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Soft, warm, tingly feeling, in brief / MON 6-15-26 / Certain group of hip-hop performers / Cash crop of northern Brazil / Response to a series of complaints / Device that helps you make a point in class? / Revolutionary kitchen gadget? / Toy likely to be found at a pop-up store?
Monday, June 15, 2026
Constructor: Eric Rolfing
Relative difficulty: Medium (solved Downs-only)
Theme answers:
- PENCIL SHARPENER (17A: Device that helps you make a point in class?)
- JACK-IN-THE-BOX (27A: Toy likely to be found at a pop-up store?)
- SALAD SPINNER (47A: Revolutionary kitchen gadget?)
An autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is a tingling sensation and pleasant form of paresthesia, that usually begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. ASMR has been compared with synesthesia and may overlap with frisson. ASMR is a subjective experience of "low-grade euphoria" characterized by "a combination of positive feelings and a distinct static-like tingling sensation on the skin". It is most commonly triggered by specific auditory and visual stimuli, and less commonly by intentional attention control.
The term can also refer to media (usually audiovisual) meant to evoke this phenomenon, with the sensation itself being informally referred to as "tingles". (wikipedia)
• • •
The Downs-only solve was a bear for me today, or a partial bear, I guess, but only because I made stupid mistakes and assumptions. The mistake was LAP CAT for PET CAT (something about the "pet" even now seems oddly redundant, though I recognize that PET CAT is a real phrase) (49D: Companion that might fall asleep on your keyboard). Something about the "keyboard" bit made me think that the cat had been on your lap and then ... crawled up on your computer? I don't know. Maybe I envisioned this because I'm currently sitting at a desk in front of a computer ... though my cats are nowhere to be seen right now (although Ida is wandering around crying for some reason, or no reason). LAP CAT was a horrible mistake to make because both the "A" and the "P" from LAP checked out (giving me ADAM and GAPE, respectively, instead of the ultimately correct EDAM and GATE). Because the "A" and "P" checked out, I didn't doubt the "L" ... and somehow convinced myself that a SALAD SLINGER was a thing. This put a "G" right in the middle of the one Down answer I was really having trouble with: 34D: Navigational aids for website users (MAIN MENUS). I figured out the MENUS bit eventually, but the incorrect "G" had me guessing BLOG MENUS at one point, and then when that didn't work ... I was stuck. Somehow, I don't know how—possibly by just taking the "G" out—I was able to conjure up MAIN. Then realized SLINNER wasn't a word. Then noticed it should be SPINNER. And PET CAT. Sigh. Dug a hole, stayed in it a while, climbed out. I had some trouble earlier with DANCE CREW (3D: Certain group of hip-hop performers), but that just took some persistence with the crosses. Never got well and truly stuck. Oh, I did have some trouble with SPLEEN (5D: White blood cell producer said to be shaped like a coffee bean). Turns out I had no idea what the SPLEEN did! "White blood cell producer," you say? "Shaped like a coffee bean," it's said? News to me, and also news to me.
Bullets:
- 45A: Former boxer Ali who voiced herself in a "Scooby Doo" series (LAILA) — everything after "Ali" in this clue feels unnecessary. Is this how people know LAILA Ali? Is this a definitive accomplishment? Also, how many "Scooby Doo" series are there??? If you aren't willing to be specific, then why are you adding this useless bit of trivia at all?
- 52A: Semihard cheese of North Holland (EDAM) — speaking of Holland, that NED-JAP World Cup match was great. Netherlands tried semihard to win, but Japan scored an amazing equalizer late to tie 'em (I really wanted to say "b-EDAM," but Japan didn't win so I couldn't, alas).
- 10D: False reason given for doing something (PRETEXT) — what's the difference between "pretense" and PRETEXT? It looks like, in this case, they're basically synonyms ("Pretense" def. 2: "A professed but feigned reason or excuse; a pretext.")
That's all for today. See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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20 comments:
Cute enough early week idea that did come up a little short. Rex highlights some of the clunk with the CRANK. The SOMEBODY in the revealer felt off referring to inanimate objects.
You Didn’t Mean Anything To Me
Overall fill was fine - DANCE CREW, PRETEXT, ESCHEWS are all solid. Drew a blank on ASMR - rare to need the crosses early week.
Pleasant enough Monday morning solve.
TARPIT
I'd give it a slightly higher rating than Rex did.
I first had "eta" instead of RTE for the GPS clue, which slowed things down a bit. Didn't know ASMR, but got it from the crosses. Clue for JACKINTHEBOX was a highlight for me.
I noted while solving and Rex pointed out that a lot of it is tried and true crosswordese, which I suppose is not unusual for a Monday. The theme is serviceable and benign, which is how it should be, so no complaints there either. A good start to the week, especially after yesterday’s debacle.
Today, the theme answers each triggered a strong response from my past.
PENCIL SHARPENER reminded me of the potent smell of pencil shavings that would strike me when I used to empty one. As I’m thinking about it now, I can smell it as if it were right in front of me.
JACK IN THE BOX. I was scared out of my wits the first time Mr. Jack popped up, and I never played with it again. Even now I remember it whenever I hear "Pop Goes The Weasel".
SALAD SPINNER. When a visiting five-year-old saw ours and asked what it was, I showed him how it worked, and that did it. He kept coming back to it, taking it apart, spinning his action figures, putting his ear to it and listening to its noise, wearing the inner basket as a hat – it reminded me today how creative the young mind is, and that I need to spend more time with youngsters.
So, your puzzle, Eric, not only gave me a terrific “Hah!” when I uncovered CRANKY, but also got me thinking outside the box. Thank you!
My five favorite original clues from last week
(in order of appearance):
1. Characterize? (5)
2. Suit in a certain suite (4)
3. Epic beginning (4)(3)
4. Style with spotty coverage? (11)
5. Part between the shoulders (4)
SPELL
EXEC
PART ONE
POINTILLISM
LANE
My favorite encore clues from last week:
[It might have many sides] (4)
[Ghost story?] (5)
MENU
ATTIC
Not so easy Monday puzzle but very enjoyable.Compared to yesterday’s fiasco, this puzzle can do no wrong.🎈🎈🎊🎊
I liked it a lot.
I liked it a spot.
I liked it while turning a thing that could rot.
I liked it while spinning and whirling and whizzing.
I liked it so much that my coffee went missing.
Today’s puzzle was full of things that go round!
They twirled in the clues and they spun all around!
A PENCIL SHARPENER sharpens with spin.
A JACK IN THE BOX has a crank on its chin.
A SALAD SPINNER goes swizzle-swish-swoosh.
It sloshes the lettuce and gives it a whoosh.
The revealer appeared and it gave me a grin.
A revolutionary gadget? Well yes! Let us spin!
Now some puzzles are grumpy.
They’re humpy and lumpy.
They sit on your breakfast and make your brain frumpy.
But this one was friendly.
Not tricky. Not mean.
The friendliest puzzle I’ve solved all this week, nearly.
The clues didn’t bite.
The clues didn’t bark.
They didn’t send solvers alone in the dark.
They pointed and nodded and opened the gate.
They said, “Come on through! We have answers! They’re great!”
And so I spun onward.
I spun and I sped.
With pencils and lettuce all stuck in my head.
I finished the grid and I gave it a clap.
Then wished I could crank up another like that.
A fine little Monday.
A bright little winner.
Three cheers for the box and the sharpener and spinner.
Weirdly difficult as a downs-only solve, which didn’t get me very far today. 2 mny abbs.
So-so puzzle, but a great write-up from Rex. Harold Lloyd was a genius. And if Raymond Chandler had ever set a scene in a vegan diner, Philip Marlowe would have called a waitress a SALAD SLINGER.
Perfectly fine Monday fare. A theme that worked with a revealer that landed well.
ASMR happens to be something I don't know, but as always, very happy to learn something new from both Crosslandia and @Rex write-ups. Vocab lessons are rare on Mondays, so I appreciated this one.
Tiny snag in the NE as I dropped down wHEW instead of PHEW and refused to admit the error for a bit too long. I also constantly misspell LAILA with a Y on my first try but the cross was Monday easy so that was a quick fix.
PENCILSHARPENER is a pretty spanner and SOMEBODYSCRANKY looks kinda neat as well as the revealer. I do agree with @Rex - the phrase is itself nothing but obnoxious. Nobody has ever used it to be helpful or sympathetic. Let's get rid of it in everyday language BUT... let's keep it in puzzles cuz it's snappy fill.
Thanks for this Eric, a good workmen's start to the week.
And now on to Hugh's Monday Haikus (which I missed last week as I was at my niece's wedding - the cards and letters that poured in about missing my little entries was overwhelming, I'll be sure to answer each one 😊)
My HOME SPORT team won
'EDAM and weep all you Spurs
Stats say Knicks BEET you.
DANCE CREW came easily for me, probably because I recently rewatched The Good Place.
My favorite part of this puzzle was using "plz" as an abbreviation indicator in the clue for 33-A. The most puzzling part, for me, was the phrase "said to be" in the clue for 5-D -- are you trying to tell me that the SPLEEN is not really shaped like a coffee bean, after all? And my least favorite part was a tie: cluing ETCHED as "did some engraving" (they are different techniques), and cluing ASSN as "The A in PTA (abbr.) The NYT loves that kind of clue, but I hate it. I get it that you can't spell out Association, but expanding the initialism and then abbreviating the expansion is just ridiculous. Why not just clue it "Org, maybe?"
Overall, a tad boring, although I did like the minitheme of cars from East Asia.
Hey All !
Liked it. Simple, to the point. Another Themer could've been MODEL T STARTER. Or SIREN SOUNDER AT THE START OF HOCKEY GAMES. Although that one may be too long. 😁
Speaking of Hockey, as a Golden Knights fan, I will say Congrats to the Hurricanes on their Stanley Cup win. Although, some of their fans were very nasty in stuff they said online. Like, UNALIVING the Knights goalie. C'mon, man, have some decorum.
Another Monday, although with my current schedule, it's my Friday, having Tuesday and Wednesday off. You know, in case you gave a whit.
Hope y'all have a great Monday!
No F's - That's SIC. Har.
RooMonster
DarrinV
Liked this more than OFL, must be a day ending in Y. PENCILSHARPENER went in off the PEN, although ours doesn't have a handle, it's the kind you stick your pencil in and the process begins and ends when your pencil is now an inch shorter. Lots of familiar crosswordese which I don't mind on a Monday, beginners have to get exposure at some point. Thought the themers were apt and I didn't see the revealer coming so fine by me.
TIL ASMR. I had it filled in entirely through crosses, knew it had to be right, but its was still a total WOE. Live and learn.
Thought this was an above-average Monday, ER. Short on names, yay. An Easy Romp but pleasant enough, and thanks for all the fun.
And now off to get my eyeball injection for WMD, which sounds worse than it is an is maintaining my vision, a tradeoff I gladly make.
To me CRANKY is just a funny word used seriously with babies and as a joke with adults. Learned what the SPLEEN does and first I heard of ASMR. I share @Lewis’s memory of the smell of pencil shavings. Felt the theme was a bit of a stretch but did provide some mental exercise along with words like ESCHEW and PRETEXT.
PET CAT took me a while as well (though since I don’t do downs-only, the difficulty did not get me in the same trouble that Rex describes), and I think I was more unhappy with it as a standalone phrase than Rex is. I’ll trust that it is indeed one, since it checked out for Rex who is in fact a cat owner, but it felt weird to me. I’ve never said “pet dog” even though my family has never not owned dogs in my lifetime—I might specify the “pet” for animals that are not as often domesticated, like “pet snake” or something. But again, I’ll trust that it’s fine.
Lewis once shared that he likes to challenge himself to guess the revealer on early week puzzles, so I’ve been trying to do so—I was close on this one, but the word that came to mind for the three objects was “turning” rather thank cranky. Thus the revealer did indeed make me smile, even though I felt a similar distaste at imagining scenarios in which one might actually use the phrase.
I hadn’t noticed that each of these objects are a bit antiquated (at least if they are “cranky” as the revealer describes). That is indeed an added fun thing of this puzzle. I wonder if younger solvers have used a cranky PENCIL SHARPENER; I myself have never used a cranky SALAD SPINNER (just the kind that Rex describes), so I was initially wanting some kind of apple corer.
Solved while in the hospital with my wife who suffered a fall a week ago. Xwords are a welcome relief from the tedium of being a stowaway in her room. No probs with this one but question the use of a 4 letter acronym instead of a Mondayish word.
I thought I'd save up all my sins so I could ATONE ATONE time.
The only thing worse than toenail fungus is TARPITS.
I recently went to my doctor and he gave me a PETScan, a CATScan and a PETCAT. The first two were negative and the other was indifferent.
The computerized account of Ms. de Armas' comings and goings is a digital ANA log.
We were listening to music when Hotel California came on and Mrs. Egs said "Ooh, I love R.E.M." I had to correct her, "It's not REMITS the Eagles."
If you're having trouble with your PODIA you should see a PODIAtrist.
I accidentally looked at the first across clue so I decided to just do an Acrosses Only solve. It turned out to be very easy, as the themers were near-gimmes without any crosses. So I enjoyed this, but only briefly. Thanks, Eric Rolfing.
Medium. The revealer is funny to me, because I have some in-laws, a married couple, not far from 70 years old, no children, the male half decidedly a grouchy CRANKY guy, who one morning arrived at the breakfast table, taciturn and disconsolate, and his wife -- I swear to god she said this -- asked him, "Are we fussy?" Long drawn-out "Yeeeah." That question and his answer are hilarious to me and I can't help myself, I have to recite it to my family practically on a daily basis. "Are we fussy". Something you might ask a small child -- or possibly you can imagine a very condescending nurse asking her fussy elderly patient (are we fussy), but it seems almost fictional in nature. But no, this is what Margaret actually said to Mark, and not meanly or ironically either, it was almost solicitous, and that's exactly how he responded, and you can draw your own conclusions about the nature of that relationship. But anyway, big grin as I read the beginning of Rex's review, with the word "fussy" in it, and like Rex said, yeah, I kind of do want to give each of them a smack any time I'm forced to be around them, and nobody in my family feels any different even though we laugh about those two constantly.
Really nothing else to add! Rex, I'm sorry that I generally don't have my act together enough to remember to mail you a donation in the beginning of the year, but seeing you write these reviews, day in, day out, and often so entertaining, I think I may have to rectify that soon.
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