To Parker Higgins: DEAR SIR (No MADAM, though they often come IN SETS): This fun puzzle FLEW by all too quickly, and as they say in PEORIA, TAINT FAIRE! I won't ASKEW how long it took to construct it (and I'll ADMIT I did BREAK SEVENteen minutes solving it), but I think SAMOSAS an explanation for why she thought you could do the whole thing in rhyme? Thought I would KEEL over when it was done so fast, but thank you, Parker, those AHA moments. I just wish there could be more. YET I'm not sorry to pour myself another STEM of MERLOT and fall to on the rest of my chicken TENDERS. (STOP ME if you think I've had enough already.)
A stag is also a deer sir. (This is not a pun you'll fawn over.)
@Mike You gotta have hart. Anything for a buck. Let the devil take the hind most.
Mike, Again today, your post is a work of hart.
@Mike D'oe! I gnu it! Once again, you're thinking out of the ox. Hi, e-moose!
@Mike et al All y'all are makin' my trigger finger itchy.... My Uncle Charlie Driver's deer sausage goes down in memory as one of the best things I ever ate. I was 14.
Four NYT puzzles now for Parker, and each one has been uber-entertaining. In each, the themes showcase English language quirks teeming with wordplay, puzzles which have simultaneously dropped my jaw and widened my smile. Parker has a marvelous knack for finding these quirks; I don’t know if they just pop into his head or if he belongs to some quirk-study program. But they’re terrific, IMO. If you want to experience or be reminded of his previous three, go to the archives and check out 6/16/22, 5/17/23, and 9/12/24. Today he also widened my smile with some lovely non-theme entries. PREBOARDED, for one, felt fresh to me, and when I looked it up after solving, I saw why – neither it, nor “preboard”, nor “preboards”, nor “preboarding” have ever appeared in any of the major crossword venues. A true debut, plucked out of the ether. Some lovely single-word answers as well: TENDERS (as clued), REGALIA, and the omg gorgeous FULSOME. I also loved column five – KEEL, SRS, LOOT – a palindrome sandwiched by two semordnilaps. Just an abundance of lovely in the box today. Thank you, Parker, for a most splendid outing, and more please!
@Lewis Yes, FULSOME. Delicious!
Quite Wednesdayish, I'd say. No STINKEYE, I hope. Wonder how this one will play in 16A.
This one had me thinking really hard on the themers as I didn't want to simply surrender to getting them from the crosses. Even after I'd caught on, I still had to stop at each one to focus on the first word as a noun, and the strain I could feel in my forehead was completely worth it. The smile on my face came from the legendary Richard AVEDON being so appropriately squeezed between a fine MERLOT and the opulent fashion implied by REGALIA. An artist, he was – and I, as a teenager, would dive into his exquisite world in the pages of Vogue, Elle, and Harper's Bazaar. Thank you for this very creative and enjoyable puzzle, Mr. Higgins.
The emus have had my goods-for-nothing overnight, so with some trepidation I am posting them again…. “Works for me” “Aim for the stars” “Play for a fool” PORTRAITS ACADEMY AWARD TWELFTH NIGHT
@Cat Lady Margaret I see both posts posted at the same time. Murphy's Law! These are great. For "Works for me", SELF-PORTRAITS, perhaps? (Are 13-letter answers ever a thing??)
Cat Lady Margaret, Those waskly emus - they Twelfth Nighted you! The wait did was doubly worth it. Good ones! (I failed at trying [Shoot for the moon] with some kind of risqué photo session. You win the award!)
@Cat Lady Margaret -- Nailed it. These are terrific -- brava!
@Cat Lady Margaret Lovely! (when I first saw "aim for the stars" I thought I was going to read something about toothpaste...)
@Cat Lady Margaret Mwah! I KNEW you'd have the best ones.
A fun, quick puzzle with many groan worthy clues. I particularly liked the clues for FREEBIE and DEARSIR ORMADAM. Even some of the non italicized clues were punny: e.g. SOOT for flue symptom.
[Stop for fuel] GASCAP [Work for peanuts] COMICSTRIP [Down for whatever] HORSEFEATHERS (meh) Hurrah for artisanal intelligence, P. Higgins!
WHERE AM I?! PB with no lookups!! Found it easier than yesterday. Delighted to see Mr. Avedon.
@Hazel F My first on a Wednesday with no lookups and in 30 minutes. Made me think but was very doable!
Good for nothing was a great clue
A breezy, gentle Wednesday—just what the doctor ordered. “STOP ME If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before” by The Smiths is now playing in many crossword puzzle-solving heads: <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SckD99B51IA" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SckD99B51IA</a>
@Sam Lyons And just like that, I'm back in my beloved musical 80's. Thank you for posting this! (And a warm welcome back! 😉)
@Sam Lyons It wasn't, but it is now! Thanks, great song.
@Sam Lyons Fantastic clip! Loved me some Smiths, but I forgot all about this one. Thanks for sharing.
SAMOSAS, not mimosas. Never a good idea to drink in the morning.
I grew up in central Illinois, south of Peoria, and my dad said the phrase "Will it play in Peoria?" came about because Peoria was the last stop in the vaudeville circuit. So if an act played in Peoria, everyone along the circuit had liked it.
The Parker House Hotel, origin of the eponymous rolls, "is a historic hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1855. The current hotel structure dates to 1927." It is now run by Omni, so remember that for your next four-letter [Hotel chain] clue. TIL it was also the inventor of the Boston cream pie. From the wikipedia entry on Parker house rolls: "The story of their creation has several variations,[2][3] but they all involve an angry pastry cook throwing unfinished rolls into the oven, which results in their dented appearance." A pastry chef angry? Impossible!
@Bill Well, they are known for beating the eggs and whipping the cream! [groan]
@Bill Very similar angry origin stories for potato chips (Sarasota) and spicy wings (Buffalo). The northeast is apparently resplendent with spiteful and inventive cookstaff. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
Sam said, "I loved this theme so much that I’m hungry for more examples of phrases that would suit it. If you have any, please drop them in the comments." The only one I could come up with is [throw for a loss] = SNAKE EYES. But I'm expecting Cat Lady Margaret to chime in with, oh, half a dozen great examples.
@Pezhead, haha! I did actually post a few, awhile ago… The emus are enjoying them. We’ll see if they share.
@Pezhead -- [Throw for a loss] -- Hah! Great catch!
Why isn't the photo showing up? Weird! Oh, the puzzle....this was a smooth, quick solve. Worthy of a Monday, I'd say! I did learn that Tarot cards have suits ....and one is called WANDS. I don't know the others, so perhaps the other constructors could remember to fill in the gaps?! And we have a "Girl Sportscaster" named ERIN Andrews. Someday perhaps that won't feel like a trick clue. Ladies can understand sports as well as Gentlemen can, eh? Who'd have thunk it? Okay okay. Just thought we'd like somethiing to fight about..... How dare you? Nobody likes sarcasm! Shut up! Same to you! (Did I about cover it?) Pretty day here. Hard to believe that big swaths of our country are struggling with post-flood issues and ongoing fire-storms. The enormous Blame Game going on is helping no one. We are all blessed by the workers *especially those from Mexico and Canada* who are fighting the fires and helping to contain them.
@Mean Old Lady Does this work? <a href="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/01/15/multimedia/15wordplay-lookfortrouble-header-pbzm/15wordplay-lookfortrouble-header-pbzm-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale" target="_blank">https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/01/15/multimedia/15wordplay-lookfortrouble-header-pbzm/15wordplay-lookfortrouble-header-pbzm-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale</a>
@Mean Old Lady The four suits of a tarot deck are wands, swords, cups (or chalices), and coins (or pentacles): they correspond to clubs, spades, hearts, and diamonds, respectively, of our usual poker deck. Each suit has number cards from ace thru ten, but four face cards--page, knight, queen, and king. In addition, there are 21 numbered picture cards--the Major Arcana (we just had that in a puzzle, last week, as I remember)--with images like The Magician (I) and The World (XXI). The Major Arcana are sometimes referred to as the Greater Trumps. Just so you know. Also, a Fool which belongs to none. Just so you know. So, seventy-six total. Of course, there's a lot of variation, both historical and geographical. In English speaking places, the tarot is used primarily for cartomancy (fortune-telling), but I understand that in some European countries they're primarily used for games specific to that deck. Most of the popular images of tarot cards--especially the arcana major--originate with the Rider-Waite-Smith deck designs (first published 1909--if you can use the verb "publish" in this context), which itself has an interesting history. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rider" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rider</a>%E2%80%93Waite_Tarot
@Mean Old Lady Easy gimme for me, courtesy of the British children's TV series "Ace of Wands" from the early '70s, featuring mystery-solving magician Tarot. <a href="https://imdb.com/title/tt0065269" target="_blank">https://imdb.com/title/tt0065269</a>/
PE_RIA crossing O_OHED was brutal for me. Both PEORIA and OOHED look like random assortments of letters to my Polish eye. I also only sort of understand the theme, and the column did not really make it fully clear. I enjoyed most of the puzzle but the theme was intellectually too intangible for my simple mind.
@Andrzej So, you’re telling me that clue wouldn’t play in Dąbrowa Górnicza?
@Andrzej I immediately thought of you when I read the PEORIA clue! I’m of an age that I found it a gimme… but PEORIA could perhaps be designated the foreign solvers Natick.
As I am of a certain age, all of my stories begin with STOPME. ko is giving me the STINKEYE. I try to tell her that all of you are on pins and needles till I post.... there goes that STINKEYE again. Nice one Parker, thank you
Holy crucivibing, Batman! Nearly the entire puzzle was referring to my dinner yesterday, a song I just heard, the city where I was was born… Eerie. Loved it! And here’s an absolute beauty of a song by Mark Knopfler. One of those I don’t think I could ever tire of… <a href="https://youtu.be/6RKKVQkRnTU?si=hk8VJGwyg_O9qf7n" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/6RKKVQkRnTU?si=hk8VJGwyg_O9qf7n</a>
@CCNY Thanks for that, haven’t heard it in years. Dire Straits had me at Sultans Of Swing back in the late 70’s.
Having spent time on farms as a kid I was curious who would ever think Baling is synonymous with Haying. The only use of hay as a verb I’d ever heard was feeding cows - we need to hay the cattle. So I tried umpteen searches for a source to say to bale and to hay meant the same thing. Nada. I did get results that definitively said they’re not the same thing. I get constructors like to stretch things, but shouldn’t there be at least one example of the usage somewhere in human history? Otherwise we can hay words to have any meaning we want. See? I just did it!
Tom, Crossword clues are hints to and need not be synonyms of answers. I had no problem with [Does some baling] as a hint for HAYS. "Haying basically involves four steps: Mowing (or cutting), tedding, raking, and baling." <a href="https://shelburnefarms.org/about/news-and-stories/haying-101" target="_blank">https://shelburnefarms.org/about/news-and-stories/haying-101</a>
@Tom R - I grew up in a town with several dairy farms, one of which was run by a childhood friend's family, so I spent some time there. The usual definition of the very "hay" to me was "to harvest/cut/mow hay." I had never heard of it meaning "to feed hay to cows" So I went to that googles and looked it up. Indeed, there is a transitive meaning that is "To feed with hay" So, today I learned something! Thank you for that. Oh, wait -- there is an intransitive meaning too, which aligns with the usage I was familiar with. And more: It is not just mowing, it, but also "to cut, cure, and store hay" I would think that the "storing" part could include baling. Heck, modern haying machined <a href="https://merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hay" target="_blank">https://merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hay</a> Remember: it's a crossword, not an agricultural treatise. And there could, perhaps, be regional differences in how the word is used.
Got on first and good for nothing were great clues. Ski slope took embarrassingly long...Super fun overall, though, thanks!
"Ah, a themeless Wednesday", I said to myself. I've been hoping a home would be found for delightful themeless puzzles that are at an early week level, and that's what I thought this was. Oops! No italics in my printed copy, and to me, the themers looked like normal clues to my crossword brain. Not to say I didn't like it. I did. A lot!
This puzzle felt to me like an episode of Mad Men or another breezy throwback to an earlier era. I FLEW through it, so that means there’s hope for everyone today 😆. I have a vague memory of PEORIA being shorthand for average Americans. Today, it’s more common to use “Ohio” to mean any person, place or thing that is ridiculously basic. I would have been done quite a bit earlier but I had ReMI for RAMI. Not knowing [fashion photographer Richard], EVEDON seemed as plausible as AVEDON. Oh, I mixed up the Picasso for the Caravaggio painting and put crossword fave “oboe” on first pass instead of LUTE. 🤦🏾♀️ Oh, I am not missing MERLOTs one bit. The inexpensive, high quality wine here is fantastic 🍷 . Don’t miss it if you visit Portugal! Enjoy the day ☀️
@Pani Korunova Mad Men, breezy? I tried watching that series but all of those people were so nasty or miserable - or both! - I just couldn't take it: it was making me feel depressed 🤣
@Pani Korunova The emus seem to be on a rampage again. I replied to you remarking I found Mad Men depressing rather than breezy, with how nasty and/or miserable the protagonists/antagonists were. I wonder what the "moderators" took exception to... There is no way to know, is there? Meh.
@Pani Korunova Do they still have the wine caves is Villa Nova da Guia?
@Andrzej Pro tip. You should probably not watch HBO’s Succession. Never has a more unlikeable cast of characters been given so much screen time.
Impressive theme! And overall a great puzzle. A lot of really hard thinking indeed. Inspired, I tried to come up with another theme entry. I tried to Fish for answers, but could only Flounder. (I know it doesn't really work).
Fun clues, like 21A, made me smile. We need that. Thank you!
That was a fun one! I really liked the theme answers, though I did not fully appreciate it was a theme. They just seemed like normal clever trickery clues where you have to twist the words to a different meaning. I suppose normally those have question marks.... Anyhow, seemed like a lovely themeless to me, with really fun clues. "Open for business" had me confounded for a bit but was a delightful AHA! Plopped in FooT for "Partner of loose." at 1D at first—once again, proudly flying my Gen X flag! I'm not exactly a RAVER but, hey, let's dance!!
I was a STUDENT, but never a scholar. Yesterday's ALEXTREBEK instantly brought me back to Celebrity Jeopardy on SNL. Thx for Debbie Downer today. Up next, down a YouTube rabbit hole.
@nash.mark My husband (a teacher) told our children never to complain about homework or school because school derives from *schola* which means(meant?) *leisure.* Only the wealthiest could afford to spend their days reading and lounging and learning. Everyone else was working the land and could never imagine such a life of ease. So, if you were a student, you - in effect - were a scholar. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
A nicely clued puzzled that yielded steadily. I didn’t find it a themed puzzle necessarily. I got the drift without the aha moment that comes with a quirky or challenging theme. Seemed like good old crossword clueing and that’s perfectly apt for a Wednesday. I continue to recover from bird flu. Don’t kid yourself as I did, it’s a monster. I woke up with a chorus of mewling kittens in my throat that I’ve been trying to move out for the last hour. And that’s an improvement over the last five days!
In keeping with the theme... Read for pleasure? Could solve to... SMUT
An interesting puzzle. I love FULSOME words like REGALIA and SCAVENGER. HAYS on the other hand. What? We bale hay. We say we’re baling, or hay making. We also mound and turn the hay before we bale. Never have I used HAYS, or heard any farmer use that term in my hearing. Is it a US regional term? Again; what? Scratches head in bewilderment. TIL PEORIA. Esso and HBO as complete guesses before ARCO and PBS, not being familiar with the brand or the programme (note to @Charles; yes, I do still spell it with an ‘extra m and e, it being the correct way to spell programme).
@Helen Wright I think, says the city girl who read a lot of Laura Ingalls Wilder in her long ago youth, that farmers use the word "haying" to describe what they're doing, ergo "hay" as a verb. "Laura, if you hadn't helped me in the haying, little Half Pint, I'd not have put up enough hay. We would have run short before this." (The Long Winter) Yes - I just went and dug up my tattered copy.
@Helen Wright When I was a kid we had Esso (Eastern Standard Oil) in Western Pa. But now the Esso brand survives only in Canada.
@Helen Wright ARCO had been in puzzles twice this week. Worth memorizing, like ESSO.
@Brandon Barr although it's a western brand now, IIRC ARCO is an acronym for Atlantic Richfield COmpany, which one would think to be east coast...
as so often happens I breezed through this puzzle without ever even considering what the theme might be. Got gold. I feel bad when I miss the true creativity. On the other hand it's kind of a treat to be on the same wavelength as the constructor subconsciously if not consciously. Thanks for a very nice puzzle.
Always good to see FULSOME properly used.
FULSOME does not mean abundant, no matter how much news channels misuse it these days. It means offensively flattering or insincere. Apparently we can't even trust the NYT to get it right. And before anyone can tell me that language changes (it does so mostly out of misuse), this definition, as well as notes on this very misuse, comes from my American Heritage dictionary. A book, not an online one.
@Teresa I fear your American Heritage dictionary definition of fulsome is itself an example of how language changes over time. Fulsome originates in Middle English, full+some, meaning...abundant. You of course are not wrong in your defintion, although it is the later of the two. In future, I recommend the Oxford English Dictionary if you are concerned with original meanings. Cheers from the UK!
@Teresa I once thought as you did until an esteemed trust law professor I know, who delights in introducing his eblog followers to strange, but actual, English words, pointed out that the original meaning of “fulsome” had the meaning it has come to (re-)acquire by frequent usage. See this extract from the OED: He meant full, in the sense of “complete,” even “abundant” or “copious,” which is what that word meant in the Middle Ages. But by the 16th century, fulsome's meaning had taken “full” overboard, to “satiating, cloying, excessive.” Shakespeare used it often, meaning “loathsome” and “rank with lust.” The O.E.D.
Teresa, ...and M-W shows both definitions, notes the changes over time, warns of the ambiguity, but doesn't take sides. <a href="https://merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fulsome" target="_blank">https://merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fulsome</a>
@Teresa The point of a dictionary isn't to dictate the way people *should* speak, it's to document the way people *do* speak. There's a similar bit of pedantry in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, when the main character is lectured on her misuse of the word "nice." She comments that a certain book is the "nicest" she's ever read, meaning that it was a good book. The man in the room, naturally, explains to her her error: "nice" does not mean good, it means "neat and clean." Of course, this is all moot, since nowadays "nice" means "kind."
@Teresa The clue was actually [Overly abundant] which is exactly right for FULSOME. The flattering/insincere connotation comes from the overabundance, when it's applied to praise or compliments or apology. As my OED says: "... offending from excess or want of measure or from being ‘over-done’ ..." But I've just had a rather fulsome lunch, and need a bit of a lie down.
Typical long Wednesday workout for me, and must confess that even when I finished I wasn't entirely grasping the theme until I pondered a bit. Even then wasn't sure I was getting it. Had to come here to confirm. No big deal. And... a quite appropriate puzzle find today. A Saturday from August 14, 2018 by Sam Trabucco. This one was all in the clues. One example: "With 7-Down, literally, neither wins nor loses" BREAKS Except that the answer to 7 down was OXES. Hmmm. Oh, ok - turns out that the implied trick was SEVEN down. But the S at the end of BREAKS crossed the down answer at 5 down, which was PRESSEVENT. Here's a shot at showing that: ______P ______R ______E ______S ______S BREAKS ______E ______V ______E ______N ______T So... BREAKS turns into BREAK(SEVEN) One more theme answer example: "With 1-Down, literally, downright dastardly" BADTOTHEB(ONE) You have to go look at it to really see it. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/4/2018&g=23&d=A" target="_blank">https://xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/4/2018&g=23&d=A</a> I'll shut up now. ...
@Rich in Atlanta Two observations: 1) This puzzle disproves the dictum, set in stone, that themes/gimmicks only run Sun-Thurs, and that Fri and Sat are "themeless." 2) As always, my first thought is: "Wow! I would love to go back and solve that!" My second is: "Well,I know the gimmick--why bother:-(" (That last was a frownie-face followed by close-quotations marks, but it looks like I'm drooling.)
@Rich in Atlanta -- Unrelated to your post, but I think you'll appreciate this: In today's puzzle, I was hoping that ODE (7D) would have been ODD, because then this puzzled would have included OOHED and ODD. I'll see myself out.
@Bill Maybe you’re a old as I am, and you could make a note to solve it in a year or so. By then the trick should be purged from your memory.
What a fun puzzle. I smiled a lot. If I hadn't clung to "Foot" for 1D, it would have gone faster. However. So nice to have a Wednesday puzzle that is solvable (soluble? -- note to puzzlers: immersing electronic devices in water is not recommended). Bravo, Parker Higgins! Encore!
Guessed wrongly at the photographer/actor crossing, and another short streak met its end. Tried "E" before "A", and my streak was history. In retrospect, "A" makes a bit more sense there. The theme was decent enough, and some interesting *words* here: REGALIA, SCAVENGERS, HAYS, FULSOME, SKEW, PREBOARDED. Will have to start a new streak tomorrow. Maybe it will last through next week and I'll BREAK SEVEN.
So who else started out with NORMAL in 16A?
@Jamie Not I. But thanks for teaching us that town exists.
@Jamie FWIW, that was the answer 5/15/1994 clued as [Illinois State University site]. Seems to me we’ve had a discussion here not long ago of “normal” schools from which that town got its name, but I don’t remember the context.
@Jamie I think that this was a clue/answer that favors the older generations, for whom PEORIA was probably a gimme. The old trope, "But will it play in PEORIA?", regarding whether a Broadway show would be understood by the "rubes" when it went out on a road tour, has more or less fallen out of use lately, but us olds remember it well. A show that would play in PEORIA would continue to make money after its original run was done, so that was considered a good thing.
Well, here are my goods-for-nothing: “Works for me” “Aim for the stars” “Play for a fool” PORTRAITS ACADEMY AWARD TWELFTH NIGHT
There are no italicized clues in the print-out version of the puzzle, so I had trouble finding the theme. Glad I checked this column to see what I missed.
@Jeff For some unknown reason, I had a hunch to check the newspaper version after I printed out the regular pdf. So I noted the italicized clues. But it did not help me see the theme, other than the themers being sorta-kinda punny.
@Jeff that's odd. newspaper and online solve are italicized, but non-newspaper print version has question marks to indicate wordplay.
I was held up for too long by my misspelling of BERMUDA. I had an U for the first E. Which made sense in my mind for 35A. [Gig makeup?] Oh, yeah, MUGS. Because drag queens call their painted faces that they prep for gigs “mugs.” Oof, guess the start of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17 has been occupying my mind!
"Pretty decent" as George Carlin might say. Or "a place for everything in its place" as per my maternal Grannie. A very neat 20 minute Wednesday romp
@Calhouri "...I'm not unwell, thank you"
I finished yesterday's and today's in exactly the same time
@Bill in Yokohama I filled the grid faster than a typical Wednesday. Still, today's puzzle took me 70% longer than yesterday's, but also 10% less than last week's Tuesday.
@Bill in Yokohama My Wednesday time was 64% of my Tuesday time. Stated differently, I beat my Tuesday time by almost three minutes. But of course, there wasn't a football game playing in the background when I solved the Wednesday puzzle last night.
Guessing American names again. Wrong again. I crossed [San Diego pro] with ["Nova" airer]: cADRE / cBS. Seemed OK to me ...
Oikofuge, Understandable that you would not know whether "Nova" was aired on the Public or Columbia BS, but [San Diego pro] calls for a singular answer, which IMO should rule out cADRE. Not that I expect you to know PADRE; from your earlier comments, I gather if the clue had been [Scottish pro] (six letters) you might not know RANGER or CELTIC.
@Oikofuge It’s nice to see love blossoming in the NYT X-word comments section.
@Oikofuge in crosswords usually “[city] pro” is a singular of one of the professional sports team nicknames in that city. San Diego only has MLB so Padre(s)
Wonderful Wednesday wordplay! Thanks Parker...you're on a roll!
This puzzle had an "retro" feel to me, maybe something about the style of cluing?
STOPME if you've heard this before but there were no italicized clues in the pdf version (how difficult would that have been?). So this solved as a themeless for me which was no problem at all since the noun/verb switcheroo came naturally. Zoomed through until I hit the speedbump at FUR/RENFAIRE. One of these days I'll remember how to spell the South Asian specialty. I could offer that there is a Tamil Nadu version called *somas* but I ain't that smart. Great puzzle and thanks.
@John Carson Apparently, very difficult. The version you print out never accommodates the slightest divergence from the strict norm of everyday puzzling, and this seems to extend to italics. This must have been a very early form of making the puzzle printable, and has not been eliminated because even when outdated, the removal of anything causes an uproar from those who are set in their ways and don't want to give it up. (Remember the Across Lite fiasco?) The Newspaper Version is always available and always provides the puzzle as it is intended. When the divergence from the norm is great enough that the other version cannot be used at all, the Newspaper Version appears no matter which version you select.
Maybe I'm being absurd-even I can't tell anymore-but don't these two icons look alike? (The first being a portrait by Richard Avedon) <a href="https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/337644?position=337644&context=special&id=12" target="_blank">https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/337644?position=337644&context=special&id=12</a> <a href="https://davidbowie.com/1975-grammy-close-up" target="_blank">https://davidbowie.com/1975-grammy-close-up</a>
@ad absurdum I wonder if it was deliberate? Updating the wonderful Ms Hepburn to look like the divine David Bowie?
@ad absurdum It's all in the (razor-sharp) cheekbones!
@ad absurdum The cover of Bowie's album, Heroes, is a better comparison! <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki</a>/%22Heroes%22_(album)#/media/File:David_Bowie_-_Heroes.png
@ad absurdum et al. <a href="https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skrik#/media/Fil:Skriget_litografi.jpg" target="_blank">https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skrik#/media/Fil:Skriget_litografi.jpg</a>
Fun solve - the italicized clues were satisfyingly clever. Only nit is the proper name Natick in the SW corner, neither of whom I was familiar with.
@tmillermsu Totally agree about the Natick. Esoteric to the third degree. I vaguely knew of Mr. Malek’s first name due to the buzz about his lead in the Queen biopic, but I thought it was ReMI. Crossing that vowel with someone even more obscure, well… But a fun puzzle, nonetheless.
@Gig it’s worth memorizing RAMI Malek since his short, vowel-rich name seems to come up in crosswords regularly. I also keep misremembering the spelling as Remi, so I empathize!
@Eliza W But AVEDON obscure?!? I can’t think of a rival to him for the title of most important fashion photographer of the 20th century. Annie Liebowitz, perhaps, but I think of her as a celebrity portraitist, not mainly a fashion photographer. I don’t even think there’s a 21st century equal.