Tapenade discard / SAT 12-12-20 / Hybrid fruit also known as aprium / Luxury wear for showgoers / Longtime college basketball coach Kruger / Profession in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle / Jazzy Jeff per a 1988 3x platinum album title

Constructor: Sid Sivakumar and Brooke Husic

Relative difficulty: on the harder side, but it's oversized (15x16), so maybe it's just bigger, not harder

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: STOP-TIME (46A: Rhythmic pattern in jazz) —

In tap dancing, jazz, and blues, stop-time is an accompaniment pattern interrupting, or stopping, the normal time and featuring regular accented attacks on the first beat of each or every other measure, alternating with silence or instrumental solos. Stop-time occasionally appears in ragtime music. The characteristics of stop-time are heavy accents, frequent rests, and a stereotyped cadential pattern. Stop-timing may create the impression that the tempo has changed, though it has not, as the soloist continues without accompaniment. Stop-time is common in African-American popular music including R&B, soul music, and led to the development of the break in hip hop. (wikipedia)

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***HELLO, READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS IN SYNDICATIONLAND (if the date is Saturday, January 16, 2021, that's YOU!)!***. The calendar has turned on another year (thank God), and while that might mean a lot of things to a lot of people, for me it means it's time for my annual week-long pitch for financial contributions to the blog. Every year I ask regular readers to consider what the blog is worth to them on an annual basis and give accordingly. Last year at this time, I wrote about what a melancholy year 2019 was; my oldest dog had died and the world was kind of a wreck. And then 2020 happened, and I learned what a real wreck looks like. In February, my other dog died (R.I.P. Gabby). And then, well, COVID. And let's be honest, even with a new president, 2021 is going to be, uh, challenging as well. But I hope that the regular ritual of solving crosswords brought some solace and stability to your lives this past year, and I hope that my blog added to your enjoyment of the solving experience in some way. This year my blog will celebrate its 15th anniversary! I feel so proud! And old! A lot of labor goes into producing this blog every day (Every. Day.) and the hours are, let's say, less than ideal (I'm either solving and writing at night, after 10pm, or in the morning, before 6am). Most days, I really do love the writing, but it is work, and once a year (right now!) I acknowledge that fact. As I've said before, I have no interest in "monetizing" the blog beyond a simple, direct contribution request once a year. No ads, no gimmicks. Just here for you, every day, rain or shine, whether you like it or, perhaps, on occasion, not :) It's just me and my laptop and some free blogging software and, you know, a lot of rage, but hopefully some insight and levity along the way. I do genuinely love this gig, and whether you're an everyday reader or a Sunday-only reader or a flat-out hatereader, I appreciate you more than you'll ever know.

How much should you give? Whatever you think the blog is worth to you on a yearly basis. Whatever that amount is is fantastic. Some people refuse to pay for what they can get for free. Others just don't have money to spare. All are welcome to read the blog—the site will always be open and free. But if you are able to express your appreciation monetarily, here are two options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar):

Second, a mailing address (checks should be made out to "Rex Parker"):

Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905

And heck, why don't I throw my Venmo handle in here too, just in case that's your preferred way of moving money around; it's @MichaelDavidSharp (the last four digits of my phone are 4878, in case Venmo asks you, which they did that one time someone contributed that way—but it worked!)

All Paypal contributions will be gratefully acknowledged by email. All snail mail contributions will be gratefully acknowledged with hand-written postcards. I. Love. Snail Mail. I love seeing your gorgeous handwriting and then sending you my awful handwriting. It's all so wonderful. And my thank-you postcards this year are really special. They are portraits of my new cat Alfie (a bright spot of 2020), designed by artist Ella Egan, a.k.a. my daughter. And they look like this:

He's eating kale in that middle one, in case you're wondering. Anyway, these cards are personally meaningful to me, and also, I believe, objectively lovely. I can't wait to share them with the snail-mailers. Please note: I don't keep a "mailing list" and don't share my contributor info with anyone. And if you give by snail mail and (for some reason) don't want a thank-you card, just indicate "NO CARD."  Again, as ever, I'm so grateful for your readership and support. Now on to today's puzzle...

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This is oversized for some reason. Usually it's a theme that drives a grid into unexpected dimensions, but I guess they couldn't do what they wanted to do in a 15x15, so here we are. More puzzle for the buck, I guess. Lots of thorniness in this one, but nothing that really dragged matters to a halt. The NW opened up pretty easily with IBM & IMS both being gimmes and then bam, BEQUEATH dropped right in (2D: Pass on after passing on), and the "Q" made SQUALL the likely first word there (17A: Narrow band of storms), and the rest of that corner just kinda fell into place. But getting into the center proved mildly challenging. Had TAKES but couldn't come up with AIM (25A: Gets ready to throw), and sadly AIM had all the letters I needed to be able to turn the corner there. I don't know what's being thrown that aim has to be taken. A dart I guess. Or an axe. I associate aiming with guns or bows or weapons like that, hence my blankness here. Also missed the turn into the center when I went with "I'M OUT" at 23D: "It's game over for me" ("I LOST"). That clue is bad, actually. It's bad to have a slangy clue and then have an absolutely plain, literal answer. Clue is idiomatic, answer should be too. "I LOST," my god it's so plain that no one actually says it. Also, the verb tense is off (present in the clue, past in the answer). Bah. And I was so proud of getting LIFER right away (24D: Die-hard fan no matter what, in slang), really thought I was gonna zoom down into the center there. But no.

Everything else was pretty doable, except the SW corner, where, even after I got UNDERSTOOD *and* NEEDS, I couldn't drop the Downs. Three opportunities (UN-, NE-, DE-), three strikes. I actually wanted UNSEATS at 41D: Wins a race against, but wasn't sure. And NEUTRAL was well disguised (42D: N as in Nissan?) (NEUTRAL being a transmission setting in an automobile such as a Nissan; cute). And DEBACLE was invisible to me, as I think of people having "meltdowns" and DEBACLEs just being situations. Oh, and I also couldn't figure 49A: I, for one (SUBJECT), even with -JECT in place. That's bad on my part. Shoulda seen that. So I had to dive into the unknown and build my way back out of that corner. Luckily TALE was right! (worried it might be DUST) (62A: Fairy ___), as was SLEW, and so building my way back out of that corner was less painful than I feared. Slowed a little by not knowing the word that was supposed to go before RISE at 63A: Order in the court. My brain just kept shouting "ALL." Me to brain: "It doesn't fit!" Brain: "ALL!" Me: "Stop it." Brain: "... ... ... try ALLLLL!" Me: "omg shut up."

PEACES is one of those slang terms I know exists but that I don't hear much, probably because it seems like it would be really easy for others to think you were saying something else. "Peace out!" has the "out" indicating departure. And if you are signing off or leaving, saying "PEACE" makes sense. But as a verb in the 3rd-person present indicative, it's awkward-feeling. But I'm old so he PEACES she PEACES it PEACES great whatever, go to town. Only bad things in this puzzle were ET ALIBI (I have some experience looking at bibliographies and yikes I can't remember ever seeing this—the term I'm familiar with is passim), and -TUPLE, up there with the worst suffixes ever to grace a grid (with the understanding that suffixes never truly "grace" anything) (51D: Mathematical suffix). Much of the rest was fun and entertaining. I was very excited to see PLUOT, which I guessed straight off (32D: Hybrid fruit also known as an aprium). Proudest, tastiest, happiest moment of the puzzle. Those things are delicious. I miss summer already. Let's see, any tricksy clues need explaining? [Pings] = IMS = "contacts someone via internet messaging" ("ping" comes from "the name of the sound a sonar makes when it detects another vessel"). Everything else seems reasonably straightforward. I'd like to thank Anna Karenina for teaching me about TATARs (48D: Siberian native). Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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