Apt name for a rock climber / TUE 9-12-23 / Torts students typically / Aquatic denizen / Mathematical grouping that contains no elements

Constructor: Ella Dershowitz

Relative difficulty: Extremely easy

THEME: SEA CREATURE (37A: Aquatic denizen ... or a phonetic hint to this puzzle's circled words) — sea creatures are spelled out by circled-square formations, all of which are shaped like the letter "C":

The "C" creatures (clockwise from upper left):

• SPONGE
• URCHIN
• TURTLE
• MONKEY 

Word of the Day: NARUTO (15A: Best-selling Japanese manga and anime series) —

Naruto is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. It tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, a young ninja who seeks recognition from his peers and dreams of becoming the Hokage, the leader of his village. The story is told in two parts—the first set in Naruto's pre-teen years, and the second in his teens. The series is based on two one-shot manga by Kishimoto: Karakuri (1995), which earned Kishimoto an honorable mention in Shueisha's monthly Hop Step Award the following year, and Naruto (1997). [...] Naruto is one of the best-selling manga series in history having 250 million copies in circulation worldwide in 47 countries and regions, with 153 million copies in Japan alone and remaining 97 million copies elsewhere. It has become one of Viz Media's best-selling manga series; their English translations of the volumes have appeared on USA Today and The New York Times bestseller list several times, and the seventh volume won a Quill Award in 2006. Reviewers praised the manga's character development, strong storylines, and well-executed action sequences, though some felt the latter slowed the story down. Critics noted that the manga, which has a coming-of-age theme, makes use of cultural references from Japanese mythology and Confucianism. (wikipedia)

• • •

Love the theme concept and wordplay here—simple but clever and, well, ADORABLE, particularly the "which-of-these-four-is-not-like-the-other" "C" MONKEY—but overall the puzzle was remedial and lacking in surface-level (i.e. non-thematic) interest. The theme has no connection to the clues and answers (except the revealer), and those clues and answers are not, in themselves, remarkable. It's a functional but (va)NILLA grid with nothing to make you sit up and say 'wow,' or even catch your eye (FLIPS OUT over ADORABLE is nice, but it's as nice as it gets). The grid is there to hold the "C"s and only to hold the "C"s. And the difficulty level is about as low as I've ever seen it. With the exception of a few proper nouns, which it's possible you didn't know, the grid seems like 90% gimmes, stuff you could get without any crosses in place. I filled this one in almost as fast as I could read the clues, 1-Across, 1- 2- 3- 4-Down, bam x 5, all in about five seconds, all while literally yawning as I struggled to come into full consciousness (4am is easier some days than others). 

Here are some proper nouns that might have caused minor hiccups: SOBE (haven't thought about this brand in over 20 years); NARUTO (it's a massive worldwide success, but not necessarily among the crossword-solving crowd); KELSO ("That '70s Show" has been off the air for 17 years, and it started 25 years ago ... farther from us than the '70s were from it); Rita ORA (come on, she should be a reflex answer by now even if you couldn't tell your Rita ORA from your Pia Zadora); ALI Wong (again, this should be a reflex answer); and JON Batiste (he's won a ton of awards lately, and he was Colbert's bandleader for seven years, but it's still possible to imagine you don't know his name). What else is there to trip on, or even briefly hesitate over? (And please don't say Patti LUPONE, how dare you.) Also, what is there to ooh and ahh or even chuckle over? Nothing. This puzzle is all theme. It's a good theme, but it has no connection to actually solving the puzzle. In a harder puzzle, knowing the theme might have been useful in figuring out tough answers. But there are no tough answers here. Just a collection of "C" creatures. Tuesdays are supposed to be easy, but they're not just supposed to lie there and let you walk all over them. At the very least this should've run on Monday, not Tuesday. Yesterday's was certainly a plausible Tuesday. Not sure what happened with the scheduling there. 

The short fill (of which there is a lot) is rough in places. I have "oof" written in the margin next to TINED, and then I've drawn an arrow from that "oof" over to ONELS, which, sigh, are things (ONE "L"'s), but crosswordesey things that smell musty and look truly bad in the plural. With ONIT and ERE and ORE and OPEDS and NESS and NTH in that same corner, you haven't wonder if there weren't better options. Maybe constructing the grid around that particular "C" was just torture and this was just ... good enough. These are the in-the-weeds details I think about when the grid doesn't give me much to think about. ORTS! Haven't seen ORTS for a while. AER Lingus. ORCAS and ETNA ... this puzzle's really playing the hits! I had one slip-up: wrote in the Bells of St. MARK'S (!?) instead of St. MARY'S (51D: "The Bells of St. ___"). Oh, and I hesitated strongly at the last letter in "NARUTO"—I always want it to be (maybe) and "A". I think I'm confusing "NARUTO" with Pablo NERUDA ... now "NERUDA!," there is a manga I would read all 27 volumes of, without hesitation. 

See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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