Boat with broad, square ends / THU 6-26-25 / Accessory for Broadway's Phantom / Atmospheric prefix / Brillo competitor / Baby fish with pink, coho and sockeye varieties / First Holy Roman emperor to be called "the Great" / Bygone jeans brand whose name means "happiness" in Hebrew / Bell for the telephone, for one / Eponymous Belgian town / Cocktail of tequila, lime juice and grapefruit soda / Potato, in Indian cuisine

Constructor: Simeon Seigel

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: ___ OR ___ — theme answers are familiar phrases where the first word follows the pattern _OR_; you must read the "OR" as a separate word in order to understand the pair of words in the theme clues:

Theme answers:

• HORN BLOWER (19A: Hurricane / Nor'easter) (word starting with "H" or "N" that means "blower")
• SORE SPOTS (10D: Sees / Espies) (word starting with "S" or "E" that means "spots")
• PORT AUTHORITY (Pundit / Tsar) (word starting with "P" or "T" that means "authority")
• CORD CUTTER (52A: Cleaver / Dagger) (word starting with "C" or "D" that means "cutter")
• WORM HOLES (33D: Wells / Mouths) (word starting with "W" or "M" that means "holes")

Word of the Day: OTS (34D: Certain rehab docs) —

Occupational therapists (OTs) are health care professionals specializing in occupational therapy and occupational science. OTs and occupational therapy assistants (OTAs) use scientific bases and a holistic perspective to promote a person's ability to fulfill their daily routines and roles. OTs have training in the physical, psychological, and social aspects of human functioning deriving from an education grounded in anatomical and physiological concepts, and psychological perspectives. They enable individuals across the lifespan by optimizing their abilities to perform activities that are meaningful to them ("occupations"). Human occupations include activities of daily living, work/vocation, play, education, leisure, rest and sleep, and social participation. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well that was hard, until I figured out the theme, and then it wasn't. And though the puzzle got easier after I got the theme, the fill did not, unfortunately, get better. This was full of wincing and ughing on my end, for sure. SAMLET? (7D: Baby fish with pink, coho and sockeye varieties). LOL, what in the world? The last time that word appeared in the NYXTX was, no joke, the literal day before I started this blog in 2006. If it's a word that's distinct from SALMON, why isn't "salmon" in the clue? Not that that would've helped ... except that it would've eliminated SALMON (also six letters) as a potential answer. SAMLET!? "Hmmm, what should I name my all-fish production of Shakespeare?" "Hmm. How 'bout Mackerelbeth?" "No, that's no good." "As You Pike It?" "Nah ... what else you got?" "Uh ... Tuna Gentlemen of Verona?" "No, that's silly! Keep thinking!" End scene. SAMLET? Craziness. Another thing I've never seen—OTS clued as "docs" (34D: Certain rehab docs). I had to look it up even to understand what the letters stood for. OTS has appeared many many times over the years, but only ever as an abbr. for "overtimes" (i.e. the periods in sports following regulation time, played only if there's a tie). No idea that BEANO was anything but an anti-gas product (1D: Original name for "bingo," after the bits used to cover the playing cards). No idea that SASSON was Hebrew for anything (7A: Bygone jeans brand whose name means "happiness" in Hebrew). I could've inferred what a PATENTEE is, but man that is one ugly word (and one I've never encountered before) (16A: Bell for the telephone, for one). The crosswordese was rampant today, from OTTOI (whose memory lives on solely because of crosswords), AER, AROAR, the dreaded ERIEPA (which I always want to pronounce as one word (air-ee-APE-ah!) but which is really just ERIE, PA). Then there's the awful, cutesy slang for the disease that killed over a million Americans between 2020 and 2023. Nevermind that I haven't heard anyone actually call it "'RONA" in years (53D: Covid-19, colloquially). Yuck and BOO to that clue.

[HORNBLOWER]

So there wasn't much that was amusing me in this one today. Everything is riding on the gimmick, and while I did have an "aha" moment, for sure, I can't say there was much joy, or awe, or pleasure, or anything that accompanied the "aha." I was just glad that I could (finally) see what was going on with the answers. Me: "well, those both blow, but ... what does 'horn' have to do with it?" I think I finally figured it out with "S" OR "E" SPOTS. "Sees" and "Espies" both mean "SPOTS" but ... how are they "sore?" How? How? Somehow, my brain managed to crack "SORE" into three parts: "S" OR "E." And that was that. My brain had a lot less success trying to parse OWEITTO (32D: Must give). It's an awful clue. Where is the "IT" coming from??? For that matter, where is the "TO" coming from? [Must give] = OWE. Good luck swapping out "OWE IT TO" for "Must give" in a sentence (without calling in lawyers and lexicographers, i.e. without seeming desperate). 

[Watson / Mabuse?]

I think you're supposed to admire how many theme answers there are, and how several of them actually intersect (not the easiest thing to pull off, structurally). I recognize the architectural achievement, sure, but it did nothing to increase my solving enjoyment levels, which remained pretty low throughout. There just wasn't enough cool fill, or enough wit or cleverness, to make this consistently entertaining. The main theme idea is cute, but it's not what you'd call funny. It's a little word trick that's tough to figure out, but once you do ... shrug. In the end, it was gimmicky without being delightful. Plus you had to endure awkward Latinness with DATUM and STERNA. There's no joy in that.

Bullets:

• 59A: They try to admit the worst first, informally (E.R. NURSES) — do the nurses do the admitting? Whatever, I'm going to assume that's true and say that I like this clue. The real meaning of "admit" is disguised nicely.
• 65A: Choice words ... which are necessary to interpret the answers to 19-, 36- and 52-Across and 10- and 33-Down) (ORS) — I'm only just noticing this (awkwardly worded and completely unnecessary) revealer now. "Which are necessary to interpret" does not begin to get at what is going on here. Something about the "ORS" being buried or hidden or something like that would've made more sense. If you're going to bother with a revealer, at least get the phrasing right.  
• 63A: Marquis name? (DE SADE) — sadism and COVID in the same corner, what a day!
• 13D: Music export from Tokyo, informally (J-POP) — short for "Japanese Pop Music," not to be confused with K-POP, Korean Pop Music (of which BTS is an example) (20D: Music export from Seoul)
• 38D: Love lines? (ODE) — "Lines" of poetry about something you "love." Poetry dressed up as palmistry. Nice.
• 39D: Dutch cousin of Mac or Ben (VAN) — as in, say, Martin VAN Buren (our mutton-choppiest president). I thought "VAN" meant "from," whereas "Mac" meant "son of?" But I guess using "cousin" in the clue gives you a lot of leeway in terms of how close the equivalency really is. I wrote in VON at first, but that's German, not Dutch.

[VAN!]

• 60D: Car that went defunct in 1936 (REO) — not to be confused with the GEO, which "went defunct" in 1997.

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Opera with a baritone Iago / WED 6-25-2025 / Rite place at the rite time? / 2008 romantic drama starring Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow

Constructor: Ben Zimmer and Zach Sherwin

Relative difficulty: Hard (21:46)

THEME: CENTRAL AC — Eight answers in the grid (four across, four down) have their central two letters, AC, in their own box

Theme answers:

• [Historic agreement of 1215] for MAGNA CARTA
• [Expansive parcels] for TRACTS
• ["Dream a Little Dream of Me" singer of 1968, familiarly] for MAMA CASS
• [Healthful snack brand] for TERRA CHIPS
• [Onomatopoetic breakfast trio] for SNAP CRACKLE POP
• [Source of prophecy] for ORACLE
• [907, for a high one] for AREA CODE
• [Popular stocking stuffer?] for SANTA CLAUS

Word of the Day: TETRA (Flashy fish) —

The Characidae and their allies are distinguished from other fish by the presence of a small adipose fin between the dorsal and caudal fins. Many of these, such as the neon tetra (Paracheirodon innesi), are brightly colored and easy to keep in captivity. Consequently, they are extremely popular for home aquaria. [wiki]

• • •

Good morning everyone, and welcome to another Malaika MWednesday!! (Although I am writing this at nighttime on Tuesday-- it's been a fantastic night in Brooklyn.) Zach Sherwin! He is a comedian / songwriter who does a show called "The Crossword Show" which I was lucky enough to contribute to back in 2023. I don't think I've ever solved one of his crosswords, but he has solved many of mine! So it's fun to have the tables a little bit turned.

Incredibly apt puzzle today, as NYC is getting obliterated by a heatwave. I have a very high tolerance for heat (+ live in a very dense, cool, pre-war building with high ceilings and a courtyard) and have resisted installing my AC unit for soooo long... but today (or rather, Tuesday) was the day that I cracked. 105 degrees is simply too hot to tough it out!! (So maybe the puzzle wasn't quite apt for me personally, as I have had CENTRAL AC for exactly two years out of the past twelve.)

Very interesting to see a rebus puzzle on a Wednesday! I think on Wednesdays, the rebus squares should have circles. But I also think that generally every puzzle should be slightly easier than how it was published, so maybe ignore me. This played hard for me in terms of cluing though! I finished three-quarters of this puzzle in about ten minutes, and then used over ten minutes just aimlessly guessing in the top-left corner. Those two stacked long answers (MAGNA CARTA and ALBATROSS) both had trivia clues that just didn't click for me, plus Bobbsey Twins trivia (NAN), space trivia (PLASMA), and referring to a TAMALE as a treat which just felt weird. It's a food item! Would I call a sandwich a treat, or an empanada a treat?

The theme itself was executed well. It's interesting to see how an idea for a theme can get implemented in different ways-- I think that this could have very well been a Monday puzzle with four long across answers that had AC at their center and no rebus at all. Adding the rebus made it a Wednesday level. I wish there had been a bit more of a rationale for why they were squished together in a box (I was expecting a revealer like "AC unit"), but I guess we wouldn't have gotten the down answers if the AC's weren't rebusified. 

Stay cool everyone!!!

Bullets:

• [Flanged girder] for IBEAM— I read this clue over and over again and thought "those can not possibly be words. Are those words." Well, let me tell you, they are words!! "Flanged" means that it has a ridge on the end, and a "girder" is a piece of a framework.
• [Miscellaneous collection] for RAGBAG — Really??? Not "ragtag"???? What on earth!! 
• [Bit of gear for Vermeer] for PALETTE — Was so stuck here thinking that the entry would be something super-specific to Vermeer and my hours spent rereading the YA book Chasing Vermeer would finally pay off but alas no
• ["Quickest way to Harlem," in song] for A TRAIN — This is the best train in NYC, in my opinion (so fast!! Manhattan Brooklyn Queens!! Beach!! JFK!!!!) but this entry took a bit to click because I associate the A with Washington Heights
• [Rite place at the rite time?] for ALTAR — Very good clue

xoxo Malaika

P.S. One of my crosswords was published today! It's small and themeless and you can solve it here.

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Sing like Ella Fitzgerald / TUES 6-24-25 / Ouzo flavoring / Regular at the Met, maybe / "Yadda, yadda, yadda"

Hi, everyone! It’s Clare for the last Tuesday in June. Hope everyone is staying cool in the middle of this crazy heat wave — D.C. is currently horribly hot and humid. I’m writing this after attending an outdoor concert where the temperature was 90-plus degrees (the concert was amazing but ended a few songs early because of the extreme heat), and I’m now enjoying the AC in my apartment… In more important news, this month, the rest of the BTS members returned from their military service, so get ready to hear a lot more about them in future write-ups:) 

Anywho, onto the puzzle…

Constructor: Ingrid Steffensen

Relative difficulty: Medium (if you're not solving the crossword at a concert)

THEME: PARAS (54D: Law firm aides, informally … or a hint to 17-, 26-. 48- and 62-Across) — Each theme answer is a “pair o’” something and when combined with “para” forms another word

Theme answers:

• DOCKS DOCKS (17A: A couple of places to secure boats ... or a logical contradiction?) [Paradox]
• DICE DICE (26A: A couple of sets of game cubes ... or heaven?) [Paradise] 
• LIES LIES (48A: A couple of fibs ... or incapacitate?) [Paralyze] 
• FRAYS FRAYS (62A: A couple of melees ... or put into new, simpler words without changing the meaning?) [Paraphrase]

Word of the Day: “SMELLS Like Teen Spirit” (43A: Nirvana's "___ Like Teen Spirit") —

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana. It is the opening track and lead single from the band's second album, Nevermind (1991), released on DGC Records. Having sold over 13 million units worldwide, it is one of the best-selling songs of all time. The success propelled Nevermind to the top of several albums charts and is often marked as the point when grunge entered the mainstream. It was Nirvana's biggest hit, charting high on music industry charts around the world in 1991 and 1992, and was number one on the charts in Belgium, France, New Zealand and Spain. (Wiki)

• • •

The theme was quite inventive. It took me a while to understand, but once I did, I really appreciated it. Though, the theme answers looked quite strange on their own, without reference to the revealer (DOCKSDOCKS, LIESLIES, etc.). The repetition really helped with the solve after you got the first couple, but the theme itself did skew a bit later in the week for me. I enjoyed the multiple layers to each clue and answer and how it all came together. But — and this is a huge one — I will go to the ends of the Earth to shout from the rooftop that PARAS (54D) is not a short form for “paralegals.” I don’t care what Google or Wikipedia or anyone else may say (though I think they mostly agree with me anyway). It’s just not a common way to refer to that profession. I work in the legal field and work with a lot of paralegals, and I’ve never once heard someone be called a PARA (54D), let alone heard that word around the office. Sorry, that soured me some, apparently! 

Otherwise, the puzzle felt like a pretty standard Tuesday solve. There were some fun words in there — SCOFF (43D: React to a ridiculous suggestion, maybe), BUNGLE (19A: Muff), DRAM (67A: 1/8 fluid ounce), and SCRUM (23D: Rugby pile), to name a few. If you say each of those words out loud, they just have a certain panache (another favorite word) to them. APOGEE (4D: Pinnacle) is also a good word. And then the answer YEA (63D: Word said in passing?) was clever.

Overall, the fill was fine but nothing much to write home about. The long answers outside the theme were okay. OPERA FAN (56A: Regular at the Met, maybe), I can see. SEATBELT (21A: Thing to be clicked in a "Click It or Ticket" campaign) wasn’t horrible. MINISTERS (35D: Preachers) was meh. NANNY CAMS (3D: Surveillance systems installed by parents) was probably my favorite of the long answers other than the themes, though they’re rather creepy (unless you put one in your room when you go to a concert to keep an eye on your puppy to see if you need to ask your roommate to look in on her). 

22A: 1917, 1984, 2001 and others with YEARS seems really basic. Having RPMS (61D: Tachometers measure them, in brief) plural is redundant, as the R stands for “revolutions.” And I don’t have any idea if it’s proper, but DEWS (37D: Morning condensations) as a plural also looks weird, and I’m not sure I’ve seen it written like that before. I struggled a bit with ASSAI (41D: Very, in music) and GELID (33D: Very cold), particularly with them so close together in the puzzle.

Misc.:

• With PACER (10D: Indiana basketballer), all I feel is sadness for the team and Tyrese Haliburton and his stupid Achilles tendon. Poor guy. (For those of you who didn’t watch the NBA Finals — he led his team to the seventh game of the Finals, and into the lead, despite a serious calf injury, then tore a tendon.) Having that answer in the puzzle next to ANKLE (11D: Body part that may be twisted), clued as something that can be twisted, felt ominous. 
• My puppy has an ID TAG (15D: Canine collar attachment) that, on one side, says “Red” and has my phone number. On the other side, it says “Oh f*** I’m lost. Call my mama.” 
• MANO a MANO (16A: (how two foes confront each other) is an interesting one to me because many people seem to think mano a mano means man to man, but it means hand to hand. 
• LEO (6D: Actor DiCaprio, in the tabloids) doesn’t make me think of Leonardo DiCaprio but rather my cousin’s son who’s only five and is trilingual. (My cousin is American, her husband is Italian, and they live in Spain, so little Leo speaks three languages quite well). I feel inadequate. 
• Right now, instead of APRIL (51D: T.S. Eliot's (and the I.R.S.'s) "cruellest month"), June is feeling like the cruelest month because of this heat! 

And that’s all from me. Here’s to cooler weather (HAR) and a great month of July!

Signed, Clare Carroll (I’m signing off now, so I guess that makes me a PARAGON) 

P.S. I really did solve the puzzle at the concert—

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Encrypted messaging software / MON 6-23-25 / Org. to which to report a phone scam / Fuzzy green stuff on some trees / Texas city in the book and film "Friday Night Lights" / Popular vitamin brand or its recommended dosage / Groups of spin doctors, informally / Yorkie-___ (dog hybrid) / Nursery item with slatted sides

Constructor: Zhouqin Burnikel

Relative difficulty: Medium (solved Downs-only) (failed, though—one wrong square)

THEME: "Shut up!" — all theme clues are synonyms for "Shut up!" and follow the pattern "[Verb] it!"; the answer is something you literally [whatever the verb is]:

Theme answers:

• DILL PICKLE (15A: Can it!) (you might can a DILL PICKLE)
• SLEEPING BAG (33A: Zip it!) (you might zip a SLEEPING BAG) 
• BEDROOM DOOR (40A: Shut it!) (you might shut a BEDROOM DOOR)
• DRESS SHIRT (60A: Button it!)  (you might button a DRESS SHIRT)

Word of the Day:  FTC (4D: Org. to which to report a phone scam) —

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. It shares jurisdiction over federal civil antitrust law enforcement with the Department of Justice Antitrust Division. The agency is headquartered in the Federal Trade Commission Building in Washington, DC. (wikipedia)

• • •

Hello from the coast of Lake Ontario. It's lovely here.

I don't have my usual blogging set-up here; specifically, I don't have a printer. It feels terribly awkward for me to write about the puzzle if I haven't printed it out and marked it up by hand, if only because I have to toggle between windows to see the damned puzzle at all. I'm sure that for some digital natives, such toggling feels like second nature, but I need the print-out. I need to annotate with a pen. So this no-print-out thing sucks. But I'll survive. As for this puzzle, the theme seems fine. You see this type of clue in the puzzle all the time (e.g. [Beat it!] for BONGO, say, or EGG). And today you get a whole theme's worth, with the unifying factor being that all the theme clues have the same idiomatic meaning (i.e. they all mean, essentially, "shut up!"). Solving Downs-only, I never saw the theme clues, so the theme answers seemed random. No way to see the connection among the answers. Obviously, not a fault of the puzzle's. Anyway, theme seems fine. Fill also seems fine. No real complaints. Loved OPEN MRI. Didn't love SENATE BILL (just a bit on the dull side). Not sure how I feel about "I HAD A BLAST." I think I come down in favor of it. Seems like a complete, self-contained, free-standing phrase. Overall, the grid is pretty choppy, with lots of short answers, so you have to suffer through a lot of KOLA KAMA ASANA APIA SNO ODESSA BENET ANDS AOL SATON INAPP and other unprettiness. But the grid's more solid than not. 

I failed in my Downs-only efforts. I thought the org. you complained to about phone scams was the FCC. Federal Communications Commissions. The phone is a means of communication, I reasoned (poorly). The real answer was FTC (Federal Trade Commission—see Word of the Day, above). FCC gave me SCRAP in the Across, which, as you know, is a perfectly legitimate-looking answer. So ... that's it. Sucks to fail on a cruddy initialism, but these are the risks you take. 

Bullet points:

• 13D: Encrypted messaging software (SIGNAL) — I would never know this software exists were it not for the utter incompetence of the Secretary of Defense et al. around the bombing of Yemen earlier this year, which, of course, everyone forgot about almost immediately because every day brings some fresh incompetence that would've been career-ending in any prior administration. Remember when Clinton fired Joycelyn Elders as Surgeon General because she said that masturbation should be mentioned as part of a safer sex school curriculum? "Elders' comments on masturbation caused great controversy and resulted in Elders losing the support of the White House." Black woman speaks frankly and realistically (and responsibly) about sex, gets fired. But completely unqualified white guy breaks law by going outside established communication protocol, endangers US soldiers' lives in the process, and then lies about it ... everyone acts concerned for a day or so and then .... nothing. What a world.
• 31D: See 30-Across (RADIO) — Kinda hard to "See 30-Across" when you aren't reading Across clues. Had to just wing this one. Had ROGE- at 30-Across and thought maybe ROGET at first but then ROGER made RADIO look plausible, and since there was a clear thematic connection there, I just went with it.
• 33A: Zip it! (SLEEPING BAG)  — obviously I didn't see this clue (solving Downs-only), so when I got to SLEEPING --G, I went with what seemed like the obvious answer (to me): SLEEPING DOG. As in, let SLEEPING DOGs lie. No idea how my brain bypassed the much more reasonable SLEEPING BAG. But then I also wrote in LEAK at 57D: Faucet annoyance when I'd already written it in as the correct answer for 54D: Air mattress problem. I blame vacation brain. Up late last night at concert, busy all day today with travel / seeing best friends / drinking / eating / ice cream / jigsaw puzzling / drinking ... probably not the best conditions for peak puzzle-solving. Good thing I've got substitute blog writers for most of the rest of the week. I think I'm back on Thursday. See you then (Clare's on at her normal last-Tuesday-of-the-month time, tomorrow).

Stay cool, everyone.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Family elder in El Salvador / SUN 6-22-25 / Spread the word? / Febreze competitor / Rocker Ric / Dinosaur "from our imagination" / Jack on a nonfat diet / South Pole trailblazer Amundsen / Young pigs / Community at the end of the line

Constructor: Ruth Bloomfield Margolin and Hannah Margolin

Relative difficulty: Medium



THEME: Bringing a Plus One — Theme answers are wedding-related things with one letter added, clued wackily

Theme answers:

• S(H)AVE THE DATE (23A Make a partner's beard presentable for all the photos?)
• CASH BAR(D) (25A Poet hired to write the couple's vows in flowery verse?)
• WEDDING D(U)RESS (34A Cause of many headaches while planning the big day?)
• G(R)IFT REGISTRY (54A Tool for a couple who intend to return everything and keep the money?)
  
• F(E)ATHER OF THE BRIDE (68A Fancy headpiece garment?)
• SOMETHING (B)OLD (86A Colorful sequined jacket that the groom chose to wear?)
• PAR(I)TY PLANNER (101A One ensuring that each family can invite the same number of guests?)
• BE(A)ST MAN (115A Animal's escort down the aisle?)
• MOTHER IN LAW(N) (117A Parent who foolishly wore stiletto heels to a garden event?)

Word of the Day: HADRON (1A: [Large ___ Collider (facility in Geneva, Switzerland)]) —

In particle physics, a hadron is a composite subatomic particle made of two or more quarks held together by the strong nuclear force. Pronounced /ˈhædrɒn/ ^ⓘ, the name is derived from Ancient Greek ἁδρός (hadrós) 'stout, thick'. They are analogous to molecules, which are held together by the electric force. Most of the mass of ordinary matter comes from two hadrons: the proton and the neutron, while most of the mass of the protons and neutrons is in turn due to the binding energy of their constituent quarks, due to the strong force.

• • •

Um ... hello, again. It's Rafa here blogging the Sunday puzzle. I somehow blogged the wrong puzzle last night. I'm just a silly goose like that, I guess. But hopefully it was fun to have two different write-ups? And see how the solving experience can be very alike or very different. But today you are stuck with just me. No agreeing or dissenting opinions! Just little old me on my little computer telling all of you about this puzzle.

This puzzle was ... a puzzle, for sure. We have some wedding-related puns where we add a letter to the answer. But overall the puns felt a bit forced to me. It's certainly neat that there are enough wedding-related phrases to pull this theme off, but I was hoping for some additional twist, or for the added letters to spell some meta answer that tied everything nicely. But as it was I was mostly just ... *shrug*. When I say forced, I mean things like BEAST MAN. Like, this doesn't really feel like even a semi-realistic situation at a wedding? Whereas a MOTHER-IN-LAWN felt funnier and more realistic to me. Pun puzzles in general are very hit-or-miss based on your specific type of humor, but this one didn't totally tickle my sense of whimsy.

It's a SAGO palm

I had also never heard of SOMETHING OLD, which apparently is a rhyme for what a bride should wear to bring good luck. I think I'm excused because my wedding (though currently very far from being a thing) will not feature a bride. (Eligible gentlemen in their mid-20s to mid-30s in the Bay Area -- please inquire within if you are interested in changing this situation!) ... alright, now I've shot my shot, so let's get back into the puzzle. I don't think I have much more to say about the theme. They are puns. They are about weddings. Some people might find them funny. Oh, I didn't mention the title -- "Bringing a Plus One". It's a good title, but it doesn't quite give the puzzle enough of a raison d'être IMO. Also, why is the title for Sunday puzzles so buried in the app? (You have to click the "i" icon to see it.)

Oh, also, WEDDING DURESS. Does "duress" mean "headaches"? The dictionaries I consulted define duress as "threats, violence, constraints, or other action brought to bear on someone to do something against their will or better judgment" or "forcible restraint or restriction" ... both of which are obviously *very* bad vibes when it comes to a wedding. So, that whole entry just felt ... off. Ok, I'll stop complaining about this theme. Let's go complain about something else! (Remember when I said I had nothing left to say about the theme?)

Some MELTED cheese in fondue

The fill had its ups and downs. Some icky partials in A ROW and O WOE, and things like ORANG (nobody has ever said this) and MNO (don't feel like I need to explain why this is bad) and ONER (nobody has ever said this). I've probably already mentioned this here but I became an EELER convert after reading an article in the New Yorker last year about EELERs in Maine. So, don't come for EELER. But also some great stuff here! I enjoyed: ANGOLA, COCONUT, ABUELA, LEGALESE, ALL-SEASON, KAHLUA (a "mudslide" is a cocktail), TAX FORM, I SURE DO, SASHAY. Funny how sometimes entries that might seem "boring" like the one-word COCONUT can be evocative during a solve. Speaking of things I've read, Patrick Radden Keefe's "Rogues" has a great article about WINE FRAUD that I read a few months ago. Last year I would maybe have complained that WINE FRAUD was "not a thing" but I have been enlightened in time!

This is just my cat. She is perfect. Please say hi to her.

Alright, I think that's all from me. Hope you all stay safe and happy and healthy and all the other good things. Until next time!

Bullets:

• 10D: RATED E [Like the Mario Kart games] — the new game in the franchise (Mario Kart World) just came out on the Switch 2. I haven't had a chance to play yet, but hoping to get to it eventually.
• 4D: REVEAL [Gender ___ (prebirth event)] — this cluing angle is ... a choice
• 69D: HURON [The "H" in HOMES] — You always love to see non-Erie Great Lake representation!
• 55D: TAX FORM [1099, e.g.] — I miss the days when I knew nothing about TAX FORMs. The number 1099 was just a number like any other. (Apropos of nothing, 1099 is not prime. Its prime factors are 7 and 157, which feels ... cursed somehow?!)

Signed, Rafa

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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Crib for a doll / SAT 6-21-25 / "Ritorna vincitor" singer / Port WSW of Algiers / Name in the baking aisle / Old-fashioned club / Gram alternative / Black-and-yellow demarcation / Berkshire institution / Rita of the "Fifty Shades" movies / Donned quickly / QB Dawson who faced Bart Starr / First name of the "Princess of Pop"

Constructor: Christina Iverson and Doug Peterson

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Two-Lane Blacktop (27D: Vehicles seen in the films "Dazed and Confused" and "Two-Lane Blacktop" = GTOS) —

["Warren Oates is GTO"]

Two-Lane Blacktop is a 1971 American road film directed and edited by Monte Hellman, from a screenplay by Rudy Wurlitzer and Will Corry. It stars musicians James Taylor and Dennis Wilson, Warren Oates, and Laurie Bird in the leading roles. The sparse, existentialist plot follows a group of street racers during a cross-country race through the American Southwest.

Universal Pictures commissioned the film in the wake of Easy Rider's monumental success. Hellman, who had previously worked in low-budget and independent films, developed the screenplay with Wurlitzer, then-known mainly as an underground writer, during an actual cross-country road trip. Filming took place in locations around the Southwest between August and October 1970.

On initial release, the film received generally positive reviews, but was not a commercial success. Over the years, it developed the reputation of a sleeper hit and a cult classic, and has been reevaluated as a major work of the New Hollywood movement. In 2012, the US Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." (wikipedia)

• • •

Despite the avalanche of trivia (eight (8!) names, and that's excluding brands, institutions, geography, etc.), I really enjoyed this one, for a few reasons. First, it was hard enough. That is, it was punching at a Saturday level. It took a good lot of fussing around before I got anything like a grip on this puzzle, which is how it should be. And which brings me to my second reason for liking the puzzle—the exact moment that I got a grip. Nothing quite so thrilling (crosswordly speaking) as finally breaking through on a tough puzzle, and when that breakthrough comes in the form of shooting, sparkling answers like BARBIE DREAM HOUSE followed immediately by SIBLING RIVALRY, well, that feels like fireworks. Magic. Seriously, it was like my grid erupted in light and color. 

Third, I liked the grid's weird, skinny shape (14x16 rather than the traditional 15x15). And then fourth, and more personally, I just liked how Of-My-Generation this puzzle was. It felt like being a kid ... or someone under 30, anyway. That is, it felt RAD. Two of my favorite movies in the same clue! (one made in the '70s, the other set in the '70s) (27D: Vehicles seen in the films "Dazed and Confused" and "Two-Lane Blacktop"). Sports legends I learned about as a kid (PISTOL PETE Maravich, LEN Dawson). Young JODIE Foster! The "Muppet Show"! The puzzle was speaking my language. Not always (LOL Frozen and Fifty Shades—still never seen either). But mostly.

So many false starts today. SUET (!?) before GHEE (23A: Kitchen alternative to tallow). DIVA before AIDA (10D: "Ritorna vincitor" singer); EKG before ORG (37D: ___ chart); "BAH!" before "GAH!" (44A: "Ugh!"); "CAN WE!?" before "CAN'T I!?" (47D: "C'mon, please?"). I almost went with RICE before ROTI, but sensed that that was probably wrong (too easy) (19D: Side order with curry). As usual, the toughest part of the puzzle was getting started. Seemed like Germany was probably good at lots of Olympic sports, so BOBSLED took some time. Parsing "I HAVE TO," yeesh, tough for me (14A: Words before ask, admit or go). I see "Berkshire," I think Massachusetts, so even though I kinda sorta wanted ETON at 6D: Berkshire institution, I didn't trust it ("Berkshire" is a "ceremonial county" in England; the Berkshires are mountains in New England). And DONG ... I must've learned this currency before, but I keep forgetting it, possibly because my brain has already slotted DONG in a different meaning category. At least a couple different categories, actually, but one ("1.") in particular. 

But after the BARBIE DREAM HOUSE / SIBLING RIVALRY explosion, the puzzle got a lot easier—though not so easy that it got boring. STOPPED ON A DIME was also a highlight, as was some of the mid-range fill (THREW ON, BOBSLED, AIR KISS, RANG OUT). And I only had to dip into my Bag Of Old Crosswordese once (for ORAN—the thing about the Bag is that it's full of ugly things that are also very helpful things) (50D: Port WSW of Algiers). Actually, SNERD is probably in the Bag as well, but I knew SNERD before I ever started doing crosswords, so I don't think of him that way (12D: Mortimer who once made a guest appearance on "The Muppet Show"). No one area of the grid really stood out as too tough or too rough, which means that the puzzle played toughish but also smoothish. 

Bullets:

• 29A: Black-and-yellow demarcation (POLICE TAPE) — another good long answer. Kinda grim, but solid.
• 34A: Foster kid in "Taxi Driver"? (JODIE) — this was a gimme, despite the attempted misdirection. Needed a more obscure young-JF vehicle. Maybe Freaky Friday, or better yet, Bugsy Malone.

• 3D: Crib for a doll (BARBIE DREAM HOUSE) — "Crib" here is just slang for "residence," which you probably knew, but just in case ... 
• 12D: Mortimer who once made a guest appearance on "The Muppet Show" (SNERD) — also just in case ... just in case it's not clear, Mortimer SNERD is a ventriloquist's dummy of mid-century renown.

• 33D: Name in the baking aisle (KARO) — I think this is ... what ... like a sweetener of some kind. A corn syrup, I think ... yup, that's it. I sometimes get it confused with KNORR, which is a brand of bouillon:

• 51D: Gram alternative (NANA) — nickname for "grandmother"; I almost wrote in NANO here (thinking "Gram" was a bygone MP3 player, maybe?)

If the puzzle had too many proper nouns for you, here are some more proper nouns you're sure to love: I'm going to see WAXAHATCHEE tonight, with M.J. LENDERMAN and (a recent and, to me, thrilling addition) HURRAY FOR THE RIFF RAFF tonight at an orchard (!) in central NY. This is my Christmas gift from my wife. Then tomorrow we're off for our annual Great Lakes vacation with my best friends. I'll blog a couple of times over the next week, but it'll mostly be my tried-and-true guest writers for a while (starting tomorrow, w/ Rafa). See you (...checks calendar...) oh, Monday. That's not so long. Until then, or whenever next time is ...

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Oh no, due to miscommunication, Rafa did *today's* write-up. So now there are two write-ups of this puzzle LOL. So scroll down to enjoy Rafa's work (Or click here if you’re on your phone). And then also look for him tomorrow.  

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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• Midwest Crossword Tournament (Chicago) (Sat., Oct. 4, 2025)

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📘 My other blog 📘:

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

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First name of the "Princess of Pop" / SAT 6-21-25 / Old-fashioned club / Kitchen alternative to tallow / Donned quickly / Performs a perfect dismount, e.g. / Like "Animal Farm" and "Don Quixote" / Average booster / Literature Nobelist who wrote "Dodsworth" and "Kingsblood Royal"

Constructor: Christina Iverson and Doug Peterson

Relative difficulty: Hard

THEME: None

Word of the Day: BOBSLED (1A: Olympics event in which Germany is the traditional powerhouse) —

Bobsleigh or bobsled is a winter sport in which teams of 2 to 4 athletes make timed speed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (formerly the FIBT).

• • •

Hello crossword people! It's Rafa here subbing for Rex. Happy to be back on your screens, and I hope you've all been doing great since I was last here. I've been doing OK, and can't wait for summer to finally start. (Summer in San Francisco starts in late August, and goes through early October. June and July and mostly cold and sad and windy. Boo!)

More excitingly, tomorrow is Westwords -- the West Coast crossword tournament! I cannot wait to hang out with crossword friends new and old, and solve some great puzzles. If you're there, say hi! I'll probably have a sticker that says "Rafa" on my shirt. If you won't be there, pencil it in your schedules for next year! (Remember when I said June is cold and sad and windy? That only applies to San Francisco. Westwords is in Berkeley, which is only 10 miles away but it is beautiful and warm and sunny in June. This is very important to know!)

Anyways, let's talk about this puzzle now. I don't know if it's because it's kind of late at night and my brain is somewhat mush, but this played quite hard for me! One of the slowest Saturday solves in recent memory. There was just resistance everywhere I tried to go, and very few answers came easy. As a seasoned solver, it's somewhat rare that a puzzle feels this hard, and it was fun to crack it slowly. I'm curious to know if this also played hard for others -- let me know!

Trains and buses in San Francisco are called MUNI

The first thing I noticed about this grid was that it had an unusual shape. Non-Sunday crosswords are typically 15x15, but this one is 14x16. This makes it easier to include entries of length 16 (impossible in a 15x15 grid) and 14 (annoying to build around in a 15x15 grid), which are more likely to be new to solvers. BARBIE DREAM HOUSE and SIBLING RIVALRY were my favorites here. RAILROAD STATIONS feels a bit more neutral but has a lovely clue in [Training facilities?] (facilities where you get on trains, aka train-ing). STOPPED ON A DIME is a totally legit idiom but didn't feel super zingy to me.

Netflix is headquartered in LOS Gatos, in the Bay Area

Overall, the clue-answer pair in PRIVATE JET and [Flight of fancy?] felt like the pièce de résistance. I said "ooh, that's good" out loud when I figured it out. There lots else to love in the non-spanner fill -- things like LET IT GO, HEART SMART, AIR KISS, THREW ON, etc. I had never heard of PISTOL PETE, but I also have never heard of most sports things, so alas I am unable to comment on whether it is good crossword fill!

There's an iconic hike at Stanford to walk up to this dish, which I guess is an ANTENNA

Hmm, what else? [It has its peaks and valleys] didn't totally land for me for GRAPH. Maybe I'm missing something but I don't think of high and low points on a graph as "peaks" and "valleys" ... it felt like a misdirect that was trying too hard. ORAN was the only piece of fill that felt off. I tend to be a very geography-forward crossword constructor, but ORAN and ADEN have always felt a bit a bit too ... obscure? ... to me. "Obscure" isn't really the right word here, actually. ORAN is a city of >1M people. But there are >100 cities with >1M people in China, and >65 in India. I'm not sure what makes a city "worthy" of inclusion in a crossword by an American publication, genuinely. I personally have never heard of ORAN in the news or in any other context outside of a crossword puzzle. Though of course (see: "I also have never heard of most sports things"), this is not a good metric for worthiness of crossword inclusion. Maybe I need to read more about Algeria? Anyways, this became a whole tangent. I'm just trying to convey that everything has Nuance™. But we can move on now!

Actually, this is pretty much all I wanted to say. A fun Saturday offering today that put up a good challenge for me!

Bullets:

• 51D NANA [Gram alternative] -- This is "gram" as in a nickname for a grandma.
• 34A JODIE [Foster kid in "Taxi Driver"?] -- This is a ? clue because "Foster" is the actress JODIE'S last name, and she was a kid in the movie Taxi Driver. (Yes I had to look this up. Real fans of Rafa's blog subs will recall that I famously know nothing about movies or actors.)
• 10D AIDA ["Ritorna vincitor" singer] / 12D SNERD [Mortimer who once made a guest appearance on "The Muppet Show"] -- big "old time" crossword vibes in this little corner with these answers
• 14A I HAVE TO [Words before ask, admit, or go] -- I can't decide if I like that this was essentially clued as a three-word partial instead of as a standalone phrase

Signed, Rafa

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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❤️ Support this blog ❤️: 

• Paypal 
• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

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✏️ Upcoming Crossword Tournaments ✏️

• Westwords (Berkeley) (Sun., Jun. 22, 2025)
• Boswords (Boston) (Sun. July 27, 2025)
• Lollapuzzoola 18 (NYC) (Sat., Aug. 9, 2025) 
• Midwest Crossword Tournament (Chicago) (Sat., Oct. 4, 2025)

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

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...