Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle (2024)

THEME:A "letteral" interpretation— all-cap clues contain parenthetical letters that must be read self-referentially (as hom*ophones of those letters) in order to arrive at the answers. So [ALMIGHT(Y)] gives you the letter "Y" inside a word that can be a name for God, which is to say it gives you a "Y" in God's name ... which is the colloquial phrase the clue is looking for ("Why in God's name....!?"—though the actual answer retains the letter-for-hom*ophone swap-out: Y IN GOD'S NAME)

Theme answers:

• B IN TOUCH (15A: EM(B)RACE)
• Y IN GOD'S NAME (23A: ALMIGHT(Y))
• I OF THE HURRICANE (39A: TROP(I)CAL STORM)
• C OF HUMANITY (53: (C)OMPASSION)
• Ps IN A POD (67A: GROU(P) OF HUM(P)BACKS)

Word of the Day: PEEL(43A: Pizzeria implement) —

Apeelis a tool used bybakersto slide loaves ofbread,pizzas,pastries, and otherbakedgoods into and out of anoven.It is usually made ofwood, with a flat surface for carrying the baked good and ahandleextending from one side of that surface. Alternatively, the carrying surface may be made ofsheet metal, which is attached to a wooden handle. Wood has the advantage that it does not become hot enough to burn the user's hands the way metal can, even if it is frequently in the oven. The word presumably derives from theFrenchpelle, which describes both a peel and a shovel. //A peel's intended functions are to:

• Transfer delicate breads, pastries, etc into an oven where transferring them directly by hand could deform their delicate structure.
• Allow food to be placed further back in an oven than could normally be reached by the baker.
• Keep the baker's hands out of the hottest part of an oven, or prevent the baker from burning their hands on the hot baked goods.

Prior to use, peels are often sprinkled withflour,cornmeal,ormilledwheatbran, to allow baked goods to easily slide onto and off them. (wikipedia)

• • •

Hey, wanna see the most crosswordiest opening two-word combo of all time?

Could've done without the bro-y vibe of poker slang (13D: A-2-3-4-5 straight, in poker slang =WHEEL) coupled with gym slang (56D: Strong as an ox, in slang =YOKED). When you're still running close to 80% male constructors, this stuff stands out. To me, anyway. There's not a woman in this puzzle. Even the Barbie answer was KENS, LOL. I knew YOKED but did not know WHEEL, which was one of only a few sticking points today. WHEEL / LOUIE was a cross where I knew neither answer, but could infer the "E" pretty easily. The crossword continues to operate from the premise that The Jungle Book is common knowledge. Do people still watch it? I don't think I've ever seen it. I know about its many characters only from crosswords. I also didn't know ISH, which is insane, as I know mom read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish to me as a child. Apparently the title is all I retained. I go to Paul & Sons Pizzeria at least twice a week and I have watched Paul pull umpteen pizzas out of his oven but I somehow never knew that the thing that he carries those pizzas to and from the oven on is called a PEEL!! PEEL, PUP, WHEEL, all new to me today.

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THEME:Hell's-a-pop-pun— an early Father's Day puzzle; familiar phrases with a word for "father" in them are clued via"Pop" puns:

Theme answers:

• DAD JOKE (1A: Pop corn?)
• PATERNITY TESTS (21A: Pop quizzes?)
• "THIS OLD MAN" (39A: Pop song?)
• FATHERLY ADVICE (60A: Pop wisdom?)
• DADAISM (73A: Pop art?)

Word of the Day:"NOIRE et Blanche"(52A: "___ et Blanche" (Man Ray's study in contrast)) —

Noire et Blanche(French forBlack and White) is a black and white photograph taken by American visual artistMan Rayin 1926. It is one of his most famous photographs at the time when he was an exponent ofSurrealism. //The picture was first published in the ParisianVoguemagazine, on 1 May 1926, with the titleVisage de Nacre et Masque d'Ébene.It would be published once again with the current title in the French magazinesVariétésandArt et Décorationin 1928. //Man Ray had already published a similar photograph in the cover of theDadamagazine ofFrancis Picabia, with the titleBlack and White, in 1924, depicting two statuettes, one European and classical and the other African. //The title of the photograph refers both to the medium of black and white photography and the duality expressed in the dicotomy [sic!] between the caucasian female model and the African black mask. The photograph depicts the famous French modelKiki de Montparnasse, posing expressionless, with her eyes closed and her head lying on a table, holding with her left hand a black African mask vertically upon its surface. The picture juxtaposes the similarities between the soft oval white face of the model, as if she were a living mask, with the shiny black mask, also with eyes closed and a serene expression.It also expresses the artist's interest in African art, which had a huge influence in the artistic movements of the first decades of the 20th century. (wikipedia)

• • •

This was something of a groaner, but maybe that was the point? When the puzzle leads with DAD JOKE, (which is, itself, the answer to a DAD JOKE clue), well, you can't say the puzzle wasn't up front about its whole agenda. Holiday puzzles should be on (or at least immediately adjacent to) the holidays themselves, and this one feels a little too early, but that's not the problem. The problem is the corny concept and especially the dull-as-dishwater fill. The theme answers don't sing, and the fill is just workmanlike. I kinda like LOVE TAP, but not (at all) as a car collision clue (though that is a valid meaning) (42A: Minor bump against another car). I would've liked it to be more affectionate, taps people give to each other, smacks on the butt or boops on the nose or whatever. Or the thing that cats do when they want you to pet them, or when they "fight" with each other. No one wants to see more crashes if they don't have to. Choosing car collisions (even minor ones) over actual love—strong boo. So the best answer in the grid by far got a less-than-cute clue. Otherwise, what is there? NSA and CIA. SOU and ADE. "Words" you (I) only see in crosswords, like IDEAMAP and KIDVID (although usually that one comes as a partial clue for VID—this is the first time we're getting the full KIDVID since 1973 (!!?)). DADAISM is probably the most original, surprising, and boldest of the themers, but it's also one that rings just slightly out of tune for me, as clued. DADAISM is the movement, not the art itself. I was expecting an actual work of "art" (the way "THIS OLD MAN" was an actual "song"). I know I'm splitting hairs, there, but missing by an inch can sometimes feel worse than missing by a mile. That second "A" in DADAISM was my last square (because quote unquote supermodels, ugh, my Kryptonite (63D: Supermodel Delevingne)***—that clue is Irene CARA erasure! (RIP, crossword legend)). Also, is "Pop wisdom" a thing people say? "Pop psychology," I've heard. "Popular wisdom," I've heard—but not with the "popular" abbreviated. Actually, I think I've heard "conventional wisdom" way (way) more than "popular wisdom." Again, off by an inch, but off nonetheless. Anyway, if you love this kind of humor, this puzzle is for you, and if not, not. For me, not.

Do people still know the song "THIS OLD MAN"? How the hell do I even know it? Where is it from? It's just ... there, in my head, murkily, from times of yore (for me, the '70s), but ... is it a nursery rhyme? I completely forget the context. It feels vaguely related to "This Little Piggie," which is not (as far as I know) a "song." According to wikipedia, it's a "children's song, counting exercise, folk song, and nursery rhyme" all rolled into one. But what is a "knick-knack paddywhack!?" Hang on ... Wow ... talk about things I semi-regret looking up:

And here I thought a "paddywhack" was something more like ... well, a LOVE TAP, to be honest. You know, when someone whacks you on your ... paddy? A paddywhack. So much nicer that way. Nicer than offal, anyway. But now you know. You also now know the terms NUCHAL and PAXWAX, so now you'll be prepared when they show up in your crossword on the 5th of Never.

Probably the worst thing in the grid today is OP-DOCS, both because it's inherently ugly as a name (just say it over and over, you'll see) and (more so) because it's such grotesque NYT self-promotion (33A: Nonfiction films with an editorial viewpoint, in a New York Times series). Do puzzles get preferential treatment if they hawk NYT proprietary content, like "THE DAILY" (which appeared recently) or whatever these OP-DOCS are? I'd sooner watch a Doc Ock doc or a reality show called "Top Docs" than watch something calledOP-DOCS. Actually, that's not true. I'm sure they're fine little documentaries—it's just that putting NYT-specific content in grids you submit to the NYT feels a little like kissing up. Luckily, the OP part was crossed fairly, though I struggled a bit in that area because I confidently wrote in FINNA at 27A: Planning to, informally (GONNA). I was like "ha, thought you were gonna get me with your slang, did you? thought I didn't know FINNA, eh? well guess what, I do know it, so joke's on you, puzzle!" But no. Joke's on me.

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THEME: FIRST LADY (58A: Title for Jackie or Jill, and a hint to the answers to the starred clues)— "first" words of theme answers can all follow the word "LADY":

Theme answers:

• GAGAABOUT (17A: *Crazy for)
• LIBERTYVALANCE (23A: *Title role for Lee Marvin in a 1962 western)
• LUCKOUT (36A: *Get seriously fortunate)
• MARMALADESKIES (48A: *Meteorological description in a Beatles song)

Word of the Day: Frank O'HARA(16A: Poet Frank who led the 1950s-'60s "New York School") —

Francis Russell"Frank"O'Hara(March 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) was an American writer, poet, and art critic. A curator at theMuseum of Modern Art, O'Hara became prominent in New York City's art world. O'Hara is regarded as a leading figure in theNew York School, an informal group of artists, writers, and musicians who drew inspiration from jazz,surrealism,abstract expressionism,action painting, and contemporaryavant-gardeart movements.

O'Hara's poetry is personal in tone and content, and has been described as sounding "like entries in a diary".Poet and criticMark Dotyhas said O'Hara's poetry is "urbane, ironic, sometimes genuinely celebratory and often wildly funny" containing "material and associations alien to academic verse" such as "the camp icons of movie stars of the twenties and thirties, the daily landscape of social activity in Manhattan, jazz music, telephone calls from friends".O'Hara's writing sought to capture in his poetry the immediacy of life, feeling that poetry should be "between two persons instead of two pages."

The Collected Poems of Frank O'Haraedited by Donald Allen (Knopf, 1971), the first of several posthumous collections, shared the 1972National Book Award for Poetry. (wikipedia)

• • •

You know that feeling when you're humming along, just loving a puzzle, and then someone goes and dumps a bucket of TUCKET all over it? No? Well, neither had I, before today. What a tragedy. Gorgeous to gruesome in no time flat. When you're out of luck(et), and feel like "f*ck it!," bring in the TUCKET. The TUCKET (as it will now be known, with the definite article out front) has not been seen or heard from in over three decades. It was believed extinct. Or perhaps mythical—who even remembers 1992? But today, it returns from its decades-long hibernation / mystical journey and slimes its grim way right across my MARMALADE SKIES. "With tangerine trees, and [record scratch] TUCKET Surprise!" I cannot say enough about the monstrosity that is TUCKET. I want to put it in a bucket and chuck it. If this seems like an outsized reaction, well, first of all, hi, have we met? And second of all, I refer you to the opening words of this paragraph—I thought this puzzle was (otherwise) fantastic. The quality gap between TUCKET and the rest of this puzzle is a gulf, a chasm, it cannot be measured, you cannot see the other side of the canyon from TUCKET. I mean, I didn't *know* BANTU (as clued) (22D: ___ knots (hairstyle)), but at least I recognize the word (it's an African people / language group), and anyway, hairstyles are not in my purview—if you tell me something is a hairdo, I believe you, because my own personal hair style is NIL. But TUCKET ... TUCKET isn't just something I didn't know. It's something that should not, and possibly does not, exist. Is it real? Am I typing or still in a crossword nightmare. It *is* the 40th anniversary of Nightmare on ELM ST, maybe I'm in the middle of one of those situations, still asleep and being chased by Griddy Krueger, aka The TUCKET. Whether I'm awake or asleep, TUCKET remains very bad (please congratulate me on getting through this paragraph without using "suck it").

But before TUCKET, wow, what a beauty. I smiled when I threw down MCGRIDDLE and then *beamed* when MCGRIDDLE led to LIBERTY VALANCE! OK, yes, I did spell it LIBERTY VALENCE at first, as if it were a chemical or psychological phenomenon, but no matter. What a great movie: Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne and Lee Marvin and Lee Van Cleef and Woody Strode in the same damn western?! That's a lot of western! Before The Man Who Shot LIBERTY VALANCE, you couldn't get that much iconic western manliness on the screen at one time—science had not yet figured it out. But then John Ford was like "TUCKET! I want Wayne *and* Stewart! I'm putting them both in my movie, and a handful of other tough guys to boot, who cares if I literally set the atmosphere on fire!?" And then time passed and here we are, enjoying LIBERTY VALANCE with an APEROL chaser! (18D; Red alcohol in a spritz). Recommendation for APEROL lovers out there: ditch the spritz and try a Naked & Famous. I learned about this (apparently already famous) drink from my new favorite podcast, "co*cktail College." It's a sour with equal parts (3/4 oz.) APEROL, lime juice, yellow chartreuse and mezcal, shaken, up (in a coupe). Simple and delicious.

So this puzzle hits me with a sweet breakfast treat and then an iconic western and a colorful co*cktail ingredient and *then* hits me with my favorite modern poet!? (Frank "Don't Confuse Me With John" O'HARA!). I was all in. This is why The TUCKET was so tragic, but let's not revisit that. Back to the theme—it's very simple, very straightforward, nothing terribly tricky about it. I had the "Lady" bit figured out after the first two themers, but did not know what the revealer was going to be, exactly. In retrospect, FIRST LADY seems obvious. This is such a good example of how your theme does not have to be overly complicated. If the concept is tight enough, and especially if the answers are colorful enough, then you can do wonders by focusing on good old-fashioned craftsmanship. Speaking of old-fashioned, the other drink I just learned about that I still need to try is the Oaxacan Old Fashioned. No APEROL in there, but it still has the MEZCAL (only three crossword appearances? didn't debut til 2019!?) as well as crossword favorite AGAVE (nectar). Anyway, on the next hot weekend, I'm giving it a shot.

The puzzle played harder than usual because, well, TUCKET, but also BANTU took me a bit, and then I couldn't get either POMPEII(41D: Unfortunate neighbor of Mount Vesuvius) or RATTLE(46D: Maraca, e.g.) from their initial letters and ended up having to come back for that SW corner. First I just blanked on the city near Vesuvius, and then I couldn't spell it. Two "I"s!! I was like "well POMPEI won't fit and neither will ... POMPEIAN (!?!?)" so I dunno, man." As for RATTLE ... I mean, true, but so basic I never would've thought of it. Also I confess I get "maraca" and "marimba" confused, still (the latter is also Latin American, and also a percussion instrument, but you play it with mallets (something like a xylophone)). The puzzle wasn't *hard*, just harder than the usual Tuesday, for me. Also, much (much) prettier than the usual Tuesday. That is, until ... but enough about that. Let's not revisit that. Let's listen to some Gary Puckett instead.

See you next time.

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THEME: SET (71A: Guinness world record holder for "English word with the most meanings") — SET appears in the grid a bajillion (i.e. 12) times, clued differently each time

The (remaining 11) SETs:

• 1A: Theater backdrop
• 5D: Part of a tennis match
• 8D: Sink, as the sun
• 24A: Put (down)
• 31A: Prepare, as the dinner table
• 40A: Written in stone
• 35D: Having everything one needs
• 47A: Unit for a comedian or musician
• 57A: Like hard plaster
• 62D: Complete collection
• 64D: Adjust, as a watch

Word of the Day: Patricia Lockwood(11D:Philip Larkin or Patricia Lockwood = POET) —

Patricia Lockwood(born April 27, 1982) is anAmerican poet,novelist, and essayist. Her 2021debut novel,No One Is Talking About This,won theDylan Thomas Prize. Her 2017 memoirPriestdaddywon theThurber Prize for American Humor. Her poetry collections includeMotherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals, a 2014New York TimesNotable Book. Since 2019, she has been a contributing editor forLondon Review of Books.

She is notable for working across and between a variety of genres. "Your work can flow into the shape that people make for you," she toldSlatein an interview in 2020. "Or you can try to break that shape."In 2022, she received theAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters' Morton Dauwen Zabel Award for her contributions to the field ofexperimental writing.

Lockwood is the only writer with bothfictionandnonfictionworks selected as 10 Best Books of the year byThe New York Times. At four years, she also holds the record for the shortest span between repeat appearances on the list.

Kirkus Reviewshas called her "our guide to moving beyond thinking of the internet as a thing apart from real lives and real art,” andGarden & Gun: “goddessof theavant-garde.”(wikipedia)

• • •

This is a pretty fun puzzle ... if you ignore the theme entirely. I guess that it's mildly interesting that SET has so many definitions, but what's *not* (even) mildly interesting is filling in SET over and over and over and nine more overs again. There's the initial shock of "oh, we're doing this?" and then the final "oh, that's why we're doing this?" and in between, yeah, just a lot of SETs. This probably seemed like a good idea, conceptually, but it's like no one thought about what it would be like to solve it. SET is a pretty boring answer to begin with, so ... let's do it a dozen times? It is kind of gutsy and avant-garde to flout convention this way, I'll give it that. And the puzzle really commits to the bit, with Every Single 3-letter answer in the Entire Grid coming in as a SET. Huge upside is that we aren't subjected to all the even more boring, or perhaps actively ugly, 3-letter fill that might’ve gone in those slots otherwise. 3-letter fill is never gonna make a puzzle interesting, why not turn it *all* to SET? So the puzzle gets high points for its artistic ambition and rule-breaking spirit. But I can't say entering SET after SET after ten more SETs was anything other than monotonous.

On the plus side, once I realized that All the 3-letter answers were gonna be SET, I had a lot of free access to Across answers (the clues for which I never look at on Mondays). Those six free SETs gave me desperately needed traction in a puzzle that had most of its longer answers running Down (most themed puzzles have the bulk of their longer answers running Across, and it's much easier to use short Downs to guess a long Across than it is to do the reverse (use long Downs to get at short Acrosses)). May not seem like a lot, but I really needed those free SETs to have any hope of bringing down those long Downs, particularly in the SW. That free SET at 31A was probably the single-most valuable freebie, giving me the initial letters of EXISTENCE and TIPPYTOES, neither of which I could get a grip on without the assistance. My problems in the SW were compounded by the fact that (despite being a medievalist) I couldn't guess FEUDAL from the clue (44D: Like England between the ninth and 15th centuries). When MEDIEVAL didn't fit, I blanked. And I wasn't sure if areas where cigarettes weren't permitted were SMOKEFREE or SMOKELESS (in retrospect, it should've been obvious—SMOKELESS is a word I've only really heard as a modifier of "tobacco" ("smokeless tobacco" being another term for "chewing tobacco")). I also had -PE UP and decided the answer had to be PIPE UP (it was TYPE UP (52A: Put into a Word document, say)). NeededTIPPYTOES to get me out of that predicament.

The rest of the puzzle was pretty tractable, though "OK, GOOD" definitely caused me to spin my wheels (7D: "All right, that's fine"). Gonna add "OK" to the category of answer I've been talking about for days now (well, yesterday and Friday, for sure): the rapidly proliferating (or so it seems) "UH / OH / UM / (and now) OK" phrases—colloquial phrases that open with one of those two-letter units, which can be very hard to differentiate from each other. What's the difference between an "UH, OK" and an "UM, OK," or between either of those and an "OH, OK"? Somehow "that's fine" didn't evoke "GOOD" for me—"that's fine" means more "that'll do" than "GOOD")—and the "OK" part was not at all obvious either. The cluing needs to be spot on with these kinds of answers, and I'm not sure it was today. The adjacent YEN FOR wasn't a walk in the park, either. It's not a phrase I hear, ever. I think it's largely bygone. I've definitely heard of "having a YEN (n.) FOR something," but the verb phrase "YEN FOR" (in the sense of "pine for" or "jones for" or "ache for" or "long for" "YEarN FOR"), that I don't hear so much. I know it's real, it just didn't come quickly to mind.

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THEME: "Quiet Time" — each theme answer contains one circled "silent" letter; those letters end up spelling "AUCTION," which gives you an "AUCTION" made up of "silent" letters, or ... a SILENT AUCTION (117A: Popular charity event ... or a hint to this puzzle's circled letters):

Theme answers:

• CINNAMON BREAD (22A: Sweet loaf with a swirl)
• "TEARDROPS ON MY GUITAR" (31A: Triple-platinum song from Taylor Swift's debut album)
• SCIENCE PROJECT (49A: Potato battery or model volcano, e.g.)
• SIDE HUSTLE (58A: Extra source of income, slangily)
• FRUIT SALAD (76A: Side dish at a summer cookout)
• "THIS IS JEOPARDY" (84A: Classic game show intro)
• DAMNWITH FAINT PRAISE (103A: Pay a backhanded compliment, perhaps)

Word of the Day: PAI GOW(72D: Chinese gambling game with dominoes) —

Pai gow(/paɪˈɡaʊ/pyGOW;Chinese:牌九;Jyutping:paai⁴gau²[pʰaːi˩.kɐu˧˥]) is a Chinesegamblinggame, played with a set of 32Chinese dominoes. It is played in major casinos inChina(includingMacau); theUnited States(includingBoston, Massachusetts;Las Vegas, Nevada;Reno, Nevada;Connecticut;Atlantic City, New Jersey;Pennsylvania;Mississippi; andcardroomsinCalifornia);Canada(includingEdmonton, AlbertaandCalgary, Alberta);Australia; andNew Zealand.

The namepai gowis sometimes used to refer to acard gamecalledpai gow poker(or "double-hand poker"), which is loosely based on pai gow. The act of playing pai gow is also colloquially known as "eating dog meat".

Pai Gow is the first documented form of dominoes, originating in China before or during theSong Dynasty.It is also the ancestor of modern, westerndominoes. The name literally means "make nine"after the normal maximum hand, and the original game was modeled after both aChinese creation myth, and military organization in China at that time (ranks one through nine).

• • •

The theme seems oddly thin. There's no reason you couldn't do this theme with a bunch of different phrases. SILENT NIGHT. SILENT TREATMENT. SILENT SPRING .SILENT MOVIE. Actually, you couldn't do SILENT MOVIE, as "V" (apparently!) is the only letter in the English language that won't ever shut up. So SILENT FILM, then. There's nothing specifically auction-y about this grid, no real auction content, just the silent letters in the eight theme answers. But ... this brings me to the other thing that makes the theme seem thin, which is that silent letters aren't special. They're everywhere. And the only restriction on your themers is that they contain ... a single specific silent letter? So ... *annnnnnny* answer with a silent "A" in it would work as the first answer, for instance. I mean, BREAD answers alone would give you a mountain of possibilities, and BREAD is hardly the only example of a silent "A" in the English language. Because you just need the one silent letter, you really just need one word—the rest of the (long) themer just takes up space. Doesn't have to be about auctions, or silence ... just sits there. And while several of the themers are bright and interesting answers, CINNAMON BREAD, SCIENCE PROJECT, and FRUIT SALAD just kinda lie there. I dunno. This theme just didn't seem to have narrow enough parameters to be at all interesting. Worse is the fact that several of the themers contain More Than One Silent Letter. The circles the one it wants you to see, but what about the "I"s in FAINT and "PRAISE"—if the "I" in FRUIT is silent (which the puzzle is telling me it is), then the "I"s in "FAINT and "PRAISE" are also silent. The "A" in TEARDROPS seems silent. There's also the "E" is SIDE, or even at the end of SCIENCE. If you are going to make the silent letter the hallmark of your theme, there really (really) should be just one silent letter per theme answer. It would be too much to ask that absolutely no other letters in your Sunday-sized grid be silent, but with the themers, you'd think you could manage that one tiny restriction (since your theme has so few restrictions to begin with).

Some of the themers do have enough personality to make you forget (briefly) how thin the theme is. I don't know what "TEARDROPS ON MY GUITAR" is, nor did I know singles went "platinum" at all, let alone thrice (I thought that was just for albums, and anyway who is buying singles—in those numbers— in the 21st century?). Still, at least the answer is original and vibrant, and provided some genuine suspense for me "Where ... where will the teardrops end up ...? On Her What!?!?! PILLOW!? TEAPOT!? PET CAT!?" I also liked "THIS ... IS ... JEOPARDY!" and DAMN WITH FAINT PRAISE, fine answers that would be a credit to any grid. I absolutely hate the term, the phrase, the concept, the very existence of SIDE HUSTLE, which is some capitalist propaganda designed to make the fact that you have to work two or more jobs just to survive sound cool, man! It's the Protestant Work Ethic distilled and weaponized for the 21st century consumer. Booooooo. But it is a term people use, so it's valid, I just hate it so much. The puzzle's main problem is that once you get beyond the handful of good themers, the vibrancy level really drops off. There aren't many longer answers at all, and while the grid does make decent use of many of the 7+ answers it does have (BURRATA, JUST ONCE, BUDDY COP), mostly what you get is a boatload of forgettable 3-4-5s. And again, the puzzle is playing way too easy. This has been a real trend of late, with the late-week puzzles, and the trend shows no signs of reversing. Today, I needed every cross for PAIGOW, and I had trouble remembering the seemingly arbitrary string of letters in HSBC, but other than that, there was no challenge, no bite. The clues didn't seem to be trying particularly hard to fool or even entertain you. Overall, everything works fine in this puzzle, but it all feels a bit flat. "Quiet Time," for sure. Too quiet.

And here just two days later we've got "UM, BYE" going "... 'pushing the boundaries of feasibility," eh? ... um, hold my beer." I do not really buy "UM, BYE." I buy "UH, YES" about ten times as much as "UM, BYE." "UM, BYE" opens the floodgates on some increasingly absurd combinations, things one might very well say but that don't exactly make great standalone answers. "UH, SURE." "UM, WHY?" "OH, THAT." LOL I just looked it up and "OH THAT" has already appeared three times! Anyway, there's nothing terribly alarming about the UH / OH / UM creep, I just want to point it out. Just asking us to collectively keep our eye on the situation and think about whether limits exist and what they are. "OH SHUT UP." I will not, sir, or ma'am, how dare you.

Not a fan of NOAIR (111A: Flat's problem), for a host of reasons (surely there's some air even in the worst flat, this isn't really a thing you'd say about a flat, there's another NO answer just a couple inches away (NO DISC), etc.). Also not a fan of the arbitrary definite article in THE SUNS (I had THE HEAT in there at first) (48D: Fitting N.B.A. team to go on a hot streak?). 'EM ALL may be the worst five-letter answer I've ever seen in a grid, and I've seen TO POT (several times!). My guess is that this was in the constructor's database because of previous instances where EMALL had appeared in crosswords, clued as E-MALL (yes, as in "electronic mall"). Let me just look it up ... Oof, no. I mean, yes, EMALL has been clued that way, but it's also been clued this way, with the elided "TH"—did you know there was a "hit song" from 1941 called "Bless 'EM ALL"? Probably not. Seems much more likely that you would've heard of Metallica's triple-platinum debut album (take that, Taylor Swift!) Kill 'EM ALL. Both 'EM ALL titles have been used in NYTXW clues. In light of this unfortunate information, I have to revise my assessment slightly: 'EM ALL is still godawful, but in all of 'EM ALL history, I have to admit that Pokémon's "Gotta Catch 'EM ALL" is King 'EM ALL. Well, as Satan famously said, "Better to reign in crossword hell than serve in crossword heaven!" (I added the "crossword" part, sorry Milton). Ironic congratulations to King 'EM ALL!

P.S. "Touch 'EM ALL" is reasonably common baseball slang, a post-homerun declaration / exclamation favored by some announcers. So look out for "Touch 'EM ALL"—coming to an E-MALL near you soon, I'm sure.

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