Angler's supply / MON 10-28-24 / Energy, idiomatically / Eight-armed creatures / Nursery rhyme about the hazards of decaying infrastructure / Pass idly, as time / Beverage with a Big Mac, perhaps / Valvoline competitor

Constructor: Michael Lieberman

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: FALL CLASSIC (59A: Nickname for the World Series ... or what you might call 17-, 28- or 45-Across) — "classic" nursery rhymes that involve some kind of "fall":

Theme answers:

• JACK AND JILL (17A: Nursery rhyme about a disastrous trip up a hill)
• HUMPTY DUMPTY (28A: Nursery rhyme about the perils of sitting on a wall)
• LONDON BRIDGE (45A: Nursery rhyme about the hazards of decaying infrastructure)

Word of the Day: EDNA St. Vincent Millay (8D: Poet St. Vincent Millay) —

Edna St. Vincent Millay (February 22, 1892 – October 19, 1950) was an American lyrical poet and playwright. Millay was a renowned social figure and noted feminist in New York City during the Roaring Twenties and beyond. She wrote much of her prose and hackwork verse under the pseudonym Nancy Boyd.

Millay won the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her poem "Ballad of the Harp-Weaver"; she was the first woman and second person to win the award. In 1943, Millay was the sixth person and the second woman to be awarded the Frost Medal for her lifetime contribution to American poetry.

Millay was highly regarded during much of her lifetime, with the prominent literary critic Edmund Wilson calling her "one of the only poets writing in English in our time who have attained to anything like the stature of great literary figures.'' By the 1930s, her critical reputation began to decline, as modernist critics dismissed her work for its use of traditional poetic forms and subject matter, in contrast to modernism's exhortation to "make it new." However, the rise of feminist literary criticism in the 1960s and 1970s revived an interest in Millay's works. (wikipedia)

• • •

One of the easier puzzles I've ever solved Downs-only. I went from 1D: Angler's supply (BAIT) all the way through 34D: "Submit by" dates (DEADLINES) before I finally hit a Down I couldn't get on the first guess: 35D: Beverage with a Big Mac. Just couldn't think of a coherent 9-letter answer right away. My main problem there was having LOUD-- at 33A and not being able to infer the ending (i.e. the -LY, which would've given me the first letter in LARGE COKE). Or, rather, I could infer an answer, but sadly that answer was LOUDER (or even LOUDEN (?)). Why LOUDLY didn't occur to me in the moment, I don't know. Anyway, one answer later, I had 36D: Christmas season ... which I definitely wrote in as NOEL, which made me think "... LOUDEN? Really?" But then I remembered that the Christmas season could also be YULE, and the "Y" made LOUDLY feel very right, which it was, and that "L" got me to LARGE, and the COKE part just seemed obvious after that (although SODA or COLA were both plausible, I guess). The latter half of the solve was definitely bumpier than the first half, but not too much. Had SUNBEAMS before SUNRISES (39D: They brighten everyone's days). And then AS YET before SO FAR (48D: To date). Every other Down went right in, either with no help, or with help from the themers I was able to infer. I had to think a little bit before I got KILL (44D: Pass idly, as time). I had the "I" and wanted "WILE" ... as in "WILE away the time" ... only that's spelled "WHILE," so ... that wasn't gonna work. I got to KILL by running the letters that could go at the front of -ARL, and realizing that "K" was one of those letters. "C" and "E" also worked, technically, but they weren't so promising in the Down. I guess technically "M" could've worked too, but MARL? On a Monday? In this economy? Unlikely.

Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, clays, and silt. When hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae.

Marl makes up the lower part of the cliffs of Dover, and the Channel Tunnel follows these marl layers between France and the United Kingdom. Marl is also a common sediment in post-glacial lakes, such as the marl ponds of the northeastern United States.

Marl has been used as a soil conditioner and neutralizing agent for acid soil and in the manufacture of cement. (wikipedia)

As for the theme, it seems just fine. A simple little Monday theme with a clever and surprising revealer. Not just clever and surprising, but timely! The FALL CLASSIC is underway as we speak. The Dodgers are up two games to none on the Yankees, but Shohei Ohtani (the Dodgers' best player, and the best player in baseball) partially dislocated his shoulder while trying to steal second base in Game 2, so ... who knows what effect, if any, that will have on the Dodgers. Will Ohtani sit out Game 3? Will he be back on the field? If so, will he be at full strength? Will it even matter? I mean, the Dodgers have plenty of talent, they can probably win two without him. Annnnnnyway, FALL CLASSIC! That's what's up. I love that it's Dodgers / Yankees, as that was the World Series matchup the year I got into baseball (1977), as well as the following year, the year I got into baseball cards (1978). I lived in California and, despite having been born in San Francisco, immediately became a Dodgers fan. Yes, I learned the bitter taste of disappointment early as a sports fan. It was weird seeing Reggie Jackson at a restaurant in Monterey a few years back, as I realized a. he is smaller than I imagined (my not being 8 years old any more may have something to do with that), and b. I still hate him (just kidding, he seemed very nice).

Notes:

• 2D: Eight-armed creatures (OCTOPUSES) — hurray, an answer for the pluralizing purists! None of this OCTOPI baloney. Here's a handy explanation of how to pluralize (and not pluralize) "octopus," from the good folks at Ocean Conservancy:

[Sadly, OCTOPI is in dictionaries and constructor databases and therefore isn't going to die any time soon]

• 23A: Susceptible to sunburn (PALE) — I resemble that remark! (note: I wouldn't put "sunburn" in the clue when SUNRISES is in the grid, but as with "octopus" pluralizing, I tend toward persnicketiness in these matters).
• 48A: Energy, idiomatically (STEAM) — never saw this clue (obviously, because I solved Downs-only), but it's the kind of thing that would've slowed me down. It's funny that STEAM hangs around as a metaphor for energy. I assume it comes from STEAM-engine trains. Yes, that appears to be true. Earliest evidence of its use as a metaphor for "energy" in the OED (that I can see) is the 1830s, and as "first usage" quotations go, it's a good one:

1. 1832

   I have..a way of going a-head, by getting up the steam..—and the fuel is brandy.

   F. Marryat, Newton Forster vol. III. iii. 39

• 43A: "My Zoom joke flopped ... I guess it's not remotely funny," e.g. (PUN) — what if your joke about your Zoom joke flopping also flops? Sadly, this joke was not on "still on mute."

• 5D: How often many people brush their teeth (avert your eyes, dentists!) (ONCE A DAY) — such a weirdly worked-up and judgy clue. With the histrionic parenthetical aside to dentists at the end, I thought the answer was going to be way more alarming than ONCE A DAY. Like NOT AT ALL. And "many"? "Many people"? How many? If you've got an actual statistic, by all means run with it, but this "many" assertion is absurd.
• 61D: Valvoline competitor (STP) — clue: "Valvoline." brain: "Vaseline ... has 3-letter competitors?"

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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