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)

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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

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