Pagliacci baritone / WED 4-28-21 / One greeting others with the shaka sign / Two concentric circles on golf scorecard

Constructor: Hal Moore

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: OPEN-AND-SHUT CASE (58A: Easy-to-resolve situation ... or a hint to the progression found in 20-, 23- 43-, 46- and 58-Across) — the letter string "CASE" moves, over the course of five theme answers, from the front of the answers to the back of the answer; so "CASE" "opens" the first answer, "shuts" the last answer, and I guess does both (?) in the middle answers:

Theme answers:

• "CASEY AT THE BAT" (20A: Poem subtitled "A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888")
• CAST ASIDE (23A: Discard)
• CANADA GEESE (43A: Some winter travelers to the U.S.)
• "CHECK, PLEASE!" (46A: Restaurant request)
• OPEN-AND-SHUT CASE 

Word of the Day: shaka sign (27A: One greeting others with the shaka sign = SURFER) —

The shaka sign, sometimes known as "hang loose", is a gesture of friendly intent often associated with Hawaii and surf culture. It consists of extending the thumb and smallest finger while holding the three middle fingers curled, and gesturing in salutation while presenting the front or back of the hand; the hand may be rotated back and forth for emphasis. While the shaka sign has spread internationally from its Hawaiian cultural roots to surf culture and beyond, the hand gesture also bears a variety of meaning in different contexts and regions of the world. [...] The word shaka is also used as an interjection expressing approval, which may predate its use for the shaka sign. According to The Oxford English Dictionary the origin of the word is uncertain, but it may come from Japanese, where it is a byname for the Buddha. (wikipedia)

• • •

I like the grid, with its mirror symmetry, and I like the theme answer arrangement, with one stack of two followed by another stack of two. Reminds me of a Big Mac for some reason, which has nothing to do with the theme, but whatever. It's an interesting design, for sure. I don't think the theme quite works. It seems at odds with itself. When I was done, I thought, "oh, so the letters CASE both 'open' and 'shut' the answers, cool." But then I read the revealer clue and looked at the grid more closely, and that's not what's happening. Instead CASE moves, methodically, from the back to the front of the themers. I think the puzzle thinks this is a bonus feature, but for me, it just confuses matters. Makes the theme conceptually muddy. In one case (!), CASE opens an answer. In one case (!!), CASE shuts an answer ... the others are stuck in between, which ... if *all* the answers had been in-betweeners, that would've made sense to me (this is what I originally thought was happening). CASE "opens and shuts" its answer, great. That's what's happening with CAST ASIDE, CANADA GEESE, and CHECK, PLEASE. Conversely, if the themers were all answer pairs where CASE "opened" (in one case) and "shut" (in the other) the answer, that would've made sense too. But the moving of CASE along, one letter at a time, from the front to the back of themers, that doesn't have anything to do with opening or shutting, unless (and this is a stretch), you imagine the movement of CASE across the themers is some kind of visual representation of a door being shut (i.e. it's open ... and then when you close it, it has to swing across an arc ... and maybe the middle themers are the arc?). Conceptually this would have worked if all the answers had had a split CASE or none of them had. In the end, it's certainly interesting, but it just doesn't Snap!

And the fill, oh my, it's pretty crusty and rough and unpleasant (with the twin pillars NO ACCIDENT and FIRE ESCAPE being notable exceptions). At various points I thought the puzzle was trolling me, so comically crosswordesey were its crosses: E'ER x/w ERR? EKE x/w IKE? AREA x/w ARIA!?!? Gruesome. I mean, almost funny if the constructor ended up winning some kind of bar bet about how much of this garbage crossing stuff he could pull off, but otherwise, not that funny. And then there's TONIO x/w TOE AT (What did the log-splitter say after he missed the log? "Hey, where's my TOE AT!?"). There's no real reason so much of this short fill should be so tedious. The SW corner is a scrapheap of the most common stuff (none of it hugely objectionable, but all in a pile ... it smells of mothballs, for sure). 

Not much difficulty today. At one time, TONIO would've caused trouble, but I managed to memory-bank it at some point after seeing it one too many times in crosswords. I know the "hang ten" sign very well, but had no idea it was called a "shaka sign" (27A). That clue on "CASEY AT THE BAT" was tough (20A: Poem subtitled "A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888"); I'm at least vaguely familiar with every word of that poem, having read it or heard it recited many times, but apparently I never saw or heard the subtitle, which does not appear to have anything to do with baseball. This puzzle could've used a little more of that kind of difficulty, perhaps, but it was still Wednesdayish enough. 

See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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