Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle

Constructor: Amanda Chung and Karl Ni

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (4:58)

THEME: GO OUT ON A LIMB (51A: Act riskily ... or what three answers in this puzzle do) — three answers go out (i.e. off the edge of the grid) on a limb (the part hanging off the edge of the grid is also the name of a limb, such as one might find on a human, or turkey):

Theme answers:

WORKS LIKE A CH(ARM) (20A: Totally does the trick)
"(LEG)ALLY BLONDE" (35A: 2001 comedy starring Reese Witherspoon)
WHISTLE BLO(WING) (42A: Reporting internal wrongdoing)

Word of the Day: PLAYMAT (40D: Crawl space?) —

Noun
A mat (flat piece of material) designed for a young child to play upon. (yourdictionary.com, whatever that is)

• • •

I have seen "off the grid"-type themes before, for sure, but this one makes pretty good use of its revealer. A bit weird to have your limbs be arm, leg ... and wing. One of those is not like the others, no matter which animal you take the limbs from. Humans don't have wings. Chickens don't have arms. Maybe it's supposed to be a joke? I dunno. Anyway, might've been cool to do arm twice and leg twice—get all the human limbs *and* stick with one species. Also, might've been much cooler if the letters that appear in the grid were actual words. ALLY BLONDE fits the bill, but ugh WORKS LIKE ACH and WHISTLE BLO are ... rough. I guess both ACH and BLO can stand alone as crossword answers, so maybe you could say they're not total nonsense, but ... I just wince when my grid is full of nonsense. I know I know, you add the limb and poof, no nonsense. But grids should look good as is. The fact of ACH at the end of WORKS LIKE ACH really hurt me, as did the cluing of regular old SETH as some Egyptian god (!?!?!) (12D: Egyptian god of chaos). I had SETT for the god and WORKS LIKE ACT as the answer. I was certain that the theme was somehow going to involve MAGIC ... like ACT was somehow standing in for "MAGIC" (i.e. "works like magic"), since "magic act" ... is a thing. This made total sense to me as I was solving, though *exactly* how I thought this whole "MAGIC" dealie would play out, I don't remember. You know, you're solving, you get a themer, maybe you have only a vague idea of how it works, but you keep plugging and have faith that things will become clear later. Well, I finished the grid and still had SETT up there. So boo. Error. Oh well.

Hardest part for me was the mid-east, largely because I didn't really understand the theme yet (even though I was almost done) so the BLO part wasn't obvious. Also, PANAM slogans are wow, yeah, before my time (40A: "___ makes the going great" (old ad slogan)). And I thought [Dum-dum] (37A) was maybe some kind of drum because I would never spell it without the "b"s on the end (i.e. "dumb-dumb"). A Dum-dum is a (delicious) lollipop. So BOZO, couldn't get. Was proud that I remembered the NAE (NAE), and that Definitely helped me get things sorted in there (50A: When doubled, a 2010s dance). Only other snag was in the west, where I had CLOSE TO before CLOSE BY (14D: Near) and NYSE before NYNY (29D: Big Apple inits.), and both of those errors were running right through the front end of the themer ALLY BLONDE (and again, at that point I still had no idea about all the limb business). Rest of the puzzle played pretty easy.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor: Robyn Weintraub

Relative difficulty: Easy to Easy-Medium (4:46)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: KITTEN HEELS (22D: They can give you a bit of a lift) —

A kitten heel is a short stiletto heel, usually from 3.5 centimeters (1.5 inches) to 4.75 centimeters (1.75 inches) high, with a slight curve setting the heel in from the back edge of the shoe. The style was popularized by Audrey Hepburn, and recent followers of the fashion include Theresa May, Michelle Obama, and Hillary Clinton.
Shoes with kitten heels may be worn at work in an office setting by people who wish to wear feminine attire that is still practical. For parties, kitten heels are an alternative for those who find high heels uncomfortable. (wikipedia)

• • •

This is the Friday puzzle I keep talking about. The type that I live for. The type that I hope to encounter on Friday, so I can get the various recent themed disappointments out of my head. Wash the blues away! On Friday, I want a fresh, fun, bouncy grid that I can spar with for 4 to 7 minutes. I don't want your stunt grids, your structural feats, your whatever the hell you are doing to the grid to try to look cool or different when all you're really doing ultimately is creating dazzle camouflage to mask your weak fill and distract from a substandard solving experience. Nothing under 68 words, thank you very much. 70 or 72 preferred. And cleeeeean. Friday has the best potential every week to be The Best Day, and as I've said many times, if I could choose just one Friday constructor, I'd want Weintraub on that byline. Today's puzzle had everything I could ask for. Note that it also had junk like HES and STET and ABBR and weirdly plural OUZOS, but then note how I don't ****ing care because I'm too busy enjoying all the delightful answers dancing across the grid. Now maybe you're thinking, "YOU'VE CHANGED, man!" Well no. No I have not. These have been my themeless values all along. Why the NYTXW can't produce puzzles this current and fun every weekend, I don't know. Not my fault. DON'T LOOK AT ME.

["YOU'VE CHANGED ... your place in this world"]

Seriously look at all these long answers, covering such a wide variety of subjects. You get a COOL BREEZE in your PRIVATE BOX and then later you meet a FIELD MOUSE on your ESCAPE ROUTE (No I don't know what your escaping from, maybe something bad happened at the ballgame you, just roll with it...). My proudest moment, by far, was having the K-TT at the front end of 22D: They can give you a bit of a lift and thinking "KITTEN? ... are KITTEN HEELS a thing!? Let's try that!" And pow, right answer! I must've heard the term somewhere before, so I'd like to thanks my brain for actually retaining something useful for once. A RARE TREAT! Having KITTEN on the brain lately probably also helped.

May 17, 2020

June 25, 2020

Everyone thinks they're RAVENCLAW but a lot of y'all are Hufflepuff and that's OK. Own it! I had most trouble, weirdly-not-weirdly, with the worst stuff in the grid: ABBR. (25D: Ph.D., for one) and HES (46A: Ganders, e.g.) and STET (48D: Decide to keep after all), but the trouble was never considerable. VAUNT also eluded me for a bit (20A: Acclaim), mostly because I never use VAUNT and I never use "Acclaim" as a verb. Wasn't sure about the first letter in DALES (21A: Low-lying areas). Aren't VALES low-lying as well? Had STOP IN before STOP BY (23A: Visit). Just whiffed on the STONER clue (28A: One taking the high road?). That might've been the last thing I put in the grid. It's possible that some people will have trouble with the POKE / PEELE crossing, but you really should know Jordan PEELE by now (42D: "Get Out" director). Prominent director, great name for crosswords. He'll be in grids for decades. I appreciate this clue for POKE (42A: Hawaiian raw fish dish). And now I'm hungry and it's way too late for me to eat so now I'm sad. I'll just think some more about this puzzle and maybe the sadness will go away.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Ryan Mccarty

Relative difficulty: Easy (except for SE corner, which destroyed me) (90% done in about 4 minutes ... 3+ minutes to get the rest)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: DARIO [space] FO (32D: Italian playwright who won the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature) —

Dario Luigi Angelo Fo (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdaːrjo ˈfɔ]; 24 March 1926 – 13 October 2016) was an Italian actor, playwright, comedian, singer, theatre director, stage designer, songwriter, painter, political campaigner for the Italian left wing and the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature. In his time he was "arguably the most widely performed contemporary playwright in world theatre". Much of his dramatic work depends on improvisation and comprises the recovery of "illegitimate" forms of theatre, such as those performed by giullari (medieval strolling players) and, more famously, the ancient Italian style of commedia dell'arte. (wikipedia)

• • •

Oof. This makes a good contrast to yesterday's puzzle. Yesterday: bouncy fun. Today: easy boringness, followed by grueling proper name fiasco. I remember nothing about this puzzle except DARIOFO (whom I am meeting today for the first time) and almost every answer crossing it. It's so bizarre that you would make / edit a puzzle to come out this way—to have this lone not-well-known proper noun sitting there, when the rest of your grid is so easy, so straightforward. DARIOFO is the sorest of sore thumbs. Literally none of the letters were inferrable. Until I looked him up (after I was done), I didn't even know it was a first *and* a last name. I thought it was just one name, a last name, possibly with an apostrophe in it, like D'ARIOFO! I'm sure he was someone, but wow, nope, no idea. It's entirely possible I've come across his name before, but not in any context where it would've stuck. What is his major work? No idea. Looks like he was a 9/11 Truther, so that's fun. Sigh. A name like that ... look, I don't know lots of names. I have no idea who this EVERETT person is (41A: Betty who sang "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)"), but I plunked EVERETT down pretty readily once I had a few of the (consonant) crosses, because EVERETT Is A Name That I Can Recognize As A Name. If DARIOFO had been a single reasonably common Italian last name, I could've done same. But no. D'ARIOFO! So MAGE was MUSE and DOURER was, ugh, DOWNER, maybe (39A: More morose), and YORK was nothing because after ERIE I have no idea about 4-letter Pennsylvania counties (52A: Pennsylvania county or its seat).

I had MUSCLY but kept doubting MUSCLY because nothing else would work (36D: Jacked). Oh, AGENDER I know, but I kept wanting ASEXUAL and ... I just couldn't get any help from the crosses. Could not get the CODE part of HONOR CODE (had ROLL, then ... no idea) (45A: What has a large following on a college campus?). How would the clue writer know how "large" a following an HONOR CODE has. Do most colleges actually have them? I mean, there are rules about cheating. Looks like my university has an "Honesty Code" buried in the University Bulletin under "Academic Policies and Procedures." If you hadn't decided to get all cute and "?"-ish with the clue, maybe, but dumb / off clue = ??? Also, I figure most college students have broken some form of the academic honesty rules at least once, if they're being honest.

"EEK!" has literally nothing to do with "OMG!," so that was rough. You know what an audible "OMG!" is? It's "OMG!" I mean, You Put It In Quotation Marks!!!! That Means Someone's Saying It! Yeesh. Like I said, I don't get why you make your puzzle so lop-sidedly difficult like this. Not like I was gonna remember the rest of the grid anyway, since it was bland (esp. compared to yesterday's gem), but still, this dumb SE corner pretty much ensures that I'm only gonna remember this one little corner. I mean, what else is there? AAACELL?? AAAh no. OSMOSED?? Mosed-efinitely not. BAVERAGE?? I'm thirsty, I'd lack a BAVARAGE, playse! Pffft. Nothing here. I SEE SLOGS. Good night.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Jon Schneider and Anderson Wang

Relative difficulty: Medium (10-something)

THEME:"Power-Ups"— the theme is EXPONENTS (20A: Mathematical concepts suggested eight times in this puzzle) ... so the answers to various phrases are various "___ to the ___" phrases, but instead of "to the" being in the grid, it's represented by the post-to the" part of the phrase being (literally) raised "to the" next level in the grid, the way an exponent is written up and to the right of the number of which it is an exponent ... look, I last took math in 1987 and got a C+ in Calc II so I dunno, you get it the whole exponent business, I hope. Sorry I didn't explain it gooder:

Theme answers:

PLAY to the GALLERY (30A: With 25-Across, get as much approval from an audience as possible)
ROOTED to the SPOT (33A: With 29-Across, like a deer in headlights)
PREACH to the CHOIR (50A: With 47-Across, not change anyone's mind, say)
CUTS to the CHASE (53A: With 48-Across, stops wasting time)
WASATCH to the PIETA (just kidding)
THREW to the WOLVES (92A: With 88-Across, sacrificed)
CLOSE to the BONE (90A: With 85-Across, uncomfortably accurate)
RACE to the BOTTOM (113A: With 107-Across, bad sort of competition)
WELCOME to the CLUB (116A: With 112-Across, "Your misfortune is nothing special")

Word of the Day: WASATCH (42A: Utah mountain range) —

The Wasatch Range (/ˈwɑːsætʃ/ WAH-satch) is a mountain range in the western United States that runs about 160 miles (260 km) from the Utah-Idaho border south to central Utah. It is the western edge of the greater Rocky Mountains, and the eastern edge of the Great Basin region. The northern extension of the Wasatch Range, the Bear River Mountains, extends just into Idaho, constituting all of the Wasatch Range in that state.
In the language of the native Ute people, Wasatch means "mountain pass" or "low pass over high range." According to William Bright, the mountains were named for a Shoshoni leader who was named with the Shoshoni term wasattsi, meaning "blue heron". (wikipedia)

• • •

I am so saddened by Sundays. They don't seem to know how to be. I feel bad. It's hard to make a good Sunday, because you have to cover a lot of ground, themewise, and so your theme has to have legs. It has to go the distance. It has to be interesting conceptually, but more importantly, it's gotta have gas in the tank. Whatever your gimmick is, it's gotta hold up over 6 to 10 answers, across a 21x21 grid. This means that the individual answers have to have interest; they have to work with the theme but also have some kind of inherent interest—be amusing or cute or novel or something. Also, the non-theme fill should be delightful and occasionally surprising—you gotta get us through a long journey, and just filling the fill with fill from fillville isn't gonna cut it; The Drive Is Too Long. This is a long-winded prelude to my comments on this puzzle, which are, briefly, as follows: the concept is just fine, cute even, but I somehow enjoyed virtually none of it. Not the figuring out the themers and definitely not the filling in the rest of the grid. I just don't think the concept can endure. It's a one-note thing ... and yet there are eight notes, plus the revealer. And the non-theme fill offers virtually nothing interesting. Also, consider: literally Every Single One of your theme clues is a cross-reference—begins "With blah blah blah." That is some built-in tedium right there. Hey, look somewhere else, eight times! Have fun! So, sure, having the theme answer continue up and to the right of where it started, as a way of representing an exponent (and the phrase "to the") is, in fact, clever. But ... I got tired of actually Doing It sooooo fast. And then there's just the fill, which ... well, see below.

PLO-UGH! Is it THE L-WORD or THE L-BOMB? I guess THE L-WORD is the TV show about lesbians, but I think it's also "love," so ... that was odd. I never really got the whole "___ bomb" thing (see also "F-"). I guess I was trained / raised to just say what the f-bomb you mean. Anyway, I bombed that answer. Also bombed WASATCH. The only Utah mountain range I know is UINTA (very crosswordy), and I remember it's in Utah because of the U-thing. WASATCH ... I got no mnemonic for that. Also, I'm unlikely to see WASATCH again, whereas I will *definitely* see UINTA again (five letters, starts "UI-"—your options are pret-ty limited). Not really familiar with term CAT'S PAW either, and PLAY and YEA had tricky clues, so I weirdly struggled in the NW (tho probably not for too long). That NEST clue was weird; wanted PEST (duh) (79D: Exterminator's target). AOKAY is an abomination, never ever written that way, stop. Also stop with ART SCAMS, what? That just doesn't feel like a strong ... thing (87D: They might involve impersonating a dealer). Weird to have a plural of a thing I can't really name more than one of. Name the ART SCAMS! Uh, OK, forgery! There's one. Also ... uh ... uh ... uh ... etc. MEMORY is important for ... school? (125A: Important faculty for school). I mean, I guess. It's important for lots and lots and lots of things. Like finding your way home. I get that you are enjoying your "faculty" pun there, but worry about *others'* enjoyment, and accuracy / aptness, please. ONLAY??? (108D: Dental covering similar to a crown). I know INLAY and then I'm out of _NLAY dental answers. ELAM / ASSAM crossing is not great. I thought a [Place that processes ore] was a SMELTERY. Yes, the SMELTER is the one who dealt ... in smelting, the SMELTERY is the "place" where the smelting happened. Why is this cluing so off and botched. Hit your marks!

I loved "Parasite" but didn't know CHOI Woo-shik's name, so that was a little tough (43D: ___ woo-shik, co-star of 2019's "Parasite"). If you liked "Parasite," I recommend "The Host," a 2006 horror film also directed by Bong Joon-ho. In fact, "The Host" felt very much like a prequel to "Parasite" in many ways (or, I guess, "Parasite" was the sequel—I just didn't see them in that order). Also, if you haven't even seen "Parasite" yet, what the heck? Come on. What else? Nothing. Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: CONSTRUCTOR

Relative difficulty: Extremely easy (2:22, the fastest I've ever solved a NYTXW)

THEME: Two-word phrases where letters in second word appear in order inside the first word

Theme answers:

SENATE SEAT (18A: Position sought every six years)
MAIN MAN (20A: Close guy friend)
SURROUND SOUND (26A: Home theater feature, maybe)
PRITZKER PRIZE (43A: Annual award for architects)
BEST BET (52A: Safest course of action)
SAMPLE SALE (56A: Pop-up store opportunity for bargain hunters)

Word of the Day: PRITZKER PRIZE (43A) —

The Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture". Founded in 1979 by Jay A. Pritzker and his wife Cindy, the award is funded by the Pritzker family and sponsored by the Hyatt Foundation. It is considered to be one of the world's premier architecture prizes,^[2]and is often referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture. (wikipedia)

• • •

Whoa. Beat my old speed record by about 10 seconds, which is kinda stunning. I was wondering if I'd ever see the 2:30s again, and then bam, low 2:20s. Weird. I credit my speed not to actual speed, but to a more efficient way of moving through the grid (which led to actual speed, I guess, but honestly I don't think I was getting answers quicker or typing faster than I normally do). My friend Rachel Fabi told me once that she starts easy puzzles (so, M or T, say) by getting the first three Acrosses in order (so, the answers along the top of the grid) and then turning to the Downs and just solving straight through, all the Downs that start at the top of the grid, bang bang bang thirteen times. Today I did that and managed to get all 13 of those Downs on the first try (though I misspelled ABSALOM, the second and third vowels being kind of a crap shoot for me (5D: Son of David in the Old Testament)). Solve was more chaotic as I moved down the grid, but any Across that gives you the first letter in a bunch of Downs is clearly the best Across to get. Like, SELMA and RESET are both five-letter Acrosses, but SELMA is way more valuable because it gives me the first letters in the two longer Downs that go through the middle of the grid, whereas RESET gives me jack.

I also benefited from a. having heard of the PRITZKER PRIZE, and b. never seeing the ALGORE clue, which would've taken forever to read and would've befuddled me (22A: In his Webby Lifetime Achievement Award acceptance speech (which is limited to five words), he said "Please don't recount this vote"). You see how ALGORE gives you know Downs first letters? No point looking there unless you have to. Also, the puzzle was just easy. Anyhoo, so fast! Despite the ABSALOM spelling trials and not getting the HEROS clue at all (I get it now) (38D: Long lunches?), and not being sure of SPLEENS until I had the first three letters (41D: Lymphocyte-producing organs). Total cakewalk. Also probably helps that I didn't have a drink w/ dinner tonight. Alcohol, I am finding, is a *definite* slower-downer, where solving is concerned. Even one drink (which is all I ever have) just screws with the synapse firing or whatever the hell happens in your brain. Solve sober, kids. Unless you don't give a damn about speed, in which case solve as drunk as you like. Have a nice day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Hello, everyone! It's Clare for the last Tuesday of June. I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe (and wearing masks!!), as COVID cases are spiking again. I've been pretty much just staying in my little bubble while finding ways to occupy my time, including... crossword puzzles!

Constructor: Zachary David Levy

Relative difficulty:Medium

THEME: JUSTICE GINSBURG(54A: Subject of this puzzle, who once said "Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you") — Each theme answer relates in some way to the life of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Theme answers:

ON THE BASIS OF SEX (17A: 2018 biopic about 54-Across)
FLATBUSH (22A: Brooklyn neighborhood where 54-Across grew up)
THE NOTORIOUS RBG (34A: Tongue-in-cheek nickname for 54-Across)
COLUMBIA (47A: Law school where 54-Across finished at the top of the class)

Word of the Day: ABSCAM (42D: Sting that was the inspiration for the 2013 film "American Hustle")—

Abscam (sometimes written ABSCAM) was a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sting operation in the late 1970s and early 1980s that led to the convictions of seven members of the United States Congress, among others.The two-year investigation initially targeted trafficking in stolen property and corruption of prominent businessmen, but later evolved into a public corruption investigation.. "Abscam" was the FBI codename for the operation, which law enforcement authorities said was a contraction of "Arab scam". (Wiki)

• • •

I think this was my favorite Tuesday puzzle I've done a write-up on in a while, largely because I enjoyed the theme, and the construction of the puzzle was pretty good. I was really happy to see RBG in this puzzle, as I'm bit in love with her — as both a general fan of her and her life and as a law student who really admires her opinions. The theme is also quite timely, as the Supreme Court has been issuing a lot of opinions lately, including a decision on an abortion case on Monday, and RBG is known for her stance on women's rights (which is essentially the whole plot of ON THE BASIS OF SEX).

While I got the theme pretty quickly, I did pause for a bit at the revealer because I wanted to make "Ruth Bader Ginsburg" fit at 54A instead of JUSTICE GINSBURG. Once I got the "j" in JAR at 54D, though. it became pretty obvious to me what 54A was. It also took me a little time to get FLATBUSH (22A), which is just an area I've never heard of before. On another note, I really liked the fact that the first answer in the puzzle was PREAMBLE, dealing with the Constitution, which ties into a puzzle about RBG very well.

I also liked the structure of the puzzle a fair amount — many long acrosses that led to some more interesting, longer answers. While that structure did lend itself to a lot of three-letter downs, I think the constructor kept the clues/answers pretty varied. Sure, there were some crossword-ese words like ODE, USE, TAD, and TSP, but I found the puzzle to be overall pretty surprising and not as much of a "typical Tuesday."

I did get stuck in a few places, which moved this puzzle more toward a medium Tuesday rather than an easy Tuesday. I've never heard of HILO (35D: Biggest city on the island of Hawaii); I tried to make "Oahu" or really anything else fit there. I also hadn't heard of TRAC (34D: Gillette brand name) and tried to put "Atra" there instead, as that's more of a typical answer in a crossword puzzle. So, having HILO, TRAC, and then ALIF (41A: Start of the Arabic alphabet) made that section challenging for me. I also really wanted to put slightly wrong answers in a lot of places — I wanted "macro" or "micro" for 32A instead of SOCIO economics; I wanted 61A: What to do "and weep," in an expression to be "read it" and not READ EM. I originally put "boast" instead of BOOST at 23D: Help by speaking well of.

There was some added flavor in the puzzle with a couple of clues in particular. I got a little chuckle out of 33D: Places dogs go at cookouts as BUNS. And, while it took me seemingly forever to get 62A, as my mind went to royalty, chess, playing cards, etc. before realizing it was talking about a MATTRESS, I enjoyed it.

I did have a few nits with the puzzle. Having Netanyahu (6D as BIBI), who's facing criminal charges, in the puzzle wouldn't be something I'd do. I though ICE at 37D: Word repeated in __ or no __? was pretty cheap — so many words could have fit in there. Calling it a "pod" of whales is much more common (as far as I know) than referring to a group of whales as a GAM.

Misc.:

I don't think my dad and sister (who have both worked at newspapers) would appreciate me referring to a newspaper as a RAG (44A)!
I'd bet that the southwest corner caused some stumbles among people — you've got ABSCAM (42A), which is older; there's SIA (56D), which skews younger; and then there's ASIANA (59A), which isn't even South Korea's largest airline — it's number 2, so unless you're a massive airline enthusiast, you might struggle a bit.
PROSIT (1D): I've heard a lot of toasts before, including prost, but I've never heard of this one; do people actually say that?
Congrats to the constructor Zachary David Levy for a super strong debut! He says that this puzzle is dedicated not only to RBG but also to his wife, who happened to cross paths with RBG as an 11-year-old immigrant from Ukraine and is now a successful oncologist. Here's a link to his amazing dedication for this puzzle.

Stay safe, everyone!

Signed, The Notorious CMC

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Amanda Rafkin and Ross Trudeau

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (a bleary-eyed 4 minutes, first thing in the a.m.)

THEME: SOCIAL CAPITAL (54A: Network of personal relationships ... or a punny hint to 3-, 7- and 11-Down) — themers are all phrases where first part (verb) is an action one might perform on "social" media and second part (noun) is a form of $$$ (or "capital"):

Theme answers:

FOLLOWS THE MONEY (3D: Joins a Federal Reserve Facebook group?)
POSTS BOND (7D: Uploads a photo of a government security?)
SHARES THE WEALTH (11D: Retweets a photo of the U.S. gold repository?)

Word of the Day: Michael NOURI (39D: "Flashdance" actor Michael) —

Michael Nouri (born December 9, 1945) is an American television and film actor. His father, Edmond Nouri was born in Iraq.
He may be best known for his role as Nick Hurley in the 1983 film Flashdance.^[1] He has had recurring roles in numerous television series, including NCIS as Eli David, the father of Mossad officer (later Special Agent) Ziva David, The O.C. as Dr. Neil Roberts, and Damages as Phil Grey. He also appeared as Congressman Stewart with Queen Latifah in the 2006 comedy movie Last Holiday and LAPD Detective Thomas Beck in the science fiction action film The Hidden. He also starred opposite Julie Andrews as King Marchand in the 1995 Broadway adaptation of Victor/Victoria. (wikipedia)

• • •

Good morning and happy July. I am solving / writing early in the morning for the first time in a long time. Once we got the kitten (mid-May), going to sleep early became nearly impossible, as his nighttime routine involved being a terrorist until well after 10pm (and then sleeping very peacefully in a very large dog crate next to our bed for the whole night). In short, I could not just crash out in bed when tired because he is still very much a kitten and will attack all of your parts relentlessly if he is awake and not properly distracted. Sooooooo ... I've been writing at night while P puts the cat through his go-to-bed routine, and then sleeping "in" (which, for me, is ~7am). But last night I finally cracked; just couldn't make it to puzzle time, couldn't imagine being clear-headed enough to write. So I passed out on the couch, then went to bed after cat and wife were zonked, THEN woke up at 4am anticipating my alarm going off (man, that dawn chorus of birds starts Early), then lay there half awake until 5ish. It's now 5:34. You actually didn't need to know any of this. The main point is that I adore my kitty but also am kinda looking forward to the day when he is a giant slug of a cat who will let me just fall asleep at night (if he wants to wake me at 5am for food, that's fine, it's the Getting to sleep that's the issue). He may end up sleeping in his own room very soon. My sister keeps her kitty downstairs in her own room. But OK, right, this is a puzzle blog. Puzzle!

I like the unusualness of this one. The grid shape was weird in a cool way, and despite the choppy grid with lots of short stuff, it often felt (in a good way) like a themeless. The upper middle was by far my favorite part, with WIPER BLADES (29A: They go back and forth in bad weather) crossing ARENA ROCK (6D: Style of music for Pat Benatar or Bon Jovi) and ON THE LINE (8D: At risk). As for the theme, it definitely works, even if it isn't a theme that's going to delight *me* in particular. Financial stuff just leaves me cold, and also the whole revealer didn't land right. Didn't aha me. I had to think about it and then rule in its favor, which is a whole different mental process and feeling. The revealer should be les mots justes, bam, nailed it. This one ... I didn't really like the clue on the revealer, since your "network" of "personal relationships" is, of course, your "social network" (a very snappy phrase—also the title of a movie ... a movie about social media, it turns out). SOCIAL CAPITAL is a fine phrase, but I don't think of it as your network per se. It's something bigger and more ineffable. It's clout, not the contents of your rolodex (omg I wish rolodexes were still a thing, the way I wish pay phones were still a thing ... I watch a lot of old movies). I think it's the uncountable noun "capital" that's throwing me. Anyway, it's all technically defensible. I told you financial stuff just leaves me cold.

There's some junk in the grid but not much, and I didn't get too hung up on it, which is really key if you need to put junk in your grid (and sometimes you do). EAPOE, for instance—an abbr. I despise, but it was easy (53A: "The Pit and the Pendulum" author, in brief). Slammed right through it, no time to brood on its regrettability or make a sad WAH WAH sound in its honor. It helped to know your crosswordese names like EVEL TAYE GOA OCHOA not to mention OTTO and RHEA. And then stalwarts like OKAPI LOOIE SRO ERE OXEYE EASYA IOTA RAE STYE ... it is to the puzzle's credit that these answers are all rendered fairly unobtrusive, so that the longer answers can shine. Only trouble for me today was right out of the gate, with GIFS for PDFS (1A: JPEG alternatives), and then a bizarre struggle just to see LOOT (14A: What might be taken away in a getaway). Sometimes I struggle for what, in retrospect, is no good reason at all. After that, the puzzle actually felt Very easy except for the NOURI / MARTA crossing, which is *kinda* harrowing. I will never remember MARTA (51A: Atlanta's public transport system). Thank goodness NOURI's name has somehow sorta stuck. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Yacob Yonas and Chad Horner

Relative difficulty: Easy (5:34) (16x15 grid)

THEME: SKIP SCHOOL (65A: Emulate Ferris Bueller ... or a hint to understanding the answers to the starred clues)— answers literally SKIP SCHOOL, in that there is a school name right in the middle of the answer, so the answer sort of "skips" over it ... creating a new word/phrase that is unclued:

Theme answers:

COMMITMENT (17A: *Express one's view) ("comment" skips MIT)
STAY ALERT (26A: *Kick off) ("start" skips YALE)
SUNCHIPS (40A: *Sends) ("ships" skips UNC)
GAS PRICES (57A: *Reacts to an amazing magic trick say) ("gasps" skips RICE)

Word of the Day: Harold ROSS (21A: Harold who co-founded the New Yorker magazine) —

Harold Wallace Ross (November 6, 1892 – December 6, 1951) was an American journalist who co-founded The New Yorker magazine in 1925 and served as its editor-in-chief from its inception until his death.
Ross was one of the original members of the Algonquin Round Table. He used his contacts in "The Vicious Circle" to help get The New Yorker started.
Ross, said by Woollcott to resemble "a dishonest Abe Lincoln," attracted talent to his new publishing venture, featuring writers such as James Thurber, E. B. White, John McNulty, Joseph Mitchell, Katharine S. White, S. J. Perelman, Janet Flanner ("Genet"), Wolcott Gibbs, Alexander Woollcott, St. Clair McKelway, John O'Hara, Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, Vladimir Nabokov, and J.D. Salinger. (wikipedia)

• • •

There's something kinda sweet about this puzzle. Its gimmick is pretty simple, and it's executed nicely. Nothing showy, nothing stunty, nothing where you have to squint at the end to see whatever image you're supposed to see, or where you have to connect the dots to find the treasure map, or where you're asked nay begged to titter at a math pun. None of that. Honestly, it feels like a good, somewhat swole Tuesday puzzle. (Swole in that it's literally bigger than normal and also swole in that it's flexing in a way a Tuesday puzzle usually doesn't) The fill could've been livelier perhaps, but all in all I thought it was a clean and largely irritation-free solve. The only irritation I felt was the whole "Is It LOA or Is It KEA" thing, uggggggggh, just clue KEA as a parrot, please, they're super common in NZ and I hate hate hate having to wait on KEA v. LOA it's not like there's cleverness in [Mauna ___], or difficulty, it's just ugh waiting and checking. Of course I guessed wrong at first pass and then didn't clean it up properly and had LEA for a bit, sigh :( Also slightly irritated by TECH being in the grid when "MIT" is also in the grid; I know MIT doesn't "end" in TECH the way Virginia TECH or Georgia TECH does, but TECH is short of "Technology," which the "T" in MIT definitely stands for, so boo. Very easy to boot TECH from your grid. Bootable. Boot it.

Besides my LOA for KEA mistake, I also misspelled NIHAO (as NIHAU, which is a Hawaiian island (well, NIIHAU is), which I feel like I *just* learned last week ...). Never heard of a MINILAB, though it was ultimately pretty inferrable (10D: Small photo processing center). Those big NE / SW corners were probably the toughest parts of the puzzle to tame. ACCREDIT is an odd verb and didn't come to me quickly (11D: Sanction), and "Sanction" is also an odd verb in that it has possible meanings that are opposites of one another. I forgot Harold ROSS and SUSAN Stamberg (59D: Radio journalist Stamberg), but crosses were so easy I hardly felt those bumps. AGE ONE is weak (55D: Time to take first steps, maybe). As is AGE TWO, if that ever shows up. But I liked SYRUPY and SALSA BAR and SO CUTE and as I say, the theme just works. It's a nice, light, mercifully unobnoxious Thursday puzzle. Cool.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Hal Moore

Relative difficulty: Easy (4:16)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: "De AMOR y de Sombra" (Isabel Allende novel) (50D) —

Of Love and Shadows (Spanish: De amor y de sombra) is a novel written by Chileannovelist Isabel Allende in 1984. // Irene is a magazine editor living under the shadow of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. Francisco is a handsome photographer and he comes to Irene for a job. As a sympathizer with the underground resistance movement, Francisco opens her eyes and her heart to the atrocities being committed by the state. Irene and Francisco begin a passionate affair, ready to risk everything for the sake of justice and truth. // In 1994, this novel was adapted into a film starring Antonio Banderas and Jennifer Connelly. (wikipedia)

• • •

Isn't Hal Moore the Green Lantern? Did we have this conversation? Oh, dang, it's Hal Jordan. Nevermind. I'm surprised it took this long to get ANTHONY BOURDAIN into a NYTXW grid, what with his themeless-friendly 15-letter name and all. He's definitely the highlight today, though there are a handful of other colorful longer answers that keep this one interesting. Stuff like PHOTOCURRENT and FIREIRONS and PIANOTEACHER just kinda lie there, for me, but I like NONSEQUITUR and SCOUTSHONOR and HUMANOID and "I'M IN HEAVEN" just fine. Short fill gonna short fill, for sure, and the SE corner is particularly wobbly (INURES BDAY ECARD EIRE plural SKYES), but it's clean enough. Passably clean. Though there really is a lot of short (5 and under) stuff. It's a good thing the longer stuff is mostly able to carry the load today, because even when it's reasonably clean, sub-5 stuff is hard to take in large doses, esp. on a Friday or Saturday, when your puzzle really should pop and sizzle and not bore. Every LEA and ACRE and AMOCO and ETON and NOTI makes a little deflating sound. But in the end, more good than bad. All credit for the enjoyable solve goes to ANTHONY BOURDAIN (37A: Author/TV personality who wrote "Your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park"). Without him, this thing sputters.

My slowness / errors were all in the dumb short stuff areas. ABASE for ABASH, for instance—ugh, one of those only-yet-somehow-often-in-crosswords dilemmas where even choosing correctly doesn't feel very good. I had BUSSERS before BUSBOYS (24D: Some restaurant staffers) because I thought "oh, the clue is gender neutral, so the answers will be too," wrong. I know too many Los ___ places from having grown up in California, and so I was both unlucky and lucky today. Unlucky in that my first answer was Los BANOS, lucky in that I know Los GATOS and that slid in easily once my initial error became apparent. Had the most trouble deciphering the clue on PRIOR (60A: Record component), for obvious reasons (but I'll tell you anyway: the ambiguity of the meaning of "record"). Dumbest thing I did was not fully read the clue on the Beatles song (52A: Beatles hit about "a man who thought he was a loner"). Got cocky and figured I'd be able to just fill in a Beatles hit from the letters I had in place (the first few, I think). But my mind went blank. Even with "GET..." all I could think of was "GET A JOB" (not a Beatles song). Then I had EVITE instead of ECARD so that screwed with my Beatles mojo even more (48D: Modern party planning aid). Finally worked out "GET BACK" (a song I know well). Then I went back and read the whole "GET BACK" clue (52A: Beatles hit about "a man who thought he was a loner"). Would've gotten the answer immediately if I had just read the whole clue. Of course I would've had to speed-sing the song in my head from the lyric in the clue up to the "GET BACK" part, but that still would've taken less time than whatever the hell I did today. Partial clue reading is one of the dumb things you (I) do when you're (I'm) speed-solving. Whatever. Coulda been faster, but still fast. The moral of the story is take the *probably no more than two seconds* to read every clue to the end, sigh.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Peter Wentz

Relative difficulty: Medium (8:04)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: WUSHU (51A: Martial art with rhyming syllables) —

Wushu (/ˌwuːˈʃuː/), or Chinese Kungfu, is a hard and soft and complete martial art, as well as a full-contact sport. It has a long history in reference to Chinese martial arts. It was developed in 1949 in an effort to standardize the practice of traditional Chinese martial arts, yet attempts to structure the various decentralized martial arts traditions date back earlier, when the Central Guoshu Institute was established at Nanking in 1928.
"Wushu" is the Chinese term for "martial arts" (武 "Wu" = military or martial, 術 "Shu" = art). In contemporary times, Wushu has become an international sport through the International Wushu Federation (IWUF), which holds the World Wushu Championships every two years; the first World Championships were held in 1991 in Beijing. The World KungfuChampionships are held every four years subset International Wushu Federation, as well. (wikipedia)

• • •

This was pretty joyless, which surprised me, as I usually groove on Peter Wentz puzzles. A few key answers felt obscure or just off, and much of the difficulty felt highly contrived, e.g. calling END OF DAYS a "setting" or calling BYLAWS"lines of code." Like, yes, I see what you're doing there, but meh. Trying hard to see what the marquee answers were supposed to be in this one. Maybe P.F. CHANG'S or CLICKHOLE? Those are at least current and freshish. The rest of the longer stuff was ... well, stuffy. Too much of this grid either clunked or just felt flat. It's AHOY, MATE*Y*, for starters (57A: Call overseas?). RAPS as a noun always feels verrrrrrrry NYT, i.e. very "hello, fellow youths!" i.e. like someone who doesn't listen to rap pretending he does. Much better as a verb, especially when talking about whole-ass songs ("chart-toppers"). The grid was very very namey too, which I guess I should be happy about, since I knew most of them, but ... nah, I wasn't happy about it. And what is ROCK-RIBBED (?), who says that? And FIVE-WAY??? Really? (8D: Like some complex intersections) That answer was easy enough to get, but ... not really believable as a thing. Possibly more believable as a sex thing than as an intersection thing, frankly. The only thing I actually enjoyed today was getting "LA STRADA" (38D: Fellini's first Oscar-winning film). I'm overstating how unpleasant this one largely because my expectations from the byline were so high. I wonder how much of any given puzzle's unpleasantness is actually editorial. I've said this before, but I think it's the overall "voice" of the puzzle that often leaves me cold, and that is very much an editor thing.

Most of my trouble came early, when I couldn't get the NW corner to work—holy crap, DECKLE!?! (1A: Bookmaking frame that produces paper with rough edges). I get it that you want to be the first to put some niche word in the grid, but oof, yipes, and all the YEOWS (plural, really?). DECKLE?! Wow. OK. I learned a word (that I will forget immediately). I think I would've resented this obscurity much less if it hadn't been 1-Across, an answer that matters very much even if you think it shouldn't. It can be hard or easy, but it shouldn't, when I finally get it, leave me going "....... what?" and disbelieving every single cross. Only other memorable trouble I had was at WUSHU, which ... is weirdly the name for all Chinese martial arts and somehow (more recently) the name of a specific, standardized martial art. Anyway, I figured the answer would be some martial art I had never heard of. But then it was this, which I know about vaguely, but only as a synonym for kung fu (i.e. Chinese martial arts generally). Weird how a five-letter answer can cause so much trouble. The clue was probably necessary to keep people from guessing ARIEL at 52D: Archangel of the Apocrypha (URIEL). Didn't know BIANCA, but the name was easy to piece together from crosses. Worst name in the puzzle by far (which I got easily, because I lived through his racist bullshit) is ATWATER (40D: Bush campaign manager of 1988). Really, really not the name you want to be floating across your grid in the summer of the year of our lord 2020. Just an asshole of the first order. Southern strategy guy. Willie Horton guy. F*** him and the party he helped steer toward the cruel racist disaster you see around you today. Homophobia: check. Smear campaigns based on stigmatizing mental illness: check check. Here, read more about this awful human being for yourself. Or don't. Black lives matter. Good night.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Laura Taylor Kinnel

Relative difficulty: Easy? Medium? (I was slow 'cause I had a drink)

THEME:"To-Do List"— you have to TICK ALL THE BOXES (43D: Be fully qualified ... or a hint to this puzzle's theme); that is, there are squares that have "BOX" in them (rebus-style) in the Acrosses, but you have to put (or imagine) "TICK" in that same space in order to make sense of the Down crosses:

Theme answers:

SOAPBOX (18A: Orator's platform) / STICKY SITUATIONS (7D: Imbroglios)
TOOLBOX (55A: Set of skills, metaphorically) / TICKLE THE IVORIES (56D: Play piano, informally)
INBOX (53A: Email holder) / PUTS LIPSTICK ON A PIG (3D: Tries to make the unappealing attractive)
TOYBOX (75A: Playroom chest) / THAT'S THE TICKET (29D: "You nailed it!")
BLACK BOX (107A: Flight recorder) / CARROT AND STICK (48D: Combination meant to change behavior)

Word of the Day: Ka LAE (southernmost point on Hawaii) (83A) —

Ka Lae (Hawaiian: the point), also known as South Point, is the southernmost point of the Big Island of Hawaii and of the 50 United States. The Ka Lae area is registered as a National Historic Landmark District under the name South Point Complex. The area is also known for its strong ocean currents and winds and is the home of a wind farm. // The name for the southern tip of the island of Hawaiʻi comes from Ka Lae in the Hawaiian language which means "the point". It is often spelled as one word, Kalae, or called South Point or South Cape. A confluence of ocean currents just offshore makes this spot one of Hawaii's most popular fishing spots. Both red snapper and ulua are plentiful here. Locals fish from the cliffs, some dangling perilously over the edge of steep lava ledges. Swimming here, however, is not recommended, due to the current. In fact, it is called the "Halaea Current", named after a chief who was carried off to his death. (wikipedia)

• • •

I just find Sundays grinding, and this certainly wasn't any different. They're just so big that if you have a one-note theme ... by the end, it just feels like being bludgeoned. The concept here is actually fine, I guess. TICK (as in "put 'tick' in") ALL THE BOXES (as in "all the squares that contain the word 'box'"), and there you go. And go and go and go. There was some annoying ambiguity, in that technically They're All Boxes, i.e. I'm solving a crossword, so yeah, boxes everywhere! Also, I had TOOLS and TOYS early on and those seemed just fine as answers for their respective clues, so seeing the whole "BOX" rebus thing was actually weirdly hard for me. Had to get the revealer before I had any idea what was going on. Did I mention I'd had a drink? I'm sure it played a role in my slow-on-the-uptake-ness, but still, wow, it did not gel for me for a long time. Also, I had S-A-- at 18A: Orator's platform and happily wrote in STAGE. Whoops. Ugh, that section, with "POOR ME" as a "sentiment," yikes. Rough (4D: Eeyore-ish sentiment). Anyway, I can't say this was any worse than your average Sunday puzzle, because conceptually, it was not, but Sundays have to be *so* good not to be grating, both theme-wise and fill-wise, by the end. There's just not enough interesting variation in the theme or enough sparkle in the grid to make this solve an enjoyable experience today.

The fill was (on occasion) not doing the puzzle any favors. REIMAGE!? You *definitely* mean "reimagine"(92D: Form a new mental picture of). Def in it ely. And wow I have such profanity written in the margins with an arrow pointing to NO RELATION (91A: Elizabeth Warren vis-à-vis former chief justice Earl Warren).HUS idea was that clue!? Bah. It's an OUTCROPping (ping!), so again maybe try reimagining (!) that answer (90D: Protruding bit of bedrock). OSAY, can you ALEE by the ERGS IDLY LAE... Sigh. PUTS LIPSTICK ON A PIG is a colorful answer, as is HERDED CATS (69A: Managed an unmanageable group, figuratively). HOT HAND I like fine (38A: Sustained period of luck, as with dice). There's just not enough to sustain my interest over the whole 21x21 area. Sundays are hard hard hard to do well. If I see one I like, I'll let you know and praise it accordingly. Until then... this was pretty typical, and typical just hasn't been cutting it with me for a while.

Hey, there's a massive new collection of crosswords out now, made by an all-star roster of constructors, all to benefit COVID *and* Black Lives Matter / racial justice charities (it started out focused on the former and then, understandably, expanded to include the latter). It's called "Grids For Good." All you gotta do is provide proof you gave just $10 (you can do better than that) to the org of your choice and you get the puzzles. There's also a metapuzzle contest going on through July 18, so you can get in on that too. I haven't done the puzzles yet but (scans list of names) yeah, I know these people. You know them too (Agard, Berry, Burnikel, Weintraub, etc.). They do good work. So go give (or regive) some money away, and then get your puzzles!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Lynn Lempel

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: The Name Game — Theme answers are composed of a celeb's first name combined with a verb.

Theme answers:

VANGUARDS (18A: Pianist Cliburn plays basketball defense?)
JOYRIDES (24A: TV host Behar takes mass transit?)
GINGERSNAPS (35A: Actress Rogers flips out?)
BOBSLEDS (51A: Singer Dylan has fun in the snow?)
BILLFOLDS (57A: Businessman Gates gets out of the poker game?)

Word of the Day: DAN (46A: Martial arts level) —

The dan (段) ranking system is used by many Japanese, Okinawan, and Korean martial art organizations to indicate the level of a person's ability within a given system that could be generally described as a finite set that once achieved becomes an art that can be defined by some formalized system of patternism. Used as a ranking system to quantify skill level within a given set of specific patterns, it was originally used at a go school during the Edo period.^[1] It is now also used in most modern Japanese fine and martial art.
(Wikipedia)

• • •

It's lovely to see Lynn Lempel to kick off July! She's done a pretty average puzzle, no complaints here. I got stuck in the middle for awhile, which is probably my still-amateur status showing, but at any rate it's nice to get stuck, that hasn't happened to me for awhile. I wouldn't mind taking some BOBSLEDS on their MAIDEN voyages, it's been soooooooo hot lately and that would be a nice way to cool off. Interesting that we had both EDEN and UTOPIA.

I would've enjoyed the theme more if I'd gotten the first parts of all the clues--didn't know Joy Behar or Van Cliburn. But it was fun putting the words together! And I liked imagining a disgruntled Bill Gates at the poker table.

Bullets:

MICA (6A: Mineral easily split into layers) — I remembered this one from my geology class in college. They may have called it "Rocks for Jocks," and I may have been on the rugby team, but I still enjoyed it and learned a lot! Go on, ask me anything about volcanoes or glaciers.
URN (29A: Large coffee vessel) — This one really threw me. I've only really thought of URNS as pots or vessels containing ashes (that sometimes get knocked over in sitcoms for comedic[?] effect). Has everyone been calling coffee containers urns without my knowledge?
IN DRAG (12D: Dressed like RuPaul) — Leaving this bit from "La Cage" as your Monday earworm! Also yes this scene makes me cry.

Signed, Annabel Thompson of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Kevin Patterson

Relative difficulty: Easy (2:48! Zing!)

THEME: WRAPPING PAPER (38A: Holiday purchase ... or a hint to the circled letters)— circled letters spell out different kinds of paper if you imagine the letters wrapping around from the east, off the grid, continuing again in the west:

Papers:

STOCK SPLIT / MUST
A TOI / LET GO
OSCAR / BOND
OTIS / SUEZ CRISIS

Word of the Day: MARIST College (48D: ___ College (school in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.)) —

Marist College is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York. Founded in 1905, Marist was formed by the Marist Brothers, a Catholic religious institute of Brothers, to prepare brothers for their vocations as educators. In 1929, Marist became accredited by the state to offer a wider range of degrees in the arts and sciences. Today, Marist offers a comprehensive liberal arts education, offering 56 undergraduate and graduate degree programs and 21 certificate programs. (wikipedia)

• • •

Hard to be too mad at a Tuesday puzzle that you destroy the way I destroyed this one. I can't remember the last time I was in the 2:40s on a *Tuesday*. Sometimes, on Monday, if I'm pretty fast, but Tuesday? For me, that is very rare. Again, as with my record-setting Monday last week, I was able to run the top three Acrosses 1-2-3, and then drill virtually all the crossing Downs from there, including long stuff like RICHARD GERE (8D: "Pretty Woman" co-star) and HALFTIME (11D: Occasion for a locker room pep talk)—it really does make a profound difference not just how many letters you have in a word before you look at the clue, but *which* letters you have. First is best. Odds are always that it's going to be the most valuable letter in any answer, in terms of its ability to help you guess the answer. Yes, sometimes you luck into a Q or a J in in some non-initial position and that will help you get an answer quickly, but in terms of which *position* is likely to help you: first first first. So run the top Acrosses and then work the Downs. That is how to do the easy puzzles, I've determined (if some actual speed-solving pro tells you different, though, you should listen to them, as the real speedsters will have me beat by a full minute today). Another thing about finishing swiftly—it makes you feel as if the grid was clean *and* generally warmly disposes you to the puzzle as a whole. So, yeah, I don't hate this one. The theme seems fine. I didn't get an aha from it; more of an "oh, sure, yeah, I see." It's entirely adequate, and because the theme is not (at all) demanding in terms of the pressure it puts on the grid, we are able to enjoy a reasonably smooth overall experience. I mean, yeah, lots of uninspired short stuff, but nothing inordinately bad, and the worst (À TOI) had thematic purpose. Oh, sorry, UIE is the worst, but that is in theme territory too. . . so I'm not too mad. That SW corner is (inexplicably) the very weakest, but still, overall, this holds up just fine for a Tuesday.

ONE PUR ROO IMP to rule them all! ... seems like a good tagline for a very bizarre fantasy movie. Ooh, I don't like ANOWL much at all, so maybe the fill is wobblier here than I first suspected. The things you miss when you're flying! Someone on Twitter suggested just now that the "PLEASE" clue (20A: Word repeated before "Me" in a Beatles hit) was problematic because it specifically refers to "Me" when "Me" is clearly in the grid at "BEER ME!" (42A: Slangy frat house request). I guess, technically that's a dupe, but two-letter words ... don't really rate as violations (for the most part) in my book. I thought REI sold camping gear, whereas LL Bean ... that's mostly just casual clothes for lightly outdoorsy types, right? Oh, I see they also sell camping gear, technically ... still, something seems slightly off about the comparison. I've never seen an REI catalogue, is my main point. It's fine. I don't particularly like REI as fill, though, regardless of the clue. But Tuesdays can be and certainly have been much worse than this. I will take this.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Chase Dittrich

Relative difficulty: Easyish (3:20)

THEME: typography commands— familiar phrases with typography commands in theme have clues that make punny visual use of that typography

Theme answers:

20A: Having a meal! (STRESS EATING)
35A: M i l i t a r y t r a i n e e s (SPACE CADETS)
42A: ~~Downward dog~~ (STRIKE A POSE)
56A: "Will you marry me?" (BOLD PROPOSAL) (sorry, I always put theme clues/answers in bold, so the visual doesn't really come across here, just imagine the clue, uh, bolder)

Word of the Day: OPAL Tometi, activist who co-founded Black Lives Matter (38A) —

Opal Tometi (born August 15, 1984) is a Nigerian-American human rights activist, writer, strategist, and community organizer. She is a co-founder of Black Lives Matter. She is the former Executive Director of the United States’ first national immigrant rights organization for people of African descent – the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI).
Tometi brought attention to the racial inequities faced by Black people. Before that, Tometi was an active community organizer in her hometown advocating for human rights issues. She has campaigned for advancing human rights, migrant rights, and racial justice worldwide. (wikipedia)

• • •

This puzzle started out in a hole with me because my software was like "You need to read these notes" and was like "Nah, I hate notes, not doing it." Turns out I didn't really need them—I figured out what I was *supposed* to be seeing in the theme clues, even though my software didn't display them correctly. Sometimes I wish my software was more versatile, but 99% of the time there are no problems and I like the interface a lot, so I'm not changing. Anyway, the theme ... not for me. It's not unclever, but it's more ... I don't know, it's cute but not funny. I see what it's doing, the way I see what a canned joke with a punchline is doing. I never laugh at man walks into a bar-type jokes. "Get it!?""Yes ... amusing." Just not my style of humor. And this theme was not my style of theme. I acknowledge that it is doing what it sets out to do. That's as far as I can go. The fill is below average and slightly crusty-feeling. They put a current clue on OPAL, but all that did was highlight how uncurrent and uninteresting the rest of the fill is here. It is a grid that has been designed to maximize boring fill. It looks like an empty grid you'd get off the internet somewhere. Prefab. Four themers, nine sections, meat and two veg, suit two pair of pants. Seriously, just stare at the grid for a while and watch your mind disappear into the blandness. All 3s, 4s, 5s. Yawn.

I thought I was slow at first because I couldn't get BASS at first pass (1A: Shoe company with a fish name) and then couldn't back into that NW section via STRESS EATING (yet) and so took this weird path from the upper middle to the middle and then sort of radiating out from there, with the NW coming very late (if I'd seen the SINEAD clue earlier I might've made quicker headway up there) (4D: Singer O'Connor). My slowness was very boring today. Misread the Spanish clue as a singular, not a plural (36D: Those, to José), which seems impossible—how do you misread "Those" as singular?? But still I wanted ESTO there. Weird. Also, slow on ESTAB because yuck and also the only abbr. of that word I can accept is ESTD. There's just not a lot to like here. Very old-fashioned feeling in the fill. Feel the DRY GOODS! (10D: Textiles and sundries). Is ROLO over YOLO cute? Maybe. But it's not nearly enough.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Joe Kidd

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (?) (somewhere in the 5-minute range, didn't put anything in the theme squares because I think the shapes speak for themselves)

THEME: O boy — "O" shapes in four squares stand in for various "O"-shaped things: a RING, a CIRCLE, a LOOP, and a ... ROUND :(

Theme answers:

DOESN'T RING TRUE (19A: Sounds a bit off) / SPY RING (5D: Network of secret agents)
CIRCLE DANCE (26A: Hora, for one) / CIRCLE THE WAGONS (26D: Unite in defense)
FROOT LOOP (49A: Colorful bit of cereal) / THREW FOR A LOOP (10D: Caught off guard)
THIS ROUND IS ON ME (55A: Offer at the bar) / ROUND OUT (57D: Bring to fullness)

Word of the Day: HANSOM (51A: Edwardian-era transport) —

: a light 2-wheeled covered carriage with the driver's seat elevated behind
— called also hansom cab (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

Got the gimmick quickly but didn't *fully* get it because I seriously thought they were all just gonna be "CIRCLE"—I got CIRCLE DANCE first, and then at 5D: Network of secret agents, I got the SPY part and thought, "sure, SPY CIRCLE, that's a thing..." This is why it took me a bit to get DOESN'T *RING* TRUE—I was a little miffed on the clue there, since ... I dunno, somehow I always think contracts should be indicated in the clue (?). I just couldn't see / anticipate DOESN'T. Had DOES and figured that was the entirety of the verb. The contraction possibility just didn't (!) enter my head. But once that was all straightened out, the rest of the theme stuff was easy ... well, LOOP was easy. ROUND was ??? because man that is a horrible final themer. No one is going to look at "O" and say "look, a ROUND," whereas they might indeed describe that shape as a circle, ring, or loop. I guess there are round crackers that are called "rounds," but ... I just don't think that theme square works At All. Total outlier compared to the others (which all work nicely). I've seen theme concepts like this before, and they're fine, but the clunky execution there really dropped the puzzle a notch in my estimation—and on the final themer! The worst place to blow it. The fill on this one also wasn't great. Really liked LOSE BIG (8D: Be routed), and the theme answers were very lively, but most of the rest of the fillis pretty TWO-BIT (50D: Cheap). Lots of TETES MOS EATOF OFNO IGET GOAS ERRS ESS etc.

The SW corner was the hardest for me because I had a DUH / D'OH screwup that made me repeatedly mistrust HANSOM. Don't like the clue on "D'OH" (48D: "How could I be so silly?!") which indicates something stronger than mere "silliness" on one's own part. "Stupid" is more accurate. It comes from Homer Simpson, after all. Really hated that that corner had not one but two "words in quoted phrases by famous people"-type clues. I don't want more than one of those per puzzle, if possible, and I definitely don't want two in the same damn corner. There's gotta be better, more interesting ways to clue both DESTINY (43D: "___ is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice": Willliam Jennings Bryan) and FOG (54A: It "comes on little cat feet," per Carl Sandburg), although the FOG quote is at least ... interesting. Leave the Sandburg, ditch the Bryan. I also don't think LINEN is a [Bit of bedding]. It's not a "bit" of anything. It's a general term for bedding, or just fabric-y things. No one says "oh look, a LINEN." Bit, shmit. Anyway, this is all to say that that corner was yucky. But overall the puzzle was on the easy side. It's a middling, passable Thursday effort.

"Am I ... FOG?"

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: John Lieb

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (5:18)

THEME: none

Word of the Day:"TRUE WEST" (27A: Sam Shepard play about warring brothers) —

True West, drama in two acts by Sam Shepard, produced in 1980 and published in 1981. The play concerns the struggle for power between two brothers—Lee, a drifter and petty thief, and Austin, a successful screenwriter—while they collaborate on a screenplay in their mother’s southern California home. Lee, who claims that he can write a “truer” western than Austin because he has actually lived the western life, convinces Austin’s producer that he is the right man for the project, and the role reversals begin: soon Austin is behaving like a thief, and Lee is the coddled Hollywood writer. This savage and blackly humorous version of the Cain and Abel story also satirizes the modern West’s exploitation of the romanticized cowboys-and-Indians West of American mythology. (Britannica.com)

• • •

I've never heard of "TRUE WEST" and I don't watch "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," so that meant two giant answers that were just mysteries to me. Actually, I take that back. I have heard of TERRY CREWS, and that ultimately helped, but I honestly wasn't really sure about the first name, and with -RRY in place I was very ready to entertain HARRY, or, in an emergency, LARRY (28D: "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" actor who played in the N.F.L.). Need ELCID to come along and rescue me by providing the "E" which made TERRY the only option (33A: Subject of a 23-foot bronze statue in San Diego's Balboa Park). Speaking of that "T"—"TRUE WEST"! Yes, my long unknown proper name problem areas *cross*. Fun. But other proper names helped me out, so I can't complain too much. It's just that having the primary difficulty in a puzzle be the piecing together of names that don't really mean anything to you... it's not the Greatest feeling. Of course there are things I don't know in virtually every puzzle I solve, so that's not the problem. I think the problem is how disproportionate the difficulty was—it felt like All the actual work I had to do was concentrated in these answers. The rest was fine, but I blew through it. So I'm left with only really remembering the "TRUE WEST" / TERRY CREWS experience, and not the other parts of the grid. The grid overall looks ... fine. "THE CHRONIC" and MILHOUSE were right up my alley, and MOVEMBER over SLOW CLAP is pretty nifty. I remember LITE BRITE, so I enjoyed that answer as well. There's very little gunk in here today, though I do kinda consider Paula DEEN gunk (notorious racist).

ALBS was a throwback, for sure—in the sense that it's classic crosswordese and you don't see it so much these days (for example: ALBS made five appearances in 1995, but then made none for over six years during a stretch from 2012 to 2018) (25A: Garb for the masses?). I'm never gonna remember SEGNO, which shows up like once a year just to mess with me (45D: Musical "repeat" mark). We have the always-horrid ASDOI / ASAMI dilemma at 37A: "Same here" (ASAMI). A few more stray short crosswordese answers, but really very minimal. Aside from the aforementioned long proper names, there were a few other answers that stalled me a bit. SHINY, for instance, weirdly threw me (1D: Well-polished). Built it entirely from crosses. Also AUNTIE—the reunion I had in mind was scholastic, not familial (21A: Reunion attendee, informally). I never saw "The Martian," so ARES was all crosses (21D: Mission name in "The Martian"). And I thought the [Startling sound] at 47A was POW, and very nearly left that corner with POW in place. Luckily, my eye caught sight of WERPS and knew something had to be wrong (49D: Suspects, informally = PERPS). Overall, far more good than bad (or even mediocre) here. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Kameron Austin Collins

Relative difficulty: Easy (5 to almost finish, 6 to finish finish)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: EPUB (38A: Digital book file extension)—

EPUB is an e-book file format that uses the ".epub" file extension. The term is short for electronic publication and is sometimes styled ePub. EPUB is supported by many e-readers, and compatible software is available for most smartphones, tablets, and computers. EPUB is a technical standard published by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). It became an official standard of the IDPF in September 2007, superseding the older Open eBook standard.
The Book Industry Study Group endorses EPUB 3 as the format of choice for packaging content and has stated that the global book publishing industry should rally around a single standard. The EPUB format is implemented as an archive file consisting of XHTML files carrying the content, along with images and other supporting files. EPUB is the most widely supported vendor-independent XML-based (as opposed to PDF) e-book format; that is, it is supported by almost all hardware readers, except for Kindle. (wikipedia)

• • •

Big Friday Energy, which is Fine By Me. I like Fridays best. What I'm saying is that this was delightful and easy, full of good ENERGY and light on the blecch. Seems like forever since I've seen Kam's name in the NYTXW (he's a regular contributor at the New Yorker, which runs three excellent themelesses a week now!). Glad he's still throwing the NYTXW a bone now and then. This puzzle had me at MEATSPACE (18A: Physical realm, in cyberpunk). Honestly, one great answer like that can sustain me for half a puzzle. Ooh, also DRAGOON, which I briefly thought had some bad racial angle to it, but I think I'm thinking of "Shanghai"? Or ... I dunno, something else. Anyway, DRAGOON! (14D: Strong-arm). The structure of the grid is such that there's nice long stuff criss-crossed by a lot of short, sometimes overfamiliar stuff. But that stuff—like ADO and DELE and EDYS and CEL and EATME—never overwhelms the grid. Clues stay interesting, pace stays brisk. I did have one major trouble spot: the SW. I could not remember that EPUB was a thing (38A: Digital book file extension), and I forgot who Tamerlane was, and wow I have barely heard of a SPOT AD, and I kept thinking that "lapped" applied to running, and then I thought maybe milk (?). Because of all these issues, couldn't see the RAW in RAW SCORES. Took me about 5 minutes to finish all but nine squares, all in that SW section; those squares took me another full minute. Ah well...

Do people really say PARADISE FOUND? (12A: Heaven, sweet heaven). It's a ... figurative ... concept? I teach Milton so often that the only answer that sounds right to my ear is "Paradise Regained" (the actual title of Milton's "Paradise Lost" sequel). Why are CROCODILE TEARS a [Hollow-eyed expression?] Is a "hollow" a locale where one finds crocodiles? No, that can't be right. Why is there a "?" on that clue? Is it that your eyes lack (or are "hollow" of) genuine emotion? Maybe I'm not that sure of what regular old "hollow-eyed" actually means. Hmm, it just means having deep-sunken eyes, like a gaunt person. I'm just not ... quite getting, and thus not quite liking, whatever punning is going on here. Weird to clue YOUTH as 22D: Teens, e.g. (i.e. as a plural). I guess YOUTH is a collective noun, so why ... not? I had YOUNG in there for a bit, which I also could justify and also don't like. I do like the clue on HOME GYM (39A: Locale for house reps?). I also like that the METOOMOVEMENT got a clue that gave credit where credit is due (instead of giving it all to Ronan Farrow) (60A: Global justice phenomenon sprung from a 2006 Myspace post by Tarana Burke). I also like TECATE (surprised this answer doesn't appear more often, given its favorable letters) (41D: Mexican beer brand) and who doesn't like a SOUL TRAIN LINE? (35: Longtime dance feature on TV beginning in 1971). Come on.

Last thing: it looks like Wall-E's love is actually EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator)—he just pronounces it "EVA" (58D: Wall-E's love in "Wall-E"). So that ... feels like an error? But I haven't seen the movie, so have no strong feelings one way or the other. Have a nice day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Samuel A. Donaldson

Relative difficulty: Easy (9:01) (usually gotta be under 9 for "Easy" but since I've had a DRINK and it's HOT I'm gonna adjust the scale a little)

THEME:"Chores Galore" — chores, clued as if they refer to something wacky (based on an alternate interpretation of a word in the chore phrase):

Theme answers:

TAKE OUT THE TRASH (23A: Chore for a censor?)
DO THE DISHES (28A: Chore for a TV technician?)
SWEEP THE FLOOR (42A: Chore for a security guard?)
GO TO THE BANK (67A: Chore for a rower?)
SORT THE MAIL (73A: Chore for a knight?)
PICK UP THE TOYS (97A: Chore for a dog-walker?)
PAY THE BILLS (114A: Chore for an N.F.L. owner?)
CLEAN THE GUTTERS (121A: Chore for a bowling alley employee?)

Word of the Day: ILENE Woods (107D: Woods who voiced Cinderella) —

Jacqueline Ruth "Ilene" Woods (May 5, 1929 – July 1, 2010) was an American actress and singer. Woods was the original voice of the title character of the Walt Disney animated feature Cinderella, for which she was named a Disney Legend in 2003. (wikipedia)

• • •

Speaking of chores... This is really grim. I truly don't understand who(m) this puzzle is amusing. It's dad-pun stuff, but not even groaners, just boring stuff. Truly, indescribably boring, all of the alleged humor here. Sometimes the jokes don't even make good jokey sense. Like, in what way do "censors"TAKE OUT THE TRASH? Would you, or anyone, really, ever, refer to profanity or nudity or whatever might get censored by a censor as "trash"? What year is it? Did a suburban mom in 1957 write this? I also just don't get GO TO THE BANK—what does that have to do with a challenge to a rower? Is it a "challenge" to "row" to the "bank" ... of a river? That doesn't sound like a chore. I mean, you rowed away from the bank, presumably, how is rowing to it a "chore"? I feel like ... there's this lowest common denominator, looks-and-feels-like-stuff-we've-seen-a-million-times, written-by-a-million-white-guys-type theme that is just allowed to continue to play out over and over and over, particularly in Sunday puzzles. It's tepid, weak, anodyne, and absolutely soul-sucking. This editor brags routinely about the six thousand or whatever submissions he gets each year, basically as a way of saying "f- you, I never have to change 'cause if you stop submitting there are a thousand who will take your place." But the typical submission must be hilariously terrible if what we're seeing on a regular basis is truly the cream of the crop. I think he just publishes stuff that feels familiar, like stuff he's done every week since the mid-'90s, by loyalists who just churn it out. Competent bland work, over and over and over. There's no reason puzzles have to be like this. We've just been trained to think that this is how they *are*. "It's the NYTXW, so it must be the best." Well, no.

The fill made me wince repeatedly. There's not a damn thing worth highlighting. AT THE OPERA? Like ... what? That's a partial. Get the whole title in your grid, and I'll applaud, but just AT THE OPERA!? My god, what the hell? Never heard of a ROADWAY INN (are these regional?), and yet somehow I want to say that that's the best answer in the grid, because it's one of the only non-theme answers longer than seven letters and the only one besides "HERE'S HOW!" that's kinda lively. UDO MIDI WIIU ELIM SRO AHH TSU (!?), etc etc. When there's not a lot of interesting fill, that short stuff starts to grate, badly. I guess they're gonna bring back the duck clue for JEMIMA now that the racist caricature of a syrup mascot has been thrown overboard in the wake of BLM protests this summer. I think you're probably better off just Deleting JEMIMA from your word list entirely. You can do without it. I know you can. I have no idea what TATES is (are?). [Crispy cookie brand]!? I'm staring at a bag of them and can confidently say I've never seen these things in my whole damn half century of life.

The family on "Soap," they were the TATES, right? And "the STEEPS?" I am making the yuckiest face at that answer. I used to ski in California in the '80s and I don't remember such cutesiness. I don't know why this puzzle couldn't just focus on being ... better. More interesting conceptually. Better fill. Getting cute with the clues on short fill isn't gonna move the needle, although it can augment irksomeness. With apologies to fans of Disney princesses (and "Mr. Belvedere"), there are no famous ILENEs. I have spoken. End the Sunday madness / badness. It's maddening / baddening.

Hey, you want to have some weird throwback crossword fun? Yeah, you do. Speed-solving legend Dan Feyer has a couple of puzzle sets from the '80s/'90s available for free on his blog. First, there's a trove of Something Different puzzles (my favorite puzzle type—absolute wacky madness). You can read what they are and download them in .puz format here. Then there's a bunch of diagramless, themed, and themeless puzzles, also from the '80s/90s, which he just made available here. All puzzles were originally published in Stanley Newman's "Crossworder's OWN Newsletter" (later renamed "Tough Puzzles"). The constructors are all All-Stars from 30+ years ago (including the great Merl Reagle). It's such a treat to have these available. Keep in mind that they are somewhat dated and also generally very hard. There's some ... uh ... mild cringeworthy / culturally insensitive stuff in the fill. cluing, on occasion. But overall, the craftsmanship and wit on display here is Remarkable. So enjoy.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Erik Agard

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (2:51)

THEME: MAH-JONG TILE (50A: Game piece on which 20-, 33- or 39-Across might be pictured) — I guess this is true ... I take the puzzle's word for it:

Theme answers:

PLUM BLOSSOM (20A: Flower of the tree prunus mume)
NORTH WIND (33A: Bringer of cold weather)
RED DRAGON (39A: Winged beast on the Welsh flag)

Word of the Day: Dee REES (65A: Dee ___, director of "Bessie" and "Mudbound") —

Diandrea Rees (born February 7, 1977) is an American screenwriter and director. She is known for her feature films Pariah (2011), Bessie (2015), Mudbound (2017), and The Last Thing He Wanted (2020). Rees has also written and directed episodes for television series including Empire, When We Rise, and Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams. (wikipedia)

• • •

Felt like I struggled a bunch with this one, but it's hard to use the word "struggled" with a straight face when your time comes in under 3. It's possible my new Monday normal is closer to the 2:30 than the 3 mark, which makes 2:51 feel ... slow? I dunno. All I know is there was a lot of stuff I just didn't know. I didn't know 1A: One-named singer with the hit "Dark Lady" (CHER), *for instance*! Yikes. When the hell was "Dark Lady" from. I know "Believe" and "Gypsies Tramps and Thieves" and maybe ... "Half-Breed," what was a song, right? Oh, and in the '80s, when she sang on the deck of a naval war ship in fishnets ... I forget the song ... why do I have Belinda Carlisle's "I Get Weak" in my head, that's weird. Oh, right, "If I Could Turn Back Time!" That's a CHER song I know. "Dark Lady," wow, no. So that meant my whole "ace the top row and then do all the Downs" strategy was 1/3 thwarted—I got the other two Acrosses up top and drilled down from there, then had to swoop back up to deal with the NW corner ... which was doubly hard because PLUM BLOSSOM!?!? Wow, no. "Prunus mume"? That is a Saturday clue and answer. Yipes. But with the other short easy stuff up in that corner, it wasn't That difficult to work out the singer and the flower. I had a little trouble getting OUTTA SIGHT (had the OUT-, wanted OUTSTANDING, which did not fit) (11D: "Awesome!"). Then had issues with TWISTS, which I can picture as a [Hairstyle option] now but could not retrieve At All while I was solving. The lower half of the grid was considerably easier. I forgot Dee REES's name, and the FOR YOU part of GOOD FOR YOU required some crosses (29D: Comment made with a pat on the back), but otherwise, superfast.

I don't know anything about Mah-Johng. Hell, I thought it was spelled Mah-Jonng or -Jongg ... where was I getting those extra letters from?? Aha! It looks like the double-g spelling is actually a thing. Good. I only feel half-insane now. Anyway, theme answers are things on the tiles, apparently. Interesting. So glad I didn't actually have to know that to solve (and enjoy) the puzzle. I think this is a lovely, clean, straightforward Monday. PLUM BLOSSOM and the clue on WREN (31D: Bird whose head doesn't make a sound?)* both seem more Fri/Sat than Monday, but on Mondays, when the bulk of the fill is easy to blow right through, a tough answer or two is not really gonna do much damage. In short, I have no real BEEFS with this puzzle. Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*"head" in this clue refers to the "head" (or first) letter of WREN, the "W," which is silent, i.e. "doesn't make a sound"—apologies for over-explaining, but ... I get mail

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Stella Zawistowski

Relative difficulty: Challenging (no idea how long it took me ... stopped several times out of boredom / annoyance ... felt harder than normal for a Tuesday)

THEME: PLONK— jk ... looks like ordinary phrases where the first word is also the name of a Broadway show, clued as if they somehow referred to said show:

Theme answers:

RENT FREEZE (17A: Super-cold spell on the set of a 1996 Broadway musical?)
HAIR SHIRT (11D: Souvenir from a 1968 Broadway musical?)
ANNIE HALL (34D: Performance venue for a 1977 Broadway musical?)
WICKED GOOD (58A: Positive, albeit terse, review of a 2003 Broadway musical?)

Word of the Day: NORN (56A: Norse goddess of fate) —

The Norns (Old Norse: norn, plural: nornir) in Norse mythology are female beings who rule the destiny of gods and men. They roughly correspond to other controllers of humans' destiny, such as the Fates, elsewhere in European mythology. (wikipedia)

• • •

Theme seems extremely weak. Part of the reason I found the puzzle hard was I assumed the theme was actually doing something ... Got RENT FREEZE and thought it was RENT FREE with -ZE added for some wacky reason. Then I kept waiting for some big idea to gel, for Anything to happen beyond "first words are Broadway shows," but that moment never came. Concept seemed hackneyed and the clues seemed anemic. Where's COMPANY CAR? NINE WEST? GYPSY MOTH? CHICAGO BEARS? Huge shrug for all of today's themers and their clues. And then the fill was just ragged through the middle there. The phrase "all wet" is so olden that I don't even really know what it means, so WRONG was actually a mild surprise. PLONK could've been any sound effect, as far as I was concerned. I had CLONK and CLANK and god knows what else in there. Huge let-down to have actual answer be something as ugly and random as PLONK. I think of PLONK as ... either something akin to PLUNK (i.e. put something down heavily) or else cheap wine. Would not have associated it with "old pianos."CRACK could've been lots of stuff including BREAK (35A: Succumb to pressure). It was the awful vagueness coupled with the non-aha moment when I finally "got" it that made solving this one (esp. the middle section) particularly miserable.

Whole SE corner was a mystery. Had OCHER / OCHRE at 62A: Dark, yellowish green (OLIVE). Barely heard of NORN (yuck), and I surely won't be the only one. Surprised to see NORN on a Tuesday. Could not come up with TRIANGLE from that clue (39D: Word with love or right). GOOD part of WICKED GOOD was not clear. Wouldn't know a TELEX if it bit me (though I've heard of them). Everything felt confusing and ye olde. And the modern stuff was just awkwardly clued. I "find" Alexa ... in (?) ECHO (51A: Where to find Amazon's Alexa). I've used Alexa. I have never owned an ECHO. Everything from stem to stern in this thing just clonked (or plonked) for me. Theme weak and thin (and not nearly funny / wacky enough), fill stale, cluing often vague, clunky, or not right for the day of the week. WHOLE HOG and SHERLOCK are fine answers, but mostly this one was a total miss for me.

"Friends" and "Frasier" are specifically sitcoms, so needing all the crosses just to get ... SHOW (?)??? This is the kind of weird combo of hard and disappointing that this puzzle managed to be at many different points. The saying of "no thanks" to something and the SKIPPING of it are completely different acts (43A: Saying "No thanks" to, say). There's just a weird lot of common / borderline crosswordese stuff. Seems like with a theme this (relatively) light, the fill wouldn't be so IRR AROD RIIS ESTA TELEX ORES ORSO ACTI ANTE AXLE etc. The worst of the short fill, though, was the GPO / EEOC crossing. Truly awful, if only because their crossing *initialisms*, which means if you don't know what the letters ... stand for ... you have no hope. I knew EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission), so never really noticed GPO, which ... I don't think I've ever seen in a crossword. General Post Office? Oof, if I google [GPO] I get the US Government Publishing Office. Do they ... "collect letters"? No ... looks like this clue is definitely referring to General Post Office, which is ... British? Or maybe they have them everywhere? This is only the second appearance of this particular initialism in the past ten years. And that other time? Was on a Saturday. At annnny rate: GPO / EEOC is just an objectively bad crossing, on any day. Sigh. If this puzzle had a. had snazzier themers with funnier clues, b. run on a Wednesday, and c. had much cleaner fill, maybe. But as it is, no.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

When doubled 2010s dance / THU 6-24-20 / Efficiency symbol in physics / Golfer Poulter with three PGA Tour wins / 1950s-60s sitcom nickname / makes the going great old ad slogan

Hawaiian raw fish dish / FRI 6-26-20 / Mother of Hamnet Shakespeare / Love of Tony in hit 1978 song

Italian playwright who won 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature / SAT 6-27-20 / Theatergoer's reproof / Miss Beadle of Little House on Prairie / He's waiting in sky in classic David Bowie song / Republic of theocratic setting of Handmaid's Tale / Baker's Joy alternative

Ship with three banks of oars / SUN 6-28-20 / Kingdom east of Babylonia / Jocular lead-in to macation / Slacker role for Jeff Bridges in Big Lebowski / What digitigrade stands on / Foe of Morlocks in sci-fi

Lymphocyte-producing organs / MON 6-29-20 / Annual award for architects / Pop-up store opportunity for bargain hunters

King or queen / TUES 6-30-20 / Talking horse of old TV / Not sit idly by / Scenic views

Comedian Sherman creator of TV's I've Got a Secret / WED 7-1-20 / Primary ingredient in snack Muddy Buddies / Indian tourist destination / Short-beaked bird / Retweets photo of US gold repository / Uploads photo of government security / Joins Federal Reserve Facebook group

Emulate Ferris Bueller / THU 7-2-20 / Small photo processing center / Radio journalist Stamberg / Hello in world's most common first language / Rug maker's supply

Hearst mag founded in 1886 / FRI 7-3-20 / Pitcher's push-off point / De y de sombra isabel allende novel / Singles player in 1950s

Bookmaking frame that produces paper with rough edges / SAT 7-4-20 / Bush campaign manager of 1988 / Subject of 1927 royal charter / Martial art with rhyming syllables / Satirical website once owned by The Onion

Eeyore-ish sentiment / SUN 7-5-20 / Czech reformer Jan / First of metalloids / What Franklin famously asked for / Org that kicked off again in 2020 after a 19-year hiatus / Ka southernmost point on Hawaii

Elizabeth of the "Avengers" series / MON 7-6-2020 / Illinois city on the Illinois river / Rafael on the tennis court / Daly with a Tony for "Gypsy"

1956 Mideast imbroglio / TUE 7-7-20 / 1980s-90s heavyweight champ Mike / Feeling unhappy or angry

Devil may care attitude in modern parlance / WED 7-8-20 / Shoe company with fish name / Tometi activist who co-founded Black Lives Matter

Edwardian era transport / THU 7-9-20 / It comes on little feet per Carl Sandburg / German city where Einstein was born / Sound followed by whistle in cartoons / Colorful bit of cereal / Face of modern technology

Sam Shepard play about warring brothers / FRI 7-10-20 / Subject of a 23-foot bronze statue in San Diego's Balboa Park / Brooklyn Nine Nine actor who played in NFL / Mission name in Martian / Ubernerd of 90s TV / 1197 film with tagline one wrong flight can ruin your whole day

Physical realm in cyberpunk / SAT 7-11-20 / Thruway advisory / Eponymous town in southeastern Connecticut / Setting for 1836 shootout / Turn of the century Oldsmobiles / Longtime dance feature on TV beginning in 1971

Woods who voiced Cinderella / SUN 7-12-20 / Onscreen twins often / Children's author Richard / Tale of Puddle-Duck Beatrix Potter book / mess traditional English dessert / Fool in canadian slang /

Flower of tree Prunus mume / MON 7-13-20 / Dee director of Bessie Mudbound / One-named singer with hit Dark Lady

Norse goddess of fate / TUE 7-14-20 / Dark yellowish green / Muckraking journalist Jacob