Cornhole action / THU 1-16-25 / What follows T.S.A., weirdly / Sent a reminder text, in lingo / Gaming ___ (console alternatives, for short) / Part of a makeup routine / Something a meter reader reads? / Word that becomes its own synonym if you add a 'k" to the end / Affirmation not usually spoken at a Jewish wedding / First half of a two-volume encyclopedia on physics, aptly?

Constructor: Rebecca Goldstein and Adam Wagner

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: COMMON CORE (52A: Set of educational standards ... or a hint to 17-, 23-, 34- and 46-Across) — theme answers are double-clued and look like nonsense but make sense once you realize they all have COMMON COREs; that is, they are really two answers that overlap (all letters except the first letter of the first answer and the last letter of the second answer overlap)

Theme answers:

• MOBSCENEST(17A: Brouhahas / Most appalling) [mob scene + obscenest]
• EDNAMODEL (23A: "The Incredibles" costumer / Science class display) [Edna Mode + DNA model]
• CLOSESHOPE (34A: Lock up for the night / Despairs) [close shop + loses hope]
• APRESSKIT (46A: Like some activities at a mountain lodge / Marketing fodder) [après-ski + press kit]

Word of the Day: COMMON CORE (52A) —

The Common Core State Standards Initiative, also known as simply Common Core, was an American, multi-state educational initiative begun in 2010 with the goal of increasing consistency across state standards, or what K–12 students throughout the United States should know in English language arts and mathematics at the conclusion of each school grade. The initiative was sponsored by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.

The initiative also sought to provide states and schools with articulated expectations around the skills students graduating from high school needed in order to be prepared to enter credit-bearing courses at two- or four-year college programs or to enter the workforce.

• • •

[37D: Housing bubble?]

I enjoyed this, but on some literal level it doesn't quite work, spatially. Or ... what I mean is the two overlapping theme answers don't actually have a common core. The whole (nonsense) answer has a core (everything but the first and last letters) that belongs to both answer parts, so the CORE of the (nonsense) answer is held in COMMON by both overlapping answers, so ... OK maybe it does work. But the phrase COMMON CORE suggests the two (non-nonsense) answers have their cores in common, and they don't. I think the fact that the revealer, COMMON CORE, requires that I take the nonsense total answer as my frame of reference for the "core" part is what's throwing me. Anyway, the core of What I Write In The Grid is held in common by both answer parts ... yes, when I say it that way, it makes sense. Anyway, I liked this, though it was very easy, as you have two different ways to come at each themer (obviously). Double-clued, double-easy. I was like "well her name is EDNA MODE ... not EDNA MODEL ... although she does work in fashion, so maybe "MODEL" is related to that ... somehow ... no, wait, "Science class display" ... that's DNA MODEL ... OK, so they overlap. Huh. I wonder why." And that was my understanding of the theme until I hit the revealer down below. Sometimes on Thursdays, if the theme isn't apparent to me quickly, I'll hunt down the revealer to see if I can get a grip, but today, I had the concept quickly, so I just waited for the revealer to reveal itself naturally, in the normal course of solving, so that it could do its job, i.e. make me go "oh!" or "aha!" or "good one" or whatever. That mostly worked today. My reaction to COMMON CORE maybe didn't reach "oh!" or "aha!" or "good one" levels, but I think that's a fine way to make sense of what's going on in the themers (despite my real-time convoluted thinking at the beginning of this paragraph).

The fill on this one ran pretty easy. Crossing a gaming term with a makeup term at 1A/1D seemed like a hostile way to greet me, specifically (1A: Gaming ___ (console alternatives, for short) / 1D: Part of a makeup routine), but after that, nothing gave me much trouble at all. I though the soft drink named for a nut was actually the name of the nut (KOLA), and then there was the DANG / DAMN / DRAT / DARN hyperkealoa* at 40D: "Phooey!" crossing the BRUH / BRAH / BRUV hyperkealoa* at 50A: "My man!" And yes, BRUH, BRAH, and BRUV have all made NYTXW appearances in recent years. Did you know that on Friday, Aug. 11, 1972, BRUH was clued as [Macaque of the West Indies]!? And then (understandably) was not heard from again for 51 years, when it reappeared as this "bro" equivalent? You probably did not know that, it would be weird if you did. But it's true. BRUV is British, by the way, and likely to be clued that way in a crossword situation. But back to trouble spots ... just TROOPS, really (29D: North Korea has the fourth-highest number of these, after China, India and the U.S.). "Troop" has always been weird to me, in that I think of it primarily as a group noun (i.e. "troop" = group of soldiers), but then it's also the word for an individual soldier. They coulda made things clearer, honestly. Anyway, TROOPS was not the countable noun I was looking for. Oh, and I had NUDGED instead of PINGED at first (39A: Sent a reminder text, in lingo). The "reminder" bit suggested that somebody needed to be "nudged" into action; PINGED seems more neutral, i.e. it has no particular "reminding" connotations (to me).

Bullets:

• 21A: First half of a two-volume encyclopedia on physics, aptly? (ATOM) — I legit thought "aw that's cute" as I wrote this in. ATOM ... A-TO-M ... good one.
• 30A: Singer/songwriter Reznor (TRENT) — a gimme for any Gen Xer. I think of these days as primarily a composer. With collaborator Atticus Ross, he has two Academy Awards for Best Score (The Social Network, Soul) and an Emmy for Outstanding Musical Composition (Watchmen). Most recently, he and Ross did the music for Challengers (2024).

• 45A: Cornhole action (TOSS) — will admit my first reaction to this was a very Beavis & Butt-Heady "uh......" But it's just the beanbag TOSS game. Of course it's just the beanbag TOSS game. (If you have strict "breakfast test" rules re: the crossword, then definitely do not look at this definition of "cornhole")
• 49A: Affirmation not usually spoken at a Jewish wedding ("I DO!") — I don't think I knew this. And I've been to a Jewish wedding or two. Huh. Live and learn (and maybe pay closer attention next time)
• 8D: Something a meter reader reads? (POEM) — lol leave it to me to stumble over the one clue that is explicitly about my actual job. The second half of my Brit Lit I class covers meter in depth and yet today I was like "so ... someone who stares at a literal yardstick? No wait ... what's the word for a metric yardstick?"
• 42D: Button clicked to advance to a YouTube video (“SKIP AD”) — yes, I too wondered what a SKI PAD was, for a second…
• 56A: What follows T.S.A., weirdly (PRE) — "weirdly" because "PRE" is a prefix meaning "before," so it shouldn't follow anything. But it does. Here:

• 34D: Something to put stock in (CONSOMMÉ) — sincerely read this as [Something to put a sock in] and my only guess was "... 'IT'?"
• 53D: Word that becomes its own synonym if you add a 'k" to the end (MAR) — my eyes glazed over around "synonym" and I was like "nope" and just got this one from crosses. There's really no other way to come at an answer like this. What, are you gonna sit there all day thinking about every three- and four-letter answer in the language? No. I mean, I hope not.

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Last week during my yearly fundraising drive I decided to add Zelle as a payment method on the last day, which worked fine ... until it didn't. Several contributions were mysteriously rejected. It is not a big deal, but if you contributed that way, it's possible it didn't go through (this applies to only like a dozen of you). The problem was on my end ("MY BAD!"). I apologize. The bank and I have spoken. I should have the kinks ironed out for next year. For now, it's still just PayPal, Venmo, and snail mail. Thanks!

*kealoa = a pair of words (normally short, common answers) that can be clued identically and that share at least one letter in common (in the same position). These are answers you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] => ATON or ALOT, ["Git!"] => "SHOO" or "SCAT," etc.  

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]

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Show where the term "Debbie Downer" originated, in brief / WED 1-15-2025 / Fashion photographer Richard / Popular wine from Bordeaux / Mess kitchen implement

Constructor: Parker Higgins

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Common "X for Y" phrases are re-parsed so the verbs become nouns

Theme answers:

• [Look for trouble] for STINK EYE
  • "Look" as in "facial expression"
• [Good for nothing] for FREEBIE
  • "Good" as in "item you can buy"
• [Open for business] for DEAR SIR OR MADAM
  • "Open" as in "the opening of a letter"
• [Fit for a king] for REGALIA
  • "Fit" as in "outfit" (this might be a more modern term, see, e.g. "fit check"
• [Run for the hills] for SKI SLOPE
  • "Run" as in "stretch of land"

Word of the Day: PEORIA (Illinois city whose name serves as shorthand for mainstream taste) —

Peoria is a city in and the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States. Located on the Illinois River, the city had a population of 113,150 as of the 2020 census, making it the eighth-most populous city in Illinois. 

The city is associated with the phrase "Will it play in Peoria?", which may have originated from the vaudeville era and is often spuriously attributed to Groucho Marx. [wiki]

• • •

Good morning everyone! Malaika here, for a slightly delayed Malaika MWednesday. I solved this puzzle while listening to Waxahatchee's new album-- I recommend for fans of Joni Mitchell, the Indigo Girls, etc.

What a treat to open the crossword app and see Parker's name! From my experience with his puzzles, he is really excellent at wordplay that is a little more clever than the average puzzle, while still being ultimately fun to solve (as opposed to an opportunity for the constructor to show off). Although, outside of the theme, Parker did show off a little bit here, by including pairs of fun, long down answers that had nothing to do with the theme: PREBOARDED, MINIWHEATS, BREAKS EVEN, and SCAVENGERS. This is tricky to do when the down entries have to cross through two theme answers (FREEBIE and OR MADAM on the right, and DEAR SIR and REGALIA on the left), but he pulled it off very cleanly. It's a nice touch in a puzzle where the theme answers themselves are shorter than the standard.

It's impressive to have a set of five symmetrical theme answers that totally nail the re-parsing, and I wonder if Parker had a list of fifty of these from which he plucked the best ones. I don't find any of these stretchy, although I am very used to using "fit" as a noun. I'm not sure if that is new slang or something that's been around for a while, but I have only heard it starting around 2019, so others who do not have a Gen Z younger sister constantly keeping them up-to-date on what the youths are saying might not be familiar. I do think my favorite here is [Good for nothing], because I think it's funny to imagine someone giving me something for free and me screaming "Good for nothing!!" at them.

Shoutout to my Gen Z Sister whose face I will not post without permission

There were a couple of proper nouns I wasn't familiar with here. PEORIA and AVEDON both required every single crossing for me to get, as I've never heard of either before. If someone didn't know RAMI Malek or the phrase TETE-a-TETE, I could see them getting stuck. PADRE / ARCO also could have been a tough cross, although it wasn't a problem for me.

Outside of the theme, the puzzle is bursting with fun clues. [Got on first?] for PRE-BOARDED is a textbook example of how to elevate a pretty boring entry with an excellent clue. [Gig makeup?] makes you think of a setlist, or even stage makeup, but the answer, MEGS, is referring to megabytes which make up a gigabyte. And [Where you might dress up for a court appearance, informally?] for REN FAIRE is talking about royal court, not a modern-day legal courtroom. I'm sure there were others as well! Let me know your favorites in the comments.

Bullets:

• [Parthenon's place] for ATHENS — I had a history teacher who told us that you can remember Parthenon vs Pantheon by remembering that Italy makes pizzas in pans and thus is home to the Pantheon, and today that helped me with this crossword, so thank you Mr. Bell!
• [One who parties hearty] for RAVER — This struck me as kind of old-fashioned and quaint phrasing when compared with the 22 year olds I know who are going to raves!
• [Triangular pastries] for SAMOSAS — I have seen some publications make an effort to stop indicating the country of origin on many food entries. I think this tends to make the entries a little harder. I've never thought of a samosa as a pastry although I suppose it is! Now I really really want a samosa.
• [Vertex of an infamous triangle] for BERMUDA — I am flying to Bermuda soon and would not like to be reminded of the Bermuda Triangle's existence!!!
• [Parker House products] for ROLLS — If this was on purpose, it is very cute of Parker to sneak his name into the puzzle.

I hope you all have a restful long weekend!

xoxo Malaika

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