Kudos to an eagle-eyed proofreader / MON 6-17-24 / 2018 Childish Gambino hit that won the Grammy for Song of the Year / Locale for beers on draft / Queer-friendly high school dance

Constructor: Kiran Pandey

Relative difficulty: Easy (solved Downs-only)

THEME: "AYE AYE, CAPTAIN" (55A: Affirmative at sea ... or a phonetic hint to what's found sequentially in 20-, 31- and 41-Across) — theme answers are familiar phrases in which two "I"s precede a famous "Captain":

Theme answers:

• "THIS IS AMERICA" (20A: 2018 Childish Gambino hit that won the Grammy for Song of the Year)
• FINDING NEMO (31A: Pixar film that takes place mostly underwater)
• FISHING HOOK (41A: Holder of bait)

Word of the Day: NIH (35D: Medical research org.) —

The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH, is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late 1880s and is now part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Many NIH facilities are located in Bethesda, Maryland, and other nearby suburbs of the Washington metropolitan area, with other primary facilities in the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina and smaller satellite facilities located around the United States. The NIH conducts its own scientific research through the NIH Intramural Research Program (IRP) and provides major biomedical research funding to non-NIH research facilities through its Extramural Research Program.

As of 2013, the IRP had 1,200 principal investigators and more than 4,000 postdoctoral fellows in basic, translational, and clinical research, being the largest biomedical research institution in the world, while, as of 2003, the extramural arm provided 28% of biomedical research funding spent annually in the U.S., or about US$26.4 billion.

The NIH comprises 27 separate institutes and centers of different biomedical disciplines and is responsible for many scientific accomplishments, including the discovery of fluoride to prevent tooth decay, the use of lithium to manage bipolar disorder, and the creation of vaccines against hepatitis, Haemophilus influenzae (HIB), and human papillomavirus (HPV).

In 2019, the NIH was ranked number two in the world, behind Harvard University, for biomedical sciences in the Nature Index, which measured the largest contributors to papers published in a subset of leading journals from 2015 to 2018. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well the "captain" part is solid enough but the "I" part is pretty weak, and the theme clues play pretty fast and loose with the word "sequentially." You do get an "I" and then (several letters later) another "I" and then a "Captain," but the intervening letters between those "I"s kinda mucks up the "sequentially" claim, at least a little. Sometimes the "I"s appear in one word, but one time they appear in two different words. And then one time there's actually a third "I" inside one of the "Captain"s. It's a cute idea, but the execution just doesn't feel dead-on. Also, it's usually FISH HOOK, right? I recognize that FISHING HOOK is a valid and not uncommon variant, but the -ING part feels contrived to get that second "I. The wikipedia entry is for "fish hook" (or "fishhook"). There's no fatal flaw to this puzzle, just a lot of little dings and dents. The fact that the puzzle felt the need to circle the "I"s feels like an acknowledgment that the puzzle was maybe not landing perfectly. I only wish there had been some way to accommodate my favorite captain. I'm speaking of course of Captain Merrill Stubing of The Love Boat. My wife and I are currently in the middle of watching the entire run of the show. We just finished the very special Season 3 episode where Captain Stubing finally goes and claims his biological daughter Vicki from her aunt and uncle who are raising her now that Vicki's mom is dead, and who somehow conveniently live somewhere in Mexico (!?) (lord knows what happened to Vicki's stepdad). Anyway, today's "I"-"I"-"captain"s are OK, I guess, but for my money, VICKI STUBING beats 'em all. (Unless MINI UNDERPANTS are a thing, then that wins)

Perhaps unsurprisingly, in a puzzle focused on "I"s, there are too many "I"s in this puzzle. The proper noun, I mean. I CARE, I CALL, I MEAN IT. I ... think that's too many. Otherwise, the fill seemed OK. Adequate. "NICE CATCH" (33D: Kudos to an eagle-eyed proofreader) and TOMATILLO give the grid some much needed SPICE. Speaking of SPICE, I had SPIFF there for a bit (10D: Zhuzh (up)). I think of zhuzhing as adding more spiffiness than spiciness ("spiciness" kinda has sexy implications that zhuzhing alone does not). I guess I should love GAY PROM but that answer just made me sad. Can the gay kids not go to regular prom? Are there Queer-unfriendly dances? I mean, of course there are, that's a stupid question. I guess GAY PROM must be a non-school-sponsored thing for kids who don't feel welcome at their cruddy heteronormative homophobic school dances. Let's see ... [Uses internet] ... Yes, that's exactly what it is (there was one this past weekend in the Greater Cleveland area! Hello, Cleveland!), though it looks like QUEER PROM is *by far* the more common term. So hurray to the concept, but mild boo to "gay" instead of the more inclusive "queer." Still, more hurray than boo. I'll save the real "Boo!" for schools that give queer kids any shit at all about going to prom with whomever they want, in whatever fancy get-up they choose.

The Downs-only experience was pretty uneventful today. I weirdly spelled POLI-SCI as if it were a major involving *many* sciences (or the study of polysexuality) (POLY SCI!), so that was interesting (5D: College major for government studies, informally). I also had OVERT before FAMED (31D: Widely known) (a truly terrible guess) and BREW PUB before TAPROOM (9D: Locale for beers on draft) (actually a great guess, don't feel bad about it at all). Already told you about the SPIFF-for-SPICE thing, so ... yeah, that's all I got. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. listening to my favorite DJ Evan Funk Davies (efd) filling in for Clay Pigeon on WFMU this morning and this happened ♥️

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