Oscar's deskmate on "The Office" / TUE 11-3-26 / Marvel actress Vellani / Michael Jordan and Anatole France? / Set up as MacGyver might / Lego brick protrusion

Constructor: Victor Schmitt

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: pairs of people whose last names are similar types of things — familiar phrases are clued as if they described pairs of people with apt names:

Theme answers:

• COUNTRY BOYS (18A: Michael Jordan and Anatole France?) (Jordan and France are both countries)
• LANDLADIES (28A: Faith Hill and Sally Field?) (hill and field are both … land)
• MATERIAL GIRLS (34A: Jenny Slate and Emma Stone?) (slate and stone are both materials)
• WEATHERMEN (41A: John Snow and Robert Frost?) (snow and frost are both weather)
• CAREER WOMEN (53A: Sabrina Carpenter and Anita Baker?) (carpenter and baker are both careers)

Word of the Day: John Snow (see 41A) —

John Snow (15 March 1813 – 16 June 1858) was an English physician and a leader in the development of anaesthesia and medical hygiene. He is considered one of the founders of modern epidemiology and early germ theory, in part because of his work in tracing the source of a cholera outbreak in London's Soho, which he identified as a particular public water pump. Snow's findings inspired fundamental changes in the water and waste systems of London, which led to similar changes in other cities, and a significant improvement in general public health around the world.

• • •

Seemed like more of a Wednesday-type theme—no revealer, mysterious pairs of people followed by "?"... it was thinkier than most Tuesdays typically are. Even after I basically got the theme, I kept forgetting that the people were linked by their last names, not their professions. Like with 41A: John Snow and Robert Frost? I thought "there's a poet named John Snow? That's weird, never heard of him." Yes, that's because (unlike Robert Frost) he is not a poet, but an epidemiologist. So I would probably have slotted this puzzle tomorrow, just because of the mild strangeness of the theme, but the theme itself is sound and (in the end) simple enough. I had no idea what was happening with LANDLADIES, my first themer. "LAND" is a pretty big category, and was not at all an intuitive way to link those last names ("hill," "field"). Plus, at that point, I didn't even know we were supposed to link the last names—those last names aren't so alike that I noticed the connection. All I saw were two entertainers—I think Faith Hill has even acted before, so maybe two actresses?; the last name thing missed me. I got it with Michael Jordan and Anatole France—though again, the answer, COUNTRY BOYS, had to come almost entirely from crosses. Jordan and France both say "country" a lot louder than Hill and Field say "land," plus Michael Jordan and Anatole France are different enough from each other that I didn't try to link them by profession. Jenny Slate and Emma Stone *are* both actresses, so again, the last-name link is not the thing that stands out. I think I also got thrown by the similarity of "Frost" and "Snow," weatherwise. I was thinking "cold," not the broad category of "weather." I got through it all without too much trouble, but it definitely involved more thought than Tuesday puzzles typically do. 

I only know one COUNTRY BOY, and that's John Denver, so the plural there felt odd, but ... wait, nope, I know another COUNTRY BOY; I forgot about Willy McCoy, aka "Slim." You know? Comes from South Alabama? Plays pool? You don't mess around with him? Sure, you know him: 

["Well outta South Alabama come a COUNTRY BOY, / He said 'I'm lookin' for a man named Jim. / I am a pool-shootin' boy, my name is Willy McCoy, but down home they call me Slim...'"]

So that makes two noted COUNTRY BOYS. I feel better now about the plural. As for CAREER WOMAN ... that term feels dated. Like, very dated. Very very. Back from the days when the idea of a woman having a "career" was considered a novelty, like a juggling seal. Do seals juggle or just play horns with their noses? Anyway, there's something very "anxiety about women in the workplace"-coded about the very phrase. I cannot imagine anyone's using this phrase to describe a woman today. I guess it's a step up from "career girl" or "career gal," but still, it has a tone. "Well, look at you, doing man stuff, how adorable!" Or, more likely, "Shouldn't you be at home raising babies?" No. 

["A CAREER WOMAN finds that her selfish pursuit of success is costly." (1951)]

I had trouble with several answers today. I've never once thought of the bump on a Lego brick as a STUD, so that was weird (6D: Lego brick protrusion). The PIÑATAS clue baffled me, since I would never think of PIÑATAS as "wrapping" the candy. They contain it. Fooled me there. Also, I couldn't even make grammatical sense of the MacGyver clue (31D: Set up as MacGyver might). Set up what? Is he setting himself up? I really thought the clue was asking about how MacGyver positions himself somehow, which made JURY-RIG a surprise. "Did he JURY-RIG himself??" Probably, but anyway, mostly he JURY-RIGged various devices, repurposing them for some heretofore unthought-of use. I also got slowed down by IMAGERS, despite being the son of a radiologist. Not a word I heard. "Imaging," "Imaging machines," these are familiar to me. I can see how IMAGERS makes sense. Just now a word that leapt to me. I've used it in my life about as often as I've used ONAGERS. 

[picture taken ay an ONAGER IMAGER]

Bullets:

• 4A: Butter up? (BASTE) — this was a great clue for ARIES (when was that, last week?). This is a far less great clue for BASTE. I guess you add the "up" just to be misdirective, but basting is just literally buttering up the ... let's say, turkey.
• 24A: Le Pew who could rightfully ask "Ain't I a stinker?" (PEPE) — first, Bugs asked that, not PEPE Le Pew. Second, no cutesy clues for rapist skunks. Please send this noted sexual assailant back to cartoon oblivion, thanks v. much.

• 46A: Muscle that's a neighbor of a delt (PEC) — second time in two days that I'm gonna quibble with a PEC clue. Actually, it's not a quibble about meaning, it's a quibble about phrasing. I don't think you need "Muscle that's a" in this clue at all. Why not streamline it. [Neighbor of a delt]. Everyone knows the delt is a muscle (and if they don't, then they probably don't know PEC's a muscle either).  Oh, [Delt neighbor]! Even more concise. If you don't have anything clever to offer, opt for concision.
• 37D: "I'm so frustrated!" ("GAH!') — my most consequential misstep today, but far. I wrote in "GRR," which made TEARY impossible to see, which meant that I didn't get the help from TEARY that I needed in order to get PIÑATAS ... real domino effect caused by "GRR," which really felt right. So both "GRR!" and "GAH!" to that answer, I say.
• 51D: Marvel actress Vellani (IMAN) — is that just a thing you can be now? A "Marvel actress?" I've never heard of this person in my life. Thank god we got her (ultimately inferable) first name and not her last. You could at least do her and us the courtesy of mentioning the role she's known for: Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel (a character I'm familiar with, though only from comics—I gave up on Marvel movies entirely the better part of a decade ago—I think Black Panther may be the last one I saw).

Now, please enjoy one of the greatest pop songs of all time. WEATHERMEN are fine, but can they do this?:

["I'm gonna go out / I'm gonna let myself get / Absolutely soakin' wet!"]

That's all for today. See you next time. And if you haven't already: VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE! 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. long discussion of "jury-rigged" v. "jerry-rigged" v. "jerry-built" here at M-W.com

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Letterboxd]
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Puffy, pink protagonist of Nintendo fame / MON 11-2-26 / Upper regions of the sky, poetically / Hexagonal mesh used to fence in poultry / Home installation providing propane to a grill or fireplace / Mountain cryptid whose name inspired a water-bottle brand / "Received and understood," in radio lingo

Constructor: Max Schlenker

Relative difficulty: Challenging (solved Downs-only) 

THEME: "I'VE SEEN THE LIGHT" (60A: "It all makes sense now!" ... or what you may exclaim after combining the ends of 17-, 23-, 36- and 51-Across) — last words of themers combine (?) to make (electric) light:

Theme answers:

• EMOTIONAL OUTLET (17A: Activity that helps one release pent-up feelings)
• CHICKEN WIRE (23A: Hexagonal mesh used to fence in poultry)
• TULIP BULB (36A: Early bloomer?)
• STAY CURRENT (51A: Be up-to-date with the news)

Word of the Day: KIRBY (25D: Puffy, pink protagonist of Nintendo fame) —

Kirby is a media franchise created by Japanese video game designer and director Masahiro Sakurai. The franchise revolves around the titular protagonist and his adventures on the fictional planet Popstar and beyond. The franchise is primarily developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo, with both companies jointly owning the property.

The franchise mainly consists of a video game series, which in turn mainly comprises platformers. The first game in the series, Kirby's Dream Land, was released in 1992. The second, Kirby's Adventure (1993), introduced Kirby's signature ability to copy enemy skills, allowing him to use them to progress through levels, distinguishing the series from other entries in the genre. The series also includes games in the puzzle and racing genres. Sakurai conceived the franchise as a game series for beginners, to which he partially attributes the series' success. Currently, the video game series contains thirty-nine games with over 50 million games sold worldwide, making it one of the best-selling video game franchises.

The franchise also includes an anime television series based on the video games, Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, which aired from 2001 to 2003 and also includes a special; and several manga series. (wikipedia)

• • •

After I "combine" an outlet, wire, bulb and current? Who am I, Edison? I just plug in my lamp, and flip a switch, man. It's just electricity. I guess the "combine" thing is supposed to elevate the puzzle above the rudimentary "last words"-type of puzzle, where all the last words have something in common, but whatever scenario it's imagining where "I" "exclaim" something doesn't really land. Still, the theme answers are strong in their own right, and the grid is somewhat more interesting overall than your typical Monday grid, so the puzzle's got those things going for it. The reason the fill is more interesting than usual is precisely the reason this puzzle was So much harder than usual (from a Downs-only perspective): namely, that there were not 4, not 8, not 12, but 13 (!) 7-letter Downs. Four banks of three, each of which was, to varying degrees, a bear. In general, the longer the answer, the harder it is to get with no crosses (which is what you're doing most of the time when you're solving Downs-only), so a bank of three can be daunting, and four banks of three, yikes—odds are you're gonna get hung up somewhere. For me, it was the NW above all. No way I was getting to THE GOAT with no help from crosses (1D: Highest-caliber athlete, to fans) (THE GOAT is actually the highest-caliber *anything*, to fans, but we'll let that go). "HUMOR ME" = brutal without help from crosses (2D: "Follow my train of thinking, OK?!"). Why is there an exclamation point in that clue?! I managed to get EGO TRIP, eventually, even though I wouldn't characterize an EGO TRIP as an "endeavor" (3D: Self-aggrandizing endeavor). Worst of all, I could not see what the first beginning of EMOTIONAL OUTLET was supposed to be, even after getting it down to ---TIONAL OUTLET! All I could think of was NATIONAL OUTLET. Gah! I also had CLOTH as FIBER for a bit (5D: Cotton or silk), so that didn't help.

Other corners were somewhat easier, though again, the clue phrasing threw me. I would never think of a GAS PIPE as an "installation," though I suppose that is a defensible characterization (39D: Home installation providing propane to a grill or fireplace). The PIPE part was quite a chore for me. The NE was probably the easiest of the corners, with the difficulty of the corners getting increasingly difficult as you move clockwise from there. But the part of the Downs-only experience that really got me was not a corner at all. It was the middle, specifically KIRBY. I thought for sure I was dead there. K---B- and no idea what to do. Even now, having looked up KIRBY for today's "Word of the Day," I just ... don't know. Like, it's a familiar pink blob, but I don't think I've known anyone who played a KIRBY game, or ever discussed KIRBY, or anything. Been around over 30 years and ... honestly, I've got nothing. It has made only the faintest impression in my mind. Looking up the NYTXW history of KIRBY, I now see that I had the *exact* same experience the *last* time I saw Kirby in a puzzle, in June of last year:

As I said, the difficulty shot way up for me once I hit the equator of this puzzle, due almost entirely to not knowing what the **** a KIRBY is (see "Word of the Day," above). Apparently the roster of characters in the Greater Nintendo Universe is inexhaustible and it's my sad fate to continue finding this out, in puzzle after puzzle, ad infinitum, like Sideshow Bob, just stepping on rakes, for the rest of my solving life.

So. Here I am again. Just a man, standing in front of a KIRBY, asking "WTF are you?" Anyway, somehow I managed to look at WA-TS and get beyond WATTS and WANTS to WARTS, and *that* is what finally knocked KIRBY loose from my brain. Ugh. Maybe if there had been more KIRBY ... what, movies? Toys? Something? Then his (his?) name might've stuck. Hopefully it sticks now. I still think the hardest part of the puzzle, from a Downs-only perspective, is the NW, but not knowing KIRBY didn't help! So slow. Over 8 minutes on a Monday!? LOL, that's my usual Saturday time. But when you're dead-stopped, as I was several times today, the clock ... doesn't care. 

Bullets:

• 64A: Muscle used in a dumbbell bench press, informally (PEC) — "dumbbell" is totally unnecessary here. Just say "bench press." Whatever "bench press" you can imagine, it's working your PECs, I promise. 
• 4D: Mountain cryptid whose name inspired a water-bottle brand (YETI) — just because a brand is named after something does not mean that thing "inspired" the brand. It's a water bottle. I don't believe the YETI "inspired" the brand. Someone just thought the name sounded cool. The end. YETI do not drink from water bottles. Even an amateur yetiologist knows this. They drink the blood of KIRBYs. Read a book!
• 46D: Nine-time Grammy winner Frank (SINATRA) — me, at first, sincerely: "Why won't OCEAN fit!?"

That's all for today. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Letterboxd]
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❤️ Support this blog ❤️: 

• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

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