Van Gogh locale / MON 10-2-23 / Trail labeled with a black diamond or blue square, say / Sweetener found unspoiled in ancient Egyptian tombs / Letter between Juliett and Lima in the NATO alphabet / 1971 hit from the Who that begins "No one knows what it's like to be the bad man" / Dog breed designated a "natural monument" by the Japanese government / Bill or Hillary Clinton, scholastically

Constructor: Alexandria Mason

Relative difficulty: Easy (solving Downs-Only)

THEME: FINALIZE (49A: Wrap up ... or a phonetic description of 17-, 19-, 25-, 41- and 54-Across) — the "FINAL" parts of the theme answers have variations on the "-IZE" sound:

Theme answers:

• DAILY HIGHS (17A: Warmest figures in weather forecasts)
• SAMURAIS (19A: Japanese warriors who rose to power in the 12th century)
• "BEHIND BLUE EYES" (25A: 1971 hit from the Who that begins "No one knows what it's like to be the bad man")
• AS THE CROW FLIES (41A: By a very direct route, idiomatically)
• IN DISGUISE (54A: Wearing a wig and sunglasses, say)

Word of the Day: "COCO" (36D: 2017 Pixar hit) —

Coco is a 2017 American computer-animated fantasy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Based on an original idea by Lee Unkrich, it was directed by him, co-directed by Adrian Molina, and produced by Darla K. Anderson, from a screenplay written by Molina and Matthew Aldrich, and a story by Unkrich, Molina, Aldrich, and Jason Katz. The film stars the voices of Anthony Gonzalez, Gael García Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Alanna Ubach, Renée Victor, Ana Ofelia Murguíaand Edward James Olmos. The story follows a 12-year-old boy named Miguel (Gonzalez) who is accidentally transported to the Land of the Dead, where he seeks the help of his deceased musician great-great-grandfather to return him to his family among the living and to reverse his family's ban on music.

The concept for Coco is inspired by the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead. Pixar began developing the animation in 2016; Unkrich, Molina, and some of the film's crew visited Mexico for research. Composer Michael Giacchino, who had worked on prior Pixar animated features, composed the score. With a cost of $175–225 million, Coco is the first film with a nine-figure budget to feature an all-Latino principal cast.

Coco premiered on October 20, 2017, during the Morelia International Film Festival in Morelia, Mexico. It was theatrically released in Mexico the following week, the weekend before Día de Muertos, and in the United States on November 22, 2017. The film received acclaim for its animation, voice acting, music, visuals, emotional story, and respect for Mexican culture. It grossed over $807 million worldwide, becoming the 16th highest-grossing animated film ever at the time of its release. Coco received two awards at the 90th Academy Awards, and numerous other accolades. The film was chosen by the National Board of Review as the Best Animated Film of 2017. (wikipedia)

• • •

My feelings are kinda lukewarm about this one. Very old-fashioned theme, not very inspired or creative or imaginative or interesting. The "-IZE" sounds are all spelled differently, that's something. And AS THE CROW FLIES is a very nice answer on its own. But there's not much joy in seeing a bunch of like sounds, and FINALIZE isn't exactly scintillating, as wordplay goes. I also thought DAILY HIGHS was pretty weak. As that answer came into view, as I was solving Downs-only, I was very hesitant to accept it. Entered the letters only tentatively. It feels awkward in the plural. Defensible, sure, but just doesn't sound like a thing people say. The others were fine, just fine, but thematically, this just didn't have much snap. If the grid as a whole had been really strong, maybe I would've have noticed or minded the so-so theme, but when SLOUCHER (?) is your top longer answer, and when you're leaning on stuff like OLD SAW and WUSS and AOL and a boatload of other short stuff, then there's not really anything of interest going on *besides* the theme. So that's it. Blah. Not mad, just disappointed. Final rating: "AW, DARN."

This was one of the easiest NYTXW puzzles I've ever solved Downs-only. I didn't get every Down at a glance, but the ones I didn't get fell pretty quickly once their neighbors went into the place and the Acrosses started to fall. OLD SAW and WUSS made up the one notable trouble spot—their adjacency being part of the trouble. OLD SAW is a term I only encounter in crosswords, and it's so old itself that I don't think I've ever heard it used except quaintly / ironically. This makes it very *unlike* its clue, [Maxim], which is just a regular old word. So OLD SAW did not leap to mind there. WUSS also didn't leap to mind. That's another word that feels like it belongs to bygone days of olden yore. So, things slowed down a little there, but once the middle two themers went in, everything between them filled in pretty quickly, and so OLD WUSS SAW being a pretty small obstacle after all. Other answers that didn't come right away included EXALT (I wanted ADORE) (26D: Put on a pedestal), IDOL (I wanted TIKI, even though the thing is literally called the "Immunity IDOL") (51D: "Survivor" immunity token), and "AW, DARN" (I wanted ... well, a lot of things, including "OH" up front and then "GOSH" or "DANG" or "DRAT" or some such mild oath on the back end) (5D: "Shucks!"). Also, I balked hard at AOL (8D: Yahoo alternative). Is that answer ... correct? Current? Is AOL still around? Is Yahoo? I feel like Yahoo is and AOL isn't, for all practical purposes, anyway. In what year am I supposed to imagine AOL as an "alternative"? Holy *&$%, aol dot com is a thing? Still? Who ... how ... why? Wow, you learn (and then quickly forget) so many things writing this blog. Only way I'm using aol dot com is if its searches return only URLs from 1997. A time-traveling portal, back before search engines weren't ruined by SEO and ads. I don't care if it's inefficient. I just want to remember when the internet seemed cool and full of wondrous possibility. But seriously, aol dot com? In 2023? I'm mildly shocked it's a thing—and I still don't believe it's a real "alternative" to Yahoo, or anything.

Lastly, minor issue, but I would've given COCO a different clue. In most situations, the Pixar clue is just fine, but in this case, when the answer is crossing yet another animated motion picture (39A: MOANA), I think you wanna ... you know, add more colors to your palette. Broaden your frame of reference. COCO Gauff just won the damned US Open, so she seems like a perfect candidate here. There's always Chanel, but I think this puzzle needs a jolt of currency and relevance, so I'm pro-Gauff here. I'm pro-Gauff most days. Enjoy your first weekday in October. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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