Andy's partner in an old radio sitcom / WED 2-11-26 / One-named singer with the 2017 platinum album "Melodrama" / Matchmaking site with a "synagogue attendance" filter / ___ pear (applelike fruit) / Hoped-for prognosis for an election incumbent / 1957 rock 'n' roll classic suggested by this puzzle's circled letters / "Then, window, let day in, and let ___ out": Juliet / Glasses sans glass

Constructor: Joseph Gangi

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "GREAT BALLS OF FIRE" (57A: 1957 rock 'n' roll classic suggested by this puzzle's circled letters) — circled four-square blocks form four "balls" of "F-I-R-E" (with each "ball" having the letters at a different stage of rotation): 

Theme answers:

"GOODNESS GRACIOUS" (18A: "Oh, for heaven's sake!") [this is the line that immediately precedes "GREAT BALLS OF FIRE" in the chorus of the song]

DEFIES 

GRIND 

(34A: Openly resists)

(38A: Arduous routine)

DOGBREED 

   LIFE 

(29A: Newfoundland or Labrador retriever)

(36A: "Then, window, let day in, and let ___ out": Juliet)

 MIRE

SAFESEAT

(42A: Swampy land)

(45A: Hoped-for prognosis for an election incumbent)

 SOFIA

CATERS

(40A: "Priscilla" director Coppola)

(43A: Does the dishes?)

Word of the Day: "GREAT BALLS OF FIRE" (57A) —

"Great Balls of Fire" is a 1957 popular song recorded by American rock and roll musician Jerry Lee Lewis on Sun Records and featured in the 1957 movie Jamboree. It was written by Otis Blackwell and Jack Hammer. The Jerry Lee Lewis 1957 recording was ranked as the 96th-greatest song ever by Rolling Stone. It is written in AABA form. It sold one million copies in its first 10 days of release in the United States, making it one of the best-selling singles at that time.

• • •

Well, those are balls of "FIRE," but I'm not sure they're "great." Actually, I'm not even sure they're "balls." They're only "balls" because you've drawn circles around the relevant letters. So really they're GREAT SQUARES OF 'FIRE' ... or squares of 'FIRE'—again, the "greatness" is lost on me. The craftsmanship is impeccable here as far as the theme goes—the "balls" are arranged symmetrically toward the center of the grid, and each ball has the letters "F-I-R-E" in a different stage of rotation, so that every possible arrangement of the letters (read in clockwise order) is represented. Amazing find and great luck that "GOODNESS GRACIOUS" and "GREAT BALLS OF FIRE" have precisely the same number of letters. So you've got a kind of "great balls" sandwich, with the lyrics as the bread (on top, down below). It's all very neat. Structurally neat. But it was also a little lifeless, as a puzzle, and I still don't really believe those "balls" are "great," or even (really) "balls." 

I wonder how well younger solvers know this song. It's a classic, but I don't know if "classics" from the '50s still factor into younger people's store of songs. The song is well before my time (came out 12 years before I was born), but I know it very well—rock music simply hadn't been around *that* long when I was a kid, and so the store of "oldies" seemed finite and you could still hear them all over the place.  Also, Jerry Lee Lewis was a ... let's say, colorful figure. Frequently in the news (and, after the '50s, usually not for music—he had many wives, many personal tragedies, many tax problems). "GREAT BALLS OF FIRE" came out in November of 1957, the month before he married his 13-year-old cousin (who eventually left him, stating that she had been "subject to every type of physical and mental abuse imaginable" (wikipedia)). He lost two children very young in separate accidents (car, pool), At least two of his wives died young (drugs, pool). But as an artist, he is best known for his wild, energetic playing style. Here's Elton John from a 2013 interview:

"[Until 'GREAT BALLS OF FIRE'], the piano playing that I had heard had been more sedate. My dad collected George Shearing records, but this was the first time I heard someone beat the shit out of a piano. When I saw Little Richard at the Harrow Granada, he played it standing up, but Jerry Lee Lewis actually jumped on the piano! This was astonishing to me, that people could do that. Those records had such a huge effect on me, and they were just so great. I learned to play like that." (wikipedia)

The overall grid was easy and a bit dull. Lots of 3-4-5s, esp. through the middle—gotta really divide and control that physical space in order to make all the "balls" work out right. But the "balls" themselves aren't interesting from a solving perspective (since they aren't directly connected to clues at all), and the fill drags a little as a result. You do get a few nice longer answers around the edges. I'm thinking about "YOU LOST ME" and BEST OF ALL, and even SAT IN FOR, but the other longer answers are a little on the meh side, and the short gunk gets a little gunkier than it should, probably (EEN EEO EINS EERIE ELS ELA ESS ERAT ... that's just the "E"s). I admire the architecture of this puzzle more than I enjoyed solving it.

Bullets:

• 1A: Lewis Carroll's "The ___ and the Carpenter" ("WALRUS") — I got this easily enough, but only because, if you solve crosswords long enough, you'll learn a weird lot about Alice in Wonderland, whether you want to or not. Think of it like the Star Wars of the olden days—a seemingly endless well of trivia for the crossword to draw from. I don't know that I've ever read Alice in Wonderland (or Through the Looking Glass) all the way through. Maybe I saw the cartoon? Anyway, I don't actually remember the WALRUS, but I think I've seen that WALRUS in at least one other (maybe cryptic?) puzzle just this week. Anyway, you'll see the cake message "EAT ME" or stray words from "Jabberwocky" and a lot of other Carroll-related stuff if you solve long enough.

• 45A: Hoped-for prognosis for an election incumbent (SAFE SEAT) — something about the wording of this clue seems off. SAFE SEAT is not a "hoped-for" thing; it's usually a structural thing, built into the seat itself. A district that contains an overwhelmingly "blue" or "red" voting bloc is considered a SAFE SEAT (for D or R, respectively). An "incumbent" obviously "hopes for" re-election," so they hope their seat is "safe" in that sense, but that's not really what SAFE SEAT means.
• 9D: Taylor Swift's "___ Song" ("OUR") — OK, there's no need to go to Taylor Swift for the simple word "OUR." That's back-to-back Swift days. It's getting worse than Star Wars. Don't make me break out a Swift counter. The puzzle has got to me more imaginative than this. Returning to the Swift well over and over, even when you absolutely don't have to, is a little exhausting.
• 53D: Actress Fanning (ELLE) — would've loved to have seen some mention here of her recent Academy Award nomination for her performance in Sentimental Value (my favorite movie of last year). I don't think I ever paid much attention to Fanning's work before that, but she is perfect as the superstar American actress (mis-)cast in the comeback film of a highly regarded older director (played by Stellan Skarsgård). The director's own daughter (also an actress) turned the role down, and so ELLE Fanning gets cast instead and ends up in a kind of surrogate daughter relationship with the director, while the real daughter (who has a lot of justifiable anger toward her father) looks on from the outside. It's all very touching and remarkably funny, and my wife and I both marveled at Fanning, who has to play an actress who is *wrong* for the part—not broadly, obviously, over-the-top wrong. Just ... wrong. It's a subtle, beautiful performance.

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Birkin bag maker / TUE 2-10-26 / John ___, longtime writer for The New Yorker / News website with a Latin name / Catholic university whose mascot is a lion, aptly / Viral dance of the 2010s / 20 ounce Starbucks size / Pool from a volcanic eruption / Program for expedited travel between the U.S. and Canada / Reputation or Lover, to a Swiftie / First Oscar winner to be born in the 21st century (for Best Original Song) / Margaret Mead's subject, informally

Constructor: Sarah Sinclair and Amie Walker

Relative difficulty: Medium, maybe a little tougher than that (***for a Tuesday***)

[43D: Kylo ___, "Star Wars" antagonist]

THEME: "GIVE ME A HAND" (59A: "I could use some help here" ... or a hint to 17-, 25-, 37- and 50-Across) — theme answers are all things you give hands to:

Theme answers:

• POKER PLAYER (17A: Certain casino regular)
• PALM READER (25A: Psychic who examines lifelines and heart lines)
• MRS. POTATO HEAD (37A: "Toy Story 2" character who says "I'm packing you an extra pair of shoes, and your angry eyes, just in case")
• CLAP-O-METER (50A: Device measuring audience approval)

Word of the Day: John MCPHEE (44D: John ___, longtime writer for The New Yorker) —

John Angus McPhee (born March 8, 1931) is an American author. He is considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. He is a four-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the category General Nonfiction, and he won that award on the fourth occasion in 1999 for Annals of the Former World (a collection of five books, including two of his previous Pulitzer finalists).\ In 2008, he received the George Polk Career Award for his "indelible mark on American journalism during his nearly half-century career".^[2] Since 1974, McPhee has been the Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. (wikipedia) // Coming into the Country is a 1976 book by John McPhee about Alaska and McPhee's travels through much of the state with bush pilots, prospectors, and settlers, as well as politicians and businesspeople who each interpret the state in different ways. // One of his most widely read books, Coming into the Country is divided into three sections, "At the Northern Tree Line: The Encircled River," "In Urban Alaska: What They Were Hunting For," and "In the Bush: Coming into the Country". // Like all of McPhee's books, Coming into the Country started out as an outline that he proceeded to fill in. It is McPhee's best-selling book. // After the publication of Coming into the Country, The New York Times called McPhee "the most versatile journalist in America". (wikipedia)

• • •

A pockmarked, choppy grid that felt fussy from the outset. Something about that NW (and SE) corner is so overly-carved out and ugly, IMO. Just too many black squares for my eye / sensibility. The weirdly offset longer Downs (GETS IN SHAPE / LADIES NIGHT) create this odd over-black-squared phenomenon, which should be innocuous, but somehow made the start of this solve really unpleasant. Starting with threes—and ambiguous 3s at that (I had ZIP for VIM (1A: Pep in one's step) and later PET for VIP (1D: One who gets special treatment, for short) and then, because of PET, EMOJI (!?) for IMAGE (12A: Picture it!)). The fill was pretty bad at the outset, in part because of this short-word glut (IMO ETAIL (ugh), CFOS, FLAM, NAE NAE), so the puzzle started in a hole with me. Things got better when the longer answers started cooking, but still, throughout, the short fill (esp. the very short fill, the 3s) felt relentless. All those 3s in the NE / SW ... and then EKE ANODE STLEO on one line. It was a lot to take. The puzzle was also replete with proper nouns, which ... you know, live/die by them, I guess. I loved seeing John MCPHEE (someone whose writing for the New Yorker I always admire and someone I keep meaning to read more). But then you've got your DAEs and your RAEs and your NAE NAEs and I'm less excited about those. Seriously, has any puzzle gone to the "AE" well more times than this one? Five times! DAE RAE NAE NAE and AERIE! This puzzle deserves a medal. A medael. I don't know for what, but it's Winter Olympics time, and I'm in the medal-giving spirit. Anyway, if you just see past the bullet-riddled grid and the unfortunate short fill, underneath it all is a pretty basic Monday/Tuesday-type theme. I like that the themers don't just involve hands but actually giving hands. It's as if each theme answer might actually say "GIVE ME A HAND" (to the extent that you can imagine a CLAP-O-METER "saying" anything).

[I have no idea what is happening here (I've never watched an episode of Coronation Street in my life) but someone asks "What's a CLAP-O-METER?" so it seemed appropriate]

[Never heard of CLAP-O-METER before—this is what I thought the device was called]

The fill had a decidedly feminine bias, which I noticed and appreciated. MAKEOVERs and MAMA and DARA Torres (40D: Swimmer Torres with 12 Olympic medals) and Margaret Mead (11D: Margaret Mead's subject, informally) and Taylor Swift (14D: Reputation or Lover, to a Swiftie = ERA) and Billie EILISH (21A: First Oscar winner to be born in the 21st century (for Best Original Song)) and MRS POTATO HEAD—a real LADIES NIGHT here at [checks clock] 5:03am. Does MRS. POTATO HEAD come with a Birkin bag? (48D: Birkin bag maker = HERMÉS). Think about it, Hasbro. You can have that idea for free [HASBRO ... haven't seen that in the puzzle in five years ... saw WHAM-O just last week ... sorry, toy company name digression, back to the puzzle]. Even though I don't love the grid choppiness or much of the short fill, I actually think the overall fill is somewhat more interesting than you typically get on a Tuesday. Longer Downs are plentiful and decent (MAKEOVER, GETS IN SHAPE, LAVA PIT, LADIES NIGHT, ABOVE ALL), and if the puzzle runs a little trivia-heavy, a little proper noun-heavy, it does have a lot of personality. 

Bullets:

• 44A: "Don't Tell ___" ("Cabaret" song) ("MAMA) — one of the answers that made this one tougher (than usual) for me. If you want to hide MAMA from me, put it in a song I've never heard of. You could've told me literally anything went in that four-letter space and I would've believed you. "Don't Tell A LIE," "Don't Tell ME NO," "Don't Tell FRED," sure, those all sound good. 
• 68A: Program for expedited travel between the U.S. and Canada (NEXUS) — glad I never saw this clue because yikes, what? I live not that far from Canada and I've never heard of this. Is this a widely known thing? NEXUS? I can tell you that NEXUS has appeared 49 times in NYTXW history (24 times in the Modern Era, 16 times since I started this blog), and this is the first time it's been clued this way. On a Tuesday? OK, like I said, I never saw the clue, so the "difficulty" was lost on me. Weirdly, I never saw the clue on the first three themers today either. Strange. There was just so much short stuff to work that every time I looked up, another themer was filled in enough for me to guess it.

["Canada, oh Canada"]

• 4D: Song suitable for a slow dance (BALLAD) — I wrote in BALLET. I kinda know why ("dance") but still, really bad reflex there.

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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