Boat with broad, square ends / THU 6-26-25 / Accessory for Broadway's Phantom / Atmospheric prefix / Brillo competitor / Baby fish with pink, coho and sockeye varieties / First Holy Roman emperor to be called "the Great" / Bygone jeans brand whose name means "happiness" in Hebrew / Bell for the telephone, for one / Eponymous Belgian town / Cocktail of tequila, lime juice and grapefruit soda / Potato, in Indian cuisine

Constructor: Simeon Seigel

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: ___ OR ___ — theme answers are familiar phrases where the first word follows the pattern _OR_; you must read the "OR" as a separate word in order to understand the pair of words in the theme clues:

Theme answers:

• HORN BLOWER (19A: Hurricane / Nor'easter) (word starting with "H" or "N" that means "blower")
• SORE SPOTS (10D: Sees / Espies) (word starting with "S" or "E" that means "spots")
• PORT AUTHORITY (Pundit / Tsar) (word starting with "P" or "T" that means "authority")
• CORD CUTTER (52A: Cleaver / Dagger) (word starting with "C" or "D" that means "cutter")
• WORM HOLES (33D: Wells / Mouths) (word starting with "W" or "M" that means "holes")

Word of the Day: OTS (34D: Certain rehab docs) —

Occupational therapists (OTs) are health care professionals specializing in occupational therapy and occupational science. OTs and occupational therapy assistants (OTAs) use scientific bases and a holistic perspective to promote a person's ability to fulfill their daily routines and roles. OTs have training in the physical, psychological, and social aspects of human functioning deriving from an education grounded in anatomical and physiological concepts, and psychological perspectives. They enable individuals across the lifespan by optimizing their abilities to perform activities that are meaningful to them ("occupations"). Human occupations include activities of daily living, work/vocation, play, education, leisure, rest and sleep, and social participation. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well that was hard, until I figured out the theme, and then it wasn't. And though the puzzle got easier after I got the theme, the fill did not, unfortunately, get better. This was full of wincing and ughing on my end, for sure. SAMLET? (7D: Baby fish with pink, coho and sockeye varieties). LOL, what in the world? The last time that word appeared in the NYXTX was, no joke, the literal day before I started this blog in 2006. If it's a word that's distinct from SALMON, why isn't "salmon" in the clue? Not that that would've helped ... except that it would've eliminated SALMON (also six letters) as a potential answer. SAMLET!? "Hmmm, what should I name my all-fish production of Shakespeare?" "Hmm. How 'bout Mackerelbeth?" "No, that's no good." "As You Pike It?" "Nah ... what else you got?" "Uh ... Tuna Gentlemen of Verona?" "No, that's silly! Keep thinking!" End scene. SAMLET? Craziness. Another thing I've never seen—OTS clued as "docs" (34D: Certain rehab docs). I had to look it up even to understand what the letters stood for. OTS has appeared many many times over the years, but only ever as an abbr. for "overtimes" (i.e. the periods in sports following regulation time, played only if there's a tie). No idea that BEANO was anything but an anti-gas product (1D: Original name for "bingo," after the bits used to cover the playing cards). No idea that SASSON was Hebrew for anything (7A: Bygone jeans brand whose name means "happiness" in Hebrew). I could've inferred what a PATENTEE is, but man that is one ugly word (and one I've never encountered before) (16A: Bell for the telephone, for one). The crosswordese was rampant today, from OTTOI (whose memory lives on solely because of crosswords), AER, AROAR, the dreaded ERIEPA (which I always want to pronounce as one word (air-ee-APE-ah!) but which is really just ERIE, PA). Then there's the awful, cutesy slang for the disease that killed over a million Americans between 2020 and 2023. Nevermind that I haven't heard anyone actually call it "'RONA" in years (53D: Covid-19, colloquially). Yuck and BOO to that clue.

[HORNBLOWER]

So there wasn't much that was amusing me in this one today. Everything is riding on the gimmick, and while I did have an "aha" moment, for sure, I can't say there was much joy, or awe, or pleasure, or anything that accompanied the "aha." I was just glad that I could (finally) see what was going on with the answers. Me: "well, those both blow, but ... what does 'horn' have to do with it?" I think I finally figured it out with "S" OR "E" SPOTS. "Sees" and "Espies" both mean "SPOTS" but ... how are they "sore?" How? How? Somehow, my brain managed to crack "SORE" into three parts: "S" OR "E." And that was that. My brain had a lot less success trying to parse OWEITTO (32D: Must give). It's an awful clue. Where is the "IT" coming from??? For that matter, where is the "TO" coming from? [Must give] = OWE. Good luck swapping out "OWE IT TO" for "Must give" in a sentence (without calling in lawyers and lexicographers, i.e. without seeming desperate). 

[Watson / Mabuse?]

I think you're supposed to admire how many theme answers there are, and how several of them actually intersect (not the easiest thing to pull off, structurally). I recognize the architectural achievement, sure, but it did nothing to increase my solving enjoyment levels, which remained pretty low throughout. There just wasn't enough cool fill, or enough wit or cleverness, to make this consistently entertaining. The main theme idea is cute, but it's not what you'd call funny. It's a little word trick that's tough to figure out, but once you do ... shrug. In the end, it was gimmicky without being delightful. Plus you had to endure awkward Latinness with DATUM and STERNA. There's no joy in that.

Bullets:

• 59A: They try to admit the worst first, informally (E.R. NURSES) — do the nurses do the admitting? Whatever, I'm going to assume that's true and say that I like this clue. The real meaning of "admit" is disguised nicely.
• 65A: Choice words ... which are necessary to interpret the answers to 19-, 36- and 52-Across and 10- and 33-Down) (ORS) — I'm only just noticing this (awkwardly worded and completely unnecessary) revealer now. "Which are necessary to interpret" does not begin to get at what is going on here. Something about the "ORS" being buried or hidden or something like that would've made more sense. If you're going to bother with a revealer, at least get the phrasing right.  
• 63A: Marquis name? (DE SADE) — sadism and COVID in the same corner, what a day!
• 13D: Music export from Tokyo, informally (J-POP) — short for "Japanese Pop Music," not to be confused with K-POP, Korean Pop Music (of which BTS is an example) (20D: Music export from Seoul)
• 38D: Love lines? (ODE) — "Lines" of poetry about something you "love." Poetry dressed up as palmistry. Nice.
• 39D: Dutch cousin of Mac or Ben (VAN) — as in, say, Martin VAN Buren (our mutton-choppiest president). I thought "VAN" meant "from," whereas "Mac" meant "son of?" But I guess using "cousin" in the clue gives you a lot of leeway in terms of how close the equivalency really is. I wrote in VON at first, but that's German, not Dutch.

[VAN!]

• 60D: Car that went defunct in 1936 (REO) — not to be confused with the GEO, which "went defunct" in 1997.

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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