Have you heard of Jibbitz shoe charms? I hadn’t until I completed Erik Agard’s puzzle in the New Yorker this week. They are little charms you stick onto your crocs.

You can get zillions of them. God Bless America!

Friday’s NYTXW was by a very popular constructor, Robyn Weintraub, and it was chock full of neat stuff. I learned that a humorous term for raccoon is TRASH PANDA, because those rings around their eyes are sort of like a panda’s and they root through trash. There’s a minor league ballclub in Madison, Alabama called the Rocket City Trash Pandas.

The answer for “Superior dwellings, say,” was LAKE HOUSES (think Lake Superior), and “A glengarry is one, in the shape of a boat,” was a stellar clue for HAT. Here’s what they look like:

“What a raised index finger might represent,” was the clue for ONE. But LMS said: “’What a raised finger might represent’ – your inability to answer the question because you’ve just stuffed your mouth with a massive forkload of meatloaf and won’t be able to speak for, like, thirty seconds.”

The clue for RENE was: “La Rana _______ (Kermit’s name in the Latin American version of Sesame Street).” Seriously? Here’s what he looks like in Spanish:

The clue for ROSA was “‘The Horse Fair’ artist, Bonheur.” You’ve probably seen the enormous painting. It’s 8′ x 16.5′ in size and has been on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1887. The Met calls it one of its best known works of art.

Bonheur painted The Horse Fair from a series of sketches she made at the Paris horse market. She attended the market twice weekly for a year and a half. She sought a “permission de travestissement” from the Paris police to dress as a man, to avoid drawing attention to herself. (In 1800, the police issued an “anti-revolutionary” order forbidding women to dress in men’s clothing without permission. (The order remained in effect for 213 years in Paris!) The cafe named for Bonheur in Paris has her permit on display.)

Today’s puzzle has four answers that span the grid (15-letters long). The best (IMO) was “Isn’t able to control the outcome of one’s actions,” with the answer: CREATES A MONSTER. Here’s a scary one!

Additional small points:

Khaki (per LMS) — “What my daughter’s friend in Boston starts his car with.”

CETE: a group of badgers

Sigmatism: to speak with a LISP.

“Shade of brown paint,” was OTTER. Here’s what it looks like:

And here’s a riddle for you: What’s blue and smells like red paint?

ANS: Blue paint.

“Early role for Britney Spears” was MOUSEKETEER. Britney! — wha hoppin?

Last (on the puzzles), “Actress Tyler” was LIV. Liv was born in Mount Sinai Hospital in NY in 1977, so she’s 45. Her mom is Bebe Buell, model, singer, and former Playboy Playmate (Miss November, 1974) and her biological dad is Steven Tyler, lead singer of Aerosmith. But she was Liv Rundgren at birth. Bebe had a brief fling with Tyler, but was living with musician Todd Rundgren, who is Liv’s legal and adoptive dad, and acted as a father figure to her.

Liv’s partner is David Gardner, a British sports and entertainment manager. They have two children: a son, Sailor Gene (7), and a daughter, Lula Rose (6).

From wikipedia:

“Tyler is an active supporter of UNICEF. She was appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador for the U.S. in 2003. In November 2004, she hosted the lighting of the UNICEF Snowflake in NYC. She was also a spokesperson for the 2004 Givenchy Mother’s Day promotion in support of UNICEF’s Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus campaign.

“Since 2004, she has donated to the Women’s Cancer Research Fund to support innovative research, education, and outreach directed at the development of more effective approaches to the early diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of all women’s cancers. In October 2007, Tyler, with her mother Bebe Buell and her grandmother Dorothea Johnson, helped launch the Emergen-C Pink energy drink, in an event in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month.”

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Kudos to our beloved Max Fried, Atlanta’s Jewish ace, who came in second in the NL Cy Young Award voting this year. Last year he won the clinching game of the World Series for the Braves, cooling Houston’s hot bats for six brilliant innings. Max’s nickname is Maximus and his middle name is Dorian. He won the Gold Glove (fielding award) for NL pitchers three years running, and he won the NL Silver Slugger award (best hitter at his position) in 2021, the last year it will be awarded since pitchers no longer bat in the NL.

Max is single. He has dated Rose Lavelle, brilliant soccer player on the US team that won the 2019 Women’s World Cup. Lavelle scored three goals in the tournament and was named 6th best player in the world in 2019.

Max credits ex-Bosox outfielder Reggie Smith (Hi Don!) with teaching him how to throw a curve ball and for many of his baseball skills. Fried attended Reggie’s baseball academy starting at age seven. Smith made it a priority to have Fried throw his curve in a way that puts minimal stress on his arm. They are still close. Here’s what Smith said recently:

“I’m very proud of Max. We stayed in contact during the season. If I see something or he has something he wants to bounce off me we talk. He also checks on me to see how I’m doing. That’s how good a heart and passionate he is. He checks on me to make sure I’m doing OK.”

It’s not just Reggie, Max, we’re all very proud of you.