Fusion pastry made with glutinous rice flour / FRI 4-3-26 / Brown on the outside / Hit HBO series inspired by a post-apocalyptic video game / Coy response to "Why do you ask?"

Constructor: Carolyn Davies Lynch and Brian Callahan

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: fillip (28A: Writer's fillip = SERIF) —

1

a

: a blow or gesture made by the sudden forcible straightening
of a finger curled up against the thumb

b

: a short sharp blow : buffet

2

: something tending to arouse or excite: such as

a

: stimulus

just the fillip my confidence needed

lent a fillip of danger to the sport

b

: a trivial addition : embellishment

showy fillips of language

c

: a significant and often unexpected development : wrinkle

plot twists and fillips

• • •

Pretty tepid fare, on the whole. There are only a few worthy marquee answers, and the only one I really liked was "OH, NO REASON" (17A: Coy response to "Why do you ask?"). I can see how solvers might like THE LAST OF US (37A: Hit HBO series inspired by a post-apocalyptic video game) and/or MOCHI DONUT (Fusion pastry made with glutinous rice flour), and they deserve points for originality for sure. It's just that neither one did much for me (no interest in watching the former or eating the latter—in fact, I've never even heard of the latter; I've heard of MOCHI, and I've heard of DONUT, but together, shrug, if you say so). So even if you were jazzed by those last two, that's still only three real standouts. There are some others that are solid (GREEN ENERGY, FREE ADVICE, READY SET GO), but nothing I can imagine wanting to build a grid around. TASTETESTER is just a string of 1-pt Scrabble tiles—very blah. And the NE and SW corners aren't doing much of anything. They're not bad, they're just not popping the way a Friday grid should be popping. The relative blahness of the grid may have been exacerbated by the extreme easiness. It was bizarre how little resistance the NW put up—felt like a Monday/Tuesday themeless there for a bit. If I'd been able to remember my crosswordese, i.e. if I'd been able to find the handle on the awful but never-dying ELEA (35D: Zeno of ___, Greek philosopher who rejected the existence of space, time and motion), the center might have been nearly as easy, but between my fumbling ELEA (as ELIA), and my total inability to see PAN SEAR for a long time, as well as my writing in FEAR NOT instead of the strangely quaint FRET NOT (29D: "It'll all be OK!"), things got briefly toughish about midway through the solve. But after that, it was back to extreme easiness. So there's three or four answers here that seem worth their marquee status, and then a lot of placeholders, with most of the grid clued at an early-week difficulty level. Just didn't have that Friday zing.

Oh, as for marquee answers, there's also HEARTBEATS, which is fine, if not thrilling. I enjoy drinking clues but I don't really enjoy drunkenness clues, so while GET SLOSHED probably deserves the same credit for originality that I gave to THE LAST OF US and MOCHI DONUT, above, it left me a little cold. I can see that the puzzle is basically well made, but it just wasn't entertaining to me. I liked PAN SEAR a lot, actually, and would've loved more answers like it—colorful but everyday answers with toughish, ambiguous clues (26D: Brown on the outside) (I figured "Brown" was an adjective). The only truly WTF answer for me today was ALDEN Ehrenreich. I saw Oppenheimer (not as big a fan as most of you) (#TeamBarbie), but I don't know which character this actor played. Hang on ... wow, I have seen so many movies he's been in and cannot remember him in any of them. Cocaine Bear! Weapons! Anyway, he plays a senate aide in Oppenheimer. He's 17th on the cast list on wikipedia. But he starred in Hail, Caesar!, which I saw, so ... why he is leaving zero impression on me, I have no idea. I'm sure it's a me problem. Looks like he was in the puzzle once before, in 2023, but I was either on vacation or sick because I didn't do the write-up that day. ALDEN has been in the puzzle a lot over the years, but almost always as John ALDEN ([Mayflower compact signer]). Anyway, it was like I was seeing ALDEN Ehrenreich's name for the first time today. Which I might have been ... except for, you know, all the times I saw it in the opening and closing credits of all the movies I've seen him in. My god he even did a Criterion closet video! I love those! I thought I'd seen all of them, or at least all the recentish ones. Maybe I saw his and just forgot that too!

Bullets:

• 1A: ___ Hoffman, member of the Chicago Seven (ABBIE) — this was a gimme, except ... I wrote in GABBY (possibly because of Gaby Hoffman, who I loved in last year's The Mastermind and have thought a lot about since). After I realized it wasn't GABBY, I was like, "oh, right ... ABBEY" (["incorrect" game show buzzer sound!])

• 20A: Corn whole? (EAR) — so not just a kernel but the "whole" EAR
• 21A: Hymn's finale? (SILENT "N") — a "letteral" clue, one that acts not as a definition in the traditional sense, but that points to itself, to a specific letter in one of the clue's words: today, the letter "n" at the end ("finale") of "Hymn."
• 28A: Writer's fillip (SERIF) — I got this easily, but only because I already had the "SER-" in place before I saw the clue. This is the 2b definition of "fillip (n.)" (see "Word of the Day," above): "a trivial addition" or "embellishment."
• 22D: What autopay helps avoid (LATE FEE) — read it as "autoplay" so was, naturally, baffled. Really helps to read the clues correctly.
• 37D: International fast-food chain without a location in Mexico, interestingly (TACO BELL) — is it? interesting? It's not surprising. Maybe it's supposed to be ... ironic? Since tacos are "Mexican food"? My reaction to this fact is not "hmmm, interesting," but "duh, why would Mexicans eat that when they have the real deal? Are there Panda Expresses in China?" (looks like one appeared to open in 2020, with the same logo and everything, but it was an unauthorized fraud).
• 51D: Bands together? (AM/FM) — "Together" like ... near each other on the radio itself, on the button? On the dial? OK. I guess that's OK. Not exactly a winner of a clue, but defensible, at least.

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 closed!)

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

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...

Ceremonial rod / MON 7-28-25 / Cuzco dweller of old / Cousin of a cruller or bear claw / Carbonated beverage as reintroduced in 1985 / Chi preceder / College basketball phenom drafted by the Indiana Fever in 2024 / Concoctions with masa, cheese, lettuce and salsa / Characteristic of a penetrating mind

Constructor: Brian Callahan

Relative difficulty: Medium (i.e. normal for a Monday) (and yet ... I made two errors solving Downs-only! Wheeee!)

THEME: OPEN SEAS (65A: Clear sailing areas ... or, homophonically, a feature of 16-, 23-, 39- and 52-Across (and every clue in this puzzle!) — words in theme answers "open" with "C"s; every clue "opens" with "C":

Theme answers:

• CASH CROP (16A: Corn to a Midwest farmer)
• CARD COUNTING (23A: Casino no-no)
• COCA-COLA CLASSIC (39A: Carbonated beverage as reintroduced in 1985)
• CAITLIN CLARK (52A: College basketball phenom drafted by the Indiana Fever in 2024)

Word of the Day: Cooper Manning (66D: Cooper and Peyton Manning's QB brother) —

Cooper Archibald Manning (born March 6, 1974) is an American entrepreneur and television personality who is the host of the television show The Manning Hour for Fox Sports as well as principal and senior managing director of investor relations for AJ Capital Partners. He is the eldest son of former professional football quarterback Archie Manning, the older brother of former professional football quarterbacks Peyton Manning and Eli Manning, and the father of Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning. (wikipedia)

• • •

["Cabin Fever" director Roth]—how is that not your ELI clue???? Who the hell is "Cooper" Manning!? I mean, I know who he is now, as I looked him up and made him Word of the Day, but he's clearly not famous enough to be a Monday Manning clue, as they had to bring Peyton in to the clue to make it at all legible (Peyton made it a gimme, actually). ELI Roth is in the puzzle all the time, and his most famous movie just happens to start with a "C" and you *don't* use him? Absolutely bonkers decision. Not one that's really gonna affect anyone's solve much, but still ... wow. Cooper Manning, you say? OK. I have to say, the puzzle actually does a pretty good job pulling off the "every clue starts with a 'C'" thing, considering how contrived, how tortured, that sort of gimmick can make clues. It's an especially risky gambit on a Monday, when the clues need to be virtually transparent. It's the easy day, gotta keep it easy. And the puzzle, for the most part, does that admirably. I didn't even notice the "C" clue thing at all until I was beginning to do my write-up and fully read the revealer clue. So the best that I can say about the all-"C" cluing is that it was inconspicuous (ironically, a real achievement).

How are "Open 'C's" a "feature" of the theme answers? I see (C!) very well that the words in all those answers "open" with the letter "C," yes, but you would not say "hey, those answers all feature open 'C's." The phrasing just doesn't work. Of course I get what you're going for (at least I think I do), but the phrasing on the clue/answer is not precise. Not exact. The words in those answers all OPEN with "C"s. I'm trying to make the exact phrasing make sense, and I can't really. So I'm pretty lukewarm on the theme. That said, I thought the overall grid was fine. "EASY, TIGER" and "LET IT REST" are worthy long Downs, and while, yes, there's a playground taunt (kill them!) and an awful ASAMI/ASDOI dilemma (kill both of those answers too!) and an E-I-E-I-O and an impossibly singular SCAD, but otherwise, everything seems pretty solid. 

As for my Downs-only errors ... sigh. I assumed (naively) that "Call us the champs!" (an extreme example of clue contrivance) was a rough equivalent of "WE WON!" "Call us the champs because WE WON!" But no. It's "WE WIN." And my incorrect "O" didn't register as an error, as "I'M ON" is a plausible crossword answer (36 appearances in the Shortz Era, including yesterday (!) and this past Wednesday!), though not the correct answer for the clue, it turns out (22A: "Count me as a yes!"). So I had an answer that looked right in both directions, but ... wasn't. My other error? That came at 50D: Calls that may start "Is your refrigerator running?," e.g. (PRANKS). I know those kind of calls as "crank calls" and so ... I wrote in CRANKS. It felt bad as I was writing it in ("no one calls those calls just ... CRANKS!"), but all the crosses checked out, including the "wrong" "C" (AMC, again, like "I'M ON," is a frequent crossword answer) (though the actual answer today was AMP (49A: Concert equipment)). So where I normally make zero mistakes on my Downs-only Monday solves, today I made two. I'm not mad about it. I'm actually glad that there's a good explanation for why I made those errors (the forced "C"-cluing ... that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it!).

Concise observations:

• 1D: Ceremonial rod (MACE) — another one where the clue is made awkward by the cluing conceit. I took one look at this and when SCEPTER wouldn't fit, I was like "... WAND?"

• 15A: Combustible fuel for trucks (DIESEL) — so ... just [Fuel for trucks] then? 
• 63A: Cellphone's weather app, e.g. (WIDGET) — ??? I have a weather app on my cellphone. It is not a WIDGET. It is just an app.
• 20A: Characteristic of a penetrating mind (KEEN) — potentially mild toughie here, as "Characteristic" really looks like it's a noun in this clue.
• 54D: Chief Hindu god (INDRA) — not easy for me. Needed several crosses. You'd think I'd know the chief Hindu god by now, but apparently not :(
• 39A: Carbonated beverage as reintroduced in 1985 (COCA-COLA CLASSIC) — if you were not alive in the '80s I don't know where to begin explaining how weird cola marketing got in the '80s. Like ... clear colas were a thing, for a while. And then Coke was like "New Coke!" and people were like "booooo!" and then Coke was like "OK ... Old Coke Again?" but that sounded too much like defeat so they tried to make it seem retro-chic by calling the return of the old stuff "Coke Classic" even though ... it was only gone for like a hot minute—how is it "classic" all of a sudden? Meanwhile, Pepsi Light was a thing for a while (was that the one with lemon?). I remember in middle school all of a sudden there were caffeine-free colas (Pepsi Free!). But then also there was Jolt! Cola, a precursor of modern "energy" drinks, which was super-caffeinated—just what adolescents need! So if the cluing on this one seemed awkward ("as reintroduced"), that's not a "C" problem, that's just the insanity of mid-'80s cola culture. Remember the NutraSweet v. Saccharin Wars? No? Well, here's something to jog your memory: 

That's all from me today. "C" you next time. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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

• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

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

• Lollapuzzoola 18 (NYC) (Sat., Aug. 9, 2025) 
• Midwest Crossword Tournament (Chicago) (Sat., Oct. 4, 2025)

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

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...

Czech lager, informally / TUE 12-10-24 / T-shaped contraceptive, for short / Rich liquid added to curries / Period of accountability since 2017 / Fitness discipline for thousands of years / Dramatic cry in paintball / Mythical lamp dweller / Doha dignitary / "No can do, lassie!"

Constructor: Brian Callahan and Geoffrey Schorkopf

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: MAKE-UP ARTISTS (14D: Some movie set workers ... or what you do when filling in the shaded squares?) — shaded squares are artist names turned "up" (i.e. they run backward inside Down theme answers), so when you fill them in, you "make" "artists" ... "up":

Theme answers:

• HATHA YOGA (33D: Fitness discipline for thousands of years) (Francisco GOYA)

• COCONUT MILK (5D: Rich liquid added to curries) (Gustav KLIMT)

• MIRROR IMAGE (24D: Reflection) (Joan MIRÓ)

• HEEL KICKS (10D: Taekwondo moves done with an outstretched leg) (Paul KLEE)

Word of the Day: HATHA YOGA (33D: Fitness discipline for thousands of years) —

Hatha yoga (/ˈhʌtə, ˈhɑːtə/; IAST: Haṭha-yoga) is a branch of yoga that uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel vital force or energy. The Sanskrit word हठ haṭha literally means "force", alluding to a system of physical techniques. Some hatha yoga style techniques can be traced back at least to the 1st-century CE, in texts such as the Hindu Sanskrit epics and Buddhism's Pali canon. The oldest dated text so far found to describe hatha yoga, the 11th-century Amṛtasiddhi, comes from a tantric Buddhist milieu. The oldest texts to use the terminology of hatha are also Vajrayana Buddhist. Hindu hatha yoga texts appear from the 11th century onward. [...] In the 20th century, a development of hatha yoga focusing particularly on asanas (the physical postures) became popular throughout the world as a form of physical exercise. This modern form of yoga is now widely known simply as "yoga". [...] In Western culture, Haṭha yoga is typically understood as exercise using asanas and it can be practiced as such. In the Indian and Tibetan traditions, Haṭha yoga integrates ideas of ethics, diet, cleansing, pranayama (breathing exercises), meditation and a system for spiritual development of the yogi. (wikipedia)

• • •

***ATTENTION: READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS IN SYNDICATION (if you're reading this in January, that's you!)*** : It's 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. Writing this blog is a joy, but it is also a job—an everyday, up-by-4am job. My morning schedule is regular as hell. So regular that my cats know my routine and will start walking all over me if I even *stir* after 3am. You ever lie there in the early morning, dying to simply roll over or stretch, but knowing that the second you do, the second you so much as budge, the cats will take it as a signal that you're through with sleep and ready to serve them? So you just lie perfectly still, trying to get every ounce of bedrest you can before the cats ruin it all? That's me, every morning. I guess you could say they "help" get me up on time to write, but come on, I have an alarm for that. The cats are adorable, but frankly they're no help at all. After I feed them, I go upstairs to write, and what do they do? They go straight back to sleep. Here I'll show you. This was two days ago, when I came downstairs after writing:

And this was yesterday, same time:

Those pictures are from two different days, I swear. And I'm guessing when I go downstairs this morning, I'll find much the same thing. They are beautiful creatures, but they cannot solve or type or bring me warm beverages. When it comes to blogging, I'm on my own. And look, I'm not asking for pity. The truth is, I love my life (and my cats), but the truth *also* is that writing this blog involves a lot of work. I get up and I solve and I write, hoping each day to give you all some idea of what that experience was like for me, as well as some insight into the puzzle's finer (or less fine) qualities—the intricacies of its design, the trickiness of its clues, etc. The real value of the blog, though, is that it offers a sort of commiseration. While I like to think my writing is (at its best) entertaining, I know that sometimes all people need is someone who shares their joy or feels their pain. If you hate a clue, or get stuck and struggle, or otherwise want to throw the puzzle across the room, you know I'm here for you, and that even if my experience is not identical to yours, I Understand! I understand that even though "it's just a puzzle," it's also a friend and a constant companion and a ritual and sometimes a Betrayer! I don't give you objective commentary—I give you my sincere (if occasionally hyperbolic) feelings about the puzzle, what it felt like to solve it. I can dress those feelings up in analytical clothes, sure, but still, ultimately, I'm just one human being out here feeling my puzzle feelings. And hopefully that makes you feel something too—ideally, something good, but hey I'm not picky. Whatever keeps you coming back! Hate-readers are readers too!

Whatever kind of reader you are, you're a reader, and I would appreciate your support. This blog has covered the NYTXW every day, without fail, for over eighteen (18!?) years, and except for two days a month (when my regular stand-ins Mali and Clare write for me), and an occasional vacation or sick day (when I hire substitutes to write for me), it's me who's doing the writing. 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 Main, 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):

Second, a mailing address (checks can be made out to "Michael Sharp" or "Rex Parker"):

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. Love. Snail Mail. I love seeing your gorgeous handwriting and then sending you my awful handwriting. It's all so wonderful. My daughter (Ella Egan) has once again designed my annual thank-you card, and once again the card features (wait for it) cats! 

Ida & Alfie, my little yin/yang sleepers! (They're slowly becoming friends, but don't tell them that—it makes them mad and they will deny it). 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... 

• • •

OK, I know I often say "quick write-up today" and then do a regular-sized write-up because apparently muscle memory and the strength of pure habit will not be denied, but today, Today it really will be short(ish), as I have a very (ridiculously) early final exam to give. I literally apologized to my students for the 8am start time ("I did not choose this time, it was randomly assigned to me, I'm so sorry"). I mean, the class itself usually starts at 8:30am, so it's not such a stretch for them to be up that early, but during Finals week ... they really should let students sleep and not start any exams til 9am at the earliest. But I digress. See, I digress, and then the write-up gets longer, and all of a sudden poof, it's a regular-sized write-up, and my best-laid plans for shortness lie in ruins. 

Moving on: the puzzle! Back-to-back days of clever concepts and solid fill. You love to see it! The revealer here requires a little creative syntactical and grammatical maneuvering ("make artists (go) up"), but by the Power of Greyskull, I mean Wordplay, I think it works just fine. Those are all artists (specifically painters) and their names all go "up" inside those shaded squares. Moreover, as an elegant bonus, those shaded squares touch every element in their respective themers, i.e. they bridge the two words (or word parts). Often in these "buried word" themes, you get theme answers that have these extraneous words that don't involve the "buried word" at all. Like if you were hiding "PRO"s and "CON"s in your answers and one of the answers was COCONUT MILK ... you see how "MILK" is just left hanging there? No involvement with the hidden word? That's just sad. You gotta bring all the theme-answer words into the mix, as this puzzle does. Hidden words should bridge *all* the words in their themers. This is my (often disregarded) rule! (handed down to me by the great Patrick Berry, as he was rejecting / offering feedback on one of my early constructing efforts). The theme answers themselves are also vivid and interesting, not just vehicles for reversed artist names. And the fill is rock solid. A fine effort overall.

I encountered almost no resistance today. I can't tell if that's because the puzzle is simply inherently easy, or if I just got really lucky with my first guesses—the solving equivalent of hitting all the green lights. I was careening along unimpeded, first guess after first guess going right in, thinking "how am I doing this? I feel like the wheels are gonna come off here any second." But with one exception, the wheels stayed firmly attached. The one exception actually came early, and my slowing down was due to a brain glitch on my part rather than the inherent difficulty of the puzzle. I couldn't get the second part of COCONUT ___ (!?!?!). Something about "Rich liquid" ... I dunno. Even with the assist from "added to curries," nothing was happening. Started before I had COCONUT, actually. I initially thought the liquid involved COCOA ... yeah, no idea what happened there. Weird how my brain can just fly through much tougher stuff but then spin out on obvious stuff like this. The MILK part crossed SWARM, which crossed MWAH, which crossed AHH, and all of those answers were, to varying degrees, a problem. AHH and AAH always both seem valid (44A: "That hits the spot!"). "MWAH!" feels one level of meaning removed from [You're gorgeous darling!]—sufficiently adjacent, but not a perfect fit—and SWARM, well, I don't feel bad about struggling there: that's the hardest clue in the puzzle (36A: Fly ball?) (because a SWARM = a "ball" of "flies" (or bees or gnats or what have you)). Do you see how this write-up is already approaching regular length? Do you? Moving on to "Bullet Points" now, and then Holiday Pet Pics (yay!) and then I'm out.

Bullets:

• 14A: Period of accountability since 2017 (#METOO ERA) — are we still in this era? Are people being held accountable? The incoming administration (really really) suggests otherwise. Not that this isn't a good crossword answer. It's original, current, lively, etc. Just ... has me thinking about what "accountability" means.
• 21A: Do some modeling for a figure drawing class (POSE NUDE) — another great longer answer. I misread the clue at first as [Do some yodeling for a figure drawing class] and thought about what the class's reaction might be. "Uh huh ... that's ... nice ... can you just stand still? Thanks."

• 37A: Ben Solo's father in "Star Wars" (HAN) — HAN was not a father in "Star Wars"—that's some later "Star Wars" universe stuff (yes, I resolutely refuse to recognize any movie as "Star Wars" besides Star Wars (1977), which was never ever called "A New Hope" among people who saw it seven times in the theater (guilty)—that "Chapter IV: A New Hope" crap is never gonna fly with me.). If the clue had read "in the 'Star Wars' universe," I'd have had no beef with it.
• 33D: Fitness discipline for thousands of years (HATHA YOGA) — The "Fitness" angle is very modern and western, very asana-based. For "thousands of years" it was primarily a spiritual practice. See "Word of the Day," above.
• 50D: "No can do, lassie!" ("NAE!") — this made me laugh, mainly because it made me imagine Groundskeeper Willie covering Hall & Oates:

• 56D: Czech lager, informally (PILS) — oh we're doing this again, are we? It's only been eleven days. Well, at least I was prepared.

OK, time for a quick round of Holiday Pet Pics!

First, we have the "patiently enduring your holiday tyranny" variety of picture. I mean, look at poor Sally here. Come on. She can't fly or pull a sled, but she deserves at least six treats.

[Thanks, Hilary]

Churro and Juno do not know this man. Release them from his white-gloved captivity and give them treats!

[Thanks, Dave]

And Creature ... well, Creature is going to make you pay for this. You can see it in her eyes. "You better sleep with one eye open tonight, lady."

[Thanks, Stephanie]

Next we have the "I said *holiday* pics" category, where people send pics that are "holiday" only by a certain stretch of the imagination. I mean, just because Sabrina the Greyhound has sour cream on her nose from leftover Thanksgiving dinner does not make this a "Holiday" picture (though any chance to consume sour cream is a "holiday" for a dog, so I'll allow it)

[Thanks, Graeme] 

And hey, MisterBuddy and Bird, I see what you're doing here and I'm not buying it. This is fraud. No treats for you! ... OK, I'm sorry, you're adorable, sixteen treats each!

[Thanks, Liz]

And finally ... I'd love to show you a picture of Nico and Diego, but their epic holiday shenanigans cannot be contained in just one photo, so I give you a suite of photos entitled "Nico and Diego Save Christmas, Then Get Sleepy"

Enjoy the rest of your day. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]

Read more...