"Oh. Come. On!" / TUES 9-30-25 / Card game that involves shouting its name / Befitting a king or queen / Move like the Blob

Hi, everyone, it’s Clare back for the last Tuesday of September. Hope the month treated everyone alright! My September was pretty packed with work and taking my puppy on hikes and becoming more obsessed with reality TV cooking shows. I even got to meet my all-time favorite from “Top Chef,” Melissa King, when she was in D.C. for a book signing. I went to a music festival last weekend, and it was incredible (Kesha performed my favorite new song of hers, “Red Flag,” and Doechii blew the whole place down), but now I feel like I need to catch up on sleep for this whole week. Sports have been just OK — Liverpool lost :( but are still top of the table, and the Steelers (who I’m sort of maybe rooting for despite Aaron Rodgers) have done pretty well. At least I’ve had the WNBA playoffs to watch — even if the teams I’ve wanted to win… haven’t. 

Anywho, onto the puzzle…

Constructor: Justin Werfel

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: IT’S A DE LIGHT (59A: "I love this!" ... or, phonetically, remark about the answer to each of the starred clues) — Each theme answer has a dropped “d,” so it’s one “d” light

Theme answers:

• CROW CONTROL (17A: *What a straw man in a cornfield is for?) 
• GARBAGE UMP (28A: *Ref who makes a ruling against your favored team?) 
• ON KEY KONG (35A: *Primate with perfect pitch?) 
• CAR CATALOG (47A: *Kelley Blue Book?)

Word of the Day: NUNAVUT (11D: Largest and most northern Canadian territory) —

Nunavut is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, which provided this territory to the Inuit for self-government. The boundaries had been drawn in 1993. The creation of Nunavut resulted in the first major change to Canada's political map in half a century since the province of Newfoundland (now Newfoundland and Labrador) was admitted in 1949. Nunavut comprises a major portion of Northern Canada and most of the Arctic Archipelago. Its vast territory makes it the fifth-largest country subdivision in the world, as well as North America's second-largest (after Greenland). (Wiki)

• • •

For some reason, I wasn’t totally feeling this puzzle. Some of that can be attributed to some stilted clues/answers, but I think the main reason was that I didn’t connect much with the theme. Each of the theme answers didn’t make much sense to me without the “d” (even if they match up with what the clue is describing). Nobody would ever use the phrases CROW CONTROL (17A) or ON KEY KONG (35A) in real life. I suppose GARBAGE UMP (28A) is at least plausible, but…. What would be more common is saying the “ref” is GARBAGE. [See: recent refereeing in the WBNA playoffs, literally any game of the English Premier League, and probably the NFL any time we need to figure out what a catch is... As a Liverpool fan, I of course know the refs are GARBAGE and out to get my team on every occasion possible (my sister would say the same about Arsenal, but we know better, right?)]. CAR CATALOG (47A) is probably the only one of the four theme answers you might actually run across in real life. For that matter, when is the last time you heard someone say, “IT’S A DELIGHT” (59A)? “It’s delightful,” sure. But “IT’S A DELIGHT”? 

I realize the answers are supposed to be funny, not real life. I guess I just didn’t laugh. I do think the idea of being a “d” light is pretty cute, and ON KEY KONG (35A) is quite an image. But the other answers never clicked for me, and, to channel my inner Rex, I think the dropping the “d” theme would’ve worked better if the “d” was being removed from the same part of the word or phrase each time. As it is, the deletions just look random. 

The southwest corner tripped me up for a long while and made this puzzle much harder for me. I didn’t know Jack LALANNE (40D: Fitness guru Jack). I’d only vaguely heard of FRANK OZ (41D: Puppeteer with "Sesame Street" and "The Muppet Show"). And ACACIAS (39D: Some pod-bearing trees) aren’t an especially common type of tree (at least, I wasn't familiar). I also had to rack my brain to come up with ALF (39A: Puppet alien of TV). I know now that it was a popular TV show, but it went off the air 35 years ago, so it was hard for me to get. Then, there was my biggest annoyance in the puzzle… SEZ (67A: Declares, informally)?! That may have been a thing in 1950s detective novels, but it’s just not part of any even semi-modern slang I know. That, combined with ALAS NO (52A: "Unfortunately that's wrong") and CAN IT (55A: "Shush!") (which could have been “zip it” or, just going off the T, “quiet”), caused me real problems. 

There were too many “ ” clues today for me (I counted nine). I find that they’re usually overbroad and should be used sparingly. GET A LIFE (38D: "Oh. Come. On!") was my favorite of them, but the others — CAN IT (55A), ALAS NO (52A), IT’S A DELIGHT (59A), DONE IT (20A: "Already accomplished!"), I’M FULL (56A: "No more for me, thanks"), HOW’D IT GO (4D: "Was your performance a success?"), I FEAR (66A: "Unfortunately ..."), and GEE (61D: "Golly!") — were mostly meh. 

I did think 37D: H for Homer was a clever clue to get to ETA. 57D: Planet whose name is also a candy company as MARS was also good. And I really liked ON A DIME (12D: One way to stop). The long downs of ALLERGENS (10D: Pollen, cat hair, etc.) and INFANTILE 32D: Babyish) were nice. And I learned about the region NUNAVUT (11D) today, which I’m finding out is vast and also really rolls off the tongue in a fun way.

I don’t mean to rag on the puzzle! It just wasn’t on my wavelength. And I’m tired. Maybe you liked it more. I hope you liked it more! But I’m ready for tomorrow’s puzzle now.

Misc:

• You might think that, as a rock climber, I would know that a 25D: Crag is TOR (a Google search isn’t telling me if you say it as just “tor” or “a tor” or what). You would be wrong. Maybe that’s because I only climb indoors. Or maybe it’s a relatively old-fashioned term. I would’ve clued that as related to the TOR anonymous web browser. 
• I also would’ve clued FLEABAG (53A: Sleazy hotel) differently to refer to the amazing two-season British show created by Phoebe Waller Bridge that’s one of the greatest shows of all time. It only has two seasons, and the second one in particular is probably the most brilliant season of a show I’ve ever seen. I can’t recommend that show highly enough! 
• When I saw EPCOT (5D: Disney park with Spaceship Earth), my first thought was about an episode of the TV show “The Americans” called “Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow.” That’s another amazing TV show that I’d highly recommend! It’s six seasons, so it’s a real time investment, but it’s fascinating throughout, and I’ve never seen a series stick the landing so well. 
• I think the best film from Frank CAPRA (6A: Frank who directed "It's a Wonderful Life") was “It Happened One Night.” Fight me. 
• My sister got my puppy a BOK Choy (30D) toy! Please now enjoy a picture of her with this toy — and also allow me to bombard you with a couple more pictures because I’m a proud puppy parent :)

And with that, I’ve run out of things to say (but never out of pictures of Red to show off). Hope everyone has a great (and spooky) October!

Signed, Clare Carroll, who's [d]one with the puzzle

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

• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

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

• Midwest Crossword Tournament (Chicago) (Sat., Oct. 4, 2025)
• Finger Lakes Crossword Competition (Ithaca) (Sat., Oct. 18, 2025)

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

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...

Charlotte's first draft for "Some Pig"? / TUE 10-8-24 / Name of Athena's shield / Genderqueer identity, informally / "Little Shop of Horrors" lyricist Howard / "Beware of this sausage!"? / Belgian town known for its mineral baths / Balaam couldn't move his / Two up quarks and a down quark

Constructor: Justin Werfel

Relative difficulty: Very easy

THEME: MAKE ENDS MEAT (62A: summary of the phonetic puns at 17-, 31-, 38- and 45-Across?) — familiar phrases have their final words ("ends") turned (homophonically) into meat:

Theme answers:

• "FEAR THE WURST!" (17A: "Beware of this sausage!"?)
• ON THE LAMB (31A: Like unshorn wool?)
• RAISE THE STEAKS (38A: Breed beef cattle?)
• "WHAT A BOAR" (45A: Charlotte's first draft for "Some Pig"?)

Word of the Day: Howard ASHMAN (46D: "Little Shop of Horrors" lyricist Howard) —

Howard Elliott Ashman (May 17, 1950 – March 14, 1991) was an American playwright, lyricist and stage director. He is most widely known for his work on feature films for Walt Disney Animation Studios, for which Ashman wrote the lyrics and Alan Menken composed the music. Ashman has been credited as being a main driving force behind the Disney Renaissance. His work included songs for Little Shop of Horrors, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. Tim Rice took over to write the rest of the songs for the latter film after Ashman's death in 1991. [...] Over the course of his career, Ashman won two Academy Awards* (one posthumous) out of seven nominations. *[for "Under the Sea" (The Little Mermaid) and the title song from Beauty and the Beast] (wikipedia) 

• • •

Second day in a row with a 16-wide grid, second day in a row with a clever revealer. Yesterday's required you to figure out what was going on (TIME AND TIME AGAIN = both parts of the theme answers could follow "time" in familiar phrases). Today's pretty much spells it all out. You literally make the ends (of the familiar original phrases) into meat. I like that the revealer itself follows its own pun logic: MEET into MEAT. This is a tight and reasonably funny theme. I didn't LOL at "FEAR THE WURST!" but I came close. It's just absurd enough to be genuinely amusing. The LAMB and STEAKS puns are kind of ho-hum, but "WHAT A BOAR!" brings the absurdity roaring back. The clue on that one is somehow simultaneously my most and least favorite of the bunch. It's such a creative and unexpected way to come at "WHAT A BOAR!," via a Charlotte's Web-based parallel. Truly inventive. And yet ... would anyone, even a fictional spider, ever look at a piglet and call it a "boar"? I guess technically (if Merriam-Webster dot com is to be believed, and why not...) a "boar" is simply an "uncastrated male swine," and, I mean, while I don't have any specific memory of Wilbur's testicles, I'm going to assume he did fall in the "uncastrated" category. And yet BOAR to me is a much different animal, esp. the BOAR that you eat as meat (which is wild; otherwise it would just be called "pork," right?). Annnnnnyway, enough about Wilbur's testicles. I would never think to call Wilbur a "BOAR," but we're talking crossword puns here, and in pun world, absurdity pays. "WHAT A BOAR!" —ironically!—keeps the themer set from sliding into bo(a)ring territory. On the whole, I thought this was a solid Tuesday theme.

This puzzle really was gauged too easy today, even for a (typically easy) Tuesday. The puns were a piece of (beef?)cake and as for the fill, it was point-and-shoot the whole way. Hmm, that metaphor sounded good coming out of my brain, but I'm not sure it works on a technical level. But you know what I mean. It was easy. Point (my eyes at the clue), and then shoot (the answer into the grid). OK, now I do like the metaphor. Welcome to My Brain Writing In Real Time. This will not become a regular feature of the blog, as it is far too ridiculous. But back to the easiness. Too much of it. Too easy. Zero hesitation. Well, almost. There was one hesitation, which felt like a brick wall compared to the rest of the puzzle. I had no idea who Howard ASHMAN was. I'm sailing along with absolutely no resistance and all of a sudden this pop culture proper noun comes crashing into my puzzle. From outer space, or so it seemed, compared to the very ordinary and familiar contents of the rest of the grid. I had -MAN and absolutely no idea what to do with those first three letters. And that, ladies and gentlemen, constituted 100% of today's puzzle difficulty, just as AT A GUESS constituted 100% of my flinching at unpleasant answers. I have never heard anyone use that phrase, to my knowledge. "AS A GUESS," maybe, but AT A GUESS feels weird. AT A GALLOP, yes, AT A GUESS ... unless you are AT A GUESS clothing outlet ... no.

["Hey, man, I'm finished shopping, can you come pick me up?" "Sure, man, where are you?]

Notes:

• 21A: Balaam couldn't move his (ASS) — truly the Bible's worst dancer (though not its wurst dancer ... I don't think the Bible has one of those)

• 28A: Small drum (TABOR) — it was a good day for knowing your short crossword words. Would I know what a TABOR is without crosswords? Maybe ... maybe not. Would I know SPA was an actual Belgian town. Mmm, possibly. But I'm fairly confident I learned this fact from crosswords (where I get most of my SPA facts, having never, to my knowledge, been to a SPA ... although ... hmmm ... that may not be true. I've gotten a massage on vacation a couple of times, and those might have taken place in or around SPAs). AEGIS was another word that came easily because of crosswords (52A: Name of Athena's shield). I knew ENBY (from "N.B." i.e. "nonbinary") before I ever saw it in crosswords, but I know that every time that word appears, someone somewhere is learning it for the first time (20A: Genderqueer identity, informally). This is the third appearance for ENBY (there have also been two ENBIES). The term has only been appearing in the NYTXW since 2022, so if you're just getting the memo, don't feel too bad.
• 41D: Actor McGregor (EWAN) — coincidentally, just watched an EWAN McGregor movie yesterday—a 2011 Stephen Soderbergh flick called Haywire that I stumbled into while browsing The Criterion Channel (hallowed be its name). It's an action thriller starring real-life MMA star Gina Carano as an extremely badass black ops agent who gets in lots of beautifully choreographed and impressively violent fights with a lot of dudes, some of them big stars (Channing Tatum! Michael Fassbender!). EWAN McGregor plays Carano's employer/handler. To say any more would spoil it. It's a tight, taut, fun film. Very much worth it if you've got 90 minutes to burn.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...

Features of deerstalker hats / TUE 5-7-24 / Victor Hugo character who works at Notre Dame / Micronesian nation made up of hundreds of islands / Deep-fried Mexican snack / Door-to-door salesman in a classic Arthur Miller play / Nobelist who conditioned dogs to salivate / Lee Republican political strategist of the 1980s

Constructor: Justin Werfel

Relative difficulty: Medium (normal Tuesday)

THEME: RINGS A BELL (57A: Sounds familiar ... or performs an action associated with 16-, 23-, 35- and 47-Across?) — people (real and fictional) who ring bells:

Theme answers:

• WILLY LOMAN (16A: Door-to-door salesman in a classic Arthur Miller play)
• SANTA CLAUS (23A: Whom a Salvation Army volunteer might dress as)
• QUASIMODO (35A: Victor Hugo character who works at Notre Dame)
• IVAN PAVLOV (47A: Nobelist who conditioned dogs to salivate)

Word of the Day: LUSAKA (17D: Capital of Zambia) —

Lusaka (/luːˈsɑːkə/; loo-SAH-kə) is the capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about 1,279 metres (4,196 ft). As of 2019, the city's population was about 3.3 million, while the urban population is estimated at 2.5 million in 2018. Lusaka is the centre of both commerce and government in Zambia and connects to the country's four main highways heading north, south, east, and west. English is the official language of the city administration, while Bemba, Tonga, Lenje, Soli, Lozi, and Nyanja are the commonly spoken street languages. // The earliest evidence of settlement in the area dates to the 6th century AD, with the first known settlement in the 11th century. It was then home to the Lenje and Soli peoples from the 17th or 18th century. The founding of the modern city occurred in 1905 when it lay in the British protectorate of Northern Rhodesia, which was controlled by the British South African Company (BSAC). The BSAC built a railway linking their mines in the Copperbelt to Cape Town and Lusaka was designated as a water stop on that line, named after a local Lenje chief called Lusaaka. (wikipedia)

• • •

Quick write-up today, as I have to give a final exam at the ridiculous (for them) hour of 8am. I wake up before 4am every day, so no problem here, but our class meeting time is normally 11:40am, so 8am (a time assigned randomly, as far as I know) feels cruel. Like an added layer of difficulty. Anyway, though I'm awake, I am in a bit of a morning time crunch. So, quickly: I spent most of the solve grimacing and wincing at the fill, both genuinely ugly stuff like ALTI- and (and!?) API- and ISA and AGERS, and stuff that's just particularly unappealing to me, like race-baiting creep Lee ATWATER (why are you still putting him in puzzles? I mean besides the fact his name is full of common letters?) to MENSA (the one ultracommon xword answer I'd love to never see again, IQ-based orgs. be gone!) to the THE in THE ALAMO (arbitrary THE inclusion, not my fav) to EARLAPS (man that word wants an "F"), to WAVED HI (again, the past tense makes it awk), to HAUL UP ("UP!?" I had "IN" because that's what you do to a perp, or so TV has taught me). I also half-failed the geography quiz (big ???? on LUSAKA)—that's not the puzzle's fault, and it's good that I can now place Zambia on a map, but doubling down on the geography quiz element with PALAU (even though I knew it, after getting the "U") felt like overkill (44A: Micronesian nation made up of hundreds of islands). The theme revealer, once I got there, did salvage things somewhat. More of an "Oh, OK" than a true AHA, but I actually think the theme is just fine. But the road to theme comprehension was a rocky and largely unpleasant one.

I never saw the PEALE clue, but that is a pretty way to clue a fairly obscure proper noun, tying it to the (bell) theme like that (54A: Charles Wilson ___, George Washington portraitist whose name is apt for this puzzle's theme). I also really like the word QUANDARY (how could you not?), and while neither HAPPY nor "I'M SAD" does much for me on its own, when you put them one atop the other, they make a funny contrasting mood pair. Actually, they might make one mood: "HAPPY I'M SAD" does get at a certain kind of paradoxical feeling inherent in wistfulness and nostalgia. Anyway, thumbs up to those two. Also, I always love a New Zealand shout-out (42D: Like New Zealand vis-à-vis New Jersey, by population = SMALLER—and by a lot, 5.1 million vs. 9.3). My mother-in-law arrived in NYC from Dunedin, NZ (via Auckland) last night, and my wife's going down to spend time with her (and our daughter Ella) in the city tomorrow and then bringing her mom back here on Sunday, where Penelope (my wife) will spend several days taking her mother to places where she is most likely to see ___ [fill in the blank with any number of North American birds that are ordinary to us but will be exotic to her—bald eagles, maybe!]. 

I completely blanked on QUASIMODO ... or, rather, when confronted with Victor Hugo, my brain leapt to and would not leap away from Les Misérables, and when the answer wasn't Jean Valjean, I was like "how many damn characters from Les Mis do they really expect me to know, yeesh!" Also, was really looking for a full name (i.e. first and last), not a one-named figure. Speaking of first and last names, I did not know PAVLOV's first name. You could've told me it was OLGA and I'd ... OK, no, I wouldn't have believed you, but IGOR, maybe, yes. I'm gonna leave you to contemplate the VEINY LANCE juxtaposition on your own. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...