Plastic explosive used in many demolitions / THU 10-9-25 / Cutesy name for a certain leviathan / Some ancient Italians / Storage device that has fallen out of fashion / One of 300 at the National Mall / Fictional character who says "I am a brain ... The rest of me is a mere appendix"

Constructor: Freddie Cheng

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: ALL THUMBS (58A: Klutzy ... and a hint to 17-, 25-, 35- and 49-Across) — clues describe thumb positions and answers indicate what those different positions mean; you basically just have to insert "thumb(s)" after the number in each theme clue:

Theme answers:

• "NO WAY, JOSE" (17A: Two [thumbs] down)
• "I NEED A RIDE" (25A: One [thumb] out)
• NOTHING TO DO (35A: Two [thumbs] moving around each other)
• "WORKS FOR ME" (49A: Two [thumbs] up)

Word of the Day: SEMTEX (13D: Plastic explosive used in many demolitions) —

Semtex is a general-purpose plastic explosive containing RDX and PETN. It is used in commercial blasting, demolition, and in certain military applications.

Semtex was developed and manufactured in Czechoslovakia, originally under the name B 1 and then under the "Semtex" designation since 1964, labeled as SEMTEX 1A, since 1967 as SEMTEX H, and since 1987 as SEMTEX 10.

Originally developed for Czechoslovak military use and export, Semtex eventually became popular with armed groups and insurgents because, prior to the 2000s, it was extremely difficult to detect, as in the case of Pan Am Flight 103. (wikipedia)

• • •

Took me longer than it should have to figure out how the theme works today, though maybe I'm being too hard on myself. By "longer than it should have," I mean that I got the revealer and didn't understand it right away. At that point, I had only one theme answer in place ("NO WAY, JOSE!"), and I just didn't know what to do with ALL THUMBS. With the "ALL" part in particular. Didn't help that "Two down" looked like it might have some kind of crossword meaning, like maybe 2-Down was involved (?). I think I had to get "WORKS FOR ME" in order to finally see the whole thumbs-up / thumbs-down thing. Even then, I had NOTHING ___ at the center answer and no idea what it could be. Two [thumbs] moving around each other??? I actually tried to do this, physically, at my desk here, just to see if anything would come to me, and I quickly realized I had no idea what "moving around each other" even meant. Moving around each other ... how? I was kind of holding my thumbs toward each other and then cycling them around each other, almost like I was pedaling a bike with my hands. The word you really need here is "twiddling," but maybe [Two twiddling] was thought to be either too much of a giveaway or just too weird-looking. Anyway, "moving around each other" did nothing for me. I think I had "NOTHING TO IT!" there for a bit. Which brings me to the main reason that central answer just doesn't work. All the other answers are clear, standalone, familiar expressions that one might say, and the thumb gestures stand in for those expressions more or less accurately. "NOTHING TO DO" is not a common spoken phrase the way the others are. It's a state of being, as in "I have NOTHING TO DO." I can imagine someone saying "NOTHING TO DO," but that's very different from its being a meaningful expression on its own, the way, say, "NO WAY, JOSE" is. With the others ... I don't think of "NO WAY JOSE" and "two thumbs down" as equivalent, but they're ballpark, both expressing a negative reaction, and the others work at least equally well, so OK. But NOTHING TO DO is an outlier, and an awkward one.

The cluing felt hard today, or hardish, though the only thing in the puzzle that I didn't actually know, in the end, was SEMTEX. Oh, and EFT, which I just keep forgetting, apparently. Electronic funds transfer?? Yes. I am old school, in that I expect my EFTs to be Newt-onian (an EFT is a juvenile newt, as any longtime solver knows). This is only the fourth financial EFT, as against 68 amphibious EFTs in the Shortz Era alone (192 all time). I had to work a little to get LATINS, which is deeply ironic, as I just finished teaching the Aeneid for the umpteenth time, and it's the LATINS, led by King (... wait for it...) Latinus, that Aeneas encounters when he lands in Italy, and the Latin king's daughter, Lavinia, whom he must eventually wed (after a stupid war that goes on for five books just 'cause Juno wants to make it all as painful as possible, even though she can't stop it (because Fate!)). I do not really buy DO HARM as a standalone phrase. DO NO HARM, yes, that is a phrase, a very specific and meaningful phrase where the Hippocratic oath is concerned. DO HARM sounds like the terse direction of a sadistic interplanetary emperor. The rest of the fill seems fine—no strong reactions.

Bullets:

• 32A: One of 300 at the National Mall (ACRE) — at first I was like "... STEP?" Like maybe that's how many steps there were to the top of the Washington Monument, or the Lincoln Memorial (lol that would put Lincoln very, very high up). 
• 39A: Marvel series focused on Thor's brother (LOKI) — so ... just [Thor's brother], then. Not sure why all the other words are necessary if you're just gonna end up at [Thor's brother].
• 55A: "The Burghers of Calais" sculptor (RODIN) — No idea what this is. I know that RODIN is a sculptor, and that's all I had to know. Let's look at some art, shall we?

[oh hey, it's at The Met: "The monument commemorates the heroism of six leading citizens (burghers) of the French city of Calais. In the fourteenth century, at the beginning of the Hundred Years’ War, they offered their lives to the English king in exchange for the lifting of his siege of the city. By portraying their despair and haunted courage in the face of death, Rodin challenged contemporary heroic ideals and made an event from the past seem immediate and real."]

• 35D: Annual breast cancer awareness observance (NO BRA DAY) — I did not know this was a thing, or still a thing. Seems like an impractical option for many women. According to wikipedia, "The day is controversial as some see it as sexualizing and exploiting women's bodies while at the same time belittling a serious disease." I misread the clue as [Annual breast cancer awareness month] and, having the "NO-," wrote in NOVEMBER (which fits ... it's wrong, but it fits). Breast Cancer Awareness Month is actually right now, October, and NO BRA DAY is next week (October 13)
• 39D: Heroine of Verdi's "Il Trovatore" (LEONORA) — I must've seen LEONORA a bunch over the years, as an answer as well as in clues, because I plunked her down with just a few crosses despite knowing nothing about this opera.

• 48D: Cutesy name for a certain leviathan (NESSIE) — "leviathan" makes me think "whale," and I was like "did Ahab have a 'cutesy name' for Moby-Dick!? WHITIE?" But no, "leviathan" is just a gigantic (watery) creature, so ... the Loch Ness Monster, aka NESSIE.

[I own this cutesy Moby-Dick shirt—design by Kate Beaton]

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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"Will Ruby go to prom with me?" / WED 10-8-25 / Demonym suffix / 23andMe mailing / Ariana ___, Best Supporting Actress winner for 2021's "West Side Story" / Author of "L'île Mystéreuese" / "10 and up" preceder

Constructor: Daniel Trujillo Diaz

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: A MAGIC EIGHT BALL promposal (55A: Provider of the answers at 16-, 32- and 37-Across) — This looks like an actual promposal, like the constructor is legit using this puzzle to ask someone (someone named Ruby) to prom. The puzzle itself (via theme clues) actually asks the MAGIC EIGHT BALL if Ruby will go to prom with him, and the Eight Ball gives varying / conflicted responses, moving from negative (MY SOURCES SAY NO) to equivocal (ASK AGAIN LATER) to positive (WITHOUT A DOUBT):

Theme answers:

• "MY SOURCES SAY NO" (16A: "Will Ruby go to prom with me?")
• "ASK AGAIN LATER" (32A: I repeat: "Will Ruby go to prom with me?")
• "WITHOUT A DOUBT" (37A: Third time's the charm: "Will Ruby go to prom with me?")

Word of the Day: Demonym (7D: Demonym suffix = -ESE) —

A demonym (/ˈdɛmənɪm/; from Ancient Greek δῆμος (dêmos) 'people, tribe' and ὄνυμα (ónuma) 'name') or 'gentilic' (from Latin gentilis 'of a clan, or gens') is a word that identifies a group of people (inhabitants, residents, natives) in relation to a particular place. Demonyms are usually derived from the name of the place (hamlet, village, town, city, region, province, state, country, and continent). Demonyms are used to designate all people (the general population) of a particular place, regardless of ethnic, linguistic, religious or other cultural differences that may exist within the population of that place. Examples of demonyms include Cochabambino, for someone from the city of Cochabamba; Tunisian for a person from Tunisia; and Swahili, for a person of the Swahili coast. [...] Several linguistic elements are used to create demonyms in the English language. The most common is to add a suffix to the end of the location name, slightly modified in some instances. These may resemble Late Latin, Semitic, Celtic, or Germanic suffixes, such as -(a)n, -ian, -anian, -nian, -in(e), -a(ñ/n)o/a, -e(ñ/n)o/a, -i(ñ/n)o/a, -ite, -(e)r, -(i)sh, -ene, -ensian, -ard, -ese, -nese, -lese, -i(e), -i(ya), -iot, -iote, -k, -asque, -(we)gian, -onian, -vian, -ois(e), or -ais(e). (wikipedia)

• • •

This has to be a real promposal, right? I'm going to have to go check, aren't I? Sigh, hang on ... OK, short answer: no. Longer answer, Ruby is the constructor's wife. He makes her a puzzle every year on their dating anniversary. They've been together eight years this year. I have no idea if they ever actually went to prom. Anyway, it's obviously a very sweet thing to make a puzzle for your wife, and a very cool thing to get said puzzle published in the Times, so if you think I have anything terribly critical to say about this puzzle, think again. For once, I'll just let things be. Mostly. The only "negative" for me is that the questioner seems like someone who won't take 'no' for an answer. I get that he's asking a plastic, fluid-filled toy and not an actual human being, but I can't help it if my initial reaction to the haranguing of the 8 Ball was "hey, buddy, no means no." But the repeated questioning is all in good fun, and really does accurately reflect a certain kind of teenage anxiety, the magical thinking that precedes a high-stakes moment that you want to turn out for the best. Not that this kind of magical thinking is exclusive to teenagers. Just emblematic. I mean, we all know plastic, fluid-filled toys don't have ESP, right? Right? Please say 'right.' (Also, ESP is not a [Helpful skill for guessers], as it is not a skill to begin with, it's a non-existent thing, thank you for coming to my ongoing TED Talk on the fictionality of ESP and the NYTXW's continuing campaign of ESP legitimization). Happy eighth anniversary of being together, Daniel & Ruby! Magic Eighth!

The puzzle was very easy, as a special-occasion puzzle should be. You want people to be able to solve it! Imagine if you made Ruby a puzzle and she couldn't finish. You don't want your dedicatee to hate you. If you make puzzles on commission, for any audience that isn't already crossword aficionados, then Easy is the way you want to go. Back in 2010, I made an "XC"-themed puzzle for my grandma's 90th birthday where all the theme answers contained "XC" (the Roman numeral for "90"), e.g. PHOENIX COYOTES, BOXCARS, etc. My grandma was the first adult I ever saw solving crosswords when I was a child, so I thought it would make a nice (and fitting) gift. And while my heart was in the right place, the difficulty level of the puzzle ... was not. It wasn't hard, just ... too hard for the crowd at a ninetieth birthday party at the BPOE in northern Idaho. Too hard for non-regular solvers. Probably not too hard for my grandma, I don't remember. I wrote about it all here, and the puzzle is still out there (solve it if you want—I haven't thought about this thing in fifteen years!)

[wow this song is way darker than I remembered]

There were a few potential stumbling blocks, all of them minor. 3D: "New and improved" and "For a limited time only" looks like it wants a plural answer, that is, looks like it should end in "S," but instead we get a collective noun, no "S" ending (ADSPEAK). I didn't get the KIT part of DNA KIT right away. The only word my brain wants following "DNA" is TEST, so I just let crosses help me out there (23D: 23andMe mailing). Weren't 23andMe the ones that stole everyone's data, sold it, and went out of business? I feel like something bad happened there. Oh yeah, they went into bankruptcy earlier this year and there was some (great) concern about whether customers' data was going to be sold. I think my sister did a 23andMe test once and discovered that we ... are white (dum dum Dum!). Like, you know, northern European / British, mostly. Real exciting stuff. Moving on: If you weren't here (solving, or at my blog) last month, then DEBOSE might've posed a problem today, but if you were here, then (hopefully) you were like "AHA! Multiple AHAS! I remember her! She was Word of the Day on Sep. 21!" Or maybe you just knew her because she's a famous actress. One person in the puzzle whom I knew but did Not get (easily) from his clue is Jules VERNE (48A: Author of "L'île Mystérieuse"). I know his 20,000 Leagues, and his Journey books (to the Moon, to the Center of the Earth) and the balloon book (Around the World in 80 Days), but L'île Mystérieuse was mystérieuse to me. This probably should've been Word of the Day today:

The Mysterious Island (French: L'Île mystérieuse) is a novel by Jules Verne, serialised from August 1874 to September 1875 and then published in book form in November 1875. The first edition, published by Hetzel, contains illustrations by Jules Férat. The novel is a crossover sequel to Verne's famous Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870) and In Search of the Castaways (1867–68), though its themes are vastly different from those books. An early draft of the novel, rejected by Verne's publisher and wholly reconceived before publication, was titled Shipwrecked Family: Marooned with Uncle Robinson, indicating the influence of the novels Robinson Crusoe and The Swiss Family Robinson. Verne developed a similar theme in his novel, Godfrey Morgan (French: L'École des Robinsons, 1882).

The chronology of The Mysterious Island is incompatible with that of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, which begins in 1866, while The Mysterious Island begins during the American Civil War, yet is supposed to happen 16 years after Twenty Thousand Leagues. (wikipedia)

That's all for today. Will I be back tomorrow? [Shakes 8 Ball] ... 'Concentrate and ask again'?? ... stupid 8 Ball ... [smacks 8 Ball] ... 'It is decidedly so.' That's better. See you then.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Major British grocery chain / TUE 10-7-25 / Italian dessert menu staple / Brief time to savor one's glory, metaphorically / Pointed part of a pitchfork

Constructor: Corry Cropper

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: ICARUS (61A: Mythological figure whose ill-fated trajectory is suggested by 19-, 34-, 41- and 56-Across) — theme answers suggest ICARUS's trajectory after taking the wings his father Daedalus invented and then flying too close to the sun ...

Theme answers:

• DAY IN THE SUN (19A: Brief time to savor one's glory, metaphorically)
• INTO THIN AIR (34A: Mysterious way to vanish) [are there non-mysterious ways?]
• DOWN TO EARTH (41A: Practical and unpretentious)
• "UNDER THE SEA" (56A: Oscar-winning Disney song sung by a crab named Sebastian)

Word of the Day: ICARUS (61A) —

[Gowy, The Fall of Icarus (1635-37)]

In Greek mythology, Icarus (/ˈɪkərəs/ ^ⓘ; Ancient Greek: Ἴκαρος, romanized: Íkaros, pronounced [ǐːkaros]) was the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the architect of the labyrinth of Crete. After Theseus, king of Athens and enemy of King Minos, escaped from the labyrinth, Minos suspected that Icarus and Daedalus had revealed the labyrinth's secrets and thus imprisoned them—either in a large tower overlooking the ocean or in the labyrinth itself, depending upon the account. Icarus and Daedalus escaped using wings Daedalus constructed from birds' molted feathers, threads from blankets, the leather straps from their sandals, and beeswax. Before escaping, Daedalus warned Icarus not to fly too low or the water would soak the feathers and not to fly too close to the sun or the heat would melt the wax. Icarus ignored Daedalus's instructions not to fly too close to the sun, causing the beeswax in his wings to melt. Icarus fell from the sky, plunged into the sea, and drowned. The myth gave rise to the idiom, "fly too close to the sun." In some versions of the tale, Daedalus and Icarus escape by ship. (wikipedia)

• • •

Alison Bechdel's Fun Home opens with her recounting a time during her childhood when she would play on the floor with her father, him balancing her on his feet such that she appeared to be flying over him. She explains that in circus acrobatics, this kind of balancing act is called "Icarian games":

The ICARUS / Daedalus relationship becomes an important metaphor for her relationship with her father. There's a great (ruthless) line in there where she wonders whether Daedalus, who made the wings, was sad because his kid died, or because of the design flaw. ICARUS also makes me think of this strange painting by Peter Brueghel the Elder called Landscape with the Fall of ICARUS (c. 1560), where the mythological theme appears in only a minuscule part of the painting, which otherwise looks like an ordinary 16th c. landscape. The main subject appears to be a guy plowing his field. You have to really zoom in to see the wet ICARUS detail...

[he's just below the boat]

[Computer, enhance!]

This is all to say that I think about ICARUS ... sometimes. From time to time. I enjoy me a good piece of ICARUS-related art. But today, I didn't even know that's what I was dealing with until well after I'd finished the puzzle. ICARUS was in such a weird place in the grid that I never suspected it as a revealer. Frankly, I never saw the clue on ICARUS at all because I could tell what the answer was from crosses—the short answers (of which there are many many many in this puzzle) just filled it in for me. So I was left with a pretty tepid theme about ... the elements? The weather? And they're all prepositional phrases ... except the first, for some reason. I was like "this can't be it?" And it wasn't. ICARUS was it. I love mythology, and do not mind an ICARUS theme, theoretically, but I'm not sure this themer set really gets at the his whole ... trajectory that well. Doesn't he go into the (thin) air first, then get to the sun, then fall down (to earth, actually to sea)? You could've done this all in a more entertaining way, I think. Maybe make all the theme answers songs, and not just the last one. Make a kind of ICARUS playlist.  Maybe start with "WIND BENEATH MY WINGS?" "UP WHERE WE BELONG?" "I WANT TO TAKE YOU HIGHER?" Something like that. Then there's Kool & the Gang's "TOO HOT," Alicia Keys's "FALLIN'," Bobby Darin's "SPLISH SPLASH," and then maybe "UNDER THE SEA." Clues could be something like [First track on a 61-Across playlist?] [Second song on a 61-Across playlist?] etc. I am, as they say, just spitballing here, and all my song choices are obviously hypotheticals—there are probably scores of potential song titles to choose from, and maybe you could get them to fit in a grid symmetrically. Anyway, I'm having more fun imagining this ICARUS playlist puzzle, which doesn't exist, than I did solving today's puzzle, which does. For such a seemingly bold idea, it felt a little bland.

The blandness was significantly helped along by an absolute boatload for short fill. 3-4-5s as far as the eye could see. And much of that fill was of the very tired variety, stuff like STENO OTT UVEA OTOE MST MADAMA IDEE TERA ETAT ETNA ESP ORCA APSES EDAMS (plural!) ERIE TSA ASLAN NAT. A punishing onslaught. Made the solve very easy, but also very fussy and choppy and kind of dull. The theme answers themselves were solid but not terribly colorful. The long Downs were doing their best to make things interesting—they were the only parts I found at all interesting while solving—but their charms weren't enough to counterbalance the rest of the grid. I think the theme is cute, it's trying to do something interesting and original. So conceptually, I approve. The execution just felt a little tepid, a little awkward to me.

The most confused I got today was at 29A: Diaphanous (LIGHT). I thought something "diaphanous" was characterized by the interplay of light on its surface, or the way light shined through its delicate substance ... yeah, it's basically "translucent." Of fine composition. Airy. I would not have thought of it as LIGHT (adj.) meaning "not weighing much." I guess by implication diaphanous things wouldn't weigh much, but I dunno. Weird to use LIGHT as an adjective here *and* change the meaning of the "light" normally associated with "diaphanous" (which is the noun kind of light, the kind that shines through a diaphanous ... thing). So that NE corner gave me a slight amount of trouble. I also tried to make INITIATE fit at 10D: Kick off, which caused some confusion. Beyond that, the only trouble I had was with TESCO, which I want to say I've never heard of, although that probably isn't true (51D: Major British grocery chain). I haven't been in Britain in ages and have no memory of TESCO from the times when I was there, so ... huge shrug. Thankfully, I know ASLAN well (we're old friends), so that SE corner didn't end up tripping me up the way it might have.

Bullet points:

• 56A: "Bel Canto" author Patchett (ANN) — coincidentally, I'm in the middle of a new article by her in the most recent New Yorker. This would've been a gimme anyway, but I still enjoyed the coincidence. The Patchett piece is a wonderful bit of personal history, well, death (of family, friends, pets), so it's sad, sure, but really nice, worth reading ("Glowworms").
• 9D: Italian dessert menu staple (CANNOLI) — really wanted TIRAMISU, perhaps because I pretty much always really want TIRAMISU. Who would've thought soggy cookies could taste so right?
• 42D: Spirit of Mexico? (TEQUILA) — the UNIQUE / TEQUILA crossing was a real highlight of the puzzle. Nothing forced about that "Q" at all. Two great "Q"-containing words. I enjoy a UNIQUE TEQUILA, for sure. 

• 24D: Pointed part of a pitchfork (TINE) — This Pitchfork review of Taylor Swift's new album is pretty pointed.
• 43D: Dish that's "slung" (HASH) — mmm, olde-tymey dinerspeak. Now you're speaking my language. And now I'm hungry, so ...

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Fancy one-handed basketball shot / MON 10-6-25 / Cat's little pink paws, cutesily / Skaters who do lifts and twizzles / Ralph who ran for president four times / Whoopi's role in 1985's "The Color Purple" / Sun phenomenon that can cause radio blackouts / Popular brand of hiking sandals

Constructor: Hannah Binney

Relative difficulty: Easy (solved Downs-only)

THEME: PEOPLE FOOD (59A: What a dog desires from the dinner table ... or a hint to 17-, 25-, 36- and 47-Across) — familiar phrases made out of a body part (i.e. parts of "PEOPLE") and a FOOD:

Theme answers:

• FINGER ROLL (17A: Fancy one-handed basketball shot)
• ARM CANDY (25A: Good-looking companion on the red carpet, say)
• KNUCKLE SANDWICH (36A: Punch in the mouth, slangily)
• TOE BEANS (47A: Cat's little pink paws, cutesily)

Word of the Day: twizzle (28D: Skaters who do lifts and twizzles = ICE DANCERS) —

 

A twizzle is "a multirotational, one-foot turn that moves across the ice" in the sport of figure skating. First performed by David Grant in 1990, the International Skating Union (ISU) defines a twizzle as "a traveling turn on one foot with one or more rotations which is quickly rotated with a continuous (uninterrupted) action". It is most often performed in ice dance, although single skaters and pair skaters also perform the element. Twizzles have been called "the quads of ice dance" because like quadruple jumps in other disciplines, twizzles are risky and technically demanding.

• • •

[George "The Iceman" Gervin]

Ah, I like this one, mainly because it reminds me of my former dogs and current cats. My cats want nothing, or very little, to do with PEOPLE FOOD. Alfie will lick an ice cream bowl, sort of, sometimes, but mostly they just want their cat food. Or their treats, they really live for those Greenies. Every morning, after second breakfast (yes, second breakfast, don't ask), Ida gets up on the counter while I'm making coffee in anticipation of a little game I call "playing treats." "You wanna play Treats?," I ask. She does. So I get out the little plastic carton (we buy them in bulk), and I shake a few into my palm and then I bounce them across the counter and onto the floor and she chases them like they're prey. Alfie needs to have his Treats handed to him daintily. He does not play Treats. Too lazy, or too dignified, not sure which. But Ida goes sliding across the kitchen tiles, or the wooden floors, swatting and batting and devouring every treat I throw for her. But PEOPLE FOOD? ...  I've seen these damned cats turn their nose up at tuna. Honest-to-god tuna, and they're like "meh, where is kibble and/or Treats!?" Weirdos. My dogs, on the other hand, would eat anything. Dog food, PEOPLE FOOD, cat food, dish towels that got soaked in turkey drippings, whatever. But only the cats have TOE BEANS. Alfie has the best TOE BEANS. His paw pads are all dark except one on his forepaw, which is pink, so he has a special weird toe bean. My daughter once had a t-shirt made for me, based on the (now long canceled) TV show Alphas, that said "ALFIES" on it. It mimicked the logo of the show (multiple cat silhouettes instead of multiple human silhouettes) and then had a little cat paw icon with Alfie's signature toe bean anomaly. Here I am wearing the shirt at an Elvis Costello concert a few years back, the only time I've ever been recognized by anyone outside of a crossword tournament (Elaine here was like "I know you" and I'm like "uh ... I don't think so" and she says "Rex Parker?" and I was like "Whoa, yes, OK, hi.")

And here is Proof of Toe Bean:

Today's revealer really did its job. I thought there was some kind of hand theme going on—I had the FINGER and KNUCKLE answers and didn't recognize ARM CANDY was even part of the theme, so when I hit PEOPLE FOOD, the whole concept locked into place. I hadn't even thought about the food angle. When I'm solving Downs-only, I don't tend to think too hard about the (Across) themers unless / until I have to. So the revealer revealed, and all the theme answers are interesting phrases, and the grid is clean, and I didn't get tripped up anywhere, so I'm pretty happy.

[Dutchess and Gabby eying the PEOPLE FOOD]

I had one initial error today. I wrote in "DON'T STAND" (?) instead of "DON'T GET UP" (3D: "Stay seated"). I got out of that one when I ended up with SENE at 23A, which is obviously not a thing. At first I thought maybe EPIC was wrong (24D: "Beowulf" or the "Iliad"), but then I decided STAND was wrong, and GET UP slid right into its place. I didn't make a mistake with WENT, but I balked at it and refused to write it in because the clue seemed off (39D: Left the area). I mean ... [Left] would do just as well. What's this "the area" stuff?? It adds nothing. That's a better clue for, say, WENT AWAY, not just WENT. So as I say, I just left it, and ended up finishing with it, which is why it's highlighted in today's answer grid (above) (the highlighted answer is almost always the very last thing I entered in the grid—I just leave the cursor where it is, take a screenshot, and that's that).

[10D: Music genre for Bob Marley]

Additional notes:

• 31A: Whoopi's role in 1985's "The Color Purple" (CELIE) — this seems hard for a Monday. I never saw it, as it's an Across answer. I think I would've remembered the name, but I'm not sure. It's funny (-ish) that CELIE is the second Whoopi role I can think of that appears from time to time in crosswords. The other is ODA Mae Brown, the character she played in Ghost (for which she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar) (ODA is also old school crosswordese, most often clued as [Harem room] or [Seraglio section]). CELIE has now appeared in the NYTXW 14 times, all of them with a Color Purple-related clue.
• 33D: Secret compartment, informally (HIDEY HOLE) — one of a very nice set of four long Downs today. Here's Chippy, our resident (front porch) chipmunk, in his HIDEY HOLE (of sorts):

• 43A: Popular brand of hiking sandals (TEVA) — the very phrase "hiking sandals" sounds like an oxymoron to me, but as someone who has developed toe (bean) blisters lately due to semi-dramatic increase in walking, I may have to look into some free-toe alternative to normal footwear. Or else just tape my toes. Or get a shoe with a wider toe box. Or just lie around on the couch watching movies and stop walking altogether. Somehow running (which I also do) has never given me blisters, but walking ... bah. I feel betrayed by walking, honestly.

Thanks to Rafa and Eli for filling in for me while I recovered from facial surgery that was way more ... involved (and gruesome) than I thought it would be. Basal cell carcinoma on the nose ... I've had better times at the doctor! Anyway, I get to wear a nose bandage for a couple weeks, so I'm gonna get a fedora and a suit and pretend I'm Jake Gittes from Chinatown. I'm sure that reference will go over Big with my students.

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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