Blind blues singer Paul / THU 2-13-25 / Ancient kingdom of Asia Minor / Virtual companion of the 2000s / Car brand named for a deity / Heads of ancient Rome / Pickled ginger served with sushi / State with the highest percentage of federal land / Punny reply to "What are you waiting for?" / Emmy-winning Sawai of "Shogun" / Zealous supporter, in modern lingo

Constructor: Jem Burch

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: SCRAP METAL (57A: Material in a junkyard pile ... or a hint to answering this puzzle's four asterisked clues) — you have to "scrap" (i.e. take out) a "metal" from each theme answer in order to make sense of the answer (with the "metal" in there, you get an answer that looks real but makes no sense for the clue):

Theme answers:

• GROWING OLD (17A: *Emerge, as teeth) (grow in + GOLD) 
• "THE IRONY..." (29A: *Plural personal pronoun) (they + IRON)
• LATINOS (37A: *Country where the Plain of Jars is located) (Laos + TIN) 
• PLEA DEAL (*Bell sound) (peal + LEAD)

Word of the Day: MAZDA (40A: Car brand named for a deity) —

Ahura Mazda (/əˌhʊərə ˈmæzdə/; Avestan: 𐬀𐬵𐬎𐬭𐬀 𐬨𐬀𐬰𐬛𐬁, romanized: Ahura Mazdā; Persian: اهورا مزدا, romanized: Ahurâ Mazdâ), also known as Horomazes, is the creator deity and god of the sky in the ancient Iranian religion Zoroastrianism. He is the first and most frequently invoked spirit in the Yasna. The literal meaning of the word Ahura is "lord", and that of Mazda is "wisdom". (wikipedia)

• • •

The biggest and (in retrospect only) most hilarious problem I had today was entirely (well, almost entirely) on me. That is, I forgot the state of NEVADA existed (18D: State with the highest percentage of federal land). I had the NE- and my brain went "NEBRASKA" and then it could come up with No More States. Just flat-out blanked. Had me thinking that I was not actually dealing with the United States. "Is it a state of some other country? India?" But the "federal" in the clue really suggested the U.S. ... but nothing worked. NEW ... JERSEY? Too long. NEW YORK? ... same. NEVADA just disappeared from the U.S. map of my mind. It did not help that the crosses on Nevada were some of the hardest in the whole puzzle. Could not see PAVE (24A: Make passable, in a way), partly because I thought the [___ chart] was a FEE chart. Is that a thing? (er, kinda ... it's more like "fee structure"). Could not wrangle the Roman heads—my brain got too in the weeds, trying to remember plural forms from Latin classes I took in the '90s, so instead of just grabbing CAPITA from the very basic phrase "per CAPITA," I was like "CAPUT ... so ... CAPUTS? No, not "S" ... CAPUTI? ... ugh, definitely not." Worst of all the NEVADA crosses by far, though, was DARI, what on god's green earth!?!?! Is that familiar to everyone? If so, why hasn't it appeared in the NYTXW ... ever? I mean, DARI used to appear, in the olden days of crosswordese—though not often, even then. It appeared five times, four of those under the relatively short tenure of Will Weng (ed. 1969-77), and in no case was it an Afghan language. Instead, it was a "grain sorghum?"

[xwordinfo.com]

Will “Hot-For-Sorghum” Weng, they used to call him. And now, thirty-two years later, DARI returns, in language form. While I expect no one but me forgot that NEVADA existed, I expect the majority of solvers will have had absolutely no clue about DARI (33A: One of two official languages of Afghanistan). You could've told me any letter was that first letter at -ARI, I'd've believed you. And then you go and put GARI in your grid too??? (43A: Pickled ginger served with sushi). LOL I eat that damned pickled ginger all the time and if I knew it had a name, I plum forgot. GARI has only ever appeared twice before. Not sure it's the greatest idea to dump both of these two rhyming short foreign answers in your grid at once. For me, it put all my attention where it shouldn't belong, i.e. on strange short stuff rather than the theme, which, by this time (that is, literally right now), I've almost completely forgotten. Oh, right, the metal stuff. Yeah, I picked that up right away. Some of the hidden-metal strategies were interesting (LAOS + TIN = LATINOS), some weren't (THEY + IRON = "THE IRONY..."; not loving the full answer as much as I'm clearly supposed to—you really gotta say it a certain way for it to make sense). Anyway, the theme was conceptually basic, the themers reasonably easy to suss out. The revealer works fine. But it was the strange / odd / awkward / obscure short stuff that got all my attention today. 

They wanted you to know LYDIA!? (35A: Ancient kingdom of Asia Minor). Deep cut, classical history-wise. I teach ancient literature from time to time, so I got it with a cross or two, but yikes. And this PENA person? (16A: Blind blues singer Paul). No idea. And he appears under the (to me) completely inscrutable SWUM (10A: Like some Olympic races). I had the -UM and just ... nothing. Didn't click. Beyond that, though, the puzzle was reasonably easy. All my "trouble" ink on my print-out is above the CAPITA / DARI / GARI line. Above and to the NE. Below that, a cinch. 


Bullets:

• 14A: Got a C, say (DID OK) — what year is it? No kid who "got a C" today would say that they "DID OK." It's a bad, and certainly below average, grade in most contexts (possibly there are some math/science exceptions, but ... yeah, grade inflation is real and "C" is pretty bad.
• 64A: Punny reply to "What are you waiting for?" (TIPS) — I hate myself for getting this so quickly. It doesn't even make sense. I mean, yes, waiters and waitresses "wait" for TIPS, but if you just said that phrase, randomly, not in a restaurant ... first of all, what's wrong with you? And second, it wouldn't really land. You'd need some kind of context to make it work at all. The "pun" is sub-corny. Barely even detectable by the corn-o-meter. And yet, as I say, it was transparent to me. I guess by this point in my long NYTXW solving career, I have a decent sense of the puzzle's sense of "humor," even if I don't share it.

• 30D: Volatile demolition aid, for short (NITRO) — we had this as a coffee answer a couple days ago. There, NITRO was short for "Nitrogen." Here, it's short for "Nitroglycerin."
• 56A: Emmy-winning Sawai of "Shogun" (ANNA) — thankfully, I never saw this. My ability to keep up with the names of everyone who has ever won any award has officially left me. I sort of heard that there was a new Shogun but definitely didn't care. I'll try to remember SAWAI for when it (inevitably) shows up in a grid some day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Trendy compliment with shady undertones / FRI 12-27-24 / Language family of the Pacific Northwest / Put a hex on à la Shakespeare / Drawer with knobs? / Accessory named for a British school / Sweet's counterpart / Emperor from 54 to 68 / Musical prefix with -core

Constructor: Jem Burch

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: SALISH (31D: Language family of the Pacific Northwest) —

The Salishan (also Salish /ˈseɪlɪʃ/) languages are a family of languages of the Pacific Northwest in North America (the Canadian province of British Columbia and the American states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana). They are characterised by agglutinativity and syllabic consonants. For instance the Nuxalk word clhp’xwlhtlhplhhskwts’ (IPA: [xɬpʼχʷɬtʰɬpʰɬːskʷʰt͡sʼ]), meaning "he had had [in his possession] a bunchberry plant", has twelve obstruent consonants in a row with no phonetic or phonemic vowels.

The Salishan languages are a geographically contiguous block, with the exception of the Nuxalk (Bella Coola), in the Central Coast of British Columbia, and the extinct Tillamook language, to the south on the central coast of Oregon.

The terms Salish and Salishan are used interchangeably by linguists and anthropologists studying Salishan, but this is confusing in regular English usage. The name Salish or Selisch is the endonym of the Flathead Nation. Linguists later applied the name Salish to related languages in the Pacific Northwest. Many of the peoples do not have self-designations (autonyms) in their languages; they frequently have specific names for local dialects, as the local group was more important culturally than larger tribal relations. (wikipedia)

• • •

The big revelation today, for me, was that "I LOVE THAT FOR YOU" has "shady undertones," LOL oh no, I just assumed people were being unproblematically complimentary! (8D: Trendy compliment with shady undertones). I also didn't know that compliments could be "trendy," weird. Anyway, I love "I LOVE THAT FOR YOU" for you, puzzle. No shade, no cap. Ew, remind me to never try to use "no cap" again, I think I sprained something. Golden rule: stick to the slang that comes naturally to *you*. Good to keep up with language trends, but chasing youthful slang for yourself (assuming you're not "young") is a losing proposition and mostly a bad look. I would say "I LOVE THAT FOR YOU," though. That one just comes out naturally. But know that when I say it, there are no "shady undertones." Oh, no ... now there might be. It's all ruined. I won't be able to hear that phrase now without hearing shade. Ah well, probably for the best. I can just stick with saying "nifty" and "neato" like my forebears. 

This was a solid Friday offering that kind of fell apart in the SE put held up overall. VETOER, oof, "veto" is not a verb that wants to be nouned like that (49D: Nay sayer). And CURST, yuck, no, pass. You know you all had CURSE in there at first, don't lie (51D: Put a hex on à la Shakespeare). And as for ABLED ... I have heard it as part of the phrase "differently ABLED," sure (not a term all disabled people love, but I've heard it). I have heard "ableist" and "ableism" and "able-bodied" and "neurotypical/divergent" but ABLED just sitting there on its own somehow felt weird, especially with that clue, which is worded really awkwardly, like it's trying *real* hard to be blandly nonspecific so as not to offend anyone (53D: Possessing a full range of physical and mental abilities). "Full range of physical and mental faculties?" Come on, does anyone really have the "full range?" What even is that? If people are saying ABLED to refer to the category of "non-disabled," OK ... yes, that seems to be a relatively common usage. "ABLED people" ... "The ABLED" ... I looked it up just now, and it's a word, but it's almost always accompanied by a qualifier (e.g. "the less ABLED"). Most of the dictionary definitions of ABLED have "normal" in them, which seems problematic. Ableist, tbh. I dunno. I would've liked a better clue here. Something with more context. Maybe there's a reason we haven't seen ABLED in the grid since 1975 (when it was clued [Made possible, old-style] (!?)). 

Beyond "I LOVE THAT FOR YOU," I can't say I loved the longer answers today, but I also didn't hate them, so that's something. LIGHT TIMER is original, at least, and GIVE OR TAKE has a nice casual colloquial swing to it. And at least two of the longer answers have really great clues on them, which I appreciate. That ETCH-A-SKETCH one is sneaky, using "Drawer" to mean "something that draws" rather than its more common "place to store clothes etc." definition. (This is like when clues use "tower" to mean "thing that tows" and "flower" to mean "thing that flows," usually a river) (34A: Drawer with knobs?). The clue on STONEHENGE is great in a different way (66A: Famous British rock group). Low-key. Subtle. Looks completely innocuous. No "?" or anything. But now that I think about it, it's basically doing the same thing as the ETCH-A-SKETCH clue. In fact, I'm not even sure why the ETCH-A-SKETCH clue has a "?" on it. The ETCH-A-SKETCH is in fact a "drawer" and does in fact have "knobs" so ... yeah, I don't see why you can't leave the "?" off there. Anyway, STONEHENGE gets its misdirection, obviously, from "rock group." Nice. 

Trouble spots? Yes, a few. Had IMHO before OTOH (2D: Texter's hedge), though luckily all the other Down surrounding it were right, so I was able to turn FILK into FOLK pretty easily and then get both OTOH and the Grandma Moses answer from there (1A: Grandma Moses, for one = FOLK ARTIST). Had HARASS and later HECKLE before HECTOR (24D: Be a pest to). I needed a lot of crosses to remember SALISH (my family is from the Pacific Northwest originally, so a lot of associated names are rattling around in my head—I just find it hard to grasp them sometimes). STAIN before STAMP (50D: Distinctive mark). And I needed a lot of help to get FATS, who I assume is FATS Domino, and not Minnesota FATS? Yes ... the Domino version (27D: Antoine Caliste Domino Jr., familiarly).

Notes:

• 15A: Accessory named for a British school (ETON COLLAR) — I know way more than I should about ETON, solely because of crosswords. In addition to the collar, there's an Eton jacket, an Eton cap, Eton blue, and an Eton mess (an English dessert). Apologies to all the Eton crap I omitted.

• 19A: High kicks? (HEELS) — "kicks" here is slang for "shoes"
• 30A: Ones who might invade your space, for short? (ETS) — as in "extraterrestrials." Back when I had HARASS instead of HECTOR, I thought the answer to this clue was ADS.
• 45A: Resident of the Mojo Dojo Casa House (KEN) — A Barbie (The Movie) reference.

• 52A: Destination for the van that Kevin fails to board in "Home Alone" (OHARE) — still never seen this movie that half the world has seen (I didn't see It's a Wonderful Life until I was in my late 40s; see also Casablanca—I had a perverse aversion to "everyone's seen that one!" movies.  Not having seen Home Alone didn't cause me too much trouble with the OHARE clue, though. Pretty inferrable.

Just said an early-morning goodbye to my kid, who is catching the bus for NYC before flying to ****ing Venice later today. For work. She's coordinating the building of theaters on new cruise ships. (She's also production manager at Great River Shakespeare Festival, but that's neither here nor there ...). Anyway, I could use some Holiday Pet Pics right now to fill the void, so let's go.

I hear you're mad about Brubeck. Me too. Here he is, hiding.

[Thanks, Jon]

Dipper says, "Yes, just what I wanted, a bunch of discarded wrapping paper. You shouldn't have!"

[Thanks, Virginia & Dave]

Here are Phoebe and Kai, enjoying an elegant Christmas somewhere near Lisbon. Phoebe believes she is a cat, just go along with it.

[Thanks, Charles]

Paddy here is such an angel that he will allow you to put this angel contraption (i.e. halo) on his head and he won't even complain. He'll just stare wistfully out the window and wait for dinner.

[Thanks, Mary Grace]

And finally today there's Meredith, who is clearly a supercat, in that she not only wears festive bow ties and solves crosswords, she also reads my blog. I LOVE THAT FOR YOU, Meredith!

[Thanks, Rebecca]

Hope you all are enjoying this weird dead week between National Holidays. Is there still pie? There is here. And it goes great with coffee. So ... bye!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Palate cleanser in a multicourse French meal / SAT 2-17-2024 / Order that comes with a wide straw / Very rough, as an experience / Small part of a window / Apartment units / Goggles that aren't meant to go underwater

Constructor: Spencer Leach and Jem Burch

Relative difficulty: Medium


THEME: None

Word of the Day: LANOLIN (15A: Source of a foul odor when wool is washed) —

Lanolin (from Latin lāna 'wool', and oleum 'oil'), also called wool fat, wool yolk, wool wax, sheep grease, or wool grease, is a wax secreted by the sebaceous glands of wool-bearing animals.^[1] Lanolin used by humans comes from domestic sheep breeds that are raised specifically for their wool. Historically, many pharmacopoeias have referred to lanolin as wool fat (adeps lanae); however, as lanolin lacks glycerides (glycerol esters), it is not a true fat.^[2][3] Lanolin primarily consists of sterol esters instead.^[4] Lanolin's waterproofing property aids sheep in shedding water from their coats. Certain breeds of sheep produce large amounts of lanolin.

• • •

Hello friends and enemies! It's Rafa here with one last guest blog before Rex is back. Today we have a really scrabbly Saturday. A double pangram, meaning that every letter features at least twice. There tends to be no free crossword lunch, so puzzles like this tend to either have some questionable fill holding things together, or be blockier and have fewer long entries (or, god forbid, both!). Here the fill is nice and clean (HEP is maybe a bit eh? DID SO?), so it's a bit more of the latter type, but it's overall really nicely executed.

A flag-raising at IWO JIMA

I started in the top right, with the (outstanding) POKEBALL / BOBA TEA crossing, and worked my way clockwise from there. I'm nitpicking here because the constraints of this grid are tremendous, but I did wish EERINESS had been something flashier. There's nothing wrong with it as an entry, really. Just as a frequent solver and constructor I feel very EERIEd out. Those letters sure are amazing though, so it'll keep showing up. (Sidenote the other day my friend texted me that something was "eery" and I gasped and learned that apparently it is listed as a valid variant spelling??!? Have people seen this before? I am very much an EERIE purist and am not open to other spellings at this time.)

You always have to flip it twice for the USB to work

Anyhoo ... is SUSHI PIZZA a thing? Seems like it's a Canadian thing (?!). Never seen it before, but I'm sure it's good. It seems like it's just a sushi roll but without rolling it. Sushi is great so it should be a winner. Fun debut entry in DONEZO. And surprising one in DOJA -- I'd have expected her to have debuted already! (By the way, is she canceled? I feel like there was some drama but I don't really remember and instead of looking it up I will just ask strangers on the internet.)

It's LEX avenue in Manhattan

I'm a *huge* Swiftie, but don't personally use T SWIZZLE. It's absolutely a thing though, just not my preferred moniker. I find it hilarious when her fans call her "The Music Industry" (are we wrong though?). How excited are you for her new album in 2 months? (Correct answer: very!) I am actually deep in my Kacey Musgraves era, so I'm currently anticipating her new album in just one month! I'll be well-fed for quite a while.

Okay I'm being chaotic, sorry. DON'T JINX IT was really fun! My favorite entry in the grid. Colloquial, cute, something I say all the time, love to see it. VR HEADSETS, STEADY GIG, GEE WHIZ, ON TOP OF IT, etc., just loads to love on my clockwise journey around this grid. More like this, please!

Bullets:

• IN HEAT (16A: Going after the big bucks, say) — Funny clue! Big bucks as in big male animals. (Took me a while to get it)
• TOYS (57D: Barbie and Ken, e.g.)—I had a SNEEZE typo and then I had TOES here. And I spent *so* long trying to make TOES happen. What sort of Saturday trickery was at play here to make TOES work?!?! 
• SLANG (43D: Head for the toilet, say) — Another really clever clue here. "Head" is slang for "toilet," in case that needed an explanation.
• PONE (56D: Southern side dish) — I'm starting this thing where I do things that I see frequently in crosswords. I read JANE EYRE a few months ago. I need to watch Frozen (for ELSA!) (no I've never seen it) (don't drag me). And I think I also need to eat PONE. Sounds delicious.

Signed, Rafa

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Danish restaurant with "Best Restaurant in the World" accolades / FRI 12-1-23 / California-based biotechnology giant / First name in California politics / Reality show whose cast appeared in the music video for Taylor Swift's "You Need to Calm Down"

Constructor: Jem Burch

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: GAVIN Newsom (43D: First name in California politics) —

Gavin Christopher Newsom (born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman serving since 2019 as the 40th governor of California. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the 49th lieutenant governor of California from 2011 to 2019 and the 42nd mayor of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011. [...] During his governorship, Newsom faced criticism for his personal behavior and leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was followed by an unsuccessful attempt to recall him from office in 2021; he was reelected in 2022. (wikipedia)

• • •

The marquee answers never reality got up enough marquee energy for this one to be particularly interesting to me. QUANTUM LEAP has the juice (34A: Massive step forward, so to speak), but the rest of the longer answers, while fine, don't really seem like things you'd seed your themeless puzzle with. They seem like the "... and the rest" of the cast list ... definitely below-the-title credits. No one's gonna criticize ROYAL PALACE. It's solid, it's fine. But it's not getting any gasps or "ooh, nice"s either. I don't dislike the long answers here, it's just that hardly any of them seem like something you'd build your puzzle around. So I get a grid populated by a solid but forgettable supporting cast, with very few stars. A couple of the longer answers also seem kind of quaintly wonky. You'd say WAY TOO EASY, not ALL TOO EASY (9D: A real piece of cake). The latter is fine, real, OK, you might, in fact, say it, but it's got ... yeah, a quaintly formal tinge to it. THANKS A HEAP also seems quaintly off (31A: Sarcastic expression of gratitude). If you'd given me "THANKS A ___" and asked me to fill it in (and I had no idea how long the remaining word was supposed to be), I wouldn't get to HEAP til like the 6th guess. Let's see. LOT, TON, BUNCH ... OK, maybe now HEAP. 4th guess. Also, STUNT PILOT feels way more in-the-language than STUNT FLIER (which, again, sounds quaint) (27D: High-roller?). So not only are the longer answers not exactly sizzling, they're kind of quaintly clanking a bit. The grid is overwhelmingly smooth, very very adequate, but it's not giving Friday Feeling much at all. I guess I whoosh-whooshed a little, but mainly I just meandered. The long stuff really didn't have much whoosh to give.

As for difficulty, it wasn't notably hard, or easy, just normal. The proper noun pair of NOMA / TOBIN, combined with the oddly clued "SHOO!" crossing (13A: Fly "away!"), was definitely the hardest bit for me. I half know NOMA (6D: Danish restaurant with "Best Restaurant in the World" accolades) and maybe a quarter know TOBIN (i.e. heard the name, but recognize it only in retrospect) (7D: ___ Heath, U.S. women's soccer star). The clue on "SHOO!" doesn't work (13A: Fly "Away!"). "Away!" is synonymous with "SHOO!" To SHOO is not to "Fly." To SHOO is to make something else (a stray animal, say) "fly." The "Fly" part is trying to be punny somehow, but it's just gumming up the actual sense of the clue. If the idea is that you are saying "Away!" to an actual buzz-buzz insect fly (and I now think it is), then this clue definitely needs a "?" Bizarre. I mean, I get it, "SHOO fly, don't bother me," but [Fly "Away!"] is too syntactically tortured to work for the insect meaning without the "?". You could not get away (!) with, say, [Dog "Away!"], so [Fly "Away!"] is also a no-go unless you "?" it. No other area caused noticeable trouble, though I absolutely kealoa'd* the LOA (37A: "Long," in Hawaiian). I knew "Mauna" was "mountain," but the KEA/LOA meanings ... I had not yet sorted. For the record, KEA means "White." KEA is also a New Zealand mountain parrot that will straight-up steal your camera ... 

It will also beat you at chess, and could almost certainly take you in a fight:

But enough about parrots. Back to puzzles. The problem with not having many truly sparkly answers in the grid is the less sparkly stuff becomes more noticeable. Very hard to like REEFING, a word only a wordlist could love (42A: Bringing in, as a sail). Very hard to like LOAN CAP or a random Chinese dynasty or AMGEN, oof, thank god I committed that horrid CorpName to memory the last time it darkened the grid (15D: California-based biotechnology giant). I still don't like it, at all, but at least I didn't struggle. You've already got a corporations up there in ALCOA, what the hell? So everything north and east of the always-horrid TEHEE (25D: [Snicker]) felt like it could be fruitfully sawed off and replaced with something else. A very throwawayable corner. But most of the rest of the grid is at least pleasant. I don't know if SASHA OBAMA has done any VOICEOVER work yet, but I like the idea, and there's something nicely suggestive about the juxtaposition of ROCKCLIMB and FLOAT ON AIR (and the fact that that they're way up at the top of the grid). SLOT CANYONS is also a cool answer. As geographical formations go, it has some pizzazz. So maybe I'm being a bit hard on the longer answers. I just think themelesses are best when at least a good half-dozen answers legitimately Pop. The bar is higher for longer stuff when you don't have a theme constraining the grid. Not much left to say except "Again with COE College!? That's twice in ten days!" and "Again with NRA!? Twice in two days! Just take NRA out of your wordlists already! You have every known name / term / word / phrase / abbrev. known to humankind in there, you can do without NRA in any form, give it a try! Cluing it as alphabet soup isn't a solution. Yeet it! Yeet yeet! No One Is Going To Miss It!" Have a lovely day. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

*kealoa = a pair of words (normally short, common answers) that can be clued identically and that share at least one letter in common (in the same position). These are answers you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] ATON/ALOT, ["Git!"] "SHOO"/"SCAT," etc.

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Evil conglomerate on Mr. Robot / FRI 2-17-23 / Its index case occurred in Meliandou Guinea / Contractor's project informally / Sucker for a fictional story line / Fictional figure who often visits the night-cloaked deck / Chopin piece inspired by a dog chasing its tail / Heracles killed its eponymous lion

Constructor: Jem Burch

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: Z's? (actually, no, no theme) 

Word of the Day: BEBE Rexha (51D: Singer/songwriter ___ Rexha) —

Bleta Rexha (Albanian pronunciation: [ˈblɛta ˈɾɛdʒa]; born August 30, 1989) known professionally as Bebe Rexha (/ˈbiːbi ˈrɛksə/BEE-bee REK-sə) is an American singer and songwriter. After signing with Warner Records in 2013, Rexha received songwriting credits on Eminem's single "The Monster" (which later received the Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Performance) and has also contributed songwriting to songs recorded by Shinee, Selena Gomez, and Nick Jonas. Rexha released her debut extended play in 2015, I Don't Wanna Grow Up, which saw the moderate commercial success of the singles "I Can't Stop Drinking About You" and "I'm Gonna Show You Crazy". [...] Rexha's debut studio album, Expectations (2018), reached number 13 on the Billboard 200 chart in the United States and saw the success of its lead single, "I'm a Mess", and brought Rexha two nominations for Best New Artist and Best Country Duo/Group Performance at the 61st Grammy Awards. Rexha released her second studio album, Better Mistakes, in 2021.

• • •

Lukewarm on this one. I think I just don't care about the letter "Z" as much as this puzzle wants me to. With dystopic corporatespeak (ECORP, AGRIBIZ) and diseases (EBOLA) and creeps (SLEAZEBALL), it's like the puzzle was trying to be off-putting at times. Then there was the completely gratuitous Harry Potter content (15D: Animal form of Harry Potter's patronus), hard on the heels of that grotesquely intellectually dishonest "Defense" of noted transphobe and absolutely first-tier narcissist J.K. Rowling in yesterday's NYT. Do you know how many other ways there are to clue STAG? Infinite ways. If someone wanted to use SNAPE in their grid, well, OK, Harry Potter books are really the only way to go about it, but STAG? You don't have to "cancel" her, but you don't have to drive right up to her front door and leave flowers all the time either, yeesh. Just a vile public figure, that one. Is it AFFLUENZA? Who can say? Moving on. WON A PRIZE is today's entry into the EAT A SANDWICH sweepstakes, and it definitely wins a prize for [verb + A + noun] awkwardness. I have this inherent aversion to the puzzles that get all winky and meta and "we all like puzzles, don't we?"—always feels like pandering and self-congratulation, somehow—so PUZZLE BOXES didn't do anything for me. Also, truthfully, I don't really know what they are. Is it like the thing that all the different island-goers have to open at the beginning of Knives Out: Glass Onion? Is that a puzzle box? I mean, it's a box, and it's a puzzle, so why not? While I'm plugging Rian Johnson content, be sure to catch his new TV show "Poker Face" if you can. Really great neo-"Columbo"-type stuff.

I think PIZZA STONES was the one answer that really made me happy today, the one that really SIZZLED. I also enjoyed VAMPIRE BAT and (weirdly?) SHIRTFRONT. Not sure why that last one makes me happy. There's something apt and almost quaint about it. I just like the idea that at some point, someone was like "ugh, saying 'front of my shirt' is too long, too taxing, I need something shorter ... [snap] ... I've got it! We'll move the FRONT to the back and make it one word! SHIRTFRONT! Now all my tales of soup-eating mishaps will be slightly more economical!" It's a sneaky-fun word, is what I'm saying. The one answer I'm truly passionate about in real life (NOIR), I didn't even see its clue (this is what happens when the puzzle is far too easy) (52A: "The Third Man," for one). Definitely recommend Carol Reed's "The Third Man"—it's got one of the noirest speeches ever made on screen, courtesy of Harry Lime (played by the always redoubtable Orson Welles):

[really gets going around the 1:30 mark]

Had a malapop today at 19A: Kind of code (POSTAL). Could think only of PENAL at first, but it wouldn't fit ... until, later in the grid, it did (37A: Kind of code). That's a malapop—wanting an answer, having it be wrong, and then having that same "wrong" answer pop up later as a right answer! Pop! It happens more often than you'd think. I didn't have much hesitation or wrongness today. Had to leave 25D: Savages with two blanks in it until I could decide if it was MAIMS or MAULS. I couldn't remember ECORP. Again, as with yesterday's "Succession" clue, I'm dubious about these deep deep dives into so-called "prestige TV" programs. Seems ultra-exclusionary. I actually watched "Mr. Robot" for a time and still couldn't recall ECORP at first. Always hesitant on the vowel at the end of TAZ- tea, but ROW took care of me (53D: Big fight). I teach literature from the period of the English Reformation and still struggled to get BOLEYN as clued (13D: Pivotal figure in the English Reformation). She's "pivotal" in so far as Henry VIII wanted to divorce Catherine of Aragon so he could marry BOLEYN (already pregnant with Henry's child), but the pope was reluctant to grant the divorce, and this (in part) led Henry to start his own damn church, The Church of England, of which he was the Supreme Head (following the Act of Supremacy in 1534). So, yes, BOLEYN ... was indeed a "pivotal figure," I suppose, though not in the "actually doing something Reformation-y" way I thought the clue was suggesting. Hardest thing for me today was maybe EBOLA, simply because I had no idea what "index case" meant (33D: Its index case occurred in Meliandou, Guinea). I had EBO- but ... EBOOK was all I could think of (books have 'indexes,' I half-reasoned). But I couldn't figure out what EBOOKs had to do with Guinea, so I just ran a rolodex of five-letter EBO- words and turns out there aren't many. EBOLA is one of them. Ta da. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. since I'm getting some exasperating, condescending flak from HP fans, here's a link to people far smarter than I about why JKR is, in fact, the worst. If you wanted to get even a little curious about the issue, you could turn this stuff up yourselves, but I thought I'd help out a little. Good day.

Power dynamics can be subtle and complex. But here? Not at all. One of the most powerful publications in the world and one of the most powerful authors in the world are kicking down at trans kids & adults & their allies. This is shameful and willfully ignorant. https://t.co/EbqtkJMHLu

— Laura Helmuth (@laurahelmuth) February 17, 2023

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Egyptian sun deity / FRI 1-28-22 / Islands autonomous part of Denmark / Extreme athletes with parachutes / Chopped liver so to speak / Endemic flora and fauna

Constructor: Jem Burch

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: John JAKES (16A: "North and South" writer John) —

John William Jakes (born March 31, 1932) is an American writer, best known for American historical & speculative fiction. His Civil War trilogy, North and South, has sold millions of copies worldwide. He is also the author of The Kent Family Chronicles. He has used the pen name Jay Scotland. (wikipedia)

[I didn't recognize John JAKES from today's clue, but it turns out my
vintage paperback collection is absolutely loaded with his
early fantasy / sword & sorcery / crime fiction / scifi stuff, some of it written
under the pseudonym "Jay Scotland!" Dude was *prolific*]

• • •

Lots of ups and downs in this one. Speaking of UPs, right away we get UP crossing UP (HIT UP, UPEND), which is less than great form, and later on, when JAZZ UP shows ... up, well, it's too much. A couple of UPs in different parts of the grid, fine, but two UPs crossing, no, and a third UP, no no. no. The NW really put this puzzle in a hole, between the UPs and ATEN, which ... yeesh, what? I want to say that it's crosswordese, and it might be, but if it is, it's crosswordese from another era that you just don't see much any more. I had AM-N (AMON, AMUN?) here because I was thinking of AMON (AMUN)-RA. Looks like ATEN actually shows up with reasonable frequency, but typically as an innocuous partial ("Do you have two fives for ___?"), or as a UMass athletic conf. (the Atlantic 10), not as this Egyptian answer. It's less-than-great fill however it's clued, but somehow the Egyptian deity clue highlights that fact rather than mutes it. TAKE A CAB as always gave off some real EAT A SANDWICH vibes, and today IN A TRAP was his unwelcome wing man. So I emerged from the NW corner with not a lot of good will for this puzzle, but then zing, it took off in a much happier direction:

BASEJUMPERS (32A: Extreme athletes with parachutes) takes on some of the daredevil quality of base-jumping itself, as it flings itself recklessly into the void, i.e. the at-this-point empty center of the grid.  The thrill of adventure continues with ZERO GRAVITY below and PAJAMA PARTY above, resulting in an indisputably worthy central stagger-stack (this is what I call stacks where the answers are are arranged like steps instead of one being directly on top of the other). Definitely JAZZes UP the grid. SO SPICY! (I had real trouble with "SO SPICY!" and am not sure I actually like it, but it definitely describes the middle of this puzzle). Some of the longer Downs that shoot through the stack are also nice, particularly SOLD FOR PARTS (8D: Like many a lemon, eventually). The smaller corners of this puzzle are often clunky, which is bizarre, as you'd think making that center part come out right would be far harder than filling a bunch of small sections cleanly. Maybe there's something going on with the constructor being overly enamored with "J"s and "Z"s and "Q"s—that NW section, which had so many problems, has a "J" in it, and the "Q" in the NE section isn't doing the grid quality any favors either. A Chinese dynasty name (there are so many!) isn't worth the "Q," especially when that section also gives us INASEC, the distant but no-more-likeable cousin of INATRAP and TAKEACAB. Oh, ANO is over there too—hmm, did you know that, unlike with Spanish, the Portuguese ANO ("year") doesn't have a tilde? It's true. I can't believe they have the same word for "year" and "anus," that can't be right, hang on ... oh look, it's just "ânus," with a circumflex over the "a." Using Portuguese really sidesteps the problem created by the proximity of "year" and "anus" in Spanish—just one tilde apart. And yet I'm still thinking about the year-anus connection—which, let me tell you, is much less pleasant than, say, the Rainbow or even the French connection. But hurray for learning things!

I had INAMESS before INATRAP (2D: Caught), UPSET before UPEND (4D: Flip), ART MAJOR (?) before LIT MAJOR (17D: Student of the classics), and DEEMS (???) before DOOMS (46A: Sentences). I also wasn't entirely sure if the RITZ were BITS or BITZ, or whether the [Endemic flora and fauna] were BIOME or BIOTA, so I just waited for the crosses to tell me. I could really Really have done without the reminder that the Bush II administration ever existed, but in the end I think this puzzle came out ahead. More good than bad. The center is very strong, and the rest of it ... well, it's there, and it mostly holds up.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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