Equine hybrid with striped legs / THU 9-5-24 / Aptly named novelist Charles / Attacked imaginary enemies, in an idiom / Unit equivalent to 16.5 feet / Spanish city on the Costa del Sol

Constructor: Joe Deeney

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "These answers look funny..." — theme answers are familiar verb phrases where the first word (the verb) is taken adjectivally and represented visually (by changes in the shape or complexion of the actual boxes): 

Theme answers:

• [waved] TO THE CAMERA (the boxes have wavy edges) (16A: Tried getting on a Jumbotron, say)
• [curled] UP WITH A BOOK (the boxes have curly edges) (27A: Enjoyed some cozy reading)
• [tilted] AT WINDMILLS (the boxes all tilt) (43A: Attacked imaginary enemies, in an idiom)
• [lined] ONE'S POCKETS (the boxes are lined, like a notebook) (57A: Made money dishonestly)

Word of the Day: ZEDONK (12D: Equine hybrid with striped legs) —

A zebroid is the offspring of any cross between a zebra and any other equine to create a hybrid. In most cases, the sire is a zebra stallion. The offspring of a donkey sire and zebra dam, called a donkra, and the offspring of a horse sire and a zebra dam, called a hebra, do exist, but are rare and are usually sterile. Zebroids have been bred since the 19th century. Charles Darwin noted several zebra hybrids in his works. // Zebroid is the term generally used for all zebra hybrids. The different hybrids are generally named using a portmanteau of the sire's name and the dam's name. Generally, no distinction is made as to which zebra species is used. Many times, when zebras are crossbred, they develop some form of dwarfism. Breeding of different branches of the equine family, which does not occur in the wild, generally results in sterile offspring. The combination of sire and dam also affects the offspring phenotype. [...] A cross between a zebra and a donkey is known as a zenkey, zonkey (a term also used for donkeys in Tijuana, Mexico, painted as zebras for tourists to pose with them in souvenir photos), zebrass, or zedonk. Donkeys are closely related to zebras and both animals belong to the horse family. These zebra–donkey hybrids are very rare. (my emph.) (wikipedia)

• • •

Good concept, so-so execution. Actually, I'm only really balking at the "WAVED" answer, since the adjectival form is "wavy." Those boxes are wavy. "TILTED" and "LINED" are very natural ways to describe the boxes involved in the lower theme answers today. You could argue that "curly" is a better way to describe the boxes involved in UP WITH A BOOK, but "curled" is more than defensible, so no real problem there. It's just WAVED ... I wouldn't say "the boxes are WAVED," I'd say they're wavy. You can definitely have "waved hair," so there's some adjectival evidence there, but even there, if you google "waved hair" you get asked "did you mean 'wavy hair'?" The relative weakness of "WAVED" isn't a deal-breaker, it just ... stands out. Probably better to focus on how *good* the last two themers are, in terms of nailing the execution, than dwell too much on the wonkiness of the first themer. But I'm a dweller. It's what I do. I dwell. I always look at puzzles the way I would look at my own puzzles—ruthlessly. What's the stuff that would bug *me* if I were making this? But I think the "WAVED" answer is good enough, and the overall set is solid. My ear is definitely missing the "GOOD" in "[curled] UP WITH A BOOK"—really wants it to be "WITH A GOOD BOOK." As you can see, it's what predictive search wants as well:

But as you can also see, predictive search acknowledges the existence of curling up with a (mere) book, so as with the whole "WAVED" thing, the answer feels slightly off, but not catastrophically off. It's a very easy gimmick to work out—I like a little more challenge on Thursdays—but as beginner-friendly Thursdays go, this is a pretty good one. Wait. Wait. Go back to the predictive search results. I'm ... what ... what (the hell) is "curled up with an earl"!? I'm gonna look it up now, and it better not be some gross sex thing. Hang on [...] OK LOL it's not gross, but it *is* a sex thing. Is it weird that I feel an urge, bordering on a need, to read this right now, today, this afternoon?:

The Byronic Book Club! So Many Serifs! I want to join....

I thought the fill really held up today. It was at least trying. It didn't just lie there in a puddle of boring 3-4-5s, and it didn't get super-ugly or forced. That ARCCOS section is not exactly pleasing to the eyes: A TAD, a single ROLO, ADHOC crossing ARCCOS (the ugliest trig function I've ever seen in the grid), and then a YOU where a YA should be (in "SEE YOU!"). Throw in the fact that I only dimly dimly barely remembered what SOYUZ was, and that whole section definitely becomes my least favorite, but luckily it stands out by contrast with the rest of the grid, which is lively and fun. Great long Downs ("WHY AM I HERE?!?," ONE-POT MEAL ... a good one-pot meal is definitely a solid reason for me to be here, or there, or anywhere). Love "DOWN, BOY!" (33A: "Easy there, Fido!"). And while you get some crosswordese here and there (EDSEL, ETON), the important thing is that it's here and there, and not everywhere. Overall, the fill stays smooth and nicely varied. After SOYUZ, the only answers I had trouble with were MALAGA (sounded right, but also sounded like the video game GALAGA, so I was suspicious) (40A: Spanish city on the Costa del Sol) and then ZEDONK, which ... I see that you're having fun here with the whole portmanteau thing, but this is a debut For A Reason. Zebra-donkey hybrids are (per wikipedia) "extremely rare," and of all the names for zebra-donkey hybrids, on wikipedia's list, ZEDONK comes last, after "zenkey," "zonkey," and "zebrass"! I demand that, in the name of zebra-donkey name equality, you add "zebrass" to your database right now, constructors. This instant. ZEDONK is an absurdity that no one would tolerate if it didn't have a kind of "bad science fiction name" charm about it.

Not great to have "money" in the clue for "[lined] ONE'S POCKETS" (57A: Made money dishonestly), when you not only have MONEY in the grid, but have it running directly through "[lined] ONE'S POCKETS" (see OLD MONEY, 35D: Like the Rockefellers, Roosevelts and Rothschilds). No other complaints. I had a couple of screw-ups today, one of them minor and forgettable (I AM TOO for I DO TOO) (11D: "Ditto!"), and the other major and hilarious—I put the secretary of commerce THIRD in the U.S. presidential line of succession (14A). Half my brain: "Gee, that high?" Other half: "What the hell are you doing!?"

Explainers:

• 9D: Horse-drawn carriage (SHAY) — being a veteran solver means knowing your carriage vocabulary. Your shays, your drays, your surreys and landaus and phaetons and carioles and troikas and broughams, etc. 
• 32A: Aetna alternative (HUMANA) — insurance co. I don't know HUMANA so well, so this one took a few crosses.
• 41D: National spirit of England (GIN) — so "spirit" in the liquor sense
• 46D: The long way there? (LIMO) — because LIMOs are ... long. This one also required some crosses.
• 62A: What Comic Sans is "sans" (SERIF) — Comic Sans is a notorious font. "Sans" means "without" (Fr.). Sans serif is a category of font. A category lacking in ... serifs. 
• 39D: Trumpet (TOUT) — it's a verb, not a horn today.
• 15A: "To" words (ODE) — because many ODEs have titles that begin "To...,” as in "To a Mouse," "To a Louse," or ... here's a nice one: Keats' "To Autumn":

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

   Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

   With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,

   And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

      To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

   With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

      For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.



Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

   Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

   Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;

Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,

   Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook

      Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep

   Steady thy laden head across a brook;

   Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,

      Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.



Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they?

   Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,

   And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn

   Among the river sallows, borne aloft

      Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;

   Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

   The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;

      And gathering swallows twitter in the skies. (from poetryfoundation.org)

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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