Fledgling pigeon / MON 1-25-21 / Nickname for Cardinals with the / Old weapon in hand-to-hand combat

Constructor: Kevin Christian and Andrea Carla Michaels

Relative difficulty: Medium (3:01) (normalish M time)

THEME: "YOU'RE FIRED!" (62A: Dreaded cry from a boss ... or a hint to the ends of 18-, 23-, 40- and 53-Across) — familiar phrases where final words (which are nouns) can also be verbs meaning "fired" (as from a job):

Theme answers:

• GARBAGE CAN (18A: Oscar the Grouch's home)
• BATTLE AXE (23A: Old weapon in hand-to-hand combat)
• QUARTERBACK SACK (40A: Result of a football blitz, maybe)
• ANKLE BOOT (53A: Bit of fashionable footwear)

Word of the Day: SQUAB (33D: Fledgling pigeon) —

1a: COUCH

b: a cushion for a chair or couch

2or plural squab : a fledgling birdspecifically : a fledgling pigeon about four weeks old

3: a short fat person (merriam-webster)

• • •

Not sure I'd run this puzzle in *this* economy, but whatever. Today's big revelation, for me, is definition 1 and 3 in the SQUAB entry (above). Wow. COUCH!? Bizarre. If you clued SQUAB as [Couch] ... would it make a sound? I mean, who would get that? And the "short fat person" just sounds mean. SQUAT or SQUAD is better for a Monday, but this grid is really committed to RED BIRDS, which, uh ... let's just say, not my fav franchise (though Bob Gibson *is* one of my fav players). Just pull everything after RED and refill the grid, IMO. This will help you get rid of not only SQUAB, but also AANDM, a really ugly ampersandwich that has no business being in a grid that has no real thematic pressure on it and should therefore be relatively easy to fill cleanly. The fill on this one is STALER than I'd like, but overall this grid, and it's theme, is very very 20th-century normal. The puzzle is partying like it's 1999. Very straightforward, very consistent, just fine. No zing, but no clank either. It's fine. Thematically, the only part I hesitated on was the BOOT part of ANKLE BOOT, as I had no idea those were inherently "fashionable." Or is "fashionable" just there to get you your cutesy alliteration in the clue? Anyway, I was expecting something more "fashionable"-sounding than a mere BOOT. Still, not much here to cheer or get mad at. It ticks the Monday box. Done.

I always try to do the first three Acrosses in a row on Mondays, and if I can bang them out 1 2 3, I know I'm gonna do well. Today, 1 2 ... not three. Couldn't get ADAPT from just 9A: Become acclimated. Somehow, the clue doesn't suggest ADAPT to me at all. I think more of "change" rather than merely "getting used to," oh well. I tried to run all the crosses off IRAN next, and only got one (1) (!) of them at first pass. I got AMIGA. That's it. I kinda misread 1D: Not give an ___ (be stubborn), with my brain thinking the "an" was going to be part of the answer ... I do not understand this elaborate, clunky fill-in-the-blank clue for something as simple as INCH. And REHAB as a verb, clued very plainly (and with no injury or drug/alcohol frame of reference) really threw me (2D: Give a makeover, informally). "NO CUTS" was easily the toughest, in that it's highly colloquial and childish, neither of which is suggested by the clue (4D: "Hey, don't jump in front of me in the line!"). Had DIS before DIG (5D: Insult). That is a weirdly mid-to-late-week clue on DIG. "MERCY!" was way too quaint for me to get quickly (28D: "Goodness gracious!"). And I honestly couldn't remember if the fledgling bird was SQUIB or SQUAB, and I definitely wrote in SQUIB at first (though I did realize I'd have to check that cross very shortly thereafter, and I did, and so I fixed the error quickly). Two cross-references made things a tad slower today than they might've been as well. But still, as I say, totally normal (i.e. fast) Monday time today. Very average. Everything about this puzzle: average. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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