Rapper with the 2022 hit "Big Energy" / SAT 12-13-25 / Board of creatives? / Orangutan, by another name / Connect to the internet via mobile hotspot, as a device / Harbor bobber / Pitch, roll and ___ (rotations along the three-dimensional axes) / Actress Birch of "Hocus Pocus"

Constructor: Gene Louise De Vera

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: ONE OF EVERYTHING (48A: Gluttonous request ... or what this puzzle has vis-à-vis the possible answer lengths?) — there is at least one answer of every possible length, 3 to 15 letters, in this puzzle:

Word of the Day: LATTO (41D: Rapper with the 2022 hit "Big Energy") —

Alyssa Michelle Stephens (born December 22, 1998), known professionally as Latto (formerly known as Mulatto), is an American rapper and singer from Atlanta. She first appeared on Jermaine Dupri's reality television series The Rap Game in 2016, where she was known as Miss Mulatto and won the show's first season, but rejected its award of a recording contract with Dupri's So So Def Recordings. [...] After a name change to Latto, she reached wider mainstream recognition after the release of her 2021 single, "Big Energy." The song peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, received triple platinum certification by the RIAA, and landed at number seven on the Year-End Hot 100 chart; its live performance was nominated for Best Melodic Rap Performance, while Latto herself was nominated for Best New Artist at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards. [...] In May 2021, she confirmed in various interviews that she had officially settled on a new stage name after scrutiny for the racially charged nature of her name. On May 18, it was reported that on streaming platforms, Mulatto's name had been changed to simply Latto, a change first reflected on her guest appearance on Toosii's album Thank You for Believing, where she was credited as Latto. She released a new single titled "The Biggest" along with the announcement of her new name.^[26] On September 24 of the same year, Latto released the lead single from her then-upcoming second studio album, "Big Energy". The song became Latto's highest charting song on the Billboard Hot 100 peaking at number three. American singer Mariah Carey appeared on the official remix, which was released in March 2022.

• • •

Not a fan of themed puzzles on Fri or Sat, but as themes go, this isn't much of one. There's basically one theme answer (the "revealer"). Otherwise, the "theme" doesn't affect grid content at all, only answer length. I like the phrase "ONE OF EVERYTHING!" on its own, but the fact that there are all possible answer lengths in the grid ... shrug. Is this hard to do? Is it a first? Do I care? The answer to that last one is, definitely no. I NOT DO care. I also NOT DO care for NOT DO and some of the other, smaller bits of fill in this thing. ARD, for instance. Oof. ARD. Just look at it. Keep looking. You can't do it, can you? You turn away instinctively from the horror. The horror of ARD. ARD-horror. "NO I don't! I NOT DO that!" Yes, you do. Don't lie. Luckily, the marquee fill (i.e. all the stuff around the perimeter) is good. Good to very good. I especially like the BAD BREATH emanating from CURRIED CRAB, which itself is lying on a bed of FOOD ADDITIVES. Basically a CURRIED CRAB sandwich with terrible bread (terrible irl, not terrible as crossword answers). Can't say I'm a fan of CORPORATE GREED (in any context), but GET THE MEMO and FASHION ICONS keep that side of the grid strong. On the other side of the grid, one big issue: the way the clue is written (11D: "Remember ..."), with the ellipsis implying more to come, strongly implies that the answer is going to be BEAR THIS IN MIND, the "THIS" being the thing you are about to say (after you say "Remember ..."). I had PALETTE in there and tore it out because BEAR THIS IN MIND seemed so right. But then I got nowhere. And then realized that "THIS" could be "THAT." And that was THAT. But THAT was not something I was happy about. So it's a mixed bag today, but I sort of liked the non-theme theme—why not give your themeless a little zip, a little sassiness, a little unexpected glitter. As long as it doesn't go Full Theme on me, I think it's fine. I guess you could quibble with ONE OF EVERYTHING, in that there's technically more than one of most answer lengths, but there's no need to be hyper-literal about it.

Only one real mystery today, and that was LATTO, a name I saw the first time ... just now. Kinda surprised that I've never seen it (or don't remember seeing it) and also that it's never been in the crossword before. It's probably been in some crossword, but not the NYTXW. That is a name that wants to be in crosswords. Whether you want it to be in crosswords is another question entirely. Her fame seems legit but fairly recent and semi-marginal. Not exactly CARDI B or NICKI MINAJ or LIZZO levels of cultural penetration (though she did open for LIZZO at one point, wikipedia tells me, so she's LIZZO-adjacent. If you don't know who LIZZO is, this news won't be helpful or reassuring). The fact that her name is a shortening of "mulatto" ... is probably what allows it to appear in the NYTXW. Doubt MULATTO (for obvious reasons) has ever been an answer. [Whoa, I am wrong about that—four appearances, including once under Shortz in 2014; before that, it had been 41 years! And before that, another 29 years—back to 1944, when MULATTO was clued as [Half-breed] (!!!!!?!)]. I can't say that I thought LATTO was NEATO (never feels great to have a series of letters you've never seen before and have to take it on faith that it's right), but as long as it doesn't wreck my solve, I do like learning about parts of the cultural landscape I'm completely ignorant of. 

If nothing else, I will remember this puzzle for its POCO DONGS. POCO DONGS is giving me life. It answers the question: "Will there be a lot of DONGS?" As in the following imagined scenario: "Will there be a lot of DONGS at this party?" "Qué?" "Mucho DONGS? Will there be mucho DONGS?" "No. POCO. POCO DONGS, señor." I don't know in what context you'd ask such a question, or why you're asking the question to a native Spanish speaker. But that's the beauty of POCO DONGS—its shimmering ambiguity. Its thusness. Its jenesaisquoi. All I know is I've never been happier to change an answer than when I changed DINGS to DONGS. Because of POCO. POCO gave me DONGS. POCO DONGS. Q.E.D. A rap name. A band name. The universe.

Bullets:

• 29A: Connect to the internet via mobile hotspot, as a device (TETHER) — forgot this was a thing. Had the -ET and kept wanting GET-something, like GET ONLINE or GET WIFI or GET LTE or god knows what.
• 1D: Harbor bobber (BUOY) — an absolute gimme at 1D, one that immediately got me GARY (14A: City SE of Chicago), and set me up nicely to get BAD BREATH (1A: Possible turnoff on a first date).
• 5D: Orangutan, by another name (RED APE) — but does he smell as sweet? I don't "like" RED APE but I like imagining Letter Man swooping in and taking the "T" from RED TAPE, thus transforming the RED TAPE into a RED APE.  

• 9D: Order at a restaurant (HAVE) — as in "I'll HAVE the CURRIED CRAB." This one was tough for me. I was looking for a specific order (HAKE? Is that a food fish, HAKE?) or else a command ("HIKE!" "HALT!" "HERE! Over HERE! Garçon! "L'addition, s'il vous plait.")
• 17D: School viewing? (SNORKELING) — speaking of HAKE (?), I wanted this clue to have something to do with fish ("School" + "?" pretty much screams "fish!"), and I was right, but it didn't help me much initially. Needed many crosses.
• 28D: Pot user? (EELER) — thought we'd be moving away from fish by now, but apparently not. EELER made me laugh because it reminds me of [Hagfish lookalikes] from yesterday. The puzzle simply cannot lay off the eels and the eel pots and the eeling. EELER is a word you'll see only in crosswords. Did you know an EELER is also called a "sniggler." If you solved crosswords in prehistoric times, as I did, then you definitely knew that. [Sniggler] and [Conger catcher] have always been the most common clues for EELER. And I knew EELERs used pots because guess what—EEL POT has been an answer on multiple occasions. Not recently, probably, but back in the day for sure. Hmm, actually there was a 16-year cessation in EEL POT appearances between 1990 and 2006 (the EEL POT Gap, they call it*). But now it's back to being about as common as it ever was, i.e. uncommon, but, you know, a once-every-few-years type of answer (last EELPOT sighting = 2020).
• 50D: Pitch, roll and ___ (rotations along the three-dimensional axes) (YAW) — this is what you do if you catch on fire at sea. All the little pirate children learn to pitch, roll & YAW! It's basic nautical safety.

Time for more 🌲🐈Holiday Pet Pics🐕🌲. (Please note: I cannot accept any more pet pics this year. I adore them, but I've got more than enough for this year, for sure)

First up is Max on his holiday blanket in front of the fire. Max is always cold. I want to zip MAX up into my winter coat and carry him around all winter.

[Thanks, Edward!]

Here we see Flora miraculously surviving her encounter with a Yeti (a Yeti named Popcorn—which is a children's book title if ever there was one):

[Thanks, Kathryn!]

Coco's just happy she didn't get cropped out of this photo. Don't mind Coco. She'll just lie flat so she doesn't block the tree. She just wants to be a small part of the photo shoot. She won't be much trouble.

[Thanks, Kristi]

Next is Mel (short for "Caramel"), seen here plotting his path of destruction through the Christmas tree landscape. No ornaments will survive. Mel's owner Randy says: "He was a "foster fail," meaning that we were just supposed to foster him for the Humane Society for a few weeks until he was old enough to be neutered and then put up for adoption.  But we couldn't let him go.  His favorite holiday activity is stomping through the Christmas village like Godzilla in Tokyo." Happy stomping, Mel!

[Thanks, Randy!]

And we'll close today with a couple of cat duos. First there's Basko and Ping Pong, who are freaked out by and probably eventually going to murder this freaky little animatronic Santa (you have my blessing, kitties):

[Thanks, Andrew!]

And finally there's Streak & Freckles, a feline folk duo (I assume, with that name) who are also gift-wrapping enthusiasts. Skilled artisans. Very few cats are able to wrap a present from inside the wrapping paper, but these cats know what they're doing.

[Thanks, Carole!]

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*they do not call it that

[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)