One-named entertainer from Spain / SUN 7-31-22 / Killer of the Night King on Game of Thrones / Author journalist Welteroth / Condiment at a pho shop / Flagship vehicle line for Mercedes-Benz / Smallest country in the E.U. by area / Serving with a meze platter / Hand-held device used by Mr. Spock

Constructor: Jesse Goldberg

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Why? Well, Why Not?" — the actual theme is expressed by the answer WISE UP TO (115A: Become aware of ... or a hompohonic description of four letter shifts in this grid). The idea is that "Y"s move "up" "two" rows, four different times. So, an answer that should have a "Y" loses a "Y" because that "Y" (in theory) has jumped up two rows to an answer that *isn't* supposed to have a "Y," but now does. So you get phrases made wacky by either by the addition or subtraction of a "Y," depending:

Theme answers:

• BELLY BOTTOMS (24A: Places where some belts are tightened?)
• COMBAT READ (29A: Stephen Crane's "The Red Badge of Courage," e.g.?)
• CAMPY COUNSELOR (51A: Lawyer with absurdly exaggerated humor?)
• SLUMBER PART (58A: Sleep phase?)
• GRIMY REAPER (71A: Harvesting machine that needs cleaning?)
• THREE TIMES A LAD (80A: Doctor's description of the birth of triplet sons?)
• FAIRY FIGHT (96A: Battle between Tinker Bell and Princess Ozma?)
• MADISON COUNT (108A: Census-taking of a Midwest capital?)

Word of the Day: CHARO (74D: One-named entertainer from Spain) —

María Rosario Pilar Martínez Molina Baeza, professionally known by her stage name Charo, is a Spanish-American actress, singer, comedian, and flamenco guitarist.

Charo began playing guitar at the age of nine and trained under the famed Andrés Segovia.^[6][7] In 1966, she married 65-year-old bandleader Xavier Cugat and moved to the United States with him. In the late 1960s and 1970s, she became a ubiquitous presence on American television, frequently appearing as a guest star on series such as Laugh-In, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. She is known for her uninhibited and exuberant manner, vague age, heavy Spanish accent and the catchphrase "cuchi-cuchi."

As a musician, Charo has performed and recorded in various styles for five decades. She released a series of disco recordings in the 1970s with Salsoul Records, most notably Dance a Little Bit Closer (1977). In 1995, her flamenco album Guitar Passion(1994) won the Female Pop Album of the Year award at the Billboard International Latin Music Conference and was named best female Latin pop album by Billboard. In an interview, she said, "Around the world I am known as a great musician. But in America I am known as the cuchi-cuchi girl. That’s okay, because cuchi-cuchi has taken me all the way to the bank." (wikipedia)

• • •

Hello. I am on vacation with friends. It is very low-key. Doing virtually nothing for a week. So I have some time to write. Next week, my vacation shifts to Los Angeles, where I will be with my extended family. Then, I will have no time, so you will be visited by many wonderful substitutes. But for now, please enjoy my lakeside write-ups. These will be somewhat shorter than usual, because, well, there's ... a lake ... and my friends ... but I promise they will be no less heartfelt ...

I do not like being away from my normal blogging set-up, which is to say, away from my printer. I like to print the puzzle out when I'm done and write comments on it. It's a pretty important part of the ritual. No printer here at the lake house, so I can't ... really *feel* or *see* the puzzle properly, or that's how it feels anyway. Bah. But the solving experience itself is largely the same, and today ... yeah, largely the same Sunday experience (wading thru wackiness), though of maybe a slightly higher conceptual caliber than usual. I was very weirded out by the revealer—that is, by its very existence, since, as far as I could tell, the title was the revealer. There was a "Why?" (added "Y") and a "Why not?" (subtracted "Y"), in alternating sequence, so ... you know, I had it. I was good. And then the revealer comes along and is like "Here's the punch line! Wait ... did you already tell them the joke?! Damn it, title! We talked about this!" The revealer is more elaborate and precise, changing the "Y" pun (from "why"s to "wise") and then adding the "two" pun. So the themers aren't just alternative between Y and Y-not; rather, the "Y"s are doing this very specific two-line leap "up." Cute. But again, the revealer felt redundant and belated, because of the title's having given everything away already. And the wackiness was your garden-variety add/subtract-a-letter wackiness. So, yeah, a pretty Sunday Sunday.

By far my favorite part of the puzzle was trying to figure out what the hell a THREE TIME(Y) SALAD was. A THREE BEAN SALAD is a very legitimate salad name, and I believe I might have tried to write THREE BEANY SALAD in there, just to make the origin phrase make *any* kind of sense. Never mind that BEANY makes no kind of sense for the actual clue. I was completely flummoxed. It wasn't until I had the whole answer from crosses that my brain finally parsed the base phrase correctly: it's the Commodores song, "Three Times A Lady"!! Never saw the "salad" hidden in there before! Speaking of hidden words, when did this whole "name hidden in this phrase"-type clue become such a big deal? ELI was hidden in a phrase just this week, and now we've got ALEC hiding in "global economy" (31D: Name hidden in "global economy"). I am extremely not a fan of this childish cluing. At least in cryptic crosswords, when they hide words and names like this, they don't just tell you outright that that's what's happening. You have to figure it out. But here, they're just like "Can you find the name in this phrase, Billy? What a good boy! So smart!" Come on. Why not just have the clue read [ALEC, just write in ALEC, it's ALEC]. At least that's not patronizing. Oh and another thing—who/what the hell is this ASTRO of which you speak? I asked everyone in the house just now, "Hey, if I asked you for a [Household robot from Amazon], what would you say?" Everyone: "... ALEXA?" And that was before I told them that yes, it had five letters, and yes, it began with "A." When I told them "no, ASTRO." They, like me, made a "what?" face. And then my friend had to tell ALEXA "shhh, it's OK ALEXA, I wasn't actually talking to you." ASTRO is the dog on "The Jetsons." That is the only non-baseball clue for ASTRO that I recognize. 

Speed round:

• 1D: Proceeded down a lane, maybe (SWAM) — speaking of "speed," I wrote SPED here at first. No idea about any of the long Acrosses in this NW section at first, so I just threw in the first thing I could think of for all the short Downs, and despite a couple mistakes, the gambit paid off
• 41A: Medical gloves and N95 masks, for short (PPE) — never can quite remember this initialism or what it stands for. Personal protection ... equipment? Close. "Protective." I don't love it, not just because it reminds me of COVID. I never heard the term before COVID, and I can't see it remaining in public consciousness after COVID (unless deadly pandemics are just the new normal, which, maybe, but even then we mostly only talk about masks). Anyway, just because an abbr. is new doesn't mean that it's good. (Note: PPE has only appeared twice—both appearances were this month; I fear a PPE onslaught ... I hope not)
• 79A: Mythical weaver (ARACHNE) — ugh, wrote in ARIADNE—same number of letters, same first and last two letters, both of them involved with threads, of a sort (ARIADNE gave Theseus a thread so he could find his way back out of the labyrinth after killing the Minotaur with a sword, which ARIADNE also provided him. He rewarded her by abandoning her on an island. What a guy.
• 75D: Hand-held device used by Mr. Spock (TRICORDER) — I asked everyone in the house what a TRICORDER was and without hesitation they started shouting "Star Trek" info at me. Who are these people? (Hint: one of them is my wife). I have heard of TRICORDER but couldn't tell you what it does, or what is "TRI-" about it.
• 46D: Dancer Charisse of "Singin' in the Rain" (CYD) — SYD, SID, CID ... I think I tried them all, despite knowing exactly who CYD Charisse is. I forgot she was even in "Singin' in the Rain!"
• 36D: God associated with the moon (APOLLO) — mythologically untrue, but via the space program of that name ... yes, OK.

Note: my friend put on Brian ENO while I was finishing my write-up ... without any crossword intent! He just likes "Music for Airports" (as do I). Anyway, gotta go ENO. Bye bye.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

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