Scholarly "same" / MON 6-22-26 / Little specifics, in slang / Repository of seeds from all corners of the globe, informally / One dental speciality, informally / MetLife Stadium team, on scoreboards / Wave of antigovernment protests in the early 2010s / Explosive personality trait / What the "face with steam from nose" emoji suggests / King's partner in castling

Constructor: Victoria Fernandez Grande

Relative difficulty: Medium (solved Downs-only)

THEME: TRIPLE JUMP (62A: Track-and-field event with a sandpit ... or a hint to the ends of 17-, 23- and 51-Across) — each of the three theme answers ends with a synonym for "jump":

Theme answers:

• ARAB SPRING (17A: Wave of antigovernment protests in the early 2010s)
• HOMEWARD BOUND (23A: Heading back to where one lives)
• DOOMSDAY VAULT (51A: Repository of seeds from all corners of the globe, informally)

Word of the Day: DOOMSDAY VAULT (51A) —

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault (Norwegian: Svalbard globale frøhvelv) is a secure backup facility for the Earth's crop diversity on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen in the remote Arctic Svalbard archipelago. The Seed Vault provides long-term storage for duplicates of seeds from around the world, conserved in gene banks. This provides security of the world's food supply against the loss of seeds in gene banks due to mismanagement, accident, equipment failures, funding cuts, war, sabotage, disease, and natural disasters. The Seed Vault is managed under terms spelled out in a tripartite agreement among the Norwegian government, the Crop Trust, and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen).

The Norwegian government entirely funded the Seed Vault's approximately 45 million kr (US$8.8 million in 2008) construction cost. Norway and the Crop Trust pay for operational costs. Storing seeds in the vault is free to depositors.

As of June 2025, the Seed Vault conserves 1,355,591 accessions, representing more than 13,000 years of agricultural history.

• • •

Adequate, but kind of uninspired. Last words = synonyms for "jump." That's it. The revealer tries to make it more exciting than that. But all the "triple" means is that you have (only) three themers. The concept lacks a certain cleverness and zing that the best Monday puzzles have. It does have one wholly original and, to me, mysterious answer: DOOMSDAY VAULT. It might be "mysterious" to me because ... it's not actually called that except in sensationalist news headlines (see "Word of the Day," above). As I was working that answer out from the Downs alone, I got the DOOMSDAY part but still had no idea what the phrase could be. I don't know that many "DOOMSDAY" phrases. There's the Doomsday Clock. There's a Doomsday scenario, I've heard of that. There's also the Doomsday Book, but that seemed pretty obscure. It's actually, technically, the "Domesday Book," and I'd be surprised if very many non-medievalists knew what it was. It's an important late 11c. English MS containing a survey of England and Wales: "The survey's main purpose was to record the annual value of every piece of landed property to its lord, and the resources in land, labour force, and livestock from which the value derived" (wikipedia). Anyway, of all these options, only CLOCK fit, and the crosses made that impossible, so I just had to wait for the letters in VAULT to appear. I think that was the first actual "jump" that I got. That "V" was hard since TVAPPS was a nightmare to parse (the only thing I could think of was "streamers" / "streaming services," and I couldn't think of a shortened form for that). I think I have actually heard of the DOOMSDAY VAULT before. I remember learning about the phenomenon, though clearly the name didn't stick. Anyway, it's a fun answer, the one genuinely original thing about the puzzle. The rest, as I say, is fine. Standard fare. Not exciting, not terrible.

[28D: Group whose "Gold: Greatest Hits" is the second-best-selling album]
Three wrong answers and a handful of ???s kept this one interesting, from a Downs-only perspective. Wrote in FOOL for 1D: Hoodwink (SCAM), which was a foolish mistake. Should've just waited for crosses. That one kept ARAB SPRING from coming into view very quickly. Also, just couldn't figure out SHREWD. No good reason, just ... wasn't coming to me (6D: Brilliant at negotiating). Worst, though, in the end was NYG (9D: MetLife Stadium team, on scoreboards). Also these corporate-named arenas, I cannot keep track of them. Had no idea what kind of sport I was even dealing with. Blank-blank-G gave me fits. Seemed to want to start with "N," but only PHONE or PHONO seemed to work at PHON-, which gave me NEG or NOG, respectively, and neither of those is a team (that I know of!). Finally realized PHONY was also on the table, and bam, there it was: NYG. New York Giants. Very weird to be held up by something so minor, but that's the great thing about solving Downs-only: the potential chaos created by the most ordinary of answers. I also had trouble parsing "I'M MAD" (I had ANGER in there at first) (13D: What the "face with steam from nose" emoji suggests), and THAN—that one was really rough (37D: Greater ___). I had GOOD in there for a bit. And yet I dropped A FIRST in without a second thought (32D: Unprecedented). That two-word-ness of that answer is the kind of thing that would normally trip me up, but somehow I saw right through it today. 

Bullets:

• 31A: Harsh, as a takedown (BRUTAL) — not sure how "as a takedown" adds anything here. I don't associate BRUTAL with "a takedown" any more than I do "harsh." BRUTAL is just a word for "Harsh." The clue could've just been "Harsh," or "Very harsh," I suppose. 
• 16A: Scholarly "same" (IDEM) — oof. Brutal. The kind of crusty crosswordese that a Monday puzzle should avoid at all costs. ("Avoid at all costs" is a cliché, another thing you should avoid) (not as bad as "avoid like the plague," though)
• 35D: Explosive personality trait (SHORT FUSE) — nice. Probably the nicest non-theme answer. This was a bit of a challenge to get Downs-only. Somehow, "Explosive" wasn't giving me "anger," necessarily. I thought maybe the person in question was just ... a firecracker, you know. Like, maybe they had a big, dynamic personality. 

• 52D: One dental speciality, informally (ORTHO) — this is a small technical matter, but ... I don't really get what "One" is doing in this clue. [Dental specialty, informally] works perfectly. Of course it's one. All answers are "one" unless you say otherwise. Baffling, unnecessary use of "One" here. Not that anyone's going to care, or even notice. I'm just curious what the logic is for including it.

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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1972 hit for Tanya Tucker / TUE 4-21-26 / Wild West way of settling disputes / Cool, in '90s slang / Literary friend of Finn / Starbucks alternatives from the Golden Arches / Dual degrees for physicians / Haitian currency unit / "___ dat" (slangy agreement)

Constructor: Victoria Fernandez Grande

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: FLYING START (57A: Early advantage ... or a hint to the beginnings of 17-, 25-, 36- and 49-Across) — familiar phrases where the first word (or "start") is also the name of an airline:

Theme answers:

• SPIRIT GUIDE (17A: Mentor from the beyond)
• UNITED WAY (25A: Major charity whose recipients include the Red Cross and Salvation Army)
• FRONTIER JUSTICE (36A: Wild West way of settling disputes)
• "DELTA DAWN" (49A: 1972 country hit for Tanya Tucker)

Word of the Day: GOURDE (18D: Haitian currency unit) —

The gourde (French: [ɡuʁd]) or goud (Haitian Creole: [ɡud]) is the currency of Haiti. Its ISO 4217 code is HTG and it is divided into 100 centimes (French) or santim (Creole).

The word "gourde" is a French cognate for the Spanish term "gordo", from the "pesos gordos" (also known in English as "hard" pieces of eight, and in French as "piastres fortes espagnoles") in which colonial-era contracts within the Spanish sphere of influence were often denominated. (wikipedia)

• • •

A standard "first-words" theme-type, solidly executed. Strangely, the one place that I struggled (slightly) in this puzzle was with the FLYING part of FLYING START (57A: Early advantage...)—I had the START and the only word I could think of to precede it was RUNNING. Since that wouldn't fit, my brain was left going "blank-ING START, blank-ING START ... I know there's another phrase here, what is it?" If I'd just looked at the "beginnings" of all the theme answers, like the clue told me to, I probably could've figured it out quickly, but instead I just threw crosses at it until I got it. It was probably the "Y" from SAWYER that gave it to me. Anyway, the themers do indeed "start" with companies that specialize in "flying" so ... nothing very tricky going on here. Very straightforward wordplay. This is the kind of phrase that's tailor-made to be a revealer—any phrase with "start" or "end" or an equivalent synonym of either is a potential theme provocation. Like ... you could do COLD OPEN, and have the theme be phrases where the first word is something cold. If you've been solving crosswords for any length of time, you've seen scores of variations on this theme type, which is never going to wow you, but which can be enjoyable if the theme phrases are colorful enough, and today's are pretty good. Well, the last two are, anyway. FRONTIER JUSTICE does evoke certain grim images (lynchings come to mind), but it's a great phrase, and "DELTA DAWN" ... I mean, who doesn't like "DELTA DAWN?" Put it in every puzzle, I'll never be unhappy to see it. (I grew up with the Helen Reddy version, so that's the version you're getting)

The fill on this one was a little above average for a Tuesday, I thought. I could've done without two foreign currencies (few things reek of crosswordese like foreign currencies), and I'm not sure crossing FLYING with FLY was the best idea, but otherwise I didn't wrinkle my face at the grid much at all, and generally enjoyed making my way through the grid (often a chore in early-week themed puzzles, where the fill often feels like an afterthought). The fact that the grid was fun to move through is particularly impressive given that there are only a small handful of answers more than six letters long: just two 8s and two 7s. Normally, the longer answers are the thing giving the grid life, but today's puzzle relies on an army of 6s to get the job done. The effects are particularly nice in the SW corner. I don't love the idea of plural MCCAFES (I've only ever seen one, that I remember, and that was in NZ), but otherwise, in addition to the always lovely "DELTA DAWN," we get SEX and CLIMAX (!) as well as the musical stylings of CELINE Dion and the consonantal onslaught that is MD/PHDS. Did CELINE ever cover "DELTA DAWN"? Not that I can find. She does sing something called "New Dawn," but it's a pretty boring gospel song, so here's the VH1 Pop-Up Video version of that song from Titanic instead, enjoy:

Bullets:

• 56A: "But Daddy I Love ___" (Taylor Swift song) ("HIM") — I never saw this clue, so I can't really complain, but I'm gonna complain anyway—no need to shoehorn Taylor Swift into yet another puzzle, esp. for a completely ordinary word like "HIM." And, I mean, if you really want to do a musical fill-in-the-blank clue with a song containing "HIM," there are sooooooooo many to choose from. Branch out! 

• 29D: Left-wing protest group (ANTIFA) — feels fresh, but it's not new—this is actually the fifth appearance of ANTIFA (which debuted in 2018). This answer always makes the fascists mad, so I like it.
• 10D: Female form of the animal that outnumbers humans in Iceland (EWE) — this feels forced. As a clue for SHEEP, I'd love the Iceland trivia, but as a clue for EWE, it's ungainly ... the whole "Female form of the" part makes it wordy and awkward. 
• 46D: Literary friend of Finn (SAWYER) — This clue makes it sound like Tom was bookish. Remember how Tom got out of painting that fence so he could go off and read Dostoevsky? Classic.
• 57D: Cool, in '90s slang (FLY) — I was there (the '90s, that is), and I still hesitated here, even with the "F"—my brain went "... FAT ... wait, isn't it PHAT?" The "FLY Girls" were dancers on the popular early-'90s sketch show In Living Color. J-Lo was a FLY Girl. The word came out of hip-hop culture and was everywhere for a while. If I could bring back any '90s slang, I'd bring back FLY. Beats PHAT by a country mile.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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