Watered-down espresso, essentially / FRI 4-18-25 / 1960s-'80s singer/TV host Marilyn / Home of the first hippopotamus in Europe since the Roman Empire / Trend that involves pink accessories and decor / Three-part event, informally / Its flag includes a coconut tree and a sailboard / Social movement introduced in 2006 / Who "can't buy you love" in an Elton John hit / Some Elomi products / Trashy TV character?

Constructor: Greg Snitkin and Glenn Davis

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Naomi KLEIN (10D: Naomi ___, author of 2007's "The Shock Doctrine") —

Naomi Klein (born May 8, 1970) is a Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker known for her political analyses; support of ecofeminism, organized labour, and criticism of corporate globalization, fascism and capitalism. In 2021, Klein took up the UBC Professorship in Climate Justice, joining the University of British Columbia's Department of Geography. She has been the co-director of the newly launched Centre for Climate Justice since 2021.

Klein first became known internationally for her alter-globalization book No Logo (1999). The Take (2004), a documentary film about Argentine workers' self-managed factories, written by her and directed by her husband Avi Lewis, further increased her profile. The Shock Doctrine (2007), a critical analysis of the history of neoliberal economics, solidified her standing as a prominent activist on the international stage and was adapted into a six-minute companion film by Alfonso and Jonás Cuarón, as well as a feature-length documentary by Michael Winterbottom. Klein's This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate (2014) was a New York Times nonfiction bestseller and the winner of the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction. (wikipedia)

• • •

Like yesterday's puzzle, this was way too easy. Also like yesterday's puzzle, this was very enjoyable (while it lasted). Also also like yesterday's puzzle, there are very few weak or ugly spots in the grid. Gunky parts are few, so you can keep your attention on the pleasing parts of the puzzle, which are many. The one knock I had against this puzzle was BARBIECORE, which already feels dated—but the bigger issue is that it's *not* a debut, and BARBIECORE ... that's one of those answers that once someone uses it, you probably don't want to touch it again for another decade, if ever (17A: Trend that involves pink accessories and decor). It's too ostentatious to be a repeater. Great the first time you see it, but immediately a thousand times less great the next time, especially if that next time is significantly after the concept stopped really resonating through the culture. BARBIECORE had a good year there. 2023-24, that was really it's moment. Last year, when it first appeared, felt just fine. The answer was brand new, and the Oscars for 2023 movies (which happened in March 2024, and for which Barbie got a bunch of nominations) were not that far in the rearview. But we've moved on. As a culture. (OK this may be wishful thinking on my part—apparently there is some godawful A.I. thing that can turn a picture of you into a Barbie-like figure, complete with box. I'm not linking to this, because it is cursed, and I don't really think it counts as BARBIECORE, anyway). It's possible that this puzzle got accepted a long time ago and the editors were just slow to get it out (a common complaint among constructors). This is why the NYT should figure out a way to turn puzzles around more quickly. It's not the brand that's the problem today. BARBIE per se, great, other BARBIE-related answers, sure, go nuts, but BARBIECORE is so of-a-moment, so time-specific, that today it made me mentally shout "seen it!" It's not the marquee answer it thinks it is. 

[Marilyn MCCOO! #1 the day I was born]

However ... this puzzle is loaded with other marquee answers, such that I forgot about BARBIECORE very quickly. "DIAL IT BACK!," yes! Great opener. "DIAL IT BACK!" is possibly something you've said to me before, possibly while reading the previous paragraph. It's a nice, polite alternative to "omg would you shut the f*** up." Perfectly in-the-language and colloquial and zingy. See also PLAY IT COOL and "SURE, WHY NOT?" Bullseye, bullseye. I love a good AMERICANO, so when I read the clue (13D: Watered-down espresso, essentially), I laughed out loud, like "fair, fair." You can see why coffee shops went with AMERICANO. "Can I get a large watered-down espresso, please?" Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, or prime your palate. But the description is not INAPT. And the hits kept coming: ROCK BOTTOM, FIGHTS DIRTY, DOUBLE OR NOTHING, LONDON ZOO (32D: Home of the first hippopotamus in Europe since the Roman Empire). How many puzzles have Roman hippos!? Very few, I'd venture to guess.

I can count on one hand the answers that gave me any trouble at all today, and they are all five letters or fewer. Totally blanked on the Elton John song, despite knowing and liking the Elton John song (which is how I feel about most Elton John songs). The only thing I could think of that "can't buy me love" was MONEY, but it wouldn't fit. Wrong word, wrong song, wrong number of letters. "MAMA Can't Buy You Love" (1979) was not one of John's major hits (#9 would be major for anyone else—not for John). Still, mad at myself for forgetting. I hate WRAPS (why would you ruin delicious sandwich ingredients by wrapping them in a clammy flavorless conveyance that you have to eat in order to get at the delicious sandwich ingredients?! Why would you waste so many calories on so little joy?!) (47D: Deli purchases). When I think of "delis," I think of real sandwiches. So WRAPS was a no-go, and I don't wear bras, and though there are BRAS in my house (53A: Some Elomi products), I don't think any of them are Elomi, so that was also a no-go (if Elomi is so well known, how in the world has it never been a NYTXW answer!?!? It's perfectly designed for grid stardom). Anyway, when two no-gos (WRAPS/BRAS) cross each other at a tiny puzzle passageway ... grinding halt. But the puzzle was so easy today that I just leaped over the WRAPS/BRAS problem, plunked down OSCAR at 48D: Trashy TV character?, and kept going. I had some trouble coming up with "AGAIN?" (very ambiguously clued) (50D: Reply of shocked annoyance). And I did not know they put TALC in chewing gum (28A: Common additive in chewing gum). But that's it for solving trouble. Had a couple of odd missteps along the way (ZINC for DISC at 30A: Throat lozenge, often; TIBET (!?) for TIGER at 55A: Its stripes represent wisdom in Buddhism). But otherwise, this was an easy ride. Not once did I cry "NO FAIR!"

More:

• 22A: Three-part event, informally (TRI) — as in a TRIathlon.
• 37A: Its flag includes a coconut tree and a sailboard (GUAM) — had the "M" and almost wrote in SIAM here. Almost.

• 64A: It's OK (SO-SO) — gratuitous "It's" in the clue. Not a fan. 
• 2D: Not quite right (INAPT) — not a fan of this either. The "quite" implies that it's close to right, but INAPT is just "wrong"—nothing about it suggests degree of wrongness. 
• 51D: Social movement introduced in 2006 (#METOO) — got this easily enough, but assumed the clue had a typo. Surely it was 2016, not 2006 ... but then I looked it up and sure enough, it was 2006. But it was 2006 on MySpace, so it didn't exactly go worldwide. Then in 2017, it became a hashtag (#metoo) in an era when social media was much more prevalent in the culture (and MySpace a forgotten relic), and at that point, the #METOO movement really took off.
• 24D: Make amends? (ALTER) — the question mark in the clue told me the clue was not meant to be taken literally, and yet, with the answer at five letters and starting with "A," I was powerless to resist writing in ATONE. "Why am I doing this when I know it's wrong!!!" I cried (silently).

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]

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Literally, "equal legs" / THU 4-17-25 / Horseshoe enthusiasts? / Toward that place, quaintly / Large cask for beer or wine / Pickle or asparagus unit / Small, embedded program / 2013 movie co-starring Scarlett Johansson in which she is never seen / Refurbish, as an old piano

Constructor: Ilan Kolkowitz and Shimon Kolkowitz

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: You can't see the FOREST for the TREES (64A: What you can't see due to the 38-Across in this puzzle? / 38A: See 64-Across) — images of trees appear in six black squares—those six squares hide letters necessary for the completion of six Across answers to which they are adjacent:

Theme answers:

• (F)LOTUS (25A: *Abigail Adams or Eleanor Roosevelt, informally)
• ELM(O) (29A: *Red denizen of Sesame Street)
• (R)ASH (39A: *Hasty)
• FIR(E) (45A: *"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a ___ to be kindled": Plutarch)
• (S)PEAR (47A: *Pickle or asparagus unit)
• APPLE(T) (52A: *Small, embedded program)

Also!!!: all the seemingly "wrong" theme answers (that is, the answers as they appear in the grid, minus the tree-letters) are, in fact, types of TREES: LOTUS, ELM, ASH, FIR, PEAR, APPLE] [!!!!!!] 

Word of the Day: SCHWEPPES (31D: Big name in soft drinks) —

Schweppes (/ʃwɛps/ SHWEPS, German: [ʃvɛps]) is a soft drink brand founded in the Republic of Geneva in 1783 by Johann Jacob Schweppe; it is now made, bottled, and distributed worldwide by multiple international conglomerates, depending on licensing and region, that manufacture and sell soft drinks. Schweppes was one of the earliest forms of a soft drink, originally being regular soda water created in 1783. Today, various drinks other than soda water bear the Schweppes brand name, including various types of lemonade and ginger ales.

The company has held the British royal warrant since 1836 and was the official sponsor of Prince Albert's Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, London in 1851.

• • •

Well I *could* see the FOREST for the TREES, pretty early, but that didn't keep me from enjoying this puzzle. The visual gimmick made the trick transparent (telling you exactly where the "hidden" letters were going to be); it also made the puzzle feel more Wednesday than Thursday in terms of difficulty. But the originality of the concept and the consistently entertaining and mostly clean grid kept the puzzle from being either boring or annoying. You really just need the first two tree letters (F, O) to see what's going on, and if you're working top down (as most of you do, right?), then they don't take long to appear today. I got ELM(O) first then (F)LOTUS, and that was that:

I ran into the TREES part of the revealer not long after:

[Note: extremely ironically, I never saw the fact that all the themers, as they are written in the grid, are actually trees themselves; that is, I couldn't see the trees for the forest!—this tree-name feature takes this puzzle from good to great, imo]

There is some visual wonkiness. Not that fond of the layout of FOREST and TREES—the placement of those words feels arbitrary (esp. TREES), and it's always nicer to have a full, snappy phrase than ... whatever this is (a phrase I have to complete in my mind). But this may be the best way to execute this concept, as the full phrase ("can't see the forest for the trees") is cumbersome, so the puzzle focuses on just the relevant parts (FOREST, TREES). Makes sense. I don't mind that the trees are not symmetrical. Forests are not symmetrical, after all. Looks good with the trees kind of grouped but scattered. There's no real logic to which answers the tree-letters go with—they only work in one direction. Why? Just 'cause. Primarily because the grid would've been way, Way harder to build if those tree-letters had to work for all adjacent answers, Across and Down. I admire the fact that the puzzle seemed to know its limits and stay inside them, making the overall solve pleasant, smooth, enjoyable. Try to do more with it, and you get into "look at me!" / stunt-puzzle territory—a puzzle that's architecturally impressive, but a drag to solve.

["But honeychild, I've got my doubts..."]

There were a few rough spots, and a few potential solving pitfalls. I'm not sure everyone is going to be familiar with ACTIN / TUN (5A: Cellular protein / 7D: Large cask for beer or wine). Those are both fairly specialized terms. I knew TUN, but not ACTIN, though ... ACTIN sounded right. Familiar. That may be due to the probably unrelated athlete's foot remedy, "Tough actin' Tinactin," but whatever gets you there gets you there! My daughter is home for a few weeks and solving the puzzles I print for her, and so, having seen the places she has found challenging, I'm thinking about what parts might give her (a reasonably intelligent casual solver in her mid-20s) trouble [note: yesterday, like a good many of you, she wiped out at HIRT/REOS; and like me, she had ANESUP (instead of ACES UP) for that damn solitaire game, only she couldn't see how to fix it]. I'm betting ACTIN/TUN is one of those places. The other one might be MNEME, lol, not the loveliest-looking Muse (at least not on the page—I'm sure in person she's a knockout) (37A: Muse of memory). You can infer at least the MNEM- part from the word "mnemonic," but that answer is still likely to be a toughie for many. But the crosses there are all fair. I have a hard time seeing anything else that is likely to give an experienced solver trouble. 

The fill today is bouncy and pretty. I'm realizing just now that I never even saw "USE THE FORCE!" (!!?). That's how easy the puzzle was—that entire long Down just got filled in via crosses. Oooh, I'm also noticing that the grid is asymmetrical. I could see that the trees were asymmetrical, but wow, the whole grid, cool. I like the symmetry restriction in crosswords, but if there's a thematic reason to break it, go ahead and break it! ISOSCELES is a cool-looking word (4D: Literally, "equal legs"), as is SCHWEPPES (9 letters but just one syllable!). I like that "USE THE FORCE" runs through EMPIRES (since the Empire, famously, strikes back in the second "Star Wars" movie) and I like that (F)LOTUS sits atop SPOUSES (yes, it's "ESPOUSES," but I'm still not technically wrong) (if you have trouble finding a husband or wife irl, do you settle for an E-SPOUSE? God I hope not, that sounds sad ... wait, was that the plot of HER? (22A: 2013 movie co-starring Scarlett Johansson in which she is never seen). I never saw it). The only unsightly part of the grid is EES SST, and those answers are tucked well out of the way in the far SE, so I didn't mind them much. 

[15A: Mars with bars]

Bullet points:

• 42A: What three is (CROWD) — not normally a fan of putting the article in the answer, but the answer here really Really wants to be "A CROWD." Three is A CROWD. I got it easily, but I might've made a little face.
• 46A: Eliot protagonist (MARNER) — so, George Eliot and Silas MARNER. My dad was a physician, and not much of a fiction reader, possibly because he was forced to read Silas MARNER in high school and haaaaaaated it (and to this day, despite having enjoyed other Eliot novels, I haven't touched Silas MARNER).
• 56A: Toward that place, quaintly (THITHER) — let it not be said that I can't handle some quaintness. I can handle precisely this much quaintness. THITHER weirdly made me smile. When you teach early modern literature, you build up a tolerance for certain quaintnesses.
• 9D: What a bad assistant might be (NO HELP) — not sure why I like this answer so much, but I do. Hard to make six-letter answers stand out in a good way, but this one did, for me.
• 34D: "___ the Doughnut," start of a children's book series ("ARNIE") — wow, what? I know Pete's a Pizza, but not ARNIE the Doughnut, to say nothing of the ... series? ... he's a part of. "Arnie the Doughnut was [Laurie] Keller's third book. Released in April of 2003 by Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, it is the story of an anthropomorphic chocolate frosted sprinkle doughnut named Arnie, who changes his fate after being purchased by Mr. Bing." (wikipedia).

• 36D: Horseshoe enthusiasts? (FARRIERS) — these are literal shoers of horses. Because of the "?" I really thought the answer was going to be ... whatever the word is for someone who studies (horseshoe) crabs.

• 46D: John ___, author of "Annals of the Former World" (MCPHEE) — an exquisite writer. Every time he has a piece in the New Yorker, I read it word for word. I keep meaning to read more of his books. But then I keep meaning to read lots of things, sigh.
• 45A: *"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a ___ to be kindled": Plutarch ("FIRE")  — forgot that this was a themer and thought the answer was actually "FIR" (like maybe you used the tree to start the fire?). Kinda cool that all the trees in the grid appear to be FIR trees (even though, again, FIR is not an actual answer in this puzzle)
• 42D: Like one who might have to hoof it (CARLESS) — I want to hate this answer, but then I wish much more of the world was CARLESS, so I have decided to like this answer (because "hoof it" is a phrase I associate exclusively with city walking, my first thought for this answer was CABLESS).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]

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Like some colors or Zoom users / WED 4-16-25 / Doing some breakfast shopping? / Delicacy in France and China / Neutrogena shampoo with a slash in its name / Sugary bulk breakfast purchase? / "You did a ___ job raisin me!" (punny Mother's Day card line) / Form of solitaire won when only the four highest cards remain / Old long-haul hwy. from Detroit to Seattle

Constructor: Kathy Bloomer

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging 

THEME: CEREALS AISLES (23D: Places to find items at the ends of 4-, 8- and 14-Down) — ordinary phrases turned into cereal puns:

Theme answers:

• ENDORSED CHEX (4D: Came out in favor of a certain breakfast product?)
• GETTING ONE'S KIX (14D: Doing some breakfast shopping?)
• WHOLE BAG OF TRIX (8D: Sugary bulk breakfast purchase?)

Word of the Day: "A Drop of Nelson's Blood" (60A: "Nelson's blood" = RUM) —

"A Drop of Nelson's Blood" is a sea shanty, also known as "Roll the old chariot along" (Roud No. 3632) The origins are unclear, but the title comes from the line: "A drop of Nelson's blood wouldn't do us any harm". Often described as a "walkaway" or "runaway chorus" or "stamp and go" sea shanty, the song features on the soundtrack of the 2019 film Fisherman's Friends. The chorus comes from the 19th century Salvation Army hymn, 'Roll the old chariot'.

Each line is sung three times and describes something that the singing sailors would miss while at sea for a long time. The last line is always "And we'll all hang on behind", although some versions say "we won't drag on behind". // Following his victory and death at the Battle of Trafalgar, Nelson's body was preserved in a cask of brandy or rum for transport back to England. Though when news of Nelson's death and return to British soil reached the general public, people either 1. argued rum would've been the better alternative or 2. wrongly assumed the body was preserved in rum to begin with. ‘Nelson's blood' became a nickname for rum, but it can also mean Nelson's spirit or bravery.

The shanty was sung to accompany certain work tasks aboard sailing ships, especially those that required a bright walking pace. Although Nelson is mentioned in the title, there is no evidence that the shanty dates from the time of Nelson, who died in 1805. (wikipedia)

• • •

This played so slow for me, for a Wednesday. It's possible I just didn't get enough sleep—it's always possible I just didn't get enough sleep—and some of it also might be a general wavelength mismatch. But I think some of it is that the concept, and particularly the editing, is just a bit ... off. So many things about the theme just don't quite work. I'll start with the revealer, which ... again, it's DEF possible that I'm missing something, but I don't see how the AISLES part of CEREAL AISLES connects to these answers. Specifically, what does it have to do with the fact they all end in "X." The "X" part feels like a really important feature of the theme, but how does AISLES get me there? How does AISLES get me anywhere? Is the fact that the answers are Downs related? But then ... why couldn't AISLES just as easily run Across? Not getting the connection between Down-ness and aisle-ness. AISLES ... isles? ... I'm stumped. There must be something here, something to make that revealer a real bullseye, but I just can't see it. If there's some element I'm missing, please let me know.

I was having so much trouble with the back ends of the themers that I jumped to the revealer just to see what was going on, and while I got CEREAL easily enough, I couldn't figure out the next part. I wanted AISLE, singular, since that is certainly where you'd find all these cereals (in one AISLE), so AISLES seemed slightly preposterous. And even after getting the CEREAL part, I still found the 2nd and 3rd themers hard, first because there is nothing KIX-specific about that GETTING ONE'S KIX clue—you could be buying annnnnything—and parsing ONE'S KIX was brutal. I was like "GETTING ON ...  in years? GETTING ... One-A-Day? No, that's a vitamin..." And then WHOLE BAG OF TRIX???? I think this answer is confusing "bag of tricks" with "whole ball of wax." I can't remember hearing "whole" before "bag of tricks" before. "Whole bag of tricks" just didn't resonate with me. And then "endorsed checks" ... let's just say there are snappier phrases (side note: before I understood the cereal-specific nature of the theme, I had ENDORSED EGGO here, lol). "Getting one's kicks" is by far the best base phrase. The others, I dunno. There's a weird glitch in the cluing too (this is an editing problem): why is "Sugary" in the Trix clue? The other clues mention absolutely nothing specific about the cereals in question—they're just "breakfast" products. But, randomly, "Sugary" just gets thrown in there in the Trix clue. This is a sloppy inconsistency. The clue should just be [Bulk breakfast purchase] or the other clues should have elements that describe the cereals' specific features (Chex's squareness? Kix's sphericalness? ... something!). This inconsistency didn't hamper my solving enjoyment, exactly, but the editor / test-solver in me found it irksome, for sure.

As for the fill, it's not great, but it's not awful either. My problems were small but frequent. Neutrogena makes a T/SAL shampoo, so T/GEL was a rough kealoa* for me (3D: Neutrogena shampoo with a slash in its name). Speaking of kealoas ... hey, look, the locus classicus! The namesake clue! Right here in the puzzle: 16A: Mauna ___ (KEA). Ironically, there was no confusion for me today: I got it easily because I didn't even look at the clue until I had -EA in the grid. Back to my difficulties ... [Gag costume] could've been annnnything, so I needed many crosses to parse APESUIT. Never heard of "Nelson's blood" (though glad now to know it—see Word of the Day, above). Got totally flummoxed by I AM / HANG (43D: Words of affirmation / 46A: Word before tight or time). Just ... dead-stopped. I had I DO / HOLD. "I DO" seemed like definite [Words of affirmation] and "Hold tight" and "hold time" both seemed like legit phrases to me—your "hold time" is the amount of time you spend on "hold" before a customer service rep gets to you, isn't it?—ha, yes, it is! Moving on ... that GRAPE clue, oof, no hope (40D: "You did a ___ job raisin me!" (punny Mother's Day card line)). I can't imagine why in the world you would get your mom such a card? Does the card have a ... grape on it? A raisin? Are you from Fresno, the raisin capital of the world? Well, I am from Fresno, the Raisin Capital of the World, and I didn't see the "raisin" / GRAPE pun. Crazy. (Also, apologies to Selma, CA, a much smaller neighbor of Fresno, which I think is actually, officially, the "Raisin Capital of the World" ... am I remembering that correctly? ... [looks it up] ... wow, it's true ... the things you retain from childhood ...)

Further notes:

• 1A: Like some colors or Zoom users (MUTED) — clever, but very tough clue to start on. Needed many crosses.
• 34A: Form of solitaire won when only the four highest cards remain (ACES UP) — no idea. None. Never heard of it. Another reason the puzzle just played slow to me. I ended up with ANESUP here because of 27D: Fella (MAC), which I had entered as MAN. 
• 62A: Files taxes in June, perhaps (IS LATE) — very bad fill (random "IS + adjective" phrases? You can do that?). The attempt to cover up the badness with timeliness (tax day was yesterday) was noble but ultimately doomed.

• 21A: General Mills brand (TOTAL) — I guess this is supposed to be a wink at the theme (??) but it feels less winky, more sloppy. You've got a cereal theme, so keep cereals out of the rest of the grid. Or, if you're going to wink, really wink. This seems pretty half-hearted, as winks go.
• 55D: Products with peak sales before Easter, say (DYES) — another attempt at timeliness (it's Easter Week, after all), but surely DYES is a woefully partial answer for this clue. It's EGG DYES. To have this answer just be DYES is ... weak. There are lots of DYES in the world, DYES whose sales are in now way tied to Easter.  Hair DYES, for instance. Also, why is "say" in this clue? Again, the editing logic eludes me here.
• 69A: Old long-haul hwy. from Detroit to Seattle (US TEN) — why is it "old?" Does it not exist any more? It got clued as "old" back in '09, but it's appeared six more times since then without the "old" ... and now we get the "old" again. Confusing. Looks like US TEN (which no one but no one writes that way, it's US 10) is "no longer a cross-country highway, and it never was a full coast-to-coast route. US 10 was one of the original long-haul highways, running from Detroit, Michigan, to Seattle, Washington, but then lost much of its length when new Interstate Highways were built on top of its right-of-way." The wikipedia entry itself wavers between "is" and "was" for this highway, so the full highway, from Det. to Sea., doesn't exist any more, but some part of it still does? Yes, that appears to be what's up—the current incarnation runs only from Bay City, MI, to Fargo, ND.

That’s all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

**kealoa = a pair of words (normally short, common answers) that can be clued identically and that share at least one letter in common (in the same position). These are answers you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] => ATON or ALOT, ["Git!"] => "SHOO" or "SCAT," etc.    

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Video game character in a green hat / TUE 4-15-25 / Performer at ozashiki parties / Container for keys, wallet, razor, etc., in a modern portmanteau / Ingredient in some trendy gummies, for short / The so-called "Goddess of Pop" / Cleaning product with a mythical name / Warhead weapon, in brief / Like the questions asked in Guess Who? / Online marketplace with a "barter" category / Ben & Jerry's flavor honoring a jam band legend

Constructor: Per Bykodorov

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR (35A: Not quite right ... or a hint to this puzzle's circled letters) — circled letters contain anagrams of "CIGAR" (but never "CIGAR")

Theme answers:

• TRAGICOMIC (16A: Like a film that's both sad and funny)
• CHERRY GARCIA (22A: Ben & Jerry's flavor honoring a jam band legend)
• MAGIC REALISM (46A: Genre for Gabriel Garcia Márquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude")
• CRAIGSLIST (56A: Online marketplace with a "barter" category)

Word of the Day: UTC (31D: World clock std.) —

Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communication, navigation, scientific research, and commerce.

UTC has been widely embraced by most countries and is the effective successor to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in everyday usage and common applications. In specialised domains such as scientific research, navigation, and timekeeping, other standards such as UT1 and International Atomic Time (TAI) are also used alongside UTC.

UTC is based on TAI (International Atomic Time, abbreviated TAI, from its French name "temps atomique international"), which is a weighted average of hundreds of atomic clocks worldwide. UTC is within about one second of mean solar time at 0° longitude, the currently used prime meridian, and is not adjusted for daylight saving time.

The coordination of time and frequency transmissions around the world began on 1 January 1960. UTC was first officially adopted as a standard in 1963 and "UTC" became the official abbreviation of Coordinated Universal Time in 1967. The current version of UTC is defined by the International Telecommunication Union. (wikipedia)

• • •

Really torn here. The theme, particularly the revealer, is very clever. It's a perfect grid-spanning 15 and it almost perfectly describes what's going on in those circled squares. I mean, if you typo'd "AGICR" for "CIGAR," no one would say that was "close," but for the purposes of this puzzle, it's close enough. It's a great revealer, and this anagram stuff seems like a nice, early-week thing to do with the revealer—a nice way of visually expressing the revealer. And thank god for that revealer, because it absolutely rescues what to that point had been, and what largely continued to be, an abysmal solving experience. The fill on this one was making me recoil at every turn. It felt so old-fashioned, so tin-eared, and at times just outright off-putting. No one wants to think about Bill BARR ever again, and that is a fact (37D: Former attorney general Bill). "Bill BARR? MUST I think about Bob BARR again?" Apparently I must. But he's just part of a bad-short-fill avalanche that starts in the NW and never really starts. SGTS LIRA ARI TEC (again, No One says "TEC") UTERI MENSA (ugh, again?), YESNO CRIT ICBM LING CEOS ALEPH ASEA CTRL. Worse, the puzzle debuts (debuts?!) a possible (god forbid) future bit of ugly three-letter crosswordese: UTC. I was like "oof, what is this 3-letter initialism and also why don't I know it? I must've seen it a bunch in crosswords, as it is ugly and three letters." But no. It's A Debut. So if you didn't know if (as I did not), don't feel too bad. Let's all collectively pray it goes away and never comes back. OK? Amen.

I think MURSE was the thing that nearly made me slam my computer shut (30D: Container for keys, wallet, razor, etc., in a modern portmanteau). First of all, no. And second of all, stop. And finally, third of all, no. No One Says This. People say "TEC" way more than they say "MURSE," that's how much they say "MURSE" (they don't). This is one of those portmanteaus that the puzzle keeps trying to convince you is a thing, only it's not. If it is (it's not), it's only a thing "jocularly." No one is going to utter that term without smirking. And LOL "razor"? Dudes just carrying their razor around in their MURSEs for some reason? "Modern portmanteau" on what planet? This is not the modern world. Also, why are you calling CBD gummies "trendy" (56D: Ingredient in some trendy gummies, for short). People who take CBD gummies are not (I presume) trying to look cool or otherwise get with the times. They are "modern," in the sense that they haven't been around that long, but "trendy" is weird. Feels off, and kind of patronizing / dismissive. 

Lastly, and most jarringly, the genre in question is called "magical realism." Wikipedia lists "MAGIC REALISM" as an alternative, but it also lists "marvelous realism" as an alternative, and who in the world has ever called it that, come on. As someone who has been Lit CRIT-adjacent his whole life (ugh, it hurts even to type "CRIT," I wish I could express to you how not-used "Lit CRIT" is as an expression...), the only term I've ever heard for the genre in question is "magical realism." But then you can't hide an almost-cigar in "magical realism," so here we are. In short, I loved the revealer on this one almost as much, maybe just as much, as I hated the fill. But hey, if you liked (or hated) MIRACLE-GRO, you can thank (or blame) me, as I debuted that answer in 2013. This is only its second appearance (10D: Big name in fertilizers).

More:

• 15A: ___ for sore eyes (www.optometrists.com?) (SITE) — this one made me laugh, almost literally. "That is not how you sp-! ... oh, good one." Coincidentally, I have an eye exam later today (thankfully, my eyes are not sore, I'm just overdue for a check-up)
• 3D: Cleaning product with a mythical name (AJAX) — it's a scouring powder ... also a Greek warrior from the Iliad, sometimes referred to as AJAX the Great. There's also an AJAX the Lesser, which ... sucks for that man, how'd you like to go through (after)life with "the Lesser" hanging around your neck? Somehow both AJAXes ("ajaces?") are in the Iliad. It's mildly confusing.
• 5D: Performer at ozashiki parties (GEISHA) — "ozashiki" would've been my Word of the Day if not for the heretofore unknown (to me) UTC. 

Ozashiki (お座敷)

A term for a geisha's engagements, which may take part or the whole of an evening. The term ozashiki combines the name for a banqueting room, zashiki (座敷), and the honorific prefix o- (お), changing the meaning to a term exclusively referring to the engagements a geisha takes. (wikipedia)

• 17D: The so-called "Goddess of Pop" (CHER) — love her, but never heard her called this. Heard Michael Jackson called the "King of Pop" (always an embarrassing moniker), but this "Goddess" stuff is news to me. Not disputing it. Just saying: news.
• 13A: Figure once marketed as "America's movable fighting man" (GI JOE) — and this is why you read the clues! I had the "-IJ--" in place and my very experienced solving brain went, "ah, easy: DIJON!" "A Real American Hero! Grey Poupon is there! Dijon Jooooe!!"

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Happy Tax Day. Hopefully yours have been done for a while now...  

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]

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Cocktail served in a copper mug / MON 4-14-25 / My Chemical Romance groupie, e.g. / Feared scuba diving affliction, with "the" / Elite group whose members include Steve Martin and Geena Davis / Three-line poem from Japan

Constructor: Stacy Cooper and Ken Cohen

Relative difficulty: Easy (solved Downs-only)

THEME: "WHAT'S CRACKING?" (51A: Slangy greeting ... or a hint to the starts of 20-, 25- and 45-Across) — theme answers start with things you might crack:

Theme answers:

• CODE OF CONDUCT (20A: Rules on how to behave)
• EGGPLANT DIP (25A: Baba ghanouj, e.g.)
• KNUCKLEHEAD (45A: Goofball)

Word of the Day: MOSCOW MULE (11D: Cocktail served in a copper mug) —

A Moscow mule is a cocktail made with vodka, ginger beer, and lime juice; garnished with a slice or wedge of lime, and a sprig of mint. The drink, being a type of buck, is sometimes called vodka buck. It is popularly served in a copper mug, which takes on the cold temperature of the liquid.

Some public health advisories recommend copper mugs with a protective coating (such as stainless steel) on the inside and the lip, to reduce the risk of copper toxicity.

• • •

Lots of things off here. Let's start with the revealer, which absolutely positively without a doubt should be "WHAT'S CRACKIN'?," not "WHAT'S CRACKING?" It's a slang expression where the terminal "g" is most decidedly dropped. Look it up. It's common, and it's almost always, as far as I can tell, "g"-less. Predictive text doesn't even want the "g"—look at what happens when you do a google search:

Yes, you're offered the "cracking" version, but the top predicted search is "crackin'"—"g"-less. Here's a restaurant called "WHAT'S CRACKIN'"

It's on memes, novelty t-shirts, always "g"-less.

Respect the slang, is what I'm saying. Or sayin', I guess. CRACKING feels awkward, like someone using slang that is not native to them. Tin-eared. Boo. The other awkward thing about this theme is that the items in question are not, in fact, crackin(g). Someone (you?) is cracking them. The code doesn't crack, you crack the code. The egg doesn't crack, you crack the egg. The knuckle doesn't crack, you crack the knuckle, and by the way, you crack knuckles, plural. Whoever cracked a single knuckle? Come on, man. This theme is conceptually OK, but in terms of execution, it's half-baked. 

The rest of the grid is fine, adequate, no complaints. Well, one complaint—EMO FAN feels fake (6D: My Chemical Romance groupie, e.g.). I mean, if RAP FAN has never been used (and it hasn't) then there's no way EMO FAN is ok. ROCK FAN, JAZZ FAN, MUSIC FAN, none of them have ever appeared in the NYTXW. EMO BOY is a thing, EMO KID is a very much a thing, EMO FAN is weak sauce. If you want to be modern and colloquial, you have to hit your mark. This one appears to have gotten by on "meh, good enough." Disappointing.

This was on the easier side, as Downs-only solves go. Really had trouble with IPADAPPS, mainly because I knew I was dealing with APPS, but nothing about those APPS seemed particularly IPADish, and APPS wouldn't work in the first spaces, and APPLICATIONS was too long ... so I kind of had to solve around it until the letters involved became clear. Then there was the back end (the FAN part) of EMO FAN, that was weird. I had to work out how to spell LAH-DI-DAH (it has appeared in the NYTXW as LADIDA as recently as 2023, and I wasn't entirely sure LA(H)-DI-DA(H) was right in the first place). I got LACUNA very easily, but also didn't fully trust it because LAH-DI-DAH that is a pretty fancy vocabulary word for a Monday puzzle—although maybe not as fancy as I thought: this is its third early-week appearance (out of 10 total appearances in the Modern Era). MOSCOW MULE and GODFATHERS were gimmes. When both your longest Downs are gimmes, it's probably gonna be an easy Downs-only solve. And it was. None of the short stuff gave me any trouble at all (to its credit, the short stuff is rock solid and virtually cringe-free).

Bullets points:

• 31A: "Fuzzy Wuzzy ___ a bear ..." ("WAS") — this is an extremely silly clue for "WAS," but I'm into it. You can't do a lot with WAS, so why not pull up the randomest quote you can think of? Way better than ["As I ___ saying..."], say.

• 41A: 2003 Will Ferrell Christmas movie (ELF) — just solved a puzzle where this movie was clued as something like [Buddy comedy of 2003?] and I thought that was really clever (Buddy is the name of Ferrell's character). Props to whoever's puzzle that was (I'm doing like 10 puzzles a day now, no way I'm gonna be able to remember who did what).
• 50A: Like diamonds and calculus problems (HARD) — this felt condescending. Calculus is not always HARD. Well, math calculus isn't. Non-math calculus (def. 3a, here) = hardened mineral salts, so yeah, that is ... HARD, I guess, by definition.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Little tipple, cutesily / SUN 4-13-25 / Creative motivation in onlinen slang / Fig. that never starts with 666 / Research on a political rival, for short / Members of the "third team," jocularly / Young DC Comics sidekick with a lightning bolt on his chest / Antidepressant type, in brief / 1982 Benjamin Hoff best seller on Eastern philosophy, with "The" / Cleans up after a dirty guest? / Gallup's bailiwick / Retail magnate James Cash ___ / Third largest tech hub in North America

Constructor: John Kugelman

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "Both Sides Now" — two-word phrases where the words start with "PRO" and "CON," respectively, and are otherwise spelled identically:

Theme answers:

• PROCESSION'S CONCESSIONS (23A: Popcorn and pretzels at a parade?)
• PROTESTANT CONTESTANT (42A: Someone who might excel at a Bible trivia game?)
• CONTRACTOR'S PROTRACTORS (67A: Tools of the trade?)
• CONFESSION PROFESSION (86A: Police interrogator or priest?)
• CONVOCATION PROVOCATION (110A: Angry words at a school assembly?)

Word of the Day: KID FLASH (31A: Young DC Comics sidekick with a lightning bolt on his chest) —

Kid Flash is the name of several fictional superheroes appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, originally created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino, as a junior counterpart to DC Comics superhero The Flash. The first version of the character, Wally West, debuted in The Flash #110 (1959).^[1] The character, along with others like the first Wonder Girl, Aqualad, and Speedy, was created in response to the success of Batman's young sidekick Robin. These young heroes would later be spun off into their own superhero team, the Teen Titans. As Kid Flash, Wally West made regular appearances in Flash related comic books and other DC Comics publications from 1959 through the mid-1980s until the character was reinvented as the new version of The Flash.

• • •

It's harder to imagine a duller, or easier, theme. I didn't even read the clue on most of these. Why would I? What's the point? You know one word will start with PRO and the other CON, and you know the rest of the words will be identical in spelling, so ... just get a few crosses and fill it all in. No problem. You can try as hard as you like to make those "?" clues funny or interesting or whatever, but it just doesn't matter. They aren't necessary. And at best, these "?" clues are just average, humor-wise. I sincerely don't understand how this qualifies as a NYTXW Sunday theme. I have nothing to say about it because there's nothing to say about it. Once you've described it ... that's it. 

The first themer was the worst, to my ears, because I don't really see where the "apostrophe-S" is coming from. PROCESSION'S CONCESSIONS? Wouldn't you just use the noun (PROCESSION) adjectivally? You know, the way you use CONVOCATION in CONVOCATION PROVOCATION. Like, you'd say "amusement park rides," not "amusement park's rides." Maybe if the clue on PROCESSION'S CONCESSIONS had left open the possibility that "procession" was plural, that would've helped as I could've imagined it as a plural possessive (CONTRACTORS'), but in the clue it's adamantly singular (there's just the one "parade"), so ... I dunno. I honestly left that final "S" in PROCESSION'S off for a bit because it sounded so awkward. Sadly, that "S" was right in the middle of the hardest answer in the puzzle: NO SAINT (9D: A flawed person). By "hard" I mean I could not parse it forever. Needed almost every cross. I must've mentally inserted that last "S" from PROCESSION'S at some point to help me out. This is almost the only thing I remember about solving this puzzle, and as you can see, it's not exactly a good memory.

There's not much I actively like about this puzzle. I like that the CAT answer (LAP CAT) is crossing the DOG answer (LEAD DOGS). I like the words OPPO (63D: Research on a political rival, for short) and INSPO (59D: Creative motivation in online slang), and now I get to think of them as a couple (mingling at a rather dull party). I'm not sure I like DRINKY-POO, but it definitely stands out as one of the more original and lively answers in the puzzle today, so I'll take it (72A: Little tipple, cutesily). Oh, and YOINKS! Always welcome. Do I like that OKD and KOD are here, that ONE is duped (OLD ONES, AS ONE) and POP is duped (EUROPOP, POP CAN)? Do I like the word ATONER? The answer is "I do not" in all cases. In a puzzle with a killer theme, it's unlikely that I'd've noticed any of these infelicities. Or they wouldn't have lingered in my mind, at any rate. 

Bullets:

• 15A: Antidepressant type, in brief (SSRI) — gah, hardest single square in the puzzle for me, that first "S." I just blanked on it. Wanted MSRI ... maybe from MSRP (Manufacturer's Standard Retail Price)???! Or MMORPG??? And the "S" cross was semi-brutally clued (15D: Something added to a plot = SOIL). Oh, a plot. I thought you meant a plot. Like in a book. So I wanted FOIL. Sigh, as for SSRI ... SSR was bad enough as crosswordese (colonizing the grid at least as thoroughly as the Soviets colonized Eastern Europe for many decades there)—now I gotta deal with a bulked-up SSR: the SSRI. Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor. Gotta remember that. When I asked my brain what SSRI stood for, it was like "blah blah blah uptake inhibitor?" So we're getting there. 
• 30A: Fig. that never starts with 666 (SSN) — This is how you will know the antichrist—by the first three digits of his social. If you gotta clue SSN (yet again), then sure, go nuts. I like this clue.
• 62A: 1982 Benjamin Hoff best seller on Eastern philosophy, with "The" ("TAO OF POOH") — I know this book exists solely because of crosswords. It's used in clues for both TAO and POOH ... whoa, nope, I'm wrong; it's never been used in a clue for POOH. Only TAO (many times, as recently as Christmas Eve last year). Weird that POOH has appeared in the NYTXW close to 100 times since THE TAO OF POOH came out and not once has it been used as a POOH clue (despite its frequent use in TAO clues). Anyway, it will surprise no one that this is the first time the full title (minus definite article) has appeared in the grid. The letter combos are so improbable that I kinda like it TAOOF! That letter string alone, mwah. It's like someone was starting to say "table" or "taffy" or "talk" and got interrupted by a punch in the stomach.
• 75A: Beach day bummer (RAIN) — when (sun)BURN didn't work, I was out of ideas.

• 84A: Cleans up after a dirty guest? (BLEEPS) — I confess I don't understand "guest" here. Did Christopher Guest swear on family television and you had to bleep it. Is it a dirty guest ... appearance on a tv show? Because I don't know where bleeping (as in "cleaning up" language) is happening except on screen. And so I need to get that "guest" on screen, somehow, to make the clue make sense. Oh, is it a talk show guest? OK. I guess that works. Thank you for bearing with me through my mental processing. Sometimes you just gotta talk it out. 
• 94A: Retail magnate James Cash ___ (PENNEY) — wait, his name has "Cash" and PENNEY in it? They were really grooming him for magnate status, weren't they? I haven't been in a J.C. PENNEY's in so long, I wasn't sure they still existed. And yet it looks like we have a PENNEY's right here in town, at the Oakdale Mall, which still exists somehow. How retro. Might have to check it out.
• 37D: Third largest tech hub in North America (TORONTO) — oh is that why my stepbrother commutes there several times a month from Carmel, CA. I was like "cool city, but kinda random." Apparently not.
• 57D: Poet with four Pulitzers (FROST) — in five letters, I wanted ELIOT. O'HARA didn't live long enough. SEUSS would've been funnier.
• 75D: Members of the "third team," jocularly (REFS) — have not heard this expression. Thought "is this what we're calling the BIS now?" But then BIS didn't fit, much to my disappointment.

Going to pour coffee down my gullet now. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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