Food-centric broadcasts originating in South Korea / SUN 4-27-25 / Line in old Apple ads / Bear's counterpart on Wall Street, once / Purple yam in Philippine cuisine / One of three on the Mayflower / Tough customer for a wedding planner / Cannabis variety contrasted with indica / Longtime Japanese camera brand / Coming-of-age Pixar film of 2021

Constructor: Jacob Reed

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "Numbers Game" — theme clues are written as numbers on a CALCULATOR read-out, and you have to read them UPSIDE-DOWN in order to make sense of them:

Theme answers:

"Big sleigh boss" = SANTA CLAUS

"Bilbo's O:" THE ONE RING

"Bee Gees boogie" = "STAYIN' ALIVE"

"Hillbillies' booze" = MOONSHINE

"Google log" = SEARCH HISTORY

"Bolshoi shoe" = BALLET SLIPPER

"High heels" = STILETTOS

"She is Ellis Bell" = EMILY BRONTË

Word of the Day: MUKBANGS (33A: Food-centric broadcasts originating in South Korea) —

A mukbang (UK: /ˈmʌkbæŋ/ MUK-bang, US: /ˈmʌkbɑːŋ/ MUK-bahng; Korean: 먹방; RR: meokbang; pronounced [mʌk̚p͈aŋ] ^ⓘ; lit. 'eating broadcast') is an online audiovisual broadcast in which a host consumes various quantities of food (generally from easily accessible and popular fast-food restaurant chains) while interacting with the audience or reviewing it. The genre became popular in South Korea in the early 2010s, and has become a global trend since the mid-2010s. Varieties of foods ranging from pizza to noodles are consumed in front of a camera. The purpose of mukbang is also sometimes educational, introducing viewers to regional specialties or gourmet spots.

A mukbang may be either prerecorded or streamed live through a webcast on multiple streaming platforms such as AfreecaTV, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitch. In live sessions, the mukbang host chats with the audience while the audience types in real time in the live chat-room. Eating shows are expanding their influence on internet broadcasting platforms and serve as virtual communities and as venues for active communication among internet users.

Mukbangers from many different countries have gained considerable popularity on numerous social websites and have established the mukbang as a possible viable alternative career path with a potential to earn a high income for young South Koreans. By cooking and eating food on camera for a large audience, mukbangers generate income from advertising, sponsorships, endorsements, as well as viewers' support. However, there has been growing criticism of mukbang's promotion of unhealthy eating habits, particularly eating disorders, animal cruelty and food waste. (wikipedia)

• • •

Did this fool anyone? At all? For any amount of time? I took one look—one glance—at the first theme clue my eyes landed on, and instinctively, immediately read it UPSIDE-DOWN. 

Read that clue (20A) UPSIDE-DOWN and you get "Big sleigh boss"—not hard to decipher from there. Who else is that gonna be besides Santa? I should not be able to enter a theme answer on a Sunday with absolutely no help from crosses—with absolutely nothing else in the grid, even. Reading calculator read-outs upside-down like I'm a ten-year-old whose friend has just shown him that "58008" upside-down spells out "BOOBS" ... no, this didn't do much for me. The clues are occasionally clever, and creative, as they'd have to be, given that you have only nine letters to work with ("9” is the one numeral that does nothing, letterwise, when you turn it upside-down). I had to think a bit about "BILBO'S-O," so the clues weren't all transparent. But this was a one-trick puzzle, and once you discover the trick (which, again, for me, happened immediately), then there's not much surprise left. In short, it is impressive that anyone *could* do this, but I'm not so sure anyone *should* have. It's too easy, and not terribly fun to solve. 

The fill has some major issues as well. In general, it seemed clean enough, and some of the longer stuff was occasionally interesting ("SO NOT TRUE!," MEDIA FASTS), but there was some stuff that seemed odd or dated or both. "I'M A MAC"? How old is that slogan now? Looks like it was a thing from roughly '06 to '09. Absurd. Not just bygone, but barely there to begin with. It's not even that snappy—doesn't stick with you. It's something your wordlist convinces you is valid, but ... you gotta make these judgments yourself. Not everything in your wordlist is good. For example, ON A LEAD—not good. Especially not good as clued (24A: How detectives might act). You might follow a lead, but you act on a tip. Your dog might be ON A LEAD (i.e. a leash). But even that clue wouldn't make me like ON A LEAD as fill. 

But the biggest problem with the puzzle is probably the MUKBANGS / IGA cross, which I guar-an-tee you is going to baffle a non-zero number of solvers today. It's not that either of these words lacks crossworthiness. MUKBANGS in particular has a lot going for it—original, modern, full of crooked letters. And IGA Swiatek has won five Grand Slam titles, including four French Opens. But crossing two non-English names of non-universal fame at a completely uninferrable letter is always, always a bad idea, because you should never, as a constructor (or editor), allow for crosses that you *know* will be Naticks for a good number of people. You gotta do better handling your crosses. [Semi-illustrative: I knew IGA but not MUKBANGS (though maybe I'd heard of it before); my daughter (24), on the other hand, knew MUKBANGS but not IGA ... or "STAYIN' ALIVE," apparently! I know this because I just found her nearly completed puzzle downstairs, where MUKBANGS is filled in just fine, but a huge swath of "STAYIN' ALIVE," including the "A" in IGA, is missing—the only part of her puzzle that isn't completed. I'm not surprised at all that she doesn't know IGA Swiatek, but "STAYIN' ALIVE"? How could I have failed to provide her a proper Bee Gees education!?].

 More:

• 49A: One of three on the Mayflower (MASTS) — me, seeing "three" and thinking of early colonial voyages: "Let's see, NINA, PINTA ... wait a minute."
• 52D: Rapper Kid ___ (CUDI) — a very tough one if you know very little about rap (I know this describes a lot of you). You can't infer anything there. Just four random letters. Huge career, a couple of Grammys, but fame-wise (and certainly crosswordwise), he's no DRE, he's no NAS, he's no ICE-T. Holy cow, this is the NYTXW debut of CUDI!? I've seen him in crosswords before—this is why I solve a variety of puzzles, many of them more contemporary-minded, with younger, more adventurous constructors (though I knew of Kid CUDI before I ever saw him in a grid). With CUDI, though, unlike with IGA, the crosses all seem very fair. For the record, KIDCUDI (7) (full name) has still never been used in the NYTXW. Also for the record, Kid Cudi has appeared—three times—in NYTXW clues: for RAPPER ([Kid Cudi or Lil Baby, e.g.]), KID ([Rapper ___ Cudi or DJ ___ Loco]), and, "NITE" ([Kid Cudi's "Day 'n' ___"])

• 62A: Root word? (OLE) — i.e. the "word" you might use if you were "root"ing for someone (at a soccer match, or bullfight, I guess)
• 96A: ___ Moriarty, novelist who wrote "Big Little Lies" (LIANE) — didn't love one of the crosses here, either, specifically the "L"; real easy to imagine someone who has maybe heard of Big Little Lies but does not know the author's name ... [raises hand] ... and also is not that familiar with contemporary animated movies (LUCA). Any DIANE / DUCAs out there!? 
• 111A: Some large structures for pet owners (CAT CONDOS) — cat interlude!

[we call the four-tiered structure Alfie's sleeping in a CAT CONDO—not sure the one-tier circular structure Ida's in qualifies as a full "condo." More of a cat pied-à-terre]

• 10D: Italian diminutive suffix (-INO) — oy, wanted either -INI or -INA here, since THE ONE RING, as a phrase, doesn't really mean much to me. (I've seen the damned LOTR movies, I know about the ring, I just didn't remember the specific phrase THE ONE RING).
• 12D: Bear's counterpart on Wall Street, once (STEARNS):  — gather round, kids, and I'll tell you about the *last* time the stock market crashed ... it was way back in aught-eight ... 
• 14D: Tough customer for a wedding planner (BRIDEZILLA) — I know it's the name of a reality show and everything but I'm still not in love with this term, esp. when it's being passed off as an ordinary thing one might call a woman. Plays into stupid gender stereotypes. And there's no male equivalent. No GOLFZILLA, no Count Pick-up TRUCKULA, no Abominable Sports Fan ... the only emotion most dudes allow themselves to express publicly is anger, and yet it's the bride who's a -zilla? Sure.

[" A Novel By Ellis Bell"]

• 21D: Cannabis variety contrasted with indica (SATIVA) — INDICA & SATIVA are here to stay, so may as well learn them if you don't know them already. Not that I know anything about this stuff, but ... SATIVA will tend to light you up, whereas INDICA will tend to chill you out. 
• 39D: Show that, uh, didn't win 43 of its 54 Emmy nominations (LOST) — OK, I love this clue. It's legitimately funny, watching the clue try not to use the word "LOST" in the clue for LOST. Well, funny to me, anyway.
• 110D: Purple yam in Philippine cuisine (UBE) — a super-rare word in the crossword until Philippine cuisine went more mainstream here in the U.S. This is its third appearance in the last two years, after having been off-grid since 1990 (when it was clued as [Yamaguchi city])

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S.  Have you seen Sinners? You should see Sinners. On the big screen. With a crowd. As your leader, I command you. How does this relate to crosswords? Well, someday director Ryan COOGLER is gonna appear in the grid, perhaps after he wins the Best Director Oscar for Sinners, and you're gonna wanna be prepared.

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]

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Attire often used in filming C.G.I. scenes, informally / FRI 3-21-25 / Target of the 1890 Sherman Act / Bad thing to blow / Handful on the farm / Features of the sci-fi planet Arrakis / Some digital assistants, informally / How Mario introduces himself in video games / Country represented by the Black Star of Africa

Constructor: Boaz Moser and Jacob Reed

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Sherman Act (8D: Target of the 1890 Sherman Act) —

The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 (26 Stat. 209, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1–7) is a United States antitrust law which prescribes the rule of free competition among those engaged in commerce and consequently prohibits unfair monopolies. It was passed by Congress and is named for Senator John Sherman, its principal author.

The Sherman Act broadly prohibits 1) anticompetitive agreements and 2) unilateral conduct that monopolizes or attempts to monopolize the relevant market. The Act authorizes the Department of Justice to bring suits to enjoin (i.e. prohibit) conduct violating the Act, and additionally authorizes private parties injured by conduct violating the Act to bring suits for treble damages (i.e. three times as much money in damages as the violation cost them). Over time, the federal courts have developed a body of law under the Sherman Act making certain types of anticompetitive conduct per se illegal, and subjecting other types of conduct to case-by-case analysis regarding whether the conduct unreasonably restrains trade.

The law attempts to prevent the artificial raising of prices by restriction of trade or supply. "Innocent monopoly", or monopoly achieved solely by merit, is legal, but acts by a monopolist to artificially preserve that status, or nefarious dealings to create a monopoly, are not. The purpose of the Sherman Act is not to protect competitors from harm from legitimately successful businesses, nor to prevent businesses from gaining honest profits from consumers, but rather to preserve a competitive marketplace to protect consumers from abuses. (wikipedia)

• • •

I know the phrase "dirt cheap." CHEAP AS DIRT, not so much (33A: For a song). Why would you say this when the terser option is Right There? Seems wordy and sounds slightly archaic. Then there's DAT and DOIN', partial slang phrases that together seem just a little TOO CUTE (though I did appreciate the Friends reference in the DOIN' clue—Joey always was the most underrated Friend). As for "IT'S A ME...," again, it's just a partial phrase—I've seen the full phrase in the NYTXW before, once as an answer, and another time as one of the greatest theme clues ever conceived—in a puzzle with the theme HOLLYWOOD SHUFFLE, where actors were clued via anagrams, ["It's-a-me, Mario!"] was used as the clue for ... MARISA TOMEI. Truly, one of the greatest anagram finds in anagram history, congrats to Erik Agard on that one (not many clues that stick in my mind years later). So today's partial "IT'S A ME..." didn't really have the novelty impact that maybe it had on you. I normally really enjoy colloquial stuff in the puzzle, but today, that stuff was slight, partial, kinda clunky in my ear. And Pokémon is also of no interest to me (also: Mario and Pokémon in the same puzzle? Give it a rest), but at least GOTTA CATCH 'EM ALL was easy, I guess. I loved MEDIA DARLINGS, which is located where it belongs: in a marquee position, dead center (14D: People always getting favorable news coverage). ARTISTIC LICENSE isn't exactly exciting, but it's perfectly solid. The rest ... I wouldn't say it SPARKLES, but it does alright. Difficulty could've been amped up slightly today, but overall, I thought the puzzle was fine.

There were precisely two sticking points for me today. The first, as is typical, came early, in the NW corner, before I'd gotten any real traction. I guessed (correctly) that the quadruple-double was an example of a RARITY (1A: Basketball's quadruple double, e.g.), and then was pleased as punch (SLANG!) to "confirm" the "R" with ... RURAL ... and then "confirm" the "I" with ... ICED. Also confirmed (no scare quotes) THOR and YAP, but the RURAL ICED damage was done. Took a bit of work to get going again after that. ETSY's "Y" was the thing that helped me start to dig out. I knew a [Corsair] was a ship, but RAIDER was not on my ship list (!), so yeah, there was some flailing up there, early on. After that, I whooshed down the west side, only to hit another bank of short Downs that stymied me for a second. I had BIG and guessed LEAD at 29A: Bad thing to blow, but could not confirm any of LEAD at first. Clue on ALES is very tough (in that it seems to point you to mountains, not beer: I almost wrote in ALPS) (26D: Sierra Nevadas, e.g.). As for TEAT, I try to think of that word as little as possible, so my first stab at 27D: Handful on the farm was REIN. Then there's FLAP, which puts us back into "slang I don't use" (23D: To-do), so ... yeah, confirmation of the LEAD part of BIG LEAD was not forthcoming. But, as with my mistakes in the NW, the trouble here was minor. I got out of it without too much fuss, and never struggled again for the rest of the solve.

There's one truly original answer today, and that's MOCAP SUIT (MOCAP stands for "motion capture") (43A: Attire often used in filming C.G.I. scenes, informally). The first time I looked at that clue, I had many letters in place, but still just stared at the answer like "how do those letters make ... anything?" I think I had all of MOCAP-from crosses before my brain remembered the term I was looking for. Even if you've never heard the term, you've probably seen the suits before. I feel like they've been used in ads—I think of them as being used for CGI not just in movies, but in video games as well, particularly sports video games, when they want to get an accurate simulation of bodies in motion. Somebody who knows what they're talking about can explain better than I, but the point is that after I got MOCAP-, I could instantly see (in my mind's eye) the SUIT in question—a bodysuit with little globes all over it, if I recall correctly ... yup, here we go:

Bullets:

• 9D: Some digital assistants, informally (AIS) — no amount of wishing or praying or modernizing the clue is gonna make AIS good fill. In fact, by making it stand for "Artificial Intelligence"s, you've somehow made bad fill worse. No one wants that **** in their grids. It's awful and dehumanizing, pretending to be human by feeding off the work of actual humans. It's poisoning our information ecosystem (already pretty sickly). When A.I. is used in search engines, it absolutely positively measurably Does Not Work. So in puzzles, for me, just like TESLAS, "A.I." is a buzzkiller. And plural like this!? God no. You may as well go back to Sue Grafton's "___ for Alibi" if you absolutely positively have to stick AIS in your grid. (I have other ideas about where you can stick AIS, but let's just move on)
• 23A: It's a short walk from home (FIRST BASE) — hurray for the two baseball clues today—three if you count BIG LEAD. I was up at 6am Tuesday and Wednesday to watch the Japan Series between the Dodgers and Cubs—the first real games of the season. Dodgers took 'em both. Ohtani (the biggest star Japan has) hit a home run, because that's just what he does. Good times. Now I gotta wait an eternal (checks calendar) six more days for the real (stateside) Opening Day. Go Tigers.

• 37A: Show again, as a historical event (REENACT) — "show"? "Perform," maybe, but "show" seems weird.
• 38D: Philippics (TIRADES) — a great word ("Philippics"), as somewhat arcane words go. 

A philippic (/fɪˈlɪpɪk/) is a fiery, damning speech, or tirade, delivered to condemn a particular political actor. The term is most famously associated with three noted orators of the ancient world: Demosthenes of ancient Athens, Cato the Elder and Cicero of ancient Rome. The term itself is derived from Demosthenes's speeches in 351 BC denouncing the imperialist ambitions of Philip of Macedon, which later came to be known as The Philippics. (wikipedia)

• 42D: Features of the sci-fi planet Arrakis (DUNES) — yesterday, one of my students talked about loving the book Dune, and he said that there were lots of other Dune books besides Dune, but they were written by Herbert's son and not really worth reading. I said, "Wait, there's a Dune sequel? What's it called? ... DUNES?" Apparently there's a whole Dune universe (or, as I call it, Dune-iverse). The things your students teach you...

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Damsel in distress in Donkey Kong / THU 2-6-25 / Ballpark player not wearing a uniform / Ijeoma ___, author of 2018's "So You Want to Talk About Race" / Platform that might update while you sleep / Wonks ... or a candy once owned by the Willy Wonka Candy Company

Constructor: Aidan Deshong and Jacob Reed

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (16 wide, so times will be slower than usu., but this ain't harder than usu.)

THEME: split-state cluing — In order to be understood, italicized theme clues have to be read in two parts—the first two letters (which must be taken as a state code) is the first part, and then the rest is the second:

Theme answers:

• RUSSET POTATO (18A: Identity?) (i.e. ID [Idaho] entity)
• WILMINGTON (25A: Deport?) (i.e. DE [Delaware] port)
• OZARKS (35A: Arrange?) (i.e. AR [Arkansas] range)
• PADRES (37A: Canine?) (i.e. CA [California] nine)
• KAMEHAMEHA (49A: Hiking?) (i.e. HI [Hawaii] king)
• GULF OF MEXICO (58A: Fledge?) (i.e. FL [Florida] edge) 

Word of the Day: Ijeoma OLUO (16A: Ijeoma ___, author of 2018's "So You Want to Talk About Race") —

Ijeoma Oluo (/iˈdʒoʊmə oʊˈluːoʊ/; born 1980) is an American writer. She is the author of So You Want to Talk About Race and has written for The Guardian, Jezebel, The Stranger, Medium, and The Establishment, where she was also an editor-at-large.

Born in Denton, Texas, and based in Seattle, Washington, in 2015, Oluo was named one of the most influential people in Seattle, and in 2018, she was named one of the 50 most influential women in Seattle. Her writing covers racism, misogynoir, intersectionality, online harassment, the Black Lives Matter movement, economics, parenting, feminism, and social justice.

She gained prominence for articles critiquing race and the invisibility of women's voices, like her April 2017 interview with Rachel Dolezal, published in The Stranger. (wikipedia)

So You Want to Talk About Race is a 2018 non-fiction book by Ijeoma Oluo. Each chapter title is a question about race in contemporary America. Oluo outlines her opinions on the topics, as well as advice about how to talk about the issues. The book received positive critical reception, with renewed interest following the May 2020 murder of George Floyd, after which the book re-entered The New York Times Best Seller list. [...] The book received renewed attention, following the murder of George Floyd, in May 2020. Having been listed for one week, previously, it re-entered The New York Times Best Seller list in the category Combined Print & E-book Nonfiction on June 14, 2020, peaking at position #2, on June 21. It remained on the list, until September 13,and it reappeared October 4.

• • •

An old-fashioned theme that is executed just fine. Simple, consistent. A little rudimentary, as Thursday themes go, but that's OK. They don't all have to be barn-burners. If anything, this came in a bit on the dull side today. Once you grasp the theme, the remaining themers become very easy to get, and none of them are particularly sparkling answers in their own right. KAMEHAMEHA is a bit flash, I suppose, but what else rises above the ho-hum? NOT A LOT (that is, not a lot, not the answer "NOT A LOT," which is in fact just a plain, adequate answer). I got the theme quickly, though at first I thought the state code part was reduplicative—that is, I interpreted [Identity?] as "Idaho identity" (because potatoes are, in fact, part of that state's identity, so much so that "potatoes" is in their damned state slogan, on their license plates "Famous Potatoes!"). Only after encountering Deport? / WILMINGTON did I realize, no, you actually break the theme clues in half: state code + the rest. Fine. No problem. KAMEHAMEHA probably has the most interesting of the cluing experiments (HI + king), though I think I liked PADRES clue best (CA + nine). I just like the idea of calling a baseball team "nine." Reminds me of John Fogerty's "Centerfield"... (Baseball, take me away....)

["Well, I spent some time in the Mudville Nine..."]

The most ambitious, but also (I think) worst of these themer clues is [Fledge?]. Calling an entire damn gulf an "edge" is a bit strange. Yes, it's on one "edge" of Florida (the western one), but the figurative distance from "edge" to an enormous body of water is, indeed a gulf. Also, I think this puzzle is out of date now. Didn't that PUTRID traitor in the WH officially redub it the GULF OF AMERICA last week? (yes, he did). And since I am nothing if not compliant... well, I tried, Mr. President, I tried. 

[Can't wait for the Executive Order banning "woke" crosswords]

The worst part of this puzzle was the editing decision at OLUO / SOO. Ijeoma OLUO is crossworthy enough, but as she's not especially famous, and she's almost all vowels, you really really gotta watch those crosses, and ... would not say that a completely made-up spelling of "so?" counts as "watching the crosses" (11D: "Your point being ...?"). The opposite, in fact. Look, you put SOO (crosswordese) in your puzzle, please use one of the established crosswordese clues for SOO, thank you very much. There are several. I realize that that would mean crossing two less-than-superfamous proper nouns at a vowel, which is the Definition of a Natick, but the idea that SOO is somehow "easier" to get than the SOO Canals or Phillipa SOO. "SOO" is an awful spelling of "extended 'so.'" in that it's not extended nearly enough. At SOO, it looks like a typo. Or a name (which it is). You gotta go to at least three "O"s to get the effect you're going for. I have said a version of slowed-down / extended "so" that sounds much more like "SHO" before, so I was sincerely contemplating an "H" there for a bit, but the "O" just seemed right. Actually, OLUO seemed right. I knew that was a name I had heard. But I really really hate the clue on SOO here today. That's just a bad cross in general, whatever the clue on SOO. I'd tear that little corner out and try again to get it cleaner.

Lightning round:

• 1A: Damsel in distress in Donkey Kong (PAULINE) — played this game almost daily at Round Table Pizza in Fresno, CA from about 1981 to 1983 and I never knew the damsel had a name. I was able to infer her name today from the serial melodrama title "The Perils of PAULINE"

• 23A: Platform that might update while you sleep (IOS) — do other platforms not update while you sleep??? I thought that was just normal.
• 7D: Medium strength? (ESP) — saw right through this one, as all old-timers will have. The "Medium" here is a crystal-ball-reading type of "medium." A psychic medium.
• 35D: Ballpark player not wearing a uniform (ORGANIST) — I like this one. Never saw the clue because that section just filled itself in so easily. I like the misdirection here, though. "Oh, *that* kind of player!" Pretty sure some ballpark organists slap on jerseys now and then, but still, the clue works.
• 14D: Become fuller, in a way (WAX) — took me a bit to get this one because I had no idea about the context (the context was the moon) (although I guess non-moon things can WAX as well ... but the most common context for the word is lunar.
• 59D: Air quality org? (FCC) — they're punning on "air" here (Federal Communications Commission oversees airwaves, not the air you breathe), but seriously, the NYTXW is going to have to rethink all its abbrs. for gov. oversight orgs. From day to day, I don't know how many of them still exist. I made a joke about OSHA being abolished ("because safety is woke and workplace fatalities make America great!"), but then the next day a legislator actually intro'd a bill to abolish OSHA, so ... there are no jokes anymore. If you can imagine it, these dimwitted lickspittles will do it, for sure.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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