Expansive marine exhibits / SAT 7-4-26 / Golden goal periods, for short / "Gotcha," to a beatnik / Things often refilled, informally / Loggers' competition / False idol in the Old Testament / #MeToo activist Burke / Sancte Spiritus medieval Latin hymn / Observation by Oscar Wilde about the relationship between reality and creativity / Painter ___ Thomas, first Black woman to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum / Berry spelled with a cedilla / Soft drink originally made with egg whites / Cardiac exam on a treadmill / Brand of tights with an apostrophe in its name

Constructor: Kareem Ayas

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: ALMA Thomas (39A: Painter ___ Thomas, first Black woman to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum) —

[Red Azaleas Singing and Dancing Rock and Roll Music, 1976]

Alma Woodsey Thomas (September 22, 1891 – February 24, 1978) was an American artist and art teacher who lived and worked in Washington, D.C., and is now recognized as a major American painter of the 20th century. She is the first African-American woman to be included in the White House's permanent art collection. Thomas is best known for the "exuberant", colorful, abstract paintings that she created after she retired from a 35-year career teaching art at Washington's Shaw Junior High School.

Thomas, who is often considered a member of the Washington Color School art movement but alternatively classified by some as an Expressionist and/or Black Abstractionist, earned her teaching degree from University of the District of Columbia (known as Miner Normal School at the time). She was the first graduate of Howard University's art department, and maintained connections to that university through her life. She achieved success as an African-American female artist despite the segregation and prejudice of her time.

Thomas's reputation has continued to grow since her death. Her paintings are displayed in notable museums and collections and have been the subject of several books and solo museum exhibitions. The Smithsonian American Art Museum maintains the world's largest public collection of her work. In 2021, a museum sold Thomas's painting Alma's Flower Garden in a private transaction for $2.8 million. (wikipedia)

• • •

[5D: Milky Way's nearest major galaxy]

Woke up at 4am (for the first time in ... I don't know, however long I've been away) and thought "oh god, how do you solve crosswords again?" Didn't solve a single puzzle on my Lake Huron vacation. Solved a few jigsaw puzzles. Well, two and a half jigsaw puzzles. Two and three quarters, maybe. We thought we could squeeze that Sherlock Holmes puzzle in there at the end, but fate intervened. Well, not fate. We decided to spend the last night of the trip watching You've Got Mail. I think that was our fifth romcom of the trip. What can I say? We got curious (How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days) and then we got carried away (Jerry Maguire, Four Weddings and a Funeral, 13 Going on 30, You've Got Mail). We also spent that last day doing something we said we were gonna do four years ago, when we started our Great Lakes Summer Vacation Extravaganza—once we'd been to every lake, the plan was that we'd all get Great Lakes tattoos. Easy for tattooless me to say in 2022, but in 2026 ... neither Penelope nor I was entirely sure we'd go through with it. We thought, Maybe we should wait? Do it later on, in Minneapolis, after we'd figured out the best design and the best artist and blah blah blah but in a moment of extremely uncharacteristic "ah f--- it, let's just do it," we did it.

So we ended up packing up the Sherlock Holmes jigsaw puzzle and taking it home for another day. It might have to wait until our next vacation, as our cats do not have a history of tolerating jigsaw puzzles in their presence. 

Anyway, I was grateful, for once, that my Saturday puzzle was (very) easy, because I felt very rusty after nine days or so away. I'm also grateful that the puzzle is so strong, because I didn't really want to resume blogging with a lot of ughs and aarghs and "why"s? Gotta keep those good vacation vibes going ... just like Cabo Verde did last night against Argentina, omg, did you see that match? Inspiring. The (extreme) underdogs ultimately lost, but not before stunning everyone (not least Argentina) by coming back to tie the match not once but twice, taking the reigning World Cup champs deep into overtime before finally losing 3-2. Funny to see the clue on OTS this morning (35A: Golden goal periods, for short), as there is no "Golden Goal" in World Cup play (as posted broadcast messages kept reminding me). You play two 15-minute OT segments, and if no one is ahead after that, you go to PKs (penalty kicks) to decide it. Argentina scored in the second OT period and that ended up being that, but Cabo Verde kept coming at them til the very end. It was the biggest world ranking disparity (no. 1 vs. no. 64) in the history of the World Cup knockout rounds and for a while there it seemed bizarrely possible that the match might go to PKs and I might witness a truly historic upset. But alas, that was not to be. Still, great, great match. And this was a great, great puzzle. Sorry, that segue was terrible. I told you I was out of practice.

Traction was never hard to come by today. Off the "C" in ACAI (sorry, AÇAI) (2D: Berry spelled with a cedilla), I got OCEANARIA. I kinda felt like I was making up a word while I was writing it in, but it fit and ... enough crosses confirmed it, so off we go. Couldn't remember TARANA or ROBB (I thought ARYA? Is that someone?) (1D: One of the Starks on "Game of Thrones"), but ANDROMEDA and TRACT and "EAT!" all went in off OCEANARIA, and I was able to piece that corner together from there. Love (love!) the clue on RAP BATTLE at 1A: Bar fight? "Bars" are rhymes in rap. The word "bars" is sometimes used to indicate someone is speaking truth eloquently—the rough equivalent of "amen to that," "you tell 'em," "testify!" After getting out of that NW corner, things got even easier. You can't give a middle-aged guy this clue on a Saturday—too easy:

Actually, I've never had a STRESS TEST, but I damn sure know what they are, and if my (temporary, harmless) palpitations had become a real problem, I might've had to have one. The short answers in that SW corner were so easy from here that I had most of CHILI PASTE and HELICOPTER in place before I ever saw their clues. The only resistance I got from this puzzle the rest of the way came in the middle of the puzzle, with the Oscar Wilde quote. I had LIFE I- and thought that the "observation" would be  "LIFE IS ..." something. LIFE IS what!? A bowl of cherries? A box of chocolates? A highway? I didn't know LIFE IMITATES ART was Wilde (8D: Observation by Oscar Wilde about the relationship between reality and creativity). I've heard people talk about "life imitating art," but I don't think I've ever seen the phrase as a simple declarative sentence. Anyway, MEN / MEDS / VENI were all coming up bad/weird because I was trying to make LIFE IS happen. Eventually, the beatnik got me out of it. Never thought I'd be "happy" to see "I DIG," but life is (!) full of surprises. Really loved the remainder of the puzzle, esp. "GOD HELP ME!" and GOLDEN CALF and CREAM SODA, which, as I've definitely indicated in recent weeks, I ADORE. I seldom drink soda, but when I do, I like root beer or CREAM SODA. I tried two new kinds of cream soda on vacation. Something called Towne Club CREAM SODA, and then Faygo CREAM SODA (Faygo being an iconic Michigan soda brand). They were both fine! (59A: Soft drink originally made with egg whites)

Bullets:

• 10A: Brand of tights with an apostrophe in its name (L'EGGS) — I didn't know they made anything but pantyhose. Famous for their egg-shaped containers (and display cases):

• 17A: 1991 blockbuster with the tagline "One breath of oxygen and it explodes in a deadly rage" (BACKDRAFT) — really wanted a monster movie here. The "it" was very confusing, though in retrospect, it probably shouldn't have been.
• 47A: Second-smallest U.S. state capital by population (about 14,000 people) (PIERRE) — I somehow missed the word "capital" the first time I read this clue, and thought "what state starts PI-!? I knew I was gonna be rusty today, but ... I didn't think actual state names would fall out of my head." But yes, "capital." PIERRE, no problem (once you learn that there's a state capital with a French guy's name, it's oddly hard to forget) (it's pronounced 'peer' though, not "pee-AIR")

• 11D: Elysia (EDENS) — you don't often see "Elysium" in the plural. You don't often see "Elysium" at all, actually, unless you read (or teach) classical mythology (Elysium is the "good" part of the classical Underworld—Tartarus is the "bad" (think Tantalus, Sisyphus, etc.)
• 35D: One attracted to all gender identities, for short (OMNI) — I guess this is better than your typical [Luxury hotel chain] clue, but ... what happened to PAN? Is PAN not a thing anymore? How is OMNI different from PAN!? Hang on ... ah, here we go: "Pansexuality and omnisexuality are sometimes considered synonymous, but when a distinction is made between them, the former term emphasizes gender blindness, while the latter emphasizes the role of gender in attraction." (wikipedia). And now you (and, more importantly, I) know. If you tried to make PAN work today ("PANO?"), believe me, I understand.

That's all. Nice to be back. Thanks as ever to my capable and entertaining substitute bloggers, Rafa, Mali, and Eli. It's nice to know the blog is in reliable hands while I'm away. See you next time.

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...

Calls home, as a bird might / SAT 4-11-26 / Adam's first wife, in Jewish myth / Hungarian sheepdogs / Old Syrian political party whose name means "resurrection" / Writer of "Esmé" and "The Open Window" / Arboreal symbol in Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" / Term for an ambiguously worded news headline / Alexandre Dumas's Count de la Fère / Line running roughly parallel to Interstate 95 / Figures in a speed trap? / "True West" playwright Sam

Constructor: Kareem Ayas

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: SAKI (44A: Writer of "Esmé" and "The Open Window") —

Hector Hugh Munro (18 December 1870 – 14 November 1916), popularly known by his pen name Saki and also frequently as H. H. Munro, was a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirise Edwardian society and culture. He is considered to be a master of the short story and is often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. Influenced by Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll and Rudyard Kipling, Munro himself influenced A. A. Milne, Noël Coward and P. G. Wodehouse.

Besides his short stories (which were first published in newspapers, as was customary at the time, and then collected into several volumes), Munro wrote a full-length play, The Watched Pot, in collaboration with Charles Maude; two one-act plays; a historical study, The Rise of the Russian Empire (the only book published under his own name); a short novel, The Unbearable Bassington; the episodic The Westminster Alice (a parliamentary parody of Alice in Wonderland); and When William Came, subtitled A Story of London Under the Hohenzollerns, a fantasy about a future German invasion and occupation of Britain. (wikipedia)

• • •

[40D: Hungarian sheepdogs (PULIS)]

The only critical things I have to say about this puzzle are a. it's too easy for a Saturday and b. NESTS IN!!? As for a., it's hard to be mad when you get a great Friday puzzle on a Saturday. Like, just close your eyes and pretend it's Friday and then when you open them, bam, what a great puzzle! This had all the whoosh and long-answer magic that I hope for on a Friday. Most Saturdays don't flooooow like this one, but the grid shape here really helped. None of this heavily segmented drudgery—we get a wide-open grid with long answers spilling into long answers spilling into long answers, and nearly every one of those long answers a winner. Seriously, the density of Good-to-Great Marquee Answers is truly impressive. This puzzle definitely has a right to be wearing its "SO FUN!" t-shirt. As for b. (NESTS IN) ... LOL, the non-greatness of that answer is totally offset by the hilarious way in which I misunderstood it. Obviously birds "nest in" trees of various sorts, so the phrase exists, it's just not the most wonderful standalone phrase. The problem today—for me, and perhaps me exclusively—is that I completely misread the "Calls" in [Calls home, as a bird might]. I was thinking of "bird calls" and I was thinking of human beings "calling home" (to say they're going to be a little late, or whatever), so I thought the bird was calling to its home, like ... tweeting in some way where the nestlings (maybe!?!?!) could hear it. So NESTS IN would mean something like "checks in." Like if the local birds are out drinking somewhere and the robin goes "hang on, fellas, I gotta NEST IN or they're gonna wonder what happened to me." So he goes to the bird phone booth or (more likely?) just calls out with some special call that his family back at the nest can understand. It was only after I'd finished the puzzle that I realized that "calls home" means "makes a home in." Very weird human idiom to apply to birds, since birds (probably!!?!?) don't have a "word" for "home." Really got tangled in my ornithological laces there—the long glitch in an otherwise butter-smooth solve.

Pretty easy to get into this one via the short crosses up top. THY (1D: Your of yore) and HATS (2D: They're tipped out of respect) were gimmes. After I put in STD (20A: Part of E.S.T.: Abbr.), both THEFT (4D: It's a steal!) and SALUD (5D: Spanish blessing) seemed plausible, but I left them for a bit and picked up AVON and YEN ... then looked back at the long Acrosses to see what I could see, and, well, I could see "a lot":

All the long Acrosses opened up from there, and what a stack that is. Incredibly vivid and solid group of colloquial phrases, none of them too old-fashioned or too contemporary, every one of them just Goldilocks right. And with no grating crud in the crosses!? Truly this is NO MEAN FEAT (again, I feel like the puzzle knows how good it is and is kinda showing off, but whatever, go off, puzzle, you earned it). And the long Acrosses just keep coming, including a central stunner and a stack down below that's maybe not as loveable as the one up top, but is every bit as original. And once again, the short crosses simply do not buckle. The only thing in this grid that gave even a whiff of crossword arcana was BA'ATH (Old Syrian political party whose name means "resurrection"), and that answer didn't even debut in the NYTXW until 2017. I'd rather never see anything associated with Bashar al-Assad in the puzzle (not a big fan of murderous dictator content!) but again, the rest of the puzzle is so lovely that I'm willing to just write that one off as the cost of doing (glorious) business. 

[28A: Arboreal symbol in Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit"]

Bullets:

• 13A: Rued remark? ("WHAT HAVE I DONE?") — because of "remark," I briefly wrote in "WHAT HAVE I SAID!?," figuring that it was the "remark" that was being rued, instead of (in this case) a remark made by one who has rued their behavior.
• 39A: Figures in a speed trap? (NARCS) — me: "state troopers aren't NARCS!" Later me: "Oh ... speed ... I get it now."
• 38D: Adam's first wife, in Jewish myth (LILITH) — a gimme. Why, I don't know. Just one of those factoids that stuck.
• 3D: Alexandre Dumas's Count de la Fère (ATHOS) — ATHOS, Porthos, Aramis—the Three Musketeers.
• 55A: Term for an ambiguously worded news headline (CRASH BLOSSOM) — not my favorite term, and (thus?) one I have not retained in my brain very well. Needed many crosses to remember it (those crosses came quickly)

• 6D: Big publisher of romance novels (AVON) — helps to be a book collector. My collecting period is earlier than most AVON romances, but I have scores of old AVON paperbacks, and I've spent so much time in used bookstores, and talking with other collectors of various sorts, that AVON was the first thing that sprang to mind when I saw that the answer was four letters.

• 21D: Line running roughly parallel to Interstate 95 (ACELA) — crosswordese to the rescue! The ACELA is a train "line" that runs in the Northeast Corridor between D.C. and Boston.

That's all. See you next time. And best of luck to all my friends and fellow solvers competing at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Stamford, CT today (and tomorrow). I missed the registration announcement back in January and before I knew it, the tourney sold out, so my wife and I won't get the chance to defend our Pairs title this year. So, whoever wins Pairs this year, enjoy it. We're coming for you next year in Philadelphia (the future home of the ever-expanding ACPT)!

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 closed!)

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

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...

Lightweight fabric for a handkerchief / THU 2-12-26 / Heavy metal band whose name is a big cat in Spanish / 7-Eleven competitor on the East Coast / Michael nominated for Oscars in five decades / Sapa ___ ("The only emperor" in Quechua) / Dennis's sister on "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" / Northeastern prep school or its town

Constructor: Kareem Ayas

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (once you get the gimmick, very easy)

THEME: GIVE A HUG / STEAL A KISS (58A: Provide comfort, in a way ... or a hint to the answers to the four starred Across clues / 26D: Quickly smooch ... or a hint to the answers to the four starred Down clues) — you (the solver) have to (mentally) GIVE A HUG (i.e. add an "O") to four Across answers, and STEAL A KISS (i.e. remove on "X") from four Down answers in order to make sense of their clues:

Theme answers:

• D(O) WELL / LATEX (1A: *Succeed (DWELL + "O" = "do well") / 5D: *Behind in payment (LATEX minus "X" = "late") 
• SH(O)UT-OUTS / EXTERNALLY (18A: *Public messages of appreciation (SHUTOUTS + "O" = "shout-outs") / 11D: *Forevermore (EXTERNALLY minus "X" = "eternally")
• CLAM S(O)UP / AXMEN (37A: *New England-style chowder, for one (CLAMS UP + "O" = "clam soup") / 29D: *Word appearing 51 times in the New Testament (AXMEN minus "X" = "Amen")
• FLAMING(O) / MAXIM (54A: *Long-legged wader (FLAMING + "O" = "flamingo") / 52D: *Severely harm (MAXIM minus "X" = "maim")

Word of the Day: BATISTE (47A: Lightweight fabric for a handkerchief) —

[the only BATISTE I know]

A fine cloth made from cotton or linen; cambric. // From French batiste, a form of Baptiste, of disputed origin (“according to Littré and Scheler from the alleged original maker, Baptiste of Cambray; according to others, from its use in wiping the heads of children after baptism” – OED) (Wiktionary via Wordnik)

• • •

My appreciation for this puzzle went up as I started writing the explanation of the theme (above). During the solve, I got the drop-an-"O" / add-an-"X" thing pretty quickly—after that, I had an idea of what to look for, and the only mystery was what the revealer phrase was going to be. When the revealer phrase turned out to be plural—revealer phrases—I was slightly disappointed at first. It makes sense to pair hug and kiss, obviously, and crossing two revealer phrases is pretty impressive, architecturally, but somehow the specific phrases here, GIVE A HUG and STEAL A KISS, belong to such different universes, contextually, that the whole "reveal" moment felt like it clanked. I'm giving comfort ... but then also secretly / furtively / possibly non-consensually kissing someone? The latter has decidedly romantic implications, the former absolutely does not, so the pairing seemed odd. So I closed the puzzle feeling slightly disappointed. But then writing out the theme, and really looking at how it was executed, my appreciation for the craftsmanship involved here began to increase. You're pairing (crossing) X- and O-related answers, you're adding a letter in one direction but taking it away in the other, you end up with perfectly plausible-looking answers in the grid in every case ... that's a lot of balls to keep in the air. Throw in the two revealer phrases and you've got ten (10!) theme answers—do you have any idea how dense that is? How hard it is to fill a grid with this many themers running in both directions? That the grid worked out at all is remarkable. That it came out relatively clean and even vibrant in places (EVEN STEVEN! MOUSETRAPS!) is kind of amazing. I enjoyed discovering the missing "O"s and extra "X"s, and there were very few times along the way where I thought "oof" or "no," so ... yeah, I liked this one, and the more I look at it, the more I like it.

I started out by getting DWELL but not getting DWELL, and then seeing LATE but not understanding why there was an extra square at the end. When EXIT gave me LATEX I thought "OK, we're adding Xs ... what's going on with DWELL?" If you stare at DWELL hard enough, knowing the clue is [*Succeed], DO WELL just pops out. At least it did for me. I feel like my constant diet of cryptic crosswords probably helped, as I'm now very accustomed to mentally cutting up words and rearranging their parts. Lots of training in seeing what's not there and dropping what is. Anyway, the initial struggle to figure out the theme concept was the only real difficulty for me today. That and BATISTE, which ... ?????? My first and only thought there was "the original clue here must have been Jon BATISTE." BATISTE was bandleader and musical director of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert for seven years (2015-22 and was a regular on-screen (and conversational) presence. He has won eight Grammys, including Album of the Year for 2021's We Are. This is all to say that he is more than crossworthy and I would've loved to see him as the clue here instead of this fabric I've never heard of (which is somehow the same as cambric but also not (?!) ... I fell down a bit of a BATISTE rabbit hole and it didn't leave me any fabric-smarter).

[BATISTE being Stephen Colbert's bandleader *and* crossing "EVEN STEVEN" ... would've been good, I'm just saying...]

While I liked the puzzle overall, there were some moments that were less than pleasant. LISTEE hurt my ears and made my shoulders tense up (4D: Directory name). A "directory name" is a LISTING. Yes it is. You know it is. I'm sure LISTEE's lawyers have prepared a good case but overruled, contempt of court, this whole courtroom is out of order, case dismissed. Actually, looking over the grid, the only other part that made me holler "no!" (silently, in my head) was GRAS because they decided to go the force-fed geese route instead of the simple (and *timely*) Mardi GRAS route. Always choose the festive parade over the animal torture. I also will always hate TE-HEE, spelled thusly. I just can't accept the "TE"—the two parts rhyme, so the two parts should look the same. It's TEE + HEE. See also TEPEE. But otherwise, nothing UNHOLY about this grid at all. Again, given the theme density, it's remarkably solid.

Bullets:

• 20A: Heavy metal band whose name is a big cat in Spanish (PANTERA) — maybe the thinking behind the BATISTE clue was "well, we've already used one long musical name that's' not exactly universally famous, maybe we shouldn't do it twice." Both PANTERA and BATISTE have multiple Grammy nominations. But BATISTE can (apparently!) be clued in a non-musical way, whereas PANTERA cannot*, so PANTERA stays a musical act and BATISTE gets changed. Boo. Side note: PANTERA would be a great answer for anyone working on some kind of "add-a-T" theme. PANERA + "T" = PANTERA. [*update: there is an automotive PANTERA, it turns out]

• 2D: 7-Eleven competitor on the East Coast (WAWA) — I live in the NE but not on the "East Coast," so there are actually no WAWAs in my vicinity. But I am aware of their existence, and I'm very aware that WAWA was very recently in the puzzle (Jan. 20, 2026), so I dropped WAWA next to DROP no problem.
• 3D: Tree of knowledge locale (EDEN) — I always think of it as the "Tree of the knowledge of good and evil," because that's what it's called, but this is good enough I guess. Sh(o)ut-outs to all the Paradise Lost fans out there.
• 29A: *Word appearing 51 times in the New Testament (AXMEN) — this is my favorite theme answer. Not the base answer ("Amen") but the actual "X"-added answer. I just love the idea of the New Testament being really into guitar players. "And Jesus shreddeth for the masses, and it was good."

[skip to 3:30 if you want to see God's Own Axman at work]

• 33D: Lunch item usually eaten with two hands, in brief (BLT) — [citation needed]
• 41D: Michael nominated for Oscars in five decades (CAINE) — had the "C" and thought "ooh, it's Michael CERA + an 'X' ... somehow. So, what would that make? CERAX? CEXAR? Why can't I make a word? Wait a minute ... Michael CERA hasn't even been alive for five decades, what the hell? Oh, crap, this isn't even a themer. So ... right, Michael CAINE. Yes, that's much better."
• 58D: Unpleasant discovery under a desk (GUM) — first of all, if I left the GUM there for later, then my "discovery" is not "unpleasant" at all, thank you very much. Second, I had G-M here and for a split second definitely thought GAM. "Why would that be unpleasant? Who doesn't like GAMs!?" In my defense, you can definitely find GAMs "under a desk"—you might get hauled into HR for inappropriate workplace behavior if you actively go hunting for them, but trust me, they're there. Sometimes.

[gams, seen here not under a desk]

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 closed!)

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

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...

Secret identity of Don Diego de la Vega / WED 12-10-25 / Final boss in the game God of War / Rapper who co-starred in 1994's "Above the Rim" / Several things in a pagoda / Ax, so to speak / First name in daring jumps / Iconic repeated Keanu Reeves role / "Community" character played by Donald Glover / Performer of the 1992 dance song "Supermodel (You Better Work)"

Constructor: Kareem Ayas

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: UNDER REPAIR (28D: Status of 23-, 44- and 69-Across, as indicated by their clues and placement in the grid) — the answers are things that are UNDER REPAIR in two senses: they are in need of fixing (indicated by their warning sign-like clues), and they are under a pair of "RE"s (in shaded squares):

Theme answers:

• PRERECORDED (19A: Like voice mail messages, for example)
•  PRINTER (23A: OUT OF ORDER! 🚫🚫🚫 PAPER TRAY REQUIRES MAINTENANCE!)

•  NATURERESERVE (42A: Protected lands for plants and animals)
• ESCALATOR (44A: OUT OF ORDER! 🚫🚫🚫 USE STAIRS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!)

• ROSESARERED (63A: Love poem opener)
•      TOILET (69A: OUT OF ORDER! 🚫🚫🚫 USE SECOND-FLOOR BATHROOM INSTEAD!

Word of the Day: pagoda (34D: Several things in a pagoda => TIERS) —

A pagoda is a tiered tower with multiple eaves, common in Tibet, Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist, but sometimes Taoist or Hindu, and were often in or near viharas. The pagoda traces its origins to the stupa, while its design was developed in ancient India.^[1] Chinese pagodas (Chinese: 塔; pinyin: Tǎ) are a traditional part of Chinese architecture. In addition to religious use, since ancient times Chinese pagodas have been valued for the spectacular views they offer, and many classical poems attest to the joy of scaling pagodas. (wikipedia)

• • •

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

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

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

[conferring w/ my editor]

Over the years, I have received all kinds of advice about "monetizing" the blog, invitations to turn it into a subscription-type deal à la Substack or Patreon. And maybe I'd make more money that way, I don't know, but that sort of thing has never felt right for me. And honestly, does anyone really need yet another subscription to manage? As I've said in years past, I like being out here on this super old-school blogging platform, just giving it away for free and relying on conscientious addicts like yourselves to pay me what you think the blog's worth. It's just nicer that way. How much should you give? Whatever you think the blog is worth to you on a yearly basis. Whatever that amount is is fantastic. Some people refuse to pay for what they can get for free. Others just don't have money to spare. All are welcome to read the blog—the site will always be open and free. But if you are able to express your appreciation monetarily, here are three options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar on the homepage, as well as at the bottom of every write-up):

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

Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905

The third, increasingly popular option is Venmo; if that's your preferred way of moving money around, my handle is @MichaelDavidSharp (the last four digits of my phone are 4878, in case Venmo asks you, which I guess it does sometimes, when it's not trying to push crypto on you, what the hell?!)

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

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

Please note: I don't keep a "mailing list" and don't share my contributor info with anyone. And if you give by snail mail and (for some reason) don't want a thank-you card, just indicate "NO CARD." 

Again, as ever, I'm so grateful for your readership. Please know that your support means a lot to me and my family. Now on to today's puzzle... 

• • •

That was a long way to go for that revealer joke. For me, too long. I can admire the construction of this puzzle while also being frank about the fact that most of the solve was not very enjoyable to me, both because the fill was generally below average (not surprising given the structural demands of the theme), and because staring at RERE after RERE without having any idea why was just unpleasant. Shaded nonsense ... not my idea of a good time. Yes, the revealer explains the RERE perfectly well. But a pair of "RE"s, as a visual element, is just plain ugly to my eyes. The first RERE made me think I had a mistake ("why would you put gibberish like that in shaded squares?"). The second RERE made me realize the first RERE was right and the puzzle was just doing some mysterious, elaborate bit. The second RERE also made the third RERE self-evident—I just filled those remaining shaded squares in and the whole answer there was instantly clear:

So I solved this exactly as it was designed to be solved—all the RERE business and then ... the Big Reveal! I was grateful for that revealer—the whole puzzle is dependent on it, as there is nearly no pleasure to be had before it or without it. So, your enjoyment of this puzzle will probably ride on how much of a pleasure burst you got from the revealer. For me, it merely explained what was going on and pulled the puzzle back from "bad" to "just fine." I don't know that the rickety build-up was worth the finale. But I do think it's a creative and ambitious theme. Ambivalence! That's the real word of the day.

The fill started creaking real early, with the resurrected corpse of EVEL Knievel jumping into the grid right up top and the resurrected corpse of PEI joining him soon after—two crosswordese icons of yore, linked together by ... EVENER 🙁 I'm pretty sure I uttered many actual UHS today (including when I got the answer UHS). There's just a giant angry swirl of green ink on my puzzle print-out around the entire section that extends above and below RICE PADDY. The ugliness arguably stretches all the way to the bottom of the grid (down where ARLO DTS URSA live), but it's densest there around RICE PADDY, with ATMS MCS SEEDER DOER AVEC PROSIT SRI congealing into an unappetizing mass. As I said above, I know why the theme buckles like this—you don't have three themers today, you have six, and they come as conjoined pairs, and that much fixed theme material would be very, very hard to build a clean grid around. You too would find yourself resorting to clumps of ECO CFO NSFW and the like. The puzzle does manage to get off a couple of longer colorful answers, specifically RUPAUL strutting with VEGGIE BACON (PETA would be so happy). But overall, wading through this puzzle was often somewhat tedious (if not particularly difficult).

[Performer of the 1992 dance song "Supermodel (You Better Work)"]

I had trouble primarily with small stuff today. Stuff like END, what the hell is with that clue? (12D: Ax, so to speak). Is this like a program that you "END"—so "END" as in "cut"? And "Ax" as in "cut"? Is that it? OK. Not natural synonyms to my ear, but defensible, I guess. I thought the thunderbolt wielder was THOR (11A: Thunder bolt wielder => ZEUS). I forgot that the [Secret identity of Don Diego de la Vega] was ZORRO and thought maybe EL CID. I was convinced that Donald Glover played a TREY on Community (58D: "Community" character played by Donald Glover), which made the TOILET hard to find for a bit. No idea if the N.F.L. linemen were DTS (defensive tackles) or DES (defensive ends) (although DES is never clued that way, which I should've realized). Forgot there was a Matrix character called ORACLE. Two Matrix characters in this grid why?? There was a niche-iness to the pop culture answers that grated a little. Community character, "final boss" of some video game, multiple Matrix characters ... none of these had to be pop culturey at all. I think once or twice you can steer regular words and phrases into pop cultural territory if that floats your boat, but doing it again and again = 🚫🚫🚫.

Bullets:

• 29D: Trampoline mats (BEDS) — as with END, I just stared at this answer wondering "really?" Are the mats beside the trampoline? For when you ... dismount? Or in case you fall off. Because I've never seen a mat *on* a trampoline. This illustration says the thing you actually jump on is called a "jumping mat"—is that the BED? Words can't express how uninterested I am in trampolines.

• 33A: Green dispensaries? (ATMS) — I think this wants to be a (marijuana) dispensary joke, but if ATMS wants to hide from me, it's going to have to do a way better job than this.
• 34D: Several things in a pagoda (TIERS) — big vocabulary fail today. I looked at "pagoda" and all I could see in my mind's eye was one of those wooden structures ... you see them in backyards and parks ... open on the sides, covered, maybe domed? ... eventually I realized that my brain was stuck somewhere between "pergola" and "gazebo" (the latter of which was the more elusive of the pair—I literally googled "small covered structure in garden or park" in order to jog "gazebo" loose from my brain, ugh. Anyway, most gardens and parks don't have pagodas.

[not a pagoda]

• 56A: Hole in the wall (RAT TRAP) — "Hole in the wall" suggests somewhere out of the way, undiscovered. "A small, very modest, often out-of-the-way place," says American Heritage Dictionary. Nothing in there about ****ing rats!? RAT TRAP is intensively negative in a way that "Hole in the wall" just isn't. I might eat at a hole in the wall. A RAT TRAP ... probably not.

That's all. See you next time. Remember, my annual 🌲🐈Holiday Pet Pics🐕🌲 extravaganza starts tomorrow, so if you want your pet to be part of the parade (which will likely extend into the new year), get that photo to me today (rexparker at icloud dot com). Many of the photos are memorial photos, which adds to the poignancy of the whole endeavor. Please feel free to send me holiday pics of your recently deceased buddies. Like Miley here, who died just after the holidays last year. What a sweetie. I miss her and I didn't even know her. 

[Thanks, Michael and Lisa!]

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...