Metaphor for a bad goalie / TUE 11-4-25 / Eponym of a popular puzzle / Fast-food chain with the slogan "The Crave is a powerful thing" / Folk-rock pair featured in the documentary "Wordplay" / 2010 best-selling Emma Donoghue novel / Name seen in cursive on a cap in Berkeley / Empathetic response to an apology / The half with the hit song, typically / City situated between the split halves of Saguaro National Park

Constructor: Patrick Hayden

Relative difficulty: Very Easy

THEME: COLOR TV (39A: 1950S entertainment innovation ... or a hint to the first and second halves of 17-, 24-, 48- and 60-Across) — familiar two-word phrases where the first word is a "COLOR" and the second word is the title of a "TV" show:

Theme answers:

• INDIGO GIRLS (17A: Folk-rock pair featured in the documentary "Wordplay")
• BLACK SUITS (24A: Half of a standard deck of cards)
• GREENHOUSE (48A: Place for plants to flourish)
• WHITE CASTLE (60A: Fast-food chain with the slogan "The Crave is a powerful thing")

Word of the Day: ROOM (46A: 2010 best-selling Emma Donoghue novel) —

Room is a 2010 novel by Irish-Canadian author Emma Donoghue. The story is told from the perspective of a five-year-old boy, Jack, who is being held captive in a small room along with his mother. Donoghue conceived the story after hearing about five-year-old Felix in the Fritzl case.

The novel was longlisted for the 2011 Orange Prize and won the 2011 Commonwealth Writers' Prize regional prize (Caribbean and Canada). It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2010, and was shortlisted for the 2010 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the 2010 Governor General's Awards.

The film adaptation, also titled Room, was released in October 2015, starring Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay. The film was a critical and commercial success; it received four nominations at the 88th Academy Awards including for Best Picture, and won Best Actress for Larson. (wikipedia)

• • •

Conceptually, this puzzle definitely has something. I didn't notice it until I was finished, but the theme concept is a clever one. Three of the themers work perfectly, seamlessly, and then BLACK SUITS ... well, that at least works, I think, even if that phrase feels a bit more contrived than the others. The colors are all obviously familiar. As for the TV shows, I've watched some of Girls and House. The others are I've never seen, but I have heard of. Wasn't Meghan Markle in Suits? Yes, for seven seasons (she retired from acting when she married Prince Henry). And Castle ... has that guy from Firefly in it? Some kind of crime show? I think. Yes, both those things are true about Castle. That's honestly all I know about Castle, and I barely know that. But it was a popular network show for eight seasons (from 2009 to 2016), so it's valid. Nothing wrong with the theme per se. But the rest of the fill ... that had me wanting to stop solving several times. First because the crud level seemed so high at first. I came out of that NW corner, hit NOTA, and kind of hung my head. IT'S OK? No, it is not OK. SNO, DEET, NOTA ... and I'd only just started (and hadn't even hit ADZ or ADE yet). The short fill did not portend well. 

It wasn't yet intolerable, but sometimes you just get a vibe early on. I do, anyway. If there's a bunch of ugly short stuff you have to hack through right off the bat, that's ... a bad sign. Things then went from bad to worse, but this time not because of the short fill, but because of the longer fill, specifically DEEP STATE. I think I sincerely would've stopped right there if I didn't have this blog to write. Of all the right-wing fucking nonsense to put in my puzzle. Unwelcome. Completely unwelcome. It was completely unwelcome the first (and only) time it appeared, over seven years ago, and it's completely unwelcome today. At least name the people responsible for the "conspiracy." You wanna play with that answer, call it what it is: right-wing. It's a right-wing conspiracy. A fascist conspiracy, perpetrated primarily by one colossal dickhead. The concept of the DEEP STATE apparently originated in Turkey (!), but everyone knows who popularized it here, and when (hint: a Black man was president). I like DEEP STATE in my puzzle about as much as I like NAZI in my puzzle. Gonna have to watch Mamdani's victory speech tonight to get the taste of DEEP STATE out of my mouth. Actually, maybe listening to this will help:

[Yeah, this helps a little]

I hated DEEP STATE answer even more because it looked like a damn themer. I despise when there are long Across answers that aren't themers (unless the actual theme answers are running Down). ABOLISHED and DEEP STATE are aesthetically off-putting because they are just one letter shorter than two nearby themers, and longer than the center revealer, but they just ... aren't themers. Long Downs when the theme runs across, long Acrosses when the theme runs Down—those scenarios are OK. But these phantom themers that run in the same direction as the real themers—not a fan. I got DEEP STATE and then INDIGO GIRLS and assumed that the theme was "blue." Then later discovered that not only was "blue" not the theme, but DEEP STATE wasn't a themer at all. Ugliness all around. And the short fill never really got much better either. So I tip my hat to the theme, which, again, I think is clever, but the rest ... I'd probably tear it down and start over.

As for difficulty, there was none. I hesitated on the SUITS part of BLACK SUITS, but that's it. I enjoyed MODERNIZE and HANG IT UP, so good job with the long Downs. But the rest was somehow both too easy and a CHORE.

["We got to move these / Refrigerators / We got to move these COLOR TVvvvvvvvvs"]

Bullet points:

• 17A: Folk-rock pair featured in the documentary "Wordplay" (INDIGO GIRLS) — never a huge fan of the puzzle getting all winky and self-referential, but I like this duo and I like this documentary so I'll allow it. INDIGO GIRLS are coming here (to the place where I live) to play with the University Symphony Orchestra in 2026, and I might go. I've seen INDIGO GIRLS twice before, once when they opened for 10,000 Maniacs in Edinburgh (1989), and then again when they headlined at the Pantages in L.A. in 1990. The latter time, I was actually dating the sister of one of the INDIGO GIRLS. Sorry, I should've said, "Fun fact!" It's a pretty fun fact. Not that fun, but a little fun. (Apologies if I've shared this fun fact before—I've been writing for so long I can't keep track of the stories I've told or the "fun facts" I've divulged)
• 22A: Spun platters for a party, informally (DJED) — this past tense form always looks terrible written out. I totally misread this clue at first and thought "Spun" was an adjective. Who does that? (A: me).
• 9D: Name seen in cursive on a cap in Berkeley (CAL) — this is the kind of clue an alumnus would write. But it's also just a good clue. Kinda niche but also perfectly apt.

• 10D: Singers Green and Jardine (ALS) — Green is a legend, but who is Jardine? Let's find out. Oh, he was a Beach Boy?? I can't believe I'm learning this only now. You probably all knew that (well, those of you older than I am, anyway).

• 49D: Eponym of a popular puzzle (RUBIK) — had the "R" and thought, "REBUS? Mr. REBUS? Jean-Claude REBUS. Is he someone?" He is not. Erno RUBIK, however, is. Inventor of the RUBIK's Cube.
• 52D: Metaphor for a bad goalie (SIEVE) — smiled at this one. Great, inventive clue.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Egg-shaped tomato / MON 11-3-25 / Fleming who was the original host of "Jeopardy!" / Two-time Emmy-winner Remini / Record art space / Overly eager personal injury lawyer, derisively / Film that may have inspired "Sharknado" / Guitarist, in slang / Roaring Twenties style, informally / Morning waker-upper / Not express, as a train

Constructor: Kevin Christian and Andrea Carla Michaels

Relative difficulty: Easy 

THEME: ACS (65D: Summer coolers, for short ... or a hint to the answers to the starred clues) — theme answers are familiar phrases/names with the initials "A.C.":

Theme answers:

• ACCESS CODE (17A: *PIN, e.g.)
• ALLEY CAT (26A: *Stray feline)
• AMBULANCE CHASER (40A: *Overly eager personal injury lawyer, derisively)
• AL CAPONE (52A: *Gangster a.k.a. Scarface)
• ALARM CLOCK (66A: *Morning waker-upper)
• AREA CLOSED (10D: *Warning sign that might be seen on a chain-link fence)
• ALBUM COVER (30D: *Record art space)

Word of the Day: ART Fleming (24A: Fleming who was the original host of "Jeopardy!") —

Arthur Fleming Fazzin (May 1, 1924 – April 25, 1995) was an American actor and television host. He hosted the first version of the television game show Jeopardy!, which aired on NBC from 1964 until 1975 and again from 1978 to 1979. [...] After leaving the Navy, Fleming became an announcer at a radio station in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Here, he changed his name to "Art Fleming". His radio career later took him to Akron, Ohio, and back home to New York. He was the first announcer to deliver the slogan "Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should" for Winston cigarettes. [...] Fleming also appeared in many television commercials, in addition to anchoring the eleven o’clock news on WNBC. He was first spotted by Merv Griffin on a commercial for Trans World Airlines. Griffin thought Fleming was "authoritative, yet warm and interesting", and Fleming was invited to audition to be the host of Griffin's new game show Jeopardy!. Fleming won the job, and hosted the show during its original run of March 30, 1964, to January 3, 1975, and again from October 2, 1978, to March 2, 1979. Rather than describe him as the "host" of the program, announcer Don Pardo introduced him by saying, "and here's the star of Jeopardy!, Art Fleming". Fleming would immediately return the favor and thank Pardo during his introduction. As "the world's greatest quiz show's" first host, Fleming earned two Emmy Award nominations. While he was host of Jeopardy!, Fleming never missed a taping. (wikipedia)

• • •

This doesn't seem like much of a theme. Or, rather, it seems like a theme from thirty years ago. Having phrases with all the same initials is an old and perfectly acceptable theme type, but you expect something more from a revealer these days than just ACS. That is, more than just the initials themselves. There's zero cleverness here, nothing beyond the most rudimentary wordplay. If there were something that made ACS particularly *appropriate* beyond the initials, or if "AC" had been part of a longer, more colorful, more interesting revealer phrase. But as it is, there's none of that. I mean, you could've at least run this one at the peak of summer heat, so that ACS would've felt seasonally appropriate. But instead it runs at the time of year when everyone is finally putting their window AC unit away after weeks of putting it off (just me? seriously, that's on today's to-do list). You can see how this theme type could be done infinitely. An MCS puzzle. A PCS puzzle. A DAS puzzle. And on and on. But why? Conceptually, this is quite flat. What this one lacks in originality it makes up for in volume, with seven (!) theme answers crisscrossing the grid. Are some of them interesting? Yes, AMBULANCE CHASER is interesting, and it knows it, as it has decided to take center stage. The rest are just ... there. ALBUM COVER is nice. But mostly the themers aren't here to be exciting; they're here to fulfill their "A.C." duties and that is all. At least the themers are solid—well, all except AREA CLOSED, that one did not feel ... great. I had AREA and no idea what the AREA was supposed to be doing (or, in this case, not doing). Anyway, AREA CLOSED definitely seems like the weakest themer to me. It's always the seventh themer that trips you up. Thematic hubris. Greek tragedians warned us about this.

I have a little side-eye today for AXEMAN. It caught my attention because it looks like an "A.M." answer in a sea of "A.C." answers and I thought it was probably more elegant not to have any stray two-word phrases that started with "A." but whose second word did not start with "C." But then I thought, no, AXEMAN is probably one word, not two. Which is true. The problem is that AXEMAN isn't how you spell this "word" at all. It's AXMAN. Merriam-Webster dot com doesn't even list AXEMAN as a variant spelling. [actually, if you search "axeman" separately, it does say "variant spelling of AXMAN"—why isn't that variant listed in the AXMAN entry?]. The word is just AXMAN. Like "taxman," without the "t." There have only been six AXEMANs in all of NYTXW history, and today is the first time the clue has swung guitarward (in all other cases, the context is lumber). Eighteen years ago, there was an AXEMEN, plural, that had a guitar clue, but that's the last time anyone heard from that particular plural. What's weird to me is that for every iteration of this word (AXMAN/AXMEN, AXEMAN/AXEMEN) there has, to date, been one and only one guitar clue. All the other clues involve guys chopping trees. More oddly, given that AXMAN is the only correct spelling, and AXMAN is shorter (which means it should have more opportunities to appear in puzzles over time), is the fact that AXMAN does not appear that much more frequently. AXMAN beats AXEMAN by just 10 to 6. And AXMEN beats AXEMEN by 7 to 4. Which is to say that the NYTXW treats them as equally valid. But they aren't. The only good axman is an e-less axman. I'd rather see E-LESS in a puzzle than AXEMAN (that's not true, but it was fun to write). 

As a Downs-only solve, this was astonishingly easy. The only slow-downs came, predictably, on the longer theme answers, particularly AREA CLOSED. I also hesitated at ALBUM cover, mainly because the clue seemed so inscrutable: 30D: *Record art space. I know all those words, but what they were doing in that order, my brain could not compute. It felt like three random words, or like a long lost collaboration between Yoko Ono and Sun Ra: RECORD / ART / SPACE (I'd listen to that album). "Record" has multiple meanings, obviously, and that was throwing me. But not for long. And every other clue I looked at, I got instantly, or nearly so. Maybe I hesitated for a few seconds (at MESA v. YUMA, for instance) (27D: Arizona city or Native American tribe), but a moment's hesitation was the closest I ever got to stuck. 

If I'd been solving the regular way (i.e. using the Across clues), I think I might've been slower, if only because I wouldn't have known ART Fleming right off the bat. The name rings a bell, but he was Jeopardy! host way before my time. I was happy to learn about him, though, as I found his wikipedia bio most entertaining. It seems I have seen ART Fleming before but just didn't remember: "Fleming reprised his role as host of Jeopardy! in the 1982 movie Airplane II: The Sequel and in "Weird Al" Yankovic's music video "I Lost on Jeopardy". Fleming was also often called upon to host mock versions of Jeopardy! at trade shows and conventions." I like '80s ART Fleming. He'll do anything. 

[from Airplane II: The Sequel]

He'll also say anything. This bit is gold. Go off, ART!:

Fleming declined an offer to reprise his role as Jeopardy! host when Merv Griffin began developing a revival of the show in 1983. As a result, Alex Trebek (a personal friend of Fleming's) took the position instead and continued to host the program until his death in 2020. In interviews conducted in the early years of the Trebek version, he stated that he disliked the show's new direction and the various changes that the revival's producers had made. He disapproved of moving production from his native New York to Los Angeles, suggesting to a Sports Illustrated journalist in 1989 that filming in California made the show feel superficial and anti-intellectual:

[Fleming] hates the glitz, the polish. "It's not part of the real world." he says, "it's part of Hollywood." In his day, the show was filmed in Manhattan. "People are more intelligent in New York," says Fleming, a native of the Bronx. "New Yorkers are alive, with-it. They know what's going on in the world. In California there's no mental stimulation. A typical conversation consists of 'I've got a new diet. How's your tennis game? Are those clothes from Gucci?' And then you look at each other."

— Franz Lidz, "What is Jeopardy!", Sports Illustrated (May 1, 1989) (wikipedia)

"And then you look at each other"!! LOL I don't even know what that means, but I love it. Laugh-out-loud-at-4-in-the-morning love it. I grew up in California and I couldn't be less offended. You tell 'em, ART. I miss this kind of harmless regional prejudice. I think I'll let ART have the last word today. "New Yorkers are alive, with-it." Amazing. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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