Non, ni, 'a'ole / SUN 10-18-26 / Less than satisfactory, slangily / Novel form of summer escapism? / Tree that can be a source of water for thirsty elephants / Taib? Tbia? / Cupcake, in Ireland / ___ Allen, host of "Chopped" / "Ibis" poet / Pricing game on "The Price Is Right" / Sex symbol of the 1950s-'60s, familiarly / Reason to head for the hills / Bob ___, alter ego of Mr. Incredible

Constructor: Peter Gorman

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "Tell Me About Yourself!" — The puzzle is talking to you about itself (?)— “I" phrases are clued in some kind of punny or unexpectedly literal way (???):

Theme answers:

• "I NEED SOME SPACE" (23A: Heyhowareyou) [you 'need' to put space in between the clue words]
• "I TELL YOU WHAT" (32A: "What") [literally, just the puzzle telling you 'What']
• "I MISSED YOU" (49A: All--can-eat buffet) ['You' is missing from the clue phrase]
  "I DON'T SAY THIS LIGHTLY" (65A: "This") ['This' is clued in bold, i.e. not lightly]
• "I'M OVER HERE" (86A: See 88-Across) [the clue for 88-Across ([Here]) is literally directly below this clue]
• ON EARTH (88A: Here)
• "I HAVE NO WORDS" (97A: Non, ni, 'a'ole) ['no' words, i.e. words that mean 'no' in other languages]
• "I'M A BIT CONFUSED" (114A: Taib? Tbia?) ["a bit" confused, i.e. with letters mixed up]

Word of the Day: HEIDI Gardner (106A: "S.N.L." alum Gardner) —

[from the Apple TV show Shrinking]

Heidi Lynn Gardner (born July 27, 1983) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. She was a cast member on Saturday Night Live, an NBC sketch comedy series for eight seasons from season 43 in 2017 until season 50 in 2025. She was promoted to repertory status on the show in 2019. [...] Gardner departed the show in 2025, after the conclusion of the show's 50th season. In 2026, Gardner admitted that she was ultimately cut from the show ahead of season 51.

• • •

I can't talk much about this because I feel like I don't really get it. I never caught on to what the puzzle was trying to do ... or else I did, and I just didn't like it. I'm still hung up on how the "I'M OVER HERE" / ON EARTH thing is supposed to work. I get that [Here] is (literally) ON EARTH, but ... is the idea that "I'M OVER HERE" is, like, physically higher in the grid than ON EARTH? Because that answer is not really "over" [Here], i.e. ON EARTH. It's way on the other side of the grid. If it were literally over the answer for [Here], maybe it would make more sense to me. Maybe. I dunno [oh ok, just realized that 86A: See 88-Across is “over [Here]” in the clues! I never look at clue layout, so that was obviously hard to appreciate]. "I TELL YOU WHAT" is funny in its ridiculous literalness, but "I NEED SOME SPACE" doesn't really land. You just ... don't space the words? But ... "you" are speaking, so do you really "need" space(s between your words)? But I guess if “you” are the puzzle, it makes sense, “you” should have spaces. The way the "I MISSED YOU" clue is written is so awkward—the "you" in "All-you-can-eat" is just missing, so you get this double dash ("--") thing, which (for me) was really hard to read / make sense of. Whatever sense of humor is happening here, it's mostly just missing me. The fill also creaks throughout. The SMOLT / OCTAL pairing is a real lowlight, as is IN A MEMO, NO BUENO (?) and ABED, a word no one uses that also gets an "?" clue (3D: Undercover?). Never thought of ABED because I've never used the word ABED. Feels archaic. But like I said, I shouldn't go on because this felt like it simply wasn't for me. Maybe it's over my head, like some kinds of comedy that everyone seems to love and I'm like "I don't get it." It's very possible.

Sorry, I really truly have nothing big-picture to say about this puzzle. I found it toughish in places, but somehow also finished quickly. The TONE / ABED / NO BUENO part def slowed me down, but other than that, there weren't any obviously thorny places. Occasionally the clues got (for me) very hard, like with GELATO (117A: It's cold in Italy) and BUN (115D: Cupcake, in Ireland) and even OVID, whom I've read a bunch, but "Ibis"? (36D: "Ibis" poet). No idea. Four-letter poet, though—not hard to infer. I don't know who various SNL alums are or who hosts Chopped or who the "alter ego" of Mr. Incredible is (?!?!), so I had to work through those, but that's just normal everyday solving trouble. Seemed like there were a lot of names, but none of them sank me. I think my favorite clue of the whole puzzle was 56D: Reason to head for the hills (SKI TRIP). The puzzle was pretty light on high points for me.

["I'm right over here / Why can't you see me? Oh oh oh..."]

Bullets:

• 24D: Sex symbol of the 1950s-'60s, familiarly (MARILYN) — was expecting a nickname ("familiarly"), but first names are "familiar," and she was commonly referred to by just the one name, so that's fine.
• 85D: "Lay it on me" ("SHOOT") — kept wanting it to be "SAY IT." Which is reminding me that ON EARTH (the "H" cross) was actually pretty hard to put together.

• 117A: It's cold in Italy (GELATO) — does GELATO mean "cold" in Italian? No, that's FREDDO. That makes this clue weird, since GELATO (the frozen dessert) is cold no matter where you are. 
• 7D: Novel form of summer escapism? (POOL READ) — I have definitely heard of BEACH READ. I have definitely not heard of POOL READ. I get it, I just haven't heard anyone use it as a term.
• 48D: Series finale? (ETC.) — Does that even really need the "?" I had ESS here.
• 82D: Something in which you might stand for a spell (BEE) — this one seems like it should have a "?"—does anyone call the act of spelling a word a "spell"?

• 96D: Pricing game on "The Price Is Right" (PLINKO) — I guess it's a classic game from that show, but I haven't thought about that show since the '80s and am surprised we're still supposed to know things about it. It's still on the air, isn't it? Does Drew Carey host it? [checks] Yes. This is his 20th season. I forget that daytime TV still exists. Sometimes I forget that network TV still exists. I don't think I could name more than a handful of shows currently on the air, across all the major networks (ABC NBC CBS FOX). 
• 71A: They can make a pronounced difference (UMLAUTS) — cute, but also very vague, as many diacritical marks (all of them?) do this (i.e. change pronunciation of a letter).
• 115D: Cupcake, in Ireland (BUN) — I thought "Cupcake" was a pet name, so I really wanted "HON," but that didn't seem very Irish.

That'll have to do for today. Sorry I couldn't work up enthusiasm for this thing, even negative enthusiasm. It just missed me. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. maybe I'm just crossworded out—I had a lovely day up in Ithaca at the Finger Lakes Crossword Competition, scoring puzzles and chatting to people and eating Oreos and what not. Turnout was as big as I've seen it, which is great, since all the proceeds go to Tompkins Learning Partners, an adult literacy org. It's fun scoring puzzles because you get to see exactly the place(s) that are most difficult for people. There was a cross in the Toughest puzzle today that wiped out maybe 1/3 of solvers: Beethoven's "MISSA Solemnis" crossing Chocolat director LASSE Hallström at the "A." The Toughest puzzle also had a tricky theme where answers were represented literally in the puzzle, like AGEBEAUTY ("Age before beauty") and DEATHLIFE ("Life after death"). One of the answers was NOONDOGDAY, for Dog Day Afternoon, which some people had apparently never heard of—I saw a couple Dog Day Afterboons and at least one Dog Day Aftersoon. Maybe they thought SOONDOGDAY was Soon Before Dog Day—sounds like something directed by LASSE Hallström (he directed My Life as a Dog, after all). Anyway, a good time for sure. But yes, I'm tired.

[Middle school cafeteria!—this photo shows the whole room but you can't really see the bulk of the crowd, who are at table in red chairs near the front of the room]

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