Fizzled out completely / TUES 12-30-25 / Fun word to shout into a canyon / Oblong tomato type / "Absolument!" / Climactic fight in a video game

Hi, everyone, it’s Clare for the last Tuesday of December — and the last Tuesday of 2025! Hope that everyone has had a happy holiday season and that everyone has a great start to their new year. I’ve been lounging around and baking a lot, watching sports a lot, working (a little), and reading as much as I can. Goodreads gave me a year-end review, and I’ve apparently read (or listened to) 127 books this year — so I guess I know what I’ve been doing in my free time! The books have certainly helped take my mind off the fact that my sports teams have been a bit dismal lately. Even if my Steelers squeak into the playoffs, they’d probably lose in the first game (again). 

Anywho, on to the puzzle…

Constructors: Geoffrey Schorkopf and Will Eisenberg

Relative difficulty: Medium (for a Tuesday)

THEME: BUY A VOWEL (60A: Spend money on "Wheel of Fortune" ... which won't help much for solving 17-, 21-, 36-, 41- and 53-Across!) — The circled letter in each theme answer is the only vowel present… and they appear in sequential order

Theme answers:

• LGBTQ FLAG (17A: Something to wave with pride?) 
• WENT PFFT (21A: Fizzled out completely) 
• BMX TRICKS (36A: Flashy cycling maneuvers) 
• NBC SPORTS (41A: "Sunday Night Football" producer) 
• PR STUNTS (53A: They're pulled to garner media attention, informally)

Word of the Day: RODIN (39A: "The Thinker" sculptor) —

François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 1840 – 17 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, and deeply pocketed surface in clay. He is known for such sculptures as The Thinker, Monument to Balzac, The Kiss, The Burghers of Calais, and The Gates of Hell… The Thinker is a bronze sculpture depicting a nude male figure of heroic size, seated on a large rock, leaning forward, his right elbow placed upon his left thigh, with the back of his right hand supporting his chin in a posture evocative of deep thought and contemplation. This universally recognized expression of "deep thought" has made the sculpture one of the most widely known artworks in the world. (Wiki)

• • •

And now… I’d like to solve the puzzle. 

This was a nicely executed theme with a cute revealer. I liked being able to look back at the puzzle and see the progression of the vowels, and I can appreciate the effort that went into finding so many theme answers that only had one vowel. That said, answers with only one vowel can look pretty strange. WENT PFFT (21A) is a seriously ugly answer. BMX TRICKS (36A) looks odd, too. And the other theme answers didn’t inspire me much. I also initially wondered why they chose not to make it the LGBTQIA flag (17A), then realized that would’ve had too many vowels. 

There was some nice longer fill. I liked AUSPICIOUS (9D: Like good omens) and SQUALL (13D: Sudden, powerful gust of wind). The clue for SEA BED (44A: Wet floor?) was really clever (once I finally got it). I found DROOL (33A: [That looks delicious …]) for some reason to be a fun clue/answer combo. And the world needs more GLITTER (8D: Hard-to-clean-up sparkly stuff). I got BOSS BATTLE (27D: Climactic fight in a video game) because I listened to the audiobook for “Dungeon Crawler Carl,” whose narrator does amazing voices and which made me laugh, so that was a fun callback. 

I didn’t know EDWIN (50D: Scientist Hubble with a telescope named after him) but was able to get the “w” from VOWEL (60A) and figured the rest out from there. I hadn’t heard the expression “And SO TO bed” (4D), so that looked very strange to me. ISOLA (19A: Sardinia, e.g., to Sardinians) made me pause. “Isle” and “isla” are common enough, but I didn’t know the Italian word for “island.” And I’ve never heard of the KARA Sea (46D: arm of the Arctic Ocean) before. I looked it up, and if my sources are accurate, KARA has only appeared in the Will Shortz era of the puzzles 12 times, including today. Only three of those appearances clued it as the KARA Sea — once in a Friday, once in a Sunday, and now once in a Tuesday puzzle. All that to say, I needed the crosses to get the word (which luckily weren’t too hard). 

Some of the rest of the fill was a letdown. Like having 40A and 45A both as "That’s not good!" — as OH NO and YIKES, respectively. As Rex says, if you have bad fill, don’t draw attention to it by doing things like doubling up on clues. And, as I’ve often said, I hate clues that are so ambiguous they could have a bunch of answers. XES IN (37D: Marks, as a ballot square) also looked particularly bad (though I understand the need for the X there). And the clue for SMILE (62A: Upside-down frown) really had me frowning.

Misc.:

• One of the gifts I got for Christmas from my parents was PJS (53D: Nightwear, informally) — or, rather, a PJ top. My mom didn’t realize the pieces were sold separately, so I will get the bottoms later. 
• I was talking with my dad and sister about the puzzle, and ELIDE (64A: Skip over, in speech) produced a funny family moment. While we were all sitting on the couch,, my sister said the word correctly, and my dad insisted she was wrong — e-LEED, he said. She told him he was often wrong about pronunciation, so he pulled up the internet to prove her wrong, and… she was right. 
• In the spirit of a year-end review, here are my top five books of the year, if you’re curious (in no particular order except the first one) — “The Everlasting” by Alix E. Harrow, “The Raven Scholar” by Antonia Hodgson, “Malice” by Keigo Higashino, “Hungerstone” by Kat Dunn, and “Blood Over Bright Haven” by M. L. Wang. Maybe you could find something to enjoy in there in 2026! 
• And finally, shoutout to Cooper’s owner, whom I met at a dog park in D.C. and who recognized Red from the crossword and asked me, “Is your name by chance ‘Clare’?” Cooper is a very cute doggo! And because I can’t end the year without another picture of my puppy, here’s Red at the beach on Christmas Eve.

I look forward to seeing you all in the new year!

Signed, Clr Crrll (who didn’t have enough money to buy a vowel)

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Clichéd dismissal of Arizona's summer climate/ MON 3-25-24 / Woven creation of the Ojibwe people / Emma Stone's co-star on Showtime's "The Curse" / 2, 4, 6, 8, how do these numbers relate?

Constructor: Shannon Rapp and Will Eisenberg

Relative difficulty: Easy (solved Downs-only)

THEME: Opening Day (which is actually Mar. 28, but ... close enough!) — baseball theme: second words of two-word phrases are all words for players on a baseball diamond:

Theme answers:

• DREAM CATCHER (20A: Woven creation of the Ojibwe people)
• PANCAKE BATTER (29A: Thick liquid poured on a hot griddle)
• NATHAN FIELDER (47A: Emma Stone's co-star on Showtime's "The Curse")
• WATER PITCHER (56A: Pour thing?) [this puzzle is oddly horny for Emma Stone ... and pouring]

Word of the Day: NATHAN FIELDER (47A) —

Nathan Joseph Fielder (born May 12, 1983) is a Canadian comedian, actor, writer, director, and producer. He is known for his awkward persona and involvement in works that blur reality and fiction. His accolades include an Independent Spirit Award and a WGA Award, as well as a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award. In 2023, he was featured on Time's list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Fielder was interested in comedy from a young age, and as a teenager was involved in his school's improv group, which also featured fellow comedian Seth Rogen. He majored in Business at the University of Victoria, which would later influence his work. After attending a comedy course at Humber College, Fielder started his career as a correspondent for CBC's This Hour Has 22 Minutes for the segment series Nathan on Your Side from 2008 to 2009. Fielder would later write and appear on the American sketch show Important Things with Demetri Martin (2011).

In 2013, he co-created and directed the Comedy Central parody reality show Nathan for You, in which Fielder stars as a slightly more awkward version of himself, who offers advice to struggling businesses. The show ended in 2017 and was followed by the HBO docu-comedy The Rehearsal (2022–present). Fielder also executive produced the HBO docu-series How To with John Wilson (2020–2023). In 2023, he and Benny Safdie created his first scripted show, Showtime's The Curse, in which he stars, alongside Safdie and Emma Stone. (wikipedia)

• • •

Among the easiest Downs-only solves I've ever done, although I will admit that I accidentally saw 1A: Rum-soaked cake (BABA) before I managed to toggle to Downs, so I probably got B AND B (ampersandwich!) faster than I would've otherwise. Still, I would've gotten BAKED POTATO even without that initial "B" from BABA, so I think it's safe to say that this will play on the easy side for Downs-only solvers. For regular solvers, I don't know. That NATHAN FIELDER cross would've stumped me. I had no idea he had a Showtime show with Emma Stone. I know him from The Rehearsal, which is ... I don't even know how to describe it. It seems like a documentary/reality series where he helps people prepare for some big event coming up in their lives, something they're worried about or dreading. That's the "rehearsal," and in those first couple episodes [actually, just the first episode!], the "rehearsal" is elaborate—building exact replicas of the locations where events are to take place and hiring actors to play patrons, that sort of thing. It's awkward and hilarious and surreal. But then the show takes a hard left turn when [starting in episode 2] Nathan himself gets pulled into one of the guest's stories [as the non-romantic partner of a woman ostensibly "rehearsing" to be a parent], and then the rest of the first-season episodes are all about that plotline. No new guests, just this bizarre trip into half-fake pseudo-reality TV land. I don't remember details well, but I remember my wife and I were constantly looking at each other like "What Is Happening?" Completely original and unpredictable in a way that TV almost never is. I guess I'll have to check out The Curse, but if it's conventional scripted fare, even good conventional scripted fare, I'm afraid I'm going to be disappointed. The Rehearsal set the Weird Bar too high, and now that's all I want from him. Anyway, between that clue and the [Pour thing?] clue, I can see how actually having to deal with the Acrosses might've slowed you down. In the Downs, though—no resistance to be found at all.

The theme is very basic, of a type that would've been very at home in the 20th century, even the pre-Shortz era, but the actual theme answers themselves, and the overall cluing, felt reasonably fresh. "IT'S A DRY HEAT" really gives you something extra to admire today (26D: Clichéd dismissal of Arizona's summer climate). That's one of the few Downs I wrestled with for more than a second or two, mainly because the "cliché" I was thinking of was "IT'S NOT THE HEAT / IT'S THE HUMIDITY," and I kept trying to make either half of that expression work. Ah well. "IT'S A DRY HEAT" works too, and it actually fits the clue (fancy that) (26D: Clichéd dismissal of Arizona's summer climate). The hardest answer for me to get was the last one: PROXY (55D: Designated representative). I had the "R" but the other letters were all bland and not easily inferrable. YA- could've been YAP YAK YAM etc. DUET- looked like it could only be DUETS. SPAN- looked like SPANS, or maybe SPANO (there's an actor Vincent SPANO, isn't there?) (A: Yes). And STA- could've been many other things besides STAY. So I had to push letters around and think on it, but I got there eventually. Even with that late struggle, this played very easy.

The only part that made me go "boo!" ("boo! this is bad!" as opposed to "boo! scared ya!") was the clue on EVENS (34D: 2, 4, 6, 8, how do these numbers relate?). The "how" is what is bad. Clues are supposed to agree with answers grammatically, and EVENS is not a "how." I was looking for an adverbial phrase, maybe a prepositional phrase (How? Uh ... BY TWO?), but no, instead we get a mere synonym for 2, 4, 6, and 8: EVENS, i.e. even numbers. Sucks when the puzzle sacrifices clarity for cuteness. I love the idea (make it sound like a cheer!), but it doesn't work on the most basic wording level, so it doesn't work.

Looking forward to actual Opening Day (Thursday!). Baseball is currently mired in a massive betting scandal involving its reigning AL MVP and highest-paid player, Shohei Ohtani, but ... as with most of the unpalatable aspects of pro sports that I enjoy, I'm just gonna pretend none of it matters. Play ball! And, as always, Go Tigers!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. surprised that this is (apparently) Will Eisenberg's NYTXW debut. He's been constructing for what seems like years, but apparently only for other outlets (AVCX, New Yorker, etc.). Until now.

P.P.S. today's constructors (frequent collaborators) also co-constructed a fun puzzle in These Puzzles Fund Abortion 4. Am I still plugging that collection? Apparently I am. It just crossed the $40K mark! Go get the puzzles for yourself if you haven't already.

 

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