Emulate Ferris Bueller / THU 7-2-20 / Small photo processing center / Radio journalist Stamberg / Hello in world's most common first language / Rug maker's supply

Constructor: Yacob Yonas and Chad Horner

Relative difficulty: Easy (5:34) (16x15 grid)

THEME: SKIP SCHOOL (65A: Emulate Ferris Bueller ... or a hint to understanding the answers to the starred clues) — answers literally SKIP SCHOOL, in that there is a school name right in the middle of the answer, so the answer sort of "skips" over it ... creating a new word/phrase that is unclued:

Theme answers:

• COMMITMENT (17A: *Express one's view) ("comment" skips MIT)
• STAY ALERT (26A: *Kick off) ("start" skips YALE)
• SUNCHIPS (40A: *Sends) ("ships" skips UNC)
• GAS PRICES (57A: *Reacts to an amazing magic trick say) ("gasps" skips RICE)

Word of the Day: Harold ROSS (21A: Harold who co-founded the New Yorker magazine) —

Harold Wallace Ross (November 6, 1892 – December 6, 1951) was an American journalist who co-founded The New Yorker magazine in 1925 and served as its editor-in-chief from its inception until his death.

Ross was one of the original members of the Algonquin Round Table. He used his contacts in "The Vicious Circle" to help get The New Yorker started.

Ross, said by Woollcott to resemble "a dishonest Abe Lincoln," attracted talent to his new publishing venture, featuring writers such as James Thurber, E. B. White, John McNulty, Joseph Mitchell, Katharine S. White, S. J. Perelman, Janet Flanner ("Genet"), Wolcott Gibbs, Alexander Woollcott, St. Clair McKelway, John O'Hara, Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, Vladimir Nabokov, and J.D. Salinger. (wikipedia)

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There's something kinda sweet about this puzzle. Its gimmick is pretty simple, and it's executed nicely. Nothing showy, nothing stunty, nothing where you have to squint at the end to see whatever image you're supposed to see, or where you have to connect the dots to find the treasure map, or where you're asked nay begged to titter at a math pun. None of that. Honestly, it feels like a good, somewhat swole Tuesday puzzle. (Swole in that it's literally bigger than normal and also swole in that it's flexing in a way a Tuesday puzzle usually doesn't) The fill could've been livelier perhaps, but all in all I thought it was a clean and largely irritation-free solve. The only irritation I felt was the whole "Is It LOA or Is It KEA" thing, uggggggggh, just clue KEA as a parrot, please, they're super common in NZ and I hate hate hate having to wait on KEA v. LOA it's not like there's cleverness in [Mauna ___], or difficulty, it's just ugh waiting and checking. Of course I guessed wrong at first pass and then didn't clean it up properly and had LEA for a bit, sigh :( Also slightly irritated by TECH being in the grid when "MIT" is also in the grid; I know MIT doesn't "end" in TECH the way Virginia TECH or Georgia TECH does, but TECH is short of "Technology," which the "T" in MIT definitely stands for, so boo. Very easy to boot TECH from your grid. Bootable. Boot it.


Besides my LOA for KEA mistake, I also misspelled NIHAO (as NIHAU, which is a Hawaiian island (well, NIIHAU is), which I feel like I *just* learned last week ...). Never heard of a MINILAB, though it was ultimately pretty inferrable (10D: Small photo processing center). Those big NE / SW corners were probably the toughest parts of the puzzle to tame. ACCREDIT is an odd verb and didn't come to me quickly (11D: Sanction), and "Sanction" is also an odd verb in that it has possible meanings that are opposites of one another. I forgot Harold ROSS and SUSAN Stamberg (59D: Radio journalist Stamberg), but crosses were so easy I hardly felt those bumps. AGE ONE is weak (55D: Time to take first steps, maybe). As is AGE TWO, if that ever shows up. But I liked SYRUPY and SALSA BAR and SO CUTE and as I say, the theme just works. It's a nice, light, mercifully unobnoxious Thursday puzzle. Cool.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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