Beverage that was invented in a Dairy Queen / FRI 9-12-25 / Hem, but not haw? / Intoxicate, quaintly / Idea for a pair of trick-or-treaters / French for "dainty" / Accessory out West

Constructor: Joe Marquez

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: ICEE (46D: Beverage that was invented in a Dairy Queen) —

The Icee Company (also known as Western Icee and Icee USA) is an American beverage company located in La Vergne, Tennessee, United States.^[1] Its flagship product is the Icee (stylized as ICEE), which is a frozen carbonated beverage available in fruit and soda flavors. Icee also produces other frozen beverages and Italian ice pops under the Icee and Slush Puppie brands. ICEE Bear, an animated polar bear, is the company's mascot.

The Icee Company was founded by Omar Knedlik, the inventor of the original Icee drink. It became the foundation for the Slurpee and other frozen machine drinks after several machines made by the company were purchased by 7-Eleven in 1965. It has been a division of J & J Snack Foods since 1988 and distributes products in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Australia, the United Kingdom, China, and the Middle East. 

The Icee was invented in 1958 by Omar Knedlik, a Dairy Queen owner in Coffeyville, Kansas. The beverage was the result of faulty equipment in the Dairy Queen owned by Knedlik. His soda machine broke and he began placing bottles of soda in the freezer to keep them cold. Knedlik began selling bottles of the soda which would instantly turn to slush once opened. The frozen soda became popular with the customers of the establishment. (wikipedia)

• • •

This was pretty good. It played slightly harder than most themelesses have played for me of late, but there's no good reason for that. My brain just blanked more often on things it really should've gotten quickly. Like, in the SW, with CULT [blank] and ORAL [blank], I double-blanked. Just couldn't think of the words that were supposed to follow. Nothing for CULT ___, only "presentation" for ORAL ___. And the literary heroine, lol, E--E, that should've been a gimme, esp. for me (a literature professor who has read that novel at least twice), but my brain was like "uh ... EMMA ... doesn't work ... hmm ... ESME? ... from that Salinger short story?" No, dummy. It's Jane EYRE (21A: Literary heroine who described herself as "poor, obscure, plain and little"). Wake up! Also couldn't get the ICEE GEAR pair from just their last letters. I realize now that the late-week puzzles have gotten so easy that when I look at two clues in a row and can't guess either, esp. if the answers are short, the puzzle feels hard all of a sudden. But nothing about this puzzle was actually hard. I'm just a little sluggish this a.m. 

There are hardly any proper nouns in this puzzle, and ... no celebrity names, is that right? Yes, unless you consider SHE-RA a celebrity, that is right. Highly unusual for a modern puzzle. And since names are frequently sources of trouble for solvers, their absence is gonna make this puzzle play easier than usual. The grid has hardly anything in it that isn't widely known, totally familiar. It's the cluing that makes it difficult (in the few places that it's difficult). So it's very inviting, very non-exclusionary. It's also really smooth. The short gunk is minimal (TGI is the absolute worst, bury it in the deepest pit, please ... but nothing else is nearly so awful). Plus, marquee fill is up where it should be, in terms of both amount and quality. Not sure how I feel about ON ESTROGEN (the "ON," specifically), but "ARE YOU GOOD?" (11D: Check-in line?) and SMART MONEY (12D: Bets from the experts) are a hell of a pair, and FOOD DESERT got an actual, audible "nice" out of me. Overall, a nice way to start the weekend.

I had one real mistake today. By "real" I mean "consequential." Sometimes you write in the wrong thing and immediately see your error. Other times, the error sits and starts to rot your solve. One example of the former type of error today, for me, was "ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT!" instead of "ALRIGHT ALREADY!" (39A: "I get it, I get it!"). I figured the speaker's exasperation, like the clue, would take the form of repetition. The fact that the first three letters of the last word are identical to the first three of the first word helped push me into that mistake. But something (maybe CHAD? (35D: Land with two official languages—French and Arabic)) helped eliminate that mistake quickly. But one other mistake was not eliminated so quickly—namely, BASEST for RAWEST (10D: Like one's most natural emotions). "Raw" to me conveys "fresh" and "strong," not "natural." Most emotions are "natural." All emotions, actually, now that I think about it. What the hell is an unnatural emotion? Sigh. Anyway. I figured "natural" had to do with what's fundamental, which is what got me to "base," although now I'm realizing that the "base" in "base emotions" would mean "low," and that I was probably thinking "basic"??? I don't know. I just know BASEST fit and felt right, and nothing about the clue indicated "raw" to me, so BASEST sat there for a bit, messing things up. Well, messing two answers up, but they were two short answers in prime positions (i.e. crossing the fronts of two long answers in the NE). So RASP and WEAR took way longer than they should have, and "ARE YOU GOOD?" and SMART MONEY had to be built from the middle up. When the rest of the puzzle is very easy, one little mistake can have consequences that feel big, even if they ultimately aren't that big, by the timer.


Bullet points:

• 23A: Intoxicate, quaintly (BESOT) — wait, this word is "quaint?" This feels like a regular old word to me. I usually hear / see / use (?) it in the adjectival form, "besotted" (the rough equivalent of "enamored" or "in love"). So OK, as a verb, I guess I'll give you "quaintly." But I got this instantly and I like it, which is not always the case with "quaint" stuff. (Didn't we have SOT just yesterday? Yes, 47-Across here. Big week for SOT)
• 52A: Deep study (OCEANOLOGY) — Had the OCEAN- part, so this answer should've gone in instantly, but all I could think was "... why won't OCEANOGRAPHY fit?" I blame the Village People.

["Where can you learn to fly / Play in sports and skin dive / Study OCEANOGRAPHY...?"]

• 10A: Ailment the morning after a loud concert, maybe (RASP) — the concert was loud, and so ... you had to shout to talk to your companions? ... I can see having a RASP the next day if you sang along, but I don't really see what the loudness of the concert per se has to do with that (except that you probably wouldn't shout-sing at the symphony, I'm guessing)
• 19A: Hem, but not haw? (SEW) — this was a gimme and really helped me get started. Sometimes the tricky little "?" clues are confusing, but this one was transparent. Cute, but transparent.
• 25A: Idea for a pair of trick-or-treaters (COUPLES COSTUME) — first, I've never really heard the term. I can imagine what it means, but it's not familiar to me. Second, "idea?" That's the word that slowed me down here. If a "trick-or-treater" gets "ideas," I assume they are already trick-or-treating, and so ... I was imagining some prank or "trick" that would require two people (?). Anything can be an "idea." The distance from "idea" to "costume" felt ... long.
• 34A: Case load? (BEER) — had to get to -EER before I understood it. Yes, BEER comes in cases. The clue is a very good misdirect because it's so succinct and so in-the-language ... for a completely different (legal) context.
• 45A: French for "dainty" (MIGNON) — another gimme for me, but seems like it could be hard for people who don't speak or never studied French. I think of MIGNON as meaning "cute." Perhaps because it does. (but "delicate" or "dainty" is also valid)

• 55A: They make a high-pitched noise when they're pretty heated (TEA KETTLES) — very easy, but boo to "pretty." I see you're trying to do some kind of misdirect, so that solvers will think of people getting angry, but TEA KETTLES don't make high-pitched noises when they're "pretty heated." They make them when they are maximally heated, i.e. boiling. "Pretty heated" would not get you a whistle. 
• 48D: Accessory out West (BOLO) — the capital "W" in "West" really threw me. Assumed that "West" had to be somebody's name, so tried to think of a Mae West accessory. But the "out" made no sense if West was Mae. I don't think I knew you were supposed to capitalize the direction in "out west" (or, presumably, "back east," "up north," "down south"). 

• 30D: "___ dolce ___" (Italian saying) ("CASA") — so it's just a literal translation of "home sweet home." Nothing very "Italian" about it (except the language, of course). 

I'm going to go enjoy my home sweet home now (coffee, cats, comfy chair, etc.). See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Semiaquatic amphibian / THU 9-11-25 / Minuscule, in cutesy lingo / Longtime portrayer of TV's Captain Pierce / "I Am ___," onetime reality TV spinoff / Material with a coarse weave / Nursery rhyme character known as Lille Trille in Denmark / City with a view of Mount Vesuvius / City WNW of Tulsa / Noncombat region, in brief / Archangel in "Paradise Lost"

Constructor: Gia Bosko

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: DOUBLE-HEADERS (36A: Back-to-back sporting events ... with a hint to the answers to the italicized clues) — two-part phrases where the only difference between the two halves is the first letter ("header"); rather than appearing in full, these answers appear at half length, with the first square containing *both* of the first letters of each half (e.g. RAZZLE-DAZZLE appears as [R/D]AZZLE, with the "R" and the "D" in the same square)—to make sense of them, you have to read the answer once with the first first letter in place, and then again with the second first letter in place. The letters in those "double-header" squares function simply as successive letters in the crosses (e.g. the "[R/D]" from [R/D]AZZLE is just "-RD" in BARD):

Theme answers:

• [W/T]ALKIE (15A: Hand-held communication device) 
• NE[WT] (1D: Semiaquatic amphibian)
• [T/W]EENSY (7A: Minuscule, in cutesy lingo) 
• [TW]EED (7D: Material with a coarse weave)
• [H/D]UMPTY (59A: Nursery rhyme character known as Lille Trille in Denmark)
• WAS[H D]AY (46D: Time for a trip to the laundromat)
• [R/D]AZZLE ( 64A: Flashiness)
• BA[RD] (55D: Medieval entertainer)

Word of the Day: "I Am CAIT" (51A: "I Am ___," onetime reality TV spinoff) —

I Am Cait is an American television documentary series which chronicles the life of Caitlyn Jenner after her gender transition. The eight-part one-hour documentary series debuted on July 26, 2015, on the E! network. The series focuses on the "new normal" for Jenner, exploring changes to her relationships with her family and friends. The show additionally explores how Jenner adjusts to what she sees as her job as a role model for the transgender community.

In its first season, critical reception of I Am Cait was generally positive. Critics particularly praised the series' approach to the social issues of the transgender community and its influence on the way Americans see and understand transgender people in general. The show's informative and serious tone was also noted, and how it differed from Keeping Up with the Kardashians, a reality series that Jenner has starred in together with her family. In October, the show was renewed for a second season, which premiered on March 6, 2016.

On August 16, 2016, E! cancelled the series after two seasons, due to low ratings. (wikipedia)

• • •

Me, at some point, solving this puzzle: "What ... is WEN TAPE!?"

It's weird how my brain has no trouble accepting GO APE as a phrase (a phrase I only ever hear or see in crosswords, but a familiar phrase nonetheless), but put in the past tense and my brain rejects it like a foreign body. My brain also wanted to reject NEED A NAP, which has serious EAT A SANDWICH energy, but since I often NEED A NAP after I EAT A SANDWICH (if it's large enough), the answer accidentally amused me, despite being somewhat intolerable, and I'll take amusement in any form I can get it. Weird that all the answers that made me wince and cringe and cock my head were in the NE quadrant. SUM TO, yeesh (23A: Total). Is that the same as "add up to?" Or "come to?" I have never used the word "SUM" as a verb in my life, except the verb phrase "SUM UP," which deals with words, not numbers. And what part of the NASTY HABITS clue suggested "NASTY" (as opposed to merely "bad") (16D: Vices that are best abandoned)!? Aren't all "vices" best abandoned? "Here's a vice you should keep!" is not a phrase that makes much sense. I needed a nastier clue there, since "bad habits" is the (much) more common phrase. Would've helped! Outside that NE quadrant, though, I didn't have any problems with the way this thing was filled or clued. In fact, I didn't encounter any difficulty at all. Had no idea that "I Am CAIT" ever existed (couldn't even remember which Kardashian CAIT was until I looked her up and realized / remembered that she was a Jenner, whom I know better as CAITlyn). But you expect a proper noun problem or two most days, and CAIT's crosses were all fair. 

What about the theme? I probably should've led with that. It's great, but since it caused no trouble at all, and was almost completely transparent from the beginning, it wasn't at the front of my brain when I finished. WEN TAPE was. But I did enjoy the theme—clever, and neatly executed. I especially like the way the rebus squares are handled, with the letters forming the front ends of either half of the themers, while being merely successive letters in the crosses. WALKIE-TALKIE, one way, NEWT the other. And we've got a revealer worthy of the name, a revealer that does its damned job. Remember earlier in the week when the revealer was just ... VOWEL??? That has no juice, no energy, no nothing. But DOUBLE-HEADERS is both a colorful answer in its own right, and, when interpreted a different (non-sports) way, explains precisely what's going on with the theme. Thematically, conceptually, and execution-wise, this puzzle really sticks the landing. 

As I say, the theme was clear almost from the jump. 1D: Semiaquatic amphibian is gonna make most brains go "NEWT! Oh, damn, it doesn't fit." Or maybe, if you have a particularly crossword-scarred brain, you wrote in EFT. I hope not, but if you did, I understand, and sympathize. I was lucky enough to get 1A: City with a view of Mount Vesuvius (NAPLES), but only by completely misremembering where NAPLES is and confusing Vesuvius with ETNA! Double screw-up got me to Exactly The Right Answer! Accidental genius, woo hoo! Anyway, that "N" from NAPLES made me think "oh, it is NEWT and some rebus-y thing is afoot." Bingo. Shortly thereafter: 

From there, it was downhill. Just a matter of finding the rebus squares, which the puzzle made Very Easy by italicizing all the theme clues. A ruthless, old-school Thursday might not have been so kind. Another kindness, of sorts: all the themers are symmetrical. While I like and appreciate symmetry, when it comes to rebus puzzles, I actually kind of prefer scattershot answers. Having everything flagged by italics and in perfect symmetrical order takes some much-needed difficulty out of the solve. Give me more of a challenge! Don't tell me where all the hard parts are. Let me stumble my way to revelation! The one thing the puzzle didn't flag, and that wasn't always obvious, was the theme-affected Down answers (e.g. NEWT). So with NEWT and TWEED I had moments of "huh?" and/or "what?" I need more of these moments on a Thursday! But again, I really think this theme is aces. The puzzle's got the difficulty turned to like "3" and I want it up around "8," but the quality of the theme itself is beyond reproach, imho.

Lightning round:

• 18A: Longtime portrayer of TV's Captain Pierce (ALDA) — from M*A*S*H. I just saw a clip of Bill Hader doing Alan ALDA. Let's see if I can find it... yes, here we go:

• 50A: Video surveillance letters (CCTV) — "CC" = "close-circuit," though I always think it's "close-captioned" ("close-captioning" is a different phenomenon entirely; the "CC" abbr. and the television-relatedness is what confuses me):

• 5D: City WNW of Tulsa (ENID) — The unofficial capital of Crossworld. I really should make a pilgrimage there at some point.
• 9D: H (ETA) — that's what a Greek letter ETA looks like in capital form: "H"

• 57D: Noncombat region, in brief (DMZ) — Demilitarized Zone. I know this term exclusively from the Vietnam War, I think.
• 44D: Ready for an emergency, say (ON CALL) — had some trouble parsing this despite the fact that I had a father (radiologist) who was frequently ON CALL. He had a beeper. Remember beepers. Good times.
• 24D: Archangel in "Paradise Lost" (URIEL) — I teach this poem and still waffle on the damned archangel name, as ARIEL is also an angel in Paradise Lost!!! (just not an ... arch one)

That's it. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Otis's love interest on Netflix's "Sex Education" / WED 9-10-25 / Quaint term of address for a noblewoman / Willow whose twigs are used in basketry / Mesh for securing items in transport / Heinz bottle blueprint, say / One of Daniel Radcliffe's paparazzi, say / Skimpy serving of foie gras, say / The biggest and most loving of hugs, say / Madness punny name for a barbershop / Stereotypical name for a Dalmatian / Physicist who built upon Volta's work

Constructor: Cole Vandenberg and Harit Raghunathan

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: Just add "S" — wacky two-word phrases where the second word is just the first word with an "S" at the beginning: 

Theme answers:

• LIVER SLIVER (17A: Skimpy serving of foie gras, say)
• POTTER SPOTTER (23A: One of Daniel Radcliffe's paparazzi, say)
• KETCHUP SKETCH-UP (35A: Heinz bottle blueprint, say)
• MOTHER SMOTHER (45A: The biggest and most loving of hugs, say)
• TATER STATER (53A: Idahoan, say)

Word of the Day: George OHM (42D: Physicist who built upon Volta's work) —

Georg Simon Ohm (/oʊm/; German: [oːm] ^ⓘ; 16 March 1789 – 6 July 1854) was a German mathematician and physicist. As a school teacher, Ohm began his research with the new electrochemical cell, invented by Italian scientist Alessandro Volta. Using equipment of his own creation, Ohm found that there is a direct proportionality between the potential difference (voltage) applied across a conductor and the resultant electric current. This relation is known as Ohm's law. // Ohm's law states that the electric current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the voltage across the two points. Introducing the constant of proportionality, the resistance, one arrives at the three mathematical equations used to describe this relationship:

$${\displaystyle V=IR\text{or}I=\frac{V}{R}\text{or}R=\frac{V}{I}}$$

where I is the current through the conductor, V is the voltage measured across the conductor and R is the resistance of the conductor. More specifically, Ohm's law states that the R in this relation is constant, independent of the current. If the resistance is not constant, the previous equation cannot be called Ohm's law, but it can still be used as a definition of static/DC resistance. Ohm's law is an empirical relation which accurately describes the conductivity of the vast majority of electrically conductive materials over many orders of magnitude of current. However some materials do not obey Ohm's law; these are called non-ohmic.

• • •

Looking ASKANT at this one. I thought I was looking "askance," but this puzzle has taught me otherwise. [...Consults dictionary...]. Nope, I was right, definitely "askance." Now I'm looking askance at ASKANT, specifically. ASKANT actually is in the dictionary, it's just within the definition of "askance" as a variant ("or, less commonly, ASKANT"). My friend Doug once put ASKANT in a puzzle, but at least he had the courtesy to add "old-style" to the end of the clue as a qualifier. The only good ASKANT clue I can see in the xwordinfo database is a fill-in-the-blank quote from Whitman: "And I saw ___ the armies": Whitman. I mean, the quote itself isn't great, and there's very little in the clue to suggest ASKANT, but the clue has one big advantage over all the other ASKANT clues, which is yes, I do believe a 19c. poet might have used ASKANT. That is exactly the milieu in which I'd expect to find ASKANT. A 21c. crossword puzzle, less so. I finished this puzzle on the "A" in ASKANT / ATTS (ugh, ATTS)—a bumpy landing, for sure. But ASKANT was merely the hardest clunk on a day that was full of many smaller ones —e.g. ADRATE OSIER OLLIE ONRYE IDE EDY ATTS (a cavalcade of crosswordese). 

[Ruby Blue had an album called Glances Askances but I can't find the song I want from it so I'm playing a different song from a truly great album, Down from Above—I actually think this song was *also*. on Glances Askances, maybe in a different version; you don't need to know any of this ... anyway, just know there was a crossword "logic" that got me here]

So the fill skewed stale. I wish I had better news about the theme. I really do. But I don't. It's just a word ... and then that word, repeated, but with an "S" on its front. It's the kind of theme that I came up on, a very 30+-years-ago theme. Trying to squeeze a lot of "wackiness" out of a very small and ultimately unjuicy concept. The theme answers go all kinds of ways, none of them good. Well, one of them good: I really like TATER STATER for some reason. It's snappy. Concise. It lands. The others ... er, not as entertaining. There's something kind of grotesque about LIVER SLIVER, esp. as its clued via foie gras, a "delicacy" achieved only through a force-feeding process many regard as cruel. Daniel Radcliffe is not, himself, Harry Potter, so the clue makes little sense, and Radcliffe has done his damnedest to distance himself from the hateful woman who created Potter—I don't know why the NYTXW can't do the same, but clearly it cannot. I have no idea what a SKETCH-UP is. I know what a SKETCH is. I know what a "mock-up" is. SKETCH-UP, pfft, don't know it (it seems to be 3D modeling software from Google? if that's a very well-known thing, and that's what's intended here, then I apologize for my ignorance). There's nothing in the MOTHER SMOTHER clue to suggest "mother" at all and further, ick—the answer itself evokes not love but murder—matricide? infanticide?—or at a minimum mild suffocation. In short, the concept was flimsy and the execution awkward. The theme also makes for another excessively easy solve (once you know the concept, you just need a little of the front half of the answer to be able to write the whole thing in). 

What else?:

• 10D: Mesh for securing items in transport (CARGO NET) — real trouble with the "G" here. Just couldn't parse CAR-ONET and thought the "mesh" might have a technical term, namely CARBONET!
• 6A: Rock, for one (COMIC) — the Rock in question is Chris Rock. 
• 20A: Otis's love interest on Netflix's "Sex Education" (MAEVE) — I watched and liked the first season of this show, and then gave up on it in season two. I had absolutely no memory of any of the characters' names. This seems like an obscure answer today, esp compared to the rest of the highly unobscure fill. But you can get it from crosses pretty easily. 
• 4D: "Richard of York gave battle in vain," for the colors of the rainbow (MNEMONIC) — a great word, but why on earth would you use *that* as your rainbow MNEMONIC when Roy G. Biv exists. Who does that? 1950s British schoolboys?!?!? Roy G. Biv. So concise. So useful. I used it literally just yesterday (when trying to explain a cryptic crossword clue to my wife—specifically, how the "red" part of the clue indicated "R"). Richard of York! "Gave battle"? Yeesh. Make it easy on yourselves, people of Britain!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Soul singer Adams / TUE 9-9-25 / Narco nabber / Crack expert? / Cheese town in northern Holland / Some "Beowulf" characters / What might precede Phone, commercially?

Constructor: Marshal Herrmann

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: VOWEL (35A: Purchase on "Wheel of Fortune" ... or every other letter of this puzzle's grid) — all answers alternate between vowels and consonants

Theme answers:

• all of them

Word of the Day: OLETA Adams (47D: Soul singer Adams) —

Oleta Angela Adams (born May 4, 1953) is an American singer, pianist, and songwriter. She found limited success during the early 1980s, before gaining fame via her contributions to Tears for Fears' international chart-topping album The Seeds of Love (1989). Her albums Circle of One (1991) and Evolution (1993) were top 10 hits in the UK; the former yielded a Grammy-nominated cover of Brenda Russell's "Get Here", which was a top 5 hit in both the UK and the U.S. Adams has been nominated for four Grammy Awards, as well as two Soul Train Music Awards. [...] In June 1985, while performing at the Peppercorn Duck Club in the Hyatt Hotel in Kansas City, Adams was heard by Ian Stanley (keyboardist of the British band Tears for Fears) while they were on a two-night stopover in Kansas City midway through their "Big Chair Tour". The next night Stanley, Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal had dinner at the club where Adams was again performing, and they collectively decided that they would approach her with an offer for her to work on their next album, The Seeds of Love. Adams accepted the offer, and two years later Orzabal and Smith got in contact with her again to invite her to join the band as a singer and pianist. // In 1989, the album was released and the single "Woman in Chains", sung as a duet by Adams and Orzabal and with Manu Katche & Phil Collins on drums, became her first hit.^[2] Adams embarked on a world tour with Tears for Fears in 1990, performing by herself as the supporting artist at the start of each show, and remaining onstage throughout the Tears for Fears set where she would provide piano and vocals. [...] Following her work with Tears for Fears, Adams was offered a recording contract by their label, Fontana Records, and restarted her solo career in 1990.^[5] After meeting a number of producers, she worked with Roland Orzabal, who co-produced her new album, Circle of One. The album received acclaim, and eventually peaked at No. 1 in the UK Albums Chart in 1991, after she scored her biggest hit to date with a Grammy-nominated cover of Brenda Russell's "Get Here". The song reached the UK and U.S. top 5 and became popular during the 1991 Gulf War conflict, as families of deployed troops in the region embraced the tune as a theme song.

• • •

This was a breezy, easy themeless. I genuinely believed, toward the end of the solve, that the NYTXW had decided to experiment with early-week themelesses, and this was their first effort. I missed the revealer because all I read was [Purchase on "Wheel of Fortune"...]—that's all I needed. I read as much of the clue as I need to get the answer, and if the first few words give it to me, then that's all I'll read. And that's how I finished the puzzle—believing there to be no theme. I was honestly ... I wouldn't say "happy," but "content." Maybe "reconciled" is the better answer. I don't particularly want there to be early-week themelesses (I'm fine with the current set-up, where such puzzles appear only on Fri and Sat). But today's puzzle felt smooth, if not particularly exciting. Could've used some more marquee fill, but overall it was pleasant enough. I've had worse Tuesday experiences, but that's because there's always a theme to botch on Tuesdays. Can't botch what you don't even attempt. So when I was done I felt this sense that the Future was upon me—that the puzzle wasn't just getting easier overall, eliminating most real challenge in favor of a kind of bland doability, all in the name of commerce (i.e. making it more appealing to a whole class of people who want their games light-hearted and bite-sized). The old-school crossword is probably not long for this world. Instead of the backbone of the "Games" section (the original "game," in fact), it will become increasingly marginal. Maybe they'll test Games subscriptions without the traditional crossword, and when that goes well, phase that crossword out entirely. Not soon, but someday. Probably makes sense, capitalism-wise. Anyway, we aren't there yet. I scanned the clues looking for something that seemed like a revealer and there it was: VOWEL. That's it: VOWEL. No snappy phrase, no aha, wow, surprise. Just ... VOWEL. And what is VOWEL doing? Appearing! In every other square! I'm using exclamation points! Facetiously! Enjoy!

See the thing is, this is what I imagine puzzles will look like when they are entirely written by A.I. All you gotta do here is write some code that winnows your massive wordlist down to Only Words That Alternative Vowel/Consonant. Then feed *that* wordlist to your construction software and basically make an easy themeless. The theme "trick" isn't one. It's just a matter of hiding answers that don't fit the pattern from your construction software. I'm sure it's harder to build a puzzle that way than to build one with your full wordlist in play.  But with a simple grid like this, not much harder. You've got the 15s up top and below, which is probably where you'd start. But the puzzle is otherwise mostly loaded with 3-4-5s. A couple longer Downs, a couple 6s and 7s, but ... meh. In the end, it's really just a lackluster themeless. If the revealer had been at all clever or interesting, if there had been more to VOWEL than just ... existing, maybe this puzzle could've been something. As is the revealer could just as easily have been CONSONANT ... I mean, it couldn't, because CONSONANT doesn't alternate consonant/vowel all the way through ... but in spirit, it could have. The "gimmick" is purely structural, which is the kind of thing that computers can handle real well. So welcome to a vision of your A.I.-authored future. It's very so-so.

Nothing to say about this one, from a fill perspective. It's fine. It's passable. It's wallpaper. MORE TO COME LATER feels forced. Redundant, to be specific. When else is "MORE" supposed to "COME"? Earlier? ON A SEPARATE NOTE also feels a little wobbly, although I acknowledge it's a thing people sometimes say. There are just so many "On a ___ note"s that this one didn't particularly leap to mind. I thought maybe DIFFERENT or ANOTHER. But there's nothing *wrong* with the phrase. It's fine. The grid is fine. Wearyingly fine. Moving on.

Bullets:

• 18A: Chicago's ___ B. Wells Drive (IDA) — One of several IDAs for whom my cat was named. I still call her "IDA B." from time to time. And "IDA MAE." And "Missy" and "Missus" and "Miss IDA" and "Miss Priss" and "Baby" and "Get out of the kitchen I'm cooking here you're going to kill me!"
• 58A: First, second or third (BASE) — I wanted RATE at first. A truly boring error. But there were hardly any errors or near-errors to come by today, so you get whatever you get, sorry.

• 1D: Crack expert? (COMIC) — probably the hardest clue in the puzzle, right up front. [Crack expert] is redundant as a surface-level phrase. "Crack" means "expert." So I thought "oh, the puzzle is referring to crack cocaine, maybe the answer is ... NARCO?" But no, a "crack" is a "joke" and the joke expert would (presumably) be the COMIC.
• 5D: Who rapped "I've created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Marshall no more" (EMINEM) — This is not a "monster," Marshal. It's an easy themeless. Not sure the winky little self-reference here is earned. 
• 35D: Narco nabber (VICE COP) — ah, there's "Narco." Not the [Crack expert?], but the dude being nabbed by the VICE COP. I'm not a big fan of the police state we've increasingly got going in this country, but I do like VICE COP as an answer. It's got a sizzle that the rest of the grid mostly lacks.

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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