Old-timey oath / FRI 1-9-26 / Small bit, in Bogotá / Monopoly token retired in 2017 / Raccoon, humorously / Footwear that lacks defined heels / Ad or show follower / Stealthy flier

Constructor: Greg Snitkin and Glenn Davis

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: MEET CUTES (35D: Rom-com plot points) —

 

A meet cute is a scene in romantic fiction in which two people meet for the first time, typically under unusual, humorous, or adorable circumstances, and go on to form a future romantic couple.

This type of scene is a staple of romantic comedies, though it can also occur in sitcoms and soap operas. Frequently, the meet cute leads to a humorous clash of personalities or of beliefs, embarrassing situations, or comical misunderstandings that further drive the plot. (wikipedia)

• • •

***ATTENTION: READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS*** : 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. 2026 is a big year for me, as Rex Parker Does the NY Times Crossword Puzzle will celebrate its 20th birthday in September. Two decades. The big 2-0. A score of years. One score and no years ago, I brought forth on this Internet a new blog, conceived in ... I think I'll stop there, but you get the idea. I've been at this a long time, and while it has been my privilege and joy, it has also been (and continues to be) a lot of work. Very early mornings, no days off—well, no days off for the blog. I do have two very able regular subs (Mali and Clare) who write for me once a month, as well as a handful of other folks who stand in for me when I go on vacation. But otherwise, it's just me, every dang day, up by 4am, solving and writing. I've never been this disciplined about anything in my life. Ask anyone. "Is he disciplined about anything else?" "No, he is not. Just this one thing. It's weird." And it's because I have a responsibility to an audience (that's you). Even after nearly 20 years, I'm still genuinely stunned and exceedingly grateful that so many of you have made the blog a part of your daily routine. Ideally, it adds a little value to the solving experience. Teaches you something you didn't know, or helps you look at crosswords in a new way, or makes you laugh (my highest goal, frankly). Or maybe the blog simply offers a feeling of commiseration—a familiar voice confirming that yes, that clue was terrible, or yes, that themer set should have been tighter, or wow, yes, that answer was indeed beautiful. Whether you find it informative or comforting or entertaining or infuriating—or all of the above—if you're reading me on a fairly regular basis, there's something valuable you're getting out of the blog. And I couldn't be happier about that.

["That's upside-down, sweetheart"]

Hopefully by now you can tell that for better or worse, what you get from me is my honest, unvarnished feelings about a puzzle. There's an explanatory element too, sure, but this blog is basically one person's solving diary. Idiosyncratic. Personal. Human. I'm not interested in trying to guess consensus opinion. I'll leave that to A.I. All I can do, all I want to do, is tell you exactly what it was like for me to solve the puzzle—what I thought, what I felt. Because while solving may seem like mere box-filling to outsiders, crossword enthusiasts know that the puzzle actually makes us feel things—joy, anguish, confusion (confusion's a feeling, right?). Our feelings might not always be rational, but dammit, they're ours, and they're worth having. And sharing. I love that crosswords engage the messy, human side of you, as well as the objective, solution-oriented side. If I just wanted to fill in boxes, without any of the messy human stuff, I'd solve sudoku (no shade, sudoku fans, they're just not for me!).

[conferring w/ my editor]

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 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, as well as at the bottom of every write-up):

Second, a mailing address (checks can be made out to "Michael Sharp" or "Rex Parker") (be sure to date them with the new year, 2026!):

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 know snail mail is a hassle for most people, but I love it. I love seeing your (mostly) gorgeous handwriting and then sending you my (completely) awful handwriting. The human touch—it's nice. In recent years, my daughter has designed my annual postcards, but this year, grad school and NYC theater work are keeping her otherwise occupied, so I had to seek design help elsewhere. Enter Katie Kosma, who is not only a professional illustrator/designer, but (crucially!) a crossword enthusiast. She listened patiently to my long and disorganized list of ideas and in very short order was able to arrive at this year's design, inspired by film noir title cards. 

I'm very happy with how it turned out. The teeny boxes inside the letters, the copyright credit ("Natick Pictures, Inc."), and especially that pencil lamppost—mwah! I know most people solve online now, and many paper solvers prefer pen, but the pencil just feels iconic, and appropriate for the card's throwback vibe. That lamppost was entirely Katie's creation. She was a dream to work with. Can't say enough good things about her.

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... 

• • •

[26D: Kind of fever]

This is fine. I have no strong feelings one way or the other about this puzzle. There are a few marquee answers that made me happy (e.g. "HECK YEAH!," MR. RIGHT NOW), a couple are OK but that I've seen before (MEET CUTES, TRASH PANDA), and then ... the rest. The rest is inoffensive, but not striking. The biggest bummer for me was BENEFITS PACKAGE, which is about the dullest thing you could ever choose to spread across the center of your puzzle. It's a solid phrase, a real thing, so it's in no way bad—you just couldn't call it exciting! I feel like you've gotta really pick your splash answers—a grid-spanning center-sitting answer should sizzle. It should be something that makes your eyes pop or your heart sing, not something you go over with HR. All things from the world of workaday business tend to make my eyes glaze over. This is why the clue on ROLE was so depressing to me. So many possibilities, and the clue opts for ... job listing :( (55D: Listing on a jobs website). Isn't the listing the job? And then the ROLE is described in that listing? Shrug. Lift me out of the mundane, puzzle! I need something better than BLAH! But again, this is a solid puzzle. No major blemishes to speak of. Short fill's a little on the weak side, but short fill's often a little on the weak side. It's not particularly ugly or distracting, so that's fine. That's all I expect from short fill. 

[One of the great MEET CUTES of recent years—emergency dentistry!]

This is our third TRASH PANDA, and our second with this exact clue (31D: Raccoon, humorously). It's a wonderfully whimsical term, but once you've seen it in a grid, it's wow power is somewhat diminished. As for MEET CUTES—six times in the singular, three times in the plural now. They can't all be original, it's true, but somehow modern slang seems like it's really trying to be original, so when it gets repeated, I have this feeling of "oh, that again," whereas if you repeated something ordinary—say, COFFEEMAKERS—I wouldn't care (actually, COFFEEMAKERS has appeared in the NYTXW only once, and that was back in 1966, so go nuts with COFFEEMAKERS, by all means) (OK, now I'm thinking about my morning coffee, which I don't have until after I've finished this write-up, so ... moving on!).

In addition to BIZ-speak (i.e. business terminology), I'm particularly unfond of poker-speak (or gambling-speak in general), and it seemed like we got a lot today, including CRAP, which is never going to look like anything but CRAP in the grid. With a word like TELL, there are so many ways for that clue to go. I wish it had gone one of those. But then, if it had, I wouldn't have had my favorite wrong answer of the day. Well, not an answer I wrote in, but one that I definitely thought. I had the TE-, looked at the clue (22A: Bad thing to have in a poker game), and thought "TENS!? How are TENS bad? Even if you've just got two, I think that's pretty good. It's not 'bad,' anyway." A TELL is something you do unconsciously that indicates to other players how good your hand is, whether you're bluffing or not, etc. Gestures you make with your hands or face or body language. I think ON A HEATER is also poker talk? I have some vague recollection of sportscasters saying it about hot streaks, back when I still had TV and watched sports news religiously. ON A HEATER may be a real phrase, but it's a stupid one. It's longer than the already well-established and completely legible ON A TEAR. Or ON A ROLL. How many of these "ON A" phrases do we need? The only thing I'd ever describe as ON A HEATER is my cat. Both of them. Heater fiends. (technically they're on the radiator cover, but close enough)

No real difficulty today (yet again). I screwed up by writing in POCA instead of POCO (1D: Small bit, in Bogotá) and then not checking the crosses (AXES looked fine—better than OXES, that's for sure—it just didn't fit the clue). Had to wait for the crosses to make the LOLL v. LOAF call, of course (23D: Be just chillin'). The clue there, which is repeated for IDLE (64A: Be just chillin'), is inapt both times. Way too slangy for those answers. Clues should match, tonally, imho. The other clue/answer mismatch that jarred me was 65A: "Beats me!" ("I'VE NO IDEA!"). It's true that if I say it really fast, it sounds like I'm saying "I'VE NO IDEA," but I promise you I am always saying "I HAVE NO IDEA!" This is one instance where the contraction sounds oddly formal. 

Bullets:

• 1A: Crush (PUPPY LOVE) — I dunno. PUPPY LOVE is specifically for kids. If there's nothing indicating youth in the clue, it feels ... misleading. I've had crushes as an adult. None of them would I describe as PUPPY LOVE.
• 16A: Places many Cubans are found (CIGAR BOXES) — first thought: DELIS. Florida delis, anyway.

[Cuban sandwich]

• 44A: Old-timey oath (NERTS!) — as I literally said on Tuesday (re: the inevitable eventual fate of NO CAP), "old slang never dies, it just haunts crosswords for eternity."  If any old slang should've died by now, it's NERTS!, but ... here we are, 2026, just NERTSing around like there's no tomorrow.
• 48A: Was rude on the road or the dance floor (CUT IN) — I've learned everything I know about couples dancing from The Love Boat, and my impression was that cutting in was not uncommon and always done very politely. "May I CUT IN?" Who is just yoinking partners away from people without their consent? Anyway, cutting in, in that context, does not seem definitively "rude." Also, on the road, the phrase is "cut off." I guess if we're talking about slow-moving lines, a car could "cut in," but usually the polite thing is to just let the car into the line. People get way too worked up behind the wheel.
• 34A: Stealthy flier (AIR MARSHAL) — good clue. Has you looking for an aircraft, not someone on the aircraft.
• 60A: Monopoly token retired in 2017 (BOOT) — haven't played Monopoly since college. Struggled to remember all the tokens. It was like trying to remember all the rooms in Clue—I know they're in my brain somewhere, but ... it's somewhere way in the back, covered in cobwebs.
• 10D: Footwear that lacks defined heels (TUBE SOCKS) — my footwear of choice until I was, like, a teenager, I think. Very popular in the '70s. The more brightly striped, the better.

• 37D: There are more than 2.3 million in N.Y.C.: Abbr. (APTS) — had the "A" and "S" and started to write in ANTS, then thought "... wait, how did they count the ants? WAIT, there have got to be more than 2.3 million!" Indeed. Wish I'd noticed the "Abbr." part of the clue.
• 41D: Oscar winner Blanchett (CATE) — coincidentally, I'm going up to Ithaca to see her latest movie today!

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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Watered-down espresso, essentially / FRI 4-18-25 / 1960s-'80s singer/TV host Marilyn / Home of the first hippopotamus in Europe since the Roman Empire / Trend that involves pink accessories and decor / Three-part event, informally / Its flag includes a coconut tree and a sailboard / Social movement introduced in 2006 / Who "can't buy you love" in an Elton John hit / Some Elomi products / Trashy TV character?

Constructor: Greg Snitkin and Glenn Davis

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Naomi KLEIN (10D: Naomi ___, author of 2007's "The Shock Doctrine") —

Naomi Klein (born May 8, 1970) is a Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker known for her political analyses; support of ecofeminism, organized labour, and criticism of corporate globalization, fascism and capitalism. In 2021, Klein took up the UBC Professorship in Climate Justice, joining the University of British Columbia's Department of Geography. She has been the co-director of the newly launched Centre for Climate Justice since 2021.

Klein first became known internationally for her alter-globalization book No Logo (1999). The Take (2004), a documentary film about Argentine workers' self-managed factories, written by her and directed by her husband Avi Lewis, further increased her profile. The Shock Doctrine (2007), a critical analysis of the history of neoliberal economics, solidified her standing as a prominent activist on the international stage and was adapted into a six-minute companion film by Alfonso and Jonás Cuarón, as well as a feature-length documentary by Michael Winterbottom. Klein's This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate (2014) was a New York Times nonfiction bestseller and the winner of the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction. (wikipedia)

• • •

Like yesterday's puzzle, this was way too easy. Also like yesterday's puzzle, this was very enjoyable (while it lasted). Also also like yesterday's puzzle, there are very few weak or ugly spots in the grid. Gunky parts are few, so you can keep your attention on the pleasing parts of the puzzle, which are many. The one knock I had against this puzzle was BARBIECORE, which already feels dated—but the bigger issue is that it's *not* a debut, and BARBIECORE ... that's one of those answers that once someone uses it, you probably don't want to touch it again for another decade, if ever (17A: Trend that involves pink accessories and decor). It's too ostentatious to be a repeater. Great the first time you see it, but immediately a thousand times less great the next time, especially if that next time is significantly after the concept stopped really resonating through the culture. BARBIECORE had a good year there. 2023-24, that was really it's moment. Last year, when it first appeared, felt just fine. The answer was brand new, and the Oscars for 2023 movies (which happened in March 2024, and for which Barbie got a bunch of nominations) were not that far in the rearview. But we've moved on. As a culture. (OK this may be wishful thinking on my part—apparently there is some godawful A.I. thing that can turn a picture of you into a Barbie-like figure, complete with box. I'm not linking to this, because it is cursed, and I don't really think it counts as BARBIECORE, anyway). It's possible that this puzzle got accepted a long time ago and the editors were just slow to get it out (a common complaint among constructors). This is why the NYT should figure out a way to turn puzzles around more quickly. It's not the brand that's the problem today. BARBIE per se, great, other BARBIE-related answers, sure, go nuts, but BARBIECORE is so of-a-moment, so time-specific, that today it made me mentally shout "seen it!" It's not the marquee answer it thinks it is. 

[Marilyn MCCOO! #1 the day I was born]

However ... this puzzle is loaded with other marquee answers, such that I forgot about BARBIECORE very quickly. "DIAL IT BACK!," yes! Great opener. "DIAL IT BACK!" is possibly something you've said to me before, possibly while reading the previous paragraph. It's a nice, polite alternative to "omg would you shut the f*** up." Perfectly in-the-language and colloquial and zingy. See also PLAY IT COOL and "SURE, WHY NOT?" Bullseye, bullseye. I love a good AMERICANO, so when I read the clue (13D: Watered-down espresso, essentially), I laughed out loud, like "fair, fair." You can see why coffee shops went with AMERICANO. "Can I get a large watered-down espresso, please?" Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, or prime your palate. But the description is not INAPT. And the hits kept coming: ROCK BOTTOM, FIGHTS DIRTY, DOUBLE OR NOTHING, LONDON ZOO (32D: Home of the first hippopotamus in Europe since the Roman Empire). How many puzzles have Roman hippos!? Very few, I'd venture to guess.

I can count on one hand the answers that gave me any trouble at all today, and they are all five letters or fewer. Totally blanked on the Elton John song, despite knowing and liking the Elton John song (which is how I feel about most Elton John songs). The only thing I could think of that "can't buy me love" was MONEY, but it wouldn't fit. Wrong word, wrong song, wrong number of letters. "MAMA Can't Buy You Love" (1979) was not one of John's major hits (#9 would be major for anyone else—not for John). Still, mad at myself for forgetting. I hate WRAPS (why would you ruin delicious sandwich ingredients by wrapping them in a clammy flavorless conveyance that you have to eat in order to get at the delicious sandwich ingredients?! Why would you waste so many calories on so little joy?!) (47D: Deli purchases). When I think of "delis," I think of real sandwiches. So WRAPS was a no-go, and I don't wear bras, and though there are BRAS in my house (53A: Some Elomi products), I don't think any of them are Elomi, so that was also a no-go (if Elomi is so well known, how in the world has it never been a NYTXW answer!?!? It's perfectly designed for grid stardom). Anyway, when two no-gos (WRAPS/BRAS) cross each other at a tiny puzzle passageway ... grinding halt. But the puzzle was so easy today that I just leaped over the WRAPS/BRAS problem, plunked down OSCAR at 48D: Trashy TV character?, and kept going. I had some trouble coming up with "AGAIN?" (very ambiguously clued) (50D: Reply of shocked annoyance). And I did not know they put TALC in chewing gum (28A: Common additive in chewing gum). But that's it for solving trouble. Had a couple of odd missteps along the way (ZINC for DISC at 30A: Throat lozenge, often; TIBET (!?) for TIGER at 55A: Its stripes represent wisdom in Buddhism). But otherwise, this was an easy ride. Not once did I cry "NO FAIR!"

More:

• 22A: Three-part event, informally (TRI) — as in a TRIathlon.
• 37A: Its flag includes a coconut tree and a sailboard (GUAM) — had the "M" and almost wrote in SIAM here. Almost.

• 64A: It's OK (SO-SO) — gratuitous "It's" in the clue. Not a fan. 
• 2D: Not quite right (INAPT) — not a fan of this either. The "quite" implies that it's close to right, but INAPT is just "wrong"—nothing about it suggests degree of wrongness. 
• 51D: Social movement introduced in 2006 (#METOO) — got this easily enough, but assumed the clue had a typo. Surely it was 2016, not 2006 ... but then I looked it up and sure enough, it was 2006. But it was 2006 on MySpace, so it didn't exactly go worldwide. Then in 2017, it became a hashtag (#metoo) in an era when social media was much more prevalent in the culture (and MySpace a forgotten relic), and at that point, the #METOO movement really took off.
• 24D: Make amends? (ALTER) — the question mark in the clue told me the clue was not meant to be taken literally, and yet, with the answer at five letters and starting with "A," I was powerless to resist writing in ATONE. "Why am I doing this when I know it's wrong!!!" I cried (silently).

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]

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Gesture with razzle-dazzle / TUES 2-25-25 / Native of the Dutch Caribbean / Call after last call? / Mario Kart item providing temporary invincibility

Hi, everyone, it’s Clare for the last Tuesday in this short month of February! My write-up last month was delayed because I had to prep for a client’s asylum hearing. It ended up being postponed but only until last week, AND HE GOT ASYLUM! In other, not-at-all-related good news, my Liverpool Reds are looking mighty good right now (yes, I just knocked on wood). There are 11 games left in the Premier League season, and we have a large lead over Arsenal (my sister’s team; sorry, Shannon!) My other Red (my puppy) is also doing well. She’s getting so big (already 23 pounds at four months) and is still very cute, if a little insane and energetic and bitey sometimes (all the time?).

Anywho, on to the puzzle...

Constructor: Greg Snitkin

Relative difficulty: Easy-medium

THEME: NOT ON MY WATCH (56A: "I forbid this" … or what a smart device wearer might claim regarding the ends of 20-, 30-, 40- and 48-Across?) — the end of each of the theme answers contains a typical feature of an analog watch that would presumably not be found on a smartwatch

Theme answers:

• BILLY CRYSTAL (20A: Meg Ryan's co-star in "When Harry Met Sally …") 
• DRUNK DIAL (30A: Call after last call?) 
• NUT CASE (40A: Kook) 
• JAZZ HANDS (48A: Gesture with razzle-dazzle)

Word of the Day: NENA (59D: Band with the 1984 hit "99 Luftballons") —

Nena was a West German Neue Deutsche Welle band formed in West Berlin in 1981. In 1983 and 1984, their German-language song "99 Luftballons" (and its English version, "99 Red Balloons") reached number one in the singles charts of countries around the world. By the time the band released its second album ? (Fragezeichen) in Germany in January 1984, "99 Luftballons" was starting to climb the US charts, where it reached number 2 and became one of the most successful non-English-language tracks in US Billboard chart history. With the English version of the song ("99 Red Balloons") achieving the number 1 position in the UK, the band became internationally famous. (Wiki)

• • •

That was a decently cute puzzle. It was also somehow on my wavelength, so this was one of the faster Tuesdays I’ve had in a while. I liked the theme answers, especially JAZZ HANDS (48A) and DRUNK DIAL (30A), and the phrase for the theme revealer, NOT ON MY WATCH (56A), but the more I think about it, the less I’m convinced the revealer really fits. My sister’s Apple smartwatch has a DIAL and a CASE, and the displays on some smartwatches can be made up of LED CRYSTALs. 

Some of the clues may have been trying a bit too hard to be clever, but there were several clue/answer combos that I chuckled at and enjoyed. My favorite was 25D: Big name in brewing as LIPTON. And then the puzzle had SAMUEL (51D: Adams in a bar) in it, too, which was clever. I liked 63A: Call it an early night? as DUSK and 33D: Launch party? as NASA. Less clever was 69A: Most of 1999 as NINES (though I liked that the clue number had a nine in it.) I think the clue for 62D: Leave a small tip to get HINT (62D) was trying too hard to misdirect us toward thinking about a restaurant; you don’t “leave” a tip if you are HINTing about something; you “give” a tip. I could take or leave 39A: Sister as NUN, which has been done before, but it also reminded me of the movie “Conclave” and how it feels like this awards season is a reenactment of the movie’s plot. We may even get a real conclave soon, if the pope’s health sadly continues to deteriorate. 

The construction of the puzzle was fairly basic. There weren’t any answers longer than seven letters, other than the themes and revealer, and there were only two of them. The bulk of the puzzle was instead four- and five-letter words, which weren’t terribly exciting and which made the puzzle feel a bit dry. (Though I did like METE and DEFT.) The puzzle was actually a pangram, which I don’t think necessarily added much but which also didn’t feel like a stretch, as pangram puzzles sometimes can. 

I didn’t like having both TONI (57D: Woman's name that's an anagram of 58-Down) and TORI (2D: Spelling or Amos) in the puzzle, along with IS IT (19A: "You sure about that?") and ON IT (58D: "I'll get to work right now!") and then TIS (43A: "___ the season") to round it off. Having DONEZO (29D: Finished, in slang), ZONKED (49D: Totally beat), and NOOB (53A: One most likely to get pwned) all in that western section together was a bit too much slang. I was prepared to dislike REAL MAN (4D: One who wears pink, in a breast cancer awareness campaign) because it sounded very strange to me, until I remembered that “Real Men Wear Pink” was a campaign for breast cancer awareness. I do think, then, a better answer would’ve been “real men.” 

But overall, this was a cute enough puzzle with good theme answers, a few interesting words, and fun phrases (see: YOGA MAT, JAZZ HANDS). And it's always satisfying to be fast.

Misc.:

• I’m confused why, when you click on 58D on the puzzle on a computer, it highlights 1A. That didn’t happen on my phone, though, so it seems like it was a bug of some sort. 
• USA (32D: Women's soccer powerhouse) is indeed very, very dominant. For those interested, the USWNT is playing in the SheBelieves Cup right now, and the final game is Wednesday night. If the USA beats Japan, they win the tournament. Yes, it’s a mostly meaningless tournament and is about getting young players more minutes and trying different formations, but it’s still the USWNT and is therefore incredible. 
• My sister and I plan to go see GYPSY (55D: Hit 1959 musical with the song “Let Me Entertain You”) in New York with the insanely talented Audra McDonald. I just need to figure out what to do with my puppy while we’re gone. 
• With STAR (1A: Mario Kart item providing temporary invincibility) and ONE UP (66A: Extra life, in video games) both in the puzzle, I might need to play more video games! 
• Why wait until Black Friday to SHOP (10A)? Novices. I shop year-round. 
• No matter what he’s in or where I see him, BILLY CRYSTAL (20A) will always be Miracle Max from “The Princess Bride” to me

And that’s all from me! Have a great March. 

Signed, Clare Carroll, a smartWATCH-er of Liverpool

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]

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Spanish sparkling wine / WED 2-28-24 / Bunny first appearing in "Space Jam" (1996) / Franz's partner in old "S.N.L." sketches / Bit of attire that sends the message "I mean business!" / Walled city near Madrid / Comedian Hedberg who said "I'm against picketing but I don't know how to show it"

Constructor: Greg Snitkin

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium to Medium (depending on how you navigated alllll the names)

THEME: "WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT" (53A: The main takeaway ... or, when considered in three different senses, a description of 20-, 33- and 41-Across)  — this phrase is an apt description of the three theme answers, but you have to understand (or punctuate) "IT" differently each time:

Theme answers:

• COMPUTER SYSTEMS (20A: Things with hardware and software components) ("I.T.") 
• SCARY CLOWN (33A: Someone terrorizing kids in a 1986 Stephen King novel) (IT)
• HOKEY POKEY (41A: Participation dance in which you "turn yourself around") (the "it" in the last line of the HOKEY POKEY verse (namely, "... and that's WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT!")

Word of the Day: HOKEY POKEY (41A) —

The Hokey Cokey, as it is still known in the United Kingdom, Ireland, some parts of Australia, and the Caribbean, (now known as Hokey Pokey in the U.S and Canada), is a campfire song and participation dance with a distinctive accompanying tune and lyric structure. It is well-known in English-speaking countries. It originates in a British folk dance, with variants attested as early as 1826. The song and accompanying dance peaked in popularity as a music hall song and novelty dance in the mid-1940s in the UK. The song became a chart hit twice in the 1980s. The first UK hit was by the Snowmen, which peaked at UK No. 18 in 1981. (wikipedia)

• • •

Wow, I never realized how completely nonsensical that HOKEY POKEY song is before. What the hell is "It" ever referring to? All the left hand / right hand nonsense? But no, because you do the left hand right hand nonsense, and then you "do the HOKEY POKEY and you turn yourself around." But The Lyrics Never Describe That Part (i.e. exactly what "do the HOKEY POKEY" means), and also, how can "it" refer to HOKEY POKEY, when "you do the HOKEY POKEY and you turn yourself around / And that's what it's all about"? So ... the HOKEY POKEY is "about" the HOKEY POKEY? And we teach children this rhyme? No wonder my students have trouble with pronoun usage. Pronouns need clear antecedents / referents! The "it" in the HOKEY POKEY song has no idea what it (!) is pointing to. Thank you for attending my new segment, "Rex Parker Critiques Children's Rhymes," join me next time for a thorough take down of "E-I-E-I-O" ("No consonants!? Unlikely ..."). 

[what in the...?]

This is one puzzle where the revealer really rescued the entire theme enterprise. The themers seemed listless (except SCARY CLOWN, which just seemed bizarre), and the overall fill ran weak (and heavily, drearily name-y; more on that below), and then TALKAHOLIC, ugh, I would've shut my computer right there if I weren't contractually obligated to go on. Just a ridiculous non-word. What's next, GUACAHOLIC?! (mmmm, guacaholism ...). Your acceptable punny -aholic prefixes are SHOP- and CHOC-. TALKAHOLIC is gratingly cutesy and not really used. Never seen it. Never heard it. If people don't use it, you don't use it, that's the rule. Thumbs down, goodbye. But then I worked out WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT and looked back at the themers, and suddenly the dull COMPUTER SYSTEMS could at least be appreciated as a repunctuated "IT," and I could now understand why "SCARY CLOWN" was clued without naming IT, and, most of all, I could understand what the hell HOKEY POKEY was doing here at all. The revealer instantly evoked that silly rhyme. A true "aha" moment (or at least an "ah" moment). 

As for the rest of the puzzle, it was gunked up with names to an unusual, and possibly dangerous degree. From MITCH to LOLA to BREES to HANS AVILA ELSA LEON ELI and especially MARADONA (44A: Diego ___, one of two joint winners of the FIFA Player of the 20th Century award), who was indeed a very famous soccer player, but whose name crosses (at a vowel) a "Spanish sparkling wine" I've literally never heard of* (CAVA) (34D: Spanish sparkling wine). There are any number of WAYS to fill that little section, I have absolutely no idea why someone would go with CAVA there, especially given that M-RADONA crossing. Vena CAVA is at least familiar to me from biology class. Irene CARA is familiar to me (as is the Italian adjective "CARA," as in the phrase "CARA mia!"). Maybe no one will trip on that cross. But it feels like a hazard that might imperil non-sports folks. My only name problems were LOLA (who? If you debut in Space Jam, are you even a real part of the BBU (Bugs Bunny Universe)?) and ELSA (!?!?!?!?!) (47A: Captain von Trapp's betrothed, in "The Sound of Music") and BREES (6D: 2020 N.F.L. retiree who leads all QBs with 123 regular-season games of 300+ passing yards) (a "Drew" in this clue would've really helped; stunning how little an impact his career has left on my sports brain—when FAVRE and BRADY wouldn't fit here, I was out of ideas ... sidenote: weird how many QB names are five letters ... FOUTS ... ELWAY ...). I get Drew BREES confused with ... sigh, OK, one played for the Saints and the other played for the Chargers ... oh *&%^ it's the same guy! BREES was a Charger ('01-'05), then a Saint '(06-'20). Phew, OK ... this is what happens when you decide, after decades of paying attention to sports, that the NFL is no longer for you—all your carefully amassed knowledge just ... melts into a lump.

Notes:

• 54D: Fabled slacker (HARE) — this is from the fable "The Tortoise and the HARE"; the puzzle is really leaning into kid's stuff today
• 42D: "We totally should!" ("YES, LET'S!") — also the term for very small "yeses"
• 52A: Knight's "trusty" companion (STEED) — imagining the poor STEED sitting over there wondering why you'd ironically quote-unquote his trustiness. "Hey, I see your air quotes, buddy! I'm gonna remember that the next time you're running away (yet again!) from a dragon, or a dwarf, or a garden snake, [mumbles] ungrateful simp..."

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

*apparently not only have I heard of it, I made it my Word of the Day ... back in 2011 (which is the last time it was clued this way!)

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