Weasel with a black-tipped tail / SUN 2-22-26 / Literary fairy queen / Noted art deco designer / Mathematician Paul / Wielder of a red lightsaber / Like Constantinople, in 1930 / Hopeless from the start, for short / New Yorkie, say / Setting for a landscape / 2006 mockumentary about a Kazakh journalist

Constructor: Jill Rafaloff and Michelle Sontarp

Relative difficulty: (way too) Easy

[54D: Wielder of a red lightsaber]

THEME: "Books of the Bible" — famous figures / places / events from the Bible are used as punny clues for famous books:

Theme answers:

• DEATH ON THE NILE (24A: The Ten Plagues)
• A TALE OF TWO CITIES (31A: Sodom and Gomorrah)
• DANGEROUS LIAISONS (49A: Samson and Delilah)
• WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE (66A: Noah's Ark)
• THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (85A: Garden of Eden)
• THE PRINCE OF TIDES (103A: Moses Parting the Red Sea)
• THE GREAT ESCAPE (114A: Jonah and the Whale)

Word of the Day: Paul ERDOS (36D: Mathematician Paul) —

Paul Erdős (Hungarian: Erdős Pál [ˈɛrdøːʃ ˈpaːl]; 26 March 1913 – 20 September 1996) was a Hungarian mathematician. He was one of the most prolific mathematicians and producers of mathematical conjectures of the 20th century. Erdős pursued and proposed problems in discrete mathematics, graph theory, number theory, mathematical analysis, approximation theory, set theory, and probability theory. Much of his work centered on discrete mathematics, cracking many previously unsolved problems in the field. He championed and contributed to Ramsey theory, which studies the conditions in which order necessarily appears. Overall, his work leaned towards solving previously open problems, rather than developing or exploring new areas of mathematics. Erdős published around 1,500 mathematical papers during his lifetime, a figure that remains unsurpassed.

He was known both for his social practice of mathematics, working with more than 500 collaborators, and for his eccentric lifestyle; Time magazine called him "The Oddball's Oddball". He firmly believed mathematics to be a social activity, living an itinerant lifestyle with the sole purpose of writing mathematical papers with other mathematicians. He devoted his waking hours to mathematics, even into his later years; he died at a mathematics conference in Warsaw in 1996.

Erdős's prolific output with co-authors prompted the creation of the Erdős number, the number of steps in the shortest path between a mathematician and Erdős in terms of co-authorships. (wikipedia)

• • •

There's a quirky humor to this theme that's mildly charming, but a couple of the answers don't quite work, and overall the puzzle is way, way too easy. I suppose if you haven't heard of some of these book titles, then the puzzle might have provided more of a challenge for you. The last two titles (THE PRINCE OF TIDES and especially THE GREAT ESCAPE) don't have quite the same enduring fame of the others, but only THE GREAT ESCAPE gave me any pause, and then only because I had no idea it was a book. All the other titles are obviously books, definitively books, famously books, even if movie adaptations made some of the titles more generally famous than they'd otherwise be (looking at you, DANGEROUS LIAISONS). But THE GREAT ESCAPE? Yes, as I found out just now when I looked it up, it is a book, but would anyone now know about it if it weren't for the (exceedingly) famous movie? I love that movie. I own that movie. I've seen that movie half a dozen times. Somehow the fact that it was based on a book was entirely unknown to me. When I see the other titles, I think books. When I see THE GREAT ESCAPE, I think Steve McQueen and James Garner. Actually, DANGEROUS LIAISONS makes me think John Malkovich, but in that case, I was at least aware of the novel it was based on (by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (number of NYTXW appearances for LACLOS? Zero)). Two movie adaptations of that book came out within like a year of each other (yep, Dangerous Liaisons (1988) and Valmont (1989)), which may be why I knew it was a book in the first place. Or else I read part of it in French class one year, I forget. Anyway, DANGEROUS LIAISONS is perfectly booky, but I didn't like its being plural. I would've said Samson and Delilah made up a single liaison, although ... she does visit him repeatedly to try to learn the source of this strength, so I guess the "liaisons" were multiple, though only the last one seems to have been truly "dangerous" (to Samson, anyway). 

["... Samson & Delilah ..."]

The big weakness of the puzzle, though, wasn't the theme concept per se, but the fact that the answers were so so so easy to crack, at every turn. In fact, I don't think I looked at a single theme clue after the first couple, because I didn't have to. The rest of the puzzle was childishly easy, Monday easy, so I just zipped through it and when I saw a book title take shape in the long Acrosses, I just filled it in. Again, only THE GREAT ESCAPE took any effort, and then only because I didn't know it was a book. I know it must get tiresome hearing me talk about how the puzzle has been radically defanged in recent years. They must have data somewhere that tells them exactly what difficulty level promotes "engagement." Maybe "today's audiences" are impatient and don't like to experience failure, so in the interest of promoting "engagement," the steepness of the weeklong difficulty ramp has been (drastically) reduced. I don't know. I just know it's a drag to walk through a Sunday-sized grid where there's absolutely no resistance. Today was particularly bad, as the puzzle wasn't just easy, it was boring, and filled with musty answers, many of which I had presumed dead. I physically recoiled at stuff like ONENO and INRI and ONEL and ERTE, stuff every old-timer knows instinctively, but that reeks of mothballs by now. IRED!? Ugh, my most hated of never-was-a-word "words." The crosswordese (OPAH ARLO EDIE ILSA ICEE ACELA AROD COSI etc.) just swamps this puzzle, and the stuff that's not crosswordese gets only the most boring and straightforward of clues. A puzzle has a right to be easy (on occasion); it has no right to be dull.

Here is all the "difficulty" I encountered: Blanked on ERDOS, Vice President of the Crossword Mathematician's Club (second-in-command to President EULER). Because I blanked on ERDOS, I faltered on D.O.A. (46A: Hopeless from the start, for short). Let's see, what else? I ... hmmm ... I wrote in EXALT before EXTOL, so there's that (19D: Glorify). Oh, I had a little trouble with HAT TREES, as I would never call them that (they're "hat racks") and (more importantly) I had no idea the answer would be in the plural (86D: Where boaters hang with bowlers). Yes, there are multiple hats in the clue, but multiple hats can hang on a single hat rack (or HAT TREE, if you insist), so there's no reason I should've been looking for the plural there. Shoes have trees, hats have racks, thank you for maintaining this distinction! Anyway, that's it. I don't see a single other area of the puzzle that gave me any trouble. Not a one. And on a Sunday-sized grid? Big ol' grid with absolutely zero fight in it. Extremely disappointing.

[Saw this (amazing) movie yesterday at Cinemapolis in Ithaca, after seeing Send Help (2026) at my local REGAL movie theater on Friday (102D: Big name in movie theaters)]

Bullets:

• 6A: Setting for a landscape (CANVAS) — one of the more clever, inventive, and interesting clues in the puzzle. The clue wording is ambiguous, so that you don't really know what you're looking at ... and then you realize you're looking at a painting. 
• 45D: New Yorkie, say (PUP) — again, more like this! More cuteness. A little play on words, a little dog, that's what I'm talking about.

• 76A: Like Constantinople, in 1930 (RENAMED) — this wasn't "hard," but it didn't come to me right away. I think I was looking for something more dramatic, like INVADED or RETAKEN or something. Why'd they change Constantinople to Istanbul? I can’t say. I guess people just liked it better that way.

• 93A: Get the ___ (finally become aware) (MEMO) — more clues like this! This actually made me have to think. And work the crosses. And then when I got it, I was satisfied, not annoyed. Extremely straightforward clues are an important part of any puzzle (people need toeholds), but this puzzle desperately needed more playful clues like this.
• 22D: ___ Stark, "Game of Thrones" patriarch (NED) — I am an inveterate GOT non-watcher. I tried, it didn't take, The End. But my student Carmelo insisted that the new GOT spin-off, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, was worth my attention, so I put it on yesterday and damned if I didn't enjoy it. Laughed a lot. No dragons or magic or rape or incest so far, just an adorable lunk of a man (Ser Dunk!) trying to prove to everyone that he's actually a "knight." And so far I haven't needed to know a damn thing about the original GOT to enjoy it. I'm only one episode in, but so far: recommended.

• 81D: One making an impression? (MIMIC) — really disappointed to find out this wasn't MONET. That "M" had me so sure ...

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. two new crossword tournament announcements landed in my inbox this weekend. 

• Registration for the Boswords 2026 Spring Themeless League (starting Mar. 2) is now open:

This 10-week event starts with a Preseason puzzle on Monday, March 2 and features weekly themeless puzzles -- clued at three levels of difficulty -- from an all-star roster of constructors and are edited by Brad Wilber. To register, to solve a practice puzzle, to view the constructor line-up, and to learn more, go to www.boswords.org.

 

• Registration for Westwords 2026 is also now open. This tournament is both in-person (Berkeley, CA, June 14, 2026) and online.

Westwords 2026 will feature six competition puzzles, four themed and two freestyle (themeless), ranging in difficulty from easy breezy 💐 to very challenging 😈. The final puzzle will be offered at two different difficulty levels. All six puzzles will contribute to solvers' overall score and placement — in other words, the last puzzle will not be scored separately. // The tournament, both in-person and online, will run from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Pacific on Sunday, June 14. In-person solvers will be able to arrive at 10 to sign in and socialize. The day will include a 75-minute lunch break. 

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'N Sync bandmate of Justin Timberlake / MON 6-16-25 / Some bygone theaters / Short stiletto shoe / Slanted edges, as on mirrors / Yahoo alternative

Constructor: Jill Rafaloff and Michelle Sontarp

Relative difficulty: Easy (easiest Downs-only I've ever done, possibly)

THEME: BABY (64A: The first word of 18-, 23-, 36-, 49- or 56-Across is one) — first words of theme answers are BABY animals:

Theme answers:

• KITTEN HEEL (18A: Short stiletto shoe)
• JOEY FATONE (23A: 'N Sync bandmate of Justin Timberlake)
• PUPPY LOVE (36A: What a first crush might be dismissed as)
• CALF MUSCLE (49A: Spot that may be affected by a charley horse)
• CHICK FLICK (56A: Movie marketed toward a primarily female audience, informally)

Word of the Day: Make Way For Ducklings (9D: Setting for "Make Way for Ducklings" = POND) —

Make Way for Ducklings is an American children's picture book written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey. First published in 1941 by the Viking Press, the book centers on a pair of mallards who raise their brood of ducklings on an island in the lagoon in the Boston Public Garden. It won the 1942 Caldecott Medal for McCloskey's illustrations, executed in charcoal then lithographed on zinc plates. As of 2003, the book had sold over two million copies. The book's popularity led to the construction of a statue by Nancy Schön in the Public Garden of the mother duck and her eight ducklings, which is a popular destination for children and adults alike. In 1991, Barbara Bush gave a duplicate of this sculpture to Raisa Gorbacheva as part of the START Treaty, and the work is displayed in Moscow's Novodevichy Park.

The book is the official children's book of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Praise for the book is still high over 80 years since its first publication, mainly for the enhancing illustrations and effective pacing. The book is popular worldwide.

• • •

While this puzzle is solid in many ways, it's also way too remedial for the NYTXW. If you could see some of the puzzles that the NYT is rejecting these days, you'd be baffled by how something as straightforward and, frankly, stale this got accepted. I was dead certain that someone *must* have done a theme exactly like this before, possibly many times, probably sometime in the early '00s or earlier, and boy was I not wrong. It took me no time at all to find that it had been done at least twice—once by Liz Gorski in 2000, and another time by Stella Zawistowski and Bruce Venzke in 2007. And yes, it's true, most people will not remember that far back, but I know many constructors out there, pros and aspiring pros, who work so hard to come up with original themes only to have the vast majority of what they submit get rejected ... and if you're them and you see something like this get published, some little part of you has to be thinking "how? why?" Again, it is not a badly made puzzle. It's not terribly imaginative, but it's coherent, and the grid is notably clean and solid. But the revealer is a total letdown—completely unnecessary, in fact—and the only way this puzzle distinguishes itself from its predecessors (beyond the unnecessary revealer) is that it has five themers instead of four. The answers are slightly different—KITTEN HEEL is a new one, and this one lacks the CUB REPORTER that the others had (which was the first alternative theme answer I thought of, along with KIT CARSON and maybe, I dunno, pick a KID any KID: Cudi? Charlemagne? Rock? Ew, not Rock. But you get the idea). But on the whole this is just a barely warmed-over theme that was only so-so to begin with. All you gotta do is search your prospective theme answers in the database to see if they've been used before, and if so, in what capacity. If you find someone has done your theme before, but yours offers something really fresh and new, that's OK. Otherwise, go back to the drawing board.

[R.I.P., Brian Wilson]

What was interesting about looking back at earlier puzzles with this theme was the JOEY evolution. Solving Downs-only, I got the JOEY part pretty quickly, and I really thought the answer was going to be JOEY RAMONE (used once before, in a Tim Croce themeless, 2013). He's an iconic figure of '70s punk. But then OFF-DUTY (21D: Not working, as a police officer) gave me the "F" and made me remember JOEY FATONE, as well as this JOEY FATONE-themed die-cast metal hotrod I bought at Toys 'R' Us around the turn of the century for $1.18, Why!? 

Annnnnyway, after I was done, I searched JOEY FATONE to see if I could find out if this theme had been done before that way, but no: this is in fact a debut for Mr. Fatone's full name! Next I searched CHICK FLICK, and that's how I found the first version of this theme (2000). That puzzle also used Joey, but a different Joey: JOEY BISHOP. So this puzzle gets some credit for finding a more modern JOEY, and yet ... JOEY FATONE is about as "modern" now as JOEY BISHOP was in 2000, i.e. not terribly modern. The 2007 incarnation of this puzzle went with JOEY LAWRENCE, which, for its time period, is probably the most "modern" Joey of the bunch. Weird to me that none of these puzzles went with JOEY RAMONE, which, for me, is the best Joey option. The point is, there is no cultural consensus on who is the go-to Joey at this point in time. Not an issue you ever thought you'd find yourself considering, is it?

Another weird thing I discovered is that CHICK FLICK had a twenty-four (24!)-year hiatus before today's appearance. That seems very long. Actually, it got used in the plural in that 2007 version of this puzzle, but still, that's eighteen years. I would've expected an answer that colloquial and rhyming and bouncy to have snuck its way into some puzzle somewhere—a themeless, if nowhere else. Maybe people shy away from it because it sounds a bit derogatory, and certainly has been used by men that way for decades. I wouldn't normally use the term, for that reason, but I kinda like it as a phrase. It's got some life, some pizzazz. The other theme answers are fine as standalone phrases, and the grid overall, as I say, is very smooth, with a bunch of nice mid-range (6-7-letter) fill. There are real grid skills on display here. I just wish the theme were more ... something. Anything.

Bullet points:

• 30A: Vaccine-approving org. (FDA) — kind of dark, ironic humor here, having "Vaccine-approving" and RFK in the same grid (5D: ___ Stadium, former D.C. sports venue)
• 35A: Slanted edges, as on mirrors (BEVELS) — good word. Solving this Downs-only, I needed every cross but the "V" before I could guess it, which reminded me of that time (a long long time ago) when I faced a similar letter pattern in a crossword (BE-EL) and the clue was something like [Chisel face] or [Gem holder] and I thought "huh, must be BEVEL and the answer ended up being BEZEL, a word I'd never seen before in my life. Seems like kind of a cruel joke that one of the definitions of BEZEL is "A groove or flange designed to hold a beveled edge, as of a gem" (wordnik). Anyway, that "V" was crucial in my being able to get ADHESIVE (10D: Sticky stuff), the only Down that required multiple passes. Well, the only one besides ...
• 7D: Outset (GET-GO) — I had INTRO
• 23D: Bird whose name sounds like a letter of the alphabet (JAY) — first instinct here was the most common of three-letter birds: EMU. But that ... sounds like two letters of the alphabet (Roman, Greek), not one.  

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Here are the grids from those 2000 and 2007 puzzles that have this same theme, for comparison (both images taken from xwordinfo)

[Gorski, 2000]

[Zawistowski / Venzke, 2007]

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Small sip of alcohol to Brits / SUN 9-17-23 / Features of airports in Nevada / Common city street hangouts / Vegetable that looks like a portmanteau of two other vegetables (but isn't!) / Neither lose nor win in betting lingo

Constructor: Jill Rafaloff and Michelle Sontarp

Relative difficulty: Very easy

THEME: "Classical Music" — famous pop songs are clued as if they related to classical mythology (the musical artist is included in parentheses at the end of the clue):

Theme answers:

• "GIVE PEACE A CHANCE" (24A: Supplication to Ares (Plastic Ono Band))
• "HERE COMES THE SUN" (34A: Warning to Icarus (The Beatles))
• "LIGHT MY FIRE" (52A: Request to Prometheus (The Doors))
• "OH, PRETTY WOMAN" (66A: Comment to Aphrodite (Roy Orbison))
• "YOU'RE SO VAIN" (84A: Criticism of Narcissus (Carly Simon))
• "DON'T BRING ME DOWN" (95A: Entreaty to Hades (Electric Light Orchestra))
• "MORNING HAS BROKEN" (114A: Congratulations to Eos (Cat Stevens))

Word of the Day: Plastic Ono Band (24A) —

The Plastic Ono Band was a rock band formed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1969 for their collaborative and solo projects based on their 1968 Fluxus conceptual art project of the same name.

Lennon and Ono began a personal and artistic relationship in 1968, collaborating on several experimental releases. After their marriage in 1969, they decided their future endeavours would be credited to the Plastic Ono Band. The band featured a rotating line-up of musicians including Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann, Alan White, Billy Preston, Jim Keltner, Keith Moon, Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, and Lennon's former Beatles bandmates George Harrison and Ringo Starr. After Lennon and Ono moved to New York in 1971, they collaborated with Elephant's Memory under the name "Plastic Ono Elephant's Memory Band". Lennon's collaborations continued under similar names until 1974.

From 2009 to 2015 (29 years after Lennon was murdered), Ono and her son Sean Lennon led a new incarnation of the group, the Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band. [...] 

During the couple's second bed-in, held in Montreal in late May and early June 1969, Lennon, Ono and their guests recorded the Lennon-penned song "Give Peace a Chance" and Ono's "Remember Love". These were released on 4 July as a single credited to the Plastic Ono Band. It was the first single released by Lennon outside of the Beatles, with whom he was still active. Although an independent composition and release by Lennon, his Beatles writing partner Paul McCartney was still credited, as both a contractual and personal agreement of sharing credit. (wikipedia)

• • •

All these songs are old and (therefore?) in my wheelhouse. The modern song here—the only one that belongs to my own radio-listening experiences and not my parents'—is "DON'T BRING ME DOWN" which came out in 1979. So we've got seven songs, the most recent of which is 44 years old. These are all famous songs, for sure, but nothing since 1979? That's not exactly inviting to the youngsters—by which I mean, people under 40. Even though all these songs are superfamiliar to me (I know them all, note for note), the narrowness of cultural reference feels like a bit of a weakness. Everything came out between '64 and '79. I'm trying to imagine what older solvers would do with a puzzle that had this same theme, but where all the songs came out between '05 and '20. The howling! But a preponderance of solvers will know these songs as old friends, and will probably be delighted, as the theme is cute and the difficulty level is very, very low. I love these songs (well, most of them), and I love classical mythology, so my feelings about this one naturally skew toward the positive. Some of the cluing could've been more dynamic, or funny. Didn't really get why Eos was being "congratulated" for morning's having broken, and while Aphrodite is undoubtedly pretty, Helen seems like the one with the iconic good looks (the face that launched a thousand ships and all that). But I did think a couple of these were right on the money—funny in unexpected ways. See especially "HERE COMES THE SUN" (hilarious when imagined as a warning shout), and "DON'T BRING ME DOWN"—though technically everyone went "down" back then (Aeneas visits his father in Elysium, for instance, which is in the Underworld), and Hades didn't really "bring" you, your shade just sort of ... ended up there. So, essentially, this clue is conflating Christian ideas of the afterlife with classical ones ... but I still think it's funny. Narcissus is a bit on the nose, but on the nose is better than off the nose. In short, the theme was pleasant and light-hearted and entertaining. Assuming you know something about pop music 1964-79. And something about classical mythology, of course.

["Bruce?!"]

The fill is solid throughout—no cringing, and not even much sideeye that I can remember. Of course I was going so fast that I didn't really have time to think much about the fill, but I usually remember wincing and sideeye, even at high speeds. This one started out with an obvious 1-Across: Need for double Dutch (ROPE), and once I got going I never slowed down. Well, not never. I spun my wheels a little bit at ODER (!?) / FEUD. My German is bad to nonexistent, so no hope on ODER (which I know only as a river), and FEUD ... that must've had a vague or otherwise tough clue. Yep: 45A: Beef, maybe. I fell for the meat meaning, I think. The one proper noun that might've proved tricky for some today is YVONNE De Carlo—another pop cultural bone thrown to the oldsters (55D: De Carlo who played Lily Munster). That one's running through J'ADORE, another proper noun that might elude a few solvers (64A: Dior fragrance). You've also got the (classical!) MIDAS in there, but clued as an auto parts store—that adds yet another potentially unfamiliar proper noun to the mix. And that whole section crosses two themers. For me, the names were all ultimately familiar, but if you struggled a bit there, that seems understandable. 

My only real screw-up came at 106A: Camp production, maybe (B-MOVIE). I had the "-MO-" and very confidently and very proudly wrote in S'MORES. S'MORES are more a "camp production" than B-MOVIEs are. Most B-MOVIEs are nowhere near camp(y). They were simply the lower-budget, typically lower running-time movies on a double bill. Camp schmamp. I mean, anything cheap and badly acted might be camp, I guess, but most B-MOVIEs simply would not qualify. In short, S'MORES was the correct answer, and I am lodging an official protest with the Crossword Gods to have B-MOVIE overturned. I'll let you know how that goes. 

Last thing: if you are a Central New Yorker (as so many of the best people are), you should know that the Finger Lakes Crossword Competition is taking place *this* Saturday, Sep. 23, in Ithaca, NY. It's a benefit for Tompkins Learning Partners, an adult literacy organization in the Finger Lakes area. I'll be there giving a little preliminary talk on ... I don't know, something. If you live anywhere in the area, come solve a puzzle and say hi. It's not a big time commitment. More of a mini-tournament, where you can solve alone or in teams, and you can choose one of three difficulty levels. For more information, see the tournament's website. 

That's all, see you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. I think the vegetables in the imagined portmanteau of PARSNIP are parsley (?) and turnip (80A: Vegetable that looks like a portmanteau of two other vegetables (but isn't!)). Would never have thought of parsley as a "vegetable," but hey, it's green, it's leafy, whatever.

P.P.S. 16D: A, as in ancient history? is ANNO because the “A” here is the “A” in “A.D.”—ANNO Domini. Slightly weird clue, in that most time that might be marked “A.D.” is not, in fact, ancient, but maybe the clue is suggesting that the term itself is old, replaced in many quarters by “C.E.”—Common Era. 

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