"Kids these days..." speakers / SAT 4-25-26 / Showy insect with dark eyespots on its wings / War of 1812 treaty locale / Start of an old request for advice / Often-regretted behavior on social media, once / Creature of the internet / Give designs to Image editor, informally? / Suffix akin to -ess / "West Side Story" song that precedes the rumble / Big acronym in purifying filters / When a sports equinox typically occurs / Consumed, quaintly / Spider-Man foe with metal "tentacles," familiarly

Constructor: Sam Ezersky

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

[17A: "The Rise of Skywalker" role]

THEME: none [people are telling me the grid is supposed to represent an IO MOTH. Hmm … if you squint and wish real hard … maybe!]

Word of the Day: Ask Ann Landers (14A: Start of an old request for advice = "DEAR ANN...") —

Ann Landers was a pen name created by Chicago Sun-Times advice columnist Ruth Crowley in 1943 and taken over by Esther Pauline "Eppie" Lederer in 1955. For 56 years, the Ask Ann Landers syndicated advice column was a regular feature in many newspapers across North America. Owing to this popularity, "Ann Landers", though fictional, is now considered a national institution and cultural icon. [...] In 1995, Lederer commented thus in The New Yorker about Pope John Paul II: "He has a sweet sense of humor. Of course, he's a Polack. They're very anti-women." Polish Americans responded with outrage. She issued a formal apology, but refused to comment further. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel canceled her column after that incident. In the same article she noted that President John F. Kennedy's father, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., was anti-Semitic. [...] A 1995 "Ann Landers" column said, "In recent years, there have been reports of people with twisted minds putting razor blades and poison in taffy apples and Halloween candy. It is no longer safe to let your child eat treats that come from strangers." The vague warning was criticized for causing fear dishonestly, as there have been no documented cases of children receiving poisoned candy during door-to-door Halloween trick-or-treating. (wikipedia)

• • •

Gonna have to be a short one today, as, for the first time in ... yeah, I don't know how long ... I overslept! I didn't just hit Snooze, I turned the alarm off, and next thing I know, it's half an hour later. The cats usually walk all over me once that alarm goes off, but today they absolutely fell down on the job. The one day I needed them to be super-annoying and they were nowhere to be found. Of course as soon as I got up, they were like "WE'RE STARVING WHERE WERE YOU." Crying, ramming my shins. "Earn your keep, you little jerks!" ANYWAY ... where was I? Oh, this puzzle. Short write-up. Here we go. So ... I kinda liked this. First of all, I appreciate the weird grid shape, with its top-bottom mirror symmetry. Looks like some kind of spaceship, and it created a ... let's say, interesting flow. My first impressions weren't great, as I didn't think much of the longer answers on the west side. We speak of generations, plural, now, so the idea of one OLDER GENERATION feels odd and antiquated, and ugh to the sterile businessy MIDYEAR FEEDBACK (is that really a phrase that gets used?). But once I got into the meat of the middle of this puzzle, things improved dramatically. That phalanx of longer answers—the stack of three going across and the three cutting through it from above—are all winners. Solid, colorful, varied, modern. The grid is really clean, for the most part (ERES and ENNE and possibly VIS excepted). This was a fun time. Felt more like a Friday than a Saturday, but that's probably just because it had some of that Friday whoosh and zoom and less of that Saturday grind.

[21A: "___ Mia" (2014 Latin pop hit)]

What was hard? Well, the damn Star Wars answer, for one. I hate how one tiny little mistake can create total chaos, but today, REY is at a chokepoint, right at the point where it was in the position to help me get both of those long Downs, and so it was briefly but palpably disastrous when I wrote in REN instead. Kylo REN is someone, right? Someone in The Rise of Skywalker??? Yes! Gah! Pfft. OK, I feel slightly less bad. Still, that was annoying. Once I (finally) changed it to REY, I saw the MIDYEAR part of MIDYEAR FEEDBACK and worked things out from there. Before that I was like "MIDN- ... do they give MIDNIGHT evaluations now? Seems ... intimate." After that, I tore my hair out trying to think of a "word' that wasn't "tête" that could go on either side of "à" (28D: Word on either side of "à"). Even after I got the central "I." I ran the alphabet, gave up before I got to the end (d'oh!), and so had to wait for SEEING EYE DOG to give me the "S" that made me see "VIS." Stupid brain, not retrieving basic information for me like it's supposed to! Once that center stack went in, I had no further problems with this one, though finishing up in the NE was slightly slow going, as "DEAR ANN..." and PR AGENCY were both a bit difficult to parse given their less-than-obvious clues. I actually thought the "Image" in 16A: Image editor, informally? was the name of a magazine, and that that was why there was a "?" on the end of the clue. And then of course PRAGENCY looks nuts to begin with if you don't know that "PR" is an abbr. It's like someone misspelled "pregnancy." "DEAR ANN, what should I do about my unplanned PRAGENCY?"

Bullets:

• 1A: Showy insect with dark eyespots on its wings (IO MOTH) — almost high-fived myself when I got this one immediately. First thing in the grid. Pretty sure crosswords taught me what the hell an IO MOTH was in the first place.
• 27A: Get one over on (BOGEY) — oof, golf. This one got me. Thought the clue meant "get one over on" in the sense of "trick" or "fool."
• 32A: Helpful pointer, say? (SEEING-EYE DOG) — I have never seen a pointer used as a SEEING-EYE DOG. Mostly just labs and German shepherds. But "pointer" may be being used here simply to indicate that the dog "points" its human being in the right direction. I helped a man with a SEEING-EYE DOG find the car he was waiting for last weekend when I was in Manhattan. It took all my strength not to talk to his dog and pet him and ask him if he's a good boy, but I managed!

• 35A: War of 1812 treaty locale (GHENT) — Ha, I can't believe that my recent confession about confusing the Treaty of GHENT with the Council of TRENT actually paid off! Off the "G," woo hoo!
• 8D: "As men in ___ strike those that wish them best": Iago ("RAGE") — fill-in-the-blanks are always hard, and usually mildly disappointing. My disappointment today mainly stems from the fact that the puzzle's got RAGE and IRE right next to each other and ... nothing? No cross-referencing, no interaction between those two clues at all. Like, they're just gonna pretend they don't know each other? Awkward. 
• 14D: Often-regretted behavior on social media, once (DRUNK TWEETING) — lol "once." Come on. It's still "tweeting," even if the app isn't called Twitter any more. If not, then what is it? Xing??? Boo. I use BlueSky exclusively, and I still call it "tweeting." They want me to call it "skeeting," but I'd like to retain some modicum of dignity and self-respect into my old age, thanks.
  
• 19D: Be validated for vocalizing one's opinion (FEEL HEARD) — Thursday we felt seen, today we FEEL HEARD. It's a real validation-fest up in here lately.
• 37D: Creature of the internet (NEOPET) — virtual pets that I haven't thought about since my daughter was little. Apparently still a thing.
• 22D: Give designs to (STYLIZE) — I had so much trouble trying to understand what the puzzle meant by [Give designs to]. I kept imagining Greg trying to deliver Mike's architectural designs to the printer. Don't get distracted, Greg! Remember, the shortest distance between two points is ...

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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Half of hip-hop's Run the Jewels, alongside Killer Mike / FRI 4-24-26 / Children's author Kinney / Acrobat's display / Tubes that go down? / Best-selling author who founded Paris's Théâtre Historique / Hearty soup ingredient in Caribbean cooking / Electronica instruments, informally / Grand Duke of Luxembourg until 2025

Constructor: Andrew Spooner

Relative difficulty: Easy to Easy-Medium (depending on how familiar you are with all the names...)

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: EL-P (11D: Half of hip-hop's Run the Jewels, alongside Killer Mike) —

Run the Jewels, also known by the initials RTJ, is an American hip-hop superduo, composed of Brooklyn-based rapper and producer El-P and Atlanta-based rapper Killer Mike. They released their critically acclaimed debut album Run the Jewels as a free download in 2013 and have since released the follow-up albums Run the Jewels 2 (2014), Run the Jewels 3 (2016), and RTJ4 (2020), all of which have been released for free and received critical acclaim. (wikipedia) // Jaime Stuart Meline (born March 2, 1975), better known by the stage name El-P (shortened from his previous stage name El Producto), is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a member of the widely acclaimed Company Flow, and has been a driving force in alternative hip-hop since the 1990s. He is now most widely-known as one half of Run the Jewels. He has produced for rappers including Aesop Rock, Cage, and Mr. Lif. He was a member of The Weathermen and was the co-founder, owner, and CEO of the Definitive Jux record label. // He has released four solo studio albums, two albums with Company Flow, and four albums with Run the Jewels. (wikipedia) 

• • •

Not enough marquee power in this one. I don't really understand which of these longer answers you'd want to build a grid around. A good Friday / Saturday grid will have at least a half a dozen longer answers that sizzle and pop, that seem fresh, that give the answer real life. Today ... this was like drinking flat soda (I don't really drink soda anymore, but I remember ... actually, I did have a Dr. Brown's Cream Soda after a long day of walking around a very hot Manhattan last week and that thing tasted Perfect—not flat at all). The one answer with real juice today was THE LAST STRAW. That's an answer that will stand up and fight for your honor. Where have all the good answers gone and where are all the gods? Where's the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds!? THE LAST STRAW says "here I am!" The rest of these answers? Not really heroes. They don't seem inadequate, they just don't have any star quality. DO NOT DISTURB. DESERT ISLAND. OK, yes, those are solid. But BUSINESSLIKE. That is ... BUSINESSLIKE (loosen up, baby!). And after those four, most of what you got are banks of 8s, and while, again, most of these are up to the task of filling white space without making me want to throw things, almost none of them are making me go, "ooh, nice." I think both the NW and the SW corners are admirably clean, that is what I'll say. This grid has a few things I really like, like a film noir icon (BOGART) and a truly great novel (Anna KARENINA), and, I mean, how doesn't like hand-holding OTTERs? But this is a Friday NYTXW! The bar is high, and this puzzle just doesn't seem to be trying hard enough to clear it.

Lotta names today. Four in the SE alone! (five if you count JENNY, which you probably shouldn't, since that's not how it's clued, but still...). The puzzle felt a little overly enamored of names, though outside of Name Corner you really only have BOGART and ENO and DUMAS ... and EL-P! I laughed so hard at the clue for EL-P, just imagining a huge subsection of my readers going "'ELP! I don't know who this is!" What I really laughed at was the idea that adding "alongside Killer Mike" was going to clarify things for people. Please understand: I own a Run the Jewels LP (EL-P!) and *I* couldn't remember this guy's name today. When I think of all the "rap name" haters out there among the solvers ... I gotta thank this clue and answer for giving me a laugh. I don't think EL-P is unworthy of being in the crossword, but I guarantee you that for the majority of solvers, he's going to be the most obscure thing in the grid (though for me, JEFF and HENRI were more obscure (the idea that I know what any Grand Duke of Luxembourg is called, LOL)). I can't really believe EL-P made it into the grid before OZU, one of the greatest directors in cinematic history. How are all these other three-letter people getting into the grid before OZU? Hang on ... Huh. Wow. OK, turns out EL-P has been in the grid before! Five years ago! And on a Wednesday!!?!? What a day that must have been. What the hell did I say then? Ha, basically, I said everything I just said, only better:

I have to say something about EL-P today, and that is: LOL, wow. I mean ... I own two RTJ albums and *I* couldn't quite remember EL-P's name. I've been doing NYT crosswords for a while, and let me tell you, RUN THE JEWELS is better known than EL-P and the initialism RTJ is better known than EL-P and KILLER MIKE, the other half of RTJ, is way way better known than EL-P, so it is ultra-bizarre that the first thing to enter the NYTXW from the RTJ Universe is somehow EL-P. He's the far lesser known, and white, half of RTJ, yet he's the first to get into the grid. I feel like that's a metaphor for ... something. More power to him, though. I have nothing against him at all. But when I say "LOL" I mean I don't think I've seen a name that is going to be less familiar to the overall NYTXW solving base than EL-P. It's going to look like a mistake to most people. They're just gonna stare and shrug and cross their fingers.

ELP has appeared a few other times in NYTXW history, in different contexts—though both contexts are musical. ELP is the abbr. for the prog rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, who were apparently a big deal when I was a baby, but I can't name anything they did. Oh, wait, "Lucky Man"? Was that them? Yes! (Not Yes, the other prog rock band, Yes the affirmative exclamation!). "Lucky Man" was ELP's highest-charting song in the U.S. at No. 48. The other way ELP has been clued is via the musical My Fair Lady, as the supposed way that Eliza Doolittle would say "help." "''ELP me, 'enry 'iggins, you're my only 'ope!" (in French, it's 'ENRI 'iggins, of course).

Bullets:

• 20A: Charges (BILLS) — all the crossword's difficulty today came from ambiguous clues on short answers ... or else from the "?" clues on the longer answers. It took me many crosses to see BILLS, and a couple crosses to get CASH (24A: "Green"), and I screwed up and wrote in HEM before FIT (21A: Concern for a seamstress), and couldn't come up with DUMAS's name despite having the "D" and knowing the name was going to be French (I think of DUMAS as a novelist, not a theater person) (23A: Best-selling author who founded Paris's Théâtre Historique). 
• 3D: Tubes that go down? (RIGATONI) — they "go down" in that you eat them. True of most food, I'd imagine. Not my favorite clue.
• 18A: Low volume? (TEASPOON) — because the volume of liquid in a teaspoon is "low" (compared to other standard measurement units). Kinda weak. These "?" clues are not landing the way they oughta. 
• 31A: "The best cheese of its type in the world," per George Orwell (STILTON) — what is "its type?" Semi-soft cheese? English cheese? Blue cheese? Just say it's the best cheese, George. You're usually so good with words.
• 16A: Field for both Martin Luther and Martin Luther King Jr. (THEOLOGY) — "Martin Luther" made me think of this amazing Tweet I saw yesterday (as well as the replies) ...

• 1A: Once-in-a-lifetime events (BIRTHS) — got this right away (though I waited til crosses confirmed it before I wrote it in). This clue is clever precisely because it's misdirective without having to resort to a "?" It's true, you're only born once. Of course, a woman might give birth multiple times in her lifetime ... but the clue is talking about being born, not giving birth. 
• 35D: Acrobat's display (PDF FILES) — ooh, I liked this clue too. This one got me. I definitely wanted something like AGILITY. I had the "D" (from DESERT ISLAND) but when I tried to get the crosses on either side of it—chaos. "This has to be SNEAK UP, but nothing starts 'PD-' Let me try the cross on the other side ... well that's RAF, but ... '-DF'? WTF is going on!?" D'oh!
• 39D: Hearty soup ingredient in Caribbean cooking (OXTAIL) — also a hearty ingredient in this grid. Part of that very nice SW corner. Was able to get this fairly easily from the "X" in AXON
• 47D: Where the Red Delicious apple originated (IOWA) — oh good, now I know who to blame. I call this mealy thing the "garbage apple," in that it tastes like garbage and I want to throw it in the garbage.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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