Sean McGowan

@Lewis Nice catch! You are correct — BRINGS UP THE REAR has appeared before, in the pre-Shortz era. Thanks for calling it out and I appreciate the kind words about the column.

@Grumpy Guilty as charged. Thanks for letting me know, next time I'll get it right! I have too much respect for Looney Tunes to not report on them with 100% accuracy.

@Rachel Thanks for the puzzle! Also love that your mom dropped in to say hey. We gotta add a "Constructor's Parent Notes" section to the column.

@Tom Now I'm curious too! According to XWordInfo (a great resource if you're interested in answer frequency), NYT has appeared 47 times in the New York Times Crossword.

@Barry Ancona Not at all! I don't consider it a fault of puzzle construction, just an uncommon entry that I thought others might also have difficulty with (though reading these comments, I may be in the minority of not knowing about NO SEE UMS). Either way, whenever there's word I don't know, I'm always glad to learn it. It's a major reason why I solve in the first place! Still, thank you for this reminder — that is important to keep in mind when we're analyzing crosswords.

@Peter Someone has already posted this, but I'll confirm that this clue is referring to vocal runs, where one syllable is sung across multiple notes.

@Lewis Thank you! You're right — I had incorrectly counted SQUARE UP as a debut, but it has appeared before (way back in 1960!)