"Zoom fatigue" is a modern one / TUE 1-7-25 / Sacred insect in a hieroglyph / Communists want to dISMantle it / Hurls forcibly, in modern slang / Protagonist of Shakespeare's first tragedy / ___ Szewinska, only sprinter (male or female) to hold world records in the 100m, 200m and 400m events / Ours contain about 700 megabytes of information / "___ my Eggo!" (bygone waffle slogan)

Constructor: Dana Edwards

Relative difficulty: Challenging (**for a Tuesday**)

THEME: self-referential clues — theme clues offer typographical representations of the answer:

Theme answers:

• CAPITAL "ISM" (17A: Communists want to dISMantle it)
• SUBSCRIPT "ION" (27A: It's conditioned on regular payments)
• BOLD-FACED "LIE" (42A: It's hard to believe)
• "RENT" STRIKE (56A: Protest seeking a different arrangement from landlords)

Word of the Day: troll ARMY (61A: Troll ___) —

[synonym of "troll farm"] A troll farm or troll factory is an institutionalised group of internet trolls that seeks to interfere in political opinions and decision-making. ^// Freedom House's report showed that 30 governments worldwide (out of 65 covered by the study) paid keyboard armies to spread propaganda and attack critics. According to the report, these governments use paid commentors, trolls, and bots to harass journalists and erode trust in the media. Attempts were made to influence elections in 18 of the countries covered by the study.

• • •

***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... 

• • •

OK, yes, it's. Tuesday, so that puzzle isn't *hard* in any kind of absolute sense, but I got slowed down more often by this thing than I do by many Friday puzzles. The fast parts were fast, but literally from square one I felt like I was in Vagueville over and over, which left me relying on crosses to get even fairly simple answers. 1A: Disordered state (DAZE). Really? I guess your mind is "disordered" when you are in a DAZE, but if you'd said "name five four-letter words that mean 'disordered state," DAZE would not have been one of them. MESS was the first one I had. Then there was the clue on USES (24D: Olive oil has many of them). Lots of things have lots of USES! "Use" is not a top-of-the-brain olive oil quality. See also TRENDS, like ... things do "trend" on TikTok ... or do you mean that the site can start various internet "trends." Either way, that clue does not seem very TikTok-specific. [Robes and such] for GARB? What makes a "robe" any more "garb-y" than any other piece of clothing?? PATSY (22A: Pushover) was a problem both because the word itself is dated-ish (do people still say "PATSY") and the clue was not specific enough (I think of "patsy" more as a specific mark, or sucker, than a general "pushover"). Look at all these synonyms for PATSY—not a "pushover" among them:

Even with stuff I got easily, like "IT'S A TRAP" (40+ years old) and "HEY YA" (20+ years old) the puzzle seemed to be asking for knowledge that was neither current nor universally famous. I sometimes teach Shakespeare and even I was like "was TITUS Andronicus really first?" (18D: Protagonist of Shakespeare's first tragedy). Much of the TITUS USES GENES AYES GARB section was empty after my first pass, which meant the EYE in EYE OPENER was missing, making *that* answer hard to get (31D: Shocker). I got NEOLOGISM pretty fast, but that's a pretty esoteric word for a Tuesday (32D: "Zoom fatigue" is a modern one). No idea who IRENA is. None. Was she in the last summer Olympics? LOL no, all her medals are from the '60s and '70s (21A: ___ Szewinska, only sprinter (male or female) to hold world records in the 100m, 200m and 400m events). Come on, that's obscure on any day, especially Tuesday. And parsing ET CETERA from *that* clue, yikes (37D: "You get the picture"). Again, I finished without ever getting stuck stuck, it's just that, compared to most Tuesdays, this one offered a notably sluggish experience. Maybe I'm just readjusting to Shortz editing after that extended Fagliano stretch, I dunno. Seems possible.

Weirdly, the theme had nothing to do with the difficulty. In fact, that was the easiest part of the puzzle, largely because the typographical anomalies actually gave you a second clue. Every theme clue was thus double-clued, so ... yeah, no challenge there. That's not to say the idea isn't clever. I think this is a wonderful early-week theme. The theme was the one properly Tuesday thing about this puzzle! It worked perfectly. The relevant letters in the clues are CAPITAL or they're written in SUBSCRIPT or they're BOLD-FACED ... STRIKE is a mild anomaly, in that it's the only verb of the bunch (as well as the only typographical indicator to come at the end of the answer as opposed to the beginning), but conceptually it's right in line with the others—a typographical representation of the answer. Some of those theme clues have to get a little bit ... convoluted? contrived? improbable? ... in order to shoehorn the relevant letter strings in there, but overall I thought the execution of the theme was pretty smooth. There wasn't much that I actively disliked about this puzzle (besides the gratuitous H*rry P*tter content, always unwelcome). An above-average Tuesday, I'd say.

Bullets:

• 30A: Ours contain about 700 megabytes of information (GENES) — I wanted LOBES (!?!?). No idea how to get to that answer from that number (except by crosses)
• 51A: "___ my Eggo!" (bygone waffle slogan) ("LEGGO!") — a gimme, but kind of a non-term (the "word" exists solely in a bygone ad). Also, the answer kind of dupes "GO" (see "DON'T GO!" at 44D: "Stay!"). I do like the phrase "bygone waffle slogan," though. It's ridiculous and it knows it.
• 10D: One paying a flat fee? (TENANT) — if the TENANT is British, yes.
• 53D: Kind of place that’s beside the point? (ONES) — the “point” here is a decimal 
• 50D: Hurls forcibly, in modern slang (YEETS) — man, constructors have really taken to this term. I wonder how long they're going to cling to it after it's no longer being said by anyone except aging Gen Zedders? Silly to even ask that question. The crossword never throws anything away. I mean, we're still doing "NERTS!" for god's sake (Dec. 4, 2024!). It's YEETS for eternity, I'm afraid.

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 Tuesday Puzzles of 2024. (I'm not ranking them; it's nicer that way)

• Sarah Sinclair, THE NUTCRACKER (Tuesday, 12/24/24) — one of several excellent holiday / commemoration-themed puzzles on my Best-Of lists this year. This one had the little nutcracker teeth in the black squares, with the various "nuts" being "cracked" (i.e. broken in two) by said squares. A delightful holiday mood-setter.
• Barbara Lin, ["Dial 'S' for 'pantS'"] (add "S," get bottomwear) (Tuesday, 10/22/24)—hard to describe this theme elegantly, but it really worked in the moment. The good kind of "wacky" (LONG STORY SHORTS, SLEEP TIGHTS, etc.). Again, simplicity plus craft and polish yields terrific results in an early-week puzzle
• Aaron Rosenberg, "kinda" (Tuesday, 6/18/24)— more of the good wacky. Suffixes meaning "kinda" are added to words that already contain those suffixes. Sometimes silly-sounding answers are enough (esp. if the rest of the puzzle is well made). BURLESQUESQUE! JELLYFISHISH! So dumb. Loved it.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]