Czech lager, informally / TUE 12-10-24 / T-shaped contraceptive, for short / Rich liquid added to curries / Period of accountability since 2017 / Fitness discipline for thousands of years / Dramatic cry in paintball / Mythical lamp dweller / Doha dignitary / "No can do, lassie!"

Constructor: Brian Callahan and Geoffrey Schorkopf

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: MAKE-UP ARTISTS (14D: Some movie set workers ... or what you do when filling in the shaded squares?) — shaded squares are artist names turned "up" (i.e. they run backward inside Down theme answers), so when you fill them in, you "make" "artists" ... "up":

Theme answers:

• HATHA YOGA (33D: Fitness discipline for thousands of years) (Francisco GOYA)

• COCONUT MILK (5D: Rich liquid added to curries) (Gustav KLIMT)

• MIRROR IMAGE (24D: Reflection) (Joan MIRÓ)

• HEEL KICKS (10D: Taekwondo moves done with an outstretched leg) (Paul KLEE)

Word of the Day: HATHA YOGA (33D: Fitness discipline for thousands of years) —

Hatha yoga (/ˈhʌtə, ˈhɑːtə/; IAST: Haṭha-yoga) is a branch of yoga that uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel vital force or energy. The Sanskrit word हठ haṭha literally means "force", alluding to a system of physical techniques. Some hatha yoga style techniques can be traced back at least to the 1st-century CE, in texts such as the Hindu Sanskrit epics and Buddhism's Pali canon. The oldest dated text so far found to describe hatha yoga, the 11th-century Amṛtasiddhi, comes from a tantric Buddhist milieu. The oldest texts to use the terminology of hatha are also Vajrayana Buddhist. Hindu hatha yoga texts appear from the 11th century onward. [...] In the 20th century, a development of hatha yoga focusing particularly on asanas (the physical postures) became popular throughout the world as a form of physical exercise. This modern form of yoga is now widely known simply as "yoga". [...] In Western culture, Haṭha yoga is typically understood as exercise using asanas and it can be practiced as such. In the Indian and Tibetan traditions, Haṭha yoga integrates ideas of ethics, diet, cleansing, pranayama (breathing exercises), meditation and a system for spiritual development of the yogi. (wikipedia)

• • •

OK, I know I often say "quick write-up today" and then do a regular-sized write-up because apparently muscle memory and the strength of pure habit will not be denied, but today, Today it really will be short(ish), as I have a very (ridiculously) early final exam to give. I literally apologized to my students for the 8am start time ("I did not choose this time, it was randomly assigned to me, I'm so sorry"). I mean, the class itself usually starts at 8:30am, so it's not such a stretch for them to be up that early, but during Finals week ... they really should let students sleep and not start any exams til 9am at the earliest. But I digress. See, I digress, and then the write-up gets longer, and all of a sudden poof, it's a regular-sized write-up, and my best-laid plans for shortness lie in ruins. 

Moving on: the puzzle! Back-to-back days of clever concepts and solid fill. You love to see it! The revealer here requires a little creative syntactical and grammatical maneuvering ("make artists (go) up"), but by the Power of Greyskull, I mean Wordplay, I think it works just fine. Those are all artists (specifically painters) and their names all go "up" inside those shaded squares. Moreover, as an elegant bonus, those shaded squares touch every element in their respective themers, i.e. they bridge the two words (or word parts). Often in these "buried word" themes, you get theme answers that have these extraneous words that don't involve the "buried word" at all. Like if you were hiding "PRO"s and "CON"s in your answers and one of the answers was COCONUT MILK ... you see how "MILK" is just left hanging there? No involvement with the hidden word? That's just sad. You gotta bring all the theme-answer words into the mix, as this puzzle does. Hidden words should bridge *all* the words in their themers. This is my (often disregarded) rule! (handed down to me by the great Patrick Berry, as he was rejecting / offering feedback on one of my early constructing efforts). The theme answers themselves are also vivid and interesting, not just vehicles for reversed artist names. And the fill is rock solid. A fine effort overall.

I encountered almost no resistance today. I can't tell if that's because the puzzle is simply inherently easy, or if I just got really lucky with my first guesses—the solving equivalent of hitting all the green lights. I was careening along unimpeded, first guess after first guess going right in, thinking "how am I doing this? I feel like the wheels are gonna come off here any second." But with one exception, the wheels stayed firmly attached. The one exception actually came early, and my slowing down was due to a brain glitch on my part rather than the inherent difficulty of the puzzle. I couldn't get the second part of COCONUT ___ (!?!?!). Something about "Rich liquid" ... I dunno. Even with the assist from "added to curries," nothing was happening. Started before I had COCONUT, actually. I initially thought the liquid involved COCOA ... yeah, no idea what happened there. Weird how my brain can just fly through much tougher stuff but then spin out on obvious stuff like this. The MILK part crossed SWARM, which crossed MWAH, which crossed AHH, and all of those answers were, to varying degrees, a problem. AHH and AAH always both seem valid (44A: "That hits the spot!"). "MWAH!" feels one level of meaning removed from [You're gorgeous darling!]—sufficiently adjacent, but not a perfect fit—and SWARM, well, I don't feel bad about struggling there: that's the hardest clue in the puzzle (36A: Fly ball?) (because a SWARM = a "ball" of "flies" (or bees or gnats or what have you)). Do you see how this write-up is already approaching regular length? Do you? Moving on to "Bullet Points" now, and then Holiday Pet Pics (yay!) and then I'm out.

Bullets:

• 14A: Period of accountability since 2017 (#METOO ERA) — are we still in this era? Are people being held accountable? The incoming administration (really really) suggests otherwise. Not that this isn't a good crossword answer. It's original, current, lively, etc. Just ... has me thinking about what "accountability" means.
• 21A: Do some modeling for a figure drawing class (POSE NUDE) — another great longer answer. I misread the clue at first as [Do some yodeling for a figure drawing class] and thought about what the class's reaction might be. "Uh huh ... that's ... nice ... can you just stand still? Thanks."

• 37A: Ben Solo's father in "Star Wars" (HAN) — HAN was not a father in "Star Wars"—that's some later "Star Wars" universe stuff (yes, I resolutely refuse to recognize any movie as "Star Wars" besides Star Wars (1977), which was never ever called "A New Hope" among people who saw it seven times in the theater (guilty)—that "Chapter IV: A New Hope" crap is never gonna fly with me.). If the clue had read "in the 'Star Wars' universe," I'd have had no beef with it.
• 33D: Fitness discipline for thousands of years (HATHA YOGA) — The "Fitness" angle is very modern and western, very asana-based. For "thousands of years" it was primarily a spiritual practice. See "Word of the Day," above.
• 50D: "No can do, lassie!" ("NAE!") — this made me laugh, mainly because it made me imagine Groundskeeper Willie covering Hall & Oates:

• 56D: Czech lager, informally (PILS) — oh we're doing this again, are we? It's only been eleven days. Well, at least I was prepared.

OK, time for a quick round of Holiday Pet Pics!

First, we have the "patiently enduring your holiday tyranny" variety of picture. I mean, look at poor Sally here. Come on. She can't fly or pull a sled, but she deserves at least six treats.

[Thanks, Hilary]

Churro and Juno do not know this man. Release them from his white-gloved captivity and give them treats!

[Thanks, Dave]

And Creature ... well, Creature is going to make you pay for this. You can see it in her eyes. "You better sleep with one eye open tonight, lady."

[Thanks, Stephanie]

Next we have the "I said *holiday* pics" category, where people send pics that are "holiday" only by a certain stretch of the imagination. I mean, just because Sabrina the Greyhound has sour cream on her nose from leftover Thanksgiving dinner does not make this a "Holiday" picture (though any chance to consume sour cream is a "holiday" for a dog, so I'll allow it)

[Thanks, Graeme] 

And hey, MisterBuddy and Bird, I see what you're doing here and I'm not buying it. This is fraud. No treats for you! ... OK, I'm sorry, you're adorable, sixteen treats each!

[Thanks, Liz]

And finally ... I'd love to show you a picture of Nico and Diego, but their epic holiday shenanigans cannot be contained in just one photo, so I give you a suite of photos entitled "Nico and Diego Save Christmas, Then Get Sleepy"

Enjoy the rest of your day. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]