Cool, in streaming slang / FRI 11-14-25 / Aesthetic associated with classical literature and vintage fashion / One option in a subscription service / It's different from randomness, mathematically / Command that initiates a chase / Board game that begins with players choosing college versus career / Bunin, 1933 Literature Nobelist from Russia / Ring in many Renaissance paintings

Constructor: Malaika Handa

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: DARK ACADEMIA (6D: Aesthetic associated with classical literature and vintage fashion) —

Dark academia is a literary, internet aesthetic and subculture concerned with higher education, the arts, and literature, or an idealised version thereof. The aesthetic centres on traditional educational clothing, interior design, activities such as writing and poetry, ancient art, and classic literature, as well as classical Greek and Collegiate Gothic architecture. The trend emerged on social media site Tumblr in 2015, before being popularised by adolescents and young adults in the late 2010s and early 2020s, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. // The fashion of the 1930s and 1940s features prominently in the dark academia aesthetic, particularly clothing associated with attendance at Oxbridge, Ivy League schools, and prep schools of the period. A number of the articles of clothing most associated with the aesthetic are cardigans, blazers, dress shirts, plaid skirts, Oxford shoes, and clothing made of houndstooth and tweed, its colour palette consisting mainly of black, white, beige, browns, dark green, and occasionally navy blue. 

The subculture draws on idealised aesthetics of higher education and academia, often with books and libraries featuring prominently. Activities such as calligraphy, museum visits, libraries, coffee shops, and all-night studying sessions are common among proponents.

Seasonal imagery of autumn is also common. Imagery of Gothic and Collegiate Gothic architecture, candlelight, dark wooden furniture, and dense, cluttered rooms often occurs. The subculture has been described as maximalist and nostalgic. (wikipedia)

• • •

Mali is a terrific constructor, one of my favorites, which is probably why I was so disappointed by this particular puzzle. It didn't seem up to her normal sparkly standards. I really wish this puzzle had more highlights. Lots of long answers, but only two feel like real winners: DARK ACADEMIA and "SINGLE LADIES" (as clued!). Much of the rest of it feels flat (like bad GINGER ALE). It also feels kinda 10-years-ago. GOSSIP GIRL and MINECRAFT and even PALEO DIET certainly once felt fresh, but now seem a bit stale (PALEO DIET, for instance, appeared three times in 2014-15, and then never again ... until now). I don't like ADDITIVES or FEES (ONE-TIME or otherwise) in my life, so I'm not gonna love them in my grid. OREO COOKIE feels redundant. SESAME SEED feels like 10-letter crosswordese. I like ANTI-RACIST fine, but the clue was unimaginative—an easy fill-in-the-blank, the most obvious place to go for ANTI-RACIST (12D: "How to Be an ___" (book by Ibram X. Kendi)). END GAME has the same cluing problem (31A: "Avengers: ___" (film in Marvel's Infinity Saga)). It felt like puzzle was chasing a kind of pop culture-driven relevance, with lots of proper nouns from movies and gaming and book titles and what not, but it felt like young millennial / old Gen Z nostalgia. Some puzzles are just not for me. 

Plus, in the NW at least, the crosses for the stacks of longer answers were notably strained. POG is bad no matter how you clue it. It was bad as a '90s fad and it's bad now. This particular POG clue (1D: Cool, in streaming slang) ... I honestly didn't even know what "streaming slang" meant. I thought maybe "gaming slang," which was correct, but only in part. It's something that comes from communities on Twitch, where all kinds of things are streamed (even, occasionally, people solving crosswords). I looked up this meaning of POG but quickly wanted top stop reading when I saw that the origins of the term were stupidly convoluted and remembered that I don't actually care. But I have a blog to write, so I persevered. "POG" meaning "cool" (roughly) comes from a Twitch emote ("a small image or icon that represents an emotion, feeling, or action.") called PogChamp, which combined some streamer's surprised "oh cool" face with "the imagery of Pepe the Frog, a popular internet mascot that has sometimes been tied to right-wing ideas." Apparently it was one of the most popular emotes on Twitch. And yet: "The emote was subsequently removed after [the streamer in question] shared some questionable opinions on the January 6th storming of the U.S. Capital." Extreme, predictable LOL. Anyway, POG APIS followed quickly by ISA EELS TSETSE is not an opening that I particularly enjoyed.

The troubliest spots were POG and GOAT (needed every cross to finally "get" it) (GOAT is of course not just an animal but also an acronym for "Greatest Of All Time," which Biles inarguably is). Also struggled with TIER (44A: One option in a subscription service). This def of TIER is just depressing to me. So many ways to take TIER away from the depressing world of payment plans and ONE-TIME FEEs, but no. Capitalism wins again. I also had trouble with the first two letters of "SO DONE," largely because they really Really wanted to be "I'M," as in "I'M DONE," but "I" was in the clue so I knew that couldn't be right. The clue is a complete sentence and the answer isn't and I Hate when clues do that. The phrase is "I'm SO DONE." That is the phrase that is parallel to "I canNOT handle this right now." Cutting off the "I'M" is arbitrary and weird. I'm sure people sometimes say it that way, but again, the clue and answer should match up, grammar-wise. [Unable to handle a situation, in slang]. That would work. Subject-free SO DONE didn't quite work for me. On the other hand, I really (really) loved the clue on SEA SHANTY (69A: Liner notes?). The answer I'm not wild about, but that clue is gold.

Further comments:

• 10A: It's different from randomness, mathematically (CHAOS) — also the vast realm that Satan has to cross in order to find Earth in Paradise Lost, "a dark Illimitable Ocean without bound."
• 27A: Where to set a cocktail garnish (RIM) — true enough, but at home we just drop them in. Hard to drink a cocktail with a garnish poking you in the face or always threatening to slide off.
• 28A: Command that initiates a chase ("GO FETCH!") — had the "ET" and wrote in "GO GET 'EM!" In a harder puzzle, fixing that mistake might've proved very tough. So many letters in common with the real answer.
• 33A: Resource used in 67-Across (ORE) — bizarrely, I got this off the "E" without looking at 67-Across, then went immediately to 67-Across, saw that it started with "M," and wrote in MINECRAFT. Tiny crossference in the W totally opened up the SE. One of the many things that made today's puzzle easier than usual.
• 41A: Board game that begins with players choosing college versus career (LIFE) — I enjoyed remembering this game. Played it a lot as a child. It didn't much prepare me for LIFE, though. For instance, I hardly ever drive around in a plastic six-seater convertible.

• 50D: Horror character known as the Mistress of the Dark (ELVIRA) — another answer I loved seeing, continuing the darkness of DARK ACADEMIA. I remember ELVIRA as the host of some kind of spooky show ... oh yeah, here we go:

Elvira's Movie Macabre (titled on-screen as Movie Macabre with Elvira, Mistress of the Dark in its original run), or simply Movie Macabre, is an American hosted horror movie television program that originally aired locally from 1981 to 1986. The show features B movies, particularly those in the horror and science fiction genres, and is hosted by Elvira, a character with a black dress and heaven bump hairstyle, played by Cassandra Peterson. Elvira occasionally interrupts the films with comments and jokes, and in some episodes receives phone calls from a character called "the Breather" (John Paragon).

• 59D: ___ Bunin, 1933 Literature Nobelist from Russia (IVAN) — never heard of him. Probably should've been my "Word of the Day." BUNIN has appeared thrice in the NYTXW Modern Era, last time in '08. IVAN, of course, has appeared roughly a gajillion times (132 Modern Era appearances, to be exact, but only one of those IVANs was Bunin).

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 ✏️

• American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (Stamford, CT, Apr. 10-12, 2026) (registration opens January 8!)

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

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)