• STEPS (?) on a CRACK (the “S” actually does not should be concerned right here)
• “FRIDAY the thirteenth”
• A damaged MIR / ROR
• A BLACK CAT crossing your PATH
• WALKS (?) underneath a LADDER (the “S” actually does not should be concerned right here)

Word of the Day: RORQUAL (31A: Streamlined kind of baleen whale) —

Rorquals () are the biggest group of baleen whales, which comprise the household Balaenopteridae, containing ten extant species in three genera. They embody the biggest animal that has ever lived, the blue whale, which may attain 180 tonnes (200 quick tons), and the fin whale, which reaches 120 tonnes (130 quick tons); even the smallest of the group, the northern minke whale, reaches 9 tonnes (10 quick tons).

Rorquals take their identify from French rorqual, which derives from the Norwegian phrase røyrkval: the primary component røyr originated from the Old Norse identify for any such whale, reyðr, most likely associated to the Norse phrase for “crimson”, and the second from the Norse phrase hvalr which means “whale” basically.^[4] The household identify Balaenopteridae is from the kind genus, Balaenoptera.

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***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 recognize), 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 implies 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 contemplate 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 possibly it will not—however each time I attempt to write about 2022, all I can suppose is “nicely, 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 to your sort 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 on daily basis) with Olive sitting on my shoulder, gazing me, and making me giggle. It’s a joyous image. Here, I’m simply gonna put up it once more:

I really like the photograph each as a result of you may inform how goofy she is, and the way goofy she made me. Her loss damage for the apparent causes, but in addition as a result of she was a lot part of my day by day routine, my day by 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 day by day rituals break up and arrange 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, remedy the crossword once more, and many others. But dropping Olive made me reevaluate the day by day, the quotidian, the apparently trivial. In a elementary approach, these small day by day issues *are* life. No someday is so essential, or so totally 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 spotlight given to the issues that matter. If you are studying this, then crossword puzzles are undoubtedly an essential 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 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) in case 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 wished to cease and take a look at this 15×15 (or 21×21 factor) and take it severely, hearken to it, see what it was attempting to do, take into consideration what I favored or did not like about it. In quick, I gave the puzzle my time and a spotlight. And I proceed to do this, on daily basis (Every! Day!). And it’s work. Quite a lot of work. Asking for cash yearly (and solely yearly) is an acknowledgment of that truth. 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 remedy the puzzle, don’t fret: I’ll make the puzzle accessible for everybody a while subsequent month. Please observe: I do not preserve a “mailing listing” and do not share my contributor information with anybody. And in case you give by snail mail and (for some motive) do not need a thank-you card, simply point out “NO CARD.”  Again, as ever, I’m so grateful to your readership and help. Now on to in the present day’s puzzle…

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A themed Friday on Friday the thirteenth—a bit on the nostril. This might’ve been simply one other Friday, which is what Friday the 13ths really are, however since there’s no precise magical motive the day ought to convey dangerous luck, the puzzle has apparently determined to pressure the difficulty and provides us … this (whereas on the identical time depriving us (i.e. me) of the breezy themeless puzzle that’s the one reliably good factor the puzzle has to supply, week in and week out. Bad luck certainly. I do not really thoughts the idea right here—buncha superstitions represented visually. OK. But the execution was painful. Was it purported to be? Like, I am unable to inform if this puzzle is doing a little type of efficiency artwork, the place it is being obnoxious and uneven and ungainly, however … knowingly? I imply, it begins out like a Tuesday, with the gimme PEI (1A: Architect of the Museum of Islamic Art) (not too many three-letter architects to select from) resulting in IDEALS  (3D: Things to dwell as much as) and EELS (21A: Symbols of slipperiness) and bam the entire NW is simply completed, and there is STEPS on a CRACK, so all the pieces is simply revealing itself nearly too quick, after which … nicely, then, issues get each slower and uglier. And that ugliness begins with EMITTER (7D: Pollution supply, say). 

I imply … EMITTER. One who … emits, I suppose. That phrase nearly (however not fairly) makes me miss yesterday’s GETTER. So unbelievable is that phrase that I really cannot decide to the final letter. “Is it really an EMITTEE?,” I ponder (dropping all perspective on the historic -ER v. -EE wars). Normally one would look to the cross to assist kind issues out, however … RORQUAL? I … I … because the expression goes, I used to be in the present day years previous after I discovered what a RORQUAL was. I’ve not often seen a phrase that appears much less like a phrase. I’m imagining a narwhal with a face like a Rorschach take a look at. I really had NARWHAL in there in some unspecified time in the future, and eventually dedicated to the preliminary “R” solely after the damaged MIR/ROR made it simple. EMITTER / RORQUAL is simply terrible—dangerous phrase into obscure phrase. But then we’re again to ridiculous gimmes once more with the theme revealer at 13D: With this reply’s quantity, successful horror film franchise (FRIDAY). And then the pendulum (if not the PITT) swings again to rank obscurity once more with the laughable WTFery of PISANO (!?!?!) (40D: Leonardo ___ (Fibonacci alias)), whereas additionally traversing the complicated corniness of LETTER C (apparently you may simply do that with any letter of the alphabet in case you’re determined sufficient). I completed up with one thing known as a SEA … LADDER? (55A: Dive boat function). Sure, why not, at the least it is inferrable, and each SEA and LADDER are phrases that I can acknowledge. I really suppose this theme is a NEAT IDEA, however the emphasis is on IDEA. The themers are too usually too easy, with the phrases within the varied phrases not even attempting to cover, simply hanging out in road garments (i.e. FRIDAY seems as FRIDAY, PATH as PATH, WALKS as WALKS … they are not hidden inside different phrases or in some other trend). Then there’s the one exception, the damaged MIR/ROR, which is far more within the spirit of the difficult themed puzzle … however the entire EMITTER / RORQUAL factor makes the execution painful as a substitute of pleasant. And as I say within the theme description, circling the final “S” in STEPS and WALKS does not make sense, or slightly, it makes all of it awkward by placing it into the third-person current indicative, main me to surprise: who STEPS on a CRACK, precisely? Just circling STEP and WALK would’ve been fantastic (higher). Look, I’m simply mad they took my Friday themeless away. I used to be briefly consoled by the truth that there was a “good motive” (i.e. there’s solely someday you are able to do this theme, and Friday is the day), however then the journey was so uneven, the execution so … nicely, additionally uneven … that past the “aha” of getting FRIDAY (the thirteenth), there was largely simply disappointment.

I ponder what a Venn diagram representing “People who knew RORQUAL,” “People who knew the person previously often known as Ron ARTEST,” and “People who knew neither RORQUAL nor Ron ARTEST” would seem like (28D: Onetime N.B.A. star Metta Sandiford-___). I do know there’s gonna be some overlap, however I additionally think about that almost all solvers went “whaaa?” at at the least a type of. I used to be lucky sufficient to know the basketball one, however that’s *solely* as a result of I knew that ARTEST’s identify had as soon as been Metta World Peace. So I knew the “Metta,” which was actually the one approach I had of discovering my option to ARTEST. Filling that in was one of many solely occasions I’ve ever felt genuinely dangerous for all of the sports-haters on the market, as a result of as sports activities clues go, that is type of a deep lower. Beyond RORQUAL and PISANO, there wasn’t a lot I hadn’t seen earlier than. BRETT was a complete thriller (I’ve by no means been that large a Hemingway fan, frankly) (33A: Jake’s love curiosity in “The Sun Also Rises”). I’m beginning to surprise if the BRETT / ARTEST / LETTER C crosses messed folks up in the present day. Had DNA earlier than RNA (after all). Couldn’t resolve which spelling of BREACH I used to be purported to go together with (after all) (42D: Violate, as etiquette). Forgot TAWS had been a factor (53D: Fancy marbles). Had RUMBA earlier than SAMBA for some motive (9D: Carnival music). But these are all minor snags that may occur on any day. I didn’t benefit from the puzzle, however I tip my hat to the puzzle for f***ing up Friday in daring thematic trend (slightly than simply ordinarily and unintentionally). Well performed.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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