Sarcastic non-apology / MON 7-29-24 / Solar energy collector / Perennial optimist's motto

Constructor: Jeffrey Lease

Relative difficulty: Easy (solved Downs-only)

THEME: first things first (and last) — three-word phrases where the first and last words are identical:

Theme answers:

• "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH" (16A: Cry from someone who has finally had it)
• "SORRY NOT SORRY" (26A: Sarcastic non-apology)
• "NEVER SAY NEVER" (48A: Perennial optimist's motto)
• LITTLE BY LITTLE (63A: Way to make incremental progress) (not STEP BY STEP? BIT BY BIT? DROP BY DROP?)

Word of the Day: SARAH Silverman (38A: Comic Silverman) —

Sarah Kate Silverman (born December 1, 1970) is an American stand-up comedian, actress, and writer. She first rose to prominence for her brief stint as a writer and cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live during its 19th season between 1993 and 1994. She then starred in and produced The Sarah Silverman Program, which ran from 2007 to 2010 on Comedy Central. For her work on the program, Silverman was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

She has also acted in television projects such as Mr. Show and V.I.P. and starred in films, including Who's the Caboose? (1997), School of Rock (2003), Take This Waltz (2011), A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014), and Battle of the Sexes (2017). She also voiced Vanellope von Schweetz in Wreck-It Ralph (2012), and Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018). For her lead role in I Smile Back (2015) she was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award. She released an autobiography The Bedwetter in 2010 which she adapted into an off-Broadway musical in 2022.

Her comedy roles address social taboos and controversial topics, including racism, sexism, homophobia, politics, and religion, sometimes having her comic character endorse them in a satirical or deadpan fashion. During the 2016 United States presidential election, she became increasingly politically active; she initially campaigned for Bernie Sanders but later spoke in support of Hillary Clinton at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. She hosted the Hulu late-night talk show I Love You, America with Sarah Silverman from 2017 until late 2018. (wikipedia)

• • •

For the second day in a row, the puzzle is truly giving me nothing. Scratch that—at least yesterday I got a pretty picture of Olympic rings and a theme concept that was intricate and impressive (if simple and one-note). Today ... ___ [some word] ___. That's it. There is nothing else. I mean, there is really nothing else. No interesting fill outside the four themers, which aren't that exciting themselves. The longest non-theme answer is six letters long, and none of those are interesting in the slightest. A non-EVENT, this puzzle. AYESIR ABEL OMANIS ENOS NCIS OOHS ASHE EELS NYSE USERID MELEE and on and on with the same tired fill you've been seeing since you started solving (however old you are). All that (!) and the puzzle manages not only to dupe "UP," but to cross those dupes (BANG-UP, UPENDS). Oh, and then there's duped "NY" abbrevs. (NYSE, NYC). Just a depressing offering, all around. The theme concept isn't restrictive enough to be interesting in the first place. FIRST THINGS FIRST. HEART TO HEART. BLONDE ON BLONDE. GAME RECOGNIZE GAME (look it up). I'm not even trying and yet I can rattle off alternative themers no problem. For days. What are we doing here? 

At first I thought "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH" was going to be EIGHT IS ENOUGH, which would've been an astonishing coincidence, as last night's Love Boat (the first part of a season 4 two-parter—what is it with this season and two-parters?) featured not one but two members of the case of EIGHT IS ENOUGH: Dick Van Patten (the EIE patriarch) as some friend of Captain Stubing's who tries to entice the Captain away from his captainship with a lucrative job offer at Van Patten's mysterious and frankly ominously-named company, CDI (Captains Do It? Cake Decorating Industries? Cruel Death, Incorporated?); and Lani O'Grady (the eldest EIE sister, Mary) as an insanely jealous fiancée of some generic guy who thinks Julie is trying to steal her man. You never see LANI O'Grady in crosswords*. It's always LANI Guinier or ... I think that's it, actually. Anyway, the answer was "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH," not EIGHT IS ENOUGH, sadly. "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH" does, however, evoke the whole early '80s EIE / Love Boat era, in its (musical) way...

As for the Downs-only solve: no problem. I guess I needed a bit to get COOLER (3D: Where beers can be found at a tailgate party) and [GASP!] (7D: [Oh, no!]), and I thought maybe the OOHS were AAHS for a half second (12D: Audibly reacts to fireworks). I had OSAGE before OZARK (18D: Missouri's ___ Mountains), that was my one actual flub. But that was easily fixable when I was left with SEUS at 21-Across (SEUS not being a thing I've ever heard of—not without another "S" on the end, anyway). So out with the "S" and then obviously in with the "Z" for ZEUS. No other issues. None. Not anywhere. I want to call the puzzle "vanilla" but I like vanilla too much to do that. This is more ... unflavored. Unflavored what, you ask? Good Question.

Hoping for something more substantial next time (July really has been kind of a dumping ground). See you then.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

*spoke too soon. LANI was clued as LANI O'Grady (and not Guinier), exactly once, back in late '95 ([O'Grady of "Eight Is Enough"]); before that (in the Pre-Shortz Era), all LANIs were clued as [Wool: Prefix] or [Wool: Comb. form], and then once, in 1957, as [Famous diva.] (!?!?!). One weird thing I noticed is that Mel Taub (!?) appears to have been editor of the NYTXW for a hot second somewhere in the (very small, I imagine) gap between Maleska and Shortz. I had no idea. I just know he's listed as the ed. for the Sep. 12, 1993 puzzle (where LANI is clued [Wool: Comb. form]). Looks like Taub was interim editor from Sep. '93 until the first puzzle of the Shortz Era, two months later (Nov. 21, 1993—a rainbow-themed Sunday puzzle by a young Peter Gordon ("Spectral Analysis")):

[image: xwordinfo]

INDIGO GIRLS were in the very first NYTXW puzzle Shortz edited ... and then they appeared in the documentary about him 13 years later. Adorable.

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