Constructor: Victor Barocas

Relative problem: Easy

THEME: LIES / UNDER / OATH (70A: With 71- and 72-Across, commits perjury … or what might be discovered 4 occasions on this puzzle) — actually, the phrase “LIE” might be discovered immediately beneath an “OATH” (i.e. a gentle swear phrase) 4 occasions on this puzzle

The quote-unquote OATHS:

• CAR GOSH IPS (18A: Vessels with massive containers)
• M EGAD EALS (37A: Front-page mergers and acquisitions, e.g.)
• BON DRAT IO (44A: Investment information calculation)
• DANG ERSIGN (59A: Exclamation level inside a yellow triangle, for one)

Word of the Day: NOLITA (35A: Manhattan neighborhood subsequent to SoHo) —

Nolita, generally written as NoLIta and deriving from “North of Little Italy“, is a neighborhood within the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Nolita is located in Lower Manhattan, bounded on the north by Houston Street, on the east by the Bowery, on the south roughly by Broome Street, and on the west by Lafayette Street. It lies east of SoHo, south of NoHo, west of the Lower East Side, and north of Little Italy and Chinatown. // The neighborhood was lengthy thought to be a part of Little Italy, however has misplaced its recognizable Italian character in latest a long time due to quickly rising rents. […] In the second half of the Nineties, the neighborhood noticed an inflow of yuppies and an explosion of costly retail boutiques and eating places and bars. After unsuccessful tries to pitch it as a part of SoHo, actual property promoters and others got here up with a number of completely different names for consideration for this newly upscale neighborhood. The title that caught, as documented in an article on May 5, 1996, within the New York Times metropolis part debating numerous monikers for the newly stylish space, was Nolita, an abbreviation for North of Little Italy. This title follows the sample began by SoHo (South of Houston Street) and TriBeCa (Triangle Below Canal Street). (wikipedia)

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***HELLO, READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS*** How is the brand new yr treating you? Well, I hope. Me, uh, not nice to date (COVID, you recognize), however I’m 95% higher, and was by no means terribly sick to start with, so I’ve each motive to imagine issues will flip round for me shortly, thank God (and vaccines). Anyway, it is early January, which implies it is time as soon as once more for my annual week-long pitch for monetary contributions to the weblog. Every yr I ask readers to contemplate what the weblog is value to them on an annual foundation and provides accordingly. I’m undecided what to say about this previous yr. This will sound bizarre, or melodramatic—or possibly it will not—however each time I attempt to write about 2022, all I can suppose is “effectively, my cat died.” She (Olive) died this previous October, very younger, of a silly congenital coronary heart drawback that we simply could not repair (thanks all in your form phrases of condolence, by the best way). I’m trying on the picture I used for final yr’s fundraising pitch, and it is a image of me sitting at my desk (this desk, the one I’m typing at proper now, the one I write at day-after-day) with Olive sitting on my shoulder, observing me, and making me snigger. It’s a joyous image. Here, I’m simply gonna put up it once more:

I like the picture each as a result of you possibly can inform how goofy she is, and the way goofy she made me. Her loss harm for the plain causes, but additionally as a result of she was a lot part of my each day routine, my each day rhythms and rituals. She was on a regular basis. Quotidian. Just … on me, close to me, being a weirdo, particularly within the (very) early mornings after I was scripting this weblog. She took me out of myself. She additionally made me conscious of how a lot the quotidian issues, how each day rituals break up and manage the day, mark time, floor you. They’re simple to trivialize, these rituals, exactly as a result of they *aren’t* particular. Feed the cats once more, make the espresso once more, remedy the crossword once more, and many others. But dropping Olive made me reevaluate the each day, the quotidian, the apparently trivial. In a elementary approach, these small each day issues *are* life. No someday is so vital, or so completely different from the others, however cumulatively, they add up, and thru the times upon days you develop a follow—a follow of affection, care, and a focus given to the issues that matter. If you are studying this, then crossword puzzles are undoubtedly an vital ritual for you, simply as writing about crosswords for you all is a crucial ritual for me. It provides me a lot. I hope that even at my most crucial, my real love for crosswords—for the best way my mind lights up on crosswords—comes by. I additionally hope that the weblog brings you leisure, perception, laughter … even (particularly) when you disagree with me a lot (most? all?) of the time. 

[man, I really wear the hell  out of this red fleece…]

The weblog started years in the past as an experiment in treating the ephemeral—the here-today, gone-tomorrow—prefer it actually mattered. I needed to cease and take a look at this 15×15 (or 21×21 factor) and take it severely, take heed to it, see what it was attempting to do, take into consideration what I preferred or did not like about it. In brief, I gave the puzzle my time and a focus. And I proceed to try this, day-after-day (Every! Day!). And it’s work. A variety of work. Asking for cash annually (and solely annually) is an acknowledgment of that reality. There is nothing to subscribe to right here … no Substack or Kickstarter or Patreon … and there aren’t any adverts, ever. I favor to maintain monetary issues easy and direct. I’ve no “hustle” in me past placing my ass on this chair each morning and writing.

I had enjoyable making this puzzle (due to Rachel Fabi and Neville Fogarty for proofing it for me!). For non-snail-mailers who need to remedy the puzzle, don’t be concerned: I’ll make the puzzle obtainable for everybody a while subsequent month. Please observe: I do not maintain a “mailing record” and do not share my contributor data with anybody. And when you give by snail mail and (for some motive) do not desire a thank-you card, simply point out “NO CARD.”  Again, as ever, I’m so grateful in your readership and help. Now on to as we speak’s puzzle…

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I preferred the position of the revealer on this one, as it’s actually mendacity underneath … effectively every thing else within the grid. Just hanging on the market on the backside taking over the entire row. And that SW nook should maintain some type of file for Most Theme-Dense 3×4 part in NYTXW historical past, with the primary “E” in ELIE being the one one in all a dozen letters down there *not* concerned in thematic materials. So structurally, the puzzle is fascinating, in at the very least a few methods. But general, regardless of being (as soon as once more) very simple, this was one thing of a SLOG. Maybe the entire premise was simply too quaint for me, or too repetitive. GOSH? I get that each one these “oaths,” in actual fact the very phrase “oath” on this since, is old school, and so we have been by no means gonna see one thing like F*** or SH** over LIE, however … GOSH? Wow. That is … delicate. I believe the issue right here is that GOSH EGAD DRAT and DANG aren’t simply “oaths”—they’re particularly “minced oaths,” i.e. “euphemistic expression(s) fashioned by intentionally misspelling, mispronouncing, or changing part of a profane, blasphemous, or taboo phrase or phrase to scale back the unique time period’s objectionable traits” (wikipedia) (emph. mine). “Oaths” are out-and-out coarse or blasphemous phrases—”minced oaths” are the silly issues individuals do after they’re pretending they don’t seem to be truly swearing (like saying “frickin'” or “friggin'” or “a-hole”). So what you have actually obtained right here on this puzzle is LIES UNDER (MINCED) OATHS, and their … mincedness … was somewhat cloying. And, as I say, repetitive. LIE LIE LIE LIE sigh. And there aren’t any correct “theme solutions,” since nothing thematic is occurring within the solutions themselves, or their clues. There’s simply one thing each cutesy and dreary about the entire endeavor.