For real, to Gen Z / THU 7-10-25 / River through six Asian countries / Sparkling water additive / Freelancer's lack / Major-league team known as the "North Siders," locally / It can follow anyone / Vape, informally / Glazer of "Broad City" / 1970 Van Morrison title track / Heckelphone relative / Ending with lemon or cannon

Thursday, July 10, 2025

Constructor: Emily Biegas and Sala Wanetick

Relative difficulty: Medium (easy theme, but the fill slowed me down a bunch)

[skinny puzzle! 14x16 grid]

THEME: face cards — face cards (the letter + the suit symbol) are used as punny clues for people who are experts in their fields:

Theme answers:
  • MASTER GARDENER (19A: A♠️) (an "ace" of garden "spades")
  • TIGER WOODS (K♣️) (a "king" of golf "clubs")
  • MATCHMAKER (Q❤️) (a "queen" of uniting people's "hearts")
  • JACKIE ROBINSON (57A: J♦️) (a "jack" (???) of the baseball "diamond")
Word of the Day: MEKONG (47D: River through six Asian countries) —
The 
Mekong or Mekong River (UK/mˈkɒŋ/ mee-KONGUS/ˌmˈkɔːŋ/ may-KAWNG) is a transboundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's twelfth-longest river and the third-longest in Asia with an estimated length of 4,909 km (3,050 mi) and a drainage area of 795,000 km2 (307,000 sq mi), discharging 475 km3 (114 cu mi) of water annually. From its headwaters in the Tibetan Plateau, the river runs through Southwest China (where it is officially called the Lancang River), MyanmarLaosThailandCambodia, and southern Vietnam. The extreme seasonal variations in flow and the presence of rapids and waterfalls in the Mekong make navigation difficult, though the river remains a major trade route between Tibet and Southeast Asia. The construction of hydroelectric dams along the Mekong in the 2000s through the 2020s has caused serious problems for the river's ecosystem, including the exacerbation of drought.
• • •

Apologies for the short write-up today. I've got a plane to catch later this morning, *plus* I was out late last night ("late" for me, i.e. past 10pm), and so I slept in ("in" for me, i.e. 4:30am), and just don't have as much time (or mental clarity, probably) as I normally do. This was an odd one, as the theme was actually very easy to decipher (for a Thursday, especially), but that meant that they put a lot of "difficulty" into the clues to compensate, or at least that's what it felt like. Never that fun to have the short stuff (and, once again, there's a lot of it) be the source of puzzle difficulty. This is another way of saying that the fill just wasn't that exciting. Solid, but not head-turning. And the themers themselves were ... fine, but kind of arbitrary (except for MASTER GARDENER—not sure who else you'd call an "ace of spades"). There's one thing I don't understand about the theme, though, and that's the last theme answer (JACKIE ROBINSON). Is "jack" being used to mean "expert" (as "ace" "king" and "queen" are in the other theme clues)? I've only heard of "jack" used that way in the phrase "jack of all trades." I've seen "crackerjack" used this way, but not "jack." But then I thought, maybe it's a joke, and that the clue is really just a reference to "JACK"IE ROBINSON's name. Then I thought, wait, is it both? Anyway, to the extent that "jack" is supposed to mean "expert," I don't like it. Doesn't land like the other three face card terms do. But I sort of like the absurdity of cluing Jackie as a "Jack"—so ridiculous it's clever.


Top half of this puzzle was easy, bottom half was a mess. Wanted ON END (?) before ON ICE (30D: Not straight up, in a way), which was a minor issue, but it signaled that things were about to go off the rails a bit. I know "Vape" only as a verb, so did *not* see E-CIG coming (48A: Vape, informally). The skirt could've been MINIS or MIDIS (46D: Certain skirts) ("Certain" not really helping me at all). I could not come up with the second part of STAGE NAME to save my life (37D: Nicki Minaj or Iggy Pop, e.g.). "40-40" could be a lot of things (a tie ... an equation whose result is zero ...). So I had passed on that SE corner and went back to the SW corner, which was somehow worse, largely because I thought 45D: Submit (ACCEDE) was ALLEGE (as in, "I submit that you, yes you, stole my cookie, sir"). I have no idea what the clue on ESSENCE thinks it's doing (49A: Sparkling water additive). ESSENCE of ... what? "I'd like some sparkling water, please." "With or without ESSENCE?" No. I mean, I'm sure there are flavorings in some sparkling waters called "ESSENCE of ___" but no, that clue was not to my liking at all. Oh, and the reason ALLEGE stuck in place as long as it did for me was because the first "L" confirmed ("confirmed") PAL at 47A: Bud (MAC). To be honest, this whole mess probably didn't hold me up for that long, but compared to the top half of the grid, the bottom half def played slower. 


OK, I got like 15 minutes left to write, so let's go straight to the round-up:

Round-up:
  • 1A: Major-league team known as the "North Siders," locally (CUBS) — first instinct: NATS. Why? Because if I'm half asleep, some primal crossword part of my brain just takes over, and NATS is the most common four-letter baseball team (right? I mean, historically, it would be METS, but since the NATS came into existence, it's gotta be them). CUBS are North Siders, WHITE SOX are South Siders (I can't remember ever seeing WHITE SOX in the grid, though SOX is common enough). Looks like WHITE SOX has been the puzzle precisely once, 30 years ago, clued as [World Series losers, 1919]. They won the World Series in '05, but that has apparently done nothing to enhance their crossword status. 
  • 60A: 2025 Pixar film (ELIO) — I resent this movie (well, its xword-friendly title) for ensuring that yet another damn animated movie (and its lore) will be in my grid forever and ever and ever. COCO WALL-E SHREK MOANA ... Finding NEMO ... how many FROZEN characters have I had to learn!? It's wearying.
  • 67A: It can follow anyone (ELSE) — The phrase "anyone ELSE" exists, so ... you can't say the clue isn't accurate. Dumb, maybe, but not inaccurate.
  • 7D: For real, to Gen Z (NO CAP) — please don't say you've never heard of this phrase unless you just started doing puzzles and/or reading me today. We've talked about this phrase before. Multiple times. Earlier this month, in fact. "CAP" (in this sense) was a Word of the Day last year.
  • 52D: Cynthia of "Wicked" (ERIVO) — another former Word of the Day (2022). This is the third appearance for the Wicked star. A few pop culture hurdles today, which might've spelled trouble for the pop culture-averse. ERIVO. ILANA. SALMA. There's also MANU (N.B.A. star Ginóbli), which is sports, but sports are "pop culture"-adjacent, so I think he belongs on this list.
  • 59D: Freelancer's lack (BOSS) — because "secure employment" wouldn't fit. Did not see this particular answer coming. For a second, I thought it might be POST (as in, a regular position, a steady job).
Done! Could've been shorter, but still, pretty short. Proud of myself. Gotta run. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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72 comments:

Bob Mills 6:10 AM  

Mostly easy, but I needed two cheats...for the ILANA/FADE and MEKONG/ELIO crosses. Never heard of a FADE haircut: if it's a song, I'm embarrassed, being a one-time barbershop harmony singer.

Caught on to theme with TIGERWOODS, but mistakenly assumed the answers were all proper names. Since JACKIEROBINSON played only for the Dodgers (he retired after being traded to the hated Giants), it's misleading to suggest he was a "jack" of clubs. Otherwise a clever theme idea.

Anonymous 6:23 AM  

it felt kind of sloppy that some of the theme answers were names and some weren't. just really not at all what i hope for on a thursday. that was a gag that you could see on almost any day of the week, to be honest. disappointed!!!

Anonymous 6:26 AM  

Clubs as in he really clubbed that ball.

Anonymous 6:46 AM  

Jackie Robinson was clued as Jack of Diamonds, not clubs. Also I'm surprised Rex did not comment on the odd 14x16 size of the puzzle.

Andy Freude 6:53 AM  

TIL the formal term for crossword favorite E-CIG.

Needed a four-letter team name and started with the Mets, knowing it made no sense at all.

I did my fair share of freelance work for many years. Saw [Freelancer’s lack] and tried to squeeze in “benefits.”

Safe travels today, Rex!

Anonymous 6:56 AM  

I initially thought the Queen of Hearts clue might be referring to some sort of movie (I had the M from crosses). I guess there actually is such a movie but I was thinking of the great 1966 movie King of Hearts. That could have been a theme in itself since some of the characters had card nicknames

RJ 7:12 AM  

He's clued as the Jack of diamonds

kitshef 7:13 AM  

The suits did not appear for me, so the clues were just A, K, Q and J, and I had absolutely no clue what the theme was before coming here. The themers were solved on pattern recognition.

A few too many propers today and way too many Japanese food answers.

RJ 7:16 AM  

Has anyone ever used the term "e-cig"? "Oops, I left my e-cig in the car!"

Rick Sacra 7:22 AM  

I enjoyed this one--played medium challenging for me (18 minutes). Like others, TIGER helped me see the theme. My brother is a MASTERGARDENER so that also came pretty quickly--agree that 3 out of the 4 corners were tough-ish... "DL" didn't look right so I took PILLARS out until I filled in some more and then figured out that DLIST was right.... Thanks for a clever puzzle/clever theme, Emily and Sala! And I like it when they are odd shapes, somehow (14 x 16), spices things up a little bit!

Lewis 7:29 AM  

Random thoughts:
• What a classy pair of PILLARS to have in a puzzle, with MASTER GARDENER and JACKIE ROBINSON.
• My mood turned bright at seeing “Heckelphone”, which feels marvelously cartoonish, partly because it brings smile-producing images of cartoon characters Heckle and Jeckle.
• PuzzPair© of COMMA and PERIOD.
• Beauty in MOONDANCE, PILLARS, MOOT, UDON, BENTO, ACCEDE, and BEFELL.
• Lovely fauna references: CUBS, TIGER, DINOSAURS, BARK, COOP, and the creature shouting, “ME KONG!”
• Fun to guess at the theme answers with as few crosses as possible.

Your puzzle, Emily and Sala, had a sweet lilting feel, a lovely sendoff to the day. Thank you!

Anonymous 7:31 AM  

How is TREE a “ Corner” (?)

Anonymous 7:31 AM  

The clue was diamonds, as in a baseball diamond

Lewis 7:35 AM  

By the way, the heckelphone – which has appeared at least ten times in NYT clues – resembles an oboe, but is pitched an octave lower and is about twice as long. Only about 150 have been made (it was introduced in 1904), and about 100 still exist. It was invented by a person whose last name was, of course, Heckel. It is heavy enough to where it needs to rest on the floor, supported by a metal peg at its bottom. (Thank you Wikipedia.)

I think it would be the perfect instrument for making bleating sounds to protest bad jokes made by a comedian at a live performance.

Anonymous 7:38 AM  

Apparently the same folks who e-shop in the e-tail stores.

Anonymous 7:43 AM  

“Jacking” the ball is a home run, and Jackie Robinson did a lot of that :)

SouthsideJohnny 7:56 AM  

I thought the theme required enough thought to decipher that it held up appropriately for a Thursday. I had to dig deep into the dictionary post-solve to figure out how we got to TREE - but there it is, the third definition I found was “ force (someone) into a difficult situation”, I.e. “corner”.

My kryptonite today was that SW corner with MEKONG, SCION, ELIO, ACCEDE, ERIVO and ESSENCE (as clued). That was a pretty tough row to hoe for me - heck, even Rex had to struggle a bit down south, so no surprise that I left with a few black and blue marks after sparring with it for a bit.

Anonymous 8:03 AM  

Actually it is more closely related to the bassoon. There does exist a bass oboe but that is an entirely different instrument.

Coniuratos 8:12 AM  

Seems worth pointing out that the "Jack" in "Jack of all trades" is very explicitly *not* an expert in any of them, so it's definitely not that explanation.

Bob Mills 8:22 AM  

Thanks for the correction(s) in re JACKIE ROBINSON. At 5:00 am the diamond looked like a club on my screen.

Anonymous 8:24 AM  

I cry foul with two proper nouns and two descriptors as theme answers. They really should be consistent.

Whatsername 8:27 AM  

A fine theme and puzzle but didn’t seem much like a Thursday. Mostly on board with RP that the fill seemed intentionally more difficult because the themers were so easy to deduce. All except for JACKIE ROBINSON which I strongly resisted because technically there’s already a Jack in the clue, and I was sure it couldn’t possibly also be in the answer. But if you insist on doing that, JACK OF ALL TRADES would’ve been a beauty. A shame it was ruled out by the narrow grid.

Anonymous 8:28 AM  

Ok, am I the only one who - no cap - hadn’t heard of, or at least hadn’t remembered ‘no cap’ - and have been doing crosswords and reading Rex for a long time?

Mark 8:32 AM  

Sorry, but I’ve never heard of no-cap. I had to look it up. It’s clearly real but still makes no sense to me. What does cap even stand for?

Conrad 8:36 AM  


Easy, solved without reading the theme clues and finished thinking, "Where's the Thursday?" until I read the clues. Cute.

Overwrites:
7D: NO lie before CAP (I know, @Rex, we've encountered this before, I just didn't remember)
12A: tuba before OBOE, corrected long before finding TUBA at 27D
44A: hiTCHhiKER before MATCHMAKER (without reading the clue)
45D: ACCEpt before ACCEDE
47A: pAl before MAC

WOEs:
ILANA Glazer at 9D
Marie Claire in the 15A clue (didn't delay me much because ELLE is classic ese)
Yaki UDON at 34A (again, classic ese)
TRES Cruces at 42A (ditto, but usually with leches)

Anonymous 8:37 AM  

He was born and preferred “Jack”, so I think that’s all the clue is cluing… https://ncheteach.org/blog/webinar/jackie-robinson-black-freedom-fighter/#:~:text=According%20to%20his%20wife%2C%20Rachel,an%20inspiration%20beyond%20just%20baseball.

mmorgan 8:45 AM  

In AcrossLite, the theme clues only have the letters (A, K, Q, J) but NOT the little card suit images, which made this substantially more difficult. And no warning about certain features not supported, solve at the original source, etc. But I still like AcrossLite.

Anonymous 8:46 AM  

He did.

RooMonster 8:47 AM  

Hey All !
Jeez, it almost took me fifteen minutes to read Rex after his declaration of only having fifteen minutes left! How could he write all that, with the multiple Bolds, Italics, imbedded links, plus his closing! Im betting at least his closing is copy and paste. But still ...

Interesting puz. It's 14x16, in case no one else said. You get one less square than 15x15. 225 squares for 15x15, 224 squares for 14x16. Liked the Themers, but the JDiamonds was off to me by having JACK in the answer. Then again, what else could it be? As Rex pointed out, JACK doesn't have the provanance that ACE, KING, QUEEN do. Maybe could've been JOHNNY BENCH? Too short, but perhaps another JOHN of some sort.

Anyway, quick solve, SW corner a toughie with ESSENCE as clued, ELIO unknown yet, as movie out this year, having Rex's pAl for MAC. Overall, decent puz, seemed more Wednesdayish, though.

Noticed 5 OO's. Weird what the brain notices.

Have a great Thursday!

One F
RooMonster
DarrinV

Anonymous 8:51 AM  

I stumbled with corner - tree. Help?

Anonymous 8:53 AM  

Dinosaurs are not a race.

Anonymous 8:57 AM  

Agree. Horrible puzzle.

Dan A 9:11 AM  

Puzzle too simple for Thursday, but proper nouns too hard

Anonymous 9:12 AM  

Absolutely not. It’s use by journalists only as far as I know.

egsforbreakfast 9:14 AM  

That [Not straight up...] clue made me want a NEATVODKA.

Pretty awful to have JACKIE clued as Jack. I think a much better answer for J🔹would be ARMEDJEWELHEIST or something similar.

I had a pendant for years that protected me while traveling. It did a great job, but I eventually lost it. I wanted to express my thanks for the years of help, so I offered a TOAST TOAST Christopher medal.

NBA star Ginóbili is now coaching at Manchester in the Premier League. His guys are playing for MANU at MANU.

It's probably obvious but the themers are in high-to-low order (AKQJ) and different suits, so the constructors kinda forced themselves to come up with something at the end for Jack of Diamonds, cuz you don't want to be accused of ending a puzzle with a Jack off.

Anyway, 3 of 4 ain't bad. Thanks, Emily Biegas and Sala Wanetick.

Alice Pollard 9:15 AM  

my problem was I had pAl instead of MAC for far too long. That resulted in pEKiNG river and ELII (a sequel of EL?). ugh. took me a few minutes to straighten that up. otherwise fun puzzle. I think I got MASTERGARDENER first and didnt even connect the theme.

EdFromHackensack 9:17 AM  

is the JACKIEROBINSON clue giving too much away as JACK appears in the clue?

Anonymous 9:18 AM  

I was stuck on Tree too. I wondered if it meant “up a tree”

Anonymous 9:25 AM  

I liked the idea of the theme but agree that the execution was a little clunky, mixing names (TIGERWOODS, JACKIEROBINSON) and "titles" (MASTERGARDENER, MATCHMAKER). Agreed that some of the solving provided a speedbump (e.g., I also originally had pAl for 47 across and figured there must be a pEKiNG river -- and it didn't help that I'm out of the loop on recent Pixar releases). I enjoyed getting to 46 down ("Certain skirts") and having MI_ _S from the acrosses, knowing I'd have to come back to figure out whether it was MIDIS or MInIS.

"ECIG" is pretty common, both in parlance and in crosswords, so I'm not sure why that tripped up some folks -- we've probably seen it as a clue or as an answer at least a dozen times in the past year or two.

All in all, a relatively easy puzzle, about 90 seconds slower than my fastest Thursday.

Nancy 9:31 AM  

I glanced at the cards that were the theme clues, filled in MASTER GARDENER at the top, saw that it was a grid=spanner, counted the number of letters in JACK OF ALL TRADES, saw that it was 15, and thought I had nailed the revealer. But there isn't a revealer and I was wrong.

Thank heaven TIGER WOODS and JACKIE ROBINSON are better known than ILANA, ERIVO and MANU. Once again I gritted my teeth at some of the pop culture names.

I had MInIS instead of MIDIS and therefore had n?UCE for "40-40". Was much too slow thinking of DEUCE. An embarrassment for tennis-maven me.

Thought for the day: Isn't sparkling water the ESSENCE of sparkling water? Therefore, it you're adding ESSENCE, aren't you just adding in more sparkling water?

I probably would have used JACK OF ALL TRADES as a revealer, but the puzzle is fine as it is. Minus some of those extremely forgettable names, of course.

thfenn 9:52 AM  

Thought this was a fine Thursday, but got through it a little easier than usual. TIGERWOODS went in first so trying to find names for the spades and hearts took awhile. Jackie Robinson is of course a hero but thought Jack being a reference to the name, at least as i made sense of it, was less, well, elegant, than the others.

Hand up for pAl before MAC. But the 2nd effort that stumped me longer was changing Made to MOOT. LOL, thought a point MADE was perfect.

mathgent 9:52 AM  

MANU was the unstoppable force in the four NBA championships won by the San Antonio Spurs. What fun it was to see him explode to the hoop.

SouthsideJohnny 9:54 AM  

If not e-cigs, what are they called ? Electronic Cigarettes is way too cumbersome for daily use. Btw, is there such a thing as an e-cigar ? I guess “vape pens” would work, but e-cig seems so much more descriptive (and convenient) - I suspect that it is going to be with us for a while.

Anonymous 9:56 AM  

Just posting to say I agree 100% on ESSENCE. I was stuck on it for a long time and I was frowning when I finally filled it in.

Anonymous 9:58 AM  

They're verbs, not nouns!

Mr. Benson 10:00 AM  

I probably could have set a personal Thursday record, but I went with pAl instead of MAC, which led me to think the pEKinG River was a thing, which led me to think there was someone named ELIi. And I didn’t see the non-word AlCEDE (though I don’t know how “ACCEDE” means submit). At least, when I got the “not quite” message, I knew where to look, because things weren’t looking right in that quadrant. But that was at least 20 seconds of cleanup. Otherwise very easy for a Thursday.

Whatsername 10:16 AM  

As in up a TREE and can’t get down. For example, a squirrel being chased by a dog might run up a tree to safety, but it would be cornered there until the dog went away.

pabloinnh 10:17 AM  

Saw that my usual print out would have problems so I solved on line, which was probably a good thing as I was able to identify the suits. Once MATCHMAKER appeared the jig was up and the rest were gimmes.

Those of you having trouble with TREE as a verb probably don't live in hunting country where people use dogs to TREE their quarry, usually a raccoon. BTW, I find this disgusting.

Some propers I probably should know ILANA, NAN, and ERIVO among them (and WOE is "Broad City"?). Those of us who were around for the Viet Nam experience know the MEKONG delta pretty well, so that was easy.

Best aha! was the clue for COMMA. Took forever to see that. Nothing as annoying as an obvious truth, as my Good Old Best Friend always says.

Nice entertaining Thursdecito. Lost you initials, you two, but thanks for all the fun.



Anonymous 10:24 AM  

to tree someone is to corner someone. i had trap for too long.

Whatsername 10:27 AM  

@Lewis and Anonymous - I was curious enough to google the instrument and ran across this interesting definition: “A heckelphone is basically the love child of an oboe and bassoon.” Also learned if you want to buy one, you’ll need lots of money. Yikes!

Whatsername 10:30 AM  

Good point. The saying is “Jack of all trades and master of none.” However, I have known a few who were experts in many of them.

Les S. More 10:43 AM  

Nothing too tricky here, and perhaps that’s a good thing, Just strolled through, nailing all the themers as I went, having a good time. Which was great because I’ve had a rather arduous day and didn’t really want to deal with anything too taxing. With a couple of minor exceptions, this fit the bill quite nicely.

First real problem was 33D USSR which I hesitated to enter because I was thinking that this giant union didn’t really become a reality until after the Second World War. Put it in anyway, based on crosses, and looked it up post-solve. 1922. Okay, I’ve been wrong one or two times in my life. Let’s make it three.

Next up was 53A DEUCE. I’ve played a bit of tennis in my time but just couldn’t see that as a tennis clue. 40-40. Hmmm, 40-40. Had to rely on crosses for something that should have been obvious. A lob I just couldn’t return.

And then in the SW corner the unknown ELIO at 60A held up things for far too long. I realize now that I’ve seen ads for this movie. Another head slap!

Thanks Emily and Sala. I enjoyed your relatively easy but well constructed puzzle.

SouthsideJohnny 10:46 AM  

A little bit of pedantry for anyone who may be interested. Tsar Nicholas II abdicated on March 2, 1917, ending over 300 years of rule by the Romanov Dynasty. At that time the Russian Provisional Government was formed.

Tsar Nicholas and the rest of the Royal Family were executed while in exile in Siberia on July 17, 1918. After several years of what was basically a civil war, the Bolsheviks officially established the USSR on December 30, 1922.

Now, it is true that the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, did seize power during the October Revolution (circa November 1917). However, the clue for 36 A (TSARS) appears to be flat-out incorrect. Is it close enough for CrossWorld ? It definitely got a side-eye from me. In any event, I would suggest that it was definitely not A-PLUS work by Will and the editorial team on that one.

Anonymous 10:47 AM  

I agree. I wish I could think that fast not just write that fast.

RAD2626 10:58 AM  

Liked the puzzle a lot. Thought theme was clever and fill for a Thursday was quite easy. Three quick things:

1. The incomparable Rachel Robinson, Jackie’s widow, will be 103 next week. She has helped educate hundreds of young people through the wonderful Jackie Robinson Foundation. Ironically, she always refers to her late husband as Jack. While I am sure not deliberate by the constructors, it made me feel good

2. C’mon Rex. You were tired. The Cubs have been the Cubs for over 120 years, much longer and more renowned than the relative newcomers, the Mets and Nats. Don’t forget the Reds, Rays or even Brew Crew.

3. Given Rex’ frequent mention of his nightly cocktails, I am surprised the straight up/on ice pairing flummoxed him.

jb129 10:59 AM  

I liked this a lot. It wasn't as intricate as some Thursdays especially Rebus (annoying for me) Thursdays. And that's a compliment. MANU was a WOE, & really must remember NO CAP since it's bound to appear over (& over & over again). That's really all I to say except that it was good to see Van Morrison's "Moondance" - one of my favorite songs & thank you, ladies, for an enjoyable Thursday :)

doghairstew 11:03 AM  

It was a fun puzzle and I learned about the heckelphone, which seems like something you'd use to harass people. But dude, dinosaurs are not a "race." That clue was straight up wrong.

Carola 11:07 AM  

I took the "Jack" clue to be a parting joke by the constructors, not meaning "expert" but just his name. Agree with @Rex and others that the theme was easy, with the grid offering difficulties elsewhere. Treats for me were the clue for COMMA, MATCH over ECIG and BARK alongside TREE.

Do-overs: pAl, TRap, ACCEpt. No idea: ELIO. Help from previous puzzles: NO CAP, ERIVO. Two moments of shame: 1) not immediately thinking of Chicago for "North Shore"; 2) discovering I don't know how to spell PILLeR. Geez!

jberg 11:10 AM  

I'm willing to cut the puzzle a little slack, but cluing JACKIE by "Jack," even if you symbolize it by J, really won't do. As used in the lue, "Jack" is someone who's good at something, so you could take any 15-letter baseball player who is not named JACK or JACKIE, and you're fine.

There are some other annoying faults in the clues -- Vape is what one does with an E-CIG, not a synonym for it - they are different parts of speech. The USSR did not end the TSARS, it was formed in 1922, four years after the last TSAR had been executed. And DINOSAURS were a clade, not a race.

Not being up on my woodwind history, I thought a heckelphone might be an early TUBA--nice malapop. Is there also a jeckelphone?

I did like the oddly-clued UDON about to descend into the BENTO box below. (Not an inherently odd clue, as apparently that really is the name of the dish. But odd to me, because "Yaki" just indicates that it's a snack.)

Anonymous 11:16 AM  

I hired a woman to do carpentry and other odd jobs, her card:
Jill of All Trades

jberg 11:27 AM  

I didn't like ESSENCE either, but I think the idea is that they make, say, lime seltzer by mixing the sparkling water with ESSENCE of lime. It's a stretch, though.

Anonymous 11:40 AM  

A COOP is RURAL housing option, i.e. chicken coop, (13Across), A CRIB is an urban housing option I was stubbornly committed to!

Anonymous 11:46 AM  

Solved as a themeless. Take that, Thtupid Thursdays! Only had to overcome PAL and MINI.

jae 11:46 AM  

Easy.

I did not know ESSENCE and MANU.

pAl before MAC was a very costly erasure and led to the same problems that @Rex had.

Cute theme but a tad inconsistent with some names and some not, liked it.

Masked and Anonymous 11:50 AM  

Well, yep. JACK can just be a slang term for a dude or guy. And then you also got that JACKie prefix thing goin on. sooo ... ok.
Really easy-ish/fun ThursPuz theme, btw. It did, however, need a 10 to give us a completely straight deal.

staff weeject pick: THC. But, as Allstate points out in its fine print ... not available in all states's gummies.

some fave stuff: DINOSAURS & its clue. MOONDANCE, even tho I didn't know it. Squishy puzgrid, 14x16 version. MOOT clue.

Thanx for gangin up on us, Ms. Biegas & Wanetick darlins. Really decked us.

Masked & Anonymo6Us

... and now, somethin one runt may have finally acquired ...

"Core Values" - 7x7 themed runt puzzle:

**gruntz**

M&A

Whatsername 11:53 AM  

Love your screen name. You really should set yourself up with a Blogger profile because it’s just crying out for an avatar.

Bob Mills 12:28 PM  

Jackie Robinson's birth name was Jack Roosevelt Robinson. The middle name was evidently a tribute to Theodore Roosevelt. Somebody (in the media?) (in the Dodger organization?) decided "Jackie" was better. His own preference was ignored. It was still the Jim Crow era, of course.

Beezer 12:47 PM  

I thought the puzzle was just fine in spite of the TSARS/DINOSAUR clues (I luckily didn’t know enough to know the gap in time before the whole “country(ies)” were dubbed USSR). As for the whole Jack outlier scene, here’s how I figure it. There was NO implication of being an expert running through the puzzle OTHER than the words ace, king, queen all carry the idea of an expert or someone known for a particular thing. The carry-over is that it be a person. To do the theme, the constructor is left with Jack…which is just a name that is used in some idioms (like Average Joe) OR a lever OR a male animal. Faced with that choice, JACKIEROBINSON totally beats out the other option…not doing the theme at all.

Teedmn 1:11 PM  

I join everyone who loved the clue for COMMA. A great start to the puzzle though it took oboe and moon dance before I saw it. With UBOAT first in, 1A could have been CUBS or bUcS (yes, I was thinking of the NFL team name
of the Tampa Bay Rays) so COMMA didn't just fall into place.

The song, “Jack of All Parades” that Rex posted is my 2nd favorite song by Elvis Costello, enough so that I've worked out the chords on my guitar. (My favorite is Riot Act).

My printer is running low on toner so the side of my puzzle with the clues for 19A and 27A were obscured - all I saw was an A and a K, respectively. This led to some head-scratching when trying to suss out the theme but the subsequent theme answers gave it away.

I found this clever, thanks Emily and Sala!

Les S. More 1:14 PM  

@jberg. I can assure you that vape is legit as a noun. About 8 months ago I did a 28 day stint at a rehab centre where alcohol, cocaine, oxy and various other addictive substances were verboten. But not nicotine. I understand that while you are trying to defeat your dependence on drugs or alcohol you might not have the energy to tackle nicotine at the same time. So unscheduled time (no lectures, no mindfulness meditation, no yoga, or, heaven help us, art therapy) was filled by a gathering of the inmates in the smoking area. Of the 25-30 detainees, there were usually a dozen or so vapers and maybe a half dozen tobacco fans (including me). It was a big part of the culture there and never did I ever hear the term e-cig. Always vape. You vaped with your vape. "I gotta order in a new vape tomorrow. This one's crap." (Yes, you could order in tobacco and vape supplies via "etailers". But you ordered a vape, not an e-cig.) The fluid in your vape was generally referred to as "juice" and was usually some fruity flavoured stuff. We tobacco smokers were pretty circumspect about sharing in the wake of COVID but vapers, not so much. "Sh*t, my vape's died." "Here, try mine." "What's in it?" "Cherry coke." "Cool!"

Once, a vaper showed me a list of flavours available to him. Near the bottom of the list was "Cuban cigar". I admit I was tempted but I declined. I prefer the real thing.

okanaganer 1:36 PM  

@mmorgan, if you download the .puz file using Crossword Scraper, you should enable "Unicode support" in the Crossword Scraper options. The suit symbols appear perfectly on my version.

okanaganer 1:38 PM  

@Alice Pollard 9:15 am, I had exactly the same error. Of course compounded by not having heard of ELIO.

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