Purple boba choice / WED 1-7-26 / Savory rice porridge / Grilled cornmeal cake / With all judges present / Mathematician Terence / Potatoes, in Indian cooking / "That's crazy!," on the internet / "Oh no!," in comics / Cynophilist / Musical genre that's the subject of the 2007 book "Everybody Hurts" / Circadian dysrhythmia, less fancily

Constructor: Adrianne Baik

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: fictional female follies — familiar phrases are used as wacky clues for famous female fictional characters:

Theme answers:

• TINKERBELL [from Peter Pan] (17A: Wing woman?)
• NANCY DREW [from the series of mystery novels] (25A: Cover girl?)
• DOROTHY GALE [from The Wizard of Oz] (35A: Homecoming queen?)
• ELLE WOODS [from Legally Blonde] (48A: Sister-in-law?)
• HELLO KITTY [iconic cartoon cat of the Japanese brand] (57A: Cat lady?)

Word of the Day: Terence TAO (40A: Mathematician Terence) —

Terence Chi-Shen Tao FAA FRS (Chinese: 陶哲軒, born 17 July 1975) is an Australian and American mathematician. He is a Fields medalist and a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he holds the James and Carol Collins Chair in the College of Letters and Sciences. His research includes topics in harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, algebraic combinatorics, arithmetic combinatorics, geometric combinatorics, probability theory, compressed sensing, analytic number theory and the applications of artificial intelligence in mathematics.

Tao was born to Chinese immigrant parents and raised in Adelaide, South Australia. Tao won the Fields Medal in 2006 and won the Royal Medal and Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics in 2014, and is a 2006 MacArthur Fellow. Tao has been the author or co-author of over three hundred research papers, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest living mathematicians. [...] 

In 1996, he joined the faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1999, when he was 24, he was promoted to full professor at UCLA and remains the youngest person ever appointed to that rank by the institution. (wikipedia)

• • •

***ATTENTION: READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS*** : It's early January, which means it's time once again for my annual week-long pitch for financial contributions to the blog. Every year I ask readers to consider what the blog is worth to them on an annual basis and give accordingly. 2026 is a big year for me, as Rex Parker Solves the NYT Crossword will celebrate its 20th birthday in September. Two decades. The big 2-0. A score of years. One score and no years ago, I brought forth on this Internet a new blog, conceived in ... I think I'll stop there, but you get the idea. I've been at this a long time, and while it has been my privilege and joy, it has also been (and continues to be) a lot of work. Very early mornings, no days off—well, no days off for the blog. I do have two very able regular subs (Mali and Clare) who write for me once a month, as well as a handful of other folks who stand in for me when I go on vacation. But otherwise, it's just me, every dang day, up by 4am, solving and writing. I've never been this disciplined about anything in my life. Ask anyone. "Is he disciplined about anything else?" "No, he is not. Just this one thing. It's weird." And it's because I have a responsibility to an audience (that's you). Even after nearly 20 years, I'm still genuinely stunned and exceedingly grateful that so many of you have made the blog a part of your daily routine. Ideally, it adds a little value to the solving experience. Teaches you something you didn't know, or helps you look at crosswords in a new way, or makes you laugh (my highest goal, frankly). Or maybe the blog simply offers a feeling of commiseration—a familiar voice confirming that yes, that clue was terrible, or yes, that themer set should have been tighter, or wow, yes, that answer was indeed beautiful. Whether you find it informative or comforting or entertaining or infuriating—or all of the above—if you're reading me on a fairly regular basis, there's something valuable you're getting out of the blog. And I couldn't be happier about that.

["That's upside-down, sweetheart"]

Hopefully by now you can tell that for better or worse, what you get from me is my honest, unvarnished feelings about a puzzle. There's an explanatory element too, sure, but this blog is basically one person's solving diary. Idiosyncratic. Personal. Human. I'm not interested in trying to guess consensus opinion. I'll leave that to A.I. All I can do, all I want to do, is tell you exactly what it was like for me to solve the puzzle—what I thought, what I felt. Because while solving may seem like mere box-filling to outsiders, crossword enthusiasts know that the puzzle actually makes us feel things—joy, anguish, confusion (confusion's a feeling, right?). Our feelings might not always be rational, but dammit, they're ours, and they're worth having. And sharing. I love that crosswords engage the messy, human side of you, as well as the objective, solution-oriented side. If I just wanted to fill in boxes, without any of the messy human stuff, I'd solve sudoku (no shade, sudoku fans, they're just not for me!).

[conferring w/ my editor]

Over the years, I have received all kinds of advice about "monetizing" the blog, invitations to turn it into a subscription-type deal à la Substack or Patreon. And maybe I'd make more money that way, I don't know, but that sort of thing has never felt right for me. And honestly, does anyone really need yet another subscription to manage? As I've said in years past, I like being out here on this super old-school blogging platform, just giving it away for free and relying on conscientious addicts like yourselves to pay me what you think the blog's worth. It's just nicer that way. How much should you give? Whatever you think the blog is worth to you on a yearly basis. Whatever that amount is is fantastic. Some people refuse to pay for what they can get for free. Others just don't have money to spare. All are welcome to read the blog—the site will always be open and free. But if you are able to express your appreciation monetarily, here are three options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar on the homepage, as well as at the bottom of every write-up):

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Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
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The third, increasingly popular option is Venmo; if that's your preferred way of moving money around, my handle is @MichaelDavidSharp (the last four digits of my phone are 4878, in case Venmo asks you, which I guess it does sometimes, when it's not trying to push crypto on you, what the hell?!)

All Paypal contributions will be gratefully acknowledged by email. All Venmo contributions will get a little heart emoji, at a minimum :) All snail mail contributions will be gratefully acknowledged with hand-written postcards. I know snail mail is a hassle for most people, but I love it. I love seeing your (mostly) gorgeous handwriting and then sending you my (completely) awful handwriting. The human touch—it's nice. In recent years, my daughter has designed my annual postcards, but this year, grad school and NYC theater work are keeping her otherwise occupied, so I had to seek design help elsewhere. Enter Katie Kosma, who is not only a professional illustrator/designer, but (crucially!) a crossword enthusiast. She listened patiently to my long and disorganized list of ideas and in very short order was able to arrive at this year's design, inspired by film noir title cards. 

I'm very happy with how it turned out. The teeny boxes inside the letters, the copyright credit ("Natick Pictures, Inc."), and especially that pencil lamppost—mwah! I know most people solve online now, and many paper solvers prefer pen, but the pencil just feels iconic, and appropriate for the card's throwback vibe. That lamppost was entirely Katie's creation. She was a dream to work with. Can't say enough good things about her.

Please note: I don't keep a "mailing list" and don't share my contributor info with anyone. And if you give by snail mail and (for some reason) don't want a thank-you card, just indicate "NO CARD." 

Again, as ever, I'm so grateful for your readership. Please know that your support means a lot to me and my family. Now on to today's puzzle... 

• • •

Interesting repurposing of familiar phrases. Making all the answers fictional characters gives the theme a nice coherence. The clues touch all the major words for "female person" ("woman" "girl" "lady") as well as a couple familiar slang terms ("sister" "queen"). "Queen" is a real outlier here, in that it's not a general term. In certain playful, slangy contexts, you might (of course) refer to a woman as a "queen," but it's highly contextual ... and not entirely female, frankly. I associate it with drag culture, at least in part. And yet [Homecoming queen?] is probably the best (in terms of aptest / funniest) clue of the lot, so its outlierness isn't bothering me too much. I'm more annoyed / confused by the NANCY DREW clue (25A: Cover girl?). Is the idea just that she is simply ... found ... on book covers? Or is it that she goes ... undercover ... to solve cases? Both? Neither? Unclear. I've heard the expression "wing man" a lot more than I've heard "wing woman," probably because hunting for hook-ups at bars is pretty conventionally male behavior. The "wing man" is the guy who supports a friend in his attempts to seduce women—maybe by accompanying him to the target's table to make him seem less predatory, or by occupying the target's friends in conversation so that his friend can get more one-on-one time with the target. I can't stop saying "target," sorry. It's hard not to use the language of predation. Anyway, if guys can hunt in packs, then ladies can too, so ... "wing woman."  It's impressive that the constructor could find five iconic female characters (i.e. ones that nearly everyone will know) that both fit symmetrically and were cluable in this specifically wacky way. The NANCY DREW clue is a little weak, but the others are on point. [Sister-in-law?] is a particularly clever way to come at ELLE WOODS (whose name I know well, but whose movie title I totally forgot just now: "Legal ... law something ... LEGAL EAGLES? ... no, that's Debra Winger ..."—in the end, I actually had to look it up: embarrassing)

The fill in this one is so-so, though the only jarring bit was when the puzzle hit me with the EN BANC (6D: With all judges present). We managed to kill EN BANC for a full nineteen (19) years (from 1997 to 2016) but since its resurrection in 2016, it's been proliferating at an alarming rate. 2016, 2023, 2025, 2026. I'm not Terence TAO, but if these trends continue ... 

What's weirdest about EN BANC is that it is thriving under Shortz far more than it ever did with his predecessors. BANC has appeared in puzzles forever, but EN BANC only made it into the puzzle twice in the entire pre-Shortz era. But so far, there have been five appearances under Shortz, including two now in the space of just two weeks (last appearance, 12/23/25). Did not enjoy EN BANC crossing ENRON (ugh, you suck, you were guilty of historic accounting fraud, you're bankrupt, why won't you just die? ... stupid useful letter combination ...). ASAP LOL SNL all appear in the same area, and OOO and SSN and SHO aren't far away, so that northern area felt pretty unpleasantly gunky. But as I say, for the most part the fill holds up.

Disappointingly, there was absolutely no difficulty today, outside of the themers (which, for me, largely filled themselves in from crosses—I never even saw the clues for DOROTHY GALE or HELLO KITTY). The one thing that might have slowed some solvers was the preponderance of food terms, and foreign food at that. These were all foods that are widespread in the U.S., but still, I can imagine there are people who haven't heard of CONGEE (27D: Savory rice porridge) or AREPAs (even though the latter has become something of a crossword staple) (7D: Grilled cornmeal cake). Or who don't know what ALOO means (even though we just had this term as well as this exact clue last month) (62A: Potatoes, in Indian cooking). Throw in the HAM on the Hawaiian pizza (57D: Hawaiian pizza topping) and a TARO boba tea (36D: Purple boba choice) and you've got yourself a hell of a MENU, covering many corners of the globe. A real DINE-IN puzzle. The puzzle FED you, is what I'm saying. If you like food, this is good news. If you like only American food (whatever that is), then it's possible this food caused you some solving indigestion. Me, I wolfed it all down. Good stuff.

Bullets:

• 16A: "That's crazy!," on the internet ("WOAH!") — I have to say how much I appreciate this clue. "WOAH" makes my skin crawl, in general, but at least the clue here recognizes that the spelling is decidedly an internet phenomenon. In my day [clears throat, removes corn cob pipe from mouth and gestures aggressively with it], there weren't no internet and we all said "WHOA" because the automobile weren't invented yet so we all rode horses and you had to get 'em to stop somehow. Seriously, though, the term is "WHOA." Whether you're stopping horses or expressing amazement. It's a variation on "WOW." A lower-key "WOW." "WOAH" always looks to me like it should be pronounced with two syllables (WOE + AH). It also looks like a chemical formula. Just me? Whatever. I blame sodium hydroxide (NaOH).
• 4D: "Oh no!," in comics ("ACK!") — I was going to say, "only in Cathy!" but then I remembered the most important comic strip of my adolescence, and so I take it back. Not only in Cathy.

[Cathy]

[Bill the Cat, from Bloom County]

• 18D: Day for hunting (EASTER) — hunting for EASTER eggs. At least I hope that's what the clue meant!
• 35D: Cynophilist (DOG LOVER) — wait, why isn't it "cynophile"? It's bibliophile, not bibliophilist. Cinephile, not cinephilist. Ailurophile, not "ailurophilist." Maybe the idea was that "'cynophile" sounds too much like "cinephile," but ... but ... dogs preceded cinema (right?), so I still don't get it. 

Speaking of ailurophiles, which I was, I somehow let one of the 🌲🐈Holiday Pet Pics🐕🌲 fall through the cracks, so here's a special addendum: it's Orbie, seen here "warming" himself in front of the "fire." Below him, according to the human who lives with him, are the "cherished photos of the pussy cats who have graced my life - Tri-X, Jill & Leo, Flix, Simon & Louie." 

[Thanks, Ann!]

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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