Clergyman known for his verbal gaffes / SUN 6-21-26 / Farm play area / Launch points in disc golf / Long, hooded cloak that's also an author's name / Debuted to stockholders, in Wall St. lingo / Hindu god with an elephant head / Physician specializing in reproductive health, informally / Mathematical constant equal to two times pi

Constructor: Hannah Slovut-Einertson

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

[122D: "Star Wars" character whose species is never named]

THEME: "Big Draw" — apparently it's WORLD GIRAFFE DAY (???), and you get to celebrate the "big" animal by "drawing" it (76A: Annual June 21 celebration of the animal depicted in this puzzle by connecting the circled letters from A to T and back to A); additionally, there are seven more giraffe-related answers in the grid:

Theme answers:

• NECKING (21A: Fighting technique used by [circled letters] (as explained at 76-Across))
• "THAT'S A TALL ORDER" (67A: "Boy, you're asking too much" ... or what you might say after following the instructions at 76-Across?)
• SAVANNA (124A: Habitat for [circled letters])
• OKAPI (20D: Closing living relative of the [circled letters])
• TOWERS (39D: Term for groups of [circled letters])
• ACACIA (81D: Tree whose leaves are eaten by [circled letters])
• SPOTS (109D: Fur pattern on a [circled letters])

Word of the Day: Yani TSENG (25D: Golfer Yani) —

Yani Tseng (Chinese: 曾雅妮; pinyin: Zēng Yǎní; born 23 January 1989) is a Taiwanese professional golfer playing on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. She is the youngest player ever, male or female, to win five major championships. She was ranked number 1 in the Women's World Golf Rankings for 109 consecutive weeks from 2011 to 2013. (wikipedia)

• • •

My actual feelings about this puzzle are more in two-star territory, but I want to give the puzzle credit for originality (i.e. weirdness), and for a few of the longer non-theme answers, which were strong and occasionally delightful (BEAR WITNESS, STORE CREDIT, "LEVEL WITH ME," COFFEE RUN). But the theme, yeah, no, what? What is even happening? Did people know this was a "Day"? Are you all "celebrating" this today? Is anyone? God love and preserve the giraffes of the world, but this is such (Such!) a weird puzzle to run on a day that is Notably A Holiday! A non-giraffe holiday. Unless your father is a giraffe, in which case ... wow, I have questions. Anyway, it's Father's Day. I don't need a Father's Day-themed puzzle, but to celebrate a different, and (I think it's safe to say) less popular "holiday" on Father's Day is bizarre. Not all bizarre things are bad, but this ... is child's placemat stuff. Connect the dots, draw a long-necked horsey. Mkay. Done and done, I guess, but why? It's not like there were any surprises here. There's one pun, which gives the theme a very (very) mild playfulness, but otherwise it's just giraffe trivia (mostly short answers you might see on any day), and then ... you draw. I knew I was dealing with a giraffe-related puzzle very early—as soon as I got OKAPI, in fact. At that point, I thought the "circled letters" were going to spell "GIRAFFE" somehow, so I got very confused as A B C D etc. started to show up. Eventually I realized that I was going to be asked to connect the circled squares in alphabetical order, which then made it pretty easy to find and fill in the circled squares. Here's what happened immediately after I grasped the connect-the-dots angle:

After this point, the puzzle was basically a tall and somewhat dull themeless. There are few things I like less than being asked to draw a picture on my puzzle when I'm done. Maybe the app did some cool giraffe-related animation, I dunno. Mine just sat there. Not that a graphic would've improved the solving experience. The puzzle isn't bad, it's just ... it's only interesting as a novelty. It has novelty dimensions. Wacky tallness. Beyond that, there's really not much to it. Oh, and one last thing about the theme, specifically the revealer clue: if you ask me to "connect the circled letters from A to T and back to A" (my emphasis), then I am going to assume that you want me to actually go back, i.e. retrace my steps, T to A (the long way). Just a little thought told me that my interpretation made no sense from a drawing perspective, but I still maintain that that instruction is clumsily worded.

Overall, it's a pretty easy puzzle. I had real trouble with TSENG / NOUN, and only wrote that "N" in at the very end. I still can't really accept that [Whatchamacallit] is NOUN. How? In the sense that any ... thing (whether you can remember its name or not) is a NOUN, I guess the clue is, at some basic level, accurate, but you'd never (ever) swap either of those words for the other. Absolutely insane cluing choice. My not knowing a golfer: not a surprise. My not knowing NOUN: strange. I had EYE-to-EYE before TOE-to-TOE (47A: Word on either side of "to"). Struggled with GANESHA because I really (really) thought the god was called simply GANESH ... which it is, though apparently GANESHA is the preferred / more common spelling (89A: Hindu god with an elephant head). It's the primary spelling at the wikipedia entry, at any rate. My trouble there was compounded by my uncertainty about neighboring ACES OUT (the "OUT" part, specifically) and by the tough clue on RANSOM, which crosses both of the aforementioned answers (78D: Price for a return, perhaps). I had ANNOY before ANGER (99D: Tick off). I've never heard of a CORN PIT and can barely imagine it. CORN MAZE? Sure. CORN PIT??? Weirdly, not an element of any farm I've ever seen. I assume they're real, or why would this answer be here, but ... yeah, I needed lots of crosses there. "BEATS ME!" I might've said (but didn't).


Bullets:

• 23A: Verify, as an editor (FACTCHECK) — I think of an editor and a factchecker as being separate jobs. I knew a factchecker for National Geographic, and she was not an editor. But I guess some editors do FACTCHECK, so, fine.
• 132A: Debuted to stockholders, in Wall St. lingo (WENT IPO) — awful. Just a horrible, ugly bit of "lingo." A total wordlist answer (i.e. one you use only because your software recommended it). No one wants this. 
• 106D: Small superhero whose catchphrase starts "Up and at 'em" (ATOM ANT) — had the first "A" and tried to make ANT MAN work, to no avail.
• 52D: R&B group Bell Biv ___ (DEVOE) — they were popular for precisely the years that I was in college. I don't remember hearing about them again after 1991. But they were pretty damn big in that '90-'91 window. I see now that they released other albums besides their massive 1990 debut (Poison). Bell Biv DEVOE (also known as "BBD," yes, really) was made up of three former members of the '80s boy band New Edition, whose other members included Ralph Tresvant, Johnny Gill, and (most famously) Bobby Brown. Bell Biv DEVOE are: Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, and Ronnie DeVoe. So, if you didn't know about Bell Biv DEVOE, well ... now you know.

• 53A: Long, hooded cloak that's also an author's name (CAPOTE) — ooh, I forgot this name had a sartorial angle. I think I knew that. But I also think I would've said it was something a bullfighter wore. No idea how my brain ever made that association. 
• 119A: Clergyman known for his verbal gaffes (SPOONER) — if you don't know the Reverend, then you have probably never solved a cryptic crossword in your life. Man, those setters (don't call them "constructors") love their spoonerisms. A "spoonerism"is when you transpose the first sounds of two-word phrases, so ... uh ... a "cakewalk" would be a "wake cock" ... that's not really a good example, but it's the first thing that came to mind, sorry / you're welcome.
• 110A: Common holder of pens (MUG) — yes. In fact there's a MUG holding pens (and pencils) on my desk right now. But I got a bit screwed up by the alphabetical sequencing of the circled letters and thought that there should be a "J" where the "M" should be, which resulted in a JAR holding the pens. And then, however improbably, a JUG.

That's all for today. Happy Father's Day to all who celebrate. If that's not you, well then, Happy WORLD GIRAFFE TODAY. Today's got something for everyone!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
=============================
❤️ Support this blog ❤️: 

• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

=============================
📘 My other blog 📘:

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...

Handle in a theater / SAT 5-2-26 / Rotisserie-roasted Turkish dish / Sign on a convenience store window / Three-peating N.B.A. champs from 2000 to '02 / Traditional gift for a fifth anniversary / "Full House" father

Constructor: Hannah Slovut-Einertson

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: None

Word of the Day: COLOR WARS (30A: Summer camp competitions for which teammates dress similarly) —

A color war is a competition played in summer camps, schools and some social organizations (such as sororities, fraternities, or small businesses). Participants are divided into teams, each of which is assigned a color. The teams compete against each other in challenges and events to earn points. Typical color war challenges include tug-of-war, dodgeball, archery, soccer and basketball. These challenges and events vary based upon the venue for the game. The games' durations can range from a day to several months. The winning team is the one with the most points at the end of the game. Typically, color wars consist of several events that are worth insignificant numbers of points, and then one large final event that is worth enough points to win or lose the entire color war. It is usually at the end of the summer.

• • •

Hello, friends! Rex is still on his trip, so it's Rafa here as your Rexplacement du jour. It's May! How did we get here? I know I'm getting older because now I'm the kind of person who talks about how quickly time is passing. But ... New Year's was basically yesterday?! I don't know what's going on. Forgive me, I saw the date and needed to have this small spiral before moving onto the puzzle.

Here's a giraffe with its ossicones

SO ANYWAYS, I *really* enjoyed this puzzle. It's really wide open at 64 words (themeless puzzles at the NYT can go up to 72 words). Sidenote: we refer to entries in the crosswords as "words" regardless of how many actual words the entry contains. So I'LL START is one word, FLAT is one word, etc. But, yes, 64 words, and not a single bad or gluey entry. And pretty much all the long stuff is fun multi-word entries: LATEST FAD, MOONSHOTS, STAGE NAME, GO BANANAS, NO PEEKING, etc., etc. I loved the modern PERMABAN, and even the more "boring" entries were still totally legit words that can take many cluing angles: FRAMEWORK, TENANTS, SWALLOW.

This is what a BOW SAW looks like, for those who don't know

Some nice clues here, too. [Rounded up?] for DOMED was probably my favorite, and [Disappearing ink?] for TEMPORARY TATTOO was nice, too. I wish there had been a handful more clever misdirects. Oh, I also enjoyed [Residents without a title] for TENANTS. But [Call it!] for HOTLINES didn't quite land for me. Didn't feel precise enough to be a satisfying clue. The verb "call" could apply to too many things, IMO.

What else? ORA reminded me of this recent article in The Onion which was cute. I'd also never heard of COLOR WARS, but admittedly I never attended summer camp growing up. CELESTA was new to me, too ... but it has a really inferable name, and was cool to learn about. I was going to comment on difficulty but I solved this on paper (unusual for me), and I can't tell if I felt slow because I'm not used to having to hunt for the clues or because the puzzle was on the trickier side. Let me know how the difficulty played for you!

SAN Marzano tomatoes

Finally: Hannah, who constructed this puzzle, also helped organize the Midis for Minnesota charity puzzle pack, supporting mutual aid for immigrant families in the state. I have solved several of the puzzles and can vouch for their quality! It also seems like you can receive a physical booklet if you donate in the next couple of days, so do check them out.

Bullets:

• FRAGS (42D: Hand grenades, informally) — I knew this because I played a lot of Call of Duty as a child (it's what I was doing instead of being at summer camp)
• RAW BAR (45A: Establishment that might have a "buck-a-shuck" promotion) — I'm not a picky eater at all, but there's something about raw oysters that I just can't do. I've tried, but it's just not for me. I wish I could enjoy them because the people who love oysters seem to really enjoy them, but alas...
• MASH-UPS (1D: Composite numbers?) — Forgot to mention this clue above, but it was a banger!
• BAMBINA (35D: Little girl, in Italian) — I cannot explain why (I do not speak Italian), but I got this answer immediately and it made me smile
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
=============================
❤️ Support this blog ❤️: 

• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

=============================
✏️ Upcoming Crossword Tournaments ✏️

• Westwords (Berkeley, CA, Jun. 14, 2026)

=============================
📘 My other blog 📘:

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...

Symbols of love on some bridges / SAT 1-3-26 / Emoji indicating interest / Hairstyle associated with lesbian culture / Tech that records movement / Exaggerated speaking style that promotes language development / Corner piece / Part of a certain steering system / Start of a declaration of 47 B.C. / Where French fries are "frog sticks"

Constructor: Hannah Slovut-Einertson

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: PARENTESE (58A: Exaggerated speaking style that promotes language development) —

Baby talk is a type of speech associated with an older person speaking to a child or infant. It is also called child-directed speech (CDS), [...]  caregiver register/speech, [...]  motherese, caretaker speech, infant-directed speech (IDS), nursery talk/language, or parentese.

CDS is characterized by a "sing song" pattern of intonation that differentiates it from the more monotone style used with other adults e.g., CDS has higher and wider pitch, slower speech rate and shorter utterances. It can display vowel hyperarticulation (an increase in distance in the formant space of the peripheral vowels e.g., [i], [u], and [a]) and words tend to be shortened and simplified. There is evidence that the exaggerated pitch modifications are similar to the affectionate speech style employed when people speak to their pets (pet-directed speech). [...] 

Child-directed speech (CDS) is the term preferred by researchers, psychologists and child development professionals. (wikipedia)

• • •

[5D: Symbols of love on some bridges]

This was fairly typical of recent Saturdays, in that I had some difficulty getting off the ground, but once I did, there wasn't much disturbance for the rest of the trip. I guess I'm doing an air travel metaphor this morning. Anyway, rough take-off, but then no turbulence and a relatively smooth landing—kinda bounced on the tarmac a little with PARENTESE (!?), but the crosses all checked out, so crisis averted. I was, as they say, today years old when I saw the word PARENTESE for the first time. Somehow made it to 56 (25 of those years a parent) and nope, not a once. I always hated when adults changed their speech dramatically when talking to a kid, but I guess for a baby baby, a proper baby, it makes sense. Seems natural. Of course you speak somewhat slower, you enunciate better, you soften your voice—you know, put some love and encouragement in your voice. All these things are normal. But I've heard people use this voice to an intolerable degree, and beyond the age at which it's really appropriate. When I tried to look up PARENTESE just now, there's all these sites trying to coach parents on how "best" to talk to your baby and dear lord if you love your baby and you talk to your baby and hold your baby and smile at your baby and maybe read to your baby, you're gonna be fine. Babies have been learning to speak forever. No need to add to modern parental anxiety. My favorite thing about PARENTESE (aka "child-directed speech") is that it is apparently closely associated with "pet-directed speech" (I also just love that someone decided to give that a name). PARENTESE is an ugly neologism and not a term I am glad I "learned." But the rest of this grid looks pretty good, for the most part. Didn't have the whooshy fun of yesterday, but had enough solid marquee answers to make the experience enjoyable.

Some of the original-seeming answers today just rub me the wrong way a little. We've dealt with PARENTESE. There's also CLICK HERE, which is a fine, real directive, but evokes an awful online advertising environment that I take pains to avoid. As for DELETE THIS ... if you are ending your "incriminating emails" with DELETE THIS, allow me to suggest that you are not very good at crime and should maybe consider going straight. At this point in our surveillance society, I just assume that every single word I type into a computer leaves a trace that someone somewhere can find if they really want to. Deleting means I don't see it, but ... it's probably stored somewhere; some autosave or archiving feature will get you in the end. Or so you should assume, if you're doing crimes (esp. if you are planning them via emails). If one way someone might get caught is ON TAPE (44A: How someone might be caught), another is "by writing DELETE THIS in incriminating emails." 

I liked LIKE LIKED (19A: Really went for). I LIKE LIKED it. No, I don't wanna marry it, don't be childish. I also liked RICE COOKER and PADLOCKS and PLANKTON and, strangely, BIBLE CAMP (29D: Place with a chapel and mess hall). I've never been to BIBLE CAMP. I can't say I'm pro- or anti-BIBLE CAMP. But I like the phrase. It's original. Can't remember seeing it in the grid before. Yep, looks like this is a debut. Some debuts are good! Alas, Not All Debuts Are Good™. Sorry, "OK. AND ..." (53A: "Your point being ...?"). Back to the Island of Malformed Colloquialisms with you! Sadly, "OK. AND..." will now enter the wordlist of every tom/dick/harry and proliferate like kudzu. Probably. Sigh. Oh well. 

All difficulty today came from wrong answers that seemed like they occurred by design. I mean, the clue writer probably had a pretty good idea they were steering solvers a specific wrong way. The first and most punishing such clue was 1D: Unwanted mail (BILL), for which I naturally wrote in SPAM. Because that is actual "unwanted mail." BILLs may not be "wanted," but you expect them, they show up, whatever. That's life. SPAM is not life, or should not be life—nobody expects or wants it. So when I finally got BILL I was mildly resentful, mainly because the "wrong" answer was the better answer. I felt somewhat similarly about writing in CASTLE at 10D: Corner piece (STAPLE). You'd never call a STAPLE a "piece," boo. I see what you're doing, but boo. A CASTLE (or rook) in chess, now that's a piece! A corner piece! I had the -LE and so CASTLE went right in. Fortunately, TOBEY (16A: Actor Maguire) and PÈRES (20A: French fathers) were both gimmes, so CASTLE didn't last long. The last of these highly misdirective clues came at 27D: Part of a certain steering system. I had the "R" in place and so (again, naturally!) wrote in RACK (as in "RACK and pinion steering"). But apparently we're steering horses, so REIN. REIN fits the clue. Can't be mad at REIN.

Bullets:

• 22A: Hairstyle associated with lesbian culture (MULLET) — uh ... sure. I guess that tracks. For some lesbians. I associate the hairstyle more strongly with unfortunate trends in men's hairstyles, circa 1992. Here's a MULLET fact I'd like to share. You can decide if it's a "fun fact": "After the much-publicized 1992 DC Comics storyline in which Superman apparently died, the character returned to the 1993 follow-up storyline "Reign of the Supermen", in which he was depicted with a mullet. The cancelled Superman film project, Superman Lives, would have depicted Superman with a mullet" (wikipedia). Superman with a MULLET would truly be a Crisis on Infinite Earths.
• 31A: One in hand? (ACE) — think of a Blackjack "hand," where an ACE represents "one" (or "eleven").
• 25D: Performer who's juggling a lot? (ONE-MAN BAND) — I do not associate ONE-MAN BANDs with "juggling." Is it metaphorical? I mean, are they both metaphorical: ONE-MAN BAND and "juggling"? If you're doing everything yourself, you're a ONE-MAN BAND (of sorts), which means you're "juggling" lots of tasks. I was imagining a literal ONE-MAN BAND. I thought, "play all those instruments and juggle them too? Dang. That's talent."

• 26D: Tech that records movement (MOCAP) — "motion capture." Both MOCAP and MOCAP SUIT have appeared in the grid before, but both those appearances were just last year, so it's new to Crossworld, if not a particularly new technology.
• 45D: Where French fries are "frog sticks" (DINER) — please stop. It is not the 1930s and this is not a wacky comedy. I adore diners and I frequent diners and never, literally never, never in my entire life have I ever heard anyone use whatever "DINER slang" this is supposed to be.
• 46D: Start of a declaration of 47 B.C. ("I CAME") — you may know this declaration better as VENI, as in VENI, VIDI, VICI.
• 50D: Lake ___, body of water near London (ERIE) — a cheap and entirely unsuccessful bit of misdirection here. The London in question is London, Ontario.

[14D: Emoji indicating interest]

Time for the very last of the 🌲🐈Holiday Pet Pics🐕🌲 now! (if I somehow forgot or missed your pet, please let me know—I'll do some kind of addendum feature later in the month)

Here's Kermit in his last happy moments before being absolutely shredded by Cleo. RIP, Kermit.

[Thanks, Jeannie and Michael!]

Here's Ruby photobombing Snoopy

[Thanks, Mark!]

Here's Teaser, who is apparently allowed on the table, what the hell? "I'm a cat!" OK, Teaser, sure, for Christmas only, you are a cat.

[Thanks, Mitch!]

And finally, we have Lincoln, who is not particularly "Lincolnesque" (7D: LANKY), but does have a certain somber formality about him. It's probably the tie.

[Thanks, Erin!]

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
=============================
❤️ Support this blog ❤️: 

• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

=============================
✏️ Upcoming Crossword Tournaments ✏️

• American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (Stamford, CT, Apr. 10-12, 2026) (registration opens January 8!)

=============================
📘 My other blog 📘:

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...

Silent marching band position / THU 6-19-25 / "Fulcrum" sculptor Richard / Precursor to a license / Part of a beer name / Simple exercise often done while standing / Water wheel?

Constructor: Hannah Slovut-Einertson

Relative difficulty: Easy (if mildly confusing)

THEME: a "TO" b — four answers are "instructions for answering" four other answers in the puzzle; in order to make sense of four answers in the puzzle, the four answers that precede each of those answers, all of which have "TO" in the middle, must be read as if the "TO" were a separate word and the letters preceding and following it just letters; so, for example, RAT OUT must be read as "RA" TO "UT"—as in, change the letters "RA" TO "UT" in order to make the next answer (GUTTER) look right in the grid (because the crosses only work if the answer is GRATER)

Theme answers:

• RAT OUT (20A Tattle on .... or an instruction for answering 22-Across) 
• 22A: Proverbial bad thing to have your mind in (GRATER) (change "RA" to "UT" and you get GUTTER)
• OCTOPI (28A: Some aquarium attractions .... or an instruction for answering 30-Across) / 
• 30A: Like the tail of the stegosaurus (SOCKED) (change "OC" to "PI" and you get SPIKED)
• T-STORM (44A: Informal name for a weather event ... or an instruction for answering 45-Across) 
• 45A: Precursor to a license (PETSIT) (change "TS" to "RM" and you get PERMIT)
• ARTOIS (51A: Part of a beer name .... or an instruction for answering 53-Across) 
• 53A: Certain clergy member (BARHOP) (change "AR" to "IS" and you get BISHOP)

Word of the Day: Richard SERRA (33D: "Fulcrum" sculptor Richard) —

Richard Serra (November 2, 1938 – March 26, 2024) was an American artist known for his large-scale abstract sculptures made for site-specific landscape, urban, and architectural settings, and whose work has been primarily associated with Postminimalism. Described as "one of his era's greatest sculptors", Serra became notable for emphasizing the material qualities of his works and exploration of the relationship between the viewer, the work, and the site. [...] From the mid-1960s onward, particularly after his move to New York City in 1966, Serra worked to radicalize and extend the definition of sculpture beginning with his early experiments with rubber, neon, and lead, to his large-scale steel works. His early works in New York, such as To Lift from 1967 and Thirty-Five Feet of Lead Rolled Up from 1968, reflected his fascination with industrial materials and the physical properties of his chosen mediums. His large-scale works, both in urban and natural landscapes, have reshaped public interactions with art and, at times, were also a source of controversy, such as that caused by his Tilted Arc in Manhattan in 1981. Serra was married to artist Nancy Graves between 1965 and 1970, and Clara Weyergraf between 1981 and his death in 2024. (wikipedia) 

Fulcrum is a large sculpture by American artist Richard Serra installed in 1987 near the western entrance to Liverpool Street station, London, as part of the Broadgate development. The sculpture consists of five pieces of Cor-Ten steel, and is approximately 55 feet (17 m) tall.^[1] Deyan Sudjic, director of the Design Museum, has called it one of London's "design icons". (wikipedia)

• • •

Got the gist of the theme very, very quickly. I've seen variations on this theme before, where a revealer like "STOP" would indicate that an "S" had been changed "to" a "P" (perhaps to create wacky answers), so when the theme clues told me to look at the answers as "instructions," the meaning of that was obvious to me. Or ... mostly obvious. Here's the big problem with this theme, as far as my brain's own information-processing capabilities are concerned: if you tell me something is an "instruction for answering" something else, I assume that following the "instruction" will get me to the correct answer ("correct" being The Answer That Actually Works In The Grid). These instructions will get you to the correct answer for the individual clues in question ... but You Do Not Need Those Instructions because the original clues for those answers are accurate. That is, I can "get" (and in fact got) GUTTER just by reading the clue for GUTTER. No instructions needed. GUTTER fits its clue. Ta ... da!? What I need "instructions" for is how to enter the answer in the damn grid!!! So there was no changing "RA" to "UT," as the "instructions" say—there was only the reverse: changing "UT" to "RA" (so that the crosses would work). Yes, when I am done with my puzzle, and all the Downs work and the four answers in question appear to make no sense, then if I follow the instructions, I get the correct answers for the clues, but ... that's all after the fact. "Instruction for answering" should get you to the answer that ends up in the grid, the one that makes sense for all the crosses, the one that keeps your streak going, whatever. But here, "instruction" for answering gets you only a. the answer you had in the first place if you just went by the literal clue, and b. the answer that will not, in fact, work in the grid (with the Downs). In short (or in long, by now, I guess), the logic of the "instructions" seemed backwards to me. Broken.

The fill was very rough, once again: ELBA SHORTTON ACTI OPI APSES THEUS and I haven't even left the NW yet, or even mentioned every overcommon repeater you meet up there. Not nearly polished enough, and not lively enough. TAIO ITTY? Not a great looking pair. Not sure I've ever seen the crosswordese ETTU given the full-phrase treatment before ("ET TU, BRUTE!?"). I kinda like it, even if I don't really like the fact that the longest Across answers are somehow *not* thematic (another thing my brain just doesn't like). I also didn't like that one of those longer Acrosses (NOT ONE BIT) actually had a "TO" in it, making it a kind of a false themer. See also ATOP. Seems like the least you could do in a theme like this is keep the most important "instruction" word confined solely to the theme answers. Stray "TO"s, boo. The core concept in today's puzzle is potentially interesting, but the execution just missed today, for me. And again I'm begging the NYTXW to demand better than "eh, good enough" where overall grid quality is concerned. 

Once again the puzzle came out well on the easy side. I just fell down the left side of the grid without much effort until I hit TSTORM—the first clue I looked at with the "instruction" in it. I then bounced right back up and picked up OCTOPI and RATOUT and thus had the first three "instruction" answers set in place within the first minute of solving:

Are NASCAR MOMS a thing? Clearly I thought they were a thing for a bit. But I guess they're "Soccer MOMS" and NASCAR DADS (47A: NASCAR ___ (demographic group)). This is just a way of talking about (a certain class of) white people without calling them "white," right? I haven't heard these demographic names since the '10s. They're best left in the past, I think. Anyway, that error was easily cleared up, as were all the little errors I made—like thinking Lady Gaga's full name was Stefani Germanotta ANA Lady Gaga, or imagining that the home of Lake Placid was North ERIE, or misremembering the once-briefly-popular pop singer as TAYO Cruz (TAIO Cruz hasn't released an album or had a chart hit since 2011). The hardest answer for me to get today was probably HELM (15A: Water wheel?)—even with "HEL-" I had no idea. But yes, if you are on "water" and steering a ship, the HELM might be a steering "wheel." It's a good clue, just didn't compute. But everything else computed today, rather too easily. Oh, wait, I forgot PARADE REST ... what in the world is a PARADE REST!? I think that, and not HELM, was the toughest answer for me, only because I've never heard of such a thing, and even now can't imagine what it is. Had PARADE and then ... no idea. According to Merriam-Webster dot com, PARADE REST is:

: a formal position assumed by a soldier in ranks in which he remains silent and motionless with the left foot 12 inches to the left of the right foot and with the weight resting equally on both feet and when without arms clasps the hands behind the back with the palms to the rear and when with a rifle holds the rifle in the right hand with butt touching the ground and muzzle inclined forward and holds the left hand behind the back 

—used as a command to assume this position

But the clue says "marching band." Maybe the same position exists in marching bands? Or else "band" here just means "group of people?" Confusing to me, for sure (but I was never in the military or in a marching band, so my confusion is no big surprise, to me).

Bullets:

• 27A: ___ of Solomon (ODES) — if it's not "SONG," I have no idea. Never heard of these ODES (or, I had heard, and then forgot).
• 21D: Nail polish brand with the shade I Just Can't Cope-acabana (OPI) — starting to feel like the NYTXW is doing paid promotional work for OPI. This exact type of OPI clue has been used several times now (the one where the clue showcases a wacky shade name). OPI, like ARO, is quickly ascending the ranks of New Crosswordese. It was novel. Now it is not novel. Now it is everywhere. It's a real (popular) brand, and the shade names are amusing, and all puzzles have short filler words, so there are worse ways to go. OPI should have an eight-color shade set called the OCTOPI.

• 7D: Like Hawaii, among the 50 states (WETTEST) — I keep looking at this answer and seeing WET TEST, which makes it seem like a "TEST" dupe (see TEST PREP) (38D: Activity for many H.S. juniors)
• 5D: Simple exercise often done while standing (TOE TAP) — oh, are we calling our compulsive behaviors "exercise" now? How fun. I've been "exercising" for much of the time I've been sitting here writing, apparently. Good to know. I feel so fit!
• 35D: Begins to feel real (SETS IN) — really wanted SINKS IN here. Still really want it. Rigor mortis SETS IN. A new reality SINKS IN

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
=============================
❤️ Support this blog ❤️: 

• Paypal 
• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

=============================
✏️ Upcoming Crossword Tournaments ✏️

• Westwords (Berkeley) (Sun., Jun. 22, 2025)
• Boswords (Boston) (Sun. July 27, 2025)
• Lollapuzzoola 18 (NYC) (Sat., Aug. 9, 2025) 
• Midwest Crossword Tournament (Chicago) (Sat., Oct. 4, 2025)

=============================
📘 My other blog 📘:

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...