Roxane's beloved, in classic literature / SUN 5-17-26 / Guido ___, Baroque painter from Bologna / Crazylegs Hirsch, from 1949 to 1957, informally / Lotto commission? / Upscale shirtmaker / Showy kind of push-up / Surname for a family of fictional Kansans / 1957 #1 hit for Debbie Reynolds / Pollster Lou or singer Emmylou / John ___, personification of Objectivism, for Ayn Rand / Purple dish eaten with a spoon

Constructor: Derrick Niederman

Relative difficulty: Easy

[6D: Iconic role for Harrison Ford = HAN]

THEME: "Double Meanings" — theme clues are familiar two-word phrases (or compound words) where each word (or word part) must be interpreted as a separate definition; the first word in the clue corresponds to the first word in the answer, and the second word in the clue corresponds to the second word in the answer. The resulting two-word (or compound word) answer is itself a familiar phrase:

Theme answers:

• DRAWING BOARD (22A: Lotto commission?) ("Lotto" = DRAWING, "commission" = BOARD)
• PEN NAMES (24A: Prison terms?) ("Prison" = PEN, "terms" = NAMES)
• RAIN DELAY (29A: Shower stall?) ("Shower" = RAIN, "stall" = DELAY)
• CARPALS (38A: Automates?) ("Auto" = CAR, "mates" = PALS)
• WARRANT (48A: Battle cry?) ("Battle" = WAR, "cry" = RANT)
• CHICKEN SANDWICH (65A: Yellow submarine?) ("Yellow" = CHICKEN, "submarine" = SANDWICH)
• HOT FOOT (87A: Stolen base?) ("Stolen" = HOT, "base" = FOOT)
• KINSHIP (94A: Blood vessel?) ("Blood" = KIN, "vessel" = SHIP)
• CAN OPENER (102A: Fire starter?) ("Fire" = CAN, "starter" = OPENER)
• MATTRESS (102A: Padlock?) ("Pad" = MAT, "lock" = TRESS)
• TRUST BUSTERS (116A: Confidence men?) ("Confidence" = TRUST, "men" = BUSTERS)

Word of the Day: GWEN Verdon (16D: Verdon of "Damn Yankees") —

Gwyneth Evelyn "Gwen" Verdon (January 13, 1925 – October 18, 2000) was an American actress and dancer. She won four Tony Awards for her musical comedy performances, and she served as an uncredited choreographer's assistant and specialty dance coach for theater and film. Verdon was a critically acclaimed performer on Broadway in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, having originated many roles in musicals, including Lola in Damn Yankees, the title character in Sweet Charity, and Roxie Hart in Chicago.

Her second husband was director-choreographer Bob Fosse, with whom she worked on a number of theater and film projects. After Fosse's death, she worked to preserve his legacy. (wikipedia)

• • •

This was rough. It was hard to find very much to be positive about. I don't understand the appeal of this theme. I see that a certain thoughtfulness and cleverness must have been involved to make the clues and answers work out so (well, relatively) neatly, but from a solving standpoint ... pffft. There was nothing. Or, rather, instead of eleven elaborate or playful theme clues there were essentially twenty-two one-word clues. Lotto = DRAWING. Commission = BOARD. Prison = PEN. Terms = NAMES. And on and on and on. And I mean, on. "I see what you did there." That was my reaction. Eleven times. None of the answers ever got anything more out of me than a shrug. A couple of them got a "huh?" though. CARPALS? Is that ... like, the bones in your wrist? OK. I guess that's OK. And TRUSTBUSTERS? Is that something to do with antitrust laws, or Teddy Roosevelt breaking up the monopolies?? Yes, a "federal official who prosecutes trusts under the antitrust laws." Yeah, that answer checks out too. Not exactly a term you hear every day ... or ever, really ... but it's a thing. I kinda sorta almost like the theme clues/answers when the answer is a compound word where I really have to pull the two terms apart in order to see what is going on, e.g. MATTRESS ("Mat" = "tress") and CARPALS ("Car" + "pals"). But the others are just two one-word clues => two one-word answers. Again, the actual experience of solving those answers was completely without joy, and almost without struggle. A real baffling swing/miss on the theme today. 

And the fill, yeah, that got real bad in lots of places. So much so that I stopped early to take a screenshot (always a bad omen):

 

That NNE / TBONES / ASTI / THEUN / AHOLD run made me (quiet) shout "make it stop" ("it" = crosswordese barrage) and then RENI came hot on the heels of all that (37A: Guido ___, Baroque painter from Bologna). It was a lot to take. A lot of middling to bad, with no allaying good. The worst section, to my ear, was in the west, everything between WADE and ETON ... Let's see, there's TAY DERMO AVANT ... IN MAY!?!?! (superyeesh) ... and I'm pretty sure it's avocado ON TOAST, not OVER TOAST. It's really just called "avocado toast," but if you absolutely had to describe the relationship of the avocado to the toast, you would say "on." Horribly fitting that ERRANCY runs right through OVER TOAST. The thing is, though, that if the theme had been even halfway decent, or there had been sparkly longer fill, it's possible the bad short stuff would not have rankled as much. But when the theme gives you nothing and the long answers are ho-hum at best, now the rest of the fill is exposed. You can hear every creak and clank. I will not SPIT AT this puzzle (as spitting at anything is disgusting) and I won't even say "IT STINKS." My main reaction was a big "OK ... SO?" 

Bullets:

• 81A: "___ a stinker?" (Bugs Bunny line) ("AIN'T I") — one of the worst partials you're ever going to see. I suppose remembering Bugs Bunny takes some of the sting away, but yeesh. To make matters worse, this clue contains "stinker" when "stink" is already in the grid ("IT STINKS"). Your cluing options are pretty limited for "AIN'T I," so maybe ... maybe tear down that whole little section and rebuild it. What would you be losing ATF? AIN'T I? KITED? IN OIL!?!? The one good thing about this section is that "AIN'T I IN OIL?" is making me laugh. "AIN'T I IN OIL"? (Bugs Bunny line from "It's Sardine to Look a Lot Like Christmas")*. 
• 59A: Upscale shirtmaker (ETON) — I knew ETON was a kind of collar, but I did not know they were a shirtmaker. I wanted POLO and IZOD before ETON.
• 53A: A good Wordle starting word, by the looks of it (STARE) — I think this is punning (?) on the idea that "STARE" means "look (intently)." But it really is a good starting word. Way better than ADIEU, what are you ADIEU people doing, why is that starter so popular!? It's not great.
• 78A: Surname for a family of fictional Kansans (GALE) — these are the Kansans from The Wizard of Oz. The most memorable member of said family is Dorothy Gale.
• 105A: Showy kind of push-up (ONE-ARM) — me: "some ... kind of bra."
• 119A: 1957 #1 hit for Debbie Reynolds ("TAMMY") — I love Debbie Reynolds the actress / dancer, but Debbie Reynolds the pop star, uh, no, I am not familiar with her work ... though "TAMMY" rings a faint bell, let's hear what it sounds like ... nope, no bells. False alarm. The song is from a movie called Tammy and the Bachelor (1957) (also not ringing a bell). Reynolds had already done Singin' in the Rain (1952) and (one of my favorites) The Tender Trap (1955) by this point. Hey, her co-star in Tammy and the Bachelor was Leslie Nielsen!?!? And it co-stars the ubiquitous Academy Award-winning character actor Walter Brennan? I might have to check it out soon.

• 5D: Colonial news source (CRIER) — always want this to be CRYER. Town CRIER, Jon CRYER. Is that a helpful mnemonic? It is not. But I'm gonna see if I can make it work.

• 75D: It's a wrap (STOLE) — dropped SARAN in there so fast. Whoops.
• 95D: Pollster Lou or singer Emmylou (HARRIS) — Why is "pollster Lou" even here? Just let Emmylou have her own clue. She's famous enough that she shouldn't have to share her clue with anyone. I know you're doing a rhyming "lou" thing here, but still. I'll take my Emmylou straight, thanks.

• 79D: Brian in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (ENO) — it was Brian ENO's 78th birthday on Friday. I'm sorry I failed to acknowledge it. His birthday really should be some kind of Crossword Holiday. 343 lifetime NYTXW appearances. OK, not all of those ENOs were Brian (before 1985 ENO was always [Wine: prefix] or [Wine: comb. form]), but most of them were. Happy birthday, big guy (with a little name)!

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*poetic license!

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Son of Hanna-Barbera's Doggie Daddy / SUN 9-7-25 / Andean stimulant / Intoxicating Asian plant whose name sounds like an insect / Sarastro in Mozart's "The Magic Flute," e.g. / White wine named for a region in France / Like a naughty Beetle Bailey, in brief / Intoxicating Asian plant whose name sounds like an insect / Buddy who portrayed TV's Jed Clampett / Charles or Ray who lent their name to a kind of chair / International shoe brand originating in England

Constructor: Derrick Niederman

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "The Name Is the Game" — names of famous people are clued as if they are missing words in imaginary sentences (!?):

Theme answers:

• BILL WITHERS (23A: As the British pound rises in value, the dollar ___)
• TONY ORLANDO (34A: After spending the afternoon at Epcot, we had dinner at a ___ bistro)
• ULYSSES GRANT (51A: Did Joyce write courtesy of a ___?)
• MARK CUBAN (68A: An increase in ham prices forced the deli to ___ sandwiches higher)
• IRVING BERLIN (85A: To Washington, ___ Germany, seemed far from Tarrytown, N.Y.)
• BARBARA EDEN (102A: Some Californians consider Santa ___ on Earth)
• ELLE FANNING (116A: The supermodel was holding a copy of ___ herself on the beach)
• TOM WAITS (50D: Peeping ___ for Lady Godiva to appear)
• DON LEMON (45D: Why do none of the Fruit of the Loom characters ___-colored underwear?)

Word of the Day: SAUTERNE (49D: White wine named for a region in France) —

Sauternes (French pronunciation: [sotɛʁn]) is a French sweet wine from the region of the same name in the Graves section in Bordeaux. Sauternes wine is made from Sémillon, sauvignon blanc, and muscadelle grapes that have been affected by Botrytis cinerea, also known as noble rot. This causes the grapes to become partially raisined, resulting in concentrated and distinctively flavored wines. Due to its climate, Sauternes is one of the few wine regions where infection with noble rot is a frequent occurrence. Even so, production is a hit-or-miss proposition, with widely varying harvests from vintage to vintage. Wines from Sauternes, especially the Premier Cru Supérieur estate Château d'Yquem, can be very expensive, largely due to the very high cost of production. Barsac lies within Sauternes and is entitled to use either name. Somewhat similar but less expensive and typically less-distinguished wines are produced in the neighboring regions of Monbazillac, Cérons, Loupiac and Cadillac. In the United States, there is a semi-generic label for sweet white dessert wines known as sauterne without the "s" at the end and uncapitalized. (wikipedia) // In the 1860's, Californians believed that the best white wine from Bordeaux came from the French region called Sauternes, and "Sauterne" or "Haut Sauterne" later became standard generic labels on bottles of dry or sweet wine in California. (Winegrapes of UC Davis)

• • •

[92A: EAMES]

Sundays are often weak—hard to sustain a theme, even a good theme, over that much real estate—but I'm slightly astonished at how weak this one felt. Random names clued as random words in very random sentences??? There's no unifying principle at all, no cohesive factor, no ... just no. Maybe if all the names had been complete sentences (like BILL WITHERS) or been composed of regular words (like BILL WITHERS), you'd have some sense of focus, direction, purpose. But no such luck. Can't you do this with lots of names? If you're willing to write a clue ridiculous enough, I think you can. [A crazed fan was removed from the set of "The Six Million Dollar Man" after she threatened to ___ Majors' drink]. [Poughkeepsie MetalFest is sure gonna ___ Valley!] [Why should a God-fearing ___ cotton when we have machines that can do that now?]. Are these good? No, they're awful. I made them up on the spot. But I don't see how they're much more awful than what we get here. Peeping TOM WAITS for Lady Godiva to appear? Ew. (that is the origin of the phrase "peeping Tom," though—fun fact I just learned). The dollar BILL WITHERS?? You'd say the dollar, but not the dollar bill. How in the world do you get away with leaving the "S" out of ULYSSES GRANT? "EDEN on Earth"!?!? What the hell kind of expression is that? It's "heaven on earth." EDEN was on Earth!! The whole thing is baffling. A contrived mess. It certainly goes very, very wacky, and I have to kind of admire that part of it. But no, the clues aren't actually apt or funny most of the time. Just extremely forced. And the title doesn't help at all. "The Name Is the Game?"" What game? How is this a game? I want there to be some underlying "game" theme, but ... I'm not seeing it. I suppose it's possible I'm missing some element of this theme that makes it masterful. If so, I pre-apologize. But as of now, I'm genuinely surprised this puzzle was accepted.

The fill on this puzzle was also on the poor side. I pretty much noped out on this puzzle right here, at the middle initial-free ULYSSES GRANT:

But if the theme was weak, the fill wasn't helping. ARIANA as an airline, plural ARIS, ERAT, EBSEN ... EST ELS and LAO-TSE all in a clump (and right above TWPS). ENOL, OUTTO, ILED crossing EOLIAN. BASS HORN + BASSO feels like a dupe. AUG so close to AUGIE (!?) doesn't feel much better. COINER!!!? If all this had been in support of a stellar theme, maybe I wouldn't have cared so much, but no such theme exists, so the fill needed to pick up the tremendous slack. But no dice. 

The one consolation for me, as someone who did not care for this puzzle much at all, is that it was over quickly. I knew every name in the grid (including the damn Afghani airline and SAUTERNE), and so there really wasn't any resistance to be found, anywhere. I didn't use the convoluted theme clues to get the theme answers. I just let crosses do their magic, and as soon as something looked like a name, I would write it in. Maybe I checked it quickly against the clue from time to time, just to make sure, but mostly I didn't have to. I made a couple typos today because I was going too fast, but no missteps, no errors. No, wait. I did write in DEICE before DEFOG, so there was that (106D: Clear, in a way, as a windshield). And I had this moment of doubt about which nasalized consonant went in the middle of BA-FF (111A: Canada's first national park, founded in 1885). All I know about BANFF is that my dad went on a ski vacation there once. Only reason I know the name. But somehow BAMFF seemed plausible. And while I guess someone might call [Immaturity] a GREEN MESS, I was pretty sure GREENNESS was what they were going for. I can't see any real trouble spots, or even many things that require explaining. But let's do a lightning round anyway...

Lightning Round:

• 39A: Like a naughty Beetle Bailey, in brief (AWOL) — "naughty" felt tonally wrong here. Is it just "naughty" to AWOL. Like, aw shucks, I've been a bad widdle boy? Kind of an infantilizing adjective.
• 105D: Intoxicating Asian plant whose name sounds like an insect (BETEL) — it's pronounced "beetle"??? I've been pronouncing it "bettle," like "kettle." I wonder if Beetle Bailey ever experimented with BETEL. Would definitely read "BETEL Bailey." Sounds "naughty." 
• 124A: Set of pull-ups? (ARMS) — uh ... not sure I get it. Is it because ARMS are the "set" (of limbs?) that you use to do pull-ups??? 
• 11D: Buddy who portrayed TV's Jed Clampett (EBSEN) — keeping things current, I see. Jed Clampett was the patriarch on The Beverly Hillbillies, which was big around the same time that "Beetle Bailey" was big. Seriously, after "Blondie," "Beetle Bailey" was the biggest comic strip in America in 1968, which was right in the middle of The Beverly Hillbillies' 1962-71 run. I think BARBARA EDEN was probably at peak fame right about then as well. Yep, I Dream of Jeannie ran 1965-70. What a time to be alive. (I was not alive in 1968). Oh, and what about Doggie Daddy and AUGIE? They feel real 1968 to me ... damn, off by a decade (1958-61). P.S. the son's full name is AUGIE Doggie. AUGIE got top billing. AUGIE Doggie and Doggie Daddy originally aired on the Quick Draw McGraw Show. I'm much happier remembering cartoons than I am thinking about this puzzle any longer. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. reader Jason Tulp sent me a link to a word game he created, which you might enjoy. It's called Infixion. Here's his explanation:

I recently launched a bite-sized daily word game that delivers a fresh take on the Wordle formula. Each day, players are given a specific "infix" like -on- and challenged to find the four highest-scoring words that include it, for example on-ly or b-on-us. The twist is that points are based on Scrabble values, and repeated letters lose value with each use, encouraging variety and strategy.  

You can try it out here. 

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Foreign exchange fee / SUN 2-2-25 / Jeans popular in the 1980s / Sony co-founder Morita / Indigenous people's name for Mount Rainier / Your business start-up? / Fictional composer whose first three initials mean "A.S.A.P." / Seasoning brand that dropped the first part of its name in 2020 / Cartoon character inspired by W.C. Fields / Grim Grimm figure

Constructor: Derrick Niederman

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "Two-For-One Special" — thirteen different boxes contain two letters (instead of one); italicized clues that contain these two-for-one boxes are familiar phrases split in two by a slash; each side of the slash is actually a separate clue—for one of the clues, one of the two-for-one works, and for the other clue, the other letter works; in the crosses, *both* letters work [apparently every letter of the alphabet is used in those two-letter boxes exactly once—an added “achievement” that also explains so much of the awkwardness]:

Theme answers:

• SLIM SWIM (18D: Skinny/dip) / RACHEL WEISZ (22A: Lead actress in "The Lovely Bones" (2009) and "The Bourne Legacy" (2012))
• QUICK BUICK (24A: Fast/car) / PDQ BACH (8D: Fictional composer whose first three initials mean "A.S.A.P.")
• ZANY MANY (25A: Wild/bunch) / DUTCH DITCH (48A: Holland/tunnel) / HAZMAT SUITS (13D: Protective outfits for handling radioactive material)
• COLT VOLT (31D: Horse/power) / MMMDCV (30A: 3,605, in ancient Rome)
• METRODOME METRONOME (61A: Stadium/timekeeper) / ROAD NOISE (45D: Honking or screeching, for example)
• STAGE NAME STATE NAME (77A: Denver/Colorado) / YOUNG TURK (53D: One eager for radical change)
• SIESTA FIESTA (102D: Slumber/party) / US FLAG (101A: Stars and Stripes)
• PAR PAY (74A: Average/income) / FLATTERY (36D: Excessive praise)
• JOKER POKER (117A: Card/game) / JPEG (117D: Digital picture format)
• T-REX TREK (116A: Dino/expedition)/ JAGUAR XKES (79D: Classic British sports cars)
• WORD WARD (111D: Promise/keeper) / TOASTMASTER (118A: Certain emcee)
• PATH PATE (105D: Trail/head) / HERNIA (122A: Risk of heavy lifting)

Word of the Day: AGIO (10D: Foreign exchange fee) —

1. 

a. 

the difference between the nominal and actual values of a currency

b. 

the charge payable for conversion of the less valuable currency

2. 

a percentage payable for the exchange of one currency into another

3. 

an allowance granted to compensate for differences in currency values, as on foreign bills of exchange

4.  an informal word for agiotage (collinsdictionary.com)

 

• • •

[28D: Seasoning brand that dropped
the first part of its name in 2020]

"Make it stop." That was what I was thinking for much of the back half of this. I'd had enough. The sheer volume of these awkward / fussy two-letter squares, which have nothing linking them besides their two-letterness, was just exhausting. It is, to a certain extent, impressive that all the slash clues a. are familiar (or familiarish) phrases, and b. work for two different answers that are just a single letter apart. That does, admittedly, make the theme tighter and therefore more impressive than it would be otherwise. But solving this thing was an exercise in diminishing returns. The initial "oh! OK..." soon gave way to "oh ... there are a lot of these," which gave way to "oh ... is this it?" to "omg how many of these are there when will it end?!" Constructors often try to make up for weak (or one-dimensional) themes with volume, Volume, VOLUME, and that was definitely the case today. And the problem is that with this many 2fer squares ... not all of them work all that well. I mean, are the double-answers phrases supposed to make some kind of wacky sense when taken together. A SLIM SWIM, what is that? A QUICK BUICK is at least something I can imagine, but a PATH PATE is not. DUTCH DITCH really really doesn't work, as [Holland] is a noun and DUTCH is an adjective, and before you go saying "but Holland is functioning adjectivally," please keep in mind that the Holland Tunnel is not, in fact, a DUTCH DITCH, as it's located in New York City. Also, as I say, it's not At All clear that the two answers to the italicized theme clues are supposed to be taken as a single phrase. We have to endure a ridiculously enormous Roman numeral in order for this theme to "work." We have to endure the duplication of TOAST in order for this theme to "work." It's a stunt puzzle that gives no consideration to what it would actually feel like to solve it. You gotta ask yourself, would this be any fun to solve? For me, the answer, by about midway, was a pretty strong "no."

IN A BAR!!? ( Man, EAT A SANDWICH looks like brilliant fill next to IN A BAR (note: I would EAT A SANDWICH IN A BAR). How is IN A BAR any different from IN A BOOKSTORE or IN AN ELEVATOR!? You know you're high on your own ideas when you let junk like that just get by. This is what test-solvers and editors are for! There are some admittedly interesting "solutions" to the double-letter problem today, including the double double-letter feat at HAZMAT SUITS. RACHEL WEISZ and YOUNG TURK are interesting standalone answers, and PDQBACH is a clever way of handling the "QB" situation. But JAGUAR XKES, plural, felt like an awkward way to get "XK" together, not to mention it's one of the few long themers that doesn't break the two letters across two different parts of the cross (see, by contrast, YOUNG TURK, ROAD NOISE, PDQ BACH, RACHEL WEISZ). JAGUAR's just hanging out there, not involved in the double-letter square at all. This flood-the-zone approach to theme execution leaves things an awful mess. Really uneven. Crowded. Fussy. And the fill quality (again, IN A BAR, wtf?) suffered as well. YESM OENO ... AKIO *and* AGIO, neither of which I've seen in a dog's age!? Yeesh and double yeesh.

The hardest part of this puzzle for me was just getting started. I sort of forgot that RACHEL WEISZ existed and definitely forgot that her last name was WEISZ and not WEISS, so encountering her right away, as a themer, before I had any grasp on the theme, was a challenge. I think I figured out the double-letter gimmick at the stupid Roman numeral, since there was absolutely no way to make sense of it in the number of squares provided. After I got the gimmick sorted, the only trouble was the occasional answer that made no sense to me, or that I'd never heard of. Like GLIDE-ON, that was tough. How else would eyeliners work? JAB-ON? SLAP-ON? No idea how GLIDE-ON is different from any other kind of eyeliner. Also, this is a weirdly eye makeup-obsessed puzzle (65D: Sephora purchase = MASCARA). I remembered GITANOS (75A: Jeans popular in the 1980s), but then immediately balked at GITANOS because I thought "nah, those are French cigarettes ... aren't they?" (those are GITANES ... also GAULOISES). AKIO and AGIO went in only because eventually both were vaguely familiar to me. Man, AGIO, feels like it's been a while. Holy cow, look at this chart (from xwordinfo):

[Like GITANOS, AGIO was "popular in the 1980s"]

That's AGIO frequency over time. The blue is where Shortz took over. That little blip way way over on the right? That's us. If you're seeing AGIO eight (!) times a year, as they apparently were in the '80s, then AGIO probably quickly becomes second-nature, but in the year of our lord 2025, heaven help you. Help me. Actually, I at least had the experience of a few of those other blue blips, but as you can see it's been well over a decade. Eliminating crosswordese—great. Bringing it back after a loooong hiatus, when no one really knows it anymore—brutal. AKIO, on the other hand, has appeared solely under Shortz (the earlier administrations were far less tolerant of proper nouns), but even then, it's been about eight years (seven appearances total) (110D: Sony co-founder Morita). Putting AGIO and AKIO in the same grid after something like a combined 25-year absence ... is not a choice I'd make if I had the choice to make. Hey, have you heard this joke? AKIO and AGIO walk IN A BAR ... see, even *that* context doesn't work for IN A BAR. It's "INto A BAR." Bah.

Some notes:

• 4D: Indigenous people's name for Mount Rainier (TAHOMA) — another toughie. I sat there for several seconds trying to figure out a way to make this TACOMA, which at least I've heard of (TACOMA is the "Tac" in "SEA-TAC" airport (I'll let you guess what the "SEA" is).
• 16D: Small entryway receptacle that might also house loose change (KEY DISH) — just stared blankly at this. I had no idea this sort of thing had a name. I have a little bowl near the door where I keep miscellaneous things I might need when leaving the house. Yes, there are keys there. But lots of other stuff too. I would never think to call it a KEY DISH, perhaps because it is a bowl made out of a discarded vinyl record (heated, reshaped ... someone made it for me; great use for unplayable LPs). 
• 56D: Kind of line that no one just stands in (CONGA) — good clue.

• 41D: Major shops (EMPORIA) — I admit this is nitpicky, but it's something I definitely would've thought about had this been my puzzle—not sure EMPORIA and EMP (short for "empress") should share gridspace. But if you're letting two whole TOASTs in, then I'm guessing you don't really have a duplication policy at all, which is a shame. Makes the puzzles seem sloppy.
• 35D: What Hester Prynne wore in a Hawthorne novel (LETTER A) — ask any high school kid (or former high school kid) what Hester Prynne wore in a Hawthorne novel, I guarantee you none of them say "LETTER A!" It's not untrue. But come on.

• 83D: What parallel lines never do (CONVERGE) — weird to know the answer but not know the answer. I could see the lines, but my brain was like "well they don't CROSS ... nope, hmmm ... CONNECT? ... too short ... COLLIDE!?" Etc.
• 70A: Your business start-up? (NONE OF) — NONE OF is truly awful fill, but I have to give at least polite applause to this clue, which is trying so hard to make everything not just OK, but entertaining (the clue refers to the phrase "NONE OF your business"). This is only the second NONEOF in NYTXW history. Kind of mad at the first guy who thought it was OK. Had to be some kind of encouragement to this second guy.
• 91D: Grabbed, as an opportunity (LEAPT ON) — the thing you do with opportunities is you leap at them. "Leap at the chance" is an idiom. "Leap on the chance" is not. Yes, there is a defense to be made for LEAPT ON. But no puzzle should require this many defenses.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Republic toppled in 1933 / SUN 9-11-22 / Instrument that makes a tsst sound / He's this in a 1963 Chiffons hit / Red block in Minecraft / Neighbor of Jammu and Kashmir / Eponym for one of the earth's five oceans / Her name is Greek for all-gifted

Constructor: Derrick Niederman

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "Opposites Attract" — theme answers contain letter strings composed of two "opposite" words:

Theme answers:

• ALFRED NOYES (24A: English poet who wrote "The Highwayman") (no & yes)
• POOR RICHARD (30A: Early American pseudonym) (poor & rich)
• FACE THE MUSIC (37A: Accept imminent punishment) (them & us)
• HEART OF ROMAINE (68A: Caesar salad ingredient) (to & from)
• FIX BREAKFAST (98A: Scramble some eggs, say) (fix & break)
• ENDODONTICS (107A: Branch of dentistry that specializes in root canals) (do & don't)
• KARLA BONOFF (114A: Noted songwriter behind Wynonna Judd's "Tell Me Why" and Linda Ronstadt's "All My Life") (on & off)
• ROUTINE (46D: Same old, same old) (out & in)
• PANDORA (55D: Her name is Greek for "all-gifted") (and & or)

Word of the Day: KARLA BONOFF (114A) —

Karla Bonoff (born December 27, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter. While Bonoff has released a number of albums, she is primarily known for her songwriting. Bonoff's songs include "Home," covered by Bonnie Raitt, "Tell Me Why" by Wynonna Judd, and "Isn't It Always Love" by Lynn Anderson.

Most notably, Linda Ronstadt recorded several Bonoff songs, including three tracks on the 1976 album Hasten Down the Wind ("Someone To Lay Down Beside Me", "Lose Again" and "If He's Ever Near"), which introduced Bonoff to a mass audience, and "All My Life", a 1989 duet with Ronstadt and Aaron Neville. (wikipedia)

 ["I got something to give you / That the mailman / Can't deliver..."]

• • •

I thought this was a perfectly decent Sunday puzzle. It's got a consistent and clever theme that delivers lively theme answers. The concept was pretty transparent, and that transparency made the puzzle much easier to solve. The only themer I can imagine giving anyone any trouble is KARLA BONOFF, which was easily my favorite themer since, for once, I Knew The Obscure Trivia Clue! Ding Ding Ding! Jackpot! I knew my number had to come up some day, and today was the day. I stumbled on KARLA BONOFF when I was deep into an early '80s pop music phase (one which I am arguable still in). I started listening to the Top 40 charts, including (and especially) those songs that I'd never heard of, and KARLA BONOFF's "Personally" (see video, above) was one of those minor hits. I remember reading that she had gone on to have greater success as a songwriter than as a performer, but since that day I read about her, I haven't thought much about her at all ... until today! I had the "ONOFF" part and thought, "ONOFF ... BONOFF ... is this ... it can't be KARLA BONOFF ... [checks crosses] ... omg yessssss it is!" Ok so I spelled it CARLA at first but whatever, I knew her! Please allow me to enjoy my feeling of pop culture trivia dominance for one moment .... OK, that's enough, thank you.

The other moment where I felt my specific specialized knowledge was a kind of superpower today was a moment many of you probably shared as well—it was the moment my crosswordese knowledge finally paid off in a big way with ALFRED NOYES! Does anyone outside of inveterate crossword solvers know that guy? Not sure, but knowing old whatshisname sure helped today. I somehow got FACETHEMUSIC first, and couldn't do anything with "THEMUS," but then ALFRED NOYES went in and I remembered that Sunday puzzles have titles and ... that was that. Theme sorted, right ... here:

HEART OF ROMAINE was probably the toughest themer for me to come up with, since I just would've said a Caesar salad has Romaine (lettuce) in it. Had HEART OF and thought "HEART OF ... ARTICHOKE? What is even happening here?" But HEART OF ROMAINE is a real enough thing (though they're possibly more often called "Romaine hearts"). The only time I balked at the theme was when I got to PANDORA; I just don't know if "AND" is really the "opposite" of "OR." I think "NOR" is the opposite of "OR." AND and OR certainly go together, all the time, but on a strictly technical level I wonder if "opposite" is, uh, apposite. Most folks are probably not going to blink at the pairing, and at worst it's a minor glitch. The fill on this one is quite solid. I just wish I hadn't ended on BEGEM! Such bad luck to wrap things up with the cringiest word in the whole grid. Everyone knows that [Deck out with spangles] is BEDAZZLE. I can't imagine BEGEM in a sentence. I'd've torn that whole corner out just to be rid of BEGEM, which my brain is resisting so hard it's decided to parse it BEG 'EM, i.e. "I'm gonna BEG 'EM not to put BEGEM in any puzzles ever again!"

Bullets:

• 28A: Persian ___ (rugmaker's deliberate mistake) (FLAW) — so ... just [Mistake], then? (such a weird clue—see also 75A: Flying ___ (martial arts strike) (KNEE))
• 89D: Meeting with a dead line? (SEANCE) — is "line" supposed to have genealogical significance? Like bloodline? Because in a SEANCE you're communicating with your relatives? Or is the "line" like a "telephone line," i.e. you use it to talk (to the "dead")? Probably the latter.
• 70D: One who gave us all a lift? (OTIS) — in that he gave us (i.e. the world) the elevator, sure
• 47D: He set a Guinness World Record in 2014, reporting for 34 consecutive hours (AL ROKER) — well that's pre-Katrina so I cannot conceive of why Al would be on air for that long ... oh, looks like it was some kind of fund-raising dealie for the USO.
• 118A: ___ Martell, "Game of Thrones" princess (ELIA) — you can "GOT" the clue all you want, but it's still crosswordese to me
• 90A: Norman or English king? (LEAR) — So Good! My fav clue of the day! I teach literature from the period of British history that contains both Norman and English kings ... but here the "Norman" is famed sitcom creator and producer Norman LEAR. "All in the Family"! "Sanford & Son!" And then there's "Maude!"

• 52A: Bird associated with bats (ORIOLE) — because of the Major League Baseball team the Baltimore Orioles, I assume
• 72A: It's over here (END) — definitely the answer I spent the most time staring at confusedly. Couldn't make sense of it. I think if "the" had been in front of END I would've understood it sooner (when you come to the END of something ... "it's over")

Speaking of the END: see you tomorrow. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. about 49D: Northernmost N.B.A. city, on scoreboards (TOR)—POR and MIN would like a word ...

Fun fact, despite the whole “we the north” mantra and the latest #nytxw, the Toronto Raptors aren’t actually the most north NBA team @NytReview @rexparker https://t.co/879EHekVPK

— Luke Scholefield (@lukescholefield) September 11, 2022

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