Sink-or-swim competition? / TUES 4-28-26 / Part of a piano or loom / Kid-lit girl with a blueberry pail / Greek goddess of the earth / Some cantina fare

Hello, everyone, it’s Clare for the last Tuesday of April! Hope everyone has been enjoying it, as spring has (mostly) sprung, and we’re yet to get the most stifling heat possible. I got to hike yesterday with my pup midday without dying from the heat. She loved it and got exhausted and absolutely filthy and tried to refuse a bath. I’m crossing my fingers for my Penguins (now down just 2-3 in the series against the hated Flyers) and have been going to Washington Spirit NWSL games here in DC. I also started watching the F1 documentary on Netflix and have gotten very invested in the outcome of this season, so I may be watching come racetime here in the US in a few days. Not a whole lot else going on with me… but my sister is currently on day three of walking the Camino de Santiago via el Camino Francés (French Way). She’ll be walking about 15 miles a day for over 30 days to reach Santiago, Spain. So join me in wishing her a Buen Camino! 

Anywho, on to the puzzle…

Constructor: Hal Moore

Relative difficulty: Average for a Tuesday

THEME: SEEN AND NOT HEARD (58A: Like children, ideally, in an old adage … or a hint to a four-letter word hidden in 17-, 32- and 40-Across) — The word “seen” can be, well, seen in each of the three theme answers but isn’t pronounced in the phrases 

Theme answers:

• TIES UP LOOSE ENDS (17A: Handles a few unresolved issues)
• CLOSE ENOUGH (32A: Not perfect, but acceptable) 
• MISE EN PLACE (40A: Station set up in a kitchen)

Word of the Day: EDNA (57D: ___ Lewis, the "Grande Dame of Southern Cooking") —

Edna Regina Lewis (April 13, 1916 – February 13, 2006) was a renowned American chef, teacher, and author who helped refine the American view of Southern cooking. She championed the use of fresh, in-season ingredients and characterized Southern food as fried chicken (pan-, not deep-fried), pork, and fresh vegetables – most especially greens. She wrote and co-wrote four books, which covered Southern cooking and life in a small community of freed slaves and their descendants, including The Taste of Country Cooking and In Pursuit of Flavor… In 1979, Craig Claiborne of The New York Times wrote The Taste of Country Cooking "may well be the most entertaining regional cookbook in America". Food & Wine in 2025 said it was "widely regarded as one of the most important cookbooks of the 20th century." (Wiki)

• • •

Clever enough theme for a Tuesday puzzle, for which your enjoyment may have depended on how well you know — or at least how quickly you could get — MISE EN PLACE (40A). I know the phrase well, but it did take me a little bit to see it just because it looks so horrible (and confusing) when written out like MISEENPLACE. I think I had MISEExPxxx and just couldn’t see it. Luckily, the downs weren’t too hard, but I expect some people might’ve felt stuck there. The other theme answers were fine. That you don’t hear “seen” pronounced in any of the theme answers is interesting and adds a dimension to the NOT HEARD part of the revealer. I suspect SEEN could have appeared in any number of possible answers, though I may be overstating the range of potential theme answers. I’d always thought of the phrase as SEEN but NOT HEARD, though a Google search tells me the phrases are interchangeable. Regardless, while the theme didn’t help with the solve, the revealer was nice. 

There just weren’t a lot of answers that popped, which made the puzzle feel somewhat boring. My favorite was definitely WATER POLO (15A: Sink-or-swim competition?), and I love the use of TEA (21A: Gossip, slangily) to describe gossip. PAPAYAS (47A: Ingredients in some tropical smoothies) is fun. And I suppose CONTINUITY (10D: Script supervisor's concern) is a good long word. But I can’t drum up excitement for AXIS POWERS (29D: Coalition that opposed the Allies in W.W. II) or CANST (43D: "___ thou not minister to a mind diseased …?": Macbeth) or ARREAR (48D: Overdue debt) or GRAMMAR (27A: Linguist's concern) or… Looking back, it was hard to find much to describe about the non-theme answers because it all blended together in one ball of meh in my head. 

I didn’t like how vague 24A: Welcome at the door, say was. I originally had “let in” and then “see in,” and it turned out to be ASK IN. YES I AM as 4D: Emphatic confirmation doesn’t seem to fit because it isn't inherently an emphatic phrase. Phrases like ADD TO (22A: Build on) and AT IT (36A: Bickering) also don't inspire much interest. 

There seemed to be more proper nouns than usual, such as: SOSA, KROC, RUN DMC, OPI, ROSA, IAGO , PEETE, SAGAN, and EDNA. I learned today that Calvin PEETE and Rodney PEETE (49D) were cousins. The puzzle also had a sort of mini theme with words with their origin in another country: PAOLO, CIAO, TACOS, PESOS, SEÑOR, SERAPE, MISE EN PLACE, LOX, TRE, and SUNNI.

Misc.:

• I might’ve gotten the most excited today over SAL (33D: Kid-lit girl with a blueberry pail) in the puzzle. I hadn’t thought of “Blueberries for Sal” in so many years, but that was one of my favorite books growing up. 
• Seeing LOX (31A: Bagel topping) in the puzzle reminds me of how many times I’ve gone to a bagel place near me in DC called Call Your Mother. I moved just a few minutes closer to it, but I’ve already gone probably four times in the last few weeks to get a bagel with cream cheese, capers, and LOX. They’re so delicious. 
• I used to use OPI (5A: Nail polish brand) nail polish all the time. Then I started rock climbing, and my nails would chip after climbing just once. So I’ve barely had my nails painted at all in years. 
• For National Independent Bookstore Day this past Saturday, I went to a couple local bookstores and managed to snag a print from a special edition Inciardi print. The machine to get the print requires four quarters, and when I put mine in at one point, I realized it wasn’t working because I was trying it with three quarters and one PESO (46A: Coins of Cuba) I apparently brought back with me from Mexico. Oops! I also got the book “Lost Lambs” by Madeline Cash, which comes highly recommended from my sister, and “Weavingshaw” by Heba Al-Wasity, a fantasy book I’m already halfway into and loving! 
• In other very important news, BTS is now on tour!! I’m counting down the days until I get to see them in Baltimore in August and get to see something like this. 
• I’m feeling a little ACHY (1A: Sore) after my hike yesterday. And Red might be, too, after our many miles…
• 

(and a bonus

(a bonus pic from when Red wanted some of my happy hour TACOS (8A))

And that's all from me, folks! Have a great month of May.

Signed, Clare Carroll, who's always both seen and heard :)

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Device worn by a video gamer / MON 4-27-26 / Spinoff of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" / Han Solo's response to Leia's "I love you" / Word before beer or after square / Spinks who defeated Muhammad Ali / Do some booty-shaking / Grammy-winning a cappella group famous for their Christmas albums

Constructor: Neville Fogarty

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (the "Medium" is solely for a couple of the proper names, which not everyone is going to be familiar with)

[16A: Han Solo's response to Leia's "I love you" ("I KNOW"]

THEME: VR HEADSET (65A: Device worn by a video gamer ... or a hint to 17-, 24-, 39- and 53-Across) — familiar two-word phrases where the "heads" (i.e. first letters) of the two words are "V" and "R," respectively:

Theme answers:

• VOCAL REST (17A: Singer's recovery period)
• VOLCANIC ROCK (24A: Pumice or basalt)
• VANDERPUMP RULES (39A: Spinoff of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills")
• VOTING RECORD (53A: Congressional history)

Word of the Day: VANDERPUMP RULES (39A) —

Vanderpump Rules is an American reality television series that has been broadcast on Bravo since January 7, 2013. Developed as the first spin-off from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, it has aired 12 seasons and focuses on Lisa Vanderpump and the staff at her restaurants and bars: SUR Restaurant & Lounge, Pump Restaurant, and Tom Tom, in West Hollywood, California.

The success of the show has resulted in three spin-offs: Vanderpump Rules After Show, Vanderpump Rules: Jax & Brittany Take Kentucky, and The Valley. // 

Vanderpump Rules follows Lisa Vanderpump and the staff at her restaurants and bars (SUR Restaurant & Lounge, Pump Restaurant, and Tom Tom, in West Hollywood, California) as they work on building their futures in show business and become entangled in interpersonal drama. The show initially centered on new server Scheana and her relationships with established employees Kristen Doute, Katie Maloney, Tom Sandoval, Stassi Schroeder, and Jax Taylor. (wikipedia)

• • •

I gotta believe that Neville noticed that VANDERPUMP RULES was a perfect grid-spanner, thought "huh, how can I turn that into something," saw the "VR" initials, which immediately brought to mind VR HEADSETs ... and here we are. It will surprise no one that VANDERPUMP RULES is a NYTXW debut. It will surprise at least a few people that VANDERPUMP RULES is anything at all, but ... it has run for 12 (!!!) seasons, so its validity as an answer, even as a Monday answer, is hard to question. I think 99% of so-called "reality TV" is a scourge, that it's dehumanizing and fraudulent and pretty much got us the government we have now. I also think VR HEADSETs look ridiculous and can't believe anyone would voluntarily wear one. Reality TV ... Virtual Reality ... pass and pass! But hey, I don't make the rules (Vanderpump or otherwise) and so I accept that many things I don't care for will seep into my grids. Luckily, VANDERPUMP RULES is an amazing name that's fun to say (and write—look how many times I've written it already!). That answer, along with a very clever revealer (making use of all its parts: "VR" and "head" and "set"!), elevates this above most initial-based themes I've seen. But still, at its core, it's just an initial-based theme, and most of the fill is pretty short, mostly blah, and particularly heavy on the repeaters (PSST AGASP EKE ESS ASEA RAVI EWAN ERMA OHO OHARE etc.). So you take the good you take the bad you take them both and there you have: three stars. Very much OK. 

[check out that VR HEADSET!]

My Downs-only solve was ... interesting. I made an inexplicable typo early on that made the NW way harder than it should've been. I meant to write in STARVE at 4D: "Feed a cold, ___ a fever" (dubious medical advice), but I somehow managed to write in SGARVE, which made TOOT impossible to see / infer, and since I wasn't 100% sure about COCO and absolutely could not come up with ROOT, that NW corner was something I had to come back to. I also wasn't entirely sure what a VOCAL REST was, though I knew I'd heard the phrase before. It's exactly what the clue says, exactly what it appears to mean—a period of time during which a singer rests their voice. As I was solving, I thought maybe it had a more technical meaning, something to do with musical notation, but no. I made an inference error on the second themer when I imagined that the first word would be VOLCANO, not VOLCANIC, and turned that answer into VOLCANO CREST. Is that a thing? I feel like that's what the rim of a volcano should be called. But no, wrong, not the answer the puzzle was looking for. Had DANCE before TWERK (13D: Do some booty-shaking) and MAC (!?) before RIG (9D: 18-wheeler), so the NE corner got a little ugly for me as well. After I got out of the top part of the grid, though, everything else came together very quickly. But again, I knew VANDERPUMP RULES was a thing and I also knew PENTATONIX was a thing (31D: Grammy-winning a cappella group famous for their Christmas albums). If the clue is to be believed, PENTATONIX is "famous" for their Christmas albums, but I still think some solvers are going to be unaware of them, and this could make the puzzle a bit tougher (esp. for Downs-only solvers, who might decide that PENATONIC / SECTS looks like a perfectly good solution).

Bullets:

• 2D: Word before beer or after square (ROOT) — these clues have always been my nemesis. My brain just goes "nope, won't do it, keep going, we'll get it from crosses." And then I'm like "come on brain, we can do this!" and it just sits there shaking its head, mulish. The cruel irony is that I adore ROOT beer and all things ROOT beer-flavored.
• 3D: Pixar film with the Oscar-winning song "Remember Me" (COCO) — every time I'm faced with a four-letter animated film, I just write in COCO and hope for the best. Sorry, ELIO and SOUL and whatever else is out there!
• 9D: 18-wheeler (RIG) — as I say, I wrote in MAC here at first. The truck brand is MACK, with a "K." I don't think Mac has made an 18-wheeler yet. But who knows what ridiculous horrors the future holds!
• 18D: Spinks who defeated Muhammad Ali (LEON) — wrote this in effortlessly, but somewhat guiltily, thinking "is anyone under 50 going to remember this???" Those Spinks/Ali bouts occurred just as my sports consciousness was developing (1978). Spinks beat Ali in February, and then the rematch happened only seven months later—Ali won that one. But if you weren't around for those bouts, I wouldn't expect you to know Spinks, as boxing has faded dramatically in popularity in the intervening half century, which means the history of boxing is not as In The Air as it once was.

• 12D: "Peanuts" or "Pickles" (COMIC) — I think I tried STRIP here briefly (before COMIC? what the hell, brain!?). Missed opportunity here to do a crossreference clue: ["Garfield," e.g.] paired with [Garfield, e.g.] at 63D (CAT). But maybe those clues would've been too, uh, subtle (i.e. vague) for a Monday.

[Like Ali ... the Greatest]

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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