Cunning, like Mr. Tod or Swiper / TUES 1-27-26 / Wrangler on the road / Britishly precious / Trickster figure in Native American folklore

Hi, everyone! It’s Clare for the last Tuesday of January. Hope you’re all staying warm and not slipping and sliding in the snow. We got about seven inches of snow here in D.C., though a lot of that was sleet. Some friends and I went on a walk with my pup, and she had a wonderful time; almost no cars were on the road, so we had the streets mostly to ourselves. Then we made lasagna soup while watching football, and one of the two games went my way (boo, Patriots; go, Seahawks!). Otherwise, I’ve been staying busy watching a lot of the Australian Open (go, Coco!), and reading lots — while finding any reason not to step foot outside (other than for my puppy, of course). 

ANYHOO, on to the puzzle…

Constructors: Miranda Kany and Tracy Bennett

Relative difficulty: Easier than a usual Tuesday

THEME: EMPTY NESTER (54A: Metaphor for a parent whose youngest has "launched" ... like the little bird whose progress is suggested by 21-, 33- and 41-Across) — Each of the theme answers describes baby birds in sequential order as they learn to fly and leave the nest

Theme answers:

• IN THE STICKS (21A: Far from any urban center, colloquially) 
• OUT ON A LIMB (33A: Potentially at risk, metaphorically) 
• FLYING HIGH (41A: In a soaring mood, so to speak)

Word of the Day: ERIVO (2D: "Wicked" co-star Cynthia __) —

Cynthia Chinasaokwu Onyedinmanasu Amarachukwu Owezuke Echimino Erivo (born 8 January 1987) is an English actress, singer, and songwriter. Known for her work on both stage and screen, she is the recipient of several accolades and one of a few individuals nominated for an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award (EGOT), winning all but the Oscar… Erivo's work for “The Color Purple” won her the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical and Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, as well as a Daytime Emmy Award. (Wiki)

• • •

That was a nice puzzle with a cute theme. It was so nice and so unobjectionable that I’m struggling to even find much to say about it. I liked the way the theme answers progressed as a little bird does. And each of the phrases, while clued in colloquial terms, describes birds nicely. I did think the clue for the theme answer could have been a little tighter, as the “youngest” isn’t always the last to leave the metaphorical nest in a household. But that’s a nit. 

There seemed to be a lot of duplicate clue/answer combos in the puzzle, which was clever. Like obviously MAMA (10A: Cry from a crib, perhaps) and PAPA (56D: Cry from a crib, perhaps). PETAL (1A: Potpourri piece) sits on top of A / ROSE (14A: Came up) if you look at it that way. ALOHA (7D: Hi in HI) is directly above LEI (34D: Floral ring). OPRY (37A: Nashville has a "grand ole" one) and REO (38A: ___ Speed Wagon (old vehicle)) are tangentially related, as the Grand Ole OPRY is a country music venue, and REO, though clued differently, was an American rock band. Both FOXY (41D: Cunning, like Mr. Tod or Swiper) and COYOTE (24A: Trickster figure in Native American folklore) were in the puzzle. And LOUNGED (42D: Chillaxed, say) and IDLED (52D: Did diddly-squat) are another duplication of sorts. Both IVS (20A: Hosp. hookups) and a DOSE (67A: Medical measure) are given in hospitals. The one place this didn’t work is how both LOTS (18A: Heaps) and LOT (32D: Area to build on) are in the puzzle, which seems like an oversight. Initially, I thought it was clever having LOTS cross SITES (8D: Loci), but not with another LOT in the puzzle. I didn’t like that… a LOT. 

There weren’t many proper nouns or, more specifically, people in the puzzle, which might’ve made it easier for me. The only people are ALEC Guinness (11D), Rita ORA (37D), Issa RAE (62D), and Cynthia ERIVO (2D) — all of whom are either common in crosswords or are well-known. I did puzzle over NOAH (59A: "Captain" on Mount Ararat) for a bit before realizing it meant NOAH of NOAH’s ark. “Captain” seems like an odd way to describe him. 

I loved some of the words and phrases in the puzzle. TOPSY TURVY (3D: Downside-up) is my absolute favorite. It’s just so fun to say and invokes such a fun idea. I also think ROUGH HOUSE (30D: Engage in boisterous activity) is a good expression. URCHIN (51A: Ragamuffin) is a great word, supported by another great word, “ragamuffin,” in its clue. I love a SLUSH fund (47A). (We’ll certainly be getting a lot of SLUSH here in D.C. after the snow eventually starts to melt, if it’s ever no longer 12 degrees every day.) And I love a MOJITO (10D: Cuban rum cocktail), though my go-to cocktail is usually a margarita or possibly now a Cosmopolitan. I also love the word MOOT (55D: Debatable), though my first thought was for the definition of something having no relevance, rather than something debatable. TWEE (57D: Britishly precious) is another fun word. 

Amusingly, the place I got the most stuck was with ANYHOO (45A: "Moving right along ..."). I use that word in every one of my write-ups, and I’ve declared (potentially incorrectly, but oh, well) that I will always spell it “anywho,” so it was hard to wrap my head around a different spelling. It didn’t help that HETHEY (46D: Possible pronoun pairing) originally looked strange to me before I parsed it out as HE / THEY. But knowing that FOXY (41D) had to be the answer helped me figure out it was ANYHOO. And the crosses for HE / THEY (46D) were pretty straightforward. 

I didn’t love NIP AT (17A: Give friendly bites, as a puppy might) or TAG ON (27A: Add as an afterthought) as they’re those types of clues that feel like they could be any number of different, blah answers. I RULE (61A: "Yay me!") feels childish. I don’t think of a DISC (3D: Chip shape) as the shape of a chip. If we’re talking computer chips, those are fabricated on discs, sure, but they’re cut into rectangles before they wind up in your electronics. And it took me longer than it really should have to get OATY (25D: Like some cookies and milk) because I thought that the clue was describing them together, rather than what each one of them could be. 

But overall, this was a cute and quick puzzle to snuggle up with on a cold winter night.

Misc.:

• With FOXY (41D: Cunning, like Mr. Tod or Swiper), all I could think about is Dora the Explorer (and me, when you were supposed to chant along with her) saying “Swiper, no swiping.” What a cunning little fox. 
• I got STAY (66A: Corset component) quite easily thanks to the multitude of historical romances I’ve read! 
• One of the most remarkable performances I’ve seen was from Cynthia ERIVO (2D) at the Tony Awards in 2016, where she sang “I’m Here” from “The Color Purple” and won the award for Best Actress in a Musical. I get chills every single time. She’s the reason the Hamilton cast didn’t sweep the musical acting awards that year, and I’m OK with that. She’s incredible. 
• Here’s a pic of Red enjoying the snow, and here’s a pic of me carrying her when she got cold — 
• 
• 
• I ended my last write-up in 2025 with my list of favorite books, so I thought I’d keep that trend going. My favorite book of 2026 so far is the very first book I read in it — “My Friends” by Fredrik Backman. It had me crying and laughing at the same time, in equal measures. 
• Finally, a PSA: The Olympics start on Feb. 6! By the time I’m back for a write-up, the Olympics will be over. So everyone needs to make sure to watch the Alpine skiing for Mikaela Shiffrin (and all the sports, of course)!

That’s all from me! Stay warm, and I’ll see ya in February.

Signed, Clare Carroll, mother of a soon-to-be SLUSH puppy

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Record-keeping device made of strings and knots / SAT 7-5-25 / Glass production / Brendon of Panic! at the Disco / French musician/composer ___ Tiersen / Fortnite developer / Dance move that slid into English as "sashay" / Getting in one guess, as Wordle / Subject of the books "Jonathan Loves David" and "Take Back the Word" / Dance move that slid into English as "sashay" / Eerie phenomenon when a robot seems too lifelike

Constructor: Tracy Bennett

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: QUIPU (46D: Record-keeping device made of strings and knots) —

Quipu (/ˈkiːpuː/ KEE-poo), also spelled khipu (Ayacucho Quechua: kipu, [ˈkipu]; Cusco Quechua: khipu, [kʰipu]), are record keeping devices fashioned from knotted cords. They were historically used by various cultures in the central Andes of South America, most prominently by the Inca Empire.

A quipu usually consists of cotton or camelid fiber cords, and contains categorized information based on dimensions like color, order and number. The Inca, in particular, used knots tied in a decimal positional system to store numbers and other values in quipu cords. Depending on its use and the amount of information it stored, a given quipu may have anywhere from a few to several thousand cords.

Objects which can unambiguously be identified as quipus first appear in the archaeological record during 1st millennium CE, likely attributable to the Wari Empire. Quipus subsequently played a key part in the administration of the Kingdom of Cusco of the 13th to 15th centuries, and later of the Inca Empire (1438–1533), flourishing across the Andes from c. 1100 to 1532. Inca administration used quipus extensively for a variety of uses: monitoring tax obligations, collecting census records, keeping calendrical information, military organization, and potentially for recording simple and stereotyped historical "annales". (wikipedia)

• • •

[37A: Babe, for one]

Lots of stuff I flat-out didn't know in this one, though it was still very doable—didn't play any harder than an average Saturday. I had no idea there was such a thing as QUEER THEOLOGY (46A: Subject of the books "Jonathan Loves David" and "Take Back the Word"). QUEER THEORY, sure—I went to grad school in the Humanities, after all. But THEOLOGY, no, that got by me. I mean of course there's QUEER THEOLOGY, there's QUEER everything, and yet still, this particular phrase—unknown to me. Got the QUEER part and then... no idea. QUEER TEENAGER? Sadly, no. Never heard the "8" / asterisk key called the STAR KEY, though as with QUEER THEOLOGY, that was eventually inferable (34A: *, to a typist). Never heard of QUIPU ... though I have this weird feeling that I "learned" it from crosswords and then forgot it (solve for long enough and this will happen to you, over and over and over and...). Looks like this is the first NYTXW appearance of QUIPU in over fifty-four years (!), so I don't feel so bad now about not recognizing it. Never would've remembered URIE without help from crosses (56A: Brendon of Panic! at the Disco). Absolutely no idea who this YANN composer person is (5A: French musician/composer ___ Tiersen). If the YANN is not Martel, I do not know the YANN. Looks like he scored the popular French movie Amélie (2001). Huh. OK. Ultimately, all the crosses on YANN are fair, though that second "N," yeesh. Who calls it NEAT VODKA? (8D: It's a straight shot). You can order any liquor "neat" but somehow the phrase "NEAT [insert liquor]"—while understandable and defensible—just sounds off. I would say someone was drinking whiskey neat, not neat whiskey. Of course I don't understand drinking vodka any way at all—it's the least interesting (and least taste-having) of all your major liquors. We have a well-stocked liquor cabinet—no vodka. But that's neither here nor there. The big-picture point here is that I got held up a lot by stuff beyond my ken. But through the magic of fair crosses, I got through it easily enough (easier as I went along, easiest at the finish, in the SE, where I didn't really know EPIC GAMES but had -IC GAMES filled in before I ever even saw the clue, so what else was it gonna be?) (30D: Fortnite developer).

[this is not the band in question—it's a song on a CD compilation that came with some NZ music mag I bought years and years ago. The compilation is called Awesome Feeling II. Presumably there was an Awesome Feeling I, but I don't own it]

Struggled up front with LONE, which really should've been SOLE, shouldn't it? LONE tracks, but SOLE alliterates, which is what all good crossword answers are supposed to do. Just discovered that Sole Survivor was the name of a 1970 TV movie starring William Shatner, about a WWII bombing mission gone awry, if that's of any interest to you. It's also the name of a 1984 horror movie whose poster has a cool-ass '80s digital font:

LONE survivor is just not as poetic or evocative as SOLE, though I can imagine someone saying it on the 6 o'clock news, so OK. Sticking with the NW corner—when I [Careen wildly], I do not SLUE. I VEER. So there was that. I had the 3D imaging as a CAT SCAN at first (my retired radiologist father would be disappointed). I know what ONION ROLLs are but I confess I didn't know they were particularly Jewish (3D: Jewish bakery specialty). So... struggle struggle struggle ... then I built that NW corner from the bottom up, and then ... the easiest answer in the NW, which I almost wish I'd looked at first:

I don't think UNCANNY VALLEY is clued quite right (22A: Eerie phenomenon when a robot seems too lifelike). The point isn't that it's "too lifelike"—it's that it's both too lifelike *and* not lifelike enough. That's the valley. The "eeriness" is when the robot crosses that threshold into "close but not there." Lots of A.I.-created animation falls in this category for me. See also, famously, the animation in Polar Express (2004). Anyway, you can't have the titular "valley" if you don't have both the concept of "too lifelike" *and* the concept of "not lifelike enough." See ... the valley is not a mythical place, it's a literal shape on a graph:

Though there was lots I didn't know, and some stuff I didn't love, in this grid, there were a few winners, for sure. I liked UNCANNY VALLEY as an answer (just not the clue). QUEER THEOLOGY looks great (my ignorance of the term notwithstanding). RINKY-DINK is hard not to like. GUTTER BALL—funny (in real life, and as clued) (50A: Alley oops) (i.e. a mistake ("oops!") made in a bowling alley). And I like CADET BLUE, which was an answer I found myself writing in off the first few letters without really knowing if it was real (27D: Uniform shade). That is, the phrase occurred to me, so I wrote it in, but I didn't know how I knew it or what shade of blue it was, exactly. Sometimes your brain just whispers the answer to you and you go with it. Of course sometimes your brain whispers VEER and CAT SCAN, so you've got to keep your eye on it.

[originally entitled "LOAN Provider" ... I mean, probably]

What else?:

• 29A: Michigan's ___ Marquette River (waterway named for a missionary) (PÈRE)— I guess the "missionary" part of the clue was supposed to suggest the religious PÈRE ("father"). No help to me. Tracy (today's constructor) is from Michigan, so this seems like one of at least two little personal flourishes in the puzzle. The other, perhaps more obvious flourish is the Wordle clue (41A: Getting in one guess, as Wordle). Tracy happens to be the editor of Wordle, in case you didn't know. I didn't love ACING as the answer there, but I guess in the golf sense, in the hole-in-one sense, it's true. In the sense of "ACING a test," though, no. ACING in that sense implies a demonstration of ability, whereas getting Wordle in 1 is just dumb luck.
• 55A: Glass production (OPERA) — as in Philip Glass. He has written 15 operas, including The Perfect American, a portrait of Walt Disney in his later years as a "power-hungry racist." Gotta check that one out.
• 60A: Somewhat audible disparagements (TSKS) — not getting the "somewhat" on this clue and the identical (if singular) clue on HISS. They are both definitely audible, or else they don't work. If a disparagement falls in the woods and nobody hears it ... did you even disparage, bro?
• 19D: Dance move that slid into English as "sashay" (CHASSÉ) — love the "slid into" part of this clue, since sliding is what's involved with a CHASSÉ.

That's it. Gonna go do Wordle now. Probably not in 1 (my starter word this week is BORIC—if I get it in 3, I'll feel like a hero). See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Juvenile locust / SUN 4-20-25 / Peach or plum, botanically / Little flap, maybe / Hotheaded liberal politico who's eager to hear? / Dam near the Philae Temple of Isis / Plant that was a top-five girl's name in the 1970s / Smitten person's declaration / "Suh-weet! I love this sandwich cookie!"? / Group that Tiger hires to install wall art? / Makeup of some metallic bonds

Constructor: Victor Schmitt and Tracy Bennett

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "Double Vision" — three-word answers where first part of middle word is the same as the first word and last part of middle word is the same as the last word(s) [... yes, that is an accurate description, cool]

Theme answers:

• WOODS WOODSCREW CREW (25A: Group that Tiger hires to install wall art?)
• SPAM SPAMALOT ALOT (41A: Send fan mail en masse to a Monty Python production?)
• MAD MADISON IS ON (60A: Angry early president can be seen now in TV footage?)
• DEM DEMAGOG AGOG (85A: Hotheaded liberal politico who's eager to hear?)
• PRO PROCURES CURES (104A: Pharmacist comes through for customers?)
• RED REDACTION ACTION (122A: Editor's strike?)
• POST POSTAGE AGE (3D: Email era?)
• WHOO! WHOOPIE PIE! (56D: "Suh-weet! I love this sandwich cookie!"?)

Word of the Day: IAN Somerhalder (126A: Actor Somerhalder) —

Ian Joseph Somerhalder (/ˈsʌmərhɔːldər/ SUM-ər-hawl-dər; born December 8, 1978) is an American former actor and current business owner. He is known for playing Boone Carlyle in ABC's science fiction adventure drama television series Lost (2004–2010) and Damon Salvatore in the CW supernatural teen drama series The Vampire Diaries (2009–2017). (wikipedia)

• • •

My brain feels like it's melting—is that really how you spell "DEMAGOG"—I could've sworn there was a "-ue" on the end of it. [Looks it up] Oh thank god. I'm correct. According to merriam-webster dot com, "DEMAGOGUE" is the spelling—under "variants" it says "less commonly DEMAGOG." I'd say "way less commonly." That answer was probably the hurtiest of the lot, not just because DEMAGOG was spelled bizarrely, but because nothing in the clue really indicated demagoguery at all. Being a "hot-headed politico" does not make you a DEMAGOG(UE). Needless to say, the theme kind of went off the rails for me there. The rest of it meandered from fine to bland to awkward. Some of the theme answers seemed pretty snappy (POST POSTAGE AGE, MAD MADISON IS ON, SPAMS SPAMALOT A LOT), but some were just too contrived to be funny (WOODS WOODSCREW CREW) or just kind of blah (PRO PROCURES CURES—"PRO" seems very weak as a stand in for "Pharmacist"). Had some trouble with "WHOO! WHOOPIE PIE!" mostly because "WHOO!" doesn't really track (for me) as a "Suh-weet!" stand-in. "Woo hoo!" is the expression I was looking for (the fact that I live under the deep and abiding influence of Homer Simpson may have something to do with that). I also haven't seen / thought of a WHOOPIE PIE in years. Decades? People still eat these? The only "sandwich cookie" I know is, well, you know.

The puzzle was pretty easy overall, though some of those themers were hard to parse (despite the fact that they should've been *easier* to parse than usual, given the repetitive nature of the theme). And some of the fill today proved a little elusive. The one that held me up the most was DANAE (118A: Mother of Perseus). I deal with classical mythology a lot in my classes, but somehow DANAE never comes up. Is she famous for anything else besides being Perseus's mother? Nope, not really. That answer was in the thick of the toughest section for me, connecting PETDOOR (hard to get from clue) (101D: Little flap, maybe) to URACIL (109D: RNA base). But when I say this section was "the toughest" for me today, it really wasn't that tough. None of it was. I had to work a little, that's all. I guess I had to work a little over in the E/SE as well, where ABODE had a really tricky clue (96A: Liver spot?) (i.e. the spot ... where one ... lives), and ADVENTURE seemed like it wanted to be ... something else (90D: Thrill-seeker's pursuit). I was considering ADRENALIN. And ugh, that section had that horrible manosphere "thought" "leader" guy in it, why, why, why would you do that? No one wants that. Sadly, there aren't any other suitably famous ROGANs you can go to for that clue. It's either use the podcast guy or tear it out and refill the grid some other way. I think you know what way I'd lean.

[102A: Smitten person's declaration]

Very easy-to-understand theme today. Took me exactly this long to pick it up:

I read the clue (3D: Email era?), took one look at the title (always a good idea on Sundays), and in went POST POSTAGE AGE. Having the core concept locked down made the rest of the themers much easier, even if, occasionally, they were weird enough to flummox me for a bit. Outside of the aforementioned DANAE and ABODE sections, the only part of the puzzle that felt somewhat hard to get ahold of was the aforementioned DEMAGOG, which had both BILOBA and STREGA running through it. I tried to spell BILOBA all kinds of ways: BILBAO? BILBOA? I feel like Ginkgo BILOBA used to be, like a trendy supplement for a while? In the '90s? Is it still? It's supposed to help with memory or something. (52D: Ginkgo ___ (tree species)). If only there was a supplement that could help me remember ... here, I'll use my favorite supplement: the internet [click click click]. Yes, "brain supplement." "The European Medicines Agency Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products concluded that medicines containing ginkgo leaf can be used for treating mild age-related dementia and mild peripheral vascular disease in adults after serious conditions have been excluded by a physician" (wikipedia). As for STREGA, I made it my Word of the Day, not too long ago, and that ... kinda helped (62D: "___ Nona" (children's book based on a folk tale)). I still wanted wrong words at first: STRADA, maybe? Still not loving STREGA as an answer, but at least this time it didn't take me completely by surprise. 

[111D: Singer with the 2021 hit album "Solar Power"]

Observations and explanations:

• 55A: Dam near the Philae Temple of Isis (ASWAN) — this answer keeps catching my eye and every time I think "why is A SWAN" in this puzzle? How is that even being clued? ... oh, right, the dam." 
• 70A: Go beyond the opponent's baseline, in tennis (OVERHIT) — only just debuted a few years ago (2019), though it appeared in a NYT acrostic a few years before that. "Baseline" is the example of the thing being exceeded each time, except for the one time it was [Send beyond the green, say]. I would've thought "OVERSHOOT" for golf, but golf's not really my thing, to say the least, so sure, golf too, why not? LOL when I google [overshoot the green] my first five hits are cryptic crossword clue explanation sites. But after those, yes, looks like "overshoot (the green)" is def a real golf concept. (PS: the cryptic clue in question: [Overshoot the green badly, though not with the driver (9)]. Can you solve it? Answer below*. 
• 112A: Plant that was a top-five girl's name in the 1970s (HEATHER) — never thought about it, but yeah, went to school with a number of HEATHERs, and HEATHER Locklear and HEATHER Graham were famous actresses of roughly my age (a little older and a little younger, respectively), but then, sometimes in the '90s it looks like, the HEATHER (and Jennifer, and Amy) market collapsed, and the Brittany / Caitlin / Madison apocalypse began... 

• 129A: What very punctual people arrive on (THE DOT) — very weird to have THE DOT not following a specific time. "I'll be there on THE DOT!" What dot!?!?
• 6D: Certain queer identity, for short (ARO) — as in "aromantic." 
• 16D: Makeup of some metallic bonds (ARCWELDS) — don't remember this at all. Must've worked my way around it using crosses. If you arcweld, you weld using an arc created by electricity.
• 45D: Juvenile locust (NYMPH) — ah, locust taxonomy! Finally a subject I'm an expert in! (shouted someone, possibly ... but not me). 
• 85D: Peach or plum, botanically (DRUPE) — basically, a stone fruit. I learned this word from crosswords ... and then crosswords promptly stopped showing it to me (it's been 17 years!!!!? and only the second appearance in the last 34 years ... this surprises me; really thought the word was more common)

[RAH, lol]

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Longtime constructor and all-around smart guy Natan Last has a book about crossword puzzles coming out later this year called Across the Universe: The Past, Present and Future of the Crossword Puzzle. If I had an advance copy (hint hint!) I'd be able to tell you all about it. But I'm quite sure it's going to be good. We're in a mini-boom period for crossword books. Last year we got Anna Schechtman's wonderful Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle, and now there's Natan's book (due out the day before my birthday: Nov. 25, 2025)

Here's Natan with the prepublication hype:

My book Across the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of The Crossword Puzzle, is now available for pre-order! If you can, would you pre-order it through Bookshop, Books-A-Million, Barnes and Noble, or your local bookstore? 

Pre-orders help books get attention and remain a powerful way to support authors. I've been lucky to receive an early blurb from Stefan Fatsis, the bestselling author of Word Freak, who calls Across the Universe "a gridful of insight and pleasure ... a deft and deep exploration of the crossword puzzle’s obsessive grip on American life." 

In the book, I go through the history of crosswords, starting with the very first puzzles in the yellow journalism-tinged era of the 1910s, plus a postwar crossword craze in which solving competitions, crossword musicals and movies, and black-and-white-checkered outfits were all the rage. I elaborate my own history with the puzzle too, from combing through archives in Will Shortz’s basement to being invited onto a Martha Stewart episode dedicated to puzzles (she said she solved more while she was in prison). All the while, I track how the puzzle’s identity is constantly shifting—becoming, in different eras, a frivolous diversion, a literary and artistic object (including for some of my own writerly heroes like Gertrude Stein, Vladimir Nabokov, and T.S. Eliot), the latest game for AI to conquer, and even a primary source of revenue for the modern newsroom. 

You can read excerpts from the book in The New Yorker and The New York Times; the Times piece is about the role of games in moments of crisis, and, unfortunately, is as relevant as ever. I'll be having some events once the book comes out, and I'll keep you posted on that. But for now, pre-order if you can! 

Both Anna and Natan are in their 30s now, but have been constructing since they were teenagers, so there's a ton of experience there, as well as a still relatively youthful perspective on recent crossword history. I hope I get an advance copy of Natan's book at some point, so I can promote it in greater detail later in the year, but I'm gonna pre-order one today either way. If I end up with two copies, fine: it'll make a nice gift.

*[Overshoot the green badly, though not with the driver (9)] = PASSENGER 

• Cryptic part of the clue: "Overshoot" = PASS; "green badly" = anagram of "green" = ENGER
• Definition part of the clue: "not with the driver" = in the car but not driving it = PASSENGER

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Compulsory payments of old / SUN 12-3-23 / Rough fabric with a loose weave / Indian dish of potatoes and cauliflower / Port city in Algeria / Lasting for an immeasurable time span / Prompt from the chronically forgetful / Evergreen tree with fragrant bark / They're seen on the flags of Bhutan and Wales / Acronymic devices in atomic clocks and radio telescopes / Super-sillyous? / Mainstay of a sci-fi defense system / Die-hard fan in modern lingo / Largest of the lagomorphs

Constructor: Tracy Bennett

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: sadly, no ("Freestyling")

Word of the Day: OSWALD (37A: ___ the Lucky Rabbit, character in early Disney shorts) —

 

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (also known as Oswald the Rabbit, Oswald Rabbit, or simply Oswald) is an animated cartoon character created in 1927 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks for Universal Pictures. He starred in several animated short films released to theaters from 1927 to 1938. Twenty-seven animated Oswald shorts were produced at the Walt Disney Studio.^[8] After the control of Oswald's character was taken in 1928, Disney created a new character similar in appearance to Oswald as a replacement: Mickey Mouse, who went on to become one of the most famous cartoon characters in the world.

In 2003, Buena Vista Games pitched a concept for an Oswald-themed video game to then-Disney President and future-CEO Bob Iger, who became committed to acquiring the rights to Oswald. In 2006, The Walt Disney Company acquired the trademark of Oswald (with NBCUniversal effectively trading Oswald for the services of Al Michaels as play-by-play announcer on NBC Sunday Night Football). [ed: what the!?] (wikipedia)

• • •

I opened the puzzle and immediately went "Themelessssssss nooooooooo." Sigh. They must just have a bunch of these produced in-house and ready to go when their Sunday stack gets too low or too sad. I dunno. Nothing says "We give up!" like a "Freestyling" Sunday. Yes, there are some lovely long answers in here, but when you have this enormous canvas, they somehow don't mean as much. Put long answers here, there, who cares. Without a theme to hold it together, the Sunday grid is just ... big. I've said all this before. It's true that *themed* puzzles are so often disappointing precisely because themes are hard to carry out well over so much ground (i.e. a 21x21 grid). And yet I have much more respect for the *attempt* at a Sunday theme than I do for the cynical shrug of a "Freestyling" Sunday. And here's the thing ... Freestyle puzzles typically have a lower word count, as this one does (relative to typical, themed Sundays). That's how I knew instantly, before even seeing the title, that this thing was gonna be a themeless. Grid was just way too wide-open to be themed. But when you drop the word count, you strain the grid. The trick of a good themeless is to get a bunch of real winners in there without also ending up with too many losers weighing the puzzle down. And today, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that can compensate for EONIAN and MULCTS (8D: Lasting for an immeasurable time span and 44D: Compulsory payments of old). I mean, WACKADOODLE, FORCEFIELD, ESTROGEN PATCH, nice nice nice, but those pretty much fell into place, and as I say, with this much real estate, I expect there to be a healthy number of good answers. But EONIAN. And MULCTS. Those did *not* fall into place. I spent *time* with those. Time I will not get back. Time heals all wounds, but it also creates wounds, leaves scars, produces lasting trauma. This puzzle made me spend time with EONIAN and MULCTS. So that is what I remember. "Long have I toiled in the EONIAN MULCTS ...," sang the epic poet about this puzzle ...

You know what's a great phrase: TAKE A POWDER! That and "Take the air!" which now mostly means just "go outdoors," but which used to (ca. 1920s) mean "beat it!" or "leave!" just like TAKE A POWDER. I live for hardboiled slang, old-movie slang, TRUMAN-ERA slang. It's great. My favorite thing in the puzzle by far. Less (far less) enamored with PR TALK (41A: "Media impressions," "influencer marketing," etc., informally). The "TALK" part just felt so arbitrary. And oof the "T" crossed the horrid DETS (which I had as TECS at first) (33D: Investigators, Abbr.). That NE corner was probably the hardest part for me, in that I couldn't make any of the Acrosses work despite having the first first three letters of all of them. One issue was that I had OREN instead of ORAN (16D: Port city in Algeria). And I just watched Casablanca, too! Pretty sure they mention it. Really thought it was OREN. What Is OREN Then!? Gah, looks like it's just a name. ORAN is the place. You'd think I'd know that by now, ORAN being rather old-school crosswordese. Anyway, CLONING / AIRASIA / DRAGONS, none of them would go Across, so I had to come at the corner from below, which is where all the PR TALK and DETS were. The one other part of the puzzle where I really struggled was when I confidently went TITLED / GIGS at 72A: Given the name / 69D: Units of RAM, for short. Doesn't RAM come in GIGS? Yes, yes it does. Anyway, TITLED / GIGS absolutely paralyzed me. Getting from TITLED to the (much worse) TERMED was the big struggle of the day. Thankfully, my knowledge of Truman's presidential term helped me finally dislodge TERMED and get back on my feet again.

I had trouble with the GOBI part of ALOO GOBI (63D: Indian dish of potatoes and cauliflower). RIFFLES is a silly word (92A: Leafs), but it had to be RIFFLES, not RUFFLES, so all the crosses on GOBI felt, ultimately, fair. Had some trouble also with the back ends of the Acrosses in the SE, particularly REMIND ME ___ (87A: Prompt from the chronically forgetful), and FANTASY ___ (93A: Set of books with maps, perhaps). REMIND ME ... LATER? FANTASY ... SPORTS? Wanted some kind of word for "atlas" but couldn't come up with one. SERIES ended up being a real let-down. 91A: Walk in place? feels kind of icky, or at least iffy, as a clue for FRONT ENTRANCE. You're using "Walk in" adjectivally, so it should technically be hyphenated, but ... once again, horseshoes / hand grenades / "?" clues. Close enough. If you just *hear* the clue, instead of read it, it's pretty clever. 

Nothing else to say about this one, except I'm pretty pleased that I bothered to explain DLINE *and* OLINE yesterday. I hope that benefitted at least one person out there today (45A: QB-protecting group). See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. It's the last day of Peter Gordon's "B-t-Z Vwllss Crsswrds" Kickstarter, and since I love vowelless crosswords so much, I'm gonna repost my plug from a few weeks ago:

One of the great joys in my puzzle-solving life is when Fireball Crosswords decides (once a year?) to a do a vowelless crossword. These are regular crossword puzzles in every respect but one—no vowels appear in the grid. You just omit them when entering the answers. I find this extra challenge delightful. It also means I get more bang for my puzzling buck, because these puzzles generally take me a little longer to solve. So I am happy to see that Peter Gordon and Frank Longo have a Kickstarter going for "B-t-Z Vwllss Crsswrds"—"Twice a week for 13 weeks you’ll get a 9×11 crossword puzzle in which you enter only the consonants. The letter Y is not part of any answer. Each puzzle will use all 20 consonants." That's 26 puzzles by two of the best puzzlemakers in the country for just $14 (!?). Trust me, I am not steering you wrong here. Go do the sample Vowelless puzzle on their site right now if you're not sure what the no-vowels solving experience is like. If you are even a little bit of a puzzle junkie, I'll be surprised if you aren't hooked. Also makes a very affordable gift for the puzzle-lover in your life. 

It's the gift-giving season, so treat yourself. Treat your puzzle-loving partner / kid / grandparent. And you can back Peter's long-running and popular "Fireball Newsflash Crosswords" while you're at it :)

P.P.S. Me to my wife just now: "I don't know how I knew the rabbit." Wife: "You teach comics, you know about animation..." Me: "Yeah, but I looked up the rabbit and I didn't really recognize it. I was picturing something more like Ha- ... oh my god, Harvey! OSWALD! Harvey OSWALD!"

P.P.S. … in which I claim victory! (from my inbox just now!):

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Confucian scholar Chu / THU 5-28-20 / Yellow creature in series of hit animated films / Moor's foe in early eighth century / Flagship sch. with famed serpentine garden walls

Constructor: Tracy Bennett

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (4:40)

THEME: wacky phrases made up of two TV show titles —

Theme answers:

• GET SMART FRIENDS (19A: What to do if you want to win bar trivia?)
• DOCTOR WHO CHEERS (37A: Medical professional with a passion for pep rallies?)
• THE SOPRANOS LOST (52A: Predictable result of a choir's Barry White singing contest?)

Word of the Day: Chu HSI (46A: Confucian scholar Chu ___) —

Zhu Xi ([ʈʂú ɕí]; Chinese: 朱熹; October 18, 1130 – April 23, 1200), also known by his courtesy name Yuanhui (or Zhonghui), and self-titled Hui'an, was a Chinese calligrapher, historian, philosopher, politician, and writer of the Song dynasty. He was a Confucian scholar who founded what later became known as the "learning of principle" or "rationalist" school (lixue 理學) and was the most influential Neo-Confucian in China. His contributions to Chinese philosophy including his editing of and commentaries to the Four Books, which later formed the curriculum of the civil service exam in Imperial China from 1313 to 1905; and his emphasis on the process of the "investigation of things" (gewu 格物) and meditation as a method for self cultivation.

Zhu has been described [as] the second most influential thinker in Chinese history, after Confucius himself. He was a scholar with a wide learning in the classics, commentaries, histories and other writings of his predecessors. In his lifetime he was able to serve multiple times as an government official, although he avoided public office for most of his adult life.^[1] He also wrote, compiled and edited almost a hundred books and corresponded with dozens of other scholars. He acted as a teacher to groups of students, many who chose to study under him for years. He built upon the teachings of the Cheng brothers and others; and further developed their metaphysical theories in regards to principle (li 理) and vital force (qi 氣). His followers recorded thousands of his conversations in writing.

• • •

This felt like a Wednesday theme living in a Friday grid. I guess that averages out to a Thursday, but still this lacked the usual Thursday sass / trickery. It's just ... two TV shows pushed together and imagined as wacky phrases. Seems like something you could do and do and do and do, i.e. the themer set is pretty arbitrary. They're all 15s, so that's ... something. But one's an imperative sentence, one's a noun phrase, and one's a declarative sentence. The types (genres) of shows involved are all over the map. It all just didn't feel coherent enough. And the low word-count grid is odd. Feels like a weird way to build in some added difficulty, since the theme doesn't really offer any. But you can get difficulty just from cluing so ... not sure why the word count is way down at themeless levels (72). It doesn't allow for much exceptional fill—if anything, the grid feels strained in parts; low word counts are good for themelesses because themelesses don't have ... themes ... putting pressure on the grid. I liked BAD KARMA and the clue on MOTH (which really tricked me) (33D: Bulb circler) and not a lot else. Didn't strongly dislike much either. Just think it missed the Thursday sweet spot.

[famously deep-voiced, thus ... sopranos are gonna struggle, I guess]

Grid was more crosswordesey than I'd like (NESS ENNE ESOS EDEMA EBRO AMES ENTS RAH DAW OVO HSI NALA ADOS). Had trouble with HSI HALIDE and OSMAN, and because HSI and HALIDE were in the same corner (SW), and that corner also had the ridiculously clued ORTHODOX in it (38D: Keenly observant), that was definitely the roughest part of the grid for me. I get that "Keenly" is supposed to mean "very" here, but you'd never use "keenly observant" to describe someone's religiosity. The only reason "keenly" is there is to make you think a different type of "observant" is intended. I have no problem with that kind of head fake if the clue you offer is in fact plausible. "Keenly" is just a clunk of an adverb to use in this context. The clue feels like cheap trickery, as opposed to the good trickery of, SAY, the clue on MOTH (33D: Bulb circler). There's ambiguity as to what type of bulb is meant, as to what "circling" might mean in this context, etc. I went from "what the hell...?" to "Oh! Oh, that's good." And that is the trajectory you want on a tough / tricky clue. ASNEAT is truly gruesome fill—no AS[adjective] is ever going to be good. Ever. Ever. I've seen lots of them (ASRED, ASBAD, etc.) and ASNEAT is up there with the worst. Just not a stand-alone phrase. FREE AT LAST, on the other hand, stands alone reasonably well, despite being just a fragment—MLK repeats that phrase to great dramatic effect, so it has suitable heft.


Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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