Folded in French / FRI 10-21-22 / Sclera neighbor / Company that acquired Skype in 2005 / Weaselly animal / Unadon ingredient / Ties for vaqueros

Constructor: Rafael Musa

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: BOTTLE GREEN (5D: Dark hue named after a type of glassware) —

Bottle green is a dark shade of green, similar to pine green. It is a representation of the color of green glass bottles.

Green bottles on a windowsill

The first recorded use of bottle green as a color name in English was in 1816.

Bottle green is a color in Prismacolor marker and pencil sets. It is also the color of the uniform of the Police Service of Northern Ireland replacing the Royal Ulster Constabulary's "rifle green" colored uniforms in 2001. It is also the green used in uniforms for South Sydney High School in Sydney.

Bottle green is also the color most associated with guide signs and street name signs in the United States.

Bottle green is also the background color of the Flag of Bangladesh, as defined by the government of Bangladesh. Another name for this color is Bangladesh green. (wikipedia)

• • •

Wow I just learned an awful weird lot about BOTTLE GREEN there. One of the perks of writing the blog is falling into wikipedia holes, which, as I write it, doesn't sound like a perk at all, but they can be fun while they last. Most things I learn in such holes on one day I forget by the next day, but I still like learning things and then knowing them for a time; then I can forget them and (maybe) learn them all over again someday. Bangladesh green! Gonna stick with BOTTLE GREEN, but I like knowing its other name. What might stick is the fact that BOTTLE GREEN is the name of the green on U.S. highway / street / road signs. That is a ubiquitous green the exact name of which I never really considered. I'm starting here because, well, it's the Word of the Day, which sort of spilled over into the beginning of my write-up, and because I just really like the term. And the color! And the idea of a color named for bottles that were that color. I enjoy things that come in such bottles. Mainly wine, but I feel like (mostly in my childhood) glass soda bottles were sometimes that color. All your citrusy ones like 7-Up and Sprite, but even Coke bottles were sometimes green. Almost all soda bottles are plastic now. Safer (can't break a plastic bottle over anyone's head, probably), but duller too. Thank you for allowing me to ruminate haphazardly about green bottles and BOTTLE GREEN.

["... and sometimes there'll be sorrow"]

This one started out SO-SO (literally and figuratively), but then PLAY IT COOL made things interesting, and then whoosh "IT CAN'T HURT" and whoosh BOTTLE GREEN sent me flying into the middle of the grid and goodbye SO-SO, hello fun. Did the puzzle dupe *and* cross the two-letter word "IT" there? Yes. Do I care? Not really. If you'd crossed "IT" at "DO IT" and "IT'S BAD," I would've wondered aloud what the hell you were doing, but in two gorgeous marquee answers like this, those "IT"s become small and fade into the background. Speaking of "IT," I got all turned around for a bit at 51A: Where it's at (VENUE) because ... well, it seemed like it could be anything, and also I've been doing so many cryptic crosswords that I thought maybe the puzzle was asking me where "it"aly was "at," so I briefly tried to think of how to make some abbr. for EUROPE or MEDITERRANEAN fit. And then ITALY actually showed up in the grid! (42D: Where the piano was invented). Crosswords are full of chance encounters and weird opportunities to get lost down various thought byways. But I didn't get truly lost very much today. Once I came whooshing out of the NW, it didn't take long for that center stack to come into view. Once I changed OOZY (ick) to OILY (still kinda ick) (30D: Sebaceous), things settled into place. I love love love "HANG ON A SECOND" over "WAIT RIGHT HERE!" because they sound like things that might be said in immediate succession by someone who has a surprise for you! Like maybe he goes into the next room and comes back to show you numbers that indicate that you WIN THE LOTTERY! (The clue on WIN THE LOTTERY is clever (34A: Make dough from scratch?), though when I think of winning the lottery, I'm thinking the big prize, a lotto drawing, and scratch-off tickets aren't usually involved, I don't think).

The NE was the toughest section for me. Until I got the "F" in FACADE, I couldn't see it, and I also couldn't work my way up into that section from the bottoms of the long Downs (i.e. from the -ORY of ADULATORY or the -NE of "WE'RE DONE!" (another good colloquial phrase). I thought about TON at 28A: Load but couldn't commit to it for a while. But once I finally put together FAST-TRACKED, that "F" got me FACADE and that was enough to start that whole section toppling. Finished up in the WINE CAVE. That CAVE part did not go in nearly as fast as the WINE part. I was thinking of wine storage in one's home or a restaurant, so when "cellar" didn't fit, I was out of ideas. But WINE CAVEs (usu. not actual caves, but just vast underground areas) are a common place for winemakers to store / age wine, apparently).

A few more things:

• 1A: Company that acquired Skype in 2005 (EBAY) — not really paying attention to the year in the clue, I wrote in ZOOM
• 39D: They parallel radiuses (ULNAS) — one of two places where I was like "please be the English -s plural, please be the English -s plural," and it was (the other place was CONCERTOS). I like that "radiuses" sort of tells you "don't worry, the answer's gonna be in the normal, non-Latin plural."
• 20A: "The other one!" ("NO, NOT THAT!") — More conversational goodness. I had "NO NO-" and was happy the answer wasn't, "NO, NO, IDIOT!"
• 48A: It's shortest at the Equator (DAWN) — you know what's remarkable—truly remarkable—about this grid? There's not one bit of pop culture in it. From Any Era. Oops, sorry, the puzzle does reference the NAE NAE there at 13D: When repeated, a 2010s dance move. Still, the almost total lack of proper nouns is noticeable ... once you look for it. But if you're not looking, all you feel is a delightful and entertaining and accessible puzzle. The grid is smooth, the fill is fresh, and all are welcome. It's kinda nice. I don't think pop culture is bad, by any means; it's just interesting to see that you don't *need* it to make a puzzle feel current. (oh, and I said all this in relation to DAWN because that's a good example of an answer that could've been a name but wasn't)

See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. wait, is this Rafa's NYTXW debut!? (checks Twitter) Wow, it is! He's constructed for other VENUEs, so he's not new to this ... and it shows. Big congratulations to him.

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