Quirky bit of running footwear / THU 5-23-24 / Fashionable look, in lingo / What a king might sit on? / Rugby equivalent of a touchdown / Initialism before an online summary / Platform whose exploitation is called "jailbreaking," for short

Constructor: Adam Wagner

Relative difficulty: Medium (theme easy, other stuff hardish)

THEME: BOX BRAIDS (32A: Hairstyle worn by Janet Jackson in the 1993 film "Poetic Justice," with a hint to entering four pairs of answers in this puzzle) — four pairs of Down answers (made up of "box"es, obviously) are "braided"—that is, they appear side-by-side and intertwine (see shaded squares intertwined with white squares, above). You have to enter those Downs in braided fashion, though the unbraided (straight Down) answers also make coherent (and unclued) words and phrases:

Braided answers:

• DEGREES / FORBIDS (2D: Academic achievements / 3D: Doesn't allow) (unbraided = DOG BEDS + FERRIES)
• FOR RENT / TEEMING (9D: Available, as an apartment / 10D: Brimming (with)) (unbraided = FERMENT + TOE RING)
• FORGONE / TIN CANS (35D: Chosen to do without / 36D: Ends of a homemade walkie-talkie) (unbraided = FIR CONE + TONGANS)
• FLEECES / BRUSH ON (38D: Swindles / 39D: Add evenly, as a marinade) (unbraided = FRESCOES + BLUE HEN)

Word of the Day: "exploitation" (40D: Platform whose exploitation is called "jailbreaking," for short) —

An exploit (from the English verb to exploit, meaning "to use something to one’s own advantage") is a piece of software, a chunk of data, or a sequence of commands that takes advantage of a bug or vulnerability to cause unintended or unanticipated behavior to occur on computer software, hardware, or something electronic (usually computerized). Such behavior frequently includes gaining control of a computer system, allowing privilege escalation, or a denial-of-service (DoS or related DDoS) attack. In lay terms, some exploit is akin to a 'hack'. (wikipedia) // iOS jailbreaking is the use of a privilege escalation exploit to remove software restrictions imposed by Apple on devices running iOS and iOS-based operating systems. It is typically done through a series of kernel patches. A jailbroken device typically permits root access within the operating system and provides the right to install software unavailable through the App Store. Different devices and versions are exploited with a variety of tools. Apple views jailbreaking as a violation of the end-user license agreement and strongly cautions device owners not to try to achieve root access through the exploitation of vulnerabilities. // While sometimes compared to rooting an Android device, jailbreaking bypasses several types of Apple prohibitions for the end-user. Since it includes modifying the operating system (enforced by a "locked bootloader"), installing non-officially approved (not available on the App Store) applications via sideloading, and granting the user elevated administration-level privileges (rooting), the concepts of iOS jailbreaking are therefore technically different from Android device rooting.

• • •

See, you think I'm not gonna notice that you duped TOE because TOE RING is an unclued answer (10D), but no such luck. I see you trying to sneak a second TOE in there. Boo to TOE two! Also, a TOE SHOE is a ballet slipper, not those creepy running shoes with individual compartments for each of your toes, wtf (those are actually a variety of "barefoot running shoe") (11A: Quirky bit of running footwear). Just type [define toe shoe] into any search engine, you'll see. Ballet. The less we acknowledge the existence of those novelty foot-glove thingies, the better. Now that we've got that out of the way—this was a weird solve for me. Got the basic gimmick pretty quickly ...

... and hardly even noticed the theme after that. Had to remind myself that the theme was operative when I got a little stuck in the SW, but then literally didn't look at either themer in the SE, as that section just filled itself in, easily, from all the crosses and shorter stuff (wildly uneven difficulty in this grid). I *did* have to look at the theme clues in the NW, but I was actually trying not to at that point (since I'd had such luck in the SE). But I misspelled FEIG and so had to check the Downs there to see what was going on. The fact that I made a game of not looking at the theme answers tells you that the theme itself wasn't that interesting beyond the physical layout aspect—that part is cool, but there's no real thematic content here. Just a themeless puzzle with an unusual layout (plus the revealer, obviously). As often happens with "architectural feat" puzzles, I'm simultaneously impressed and underwhelmed. Like, nice architecture, but I guess architecture alone isn't that interesting to me. At least this architecture didn't make things weird or awkward or overly fussy. It is legitimately impressive that the unclued Down answers that cut through the braids are also viable crosswords answers. It's a very neat trick. But once I got the trick, shrug, that's it. I would've liked there to be more things to discover, more layers, something. But there's just the revealer—which is, admittedly, lovely, and, like good braids, tight (the boxes are indeed braided). But it turns out that simply braiding answers isn't inherently interesting. Once you see that that's what's happening, it's just one more thing you gotta do to get to the end.

The rest of the puzzle is fine. And even though parts were ridiculously easy, there were a few things that stalled me pretty badly. The worst was SLATS (18A: What a king might sit on?). Yeesh, tough. And right at a crucial (and narrow) connection point between different sections of the grid. Had the "S" but then ??? Dead stop. Had to go all the way around and come at the center from underneath, all because of that clue on SLATS. Also, the clue on DIMES, double yeesh! (30A: Tiniest change). Both SLATS and DIMES were plurals I did not see coming, and that "change" misdirect on DIMES, dear lord. I stared at DIM- for a bit then thought "how is DIMES metaphorical for a tiny change?" D'oh! Not metaphorical! Literally, the smallest (U.S.) coin. I had no idea what an "exploitation" was (see Word of the Day above) and I have never known the name of any of the roughly 2,000 Bachelors or Bachelorettes and you can't make me, nope, not now, not ever. But still neither IOS nor MATT held me up too much because crosses were fair, although you can see (by the placement of the cursor in the finished grid screenshot, above) that the SLATS / MATT square was the very last thing I got. Things looked dicey there for a bit, but "T" was the only thing that made a man's name (sorry to all the dudes named MART out there) and SLATS ended up (finally) making sense. The "king" is a mattress! I was thinking checkers, chess, crabs, god knows what else...

Short notes:

• 1A: Many a download (PDF) — I had APP. Other wrong answers included EKG for ECG (48A: Heart test inits.) and CHARS for SEARS, obviously (12D: Gives a grilling). And the misspelled FEIG, which we've covered (he created, Freaks and Geeks, one of my favorite TV shows of all time; you'd think I could spell his name right by now, sorry, Paul)
• 7A: Who said, of himself, in 1912, "No one candidate was ever elected ex-president by such a large majority (TAFT) — I swear to god I thought this was a fat joke at first. I saw that it was gonna be TAFT, and I saw the word "large" in the quote, and I thought the fact that TAFT said this quote "of himself" was supposed to act like some kind of disclaimer, i.e. "just to be clear, he made the joke about himself, so it's OK." But then none of that was going on. At all. Which is definitely for the best.
• 20A: '80s celeb who aptly appeared on Letterman? (MR. T) — why is there a "?" here. Did he not appear on Letterman? I get that he is a "letter man" (the letter "T") so there's wordplay, OK, but if he actually did appear on Letterman, at any time, then this clue absolutely does not need a "?" The "aptly" does the winking for you.
• 57A: Food brand with a rabbit mascot (ANNIE'S) — after TRIX, I was out of rabbit brands. First time I ever saw maggots was in a box of ANNIE'S macaroni + cheese, true story. 
• 53D: Fashionable look, in lingo (FIT) — we've been over this bit of slang a few times recently ("FIT" short for "outfit"), so you should've been well prepared. I have to say that "in lingo" is a terrible qualifier. Tell me what kind of lingo or shut up. "In lingo?" Bah. Even "modern lingo" would've been better.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]