A24 horror film in which Rory Kinnear plays multiple roles / FRI 11-15-24 / Unchanged when multiplied by itself, from the Latin for "same" and "power" / Activewear brand with a name inspired by flight / Teacups and pirate ships / Gets rid of, as the oldest item in a programming cache / Tech journalist Kara / Operating system with a penguin mascot named Tux

Constructor: Alina Abidi

Relative difficulty: Medium 

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: IDEMPOTENT (24D: Unchanged when multiplied by itself, from the Latin for "same" and "power") —

Idempotence (UK: /ˌɪdɛmˈpoʊtəns/,US: /ˈaɪdəm-/) is the property of certain operations in mathematics and computer science whereby they can be applied multiple times without changing the result beyond the initial application. The concept of idempotence arises in a number of places in abstract algebra (in particular, in the theory of projectors and closure operators) and functional programming (in which it is connected to the property of referential transparency).

The term was introduced by American mathematician Benjamin Peirce in 1870 in the context of elements of algebras that remain invariant when raised to a positive integer power, and literally means "(the quality of having) the same power", from idem + potence (same + power). (wikipedia)

• • •

[the only IMAN I know]

I rated this "Medium" but technically I failed. For the first time in I can't remember how long, I finished the puzzle but did not get the "Congratulations" message. Usually when this happens, it's because I've left a typo somewhere and I have to track it down. But today ... nope, no typo. Error. Errors, actually. When I finally found said errors, it was so disheartening, because they happened on precisely the kind of answer that I'd complained about out loud while I was solving: "... so many names. Too many names." And sure enough, it was a name that got me, and the kind of name that's most likely to be outside my field of vision—namely, some actor in some Marvel movie. I had no way of knowing that name, so I relied on crosses, and that ... didn't work today. Because with the "T" in place, I looked at 31A: Amount often added (TIP) and without hesitation wrote in TAD. "Confirmed" this with DING, which I realize now is more of a microwave sound than an "Online notification sound," but in the moment, it seemed fine. And I never went back and checked the Marvel name because I didn't know the Marvel name anyway, so any combination of letters might've been right, for all I know. Somebody named AMAN? Shrug, why not? As I say, I was already thinking, midsolve, that the puzzle was leaning way, way too heavily into names. Also into extreme online-ness. Just name after name and online thing after online thing. Every damn square from TARTT over to IMAN is involved in a name—a 22-square formation that encompasses TARTT, SWISHER, CARL SAGAN, and IMAN, and that's in addition to ERMA / MARA, LUCE / GERTRUDE, and NIN / MEN. And the extreme computery online-ness extended from PING to SENT to EVICTS (43A: Gets rid of, as the oldest item in a programming cache) to LINUX to tech journalist SWISHER to RERUN (as clued) (28D: TV term that's becoming obsolete in the streaming era) to whatever the hell IDEMPOTENT is (it's a term from mathematics and computer programming; see "Word of the Day," above). So it's only (grimly) fitting that I got kneecapped at Marvel-actor-meets-online-notification-sound. A different clue on either TIP or PING and there's no problem. Oh well.

Some of the longer answers are nice. UP IN THE AIR / "DON'T TELL ME" is a solid little stack, and "YOU'RE NOT WRONG" and "I CAN SEE YOU" have a playful colloquial verve. Enjoyable. But too much of the marquee space was used on ho-hum stuff like TÊTE-À-TÊTES or on phrases that seem overly niche ("EVER HEARD OF IT?") or slightly off—the spelling on slangy phrases in crosswords often makes me cringe because it seems so improvised, a hybrid of formal and informal spelling choices. The phrase is RARIN' TO GO, as I've always heard it. It's not like anyone uses "raring" in formal contexts (or in any context where it isn't followed by "to go"). It's RARIN'. It's so RARIN' that RARIN' has appeared in the NYTXW 19 times! Now, RARING has also appeared, but ... I don't like it. The colloquial energy comes from the elision. RARING just seems stodgy. Then there's "I'VE GOTTA GO," ugh. First of all, two long "ending-in-GO" phrases in the same grid? Why? Just ... No. Second, spelling "I'VE GOTTA GO" was an adventure. The phrase that this answer wants to be is "I GOTTA GO." That's the tightest and most realistic version of that phrase. If you're changin' "got to" to one word (GOTTA), then you're definitely dropping that "apostrophe VE" in "I'VE." Because of I'VE, I assumed an slightly elevated formality to the phrasing, so wrote in GOT TO GO instead of GOTTA GO. Good thing I checked that cross (CAMI beats COMI, for sure) (36A: Simple pajama top, casually). As for "EVER HEARD OF IT?," I know this "facetious question" from precisely one place: The Office. It's Andy on The Office, every time he mentions that he went to Cornell. I mean ... I watched every ep of that show, so I don't hate remembering Andy, but the phrase doesn't resonate for me beyond that one example.

As with every clue that involves a contemporary actor name or a computer term or golf or some other crap I don't care about, I don't resent that the clue exists. Things exist that I don't know, same as it ever was. What I resent is the relentless return to one field. The same crap over and over. Changing a simple word like MEN to an A24 movie when you've already got two other proper names from contemporary movies (IMAN, MARA), why? I literally have no idea who "Rory Kinnear" is, so "in which Rory Kinnear plays multiple roles" did not help at all (19A: A24 horror film in which Rory Kinnear plays multiple roles). I have (vaguely) heard of the movie title MEN, thank god, because I had no idea if the cross was IRAN or IRAQ (3D: Country that uses the Jalali calendar rather than the Gregorian), and if I hadn't known the simple word MEN was the title, I can imagine a scenario where MEQ seems plausible. Why else would you clue the word in this weird proper noun way?, I might've reasoned. Must be some weird name or phrase I've never heard of. I mean, if MCQ can be a movie title (and it can), then why not MEQ!? Anyway, when a puzzle leans heavily and repeatedly into its own little cultural / generational pocket, that's what I don't like. Even when I live in that pocket, I don't love it. You shouldn't be able to feel the puzzle riding a particular hobby horse.

Notes:

• 16A: Activewear brand with a name inspired by flight (AVIA) — I guess that makes sense. Half of the word "AVIAtion." I weirdly never made the connection. Who knows where brand names come from? Well, if you want to find out, turns out you can. Asics is an acronym of the Latin phrase anima sana in corpore sano (a variation on the better known Latin phrase mens sana in corpore sano). Hoka comes from a Maori phrase meaning "to fly." I could go on, but I don't want to.
• 46A: Macy's or Wendy's, for instance? (HERS) — this was slightly cute. Looks like a retail establishment and fast food chain, but nope, just the possessive form of women's names.
• 53D: Fan of the Bulldogs (ELI) — this clue is referring to Yale, EVER HEARD OF IT?
• 45D: Hair raiser? (CLIP) — I wanted GLOP (like ... some kind of hair gel?) and FLIP (like ... when you "raise" your hair out of your face?) before the much simpler and more plausible CLIP.
• 8D: Minuscule quantities (SOUPÇONS) — the problem with diacritics in English crosswords is that they're invisible—you can't write them in because they make a mockery of the cross. No cedille on the "C" in IÇEBOX! Anyway, without the cedille, SOUPCON looks like a convention sponsored by Progresso or a restaurant scene that got cut out of The Grifters.

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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