Response to a relatable meme in internet slang / MON 10-17-22 / Having a concern for wealth and respectability in slang / South and Central American mammal related to the raccoon / Cartoon character who once had a club named after him / Peacekeeping grp since 1949 / Mocking retort to Captain Obvious / Iconic magazine cover figure who asks "What, me worry?"

Constructor: Caryn L. Robbins

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "I'M ALL EARS" (61A: "You have my full attention" ... or something 17-, 24-, 38- and 51-Across) — fictional characters with distinctive and / or large ears:

Word of the Day: COATI (45A: South and Central American mammal related to the raccoon) —

Coatis, also known as coatimundis (/koʊˌɑːtɪˈmʌndi/), are members of the family Procyonidae in the genera Nasua and Nasuella. They are diurnal mammalsnative to South America, Central America, Mexico, and the southwestern United States. The name "coatimundi" comes from the Tupian languages of Brazil, where it means "lone coati". (wikipedia)

• • •

MAD Magazine fans must be thrilled. It's been a big month for ALFRED E. NEUMAN, I guess! Actually, that ALFRED (E.) NEUMAN / "INITIAL HERE" puzzle appeared in September (the 28th), but it was really recent is my point. But that doesn't matter, the more MAD the merrier, as far as I'm concerned. But while I do love MAD Magazine, and I enjoy ALFRED E. NEUMAN as a standalone answer, this theme felt a little on the weak side to me. It also felt ... oddly mean-spirited? I don't think it's cruel, exactly, but it felt like the puzzle was pointing out characters with "big ears"—and I know at least a few people who are sensitive about their ears and don't like even good-natured teasing. These characters are all fictional, so who cares ... mostly? But something about thinking that this group had something in common felt oddly ... I don't know. Let's just say that at a literal level it doesn't really make sense. I don't think of BUGS BUNNY's ears as iconic. His ears are rabbit's ears, they seem roughly proportional to the ears that a rabbit would have. He's no more "ALL EARS" then he is "ALL TEETH." If people didn't wear those dumb MICKEY MOUSE ears at Disneyland, I also wouldn't think too much about Mickey's ears either. NEUMAN's and SPOCK's ears, being attached to a cartoon human and a fictional humanoid, respectively, are more ... distinctive, in that they are either exaggeratedly large / out-sticking (NEUMAN) or pointy (SPOCK). OK ... but it's as if the puzzle is saying "look at the weird ears on all these things" and eh, it's not really working for me, coherence-wise. 

What's more disappointing is the fill, which really hasn't been held up to a smooth Monday standard here. I recently had an editor send a grid back for revision precisely because she thought it would be better without the answer "I DIE" (among a few other little things), and she was right. And that grid probably isn't even going to be part of a Monday-easy puzzle. Five theme answers is on the dense side for a themed puzzle, but still, stuff like "I DIE" and "ÉTÉ" and LAMS and EDY and TRU and UTILE I would try really, really hard to chuck. You usually can't get *all* of the subpar fill out of your grid, but esp. on easy puzzles, you wanna keep it way, way down, and it just didn't feel down enough today. I did like the colloquial "IT ME" (I don't "like" the phrase irl, it feels cutesy and cliché by now, but it's still fresh by comparison to much NYTXW slang), and I had fondness for the colloquial elder statesman "NO DUH" as well. Not too keen on BOUGIE, which, like pointing at someone with big ears, feels insulting (Also, I spelled it "BOOGIE" at first and then looked at it like "... uh, I think, that means 'dance'!") (2D: Having a concern for wealth and respectability, in slang).  I guess I wouldn't mind "BOUGIE" as a partial song title. Was gonna say you could clue it via the Migos song "Bad and BOUGIE," but it turns out that, as with many words in the world of hip-hop, the spelling of "BOUGIE" in that song title is ... creative ("BOUJEE!"). 

NOTES:

• 32D: Bill of fare at a smorgasbord (BUFFET MENU) — I thought the whole point of buffets was that there is no menu. You just go up there and start shoveling stuff onto your plate.
• 1D: Opportunities to face a pitcher (AT-BATS) — the better answer for the clue is PAS (Plate Appearances), but I don't wanna get too far into the weeds with baseball stats, so sure, AT-BATS, whatever... Actually, it's weird: the word is used casually (by announcers, even) to mean "the experience of being at the plate," regardless of outcome, but statistically, there are several outcomes (incl. walking or getting hit by a pitch) where a plate appearance would not count as an "at-bat." So ... maybe we'll just say the clue is using the term in the most general of ways. It's certainly defensible. Just not statistically precise. 
• 27D: Middle of the leg (KNEECAP) — a very nice longer answer, though I think I've seen too many gangster movies and shows because the first thing I see when I look at that word is a verb.

Hope you've got a nice autumn day to enjoy. See you tomorrow. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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