Apple pan ___ (baked pastry) / WED 4-1-26 / Bone that squeaks, maybe / Midwestern native

Constructor: Jess Shulman and Amie Walker

Relative difficulty: Easy...? (7:06 on my phone while walking home)

THEME: QUIP — In a classic "Quip Puzzle," the clues are just there to show you where to write each part of the quote. Here, each clue (phrased just like they would be in a Quip Puzzle) is a literal description of the entry. More details below!

Theme answers:

• [Quip, part 1] for QUICK START
• The first part of the term "quip" is the letter Q, so that is circled
• Additionally, the "start" of the word "quick" is the letter Q
• [Quip, part 2] for YOUNG AT HEART
• The first part of the term "quip" is the letter U, so that is circled
• Additionally, the "heart" (or center) or the word "young" is the letter U
• [Quip, part 3] for SECOND IN LINE
• The third part of the term "quip" is the letter I, so that is circled
• Additionally, the "second" in the word "line" is the letter I
• [Quip, part 4] for PAY UP FRONT
• The fourth part of the term "quip" is the letter P,  so that is circled
• Additionally, the "front" of the word "pay" is the letter P

Word of the Day: Apple pan DOWDY —

Grunts, pandowdy, and slumps are Canadian Maritimes, New England, and Pennsylvania Dutch varieties of cobbler, typically cooked on the stovetop, or in an iron skillet or pan, with the dough on top in the shape of dumplings. They reportedly take their name from the grunting sound they make while cooking. Another name for the types of biscuits or dumplings used is dough-boys. In the United States, additional varieties of cobbler include the Betty, the buckle (made with yellow batter [like cake batter] with the filling mixed in with the batter), the dump (or dump cake), and the sonker. The sonker is unique to North Carolina: it is a deep-dish version of the American cobbler. [wiki]

• • •

Hey squad! Happy Malaika MWednesday! Short write-up from me today as I have some work I need to finish :( I wondered what trick they'd throw at me for their April Fools' Day puzzle, and this seemed pretty tame. I think I could see it as a Thursday puzzle if it hadn't been April 1st.

Constructors can be so creative! I could imagine brainstorming aspects of this theme, but no way could I have come up with every part and got them all working together. Quip Puzzles are a very polarizing type of theme. Everyone I know (including me) hates them. (I only say they're polarizing as opposed to hated bc presumably some people must like them if they keep getting published??) So I think it makes a lot of sense to theme a puzzle around making a solver think it's a Quip Puzzle and then pulling the rug out from under them.

I don't solve cryptic crosswords, but I understand that the clues in them are similar to what's going on here. You are plucking letters that will be in the entry from parts of the clue, with words like "start" or "second" giving you hints. We've seen cryptic-esque clues in Sam's April 1st puzzle from several years ago. And even regular puzzles will occasionally employ cryptic techniques like [Enrollment center?] as a clue for ELS.

I wonder how many phrases they brainstormed for each of the letters! I could imagine, e.g. PICK FIRST as an entry for [Quip, part 4], so I think part of the challenge comes from getting everything to have a symmetrical number of letters. With some puzzles, if you have (e.g.) two theme answers that are ten letters and two that are thirteen letters, you can swap the positions of theme answers 1 & 4 and answers 2 & 3. Here, the order matters.

On top of the cleverness of the theme, there were some great long entries with I GOTTA SAY, INDIE POP, HOT DATES, WATCH THIS, DOG TOY, and TREE FROG. So impressive! I found the clues throughout to be really easy, which I think made the theme entries fall into place for me. Even though I didn't clock what was going on until the puzzle was fully done (I knew it wasn't a Quip Puzzle, but I didn't get what the theme entries meant), my time was still average.

Bullets:

• [Go a-courtin'?] for SUE — Cute!
• [Nash who wrote "Who wants my jellyfish? / I'm not sellyfish!"] for OGDEN — I comment on a lot of the older references that are lost on me, but I know and love Ogden Nash. (Because my grandparents had a book of his rhymes at their house lol.)
• [Kind of burger that lacks meat] for SOY — I've heard of VEGGIE burgers, black bean burgers, impossible burgers, beyond burgers.... I have never heard of a soy burger!
  

xoxo Malaika

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Typeface that sounds like the name of a Disney princess / TUES 3-31-26 / Venue for a boss fight / List in Ariana Grande's "Thank U, Next" / Colorado Plateau people

Hi, everyone, it’s Clare for the last Tuesday of March — and the last day! Spring is here (aka the cherry blossoms are going gangbusters in D.C.), and it feels like I’m coming out of hibernation. I’m writing this from my new apartment, which is about three blocks from my old apartment. So: My pup doesn’t have to get used to a new dog park, and I got to pack haphazardly, meaning a bunch of trips with my things (and I have way more things than I realized!). I’ve been loving watching March Madness (go, UConn women) and rooting on the Penguins to a playoff spot. But, I’ve buried the lede! BTS is back!!! Here’s a link to their new single, “Swim,” which just debuted at No. 1 on Billboard, along with their No. 1 album “Arirang.” And here’s my favorite song from the album. Enjoy! 

Anywho, on to the puzzle…

Constructor: Ryan Patrick Smith

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: FANTASY LAND (64A: Utopian expanse ... a map of which might include 17-, 27- and 48-Across?) — Each answer was a fantastical word combined with a geographical feature

Theme answers:

• MYSTIC RIVER (17A: 2003 crime drama adapted from a Dennis Lehane novel) 
• MAGIC MOUNTAIN (27A: Six Flags location that was the first amusement park to offer 20 roller coasters) 
• UNCANNY VALLEY (48A: Concept explaining why certain humanoid robots look so unsettling)

Word of the Day: REMY (36D: Rapper ___ Ma) —

Reminisce Kioni Smith, known professionally as Remy Ma, is an American rapper. Discovered by the late rapper Big Pun, she came to prominence for her work as a member of Fat Joe's group, Terror Squad. Her debut solo album, There's Something About Remy: Based on a True Story (2006), sold 37,000 copies in its first week. Ma's most commercially successful songs include "Lean Back", "Conceited", and "All the Way Up.” She is one of five multi-time winners of the BET Award for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist, which she won in 2005 and 2017. Ma is the recipient of two Vibe Awards, two Source Awards, and has been nominated for four Grammy Awards. (WIki)

• • •

Well, that was a puzzle. A pretty good puzzle? A slightly harder than usual Tuesday puzzle? A somewhat boring puzzle? All of the above? The theme didn’t grab me — I guess I don’t spend much time thinking about fantasy lands — even though one of my favorite phrases was in the puzzle: UNCANNY VALLEY (48A). Such as, “So-and-so actor is looking like they’ve had some sort of work done on their face, and I can’t pinpoint what, but they don’t look like themself. There’s something UNCANNY VALLEY going on.” It’s a phrase that might’ve stumped some people, but I thankfully got it immediately. 

The puzzle did have some other particularly fun words and phrases. I love the word LOLLOP (51D: Bound along clumsily). Do I use that word much in my day-to-day life? No. Should I? Yes. Am I going to? I hope so! GAS GUZZLER (29D:Vehicle with low fuel efficiency, in slang) is a great phrase and incorporates some fun — and possibly tricky — Zs into the puZZle. I like the word TAVERN (8D: Establishment where a D&D party might refuel and pick up new leads). And UPTOWN GIRL (11D: Billy Joel title character who's "been living in her white bread world") is a great song; the movie “UPTOWN GIRLs” is incredibly fun, too, with Brittany Murphy and Dakota Fanning. (If anyone has a spare Blumarine dress from the opening scene, let me know.) My favorite clue was for ARIAL (39A: Typeface that sounds like the name of a Disney princess). I don’t like beer, but my sister and dad do, and HAZY IPA (52A: Cloudy craft beer) is also a fun answer. 

HOLST (1A: "The Planets" composer) felt a bit hard for a Tuesday, especially as the default first clue in the puzzle. I stared at that for a good while before realizing I could get the down, HOME (1D: "E.T. phone ___"), and just move on. HOLST (1A) crossing LASE (3D: Produce coherent light) was a bit challenging. RAN AWAY (25A: Fled the scene) was particularly hard for me to get for some reason — I wanted “getaway” or “got away” or something along those lines. I couldn’t for the life of me remember how to spell NAIAD (22D: Water nymph of Greek myth). One clue/answer I didn’t like at all was TRI (5D: Muscle strengthened by dips, familiarly). Like, are you going to go do a TRI dip on one side and work out a single muscle? No, I’m pretty sure you’ll work out your TRIs (plural). 

The rest of the fill was pretty… fine. I liked SIT SKI (4D: Piece of equipment for a Winter Paralympian), showcasing the Paralympics. DIRE (42A: ___ wolf (extinct canine once prevalent across North America)) wolves is fun — even if the ending of Game of Thrones (showcasing DIRE wolves) wasn’t. Kenan & KEL (63A: Kenan's bestie on a 1990s sitcom) is a show I haven’t thought about in a long while but had fun remembering. But, ORE, ERIE, UNE, MAR, PIN, NAG, RIM, etc. don’t inspire much of anything. 

I might just be tired and grumpy (moving is hard work!). But I just don’t have much of anything else to say about this mostly meh puzzle.

Misc.:

• My sister tells me that TAE Bo (19A: exercise regimen popularized via VHS tapes) is having a huge comeback right now I may have to forgo the VHS tapes and see if I can find some workouts online somewhere! 
• AS IF (7D: "Dream on!") definitely makes me think of “Clueless,” a phenomenal movie. Come on, we can all just picture Cher saying “Ugh! AS IF” in that disgusted and wonderful tone of hers. 
• 2020 might’ve been the year of THE RAT (9D: What 2020 was a year of, in the Chinese zodiac), but this is the year of the horse — specifically, the fire horse. 
• Does anyone actually still say LMAO (59A: "hahaha!")? I like to think of myself as fairly hip and in the know, but while “lol” has made a comeback (which I use basically as punctuation), I truly don’t see LMAO written anywhere. 
• I haven’t read many books this month because I’ve been busy moving, but my favorite was “Star Shipped,” by one of my favorite authors, Cat Sebastian. Highly recommend — 5/5!

And with that, I'll see you in April!

Signed, Clare Carroll, currently living in BTS land!

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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