Sephora competitor / MON 10-13-25 / Microwaveable breakfast staple / Thick porridge referenced in "Yankee Doodle" / Helpful theorem, in math / Dorm room meal in a cup / Eggs that can cost $1,000 per ounce / Nintendo dinosaur / Chinese small plates

Constructor: Katherine Xiong

Relative difficulty: Easy (solved Downs-only)

THEME: FAST FOODS (63A: Fares at McDonald's and KFC ... or a literal description of 17-, 29- and 47-Across) — two-word foods where the first words can mean "fast"

Theme answers:

• QUICK OATS (17A: Microwaveable breakfast staple)
• INSTANT RAMEN (29A: Dorm room meal in a cup)
• HASTY PUDDING (47A: Thick porridge referenced in "Yankee Doodle")

Word of the Day: Hernando de SOTO (22D: Explorer Hernando de ___) —

Hernando de Soto (/də ˈsoʊtoʊ/; Spanish: [eɾˈnando ðe ˈsoto]; c. 1497 – 21 May 1542) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who was involved in expeditions in Nicaragua and the Yucatan Peninsula. He played an important role in Francisco Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire in Peru, but is best known for leading the first European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States (through Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, and most likely Arkansas). He is the first European documented as having crossed the Mississippi River.

De Soto's North American expedition was a vast undertaking. It ranged throughout what is now the southeastern United States, searching both for gold, which had been reported by various Native American tribes and earlier coastal explorers, and for a passage to China or the Pacific coast. De Soto died in 1542 on the banks of the Mississippi River; sources disagree on the exact location, whether it was what is now Lake Village, Arkansas, or Ferriday, Louisiana. (wikipedia)

• • •

This ended better than it started. Of course it started with -ESQUE, and any time you start with a suffix, things are likely to improve. While -ESQUE was an inauspicious way to begin, it was really the string of TSK OHO and (worst of all) DO A SET that had me feeling like things were headed very much in the wrong direction. DO A SET has big EAT A SANDWICH energy. Not ... great. So I was skeptical. But then things mostly evened out, and a theme developed, and while the revealer itself is a little wonky (FAST FOODS in the plural is not nearly as elegant as FAST FOOD without the terminal "S" would've been), it does neatly encapsulate what's happening with the themers. The themer set is highly unusual (two out of three items in the general "porridge" family?!), but it's a very, very narrow category. There's not a lot of other answers that would've fit the bill. None that I can think of off the top of my head. So the puzzle gets a little leeway, I think. There are certainly no other HASTY foods I can think of. QUICK ... there's probably something besides OATS, but I can't think of it. And as for INSTANT ... there's the trickiest part. There just aren't that many synonyms for "fast" that area also the first words of foods. I just looked at a long list of synonyms for "fast" and none of them work. What's more, INSTANT isn't even on that list, possibly because it's not a great synonym for "fast." It's less "fast" as in "speedy" and more "fast" as in "immediate." It's definitely the outlier today, but again, the theme is very restrictive, so ... fine. We only get three themers, and the revealer has to have that "S" on the end to make the thematic symmetry work, but all these foods are quick to make (I assume), so I think the theme works OK, in the end. It's not the smoothest execution, but it'll do.

I don't know the "Yankee Doodle" lyrics that contain HASTY PUDDING. I know "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" lyrics that contain FIGGY PUDDING, but that's pretty much the extent of my pudding lyric knowledge. My only knowledge of HASTY PUDDING has something to do with Harvard. Something related to comedy? Hang on ... looks like there's a HASTY PUDDING club at Harvard, which is just a social club, but then there's also HASTY PUDDING Theatricals, also at Harvard, though "not to be confused" with the social club. This is the HASTY PUDDING that I've heard of:

Hasty Pudding Theatricals is a student theatrical society at Harvard University known for its annual burlesque crossdressing musicals as well as its Man and Woman of the Year awards. The Pudding is the oldest theatrical organization in the United States and the third oldest in the world. Its annual production is a musical comedy that often touches on topical social and political issues. (wikipedia)

I'm not sure I ever thought about what HASTY PUDDING actually was. I can say the same for "figgy pudding," for that matter. 

[no figgy pudding in this one, but this is called the "(Pudding Mix)" for some reason]

There were a few small challenges solving this one Downs-only. I absolutely blanked on de SOTO's name. SOTO fame for me goes in a certain order:

• New York Mets outfielder player Juan SOTO, who late last year signed the largest contract in professional sports history
• The automobile brand De SOTO (although it looks like that was usually written as one word, "DESOTO")
• Pulp magazine and paperback cover artist Rafael de SOTO (though it looks like he too spelled DESOTO as one word, not two)
• The explorer De SOTO whose first name I can't remember and whose accomplishments I'm not as familiar with as I should be

[cover by Rafael DeSoto]

[cover by Rafael DeSoto]

And all the longer Downs took a least at little thought today. Got DO A SET easily enough, though it was such a wobbly answer that I wasn't that confident about it. Definitely hesitated on 25D: All, for nothing, e.g. (ANTONYM) (my brain wanted ANAGRAM despite the complete lack of evidence). I just plugged in various music tempi until I got that one that worked at 42D: Smoothly, in music (LEGATO). Would not have gotten YOUTHFUL without help from some crosses (in this case, the "OU") (40D: Energetic, perhaps). ORDAINS also needed some helping along (28D: Decrees)—I wanted "Decrees" to be a noun. And I tried "IT'S A" before "ATTA" at 35D: "___ girl!" IT'S A had me guessing PIRATE and later Pontius PILATE at 34A (this is what happens when you don't allow yourself to look at the actual Across clues). If I hadn't been certain that SSD was not a thing (43A), I would've finished with "IT'S A" in place and failed. But SSD seemed obviously wrong, so I pulled it and put in ATTA. "IT'S A," weirdly, showed up later (51A: Baby announcement, as on some blue balloons = "IT'S A BOY!").


Lightning round:

• 4D: Cluck of disapproval (TSK) — I think of TUT as the cluckier of the two disapprovals, but that's obviously a judgment call.
• 20A: Sephora competitor (ULTA) — ULTA is the new ETSY. The new EBAY. The new IKEA. You have no excuse for not knowing it anymore (see also YOSHI, 54D: Nintendo dinosaur, making his fourth appearance of the year today). ULTA has solid Monday-answer status now. I would not say the same about LEMMA, but go ahead and tuck that one away as well (70A: Helpful theorem, in math). Actually, this is LEMMA's third Monday appearance, so yeah, good to know. But LEMMA hasn't appeared at all for over two and half years, whereas ULTA ... well, let's just say if you invested heavily in ULTA futures in 2020, you'd be doing pretty well right now;

• 31D: The largest one in the U.S. is in Bloomington, Minn. (MALL) — the MALL of America. I haven't been there in many, many (30?) years. I think I saw Jackie Chan's Rumble in the Bronx there in 1995. What a weirdly specific memory. I also remember a giant Lego statue and maybe a roller coaster? Oh, looks like multiple roller coasters and rides. I haven't been to a mall in forever and kind of miss them. But apparently they still exist and I can just go. Good to know.

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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

• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

=============================
✏️ Upcoming Crossword Tournaments ✏️

• Finger Lakes Crossword Competition (Ithaca) (Sat., Oct. 18, 2025)

=============================
📘 My other blog 📘:

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...

Men who marry later in life / SUN 10-12-25 / Low-pitched jazz instruments for short / Lampshade-shaped candy piece / Barista's flourish / Green or black African menace / Classic car that shared its name with a planet, informally / Online shorthand meaning "Victory!"

Constructor: Michael Schlossberg

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "Make No Mistake" — four pairs of adjacent theme answers; in each pair, the first answer contains two measurement abbreviations (in circled squares), while the second answer features a scissors icon and a dotted line between two of its boxes, indicating where the letters "ONCE" have been cut out; each of these pairs is meant to illustrate the familiar rule of thumb from carpentry, "MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE" (63A: Carpenter's adage illustrated four times in this puzzle) 

Theme answers:

• MINE ALL MINE / NOT FROM C[ONCE]NTRATE (23A: Boast accompanying an evil laugh [120 sec.] / 28A: Words on a juice carton)
• FENNEL BULBS / TO WHOM IT MAY C[ONCE]RN (41A: Licorice-flavored vegetables [32 oz.])
• GALILEO GALILEI / STAND [ON CE]REMONY (83A: Scientist who spent his last years under house arrest [8 qt.] / 89A: Observe the expected formalities)
• WENT FIFTY-FIFTY / C[ONCE]DING DEFEAT (105A: Split something equally [24 in.] / 112A: Waving the white flag, so to speak)

Word of the Day: BENEDICTS (75D: Men who marry later in life) —

 

1.

1821–

A newly married man; esp. an apparently confirmed bachelor who marries. [< the character of that name in Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing.] (OED)

• • •

Despite the elaborate visual wordplay, this one felt mostly dull and oddly joyless. The revealer is the only answer in the whole thing that has any sense of play. The theme answers themselves are just iterations of the same idea, over and over, with no humor or wit in the clues or answers. You've got two measurement abbrs. in one answer, and you cut "ONCE" from the other. Four times. Shrug. The measure part doesn't even work that well, conceptually. Those abbrs. are for measurements, not "measures," even if you concede that the latter is essentially a synonym of the former, you still have the problem of the "measures" in question mostly having nothing to do with carpentry. The only one of these "measures" that you would actually "measure" in a way that's related to the carpentry rule of thumb is "FT." You don't measure a gallon, let alone cut it. Same also with pound and minute. As for cutting "ONCE," yeah, that happens, but there's no fun there. The little dotted line and scissors icon tells you exactly where the "cut" is happening, so there's not even the fun / challenge of discovery. Just ... cut here. Whoopee. I found those little scissors super-annoying from a visual perspective; I solve on my laptop, and I kept trying to move those scissors icons out of the way, repeatedly mistaking them for my mouse cursor. Not a fan of the visual clutter. Some of the theme answers were inventive and fun just as answers (i.e. non-thematically fun), stuff like TO WHOM IT MAY C[ONCE]RN and STAND [ON CE]REMONY and NOT FROM C[ONCE]NTRATE and FENNEL BULBS, but both GALILEO GALILEI and "MINE ALL MINE" felt like cop-outs—basically getting to two "measures" by just repeating words, which feels like cheating. Actually, that happens with WENT FIFTY-FIFTY too, which may be why I like FENNEL BULBS so much—at least it's trying. I can see how this concept might have seemed intriguing, but the execution just didn't make for a fun solve for me today.

The most annoying part of the solve, for me, was the proximity of BARISAXES (?!!?!?) (25A: Low-pitched jazz instruments for short) to the little scissors / dotted line icon in NOT FROM C/NTRATE. Since the "BARI" part of BARISAXES is proximate to the icon, I thought the "TONE" had been cut out of the answer for some reason. Having never ever (ever) seen the term BARISAXES in my life, this assumption seemed reasonable. Obviously there is a missing "TONE," and then there's a little scissors icon there, so ... I guess the "TONE" got cut too. Only ... no. BARISAXES is just a word. All on its own. Nothing (formally) but. Obviously the "TONE" of "BARITONE" has been lost in the shortening, but that has nothing to do with today's theme. Mere coincidence. The other thing I had no clue about was BENEDICTS (as defined). If I ever knew that term, I forgot it. Do people use it? Does it have any contemporary currency? Maybe it's got some kind of prominence in some quarter of the pop cultural world that I'm unaware of? The term comes from the character Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, but did not become a general term for "confirmed bachelors" who finally get married until the 19th century. If it has had any life after the 19th century, I haven't seen it.

Miscellaneous:

• 4A: Words that might precede "Out, darned Spot!"? ("BAD DOG!") — this is doubly weird. First, the Macbeth quote is "Out, damned spot!"; why in the world would you bowdlerize it? And second, why in the world are you yelling "BAD DOG!" at your dog? The dog's not bad. Yelling at your dog only scares your dog. And yelling judgmental phrases (as opposed to commands the dog can understand) is basically useless. You're not helping. Calm down. 
• 36A: Lampshade-shaped candy piece (ROLO) — I don't know that I laughed out loud, but I did find this clue funny. "Lampshade-shaped" is exactly right. Unexpected yet precise phrasing. Nice.

• 101A: Buddhist riddles (ZEN KOANS) — probably the fanciest answer in the grid. Feels fresh, looks great. A "Z" + "K" answer ... not easy to come by. Well, there's KAZOO, and KAMIKAZE, and ZEKE and KAZAM (or, as we saw earlier this week, ALAKAZAM) ... but somehow this one is better than all those.
• 1D: Green or black African menace (MAMBA) — got this quickly. "Black MAMBA" was Kobe Bryant's (self-ascribed) nickname, so the snake's name is familiar to me for that reason, and the "black" in the clue really tripped the answer. MAMBA helped me get rid of my very first and very wrong answer at 1A: Common sight near the entrance of a mall (I had ATM (?!)).
• 12D: Classic car that shared its name with a planet, informally (MERC) — me: "Four-letter planet, gotta be MARS! Wait ... there's a classic car called a MARS? That sounds ... wrong." MERC is short for Mercury, which was a make of car. Didn't know the whole make was classic. I feel like Mercurys were around fairly recently. Yes, they were: "Ford announced the closure of the division in 2010" (wikipedia). 
• 38D: "Charlotte's Web" author's inits. (E.B.W.) — Elwyn Brooks ("E.B.") White. Never really noticed how his initials are, as crossword clues often like to say, "apt" (an anagram of "Web"). Would've been apter if W.E.B. Du Bois had been the author, but still, pretty apt.

• 60D: Barista's flourish (SWIRL) — I'm not a barista and never have been, but SWIRL seems pretty remedial as barista flourishes go. I usually get some variation on a fern leaf, which is at least slightly fancier (and, if you're in NZ, apt!)

• 64D: Name found in "whole milk" (EMIL) — why? Why would you do this? It's not even apt! Try harder.
• 41D: Online shorthand meaning "Victory!" ("FTW!") — "For the win!" Used to see this more ~ten years ago than I do now, but it remains a thing.
• 101D: Company that owns Words With Friends (ZYNGA) — got it, but spelled it ZENGA. I blame JENGA.

That's it. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. hey, it's spooky season (boo!), so if you are a fan of horror movies and crosswords, or you know someone who is, or you're not a fan of horror movies but enjoy crosswords and want to learn something, consider picking up Nightmare Crosswords: Puzzles to Die For by puzzlemaker Adam Simpson. "50 Fun and Challenging Crossword Puzzles Packed with Horror Trivia." I am a huge movie fan but not a huge horror fan, and yet I still loved solving these. They're entertaining and well made. Get this book for yourself or some horror/crossword fan that you love. And if your loved one is more a Word Search person (no judgment!), Adam's also got a book out called Nightmare Word Search. I can't vouch for the word searches, but the crossword book is very much worth your time.

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

• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

=============================
✏️ Upcoming Crossword Tournaments ✏️

• Finger Lakes Crossword Competition (Ithaca) (Sat., Oct. 18, 2025)

=============================
📘 My other blog 📘:

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...

Black Death-era Iberian king dubbed "the Ceremonious" / SAT 10-11-25 / Johann ___, philosopher who influenced Hegel / Car touted for its dual efficiency / Symbol for electric flux, in physics / "___ Deo gloria" (Latin doctrine) / "Wax" collectible, informally / Spot to order a witbier or hefeweizen / Dominatrix's practice, for short / Like typical frat boys, informally / Serialized and melodramatic, as a show

Constructor: Sam Ezersky

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Johann FICHTE (27D: Johann ___, philosopher who influenced Hegel) —

Johann Gottlieb Fichte (/ˈfɪxtə/; German: [ˈjoːhan ˈɡɔtliːp ˈfɪçtə]; 19 May 1762 – 29 January 1814) was a German philosopher who became a founding figure of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, which developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kant.

Recently, philosophers and scholars have begun to appreciate Fichte as an important philosopher in his own right due to his original insights into the nature of self-consciousness or self-awareness. Fichte was also the originator of thesis–antithesis–synthesis, an idea that is often erroneously attributed to Hegel.

Like Descartes and Kant before him, Fichte was motivated by the problem of subjectivity and consciousness. Fichte also wrote works of political philosophy; he has a reputation as one of the fathers of German nationalism. (wikipedia)

• • •

I sometimes think about John GOWER. John GOWER was an important 14th-century English writer, a contemporary and friend of Chaucer's who wrote three major works of poetry in three different languages. I think about GOWER not just because I was trained as a medievalist and have read more Middle English poetry than I care to remember, including GOWER's most famous work in English (Confessio Amantis), but because in my head he is the prototype of a kind of name, and a kind of fame, that has special crossword relevance. That is, specialists will absolutely know who he is, but the general population absolutely will not, and so ideally his name just sits in a glass case marked "Break Only In Case of Emergency" and constructors never, ever have to use him. You could perhaps justify using him if you were desperate and everyone of the crosses was extremely clear and fair, but mostly you wouldn't go near him, even if you kinda liked him, because you know that the vast majority of people are never going to have heard of him. I bring him up today because I feel like this puzzle broke that glass case not once but twice (!), for two crossing answers (!!?). An "Iberian" king named Peter the Ceremonious!? (39A: Black Death-era Iberian king dubbed "the Ceremonious"). And I'm supposed to know his Roman numeral? (PETER IV). And he's crossed with some German philosopher (FICHTE) whose main claim to fame is influencing a much, much more famous philosopher? Put both of those guys in a DIESEL HYBRID and yikes, you've got some kind of reverse Thelma & Louise situation ("reverse" in that I would not care at all if they drove that car off a cliff). It's not that I couldn't navigate that section. I could, ultimately. It's just so bad. So desperately proper nounishly bad. At least with TYRONE (another "?"), you crossed him with a proper noun who is properly famous (it's possible you don't know LAMAR JACKSON, but multiple MVP awards in very recent years means he is in no way obscure) (53A: Youngest-ever QB to win multiple N.F.L. M.V.P. awards (by age 27)). There's some rather nice stuff in this grid, but everything in and around the HYBRID part of DIESEL HYBRID, from those awful names to AN EYE *and* AN ACT (?!?) to SOLI to whatever FALSE CUT is, kind of cast a pall over the solving experience.

For the record, John GOWER has been in the NYTXW once: January 4, 1948. After that, GOWER appeared about ten times as [Dancer champion] or [Champion of dance], and I have no idea what that is about ... oh, wait, it's not [Dancer champion], it's [Dancer Champion]—some guy named GOWER Champion who was an actor, director, choreographer, and dancer. He's got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame! But not on the Crossword Walk of Fame, it seems, as he was last seen in 1987. That gives him something in common with FICHTE, who also hasn't appeared in the NYTXW since the '80s (1981, his sole appearance). PETER IV, like FICHTE, also has just one lifetime appearance in the grid before today, though that appearance was much more recent (2020). I really wish someone would hear me out on my PETER IV / Johann FICHTE Thelma & Louise remake. It could be some kind of European fantasy time-travel deal, where they're running from, I dunno, let's say Count CHOCULA, who wants to imprison them in his S & M (SANDM) dungeon. I know, I know, it all sounds a little BROEY, but I think it could work. 

["Frankenberry! Booberry! Come! To the sex dungeon!"]

My fav moment of this puzzle was BROEY (26D: Like typical frat boys, informally). BROEY into SOAPY. I was like "are they really doing BROEY?" and then I got SOAPY and thought "I guess so!" (37A: Serialized and melodramatic, as a show). I might watch something that was BROEY if it was also SOAPY. It would probably also have to be CAMPY, which isn't here today, though I wish it were, CAMPY is always welcome in my grid. Most of the answers today, even the marquee stuff, didn't do much for me. IPHONE CAMERA feels oddly formal and long, as does LP RECORD—even more so. I have never heard anyone use the expression "LP RECORD" outside of this one specific musical context:

[I see you've sent my letters back

And my LP RECORDs and they're all scratched

I can't see the point in another day

When nobody listens to a word I say]

I did (almost) grin FROM EAR TO EAR when I got that answer—my one big moment of whoosh in this puzzle:

And the SE stack of 12s is very nice. I admired that. But otherwise, as I say, stuff like DATATYPE and DIET TIP really aren't lighting me up. That last one was particularly rough for me. I think I had it as a DIET MAP. Like, "let's map out your diet plan." I couldn't believe you'd get a trained "nutritionist" involved for a mere "TIP." Outside of the broader FICHTE/PETERIV area, though, there weren't many real struggles today. 

A few more things:

• 19A: It might be smelt? (ROE) — Smelt ROE. Fish eggs. Smelt is a type of fish. Most of you probably knew that.
• 4D: East Egg resident in "The Great Gatsby" (TOM) — I was like "I just read this, how do I not know a three-letter resident?? Who lived there besides Gatsby? No, wait, Gatsby lived in West Egg ... who lived in East Egg?" I guess TOM (Buchanan) is a supremely forgettable character (to me). DAISY Buchanan, iconic. TOM? ... again, I *just* read this book earlier this year, and he weirdly slipped my mind. 
• 8D: Engineer who supposedly found inspiration while tending to a boiling kettle (WATT) — I did not know this. Fun story:

There is a popular story that Watt was inspired to invent the steam engine by seeing a kettle boiling, the steam forcing the lid to rise and thus showing Watt the power of steam. This story is told in many forms; in some Watt is a young lad, in others he is older, sometimes it's his mother's kettle, sometimes his aunt's, suggesting that it may be apocryphal. In any event, Watt did not invent the steam engine, but significantly improved the efficiency of the existing Newcomen engine by adding a separate condenser, consistent with the now-familiar principles of thermal efficiency. The story was possibly created by Watt's son, James Watt, Jr., who was determined to preserve and embellish his father's legacy. In this light, it can be seen as akin to the story of Isaac Newton and the falling apple and his discovery of gravity. (wikipedia)

• 41D: With fewer than 11,000 people, the world's second-least-populaous country, after Vatican City (TUVALU) — most famous for being a Survivor location at least once. I wrote in TUVALU but then panicked about the last two vowels—wondering whether I had them in the right order—and so pulled the latter part of the answer and waited for confirmation from crosses. TUVULA ... looks like something, though that something is possibly just UVULA (with a "T" on the beginning). 

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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

• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

=============================
✏️ Upcoming Crossword Tournaments ✏️

• Finger Lakes Crossword Competition (Ithaca) (Sat., Oct. 18, 2025)

=============================
📘 My other blog 📘:

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...

Greek letter that refers to a lone wolf, in Gen-Z slang / FRI 10-10-25 / Nonet of Greek mythology / Part of a film studio's overhead? / A.Q.I. measurer / Barrage with insults, in online lingo / Company whose stock price cratered in the early 2000s / Key ingredients in con you bing, a savory Chinese pancake

Constructor: Colin Adams

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: LAVERNE Cox (37D: Actress/activist Cox) —

Laverne Cox (born May 29, 1972) is an American actress and LGBTQ advocate. She rose to prominence with her role as Sophia Burset on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, becoming the first transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in an acting category, and the first to be nominated for an Emmy Award since composer Angela Morley in 1990. In 2015, she won a Daytime Emmy Award in Outstanding Special Class Special as executive producer for Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word, making her the first trans woman to win the award. In 2017, she became the first transgender person to play a transgender series regular on U.S. broadcast TV as Cameron Wirth on CBS's Doubt.

Cox appeared as a contestant on the first season of VH1's reality show I Want to Work for Diddy, and co-produced and co-hosted the VH1 makeover television series TRANSform Me. In April 2014, Cox was honored by GLAAD with its Stephen F. Kolzak Award for her work as an advocate for the transgender community. In June 2014, Cox became the first transgender person to appear on the cover of Time magazine. Cox is the first transgender person to appear on the cover of a Cosmopolitan magazine, with her February 2018 cover on the South African edition. She is also the first openly transgender person to have a wax figure of herself at Madame Tussauds. (wikipedia)

• • •

The highs here just aren't high enough. The grid is solid. It's fine. But the marquee stuff doesn't seem to have a lot of energy to give. This just seems very tame and unambitious next to most themelesses. Usually you can tell which answers were the "seed" answers, the ones that the puzzle was built around, the ones that the constructor had set aside to use someday because they're fun / cool / unusual. I can't tell what those answers were today. KICKED ASS? BEACH BUM? ALAKAZAM? LIP FILLER? These are the most interesting things in the grid, but these answers are also where interestingness tops out. It's hard to get too excited about OPEN SPACE or RARE BIRD or NFL TEAMS or RETAPES. Again, the grid holds together well, it's competently made, there simply aren't any proper highlights. Also, no real difficulty. And a lot of the fill runs both short (3-4-5) and either overcommon or somewhat ugly (RUNAT ADELE CANI BOK MOS ADUE HOU ILOST USEME ENRON). Lots of filler, not enough killer. 

[38D: Part of a film studio's overhead?]

There were only two points in the puzzle where I had even a moment's hesitation. Trying to turn the corner from the NW up into the NE, I stalled when I didn't know Kaitlin OLSON (I've seen her name, for sure, but that's one of those shows where the world zigged and I zagged—I think maybe I've seen one episode), and then instead of PICO I had NANO at 7D: One-trillionth. NANO is (merely) one-billionth. The NANO error did give me my one memorable, semi-fun moment of the puzzle, when I wanted the ingredient in the savory Chinese pancake to be ONION-something, and while wrong, the correct answer was ultimately in the ONION family—a weird coincidence, which was followed by an even weirder coincidence, which was that ONION actually was in the puzzle, just down below (52A: Bit of a fast-food side order = ONION RING). This weird ONION mistake that revealed near-symmetrical onions in the puzzle was maybe the highlight of my solve, and it was all a bizarre accident. The other moment of hesitation that I had came in the parfait answer. Apparently I don't eat enough parfaits, or even see them, or really know what they are. I think of them like a layered dessert of some type in a tallish glass dish (the kind that allows you to see the layers). And this appears to be basically correct. Somehow I didn't know OATS were involved, at all, let alone as a topping. Just ... uncooked oats? Granola oats? Why would you eat these? Was ice cream not available?

Not seeing any tough spots today. Also not seeing many tough or tricky clues. The "?" clues are all pretty transparent. A BEACH BUM "bakes" in the sun (26A: Someone who spends a lot of time baking?). A CENT is one out of a hundred ... pennies in a dollar (not a very evocative clue) (13D: One out of a hundred?). A BOOM MIC is used "overhead," i.e. above the actors, ideally out of frame (38D: Part of a film studio's overhead?). ANT FARMS are ["Colonial homes?"] because ants live in social groups called "colonies." A+ is a blood type. I don't really understand how your knowledge is wasted in BAR TRIVIA (49A: Where all of your knowledge might be wasted?). I get that your teammates might be wasted, or you might, but your knowledge ... that doesn't really make sense. I see the wordplay the puzzle is going for, obviously, but the phrasing doesn't quite work. (Has anyone ever competed in BAR TRIVIA under the pseudonym BART RIVIA? I'm guessing yes). Then there's the one "!" clue today, which is weirdly in the (imagined) voice of the (inanimate) answer (34A: We're booked! = ROOMS). The "!" signifies that you take the clue extremely literally. Rooms are, in fact, booked (at hotels, motels, Holiday Inns, e.g.). 

Bullets:

• 1A: Viking of cartoon fame (HAGAR) — a gimme if you're old and maybe even if you're not. This is Monday stuff. It is not 1-Across on a Friday stuff.
• 21A: Christopher Nolan movie with a palindromic name (TENET) — when you say an answer is palindromic, you immediately make it twice as easy to get as it would otherwise be. Every letter. (except the middle letter, obvs) gets you a bonus letter! I don't remember if I saw TENET or not (which is how I feel about most Christopher Nolan movies post-Memento). There's just something slightly sad about TENET sitting over TENT, which now looks like an emaciated TENET. "How 'bout we do TENET again, just ...without one of the 'E's? Sound fun?"
• 30A: The emperor and his subjects in Disney's "The Emperor's New Groove" (INCAS) — another moment where I was unexpectedly entertained by my own error. I had the -CAS and was like "wait ... that movie was about ORCAS? That can't be r— ..."

• 8D: A.Q.I. measurer (EPA) — A.Q.I. is "air quality index." I'm not sure the EPA measures it anymore. I'm not sure the EPA does much of anything anymore. Well, there's a government shutdown right now (right? who can tell with this government...), so almost certainly nothing's happening at the EPA right now. But even if the government were open, I don't see "oversight" of any kind as a real priority for this admin.
• 24D: Greek letter that refers to a lone wolf, in Gen-Z slang (SIGMA) — I like a lot of Gen-Z slang, but this I just rolled my eyes at. This is some pathetic right-wing "manosphere" nonsense. If you really wanna know more about this meaning of SIGMA, here you go. (It is apparently mostly used as a pejorative now, though Gen Alpha apparently knows it primarily as a nonsense term from this one time when a character asked "what the SIGMA?" on Spongebob Squarepants (!???)). The puzzle gave me [Greek letter], that was enough, moving on ...

Actually, not moving on at all. Done. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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

• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

=============================
✏️ Upcoming Crossword Tournaments ✏️

• Finger Lakes Crossword Competition (Ithaca) (Sat., Oct. 18, 2025)

=============================
📘 My other blog 📘:

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...