Crowd energizer at a hip-hop concert / SAT 5-18-24 / Sobriquet behind 154 sonnets / Blacksmith-turned-agricultural magnate of the 19th century / Start of a 1950s political slogan / Where Steve Jobs first worked after college / Singer Brendon who fronted Panic! at the Disco / Its wool is the world' rarest natural fiber / Spanish opposite of "pobre"

Constructor: Adrian Johnson

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Nicolas ROEG (26D: "The Man Who Fell to Earth" director) —

Nicolas Jack Roeg CBE BSC (/ˈroʊɡ/ ROHG; 15 August 1928 – 23 November 2018) was an English film director and cinematographer, best known for directing Performance (1970), Walkabout (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), Bad Timing (1980) and The Witches (1990).

Making his directorial debut 23 years after his entry into the film business, Roeg quickly became known for an idiosyncratic visual and narrative style, characterised by the use of disjointed and disorienting editing. For this reason, he is considered a highly influential filmmaker, cited as an inspiration by such directors as Steven Soderbergh, Christopher Nolan and Danny Boyle.

In 1999, the British Film Institute acknowledged Roeg's importance in the British film industry by naming Don't Look Now and Performance the 8th- and 48th-greatest British films of all time in its Top 100 British films poll. (wikipedia)

• • •

Mother-in-law is in town, which is to say in my house, which is making for slightly tighter quarters and slightly more hilarious conversations, in that she asks about why I get up every morning at 3:45am and I explain what I do (i.e. this blog) and she says "oh you still do that, do you? now what is it you do, exactly? ... and people read that, do they? and it's cryptics, then? no? what are American crosswords, then? just little quizzes?" It's lovely that she's curious, but also there is a reason I never talk to anyone about this part of my life when asked "what do you do?" I should have some kind of card printed out that I can just hand people, a dead-tree FAQ that spares me the time and energy and bemused stares and awkward silences. Anyway, I slept terribly and the cats are being Extra annoying. Usually I wake up and feed them and then they sleep while I write, but this morning they're just milling and occasionally meowing, like "why is that door shut that door is never shut open that door meow meow [sound of cat wrestling]." The dawn chorus has started, though, and I'm done with this (mostly) lovely puzzle, so I feel like the morning's energy is turning in a good direction. 

I said this puzzle was "Easy-Medium," but it's really "Easy." I just got stubbornly bogged down in the NW, which is to say everywhere around URIE, which is one of those "how the hell should I know?" non-inferrable pop culture names designed to drive me batty (18A: Singer Brendon who fronted Panic! at the Disco). I also got ridiculously hung up on the Steve Jobs answer. Where did he work right out of college? Uh ... let's see -T-R- ... hmm ... STORE? That seems ... vague. AT ... something? AT LAW? AT I.R.S.? These seem implausible. Etc. Getting ATARI was one of the D'oh-iest moments I've had of late. So weird to call CELIBACY [Nun's habit?] since it's the opposite of a habit. It's not doing something. It's just not there. Also, no offense, but not all nuns. I mean, if Paul Verhoeven has taught me anything ...

I tried ALPACA at first for 1D: Its wool is the world' rarest natural fiber, but that left me with C-- for the U.S. state with the only unicameral legislature, and I knew that wasn't CAL or COL but NEB. I then immediately wanted VICUÑA, but the improbability of someone whose four-letter last name started UR- had me hesitating. Sigh. Thank god IMARETS was a gimme (2D: Turkish inns). Once I finally acceded to VICUÑA, I saw CALL ON THE CARPET (or what I hoped was CALL ON THE CARPET), and once crosses confirmed it (SIC!) the puzzle really sped up. Really really. I don't remember much of anything south of ATARI. Answers just seemed to fill themselves in. I got "THERE ARE NO WORDS" without ever looking at the clue at all. A textbook example of how the hardest part of most themelesses is getting initial traction. Struggle struggle whoooosh. That is a fairly typical pattern.

[VICUÑA fawn in the Atacama Desert]

This puzzle was way way nameier than yesterday's puzzle, which was conspicuous (in a good way) in its lack of reliance on proper noun trivia. Names are fine, but this one gets dense at times, with DEERE ROEG SAURON all coming on successive Acrosses, and URIE and EMEKA representing what I would consider reasonably obscure names. I mean, if you follow those things (PATD, '00s NBA), then you luck out, but non-fans don't have easy access to those niche names. But no matter. That's crosswords! If the crosses are fair, then no foul. I really really liked the long stacks up top and down below ("I MEAN IT THIS TIME!" and SAVE-THE-DATE CARD are particularly vivid), and when the marquee stuff is great, the rest of the grid just has to be solid and keep from buckling. This grid more than held up its end of the bargain. It's actually very clean, stray bits of crosswordese notwithstanding. My only real gripe today is the clue on MALES (27A: 76% of U.S. governors in 2024, a record low). Human beings are men / women. Livestock are MALES / females. I cringe every single time some guy refers to adult human women as "females," and it turns out I don't like "males" any better for adult human men. 

Once again, I had a clue-reading problem today, where I read 1-Across as [Where you might stop for the sheer fun of it?] and I thought the answer was going to be a hair salon or sheep station (wrong "sheer"), or else ... I don't know, a roadside inn at the top of a cliff somewhere. I'd stop there. But no, it's "shop," and it's VICTORIA'S SECRET, which sells "sheer" undergarments. Surprised (mildly) that LIFT UP wasn't tied to VICTORIA'S SECRET. Real missed opportunity there. 

Bullet points:

• 20A: Start of a 1950s political slogan ("I LIKE") — Ike (as in Dwight D. Eisenhower) is who they like. Good ol' DDE. One of many many many gimmes in today's puzzle for me (ROEG, IMARETS, ESAI, ONO, SAURON, OPRAH, HOLI, THE BARD, etc.)
• 33A: Many a character in the 2018 animated film "Smallfoot" (YETI) — never heard of this film. Keeping up with children's fare is Ex-Haus-Ting. But I got this off the YE- without much trouble. Instantly, in fact. What other "character" could possibly start YE-? The fact that the movie title appears to be playing on "Bigfoot" also helped.
• 55A: Andre Agassi, e.g. (IRANIAN-AMERICAN) — if you thought maybe ITALIAN-AMERICAN, you are forgiven, I'd say. Not that *I* did that. No, not me, I would never [whistles idly and innocently]. But I can see how one might.
• 34A: Make toast? (RUIN) — if you're "toast," you're done for, over, RUINed. Now that I think about it, it's a terrible metaphor. Toast is delicious. I have peanut butter on toast every morning. Decidedly not ruined.
• 38D: Crowd energizer at a hip-hop concert (HYPE MAN) — love it. Favorite non-long answer of the day, for sure. Unsurprisingly, it's a debut.  

• 41D: Cross state lines? (TIRADE) — so good, this clue. I had TIR- and no idea. Or, rather, I thought "I can't even think of a six-letter word that starts TIR- except TIRADE, but that makes no ... oh." A TIRADE is a barrage of "lines" you might deliver if you are in a "cross state" (i.e. angry).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. today's constructor, Adrian Johnson, is one of the editors behind "Puzzles for Palestine" (a benefit collection featuring lots of big crossword names, which you can read about here), and he asked that I share a link to gazafunds.com, "a project that connects people to crowdfunding campaigns for individuals and families from Gaza." You can hear Adrian, as well as Rachel Fabi (“These Puzzles Fund Abortion”), Juliana Pache (BlackCrossword.com) & Erik Agard, talk about their innovative crossword work on the latest episode of  “The Allusionist” podcast (Allusionist 194: Good Grids)

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