Feeling that can be caused by the final three letters of this answer / WED 6-5-24 / "Obsequy" and "exequy" are fancy terms for these rites / Their drawers might contain drawers

Constructor: David Rockow

Relative difficulty: Easy (20:57 while teaching my boyfriend how to solve puzzles)

THEME: DUCKS IN A ROW — State of order that this puzzle fails to achieve? There are four types of ducks in this puzzle, whose names appear on two different lines-- i.e., they're not "in a row," because they're in two different rows.

Theme answers:

• FLAT EARTHER for [One who might object to the phrase "around the globe"]
• "TEA" combines with "L" on the line below to form TEAL
• SMALL ARMS for [Easy-to-carry weapons]
• "MALLAR" combines with "D" on the line above to form MALLARD
• SPIDERWEB for [Collection of fine threads]
• "E" on the line below combines with "IDER" to form EIDER
• LAND LUBBERS for [Unlikely sailors]
• "R" on the line above combines with "UBBER" to form RUBBER

Word of the Day: WESSEX (Bygone kingdom of ancient Britain) —

The Kingdom of the West Saxons, also known as the Kingdom of Wessex, was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from around 519 until England was unified in 927.

• • •

Hey folks, and happy Malaika MWednesday to all who celebrate! I found this puzzle to be very breezy, the slower time is because I solved it alongside my boyfriend who has been solving puzzles for only a couple of weeks now. I think it's very fun watch where he gets stuck and which clues are easy for him. Anyway, please let the record show that this is somehow the second Duck Puzzle that I have reviewed while subbing for Rex!!

I think this theme is very well-done and fitting-- sometimes it's hard to make the geometry of a theme answer line up with the wording of the revealer (a 15x15 crossword is soo constrained), but in this case the ducks quite literally are not in a row. My biggest complaint is that only two of terms are Known Ducks to me-- when I got TEAL early on, it didn't really help me figure out what was going on. (I was able to clock that EIDER is a bird because I'm familiar with "eiderdown" but didn't realize it was a duck til I got the central answer.) I also liked that RUBBER was saved for last because it's a little different than the others.

There was quite a lot of medium-length fill in here, and while most of it was fun (GRANDMA, PUFFIN, T-SHIRTS, ARMOIRES with the cute clue), I must call out DAIRYMAN because I simply refuse to believe that's a thing. When I go to the butcher, he is not my beefman!! When I get my produce, he is not my fruitman!! Am I totally off base here? Is this something that people know?? Maybe I'll ask my aunt who lives in Wisconsin.

I cannot believe puffins just look like this.... birds are crazy

Other tricky spots for me were HGT (a made up abbreviation, in my opinion), LYRA (I wanted "lyre," or at least a reference to His Dark Materials), and AER (I had no idea what AER Lingus is, although don't worry I did Google it after solving and... will probably immediately forget). It's impressive that in a grid so packed with theme material, there were only four entries that I wasn't a fan of! This is probably because David used a couple more black squares than average (themed puzzles tend to have around 38; this had 42), which is exactly what they're there for, in my opinion-- to make the rest of the entries smoother.

Bullets:

• [Mine is ⬛️⬛️⬛️-⬛️⬛️-⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️: Abbr.] for SSN— This was a great new clue for a frequently-seen entry
• [____-violence (really tearing into an Indian appetizer?)] for NAAN — Oh man I did not like this... so weird! Is it a pun? Is it trying to be a joke? Honestly I just think this is confusing and out of place.
• [Judo rank] for DAN — This was one of my final entries. I'm very unfamiliar with judo, and was looking for the entry to be something I was unfamiliar with, rather than a term I know by a different meaning. 
  

xoxo Malaika

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Italian painter Guido / MON 2-27-23 / Viewer-supported TV network / Maker of instant pictures since 1948 / Surrealist with a trademark mustache / 1815 novel on which Clueless was based / Classic toy with the jingle lyric a spring a spring a marvelous thing

Constructor: David Rockow

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: BEAR WITH ME (32A: "Please be patient" ... or a literal description of 15-, 28-, 39- and 52-Across?) — the letters "ME" and also letters spelling out a type of "bear" are found in the circled squares inside the theme answers:

Theme answers:

• POLAROID CAMERA (15A: Maker of instant pictures since 1948)
• "MEN IN BLACK" (28A: 1997 Will Smith/Tommy Lee Jones blockbuster)
• JAMES BROWN (39A: "The Godfather of Soul")
• MOMENT IN THE SUN (52A: Brief time to shine)

Word of the Day: Sun bear (see 52A) —

The sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) is a species in the family Ursidae (the only species in the genus Helarctos) occurring in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. It is the smallest bear, standing nearly 70 centimetres (28 inches) at the shoulder and weighing 25–65 kilograms (55–143 pounds). It is stockily built, with large paws, strongly curved claws, small rounded ears and a short snout. The fur is generally jet-black, but can vary from grey to red. Sun bears get their name from the characteristic orange to cream coloured chest patch. Its unique morphology—inward-turned front feet, flattened chest, powerful forelimbs with large claws—suggests adaptations for climbing.

The most arboreal (tree-living) of all bears, the sun bear is an excellent climber and sunbathes or sleeps in trees 2 to 7 metres (7 to 23 feet) above the ground. It is mainly active during the day, though nocturnality might be more common in areas frequented by humans. Sun bears tend to remain solitary but sometimes occur in pairs (such as a mother and her cub). They do not seem to hibernate, possibly because food resources are available the whole year throughout the range. Being omnivores, sun bears have a broad diet including ants, bees, beetles, honey, termites and plant material such as seeds and several kinds of fruits; vertebrates such as birds and deer are also eaten occasionally. They breed throughout the year; individuals become sexually mature at two to four years of age. Litters comprise one or two cubs that remain with their mother for around three years.

The range of the sun bear is bound by northeastern India to the north and extends south to southeast through Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam in mainland Asia to Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia to the south. These bears are threatened by heavy deforestation and illegal hunting for food and the wildlife trade; they are also harmed in conflicts with humans when they enter farmlands, plantations and orchards. The global population is estimated to have declined by 35% over the past three decades. The IUCN has listed this species as vulnerable. (wikipedia)

• • •

I feel like the NYTXW is in a bit of a struggle rut right now. The themed stuff just isn't landing. I like the spirit of this one ... that is, I want to like it, and I do like the revealer, but the actual execution of the theme leaves ME a little cold. I guess the "bears" are "with" "ME" in the sense that the letters strings do in fact appear in the same phrase ... so that's something. But I think I want / expect something tighter and/or more surprising. I think the thing that bothers me most is the inconsistency in the execution—specifically, that fact that POLAR is (properly, IMO) buried/hidden in its answer (POLAROID CAMERA), whereas BLACK and BROWN and SUN are just sitting there out in the open, as standalone words. I can see how it would be very hard if not impossible to pull this theme off, given its current parameters, while also burying/hiding BLACK and BROWN and SUN. Probably hard to bury/hide those words under any circumstances. Still, it's grating to my brain to see one answer do the better / harder / more elegant thing and then see the others just bail out. Also, the narrow size of the grid is making me sad, especially since there still seem to be a lot of black squares. It's like I'm doing NYTXW Lite. But the main issue is that the theme is just OK. It's not bad. It's not. But it's not delightful either. If one of the bears had been COCAINE ... it's possible I'd feel different. 

MOMENT IN THE SUN isn't as common as DAY IN THE SUN (to say nothing of PLACE IN THE SUN), but it's a legit phrase. Its greatest virtue is that it's 14 letters long, and thus balances out POLAROID CAMERA; sometimes you just gotta go with what fits. The fill today added to my overall feeling of disappointment. It's pretty tepid and bland. The grid structure means there's lots and lots of short stuff, and it's tough to make short stuff really sing. It's also tough to get excited about an answer like LOANCAP (23A: Borrower's limit). I can't imagine burning one of my few longer answers on something as snore-y as LOANCAP. I also would've redone my entire grid just to get rid of RENI, which is the kind of non-Monday ye-olde short fill that really grates on my brain (42D: Italian painter Guido). The last time RENI appeared in the NYTXW on a day that wasn't Fri / Sat / Sun was in 2002 (!), and even then it was on Thursday. The last time it appeared on Monday was in 1994 (!!). It's tough when you back yourself into a corner by setting up your themers in such a way that you have to make R--I work. That is not a letter combination that wants to work. You can't do much of anything with that, and so you end up with artists you'd never put in a puzzle unless you Absolutely had to ... and on a Monday. Sigh. Nothing else seems outright objectionable, but there's a lot of SMEE-level stuff in there, and not enough longer or stronger fill to mitigate it. In short, this is an OK puzzle, but I haven't done a better-than-OK themed puzzle in the past week and it's getting me down. 

From a Downs-only perspective (which is how I solve all Mondays now), this was very easy. RENI was the one real killer, since I have no idea who that is *and* STANLE- really looked like it wanted to be STANLEY. But then RYNI seemed completely wrong, and was, so I just tore out the middle letters, tried to make other letters work with the Acrosses, and finally saw the possibility of STAN LEE / RENI. Beyond that, the NW and SE corners were a little tough (as banks of 6+-letter answers tend to be when solving Downs-only), but the themers eventually helped me work it all out. I had INN before BAR (4D: Tavern), but I think that's it as far as initially wrong answers go. I like PKS (penalty kicks) as an abbr. (26D: Tie-breaking soccer shots: Abbr.). At least, I like it as much as I can like a 3-letter abbr. MLS season just started, and I've recently decided to start following it, so football stuff is  gonna excite maybe a little more than it used to. Go Loons!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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City in ancient Crete with renowned labyrinth / TUE 11-29-22 / Hit BBC series since 1963 informally / Ratite featured on Uruguayan currency / Goose that might nest on volcanic ash

Constructor: David Rockow

Relative difficulty: Easy (very)

THEME: FEATHER (37A: Element of plumage ... and a feature shared by every answer crossing this one) — seven BIRDS (1D: Tweeters) form a makeshift FLOCK (51D: Gathering of 1-Down, like that found in the center of this puzzle) at the middle of the grid (as many have noted, the theme is probably meant to be read as "BIRDS of a FEATHER FLOCK" together):

The FLOCK:

• FALCON (37D: Its peregrine variety is the world's fastest avian)
• WREN (28D: Small brown passerine that holds its tail upright)
• RHEA (24D: Ratite featured on Uruguayan currency)
• KESTREL (25D: American raptor that's the size of a mourning dove)
• HAWK (38D: Iconic metaphor for keen-eyed watchfulness)
• NENE (35D: Goose that might nest on volcanic ash)
• CONDOR (19D: Its Andean variety has the largest wingspan among all raptors)

Word of the Day: KNOSSOS (22A: City in ancient Crete with renowned labyrinth) —

Knossos (also Cnossos, both pronounced /(kə)ˈnɒsɒs, -səs/; Ancient Greek: Κνωσός, romanized: Knōsós, pronounced [knɔː.sós]; Linear B: 𐀒𐀜𐀰Ko-no-so) is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and has been called Europe's oldest city.

Settled as early as the Neolithic period, the name Knossos survives from ancient Greek references to the major city of Crete. The palace of Knossos eventually became the ceremonial and political centre of the Minoan civilization and culture. The palace was abandoned at some unknown time at the end of the Late Bronze Age, c. 1380–1100 BC; the reason is unknown, but one of the many disasters that befell the palace is generally put forward.

In the First Palace Period (around 2000 BC), the urban area reached a size of as many as 18,000 people. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well this is weird, so it's got that going for it. I do love birds—love them—and so I am always going to be generally warmly inclined to a bird-themed puzzle. This one is mainly just ... a bunch of bird names smushed together. And a couple of those bird names (RHEA, NENE) are straight-up crosswordese, such that you'd never really recognize them as thematic elements. I want to say they don't count ... but of course they do. It's just that you're not apt to see them as special, given that you see them all the time. It's weird ... nothing in this theme feels particularly thematic *except* the smushing. I mean, what've you got, fill-wise? BIRDS? FLOCK? FEATHER? And then the birds, of course, but only one of those gets up to even seven letters long (which is also my favorite bird in the grid—KESTREL! Pretty sure we saw one just last week in central Colorado, sitting on top of a leafless tree ... watching ... Raptors!). My point is that none of the thematic stuff really feels thematic except through the process of smushing, which this puzzle is calling a FLOCK, but LOL the KESTREL scoffs at the idea of flying in FLOCKs with these other birds. Hell, the KESTREL would eat a damn WREN (probably). But then I guess you couldn't very well have your FLOCK be WREN WREN WREN WREN WREN WREN WREN now could you? It's a funny idea, this rag-tag FLOCK. I don't like that FLOCK (the last Across answer) comes after BIRDS (the first). Feels backwards. Also, really don't like that BIRDS is clued as [Tweeters]. None of the birds in that FLOCK is a "Tweeter." Again, the KESTREL scoffs, as she will. Don't like SEED thrown in as "bonus" answer (better and more elegant to keep the non-theme parts of your grid bird-free), just as I don't like trying to pass off PEACE CORPS and URBAN AREAS as bird-related (a strettttttttttch). Oh, and your longest answers (grid-spanners!) have *nothing* to do with the theme? Weird. But I do love those answers, so maybe I'll just think of this as an easy themeless with a dense bird center, and for a Tuesday, that's enough.

I did think, about halfway through this puzzle, before I had any idea of the theme, "man this is a birdy puzzle, the constructor must really like birds, cool." Hey, did you know that in "HORSE WITH NO NAME" (10D: Desert wanderer's mount in a 1972 hit by America) the wanderer is in a desert where there are "plants and BIRDS and rocks and things"!? ("things" always makes me laugh, wtf, did you just run out of vocabulary?). Seems like if you really Really wanted, you could've clued that one as a themer as well. It's at least as bird-y as URBAN AREAS, come on. COOL AS A CUCUMBER might've been harder (3D: Unruffled). Hmm. [Kestrel-like]? I don't know. Harder to turn that one birdward. (Unless "Unruffled" already suggests FEATHERs ... hmmm ...)

Didn't hesitate much at all while solving this one. I took a beat or two to remember KNOSSOS. I wrote in IBEX before ORYX (31D: African antelope) and SUET before SEED. CUSP probably gave me more trouble than anything else in the grid, and the kind of trouble I'm talking about there was negligible (52D: Edge). The grid seems very clean, especially considering how thematically dense it is in the middle. CONED was the only thing that made me squint and tilt my head dubiously (43D: Funnel-shaped), but it's word-y enough. Despite the strangeness of theme execution—or maybe because of it—I ended up enjoying this one more than not. I'll take this over a standard punny / corny / weak-laugh Tuesday any day (especially Tuesday).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. I forgot to praise "SAY WHEN!," my actual favorite answer in the grid (27A: Words from a pourer). Some good colloquial zing amidst all the bird kerfuffle. 

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