She played Serena on "Gossip Girl" / MON 3-17-25 / Chile de ___ (very spicy pepper) / Rapper ___ Cat / "S.N.L." regular who played Gemma and Cathy Anne / Chaney who played Quasimodo

Constructor: Kathy Lowden

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (solved Downs-only)

THEME: GIRL POWER (63A: Slogan that celebrates a young woman's confidence and independence ... or a hint to 17-, 24-, 40-/41- and 49-Across) — theme answers are "girls" (that is, women) whose last names are vaguely positive adjectives ("powers"?): 

Theme answers:

• JEAN SMART (17A: Emmy-winning actress for "Hacks")
• TAYLOR SWIFT (24A: Only person in the arts ever to be named Time's Person of the Year)
• CECILY / STRONG (40A: With 41-Across, former "S.N.L." regular who played Gemma and Cathy Anne)
• BLAKE LIVELY (49A: She played Serena on "Gossip Girl")

Word of the Day: LON Chaney (65D: Chaney who played Quasimodo) —

 

Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney (April 1, 1883 – August 26, 1930) was an American actor and makeup artist. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted, characters and for his groundbreaking artistry with makeup. Chaney was known for his starring roles in such silent horror films as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925). His ability to transform himself using makeup techniques that he developed earned him the nickname "The Man of a Thousand Faces". (wikipedia)

• • •

Ah, a pop culture name-based theme, I'm sure it will be beloved by all. Just kidding, I know that a good portion of the solving population will not care for it, largely because I guarantee you a good portion of the solving population doesn't really know who CECILY STRONG *or* BLAKE LIVELY is. I know, I know, they're pretty dang famous, but their generational reach doesn't really ... reach far above Millennials. I knew all these women's names, but I had stopped watching SNL by the time Strong was on, so I can only kinda sorta identify her, and BLAKE LIVELY, LOL, I had to ask my students last semester "Why is BLAKE LIVELY famous?" I kept hearing the name, and she was in a movie that was out last fall and I could tell she was a "star" but I had no idea why. Gossip Girl, you say? Well, that's why I missed her. Never seen a single episode (I was a ~40yo man when that show aired—not exactly the demo). If you know today's names, then this puzzle probably played like a regular old easy Monday, and if not, well, not. The first two names are unimpeachable. JEAN SMART is a decorated veteran of TV shows going back at least thirty-five years. I first saw her in Designing Women. (late '80s / early '90s). And now I watch her in Hacks, which is fantastic. As for TAYLOR SWIFT, anyone famous enough to be Time's Person of the Year is famous enough to be in a Monday puzzle, for sure. But fame aside, how does the theme hold up? I dunno. So-so. Does the phrase GIRL POWER really mean what the clue says it does? That definition seemed made up on the spot. Seems like GIRL POWER might mean whatever you wanted it to mean, depending on context. Also, JEAN SMART is not a "girl," not a "young woman" by any stretch, so GIRL POWER (esp. as clued) seems an odd fit for her. And is an adjective really a "power"? You've got a coherent set here (women whose last names are adjectives), but I don't think GIRL POWER really hits the mark as a revealer.

Also, don't love when there are non-theme Acrosses that are as long or longer than the theme Answers (when those also run Across), so THOUSANDS and BITES INTO are a distraction, in a way they wouldn't be if they were Downs. They create visual interference. They're not breaking any law, I just don't like them, aesthetically. Long non-theme answers are better off running perpendicular to theme answers. There are only a handful of Downs longer than five letters today. Four, in fact. And those provided the only real drama in my Downs-only solve. Up top, no problem, but down below, I couldn't get either 7-letter Down to drop at first, largely because I couldn't / wouldn't guess what --TESINTO was supposed to be (43A: Reduces, as profits). I guess BITES is the only good guess there, but I needed confirmation and wasn't getting it. And since I don't know the Greek alphabet's order, I didn't know RHO (64D: Letter after pi), which means I didn't have the first three letters of the revealer. I also had YES instead of YUP at 53D: "Uh-huh", which made seeing GIRL POWER even harder. I had LODE at 57D: Vein of ore, but then retracted it and put in SEAM when I couldn't make anything out of that SE corner. Finally, I put LODE back in and tried YUP instead of YES, which allowed me to see POWER, which (after I'd looked back at the theme answers and what they had in common) helped me get to infer GIRL POWER. That "G" and "I," coupled with my finally committing to BITES INTO, helped me get INVOICE and BRING ON, and that was that.

Bullets:

• 19A: Chile de ___ (very spicy pepper) (ARBOL) — and here I thought BLAKE LIVELY was maybe a little unfamiliar for a Monday. By comparison, ARBOL is a rank obscurity. Never heard of it. It appears to have appeared twice before, on a Sunday and Saturday, respectively, both times back in 2012. And now it reemerges ... on a Monday? If you know you're making a Monday-level puzzle, you kind of have an obligation to make your fill not only smooth, but also familiar. More familiar than this. No excuse for ARBOL here. That corner can be quickly and cleanly filled a bunch of ways. Much more user-friendly and familiar ways.
• 1D: Rapper ___ Cat (DOJA) — only her second appearance, but she already feels like a crossword regular to me. I must be seeing her in other, non-NYTXW puzzles. Four letters, half vowels, oddly-placed "J" ... you can see how this name might, occasionally, come in handy when you're filling a grid, specifically when you're filling your way around a (fixed) "J." If DÉJÀ is reasonably prevalent (37 appearances in the Shortz Era), then you can see how DOJA might proliferate. If you "don't like rappers" in your crossword, oh well, too bad. Just learn DOJA Cat now and spare yourself a lot of pain later. (sidenote: DÉJÀ is a rare bit of crosswordese—a four-letter foreign partial (!?)—that somehow increased in prevalence under Shortz, though we're really just talking about a couple of strangely anomalous years. What the hell were constructors doing in 2019? Seven DÉJÀs? We won't see the likes of that again ... or we will ... in which case ... it'll be like ...)

[xwordinfo]

• 49D: Sired (BEGOT) — someone besides me must've written in BEGAT here, right? What the heck is the difference??? Oh here, let's see, this first hit on my [begat v begot] search will surely be helpful. OK, first sentence: "As verbs the difference between begat and begot is that begat is simple past of beget while begot is simple past of beget." I do love a clear explanation. Clean, succinct. Mwah! Chef's kiss! Thank you ... [squints] ...  Wikidiff.com. Your definitional skills are unrivaled. God bless you and the A.I. that powers you. Truly, the future of our informational ecosystem looks bright with you leading the way.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]

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Polynesian drink with psychoactive effects / TUE 12-17-24 / Siberian herding dog / Self-care company founded by Gwyneth Paltrow / Snide comment about a collectible figurine? / ___ Drogo, "Game of Thrones" role for Jason Momoa / Pharmacy product that's commonly chocolate-flavored / Kerfuffle over beach footwear? / Leftmost image in the iconic illustration "The March of Progress"

Constructor: Kathy Lowden

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: vowel change — wacky three-part answers where the only thing different about each of the three parts is the vowel:

Theme answers:

• KNICK-KNACK KNOCK (17A: Snide comment about a collectible figurine?)
• FLIP-FLOP FLAP (26A: Kerfuffle over beach footwear?)
• PING-PONG PANG (48A: Feeling of guilt after cheating at table tennis?)
• DILLY-DALLY DOLLY (63A: Singer Parton when she's aimlessly wasting time?)

Word of the Day: "The March of Progress" (51A: Leftmost image in the iconic illustration "The March of Progress") —

The March of Progress, originally titled The Road to Homo Sapiens, is an illustration that presents 25 million years of human evolution. It was created for the Early Man volume of the Life Nature Library, published in 1965, and drawn by the artist Rudolph Zallinger. It has been widely parodied and imitated to create images of progress of other kinds.

• • •

Short write-up today (he said, hopefully), not because of any time pressures on my end, but because I don't think there's much to say about this, except that it's depressingly bland. Overly simple and quaint in a way that might've passed for entertaining some last century, but that feels bland and a little corny now. The old-fashionedness of the theme is echoed in the fill, which can barely be bothered to do anything but sit there, taking up space. One of the blandest grids I've seen in a long time, absolute chock full of short answers. Nothing but 4s as far as the eye can see. And you just can't do much with 4s. Yes, there are 3s and 5s as well, but does that really change the point I'm making here. It does not. If anything, it reinforces it. You've got a remarkably stale and listless grid, with no answers (nothing, zip, zero) over seven letters long outside the themers, and only two sevens—everything else is six or shorter. And one of those sevens is wasted on ALKALIS? This grid really needed a clean, entertaining, bouncy, original grid to make up for the soft groaniness of the under-wacky themers, but it does not rise to the challenge. Not even close. That SAMOYED is doing a lot of work today, as he is the only answer in the grid really doing his part to keep people happy and entertained. Good boy. Give that dog a T-BONE.

With the puzzle practically all fours, that means you get a lot of four-letter names, one of which was the only thing in the grid to slow me down today. I remain a Game of Thrones non-watcher, so KHAL was unknown or forgotten by me today (18D: ___ Drogo, "Game of Thrones" role for Jason Momoa). Have I seen it in the grid before? Really seems like the kind of name someone would've forced on the grid a long time ago. New 4s are hard to come by. Yep, it's been (almost) exactly one year since KHAL's debut (and only other appearance). I had KHA- and of course wanted KHAN but decided (wisely) to wait for the crosses. Whereas AMAL I knew and IGOR I knew and LARA I knew (though I never saw the clue, so easily did all the answers fill themselves in down there). This puzzle is actually fairly light on names, which is one thing to its credit. I just wish there were more credits. Mostly this puzzle just BAAED (a herd of indistinguishable answers all making the same sad noise ... and then a SAMOYED trying to keep the herd in line; honestly, that dog should really be getting overtime). 

Assorted points of interest:

• 10A: Polynesian drink with psychoactive effects (KAVA) — CAVA ("[Drink similar to champagne]") was my Word of the Day just four days ago. I had never heard of CAVA, but I had heard of KAVA, which is the drink we get today. With today's appearance, KAVA pulls ahead of CAVA in the Race for -AVA Beverage Crossword Supremacy. Except most of those CAVAs are "Vena CAVA"s. And JAVA is probably more popular than either of these -AVAs. Oh yeah, fifty appearances in the Modern Era, as opposed to just eleven for KAVA and ten for CAVA. Mario BAVA directed Blood and Black Lace. Gregory NAVA directed El Norte. This is how I'm entertaining myself today, imagining the -AVA canon.

["Wash your hands, Roger, you ****ing slob!"]

• 33A: It's "a good walk spoiled," per Mark Twain (GOLF) — this line is about the only thing in the puzzle (besides SAMOYED) that I enjoyed. 
• 44A: Planet whose name makes middle schoolers laugh (URANUS) — don't put this on middle-schoolers. Grown-ass adults (including the people responsible for this clue) can't deal with this planet's name straight-faced either.
• 33D: Self-care company founded by Gwyneth Paltrow (GOOP) — all pseudoscience purveyors seem evil to me right now, so this answer: unwelcome. Also, RFK, Jr. is a moron and a psychopath.
• 54D: Pharmacy product that's commonly chocolate-flavored (EXLAX) — were the "X"s worth it? (they were not). I understand wanting to zazz up this grid a little, but there has to be a better way. A cleaner way. An ... easier way to go. I wanted this grid to go places, but the toilet was not one of them. Weird that you can put EXLAX in the grid but not ENEMA (famously). I just saw ENEMA, actually, in a cryptic crossword I was solving, and thought "wow, rules are really different here." I'm all for loosening the "Breakfast Test" rule, but I would only resort to poop-oriented fill if I *had to* (and you absolutely don't have to today—EXLAX isn't there in support of other good fill, it's just ... there)

["ENEMA … talk about great letters!"]

• 64D: "A little ___'ll do ya!" (Brylcreem slogan) ("DAB") — DAB'LL (5) has appeared in the NYTXW exactly once. An absurd but courageous short answer. I admire it. This puzzle could use something so bold. DAB, eh, it's fine. But DAB'LL, that'll grab(ble) ya! BRYLCREEM has also appeared in the NYTXW exactly once, in a (vintage) Lynn Lempel Tuesday puzzle back in '09. If you want to see what a Tuesday theme can be, go look at that puzzle (also, check out the comments section, where the first four comments are "I disagree with Rex," "I agree with Rex," "I disagree with Rex," "I agree with Rex" ... as I say, vintage!

Holiday Pet Pics now! (Note: Please, no more pics this year—submissions are closed; my Inbox is flooded as it is—thanks for understanding!)

Dogs are not good Christmas gifts unless the whole household has really had a discussion about getting a dog and the work it would entail. Also, if you do decide to give a dog as a gift, Chloe would like to suggest that shoving it in a Christmas stocking is maybe not the ideal method of presentation (here she is in a "Dog Beds, Not Stockings" PSA)

[Thanks, Leroy]

Fiona says her nose is plenty bright, tell that Rudolph guy he's fired and let's go!

[Thanks, Matt]

Lola will dutifully pose for your Christmas card photo, but you should know that her treat rate has doubled this year. She's good at what she does and she knows it, pay her. 

[Thanks, Mimi]

Astrolabe says "I too pose good. Treats when?"

[Thanks, Rebecca]

Chai isn't even here, you didn't see anything, go back to your nog, human

[Thanks, Mark]

Finally, Mr. Bumble has an important message for you all

[Thanks, Daniel]

More tomorrow. See you then.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]

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Titular film character who lives in a swamp / TUES 10-29-24 / Name shared by two of King Henry VIII's wives / Sitcom extraterrestrial / "Of course!," in Spanish

Hello, everyone, it’s Clare for the last Tuesday of Spooktober! Hope everyone has been having a good spooky season and enjoys their Halloweek. The weather has been getting a bit chillier here in D.C., leading me to break out my ear warmers and thicker gloves so I can bike when it’s in the 30s. (Though it might be 80 degrees the next day, so that’s… fun.) I watched my Steelers win (!!!) as I did this write-up. They had me stressed until the end, but they pulled it off and managed to extend their streak of winning home games on Monday Night Football to a truly crazy 22 games. 

Anywho, on to the puzzle...

Constructor: Kathy Lowden

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: Rhyming expressions describing an amount of something

Theme answers:

• DOZENS OF COUSINS (17A: Whole bunch at a family reunion?) 
• SCORES OF DRAWERS (25A: Large array for a desk?) 
• OODLES OF POODLES (46A: Big group in a dog show?) 
• OCEANS OF POTIONS (61A: Massive collection for an alchemist?)

Word of the Day: PIPPIN (49D: Broadway musical about the son of Charlemagne) —

Pippin is a 1972 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Roger O. Hirson. Bob Fosse, who directed the original Broadway production, also contributed to the libretto. The musical uses the premise of a mysterious performance troupe, led by the Leading Player, to tell the story of Pippin, a young prince on his search for meaning and significance. The 'fourth wall' is broken numerous times during most traditional productions. (Wiki)

• • •

Meh. 

I suppose the theme was cute, and the construction seems impressive because the theme answers cross the entire puzzle. But it felt like the rest of the puzzle was sacrificed to make this rhyming scheme work, and I couldn’t muster more than a shrug when I realized what the theme was doing. Usually, if there’s a gimmick like this with the theme answers, without a revealer, there’s a payoff elsewhere, like with long downs or interesting clues or something. Instead, we got a lot of crosswordese and then didn’t get many fun answers. The construction meant the longest non-theme answer was seven letters, and I didn’t particularly love either of those answers. 

My favorite of the non-themers would have to be LIZARD brain (47D: (source of our primal instincts, it's said)), and BLOTTO (6D: Drunk as a skunk) is a good one. On the other hand, I hated PEP BAND (39A: Performing group at a homecoming game) (even if it’s apparently a thing, according to Wikipedia). I didn’t understand the three clues/answers revolving around numbers (14A, 42A, and 18D) and why they were done like that (Spanish, French, and Italian, with seemingly no rhyme or reason as to why). 24D: Rear end, in London's West End is a weirdly specific clue with a rhyme scheme all to tee up the word ARSE. BZZT (3D: [Wrong answer!]) strikes me as a particularly ugly word and not a common way of describing a buzzer. And that’s not to be confused with PSST (60D: Vowelless attention-getter), which also made an appearance. We even had THAT (10A: "I'll drink to ___!") as an answer, which I think sums up the boring fill. 

I swear I’m in a better mood than I seem to be as I describe this puzzle! I mean, my Steelers are 6-2 going into their bye week. I just don’t think the theme was cute or clever enough to justify the rest of the puzzle falling somewhat flat.

Misc.:

• ANNE Boleyn and ANNE of Cleves (12D: Name shared by two of King Henry VIII's wives) — I solved this clue/answer especially quickly because I’ve listened to (and hope to one day see!) the musical “Six,” which is an absolutely incredible telling of history that shows the depth to each of the six women who happened to be married to Henry VIII. (Henry VII was also married to three Catherines — Catherine of Aragon, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr — only one of whom was executed!) 
• MII (35A: Customizable Nintendo avatar) reminds me of the many, many hours I spent playing the Wii growing up. I was especially good at Wii tennis. And then the heading-the-soccer-ball one (once Wii Fit came out). But, then again, there was the time I was trying to smack a ball on a par five while playing Wii golf, and the little wristbands weren’t especially well made at the time, so the controller slipped out of my hand, and I… broke my aunt’s TV. Oooops! 
• I may not have DOZENS OF COUSINS (17A), but my dad is one of eight kids, so I have 15 just on his side of the family. We have a family reunion every other year on the New Jersey shore, and there are so many people we once had to charter a bus to get somewhere. And our family keeps growing, too, as my cousins keep getting married and having kids! 
• I took ECON (48D: Supply-and-demand subj.) in college (as a history major), and basically the only thing I remember was the supply and demand curves we had to draw and analyze. 
•  “Agatha All Along” is my favorite TV SHOW (10D) right now and has a character who’s a SEER (4D: Oracle) — and she’s played by Patti LuPone. (Yes, it’s a tenuous connection, but I wanted to talk about this show.) It’s absolutely incredible, and I highly recommend it! The premise is a coven of witches who have to walk a dangerous road together to each get what they most desire at the end (if they make it). 

And that’s all from me! See you all in November.

Signed, Clare Carroll, a not-so-spooked (right now) Steelers fan

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Musical interval used to convey sadness / TUE 10-31-23 / 2011 dark-comedy slasher film that takes place during a family reunion / Upper Manhattan neighborhood also known as El Barrio / Catchy-yet-quirky music genre / 2018 slasher film set at a remote lake house

Constructor: Kathy Lowden and Erik Piepenburg

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (**for a Tuesday**) 

THEME: horror films — I think maybe, collectively, they're supposed to be telling some kind of story, or issuing some kind of warning (???), but basically it's just a bunch of horror films:

Theme answers:

• HALLOWEEN (17A: Horror film franchise named after a holiday)
• HE'S OUT THERE (24A: 2018 slasher film set at a remote lake house)
• SCREAM (34A: Horror franchise with the antagonist Ghostface)
• GET OUT (41A: 2017 horror film that won Best Original Screenplay)
• DON'T LOOK NOW (47A: 1973 horror film starring Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland)
• YOU'RE NEXT (60A: 2011 dark-comedy slasher film that takes place during a family reunion)

Word of the Day: MINOR THIRD (30D: Musical interval used to convey sadness) —

In classical music, a third is a musical interval encompassing three staff positions (see Interval number for more details), and the major third [...] is a third spanning four semitones. Along with the minor third, the major third is one of two commonly occurring thirds. It is qualified as major because it is the larger of the two: the major third spans four semitones; the minor third, three. [...] The minor third is commonly used to express sadness in music, and research shows that this mirrors its use in speech, as a tone similar to a minor third is produced during sad speech. (wikipedia)

• • •

Coincidentally, I watched a horror movie last night. It was called Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006), and actually it was more meta-horror than real horror—a horror movie posing as a documentary about horror movies, wherein a film crew follows a Michael Myers / Freddie Kruger wannabe around as he prepares for a big night of slashing. It was clever and kinda funny and not at all horrifying. It featured direct references to HALLOWEEN and clearly owed a lot to SCREAM's knowing use of horror movie conventions. Anyway, horror films were on my mind. And then I solved this puzzle, and ... here are some more of them. I don't really get the concept here, beyond merely listing horror films. I guess if I squint and am generous, I can see the titles, collectively and sequentially, as a kind of spooky story, especially those last two ("Don't look now ... you're next!"). Weirdly, SCREAM kind of interrupts the flow, as the other titles (following HALLOWEEN) are all complete sentences and/or commands. Maybe SCREAM is a sound effect. I don't know. I also don't know what the hell HE'S OUT THERE and YOU'RE NEXT are. Literally the first I'm hearing of them, right now, right this second. YOU'RE NEXT has a "cult following" (acc. to wikipedia). It made money and got reasonable reviews. But it's not in the league of these other movies, fame-wise or any-wise ... except for HE'S OUT THERE. YOU'RE NEXT looks like HALLOWEEN next to HE'S OUT THERE. I see that HE'S OUT THERE ... came out. I recognize none of the names associated with it. There's no box office information on its wikipedia page. The shoehorning of this obscurity into a theme with such otherwise well-established horror movies is jarring. Bizarre. 

Also, great as DON'T LOOK NOW is, it feels like an outlier in this set. Not part of the modern horror-verse the way these other films are. It's generally described as a thriller. It's set in Venice. There's a serial killer subplot, but it's mainly a film about profound grief (with one very famous sex scene thrown in for good measure). In so many ways, this movie is not like the others. But then I love it so much that I don't mind its standing out a bit. It's the mere listiness of the theme, and the dubious fame of two of the themers, that are the real problem here. I thought last Tuesday's Halloween-themed puzzle was the stronger effort.

Three OUTs is a lot of OUTs. I'll give you two of those OUTs because they're actually in the titles of your theme answers, but you cannot have any more OUTs. ASKS OUT? Bzzzt! No. Violation. Also a violation? A lot of the fill in this grid. There's just no reason for stuff like ACHT and NRA and ANAL in those relatively undemanding corners. Hey, wanna see a trick? Watch me make an NRA disappear!

And holy cow, AMAH!?!!? (51A: Asian nursemaid). There's a blast from the past. Crosswordese of the highest order. Hasn't appeared in the NYTXW in four years. I see AMAH brought fellow old-timer ELOI along as a date, nice. Then there's ATS and ATAN ... in addition to being gunky, these answers conspicuously duplicate "AT." I still don't believe ALT POP is a thing (Indie Pop yes, ALT POP meh) (33D: Catchy-yet-quirky music genre). The fill really suffered all over today. The longer Downs are at least interesting. I found both of them kinda hard. Didn't know EAST HARLEM was a discrete place (distinct from, say, other parts of Harlem) (10D: Upper Manhattan neighborhood also known as El Barrio) and my knowledge of music theory is limited, so MINOR THIRD, while a term I've heard, didn't come quickly (30D: Musical interval used to convey sadness). I wanted MINOR CHORD, I think. But my ignorance doesn't matter here—what matters is that those longer answers are unusual and interesting, and they give the grid a much-needed boost.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Pale pink vineyard offerings / MON 8-8-22 / Boater or bowler / Wipe out big-time / Rap's Lil __ X

Hello, everyone! It’s Clare filling in for Rex. Hope everyone had a great month of July and found ways to stay nice and cool. D.C. has been 90-plus degrees and humid basically every day, which is… fun…. I played in a charity kickball tournament yesterday and felt like I was going to die of heat stroke (that’s only a slight exaggeration), and on top of that, I’m super sore today! Still, it wasn’t all doom and gloom around here because the Premier League was back this weekend! And because my cousins and I had a “Lord of the Rings” movie marathon yesterday (extended-cut versions), which took about 14 hours and went until the wee hours of the morning. 

Anywho, on to the puzzle!

Constructor: Kathy Lowden

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: MAKEUP (50D: Reconcile after a quarrel … … or a hint to the starts of 17-, 25-, 52- and 61-Across) — The first word of each theme answer is an item of makeup.

Theme answers:

• BLUSH WINES (17A: Pale pink vineyard offerings) 
• SHADOW BOX (25A Practice punches with an imaginary opponent) 
• POWDER KEG (52A: Barrel of explosive stuff, or a situation that's ready to blow) 
• LINER NOTES (61A: Writings on an album sleeve or jewel case insert)

Word of the Day: SALK (40D: Vaccine pioneer Jonas)) —

Jonas Edward Salk (October 28, 1914 – June 23, 1995) was an American virologist and medical researcher who developed one of the first successful polio vaccines. He was born in New York City and attended the City College of New York and New York University School of Medicine. In 1947, Salk accepted a professorship in the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. It was there that he undertook a project to determine the number of different types of poliovirus, starting in 1948. For the next seven years, Salk devoted himself toward developing a vaccine against polio. (Wiki)

• • •

This was one of the easier Mondays I’ve done in a while. The MAKEUP theme was nice, and I felt I had a slight leg up as someone who does indeed wear MAKEUP. Now, the theme doesn’t entirely work because, well, I’ve only ever referred to it (or heard it referred to) as “eye shadow,” not just SHADOW, or LINER — it would be “lip liner” or “eyeliner” or something like that. I also thought the revealer was in a slightly weird place at 50D. Usually, if the theme is just a single word, it’ll be the last across or maybe the last down; but the second-to-last down? 

In all, I felt the puzzle was pleasant. The fill was a bit uninspired, but it also wasn’t bad. The solve went so quickly that I felt like I didn’t even have time to process some of the clues/answers, and it’s only when I went back that I developed both an appreciation for some answers and a meh feeling for others. On that note, I didn’t like ART I (26D) or IF I (62D). A SEC (21A) is also pretty ugly. 38D: "The way I see it," to texters could’ve been IMHO or just “imo.” There were both ODE (63D: Poem of praise) and ODD (44A: Quirky) in the puzzle. A lot of it felt crosswordese-y (crossword-easy?). There was also a strong religious current, with PRIEST (6D: One officiating at communion or hearing confession), DEACON (27D: Subordinate of a 6-Down), VESPER (34D: Evening prayer), and LOT (61D: Biblical fellow with a salty wife?) all in the puzzle. 

From a tweet, I was clued into the fact that LAPP (37D: Reindeer herder of Scandinavia) is considered a slur by some people. A Wikipedia entry says, “The Sámi have historically been known in English as Lapps or Laplanders, but these terms are regarded as offensive by the Sámi, who prefer the area's name in their own languages, e.g. Northern Sámi Sápmi. Their traditional languages are the Sámi languages, which are classified as a branch of the Uralic language family.” I couldn’t find a ton of information about this issue, but because the people seem to not want to be referred to in this way, I wish this hadn’t been in the puzzle. 

I liked SNOW SUIT (39D), POWDER KEG (52A), and AMNESIAC (42A), in particular, which just felt off the beaten path for a crossword. For 9D: Atlanta-based TV channel, I originally put TNT, which is also based in Atlanta, but when I got to 13D: Explosive stuff, in brief and knew the answer for that one was TNT, I realized I must’ve made an error at 9D. I do know TNT and TBS are related, because NBA analysts move between the sets. (And, yes, Ernie Johnson is the MVP of both.) 

Got nothing much else to say about the puzzle! I’ll be back again tomorrow, and I hope everyone has a great Monday.

Misc.:

• The only thing I could think of when I saw POWDER KEG was the line in Hamilton in the song “Right Hand Man”: “We are a powder keg about to explode.” So that song will be stuck in my head for a while now. 
• I liked seeing STIR (30A) quite close to VESPER (34D). They’re seemingly unrelated, but in “Casino Royale” Ian Fleming invented the Vesper martini, named after the main female character in the novel. So it felt fitting to have this drink right next to the Bond clue/answer about martinis at 30A, even if the placement wasn’t intentional. 
• 48A: Metrical foot in poetry as IAMB takes me back to 12th grade English class where I had to learn about poetry and rhyme schemes and write my own poems — and ugh. I did not enjoy that segment of class. 
• I wish I could’ve eaten the NAAN (16A) from our Indian food order last night, but I’m newly gluten-free because it seems I have a gluten allergy that’s been affecting my breathing😞😞😞 Oh, well.

Signed, Clare Carroll, someone who knows Liverpool is going to finish at the top of the table this season

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SAG Hollywood union / MON 1-6-20 / Shell-less marine invertebrate / Upstate New York city south of FInger Lakes / Post WW II alliance / Alcoholic drink that's often flavored with fruit

Constructor: Tess Davison and Kathy Lowden

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (more Tuesday than Monday in both concept and difficulty level) (3:17)

THEME: GEM (11A: One of 17-, 18-, 37-, 60- or 62-Across) — yeah those are indeed GEMs. Clues are (all-caps) months for which the GEMs are "birthstones" (a word spelled out by the circled squares when read in order)

Theme answers:

• RUBIES (17A: JULY)
• EMERALDS (18A: MAY)
• AMETHYSTS (37A: FEBRUARY)
• DIAMONDS (60A APRIL)
• PEARLS (62A: JUNE)

Word of the Day: SAG-AFTRA (31D: SAG-___ (Hollywood union)) —

Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) is an American labor union representing approximately 160,000 film and television actors, journalists, radio personalities, recording artists, singers, voice actors, and other media professionals worldwide. The organization was formed on March 30, 2012, following the merger of the Screen Actors Guild (created in 1933) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (created in 1937 as American Federation of Radio Artists, becoming AFTRA in 1952 after merger with Television Authority). SAG-AFTRA is a member of the AFL–CIO, the largest federation of unions in the United States. (wikipedia)

• • •

Dutchess, 2002-2019

HELLO, READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS. It's early January and that means it's time for my annual pitch for financial contributions to the blog, during which I ask regular readers to consider what the blog is worth to them on an annual basis and give accordingly. It's kind of a melancholy January this year, what with the world in, let's say, turmoil. Also, on a personal note, 2019 was the year I lost Dutchess, who was officially The Best Dog, and who was with me well before I was "Rex Parker." Somehow the turning of the calendar to 2020 felt like ... I was leaving her behind. It's not a rational sentiment, but love's not rational, especially pet love. Speaking of love—I try hard to bring a passion and enthusiasm to our shared pastime every time I sit down to this here keyboard. I love what I do here, but it is a lot of work, put in at terrible hours—I'm either writing late at night, or very early in the morning, so that I can have the blog up and ready to go by the time your day starts (9am at the very latest, usually much earlier). I have no major expenses, just my time. Well, I do pay Annabel and Claire, respectively, to write for me once a month, but beyond that, it's just my time. This blog is a source of joy and genuine community to me (and I hope to you) but it is also work, and this is the time of year when I acknowledge that! All I want to do is write and make that writing available to everyone, for free, no restrictions. I have heard any number of suggestions over the years about how I might "monetize" (oof, that word) the blog, but honestly, the only one I want anything to do with is the one I already use—once a year, for one week, I just ask readers to contribute directly. And then I let 51 weeks go by before I bring up the subject again. No ads, no gimmicks. It's just me creating this thing and then people who enjoy the thing supporting the work that goes into creating the thing. It's simple. I like simple. Your support means a lot to me. Knowing that I have a loyal readership really is the gas in the tank, the thing that keeps me solving and writing and never missing a day for 13+ years. I will continue to post the solved grid every day, tell you my feelings about the puzzle every day, make you laugh or wince or furrow your brow or shout at your screen every day, bring you news from the Wider World of Crosswords (beyond the NYT) every day. The Word of the Day is: Quotidian. Occurring every day. Daily. Whether you choose to contribute or not, I'm all yours. Daily.

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 two options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar):

Second, a mailing address (checks should be made out to "Rex Parker"):

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

All Paypal contributions will be gratefully acknowledged by email. All snail mail contributions will be gratefully acknowledged with hand-written postcards. I. Love. Snail Mail. I love seeing your gorgeous handwriting and then sending you my awful handwriting. It's all so wonderful. This year's cards are illustrations from the covers of classic Puffin Books—Penguin's children's book imprint.  Watership Down, Charlotte's Web, The Phantom Tollbooth, A Wrinkle in Time, How to Play Cricket ... you know, the classics. There are a hundred different covers and they are truly gorgeous. 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 say NO CARD.  As ever, I'm so grateful for your readership and support.

Now on to the puzzle!

• • •

Wow, a debut by not one but two women. Cool. Diversify the constructor pool! I did not like this one much, for a bunch of reasons (which I'll get to), but it's promising. It's conceptually ambitious (which is good, but also part of the problem). And the fill, while shaky in parts, is at worst NYT-average. This is better than my own first NYTXW (oh so many years ago ...), so I'm optimistic. But to get to the problems—let's start with the revealer, which is both a dud (just GEM?) and bizarrely placed in the NE, and even more bizarrely cross-referenced with UNCUT, which is doubly unfortunate, as a. it adds weird difficulty to the puzzle (you gotta look around the grid to have any idea what the answer might be, and if you were to look there before you actually had 11-A, well you're really out of luck), and b. evokes a current movie ("UNCUT GEMs," starring Adam Sandler) that is just begging to be the revealer of a GEM-related puzzle. It's like having UNCUT in this grid reminds you of what a cool, timely GEM-related theme *might* have been. Instead, you have this clunker of one-word revealer, all tucked away in the NW, and then these circles, which ... were so confusing. It's hard enough to infer the theme (the clues are just months, so you gotta piece it together—fine on W or Th, weird for M); but now you've got these circles that appear meaningful (and are, ultimately, meaningful), but they are in no way meaningful *to their own answers*; that is, "BI" has nothing to do with RUBIES. Zero. It's not a sign or symbol or, well, anything that relates directly to RUBIES. Usually, when circles appear in answers, they are related in some way to what is going on in that specific answer, with that specific clue. But here, no. Confusing. Lastly, where awkwardness and inelegance are concerned, there's the fact that GEM is in the singular, when everything else, theme answers and circled theme word ("birthstones"), is ostentatiously in the plural. In short, this feels like a first draft of what might've been a much tighter, cleaner puzzle.


Had trouble with a bunch of the non-theme answers. Biggest hold-up by far was AFTRA (31D: SAG-___ (Hollywood union)). I'm sure I've seen that acronym before, but recalling it was ... not in the cards. SAG is superfamous. I would say that part of the union name is almost Monday-famous, but of course on a Monday you'd clue SAG like the ordinary word that it is. AFTRA, on the other hand ... well that can only be clued *this* way, and *this* way is tough. I also found SEA SLUG (45D: Shell-less marine invertebrate) and PAN OUT (67A: Be successful in the end) difficult to see, and SCHNAPPS took me several beats, even after I had SCHN- in place; "Alcoholic drink" just did nothing for me. I know ELMIRA very well because it's practically down the street from me (if you think of US86 as a "street"), but it still seems kind of hard for a Monday (8D: Upstate New York city south of the Finger Lakes). My time ended up in a reasonable Monday range, so perhaps difficulty level wasn't Too far off, but it felt off. If you were (or felt) slowish today, I'm just letting you know you aren't alone. Enjoy the rest of this JANUARY (GARNET!) day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. if you missed Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel's latest installment of "Crossword Mysteries" ("Abracadaver!"), well, you missed a GEM. The plot is way too convoluted to explain, but the important part is... the cameo! Delightful.

"Everyone has to dance! Those are the rules!" (actual line)
[to be very clear, I genuinely enjoy Hallmark movies and am not mocking
anyone here, except maybe myself] 

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