M.L.B. shortstop Miguel / SUN 11-9-25 / Nocturnal primate of the Indian forest / Handcrafted items in a fishing tackle box / "The ___ Smith Show" (Apple TV offering) / What distinguishes "bet" from "vet" in Hebrew / 1990s ABC sitcom about kids growing up without their parents / Athol Fugard novel adapted as an Academy Award-winning film / Like someone who experiences little to no amorous and sexual attraction, for short

Constructor: Amie Walker

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "Swing States" — four rebus squares that contain two state codes each—one for the Across answer and another for the Down. All the states belong to the general "western" portion of the United States, so each square is a kind of ... WESTERN UNION (117A: Telegraph pioneer, or a description of four squares in this puzzle)

Theme answers:

• "YOU TALKIN' TO ME?" / FAN VOTE (23A: Iconic line from Robert De Niro in "Taxi Driver" / 3D: Chance for supporters to induct athletes into the All-Star Game)
• "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!" / "I'M NOT A KID ANYMORE!" (41A: "I've had it!" / 12D: "Treat me like an adult, MOM!")
• MOM-TO-BE / FEW AND FAR BETWEEN (57A: Certain expectant parent / 44D: Scarce)
• "IT'S ON ME" / "NO RETURNS" (91A: "Put your wallet away" / 87D: "All sales final")

Word of the Day: TSOTSI (98D: Athol Fugard novel adapted as an Academy Award-winning film) —

Tsotsi is the only novel written by South African playwright Athol Fugard (1932–2025). It was published in 1980 although written some time earlier, and it was the basis of the 2005 film of the same name. [...] Tsotsi is a 2005 crime drama film written and directed by Gavin Hood and produced by Peter Fudakowski. It is an adaptation of the novel Tsotsi by Athol Fugard, and is a South African/UK co-production. Set in the Alexandra slum in Johannesburg, South Africa, it stars Presley Chweneyagae as David/Tsotsi (meaning "criminal" - see also Tsotsitaal), a young street thug who steals a car only to discover a baby in the back seat. It also features Kenneth Nkosi, Jerry Mofokeng, and Rapulana Seiphemo in supporting roles.

The soundtrack features Kwaito music performed by South African artist Zola and Afro-pop group Mafikizolo, as well as a score by Mark Kilian and Paul Hepker with the voice of South African protest singer and poet Vusi Mahlasela.

The film was praised, particularly for its writing, direction, and performances, especially Chweneyagae's and Pheto's, cinematography and for emotional weight. It went on to win the 2006 Academy Award for Best International Feature Film and was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, becoming the first South African film and first African film not made in French to win the former. (wikipedia)

• • •

Easy and kinda weak. The theme answers are often great answers in their own right, but the theme ... it just doesn't make much sense. I guess the states in the rebus square do "swing" (from one state to the other, depending whether you're considering the Across or the Down), and they are all WESTERN states, and form a kind of UNION inside their little squares, OK. But somehow that doesn't seem like enough. You know what would've gotten this puzzle into decent conceptual shape—if all the WESTERN UNIONs had involved states that actually abutted one another. I really thought we were going to be dealing with a border theme at first, when I got the UT/NV square (early and very easily). And MT/WA, again, so promising—we got something going here [ugh as several of you have noted WA and MT do not share a border—stupid ID panhandle is in the way! My mom grew up in that panhandle, you’d think I’d remember its location. Sorry]. But then HI ... Hawaii abuts nothing. I guess it's often paired with AK as one of two map insets, the two non-contiguous U.S. states, but even if we decided to count that "union," we've still got the NM/OR squares, and those states are nowhere near each other. No, thematically, this one's kind of ungainly. But again, it yields some great longer answers, so it's not a total loss. 

And yet once more the puzzle is far too easy. Not as insultingly easy as yesterday's remedial Saturday, but very, very easy. The only potential trouble spots that I can see involve (shockingly!) proper nouns of dubious fame. I watch Apple TV more than probably any other streaming service (check out Pluribus, which just started last week—it's Vince Gilligan's new show starring Rhea Seehorn of Better Call Saul fame, and it's fantastic). But despite all the time I spend on that service (seriously, I just watched the latest Morning Show episode earlier this (Saturday) evening), I have never ever heard of The KAMAL Smith Show (24D: "The ___ Smith Show" (Apple TV offering)). Never seen a promo or seen it on the menu that I can remember. Where do they hide it? So bizarre. Also bizarre, in the sense of obscure: TSOTSI (!?) crossing ON OUR OWN (!?!) (109A: 1990s ABC sitcom about kids growing up without their parents). Of those two, I'm much more disturbed by not knowing ON OUR OWN; I thought I knew my '90s TV pretty damned well, but apparently not. Oh ... it ran for one (1) season. OK, I feel much (much) less bad now. As for TSOTSI, I thought Fugard only wrote plays ... which is apparently mostly true, as TSOTSI is his only novel. The wikipedia entry for it is sparse, practically a stub, so I have no idea how important a novel it was. The movie won an Oscar for Best International Feature Film, so that's obviously something, but still, how many foreign film winners can you name? I watch a lot of movies and I'd be hard pressed to name a lot of them. Actually, I'm looking at the list now and I can name a lot of them. Most of them. Many are stone-cold classics. But the early '00s, yipes. Those are not familiar to me. No Man's Land (2001)? Nowhere in Africa (2002)? The Barbarian Invasions (2003)? The Sea Inside (2004)? I know older titles (Rashomon, Nights of Cabiria, La Strada, 8 1/2, Black Orpheus) and very recent titles (Roma, Parasite, Drive My Car, The Zone of Interest) much better. TSOTSI just missed me entirely. This is the fourth NYTXW appearance for TSOTSI, but the first in over eight years.

One thing I'm grateful for today is that the puzzle didn't straight-up tell me where the rebus squares were—no circled squares, no indicators at all. I had to find them myself, which is as it should be. Maybe that's why the puzzle played so easy—because the idea is that people will be struggling to find / handle those rebus squares, and so the puzzle should dial down difficulty elsewhere, in the non-theme stuff. Maybe. But somehow this puzzle still ended up solidly in Easy territory. The fact that there was a rebus at all (discovering which is usually the biggest obstacle to solving a rebus puzzle in the first place) did not take long to uncover. Not at all. The Taxi Driver quote is so familiar, so obvious, that you're gonna be left wondering why it won't fit—why you have some correct letters from the crosses, and still it won't fit. So that's one early obvious indicator. Having the FA- in FAN VOTE was another. I knew it was FAN something, but that "N" went where the "U" definitely went in "YOU TALKIN' TO ME," and bam, right there, that's when I knew something was up. Once I figured out that square, I knew to be on the alert for more; and I knew that the rebus squares would contain state codes, which added another level of ease—if an obviously correct theme answer wouldn't fit (say, FEW AND FAR BETWEEN), I just had to scan its letters, find the state code (in this case, "WA") and that was that.

Bullets:

• 31A: What distinguishes "bet" from "vet" in Hebrew (DOT) — I have no idea what this means. I don't see any DOTs. Hang on ... looks like "bet" and "vet" are characters in the Hebrew alphabet, and they look identical except that "bet" has a dot (a diacritical mark called a "dagesh"):

• 97A: Any activities on them need to be wound up (CASSETTE TAPES) — this clue is so awkward it probably should have a "?"; I think it's trying to confuse you by bending the meaning of "wound up," but the wording is so totally inapt for what CASSETTE TAPES actually do and are that I think the "?" is called for. You would never use the words "wound up" in reference to CASSETTE TAPES. Nor would you say they contain "activities." BLECH all around.
• 90D: State that spans two time zones: Abbr. (TEX.) — my wife last night: "you shouldn't have any other states in your grid if state codes are your theme." This didn't really bother me, but from a strict spit-and-polish perspective, I concur—the only state abbrs. this puzzle should have are the ones in those rebus squares.

• 122A: Like someone who experiences little to no amorous and sexual attraction, for short (ARO-ACE)—I've seen both of these three-letter answers clued as sexual orientation/identities before, but I have not seen them paired together in the puzzle (as they sometimes are irl). Inventive answer (and a debut).
• 73D: Bunches and bunches (ATON) — second time this week that we've gotten ATON *and* ALOT in the same (damn) grid. The large size of this grid means that this particular crosswordese doppelgangery is less egregious than Wednesday's, but still, not ideal.
• 63A: Very lite (NO-CAL) — What the hell is NO-CAL besides, say, water? Do we really call things "NO-CAL?" I'm seeing it associated with soda, primarily, so ... I guess someone somewhere's using the term. Did you know that NO-CAL was the name of the first diet soda? 1952! "It was initially marketed to diabetics in a number of flavors, the most popular being black cherry" (wikipedia). I thought NOCAL was also shorthand for "Northern California" (a counterpart to SOCAL), but I'm being told that the shortening in this case is NORCAL, which looks superdumb written out. It looks a little better with camel caps, I guess: "NorCal." Still, it's awkward; NORCAL looks like it should rhyme with Sporcle or, uh, pork'll. "Some pork'll never cook up right / But then again some pork'll..."

The American Values Club Crossword (AVCX), my favorite crossword subscription, is in the middle of its Fall mini subscription drive. If you wanna know what puzzles I enjoy beyond the NYTXW, this one's at the top of the list. They operate independently from any big media outlet and thus rely entirely on subscriptions to fund their enterprise, which is considerable—puzzles released nearly every day (six days a week!) including several crossword puzzles of varying sizes and difficulty levels, a trivia puzzle, and (god bless them!) a regular cryptic crossword. In terms of both quality and value, you cannot beat it. If you're not a subscriber, you should rectify this ASAP. The puzzlemaking staff is absolutely top-tier (you'll recognize a lot of names from NYTXW bylines). There are different subscription tiers, including a very inexpensive "Scholarship" tier intended for students and other lower-income people (this tier is subsidized by higher-tier subscribers). They're even offering a free trial subscription if, even after all my impassioned advocacy, you're somehow not sure. Consider becoming a Sustaining Member today (or a Benefactor or Angel, if it's within your means). You won't regret it.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. I have been made aware of a new(ish) Wordle-style word game called Phoodle, and I am enjoying it. There's both an iOS and an Android app. You can also play in your web browser (here). According to Phoodle's founder, Julie Loria:

Phoodle is a daily puzzle for food lovers. Inspired by Wordle but with a food-themed twist, it uses culinary terms from ingredients and kitchen tools to recipe language, food news, and lingo.

The extra fun comes after you solve the puzzle. Each puzzle reveals a “Phoodle Fact,” a quirky or educational tidbit on food, often paired with recipes, products, cookbooks, and more.

Launched in May 2022, Phoodle has grown into a global community of players who share a passion for puzzles and food. You can dig in at phoodle.net or on the app for iOS and Android.

Today's puzzle is hard as heck, but I definitely learned something! If you enjoy Wordle, and your interests lean culinary, try this fun little game.

[Reminder: I don't do paid promotions—I just like highlighting puzzle-related stuff I think my readers will enjoy, particularly stuff I enjoy myself] 

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