Clown role in Chinese opera / TUE 9-3-24 / Baseball franchise with a bell in its logo / Fanged menaces / Second part of a notable Latin boast

Constructor: Alex Eaton-Salners

Relative difficulty: Way Too Easy, even for a Tuesday

THEME: TWO-PARTY SYSTEMS (38A: Political configurations suggested by the answers (and their circled letters) at 17-, 24-, 50- and 61-Across?) — theme answers are one kind of "party" and the word spelled out by their circled squares is another kind of "party":

Theme answers:

• TUPPERWARE (17A: Brand of kitchen storage containers)
• SOCIALIST (24A: The second "S" of U.S.S.R.)
• HALLOWEEN (50A: When the skeletons in one's closet might be brought out)
• FEDERALIST (61A: Alexander Hamilton, politically)

Word of the Day: CHOU (13A: Clown role in Chinese opera) —

Peking opera, or Beijing opera (Chinese: 京劇; pinyin: Jīngjù), is the most dominant form of Chinese opera, which combines instrumental music, vocal performance, mime, martial arts, dance and acrobatics. It arose in Beijing in the mid-Qing dynasty (1644–1912) and became fully developed and recognized by the mid-19th century.^[1] The form was extremely popular in the Qing court and has come to be regarded as one of the cultural treasures of China. Major performance troupes are based in Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai. [...] 

The Chou (丑) is a male clown role. The Chou usually plays secondary roles in a troupe. Indeed, most studies of Beijing opera classify the Chou as a minor role. The name of the role is a homophone of the Mandarin Chinese word chou, meaning "ugly". This reflects the traditional belief that the clown's combination of ugliness and laughter could drive away evil spirits. Chou roles can be divided into Wen Chou, civilian roles such as merchants and jailers, and Wu Chou, minor military roles. The Wu Chou combines comic acting and acrobatics. Chou characters are generally amusing and likable, if a bit foolish. Their costumes range from simple for characters of lower status to elaborate, perhaps overly so, for high-status characters. Chou characters wear special face paint, called xiaohualian, that differs from that of Jing characters. The defining characteristic of this type of face paint is a small patch of white chalk around the nose. This can represent either a mean and secretive nature or a quick wit.

Beneath the whimsical persona of the Chou, a serious connection to the form of Beijing opera exists. The Chou is the character most connected to the guban, the drums and clapper commonly used for musical accompaniment during performances. The Chou actor often uses the guban in solo performance, especially when performing Shu Ban, light-hearted verses spoken for comedic effect. The clown is also connected to the small gong and cymbals, percussion instruments that symbolize the lower classes and the raucous atmosphere inspired by the role. Although Chou characters do not sing frequently, their arias feature large amounts of improvisation. This is considered a license of the role, and the orchestra will accompany the Chou actor even as he bursts into an unscripted folk song. However, due to the standardization of Beijing opera and political pressure from government authorities, Chou improvisation has lessened in recent years. The Chou has a vocal timbre that is distinct from other characters, as the character will often speak in the common Beijing dialect, as opposed to the more formal dialects of other characters. (wikipedia)

• • •

This is a very clever theme, but unfortunately it's sitting in one of the easiest and (worse) dullest grids I've ever seen. I checked out early on this one. Whenever a puzzle throws garbage at me repeatedly, before I've even gotten out of the NW, I resent it. Here's the point at which I started resenting today's puzzle:

TUPLE? Why in the world is this awful suffix in a Tuesday puzzle with an undemanding theme structure? After I'd already had to endure CHOU ... and before I even hit the tidal wave of stale stuff that was to follow. Every old crossword name in the book, it felt like. I hit ELIA and PEI just a few seconds later and then ABEL ETTA SERTA TSAR ELI ABBA EDAM TERI ESPY ARLO. And that's just the names. The rest of the fill (outside the long Downs, which are fine) is just as exhausting in its overfamiliarity: VIDI TCELL TMI MELEE MIL AMIE DALAI ESIGN YER. Too many 3-4-5s, all of them clued far too plainly and easily. The only reason I don't flat-out hate this puzzle is that a. as I said, the theme is actually clever, and b. it was all over very fast. In general, I think being *this* easy is bad for any puzzle (esp. a non-Monday puzzle), but today I was grateful to get out of there quickly. 

There was one (slightly) challenging thing about the puzzle, for me, and that was: figuring out the theme concept. Now that I look at it, it seems transparent. But it took me a few seconds to see it. But then I'm slightly ILL (a cold, I think / hope), so my processing capabilities may be slightly diminished. But I needed hardly any processing capabilities to actually solve this thing. Every answer went in immediately, with only a few exceptions: CHOU, EVENS (don't really know the rules of roulette) and HAVES (just hard to pick up from the initial letters ... was really wondering how a HAVEN could be understood as a [Privileged group]). I don't see where anyone could've had any difficulty with this one. Well, hmmm ... I take it back. It's possibly slightly harder for people who didn't spend their formative solving years knee-deep in crosswordese. All the short answers, all the names I mentioned in the above lists of gunk, those are all reflex answers at this point. Filler. Repeaters from way back. The answers you swat away like gnats. There are always a few gnats to swat away, but today: a swarm. Hard to properly see, let alone appreciate, the pretty theme through the swarm. 

No complaints about the theme, though. Probably wouldn't have used "politically" in the FEDERALISM clue when "Political" is the first word of the revealer clue. Obviously "parties" are gonna run "political" at times, but you can vary your clue language. I don't really know HEN Party. At all. I thought it was a group of women gossiping, but The Internet tells me it's just another name for a bachelorette party, although it looks like it's been extended to mean "any all-woman party." Seems like it's also more British than American. I can't imagine wanting to call yourself a hen. "Stag," I get. Majestic creatures, stags. But "hen"? "Majestic" is not the word I'd use. 

Bullets:

• 39D: Baseball franchise with a bell in its logo (PHILLIES) — that Taco Bell sponsorship has really gone too far*
• 47A: Force of nature? (GRAVITY) — nice play on words. Less nice was the phrasing on the HALLOWEEN clue ([When the skeletons in one's closet might be brought out]). It's the "be brought" that feels unnatural. Why not just use "come out" and maybe put a "?" on the end of the clue if you think it's not literal enough. If you're playing on the idea of metaphorical skeletons in one's closet (which this clue certainly is), then it seems more likely that you'd refer to their coming out (usually against your will, since you've been hiding them) than their being "brought out." Basically, "brought out" ruins any misdirection possibility here by making it obvious that you're talking about literal things in a literal closet.
• 32D: Student-run class? (GYM) — in that students ... run ... in GYM class. Or they used to. Sometimes.
• 62D: Name found in "Yale library," appropriately (ELI) — look, if you're new, or newish, to solving, then you may as well prepare yourself for an onslaught of Yale shit. The puzzle cannot lay off. Half the constructors went there, I think. The reason "appropriately" is in this clue is that a Yalie (a word you'll see in crosswords eventually) is sometimes known as an ELI (a word you are currently seeing in crosswords), based on the first name of the college's namesake: ELIHU (which you've seen in crosswords twice this year already). ELIHU Yale was a Welsh merchant who gave a considerable amount of money to the school, so they named the school after him, and, well, that's the root of all this Yale madness. Speaking of "root," there's also an ELIHU Root (no relation, and no connection to Yale that I know of). 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

*yes yes the clue actually refers to the Liberty Bell, smart guy, we know

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