Quick confirmation of feasibility / MON 9-30-24 / Football player in upstate New York / Empire whose capital city was Tenochtitlán / Loud and unhappy sports fans, in slang / Stat of interest to a competitive crossword solver

Constructor: Alexander Liebeskind

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (solved Downs-only)

THEME: "YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!" (59A: Cry from someone seeking revenge ... or a hint to the ends of 16-, 22-, 37- and 49-Across) — last words of theme answers are things you might pay:

Theme answers:

• THESIS STATEMENT (16A: Sentence that often appears in the first paragraph of an essay)
• SANITY CHECK (22A: Quick confirmation of feasibility)
• ACID TAB (37A: Dose for an LSD trip)
• BUFFALO BILL (49A: Football player in upstate New York)

Word of the Day: Tenochtitlan (6D: Empire whose capital city was Tenochtitlán => AZTEC) —

Tenochtitlan, also known as Mexico-Tenochtitlan, was a large Mexican altepetl in what is now the historic center of Mexico City. The exact date of the founding of the city is unclear, but the date 13 March 1325 was chosen in 1925 to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the city. The city was built on an island in what was then Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico. The city was the capital of the expanding Aztec Empire in the 15th century until it was captured by the Tlaxcaltec and the Spanish in 1521.

At its peak, it was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas. It subsequently became a cabecera of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Today, the ruins of Tenochtitlan are in the historic center of the Mexican capital. The World Heritage Site of Xochimilco contains what remains of the geography (water, boats, floating gardens) of the Mexica capital.

Tenochtitlan was one of two Mexica āltepētl (city-states or polities) on the island, the other being Tlatelolco. (wikipedia)

• • •

A pretty basic "last words"-type puzzle (where the last words in the theme answers, in different contexts, all belong to the same category of thing—in this case, things you pay). I can't help but feel that STATEMENT is an outlier here. The others all feel like they belong to distinct contexts: you pay the CHECK at a restaurant, the TAB at a bar, and the BILL ... well, that could also be at a restaurant or bar, but you pay various BILLs (utility etc.) from home. A STATEMENT is just a subcategory of BILL. Your credit card STATEMENT is just a subcategory of "bill" in my mind. Also, you pay the check, pay the tab, pay the bill, but you don't "pay the statement." You might pay the statement balance (if you google ["pay the statement"], most all the hits involve "balance"). I think technically STATEMENT is perfectly defensible. It just doesn't land the way the others land, and seems like it doesn't quite fit. Doesn't quite have its own discreet lane. Bigger issue for me, though, was BUFFALO BILL, on two counts. The first, lesser count is the singular BUFFALO BILL. Something about using just one player seems sad and odd. Why not just clue BUFFALO BILL as the guy. You know, BUFFALO BILL Cody, the soldier, bison hunter, showman. He's a unique individual, unlike the BILLS, plural, which are a team. But non-pluralness isn't the real problem with BUFFALO BILL. No, the real problem is the clue. No Buffalonian (I think that's what they're called?) (just kidding, folks), I say no resident of Buffalo would ever say they live in "upstate New York." That is some provincial NYC crap right there. I know, I know, anything north of 96th is "upstate" to you all, but Buffalo is decidedly "western New York." It's nowhere near, say, Poughkeepsie (also, don't tell people from Poughkeepsie that they live "upstate," they hate it ... well, my students from there hate it, anyway). I generally think "upstate" is fine for most of non-NYC New York (including where I live, which is technically Central New York, or, more specifically, the Southern Tier), but Buffalo really is an entirely different ecosystem. It's the heart of western New York. Just ask any Buffaloer (I think that's what they're called).

The fill is surprisingly weak today. Cheater squares in the corners (NW, SE) and yet you've still got stuff like HAHAS and LIS and SOU and AONE and ANAL. That last one you could easily eliminate by changing TUNA to something like CORA or HORA or even TOGA—I'd take a partial like A GAL or A PAL or something like that over ANAL. It's not an offensive word, of course, it's just ... I dunno. I used it once in a puzzle and I've regretted it ever since. Don't make solvers think about anuses if you don't have to, that's my philosophy. One of them, anyway. Also, RETAIL SHOP kind of clanked. Feels like odd, formal, even dated phrasing. Ditto "mom-and-pop store." The clue did very little to help me get the answer. Needed lots of crosses. Otherwise, though, the Downs-only solve was pretty smooth. As usual, the longer Downs were the harder Downs, with MAIN IDEA and especially RETAIL SHOP taking a bit of work. But ELENA KAGAN (2D: Supreme Court justice appointed by Barack Obama) and BOOBIRDS (39D: Loud and unhappy sports fans, in slang) were gimmes, and nothing in the short stuff was too much of a problem either. As usual, I confused SERB and SLAV (31D: Balkan native), and I could not figure out the "word that can come before" clue (I'm truly bad at these). For 10D: Word before ended, handed or minded (OPEN), I originally wrote in EVEN. I know, "EVEN-ended" is not a thing. I see that now. What else? Oh, I tried every five-letter ancient American civilization I could think of (including OLMEC) before hitting on AZTEC. And I was slightly worried that PESKY might in fact be PESTY (is that a word?) (5D: Irksome). 

That's it. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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