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Meccano offering for budding builders / MON 7-13-26 / Singer Vikki with three Grammys / Woodsy abode / Human's earliest phase, according to Freud / Metaphorical Cold War barrier / Small aircraft for short flights
Monday, July 13, 2026
Constructor: Lynn Lempel
Relative difficulty: Challenging (when solved Downs-only)
Theme answers:
Holy cow that was harrowing. I could tell that those NE and SW corners were potential trouble for a Downs-only solver (i.e. me), but I had no idea how much trouble. Banks of longer Downs (7-7-8) ... trying to get into those when you're solving Downs-only can be very tough. In general, the longer the answer, the harder it is to solve without any crosses, and when you're solving Downs-only, most of the time, you don't have any crosses. So from the NW to the SE, I was good. No trouble. I cut a diagonal swath through this one without too much effort. But those NE and SW corners, dear lord. First pass at both of them yielded nothing. And I mean nothing. Even the five-letter downs (which ended up being SCANT and BASTE)—nothing. Nada. I thought SCANT was LEAST (10D: Minimal), maybe, and I had no idea about BASTE (really hard BASTE clue for a Monday, imho—way more people are familiar with basting a turkey, say, than basting as a form of sewing). Luckily, because I knew the theme, I was able to get the STAGE part of ORAL STAGE, so I had some small amount of help in the NE, but I could not figure out the TURBO part of TURBO PROP, so in the SW I was even more at sea. My first breakthrough was LOG CABIN (11D: Woodsy abode), and the "G" from STAGE eventually got me ENRAGED, but WEASELS, boy that took some time (13D: Sneaky types). SLE- could've been SLED. AGR- could've been a prefix (AGRI-? AGRO-?). Was it INCAN or INCAS? BED, BEE, BEG, BEL, BEN, BET ...? I was ready to give in with neither of the big corners finished, but I pushed on and the NE fell first. The SW ... I guessed SETTLED and that started the ball rolling. But that [Emphatic affirmative], yikes, that could've been a million things. "YES I CAN!"? "HELL YES!" I think I tried "I SURE AM!" at one point and then "I SURE DO" just worked better. The very last thing to fall was BASTE, but since I had TRIED before TRIAD, even that last little answer was trouble. So ... a satisfying struggle! Victory was mine! And yeah, the theme ... it's pretty good. Nice bit of wordplay in the revealer. Interesting answers. Very Monday. Thumbs up.
- ERECTOR SET (17A: Meccano offering for budding builders)
- ORAL STAGE (25A: Human's earliest phase, according to Freud)
- IRON CURTAIN (35A: Metaphorical Cold War barrier)
- TURBO PROP (48A: Small aircraft for short flights)
: to sew with long loose stitches in order to hold something in place temporarily (merriam-webster.com)
• • •
Knowing the theme helped a lot with the Downs-only solve (ORAL STAGE in particular), though I was confused at first because an ERECTOR SET is literally a "plaything" (as in a "toy") and so I kind of expected all the themers to be toys. But then I got IRON CURTAIN and thought, "that's not a toy? Is it? Was there an IRON CURTAIN board game or something?" No. I mean, maybe, who knows, but games and toys are not, in the end, the point of the theme answers. The "Play" in PLAYTHINGS = a stage play. Funny—I saw Death of a Salesman in April, and just today (literally, like an hour ago) my friend Dawn saw the same production and posted about it before the play started, at intermission, and afterward.
The fill is clean today, but ... Vikki CARR felt very dated (36D: Singer Vikki with three Grammys). Not a Monday clue for anyone under, say 50. I knew her name, but a. I'm not under 50, and b. I thought it might be KARR (though now that I look at KARR, that looks awfully wrong). Can you name a Vikki CARR song? I wanna say "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia." Is that right??? Whoops, no, that's Vicki "Don't Call me Vikki" Lawrence, of The Carol Burnett Show fame. Vikki CARR sang "He's a Rebel" (!). All of her Grammys were for Latin music.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Carr had enormous success in the Latin music world, winning Grammy Awards for Best Mexican-American Performance in 1986 for her album Simplemente Mujer, Best Latin Pop Album in 1992 for Cosas del Amor and Best Mexican-American Performance in 1995 for Recuerdo a Javier Solís. (wikipedia)Along with UNSER, Vikki CARR gives this puzzle an old-fashioned feel, but in general the fill is simply broadly accessible, with very little pop culture to date it at all.
Bullets:
- 29D: Humorous parody (SEND-UP) — another trouble spot. You know what else fits the clue and starts with an "S"? SATIRE!
- 25A: Human's earliest phase, according to Freud (ORAL STAGE) — something about the wording on this clue feels so strange. "Human?" Like, one? The clue feels like it's being uttered by an alien. [Earliest stage of human development] somehow makes more sense / sounds more natural.
- 31A: Ann Patchett novel "___ Canto" ("BEL") — she has a new book out. It's got a horse on the cover but (I hear) has no horses in it at all. I forget the name, hang on ... Oh, right. Whistler. From the cover, it looks like it's about a horse named Whistler, but apparently it is not, in fact, about a horse named Whistler. I've heard good things so I might try to shoehorn it into my book queue, which is currently filled with Colson Whitehead books (currently rereading Crook Manifesto in preparation for next week's release of Cool Machine, the last book in the Harlem Trilogy). Other books in the queue are Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones (which I started on vacation and am really enjoying) and Employees by Olga Ravn (which I'm reading for my Movie Club Book Club) (my Movie Club started a Book Club, what can I say, these things happen)
 |
| [Out July 21] |
 |
| [Again, according to some guy I saw on Instagram: not about a horse] |
- 18D: Ohio port on Lake Erie (TOLEDO) — speaking of my (Lake Huron) vacation, we drove through TOLEDO both ways. Despite having gone to graduate school only an hour or so away, I've only ever driven through Toledo ... except for that one time I went to the museum there. A really first-rate institution. Saw a Rubens exhibit there in the '90s. Stunning.
 |
| [The Head of Cyrus Brought to Queen Tomyris (Rubens, c. 1622)] [This painting is massive: roughly 7.5 ft x 12 ft] |
That's all for today. See you next time.
P.S. forgot to mention I had PLED OUT before SETTLED (38D: Avoided a trial, say). It felt so right!
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54 comments:
Wonderfully elegant early week puzzle. Not surprising - Lynn built her name with these types of grids. Neat theme and well filled. ERECTOR SET, ORAL STAGE, IRON CURTAIN all top notch.
STREAMS of Whiskey
Rex highlights the fill - great stuff. Vikki Carr is a little dated I guess but this one is clean and smooth.
Highly enjoyable Monday morning solve.
Time and a Word
Don't use "downs only," so it was easy for me. Solved it as a themeless, but as a one-time stage actor I enjoyed the theater references in hindsight.
@rex -- My wife just finished reading "Whistler" and immediately put it on top of my pile of to-reads, saying, basically, "This woman is a gift to humanity!"
👍🏼
I agree with Rex that this was a challenging downs-only solve. (Well, for me, a downs-mostly solve, and eventually a downs-kinda solve.) Hand up for LEAST instead of SCANT, though I came to doubt it when I saw ORAL . . . and completed it as ORAL PHASE—a mistake I wouldn’t have made if I had seen “phase” in the clue. All around, a crunchier experience than I expect on a Monday.
OK, I knew I wanted to read Ann Patchett’s latest, but now I’m even more motivated. I’ll get my name on the town library’s waiting list.
I think I tried out downs-only solving once, and didn't like it -- so it's interesting to read about Rex's experience, but a little hard to relate to. For me, solving as God intended, the puzzle was fairly easy with lots of fun clues and entries. As for BASTE -- quite a few people sew, and if one does it's kind of a gimme. I was happy to see it in the puzzle.
My father was a hobbyist pilot. After he retired, he built a one-engine, one-seat airplane from a kit, He enjoyed flying it over our small town and waving at his friends. He was also in a club that owned a 4-seat Cessna. So I had a hard time accepting TURBOPROP as a "small" airplane. A small airliner, sure. I had the OP and wanted it to be something like "short hOP"
Two other clues gave me trouble for idiosyncratic reasons. I have a long-time colleague named VIcKY CARR, which sort of blocked that answer for me until I had all the crosses. And when I had an ERECTOR SET, it was a brand name of the A.C. Gilbert company; MECCANO made a competing product. I had to look it up post-solve to learn that the latter company bought the former when I was 47 years old and long past paying attention to those things.
MEDGAR Evers, an assassinated civil rights leader, certainly deserves the tribute. Still, it's an eerie experience; those days seem to have come back.
I also thought the theme was about toys until I realized it was about the theater. Nice puzzle.🎈🎈🎊🎊
Simple, clean, elegant, with a theme that lands. That’s LL, and here it is again today. She’s been doing this for 46 years, bringing a sea of quality to the Crosslandia pastiche.
The grid’s north took me back to my youth. My grandparents always referred to a refrigerator as an ICEBOX. The phrase “Holy TOLEDO!” reminded me of Batman’s Robin. LOG CABIN was our family syrup. And ERECTOR SETs were for me what Lego sets are for kids today.
AFRESH brought a meta-moment, as I haven’t heard that word in a long time, and when I uncovered it today, it felt new.
Your puzzles, Lynn, make me feel good through and through. There is an art to that, and you’ve mastered it. Thank you for another splendid outing!
Am glad I didn’t try it make this my first ever downs only solve! I’m much too slow to be a speed solver but this was still among my fastest Monday’s ever. Didn’t see the theme until after the revealer but appreciated the cleverness after the fact. The reference to ERECTORSET brought back great memories of the complicated structures my brothers and I would dream up—one was a bedroom spanning “bridge’ between the tops of two double-decker beds with elevators at each end going down to the lower bunks. We ran little cars on it pulled by strings attached to electric motors. I don’t think I could replicate it today.
I paused slightly when I saw the reveal (and Rex’s write-up), as I usually don’t associate SETS with a stage play. I settled on “play SET” in the sense that a band usually has a predetermined SET of songs when they take the stage. If I’m missing something here and SETS are something common in theatre, please let me know.
I’m old enough to remember when the UNSER brothers were actually racing, and to recognize the name Vicki CARR so an above average day for me with the propers even though I hadn’t heard of the civil rights activist. I imagine all three of them could be tough for those of us one or two generations younger than my age group (along with BASTE, which will probably stump quite a few of us, no matter what “vintage” we are).
Hey All !
Speaking of books ...
Check out my avatar, then go grab my book, Changing Times by Darrin Vail, wherever you get your books online.
Here's a review: "The most awesome book you'll ever read!"
Of course, the review is by me. 😁
Liked the puz, a bit of resistance happening today, which is good. I'm not a "fly-through-puz-as-fast-as-I-can" type person. I like to make sure I read every clue. FOMO, I guess. Puz pushed back more than a usual MonPuz.
Had the same thought as Rex when I got ERECTOR SET, thinking the whole answer is a PLAY THING. But was quickly disavowed of that notion. Fill good, gonna get complaints on AFRESH, I'm sure.
Been a bit since seeing a Lynn (LL) puz, nice to see your return.
Hope y'all have a great Monday!
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
Yeah, I got NW/center/SE without too much trouble, downs only. I even knew "BASTE" (My mom used to talk about basting a seam before sewing it on the machine) but that didn't help me. Had LEAST before SCANT.... also Sketch before Satire.... never would have thought of SENDUP. ISUREDO and INCRISIS just were not gonna come without some crosses. Although Vikki and Al and Bobby all date the puzzle, the big difference is.... I know the UNSERS! But not Vikki CARR. Also STREAkS before STREAMS but MEDGAR Evers came and saved me from that. Nice Puzzle!!! : )
Best Monday puzzle ever! Fun, full & tricky.
What a good Monday. Lots of shorter words but only OGRE jumped out at me as extremely common. Only one entry (BEL) that requires knowledge of a specific non-common piece of intellectual property. No obscure century old athletes, actors, or architects. Solvable as a theme less with a layer of wordplay provided by the revealer.
The only two problems I had were the pluralization of INCA, which will ALWAYS sound wrong to me, and the clue on BASTE, which should have been revised once the Times decided to run this on Monday.
My five favorite original clues from last week
(in order of appearance):
1. What to call people ... or what not to call people (5)
2. Show that ends in disarray? (5)(5)
3. Hot shot producer (8)(7)
4. What's kraken? (3)(7)
5. Bull rings? (5)(5)
NAMES
STRIP TEASE
ESPRESSO MACHINE
SEA MONSTER
PRANK CALLS
My favorite encore clues from last week:
[Double-decker checker] (4)
[Food processor] (7)
KING
STOMACH
Regular solve here and very easy due to the dearth of propers, hooray. BASTE strikes me as one of those words you know instantly or have no idea. I happen to know it, dumb luck. Also knew Ms. CARR and of course the UNSER brothers, who are I think more famous as crossword answers than race car drivers. Someday I will recognize what an ISP is. Not today though.
Just saw a cartoon somewhere of a massive pile of logs that had obviously just been unloaded on a vacant lot. The caption is "IKEA LOG CABIN".
Going too fast to stop and look for the theme which I like to do so I missed this one, which was spot on. A really Lovely Little Monday, LL, just about perfect. Thanks for all the fun.
A very sparkly, neat and tidy Monday, all tied in a bow with a theme that works and a revealer that does it's job with a smile (likely whistling while it works)
This was a very happy solve. Some nice non-theme long downs that I'm not sure we see in most Mondays. And some really popped. ISUREDO and INCRISIS side by side is very good fill that evokes very different emotions. Notable mention to LOGCABIN as well. HONEY crossing LOX is an odd food pairing but I can see Pooh liking that just fine.
On the food front, along with LOGCABIN (syrup), HONEY and LOX, we had SPUDS, CONE, PHO, and COD, all on AFRESH HERO - YUM! What can I say, I like it when puzzles make me hungry.
All the themers were very solid. ORALSTAGE fell quickly as my education was all Psychology and being in grad school in the '80s, Freud and all his stages were still a big deal. I wonder if they are they now?
Fun thing to learn today: BASTE as clued, very new to me.
Thank you Lynn for a most interesting and entertaining Monday that kept my attention to the very end. Great stuff!
And now on to Hugh's Monday Haiku:
Holy TOLEDO!
What RACY PLAYTHINGS you have!
Like them? ISUREDO!
Note: My first stab had something to do with the SEXIEST SINS, I decided to keep that one to myself...
Ann Patchett is hit or miss for me. Her writing itself is always great but the stories aren’t always enough for me. Loved Dutch House, was indifferent to Tom Lake, quit Bel Canto in chapter one and chucked it into my Little Free Library. There is a horse named Whistler, but he is a plot device and isn’t around for long- so it’s not a horse book. I enjoyed it and can recommend it as a well written story about relationships.
I'm guessing BASTE as a sewing term is more familiar to women.
I want to second Rex's shout-out of the Toledo Museum of Art - lovely building, excellent and varied collection, manageable size. In addition there is a standalone Pritzker Prize-winning Glass Pavilion for the museum's world-class glass collection.
Never got through a D/ONLY so I try Mondays W/OP (without pen), usually able to get done, this Monday however...too many longs to keep track of, A and especially D, so IPUMP (I picked up my pen). Rats!
Let's see if this works. Not commenting on the puzzle; I do not do Mondays. Just on this blog in general. I was in prison for the last couple of years. I got a paper NYT (sporadically; they would be misplaced or lost or whatever. Also: paper NYT? In Indiana? Pricy!), and obviously did the xwords (not Sun, Mon (as noted), Tue, or Wed: too busy for that). But I missed this blog so much. It's great to be back.
Rex's THEME summary omitted the "?" at the end of the clue for 57A, which was needed to convert "PLAY THINGS" from toys (in the clue) to, literally, things in plays. We didn't get the theme at all until we noticed the "?".
We typically will try to solve Downs Only on Mondays, but only if one of us remembers to do so before plowing ahead with 1A, our typical M.O. But today we entered the first three rows of acrosses right away. Good thing; if it was a harrowing Downs Only solve for Rex, that translates to "impossible" for us mere mortals. In hindsight, we may have gotten KARATE, ICE BOX and MEDGAR (curiously clued as his eponymous college and not the man), but not many more among the long answers.
Mondays are hard to get really thrilled about, but a 3-1/2 star rating, above the critical over/under "3" mark, seems appropriate.
Like you, I admire her writing, but the plot is pretty thin. I'm in the middle of it and have started another book.
[Viagra, Cialis, Levitra]: ERECTOR SET
The friends who got me into the NYT crossword work in college education in prison in Indiana (at Westville, and Indianapolis Women’s Prison). Welcome back to the blog!
I too wanted SATIRE for [Humorous parody], but when it wouldn’t fit, I consoled myself that SATIREs, at least traditionally, are more biting than humorous. But I’m unfamiliar with a SEND UP, so I needed every cross.
I take exception to HONEY not being HUNNY
I agree about BASTE and was delighted to see it. My first thought was “hello friend,” quickly followed by wondering why we see countless mens sports team related names and acronyms - but clues for typically female activities are so rare they’re a treat.
For some reason, the solving platform I use when solving online cannot handle an ellipse. My clue for 57A was "Toys … or the ends of 17-, 25-, 35- and 48-Across?" Why an ellipse would be interpreted as … is a mystery. Why, after seeing it so many times by now, am I still thrown off when I see it? Now that I've complained about it, will I take it in stride next time I see it? Some useless musings today.
IN CRISIS isn't a typical Monday answer. It filled in completely through crosses. I can see why the SE held Rex up, downs only.
My 10A was "lots" followed by "Scad" (with a mental 'should be scads') finally morphing into SLEW when WEASELS snuck in.
Lynn Lempel, this is a fine example of an easy Monday, thanks!
I was so glad to see it was a puzzle by Lynn - we haven't seen her in a while.
She didn't disappoint :)
The SW ended my downs-only attempt. I had to look at the clues for SIN and ESC and then I got it. No idea about what could come before PROP. The C from ESC was crucial because it excluded the possibility of 35D being IN A something.
Easy. No erasures and no WOEs.
No junk, cute theme, new solver friendly, a textbook Monday, liked it.
Whistler is the next book in my queue.
Croce Solvers - Croce’s freestyle #1129 was mostly easy for a Croce except for the NE where I held on to a wrong answer for way too long. Good luck!
Back from a week in a remote cabin in Montana. No internet. No phone. No pool. Not a single luxury. But a beautiful lake and a mess of good food and conversation. Each morning I would get up and think, "the puzzle was probably too easy today." But I did srsly miss @Rex and all of you.
Apparently, when they decided to have a cabin on the lake, the owners had to decide whether to build it or just buy a premade one and put it in place. I'm placed to say that the ERECTORSET dilemma came out in favor of ERECT. But less pleasing was the list of things to do when leaving. Take Garbage, Strip Beds and Clean Fridge seemed fine, but IRONCURTAIN? I mean c'mon.
I've always thought the ORALSTAGE was SEXIEST, but those DAM PLAYTHINGS have their place too.
Beautiful Monday puzzle. Tough as nails in d.o. mode. Thanks, Lynn Lempel.
As I solved this nice and easy puzzle, I knew the poor downs-onlys were not going to be happy.
On Mondays, to make the solve more challengingly fun, I fill in the borders, then the diagonals, then what might be the theme answers due to their length. Then I try to fill in the rest without looking at the clues. Then, finally, I actually look at the remaining clues. Today, I had a lot to do in that final step.
Many of the same Downs Only foibles, except that I eventually gave up!
Gene (can't get the name to work for the comment)
Add me to those who were happy to see Lynn Lempel's name at the top, after what seems like too long an absence and for what xword-dot-info tells me is her 76th Monday puzzle (out of 105). Talk about a master of the form!
I left the reveal line blank while I pondered, "What do toys have to do with the theater or drama?" then gingerly entered P...L..A..and even needed the Y to get my forehead-slap moment. Play things, indeed, including the wonderful sense of play in the puzzle.
Enjoyable last word connections MonPuz theme. ERECTORSET themer actually scored a double plaything-connection.
staff weeject pick: ISP. Has the rare MonPuz ?-marker clue.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Ice cream holder} = CONE. Just heard an NPR broadcast where a health expert said ice cream is real extra-healthy for you. In moderation, of course.
other fave stuff: All them extra-smooth fillins, with nary a no-know. ICEBOX. WEASELS. SEXIEST & its clue. The CUR/CARR/CURTAIN curio chain.
ERECTORSET brings back fond memories. Young M&A's folks couldn't afford to buy the giant Erector Set that he longed for [which an older neighbor kid had]. But later in life, his girlfriend [havin heard the story] gifted him that there primo Erector Set -- M&A soon after married that gal.
Thanx for stagin all this fun, Ms. Lempel darlin. U SURE DO good Mondays. [76 of em, so far.]
Masked & Anonymo4Us
p.s.
Runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Pablo. I'm relaxing on the deck overlooking a lovely lake on the Sunshine Coast of BC. The cabin to which this deck is attached may be the original IKEA log cabin. It's a Pan-Abode, a kit house of pre-cut red cedar with a printed set of directions for assembly, barged across the lake and assembled by my wife's family in the mid-fifties. Her father was a doctor and her mother a journalist, so not a lot of building experience there. One o
I am just old enough that CARR was the 4-letter Vikki that immediately popped into my mind. And yes, I certainly do remember "It must be him" and probably even saw it on the Ed Sullivan Show, which was a must-watch for my mother in those days. I'm embarrassed, however, to admit that until this very morning I was unaware that Ms. Carr is of Mexican heritage; nor do I recall hearing any of her Spanish-language music. My loss! "Vicki Carr", a stage name designed for English-speaking American audiences, pales in comparison to her glorious given name of Florencia Vicenta de Casillas-Martinez Cardona!
Pablo. I just hit the wrong key and exiled my comment to the ether but I was trying to tell you that I am presently seated on a balcony above a lake on the Sunshine Coast of BC attached to a sort of an IKEA log cabin. It's a Pan-Abode and was barged across the lake in the mid-fifties by my wife's family. No road access then. And little or no construction experience. It arrived as pallets of pre-cut western red cedar with printed instructions. My wife likens it to a giant Lincoln Log project.
It was pretty small and, as the family grew, they decided to expand the place. Ingeniously, I think, they ordered a second kit, turned it around, and joined the two structures. Over the years they have added more structures - a guest house, a workshop, etc., but I still prefer to sleep in the old cedar building.
I’m in the middle of listening to it. Narrated by the author. It’s another amazing book by an amazing author.
Thank you for that Neil Diamond/Shirley Bassey treasure. It is everything.
Tried to do down clues only but gave up after a few minutes. Just too many blanks, plus wrong guesses galore. For instance, for 38 and 39 down I had PLEADED and YES IT IS respectively... hopeless!
Several Unknowns: BEL Canto, ORAL STAGE, CARR, and MEDGAR as clued. A bit tough for a Monday.
And then there's BASTE!
Hello Anon 9:37 and Anon 10:47. Just popping in to (playfully) pop your bubble. I'm a boring old cis-gendered male who was taught to sew by my seamstress mother. And I played "men's sports" for most of my life. I did play about 5 years in a pick-up hockey group that was co-ed (and more). It was lot of fun.
cwf. Great to see you back. Hope everything's going OK. Keep checking in if you can.
BBASTE
Never saw the clue. Although I am aware of this meaning. I disagree with Rex’s nit that the answer is wrong for a Monday. He was after all doing downs only. The crosses were very easy. , which Rex didn’t see.
I won’t do any suing I very much like hearing about your daughter, Rex I have always been fascinated by plays ( but have no artistic ability). It must be a wonderful experience for her to work in that world
Southside Johnny
A set is very much used in plays. A living room scene with couches and chairs would be part of “the set” of the play b
Les--Cool stuff indeed. Reminded me that once upon aa time you could order a whole house from Sears and have it shipped by rail. Some assembly required, or as they say today, "You put it together!".
Claro que sí.
A pleasant and engaging solve. Mildly humorous and scrubbed clean it's a perfect way to begin a week. Although, I went through instant onset puberty in the northwest with RACY, ERECTOR SET, and SEXIEST all being taken out of the ICE BOX. Thawed my prim and proper self.
The theme set is fun. I've done too much music on stage, but never any acting, so all that stuff sitting around in the wings of theater houses always feels exotic, like magic on the verge of happening.
Freud, I understand, is mainly a historical figure and mostly considered a quack these days, so that should ensure his permanent place in crosswording.
All dogs are good. Wish we could say the same about the people owning them.
NYC and SMOG holding hands as usual.
❤️ IRON CURTAIN. WEASELS.
People: 5
Places: 4
Products: 4
Partials: 3
Foreignisms: 0
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 16 of 76 (21%)
Funny Factor: 3 😐
Tee-Hee: RACY, ERECTOR SET, SEXIEST, PLAY THINGS, ORAL STAGE.
Uniclues:
1 Trending videos of licking ice cream.
2 Natives of South America are having nothing to do with Shrek.
3 Second thoughts stop wildness.
4 We're going to church / to listen to chords / we're going to rawk / and we won't get boreds.
5 Lothario's plan to reform his ways.
6 Iron Man's cousin who mainlines rust.
7 Statement heard from an adversary immediately before a foot smashes into your face.
8 Igloo where the inhabitants can't agree on what to watch on Netflix.
9 Pour butter on big city tall-tale tellers.
10 Less expensive vacation destination than Provincetown.
11 Pronouncement of one who showered before getting a manicure.
12 Product of the InstaHut corporation.
13 Job description of Republican aides.
1 RACY CONE MANIA (~)
2 INCAS NAB OGRE (~)
3 IFS DAM SINS (~)
4 TRIAD MASS ODE
5 LESS PLAY THINGS
6 OXIDE DOSE HERO (~)
7 KARATE? I SURE DO.
8 ICE BOX IN CRISIS
9 BASTE NYC LIARS (~)
10 TOLEDOCOD
11 I SPA FRESH
12 LOG CABIN AT ONCE
13 SEES TO WEASELS
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Had a near death experience. WENT LIVE TO THE OTHER SIDE.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Liveprof
Classic one today!
Sailor
Thanks for the info on Vikki Carr. Sad that the only parts of her name kept were Vi & Car. I also may have seen her on the Ed Sullivan show I remembered her name but didn’t see the clue
Looks like my earlier post disappeared.
Anyway, so definitely like to hear about Rex’s daughter and her work in theater. I have no artistic ability, but have always been fascinated by theater. Congratulations, Rex, to your daughter on finding a career she enjoys and is good at.
I liked the puzzle. I think Rex didn’t realize that the acrosses are quite easy i have a quirk of doing all the acrosses first and then down so I almost did an across only by accident. Rex is right, the puzzle skews old and that helped me. Surprised some people didn’t like AFRESH. Is it old now? To me it’s an everyday word. Another indication that I am old. Ditto Vikki Carr.
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