Pyramus' beloved, in myth / TUES 8-27-24 / "You're the One That I Want," for one / Hawaiian goose / Stark daughter on "Game of Thrones"

Hello, everyone! It’s Clare for the last Tuesday in August. I’m currently recovering from jet lag (and sickness) after a lovely trip to the south of France last week! My sister and I managed to pack our quick trip with beaches and cliffs in Cassis, the streets of Marseilles, a lavender field in Aix-en-Provence, wine tasting in Nîmes, and a gorgeous chateau in Redessan for a friend’s wedding. (Side note: French weddings last a loong time. We didn’t even get on the dance floor until after midnight, and we got back to our hotel around 4 a.m.) Still, the best part of the trip was that my body tolerated the gluten (wheat is somehow less processed in Europe), so I ate my weight in bread and pastries. But now, it’s back to work I go in what is an especially hectic time for me. But oh, well, at least I have crosswords (and endless sports, of course) to keep my mind off things. 

Anywho, on to the puzzle…

Constructor: Julia Hoepner

Relative difficulty: Easy-medium

THEME: BAD BREAKUP (68A: Messy end to a relationship, with a hint to this puzzle's shaded squares) — The shaded squares are synonyms for “bad” that are broken up by black squares

Theme answers:

• MANDELBROT — TENT 
• AGNOSTIC — KYOTO 
• POEM — ALIGN — ANTI 
• MY HAT — EDNA MODE 
• RONA — STYLE GUIDE

Word of the Day: MANDELBROT (17A: Mathematician Benoit ___, coiner of the word "fractal") —

Benoit B. Mandelbrot was a Polish-born French-American mathematician and polymath with broad interests in the practical sciences, especially regarding what he labeled as "the art of roughness" of physical phenomena and "the uncontrolled element in life". He referred to himself as a "fractalist" and is recognized for his contribution to the field of fractal geometry, which included coining the word "fractal", as well as developing a theory of "roughness and self-similarity" in nature. (WIKI)

• • •

That was a rather cute puzzle, especially considering it’s the constructor’s debut. The revealer was a nice payoff and really solidified my feelings about the puzzle. I still didn’t love all of it — it seemed that there was a little more crosswordese than usual to make the theme (and construction) work. But overall, I thought it was a great debut, and the theme made up for some of the other aspects I was prepared to be more meh about. 

This puzzle was one of the rare occasions where the theme actually helped me with the solve. I also think it’s visually appealing that the puzzle is sort of, kind of symmetrical. You just have to slice it in half horizontally and rotate the bottom 180 degrees. Easy peasy. In terms of the theme answers, I really liked the way MALIGNANT is split twice in the long, marquee spot. I think HATED worked the least — it seems to be the odd one out because the other words are much more commonly used as adjectives. (I do acknowledge that the Baltimore football team’s name has become the HATED Ravens.) 

My favorite answers were some of the longer ones. ESCAPE ROOM (14A: Social activity that one tries to get out of?) was clever and funny. I will always like anything and everything with EDNA MODE (50A: Fashion designer in "The Incredibles") in it; she’s an icon. STYLE GUIDE (63A: Copywriter's handbook) worked really well, and my sister is literally a copy editor, so I’ve heard about the AP Stylebook a million and one times (and have even asked her to consult it for me as I’m doing these write-ups). And even though I didn’t know who Benoit MANDELBROT (17A) was before today’s crossword, that’s a cool name, and I now know a lot more about fractals. 

Another answer I liked was EGBDF (35D: Musical staff letters), which looks all sorts of ugly and confusing but actually makes a lot of sense and is fun. (My piano teacher taught me the mnemonic device “Every Good Boy Does Fine” to remember the bass clef notes.) Having IMHO (52A: Start of a texter's two cents) and CHIME IN (55A: Give one's two cents) as mirror clues that sit on top of each other was nice. AREPA (36A: Cornmeal cake in Colombian cuisine), which I mentioned in my last write-up three weeks ago, is back in the puzzle, and that’s a word (and a food) I will always love. PERUSE (15D: Read carefully ... or leisurely) is a great word; I’d never really thought about the fact that it’s a contronym that can mean to read either carefully or in a leisurely way. 

I flew through this puzzle to start but then slowed. I had a hard time with GUT FLORA (10D: Micro-organisms in the digestive tract) because apparently, I don’t take good enough care of my gut. I didn’t know LBO (65D: Wall St. acquisition) because apparently, I don’t follow the stock market enough (or at all). I’d forgotten HOTH (56D: Ice planet in "The Empire Strikes Back") until I got the first two letters from the acrosses (apparently, I should rewatch “Star Wars”). I thought the answer was “seedy” instead of NEEDY (28D: Down-and-out). I also hate “RONA” (62A) as slang for COVID-19, so my brain refused to see that as an option for a while. 

Some of the rest of the puzzle wasn’t overly exciting, such as TEN TO (31D: Fifty minutes past the hour) (which could have been “ten of”) or MADE DO (4D: Worked with what's available). And clue/answers such as ERM (66D: Indecisive sound) could truly have been many different three-letter words. ABET, AIDE, ANTI, LSAT, CEL, ORB, TITLE, etc., just did nothing for me. But even some of the more basic answers — such as PRE (33A: Lead-in to algebra or calculus), NOR (7D: "Water, water, every where, / ___ any drop to drink": "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"), and GENE (12D: Apt name for a DNA expert?) — seemed clued in slightly different ways than the norm, which I appreciated.

Misc.:

• You’d best believe I got EARL (25A: Rank above viscount) in a split second because of the number of historical romances I’ve read (and watched). 
• Weirdly enough, I got THISBE (49D: Pyramus' beloved, in myth) pretty quickly because of a YA romance book I read years ago called “Along for the Ride,” where the main character’s father is obsessed with Greek mythology and names her half-sister THISBE. So once I had a couple of letters filled in, I was golden. 
• When my sister and I were in France, we rented a car and checked — and checked again and again — that the car we were getting was automatic and not MANUAL (51D: Not automatic). Thankfully, it all worked out. And driving in France wasn’t too bad, except that there were so many roundabouts. Like, we really couldn’t go more than a kilometer without a roundabout. And at most of them, we just continued straight anyway. 
• Gotta say I’m glad that I took the LSAT (2D: Future J.D.'s exam) when the logic games were still a section on the test. They were by far my favorite (and best) section. And I confess that I still randomly do logic games like these to this day and time myself because I think they’re really fun.

Signed, Clare Carroll, whose body is saying it’s 6 a.m. in France even though the brain knows it’s midnight in DC.

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