13th-century Persian mystic who is one of the best-selling poets in the U.S. / WED 6-23-21 / Decorative items washed up on the beach / Tech that enables contactless credit card payments / Fleeting romantic interest / Where Boxing Day comes before Christmas, in brief?

Constructor: Kate Hawkins

Relative difficulty: Medium to Medium-Challenging 

THEME: SHAPE UP (26D: "Get it together!" ... or a hint to the highlighted letters) — circled letters in the theme answers (all of which are Downs) contain the names of SHAPEs that run backwards (or, literally, UP):

Theme answers:

• MICHAEL CRICHTON (3D: Author of "Jurassic Park") (circle)
• PASS THE BUCK (22D: Shift blame to someone else) (cube)
• I HAVE NO CLUE (15D: "Beats me!") (cone)
• FLAVOR OF THE WEEK (10D: Fleeting romantic interest) (oval)

Word of the Day: RFID (41A: Tech that enables contactless credit card payments) —

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder, a radio receiver and transmitter. When triggered by an electromagnetic interrogation pulse from a nearby RFID reader device, the tag transmits digital data, usually an identifying inventory number, back to the reader. This number can be used to track inventory goods. [...] Unlike a barcode, the tag does not need to be within the line of sight of the reader, so it may be embedded in the tracked object. RFID is one method of automatic identification and data capture (AIDC). RFID tags are used in many industries. For example, an RFID tag attached to an automobile during production can be used to track its progress through the assembly line, RFID-tagged pharmaceuticals can be tracked through warehouses, and implanting RFID microchips in livestock and pets enables positive identification of animals. Tags can also be used in shops to expedite checkout, and to prevent theft by customers and employees. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well this one shaped up well. You've got a bunch of shapes that are indeed running up, and you've got both two- and three-dimensional shapes, and you've got a pretty colorful set of theme answers, so yeah, this works. Noticing "circle" backwards inside MICHAEL CRICHTON was the real coup here. Not too keen on that final themer (qua themer): LAVO (i.e. "oval") is not buried in that theme answer the way the other shapes are buried. That is, all the other shapes are stretched across at least two words (three in the case of I HAVE NO CLUE), but LAVO just sits inside FLAVOR, so while the answer itself isn't bad, it isn't doing anything particularly interesting with its shape. It feels like there's FLAVOR and then just all this gratuitous extra stuff. OF THE WEEK is a lot of thematically idle material for a theme answer to contain. Again, the phrase itself isn't bad, it's just that it doesn't express the theme itself in a particularly inventive or interesting way. Also, "flavor of the month" is the more common idiomatic phrase (the one I tried to make fit at first). It appears that a moderately successful single by the band American Hi-Fi, in 2001, may have had something to do with the popularization of "flavor of the week," though that song's title is actually "Flavor of the Weak." Still, I'm only mad for theme reasons here. Idiomatically, it's fine.

Had real trouble getting started with this one because the NW corner hit me with two total "???" clues right out of the gate. The only thing I could think of at 1A: Plays for time, in a way (VAMPS) was STALLS, and then when I tried to get some help from the short cross, I was confronted with 4D: Who wrote "To Helen" and "For Annie" (POE), and ... nope, did not ring any bells at all. I've seen variations on POE so often that I figured I'd have all the titles in his canon memorized by now, but apparently not. Then I bounced to the next section, but, perhaps traumatized by failing to nail a literary clue, my brain absolutely muffed the "Hamlet" clue at 6A: Word repeated by Hamlet before "solid flesh" (TOO). Of course it's TOO, but my brain was like "uh, three letters, poetic speech ... ERE! Is it ERE ERE solid flesh"!? (it is not). Hilarious then to see ERE turn up later in the grid like "hey, what's up, someone call me?" But back to VAMPS. That word suggests something improvisational and performative to me, but "Plays for time" was never gonna get me there. I guess the "in a way" is doing a lot of work, and yeah you might vamp (in the sense of "improvise, extemporize") in order to buy time. But that is a tough 1-Across. I was also expecting the Mario Kart clue (again!?) to be Mario Universe-specific ... but it was just RACER. So me and that corner didn't get along. But Hamlet over RUMI, that part, I like that. I didn't realize until recently RUMI was so big. When I read him for a Mystical and Erotic Poetry course 30+ years ago, he seemed obscure as hell. But I went to look for his poems in the bookstore and yeah, lots of editions. So someone out there is digging him.

Only thing I didn't really like today is RFID, which is a thing, yes, but it's still a four-letter initialism, and not even a real acronym (i.e. you can't say it as a word ... you don't say "arfid" or "ruffid" do you, please say no). This is another example of "modern and newish-to-crosswords does not mean good." I would do anything I could to steer around something like RFID. Not too crazy about ARNE either. Tons of good ANNEs, very few ARNEs (none of them particularly good). ENE v. ERE feels like a tie to me, and ANNE > ARNE, so .... yes, this is minutiae, whatever, I think about minutiae sometimes. There's not much here that needs explaining. [Digs] is slang for a dwelling place, as is CRIB. Don't see anything else that might cause any confusion. Shout-out to HOT SECOND for being the best answer in the grid today, and to [Is the pope Catholic?] for being the best clue (though [Where Boxing Day comes before Christmas, in brief?] is pretty good too). See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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