Kind of jam in a Sacher torte / MON 10-12-26 / "Clemency" actress Woodard / Celtics legend nicknamed "The Hick from French Lick" / "Jurassic Park" insect casing / Movie princess with "space buns" / Explosive block in Minecraft

Constructor: Zhouqin Burnikel

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (**solved Downs-only**)

[31A: Movie princess with "space buns" = LEIA]

THEME: OUT ON A LIMB (58A: Positioned precariously ... or where the ends of 16-, 24-, 35- and 49-Across can all be found) — two-word phrases where the second word is something you might find on a tree limb:

Theme answers:

• NISSAN LEAF (16A: Electric vehicle from Japan)
• MARE'S NEST (24A: Total mess)
• MOOD SWING (35A: Unpredictable emotional shift)
• LARRY BIRD (49A: Celtics legend nicknamed "The Hick from French Lick")

Word of the Day: Clemency (8D: "Clemency" actress Woodard = ALFRE) —

Clemency is a 2019 American drama film written and directed by Chinonye Chukwu. It stars Alfre Woodard, Richard Schiff, Danielle Brooks, Michael O'Neill, Richard Gunn, Wendell Pierce, and Aldis Hodge. The plot follows the lives of prison warden Bernadine Williams (Woodard) and death row inmate Anthony Woods (Hodge).

Clemency had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Dramatic Competition, on January 27, 2019 and was theatrically released in the United States by Neon on December 27, 2019. The film received acclaim from critics, who lauded Woodard's performance, as well as Chukwu's direction and screenplay. It earned nominations for Best Feature, Best Female Lead (for Woodard), and Best Screenplay (for Chukwu) at the 35th Independent Spirit Awards and Best Actress in a Leading Role (for Woodard) at the 74th British Academy Film Awards.

• • •

A decent but slightly ho-hum theme elevated by a raft of 7s in the corners that kept the grid interesting. Also, it's a nice touch to have all the limb-related things be non-limb-related in their respective answers (i.e. the leaf isn't the kind on a tree, the nest isn't a bird's nest, the swing is not one you swing from, and the bird is a human being). Solving it Downs-only got a little hairy in places. Of the eight 7s, only three of them came easily to me (SASHIMI, TROTSKY, AMENITY). Took a few beats to get LEISURE—love the clue, but it's a bit of a thinker (2D: It isn't working). Seems like the kind that should have a "!" on the end. That's customary with one of these "it" clues that use a common saying (e.g. [Step on it!]) in order to get at an expected and very literal meaning of it (answers to [Step on it!] have ranged from INSOLE to MAT to SCALE). I'm noticing now, though, that editorial practice is remarkably inconsistent on this front. On one Thursday in 2019, for instance, the clue for PEDAL was [Step on it!], with the "!," but on another Thursday just four years later, PEDAL got the same clue, but without the "!" Same day of the week, so I have no idea what gives. Anyway, the "!" is the way I'm used to seeing this brand of "it" clue handled, and without it today, it took me a moment to realize that it was the "it" that the clue wanted in 2D: It isn't working (LEISURE). 

The clue for "CORRECT!" threw me because of the "You're" part (10D: "You're right!"). I mean, ["Right!"] would've worked just as well. I was looking for some phrase or expression that clearly related to the "You're," but no dice. The hardest of the 7s for me were the two in the SW. Totally forgot what jam was in a Sacher torte and could think only of things ending -BERRY. As for a flower named after a drink, I was at a loss completely. That whole corner got very dicey as a result. I didn't even have AMBER because I was thinking the "insect casing" was part of the insect, like an exoskeleton (32D: "Jurassic Park" insect casing). This left a gaping hole in the SW that was hard to infer Acrosses across. I would've been a lot faster if I'd been able to make any sense of L---Y BIRD. LARRY BIRD Was My Favorite Player When I Was A Kid!!! And yet all my brain could see was LOONY BIRD (?) or LUCKY BIRD (!?) (which is not a thing, but I definitely wondered if it was). Eventually I was like "D'oh! LARRY!" And then I got AMBER and APRICOT and things came together.

I was prepared to be mad at the theme early on because it looked like some kind of bird/nest thing was developing (LEAF, NEST ...) and so I thought the third theme element was WING. "You can't do that! You can't have the other theme parts be stand-alones and then have one of them be part of a word! Boo!" But then in the end, I realized that it was SWING, not WING, that was thematic. So I retracted my "Boo!" 

Bullets:

• 23A: Signaling, as a performer (CUING) — this word looks so weird. I wrote in LEISURE, saw that it gave me CUING in the cross, and promptly retracted LEISURE—that's how unwordlike CUING looked to me. Like a sound effect more than a word. But I did ultimately realize that it was CUE + -ING.
• 43D: Went hog wild (RAN AMOK) — another fairly tough 7 to crack. Wanted it to end in -ED until I was able to infer that -OK at the end.
• 59D: Reason for overtime (TIE) — total mystery to me for many seconds, despite my having the "T" in place, because I was imagining the "overtime" as work-, not sports-related. "Reason for overtime? Uh, you need more money and it pays time and a half? There's extra work to be done? The boss asked? ... How is this a three-letter word!?!?!"

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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1963 Kingsmen hit with a repetitive title / MON 8-17-26 / "Pink" animal of film / Boozy brunch drink / Well-dressed guy / ___ tofu (Sichuan dish) / Hot pepper named for Cuba's capital / It catches ballpark smooches

Constructor: Zhouqin Burnikel

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (solved Downs-only) 

THEME: "YES AND YES!" (62A: "Totally agree!" ... or what the circled letters are, in different languages) — each theme answer contains two sets of circled squares, each of which contains a word meaning "yes" in a foreign language:

Theme answers:

• DAPPER DAN (16A: Well-dressed guy)
• JAM JARS (38A: Containers for fruit preserves)
• "LOUIE LOUIE" (10D: 1963 Kingsmen hit with a repetitive title)
• SITE VISITS (27D: On-location inspections)

Word of the Day: "LOUIE, LOUIE" (10D) —

"Louie Louie" is a rhythm and blues song written, composed, and recorded by American musician Richard Berry in 1956 and released in 1957. In 1963, a version by the Kingsmen attracted controversy over allegedly profane lyrics. The song is based on the tune "El Loco Cha Cha" popularized by bandleader René Touzet and is an example of Afro-Cuban influence on American popular music. // The song's historical impact and ongoing popularity, attested by books, articles, rankings, and hundreds of cover versions, have earned it a reputation as "a cornerstone of rock". 

"Louie Louie" tells, in simple verse–chorus form, the first-person story of a "lovesick sailor's lament to a bartender about wanting to get back home to his girl". [...] On April 6, 1963, the Kingsmen, a rock and roll group from Portland, Oregon, chose "Louie Louie" for their second recording. The session took place at Northwestern Inc. Motion Pictures & Recording Studios at 411 SW 13th Avenue in Portland. The one hour session, originally intended to produce an audition tape for a summer cruise ship gig, cost either $36, $50, or somewhere in between, and the band split the cost. [...] First released in May 1963, the single was initially issued by the small Jerden label, before being picked up by the larger Wand Records in October 1963. Wand president Florence Greenberg said, "it was forced down my throat by friends. I was ashamed to put it out." Herb Alpert and A&M Records passed on the distribution opportunity, deeming it "too long" and "out of tune". [...]

Sales of the Kingsmen record were initially so low (reportedly 600) that the group considered disbanding. Things changed when Boston's biggest DJ, Arnie Ginsburg, was given the record by a pitchman. Amused by its slapdash sound, he played it on his program as "The Worst Record of the Week". Despite the slam, listener response was swift and positive.Another factor in the success of the record may have been the rumour that the vocals were intentionally slurred by the Kingsmen to cover up lyrics that were allegedly laced with profanity, graphically depicting sex between the sailor and his lady. Crumpled pieces of paper professing to be "the real lyrics" to "Louie Louie" circulated among teens. The song was banned on many radio stations and in many places in the United States, including Indiana, where a ban was requested by Governor Matthew Welsh. These actions were taken despite the fact that practically no one could distinguish the actual lyrics. Denials of chicanery by Kingsmen and Ely did not stop the controversy. The FBI started a 31-month investigation into the matter and concluded they were "unable to interpret any of the wording in the record." However, drummer Lynn Easton later admitted that he yelled "fuck" after fumbling a drum fill at 0:54 on the record. (wikipedia)

• • •

I confess I don't really know this expression, "YES AND YES!" I'm sure I've heard it, and it would be totally recognizable as a kind of emphatic affirmative, but it's not something I hear people say, or can hear in my head very clearly. I frequently use the phrase "Done and done!" to mean roughly the same thing ("I will do that thing," "consider it done," "yes I will do it"), but "YES AND YES!" ... not sure why it's not really ringing a bell. But it's not really a problem for me today—I recognize it as a thing one might say, and it leads to a pretty nifty, simple Monday theme. Kinda cheating to get your two "oui"s by using "LOUIE" twice, but then again, I enjoy remembering that song, which is one of the day's most colorful answers so cheating objection ... overruled! My only real complaint involves SITE VISITS, which is a singularly unattractive phrase. I'm stunned that there wasn't some better, more colorful, less blandly businesslike phrase that has two "SI"s in it. I realize you've got symmetry considerations, and the answer (assuming you keep all the other themers where they are) had to come in at ten letters long, but still ... I think you gotta hunt harder. That answer was also the hardest for me to get, from a Downs-only standpoint, despite my being fairly certain of the "SI"s (it was the only commonly known foreign "yes" that was left). But again, overall, the puzzle was cute. Entertaining. Interesting to solve Downs-only. Reverse KOA!

Even with the cheater squares (black squares above PIC and below ESO, which are there only to make the grid easier to fill), there's still a bit of dull crosswordese around the edges here. ESO, for instance, and PAOLO OBIES ISEE EIN ANTE IMAM IMAC INUIT UAE OSSO EYRE ASTI ATTN EASEL AHA ... would've been nice if the puzzle hadn't been so reliant on allllllll the old stuff. But then of course the themers are strong, and the longer non-themers are decent as well. HABANERO is spicy and SCREEDS are ranty and MEANDER is wandery and SCORPION is sting-y and KISS CAM, well, those are kinda gross, actually, but who doesn't like the Pink PANTHER? SO THERE! If the crosswordese is bugging you, just have a MIMOSA and listen to your favorite ROCK BAND and relax. Or you could have some MAPO tofu and listen to Chappell ROAN, that's what I'd do if I hadn't already had dinner—a delicious dinner Penelope and I made together. Here, I have the pics to prove it.

[that NYT Cooking page-a-day calendar is a godsend—app, shmapp, just give me paper!]

Bullets:

• 16A: Well-dressed guy (DAPPER DAN) — I know DAPPER DAN exclusively as a doll that I (or my sister, or both of us) had when I was very little. I can still see his dumb felted face and rosy cheeks. Oh yeah, here we go:

[Well-dressed, smash-faced]

The phrase I know for "well-dressed man" is "handsome Dan," though that's probably just because of "Tougher Than the Rest," a Bruce Springsteen song that I first heard in an acoustic version by Everything But The Girl:

["Some girls they want a handsome Dan / Or some good-looking Joe..."]

• 36D: "Sounds like a plan!" ("LET'S") — one of the tougher answers, from a Downs-only perspective. I wanted "I'M IN!"
• 11D: Martini garnish (OLIVE) — ONION also works (and fits, and starts with "O") (though w/ an ONION, it’s called a Gibson Martini, or simply a Gibson)
• 59D: Enjoy a fantasy, say (READ) — I kinda like the mild misdirection here. They hide "novel" or "story" and just let "fantasy" be a substantive adjective. So your (my) first thought for "Enjoy a fantasy" is something like "dream," but ... no.
• 33D: Breakfast beverages, for short (OJS) — kind of an OJ overload situation here, as OJ both sits alongside MIMOSA and is a key ingredient of a MIMOSA (the other being champagne or other sparkling wine). 

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Gesture suggesting "I see what you did there" / MON 12-8-25 / Wyoming skiing mecca / Center of a stone fruit / Stuff on an artist's palette

Constructor: Dan Kammann and Zhouqin Burnikel

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (solved Downs-only)

THEME: DIGIT (40A: Finger or toe ... or, when read as two words, what you can do to the ends of 17- and 62-Across and 10- and 34-Down) — last words of themers are things you can "dig":

Theme answers:

• JACKSON HOLE (17A: Wyoming skiing mecca)
• WORK OUT WELL (62A: End successfully)
• LAST-DITCH (10D: Eleventh-hour)
• CHERRY PIT (34D: Center of a stone fruit)

Word of the Day: Robert Benchley (13A: "___ is where a guy gets stabbed in the back, and instead of dying, he sings": Robert Benchley => OPERA) —

Robert Charles Benchley (September 15, 1889 – November 21, 1945) was an American humorist, newspaper columnist and actor. From his beginnings at The Harvard Lampoon while attending Harvard University, through his many years writing essays and articles for Vanity Fair and The New Yorker and his acclaimed short films, Benchley's style of humor brought him respect and success during his life, from his peers at the Algonquin Round Table in New York City to contemporaries in the burgeoning film industry.

Benchley is remembered best for his contributions to the magazine The New Yorker; his essays for that publication, whether topical or absurdist, influenced many modern humorists. He also made a name for himself in Hollywood, when his short movie How to Sleep was a popular success and won Best Short Subject at the 1935 Academy Awards. He also made many memorable appearances acting in movies such as Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (1940) and Nice Girl? (1941). Also, Benchley appeared as himself in Walt Disney's behind the scenes movie, The Reluctant Dragon (1941). His legacy includes written work and numerous short movie appearances. (wikipedia)

• • •

***ATTENTION: READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS IN SYNDICATION*** (if you're reading this in January, that's you!) : It's early January, which means it's time once again for my annual week-long pitch for financial contributions to the blog. Every year I ask readers to consider what the blog is worth to them on an annual basis and give accordingly. 2026 is a big year for me, as Rex Parker Solves the NYT Crossword will celebrate its 20th birthday in September. Two decades. The big 2-0. A score of years. One score and no years ago, I brought forth on this Internet a new blog, conceived in ... I think I'll stop there, but you get the idea. I've been at this a long time, and while it has been my privilege and joy, it has also been (and continues to be) a lot of work. Very early mornings, no days off—well, no days off for the blog. I do have two very able regular subs (Mali and Clare) who write for me once a month, as well as a handful of other folks who stand in for me when I go on vacation. But otherwise, it's just me, every dang day, up by 4am, solving and writing. I've never been this disciplined about anything in my life. Ask anyone. "Is he disciplined about anything else?" "No, he is not. Just this one thing. It's weird." And it's because I have a responsibility to an audience (that's you). Even after nearly 20 years, I'm still genuinely stunned and exceedingly grateful that so many of you have made the blog a part of your daily routine. Ideally, it adds a little value to the solving experience. Teaches you something you didn't know, or helps you look at crosswords in a new way, or makes you laugh (my highest goal, frankly). Or maybe the blog simply offers a feeling of commiseration—a familiar voice confirming that yes, that clue was terrible, or yes, that themer set should have been tighter, or wow, yes, that answer was indeed beautiful. Whether you find it informative or comforting or entertaining or infuriating—or all of the above—if you're reading me on a fairly regular basis, there's something valuable you're getting out of the blog. And I couldn't be happier about that.

["That's upside-down, sweetheart"]

Hopefully by now you can tell that for better or worse, what you get from me is my honest, unvarnished feelings about a puzzle. There's an explanatory element too, sure, but this blog is basically one person's solving diary. Idiosyncratic. Personal. Human. I'm not interested in trying to guess consensus opinion. I'll leave that to A.I. All I can do, all I want to do, is tell you exactly what it was like for me to solve the puzzle—what I thought, what I felt. Because while solving may seem like mere box-filling to outsiders, crossword enthusiasts know that the puzzle actually makes us feel things—joy, anguish, confusion (confusion's a feeling, right?). Our feelings might not always be rational, but dammit, they're ours, and they're worth having. And sharing. I love that crosswords engage the messy, human side of you, as well as the objective, solution-oriented side. If I just wanted to fill in boxes, without any of the messy human stuff, I'd solve sudoku (no shade, sudoku fans, they're just not for me!).

[conferring w/ my editor]

Over the years, I have received all kinds of advice about "monetizing" the blog, invitations to turn it into a subscription-type deal à la Substack or Patreon. And maybe I'd make more money that way, I don't know, but that sort of thing has never felt right for me. And honestly, does anyone really need yet another subscription to manage? As I've said in years past, I like being out here on this super old-school blogging platform, just giving it away for free and relying on conscientious addicts like yourselves to pay me what you think the blog's worth. It's just nicer that way. 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 three options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar on the homepage, as well as at the bottom of every write-up):

Second, a mailing address (checks can be made out to "Michael Sharp" or "Rex Parker") (be sure to date them with the new year, 2026!):

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

The third, increasingly popular option is Venmo; if that's your preferred way of moving money around, my handle is @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 Venmo contributions will get a little heart emoji, at a minimum :) All snail mail contributions will be gratefully acknowledged with hand-written postcards. I know snail mail is a hassle for most people, but I love it. I love seeing your (mostly) gorgeous handwriting and then sending you my (completely) awful handwriting. The human touch—it's nice. In recent years, my daughter has designed my annual postcards, but this year, grad school and NYC theater work are keeping her otherwise occupied, so I had to seek design help elsewhere. Enter Katie Kosma, who is not only a professional illustrator/designer, but (crucially!) a crossword enthusiast. She listened patiently to my long and disorganized list of ideas and in very short order was able to arrive at this year's design, inspired by film noir title cards. 

I'm very happy with how it turned out. The teeny boxes inside the letters, the copyright credit ("Natick Pictures, Inc."), and especially that pencil lamppost—mwah! I know most people solve online now, and many paper solvers prefer pen, but the pencil just feels iconic, and appropriate for the card's throwback vibe. That lamppost was entirely Katie's creation. She was a dream to work with. Can't say enough good things about her.

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. Please know that your support means a lot to me and my family. Now on to today's puzzle... 

• • •

Felt lucky that I was able to get this to WORK OUT WELL in the end, because the Downs-only solve was definitely a struggle for me today. It started out very smoothly, as I ran the table on the first five Downs I looked at, but after that, my progress became halting and awkward. Got OAKS and could see that the first word of 17A had to be (probably) JACKSON, but I crossed that "N" with FINS (6D: Scuba gear = TANK), and screech, no more progress in that direction. I managed to get down the west side of the grid, all the way down through CHERRY PIT, but once down there, yeesh, that SW corner. Couldn't decide on SCAB v. SCAR (56D: Covering over a wound), had no idea about LULL, but the real problem was that I could not figure out how to make any kind of answer out of S-YN--. Even after I got it down to S-YNOD, I just stared at it. I know the word "synod," but there was an extra space in there. SKY NOD, is that a thing? I figured I had something wrong, but all the crosses were very right, and so eventually I just had to run the alphabet to come up with SLY NOD. Not a happy discovery. SLY NOD must've come from someone's overcrowded wordlist. I can imagine sly looks and sly grins, but SLY NOD ... man, it just doesn't look good. I'm not sure how a nod can be "sly." Metaphorically, maybe, in the sense of a subtle reference ("... De Palma's SLY NOD to Hitchcock..."), but as clued, it's harder to see (56A: Gesture suggesting "I see what you did there"). I just searched ["sly nod"], in quotation marks, and most of the first hits that come up are crossword-answer sites referencing this clue. I didn't actually work out SLY NOD until the very, very end of the solve. 

["... and giving a [SLY?] NOD, up the chimney he rose!"]

I also had some trouble remembering pets with food in cheek pouches (44D: Pet that stores food in cheek pouches). Chipmunks aren't really pets. Weirdly wanted ECHIDNA. Are those pets? Maybe I'm thinking of chinchilla? Echidnas are spiny anteaters of Australia and Papua New Guinea, so no, probably not pets. Anyway, not sure why HAMSTER wouldn't come to me, but it wouldn't. For a while. Until I got the "H" from HO-HUM. As for the WEI dynasty—no way, no how (64D: Early Chinese dynasty). I worked out WELL from the theme (which I could see at that point), and just inferred the other two letters. Eventually had to get back up to the top and fix the whole FINS debacle. After that, I bounced to the SW corner where I finished up with (ugh) SLY NOD. While I didn't like SLY NOD, I did like the theme. Or, rather, I thought it was just OK ... when I thought it was just a bunch of holes in the ground. Because I solved Downs-only, I didn't notice that DIGIT was a revealer. I thought that maybe the puzzle didn't have a revealer at all. But the reinterpretation of DIGIT is clever, and, combined with mostly solid fill, lifts this one into somewhat above-average territory. 

Bullets:

• 52A: "Let me clarify ..." ("I MEANT...") — somehow "I MEANT" is 10x worse than "I MEAN" as fill, and the clue today compounds the problem. The clue and answer aren't grammatically parallel. "Let me clarify" is a complete sentence. "I MEANT" is not. After "Let me clarify...," despite the ellipsis, you would start a new sentence, whereas "I MEANT" would be followed immediately by a dependent clause ("... [that] I can't..." "... [that] you don't ..."). There's probably some way to swap them out one for the other, but my brain can't hear it.
• 12D: From ___ to dusk (DAWN) — easy enough, but I know the phrase the other way around: "from dusk to (or til) DAWN." Maybe I've been listening to too much music about partying all the time. Or else the Tarantino movie title is wielding undue influence. Oh, no ... I remember now who's responsible:

• 30A: "Enola Holmes" actress ___ Bobby Brown (MILLIE) — I feel like crosswords are single-handedly keeping Enola Holmes in our collective memories, usually as the non-ENOLA Gay clue for ENOLA. For that reason, I think it's important to steer away from Enola Holmes whenever possible. The first half of the final season of Stranger Things just dropped last month. That's the show that made her famous. I would've used that show here, for reasons of timeliness, and also to prevent ENOLA Fatigue.

• 1D: Magic charms (MOJOS) — got this right away, which feels like a very Crossword reflex. Like, I don't think I ever thought of "mojo" this way before crosswords, but now ... it's right there. Top of the brain.
• 34D: Center of a stone fruit (CHERRY PIT) — At the center of *a* stone fruit is a "pit." At the center of one specific type of stone fruit is a CHERRY PIT. This distinction caused me several seconds of hesitation, but once I got the "C" in there (from LYCRA, where it was easy to infer—not much else can go in that empty place ... nothing, in fact), I was able to imagine CHERRY and that was that.

That's all. See you next time. 

And remember: 🌲🐈Holiday Pet Pics🐕🌲 can be sent to me through this Thursday (rexparker at icloud dot com), at which point I'll start posting them in waves, after every post through the end of the year. I'l be waiting patiently by my Inbox ... just as Sunny here waits patiently by the tree for Santa ... or for you to leave the room so she can destroy your tree:

[thank you, "crayonbeam"]

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Condo honcho, casually / MON 11-10-25 / Mentions directly on X / Blog commenter who is best ignored / Possible outcome of a bad sprain / People spouting zealous rhetoric / Roman Forum greeting / Old-time anestetic

Constructor: Zhouqin Burnikel

Relative difficulty: Medium (normal Monday, solved Downs-only)

THEME: "I'VE GOT YOU COVERED" (39A: "Leave it to me" ... and a hint to the circled letters in this puzzle) — the "covering" (i.e. outer squares, indicated today by circles) of four answers is something that "has you covered" if you are one of various kinds of animal:

Theme answers:

• HAIL, CAESAR (18A: Roman Forum greeting)
• SCALP MASSAGES (23A: Head rubs that relieve tension)
• FIRE BREATHERS (51A: People spouting zealous rhetoric)
• SHORT SPELL (63A: Brief period of time)

Word of the Day: SHEA butter (15D: ___ butter (lotion ingredient)) —

 

Shea butter (/ʃiː/ SHEE, /ˈʃiːə/ SHEE-ə, or /ʃeɪ/ SHAY; Bambara: ߛߌ߮ߕߎߟߎ, romanized: sìtulu) is a fat (triglyceride; mainly oleic acid and stearic acid) extracted from the nut of the African shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa). It is ivory in color when raw and commonly dyed yellow with borututu root or palm oil. It is widely used in cosmetics as a moisturizer or lotion. It is edible and is used in food preparation in some African countries. It is occasionally mixed with other oils as a substitute for cocoa butter, although the taste is noticeably different.

The English word "shea" comes from sǐ, the tree's name in Bambara. It is known by many local names, such as kpakahili in the Dagbani language, taama in the Wali language, nkuto in Twi, kaɗe or kaɗanya in Hausa, òkwùmá in the Igbo language, òrí in the Yoruba language, and karité in the Wolof language of Senegal. It is also known as Moo-yaa in the Acholi language. (wikipedia)

• • •

This theme could've used more. Another level. Why are all the coverings the surfaces of animals? Nothing about the revealer is particularly animalish. It's interesting that the "coverings" have a kind of coherence, but it's weird that the revealer doesn't make any reference to that at all. Worse, the "coverings" don't really "cover" anything. They are just the outer letters of the answers. What's *inside* those letters is ... gibberish. I've got you covered? Sure, if "you" are named PMASSAG or ORTSP, I guess. Lastly, I don't think I've ever seen anyone referred to as a FIREBREATHER who wasn't a dragon. A firebrand, sure. But I don't love FIREBREATHERS as an answer. The dictionary has it as a word, though, so I don't have much more than my own aversion to justify my objection to that answer. There's an inventiveness and cleverness on display here, I just don't think the whole thing really works. Gotta stick the landing, and this the landing here feels unstuck. 

Pretty easy Downs-only solve, with the only tricky parts coming (very predictably) with the longest of the Downs. I had "WHAT-" and absolutely no idea what was supposed to follow (3D: "Isn't this pleasant!"). The first guess I ventured was "WHAT A DREAM!" (which, as you can say, is right in the vast majority of its particulars). Paula DEEN is somebody, so that "D" didn't seem obviously wrong. But then came SMOLI, which is most decidedly not a thing, so I had put in STOLI, and that helped me see TREAT. TEEN >>>>> Paula DEEN, so I was happy with how that turned out. I was less happy in the SE, where I had to wrestle not only with a pesky long Down (TORN TENDON), but had to deal with an adjacent short answer that I botched: I had 65D: Mentions directly on X as RTS, not ATS. Aside from the fact that I would prefer never to see any references to that murderous racist's website ("X") ever again, thanks ...

... I don't think ATS is great fill. I definitely am familiar with "at" as a verb meaning "mention/tag in a social media post," but it's ugly fill. Anyway, with RTS in there, I had RU-IO, as one of the Acrosses, and I'm pretty sure you can see why *that* was looking awfully unpleasant. Only one plausible letter could go in RU-IO, and it wasn't one I was looking forward to writing in. Not sure how I finally got around to changing RTS to ATS. Or how I saw TORN TENDON, which seems like its own, very severe thing, and not the result of a mere sprain (28D: Possible outcome of a bad sprain). The only thing I wanted for the longest time at SAU-E was SAUCE, which put a "C" at the beginning of TORN TENDON. Finally seeing that "T" might also work there must've been what tipped me in the right direction. "T" to TORN TENDON to AUDIO (not RUBIO) to ATS. Not the most fun I've ever had Downs-only solving. But like I said, it was one of only two places that caused any trouble. Everything else was straightforward.

Not sure why you need so many cheater squares* in a simple Monday puzzle (four of them: before RAS/after SMS, and before STOLI/after SAUTE). I suppose if the quality of the fill is really suffering, then adding a handful of cheaters is a fine way to clean things up. Fill gets shorter and (usually) more boring / dull / crosswordesey, but that's better than awkward and strained ... though the very presence of RAS and SMS next to those cheater squares sort of suggests that those extra black squares didn't really buy that much in the way of sparkle. 

Bullets:

• 17A: 6'4", 186 lbs. and others (STATS) — er, I guess. They're measurements, which are a kind of stat. But then any fact can be a stat if you wish hard enough. I think of STATS as numbers related to sports performance.
• 20A: "Santa Baby" singer Eartha (KITT) — too soon, puzzle. Too soon. Please wait til after Thanksgiving before you start throwing the Christmas music at me.

• 68A: Blog commenter who is best ignored (TROLL) — yes. Good advice, puzzle. Good, sane advice.
• 25D: Condo honcho, casually (SUPE) — short for "superintendent." "Condo honcho," aside from being patently ridiculous as a phrase (not convinced anyone has ever put those words next to each other before today), already feels pretty "casual." Not sure you need that "casually" there.
• 11D: Lhasa ___ (dog) (APSO) — I've seen this dog's name in crosswords forever, and yet I always experience a little hesitation when spelling it—either part of it. I always want the two parts to "agree" as to their endings, so I'm like "LHASO APSO? LHASA APSA?" Also, I frequently forget which highly unusual letter combination LHASA begins with, which is to say I kinda want to spell it LLASA (like LLAMA or Mario Vargas LLOSA). The double "L" is a completely different pronunciation from the "LH" ("LL" = more like the "Y" in "young" or "yurt"), and it's specifically Spanish, which "Lhasa" obviously isn't, so you'd think I wouldn't make this particular spelling mistake. You'd think.

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. yesterday's Phoodle answer was hilariously obscure, but I'm not playing that particular game to "win," I'm playing to learn (about food and food-related terms). Today's answer, you'll be happy to know (or won't care about at all, whatever), is much easier. I'm told weekend answers are typically much tougher. I checked the NYTXW database to see if yesterday's Phoodle answer had ever been used, and ... sure enough. There it is. Or was. A single appearance 44 years ago. Crosswordese so pure it barely exists. It's like experimental crosswordese. Theoretical crosswordese. But I still like knowing it!

[ASHET!]

*"cheater squares" are black squares that do not add to the overall word count of a puzzle. They are added to a grid solely to make it easier to fill.  

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