Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle

Constructor:Jason Flinn

Relative difficulty:Easiest

THEME: none

Word of the Day:RAE Sremmurd, hip-hop duo with the 2016 #1 hit "Black Beatles"(38A) —

Rae Sremmurd (pronunciation:/ˈreɪʃrˈɪmɜːrd/) is an American hip hop duo consisting of brothers Khalif "Swae Lee" Brown (born June 7, 1995) and Aaquil "Slim Jxmmi" Brown (born December 29, 1993) from Tupelo, Mississippi. The duo are best known for their platinum singles "No Flex Zone" and "No Type", which peaked at numbers 36 and 16 on the US Billboard Hot 100, respectively. They are based in Atlanta, Georgia.^[4] Their debut album SremmLife was released on January 6, 2015. The name "Rae Sremmurd" is derived from the duo's home label, EarDrummers, by spelling each word backwards. Their second album SremmLife 2 was released in 2016 to positive reviews, featuring the singles "Look Alive" and "Black Beatles", the latter of which topped the Billboard Hot 100, giving the duo (and Gucci Mane) their first number one. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well I'm guessing a lot of Saturday records were broken today. I got a heads-up from folks on Twitter that this one was gonna be easy, but that sort of advance notice usually makes me lock up and fall on my face. I am easily (self-) psyched out. But today, whoa. I mean, Whoa. I had the entire top quad filled in in 42 seconds. I actually lost about 5 seconds staring at grid / clock in astonishment. Then I went on and encountered only slightly more resistance. I didn't break 4, but I was close. What day of the week is it again? Saturday. I've had Tuesdays take me longer. Hell, I've had hard Mondays take me longer. Freaky. Today, I experienced a variation of my 1-Across Theory of Speed-Solving. With quad stacks like this, it's the 1-Down that matters, and today's (1D: John or Christine of Fleetwood Mac) was a hand-wrapped gimme served on a silver platter with a floral garnish. 8-year-old-me could've solved 1-Down without hesitation (not a joke). That is a Monday clue. On a *Saturday* *1-Down*. That ... is cluing it wrong (variant of "doing it wrong"). ETO, AREN'T followed fast and now I had the front ends of all the quads. And they fell bam bam bam bam. It was wonderful / horrifying.

Here are the only things I remember even having to think about during this solve:

18A: Something a server can give you (INTERNET ADDRESS)— so excited for how obvious this was that I just wrote in quickly: INTERNET ACCESSS, three "S"s and all.
21A: Swiss chocolate brand (LINDT)— only now, looking at the clue calmly, do I realize that it *doesn't* say "Swiss HOT chocolate brand..." My brain froze on "Swiss Miss" and even the LIN- wasn't helping (if I'd read the clue right, there would've been no hesitation).
32A: Old-fashioned (MOLDY)— M--DY and only "MOODY" was occurring to me. Sometimes your brain just locks up, what can I say?
36D: Orthodox group (HASIDIM)— Here, I knew the answer quickly, but the spelling of the proper answer, yipes. I probably spent more time rewriting this answer than I spent on any other single answer. HASSIDS was my opener. Then HASIDIC.
41D: Child actress Jones of "Family Affair" (ANISSA)— who? seriously, who? Got her (her?) entirely from crosses.

The only thing I really liked about this grid was EMANCIPATION DAY (just watched an episode of "Atlanta"—the best thing on TV—that featured a pretty hilarious "Juneteenth" party, so the concept was fresh in my mind) (48A: Juneteenth). I also liked the fleeting feeling of being a speed-solving superhero. Otherwise, it's pretty bland. Stacks are peppered with RLSTNE-loaded fare like VESTED INTERESTS and INTERNET ADDRESS and super-dull stuff like SYSTEMS ANALYSTS. Plus, any answer with ONE'S in it is basically self-parodic in a quadstack—ONE'S is done so often that it's a joke. Seriously, A LOT ON ONE'S PLATE has become shorthand for "tired and out of ideas but still determined to make a quadstack," and ONE'S in general is the quadstacker's most obvious crutch. Ditch it. And then there's that center, ouch. OR M x/w ORY is a Junk Cross for the Ages (30D: Agatha Christie's "N ___?" / 33A: Suffix with transit). Now, to be fair, that is one tight corner, and I don't think there are any easy fixes, given how locked-in the longer parts of the grid are, but dang. "OR M" is possibly the worst partial I've ever seen. And I've seen some doozies.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor:Bruce Haight

Relative difficulty:Easy

THEME:"Action Stars"— actors whose names are turned into past tense verbs and clued as fill-in-the-blanks at the beginnings of vaguely movie-related sentences:

Theme answers:

ORLANDO BLOOMED ... into a major film star (23A)
HELEN HUNTED ... for just the right film role (34A)
JAMES GARNERED ... several filmmaking awards (52A) ("filmmaking??")
SEAN PENNED ... a new film adaptation (66A)
BRAD PITTED ... two film studios against each other (69A)
SHELLEY LONGED ... for meatier roles (83A)
GLENN CLOSED ... the film deal (96A)
RUSSELL BRANDED ... himself as a big-screen film star (111A)

Word of the Day:TIANA(4D: First African-American Disney princess) —

Princess Tiana of Maldonia is a fictional main character who appears in Walt Disney Pictures' 49th animated feature film The Princess and the Frog (2009). Created by directors Ron Clements and John Musker and animated by Mark Henn, Tiana is voiced by Anika Noni Rose as an adult, while Elizabeth M. Dampier voices the character as a child. // Tiana is loosely based on two princesses. Firstly, Princess Emma, the heroine of E. D. Baker's novel The Frog Princess. Secondly, the princess that appears in the Brothers Grimm fairy tale titled The Frog Prince (published in 1812) by which E.D. Baker's novel was originally inspired. (wikipedia)

• • •

Jodie Fostered ...
Cary Granted ...
Fredric Marched ...
Robert Donated ...
Gregory Pecked ...
James Earl Jonesed ...
Geoffrey Rushed ...
Sally Fielded ...

... and that's just when I thought the theme was actually consistent. Then I noticed GLENN CLOSED, the only answer where just "D" and not "ED" is added. If you just add "D," well, as you can imagine, more names become available (Demi Moored, Tom Cruised, Russell Crowed, Geraldine Paged, Stephen Read, etc., etc.). This theme is cornball, mediocre in conception and average (at best) in execution. The clues sometimes relate directly to the actors in question ... sometimes ... not (James Garner's in particular seems not right). I wonder if the cluing wasn't the result of the editor's just trying to salvage this thing. Trying to make something out of not much of a thing. You are all being acclimated to a new normal, similar to the way our country will acclimate to a new normal over the next four years. "It's fine ... it's fine." And then eventually you're wallowing in filth. This Mediocre Madness Must End. I mean, it won't, I'm just one voice in the wilderness, but solvers of "the best puzzle in the world" shouldn't have to settle for this lukewarm stuff. They should be AGOG or AGLARE or ADEN or something.

Fill was decent, if largely non-descript. I wonder if the constructor got a hold of a more robust wordlist. YEAH I BET and ZIPCAR and a few others are a bit more ... lively than what I've come to expect. ECOTAGE is more what I expect (ugh, 119A: Actions of environmental extremists) (also, see clue for LEED (36D), which has "Eco-" in it—no no no). Honestly, there isn't really anything here to comment on.Fill, fine. Cluing, pretty straightforward. Short. Dull. I hope you had more fun than I did.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Happy finals season! (It's Annabel Monday again. )

Constructor: NED WHITE

Relative difficulty: HARD (for a Monday, but still, whew!)

THEME: HEAD TO TOE — Theme answers are in the form of a phrase starting with a body part, beginning with HAIR and going all the way down to ANKLE. (They also all end in "er.")

Theme answers:

HAIR RAISER (17A: Something scary)
NECK SNAPPER (27A: It grabs one's attention)
CHEST BEATER (38A: Boastful sort)
KNEE SLAPPER (31A: Really good joke)
ANKLE BITER (61A: Rug rat)

Word of the Day: WORD (CLUE) —

Aga Khan (Persian: آقاخان‎‎; also transliterated as Aqa Khan and Agha Khan^[1]) is a name used by the Imam of the Nizari Ismailis. The current user of the name is Shah Karim who is the 49th Imam (1957–present), Prince Shah Karim Al Husseini Aga Khan IV (b. 1936)..
The title is made up of the titles agha and khan. The Turkish "agha" is "aqa" (Āqā) in Persian. The word "agha" comes from the Old Turkic and Mongolian "aqa", meaning "elder brother",^[2]^[3] and "khan" means king, ruler in Turkic and Mongolian languages.^[4]

(Wikipedia)

Chert! So pretty <3

• • •

Whew, this one was seriously a toughie for me!! Not only were some of the clues a little weird (I knew NARCOTIC, but how is OTIC a suffix?), many new-to-me words (however embarrassing that may be). AMPERE? ABNER? And what the heck is a CERT? Maybe those of you from a different generation can fill me in on that one - the only mints I eat are Mentos and Lifesavers. Maybe it's this geology class I'm taking, but I just kept thinking of CHERT. Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that Ned White is a bit of a techie...who else calls a mouse or keyboard PERIPHERALS?

The theme was pretty fun, although some of the phrases were definitely a bit of a stretch - NECK SNAPPER? I had NECK TURNER there for the longest time because at least it sounded more like HEAD TURNER, which is an actual saying that people actually say! It was still cool though. I didn't even notice that it went down from head to ankles until my mom pointed it out!

Bullets:

EMO (64A: Rock genre) — Ahhh, just this clue takes me back to middle school. I always wanted to shop at renowned EMO store Hot Topic, but I could never afford any of the ridiculously expensive corsets or black lipstick or whatever else it was they sold, because I was twelve. I guess that just gave me one more thing to be EMO about. *Evanescence songs playing in the distance*
FILL (58D: Complete, as a crossword grid) — Fourth-wall humor in a crossword puzzle! Love it!
SABRAS (47A: Native Israelis) — My mother was VERY offended that I didn't get this clue right away. In my defense, it's kind of an obscure word? Maybe?
REM (20A: Rock band fronted by Michael Stipe)— Please listen to this. Trust me.

Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired college student.

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Constructor:Ed Sessa

Relative difficulty:Medium-Challenging (only because I couldn't make any sense out of the revealer at first, and also the fill is awful down there so I kind of stopped trying/caring)

THEME:"Little Drummer Boy"— circled squares at beginning of theme answers spell out PA-RUM-PUM-PUM-PUM and then last answer is 53A: Following the circled squares, the end to a seasonal song ('ME AND MY DRUM'); the song in question is "The Little Drummer Boy," in case that wasn't obvious.

Word of the Day:"Mr. PIM Passes By"(47D: Milne's "Mr. ___ Passes By") —

[some Milne play for which I could find no short synopsis except "When a woman's 'dead' husband returns she refuses to remarry her second until he consents to her niece's wedding," which comes from the imdb page for the 1921 silent movie of the same name]

• • •

ME AND MY DRUM. Couldn't pick it up. Such a weird phrase to stand alone. It fits here, since it is, in fact, the end of the seasonal song in question, and does follow the rum puh pum pum bit (I never say, nor have heard, that first PUM as PUM; it's more like "rump-a-pum-pum"...). But I had DRUM and then the whole preceding part was blank and I kept thinking of kinds of drums etc. The idea that a lyric was involved ... didn't occur to me. Didn't help that the fill in that trouble area was just stale and blargh and whatever PIM is. ADLER TNOTE SARAN AGATE ERROL ERGO it's *all* of it out of Common Boring Stuff That's Been Around Forever And Isn't Interesting. Of course the rest of the grid has a bunch of that too, but it was real bad down there. ULTIMA, ugh (45D: Final syllable of a word). [Like some boarding schools] = ??? I had PREP- and *still* had no idea. Because clothes are PREPPY, people are PREPPY, schools are preparatory. They're called prep schools for a reason. But the idea of an entire school being "PREPPY," again, not something that occurred to me. I LOST. NOT IN. Also, is this crossword an ad for Big Pharma. PFIZER *and* PROZAC (crossing AZT)? What gives?

Nothing more from me. I love Christmas music, I love my Christmas tree, I was very much in the mood for holiday puzzle goodness. This wasn't it. The fact that this particular Christmas song is one of my least favorite probably didn't help matters.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor:David Steinberg

Relative difficulty:Medium

THEME:PAST TENSE (58A: Like either word in the answers to the five starred clues)—the puzzle is as described:

Theme answers:

FIXED COST (16A: *Expense independent of production)
LEFT-HANDED (23A: *How Clayton Kershaw pitches)
CUT ROSE (36A: *One of a dozen for a sweetheart)
SHOT PUT (38A: *Decathlon event)
LOST GROUND (47A: *Something to make up)

Word of the Day:MCLAREN(44A: High-end British sports car) —

McLaren Automotive (often simply McLaren) is a British automaker founded in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren and is based at the McLaren Technology Campus in Woking, Surrey. It produces and manufactures sports and luxury cars, usually produced in-house at designated production facilities. (wikipedia)

• • •

This has to be in the running for one of the dullest themes of all time. I don't understand why this concept ever seemed remotely interesting. A theme like this should involve a kind of aha moment where you notice that the revealer asks us to radically imagine the meaning of the words in the themers. But ... the first word in all of these answers is already past tense in the base phrase—or, rather, it's an adjectival form of the past tense, i.e. the cost is fixed 'cause someone FIXED it, the rose is cut 'cause someone CUT it, etc. There's just *one* answer where that does not hold true: LEFT-HANDED. So there isn't really much in the way of reorienting our understanding of nearly *half* the words in the themers, and the one answer that *does* reorient that first word is an outlier. Thus, even though we're asked to look at "either word," it's really only the second word that's being reimagined in any kind of remotely interesting way. Further, "remotely" is the key word there. "Oh yeah, COST can be a PAST TENSE verb ..." is about as much of an excited thought as you are going to have while solving this. Actually, you were probably more excited by DEAD DROPS (10D: Spy communication spots) and DEETS (27D: Specifics, slangily) than you were by *anything* having to do with the theme.

"Like either word" puzzles are often unpleasant because constructors tend to force words to go together that don't really want to do so, and so you get barely passable or awkward phrases. That wasn't so much a problem today, though I definitely lost some time with RED ROSE instead of CUT ROSE. I mean, when I got to a florist to buy flowers and ask for roses, they never bring me entire bushes to look at, so ... the phrase CUT ROSE, while it makes sense to me, isn't really familiar to me. Completely unfamiliar to me was MCLAREN. Needed every cross. Never heard of it. I must not live a very "high-end" lifestyle. MCLAREN / COOPTS was the toughest area of the puzzle for me, partly because I kept insisting on seeing the latter as a one-syllable word. Lastly, to acknowledge the elephant in the room, yes, IS BAD is bad.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor:Damon Gulczynski

Relative difficulty:Easy-Medium

THEME:Abbreviation-as-word— two-letter abbreviations, where letters are normally pronounced individually, are clues as if they were two-letter words. Wackiness ensues.

Theme answers:

17A: Singers who go from "solo" straight to "ti"? (LA DODGERS)
25A: Comedians who do material on the Freudian psyche? (ID CARDS)
37A: "Young 'uns, yer cuzzins are heare" and others? (PA ANNOUNCEMENTS)
46A: Shipping containers on Italy's longest river? (PO BOXES)
58A: What Stephen King's editor provided for a 1986 novel? (IT SUPPORT)

Word of the Day:RADIOHEAD(3D: Band that used a pay-what-you-want model to sell their 2007 album) —

Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (lead vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards), Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments), Ed O'Brien (guitar, backing vocals), Colin Greenwood (bass), and Phil Selway (drums, percussion, backing vocals). They have worked with producer Nigel Godrich and cover artist Stanley Donwood since 1994. // After signing to EMI in 1991, Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992. It became a worldwide hit after the release of their debut album, Pablo Honey (1993). Their popularity and critical standing rose in the United Kingdom with the release of their second album, The Bends (1995). Radiohead's third album, OK Computer (1997), propelled them to international fame; with an expansive sound and themes of modern alienation, it is often acclaimed as a landmark record of the 1990s^[1] and one of the best albums of all time. The group's next albums Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001), recorded simultaneously, marked a dramatic change in style, incorporating influences from experimental electronic music, 20th-century classical music, krautrock, and jazz. Despite initially dividing listeners, Kid A was later named the best album of the decade by Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and the Times. [...]Radiohead have sold more than 30 million albums worldwide. Their work places highly in both listener polls and critics' lists of the best music of the 1990s and 2000s. In 2005, they were ranked 73rd in Rolling Stone's list of "The Greatest Artists of All Time"; Jonny Greenwood (48th) and O'Brien were both included in Rolling Stone's list of greatest guitarists, and Yorke (66th) in their list of greatest singers. In 2009, Rolling Stone readers voted the group the second-best artist of the 2000s. (wikipedia)

• • •

Concept feels ancient, and much of the cluing feels quaint (by which I mean highly NYT-crossword-conventional, culturally and chronologically), but the theme is consistent enough, and you do get two nice long Downs in the bargain, so all in all, it's fine, I guess. The two Downs actually feel like they're from a completely different puzzle. It's like a pretty cool themeless from 2016 tried to shove its way into a fusty tea room where people still say POOP when they mean "inside information" and reminisce about Admiral NELSON while leafing through their Poor Richard's Almanacks as "Downton Abbey" plays in the background and NARY a scone crumb is left on one's plate (ELSIE the spokescow is a major figure in this imaginary world). But seriously, RADIOHEAD and IN THE ZONE are nice answers.

I don't like EX-ARMY, but I once put EX-NAVY in a puzzle, so I am formally barred from legitimate expression of dislike here. The puzzle was pretty easy overall. My only slowness came from wrong guesses, or (in one case) completely failing to understand the phrasing of the clue. It took what felt like forever just to get WOLF (once OGRE went in, anything else was hard to imagine) (1D: Villain in some fairy tales). And I compounded difficulties up there by guessing ROAN (?) over ARAB (2D: Spirited horse). ROAN was a "horse" reflex, and I reflexed wrong. I forgot what Poor Richard's Almanack was. Completely. So ADAGES took some crossing. 5x5s are always dicey propositions—no short toeholds to get you started—and so the NE and SW corners were mildly daunting: only one narrow way in, no way out. They definitely took more thought/time than other parts of the grid, particularly the SW, where I had to back in. Looking at that corner now, though, I must've just not looked at the themer initially, because PO BOXES is obvious from the clue (if you've figured out the theme already). Anyway, there was minor flailing down there.

The clue that threw me the most was 35D: Subj. group with a noted gender imbalance (STEM) (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). I see what the clue is *trying* to do here, but ... a "subj. group" can't have a gender imbalance. Science is just Science. Engineering, engineering. The *field* (which is made up of people—teachers, majors, professionals, etc.) can / does have such an imbalance. But between the abbr. "Subj." (awk) to the context-free quality of the clue, I had no idea what I was looking at, what was being asked for, on a literal level. I was further hampered by having a daughter who takes a lot of STEM classes and wants to be an engineer, and who is being bombarded by promotional material from colleges touting the relative gender parity of their engineering programs (shout-out to tiny OLIN College, an engineering school that has the gender balance of their student population at almost 50/50; hey, there's a new way to clue OLIN—you're welcome, crossword constructors). Anyway, for personal reasons, my brain doesn't make the STEM-is-for-boys connection quite so readily as it's supposed to. Also, who says SCHMO when they mean "jerk"? Maybe someone in the Fusty Tearoom? I don't know. But the only appropriate clue for SCHMO that I know is [Joe ___].

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. the "T" in STEM and the "T" in IT SUPPORT mean the same thing. Judges say ... yeah, that's a dupe. Red card!

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Constructor:David Phillips

Relative difficulty:Easy

THEME: none

Word of the Day:Mont Cervin(31A: Mont Cervin and others=>ALPES) —

The Matterhorn (German: Matterhorn, [ˈmatərˌhɔrn]; Italian: Monte Cervino, [ˈmonte tʃerˈviːno]; French: Mont Cervin, [mɔ̃ sɛʁvɛ̃]), is a mountain of the Alps, straddling the main watershed and border between Switzerland and Italy. It is a huge and near-symmetrical pyramidal peak in the extended Monte Rosa area of the Pennine Alps, whose summit is 4,478 metres (14,692 ft) high, making it one of the highest summits in the Alps and Europe. The four steep faces, rising above the surrounding glaciers, face the four compass points and are split by the Hörnli, Furggen, Leone and Zmutt ridges. The mountain overlooks the Swiss town of Zermatt in the canton of Valais to the north-east and the Italian town of Breuil-Cervinia in the Aosta Valley to the south. Just east of the Matterhorn is Theodul Pass, the main passage between the two valleys on its north and south sides and a trade route since the Roman Era. (wikipedia)

• • •

Barely there. Nothing horrible here, but nothing interesting either. I mean ... nothing. Not knocking MELISSA MCCARTHY at all (she is Peak Answer here, for sure), but one actress's name just isn't much, pizzazz-wise. Fill is pretty clean for a 64-worder, but it's also phenomenally dull. Also, I'm somewhat surprised this *is* a 64-worder. Feels like 70, possibly because there are so many black squares, esp. toward the middle, chopping the grid up and resulting in a good number of short answers (not as common in low word-count puzzles). But 70-worders actually tend to be cleaner and more interesting than this. I guess the best that can be said is that those rather wide-open corners are not filled poorly. Still, I don't understand the entertainment value of a lower word-count puzzle like this, where the fill is so ... by the book. In a themed puzzle, I'd be satisfied with this fill, because the main interest of the puzzle would lie elsewhere (i.e. in the damn theme). But with themelesses ... you just gotta do better than this. You need some smashing marquee answers. Something.

DENTAL / PICK?? (53A: With 39-Across, teeth-cleaning aid). What on god's green is that? I know what a tooth pick is, and a water pick (pik?), but a DENTAL PICK? Is that just one of them plastic hooks you pick your teeth with? Why are you doing that? If you're out, toothpicks. If you're home, brush/floss. Crossing MARISSA (4D: ___ Mayer, Yahoo C.E.O. beginning in 2012) and MELISSA seems inelegant—not teeth-picking inelegant, but ... those names are 5/7 identical, come on. The only real groany thing in the grid is GOTAS (ugh ... see, groany) (25A: Received high marks). Oh well, at least IT'S OVER, and I got a sub-5 time I can feel good about (before I go to sleep and forget about it entirely).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor:Byron Walden

Relative difficulty:Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day:TESORO(45D: San Antonio-based refinery giant that acquired Arco in 2013) —

Tesoro Corporation (NYSE: TSOaka: "Tesoro Petroleum", or simply as "Tesoro") is a Fortune 100 and a Fortune Global 500 company headquartered in Texas at San Antonio, with 2013 annual revenues of $37 billion, and over 5,700 employees worldwide. // Tesoro is an independent refiner and marketer of petroleum products, operating seven refineries in the Western United States with a combined rated crude oil capacity of approximately 845,000 barrels (134,300 m³) per day. Tesoro’s retail-marketing system includes over 2,264 branded retail gas stations, of which more than 595 are company-operated under its own Tesoro brandname, as well as Shell, ExxonMobil, ARCO, and USA Gasoline brands. (wikipedia)

• • •

Got a little frightened by the byline, as Byron Walden puzzles can be brutally hard (ask anyone who was there about Puzzle 5 at the ... 2006? ... American Crossword Puzzle Tournament—that thing broke even expert solvers in half). But this ended up being very tame. I realize now, though, looking over the puzzle, that I can say that only because these pretty obscure answers like "ERNANI" and NUNCIO (31A: Ambassador sent by the Vatican) are well known to me from decades of solving. Like, I couldn't tell you one thing about "ERNANI," but it slid right into place when my brain saw "opera" in the clue and looked at the terminal "I" in the answer. Bam bam. And NUNCIO I had seen before. Dumb luck. I don't know how widely that word is known, generally, but I had it in my back pocket, so I was able to fly through this thing based on what feels to me like specialized crossword knowledge (which, honestly, often feels like it doesn't count—like I got through it not via skill, but via a kind of inside-information scam). I did get bitten by an unfamiliar name, though: ETTORE! (13D: Automotive pioneer Bugatti) (in Arthurian legend, she's a she, so that's weird) (update: whoops, in Arthurian legend, the woman I'm thinking of is ETTARRE ... nevermind!). And then semi-bitten by TESORO, which I didn't know but was able to guess off the TES-.

SNOCKERED? (28A: Three sheets to the wind) I was favoring KNOCKERED or KNACKERED (which I think means "tired"), but ... SNOCKERED? OK. The more I say it to myself, the more plausible it sounds. There weren't many answers I *loved* here (except SLEEPER HOLD), but it held together pretty well. I had STAND NEAR TO for a bit, which is odd. I have never ever heard the phrase PET HATES (7A: Bugaboos). That was, oddly, harder to take than ETTORE. Not knowing an answer is one thing—getting it and feeling like it's phony, that's a much worse thing. But then I notice that the grid also contains "I'M TOO SEXY" and I find myself appeased. Weird how that works.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor:Tom McCoy

Relative difficulty:Easy

THEME:"Retronyms"— theme answers are ... retronyms (you'd think you could've tried a little harder with the title, there...)

Theme answers:

BRITISH ENGLISH (21A: Dialect that was called 22-Across before the age of colonialism)
SNAIL MAIL (33A: System that was called 34-Across before the Internet)
REAL NUMBER (35A: Concept that was called 36-Across before research into the square root of negatives)
BLACK LICORICE (52A: Food that was called 53-Across before Twizzlers and the like)
FLATHEAD SCREW (78A: Fastener that was called 80-Across before a rounded design was implemented)
SILENT FILM (96A: Entertainment category that was called 97-Across before talkies)
PAPER COPY (98A: Object that was called 100-Across before electronic documents)
ORGANIC FARMING (109A: Activity that was called 111-Across before pesticides)

Word of the Day:AREPAS(29D: South American corn cakes) —

Arepa (Spanish pronunciation: [aˈɾepa]) is a type of food made of ground maize dough or cooked flour prominent in the cuisines of Colombia and Venezuela. [...] The arepa is a flat, round, unleavened patty of soaked, ground kernels of maize, or—more frequently nowadays—maize meal or maize flour that can be grilled, baked, fried, boiled or steamed. The characteristics vary by color, flavor, size, and the food with which it may be stuffed, depending on the region. It can be topped or filled with meat, eggs, tomatoes, salad, cheese, shrimp, or fish depending on the meal. (wikipedia)

• • •

Easiest Sunday puzzle I've ever done. Nearly broke 8 minutes, which I have only ever done on like a Newsday or Globe Sunday (i.e. much less thornier brands). I don't really understand why this puzzle exists. The title tells you what the theme answers will be, and then there you are. The one tricky thing, from a construction standpoint, is you've gotta make sure you have a Down answers beginning at the front of the second word in every themer, so that the theme clues make sense when they refer to an "Across" answer where the number is not in its usual flush-left position. But that's the only thing separating this puzzle from one that is titled, say, "Big Cats," where the answers are JAGUAR, PUMA, etc. That is ... there's nothing to it. In fact, I started solving without looking at the title, and about midway I thought, "So these are just ... what's that word ... oh, yeah, retronyms." And then I looked at the title: "Retronyms." And I thought "you must be joking..."

There are four "IT"s in this puzzle, as well as one 'TIS—in a puzzle that already contains ITIS. So ... that happened. AREPAS are tasty, so I enjoyed thinking about them. Surprised they don't appear in crosswords more often, what with their savory taste and appealing letter combinations. Today's great crosswordese-retrieval triumph was reading 40A: Coins that pay for passage over the River Styx and, off the "O," putting OBOLS right in. Today's snags—such as they were—came in the NE, where TOA (not TOE?) (28A: ___ point) crossed ALGAL (17D: ___ bloom (result of fertilizer pollution)), and then again at NO ONE'S down below—came at that answer from the back end and needed every cross to understand what the hell was going on (116A: Not belonging to anybody). Oh, rounding the corner out of the N and into the NE was also mildly rough (!) because I had the UN- but not the HANDS of UNHANDS (12D: Releases, dramatically). That clue is vaguely phrased, both pre- and post-comma, so ... I circled back around and approached from underneath. There really isn't anything to say about this puzzle. The title tells you the theme. The theme answers are as promised. The end.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. [They go about two feet] is a great clue for SOCKS (42D)

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Constructor:Mark McClain

Relative difficulty:Challenging (3:34, about 35-40 seconds slower than normal)

THEME: LANGUAGE BARRIER (41A: Communication problem ... illustrated literally by the black squares before 5-, 19-, 26-, 54-, 65- and 73-Across)— languages are in circled squares, broken in two by black squares that form a "barrier" between the two parts of the "language":

Theme answers:

SHIN / DIEU
MASUR / DUTY
SEEGER / MANIC
TOPOL / I SHALL
KITH / AILED
SELA / TINS

Word of the Day:TOPOL(51A: Chaim who played Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof") —

Chaim Topol (Hebrew: חיים טופול‎‎; born September 9, 1935), mononomously known as Topol, is an Israeli theatrical and film performer, singer, actor, comedian, voice artist, writer and producer. He is best known for his role as Tevye the dairyman in the production of Fiddler on the Roof on both stage and film. He has been nominated for an Academy Award and a Tony Award, and has won two Golden Globe Awards. (wikipedia)

• • •

Should've been a Tuesday puzzle, both because Tuesdays normally suuuuck and this didn't, and because it played like a Tuesday, i.e. a tough Monday. Although LATIN? Really? You couldn't have stuck to "languages people actually speak"? Oh well, it didn't say "non-dead languages," so I guess it's fair, if not completely consistent. This puzzle played hard for me largely because of the proper nouns, vague cluing, and theme density (fill is always iffiest / toughest / least Mondayish around the theme answers). Forgot MASUR and then thought MAZUR (18A: Maestro Kurt ___)—didn't help that that answer crossed EPSOM, which I continue not to be able to spell right at first pass (EPSON? EPCOT?) (7D: English racing venue). ARENA got a bull-riding clue?? Total disconnect for me. I know TOPOL mononymously, so "Chaim" was a disaster for me, as my knee-jerk instinct, plus the placement of the "O"s, led me to enter POTOK right away. Ugh. Also LILLE as [City NNE of Paris]!? Not much to go on for a not-terribly-famous French city. I had I SWEAR for I SHALL (54A: Formal-sounding commitment), could not find the handle on SHRIFT (50D: Short ___ (quick work)), had no idea what Roman numeral of OLAF was called for (47A: Norway's patron saint), and once again had no idea about the ... Recording Industry Association ... something? (25D: Lobbying org. that fights music piracy).

Had SEE IN for LET IN (56D: Admit at the door). Could not get BAD ACTOR from the back end (i.e. -CTOR) (9D: Troublemaker). And I *knew* "ANTI" (43D: 2016 #1 album by Rihanna), which is definitely not a Monday clue, at least not with this crowd (i.e. you all ... I know you). Puzzle would've been even rougher, obviously, if I didn't listen to that album a lot (TRY IT!). Anyway, the theme is solid, I think, and if the fill's not Great, it's largely because the theme is very dense—plus, given ongoing declines in NYT fill quality, the fill here doesn't actually *feel* subpar at all. Far less demanding grids have had fill much worse than this. So I'm counting this a winner of a puzzle, despite my miserable solving experience. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. actually one of my readers has an objection to add:

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Constructor:David Alfred Bywaters

Relative difficulty:Medium-Challenging (3:50-something for me)

THEME: lawyer humor— familiar phrases clued (wackily / "?"-style) as if their final words had some relation to the legal field:

Theme answers:

THREE-PIECE SUITS (17A: Legal actions provoked by oversimple jigsaw puzzles?)
BOXER BRIEFS (35A: Law documents concerning pugilists?)
BASKET CASES (43A: Court precedents involving games of hoops?)
DENTAL RETAINERS (61A: Attorneys' fees paid with gold fillings?)

Word of the Day:WINEY(22A: Like some French sauces) —

adj, winierorwiniest
(Cookery)havingthetaste or qualities of wine (thefreedictionary.com)

• • •

Yeah, this feels NYT-normal. Corny theme that could've come from decades ago, fill that could've come from decades ago. All of it straight over the plate—the plate is just an old, familiar plate. There's really no reason, in a high word-count / low theme-density puzzle we should be seeing stuff like SAUER and DRI and *especially* WINEY. I don't mean to be whiny, but oof. And double-oof, given the really ambiguous clue. If you're going to have an oofy answer, don't make it tough to suss out. Water on a grease fire. Only makes it ERSE, I mean worse (and there's not much worse than ERSE). Took me longer than normal to finish this largely because of the nature of the theme, which, until I had a couple answers from crosses, was not at all apparent to me. Clues looked like [Concatenation of random words question mark?], so whatever humor or cleverness was there was (at least initially) lost on me. Placeholder puzzle. Adequate. Inoffensive. DRI as a bone.

Many dumb mistakes today, including DROPS for ERROR (18D: What "oopsy" signals) and TERNS (?!) for SWANS (19D: Graceful birds). Are TERNS graceful? I don't know. I do know I was clearly still under the heavy influence of ERNS at that point (30D: Shore birds). Real trouble getting front end of DENTAL RETAINERS (I only ever called mine a "retainer"). And had BIOME for BIOTA (another ugh-word) (43D: Flora and fauna). WHEEDLED and VARMINTS are fine entries—easily my favorite. GO FETCH is ridiculous, esp. as clued (26D: Command to a dog after a ball is thrown). I mean, it's a phrase that I recognize, but, well ... do you have a dog? I do. A lab. She was basically bred to fetch. The idea that I would have to give her a "Command" after throwing a ball is hilarious. She would be like "yeah, I know, why are you talking?" Actually, she wouldn't even be there to listen. She'd be where the ball is already. It's the "after" part of the clue that really kills me. "After" I throw the ball, she's gone. She's chasing it before it has left my hand. Once the arm goes in motion, she anticipates direction and goodbye. Unless I taunt her with false throws, which I sometimes do. Anyway, telling my dog to GO FETCH"after" the ball is thrown would be like telling me to GO EAT "after" the pizza is put in front of me. "Way ahead of you," I would say, through my mouthful of pizza.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor:Alan DeLoriea

Relative difficulty:Easy-Medium (ultra-Easy but for a couple names)

THEME: [Something to follow]— that's the (apt) clue on five theme answers

Theme answers:

DOTTED LINE
GOOD EXAMPLE
YELLOW BRICK ROAD
TWITTER FEED
OPENING ACT

Word of the Day:Michael BENNET(8D: Colorado senator Michael) —

Michael Farrand Bennet (born November 28, 1964) is an American businessman, lawyer, and Democratic politician. He is the senior U.S. Senator from Colorado. He became a senator when Ken Salazar was appointed Secretary of the Interior. Bennet previously worked as managing director for the Anschutz Investment Company, chief of staff to then-Denver mayor (and current Colorado Governor) John Hickenlooper, and the superintendent of Denver Public Schools. (wikipedia)

• • •

A very basic theme type. There's really nothing bad or good about it. It just is. One clue, five times, five things fit that clue, done. I don't know when you'd follow a DOTTED LINE. Are you a pirate looking for treasure? I sign on DOTTED LINEs, I don't follow them. But everything else is right over the plate, and TWITTER FEED (here's mine!) is a nice stand-alone answer. Speaking of TWITTER FEED, WaPo crossword writer/editor had this to say on Twitter last night re: ONEB (25D: Ruiner of a perfect report card):

I will admit, that clue / answer pair made me cringe hard. Lots of different grades "ruin" perfect report cards. ONE B usually gets clued as a hypothetical apt. number, which is admittedly boring, but I think the goal here is not "Come up with hot new ONE B clue!" but rather, "Ugh, tear that out and start over." Constructor gets himself into trouble with themer positioning: O--B not a favorable letter combo. This is a good example of the "Don't call attention to your crap fill with a stupid clue" rule. Trying to think of a good example of an answer as arbitrary as today's ONE B clue. [Runners' award for a balk] => ONE BASE. Actually, that's much better. [Ingredient some brownie recipes] => ONE EGG. I mean, it's true enough, but ...

Fill on this one was passable, but I hated the way that the puzzle added difficulty: via proper nouns *only*. EDDARD, BENNET, NICOLE. Who? Everything else, Monday cake-walk. EDDARD was particularly ugh because EDWARD. I don't really object to the name's being in the grid—I object to having a puzzle that's 95% child's play and the rest minor names you can get only from crosses. Very, very uneven. I imagine a good number of you have never heard of ELIAS Sports Bureau (no, not *you*, *you* know Everything, but some of the others...) (51D: ___ Sports Bureau (official 58-Down provider for Major League Baseball)). These things happen. But they stand out grossly when there is no other resistance in the grid.

One last thing: the long Downs are colorful, but that clue on GOLD DIGGER is horrid (30D: One who wants a ring for bling?). The term is inherently sexist, but I don't think that puts it beyond the pale for crosswords, necessarily. The song of the same name was a Huge hit for Kanye West, so if nothing else, that clue is available. But wanting a ring? For "bling"? Lots and lots and lots of women want rings. And rings are inherently "bling." So literally nothing about that clue says GOLD DIGGER. The simple fact of wanting him to "put a ring on it" does not make a woman a GOLD DIGGER. Was the "ring/bling" rhyme just too ... rhymey to resist? Was it so shiny and irresistible that you didn't notice the clue made no sense? Apparently. Still, overall, this is a solid puzzle. Tried & true theme type (very low risk), with sensible and occasionally interesting fill (POP-UP BOOKS!). I've had worse Wednesdays.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS I wouldn't cross EMO / EMOJI, as "EMO" refers to same thing in both cases. Bad look.

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Constructor:Jacob Stulberg

Relative difficulty:Easy

THEME:Deck the halls...— FA and LA are rebused inside themers; revealerr = 61A: Christmastime refrain (FA LA LA LA LA, LA LA LA LA)

Theme answers:

FALLING FLAT (16A: Bombing, as a joke)
FASHION PLATE (24A: Trendy type)
GRANDFATHER CLAUSE (37A: Discriminatory part of post-Reconstruction legislation)
PARFAIT GLASS (48A: Short-stemmed vessel)

Word of the Day:GRAPPA(9D: Fragrant Italian brandy) —

Grappa is an alcoholic beverage, a fragrant, grape-based pomace brandy of Italian origin that contains 35 to 60 percent alcohol by volume (70 to 120 US proof). (wikipedia)

• • •

I mean, this was fun, and the fill was pretty decent (esp. considering all the short stuff), but musically, it doesn't seem to make much sense. Only one FA in the refrain, four FA squares in the grid. I guess it's just supposed to be silly. And ROOSEVELT'S DOG is too long to be a suitable revealer.

And it's Christmastime, roughly, so 'tis the season to just make some singsongy noises. I like LAPLAND because it's the one Down that's gotta deal with two rebus squares. Plus I just liked knowing (vaguely) where the Sami were from, but having to figure out how any answer that made sense might fit in the grid. I got the theme very early—all the Downs in the NW were very easy, and from -LLING I deduced the "FA" square, and then, since FLAT had to follow, the "LA" square. And then the FA and the LA just kept coming, and knowing they were coming actually made the themers easier to pick up. Here was my opening gambit:

I don't have much to say about the fill overall because the only hesitations I had involved rebus squares, and those hesitations didn't last long. I had PLEAD for SWEAR (28A: Say with a raised hand), which is dumb, I admit. Took me a while to get 6D: School whose mascot is Jumbo the elephant (TUFTS) because WTF. I know the school, but not the elephant (Pomona-Pitzer's mascot is the SAGEHEN, in case you ever wanna use that in your puzzle). Slim JIMS is an out-and-out gimme, and that "J" is high-value, both because "J"s are always high-value (knowing there's a "J" in your answer really narrows down your choices dramatically) and because its positioning pretty much hands you the "FA" square directly above it. I think I was mid-5s on this one, and that's *with* all the extra keystrokes to enter the rebus squares correctly *and* a timeout to take the mid-solve screenshot. It's a 78-worder with not-at-all-obscure fill, so once you figure out the gimmick: no problems.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor:Martin Ashwood-Smith and George Barany

Relative difficulty:Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day:ELVIN BISHOP(25D: "Fooled Around and Fell in Love" hitmaker of 1976) —

Elvin Richard Bishop (born October 21, 1942) is an American blues and rock music singer, guitarist, band leader and songwriter. He was an original member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Elvin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015, and the Blues Hall of Fame in 2016. (wikipedia)

• • •

YEOH is right. Actually, I'm pronouncing that "yeow" in my head, which is undoubtedly wrong. Still, my point stands, which is this one was rough—not in a tough way, but in an ouchy way. The top and bottom parts, despite being (apparently) far less demanding to fill well, are somehow filled 4x worse than the quadstack area (which itself isn't nearly as interesting as most recent stacks from Mr. Ashwood-Smith). I have no idea what's happening up top and below. Boatloads of subpar-to-bad-fill, inexplicable Scrabble-f*cking with "X"s, crosswordese galore incl. ADAIR, ORR, ODEON, NISAN, and the inexplicable revival of TOSSPOTS. And yet the only real groany stuff in the middle section is ORARE and HEA. Baffling. Since the quadstack itself isn't scintillating today, its basic solidity does not do nearly enough to undo the top/bottom garbagefest. Shout-out to HAD A HAND IN and COPACETIC, which are pleasant diversions. And shout-out to ELVIN BISHOP(25D: "Fooled Around and Fell in Love" hitmaker of 1976), whose name I couldn't remember, but whose song I sure do:

The NYT has to stop this gratuitous use of the near-future President's family, and the ALT-right in general, in its puzzles. OBAMA (and MALIA) appeared a lot because his letter pattern is so grid-friendly. 60% vowels, terminal A—both useful features. And you can clue OBAMA only one way. Nowhere else to go. ERIC, however, has a near-infinity of other clues ... and yet you go to this smug fascist halfwit ... twice in one week!? I'm in no way saying the puzzle has a rightward tilt (that's absurd, just as absurd as the opposite claim). I'm saying the incoming administration is repugnant on every level and casual references to them (and their Nazi, sorry, ALT-right supporters) in crossword puzzles normalizes them. It's the most normalizing thing ever, actually. The banal neutrality of a crossword clue. Fuck all that. All of it. Also, I happen to know that in this case, the ERIC clue was an editorial decision, and one that did Not sit well with at least one of the constructors. I'd be furious too if someone rubbed that shit on my puzzle. Even if you're trying to draw some vague connection to Mussolini's right-hand man there at 45D: ___ Balbo, right-hand man to Mussolini (ITALO) ... no.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor:Zhouqin Burnikel

Relative difficulty:Easy

THEME: none

Word of the Day:SAMP(51A: Corn porridge) —

noun
US South African
noun: samp
coarsely ground corn, or porridge made from this. (google)

• • •

Feels like it's been a while since the Saturday puzzle (or any NYT puzzle) has been truly hard. Maybe there's been a kind of dumbing-down at the high end of difficulty, in order to broaden the puzzle's appeal. Or maybe I'm just better at puzzles. That last part is undoubtedly true, but I've been making my way through a forthcoming book of Fireball Crosswords this week (ed. Peter Gordon), and those puzzles (true to their name) will go past you before you can swing, or else come right up around your chin and knock you down. Sometimes they get their difficulty primarily from obscure/minor names, and that's infuriating, but mostly the clues are just pitched hard All the Time, in every way. If you know someone who just doesn't feel Challenged enough, you might consider a volume of Fireball Crosswords as a holiday gift (there are many to choose from). Or a digital subscription—those are nice too. Anyway, this puzzle was very nice—its construction likely aided by what appears to be a very robust wordlist. I fumbled around in the NW a bit, largely because "Andy Taylor" (1D: Andy Taylor and Homer Simpson, for two) means something very different to me than it does to most of you (you think, rightly, "The Andy Griffith Show"; I think, wrongly, the guitarist for Duran Duran) (sadly, not a joke—I sincerely had VIRGOS in there at one point). So the NW was a bust, initially, but once I ran SOARS ERROR SALAMIS SERRANOS, I had the SW pinned in and I was off and running steadily after that.

Ambiguity was the only real problem for me today. Went back and forth on many possible answers to clues like 20A: Makes advances (LENDS) (LOANS? LEERS?) and 22A: Ready to serve (DONE) (ONE A? A ONE? ABLE?) and 48D: High (STONED) (didn't even try to guess what meaning of "High" this was until I got a bunch of crosses). Never heard of SAMP, but all the crosses were easy so I barely noticed it. Had BRADLEE spelled with a "Y" for a short whyle (8D: Ben ___, legendary Washington Post editor). Don't really know anything about TEANECK (14D: New Jersey town near the George Washington Bridge), but I've heard of it, and I had that terminal "K" from the (dumb) answer ECOFREAK (33A: One who's extremely green?), so getting into the NE ended up being easier than it looked like it would be. Always hard to enter a section from the back ends of the longer answers. So a konveniently-placed "K" can do a lot for you. Overall, this is what I think an average Saturday should be (except for the difficulty, which should probably be ramped up a bit). As it is, given the current state of things, this is an above-average Saturday.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor:Derrick Niederman

Relative difficulty:Medium

THEME:"Mirror Reflection"— Across clues have rotational symmetry, i.e. each Across clue has same clue as its symmetrical partner

Word of the Day:XOTH(4D: Home star of Cthulhu, in fantasy tales) —

The following fictional celestial bodies figure prominently in the Cthulhu Mythos stories of H. P. Lovecraft and other writers. Many of these astronomical bodies have parallels in the real universe, but are often renamed in the mythos and given fictitious characteristics. In addition to the celestial places created by Lovecraft, the mythos draws from a number of other sources, including the works of August Derleth, Ramsey Campbell, Lin Carter, Brian Lumley, and Clark Ashton Smith. [...] Xoth (or Zoth) is the green binary star where Cthulhu and his ilk once lived before coming to earth. According to the Xothic legend cycle, it is where Cthulhu mated with Idh-yaa to beget Ghatanothoa, Ythogtha, and Zoth-Ommog. // Xoth is also the native home of Ycnágnnisssz and Zstylzhemghi, and was the temporary home of the latter's "husband,"Ghisguth, and their progeny, the infant Tsathoggua. Tsathoggua later went to live on Yuggoth. Afterward, he fled to Cykranosh to escape Cxaxukluth's cannibalistic eating habits. // Xoth may be the star Sirius, since "Xoth" is similar to "Sothis", the Egyptian name for the star. However, it is more likely that Xoth coincides with the star "Zoth" in Smith's writings. (wikipedia)

• • •

This is remarkable, as a construction feat. As a solving experience, it was less than pleasant—the theme does nothing but make the cluing forced and the fill (esp. the Down fill) awkward. But I did have a "whoa" moment when I realized what was going on, and that the gimmick was so thorough. Actually, at first, I thought it was happening w/ the Downs as well, but at some point I noticed clues not recurring, and then realized that having the conceit work with the Downs too would be impossible / ridiculous. Hard enough to do it w/ the Acrosses alone. The problem here is it's All gimmick. Nothin else to talk about. Nada. Words in a grid, all there to serve the "Mirror Reflection" theme. No sparkle, no fun. Impressive, but not enjoyable.

ET UN(87A: Vingt-___ (multiple de trois)) may be the single worst answer I've ever seen in crosswords, ever (and I've seen plural suffixes like -ENCES, so ... that's saying something). But since it's an Across, and the gimmick is so demanding, I'm not that mad. The Downs are what have me more aggrieved. OFFUN? Right near TRYA? Right near OTTOVI (?) (12D: Old German ruler nicknamed "the Short"), three doors down from OLA, three doors down from REDAN? And, o man, ONYM!? Yipes. Then there are the obscure proper nouns, which I actually didn't mind too much: XOTH and MOLNAR (101D: "Liliom" playwright Ferenc ___). They gave the grid some character. Whereas REHOIST, ugh, no. Ever time I look at that word, my brain wants to pronounce it a different way. See also DETAG. In the end, there's nothing to say. Here it is. It does this thing with the symmetry ... [points at puzzle]. Commentary shmommentary.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor:Jason Mueller

Relative difficulty:Challenging (solid Tuesday time)

THEME: actors who played Santa in movies

Theme answers:

FRED ASTAIRE (17A: Santa player in "The Man in the Santa Claus Suit")
TOM HANKS (26A: Santa player in "The Polar Express")
ED ASNER (40A: Santa player in"Elf")
TIM ALLEN (51A: Santa player in"The Santa Clause")
EDMUND GWENN (WHOEVER THAT IS) (62A: Santa player in "Miracle on 34th Street")

Word of the Day:EDMUND GWENN—

Edmund Gwenn (26 September 1877– 6 September 1959) was an English actor. On film, he is perhaps best remembered for his role as Kris Kringle in the Christmas filmMiracle on 34th Street (1947), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the corresponding Golden Globe Award. He received a second Golden Globe and another Academy Award nomination for the comedy filmMister 880 (1950). // As a stage actor in the West End and on Broadway, he was associated with a wide range of works by modern playwrights, including Bernard Shaw, John Galsworthy and J. B. Priestley. After the Second World War, he lived in the United States where he had a successful career in Hollywood and on Broadway. (wikipedia)

• • •

"The Man in the Santa Claus Suit"? What the hell is that? I just watched an entire TCM special on Christmas films and I don't recall that one mentioned at all. Also, EDMUND GWENN?!? Who was never in any other film of note and whose name is not well known and whose name spelled ... like that? Yipes. I've already heard from several people for whom that "W" cross was a stumper. The WTO is of course the World Trade Organization, but it's not like that clue is very specific (65D: Intl. group that's the object of many mass protests). Much of this puzzle was super-easy, but the actor names plus unclear and/or tricky clues like 5D: Little puzzle (TEASER) (not the meaning of "teaser" that I know, unless you put "brain" in front of it) and 7D: One of a series at a wedding reception (TOAST), plus the giant Downs in the NE/SW, at least one of which (34D: Neologism for an on-screen/off-screen relationship => SHOWMANCE) I'd never ever heard of, made this one slower going than your average Monday. I don't really think much of this "theme"—nothing clever or tricky or thoughtful, just names of actors—but the grid had some very nice moments. Weird that a 78-worder (the max) has this many longer Downs and such generally interesting fill. Still, though, that GWENN / WTO / ETATS (ugh) section really shoulda been rethought.

Oh, "OH, SNAP!" was also not at all intuitive as an answer for 27D: Zinger response. That could've been a billion things. And "response" is weird there, since it's not clear whose doing the responding. Usually not the object of the zinger. Usually a third party, if I know my OH SNAP protocol. Again, I say, this should've been a Tuesday.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor:Timothy Polin

Relative difficulty:Easy-Medium

THEME:ON THE ROCKS (56A: How this puzzle's three drinks have been served?)— themers all have liquor names in them, then underneath those names, in circled squares each time, there are the letters ICE...

Theme answers:

SCOTCH TAPE (17A: Clear adhesive)
HOUSE OF BOURBON (28A: French royal line)
TEQUILA SUNRISE (43A: Cocktail usually served with an orange slice and a cherry)

Word of the Day:SEA CARP(9D: Bottom-feeding fish known formally as the morwong) —

Morwongs (also called butterfish, fingerfins, jackassfish, snappers, and moki) are perciform fishes comprising the family Cheilodactylidae. they are found in subtropical oceans in the Southern Hemisphere. // Morwong is also used as a name for several unrelated fish found in Australian waters, such as the painted sweetlips, Diagramma pictum. (the word "carp" appears nowhere in the "morwong" wikipedia entry, just to be clear) (wikipedia)

• • •

First of all, easyish. 20 seconds or so easier than yesterday's. Second of all, fatally flawed at the thematic level. D.O.A. One of the answers is not like the others, and it's a dealbreaker. SCOTCH ... used non-alcoholically. BOURBON ... used non-alcoholically. TEQUILA ... not only used alcoholically, but clued as a damn cocktail, which totally interferes with the whole "ooh, look, it's over ICE now" thing. The ICE is supposed to pull the word out of its answer and into a liquor context. That's the magic. If the word is already in a liquor context, no magic. This is especially jarring when the other two themers are playing by the rules, doing their jobs, being good soldiers. Maybe if the clue had gone with the Gibson/Pfeiffer movie, things would've been better, but I think you just need a third themer like GIN RUMMY or the like, where the liquor word is used in a non-liquor context.

The grid, however, is really quite good. Lots of long, cool words (I'm partial to OBSEQUIOUS—as a word, not as a thing one should be). I think BLOT UP is ridiculous (you just BLOT a spill), but really even the medium-length fill in this one is solid-to-sparkly. HILLEL CANTORS NO-LOOK ... all fine. SEA CARP was by far the hardest thing to come up with (morwong!?). Good ole SNERT, faithful SNERT. Always there to help out (27D: Hägar the Horrible's dog). I keep reading MEWED as ME, WED? [Incredulous question from a bachelor?]. EPHEMERA is a really pretty word. It is late and I need to sleep now. I just had gin ON THE ROCKS and it was great. COTTON GIN! See, there's another. RUM TUM TUGGER. CATCHER IN THE RYE! PA RUM PUM PUM PUM (14) actually gives you a simple switch-out, as it's the same length as TEQUILA SUNRISE! Come on, the answers are out there!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Good think they got this in to print before the inauguration. That clue on 7D is not gonna be true for much longer.

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Constructor:Seth Geltman and Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty:Medium

THEME: THINK BIG (61A: "Shoot for the moon!" ... or a hint to interpreting the clues to 17-, 25-, 35- and 51-Across)— clues substitute ALL CAPS for the word "Big" ... so that [HOUSE] = [Big house], etc.

Theme answers:

17A: HOUSE (THE CLINK) (not great, as the "THE" means the clue / answer can't be swapped out, are not equivalent)
25A: APPLE (NEW YORK CITY) (another, more minor "the" problem: New York City is *the* Big Apple, except maybe adjectivally ? or in song, perhaps?)
35A: MAC (HAMBURGER) (this one is terrible; you would never clue HAMBURGER as [Big Mac] in an actual puzzle; at best, it would be [Big Mac, e.g.])
GRAN
51A: CHEESE (GRAND POOBAH) (works, but "Grand" means "Big," so that kind of ruins the effect...)

Word of the Day:MOLDAU(63A: European river that inspired Smetana) —

The Vltava (/vəlˈtɑːvə/; Czech pronunciation:[ˈvl̩tava] (listen); German: Moldau, IPA:[ˈmɔldaʊ]) is the longest river within the Czech Republic, running southeast along the Bohemian Forest and then north across Bohemia, through Český Krumlov, České Budějovice and Prague, and finally merging with the Elbe at Mělník. It is commonly referred to as the Czech national river. // Vltava, also known by its German name Die Moldau (or The Moldau), was composed between 20 November and 8 December 1874 and was premiered on 4 April 1875 under Adolf Čech. It is about 13 minutes long, and is in the key of E minor. // In this piece, Smetana uses tone painting to evoke the sounds of one of Bohemia's great rivers. (wikipedia)

• • •

It's a fine idea, but it isn't executed well at all. The idea is that all-caps = "big," and that if you read the clue that way, bam, it's unlocked. Only in every case, to varying degrees, the resulting [Big ___] clue doesn't work—would not work if you simply replace the all-caps clue with Big ___. In the first case, you couldn't have THE in THE CLINK. You're in the big house, you're in the clink... you can't swap out "Big house" and THE CLINK w/o getting two "the"s. Just doesn't work. Likewise, NEW YORK CITY is *The* Big Apple. Again with the swap-out/equivalency problem. You'd never use something specific like [Big Mac] to clue just HAMBURGER (need an "e.g."). The last one, [CHEESE] for GRAND POOBAH, works best, but it's cheating, slightly, as GRAND and "Big" mean the same thing here. There are lots and lots of [Big ___] phrases in the world—you'd think there'd be enough to pull off a concept like this elegantly / accurately. DEAL => "WHO CARES!?" or SENSATION. [FOOT] => SASQUATCH. Hell, [PAPI] => DAVID ORTIZ. I mean, he's in your puzzle already, why not? (53D: David ___, longtime Red Sox slugger). Etc. Gotta be doable. Hard to see a decent theme get such a weak treatment.

Rest of the grid looks just fine. Lots of interesting answers. I thought Ms. Hemingway was MURIEL (despite "Manhattan"'s being one of my favorite movies), and I didn't check the cross thoroughly (TSU looked like ... a U. of some kind), so I had to hunt down that mistake at the end (19A: Hemingway who wrote "Out Came the Sun"). MOLDAU seems awfully obscure to me, both in general and, more importantly, for this puzzle, which generally plays within the realm of known things (63A: European river that inspired Smetana). I have heard of Smetana. That is far as my Smetana knowledge goes. The idea that I should know this river, a river that has a name that is not even its primary name (?!)—that seems odd to me.* But no DEAL, crosses worked it out. Just meant that that SW corner was the hardest by far. I also had to cross BATHOIL about five times before I saw it (1D: Aromatherapy substance). [Christian supergroup?] made me laugh as a clue for TRINITY. WWERAW is a real thing but looks hilarious / insane in the grid (49A: Sports entertainment show since 1993). I like it. I have "Rosemary's Baby" on Blu-Ray and still haven't opened / watched it (29A: She played Rosemary in "Rosemary's Baby"=> MIA). Maybe watching that will bring some holiday cheer to my life now that my fall semester is over. Seems an appropriate enough way to close out this year.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*OK, I listened to the Smetana and it has some very familiar melodies, so I clearly "know" it, but only AURICally I mean aurally.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Mark MacLachlan

Relative difficulty:Medium

THEME:(AL)UMINUM / SIDING (45A: With 42-Down, home construction material ... or a hint to this puzzle's theme)— You have to supply "AL"s to front of every Across answer that touches the west "side" of puzzle and the back of every Across answer that touches east "side" of puzzle

Word of the Day:Captain KIDD(44A: Pirate captain mentioned in Poe's "The Gold-Bug") —

Captain William Kidd (c. 22 January 1645 – 23 May 1701) was a Scottish sailor who was tried and executed for piracy after returning from a voyage to the Indian Ocean. Some modern historians deem his piratical reputation unjust, as there is evidence that Kidd acted only as a privateer. Kidd's fame springs largely from the sensational circumstances of his questioning before the English Parliament and the ensuing trial. His actual depredations on the high seas, whether piratical or not, were both less destructive and less lucrative than those of many other contemporary pirates and privateers. (wikipedia)

• • •

Like many Thursday puzzles, this one was tough-going to start, but then easy after the theme concept became clear. The NW was a real bear, as, even before I had issues with the Acrosses, I had BERG for FLOE and SAAR for RUHR (2D: Region in western Germany). Also had ELLE for 13A: Women's beauty magazine ((AL)LURE). Only way I got into that NW corner at all was backwards, from the back end of (AL)OHA SHIRTS. Had -ASHIRTS and even though ALOHA SHIRTS remain a concept I have never heard of outside crosswords (I just call them "Hawaiian shirts"), I figured ALOHA was right and maybe the "AL" just went outside. The "H" gave me RUHR and all the Acrosses made sense (with the "AL") from there. After escaping from that corner, the rest of the puzzle wasn't that hard; in fact, the edges got a Lot easier. Only a few difficulty issues. Trouble with DO A DE(AL) (icky, ugly phrase) crossing REMAT (ugh). Also, I had real trouble getting from [Punk] to LOUSY (is that usage still current?). Further, the ARNOLD clue mean absolutely nothing to me (26D: One of the founders of Westworld, on HBO's "Westworld"). That clue is current, but also *hyper*-exclusionary. Maybe it was supposed to be a speed bump for people who would be speeding along after figuring out the theme.

It's a somewhat cute theme idea, though once you pick it up, there's really not a lot to it. Plus, the placement of the revealer is incredibly inelegant. It's split, and the second part runs Down ... I don't know. Seems pretty ugly. UMINUM and SIDING are both 6, you'd think they could've been brought into some kind of symmetrical relationship to each other when you were building the grid initially. So, lots of "AL"s ... including a pretty nifty front-and-back "AL" with the central answer. ALE-SELLERS seems pretty weak to me, as a stand-alone phrase (40A: Taverns and such), but that and DO A DE(AL) were the only things that made me grimace. Everything else was fairly solid. Sturdy. Adequate Thursday fare.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Child actress Jones of Family Affair / SAT 12-3-16 / Noted Volstead Act enforcer / Giverny backdrop for Monet / Bill of 1960s-70s Weather Underground / Refined nutritional ingredient in many cereals meat products / Start of news story in journalism lingo

Doggie of old cartoons / SUN 12-4-16 / 7Up in old ads / nova musical style of late Middle Ages / Actions of environmental extremists / Eco-friendly building certification for short

1940s British guns / MON 12-5-16 / Are able, biblically / Native Israelis / One-named R&B singer who won a Grammy for his 2014 album "Black Messiah"

End to seasonal song / TUE 12-6-16 / Alfred who was follower of Freud / Filmdom's Flynn

Eponymous Belgian tourist locale / WED 12-7-16 / High-end British sports car / Mexican tourist city known for its silver / Diminutive fashionwise / Obese Star Wars character / Bluff-busting words

Octave's follower in some poetry / THU 12-8-16 / Subj group with noted gener imbalance / Groundbreaking 1990s ABC sitcom / Old-timey not / Hoppy quaff for short

Female hip-hop fan / FRII 12-9-16 / Sender of billet-doux / Song sung to Lilo in Lilo Stitch / Virginia Woolf's given name at birth

Coins that pay for passage over River Styx / SUN 12-11-16 / Skimobile informally / Purported rural shenanigan / Quaff in Middle-Earth / Nickname Game of thrones dwarf

Lobbying org that fights music piracy / MON 12-12-16 / Chaim who played Tevye

Object of early Christian condemnation / TUE 12-13-16 / Legal actions provoked by oversimple jigsaw puzzles / South American animal also known as hog-nosed coon / Conglomerate originally named Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo / Company that buried 700,000+ unsold video games in 1983

Fashion designer Miller / WED 12-14-16 / Patriarch of House Stark on Game of Thrones / Mexican civilization known for its colossal head sculptures / Dyeing technique / Nontext part of text / Ruiner of perfect report card / Still frame of Mickey

British protectorate until 1957 / THU 2-15-16 / 1969 film whose working title was Loners / School whose mascot is Jumbo elephant / 1990s sitcom about bookstore owner / Chippendales dancers have nice ones

Balbo right-hand man to Mussolini / FRI 12-16-16 / Postprandial handouts / Ho Slumdog Millionaire song / Scandalous '80s initials / Server of pink champagne on ice in song

Targets of naphthalene / SAT 12-17-16 / Andy Taylor Homer Simpson for two / Pop group whose name is exclamation / Reading material for French fashionistas / Brett who directed Rush Hour / Ben legendary Washington Post editor / Omnivorous lizard or its genus

Home star of Cthulhu in fantasy tales / SUN 12-18-16 / Old German ruler nicknamed Short / Slithy ones / Part of plant embryo / Liliom playwright Ferenc / Florida State athlete for short

Santa player in Miracle on 34th Street / MON 12-19-16 / SEC school near Atlanta for short / Neologism for on-screen/off-screen relationship

Bottom-feeding fish known formally as morwong / TUE 12-20-16 / Muchacho's sweetie / French royal line / Synagogue singers / Eww inducer / Cocktail usually served with orange slice cherry

Heavy metal band with killer sound / WED 12-21-16 / Sports entertainment show since 1993 / Skin-care brand whose active ingredients are oat compounds / Simpson who lost crossword contest in 2008 / Faith founded in Persia

One of founders of Westworld / THU 12-22-16 / International prize first awarded to Stephen Hawking in 1979 / Competitor of Sapporo / Competitor of eBay / Moon of Saturn that's French woman's name / Prepare for framing again / Region in western Germany