Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle (2024)

THEME:"I'M WALKIN' HERE" (52A: Memorable ad-lib in "Midnight Cowboy" ... or what the starred clues would say about their answers)— clues are names of famous people, and answers are places where they famously walked:

These don't actually sound like contradictory accounts. Anyway, still weird to use "ad-lib" here and not just "line." Also weird (very weird) not to have a question mark at the end of the revealer clue, and for that same clue to use "would" instead of "might" ("... or what the starred clues would say about their answers"). You're being playful, fanciful, absurd in imagining these characters saying this line. To just say flatly that these characters "would" say the line is ... well it's preposterous on its face. You need some indication in the clue that you are being wacky. You need a "?" Or you at least need a "might" instead of a "would."

But back to the actual puzzle. Thematically, it's close to perfect. A 10. Simple and elegant, with three genuinely iconic walkers (no forced examples here), and a revealer that genuinely surprises and entertains. "How are these going to hang together, exactly?" I'm thinking as I descend the grid, and then bam, I get that iconic line—"I'M WALKIN' HERE!"—which would be a ton of fun to encounter under any circ*mstances, but is particularly fun here as the answer that makes it all make sense. Plus there's the added bonus of getting to imagine Jesus, Dorothy, and Neil actually saying this line. I just imagine Dorothy angrily shoving a Munchkin out of the way...

What was nice about this puzzle was that while I was making my way to the revealer, I didn't feel like I was just ho-humming along, waiting to get to the punchline. The trip, the journey, the walk itself was a great pleasure, with many highlights along the way. The theme answers themselves are solid to vibrant, but I particularly appreciated that the puzzle had other high-quality answers to offer, starting with "OK, YOU WIN" (my first indication that this wasn't just going to be a phoned-in grid), and then continuing on with the spooky juxtaposition of SHRIEK and CAULDRON (loved that modern clue on CAULDRON) (10D: Emotionally volatile situation, metaphorically). You also get the wild WENT WILD along with the quainter and more tame (but for me, no less enjoyable) SET SHOTS(39D: Old-fashioned basketball attempts) before BARHOPping your way to a SMOOSHING finale. There's a lot of ordinary, perhaps less-than-lovely short stuff along the way (AVI LIC ONME ISTO USB NSA) and some crosswordesey names (EIRE, LEONA, RIRI), but the longer, more colorful stuff makes me forget any of that. I also appreciate the low-key way that the puzzle populates the grid with women and (outside of the themers) only women. Plus BRA, and HERS. A subtle way of saying "see, it's really not that hard." When a puzzle effortlessly centers women like this, it reminds me of my years and years (and years) of solving puzzles where the default POV was male—male passing as neutral. Rebecca makes puzzles that feel like they're for everyone. It helps that those puzzles are also, typically, excellent.

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Hi, everyone, it’s Clare for the last Tuesday of June! Hope everyone had a good month. I’ve been watching so much soccer with the Euros and Copa America, and then rooting on former teammates in the track events at the Olympic trials! My former teammates did very well but sadly didn’t qualify for the finals. (You did great, Dana!) Other events have been super impressive, like the women’s 5,000m race, and I’m so excited to watch the women’s 1,500m, too. As I’m writing this, I sadly had to watch Athing Mu get tripped and fall in the 800m run. But maybe she’ll be chosen for the 4X400m relay. She's incredible (and won gold in the last Olympics in both events at just 19 years old). ​​

Anywho, on to the puzzle...

Constructor: Seth Bisen-Hersh and Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME:TWENTY ONE (33A: Card game whose winning hands can be found hidden in 17-, 27-, 42- and 54-Across) — Each answer includes cards involved in getting “twenty one,” or blackjack

Theme answers:

• SUCKING FACE (17A: Sloppily making out, in slang)
• TENNIS BRACELET (27A: Piece of jewelry consisting of a single line of diamonds)
• QUEEN ANNE’S LACE (42A: Wildflower with a royal name)
• RACER JACKET (54A: Sleek leather outerwear)

Other aspects of the puzzle were still pretty meh, though. There was more misdirection than I’d expect from a Tuesday. Yes, ATILLA(13A) invaded Gaul, but his attack on Rome is a lot more famous – think Pope Leo the Great coming face to face with him on the outskirts of the city and getting Attila to turn back. ANDALE(44D) is a fine word, but I don’t think of saying that to Goya. Speedy Gonzalez, yes. Goya, no.

There was a decent amount of Spanish in the puzzle — HASTA, ESAS, ANDALE and OLES. I’m happy I know a lot of Spanish. But I imagine ANDALE, in particular, might have slowed some others.

The ZIKA virus (6D: Mosquito-borne virus in 2016 news) was unexpected for a Tuesday. I knew this one, but it did take me a while to place and get the spelling right. ENDUE (50A: Provide, as with an ability)is pretty fancy for a Tuesday. The Tuesday form is more “endow.”

I liked how DESSERT (41D: You might leave room for it)crossed SWIRLS (48A: Vanilla/chocolate ice cream combos, e.g.).I used to get a SWIRLS dessert from Foster's Freeze and loved how that tasted.

I liked some of the longer answers, too, such as QUEASY, ACL TEAR, GAME ON (though having RAT ON as another answer diminished this one a bit), NINJA, ANDALE, SIM CITY and GOUDA.) Answers like these and COLGATE and DESSERT were just more fun.

I’m not as sure about PROOFED, RETURNS, TUNA CAN, RARE GEM, WEARIER, and WEEDER. I’m sure WEEDER (34D: Gardener's device)is a category of sorts when you go into Home Depot. But nobody asks for a weeder. It seems more like you’d ask for a hoe or a trowel or a rake or a shovel or something specific.

Signed, Clare Carroll, I may not outpace you at solving crosswords… but try me at the 5,000 meters

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THEME: BODYBUILDING (52A: Weightlifter's pursuit ... or a hint to both halves of the answers to the starred clues)— familiar compound words where first part of the word is a BODY part and the second part is a type of BUILDING (that one might live in ... or part of such a building ... (?)):

Theme answers:

• HEAD/QUARTERS (20A: *Base of operations)
• SHIN/DIGS (31A: *Lively get-togethers)
• KNEE/PAD (38A: *One of a pair that a skater might wear)
• BACK/ROOM (47A: *Figurative setting for a shady deal)

Word of the Day:"The Italian Job"(49D: The "jobs" in "The Italian Job," e.g.) —

The Italian Jobis a 1969 Britishcomedycaper filmwritten byTroy Kennedy Martin, produced byMichael Deeley, directed byPeter Collinson, and starringMichael Caine. The film's plot centres on co*ckney criminal Charlie Croker, recently released from prison, who forms a gang for the job of stealing a cache ofgold bullionbeing transported through the city ofTurin,Italy, in an armoured security truck. [...]The popularity ofThe Italian Jobled to several parodies and allusions in other films and productions, including the 2005 episode ofThe Simpsonstitled "The Italian Bob", and a re-enactment of theMini Coopercar-chase in theMacGyverepisode "Thief of Budapest".The film itself was later given avideo game adaptationin 2001, before receivinga remakein 2003. A charity event titledThe Italian Job, founded in 1990 and held annually, was inspired by the film; as of 2020, it had raised nearly £3,000,000.Marking the 50th anniversary of the film in June 2019, stunt drivers in red, white and blue Coopers recreated parts of the film's car-chase around Turin at the grounds of Mini's Oxford factory. (wikipedia)

• • •

Real journey with this one. Went from not liking the theme, to liking it, to liking it somewhat less after I looked at all the themers more closely. See, at first I thought the themers were linked only by their *first* parts. I could see the body parts pretty early on, but was not at all aware that the back ends of the answers had anything in common. And since I don't read the Across clues on Mondays, I never figured that part out until after the puzzle was done. I finished up thinking that there was some kind of Frankenstein's monster thing going on. Like, the puzzle was "building" a "body" (or ... a good portion of one, anyway) with the front ends of the themers. The body parts alone seemed like a pretty weak unifying factor, so I wasn't that happy. Then I read the revealer clue and saw the way the back halves of the answers also formed a thematic unit, and that made things much better. "Oh, nice," I thought. But then I sat with those back halves for a bit and realized "Nah ... they're not really 'buildings' at all." They're words for places you might live, but QUARTERS or DIGS or PAD might just as well describe an apartment as well as a free-standing structure, and ROOM, yeesh, that's not a "building" at all. It's a building part. And (in most buildings) a small part at that. Familiar words reimagined as places that might house body parts—that's the best I can describe the theme (QUARTERS for your HEAD, a ROOM for your BACK, etc.). "BUILDING" still feels like a miss. It's close, but off. So the theme ends up being kind of a wash for me. There's good ambition here, and the second halves of the answers are definitely doing ... something ... but BUILDING doesn't quite get at it. My only other complaint, themewise, is a small one. I didn't like KNEEPAD because in all the other theme answers, the body part is masked. That is, HEADQUARTERS has nothing to do with an actual human head, SHINDIGS do not relate to your tibia, etc. HEAD, SHIN, BACK, all have different meanings in their respective answers. But the "knee" in KNEEPAD is just a knee. No new direction for KNEE, no repurposing, no metaphors. Just ... a KNEE. So it's a sad outlier, that answer. Far less elegant than its counterparts.

There was one bad sticking point today in my Downs-only adventure, as neither BETA nor SKYDIVE would go down easy. BETA I don't quite get. I mean, yes, second letter of Greek alphabet, cool, got it, but I didn't know I was looking at capital and lowercase Greek letters. I thought I was looking at English and Greek letters. Thus, hard for me. Worse, though, was SKYDIVE, since the clue is, frankly, terrible. Or, I should say, literally terrible, in that it misuses "literally" (4D: Take a leap of faith, quite literally). Sorry, now that I think about it, it's not "literally" that's bugging me so much as "faith" ... and then the fact that "literally" appears to be referring to the "faith" part. There's no "faith" involved in a SKYDIVE. There's physics. You jump, you fall, your parachute opens, ta da. I guess you have "faith" that your parachute will open (?) but that's not "faith" any more than it takes "faith" to step onto a balcony or drive your car. Sure, theoretically, the balcony might collapse or the brakes might not work, but ugh, "faith," no. When you put "faith" in the clue and then say "literally," I think "OK, cool, this is related to religion somehow ... like a conversion or something? Some kind of rite where you jump ... for Jesus?" So even when I got DIVE I was like "... GODDIVE?" Also did not like the "sedan" part of the UBER clue (7D: Sedan summoned with a smartphone, say). I know you really really wanted your alliteration. But "sedan" is so specific that I figured the answer had to be a kind of car, a make or type of "sedan."I think I had E-CAR in there at some point (a term I would never have considered if crosswords hadn't taught it to me (stunned to learn that it's been in the puzzle just once, over a decade ago (?!)).

Oh, I forgot, there was one other Downs-only trouble spot. It's kinda gross so I think my brain suppressed it there for a moment. I did not know the answer for 31D: Eruption from a geyser. I was worried it was maybe SPUME (!?!?), a word I find kind of repellent. I knew that geysers "spew" ... water? ... into the air. So maybe that was causing some aural confusion. Anyway, I wrote in SPUME but then took out the "U" when KNEEPAD became obvious. But this gave me SPE- ... and once BACKROOM became undeniable, that "geyser" answer became SPE-M. And I ... uh ... well ... things got uncomfortable there for a bit (esp. since an "R" would've given me ERRS at 44A, which is about as over-the-plate as crossword answers come). So there was a lot of looking at clue, answer, clue, answer, wondering what was wrong. Then I realized that STEAM would take me from APOP (a valid answer; 96 NYTXW appearances in the Modern Era) to ATOP (another valid answer; 191 appearances in the Modern Era), and would make ER-S into ERAS; most importantly,STEAM had the advantage of making actual sense for the clue. So STEAM it was. Thanks for pulling me out of an unpleasantly sticky situation, STEAM. I appreciate it. Yay, Team STEAM.

Beyond that, I misspelled IKEBANA (as IKI-!) (43D: Japanese art of flower arranging) and didn't trust THUMBS since THUMBS are (absolutely) not [Rating units for Siskel and Ebert]. The thumb is up, or the thumb is down, but the thumb is not a unit. There are always two. His thumb. And the other guy's thumb. They are either up or they are down, but the THUMBS are not countable, and thus are not "units." Stars are ratings "units." THUMBS are not. That is all. Good day.

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THEME: "Picture Day" — Famous paintings are clued via literal descriptions that contain numbers; the whole thing is tied together by the final theme answer, PAINT BY NUMBERS (113A: Kind of craft store kit ... or a hint to this puzzle's theme):

Theme answers:

• AMERICAN GOTHIC (23A:Two Iowans(1930))

[Grant Wood]

• GUERNICA (37A:Six Basque villagers(1937))

[Pablo Picasso]

• THE STARRY NIGHT (42A:12 orbs(1889))

[Vincent Van Gogh]

• GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING (68A:One gemstone(1685))

[Johannes Vermeer]

• THE PERSISTENCE / OF MEMORY (86A:With 99-Across, four timepieces(1931))

[Salvador Dalí]

Word of the Day: Vikki CARR(28D: Vocalist Vikki) —

Florencia Vicenta de Casillas-Martínez Cardona(born July 19, 1940), known by her stage nameVikki Carr, is an American vocalist. She has a singing career that spans more than five decades.

Born inEl Paso, Texas, to Mexican parents, she has performed in a variety ofmusical genres, includingpop,jazzandcountry, while her greatest success has come from singing in Spanish. She established the Vikki Carr Scholarship Foundation in 1971. Vikki Carr has won threeGrammysand was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008 at the9th Annual Latin Grammy Awards. [...]

Under the stage name "Vikki Carr" she signed withLiberty Recordsin 1962. Her first single to achieve success was "He's a Rebel", which in 1962 reached No. 3 in Australia and No. 115 in the United States. ProducerPhil Spectorheard Carr cutting the song in the studio and immediately produced his own cover version withthe Blossoms(though it was presented as a recording byThe Crystals) which reached No. 1 in the United States. In 1966, Carr touredSouth Vietnamwith actor/comedianDanny Kayeto entertain American troops. The following year, her albumIt Must Be Himwas nominated for threeGrammy Awards. Thetitle trackreached No. 3 on theBillboardHot 100in the United States in 1967, sold more than 1 million copies and received agold disc. [...]Carr followed with two USTop 40hits: 1968's "The Lesson" and 1969's "With Pen in Hand". Around this time,Dean Martincalled her "the best girl singer in the business". In total, Carr had 10singlesand 13 albums that made the US pop charts. [...]Carr appeared to great acclaim in a 2002 Los Angeles production of theStephen SondheimmusicalFollies, which also featuredHal Linden,Patty DukeandHarry Groener.In 2006, Carr made a cameo appearance in a straight-to-video thriller calledPuerto Vallarta Squeeze. (wikipedia)

• • •

I had a feeling this was going to be bad early on. By early on, I mean precisely here:

The single ALGA actually gave me a small "oof," and then that bloomed into a much bigger "Oof" before I even escaped the NW. The 1-2 of ALGA / A PRIORI would be a lot to take in such little space, but to have the laughable GREAVES running right through that same section, ye gods, wow. And I'm a former D&D enthusiast and sometime medievalist who actually knows a lot of terms for armor—but even I misspelled GREAVES at first pass (GRIEVES!). I haven't even hit the theme material yet, and already the vibe is bad. Then I hit the first themer and, having no idea what the gimmick is, with just AME- in place, throw down AMERICAN GOTHIC (23A: Two Iowans (1930)). Great painting, but the clue was so dumb and literal that I couldn't even fathom what the theme could be. And so, completely contrary to habit, I decided to jump to the bottom of the grid and work out the revealer before I went any farther. That led me into a bizarrely split solving pattern (just the NW and SE done, with acres of white space in between). It also led me to ...

Annnnd that's where the puzzle lost me. Completely. For good. That is ... not a word. Nope. Stop. Stop. If you told me you were an AMBIVERT I would congratulate you on leading your best life and encourage you not to let anyone kink-shame you. After you patiently and earnestly explained to me that it's not a sex thing, and then explained what you believed AMBIVERTS meant, I would then ... quietly ... exit the conversation.

The worst part is that this word is now gonna be in Everyone's database and I mean we haven't even seen the singular yet, we just jumped right to the plural? Of a non-thing stupid word? Do AMBIVERTS wear GREAVES? Do AMBIVERTS Dream of Electric GREAVES? I grieve the introduction of AMBIVERTS to my vocabulary, that I know for sure. And this is all before I realized what a dud the theme is. I worked the revealer, ended up gettingPAINT BY NUMBERS (which, come on, should really be PAINTING BY NUMBERS), sighed, shrugged, and decided, "well, this solve is already a wreck, let's see if we can't get all these paintings from just their clues." Who doesn't love an art test!? I got THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY solely from having most of the "OF MEMORY" part filled in. The others, I needed a little push with, but not much of one. Shortly I was here:

[I forgot there was one more to hunt down: the symmetrical counterpart to "OF MEMORY," i.e. GUERNICA]

Don't think I knew there was a definite article in THE STARRY NIGHT. Also probably thought it was STARRY STARRY NIGHT. For reasons. You know the reasons.

I never look at social media until I'm done with the puzzle, but when I'm done, sometimes I check in to see what reactions are out there. This one really spoke to me:

I enjoyed 0 minutes of this puzzle. You know the paintings or you don’t. I don’t. The “revealer” is not a hint and does not reveal anything.

Naticks all over. 5A/8D was my final but far from only. 9A? 87D? 91A? 79A?!? No idea how I got through this but glad it’s over. #NYTXW pic.twitter.com/WdIE4hQUup

— Xword Disinfo (@kcitian) June 23, 2024

Unlike this solver, I knew every painting. Cold. And that didn't help with the enjoyment factor. At all. I mean, yes, I enjoyed thinking about the paintings, I love art, hurray for art, but as a puzzle, no this didn't work for me. As for the "Naticks," I didn't have any, but I can absolutely understand someone's wrecking on PIAF / fa*gIN(5A: "La Vie en Rose" singer / 8D: "Oliver Twist" antagonist) (two proper nouns! crossing! at an uninferrable letter! PIAF is a legend, so you should probably know her, but still, I sympathize), and whether you wrecked or not, PAWL is bad (esp. crossing AAH WII LLC dear lord, what a grim little stretch) (9A: Mechanical catch), andHA'PENNY is not great either (my brain wants this piece of bygone coinage to be "HAyPENNY") (87D: Two farthings, colloquially), and TROPPO ... well that's not bad, actually (91A: Too much, musically), but it's definitely highly technical, and will be tough for many. I can't share the consternation with OGLALAS, though (79A: Crazy Horse and kin)—or, rather, I can, but only with the fact that it's got an "S" on the end. The plural of OGLALA is OGLALA. Crazy Horse is OGLALA. His kin are OGLALA. They are The OGLALA. We have seen OGLALA in the NYTXW many times this century, whereas we haven't seen OGLALAS since 1968.

The big, huge problem with the theme is that it has no boundaries, no limits. Any painting with any countable amount of anything in it qualifies! Here's [Three diners (1942)]

(or [Two coffee urns (1942)] or [Seven stools (1942)])

And here's [Three picnickers (and some other lady, is she with them or not, who knows?) (1863)]

It is true that not many paintings are famous by name, so finding ones that are sufficiently famous *and* contain different ... numbers ... of things? ... *and* making those fit symmetrically, I'm sure that took some work. But still, as a cluing conceit, the number thing does Nothing. It adds on dimension, no trickery. Nothing. All for a revealer that doesn't really stick the landing. In a grid that's full of ... not always top-tier fill. I think my disappointment is augmented by the fact that I really do love art and do love the idea of an art-based theme (Liz Gorski's Guggenheim-themed Sunday being the Ideal Sunday theme that I carry around in my head and heart). This one just doesn't seem to be giving enough puzzle bang for my puzzle buck

Bullets:

• 27A: Patton crossed it in 1944 (SEINE) — while the PIAF / fa*gIN crossing didn't give me any trouble, the SEINE / fa*gIN crossing sure did. So many five-letter European rivers ... and I spelled it fa*gAN to start.
• 109A: Eyelike openings (OCULI) — crosswordese of the first order. Always feels like cheating when I just "know" this stuff (from decades of doing crosswords). It's an architectural term.

• 

  14D: Actress Graff of "Mr. Belvedere" (ILENE)— speaking of crosswordese, this actress's name would be largely lost to time if it weren't for her highly convenient first name (five letters, alternating vowel-consonant pattern, beginning and ending with vowels, all common letters ... if you want your kid to be a crossword answer some day, start by naming them ILENE) (or ARELA, that would kill)
• 34D: Sorry excuse for a pillowcase? (SHAM)— I got this because I know "pillowcase" = SHAM. I don't exactly see how "SHAM" = "sorry excuse." I would not use "SHAM" that way. SHAM implies fraud, "sorry" merely weakness. Oh well. Maybe there's some deeper connection to pillowness (or sorriness) that I'm just missing.
• 38D: QB stat: Abbr. (ATT)— short for "attempt" (as in attempted pass, in U.S. football: attempts / completions => completion percentage, an important stat)
• 55D: Fresh perspective (NEW TAKE)— this feels like "Green paint," i.e. something someone might say but not something that really has standalone power. HOT TAKE, yes, NEW TAKE, not really.
• 77D: Starts of some cheers (HIPS) — possibly the most unnecessarily painful clue I've ever seen, emphasis on "unnecessary." You've got a perfectly good word and ... and ... you decided to make it a bizarrely plural (?!) partial cheer (in case you somehow don't know it, the "cheer" in question is "Hip Hip Hooray!"). Unfathomable editorial choice. “Some cheers”?! Name one other. (“Hip-Hop Hooray” doesn’t count)

• 90D: Country that had a nonviolent "singing revolution" in the late 1980s (ESTONIA)— I learn so much about ESTONIA from the crossword. ESTONIA must be the most common seven-letter country, or maybe it just seems that way because This Is Our Third ESTONIA Of The Week!!! When you're pushing ESTONIA that hard, you gotta keep coming up with new, non-boring clues. This week's clues

WEDNESDAY: [What's opposite Finland on the Gulf of Finland]

SATURDAY: [First country to hold elections using internet voting]

TODAY: [Country that had a nonviolent "singing revolution" in the late 1980s]

Impress your friends with ESTONIA lore! Unless you like having friends, in which case don't do that. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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THEME: none

Word of the Day: FRAPPÉS(36D: Ballet exercises done at a barre) —

Literally, struck beating. From the sur la cou-de-pied position (working foot cupped around the ankle of the supporting foot), thrust the working foot forcefully outward to an extended position, a few inches above the floor, devant (in front), à la seconde (to the second position) or derriere (in back), with the ball of the foot brushing on the floor as it moves outward. (Fundamentals of Ballet, Dance 10AB, Professor Sheree King, Long Beach City College)

• • •

["... come on, pretty mama"]

A textbook Saturday, by which I mean something close to a perfect Saturday. Felt very hard, and yet after the typical early flailing, once I got a toehold, I kept making steady progress and never got what you'd call Stuck -stuck. Even places that initially felt intractable (once again, for me, the NW) eventually opened up once I was able to give them a proper shove, coming at them from a different angle. That's one of the other things that's nice about this grid—you have four discrete corners, but you can come at them all from two different directions, so while you may get slowed down, you're never likely to feel cornered. But being appropriately difficult is not the primary thing that makes this puzzle great. As always, it's the quality of the fill that matters most. I think my standards are higher for Fridays than for Saturdays—what I want out of Fridays are scads of colorful marquee answers whooshing across the grid, whereas what I want out of Saturdays is a fight. A fun, fair fight, but a fight. So I'm always happy when Saturdays are not just hard, but bring some brightness and originality in the fill as well. There's not a ton of room for sparkle in those banks of 7s in the NE or SW, but out of those corners come DEATH SPIRAL and PLANT SITTER, two gorgeous, fresh answers. MISO PASTE(1A: Fermented mixture in Japanese cooking) and SPOON REST(17A: Stovetop convenience) also make a gorgeous pair in the NW, with the devilish / hard-to-parse ENTR'ACTES in between (15A: Some theatrical transitions)—love when old crosswordese gets dressed up in its full-phrase regalia. You used to see ENTR' as a standalone entry back in the day, kids; the good old days weren't always good ... oh, damn, looks like we *still* see ENTR' from time to time, though things aren't nearly as bad as they were:

[from xwordinfo ... oof, poor 2005 (eight ENTR's!)]

Then you've got your HOT DATE with your SWEET PEA(S) at the TROPICANA down there in the SE. It's always nice when the puzzle makes your work but makes you feel like the work was worthwhile. I got frustrated a bunch, but I never groaned or eyerolled. I honestly can't ask much more from a Saturday. This is Hoang-Kim Vu's third puzzle of the year. His January 13 themeless was a Puzzle of the Month for me. Wouldn't be surprised if this puzzle finds itself in the same category for June.

The trick with these toughies is getting started. I tend to work short stuff first, so I had ORO and ACRE ... but then not a lot else. Plus I doubted ORO (since there was no Spanish *language* indication in the clue) (4D: What the Royal Crown of Spain is plated with). Oh, I knew ESTHER and guessed MEET, but still, I couldn't gather enough short answers together to get things really moving, so I jumped to the NE where I tried STAT at 10D: "Now!" (ASAP) but then, from the gods of cheesy late-80s pop music came a golden life preserver, thrown just for me, a cheesy late-80s pop connoisseur. I cannot believe that, after 35 years, having the lyrics to "Kokomo" permanently embedded in my head finally paid off. But if you know the song then ARUBA is probably the very first thing that popped into your head at 10A: Locale named in the Beach Boys' "Kokomo." I would sing the chorus for you, but it has the phrase "come on, pretty mama" in it, and so I just can't. Too unbecoming. Oh, what the hell. ARUBA, Jamaica, oooh I'm gonna take ya / Bermuda, Bahama, [whispers] comeonprettymama / Key Largo, Montego, baby why don't we go etc." My wife and I (and maybe our friend Lena) once made up a version of this chorus, but with central New York cities instead of tropical islands. "Elmira, Owego, don't forget Oswego / Deposit, and Conklin, come on Oneonta" etc. Try it with the towns in your area! Anyway, how do you not love a corner that's giving you ARUBA ADUBA(18A: Emmy winner Uzo). Shooby dooby doo. Amazing.

The NE corner filled itself in and I was off ... not exactly "to the races," but I was off. Toughest part of the puzzle, for me, after I got moving, was the STIMTOY / ATRA crossing. I did not know what -DAY was allegedly a [Dreaded time for many], so the MON- part wasn't there. I think I had PEER AT before PEER IN (27A: Go window shopping, perhaps). So the missing MON- and errant AT were already gunking that section up. Then, after I accepted that the puzzle was not going to be a rebus and thus STRESS (BALL) couldn't be right, I thought I'd hit gold (ORO!) with STIMMER. I thought that was the general name of the [Handheld object used to release excess energy] (We had STIMMING in a recent puzzle, so the concept should be familiar to most of you by now if it wasn't already). But the STIMMER is the person STIMMING—a STIM TOY is what they're STIMMING with. As for ATRA, ugh, not good fill, ever (big crosswordese), and the clue did nothing to endear it to me. If it weren't in this crucial position, I wouldn't have cared, but here, ugh. My one "ugh" for this puzzle (35A: ___Plus (pharmacy brand)). Nothing else in the grid really held me up once I got going. Lucked out guessing PÈRES (instead of MÈRES) at 23D: French family members and then lucked out again guessing KAPPA off that "P" (22A: 10th in a series) (once I get past Epsilon, I have no idea what Greek letter goes where). Those answers and ICEE gave me the NW. The SE was easy. The SW felt treacherous (ballet moves! Mysterious Cuban instruments!?). But I had the FESS of FESS UP and the PLANT of PLANT SITTER(51A: Temporary water provider) in place, and I knew who Arundhati ROY was (43A: Arundhati ___, Booker Prize-winning author), so that corner wasn't so tough after all.

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