Sluglike "Star Wars" bad guy / WED 7-31-24 / Increases sharply / Video streaming giant / Like 10%-fat beef / Man, on the Isle of Man / Duck delicacy / What it would be a mistake to write twice? / Vaccine, informally / Passionately discuss minutiae, with "out"

Constructor: Jackson Matz and Ben Matz

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "UNDER THE SEA" (59A: Song from "The Little Mermaid" that's a phonetic hint to interpreting the answers to the starred clues) — four Down answers have "C" appended to the beginning (giving you different, wrong-looking answers in the grid); so the actual answer to the clue appears (literally) under the "C":

Theme answers:

• (C) OVERCHARGE (25D: *Rip off)
• (C) RAMPS UP (18D: *Increases sharply)
• (C) LEAN-CUT (31D: *Like 10%-fat beef)
• (C) LOSING TIME (11D: *Not moving fast enough)

Word of the Day: Manx (inspired by the clue for BLOKE—6A: Man, on the Isle of Man) —

Manx (endonym: Gaelg or Gailck, pronounced [ɡilɡ, geːlɡ] or [gilk]), also known as Manx Gaelic, is a Gaelic language of the insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, itself a branch of the Indo-European language family. Manx is the historical language of the Manx people.

Although few children native to the Isle of Man speak Manx as a first language, there has been a steady increase in the number of speakers since the death of Ned Maddrell in 1974. He was considered to be the last speaker to grow up in a Manx-speaking community environment. Despite this, the language has never fallen completely out of use, with a minority having some knowledge of it as a heritage language, and it is still an important part of the island's culture and cultural heritage.

Manx is often cited as a good example of language revitalization efforts; in 2015, around 1,800 people had varying levels of second-language conversational ability. Since the late 20th century, Manx has become more visible on the island, with increased signage, radio broadcasts and a Manx-medium primary school. The revival of Manx has been made easier because the language was well recorded, e.g. the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer had been translated into Manx, and audio recordings had been made of native speakers. (wikipedia)

• • •

This was kind of echo of yesterday's puzzle. Yesterday, I went from "what the hell is this weak theme?" to "Oh, ha ha, good one." Today, I went from "what the hell is this inscrutable theme?" to "Oh, ha ha, good one." This is to say that the revealer did its job both days. "Huh?" to "Oh!"—that is the trajectory you want to follow from the beginning of a puzzle to the moment you hit the revealer. Today's theme is definitely trickier than yesterday's—yesterday, the only mystery was what was linking all the answers, while today there was real mystery as to how in the world the answers fit the clues at all. But overall yesterday's puzzle felt cleaner. Leaner. And the revealer was slightly funnier (or loopier). Also, there's one major problem with the execution of this theme, to my eyes, which is that in two of the theme answers (COVER CHARGE, CLEAN-CUT), there are actually two (2) "C"s. So the answer is, in fact, under the "C" ... but only the first one. When your answer has two of them, the elegance of the whole design suffers. The extra "C"s don't cause any real confusion at the solving level, but they diminish the force of the revealer. "UNDER THE SEA ... get it? under the "C" ... no not that "C," the other one. Just ignore that one." Still, the revealer did give me a little pop of "aha," instead of a sad slap of "oh" or "ugh" or "oof," so on the whole I'd still put this one in the Thumbs-up column. The ideal version of this theme would have no "C"s but the thematically relevant "C"s, but ... this is fine.

The theme answers were about the only thing in the grid causing any difficulty today, at least for me. I have almost no ink on my printed-out grid, which means that there was both very little in the way of toughness and (more sadly) very little in the way of real interest. I had HULU before ROKU (42A: Video streaming giant) and GO ON before GUSH (56A: Rave (about)), but that's it for missteps or even serious hesitations. I wanted (C)LOSING TIME to be (C)LOSING GROUND for more than a few seconds, but of course it wouldn't fit. Otherwise, the puzzle was pretty straightforward and the fill a little on the dull side. Liked seeing BRAD PITT; hated seeing FOIE GRAS, as always (for animal cruelty reasons) (39D: Duck delicacy). I was contemplating seeing Tarantino's Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood at Tarantino's own New Beverly Cinema when I'm out in Southern California next week—BRAD PITT is great in that—but I decided I'd use my one New Beverly visit on a matinee screening of The Godfather, Part II instead). I.B. Technicolor 35mm. I've never seen it on the big screen, with an audience. Can't wait. But back to the puzzle. I kinda wish BROADCASTER (17A: Television pro) had been thematic somehow—would've made the theme symmetrical. Really feels like it's occupying a thematic position, but it isn't, oh well. I also wish they hadn't duped "UP," especially considering one of the "UP's appears in a theme (i.e. marquee) answer (OPENS UP, (C)RAMPS UP). 


What else?:

• 19A: "... ___ lack thereof" ("OR A") — I don't usually use an indefinite article when I say this. That is, "or lack thereof" feels like the right phrase. No "a." Obviously, you can say it that way. But I don't.
• 20A: Passionately discuss minutiae, with "out" (NERD) — I think I wanted HASH here but the crosses wouldn't allow it. This is a decent / original clue for NERD.
• 6A: Man, on the Isle of Man (BLOKE) — since the (historical) language of the Isle of Man is Manx (see "Word of the Day," above), I really thought this was going to be some Isle-of-Man-specific thing, maybe a slang term derived from Manx, but it's just ... a general British word for "man."
• 1D: Vaccine, informally (JAB) — this also feels British. Are we calling it the JAB now, too?
• 3D: What it would be a mistake to write twice? (BOO) — can't decide if this is great or awful. If you write BOO twice, it *is* literally a (word meaning) mistake: BOO-BOO. I can't argue with that.

Gotta go get the coffee started and then get to the gym, where I think it probably is a LEG DAY (48D: Gym session devoted to squats, dead lifts, etc.). Thanks for reminding me, puzzle. See you all tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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