Portmanteau drinking hangouts / SUN 6-15-25 / Hit 1981 German language film / Thawb-wearing leaders / Grasslike marsh plant / Nail polish brand with a "Wicked"-inspired collection / Comparatively upper-crust, in a way / Figure with an eponymous fire / Five-time world chess champion Viswanathan "Vishy" / University whose name sounds like a kind of highway / Scenario for a software developer

Constructor: Adam Wagner and Rebecca Goldstein

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "Tossing and Turning" — themers have two clues; the first one is literal (enter the answer normally) and the second can only be understood if you read the answer INSIDE OUT AND BACKWARDS (9D: How a shirt might be put on in a rush ... or a hint to this puzzle's theme)—that is, backwards, with one of the letters in the word "INSIDE" (found in a circled square in each themer) taken "out" ... the circled squares spell out "INSIDE" if you read top to bottom along the left side of the grid and bottom to top along the right:

Theme answers:

• NETI POT (23A: Device used to clear out nasal passages / Final part of a radio countdown (i.e. Top Ten))
• DNA BANKS (36A: Genetic repositories / Reel Big Fish or Sublime (i.e. ska band))
• DAS BOOT (54A: Hit 1981 German language film / "What a shame!" (i.e. "too bad!"))
• DIET TIPS (80A: Offering from Healthline / Roasting on an open fire, maybe (i.e. spitted))
• BARCADES (98A: Portmanteau drinking hangouts / Marine crustacean (i.e. sea crab))
• WASPIER (115A: Comparatively upper-crust, in a way / Wood cutter (i.e. rip saw))

• ROMAINE (118A: Component of a Caesar salad / Captivate (i.e. enamor))
• TENSPEED (101A: Like some bikes / Sunken, as the eyes (i.e. deep-set))
• T.S. ELIOT (84A: Pioneer in Modernist poetry / Throne (i.e. toilet))
• SIGNORAS (58A: Women abroad / Wrapped garments (i.e. sarongs))
• TRADES ON (40A: Takes advantage of / Decoration painted on many a W.W. II aircraft (i.e. nose art)
• OMELETS (25A: Brunch entrees / Figure with an eponymous fire (i.e. St. Elmo))

Word of the Day: TODAY (81D: Program that debuted a little before "The Tonight Show," appropriately) —

Today (also called The Today Show) is an American morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was the first of its genre on American television and in the world, and after 73 years of broadcasting it is fifth on the list of longest-running American television series.

Originally a two-hour program airing weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., it expanded to Sundays in 1987 and Saturdays in 1992. The weekday broadcast expanded to three hours in 2000, and to four hours in 2007 (though over time, the third and fourth hours became distinct entities). Today's dominance was virtually unchallenged by the other networks until the late 1980s, when it was overtaken by ABC's Good Morning America.

Today retook the Nielsen ratings lead the week of December 11, 1995, and held onto that position for 852 consecutive weeks until the week of April 9, 2012, when Good Morning America topped it again. Today maintained its No. 2 status behind GMA from the summer of 2012 until it regained the lead in the aftermath of anchor Matt Lauer's departure in November 2017. (wikipedia)

• • •

Architecturally impressive, but not terribly fun to solve. The secondary clues just made everything too easy. I often didn't even look at the forward-facing clue, finding it weirdly easier to get some crosses and then solve the backward, circle-less version of the clue. As for the gimmick itself, it really didn't take long to pick up at all. I got NETIPOT without really noticing what was going on with the clues. I got the theme with the next themer I encountered, but only because the band name Reel Big Fish really caught my attention. Not exactly a household name, but I'd heard of them. I wanted that answer to end with BANDS, but then, for some reason, I actually looked *back* at the full clue for NETIPOT, noticed that the second clue ([Final part of a radio countdown]) was NETIPOT backwards minus the circled "I"—i.e., TOP TEN—and then applied the same logic to the Reel Big Fish clue; *that's* when I saw that "BAND" was heading backward—DNA BANKS in one direction, SKA BAND in the other. After that, I didn't need the actual revealer. I had the gimmick concept, and all themers were twice as easy to get thereafter as they would've been in a simple single-clue situation. 

As for that revealer, it's cute. Take the letters spelled out by the circled letters, i.e. "INSIDE," out of the puzzle, then read the resulting answers backwards, and you get the correct answer to the second half of all the themer clues. I don't really understand why INSIDE is running up the right half of the grid "backwards." That's an extra flourish that doesn't really have anything to do with solving the themers. The "backwards" part obviously applies to how you read each individual theme answer, so the "backwards" INSIDE ... is an add-on. A doubling up of the significance of "backwards" I guess. I also don't fully understand the title, which doesn't really evoke what's going on with the theme at all. The "Turning" I get, but not the "Tossing" so much. Nothing's being scrambled or anagrammed, so I'm not sure what the "Tossing" part is supposed to signify [update: as I was making the coffee just now, I suddenly realized that “Tossing” meant “getting rid of,”which is of course what you have to do to the circled letters to understand the backwards answers—so the title is good, I apologize]. I don't think I've ever put a shirt on INSIDE OUT AND BACKWARDS in my life—doing either one of those things would be highly unusual; doing both, nearly impossible. But sure, it could happen. [Full disclosure: my first stab at the revealer was INSIDE OUT AND OUTSIDE IN (it fit!?)].  I admire the complexity of the theme, but as I say, the whole thing just lacked a certain sense of mystery and fun once I grasped the concept. Too easy too easy too easy. But, admittedly, a genuine marvel, architecturally.

Almost no black ink on my puzzle print-out, which means hardly any trouble spots. I had trouble with HEAVIES because (as you can see) I had ARNOLD before AHNOLD, so didn't have the "H" for HEAVIES. Also, I don't know that meaning of HEAVIES. To me, "HEAVIES" are the villains in a story or movie, whereas "heavy-hitters" are [Big, important people, informally]. Weird. I somehow managed to remember NIECY, which was my big pop culture victory for the day. Definitely learned her from crosswords (11D: Actress Nash of "Never Have I Ever"). Never heard of Viswanathan "Vishy" ANAND (34A: Five-time world chess champion Viswanathan "Vishy" ___)). Again with the chess, ugh. Bah. PAH. Totally overrepresented in the puzzle, relative to general interest. A lot of you complain about "rappers" in the puzzle, but those "rappers" are usually exceedingly famous, whereas even the most famous chess player (besides maybe Bobby Jones [sorry, Fischer], or Magnus Carlsen) is not even NIECY Nash levels of famous. Oh, wait, Kasparov! And Spassky! OK, maybe I know more chess players than I thought. To be very fair to this "Vishy" person, he's clearly a huge deal ... in chess. But ... shrug. To me, that's like being a huge deal in luge. I just have no idea. 

Also never heard of BARCADES, which sounds terrible, in that the last thing I want to hear when I'm drinking is the sound of an arcade ... or any sound, frankly, beyond the murmur of background conversations and occasional tinkling of ice in glasses (98A: Portmanteau drinking hangouts). Maybe some jazz, not too loud. Arcade!? Hell no. Not drinking there.

[The perfect bar. Whiskey, cheap sandwiches, and not an arcade in sight]

USECASE is a super boring and ugly answer (16D: Scenario for a software developer). Most of the rest of the grid is pretty clean and well constructed, though. No real highlights for me (except maybe TEA SNOB ... a type of person I've never met) (I know some TEA aficionados, but none of them strike me as "snobs"). If you want very deeply informed, well-written essays on tea, with no snobbery whatsoever, I recommend Max Falkowitz's newsletter, Leafhopper. I subscribe, and I don't even drink that much tea (though I drink more than before I started reading). Coffee is a love affair I can't seem to break off. I've tried. No luck. I'm a more controlled drinker now. No coffee past 9am. I just can't give up the ritual. It's too important to my sense of the day, to my sense of the day's beginning. It's a thing I do, carefully, slowly, deliberately, with my cats. It's honestly the closest I'll ever come to being Philip Marlowe (OK, I'm conflating book-Marlowe and movie-Marlowe here; the former is fastidious about coffee, the latter has a cat ... basically, I'm Every Marlowe (it's all in me)).

How much do I love Marlowe (all the Marlowes)? And cats? I just bought this limited edition print (by Brianna Ashby) which I will have framed and then prominently display in my office, or possibly my kitchen:

["I Got a Cat" (Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe in Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973))]]

Bullets:

• 1A: "Oh, fiddlesticks!" ("AW, DARN!") — not a huge fan of these ambiguous and contrived exclamations: some combo of "oh" or "aw" and then "rats" or "dang" or "darn" (and maybe others I'm forgetting). This is only the second "AW, DARN!" Looks like we've had four "OH, DARN!"s, three "OH, RATS!," five "AW, RATS!," etc. Mix and match
• 72A: Actress Sink of "Stranger Things" (SADIE) — it's a hard name to forget. Born in 2002, she's been acting since she was ten (lead in Annie) and just this year got a Tony nomination for Best Actress in a play for her lead role in John Proctor Is the Villain.

• 52A: Thawb-wearing leaders (EMIRS) — got this from "leaders." Never heard of a "thawb," which is the "long-sleeved, ankle-length robe." Perhaps unshockingly, THAWB (5) has never appeared in the NYTXW. But now we all know it, so ... why not? Sure. Go ahead.
• 100A: Film studio with a tower that beeped out "V for Victory" during W.W. II (RKO) — it's not a big deal, but something about the way this clue dupes the idea of "V"-as-symbol irritated me (see 7A: Peace symbol = V-SIGN) 
• 125A: How the U.S. has existed since its inception (IN DEBT) — a real awkward clue. I guess it's true. I mean, here we are, it's in the puzzle, so I assume it's true. But the phrasing is still unnatural. [What the U.S. has been since its inception] reads more naturally. You are (or you aren't) IN DEBT. You don't "exist in debt."
• 76A: No man's land? (ISLET) — is the idea that tiny islands are frequently uninhabited? Looks like yes, they most commonly are not big enough or don't have enough vegetation to support human habitation. I wasn't aware that ISLET had a precise definition. I thought it was just vaguely "small." But the World Landforms website (!!) says very clearly: "An islet landform is generally considered to be a rock or small island that has little vegetation and cannot sustain human habitation." So the clue is definitionally accurate. And I learned something, hurray.

The Westwords Crossword Tournament, which debuted to great acclaim last year, is coming up again next week: Sunday, Jun. 22, 2025. Solvers can compete in person or online. Here's the blurb! 

Registration is open for the Westwords Crossword Tournament, which will be held on Sunday, June 22. This event will be both In-Person (in Berkeley, CA) and Online. Online solvers can compete individually or in pairs. To register, to see the constructor roster, and for more details, go to www.westwordsbestwords.com.

See you next time...

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]