Ceremonial rod / MON 7-28-25 / Cuzco dweller of old / Cousin of a cruller or bear claw / Carbonated beverage as reintroduced in 1985 / Chi preceder / College basketball phenom drafted by the Indiana Fever in 2024 / Concoctions with masa, cheese, lettuce and salsa / Characteristic of a penetrating mind

Constructor: Brian Callahan

Relative difficulty: Medium (i.e. normal for a Monday) (and yet ... I made two errors solving Downs-only! Wheeee!)

THEME: OPEN SEAS (65A: Clear sailing areas ... or, homophonically, a feature of 16-, 23-, 39- and 52-Across (and every clue in this puzzle!) — words in theme answers "open" with "C"s; every clue "opens" with "C":

Theme answers:

• CASH CROP (16A: Corn to a Midwest farmer)
• CARD COUNTING (23A: Casino no-no)
• COCA-COLA CLASSIC (39A: Carbonated beverage as reintroduced in 1985)
• CAITLIN CLARK (52A: College basketball phenom drafted by the Indiana Fever in 2024)

Word of the Day: Cooper Manning (66D: Cooper and Peyton Manning's QB brother) —

Cooper Archibald Manning (born March 6, 1974) is an American entrepreneur and television personality who is the host of the television show The Manning Hour for Fox Sports as well as principal and senior managing director of investor relations for AJ Capital Partners. He is the eldest son of former professional football quarterback Archie Manning, the older brother of former professional football quarterbacks Peyton Manning and Eli Manning, and the father of Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning. (wikipedia)

• • •

["Cabin Fever" director Roth]—how is that not your ELI clue???? Who the hell is "Cooper" Manning!? I mean, I know who he is now, as I looked him up and made him Word of the Day, but he's clearly not famous enough to be a Monday Manning clue, as they had to bring Peyton in to the clue to make it at all legible (Peyton made it a gimme, actually). ELI Roth is in the puzzle all the time, and his most famous movie just happens to start with a "C" and you *don't* use him? Absolutely bonkers decision. Not one that's really gonna affect anyone's solve much, but still ... wow. Cooper Manning, you say? OK. I have to say, the puzzle actually does a pretty good job pulling off the "every clue starts with a 'C'" thing, considering how contrived, how tortured, that sort of gimmick can make clues. It's an especially risky gambit on a Monday, when the clues need to be virtually transparent. It's the easy day, gotta keep it easy. And the puzzle, for the most part, does that admirably. I didn't even notice the "C" clue thing at all until I was beginning to do my write-up and fully read the revealer clue. So the best that I can say about the all-"C" cluing is that it was inconspicuous (ironically, a real achievement).

How are "Open 'C's" a "feature" of the theme answers? I see (C!) very well that the words in all those answers "open" with the letter "C," yes, but you would not say "hey, those answers all feature open 'C's." The phrasing just doesn't work. Of course I get what you're going for (at least I think I do), but the phrasing on the clue/answer is not precise. Not exact. The words in those answers all OPEN with "C"s. I'm trying to make the exact phrasing make sense, and I can't really. So I'm pretty lukewarm on the theme. That said, I thought the overall grid was fine. "EASY, TIGER" and "LET IT REST" are worthy long Downs, and while, yes, there's a playground taunt (kill them!) and an awful ASAMI/ASDOI dilemma (kill both of those answers too!) and an E-I-E-I-O and an impossibly singular SCAD, but otherwise, everything seems pretty solid. 

As for my Downs-only errors ... sigh. I assumed (naively) that "Call us the champs!" (an extreme example of clue contrivance) was a rough equivalent of "WE WON!" "Call us the champs because WE WON!" But no. It's "WE WIN." And my incorrect "O" didn't register as an error, as "I'M ON" is a plausible crossword answer (36 appearances in the Shortz Era, including yesterday (!) and this past Wednesday!), though not the correct answer for the clue, it turns out (22A: "Count me as a yes!"). So I had an answer that looked right in both directions, but ... wasn't. My other error? That came at 50D: Calls that may start "Is your refrigerator running?," e.g. (PRANKS). I know those kind of calls as "crank calls" and so ... I wrote in CRANKS. It felt bad as I was writing it in ("no one calls those calls just ... CRANKS!"), but all the crosses checked out, including the "wrong" "C" (AMC, again, like "I'M ON," is a frequent crossword answer) (though the actual answer today was AMP (49A: Concert equipment)). So where I normally make zero mistakes on my Downs-only Monday solves, today I made two. I'm not mad about it. I'm actually glad that there's a good explanation for why I made those errors (the forced "C"-cluing ... that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it!).

Concise observations:

• 1D: Ceremonial rod (MACE) — another one where the clue is made awkward by the cluing conceit. I took one look at this and when SCEPTER wouldn't fit, I was like "... WAND?"

• 15A: Combustible fuel for trucks (DIESEL) — so ... just [Fuel for trucks] then? 
• 63A: Cellphone's weather app, e.g. (WIDGET) — ??? I have a weather app on my cellphone. It is not a WIDGET. It is just an app.
• 20A: Characteristic of a penetrating mind (KEEN) — potentially mild toughie here, as "Characteristic" really looks like it's a noun in this clue.
• 54D: Chief Hindu god (INDRA) — not easy for me. Needed several crosses. You'd think I'd know the chief Hindu god by now, but apparently not :(
• 39A: Carbonated beverage as reintroduced in 1985 (COCA-COLA CLASSIC) — if you were not alive in the '80s I don't know where to begin explaining how weird cola marketing got in the '80s. Like ... clear colas were a thing, for a while. And then Coke was like "New Coke!" and people were like "booooo!" and then Coke was like "OK ... Old Coke Again?" but that sounded too much like defeat so they tried to make it seem retro-chic by calling the return of the old stuff "Coke Classic" even though ... it was only gone for like a hot minute—how is it "classic" all of a sudden? Meanwhile, Pepsi Light was a thing for a while (was that the one with lemon?). I remember in middle school all of a sudden there were caffeine-free colas (Pepsi Free!). But then also there was Jolt! Cola, a precursor of modern "energy" drinks, which was super-caffeinated—just what adolescents need! So if the cluing on this one seemed awkward ("as reintroduced"), that's not a "C" problem, that's just the insanity of mid-'80s cola culture. Remember the NutraSweet v. Saccharin Wars? No? Well, here's something to jog your memory: 

That's all from me today. "C" you next time. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Desperate pursuit of fame, in modern lingo / SUN 7-27-25 / Real chess playa? / Seasoning for una margarita / Much-maligned 2019 movie about which one review said "It's 'Battlefield Earth' with whiskers" / Noted rapper with an oxymoronic name / Skill taught to Luke Skywalker

Constructor: John Kugelman

Relative difficulty: Easy (yet again)

THEME: Arranged Marriages — themers are all two-part, 22-letter answers where the first and last parts are anagrams of one another:

Theme answers:

• EXONERATING GENERATION X (24A: Forgiving middle-aged dads for their dad jokes, say?)
• TECHNOCRATS' TRENCHCOATS (47A: Attire for Larry Page and Sergey Brin when visiting Google incognito?)
• "STREET LEGAL? LET'S GET REAL!" (71A: "You think that hunk of junk'll pass inspection? Please!"?)
• CHECKMATING CHICK MAGNET (99A: Real chess playa?)
• "MARISA TOMEI, IT'S-A ME, MARIO!" (126A: Greeting from a famous Italian character to a famous Italian American actress?)

Word of the Day: SIGIL (132A: Magical symbol) —

1

: seal, signet

2

: a sign, word, or device held to have occult power in astrology or magic (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

Some things I exclaimed while solving this puzzle:

• On getting my first themer (TECHNOCRATS' TRENCH COATS): "Oh, it's just anagrams? That's it? Goddammit!" 
• On reading the clue for ALT (15D: ___ right (political category)): "Why would you do that?! F***!"
• On getting CLOUT-CHASING (67D: Desperate pursuit of fame, in modern lingo): "Ooh, nice"
• On realizing the last themer was going to be "MARISA TOMEI, IT'S-A ME, MARIO!": "Noooooo ... that has definitely been used before!" 

That last one really feels like outright theft from where I'm sitting. I mean, maybe not, maybe the constructor never saw the puzzle where that anagram was first used. But still, it's at least mildly galling that the constructor is going to get credit for cleverness here when this (admittedly very clever) anagram is not original to this puzzle; it had already appeared in a much better (and tighter) puzzle seven years ago. That puzzle (a Thursday puzzle) was constructed by Erik Agard, and the theme was "HOLLYWOOD SHUFFLE"—the theme answers were all (Hollywood) actors, but the clues didn't seem to make any sense ... until you realized that the clues were actually anagrams of the actor's names (hence the "shuffle"). In Erik's puzzle, MARISA TOMEI was clued (very, very memorably) as ["It's-a me, Mario!"]. 

[Feb. 8, 2018]

As you can see by my parenthetical commentary, I was very impressed by that anagram, as was everybody else at the time. That is not an anagram you forget. I mean [Germany] for MEG RYAN, that's one you might forget. Nice find, but forgettable. You don't have to try so hard to come up with that one. But the Tomei one, that's an all-timer. No one can ever use it again (in a crossword puzzle, anyway). It's retired. Or should be. So ... yeah, huge letdown when I ran into that answer. You can't copyright anagrams, and coincidences happen, I guess, but ... having seen that particular anagram deployed so successfully in the not-too-distant past, it felt gross to see it being used as a kind of showy exclamation point today. This puzzle needs a footnote or a citation or an Acknowledgments page. Pay Erik for that themer, is what I'm saying. It's his. I don't know that he discovered the anagram per se, but he definitely put it to thematic use first. (I'm almost 100% sure Erik won't be bothered at all, but I'm bothered, which is really all that matters) (I get mad about these things so others don't have to!) (If you really loved that anagram and it was new to you today, great, just ... ignore everything I just said, you deserve to be happy)

Now a few positive things. I know, I said (above) that I was like "Anagrams? That's it!" And that's basically how I feel. And yet, some of these anagrams were absolutely bananas, in a good way (the only good wacky answers are truly bananas wacky answers). The trench coat one left me cold (tepid, and I basically don't want to hear about "technocrats," like, ever), but the others were all good to great. CHECKMATING CHICK MAGNET almost got a legitimate chuckle out of me. I kept trying to anagram "CHECKMATING," like "what the hell could this possibly be!?" So that one, when I finally got it, really landed. Genuine "good one" from me. I don't know that the theme answers needed those little dark lines dividing them in half, but I guess they do help visually reinforce the gimmick. The puzzle also has some legit great longer non-theme answers. Love the Downs pair of BIGGIE SMALLS (9D: Noted rapper with an oxymoronic name) and CLOUT-CHASING, and the also-solid if somewhat soberer symmetrical Across pair of INVISIBLE MAN and THOMAS EDISON.

If you were going to wipe out today, where would that take place? The hairiest section for me was the very end, the SW, largely because I don't know the word SIGIL very well, and so really needed every cross to put it together. If any of them had been at all unclear, I might've been in trouble. Things got a little tense when I had AM/FM instead of AM/PM at 113A: Clock toggle (do you really "toggle" AM/PM??), and I was staring down the possibility of FROG Rock (115D: ___ rock (genre for Pink Floyd and Dream Theater, familiarly)), which ... I guess the "G" would've been right after all, but luckily I caught that "F: for "P" flub. And so the only cross that actually made me cross my fingers was SAL (127D: Seasoning for una margarita), which I was actually pretty sure of—salt is SEL in Fr., so SAL in Sp. seemed right). But SAL SIGIL was threatening. Felt ominous. Potentially wrong. SAL SIGIL ... sounds like a bookie or a talent agent. Or a movie producer, though I may be under the influence of The Studio (which features a movie producer character named Sal Saperstein, played by Ike Barinholtz) (they say his name in Episode 8 a lot). Anyway, eventually SAL SIGIL came through—thank you, SAL SIGIL:

["You can't handle the Sap!"]

Further observations:

• 29A: Cross-country conveyances (SKIS) — I was thinking something more like SEMIS (or maybe TRAINS?). Because they literally cross the country. Forgot about cross-country skiing.
• 62A: Much-maligned 2019 movie about which one review said "It's 'Battlefield Earth' with whiskers" (CATS) — speaking of forgetting ... wow did I memory-hole this movie! I mean, I never saw it, but until this puzzle, it was like it never existed. Sincerely, I think COVID did a number on my memory of the years immediately pre-COVID. What was 2019? Did it happen? I think I went to Montreal. Otherwise ... ??? I assume the Battlefield Earth comparison was based on quality (bad) and not plot. I was trying to think of a scifi movie title and was like "... RATS? Was there a RATS movie in 2019? Did they even have movies in 2019?"
• 98A: Basic BASIC statements (IFS) — I took a Computer Science class at (THOMAS) EDISON High School in 1983-84 (we just called it "Edison"). It was the only Computer Science course I ever took. I loved it. Got an "A." I remember nothing. Except that BASIC was the language we learned. Speaking of (THOMAS) EDISON, nice clue on that one today (130A: DC power player in the late 1800s?).
• 1D: One always cooking up new ideas? (CHEF) — are there no chefs out there who are stuck in a rut, just churning out the same thing every day, year after year? As someone who churns out the same thing every day, year after year, I have to wonder. Solidarity, unchanging CHEFs! You stick to your guns! Don't let anyone bully you into "new" things!
• 39A: Knows just when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em, maybe (CHEATS) — hey, the gambler knew what people's cards were by the way they held their eyes. Not by cheating! You apologize to Kenny Rogers right this minute!

• 19D: 1980s band among Australia's all-time best-selling groups (INXS) — INXS's music was absolutely the best thing about The Lost Boys (1987), a film whose spectacular badness I am not yet over.

• 93D: Brian who co-founded the Long Now Foundation (ENO) — if you're like me, you're wondering "who the hell is Brian ENO?" ... jk, he's in every crossword, by law. But you are probably wondering "what the hell is the Long Now Foundation?" Well, I'll tell you [consults the Engine of Searching]:

The Long Now Foundation, established in 1996, is an American non-profit organization based in San Francisco that seeks to start and promote a long-term cultural institution. It aims to provide a counterpoint to what it views as today's "faster/cheaper" mindset and to promote "slower/better" thinking. The Long Now Foundation hopes to "creatively foster responsibility" in the framework of the next 10,000 years. In a manner somewhat similar to the Holocene calendar, the foundation uses 5-digit dates to address the Year 10,000 problem (e.g., by writing the current year "02025" rather than "2025"). The organization's logo is X, a capital X with an overline, a representation of 10,000 in Roman numerals.

Good luck, Year 10,000! I wish you well. That is, I hope you exist. And if you do exist, I hope that you refer to this particularly insane period of human history we're all living in now as "The Short Then."

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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