City at the center of "Moonraker," informally / WED 8-6-24 / Proterozoic, for one / Original Monopoly token discontinued in 2013

Constructor: Hanh Huynh

Relative difficulty: Easy (6:12 solving on my phone) (this was a small grid, btw, only 14 rows)

THEME: IT'S NOT THAT DEEP — "You're overthinking this" ... or what might be said about 3-, 9-, 17- and 34-Down?

Theme answers:

• [Item that has to be blown up before being filled with water] for INFLATABLE POOL
• [Minor office injury] for PAPER CUT
• [Quick throw in football] for SCREEN PASS
• [Rejuvenating break] for POWER NAP

Word of the Day: DIP ("When I ___, you ___, we ___" (lyric from a Freak Nasty hit)) —

"Da' Dip" is a song written and recorded by American hip hop artist Freak Nasty. It was released in 1996 as the lead single from his second album, Controversee...That's Life...And That's the Way It Is. To date, "Da' Dip" is Freak Nasty's only top forty hit.

Upon its initial release in mid-1996, "Da' Dip" failed to make an impact on the Billboard charts, charting low on both the R&B and rap charts. The song, however, managed to break through into the mainstream the following year, reaching number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Da' Dip" was then certified gold by the RIAA on April 10, 1997 before reaching platinum certification on June 3 of that year for shipments exceeding one million copies; the single sold one million units in 1997 alone. In 2024, the song gained popularity on TikTok with users recreating the dance from its music video.

• • •

Good morning everyone! (Although it's night when I'm writing this.) Rex is still on vacation, but this is a regularly scheduled Malaika MWednesday. A very delightful puzzle, I thought! 

When I first opened it, the layout threw me off a bit. It has the look of a themeless puzzle, like one of the Kameron Austin Collins grids that takes me over an hour to solve. But the center is chopped up into small words, rather than left wide open. I got thrown off again when I hit 2-Down (which was very early on, I was bopping around rather than going in order). I saw [Six-stringed instrument similar to a cello] and immediately thought "viola!" and when that didn't fit, I prepped myself for a rebus.

This is a VIOL, apparently

But as I made my way through the grid, everything else was fitting nicely, and I soon saw that this was just a standard themed puzzle with a bit of a funky layout and vertical theme answers. My guess is that they are laid out vertically because the word "deep" is associated with up-and-down orientation. I loved the revealer! I use that phrase all the time, it's not just in-the-language, it's in-my-language. And it does perfectly apply to each of the four theme answers. (Actually, I'm not really sure what a SCREEN PASS is so I can't comment there. But I trust it.)

There was some fill that caught me-- I stared at ESAI for a long time, trying to decide if I had an error there. And two-word phrases like DABS AT, OIL UP, and LET DIE can feel a little clunky. (Not LOOK UP though, that sounded very normal to me.) I had never heard of EROICA before (my brain immediately clocked that it's one letter off from "erotica" lol), so that corner was the final one for me to finish.

After looking up ESAI Morales, I realized I know him from a "Curb Your Enthusiasm" episode that I just watched. (I've been rewatching the show, it's a comedy masterpiece.)

When I'm helping new constructors, I try to steer them away from what we sometimes call List Puzzles, where the theme answers are all just stuff that's in the same category. But List Puzzles work (and, in my opinion, stop being List Puzzles) when the revealer has an element of wordplay to it. This was a perfect example!

Bullets:

• [Bit of gear for an entomologist] for NET — An entomologist studies insects, so I guess the idea is they are capturing specimens using a net
• [Winners of Super Bowl III (and no other Super Bowls since then)] for JETS — This was such a rude clue lmao, love it. Last night I watched the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" episode about a very depressed Jets fan.
• [Peter Pan transport] for BUS — I had to look this up-- it's the name of a company. I have only ever ridden MegaBus and Greyhound.
• [Animal on a "Hang in there!" inspirational poster] for CAT — This is kind of odd, now that I think about it. You'd think it would be like.... a sloth.

xoxo Malaika

Congrats, you've made it to the end, and now I will talk about Summer Tomatoes!! Please skip this part if you only care about puzzles. I am not growing any tomatoes this year, but I had a good trip to the farmer's market and this is what I made:

I make this savory, jammy, tomato tart probably five times every summer, it is unreal delicious. The crust and the filling are from two different recipe developers, but I combined the recipes and wrote them up here.

A little Snack Plate of peaches and two varieties of tomatoes topped with toasted pine nuts, aged balsamic, basil-infused olive oil, and flaky salt

I made my standard focaccia recipe, but subbed about 20% of the water for tomatoes that I pureed and strained. The color is far pink-er than what you can see in this pic, and while it smelled fabulously tomato-ey as it baked, the flavor didn't come through as much as I had hoped

I served the focaccia with a pretty standard gazpacho that I eyeballed... tomatoes, cucumbers, shallot, garlic, bread, olive oil, vinegar, salt&pep. Apparently garlic is a controversial ingredient(?) but bro it tastes sooo good.

Panzanella with sungolds, peaches, mozzarella, and shallots. I used my focaccia (toasted) for the bread, and I used the basil-infused oil in the vinaigrette :)

xoxo Malaika

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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Longest key on a keyboard / TUES 8-5-25 / First modular space station / Singer India.___ / Messy class for kindergartners

Hi, everyone, it’s Clare back this time for the first Tuesday in August! Not much to report given the shorter-than-usual turnaround. But we of course had some important sports this weekend, with the Washington Spirit soccer team winning on a last-minute goal from Trinity Rodman, returning after months out with a back injury. We’re less than two weeks away from the start of the Premier League. (As you may recall, my Liverpudlians won the title last year. I might have mentioned that once or twice.) And tennis is gearing up, with the US Open starting in less than three weeks! In other news, I don’t have a client interview tomorrow at 7 AM, so that’s a nice change of pace! 

Anywho, on to the puzzle…

Constructors: Gary Larson and Amy Ensz

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Punny answers where the article “a” can be read as separate from the rest of the next word to literally answer the clue, or the “a” can be read with the rest of the word

Theme answers:

• A/CUTE ANGLE (17A: Adorable perspective on things?) 
• A/SCENT OF MAN (28A: Axe or Old Spice?) 
• A/HEAD OF TIME (46A: Major newsmagazine's C.E.O.?) 
• A/CORN SHELL (61A: Taco tortilla option?)

Word of the Day: PAIGE (34A: Satchel in Cooperstown)  —

Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige (July 7, 1906 – June 8, 1982) was an American professional baseball pitcher who played in Negro league baseball and Major League Baseball (MLB). His career spanned five decades and culminated with his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. At age 42 in 1948, Paige made his MLB debut for the Cleveland Indians; to this day, this makes him the oldest debutant in National League or American League history. Paige was 59 years old when he played his last major league game, which is also a record that stands to this day. Paige was the first black pitcher to play in the American League and was the seventh black player to play in Major League Baseball. Also in 1948, Paige became the first player who had played in the Negro leagues to pitch in the World Series; the Indians won the Series that year. (Wiki)

• • •

Overall a pretty good theme, with some above-average, clever fill. I wouldn’t say the theme was anything to write home about, and I sort of missed having a revealer (not that it’s a requirement), but the answers were clever wordplay. The only one I didn’t like was A CORN SHELL / ACORN SHELL (61A) because I really don’t think that ACORN SHELL is in the lexicon. I’ve never talked about an ACORN SHELL in my life. Have you? My favorite was A CUTE ANGLE / ACUTE ANGLE (17A). 

The fill was quite clean and full of uncommon words, especially on a Tuesday. I really enjoyed seeing IMPETUS (23A: Driving force), STASIS (1D: Equilibrium), USURPS (3D: Seizes, as control, ARDENT (49D: Gung-ho), and TACOMA (2D: City that shares an international airport with Seattle). Then SAVES FACE (10D: Maintains one's dignity) and STEAM ROOM (33D: Spot to sit and sweat) weren’t bad long downs. I enjoyed having both TAHOE (54D: Chevy model whose name references a body of water) and RIO (62D: Kia model whose name references a body of water) in the puzzle. Having those close to OCEANS (47D: About 71% of the earth's surface) was clever. 

A few answers made this a slightly harder than usual Tuesday for me. I got stuck on SYNOD (5A: Church assembly) for some reason. I didn’t know ARLO (16A: Janis's spouse in the funny pages). I wasn’t previously familiar with PAIGE (34A), which I’ve now rectified with the Googling I’ve done and learning about what an amazing pitcher and player and person he was. I blanked on MICA (52A: Flaky rock), and TEA TREE (53A: Member of the myrtle family that's the source of an essential oil) was a little old-fashioned for me. 

I didn’t like how the top of the puzzle had STUB (1A: Leftover part of a ticket) and then STUD (10A: Support to which drywall is attached). I also have a big bone to pick with SMEAR (38A: Mascara mishap) because a mascara mishap is most definitely a smudge and not a smear. I even typed out “smudge” because I was so certain, before realizing it wouldn’t fit. I Googled to confirm, and if you search “mascara smear,” results about a smudge are all that come up. 

SPACE BAR (21A: Longest key on a keyboard) was cute. I was staring at my keyboard trying to think if it could be “caps lock” or “command,” wondering what would fit. But it was quite literally the longest key instead. That clue was a long way to go for COOP / CO-OP (22D: Certain apartment (with a hyphen) or farm housing (without one)), but I liked it.

Misc.:

• Here’s a quote from a Q + A with Willie Mays about Satchel PAIGE (wildly high praise from probably the best player in baseball history) —
• Oh, yeah. We were in Memphis, Tennessee. It was like a playoff game. It might have been ’48. Satchel had a very, very good fastball. But he threw me a little breaking ball, just to see what I could do, and I hit it off the top of the fence. And I got a double. When I got to second, Satchel told the third baseman, "Let me know when that little boy comes back up." Three innings later, I go to kneel down in the on-deck circle, and I hear the third baseman say, "There he is." Satch looked at the third baseman, and then he looked at me. I walk halfway to home plate and he says, "Little boy." I say, "Yes, sir?" because Satch was much older than I am, so I was trying to show respect. He walked halfway to home plate and said, "Little boy, I’m not going to trick you. I’m going to throw you three fastballs and you’re going to go sit down." And I’m saying in my mind, "I don’t think so." If he threw me three of the same pitch, I’m going to hit it somewhere. He threw me two fastballs and I just swung...I swung right through it. And the third ball he threw, and I tell people this all the time, he threw the ball and then he started walking. And he says, "Go sit down." This is while the ball was in the air. He was just a magnificent pitcher.
• My sister and I actually met Willie Mays because he gave out baseballs for Halloween in our neighborhood when we were kids. My dad really wanted to meet him, too, but we sprinted ahead because we were so excited. My dad just got to wave to Mays from partway up the driveway. Sorry, Dad! 
• I always love to see TAHOE (aka the prettiest place on Earth) in the puzzle. Especially seeing the weather forecasts recently in TAHOE (54D) versus D.C., I kind of want to move back. 
• I know ULNA (12D: Arm bone on the pinkie finger side) is common crosswordese. But I’ll never forget the name and placement of this bone, along with many others, solely because I went through a phase in high school where I downloaded apps to quiz myself on anatomy because I had been influenced by watching “Grey’s Anatomy” and wanted to be a doctor. That lasted until I took AP Bio my junior year and hated it, then did an internship at a hospital and… fainted my first time in an operating room. Glad I switched to law instead! 
• I’m not sure I’ve had TETLEY (51D: Brand for a cuppa) tea before, even as a tea drinker. I’m more familiar with Bigelow or Lipton or Twinings if I want to get fancy. But I seem to be able to order TETLEY (51D) online, so I may have to try it and will report back! 
• Speaking of sports… The US Track and Field Championships wrapped up last weekend with some incredible performances, including a 16-year-old who finished second in the 800m, setting a U-18 (and also collegiate) world record. There was drama with Noah Lyles and Kenny Bednarek, who pushed Lyles after losing to him in the 200m (there’s some behind-the-scenes drama there). Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone narrowly missed out on the American 400m record (her main event is the hurdles, where she already holds the world record). She’ll compete in the 400m at worlds and go for the American record again. Gabby Thomas, who won gold in the 200m at the Paris Olympics, made the team by finishing third, one-thousandth of a second ahead of fourth and two-thousandths of a second ahead of fifth. We like Gabby even though she went to a school whose name starts with H. We’re now just about six weeks away from the world championships.

And that's all from me, folks! Have a great August.

Signed, Clare Carroll, who when she needs a Lyft feels A LONG FOR THE RIDE

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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