Greek word for "knowledge" / SAT 2-3-24 / Sir Georg who conducted 999 Chicago Symphony concerts / Cannabis with a high level of THC / Pass on a wing and a prayer / Pucker precipitators at a pub / Korean model hitting the scene in 1999 /

Constructor: Carolyn Davies Lynch and Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Easy (untimed)

THEME: [What it's not, in a saying] — Two long answers with this same clue cross near the middle of the grid (more a "feature" than a theme—the puzzle is basically themeless)

"Theme" answers:

• ROCKET SCIENCE (31A: What it's not, in a saying)
• BRAIN SURGERY (17D: What it's not, in a saying)

Word of the Day: Sir Georg SOLTI (22A: Sir Georg who conducted 999 Chicago Symphony concerts) —

Sir Georg Solti KBE (/dʒɔːrdʒ ˈʃɒlti/ JORJ SHOL-tee, Hungarian: [ˈʃolti]; born György Stern; 21 October 1912 – 5 September 1997) was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor, known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt, and London, and as a long-serving music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Born in Budapest, he studied there with Béla Bartók, Leó Weiner, and Ernő Dohnányi. In the 1930s, he was a répétiteur at the Hungarian State Opera and worked at the Salzburg Festival for Arturo Toscanini. His career was interrupted by the rise of the Nazis' influence on Hungarian politics, and being of Jewish background, he fled the increasingly harsh Hungarian anti-Jewish laws in 1938. After conducting a season of Russian ballet in London at the Royal Opera House, he found refuge in Switzerland, where he remained during the Second World War. Prohibited from conducting there, he earned a living as a pianist. [...] In 1969, Solti became music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a post he held for 22 years. He conducted many recordings and high-profile international tours with the orchestra. Solti relinquished the position in 1991 and became the orchestra's music director laureate, a position he held until his death. During his time as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's eighth music director, he also served as music director of the Orchestre de Paris from 1972 until 1975 and principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 1979 until 1983. // Known in his early years for the intensity of his music making, Solti was widely considered to have mellowed as a conductor in later years. He recorded many works two or three times at various stages of his career, and was a prolific recording artist, making more than 250 recordings, including 45 complete opera sets. The best-known of his recordings is probably Decca's complete set of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, made between 1958 and 1965. Solti's Ring has twice been voted the greatest recording ever made, in polls for Gramophone magazine in 1999 and the BBC's Music Magazine in 2012. Solti was repeatedly honoured by the recording industry with awards throughout his career. From 1963 to 1998, he won 31 Grammy Awards as a recording artist, making him the Grammy Awards' most-awarded artist until Beyoncé surpassed his record in 2023. (wikipedia)

• • •

Short write-up today*, as things are a little ... chaotic at my house right now (more on that some other time). I normally don't love, or even like, themes getting in the way of my Friday/Saturday themeless experience, but this little [What it's not] pairing was more delightful flourish than obtrusive, half-baked thematic content (the thematic content that tends to show up late-week—when it shows up, which, mercifully, is rarely). I like that "It's not ROCKET SCIENCE" and "It's not BRAIN SURGERY" are essentially the same sentiment, phrased slightly differently. Getting one of them definitely helped me get the other. I wasn't sure what to make of START OUT SMALL. Is it also part of the mini-theme? Is "START OUT SMALL" an exhortation to someone who has been told "It's not ROCKET SCIENCE" (or "BRAIN SURGERY") immediately prior? It's like the puzzle is trying to urge someone to do some seemingly difficult task that is actually not so difficult at all if you're methodical and persistent about it. The BRAIN SURGERY / ROCKET SCIENCE intersection is off-center, which is why we have this extra 13-letter phrase cutting across the (near) middle of the grid—to preserve symmetry (the puzzle has 16 rows, which allows it to hold two long answers at its center—in regular 15x15 grids (with regular rotational symmetry), central answers have to come in odd-numbered amounts, typically 1 or 3, in order to preserve symmetry). I can't tell if START OUT SMALL is here solely for technical reasons (i.e. the puzzle needed literally *any* 13-letter answer to make the ROCKET SCIENCE / BRAIN SURGERY crossing doable), or if there's some kind of adjacent thematic content. Either way, START OUT SMALL is a fine phrase. The marquee part of this grid is clever, and it doesn't force surrounding fill into painful contortions. In fact, the grid is remarkably clean, overall. This felt more like a Friday than a Saturday. Certainly easier than yesterday's puzzle. Better to get my bright, whooshy Friday puzzle a day late than not at all.

There is one place where the fill seems a little shaky, which is also the place where the puzzle feels most Saturday-like: the SOLTI / GNOSIS crossing (22A: Sir Georg who conducted 999 Chicago Symphony concerts / 12D: Greek word for "knowledge"). It seems entirely plausible to me that there are solvers, even very good solvers, out there who would not know what vowel to put in that crossing. I know SOLTI well (he used to be in crosswords much more than he is nowadays, but I also own many recordings of his—if you have a classical music collection of even a moderate size, you undoubtedly have some SOLTI in there somewhere). And I know who the GNOSTICS were ... I remember reading Elaine Pagels' The Gnostic Gospels in grad school at some point. But I don't think I knew or could've spelled GNOSIS on my own. I had an inkling that's what the answer was here, but I would've spelled it with two (that is three) "S"s (GNOSSIS), which I'm realizing probably has something to do with my drawing an analogy from KNOSSOS, the ancient Cretan center of Minoan civilization associated with the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. Anyway, if I hadn't known SOLTI, there's a good chance I'd've guessed wrong at that cross. Maybe. Maybe not. Nothing else in the puzzle seems remotely tough. Unless you'd never heard of a KIA RIO and your cannabis knowledge was not ... high (46A: Cannabis with a high level of THC = KUSH).

I started this puzzle with with HANS (5D: Common Scandinavian man's name), which seemed right, because it ended in "S" and the cross at 18A: Lets loose also appeared to end in "S." Then I thought, "Oh, wait, what about LARS." Totally forgot about NILS (who appeared yesterday, though in Latin-nothing rather than Scandinavian-name form). IBID and LENS got me FILM, though I didn't know what kind. SOUR BEERS (2D: Pucker precipitators at a pub) broke the whole corner open and I was here in no time:

Could've been START OFF SMALL but "UT" seemed more grid-friendly than "FF" so I went with that. I then spun off in all kinds of directions, from HEMP to REAP through REGAN and NEMO (both gimmes) and all the way down and then back up again, once I figured out that the end of 17D: What it's not, in a saying wasn't URGENT ... but SURGERY:

I thought PAESANO was spelled thusly, which is maybe the fault of Bel Paese (the cheese?). It appears that PAISANO is the more common spelling in America (25D: Compatriot). PAESANO appears to also be acceptable Italian, if Pizzeria names around the country are any indication. Only other issue I had with this puzzle was what was going to follow CLOUD at 34D: Storm on the horizon, maybe (CLOUD BANK). Even with the "B" my first thought was BASE (?). But the answers in that SE corner were so easy to get that BANK appeared with very little effort. 

Notes:

• 7D: Angular movement? (CUBISM) — had the -SM and really wanted to make ORGASM work. But it wouldn't. I was happy to get CUBISM without further help from crosses. And then I find that the ORGASM is on the other side of the grid! (32D: In an intimate way, in a way => CARNALLY) 
• 54A: Pass on a wing and a prayer (HAIL MARY) — had some trouble processing "Pass on" since it looks like a verb phrase, i.e. "say no to a wing and a prayer" (something about skipping Thanksgiving dinner?) or "pass along a wing and a prayer" (a more pro-Thanksgiving answer?). But it's a loooooong, usually last-second forward pass in football (or some metaphorical usage thereof).
• 17A: Transmitter of audio programmes (BBC RADIO) — the spelling of "programmes" is the key here.
• 9D: Ones running the world, per Beyoncé (GIRLS) —love that Beyoncé gets mentioned in a grid that also contains SOLTI, since she recently broke his lifetime record of 31 Grammy Awards! (which I just learned—see "Word of the Day," above)
• 46D: Korean model hitting the scene in 1999 (KIA RIO) — laughing at this description of a car going out to enjoy some urban nightlife. Maybe go to an art exhibit, a party, a club. I guess I was supposed to think "model" as in human fashion model, but that literally never crossed my mind, so now I have this image of a subcompact car dancing under a disco ball with a drink in his hand, trying to see and be seen, making all the other subcompacts jealous with his moves and fresh paint job.

One final note: Jeff Chen (today’s co-constructor) has developed a new word game called Squeezy! Try it out here!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

*not so short, it turns out

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]