Journalist Skeeter in the Harry Potter books / SUN 7-10-22 / Artless nickname / Roman emperor after Nero and Galba / Rocker John whose surname sounds like a leafy vegetable / Defunct company of accounting fraud fame / God whose name sounds almost like the ammunition he uses / Movement championed by the Silence Breakers / New York resting place for Mark Twain

Constructor: Christina Iverson and Scott Hogan

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Movin' On Up" — "ON" at the end of one familiar phrase is "moved" "up" and attached to the end of another familiar phrase directly above it—the "ON"-ing and de-"ON"-ing create wacky phrases, which are clued wackily (i.e. "?"-style)

Theme answers:

• 'TIS THE SEAS-- (74D: Response to "Why art thou queasy?") / FRUIT BATON (3D: Banana wielded by a maestro in a pinch?)
• STORE COUP-- (83D: Retail takeover scheme?) / WARM-UP TOON (6D: Animated short before a Pixar movie?)
• BOXING LESS-- (76D: What Amazon retirees enjoy most?) / TRASH CANON (9D: Give a scathing review of a major camera brand?)
• HEART SURGE-- (78D: Result of love at first sight?) / TACO BARON (13D: Mexican street food mogul?)
• WELCOME WAG-- (79D: What a dog greets its returning family with?) / MAIN DRAGON (16D: Smaug, in "The Hobbit"?)

Word of the Day: John CALE (20A: Rocker John whose surname sounds like a leafy vegetable) —

John Davies Cale OBE (born 9 March 1942) is a Welsh musician, composer, singer, songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the American rock band the Velvet Underground. Over his six-decade career, Cale has worked in various styles across rock, drone, classical, avant-garde and electronic music.

He studied music at Goldsmiths College, University of London, before relocating in 1963 to New York City's downtown music scene, where he performed as part of the Theatre of Eternal Music and formed the Velvet Underground. Since leaving the band in 1968, Cale has released 16 solo studio albums, including the widely acclaimed Paris 1919 (1973) and Music for a New Society (1982). Cale has also acquired a reputation as an adventurous record producer, working on the debut albums of several innovative artists, including the Stooges and Patti Smith. (wikipedia)

• • •

Something about the verticality of this theme was mildly disorienting. The other disorienting thing was that not only did the long Down themers have "?" clues, but the very first long Across had a "?" clue as well, meaning that all three of the first long answers I encountered had "?" clues, so I had no idea what the theme was doing or which way it was going. That is, STUD FARMS (23A: Where some stable relationships form?) really looked like it was a theme answer, somehow, so ...  yeah, disorienting, as I said. Somehow the first themer that I actually got in full was "TIS THE SEAS!"; I had picked up the "ON" at the end of FRUIT BATON, but did not yet know that was the answer. When I saw the "ON" and recalled that the title of the puzzle was "Movin' On Up," I immediately went down to the longish answer just below the "ON" and, noticing it too was a "?" clue, figured the "ON" had been moved "up" ... so this lower themer would be lacking the "ON" (where the upper themer had gained it). I did not expect that literally every themer would have the "ON" either taken from or added to its tail end, but that's what ended up happening, making it very easy to just put "ON"s into all the upper themers while also imagining them missing from the lower ones. Solving it felt pretty programmatic. Some of the wackiness landed—I liked "'TIS THE SEAS" and WELCOME WAG and the idea of a TACO BARON (whom I wanted to be a TAPA (?) BARON at first). But there wasn't enough cleverness or hilarity here to sustain a Sunday-length solve. This is always the challenge of Sunday—something that might, theoretically, delight in a 15x15 becomes kind of a drag when carried out over an entire 21x21. And the fill wasn't making any friends today either, so after Saturday's grueling but carefully crafted masterpiece, this felt much more conventional, and was something of a let-down. 

There are a lotta "Why?"s in this grid. Like, why are there two "UP"s in the grid, especially in a puzzle where "UP" is in the title and relevant to the whole concept? One of the "UP"s is even in a themer (WARM-UP TOON) (the other is in ACTS UP). Why isn't there a second question mark in the clue for "'TIS THE SEAS!" (74D: Response to "Why art thou queasy?")—you need one "?" for the normal interrogative, but you need another to cue the thematic wackiness. All the other themers get wacky "?"s at the end, that one needs one as well. More whys. Why would you needlessly add yet more Harry Potter content (RITA) to a puzzle that already has a necessarily Pottery answer (SNAPE)?! There are a million (give or take) ways to clue RITA, so why are you leaning into the Rowlingverse, exactly? (95A: Journalist Skeeter in the Harry Potter books). Yuck. Why is there an "ON" in a Down answer that does *not* move "up"? (15D: Defunct company of accounting fraud fame => ENRON). And lastly (I think), why is there a (horrible) singular SCAD (114D: Large amount) when you could've just made it a SCAM? Maybe SCAM or TEEM is already in the grid somewhere and I'm just not seeing it, but oof, singular SCAD, just say 'no,' esp. when it's easy to say 'no.' Oh, one more why—why is the clue on MILAN [Where 122-Across can be found] when 122-Across is merely SCALA. It is super-awkward to tell me to look at an answer and then not have the answer itself be enough—the answer is just a partial. You need to read the clue *and* the answer to make the MILAN clue make sense. Ungainly. Don't do this. Not worth it. 

No significant mistakes to speak of today. I had Smaug as a REAL DRAGON at first. Balked at DAGNABIT because I thought it had two "B"s. Balked at BROUHAHA because I thought it had two "O"s. Wasn't sure if it was BRIER or BRIAR. Had MAD before WAY (94D: Very, colloquially). Took (seemingly) forever for me to figure out why STU was right for 66A: Artless nickname? (take the "art" out of "Stuart" and you get STU). I kinda wish the clue on NIGHT had started with [When repeated...] (99A: "Sweet dreams!" => "NIGHT!"). That's all I got in the way of commentary today.

Hey, I need to remind you that another installment of the Boswords Crossword Tournament is headed your way later this month. Or, if you're local, maybe you're headed its way (it's in person *and* online this time) (in-person at The Roxbury Latin School in West Roxbury, MA). Anyway, here's the info from tourney organizer John Lieb:

Registration is now open for the Boswords 2022 Summer Tournament, which will be held on Sunday, July 24. This event will be both In-Person and Online. Solvers can compete individually or in pairs. To register, to see the constructor roster, and for more details, go to www.boswords.org, where past tournament puzzles are also available for purchase.

Take care. See you tomorrow (or next week, if you're one of those Sundays-only folks)

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. I was so very much thrown by the clue on WAS (79A: Second word of many a limerick) since the main limerick I know begins "There once WAS a man from Nantucket..." —with WAS in the third position.

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