Shifty little sucker? / SAT 12-21-24 / Austrian composer Mahler / X follower, perhaps / Black-and-white divers / Pen for a hit / Bed hogs, at times / Woodpecker fare / Jhené ___, Grammy-nominated R&B singer / Character who says "I am short, fat and proud of that" / Last ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom, familiarly / Star-forming region nearest to Earth / Noisy Asian bird / Short palindrome in the middle of a famous longer one

Constructor: Barbara Lin and Lewis Rothlein

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (Challenging for me, but I made some ridiculous, sleepy decisions)

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: SALT Treaty (23D: SALT, but not PEPPER = NUCLEAR PACT) —

The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) were two rounds of bilateral conferences and corresponding international treaties involving the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold War superpowers dealt with arms control in two rounds of talks and agreements: SALT I and SALT II.

Negotiations commenced in Helsinki, in November 1969. SALT I led to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and an interim agreement between the two countries.

Although SALT II resulted in an agreement in 1979 in Vienna, the US Senate chose not to ratify the treaty in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which took place later that year. The Supreme Soviet did not ratify it either. The agreement expired on December 31, 1985, and was not renewed, although both sides continued to respect it.

The talks led to the STARTs, or Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties, which consisted of START I, a 1991 completed agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union, and START II, a 1993 agreement between the United States and Russia which never entered into effect, both of which proposed limits on multiple-warhead capacities and other restrictions on each side's number of nuclear weapons. A successor to START I, New START, was proposed and was eventually ratified in February 2011. (wikipedia)

• • •

I'm out of practice. The puzzles have run so easy of late that I don't have much recent experience of struggling with a hard one, and today's, yeesh, just couldn't get a grip. From start to (especially) finish. In retrospect, I see all kinds of ways that I *should" have been able to navigate through the grid more easily. If, for instance, I'd looked at all the long Across clues in the NW instead of resolutely focusing on the short Downs, I'd've seen 17A: The "King of Mambo" (TITO PUENTE), which would've been a gimme for me. I probably could've gotten OPERA HOUSE too if I'd just looked at the damn clue, sigh (15A: Madrid's Teatro Real, for one). No idea why the only long Across I even looked at up there (before abandoning it) was 1A: Shifty little sucker? Weird. I solve just after waking, around 4am, and I think my brain just wasn't warm enough for this one. You can see how long it took me to get traction, here:

And as you can see, there are errors. CAV for NET (the NETs were in the finals? Twice?), ANNA for ALMA (???). You can see I just don't know the Names in this puzzle. My response to the clue about The Hate U Give was "I thought that was written by a woman" (40A: "The Hate U Give" author Thomas). LOL, pfft. Yes, dummy, it was. "Thomas" is the last name. The AIKO singer, absolutely no clue (26D: Jhené ___, Grammy-nominated R&B singer). A LOGAN that's not an airport? No clue. But I did know TITO PUENTE and Rooney MARA and REBA, of course, so not all names were poison. Still, those names I didn't know were real barriers. The hardest part for me was the end, the SE, where I had BON- and ITC- and a very tentative DEEP-SEATED (I always wonder if it's actually DEEP-SEEDED), and then .... nothing. Couldn't think of much of anything starting BON-. Wanted IT COULDN'T HURT, but that wouldn't fit, and somehow my brain never entertained the shorter CAN'T. Doesn't sound natural in my mouth, though it makes perfect sense. So Acrosses were a no-go. And coming at that section from above ... nope, couldn't do that either. I thought the vineyard eponym was gonna be a wine producer, I couldn't fathom what [Form letters?] was, I was expecting something much less straightforward at 48D: Blue laws, e.g., so I was very stuck. Even the "famous" palindrome threw me, as I thought "Madam, I'm Adam" might be part of a longer biblical palindrome (???) and so wrote in EVE instead of ERE (from "Able was I ERE I saw Elba"). I still don't really get how ETD is a "Track stat."  Oh, train track. Yikes. Anyway, I had to run the alphabet for the first letter of [Woodpecker fare] (three letters ending "P") ... and when I got to "S" I saw SAP, and that made me see BONSAI TREE (51A: It's a little shady), and that was all I needed. Grueling for me. 

The grid looks fine. The only time I was actually enjoying myself was somewhere in the middle, when I got RUN INTERFERENCE and LOWER FORTY-EIGHT (a lovely center cross) (34A: Alabama is in it, but Alaska is not). The corners are very solid, and I especially like BLOW A GASKET. Didn't love the cutesy clue on BENDY STRAW, as I don't think "shifty" is a word anyone would ever apply to a straw, and I don't think of straws as "little," either (compared to what?). Still, BENDY STRAW is a fine answer. There's really no longer answer that feels forced or awkward, or even particularly dull or lifeless, and that's a pretty good accomplishment.

Help!:

• 1D: X follower, perhaps (BOT) — of all the things "X" can be, one of those things is a decaying social media site where, famously, many users are actually BOTs. This clue took me a while to understand, even after I got it, so if you didn't get it right away, you're in good company. Well, you're in my company, at any rate.
• 19A: No longer waffle (OPT) — even something as simple as this was actually tough in its ambiguity. I ended up in an unexpected kealoa* situation—ACT worked just as well. Better, I thought. "ACT now!" "It's time to ACT!" Replace either of those with OPT and you sound absurd. 
• 28A: Lines in bars (URLS) — after the "X" ambiguity and the OPT/ACT ambiguity, we get even more ambiguity here. What kind of "bars?" What kind of "lines?" Who can say. I had UPCS in here for a bit.

• 23A: À la king? (NOBLY) — more ambiguity. I was trying to decide between REGAL and ROYAL. The phrase "À la king" is used adjectivally on menus ... it's technically a prepositional phrase. Did not see adverb coming. Also didn't see generic "noble" coming with specific "king" in clue. 
• 38A: Stake (FUND) — grimace-y face, I am making one. Is this a noun or verb situation? I guess this is def. 3c of "Stake" ("an interest or share in an undertaking or enterprise"), but I'm not certain who these two words swap out for one another.
• 47A: "And the ___ raths outgrabe" ("Jabberwocky" line) (MOME) — words can't express how much I resent having to know the non-words from this damn poem. After "slithy TOVES," I got nothing. There's gotta be a way to get MOME out of this grid.
• 58A: What some people display after getting stuck? (TATS) — an awkward, ungainly clue, the awkwardness and ungainliness undermining its intended humor. I had T-TS here and ... yeah ... I thought exactly what you're thinking ... I was like "wow, I guess that's one way to get help." 
• 5D: Like a noisy toy (YAPPY) — only just now realizing the "toy" is a type of dog and not an actual child's plaything. Brutal clue (I think I wanted AROAR at one point (???)).
• 10D: Bed hogs, at times (WEEDS) — more brutality. Very Saturday, this one.
• 27D: Japanese food that's a good source of what it spells backward (NORI) — one of my few successes today. Got this with no crosses, and got it early on, so it really helped.
• 35A: Pen for a hit (E-CIG) — I couldn't make any grammatical sense of this clue. So it's a vape "pen" that you take a "hit" from? The world of vaping is terra incognita to me. I smoked actual cigarettes for two years in my youth and then stopped and that is not entirely but pretty much my entire experience of smoking.

That's it for the puzzle. More Holiday Pet Pics now!

Here's Mickey, who agrees that the Chiefs are looking pretty good again this year, but would rather you put the ornament on the tree ... please. 

[Thanks, Jack]

Little Kiddle says "there's nothing 'Holiday' about this picture, you're not really going to sen- ... oh, you are? Huh, OK." You'r'e very pretty, LK. Maybe next year you'll get a little red bow or something. 

[Thanks, Lesley]

Penny here could kinda pass for a flying reindeer, so ... sure, it's a 'Holiday' pic, whatever

[Thanks, Anne]

Snowflake has been into the catnip and is having a holiday visionary experience. "The angels are all around us, man ... can't you see them ... glowing in their multitudes ..." Sure, Snowflake. We all see them. You just get some rest.

[Thanks, Amy]

Foxglove would prefer not to

Foxglove's canine sister Maggie, however, embraces the season wholeheartedly. Here she is engaging in her favorite winter sport: snoozing on a blanket (RIP, sweet burrito) 

[Thanks, Anthony]

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]