Collectible disk of the 1990s / THU 9-8-22 / U.S. tourist locale that inspired this puzzle / Typically tortilla-less meals / What to do when you're not strong in a 1972 hit / 2005 biopic in which Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the title role

Constructor: Matthew Stock

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: FOUR CORNERS (34A: U.S. tourist locale that inspired this puzzle) — rebus puzzle with the "four" involved state abbrs. appearing in their respective "corners" of the grid:

Theme answers:

• SHUT DOWN / CUTICLE (14A: Computer menu command / 3D: Manicure target)
• ON RECORD / TACO BOWLS (17A: Officially noted / 11D: Typically tortilla-less meals)
• LAZIEST / MALE GAZE (58A: Least likely to get up from the couch, say / 37D: Key concept in feminist theory) 
• "LEAN ON ME" / IRON MAN (55A: What to do "when you're not strong," in a 1972 hit / 43D: Extreme racing event)

Word of the Day: FOUR CORNERS (34A) —

The Four Corners is a region of the Southwestern United States consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico. The Four Corners area is named after the quadripoint at the intersection of approximately 37° north latitude with 109° 03' west longitude, where the boundaries of the four states meet, and are marked by the Four Corners Monument. It is the only location in the United States where four states meet. Most of the Four Corners region belongs to semi-autonomous Native American nations, the largest of which is the Navajo Nation, followed by Hopi, Ute, and Zuni tribal reserves and nations. The Four Corners region is part of a larger region known as the Colorado Plateau and is mostly rural, rugged, and arid. In addition to the monument, commonly visited areas within Four Corners include Monument Valley, Mesa Verde National Park, Chaco Canyon, Canyons of the Ancients National Monument and Canyon de Chelly National Monument. The most populous city in the Four Corners region is Farmington, New Mexico, followed by Durango, Colorado.

• • •

One of the easier rebuses I've ever done. In pretty short order, you know it's a rebus, you know how many rebus boxes there are going to be ("FOUR"), you know what's going to go in them (state abbrs.), and you know (roughly) where they're gonna be located in the grid ("CORNERS"). It's a very straightforward, workmanlike theme. Seems very much designed to warm rebus-haters and/or newish solvers up to the very idea of rebuses—to try to get them on board and make the whole concept seem, you know, doable. Even fun.  Can't say it was that much fun for me, despite the solid concept and overall sturdy construction. Just too much like a connect-the-dots puzzle, less like a proper (weird-ass) Thursday. But I do think as beginner's rebuses go, this one is good. I got that first square pretty easily and thought "a Utah rebus ... nah, that's impossible, who would do that? What, are you going to have the rebus squares ... form the shape ... of Utah ... OK maybe that would be cool ..." That *would* have been an almost literal connect-the-dots puzzle, but alas, not to be. Instead I hit the revealer very shortly thereafter, and I knew every thematic thing that was to follow. I didn't know the *precise* location of the rebus squares, it's true, but knowing that there was going to be one in each corner, and knowing what each square would contain, definitely helped skew this puzzle toward the Easy side. It's how I knew ON RECORD and MALE GAZE were right despite not seeming to fit. And there was never going to be any missing that "NM" square, since the answers in both directions are absolute gimmes that cannot be anything else. So, one two three four, there you go. If you've never heard of FOUR CORNERS, I imagine this would be much harder than I'm making it out to be. But my sister and mother both live in Colorado, and (as a result) I've been all over these states. Took a road trip through all four a few summers ago—Santa Fe and Flagstaff, both highly recommended.

Easy to get into this puzzle via ADA POG (4D: Programming language named after a pioneering programmer + 5D: Collectible disk of the 1990s). There were no significant areas of struggle today, besides remembering IOLANI Palace. That name used to appear a lot more in puzzles of old, for perhaps obvious, i.e. vowel-y, reasons. I definitely learned it from crosswords. But then apparently half-forgot it. But it came back, with crosses, as these things do. I have tried to studiously ignore the "Spider-Verse," but Spider-GWEN has stared down at me from enough comic store shelves that her name is quite familiar. I had trouble with the [Lager descriptor]; can't argue with the answer (PALE), though it's an adjective I associate much more readily with ALE. I had some trouble with 'TIS (40A: "Ah yes, yes indeed") since the clue seems *way* too long to substitute for such a short word, and there's nothing in the clue to indicate a contraction. I also hesitated to write in ACTIONS (32D: What many verbs indicate) since I would've said verbs indicate ACTION, in the singular, abstract sense. That's it for hold-ups; none of them took too long to UNRAVEL. Highlight of the puzzle was probably the clue on GARLIC (30D: Press material). Serious Thursday misdirection on that one. I like. Ooh, I also liked seeing the name of my friends' crossword podcast in the grid! That was surprising! (and cool, and very possibly intentional). "FILL ME IN!" is a long-running show is hosted by Brian Cimmet and Ryan Hecht (Brian runs the annual Lollapuzzoola crossword tournament and is my Central NY neighbor to the north, i.e. Syracuse; Ryan owns a comic book store in Cloverdale, California, for all your comics needs, Spider-GWEN and otherwise). I'm told next week's episode will be co-hosted by two more of my friends, Rachel Fabi and Neville Fogarty (with whom I solve cryptic crosswords on Twitch every week; yes, seriously!). So "FILL ME IN"—definite highlight. Otherwise, the puzzle was a bit plain, but undoubtedly solid.

Notes:

• 50A: He's saved by his sister, in a story (HANSEL) — I just saw the corniest movie version of this fairy tale last month on the Criterion Channel, the sole highlight of which (!) was Cloris Leachman as the witch (!!). 

[Cannon Movie Tales: Hansel & Gretel (1987)]

• 21A: Love of texting? (BAE) — what you might call your "love" in a text ... though I never really thought of "BAE" as textspeak.
• 31A: Low power? (SQUARE) — so the power of "2" is "low" ... compared to the other powers to which you might raise a number ... I guess
• 60A: Picks up (SENSES) / 61A: Puts down? (SADDENS) — I'm not much for sequential clue humor, especially with sequential Acrosses, since I rarely encounter Across clues in order, but these two offer a cute 1-2 conclusion to the puzzle, which I wanted to point out even though I only noticed it after I was done.
• 57D: "The Simpsons" character in a green sweater (NED) — when he's not wearing skintight skiwear, sure ...

See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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