Hall-of-Fame hoopster Thomas / MON 7-6-26 / Modern lead-in to coin or stock / Temporary suspensions / Cybertruck maker / European capital that's home to the Little Mermaid statue / Muppet with a noted feud with a pet rock / Instrument played by a Muse / Event that might include juggling, singing and magic tricks / 2009 comedy about a bachelor party and its aftermath / Steve ___, 2003 N.F.L. M.V.P.-winning quarterback / 1960s Pontiac muscle car / Serpent seen on a sarcophagus

Constructor: Alex Eaton-Salners

Relative difficulty: Easy (solved Downs-only)

THEME: VOICE PARTS (56A: Sections of a choir ... as hinted at by this puzzle's circled letters) — the circled letters contain the voice parts ALTO, BASS, SOPRANO, and TENOR, respectively. I think (maybe???) the fact that the circled letters are non-consecutive is supposed to indicate "parting" in some way—like, the voices have been chopped into "parts" or been "parted" from one another (!?); otherwise, I'm not sure what the revealer is doing besides telling me something I can already clearly see for myself, i.e. that the circled letters contain voice parts:

Theme answers:

• TALENT SHOW (17A: Event that might include juggling, singing and magic tricks)
• BLANK STARES (24A: Looks of total confusion)
• STOP, DROP AND ROLL (36A: Three-part fire safety technique)
• THE HANGOVER (46A: 2009 comedy about a bachelor party and its aftermath)

Word of the Day: Chappell ROAN (37D: Singer Chappell with the double-platinum album "The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess") —

Kayleigh Rose Amstutz (born February 19, 1998), known professionally as Chappell Roan ([...]CHAP-əl ROHN), is an American singer and songwriter. She is known for her camp and drag queen–influenced style.

After signing to Amusement Records—in partnership with Island Records—in 2023, Roan released her debut studio album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. The next year, Roan achieved global recognition with the single "Good Luck, Babe!", which reached number four on the US Billboard Hot 100 and became an international top-five single. The song's popularity led to a resurgence of her debut album, which became a sleeper hit and peaked at number two on the US Billboard 200. It yielded the multi-platinum single "Hot to Go!", while her 2020 single, "Pink Pony Club", reached number one on the UK singles chart. In 2025, Roan won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist and earned her second UK number-one single with "The Subway". (wikipedia)

• • •

I was kind of high on the puzzle coming out of the NW, before I knew what the theme was. The fill felt fresh—I ran GALAPAGOS, SONGBIRD, and COPENHAGEN in pretty short order: a strong triad. But then I saw the theme, which is to say, I saw the ALTO in TALENT SHOW, and that ... was that? I had the first few circled squares of the next two themers and proceeded to just write in every voice part I could think of (without looking at the Across clues, of course):

The puzzle gave the game away too quickly. But I figured at least I might get a good revealer out of it, something to make all the non-consecutive circles make sense (non-consecutive circles that spell out things not being much of a feat on their own). What I got, by way of revealer, was VOICE PARTS, which, if it doesn't involve wordplay, is painfully literal and obvious and unnecessary (yes, those are VOICE PARTS, please tell me something I don't know), and if it does involve wordplay ... I'm not totally sure I understand it. The clue for VOICE PARTS says that it's "hinted at" by the circled letters, and "hinted" implies something more than simple literal description. But the wordplay ... what is "PARTS" supposed to suggest? That the voice parts have been broken into ... parts? That the letters that make up the voice parts have been ... parted from one another? A very unstuck landing, this revealer. So what might've been a 3-star puzzle gets dropped to 2.5 stars for the wobbly revealer. I considered raising it back to three because the fill was actually above average, on the whole, but then I was forced to take the half star back because of TEHRAN, IRAN, an incredibly dumb redundancy (10D: Capital city between Baghdad, Iraq, and Ashgabat, Turkmenistan). TEHRAN, IRAN? What else is it gonna be, TEHRAN, SWEDEN? The totally unnecessary attachment of the country at the end of that answer earned a red card from me. And sorry, that decision is final, no appeals. Also, seeing plural APRS yet again (twice in two days??) didn't help. Also, don't park your stupid Cybertruck in my puzzle and expect anything more than a middling to negative review (6D: Cybertruck maker). That's two days in a row of including that white supremacist buffoon in the puzzle. Enough already. I ignored it yesterday, but yeesh. Neither TESLA nor ELON requires you to point to that guy. Please stop. 

The Downs-only solve was pretty dang smooth, aided as it was by all those free (circled) squares that the theme just handed to me. I had some trouble with TEHRAN, IRAN because wtf (see above), but not much trouble. My only real holdup was a dumb mistake: I wrote in TELE- instead of MEME at 45D: Modern lead-in to coin or stock. "Lead-in" had me thinking prefix and ... I dunno, maybe "telecoin" is a thing now. So many other dumb things are "coins," why shouldn't there be a telecoin? But the "T" and "L" from TELE really made the Acrosses lock up. Ended up with POLEL- and TCN-IR and it doesn't take a genius to see that those weren't going to work, so I looked to see which of my Down answers might be wrong and while at first I thought it might be DECREPIT (38D: Dilapidated), a second look made it clear it was TELE-. So, TELE- to MEME to victory, as MORATORIA finally fell into place (34D: Temporary suspensions).

Bullets:

• 15A: Muppet with a noted feud with a pet rock (ELMO) — "noted"? I see that yes, indeed, it has been noted. ELMO did not exist when I was a kid, so I still think of him the same way I think of the Jacksonville Jaguars—basically, he's an expansion Muppet. And since my daughter never watched Sesame Street (that I can remember) I've been blissfully unaware of whatever that annoyingly-voiced baby-talking puppet gets up to. But the pet rock thing has apparently been going on for over a quarter century, and there's even a book about this so-called "feud," so ... the clue is valid. Also, hats off to the EMO / ELMO cross. If you're having a "feud" with a pet rock ... yeah, you might be EMO. Ask your doctor. 

• 19A: ___ wave (summer phenomenon) (HEAT) — topical. Maybe too topical. NYC had a record-setting HEAT wave just this past week. The added presence of HUMID today (47D: Like sticky summer weather) made it feel like the puzzle was just rubbing it in.
• 39D: Instrument played by a Muse (LYRE) — had my typical LUTE/LYRE confusion here, which made the SE section (already gummed up by my TELE-for-MEME error) even dicier. 
• 35D: Basic skateboarding trick (OLLIE) — this was a gimme; it's in the crossword all the time. But today, perhaps because the puzzle was so name-y, I noticed how OLLIE was clued as a trick and not a name, and then I thought about how, before it was a skateboarding trick (first clued that way in 2011), OLLIE used to be clued as either one half of the comedy duo Laurel & Hardy (Stan Laurel and Oliver aka OLLIE Hardy) or as one part of the comedy trio Kukla, Fran & OLLIE (OLLIE was a dragon—also, a puppet, as was Kukla; Fran was just a regular human lady). OLLIE Hardy appears now only sporadically (as Stan's partner) and we haven't seen OLLIE the puppet dragon since 2015. Both old comedy OLLIEs were before my time, but ... I dunno, I kind of miss them. Skateboarding shmateboarding, I want my puppet dragon and/or bowler-wearing big guy!

[Did Tootsie Roll MINTEES ever catch on???]

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
=============================
❤️ Support this blog ❤️: 

• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

=============================
📘 My other blog 📘:

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...

People of the Mexican altiplano / SUN 3-22-26 / Canon competitor / Catalyst for reckless behavior / Eliminated for not following the rules, informally / Sb, on the periodic table / 1980s video game character who hops between cubes / Duo with the 1999 hit "Steal My Sunshine" / Each of the tiny tufts on a dandelion has one

Constructor: Alex Eaton-Salners

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "Sound It Out" — letter puns: circled squares in some theme answers are punny hints to other theme answers:

Theme answers:

• "ARE YOU WITH ME?" / INSTRUMENT (the letters "R" and "U" are "with" (i.e. next to) the letters "ME") (27A: The circles in 22-Across? / 22A: Triangle, for one)
• CUE TIPS / QUIET QUITTING ("Q"s are on the "tips," i.e. at the front, of their respective words) (45A: The circles in 41-Across? / 41A: Modern trend of employees doing the bare minimum)
• BEELINE / BABY BIB (there's a "line" (I guess ...?) of "B"s) (67A: The circles in 64-Across? / 54A: Highchair wear)
• TEA SETS / SITTING PRETTY (there are two "sets" of "T"s) (91A: The circles in 93-Across? / 93A: On easy street)
• SEES EYE TO EYE / ATOMIC CITY (there are "C"s running from one "I" to the other) (108A: The circles in 115-Across? / 115A: Nickname of Oak Ridge, Tenn., built in 1942 for the Manhattan Project)

Word of the Day: YAREN (30A: Nauru's capital) —

Yaren (in earlier times Makwa or Moqua) is a district of the Pacific island country of Nauru [population: 803]. It is the de facto capital of Nauru and is coextensive with Yaren Constituency. Yaren is located on the southern coast of the island and is the location of Nauru's government offices. // The district was created in 1968. Its original name, Makwa (or Moqua), refers to Moqua Well, an underground lake and primary source of drinking water for the Nauruan people. // Yaren is located in the south of the island. Its area is 1.5 km² (0.58 sq mi), and its elevation was 25 metres (82 feet) as of 2007. To the north of Yaren is Buada, to the east is Meneng, and to the west is Boe. // Yaren has a marine tropical rainforest climate (Köppen Af) with hot, humid conditions across the year. // Yaren (and sometimes Aiwo) is usually listed as the capital of Nauru. However, this is incorrect; the republic does not have cities nor an official capital. Yaren is accepted by the United Nations as the "main district". (wikipedia) (my emph.)

• • •

Corny letter-pun theme and a lot of garbage fill. Perhaps not the worst of times, but definitely not the best of times either. There was one semi-cool moment where I actually used a theme answer (SEES EYE TO EYE) to get another theme answer (ATOMIC CITY). Other than that, I didn't enjoy this one much at all. Some of the theme answers are pretty decent answers on their own. QUIET QUITTING I quite like, and SITTING PRETTY isn't bad at all. But that's all the joy the theme yields. And I've got major problems with at least two of the "Sound It Out" answer. First, if I'm taking the puzzle at its word, and the point is literally to "sound out" the letters, then what the hell is going on with the "ME" in INSTRUMENT!? In literally every other case in the whole danged puzzle, the puns work because you "sound out" the circled letters as letters. "R" = "ARE," "U" = "YOU," etc. etc. etc. But not so with that "ME." If you want to use "RUME" as your circled letters, then the answer should be "ARE YOU WITH EMMY?" It's true. Come on, you know I'm right. You may not care that the puzzle ignores its own dang rule, but you cannot deny that it does, in fact, ignore it. Precisely once. Just ... because. Also, how are those "B"s a "line?" There are four of them, but they do not form a "line" in any meaningful sense of that word. If they were consecutive, great, that's a "line." but "B" other letter "B" other letter "B" other letter "B" is not a "B" line. It's not. Again, you may not care, but it's definitely not. Any more than any number of "B"s (>1) in any answer is a "B" line. Even if this letter-pun stuff were my cup of tea, I'd still have to say the theme is poorly executed. And this letter-pun stuff is not my cup of tea. So ... bad day to "B" me, I guess.

And the fill, oof. Here's what I said about YAREN the last time I saw it, seven+ years ago , which remains the only other time I've ever seen it in my life in any context (my feelings about the answer have not changed):

I'm still laughing at YAREN. I mean ... what? It's bad enough I have to remember NAURU, a very very very tiny country. But its so-called capital? More people live In My Neighborhood than live in YAREN. I got YAREN and gaped at it. Checked the crosses. Shrugged. Thank god for crosses. Beyond that, the fill was rough all over.

And once again the fill was, in fact, rough all over. Exhibit A: RAN IT, which, astonishingly, crosses YAREN! Exhibit B: DUDED. Exhibit C: SEEDLET. And so on. The plural of "mafioso" is MAFIOSI, not MAFIOSOS (111A: Family members). See for yourself. If you're gonna go and get all Italian on us, at least finish the job, yeesh. I nearly died on the SEMANA / ANTIMONY cross, first because I misspelled SEMANA as SEMENA (making some kind of sound analogy from Fr. "semaine") (87A: Seven days in San Juan) and second because I never can really believe that ANTIMONY is an element and not, you know, a feeling (89D: Sb, on the periodic table). As in "I feel great ANTIMONY for this puzzle."  RAN IT, ON IT, "SO THIS IS IT" ... Cousin ITT. Lottta "IT's in this grid. Also, lotta LOTTEs (just the one, but that's more than zero, and thus a lot more than I care to see) (old school crosswordese, though, so not a big problem). Distracting to see TEASE in a letter-pun puzzle when it has nothing to do with "T"s. Also to see Q-BERT, which has a "sounded-out" "Q" in it (97A: 1980s video game character who hops between cubes). See also "DQED" (36D: Eliminated for not following the rules, informally). Weak concept, weak execution, whaddyagonnado? (go back to watching March Madness basketball as fast as I can, actually).

Bullets:

• 90D: Tufted parts of horses' legs (FETLOCKS) — I am no horse anatomy expert, but I like this word. Briefly got it confused with HOLLYHOCK because that's the name of Bojack Horse(!)man's half-sister on Bojack Horseman. (they both think she's his daughter for much of the series, which is why he says "daughter" in this clip)

• 31A: Digital ID? (SSN) — because it's composed of ... digits. I assume.
• 101D: People of the Mexican altiplano (OTOMI) — I've definitely seen OTOMI in the grid before (you couldn't invent a more crossword-friendly 5—alternating v-c-v-c-v, terminal "I" ... just amazing), but I have to admit I could not tell you what the "altiplano" is. So, for me, and maybe for you ... 

The Central Mexican Plateau, also known as the Mexican Altiplano (Spanish: Altiplano mexicano), is a large arid-to-semiarid plateau occupying much of northern and central Mexico. Averaging 1,825 m (5,988 ft) above sea level, it extends from the United States border in the north to the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt in the south, and is bounded by the Sierra Madre Occidental and Sierra Madre Oriental to the west and east, respectively.

[there's also an antiplano in South America—the Andean Plateau—which I mistakenly posted earlier]

• 1D: Jay Gatsby's obsession in "The Great Gatsby" (DAISY) — read this last year for the 100th anniversary. I was spared having to read it in high school, and I didn't get around to reading it until I was in my 40s. I liked it OK, but I blew through it and didn't think much about it that first time. This time, I paid more attention, and I really really loved it. Not sure it's great high school reading material, but it is a genuinely beautifully written book. 

• 8D: Duo with the 1999 hit "Steal My Sunshine" (LEN) — come on. The great spy novelist LEN Deighton just died and instead of referring to him you're giving me an admittedly catchy but very old song by a band that had zero other hit songs? Bah. I'm reading Deighton for the first time right now, after seeing many people, including several friends, profess their admiration for him over the years. I've started with The Berlin Game and so far, I'm loving it. It's got sentences that stop you in your tracks they're so well written. Not many writers in any genre write sentences that can do that.

On the other hand, "Steal My Sunshine" is a pretty fun song, I have to admit...

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. fictional crossword tournament representation alert!

You can stream Elsbeth on Hulu (at least that's what I did).

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
=============================
❤️ Support this blog ❤️: 

• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

=============================
✏️ Upcoming Crossword Tournaments ✏️

• American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (Stamford, CT, Apr. 10-12, 2026) (registration closed!)

=============================
📘 My other blog 📘:

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...

Dodger's comeuppance / SUN 12-28-25 / Personification of darkness, in Greek myth / S.L.R. insert since the early 2000s / Full legislative assembly / Some summers, in brief / Uses an alternate account to play against easier opponents, in gamer-speak / Creatures formed from the fingers of the sea goddess Sedna, in Inuit myth / Blue-necked bird / Eschew the high road / Mythical figure undone by hubris

Constructor: Alex Eaton-Salners

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "Off Broadway Musicals" — theme clues are titles of musicals, which must be taken literally in order to arrive at the correct answers:

Theme answers:

• 23A: Rock of Ages (ROSETTA STONE)
• 25A: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (NEPOTISM)
• 44A: A Class Act (FIELD TRIP)
• 47A: A Strange Loop (MOBIUS STRIP)
• 67A: A Little Night Music (LULLABY)
• 69A: Rent (SPLIT)
• 70A: A Chorus Line (REFRAIN)
• 88A: The Producers (PROLETARIAT)
• 91A: Into the Woods (OUTDOORSY)
• 111A: The Wiz (EINSTEIN)
• 113A: Mean Girls (AVERAGE JANES)

Word of the Day: BABUR (74D: Founder of the Mughal Empire) —

Babur (Persian: ببر, Persian: [bɑː.βuɾ]; 14 February 1483 – 26 December 1530; born Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad) was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his father and mother respectively. He was also given the posthumous name of Firdaws Makani ('Dwelling in Paradise'). [...] Religiously, Babur started his life as a staunch Sunni Muslim, but he underwent significant evolution. Babur became more tolerant as he conquered new territories and grew older, allowing other religions to peacefully coexist in his empire and at his court. He also displayed a certain attraction to theology, poetry, geography, history, and biology—disciplines he promoted at his court—earning him a frequent association with representatives of the Timurid Renaissance. His religious and philosophical stances are characterized as humanistic. // Babur married several times. Notable among his children were Humayun, Kamran Mirza, Hindal Mirza, Masuma Sultan Begum, and the author Gulbadan Begum. Babur died in 1530 in Agra and Humayun succeeded him. Babur was first buried in Agra but, as per his wishes, his remains were moved to Kabul and reburied. He ranks as a national hero in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Many of his poems have become popular folk songs. He wrote the Baburnama in Chaghatai Turkic; it was translated into Persian during the reign (1556–1605) of his grandson, the emperor Akbar. (wikipedia)

• • •

***ATTENTION: READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS IN SYNDICATION*** (if you're reading this in January, that's you!) : It's early January, which means it's time once again for my annual week-long pitch for financial contributions to the blog. Every year I ask readers to consider what the blog is worth to them on an annual basis and give accordingly. 2026 is a big year for me, as Rex Parker Solves the NYT Crossword will celebrate its 20th birthday in September. Two decades. The big 2-0. A score of years. One score and no years ago, I brought forth on this Internet a new blog, conceived in ... I think I'll stop there, but you get the idea. I've been at this a long time, and while it has been my privilege and joy, it has also been (and continues to be) a lot of work. Very early mornings, no days off—well, no days off for the blog. I do have two very able regular subs (Mali and Clare) who write for me once a month, as well as a handful of other folks who stand in for me when I go on vacation. But otherwise, it's just me, every dang day, up by 4am, solving and writing. I've never been this disciplined about anything in my life. Ask anyone. "Is he disciplined about anything else?" "No, he is not. Just this one thing. It's weird." And it's because I have a responsibility to an audience (that's you). Even after nearly 20 years, I'm still genuinely stunned and exceedingly grateful that so many of you have made the blog a part of your daily routine. Ideally, it adds a little value to the solving experience. Teaches you something you didn't know, or helps you look at crosswords in a new way, or makes you laugh (my highest goal, frankly). Or maybe the blog simply offers a feeling of commiseration—a familiar voice confirming that yes, that clue was terrible, or yes, that themer set should have been tighter, or wow, yes, that answer was indeed beautiful. Whether you find it informative or comforting or entertaining or infuriating—or all of the above—if you're reading me on a fairly regular basis, there's something valuable you're getting out of the blog. And I couldn't be happier about that.

["That's upside-down, sweetheart"]

Hopefully by now you can tell that for better or worse, what you get from me is my honest, unvarnished feelings about a puzzle. There's an explanatory element too, sure, but this blog is basically one person's solving diary. Idiosyncratic. Personal. Human. I'm not interested in trying to guess consensus opinion. I'll leave that to A.I. All I can do, all I want to do, is tell you exactly what it was like for me to solve the puzzle—what I thought, what I felt. Because while solving may seem like mere box-filling to outsiders, crossword enthusiasts know that the puzzle actually makes us feel things—joy, anguish, confusion (confusion's a feeling, right?). Our feelings might not always be rational, but dammit, they're ours, and they're worth having. And sharing. I love that crosswords engage the messy, human side of you, as well as the objective, solution-oriented side. If I just wanted to fill in boxes, without any of the messy human stuff, I'd solve sudoku (no shade, sudoku fans, they're just not for me!).

[conferring w/ my editor]

Over the years, I have received all kinds of advice about "monetizing" the blog, invitations to turn it into a subscription-type deal à la Substack or Patreon. And maybe I'd make more money that way, I don't know, but that sort of thing has never felt right for me. And honestly, does anyone really need yet another subscription to manage? As I've said in years past, I like being out here on this super old-school blogging platform, just giving it away for free and relying on conscientious addicts like yourselves to pay me what you think the blog's worth. It's just nicer that way. How much should you give? Whatever you think the blog is worth to you on a yearly basis. Whatever that amount is is fantastic. Some people refuse to pay for what they can get for free. Others just don't have money to spare. All are welcome to read the blog—the site will always be open and free. But if you are able to express your appreciation monetarily, here are three options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar on the homepage, as well as at the bottom of every write-up):

Second, a mailing address (checks can be made out to "Michael Sharp" or "Rex Parker") (be sure to date them with the new year, 2026!):

Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905

The third, increasingly popular option is Venmo; if that's your preferred way of moving money around, my handle is @MichaelDavidSharp (the last four digits of my phone are 4878, in case Venmo asks you, which I guess it does sometimes, when it's not trying to push crypto on you, what the hell?!)

All Paypal contributions will be gratefully acknowledged by email. All Venmo contributions will get a little heart emoji, at a minimum :) All snail mail contributions will be gratefully acknowledged with hand-written postcards. I know snail mail is a hassle for most people, but I love it. I love seeing your (mostly) gorgeous handwriting and then sending you my (completely) awful handwriting. The human touch—it's nice. In recent years, my daughter has designed my annual postcards, but this year, grad school and NYC theater work are keeping her otherwise occupied, so I had to seek design help elsewhere. Enter Katie Kosma, who is not only a professional illustrator/designer, but (crucially!) a crossword enthusiast. She listened patiently to my long and disorganized list of ideas and in very short order was able to arrive at this year's design, inspired by film noir title cards. 

I'm very happy with how it turned out. The teeny boxes inside the letters, the copyright credit ("Natick Pictures, Inc."), and especially that pencil lamppost—mwah! I know most people solve online now, and many paper solvers prefer pen, but the pencil just feels iconic, and appropriate for the card's throwback vibe. That lamppost was entirely Katie's creation. She was a dream to work with. Can't say enough good things about her.

Please note: I don't keep a "mailing list" and don't share my contributor info with anyone. And if you give by snail mail and (for some reason) don't want a thank-you card, just indicate "NO CARD." 

Again, as ever, I'm so grateful for your readership. Please know that your support means a lot to me and my family. Now on to today's puzzle... 

• • •

[10D: Kylo ___ of "Star Wars"]

"How to Make Musicals Boring." I guess if you like seeing names of musicals, this might hold some interest. I'll admit that a few of the hyperliteral theme answers were kinda funny (NEPOTISM, for instance, for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying; or OUTDOORSY for Into the Woods— that was pretty good). But mostly this was a snooze, both themewise and fillwise. There's not really anything to it. There are presumably hundreds of musical titles to choose from, and you can take any of them literally, and imagine potential answers of all kinds of lengths, and then out of that set, pick a bunch that will fit symmetrically in a grid. The end. I don't even know what A Class Act or A Strange Loop are. If they're iconic musicals, they got past me, that's for sure. But that doesn't matter. No need to have actually heard of the musicals because all the clues are just ... literal. The title of this puzzle is "Off Broadway Musicals," but there's nothing really "Off" about these clues. They're literal. Maybe we, as solvers, are supposed to sense that something is "off," awry, amiss. I dunno. Whatever pun fun is supposed to be happening there is lost on me. 

I also don't know what AVERAGE JANES are. Is that like ... a female version of AVERAGE JOES? Shrug. The whole thing is a shrug. There's "gamer-speak" (ugh) (SMURFS) (48D: Uses an alternate account to play against easier opponents, in gamer-speak). Weapons of police brutality (TASER). CATTLE PEN. Nothing here I was terribly happy to see. And from REDD to PARTA to CIERA to ERMA to LSAT to IMA to AER to YENTE to ETOILE, the grid seemed to lean pretty into tired fill and crosswordese. Didn't really give us any new looks, anything to really admire. I don't see the appeal.

My path through this thing was bizarre. I just sort of ... drifted. Down, down, down. My first themer was SPLIT (which I didn't really recognize as a themer), and then I didn't see another one until I was at the bottom of the grid, with AVERAGE JANES. And from there I started climbing back up. Totally meandering. Not my normal M.O., but cross after cross was easy and I just followed where the crosses took me, and next thing I knew, I'd traversed the grid:

Only tough part was BABUR, a name that made its first NYTXW appearance back in August, but one that I clearly didn't fix firmly in my brain. Needed every single cross. Otherwise, the only toughness in the puzzle came in trying to figure out the theme answers. Some of them were ... unexpected. Stretches, even, you might say. PROLETARIAT was perhaps the most unlikely-seeming. I guess from a Marxist perspective, yes, the PROLETARIAT are the "producers" (of goods) who are exploited in a capitalist system by those who own the means of production. They receive less (in wages) than what their labor is actually worth, "the remainder appropriated by the bourgeoisie as profit" (wikipedia). In case you were wondering what that clue was about, that's what that clue was about. The other theme clues seem pretty straightforward. Not sure what is "of Ages" about the ROSETTA STONE. Is it "of Ages" because ... it's old? When I think of the ROSETTA STONE, I think of translation, not "Ages."

The Rosetta Stone is a stele of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a decree issued in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt, on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle texts are in Ancient Egyptian using hieroglyphic and Demotic scripts, respectively, while the bottom is in Ancient Greek. The decree has only minor differences across the three versions, making the Rosetta Stone key to deciphering the Egyptian scripts.

Nothing else seems hard to understand today. The "summers" in 81D: Some summers, in brief (CPAS) are people who do sums, that is, people who add numbers together. I completely forgot what the SD part of SD CARD stands for (6A: S.L.R. insert since the early 2000s). Nope, turns out I never knew. Seems to have originally stood for "Secure Digital." Even if I had known that, hard to imagine I'd enjoy seeing SDCARD in the grid. Despite SDCARDs having been in existence for over a quarter of a century, this is SDCARD's NYTXW debut. Definitely falls under the "Not All Debuts Are Good" category. Side note: SIM CARD has appeared in the NYTXW twice. For some reason, I don't mind it nearly as much.

Bullets:

• 20A: One sporting an article of apparel (WEARER) — well, it's a word, but the clue is completely unimaginative, which makes the word seem awkward. [One sporting an article apparel] is literally everyone in the clothed world. I'm a WEARER, you're a WEARER, he's a WEARER, she's a WEARER ... there's gotta be a more specific context for this word.

• 36A: Swallow something hook, line and sinker (EAT IT UP) — author Len Deighton has a series of spy novels from the '80s/'90s called the Hook, Line and Sinker Trilogy. Actor Bill Nighy recommended Deighton on his "ill-advised" podcast, so I've got the first of the series, Spy Hook, sitting next to my comfy chair here at home (thank you, public library!). If I can finish R.F. Kuang's Katabasis in the next few days, I might have time to cram Spy Hook in before New Year's. Otherwise, it's going to have to wait another week or two, since I'm starting the new year with Dickens (an idea stolen from my friend Levi Stahl). This year—my inaugural Dickens year—I'm going with Dombey & Son (1846-48). Got me a beat-up, orange-spined Penguin copy from the mid-late 20th century, since that is what my brain thinks Dickens books are supposed to look like (like they looked when I was in college).

• 56A: Full legislative assembly (PLENUM) — from the Latin for "ugly-looking and ugly-sounding word." Rhymes with "Blenheim," I assume. Or maybe "venom." Or maybe "screen 'em!" I dunno.
• 58A: Personification of darkness, in Greek myth (EREBUS) — I never learned about whoever this is. I learned the name from crosswords, possibly when I learned that the southernmost active volcano in the world is Mount EREBUS in Antarctica.
• 72A: Creatures formed from the fingers of the sea goddess Sedna, in Inuit myth (SEALS) — this clue is interesting! Teach me Inuit mythology, I'm into it. Maybe don't put SEDNA in the grid anytime soon, though. Baby steps. Here is a video of two SEALS at play.
• 99A: Eschew the high road (GO LOW) — a phrase popularized by Michelle Obama: "When they GO LOW, we go high"—how did that strategy work out? I forget.
• 16D: Cheep trills? (TWITTERS) — I like this clue's commitment to the pun. To both puns. The double pun. Puns should be ostentatious and or they should not exist at all.
• 17D: Dodger's comeuppance (IRS AUDIT) — so, a tax dodger. In fact, I had TAX AUDIT here at first.
• 45D: Mythical figure undone by hubris (ICARUS) — was it "overbearing pride" (i.e. "hubris") that caused ICARUS to fly too close to the sun? Or just regular old teenage disobedience?
• 56D: Blue Ribbon brand (PABST) — this reminds me: Blue Velvet is playing at the New Bev (in L.A.) next month, so if you live in the area you should definitely get out and see that on the big screen.

• 85D: Shell filling stations (TACO BARS) — I kinda want "shell-filling" to be hyphenated. Isn't it a compound adjective modifying "stations?" The clue wants us to think of gas stations, which you wouldn't, probably, if a hyphen was in there.
• 100D: Setting for Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" (OCEAN) — [sings parts of the song to himself trying to find the "OCEAN" part ... "hmmm hmmm glimpse of stocking ... silly gigolos ... etc."]. Turns out the clue is referring to the entire show (which takes place aboard an OCEAN liner), not just the song:

• 98D: Gathering of moles (INTEL) — thought this was going to be one of those dumb, made-up names for a group of animals, like ... a sequestering of moles, or something ridiculous like that. But instead it's the stuff that moles (i.e. long-term spies or sleeper agents) gather.
• 111A: Blue-necked bird (EMU) — they have blue necks? This is like learning a new OREO fact (that OREOs come in PIE form—not a new fact) (82D: Black-and-white desserts). 
• 37D: Short boxers, e.g. (PUPS) — as of right now, I have no idea what this means. I can see how [Young boxers, e.g.] might be PUPS, but "Short?" That ... is an expression I don't know. I guess young dogs are "short" compared to adult dogs, but no one talks that way. I thought for a bit that the answer was going to be PUGS, since "boxers" (the kind in a ring with gloves) are sometimes known slangily as "PUGS." But still, there's the matter of "short." Maybe it's underwear? Are there "short boxers" called PUPS? One of you will tell me how this clue works and then I'll come back here and add a note. But if the PUPS in question really are boxer puppies, I'm leaving this comment as is.

Speaking of PUPS (and other small animals)... time once again for 🌲🐈Holiday Pet Pics🐕🌲! Note: PLEASE DO NOT SEND ME ANY MORE PET PICS, I'M ALL FULL UP FOR THIS YEAR, thank you.

Let's start with a bunch of memorial pet pics. Here's the late great Zoe Bear, adopted at 8, lived to 18, clearly very very fond of Christmas. Look how fond.

[Thanks, Chris!]

Cleo has been a part of prior Holiday Pet Pics extravaganzas. Sadly, she left us this year and is now leaping into Christmas trees in Cat Heaven. They have Christmas trees in Cat Heaven, right? Of course they do. Stupid question.

[Cleo, pre-leap]
[Thanks, Nancy!]

Look at this sweet, saucer-eyed baby. Eighteen years is a hell of a life for a dog. R.I.P., Toby. 

Here's Rosie. Her person writes: "Rosie is white in the face now but still with us for another Christmas. She buried the neckwear outside years ago."

[Thanks, Claudia!]

Next up, Bella and Cammie. See if you can tell who enjoys Christmas more:

[Bella, who did not consent to being part of this Christmas ring-toss game]

[Cammie, seen her in a still from her one-woman Christmas show, Santa Paws!]
[Thanks, Steven!]

And finally Casper, who does not look like a ghost at all and wants nothing to do with your proposed "all-dog version of A Christmas Carol." Just let Casper sleep.

[Thanks, Brady!]

That's it. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
=============================
❤️ Support this blog ❤️: 

• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

=============================
✏️ Upcoming Crossword Tournaments ✏️

• American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (Stamford, CT, Apr. 10-12, 2026) (registration opens January 8!)

=============================
📘 My other blog 📘:

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...