Call that might precede "first service" / WED 9-4-24 / Its parent company is Hyundai / Asteroids made a big impact on it in the 1980s

Constructor: Kareem Ayas

Relative difficulty: Medium, 12:45 (I clocked the rebus very quickly, but some vocab slowed me down)

THEME: SEMICIRCLES [First- and third-quarter moons, e.g. … or a hint to this puzzle's theme]— The letters SEMI appear in three circles scattered throughout the grid

Theme answers:

• [It will change the way you see yourself] for FUNHOUSE MIRROR
• [Honorific for a Catholic cardinal] for HIS EMINENCE
• [Floral bubble tea flavoring] for ROSE MILK
• [Caregiver for a pregnant woman] for NURSE MIDWIFE
• [Warhead carriers] for CRUISE MISSILES
• [Red-haired toon who is always seeing red] for YOSEMITE SAM

Word of the Day: ELAND (Spiral-horned antelope) —

An adult male is around 1.6 m (5.2 ft) tall at the shoulder and can weigh up to 942 kg (2,077 lb) with a typical range of 500–600 kg (1,100–1,300 lb). Females are around 1.4 m (4.6 ft) tall and weigh 340–445 kg (750–981 lb). It is the second-largest antelope in the world.

• • •

Good morning friends, it's Malaika here for your regularly scheduled Malaika MWednesday. I solved today's puzzle while eating a "brownie cookie" and listening to every single version of Nothing Compares 2 U. Which is your favorite version? Mine is probably The Chicks'. Also, the "brownie cookie" was to die for. Spectacular texture, and the recipe is done in under an hour, cannot recommend enough. (You do need a hand mixer though.)

The first thing I noticed was all the names straight out of the gate! HOFFA, JONAS, ODOM, MARCEL, UZI, and OLAF. I've been conditioned to think of names as intrinsically hard entries, but since watching my friends solve, I've realized names (that they know!) are often where they are able to start off. When I'm constructing a puzzle, deciding which names to put in is a way for me to decide who I want the puzzle to be easy for. I knew every single one of these immediately (I was only 90% sure about ODOM, but I put it in and was correct), which made for a very fast start. But if you didn't.... sheesh that top left corner must have been impossible!

During my first pass through this puzzle, I didn't get a single one of the theme answers. I suspected the first one would include the word "mirror," but the circles made me wonder if I'd run into a rebus, so I didn't put any letters. Indeed, on my second pass through, I was able to plop in FUNHOUSE MIRROR. This led to me, in a rush of ego and poor spelling, plopping in JASEMINE when I hit the next circle. Luckily I was able to correct it almost immediately. 

I loved this rebus execution, with a cute and appropriate revealer. I've heard people indicate that they think a rebus puzzle should have four of them. Obviously, I am incredibly biased because my debut NYT puzzle had only three. But something else to think about (and something I considered while constructing my puzzle!) is the length of the relevant answers. A "standard" themed puzzle has four or five long, thematic answers. Some rebus puzzles, like this one, will have four-ish long answers that are crossed with four-ish short ones. Some, like this one, will have a smattering of short and long ones throughout. This puzzle had six long answers-- that's more than a "standard" themed puzzle!

Loved to see SLIMES as a verb, btw

My biggest note were a couple of the two-word phrases that don't seem to be Real Things. These phrases tend to crop up in constructors' word lists (the tool from which we pull fill for our crosswords) simply because they've appeared in puzzles before, not because anyone says or uses them. AIR ACE, LYE SOAP, ALE TAP. If you are a real live human who uses these phrases, please sound off in the comments so I can retract my critique.

Bullets:

• [Operate, as a program] for RUN — I interpreted this as a coding reference, but I suppose other programs (like, a foundation or a project) can be operated by someone who runs them as well!
• [Work on Broadway, say] for ACT — What is your favorite show you've seen this year? I have zillions on my To Watch List (Oh, Mary!, Stereophonic, The Outsiders), but my favorite so far has been Hell's Kitchen. Bawled my eyes out, then came home and listened to Alicia Keys for a week straight.
• [Symbol seen on eight national flags (though, ironically, not the U.S. flag)] for EAGLE — I could only name two of these (Mexico and Albania) off the top of my head. The others are Egypt, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
• Hmm, this appears to be nine. I think the bird on the flag of Zimbabwe is unofficially an eagle?
• [London's Royal Academy of ___] for ARTS — This clue made me think of series 16 of Taskmaster, where it's a bit of a running joke that one of the contestants (Susan Wokoma) attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (or RADA). They're different things, though.

xoxo Malaika

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