Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: "Rise and shine!" / TUES 7-7-26 / "Barbie" actress Issa / Portmanteau for a screened-in feline lounge / Delphi prophet / Fruit from a tree that can self-pollinate

Hello, everyone! It’s Clare coming at you a little late (why does immigration court have so many deadlines?!), this time for the first Tuesday of July. I hope no one has suffered too much in this insane heat! D.C. was pretty miserable for a few days, and I had to get creative to find ways for my dog to run off some of the energy that she built up from not going on our usual walks or trips to the dog park. But staying inside has also coincided with getting to watch so many sports! The World Cup has been amazing (though I just watched the USMNT lose embarrassingly badly to Belgium). The England-Mexico game? The Argentina-Cabo Verde game? So great! Wimbledon has had some entertaining matches, too. Go, Coco!

Anywho, on to the puzzle…

Constructor: Brad Lively

Relative difficulty: Medium for a Tuesday

THEME: WARM AND FUZZY (50A: Like a feeling of tender happiness ... or how you might feel after reading both halves of the answers to the starred clues?) — The first half of each theme answer describes something “warm,” and the second half is an animal that’s “fuzzy.”

Theme answers:

BEACH BUNNIES (20A: *Surfer girls, in old lingo)
HOT DOGS (28A: *Frankfurters)
SUN BEAR (36A: *Relative of a grizzly that's named for its bright chest patch)
FIREFOX (45A: *Internet browser borrowing a nickname for the red panda)

Word of the Day: SPAMALOT (36D: Monty Python musical with a portmanteau title)—

Spamalot, also known as Monty Python's Spamalot: A New Musical (Lovingly) Ripped Off from the Motion Picture Monty Python and the Holy Grail) is a musical with music by John Du Prez and Eric Idle, and lyrics and a book by Idle. Based on the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the musical offers a highly irreverent parody of Arthurian legend, with the title being a portmanteau of Spam and Camelot. The original 2005 Broadway production directed by Mike Nichols received 14 Tony Award nominations, winning in three categories, including Best Musical. During its initial run of 1,575 performances, the production was seen by more than two million people and grossed over $168 million (Wiki)

• • •

That was a pretty average Tuesday puzzle that made me feel somewhat WARM AND FUZZY inside. It’s a nice idea and a cute phrase, and I came around to liking the theme more than I thought I did initially. The theme was very straightforward: literally just a word that is (mostly) WARM followed directly by an animal that could plausibly be described as FUZZY. I have some qualms with the FUZZY answers, as I think “furry” might be a better descriptor — or even “fluffy.” I’m just not sure I’ve ever thought of BUNNIES or a FOX as being FUZZY. And a BEAR? (Even if Fuzzy Wuzzy was a fuzzy bear. Or was he?) My DOG is wonderfully cuddly and has some impressive hair on top of her head that I can make into a mohawk, but I still don’t think of her as FUZZY. And have you ever been to a BEACH in winter? I have, because my parents live in a beach town, and it’s not WARM…

The puzzle had some nice pairings, with GET UP (9A: "Rise and shine!") directly above AWAKE (16A: No longer in dreamland). Then there’s LEIA (59A: Rebel Alliance princess) above TRON (62A: Sci-fi franchise with light cycles). MUSH (51D: Sled dog command) (which I know because of the movie “Snow Dogs”) was crossing SNOW (61A: Fresh powder, e.g.). Though in the opposite vein, we also had both HBO (21D: "Curb Your Enthusiasm" network) and PBS (33D: "This Old House" network) in the puzzle. Did we really need two network abbreviations?

I liked BABA (1A: ___ ghanouj) as the answer to start the puzzle. It’s delicious, and upon googling it for this write-up, I learned that it might translate to “father of coquetry.” GAME OVER (9D: Last words on a pinball machine) is a great expression and one that I unfortunately saw many times as I played my family’s pinball machine over and over as a kid. NAMES (49A: What to call people … or what not to call people) is basic fill that was clued in a clever way. I like the word FANDOM (45D: Obsessive pop culture subculture) (as I am in several fandoms myself. And only mildly obsessive.). GO POOF (25D: Vanish into thin air) is cute and fun to say. My favorite clue/answer was 30D: Start a long drive, in a way as TEE OFF, which got a chuckle out of me.

I struggled a bit in random parts of the puzzle. I didn’t know LAYNE (7D: ___ Staley, original lead singer of Alice in Chains), who felt obscure for a Tuesday. I couldn’t come up with ELF HATS (43A: Accessories pointed at the North Pole?) for the longest time and wanted to make it “elf ears,” even though ears clearly aren’t an accessory. I forgot that a CATIO (60A: Portmanteau for a screened-in feline lounge) is a thing, and while I had CAT immediately, I had to rack my brain for a while as to how to finish the word. HAWAII (44D: Luau locale) also took me an inordinately long time to get, likely fueled by my confusion over CATIO (60A). Then I also just stared at ON AUTO (26D: Acting unthinkingly) for a while, reading it more as “on a uto” and being very, very confused.

I’m feeling slightly more WARM AND FUZZY about the puzzle than when I finished it. Or maybe that’s the herbal tea I’m drinking. Who’s to say?

Misc:

It felt fun to have REF (47D: Yellow card wielder) in the puzzle as I was watching yellow cards be given in the U.S. men’s game against Belgium. But no red cards. Not that it would have mattered.
I used to play the Alphabet Game in the car with my soccer carpool as our parents took turns driving us the 30 minutes to and from practice twice a week, and we always had the particular PED (13D: ___ Xing) sign we’d use to get “X.” Playing this game on a road trip with my dad and sister, I got so excited when I finally got a “Q” that I yelled out “Quality [Inn]” so loudly that my dad nearly drove off the freeway.
I was following along on TikTok and social media with Kelsey Pfendler as she rowed from California to HAWAII (44D), and she just arrived! It took her just under 44 days to row 2,400 miles solo, setting the record for the fastest solo journey — man or woman.
I’ve hiked ZION (53D: Last U.S. national park alphabetically), and it was beautiful… for the most part. When I hiked Angel’s Landing, I slipped on a rock near the edge and saw my life flash before my eyes.
If anyone is looking to try a new OREO (32A: Subject of Weird Al Yankovic's "The White Stuff") flavor, my favorite band, BTS, has a collab with OREO. The two released a brown sugar-pancake-flavored OREO that's inspired by a common Korean street food called hotteok. Can confirm: They’re quite tasty!
Because I know you were all waiting, here’s a picture of Red’s mohawk, where she’s very furry and maybe just a little FUZZY.

Signed, Clare Carroll, writing from a very hot and not at all fuzzy DC (unless you count the algae in the Reflecting Pool)

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