Citrus-based sauce in Japanese cuisine / WED 6-24-26 / Retro kind of hairstyle / Pinkglow pineapples and GloFish, for short / Marketing team's goal with a new product launch, informally / Hand-held radios used by the speakers of the italicized clues and their answers? / Important creatures in Inuit culture / Band whose spelled-out name translates to "Bulletproof Boy Scouts"

Constructor: Kevin Curry and Zhou Zhang

Relative difficulty: Medium (and then some?)

THEME: WALKIE-TALKIES (36A: Hand-held radios used by the speakers of the italicized clues and their answers?) — familiar phrases that contain walkie-talkie lingo, clued as if they were, in fact, responses on a walkie-talkie:

Theme answers:

• "JOLLY, ROGER!" (17A: "Sleigh's loaded and ready! How are you feeling, Santa?")
• "GLAZED, OVER!" (25A: "I'm at the bakery—what kind of doughnut do you want?")
  "CARBON, COPY!" (49A: "What's tomorrow's chemistry exam about again?")
• "CHICKEN, OUT!" (60A: "Before you go, what animal crosses the road in that old joke?")

Word of the Day: RAMONA Shelburne (46D: Sportswriter Shelburne) —

Ramona Leor Shelburne (born July 19, 1979) is an American sportswriter and NBA Insider for ESPN. She is also a former softball player; in high school, she was the 1997 L.A. City Softball Co-Player of the Year, and in college she played outfield for Stanford Cardinal for four years. [...] Prior to joining ESPN, Shelburne spent seven years at the Los Angeles Daily News as a reporter and columnist from 2002-2009. At ESPN, Ramona gained a national following writing about Frank and Jaime McCourt's divorce and the 2010-2011 Los Angeles Dodgers ownership dispute. On February 14, 2016, Shelburne made her radio debut in a national radio show called Beadle & Shelburne which she co-hosts with ESPN SportsNation host Michelle Beadle. // Since the mid 2010s, Shelburne has been a Senior Writer at ESPN. She also regularly contributes to the network’s NBA coverage on NBA Today, ESPN Radio and SportsCenter. (wikipedia)

• • •

I should probably start with the one thing about the theme that seems off. I don't talk on WALKIE-TALKIES much (or ever), but aren't "Roger!" and "Copy!" things you say at the *beginning* of your response? Like, you don't wait until after you say something to say "Roger!," do you? Is that ... realistic? "Over!" and "Out!" (and "Over and out!") are definitely response-ending bits of W-T speak, but somehow having "Roger!" and "Copy!" at the *ends* of their respective phrases feels less than authentic. But somehow I didn't need authenticity today because the power of wackiness compelled me. Like, the theme was just so cute and original that I managed not to care about a little syntactical strangeness here and there. The revealer was completely unnecessary, as I knew after the first, and certainly after the second, themer that I was dealing with radio lingo, but WALKIE-TALKIES is such a bouncy and bright and "K"-ful central answer that I didn't resent its presence. It's pleasantly decorative, even if it isn't (or wasn't, for me) necessary to figuring out the theme concept. I have often said about wackiness-based themes that they have to Go Big or Go Home, and I thought this one leaned into the silliness plenty. The fact that I start out this conversation talking to Santa puts things on real wacky ground right away. The remaining clues maybe could have been wackier, but if you imagine that you're talking to Santa the whole time, then wackiness abides. I totally believe that Santa wants a donut. I'm not sure I believe that he's in your Chemistry class, but I *want* to believe it. I absolutely don't believe you, or anyone, forgot which animal crosses the road, but again, the absurdity makes it work. 

I also appreciated how spicy the fill was. PICANTE, even. Lots of tastiness everywhere you turn, from SPUN cotton candy and LemonADE to OAT milk and TARTs and some kind of OLIVE + PECAN + CHICKEN + HAM + FAVA bean (+ PEPA!) concoction at the bottom of the grid—with PONZU sauce (65A: Citrus-based sauce in Japanese cuisine). PONZU!? Is that a debut? Yup, it sure is. We used to put that in / on lots of things. Not sure why we stopped. Maybe we're just on PONZU hiatus. It's tasty! NOM NOM NOM. Anyway, this is a real OMNIVORE's puzzle. GOOD EATS abound (12D: A satisfying meal, informally). I also liked the fact that I finished the puzzle on "WE MADE IT!" Couldn't have scripted it any better. The puzzle gets pretty name-y at times, esp. through the middle (ZARA / BTS / ERIC Carle / Paul SIMON / MRS. Brown and her lovely daughter). I think lots of people are going to blank on RAMONA Shelburne in the SE corner, which already has the never-before-seen PONZU, and the unexpected and weird-to-parse PRBUZZ in it (47D: Marketing team's goal with a new product launch, informally). I can see some solvers struggling there. But I didn't find the name-iness excessive today. But then again, there were no names I didn't know. Always easier to like names when you know them. Oh, NESS, I guess I didn't *really* know that name, but the "Van" part kind of gave me a boost ("Van NESS" just sounded familiar—I grew up in a city with a Van NESS Avenue, so maybe that helped).

I actually found the NW corner a little thorny. I accept Venmo (wink) and I've used Venmo to pay people but I guess I've never made (or accepted) a Venmo "request" for payment, so PAYS (5D: Approves a Venmo request, perhaps) ... seemed right, but I wasn't sure about it. I also wasn't sure about NO LESS, which fits the clue fine, it's just ... rarer than plain old [Equally], and seems more situation-specific (like something you say after you've added something to your previous statement—almost like an emphatic conclusion). So my brain just had some contextual trouble. The biggest problem up there, though, was that clue on PIN-UP (1A: Retro kind of hairstyle). What? There's a hair style called "PIN-UP?" Is pinning your hair up "retro?" That clue seemed like a desperate way to avoid the cheesecake angle. A PIN-UP is, of course, a picture of a sexy model featured in magazines and calendars. Men (typically) would pin these pictures up for display in various locker-room and bar and other male-dominated environments. Popularized sometime around WWII, I think. It's objectifying, the way most modeling is, but I really love good mid-century PIN-UP art. There's some in our downstairs bathroom! The art form has its Grand Masters (Vargas! Elvgren!). "Retro kind of hairstyle" evokes nothing for me. [Does some image searching] Oh, hey ... weird, apparently the hairstyle in question is actually related to PIN-UP models, in that everything I'm seeing online has a real throwback vibe—hair that a PIN-UP model might've had in the '40s. Unsurprisingly, modern trends in women's hair ... not on my radar. 

[Betty Grable, the most famous PIN-UP girl]

Bullets:

• 6A: Pinkglow pineapples and GloFish, for short (GMOS) — another reason the top of the puzzle was a little on the hard side for me. Shouldn't this clue have a "for instance" in it. Like, these are examples of GMOS. You wouldn't clue CAT as merely [Siamese]. You'd write [Siamese, for one]. But leaving that cluing convention nitpickery aside, I had no idea what I was looking at here. I thought maybe Pokémons. Or some kind of reward in some kind of game on some kind of app I'm never going to use.
• 44A: Fish with a Kohaku variety (KOI) — sticking with fish for a moment ... I had no idea there were varieties of KOI. I mean, of course there are, I'm not surprised, I've just never been required to think beyond the simple fact of KOI, crossworld's favorite fish (sorry, MAHI MAHI, you lose).
• 1D: Kind of pants worn on a rainy day, perhaps (PAJAMA) — ??? because you are staying inside, in your pajamas? I can tell you that my students will wear PAJAMA pants (as in pajama bottoms) in any weather. Just ... out and about. Regular-ass streetwear to them (well, some of them). They're probably least likely to wear them on rainy days, but that's because (unlike you, apparently) they are wearing them out of doors.

• 10D: Workout program that's a portmanteau of two different sports (TAE BO) — in the '90s, Billy Blanks made history by combining sports that scientists had previously thought uncombinable: Tae Kwon Do and Bowling. The rest is home exercise history.
• 39D: A little foxy? (KIT) — a baby fox is a kit. "Little foxy" is something I would call a fox if I saw one in the wild. "Oh, hello, little foxy, what are you up to? Killing rodents! Nice!" (really witnessed this once, very cool) (also witnessed fox kits once, even cooler).

That's all for today. 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...

Kinkajou cousin / THU 4-23-26 / Experience deep affirmation, in modern lingo / Media exec Sarandos / Lack of pulchritude / Follower of open or closed, sartorially / Owie kissers, perhaps

Constructor: Zhou Zhang and Kevin Curry

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: HAND-ME-DOWN (11D: Something that's kept in the family ... or a hint to making sense of three pairs of answers in this puzzle) — in three columns, "ME" is literally passed down from the upper answer to the lower answer, so the upper answer is missing a "ME" and the lower answer has an extra "ME" (both answers still look like plausible words or phrases)

Theme answers:

• CENT / BEEF LOMEIN ("cement" and "beef loin") (3D: *Material for a sidewalk / 28D: *Choice cut)
• "SO WHAT?" / COME UPON ("somewhat" and "coupon") (6D: *To a degree / 37D: *Supermarket shopper's clipping)
• HOLINESS / POMELO ("homeliness" and "polo") (9D: *Lack of pulchritude / 44D: *Sport that uses mallets)

Word of the Day: "Immaculate Reception" (42A: What the "Music City Miracle" and the "Immaculate Reception" took place in => NFL GAMES) —

The Immaculate Reception is one of the most famous plays in the history of American football. It was a touchdown which occurred in the AFC divisional playoff game of the National Football League (NFL), between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Oakland Raiders at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on December 23, 1972.

With his team trailing 7–6, on fourth down with 22 seconds left in the game, Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw threw a pass targeting Steelers running back John Fuqua. The ball may have bounced off the helmet of Raiders safety Jack Tatum, although many observers believe that Tatum never contacted the pass. Steelers fullback Franco Harris caught it just before it hit the ground and ran for a game-winning touchdown. The play has been a source of much controversy and speculation ever since, with many contending that the ball touched only Fuqua (and did not in any way touch Tatum) or that it hit the ground before Harris caught it, either of which would have resulted in an incomplete pass by the rules of the time. Kevin Cook's The Last Headbangers cites the play as the beginning of a bitter rivalry between the Steelers and the Raiders that fueled a historically brutal Raiders team during the NFL's most controversially physical era.

NFL Films has chosen the Immaculate Reception as the greatest play of all time, as well as the most controversial. The play was also selected as the Greatest Play in NFL History in the NFL Network's 100 series. The play proved to be a turning point for the Steelers, reversing four decades of futility with their first playoff win ever; they went on to win four Super Bowls by the end of the 1970s. (wikipedia)

• • •

This was enjoyable. It took me through many stages of revelation—the first "oh!" came when I realized there were missing "ME"s up top. "Aha, a missing 'ME' puzzle. I wonder why they're missing?" Later, I couldn't figure out why adding "ME" to BEEF LOMEIN was getting me nowhere, when suddenly I realized, "Wait ... this answer has an added 'ME'—I wonder why the 'ME's are missing in the top half of the puzzle but added below?" And then finally (truly finally—with the last letters I put into the grid), I got the rationale with the perfectly descriptive revealer, HAND-ME-DOWN. I don't think I'd noticed to that point that the "ME" shenanigans was contained to just three columns—my brain was still processing things in terms of top half / bottom half. So the revealer did its job (made sense of the wackiness in a punny way) and got me that final (of 3) ahas in a real exclamation-point kind of way. Always nice when the puzzle sticks the landing. I have only one minor complaint about the theme execution—I don't like that there's a stray, unhanded-down "ME" there at the top of the grid, in MESS (13D: State of a playroom, often). All the other Down "ME"s in the grid (except the one in the revealer) get handed down, but that "ME" is just sitting up there, tenaciously, thumbing its nose at the theme. "Haha, ya missed me, turkeys! I'm clinging to the ceiling of this grid and there's not a damn thing you can do about it!" If you change PALE to HALO, you've still got a lovely grid and bye bye extra "ME"! I am well aware that the theme is supposed to apply *only* in the case of the three relevant columns (with asterisked clues), but I like an immaculate execution, where the theme stuff stays contained entirely in the theme stuff. No strays! But, as I say, this is a minor issue. By its own stated rules, the theme works quite well.

The fill is far less interesting, but I appreciated how (relatively) clean it was. Sure, there are a bunch of overcommon short answers, but hardly any of those are what I'd call truly grating. No ugly abbrevs. today, no hoary old names from crossword grids of yore. The short stuff stays relatively innocuous, which is what I like short stuff to do. And then you get a few longer answers in there that liven things up a bit. FEEL SEEN is great (29A: Experience deep affirmation, in modern lingo), and WINDOW SILL, PRIDE MONTH, BEST MAN, "IN OR OUT?," and "IF I MUST" are all really good. So if I gotta endure an EENIE here and an ATON there and a pair of crossing crosswordese brands in the NW corner (AVEENO, AVIA), so be it. It's fine. Small price to pay for an otherwise well-crafted puzzle. 

Outside the inevitable theme confusion, the puzzle was pretty dang easy. They could've toughened this one up a bit, I wouldn't have minded. I'm looking over my grid and not seeing any places where I got particularly bogged down or even slightly delayed. All my problems came (predictably) very early, in that NW corner, where I wrote in NAIF instead of FAWN to start with (1D: Babe in the woods), and then tripped all over the missing-"ME" answers for a bit (two of them in that corner alone!). I had a little trouble remembering what a kinkajou was, so I briefly considered that its cousin might be a KOALA, and not a COATI. Now there's a crossword animal: COATI! I think of it as a South American raccoon. They're basically little fox-bear-cat-rats:

You can find them next to the OKAPI in the Crossword Zoo. Anyway, besides my brief flirtation with KOALA, I don't think I had any non-thematic missteps today. Basic basic, all around. Are there any interesting clues to talk about? Let's see ...

Bullets:

• 4D: Media exec Sarandos (TED) — no one wants to see a "media exec" in their puzzle, come on. Choose a better TED! (this one is co-CEO of Netflix)

• 17A: Spot for a catnap? (WINDOWSILL) — this "?" wasn't "?"-y enough. When you live with cats who nap in WINDOWSILLs every chance they get, well, this clue just doesn't have the misdirection force that it seems to want.

[OK he's not actually *in* the sill, but ... close]

• 36A: Follower of open or closed, sartorially (TOED) — I cannot honestly say that I like the answer TOED, but I do like this clue, a lot. It's elegant. I think I just enjoy the word "sartorially." This clue is well-dressed—classy—and I appreciate it.
• 41A: Queen's collaborator on the 1981 hit "Under Pressure" (BOWIE) — I would've said BOWIE's collaborator was Freddy Mercury, but of course it's his whole band. This music video was a staple of early MTV, which means I've watched it countless times. A great song.

• 9D: *Lack of pulchritude (HO[me]LINESS) — Came at this from underneath and despite knowing at that point that "ME"s were both disappearing from and squeezing into the answers for asterisked clues, I disregarded thematics entirely and wrote in UGLINESS with emphatic certainty. Lack of pulchritude is UGLINESS! It fit the clue so well! Perfectly, in fact! I love that "pulchritude" means beauty, since it is one of the ugliest words I've ever seen. It sounds like something you suffer from, not something you want. "What happened to Mary? I never see her any more." "Oh, she's sick. Doctors say it's pulchritude." "Oh no!" "Yeah, she never goes outside now, it's awful."
• 32D: Company that famously used the Beatles' "Revolution" in a 1987 TV commercial (NIKE) — at first I was like "Apple...?" but then I remembered. 1987 was the year I graduated high school / started college, and that commercial was, indeed, famous. First time a Beatles song was used in an advertisement. 

[God bless George Harrison and his doomed struggle against using Beatles songs to sell "brassieres and pork pies" LOL]

That's all for today. 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 ✏️

• Westwords (Berkeley, CA, Jun. 14, 2026)

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

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...

Thick, spiked outer covering? / WED 1-28-26 / Score points in Pac-Man, say / Casting rod? / Number indicating position: Abbr. / Arctic fishing shelter / Article of furniture on which a plate of oats might be set? / Walk from one coop to another? / Commoner, informally / Teenager's response to a dad joke / Dirk Nowitzki's longtime team, to fans

Constructor: Kevin Curry

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: Animal "S" shift — familiar compound or two-part terms and phrases involving animals are clued as possessive phrases—that is, you have to mentally take the "S" from the front of the second part of the base answer and affix it (with an apostrophe) to the end of the first part. The wacky possessive phrases are clued wackily ("?"-style):

Theme answers:

• HORSE'S TABLE (17A: Article of furniture on which a plate of oats might be set?) (from "horse stable")
• DRAGON'S LAYER (23A: Thick, spiked outer covering?) (from ... the movie Dragonslayer?)
• PIG'S KIN (37A: Relatives in a sty?) (from "pigskin")
• CAT'S CAN (39A: "Throne" for a lion king?) (from "CAT scan")
• CHICKEN'S TRIP (46A: Walk from one coop to another?) (from "chicken strip")
• TURTLE'S HELL (56A: Being flipped on its back, e.g.?)  (from "turtle shell")

Word of the Day: DRAGONSLAYER (see 23A) —

Dragonslayer is a 1981 American dark fantasy film directed by Matthew Robbins from a screenplay he co-wrote with Hal Barwood. It stars Peter MacNicol in his feature film debut, Ralph Richardson, John Hallam, and Caitlin Clarke. It was a co-production between Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions, where Paramount handled North American distribution and Disney handled international distribution through Buena Vista International. The story is set in a fictional medieval kingdom where a young wizard encounters challenges as he hunts a dragon, Vermithrax Pejorative.

It is the second joint production between Paramount and Disney, after Popeye (1980), and is more mature than most contemporary Disney films. Because the audience expected the film to be solely children's entertainment, the violence, adult themes and brief nudity were somewhat controversial, though Disney did not hold the North American distribution rights. The film was rated PG in the U.S. Like The Black Hole (1979), the version of the film broadcast on the Disney Channel was edited to remove two scenes.

The special effects were created at Industrial Light and Magic, the first use of ILM outside of a Lucasfilm production. Phil Tippett had co-developed an animation technique there for The Empire Strikes Back (1980) called go motion, a variation on stop motion. This led to the film's nomination for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, but it lost to Raiders of the Lost Ark, the only other visual effects nominee that year, whose special effects were also provided by ILM. Including the hydraulic 40-foot (12 m) model, the dragon consists of 16 puppets dedicated to flying, crawling, or breathing fire.

The film received generally positive reviews from critics, but it performed poorly at the box office, grossing $14.1 million worldwide against a production budget of $18 million. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score, which went to Chariots of Fire. It was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, again given to Raiders of the Lost Ark. (wikipedia)

• • •

If nothing else, this puzzle has inspired me to watch DRAGONSLAYER (1981). Despite being the target audience for this thing (12-year-olds who were into Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars, and video games), I somehow missed it completely. It came out the same year as Raiders, so I was probably too busy seeing that five or six times. Anyway, 45 years later I think I am in exactly the right frame of mind to watch a movie featuring a puppet dragon called Vermithrax Pejorative. That's its surname! Pejorative! Amazing. Sounds bad! Anyway, thanks for the time travel, puzzle. Now I've got a new movie for my already extensive Watchlist. As for the rest of this puzzle, it seemed rudimentary and dull to me, and lacked a clear conceptual cohesiveness. Why animals? Why is one of the animals imaginary? Why is one of the animals (cat) not an animal at all in its base phrase (CAT scan), while all the other animals remain animals on both sides of the "S" switch? I kept waiting for the revealer that never came—give me a reason to be doing any of this. What's the gag? The whole "S"-shift thing feels very very Very old-fashioned. Like, I've seen variations of this specific kind of wackiness a lot before. Feels very '90s-coded, this kind of rudimentary wordplay. The clues are trying valiantly to make it all fun—toilets for lions, pig family reunions—but ultimately the wackiness all seemed pretty tepid. And then the fill was bland, with a tired short stuff—LOS LAS ORD ADE ECO EMO etc. The bottom is particularly grim, with a whole stack of things I'd rather not see (a turtle being tortured on top of AD FEES on top of a DESPOT). I would not say this puzzle is "SO LAME," but then I would never use that phrase since disabled people I knew got me to stop using "lame" as a general pejorative decades ago. Speaking of Pejorative, I gotta wrap this up so I can go watch DRAGONSLAYER! (Actually, I gotta work today, but later, for sure!)

This one was fairly color-by-numbers, right from the jump, with the gimme AÇAI allowing me to toggle to Downs and tick them all off in order. Repeat same thing with MEDUSA. The only resistance today, outside the semi-wacky theme answers, was in the cluing for a handful of the short clues. POWER had a tricky "?" clue (13D: Outlet store?—because an "outlet" is where POWER is "stored"). For some reason CLIPS took me a few crosses to get (46D: Assortment to view on YouTube)—I think of myself as watching videos, not CLIPS (which, to me, are parts of larger filmed things), but ... fair enough. Had SLINK before SKULK (33D: Sneak around)—just glad I didn't write in SNEAK there. Seems like something I'd do, especially if I was going too fast and not really paying attention. Second ORD in the past week, so that's ... bad. Had to wait on the "N" in SNARFS since it could so easily have been SCARFS (44D: Wolfs (down)). But this is all ordinary difficulty—the kind of vagueness and misdirection you might find on any day. Very mild. Mostly this one just seemed boring. Not POOR. Just blah.

Bullets:

• 5A: Monster whose gaze remained lethal after her death (MEDUSA) — I'd forgotten this. That 12yo who played D&D (but failed to see DRAGONSLAYER) probably knew this MEDUSA fact very well. I miss that kid.
• 40A: Arctic fishing shelter (ICE HUT) — that's where I.C.E. should go—to the ICE HUT! And then, you know, stay there. Til summer.
• 2D: Member-owned business (CO-OP) — yeah, I see you trying to make this a non-chicken answer, but this still looks exactly like "COOP," which is in your CHICKEN'S TRIP clue; I'd probably have tried to figure out a way to get rid of it (or, easier, just rewrite that CHICKEN'S TRIP clue (46A: Walk from one coop to another?)—there are way, way funnier ways to go at that one). 
• 30A: Casting rod? (WAND) — I'm telling you, 12yo me would've been really into crosswords if he'd known there were MEDUSAs and DRAGONSLAYERs and wizards with WANDs!). Ooh, and Pac-Man!! (6D: Score points in Pac-Man, say). You could've sold me on your adult pastime pretty easy, I think. 

That's it for today. 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 ✏️

• Boswords 2026 Winter Wondersolve (online) (Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026)
• American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (Stamford, CT, Apr. 10-12, 2026) (registration closed!)

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

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...

Popular stick-figure webcomic / THU 12-11-25 / Art class staple / Cable staple since 1972 / Landing area in a long jump / Sign for cheap admission / New Zealand parrot whose name sounds like a Korean automaker / 2002 book paying tribute to a 1960s rock legend

Constructor: Kevin Curry

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "What do I have to do to solve this clue?" — theme clues are lists of items separated by ellipses; answers are what you, the solver, have to do in order to understand each list:

Theme answers:

• DREAM TEAMS (17A: SEAL ... SWAT ... B ...)
• PICTURE PERFECT (28A: Utopia ... 10 ... ideal ...)
• IMAGINE DRAGONS (45A: Puff ... Komodo ... Smaug ...)
• THINK TANKS (61A: Fish ... scuba ... Army ...)

Word of the Day: IMAGINE DRAGONS (45A) —

Imagine Dragons are an American pop rock band formed in 2008, based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The band currently consists of lead singer Dan Reynolds, guitarist Wayne Sermon, and bassist Ben McKee. They first gained exposure with the release of their single "It's Time", followed by their debut album Night Visions (2012), which resulted in the chart-topping singles "Radioactive" and "Demons". Rolling Stone named "Radioactive", which held the record for most weeks charted on the Billboard Hot 100, the "biggest rock hit of the year". MTV called them "the year's biggest breakout band", and Billboard named them their "Breakthrough Band of 2013" and "Biggest Band of 2017", and placed them at the top of their "Year in Rock" rankings for 2013, 2017, and 2018. Imagine Dragons topped the Billboard Year-End "Top Artists – Duo/Group" category in 2018. [...] Imagine Dragons have sold more than 74 million albums and 65 million digital songs worldwide, making them one of the world's best-selling music artists. They have also earned 160 billion streams across music platforms. They were the most streamed group of 2018 on Spotify, the first rock act to have four songs, "Radioactive", "Demons", "Believer", and "Thunder", to surpass one billion streams each, and the only group in RIAA history to have four songs certified higher than Diamond. According to Billboard, "Believer", "Thunder", and "Radioactive" were the three best performing rock songs of the 2010s.

• • •

***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... 

• • •

There are a lot of things I do when I solve: "dream" is not one of them. The other opening verbs are all defensible, in terms of describing solver (i.e. my) activity, but "dream," absolutely not. It's possible I have totally misunderstood the theme and somehow "dream" works perfectly for some unifying concept I have yet to ... imagine. But right now, "dream" is superbad, and not in a good way. In a bad way. The other themers get better as they go along, in terms of instructions to the solver (i.e. me) as to how to make sense of the various lists. But I still can't say I think much of this theme—it really seems like the kind of theme that could use a revealer. I don't mind inferring a theme now and then, esp. on a Thursday (the allegedly trickiest of days), but this one could've used some kind of payoff. But I think the thing that's *really* bugging me is "dream." Still hung up on that outlier. Too bad CONSIDER or ENVISION don't occur at the front of any familiar phrases. They beat "dream" silly in terms of describing solver brain activity.

Another problem with this puzzle was it was way, way too easy. No resistance anywhere except the themers. Well, not *no* resistance. I had a weirdly hard time getting the center Downs in this puzzle at first pass. I'm sure PAPER is a staple of art class, but it's such a general, non-art-specific word that it never occurred to me (32D: Art class staple). I have no idea what kind of "art" we're dealing with. I assumed painting and wrote in the crosswordiest five-letter answer I could think of: EASEL. Getting to ENDED (?) from [Quit] was also not straightforward. I wouldn't swap those two words out very often, though I can see (if I squint) how one might. "I quit my job" (sure), "I ENDED my job" (what?). "I quit smoking" (great!), "I ENDED smoking" (what, like on the whole planet?). Didn't quite line up in my ear, those two. As for RINSE, it was the first thing I wanted, but I didn't trust it at all because ...well, the clue is written so weirdly. 30D: Hand sanitizer eliminates the need to do this ... it's odd. It kind of suggests that if you have wet hands (and thus have a "need" to RINSE), you can just use hand sanitizer and then you won't have that need. I mean, if you have a need to RINSE, you have a need to RINSE, and hand sanitizer does not "eliminate" that. Hand sanitizer doesn't supplant "rinsing," it supplants washing. I know what the clue means, but the phrasing is really awkward to my ear. So I definitely thought of RINSE but didn't trust it, especially since I couldn't get the adjacent 5s to work. But then NINA was a cinch (35A: Columbus's smallest ship) and eventually SANDPIT became obvious (38A: Landing area in a long jump) and this "problem" area wasn't really much of a "problem" after all.

The puzzle did have one winning element, and that's the stunning POPEMOBILE / "I GOT A WOMAN" pairing. Two great answers that create a deeply pleasing mental picture—the pope cruising along blasting Ray Charles out his windows. "I GOT A WOMAN" is a great song—the kind of song that's so great, you find yourself happily singing along to completely misogynist lyrics. Too catchy to resist. Just ignore that "woman's place is in the home" part, you'll be fine!:

She's there to love me
Both day and night
Never grumbles or fusses
Always treats me right
Never running in the streets
Leaving me alone
She knows a woman's place

Is right there now in her home 

One little problem, though. The actual title of the song appears to be "I'VE GOT A WOMAN"

Seems like a significant error on the NYTXW's part. But I love the song too much to get into it. Oh, wait, according to wikipedia, the title is "I GOT A WOMAN," but it was "originally titled" "I'VE GOT A WOMAN." Not sure why it changed. Again, don't really care. Just loving the song.

I wonder how much of the NYTXW's core audience is familiar with IMAGINE DRAGONS. Extremely popular band, by the usual metrics, and yet ... I'm not sure about the cultural penetration of that band to demographics older than millennials. I mean, I've known who they are for a long time, but I don't know them. Like, I could name one song, and I hear them precisely never. Pop radio just doesn't SEEP into everyone's lives the way it feels like it did decades ago. The ensiloing effect of extreme personalization. We don't experience culture that's not "ours" because we don't have to. I expect some sizable contingent of older solvers to have no idea who they are, in a way that a similar contingent of older solvers 50 years ago would not have been able to avoid knowing who, say, the Beatles or the Stones or even the Doors were. Anyway, IMAGINE DRAGONS is not really my thing, but their name now makes me laugh because it makes me think of this very funny Spotify Wrapped bit by comedian Josh Johnson:

["I looked at the data, and you've been listening to a lot of IMAGINE DRAGONS"]

Bullets:

• 5A: Greek goddess swallowed by her father and rescued by her future husband (HERA) — they left off "... who is also her brother."
• 40A: Sign for cheap admission (SRO) — short for Sit Right Overthere. Or Slash-Rate Opera, I forget which.*
• 48A: Take inspiration from (OWE TO) — not feeling this one at all. Being indebted to and being inspired by are different things. Nearly every other clue for OWE TO in NYTXW history has understood this. But then in 2024 people started trying to be "original" at the cost of clarity and accuracy, and now here we are. Look, OWETO is not good fill, so don't give solvers any reason to dwell on it. Clue it the boring old way so people can move on to better things.

• 62D: New Zealand parrot whose name sounds like a Korean automaker (KEA) — just [New Zealand parrot] is fine. Everyone should know about the KEA, the amazing bird that saves us from having every KEA clue be [Mauna ___]. Precisely the kind of crosswordese I can get behind. More KEA I say, and none of this condescending "sounds like" baloney in the clue. Let the KEA soar free!

[Trash parrot!]

And now it's time for 🌲🐈Holiday Pet Pics🐕🌲, and boy do I have a lot of them. We'll see if I can get through all your submissions by the end of the year. Tall order. Here we go.

First up we've got Mary, with a Christmas past / Christmas future set. I'm just gonna give you her note in its entirety:

I need to send 2 photos this year. From 2022, my husband Dale wearing his red Christmas shirt and reading the paper with Henry on his lap. I lost them both this year – Dale to dementia and Henry soon after. After my granddaughter rescued 2 kittens that had been abandoned in an open pet carrier they became my early Christmas present. Pepper and Curry are delightful companions and add some spice to my life!

[sweet newspaper lectern baby!]

[why won't my cats do this?]
[Thanks, Mary!]

Next we have Rudy, who decided to dress up as Santa, and Leo, who thinks the belt is all wrong

[RIP Leo, who died just last week]
[Thanks, Ted!]

Here's Beezus the red-nosed reindeer ... enduring the season ("Shockingly compliant"). 

[how could the other reindeer be mean to this sweet baby!?]
[Thanks, Heather!]

Kiwi here got his "holidays" confused, but we're gonna let him in anyway. Here's Kiwi sitting beneath his killer cat-bat balloon. That's Halloween, sweetheart. Or maybe that's just what Santa looks like in Kiwi's mind, who knows?

[Killer Cat-Bat is gonna find out if you've been naughty or nice and brother let me tell you you better hope the answer ain't "naughty"]
[Thanks, Paula!]

And finally today, Bianca. She sees you when you're sleeping. She sees you watching Pride, Prejudice, and Mistletoe. She sees you regifting that ugly sweater. She sees you.

[Thanks, David]

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*actually, Standing Room Only  

[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...