Fizzled out completely / TUES 12-30-25 / Fun word to shout into a canyon / Oblong tomato type / "Absolument!" / Climactic fight in a video game

Hi, everyone, it’s Clare for the last Tuesday of December — and the last Tuesday of 2025! Hope that everyone has had a happy holiday season and that everyone has a great start to their new year. I’ve been lounging around and baking a lot, watching sports a lot, working (a little), and reading as much as I can. Goodreads gave me a year-end review, and I’ve apparently read (or listened to) 127 books this year — so I guess I know what I’ve been doing in my free time! The books have certainly helped take my mind off the fact that my sports teams have been a bit dismal lately. Even if my Steelers squeak into the playoffs, they’d probably lose in the first game (again). 

Anywho, on to the puzzle…

Constructors: Geoffrey Schorkopf and Will Eisenberg

Relative difficulty: Medium (for a Tuesday)

THEME: BUY A VOWEL (60A: Spend money on "Wheel of Fortune" ... which won't help much for solving 17-, 21-, 36-, 41- and 53-Across!) — The circled letter in each theme answer is the only vowel present… and they appear in sequential order

Theme answers:

• LGBTQ FLAG (17A: Something to wave with pride?) 
• WENT PFFT (21A: Fizzled out completely) 
• BMX TRICKS (36A: Flashy cycling maneuvers) 
• NBC SPORTS (41A: "Sunday Night Football" producer) 
• PR STUNTS (53A: They're pulled to garner media attention, informally)

Word of the Day: RODIN (39A: "The Thinker" sculptor) —

François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 1840 – 17 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, and deeply pocketed surface in clay. He is known for such sculptures as The Thinker, Monument to Balzac, The Kiss, The Burghers of Calais, and The Gates of Hell… The Thinker is a bronze sculpture depicting a nude male figure of heroic size, seated on a large rock, leaning forward, his right elbow placed upon his left thigh, with the back of his right hand supporting his chin in a posture evocative of deep thought and contemplation. This universally recognized expression of "deep thought" has made the sculpture one of the most widely known artworks in the world. (Wiki)

• • •

And now… I’d like to solve the puzzle. 

This was a nicely executed theme with a cute revealer. I liked being able to look back at the puzzle and see the progression of the vowels, and I can appreciate the effort that went into finding so many theme answers that only had one vowel. That said, answers with only one vowel can look pretty strange. WENT PFFT (21A) is a seriously ugly answer. BMX TRICKS (36A) looks odd, too. And the other theme answers didn’t inspire me much. I also initially wondered why they chose not to make it the LGBTQIA flag (17A), then realized that would’ve had too many vowels. 

There was some nice longer fill. I liked AUSPICIOUS (9D: Like good omens) and SQUALL (13D: Sudden, powerful gust of wind). The clue for SEA BED (44A: Wet floor?) was really clever (once I finally got it). I found DROOL (33A: [That looks delicious …]) for some reason to be a fun clue/answer combo. And the world needs more GLITTER (8D: Hard-to-clean-up sparkly stuff). I got BOSS BATTLE (27D: Climactic fight in a video game) because I listened to the audiobook for “Dungeon Crawler Carl,” whose narrator does amazing voices and which made me laugh, so that was a fun callback. 

I didn’t know EDWIN (50D: Scientist Hubble with a telescope named after him) but was able to get the “w” from VOWEL (60A) and figured the rest out from there. I hadn’t heard the expression “And SO TO bed” (4D), so that looked very strange to me. ISOLA (19A: Sardinia, e.g., to Sardinians) made me pause. “Isle” and “isla” are common enough, but I didn’t know the Italian word for “island.” And I’ve never heard of the KARA Sea (46D: arm of the Arctic Ocean) before. I looked it up, and if my sources are accurate, KARA has only appeared in the Will Shortz era of the puzzles 12 times, including today. Only three of those appearances clued it as the KARA Sea — once in a Friday, once in a Sunday, and now once in a Tuesday puzzle. All that to say, I needed the crosses to get the word (which luckily weren’t too hard). 

Some of the rest of the fill was a letdown. Like having 40A and 45A both as "That’s not good!" — as OH NO and YIKES, respectively. As Rex says, if you have bad fill, don’t draw attention to it by doing things like doubling up on clues. And, as I’ve often said, I hate clues that are so ambiguous they could have a bunch of answers. XES IN (37D: Marks, as a ballot square) also looked particularly bad (though I understand the need for the X there). And the clue for SMILE (62A: Upside-down frown) really had me frowning.

Misc.:

• One of the gifts I got for Christmas from my parents was PJS (53D: Nightwear, informally) — or, rather, a PJ top. My mom didn’t realize the pieces were sold separately, so I will get the bottoms later. 
• I was talking with my dad and sister about the puzzle, and ELIDE (64A: Skip over, in speech) produced a funny family moment. While we were all sitting on the couch,, my sister said the word correctly, and my dad insisted she was wrong — e-LEED, he said. She told him he was often wrong about pronunciation, so he pulled up the internet to prove her wrong, and… she was right. 
• In the spirit of a year-end review, here are my top five books of the year, if you’re curious (in no particular order except the first one) — “The Everlasting” by Alix E. Harrow, “The Raven Scholar” by Antonia Hodgson, “Malice” by Keigo Higashino, “Hungerstone” by Kat Dunn, and “Blood Over Bright Haven” by M. L. Wang. Maybe you could find something to enjoy in there in 2026! 
• And finally, shoutout to Cooper’s owner, whom I met at a dog park in D.C. and who recognized Red from the crossword and asked me, “Is your name by chance ‘Clare’?” Cooper is a very cute doggo! And because I can’t end the year without another picture of my puppy, here’s Red at the beach on Christmas Eve.

I look forward to seeing you all in the new year!

Signed, Clr Crrll (who didn’t have enough money to buy a vowel)

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