Tenth, in Latin / SUN 5-31-26 / Small flycatchers named for their call, not their size / Sacsayhuamán fortress builders / Jasmine's tiger companion in "Aladdin" / Longtime jazz bandleader with an Egyptian-inspired name / "Drat!," in Dortmund / Absolutely whomps, in sports lingo / Negative logic gate in electrical engineering / Where Cary Grant orders a Gibson in a classic scene from "North by Northwest"

Constructor: Jeffrey Martinovic and Evan Park

Relative difficulty: as easy as it gets

THEME: "Target Practice" — a WILLIAM TELL-themed puzzle with shaded squares that form a BOW and ARROW and a single "APPLE" square (which the ARROW is aimed at), plus a lot of related trivia and puns:

Theme answers:

• SWITZERLAND (22A: Home of the legendary folk hero at 116-Across)
• MARKSMANSHIP (32A: Expertise demonstrated by 116-Across in a fabled feat of precision)
• ARCHERY (41A: Athletic skill mastered by 116-Across)
• ROSSINI (91A: Composer of an overture dedicated to 116-Across)
• SHOOTING STAR (103A: Streaker in the sky ... or a punny description of 116-Across)
• FRUITFUL (38D: Productive ... or a punny description of the feat performed by 116-Across?)
• TAKE A BOW (56D: What 116-Across did before and after this puzzle's feat?)
• WILLIAM TELL (116A: Legendary figure who's the subject of this puzzle)

BOW and ARROW and APPLE answers:

• 42D: Many a liquor license applicant (CLUB OWNER)
• 66A: Chirruping bird (SPARROW)
• 69A: City sobriquet that might describe the target for 116-Across / 59D: Popular beverage brand (THE BIG APPLE / SNAPPLE)

Word of the Day: PEWEES (54D: Small flycatchers named for their call, not their size) —

The pewees are a genus, Contopus, of small to medium-sized insect-eating birds in the tyrant flycatcher family Tyrannidae.

These birds are known as pewees, from the call of one of the more common members of this vocal group. They are generally charcoal-grey birds with wing bars that live in wooded areas.

• • •

Grim. It's so disappointing to see the Sunday puzzle reduced to this complete non-challenge, this child's placemat of a trivia / pun puzzle. I stopped early to screenshot the moment when I could feel the bottom fall out of this thing:

From the clue on SWITZERLAND, I knew the topic immediately, and I could see that all I was gonna get, or most of what I was gonna get, was just random WILLIAM TELL trivia—assorted related answers arranged symmetrically, none of them particularly interesting or clever. I guess they eventually give you a couple of puns in there, but otherwise it's just a predictable parade of answers, many of whose clues I never even had to look at: MARKSMANSHIP, ROSSINI, WILLIAM TELL—I didn't need the clues for any of these because the rest of the puzzle was so damned easy they basically filled themselves in. The whole concept here was transparent, and even the visual gag (which is probably the best thing about the theme) offered no real surprise or challenge. ARROW / BOW / APPLE / Shrug. The APPLE was probably the "hardest" part, but it wasn't hard. THE BIG ___ made it obvious. But that answer is oddly inapt (what the hell does NYC have to do with any of this? And was the apple in the WILLIAM TELL fable particularly big? I don't remember that). I don't think the puzzle is poorly constructed from a technical standpoint, just remedial and without any real pleasure (unless the punny stuff brings you pleasure, in which case, lucky you). 

The clue editing is also really uneven today. It's a small detail, but the puzzle doesn't seem to know when to use "?"s. If you tell us the answer is punny, then there is no need to put the "?" on the clue, which makes the FRUITFUL clue ... just ... not right (38D: Productive ... or a punny description of the feat performed by 116-Across?). If you don't believe me, just look at the clue for SHOOTING STAR (103A: Streaker in the sky ... or a punny description of 116-Across). See: no "?" Because it's not necessary. Because you've already (painfully, unnecessarily) told us that the answer is a pun. Now look at the clue for TAKE A BOW (56D: What 116-Across did before and after this puzzle's feat?). That clue demonstrates the proper use of a "?" (the "?" indicates the punniness). So the clue writing was sloppy. And not terribly imaginative (the clues use the word "legendary" twice, and there's a similar phrasing to a lot of the clues). And we get BOW twice? (as a visual element, inside of CLUBOWNER, and as a word in TAKE A BOW). Things are just ragged around the edges. I can see how a certain segment of solvers might find this puzzle breezy and delightful, but difficulty-wise and concept-wise, it just didn't feel up to NYTXW Sunday standards (or what I wish those standards were). 

There are no tough parts to this puzzle. I had trouble nowhere. I wrote in CERA for CENA, which I do all the time, despite the fact that Michael CERA and John CENA look nothing alike (19A: Wrestler/actor John). I did have trouble with SNAPPLE ... for a few seconds. Until I checked the cross and realized I was dealing with a rebus square ("APPLE"). That was my favorite moment of the puzzle—and there's a connection between the (slight) difficulty and the pleasure. The appearance of the apple was a genuine (if mild) surprise. Nothing else about the puzzle was surprising. The handling of the ARROW/BOX squares was clever, but you can see that coming a mile away if you know you're dealing with WILLIAM TELL. The rebusing of the APPLE, however, was unexpected. Hurray for the unexpected. I needed a bunch of crosses to get the OVER part of SENT OVER (77D: Forwarded) (SENT ON is the only phrase that made sense to me), but I wouldn't call that answer "hard," exactly. Just awkward. Everything else in this grid, I blew through like it was Monday. The only part I truly enjoyed was that clue on BAR CAR (35D: Where Cary Grant orders a Gibson in a classic scene from "North by Northwest"). Peak Hitchcock, peak Cary Grant (that suit! and sunglasses!), peak train scene, peak hot people meet-cute. Cinematic nirvana. I have an 8x10 of Cary Grant hanging on the wall right behind me (along with similar promotional photos of Janet Leigh, Kirk Douglas, and W.C. Fields—I picked them all up at a second-hand store, preframed, somewhat beat up, but perfect in my eyes). Here's the North by Northwest scene in question. Never gets old.

["Think how lucky I am to have been seated here." "Luck had nothing to do with it."]

Bullets:

• 29A: Hero of Arabian tales (ALI BABA) — I watched Salesman (1969) yesterday for the first time. It's a classic documentary about bible salesmen. It was a hard watch for me—the relentlessness and occasional desperation of the salesmen up against the credulousness and economic desperation of the people they're selling to. Starts feeling like con men trying to rope in the suckers, only it's all done under the auspices of the Church, so ... much of the time the interactions in people's homes are so awkward and strained that I could barely look at the screen. It's hard to believe these guys and their racket ever existed. They are an amazing set of characters, though, and the movie is fascinating as a character study—lots of footage of the salesmen sitting around motel rooms smoking (so much smoking!) going over the successes and failures of the day. Speaking of failures ... the reason I'm telling you all this here is that there's a scene, maybe my favorite scene in the movie, where the main salesman ("The Badger"!) is driving around Opa-Locka, FL, trying to find an address and the street he wants is a plain old numbered street but every street he sees has some name out of Arabian Nights (including ALI BABA). And the city hall is shaped like something out of Arabian Nights. And basically he drives in circles going crazy trying to find his way out of the Opa-Locka Arabian Nightsmare, asking directions and literally getting nowhere. It felt ... like a metaphor. Ooh, looks like Documentary Now! did a parody of Salesman called Globesman, so I'm gonna have to track that down today.

• 74A: Appointments that may lead to better contacts (EYE EXAMS) — having just watched Salesman, I figured the "contacts" were business contacts, like sales leads, but ... no. Contact lenses! Good misdirection, enjoyable clue.
• 84A: $5 bill, slangily (ABE) — this remains a non-thing, despite decades of crossword insistence. No one calls a five this except me, ironically.
• 12D: Absolutely whomps, in sports lingo (CREAMS) — Is the "sports lingo." It feels like playground lingo. I don't think I've heard this particular expression for "soundly defeats" since the '80s. I love "whomps," though. More WHOMPS in the puzzle, please.
• 23D: Jasmine's tiger companion in "Aladdin" (RAJAH) — didn't know this, but it basically filled itself in. Yesterday RANEE, today RAJAH—these words for Indian royals were some of the first "crosswordese" I ever learned. You see them a lot less these days (also, in crosswords, they're somewhat more frequently spelled RANI and RAJA).

• 33D: Longtime jazz bandleader with an Egyptian-inspired name (SUN RA) — have you ever seen Space is the Place (1974). You should see Space is the Place.

• 51D: Tenth, in Latin (DECIMUS) — what are we doing here? Come on. You're debuting this in 2026? smh.
• 97D: Australian city named for a scientist (DARWIN) — that scientist: Pete DARWIN, inventor of the Jell-O mold. Not Jell-O itself. That was Pearle Bixby Wait. What a great name. A great man's name. Not many guys named Pearl(e) any more.* 
• 117D: Bucket list item? (MOP) — I get that MOPs go in buckets, but how exactly does "list" work here? I mean, on a literal level. I know the term "bucket list," but if the clue is going to work in some kind of punny way for MOP, then ... "list" has to be relevant somehow. I don't see it. Is there some imagined list of "Things That Go In Buckets" and MOP is simply on that list? Who keeps this list? What a weird idea for a list. Or is the idea that the MOP "lists" to the side when you try to stand it up in the bucket? I'm sincerely curious about the rationale.

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. a belated R.I.P. to Manny Nosowsky, one of the all-time great NYTXW constructors, who died earlier this week (obit here). He made 254 puzzles for the Times starting in 1992. I remember his puzzles as being really playful and entertaining. Looking through my write-ups of his puzzles (primarily in the late '00s), I notice I'm using the word "legendary" a lot. He was the real deal, and the puzzlescape is poorer without him.

*of course I was kidding about Pete DARWIN. But not about Pearle Bixby Wait, that dude was real.  

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Skills of the past / WED 3-19-25 / Brother in the Lemony Snicket books / Coxswain's nightmare / Most populous inland city of California / Hairy cousin of TV and film / Article of headgear, informally / Entrepreneur Kevin of "Shark Tank" / Fateful day in ancient Rome

Constructor: Evan Park and Jeffrey Martinovic

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (the "Medium" is because of the possibly unexpected rebus square)

THEME: STARBURST (10D: Chewy fruit-flavored candy ... or a description of what's depicted visually in this puzzle) — circled squares depict a "STAR" "bursting," if you read the circled-square configurations from upper left to lower right; that is, the letters "STAR" are depicted in various stages of coming apart, from a tight ball (all in one square in the NW) to wide apart (all the letters in "STAR" at least two squares apart from one another in the SE). There's one other explicit revealer: SUPERNOVA (59A: Astronomical event depicted visually in this puzzle), and then two other longer answers that seem at least theme-adjacent:

Theme (?) answers:

• MAKE IT POP (34D: Give something that extra oomph)
• HAD A BLAST (17A: Thoroughly enjoyed oneself)

Word of the Day: FRESNO (47A: Most populous inland city of California) —

Fresno ([...] Spanish for 'Ash tree') is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about 115 square miles (300 km²) and had a population of 542,107 as of the 2020 census, making it the fifth-most populous city in California, the most populous inland city in California, and the 34th-most populous city in the nation.

Named for the abundant ash trees lining the San Joaquin River, Fresno was founded in 1872 as a railway station of the Central Pacific Railroad before it was incorporated in 1885. It has since become an economic hub of Fresno County and the San Joaquin Valley, with much of the surrounding areas in the Metropolitan Fresno region predominantly tied to large-scale agricultural production. Fresno is near the geographic center of California, approximately 220 miles (350 km) north of Los Angeles, 170 miles (270 km) south of the state capital, Sacramento, and 185 miles (300 km) southeast of San Francisco. Yosemite National Park is about 60 miles (100 km) to the north, Kings Canyon National Park 60 miles (100 km) to the east, and Sequoia National Park 75 miles (120 km) to the southeast.

Fresno is also the third-largest majority-Hispanic city in the United States with 50.5% of its population being Hispanic in 2020. (wikipedia)

• • •

I need to talk about how bad "OH, ME" is. "OH, ME" is bad. There, I said it. No, wait, there's more. "OH, ME" is so bad that it ruined the solving experience today, making me mostly forget what a charming (and, if you count the bonus themers, dense) theme this was. It was the last answer I got, which means my solve ended on a "oh god no why?!" note—the worst imaginable note to end on. I have the words "TEAR DOWN!" written in all caps next to "OH, ME" in my grid print-out. Who says "OH, ME"? OK, now, who *living* says "OH, ME"? "OH, ME" makes me yearn for "AH, ME," an answer I hate almost as much. But at least "AH" kinda expresses weariness, whereas "OH" ... oh no. You gotta redo that section. Do not talk yourself into believing, just because you found it in a wordlist or in previously published puzzles, that "OH, ME" is acceptable. It isn't. You can eliminate "OH, ME" with some minor changes, though if you want to make anything more than a lateral move, you either have to change MAKE IT POP to MADE IT POP, or do a more sizable teardown (one that gets rid of FRESNO, at a minimum). 

[a lazy "fix"]

There's some fill that should make you absolutely recoil, and "OH, ME" is among that group. I was feeling pretty good about this puzzle, and then, at the very end, I very much wasn't. Because it's absurd, "OH, ME" was also the hardest answer for me to get in the whole puzzle (32A: "What a pity!")—a real perfect storm of buzzkill.

But if we just pretend we never saw "OH, ME," this puzzle improves considerably. The theme is neat, and neatly executed, with diagonal grid symmetry really helping to get an elegant visual expression of the theme. The double revealer is nice. Not sure why the puzzle decided to get cute with the two other longer answers. Seems obvious they are thematic, but they're not clued as such. They're just kinda winking at you there, like "MAKE IT POP, wink wink, get it!? Because the 'star' is 'popping,' eh, eh!? And HAD A BLAST, too, get it!?" I get it. Maybe it's best to just let those answers lie back and act casual, so the solver can have the ... joy? ... of discovering their thematic relevance. Anyway, they're good answers in their own right, thematic or no, so the puzzle benefits from their presence either way.

The fill is rough in the NW, all around the rebused "STAR" square, but it evens out somewhat in the other parts of the grid ("OH, ME" very much notwithstanding). My main complaint is that you've got not one not two but three "IT"s in this grid (MAKE IT POP, IS IT?, ENDS IT)— four if you throw in Cousin ITT (19A: Hairy cousin of TV and film). Basically I think the theme comes off nicely, but a lot more spit and polish could've gone into crafting the non-thematic elements of this grid. 

Bullets:

• 47A: Most populous inland city of California (FRESNO) — first of all, I grew up in FRESNO (from age 5 to 17), and yet, despite having a wikipedia page (somehow!?), I am not listed in the "People from FRESNO" section of the "List of People from FRESNO" page. How dare they. Second, I was trying to tell someone recently that there was a miniseries called "FRESNO" that came out when I was a kid, a kind of parody of late-night soaps set not in the glamorous worlds of oil, high finance, wine, etc. but in the somewhat less glamorous world of ... raisins (a chief product of the Central Valley). But as I was describing it, it felt like I'd imagined it. It seemed impossible that such a thing ever existed on television. So it was nice to confirm, just now, that yes, the series not only existed, but it had one of the most incredible casts imaginable, including my all-time celebrity crush and crossword superstar TERI GARR. Also, it's on YouTube in its entirety, so even though I imagine it is very bad, I am definitely going to watch it.

[Carol Burnett! Dabney Coleman! ... Charles Grodin!!!!]

• 3D: Skills of the past (LO[ST AR]TS) / 16A: Place to take a break (RE[ST AR]EA)— the only real tough thing about this puzzle would've been discovering this square. It didn't take me long. Got this answer down to LO-TS and the cross one as far as RE- and I just saw it. Most people aren't looking for rebus squares on any day but Thursday. Good to keep your mind open to the possibility on Wed. and Sun. as well.
• 6D: Org. concerned with plants (OSHA) — does it still exist? I have a hard time keeping up with what regulatory agency is being destroyed from day to day. The "plants" here confused me. I thought the puzzle was referring to "spies" ... only to have that very meaning of "plant" show up in a later clue (59D: Invasive plant? = SPY)
• 8D: Article of headgear, informally (LID) — "Hat." Just say "hat." "Article of headgear" is ridiculous. Unnecessarily wordy and confusing.
• 46D: 2019 sci-fi film whose name means "to the stars" (AD ASTRA) — never saw this, but I'm familiar with the Latin phrase. Nice bonus themer here (as is SULU, if you really want him to be) (57D: "Star Trek" character who was named for a sea in the Philippines)

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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