"For real," in modern parlance / SUN 11-19-23 / Fruit in the custard apple family / German candy with a caramel center / Inspiration for the tribute band A*Teens / Hairstyle that the Brits call "fringe" / Philanthropist Pratt for whom th Baltimore public library system is named / Certain recyclable, in the Midwest / City on the Kenai Peninsula / Alex's partner in the jewelry industry / Loch Ness monster apparently / Catchy tune, in slang

Constructor: Rebecca Goldstein and Rachel Fabi

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "Thanksgiving Meal Prep" — Thanksgiving menu wordplay, with clues suggesting meal preparation:

Theme answers:

• BANK ROLLS (22A: Stockpile bread?)
• GOOGLE APPS (24A: Research hors d'oeuvres online?)
• CHOOSES SIDES (38A: Selects green bean casserole, candied yams and mashed potatoes?)
• TALK TURKEY (65A: Debate roasting versus deep-frying?)
• SHEPHERDS PIE (91A: Steers the dessert cart?)
• KICK THE CAN (108A: Make cranberry sauce from scratch?)
• TABLE WINE (112A: Reserve the chardonnay for later?)
• SAGE ADVICE (52D: Pro tip about seasoning stuffing?)
• GRAVY TRAIN (37D: Work on one's whisking technique?)

Word of the Day: ELISHA Gray (79A: Inventor Gray who had a patent war with Alexander Graham Bell) —

Elisha Gray (August 2, 1835 – January 21, 1901) was an American electrical engineer who co-founded the Western Electric Manufacturing Company. Gray is best known for his development of a telephone prototype in 1876 in Highland Park, Illinois. Some recent authors have argued that Gray should be considered the true inventor of the telephone because Alexander Graham Bell allegedly stole the idea of the liquid transmitter from him. Although Gray had been using liquid transmitters in his telephone experiments for more than two years previously, Bell's telephone patent was upheld in numerous court decisions.

Gray is also considered to be the father of the modern music synthesizer, and was granted over 70 patents for his inventions. He was one of the founders of Graybar, purchasing a controlling interest in the company shortly after its inception. (wikipedia)

• • •

A perfect puzzle for Thanksgiving Week, and for me in particular, as I'ma leavin' on a jet plane today for Colorado, where I'll spend Thanksgiving Week (also known as Birthday Week) with my mother, sister, and associated family. It is a known fact that Thanksgiving dinner is the best meal of the year, so it would take a lot to make me mad at a Thanksgiving food-themed puzzle. And sure enough, nothing here bugged me at all. It's a pretty straightforward food-pun theme, but it's well built, well organized (TALK TURKEY centerpiece!), and has only a few answers that kinda sorta rankle. KICK THE CAN is kinda funny but you don't eat CAN, whereas you *do* eat all the other theme answer elements, so that was weird. Further, all the edible elements are repurposed (i.e. directed *away* from their comestible identities) in their answers ... except WINE, which remains regular old drinkable alcoholic WINE, whaddyagonnado (PIE also remains PIE, but since its surface meaning is savory, whereas Thanksgiving pies are sweet, I'm giving it a pass). The least on-the-nose of these, though, is GOOGLE APPS, "apps" being no part of a Thanksgiving dinner I've ever heard of, and not nearly evocative of Thanksgiving for a theme like this. As for (CHOOSES) SIDES ... yeah, OK, SIDES, I guess there are SIDES, but not "apps." SAGE is more seasoning than standalone dish, so maybe that's an outlier too. But I liked a lot of the wordplay today, esp. SHEPHERDS PIE as a verb phrase, and GRAVY TRAIN as a straight-up verb. Mainly, this is a pleasant, light-hearted affair—an endearing rendition of a common theme type, with a structurally sound and occasionally sparkly grid overall. SUPERHERO, RIMSHOTS, PLAYDATE, "HELL NO!" ... heck, yes. It all works fine, and there's very little in the way of unappetizing fill. More than tolerable, as Sunday efforts go.

It was not just a clean puzzle, it was an easy puzzle—an uncommonly easy puzzle—except for one notable patch, in which I managed to enter three to four wrong answers, many of them crossing, such that the works got gummed up Very badly. Sincerely had a few moments where I wasn't sure how I was going to finish. I'm talking about the entire area around PH SCALE (87D: Measurer of acidity), which I had written in as PH STRIP—and that was only the start of my wrongness. I crossed PH STRIP with OPEN (120A: Bid first, say => LEAD) ... and then I crossed that with SON! (113D: Boyo => LAD). And this was all on top of my initial wrong guess of OKRA at 102A: Part of some pods (ORCA). I had the WINE part of TABLE WINE but nothing about that clue was leading me toward TABLE (112A: Reserve the Chardonnay for later?). "Reserve" absolutely confused me. I think of "tabling" as "postponing til later," not reserving, so TABLE? Nope. It was only after much flailing that I decided to pull Everything in this section and try again, starting with ... PORTAL (92D: Entrance). And that did the trick. If I'd just started with PORTAL, all of the above wrong answers would never have materialized. I would've seen ALBA (earlier wanted BIEL) (116A: Actress Jessica) and ORCA and LEAD and everything. When in doubt, pull Everything out. Worked like a charm.

No idea how I remembered ELISHA Gray. Was just thinking that the only ELISHA I know is actress ELISHA Cuthbert (who was in the puzzle earlier this week), but then here comes this ELISHA to prove me wrong. Also got SEWARD much faster than I should have, esp. since I have never heard of the Kenai Peninsula (81A: City on the Kenai Peninsula). All other trivia was familiar to me, even RV LOT, which I didn't get right away, but was able to infer after a while (55A: Setting in "Nomadland"). I'm more familiar with the term RV PARK, but yeah, I'm pretty sure in "Nomadland" it was in fact just a lot. Did you know that SHORT and STEVE both work very well for 80A: Martin of Hollywood? It's true. Luckily, I had RIESEN in place (71D: German candy with a caramel center) so SHORT was out. I think of the phrase as ALL TIED UP, but ALL TIED computes, so OK (57D: Having an even score). Uh, anything else? Nope, I don't think so. Oh, "NO CAP!" (95D: "For real," in modern parlance). I learned that from some other puzzle just last month, and then went into my class and asked my students if they knew the term and they just looked at me pityingly. "Of course." OK, I think that is, in fact, it. As I say, I'm taking off for the week. I don't have subs lined up, so I'll probably be filing mini reviews from Colorado ... or else I'll just end up doing the same-sized reviews I always do because I can't help myself. We'll see. Take care, have a lovely day, see you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

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