January 12, 2026

Title: SINGLES MIXER

Constructor: Emily Biegas

Editor: Amanda Rafkin

Theme synopsis:

• THAT'S NO EXCUSE (20A: "Your story doesn't justify your actions")
• HERE GOES NOTHING (35A: "All right ... let's do this!")
• GOOD VIBES ONLY (50A: "No haters allowed")

SINGLES MIXER: Each theme answer contains an anagram of the word ONES (a synonym of SINGLES): THAT'S NO EXCUSE, HERE GOES NOTHING, and GOOD VIBES ONLY.

What I learned from today's puzzle:

• OLDE (13A: Taylor's ___ Fashioned Soda Shoppe (location in "Gilmore Girls")) Gilmore Girls (2000-2007) is a TV series following the lives of Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) and her teenage daughter Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel) who live in the fictional town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut. One of the stores in Stars Hollow is Taylor's OLDE Fashioned Soda Shoppe. I've never watched Gilmore Girls, but I thought the answer here was fairly inferable.
• CARA (34A: "Stranger Things" actress Buono) Stranger Things (2016-2025) is a Netflix TV series about a small town dealing with a hostile alternate dimension. CARA Buono portrays Karen Wheeler, who is the mother of three of the kids on the show: Nancy, Mike, and Holly.

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• BBC (5A: BritBox parent co.) BritBox is a streaming service owned by BBC. In addition to original programming, BritBox offers access to current and past BBC and ITV (Independent Television, a British TV network) movies and TV series.
• PINES (16A: Some conifers) and SPRUCE (8D: Many a Christmas tree) I appreciate the fact that the answer PINES and SPRUCE are crossing in the grid. SPRUCE trees are members of the family Pinaceae, or PINES.
• ROGET (19A: Name on thesauruses) In 1852, Peter Mark ROGET published a book titled Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases Classified and Arranged as to Facilitate the Expression of Ideas and Assist in Literary Composition. Whew! Thank goodness it's now more commonly referred to as ROGET's Thesaurus. Peter Mark ROGET (1779-1869) was a physician, theologian, and lexicographer. After his death, his son, John Lewis ROGET (1828-1908), and then his grandson, Samuel Romilly ROGET (1875-1953) continued his work. 
• HAL (23A: Antagonist in "2001: A Space Odyssey") The 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey was produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. HAL 9000 is the name of the sentient supercomputer in the movie.
• COLE (29A: Tony-award winning Escola who wrote "Oh, Mary!") I have previously written about COLE Escola. They not only wrote the musical Oh, Mary!, but also originated the role of Mary, a role for which they won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.
• MAUL (33A: Darth ___ (Sith Lord)) In the Star Wars franchise, Darth MAUL is a powerful Sith Lord who made his first appearance in Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace (1999).
• UDON (38A: Noodle option for dashi) Dashi stock is made by heating water containing edible kelp and other ingredients and then straining the liquid. Dashi is used as a base for soup, such as the traditional Japanese soup kitsune UDON.
• WORSE (40A: Better alternative at a wedding?) A question mark at the end of a clue alerts solvers to expect some wordplay. This is a fun question mark clue that's a bit tricky. The clue is a reference to the traditional phrase from some wedding vows, "for better or WORSE." In that phrase, "WORSE" is the alternative of "better."
• BONNET (5D: Scotch ___ (chili pepper named after a hat)) A Scotch BONNET pepper supposedly resembles the Scottish tam o'shanter BONNET, which is how it got its name. The Scotch BONNET has a Scoville Scale rating of 100,000-350,000 SHU (Scoville Heat Units). That's a similar heat rating to a habanero pepper.
• SWING (21D: "___ Low, Sweet Chariot") "SWING Low, Sweet Chariot" is an African American spiritual dating to the late 1860s. It was composed by father and daughter Wallace Willis and Minerva Willis. 
• HURT (35D: Nine Inch Nails song covered by Johnny Cash) Trent Reznor, the founder of the rock band Nine Inch Nails, wrote the song "HURT," which the band recorded for its 1994 album The Downward Spiral. As the clue informs us, Johnny Cash covered "HURT" in 2002 for his album American IV: The Man Comes Around. Johnny Cash's cover of "HURT" is considered one of his best songs. The music video for Johnny Cash's version – filmed just seven months before he died in 2003 – features images from his youth and his older years. It won a Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video.
• EAR (54D: Elote unit) Elote is the term used in Central America and Mexico for an EAR of corn.
• A few other clues I especially enjoyed:
• OPEN (17A: Common neon sign word)
• SPIN (31A: Take a turn in Twister)
• OPAL (52D: Word derived from the Sanskrit for "jewel")

The word MIXER in the title had me looking for anagrams. At first I was looking for anagrams of SINGLES, but when that didn't bear out I took a closer look. "Aha!" I spy anagrams of ONES, which is a synonym for SINGLES. That was a nice payoff for having to do a bit more work to find the theme. I especially like the theme answer GOOD VIBES ONLY. Maybe I will make that my motto. Thank you, Emily, for this enjoyable puzzle.