Modern anxiety source, in brief / MON 1-6-24 / South Korea's second-largest city / Amy who voiced Joy in "Inside Out" / Chats with on Insta / Instrument that may be included in a birthday goodie bag

Constructor: Rena Cohen

Relative difficulty: Medium (solved Downs-only)

THEME: DRAW CONCLUSIONS (57A: Use deductive reasoning ... or a hint to what 17-, 27- and 43-Across all have) — final words ("conclusions") of the theme answers are all synonyms of "draw"

Theme answers:

• CHARACTER SKETCH (17A: Theatrical description)
• GOLDEN DOODLE (27A: Dog crossbreed known for its teddy bear appearance)
• CONTACT TRACE (43A: Track exposures to a disease, as a n epidemiologist might)

Word of the Day: RAUL Esparza (62A: Actor Esparza) —

Raúl Eduardo Esparza (born October 24, 1970) is an American actor. Considered one of Broadway's most prominent leading men since the 2000s, he is best known for his Tony Award-nominated performance as Bobby in the 2006 Broadway revival of Company and for his television role as New York Assistant District Attorney (ADA) Rafael Barba in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, where he had a recurring role in Season 14 and was promoted to a series regular in Seasons 15 to 19.

He made his Broadway debut in 2000 as Riff Raff in the revival of The Rocky Horror Show. Subsequently, he starred as Jonathan in the original Off-Broadway production of Tick, Tick... Boom! and Caractacus Potts in the original Broadway production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in 2005. He received Tony nominations for his roles as Philip Sallon in the Boy George musical Taboo in 2004; Bobby in the musical comedy Company in 2006; Lenny in Harold Pinter's play The Homecoming in 2008; and Charlie Fox in David Mamet's play Speed-the-Plow in 2009. Most recently, he starred in the Off-Broadway productions Road Show and Seared in 2019, and Oliver! in 2023.

Esparza has been nominated in all Tony categories for which an actor is eligible. He is widely regarded for his versatility on stage, having performed musicals by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stephen Sondheim, Kander and Ebb, Boy George, the Sherman Brothers and in plays by Mamet, Pinter, William Shakespeare, Tom Stoppard, and more. (wikipedia)

• • •

***ATTENTION: READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS*** : It's early January, which means it's time once again for my annual week-long pitch for financial contributions to the blog. Every year I ask readers to consider what the blog is worth to them on an annual basis and give accordingly. Writing this blog is a joy, but it is also a job—an everyday, up-by-4am job. My morning schedule is regular as hell. So regular that my cats know my routine and will start walking all over me if I even *stir* after 3am. You ever lie there in the early morning, dying to simply roll over or stretch, but knowing that the second you do, the second you so much as budge, the cats will take it as a signal that you're through with sleep and ready to serve them? So you just lie perfectly still, trying to get every ounce of bedrest you can before the cats ruin it all? That's me, every morning. I guess you could say they "help" get me up on time to write, but come on, I have an alarm for that. The cats are adorable, but frankly they're no help at all. After I feed them, I go upstairs to write, and what do they do? They go straight back to sleep. Here I'll show you. This was two days ago, when I came downstairs after writing:

And this was yesterday, same time:

Those pictures are from two different days, I swear. And I'm guessing when I go downstairs this morning, I'll find much the same thing. They are beautiful creatures, but they cannot solve or type or bring me warm beverages. When it comes to blogging, I'm on my own. And look, I'm not asking for pity. The truth is, I love my life (and my cats), but the truth *also* is that writing this blog involves a lot of work. I get up and I solve and I write, hoping each day to give you all some idea of what that experience was like for me, as well as some insight into the puzzle's finer (or less fine) qualities—the intricacies of its design, the trickiness of its clues, etc. The real value of the blog, though, is that it offers a sort of commiseration. While I like to think my writing is (at its best) entertaining, I know that sometimes all people need is someone who shares their joy or feels their pain. If you hate a clue, or get stuck and struggle, or otherwise want to throw the puzzle across the room, you know I'm here for you, and that even if my experience is not identical to yours, I Understand! I understand that even though "it's just a puzzle," it's also a friend and a constant companion and a ritual and sometimes a Betrayer! I don't give you objective commentary—I give you my sincere (if occasionally hyperbolic) feelings about the puzzle, what it felt like to solve it. I can dress those feelings up in analytical clothes, sure, but still, ultimately, I'm just one human being out here feeling my puzzle feelings. And hopefully that makes you feel something too—ideally, something good, but hey I'm not picky. Whatever keeps you coming back! Hate-readers are readers too!

Whatever kind of reader you are, you're a reader, and I would appreciate your support. This blog has covered the NYTXW every day, without fail, for over eighteen (18!?) years, and except for two days a month (when my regular stand-ins Mali and Clare write for me), and an occasional vacation or sick day (when I hire substitutes to write for me), it's me who's doing the writing. Over the years, I have received all kinds of advice about "monetizing" the blog, invitations to turn it into a subscription-type deal à la Substack or Patreon. And maybe I'd make more money that way, I don't know, but that sort of thing has never felt right for me. And honestly, does anyone really need yet another subscription to manage? As I've said in years past, I like being out here on Main, on this super old-school blogging platform, just giving it away for free and relying on conscientious addicts like yourselves to pay me what you think the blog's worth. It's just nicer that way. 

How much should you give? Whatever you think the blog is worth to you on a yearly basis. Whatever that amount is is fantastic. Some people refuse to pay for what they can get for free. Others just don't have money to spare. All are welcome to read the blog—the site will always be open and free. But if you are able to express your appreciation monetarily, here are three options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar on the homepage):

Second, a mailing address (checks can be made out to "Michael Sharp" or "Rex Parker"):

Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905

The third, increasingly popular option is Venmo; if that's your preferred way of moving money around, my handle is @MichaelDavidSharp (the last four digits of my phone are 4878, in case Venmo asks you, which I guess it does sometimes, when it's not trying to push crypto on you, what the hell?!)

All Paypal contributions will be gratefully acknowledged by email. All Venmo contributions will get a little heart emoji, at a minimum :) All snail mail contributions will be gratefully acknowledged with hand-written postcards. I. Love. Snail Mail. I love seeing your gorgeous handwriting and then sending you my awful handwriting. It's all so wonderful. My daughter (Ella Egan) has once again designed my annual thank-you card, and once again the card features (wait for it) cats! 

Ida & Alfie, my little yin/yang sleepers! (They're slowly becoming friends, but don't tell them that—it makes them mad and they will deny it). Please note: I don't keep a "mailing list" and don't share my contributor info with anyone. And if you give by snail mail and (for some reason) don't want a thank-you card, just indicate "NO CARD." Again, as ever, I'm so grateful for your readership. Please know that your support means a lot to me and my family. Now on to today's puzzle... 

• • •

Today, the theme actually helped me finish this one. I could not think of a word that could follow CONTACT that was not HIGH or LENS or SOLUTION or BRIDGE (which I'm now realizing is wrong, since it's contract bridge). Solving Downs-only, I had no access to the CONTACT TRACE clue, so even when I got to CONTACT TR-, I wasn't sure. CONTACT TRACE just isn't a phrase I'm very familiar with. A verb phrase? I'm sure it was used a bunch during early COVID, but [shrug]. Did not register. I kinda wanted TRACE, but since I couldn't really define the phrase, I just left it blank and hoped for crosses to help me out. Only they didn't. [Start of a count?] in three letters??? That could just as easily have been TEN as ONE. And ICEES? Nah, was not seeing that from the clue (42D: Colorful summer drinks). I was thinking of various Kool-Aid-type drinks, or limeade or lemonade or something. Plus I had SEEM- at 48A and assumed the answer would be SEEMS (not "SEE ME," which is what it turned out to be). And I wasn't really entirely sure about REPLAN, tbh (45D: Come up with a new schedule). So right where I needed the Downs most, they failed me. But I was able to look at what I assumed (correctly) was the revealer (DRAW CONCLUSIONS), see that the other two long answers ended in synonyms for "draw," and work out TRACE from there. And that was that. 

Pretty easy, otherwise, from a Downs-only perspective. Definitely had a "leave it blank" moment at the end of SNO- (25D: Arrogant sort). "Arrogance" says SNOB more than SNOT. A SNOT is just a pain in the ass, whereas a SNOB affects an air of superiority. This SNOB/SNOT thing was an issue for a lot of people just a few days ago, where people who didn't know what GELT was ended up with GELB (!?) because they assumed that one of the answers was SNOB, not SNOT. And here we are again. Coulda just gone FIDO at 34A and taken SNOT right out of the grid (never a bad idea). But in the end, no big deal. MELBS is not a word, so the "T" won out (37A: Sandwiches that often contain tuna = MELTS). One other Downs-only flummoxer: TROWEL (44D: Gardner's tool). I had the "T" and went with TILLER (!?!). A TROWEL is a kind of TILLER, isn't it?

I'm kind of glad I didn't have to deal with the Acrosses today, as not only would CONTRACT TRACE have been somewhat of a struggle, but neither TARA nor RAUL would've been known to me. I'm pretty sure we've seen this particular TARA a few times now, but her name's not sticking. TARA Reid and TARA Lipinski are reflexes, but TARA Westover ... not yet (16A: Westover with the best-selling memoir "Educated"). But since I was solving Downs-only, the only proper noun I had to deal with that I didn't know was XO, Kitty (???!)—which sounds more romcom than "drama." It's the first Netflix series to be spun off of a Netflix original film (the To All The Boys... film series). I still have a Netflix subscription, but it's mostly just a mediocre content generator now, producing the kind of shows designed to be followed when you just have them on in the background, and it doesn't have any movies older than 1973 at the moment, so I don't pay much attention to it.Thus the Netflixverse remains only dimly known to me. Luckily, I knew what Riverdale was, and was able to get the entirety of TEEN DRAMA off just the "T." 


Bullet points:

• 55A: Amy who voiced Joy in "Inside Out" (POEHLER) — easy to pick up Downs-only, but this clue does not seem so "Monday" to me. I (almost) never know who does the voice-acting in things. Amy POEHLER is Monday-famous for SNL and Parks & Rec. Still, it's Monday, and even if you didn't know she did this, her name shouldn't have been too hard to come up with. It's kind of nice to branch out from the predictable clues (as well as the predictable TARAs—see above). Fun fact: Amy POEHLER made her full-name NYTXW debut back in 2013, in one of my puzzles)
• 26A: Follower of double-you, ex, wye (ZEE) — really want ANDZEE here, but only 'cause I'm singing the alphabet song in my head.
• 61A: South Korea's second-largest city (BUSAN) — I know about this city because of a car chase in Black Panther. What? You learn geography however you learn it. The point is that you learn it.

• 34A: Modern anxiety source, in brief (FOMO) — Fear Of Missing Out. Because of internet/phone/social media, you know about too many events, too many for you to participate in, and so when you inevitably can't do everything, you ... have anxiety. You didn't used to know what you were missing and it was nice.
• 5A: Cookies that are sometimes dunked in milk (OREOS) — this had to be OREOS because ALLOFTHEM wouldn't fit.

This week I'm highlighting the best puzzles of 2024 by focusing on one day at a time. I kept a spreadsheet of every puzzle I solved last year, complete with ratings from 0-100 (with 50 being my idea of an "average" NYTXW) (They really did average out to around 50, with Saturday being my fav day (avg 57.7), and Sunday (obviously) being my least fav (avg 42.9). 

Here are my Top Three Monday Puzzles of 2024. (I'm not ranking them; it's nicer that way)

• Elliot Caroll, YOU CAN CALL ME AL (Monday, 12/9/24)—three things that can be abbreviated "AL"; simple, elegant, just what a Monday theme should be (with an interesting grid to boot)
• Alana Platt, ON THE BOARD (Monday, 6/3/24)—things found on a board. CHARCUTERIE, etc. Again, simple, clean, polished, entertaining.
• Peter Gordon, TOTAL ECLIPSE (Monday, 4/8/24)—a puzzle commemorating April's solar eclipse. It ran on the correct day and everything. Themers were songs that would be "apt" to play during an eclipse, with Bonnie Tyler's "TOTAL ECLIPSE / OF THE HEART" being broken into two parts so the first part could stand as the revealer (a particularly ingenious move)

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]