Old coin in France / MON 2-26-24 / Greeting that originated on the Indian subcontinent / Extra-attentive coddling, for short / "Definitely husband material!"

Constructor: Joe Marquez

Relative difficulty: Medium (solved Downs-only)

THEME: "DRINKS ON ME!" (59A: "I'm paying for this round" ... or a literal hint to this puzzle's theme) — three different drinks (found in shaded squares inside longer answers) are each found atop the letters "ME" (found in circled squares):

Theme answers:

• RIVER MOUTH (17A: Where silt builds up to create a delta) / RCA DOME (20A: Former stadium for the Indianapolis Colts)
• TWIN-ENGINE (28A: Like many small, powerful airplanes) / BLAME (34A: Culpability)
• "HE'S A KEEPER" (46A: "Definitely husband material!") / MELTS (49A: Oven-warmed sandwiches)

Word of the Day: NAMASTE (42D: Greeting that originated on the Indian subcontinent) —

Namaste (/ˈnʌməsteɪ/, Devanagari: नमस्ते), sometimes called namaskar and namaskaram, is a customary Hindu manner of respectfully greeting and honouring a person or group, used at any time of day. It is used in the Indian subcontinent, and among the Indian and Nepalese diaspora. Namaste is usually spoken with a slight bow and hands pressed together, palms touching and fingers pointing upwards, thumbs close to the chest. This gesture is called añjali mudrā; the standing posture incorporating it is pranamasana. [...] The gesture of folding hands during a namaste is called the Añjali Mudrā. In addition to namaste, this mudrais one of the postures found in Indian classical dance such as Bharatanatyam, and in yoga practice. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well this one was dead in the water for two reasons. The first, smaller reason is that "DRINKS ARE ON ME." That is the phrase. That is what you say, formally or informally. That is the complete sentence, and since the clue is a complete sentence—but more importantly because it's what you actually say—the answer should be "DRINKS ARE ON ME." Also, sidenote, if it was a "next round" situation, you wouldn't say "DRINKS (ARE) ON ME" at all, since the last ones weren't, and the next ones won't be. You'd just say something like "I got this round." Sigh. OK, so there's that. But the bigger issue, for me, the drinker, is that ... these are all wines. These aren't "drinks," they're a subcategory of "drinks," specifically wines. If you're going to do a "DRINKS (ARE) ON ME" theme, then mix your drinks up, for god's ... sake (!). Give me a BEER or a GIN or a SOJU or something! Yes, SAKE is rice wine, not grape wine, but ... bah, WINE is so weak as a "drink" here, given that the other two answers Are Also Wines. There's just not enough breadth to the drinks menu. Extremely disappointing. The whole "on ME" part of this theme is kind of cute, but ... make it "DRINKS ARE ON ME" and then lose the "VERMOUTH" answers and get yourself a drink from a different drink family. Something *not* "WINE," preferably. Those changes would've made this theme much more tolerable.

As a Downs-only solve, this one gave me a little resistance, but nothing I couldn't work through, eventually. The longer Downs all came relatively easily, and since those answers are often the killers in a Downs-only situation, I felt lucky. But I ended up having a little trouble with a couple of short side-by-side answers in fairly sequestered parts of the grid, specifically the answers that turned out to be AGOG / HOSE and LAUGH / ANGLE. I wanted EWER (!) for HOSE (13D: Alternative to a watering can), which tells you exactly how long I've been doing crosswords (A: too long). I also kinda wanted RAPT before AGOG (does anyone ever really want AGOG?) (12D: Breathless with excitement). As for the LAUGH / ANGLE part, I had to wait until I got the "HE" part of "HE'S A KEEPER" before I was able to get any purchase on either of them. I kinda wanted LAUGH, but was not at all sure (26D: Ha-ha-ha) ... until the "H" confirmed it. As for ANGLE, that was just hard without help from crosses (27D: Hidden motive). But with "HE" and then LAUGH, it wasn't too tough to pick up ANGLE. Since I know NAMASTE primarily as the word you frequently say at the close of yoga practice, the clue didn't help me too much at first (42D: Greeting that originated on the Indian subcontinent), but the SAKE / "ME" bit, plus SAFARI, gave me enough letters to get there. Only other issues were minor two-letter missteps: ECU for SOU (one of the crosswordesiest kealoas* you're ever likely to encounter) (7D: Old coin in France), and then BROKER (?) for BANKER (34D: Loan officer, e.g.).

"I KID YOU NOT!" is a fantastic bit of flair, liked it a lot (30D: "No joke!"). And as a standalone answer, I think "HE'S A KEEPER!" is pretty great as well. I wish there'd been more to love. And I love drinks! This theme should've worked on me! Ah well. Maybe next time. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

*kealoa = a pair of words (normally short, common answers) that can be clued identically and that share at least one letter in common (in the same position). These are answers you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] ATON/ALOT, ["Git!"] "SHOO"/"SCAT," etc.

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