Carpet on the forest floor / SUN 6-28-26 / Intellectual gathering / Architectural feature above a belfry / Little redhead in a long-running Broadway show / Oily fruits / Summary of a contract's details / Souvenir from the seashore / Catchall phrase from Latin

Constructor: Rebecca Goldstein and Christina Iverson

Relative difficulty: Easy



THEME: Down in the Valley — Phrases with the word "like" indicating comparison are reinterpreted as if the "like" were a filler word

Word of the Day: QUARK (11D: Hadron component) —

A quark (/ˈkwɔːrk, ˈkwɑːrk/ ^ⓘ) is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nuclei.^[1] All commonly observable matter is composed of up quarks, down quarks, and electrons. Owing to a phenomenon known as color confinement, quarks are never found in isolation; they can be found only within hadrons, which include baryons (such as protons and neutrons) and mesons, or in quark–gluon plasmas.^{[2][3][nb 1]} For this reason, much of what is known about quarks has been drawn from observations of hadrons.

• • •

Theme answers:

• SOLD LIKE HOT CAKES (23A: Was an employee at IHOP, in Valleyspeak?)
• SHOOK LIKE A LEAF (32A: Fanned some Egyptian royalty, in Valleyspeak?)
• WATCHED LIKE A HAWK (47A: Did some birding, in Valleyspeak?)
• STUCK OUT LIKE A SORE THUMB (70A: Hitchhiked with a hangnail, in Valleyspeak?)
• DROPPED LIKE FLIES (89A: Made some outfielder errors, in Valleyspeak?)
  
• BUILT LIKE A TANK (108A: Prepared for some new pet fish, in Valleyspeak?)
• WORKED LIKE A CHARM (121A: Performed some witchcraft, in Valleyspeak?)

It's Rafa back again for the last installment of Rafa Rexplacement Weekend™-- I hope you've enjoyed my musings over the last few days. The sun is finally out in San Francisco, it's pride weekend, the vibes are immaculate, and we have a crossword to talk about. Let's get into it.

For some reason it took a while for this theme to click for me, but I really appreciated it once it did. There was something very satisfying in imagining all the theme answers said aloud in a Valley accent, and the scenarios in the clues struck the right balance of amusing but not absurdly far-fetched. Picturing someone sticking out a literal sore thumb to hitch a ride made me chuckle. Themes reinterpreting words are very common to come across, but I've never seen anything playing on filler words, so this felt really fresh. I also appreciated how all the phrases were very well-known. SHOOK LIKE A LEAF is the only one that I don't hear all the time, but it still felt familiar enough.

NIGIRI -- yum!

One thing I noted is that some of the entries had words change meaning and others didn't. HOT CAKES has the same meaning in the idiom and the clue, but FLIES means the insects in the idiom, and the baseball term in the clue. Similarly, HAWK (same) and TANK (different -- military vehicle vs. container for fish). Not a bad thing, just something I noticed.

OJS -- yum!

The fill was ultra smooth for a Sunday -- truly world-class work. Not a lot of contrived entries or crosswordese ... just loads of smooth short fill with lots of possible cluing angles. I find that makes it so much easier to stay engaged with the bigger Sunday-size grids when you're not wincing at all the glue that's holding the theme together. We even get loads of lively bonus entries in GOOD LOSER, SOAP STARS, ABOUT TIME, KNEE-DEEP, etc.

KRILL -- yum! (if you're a whale)

The puzzle was on the easier side for a Sunday for me. This whole weekend felt significantly easier than usual. I wonder if other people also had this experience. Or maybe I was locked in because I knew I was blogging these puzzles. I love feeling Smart and Competent, though, so definitely no complaints about it from me!

Thanks for tuning in for three consecutive Rafa blogs. I'm done with my stint, but I hope to be back soon!

Bullets:

• SALADA (22D: Course in a Brazilian meal) — First time I've seen this clued like this (it means salad in Portuguese) instead of a tea brand, and I'm extremely here for it!
• HELIOS (5D: Greek sun god) — I've been playing Hades 2 on Switch on and off for the last year, and it has taught me pretty much everything I know about Greek mythology. Helios isn't in that game, but now I really appreciate seeing stuff like HERA and ARES in crosswords.
• RAJAH (1A: Counterpart of a rani) — Rajah is a title for a king, while rani is a title for a queen.
• MEN (98A: "It's Raining ___" (gay anthem) — Fun pride month tie-in.

Signed, Rafa

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Biceps, boastfully / MON 3-9-26 / Zimbalist Jr. of "77 Sunset Strip" / They go to a higher court / Temporary guest from a canine shelter / Period for Fred, Wilma and Pebbles / Birthplace of the bossa nova, informally

Constructor: Christina Iverson and Andrea Carla Michaels

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (solved Downs-only)

THEME: BEST ACTRESS (60A: Academy Award category ... or a hint to the starts of the answers to the starred clues) — first words of theme answers are also last names of women who won BEST ACTRESS Oscars:

Theme answers:

• (Sally) FIELD HOCKEY (16A: *Outdoor sport with sticks (1979, 1984))
• (Emma) STONE AGE (25A: *Period for Fred, Wilma and Pebbles (2016, 2023))
• (Jodie) FOSTER DOG (35A: *Temporary guest from a canine shelter (1988, 1991))
• (Halle) BERRY PIE (51A: *Popular fruit dessert (2001))

Word of the Day: EFREM Zimbalist, Jr. (55A: Zimbalist Jr. of "77 Sunset Strip") —

Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (November 30, 1918 – May 2, 2014) was an American actor and theatre producer. Known for his "mellifluous voice and air of sophistication," he was known to television audiences for his starring roles on the crime drama series 77 Sunset Strip (1958–64) and The F.B.I. (1965–74), his recurring role as "Dandy Jim" Buckley on Maverick (1957–58), and as the voice of Alfred Pennyworth in the DC Animated Universe. He also appeared in numerous films and on the Broadway stage. He was a Golden Globe Award winner (out of four total nominations) and a two-time Primetime Emmy Award nominee.

He was the son of classical musicians Efrem Zimbalist and Alma Gluck, and the father of actress Stephanie Zimbalist. In addition to his acting career, Zimbalist was also a decorated veteran of the Second World War, receiving both the Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals. In 1994, Zimbalist received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to television. (wikipedia)

• • •

Let me tell you about the nine-year EFREM Zimbalist drought of the late 20th century. It was the mid-80s. Ronald Reagan had just been re-elected and everyone figured that Zimbalist, who had campaigned for Goldwater 20 years earlier, would soar to even greater crossword prominence in Reagan's America. But as Reagan's second term wore on, EFREM found himself and his father, a famous violinist of the same name, snubbed from the grid, year after year. Some said the EFREM name was blackballed after it got out that Zimbalist Jr. had supported John Anderson in 1980. Some say it was because he made joking comments about "jellybeans" and "astrologers" when asked about Reagan for a 1985 Playboy interview. Some say his disappearance from the grid was a total coincidence. I say those people have no imagination. Anyway, the EFREM Zimabalist Jr. blackout continued under George H.W. Bush, lending more credence to the idea that the Great EFREM Erasure was indeed political payback. After Clinton was elected, EFREM's fortunes changed. Clinton, an avid solver himself, saw an opportunity to leave his mark on the crossword landscape, and one of the first things he did was restore EFREM to crossword prominence. Thus EFREM finally reappeared in 1993 after a nearly nine-year absence, and went on to appear nine (9) more times in the Clinton Era. After that, George W. Bush., as if attempting to outdo Clinton while simultaneously distancing himself from his father's legacy, supported the Zimbalist revival with even greater fervor: EFREM made a whopping twelve (12) appearances during W's presidency. Since then, and particularly following Zimbalist's death in 2014, EFREM enthusiasm has waned, though we've never seen anything close to the nine-year EFREM drought of the late '80s / early '90s. (Note: some of the above is verifiably true—the crossword stats, mostly; and the Goldwater part; the rest, who knows? Maybe)

I want to thank today's puzzle for ... well, reminding me that EFREM Zimbalist Jr. once existed (and that I couldn't pick him out of a line-up on a dare), as well as for reminding me that the Oscars are coming up (Sunday, Mar. 15). As for this theme, it's OK, I guess. A first-words theme. Feels like the kind of thing that's been done before, not terribly imaginative. But timely! I wish there were more to it. I wish the revealer were snappier instead of just literal and explanatory. I wish the fill were a little less ye olde (TET ARS URSA ... EFREM for god's sake). But all in all it's a totally acceptable Monday puzzle. The longer Downs aren't all that long, but they are solid, and even though its letters aren't terribly exciting, I really liked "SEE HERE!" I like quaint indignation. "I say! SEE HERE! That's not cricket!" I had a blarghy feeling about the fill after the NW corner (URSA AOL ESP already had me teetering, and then UNFED tipped me into mild gag territory). But things evened out. I don't really believe BERRY PIE is a thing. What Kind Of Berry!? No way I'm ordering some mystery "BERRY" PIE. That was the one answer that made me grimace when it came into view. But I love FOSTER DOG a ton, and UPSELLS is also pretty fab, so I come out on the thumbs-up side today.

So weird to find out today that so many of the Best Actress Oscar winners who fit this theme (i.e. whose last names are also ordinary words) are also multiple Best Actress Oscar winners. I'd forgotten that Sally Field won two. I can name every movie referred to in today's theme clues except the one Field won for in 1984—I remember the infamous speech ("You like me, you really like me..."), but I'll be damned if I can remember what she won for. Was it Places in the Heart!? [checks with the internet]. It was! Ha! Thank you, brain! Good ol' brain, still working. For now. For the record, the movies referred to today are:

• Sally Field: Norma RAE (of crossword fame!!) (1979); Places in the Heart (1984)
• Emma Stone: La La Land (2016); Poor Things (2023)
• Jodie Foster: The Accused (1988); The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
• Halle Berry: Monster’s Ball (2001)

Stone is nominated again this year for Bugonia, though I think it's something of a foregone conclusion that Jessie Buckley is going to win for Hamnet (a movie I have no interest in seeing ... I can't really explain it ... I like Shakespeare ... I love Paul Mescal ... Jessie Buckley is fantastic ... I think I'm just allergic to Oscar Bait). I just saw Halle Berry in Crime 101, which made me wonder why she isn't in more things. Or maybe she's been in a ton of things and I just missed them all. She is charming in Crime 101 as an insurance agent specializing in "high-wealth" customers who finds herself devalued by her bosses because she's "old" and (therefore?) (allegedly?) losing her ability to hook clients with sex appeal. This is the least plausible part of the movie, as Halle Berry looks stunning at all times. Hard to look at anyone else when she's on screen. But whatever, she plays the part really convincingly and endearingly, and she has an odd and compelling chemistry with Mark Ruffalo (a cop who figures out that Berry has gotten involved in some criminal shenanigans).

Bullets:

• 64A: Vietnamese holiday with a palindromic name (TET) — did we really need the "with a palindromic name" part? TET is one of the most common crossword words there is. Even if you're a total crossword novice and have never heard of TET, those crosses are all easy. No need to do so much handholding, NYT! I know it's Monday, but yeesh.
• 10D: They go to a higher court (APPEALS) — pretty straightforward, but from a Downs-only perspective, this was not so easy for me. The hardest answer of the puzzle, maybe. It just felt like there was some kind of mild trickery going on. Like, maybe the court was a basketball court or a  tennis court, or a food court. Maybe "court" was being used to mean something like a "story" in a building and the answer was something like "escalators" or "elevators" or "stairways." Thankfully, none of these fit, and eventually I was able to infer some of the crosses and get to APPEALS.
• 11D: Round up, as cattle (WRANGLE) — again, easy enough, but with no letters in place I couldn't think of this word at first. The only thing that came to mind was RUSTLE, which wouldn't fit.

• 38D: Biceps, boastfully (GUNS) — this was great. Much more fun to think of arms than to think of ... arms.
• 54D: Group assisting a sheriff (POSSE) — this was grim. Made me think of lynching. I'll take a hip-hop POSSE over a sheriff's POSSE any day.

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Leaf on a sushi tray / MON 1-12-26 / Source of motivation, in modern lingo / Acronym of affection in ASL / Chocolate treat designed to look like a mountaintop / Rhyming advice to a renter of VHS tapes / Rhyming advice to a spitting talker / Rhyming advice to a gym rat

Constructor: Carolyn Davies Lynch and Christina Iverson

Relative difficulty: Medium (solved Downs-only)

THEME: "Rhyming advice" — familiar expressions where the first half rhymes with the second half:

Theme answers:

• "SAY IT, DON'T SPRAY IT" (18A: Rhyming advice to a spitting talker)
• "NO PAIN, NO GAIN" (31A: Rhyming advice to a gym rat)
• "BE KIND, REWIND" (47A: Rhyming advice to a renter of VHS tapes)
• "YOU SNOOZE, YOU LOSE" (64A: Rhyming advice to a procrastinator)

Word of the Day: SHISO (69A: Leaf on a sushi tray) —

Perilla frutescens var. crispa, also known by its Japanese name shiso (紫蘇) from Chinese zisu, is a cultigen of Perilla frutescens, a herb in the mint family Lamiaceae. It is native to the mountainous regions of China and India, but is now found worldwide. The plant occurs in several forms, as defined by the characteristics of their leaves, including red, green, bicolor, and ruffled. Shiso is perennial and may be cultivated as an annual in temperate climates. Different parts of the plant are used in East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine. [...] 

• • •

This is a cute theme idea, but the cluing is all off. None of these expressions really qualify as "advice." SAY IT, DON'T SPRAY IT isn't "advice," it's mockery, used to demean or humiliate someone who is speaking loudly or forcefully enough to project saliva. I guess BE KIND, REWIND is "advice" of a sort, but it's more of a politely worded command from your friendly neighborhood video store (of yore). "NO PAIN, NO GAIN" is just an expression, a (stupid, foolhardy) bit of encouragement, often to oneself, mostly said as a kind of general truism, not as earnest "advice." The least advice-y of all of these is "YOU SNOOZE, YOU LOSE," which is a straight-up taunt to someone who was too slow to get whatever it is they wanted, usually uttered by the person who did, in fact, get that thing. Say, the last cookie or the front seat. Clearly, I'm imagining a kid saying it. Whatever, it's a taunt not "advice." And "procrastination" is rarely if ever the issue. Being merely too slow on the uptake does not mean that one "procrastinated" (a longer-term proposition). I understand the desire to solidify and tighten the theme with repetitive cluing, but I think the rhyminess of the expressions is self-evidently a unifying principle. No need to awkwardly force the cluing into line. The one bit of "rhyming advice" I can think of that's missing from this list is "USE IT OR LOSE IT"—which is, more than all the others, proper "advice." Still, I had fun figuring out these theme phrases. Sometimes not reading the Across clues helps with overall enjoyment.

Lots of short fill kind of weighs the grid down a little. 3-4-5s abound, and that always makes things a little leaden. But I will say that SCARY GOOD is scary good, a real high point among the non-theme answers. DELI CASES is adequate but not exciting, and nothing else really gets off the ground. The only scary (bad) moment I had while solving came in the SE, where all the Downs looked correct, but I ended up with an unrecognizable "word" in the crosses: SHISO. Took one look at SHISO and thought, "Oh crud, what did I do wrong?" Checked those Downs. Rechecked those Downs. Cannot see an error. Cannot fathom an error. Eventually I just left it in and hoped that it was, I dunno, some kind of pepper (like a shishito, maybe?). And I was close. Ballpark. SHISO is Japanese, and it is culinary, but it's not a pepper. It's a highly serrated green leaf used primarily for (sushi) garnish in east Asian cuisine. As I started to look up SHISO, I had this uneasy feeling that I had done this before (missed SHISO, looked it up). And I was right. SHISO has appeared before. Once. Back in May of last year. Here's what I had to say about it then:

As for SHISO, even looking it up didn't help much. A lot of its use in Japanese cuisine appears to be as a garnish, or a coloring agent. But it is common, so I have no complaints about its crossworthiness. Happy to learn a new culinary term (even if I'm doomed to forget it fairly quickly, probably).

Good to see that I know myself so well. I did indeed forget SHISO fairly quickly. Haven't seen or heard the word since that NYTXW appearance last year. With those (common) letters, you'd expect the term to proliferate. Maybe its appearance here—on a Monday (?)—is evidence that that is in fact what's about to happen. It's easily the least Monday thing in the grid, but maybe next time I won't feel that way. Third time's the charm! (how's that for non-rhyming non-advice?).

Bullets:

• 27A: Acronym of affection in ASL (ILY) — as in "I love you." It's also an "acronym of affection" in texting. ILY will always look (to me) like an adverbial suffix pretending to be something else. This is only the third appearance of ILY all time, all of those appearances coming since 2023. All of them abbrevs. for "I love you." 
• 28A: E.M.T. process often administered to the beat of "Stayin' Alive" (CPR) — I've heard this before, and it's meaningful to me because I was the right age to be engulfed overwhelmed and swallowed alive by the Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack. A musical juggernaut if there ever was one. But does the "Stayin' Alive" reference mean anything to younger people? I assume that song has a cultural afterlife, but how big, I don't know. Maybe CPR classes are single-handedly keeping that song alive for future generations.

• 6D: Chocolate treat designed to look like a mountaintop (SNO CAP) — one of the tougher downs, as I never see SNO CAPs anywhere but the candy counter at the movie theater, and I never, ever get them. I think I had them once as a kid and they must've made a bad impression on me because I love chocolate and I love mountaintops, but SNO CAPs, not so much. Not a "treat." Maybe I'll give them another try? I was imagining so many "chocolate treats." Sundaes, s'mores. If you want a candy, say "candy." "Treat" = bah!

• 37D: Where meats and cheeses are often displayed (DELI CASES) — briefly confounding, as nothing about the clue indicates a plural. "Where" tends to suggest a single specific place or a general term for a place, not multiple places. "Meats" and "cheeses" are plural, yes, but those plurals can typically be found in single DELI CASE. It's not like there's a DELI CASE out there that features just one meat and just one cheese. So I tried to think of a synonym for "case" for a little bit, before finally giving in and just attempting the plural. Which was correct.
• 66D: Initialism on a Navy carrier (U.S.S.) — first thought: "H.M.S." Then I remembered "H.M.S." stands for "Her Majesty's Ship" and thus unlikely to appear on an American seacraft. I guess the clue didn't specify American Navy, but I inferred it. So I pivoted to U.S.S. (United States Ship). But then SHISO happened, and I started wondering whether there was some other naval "initialism" I didn't know about. In the end, I stuck with U.S.S. The Correct Move.
• 46D: Source of motivation, in modern lingo (INSPO) — like "Insta," INSPO is with us to stay, apparently. Short for "inspiration," this is INSPO's sixth NYTXW appearance. As with ILY, all those appearances have been in the last three years (since 2023). 
• 55D: "Get outta my hair!," in a text (MYOB) — "mind your own business." Yet another slangy, internet-inspired shortening. This puzzle is rather heavy on shortenings in general. RELO. AMNIO. It can get a little wearing.
• 40A: Garage jobs involving grease guns (LUBES) — saw LUBES in the Acrosses and thought, "Whoa, I wonder if today is the day that LUBES finally gets a sex clue." But no. Not today. Some day (I assume). But not today. We did get [Slippery stuff] back in 2023, but that's not exactly sex-specific. I'm not saying I *want* a sex clue, exactly, I'm just saying ... it's coming. While the "garage" meaning of LUBE(S) is obviously valid, I think the other meaning of LUBE is more top-of-the-brain for most people these days. I went to Merriam-Webster dot com to look at their "Recent Examples on the Web" feature for LUBE, and ... well, there are no garages in sight:

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld  

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Quite some time, antonymously / TUE 11-11-25 / 2021 Pixar film inspired by Italian folklore / Canada's features a unicorn / 1957 Danny & the Juniors hit about a school dance / One singing "The Lonely Goatherd," e.g. / First coin to use the $ symbol / Leaders in assists, typically

Constructor: Christina Iverson and Scott Hogan

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (if your time was faster than usual, consider that the grid was smaller than usual)

THEME: [It's hard to say] — wording of the clues for three theme answers is the same:

Theme answers:

• "WHO REALLY KNOWS?" (16A: "It's hard to say")
• "THAT WAS MY FAULT" (37A: It's hard to say)
• WORCESTSHIRE (59A: It's hard to say)

Word of the Day: "The Lonely Goatherd" (55A: One singing "The Lonely Goatherd," e.g. => YODELER) —

"The Lonely Goatherd" is a popular show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music.

The song is well known for its examples of yodeling, a part of the traditional music of the Austrian Alps, where the musical is set. (Maria von Trapp, however, found the yodeling in the motion picture version of The Sound of Music rendition to be lacking in authenticity.) (wikipedia)

• • •

Is it really so hard to say "THAT WAS MY FAULT"? Or WORCESTERSHIRE, for that matter. The latter is very hard to spell, I'll grant you, but saying it, not at all. Yes, I guess if you had never heard of the place/sauce and someone just threw that word at you, you'd be inclined to throw in an extra syllable or two, but lots of words are pronounced in unintuitive ways. Once you know, it's not exactly a tongue twister. That's not to say that I don't think the basic concept here is cute. You have the same clue (give or take a couple quotation marks) for each grid-spanning answer, and the sense of that clue changes each time (the first time we're looking for an equivalent phrase, the next two times we're looking for the "It," and it's the sense of "say" that changes (from "utter" in the second theme clue, to "pronounce" in the third). It's a neat accomplishment to get three answers that perfectly fit the space, more or less fit the clue, and changed the sense of the clue each time (I'm just noticing now that the grid is 14 wide today, not the typical 15—this hardly matters as far as theme quality goes, just an interesting physical anomaly). I didn't love the theme, but I think it's conceptually strong and well executed. 

The long Downs helped enhance the solving experience today—six 8+-letter answers, all of them humming. Well, maybe not SERGEANT, which isn't so much humming as ho-humming, but the rest are really nice. I've got quibbles with two of the clues on these answers, though. TEAM PLAYERS is more a metaphorical concept than an actual sports concept. The person with the most assists on a team is just doing their job. Some players are great shooters, some are great passers. Both are TEAM PLAYERS. And someone with a lot of assists might also be an egomaniacal nightmare to play with. "Assists" is just a stat. Yes, it's good to share, but passing the ball (or puck or whatever) is just part of the game; it doesn't necessarily convey what the phrase "TEAM PLAYERS" is meant to convey, metaphorically. Also, I do not like the "antonymously" part of the clue on A HOT MINUTE (10D: Quite some time, antonymously). Your problem here is "HOT," the antonym of which is "COLD," but the clue isn't talking about "HOT," it's talking about the fact that a minute is not literally a "long time" (unless you've got your hand pressed to a hot stovetop—that would be A (very) HOT MINUTE, and also feel like an eternity, probably). I see what "antonymously" is trying to do (even though my software is angrily underlining the very word "antonymously" in hot red), but the "HOT" part is unaccounted for in such a formulation. Further, "A MINUTE" means "a long time" all on its own, slangily. "It's been a minute" means, counterintuitively, "it's been a while." The "HOT" part is just ... extra. What makes this even stranger is that "A HOT MINUTE" can mean a long period time or a very short period of time! It's true. So ... I like the phrase, but the cluing feels ... confusing. Not quite right.

[39D: 1957 Danny & the Juniors hit about a school dance]

The short fill on this one was far less inspiring. I don't expect short to be inspiring at all, really, but I don't expect it to be ... less stale than this: TOLET ENTRE NON EEL OTTER TAO RELO TOME YESM ROWE NYSE ASONE SFO TRON TET (à) TÊTE AAA and the horrific how-do-you-spell-that pairing of AAHS and EWW. Of these, those high on my "please not again" list are RELO (despise) YESM (come on, since when?) ASONE (awk standalone) and ROWE (appears in crosswords much more than his "fame" warrants).  Further, it was disappointing to see ERAS clued yet again (and again and again and again) as a Taylor Swift thing, like, ugh, yes, that tour was massive, but Fearless and Folklore are just albums, not ERAS, please stop. ERAS is gonna appear over and over in crosswords, it just is, and it's a fine, real word, so I don't really mind, but any creative clue writer should stop using Swift to clue it for like five years. I declare a moratorium! Use her all you want in clues for other stuff, but the ERA/S angle is played out.

[25D: Singer with the 1998 #1 hit "Nice & Slow"]

Bullets:

• 53D: "You talkin' ___?" ("TO ME") — the generous take on this clue is that it's a deliberate callback to this past Sunday's first themer ("YOU TALKIN' TO ME"). The less generous take (my take) is that TOME is a perfectly good standalone word, go ahead and treat it that way, and if you are really committed to making it a partial, don't use the quote you Just Used Two Days Ago.

• 9A: Building with a "broad side," in an idiom (BARN) — I know this solely from the idiom "couldn't hit the broad side of a BARN," used for someone with particularly bad aim. Yes, that appears to be the one and only way this idiom is used. I like the idiom. I use it. It's colorful. Something about the alliteration. And the absurdity / anachronism of the image (I know that BARNs still exist, but most of us don't live near them, let alone throw at them).
• 24A: 2021 Pixar film inspired by Italian folklore (LUCA) — I confuse animated film titles. Badly. Esp. the four-letter ones. I was thinking of COCO and ended up writing in COCA, which ... is more Colombian than Italian.
• 36A: The "N" of NGO (NON) — NON-Governmental Organization
• 17D: An elver is a young one (EEL) — Time was [chews on straw] [whittles] you'd have to know all about EELs if you wanted to solve a crossword. Like that you catch EELs in an EELPOT and an EELER was also known as a "sniggler." Heck, the grid used to be teeming with ELVERs! And CONGERs and MORAYs. But the old ways have fallen off. These days, folks don't know what "elver" means any more. It's a dang shame. So I'm glad this clue's here to teach 'em. [OK the grid was never "teeming" with ELVERs, but you would see them!]

[xwordinfo]

• 26D: Canada's features a unicorn (COAT-OF-ARMS) — I didn't even know Canada had a COAT-OF-ARMS. But then I never saw this clue; it just sort of filled itself in.
• 28D: One of the five W's (WHY) — had this as WHO, then got the first themer ("WHO REALLY KNOWS?") and thought, "oh, that's bad." Then looked at WHO and thought "ohhhhh. It's probably not WHO." And the "Y" went in—and, appropriately, it went into the answer "THAT WAS MY FAULT."

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Hobbled, in gamer slang / WED 10-15-25 / Llama's head? / Tidbit popular in Thai cuisine / Lead-up to a ski jump / Like some briskets and pork ribs, informally / General Motors subsidiary / Sister network of Paramount+, for short

Constructor: Nick Offerman and Christina Iverson

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging 

THEME: "WHAT A TOOL!" (59A: Something you might exclaim when talking about 17-, 24-, 36- or 50-Across) — familiar phrases that are clued as if they are assessments of tools: 

Theme answers:

• QUITE A BIT (17A: Really spectacular drill component?)
• JIGGETY JIG (24A: Lively kind of saw for cutting intricate shapes?)
• BOSS LEVEL (36A: Truly awesome implement for ensuring stability?)
• MODEL PLANE (50A: Ideal instrument for shaping wood surfaces?)

Word of the Day: jiggety (24A) —

: jerky, unsteady (merriam webster dot com)

• • •

Well I'm not criticizing the work of TV's Ron Swanson. That's just a fool's errand. Offerman is, famously, a handy man (if not literally a handyman)—woodworking, I think, is the thing he does (and writes about) professionally. I heard him talk on a podcast once about Offerman Workshop, and it sounded really cool. I struggled with this puzzle, not because I don't know anything about tools (although I don't), but because the cluing in general was just beyond me much of the time. And some of the answers were, uh, inventive. I don't think I've ever seen BBQED before (it's a debut) (1D: Like some briskets and pork ribs, informally), and WWIIVET ... well that is quite a letter string (3D: One who may have stormed the beaches at Normandy, in brief). Double "W"s and double "I"s! And both those answers come at you right out of the box! INRUN? (15A: Lead-up to a ski jump). No idea. ANT EGG? Double-no idea. "Tidbit"? It's not a literal ANT EGG is it, because that would be the smallest "tidbit" I could imagine. Smaller than an ant, I would think, and an ant's already small. Hang on, gonna do some culinary googling ... huh. ANT EGGs "refer to both the eggs and pupae of weaver ants (Oecophylla smaragdina, known in Thailand as red ants) eaten in several countries across Southeast Asia, especially Laos and Northeastern Thailand (Isan). They are high in protein and enjoyed for their sourness and pop when eaten along with salads" (wikipedia). Well I can honestly say I had no idea. I know a TURTLE is a kind of candy but getting from that clue to TURTLE was rough for me (32A: Pecan-chocolate-caramel candy). I had ELL before ELS, which definitely slowed me down (33D: Llama's head?). The VANE clue was tough in its vagueness (38D: It's blowing in the wind). I had no idea ON*STAR still existed (48A: General Motors subsidiary), or that TMC was related to Paramount+ (45A: Sister network of Paramount+, for short). So while the theme was of a fairly standard and familiar type, the fill on this one was often clued in ways that were not familiar, or at least not readily apparent, to me at all. So: slowness. Mild slowness, but slowness. 

As for the theme, I have only one question. What (the hell) is JIGGETY? Like, as an adjective? I did look it up, as you can see (Word of the Day, above), but "lively?" Do you really describe anything lively as "jiggety"? I know the word ("word"?) JIGGETY from precisely one context: "... home again, home again, JIGGETY JIG," which is what today's answer is referring to (presumably), but the idea of JIGGETY acting as a real word, modifying anything, let alone a JIG, seems preposterous to me. Unless JIGGETY is Gen Alpha slang, in which case I'll defer to the 12yo linguists among you. This answer feels like an outlier not just because JIGGETY doesn't mean anything to me, but because whatever it means, it doesn't appear to mean the same thing that "MODEL" and "BOSS" mean. All the other theme answers are clued as if they express admiration for the tool in question. Is JIGGETY a term of praise? "Those are some JIGGETY shoes you got there." "He's a real JIGGETY dancer." I've heard of "hot diggety!" (sp.!?). I've not heard of JIGGETY anything (except JIG, as we've established).

I loved the revealer ("WHAT A TOOL!"), which was the easiest themer of the lot. By the time I got down there, it was clear that TOOLs were involved. Nice, lively (jiggety?) way to bring the whole theme together. I thought the fill was pretty jiggety as well, in general. The inventive spellings on BBQED and WWIIVET threw me, but they're fun. CRAFT BEERS and FRONT LINES and THE TUBE and ALT TEXT all add spark. Lots of names today, all of which I was lucky enough to know. I realized just now, typing that last sentence, that I was confusing LORD JIM with LUCKY JIM (the Kingsley Amis novel). The clue even clearly says "Joseph Conrad novel," so I don't know why my brain insisted on changing it, but it did (11D: Joseph Conrad novel made into a 1965 film starring Peter O'Toole). I've heard of LORD JIM, but I have not read (or seen) it. I was surprised that the SEDARIS clue didn't even give you "David" as a helper (41D: Humorist who describes his stint working as a Macy's Christmas elf in "Santaland Diaries"). Even people who know David SEDARIS could probably have benefited from the push. And anyway, there's more than one humorist named SEDARIS, although I guess the "his" in the clue does make clear(er) which one we're dealing with (in a weird coincidence, his sister Amy was namechecked in an episode of Somebody Somewhere that I watched just last night). 

Bullet points:

• 4A: Sign of justice (LIBRA) — a timely answer. My wife is a LIBRA. Her birthday was yesterday. Happy birthday month, LIBRAs!
• 14A: Acknowledgment of applause, maybe (BOW) — my acknoweldger was much more modest. She merely NODded. 
• 34A: Noted chairman? (EAMES) — I thought the EAMES chairs were designed by Charles and Ray EAMES. He would still be the chair man (or "chairman?") but I just wanted to acknowledge the fact that there's also a chair woman.

• 21A: Hobbled, in gamer slang (NERFED) — outside my field of knowledge, but I've heard of it. This is the second bit of gamer terminology in the puzzle, after BOSS LEVEL (a level of video game play where you confront a significant enemy).
• 67A: Cerulean expanse (SKY) — me, a genius: "Ooh, 'cerulean' is blue, so ... SEA!" ("cerulean" is literally SKY blue)
• 33D: Llama's head? (ELS) — "letteral" clues can be tricky in general, but this one was extra tricky since "head," which usually means "first letter," here means "first two letters." Since the head (first letter) is "L" and ELL is how you spell "L" and ELL fit, I wrote in ELL. 

• 35D: Description of an online image (ALT TEXT) — I add ALT TEXT to every image I post on social media and I still didn't get this answer easily. Nothing about the clue suggests the fact that ALT TEXT exists primarily to make digital content accessible to people with visual impairments (although you can also think of it as a way to add bonus commentary to your posted pics).

This was tough but fun. Hope you enjoyed it. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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