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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
Friday, November 14, 2025
Constructor: Malaika Handa
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
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)
• • •
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.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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60 comments:
The big guy covered most of my thoughts. I’ve come to enjoy Malaika’s puzzle reviews here so I don’t want to rip on her but this seemed a little off. Not proper Friday toughness and downright boring - marginal USA Today material.
Playground Twist
The grid is well crafted and clean for the most part - I liked SEA SHANTY and FEEDER TEAM but the other longs just fall flat - the full OREO COOKIE is unforgivable. Most of the time I spent telling myself it can’t be that simple.
One Hundred Years
As the colder weather approaches give me pav bhaji with sarson ka SAAG and I’m good.
Bauhaus
This is well crafted puzzle - but not an overly enjoyable Friday morning solve.
The Damned
It was Easy, but I liked it a lot more than @Rex did.
Overwrites:
My 15A unsolved mysteries were cold CASES before they were OPEN
Like OFL, I initiated my 28A chase with GO gET 'em before GO FETCH
SO gONE before DONE at 42A
FEEDER TEAM (30D) fixed the 28A and 42A overwrites because gEEgER TEAM made no sense
WOEs:
POG as clued at 1D
I'd never heard of DARK ACADEMIA (6D), but it was easy to infer from crosses once I fixed 28A.
In the interest of completeness I should note that I've never heard of Mr. Bunin (59D), but I had IVAN filled in before I read the clue.
What on earth is wrong with POG? It is such a common ubiquitous word for a very large proportion of the population. Does Rex just not like it when he doesn't get clues? The meaning is entirely divorced from the emote now as it is just a word.
I liked 'Pog' as clued. It's genuinely a really widespread and significant part of internet parlance so it's not a surprise to see it on the grid. This was nearly my fastest ever Friday solve so would have preferred more of an all-round challenge.
From our friends...
"I made $50,000 in the stock market today."
"I had twins."
"I went to the poor farm."
"I'm on Millionaire Acres"
That's Life!
I heartily endorse this game.
If today is the day I get roasted by the youths for not knowing POG then so be it. 🥰 Circle of life. Genuinely glad for Mali that some people enjoy that answer.
This was by far the easiest Friday puzzle I’ve ever done.
I had an easier time with this one than most Fridays and even got some whoosh going in the south central. It helped that some of the answers have been around for a while, like MINECRAFT and PALEO DIET ( and ELVIRA !). Heck, I even knew that Beyoncé is the “All the SINGLE LADIES” lady, so I dropped that in without needing any crosses.
I did struggle in parts - DARK ACADEMIA meant nothing to me, for example. I rarely get a chance to manhandle even a portion of the grids on a Friday, so I took my time and enjoyed this one. Yes, it contained the brutally easy OREO COOKIE but what the heck is the adjacent FEEDER TEAM? I obviously can tell what it is conceptually by its clue. Apparently it’s a somewhat generic term similar to FARM TEAM in baseball. If I’ve heard that one in the wild, it just didn’t register.
Conversely, I liked this better than a lot of Malaika's puzzles that I've done, precisely because it did not seek to be cutting-edge hip. Other than POG, everything in the puzzle has established some staying power.
Trust me, once you start playing GO FETCH, there is no way to END GAME. Your arm will fall off before Bramble gets tired or bored.
I once worked on a project in Mexico monitoring populations of small forest carnivores, as part of which got to work with sedated OCELOTS. That fur is possibly the softest thing I've ever felt.
Finished it with one cheat (to get SAAG), but the music never sounded. I know my subscription is paid up. Computer issue?
I’m surprised the editor let 51A in without the leading “¡” since it’s an exclamation in Spanish.
Saw several people on Reddit with crazy fast record times (but unimpressive Friday averages), and knew something was up. Total dud. Below my average by a minute and a half, but definitely not on my wavelength. Never heard of DARK ACADEMIA which affected a lot of crosses, like GO FETCH. Still don't understand SEA SHANTY. FEEDER TEAM seems like a reach, like something someone who doesn't follow sports would say, and SO DONE was slow to emerge. Not knowing Spanish didn't help with POR. Would have never gotten POG if I had needed to. Moral of the story...stay off of Reddit.
Hey All !
A Malaika MThemeless. Liked the NE/SW stacks of 10's. Quite tough to fill cleanly. And stacks of 9's in the other corners.
Got stuck on GINGER ALE/DARK ACADEMIA. Had the GIN_E_ALE, but the ole brain was stuck on GINsomething, totally disregarding the ALE. Silly brain. Plus, I had ARE as ERE, so having DA_KACADEMIe was not helping the situation. Filled in GINrEnALE to just be able to get the Almost There message, then came here to find the error of my ways. So a Finished With Errors (3), FWE.
Nice puz, Malaika. Nice seeing good ole TSETSE again. In the puz at least, wouldn't want to IRL. 😁
Have a great Friday!
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
I found this so extremely easy that I was sure they accidentally switched a Tuesday and a Friday. Less than half of my usual Friday time. Probably helps that I’m in my late 30s, and I can’t say I disliked it, but it’s nowhere near a Friday difficulty level.
Another hand up for GOgETem. Other than that, see clue, write answer, although never heard of DARK ACADEMIA it filled in quickly from crosses. Same as @Rex with ORE and the M starting MINECRAFT. Do kids still play thar?
Anyway, done in less time than T, W or Th this week. Kinda sad for a Friday puzz....
This grid was full of LIFE, bouncy and fresh.
My favorite part was the SE because I’m a wordplay lover and it had a lovely HEAP:
[Liner notes?] for SEA SHANTY
[Cellular data plan?] for DNA
[Material for a certain pocket] for PITA, and
[It’s badly in need of a pick-me-up] for STY
My second favorite part were the long downs, eight of them, with six being NYT answer debuts. No same-old, same-old there.
My third favorite part was the abutting GOAT and GO FETCH, imagining what it would be like to play the latter with the former.
I liked the dook SOD ONE, and seeing THAW there to balance off row ten (ICE DAMS and SLEETED), and pleased to encounter a worthy TIL – DARK ACADEMIA.
Go my mojo going with this one, Malaika, a great springboard for the day. Thank you!
“Troubliest”? …As for the puzzle, I agree it didn’t feel fresh. And too fast and easy for a Friday. I usually solve on my laptop but today I sat up in bed and solved on my phone… still finished more quickly than usual.
I enjoyed this, but it certainly didn't feel like a Friday to me, but that might largely be a result of me just knowing most of the pop culture stuff. I think it is good, fun and probably necessary long term for the continued popularity of the puzzle to incorporate modernish pop culture into the clues, but this seemed like a bit much.
Very happy for all you kids who found this so easy. I shot myself in the foot instantly with CARBODIET and kept tripping all the way through. Lost track of all the things I just didn't know, but they included POG, SINGLELADIES, IVAN, GOSSIPGIRL, ENDGAME, and especially DARKACADEMIA. I've done enough puzzles to get them from crosses, but there was no "oh yeah, that" even with all the letters in. No fun to feel old even when you are old.
And of course, there was GOGETEM, which had to be right and snarled things almost forever. Sheesh.
In short, a Mega Helping of TIL. I usually like your stuff, MH, but today was "not my jam" to quote my seven-year old granddaughter. Thanks for some tortured fun.
The puzzle was enjoyable, zippy, current. A bit too much crosswordese but I have to think that the tepid response of has to do with the confounding decision to run this on a Friday. This was a fresh Tuesday puzzle, a light Wednesday. Outside of a few fun clues it was basic, straightforward know a title, no misdirection, puzzling out an answer.
I legitimately have no idea how this could be considered a Friday puzzle. Beyond ease it doesn’t categorically fit!
Agreed. I thought for sure I was missing some trickery...
I approve this moral
Super breezy, and def not Malaika’s fault it ran on a Friday - since that seems to be everyone’s main criticism
I don't know if I was just on this puzzle's wavelength or if it really is among the easiest Fridays that's recently appeared, but it played like a slightly challenging Monday or an easy Tuesday for me, and my time reflected that. I instantly dropped in PALEODIET and never really stopped to catch my breath. Only hangup was putting in GDR before DDR on the East Germany clue, but I knew the cross had to be SID and not SIG, so it was easily fixed.
15 minutes for me, so easy-medium. Saw Malaika's name and perked right up. The main thing I noticed about this puzzle was that each section of the puzzle had a real major gimme in it to get me started--so I definitely never got truly stuck. SAAG was a WOE (though I love Paneer!). I've probably eaten SAAG paneer before, but just didn't know/couldn't recall the name. Loved the long stacks--GOSSIPGIRL and OREOCOOKIE and ADDITIVES and ANTIRACIST all great answers, marquis answers in my book. Interesting to have big corners and the middle full of 3s and 4s and broken up--I guess that is part of why this felt so different than a "usual" Friday. Loved it!!!! Thanks, Malaika! : )
Oh, also, add me to the GOGETEM chorus. Clearly, a striking generational divide in these comments. I’m on the wrong/clueless side.
I’m with the professor, pog is completely foreign to me….got it only from crosses.
PS I’m 83.
My grandkids play/ed Minecraft when they were 10.
Never heard of gossip girl or a feeder team.
I guess it depends on your level of pop culture knowledge but this was almost painfully easy for a Friday for me. I feel like something is off with the editing/cluing calibration when my Friday time is faster than my Tuesday time for the week.
Hey Malaika,
I liked your puzzle. It was fun for me to learn some terms used by generations which have come after this old boomer. My grandsons constantly entertain me with all their current lingo. I hope to see some of those words in a puzzle soon.
I read the clue on 6D as anesthetic - threw me off. First time I've seen a "shape" called GOAT
It's a FARM TEAM, not a FEEDER TEAM. I have never heard of the latter.
What day is it? (Taps watch.) This puzzle felt a little too easy for a Friday. I don't zoom and whoosh that often, but this was zoomy and whooshy for sure, and I didn't even feel deserving of the thrill. And, I didn't even see POG that Rex complained about at such length. The stacks in the NW and SE, just boom boom boom DONE.
The one thing I'll pat myself on the back for today is backing out of mistaken entries more quickly than I usually do, when things weren't working out. For example, GO gET em instead of GO FETCH. GOSSIP GIRL was another: I first guessed GOtham GIRL, based on Manhattan in the clue. And OREO Crumbs was yet another that didn't take too long to undo.
DARK ACADEMIA was unknown to me. Funny how tastes can differ so much: this one left me cold, maybe because the aesthetic sounds so silly and affected (either you live the academic life or you don't -- don't try to fake it), and I inwardly hoped DARK would be more along the lines of Gothic or Noir, and it doesn't seem to be. (Does that make me a "HOPER"? I hope not.)
In view of Rex's sour review, my OPEN question is: how much of the cluing is actually Malaika's? I thought I saw a constructor pop by the other day who said that typically, upwards of 50% of the clues are due to the NYTXW team, so the clues for TIER or SO DONE could well be their doing. Same with ENDGAME, ANTI-RACIST, etc.
No, honestly, I thought Rex was way too harsh with this one. He always says he wants "fresh", so for example MINECRAFT is evidently stale by now (even though it is a certainty that many of the older crowd will not be familiar with it), and yet POG is evidently too fresh for his blood. To me the puzzle felt balanced between the older and the newer, so it was fine on that score. Just too easy.
Happy Friday, everyone!
SEA SHANTY - Think ocean liner, and musical notes. A sea shanty is a song sung by sailors while they work.
Most of these comments feel too harsh to me. My time was faster than my Friday average but I thought it was a solid puzzle - Thanks Malaika
I thought it was really good. Nice work Malaika!
Try teaching at CUNY, where it takes forever to get the lights fixed in a classroom. That's the real DARK ACADEMIA.
This was fastest Friday ever 14 minutes. I'm new compared to most of you, so that probably sounds slow but a good Friday is 30 to 45 minutes for me .
Anyway Elvira's show Movie Macabre in the 80s used to have me rolling on the floor laughing. At the time this type of humor was unique. I think now with all the internet reels and parody shows, this is kind of humor is more common now, the way she would stop the movie and make hysterical comments about it.
I hadn't ever seen anything like that. I think Mystery Science Theater 3000 owes Elvira a lot.
I feel as though Malaika had some sloppy missteps of the kind that she would usually criticire:, e.g. SO DONE (iwthout "I'm" as the answer for "I canNOT handle this right now"); BIT ON A BUN (so old); EDIE Falco / OREO / TSETSE (yet again); and the awkward "They're the subject of more than 200 million catalogs a year" (why include the "They're the"?). The puzzle didn't feel fresh or zingy, to me. KInd of an odd mix of very current and very stale.
I’ve always known it as Farm team too, but feeder team makes sense.
A very doable Friday, which tripped me up in a few places, but didn’t keep me from finishing. Seemed like a HEAP of names and trivia, but really very few of the those clues gave me too much resistance. POG is from the 90s? Wow. Okay. I had STICK for STALK, NONONO for SO DONE, and OKRAS for IKEAS, thinking of spring SEED catalogs. Loved GO FETCH and couldn’t help but think of Malaika and her sweet pup.
I once made a dirt cake for a Halloween party where prizes were awarded for best food contributed and took home first place honors. I crushed the OREO COOKIES and mixed gummy worms into the dirt. Then I put the whole thing inside one of those styrofoam worm farm containers from Bass Pro. It was kinda gross looking but hey, at least I didn’t go with my original idea, which was Tootsie Rolls in a litter box.
The clues for SO DONE and IKEAS bothered me, too. (The clue for IKEAS would have been more Friday-level if it hadn't indicated that the answer would be plural.) I wonder if those were really Malaika's clues. Do the constructors get to review and comment on the edits to their puzzles before they're published?
ELVIRA (or The Vira for @Southside Johnny) always makes me shake my head in a gesture of awe and disbelief because a man named Dallas Frazier wrote a song which became a big hit for the Oak Ridge Boys and contained , in the chorus, the alleged rhyme, "My hearts on fire, Elvira." I guess he didn't think, "Don't spend your IRA, Elvira" had the requisite zip.
I was on a ONETIMEFEEDERTEAM that swore by the PALEODIET, along with a HEAP of OREOCOOKIEs. I never did get to play on a pro field, but I did get to SODONE.
Apple, as you likely know, has gotten into the auto business with the IVAN. Reviews have been so bad, however, that it is already known as IVAN the Terrible. Early buyers say it's a real LEMON.
Not to say that my son is a trend-follower, but he went directly from GOTH to DARKACADEMIA. His heroine is now Jeanne d'Arc Academia
Well, not much to do around here until the ICEDAMS THAW, so I'll just say Mthanks, Malaika Handa.
I thought you'd like it better than you did. I had fun and TIL dark academia
Also put in GOGETEM. Maybe that wasn't the best clue for that answer
Very hard for this geezer. 24 mysteries, recent Fridays and Saturdays have been around 15. Couldn't finish.
Thank you for the honest review, Rex.
But we don't know how much of the cluing was hers.
I thought this was delightful! Thought Rex was way too hard on the puzzle. Fun, breezy, right in my (elder millennial) language, and ELVIRA! What’s not to love?
Interesting to learn about DARKACADEMIA. THT says either you live the academic life or you don't, but that's not exactly true. I grew up the child of two college professors in a very working class, anti-intellectual city (where I still live), having grown op the child of two academics and knowing everything they dealt with I had no desire to become one myself, but I do use the trappings. Tweed blazers from the thrift store with elbow patches, dropping 4-syllable words into conversations. I think a lot of people who know me casually assume I teach somewhere (and I do, in my living room),
Interesting thing I learned today is how looong the first three sentences of the Gettysburg address are.
FARM TEAM is the minor-league affiliate of a major-league team. FEEDER TEAM is correct for the clue.
tht: Yes, I guess I've come to understand that sometimes the editors change a lot. Do they just make the edits without passing them by the constructors? Whatever, NYTXWs have been feeling really sloppy lately.
I expected this to be a tough one for the out of touch olds who generally cross words ;) but honestly this was disappointingly easy for a Friday and a snoozer despite a promising looking grid.
Easiest Friday I've ever done.
I would just read it as "in the shape of a GOAT". I'm "charmed" by the notion that Biles would wear this, or at least part of me is, but I hope it was a gift. If she bought it for herself, I'd be more alarmed than charmed.
Who knows? Did you get a message like "Oh crumbs, so close" or similar? Or was the clock still ticking without a message? But I'd guess the chances that it was a computer issue are slim to none.
Time should stand still for crossword puzzles. A mix of old and new seems fine to me, even when I don’t know which is which, like POG or whatever that is…highlight for me today is @egsforbreakfast’s review. Love iVan the terrible! And SEASHANTY—never thought of “notes” in the clue as a musical reference. In any case, Malaika did stir up a storm with her wild mix of references.
Literally LOL at the "The"!
Farm or FEEDER teams are also pro teams, so the clue doesn’t ‘t make sense.
For those thinking it should have run Tuesday or Wednesday, the Times doesn't do that with a themeless. I'm not sure how easy or hard I found it -- I only knew one of the long downs without crosses, for example.
I got SEA cHANTY as soon as I looked at the clue, but needed to know the Beyonce song to see it was an alternate spelling; don't think I've ever encountered it before. (According to M-W the official spelling is chantey, but chanty and shanty are acceptable variants.)
I don't much like horror movies, but back in the day I would often watch ELVIRA's introduction and then change the channel. But what I never did was play the game of LIFE, so I needed some crosses to get that one.
I'm baffled by Rex's comment about the "liner notes?" clue. How can you like the clue but not the answer? Or did he mean he doesn't like that particular musical genre?
I'm also baffled by the concept that a chain of stores is the "subject" of its catalogs. But no matter, once I had the K it had to be IKEAS.
Good question. I think the same constructor that I was half-remembering in my 8:55AM comment might have said that they signed off on the team's edits a little too quickly. If so, it would seem the constructor is alerted before publication. But I obviously have no direct knowledge, so don't quote me on that. (The phrase "choose your battles" also comes to mind here, as to how a constructor reacts.)
POG is deliscious ! makes for a great super easy mai tai. 4oz pog, 1.5 oz rum.
pineapple.orange.guava.
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