Martial art with bamboo swords / TUE 9-20-22 / Accolades presented in Nashville / Local produce org. / Four-letter member of the Four Corners / Email action with paper clip icon / Glutes developed while dancing at the Moulin Rouge

Constructor: Rebecca Goldstein and Rachel Fabi

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: 3x — wacky phrases made out of 3 identical components, where the first two components are one unit and the third is another:

Theme answers:

• "TUT TUT, TUT" (17A: Verbal disapproval of a boy king?)
• CHOW CHOW CHOW (28A: Food for a sturdy Chinese dog?)
• "ZOOM ZOOM" ZOOM (47A: Conference call for Mazda's marketing team?)
• CAN-CAN CAN (64A: Glutes developed while dancing at the Moulin Rouge?)

Word of the Day: CHOW CHOW (28A) —

The Chow Chow is a spitz-type of dog breed originally from northern China. The Chow Chow is a sturdily built dog, square in profile, with a broad skull and small, triangular, erect ears with rounded tips. The breed is known for a very dense double coat that is either smooth or rough. The fur is particularly thick in the neck area, giving it a distinctive ruff or mane appearance. The coat may be shaded/self-red, black, blue, cinnamon/fawn, or cream. (wikipedia)

• • •

Ooh, a good reason to keep this short today: personal bias! These are my friends. Good for them. So happy to see their names. This feels like a theme I've seen before, like, a long time ago, maybe, and maybe more Monday than Tuesday (if such a distinction exists). The theme presented zero challenge, is what I'm saying. Once you get the TUT string, the others don't require more than a cursory glance at the clue, and maybe not even that if you're just humming along and decide to risk a guess on a themer based solely on the crosses you have in place. In retrospect, I can't say I recommend this strategy, as it got me CHOO-CHOO CHOO at first, and then when I very quickly looked at the clue, I really only picked up "Chinese" and thought "is CHOO a Chinese ... vegetable of some kind?" Very dumb brain glitch. Speed kills, folks. But for the others, I just had to see "Mazda" to get the ZOOM one and I don't think I even looked at the CAN one ... which is too bad, because the clues are really where the action's at, with a theme like this. Speaking of CHOO-CHOO CHOO ([Shoe designer Jimmy's nickname in the train enthusiast community?]?), this is one of those themes that seems like it could be done many times over, with different themers each time. Where's my [Scot's refusal to do a hip-hop dance?] or [Hand drum somehow played by male turkey?]? These are ridiculous enough that maybe I've answered my own question, but still, there are probably a bunch more potential answers out there. That doesn't take away from these, which work fine.

The grid is clean and I really liked UPPER HAND, AT NO POINT, ASKED WHY, and LIZ LEMON. I also weirdly liked METRICS. I don't get it. That doesn't seem like a particularly likable answer, and yet ... here we are. OCTAD is really the only answer I wish would crawl back in the crosswordese bag. Kaley CUOCO was on a very popular TV show ("The Big Bang Theory") and has been nominated for lead actress Emmys twice (for her HBO show "The Flight Attendant"), so she's famous enough, but still maybe it would be nice if you put something, literally any identifying information about her, in her clue (61A: Actress Kaley). I of course, being me, didn't bother to look at the clue initially; faced with CUO-O, I wrote in CUOMO and immediately thought "Why are my friends making me see that guy's name this morning!?" But of course they weren't doing that at all. Again, speed kills, folks. Read your clues. Funniest "not reading the clues" moment came near the very end when I was staring down F-CAL and thinking "whaaaaat is happening?!" But, no, yes, FOCAL, normal word, all is well (53D: Central). Biggest of all the little mistakes today was staring at 27A: Part of 10-J-Q-K-A and thinking "what the hell kind of textspeak is that!?" (it's playing cards, of course) (ACE). Maybe I didn't get enough sleep. My cat has taken to pawing *at the wall art* at 4 in the morning. I think he thinks it's a window. In his defense, it is covered in glass and in a frame. Anyway, hope my wife doesn't trip on the pillow I threw across the room when she gets up this morning. OK, coffee time. Congrats, Rebecca and Rachel. Lovely to see you, as always.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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