Constructor: Wyna Liu

Relative issue: Medium (theme was straightforward to uncover, however fill was typically thorny)

THEME: “Do You Hear That?” — My puzzle got here with notes: “Note: Each italicized clue incorporates a clean, which must be stuffed with a letter of the alphabet. When accomplished, the letters so as will spell out a two-word phrase.” Every theme clue is a phonetic rebus puzzle, the place one single-letter factor is lacking; the letters find yourself spelling out “SOUNDS GOOD” (presumably a solution to the puzzle’s title query) (?):

Theme solutions:

• PRINCESS DI (26A: “Presses CTRL+P + ___ + Easter egg coloring”) (Prints + “S” + Dye)
• AU COURANT (28A: “___ + Scroungy mutt + Parent’s sister, in some areas”) (“O” + Cur + Aunt)
• EUPHORIC (44A: “___ + Golfer’s cry + ‘Ugh!'”) (“U” + “Fore!” + “Ick!”)
• ROSE GARDEN (46A: “Column crossers + Sentry + ___” (Rows + Guard + “N”)
• CANDY CANE (66A: “French competition, familiarly + ___ + Actor Michael”) (Cannes + “D” + Caine)
• ALL-ACCESS (70A: “Punching instrument + Chopping instrument + ___”) (Awl + Axe + “S”)
• NON-APOLOGY (90A: “Tandoor bread + Harlem music venue + ___”) (Naan + Apollo + “G”)
• AUTOFILL (93A: “Word of obligation + ___ + Punxsutawney identify”) (Ought + “O” + Phil)
• TAE KWON DO (107A: “Rug rat + Magic stick + ___”) (“O”) (Tyke + Wand + “O”)
• GOLDILOCKS (110A: “Soccer rating + ___ + Scottish inlets”) (Goal + “D” + Lochs)

Word of the Day: OSCEOLA (57D: Influential chief of the Seminole folks) —

Osceola (1804 – January 30, 1838, Asi-yahola in Creek), named Billy Powell at start in Alabama, turned an influential chief of the Seminole folks in Florida. His mom was Muscogee, and his great-grandfather was a Scotsman, James McQueen. He was reared by his mom within the Creek (Muscogee) custom. When he was a baby, they migrated to Florida with different Red Stick refugees, led by a relative, Peter McQueen, after their group’s defeat in 1814 within the Creek Wars. There they turned a part of what was often known as the Seminole folks.

In 1836, Osceola led a small group of warriors within the Seminole resistance through the Second Seminole War, when the United States tried to take away the tribe from their lands in Florida to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. He turned an adviser to Micanopy, the principal chief of the Seminole from 1825 to 1849. Osceola led the Seminole resistance to elimination till he was captured on October 21, 1837, by deception, below a flag of truce, when he went to a website close to Fort Peyton for peace talks. The United States first imprisoned him at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, then transported him to Fort Moultrie in Charleston, South Carolina. He died there a number of months later of causes reported as an inner an infection or malaria. Because of his renown, Osceola attracted guests in jail, together with famend artist George Catlin, who painted maybe probably the most well-known portrait of the Seminole chief.

• • •

***HELLO, READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS*** How is the brand new 12 months treating you? Well, I hope. Me, uh, not nice to this point (COVID, you already know), however I’m 95% higher, and was by no means terribly sick to start with, so I’ve each motive to consider issues will flip round for me shortly, thank God (and vaccines). Anyway, it is early January, which suggests it is time as soon as once more for my annual week-long pitch for monetary contributions to the weblog. Every 12 months I ask readers to think about what the weblog is price to them on an annual foundation and provides accordingly. I’m unsure what to say about this previous 12 months. This will sound bizarre, or melodramatic—or perhaps it will not—however each time I attempt to write about 2022, all I can assume is “effectively, my cat died.” She (Olive) died this previous October, very younger, of a silly congenital coronary heart downside that we simply could not repair (thanks all in your type phrases of condolence, by the way in which). I’m wanting on the photograph I used for final 12 months’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 every single day) with Olive sitting on my shoulder, looking at me, and making me giggle. It’s a joyous image. Here, I’m simply gonna put up it once more:

I like the photograph each as a result of you’ll be able to 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 every day routine, my every 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 every day rituals break up and manage the day, mark time, floor you. They’re straightforward to trivialize, these rituals, exactly as a result of they *aren’t* particular. Feed the cats once more, make the espresso once more, resolve the crossword once more, and so on. But shedding Olive made me reevaluate the every day, the quotidian, the apparently trivial. In a elementary means, these small every day issues *are* life. No at some point is so vital, or so totally different from the others, however cumulatively, they add up, and thru the times upon days you develop a apply—a apply 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 important, my real love for crosswords—for the way in which my mind lights up on crosswords—comes by way of. I additionally hope that the weblog brings you leisure, perception, laughter … even (particularly) if you happen to 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 have a look at this 15×15 (or 21×21 factor) and take it significantly, hearken to it, see what it was attempting to do, take into consideration what I preferred or did not like about it. In quick, I gave the puzzle my time and a focus. And I proceed to do this, every single day (Every! Day!). And it’s work. Numerous 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 are not any adverts, ever. I choose 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 (because of Rachel Fabi and Neville Fogarty for proofing it for me!). For non-snail-mailers who wish to resolve the puzzle, don’t be concerned: I’ll make the puzzle accessible for everybody a while subsequent month. Please observe: I do not maintain a “mailing checklist” and do not share my contributor data with anybody. And if you happen to 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 assist. Now on to in the present day’s puzzle…

• • •

This puzzle landed with a PHO! That is, PHO was my final phrase, so that’s the place the puzzle … landed. I ate PHO this previous week after I was feeling my COVID-worst, and I’m not going to say it cured me, as a result of it positively didn’t, but it surely made me really feel significantly better. I principally simply drank the broth, with somewhat of the accompanying sizzling sauce added, and if it wasn’t magic, it certain felt prefer it. Speaking of magic—this puzzle feels a bit like a magic trick, the way in which multi-layered puzzles typically can. It was an fascinating puzzle to resolve (as I did) instantly after watching “Glass Onion” (2022), which opens with an elaborate, multi-layered puzzle—maybe not shocking for a puzzle that has an onion as its central (titular!) metaphor. Layers! The layers on this puzzle have been enjoyable to work by way of, although “work” seems like a little bit of misnomer, in that I simply smashed by way of them as quickly because the idea turned clear (the way in which one of many characters in “Glass Onion” simply smashes her intricate puzzle field to get what’s inside relatively than work by way of all of the … layers). Since I learn the “Puzzle Notes” that got here with the puzzle, I might inform after one or two themers what was occurring, and so I took the ball and I ran with it, working by way of alllll of the remaining theme solutions with out even having to have a look at the crosses—besides AUTOFILL! I knew that the “O” went within the clue’s clean, however I simply couldn’t consider a phrase that ended “O’Fill,” which I saved listening to Irishly. So I needed to actually work that space to make AUTOFILL present up. But as you’ll be able to see, I completely flattened all of the others:

[CANDY DANE is a typo, obvs]

You’ll recall (perhaps) that final week’s Sunday puzzle was so much like this, in that when I had the puzzly key to determining the remaining themers, I ended fixing systematically and simply went in any respect the themers immediately, bam bam bam. It provides you a little bit of a rush to resolve this fashion, to run the desk the second you’ve the ability, but it surely does go away you in a type of anticlimactic place thereafter, with the theme all wrung out and simply numerous empty house to fill in. Thankfully, the grid itself is fascinating and energetic, past the theme. The clues have been prickly at instances, too, so I by no means felt too bored or too complacent. Things received somewhat dicey within the OSCEOLA part (partially due to my “CANDY DANE” typo, partially as a result of I actually do not actually know who OSCEOLA is) and once more within the ASIANA / PASEO area (I do know each phrases … however solely kinda sorta). Did not know the “Ghostbusters” automotive was known as the ECTOMOBILE. And forgot that Lil Wayne’s tune was known as “A MILLI“—I at all times hear it as “I’M ILLI”… like … ILLI being some model of “in poor health” … sigh. Luckily HASP was unimpeachable after which my dumb mind realized that “A MILLI” is (most likely) quick for “1,000,000.” Fun with phrases (15 years late)! 

The “reply” phrase in the present day—”SOUNDS GOOD“—is just not what I’d name spot-on, in that I do not actually understand how “GOOD” suits in. The means I’m deciphering it’s that the puzzle is taking part in with the widespread phrase “SOUNDS GOOD” by asking me to mentally repunctuate it; the puzzle title asks me “Do You Hear That?” and I, the solver, mentally reply: “SOUNDS? GOOD!” As in “Oh, we’re coping with sounds? … cool.” Anyway, it is all good (!) sufficient for me. There actually wasn’t a lot that bothered me about this one. Didn’t like IOU crossing AE … IOU (14D: Ambidextrous options?) (observe: “Ambidextrous” is a supervocalic, i.e. it incorporates one in all every vowel (no “Y”s)) (observe: “supervocalic” is itself a supervocalic). The puzzle most likely ought to’ve saved “stick” out of the TAE KWON DO clue (107A) since STICK stands out within the grid like a sore stick (in DIPSTICK) (59A: Insult that is additionally a measurement system). My favourite mistake was after I first learn 61A: “The landlords of New York,” e.g. (ASTORS) and tried to play ACTORS … on the identical time I used to be considering “effectively I do know there are numerous them there, however that does not really feel proper…” Best solutions of the day for me have been the delightfully self-contradicting “YEAH, NO” (96D: “Nice attempt, however I do not assume so”), the onomatopoeic “TAP TAP” (62D: [Is this thing on?]), and the sudden however good detrimental phrase NO GENTLEMAN (68D: Hardly Mr. Nice Guy). Highest struggle-to-word-length ratio got here with “WELP,” the clue for which (108D: “Eh, what are you able to do?!”) I utterly misinterpret in my head. I learn it as confrontational, as if the speaker have been chatting with an precise “you” and did not assume “you” have been gonna be capable of do squat, i.e. “Eh, what can you do, you incompetent boob!?” I used to be most likely meant to listen to one thing extra like, “Ah, effectively, whaddyagonna do?” which is much extra the vibe of “WELP?” But the clue is correct sufficient, if not crystal clear. 

Explainers:

• 71D: Path coated with diamonds (CARPOOL LANE) — The CARPOOL LANE is commonly signaled by a diamond, and even known as the Diamond Lane
• 105A: Couple of llamas? (ELLS) — There are a few “L”s in “llama.” There are additionally two “A”s in “llama,” so I’m unsure it is the most effective clue, however I assume the “L”s are extra really a pair, in that they’re subsequent to one another, and anyway, the clue would not say there aren’t different {couples}
• 41A: Número de “Años de Soledad” in a Gabriel García Márquez novel (CIEN) — CIEN = “100,” which is the variety of Years of Solitude within the Marquez title
• 37D: Literary award formed like a rocket (HUGO) — The HUGO is the Science-Fiction / Fantasy award, therefore the form

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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