THEME: C-SUITE (47D: Top execs, colloquially ... or what 20-, 28-, 39- and 59-Across are, phonetically?) — two-word "sweets" where both words start with "C":
Theme answers:
CHOCOLATE COIN (20A: Classic Hanukkah treat)
CUPCAKE (28A: Classic classroom party treat)
CANDY CORN (39A: Classic Halloween treat)
CHRISTMAS COOKIE (59A: Classic Yuletide treat)
Word of the Day: Shawn KEMP (23D: Former N.B.A. star Shawn with the nickname "Reign Man") —
This puzzle is very well made. I just found it dull. The themer set is dull. Somehow those "sweets" are just putting me to sleep this morning. The revealer is clever, for sure, but it's also one of those business-speak phrases that I wouldn't care if I never heard again. So ... structurally, I can see that this puzzle is very sound, but aesthetically, it's just not my thing. Not the theme, anyway. The fill is actually better than average today—with the exception of that upper-middle section, with its always-unwelcome playground retort and its extremely intrusive French legal phrase (7D: With all judges present). I've had to endure BANC many times, but with BANC alone, you at least have a little flexibility. BANC just means "bench" in French, so you could get a little more creative with it. [Fixture in un parc] has been used. [French bench] seems to be a favorite. But EN BANC really locks you in to legalese, and today's clue doesn't even clue you in to the French of it all. But that EN BANC section is the only real weak spot. I guess NCIS/NCO isn't a terribly pleasant way to open, but elsewhere, things get smoother. I actually said "nice" out loud as I finished off the ALL IN FUN / VIGNETTE corner—really good work through there. And most everywhere else is clean. I appreciate that. I just wish I'd found the whole concept more exciting. I did appreciate the puzzle throwing that bonus themer at us, though—I'm not really sure what a CAT CHAIRis (is it sweet?), but I want one for my cats now. Actually, scratch that. They have plenty of chairs. All the chairs in this house are CAT CHAIRs. Hell, every rectangular-shaped surface in the house is a CAT CHAIR. This crossword puzzle was on the counter for all of ten seconds before it became ... CAT CHAIR!
[Ida says "hi"]
At first I thought this puzzle was holiday-themed, but then CANDY CORN came along and made the needle on the record scratch (that's the cliché sound effect that played in my head, at any rate). True, Halloween is a holiday, but not a seasonally appropriate one. And classroom party CUP CAKEs have nothing to do with holidays at all. But holidays aren't important to the way the theme works, and anyway, it's half holiday-themed, so that's something. Not aggressively jolly, but semi-jolly. No real difficulty today. The cluing was part of what made the puzzle feel dull. Really flat and straightforward across the board. You've got that lone "?" clue that's at least trying to liven things up (37D: Big Apple org. that's going to blazes? = FDNY). And I really like the artistic approach to TINE (35D: One of three on the pitchfork in "American Gothic"). See, that gives my brain something to do. It's creative, and highly specific, while still being gettable if you've somehow never seen and therefore can't picture American Gothic. I mean, what other countable thing is likely to be part of a pitchfork? Clues don't have to be hard to be entertaining. I wish more of these clues understood that.
My only MISHAPs today were SLY before SUS (50D: Not on the up and up, slangily), and ... that's it? I think that's it. I had a weird moment of hesitation writing in the "C" in SCOW, thinking "didn't we just have this word? And wasn't it spelled with a 'K'?" The answers are "no" and "no." We had SKIFF recently. I searched my blog for SKOW and the only thing I discovered was that over the nearly twenty-year life of this blog, I have repeatedly (four times!) made the SKOW-for-SCOW mistake. And talked about it. I assume SKIFF is the word I'm thinking of every time I opt for SKOW. If I were Word Dictator, I would change SCOW to SKOW today. Right now. Actually, a real dictator would be sure to slap his name on it. "SKOW brought to you by Rex Parker." "The Rex Parker Center for SKOW Studies." It would be the greatest center. They're already saying it's the greatest center they've ever seen. Incredible.
Bullets:
12D: Short version of an impactful story (VIGNETTE) — love VIGNETTE, but hate this clue, and hate the word "impactful" with the white heat of my entire soul. Whatever you think you're saying, I guarantee you there's another, better word that you could use. Unless you are specifically talking about meteor literally striking earth, no. Merriam-Webster is right that "hating a word doesn't make it less real," but the fact that they decided to say that specifically about "impactful" tells you that the word sucks and you should stop using it. It's ugly jargon. Yes, it's real, people use it, but we don't have to encourage them. Sometimes descriptivism goes too far. Some "shoulds" and "shouldnts" are good. They give us a society worth living in. Anyway, I don't think "impactful" is even relevant to this clue. Surely there are lots of VIGNETTEs out there that are dull as paste and leave no particular impact at all.
30D: Character played by Bruce Lee on "The Green Hornet" (KATO) — nearly spelled it KETO, but that's the diet. Did KATO do KETO? Almost certainly not. Bruce Lee doesn't seem like a fad diet kind of guy. Although ... "Lee avoided baked goods and refined flour, describing them as providing empty calories that did nothing for his body" (wikipedia). But that's a long way from the anti-carb / high-fat extremism of the KETO diet (which started as an epilepsy treatment and then ... drifted).
23D: Former N.B.A. star Shawn with the nickname "Reign Man" (KEMP) — the one bit of trivia that might throw people today. I know KEMP well because not only was he a star back when I played close attention to professional sports, but he also shares my birthday. Not just the date—the exact day. I know a number of famous people who share my birthday (Charles Schulz, Tina Turner), but Shawn KEMP is the only famous person I know who was born on precisely the same day. "Reign Man" is a weird nickname. Did the people who named him not see Rain Man? I get it, he rules ("reigns"). And he played in Seattle ("rain rain rain rain"). But still.
Time for 🌲🐈Holiday Pet Pics🐕🌲! Note: PLEASE DO NOT SEND ME ANY MORE PET PICS, I'M ALL FULL UP FOR THIS YEAR, thank you.
Remy paws a paw-print ornament. Adorable high-five, or prelude to destruction? The best thing about cats is who the hell knows, could go either way.
[Thanks, Olivia!]
Oliver says "oh so I'm a jester now? Because I'm short? You think I am funny? Do I amuse you?" You better give him a treat real soon.
[Thanks, Dennis!]
Milo just wants to be a good boy. "Am I good now? Is it over? When is this over?"
[Thanks, Elissa!]
Here's our first meta-holiday pet pic—Clementine reenacting a cat picture I posted earlier in the month (12/4)
[Thanks for the weirdness, Richard and Karen!]
Here's the 12/4 picture for comparison:
Grady's fine here, thanks. Nope doesn't need anything. These accommodations are perfect. He'll be down for dinner. OK, you can go now.
[Thanks, Joanne!]
Finally, a holiday message from Molly and Tidbit: "What are you lookin' at? You didn't see nothin', move along ... oh, yeah, and like the sign says, Merry Christmas. Now beat it."
[Thanks, Aane and Mary!]
See you next time.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd] ============================= ❤️ Support this blog ❤️:
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (for a Monday, solved Downs-only)
THEME: SHORT CHANGE (59A: Cheat ... or a punny hint to the four sets of circled letters) — circled letters spell out various U.S. coins ("change") lacking their last letters ("short"):
Theme answers:
JAZZ QUARTET (17A: Saxophone, trumpet, piano and bass, perhaps)
JEDI MASTERS (25A: Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi, for two)
OPEN NOTES (35A: Some exams allow them)
PERSNICKETY (52A: Overly fussy)
Word of the Day: MOZILLA (3D: Creator of Firefox and Thunderbird) —
Mozilla is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. The Mozilla community uses, develops, publishes, and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting free software and open standards. The community is supported institutionally by the non-profitMozilla Foundation and its tax-paying subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation.
Phew. I knew this was going to be a tough Downs-only solve because of all the 7-letter Downs. Four banks of three 7-letter Downs. That's twelve 7-letter Downs. That's a lot of 7-letter Downs. Way more than you typically see on a Monday. If you're solving Downs-only, you (I) really rely on short stuff to get traction, and those corners just make traction hard to come by. Generally, the longer the answer gets, the less likely it is that you'll be able to get it with no crosses in place. So those corners felt like minefields. But I managed to maneuver my way through them by getting some of the 7s at first guess, and then relying on inferred Acrosses to help me bring down the others. My proudest moment was throwing down CAJOLES with absolutely no help from crosses (1D: Persuades with flattery). First answer I thought of. I liked where it put the "J" (at the beginning of a long themer, where a "J" would be apt to appear), so I kept it there, and woo hoo, it panned out. Couldn't come up with MOZILLA at first, but got it once I was able to infer the JAZZ part of JAZZ QUARTET, which gave me the "Z" I needed to jog MOZILLA loose from my memory bank (3D: Creator of Firefox and Thunderbird). And that's how the corners went, largely—I'd be pretty sure of two of the 7-letter Downs and then hack my way through the crosses to get the third. Couldn't see GLOSSES right away (13D: Shiny coatings). Had AROUSES (?!) before AWAKENS (I think I probably wanted ROUSES and then just ... improvised). Wanted POP FOUL in the SW, but wasn't as sure of that as I was of the others down there. It's possible that this puzzle felt scarier (from a Downs-only perspective) than it ended up being. I did finish with an error—a pretty dumb one. I was staring at -E-TLY for 49D: With a light touch, and the word I came up with was DEFTLY (which gave me DAS and AFI for crosses). AFI did feel pretty unMondayish, but it's an abbr. I've seen (short for American Film Institute), so I went for it. My last answer. When I didn't get the "Congratulations" message, I went "bah!," pulled the "D" and "F" from DEFTLY and went back to thinking. Some number of seconds later, GENTLY went in, and that was that.
I don't love the idea of circled squares that contain, essentially, gibberish, but it's a meaningful gibberish, in the end. Non-gibberish cut short. So it's not so irksome. And it really helped me today. That is, knowing the theme did. I know I botched the GENTLY, but I wouldn't have been able to make anything out of it if I hadn't realized that those circled squares had to spell out "NICKE(L)." That realization got me to change CARAT to KARAT (which I always confuse) (53D: Gold standard) and got me that "E" in what turned out to be GENTLY. It also got me PERSNICKETY, which really opened up the SW. I found the crosses of PERSNICKETY the hardest of the themer crosses. We've covered GENTLY. There was also ENDS AT, which was tough for me to parse given the phrasing of the clue (48D: Is over by). I thought [Is over by] meant "is situated near." "Where's my scarf?" "It's over by the door." Sigh. Further, TOOTSY ... yeesh, that feels like a variant. I had it in place based on the first two letters, but I never trusted it until all the crosses ended up checking out. I thought the spelling was TOOTSIE, but it's possible I'm overly influenced by the ending of BOOTIE (which goes on a baby's foot). Or by "Tootsie Rolls." Or possibly the movie TOOTSIE.
I think the theme is cute and I actually used the theme to help me with my solve, which doesn't often happen with early puzzles ... unless you solve Downs-only, since you frequently need all the help you can get. I liked that the theme answers themselves were strong today. Not just appropriate for the theme, but solid, hearty answers in their own right (I know, I'm sick of all the Star Wars stuff too, but "DIM" breaks perfectly across JEDI and MASTERS and I'm more forgiving of Star Wars-ness when it's a result of theme constraint). Not often you get an answer as smooth and Scrabbly as JAZZ QUARTET on a Monday, or any day. Smooth jazz! Since I didn't know the theme up front, I actually didn't know if it was going to be a QUARTET or a QUINTET until I got the crosses, one of which, CIRRI (7D: Wispy clouds), did not come to me immediately. AWARDS was somewhat easier (6D: Oscars and Grammys, e.g.), and that forced "quart" over "quint." Not knowing the theme early meant that I had no idea what those circled squares were up to. QUARTE is nonsense, but DIM isn't, and neither is PENN ... which made me think maybe QUARTE was wrong, somehow. The revealer would eventually make sense of it all. Overall, the theme is decent, the theme answers are strong regardless of thematic content, and the open corners give the grid more sizzle than most early-week puzzles tend to have. MOZILLA is blah (to me—proper nouns from tech and other corporations are always gonna be blah to me), but the rest of those 7-letter Downs really hold up.
[JAZZ QUINTETs are real!]
Bullets:
39A: Cops, slangily (POPO) — I like slang, but somehow I'm embarrassed for the puzzle every time it uses this term. I don't like any slang that makes grown-ass adults sound like babies.
66A: Kind of lamp that's energy efficient ( L.E.D.) — I will never, ever understand opting for an abbr. clue like this when the answer is actually a perfectly good, real, unabbreviated word. Light-emitting diode. That's what L.E.D. stands for. I had to look it up. It's not that I hadn't heard of L.E.D. lights before. It's just zzzzzzzzz from a cluing standpoint.
11D: Don't blow it! (BIG LEAD) — I don't know what they call these "it" + exclamation point clues, where "it"-containing phrases are asking you to come up with a specific "it" as the answer. You know, [Step on it!] for STAIR, say, or [Hit it!] for GONG or [Dig it!] for ORE or whatever. Seven letters is kind of long as an answer for one of these clues. These types of clues are funnier when the answer takes you someplace that has nothing to do with the clue phrase—[Cut it out!] for COUPON, for example. Today's answer doesn't really take you anywhere surprising (i.e. the answer doesn't alter the meaning of "blow" as it appears in the clue), but I still liked the idea. I was pretty proud when I got this off of just the "E" and "D." In cryptic crosswords, clues ending in "!" are called "and lit" (stylized "&lit.") clues:
What, then, is this mythical beast? “&lit.” is short for “and literally.” What that means in the context of cryptics is that unlike all other clues, which can be broken into a straight definition portion and a wordplay portion, &lit. clues can be read in their entirety as both at the same time. Often, but not always, an exclamation point at the end of the clue is placed to indicate its &lit.-ness. (Stella Zawistowski, "Decrypting the Cryptic")
That's enough puzzle for today. Let's move on now to 🌲🐈Holiday Pet Pics🐕🌲!
Here's Foxglove the cat, looking at new family member Willow the dog like, "hmm, yes, adorable, I'm sure, just make sure she doesn't come anywhere near my Christmas tree spot."
[Look at this good dog! She means well, Foxglove!] [Thanks, Anthony]
Henry and Lily return to the blog for maybe the third time. They do not miss a chance to participate in Christmas fun. They got outfits and everything. "Where do you want us?" They offered several poses. Eventually, Carol had to say "We're good, guys, I think we got enough options. Shoot's over. No, I'm not getting you an Instagram account. We talked about screen time, remember?" "But we could be Dogfluencers! Christmas dogfluencers! Come on!"
[Thanks, Carol!]
Here are two Siberian Forest Cats, which are apparently a thing! Liam has recreated the mountainous environment of their ancestors in his home. Chester looks like he's king of the mountain, but everyone knows the real king gets the comfy bed and good luck dethroning Felix. Come at the king, you best not miss, Chester.
[Thanks, Liam]
I laughed out loud at this next one. Salix looks not so much like she is hiding as she looks like she's lost. Or stuck. We'll get you out, Salix, don't worry!
[Thanks, Anne!]
Barrel will allow you to place exactly one more plush toy around him before things get violent. One. Just one.
[Thanks, Janet!]
Lastly, Mac, who decorated the tree all by himself this year. Look how proud he is!
[Thanks, Chip!]
That's it. See you next time.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd] ============================= ❤️ Support this blog ❤️:
THEME: "Present Time" — "Presents" (circled squares) can be found UNDER THE TREE (69D: Where to find six "presents" in this puzzle?)—that is, each circled square can be found directly under a square that contains the name of a tree. Puzzle notes read: "Once the puzzle is complete, the circled letters, when read from left to right, will spell a punny two-word phrase." That phrase: "FIR YEW" (two tree names that together kinda sound like the phrase "For You," which ... is a "present"-related phrase, I suppose).
Tree answers:
SUPINE / PORCUPINE FISH (103A: Lying faceup / 78D: Prickly denizen of coral reefs)
I'M SOAKED / PRELUDE TO A KISS (54A: Comment from someone caught in the rain / 4D: Duke Ellington classic with the lyric "That was my heart serenading you")
DANCED AROUND / CLARENCE DARROW (112A: Evaded, as a sensitive issue / 80D: Famed lawyer in the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial)
ST. ELMO / "CAN'T FEEL MY FACE" (71A: Sailor's patron / 39D: 2015 chart-topping hit for the Weeknd)
PALM OFF AS / ARNOLD PALMERS (46A: Fraudulently make seem like / 13D: Iced-tea-and-lemonade refreshments)
SODA SHOP / ASH WEDNESDAY (14A: 1950s hangout with a jukebox / 17D: Fast start?)
Word of the Day: Erykah BADU (10D: Grammy winner Erykah) —
Erica Abi Wright (born February 26, 1971), known professionally as Erykah Badu, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Influenced by R&B, soul, and hip-hop, Badu rose to prominence in the late 1990s when her debut studio album Baduizm (1997), placed her at the forefront of the neo soul movement, earning her the nickname "Queen of Neo Soul" by music critics. [...] Badu's voice has been compared to jazz singer Billie Holiday.[8][9][10] Early in her career, Badu was recognizable for her style, which often included wearing very large and colorful headwraps. She was a core member of the Soulquarians. As an actress, she has played a number of supporting roles in movies including Blues Brothers 2000, The Cider House Rules and House of D. [...] Badu has won five awards from twenty nominations. (wikipedia)
• • •
The word that comes to mind is "shaggy" (and not just 'cause SCOOB is in the puzzle). I mean "shaggy" in the sense of "confused or unclear in conception or thinking" (m-w). But also in the sense of "lovable," the way a shaggy dog is lovable. Who's a good puzzle!? You are! Yes you are! Neither of my dogs were "shaggy," but they were adorable and I loved them both, even when they hopped the back wall and went on neighborhood adventures or ate entire dish towels (RIP Dutchess and Gabby, respectively). With the puzzle, I kept thinking "what the hell is this puzzle doing!?" but more in amused disbelief than in anger. smh like, "you crazy puzzle!" I think I started feeling this way at just about [checks watch] NINE PAST. Yes, it was 9:09PM when I first realized that NINE PAST was going to be an actual answer in an actual crossword (7D: 51 to the hour). Do we have a recording of my response? We do? OK, roll it: "[laughter] [more laughter] [ongoing laughter] ... I'm sorry, that's the dumbest answer I've ever seen in my f***ing life!" I might have been literally shaking my head (smh). NINE PAST is so outlandish, so absurd, so desperate, so MacGyverishly improvised that it's almost brilliant. You gotta have massive confidence and/or a screw loose to throw down NINE PAST. I mean, NINE PAST ... if the mission was to distract me from TETROMINO (!?!?), well, Mission Bleeping Accomplished. Slow clap. I can't say I like it, but I can say it didn't make me any IRATER—unlike IRATER, which was, as comparative adjectives go, is infuriating). Although ... might make a good name for my inevitable memoir: I, RATER. Move over, I, CLAUDIUS! Take that, I, TINA!
But the theme ... that's the thing. A Christmas theme for the Christmas season. That, I approve of unequivocally. The concept and execution here, though. Wow. So the circled squares—which more than a few solvers hate on principle, hate instinctively—are offered up as "gifts." "Here, I got you a gift! You like circled squares, right?!" Love the trolling, keep going, what else you got, puzzle? Well, the "gifts" are clearly marked, in that they are wrapped in circles. We can see them. There they are. They are the opposite of hidden. So you see circles and you figure, "OK, well, I guess that's where the action is going to be." And you're not wrong, but also you have no idea, because there's this whole other completely unmarked element of the theme—an entire minefield of trees! And not just hidden inside answers, but hidden inside single squares. Yes, it's a stealth rebus! David is a professional magician, and this puzzle feels very much like sleight of hand. Your eyes get distracted by one thing, the thing you think is important, but meanwhile there's a whole other layer to the trick that you absolutely do not see coming. I didn't, anyway. If I might botch a metaphor the way NINE PAST botches all rules of crossword decorum, I couldn't see the forest for the presents. Until I did. So some comedic, non-lethal version of me skiing directly into a tree, that's what I looked like when I hit my first tree.
I hit that tree in the middle of a song I'd never heard of, "PRELUDE TO ... TO ... TO ...?" What, "PRELUDE TO I.S.S., the International Space Station"? I checked the cross: 54A: Comment from someone caught in the rain. "Uh ... I'M SO ... WET?" Nope, won't fit. It was at that point that I first thought "maybe there's a rebus?" But my first thought was that the rebus square contained "OW"! as in "I'M SO WET!" (also as in "OW, I just ran into a tree!"). But that would make the song "PRELUDE TO WISS!" and as I don't know who or what or where WISS is, I had to abandon that idea. And at that point I thought "'PRELUDE TO A KISS' sounds like a thing I've heard before..." And bam, there it was: the OAK hiding in adjacent dimension, the rebus Twilight Zone. Did I like it? Hell, I don't know. But I definitely felt it, and it's good to feel things on a Sunday. I didn't feel hopeful, exactly, but I felt legitimately curious and kind of excited to see what treasures/horrors awaited me. I think I decided "alright, this puzzle is on one ... let's see where it goes!" And where did it go? Well, one of the main places it went was smack into the Weeknd's "CAN'T FEEL MY FACE" (!!!!) (which, like OW, is also what you say after you run into a tree at full speed).
Working "ELM" into this puzzle via "CAN'T FEEL MY FACE" was the thing that made me realize that whatever I was going to feel about this puzzle in the end, I wasn't going to be able to hate it. That is some baroque, ornate theming right there. The execution of the rebus squares may be the thing I liked the most, beyond the mere fact of them (which was a total surprise). Such great long answers enveloping those trees. So inventive. What the hell is a PORCUPINE FISH!? Don't tell me, I'll just imagine. I trust you puzzle, keep going! Make up animals if you have to, I'm all in!" "Holy cow, you mean CLARENCE DARROW contains CEDAR!!? Ha! YES, YES, tell me more!" The fill would occasionally make me want to hate this puzzle, but even the bad fill was hilarious to me. ANIL! RONI! ... I THE!? Go very bad or go home, I guess. But the theme was big enough, interesting enough, spectacular enough (in its beauty and its shagginess) to keep me from dwelling on the short fill for too long. And yes, only a couple of these trees are plausible Christmas trees (imagine having an elm in your living room?). And yes, "FIR YEW" (that is, "For You") doesn't really make sense as a message on a present. "Who's that one for, Betty?" "It's for 'You.'" "For me?" "No, for 'You.'" You see how that gets into Who's On First territory real quick. I guess the idea is that you might say the phrase as you hand the gift to its intended recipient. I don't know. I just know that this theme is ambitious and creative and if it doesn't quite stick all its landings, shrug, I'm good, wrap it up, I'll take it!
Bullets:
26A: Blue colorant obtained from the indigo plant (ANIL) — I always glitch on ANIL / ARIL, a crosswordese hazard if there ever was one.
28A: Brightly colored Mediterranean flowers (SUN ROSES) — I assume SUN ROSES are the natural habitat of the PORCUPINE FISH, as I've never heard of either of them. They sound very made-up. But I want to live in this world of random compound-phrase plants and animals. Hey, look, a BUTTER EEL! And a HAM TULIP! And ooh there's a KEYBOARD WEASEL! What a magical world we live in! I love nature!
79A: Eponymous British financier James ___ (BARCLAY) — me, after finally getting this: "Oh, the BARCLAYs Center guy. Huh, that's a guy? I always thought it was a vodka or a watch or something."
94A: Kind of cipher in which A becomes B, B becomes C, e.g. (CAESAR) — baffling. More baffling than PORCUPINE FISH. I'm sure I've come across this "cipher" type before—soaking in puzzleworld, I must have seen it somewhere—but I did not retain that information.
16D: Counterpart of a sub (DOM) — oh, that kind of sub. This puzzle is just full of amazing surprises.
66D: It has lots of secretaries (CABINET) — even after getting this answer, I was thinking "furniture." A "secretary" is a kind of desk, so I was like "why ... would you put desks in your cabinet?" But this puzzle can clearly do anything, so I just let it ride.
72D: Coolidge who sang the theme for "Octopussy" (RITA) — me: "What?" Also me: [starts trying to hum "Octopussy," ends up humming it to the tune of "Goldfinger"]. The song is not actually called "Octopussy," but "All Time High" (a song I do, actually, know).
29D: Great Dane of cartoons, informally (SCOOB) — "cartoons" made me think "comic strips," which had me wondering for a few seconds if Marmaduke's owners called him MARMA. You know, informally.
Speaking of informal dogs, it's time for more 🌲🐈Holiday Pet Pics🐕🌲 now. Note: PLEASE DO NOT SEND ME ANY MORE PET PICS, I'M ALL FULL UP FOR THIS YEAR, thank you.
Coco has murdered gingerbread Mr. Bill. Thank you for your service, Coco.
[Thanks, Cheryl!]
Lily basks by the fire, admiring her Christmas gift destruction. Good job, Lily.
Meanwhile, Lily's housemate Jojo poses regally and judgmentally by the tree. Such Christmas gift destruction is beneath Jojo. How uncouth, Jojo thinks.
[Thanks, Jane!]
Find someone who looks at you like Maisie looks at this Christmas tree.
[Thanks, Caitlin!]
Finn came framed, and precaptioned
[Thanks, Jose!]
And finally, here's Tula Moose (actually, just Tula—I added the "Moose" part because that's what I would call her, Tula Moose!)
["But ... but I'm a reindeer"] [Thanks, Pat and Lisa]
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. a couple very-last-minute Christmas gift suggestions. First, prolific Canadian constructors Desirée Pinner and Jeff Sinnock have a new geography-themed book of crosswords out called Where in the World: A Guess-The-Country Crossword Book. Jeff writes: "Where in the World? A Guess the Country Crossword Booktakes the solver on a trip around the world. Each grid contains theme entries that hint to the culture, history, landmarks, and geography of a particular country. After (or during) solving, the solver guesses what the mystery country might be." I've enjoyed their movie- and music-themed crossword books in the past, so I'm sure this one will be equally doable and delightful.
Second, today's constructor, David Kwong, also has a new book out. I know because I own it (got it signed at ACPT earlier this year)! It's a magic book for kids called How to Fool Your Parents: 25 Brain-Breaking Magic Tricks. It's aimed at readers and aspiring magicians age 8-12. It's adorable but it's also the real deal. Actual magic theory and practical projects that any kid can do. Loaded with cartoons and illustrations. Get it here, or better yet, try an actual bookstore!
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd] ============================= ❤️ Support this blog ❤️:
Although each culture has its own mythologies and rituals, animism is said to describe the most common, foundational thread of indigenous peoples' "spiritual" or "supernatural" perspectives. The animistic perspective is so widely held and inherent to most indigenous peoples that they often do not even have a word in their languages that corresponds to "animism" (or even "religion"). The term "animism" is an anthropological construct.
Largely due to such ethnolinguistic and cultural discrepancies, opinions differ on whether animism refers to an ancestral mode of experience common to indigenous peoples around the world or to a full-fledged religion in its own right. The currently accepted definition of animism was developed only in the late 19th century (1871) by Edward Tylor. It is "one of anthropology's earliest concepts, if not the first". (wikipedia)
• • •
Another anemic Saturday. No fight in this one at all. Started with a total gimme at 1A: Sampras rival during the 1990s (AGASSI) and never really stopped. A few pauses here and there, none of them significant. Very few tough / tricky / clever clues to fight through, which makes for a somewhat disappointing Saturday experience. The part of this puzzle I liked the most (the SE corner) was also the part I blew through the fastest. I didn't even have to look at the clue for SAD TROMBONE (45A: [womp, womp])—I had so many crosses at some point that I could just infer the answer. Same for REUBENandDORIS, which were the answers I closed the puzzle with. Saturday puzzles shouldn't just fill themselves in like that. All I want for Christmas is for the NYTXW to tighten up the Saturday puzzles. Just a smidge. You don't have to brutalize me, but make these clues bob and weave with a little bit more energy. Please, Santa? LOL now I'm imagining Shortz-Santa. Even funnier, as soon as I imagined it, I thought "they must have made a Shortz-Santa image for at least one of those thousands of books of crosswords and sudoku they've put out. Surely ..." And in fact—surely:
Not the greatest likeness, but recognizable, at least. Mustache on fleek. Back to the puzzle. I suspect how you feel about it will depend to a great extent on how you feel about STILL MOOING. As I have never heard this expression and can't imagine how it could even be used in the way that the puzzle suggests, I definitely fall in the "not a fan" camp. STILL MOOING sounds like something you'd say about someone or something that is (surprisingly) not dead yet. Like a wacky, farmyard-inspired version of STILL KICKING. Not sure how the "STILL" part works with the "rare" part. STILL relates to time, "rare" does not. Oh wait. Ha ha. Wow. OK, so you are watching me discover in real time that I have completely misread this clue because I have completely misread "rare." This is a steak clue. The cowness of MOOING should've tipped me off, but boy it did not. If your beef is done rare (as opposed to say, medium-rare, medium, well, what have you), then the center is red ("cool to warm red center," 120º, per Omaha Steaks). "Rare" is the least cooked of the various steak-cooking options. And the less cooked a steak is, the closer it is to alive ... and thus the closer it is to STILL MOOING. Alright alright alright. I like it somewhat better now that I understand what the f*** that clue means.
Because of my comprehension failure, STILL MOOING was about the only answer that gave me any trouble today. I had to think for a few seconds about what "bills" meant at 16D: Bills first introduced in 1861 (FIVES). Considered legislative bills and hat bills (!) before finally getting around to cash. Never considered bird bills because how would you "introduce" those. Unless you discovered a bird no one had seen before, one with a brand new kind of bill. But even then, you'd be introducing the bird, not the bill per se. But that was it for "what? huh?" reactions today: STILL MOOING and FIVES. I'm looking over the whole grid now and I don't see anything that I didn't get pretty much on first look. I mean, I misspelled KEENEN (as KEENAN) on my first pass, but that's hardly a significant snag. I haven't seen the term "dogsbody" in a while, and the last time I saw it was (shocker) in a crossword. But I apparently misremembered the word as applying to nurses, specifically combat nurses. Where is my brain getting this from? The word "dogsbody" just means "drudge," in the sense of "one who is obliged to do menial work," or work that is routine and boring. No idea how "combat nurse" got tangled up in my mental picture of the word. Hmm, did a little poking around and it looks like the last time I dealt with "dogsbody" in a puzzle context was almost 19 years ago, in early 2007 (!!), when "dogsbody" was in the clue for ... [drum roll] ... NURSE'S AID. Hurray, I'm not insane! There was ... some ... medical angle to the word as I learned it. The full clue was [Hospital dogsbody]. So there's nothing inherently medical about "dogsbody." It's just a word I see so rarely ("chiefly British," Merriam-Webster tells me), that I haven't processed its full meaning before. Those days are over! I'm now a dogsbody expert. And a steak expert to boot. Been a real educational morning on the blog, I tell you what.
Bullets:
15A: Frustrated and making poor decisions, informally (ON TILT) — a poker term. A poker term I learned from crosswords. Poker, like golf, is not a thing I care at all about. I know most of what I know from crosswords. Or from accidentally "watching" poker coverage on ESPN back when I had television ("watching" = briefly stopping at while flipping channels).
16A: #1 on Wired magazine's list of the 10 most influential video games of the 2010s (FORTNITE) — transparent and dull. Straight trivia, and not even tough trivia. I care zip about video games but FORTNITE (like MINECRAFT) seems ubiquitous.
20A: First name in hog riding (EVEL) — at some point Mr. Knievel got bored of jumping motorcycles over trucks and canyons and decided to move on to competitive swine racing. (I look forward to your corrections)
30A: Higher power? (SOLAR) — power that comes from the heavens, i.e. the sun
12D: Mardi Gras parading societies (KREWES) — I've been to Mardi Gras in New Orleans precisely once, in 1994. I remember the KREWES, but I only know that's what they're called, and that that's how they're spelled, because of crosswords. Beginning to suspect that half of all the things I know, I know from crosswords. I'm like 95% crossword lore at this point. One more year of doing this (the big "2" "0" next year!) and I will have achieved full crosswordness. Crossword singularity. I will be one with the Crossword Universe, indistinguishable from grid discourse, a walking blog. Can't wait.
44A: Org. that's gone to the dogs? (AKC) — more dogsbodies now, only this time they are dogs' bodies, and the bodies in question are the purview of the American Kennel Club.
Speaking of going to the dogs, let's do that now. It's time once again for 🌲🐈Holiday Pet Pics🐕🌲! Note: PLEASE DO NOT SEND ME ANY MORE PET PICS, I'M ALL FULL UP FOR THIS YEAR, thank you.
We'll start with the three wise men. I'm speaking, of course, about Harry, Joey, and Mittens:
[Thanks, Jane!]
Here's Mae holding Connie, high above the streets of NYC. It's always a white Christmas when Connie's around. Look at that sweet snowball!
[Thanks, Laurie!]
Silent Night, Pumpkin Night ...
[Thanks, Barbara]
Here's wee Alex. I love this genre of photo—the dutiful-posing-in-hopes-of-treat-remuneration photo. "Just take the shot already. Great, that'll be six treats, please."
[Thanks, Danny!]
Here's Taschi, whose hiding skills aren't very advanced yet.
[Where's Taschi!?]
[There's Taschi!] [Thanks, Nick & Dagna!]
Garf, on the other hand, has perfected the art of hiding. Knows just how to blend into a crowd. Master of disguise. Here, look, just a pile of toys, the kind you might expect to find under any Christmas tree, nothing to see here ... right? ... wrong!
[Garf! That's the sound you make when your cat scares the hell out of you] [Thanks, Kathryn!]
That's all. See you next time.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd] ============================= ❤️ Support this blog ❤️:
A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
.png)
.jpeg)
