Live the single man's life, slangily / THU 4-9-26 / Start issuing stock, in Wall Street lingo / Joey of kid-lit / Customizable Asian-fusion dish / Dessert with rings on top, literally / Dessert in a boat, literally / Triangular dessert, literally / Pose for which you must plant your body on the mat? / Tone used to create an antique vibe / Early Ron Howard TV role

Constructor: Barbara Lin

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: dessert arrangements — desserts are represented in the grid in wacky ways ("literally"), according to words they contain:

Theme answers:

• PINEAPPLE EKAC (i.e. "pineapple upside-down cake," where "cake" is upside-down] (4D: Dessert with rings on top, literally)
• BANANA SPLIT [where "split" is split in a "Y" formation) (6D: Dessert in a boat, literally)
• APPLE NRUT [i.e. "apple turnover," where "turn" is turned over] (38D: Triangular dessert, literally)
• BLUEBERRY CRUMBLE [where "crumble" is crumbled into a kind of pile at the bottom of the answer] (20D: Dessert with a streusel-like topping, literally)

P  B

I  A

N  N     B

E  A     L

A  N     U

P  A     E 

P  S  A  B

L  P  P  E

E  L  P  R

E I I L  R 

KT   TE  Y

A     N  C

C     R  RU  

      U  MB  

      T  LE

Word of the Day: BACH IT (6A: Live the single man's life, slangily) —

To live by oneself, as an unwed man (or "bachelor") does. The phrase can be "bach it" or simply "bach." (thefreedictionary.com)

• • •

It's not that this was completely unenjoyable. Individually, the theme answers are kinda cute. But as a set, they don't work at all. It's not just that two of them have circled squares and the others don't. In fact, it's not that at all. It's that the fundamental theme concept keeps shifting from answer to answer. So in the first answer, PINEAPPLE (upside-down) CAKE, one of the words in the dessert is omitted from the answer itself and used rather as an indication of how another word ("CAKE") is supposed to be represented visually. No "upside-down" in the grid—instead "upside-down" modifies CAKE, literally (CAKE is presented in reverse, i.e. "upside-down"). But then in the next answer, the modifying word stays in the grid, and is itself modified (i.e. "split" is "split"). What? No. No. That's not what you did before. The modifying word is supposed to be gone. Absent. Not there. With PINEAPPLE EKAC, the modifying word indicates the new (wacky) shape, but it does not actually appear; so "SPLIT" should absolutely positively 100% not not not be in the grid itself. By the logic of the first theme answer, BANANA should be the thing that is "splitting." And then this whole disparity is replicated in the next two theme answers, where APPLE NRUT leaves out the modifying word and uses it instead to indicate the shape of another word ("turn" is turned over), but then with BLUEBERRY CRUMBLE, the modifying word is itself modified, appearing in the grid (like "split") in modified shape. The "banana" should be "split" and the "blueberry" should be "crumbled" if the theme wants to make any kind of sense. I'm not even bothered by the fact that the reshaping concept is exactly the same in two of these answers (PINEAPPLE EKAC and APPLE NRUT). At least they have the same presentation logic. The conceptual failure here is fatal. Yes, wacky answers are wacky and fun, but these four answers simply don't go together because they don't follow the same basic conceptual logic. Case closed.

Also, I'm not sure I've seen a worse opening to a puzzle than GOIPO into BACHIT. Never say either of these phrases anywhere near me, please. And unless you want to fight, definitely don't say them back to back. I know you're supposed to read it as GO I.P.O. (1A: Start issuing stock, in Wall Street lingo), but all I see is "GOY-po," which is how it deserves to be pronounced—like a nonsense sound made by some obnoxious child's toy or space alien. As for BACHIT, it sounds, well, bat sh*t. If I hadn't seen it in a puzzle before (and hadn't yelled at it before), I would have struggled with it, which would've made things worse. Actually, BACH IT hasn't appeared in the puzzle in 32 years, but I know I've seen it more recently than that. Must've been some other puzzle. GO I.P.O. is actually a debut, though I know some puzzle tried to force that answer on me before as well. Xwordinfo.com is helpfully telling me that one of the anagrams (maybe the only anagram) of BACHIT is "biatch." Wonder how long we'll have to wait until we see BIATCH in the puzzle (the OED says it's "derogatory and offensive," but other dictionaries have it as "affectionate" or "comedic" as well). If it shows up before OZU I'm gonna be so mad...

[BACH IT!]

No difficulty today. None. It's Thursday, and there was no challenge. So the puzzle was disappointing on that level as well. Again, it's not as if there were no pleasures to be had today. As I said, taken individually, the themers were kinda cute at times. NOODLE BOWL and ART CURATOR aren't exactly barn-burners, but they're good. Are they LOVEABLE? Not sure I'd go that far, but one might. You might. None of the clues really sparkled today, though the LOTUS clue is certainly trying (59D: Pose for which you must plant your body on the mat?) (get it? "plant" ... 'cause the LOTUS is a ... "plant"). I did appreciate the effort. 

Bullets:

• 17A: Joey of kid-lit (ROO) — presumably you knew that the clue was looking for a baby kangaroo and not some guy named "Joey." ROO is hanging out today with a whole bunch of his crosswordese friends. It's a real crosswordese who's who: OPIE, Lisa LOEB, Brian ENO ...
• 19A: Customizable Asian-fusion dish (NOODLE BOWL) — as I said, I liked this answer, and it was also the only answer that I struggled (slightly) to get. The clue was too vague for me to just PLOP it down. I needed to build out NOODLE before I had any sense of what I was dealing with.
• 22A: Ex-Yankee with appearances on "Shark Tank," familiarly (A-ROD) — in that it refers to both the Yankees and "Shark Tank," this might be the least appealing clue I've ever read.
• 42A: Amundsen who went to the South Pole 15 years before he flew over the North Pole (ROALD) — Dahl has been canceled for anti-semitism, so now we just have to live with "B"-list ROALDs. (Don't worry, anti-"woke" folk, he hasn't been canceled—he appeared four times just last year ... he was anti-semitic, though)
• 53A: Zebras in the field? (REFS) — "zebras" is slang for American football referees because of their black-and-white striped uniforms.

• 72A: Community traversed by the Pacific Coast Highway (MALIBU) — I like MALIBU because Rockford lived there. And because of this song.

• 58A: On which to watch the Beeb (TELLY) — Brits! They watch the BBC! On the television! Only they have adorable slang for both these things!
• 9D: "___ Gabler" (Ibsen play) ("HEDDA") — I have been meaning to see last year's film adaptation by Nia DaCosta, about which I've heard good things. It appears to be only on Prime, which I ditched a couple years back, so it may be a while. I just got a bunch of new movies from the most recent Criterion sale, so it's not like I'm hurting for movie-viewing options.

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Savory South Asian rice cake / WED 4-8-26 / Perry of pop / Traditional samurai hairstyles / Chant heard at the end of "Hot Hot Hot" / Enhancing accessories / Underground scurrier / "I'm afraid not," quaintly / Popular flavor of bubble tea / Half of a darting motion

Constructor: Philippe Monfiston

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: musical puns — familiar phrases where the first part of the phrase has been replaced by a musical term that sounds roughly like it:

Theme answers:

• CODA SILENCE ("code of silence") (18A: Audience's reverent response to a symphony finale?)
• SONATA THING ("so not a thing") (22A: That certain je ne sais quoi in Beethoven's "Moonlight"?)
• STANZA CHANCE ("stands a chance") (36A: Opportunity for a choral understudy?)
• FORZA MOMENT ("for the moment") (53A: When to play a note with sudden strong emphasis?)
• ARIA KIDDING ("Are you kidding?") (58A: "What's Opera, Doc?"," e.g.?)

Word of the Day: forza (see 53A) —

forza

FORT-sah

[Italian, force]

Often seen as con forza, "with force"; a directive to perform the indicated passage of a composition forcefully, emphatically, or vigorously. (OnMusic Dictionary)

• • •

There's a wacky creative energy here that I like, but the theme is a little rough around the edges. First of all, this is one theme that kind of (kinda!) needs a revealer. I thought the theme was just "repronouncing 'a' endings" ... but the "a" ending of SONATA isn't repronounced at all. I didn't get that there was a musical throughline at all til I was done (mostly because I think of STANZA as a poetic term, not a musical one—I taught stanzaic poetry just yesterday). When I finally realized that the puns were all musical, I was on the one hand happier, since that makes the theme tighter than I'd imagined, but on the other hand more disappointed, because I really needed the punch of a revealer to tie it all together, to give it a particular sense of purpose. You could do first word puns from any area of knowledge, but why? Why do all the puns end in "a" but not all of them actually pun on the "a"? Still, despite these nagging questions, I was mostly on board with this theme—with one major exception. My only absolute "nope!" moment of the solve. These puns all work very, very well, if you just read them straight. CODA SILENCE: if I say that out loud, as written, you are definitely going to hear "code of silence." STANZA CHANCE also hits its mark ("stands a chance"). ARIA KIDDING? and SONATA THING require slight shifts in emphasis (hitting the "SO" and not the "NAT" in the first case, the changing of the interrogative into the indicative mood in the second case), but close enough for crosswords, for sure. 

But then there's FORZA. And that word does not sound like "for the." It sounds like ... well, see "Word of the Day," above. "FORT-sah." It's an Italian word that retains its Italian pronunciation in common usage by English speakers. I don't speak Italian and I'm not a musician and still I think of that term as being pronounced "FORT-sah." Pronunciation-based themes are always dicey—people love to argue about slight regional differences. And I'm aware, from a bit of looking around online, that some English speakers say "FOR-za," which, if you imagine that the line is spoken by someone with a German accent, you can imagine sounds like "for the," but for me the reality of that voiced "t" sound in "forza" really messes things up. If pronouncing "forza" the correct Italian way is not in fact standard practice or is considered "pretentious" or whatever, I'm sure you'll let me know. Anyway, I still admire the theme. I just think the execution is a bit ragged.

I really thought the SONATA thing was a pun on "it's not a thing," as in (?) "it's no big deal," or maybe as in "it does not actually exist," so I was happy (ish) to realize (later) that the pun was on the (fairly contemporary) colloquial phrase "that is SO not a thing" (a version of "that does not actually exist," but in this version, the "SO" is a word that is there for emphasis, and the "O" doesn't have to be elided into "s'not a thing," which is what I was doing at first). 

I had real trouble getting started, as I had ADO for DIN (24A: Commotion), and even after I fixed that, I couldn't come up with either ARCADE or ADD-ONS, even after I had several crosses. I forgive myself for ADD-ONS—that clue is super-ambiguous (3D: Enhancing accessories); I thought the "accessories" were fashion accessories—but I do not forgive myself for ARCADE. Should've remembered that non-video-game meaning of ARCADE (1D: Covered passageway). There's an ARCADE in Ann Arbor that I used to go through all the time, right there near the far NW corner of the Diag, you know, runs parallel to Liberty, from State to ... whatever the next street over is ... there used to be a travel agent in there when I was in grad school, though I can't remember what's in there now. Annnnnnnyway, Go Blue.

Other slow spots were annoyingly slow because of ambiguity. Never fun to have to just sit and wait for a [NOTE] + [MAJOR or MINOR] answer to fill itself in from crosses (65A: Key of Brahms's Symphony No. 4). And [Half of a darting motion]? Which half? I don't know! (Funny that IDK ("I don't know") was the cross there). I misread the TARO clue (57A: Popular flavor of bubble tea)—thought it was asking for a brand, not a flavor (why? the word "flavor" is right in the clue!) so I took one look at TA-O and wrote in TAZO (an actual tea brand, though not a bubble tea brand, if such a thing exists). 

[TAZO]

[TARO]

Bullets:

• 1A: "I'm afraid not," quaintly ("ALAS, NO") — ugh, quaintness. This answer was another reason that NW corner played slightly slow for me. For more off-putting quaintness, see "I DIG" (56A: "Groovy, man") ("I DIG" and "Groovy, man" are from completely different decades and cultural universes, btw)
• 26A: Knuckled rub to the scalp (NOOGIE) — such a weird way to phrase it? "Knuckled," with a "d"?? You can drop that "d" entirely and the clue still makes sense. More sense, maybe. "How would you like your rub?" "Hmmm, let's see ... do you offer knuckled rubs?" "No, I'm sorry, just pickled rubs, smoked rubs, or pan-seared rubs." "Hmmm ... I think I'll just have the crème brûlée." 
• 62A: Respond, as a pupil might (DILATE) — I think this was supposed to trick you into thinking the student kind of "pupil," but that only occurred to me after the fact. I had enough letters in place to see DILATE pretty quickly.
• 36D: Underground scurrier (SEWER RAT) — an original answer, but ... it's hard to say I'm "happy" to find a SEWER RAT scurrying around my puzzle (or anywhere). You get a revulsion twofer here: sewers and rats! 
• 56D: Savory South Asian rice cake (IDLI) — bah! My Indian food lexicon failed me today. I've def seen IDLI before, but it just wasn't there for me today. Maybe the SEWER RAT got to it, IDK.

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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