Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: Tao Platt

Constructor: Tao Platt

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: NORDIC CROSS (61A: Flag symbol seen twice in this grid) — those two little black-square formations toward the center of the grid are NORDIC CROSSes, I guess. Also, there are four countries in the grid, all of which are in SCANDINAVIA (broadly defined) (17A: Northern European region), all of them clued by the fact that they have a NORDIC CROSS on their flags:

Theme answers:

SWEDEN (25D: Its flag has a yellow 61-Across)
NORWAY (32D: Its flag has a blue-and-white 61-Across)
FINLAND (30A: Its flag has a blue 61-Across)
DENMARK (48A: Its flag has a white 61-Across)

Word of the Day: GRIGRI (9D: Climber's belaying device) —

A GRIGRI (often styled as GriGri) is an assisted braking belay device manufactured by Petzldesigned to help secure rock-climbing, rappelling, and rope-acrobatic activities. Its main characteristic is a clutch that assists in braking under a shock load. The success of this device has led to grigri becoming a common name for devices of this type. [...] The GRIGRI works by pinching the rope when it is moving quickly (like in a fall), making it an assisted braking belay device. This function distinguishes it from traditional belay devices such as a Sticht plate or an ATC, whose braking mechanisms depend entirely on the user controlling the rope in a specific manner to increase or decrease friction. Inside the GRIGRI, the rope runs along a cam; the cam allows the rope to pass if moving slowly but rotates when the rope moves more quickly, blocking further movement by pinching the rope against the inside of the device. (wikipedia)

• • •

***HELLO, READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS IN SYNDICATIONLAND (if you're solving this in January, that's you!)*** . Happy Newish Year! 2022! I hope you are holding up during these cold, dark days. It's early January, which means it's time for my annual week-long pitch for financial contributions to the blog. Every year I ask regular readers to consider what the blog is worth to them on an annual basis and give accordingly.

2021 was an important year for me, as my blog (this blog, the one you are reading right now) turned 15 years old! [noisemaker sounds!!!!]. That's a lot of years old. For a blog, anyway. 15 is also a pretty important crossword-related anniversary—maybe the only important crossword-related anniversary. The standard US crossword grid is 15x15, and now Rex Parker is also 15! Rex Parker, spanning the grid to give you the constant variety of crossword commentary: the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat (dum dum dum DUM!) The human drama of ... OK now I'm just channeling Jim McKay from the '70s-era introduction to "Wide World of Sports," but I do hope this blog has provided some insight, some entertainment, some commiseration, some solace, some sense of regularity during what are obviously pretty tumultuous and often lonely times. I hope it has enhanced your solving pleasure, giving you something to look forward to even (especially?) when the puzzle lets you down, and someone to celebrate with when the puzzle is wonderful. If it's also given you someone to shout at in disagreement, that's OK too.

A lot of labor goes into producing this blog every day (Every. Day.) and the hours are, let's say, less than ideal (I'm either solving and writing at night, after 10pm, or in the morning, before 6am). Most days, I really do love the writing, but it is work, and once a year (right now!) I acknowledge that fact. As I've said before, I have no interest in "monetizing" the blog beyond a simple, direct contribution request once a year. No ads, no gimmicks. Just here for you, every day, rain or shine, whether you like it or, perhaps, on occasion, not :) It's just me and my laptop and some free blogging software and, you know, a lot of rage, but hopefully there's illumination and levity along the way. I do genuinely love this gig, and whether you're an everyday reader or a Sunday-only reader or a flat-out hatereader, I appreciate you more than you'll ever know.

How much should you give? Whatever you think the blog is worth to you on a yearly basis. Whatever that amount is is fantastic. Some people refuse to pay for what they can get for free. Others just don't have money to spare. All are welcome to read the blog—the site will always be open and free. But if you are able to express your appreciation monetarily, here are two options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar):
Second, a mailing address (checks should be made out to "Rex Parker"):

Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905

I'll throw my Venmo handle in here too, just in case that's your preferred way of moving money around; it's @MichaelDavidSharp (the last four digits of my phone are 4878, in case Venmo asks you, which I guess it does sometimes, when it's not trying to push crypto on you, what the hell?!)

All Paypal contributions will be gratefully acknowledged by email. All snail mail contributions will be gratefully acknowledged with hand-written postcards. I. Love. Snail Mail. I love seeing your gorgeous handwriting and then sending you my awful handwriting. It's all so wonderful. Last year's thank-you postcards featured various portraits of my cat, Alfie, designed by artist Ella Egan, a.k.a. my daughter. They were such a hit that I asked Ella to design this year's thank-you postcard as well, this time featuring both my cats. And this is the result. Behold this year's thank-you card: "Alfie and Olive: Exploring the Grid":

We went back and forth on whether she should add more black squares to make the grid look more plausibly fillable (that's a Lot of white space), but in the end we decided not to crowd the jumping (or hanging?) Olive with more black squares, and instead just to leave the card as is, with the idea that the cats are exploring a grid that is ... under construction. Anyway, this card is personally meaningful to me, and also, I believe, objectively lovely. I can't wait to share it with snail-mailers (and oh, what the hell, if you are a PayPal / Venmo donor and you want one too, just say so in the message). Please note: I don't keep a "mailing list" and don't share my contributor info with anyone. And if you give by snail mail and (for some reason) don't want a thank-you card, just indicate "NO CARD." Again, as ever, I'm so grateful for your readership and support. Now on to today's puzzle...

• • •

Alarm bells went off early when I hit ERSE before even getting out of the (tiny, easy-to fill) NW corner:

That is the kind of crosswordese you absolutely banish from your grid if at all possible, and here it is in a simple corner, crammed in with somewhat less egregious crosswordese ORC and NSA. This is not an opening gambit to inspire confidence. And this time the alarm bells were not a false alarm. There's inexplicable AMIE in one tiny corner, inexplicable ORA in another. I know I'm starting with the small stuff, but it's the NYTXW, they should be sweating the small stuff. The small stuff is part of the puzzle, treat it with respect. Polish it, craft it, care for it. Don't just go "well, worked for 1996, works for me." It's depressing. As for the theme, those tiny black-square formations don't evoke much of anything. I guess that is what the crosses on those flags look like, but they look like ordinary black-square formations such as you'd find in any puzzle, so weird to build a whole puzzle concept around them. I did not know NORDIC CROSS was a term. Is NORDIC ... some NORDIC language for "tipped over"? I know of the Maltese Cross and the Southern Cross, but this one is new to me. Not hard to get, just new. The arrangement of country names is oddly asymmetrical, but since they're interlocking, I guess that's how it had to be. FINLAND is not always considered part of SCANDINAVIA, but sometimes it's included in a broad definition with ICELAND and the FAROE ISLANDS, and since the theme is really the cross on the flag, not the region, it's fine. Lots of places in the region feature the NORDIC CROSS on their flags, including the aforementioned ICELAND and FAROE ISLANDS, but the countries in the grid are the four largest, so you couldn't call the grouping arbitrary. Overall, the theme is a bit of a shrug, but it's not bad, and the cross symbols do add a layer of visual interest (however faint) and cleverness. It's really the fill where things go (ironically) south.

Honestly, there were only two things about this puzzle that left an impression when I was done, and neither of them was theme-related. The first was GRIGRI, which, LOL, what? It's Tuesday, where in the world is this term coming from? It was just a bunch of random letters to me. The last time GRIGRI was seen in the puzzle was twenty-five years ago, about two months before that famous CLINTON/BOBDOLE puzzle, and then it was clued as [African amulet]. This is truly not a Tuesday answer. But it's a colorful new (to me) word, so while I don't think it's Tuesday-appropriate, it's not a major offense. What is a major offense is the second thing about this puzzle that left an impression on me, and that is head-shaking, "what the hell?"-eliciting repetition of LOW. You've got LOWNESS on one line and then GO LOW ... on the very next line? How, why, what are you doing? I had LOWNESS (27A: Feeling of dejection) in place when I got to 37A: Play dirty, so when that answer started GO my thought was, "huh, well, it can't be GO LOW, because LOWNESS is already in the grid, so what could it be?" But ... It Was LOW. Just ... repeated. Baffling. Two LOWs in a grid shouldn't just set off alarm bells, it should shut down the production line. You can't do that. Your ERSE AMIE ORA stuff, that's just ugly. But LOWNESS / GO LOW is unprofessional. Genuinely, flagrantly bad form.

DOXED is an ugly concept, and, more importantly, it's spelled with two "X"s, not one so DOXED manages to be both off-putting and in error. Fun. (18D: Outed maliciously online)

British ENTHRAL is just absurd, but not hard to get. Otherwise, there's not much more that's noteworthy about the fill. I gotta write two exams today, and while that might partly explain my mildly irascible mood, it doesn't explain all of it. That LOW dupe was a real LOW point. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]