Prestigious academic journal since 1880 / SUN 2-8-26 / 1987 Dreyfuss/DeVito comedy / "Ecstasy of Saint Teresa" sculptor / Social media tribute to a celeb, say / Margaret Atwood novel with a love triangle involving a paleontologist / Nonprofit group behind Smokey Bear and McGruff the Crime Dog / "Uhh ..." to Brits / Werewolf on TV's "Wednesday" / Fine-grained wood in some woodwind instruments / Disney heroine based on New Orleans chef Leah Chase / BMW offering since 2000 / Canadian coin featuring a polar bear, informally

Constructor: Chloe Revery

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "Who's in Charge Here?" — an UNDERCOVER BOSS theme (115A: Hit reality TV series suggested by this puzzle's groups of circled letters): words for "boss" are hidden ("undercover") in circled squares inside longer answers:

Theme answers:

• ELASTIC HAIR TIE (23A: Scrunchie, e.g.)
• PRINCE OF WALES (39A: Title for William beginning in 2022)
• THE AD COUNCIL (45A: Nonprofit group behind Smokey Bear and McGruff the Crime Dog)
• DIRECT ORDER (67A: Explicit command)
• SHOCKING PINK (87A: Bright shade similar to magenta) 
• LIFE BEFORE MAN (96A: Margaret Atwood novel with a love triangle involving a paleontologist)

Word of the Day: Gian Lorenzo BERNINI (19A: "Ecstasy of Saint Teresa" sculptor) —

Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (UK: /bɛərˈniːni/, US: /bərˈ-/; Italian: [ˈdʒan loˈrɛntso berˈniːni]; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 1598 – 28 November 1680) was an Italian sculptor, architect, painter and city planner. Bernini's creative abilities and mastery in a range of artistic arenas define him as a uomo universale or Renaissance man. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prominently the leading sculptor of his age, credited with creating the Baroque style of sculpture.

As one scholar has commented, "What Shakespeare is to drama, Bernini may be to sculpture: the first pan-European sculptor whose name is instantaneously identifiable with a particular manner and vision, and whose influence was inordinately powerful ..." In addition, he was a painter (mostly small canvases in oil) and a man of the theatre: he wrote, directed and acted in plays (mostly Carnival satires), for which he designed stage sets and theatrical machinery. He produced designs as well for a wide variety of decorative art objects including lamps, tables, mirrors, and even coaches.

As an architect and city planner, he designed secular buildings, churches, chapels, and public squares, as well as massive works combining both architecture and sculpture, especially elaborate public fountains and funerary monuments and a whole series of temporary structures (in stucco and wood) for funerals and festivals. His broad technical versatility, boundless compositional inventiveness and sheer skill in manipulating marble ensured that he would be considered a worthy successor of Michelangelo, far outshining other sculptors of his generation. (wikipedia)

• • •

A rather tepid hidden-word theme. The hidden words aren't really "hidden" (or "undercover") if you highlight them with circles. They would be "undercover" ... but the circles make them overcover. Not all of these "boss" words are great. CEO is fine as a word for boss, but it is not an interesting term to "hide" in a longer answer. Way too short. Just gets lost in the longer answer. And HEAD, meh. That doesn't really say "boss" without some kind of qualifier. Department HEAD or something like that. Worst of all, from a pure elegance-of-execution standpoint, the "hidden words" repeatedly fail to touch all the words in their respective answers. Again and again, whole words in the theme answers are just hung out to dry, no "hidden word" involvement. The TIE in ELASTIC HAIR TIE, the WALES in PRINCE OF WALES, the COUNCIL in THE AD COUNCIL, the LIFE in LIFE BEFORE MAN. The most beautiful execution of the theme comes with SHOCKING PINK—solid name for "boss" (crime boss, to be specific), perfectly "hidden" across both words of the theme-answer phrase. Very nice. No other themer is anywhere close to that nice. Plus, it's hard to love a puzzle with THE AD COUNCIL (??) as an answer, or (frankly) a reality TV show as the revealer. Reality TV is overwhelmingly garbage. It's the world our illustrious president came out of (I swear to god I just typed "prison" instead of "president," weird ...). But let's leave aside my prejudice against the genre. Let's say UNDERCOVER BOSS is a great show and a wonderful asset for any crossword grid ... all the aforementioned thematic shortcomings still stand. The basic concept was fairly simplistic to begin with, and the execution just came up short.

There was some fun to be had in the non-thematic parts of the puzzle. "ARE WE DONE?" is lovely, and I quite enjoyed MOONSHINE (50D: Drink from a tub?), though I'm not sure about the tub part. Is the tub a reference to "bathtub gin?" I don't think MOONSHINE and "bathtub gin" are exactly the same thing. They're both homemade spirits, but  "gin" tends to have botanicals added. Still, "bathtub gin" is a kind of generalized term for home-distilled alcohol, which MOONSHINE is, so ... close enough, I guess. If the "tub" in 50D: Drink from a tub? refers to something else, one of you will tell me. I'm always happy to encounter liquor in my crossword, even if it's something I likely wouldn't drink myself (such as MOONSHINE). 

[77A: 1987 Dreyfuss/DeVito comedy]

There are three UPs in this grid, which is probably at least one too many, even for a Sunday-sized grid (ANTE UP, ROLL UP, EASE UP). I think I've seen as many as four in Sunday grids before. If there are so many that I notice (or if, god forbid, two of the UPs are crossing), then that's probably too many. The grid overall seemed solid enough, with only a few answers making me balk or wince. FANVID was probably the ugliest thing, to my ear/eye. I refuse to believe in it. Sometimes you have to treat "words" like fictional creatures and just refuse to believe. FANVID is a horrid-looking little piece of fill. I'm sure there are fan videos, but FANVID, barf (unsurprisingly, it's a debut). Fan culture (esp. online fan culture) tends to be insular and putrid, so ... pass. Unfortunately, looking up FANVID has led me to discover the term "vidding," which ... I can't bring myself to go into. You can read about it here. Oh lord ... and now I've discovered YOUTUBE POOP (abbr. YTP, in case any constructor out there is interested in absolutely ruining one of their grids). See, this is why you should never look things up. You're better off not knowing. 

I'm not sure I get why a COLD is a [Small bug?]. Is it because the virus is literally small? I mean, compared to, say, insects, or a rabbit or a microwave or a yacht or something? Bizarre. I get that ACNE can be found on your face, and it's hard (difficult?) to deal with (?), or maybe it's physically hard, but still, [Something hard to face?] doesn't seem like an apt description, even allowing for "?" leeway. There weren't many places I struggled today. Not for long, anyway. I confused the [Place for a shoelace] (EYELET) with the tip of a shoelace (AIGLET). I would never ever have thought of PEAR as a wood unless the crossword forced me to (as it did today) (30A: Fine-grained wood in some woodwind instruments). I misremembered BERNINI as BELLINI (which is a drink). SCIENCE was hard for me as clued (12D: Prestigious academic journal since 1880). The center of the grid gets a little ugly (ECIGS alongside ERM), but it didn't give me any trouble. I didn't know the Atwood title—that was probably the biggest hold-up for me, as it denied me traction in the SW (where I was already struggling with the erroneous AIGLET). But no part of this puzzle was particularly tough. It was mostly on the easy side of normal. 

[44A: Money in rock 'n' roll]

["I feel a hunger. It's a hunger." Truly one of the greatest opening lyrics of all time]

Side note: my spelling and grammar check would like a word with Mr. Money ...

["I feel hungry. I am hungry" — yeah, that's much better]

Bullets:

• 35A: Disney heroine based on New Orleans chef Leah Chase (TIANA) — where Disney princesses are concerned, I have memorized a few common names that come up in crosswords a lot (MOANA, ELSA, TIANA), but I know almost nothing about them. I can barely name the movie TIANA is from (something about a frog? can that be right? ... [looks it up] ... ha, it's true, The Princess and the Frog!). Anyway, I certainly had no idea the character was based on a New Orleans chef. Leah Chase was a highly honored chef and TV personality known as The Queen of Creole Cuisine. "Her restaurant, Dooky Chase, was known as a gathering place during the 1960s among many who participated in the Civil Rights Movement, and was known as a gallery due to its extensive African-American art collection. In 2018 it was named one of the 40 most important restaurants of the past 40 years by Food & Wine." (wikipedia).

• 9D: Werewolf on TV's "Wednesday" (ENID) — pfffffffft I know that "Wednesday" exists and is one of Netflix's more popular shows. Isn't that enough? Are you gonna make me go two three four deep on the character roster? Is "Wednesday" the new Star Wars? (been a few days since we've seen a Star Wars reference, btw—amazed we got through a Sunday-sized grid today without one, good job, everyone).

["I write in my voice! It's my truth! It's what my followers love!" LOL OK, maybe I love ENID.]

• 4D: Trouble with Z's? (INSOMNIA) — once again, I understand the clue, but I don't get what kind of word play the clue is aiming for. What is "Trouble with Z's" supposed to evoke? Everyone knows that "Z's" refers to sleep (most commonly in the phrase "catch some Z's"), but what is the clue doing with its "?"? What pun is being made? You've just replaced "sleep" with "Z's"? Why? I don't know why.
• 69D: "Uhh ..." to Brits ("ERM ...")— to Brits!? Isn't it bad enough we have to deal with all of our own hesitation sounds, your UHS and your ERS and your UMS? Do we need imports?
• 96D: Set of nine dancing in "The 12 Days of Christmas" (LADIES) — gah, I tried to get this song going in my head but I was all over the place and could not retrieve the LADIES. There were Lords a-Leapin' and Maids a-Milkin' and Pipers Piping and Drummers Drumming and Five. Gold. Rings. But everything was coming to me out of order. LADIES is such a straightforward word, I couldn't find it. Add this to my SW woes. LIFE BEFORE MAN, EYELET-not-AIGLET, and this.
• 51D: Concert broadcast that celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2025, with "The" (OPRY) — needed a cross or two to get this one. I'm not used to seeing OPRY without "Grand Ole" attached.

[♫❤️ Iris Dement ❤️♫]

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. big thank-you to the reader who saw that I enjoyed Lagavulin and so sent me ... Lagavulin. Is it that easy? Do I just have to say things I like and they materialize? Chocolate chip cookies! Vintage paperbacks! Labrador retriever puppy! 

P.P.S. Super Bowl today, which means only one thing to me—it's baseball season! Wearing a new shirt to get me in the mood:

[Available here—$8 from every shirt goes to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota]

[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...

Trumpet flourish / TUE 6-11-24 / Pounded taro dish / Title role for Lee Marvin in a 1962 western / Meteorological description in a Beatles song / Poet Frank who led the 1950s-'60s "New York School" / Cutting onomatopoeia / Nickname for Oliver Cromwell / Unfortunate neighbor of Mount Vesuvius

Constructor: Chloe Revery

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (**for a Tuesday**)

THEME: FIRST LADY (58A: Title for Jackie or Jill, and a hint to the answers to the starred clues) — "first" words of theme answers can all follow the word "LADY":

Theme answers:

• GAGA ABOUT (17A: *Crazy for)
• LIBERTY VALANCE (23A: *Title role for Lee Marvin in a 1962 western)
• LUCK OUT (36A: *Get seriously fortunate)
• MARMALADE SKIES (48A: *Meteorological description in a Beatles song)

Word of the Day: Frank O'HARA (16A: Poet Frank who led the 1950s-'60s "New York School") —

Francis Russell "Frank" O'Hara (March 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) was an American writer, poet, and art critic. A curator at the Museum of Modern Art, O'Hara became prominent in New York City's art world. O'Hara is regarded as a leading figure in the New York School, an informal group of artists, writers, and musicians who drew inspiration from jazz, surrealism, abstract expressionism, action painting, and contemporary avant-garde art movements.

O'Hara's poetry is personal in tone and content, and has been described as sounding "like entries in a diary". Poet and critic Mark Doty has said O'Hara's poetry is "urbane, ironic, sometimes genuinely celebratory and often wildly funny" containing "material and associations alien to academic verse" such as "the camp icons of movie stars of the twenties and thirties, the daily landscape of social activity in Manhattan, jazz music, telephone calls from friends". O'Hara's writing sought to capture in his poetry the immediacy of life, feeling that poetry should be "between two persons instead of two pages."

The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara edited by Donald Allen (Knopf, 1971), the first of several posthumous collections, shared the 1972 National Book Award for Poetry. (wikipedia)

• • •

You know that feeling when you're humming along, just loving a puzzle, and then someone goes and dumps a bucket of TUCKET all over it? No? Well, neither had I, before today. What a tragedy. Gorgeous to gruesome in no time flat. When you're out of luck(et), and feel like "f*ck it!," bring in the TUCKET. The TUCKET (as it will now be known, with the definite article out front) has not been seen or heard from in over three decades. It was believed extinct. Or perhaps mythical—who even remembers 1992? But today, it returns from its decades-long hibernation / mystical journey and slimes its grim way right across my MARMALADE SKIES. "With tangerine trees, and [record scratch] TUCKET Surprise!" I cannot say enough about the monstrosity that is TUCKET. I want to put it in a bucket and chuck it. If this seems like an outsized reaction, well, first of all, hi, have we met? And second of all, I refer you to the opening words of this paragraph—I thought this puzzle was (otherwise) fantastic. The quality gap between TUCKET and the rest of this puzzle is a gulf, a chasm, it cannot be measured, you cannot see the other side of the canyon from TUCKET. I mean, I didn't *know* BANTU (as clued) (22D: ___ knots (hairstyle)), but at least I recognize the word (it's an African people / language group), and anyway, hairstyles are not in my purview—if you tell me something is a hairdo, I believe you, because my own personal hair style is NIL. But TUCKET ... TUCKET isn't just something I didn't know. It's something that should not, and possibly does not, exist. Is it real? Am I typing or still in a crossword nightmare. It *is* the 40th anniversary of Nightmare on ELM ST, maybe I'm in the middle of one of those situations, still asleep and being chased by Griddy Krueger, aka The TUCKET. Whether I'm awake or asleep, TUCKET remains very bad (please congratulate me on getting through this paragraph without using "suck it").

But before TUCKET, wow, what a beauty. I smiled when I threw down MCGRIDDLE and then *beamed* when MCGRIDDLE led to LIBERTY VALANCE! OK, yes, I did spell it LIBERTY VALENCE at first, as if it were a chemical or psychological phenomenon, but no matter. What a great movie: Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne and Lee Marvin and Lee Van Cleef and Woody Strode in the same damn western?! That's a lot of western! Before The Man Who Shot LIBERTY VALANCE, you couldn't get that much iconic western manliness on the screen at one time—science had not yet figured it out. But then John Ford was like "TUCKET! I want Wayne *and* Stewart! I'm putting them both in my movie, and a handful of other tough guys to boot, who cares if I literally set the atmosphere on fire!?" And then time passed and here we are, enjoying LIBERTY VALANCE with an APEROL chaser! (18D; Red alcohol in a spritz). Recommendation for APEROL lovers out there: ditch the spritz and try a Naked & Famous. I learned about this (apparently already famous) drink from my new favorite podcast, "Cocktail College."  It's a sour with equal parts (3/4 oz.) APEROL, lime juice, yellow chartreuse and mezcal, shaken, up (in a coupe). Simple and delicious. 

So this puzzle hits me with a sweet breakfast treat and then an iconic western and a colorful cocktail ingredient and *then* hits me with my favorite modern poet!? (Frank "Don't Confuse Me With John" O'HARA!). I was all in. This is why The TUCKET was so tragic, but let's not revisit that. Back to the theme—it's very simple, very straightforward, nothing terribly tricky about it. I had the "Lady" bit figured out after the first two themers, but did not know what the revealer was going to be, exactly. In retrospect, FIRST LADY seems obvious. This is such a good example of how your theme does not have to be overly complicated. If the concept is tight enough, and especially if the answers are colorful enough, then you can do wonders by focusing on good old-fashioned craftsmanship. Speaking of old-fashioned, the other drink I just learned about that I still need to try is the Oaxacan Old Fashioned. No APEROL in there, but it still has the MEZCAL (only three crossword appearances? didn't debut til 2019!?) as well as crossword favorite AGAVE (nectar). Anyway, on the next hot weekend, I'm giving it a shot. 

The puzzle played harder than usual because, well, TUCKET, but also BANTU took me a bit, and then I couldn't get either POMPEII (41D: Unfortunate neighbor of Mount Vesuvius) or RATTLE (46D: Maraca, e.g.) from their initial letters and ended up having to come back for that SW corner. First I just blanked on the city near Vesuvius, and then I couldn't spell it. Two "I"s!! I was like "well POMPEI won't fit and neither will ... POMPEIAN (!?!?)" so I dunno, man." As for RATTLE ... I mean, true, but so basic I never would've thought of it. Also I confess I get "maraca" and "marimba" confused, still (the latter is also Latin American, and also a percussion instrument, but you play it with mallets (something like a xylophone)). The puzzle wasn't *hard*, just harder than the usual Tuesday, for me. Also, much (much) prettier than the usual Tuesday. That is, until ... but enough about that. Let's not revisit that. Let's listen to some Gary Puckett instead.

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. I recently started my vintage paperback blog back up again. Most of you don’t care, but some of you do 😉 

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...

Kyrgyzstan mountain range / WED 1-10-24 / 2007 Michael Moore documentary about health care / "Magic that works," per Vonnegut / Preschool teacher's mantra / Less sharp, as footage

Constructor: Chloe Revery and Alissa Revness

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: SHARING IS CARING (60A: Preschool teacher's mantra ... or a hint to the answers to the starred clues) — "SH" is changed to "C" in familiar phrases, resulting in wacky phrases, clued wackily ("?"-style):

Theme answers:

• TAMING OF THE CREW (17A: *Job for a coxswain with rowdy rowers?)
• NO GREAT CAKES (23A: *Review for a so-so bakery?)
• GIFT COP (38A: *Person who assigns the order of opening presents?)
• GETS INTO CAPE (49A: *Completes a superhero transformation?)

Word of the Day: "no great shakes" (23A) —

Nothing out of the ordinary, mediocre, as in I'm afraid the new pitcher is no great shakes, or What I did with this decorating project was no great shakes. This term possibly alludes to the shaking of dice, which most often yields a mediocre result, but there is no evidence to support this theory. [Early 1800s] (dictionary.com) 

The most common suggestion is that this idiom arose from playing dice, where if you shake the dice and have a bad throw you have had ‘no great shake,’ or the odd but apparently common notion that if you shake the device you will always have a bad throw. There are other idioms using the word shake that seem also to be related to dice:

A fair shake – a fair chance or a fair bargain.
In two shakes – in a moment.

At one time, no great shake may have been used to mean ‘a bad bargain’ making it the opposite of a fair shake.

Another, quite old suggestion that turned up in the literature search is that it arose from the shaking of walnut trees to dislodge the nuts. If the walnut crop is not good, there will be ‘no great shakes.’

As well, at one time, it was thought that the idiom came from the idea that you could judge someone’s character from their handshake.

The most credible origin seems to be the first. (idioms.com)

• • •

***ATTENTION: READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS*** : Hello from Central New York and the first properly wintry week of the season! 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. So ... 17 years ... not bad. At this time last year, I was recovering from COVID and still dealing with the very fresh grief brought on by the untimely death of my cat, Olive. I was very grateful for the blog at that point, since it grounded me in routine and gave me a place where I could lose myself in a pastime I love, and share that love with others. OK, yes, true, I don't always *love* crosswords. Sometimes it's more hate-love or love-hate or "Why are you being like this, you stupid puzzle!?" It ain't all positive vibes, as you know. But I realized last year that part of what makes this blog so fun for me, and what makes it a solace to many readers, is the sense of commiseration it provides. Sometimes the puzzle thrills you, and maybe I agree with you, and maybe I don't; and sometimes it infuriates you, and maybe I agree with you, and maybe I don't. But either way, the blog is here; it's *always* here. You get to have your feelings validated, or you get to shake your head at my errant judgment and often breathtaking ignorance, but either way, you get to share an experience that's an important part of your daily life, and maybe you learn something new. Above all, I hope you feel that there is a real person with a real life and real emotions and (very) real human flaws who's telling you what it was *really* like for him to solve the puzzle. I never wanted to be an expert, offering some kind of bloodless know-it-all advice and analysis. I wanted blood. Blood on the page. There will be blood! ... But also, music videos. And Words of the Day. And, if you hang around long enough, cat pictures. Like this one:

This is Ida (she put herself in the bin, I swear). Ida is the happy sequel to last year's grief. At the beginning of January, I was mourning. By the end of January, I was still mourning, but now I had a new companion (as did my other cat, Alfie, who *really* needed one). Why am I talking about my cats? Because they are constant, they give shape and rhythm to my day, and I love them even if they sometimes drive me crazy. Just like crossword puzzles! (See that! Segue! This is why you should pay me the big bucks!) 

However much I love writing this blog (and I do, a lot), it is, in fact, a job. This blog has covered the NYTXW every day, without fail, for 17 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. Every day. At very ... let's say, inconvenient hours (my alarm goes off most mornings at 3:45am). 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. But that sort of thing has never felt right for me. 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 13905-4013

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 cards, and once again those cards feature (wait for it) cats! My cats: Alfie & Ida. This year, an elegant set of five!

These really capture the combination of beauty and goofiness that I love in cats (and puzzles, frankly). I'd say "Collect All Five!" but every snail-mail contributor will get just one and (hopefully) like 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 and support. Please know that your support means a lot to me and my family. Now on to today's puzzle... 

• • •

Nice to see women's names on the bylines today, as it has truly been a Dry January so far (with 8.5 of the first 9 puzzles of this year made by men). Honestly December was pretty dire as well, in that regard. But things can always turn around! (said Charlie Brown, as Lucy once again held the football steady ...). Let's hope. Today's puzzle is a wacky letter swap—a tried and true theme type, coming to you today wrapped in a cute little revealer. Do preschool teachers really say SHARING IS CARING. Even 4yo me would've found that inane. I feel like this phrase became popular sometime (well) after my childhood. The '90s maybe? Feels associated with a TV show somehow, but I may be confusing it with the Care Bears (also after my time, if only just). But yeah, if you google SHARING IS CARING you get a lot of insipid videos trying to teach your children values that you apparently failed to teach them, all while training them to be tolerant of terrible music. Don't get me wrong, I love sharing, I just hate ... I dunno, rhyming? Cloying cutesiness? But this is no knock against the theme, which I think is just fine. And it yields mostly chuckleworthy theme answers. I liked the first two better than the second two. GIFT COP has a hilariously pejorative ring to it, but the clue totally missed that potential, and instead just gave us a limp neutral clue (*Person who assigns the order of opening presents?). My favorite was NO GREAT CAKES, which I got without even looking at the clue, but which I could tell immediately had the best cluing potential. The clue is a good one (*Review for a so-so bakery?), but again, it's a little tepid. Maybe tepidness is in the interest of clarity? Or ... causing the least offense? I don't know. I just know that I like my wacky Wacky, and this one came in a little light in that regard. Still, overall, this is a nice expression of a common theme type, with the revealer elevating it above your run-of-the-mill letter-swap puzzles.

The puzzle played Easy with one major exception. Well, maybe two. One major, one minor. First the major, which, once again, came via my old nemesis: The Northwest. I started there easily enough, with MICS MITT IMAC SCIENCE, but then ... ??? Absolutely could not get to "I MAY" from 2D: "Not sure yet" even with IM- in place. Not loving the non-correspondence there between clue and answer (the answer is a complete sentence, whereas the clue is just a fragment, an incomplete sentence, with the verb only implied). I was looking for "I'M ... something." TORN, actually, but it wouldn't fit. And then CAMP, yeesh, no hope, even from the CA- (3D: Something to make or break). But the worst holder-upper was 20A: What's tolerated by every body?, for which I had T--EO, in response to which I said to myself, "Well, nothing fits T--EO. No word fits that pattern," which led me to my brilliant conclusion, "MITT must be wrong." I just abandoned this section and followed SCIENCE (4D: "Magic that works," per Vonnegut) down to SICKO (which I was lucky enough to remember) (26A: 2007 Michael Moore documentary about health care) and then solved in this bizarre way where I fell down the entire left side of the grid, arriving at the revealer before I'd ever even looked at a theme clue (?!). Once I'd discarded SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE as a possibility, SHARING IS CARING went in, and the themers were Very easy to pick up as a result. Cart before the horse! Pre-vealer! 

This "prevelation" (getting the revealer first) ended up being very instrumental in my eventually solving not only that pesky Northwest area, but also its annoying if somewhat less difficult cousin, the Northeast. I threw ONE SCOOP up there, but neither the "O" nor the "N" was any help at all in getting those Acrosses in the NE. These also happened to be two of the worst-looking Acrosses in the whole puzzle, which made me sad, but also made me happy, as I felt less bad about not getting clunkiness like "OH, SAY" and especially NOT DO (?) than I would have if those answers had ended up being more ordinary. Anyway, knowing the theme helped me get CREW, and then it was Shakespeare To The Rescue, as TAMING went in, and I saw that T--EO was TIMEO or TOREO or some word I'd never imagined but a mere blood type: TYPE O, the "universal donor" blood type.

The fill kind of floundered a bit in places today. ALAI was the big, uh, throwback, where crosswordese was concerned (45A: Kyrgyzstan mountain range) (Jai ALAI is also crosswordese, but at least it's auto-fill familiar—ALAI was last clued as mountain range in 2013). But the puzzle also thought it would be cute to throw ADELE back into the guise she wore in grids of yore (12D: One of the Astaires). The pop singer has been the preferred clue by about a 10-to-1 margin since roughly 2010, so if you're younger or a newer solver and were baffled by Fred's sister there, that's understandable. Gimme for longtime solvers (like me), maybe not so much for others. The oldies keep rolling in with a Leon Uris novel ??? for MILA (57D: "___ 18" (novel by Leon Uris)) and Doris Day (SERA) and a silent-movie melodrama complete with mustache-twirling villain! (66A: Expression that might accompany a mustache twirl). The most jarring bit of fill, though, was the completely execrable UPSA (48D: "___-daisy!"). That's about as bad as a partial is going to get. It's cutesy and it's partial and it's Not Even The Preferred Spelling. If you're going to hurl a half-expression like this at me, at least make it accurate. All decent people say "UPSY-Daisy." I don't know what the rest of you are doing here with this UPSA nonsense, but it has to stop. The other big Violation today was the doubling of THAT. Normally, this wouldn't set off my Violationometer so violently, but you've gone and put THAT is both of the marquee Downs! ("STRIKE THAT" / "IN THAT CASE..."). That's like putting the THATs in flashing neon. You're supposed to disguise your GAFFEs, not highlight them. 

["Hello ... no, seriously, Hell-oooo! Yoo hoo! It's me. Did you forget? Who's this Astaire person?"]

Favorite clue of the day was the one on AGES (59D: Wrinkles in time?). A literary allusion and a noun-verb switcheroo! Nice. That's all for the puzzle. Time for the last of (or nearly the last of) the Holiday Pet Pics!

[Cats on Crosswords! My favorite picture genre! Keep at it, Frodo! (thanks, Stuart)]

[Harper and Stitch, mid-shenanigans (thanks, Hunter)]

[Aaaaaaah, what happened to your cat!? (I'm being told all is well, this is Leo and he's actually a gecko) (thanks, Marc)]

[Meeka will seat you now, madam, right this way... (thanks, Mark!)]

[Ollie decorating the tree in France]

[And Ollie learning French! (thanks, Lana)]

[Excited to see this gangster movie, looks terrifying! (starring Uni, Pip, and gangleader (i.e. mother) Mimz!) (thanks, Anne)]

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...

Japanese manga heroine with a feline sidekick named Luna / MON 8-7-23 / Fitness enthusiast, slangily / Monster who drains people emotionally

Constructor: Chloe Revery and Alissa Revness

Relative difficulty: Easy (Downs-only)

THEME: metaphorical monsters — theme answers end with types of monsters:

Theme answers:

• INTERNET TROLL (20A: "Monster" on the web)
• SPEED DEMON (34A: "Monster" on the highway)
• SUGAR FIEND (42A: "Monster" with a sweet tooth)
• ENERGY VAMPIRE (54A: "Monster" who drains people emotionally)

Word of the Day: ENERGY VAMPIRE (54A) —

A psychic vampire (or energy vampire) is a creature in folklore said to feed off the "life force" of other living creatures. The term can also be used to describe a person who gets increased energy around other people, but leaves those other people exhausted or "drained" of energy. Psychic vampires are represented in the occult beliefs of various cultures and in fiction. (wikipedia)

• • •

My main reaction is "what is an ENERGY VAMPIRE?" Figuring out what the hell kind of vampire I was dealing with was by far the hardest part of solving this one Downs-only, though in the end, it wasn't that hard. I mean, I can imagine the concept, even if I've never really heard the term before. Before I got to that answer, though, I was quite enjoying this one, partly because the first two themers were interesting answer, partly because I was oddly psyched to see (and get, instantly) "SAILOR MOON" (long Downs can often be very tricky when solving Downs-only, but not today!). In the end, the theme felt pretty light (no revealer, very loose concept), but the answers were colorful enough, and the grid was clean enough, that I didn't mind. Solid early-week work, I'd say. Seriously, though, the feeling of power when you can drop not one but both of the long Downs in a Downs-only solve with absolutely no crosses! Exhilarating. Surprised when it happened with "SAILOR MOON," and then floored when it happened again with IMAGINEEERS. I wrote the latter in thinking "that's ... a thing, right? ... that's the dumb in-house thing they call themselves?" And sure enough! Probably the weirdest part of putting this theme together was imagining, early on, that the theme would have something to do with the two words in each theme phrase sharing a last letter and first letter, respectively. That is, there's INTERNETTROLL and then there's SPEEDDEMON and I figured things might go on like this. But no. Weird that I never even noticed the possible TROLL / DEMON connection. My brain picks up on weird patterns, often not the ones it's supposed to pick up on. Downs-only can have you seeing things, for sure. But today, with no real trouble spots, I didn't remain in the dark for long.

["Fighting evil by the moonlight / Winning love by daylight!"]

How to solve Downs-only? Well, today, the NW was simply transparent, so I got this far without effort:

Shortly thereafter I started trying to infer the first themer, and my mind went to "INTERNAL" or "INTERNATIONAL" so I tested that "A" ... which made MEMES the first thing I couldn't instantly get (6D: Viral jokes like Grumpy Cat and Sad Frog). Didn't take too long to get TROLL (via "SAILOR MOON"!), but then ACCRUES really did dig its heels in and I had to think semi-hard to get the ACC- part (with just the "R" in place) (9D: Built up, as interest). I thought "interest" was ... the non-financial kind. After that, the only Down I struggled to place was PRIME (39D: Top-quality, as beef). My brain scrolled through USDA and A-ONE and CHOICE and somehow never alit on PRIME. But IMAGINEERS gave me the "G" for SUGAR FIEND and PRIME didn't remain hidden much longer. Here's a good example of how you can move horizontally in the grid even when you're not reading Across clues:

You can see that I had the "S" the two "D"s and the "MON," and so through my highly-developed power of pattern recognition (or, you know, just through obviousness), I could put SPEED DEMON across pretty confidently without ever seeing the clue. Once you drop the short Downs in the middle (PAIL EYE BEEN), you've got most of the back end of FIEND; by that point, I could see that the last words of the themers were "monsters" and so I ruled out FRIEND, wrote in FIEND, and then FLORETS dropped me down and I went on from there. Someone wrote me shortly after the puzzle went up to claim that from a Downs-only perspective, JAW could easily have been MAW (60D: Big part of T. rex). I doubt you'd make such a dino-specific reference if the answer were going to be as generic as MAW, but I guess technically there's some ambiguity. And MPEG is definitely a real thing (MPEG is a video image format, so it's unlikely someone using all the clues would make the "M" error here) (60A: Pic file format). I will now RANT and/or ORATE no further. Gotta get to sleep so I can be rested and ready for the GYM tomorrow morning. How much gymgoing do I have to do before I become a rat? (49D: Fitness enthusiast, slangily = GYMRAT). How many hours / week do you need? I don't think I want to qualify to be vermin, but I am curious about the rules. Enjoy your Monday, see you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...

Skull-and-crossbones fraternity for short / MON 11-28-22 / Org. for HIV prevention and study / Pepper measuring over 1 million on the Scoville scale / Like 86% of New York State, contrary to stereotype / Eminem hit that has become slang for a superfan / Wheeled vehicle designed to function in low gravity

Constructor: Chloe Revery

Relative difficulty: Challenging (for a Monday!)

THEME: HOPPING MAD (62A: Really miffed ... or a hint to the circled letters) — words meaning "mad" (appearing inside circled squares) "hop" over a black square, from the end of one Across answer to the beginning of the successive Across answer:

Theme answers:

• GHOST CHILI / VIDI
• PARFUM / INGENUES
• SHEBANG / RYE SEED
• AU REVOIR / AT EASE

Word of the Day: AMFAR (5A: Org. for H.I.V. prevention and study) —

amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, known until 2005 as the American Foundation for AIDS Research, is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to the support of AIDS research, HIV prevention, treatment education, and the advocacy of AIDS-related public policy. (wikipedia)

• • •

Loved this nifty, tight, Monday-type theme, but wow this did not play "Monday" for me at all. The theme, yes, the content, yipes. Trouble all over the top of the grid. I'll start with AMFAR, which I remember, vaguely, from a long time ago, when A.I.D.S. was more regularly in the news, but I have not seen that acronym in what feels like forever. Totally valid answer, but not Monday-easy for me. GHOST CHILI, also tough for me. CHILI, OK, but I never think about the GHOST CHILI ... feels almost mythical. "1 million on the Scoville scale"!? Not an everyday thing, by a long shot. Again, fine answer, but I had to struggle for it. FBI FILE, toughish to parse (7D: Certain collection of criminal evidence and documents). Even AT CAMP (one of the weaker answers) felt tough to come up with without a bunch of crosses (5D: Spending time away from parents for the summer, say). I am way more familiar with the MARS ROVER than the MOON ROVER, so that was also tough (3D: Wheeled vehicle designed to function in low gravity). But the toughest, and ugliest, and absolute worst of all non-Mondayness was SIG EP (1D: Skull-and-crossbones fraternity, for short). Ugh. A frat? An abbreviated frat? At 1-Down!? On a Monday!? So yucky. I wrote in SIGMA and figured that had to be it. Good enough. But *nope*. SIG EP? I'm sure I've seen it before, but fraternities and sororities ... maybe it's my particular aversion, but I just can't keep any of them straight or make myself care at all about my inability to keep them straight. The idea that I should know the slang term for some frat ... something about the very idea sets my teeth on edge (is that the expression? "teeth on edge"?). Truly a terrible answer on any day, but especially off-putting at the beginning of a Monday puzzle. 

The thing is ... you can see how the constructor got trapped into SIG EP. You can't start filling your puzzle with --G-P in place and not feel at least a little trapped. If it had been me, I'd've made it DIG UP and started filling From There (I see that DIG appears elsewhere in the current grid, but that's an easy fix). The entire NW would likely have been different, but it would've been worth it just to make the egregious SIG EP disappear. I did a quick teardown and rebuilt with DIG UP in that same place, but with those two themers locked in, and MOON ROVER pretty well stuck in place, your options up there (short of a complete teardown) are very limited. My version has APHRA Behn in it—she's the most important English woman writer / playwright of the 17th century and in a just world, both her first and last names would appear much, much more often in crosswords ... but I freely admit that APHRA is not Monday-worthy either. Still, I much prefer this.

Anyway, it wasn't the tougher-than-usualness that was annoying, it was specifically SIG EP that I wanted to smash into pieces and throw in the garbage. But the theme, mwah, it's very good. So well conceived (as opposed to WELL AIMED, which I don't really believe is a very strong standalone thing (34D: On the mark, as an insult or a dart)). Beyond SIG EP, the fill is at least average in quality. Nothing much to complain about there. This puzzle appears to be a debut, and at least at the level of theme concept and execution, it's impressive. Those. circled words do mean "mad" and those letters do "hop," so what more do you want?

Seemed like the grid was pushing the French a little hard: PARFUM *and* AU REVOIR in themer positions, plus the French-ish INGENUES. I'll allow it, but that's about as much French as you wanna throw at a solver on a Monday with a not-specifically-French theme. I could do without seeing SNAPE or any Potter stuff ever again, but we've been over this. I thought FIONA was MOANA, my bad. Again, I should really read clues all the way to the end (58A: DreamWorks princess who remains an ogress after true love's kiss). You can't tell me the owl says WHOO one week and then turn around a couple weeks later and tell me it's WHO again, come on (34A: Owl's question?). Not much else to say about this one; the theme was great, and though the NW corner showed some grid strain (from the theme) and felt overly tough for a Monday, the rest of the grid played just fine. Promising work, for sure. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...