Thriller with a two-note theme / FRI 6-4-21 / 2012 title role for Jamie Foxx / Sequel to Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth / Mythological figure who nearly managed to flee Hades / Guac go-with / One of the schools named in the public schools act of 1868 / Explicit for a Brit / Queens squad for short

Constructor: Nam Jin Yoon

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: EURYDICE (30A: Mythological figure who nearly manages to flee Hades) —

In Greek mythology, Eurydice or Eurydike (/jʊəˈrɪdɪsiː/; Greek: Εὐρυδίκη, 'wide justice') was the wife of Orpheus, who tried to bring her back from the dead with his enchanting music. // Eurydice was the wife of musician Orpheus, who loved her dearly; on their wedding day, he played joyful songs as his bride danced through the meadow. One day, Aristaeus saw and pursued Eurydice, who stepped on a viper, was bitten, and died instantly. Distraught, Orpheus played and sang so mournfully that all the nymphs and deities wept and told him to travel to the Underworld to retrieve her, which he gladly did. After his music softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone, his singing so sweet that even the Erinyes wept, he was allowed to take her back to the world of the living. In another version, Orpheus played his lyre to put Cerberus, the guardian of Hades, to sleep, after which Eurydice was allowed to return with Orpheus to the world of the living. Either way, the condition was attached that he must walk in front of her and not look back until both had reached the upper world. Soon he began to doubt that she was there, suspecting that Hades had deceived him. Just as he reached the portals of Hades and daylight, he turned around to gaze on her face, and because Eurydice had not yet crossed the threshold, she vanished back into the Underworld. When Orpheus later was killed by the Maenads at the orders of Dionysus, his soul ended up in the Underworld where he was reunited with Eurydice. (wikipedia)

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This will be a short write-up today because I am barely awake. Maybe in the course of writing I will magically wake up more and the write-up will go on and on to its normal length, but at this point, in the second sentence of the write-up, that hardly seems likely. I socialized for the first time in close to eighteen months last night, and man am I out of practice. Went to Syracuse to see two of my favorite crossword people, who are also two of my favorite people people, and we drank whiskey (well, one of us had an Aperol spritz, I guess, technically) and talked and talked like people who have needed to talk for like, well, eighteen months. Time had no meaning. I ate dinner at some ridiculously late hour, left much later than I planned, drove through a vicious rainstorm, got home late, thought I would blog because by then the puzzle was already out, but then just talked to my wife and cats for an hour and passed out. And then the alarm went off at 4:45am. And here we are. And I still haven't started this write-up. OK, here goes. I loved this puzzle. I am pretty sure I have enjoyed Nam Jin Yoon's puzzles before, though I don't think there have been that many yet. I'm looking now and this is his fourth puzzle. For all the limp-brained people who say stuff like "why do you hate every puzzle?," here are the first sentences from my three previous Nam Jin Yoon puzzle write-ups:

• "A smashing success"
• "Wow, this was excellent"
• "As with Wednesday's puzzle, I destroyed it, and I very much enjoyed destroying it"

Dude is currently batting a thousand. Four for four. All I can say is 'more please.' Because I *do* NEED A NAP, and yes, DON'T JUDGE! Naps are good. Good like this puzzle. So much zing. PANKO! Hi there, why don't you come out and play more often, you tasty breadcrumbs? DJANGO PANKO! HONEYBEE BEBE! This puzzle was sufficiently tough, but it felt light and playful, everywhere I turned. END IN TEARS is a beautiful entry, and also deeply unapt for this puzzle, which ended in anything but. Tears of joy only. Maybe tears of tiredness.

Loved TOP BRASS and OVERRATED REALITY TV, which I am reading as one long phrase. Also loved the clue on SNOW ANGEL (18A: A child who's lying might make one), both because it's good and because I deciphered it pretty quickly. Did not like the clue on PUTT (43A: Hardly a long shot). Some putts are really quite long, actually. 

I'm sure I've wondered this aloud before, but are ASEA and AT SEA the same, then, when it comes to confusion. Because I thought it was just AT SEA, but here we are ASEA (11D: Befuddled). Speaking of seas—Eurydice ("You RID a sea"). Subject of many operas, as well as a poem by Scottish poet Robert Henryson, which I wrote about for my Ph.D. exams in grad school. Enjoyed seeing her again. Not many mistakes today. Wrote in JOINER at 5D: Cheerful and self-confident (JAUNTY) because I misread the clue as [Cheerful and confident sort]. Had NENE before BEBE (32D: One in the care of una madre). NENE is the Hawaiian goose, yes, but it's also Spanish for "baby." Clue on HONEYBEE was tough but fair (40A: Small organic food producer). My first guess there was HOME FARM. So there were some struggles, but they never felt like annoying struggles, and there was usually some reasonable payoff at the end. I am so excited to discover that there is a newish constructor that I (apparently!) really like. And look at that, this write-up has somehow ended up the same length as all the others. Gonna quit before diminishing returns set in.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

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