Big name in chicken or boxing / WED 12-17-25 / Centerpiece of "The Hobbit" / Group of grumps sitting around kvetching? / Just about anything on a string / What makes a stud become studious? / 1990s comedy inspired by "Emma" / Gary's ___ Towne Tavern (rival bar on "Cheers")

Constructor: Gary Larson and Doug Peterson

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: SPELL IT OUT (60A: Painstakingly explain something ... or a hint to 17-, 26- and 45-Across) — familiar phrases where "IT" has been changed to "OUT," creating wacky phrases:

Theme answers:

• POUTY PARTY (17A: Group of grumps sitting around kvetching?) (from "pity party")
• CHAMPS AT THE BOUT (26A: Ali vs. Frazier, e.g.?) (from "champs [not chomps] at the bit")
• SPOUT IN THE OCEAN (45A: Welcome sight on a whale-watching cruise?) (from "Spit in the Ocean")

Word of the Day: "Spit in the Ocean" (see 45A) —

: poker in which each player is dealt a hand of cards facedown and combines them with cards faceup on the table to make a poker hand

specifically : a game in which each player is dealt four cards, a fifth card is faced on the take, and the faced card and all others of the same rank are wild

• • •

Normally a big fan of Doug's puzzles, but this one didn't quite get over the hump for me. Is that even an expression? "Get over the hump"? It felt right in my head, but it looks wrong in the light of day. But back to the puzzle—the theme here isn't as funny as I'd want a Wacky Puzzle to be. Somehow I'd expect the "IT"-to-"OUT" answers to pack more punch, or to be much, much wackier. The winner today is CHAMPS AT THE BOUT, I think, though champs simply *being* at the bout doesn't make for the liveliest of images. The other two are shrugs. They fit the bill, they follow directions, but the resulting wackiness just isn't Big enough. All of the base phrases today feel a little old-fashioned. Part of this is because I haven't played (and haven't really heard the term) Spit in the Ocean since I was a teenager (in the OLDE days, when Cheers was still on the air). I also can't remember the last time I heard "pity party." "Champs at the bit" is current enough, I guess. Or maybe timeless—though it was probably a more resonant saying when the culture was more horse-oriented (both transportation-wise and sports spectatorship-wise). Horse-racing was the most popular thing in the sports pages besides boxing and baseball in the early part of the 20th century, and while all those sports have fallen in popularity in recent years, horse-racing has arguably fallen the most. This has nothing to do with the quality of CHAMPS AT THE BOUT as a theme answer. I'm just trying to figure out why the themers are giving off a mild yesteryear vibe. References to Cheers and Clueless and Get Smart also fix this puzzle's center of gravity firmly in the last century. It was a perfectly good century, so I'm not mad, but the puzzle just felt like it lacked a certain currency and vibrancy.

The fill wasn't helping brighten things up much. The grid is dominated by what are essentially nine sections of 3-4-5s—three across the top, center, and bottom. Hard to squeeze a lot of excitement out of so much short stuff, and today's short stuff tends to OOZE rather than sparkle, shine, or some other more energetic word. There's nothing really bad about it. It's just deadening in its familiarness. Another day, another UBOAT, another OBOE, another [choke, gag] SESH. Maybe the idea was to make the fill as simple as possible so that people wouldn't have such a hard time working out the wacky themers. On the whole, I wanted this one to try harder. Sometimes I do a themed puzzle and I think "whoa, whoa, easy, you're Trying Too Hard!" (TTH™). But this feels like not trying hard enough. Were these the best IT-to-OUT options available? Could the fill not have been brought closer to a boil? The puzzle is best in the longer non-theme answers, which is often the case. Today's are solid, but there are only four of them (TRUE-TO-LIFE SUBURBAN in the NE, CLUELESS APOLOGIZED in the SW). Six letters is what passes for a "longish" answer in this puzzle, but there are also only four of those. So this puzzle feels like a placeholder. It's puzzle-shaped, it ticks all the essential boxes for crossword puzzleness, but it's not giving me anything special. Again, it doesn't seem to be really trying.


Weirdly wanted UPDOS at 1A: Lock combinations? (COIFS), only to have it appear a few seconds later (in singular form) at 24D: Red carpet hairstyle, perhaps (UPDO). I would never have guessed that Yamaha made OBOEs if I hadn't had that "B" in place. With the "B" in place, it was pretty obvious. They make pianos (and probably other instruments), why not OBOEs? I don't think I got held up much anywhere today. I thought the [Centerpiece of "The Hobbit"] (QUEST) was the SHIRE, so that slowed me down a bit. I had HAM IT (bad) before HAM UP (better) (27D: Overplay for the audience). REPEL took me a while because I can't really imagine how [Throw off] works as a clue. I suppose if you literally throw someone off of you, you REPEL them (?), but "Throw off" usually suggests "mislead," or else you could "throw off" the (hopefully metaphorical) chains that bind you, but even then, REPEL isn't really the right synonym. The "Throw off" / REPEL equivalency eluded me today. I also had no idea that HYATT was "H" on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange), so I just waited for crosses there. The only real challenge in the puzzle involved working out the themers, which is pretty typical for a Wednesday, now that I think about it.

Bullets:

• 15A: Turner of old movies (LANA) — not my favorite actress, but a fine one. She's in several movies I really love, namely The Postman Always Rings Twice (with John Garfield) (1946) and The Bad and the Beautiful (with Kirk Douglas) (1952). She's also in one of my favorite poems. From one of my favorite collections (Lunch Poems (1964)), this is Frank O'Hara's "Poem (Lana Turner Has Collapsed!)": 

Lana Turner has collapsed!
I was trotting along and suddenly
it started raining and snowing
and you said it was hailing
but hailing hits you on the head
hard so it was really snowing and
raining and I was in such a hurry
to meet you but the traffic
was acting exactly like the sky
and suddenly I see a headline
lana turner has collapsed!
there is no snow in Hollywood
there is no rain in California
I have been to lots of parties
and acted perfectly disgraceful
but I never actually collapsed

oh Lana Turner we love you get up

(poetryfoundation dot org) 

• 3D: What makes a stud become studious? (IOUS) — it also makes Ted tedious. I don't know why you'd turn a perfectly good (or at least recognizable) word (IOUS) into a mere string of letters. Cluing IOUS this way feels awful, but it is also probably more interesting than anything you were apt to get from the more conventional stock of IOU clues. There's something perverse about this clue that I half-admire. To its credit, unlike much of the puzzle, this clue actually does seem to be trying.
• 42D: Suffix with beat or neat (NIK) — look, you get one suffix per puzzle and this puzzle decided to blow it on IOUS, so NIK is even more unwelcome than usual today.
• 25D: Jost's longtime "Weekend Update" co-anchor (CHE) — I have not been an SNL watcher for a long time, so I'm not that familiar with the Jost/CHE incarnation of "Weekend Update," but I'm more familiar with Michael CHE today than I was yesterday at this time because yesterday I listened to the latest episode of comedian Mike Birbiglia's podcast "Working It Out," and CHE was the featured guest. It's a funny and illuminating interview, esp. if you are at all into comedy. I like Birbiglia's interviews with other comedians because while they're funny (as you'd expect/hope) they can be charmingly earnest and frequently really technical—like, in-the-weeds stuff about composing jokes and working on material etc. Lots of good stuff about the creative process. Anyway, this talk with CHE is cool.

• 26D: Food you might eat wearing a bib (CRABS) — the "food" is CRAB. The countable creatures are CRABS. Something about the plural here felt weird (given the clue). Personally, I'd rather see CRAGS / GULL than CRABS / BULL. CRAGS has the advantage of not being another name for pubic lice. 
• 38D: 1990s comedy inspired by "Emma" (CLUELESS) — happy birthday to Jane Austen, who turned the big 2-5-0 just yesterday!
• 47D: Just about anything on a string (CAT TOY) — loved this clue, mostly because I had no idea what it could possibly be until I got enough crosses, and then I saw it and thought "oh yeah, that's true." But honestly, you don't need to put anything actually on the string. The one object in the house that my cat Alfie is most obsessed with is a simple piece of string (twine, really) that we keep in a kitchen drawer. He knows the sound of the drawer. If you even stand near the drawer for more than a few seconds, he comes trotting over. You can drag the string around and make him chase it, but you can also just put it down and he'll just happily drag it around the house. The whole CAT TOY industry is unnecessary. This goes for CAT BEDs as well. Ida sleeps happily in the cardboard container that her cat litter came in. Often there's a comfy blanket nearby, but nope, box wins.

Speaking of pets, it's time for 🌲🐈Holiday Pet Pics🐕🌲 now. Note: PLEASE DO NOT SEND ME ANY MORE PET PICS, I'M ALL FULL UP FOR THIS YEAR, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.

 

This is Nimbus. What did I tell you about cats and boxes?! 

[Thanks, Uday!]

Here are Caroline and Nina. Add a wreath and voilà, instant "holiday" spirit. I am told that Caroline and Nina are "torbies," which is (allegedly) a mash-up of "tortoise shell" and "tabby." One of these cats seems happy with this sleeping arrangement. The other seems ... unsure. She might be leaving soon. Or hatching a plot for blanket dominance, we'll never know.

[Thanks, Mac!]

Here are Juno (lab), Stella (sweater), and Laila (crazy eyes) doing their best Three Magi imitation. "O Come Let Us Adore Him*" (*dog treats)

[Thanks, Theresa!]

Giulia and Piper hear reindeer on the roof! (this is how I've chosen to make sense of this as a "Holiday" picture):

[Thanks, Marilee!]

Lastly, a pair of opposing pet personalities from Monica. First, there's the diffident GIULIA, who would prefer not to be part of whatever "Holiday" photo scheme you've got cooked up. You may take her picture from there, but do not come closer.

And then there's dopey Duke, who will do whatever you want, sure, antlers, whatever, just tell him he's a good boy!

[Thanks, Monica!]

That's it. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Ancient Greek tunic / SUN 10-26-25 / Difficulty, to Hamlet / Toy with "barista" and "dog trainer" versions / Sci-fi series with J, K and Zed / Recognition for an ardent fan? / One assessing the number of hotties at a party? / Breed of Smoky, the first known therapy dog, familiarly / Holiday celebrated with banh chung / "Frozen" character who says "I like warm hugs"

Constructor: Gary Larson and Doug Peterson

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "Talkin' 'Bout My Generation" — familiar phrases clued as if the first word were a slang term from a specific generation (the generation in question is indicated in parentheses at the end of each clue):

Theme answers:

• RIGHT ON TIME (23A: "Great job selecting a Person of the Year!"? (Boomer))
• CHILL IN THE AIR (32A: Relax on a plane? (Gen X))
• GHOSTBUSTERS (48A: Abruptly end all communications with D.E.A. agents? (Millennial))
• STAN LAUREL (68A: Recognition for an ardent fan? (Gen Z))
• FLY BY NIGHT (71A: Awesome after dark? (Gen X))
• SNACK COUNTER (87A: One assessing the number of hotties at a party? (Gen Z))
• SHIPPING LANES (104A: Promoting a romantic connection between characters played by actors Nathan and Diane? (Millennial))
• SPLIT SECOND (116A: Leave just after the first person? (Boomer))

Word of the Day: CHITON (95A: Ancient Greek tunic) —

A chiton (/ˈkaɪtɒn, -tən/; Ancient Greek: χιτών, romanized: khitṓn [kʰitɔ̌ːn]) is a form of tunic that fastens at the shoulder, worn by men and women of ancient Greece and Rome. There are two forms of chiton: the Doric and the later Ionic. According to Herodotus, popular legend was that Athenian women began to wear the chiton as opposed to the peplos after several women stabbed a messenger to death with the bronze pins characteristic of the peplos. [...] Herodotus states the dress of the women in Athens was changed from the Doric peplos to the Ionic chiton after the widows of the men killed on military expedition to Aegina stabbed and killed the sole survivor with their peplos pins, each demanding where their husband was. This lynching 'seemed a thing more terrible than the disaster'. Thereafter their chitons were held with buttons, often styled with the face of the Gorgon. (wikipedia)

• • •

This is cute, I guess. I just wish the theme had been ... tighter, somehow. I was expecting the slang to all mean the same thing (i.e. cool, rad, awesome ... you know, in the same vein), or to have something in common besides just being slang. But no. It's just punny clues for familiar phrases, where the first word of the phrase is reimagined as slang belonging to (or characteristic of) a particular generation. I use most of these terms pretty readily. Not FLY, SHIPPING, or SNACK, but the rest of them, no problem, no irony. Some slang just works and some just feels wrong in your mouth and is never gonna feel right. I really thought "Stan" predated Gen Z. The clue says "Gen Z" but ... Gen Z were barely born (or not born at all) when the song "Stan" was released (2000). The noun meaning of "stan" ("ardent fan") appears almost immediately thereafter—OED says it appeared in New Musical Express (NME) in 2000, so ... yeah, that's fast. The first example of "stan" as a verb (meaning "to be an ardent fan of") doesn't appear in print until 2008, but either way, it seems like that bit of slang belongs more naturally to Millennials than Gen Zers. This is all to say that some slang feels very much of a (particular) generation and some of it just takes off among the general population and kind of loses its generational stink. "Right on" does feel a little dated, I guess, but "split" feels like slang that's been around forever and will be around forever. Of course I'm Gen X so younger people might be reading that last sentence going "bruh ... no one says 'split' any more."

The puzzle was easy enough to move through, though I got oddly hung up at a patch of squares right around the DEBT part of OLD DEBT (24D: Collector's item?). I was like "well, collectors collect lots of 'old' things, so ... this clue isn't helping. The adjacent RUEFUL also was not at all easy for me to get (42D: Shamefaced); and adjacent to that, I had TV HOST before I had TV STAR. So there was this weird hole in my grid for a bit until I was able to drive GHOSTBUSTERS through there, which gave me the "B" in OLD DEBT, and then I was good. Other mistakes included "AYE AYE" before "AYE SIR" and ELSA before OLAF (damned "L"!) (45A: "Frozen" character who says "I like warm hugs") and AMBIGUOUS before AMBIGUITY (46D: The headline "Kids Make Nutritious Meals," e.g.). I hesitated at NOM v. NOD, which is an AMBIGUITY (!) that feels like it's becoming more common (43A: Candidacy for an entertainment award, informally). That is, I feel like we've had both NOM and NOD clued as award recognitions in recent months, if not weeks. Yeah, we had NODS clued as [Award nominations, so to speak] earlier this month, though I guess there's no real AMBIGUITY there, as "nominations" is in the clue, so the answer would be NOMS. Anyway, you can get an Oscar NOM(ination) and you can get an Oscar NOD and they both mean the same thing. Which is why I left the last letter in NO_ blank today and just relied on the cross. I'm still not really sure how TIPS works as the answer to 12D: Tax code issues, annnnnnnd I think I just got it as I was typing this sentence. The TIPS are the income that servers make—like, how / whether to tax TIPS is a tax code issue. Got it.

The only thing in the grid that I've flat-out never heard of is CHITON, and I probably have heard of it. I've heard of lots of things that I promptly forget. CHITON has probably been in the puzzle before. . . wow, OK, yes, it has, but not since 2003, which is before my blogging days, so I don't feel so bad now. I thought that CHITON might be related to the letter CHI, which made me think CHIS (89D: X's, to Aphrodite) might be some kind of etymological dupe, but no, doesn't look like CHITON has anything to do with the letter "X." 

Bullets:

• 40D: Head honcho (TOP BANANA) — here's a funny thing I probably would never have noticed if not for solving crosswords: if you have just the last two letters in place for this answer ("-NA"), then there are not just two viable answers, but two viable answers that fit the (3, 6) pattern—today's correct answer (TOP BANANA) and also BIG KAHUNA, which OED tells me jumped from surfing slang (for a skilled surfer or a big wave) to general slang sometime in the mid-60s. The term seems to have been popularized, in part, by the Gidget film and TV series. TOP BANANA, on the other hand, is originally a theatrical term referring to "the leading comedian in a variety show or cabaret" (1947).

• 73A: Toy with "barista" and "dog trainer" versions (KEN DOLL) — I forgot how hard this answer was for me to get. "Toy" was never going to lead me to a doll or action figure. A "toy" that starts with "K"? ... I was at a loss. Because you're curious, here you go:

[Man Bun Ken!]

[Fanny Pack Ken!]

• 21A: Bob or Helen in "The Incredibles" (PARR) — old movies I could not remember the details of, Part 1. Part 2 was MIB (aka Men in Black) (54A: Sci-fi series with J, K and Zed)
• 79A: Difficulty, to Hamlet (RUB) — aye ... there it is. First instinct, weirdly: RUE (from Ophelia, "O you must wear your RUE with a difference"). And then RUEFUL ended up being in the puzzle. As I say, weird all around. 
• 32D: Jazz trumpeter Baker who was sometimes called the "Prince of Cool" (CHET) — yes, let's listen to some of that.

• 72D: Breed of Smoky, the first known therapy dog, familiarly (YORKIE) — Nearly made Smoky my word of the day. Let's see what we can find out about Smoky... rescued from a foxhole in New Guinea during WWII, she went on missions all over the South Pacific, and eventually became kind of famous. Seems like she was a therapy dog by accident, but whatever, it's a nice story. Look at this baby!

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Longest key on a keyboard / TUES 8-5-25 / First modular space station / Singer India.___ / Messy class for kindergartners

Hi, everyone, it’s Clare back this time for the first Tuesday in August! Not much to report given the shorter-than-usual turnaround. But we of course had some important sports this weekend, with the Washington Spirit soccer team winning on a last-minute goal from Trinity Rodman, returning after months out with a back injury. We’re less than two weeks away from the start of the Premier League. (As you may recall, my Liverpudlians won the title last year. I might have mentioned that once or twice.) And tennis is gearing up, with the US Open starting in less than three weeks! In other news, I don’t have a client interview tomorrow at 7 AM, so that’s a nice change of pace! 

Anywho, on to the puzzle…

Constructors: Gary Larson and Amy Ensz

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Punny answers where the article “a” can be read as separate from the rest of the next word to literally answer the clue, or the “a” can be read with the rest of the word

Theme answers:

• A/CUTE ANGLE (17A: Adorable perspective on things?) 
• A/SCENT OF MAN (28A: Axe or Old Spice?) 
• A/HEAD OF TIME (46A: Major newsmagazine's C.E.O.?) 
• A/CORN SHELL (61A: Taco tortilla option?)

Word of the Day: PAIGE (34A: Satchel in Cooperstown)  —

Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige (July 7, 1906 – June 8, 1982) was an American professional baseball pitcher who played in Negro league baseball and Major League Baseball (MLB). His career spanned five decades and culminated with his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. At age 42 in 1948, Paige made his MLB debut for the Cleveland Indians; to this day, this makes him the oldest debutant in National League or American League history. Paige was 59 years old when he played his last major league game, which is also a record that stands to this day. Paige was the first black pitcher to play in the American League and was the seventh black player to play in Major League Baseball. Also in 1948, Paige became the first player who had played in the Negro leagues to pitch in the World Series; the Indians won the Series that year. (Wiki)

• • •

Overall a pretty good theme, with some above-average, clever fill. I wouldn’t say the theme was anything to write home about, and I sort of missed having a revealer (not that it’s a requirement), but the answers were clever wordplay. The only one I didn’t like was A CORN SHELL / ACORN SHELL (61A) because I really don’t think that ACORN SHELL is in the lexicon. I’ve never talked about an ACORN SHELL in my life. Have you? My favorite was A CUTE ANGLE / ACUTE ANGLE (17A). 

The fill was quite clean and full of uncommon words, especially on a Tuesday. I really enjoyed seeing IMPETUS (23A: Driving force), STASIS (1D: Equilibrium), USURPS (3D: Seizes, as control, ARDENT (49D: Gung-ho), and TACOMA (2D: City that shares an international airport with Seattle). Then SAVES FACE (10D: Maintains one's dignity) and STEAM ROOM (33D: Spot to sit and sweat) weren’t bad long downs. I enjoyed having both TAHOE (54D: Chevy model whose name references a body of water) and RIO (62D: Kia model whose name references a body of water) in the puzzle. Having those close to OCEANS (47D: About 71% of the earth's surface) was clever. 

A few answers made this a slightly harder than usual Tuesday for me. I got stuck on SYNOD (5A: Church assembly) for some reason. I didn’t know ARLO (16A: Janis's spouse in the funny pages). I wasn’t previously familiar with PAIGE (34A), which I’ve now rectified with the Googling I’ve done and learning about what an amazing pitcher and player and person he was. I blanked on MICA (52A: Flaky rock), and TEA TREE (53A: Member of the myrtle family that's the source of an essential oil) was a little old-fashioned for me. 

I didn’t like how the top of the puzzle had STUB (1A: Leftover part of a ticket) and then STUD (10A: Support to which drywall is attached). I also have a big bone to pick with SMEAR (38A: Mascara mishap) because a mascara mishap is most definitely a smudge and not a smear. I even typed out “smudge” because I was so certain, before realizing it wouldn’t fit. I Googled to confirm, and if you search “mascara smear,” results about a smudge are all that come up. 

SPACE BAR (21A: Longest key on a keyboard) was cute. I was staring at my keyboard trying to think if it could be “caps lock” or “command,” wondering what would fit. But it was quite literally the longest key instead. That clue was a long way to go for COOP / CO-OP (22D: Certain apartment (with a hyphen) or farm housing (without one)), but I liked it.

Misc.:

• Here’s a quote from a Q + A with Willie Mays about Satchel PAIGE (wildly high praise from probably the best player in baseball history) —
• Oh, yeah. We were in Memphis, Tennessee. It was like a playoff game. It might have been ’48. Satchel had a very, very good fastball. But he threw me a little breaking ball, just to see what I could do, and I hit it off the top of the fence. And I got a double. When I got to second, Satchel told the third baseman, "Let me know when that little boy comes back up." Three innings later, I go to kneel down in the on-deck circle, and I hear the third baseman say, "There he is." Satch looked at the third baseman, and then he looked at me. I walk halfway to home plate and he says, "Little boy." I say, "Yes, sir?" because Satch was much older than I am, so I was trying to show respect. He walked halfway to home plate and said, "Little boy, I’m not going to trick you. I’m going to throw you three fastballs and you’re going to go sit down." And I’m saying in my mind, "I don’t think so." If he threw me three of the same pitch, I’m going to hit it somewhere. He threw me two fastballs and I just swung...I swung right through it. And the third ball he threw, and I tell people this all the time, he threw the ball and then he started walking. And he says, "Go sit down." This is while the ball was in the air. He was just a magnificent pitcher.
• My sister and I actually met Willie Mays because he gave out baseballs for Halloween in our neighborhood when we were kids. My dad really wanted to meet him, too, but we sprinted ahead because we were so excited. My dad just got to wave to Mays from partway up the driveway. Sorry, Dad! 
• I always love to see TAHOE (aka the prettiest place on Earth) in the puzzle. Especially seeing the weather forecasts recently in TAHOE (54D) versus D.C., I kind of want to move back. 
• I know ULNA (12D: Arm bone on the pinkie finger side) is common crosswordese. But I’ll never forget the name and placement of this bone, along with many others, solely because I went through a phase in high school where I downloaded apps to quiz myself on anatomy because I had been influenced by watching “Grey’s Anatomy” and wanted to be a doctor. That lasted until I took AP Bio my junior year and hated it, then did an internship at a hospital and… fainted my first time in an operating room. Glad I switched to law instead! 
• I’m not sure I’ve had TETLEY (51D: Brand for a cuppa) tea before, even as a tea drinker. I’m more familiar with Bigelow or Lipton or Twinings if I want to get fancy. But I seem to be able to order TETLEY (51D) online, so I may have to try it and will report back! 
• Speaking of sports… The US Track and Field Championships wrapped up last weekend with some incredible performances, including a 16-year-old who finished second in the 800m, setting a U-18 (and also collegiate) world record. There was drama with Noah Lyles and Kenny Bednarek, who pushed Lyles after losing to him in the 200m (there’s some behind-the-scenes drama there). Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone narrowly missed out on the American 400m record (her main event is the hurdles, where she already holds the world record). She’ll compete in the 400m at worlds and go for the American record again. Gabby Thomas, who won gold in the 200m at the Paris Olympics, made the team by finishing third, one-thousandth of a second ahead of fourth and two-thousandths of a second ahead of fifth. We like Gabby even though she went to a school whose name starts with H. We’re now just about six weeks away from the world championships.

And that's all from me, folks! Have a great August.

Signed, Clare Carroll, who when she needs a Lyft feels A LONG FOR THE RIDE

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Train in the Washington-Baltimore area / SUN 10-13-24 / Texter's shrug / Attack, medieval-style / ___ Le Gallienne, star of 1920s Broadway / ___ Owl, one of the superheroes in "Watchmen" / Flood-prone area

Constructor: Gary Larson and Doug Peterson

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "Manual Dexterity" — familiar phrases clued as hypothetical titles for "manuals" of various types, where the first part of the phrase is a rough synonym of "Understanding" ...

Theme answers:

• KNOWING THE SCORE (23A: Title for a tutorial on musical composition?)
• GOING OVER THE TOP (41A: ... a primer on playing dreidel?)
• PICKING UP STEAM (57A: ... a volume on vapor dynamics?)
• LEARNING CURVES (83A: ... a step-by-step guide for throwing breaking balls?)
• GETTING YOUR GOAT (97A: ... a handbook on raising kids?)
• TACKLING DUMMIES (120A: ... a D.I.Y. manual on other D.I.Y. manuals?)

Word of the Day: EVA Le Gallienne (91A: ___ Le Gallienne, star of 1920s Broadway) —

[in title role of Peter Pan]

Eva Le Gallienne (January 11, 1899 – June 3, 1991) was a British-born American stage actress, producer, director, translator, and author. A Broadway star by age 21, in 1926 she left Broadway behind to found the Civic Repertory Theatre, where she served as director, producer, and lead actress. Noted for her boldness and idealism, she was a pioneering figure in the American theater, setting the stage for the Off-Broadway and regional theater movements that swept the country later in the 20th century.

Le Gallienne devoted herself to the art of the theater as opposed to the show business of Broadway. She felt strongly that high-quality plays should be affordable and accessible to all people who wanted to see them. She ran the Civic Repertory Theatre for seven years (1926–1934), producing 37 plays during that time with a company whose actors included Burgess Meredith, John Garfield, Norman Lloyd, J. Edward Bromberg, Paul Leyssac, Florida Friebus, David Manners, Josephine Hutchinson, Alla Nazimova, Joseph Schildkraut, and Leona Roberts. [...] Le Gallienne starred as Peter Pan in the production that opened at the Civic Rep on November 6, 1928. The flying effects were superbly designed, and for the first time Peter flew out over the heads of the audience. The critics loved "LeG," as she became known, and more than a few favored her performance over that of Maude Adams, the first to play the role on Broadway. The Civic Repertory Theatre presented Peter Pan 129 times. [...] Le Gallienne was a lesbian, and was as open about her love of women as it was possible to be in her day. Robert Schanke, who published a biography of Le Gallienne in 1992, claimed that she struggled with her sexual orientation throughout her life. But, such assertions are contradicted by Le Gallienne's own letters and diaries, in which she wrote confidently about her romantic relationships with women. (wikipedia)

• • •

Blew through this with very little sense of what was happening. It took a while to register that these were hypothetical manual titles—the puzzle title didn't really register, so all I could see was a bunch of punny stuff happening. But you have a fairly tight and consistent theme here: the themers are all gerund phrases where the gerund can be a rough synonym of "understanding" and the object of the gerund is some noun that has (for the purpose of the pun) changed its original meaning (e.g. you have to reimagine the meaning of SCORE, THE TOP, etc.). On a very technical level, there's a certain amount of inconsistency when it comes to the pun changing the meaning of the terms in the base phrase. For instance, the KNOWING in KNOWING THE SCORE doesn't change meaning in the pun, only THE SCORE does, whereas the GOING OVER in GOING OVER THE TOP definitely changes meaning. The objects of the gerunds all change meaning in the puns except STEAM, which remains water vapor in the base phrase and the pun phrase. Ideally, both gerund and object of gerund change meaning in the pun, and that's what happens ... mostly. Well, two-thirds of the time. I told you this was all "very technical"! I think because the theme isn't terribly exciting, the technical inconsistencies are standing out to me. I will say that punwise, I really liked GOING OVER THE TOP, and I loved the punchline—that final themer is far and away the best themer, in that it's kind of a meta-themer, and it (appropriately) gets the place of honor there at the very end (bottom) of the puzzle. DUMMIES™ is a very popular series of instructional reference books, and yes, we all know it as the "FOR DUMMIES" series, but (technically!) the brand name is just "DUMMIES." Hey, according to wikipedia: "A spin-off board game, Crosswords for Dummies, was produced in the late 1990s." Anyone own that? (I'm almost certain Shortz does, but anyone else!?).

[That does, in fact, look dumb]

As for difficulty or sticking points today ... my printed-out / marked-up grid has almost no ink on it, which means nothing (much) happened. Nothing of note. There were no weirdnesses or slow patches or anything. I winced at the "word" ACTUATE (36A: Put into motion), but I don't have any other strong negative feelings. I don't have too many strong positive feelings either, though I do think a lot of the longer non-theme phrases are really solid. OIL CHANGE, "BELIEVE ME," INGRATES, SWAN SONG, LIMO RIDE, CUE CARDS. The puzzle's got good, if not particularly sparkly, bones. It just didn't make much of an impression on me one way or the other ... though there are a few moments that stood out. The very elaborate clue on NONE, for instance (31A: How many elements of the periodic table have the letter "J" in their names). This is the most useless trivia of all time—I love it! Why not? Make it strange! It's not like that clue slowed me down—only NONE FOUR FIVE and NINE would even fit in the space, so it's not like this clue's going to hold you up for very long ... any answer but NONE would've hardly seemed worth the clue. I guess at N-NE you could've thought, "I dunno, might be NINE," but come on: you can't name one ('cause there aren't any), and you think there might be NINE? Implausible. Calling attention to boring answers by making them super-hard: boo. Calling attention to them by making them weird as hell: hurray! 

[61D: Water brand whose name is an adjective in reverse (EVIAN)]

Other answers that stood out include TILT AT (as in windmills, as in Don Quixote, which technically isn't "medieval," though DQ is certainly imitating knights from the medieval romances he reads, so ... it works) (100D: Attack, medieval-style) and SAAG paneer (high-fived myself for remembering that one without any help from crosses) (25D: ___ paneer (Indian dish)). Earlier today, in a different puzzle, I also remembered that ALOO (on an Indian menu) meant "potato"—two for two with the Indian menu terms, despite not having had Indian cuisine in what feels like an awfully long time. NAAN (flatbread) ROTI (also flatbread) DAL (lentils) LASSI (yogurt drink) ATTA (flour)–these are your Indian food crossword staples, but occasionally you get a SAAG (spinach or other leafy green) or an ALOO (potato) or a BIRYANI (a seasoned rice dish) (three appearances, though one of those was spelled BIRIYANI, just FYI). PANEER, a type of curd cheese, has not yet appeared in the NYTXW, but now you're prepared for when it (inevitably) does.

Bullets:

• 50A: On which Maya Rudolph has played Kamala Harris, in brief (SNL) — "On which" is such a weird way to start a clue. Could you really not afford the ink (or real estate) it would take to write "Show on which..."? 
• 91A: ___ Le Gallienne, star of 1920s Broadway (EVA) — the one true "WTF" of the day. But relative obscurities are highly tolerable when they don't hold me up for that long, and when they end up being as fascinating as EVA Le Gallienne (see "Word of the Day," above). She was cover-of-Time big. Fame is bizarrely fleeting, even for the very famous. A few generations, and poof. Gone. Think about this the next time you're tempted to say, to someone much younger than you, "How could you not know ___?" 
• 104A: It's going around (ORBITER) — one of the few clues that took some work on my part. Nice misdirection, in that the clue looks like it wants a disease of some kind, but no, just something ... going around ... another thing (presumably a heavenly body of some sort). 
• 10A: Train in the Washington-Baltimore area (MARC) — Maryland Area Rail Commuter. News to me. The only MARC I know is painter MARC Chagall and painter Franz MARC. OK, I know a few more, but I had to look them up to remember. 

[Blue Horses, by Franz MARC (1911) (It's at the Walker in Minneapolis!? How exciting (to me). Definitely making a point of seeing this baby next time I'm in the Twin Cities (December!). I've been to Mpls dozens of times, how have I never been to the Walker? Crazy]

• 1D: Texter's shrug (IDK) — after IRL yesterday and IDK today, I feel like I should hold a mini-textspeak tutorial (like the Indian food tutorial, above). Maybe soon... (these tutorials are as much for myself as they are for you, frankly)
• 59D: King maker? (SERTA) — they (presumably) make "king"-sized mattresses.
• 
  116D: ___ Owl, one of the superheroes in "Watchmen" (NITE) — First, love the reference to one of the greatest works of sequential art ever produced. One of my favorite books of the 20th century (that includes all books, not just comics). Second ... well, sorry (not sorry) to bring this up, but ... uh, technically ... I mean technically technically ... NITE Owl (like Batman) is not a superhero. He's just a guy. No superhuman powers. See, the whole point is that the Watchmen are just ordinary humans who are inspired (by comics) to become masked crimefighters IRL. Eventually, because of a laboratory accident, a nuclear scientist (Dr. Jon Osterman) is radically transformed into a being (later named Dr. Manhattan) who does have superpowers, but those powers are so super that they actually make him scary af—beyond human comprehension, and ultimately uncontrollable—so the whole notion of what "super" means, and how "power" is used, really gets called into question by ... OK, see, I told you it was technical. Nevermind. Sure, NITE Owl is a "superhero," whatever, man. Close enough. 

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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