Title bestowed by a sultan / FRI 10-7-22 / Bagful purchased at a nursery / Car modified into the Monkeemobile / Priestess of Hecate / Coffee-growing region on the Big Island / Lead-in to a Southern Ville / Animal that the Aztecs called ayotochtli or turtle-rabbit

Constructor: Mary Lou Guizzo and Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Weirdly Challenging

THEME: "KETANJI / BROWN / JACKSON" (33A: With 38- and 43-Across, history-making SCOTUS appointee — it's actually themeless, but Justice Jackson takes up the whole middle of the puzzle, and is *by far* the best thing in the grid  

Word of the Day: BOGO (37A: Sale incentive, informally) —

: a sales promotion in which an item is offered free or at a reduced price when another item is purchased at full price (merriam-webster.com) [short for "buy one, get one"]

• • •

Wonderful to see that KETANJI / BROWN / JACKSON stack in the middle of the puzzle today, but a lot less wonderful to see almost everything else in this grid. I do not understand why this puzzle was accepted beyond the very cool Supreme Court Justice name arrangement. The average New Yorker puzzle absolutely torches this puzzle at the level of overall grid quality. If you are going to pay tribute to this "history-making SCOTUS appointee," you should either build an actual theme around her, or else drop her into the middle of an absolutely Fire grid. She deserves better than this, is what I'm saying. The only thing besides her name that took the needle into "happy" territory today was the clue on MAC 'N' CHEESE (26D: Comfort food with shortening?). Good answer, great clue—nice misdirection there with "shortening" (which here refers to the "shortening," i.e. abbreviation, MAC ... and 'N', I guess). In all other parts of the grid, I was either COOLLY filling in boxes or else grimacing at yet another cutesy clue. Puzzle: "How fast does a ___ have to run before it looks gray?" Me: "... HOUND?" Puzzle: [4D: One in a galley]. Me: "No idea." Puzzle later: [6D: One in a galley]. Me again: "We've been over this." And then the puzzle pulls the identical clue gimmick *again* with STALE / HUMID? It all feels like distraction from the fact that there are no marquee answers in this thing besides Justice Jackson. KONA COAST and EGGBEATER are fine, as is HANGER-ON, but not much else here is worth the price of admission. 

["Am I ... gray?"]

What is with the prudish clue on CLEAVAGE? (6A: Sharp divide). We know what you were thinking breasts, why not just clue it that way? It's fine. Nothing wrong with CLEAVAGE. You have GOES ALL IN in your puzzle and yet you refuse to "go all in" with the CLEAVAGE clue. Come on. The most annoying thing about the puzzle was all the ambiguity, especially around two-part answers, like ___ GAME, ___ NAME, END ___, and especially TEA ___, which half the solving world will have written in as ROOM, since that is the much much much more likely term for the place where you actually have a "spot" of tea. I think of a TEA SHOP as a place where you buy the tea that you then make at home yourself. I'm sure the clue is technically right, on some level, but putting in ROOM and then having to pull it for something worse in a puzzle that was already short on joy ... not a highlight. First I'm ever hearing of someone named FDR, JR. so that was an interesting one to parse (21D: First chairman of the E.E.O.C., familiarly). Besides writing in HOUND at 1A, my other errors included "I SWEAR" before "I SAW IT" (17A: Words from a witness), STREUDEL (sp.!?) before STREUSEL (67A: Crumbly topping), ALPACA before ANGORA (41A: Fluffy fur source), and EMINEM before EILISH (66A: At 18, the youngest person to sweep the four main Grammy categories (Song, Album, Record, Best New Artist)), although there I knew EMINEM was wrong even as I was writing the letters in. I was just stalling to give myself time to remember Billie EILISH's name. 

You're really going with Vikki Carr (!?!?!?!) for your HIM clue (64D: Vikki Carr's "It Must Be ___"). That ... is a choice. I wouldn't mind seeing VIKKI in a puzzle, but ... eh, well, it was a #3 song in 1967, so it's worthy enough, I guess. Just nowhere near my wheelhouse (and I spent years listening almost exclusively to "oldies" stations as a teenager). Speaking of 1967, the Monkees. And speaking of Car(r)s—they had a -mobile. I would've guessed it was a (VW) BUG, but no, it's GTO, which is also a 3-letter car from that era (27D: Car modified into the Monkeemobile). The Pontiac GTO was Motor Trend Car of the Year in 1968. They stopped making them in 1974. And yet GTO appeared more times in 2018 (seven) than it did in 2008 (four) or 1998 (three). How is GTO getting *more* popular? Curious. Fascinating, actually. Most bygone three-letter crosswordese has abated in recent years, but the GTO just keeps cruising along. Bizarrely—extremely bizarrely—there was only one occurrence of GTO before the Shortz era!? And that was in 1984, ten years after they stopped making the damn car. Quite a crossword afterlife this car is having.

See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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