Tall-eared cats from Devon or Cornwall / WED 7-22-26 / Annual video game competition, for short / Orange-colored liqueur served in a namesake spritz / Risqué game that teenagers might give a whirl? / Object of an extensive search / Seller's bottom lines, for short? / Relative of a harp / Habitat with a wet floor

Constructor: Rebecca Goldstein

Relative difficulty: Challenging (for a Wednesday)

THEME: RING TOSS (38D: Carnival game depicted in this puzzle) — rings (circled squares) form an arc and spell out "R-I-N-G" + [Bottle] (the "Bottle" is squished into a single square); two other RING TOSS-related answers appear in the grid:

Theme answers:

• "STEP RIGHT UP, / TRY YOUR LUCK!" (17A: With 60-Across, invitation to play 38-Down)
• PLUSH TOY (11D: Prize dangling from a 38-Down booth)

The [BOTTLE] answers:

• SPIN THE [BOTTLE] (23D: Risqué game that teenagers might give a whirl?)
• [BOTTLE] CAP (52A: Pop top?)

Word of the Day: REXES (38A: Tall-eared cats from Devon or Cornwall) —

The rex mutation [!?!!??!!?] is a genetic variation in mammals that results in soft curly fur. These effects are due to changes in the structure of groups of hairs and cross-section of individual hairs. The rexed coats are unusual but occur (and have been preserved) in cats, rats, rabbits, horses, and dogs. The mutations, infrequent and spontaneous, occur in a variety of genes and genetic regulatory structures. The diversity of genetic factors results in variable coat thickness/density and fur length. A similar mutation can affect the feathers of birds. [...] There are four main internationally recognised rex cat breeds: Cornish Rex, Devon Rex, LaPerm, and Selkirk Rex. Rex breeds are sometimes nicknamed "poodle cats" or "poodlecats", after the curly-coat dog breed group. // There are also a number of rarer, less well known or developing rex-coated breeds, including the German Rex, Ural Rex, Tennessee Rex, Tasman Rex group, and Skookum. [...] Rex breeds vary considerably in appearance, from the elegant slender build of the Cornish Rex to the larger, cobby and heavy-boned Selkirk Rex. Each results from a separate mutation rather than being bred from a common ancestor. Each mutation causes the hair follicles to be oval in shape, instead of the normal regular round form, which results in hairs curling round as they grow instead of growing straight. Many of the other spontaneously occurring rex mutations have occurred and some have proven to be the same gene as the main four breeds. Some of those mutations, such as the Dutch Rex, were found to have unmanageable or unattractive fur and were not pursued as breeds. // The name rex was taken from the rabbit fancy because the first rex cat breed to be developed, the Cornish Rex, has a coat similar to that of a rex rabbit, in that it comprises only the undercoat with no topcoat or guard hairs.

• • •

I think I've gotten soft on a steady diet of easy and easier puzzles, because today's felt like a proper Thursday to me. It is Wednesday, isn't it? I'm in the last few weeks of a summer break, between vacations, and I'm rarely sure exactly what day it is. Yes, today is Wednesday. My local pizza place (best pizza in the region by a long, long shot) opens back up today after a three-week summer hiatus, so it's a special day for me, personally. Tomorrow, I have a dermatologist APPT. That's how I'll know it's Thursday. Etc. I have no idea how I'll know it's Friday. Anyway, this puzzle played significantly harder than usual for me. Much of this is due to two structural factors. First, the theme answers are cross-referenced, so you can't solve them without figuring out *other* parts of the puzzle. [17A: With this, an invitation to play that]. But I don't know what "this" and "that" are! So "this" and that" were invisible to me, and the surrounding fill wasn't helping much at all. I completely struck out on my first (admittedly hasty) pass through the NW. Nothing. I must not have looked at the clue for ROTINI, because that seems easy (2D: Corkscrew-shaped pasta), but the rest: zippo. My first word into the puzzle was BIOTA, oof, an ugly, crosswordesey way to start (I learned the word BIOTA from crosswords however long ago) (6A: Regional life forms). 

The other structural factor that makes this more Thursday than Wednesday is the rebus square, which actually didn't hold me up so much as briefly mystify me. "This has to be SPIN THE [BOTTLE], but ... wait, what? Is this a rebus square? The other circled letters aren't rebus squares." But yep, [BOTTLE] CAP confirmed the rebus square. I was still in the dark about it all (-ING BOTTLE???) until I finally got to the revealer, which still took some doing. If I'd just jumped to the revealer early on, maybe this would've been easier. But I'm not sure. I had terrible trouble with traction today in general because the overall cluing seemed amped up. Lots of "?" clues, lots of ambiguity. Some clues were gimmes, but over and over I was like "huh?" It's a very doable puzzle, and I think the visual conceit is great—a perfect representation of the subject matter. But zip through this I did not.

Here, I'll give you an idea of how chaotic my solve was. This was my grid at about the halfway point:

I put the cursor back in the NW just to highlight how empty it is. You can see that the NE is also pretty empty, due largely to my thinking the deli carried RYE, not LOX (I mean, it probably carries both, but these boxes only carry LOX) (16A: Deli supply). It may surprise you to know that I didn't know REXES were cats. If you'd given me [Devon ___ (cat breed)], I probably could've told you it was REX, but with that -XES today all I could think of were MANXES, and that obv. wouldn't fit. So there were lots of little stumbles like that today. That clue on GRAIL—that could've been anything (1A: Object of an extensive search). And "OOPSY!!!"??? (14A: Cry after an accident). Man, I was imagining a much bigger accident. Wanted "WE'RE OK!" or "I'M OK!" or "SEND HELP!" or something. Certainly not "OOPSY!" Oh, and I wrote in BUGBEARS before BUGABOOS, so that was fun (6D: Pet peeves). "Bugbear" = "A cause of fear, anxiety, or irritation." Sounds like "pet peeve" to me! Bah. Not on my wavelength at all, this puzzle. 

Bullets:

• 19A: Seller's bottom lines, for short? (UPC) — another clue that made me just stare. I still don't really get what "bottom" is doing here. I get the "lines" part (UPC code is made up of black lines of varied thickness), but ... is the idea that the UPC code appears on the "bottom" of (some?) products? You can't see me, but I'm grimacing in doubt and dislike.
• 42A: Actor Eric of "Troy" (BANA) — has he been in anything in the past two decades? That dude's name is Crossword Eternal but istg I can't name stuff he's been in. Munich, maybe, was he in that? Yes! Good remembering, brain! Still not from the past two decades (Munich was '05), but at least it's something. I recently learned (from the movie podcast "What Went Wrong") that Christopher Nolan was slated to direct Troy at one point but it got taken away from him and then he was asked to pitch his idea for a Batman movie. Then, time passed. 20-some-odd years later. Nolan is the biggest director on the planet and his Troy sequel (of sorts) is #1 at the box office.
• 49A: Many a tech alum: Abbr. (ENGR.) — I liked this puzzle but the fill gets pretty ugly down here in the revealer section: BANA ENGR EVO LES DRS. Not the easiest on the eyes. I don't even know what EVO is, I just spontaneously remembered it when I was trying to confirm the "V" from RAN OVER (40D: Trampled). Looks like EVO is short for "The Evolution Championship Series." Looks like it features fighting games. Shrug. Like I said, just not on my wavelength, this puzzle.
• 58A: Exec overseeing A.I. integration (CIO) — Oh f- off no one wants A.I. shoehorned into Yet Another aspect of their lives. From the gaming to the ISP to the CIO to the STEM degrees, the whole tech obsession here is just not my thing.
• 68A: Handful in a beer garden? (STEIN) — not sure why there's a "?" on this clue. It's literal, and there is no play on words that I can see. Am I supposed to imagine that your bratty kid is running around the beer garden? How am I being misdirected, exactly?

[picked this up yesterday when I was at the bookstore buying the new Colson Whitehead book, Cool Machine.]

• 3D: Orange-colored liqueur served in a namesake spritz (APEROL) — if I'd read this clue—read it all the way down to the last word—I think I would've gotten it. But apparently I didn't read it or just glanced at it. Not big spritz fans in this house. No mixers in our cocktails. No fizz. Just liquor, thank you.
• 41D: Habitat with a wet floor (SEA) — I had SPA, lol
• 4D: Means of making some connections, for short (ISP) — more of that ambiguity I was talking about. "Some connections"? You're gonna need to give me more context.
• 5D: Relative of a harp (LYRE) — the LYRE/LUTE conundrum is forever. Actually, a LUTE is more like a guitar than a harp. So I should be able to distinguish these two instruments. And yet...

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. the latest episode of the crossword podcast Crosstalk features a wonderful interview with puzzlemaker and regular contributor to this blog, Malaika Handa. The blog, including the comments section, gets mentioned several times :) You can find the podcast on Spotify or Apple podcasts.

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