1972 hit for Tanya Tucker / TUE 4-21-26 / Wild West way of settling disputes / Cool, in '90s slang / Literary friend of Finn / Starbucks alternatives from the Golden Arches / Dual degrees for physicians / Haitian currency unit / "___ dat" (slangy agreement)

Constructor: Victoria Fernandez Grande

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: FLYING START (57A: Early advantage ... or a hint to the beginnings of 17-, 25-, 36- and 49-Across) — familiar phrases where the first word (or "start") is also the name of an airline:

Theme answers:

• SPIRIT GUIDE (17A: Mentor from the beyond)
• UNITED WAY (25A: Major charity whose recipients include the Red Cross and Salvation Army)
• FRONTIER JUSTICE (36A: Wild West way of settling disputes)
• "DELTA DAWN" (49A: 1972 country hit for Tanya Tucker)

Word of the Day: GOURDE (18D: Haitian currency unit) —

The gourde (French: [ɡuʁd]) or goud (Haitian Creole: [ɡud]) is the currency of Haiti. Its ISO 4217 code is HTG and it is divided into 100 centimes (French) or santim (Creole).

The word "gourde" is a French cognate for the Spanish term "gordo", from the "pesos gordos" (also known in English as "hard" pieces of eight, and in French as "piastres fortes espagnoles") in which colonial-era contracts within the Spanish sphere of influence were often denominated. (wikipedia)

• • •

A standard "first-words" theme-type, solidly executed. Strangely, the one place that I struggled (slightly) in this puzzle was with the FLYING part of FLYING START (57A: Early advantage...)—I had the START and the only word I could think of to precede it was RUNNING. Since that wouldn't fit, my brain was left going "blank-ING START, blank-ING START ... I know there's another phrase here, what is it?" If I'd just looked at the "beginnings" of all the theme answers, like the clue told me to, I probably could've figured it out quickly, but instead I just threw crosses at it until I got it. It was probably the "Y" from SAWYER that gave it to me. Anyway, the themers do indeed "start" with companies that specialize in "flying" so ... nothing very tricky going on here. Very straightforward wordplay. This is the kind of phrase that's tailor-made to be a revealer—any phrase with "start" or "end" or an equivalent synonym of either is a potential theme provocation. Like ... you could do COLD OPEN, and have the theme be phrases where the first word is something cold. If you've been solving crosswords for any length of time, you've seen scores of variations on this theme type, which is never going to wow you, but which can be enjoyable if the theme phrases are colorful enough, and today's are pretty good. Well, the last two are, anyway. FRONTIER JUSTICE does evoke certain grim images (lynchings come to mind), but it's a great phrase, and "DELTA DAWN" ... I mean, who doesn't like "DELTA DAWN?" Put it in every puzzle, I'll never be unhappy to see it. (I grew up with the Helen Reddy version, so that's the version you're getting)

The fill on this one was a little above average for a Tuesday, I thought. I could've done without two foreign currencies (few things reek of crosswordese like foreign currencies), and I'm not sure crossing FLYING with FLY was the best idea, but otherwise I didn't wrinkle my face at the grid much at all, and generally enjoyed making my way through the grid (often a chore in early-week themed puzzles, where the fill often feels like an afterthought). The fact that the grid was fun to move through is particularly impressive given that there are only a small handful of answers more than six letters long: just two 8s and two 7s. Normally, the longer answers are the thing giving the grid life, but today's puzzle relies on an army of 6s to get the job done. The effects are particularly nice in the SW corner. I don't love the idea of plural MCCAFES (I've only ever seen one, that I remember, and that was in NZ), but otherwise, in addition to the always lovely "DELTA DAWN," we get SEX and CLIMAX (!) as well as the musical stylings of CELINE Dion and the consonantal onslaught that is MD/PHDS. Did CELINE ever cover "DELTA DAWN"? Not that I can find. She does sing something called "New Dawn," but it's a pretty boring gospel song, so here's the VH1 Pop-Up Video version of that song from Titanic instead, enjoy:

Bullets:

• 56A: "But Daddy I Love ___" (Taylor Swift song) ("HIM") — I never saw this clue, so I can't really complain, but I'm gonna complain anyway—no need to shoehorn Taylor Swift into yet another puzzle, esp. for a completely ordinary word like "HIM." And, I mean, if you really want to do a musical fill-in-the-blank clue with a song containing "HIM," there are sooooooooo many to choose from. Branch out! 

• 29D: Left-wing protest group (ANTIFA) — feels fresh, but it's not new—this is actually the fifth appearance of ANTIFA (which debuted in 2018). This answer always makes the fascists mad, so I like it.
• 10D: Female form of the animal that outnumbers humans in Iceland (EWE) — this feels forced. As a clue for SHEEP, I'd love the Iceland trivia, but as a clue for EWE, it's ungainly ... the whole "Female form of the" part makes it wordy and awkward. 
• 46D: Literary friend of Finn (SAWYER) — This clue makes it sound like Tom was bookish. Remember how Tom got out of painting that fence so he could go off and read Dostoevsky? Classic.
• 57D: Cool, in '90s slang (FLY) — I was there (the '90s, that is), and I still hesitated here, even with the "F"—my brain went "... FAT ... wait, isn't it PHAT?" The "FLY Girls" were dancers on the popular early-'90s sketch show In Living Color. J-Lo was a FLY Girl. The word came out of hip-hop culture and was everywhere for a while. If I could bring back any '90s slang, I'd bring back FLY. Beats PHAT by a country mile.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Filtered food for whales / MON 4-20-26 / Move in a hurry, old-style / "I need to use the bathroom" / Sweetie, to Brits / Bathroom, informally / What coins are exchanged for at an arcade / "Sauer" hot dog topping

Constructor: Freddie Cheng

Relative difficulty: Easy (even though I failed my Downs-only solve)

THEME: NATURE CALLS (53A: "I need to use the bathroom" ... or what the shaded squares spell?) — animal calls are "hidden" in shaded squares inside longer answers:

Theme answers:

• TWO OF HEARTS (16A: Low red card in a deck) (dog!)
• CHOO-CHOO TRAINS (21A: Locomotives, to kids) (owl!)
• "THIS SUCKS" (28: "The worst!") (snake!)
• METRO AREA (38A: City and its surroundings) (lion!)
• "NO TROUBLE AT ALL" (43A: "Don't mention it — it was easy") (sheep! wait, goat?)

Word of the Day: KRILL (32D: Filtered food for whales) —

Krill (Euphausiids) (sg.: krill) are small and exclusively marine crustaceans of the order Euphausiacea, found in all of the world's oceans. The name "krill" comes from the Norwegian word krill, meaning "small fry of fish", which is also often attributed to species of fish.

Krill are considered an important trophic level connection near the bottom of the food chain. They feed on phytoplankton and, to a lesser extent, zooplankton, and are also the main source of food for many larger animals. In the Southern Ocean, one species, the Antarctic krill, makes up an estimated biomass of around 379 million tonnes (418 million tons), making it among the species with the largest total biomass. Over half of this biomass is eaten by whales, seals, penguins, seabirds, squid, and fish each year. Most krill species display large daily vertical migrations, providing food for predators near the surface at night and in deeper waters during the day.

Krill are fished commercially in the Southern Ocean and in the waters around Japan. The total global harvest amounts to 150,000 to 200,000 tonnes (170,000 to 220,000 tons) annually, mostly from the Scotia Sea. Most krill catch is used for aquaculture and aquarium feeds, as bait in sport fishing, or in the pharmaceutical industry. Krill are also used for human consumption in several countries. They are known as okiami (オキアミ) in Japan and as camarones in Spain and the Philippines. In the Philippines, they are also called alamang and are used to make a salty paste called bagoong.

Krill are also the main food for baleen whales, including the blue whale. (wikipedia)

• • •

LOL I think Morse Code heard me when I insulted it last week because today it got its revenge. I have no idea what dots and dashes and dits and dahs are supposed to be because I am not a 19th-century telegraphy expert or whatever kind of nerd and/or military person uses Morse Code, so [...---... in Morse] meant nothing to me. I thought it was a single letter at first and so wrote in ESS. Then, when that wouldn't work (no such thing as PTAE!), I changed the "E" to "S," giving me "SSS." Three dashes, three of the same letter ... made sense to me. (I was reading the "..."s as ellipses!) Why you'd want to hiss like a snake using Morse Code, I don't know, but who knows what kind of role-playing hijinks and shenanigans Morse Coders (?) will get up to? Not me, that's for sure. So, ESS to SSS and that was that. PTAE made me see my first error, but there was no way for me to see my next error, since PROMS looked like (and is) a perfectly good word. So I failed the Downs-only solve, felled by PROMS / SSS. Ah well. It was bound to happen some time. 

As for the theme ... toilet euphemisms are extremely not my thing, so the revealer didn't give me the giggle or chuckle or whatever that it likely gave many of you. I was more "EWW" or "THIS SUCKS" than haha there, that's for sure. And NATURE CALLS crossing LAV? Show that one to your 8yo, they'll probably laugh (once you explain what LAV means). I appreciate that the puzzle at least tried to make the revealer clever. And you do get a lot of theme for your money today. But I've never been that impressed with thematic portion size, as a puzzle value—the theme either pleases me or it doesn't, so More doesn't necessarily mean Better. I like the idea of all the animal sounds, but the execution here was a bit lackluster. The themers themselves are fine, with "NO TROUBLE AT ALL" and "THIS SUCKS!" being particularly vivid. But the rest of the grid is mostly short stuff and grimly dull. And also: style points deductions for not having the "hidden" word touch all the elements in the base phrase (i.e. the "HEARTS" in TWO OF HEARTS and the "NO" and "ALL" in "NO TROUBLE AT ALL" don't touch an animal call at all—I guess this is true of the first CHOO as well, but I'm being generous and counting CHOO-CHOO as one word). The perfect embedded- (or hidden-) word theme is one where the embedded element touches all the words in the base phrase. But sometimes you sacrifice perfection for just Making It Work. I get it.

TORO was on my mind because I had a whole TORO bullet point yesterday. I would've gotten TORO anyway, but the coincidence of having it appear again the day after I discussed it gave me a little jolt of "hey! there it is again!" Yesterday we got the fatty tuna type of TORO. Today, we get a decidedly more Monday TORO. There were no really tough parts of the Downs-only solve for me today (beyond the Morse Code disaster). I did not (at all) like PLAYS as the answer for 12D: What coins are exchanged for at an arcade. Coins buy PLAYS, if that's what you want to call them, but "exchanged?" That's an awkward, unnatural way to put it. I really wanted some equivalent of TOKENS here. I had no idea what the last word of ["Sometimes you just gotta ___"] was gonna be. DANCE? PAUSE? SAY 'F*** IT'? Needed a bunch of crosses to get "LAUGH," but they weren't hard to come by. I also screwed up and wrote in SEGA instead of SONY (33D: PlayStation maker) and KRULL instead of KRILL (32D: Filtered food for whales). Why? I blame being an adolescent boy when this movie came out:

I think that'll do for today. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Evil counterpart in an 1886 novella / SUN 4-19-26 / Winged beings of folklore / Heavy metal instrument in Verdi's "Il Trovatore" / Dooley Wilson's role in "Casablanca" / Slang term for a recording studio / Extract said to promote relaxation / Fatty tuna, at a sushi bar / Old name for Tokyo / Half of a candy duo / Eponymous hypnotist / Elaborate invitation from a senior, maybe

Constructor: Michael Lieberman

Relative difficulty: Medium

[I missed a a double Star Wars day on Friday!]

***Important Message from the NYT for PRINT SOLVERS***: 

Editor’s note: If you plan to solve the Sunday Crossword in this week’s New York Times Magazine, you will find that the answers will not fit. After the issue had already been printed, we discovered that there was an error with the solvable grid of the Sunday Crossword. A corrected version of the puzzle can be found on Page 25 of Sunday’s daily New York Times. We sincerely apologize for the confusion. The grids available to print online are correct.

THEME: "Nuclear Fusion" — six Down answers are two-word answers where each word is four letters and both words share a core (i.e. they have the same two center letters, hence "nuclear fusion"); these six answers are represented in the grid as one four-letter answer, with the first and last square of each answer (the non-core part) containing two letters. Thus, DEAD HEAT, for example, becomes [D/H] EA [D/T] (the "dead" and the "heat" parts are both present simultaneously but are to be taken sequentially). In the crosses, the doubled-letters are read as sequential letters (e.g., in the DEAD HEAT example, the crosses for the first and last letters are ISLAN[D/H]OPPED and PLAYE[D/T]O WIN:

Theme answers:

[D/H] EA [D/T] ("dead heat") (24D: Race that's too close to call)

• ISLAN[D H]OPPED (23A: Traveled from Syros to Naxos to Mykonos, say)
• PLAYE[D T]O WIN (36A: Wasn't messing around, say)

[L/G] AS [T/P] ("last gasp") (26D: Desperate final effort)

• I FEE[L G]REAT (25A: "That was rejuvenating!")
• SECRE[T P]LOTS (39A: Cabal's schemes)

[Y/C] AR [D/E] ("yardcare") (50D: Mowing, mulching, raking, etc.)

[B/L] OA [T/D] ("boat load") (64D: Ton of cargo)

• HAPP[Y C]AMPERS (49A: They've got no complaints)
• CIN[DE]R[BL]OCK (63A: Masonry unit)
• CONCER[T D]ATES (83A: Listings on a band T-shirt)

[S/H] EL [F/P] ("self-help") (92D: Where "The Four Agreements" and "The Five Love Languages" may be shelved)

• TEXA[S H]OLD 'EM (90A: Popular poker variant)
• OUT O[F P]LACE (107A: How a misfit might feel)

[H/W] AR [D/E] ("hardware") (94D: Most merchandise at Ace and True Value)

• BIRT[H W]EIGHT (93A: Baby book datum)
• UNREA[D E]MAILS (109A: Inbox zero targets)

Word of the Day: HELEN Frankenthaler (46A: Abstract Expressionist Frankenthaler) —

[Mauve District, 1966]

Helen Frankenthaler (December 12, 1928 – December 27, 2011) was an American abstract expressionist painter. She was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work for over six decades (early 1950s until 2011), she spanned several generations of abstract painters while continuing to produce vital and ever-changing new work. Frankenthaler began exhibiting her large-scale abstract expressionist paintings in contemporary museums and galleries in the early 1950s. She was included in the 1964 Post-Painterly Abstraction exhibition curated by Clement Greenberg that introduced a newer generation of abstract painting that came to be known as color field. Born in Manhattan, she was influenced by Greenberg, Hans Hofmann, and Jackson Pollock's paintings. Her work has been the subject of several retrospective exhibitions, including a 1989 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and been exhibited worldwide since the 1950s. In 2001, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

Frankenthaler had a home and studio in Darien, Connecticut. (wikipedia)

• • •

Wow. Exhausting just to explain and type out that theme. Like many architectural marvels whose distinguishing characteristics are solely architectural, this one left me a little cold. It does its thing, repeatedly, and ... that's that. There's no wordplay or cleverness beyond the puzzle title. I kept waiting for a revealer that never came. Eventually I realized that the title itself was the revealer. Was it easy for you to grasp the meaning of the title, even after you understood what was physically going on in the grid? I think it's pretty self-evident, but can see even a regular solver being pretty lost. But I don't know, maybe the meaning of "Nuclear Fusion" was transparent to everyone—once you figured out the theme, of course. Before that? Woof, good luck. Chaos! And even if you went looking for a revealer clue to help you out, as I've already said, there was none to be found. So you really had to hack at this thing to get it to reveal its mysteries. I did, anyway. I was well into the grid before I understood what was happening. From where I was sitting, at first it looking like the "H" was missing from "ISLAN[D-H]OPPED" and the "HEAT' was missing from "DEAD HEAT." The next themer that I "got" was all the way down the west side at TEXA[S H]OLD 'EM, where, once again, it looked like an "H" was missing in the Across (TEXAS OLD 'EM!) and the four-letter "H" word (in this case, the HELP from SELF HELP) was missing from the Down. So I thought it was an "H"-related theme ... and with the title being "Nuclear Fusion," I thought maybe the "H" was supposed to be Hydrogen. Seriously, I thought that. It seemed ... logical, at the time. Logical-ish. Not sure when or how I finally realized what the entire gimmick was (shared core in the Downs, double-letters for the crosses of the first and last squares of those Downs). I just know it was a slog getting there. Once I got there, the puzzle got easier. I wish it had been more interesting. The puzzle is impressive, in its way, but in the end its impressiveness is purely structural, which left me a little cold.

[45A: Dooley Wilson's role in "Casablanca"]

[Sam plays it, and plays it again, but no one ever says "Play it again, Sam"]

The puzzle played about as hard as a Sunday should play, I think. The theme might've been a little harder than usual to suss out, but the rest was very doable, while not being ridiculously easy. There were lots of non-theme answers that gave me at least a little bit of trouble. "HOLY ___"! So many options. Moley, Moses, Toledo, Cow, Smokes, etc. Couldn't think of the one that fit until I got a few crosses (3D: "Mamma mia!"). Both "SO MAD" and "SO EXCITED" took some doing. I don't really get why the "SO MAD" clue is in brackets (34A: ["Unbe-frickin-lievable!"]). Without the brackets ... it makes sense. Or is "SO MAD" a state of being as opposed to an actual exclamation? Seems awkward, but OK. CBD OIL took some effort, for sure, as I wanted a word, but then got an initialism, but then got both an initialism and a word! Twofer! (63D: Extract said to promote relaxation). The LAB / BANG bit stumped me for a bit, too. I guess I've heard a studio called a "LAB" (108D: Slang term for a recording studio), but if I've heard a "!" called a BANG, I don't remember it. I can infer it from the portmanteau "interrobang," which is a fusion of a question mark and exclamation point: 

But I've only ever referred to an exclamation point as an "exclamation point." Somehow I thought a PALISADE was a walkway and not a 54A: Defensive fortification, so that one took a little effort. My cabal had SECRET PLANS before they had SECRET PLOTS. And I think I had a CREAM EGG before I had a CREME EGG (84D: Cadbury confection). I did manage to remember who Renée RAPP was today (she was "Word of the Day" fairly recently), so that's nice. Nice for my brain, that it's not leaking All the new information it takes in. The one thing I truly don't understand in this puzzle is the clue on 1-Down. [Locks up?] = HAIR??? Obviously "locks" = "HAIR," but what the hell is this "up" business? I had UPDO in there at first, but the doubling up of "UP" made me think "well that ain't right." If "Locks" = HAIR (and it does), then I don't know what "up" is doing here. Seems entirely extraneous. I see that the clue wants to do a cheeky prison-related misdirect, but ... is the idea that you HAIR is "up" on your head!?!?!? If that's it, wow is that bad. People have HAIR on their damned feet. Come on, now ... It's true no one has "Locks" of HAIR on their feet, because locks appear only on the head ... which is why, as I say, you do not need the "up"—where else are locks going to be but "up" on your head?! These "?" clues have to land!

Bullets:

• 20A: ___ pasta (rhyming fusion dish) (RASTA) — easy, and it's got "fusion" in there (nice callback to the theme), but I wish the clue had given me any indication of what this dish actually consists of. I would've guessed something to do with jerk chicken, and apparently that is mostly correct. 
• 59A: Fatty tuna, at a sushi bar (TORO) — remembered this one today! (with a little nudge from the "T"). With two types of TORO already occupying my brain (the Spanish "bull," the snowblower brand), I figured I was doomed never to make a third meaning stick, but apparently, sticking hath occurred. More good news for my aging brain.

• 115A: Heavy metal instrument in Verdi's "Il Trovatore" (ANVIL) — cute pun on "heavy metal" (briefly tried to imagine someone playing Verdi on an electric guitar). That SW corner seems potentially treacherous, with not only this slightly odd clue on ANVIL, but an ANI / NIETO crossing that might catch non-Spanish-speaking non-jewelry fans flat-footed (111D: Alex and ___ (jewelry company) / 119A: Grandchild of un abuelo)
• 3D: "Mamma mia!" ("HOLY CANNOLI!") — speaking of Mamma Mia! ([cracks knuckles], watch this segue...), I had guest writers for the Friday and Saturday blog posts this week (thanks, Eli and Rafa!) because earlier this weekend I was in NYC seeing the new Broadway production of Death of a Salesman at the Winter Garden Theatre. I read in the playbill that the Winter Garden was where Cats ran for a mind-boggling 18 years (1982-2000), and that Cats was then immediately followed by ... Mamma Mia!, which also ran for an absurdly long time (2001-2013). So basically, for over three decades at the end of the 20th century and into the 21st, the Winter Garden was home to just two shows: Cats and Mamma Mia! The Winter Garden is a lovely theater, and this production of Death of a Salesman (starring Nathan Lane, Laurie Metcalf, Christopher Abbott and Ben Ahlers) was truly moving. Turns out crossword constructor Rebecca Goldstein was there on the same night! (I ran into her in line). I got to go backstage after the show—Laurie Metcalf is a crossword enthusiast and was gracious enough to invite me. Penelope and I got to see the stage up close and talk to Laurie for a bit. Needless to say, the whole evening was a genuine thrill. 

[Making claw-like gestures in the air, totally normal]

• 75D: Crown and ___ (alliterative bar order) (COKE) — Crown (Royal) is a Canadian whisky. COKE is ... well, presumably you know. I've never heard of Crown & COKE, only Jack & COKE, but the COKE part was easy to get. Apparently COKE & Fernet BRANCA is a really popular cocktail in Argentina (93D: Fernet- ___ (Italian digestif brand)). 
• 33D: Evil counterpart in an 1886 novella (HYDE) — counterpart to whom, you might ask? Well I'm not telling. OK, it's Siegfried (just kidding—Siegfried's evil counterpart was ROY) 

That's all for today. I'll see you next time. And thanks to Eli and Rafa for doing such a bang-up job with the Friday and Saturday write-ups, respectively!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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"The Jeffersons" or "The Simpsons," notably / SAT 4-18-26 / Team with the mascot Big Al, familiarly / Blitzed / Still waffling / "Hey, no backing out now!" / Texter's affectionate sign-off / It's not fit for human consumption

Constructor: Jesse Cohn

Relative difficulty: Easy/Medium



THEME: None

Word of the Day: HASSOCKS (27D: Relatives of ottomans) —

An ottoman is a piece of furniture.^[1] Generally, ottomans have neither backs nor arms. They may be an upholstered low couch or a smaller cushioned seat used as a table, stool or footstool. The seat may have hinges and a lid for the inside hollow, which can be used for storing linen, magazines, or other items, making it a form of storage furniture.^[2][3] The smaller version is usually placed near to an armchair or sofa as part of living room decor, or may be used as a fireside seat.^[4]

Ottoman footstools are often sold as coordinating furniture with armchairs, sofas, or gliders. Other names for this piece of furniture include footstool,^[5] hassock,^[6] and pouf[fe].^[7][8]

• • •

Hi friends -- Rafa here as your Rexplacement! Hope you enjoyed Eli yesterday, but today you're stuck with me. (*shameless plug alert* I also hope you enjoyed my DOWN TO A T puzzle earlier this week. It was so much work to make, and it was lovely to see it out in the world *end shameless plug alert*)

Anyways, it's the weekend, the weather is nice (where I live, at least!), and there are no themes in sight -- life is good! This was the kind of puzzle that I didn't love at the start, but grew on me so so so much during the solve and I was totally obsessed by the end. To be fair, the first two entries I put in were ATONERS and ARLES, which are arguably the weakest entries in the whole grid. So it really was all uphill from there. And wow, did we go uphill. CROCODILE TEARS and ROOKIE MISTAKE make an incredible stack, and there's so much delightful stuff woven in: POISON DART, FRIED EGG, WE HAD A DEAL, HANG TIGHT, BAREFOOT, SAFEWORD, I'M FOR IT, PET FOOD etc. etc. It felt like I was uncovering goodies everywhere I looked.

It's ELSA!

Looking for something to nitpick ... but struggling to find anything to mention other than the two entries I talked about. (Okay, maybe I also don't love GEOS) I was very into the fresh angles for some stale pieces of fill. ORR as the Catch-22 character was particularly delightful, as I just read that relatively recently. I was always always always prefer a literature reference over a sports reference!!! ROI as return on investment was also great, but maybe I'm biased by living in Silicon Valley and being around people who use that term in conversation all the time. Oh, also, I realize I am very pro airport code as fill. DFW! Good! More airport codes please! Why do we only see LGA and ORD? Let's branch out!

It's a FRIED EGG!

Let's talk about clues. Some clever clues here. [Cutting stuff] for satire felt very satisfying to figure out. I love clues where words change part of speech. (In this case the default interpretation is "cutting" as a verb, but the clue is actually using it as an adjective.) [Cause of amusement to a vet, maybe] was also cool because the correct "vet" interpretation was the third one that came to my mind (first army veteran, then veterinarian, and only then person with experience).

It's a RAMROD

So, yeah, I really liked this. Just super solid stuff all-around, and fun vibes oozing out the grid. Could maybe have used a handful more clever clues, and this would have really been elevated. Oh, it also felt a tad too easy for a Saturday. I'd have appreciated a bit more resistance. Hope to be back soon!

Bullets:

• 18A MOD [New outfit or accessory for a character, in video game lingo] — I've been obsessively playing the beta version of Slay the Spire 2. Anyone else? Always fun to see video game lingo in a puzzle.
• 18D MALTESE [Silky-haired toy] — Took me a while to realize this meant a toy dog, and not a toy for kids to play with
• 38A MATS [Routine surfaces] — This is about gymnastics routines
• 8D BAREFOOT [How people get into a swimming pool, typically] — Such a weirdly specific clue for this ... it kinda made me giggle

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Set of notes in a seventh chord / FRI 4-17-26 / First Super Bowl won by the Kansas City Chiefs in 50 years / Medicare subsection covering ambulance services / 50, on a table / Modern home of ancient Mesopotamia / 2008 Clint Eastwood film centered around an attempted car theft

Constructor: Rachel Fabi

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: Not on a Friday! TGIF!

Word of the Day: I WANT CANDY (11D: 2000 song for Aaron Carter about seeing someone "tough but sweet") —

Aaron Carter released a cover of "I Want Candy" as his seventh overall single, and the second single from his second album, Aaron's Party (Come Get It) (2000).

This version of "I Want Candy" begins with a phone conversation with a friend about a girl named Candy and features the participation of his brother Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys. Carter promoted it by performing it on the show Lizzie McGuire. A music video was produced to promote the single, directed by Andrew MacNaughtan. Carter released a remix of the song in 2018, self-produced on his LøVë album.

(I know the original Strangeloves version of this song, and I know Aaron Carter from that time he beat Shaq, but this cover was new to me)

• • •

Hey Puzzle People! In case you couldn't tell by the fact that I talked about knowing an Aaron Carter song, it's a Rexplacement day, and you've got Eli blogging your puzzle. And what a delight to get today's puzzle! To be fair, I love Rachel Fabi. She's not just one of my favorite constructors, she's also just awesome. She actually sent me the dry yeast that became my sourdough starter at (or just before) the start of the pandemic. That starter is still living and fermenting like crazy! Anyway, sorry if I'm a little biased. Let's get to it!

17D: BRINGER: "Mars, the ____ of War" (first movement of "The Planets")

I played tuba through high school, so I have a real affinity for Holst's "The Planets" (especially Mars), but that video is still the first thing that pops into my nerd brain when I hear it.

ON A POSITIVE NOTE (6D: "Bad new aside...") I truly enjoyed this puzzle, even if it didn't put up much of a fight. A lot of long fill, natural language, fun trivia, and I still finished well under 4 minutes. I don't think I rolled my eyes once. It was sharp, clean, and modern while staying mostly accessible with very few proper nouns. Even looking back over the grid, I'm not seeing much to criticize (outside of the difficulty). 7 down answers longer than 9 letters (plus a grid spanning Across) and not feeling any strain? That's impressive. LORD IT OVER (28D: Act superior to) and TAKES A HINT (10D: Gets the memo) both stand out.

I don't think Rex has been doing the "Days Without A Star Wars Reference" bit for a little while, but if he was, he'd have to break the sign. We have both HAN (35A: Solo pilot?) and YODA (52D: Weird Al Yankovic Parody of the Kinks's "Lola") in the grid today. But I'm going to consider Yoda to be a Weird Al reference because I will always take the time for Weird Al.

Weird Al is currently fighting Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel (with Ben Folds Five and Marvelous 3 just behind) for "artist I've seen the most times live." If you've never seen his "Yoda Chant" do yourself a favor and check it out:

I love seeing DEAD ASS (34D: Seriously, in modern slang) and LAUDANUM (38D: Opium product used by Anna Karenina and Victor Frankenstein) right next to each other made me giggle. SQUARE UP (20A: Settle a bill) also stood out for me, though I couldn't say why. I also really loved both the answer and clue for GET USED TO IT (5D: End of a gay pride slogan) even if "We don't want anymore bears" didn't fit like I wanted it to:

Simpsons reference achieved!

Trying to find something to nitpick.... I guess ECRU (3D: Natural shade) and PDAS (32D: BlackBerrys, e.g., for short) are a little tired, but that's pretty forgivable. So, yeah, I had a blast solving today, and these days, I'll take any enjoyment I can get. Thank you, Rachel, for sending me into the weekend in a great mood!

Stray Thoughts:

• 13A: Sea Creature known to mourn its dead (ORCA) — Very fun piece of trivia, but for me, there is only one Orca:

Jaws forever!

• 36A: Worst of all imaginable chronologies (DARKEST TIMELINE) — For a show that was constantly struggling to avoid cancellation, Community sure did have a big impact on the pop culture lexicon. And deservedly so! #sixseasonsandamovie

• 22A: Georgia hometown of R.E.M. and the B-52s (ATHENS) — I've spent some time in Athens, GA and it's a very cool town. In addition to the icons noted in the clue (and the University of Georgia), it is also home to Creature Comforts brewing (I have a t-shirt repping their Tropicalia IPA). But really I'm only highlighting this as an excuse to post some R.E.M. 

Are you talking REM, RE: Me?

****MORNING EDIT****

Hi again! I can't believe I forgot to mention that constructor Rachel Fabi is also one of the creators/editors/guiding voices behind These Puzzles Fund Abortion, a series of puzzle packs created around the belief that everyone should have access to safe and affordable abortion care. TPFA6 just launched and is available HERE. For $25 recommended donation, you get access to a fantastic pack of puzzles created by some of the best in the business. It's always one of my favorite projects of the year. In fact, I'm going to go make my donation right now! 

****END OF EDIT****

Ok, I think that's all I've got for today. I went heavier on the videos than I'd anticipated. Rafa will be joining you tomorrow, so have fun and have a great weekend!

Signed, Eli Selzer, False Dauphin of CrossWorld

[Follow Eli Selzer on BlueSky]
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Rx for a root canal / THU 4-16-26 / Portmanteau for a queer Fortnite player, say / Big payroll service co. / Source of a deal with The Devil? / Fields medalist Terence / Joel's smuggling partner on "The Last of Us" / Ventricle suppliers / Insect nicknamed for its small size / Negation word in French / Fish whose name is Spanish for "pretty"

Constructor: Rafael Musa and Sala Wanetick

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: DOWN / TO A T (63A: With 65-Across, with extreme precision ... or a hint to reading 15 of this puzzle's answers) — Fifteen Down answers end with a "T" that appears not as usual (i.e. in a box like all the other letters) but as a "T"-shaped black-letter formation

Theme answers:

• INDIC(T) (4D: Charge)
• "AM I NO(T)?" (5D: Question from someone seeking reassurance)
• EVEN(T) (12D: Occasion)
• TARO(T) (15D: Source of a deal with The Devil?)
• ATLAS(T) (6D: "Finally!")
• TEASE(T) (7D: Service with cups and saucers)
• DAYS PAS(T) (13D: Previous times)
• BRA(T) (27D: Kid who might get grounded)
• OPEN SEA(T) (14D: Welcome sight in musical chairs)
• DELIS(T) (30D: Take off the market)
  
• ABU(T) (38D: Be against, in a way)
• DIVER(T) (31D: Reroute)
• SCRIP(T) (32D: Something a reality show lacks)
• EGO(T) (40D: Achievement for Whoopi Goldberg and Rita Moreno, in brief)
• BASAL(T) (33D: Igneous rock that makes up most of Venus's surface)

Word of the Day: To a T (65A) —

Precisely; exactly; perfectly; with great attention to detail. // The origins of this phrase are uncertain, but it has been observed in print since at least 1693,^[1] and likely was around well before that. The possibly related phrase to a tittle is found in a 1607 play, The Woman Hater by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher ("I'll quote him to a tittle"). The T in the phrase to a T is likely the first letter of a word, with tittle being the most likely source.

Other theories with little evidence point to golf tees, for their small size; this may have at least influenced the alternative form to a tee. Some speculate a relationship with T-square, a measuring device introduced around the turn of the century. Others claim the expression refers to the correct completion of the letter t by crossing it.

In print from "Two Years Before the Mast" published in 1840, and, even then, using quotes, refers to the practice of squaring up a yardarm with a mast on a sailing ship such that it made a perpendicular T. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well, I finally got a Thursday with some fight in it. I really appreciated that. It wasn't just the theme that made things tough—very tough, early on—it was ... everything. I never really picked up momentum at any point, never flew through any part of this one. A grind from start to finish. It was mostly an enjoyable grind, so I didn't mind, but yeah, no whoosh today. There was one "aha"—the moment I figured out the gist of the theme. But once that happens ... it's just a one-note theme. There's nothing left to discover, except the revealer (unless you started there, which was possibly a good idea today—I did not do this). Speaking of the revealer ... why isn't it resonating with me? It's a phrase I know I've seen, and I can kinda hear someone saying it, but it's overlapping and getting interference with the phrase "done to a turn" (usu. used of food that's cooked perfectly). Is "to a turn" sometimes abbreviated "TO A T?" I know the phrase "down to a science." As for "TO A T," it mostly stands on its own and doesn't need "down." Seems like it's most often preceded by the verb "fits," as in many of these examples I just found (at Grammarist):

My gender has nothing to do with my frustration here: it’s 2011 and I am not Suzy Homemaker from 1952 who follows rigid gender roles to a T. [The Frisky]

It fits to a T the reform pledge that former Mayor Ed Koch circulated during the campaign – signed by 138 of the state’s 212 legislators. [New York Daily News]

[H]e seems like the kind of guy who would value life experience more than possessions, and at times that philosophy fits him to a T.  [Superbike Planet]

After finding out its definition, she decided the word fit her sixth-grade girls team to a T. [The Salem News]

So I acknowledge that DOWN / TO A T is a valid phrase, but it didn't exactly land, to my ears. But it does work in a very literal way for today's concept. I want to call attention to the fact that none of the "T"-ending words look like gibberish in the grid; without the "T," every one of them looks like a real (if unclued) word. That is the kind of elegance of execution a theme like this needs. Maybe some people won't notice, but it's a nice touch.

The puzzle does have a truly ugly SW corner, though. Also, a tough corner (esp. if you don't watch The Last of Us, which I do not). That clue on LEISURE made getting into that corner at all a real challenge. I had SCRIBES and still, even with the first letters of all the downs down there, I was stuck. I had to go down and get SSN and then claw my way back out. Inferring DOWN got me the "W" for RIPSAW, and I was on my way, but yeesh. ADP? American Dollar Processors? Andy's Downtown Payroll? (it's American Data Processing) (51A: Big payroll service co.). Never ever ever a fan of random three-letter initialisms of non-everyday things where the initials are a complete "???" I've seen ADP in puzzles before, but no way that thing is ever sticking. No one would put that answer in their grid if they weren't totally desperate. And CEDE TO ... oof, OK, I guess. As for The Last of Us, I know this is a popular show, but it's HBO popular, which means people who watch it tend to vastly overestimate exactly how many people are watching it. 

Season two's premiere of the post-apocalyptical TV series “The Last of Us” counted 5.3 million viewers across the linear HBO channel and streaming service HBO Max, an increase compared to the first episode of the first season. However, season two's final was watched by only 3.7 million people. The TV show is based on a video game franchise of the same name and was produced by Sony Pictures Television. (staista.com)

I know the show is based on a video game, so maybe this TESS is in the video game too? I dunno. I just know that 55A: Joel's smuggling partner on "The Last of Us" was just a random four-letter name to me, without even any indication of gender. That under ADP (ugh) crossing CEDE TO—ugly. The clue on LEISURE is actually good, though (49A: This isn't working!)—it just made that corner that much harder.

I made mistakes everywhere. TAU for TAO was particularly awful (2D: Fields medalist Terence). In that same NW corner, I had "AM I OK?" at 5D: Question from someone seeking reassurance—that may have been the deepest and most brutal hole I fell into, since that answer felt so right. Oh, and I drink gin ... not infrequently ... but I have never heard gin described as PINEY (18A: Like some gin and cleaning products). I'm not saying no one does this. I'm saying that if you struggled with that answer, I see you, I hear you, I understand, and I would like to validate your feelings about the not-obvious connection between gin and PINEY. Floral? Botanical? London Dry? Old Tom? Sloe? So many words and terms I associate with gin. Gin that takes like cleaning product? Not familiar. Don't know what I had in there at first, but it wasn't PINEY. 

Bullets:

• 14A: ___ Moshtegh, "My Year of Rest and Relaxation" novelist (OTTESSA) — still haven't read her, but I've seen her name (and her books) a bunch over the (recent) years. I knew her name was unusual, but I thought it was even more unusual than it ended up being. "Isn't there an 'H' in there somewhere?" I think I was thinking of her last name. Anyway, I knew this one but didn't know it know it. Kinda surprised to see OTTESSA and TESS in the same grid. They may be unrelated names, but they feel and look related.
  

• 1D: X, for one (APP) — now I'm remembering why getting started was such slow going. I got ATRIA fine, but "confirmed" it with TAU (wrong), and then couldn't "confirm" any of the other Downs. With three of those Downs, the reason was obvious (I didn't know what was going on with the theme). But with APP, ugh. &^#$%! why is the deranged billionaire white supremacist guy's right-wing disinformation pig sty of an APP in here? So many APPs in the world! So! Many! I know, I know, X gives you the opportunity to misdirect people. Congrats, it worked ... 
• 16A: Performer known for her runs (POP DIVA) — vocal runs

• 11A: Rx for a root canal (PAIN MED) — oof, yet another reason that NW was tough. Nothing particularly "root canal"-y about a PAIN MED (which looks a little odd to me in the singular, but I'll allow it).
• 43D: Tool with coarse teeth (RIPSAW) — had the "R" and wrote in RASPER for some reason (!?!?!)
• 15D: Source of a deal with The Devil? (TARO(T)) — even knowing the "T" gimmick, I struggled with this one. The Devil is a card in a standard TAROT deck.

• 27D: Kid who might get grounded (BRA(T)) — the answer where I (finally) figured out the "T" thing. First thought there was some kind of wordplay going on, like maybe the "Kid" was a goat, or else "grounded" was going to have some airplane-type meaning, I don't know. But the crosses all filled in pretty easily and then I was like "BRA? But that's missing a letter. Where's the ... ohhhhh, there it is." I then went back up and took care of that formerly impossible NW corner:

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Letterboxd]
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