Mountaineering enthusiast, in slang / TUE 12-5-23 / Barriers that slide in and out of a wall / Cookie-flavored breakfast cereal / Something you don't have to pay for, redundantly /

Constructor: Nate Cardin

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (times will be fast, in part because the puzzle is undersized (14x15))

THEME: OUT OF SORTS (54A: Irritable ... or how you might describe all the words in the answers to the starred clues?) — both words of two-word theme answers can follow "OUT OF" in familiar phrases, so ... they are the "sorts" of words that can follow "OUT OF" (?), I guess:

Theme answers:

• PRINT ORDER (15A: *Number 
• POCKET DOORS (18A: *Barriers that slide in and out of a wall)
• STOCK CHARACTER (32A: *Stereotypical literary persona)
• FASHION LINE (51A: *Designer's collection)

Word of the Day: OREO O'S (45D: Cookie-flavored breakfast cereal) —

  

Oreo O's is a breakfast cereal that consists of Oreo-flavored O-shaped pieces of cereal. It was conceived of by an Ogively & Mather NYC advertising employee and introduced in 1997 by Post Cereals. In 2001 the cereal got a new recipe with real creme filling. A variation of Oreo O's called Extreme Creme Taste Oreo O's contained Oreo filling-flavored marshmallows.

The cereal was launched in 1997 and discontinued in 2007 everywhere other than South Korea. In May 2017, Post Cereals announced that it would restart production of Oreo O's starting June 23 and continue production indefinitely. (wikipedia) (my emph.)

• • •

These "both words can follow" themes are always grim. The highly restrictive nature of the theme usually makes for at least one dull and / or awkward answer. This explains the total boringness of PRINT ORDER and the (to me) architectural niche-ness of POCKET DOORS. At first I didn't get that *both* words in the theme answers were supposed to be able to follow "OUT OF," so I was baffled by why you would choose POCKET DOORS when you could choose, say, POCKET WATCH or KNIFE or GUIDE. And why only PRINT, POCKET, STOCK and FASHION when you could've worked with BOUNDS, STEP, CONTROL, etc. But it's *both* words that have to work with "OUT OF," not just the first word. That's a higher degree of difficulty, construction-wise. Sadly, that does not translate to a higher degree of pleasure, solving-wise. STOCK CHARACTER and FASHION LINE work perfectly. Both highly in-the-language. Clean, Right on the money. But again, the revealer on these "both words can follow" themes is always a let down. "Oh, I see. Huh. Good finds, I guess." That's pretty much peak feeling after a puzzle theme like this.

I was actually startled that the fill was as weak as it was today, given the relatively non-demanding nature of the theme. Any time long theme answers abut, as they do in this grid, filling a puzzle cleanly can get tricky (as those abutting answers are locked in, and you have to make (in this case) seven adjacent Downs run cleanly through them), but I was getting boring vibes right out of the gate, in the tiny NW corner, where everything felt stale. And then to come upon dubious stuff like SNORTY as well as ugly stuff like USH and OREOOS, while only occasionally hitting anything very interesting ... it was pretty disappointing. Again, the theme answers aren't really giving you juice today because they have to meet these very restrictive thematic terms, so the fill really should get up off its feet and help out, but all we get of note is mountaineering slang (ROCK JOCK) and a redundancy (FREE GIFT). I liked both, actually—never heard ROCK JOCK, but ... you know, it rhymes, and who doesn't like rhyme? And while FREE GIFT doesn't exactly sparkle, the clue at least makes it interesting. I am also partial to FRECKLE, having had lots of them as a kid. It's a low-key fun word. But most of the rest of the fill runs forgettable to SPLAT. 

No tough spots today beyond figuring out what the hell kind of "Barriers" slide in and out of a wall. Well, ROCK JOCK slowed me down, but not in a bad or particularly troubling way. That answer is giving off weird vibes, though. Like, it's evocative of so many other things. Like SHOCK JOCKS, or ROCKS FOR JOCKS (which is what Geology for non-majors was called in college, right?). There's also the "MTV ROCK & JOCK something or other" ... some kind of contest? ... maybe a celebrity basketball game? ... my brain is not currently willing to relive the '90s, so it's not coming in clearly. Ah, here we go: here's an unwanted trip down Memory Lane for you Millennial / Xer types:

MTV Rock N' Jock is a television series on MTV featuring actors, musicians, and other entertainers playing sports with professional athletes. The original episode was called The MTV Rock N' Jock Diamond Derby, and was changed to MTV's Rock N' Jock Softball Challenge, in year 2. The concept expanded to include basketball in 1991, football in 1997 and bowling in 1999 The game was an annual feature (with multiple reruns of most episodes) for many years on MTV.

Belinda Carlisle, Corbin Bernsen, and David Faustino, all on the same team! Man, that original 

MTV's First Annual Rock N' Jock Diamond Derby (1990) must've been something to see. And Keanu Reeves! Kevin Costner! I forgot the kind of star power MTV could wrangle back then.

As for the puzzle, it was short. It was easy. It is done. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]