Encrypted messaging software / MON 6-23-25 / Org. to which to report a phone scam / Fuzzy green stuff on some trees / Texas city in the book and film "Friday Night Lights" / Popular vitamin brand or its recommended dosage / Groups of spin doctors, informally / Yorkie-___ (dog hybrid) / Nursery item with slatted sides

Constructor: Zhouqin Burnikel

Relative difficulty: Medium (solved Downs-only) (failed, though—one wrong square)

THEME: "Shut up!" — all theme clues are synonyms for "Shut up!" and follow the pattern "[Verb] it!"; the answer is something you literally [whatever the verb is]:

Theme answers:

• DILL PICKLE (15A: Can it!) (you might can a DILL PICKLE)
• SLEEPING BAG (33A: Zip it!) (you might zip a SLEEPING BAG) 
• BEDROOM DOOR (40A: Shut it!) (you might shut a BEDROOM DOOR)
• DRESS SHIRT (60A: Button it!)  (you might button a DRESS SHIRT)

Word of the Day:  FTC (4D: Org. to which to report a phone scam) —

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. It shares jurisdiction over federal civil antitrust law enforcement with the Department of Justice Antitrust Division. The agency is headquartered in the Federal Trade Commission Building in Washington, DC. (wikipedia)

• • •

Hello from the coast of Lake Ontario. It's lovely here.

I don't have my usual blogging set-up here; specifically, I don't have a printer. It feels terribly awkward for me to write about the puzzle if I haven't printed it out and marked it up by hand, if only because I have to toggle between windows to see the damned puzzle at all. I'm sure that for some digital natives, such toggling feels like second nature, but I need the print-out. I need to annotate with a pen. So this no-print-out thing sucks. But I'll survive. As for this puzzle, the theme seems fine. You see this type of clue in the puzzle all the time (e.g. [Beat it!] for BONGO, say, or EGG). And today you get a whole theme's worth, with the unifying factor being that all the theme clues have the same idiomatic meaning (i.e. they all mean, essentially, "shut up!"). Solving Downs-only, I never saw the theme clues, so the theme answers seemed random. No way to see the connection among the answers. Obviously, not a fault of the puzzle's. Anyway, theme seems fine. Fill also seems fine. No real complaints. Loved OPEN MRI. Didn't love SENATE BILL (just a bit on the dull side). Not sure how I feel about "I HAD A BLAST." I think I come down in favor of it. Seems like a complete, self-contained, free-standing phrase. Overall, the grid is pretty choppy, with lots of short answers, so you have to suffer through a lot of KOLA KAMA ASANA APIA SNO ODESSA BENET ANDS AOL SATON INAPP and other unprettiness. But the grid's more solid than not. 

I failed in my Downs-only efforts. I thought the org. you complained to about phone scams was the FCC. Federal Communications Commissions. The phone is a means of communication, I reasoned (poorly). The real answer was FTC (Federal Trade Commission—see Word of the Day, above). FCC gave me SCRAP in the Across, which, as you know, is a perfectly legitimate-looking answer. So ... that's it. Sucks to fail on a cruddy initialism, but these are the risks you take. 


Bullet points:

• 13D: Encrypted messaging software (SIGNAL) — I would never know this software exists were it not for the utter incompetence of the Secretary of Defense et al. around the bombing of Yemen earlier this year, which, of course, everyone forgot about almost immediately because every day brings some fresh incompetence that would've been career-ending in any prior administration. Remember when Clinton fired Joycelyn Elders as Surgeon General because she said that masturbation should be mentioned as part of a safer sex school curriculum? "Elders' comments on masturbation caused great controversy and resulted in Elders losing the support of the White House." Black woman speaks frankly and realistically (and responsibly) about sex, gets fired. But completely unqualified white guy breaks law by going outside established communication protocol, endangers US soldiers' lives in the process, and then lies about it ... everyone acts concerned for a day or so and then .... nothing. What a world.
• 31D: See 30-Across (RADIO) — Kinda hard to "See 30-Across" when you aren't reading Across clues. Had to just wing this one. Had ROGE- at 30-Across and thought maybe ROGET at first but then ROGER made RADIO look plausible, and since there was a clear thematic connection there, I just went with it.
• 33A: Zip it! (SLEEPING BAG)  — obviously I didn't see this clue (solving Downs-only), so when I got to SLEEPING --G, I went with what seemed like the obvious answer (to me): SLEEPING DOG. As in, let SLEEPING DOGs lie. No idea how my brain bypassed the much more reasonable SLEEPING BAG. But then I also wrote in LEAK at 57D: Faucet annoyance when I'd already written it in as the correct answer for 54D: Air mattress problem. I blame vacation brain. Up late last night at concert, busy all day today with travel / seeing best friends / drinking / eating / ice cream / jigsaw puzzling / drinking ... probably not the best conditions for peak puzzle-solving. Good thing I've got substitute blog writers for most of the rest of the week. I think I'm back on Thursday. See you then (Clare's on at her normal last-Tuesday-of-the-month time, tomorrow).

Stay cool, everyone.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
=============================
❤️ Support this blog ❤️: 

• Paypal 
• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

=============================
✏️ Upcoming Crossword Tournaments ✏️

• Boswords (Boston) (Sun. July 27, 2025)
• Lollapuzzoola 18 (NYC) (Sat., Aug. 9, 2025) 
• Midwest Crossword Tournament (Chicago) (Sat., Oct. 4, 2025)

=============================
📘 My other blog 📘:

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)