus) puzzle I've ever done. I don't think I've ever picked up a trick theme so fast. I didn't know LAS Posadas, but I could infer that LAS no problem, and then the first thing I did was check the "S" cross: 3D: Temporary defeat. I thought "SETback? Is this some kind of 'back' puzzle?" Checked the "T" cross on SET and yup, that checked out. So I knew there was a missing 'back' theme right ... here (about 10 seconds into the solve):


But where does the 'back' go? That was all that was left to figure out. Actually, at that point, there could've been lots more to figure out, but my first order of business: find the missing 'back.' To that end, I just jumped to the revealer. Correctly surmised that it was the last long Across, and what do you know? An album I've known since the year it came out. And the album title gives you a completely unambiguous explanation of the theme, and the answer to "where's the missing 'back'?" The 'back' ... is in the 'black' (square). So I've basically exhausted any surprises the puzzle might've held for me, and the solve has barely started:


The second 'back' square came easily a few seconds later, at FULL(BACK), so ... let's say I'm 30-45 seconds in and I've already discovered the gimmick *and* sussed out two of the three 'back' squares. This is the opposite of climactic. Not even anticlimactic. Prematurely climactic? At any rate, upside down and backwards. It's true that the title BACK IN BLACK is fairly screaming out to be used as a revealer in a crossword puzzle, but the black square-rebus is not a new conceit, and this is about as basic a thing as you can do with that conceit—same word in each black square. And only three lousy squares. The rest of the solve felt perfunctory. I kinda liked that the theme managed to make all the longer Across answers part of the theme experience, so there aren't theme-looking answers in the grid that actually have no relationship to the theme. The puzzle ends up having both a conventional element (the four long Acrosses are thematic) and an unconventional element (black = 'back'). So formally, it's interesting. But it was pretty dull to solve. 


HEME, though, man ... yeesh (12A: Iron-rich molecule in blood). I can see how the theme density in that specific, small part of the grid led to HEME. Both SET and OUT are fixed—they're thematic, and thus won't budge. So you've pretty much gotta tear the NW corner down to the studs, removing big elements like AMITYVILLE and KRYPTON, if you want to get HEME out of there. Unless you're comfortable with MOOK. That would fix everything. MEME / MOOK. But I have this feeling that "MOOK" is offensive, pejorative, unacceptable ... huh, looks like it's just a "foolish, insignificant, or contemptible person." So it's bad, but it's not racial / ethnic-slur bad. It's also the nickname of the protagonist of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing. Yes, this is how much I hate HEME—I'm willing to entertain the idea that MOOK might actually be an improvement (MEME is definitely better). Or even the partial "BE ME," if you could find a good one—I would take that over HEME, which caused me to have to run the alphabet for that first letter (as soon as I hit 'H' I was like "oh ... yeah, I've heard of that. I hate it, but I've heard of it"). 


I couldn't get the "H" in HEME from the cross because I had -OO- at 12D: Captivate and no idea, none. And also no idea about KRYPTON until much later (21A: Element between bromine and rubidium). And VEAU was a guess (Fr. for "veal," but I was oddly willing to accept the possibility that the answer might be VIAN (?) ... I thought VIAN might be short for "viand," which means "meat"—yes, seriously I thought this) (24A: Blanquette de ___ (French stew)).


As for WIPEOUT, never heard of it (4D: Game show billed as the "world's largest obstacle course"). I stopped regular-ass cable television a long time ago, so if it's not very good or if people I know don't watch it, I got no idea what's happening in TV land. Especially contemporary game shows or reality shows or humiliation shows of one kind or another. Nope. The only "obstacle course" show that I've ever actually watched is American Gladiators, which I'm laughing just remembering. Kids, in the olden days, there wasn't a lot to watch, so sometimes you watched American Gladiators.



Bullets:
  • 17A: Doner ___ (meat dish) (KEBAB) — always an adventure figuring out which way the puzzle is going to spell this answer. I just write in K-B-B and wait for crosses to show me the way.
  • 35A: Former N.F.L. quarterback Tim (TEBOW) — probably shouldn't have stray 'backs' out there in your 'back'-themed puzzles. I enjoyed seeing Tim, though. Brought back memories. Like the time I sat directly behind home plate and watched him hit a homerun on the first pitch of his first plate appearance with the Mets AA affiliate, my local minor league team, the Binghamton Rumble Ponies.
  • 11D: Brits may refer to them as "boozers" (PUBS) — I might've guessed SOTS, but I already had the cross-referenced ALES in place (26D: Offerings from 11-Down), and all the crosses were easy, so I don't even remember seeing this clue while solving.
  • 38D: Whom Count von Count is a parody of (DRACULA) — Count von Count is just the name of the Count on Sesame Street. I only ever knew him as "The Count," so though this answer was easy to get, the clue was semi-mysterious to me.
  • 5D: Like the majority of products sold at H Mart (ASIAN) — I know of this place only from the book Crying in H Mart.
  • 28D: Years, in Uruguay (ANOS) — if you can eliminate Spanish "assholes" from your grid, you should eliminate Spanish "assholes" from your grid (and since you can't enter "Ñ" in your grid, and it wouldn't make sense for the cross anyway, Spanish "assholes" is always what you have in your grid, every time). Here, look how easy. This is just one of many simple fixes (UPDATE: I was wrong, it’s not so easy— BONE is thematic and you can’t change it!—so just imagine this “fix” features ENOS instead of EROS)
  • 2D: Titular horror movie town (AMITYVILLE) — wow, AC/DC and AMITYVILLE, this puzzle's really leaning into my own personal Tween Era.
[1979]

[1977]
  • 37D: Heraldic animal (LION) — so ... animal frequently featured on heraldry. A coat-of-arms beast. My mind went to mythical creatures, gryphons and dragons and unicorns and what not. When I got LION I was like "oh ... yeah, that too, normal animals too."
[the arms of Estonia, I'm told]


See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Bluesky and Facebook]


91 comments:

Son Volt 6:06 AM  

Liked it fine - four way rebus and generally well filled. Agree with the big guy that it fell on the easy side but whatever. Cool and apt revealer - funky look to the grid.

JC

DRACULA, WIPEOUT, JOB SEEKERS etc are all solid. Live near the AMITYVILLE house and have shown many friends and family over the years. The HEME x HOOK cross was the last to go in.

Badfinger

Enjoyable Thursday morning solve.

Been down one time

Anonymous 6:17 AM  

The problem with the proposed fix for ANOS is that (BACK)BONE is thematic and therefore locked in. I enjoyed the puzzle.

Anonymous 6:25 AM  

Gah you are right! Fixing now ~RP

Anonymous 6:27 AM  

17A: Doner ___ (meat dish) — I was thinking PARTY was a gruesome answer before I realized I had misread the clue.

Conrad 6:30 AM  


Medium for me. I used OFL's strategy of going to the (at that point presumed) revealer after getting a couple of missing "BACK"s, but I am unfamiliar with the 46A album. So I went randomly around the grid until I got the "Fiddlesticks" display and realized I'd picked the wrong version of 17A KEBAB.

Lars 6:38 AM  

Re Assholes: ñ is not an n with a tilde; it is a wholly different letter. Even this person of Northern European heritage who can't stand in the sun unprotected for more than ten minutes without risking disfigurement knows that. Why don't the puzzle editors know that?

Ann Howell 6:55 AM  

It's not often that I have a completely opposite solving experience than Rex, but today is one of those days. Really, really struggled to get any traction on this one - it felt much more Friday-esque for the longest time. Once the rebus clicked in, things got a lot easier, but it was still a very sloggish Thursday.

Anonymous 6:58 AM  

There is nothing wrong with HEME. I’m not in anyway a health care professional or scientifically trained. I wrote it right in first thing- my first entry in the puzzle

Anonymous 7:02 AM  

Rex gives himself a little pat on the back for this solve…

Anonymous 7:02 AM  

28D: Rex, thank you for your comments. Having lived in Uruguay, ANOS will always be A$$HOLES. I appreciate your making that distinction.

SouthsideJohnny 7:09 AM  

Good write-up by OFL today. Aside from the HEME section that Rex mentioned, the rest of it was straightforward enough that I (for once) picked up on the theme and got the reveal as well.

I kind of have mixed feelings about learning that they are now sneaking vulgar foreign words into the grid. On the one hand, I’m all for juvy humor, but I do have some cognitive dissonance upon hearing that the NYT has sunk to that level. Hopefully it won’t become another situation where a little bit might be acceptable and then we get bombarded (similar to text-isms and the names of rap “artists “).

Anonymous 7:21 AM  

Why not simply ‘Years, in Angola’ or in any other lusophone country since the Portuguese word is ‘anos’, no tilde? As a Portuguese, this annoys me!

kitshef 7:22 AM  

Easy fix for ANOS is to change Uruguay to Brazil.

THAT's how you do a revealer. When the revealer lands perfectly like this, it just feels good.

My tiny nit is the cross of SFO and OBE. Crossing an airport code with an initialism means that O is uninferrable. Even if you know your British awards, if you don't know the airport code that could be SFm or SFc of SFg or SFk or SFd.

Druid 7:30 AM  

Look! Let It BE ME, by the Everly Brothers. That could get rid of “heme”.

Eh Steve! 7:39 AM  

I had a similar experience as Rex, with the U of WIPEOUT and VEAU being the last to go in. It took a sec to recognize Wipeout, and I don't feel bad about that. It was just a knockoff of Most Extreme Elimination Challenge anyway. Indeed!

As always, here for the STEVE content. Ha!

Lewis 7:50 AM  

This puzzle provided three solving elements that I love, which today’s theme has inspired me to name:

• BACKTRACKING. Being on the hunt for the Thursday Trick, that sweet befuddlement of trying to crack what is afoot, that inner feeling that if I keep on, there will be closure, and, perhaps, even a …
• FLASHBACK. The big bang when you see it, when you crack the riddle, when all becomes clear, that glorious release of tension, that sometimes leads to a …
• BACKSPLASH. The glorious sled ride of a splat fill.

The “Wha?”, the “Wow” and the “Whee!” – all in the box today.

I like the serendipitous theme echo in the first row as well, with two answers, SLAP and WARD, that can pair with BACK.

Matthew, you showed you have the constructing chops, working out a design to cleanly accommodate the dozen BACK answers plus the revealer. But constructing chops are only worthwhile if the solving experience shines, and for me, today, it sparkled. Thank you, sir, congratulations on your debut, and please, don’t be a stranger!

Lewis 7:52 AM  

BTW, I’m wondering if Matthew Faiella is related to constructor Steve Faiella (interesting that STEVE is an answer). Matthew or someone else, can you chime in on this?

Mike 8:17 AM  

I don't get the HEME hate, it was one of the first words I was confident in getting! I'm a science teacher though, so that probably helps.

Anonymous 8:17 AM  

Book. Not look.

Dr.A 8:18 AM  

Wow, all the HEME hate! That was a gimme for me, I was very grateful for HEME. We all have our knowledge base. But I didn’t know the NFL clue or the stew, or the Britany Spears song, or even Captain America’s name, so I probably had a much harder time with the rest of the puzzle.

Anonymous 8:22 AM  

It was fun! Enjoyable rebus-ish, haven't had to think about AC/DC since high school, but at 7:30 way too easy for a Thursday, which isn't on the constructor.

Anonymous 8:27 AM  

Stuck in the north: struggled with WIPEOUT (we don't have TV) and WARD, also had VEAL and have never heard of HMART living in rural heartland. Once that got sorted out, the rest was fairly easy.

Posts are fun as always and caused me to look up lusophone

Anonymous 8:31 AM  

That was exactly the solution I was thinking. Could’ve gone with Brazil if you wanted to make it easier, but Angola would’ve been perfect for a Thursday

RooMonster 8:44 AM  

Hey All !
Nice theme. Wondering why there were so many Blockers. Still, a high count, even if you take out the "BACK"s. There's 44 Blockers total, less three is 41.

No comment from Rex on the SW corner? CELL, BELL, YELL. Also, how many words over five letters besides the Themers? Granted, the BLACKed BACKs theoretically make the words longer, but I spy with my little eye only 6.

Not saying I didn't enjoy this one. It was fun to suss it out.

Had a puz skin to this rejected by Will. Seems Joel is more open to different things, maybe I'll dust off some old puzs and resubmit them. Heck, they're already made...

Anyway, hope y'all have a great Thursday!

Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV



Dan A 8:54 AM  

Make 28 down ENOS and 29 down NEW and the fix works

EasyEd 9:04 AM  

Agree HEME was a tough one to get, but what really hung me up was having somehow entered FaLL(BACK) in the grid instead of FULL(BACK). On rereading the acrosses to find my error it seemed so natural that I failed to catch it. Eventually started parsing the downs and found that I had DAaB instead of DAUB.

pabloinnh 9:13 AM  

Caught on right away with the SET/OUT/SEAT/PEDAL crossing. Way cool. Just a question of finding the other ones, which may have been fairly obvious, but made me say, in the words of the Homer Simpson sweatshirt, I am so SMRT.

Last in was WIPEOUT(?) X WARD X RENT. RENT had one of those double misdirect clues that finally dawned on me. TIL HEME , the name of a LEMUR, the name of a Britney Spears song, and that there is something called HMart. Good day for new stuff.

Nice to see "boozers" in a clue. Made me think of the song "Liverpool Lullaby"-

Ah you have your father's nose, so crimson in the dark it glows
If you're not asleep when the boozers close
You'll get a belt from your dad

Old song lyrics can come in handy.

Nice job, MF. Ingenious theme, excellent execution, and Much Fun to solve, for which thanks.


dash riprock 9:15 AM  
This comment has been removed by the author.
Niallhost 9:22 AM  

The perfect opportunity for a clue celebrating 50 years of Stevie Nicks, who's having a moment right now, and the constructor and editor MISSED IT. Lightning strikes - maybe once - maybe twice, fellas.

Anonymous 9:28 AM  

Doner is only ever spelled kebab. If the clue were Shish _____ then there would be ambiguity.

Whatsername 9:34 AM  

Easy – medium is a good way to describe my experience. Easy because I picked up the trick very quickly at SETBACK, and medium because I had trouble with names and would have preferred not so much trivia. Also easy when I found only three themers, but then a medium “wow” when I realized each one went four ways. And while I had no idea about the album/revealer, it was absolute perfection.

Thanks Matthew and congratulations on a superb debut.

Beezer 9:36 AM  

I’m not on the same level of those who found this puzzle “easy” and I really enjoyed sussing everything out. Since I tend to solve in a more relaxed manner, I don’t dart around looking for themers and revealers and just let it unfold so like @Pablo I had the eventual feeling of “I’m SMRT.” Who doesn’t want to feel that way?

And TODAY I LEARNED that HEME includes hemoglobin (what I “knew”) and the other “globins.” At the end I had tOOK for “captivate” so sadly I didn’t ace this puzzle but really enjoyed it.

One minor nit. The clue “uninhabited wilderness” added valuable (HA!) nanoseconds to my solve. Um, perhaps “sparsely inhabited” would’ve been a tad better?

Diane Joan 9:37 AM  

Overall I found it easy for a Thursday and enjoyed the puzzle immensely, especially the revealer. I got into trouble with the “BMWS” and “MENU” cross. I needed a lifeline because I couldn’t get a math type answer out of my mind. It was a good misdirect in spite of my difficulty. I guess I’m just a Honda gal, not sure about those sporty car models.
For all of you living in the drought areas, both east and west coasts, please take necessary precautions. The smoke smell is bad where I live in NJ and my heart goes out to anyone in the path of these fires.

Anonymous 9:38 AM  

You'll have to make that a New Year's resolution. Submissions are closed until early January.

Karl Grouch 9:42 AM  

@Rex
If you don't like HEME and you want MEME instead, the fix is easy without having to resort to MOOK:
MOCK & CUT(BACK).

Anonymous 9:51 AM  

Hemoglobin, very important for your health and welfare, so I can’t understand why that “H” would be an issue. The "E” on the end is what I needed to confirm. Hemoglobin is a word that gets tossed around a lot.

I feel like that clue got some unwarranted hate.

Adam S 10:00 AM  

Nice puzzle. Like Rex, I caught on to the missing backs early on, but figured it would be more fun to work my way down to the revealer and see if I could figure out what was happening. It baffles me why someone who regularly finds the puzzle too easy would choose to skip to the revealer - especially on Thursday.

Gary Jugert 10:09 AM  

De nuevo en negro.

I'm only realizing now, after 45 years of listening to the song, the phrase "back in black" doesn't mean anything. Why black? Back from where? Why should we care about your return? I've read the lyrics, lost 73 brain cells, and wail over the notion this has been an anthem in my life.

In Santa Fe each year they celebrate Las Posadas. You carry a candle around the plaza booing at the devils refusing to open their doors for Mary and Joseph, and then you finally make it in to the courtyard of the Palace of the Governors and eat cookies. I mostly remember it being freezing, but oddly satisfying to boo the bad people.

I've always supposed krypton to be a fake substance out to ruin Superman. I am only now learning it's a real thing used in lighting. I don't blame my 10th grade Chemistry teacher. He tried.

😫 HEME. H MART.

Propers: 5
Places: 2
Products: 5
Partials: 5
Foreignisms: 5
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 22 of 78 (28%)

Funnyisms: 4 🙂

Tee-Hee: LESS DRESS.

Uniclues:

1 Result of a Spanish nurse losing it.
2 Just grill it and don't be weird.
3 Bossy koalas in a Cadillac telling you what to do.
4 Humorous drink favorite in the Temple of Solitude.
5 Prom attire unmussed by the football team.
6 Nickname for clumsy feline.
7 Your skin.
8 Back in Black at 3/4 speed.
9 Ear-piercing wannabes.

1 LAS WARD SLAP
2 OMIT PINE KEBAB
3 OUTBACK BACK SEAT DRIVERS
4 KRYPTON ICE
5 FULLBACKLESS DRESS
6 WIPEOUT LION
7 DRACULA RIND
8 KICKBACK TRACK
9 LOBE JOB SEEKERS

My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Warning: This breakfast cereal will cause me to burst into song. TRIX ARIA AHEAD.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

jberg 10:25 AM  

Neat trick with a great revealer. I got an inkling of the trick with FULL, but it took me awhile to see that the same black square was BACK in all four directions, making for a very theme-dense grid. But there's a big anomaly: that square between BEECH and NEE. It's symmetrical counterpart is BACK, but it is not. True, it's a neighbor of the revealer; but I would prefer it to be BACK in the other three directions. There are also a bundh (8?) of lone back squares that are not playing the game--so in a really, truly ideal grid those squares would not be there. Tall ofder, I know.

I liked some of the fill, such as the BELLL/YELL corner, DEED/HEED furtrher apart, and the pair of trees in the mid-Atlantic region. HEME, not so much. Dictionary.com says it's a shortening of "hematin," which sounds a little informal to me; but it's pretty inferable.

But the clue for BMSS sends me up a wall. I've resigned myself to knowing the names of most auto manufacturers, but the model names of each car? That's a bit too much.

I'll finish (until I read you all) with a couple philosophical questions. First, what is "classic?" (See clues for EER and FIDO). These two examples aren't as bad as some (classic rap number, etc.) and at least FIDO is Latin, so it fits the original definition.

Second, if a word can be spelled in different ways, such as KEBAB and KEBoB and KABoB, does it count as a kealoa?

Anonymous 10:25 AM  

Medium for me. OUTBACK was my first thought for 18A but I only confirmed it after getting the revealer.

I can see an indie crossword (but definitely not the NYT) cluing BE ME as [Start of many 4chan "greentext" stories] (https://www.reddit.com/r/greentext/) but it would still be an inscrutable clue for many, many solvers. If you don't want MOOK or BE ME, maybe DEMO crossing DO OK and GOT [BACK] with LAG at 1A. And then you'd get the usual "what's a DOOK?" comment.

Nancy 10:28 AM  

Matthew sure gets a lot of mileage out of only three rebus squares, doesn't he?

I was w-a-a-y ahead of the game today as I saw the well-clued SETBACK immediately. What other answer can there be to "temporary defeat" after all? I first wondered whether SET would be written in upside down as TES -- but the very easy LAS and OMIT disabused me of that notion. so then I looked for a rebus square. And it would have to be black.

Black rebus squares don't faze me. My first puzzle -- the one that put me on the map, so to speak -- featured a single black rebus square. Now on to some of the other answers in the puzzle:

LESS DRESS is "red carpet attire"? Does that mean that nudity is the dressiest option of all?

I first had siNK for the precipitous drop in the stock market price. ALES forced me to change to sANK -- but the verb tense is wrong. How can that be? Oh, I SEE: it's TANK.

Lovely clues for BACKSEAT DRIVERS and JOBSEEKERS.

For those of us well-versed in rebuses, this puzzle was probably a piece of cake. For other solvers -- practice on this one; it's one of the easier you'll see. I enjoyed it -- and I applaud the theme density.

GILL I. 10:28 AM  

Well, yes....the theme showed its BACK head with the SEAT DRIVERS. Why was I thinking about Los Bravos and their song "Black is Black?"...Wrong ACDC.

Is HEME short for hemorrhoids? (I had to look up the spelling). It does sort of go with ANOS. I've never heard of HEME so I learned it's iron-rich. Let's see...where else did I pause.....Does anyone really name their dog FIDO? I had ASTA because, well, it does say classic.

No problems with the longies todays. AMITYVILLE just off the A from LAS. JOB SEEKERS just off the J from JAY. MANIC MACHETE was my last. Why would you have a MACHETE on your flag? My first MACHETE sighting was a young boy using one to open up a coconut that just fell out of a tree. He held the coconut with his hand and whacked away at it. I squirmed hoping he wouldn't whack his fingers off. Too many images floating in my head....

Now I shall take a BOW with Tim TEBOW and hope that incoming Secretary of Homeland Security, Noem, doesn't use a MACHETE on FIDO. The SPCA is looking at you!

Newboy 10:48 AM  

Fun and fast makes me smile every time. Also enjoyed the Tebow link that lead me into a Rex & Rachel video solve from the pandemic era….there are so many great ways of wasting time generated by almost any grid. HEME was a gimme for me after a couple decades volunteering at our local blood bank.

Well done Matthew Faiella. A debut that introduced three BACKs is especially impressive!

egsforbreakfast 10:49 AM  

Didn't the Clown-Car-Driver-in-Chief say that Kamala was Indian last time she ran but now is BACKINBLACK? Or something like that.

@Gary Jugert. Superman had a severe allergy to Kryptonite, not KRYPTON.

The NE corner was easy as I had just added to today's to-do list: SLAP TOFU KEBAB together. The list for today is very long already. I designate them alphabetically, starting with "A" (duh). This latest task was so far down the list that I think it was at TORSO.

If you're the male offspring of a smooth-barked shade tree, what does that make you?

I agree that this was awfully easy to suss out on the first "BACK" square, but still a very admirable and fun debut. Congrats and thanks, Matthew Faiella.

Tom T 10:57 AM  

Much more positive feelings about this puzzle than most others seemed to feel today. Perhaps I'm just happy to have become a first-time grand dad yesterday. Welcome, little Phoebe!

Anonymous 11:07 AM  

Am I missing something? The fabulous Amy Winehouse’s Back TO Black is in the blog post, not Back IN Black, AC/DC.

Nancy 11:12 AM  

A MACHETE on FIDO. Hahaha. Good one, !GILL!!

Anonymous 11:13 AM  

How is “care” a clue for “ward”? (4 across)

Anonymous 11:14 AM  

Nope you seem to be up to speed

Nancy 11:22 AM  

I was just straightened out on the Wordplay Blog. It's BACKLESS DRESS for the red carpet attire!! What a dummy I am!!!!!

JJK 11:24 AM  

I agree, weird.

JJK 11:27 AM  

I liked this a lot. Pretty easy to get the theme, even without knowing the song right away, but still a nice aha moment when I did.

HEME is ok with me - HEMoglobin, the iron-carrying cell in your blood. High school biology.

Toby the boring one 11:32 AM  

Loved this puzzle today. And thanks Rex for bringing up Social D!!!

jb129 11:44 AM  

I didn't hate it as much I usually hate rebuses - it was kinda cute, Matthew - thank you :)
Besides would I pan a constructor's debut (??)
Congratulations, Matthew :)

Liveprof 12:20 PM  

Wonderful! My friend Hank (who had quite a few) used to say Grandchildren is one thing that isn't overrated. I concur.

Anonymous 12:26 PM  

well, if you know the story of Vikki Dougan, you know it's a BACKless gown. "Cut so low in back that it revealed a new cleavage! Well, I was ecstatic!"

BlueStater 12:33 PM  

I think this was the first Thursday I've finished since the gimmickry began years ago. Of course I didn't get the whole gimmick; I merely figured out that BACK was missing from a lot of the answers. Yay!

jae 12:34 PM  

Medium for me. I caught the theme early but it still took some effort to parse the theme answers.

I did not know LAS,TORSO, KRYPTON, and ASIAN and I had a malapop when I tried TRACK where PEDAL was supposed to go.

Fun theme with almost no junk, liked it.

okanaganer 12:36 PM  

I was much slower than Rex and most of you to get the theme. Once I did I was happy; up to Thursday standards! Rex, I see in your screenshot the word BLACK (in white!)... was that a feature in the app or did you Photoshop that in?

I really don't get the HEME hate. It didn't faze me at all.

I've never heard of H Mart; I thought maybe there was a typo in the clue, and the majority of products at K Mart were CHEAP!

Funny typeover: for "Feature of many an aged cheese" I had REEK. And for "Bit of Halloween decor" I wondered: do people really put out a SKUNK?

Anonymous 12:45 PM  

@anon 11:07am no, you aren't missing anything. rex's posts always involve the places his brain goes when he hears things, and aren't usually illustrative of the puzzle in a literal sense. :) [see also: boris vian, and american gladiators, for two.]

-stephanie.

Anonymous 12:47 PM  

as a ward of the state, the state takes care of you. mostly a Brit thing, in my experience

Anonymous 12:54 PM  

Is “Care” interchangeable with “Ward”? Maybe technically, but not IRL usage. Better cluing would help.
“One who cares,” for example.

Gene 1:01 PM  

Another example of Rex's provincialism regarding his particular field of expertise. HEME is a well known molecule to those who are more science oriented.

Anonymous 1:10 PM  

Hemoglobin is a protein not a cell…whereas hemes and heme groups, are component molecules of hemoglobin. Red blood cells (erythrocytes) contain hemoglobin.

Anonymous 1:11 PM  

i liked the puzzle. HEME is fine. i was glad to learn about torso of adele. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torso_of_Adele

Gary Jugert 1:34 PM  

@egsforbreakfast 10:49 AM
Ohhhhhhh. Does Kryptonite have Krypton in it? Or is it an pseudo-ite?

Anonymous 1:39 PM  

A 1 and 1/2 12oz can of Budweiser solve, easy medium puzzle

Teedmn 1:41 PM  

HEME is common enough in crosswords that I threw it in off the M of AMITYVILLE. But HOO_ for "captivate" and _ARD for "care" (4A) had me looking for crosses, and in the case of 4A, running the alphabet because I had no idea on the game show and had VEAl instead of VEAU keeping me from WIPEOUT. But I fixed all of that.

I tried to whiP together something quickly but that's more often used in "whip out"; SLAP together is definitely the correct phrase.

Fun BACK IN BLACK rebus, thanks Matthew Faiella!

Whatsername 2:02 PM  

Ah yes, your memorable debut. Still one of my all-time favorites.

Anonymous 2:06 PM  

Absolutely loved today’s puzzle. Conquered it with the help of a few Thursday gnt’s. Superb work crossword setter, you have made thousands of people very happy today

SharonAK 2:07 PM  

@ Anon 6:27 am Thanks for the laugh.
6D was the clue that got a big smile from me. And I caught on quickly. In fact , I think it was the only way I got to "ward" for "care"( which seems a bit of a stretch). I had two "backs" hanging out for quite a while, trying to figure out where they belonged before I caught on to the pattern. Then it was fun finding the rest.
Never heard of the album, so the revealer did not zing for me. My reaction was more: "oh, that's the theme."
Also not familiar with "fullback" so I had "fallback",( sort of wondering what position that could be) and didn't notice that daab wasn't a word. Ah well, it was fun doing the puzzle.

Anonymous 2:09 PM  

People not knowing HMart and Wipeout just remind me that we are all experiencing very different Americas haha. Wipeout was THE king of network television at the time it was airing, as everyone would talk about it. And where I live, there are more HMarts in a 30 mile radius than Walmarts

Anoa Bob 2:27 PM  

Don't have a subscription to xwordinfo.com these days so can't find the definitive answer but the earliest date I could otherwise find for ANO (Spanish for "anus") being clued as "year" in the NYTXW was 1997. So today's ANOS for "Years, in Uruguay" is nothing new. I think the tee-hee, snicker snicker winner in this vein was when the NYTXW clued ANO as "Julio is in it."

Anonymous 2:27 PM  

If you don’t understand the language, don’t make a crossword puzzle. Sometimes I think thery don’t actually edit any of these garbage grids.

dash riprock 2:59 PM  
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anoa Bob 3:09 PM  

I should know better but I thought BACK IN BLACK was the Rolling Stones "Hit rock album of 1980...". Wrong buffalo breath. I was misremembering "Paint It Black" from the Stones' 1966 album "Aftermath".

Another example of Spanglish is 45D "Dirección from Cancún to Cuba" for ESTE.

I knew something was up when there were only three letter slots for 3D "Temporary defeat" and 18A "Uninhabited wilderness". So I was primed for sussing out the BLACK in the black squares. Nice example of a verbus* puzzle.

*From the Latin for "with or by way of words". Not sure why anyone would want to call this a rebus puzzle since that is Latin for "with or by way of things".

ChrisS 3:22 PM  

Rex mentions Michelle Zauner's book but no link to her band Japenes Breakfast? I will remedy that https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZfcZEIo6Bw

JJK 3:48 PM  

Oh right, thanks for the explanation - guess I’m a bit fuzzy on my high school bio after all.

Anonymous 4:15 PM  

Why are we calling tildes assholes? Sorry, I'm missing the joke.

Nancy 4:51 PM  

Just the opposite, I'd say. "One who's cared FOR."

M and A 5:40 PM  

Puztheme seemed ok. After fartin around unsuccessfully in the NW for a few extra nanoseconds, M&A quickly dived down to solve the revealer. Then things all started to click.

Only big complaint: WIPEOUT needs a surfin clue.

staff weeject pick: OBE. Joins the M&A no-know club today, along with: HEME. VEAU.
fave stuff included: AMITYVILLE. KRYPTON. DRACULA [in BLACK]. RENT clue.

Thanx for the fun, Mr. Faiella dude. Nice debut ... congratz.

Masked & Anonymo6Us

not spam. spamanot. just a runtpuzzlin dessert:
**gruntz**

Anonymous 6:54 PM  

Thought this one was easy.
I was lucky. Lots of gimmes which even Rex found hard. I just happen to know that medical words about blood start with hem- (Greek) then remembered heme which I probably saw in the Times Science section. I broke the theme, and the puzzle open. As I said lucky
I still think Rex overreacted to heme , just because he didn’t know i
dgd

Ukulele Ike 8:41 PM  

Oh geez, Rex, don’t take MOOK away from me. “Mook” and “mope” are my very favorite not-too-offensive pejoratives.

Mickey Bell 9:05 PM  

👎

Anonymous 10:47 PM  

Don’t know if this bothered anyone else but TOXIC came out in 2003 not 2004. It might have had a lot of success in 2004 but I don’t know if that justifies it being clued as 2004 when it was released in 2003

David Stone 12:55 AM  

Exactly! I came here to say the same

mrproof 4:22 AM  

ENOS crossing (BACK)BONE would work nicely

Unknown 8:39 AM  

Imagine going through life not knowing the greatest hard rock album ever made, smdh

Anonymous 5:39 PM  

Rex, you're such a grinch! Loved this puzzle and found it delightful. Thank you, Matthew Faiella -- what a lovely debut!

Anonymous 1:18 AM  

THANK YOU!!! Danke schön!

Anonymous 1:33 AM  

Kryptonite is #36 on the periodic table - group 18 known as the noble gases, which don’t bond with other atoms or molecules. However, Krypton, being in period 4 has the benefit of 3-d orbitals (d is an orbital type - it doesn’t stand for dimensional) which allows krypton to form an expanded octet and bond with some atoms to form molecules. Xenon (right underneath krypton on the periodic table) does the same. Radon probably would too if it weren’t radioactive. And no one has produced enough oganessian to know its properties. (Yes, I know you were trying to make a joke.)
This was actually the easiest part of the puzzle. The only thing that annoyed me is having to write heme for hemoglobin.

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