Japanese board game also called Five in a Row / SUN 8-13-23 / Motivational content in modern slang / Texas metroplex to locals / Clothing style with retro and preppy influences / Style of alternative rock with psychedelic influences

Constructor: Manaal Mohammed

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "Use Your Noodle: — pasta puns

Theme answers:

• MEALS ON WHEELS (22A: Cookbook for rotelle lovers?)
• ELBOW GREASE (27A: Olive oil for a macaroni salad?)
• GET BETWEEN THE SHEETS (45A: Advice for saucing a lasagna?)
• RIBBON CUTTING (55A: Running fettuccine dough through the pasta machine?)
• SHELL STATION (68A: Self-serve spots at pasta bars?)
• SPIRALS OUT OF CONTROL (80A: Kitchen disaster with rotini?)
• BUTTERFLIES / IN YOUR STOMACH (100A: With 108-Across, aftermath of a farfalle dinner?)

Word of the Day: GO BANG (93D: Japanese board game also called Five in a Row) —

Gomoku, also called Five in a Row, is an abstract strategy board game. It is traditionally played with Gopieces (black and white stones) on a Go board. It is played using a 15×15 board while in the past a 19×19 board was standard. Because pieces are typically not moved or removed from the board, gomoku may also be played as a paper-and-pencil game. The game is known in several countries under different names. [...] The name "gomoku" is from the Japanese language, in which it is referred to as gomokunarabe (五目並べ). Go means five, moku is a counter word for pieces and narabe means line-up. The game is popular in China, where it is called Wuziqi (五子棋). Wu (五 wǔ) means five, zi (子 zǐ) means piece, and qi (棋 qí) refers to a board game category in Chinese. The game is also popular in Korea, where it is called omok (오목 [五目]) which has the same structure and origin as the Japanese name. // In the nineteenth century, the game was introduced to Britain where it was known as Go Bang, said to be a corruption of the Japanese word goban, which was itself adapted from the Chinese k'i pan (qí pán) "go-board." (wikipedia)

• • •

So ... pasta puns. There they are. They're pretty typically wacky. Some work, some don't, pretty standard Sunday-theme stuff. I like the idea, but somehow in the execution either the clue or the answer seemed to clank a bit too often. Like, if you're eating rotelle, the "wheels" are *part* of the meal, so I don't exactly get MEALS ON WHEELS as a plausible cookbook title (even at the Wackytown Bookstore) (22A: Cookbook for rotelle lovers?). And the "GET" in GET BETWEEN THE SHEETS threw me off completely. Totally. Had GET BETWEEN THE and absolutely no idea what expression was involved. BETWEEN THE SHEETS, yes, an expression. But with "GET"? That feels very made up. Made up in this case, obviously, for the purposes of symmetry, just as SPIRALS OUT OF CONTROL is "SPIRALS" and not "SPIRAL"—gotta get those answers to match in length. The difference is that adding the "S" to SPIRALS still feels natural, whereas adding a whole "GET" to the beginning of BETWEEN THE SHEETS ... doesn't. And while I appreciate the ultra-long, two-part BUTTERFLIES / IN YOUR STOMACH, I think that if you asked most people what "farfalle" are, they'd say "bow-tie pasta," not "butterfly pasta." The wikipedia page lists both, so this version is definitely defensible, just not the term I know [note: it’s more than just”defensible,” as “farfalle” literally means “butterflies” in Italian—thanks to the readers who pointed this out]. The theme answers I haven't yet mentioned all work just fine, I think. ELBOW GREASE is probably my favorite. I just like the phrase, all on its own, and as these pasta puns go, it's the one that feels most on-the-money. So themewise, this is standard fare. Like pasta, it fills you up, even if quality varies widely from dish to dish. Easy to PIG OUT ON, though not always satisfying. And so forth.

As for the fill, there were a handful or real winners today. "OOH, SHOEGAZE" is something I literally exclaimed when I realized what the answer to 6-Down was going to be (6D: Style of alternative rock with psychedelic influences). Unlike ALT-POP from earlier this weekend, SHOEGAZE is very much a GENRE name in actual use, even if it belongs largely to a bygone era (late '80s / early '90s, basically the years that I was in college). 

Shoegaze (originally called shoegazing and sometimes conflated with "dream pop") is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volume. It emerged in Ireland and the United Kingdom in the late 1980s among neo-psychedelic groups who usually stood motionless during live performances in a detached, non-confrontational state. The name comes from the heavy use of effects pedals, as the performers were often looking down at their pedals during concerts. (wikipedia)

My Bloody Valentine is probably the biggest name shoegaze, but the band I listened to the most from this GENRE was definitely Cocteau Twins (though honestly I did not know the term SHOEGAZE at the time I was initially listening to them). Anyway, it was fun to see a music GENRE I'd never seen in the grid before, one that was pretty familiar to me (this is the answer's NYTXW debut). I also liked PIG OUT ON (colorful, colloquial) and INSPO, a term I see people use all the time on social media but one that I have never, to my knowledge, seen in the grid before (like SHOEGAZE, INSPO is a debut). I did not know that TWEE applied to fashion. I'd only ever heard it used in relation to music (33A: Clothing style with retro and preppy influences). Apparently I'm thinking of TWEE POP (!), a genre associated with a 1986 NME compilation, C86, which I was literally holding in my hands earlier this evening as I tried to explain the term "janglepop" to my wife (while R.E.M.'s Reckoning was on the record player). So many GENREs and half-GENREs and GENRE overlaps etc.! Anyway, TWEE is a general term, irrespective of music—mildly derisive, meaning "excessively quaint." The fashion meaning, as I say, is new to me.

Quick Notes:

• 12D: "La Bohème" subject (AMORE) — French title really threw me, since the answer is Italian. But of course the opera is Italian, so ... fair!
• 7D: Texas metroplex, to locals (DFW) — Dallas-Fort Worth. Their metro area has roughly the population of New Zealand, so we say "Dallas-Fort Worth" a lot in this house as shorthand for NZ whenever its relative smallness (population-wise) is at issue (my wife is a Kiwi, in case you somehow didn't know :)
• 93A: "Ugh!" ("GAH!") — OK, gonna say this is borderline unfair, considering the "G" cross is a game I've never heard of, and I'm probably not alone here. I was able to infer the "G" because I know that "Go" is a game, but GO BANG!? Even the wikipedia entry doesn't call it that until like the third paragraph, and even then wikipedia suggests that the name is chiefly British (see "Word of the Day," above). Bizarre. Seems reasonable to guess "BAH!" here, given the clue, but again, I think the genuine fame of "Go" keeps GAH / GO BANG from being a true Natick.

Couple of announcements today. First, my friend Matt Gaffney, a veteran constructor best known (among crossword aficionados) for his weekly crossword contest, has a new puzzle gig at Merriam-Webster. Here's the info from Matt:

Just a note to let you know about my new weekly crossword feature at Merriam-Webster's website. It's a meta-ish feature that I created especially for their site, and it's called "The Missing Letter."There's a new 15x15 puzzle posted each Monday at noon ET.

The way it works is: 25 clues in each puzzle are definitions taken directly from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (way more fun than it may sound like at first). They begin with 25 different letters of the alphabet; when you're done solving, the one letter of the alphabet that doesn't begin one of those words is that week's "Missing Letter." 

Submit that Missing Letter for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to M-W's site (the solving app keeps track on-screen of which letters you've already used, so there's no cumbersome aspect to determining the missing letter when you're done). 

Anyway, give it a shot here: 

https://www.merriam-webster.com/games/missing-letter 

Deadline to enter is Sundays at noon ET.  Good luck!

Give it a shot!

And now announcement #2: Next weekend (Saturday, Aug. 19, 2023) is Lollapuzzoola, my favorite crossword tournament. And it's in NYC! And I'm going! If you live in the area, come on out! If not, you can get the puzzles and play from home (on your own time!). I'll let my friend Brian Cimmet, the tourney founder, give you the details:

Lollapuzzoola, a summertime crossword tournament in NYC, is celebrating its "Sweet 16" this year with a party-themed puzzle extravaganza. The event is hosted by Brian Cimmet, Brooke Husic, and Sid Sivakumar with puzzles from over 25 of the best constructors in the business. Join the live puzzlefest in New York on Saturday, August 19, or choose to solve from home via downloaded PDF or snail mail. Visit www.bemoresmarter.com/lpz2023 to read more and purchase tickets.

That's all. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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