Eden-to-Nod direction / WED 10-4-23 / Relative of a hogshead / Big Apple clothing brand

Constructor: Gary Larson

Relative difficulty: Medium (16 mins)

THEME: A/I — Throughout, there are words that can have either an A or an I in a certain slot. These words get two clues. I've arranged them in "grid" order as opposed to going by the numbers of the clues.

Theme answers:

• [What to compile before travel] for PACKING LIST or [A "choice" that's not really a choice] for PICKING LAST
• [Fallen angel] for SATAN or [Luxurious fabric] for SATIN
• [Underlying] for BASAL or [Salad herb] for BASIL
• [Lip cover] for CHAPSTICK or [Bettor's pile] for CHIP STACK
• [Story] for TALE or [Mosaic piece] for TILE
• [Tickle pink] for ELATE or [Top notch] for ELITE
• [Sensational scoring feats] for HAT TRICKS or [Sensational songs] for HIT TRACKS
• [Walks fancily] for PRANCES or [Some rulers] for PRINCES
• [Green land] for LEA or [Garland] for LEI
• [Dynamos] for BALLS OF FIRE or [Menus] for BILLS OF FARE
• [Boats] for ARKS or [Bothers] for IRKS
• [Stuffs] for SATES or [Spots] for SITES

The longer theme answers (which I put in blue) have a certain cadence to them-- Each answer contains one A and one I, and they swap places. Basically, they're fun to say. I think this makes me more forgiving about the fact that BILLS OF FARE and CHIP STACK seem a little clunky.

I solved this on my computer, and the "or" wasn't handled super well... In some places it looked fine, but in other places, the words got kinda squished.

Normal looking "or"

Squished looking "or"

Word of the Day: PART IV (Surprise element in the "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" trilogy) —

The novels are described as "a trilogy in five parts", having been described as a trilogy on the release of the third book, and then a "trilogy in four parts" on the release of the fourth book. The US edition of the fifth book was originally released with the legend "The fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy" on the cover. Subsequent re-releases of the other novels bore the legend "The [first, second, third, fourth] book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy". In addition, the blurb on the fifth book describes it as "the book that gives a whole new meaning to the word 'trilogy'". [Wiki]

• • •

Hey solving friends! Today is another Malaika MWednesday. Solving music: I've been listening to the cover of Push that Ryan Gosling sings (as Ken) in Barbie. I can't stop listening. I've heard it probably eight times today. [Edit: I listened to it another four times while writing this post.]

I got the gimmick for today's puzzle pretty early on-- when I hit 2-down about three minutes in, I thought "Well does it want SATAN or does it want SATIN.... or does it want both?" The fact that the longer answers were arranged symmetrically also helped. And the clues kind of spelled things out. I suspect some people will grumble that this should have run on Thursday, but I think it was too easy for a Thursday.

Lucifer Morningstar pls open a nightclub in NYC but do not help the NYPD solve cases they do not need your help babe

My main issue here is why. Why did we do all that? What was it all for? When I do a themed crossword, I'm okay if a weird thing is happening (I like it when a weird thing happens!), but I want to know why it's happening! And "Because it's cool" is not going to cut it for me. 

The puzzle reminded me of one from David Steinberg. There, we also had words that became new words if we changed two letters, but we had a fun visual revealer for why-- both ends of the entries were splitting into two, hence SPLIT ENDS. Here, I was waiting for a revealer (I wondered if it would be something to do with artificial intelligence), and when I did not get one, it crushed any sense of "that's cool" that I had felt while solving.

By the way, this is a pretty common complaint from me. The Times has made it clear that "Because it's cool" (or "Because we like puns" or even "Because it seemed like an impossible thing to make but the constructor was able to make it") is a totally fine reason for them, but I'll be grumpy every time. "Give me my revealer!" I demand, pounding my fists on the table like a baby at a restaurant who has had their first taste of French Fry and needs another.

Oh, and I got Natick-ed! I think I'm using that correctly. I am unfamiliar with mining towns in Nevada (or any town that is not Las Vegas or Reno, if I'm being honest) so ELY meant nothing to me. And CODICIL appears to be Latin. (And hence, was less infer-able than an English word. I did not expect that L!)

This is Ely, apparently

Bullets:

• [Band aids] for AMPS — This is one of a couple misdirect-y clues that are tried-and-true and appear every now and then. (Others include [First lady?] for EVE and [Fashion line?] for SEAM.) Some people get frustrated by the repeats, but every puzzle is someone's first puzzle, and these clues are cute as hell the first time you see them.
• [Central Plains nation] for PAWNEE — I would have clued this as the delightfully bonkers town in Parks & Rec, but I also get complaints that my puzzles have too much trivia and pop culture in them. (Sorry, sorry!! I'm supposed to do that for my Vulture puzzles, and it's a hard habit to turn off.)
• ["This Is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams, essentially] for APOLOGY — Once I referenced this poem as one I don't like in a conversation at a party. Party Guest #2 was shocked, and after a little friendly arguing, Party Guest #3 revealed he didn't know the poem. Party Guest #2 then recited it from memory, and Party Guest #3 said "....that's it?"
• [Fa-la connection] for SOL — I've seen this in a few puzzles and am baffled each time. As far as I can tell, the note is "so" not SOL. In the song (You Know Which Song), Julie Andrews uses the word "sew" and even on Wikipedia, the note is called "so." I don't know why the NYT insists that it's SOL but presumably one of you will let me know in the comments.

xoxo Malaika

P.S. Tomato update, for all my Tomato Heads-- I believe I had my penultimate harvest of the season. Both of my cherry tomato plants (Super Sweet 100 and Matt's Wild Cherry) have basically ceased producing, and my Early Girl has maybe five green fruits that may or may not ripen based on the weather the next few days.

P.P.S. Social media has informed me that today is National Boyfriend Day, so shoutout to my bf who frequently sits next to me while I write these posts and goes "What's that? What does that mean? What are you writing? What does that word mean?" When he does this, I understand what it is like for him when I watch his boxing documentaries over his shoulder.