Nimble, zigzagging maneuver / FRI 1-16-26 / Goal-oriented global org.? / Shortest-reigning English monarch (9 days) / Leading character on social media? / Some terrarium denizens / White House partner, for short / Classic 1926 poem associated with the Harlem Renaissance / Place for trading stories? / Dialect featured in the literature of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison

Constructor: Kyle Dolan

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: JINK (25D: Nimble, zigzagging maneuver) —

1

: a quick evasive turn : slip

2

jinks plural : pranks, frolics

especially : high jinks

Besides the fact that jink first appears in Scottish English, the exact origins of this shifty little word are unknown. What can be said with certainty is that the word has always expressed a quick or unexpected motion. For instance, in two poems from 1785, Robert Burns uses jink as a verb to indicate both the quick motion of a fiddler's elbow and the sudden disappearance of a cheat around a corner. In the 20th century, the verb caught on with air force pilots and rugby players, who began using it to describe their elusive maneuvers to dodge opponents and enemies. Jink can also be used as a noun meaning "a quick evasive turn" or, in its plural form, "pranks." The latter use was likely influenced by the term high jinks, which originally referred in the late 17th century to a Scottish drinking game and later came to refer to horseplay. (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

Well, I got the "difficulty" I've been looking for, but unfortunately it was not accompanied by much joy. The marquee fill is solid but not particularly exciting, and most of the "difficulty" was achieved with proper-noun trivia, or awkward cluing, or ... "JINK," whatever the hell that is. We're coming up on the 40th anniversary of the last time JINK appeared in the NYTXW, which tells you something about its currency. Yeesh. No one should need a "J" that badly.  I'm actually not sure if the puzzle was more challenging than usual historically, or just more challenging than the Fridays that have been served up in recent years. All I know is this took me at least 2x as long as yesterday's puzzle, and it had none of the whoosh and zoom and sparkle that I really love in a Friday. Four highly segmented corners prevented a kind of free flow through the grid, and the banks of three long answers in each corner, while they hold up just fine, don't really sing. HERDING CATS was a high, but the high of that answer was offset by the low of its symmetrical counterpart, GETS A BAD RAP, an answer which EATS A BAD SANDWICH, for sure. It's a fine phrase, but clunky as a standalone answer. No hope on YOKO (4D: "The Memory Police" author ___ Ogawa) or "GLORY"—who remembers Best Original Songs? Can you remember last year's Best Original Song? I'll give you a hint: it was from Emilia Pérez. Go ahead, take your time [Jeopardy! music plays]. Time's up. We were looking for "What is 'EL MAL'?" Holy crap, that's gonna be in the grid some day, isn't it? Five letters, all common ... OK, just remember that you heard it here first (or you're hearing it again, whatever): "EL MAL," Best Original Song of 2024 (awarded at the 2025 Oscars). GLORY is such a nice, ordinary word. So many ways to go. Trivia = [frowny face]. 

If the long answers in the corners aren't particularly exciting, they are remarkably clean, I'll give them that. There's something to be said for that. Well, a space mission with an RRN (Random Roman Numeral) isn't that great, but the rest are all fine. No tortured phrases, no niche slang. The NW corner is probably the strongest of the lot, with a reasonably clever "?" clue on BABY SHOWER (1A: Coming out party?) over two rock-solid colloquialisms ("ANYONE HOME?," SINK OR SWIM). Outside of trivia ignorance, my trouble today came from either clue vagueness, clue badness, or perilous parsing adventures. Because I didn't have the "J" from JINK (ugh), I absolutely could not see JANE GREY. I should've remembered that she was monarch for a few days—I remember coming across and mentioning that fact on the blog just last years—but I didn't. Not only did I know have the "J" (JINK), I didn't have the "G" ("GLORY," bah!), and so both initials just weren't there for me. When I saw it ended in "Y," my immediate feeling wasn't "Oh, it's JANE GREY!" Instead, it was, "well, SAYS must be wrong—the monarch must end in a Roman numeral." So I pulled SAYS. Idiocy. I knew what 43A: Leading character on social media? was getting at instantly, but when AT SIGN wouldn't fit, I just ... blanked. I know that the answer should be AT SIGN because that is how it has appeared in the NYTXW ten times now (7 in singular, 3 in plural). Whereas this is just the second AT SYMBOL. Y'all should decide if it's a sign or a symbol and stick to it. Please. 

No idea what FOREX is (51A: Market for currencies, informally). Sounds like a condom brand (it's actually short for "Foreign Exchange Market"). Thought FAUX was FAKE (39D: Like leatherette). Could not have known at that point that FAKE was already in play (with FAKE PLANTS). Honestly spent a few seconds wondering what a CART RAILER was before I mentally attached the "T" to "RAILER" to get TRAILER, ugh. Thought the Welsh "Ian" was EWAN (which looks a lot like EVAN, and looks kinda Welsh, frankly, but is actually a Scottish "Owen"). Cluing FLOTUS as [White House partner, for short] is ridiculous, since no one calls him "White House." FLOTUS's "partner" is POTUS. Like ... by definition. Those are the equivalents. I guess the idea is supposed to be "Partner (of the President) who resides in the White House." So not "partner of" but "partner in." Really awful, however you slice it. I was slow in the NE too, but mostly for good old-fashioned clue ambiguity. WAGES was vague/hard. WRAP was vague/hard (11A: Finish (up)). GAS CAN was vague/hard (24A: Trunk item). The "PET" part of PET SNAKES was not at all expected (14D: Some terrarium denizens). This was all frustrating, but it's the kind of frustrating I can live with. Friday-level frustrating. It's fine. I would love to give a thumbs-up to "LET'S ROCK" for originality and ... just ... colloquial vim, I guess, but I hate that expression. Sounds corny. I actually like "LET'S ROLL" a lot better. Anyway, sometimes an answer just nails-on-chalkboards you and there's no accounting for it. Not an objective fault of the puzzle. Just ... incompatibility.

Bullets:

• 19A: Classic 1926 poem associated with the Harlem Renaissance ("I, TOO") — longtime solvers will fill this in automatically. It has crosswordese status, for sure. I can imagine novice solvers being stumped by this one, especially crossing (as it does) two other proper nouns (ANITA, YOKO), as well as the startlingly hard-(for me)-to-parse BY NOW (3D: Already). Really really wanted one word there.
• 21A: Creatures that can turn into humans on land, in Scottish folklore (SEALS) — real Scottish puzzle today. Scotland in the EVAN clue. JINK is a "word" favored by Burns that first appears in Scottish English, and now ... Scottish wereseals. I have some vague memory of this bit of folklore from having watched John Sayles's The Secret of Roan Inish (1994). Yes, here we go: "It is centered on the Irish and Orcadian folklores of selkies—seals that can shed their skins to become human" (wikipedia). SELKIES would be a good grid word. Zero NYTXW appearances to date. 

• 38A: Place for trading stories? (BOOK FAIR) — sigh, you don't "trade" stories at a BOOK FAIR. You do "trade" in stories, by selling them. Is that what was meant? Awkward.
• 54A: Hand count? (FIVE) — because we all have five hands. Science. Actually, you can plausibly interpret this clue two ways. First—and probably most likely—a single hand allows you to count to FIVE (five digits on each hand, barring table saw injuries). The second interpretation, which I only thought of just now, is that a typical poker "hand" has FIVE cards in it. So your "Hand count" would be FIVE—five cards in your hand. Did anyone read the clue as poker-related? I don't think it's the intended meaning, but it "works."
• 31D: Secret offering? (DEODORANT) — Secret is a brand. A brand of DEODORANT. 
• 50D: Makes do for a while? (PERMS) — oof, real awkward. Makes (a hair)do (that lasts) for a while. 
• 16A: Dialect featured in the literature of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison (AAVE) — African-American Vernacular English. It's been in the puzzle a few times now. 
• 54D: Goal-oriented global org.? (FIFA) — aren't these the corrupt assholes who gave White House (which is apparently what we're calling him now) a completely made-up "Peace Prize"? Yep, the president of FIFA is apparently a close ally of White House. Meanwhile, White House continues to attack citizens of his own country with untrained incompetent sadistic goons who aren't fit for any other kind of employment. This week—flashbangs and tear gas thrown into a van filled with six children, one of whom required CPR. Giving White House a "peace prize" ... that really out-Orwells Orwell (you know, the guy who wrote ANIMAL FARM (59A: Novel whence the line "four legs good, two legs bad"))

["Too scared to join the military / Too dumb to be a cop"]

That’s all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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

• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]
• Mailing address: Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp, 54 Matthews St., Binghamton, NY 13905

=============================
✏️ Upcoming Crossword Tournaments ✏️

• American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (Stamford, CT, Apr. 10-12, 2026) (registration closed!)

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

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)