"Rise and shine!" / TUES 7-7-26 / "Barbie" actress Issa / Portmanteau for a screened-in feline lounge / Delphi prophet / Fruit from a tree that can self-pollinate

Hello, everyone! It’s Clare coming at you a little late (why does immigration court have so many deadlines?!), this time for the first Tuesday of July. I hope no one has suffered too much in this insane heat! D.C. was pretty miserable for a few days, and I had to get creative to find ways for my dog to run off some of the energy that she built up from not going on our usual walks or trips to the dog park. But staying inside has also coincided with getting to watch so many sports! The World Cup has been amazing (though I just watched the USMNT lose embarrassingly badly to Belgium). The England-Mexico game? The Argentina-Cabo Verde game? So great! Wimbledon has had some entertaining matches, too. Go, Coco! 

Anywho, on to the puzzle…

Constructor: Brad Lively

Relative difficulty: Medium for a Tuesday

THEME: WARM AND FUZZY (50A: Like a feeling of tender happiness ... or how you might feel after reading both halves of the answers to the starred clues?) — The first half of each theme answer describes something “warm,” and the second half is an animal that’s “fuzzy.”

Theme answers:

• BEACH BUNNIES (20A: *Surfer girls, in old lingo) 
• HOT DOGS (28A: *Frankfurters) 
• SUN BEAR (36A: *Relative of a grizzly that's named for its bright chest patch) 
• FIREFOX (45A: *Internet browser borrowing a nickname for the red panda)

Word of the Day: SPAMALOT (36D: Monty Python musical with a portmanteau title)—

Spamalot, also known as Monty Python's Spamalot: A New Musical (Lovingly) Ripped Off from the Motion Picture Monty Python and the Holy Grail) is a musical with music by John Du Prez and Eric Idle, and lyrics and a book by Idle. Based on the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the musical offers a highly irreverent parody of Arthurian legend, with the title being a portmanteau of Spam and Camelot. The original 2005 Broadway production directed by Mike Nichols received 14 Tony Award nominations, winning in three categories, including Best Musical. During its initial run of 1,575 performances, the production was seen by more than two million people and grossed over $168 million (Wiki)

• • •

That was a pretty average Tuesday puzzle that made me feel somewhat WARM AND FUZZY inside. It’s a nice idea and a cute phrase, and I came around to liking the theme more than I thought I did initially. The theme was very straightforward: literally just a word that is (mostly) WARM followed directly by an animal that could plausibly be described as FUZZY. I have some qualms with the FUZZY answers, as I think “furry” might be a better descriptor — or even “fluffy.” I’m just not sure I’ve ever thought of BUNNIES or a FOX as being FUZZY. And a BEAR? (Even if Fuzzy Wuzzy was a fuzzy bear. Or was he?) My DOG is wonderfully cuddly and has some impressive hair on top of her head that I can make into a mohawk, but I still don’t think of her as FUZZY. And have you ever been to a BEACH in winter? I have, because my parents live in a beach town, and it’s not WARM… 

The puzzle had some nice pairings, with GET UP (9A: "Rise and shine!") directly above AWAKE (16A: No longer in dreamland). Then there’s LEIA (59A: Rebel Alliance princess) above TRON (62A: Sci-fi franchise with light cycles). MUSH (51D: Sled dog command) (which I know because of the movie “Snow Dogs”) was crossing SNOW (61A: Fresh powder, e.g.). Though in the opposite vein, we also had both HBO (21D: "Curb Your Enthusiasm" network) and PBS (33D: "This Old House" network) in the puzzle. Did we really need two network abbreviations?

I liked BABA (1A: ___ ghanouj) as the answer to start the puzzle. It’s delicious, and upon googling it for this write-up, I learned that it might translate to “father of coquetry.” GAME OVER (9D: Last words on a pinball machine) is a great expression and one that I unfortunately saw many times as I played my family’s pinball machine over and over as a kid. NAMES (49A: What to call people … or what not to call people) is basic fill that was clued in a clever way. I like the word FANDOM (45D: Obsessive pop culture subculture) (as I am in several fandoms myself. And only mildly obsessive.). GO POOF (25D: Vanish into thin air) is cute and fun to say. My favorite clue/answer was 30D: Start a long drive, in a way as TEE OFF, which got a chuckle out of me. 

I struggled a bit in random parts of the puzzle. I didn’t know LAYNE (7D: ___ Staley, original lead singer of Alice in Chains), who felt obscure for a Tuesday. I couldn’t come up with ELF HATS (43A: Accessories pointed at the North Pole?) for the longest time and wanted to make it “elf ears,” even though ears clearly aren’t an accessory. I forgot that a CATIO (60A: Portmanteau for a screened-in feline lounge) is a thing, and while I had CAT immediately, I had to rack my brain for a while as to how to finish the word. HAWAII (44D: Luau locale) also took me an inordinately long time to get, likely fueled by my confusion over CATIO (60A). Then I also just stared at ON AUTO (26D: Acting unthinkingly) for a while, reading it more as “on a uto” and being very, very confused. 

I’m feeling slightly more WARM AND FUZZY about the puzzle than when I finished it. Or maybe that’s the herbal tea I’m drinking. Who’s to say?

Misc:

• It felt fun to have REF (47D: Yellow card wielder) in the puzzle as I was watching yellow cards be given in the U.S. men’s game against Belgium. But no red cards. Not that it would have mattered. 
• I used to play the Alphabet Game in the car with my soccer carpool as our parents took turns driving us the 30 minutes to and from practice twice a week, and we always had the particular PED (13D: ___ Xing) sign we’d use to get “X.” Playing this game on a road trip with my dad and sister, I got so excited when I finally got a “Q” that I yelled out “Quality [Inn]” so loudly that my dad nearly drove off the freeway. 
• I was following along on TikTok and social media with Kelsey Pfendler as she rowed from California to HAWAII (44D), and she just arrived! It took her just under 44 days to row 2,400 miles solo, setting the record for the fastest solo journey — man or woman. 
• I’ve hiked ZION (53D: Last U.S. national park alphabetically), and it was beautiful… for the most part. When I hiked Angel’s Landing, I slipped on a rock near the edge and saw my life flash before my eyes. 
• If anyone is looking to try a new OREO (32A: Subject of Weird Al Yankovic's "The White Stuff") flavor, my favorite band, BTS, has a collab with OREO. The two released a brown sugar-pancake-flavored OREO that's inspired by a common Korean street food called hotteok. Can confirm: They’re quite tasty! 
• Because I know you were all waiting, here’s a picture of Red’s mohawk, where she’s very furry and maybe just a little FUZZY.

Signed, Clare Carroll, writing from a very hot and not at all fuzzy DC (unless you count the algae in the Reflecting Pool)

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Ancient Brit for whom a language was named / TUE 6-17-26 / Bluffer's giveaway / Very muscular, in slang / Like an image just begging to be captioned and shared / Charitable contributions, collectively / College-credit class that says sayonara to H.S.? / Crustaceans sometimes called "mudbugs" / Open some bubbly with a bang

Constructor: Brad Lively

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: The OLD MAN AND THE SEA (36A: Hemingway tale about an elderly fisherman, with "The" ... or a phonetic hint to four sets of circled letters in this puzzle?) — theme answers contain a letter string meaning "father" (i.e. "old man") and also the letter "C" ("sea"):

Theme answers:

• PAPAL CROSS (17A: Pontiff's emblem with three horizontal bars)
• COMPADRE (29A: Amigo)
• CRAWDADS (42A: Crustaceans sometimes called "mudbugs")
• POP THE CORK (57A: Open some bubbly with a bang)

Word of the Day: GAEL (32A: Ancient Brit for whom a language was named) —

The Gaels are a group of Insular Celtic ethnic groups native to Ireland, parts of Scotland, and the Isle of Man. They are associated with the Gaelic languages: a branch of the Celtic languages comprising Irish, Manx, and Scottish Gaelic.

Gaelic language and culture originated in Ireland, extending to Dál Riata in western Scotland. In antiquity, the Gaels traded with the Roman Empire and also raided Roman Britain. The primary Latin name for the Gaels was Scoti. In the Middle Ages, Gaelic culture became dominant throughout the rest of Scotland and the Isle of Man. There was also some Gaelic settlement in Wales, where they founded petty kingdoms, and in the Faroe Islands, where they were probably the first inhabitants. Gaelic missionaries were influential in Northumbria and the Carolingian Empire. In the Viking Age, small numbers of Vikings raided and settled in Gaelic lands, becoming the Norse-Gaels. In the 9th century, Dál Riata and Pictland merged to form the Gaelic Kingdom of Alba (Scotland). Meanwhile, Gaelic Ireland was made up of several kingdoms, with a High King often claiming lordship over them.

In the 12th century, Anglo-Normans conquered parts of Ireland, while parts of Scotland also became Normanized. However, Gaelic culture remained strong throughout Ireland, and in Scotland in the Highlands, Hebrides, and Galloway. In the early 17th century, the last Gaelic kingdoms in Ireland fell under English control. King James VI and I sought to subdue the Gaels and wipe out their culture; first in the Scottish Highlands via repressive laws such as the Statutes of Iona, and then in Ireland by colonizing Gaelic land with English and Scots-speaking Protestant settlers. In the following centuries, Gaelic language was suppressed and mostly supplanted by English. However, it continues to be the main language in Ireland's Gaeltacht and Scotland's Gàidhealtachd (Outer Hebrides and pockets of the north-west Highlands). The modern descendants of the Gaels have spread to other parts of Wales, Scotland and England, the Americas and Australasia.

• • •

Most of this was very easy, but I got a little tangled in both of the long Down answers. Embarrassingly, for someone who studied ancient Britain and teaches medieval British literature, I wrote in GAUL for 32A: Ancient Brit for whom a language was named (GAEL). The GAULs were ancient inhabitants of continental Europe (incl. modern-day France), not Britain. The only defense I have is that both are ancient and both fit the GA-L letter pattern and the Gauls, like the GAELs, are a Celtic group. Also, I had been thumbing through an Astérix book this past weekend, and that almost certainly put the Gauls on my mind. Anyway, that one-letter mistake was right in the middle of the MEME in MEMEWORTHY, a word that is going to be semi-hard for me to come up with under the best of circumstances; with bad crosses in the way, I couldn't finish that answer off even with -WORTHY in place (28D: Like an image just begging to be captioned and shared). MUTEWORTHY? MULEWORTHY? It probably wasn't too long until I had my "D'oh!" moment, but considering I was blowing through the puzzle up to that point, it felt long. I also could not parse AP JAPANESE, first because I didn't know there was such a thing (not offered where I went to H.S. not offered where my kid went to H.S.) and second because the clue is trying so hard to be clever that it actually gets convoluted (10D: College-credit class that says sayonara to H.S.?). You get college credit for AP courses, but in what way does that represent saying "sayonara to H.S.?" You literally take it in high school. It's not not a high school class. If you are getting college credit, you are not "saying sayonara" to H.S., you're simply stockpiling credits for the next stage of your education. There's no "saying sayonara" (or goodbye, or whatever language you want to use) involved. Unless the idea is that you simply might say the word "sayonara" in your AP JAPANESE class, in which case, oof, weak. The cutesy clue is actually a cruddy clue (as so often happens), so I just wrinkled my brow at this one for a bit. Worse, I wrote in ALM (!) at 12D: Charitable contributions, collectively (AID) and "confirmed" it with SUMO (19A: Martial art with shoulder throws = JUDO). So that was fun.

As for the theme, it's ridiculous (complimentary). I can't say I love it, but I can say that it's weird—weird enough to be interesting. Themes involving nonconsecutive circles are always dicey and usually result in a "who cares?"-type situation, but this one is whimsical in a semi-entertaining way. Plus it's timely, with Father's Day just a few days away. I guess we can be grateful that this ran midweek instead of Father's Day itself, as it's hard to imagine this theme holding up over the length and breadth of a Sunday-sized grid. But for a Tuesday, I thought it worked fine. Two of the circled-letter configurations actually give us "The Sea and the Old Man," but for me, the reversals were part of the puzzle's charm. There is something slightly grating (to my brain) about the revealer being a famous title but leaving out a word in that title (in this case, the "The" at the front of The Old Man and the Sea). Like, if you tried to put LONGEST YARD or RIGHT STUFF in a puzzle, I would be mad.  Not big mad. Little mad. There's something about titles, esp. titles being used as theme revealers, that should be respected. But you gotta lop that "The" off to get the revealer to fit, so ... OK. Fine. I guess it's worth it. But only just.

Bullets:

• 11D: Really booked it (HAULED ASS) — The ASS Era continues unabated in the NYTXW. ASS-containing answers are up 55% since 2020 (I made that stat up, but it feels true). DEAD ASS (2 appearances) debuted in 2022. HARDASS (four appearances) debuted in 2019. HAUL ASS (2 appearances) debuted in 2018. HAULED ASS (now two appearances) debuted just last year. O brave new world / That has such asses in't!
• 44D: Animal symbol of the University of Minnesota (GOPHER) — you see Yale-related answers in the puzzle so damn much that it's nice when other schools get some airtime for a change. It's especially nice when the school in question is in one of your favorite cities and your own daughter went to said school. 

• 35A: It scratches the itch (NAIL) — as in fingernail. Or toenail, if you're being creative. Or a carpentry nail, if you want to make people start worrying about you.
• 5D: Very muscular, in slang (JACKED) — I wanted SWOLE, so much that I was almost prepared to create the answer SWOLED.
• 59A: "Logan" actor Jackman (HUGH) — You know who's JACKED in Logan? That's right.

• 8D: Place for the highest-scoring golfer (LAST) — oh right, because a high score is bad in golf. Briefly thought there was some damned golf slang I'd never heard of, like LAFT or LASH or something.
• 4D: Exam for a future J.D. (LSAT) — this puzzle is really into exams. There's the LSAT and the GRE, then the AP JAPANESE exam (can't get that college credit unless you take the exam). On top of all that, we get 54D: Crushed, as a test (ACED). We get it, you went to school, take it easy.

[55D: Word sung over 100 times in "___ Are You" by the ___]

• 10A: Obsessive captain of fiction (AHAB) — our fourth (!) AHAB since May 31, and June is only half over! We went five months without an AHAB and now we get four of them in just 17 days. Bizarre. There have been far more AHABs of late than there have been Star Wars references. It's actually been an eternity since the last explicit Star Wars reference. I ended up counting a clue that made an oblique reference to The Mandalorian ([This is the way: Abbr.]) as a Star Wars clue, but I was being *very* expansive in my definition there. If we ignore that clue, which many people didn't know was Star Wars-related at all, then it's been something like three weeks, I think. I stopped keeping track and don't want to go back and search right now. Anyway, I would like to thank management for toning it down, Star Wars-wise. Now if you could get AHAB under control, that would be great.

That's all for today. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Swanky shindig / TUES 5-26-2026 / What a scare might make you do / Game with the goal of running out of cards / What Thomas Carlyle called "the dismal science," for short

Hi, everyone, it’s Clare back for the last Tuesday of May! Hope that everyone had a nice long weekend and that the weather didn’t hamper too many plans (like the rain did for my picnic plans here in DC). I’ve been staying busy with work, as immigration policies keep changing and we keep needing to sue the federal government… Otherwise, I’ve been enjoying the start of the WNBA season — go, Washington Mystics! (And I’m also quite partial to the Dallas Wings.) In the MNBA, I’m rooting for the Spurs to win, as I’ve watched the Knicks and wondered whether they’re really that good or the East is really that bad (I guess we’ll find out). Finally, a shoutout to my sister’s team, Arsenal, which just won the Premier League for the first time in 22 years (my team, Liverpool, did it last year, just for reference😊) and which are in the Champions League final next weekend! Also shoutout again to my sister because she finished walking the 500-mile Camino de Santiago in 26 days! 

Anywho, on to the puzzle…

Constructor: Brad Lively

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: BODY OF KNOWLEDGE (37A: What the answers to the starred clues are, collectively?) — The theme answers combine an adjective describing intelligence with a body part

Theme answers:

• SHARP TEETH (17A: Aids for biting) 
• KEEN EYE (26A: Attribute for spotting what others miss) 
• WISE ASS (49A: Cheeky sort) 
• SMART MOUTH (63A: One given to insolence)

Word of the Day: DENALI (22D: Mountain visible from Anchorage) —

Denali, federally designated as Mount McKinley, is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of 20,310 feet (6,190 m) above sea level. It is the tallest mountain in the world from base to peak on land, measuring 18,000 ft (5,500 m). With a topographic prominence of 20,156 feet (6,144 m) and a topographic isolation of 4,621.1 miles (7,436.9 km), Denali is the third most prominent and third-most isolated peak on Earth, after Mount Everest and Aconcagua. Located in the Alaska Range in the interior of the U.S. state of Alaska, Denali is the centerpiece of Denali National Park and Preserve. The Koyukon people who inhabit the area around the mountain have referred to the peak as "Denali" for centuries... In January 2025, the Department of the Interior under the Trump administration reverted the mountain's official federal name to Mount McKinley. (Wiki)

• • •

That was a fairly straightforward and easy puzzle for a Tuesday. The theme didn’t help my solve, but I enjoyed piecing together the puzzle afterward to figure out what BODY OF KNOWLEDGE (37A) was referring to. The synonyms for KNOWLEDGE all worked nicely. And the BODY parts mostly worked. I do find it a little funny that we’ve got three BODY parts that are all on the face — TEETH, EYE, and MOUTH — and then there’s… ASS. Sure, why not! For some reason, I couldn’t quite wrap my brain around BODY OF KNOWLEDGE at first and wanted to make “book” work in some way, but the easy crossing downs there helped sort me out (especially because of my alma mater, YALE (38D: Connecticut Ivy)). I might have preferred having the revealer at the bottom of the puzzle, but having it span the puzzle in the middle works. 

This puzzle was also one of the easiest Tuesday puzzles for me in recent memory. I’m not sure if it was just on my wavelength or what, but it seemed like the first thing that popped into my head was correct, and nothing gave me more than a few seconds of pause. The place I paused the longest was probably in the SW corner, where I wanted “tie dye” instead of DIP DYE (46D: Technique whereby a shirt is lowered into a pigmented bath) and I briefly forgot TYCO (65A: Tickle Me Elmo toymaker). But everything else flowed smoothly. 

I think the ease was also aided by the fact that this seemed like a proper noun-lite puzzle. I count 13 — ADELE, HONDA, TYCO, OREOS, UTAH, ANA, THAI, SETH, DENALI, UNO, YALE, OHIO and SIMON — and none are obscure for crosswords. I wavered a bit because nothing felt uncommon enough to be a “word of the day.” But I decided on DENALI (22D) because I just think it’s so stupid how the Trump administration re-designated it Mount McKinley, ignoring the name the native Koyukon people had called it for centuries. I guess kudos to the New York Times for continuing to call it DENALI instead of Mount McKinley.

The four longer downs — HOTEL SAFE (5D: Spot to keep a passport while traveling), TARGETED AD (10D: Customized bit of marketing), MAD RESPECT (30D: Huge props), and DWARF STAR (36D: A little sun?) — were fine. I especially like MAD RESPECT, and the clue for DWARF STAR is a bit clever. 

Otherwise, I can’t think of much to say about this puzzle. But I did enjoy it!

Misc.:

• I’ve hiked in Bryce Canyon in UTAH (6A), and it’s absolutely gorgeous. I just wish I’d hiked more of the national parks and actually been into rock climbing when my mom was living there a few years ago so I could’ve explored more! 
• Kind of embarrassingly, I looked at 39D: Home of Xenia, the U.S.'s largest city whose name starts with "X" as OHIO for an inordinately long time. I thought it was telling me that Xenia was the largest city in the U.S., and that was clearly bizarre. After reading the clue a few times, I had my aha moment. Google tells me the population of Xenia, OHIO is 26,372, and Xenia is just about the only city starting with X in the U.S. that I can find. It seems there are some neighborhoods and smaller areas that may start with X, but Xenia is the only city I found (please correct me if I’m wrong). 
• Oh, I know what PREP (19A: Task for a line cook, informally) looks like in a kitchen — I’ve been watching “Top Chef” and subsequently failing to recreate their knife skills in my own kitchen. 
•  I also just finished watching the documentary “The Rescue” about the THAI (43A: Cuisine from Bangkok) soccer team that got stuck in a cave in 2018 and about how incredible an effort it was by so many to get the whole team and their coach out safely. 
• In other news, I went from a reading slump to somehow already being 40% into “Into the Blue” by Emma Brodie, and I just want to keep reading. So I’ll sign off here:)

Hope you all have a great month of June and official start to summer!

Signed, Clare Carroll, who can’t stop singing “head, shoulders, knees, and toes… eyes and ears and mouth and nose…”

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Combatant in an octagon-shaped cage / WED 2-25-26 / So-called "melting pot," in brief / Tribal home, maybe, informally / Tick doc / ___ hair (edgy 2000s trend)

Constructor: Brad Lively

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: BREAKDANCES (60A: Emulates the three figures in this puzzle ... or what the figures do within the answers to 17-, 27- and 46-Across?) — each theme answer features a little breakdancer in the shape of a letter; these human-shaped "letters" appear inside (i.e. "break") the names of "dances" (found in shaded squares inside the theme answers). Thus the the little breakdancers "BREAK DANCES":

Theme answers (blue letters represent the little breakdancing figures, red letters spell out the dances):

• CREDI[T] SCORE (17A: Failing to pay bills on time may affect this)
• VINCENT [V]AN GOGH (27A: "Self-Portrait With Bandaged Ear" painter, 1889)
• HANNIBAL LE[C]TER (46A: Villain ranked #1 on A.F.I.'s "100 Years ... 100 Heroes & Villains" list)

Word of the Day: Steven YEUN (57D: Actor Steven of "Beef" and "Nope") —

Sang-yeop Yeun (Korean: 연상엽; born December 21, 1983), known professionally as Steven Yeun (/jʌn/ YUHN), is an American actor. He rose to prominence for playing Glenn Rhee in the television series The Walking Dead (2010–2016). He earned critical acclaim for the films Burning (2018) and Minari (2020). For the latter, he became the first East Asian-American nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2021. For the Netflix dark comedy series Beef (2023), which he produced and starred in, Yeun received Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Limited Series and Outstanding Lead Actor.

Yeun has also appeared in the films Okja (2017), Sorry to Bother You (2018), The Humans (2021), and Nope (2022). He has also voiced main characters in animated television series such as Voltron: Legendary Defender (2016–2018), Tales of Arcadia (2016–2021), Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters (2017–2018), Final Space (2018–2021), Tuca & Bertie (2019–2022), and Invincible (2021–present). (wikipedia)

• • •

The only thing keeping this puzzle from four-and-a-half stars is the fact that the breakdancing letters themselves are meaningless. That is, they're random letters. They don't spell anything or have any significance beyond their shape. That said, these are probably the three letters of the alphabet that most closely resemble breakdancer positions (try making yourself into an "H," for example—actually, esp. if you're over 50, definitely do not try this). The first two breakdancer-letters (the "T" and "V") make a nice sequence—handstand into a backspin. I can definitely see that happening, breakdancing-wise. That "C" is iffier, though. Whatever that little dude is doing to make himself a "C" seems the least "breakdancey" of these figures. So the breakdancer-letters have no larger significance and one of them seems more contrived (from a visual standpoint) than the others. Beyond that, though, this theme is kinda brilliant. Little dancers inside dances inside longer answers! Extreme nesting! And the dances are all solid, familiar, recognizable, and they touch every element in the overall theme answers. That is, every word in every themer is part of a dance—no words left hanging. That is how you do "hidden word" themes. The rest of the puzzle had its strengths and weaknesses. It's a very choppy grid with maybe more than its share of repeaters (NENE IKEA SSNS INRE ADE ORA EKED etc etc), but the clues were far more interesting than normal, and the theme was so strong that I didn't care so much about the weaknesses in the fill. I'm not normally a big fan of picture gimmicks in my puzzle, but this one is truly inventive, and from a craftsmanship standpoint, it's very solid. Ambitious and well executed. I had a good time.

I was entertained from the very first clue. 1A: [Taps casino table] is a fantastic (visual! audio!) clue for "HIT ME." There just seemed to be more color and pizzazz than usual in the clues today. More "?" clues. More details. The theme answers themselves were inherently interesting—well, not CREDIT SCORE, no one likes thinking about CREDIT SCOREs, but the others, for sure. I never saw the clue for either Van Gogh or Lecter—I really do work the short stuff first, since that tends to be higher-percentage (easier to get at first glance than longer stuff), and sometimes, by the time I even consider looking at the clue for a longer answer, I've already got enough letters in place to infer it. With HANNIBAL LECTER, I had the end worked out and the letter combo was so unusual that HANNIBAL LECTER was the only answer that made sense. Coincidentally, after the death of actor Tom Noonan last week, I watched the fantastic Michael Mann movie Manhunter (1986), in which Brian Cox (of Succession fame) plays ... HANNIBAL LECTER! A good five years before Hopkins! It's a bit part, but he's very good. Tom Noonan plays the main serial killer in the film, and he is extraordinary. 

[Cox]

[Noonan]

The puzzle was very easy, but that didn't bother me so much today, since the easiness allowed the theme to unfold and pop in a fast, energetic way, which seemed appropriate. Who wants a breakdancing puzzle to be a slog? There were only two answers that gave me any trouble. One is embarrassing: I have seen and enjoyed many Steven YEUN movies, but when I read his clue (57D: Actor Steven of "Beef" and "Nope"), I had the "YE-" in place and reflexively wrote in YEOH—a different actor altogether. Wrong ethnicity, wrong gender, wrong wrong wrong. Bah. My (extreme) bad. The other hold-up I don't feel nearly so bad about. CMD!? Is that short for "Command?" Yeesh, that is ... not pretty. Astonishingly, this abbr. was used only twice in the pre-Shortz era, but has (comparatively) flourished under Shortz, almost always with the same boring clue: today's clue: [Mil. authority] (16 appearances under Shortz, 10 of them with this clue, zzzz). This is the first appearance of CMD in ten years! It can go back into retirement now, I won't mind. Anyway, I spun out a bit on DOD today. I had the "D" in place and wrote in DOD (Dept. of Defense). That's a "Mil. authority," isn't it? 

Bullets:

• 11A: ___ hair (edgy 2000s trend) (EMO) — got EMO easy even though I can't really tell you what this hair looks like. I'm picturing Bill Hader as Stefan on SNL, but Stefan wasn't exactly EMO:

• 33A: Tribal home, maybe, informally (REZ) — a perfectly good answer (short for "Reservation"), but "maybe, informally" felt like one qualifier too many.
• 35A: So-called "melting pot," in brief (U.S.A.) — enjoying the shade this puzzle is throwing around today with "So-called." See also the clue on MADONNA (4D: So-called "Queen of Pop"). I've heard Michael Jackson called the "King of Pop," but this "Queen of Pop" moniker is less familiar to me, which is strange, as I grew up in peak Madonna Times, and even saw her in concert in Minneapolis a couple years ago.

• 30D: Tick doc (VET) — I was not aware that VETs treated arachnids. (Seriously, what is happening here? You take your dog to the vet when he gets ticks? Is that it?) (wait, is this a "Tik Tok" pun???) 😦
• 12D: Combatant in an octagon-shaped cage (MMA FIGHTER) — not a fan of MMA, but am a fan of this answer, which is bright and original and (most importantly) helped me figure out CMD.
• 11D: Sound-track? (ECHOLOCATE) — good answer, great clue. That NE corner really hums. I will say that even though CMD sucks, it is holding together the best part of the puzzle—which is the only reason cruddy fill should ever show its face.
• 29D: Cyber punk? (TROLL) — nice wordplay—reimagining the literary genre (cyberpunk) as an actual punk (i.e. asshole) online. Good stuff. I also like 37D: Bear's heirs? for CUBS. No real wordplay at work there, just a funny little rhyming clue. It's nice for easy clues to have a little personality sometimes.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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[Can't talk, eating] / THU 3-27-25 / Event in a tent / Reflexology setting / Cartoon series about a super robot / "Do you remember the ___, Mr. Frodo?": Sam Gamgee / "Son of the Dragon," in a medieval Romanian sobriquet / Mac platform renamed in 2016 / Onetime talk show whose studio audience was known as the "Dog Pound," familiarly / Request made through a downstairs intercom

Constructor: Brad Lively

Relative difficulty: Medium 

[14x16 grid!]

THEME: pass it on / pass it back — "IT" is transferred from one answer to either the preceding or the following answer, in four different rows

Theme answers:

• CIRCUITS ("circus") / MOJO ("mojito") (17A: Event in a tent / 19A: Minty Cuban cocktail ... Pass it back) 
• GRAVY ("gravity") / TAR PITS ("tarps") (26A: Sir Isaac Newton wrote about this ... Pass it on / 29A: Covers for a rainy day) 
• BRITAIN ("brain") / VISOR ("visitor") (40A: Smart sort / 42A: One signing a guestbook ... Pass it back)
• WHEN ("whiten") / SUBTITLE ("subtle") (52A: What some toothpastes do ... Pass it on / 53A: Not obvious)

Word of the Day: VOLTRON (42D: Cartoon series about a super robot) —

Voltron is an American animated television series franchise that features a team of space explorers who pilot a giant super robot known as "Voltron". Produced by Peter Keefe (executive producer) and Ted Koplar through his production company World Events Productions, Voltron was an adaptation of several Japanese anime television series from Toei Animation. The original television series aired in syndication from September 10, 1984, to November 18, 1985. The first season of Voltron, featuring the "Lion Force Voltron", was adapted from the series Beast King GoLion. The second season, featuring the "Vehicle Team Voltron", was adapted from the unrelated series Armored Fleet Dairugger XV.

Voltron: Defender of the Universe was the top-rated syndicated children's show for two years during its original run, and it spawned three follow-up series, several comic books, and a line of toys. (wikipedia)

• • •

The theme was pretty easy to figure out, but the cluing for some reason felt pretty amped up today, so my overall experience was actually a little slow. At one point early on, I had nearly the entire perimeter of the NW filled in (DISNEY, DISCS, SEE, YES I DO), and no idea what was supposed to go inside. Something similar also happened later in the SW, where I had CENAC and then .... [tumbleweeds]. The theme itself feels stuck in no man's land. You move "it," but you don't have a good revealer phrase, or phrase that makes the theme make sense, so you use ... two different ones? That are unrelated to each other? If all "IT"s had been moved to the right and you had a revealer like "PASS IT ON" (or even "PAY IT FORWARD"), you'd have something. Something coherent. "Pass it on" and "pass it back" don't pair that well. "Pass it back" is always a literal thing, like "here, take this piece of paper and pass it to the person behind you." But "pass it on" is about transferring information. The latter is a much more common / colloquial phrase than the former. The pair are mismatched, and so the theme just isn't as tight as it could/should be.

All the theme answers, as they appear in the grid, are unclued (i.e. there's no explicit clue for CIRCUITS, MOJO, etc.). This is a feature not a bug, but before you figure out the whole "IT"-shifting thing, it definitely makes the puzzle harder. It gets easier when you hit an italicized clue—those are basically screaming "this is the tricky part!" at you. I knew that I wanted MOJITO at 19A, but didn't get what exactly was wrong with MOJO until I hit 29A: Covers for a rainy day, which I instantly saw was gonna be TAR PITS: TARPS + "IT." Somehow TAR PITS was the thing that made me see what was going on with MOJITO. The theme was easy from there on out. Kinda paint-by-numbers. But as I said up front, the cluing stayed pretty tough, so I still had to work to get to the end. That work ... was not always pleasant. I think DROP TROU is one of the dumbest phrases in the world—like, from another era, slangy in an ugly way (24A: Provide a brief glimpse?). It's the reason I see TROU in the grid (as a standalone answer) way way more than I should. I just physically hate the phrase. Personal quirk, what can I say? Not the puzzle's fault, but enjoyment level dropped hard there. ETAPE, though, that is the puzzle's fault (49D: Tour de France stage). I got it easy enough, but man that's an ugly old-school foreign crosswordese word to foist on solvers. Its frequency dropped off hard after Shortz took over in the early/mid '90s, but it still hangs around, sadly.

[xwordinfo dot com]

The only answer that got me legitimately mad at the puzzle, though, was "OM NOM NOM." (43A: [Can't talk, eating]). Thanks, I Hate It. To be clear, I would've loved (or at least liked, or at least abided) "NOM NOM NOM." That dropped first "N," though, ugh. Ugh. "NOM" is often clued [When repeated, sound of eating] or [When repeated, sound effect for Cookie Monster]. "OM," however, is only ever a meditation syllable. I see that there are some GIFs out there that have the eating sound effect as "OM NOM NOM," but that doesn't make me like it. I also see plenty of "NOM NOM NOM." If it's "NOM" in crosswords (it is), and it's "NOM NOM" in crosswords (once, a couple years back), then it should be "NOM NOM NOM." Like so:

I stopped watching cartoons in the early '80s, so VOLTRON (while a very familiar name) did not leap to the front of my brain until I had some crosses in place. There was a decidedly '80s tween boy vibe to this, with the kids' cartoons and the video games and ARCADE and the Tolkien and what not (46D: "Do you remember the ___, Mr. Frodo?": Sam Gamgee). I was an '80s tween boy (for the early '80s, anyway), and yet none of this stuff resonated with me. ARSENIO, that resonated with me (14A: Onetime talk show whose studio audience was known as the "Dog Pound," familiarly). Right on target. I was the right age to experience that phenomenon in real time, with full force. I wish more stuff resonated with me, but sometimes you just don't luck out. The fill on this one seems fine, but its "highlights" were (mostly) not for me. ESTUARY is a fine word (though hard for me to get today, for sure) (5D: Long Island Sound, e.g.). "LET ME UP" sounds more like something you'd say if someone was sitting on top of you than something you'd say through an intercom. Also, if it's really a request made over an intercom, then it's rude. And not really a request. More of a command. 

Explainers etc.:

• 15A: Expressions of contempt (SNORTS) — not sure what you call it when both KEA and LOA show up in your grid, but that's what happened today. Me: "SNEERS! ... ugh, no, it's SNORTS." Me, later: "oh ... SNEERS ... there you are" (62A: Expressions of contempt)
• 21A: Figure for the prosecution, for short (ADA) — Assistant District Attorney. I prefer the Dental Association. Or the Lovelace.
• 39A: Electronic device from which users take "sips" (VAPE) — do you know how impossibly uncool this looks? Just smoke. I mean, don't, you'll get lung cancer or emphysema, but aesthetically, I'd much rather watch you smoke than "sip." There's a reason people smoked like crazy on film in the olden days and hardly anyone vapes on film. And it's not just health-consciousness. Smoking just looks great. Whereas vaping just looks desperate and sad, no matter how hot you are. To be clear, my objection is not moral in any way. It's purely aesthetic. 
• 56D: Feature of some outdoor obstacle courses (MUD) — could've been anything. Or, wasn't clearly MUD, at any rate. Clear as MUD!

• 59A: "Son of the Dragon," in a medieval Romanian sobriquet (DRACULA) — in retrospect, this should've been obvious, maybe, but oof, no. No idea. Thought they were throwing some Game of Thrones crap at me here. "Romanian" should've tipped me. But it didn't.
• 60A: "At the Movies with Ebert and ___" (ROEPER) — as with ARSENIO, I am the right demographic for this as well. None of the spice of the Siskel days. But it was on and it was about movies and it had Ebert, so I watched sometimes.
• 53D: Reflexology setting (SPA) — "setting" is a word that the puzzle uses in confusing ways sometimes. I thought maybe there were "setting"s in reflexology, like maybe you set your foot ... phaser ... to stun or something. But I guess some SPAs just offer "reflexology," so there's your "setting."
  
• 8D: Mac platform renamed in 2016 (OSX) — is it iOS now, then? Nope, that's mobile. It's actually macOS, so ... look for that in your grid sometime soon, I guess, inevitably, sadly. LOL they should have a cereal shaped like old Apple Macintoshes called "MAC O'S!" Would. Buy. (N)OM NOM NOM!

I'm happy to announce (all this week) that a new edition of These Puzzles Fund Abortion is available now (These Puzzles Fund Abortion 5!). Donate to abortion funds, get a collection of 23 top-notch puzzles from some of the best constructors in the business—mostly standard U.S. crossword puzzles, but also some cryptic crosswords, variety puzzles, and even an acrostic. Rachel Fabi and C.L. Rimkus have done such a great job with these collections over the past few years, raising over $300,000 for abortion funds around the country. I support a number of charitable organizations, but hardly any of them give me crosswords in return. So I'm going to give TPFA5 my money today [update: done!], and I hope you do too. Here's the link.

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Happy Opening Day to all who celebrate! As always, go Tigers.  

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