Chinese competitor of Amazon / SUN 1-18-26 / Bit of regal headwear / Breathable fabric used in mosquito nets / "Big" comic protagonist / Japanese craft that literally translates to "tray planting" / Images that can rip off human creators, perhaps / Affectionate term for una madre / Padmé Amidala's home planet in "Star Wars" / Like the Gospel of Mark, sequentially

Constructor: Rena Cohen

Relative difficulty: Easy

[80D: Padmé Amidala's home planet in "Star Wars" (NABOO)]

THEME: "Use Your Words" — sound of "you" is added to familiar phrases, creating wacky phrases, which are clued wackily (i.e. "?"-style). The theme is described by the revealer: SOUNDS LIKE A YOU PROBLEM (67A: "Don't look at me for help" ... or a phonetic hint to this puzzle's theme) (i.e. the "sound" of "you" is the "problem" in each theme answer):

Theme answers:

• AFTER MATTHEW (23A: Like the Gospel of Mark, sequentially?) (from "aftermath")
• REVIEW THE ENGINE (33A: Prepare for a mechanic's certification exam?) (from "rev the engine")
• THE SETTLERS OF YUCATAN (58A: Original people to move into Cancún's peninsula?) (from the game "The Settlers of Catan")
• UNITES IN SHINING ARMOR (79A: Gets married while wearing protective gear?) (from "knights in shining armor")
• TWO-AND-A-HALF MENU (103A: List of restaurant offerings for kids not yet three years old?) (from the TV show "Two-and-a-Half Men")
• VENUE DIAGRAM (118A: Wedding planner's aid?) (from "Venn diagram")

Word of the Day: TEMU (52D: Chinese competitor of Amazon) —

Temu is an online marketplace operated by e-commerce company PDD Holdings, which is owned by Colin Huang. It offers heavily discounted consumer goods, mostly shipped to consumers directly from China. By April 2025, the platform had expanded its operations to more than 90 markets.

In March 2024, Temu launched its Local Seller Program in the United States. As of July 2025, the program was operational in the UK, France, Italy, Japan, Mexico, and Australia, among other countries. The program is designed to help local sellers reach more local consumers, bring more locally relevant products to local shoppers, and improve the user experience.

Temu's business model has allowed it to become popular among consumers, but has also drawn concerns over data privacy, forced labor, intellectual property, and the low quality of its marketplace products. The company has been embroiled in legal disputes with Shein, a direct competitor. The rise of Temu is one of Amazon's biggest challenges in years.

On October 17, 2022, Temu emerged as the most-downloaded U.S. shopping app. According to Sensor Tower, it was the most downloaded mobile app in any category in the U.S. between November 1 and December 14, 2022. According to Similarweb, as of September of 2024, it became the second most-visited online shopping site in the world. As of December of the same year, the number of monthly active users of Temu's global smartphone app surpassed that of Amazon. In the year of 2024, it was the most downloaded iPhone app in over 20 countries.

• • •

Lackluster. Just not enough oomph to carry a Sunday-sized puzzle. I appreciate the way that the revealer signals the addition not just of "you" but of the *sound* of "you" (SOUNDS LIKE A YOU PROBLEM), and I appreciate that the "you" sounds are spelled differently in every case. That is a nice touch. But in the end, it's just an add-a-"you" (sound) puzzle. That's all that happens. And the results aren't particularly spectacular. There's just no real humor in any of them. AFTER MATTHEW is very literal. REVIEW THE ENGINE is simply dull. Since Settlers of Catan is about settlers to begin with, somehow THE SETTLERS OF YUCATÁN doesn't add much. The remaining three just kinda sit there. You've got a lot of different spellings of the "you" sound, but you don't get a lot of humor or wackiness out of the set. There's a stray "you" sound in MALAMUTE (114A: Relative of a husky)—and, I suppose, in U.S.A. as well (120D: Today preceder)—but those are small enough that they're not really distractions. The idea that any of these "you" sounds were actually a "problem" is somewhat laughable. The basic gimmick was very easy to figure out, and none of the themers had anything difficult or mysterious or tricky about them (beyond the "yoo" addition). I got three (3!) of the themers without ever even looking at the clues. Just no-looked the SETTLERS, the SHINING ARMOR, and the TWO-AND-A-HALF MENU answers. Work the easy crosses, and the big stuff simply floats into view. The humor is a little pale and the difficulty level was way too low. There's nothing terrible about the grid, or the theme concept, for that matter. The theme execution and the overall cluing simply aren't as entertaining as they ought to be.

When I say that the theme was not hard to figure out, this is what I mean—this is how long it took me to figure out the basics:

Why did I think UNADEM was a thing!?!?! (1A: Bit of regal headwear). I guess my brain was doing some kind of numerical inference ...  if "DI-" is two, then "UNA-" is ... one? But if I was inferring from DIADEM, why not just guess DIADEM? Plus, isn't "UNI-" the prefix for "one," not "UNA-"??? I really have no idea what I was thinking here. Turns out the "DI" in DIADEM has nothing to do with "two"; the prefix is actually "DIA-" which means "through" or "across" (Gr.), with "-DEM" meaning "tie" or "bind"). Why in the world did my brain pick the fake word UNADEM over the real word DIADEM (a word I've known since I was a kid)??? Mysterious. I think part of it has to do with the fact that I knew I had learned a different kind of -DEM word, something that (like a DIADEM) goes on the head; I just couldn't think of what it was and threw down UNADEM. The word that my brain was probably searching for was ANADEM, which is a word, one that has been in the NYTXW—45 times (the same number as DIADEM!). Like DIADEM, an ANADEM is something worn on the head—but whereas a DIADEM is a jeweled crown and a symbol of royalty, an ANADEM is more of a a wreath (like the garland for a poet laureate). I realize that none of you made this mistake and that I'm talking to myself, but ... I'm fine with that. Some day ANADEM will show up in the grid again and you'll be like:

The NE corner is really speaking to me today. That's because I was once a young, balding man in ANN ARBOR (22A: College town nicknamed "A²"), and I went to a lot of concerts there, which means a lot of SET LISTS. I guess GOES BALD is supposed to be a bummer (and it probably is if you've actually got alopecia), but I still like that corner for giving me fond memories of grad school. No other parts of this grid spoke to me so strongly, though there are some nice moments. The SW corner, for instance: if I saw a MALAMUTE on the street, I would definitely later say "I LOVED IT!" The fill seems pretty smooth overall—the only place that had me grimacing was the far west, where CHAO next to TEMU crossing MAMI took some elbow grease to sort out. I had CHAO (51D: Former transportation Secretary Elaine) as CHOO and CHOI at various points; I flat-out forgot TEMU existed; and ... I have heard "MAMI" but not seen it much at all (63A: Affectionate term for una madre), so I really needed (but was not getting) the "A" from CHAO and the "M" from TEMU. Not the prettiest little nook or cranny, that one. That NANOS EELS IDINA is also less than great. But in both the TEMU and the IDINA sections, the short Downs are under a lot of strain, as they have to connect one themer to another (themers are fixed in place, so fill options are constrained). Very forgivable stuff.

Bullets:

• 66A: "Big" comic protagonist (NATE) — no idea. I know a Nate the Great. But whatever "comic" "Big NATE" is in, it's been flying under my radar. Is it an age thing? Let's find out ... oh yeah, I definitely missed all this. 

Big Nate (stylized as big NATE in the comic collections and BiG NATE in the books) is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Lincoln Peirce, syndicated since January 6, 1991. The strip follows sixth-grader Nate Wright, alongside his family, friends, and foes.

The strip's success led to a media franchise, consisting of two series of children's books by Lincoln Peirce – the eponymous novel series and the Little Big Nate board books – a video game hosted on Poptropica since 2009, and an animated television series, which premiered on Paramount+ in 2022.

I've read many a comics page and never come across this strip—but if it's been running for well over three decades and it spawned an animated television show, then yeah, that's pretty big. Just ... not in my neck of the woods. 

• 87A: Japanese craft that literally translates to "tray planting" (BONSAI) — I solved this puzzle just after coming back from Ithaca, where I saw the movie No Other Choice. It's one of the best movies I've seen in the past year, and it has some serious, unexpected BONSAI content. Let's just say ... the skills you learn with BONSAI are apparently, in certain gruesome circumstances, transferable! (it's not really a gruesome comedy, despite the murders—it's actually hilarious. I shout-laughed a lot. It also just looks beautiful (shot in a very autumnal South Korea). Based on the novel The Ax by Donald Westlake (🐐), it's very much worth seeing.

• 84D: Images that can rip off human creators, perhaps (A.I. ART) — not in real life, not in my puzzle, not even with a critical clue, nope. Pass. Hard pass. (another great thing about the movie No Other Choice (see above)—it understands exactly how dehumanizing A.I. is)
• 73D: Greek god whose name becomes a flower if you move the first letter to the end (EROS) — I don't like these clues, especially if the new word has no clear relationship to the original word. But today, we don't just get one of these clues, we get two: 113D: Midwest city whose name becomes a Southwest city if you move the first letter to the end (AMES). At least the latter clue keeps it city-centered. That's something, I suppose.
• 97A: Honkers without horns (GEESE) — just in case this someday becomes relevant, I'm going to tell you (if you don't already know) that GEESE was also one of the biggest new bands of the last year. Not brand new—Getting Killed (2025) is their fourth album. But they're newly very famous. New to me, that's for sure. Led by frontman Cameron Winter, they're on nearly every Best Of list of 2025. I had only just learned who they were when the AVCX (American Values Club Crossword) posted the following on their Blue Sky account:

Me: "I ... I actually get that! I'm not yet completely out of touch! Hurray!" My friend Allegra, who is a crossword constructor herself, replied to this post:

[Jeff Tweedy is the frontman for Wilco, but you knew that]

That's all for today. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. the Boswords 2026 Winter Wondersolve is starting up very soon. Boswords is a long-running and well-loved crossword tournament. The Winter Wondersolve is entirely online and is open to both individuals and pairs. When I say you don't have to be a speed-solver to have a good time, please believe me. Check it out. You might have fun. Here are the deets:

Registration is open for the Boswords 2026 Winter Wondersolve, an online crossword tournament which will be held on Sunday, February 1 from 1:00 to 4:30 p.m. Eastern. Solvers can compete individually or in pairs and will complete four puzzles (three themed and one themeless) edited by Brad Wilber. To register, to see the constructors, and to watch a short video describing the event, go to www.boswords.org.  

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