Tropical fruit with white flesh and a deep-red rind / FRI 7-24-26 / Guru's honorific / Cookware sometimes used over campfires / Group with defining traits? / Recipient of Emmys in different categories for the same role / Criminals in the oil industry? / Aperitif with black currant liqueur / Component that may emerge from Earth's asthenosphere

Constructor: Geoffrey Schorkopf

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: MANGOSTEEN (49A: Tropical fruit with white flesh and a deep-red rind) —

Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana), also called mangostan or purple mangosteen, is a tropical evergreen tree with edible fruit native to the Malay Peninsula and Borneo. It has been cultivated extensively in tropical Asia since ancient times. It is grown mainly in Southeast Asia, southwest India and other tropical areas such as Colombia, Puerto Rico and Florida, where the tree has been introduced. The tree grows from 6 to 25 m (19.7 to 82.0 ft) tall.

The fruit of the mangosteen is sweet and tangy, juicy, somewhat fibrous, with fluid-filled vesicles and an inedible, deep reddish-purple colored rind (exocarp) when ripe. The fragrant edible flesh that surrounds each seed is the endocarp, i.e., the inner layer of the ovary. The seeds are of similar size and shape to almonds.

The genus Garcinia also contains several less-known fruit-bearing species, such as the button mangosteen (G. prainiana) and the charichuelo (G. madruno). (wikipedia)

• • •

Here we go—a puzzle right out of the Robyn Weintraub playbook (high compliment). Fifteen (15!) marquee answers (8+ letters long) zipping here there and everywhere, with a grid built for flow. Those NW and SE corners are a little cut off from everything else, but otherwise, the puzzle has a wide-open feel, giving you lots of opportunities to come at any one section. Some late-week grids feel claustrophobic, and some feel airy, and this one definitely belonged to the latter group. Further, the marquee answers were all at least solid, and occasionally sparkly. A ton of flashy long stuff, with the short stuff just holding it in place without calling too much (bad) attention to itself—that's what I like in a Friday puzzle. Again, things are generally coming in way too easy on Fridays these days, but this one was at least regular-easy, maybe even Easy-Medium. I had to wrestle with it a little, here and there, and as long as there's a little fight in a Friday puzzle, I'm good. The brightness and whoosh are the important things, and this puzzle had those in abundance.

HERE'S THE THING ... seriously, here it is. That's it. That's the thing. I love these little colloquial tidbits, intro phrases that drift off into an ellipsis ("HERE'S THE THING...," "BEFORE I GO..."), or urgent demands ("PUT THAT DOWN!") or even cliché aphorisms, if they're not too cloying ("LIFE'S TOO SHORT"). I like a puzzle that feels alive with the human voice. Attuned to slang (BINGE-WATCHING, WORD NERDS). Maybe a little silly (CLOWN NOSE). This puzzle has many moods—don't like one, keep going, there's another one around the bend. I was listening to an interview with crossword constructor (and crossword book author) Natan Last yesterday, on the podcast Feedback (with Ira Madison III), and he was emphasizing the virtue of building grids that cover a wide range of interests. One of the phrases he used was "a full meal"—the puzzle should feel like a full meal. It's a decent metaphor—different courses, different food groups, different textures and flavors, maybe a cocktail or wine or an aperitif (or digestif), dessert, coffee, after-dinner mint. A taste odyssey. When a puzzle stays in one SEAM, or seems to lean into only one time period (old or current), or when the vocabulary is just ... vocabulary, just ordinary (or arcane) words from the dictionary, then meh, I'm not as interested. But today ... I can put up with a decent number of stray KIRs and SRIs and CNETs when the meat of the puzzle is this tasty.

Started out bad with XRAY at 1A: Bit of radiological work (SCAN). Too specific! My dad was a radiologist, so I got carried away. When is ANGIOGRAM going to be in the puzzle!? Oh, look, it already was—once, in 2018. One of the funniest bits of ephemera preserved from my childhood is a piece of paper on which I've written (age 6?) a kind of permission slip allowing one of my stuffed animals to go home from the hospital. The title, if I remember correctly: "Doggy's ANGIOGRAM: slip to go home." Impressive vocabulary for a small child, but maybe not for the small child of a radiologist. Before you get too impressed, please keep in mind that one of the vital statistics on said "angiogram" was "Heart Bumps." Apparently no one had taught me the word "pulse" yet. 

I thought the [Silly sorts] at 7-Down were ASSES but then they ended up being GEESE but then, immediately thereafter, an ASS appeared (9D: Jack of jenny)—the fastest malapop* I've ever experienced. The only real trouble I had up top involved writing in BAN instead of "BUT..." at (27A: Start of a protest). "BAN the Bomb!" was the kind of "protest" I had in mind. I can't be the only person who made that error today. Those two little (wrong) squares really gummed up both of the long Downs they cross ("PUT THAT DOWN!," DUTCH OVENS). I was like "'EAT THAT ... something'? BENCH OVENS?" No and no. I would never put DUTCH OVENS and campfires together in the same mental universe, but that's probably just because I haven't been camping in thirty years and our dutch oven is by Le Creuset and way Way too heavy to bring on a camping trip. Now that I'm looking at pictures, yes, I've seen pots like this suspended over fires.

I had "PUT THAT AWAY!" before "PUT THAT DOWN!" though that didn't last long thanks to LEANN Rimes. The one thing that really got me today, besides BUT (not BAN), was MANGOSTEEN (49A: Tropical fruit with white flesh and a deep-red rind). I had MANGO and thought, "well ... there's your tropical fruit, what more do you want, clue!!?" But apparently the mango has a relative. Last name Steen. Lives on the Malay Peninsula or else in Borneo. Funny (in an ironic and slightly mocking sort of way) that MANGOSTEEN is under WORD NERDS today, since this word nerd did not know it at all. 

[Jan Steen (no relation)]

Bullets:

• 35A: Spanish diminutive suffix (-ITO) — we were discussing Spanish diminutive suffixes just yesterday, with "fonditas." This caused me to write in "-ITA" before quickly remembering that Spanish suffixes have genders, and so I pulled the final vowel and waited for the cross.
• 53A: 2019 Grammy-winning album for Tyler, the Creator (IGOR) — "Described by critics and Tyler himself as an album blending hip-hop, neo soul, R&B, funk, and pop, critics have also noted the album's use of synthesizers and lo-fi vocals. Thematically, Igor follows a narrative of a love triangle between the titular character and his male love interest. The album employs the "Igor" literary archetype to explore themes associated with love, such as heartbreak, loss, and jealousy." (wikipedia). It's a good album, and it's got a very memorable cover:

There are also alternative covers, same color scheme, equally memorable:

• 28A: "Mark Twain" biographer Chernow (RON) — he is perhaps slightly better known as the Alexander Hamilton biographer. For reasons.
• 38A: Drinks are on me! (BAR CAR) — my favorite clue of the day. The drinks are more likely "in" than "on" the BAR CAR, but since you're "on" board a train at that point, I think "on" is fine.
• 34D: Gay ___ (1970s movement) (LIB) — the only time I've ever heard used "LIB" irl, when it wasn't coming out of some mouth-breathing extremely-online dipshit conservative guy's mouth, is in the phrase "Women's LIB." If people were ever saying "Gay LIB," it was before my time / out of my earshot. 
• 47D: "Is the whole world against me?" ("ET TU?") — kind of a clever and slightly toughish way to clue this particular bit of crosswordese. "The whole world" and "you (tu) specifically" are very different things, obviously, but the sentiment in the clue and answer here are basically the same.
• 44D: Recipient of Emmys in different categories for the same role (ASNER) — just noticing how crosswordesey this SE corner really is. ADELE and ASNER, side by side, two seats down from ETTU. Again, I didn't really have a chance to notice this because the more beautiful parts of the puzzle were all I could think about. ASNER won three Supporting Actor Emmys for playing Lou Grant on The MTM Show, and then won two more Emmys, this time in the Best Actor category, for playing the same role in the spinoff, named simply Lou Grant.

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*a "malapop" is when you enter a wrong answer that ends up being a correct answer somewhere else in the grid  

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Peabody-winning journalist Steve / FRI 5-8-26 / Ding thing? / Tuber that's the source of tapioca / Mammoth's home, for short / It's usually followed by an "s" / Humor without a traditional punchline / Cartoonist who popularized the Democratic donkey / Where to see fresh coats of white? / One of two in Raphael's "Sistine Madonna"

Constructor: Rafael Musa and Geoffrey Schorkopf

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Steve KROFT (51A: Peabody-winning journalist Steve) —

 

Stephen F. Kroft (born August 22, 1945) is an American retired journalist who was a long-time correspondent for 60 Minutes. His investigative reporting garnered widespread acclaim, winning him three Peabody Awards and nine Emmy awards, including one for Lifetime Achievement in 2003. [...] In 1990, he became the first American journalist to be given extensive access to the contaminated grounds of the Chernobyl nuclear facility, and his story won an Emmy.^[8] After allegations of infidelity surfaced in the 1992 presidential election, then-Governor Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, gave an exclusive interview to Kroft. The interview was one of the defining moments in the election. [...] Kroft asked Clint Eastwood how many children he has while interviewing the highly secretive actor in 1997. When Eastwood responded "I have a few," Kroft broached the subject with a declarative question: "Seven kids with five women, right?"—actually a conservative estimate, but at the time an unprecedented statement. Eastwood did not answer and stared at Kroft in silence for 30 seconds. [lol] (wikipedia)

• • •

This was fun, but way harder than I'm used to Friday puzzles being of late. No whoosh or zoom for me today, as three out of the four quadrants involved some amount of struggle today. Of the longer answers, SEX MANUALS and "WHEN IN ROME..." went in pretty easily, but all the rest had me stopping and thinking. Only the NE corner, the last section I solved, ended up being relatively easy, and that's because I. had the bottom of those longer answers already built—the SKIP from SKIP STONES went up into that corner and everything worked out from there. But back to the beginning—yeesh and yikes, that little 3x4 section at the far NW was very, very hard for me to nail down. -A-ESON (1A: Criticizes, in modern lingo) + -TT- (1D: It's usually followed by an "s") + -S- (19A: Hollywood is on it: Abbr.) + -EX- (3D: Ding thing?) had me worried I was losing my mind. Eventually I got HTTP and HATES ON and it all fell, but every clue in there had me mystified for a bit. Elsewhere, the plural of MED SCHOOLS was hidden / invisible (28D: Where to see fresh coats of white?), so even though I wanted SCHOOLS, I pulled it. I had no idea who Steve KROFT was (turns out, I know who he is, but only by face, not by name). So the SW corner fought me a little as well. 

And then there was the SE corner, which was giving me nothing until I finally got to a gimme: KOFI (54D: ___ Annan, former U.N. secretary general). I was able to build back from there, through the gratuitous Taylor Swift reference, through RONDA (another answer, like MED SCHOOLS, that I had but then pulled), back to ... MANIOC!? (46D: Tuber that's the source of tapioca). LOL, "She's a MANIOC, MAAAAAANIOC!" I swear to god I wrote TAPIOC in there for a bit. I guess I've heard of MANIOC but hoo boy, not a front-of-the-brainer. I think I had CASAVA in there at some point too, and I was close: cassava is another name for MANIOC, but as you can see, "cassava" has two "s"s, not one. sigh. That "N" in MANIOC was elusive because I don't know what a Chilango is (someone from Chile, I'm guessing, now) [nope—a resident of Mexico City, lol, no hope of guessing that],  ... let's just say the missing tilde on that "N" is somehow extra grating today. SEÑOR. It's SEÑOR. Not SENOR. . . Pfft. OK, I think that's all the SORE SPOTS. Again, I think the grid is good today, I just was not prepared for this kind of a struggle on a normally breezy Friday.

Today's marquee answers are more than up to the job (that job: being sexy and/or flashy and/or generally interesting). ANTI-COMEDY was the only thing that landed with a thud for me, mostly because I don't really believe in it (11D: Humor without a traditional punchline). It's still comedy, right? I'm not sure which comedians are allegedly anti-comedians. The two main figures who get cited on the ANTI-COMEDY wikipedia page are Andy Kaufman and Norm Macdonald ... yeah, OK, that helps a little. Still, "subverting normal joke structure" is just a form of comedy. Subverting normal structures is a standard thing that happens within all arts. I just think ANTI-COMEDY is a stupid label. A real term, but a dumb one. But this is a personal opinion, not a genuine fault with the puzzle. And as I say, the other longer answers really sing. SKIP STONES, SINK HOLE, "WHEN IN ROME..." ... I love that SEX MANUALS and STARTER KIT are in symmetry. Makes me wonder what kind of STARTER KIT we're talking about. What kind of "gear" you got there, buddy? (30D: First gear?).

Bullets:

• 17A: One away from one's duties? (TAX EXILE) — at first I thought this was going to be something about going AWOL, but no, "duties" = taxes. Really thought throwing TAX into that far NW corner was going to bring it right down, but even with the "X," as I said above—rough going up there.
• 18A: French exit (SORTIE) — literally the French word for "exit." The clue is playing on this meaning of "french exit": "a departure from a location or event without informing others or without seeking approval"

• 48A: Mammoth's home, for short (NHL) — I forget which team this is. LOL there's a Utah Mammoth now? Yes, since 2024, there is. My sports IQ really fell through the floor when I gave up network/cable TV (and therefore ESPN).

• 3D: Ding thing? (TEXT) — as someone who has all sounds on his phone turned O-F-F (because they are a public nuisance), this clue really really missed me. SEXT seemed more likely, somehow (Does "Ding" have sexual implications? Maybe not. But somehow, with the winky little "?" at the end of the clue, it feels like it does...) 

• 10D: Accessory turned down on a cap (EARLAP) — never gonna get over how this is basically the same thing as EAR FLAP. Like, someone was just lazy and didn't want to say or write the "F" and so now we've got a stupid variant (not sure which spelling is the variant, actually). Literally, the meaning of EARLAP is EARFLAP. Come on. Can we not collectively agree to throw one of these terms in the sea?
• 39D: ___ Theatre, Atlanta art house named for a fictional estate (TARA) — the "estate" here is the one from Gone With the Wind. Feels like the clue is going out of its way not to mention Gone With the Wind, possibly because it sentimentalizes the "Old South," but the clue somehow has the opposite effect, highlighting the title by referring to it elliptically. Anyway, if you are unfamiliar with Gone With the Wind lore and don't live in Atlanta, I imagine this clue might've been baffling. TARA used to be clued almost exclusively as this estate, or as a place in Ireland. These days, it's much more likely to be someone's name—historically, skater TARA Lipinski has dominated (since her first appearance in 1998), but actress TARA Reid has gotten a lot of play (disproportionate to her actual fame, one might argue), and writer TARA Westover (Educated) also appears from time to time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Derisive term for unattractive public sculptures / FRI 2-6-26 / Classic mixed drink developed in Singapore / "Hearts are ___ for the breakin'" (Taylor Swift lyric) / Dwelling that epitomizes simple living / Phenomenon through which luxuries become necessities / Home improvement site, after a 2021 rebranding / Simone Biles or Tom Brady, acronymically / Stage name of South Korean rapper Park Jae-sang / Finishes a season, say

Constructor: Geoffrey Schorkopf and Rafael Musa

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: TINY HOME (35D: Dwelling that epitomizes simple living) —

The tiny-house movement (also known as the small house movement) is an architectural and social movement promoting the reduction and simplification of living spaces. Tiny homes have been promoted as offering lower-cost and sometimes eco-friendly features within the housing market, and they have also been promoted a housing option for homeless individuals.However, the lack of clearly defined features and legality in many cases can cause issues for ownership, including being more expensive for the amount of area, vulnerability to natural disaster, lack of storage, difficulty hosting, smaller or lacking traditional home appliances, and legal and or zoning issues.

There is some variation in defining a tiny home, but there are examples and they are usually based on floorspace. However, tiny homes do not have clearly defined features and may be mobile and may or may not have traditional home features. One definition, according to the International Residential Code, a tiny house's floorspace is no larger than 400 square feet (37 m²). In common language a tiny house and related movement can be larger than 400 ft² and Merriam-Webster says they can be up to 500 ft² . One architectural firm used a threshold of 600 ft² to define a tiny home. (wikipedia)

• • •

There's lots to like in this, but there is a largeish rectangular patch in the NW that ended up being both ugly and alien to me. And hard. Harder than the rest, anyway. The rectangle is bordered on the south by HARD HAT (32A: Mason, e.g.) and on the east by GIN SLING (8D: Classic mixed drink developed in Singapore). Actually, it's half that rectangle. It's more of a triangle, with the three points being the "H" in HARD HAT and the "G"s at the front and back of GIN SLING. Everything inside that triangle (roughly) was a (tiny) nightmare for me. The epicenter of the nightmare was the completely off-putting (and completely unknown to me) PLOP ART (7D: Derisive term for unattractive public sculptures). It's like a bird shit all over the puzzle. At least, I'm assuming that's what the "plop" part of PLOP ART refers to, right? Bird shit? Don't birds shit on all public art, not just the sculptures you think are "unattractive?" I get that it's playing on the term "pop art," but the shittiness of "plop" is ICK on every level. [wikipedia says that the "plop" part refers to sculpture that seems to have been "plopped" thoughtlessly where it lies, but wikipedia also says the term PLOP ART "holds connotations to excrement"]. I was left wondering what horrid, rotting wordlist that answer crawled out from under. 

That second "P" in PLOP ART took forever, because ...  well, primarily because of WRAPS (20A: Finishes a season). I had no idea what sense of "finishes" (or "season") the clue wanted, and was getting no help from 1, 2, 3 of the crosses. PLOP ART, obvs, no help. Then there's the "Taylor Swift lyric." God knows I have been more than accommodating to the general enSwiftification of the puzzle over the past decade or so, but you're not even giving me the song titles now? Just ... "Taylor Swift lyric?" Are hearts HERE for the breakin'? HELD for the breakin'? I don't know. In retrospect, HERS seems obvious, but while solving, no, that was not the case. The last answer keeping WRAPS from going in was GPS WATCH. I had the GPS, but ... I didn't even know GPS WATCH was a thing, so I was stuck. I also don't really get what "word play" is supposed to be happening in the clue (5D: What gives you the time and place?). Is that just a straightforward question? I've heard people say "name the time and place" or something like that, but the phrasing here evokes nothing very clear. So, yeah, now that I've written this out, the real killer for me in the NW was WRAPS—an answer I'm not actually mad at at all. But its vagueness made GPS WATCH, HERS, and PLOP ART (none of them appealing to me) tough for me to come up with.

GIN SLING was easy but clanked a bit in my ears. I know the SINGAPORE SLING. In fact, that's the only way I got SLING—by inferring it from the "Singapore" in the clue. SINGAPORE SLING would be a great answer. GIN SLING ... fine, but less great. As for HARD HAT, somehow in my head a "Mason" is either really old-timey (laying bricks and mortar with a trowel in, like, Dickensian times) or else belongs to a secret society. I don't picture him (or her, but in my mind's eye, def him) with a HARD HAT at all, and then there's the fact that I haven't heard a person referred to as a HARD HAT in I don't know how long. But yeah, def. 1b. at merriam-webster dot com = "construction worker." Anyway, getting from the clue to the answer there, rough for me. Once I exit that HARD HAT / GIN SLING Bermuda Triangle, though, things get a lot cleaner and more entertaining. IT'S A SMALL WORLD is solid, as is the bank of 8s it runs into (CONTRACT / TOTAL LIE  / STOP DEAD) (those last two aren't just solid, they're strong). I love the highs and lows of modern living represented by the crossing answers TINY HOME (35D: Dwelling that epitomizes simple living) and LIFESTYLE CREEP (49A: Phenomenon through which luxuries become necessities). Real yin/yang action there. "I don't need much" vs. "I need I need I need." Good stuff. BOSS BATTLE is boring and by now old (used four times already in the 2020s, including once just six weeks ago, by one of these same constructors (?!)), but "I'M SO SCARED" made me laugh (it could use and "ooh" on the front in order to be fully sarcastic, but I still like it). The SW corner is as solid as its NE counterpart. A real joy to move through about 3/4 of this puzzle. It's only the stuff ... emanating ... from PLOP ART that made me at all unhappy. 

Bullets:

• 59A: Home improvement site, after a 2021 rebranding (ANGI) — seen this before and am never gonna like it. Feels like the puzzle's doing PR work on this "rebranding." The site used to be "Angie's List." Now it's this awful adspeak / app-ified four-letter nightmare that evokes angina and angioplasty more than home improvement, imho. It's neo-crosswordese to me and I hate it.
• 56A: Simone Biles or Tom Brady, acronymically (G.O.A.T.) — Greatest Of All Time. I think it's weird to just state it as fact that the acronym applies. A "to some," is probably in order. This is esp. true with Tom Brady (I think Biles is pretty objectively the greatest to ever do it).

• 21D: Parliament constituent (OWL) — the collective term for OWLs is a "parliament." Because I studied Middle English literature in grad school, I knew Chaucer's poem Parlement of Foules (i.e. "Parliament of Fowls") before I ever knew the term "parliament" applied specifically to OWLs. Fun (and semi-timely) fact: Parlement of Foules is the likely origin of the association of St. Valentine's Day (Feb. 14) with lovers. 

The Parlement of Foules (modernized: Parliament of Fowls), also called the Parlement of Briddes (Parliament of Birds) or the Assemble of Foules (Assembly of Fowls), is a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340s–1400) made up of approximately 700 lines. The poem, which is in the form of a dream vision in rhyme royal stanza, contains one of the earliest references to the idea that St. Valentine's Day is a special day for lovers.

Oruch's survey of the literature finds no association between Valentine and romance prior to Chaucer. He concludes that Chaucer is likely to be "the original mythmaker in this instance." (wikipedia) 

• 23D: Entered a bear market (SLID) — first thought: "Ew, why are you going to a bear market, why are they selling bears, what do you need a bear for, bears should be free!" Then I thought of the stock market. And wrote in SOLD.
• 44D: Stage name of South Korean rapper Park Jae-sang (PSY) — as far as I know, PSY is known in this country for precisely one song ("Gangnam Style"), which was indeed mmmmmaaaaaasssssssiiiiiiivvvvve ... in 2012. Since 2012, I have thought about PSY and that song only when crosswords have forced me to.

• 51D: Modern name of the first National League champions (1876) (CUBS) — in 1876 they were the White Stockings. When they became the CUBS (around the turn of the (20th) century), the name "White Stockings" was adopted by the new American League team on the South Side of Chicago—this team became the modern Chicago White Sox.

[37D: Bring three suitcases to a weekend trip, say]

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. my bird-of-the-day calendar has entered the crossword chat

[OWLs … and they’re URAL (4)!]

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Fizzled out completely / TUES 12-30-25 / Fun word to shout into a canyon / Oblong tomato type / "Absolument!" / Climactic fight in a video game

Hi, everyone, it’s Clare for the last Tuesday of December — and the last Tuesday of 2025! Hope that everyone has had a happy holiday season and that everyone has a great start to their new year. I’ve been lounging around and baking a lot, watching sports a lot, working (a little), and reading as much as I can. Goodreads gave me a year-end review, and I’ve apparently read (or listened to) 127 books this year — so I guess I know what I’ve been doing in my free time! The books have certainly helped take my mind off the fact that my sports teams have been a bit dismal lately. Even if my Steelers squeak into the playoffs, they’d probably lose in the first game (again). 

Anywho, on to the puzzle…

Constructors: Geoffrey Schorkopf and Will Eisenberg

Relative difficulty: Medium (for a Tuesday)

THEME: BUY A VOWEL (60A: Spend money on "Wheel of Fortune" ... which won't help much for solving 17-, 21-, 36-, 41- and 53-Across!) — The circled letter in each theme answer is the only vowel present… and they appear in sequential order

Theme answers:

• LGBTQ FLAG (17A: Something to wave with pride?) 
• WENT PFFT (21A: Fizzled out completely) 
• BMX TRICKS (36A: Flashy cycling maneuvers) 
• NBC SPORTS (41A: "Sunday Night Football" producer) 
• PR STUNTS (53A: They're pulled to garner media attention, informally)

Word of the Day: RODIN (39A: "The Thinker" sculptor) —

François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 1840 – 17 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, and deeply pocketed surface in clay. He is known for such sculptures as The Thinker, Monument to Balzac, The Kiss, The Burghers of Calais, and The Gates of Hell… The Thinker is a bronze sculpture depicting a nude male figure of heroic size, seated on a large rock, leaning forward, his right elbow placed upon his left thigh, with the back of his right hand supporting his chin in a posture evocative of deep thought and contemplation. This universally recognized expression of "deep thought" has made the sculpture one of the most widely known artworks in the world. (Wiki)

• • •

And now… I’d like to solve the puzzle. 

This was a nicely executed theme with a cute revealer. I liked being able to look back at the puzzle and see the progression of the vowels, and I can appreciate the effort that went into finding so many theme answers that only had one vowel. That said, answers with only one vowel can look pretty strange. WENT PFFT (21A) is a seriously ugly answer. BMX TRICKS (36A) looks odd, too. And the other theme answers didn’t inspire me much. I also initially wondered why they chose not to make it the LGBTQIA flag (17A), then realized that would’ve had too many vowels. 

There was some nice longer fill. I liked AUSPICIOUS (9D: Like good omens) and SQUALL (13D: Sudden, powerful gust of wind). The clue for SEA BED (44A: Wet floor?) was really clever (once I finally got it). I found DROOL (33A: [That looks delicious …]) for some reason to be a fun clue/answer combo. And the world needs more GLITTER (8D: Hard-to-clean-up sparkly stuff). I got BOSS BATTLE (27D: Climactic fight in a video game) because I listened to the audiobook for “Dungeon Crawler Carl,” whose narrator does amazing voices and which made me laugh, so that was a fun callback. 

I didn’t know EDWIN (50D: Scientist Hubble with a telescope named after him) but was able to get the “w” from VOWEL (60A) and figured the rest out from there. I hadn’t heard the expression “And SO TO bed” (4D), so that looked very strange to me. ISOLA (19A: Sardinia, e.g., to Sardinians) made me pause. “Isle” and “isla” are common enough, but I didn’t know the Italian word for “island.” And I’ve never heard of the KARA Sea (46D: arm of the Arctic Ocean) before. I looked it up, and if my sources are accurate, KARA has only appeared in the Will Shortz era of the puzzles 12 times, including today. Only three of those appearances clued it as the KARA Sea — once in a Friday, once in a Sunday, and now once in a Tuesday puzzle. All that to say, I needed the crosses to get the word (which luckily weren’t too hard). 

Some of the rest of the fill was a letdown. Like having 40A and 45A both as "That’s not good!" — as OH NO and YIKES, respectively. As Rex says, if you have bad fill, don’t draw attention to it by doing things like doubling up on clues. And, as I’ve often said, I hate clues that are so ambiguous they could have a bunch of answers. XES IN (37D: Marks, as a ballot square) also looked particularly bad (though I understand the need for the X there). And the clue for SMILE (62A: Upside-down frown) really had me frowning.

Misc.:

• One of the gifts I got for Christmas from my parents was PJS (53D: Nightwear, informally) — or, rather, a PJ top. My mom didn’t realize the pieces were sold separately, so I will get the bottoms later. 
• I was talking with my dad and sister about the puzzle, and ELIDE (64A: Skip over, in speech) produced a funny family moment. While we were all sitting on the couch,, my sister said the word correctly, and my dad insisted she was wrong — e-LEED, he said. She told him he was often wrong about pronunciation, so he pulled up the internet to prove her wrong, and… she was right. 
• In the spirit of a year-end review, here are my top five books of the year, if you’re curious (in no particular order except the first one) — “The Everlasting” by Alix E. Harrow, “The Raven Scholar” by Antonia Hodgson, “Malice” by Keigo Higashino, “Hungerstone” by Kat Dunn, and “Blood Over Bright Haven” by M. L. Wang. Maybe you could find something to enjoy in there in 2026! 
• And finally, shoutout to Cooper’s owner, whom I met at a dog park in D.C. and who recognized Red from the crossword and asked me, “Is your name by chance ‘Clare’?” Cooper is a very cute doggo! And because I can’t end the year without another picture of my puppy, here’s Red at the beach on Christmas Eve.

I look forward to seeing you all in the new year!

Signed, Clr Crrll (who didn’t have enough money to buy a vowel)

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Czech lager, informally / TUE 12-10-24 / T-shaped contraceptive, for short / Rich liquid added to curries / Period of accountability since 2017 / Fitness discipline for thousands of years / Dramatic cry in paintball / Mythical lamp dweller / Doha dignitary / "No can do, lassie!"

Constructor: Brian Callahan and Geoffrey Schorkopf

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: MAKE-UP ARTISTS (14D: Some movie set workers ... or what you do when filling in the shaded squares?) — shaded squares are artist names turned "up" (i.e. they run backward inside Down theme answers), so when you fill them in, you "make" "artists" ... "up":

Theme answers:

• HATHA YOGA (33D: Fitness discipline for thousands of years) (Francisco GOYA)

• COCONUT MILK (5D: Rich liquid added to curries) (Gustav KLIMT)

• MIRROR IMAGE (24D: Reflection) (Joan MIRÓ)

• HEEL KICKS (10D: Taekwondo moves done with an outstretched leg) (Paul KLEE)

Word of the Day: HATHA YOGA (33D: Fitness discipline for thousands of years) —

Hatha yoga (/ˈhʌtə, ˈhɑːtə/; IAST: Haṭha-yoga) is a branch of yoga that uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel vital force or energy. The Sanskrit word हठ haṭha literally means "force", alluding to a system of physical techniques. Some hatha yoga style techniques can be traced back at least to the 1st-century CE, in texts such as the Hindu Sanskrit epics and Buddhism's Pali canon. The oldest dated text so far found to describe hatha yoga, the 11th-century Amṛtasiddhi, comes from a tantric Buddhist milieu. The oldest texts to use the terminology of hatha are also Vajrayana Buddhist. Hindu hatha yoga texts appear from the 11th century onward. [...] In the 20th century, a development of hatha yoga focusing particularly on asanas (the physical postures) became popular throughout the world as a form of physical exercise. This modern form of yoga is now widely known simply as "yoga". [...] In Western culture, Haṭha yoga is typically understood as exercise using asanas and it can be practiced as such. In the Indian and Tibetan traditions, Haṭha yoga integrates ideas of ethics, diet, cleansing, pranayama (breathing exercises), meditation and a system for spiritual development of the yogi. (wikipedia)

• • •

***ATTENTION: READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS IN SYNDICATION (if you're reading this in January, that's you!)*** : It's January, which means it's time once again for my annual week-long pitch for financial contributions to the blog. Every year I ask readers to consider what the blog is worth to them on an annual basis and give accordingly. Writing this blog is a joy, but it is also a job—an everyday, up-by-4am job. My morning schedule is regular as hell. So regular that my cats know my routine and will start walking all over me if I even *stir* after 3am. You ever lie there in the early morning, dying to simply roll over or stretch, but knowing that the second you do, the second you so much as budge, the cats will take it as a signal that you're through with sleep and ready to serve them? So you just lie perfectly still, trying to get every ounce of bedrest you can before the cats ruin it all? That's me, every morning. I guess you could say they "help" get me up on time to write, but come on, I have an alarm for that. The cats are adorable, but frankly they're no help at all. After I feed them, I go upstairs to write, and what do they do? They go straight back to sleep. Here I'll show you. This was two days ago, when I came downstairs after writing:

And this was yesterday, same time:

Those pictures are from two different days, I swear. And I'm guessing when I go downstairs this morning, I'll find much the same thing. They are beautiful creatures, but they cannot solve or type or bring me warm beverages. When it comes to blogging, I'm on my own. And look, I'm not asking for pity. The truth is, I love my life (and my cats), but the truth *also* is that writing this blog involves a lot of work. I get up and I solve and I write, hoping each day to give you all some idea of what that experience was like for me, as well as some insight into the puzzle's finer (or less fine) qualities—the intricacies of its design, the trickiness of its clues, etc. The real value of the blog, though, is that it offers a sort of commiseration. While I like to think my writing is (at its best) entertaining, I know that sometimes all people need is someone who shares their joy or feels their pain. If you hate a clue, or get stuck and struggle, or otherwise want to throw the puzzle across the room, you know I'm here for you, and that even if my experience is not identical to yours, I Understand! I understand that even though "it's just a puzzle," it's also a friend and a constant companion and a ritual and sometimes a Betrayer! I don't give you objective commentary—I give you my sincere (if occasionally hyperbolic) feelings about the puzzle, what it felt like to solve it. I can dress those feelings up in analytical clothes, sure, but still, ultimately, I'm just one human being out here feeling my puzzle feelings. And hopefully that makes you feel something too—ideally, something good, but hey I'm not picky. Whatever keeps you coming back! Hate-readers are readers too!

Whatever kind of reader you are, you're a reader, and I would appreciate your support. This blog has covered the NYTXW every day, without fail, for over eighteen (18!?) years, and except for two days a month (when my regular stand-ins Mali and Clare write for me), and an occasional vacation or sick day (when I hire substitutes to write for me), it's me who's doing the writing. Over the years, I have received all kinds of advice about "monetizing" the blog, invitations to turn it into a subscription-type deal à la Substack or Patreon. And maybe I'd make more money that way, I don't know, but that sort of thing has never felt right for me. And honestly, does anyone really need yet another subscription to manage? As I've said in years past, I like being out here on Main, on this super old-school blogging platform, just giving it away for free and relying on conscientious addicts like yourselves to pay me what you think the blog's worth. It's just nicer that way. 

How much should you give? Whatever you think the blog is worth to you on a yearly basis. Whatever that amount is is fantastic. Some people refuse to pay for what they can get for free. Others just don't have money to spare. All are welcome to read the blog—the site will always be open and free. But if you are able to express your appreciation monetarily, here are three options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar on the homepage):

Second, a mailing address (checks can be made out to "Michael Sharp" or "Rex Parker"):

Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905

The third, increasingly popular option is Venmo; if that's your preferred way of moving money around, my handle is @MichaelDavidSharp (the last four digits of my phone are 4878, in case Venmo asks you, which I guess it does sometimes, when it's not trying to push crypto on you, what the hell?!)

All Paypal contributions will be gratefully acknowledged by email. All Venmo contributions will get a little heart emoji, at a minimum :) All snail mail contributions will be gratefully acknowledged with hand-written postcards. I. Love. Snail Mail. I love seeing your gorgeous handwriting and then sending you my awful handwriting. It's all so wonderful. My daughter (Ella Egan) has once again designed my annual thank-you card, and once again the card features (wait for it) cats! 

Ida & Alfie, my little yin/yang sleepers! (They're slowly becoming friends, but don't tell them that—it makes them mad and they will deny it). Please note: I don't keep a "mailing list" and don't share my contributor info with anyone. And if you give by snail mail and (for some reason) don't want a thank-you card, just indicate "NO CARD." Again, as ever, I'm so grateful for your readership. Please know that your support means a lot to me and my family. Now on to today's puzzle... 

• • •

OK, I know I often say "quick write-up today" and then do a regular-sized write-up because apparently muscle memory and the strength of pure habit will not be denied, but today, Today it really will be short(ish), as I have a very (ridiculously) early final exam to give. I literally apologized to my students for the 8am start time ("I did not choose this time, it was randomly assigned to me, I'm so sorry"). I mean, the class itself usually starts at 8:30am, so it's not such a stretch for them to be up that early, but during Finals week ... they really should let students sleep and not start any exams til 9am at the earliest. But I digress. See, I digress, and then the write-up gets longer, and all of a sudden poof, it's a regular-sized write-up, and my best-laid plans for shortness lie in ruins. 

Moving on: the puzzle! Back-to-back days of clever concepts and solid fill. You love to see it! The revealer here requires a little creative syntactical and grammatical maneuvering ("make artists (go) up"), but by the Power of Greyskull, I mean Wordplay, I think it works just fine. Those are all artists (specifically painters) and their names all go "up" inside those shaded squares. Moreover, as an elegant bonus, those shaded squares touch every element in their respective themers, i.e. they bridge the two words (or word parts). Often in these "buried word" themes, you get theme answers that have these extraneous words that don't involve the "buried word" at all. Like if you were hiding "PRO"s and "CON"s in your answers and one of the answers was COCONUT MILK ... you see how "MILK" is just left hanging there? No involvement with the hidden word? That's just sad. You gotta bring all the theme-answer words into the mix, as this puzzle does. Hidden words should bridge *all* the words in their themers. This is my (often disregarded) rule! (handed down to me by the great Patrick Berry, as he was rejecting / offering feedback on one of my early constructing efforts). The theme answers themselves are also vivid and interesting, not just vehicles for reversed artist names. And the fill is rock solid. A fine effort overall.

I encountered almost no resistance today. I can't tell if that's because the puzzle is simply inherently easy, or if I just got really lucky with my first guesses—the solving equivalent of hitting all the green lights. I was careening along unimpeded, first guess after first guess going right in, thinking "how am I doing this? I feel like the wheels are gonna come off here any second." But with one exception, the wheels stayed firmly attached. The one exception actually came early, and my slowing down was due to a brain glitch on my part rather than the inherent difficulty of the puzzle. I couldn't get the second part of COCONUT ___ (!?!?!). Something about "Rich liquid" ... I dunno. Even with the assist from "added to curries," nothing was happening. Started before I had COCONUT, actually. I initially thought the liquid involved COCOA ... yeah, no idea what happened there. Weird how my brain can just fly through much tougher stuff but then spin out on obvious stuff like this. The MILK part crossed SWARM, which crossed MWAH, which crossed AHH, and all of those answers were, to varying degrees, a problem. AHH and AAH always both seem valid (44A: "That hits the spot!"). "MWAH!" feels one level of meaning removed from [You're gorgeous darling!]—sufficiently adjacent, but not a perfect fit—and SWARM, well, I don't feel bad about struggling there: that's the hardest clue in the puzzle (36A: Fly ball?) (because a SWARM = a "ball" of "flies" (or bees or gnats or what have you)). Do you see how this write-up is already approaching regular length? Do you? Moving on to "Bullet Points" now, and then Holiday Pet Pics (yay!) and then I'm out.

Bullets:

• 14A: Period of accountability since 2017 (#METOO ERA) — are we still in this era? Are people being held accountable? The incoming administration (really really) suggests otherwise. Not that this isn't a good crossword answer. It's original, current, lively, etc. Just ... has me thinking about what "accountability" means.
• 21A: Do some modeling for a figure drawing class (POSE NUDE) — another great longer answer. I misread the clue at first as [Do some yodeling for a figure drawing class] and thought about what the class's reaction might be. "Uh huh ... that's ... nice ... can you just stand still? Thanks."

• 37A: Ben Solo's father in "Star Wars" (HAN) — HAN was not a father in "Star Wars"—that's some later "Star Wars" universe stuff (yes, I resolutely refuse to recognize any movie as "Star Wars" besides Star Wars (1977), which was never ever called "A New Hope" among people who saw it seven times in the theater (guilty)—that "Chapter IV: A New Hope" crap is never gonna fly with me.). If the clue had read "in the 'Star Wars' universe," I'd have had no beef with it.
• 33D: Fitness discipline for thousands of years (HATHA YOGA) — The "Fitness" angle is very modern and western, very asana-based. For "thousands of years" it was primarily a spiritual practice. See "Word of the Day," above.
• 50D: "No can do, lassie!" ("NAE!") — this made me laugh, mainly because it made me imagine Groundskeeper Willie covering Hall & Oates:

• 56D: Czech lager, informally (PILS) — oh we're doing this again, are we? It's only been eleven days. Well, at least I was prepared.

OK, time for a quick round of Holiday Pet Pics!

First, we have the "patiently enduring your holiday tyranny" variety of picture. I mean, look at poor Sally here. Come on. She can't fly or pull a sled, but she deserves at least six treats.

[Thanks, Hilary]

Churro and Juno do not know this man. Release them from his white-gloved captivity and give them treats!

[Thanks, Dave]

And Creature ... well, Creature is going to make you pay for this. You can see it in her eyes. "You better sleep with one eye open tonight, lady."

[Thanks, Stephanie]

Next we have the "I said *holiday* pics" category, where people send pics that are "holiday" only by a certain stretch of the imagination. I mean, just because Sabrina the Greyhound has sour cream on her nose from leftover Thanksgiving dinner does not make this a "Holiday" picture (though any chance to consume sour cream is a "holiday" for a dog, so I'll allow it)

[Thanks, Graeme] 

And hey, MisterBuddy and Bird, I see what you're doing here and I'm not buying it. This is fraud. No treats for you! ... OK, I'm sorry, you're adorable, sixteen treats each!

[Thanks, Liz]

And finally ... I'd love to show you a picture of Nico and Diego, but their epic holiday shenanigans cannot be contained in just one photo, so I give you a suite of photos entitled "Nico and Diego Save Christmas, Then Get Sleepy"

Enjoy the rest of your day. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]

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