Thoroughfare through N.Y.C.'s Chinatown / SUN 6-7-26 / Soda brand named for a volcano / Syntax-reversing rhetorical device / Union victory site of 1862 / Type of Thai red curry / Resident of the so-called "Nation of Poets" / North African fortress, in one spelling / Early Google algorithm for determining the importance of websites / Eighth Avenue express line in N.Y.C. / Like about 88% of U.A.E.residents / Red-haired hunter in Genesis / Country whose flag is known as "An Tridhathach" ("The Tricolor"): Abbr.

Constructor: Adam Wagner and Simeon Seigel

Relative difficulty: Medium

[46D: This is the way: Abbr. = RTE]
["This is the way..." is a catchphrase / mantra on The Mandalorian]

THEME: "Split Seconds" — I don't really know what "Split Seconds" is supposed to mean*, but the theme is essentially TWO OUT OF THREE (ain't bad) (though it ain't good, either) (66A: Amount that "ain't bad," so to speak ... or what to make with six sets of answers in this puzzle?)—basically six entire rows get double-clued, but the rows have three "answers" in them, so ... you have to make three "answers" out of the two ... or, looking at it another way, you have to take the three "answers" and imagine them as two. Yes, it is as confusing and awkward as it sounds:

Theme answers:

• GA TECH / ANGELIC / ENSURE (out of these three (unclued) "answers," you "make" the following two: GATE CHANGE and LICENSURE) (22A: With 23- and 24-Across, airport announcement / Requirement to practice, perhaps)
• SOLI / STENCHES / STABLES ("SO LISTEN..." and CHESS TABLES) (30A: With 32- and 35-Across, "Now, here's the thing..." / Some board game surfaces) 
• MADRE / SPECTATED / INNER (MAD RESPECT and ATE DINNER) (48A: With 50- and 54-Across, serious props / Had an evening meal)
• CHIAS / MUSCLEMEN / TINES (CHIASMUS and CLEMENTINES) (87A: With 88- and 91-Across, syntax-reversing rhetorical device / Small peelable citrus fruits)
• THE REST / "I MEANT IT" / HEFT ("THERE'S TIME" and ANTITHEFT) (105A: With 106- and 108-Across, "No need to hurry" / Like some security measures)
• WASABI / TODDLES / SOFTEN (WAS A BIT ODD (!?!?!?) and LESS OFTEN) (115A: With 118- and 121-Across, didn't quite fit in, say / Not as frequently)

[22A: GA TECH]

Word of the Day: Chiasmus (see 87A) —

In rhetoric, chiasmus (/kaɪˈæzməs/ ky-AZ-məs) or, less commonly,^{[citation needed]} chiasm (Latin term from Greek χίασμα chiásma, "crossing", from the Greek χιάζω, chiázō, "to shape like the letter Χ"), is a "reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses – but no repetition of words".

A similar device, antimetabole, also involves a reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses in an A-B-B-A configuration, but unlike chiasmus, presents a repetition of words. // Chiasmus balances words or phrases with similar, though not identical, meanings:

But O, what damned minutes tells he o'er
Who dotes, yet doubts; suspects, yet strongly loves.

— Shakespeare, Othello 3.3

"Dotes" and "strongly loves" share the same meaning and bracket, as do "doubts" and "suspects".

Additional examples of chiasmus:

By day the frolic, and the dance by night.

— Samuel Johnson, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749)

Despised, if ugly; if she's fair, betrayed.

— Mary Leapor, "Essay on Woman" (1751)

For comparison, the following is considered antimetabole, in which the reversal in structure involves the same words:

Pleasure's a sin, and sometimes sin's a pleasure.

— Lord Byron, Don Juan (1824) (wikipedia)

• • •

I know you've all been wondering how the installation of my new router went, and, well, it went great! No problems. Working internet, achieved! Wait, you weren't wondering that? Some of you must've been wondering that. How many of you were wondering that? [counts hands] one two ... OK, looks like six of you. Six or so. Anyway, like I say, you know longer have to wonder or worry. Turns out I can follow printed directions pretty darned well. So I got my internet back up an running, with full printer connectivity and everything, just in time for ... this. I haven't disliked a puzzle this much for a while. I mean ... while I was solving, the actual experience, I just kept wanting it to be over. So many unclued [See blah blah blah previous clue] answers. So much bizarre parsing and reparsing. All for a punchline that also seems kind of backwards to me. I have to make (i.e. enter) three answers out of the two answers that are clued. Three out of two, not TWO OUT OF THREE. As I say in the theme description, I see how you can turn it around and say that I have to make (i.e. envision) two answers out of the three answers on each theme-answer row. But still, the punchline didn't land as well as it might have for me because it just seemed backwards. But that's not the real problem here. The real problem here is ugh these "words" / phrases / answers. Starting with LICENSURE. Sure, it's a word, but man it's ugly, and I almost never hear it. You need a license to practice. LICENSURE is so bizarrely formal. And SPECTATED (an unclued "answer" in the second themer)—again, not a word you're actually likely to hear ever. "Spectators," sure, but SPECTATED, awk! ATE DINNER? That's about as close to ATE A SANDWICH as you're going to get. In fact, it ... WAS A BIT ODD (oof, not a standalone phrase). Did you all know what CHIASMUS was. If so, I'm impressed, because I did not. I know about "chiastic structure," which I guess is what CHIASMUS exemplifies, but this specific name of this specific rhetorical device? Uh uh. So, lots of weird and awkward words and phrases, all sliced and slapped together in unclued slabs of answer-like "answers." It hurts.

PAGE RANK? (96A: Early Google algorithm for determining the importance of websites)! TEASER RATE? (73D: Initially offered lesser charge)! Whose idea of a good time is this? Everything from ART TEST on down to the SW corner was miserable. You get a few nice moments with the longer answers like CASABLANCA (14D: Classic film said to be the most quotable movie of all time), though that clue is terrible ... "Said to be"???? Who said? How would you even measure that? It's true that I can think of a few famous quotes (including the spurious "Play it again, Sam"), but ... there's gotta be a better way to clue that. GOT A LOAD OF is decent (3D: Laid eyes on but good), though I had GOT A GANDER at first (!), and then GOT A LOOK AT. MANIFESTOS is fine, but ... so many of the "answers" today were unclued that the puzzle feels gutted of half its potential pleasure. No clues on ANGELIC or MUSCLEMEN or STENCHES. Just [See blah blah Across] over and over. It's not that it was particularly difficult, it was just complicated, and almost utterly devoid of pleasure. NO, SIR, not for me.

Between parsing and unparsing and reparsing the answers and the unclued "answers" and then dealing with shorter fill that was not-at-all self-evident to me (HIST? EXPAT?), this one did not go particularly quickly for me. Sloggy. Not fun-tough. Fussy-tough. I think the PAGE RANK / TEASER RATE part was the slowest for me, mostly because neither of those terms is that familiar to me (I had SITE RANK or something like that, and then ... I don't know what kind of RATE I was considering, but it definitely wasn't TEASER. Maybe INTRO or something like that). I had to wait on the Dwarf because SLEEPY and SNEEZY have so many letters in common (102D: One of the Seven Dwarfs). I had no idea what was going on with ANY SIZE for obvious reasons, i.e. that is a terrible non-thing that should not be allowed to pass as a standalone answer (124A: What wristwatch straps are designed to accommodate). Though I enjoyed hardly anything in this puzzle, I weirdly enjoyed MOTT ST (95D: Thoroughfare through N.Y.C.'s Chinatown), largely because it's got this improbable phalanx of consonants at the end (TTST), and because it makes me think of the Rodgers & Hart song "Manhattan," specifically this lovely rendition by Blossom Dearie.

["And tell me what street / Compares with MOTT ST. in July..."]

Bullets:

• 28A: America's largest labor union, familiarly (THE NEA) — Pronouncing this as one word now (THEE'-nee-ya) so that I can pretend that stupid definite article isn't there.
• 26A: North African fortress, in one spelling (KASBAH) — lol is there another spelling? I saw "in one spelling" and thought "dear lord how the hell are they going to spell it today? QAZZBA?" But no, just KASBAH, the only way I even remember seeing it spelled. Although now that I'm looking at CASBAH, maybe *that's* the spelling I'm most familiar with. I already had the "K" in place when I looked at the clue, so maybe I'm just hallucinating KASBAH as the most familiar spelling. Anyway, there are at least three more spellings, in addition to the "K" and "C" spellings: QASBAH, QASBA, QASABA 

[Yeah, look, the Clash spell it with a "C" so that must be the spelling I've always known]

• 41A: Former alliance of France, Italy, Japan, the U.S., the U.K. and West Germany (G-SIX) — there are so many "G" alliances that I'm not sure how anyone could keep them straight. I guess this clue gives you the opportunity to count, so, yes ... there are six countries you've got there. But you don't really need to count once you have the "G"—no other number is going to work but SIX. I mean, G-ONE would be pretty lonely, and G-TWO ... could be as bad as one, it's the loneliest G-group since the group G-ONE. Oh crud, I forgot about the G-TEN, that would've fit too. Never mind.

• 75A: Manufacturer's gross product? (SMOG) — that's a pretty clever clue for SMOG. But then SMOG crosses OPE 🙁 and all pleasure from the SMOG clue goes poof, just like that.
• 85A: Feature of an intersection that forces a turn (T-SHAPE) — had the "T" and thought "oh, what are those called ... T-STOPS? Three-way stops?" I would never in a million years have thought the answer would be something as dumb as T-SHAPE. It's just a "T." I guess you can't argue with the fact that a "T" is T-SHAPEd, but yeesh, that answer, not pretty. And crossing OPE! Rough patch there.
• 94A: Resident of the so-called "Nation of Poets" (SOMALI) — I have never heard Somalia so-called that. This was basically "Random resident of a country, good luck."
• 69D: Underworld boss? (HADES) — if you wrote in SATAN here, I understand, you are forgiven.
• 6D: Type of Thai red curry (PANANG) — good answer. Delicious answer. CURRY killed me on Quordle the other day because I had CUR-Y and had eliminated what I thought were all plausible letters that could go in that slot. And so I wrote in CURVY. D'oh! Forgot about the letters I already had in the word (namely, "R")! Rrrrrookie mistake.
• 36A: Musician who said "Reality leaves a lot to the imagination" (LENNON) — I wonder if "imagination" is supposed to be a subtle hint, since LENNON famously sang "Imagine." I think "Imagine" is kind of an insipid song, so here's something else.

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. If you are really into cryptic crosswords (I do at least one a day as a kind of cross (!)-training) the World Crossword Federation (yes, such a thing exists!) is sponsoring a U.S. Cryptic Crossword Championship next month. It's for U.S. residents of any nationality, and it's online, and you can find all the info you need at crypticsingh.com, or here, in this announcement:

 

*someone suggested that “Split Seconds” refers to the fact that you “split” the “second” “answer” in the trio in order to understand the clues, which is probably right, but as a solver, *I* have to “split” the *actual answers* to the clue definitions (i.e. the CH/ANGE in GATE CHANGE), so once again, the puzzle’s idea of what I am doing just doesn’t match what I perceive myself to be doing

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Cliff formed by a fault / THU 5-14-26 / Ruthless Athenian lawgiver / Prolifically posting about one's kids online, in a neologism / Member of a sluglike "Star Wars" species / September to April, in the oyster industry / Penultimate Greek letter / Biblical locale guarded by a flaming sword / Trellis piece / Alternatives to hourly wages / Former small-sized G.M. cars / Heather genus that's also a woman's name / Ancient book of divination

Constructor: Simeon Seigel

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

[45D: Member of a sluglike "Star Wars" species]

THEME: WATER (62A: Compound with a caret-shaped molecule, as depicted by this puzzle's circled letters) — "H2O" is represented visually four times in the grid (H-O-H), standing in for the word "water" in two Across answers each time:

Theme answers:

• STANDING [WATER] / [WATER]MARK (19A: Prime breeding environment for mosquitoes / 20A: Impression on some fancy sheets)
• ON THE [WATER] / [WATER] CANNONS (24A: At sea, say / 27A: Powerful fireboat gear)
• RETAINS [WATER] / [WATER] WINGS (43A: Gets bloated, say / 45A: Pair for a pool)
• RAIN[WATER] / [WATER] PITCHERS (48A: What collects in a puddle / 49A: Things often getting free refills)

Word of the Day: KITHARA (42D: Seven-stringed instrument that gave the guitar its name) —

The kithara (Greek: κιθάρα, romanized: kithára), Latinized as cithara, was an ancient Greek musical instrument in the yoke lutes family. It was a seven-stringed professional version of the lyre, which was regarded as a rustic, or folk instrument, appropriate for teaching music to beginners. As opposed to the simpler lyre, the cithara was primarily used by professional musicians, called kitharodes. In modern Greek, the word kithara has come to mean "guitar"; etymologically, the word guitar derives from kithara. (wikipedia)

• • •

Again with the extremely underwhelming revealers! That's like three days in a row now. This was possibly the underwhelmingest of the lot, as the WATER conceit was clear very early on. How early? This early:

As you can see, in my unthinking haste, I imagined that the "2" in "H2O" applied to the oxygen and not the hydrogen molecules, but that was easily fixed. And there it was H-O-H. I thought "maybe the other molecules will be ... different?" But they weren't. They were all water. And they represented water in eight different answers. Water water everywhere. And then I get to the end for the big reveal and it's ... WATER? It's just WATER? That's all you've got for me. No funny phrase, no wordplay, nothing that evokes the way the H-O-H molecules here actually connect two "WATER" answers each time (WATER BRIDGE? Is that a thing?)? Just ... WATER. WATER. A thing I already knew. A thing that was already obvious. Why even include WATER? It seems like such a sad afterthought here.

I've seen H2O puzzles before. This one is interesting / original because of the way the molecules bridge two different "WATER" answers. Again, I really wish there were some rationale for this bridging that could be expressed in revealer form. It would make the whole theme make much more sense. As is, H-O-H just seems like an architectural flourish. Who cares? Worse, you get a lot of actually fairly dull WATER answers. Like ... that's a lot of WATER, and hardly any of the answers are taking that WATER in an interesting direction. At least WATERMARK gets us out of a liquid form for a little bit. But otherwise, the WATER is just ordinary WATER. All wet. I will say, though, that the fill on this one is more interesting than usual, and lifts the puzzle somewhat out of boring territory. I mean, I don't *love* "R" MONTHS or PER DIEMS (plural), but at least they have a little flash, a little energy, a little sass. See also SHARENTING, a portmanteau that makes me cringe, but at least the puzzle's trying to keep things interesting (11D: Prolifically posting about one's kids online, in a neologism). And then it throws a KITHARA at me at the end, that was unexpected! I had the KI- and absolutely no idea what was happening. "Did ... did the KEYTAR give the guitar its name? I must have that backward." Indeed.

I do not eat oysters and know about the "R"-month thing only from crosswords—not because of the answer "'R' MONTHS" (4D: September to April, in the oyster industry) but because of "'R'-LESS" months! That's right, RLESS is a thing you used to see in crosswords to describe the months that oysters are out of season, when you're not supposed to eat them. Hmm, looks like RLESS is still alive and well and I've just mentally blocked that fact out. Ten appearances since I started blogging, though none for about five years now. I imagined RLESS as a relic of the Maleska days, but in fact RLESS has been used almost exclusively in the Shortz Era. The one pre-Shortz appearance (1989) actually clued RLESS as [Like speech in New England?]. Anyway, if you had no clue about the connection between "R"s and oysters, now you do.

Bullets:

• 25D: Had to have right away (NEEDED ASAP) — NEED ASAP would be a clunky and awkward answer, so NEEDED ASAP ... yeah, that's worse. The one clunker among the longer non-theme answers today. I keep reading it as NEEDED A SAP. [Yearned to con someone]?
• 1A: Cliff formed by a fault (SCARP) — I think I know the term "escarpment." But SCARP definitely gave me trouble today. I'm sure I've seen SCARP in crosswords before ... [checks database] ... yes, I have, a handful of times, but not for about five years. I got the "SCA" easily but the last two letters eluded me for a bit, in part because "ALL ME!" (not a thing people say) kept giving me "RM-" at the beginning of 4D: September to April, in the oyster industry, and that seemed impossible.
• 13A: "My fault entirely" ("ALL ME") — cannot imagine this as a standalone phrase. "That was ALL ME." "It's ALL ME." Maybe. But the standalone phrase is "MY BAD." "ALL ME" sounds more like you're bragging about an accomplishment than taking responsibility for a screw-up.

• 55A: Broadcasting giant with hundreds of stations (I HEART RADIO) — technically the whole thing is one word: "iHeartRadio." "iHeartRadio is owned by iHeartMedia, which was rebranded from Clear Channel in 2014" (wikipedia).
• 10D: A peeling that's appealing? (POTATO SKIN) — I mean ... if you like POTATO SKINs, I guess they're "appealing." Weird clue, though. "Appealing" doesn't really get at ... anything. I'm not sure the pun here is worth it.
• 3D: Palindrome on an Italian restaurant menu (ALLA) — crosswordese, and a gimme. I do not like this answer, but I do like that the puzzle decided to get a little inventive with the clue by linking it to the other culinary crosswordese palindrome in the puzzle, NAAN (39D: Palindrome on an Indian restaurant menu). Nice little echo there. Makes the crosswordese go down a little easier.

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Early PC game whose nonsense working title stuck / THU 8-21-25 / Destroyer of Hindu cosmogony / Swiss-born artist whose name sounds like an art medium / Old wide-screen format / Big name in Russian ballet / Deity with the raven familiars Huginn and Muninn / Start of a popular saying about gravity

Constructor: Simeon Seigel

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: WHAT GOES UP ... (38A: Start of a popular saying about gravity ... or a hint to completing the answers to the starred clues) — answers to the starred clues proceed Across like normal, but then, at the final square, go UP ... and then DOWN (through a separate, ordinary Down answer), so that, for example, what looks like BITTE (the German word for "please" or "pardon me"), is actually BITTER-ENDER (because the answer doesn't cross RENDER, it heads up from the first "E" in RENDER to the first "R" and then back down through the rest of the word: BITTE + R + ENDER = BITTER-ENDER)

Theme answers:

• BITTER-ENDER (BITTE x/w RENDER) (17A: *Person who persists in a hopeless cause)
• GAME RESERVES (GAMER x/w SERVES) (19A: *Wildlife parks)
• TAKE IT IN (TAKEI x/w TIN) (26A: *Enjoy the moment, say)
• LIVE RADAR (LIVER x/w DAR) (55A: *Storm-tracking aid)
• TONY AWARD (TONYA x/w WARD) (61A: *Musical appreciation?)
• ORGANIZING (ORGAN x/w ZING) (66A: *Forming a union)

Word of the Day: Kelleys Island (40D: Lake that's home to Kelleys Island => ERIE) —

Kelleys Island is both a village in Erie County, Ohio, and the island which it fully occupies in Lake Erie. The island has a total area of 4.41 square miles (11.42 km²) and was formed by glacial action on limestone and dolomite.

As of the 2020 census it has a year-round population of under 300 and is primarily a vacation destination with a large seasonal influx of visitors and workers. (wikipedia)

• • •

Up then down. Not TAKEI, but TAKE IT IN—once you hit the "I" in TIN, head up to the "T," and then come all the way back down through the "IN":

[follow the arrow, right, then up, then down]

The concept is much easier to grasp than it is to explain (concisely) in words. f was the first themer I "got," only I didn't fully get it, as I thought the answer simply turned down—that is, I thought the full answer was TAKE IN. I had to get BITTER-ENDER to understand that there was an up and a down component (so, not TAKE IN, but TAKE IT IN). Going up and down is certainly more impressive than simply going down. And the architecture of the theme kept revealing more layers of impressiveness as I continued solving. The theme doesn't just work, it works without a lick of nonsense in the grid. That is, the grid looks completely normal—all the Acrosses and all the Downs are plausible answers. It's only the starred clues that reveal the hidden bounciness and overlappingness of the underlying theme. Further, all the themers are symmetrical (an ordinary feature of a themed puzzle, but given the demands of this themed puzzle, a harder-than-usual thing to pull off, I assume). I love (truly) the fact that the revealer is only the first half of the familiar phrase (WHAT GOES UP ...), allowing me to infer the second part and thus not crowding the grid with unnecessary elements (never mind that getting MUST COME DOWN into this grid, as a whole answer or in parts, would likely have been impossible). So I'm duly impressed. I can't say I *loved* the actual experience of solving it—it was fussy, and some of the fill made me grimace a bit—but as "architectural feat" puzzles go, this one rates pretty high.

Things got a little ugly (and slow) for me right about ... I have an almost continuous squiggly line drawn from TOUCH (36D: Graze), through HE/SHE (53A: Lead-in to "they") and ZORK (57A: Early PC game whose nonsense working title stuck), down ZING to TSENG. (69A: Yani ___, youngest pro golfer to win five major championships (age 22)). All those answers, to varying degrees, fought me. Could not get the idea of a grazing animal out of my head for 36D: Graze (TOUCH). To me, "graze" is to "barely TOUCH" or "lightly TOUCH." Really needs a modifier. That's my excuse for not seeing TOUCH. No idea why you'd be saying "HE/SHE/They" all at once like that. Nobody's pronouns are HE/SHE/They, and since that's not a complete list of possible pronouns ... I don't understand the context for the list. Are people really using HE/SHE/They the way they used to use HE/SHE, as one catchall pronoun? Anyway, clearly whatever logic was going on there eluded me. As for ZORK and TSENG, that's just me not knowing anything (or knowing very little) about "Early PC games" (I wrote in PONG!) or women's (or men's, or children's, or anyone's) golf. I can't believe someone with a first name like YANI got into the NYTXW for the first time with her last name (TSENG). YANI is like "hey ... I'm right here ... four letters, ending in "I" ... Come on ... put me in, coach!"

Beyond ZORKTSENG (which will be the title of my future memoir), everything was pretty familiar to me. No real struggles, beyond the usual Thursday struggle to see through some of the Thursday cluing. The fill wasn't exactly thrilling today, but it didn't really have to be, given how much chaos was going on with the theme. I did like SEAWEED WRAP and CINERAMA. I did not like the two verb phrases ending in "ON" (READS ON, WAVED ON). That particular phrasing repetition made me wince. Repeating the word "ON" in the grid is no big deal, but repeating the placement of it in a verb phrase, that made the dupe too obvious. WAVED ON bugged me in a way that ON FIRE would not have. I might've noticed the repetition of "ON," but I wouldn't have felt it in my bones the way I did with WAVED ON. All the unpleasantness of hitting a pothole at full speed. But as grid ugliness goes, it's admittedly minor. Everything else seems OK.

Bullets:

• 10A: Needing more salt, perhaps (ICIER) — road (or sidewalk) salt. Because the roads (or sidewalks) are icy. 
• 55A: *Storm-tracking aid (LIVE RADAR) — not so familiar with this phrase. RADAR tracks storms, all on its own. Is there dead radar? Radar on tape? I'm sure it's a valid phrase, but it felt awkward to my ears. Maybe I'm not enough of a weather junkie.
• 56A: Brew designed to survive trips to the subcontinent, in brief (IPA) — wow, OK, did not know that. My first answer here was TEA, lol. India Pale Ale. "The higher hop content acted as a natural preservative" (wikipedia), well whaddyaknow? An actual fun fact.
• 70D: Score keeper? (STAND) — as in, a music stand, which "keeps" the "score" (i.e. holds the "copy of a musical composition in written or printed notation" (merriam-webster.com)). An excellent "?" clue.
• 15A: Swiss-born artist whose name sounds like an art medium (KLEE) — I always forget his name is pronounced "Clay"!

• 2D: Fictional character with a famous opening line (ALI BABA) — clever. "Opening line" as in "magical phrase (or "line") that opens the thieves' den," i.e. open sesame. Not "opening line" as in "Call me, ISHMAEL."
• 7D: What's off to the side in a selfie (ARM) — this is sorta silly but I like it. Wait, is my arm really in my selfies? Hang on ...

[Nope, doesn't check out]

• 22D: ___ can, item first made and patented in Britain in 1810 (TIN) — wow, that is a long way to go for TIN. Could've stopped at "can," but got all baroque with it in instead. 
• 28D: Just saying? (ADAGE) — because it's "just" (as in "true"?). I had the AD and went with ... LIB (you know, when you're "just saying" whatever the **** you like, script be damned)

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Boat with broad, square ends / THU 6-26-25 / Accessory for Broadway's Phantom / Atmospheric prefix / Brillo competitor / Baby fish with pink, coho and sockeye varieties / First Holy Roman emperor to be called "the Great" / Bygone jeans brand whose name means "happiness" in Hebrew / Bell for the telephone, for one / Eponymous Belgian town / Cocktail of tequila, lime juice and grapefruit soda / Potato, in Indian cuisine

Constructor: Simeon Seigel

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: ___ OR ___ — theme answers are familiar phrases where the first word follows the pattern _OR_; you must read the "OR" as a separate word in order to understand the pair of words in the theme clues:

Theme answers:

• HORN BLOWER (19A: Hurricane / Nor'easter) (word starting with "H" or "N" that means "blower")
• SORE SPOTS (10D: Sees / Espies) (word starting with "S" or "E" that means "spots")
• PORT AUTHORITY (Pundit / Tsar) (word starting with "P" or "T" that means "authority")
• CORD CUTTER (52A: Cleaver / Dagger) (word starting with "C" or "D" that means "cutter")
• WORM HOLES (33D: Wells / Mouths) (word starting with "W" or "M" that means "holes")

Word of the Day: OTS (34D: Certain rehab docs) —

Occupational therapists (OTs) are health care professionals specializing in occupational therapy and occupational science. OTs and occupational therapy assistants (OTAs) use scientific bases and a holistic perspective to promote a person's ability to fulfill their daily routines and roles. OTs have training in the physical, psychological, and social aspects of human functioning deriving from an education grounded in anatomical and physiological concepts, and psychological perspectives. They enable individuals across the lifespan by optimizing their abilities to perform activities that are meaningful to them ("occupations"). Human occupations include activities of daily living, work/vocation, play, education, leisure, rest and sleep, and social participation. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well that was hard, until I figured out the theme, and then it wasn't. And though the puzzle got easier after I got the theme, the fill did not, unfortunately, get better. This was full of wincing and ughing on my end, for sure. SAMLET? (7D: Baby fish with pink, coho and sockeye varieties). LOL, what in the world? The last time that word appeared in the NYXTX was, no joke, the literal day before I started this blog in 2006. If it's a word that's distinct from SALMON, why isn't "salmon" in the clue? Not that that would've helped ... except that it would've eliminated SALMON (also six letters) as a potential answer. SAMLET!? "Hmmm, what should I name my all-fish production of Shakespeare?" "Hmm. How 'bout Mackerelbeth?" "No, that's no good." "As You Pike It?" "Nah ... what else you got?" "Uh ... Tuna Gentlemen of Verona?" "No, that's silly! Keep thinking!" End scene. SAMLET? Craziness. Another thing I've never seen—OTS clued as "docs" (34D: Certain rehab docs). I had to look it up even to understand what the letters stood for. OTS has appeared many many times over the years, but only ever as an abbr. for "overtimes" (i.e. the periods in sports following regulation time, played only if there's a tie). No idea that BEANO was anything but an anti-gas product (1D: Original name for "bingo," after the bits used to cover the playing cards). No idea that SASSON was Hebrew for anything (7A: Bygone jeans brand whose name means "happiness" in Hebrew). I could've inferred what a PATENTEE is, but man that is one ugly word (and one I've never encountered before) (16A: Bell for the telephone, for one). The crosswordese was rampant today, from OTTOI (whose memory lives on solely because of crosswords), AER, AROAR, the dreaded ERIEPA (which I always want to pronounce as one word (air-ee-APE-ah!) but which is really just ERIE, PA). Then there's the awful, cutesy slang for the disease that killed over a million Americans between 2020 and 2023. Nevermind that I haven't heard anyone actually call it "'RONA" in years (53D: Covid-19, colloquially). Yuck and BOO to that clue.

[HORNBLOWER]

So there wasn't much that was amusing me in this one today. Everything is riding on the gimmick, and while I did have an "aha" moment, for sure, I can't say there was much joy, or awe, or pleasure, or anything that accompanied the "aha." I was just glad that I could (finally) see what was going on with the answers. Me: "well, those both blow, but ... what does 'horn' have to do with it?" I think I finally figured it out with "S" OR "E" SPOTS. "Sees" and "Espies" both mean "SPOTS" but ... how are they "sore?" How? How? Somehow, my brain managed to crack "SORE" into three parts: "S" OR "E." And that was that. My brain had a lot less success trying to parse OWEITTO (32D: Must give). It's an awful clue. Where is the "IT" coming from??? For that matter, where is the "TO" coming from? [Must give] = OWE. Good luck swapping out "OWE IT TO" for "Must give" in a sentence (without calling in lawyers and lexicographers, i.e. without seeming desperate). 

[Watson / Mabuse?]

I think you're supposed to admire how many theme answers there are, and how several of them actually intersect (not the easiest thing to pull off, structurally). I recognize the architectural achievement, sure, but it did nothing to increase my solving enjoyment levels, which remained pretty low throughout. There just wasn't enough cool fill, or enough wit or cleverness, to make this consistently entertaining. The main theme idea is cute, but it's not what you'd call funny. It's a little word trick that's tough to figure out, but once you do ... shrug. In the end, it was gimmicky without being delightful. Plus you had to endure awkward Latinness with DATUM and STERNA. There's no joy in that.

Bullets:

• 59A: They try to admit the worst first, informally (E.R. NURSES) — do the nurses do the admitting? Whatever, I'm going to assume that's true and say that I like this clue. The real meaning of "admit" is disguised nicely.
• 65A: Choice words ... which are necessary to interpret the answers to 19-, 36- and 52-Across and 10- and 33-Down) (ORS) — I'm only just noticing this (awkwardly worded and completely unnecessary) revealer now. "Which are necessary to interpret" does not begin to get at what is going on here. Something about the "ORS" being buried or hidden or something like that would've made more sense. If you're going to bother with a revealer, at least get the phrasing right.  
• 63A: Marquis name? (DE SADE) — sadism and COVID in the same corner, what a day!
• 13D: Music export from Tokyo, informally (J-POP) — short for "Japanese Pop Music," not to be confused with K-POP, Korean Pop Music (of which BTS is an example) (20D: Music export from Seoul)
• 38D: Love lines? (ODE) — "Lines" of poetry about something you "love." Poetry dressed up as palmistry. Nice.
• 39D: Dutch cousin of Mac or Ben (VAN) — as in, say, Martin VAN Buren (our mutton-choppiest president). I thought "VAN" meant "from," whereas "Mac" meant "son of?" But I guess using "cousin" in the clue gives you a lot of leeway in terms of how close the equivalency really is. I wrote in VON at first, but that's German, not Dutch.

[VAN!]

• 60D: Car that went defunct in 1936 (REO) — not to be confused with the GEO, which "went defunct" in 1997.

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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African creature whose name is one letter away from what its horns might do / THU 5-15-25 / Dizzy feeling, with "the" / Certain grain source / Mark Twain tale narrated in the first person by a noted first woman

Constructor: Simeon Seigel

Relative difficulty: Hard (17:03)

THEME: [Statements that can be seen as positive ... or a hint to interpreting the theme entries] for DOUBLE NEGATIVE — In four long across entries, the letter string NO NO becomes YES, with each of the "NO"s squished into one box

Theme answers:

• [Some colorful apparel] for TIE DYE SHIRTS which was written as TIE D NO NO HIRTS
• The down answers crossing were NOD TO and DINO
• [Certain grain source] for RYE SEED which was written as R NO NO EED
• The down answers crossing were NOT IT and SNOOTILY
• [Old-fashioned homemade cleaner] for LYE SOAP which was written as L NO NO OAP
• The down answers crossing were NODULE and NOODLE
• [Des Moines's domain] for HAWKEYE STATE which was written as HAWKE NO NO TATE
• The down answers crossing were NOSE and RHINO

Word of the Day: HART (Eponym of the N.H.L.'s M.V.P. award) —

The Hart Memorial Trophy is named in honour of Canadian Dr. David Hart. Dr. Hart, who donated the original trophy to the NHL, was the father of Cecil Hart, a former coach and general manager of the Montreal Canadiens.

• • •

Hi friends! Welcome to an off-schedule Malaika MWednesday aka Malaika MThursday. I just watched a movie with a friend and then tried to catch a bus home. I missed the bus by literally 30 seconds (I ran after it and waved at the bus driver, the whole deal), and so I hopped on a bike, and while I was biking home I saw the exact bus I had missed in a huge accident!!!!! No one was hurt (because the busses here drive like 4mph lol) but the car was fully totaled and I am still reeling from this experience and feel like I am a character in Final Destination. 

Okay, sorry for rambling, onto the puzzle! I love love loved this theme, but I did not really like the level of difficulty. I am a huge fan of rebus puzzles! I think there should be more of them on other days of the week, with circles and in-app tips about how to enter the answer. I'm also pretty good at clocking a rebus puzzle early. Usually what happens is I run into an entry I've seen a zillion times, but it doesn't fit. In this case, it was with the clue [Acknowledge nonverbally]. I knew this had to be either "nod at" or "nod to," but there weren't enough empty boxes. 🚨Rebus alert!!!🚨 At that point I searched around the grid for the revealer and confirmed NO felt relevant.

I think new solvers struggle with rebuses because they don't trust their gut-- like, let's take a look at the clue [Beast with a horn]. Pretty much anyone would say that this is a RHINO. But a new solver would look at the four available boxes and think "Oh man there must be some esoteric animal I've never heard of...." (in the vein of okapi or oryx or, um, IMPALA) and leave it blank, where a more experienced solver would think "Aha! 🚨Rebus time!!🚨"

Speaking of rhinos, the Solio Rhino Sanctuary has a new baby named..... MALAIKA!!!

It took me about seven minutes to solve the thematic element of the puzzle (aka all the long across answers + the down answers that crossed through the rebus) and then ten minutes to solve the rest. For me, that's a long time to spend on a third of a themed puzzle, and I didn't love it. Once I was done with the theme, I kept thinking "Well what's the point of all this?" In a hard themeless puzzle, your reward is the long, colorful entries. But here, I was struggling with super opaque clues on short fill (LOOT for [Spoils] was one example here), and the cleverness did not feel fun, it felt like a chore. I finished with an error-- I had RUSH (for [Call for delivery?]) and ROKES (for [Slow sorts, in slang], thought it was some old-timey slang I didn't know). That central bottom section was sooo hard for me.

But I'd like to know what your solving progress was like! I'll admit that I absolutely bodied the theme-- as I said, I got the rebus almost immediately, and was able to immediately plunk in the revealer across the center; the rest of the theme content was easy-peasy from there. But if the rebus was more of a slow burn for you, and you didn't get the theme until your grid was already 3/4 full, I can see your experience with the difficulty being different from mine. 

This is not really related to the puzzle but "slow burn" made me think about the announcement that Season 4 of Bridgerton is coming out soon

I almost wish I'd got to experience the theme as a Slow Burn because it was so deliciously good. I feel like it could be in a Crossword Textbook for how to absolutely nail a theme. There's a couple pretty tricky things going on (a rebus, letters getting swapped in, and letters reading differently across vs down), but the revealer so perfectly describes the behavior that it almost feels simple once you get it. Like "Oh, duh! The double negative becomes a positive! Of course!!" So elegant. On top of that, the two longer theme answers were fun and interesting. (And, outside of the thematic entries, we got HAIR SALON and MEAT EATER.)

Bullets:

• [Small, clingy bristles on a gecko's foot] for SETAE crossing [Longtime deodorant brand] for ARRID — I had to totally guess on the A here. The gecko vocab was last used in the Times puzzle in 2013.
• [Letter before cue] for PEE — The clue is referencing the letter Q, which is preceded by the letter P. I think it's so dumb when they do this, btw. We all pee! Let the clue reference pee!!
• [Cool cat's "Roger that"] for IM HIP — I'm sorry but this felt like it was written twenty years ago...
• [Close one, for short] for BFF — Fantastic clue, and I would have loved to see this in a hard themeless puzzle with no abbreviation indicator. I think when abbreviations are used aloud just as commonly as the full term (like MIT or ATM) then hard puzzles don't need the indicator.

xoxo Malaika

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