Strong as an ox, in slang / THU 6-13-24 / Feeling intensified by social media, for short / A-2-3-4-5 straight, in poker slang/ Frontier figure / Line on a doodle, perhaps? / Benz follower / Gandhian form of protest

Constructor: Kevin Curry

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: A "letteral" interpretation — all-cap clues contain parenthetical letters that must be read self-referentially (as homophones of those letters) in order to arrive at the answers. So [ALMIGHT(Y)] gives you the letter "Y" inside a word that can be a name for God, which is to say it gives you a "Y" in God's name ... which is the colloquial phrase the clue is looking for ("Why in God's name....!?"—though the actual answer retains the letter-for-homophone swap-out: Y IN GOD'S NAME)

Theme answers:

• B IN TOUCH (15A: EM(B)RACE)
• Y IN GOD'S NAME (23A: ALMIGHT(Y))
• I OF THE HURRICANE (39A: TROP(I)CAL STORM)
• C OF HUMANITY (53: (C)OMPASSION)
• Ps IN A POD (67A: GROU(P) OF HUM(P)BACKS)

Word of the Day: PEEL (43A: Pizzeria implement) —

A peel is a tool used by bakers to slide loaves of bread, pizzas, pastries, and other baked goods into and out of an oven. It is usually made of wood, with a flat surface for carrying the baked good and a handle extending from one side of that surface. Alternatively, the carrying surface may be made of sheet metal, which is attached to a wooden handle. Wood has the advantage that it does not become hot enough to burn the user's hands the way metal can, even if it is frequently in the oven. The word presumably derives from the French pelle, which describes both a peel and a shovel. // A peel's intended functions are to:

• Transfer delicate breads, pastries, etc into an oven where transferring them directly by hand could deform their delicate structure.
• Allow food to be placed further back in an oven than could normally be reached by the baker.
• Keep the baker's hands out of the hottest part of an oven, or prevent the baker from burning their hands on the hot baked goods.

Prior to use, peels are often sprinkled with flour, cornmeal, or milled wheat bran, to allow baked goods to easily slide onto and off them. (wikipedia)

• • •

Hey, wanna see the most crosswordiest opening two-word combo of all time?

Two answers in and I'm already stopped in my tracks going "Wait a minute? Is the whole puzzle gonna be like this? Is the puzzle doing a bit? Is this the theme? 'Words You Only Know 'Cause Of Crosswords'?" Anyway, I felt guilty for having these be gimmes, as it always feels kinda like cheating to just rack up answers that are pure crosswordese. Free traction ... but only for the initiated. Everyone else can f*** off! EKE is always hilarious to me. The puzzle EKEs so hard while the rest of the world merely manages, struggles, gets by. I would say I've never seen EKE outside crosswords, but I studied Middle English literature in grad school, where EKE is everywhere (meaning "also"). And honestly, I probably have heard it used this way ("EKE out a living") but not often, not anymore. EKE is like AKA's evil twin. Maybe not evil. Just ... less talented. I don't blink at EKE, normally. Just part of the crossword's background noise. But when the puzzle opens with the double-crossword-"E"-s like this, it's hard not to notice ... and not feel at least mild despair. 

The theme feels like something I've seen before. It made for an interesting challenge at times, which is what you want in a theme—that is, with a lot of themes, you get the trick, and then the rest of the themers become obvious. Transparent. But today, that somehow didn't happen. Not always, anyway. I OF THE HURRICANE was a cinch, but C OF HUMANITY was Not. After "Sea of Tranquility," I was out of ideas. The fact that the "sea" was metaphorical and the HUMANITY was metaphorical (or metonymical or synecdochal or whatever is going on in HUMANITY = "compassion") made that one rough, as did all the fill surrounding and crossing HUMANITY. ISLA not ISLE (42D: ___ Nublar, setting for "Jurassic Park"), and then that PILOT/PUP cross, yikes—had to work both those answers down to their last letters before I got that "Frontier" was referring to the airline (no idea that a baby mouse was a PUP). So the theme held some Thursday-appropriate level challenges, even after giving up its trick, but still, overall, the concept here was a little flat / simple, and the puzzle overall was (for a Thursday) "TOO easy" (60A: "___ easy!"). 

It's a tricky theme to describe precisely (sorry for the garbled explanation, above) because you have a kind of rebus puzzle for the clue and then you get answers that retain the letter-for-word swap in the answer. So you never arrive at an actual answer. The "B" is still "B" in the grid, not the word "Be." It's as if the answer is the clue and the clue is the answer, or like they are mutually cluey/answery. You only ever *hear* the familiar phrases, you never see them. Literal letter in the clue, letter-standing-for-homophone in the answer. Sometimes the literal meaning of the clue changes in the answer (e.g. pea pods are very different from whale pods), sometimes it doesn't (e.g. God stays God, a hurricane remains a hurricane). It's a theme that's easy to solve intuitively, but hard to describe succinctly. Hard for me, anyway. I don't think B IN TOUCH works because EMBRACE just isn't a good synonym for TOUCH. If you think those are the same, just think if a stranger did either one to you. I think you'd feel ... a difference. You could argue that an EMBRACE is a variety of touch, but then so is a punch. Far too loose, that TOUCH-EMBRACE connection, esp. considering how tight the others are (ALMIGHTY is a word for God, "Compassion" = HUMANITY, a HURRICANE is in fact a tropical storm, etc.).

Could've done without the bro-y vibe of poker slang (13D: A-2-3-4-5 straight, in poker slang = WHEEL) coupled with gym slang (56D: Strong as an ox, in slang = YOKED). When you're still running close to 80% male constructors, this stuff stands out. To me, anyway. There's not a woman in this puzzle. Even the Barbie answer was KENS, LOL. I knew YOKED but did not know WHEEL, which was one of only a few sticking points today. WHEEL / LOUIE was a cross where I knew neither answer, but could infer the "E" pretty easily. The crossword continues to operate from the premise that The Jungle Book is common knowledge. Do people still watch it? I don't think I've ever seen it. I know about its many characters only from crosswords.  I also didn't know ISH, which is insane, as I know mom read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish to me as a child. Apparently the title is all I retained. I go to Paul & Sons Pizzeria at least twice a week and I have watched Paul pull umpteen pizzas out of his oven but I somehow never knew that the thing that he carries those pizzas to and from the oven on is called a PEEL!! PEEL, PUP, WHEEL, all new to me today. 

Puzzle notes:

• 29A: Line on a doodle, perhaps? (LEASH) — "doodle" = short for Labradoodle (maybe there are other "doodles" but I'm cool just knowing about the one, thanks)
• 5D: Benz follower (-ENE) — the third answer in what ended up being a "Crossword-Es" trifecta in the NW (ENOKI, EKE ... -ENE). Who doesn't like suffixes!? I wanted the "Benz follower" to be "O", as in "Benz-o," which I think is drug slang, but may also be Mercedes slang. Didn't Will Smith sing about Benzos in "Summertime"? Yes, yes he did.

• 54D: Features of both cobras and Dodge Vipers (HOODS) — I had FANGS. HOODS is better (cobra hood, car hood)
• 10D: Feeling intensified by social media, for short (FOMO) — got it with no crosses. I am both proud of and embarrassed by this.

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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