Suffragist Harriet Taylor ___ / FRI 10-2-26 / Lead-in to "coin" for a major cryptocurrency / Jay ___, singer of the 2009 #1 hit "Down" / Figure with three faces, in Dante / Request after eating a habanero, perhaps / "Wheat Capital" of Oklahoma

Constructor: Joe Marquez

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Lee ISAAC Chung (46D: Director Lee ___ Chung) —

Lee Isaac Chung (born October 19, 1978) is an American filmmaker. His debut feature Munyurangabo (2007) was an official selection at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and the first narrative feature film in the Kinyarwanda language.

Chung gained fame for directing the semi-autobiographical film Minari (2020), for which he received numerous major awards and nominations, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay at the 93rd Academy Awards. In 2023, he directed an episode in the third season of the Star Wars series The Mandalorian, and in 2024, he directed the disaster film Twisters. (wikipedia)

• • •

This one has a few nice longer answers, including the central grid-spanner, "WHEN CAN YOU START?," but overall felt a little stodgy and a little trivia-laden. The NW and SE corners are certainly solid, at least in the long stuff, but the short stuff, the glue, was really getting to me today. Usually wonderful long answers will make me forget any small annoyances in the 3-4-5s, but today there was maybe a bit too much BEL STS SLR OOHS LETT SEC ORES. I still have only seen a LIGER in crosswords. They continue to seem like a mythical crossword beast to me. I love animals, but if I could ban one animal from all future crosswords, I'm afraid it would be the LIGER. I think the "stodginess" I mentioned above comes from the other central grid-spanner, the Down: "LET ME SAY MY PIECE!" It's certainly a comprehensible phrase, but it feels very old-fashioned to me. It's kind of hard to imagine the entire phrase in anyone's mouth in 2026. Never mind that I can never remember if it's PIECE of PEACE (I had an inkling it was PIECE, but still left those "IE" squares blank until I got crosses). It's also hard to imagine anyone calling CINEMA "Pictures" in the year 2026. "You Oughta Be in Pictures" was a hit song ... in 1934. HOT PILATES, on the other hand, seems very contemporary, it's just ... I've never heard of that. I've heard of hot yoga, of course, but HOT PILATES? Not until just now. So even though that answer was easy enough to get, it felt makeshift and wordlist-y. Mostly, the content of this puzzle just didn't resonate with me. I think it's solid and generally well made, just full of trivia that I either didn't know or didn't particularly care about. Oh, and it's got DOGE, clued in a "cryptocurrency" way. Why would you deface your puzzle like that? (20A: Lead-in to "coin" for a major cryptocurrency)

About today's trivia ... or, rather, about yesterday's trivia. It's generally true, I think, that if you, personally,  don't know something, some celebrity or movie title or game or whatever, then it's going to seem "trivial," at least initially. But I do think some trivia is less trivial than other(s?). Yesterday there were people in the comments saying they didn't know RAVEL and/or LUMET. This ... startled me. No, actually, people not knowing LUMET didn't startle me. Despite his legendary (and long) resumé, his (very famous) movies were all in the 20th century, so if you're younger, or if you're not particularly into CINEMA, not knowing LUMET seems normal. But RAVEL? The word "trivia" really doesn't belong anywhere near his name. Solving today's puzzle, though, I found myself having compassion for the RAVEL and LUMET non-knowers, as I ran into a bunch of names I just didn't know, most notably (and puzzle-blockingly) Jay SEAN. He seems to have gotten famous right at the time of my peak not-paying-attention-to-popular-culture (late '00s-early '10s). He seems to have had reasonably big success ... back then. Since 2013, no albums (just "mixtapes") and no charting hits since 2012. SEAN really messed with my flow today. Just gummed up that whole SEAN / LIGER / AGUA section (the clue on AGUA is quite awful, actually, since nothing about it suggests the answer will be in Spanish, and no, please do not say "habanero" is the cue, that's what we call the pepper in *English*, so no dice) (28A: Request after eating a habanero, perhaps) (I wrote in MILK, of course, because that's what you drink to mitigate pepper heat, not water, everyone knows that).

Another name I didn't know: UPTON (10D: Suffragist Harriet Taylor ___). I guess it's nice to get another UPTON besides Sinclair, but wow, she's a hell of a lot more obscure. First woman to become a Vice-Chair of the Republican National Committee—that seems to be her primary claim to fame (her father was a congressman). There's a model/actress named Kate UPTON out there as well, in case you were unaware. She is married to future first-ballot Hall-of-Famer Justin Verlander. In addition to names I didn't know, there's the stuff I half-knew, like LEN Wiseman (more CINEMA!) and Lee ISAAC Chung (still more CINEMA!). I also had no idea there was an NBA "Cup"—that sounds so awful. Cups are for hockey. "Established in the 2020s"? Could you be vaguer? Hang on ... oh, I see. It's just an in-season tournament. Huh. OK. I have no idea if that is important or fun or what. I get all my NBA news from the TVs at the gym (nearly all tuned to sports news of some kind), and this newish NBA phenomenon somehow never registered in my brain.

Bullets:

• 13A: Funky-smelling (RIPE) — RANK, I had RANK. The NW was a washout for me to start. Had to leave it and come back.
• 26A: Member of a noble family (SCION) — really a member of any "prominent" family. Not sure why "noble" is being used here, except to get me to think I was dealing with some kind of noble gas ("XENON?"). 
• 29A: What comes from needing little, per Epictetus (WEALTH) — Epictetus was a Stoic, which I know because Instagram keeps showing me the Stoic Podcast guy, who loves to talk about Epictetus. 
• 45A: Highly controlling? (PILOTING) — because you are "controlling" a plane while it is "high" up in the sky, not because you are flying while under the influence. I hope.
• 57A: Figure with three faces, in Dante (SATAN) — I said that the trivia in today's puzzle didn't really resonate with me, and that's mostly true, but I forgot about this clue. Can confirm: three faces, chewing on the three sinniest of sinners: Brutus, Cassius, Judas.

• 8D: Before ('TIL) — yes I wrote in ERE of course I wrote in ERE. Hate this clue the way I hate AGUA—that clue should've indicated the answer was in Spanish;  this clue should've indicated the answer was an abbreviation / elision (there are detailed and slightly dizzying usage notes here). [Before] has been used only seven times as a clue for 'TIL in the Shortz Era (out of 168 total 'TIL appearances), and every time ('TIL today, that is), the clue has had a qualifier added to it: "briefly," "informally," "in brief," something like that. 
• 14A: Sugar substitute? (SWEETIE PIE) — SWEETHEART also fits (I found out!)
• 24D: Sounds from fans (OOHS) — these are sounds from fireworks watchers. Fans say 'rah.' Or they make whirring sounds. I've been in crowds of fans—at ballgames, at concerts—and I've never once heard the crowd say "ooh"
• 54D: ___ City (SIM) — cheap baloney. They want you to write in SIN. Which I did. Dutifully. But gotcha, it's SIM! Great, you gave me a much worse three-letter word, just for the sake of a "trick?" Bah. True story: when I realized that there's no way that the answer to 59A: They're stretched out before some workouts (MATS) could be NATS, my sincere next guess was ... LATS. "SIL City? Where the hell is SIL City?" SIL City! They're famous for their LIGERs, I hear.

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Features of gathering clouds? / THU 10-1-26 / Sneaker brand whose logo features the "Formstrip" / Migratory fish with exceptionally sensitive hearing / Patriotic recitation since 1892 / Obsolescent credit card feature / Term of affection in the U.K.

Constructor: Jill Singer

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: STUMBLING BLOCKS (55A: Obstacles ... or a hint to three squares in this puzzle) — a rebus puzzle with three "stumbling blocks" (i.e. squares containing synonyms for "stumble"):

Theme answers:

• PLEDGE O[F ALL]EGIANCE (17A: Patriotic recitation since 1892) / BE[FALL] (7D: Happen to)
• PAY[S LIP] SERVICE (27A: Expresses support without meaning it) / [SLIP]-ONS (28D: Moccasins and loafers, e.g.)
• MAGNETIC S[TRIP]E (44A: Obsolescent credit card feature) / ACID [TRIP]S (32D: Hallucinatory experiences)

Word of the Day: PAIUTE (9D: Great Basin tribe) —

Paiute (/ˈpaɪjuːt/; also Piute) refers to three non-contiguous groups of Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. Although their languages are related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, these three languages do not form a single subgroup and they are no more closely related to each than they are to the Central Numic languages (Timbisha, Shoshoni, and Comanche) which are spoken between them.

The term "Paiute" does not refer to a single, unique, unified group of Great Basin tribes, but is a historical label comprising:

• Northern Paiute people of northeastern California, northwestern Nevada, eastern Oregon, and southern Idaho
• Southern Paiute people of northern Arizona, southern Nevada, and southwestern Utah
• Mono people of east central California, divided into Owens Valley Paiute (Eastern Mono) and Western Mono (Monache) (wikipedia)

• • •

This was excellent. Too easy, for sure, but the theme is very clever and perfectly executed. It's almost too neat, too on-the-nose. STUMBLING BLOCKS ... blocks meaning "stumble" ... that's it, that's the theme! But its elegant simplicity is the key to its charm. It's just so nice to see someone hit on a good theme concept and then absolutely stick the landing. All three of the "stumbling blocks" are neatly tucked away inside totally solid, believable, even colorful phrases, and because there are just three of them, the grid has room to breathe. Yes, it's a little heavy on the 3-4-5s, which makes for a lot of common answers, but those answers never get really ugly or tiresome, and there are lots of vibrant 6s and 7s to keep things interesting (CHISEL STABBED ENIGMA MUMBAI ZAPATA DRUM KIT etc.). The whole thing is just so ... clean. "Crafted," I think, is the word I'm looking for. Or maybe "polished." Feels like someone took the time to make sure that theme and fill were both as smooth as possible. Yes, I personally would've preferred a harder puzzle, but I still really appreciate how well-built this puzzle is.

Moving through this one felt like a circuitous stroll through a park or garden. I could tell it was going to be on the easy side early on, so I decided to just ... meander, rather than rush to the finish. I went where the fill took me, which meant I got the top and the bottom before I had much of anything in between. Got the rebus trick pretty quickly...

... and then just kind of ... stumbled to the bottom of the grid. Like falling down a southwest-running staircase, though a little more controlled ... 

And then from there, the revealer came pretty quickly, which both allowed me to appreciate why "FALL" was in its own block up top (not a seasonal puzzle, it turns out!) and gave me some idea of what I needed to look for with the remaining two themers. I was so happy when the next rebus square that turned up was not also "FALL"—I was half-dreading I'd get three "FALL"s, which would've been ... less impressive. But no, I got a TRIP and a SLIP, making a perfect stumbling triumvirate. I was gonna say that I was glad the constructor didn't try to force in a fourth block, but I'm not sure what that block could plausibly be. "FALL" "SLIP" "TRIP" (in order) are the top three synonyms Merriam-Webster dot com gives for "stumble," and none of the other offerings on their list would work nearly as well. So, yet another thing in this puzzle's favor—it included all the plausible "blocks" and didn't try to force a clunker.

[synonyms for "stumble"]

No difficulty to speak of today. I had NIKE, of course, at 1A: Sneaker brand whose logo features the "Formstrip" (PUMA), even though I knew (or thought I knew) that their logo was the Swoosh. I considered PUMA, but in my head, all I could see, logo-wise, was the leaping PUMA. I forgot about the stripey thing on the shoes:

But the "N" from NIKE wasn't working with 1D: Doc seen for an annual checkup (PCP). I still can't quite get used to PCP as an abbrev. for "primary-care physician." You'll always be a drug to me, PCP. But once I got the "U" from URL (2D: Address letters), I gave into PUMA (and PCP), and then everything was much easier from there on out. The only green ink on my puzzle print-out is on the ACID part of ACID [TRIP]S—I wrote DRUG there at first. Easily fixed.

Bullets:

• 16A: Features of gathering clouds? (AEIOU) — those vowels appear, in order, in the phrase "gathering clouds" (with no repetitions); I like that this answer crosses the Old MacDonald answer (11D: Cry heard by Old MacDonald = OINK). You know, because "Old MacDonald had a farm / A-E-I-O-U..."
• 65A: The Black Knights of the N.C.A.A. (ARMY) — I never think about their mascot as they are not serious contenders in any of the major college sports. I saw "Black Knights" and my mind went to Vegas, why? Is that their ... hockey team? Ah, close—those are the Golden Knights. Ice hockey in Vegas still seems preposterous to me, but that's probably because when I was growing up, almost all the teams were in real cold-weather places. Los Angeles was the outlier. Here are the team locations for the 1980-81 season (when I'd've been in sixth grade):

[L.A. = only location here where it never snows]

• 31D: Writer Gay (TALESE) — fun fact: TALESE and ROXANE have the same number of letters

• 41D: French composer who refused the Legion of Honour in 1920 (RAVEL) — been listening to him a lot. Posted this just two days ago:

 

• 64A: Migratory fish with exceptionally sensitive hearing (SHAD) — lol the idea that I know anything about fish hearing. Did they give them hearing tests? That must've been fun. Do SHAD like RAVEL? Play this for the SHAD in your life and see!

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. gah, I almost forgot my best mistake, the one that (briefly) made me So Mad at this puzzle. I had the GRA- solidly in place at 19D: Words that might come before a meal, and, well ... this happened:

  

The indignation. "GRAB A!?!?!!? That's your fill!? That's the worst partial I've ever seen. 'GRAB A meal!?' The clue's not even worded correctly: if you put GRAB A before 'a meal' you've got 'GRAB A a meal,' which is nonsense. How in the world..." etc. In my defense, the clue did say "words," plural. And it said they "might come" before a meal, not that they were "said" (which would've got me to GRACE easily). Sigh. OK, I'm off to GRAB A coffee now. Bye.

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