March 15, 2026

Title: TAINTED LOVE

Constructor: Amie Walker

Editor: Amie Walker

Theme synopsis:

• POLE VAULTER (16A: Athlete whose career is looking up?)
• TURN UP THE VOLUME (37A: "Crank that song even louder!")
• NAVEL ORANGE (60A: Fruit with an "outie")

TAINTED LOVE: Each theme answer contains an anagram (i.e. a TAINTED version) of the word LOVE: POLE VAULTER, TURN UP THE VOLUME, and NAVEL ORANGE.

What I learned from today's puzzle:

• UTAH (13A: Equality ___ (Salt Lake City-based LGBTQ org.)) Equality UTAH is a non-profit organization that focuses on education, advocacy and political action to work toward equality for LGBTQ Utahns. Although I wasn't familiar with Equality UTAH, the hint "Salt Lake City-based" made the answer here inferable. I'm happy to learn about this organization.
• ROSS (43A: "Friends" character who dressed up as the Holiday Armadillo) Episode 10 of the seventh season of Friends is titled "The One with the Holiday Armadillo." Because he can't find a Santa suit, ROSS dresses up in an armadillo costume to try to get his son Ben excited about Hanukkah.

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• POLE VAULTER (16A: Athlete whose career is looking up?) The question mark in this clue alerts solvers of the possibility of trickiness and wordplay. A POLE VAULTER isn't an athlete whose career is looking up in the metaphorical sense of things looking brighter. Rather a POLE VAULTER literally must look up as they attempt to vault over increasingly higher bars.
• MUST (21A: This is nonnegotiable!) An exclamation point at the end of a clue alerts solver to interpret the clue literally. Something that is a MUST is literally nonnegotiable.
• FRESNO (25A: ___ chili pepper (produce named for a California city)) Although named for FRESNO, California (a city in the central part of the state), FRESNO chili peppers are grown throughout the state. FRESNO peppers are similar in appearance to jalapeño peppers. Here's a fun fact: Unlike jalapeño peppers that hang down as they grow, FRESNO peppers point upwards as they grow, only hanging down when they are fully mature.
• CECE (42A: Jess' best friend on "New Girl") New Girl is a TV series that originally aired from 2011-2018. The show centers on the experiences of Jess Day, who lives in a Los Angeles loft with three male roommates. Jess is portrayed by Zooey Deschanel. Jess' best friend, CECE, is portrayed by Hannah Simone. 
• PU PU (1D: ___ platter) A PU PU platter consists of an assortment of meat and seafood appetizers, such as egg rolls, spare ribs, chicken wings, fried shrimp, crab rangoon, etc.
• THEATER NERDS (4D: People with Playbill collections, perhaps) Playbill magazine is published monthly. Special editions of the magazine are used as programs for Broadway shows (and many Off-Broadway shows as well). As a bit of a THEATER NERD, I understand the desire to collect Playbills. I used to save them, but now my husband and I take a selfie with the Playbill when we go to the THEATER and save the photos instead. (These photos are helpful for answering the question, "When did we see...?")

Playbills from a June 2022 visit to Broadway

• GRU (5D: "Despicable Me" villain) In the first movie in the Despicable Me franchises, which was released in 2010, GRU was in his villain era. It turns out that GRU wasn't as evil as he thought he was. 
• AHS (31D: "_merican _orror _tory") Here we have a split fill-in-the-blank clue, where each blank represents one missing letter. American Horror Story, or AHS, is an anthology TV series. That means each season is a self-contained miniseries with a different set of characters and story lines. There have been 12 seasons of AHS so far. The most recent season was AHS: Delicate, which aired in 2024.
• DEKE (32D: Sneaky hockey play) As I have previously mentioned, DEKE is my favorite hockey term; I learned it from a crossword. 
• YMCA (35D: Village People hit) Did reading this clue make the Village People's 1978 song, "Y.M.C.A.," your earworm for the day? If not, click the link and take a listen – that should do it!
• SPENT (51D: "I could've ___ forever with your hands in my pockets") "I could've SPENT forever with your hands in my pockets," is a line from Taylor Swift's 2017 song "Dancing with Our Hands Tied." The song is from the Reputation album.
• LEA (61D: Salonga who provided the singing voice for Mulan) In addition to providing the singing voice for the title character in Disney's 1998 animated movie, Mulan, and the 2004 sequel, Mulan II, LEA Salonga also provided the singing voice of Princess Jasmine in Disney's 1992 animated movie Aladdin.
• Other clues I especially enjoyed:
• PACT (1A: Agreement that might start with "If we're both still single by age 40...")
• IPAD (Tablet that's "just gonna ask you a few question")
• MORAL COMPASS (21D: Personal sense of right and wrong)
• UGLY (57D: Like some holiday sweaters)

Several artists have recorded the song "Tainted Love." The one I'm most familiar with is the 1981 version by Soft Cell. ("Sometimes I feel I've got to / Run away I've got to / Get away...") You don't have to be familiar with the song at all to enjoy today's puzzle, however. The word TAINTED is serving as an anagram indicator, letting solvers know to be on the lookout for hidden anagrams of LOVE. Thank you, Amie, for this excellent puzzle.