First (and last) queen of Hawaii / SUN 3-8-26 / Certain supervisor on a film set / So-called "rooster sauce" / Inventor and actress Lamarr / Indigenous people of the Great Lakes / Anna Howard ___ leader in the suffrage movement / Predinner beverage / Baseball announcer's update / Spanish letter / Sci-fi franchise that takes place in "the Grid" / Some budget-friendly grocery stores / Role for Geena Davis in "A League of Their Own" / March 8 observance connecting billions of people around the world / Structure in a shipping container

Constructor: Kelly Richardson

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "Join Together" — a puzzle celebrating INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY (71A: March 8 observance connecting billions of people around the world ... including the 22 people whose names cross this answer); so ... every answer crossing the revealer is a woman's name

Theme answers:

• ISSA Rae
• NINA Simone
• EMMA WATSON
• SADE
• Rita ORA
• Anaïs NIN
• LILIUOKALANI
• HARRIET Tubman
• Tara REID
• NORMA Talmadge
• Lupita NYONG'O
• MALALA Yousafzai
• Sally FIELD
• GWEN Stefani
• Sandra Day O'CONNOR
• TONI MORRISON
• ICE Spice
• INA Garten
• Anna Howard SHAW
• FRIDA KAHLO
• TINA Turner
• HEDY Lamarr

Word of the Day: ODAWA (35D: Indigenous people of the Great Lakes) —

[Odawa group areas]

The Odawa (also Ottawa or Odaawaa /oʊˈdɑːwə/) are an Indigenous North American people who primarily inhabit land in the Eastern Woodlands region, now in jurisdictions of the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. Their territory long preceded the creation of the current border between the two countries in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Their peoples are federally recognized as Native American tribes in the United States and have numerous recognized First Nations bands in Canada. They are one of the Anishinaabeg, related to but distinct from the Ojibwe and Potawatomi peoples.

After migrating from the East Coast in ancient times, they settled on Manitoulin Island, near the northern shores of Lake Huron, and the Bruce Peninsula in the present-day province of Ontario, Canada. They considered this their original homeland. After the 17th century, they also settled along the Ottawa River, and in what became the present-day states of Michigan and Wisconsin. They also occupied other areas of the Midwest south of the Great Lakes in what became the United States. In the 21st century, there are a total of approximately 15,000 Odawa living in Ontario, Canada, and in Michigan and Oklahoma (former Indian Territory, United States). (wikipedia)

• • •

There's an admirable ambition here (can't say I've ever seen twenty-two abutting names in a grid before), and it's always nice when the commemorative puzzle comes out on the actual day that it's commemorating. I just really, really wish it were ... better. That it had any kind of real concept (beyond a slew of truly random names). That the fill were generally strong. I wish I wish I wish. But I didn't enjoy this at all and to pretend otherwise ... I can't. The theme is ... a lot of women's names (?). That's it, that's all. That is the theme. Worse—honestly, much worse; puzzle-killing, tbh—is the fact that not only are there twenty-two (22!) women's names crossing the revealer (more names than any sane person would care to see on any day), but then there are ... more women's names (??). Non-thematically. Just ... scattered here and there. Like ... the theme already seemed weak because all it is is a list of (except for gender) unrelated names, the least you could do is have that set be tight, sealed, closed-off, exclusive, i.e. have no other women's names in the grid. But then ... there's THERESA May wandering around for some reason ... and DOTTIE ... and NORA Ephron. Just thrown in there, making a mockery of the already thin concept. If you're gonna rest your whole theme on 22 Women's Names (!) then there should be no other women's names except those 22. If the puzzle had kept it to just those 22 names, I still wouldn't have thought much of the concept, but I would've respected the attention to detail, at least. As is ... it just seems inelegant. Conceptually inelegant. I deeply respected the puzzle's "No Men" policy, but there again, the puzzle didn't quite go the distance. ELMO's pronouns are he/him, and MR. ROBOTO is obviously a mister (as is Monet, although I guess in the plural (MONETS) you're talking about the paintings, not the dude himself). The puzzle doesn't seem fully committed to the bit, is what I'm saying, and it's disappointing.

I am glad that there was a rationale for all the names, because as I moved down the west side of the puzzle, I was like "yikes, that is a Lot of crosswordy names" (SADE ORA NIN ISSA). I did enjoy (or at least appreciate) learning some new names today, at least one of which (LILIUOKALANI) nearly took my head off. When I say I needed every single cross, I mean Every Single Cross. That "U," yipes, it still looks so wrong. But I figured the Taylor Swift song was probably not "OAR Song" (48A: "___ Song" (Taylor Swift hit)), so "U" it was. I'd also never heard of Anna Howard SHAW, and I only barely know who NORMA Talmadge is (that is, I think I've heard the name, but I couldn't tell you a thing about her). Everyone else I know, including ICE Spice, who I know is gonna be new to lots of you. I really needed her today, because I honestly wasn't sure if it was INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY or INTERNATIONAL WOMAN'S DAY. The one other proper noun I had absolutely no clue about was also the very last answer I completed: ODAWA. That "D" was my last letter. Number of ODAWA appearances in NYTXW history: before today, zero. Now, one. If you give me O-AWA, I will immediately tell you the answer has to be OZAWA. Seiji OZAWA, the conductor. No other letter makes sense. Or so I thought. I did not connect ODAWA to "Ottawa" (obviously), but that makes sense (see "Word of the Day," above). Lots of checking and rechecking crosses today.

Fillwise, the puzzle really lost me in the SW with ONE TO GO (?) (121A: "Nearly done!") and MEN ON (as clued) (111D: Baseball announcer's update) and "G'DAY, MATES" (the MATES part not being clued at all) (83D: Aussie greeting). With ATO and ANDSO and RERIGS down there as well, that corner is a real mess. Elsewhere there's extremely awkward stuff like SAY TO (?) and HALF TWO (arbitrary British times of day, huzzah!) and IDENT (oof) and PRIE (at least four (4!) Fr. answers today, five if you count NOIR) and multiple (multiple?) ALDIS. Then there was the lesser ugliness of stuff like AANDM (A & M) and CD-R and ANI (AN "I") and NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission). I was struggling to find things to admire. I know I said I didn't like the theme concept, but the theme did yield some of the more interesting answers of the day, like TONI MORRISON and FRIDA KAHLO. I really wanted to be able to say "I LIKE IT" to this one, but no such luck. 

Bullets:

• 13D: Show gratitude for service (LEAVE A TIP) — whenever I EAT A SANDWICH at a restaurant, I make sure to LEAVE A TIP.
• 113D: Spanish letter (CARTA) — brutal for me. Wanted a letter of the alphabet. But the "letter" here is a simple missive. Correspondence. That kind of letter. CARTA can also mean "card" or "menu" (which is what I would've guessed as its meaning, since CARTE means "menu" in French (as well as "map" and "card").
• 115D: Floor show? (C-SPAN) — the "floor" in question is the floor of the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives, where official (and televised) business takes place.
• 38D: Sci-fi franchise that takes place in "the Grid" (TRON) — I have never seen a TRON. Not the original (1982), not TRON: Legacy (2010), not the animated TV show TRON: Uprising (2012-13). I was considering seeing TRON: Ares last fall, mainly because I saw that it featured Greta Lee (whom I love) as an action star, and that seemed interesting. But then the reviews were terrible and there were other movies playing and so I didn't see it after all. Kind of cute to give TRON a "Grid" clue. TRON is a crossword staple (111 grid appearances so far), but somehow no one has ever written a "Grid"-related clue before today (not in the NYTXW, anyway).

[72D: Singer and civil rights activist Simone]

That's all for today. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Princess who helped Theseus escape the Minotaur / TUE 7-16-2024 / London-based cosmetics giant / "United States of America" channel / Major metals manufacturer

Constructor: Kelly Richardson

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: NOT MY CUP OF TEA — how I feel about this theme; there's (only) two tea-related puns, three stacked entries inside black squares that resemble a teacup (although I was hoping the grid art here would be something to do with martinis, given the shape closer to the top)

Word of the Day: SKIES (22A: "Blue ___", classic Irving Berlin tune) —

"Blue Skies" is a popular song, written by Irving Berlin in 1926.

"Blue Skies" is one of many popular songs whose lyrics use a "bluebird of happiness" as a symbol of cheer: "Bluebirds singing a song/Nothing but bluebirds all day long." The sunny optimism of the lyrics are undercut by the minor key giving the words an ironic feeling. [wikipedia]

• • •

Hey hi hello and howdy, Christopher Adams here filling in for Rex for the first time in (checks watch) too long. Good to be back, wish it was with a puzzle I liked more than this. Didn't dislike it, but again, not my cup of tea. I can absolutely see why some people would really love this; I just found it hard to ignore how minimal the theme was (only two punny entries plus a little bit of grid art around three short entries), especially when parts of it didn't fully connect with me.

Theme answers:

• [1959 Marilyn Monroe film ... or what can be said of the drink featured in today's puzzle?] SOME LIKE IT HOT
• [What someone might remark after drinking the blend at the heart of this puzzle?] NOT MY CUP OF TEA
• I'm not typing out the clues but PEACH PEKOE and ASSAM are all clued as teas (w/r/t to their origins) and stacked inside the teacup at the center

Honestly the nicest thing about the theme (to me, at least) was the stacking of PEACH, PEKOE, and ASSAM in the central cup, which does not runneth over. Crossings were nicer than I'd expect from stacking three answers; ALCOA and REHEM are the worst of the five but are still pretty decent, and much better than I'd've expected given three entries stacked + major constraints from grid art, so they get a pass from me today. 

That said, the idea of mixing three different types of tea in one cup...bleargh. Makes sense why you would say "not my cup of tea" after drinking that, but that's a bit stretchy because it is your cup of tea, you made it, and why would you mix those all together unless you knew you liked it? And if you didn't make it, then the reaction's more "no thanks" or "disgusting" or something else. IDK, I'm maybe definitely overthinking this terrible pun, and plenty of people will like it and find it fine and not think about it for anywhere near as long as I have. But not me; like the cup of tea at the center of this puzzle, it's leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

KNICK [New York basketball player] — Misread that as "baseball player" at first, saw it was five letters, and was like "oh god, not NYMET, that's awful fill and also dupes the clue" before realizing the error. Anyway, I'm wearing this shirt while writing this; let's go Mets baby love da Mets.

On the other hand, the Marilyn Monroe themer hit home perfectly for me. Yes, some people do like it hot, while some prefer to drink ice(d) tea**. Wish there were more theme clues that were this solid. Even if there was only one more themer like this, I'd like this puzzle a lot more. But when there's only two punny theme entries outside of the grid art, they've both got to be super spot-on. 

**Include or delete that D as you see fit in reading this; I'm not discussing whether it's ICE TEA or ICED TEA, but feel free to make your opinion known in the comments, and know that there's one (1) correct answer to this debate.

In the end, only one good theme clue isn't enough to make me like it. But that one good clue, plus two theme entries that would be great assets in a themeless, as well as a few other entries like HOUSE CAT and THAT'S THAT—that's enough for me to not dislike it. And YMMV—like I said, it's somebody's cup of tea, but not mine. I suppose my take on this puzzle is like a cup of tea that's sat out too long—in the end, neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm.

Olio:

• STEVE [Martin of "Only Murders in the Building"] — I think it's well known that Martins Steve and Short are both in the show and share that part of their name; why I'm including this here is my habit of solving the first row and then immediately switching to the downs to solve a bunch of entries with starting letters already in place...and even having the first letter in place didn't disambiguate this.
• TRICK [Group of cards in hearts or bridge] — I don't know why "group" bothers me so much here; perhaps it's how vague it is, although at the same time I don't know what word I'd replace it with (short of rewriting the whole clue).
• OVERSLEPT [Didn't wake up in a timely manner] — I know the NYT is pretty lax on dupes between clues and entries in the grid, but the overlap here with AWAKEN at 11A is too much to ignore.
• THAT'S THAT! ["End of discussion!"] — And that's that for today's writeup!
  

Yours in puzzling, Christopher Adams, Court Jester of CrossWorld

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