1930s Depression-fighting org. / Where Ulysses encountered the Cyclops / Capital city with three consecutive vowels / Farm delivery letters / Charity even involving a coast-to-coast human chain / Places to find dishes of different cultures

Constructor: Michael Lieberman

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "With 1 Across" / "With 1 Down" — the theme repurposes a cluing convention, taking the common opening clue phrases, "With 1-Across" and "With 1-Down," which normally denote cross-references, and using them literally instead—that is, you have to add the word "Across" (or "Down") to the answer (1 time, I guess) to make sense of it:

Theme answers:

• SHOT [ACROSS] THE BOW (16A: With 1 Across, warning at sea)
• KNOCK [DOWN] DRAG OUT (26A: With 1 Down, like a free-for-all fight)
• HANDS [ACROSS] AMERICA (42A: With 1 Across, charity event involving a coast-to-coast human chain)
• UPSIDE [-DOWN[ CAKE (56A: With 1 Down, dessert sometimes made with pineapple)

Word of the Day: Cicely TYSON (63A: Three-time Emmy winner Cicely) —

Cicely Louise Tyson (December 19, 1924 – January 28, 2021) was an American actress. In a career which spanned more than seven decades in film, television and theatre, she became known for her portrayal of strong African-American women. Tyson received various awards including three Emmy Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Tony Award, an Honorary Academy Award, and a Peabody Award.

Having appeared in minor film and television roles early in her career, Tyson garnered widespread attention and critical acclaim for her performance as Rebecca Morgan in Sounder (1972); she was nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Actress and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for her work in the film. Tyson's portrayal of the title role in the 1974 television film The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, based on the 1971 novel of the same name by Ernest J. Gaines, won her further praise; among other accolades, the role won her two Emmy Awards and a nomination for a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She received another Emmy Award nomination for her role as Binta in the acclaimed series Roots (1977).

Tyson continued to act on film and television in the 21st century in projects such as Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), A Lesson Before Dying (1999), Because of Winn-Dixie, Diary of a Mad Black Woman (both 2005), The Help (2011), The Trip to Bountiful (2014) and Last Flag Flying (2017). She also played the recurring role of Ophelia Harkness in the ABClegal drama TV series How to Get Away With Murder since the show's inception in 2014, for which she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series five times. (wikipedia)

• • •

The off-brand punctuation (or non-punctuation) in the first themer should've tipped you off immediately that something funky (if not STENCHy) was going on. When the NYTXW wants you to look at 1-Across or 1-Down, you get hyphens between the "1" and the "Across" (or "Down"). Today, no hyphen, which set off alarm bells. Which isn't to say that I didn't actually look at 1-Across at first. Thought maybe the [Warning at sea] was SHOT BACK ... something something. But then I thought "what if I mentally added the actual word "ACROSS" ...?" and there it was: SHOT [ACROSS] THE BOW. I wrote in SHOT THE BOW, it looked stupid and felt wrong, but then the crosses worked, so ... yay? After this, all the themers were a cinch because every theme clue essentially hands you one of the words in the answer. I absolutely no-looked "HANDS [ACROSS] AMERICA"—got HANDS, added ACROSS, and there was nowhere else for that answer to go. I don't think they actually got people to hold hands all the way Across America, but I'm realizing that my memory is heavily mediated by "The Simpsons"'s representation of the event, so who knows? (Well, someone knows, probably). Anyway, like "We Are The World," "HANDS [ACROSS] AMERICA" was one of those high-profile, bad song-driven charity thingies that feel like they happened only in the '80s, i.e. my adolescence. So though the actual event is a haze, the song, unfortunately, is seared forever in my brain—well, the chorus, for sure. 

I'm on record as not being a huge fan of nonsense-in-the-grid themes. It would be funnier / more entertaining if all the Across-less / Down-less answers at least made funny phrases, so I can imagine my own wacky clues, but KNOCK DRAG OUT makes zero sense, even wackily (unless you know a guy named "Drag"). Same with HANDS AMERICA. UPSIDE CAKE would be a good theme answer for a TAKE DOWN puzzle (you know, where you "take" "DOWN" out of a familiar phrase, creating a wacky phrase, etc.). You could clue it wackily and everything: [Confection for the optimistic?], something like that. As is, this is a one-note gimmick. It's a cute idea, but on paper (or screen), it kind of fades the second you grasp it. And the fill is pretty crosswordese-laden, so there's not much here for you, joy-wise, once you get the trick. "I CAN'T EVEN" and "THAT'S ON ME" are nice colloquialisms, but that's about it for high points. The puzzle was also pretty easy for a Thursday, though it was thorny enough in places to make me work. Started at MI-AN / -ABS for what was probably two seconds but felt like an eternity. Couldn't remember a thing about "A Farewell to Arms" and couldn't even make sense of MI-AN, and the "dishes of different cultures" part of the LABS clue absolutely fooled me. I was stuck on food, until I wasn't. Had TEASES before TAUNTS (17D: Baits, in a way), and despite belonging to a CSA, couldn't figure out how "letters" applied to a "farm delivery" (maybe that's because we pick our CSA up at the farmers market—no "delivery" involved) (39A: Farm delivery letters). 

Bullet points:

• 3D: Benjamin (C-NOTE) — first thing I put in the grid. Always feels slightly like cheating when I lean heavily on old-school crosswordese for traction, and traction doesn't get any old-schoolier than C-NOTE ETNA ATHOS 
• 34A: 1930s Depression-fighting org. (NRA) — Nope. Nope nope nope. Nope. "But we've clued it as a different—" Nope. I look at the grid, I see NRA, and it's school shooting / hospital shootings (yesterday) / white supremacy and terrorism. There are actually very few answers I'd like to see wiped from the grid forever, no matter the clue; this is one of them.
• 28D: West of Malibu (KANYE) — So ... he lives there, I guess? Kinda weird. I get that you're going for a misdirection, a misdirection direction, a clue that makes us read "West" as a direction, but I can't imagine cluing any other celebrity by the place where they just happen to reside. Looks like he (famously?) bought a $57 million house there. Meh. Lifestyles of "celebrities," extremely not my beat.
• 15D: "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" actor Robinson (CRAIG) — had no idea here. Is this the Old Spice guy? Hey, wait, this is Darryl from "The Office"! OK (OK), I know exactly who this guy is. He was on that show for the whole damn run, whereas he's only been on 9 episodes of "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," what the hell?! What a weird clue. (P.S. the "Old Spice guy" is Terry Crews)
• 48D: Mini freezer? (BRAKE) — the groaniest of groaners. Even after I had the answer, I wasn't entirely sure how "Mini" worked. "How is a BRAKE "mini"? Miniature in relation to what!?" But, sigh, they mean the car brand Mini. So the BRAKE makes a Mini (i.e. the car) freeze (i.e. stop). As the answer next door says, YIKES (49D: "Oh, no!"). 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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