"Oh. Come. On!" / TUES 9-30-25 / Card game that involves shouting its name / Befitting a king or queen / Move like the Blob

Hi, everyone, it’s Clare back for the last Tuesday of September. Hope the month treated everyone alright! My September was pretty packed with work and taking my puppy on hikes and becoming more obsessed with reality TV cooking shows. I even got to meet my all-time favorite from “Top Chef,” Melissa King, when she was in D.C. for a book signing. I went to a music festival last weekend, and it was incredible (Kesha performed my favorite new song of hers, “Red Flag,” and Doechii blew the whole place down), but now I feel like I need to catch up on sleep for this whole week. Sports have been just OK — Liverpool lost :( but are still top of the table, and the Steelers (who I’m sort of maybe rooting for despite Aaron Rodgers) have done pretty well. At least I’ve had the WNBA playoffs to watch — even if the teams I’ve wanted to win… haven’t. 

Anywho, onto the puzzle…

Constructor: Justin Werfel

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: IT’S A DE LIGHT (59A: "I love this!" ... or, phonetically, remark about the answer to each of the starred clues) — Each theme answer has a dropped “d,” so it’s one “d” light

Theme answers:

• CROW CONTROL (17A: *What a straw man in a cornfield is for?) 
• GARBAGE UMP (28A: *Ref who makes a ruling against your favored team?) 
• ON KEY KONG (35A: *Primate with perfect pitch?) 
• CAR CATALOG (47A: *Kelley Blue Book?)

Word of the Day: NUNAVUT (11D: Largest and most northern Canadian territory) —

Nunavut is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, which provided this territory to the Inuit for self-government. The boundaries had been drawn in 1993. The creation of Nunavut resulted in the first major change to Canada's political map in half a century since the province of Newfoundland (now Newfoundland and Labrador) was admitted in 1949. Nunavut comprises a major portion of Northern Canada and most of the Arctic Archipelago. Its vast territory makes it the fifth-largest country subdivision in the world, as well as North America's second-largest (after Greenland). (Wiki)

• • •

For some reason, I wasn’t totally feeling this puzzle. Some of that can be attributed to some stilted clues/answers, but I think the main reason was that I didn’t connect much with the theme. Each of the theme answers didn’t make much sense to me without the “d” (even if they match up with what the clue is describing). Nobody would ever use the phrases CROW CONTROL (17A) or ON KEY KONG (35A) in real life. I suppose GARBAGE UMP (28A) is at least plausible, but…. What would be more common is saying the “ref” is GARBAGE. [See: recent refereeing in the WBNA playoffs, literally any game of the English Premier League, and probably the NFL any time we need to figure out what a catch is... As a Liverpool fan, I of course know the refs are GARBAGE and out to get my team on every occasion possible (my sister would say the same about Arsenal, but we know better, right?)]. CAR CATALOG (47A) is probably the only one of the four theme answers you might actually run across in real life. For that matter, when is the last time you heard someone say, “IT’S A DELIGHT” (59A)? “It’s delightful,” sure. But “IT’S A DELIGHT”? 

I realize the answers are supposed to be funny, not real life. I guess I just didn’t laugh. I do think the idea of being a “d” light is pretty cute, and ON KEY KONG (35A) is quite an image. But the other answers never clicked for me, and, to channel my inner Rex, I think the dropping the “d” theme would’ve worked better if the “d” was being removed from the same part of the word or phrase each time. As it is, the deletions just look random. 

The southwest corner tripped me up for a long while and made this puzzle much harder for me. I didn’t know Jack LALANNE (40D: Fitness guru Jack). I’d only vaguely heard of FRANK OZ (41D: Puppeteer with "Sesame Street" and "The Muppet Show"). And ACACIAS (39D: Some pod-bearing trees) aren’t an especially common type of tree (at least, I wasn't familiar). I also had to rack my brain to come up with ALF (39A: Puppet alien of TV). I know now that it was a popular TV show, but it went off the air 35 years ago, so it was hard for me to get. Then, there was my biggest annoyance in the puzzle… SEZ (67A: Declares, informally)?! That may have been a thing in 1950s detective novels, but it’s just not part of any even semi-modern slang I know. That, combined with ALAS NO (52A: "Unfortunately that's wrong") and CAN IT (55A: "Shush!") (which could have been “zip it” or, just going off the T, “quiet”), caused me real problems. 

There were too many “ ” clues today for me (I counted nine). I find that they’re usually overbroad and should be used sparingly. GET A LIFE (38D: "Oh. Come. On!") was my favorite of them, but the others — CAN IT (55A), ALAS NO (52A), IT’S A DELIGHT (59A), DONE IT (20A: "Already accomplished!"), I’M FULL (56A: "No more for me, thanks"), HOW’D IT GO (4D: "Was your performance a success?"), I FEAR (66A: "Unfortunately ..."), and GEE (61D: "Golly!") — were mostly meh. 

I did think 37D: H for Homer was a clever clue to get to ETA. 57D: Planet whose name is also a candy company as MARS was also good. And I really liked ON A DIME (12D: One way to stop). The long downs of ALLERGENS (10D: Pollen, cat hair, etc.) and INFANTILE 32D: Babyish) were nice. And I learned about the region NUNAVUT (11D) today, which I’m finding out is vast and also really rolls off the tongue in a fun way.

I don’t mean to rag on the puzzle! It just wasn’t on my wavelength. And I’m tired. Maybe you liked it more. I hope you liked it more! But I’m ready for tomorrow’s puzzle now.

Misc:

• You might think that, as a rock climber, I would know that a 25D: Crag is TOR (a Google search isn’t telling me if you say it as just “tor” or “a tor” or what). You would be wrong. Maybe that’s because I only climb indoors. Or maybe it’s a relatively old-fashioned term. I would’ve clued that as related to the TOR anonymous web browser. 
• I also would’ve clued FLEABAG (53A: Sleazy hotel) differently to refer to the amazing two-season British show created by Phoebe Waller Bridge that’s one of the greatest shows of all time. It only has two seasons, and the second one in particular is probably the most brilliant season of a show I’ve ever seen. I can’t recommend that show highly enough! 
• When I saw EPCOT (5D: Disney park with Spaceship Earth), my first thought was about an episode of the TV show “The Americans” called “Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow.” That’s another amazing TV show that I’d highly recommend! It’s six seasons, so it’s a real time investment, but it’s fascinating throughout, and I’ve never seen a series stick the landing so well. 
• I think the best film from Frank CAPRA (6A: Frank who directed "It's a Wonderful Life") was “It Happened One Night.” Fight me. 
• My sister got my puppy a BOK Choy (30D) toy! Please now enjoy a picture of her with this toy — and also allow me to bombard you with a couple more pictures because I’m a proud puppy parent :)

And with that, I’ve run out of things to say (but never out of pictures of Red to show off). Hope everyone has a great (and spooky) October!

Signed, Clare Carroll, who's [d]one with the puzzle

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Purchased souvenirs, informally / MON 9-29-25 / Military mind game, for short / Makeup set containing shadow and mascara / Headwear usually worn metaphorically / Loss-prevention command / Soldier who can stand at attention indefinitely / Run out of clothes?

Constructor: Brian Keller

Relative difficulty: Medium to Medium-Challenging (solved Downs-only)

THEME: GREETING CARDS (56A: Hallmark products ... or a hint to what to find in the circled squares) — theme answers have a "greeting" ("HI") and then a (playing) "card" inside them, in circled letters:

Theme answers:

• CHICKEN TENDER (20A: Fast-food alternative to a nugget)
• THINKING CAP (28A: Headwear usually worn metaphorically) ("usually"!?!)
• PHIL JACKSON (49A: Coach of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant)
• HIGH / FIVE (70A: With 10-Across, alternative to a fist bump)

Word of the Day: FDIC (1D: Bank-backing grp. since 1933) —

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is a United States government corporation supplying deposit insurance to depositors in American commercial banks and savings banks. The FDIC was created by the Banking Act of 1933, enacted during the Great Depression to restore trust in the American banking system. More than one-third of banks failed in the years before the FDIC's creation, and bank runs were common. The insurance limit was initially US$2,500 per ownership category, and this has been increased several times over the years. Since the enactment of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010, the FDIC insures deposits in member banks up to $250,000 per ownership category. FDIC insurance is backed by the full faith and credit of the government of the United States, and according to the FDIC, "since its start in 1933 no depositor has ever lost a penny of FDIC-insured funds". (wikipedia)

• • •

Seems like a concept that needed more time to develop. It certainly needed a better, cleaner execution. Why are all the "greetings" the same, while the "cards" are different? I can imagine one with "YO" "'SUP" "HEY" as the greetings, or something along those lines. Repeating "HI" seemed kind of weak and sad. The split themer is really the worst of the lot. First, it's awkward and ungainly to start your two-part answer in the SW and then finish it in the NE. Feels totally assbackward, and it's just plain ugly on the page. Moreover, even if that answer had been pleasingly laid out, it would still be the worst of the lot simply because unlike with the other answers, the "card" is not buried or hidden At All. You see how "TEN" is hidden inside "TENDER," "KING" inside "THINKING," "JACK" inside "JACKSON" ... that's how you do it. Having a themer where "FIVE" is just "FIVE" makes this answer even more inelegant than it already was, given its horrid layout. And then there's "FIVE" passing itself off as a "card" at all. I mean, yes, technically "FIVE" is a card, but using a numbered card feels like a copout. Arbitrary. You could've used FOUR? SEVEN? The "card"ness of the numbered cards just doesn't come through as strongly. I think ideally you need just face cards. I can't believe there wasn't an "ACE" answer to be had. For some reason TEN rankles way less than FIVE. "TEN" feels like it's up there with the strong cards, whereas FIVE feels ridiculous. So while the core idea is kind of zany and interesting (literalizing GREETING CARDS like that), the execution is less interesting, and HIGH / FIVE in particular feels like a dealbreaker. Unpleasant in multiple ways. I'm not even sure why you need that themer. You'd've been fine with just the three and then rather than sequester HIGH and FIVE in tiny corners, maybe build a more interesting grid overall, one that isn't so choppy (42 black squares = high) and has room for some longer, more interesting fill instead of all this 3-4-5 junk.

["Hi there!"]

Cluing felt harder than usual, for a Monday. Usually I can get most shorter answers very quickly when solving Downs-only, but today my progress consistently felt patchy and uneven, with very few sections that I could tear right through. The NW was the worst section for me to get through, and ended up being the last I finished. At the very end, I was staring at this ... and wasn't sure I was going to be able to finish:

I just could not get my head around what "Purchased" was doing in this clue (4D: Purchased souvenirs, informally). "'Purchased?' ... well, of course souvenirs are purchased, how the hell else are you supposed to get your souvenirs? Steal them?" The clue looked like a plural, but if I put an "S" at the end, it looked very wrong (---CS). After "S," the only other letter that seemed like it would fit after the "C" that would also make a good first letter for -IC was "T," but ---CT wasn't giving me [Purchased souvenirs] either. At some point I realized "H" could work. I'd wanted the [Makeup set containing shadow and mascara] to be EYE KIT (?!), but for some reason when I put in EYE, I couldn't infer the Acrosses in a way that seemed right, so I hesitated. But once I tried the "H" at the end of 4D: Purchase souvenirs, informally, I tried EYE KIT again and was able to infer MERCH from there. 

Other parts of the puzzle didn't stop me cold like that, but it was often pretty slow going. Cluing seemed off a lot of the time. [Covered in water] is a standalone phrase in a way that AWASH is not. The only time I ever hear AWASH is followed by the preposition "in," because AWASH does not, by itself, imply "water." Which is to say, I mostly encounter the word when it's being used metaphorically. My blogging and word processing software mostly auto-saves everything I type, so I forgot SAVE ALL was actually a thing (45D: Loss-prevention command). I thought "Twilight" and "The Hunger Games" were FANTASY. Since the grown-ass adult reading population consumed those books so voraciously, I forgot they were aimed specifically at "teens." I totally blanked on Djokovic's first name, which felt awful, since I've known it for years. I could only think of "the JOKER," which is his nickname, I think, though maybe that's spelled "DJOKER?" I didn't know G.I. JOEs could stand at all, let alone "at attention indefinitely" (40D: Soldier who can stand at attention indefinitely). My experience with most action figures as a kid was they weren't really made to stand up. Their legs were too ... articulated. That VOL. clue was initially one of the worst for me (12D: Button on a remote: Abbr.); I wanted REW or REC because I wanted the circled squares up there in the NE to spell out "FIRE!" Felt so ... right. So ... thematic. But no.

Bullets:

• 25D: Military mind game, for short (PSY OP) — just one "OP?" Feels odd. Also, feels very odd to have "OP" in the puzzle twice (52A: Photo ___ (media events) (OPS)).
• 20A: Fast-food alternative to a nugget (CHICKEN TENDER) — No, the "alternative to a nugget" is a TENDER. Those are the equivalent terms: "nugget" and "TENDER." It's not that it was hard to guess CHICKEN here (in fact, since it's an Across answer, I never saw the clue), but the clue is poorly written, on a grammatical level. You can't introduce CHICKEN in the answer while leaving out all things chickeny in the clue. The "alternative" to a nugget is a "tender"; the alternative to a chicken nugget is a CHICKEN TENDER. There are other types of nuggets, after all.

• 8D: Run out of clothes? (STREAK) — a very good "?" clue, but pretty tough on a Monday when I'm getting no assistance from crosses. Even when I got STREAK it took me a few seconds to realize it was referring to running naked. I thought maybe the colors had "run" in your laundry, causing them to STREAK.

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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Fly-catching bird with a name derived from Greek / SUN 9-28-25 / Sewer in American history / Furniture retailer owned by Williams-Sonoma / City SE of Phoenix / Sewer in American history / Remove surgically, as tissue / He was né Clay / law concept in computing technology / Letter-shaped train track piece / French cocktail made with crème de cassis / Info commonly shown on a board game box

Constructor: Rich Katz

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "Central Perk" — the characters on the TV show Friends, crossed with benefits one might receive as a condition of one's employment; or, put another way: "FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS" (101A: Relationship featuring casual intimacy ... or a hint to six pairs of intersecting answers in the this puzzle)

Theme answers:

• RACHEL / DAYCARE (10D: Mother of Joseph and Benjamin, in the Bible / 24A: Alternative to a nanny)
• PHOEBE / HEALTH (3D: Fly-catching bird with a name derived from Greek / 39A: Class that might cause some high schoolers to blush)
• MONICA / DENTAL (17D: Santa ___ / 41A: Like some bridges)
• CHANDLER / BONUS (51D: City SE of Phoenix / 73A: Extra)
• JOEY / VACATION (86A: Outback baby / 47D: Time out, perhaps)
• ROSS / WELLNESS (90A: Sewer in American history / 56D: Holistic contentment)

Word of the Day: MOORE'S law (23A: ___ law, concept in computing technology) —

Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years. Moore's law is an observation and projection of a historical trend. Rather than a law of physics, it is an empirical relationship. It is an experience curve effect, a type of observation quantifying efficiency gains from learned experience in production.

The observation is named after Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel and former CEO of the latter, who in 1965 noted that the number of components per integrated circuit had been doubling every year,^[a] and projected this rate of growth would continue for at least another decade. In 1975, looking forward to the next decade, he revised the forecast to doubling every two years, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 41%. Moore's empirical evidence did not directly imply that the historical trend would continue; nevertheless, his prediction has held since 1975 and has since become known as a law. (wikipedia)

• • •

[PHOEBE]

It is currently the night of my wedding anniversary (i.e. Saturday night), so I have had a little to drink and a Lot to eat and am maybe not in the writingest headspace right now, but I'll do my best. Gonna keep it short. I think. This theme is silly and I kind of love it for that reason. I'm also slightly impressed by the title of the puzzle—which I rarely am on Sundays (the only day with an official title). I mean, it's very on the money. "Perk" is another word for "benefit," obviously, and Central Perk was the name of the coffee shop that functioned as the social hub of the Friends universe. There's a joke, many years into the show, where PHOEBE is talking to someone about "having picnics in Central Park" and "coffee at Central Perk," at which point she realizes that the coffee shop name is a pun: "Oh my god, I just got that." I'm pretty sure that was when *I* first got it too. I never really thought about the name. Anyway, I watched every episode of that show (a lot of it during its original run, and then all of it a few years back), and I literally just finished watching the second episode of the new season of The Morning Show, which is also set in NYC and also stars Jennifer Aniston. None of this is particularly relevant, just Friends-adjacent. I really wanted the crosses of the Friends and the benefits to be meaningful. That is, I wanted those letters to spell something out, but all I'm getting is CEANOS, which anagrams to OCEANS ... is that something? OCEAN is in the puzzle (64A: Where a hurricane forms). And there's a WALRUS in the OCEAN (or just under it). And the WALRUS was Paul, right? ... I don't see an EGGMAN, though. I'm gonna say the letters in the Friends/benefits crosses are meaningless. Sadly. Would've been supercool if those letters had been relevant in any way. But I still like the basic concept. 

If you're not a Friends fan, I don't know if you'll be as well disposed toward the theme as I am. There's other stuff to admire, for sure, though not a lot of long stuff—with 12 theme answers, half running Across and half Down, there's considerable pressure on the grid, and that pressure has been handled by building a grid that is quite heavy on the short stuff (though mercifully not heavy on outright gunk). I was not always enamored with the fill. I shouted "EAT A SANDWICH!" when I got SEND A CARD and then reshouted it at HAS A SIP (I've only had one cocktail, I swear). But there wasn't much else that made me flinch. There are a helllll of a lot of first person pronouns in this puzzle, though. Like "I" "I" "I" they just keep coming. IDK x/w I HEAR, then I'LL SEE, I'M THERE, I'LL ASK, I RAIL ... ok that last one doesn't involve a pronoun, but it's pretty bad as [letter]-[word] answers go. I've heard of IBEAM and IBAR, but not IRAIL, which sounds like an iPhone app if we lived in the USA timeline that has highspeed rail. But no, we live in this incredibly shitty timeline where the federal government is using the military to attack its own cities, its own people. This could be us ... but no:

Thanks to my making that ORTON wrestler guy my Word of the Day yesterday, I had WWE right at the top of my brain, so I actually remembered a wrestling initialism, yay me (116D: Org. that merged with the U.F.C. in 2023). I had SEETHES before SEES RED (an amazing, horrible letter-sharing coincidence) (92D: Boils with rage). I had to think for a minute about EMMA v. EYRE (1D: Title heroine described as "handsome, clever and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition"). Actually, maybe not a minute. Probably closer to a second. That description couldn't be less apt for Jane EYRE if it tried. So EMMA it was. We're currently in the middle of Mansfield Park. It is really pretty bad. We've been in the middle of it for a while now, since we only listen to it when we take trips out of town, usually up to Ithaca. Which means we'll listen to it today (i.e. Sunday), since we're going up to Cinemapolis to see Robert Redford in The Natural tomorrow. Maybe Mansfield Park will pick up? It's hard to see how the heroine is ever going to find a personality, but, to borrow a phrase from a puzzle earlier in the week: FINGERS CROSSED.

Bullets:

• 33A: Remove surgically, as tissue (ABLATE) — I had: ABRADE. I think (skin) tissue is abraded during certain (surgical?) procedures. That is my defense of my answer.
• 37A: Beethoven symphony originally intended to honor Napoleon (EROICA) — Ooh, the latest "Sticky Notes" podcast is all about what difference a conductor makes to the performance (and recording) of a piece of music, and EROICA is the piece of music being used as an example. Comparative EROICAs! I've only listened to the first ten minutes so far, but I'm eager to get back into it. If you like classical music, "Sticky Notes" is a really fine podcast.

• 63A: ___Guessr, hit online game whose players deduce locations from Google Street View images (GEO) — the phrase "hit online game" makes me laugh. Yeah, I'm not going to know that, I can guarantee you. Getting GEO was not hard to guess given that (long) clue, but LOL no idea. It does appear to be A Whole Thing...
• 77A: ___ Day, Billie Holiday's portrayer in "The United States vs. Billie Holiday" (ANDRA) — as with yesterday's NAZCA, I remember making ANDRA Word of the Day at some point in the recent past, but that did Not help me remember her today.
• 82A: He was né Clay (ALI) — omg I have never seen masculine "né" it looks cursed.
• 50D: Clown around with food? (McDONALD) — as in Ronald, truly the scariest-looking clown there is. That "It" clown? Trying too hard. This is the real nightmare fuel:

90A: Sewer in American history (ROSS) —just in case you couldn't figure out how "Sewer" = ROSS, think Betsy. "One who sews," not "waste management system."

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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Ancient Peruvian geoglyphs / SAT 9-27-25 / African capital whose name translates to "ants" / Contempt, in slang / Period that begins on July 23 / Alternative to a crib / They arose from Ra's tears, according to Egyptian mythology

Constructor: Adrian Johnson and Christina Iverson

Relative difficulty: Medium (1/2 Easy, 1/2 ... less easy)

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Randy ORTON (52A: WWE star Randy ___) —

Randal Keith Orton (born April 1, 1980) is an American professional wrestler. Since 2000, he is signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, Orton has the tied-third most world championship reigns in the company's history, and a career spanning over 20 years.

Orton is a third-generation professional wrestler; his grandfather Bob Orton, father Bob Orton Jr., and uncle Barry Orton were all wrestlers. [...]

[...] Orton has held the WWE Championship 10 times and the World Heavyweight Championship four times. He was the final holder of the World Heavyweight Championship, which he unified with the WWE Championship to become the WWE World Heavyweight Champion in 2013. Orton is recognized by WWE as having the third-most world championship victories in history at 14, only behind John Cena (17) and Ric Flair (16) and tied with Triple H (also 14). In total, he has won 20 championships in WWE.

A prominent wrestler throughout his time in WWE, Orton has also won the Royal Rumble twice (2009 and 2017), and the Money in the Bank ladder match once in 2013. He is the 17th Triple Crown and 18th overall Grand Slam Champion, and has headlined numerous major WWE events, including their flagship annual event, WrestleMania, twice (25 and 30). Since 2021, he holds the record of most pay-per-view (PPV) matches in WWE.

• • •

Half fun and breezy, half sloggy. A real E v. W, Jekyll v Hyde situation for me. Breezed through the first half of this grid, from the double-LOHAN NW (The Parent Trap and MEAN Girls!? An embarrassment of riches...), down past the two-humper to the pro wrestler I'd never heard of. Not much in there to slow me down, and the answers on that side of the grid were mostly bright and lovely. Then I entered the SE and hoo boy, whole 'nother story. It's too bad that my trouble all started with the answer that I sincerely think is also the worst entry in the whole puzzle: ONE RATE (39D: Simplest possible phone plan). I don't mind getting stumped, but stumped by ugliness—no fun. On no level is ONE RATE appealing, and honestly the language of it was just confusing. The error I made there—ONE LINE—caused cascading problems that kept me mired in the SE for about as long as it took me solve the entire rest of the puzzle. See, the "E" from ONE LINE was right, so DENS went right in (58A: Hibernation stations). And then LSD went right in because it was a gimme. That left me with "SN-" at the beginning of 56A: They go from season to season (STORY ARCS), and let me tell you, sigh ... there is this phenomenon in the NE (maybe elsewhere) where people (esp. retirees) live in the NE in the warmer months, and then, when the "season" of winter comes, they move to Florida or some other warm place until late spring or summer (more "seasons"), when they move back to the NE. These people who "go" (or move) from "season" to "season" are called ... SNOWBIRDS. So I write in SNOWBIRDS, which is now "confirmed" by LSD and ONE LINE (ugh) and then, shortly thereafter, by MESON (46D: Particle accelerator byproduct) and "I CARE" (47D: Statement that might follow a hug) and DRESS (49D: Bandage)!!! 

Worse, the "L" from ONE LINE (ugh) made it look like [Enterprise enterprise] was going to be LEND-A-CAR, which felt wrong but also had this unfortunate and eerie air of plausibility. Worse, that corner had many things I just didn't know. Let's start with NAZCA, a name I've seen once and forgot (I knew I'd made it Word of the Day some time last year and I still forgot it) (48D: ___ Lines (ancient Peruvian geoglyphs)). Then there's LASER MAZE, a term I'm seeing for the first time today (54A: Part of a high-tech security system). Is a LASER MAZE those crisscrossing laser beams that you see in movies that protect, like, the Crown Jewel Of Some Imagined Country, or museum relics or whatever? Where if an intruder breaks one of the beams, an alarm system goes off?? But why "Maze?" Mazes involve continuous movement through a series of interconnected passages, not random crisscrossing lines. Weird. Is the idea that you (the burglar?) are the one who has to move through the laser obstacles as if it were a maze?? Probably. Shrug to that answer, and an even bigger shrug to BONUS ENTRY (23D: Kind of contest with multiple chances to participate). What is a BONUS ENTRY contest? Like ... a raffle? Searching [Define "bonus entry"] is not helping at all. It appears to be some promotional deal where people get more "entries" to some contest if they do actions like share a company's post on social media or something. The clue doesn't really get at the promotional nature of these "contests" at all. Stuff I'm seeing related to BONUS ENTRY contests looks like this ...

Not too many words uglier than "Incentivizing." Just glad that wasn't in the grid. So the entire SE was a grind and a bust. Lots of work, no joy. The NE was a little better but still, some off cluing and several things I didn't (or didn't really) know. I know what co-sleeping is, but I did not know that the thing that attaches to the mother's bed, the mini bed (?), was called a CO-SLEEPER (11D: Alternative to a crib). Also, what exactly is a RUNESTONE (12D: Classic rock?)? Just a stone with runes on it? Well, yes, it appears so:

A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition of erecting runestones as a memorial to dead men began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but the majority of the extant runestones date from the late Viking Age. While most of these are located in Scandinavia, particularly Sweden, there are also scattered runestones in locations that were visited by Norsemen. Runestones were usually brightly coloured when erected, though this is no longer evident as the colour has worn off. (wikipedia)

I teach the Anglo-Saxon "Dream of the Rood," and parts of that poem are found in the runic alphabet on the Ruthwell Cross, so I have some familiarity with runes ... just not on stones. The most irritating thing about the NE, though, was the phrasing on the LEGO SETS clue (25A: Components of some brick buildings). I had LEGO and then ... nothing. The components of a Lego building are Lego blocks or Lego pieces. "Components" implies smaller parts of a whole (in this case, individual pieces, bricks, whatever). But LEGO SETS ... those are all the pieces. Not "components." "What are those toy buildings made out of?" You wouldn't answer "LEGO SETS." You'd say "Legos" or "Lego pieces" or "bricks" or whatever. Those are the literal "components." The "set" contains the "components." It is not, itself, a "component." Anyway, the upshot is: I liked the first half and enjoyed myself less in the second half. Wish the enjoyment had happened in reverse order. Rough when the joy just SEEPS out of a puzzle like that.

Notes:

• 1D: Contempt, in slang (SHADE) — "Shade" pun in yesterday's puzzle, which led to me defining "Shade," which led to ... this moment. If you didn't get this, well, you can't say I didn't do all I could to prepare you.
• 4D: Punk (PSYCH OUT) — had the "PSYCH" part and still wondered what the hell was going on. Turns out "Punk" is a verb. If you "Punk" someone ... actually, I always thought that meant "played a trick on" (as in Ashton Kutcher's Punk'd TV series), but apparently it also means to PSYCH someone OUT. As you can see, I didn't love the clue. But it's a great answer, for sure.
• 23A: They arose from Ra's tears, according to Egyptian mythology (BEES) — had the "B," and I'm just saying, BATS is a cooler answer.
• 19A: Parent whose child is taking steps to improve? (DANCE MOM) — That "?" made all the difference. It signaled to me that at least one of the words in the clue was being used in an unexpected way, and obviously that word was "steps," and so ... the child is probably taking dance, and the parent of a dance student ... DANCE MOM. Helps that there was a TV show or movie with this title, I think ... yeah, here we go. What did I say yesterday about reality TV being a scourge? If you like child exploitation, you'll love ... DANCE MOMs!

• 28A: It might be living on the edge (SHRUB) — ??? I guess shrubs might line your property? Another clue I didn't love.
• 43A: Period that begins on July 23 (LEO) — Zodiac sign = "period"? All this awkward cluing wording is defensible, I guess, but it's not particularly enjoyable.
• 3D: Tends to some pressing matters (IRONS) — much easier than yesterday's ironing-based wordplay ([In need of an evening out] = CREASED)
• 27D: Is on the bottom? (SITS) — as in, "Is (rests) on one's bottom." A good enough answer, but not one that should appear in a puzzle that already has SAT ON in it (6D: Kept hidden, as information)
• 31D: "Love Story" author Erich (SEGAL) — never sure of the vowels in S-G-L. The actor is George SEGAL. The other actor is Jason SEGEL. The other other actor is Katey SAGAL. And then along comes Erich SEGAL and I'm supposed to know which variant he is? No such luck.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Happy 22nd anniversary, honey :) 

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Stream with a lot of shade? / FRI 9-26-25 / Antibiotic used to treat anthrax / It might be on display at ComicCon / Flock : geese :: business : ___ / Enemigo de un ratón / Repeated word in the Star Wars" prologue / Indigenous person of northern South America

Constructor: Larry Snyder

Relative difficulty: Medium (by old standards—by recent standards, more Medium-Challenging)

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: "Alea iacta EST" (24A: "Alea iacta ___" ("The die is cast")) —

Alea iacta est ("The die is cast") is a variation of a Latin phrase (iacta alea est [ˈjakta ˈaːlɛ.a ˈɛs̺t]) attributed by Suetonius to Julius Caesar on 10 January 49 BC, as he led his army across the Rubicon river in Northern Italy, between Cesena and Rimini, in defiance of the Roman Senate and beginning a long civil war against Pompey and the Optimates. The phrase is often used to indicate events that have passed a point of no return.

According to Plutarch, Caesar originally said the line in Greek rather than Latin, as ἀνερρίφθω κύβος anerrhī́phthō kýbos, literally "let a die be cast", metaphorically "let the game be played". This is a quote from a play by Menander, and Suetonius's Latin translation is slightly misleading, being merely a statement about the inevitability of what is to come, while the Greek original contains a self-encouragement to venture forward. The Latin version is now most commonly cited with the word order changed (Alea iacta est), and it is used both in this form, and in translation in many languages. The same event inspired another related idiom, "crossing the Rubicon". (wikipedia)

• • •

Struggled more than usual, but I feel like some of that struggle was caused by sleepiness. I mean, it should not have taken me as long as it did to get MEGHAN, for instance (42D: Duchess of Sussex beginning in 2018). I don't care about royals at all and generally zone out whenever they're mentioned, but still, she's pretty famous. The only name I could think of, though, was CAMILLA (sp?), so ... pfft. And then stuff like VERGE (55A: Border (on)) and SEE (48A: Call at the table?) ... seems like these should've come to me instantly, but they didn't, so ... I think it's just taking my brain longer than usual to come back online this morning. There did seem to be an awful lot of "?" and otherwise trick clues today. Ambiguous or deliberately misleading. Some of it worked—the clue on DELETED SCENES is really quite good (33A: Takes in the trash?). But then some of it worked ... less. Or felt more awkward, anyway. The clue on CREASED, for instance, or HATEWATCH. They're clever, in their way, but they are really ... trying. I feel like the clues themselves are going "Get it? get it? See, it's clever because ..." and I'm like "yeah, I see now ... relax." If something's CREASED, it's (arguably? maybe? if you use language in a weird way?) in need of "evening out" (49A: In need of an evening out?). The "an" before "evening" in the clue makes you think "evening" is a noun meaning "night." So I get the "joke." But I also wouldn't say "this crease needs evening out," ever ("ironing out," yes). So ... the "joke" landed oddly for me. 

[Stream with a lot of shade?] is a more elaborate "joke," but somehow more transparent. It does the same "trick" that the other two "?" clues I've mentioned do, i.e. make at least one word look like it's a different part of speech than what it is. "Takes" looks like it's a verb, but it's a noun. "Evening" looks like it's a noun, but it's really verbal. "Stream" looks like it's a noun, but it's a verb, and then "shade" ... well, that stays a noun, but it looks like it means one thing, but then means another ("shade" as slang for "disdain, criticism, hate"). I'm now realizing that every "?" clue today stopped me cold initially. Weirdly, there are also three clues that end in "?" that aren't "?" clues—they're just quotes that are interrogative, so it looks like there are more "?"s than there are. I should be paying attention to great fill, but I'm somehow in the weeds on "?" clues, which is possibly just my still-warming-up brain trying to even itself out, or else it's the puzzle being annoying, I can't tell. Maybe a little of both. The only thing I really hated in this puzzle, though, was INNER GEEK (3D: It might be on display at ComicCon). First, not a real phrase, shhh, no, stop. Second, if it's "on display," guess what, it's not "INNER." This whole "ooh, look at me, I'm a geek!" thing with ComicCon, you're not a "geek"! You're there to see some panel about the latest Marvel movie or whatever. Again, shhh. I have "HATE" written in the margin of my print-out. That was one of the last answers I got. Actually, the last answer I got was SWILL, a fitting cross for INNER GEEK.

The NW and SE were the toughest for me. Most of the ink on my puzzle print-out is concentrated in those areas. I don't buy most of the alleged collective nouns for animals. I see lists from time to time and think "no one calls them that, no one says that, just say 'group.'" This is what I felt about the FERRETS clue (22A: Flock : geese :: business : ___). As with royals, FERRETS are things I think about precisely never (unless forced), so "business"? If you say so. I have "F. off" written in the margin of my print-out next to FERRETS. I had 1A: Hogwash as TRIPE at first. Without the "W" from SWILL, WEASELED was impossible for me to see (2D: Talked one's way (out of)). The SE was slightly easier, but only because I got BANANA PEEL right away, off the "BA-." Otherwise, no apparent tennis context made HELD SERVE very hard, even after I had HELD (32D: Didn't get broken). Needed almost every cross, as I did for SPEED GUN (a term that never crosses my mind). A SPEED TRAP is a "problem" if you're going 90 (in a 55 zone), but the speeder would never think "hope there are no SPEED GUNs up ahead." CREASED is in that same corner, and I've already said how tough that was for me. So that's three longish answers where I needed almost every cross to get them, all in the same corner. Oh, and another "?" clue down there too (44D: The works? = OEUVRE). This might actually have been "Medium-Challenging" for me, at least compared to recent Fridays. Played more like a Saturday. I'll be surprised if tomorrow's puzzle tests me as much. This puzzle is really trying to be colloquial and current and slangy (BROHUG! EGOSURF! DEEP FAKES!), and I appreciate that. I just wasn't on its wavelength much of the time.

Bullets:

• 5D: One receiving monthly payments (LEASER) — I have "OOF" written next to this one. What an awful word. Isn't the term "LESSOR?" (It is). LEASER sounds like someone trying to say "Lisa." One of those awkward ugly legal terms like LIENEE.
• 10D: Enemigo de un ratón (GATO) — I don't speak Spanish, but I knew enough to get this immediately. Weird to say "enemy." Are we talking about a cartoon? My cat is not the "enemy" of birds, or squirrels, or chipmunks, or that weird bug in the corner, or falling leaves. He's just a vigilant hunter of small things that move. Nothing personal.

• 35D: Antibiotic used to treat anthrax (CIPRO) — I had to take CIPRO in the late '90s / early '00s for something or other. That's when I learned the term. Haven't thought of it since. Needed many crosses for it to come back to me. This is only the second NYTXW appearance ever for CIPRO. First was in 2019 (which is probably the last time I thought of CIPRO) (crossing my fingers that I don't get anthrax).
• 59A: Icelandic saga (EDDA) — I swear to you that I had that final "A" in place and wrote in ... SAGA. It was that kind of morning, I'm telling you.
• 47D: Made some Java, say (CODED) — the capital "J" is the giveaway here, obviously. Coffee "java" would've been lowercase (I assume).
• 22D: Repeated word in the Star Wars" prologue (FAR) — just started at the top: "A long time ago, in a galaxy FAR, FAR away..." The very best thing I've read about "Star Wars" of late (possibly ever) is this Isaac Chotiner interview of Cass Sunstein in the New Yorker a couple days ago—an absolute start-to-finish must-read. At first I thought "surely the 'Star Wars' they're talking about is the whole Reagan / SDI thing, not ... the movie franchise." But no. They're talking about the movie franchise. And Henry Kissinger. It's ... amazing. You almost feel bad for Sunstein. Almost. (Why anyone agrees to be interviewed by Isaac Chotiner, I will never understand.)

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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