Hectic time for JFK / FRI 6-26-26 / Like many films in teaser trailers / Symbol in the Kentucky Derby logo / Current affairs? / Pulitzer-winning poet Aiken / Self-driving car company started by Google

Constructor: Spencer Leach

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: None

Word of the Day: SANSEI (22D: Third-generation Japanese American) —

Sansei (三世, "third generation") is a Japanese and North American English term^[1] used in parts of the world (mainly in South America and North America) to refer to the children of children born to ethnically Japanese emigrants (Issei) in a new country of residence, outside of Japan. The nisei are considered the second generation, while grandchildren of the Japanese-born emigrants are called Sansei. The fourth generation is referred to as yonsei.^[2] The children of at least one nisei parent are called Sansei; they are usually the first generation of whom a high percentage are mixed-race, given that their parents were (usually), themselves, born and raised in America.^[3]

• • •

Hi, friends! It's Rafa here, and I'll be covering for Rex for a few days so strap in for a weekend of crossword commentary and good vibes! The crosswords that I have published in the NYT are almost always challenging late-week puzzles, so it's extra fun to blog those puzzles because I usually have More Things To Say about them. (I continue to try sending early-week puzzles to the editing team, but they are always rejected! But maybe you can can help me manifest for my luck to turn soon.)

WAYMOs are everywhere in San Francisco

Onto this puzzle! Single-word answers are often seen as less desirable in themeless puzzles, as they can be less lively than their multi-word counterparts. It was cool to see this puzzle lean into solid one-word entries like ELECTRODYNAMICS and MIXOLOGIST and ASTRONOMER. In fact, my favorite part of the entire puzzle was the very clever clue echo in [Expert on cosmos?] (think the Cosmopolitan cocktail) and [Expert on the cosmos]. Oh, look, PANOPTICON is a single word, too. I usually see that word used metaphorically and was surprised to not see a cluing angle that reflects that common usage. But I can't really complain ... it's an accurate definitional clue.

Two TRAMs

Outside of the clue echo highlight, the grid felt a bit too ... claustrophobic? ... I'm not sure what word to use to describe it. It's not an inherent issue with a grid, but for a themeless puzzle it's nice when there are at least a few slightly chunkier areas of white space to tackle, and this puzzle didn't really have any of those. Entries like TEETERED and TAILOR TO felt quite bland for a puzzle without wide-open-space constraints. And while I'm in a nitpicky mood ... EXTRA LARGE PIZZA feels like the kind of entry that gets included only because of its high scrabble value. Again, not inherently a bad thing, idk, just a thought. And the [Biggest restaurant size that nevertheless is often topped?] clue felt a bit too tortured to me.

LEGOS in the form of the Sagrada Família. Lego's biggest ever set, and it's coming out later this year!

HOUSE OF PAIN and ROYAL FORK were both new to me, but were pretty inferable and cool to learn about. EDGE CASES and HARD CAP are both things I heard (and said) a lot in my software engineering career, so it was also cool to see those entries. And some lovely clues too. I enjoyed [Bar of note?] for FRET and [Copy cat?] for MEW and [Goals for those in a rush, informally] for FRAT. Though, I thought that could have used a ? as I don't think I'd use rushing a frat as a countable noun as in "a rush" ... but I did not rush any FRATs in college so maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about.

Ok, I think those are my thoughts! Hope everyone is doing great, and I'll be back tomorrow.



Bullets:

• VIET (40D: ___ Nam) — I'd never seen the country's name written out separately, but the official name is "Socialist Republic of Viet Nam."
• SANSEI (22D: Third-generation Japanese American) — This term applies throughout the Americas. I grew up in Brazil, which has the largest Japanese population in the world outside of Japan, so I enjoyed seeing this answer.
• BRAD (11D: Two-pronged fastener) — I have never heard of a BRAD as a fastener. But Google assures me that it is, indeed, a thing. Is this something everyone has heard of except me?
• TRIVIAL (39A: Mickey Mouse) — Again, I have never heard the idiom Mickey Mouse to mean trivial, but I got this answer entirely from crosses so I didn't really notice that during the solve.

Signed, Rafa

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What "maki" means in Japanese / TUE 10-21-25 / Slow-cooked taco filling / Seaweed wrap for maki / Nut-brown hue / Venue for combatants wearing vests with sensors / Valuable Minecraft blocks / Half of a classic lunch special / Advances from third while the pitcher is distracted, say

Constructor: Spencer Leach

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: A SHOT IN THE DARK (47A: Wild guess ... or what 19-, 24- and 41-Across let you take?) — one place and two things that (literally) let you take a "shot" in the dark (with the meaning of "shot" changing in each answer):

Theme answers:

• INFRARED CAMERA (19A: Device for capturing thermal images) (a "shot" with a camera)
• BASEMENT PARTY (24A: Where you might dance to some underground music?) (a "shot" of liquor)
• LASER TAG ARENA (41A: Venue for combatants wearing vests with sensors) (a "shot" with a laser gun)

Word of the Day: BARBACOA (37D: Slow-cooked taco filling) —

Barbacoa, or asado en barbacoa (Spanish: [baɾβaˈkoa] ^ⓘ) in Mexico, refers to the local indigenous variation of the method of cooking in a pit or earth oven.^[1] It generally refers to slow-cooking meats or whole sheep, whole cows, whole beef heads, or whole goats in a hole dug in the ground, and covered with agave (maguey) leaves, although the interpretation is loose, and in the present day (and in some cases) may refer to meat steamed until tender. This meat is known for its high fat content and strong flavor, often accompanied with onions and cilantro (coriander leaf). Because this method of cooking was used throughout different regions by different ethnic groups or tribes in Mexico, each had their own name for it; for the Nahuatl it was called nakakoyonki; for the Mayan it was called píib; for the Otomi it was called thumngö. (wikipedia)

• • •

Never saw the theme. Blew through this like it was a Monday themeless. Almost no resistance. The first time I thought about the theme was literally when I was starting this write-up and I got to the "Theme answers" part of my blog template and was like "oh yeah, right, what was that?" It was a nice discovery—taking a familiar idiomatic phrase and reimagining / literalizing it for three different contexts. The biggest reach / stretch / swing of the three is arguably the best of the three. Of course, it's arguably the worst of the three, ymmv, obviously. Are basement parties notably dark? Paradigmatically dark? Are they a specific type of party or just, you know, a party anyone might have in their basement? The "darkness" part doesn't seem as apt for that answer, and yet that answer takes "shot" in the most unexpected direction, so I like it. I kind of hate-like it. It's capital-"W" wacky, which is the only kind of "wacky" I really like. Or the kind I respect most, at any rate. Everything else about this grid is a blur. With a couple of exceptions, I filled in every answer in this puzzle almost as fast as I could read its clue. 

The few parts that caused me to stop and think for a second ended up being some of the more entertaining parts of the solve, though maybe they're just the places I happen to remember because they slowed me down. I had NICEL- at 10D: "Bravo!" and thought "NICE ... LEGS? NICE LUNGS? What are we doing here?" Took me a bit to see that the "L" was attached to "NICE," part of the same word. NICELY! Unless there's such a thing as a LYDONE and I'm completely misreading the situation. I didn't get slowed down with BARBACOA, but I did misspell it (BARBICOA). Is there something called a "Barbicon?" Or am I thinking of the Rubicon? Barbicon sounds like a doll convention. Hang on ... oh. It seems I was thinking of BARBICAN:

A barbican (from Old French: barbacane) is a fortified outpost or fortified gateway, such as at an outer defense perimeter of a city or castle, or any tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defensive purposes. (wikipedia)

There's also definitely a BARBIZON beauty college. I remember seeing (or hearing) ads for them when I was a kid in the '80s. Anyway, I blame either BARBICAN or BARBIZON or, sure, why not, BARBIE, I blame BARBIE (though not ISSA Rae specifically) (48D: Rae of "Barbie") for my thinking that BARBICOA was spelled that way. The only other thing  I screwed up in this puzzle was ACORN, which I did not know was a [Nut-brown hue], or any kind of hue. I had the "C" and wrote in OCHER. Or was it OCHRE? I can never keep them straight.

More:

• 51D: What "maki" means in Japanese (ROLL) — a triple "maki" puzzle (see also the clues on SUSHI and NORI) (44A: Maki or temaki and 2D: Seaweed wrap for maki). That's two more "makis" than have ever actually appeared in the NYTXW. MAKI made its sole appearance as an answer late last year ([Sushi roll wrapped in seaweed]), though it did appear once before that in a non-SUSHI context. Can you guess how it was clued? Let me stop you right now—you can't. Or you can, in which case I'm very impressed with your knowledge of the animal kingdom. MAKI is apparently a lemur. When I search "maki" it's the first thing that comes up—though admittedly, this set of definitions (which comes up at the top of the search — I use DuckDuckGo) does not inspire confidence:

[The what version of the what dictionary? And ... why is def. 3 ... the same as def 1?]

• 35A: Valuable Minecraft blocks (ORES) — OR-S and I swear I wanted ORBS. And then ORCS. Force of habit. My brain is a very fast but not always accurate crossword answer generator, and when it glitches, it glitches pretty bad.
• 58A: "Summer of ___," Questlove documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival (SOUL) — I love how far out of its way this clue goes to get an excellent movie into the puzzle. 10 jillion potential SOUL clues out there and this one's like, "hey, I know, how about some amazingly joyful music? You like Gladys?"

• 20D: Tinder account datum that can't be edited (AGE) — someone sounds frustrated. Someone sounds like they tried to edit their AGE in their Tinder account.
• 26D: Advances from third while the pitcher is distracted, say (STEALS HOME) — nice answer, and a debut, although there has been a STEAL HOME (2017) and a STOLE HOME (2012 ... I know because that was me)
• 2427D: What team-building activities are designed to build (TRUST) — huh. I would've said MORALE. Or ... teamwork, something like that. Do you really have to TRUST your coworkers? Does anyone ever really TRUST their coworkers? Steve from Accounting? Really? Come on.

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Golden retriever who ends up with a chocolate lab? / FRI 11-1-24 / November handout / Native East African people / Eggs-terminates? / "Dress for Less" sloganeer / Accumulating bowlful while eating edamame / "I" lift? / Writer of the "Phaedrus" circa 370 B.C. / Noted surname in avant-garde art

Constructor: Spencer Leach

Relative difficulty: Easy (like, Tuesday-easy)

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: CHARLIE BUCKET (25A: Golden retriever who ends up with a chocolate lab?) —

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a 1964 children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. The story features the adventures of young Charlie Bucket inside the chocolate factory of eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka. [...] Charlie Bucket lives in poverty with his parents and grandparents in a town which is home to a world-famous chocolate factory. One day, Charlie's bedridden Grandpa Joe tells him about Willy Wonka, the factory's eccentric owner, and all of his fantastical candies. Rival chocolatiers sent in spies to steal his recipes, forcing Wonka to close the factory and disappear. He reopened the factory years later, but the gates remain locked, and nobody knows who is providing the factory with its workforce. // The next day, the newspaper announces that Wonka has hidden five Golden Tickets in Wonka Bars; the finders of these tickets will be invited to come and tour the factory. The first four tickets are found by gluttonous Augustus Gloop, spoiled Veruca Salt, compulsive gum-chewer Violet Beauregarde, and television addict Mike Teavee. One day, Charlie buys a Wonka Bar with some money he found in the snow. When he opens it, Charlie discovers that the bar he bought contains the fifth and final ticket. [...] During the tour, the other children besides Charlie give in to their impulses and are ejected from the tour in darkly comical ways [...] With only Charlie remaining, Wonka congratulates him for "winning" the factory. Wonka explains that the whole tour was designed to help him find a worthy heir to his business, and Charlie was the only child whose inherent genuineness passed the test. They ride the Great Glass Elevator and watch the other four children leave the factory before flying to Charlie's house, where Wonka invites the entire Bucket family to come and live with him in the factory. (my emph.) (wikipedia)

• • •

[me, this past Sunday]

I don't time my solves any more, but I sort of wish I'd had the timer on today because I think I would've been close to a record time for a Friday—without actually trying. Here is *everything* that gave me even the slightest hesitation today: CHARLIE BUCKET's last name; MAASAI (only because of the double-A; I learned it as MASAI) (5D: Native East African people); SKIDOOS (just the -DOOS part) (36D: Some snowmobiles); DEB somebody from Nebraska (38A: Nebraska senator Fischer); and BOYO (49D: Australian lad). The end, that's it. Every other answer went in as soon as I read the clue. I worked off of crosses the entire time, never having to jump around, never stopping for more than a few seconds, even at the parts that gave me trouble. I guess you could say this puzzle seemed designed to be an EGO-BOOSTER (54A: "I" lift?), but then again you'd probably say "EGO BOOST," since that's what people actually say. People also actually say "A JOB'S A JOB" (assuming they say that particular phrase at all), not the oddly formal "A JOB IS A JOB." "A JOB IS A JOB" is what some first-gen A.I. would say. Robbie the Robot would say "A JOB IS A JOB" (Forbidden Planet reference there ... for the kids!). Speaking of A.I., here's the result I get from Google's "AI Overview" when I google [ego booster] (please note the part that the A.I. has highlighted ... for my convenience?)

[Never, ever take "AI Overview" for an answer]

I didn't care for this puzzle too much on the whole. The whole thing seemed to exist solely for that elaborate if rickety dog-misdirection clue on CHARLIE BUCKET (it gets a gold star sticker for effort, at any rate) (25A: Golden retriever who ends up with a chocolate lab?) (Charlie is the "Golden (ticket) retriever and the chocolate factory is the "lab" in this scenario). The puzzle's other raison d'être might be the somewhat topical "I VOTED" STICKER—that's not a bad answer, actually, though anything that makes me think about the election any more than I already have to is, at this point, entirely unwelcome (41A: November handout). Make it stop. (I'm well aware that it will stop soon ... or it won't ... *&#$^#@! OK moving on ...). Speaking of stop. Guess what stops this weekend? Daylight Saving Time! If I could drive a stake through the heart of DST (both as a crossword answer and an actual thing), I would. Standard Time forever! DST is some antiquated / pre-industrial / agrarian / Chamber of Commerce baloney. But I digress. The puzzle just didn't do much for me today. Something about the clue on LESBIAN BAR rubbed me the wrong way (13A: Where opposites don't attract?). I get that it's playing on the concept of the "opposite sex," which, OK, but the very concept feels stale, and the clue ends up kind of suggesting that all lesbians are the same? There are certainly lots of lesbian couples where the women do, in fact, seem like "opposites," so ... I dunno, the clue felt harmless, but also clumsy and unfunny, like a joke someone might've told a generation ago, and badly. As opposed to this bit about a LESBIAN BAR from a generation ago, which is timeless:

I guess "I CALL B.S." is original (literally, in the NYTXW, it is—it's a debut). I'd respect the answer more if it went the less bowdlerized route: the fully profane "I call bullshit" just has a nicer ring to it. And it's certainly what people say (people who aren't censoring themselves ... for the kids?). Weirdly, the thing that bugged me most about ICALLBS was that it replicated the "LBS" letter string in the adjacent LBS (4D: Barbell abbr.). That I was bored enough by the answer to notice that ... as I say, weird. I was also oddly bothered by SKEE next to SKIDOOS (both those answers bother me independently, but when they team up, there's some kind of evil synergy afoot). I hate the idea of ONLINE POKER, as I hate all poker content, but the clue there is pretty good (6D: In which computer chips are used?). Not fun to imagine this caricature of an offended diner snapping "SEND IT BACK" to the poor server. The entire SW corner is just a garbage dump of mediocre fill (SISEÑOR, INAROW, INOIL). But I suspect this one will generally go over well with solvers because everyone loves a puzzle they can crush, and man is this puzzle crushable.

[46D: Packed like sardines, often]

Notes and explanations:

• 30A: Accumulating bowlful while eating edamame (PODS) — I see the image you're going for here but something about "Accumulating bowlful" is so awkward and ungainly that it takes away my appetite. 
• 36A: Eggs-terminates? (SPAYS) — this pun is creepy. Dislike.
• 40A: Shoes, casually (KICKS) — had the -CKS and briefly (very briefly) considered MOCKS ... I I wasn't happy about it ("That's not how you spell MOCS!"), I just considered it.
• 50A: "Dress for Less" sloganeer (ROSS) — does every part of the country have a ROSS. We had on in Fresno when I was growing up, but I haven't seen one or even thought of the place much since then. (I was all set to say "we don't have one around here" but looks like one *just* opened on the Vestal Parkway, where the old Circuit City used to be; its Grand Opening was October 13 ... clearly I have no idea how universally known this "sloganeer" is)

• 28D: Drumming one's fingers, perhaps (BORED) — conventionally, historically, I suppose, but no one gets finger-drummingly bored anymore since everyone has smartphones, and if you are drumming your fingers (as I was, coincidentally, while reviewing this puzzle before blogging), it's probably just excess / nervous energy. Or you're tapping out a tune. I'd say that the gesture bespeaks impatience more than boredom, but I guess those are related feelings.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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The "long" version of it is 12% heavier / SAT 8-10-2024 / Brand of brightly colored hair dye with a rhyming name / First civilization to cultivate potatoes / Animal whose pattern allows it to camouflage into grassland / Gambling venues with a portmanteau name

Constructor: Spencer Leach

Relative difficulty: easy-ish; most of the struggle was getting logged into all the various accounts and then realizing all my settings were off; seriously, how TF does anybody solve crosswords with all the annoying "halfway done!" popups, they're so awful and annoying

Word of the Day: TON (The "long" version of it is 12% heavier) —

The long ton, also known as the imperial ton or displacement ton, is a measurement unit equal to 2,240 pounds (1,016.0 kg). It is the name for the unit called the "ton" in the avoirdupois system of weights or Imperial system of measurements. It was standardized in the 13th century. It is used in the United States for bulk commodities.

It is not to be confused with the short ton, a unit of weight equal to 2,000 pounds (907.2 kg) used in the United States, and Canada before metrication, also referred to simply as a "ton".

A long ton is defined as exactly 2,240 pounds. The long ton arises from the traditional British measurement system: A long ton is 20 long hundredweight (cwt), each of which is 8 stone (1 stone = 14 pounds). Thus, a long ton is 20 × 8 × 14 lb = 2,240 lb. [wikipedia; gotta love the inherent randomness of imperial units]

• • •

Christopher Adams here, back at the keyboard after a very long day at the Iowa State Fair, and then a long experience trying to get into the puzzle (and this blog) because I'm staying in a hotel overnight, which means I'm not on the usual computer, which meant having to remember a lot of passwords that I haven't used in years because my computer remembers them, and then realizing all my solving settings were off, so navigating this puzzle was like a deer on a frozen pond; anyway, even if I don't remember passwords, I remember answers, especially when the clues are way too easy for a Saturday (all things considered, about a 3:30 solve w/o navigation issues). 

Not really what I was wanting from a Saturday if I wanted something difficult; lots of the clues that wanted to be difficult or misdirect simply didn't do either of those things. You give me a question mark on [Regular joes?], you might as well put up the bat signal and say "it's a coffee pun". You put in a brand most solvers won't know (MANIC PANIC) and then immediately nerf the difficulty by saying it's rhyming, which gives solvers letters for free. Etc etc. And quite a few of the clues (SRO, BIG TOP, RAMS, LIRA, BAO, many others) were just straight definitions (or oft-used clues) that I'd expect to see early in the week. I guess you could say that I was ONTO [23A: Not fooled by] this puzzle.

And there's not much in the way of fill for me to like here; others will like MANIC PANIC, PICKLEBALL, TIKTOK DANCE, etc. more than I do, but these are just things that range from meaningless to me to things I actively abhor (again, YMMV). YOU PROBLEM was nice, but more the exception to the rule; ditto for TWISTER MAT and GEOCENTRIST (more for the clues, which again, exception to the rule).

Olio:

• PICKLEBALL [Sport that has generated noise complaints across the country in recent years] — I look forward to this trend dying as soon as possible, as I am not a pickleball person. Also, there's pickle beer at the State Fair; I will not try that, as I am not a pickle beer person.
• MATRYOSHKA [She's so full of herself!] — I didn't like this clue, since my understanding is that (traditionally) the dolls are not all the same, but represent different people, and so the outermost doll may be full of other people, but not herself. At least it was an attempt to be cute and tricksy that wasn't immediately obvious, though; took a few crossings here.
• CLUB FED [Relatively nice prison, humorously] — A cutesy, jokey entry about a prison is still an entry about a prison; can't say I've heard this term before, but didn't care to see it here and don't care to see it again. 
• YOU PROBLEM [Another's issue, in modern lingo] — Gotta love the NYT trying to meet the constructor's vibes, but instead giving off "how do you do fellow kids" vibes by adding the (completely unnecessary) tag "in modern lingo".
• MOSEY [Walk leisurely] — There will be lots of moseying on day two of the State Fair, in addition to more foot long corn dogs, lemonade, deep fried food, beers, etc.

Yours truly, Christopher Adams, Court Jester of CrossWorld

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Sound unit found in many Asian languages / SUN 3-31-24 / Final phase of a video game, perhaps / Toy brand for a budding engineer, maybe / With "the," a sudden flip from attraction to disgust, in modern parlance / Its water is nearly 10 times saltier than ocean water / Police captain in "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" / Sibilant summons

Constructor: Spencer Leach

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Turns of Phrase" — familiar phrases (following a "___ THE ___" pattern) have their first and last parts switched *and* (most of the time?) changed to homophones, creating ... yes, wackiness:

Theme answers:

• ALARM THE RAYS (22A: Spook some creatures in an aquarium's tank?)
• DAZE THE COUNT (33A: Deliver a blow to Dracula?)
• CITES THE SEE (47A: References a Vatican Library source?)
• SCREWS THE TITANS (60A: Referees a Tennessee football game poorly?)
• HONOR THE DEW (79A: Write an ode to a caffeinated soda?)
• HEAT THE BEETS (90A: Start preparing borscht?)
• PRESS THE MEAT (104A: Make smash burgers?)

Word of the Day: TONEME (84A: Sound unit found in many Asian languages) —

A phoneme in a language that uses different tones for different meanings. (wiktionary) //  [PHONEME: "any of the perceptually distinct units of sound in a specified language that distinguish one word from another, for example p, b, d, and t in the English words pad, pat, bad, and bat." (google / Oxford languages)]

• • •

For a puzzle that seems to want desperately for you to see it as youthful (the Taylor Swift lyrics and the YEETing and whatever that clue on ICK is, etc.), the theme is remarkably basic and corny and last-century. The puns are sometimes funny, sometimes not, mostly ho-hum, definitely old-fashioned. It's not showing anything terribly inventive or interesting, and if you look too hard at the theme, it starts to unravel a bit. I mean, you have to understand the parameters very loosely. It's really just a sound change thing. Sometimes the spellings of words change, sometimes they don't, sometimes the meanings change drastically, sometimes you just change a noun into its related verb (i.e HEAT into HEAT). You always change the spelling of the last word (except with SEE ... and COUNT ... where just the meanings are changed), but you never change the spelling of the first word (except with DAZE ... and CITES ...). It all works best if you don't really look at the grid, but just *say* the new ("turned") phrase: "raise the alarm" => "ALARM THE RAYS." Perfect. Textbook wackiness of the aural kind. Taken at that level, the themers all work ... except HONOR THE DEW—the phrase is not "do the honor," but "do the honors," plural. You might "do someone the honor of" something, but as a standalone phrase (which is what we're doing here), it's "do the honors." HONORS THE DEW would've worked perfectly ... but it's HONOR THE DEW because that's what fit in the allotted grid space. Symmetry is a harsh mistress, it's true, but if the *correct* version of your themer doesn't fit, it doesn't fit, and you should find something else. Of course the grid could've been built with CITES THE SEES (plural) and HONORS THE DEW as a symmetrical pair. But it wasn't. If this puzzle were full of wonder and delight and genuine humor, I wouldn't be noticing this relatively trivial defect. But the theme is just OK, so I notice. Greatness excuses unevenness. Without greatness, though ... leeway retracted.

"THE ARCHER" peaked at #38, but I guess charts don't matter anymore, we're all just supposed to know the whole Swift catalogue by heart (6D: Taylor Swift song that begins "Combat. I'm ready for combat"). God bless her and her fans, but come on. I mean, she's a Sagittarius, awesome, me too, but ... at least give me a clue that has *something* to do with bows and arrows. "Combat. I'm ready for combat" only suggests bows and arrows if you're living in medieval times. I wanted "THE something something WAR" or "THE ARMOUR" (British sp.??). Had to get through CLOROX, with its awful pandemic profiteering clue, to finally figure out "THE ARCHER." Other things about which I had no or little clue: BETTA (I had TETRA) (LOL if BETTA is "common" why is it debuting in the NYTXW only *today*?); and TONEME, yeeeeeesh, that one, crossing KNEX (not LEGO) (74D: Toy brand for a budding engineer, maybe), was rufffff. The very last letter I put in the grid was that "E." TONEME, also a debut. I'm not sure "congratulations" are really in order for either of these debuts. THNEEDVILLE (also a debut) at least has the virtue of being huge and bold. I never read "The Lorax" as a child (I learned to read from the Dr. Seuss dictionary, but my Dr. Seuss story education didn't go any farther than "One Fish, Two Fish" and "Green Eggs and Ham" (absolute staples)). Still, I must've picked up enough "Lorax" lore over the years that eventually THNEEDVILLE came to me. A big goofy answer that has broad demographic appeal—that's something I can get behind. 

Hard stuff (for me) included ARSE ([Git] really reads like a countrified "Get out of here, animal or child or other nuisance!"—as opposed to what it is here: British for "foolish or worthless person") and AULI'I Cravalho (commit that name to memory because she is young and full of vowels and she is working, most recently in the 2024 remake of Mean Girls). Weak stuff included HBO SHOW (just... "show?") and "IT'S A ZOO" (really wants an "in there" or "out there" to be fully viable) (10D: Comment from someone exiting the mall on Black Friday). Clue on TOOK was tortured (113A: Jumped over, as a checkers piece)—"as a ___" implies that it's just one example, but "Jumped over" is *the only* example for this meaning of TOOK, so the clue is kind of lying to you. The long Downs in the NE and SW are quite good, and "HELL YEAH!" is welcome whenever wherever. Great energy. "HANG IN THERE" and "NO ME GUSTA," also praiseworthy. And I enjoy both PISSARRO and HOT DATES, so the grid is not without its pleasures, for sure. Most of these pleasures were non-thematic, though, which is kind of an issue on a Sunday, when there's just So Much Theme.

Speaking of pleasures, here are my Puzzles of the Month for March 2024 (two themed, one themeless):

March 2024 Puzzles of the Month:

Themed: 

• Christina Iverson, "THREE-HOLE PUNCH" (Tuesday, Mar. 5, 2004) 
• Laura Dershewitz and Katherine Baicker, "AD HOMINEM" (Tuesday, Mar. 26, 2004) 

Themeless: 

• Carly Schuna (SHOOT YOUR SHOT, DEEP FAKE, ADOPT DON'T SHOP, BRIOCHE BUN) (Saturday, Mar. 16, 2024)

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Palate cleanser in a multicourse French meal / SAT 2-17-2024 / Order that comes with a wide straw / Very rough, as an experience / Small part of a window / Apartment units / Goggles that aren't meant to go underwater

Constructor: Spencer Leach and Jem Burch

Relative difficulty: Medium


THEME: None

Word of the Day: LANOLIN (15A: Source of a foul odor when wool is washed) —

Lanolin (from Latin lāna 'wool', and oleum 'oil'), also called wool fat, wool yolk, wool wax, sheep grease, or wool grease, is a wax secreted by the sebaceous glands of wool-bearing animals.^[1] Lanolin used by humans comes from domestic sheep breeds that are raised specifically for their wool. Historically, many pharmacopoeias have referred to lanolin as wool fat (adeps lanae); however, as lanolin lacks glycerides (glycerol esters), it is not a true fat.^[2][3] Lanolin primarily consists of sterol esters instead.^[4] Lanolin's waterproofing property aids sheep in shedding water from their coats. Certain breeds of sheep produce large amounts of lanolin.

• • •

Hello friends and enemies! It's Rafa here with one last guest blog before Rex is back. Today we have a really scrabbly Saturday. A double pangram, meaning that every letter features at least twice. There tends to be no free crossword lunch, so puzzles like this tend to either have some questionable fill holding things together, or be blockier and have fewer long entries (or, god forbid, both!). Here the fill is nice and clean (HEP is maybe a bit eh? DID SO?), so it's a bit more of the latter type, but it's overall really nicely executed.

A flag-raising at IWO JIMA

I started in the top right, with the (outstanding) POKEBALL / BOBA TEA crossing, and worked my way clockwise from there. I'm nitpicking here because the constraints of this grid are tremendous, but I did wish EERINESS had been something flashier. There's nothing wrong with it as an entry, really. Just as a frequent solver and constructor I feel very EERIEd out. Those letters sure are amazing though, so it'll keep showing up. (Sidenote the other day my friend texted me that something was "eery" and I gasped and learned that apparently it is listed as a valid variant spelling??!? Have people seen this before? I am very much an EERIE purist and am not open to other spellings at this time.)

You always have to flip it twice for the USB to work

Anyhoo ... is SUSHI PIZZA a thing? Seems like it's a Canadian thing (?!). Never seen it before, but I'm sure it's good. It seems like it's just a sushi roll but without rolling it. Sushi is great so it should be a winner. Fun debut entry in DONEZO. And surprising one in DOJA -- I'd have expected her to have debuted already! (By the way, is she canceled? I feel like there was some drama but I don't really remember and instead of looking it up I will just ask strangers on the internet.)

It's LEX avenue in Manhattan

I'm a *huge* Swiftie, but don't personally use T SWIZZLE. It's absolutely a thing though, just not my preferred moniker. I find it hilarious when her fans call her "The Music Industry" (are we wrong though?). How excited are you for her new album in 2 months? (Correct answer: very!) I am actually deep in my Kacey Musgraves era, so I'm currently anticipating her new album in just one month! I'll be well-fed for quite a while.

Okay I'm being chaotic, sorry. DON'T JINX IT was really fun! My favorite entry in the grid. Colloquial, cute, something I say all the time, love to see it. VR HEADSETS, STEADY GIG, GEE WHIZ, ON TOP OF IT, etc., just loads to love on my clockwise journey around this grid. More like this, please!

Bullets:

• IN HEAT (16A: Going after the big bucks, say) — Funny clue! Big bucks as in big male animals. (Took me a while to get it)
• TOYS (57D: Barbie and Ken, e.g.)—I had a SNEEZE typo and then I had TOES here. And I spent *so* long trying to make TOES happen. What sort of Saturday trickery was at play here to make TOES work?!?! 
• SLANG (43D: Head for the toilet, say) — Another really clever clue here. "Head" is slang for "toilet," in case that needed an explanation.
• PONE (56D: Southern side dish) — I'm starting this thing where I do things that I see frequently in crosswords. I read JANE EYRE a few months ago. I need to watch Frozen (for ELSA!) (no I've never seen it) (don't drag me). And I think I also need to eat PONE. Sounds delicious.

Signed, Rafa

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