Lib balm brand with a pod-shaped container / WED 12-1-21 / Totally wreck as a noob / Play a wrong note during a violin sonata / 1996 musical set in New York's Alphabet City / One of three in foreground of american gothic

Constructor: Christopher Youngs

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "ayer" (rhymes with 'mayor') swaps — words that sound like "ayer" are swapped for different words that also sound like "ayer," creating wackiness, I guess:

Theme answers:

• ERR ON THE G-STRING (17A: Play a wrong note during a violin sonata?)
• CLEAN-HEIR ACT (28A: Little prince taking a bath?)
• TO AIR IS HUMAN (44A: "We all put things on TV sometimes?")
• EYRE TO THE THRONE (59A: Headline after Jane becomes queen?)

Word of the Day: Air on the G String (17A) —

"Air on the G String", also known as "Air for G String" and "Celebrated Air", is August Wilhelmj's 1871 arrangement of the second movement of Johann Sebastian Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

The arrangement differs from the original in that the part of the first violins is transposed down so that the entire piece can be played on just the violin's lowest string (the G string). In performance, that part is generally played by a single violin (instead of by the first violins as a group).

• • •

Yes, all these words rhyme, and you can swap them out and make wackiness, but if you're going to use such an obvious gag, you could at least come up with some rhyme or reason for the pattern of the gag. The "ayer" swaps make no sense. They're completely arbitrary. You've managed to come in with four different "ayers," OK, but you did not come in with four different "ayers" in the base phrases. That is, the first two original phrases are "air" phrases, but then (randomly) they next to are "err" and "heir" phrases, respectively. That repetition of "air" phrases up front of course creates an *apparent* pattern ... but then that pattern doesn't hold up, not because the pattern is different than you imagined, but because there is no pattern. There is no logic to why one "ayer" becomes another "ayer"; it's all just slapdash. "Air" becomes ERR, and then "Air" becomes HEIR. But then "Err" becomes AIR—this ruins the progression of "Air" in the base phrases, but since this third answer reverses the first, there's still some hope that a pattern will emerge. But that would've meant AIR TO THE THRONE. Instead we get EYRE. I don't mind EYRE per se, I just mind that this whole "ayer" business is slopped down on my grid with not thought to order or wit or anything. Also, the puns aren't that great. Maybe genuinely LOL puns would've made up for the sloppiness of the theme execution. The only clue that was funny was the clue that *wasn't* there but that you can't help imagining; that is, a *genuinely* funny clue for ERR ON THE G STRING. The perfect clue is out there, somewhere! Yes, it involves reimagining the meaning of G STRING, but ... why not? You've randomly thrown EYRE in here, so there are no rules, apparently; may as well have some fun. . . 

There were no real issues with the fill, and I liked seeing a couple of the longer answers. FARMER'S TAN was a colorful (!) surprise (10D: What wearing a shirt at the beach might get you), and MUSKETRY ... I don't know why I like it, I just do. I'm not even sure I knew it was a word. It's not called "The Three Guys Who Were Good at MUSKETRY," after all. But I just like the way the word looks / sounds, and it's at least slightly clever that they were able to cross-reference the clue to one third of the actual Musketeers (ATHOS). The short fill was unremarkable but largely unbothersome, which is just fine. Only a couple of pained faces. One for the O'ER / -EER crossing; I wouldn't allow these two crosswordese crutches to share the same grid, let alone have them crossing (also, if I see EER in the grid, I assume it's punctuated E'ER, which ... is pronounced "ayer" ... which kind of reads like static in this grid. Did it want to be the revealer, but then got demoted (and off-centered)? No. But that's what it looks like. The other pained face came at 37A: "Get out!" but only because I found myself in another one of those Kea/Loa situations where you have a letter and then two equally appropriate possibilities present themselves and you have No Way to know which is right without working the crosses. In this case, it was a Scat/SHOO situation. This is just a normal part of doing crosswords, but certain kealoas irk more than others (ALOT/ATON, for instance ... there are others ...)

Five things:

• 28D: Delegation (CONTINGENT) — I just realized that [Trick the fellow who needs a heart in 'The Wizard of Oz"?] would also "work."
• 1A: Titan of industry (CZAR) — Yes. Correct use of the "C" CZAR. Hail "C" CZAR!
• 67A: Mother of Helen of Troy (LEDA) — 30 years of reading / teaching about the Trojan War, still can't get Helen's mom straight. I wrote in LEIA and immediately thought "well that's the wrong Wars entirely..."
• 2D: Swordsman with a horse named Tornado (ZORRO) — If I knew this, I forgot. I kinda wanted this to be EL CID.
• 65D: First word of Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns" ("ISN'T") — the musical theater *and* the crossword world mourned the passing of a titan of wordplay this past weekend. Francis Heaney (one of my favorite constructors) put together a tribute puzzle, which you can download for free here. Treat yourself. Good day. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. I guess PWN is still a gaming term ("to get the better of" or "dominate," stylized from a typo for "own"). Or else it's a ghost of gaming term and like so much ghost terminology still haunts the grid.

P.P.S. No I never heard of the lip-balm brand with the pod-shaped container either (EOS). Not sure how "pod-shaped container" helps any. Not seeing the connection between pods and the Goddess of the Dawn. But I *am* noticing that my lips are dry, dammit!

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