Showy daisies / SUN 8-10-25 / First letter of "menorah," in Hebrew / Helpful site for a D.I.Y.'er / Smash to smithereens / Place with moving exhibits / Shakespearean potion ingredient / Basis for a write-off perhaps / Many a hangout in Boystown, Chicago / Bit of blue on a map of Scotland / Radiohead's first #1 album (2000)

Constructor: Adam Wagner and Chandi Deitmer

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Passing Glances" — an "EYE" rebus where one "EYE" square appears in each themer; every theme clue starts with an ellipsis, and the idea is that each one is supposed to start with the phrase "I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE" (63A: Children's game phrase that should start the italicized clues ... or a hint to eight squares in this puzzle) (so the clue describes the spied thing, and each spied thing contains an "EYE" rebus square, or a LITTLE "EYE"):

Theme answers:

• CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN (21A: ... something big and rocky with a Space Force base in it)
• 3D: Showy daisies (OXEYES)
• DONKEY EARS (29A: ... something pointy grown by Pinocchio)
• 13D: Iowan, by another name (HAWKEYE)
• ERLENMEYER FLASK (39A: ... something conical in a chemistry lab)
• 26D: Fast-food chain founded in New Orleans (POPEYE'S)
• JAPANESE YEN (46A: ... something round and metallic with kanji written on it)
• 48D: Hole for a shoelace (EYELET)
• SMILEY EMOJI (84A: ... something yellow and happy in a text message)
• 86D: Shakespearean potion ingredient (EYE OF NEWT)
• BREYER'S ICE CREAM (87A: ... something soft and melty in a black tub)
• 64D: Sleep, informally (SHUTEYE)
• HONEYEATER (96A: ... something feathery sipping on nectar)
• 99D: Scrutinize (EYEBALL)
• DOUBLE-YELLOW LINE (111A: ... something long and painted on a highway)
• 102D: "Ridiculous!" ("MY EYE!")

Word of the Day: HONEYEATER (96A) —

The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family, Meliphagidae, of small to medium-sized birds. The family includes the Australian chats, myzomelas, friarbirds, wattlebirds, miners and melidectes. They are most common in Australia and New Guinea, and found also in New Zealand, the Pacific islands as far east as Samoa and Tonga, and the islands to the north and west of New Guinea known as Wallacea. Bali, on the other side of the Wallace Line, has a single species.

In total, there are 186 species in 55 genera, roughly half of them native to Australia, many of the remainder occupying New Guinea. With their closest relatives, the Maluridae (Australian fairy-wrens), Pardalotidae (pardalotes), and Acanthizidae (thornbills, Australian warblers, scrubwrens, etc.), they comprise the superfamily Meliphagoidea and originated early in the evolutionary history of the oscine passerine radiation. Although honeyeaters look and behave very much like other nectar-feeding passerines around the world (such as the sunbirds and flowerpeckers), they are unrelated, and the similarities are the consequence of convergent evolution. (wikipedia) 

[TUI (3) — not seen in the NYTXW since 2004 😞] 

The tūī (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae) is a medium-sized bird native to New Zealand. It is blue, green, and bronze coloured with a distinctive white throat tuft (poi). It is an endemic passerine bird of New Zealand, and the only species in the genus Prosthemadera. It is one of the largest species in the diverse Australasian honeyeater family Meliphagidae, and one of two living species of that family found in New Zealand, the other being the New Zealand bellbird (Anthornis melanura). The tūī has a wide distribution in the archipelago, ranging from the subtropical Kermadec Islands to the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands, as well as the main islands. (wikipedia) (my emph.)

• • •

I liked the revealer. I liked that everything being "spied" had a "little 'EYE'" inside it, and I liked that the revealer also made sense of the strange ellipsis-starting clues. Once you know that the clues themselves are written in the style of someone actually playing the game "I Spy," they make a lot more sense. So conceptually, yes, sure, hurray, good job. The execution felt kinda wobbly to me, mostly because "EYE" isn't a particular common letter string to find embedded in a word or phrase, and so (unsurprisingly) some of these answers feel odd or forced or strange. CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN? Is that a place? I assume it is because you're telling me it is, but if CHEYENNE isn't followed by WYOMING (or AUTUMN, actually), then I don't know what it's doing. A Space Force base???? Well, points off for reminding me that Space Force actually exists and is not an ill-conceived and ultimately discarded idea from a scifi show that never made it out of its first season. 

Are there other YENs besides the JAPANESE YEN? I see that the currency is formally called that, but it still felt redundant. I have never heard of an ERLENMEYER FLASK (I'm just assuming that ERLENMEYER is one name, I don't know), but that's on me, I'm sure. Just ... out of my wheelhouse, completely. SMILEY EMOJI ... do I call it that? Happy face emoji ... smiley face emoji ... smile emoji ... I think these are more likely to come out of my mouth. I can't really dispute its real thingness, but over and over again, the answers were either "???" or just slightly off, to my ear. The one that landed best for me was HONEYEATER, first because, well, yay, birds! And second, the HONEYEATER "EYE" is doing what I wish every EYE did in a puzzle like this, i.e. break across two words (or word parts) with no additional words left hanging. DONKEY EARS and SMILEY EMOJI do this successfully as well. It always makes me a little sad when words like (today) MOUNTAIN, FLASK, ICE CREAM, and LINE are there but uninvolved in the actual wordplay. "EYE" just doesn't touch those words or have anything to do with them. It's the most elegant expression of the theme, to have every element in every theme answer "EYE"-involved. But thumbs-up for the concept, for sure, and for a generally well-filled grid overall.

Sadly, the theme was very (very very) easy to uncover. Here's how long it took me to uncover:

I know my five-letter crossword flowers, I do. See also OXLIPS (where's my LIP rebus!?—PURSED LIPS? Hmm, not sure PURSED conveys shrunkenness well enough. "MY LIPS ARE SEALED" (inside eight tiny boxes in this grid)?? ... I'm gonna have to work on this). [Showy daisies], starts with "O," that's OXEYES ... but it wouldn't fit ... so I made it fit! Then looked at the puzzle title ("Passing Glances") and knew I did the right thing. The hardest parts of this puzzle were the themers I didn't know, namely the MOUNTAIN part of CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN and basically the whole of ERLENMEYER FLASK (which ... it is one name, right? ERLENMEYER. Not ERLEN MEYER, like OSCAR MAYER ... [looking it up] ... yes! Named after EMIL (4) Erlenmeyer). But as for the theme, once you find the first "EYE," it's basically unvaried thereafter. Seven more "EYE"s, and you know they're coming, which gives you a leg up on all subsequent themers. Clues were toughish in places, but overall this was pretty average in terms of difficulty, maybe a bit on the easy side. Jet lag is still playing tricks on my mind and body, though, so I may just be tired. 

If you, like me, have never heard of ERLENMEYER FLASK, then I sure hope you understood the clue on ENS (39D: Several characters in nonfiction?). Otherwise, that first "E" in ERLENMEYER might've been a mystery (or you ended up with a mistake). There are "several" ENS (i.e. the letter "n") in the word "nonfiction," which is what that clue for ENS is getting at. "Letteral" clues like that (where the clue is pointing to a letter inside of itself rather than pointing to an answer in conventional fashion) often trip people up, so if that happened to you, you weren't alone, I guarantee it. Also, if you, like me, didn't know MEM (?) (6D: First letter of "menorah," in Hebrew) ... well, I'm less afraid there, as all the crosses seem solid—even if you didn't know MOUNTAIN, I think you can guess from the clue language ("big and rocky") that the answer was probably not gonna be the CHEYENNE FOUNTAIN (I might buy MEF as a Hebrew letter, but CHEYENNE FOUNTAIN—unlikely).

And the rest!:

• 1A: Helpful site for a D.I.Y.'er (EHOW) — still haven't visited this site, ever. Only ever seen it in xwords. "Getting rid of the human editors who formerly identified and approved content to be produced increased profits for the company by a factor of 20–25 times" (wikipedia). So ... probably not going to be visiting it any time soon, then.
• 72A: Alfred E. ___, mascot of Mad magazine (NEUMAN) — still misspelling this name, despite knowing the mascot in question since I was like 6. NEWMAN v. NEUMAN ... I had a girlfriend in college with the last name NEUMAN, you'd think I could manage the distinction, but no. I think my brain's logic must be something like, "well, I obviously liked my girlfriend, and I don't really fancy this Alfred E. guy, so his name must be the other spelling." And yet no.
• 87A: ... something soft and melty in a black tub (BREYER'S ICE CREAM) — forgot to ask: why is the ice cream "soft and melty"??? Is it because we're playing "I Spy" in the back of a hot car after a trip to the supermarket? Because otherwise I don't get it. "Cold and creamy" would make sense. "Soft and melty" is a product failure.
• 12D: Wedge placed next to a wheel to prevent it from moving (CHOCK) — had no idea this had a name. I wanted SHIM (not long enough).
• 31D: ___ idéal (BEAU) — realizing just now that I know the phrase but not (really) what it means: "A mental conception or image of any object, moral or physical, in its perfect typical form, free from all the deformities, defects, and blemishes accompanying its actual existence; a model of excellence in the mind or fancy; ideal excellence" (wordnik). Just sounds like an "ideal" to me, but OK.
• 45D: Newswoman Phillips (KYRA) — no idea, but then I watch TV news exactly zero minutes per year, so ... not surprising.
• 61D: Smash to smithereens (ATOMIZE) — wanted this (the letters fit) but this word doesn't make me think of smashing. It makes me think of ... misting? Doesn't an ATOMIZEr spray mist? Or perfume or whatever? Yes, it "converts a substance [...] to a fine spray" (wordnik). But I guess if you smash something into tiny particles, that is also a form of atomizing.

• 76D: Can you believe it? (-ISM) — I cannot. As in, I cannot believe this non-word continues to get foisted on me year after year. Any belief system is, technically, an -ISM. And if you didn't know, well now you know.
• 90A: Place with moving exhibits (ZOO) — because the animals ... move around? In their cages? Huh. That must be it. Still, weird phrasing.
• 23A: "So weird..." ("HOW ODD...") — don't love the "HOW" dupe (see 1A: EHOW). Also don't love the "YELLOW" dupe (in the clue for SMILEY EMOJI ("something yellow...") as well as in the answer DOUBLE YELLOW LINE)
• 86D: Shakespearean potion ingredient (EYE OF NEWT) — best answer in the grid, I think. Best of the "EYE" crosses, for sure.

That's all for me today. Belated thanks to all the writers who filled in for me while I was away in Santa Barbara, which is basically a perfect place. Sunny and 70s every day, extensive running and bicycle lanes along the oceanfront, at least two really fine cocktail bars ... oh &^$%!!!!!! I was supposed to get in touch with one of you (my gentle readers) about getting a cocktail, and I said I would, and then I got swept up in family stuff and didn't. Dammit! I'm sure the person in question would've been lovely, and ... well, a free drink is a free drink. Ugh. OK, off to write an apology email, I guess. Annnnyway, Santa Barbara has it all. Including, sadly, fires, as well as a cost of living that is likely a bit beyond me. But I will be back, for sure. Here are some photos:

[me stalking the elusive Great Blue Heron (note: not actually elusive)]

[snowy egrets, having a heated discussion]

[these cacti were actually at the Huntington Museum, near Pasadena]

[the view from my balcony]

[it just looks like this ... every night ...]

[base of the Moreton Bay Fig Tree, the "largest ficus macrophylla in the U.S."] 

[every plant looks like it's out of a scifi movie]

[absorbing the local culture]

[my stepbrother rented a giant van to drive the whole family around in, then invented a fake company and had tshirts, hats, and other merch made, including this magnet to put on the side of the van. 100% commitment to the bit!]

[my Old Fashioned at The Good Lion]

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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Purple-hatted Nintendo character / SAT 8-9-25 / Little Italian toasts / Villainous group of science fiction / Series of mental blocks? / "The Ultimate Trivia Destination," per its website / People whose flag depicts the Lion of Judah / Actress Lombard of classic Hollywood

Constructor: Aidan Deshong and Akshay Seetharam

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: WALUIGI (13A: Purple-hatted Nintendo character) —

Waluigi [...] is a character in the Mario franchise. He plays the role of Luigi's arch-rival and accompanies Wario in spin-offs from the main Mario series, often for the sake of causing mischief. He was created by Camelot employee Fumihide Aoki and was voiced from 2000 to 2022 by Charles Martinet, who described Waluigi as someone with a lot of self-pity. Waluigi's design is characterised by his tall stature, thin and lanky frame, and his purple and black outfit with a purple hat, which displays an inverted yellow "L".

He was designed as Wario's tennis partner and sidekick, debuting in the 2000 Nintendo 64 game Mario Tennis. He has featured in over 50 video games, appearing in at least one game every year since his debut until 2022. He is a playable character in Mario sports games, most Mario Party games, and also in the Mario Kart series. He has also made cameo appearances in other video games, such as the Super Smash Bros. series.

Since his debut, Waluigi has received a polarised reception from the media, often being accused of having few defining characteristics and minimal backstory. He has attained a cult following, especially helped through his use as an Internet meme. Although he has never appeared in his own video game or any mainline Mario game, critics have described him as one of Nintendo's mascots and a cult hero.

• • •

I remain jetlagged from my CA vacation, which means I'm wide awake at 10pm when the puzzle comes out, so ... may as well do the puzzle! Look at me, solving at night, just like I did before I officially became an old man—eating my dinner at 6pm (which allegedly Gen Z is also doing?), heading to bed by 9pm (which I'm fairly certain Gen Z is not doing), and then waking at 4am (which no one but me and professional bakers are doing) so I can solve and write. Weird to be up late writing. My cats are confused. I actually had to bounce Ida from my desk chair (which is apparently where she sleeps at night). I think most of my readers still solve on the morning of, but the hard-core puzzlers and night owls (as well as west-coasters) often jump on the puzzle right when it comes out (10PM Eastern). I solve better (i.e. faster) at night, but I write more easily in the morning ... which maybe is beginning to show. Annnnyway, the puzzle! Bit of a shrug, really. The marquee stuff just doesn't sing, and there's not that much original stuff to begin with. "JUST BECAUSE" and EASTER CANDY are both original, and they're good answers, but not good enough to build a whole damn puzzle around, and the rest of it has been done before and/or leans toward ho-hum. IPHONECASES and SANDCASTLES are technically debuts, but only as plurals, and slapping an "S" on the end of something doesn't really deserve originality credit. I think the one thing that is apt to delight some segment of the solving population is WALUIGI, who makes his debut today. I don't give a damn about the characters of the Marioverse, but some people really love them, so ... there he is! I guess he gets memed a lot? If that's your idea of entertaining, awesome. I'm more a CAROLE Lombard guy, myself. 

Both the "W" in WALUIGI / "AW, C'MON!" and the "B" in BEHAR / BETTE seem like potential sticking points, though "AH, C'MON" seems unlikely and Joy BEHAR is pretty dang famous, even if Balzac's Cousin BETTE isn't, particularly. JAMAIS VU gave me some trouble, initially. It also gave me a case of déjà vu, and sure enough, I've seen it in the puzzle before. It literally means "never seen," and I don't really understand the phenomenon at all. Sounds like a dementia symptom, honestly (31D: Phenomenon of experiencing something as strangely new even though one has experienced it before), though I guess the hallmark of JAMAIS VU is that the person feeling it knows that they've experienced whatever they're experiencing before. It just feels eerily, unaccountably new. In the end, WALUIGI was the only answer that held me up for any length of time. Cousin BETTE, Carole LOMBARD, Herman HESSE and Joy BEHAR are all old friends. I'll always be grateful to Joy BEHAR for being the only reason my name has ever graced the pages of US Weekly (see no. 4 on this list of "25 Things You Didn't Know About Me"). Today is her 17th NYTXW appearance. One more and she can vote (for what, I don't know).

[Florence Pugh sneaks a very dubious "Martini" demo into this CROSTINI demo]

What else?:

• 25A: Windjammer, e.g. (SHIP) — I had SAIL. Then I had SHOE. 
• 32A: Rabbit food? (EASTER CANDY) — the EASTER Rabbit (aka "Bunny") brings CANDY (which is, technically, "food") to good children, just like in the bible.
• 33D: Series of mental blocks? (TETRIS) — how are the blocks "mental?" I got this answer very easily, but ... I guess the idea is that you have to use your "mental" powers to arrange the blocks strategically.
• 49A: "The Ultimate Trivia Destination," per its website (SPORCLE) — are SPORCLE quizzes still a big deal? Seems like they had a moment and then I stopped hearing about them. Big overlap between crossword and trivia enthusiasts. I am not part of that overlap. I'll do a SPORCLE quiz if it's put in front of me, but I'm not "enthusiastic" about it. I just identified 20/20 "Popular People in 1987," though it did involve an absolute guess in putting the names with the faces of the last two. Never heard of Nelson Piquet or Ruud Gullit. Ruud!? RUUD?! Where has that name been all my life? If he were truly famous, you'd think he'd've made an appearance or two in the NYTXW by now.

[OK so he's widely considered one of the greatest football players of all time. Pardon my ignorance. You can put him in the puzzle now. I'm ready]

• 5D: Villainous group of science fiction (SITH) — first thought: BORG ("Resistance is futile"). Second thought: AXIS (that's a "villainous group" of non-fiction). KAOS? That's spy fiction. Eventually SITH just sort of filled itself in.
• 11D: #1 on BBC's list of greatest 21st-century TV series (THE WIRE) — the "BBC" part really threw me. Is it the Baltimore Broadcasting Corporation now?
• 42D: American in Paris? (YANK) — since it's an English word, I think of it being more of an American in London or American in Sydney situation. But then those aren't movie titles, are they? No funny misdirection there. 

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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Events akin to streaks / FRI 8-8-25 / Freudian drive to survive / Hybrid feline whose coat may feature rosettes / Their tracks diffract light into rainbows / Competition conducted in rounds over rounds / Synthetic fabric sometimes called "elastane" / Caregiver known as a "nutrix" in ancient Rome / Bouts held in a dohyo / Way to the left?

Constructor: Rafael Musa and Matthew Stock

Relative difficulty: Medium (I think ... I'm out of practice)

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: UNDIE RUNS (55A: Events akin to streaks) —

An Undie Run is an event where a large number of people disrobe until they are only wearing underwear, and then run. The site of Undie Runs are typically college campuses, but they may occur on other sites such as streets. Undie Runs may be purely for entertainment, a form of protest, or as with the ASU Undie Run, fund-raising for charitable purposes. It is reported that the Guinness Book of World Records considers the Undie Run that took place on September 24, 2011, in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States to have had a record number of participants. There were 2,270 participants in that Undie Run, which was held to protest Utah's conservative laws. COED Magazine, a magazine in the United States marketed to college students, has reported that Undie Runs are the "number one university sanctioned event". (wikipedia)

• • •

[34A: Reassuring words when help is needed]

Hello. It is currently 1:50AM EDT and I have just (just!) arrived home from my weeklong extended-family vacation in Santa Barbara (SB -> DEN -> SYR, then 1hr 20min drive home). I have to be at the gym at 8:30AM, which means ... hell, I don't know what it means, mathematically, but I have to go to bed (very) soon, so this will be (very) brief, and I'll tell you all about my vacation tomorrow. Or never, who knows? I solved this puzzle on my phone (which I never do) in the car (which I really never do) so that I could start blogging as soon as I came in the door (after a few minutes of smushing my kitties). I don't know how people solve on their phones regularly. Not being a "digital (ha!) native," phone-solving does not come naturally to me. Too many fat-finger (fat-thumb) keyboard mistakes, too much fumbling with cursor placement, clue toggling, etc. It's a fine way to solve if you have no other way to solve and are not in a hurry. You can see here how long it took me (this is about twice my normal Friday time—though I didn't think it was any harder than average):

The puzzle seems fine, solid, mostly good, but there's only one answer that really stood out to me because ... well ... I had no idea what I was looking at, even after I had the answer completely filled in. That answer: UNDIE RUNS (55A: Events akin to streaks). The problem stems, in part, from the fact that I've literally never heard of these, but more so from the use of the word "streaks" in the clue. I think the clue means "streaking." Are instances of streaking called "streaks?" Streaking involves running naked, which is very very different from running in your underwear, for many many reasons, ranging from the legal to the practical. The noun "streak" to me means one of two things—an unbroken series of things (like your crossword streak) or a ... smear? Smudge? Marks left behind by ... something. So, first I thought the "unbroken series" form of "streak" was involved, and maybe there was some kind of video game frame of reference; like, if you are on a streak in a video game where you don't die, maybe you are on a "un-die run." That seemed so awful that I was then forced to move onto the "smear" meaning of "streaks," which was somehow much more awful. Why are there streaks in your undies? Please answer without using the word RUNS. Please. Pretty please? I had to look up the term after I was finished to realize it was just people running in their underwear. According to wikipedia, UNDIE RUNS are popular university events. If my university has hosted such events, I have been blissfully unaware. The fact that I haven't heard of them doesn't mean they're not real ... they already seem a lot more real to me than ECO-HOTELS (17A: Establishments with many green rooms) (presumably all the rooms in such an establishment are green?). 

Besides UNDIE RUNS, there were no other tough spots, no other mysteries ... except for Iris CHANG, who wrote a couple of very well regarded books about Chinese history before dying very young in 2004. I struggled some with BENGAL CAT, which is a "hybrid" of ... what? (15D: Hybrid feline whose coat may feature rosettes). Hmm ... looks like Asian leopard cat (not a cat I knew existed) and domestic cats, primarily the Egyptian Mau (which I also didn't know existed). If it starts BENGAL and the next word isn't TIGER, I don't know it. But the CAT part was easy (why are they saying "feline" in the clue if not to avoid saying "CAT"?) and the rest was eventually inferable. 

I need to go to sleep so off we go to the Lightning Round:

• 1A: Who wrote in an 1852 novel "Any mind that is capable of a real sorrow is capable of good" (STOWE) — as in Harriet Beecher, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin (the 1852 novel in question—a tremendously popular book).
• 6A: Stick around camp? (TENT POLE) — me: "Oh, I know, it's the ... thing ... you toast marshmallows with ... for S'mores?" Sadly no.
• 36A: Means of defense for an elephant (TUSK) — also apparently a means of defense for a Cape buffalo ... (OK, TUSKs aren't the same as "horns," but ... close enough for my purposes here):

[FAFO, I guess 😢]

• 43A: Their tracks diffract light into rainbows (CDS) — this was cute. I guess CDs (which contain music "tracks") do diffract light that way.
• 4D: Follow to the letter? (WRITE BACK) — the phrasing here feels a little forced, even for a "?" clue, but the idea is that someone writes you a "letter" and then you "follow" suit and WRITE BACK
• 7D: Freudian drive to survive (EROS) — huh. Did not know that. "Libido," that's a Freudian drive I know. Also ... "death drive," is that something? Yes! Two Freudian drives that I know. But EROS, missed that one.
• 23A: Way to the left? (WEST) — looks like a political clue ... but isn't. On a map, conventionally, "left" is WEST.
• 33D: Table tennis or beach volleyball (COED SPORTS) — neither of these seems definitively "co-ed" to me. The times I've seen these sports on TV, they've been single-sex. I know CO-ED versions exist, but ... they exist in regular tennis, too? Odd.
• 45D: Animal that's mostly white, helping it hide in its natural habitat (PANDA) — gonna go to sleep now and try not to think about what color PANDAs "mostly" are. I think I'd've said "black." Pictures are deceptive. Apparent black/white-ness really depends on the angle. But their heads and torsos are white, and that's a lot of surface area, so I'm inclined to believe the puzzle. OK, that's all, good night from me and this PANDA:

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Creature on the state flags of Michigan and Idaho / THU 8-7-25 / Financial center of West Africa / European land where much of "Game of Thrones" was filmed / Tourist destination outside of Delhi

Constructor: BEN ZIMMER

Relative difficulty: MEDIUMish

THEME: FRUITLESSLY — 36A: In vain... or how to read the answers to 17-, 25-, 49-, and 58-Across. These answers are all clued as simpler words that make longer words or phrases when a fruit has been added to them.

Word of the Day: UTA (32D: ___ Hagen, Tony-winning acress and theater practitioner). I'm a theatre major; I'm well aware of who Uta Hagen was. But I wanted to highlight her —

Uta Thyra Hagen (12 June 1919 – 14 January 2004) was a German and American actress and theatre practitioner. She originated the role of Martha in the 1962 Broadway premiere of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee, who called her "a profoundly truthful actress." Because Hagen was on the Hollywood blacklist, in part because of her association with Paul Robeson, her film opportunities dwindled and she focused her career on New York theatre.

She later became a highly influential acting teacher at New York's Herbert Berghof Studio and authored best-selling acting texts, Respect for Acting, with Haskel Frankel,^[1] and A Challenge for the Actor. Her most substantial contributions to theatre pedagogy were a series of "object exercises" that built on the work of Konstantin Stanislavski and Yevgeny Vakhtangov.

• • •

Hey everyone, it's Eli back again for one last Rexplacement blog before Rex gets back tomorrow. I was excited to see Ben Zimmer's byline today since I knew that set a floor of at least "competent" for the puzzle. To spoil things, this wasn't one of my favorite of Ben's puzzles today, but it wasn't a complete miss, either. 

Theme answers:

• TOP EARNERS (17A: Mixtures in copier cartridges) (TONERS)
• IMPEACHED (25A: Chatted online, in brief) (IMED)
• ROMAN GODS (49A: Some fishing gear)(RODS)
• PROBLEM ONE (58A: Investigate in detail)(PROBE)

So, right away, I have a couple of issues with the theme. Well, not the theme itself. It's fine. Straightforward, no-nonsense. It probably could have been an earlier week puzzle if the cluing had referenced both the fruited/fruitless version of the answers or used circled letters. I like my Thursdays to have some flash. This one didn't, really, but I liked it ok. FRUITLESSLY is a fantastic revealer for this set. My problems came from a couple of the theme answers. First, TONERS is far weaker in the plural than the singular. I'm sure there are reasons to have multiple toners, but I don't come across them often. Far more troubling for me is PROBLEM ONE. Is that a thing? Am I parsing this wrong?  Am I missing something? Why not Problem 635? Does Jay-Z list all 99? Google doesn't show anything helpful. Problem One is definitely problem one with this puzzle.

Hey, 34D: R U Talkin' R.E.M. Re:Me?

Theme aside, this puzzle played a little tougher for me. It's possible I was just moving slow so I could think of things to blog about, but I definitely ran into a few hiccups. The NW corner just didn't come together to start things off. "Be up" is a fair but hard to parse clue at 1D for BAT, and BUMP isn't the first thing I think of at 1A (Speeding check). Couple that with the fact that I had ETS for UFO at 2D (What arrives in the film "Arrival") and I had to move along to find a place to start. I then confidently entered SELF CONTROL instead of the correct SELF COMMAND at 24D (It's need to stay calm). So to say I had trouble getting footing is an understatement.

On top of that, there was some definite old-timeyness in the grid. GAMIN (54A: Street urchin) and DROSS (51D: Useless leftovers) feel like words that don't spend much time outside of the pages of the OED these days. And ODEUM (7D: Classical performance space) mostly lives in antiquity. I'm much more familiar with ODEON (which means the same thing but also feels archaic) and ODIUM (unrelated). There's also LEG ARMOR (38D: Par of a jouster's protection), which in addition to being old fashioned feels a little generic. Is there not a specific name for it? Greaves, maybe?

Someone who could have used better leg armor

But I don't want to harp too much on the negative. I still found plenty to like. The puzzle played smooth and wasn't without its flash. SOOTHSAYERS (11D: Futures experts?), while distinctly old-fashioned, is a nice long answer. And I loved the cluing on PUERTO (31A: P.R. piece?) and NAN (60D: Grammy, in the U.K.). There were also some fun answers to imagine yelling in public: GOD NO (15A: "Over my dead body!") and I NEED IT (13D: Gimme!). 

Stray Thoughts:

• 23D: Director DuVernay (AVA) — I love Ava. One of the many advantages of living in LA is that we get a chance to see things like an anniversary screening of SELMA at the Academy Museum, followed by a talk back with Ava and a large group of cast and crew (including David Oyelowo). An unforgettable experience.
• 63A: Rivian competitor (TESLA) — I don't know much about Rivian, but as long as they're not owned by a Nazi, they are a million times preferable to Tesla.
• 21A: Drink made with an artisinal flourish, maybe (LATTE) — I bought an espresso machine a little over a year ago, and while I'm pretty good at pulling shots and making drinks, latte art has mostly been a failure for me. I was getting frustrated with the fact that I couldn't get it right, when I realized that I've made fewer lattes in the whole time I've been trying than a barista would make in their first week on the job. Good thing the art doesn't add to the flavor.

Latte art I definitely didn't make

• I just realized I couldn't find anything Simpsons related in the grid today. Enjoy this GIF I made as a general purpose way to exit a conversation:

It's getting late, and I've got an early morning. Hope you all have a great Thursday!

Signed, Eli Selzer, False Dauphin of CrossWorld

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