Marcel Marceau character / FRI 8-28-20 / Plot point in rom-com / Dish that might be garnished with nori negi / Gaelic name for Scotland / Secret admirer of Lily Potter in Harry Potter universe / First #1 hit for Spice Girls

Constructor: Kate Hawkins

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (low 7s)

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: ISO (32A: Camera film speed inits.) —

Film speed is the measure of a photographic film's sensitivity to light, determined by sensitometry and measured on various numerical scales, the most recent being the ISO system. A closely related ISO system is used to describe the relationship between exposure and output image lightness in digital cameras. [...] The ASA and DIN film speed standards have been combined into the ISO standards since 1974. // The current International Standard for measuring the speed of colour negative film is ISO 5800:2001 (first published in 1979, revised in November 1987) from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Related standards ISO 6:1993 (first published in 1974) and ISO 2240:2003 (first published in July 1982, revised in September 1994 and corrected in October 2003) define scales for speeds of black-and-white negative film and colour reversal film, respectively. // The determination of ISO speeds with digital still-cameras is described in ISO 12232:2019 (first published in August 1998, revised in April 2006, corrected in October 2006 and again revised in February 2019). // The ISO system defines both an arithmetic and a logarithmic scale. The arithmetic ISO scale corresponds to the arithmetic ASA system, where a doubling of film sensitivity is represented by a doubling of the numerical film speed value. In the logarithmic ISO scale, which corresponds to the DIN scale, adding 3° to the numerical value constitutes a doubling of sensitivity. For example, a film rated ISO 200/24° is twice as sensitive as one rated ISO 100/21°. // Commonly, the logarithmic speed is omitted; for example, "ISO 100" denotes "ISO 100/21°", while logarithmic ISO speeds are written as "ISO 21°" as per the standard. (wikipedia)

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If I just look at this grid as a finished object, it seems fine. It's pretty solid, and it's got little moments of currency and up-to-date-ness. It's got no real marquee answers beyond the central PYRAMID SCHEME, so nothing really pops or sizzles, but it's alright. And yet solving it was not that fun. I never know how much the editor's cluing voice is just mucking things up, but it just felt like there was a layer of muck and dust and quaintness over a lot of the cluing. Cluing turned SKINNY into an olde-timey word (13D: Inside dope). Cluing on GOLD TEETH just felt ... hmm ... labored (46A: Pearly whites that aren't white). It's basically saying "teeth that aren't white," which tells me nothing. Why would anyone have GOLD TEETH? Once you've answered that question, maybe incorporate *that* into your clue, instead of leaving us with this overly literal dead weight (also, "pearly whites," another olde-timey expression). Cluing on PARROT was super-technical and bizarre (44D: Oscine : songbird :: psittacine : ___). I'm so tired of hair being clued as MOP. Again, for some reason, it just feels 50 years old (weren't the Beatles known as "mop-tops" or something like that?). But then some of the issues I had were with the fill itself. Like ... BIP?! (21D: Marcel Marceau character) Yeeeeesh. No one has thought of Marcel Marceau in 40+ years, and though I know I've seen BIP in xwords before, I drew a total blank there. Younger solvers will have no clue, none, and no way to have a clue, as mime lore has not been maintained as far as I can tell. And SHOE PRINT ... while I'm sure that that is a thing, even if the print were left "in the dust" by a shoe, most humans would still call it a "footprint," so ... just weird (28A: One might be left in the dust). Grid really does seem solid enough, overall, but this lacked the Zing I love in a good Friday, and then also it was hard in unrewarding ways, so ... so-so, I guess.

Found the NW extremely hard, as TOOT was first HONK then BEEP (again, "TOOT" for a horn honk feels olden). Is the "station update" in 4D: Subject of a station update, for short (ETA) a ... train station? bus station? "Station update" just feels so weird, like it's about TV or something. I actually wanted APSE early but didn't put it in because the "E" felt wrong in the cross. POLISHUP was hard to parse (2D: Make final improvements to). SOBSTORY was very vaguely clued (3D: A play to one's emotions) (Something about the "A" at the front of the clue felt strange). And then the SW got me too, with SPOIL being really hard to get from 43A: Turn, and that clue on PARROT, ugh, and ONEACT, also toughish (I wanted some 6-letter word for "existential" ... or else the actual 6-letter word FRENCH). Having SALESMAN for SALES REP (ugh) really really killed me (36D: Professional pitcher). Had TAN for SUN, which was a very right wrong answer (23A: Go for the bronze?). I hate this clue for SUN. You might SUN yourself with zero intention of getting "Bronze," but TAN—straight line from TAN to bronze. Sigh. I've seen MEETCUTE a few times now so it didn't enchant the way it might have in, say, 2015. Really surprised TENET didn't get the Christopher Nolan movie title treatment (60A: Article of faith). My greatest moment of glory was spelling TA-NEHISI perfectly on the first try—I put his full name in a themeless for Buzzfeed, lo these many (five?) years ago. PYRAMID SCHEME is a nice answer. Seems like the kind of answer you'd build a theme around. You can have that idea for free, constructors of the world. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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