Fictional country in "The Princess Diaries" / TUE 7-23-24 / Pickle, to a Brit / Freshwater fish named for its shoreline habitat / Cipher machine of W.W. II / Ken's Mojo Dojo ___ House (redundantly named dwelling in "Barbie") / Rock climber's notch

Constructor: Sarah Sinclair and Amie Walker

Relative difficulty: Medium (normal Tues.)

THEME: CHORAL GROUP (62A: What the ends of 17-, 31-, 37- and 48-Across are, collectively) — theme answers end with SOPRANO, ALTO, TENOR, and BASS, respectively:

Theme answers:

• TONY SOPRANO (17A: Role for which James Gandolfini won three Emmys)
• PALO ALTO (31A: Silicon Valley city whose name translates to "tall stick")
• EVEN TENOR (37A: Stable temperament)
• ROCK BASS (48A: Freshwater fish named for its shoreline habitat)

Word of the Day: THE Ohio State University (10A: Article that Ohio State University surprisingly managed to trademark in 2022) —

Ohio State University has received a trademark for one of the most common words in the English language, one that the school’s supporters often forcefully emphasize when uttering its name: “The.”

While athletes from other schools may simply say they went to Michigan or Penn State, a Buckeye rarely cuts corners: “The Ohio State University,” they’ll say, usually adding a dramatic pause after stressing the “the.” The school’s players, alumni and supporters often speak its name in that consistent cadence, as football fans who have watched N.F.L. starting lineups introduce themselves on Sundays or Monday nights have most likely heard

To Ohio State’s supporters, the tradition is cherished and sets the school apart from the rest. (To Ohio State’s rivals, it’s nauseatingly pompous. To each their own.)

The trademark, issued on Tuesday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, won’t unleash heavy-handed lawyers in search of anyone using the word “the” — its protections are limited to a narrow set of circumstances that people are unlikely to cross unless they are selling knockoff Ohio State merchandise. But it gives the university some protection against unlicensed sellers, and adds to the school’s efforts to link itself to the very common word. (NYT) (6/23/22)

• • •

Stopped to take a deep breath about five seconds into this one when not one but two of the long answers in the NW were pop culture trivia. And not exactly universally known pop culture trivia, either (in that I didn't know either one off the top of my head). You want to lean into a pop culture thing that you like here, or there, that's fine, that's normal, but two answers, right out of the box, both of them among the longer answers you have in the puzzle ... off-putting. Off-putting to clue MATTHEW that way (via Succession) when you've already got an HBO (now Max?) show as one of your themers—the very themer that is *crossing* MATTHEW. Crossing HBO answers ... feels like shilling. As for GENOVIA, I actually saw (and enjoyed) The Princess Diaries at some point, but shrug, the fake country name was not a bit of info that I retained. Both MATTHEW (1D: Actor Macfadyen of "Succession") and GENOVIA (3D: Fictional country in "The Princess Diaries") are easy enough to suss out from crosses, but cramming the opening section of a puzzle with your pet trivia feels slightly obnoxious. I know many of you are Succession fans, so your experience of the trivia here may be very different. I have never understood why anyone would want to watch a show about billionaires. I can't think of people I'm less interested in. I'm *quite* sure the writing and acting on that show is phenomenal, you don't have to convince me. But the subject matter is a hard pass. But this is beside the point, the point being: spread your pop culture trivia out. Please and thank you (I say this as a huge fan of The Sopranos, always happy to see James Gandolfini's name, go watch Nicole Holofcener's Enough Said (2013), with Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfus) (actually, maybe I'll do that today...).  

But what about the meat of the puzzle, the theme? Well, it's OK. The concept is very basic (a straightforward "Last Words"-type puzzle), and the revealer was a bit of a let-down. I could see very quickly, after the second themer, that we were doing the voice type thing with the last words, but instead of getting some funny or punny or wacky or wordplay-based revealer, we just get plain-old CHORAL GROUP. A flat, literal description. Ho hum. It's important, but not hugely remarkable, that all the theme answers feature the voice types in non-voice contexts. I probably should mind that BASS is pronounced differently in its answer (where the other voice types aren't), but I don't. ROCK BASS does bother me for a different reason, though. Well, first, for outlier reasons, i.e. what the hell is a ROCK BASS? Feels like the constructors were desperate for a four-letter word to precede BASS (because the whole answer needed to be 8 letters, for symmetry's sake), and so ROCK BASS won because ROCK BASS ... exist? But I have to believe that (nearly) everyone has heard of the other themers, whereas bunches of us will have no idea what a ROCK BASS is (besides a fish). The clue tried to help me with the "ROCK" part by saying something about the fish's "shoreline habitat," but that did Nothing for me. Needed most of the crosses to get ROCK. And speaking of ROCK, if you're going to have it in your grid, and especially if you're going to have it as your least-likely-to-be-known word in your theme answer set, you probably (almost certainly) shouldn't dupe the word in the clues (10A: Rock-climber's notch => TOEHOLD). Overall, the theme is fine, but it runs a bit to the dull side. 

Outside of the pop culture up front and the ROCK business, the puzzle was pretty easy, pretty straightforward. Pet and Dog and CATSPAs remain way, way (way x infinity) more popular in the crossword grid than they are in real life. Kinda tired of seeing variations on that answer at this point. But these animal SPAs appear so frequently now that it's hard to be too mad about it. Just another thing that xwords over-represent, like the character names on "Game of Thrones" or the enduring popularity of the BAHA Men. Never happy to see WOAH. In retrospect I think GENOVIA is a fun answer—possibly because it's the most original thing in the grid. It also doubles the Julie Andrews content—never a bad thing (Andrews is in The Princess Diaries ... and then we get 25D: Title for Julie Andrews or Maggie Smith). Every puzzle could use more Julie Andrews. Most situations in life could use more Julie Andrews. I know I mention Julia Louis-Dreyfus a lot (esp. for someone who never really cared for Seinfeld), but I highly recommend listening to the recent episode of her podcast "Wiser Than Me" where she interviews Andrews. Actually, the one where she interviews Carol Burnett is great, too. Oh, and the one where she interviews Bonnie Raitt (though she mostly cries through that one because she's so overcome by her fandom ... it's adorable). Anyway, Julie Andrews rules, is my point, today and always.

Bullets:

• 57D: Hillsboro ___, minor-league baseball team with a mascot named Barley (HOPS) — as with ROCK BASS, I had no idea what the answer was *and* the clue designed to help me get there did not help at all. Both "Barley" and HOPS are beer ingredients. OK. But "Barley" is just a grain, used in lots of things. Nothing about the clue screams "beer" to me. I don't even know where Hillsboro is, unless it's North Carolina. That's my guess. Final answer ... Oof, nope. Oregon. Oregon? LOL, that's about as un-North Carolina as a state can get, besides maybe Alaska or Hawaii. I don't mind this clue, but it's a bizarrely obscure piece of trivia for a Tuesday.

• 47D: Length from fingertip to fingertip (ARM SPAN) — I had ARM and then no idea. Just blanked. WINGSPAN is a front-of-the-brain term. ARM SPAN, apparently, not.
• 53D: Tangle (SNARL) — I had SNARE. SNARL is better, but they still seem remarkably, confusingly close in meaning. Kinda like their cousins, EVADE and ELUDE.
• 30D: Pickle, to a Brit (GHERKIN) — huh. I thought GHERKIN was just a type of pickle. "A small prickly fruit used for pickling" (m-w.com). I don't really eat pickles, i.e. the pickled cucumbers that come in jars, except when my local sandwich shop throws one in the bag. GHERKIN gives me old TV ad memories ... I think a pelican was involved ... oh, yeah, Vlasic. Why a pelican? What is the pelican/pickle connection? Oh, wait—it's a stork, not a pelican. A stork! I see, OK, that's ... no, I still don't get it. Although ... this (hilarious/insane) ad really leans into the stork business. Nothing sells pickles like ... an unexpected pregnancy joke!

I guess there is some connection between "pregnant women get weird food cravings" and "pickles," but still, this ad's whole "pregnancy scare" / "babies are pickles now" concept is ... bold. 

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P. S. So I’m literally watching The Princess Diaries right now, because why not, and … well, I was prepared to see GENOVIA, of course, but TOEHOLDs!? That was a surprise! 

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