Hero's partner in myth / SUN 8-31-25 / Williamson who played Merlin in "Excalibur" / New Zealand parrot that can solve logic puzzles / Nipsey Russell's role in 1978's "The Wiz" / Device for cutting bangs? / Greaves and cuisses, but not gauntlets and helmets / Part of a personal air filtration system / Maximum extent, in an idiom / Greatest potential accomplishment, metaphorically / Win for an away team

Constructor: Danny J. Rooney

Relative difficulty: Easy (yet again)

THEME: OO7 — wacky theme answers imitate the alleged "iconic accent" of SEAN CONNERY (changing "S" sounds to "SH" sounds) (113A: Classic 111-Across portrayer, whose iconic accent is suggested by the answers to italicized clues). There's an additional JAMES BOND element (111A: Secret agent first introduced in 1953), with MARTINI (33D: Favorite drink of 111-Across), and a bunch of circled double-"O" squares that, when connected, form the numeral "7" (thus making a "7" composed of DOUBLE "O" s or ... a DOUBLE-"O" Seven (OO7) (66D: Feature of this puzzle's circled squares that, when connected by a single line, visually represents 111-Across):

Theme anshers:

• MOVE YOUR ASH (22A: "Don't flick that cigarette over here!")
• WHAT A MESH (24A: "Incredible! This mosquito net didn't let in even one bug!")
• GOD SHAVE THE KING (52A: "Dear Lord! His Majesty's beard is out of control!")
• SHINED SHIELD DELIVERED (63A: "Just dropped off some of your newly buffed knight's protection!")
• "COULD I HAVE A SHIP?" (74A: "Can you offer me anything bigger than skiffs, dinghies and pontoons?")

Word of the Day: Hero & LEANDER (91A: Hero's partner in myth) 

Hero and Leander (/ˈhiːroʊ/, /liːˈændər/) is the Greek myth relating the story of Hero (Ancient Greek: Ἡρώ, Hērṓ; [hɛː.rɔ̌ː]), a priestess of Aphrodite (Venus in Roman mythology) who dwelt in a tower in Sestos on the European side of the Hellespont, and Leander (Ancient Greek: Λέανδρος, Léandros; [lé.an.dros] or Λείανδρος), a young man from Abydos on the opposite side of the strait. // Leander falls in love with Hero and swims every night across the Hellespont to spend time with her. Hero lights a lamp at the top of her tower to guide his way. Leander's soft words and charms—and his argument that Aphrodite, as the goddess of love and sex, would scorn the worship of a virgin—convince Hero, and they make love. Their secret love affair lasts through a warm summer, but when winter and its rougher weather looms, they agree to part for the season and resume in the spring. One stormy winter night, however, Leander sees the torch at the top of Hero's tower. He attempts to go to her, but halfway through his swim, a strong winter wind blows out Hero's light, and Leander loses his way and drowns. When Hero sees his dead body, she throws herself off the tower to join him in death. Their bodies wash up on shore together, locked in embrace, and are then subsequently buried in a lovers’ tomb.

• • •

Is that how he talks? I guess sho. Anyway, the sound switch yields some mildly funny wacky phrases, with the central answer being suitably flashy (double sound change!), so I liked that aspect of the theme fine. The double-"O" thing is less successful. It's harmless ... but actually, no, I'm not sure it is. I see now that early on, when I recoiled at the subpar fill (namely my OMOO / TO ERR opening), I was recoiling at subpar fill that wouldn't have been there at all if it weren't for this whole "OO" angle. No big fan of PATOOT or OOHS, either. But you gotta do what you gotta do to make your little picture come off. Seems super-awkward to have DOUBLE O as an answer all by its lonesome. I know the giant picture of a "7" is supposed to provide the "7" in JAMES BOND's code number, but the picture actually contains the whole code number within it, making DOUBLE O entirely unnecessary *except* as a means for telling people to connect those DOUBLE "O"s. Awkward to draw a diagonal line through "OO"s that are not oriented on a diagonal, but since the computer did it for me, I can't really complain. Is the "7" really a "single line"? I would've described it as two lines—a horizontal line and a diagonal line (when I write a "7", I add a little bar across the downstroke, but that's neither here nor there). Both JAMES BOND and SEAN CONNERY came as anticlimaxes—well, JAMES BOND did, for sure. I could tell by then (from MARTINI, actually) where the puzzle was going, though I didn't take the time to think about the pictorial element, so that was something of a surprise. Not particularly thrilling overall, but better than most Sundays I've done of late. Lots and lots of theme material, all of it reasonably well executed, and no real cringe in the grid. A fine NYTXW debut for this constructor.

One other nice touch: no stray (uncircled) "OO"s. In a Sunday-sized puzzle, a certain number of "OO"s are going to be naturally occurring (I have no stats on this, I'm just guessing), but not today, because it would interfere with the theme. Actually, it wouldn't interfere that much with the theme, since the relevant "OO"s are circled, but there's a certain elegance to having the only "OO"s in this puzzle be thematic. There's also a decent amount of longer non-theme fill to give the grid added color. Banks of 8s in the corners, all of them solid, and then IDEAL MATE (nice) right down the middle. "THAT'S ME!" and "SADLY, YES" and "I'M OVER IT" and "IT'LL DO" and "YOU SURE?" give the grid a chatty, colloquial tone. As for trouble spots, I don't see many. I forgot NICOL Williamson's name (despite knowing very well who he is) and tried ... maybe NILES? And NIGEL? ... before crosses led me to NICOL (Williamson who played Merlin in "Excalibur"). NICOL next to EDOM (which I initially spelled like the wax-covered cheese) was a little bit of a choke point. LEANDER is another proper noun that might've been unknown to people—I had to read Marlowe's "Hero and LEANDER" in college, in my British Literature I course, and then I went on to study medieval and early modern literature in grad school, so Hero and LEANDER are old pals of mine. Really liked the clues on both SILENCER (42A: Device for cutting bangs?) and NOSE HAIR (16D: Part of a personal air filtration system). I mean, it's a little gross to find a NOSE HAIR in your puzzle, but I thought the puzzle handled it with APLOMB, giving it a whimsical little "?" clue as a way of slightly mitigating the potential yuck factor. (In case the wordplay on the SILENCER clue wasn't clear, "bangs" are "cut" because a SILENCER muffles (or "cuts") the sound of the report (the "bang") when a gun is fired)

What else?:

• 1D: Win for an away team (HOME LOSS) — did not like. "For an away team," a win is a win is a win. It's never a loss. The clue tells us to see the clue from the away team's perspective, and then gives us HOME LOSS, which is something that happens to the home team. A win for an away team is a HOME LOSS for the other team. That clue isn't tricky, it's just busted.
• 1A: Maximum extent, in an idiom (HILT) — I like how the puzzle went for the idiom here, and then stayed idiomatic for the other (nearby) "maximum" answer: EVEREST (26A: Greatest potential accomplishment, metaphorically). Imagining these familiar terms as idioms, and then practically juxtaposing them, made them more interesting than they would likely have been otherwise. 
• 37A: Nipsey Russell's role in 1978's "The Wiz" (TIN MAN) — ah, I forgot that was Nipsey Russell. All I remember is Diana Ross as Dorothy and Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow. Ted Ross played the Cowardly Lion. He's the least famous name of the bunch, but he was a really accomplished actor who won a Tony (!) for playing the Lion in the original 1975 Broadway production. He was also a mainstay of '70s/'80s TV, and played Bitterman (Arthur's chauffeur) in Arthur (1981) (which is probably how I know him best). As for Nipsey Russell, I know him from Match Game and I don't know what else. He was just ... in the air in the '70s. Ambient celebrity. Seems like he was mostly famous for being a game show panelist, and reciting short funny poems, which (I'm told) earned him his nickname, the "poet laureate of television."

• 71A: Green gemstone (PERIDOT) — don't think I ever even heard of this "gemstone" until I was well into adulthood. It's the August birthstone, so nice job getting it into the puzzle just under the wire.
• 61A: New Zealand parrot that can solve logic puzzles (KEA) — always thrilled to see the NZ parrot, mainly because I have literally seen the New Zealand parrot (they're pretty common in parts of the South Island) and kinda love what mischievous assholes they can be. Imagine pigeons if they were very smart and prone to stealing your food, your camera, whatever. 

• 92D: Grounder to second, often (EASY OUT) — true enough, though I semi-mindlessly typed in EASY ONE.
• 84D: Greaves and cuisses, but not gauntlets and helmets (LEG ARMOR) — another clue where having some background in early English literature (as well as childhood experience playing D&D) came in handy. I thought this answer might be a debut, but it's actually the fourth appearance, all of them fairly recent (Kameron Austin Collins debuted the term back in 2017)

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Heat setting, perhaps / SAT 8-30-25 / Old-fashioned TV antenna, jocularly / Classic warning to a knight

Constructor: Maddy Ziegler

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: ESPN8 The OCHO (10A: Another name for ESPN8, with "the") —

 

ESPN8 The Ocho is a special program block showcasing seldom-seen obscure sports that airs on the networks of ESPN Inc. The Ocho is also offered as a free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channel on the Roku Channel, Prime Video and DirecTV Stream.

The Ocho consists of lesser-known, unconventional and humorous sports, occupational competitions, esports and other competitions with some athletic, competitive or physical skill component. The block is traditionally presented in early August, the eighth month of the year. Much of the programming consists of previously recorded content and reruns previously aired on the ESPN networks,^[3] some as far back as the 1990s.

• • •

Very easy except for the part at the end where I stared at 27A: Heat setting, perhaps, stared at all the crosses, and then ... kept staring. As far as I could tell, the answer had to be MEET, but how that clue made sense for that answer was completely lost on me. Was MODEL wrong? Was it YODEL? Could a [Fashion plate, maybe] be a YODEL? Seemed unlikely. I had EARS for the [Old-fashioned TV antenna, jocularly], but were they something else. I'd always known the antenna as Rabbit EARS, so maybe EARS wasn't right at all, maybe it was ... OARS? No, it had to be EARS. Was there another way to spell SEBASTIAN? Was it SABASTIAN? Again, couldn't be. And the "T" in NOT A GOOD IDEA had to be right, which left me with no recourse for 27A: Heat setting, perhaps except ... MEET. So I typed it in, and voilà, the "Congratulations" popped right up. But I still couldn't see the connection between "Heat setting" and MEET. The Heat are an NBA team, so I had already thought of arenas and Miami and Florida etc., to no avail. Home heating didn't seem the right context either. There is no MEET setting on my thermostat (is there??? No, there isn't). At some point my brain finally isolated "heat" and MEET and they played off each other in a way that revealed that I'd been reading both "heat" and MEET incorrectly. That is, I hadn't expanded my idea of their potential meanings far enough. The MEET is a swim MEET or track MEET, part of which might include preliminary races of one kind or another, also known as "heats." Nothing else in the puzzle gave me nearly so much trouble as this clue. Not even close.

Two things I really liked about this puzzle. First, HERE BE DRAGONS, a worthy central marquee answer (33A: Classic warning to a knight). I always think of the phrase as THERE BE DRAGONS, but HERE is right. The Latin phrase is "hic sunt dracones" ("here are dragons"); it's a phrase that became associated with medieval maps, though I just learned that there are only two extant globes that bear this phrase, and that the standard phrase used by medieval cartographers for parts unknown was actually "hic sunt leones" ("here be lions!"). So HERE BE DRAGONS is an anachronism. The clue involves a warning given a knight (33A: Classic warning to a knight). Maybe that's why I thought THERE and not HERE. If I'm warning a knight, I imagine he and I are not already standing where the dragons are ("here"). I'm telling him not to go to some place we're not, namely there. Unless I'm advising him while standing over a map or globe, in which case I guess I could point and say "HERE BE DRAGONS!" Is this warning "classic" or do we just imagine it's "classic"? I don't know of any examples of a knight being given this specific warning. Still, the phrase feels right, and it's colorful, and I liked it. 

The second thing I really liked is an extension of HERE BE DRAGONS—COME TO A BAD END sits right on top of it, and then NOT A GOOD IDEA runs right through both of them. So you've got not just a warning to a knight, you have a whole damn conversation. "HERE BE DRAGONS. NOT A GOOD IDEA. You might COME TO A BAD END." Like HERE BE DRAGONS, RIDDLE ME THIS feels like one of those quaint phrases that's been around a long time, but whose origins seem misty. I feel like "RIDDLE ME THIS, Batman" was a phrase the Riddler used in the old Batman TV show. Is this canonical, or does this just feel like something canonical. Whatever, I got the answer easily, and since it feels right, I'm good. My only real complaint today is that NANAS and NANNY share the same grid. Yes, they are clued as different things, but they just feel too similar. Balked at NANNY for sure because I already had NANAS and thought "no way they're putting NANNY in here too—too close to a dupe." But they did it. Bah. If there are any other tricky spots, or any particularly ugly spots, I didn't notice.

What else?:

• 1A: Title typically abbreviated to its first and last letters (SEÑOR) — I did not know this. Or ... maybe I would've guessed this, but I don't see this abbreviation very often. 
• 14A: ___ Perry, award-winning author of 2022's "South to America" (IMANI) — if I were she, I would probably have appreciated if the clue had bothered to mention that the "award" in question here (or one of them) is the National Book Award for Nonfiction (2022). "Award-winning" is the kind of vague phrase you use to make someone or something seem bigger than it is, like "best-selling." Who knows what it means, exactly? But the National Book Award is the National Book Award. 

• 34A: Kick-starter program? (KARATE LESSONS) — cute clue. Simple. Plays nicely off a pre-existing phrase. See also 43D: Head to town? (MAYOR).
• 6D: Janelle of "Hidden Figures" (MONAE) — if you didn't know her, the time for not knowing her is now over. MONAE is going to be with us for a while so just learn it and store it in your bag of "Future Crosswordese." You're gonna need it. She's kind of a big deal.
• 49A: What dilapidated buildings and rampant graffiti may be a sign of (URBAN DECAY) — the very phrase sounds like something muttered with a judgmental headshake by some suburbanite who's afraid of cities and never sets foot in them. The word "rampant" intensifies this tone. I know that URBAN DECAY is a phrase that exists, and a concept that exists, but most American cities are safer than ever, often safer than suburban or rural areas, so I bristle at anything that imagines urban spaces as crime-ridden dystopias. 
• 53A: Moving well over 60, perhaps? (SPRY) — 60!!!! Ouch. I thought you had to be at least 70 before anyone condescendingly called you "SPRY." Maybe if I imagine the clue as meaning "still moving (at all) when you are well over 60 years old," I can live with SPRY as the answer.
• 33D: Tasteful invitation? ("HAVE A SIP") — this comes awfully close to EAT A SANDWICH territory, but I think framing it as an "invitation" really saves the phrase. Seems very natural in that context.

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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1980s cartoon foe of Gargamel / FRI 8-29-25 / Eminem song that samples Dido / What fan fiction is not / Coaster, usually / Home to the torus-shaped Museum of the Future / "Seriously!," in slang / Places where it's OK to push someone at school

Constructor: Jesse Cohn

Relative difficulty: Very Easy

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: KILLER BEE (17A: Queen's guard?) —

The Africanized bee, also known as the Africanized honey bee (AHB) and colloquially as the "killer bee", is a hybrid of the western honey bee (Apis mellifera), produced originally by crossbreeding of the African honey bee (A. m. scutellata) with various European honey bee subspecies such as the Italian honey bee (A. m. ligustica) and the Iberian honey bee (A. m. iberiensis).

The African honey bee was first introduced to Brazil in 1956 in an effort to increase honey production, but 26 swarms escaped quarantine in 1957. Since then, the hybrid has spread throughout South America and arrived in North America in 1985. Hives were found in south Texas in the United States in 1990.

Africanized honey bees are typically much more defensive, react to disturbances faster, and chase people farther than other varieties of honey bees, up to 400 m (1,300 ft). They have killed some 1,000 humans, with victims receiving 10 times more stings than from European honey bees. They have also killed horses and other animals.

• • •

Welcome back to SMURF Week here at the NYTXW! (see ... yesterday). We hope you are SMURFing a SMURFy SMURF! (26D: 1980s cartoon foe of Gargamel)

It is grim how easy themeless puzzles have become. They are really, conspicuously bringing down the difficulty level of the puzzle in general, but you (I) really feel it on Friday and Saturday, because those are the days that used to have real punch. I've heard people hypothesize "well maybe you're just getting better" and lol no, I'm too old to be getting "better." I got "better" during the first 5-7 years of writing this blog. That's when I was at my fastest, that's when my regional ACPT trophies are from, that's when I placed as high as 31st (or so) overall. And back then, at the peak of my speed-solving abilities, a Friday or Saturday could still bust my lip wide open. The intervening twelve years or so have given me more experience, obviously, but they haven't made me faster, and if anything, with puzzles being made by people younger and younger than I am, with life experiences different from mine, the puzzle *should* be at least as challenging as it ever was, if not more so. And yet I burned through this puzzle today like it wasn't even there. Friday puzzles used to have at least a little fight, but now my only hope is Saturday, which every once in a while (as with Byron Walden's puzzle a couple weeks ago) can be counted on to push me around. But mostly the crossword is being made more accessible, presumably so it can be more salable in the long term. When you specialize in bite-size games, what sense does it make to continue with a product that takes a long time to learn how to do, that ends in failure for most novices for a long time? Who has the patience for that? Lower the bar so that people can get to "success" more quickly! So they don't "waste" so much of their valuable time getting up to proficiency. Time is money! Easiness is business! Have you heard of this new game PIPS!? Meanwhile, I gotta do Fireball or the Saturday Stumper (Newsday) in order to feel anything. Thank you for indulging me in this "old man yells at cloud" moment.

["I'm like young LL, / 'cause I'm hard as hell / Makin' n****s screw-face like Gargamel"]

LUNAR LAMP PIE ABODE DUBAI DISC and off to the races. If this puzzle was too easy (and it was), at least it had me careering (and possibly careening) around the grid in bizarre, seemingly reckless ways. Can't remember when I ever took quite this path through a puzzle before:

I just kept going, termite-like, not taking much time to look side-to-side. A long answer would take me to a new part of the grid and I'd just follow, not even bothering to go back and finish up the part I just came from. Down to the bottom and up past the equator again without having filled in a single answer in the middle third of the grid. So definitely lots of whoosh-whoosh today, though the marquee answers felt a little on the tepid side. The puzzle is trying hard to be FUN-FILLED, and ... well, it's not unfun, but I've done funner. The problem is that CELESTIAL EVENT is just too vague a term for me to like. And I've seen MEETCUTE too many times for it to seem like exciting marquee material any more. The 9s in the NE and SW corner are fine, but "fine" is about as high as the puzzle gets today. CREATION OF ADAM is a cool answer (I thought it was CREATION OF MAN, but when that wouldn't fit ... well, ADAM was the next logical guess). I think FUN-FILLED and (weirdly) AUTODIDACT were my favorite moments in this one. I also kinda liked the clue on SWING SETS (24A: Places where it's OK to push someone at school). Not hard, but playful and clever. 

I didn't get the clue on KILLER BEE, and still mostly don't. I put WORKER BEE in there at first, since it seemed to be asking for a subset of bees, one part of the bee org chart, not an entire subspecies of bee. If you are distinguishing the answer from the "queen," then the answer should be a different type of bee, and there are only two other types: WORKER BEES (which do, in fact, protect the hive) and DRONE BEES: "His only role is to mate with a maiden queen in nuptial flight" (wikipedia). The KILLER BEE doesn't really work as "the queen's guard" since she herself is (presumably) a KILLER BEE (even if she herself is not doing the "killing"). 

[CREATION OF ADAM]

Bullets:

• 1A: Coaster, usually (DISC) — thought this might be a roller coaster, so ... RIDE? I didn't chance it. Best to move on to something you're sure of when you're trying to get your first bit of traction, which is what I did. Tested LUNAR at 13A: Kind of rover, which gave me LAMP, then PIE, and that was that.
• 31A: Plot device in many a rom-com (MEET-CUTE) — they meet and it's cute. I recently watched While You Were Sleeping, a classic 1996 rom-com, for my Movie Club. That movie has three meets, none of them particularly cute (Peter Gallagher gives Sandra Bullock his "L" train token every day but doesn't really notice her; she pulls him off the tracks out of the way of an oncoming train; he wakes up from a coma weeks later and finally "meets" her—she's been pretending to be his fiancée ... while he was sleeping). And then a totally different guy (Bill Pullman) ends up being the love interest ... and that meet isn't particularly cute either. In fact, I don't remember it. They really don't have much chemistry. But there are lots of great actors in the movie, including Peter Boyle and Glynis Johns, and lots of Dunkin' Donuts (emphasis on the Donuts; RIP "Donuts"), so if you're nostalgic for the '90s and want something that goes down easy (some might say "blandly"), you could do worse.

• 38A: What fan fiction is not (CANON) — a nice, modern clue for CANON, which has extended its meaning from "an authorized set of books" (see, uh, the Bible?) to "an authorized fictional storyline."
• 55A: "Seriously!," in slang ("NO CAP!") — yes, you have seen this before. Yes, you have. I swear. First in 2023, and now three times this year. NO CAP!
• 1D: Home to the torus-shaped Museum of the Future (DUBAI) — mmm, torus.

• 10D: Kathryn of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (ERBE) — her name threatened to become established crosswordese in the late aughts, but then disappeared. This is her first NYTXW appearance since 2011! (ERBE appeared once in the intervening years as Italian for "herbs") (!).
• 32D: Dog's post-op wear (CONE) — my first and only outright mistake, and it was a glorious one. I had the "O," saw "post-op," and wrote in GOWN.

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Resident of a hidden mushroom village / THU 8-28-25 / Fair Deal prez / Follower of Joel / Bit of camp entertainment / Mythological beast able to regenerate its heads / Battle carriers / Hebrew name for God / ___ D'Arcy, co-star of HBO's "House of the Dragon" / "Table" for one's TV dinner, perhaps / Like Frodo at the end of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy / One of three in the Domino's logo

Constructor: Joel Woodford

Relative difficulty: Easy, maybe Easy-Medium 

THEME: SPOONERISM (66A: Feature of the clues for 17-, 25-, 41- and 52-Across) — that's it—read the clues as spoonerisms (i.e. reverse engineer the two words in each clue by swapping their opening consonant sounds)

Theme answers:

• GOOD ENOUGH (17A: Recently dates) (i.e. "Decently rated)
• FREAK OUT (25A: No guts) (i.e. "Go nuts")
• CHAINLINK FENCES (41A: Battle carriers) (i.e. "Cattle barriers")
• FELL FLAT (52A: Packed lunch) (i.e. "Lacked punch")

Word of the Day: William Archibald Spooner (See 66A: SPOONERISM) —

William Archibald Spooner (22 July 1844 – 29 August 1930) was a British clergyman and long-serving Oxford don. He was most notable for his absent-mindedness, and for supposedly mixing up the syllables in a spoken phrase, with unintentionally comic effect. Such phrases became known as spoonerisms, and are often used humorously. Many spoonerisms have been invented and attributed to Spooner. [...] Spooner became famous for his manner of speaking, real or alleged "spoonerisms", plays on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched. Few, if any, of his own spoonerisms were deliberate, and many of those attributed to him are apocryphal; in 1928, The New York Times described them as a "myth principally invented by" one of his former students, Robert Seton, who subsequently collaborated with Arthur Sharp on the first book of spoonerisms.// Spooner is said to have disliked the reputation gained for getting his words muddled. Maurice Bowra, who had been another of his students, commented that Spooner "was sensitive to any reference to the subject." He described being part of a group that gathered outside Spooner's window one evening, calling for a speech; Spooner replied "You don't want a speech. You only want me to say one of those things," and refused to comment further. // The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (3rd edition, 1979) lists only one substantiated spoonerism: "The weight of rages will press hard upon the employer." (rate of wages) In a 1928 interview, Spooner himself admitted to uttering "Kinkering Congs Their Titles Take" (Conquering Kings). Spooner called this hymn out from the pulpit in 1879.

• • •

This seemed pretty ANEMIC (which is the mistake I had to hunt down at the end (14A: Weakness (ANEMIA)—should've been suspicious of YCHWEH as the [Hebrew name for God]). Correct me if I'm wrong, but these are just four random Spoonerisms. You "unlock" (or reverse engineer) four Spoonerisms and then it's the most regular-ass puzzle imaginable, is that it? Why these Spoonerisms? What's the point? This doesn't feel like a NYTXW-worthy theme at all. Spoonerisms ... with no twist, no angle, no exciting revealer (SPOONERISM is the opposite of an "exciting revealer"—it's flatly explanatory, no thrills). It wasn't that hard to find a Spoonerism theme that did have some (much-needed) extra juice: check out this one from Erik Agard and Andy Kravis back in 2018: the Spoonerisms themselves are in the grid, and they're entertainingly wacky, and they're all tied to one another in a clever thematic way (all the theme answers are Spoonerisms for things that can be eaten with ... spoons!). No wackiness here. No revealer to elevate the whole project and make you go "whoa." This one definitely FELL FLAT for me. No punch. No guts. 

I didn't see that the clues were Spoonerisms until I got to the revealer. I could see the clues didn't seem to match the answers, and I *knew* that if I just skipped to the bottom of the grid and worked out the revealer, things would go somewhat faster, but I decided to be stubborn and just work my way from top to bottom without any "reveal." So my experience was "fairly boring themeless with four long mystery answers." Shrug. When I got to the end and didn't get the "Congratulations" message. I figured I'd filled my final square incorrectly—the "A" in EMMA / STA (64D: ___ D'Arcy, co-star of HBO's "House of the Dragon" / 73A: "Come ___?" (Italian for "How are you?")). Don't watch dragon shows, don't know that actress, and don't know much Italian, so though "A" seemed right, I was willing to entertain other vowels once "A" seemed to fail. Eventually I just left "A" in place and went over the puzzle answer by answer: all the Acrosses and then into the Downs before I finally saw YCHWEH. Bah. But there's no actual difficulty to this puzzle that I can see, beyond the theme answers themselves. The clue on SKIT threw me, for sure (36D: Bit of camp entertainment). I only just realized the clue is probably referring to summer camp? My first thought was "are SKITs campy? what is 'camp' about a SKIT." But I guess maybe campers put on SKITs? For fun? I'm over 40 years removed from my last experience of summer camp, so any memories I have of such a thing are hazy at best, false at worst.

Clue round-up:

• 1A: "Table" for one's TV dinner, perhaps (LAP) — do people still eat TV dinners? Like, Swanson's or whatever? These feel like a mid-late 20c phenomenon (i.e. a phenomenon associated with the rise of television). I don't think I've had a proper "TV dinner" since the mid-'80s maybe. My parents never served them, but they were like a fun novelty treat when we were on our own for dinner sometimes. Rarely, but sometimes. Mostly we just harassed them until they let us get Burger King.
• 15A: ___ Highway (Maui tourist attraction) (HANA) — didn't know it, but also never saw the clue. The answer just sorta filled itself in, and then later I noticed HANA and thought "oh, the tennis player?" Then I read the clue—nope, different HANA.
• 32A: Like Frodo at the end of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy (ASEA) — I watched all those LOTR movies and don't remember a thing about them, so boring were they to me. I tried reading the LOTR and couldn't even make it through the first book. I did enjoy The Hobbit as a standalone book. But the LOTR was just never my thing. Anyway, you say he was ASEA at the end, and I believe you.
• 44A: Mythological beast able to regenerate its heads (HYDRA) — it's weird, demographically, that I didn't like LOTR because I was the right age and the right amount of dorkiness. I even played D&D as a tween, which seems very LOTR-adjacent. Had all the different-sided dice (which I ended up repurposing for my homemade version of Strat-O-Matic baseball...), collected the little lead figures, and read the Monster Manual, which is how I learned about ... the HYDRA (as well as something called a Gelatinous Cube, but that's a monster for another day).

[the original Monster Manual was just fun, the illustrations charming and pleasingly non-digital]

• 47A: One of three in the Domino's logo (PIP) — feels like it's been a pippy month. Pips on dice, and now pips on dominoes. I haven't eaten Domino's since early grad school, maybe?? (i.e. the '90s). They were big anti-abortion funders (well, the founder, Tom Monaghan was), so we did not f*** with them. Monaghan was an Ann Arbor native, so his politics were maybe better known in Ann Arbor (where I was in grad school) than other places. Anyway, I have great pizza in my neighborhood now, so I'm never desperate enough to order mediocre delivery. If you've got no other options, I guess I get it.  
• 60A: Follower of Joel (AMOS) — in the Bible
• 7D: Resident of a hidden mushroom village (SMURF) — Can SMURFs and MARIO & LUIGI coexist in the same grid? I feel like they'd be natural enemies. Where's that crossover? I don't care about Marvel's Infinity War or Secret Wars (coming 2027), but I would absolutely check out a SMURF/MARIO WARS. Way more entertainment potential than yet another Star Wars installment, for instance.

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Wildlife that may nest on Hawaiian golf courses / WED 8-27-25 / The Prancing Pony and the Admiral Benbow are fictional ones / Basic couturier offering / Genre for Blackpink or BTS / Sister goddesses who personify destiny

Constructor: Zhou Zhang

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: UPS and DOWNS (27A: Highs ... that could appear four more times in this puzzle / 51D: Lows ... that could appear four more times in this puzzle) — grid has four circles where either "UP" or "DOWN" works:

Theme answers:

• I'M [UP/DOWN] FOR WHATEVER (18A: "Anything sounds good to me")
• 3D: One end of the day (SUN-[UP/DOWN])
• BUTTON-[UP/DOWN] (23A: Basic couturier offering)
• 26D: One aspect to consider in making a decision ([UP/DOWN]-SIDE)
• GOBBLE [UP/DOWN] (48A: Devour)
• 33D: One orientation of a playing card during a magic trick (FACE [UP/DOWN])
• GOING [UP/DOWN] IN FLAMES (54A: Failing epically)
• 55D: One tool for scrolling on a computer ([UP/DOWN] KEY]

Word of the Day: Blackpink (5A: Genre for Blackpink or BTS (K-POP)) —

Blackpink (Korean: 블랙핑크, stylized in all caps or as BLɅϽKPIИK) is a South Korean girl group formed by YG Entertainment. The group is composed of four members: Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa. Regarded by various publications as the "biggest girl group in the world", they are recognized as a leading force in the Korean Wave and an ambassador of the "girl crush" concept in K-pop, which explores themes of self-confidence and female empowerment. [...] Blackpink's debut studio album, The Album (2020), was the first album by a female act in South Korea to sell one million copies. Their 2022 follow-up, Born Pink, was the first to sell two million copies, the first by a girl group to reach number one on the US Billboard 200 since Danity Kane in 2008, and the first by a Korean girl group to top the Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart. The album's lead single, "Pink Venom" (2022), was the first song by a Korean group to reach number one on Australia's ARIA Singles Chart and the first by a girl group to reach number one on the Billboard Global 200. Blackpink has overall achieved three number-ones on the Billboard Global 200 and four number-ones on the Billboard Global Excl. US, the most for a female act, as well as ten entries on the US Billboard Hot 100. Their Born Pink World Tour (2022–23) became the highest-grossing concert tour by a female group and Asian act in history, while they became the first Asian act to headline Coachella in 2023. // With 40 billion streams and 20 million records sold worldwide, Blackpink is one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. They have the most-subscribed and most-viewed music artist channel on YouTube, and are the most-followed and most-streamed girl group on Spotify. Blackpink's accolades include several Golden Disc Awards, MAMA Awards, People's Choice Awards, and MTV Video Music Awards; they were the first girl group to win Group of the Year at the latter awards in the 21st century. (wikipedia)

• • •

This puzzle was really rescued by the theme—specifically the revelation that there was a second element to the theme. I had the circled squares as "UP"s and was wondering what was so special about an "UP" rebus, particularly one where you've gone to the trouble of marking all the relevant squares. Pretty thing and remedial-seeming rebus puzzle ... or so I thought. Also, the "could" in the UPS clue was bugging me (27A: Highs ... that could appear four more times in this puzzle). What do you mean "could"?, I thought. They do appear. Are we not supposed to write them in? Everything seemed thin, off, weird. And then I hit the DOWNS clue, which did its damn job, I'll give it that. The (second) revealer definitely revealed the gimmick to me. "DOWN" never occurred to me for those circled squares as I was solving, so the fact that I could, in fact, go back and plug DOWN into all those circled squares and they'd still work for their clues—that was, in fact, a revelation. Solid AHA from me (I doubt I said it aloud, but I definitely felt it). Kinda wish the revealer had been handled a little more (visually) elegantly, instead of broken into two parts (UPS, DOWNS) placed in seemingly random locations. But as you can probably see, the grid is a narrow 14 squares wide today (to accommodate the top and bottom grid-spanners) and you can't get an odd-numbered phrase like UPANDDOWN (9) or UPSANDDOWNS (11) to sit dead center in a 14-wide grid (or any grid with an even-numbered-square width). It would need a 9 or 11-letter counterpart in the themers to balance it out, and no such answer exists (and if it did exist, would certainly make the grid way too crowded with theme material), so we get this semi-ugly but still effective compromise—a broken two-part themer. I actually think the two-parted-ness is OK; it allowed me to have that delayed "Ohhhhhh!" reaction. But I still think the location of UPS and DOWNS is unpleasantly arbitrary.

All of the difficulty today, for me, came immediately, with the first clues I encountered. I thought you "rigged" the SAIL (1A: It might be rigged), and when I confirmed SAIL with AHEM (2D: "I'm standing right here, you know!"), I thought I was golden. But then I knew ("knew") the transit option of 1D: S.F. transit option had to be BART, and that wouldn't work with SAIL, so I tore out SAIL/AHEM and wrote in BART, which I "confirmed" with "AS IF!" (12A: No way!"). SAIL/AHEM v. BART/"AS IF!" ... there could be only one victor. Who would it be? Turns out, neither. A third fighter appeared as if out of nowhere and knocked them both out. MAST/MUNI ... oof. OK. I accept that those are the correct answers, but only because the Hawaiian goose said so (as a veteran solver, there's something very sad about needing to be bailed out by a crossword goose, but that's what happened) (15A: Wildlife that may nest on Hawaiian golf courses = NENE). After that ... nope, I'm looking at the grid and I don't see any struggle points. The fill felt iffy and weak in places (that NW corner is so-so, ASAMI is always unwelcom, ECCE and EKED are not much better, and  that "OH" in "OH, BE A PAL" is completely made-up / tacked-on / absurd (I can maybe hear an "aw...." but not an "OH")). But mostly the fill seems solid enough. Having theme material in two directions puts a lot of strain on the grid, so we should probably be grateful the fill is as clean as it is. I hope you got the "aha" (or "OHO") moment I did, with the second revealer. It was the one real pleasure the puzzle had to offer today.

Bullet points:

• 
  5A: Genre for Blackpink or BTS (K-POP) — I need to make sure you are all familiar with the movie-musical phenomenon KPOP DEMON HUNTERS, which was a streaming juggernaut this summer (on Netflix). The songs from that movie have absolutely torn up the Billboard charts, becoming so popular (with a wide variety of age groups) that Netflix decided to release the movie theatrically earlier this month, with showings specifically designated as sing-alongs! Why do I need you all to know this? Because it's only a matter of time before it makes its way into your puzzle ... somehow. The rival bands in the film are HUNTR/X and SAJA BOYS—no idea how you'd handle that slash in "HUNTR/X" in a crossword grid, but it's not that hard to see how SAJA (4) might find its way into the xword mix. The lead characters (lead singers from the rival bands) are RUMI (4) and JINU (4). There's an adorable large animated cat called DERPY (5). Anyway, this is a pop cultural artifact that is too big for the puzzle to ignore for very long. It will certainly at least be a KPOP clue in the near future. Not only is Kpop Demon Hunters the most popular Netflix film of all time, its two-day special theatrical sing-along release seems to have actually won the box office for last week. From Yahoo! Entertainment:

According to CNBC, “Rival studios on Sunday estimated “KPop Demon Hunters” led all films over the weekend with $16-18 million in ticket sales. Distribution executives from three studios shared their estimates for the Netflix phenomenon on condition of anonymity because the streaming company has a policy of not reporting ticket sales.” Some have even estimated the movie made about $20 million in its weekend stint at the theater. Apparently, Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters even made it to the top of the box office without appearing at the popular AMC Theaters chain. AMC declined to show the movie. But those KPOP gals didn’t need ’em to send Netflix to #1. That’s two total wins for KPOP Demon Hunters.

• 64A: The Prancing Pony and the Admiral Benbow are fictional ones (INNS) — The Lord of the Rings and Treasure Island, in case you were wondering—I definitely was. Not a Tolkien fan and I don't know if I ever read (or even saw) Treasure Island. The only fictional INN I know is the Tabard, from Canterbury Tales. Oh, and the Stratford Inn from the sitcom Newhart. 

• 24D: Apt letters missing from "c--tom---" (USERS) — me: "US ... ARY? What's USARY!?"

That's it. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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

• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

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✏️ Upcoming Crossword Tournaments ✏️

• Midwest Crossword Tournament (Chicago) (Sat., Oct. 4, 2025)
• Finger Lakes Crossword Competition (Ithaca) (Sat., Oct. 18, 2025)

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📘 My other blog 📘:

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...