Winners of a 1932 Australian "war" / THU 1-12-23 / Gossip, slangily / Fancy summer home / When doubled mouse-bopping bunny in a children's song / Winners of a 1932 Australian war / Passes but not with flying colors

Constructor: Grant Thackray

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: blankING blankER(S) — familiar phrases following the "blankING blankER(S)" pattern have the blanks reversed, creating wacky phrase:

Theme answers:

• STUFFING STOCKER (16A: Grocery store worker on the days leading up to Thanksgiving?) ("stocking stuffer")
• SAUCING FLYERS (25A: Pamphlets on how to use marinara?) ("flying saucer")
• BETTING GETTER (45A: Bookie?) ("getting better)
• NUMBING TRACKERS (60A: Devices that help dentists monitor anesthesia?) ("tracking number")

Word of the Day: LEE Shubert (59A: Shubert of Broadway's Shubert Theatre) —

Lee Shubert (born Levi Schubart; March 25, 1871– December 25, 1953) was a Lithuanian-born American theatre owner/operator and producer and the eldest of seven siblings of the theatrical Shubert family. [...] Shubert was 11 years old when the family emigrated to the United States and settled in Syracuse, New York, where a number of Jewish families from their hometown already were living. His father's alcoholism kept the family in difficult financial circumstances, and Lee Shubert went to work selling newspapers on a street corner. With borrowed money, he and younger brothers Sam and Jacob eventually embarked on a business venture that led to them to become the successful operators of several theaters in upstate New York. // The Shubert brothers decided to expand to the huge market in New York City, and at the end of March 1900 they leased the Herald Square Theatre at the corner of Broadway and 35th Street in Manhattan. Leaving younger brother Jacob at home to manage their existing theatres, Lee and Sam Shubert moved to New York City, where they laid the foundations for what was to become the largest theatre empire in the 20th century, including the Winter Garden and Shubert Theatres.

• • •

***HELLO, READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS*** How is the new year treating you? Well, I hope. Me, uh, not great so far (COVID, you know), but I'm 95% better, and was never terribly sick to begin with, so I have every reason to believe things will turn around for me shortly, thank God (and vaccines). Anyway, it's early 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. I'm not sure what to say about this past year. This will sound weird, or melodramatic—or maybe it won't—but every time I try to write about 2022, all I can think is "well, my cat died." She (Olive) died this past October, very young, of a stupid congenital heart problem that we just couldn't fix (thank you all for your kind words of condolence, by the way). I'm looking at the photo I used for last year's fundraising pitch, and it's a picture of me sitting at my desk (this desk, the one I'm typing at right now, the one I write at every day) with Olive sitting on my shoulder, staring at me, and making me laugh. It's a joyous picture. Here, I'm just gonna post it again:

I love the photo both because you can tell how goofy she is, and how goofy she made me. Her loss hurt for the obvious reasons, but also because she was so much a part of my daily routine, my daily rhythms and rituals. She was everyday. Quotidian. Just ... on me, near me, being a weirdo, especially in the (very) early mornings when I was writing this blog. She took me out of myself. She also made me aware of how much the quotidian matters, how daily rituals break up and organize the day, mark time, ground you. They're easy to trivialize, these rituals, precisely because they *aren't* special. Feed the cats again, make the coffee again, solve the crossword again, etc. But losing Olive made me reevaluate the daily, the quotidian, the apparently trivial. In a fundamental way, those small daily things *are* life. No one day is so important, or so different from the others, but cumulatively, they add up, and through the days upon days you develop a practice—a practice of love, care, and attention given to the things that matter. If you're reading this, then crossword puzzles are undoubtedly an important ritual for you, just as writing about crosswords for you all is an important ritual for me. It gives me so much. I hope that even at my most critical, my genuine love for crosswords—for the way my brain lights up on crosswords—comes through. I also hope that the blog brings you entertainment, insight, laughter ... even (especially) if you disagree with me much (most? all?) of the time. 

[man, I really wear the hell 
out of this red fleece...]

The blog began years ago as an experiment in treating the ephemeral—the here-today, gone-tomorrow—like it really mattered. I wanted to stop and look at this 15x15 (or 21x21 thing) and take it seriously, listen to it, see what it was trying to do, think about what I liked or didn't like about it. In short, I gave the puzzle my time and attention. And I continue to do that, every day (Every! Day!). And it is work. A lot of work. Asking for money once a year (and only once a year) is an acknowledgment of that fact. There is nothing to subscribe to here ... no Substack or Kickstarter or Patreon ... and there are no ads, ever. I prefer to keep financial matters simple and direct. I have no "hustle" in me beyond putting my ass in this chair every morning and writing.

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):

Second, a mailing address (checks should be made out to "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 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 designed a cat-related thank-you postcard for 2023, just as she has for the past two years, but this year, there's a bonus. Because this year ... the postcard is also a crossword puzzle! Yes, I made a little 9x9 blog-themed crossword puzzle for you all. It's light and goofy and I hope you enjoy it. It looks like this (clues blurred for your protection):

I had fun making this puzzle (thanks to Rachel Fabi and Neville Fogarty for proofing it for me!). For non-snail-mailers who want to solve the puzzle, don't worry: I'll make the puzzle available for everyone some time next month. 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 and support. Now on to today's puzzle...

• • •

Whatever humor is available in this theme concept remains largely untapped. When your "wacky" phrases have to resort to "words" like SAUCING and GETTER, you're straining too hard, and what you get are groaners instead of laughers. Is "laugher" not a word? Would you prefer "GETTER of laughs?" Ugh, GETTER. That is not a word you're going to see, ever, unless it's preceded by GO-, which means it's at best a word part. And "self-SAUCING pudding" is the only thing that comes to mind when I try to think of a case where someone might use SAUCING, which makes SAUCING, like GETTER, something you (I) only ever encounter after a hyphen. The first and last themers work fine—they aren't laughers, but they're solid, they work, I can imagine the wackiness they are asking me to imagine. But BETTING GETTER, no, I can't imagine that. Am I really SAUCING my PASTA every time I put ... sauce on it? Sigh, I suppose. But SAUCING FLYERS just feels sooooo awkward, as if the flyers themselves were putting sauce on your PASTA. I just found the execution here terribly awkward. 

[GLEN!]

BETTING GETTER, in addition to being the worst of the bunch, was also the hardest of the bunch, with its one-word clue ([Bookie?]), and the answer itself cutting through the top of a big chunk of open space at the bottom, which made the Downs in that space hard to see. I mean absolutely no disrespect when I ask the question: Since when is TULANE "prestigious"? I've been in higher ed. for my whole adult life and I've never heard such an attribution / allegation. It's a fine school, for sure, but ... I just think you're stretching the concept of "prestige" a little thin. Please keep in mind that I think the concept of "prestige" in higher ed is almost complete bull****. That is, prestige exists, but there's no direct correspondence between prestige and quality of (undergraduate) education. Anyway, I teach at the "Crown Jewel of the SUNY System" and I would never call my own university "prestigious" either, so I just don't know what compelled anyone to put "Prestigious" in this clue for TULANE. It's patently unnecessary and face-scrunchingly / head-tiltingly inaccurate. "Prestigious" also made it somehow harder to get, as did the fact that it was cross-referenced to an answer in its own section, one that it actually crossed (NOLA). I thought I was dealing with a university in PISA for a bit, and so was trying to think of some "prestigious" old Italian university. This section also contains the ugliness of GETS A C (I just have "oof" written in the margin) and the outright ridiculousness of AGENTRY, which was my final answer. AGENTRY!? Now that's a laugher. As in, I literally laughed at how dumb a word it is as I wrote it in. Quite a way to finish up.

So the top half ended up being much more enjoyable, and easier, than the bottom half. And while I think SAUCING FLYERS is a ridiculous phrase, I have some fondness for it because it's soooo ridiculous, because it makes me think of ETS throwing PASTA sauce out of their UFO, and because it's the first themer that I got. I had STUFFING and SAUCING early and no idea what was supposed to come after. I actually wrote in STOCKING or something like that early on, but it didn't fit. And then I got the back end of FLYERS and all of a sudden made the "pamphlets" / FLYERS connection *and* saw the "flying saucers" inversion. It was a good "aha" moment, even if SAUCING FLYERS itself is just nuts. After that, I finally "got" the first themer, and from then on, I was in business.

It wasn't a ROUGH START, by any means, but it was a little slow. Trouble getting started coupled with trouble in the aforementioned BETTING GETTER / TULANE area meant that the puzzle almost felt like it rose to what I'd consider normal Thursday-level difficulty. Oh, that clue on LEE was brutal for me, but the crosses were EFFORTLESS (literally, one of the crosses is EFFORTLESS), so I survived. Any other tough stuff? Not really. I thought the [Maker of the first portable music player] was ZUNE for a bit, so that was fun. LOL at that KIA slogan, "The power to surprise" (62D). Recently they "surprised" the world with a logo that no one can make any sense of.

I was in Auckland when I first noticed this logo and figured I was dealing with some overseas brand of car that we just don't have in the States. But no. That "KN" is actually "KIA," somehow. What a (k)nightmare, design-wise. And the original oval logo was so nice (and clear). It's OK not to change things that don't need changing, it really is. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. what the hell "war" did the EMUS win!?!? (51A: Winners of a 1932 Australian "war") ... [Fires up Google] ... Wow, this is awful.

The Emu War, also known as the Great Emu War, was a nuisance wildlife management military operation undertaken in Australia over the later part of 1932 to address public concern over the number of emussaid to be running amok and destroying crops in the Campion district within the Wheatbelt of Western Australia. The unsuccessful attempts to curb the population of emus, a large flightless bird indigenous to Australia, employed Royal Australian Artillery soldiers armed with Lewis guns—leading the media to adopt the name "Emu War" when referring to the incident. While a number of the birds were killed, the emu population persisted and continued to cause crop destruction." (wikipedia)

Not how I'd clue EMUS, but if you like cutesy clues about the attempted slaughter of indigenous bird species, well, it's your lucky day, I guess.

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THU 12-8-22 / NEW YORK TIMES GUILD WALKOUT (puzzle answers now included)

THEME: [It may be represented by an X] (6)

Dear readers, 

The New York Times Guild is on STRIKE today and I do not, as a rule, cross picket lines, so no puzzle today, no puzzle write-up today. The blog will return to a regular schedule on Friday, Dec. 9, at which time I will also solve today's (Thursday's) puzzle and add basic information about it to this post [see below]. 

Please consider supporting the strike by not engaging with the NYT on any platform today. 

If @NYTimesGuild members don't have a deal soon, we’re asking readers to not engage in any @nytimes platforms tomorrow and stand with us on the digital picket line! Read local news. Listen to public radio. Pull out a cookbook. Break your Wordle streak. pic.twitter.com/gzQCL58ir7

— NYTimesGuild (@NYTimesGuild) December 7, 2022

You can read a full story about the strike here:

A 24-hour strike at The New York Times, a historic demonstration in which more than 1,100 employees are expected to participate, will take effect Thursday at midnight. Here's my full story: https://t.co/FtT30FaNXw

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) December 8, 2022

Thanks for your patience and understanding. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

Here's the Thursday puzzle grid:

Constructor: Grant Thackray

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: PIRATE (47D: One with an eye patch,  "hook hand" and peg leg, as represented in this puzzle's grid) — there's an "I" covered by a black square (the "eye patch"), the letters FLUSH in the shape of a hook (the "hook hand"—FLUSH being a potential poker "hand"), and then a LEG (in SHAKE A LEG) that you have to convert to PEG in order to make sense of the cross (APOP) ... 

• • •

No time for a proper write-up. See comments for reader reactions. 

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Rooster raised for eating / SAT 9-17-22 / Org. running global championships since 1930 / Mascot whose head is a baseball / In which Nunavut means our land / Role in 2020's Trial of the Chicago 7 / Performs repetitive tasks to gain experience points in gaming slang

Constructor: Grant Thackray

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Patricia WETTIG (32A: Emmy winner Patricia of "Thirtysomething") —

Patricia Anne Wettig (born December 4, 1951) is an American actress and playwright. She is best known for her role as Nancy Weston in the television series Thirtysomething (1987–1991), for which she received a Golden Globe Award and three Primetime Emmy Awards.

After her breakthrough role in Thirtysomething, Wettig has appeared in a number of films, including Guilty by Suspicion (1991), City Slickers (1991), City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold (1994), and The Langoliers (1995). She returned to television playing a leading role in the 1995 short-lived drama Courthouse and later played Caroline Reynolds in the Fox drama Prison Break (2005–2007) and Holly Harper in the ABC family drama Brothers & Sisters (2006–2011). (wikipedia)

 

• • •

I was surprised I got into this one as easily as I did. I ran through the spring Zodiac signs I know, and while both PISCES and GEMINI fit, they wouldn't work with 3D: Jacobean ___, which had to be ERA, so I figured the "sign" in 1A: Sign of spring must mean "evidence" and yeah, no idea there. But then I took an absolute guess at 2D: Name on a truck and it was ... right?! (HESS). And then I went back to the Zodiac for my [Sign of spring] and (voilà!) THE RAM:

You gotta look out for those "THE"s today, because they really come at ya. I was not terribly bothered by having THE RAM appear just two rows above THE SANDS OF TIME (the elegant marquee answer where the definite article feels most APT). But I lost patience a little with the third "THE" down below, at THE TANGO. It takes two to tango, not "two to do THE TANGO." Somehow if it's a modern party dance, like THE TWIST or THE WATUSI, I think the THE is great, but THE TANGO feels about as forced as THE WALTZ or THE MINUET. It's not wrong, it's just ... Definite Article Overload, man. I was also not a fan of MISS A CUE, today's entry in the "EAT A SANDWICH" sweepstakes. MISS A BEAT, that's a phrase. MISS A CUE ... sigh, squint, ok, I guess, but not really. My disposition toward this one was not warmed by the fact that the clue was difficult—I actually considered MISSLEEP at one point (?!) (6D: Go out too late). But as far as grid flaws go, THE TANGO and MISSACUE were about all that stood out. This one is very, very clean and virtually bump-free. It has that Flow that I love in a themeless. I wouldn't say I exactly "whooshed" around the grid, but I low-key whooshed. Slow-whooshed. It had a good beat and I could dance to it. But not THE TANGO. Some other dance.

There were cluing problems, however. A couple of big ones, involving marquee answers. The more minor problem involved the clue on AUDIO-VISUAL AID (47A: Slide behind a speaker, maybe). Since AUDIO is not strongly associated with a slide, I dunno... I wrote in AUDIO because it seemed like it had to be right, but then had some trouble filling in that little SW section at the end and so actually started doubting AUDIO. I guess AUDIO-VISUAL AID is a broad category that includes "slides," so it's not wrong, but I would've liked something more audio-y there, for clarity's sake. The much more major cluing problem came at 12A: Question ... oh, crud ... I just realized, just now, that I misread the clue! (12A: Question in a lot of cars?). Well, that is, I didn't notice its trick / punny meaning. Gah! I thought the clue was telling me that "WHERE DID I PARK?" was a question one hears in a lot of (i.e. a great many) cars, and I was like "but ... but ... but ... if you're already in your car ... doesn't that mean ... how ... why are you asking this!?!?" But of course "lot" here means a car lot or parking lot, so you hear the question in the lot, probably walking around, clicking your little chirpy key-ring mechanism, and yes, that tracks. I hereby retract the objection that I was going to make. Or, rather, I ... don't make it. I make it not. No objection! Aborted objection overruled!

Some notes:

• 19A: Like certain corrections (PENAL) — pfffff OK, technically, yes, I guess, but since you wouldn't say "PENAL corrections" (would you?) this one feels weird. It was very hard for me, and came right in the middle of the whole MISSACUE fiasco. 
• 4D: Possible source of monthly income (RENTER) — I had RENTAL. This also happened near MISSACUE junction.
• 32A: Emmy winner Patricia of "Thirtysomething" (WETTIG) — remembered her, but not her vowels, my god. WITTIG, WITTEG, WETTEG, WETEGG, WETLEG, who knows!? Patricia WETTIG is married to Ken OLIN of crossword fame (also of "Thirtysomething" fame). I just realized I confuse Ken OLIN and Bob Saget. But only visually, not in crosswords.

• 25D: Relationship strains? (DUETS) — there were entirely too many "?" clues for my taste today, but this was a good one (with "strains" meaning "tunes").
• 7A: Performs repetitive tasks to gain experience points, in gaming slang (FARMS) — "in gaming slang" is a strong indicator that I won't have any idea what the hell is going on. Here, I was really, really glad I knew FIFA, because otherwise, hello Natick! I hope you at least knew FIFA! Game crossing game! Not sure how this cross is going to play for some of you...
• 19D: Hideout for Blackbeard (PIRATE COVE) — Had the "PIR-" and so got this one easily *except* for that "O," which I left blank at first because I thought a PIRATE CAVE might be a thing (pretty sure it is a thing). 
• 43D: Role in 2020's "The Trial of the Chicago 7" (SEALE) —That's Bobby SEALE, co-founder (with Huey Newton) of the Black Panther party.
• 29D: Motivated, with "under" (LIT A FIRE) — this clue is so interestingly odd that I almost completely forgot that LITA FIRE is basically MISS ACUE's slightly but only slightly better-looking cousin. EAT A SANDWICH, LITA FIRE!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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High-ranking Turkish officer / WED 2-9-22 / Mythical ship that sailed to Colchis / Uncle of 1960s TV / It changes length every four years / Leftorium owner on the Simpsons / They're chucked in a chuck and bored in a board

Constructor: Grant Thackray

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: AQUATIC misnomers (41D: Like the five animals in this puzzle's theme) — "underwater creatures" with two-part names, the second part of which misrepresents what they really are ... except with the last "underwater creature," whose name is accurate despite an alleged "common misconception" (never mind that literally no one ever uses the second part of that name):

Theme answers:

• JELLY / FISH (1A: With 6-Across, underwater creature that's not actually a 6-Across)
• ELECTRIC / EEL (23A: With 25-Across, underwater creature that's not actually a 25-Across)
• MANTIS / SHRIMP (36A: With 38-Across, underwater creature that's not actually a 38-Across (nor a 36-Across, for that matter)
• SEA / CUCUMBER (47A: With 48-Across, underwater creature that's certainly not a 48-Across)
• ORCA / WHALE (64:A With 65-Across, underwater creature that actually "is" a 65-Across despite a common misconception)

Word of the Day: MANTIS / SHRIMP (36A) —

Mantis shrimp, or stomatopods, are carnivorous marine crustaceans of the order Stomatopoda, branching from other members of the class Malacostraca around 340 million years ago. Mantis shrimps typically grow to around 10 cm (3.9 in) in length, while a few can reach up to 38 cm (15 in). A mantis shrimp's carapace (the hard, thick shell that covers crustaceans and some other species) covers only the rear part of the head and the first four segments of the thorax. Varieties range in colour from shades of brown to vivid colours, with more than 450 species of mantis shrimp being known. They are among the most important predators in many shallow, tropical and subtropical marine habitats. However, despite being common, they are poorly understood, as many species spend most of their lives tucked away in burrows and holes.

Called "sea locusts" by ancient Assyrians, "prawn killers" in Australia, and now sometimes referred to as "thumb splitters"—because of the animal's ability to inflict painful wounds if handled incautiously—mantis shrimps have powerful raptorials that are used to attack and kill prey either by spearing, stunning, or dismembering. Some mantis shrimp species have specialised calcified "clubs" that can strike with great power, while others have sharp forelimbs used to seize the prey (hence the term "mantis" in its common name). (wikipedia)

• • •

Mmm, trivia. The one thing that keeps this theme slightly interesting is that it zigs and zags in a couple of clues, doubling up the "not actually" factor with MANTIS / SHRIMP and reversing the "not actually" factor with ORCA / WHALE. I guess the SEA / CUCUMBER one is supposed to be zig and/or zag as well, with the addition of the emphatic "certainly" to the clue, but that's essentially a decorative "certainly" — the SEA / CUCUMBER simply isn't a CUCUMBER, just like the FISH and EEL in the puzzle aren't FISH or EEL. I guess the idea is that CUCUMBER is *really* far afield from what you might think it is, but frankly I don't really know what it is ... I'm imagining a cucumber ... so I have nothing to chuckle at here. I also have no idea what a MANTIS / SHRIMP is (or didn't until I looked it up just now). You can't play on misconceptions that I don't have. The only bit of trivia that was at all informative to me today was the ELECTRIC / EEL info. I assumed it was an eel. I admit to not having given the matter a ton of thought. Apparently said "eels" are not closely related to eels at all—they are more akin to catfish. Anyway, I found all the cross-referencing in the theme clues fussy, though probably necessary (since isolating that "incorrect" word really highlights the impact of the theme concept, gives it some oomph). Mainly it was just kind of flat. "Huh, interesting" was the highest high. The "lowest low" was ORCA / WHALE, a term I am hearing for the first time ... right now? They are ORCAs. What crossword solver doesn't know what an ORCA is? When have we ever called them ORCA / WHALEs, why would you do that??? I guess I can see someone somewhere thinking they're sharks, but I can't imagine that same person thinking their name is ORCA / WHALEs. "Killer whale" is the common term, isn't it? Yes! The wikipedia entry begins: "The orca or killer whale is a toothed whale etc." What is this ORCA / WHALE nonsense? And for your closing themer!? That is a good example of *not* sticking the landing (to borrow some Olympic Games terminology, which seems fitting / timely, though I'm paying no attention to the Games at all this year). The most bizarre feature of the theme answers is that SEA / HORSE is not among them. I mean ... that's the King Aquatic Misnomer, but somehow the SEA / HORSE is just sitting this one out? Disappointing.

My biggest mistake today was having the EL- at the front of the second themer, knowing we were looking for "misnamed" creatures, and writing in ELEPHANT (it fits!). I mean, why not? Why not an ELEPHANT / EEL. There's apparently a MANTIS / SHRIMP, so ... ELEPHANT / EEL seemed like a good candidate for this theme. Cryptozoologists, add ELEPHANT EEL to your Life List. Only one other initial mistake today—the far more understandable ERIN-for-EIRE mistake (yet another klassic kealoa* for you) (2D: Cork's land). I guess EIRE is just a general name for the island, while ERIN ... is also that, but more poetic. There are various explanations of the alleged difference out there. They are never gonna help me much in crosswords, I'm afraid. No idea who / what EGGMAN is (I wasn't even sure if he's in the video game, or the cartoon, or comic books, or movies, or what part of the Sonic universe he operates in ... largely because I know absolutely nothing about said universe except that its video game platform is SEGA). Speaking of eggs, I thought ROE was sly for a couple of reasons—first because it added a bonus AQUATIC answer to the puzzle, and second because it symmetrically echoed OVA in the NE. Nice eggy wordplay. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Hit TV show created by Donald Glover / SUN 9-5-21 / Advocate for the better treatment of elves in Harry Potter / Brand that stylizes its name with lowercase second letter / Gangsta Lovin rapper 2002 / Set of rules popularized by How I Met Your Mother / Plant family that jasmine and lilac are part of / Encrypted URL component

Constructor: Grant Thackray

Relative difficulty: Medium (maybe slightly harder)

THEME: "Go Up In Smoke" — theme answers RISE FROM / THE ASHES (50A: With 97-Across, emerge reborn ... or what the ends of five Across answers in this puzzle do?); that is, at some point, they just head north (i.e. they "rise" "up"), while the Across answer itself continues on with the letters "ASH" (leaving you with a totally unclued answer in every case, huzzah):

Theme answers:

• JOHNNY C(ARSON) (33A: 30-year host of late-night TV) / JOHNNY CASH
• UNLE(ADED) (31A: Like gasoline nowadays) / UNLEASH
• REH(ABCENTER) (74A: Addiction treatment locale) / REHASH
• TALK STR(AIGHT) (111A: Be completely candid) / TALKS TRASH
• HOGW(ARTS HOUSE) (114A: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw) / HOGWASH

Word of the Day: ARSÈNE Lupin (54D: Detective Lupin) —

Arsène Lupin (French pronunciation: ​[aʁsɛn lypɛ̃]) is a fictional gentleman thief and master of disguise created in 1905 by French writer Maurice Leblanc. He was originally called Arsène Lopin, until a local politician of the same name protested. The character was first introduced in a series of short stories serialised in the magazine Je sais tout. The first story, "The Arrest of Arsène Lupin", was published on 15 July 1905.

Lupin was featured in 17 novels and 39 novellas by Leblanc, with the novellas or short stories collected into book form for a total of 24 books. The number becomes 25 if the 1923 novel The Secret Tomb is counted: Lupin does not appear in it, but the main character Dorothée solves one of Arsène Lupin's four fabulous secrets.

The character has also appeared in a number of books from other writers as well as numerous film, television, stage play, as well as comic book adaptations. Five authorised sequels were written in the 1970s by the celebrated mystery writing team of Boileau-Narcejac. (wikipedia)

• • •

Truly disappointing. Conceptually weak, and muddled in the execution. How in the world do you manage to have your first "up in smoke" bit be ARSON (!?) and then ... then somehow that's just *coincidence*!?! ARSON, which involves burning, which involves smoke ... is in no way related to the theme. Not at all. When I realized that, this puzzle was Over for me. Also, *in the same theme answer* your unclued answer (the one that contains ASH) is somehow *also* a "late-night TV" host, just like JOHNNY C(ARSON)!?!?!?! OK, maybe JOHNNY CASH's show didn't technically air in "late-night," but he definitely hosted a night-time show for two seasons. It's just ... it's all so confusing and dumb. Again, I cannot tell you how disappointed I was when the "Up in Smoke" part of UNLE(ADED) spelled *nothing*! After the first answer gave me ARSON going up, I thought "interesting." Then the next answer gave me ... ADED???? That's not even a word. Just gibberish. Gibberish up, gibberish down, gibberish. So much gibberish that the solve actually went slow. When you have to go slow for gibberish, wow, that is not an optimal solving experience. Plus, all those unclued ASH-ending Acrosses ... just sitting there ... what a mess. The title is "Go Up In Smoke"—I expect the part that "goes up" to have something to do with "smoke." Rising from the ASHes is not sufficient. It's dull. You know every themer is going to end in ASH. How is any of this fun??? And it's weirdly extra-wide!?!?! (22 instead of 21). It's all so broken and pointless and, again, the word of the day: disappointing. 

CRYER *and* CRIER? Abutting one another? Come on. And I get that Will was on "How I Met Your Mother" once so maybe keeping the memory of that show alive is important to him, but BROCODE? As fill? Barf (99D: Set of rules popularized by "How I Met Your Mother"). JK Rowling is the world's most popular "don't call me transphobic" transphobe, so sure, why not a double dose of her work to brighten up the day (HERMIONE, that HOGW(ARTS HOUSE) baloney)? Televangelist (and prosperity gospel huckster) Joel OSTEEN? More yuck (40A: Televangelist Joel). DISCI???? DISC-eeeeeeeee????? Oof. There is no air in this puzzle, let alone a bright spot. Even SEAT ANGLE, which is at least original, is like "eh.... OK, I guess that's a thing." I just keep looking at this grid and seeing things like RETNECBA (30D) and wondering ... just why? REECHO?! Bad enough on its own, but when you've already got REHASH and RECOILS in the grid, bah. SGS? ELROY'S? LDRS? AT ONE'S ELBOW? AROAR and AREAR? A Muppet named after food poisoning!?!?!? The only happiness I had was in remembering ARSÈNE Lupin, a detective I've just started getting into. I just bought the "ARSÈNE Lupin, Gentleman-Thief" while I was in Minnesota. I was prompted to do that by the popular Netflix series "Lupin," which I just started watching, and I was prompted to watch *that* by a recent New Yorker article about the show's star, Omar Sy. Or should I say, OMAR SY (6). His name begs to be engridded. He's "literally the second-most popular man in France." Exceedingly charming. Anyway, thinking about the detective and the show and the New Yorker article is all infinitely more pleasing than thinking about this puzzle. Off to read old-timey crime fiction. Good day.

Oh, one last thing. If you enjoy good crosswords and hate Texas's backwards new abortion law (and I'm guessing a lot of you fall into the overlap of that particular Venn diagram), then you will probably want to get in on the reboot of "These Puzzles Fund Abortion," a puzzle pack (put together by the wonderful and indefatigable Rachel Fabi) that raised $35,000 for the Baltimore Abortion Fund earlier this year that is now being used to raise funds for various Texas abortion funds. It's easy. You donate at least $10 to a Texas abortion fund (or two or three...), email your receipt to Rachel (at the address provided on this information page), and get a zip file chock full o' great crosswords. New features have since been added to the original puzzle pack. Stretch goals have been met and so new puzzles have been added, plus every donor gets entered into a contest to have a custom crossword puzzle made just for them. Here's all the info you need (in embedded tweet form!):

To recap, if you donate to any Texas abortion fund (see next tweet), you get:
1. These Puzzles Fund Abortion, an incredible pack of crosswords puzzles from rockstar constructors
2. Entered into a drawing to win a custom puzzle
3. My lifelong friendshiphttps://t.co/Ces4dkGZLk

— Rachel Fabi, PhD (@faBioethics) September 3, 2021

Some funds to support: @TEAFund, @WWHAlliance, @LaFronteraFund, @TheAfiyaCtr, @FundTexasChoice, or https://t.co/xEzWhNdDPl

— Rachel Fabi, PhD (@faBioethics) September 3, 2021

Sunday morning update: we are at $10,482 and 70 donors for Texas-based abortion funds. In $2018 or 20 donors, we'll get Kim's rage-puzzle, which you do not want to miss (and new/returning donors also get the puzzle pack and entered in the drawing!)https://t.co/s08WlGH3PO https://t.co/SJp2rgB4lr

— Rachel Fabi, PhD (@faBioethics) September 5, 2021

I'm so proud of Rachel and the constructors and everyone else who worked on this tremendously successful Abortion Rights puzzle project. Please support it.  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. thanks to Renée Loth for her very kind words about me in the August 27 edition of the Boston Globe (paywall):

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Noted speaker of more than 20 languages / FRI 2-12-21 / Beast vanquished by Oedipus / Company whose most famous product once claimed it does what Nintendon't

Constructor: Grant Thackray

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: TORTONI (61A: Italian dessert topped with crumbled macaroons) —

: ice cream made of heavy cream often with minced almonds and chopped maraschino cherries and often flavored with rum (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

Started badly and ended badly and wasn't that great in between. Thinks it's much cuter than it is, tries to be slangy but just sounds dated, and tries to cover up mediocrity with some "XXX" dazzle camouflage. There wasn't one point at which I was enjoying myself. OH, TO have a good Friday puzzle again! I need light, bouncy, playful—full of crackle and originality, and spot-on with the cluing. This was nowhere near the mark. Lost me at 1-Across, to be honest (1A: Star Bucks, say?). Good example of someone being so enamored of their wordplay clue that they don't care whether it's a very *good* clue or not. I get it, Starbucks is a company, so "Star Bucks," very clever. But even knowing it was going to be basketball-related, that pile-up of initials was still hard to get because two Bucks can't be MVP at the same time. You would never "say" anything about "Star Bucks" who were NBAMVPS. Or, rather, since there have only ever been two (early-'70s Kareem and reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo), "Star Bucks" (meaning NBAMVPS) could only ever refer to them. That's it. It's those two. So, the casual "say" in the clue, ugh. It's so misleading. "Say" implies it might be any number of Bucks, as opposed to two and only two, the minimum number it takes to make a plural. NBAMVPS isn't a terrible delightful 1-Across to begin with, and then we get a clue that has a pretty tortured relationship to accuracy. All because someone thought "Star Bucks" was a good pun. And then to have that answer cross a word that can be a racial slur at 1-Down ... well, I was pretty much out at that point. Would've stopped, but I've got a job to do, so ...

And the ending, blargh. Imagine capping off your solve by having to change ONE EURO to THE (!?!?!) EURO (25D: It's usually around 9/10 pound). Your clue is dealing in numbers ("9/10") so I just assumed you would stay in the realm of numbers, but no ... a definite article instead. Unlikeable! I like ED ASNER as an actor, but he's exceedingly crossword-common, and that whole SE corner, for various reasons, just doesn't cut it. Including RSVPED after you've already subjected me to NBAMVPS just feels bludgeony. I have no idea which IVAN did anything, frankly, so I had to infer the Roman numeral "I" (40A: Russian prince nicknamed "Moneybag"). Had trouble with the cross (37D: Dreaded fate for a samurai) because I figured that "samurai" meant I was in for something samurai-specific, something Japanese, a particular concept ... but no, just plain old English DISHONOR. Kind of ironic that MANSPLAIN appears in a puzzle that includes no women in the grid and only* Gal Gadot in the clues (she's the ISRAELI). This is a puzzle that wants you to believe it's against dudes talking condescendingly to women, but the actual nuts and bolts of the puzzle belie the t-shirt feminism of MANSPLAIN. Less showing that you know the terminology of anti-sexism, more actually being anti-sexist, please and thanks. IT'S A BOY, indeed.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

*do not @ me about the Lewis Carroll character, please

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QB protectors informally / THU 8-20-20 / Mickey's rival for Minnie's affection / Longhorn rival / Hypothetical solar system beyond Neptune / White-barked trees / Pink alcoholic drink familiarly / Relatives of violas /

Constructor: Grant Thackray

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging or Easy depending on if you looked at the revealer early or late (I looked late) 

THEME: "A WRINKLE IN TIME" (59A: Classic young adult novel ... or hint to the path taken by four letters to the answers in the starred clues) — in order to make sense of the themers, you have to find the missing "IM," which is sitting directly above the "TE," so it's like the answer has sort of buckled, causing a "wrinkle" in the letter string "TIME":

Theme answers:

• SENT(IM)ENTAL VALUE (16A: *An old wedding dress might have this)
• "WHAT (I M)EANT WAS ..." (29A: *"Er ... um ...")
• MORT(IM)ER MOUSE (45A: *Mickey's rival for Minnie's affection)

Word of the Day: "The L WORD: Generation Q," sequel starting in 2019 (26D) —

The L Word: Generation Q is an American drama television series produced by Showtimethat premiered on December 8, 2019. It is a sequel series to The L Word, which aired on Showtime from 2004 to 2009. A first-look screening took place on December 9, 2019, hosted by House of Pride, to coincide with the US release. In January 2020, Showtime renewed the series for a second season. // Generation Q is set over ten years after The L Word, in the new setting of Silver Lake, Los Angeles. Several actors from the original series returned to reprise their roles alongside a new ensemble of diverse characters. The show centers on a group of diverse LGBTQ+characters experiencing love, heartbreak, sex, setbacks, personal growth and success in Los Angeles.(wikipedia)

• • •

RThe concept is slightly clever but the actual experience of solving this puzzle was not great, largely because, once again, my grid is full of gibberish. It's a little better than other gibberish puzzles I've done in the past, in that at least I can actually *see* the missing "IM" at the end, once the revealer tells me what's going on, but still, the themers were all messed up in ways that made everything just a slog. Also, who the hell is MORT(IM)ER MOUSE? I cannot picture him at all. What a bizarre, obscure themer. But getting the letters in "MORTER" was actually much easier than getting the other two themers. I guess I resent the idea that if I'd done my puzzle backward, i.e. read the ending (the revealer) first, this puzzle would've been, what, 3 to 4 times easier. I'm making that up, but A WRINKLE IN TIME was practically a gimme, even with its generic [Classic young adult novel] clue, and then I could've focused on the letter string "TIME," and deciphering the themers would've been a snap. But instead I hacked to the end and while the revealer definitely gave me the "aha" moment you typically look for, the experience of working my way down there was so singularly unpleasant that it didn't matter. Payoff needed to be Much bigger to make up for the slog. And it wasn't just the theme experience that was annoying: the fill is really rough in lots of places, and that NE corner was really hard in a way that made it a huge, huge outlier.

Without knowing the themer gimmick, I didn't have SENT(IM)ENTAL VALUE, so in the NE I had PDA and DOILIES ... and I figured DOILIES would open things right up, buuuut ... nope. Had LIE for AIL (11D: Languish). Had LEK for LEU (Romanian currency, truly the lowest form of crosswordese), and I wasn't sure if 13D: -speak was -ESE or -ISH. So many Hindu gods that I wasn't at all confident there (9D: Hindu god of destruction = SIVA) (having the "V" would've helped) yet, and HOLESAWS???? (8D: Ring-shaped cutters attached to drills). LOL, forget it. Never seen the term in my life. I eventually had the SAWS part but, yeah, "ring-shaped" wasn't helping me at all. Clue on PHSCALE was vague (7A: Bases make up a part of it), so until I couldn't figure out the VALUE part of SENT(IM)ENTAL VALUE, that corner was a horror show. By contrast, its symmetrical equivalent went down in about 10 seconds. Harumph. And the fill in this thing, yuck. Romanian currency is just one of the terrible ICINGS on this dry cake. ESE ASEAT LAMES WAL LOC ESME REA OEDS IES TSETSE and whatever a CIERA is (!?!?) (2D: Popular Oldsmobile model of the 1980s-'90s) (I had ALERO, and then MIATA, which isn't even an Olds, but I was desperate). And while I'm up in that NW corner, what is with the *two* cross-referenced answers with all *four* parts all jumbled up together in this tiny little space (INNER crossing ERE which is followed by NOW which is followed by EAR). That clusterf*** was so choppy and awful, I was sure it was part of the theme until I saw the "*" on the first themer clue (and even after ... I wasn't sure). Please value user experience more, he shouted at the uncaring sky. Have a nice day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

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