Difficult to wrangle, per an idiom / MON 11-25-24 / Advice to someone seeking happiness / Icelandic literary saga / He-Man's twin sister / Piece of jewelry that might complement a toe ring / Content between songs on Spotify

Constructor: Dena R. Witkes

Relative difficulty: Medium (solved Downs-only)

THEME: SOCIAL MEDIA (59A: Modern networking aid, as suggested by the starts of the answers to the starred clues) — theme answers begin with words that are also actions on SOCIAL MEDIA:

Theme answers:

• SHAREHOLDER (17A: *Corporate investor) [you can share a SOCIAL MEDIA post]
• LIKE HERDING CATS (27A: *Difficult to wrangle, per an idiom) [you can like a SOCIAL MEDIA post]
• FOLLOW YOUR BLISS (44A: *Advice to someone seeking happiness) [you can follow another SOCIAL MEDIA user]

Word of the Day: The Las Vegas A's (52D: Las Vegas A's = ACES) (the clue actually has nothing to do with baseball, but I sure thought it did) —

The Oakland Athletics relocation to Las Vegas is an ongoing effort by the ownership of the Athletics of Major League Baseball (MLB) to relocate the franchise from Oakland, California, to Las Vegas, Nevada. The team was based in Oakland from 1968 through 2024, during which it won four World Series titles. Their relocation would make them the second major sports franchise to move from Oakland to Las Vegas, following the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League (NFL) making the same move in 2020. With four locations, the A's have had the most homes of any MLB team. [...] The Athletics' lease with the Oakland Coliseum expired at the end of the 2024 season. They will play at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, California, beginning in the 2025 season. This will be the third city relocation in the franchise's history since they had previously played in Philadelphia and Kansas City before their move to Oakland in 1968. It will mark the first relocation of an American League team since 1972 when the Washington Senators relocated from Washington, D.C., to the Dallas–Fort Worth suburban city of Arlington, becoming the Texas Rangers and first relocation for MLB overall since 2005 when the Montreal Expos departed from Montreal to Washington, D.C., to become the Washington Nationals. (wikipedia)

• • •

OK, the first thing I'm going to do is explain the clue that completely baffled me. I almost gave up on understanding it, and was in the middle of asking my SOCIAL MEDIA (i.e. BlueSky) followers for help, when I suddenly figured it out. The clue in question is 52D: Las Vegas A's (ACES). This is an absolutely brutal clue for a Monday, especially if you are aware that the Oakland A's (of Major League Baseball) are relocating to Las Vegas and will begin playing games there in 2028. It's even worse if you also know that the Las Vegas WNBA team is ... the ACES. I eventually got ACES but absolutely could not understand it. Seemed like a baseball clue ... with a basketball answer (!?!?!?!). I gave up understanding and went to ask my followers, but as I was asking, bam, it came to me. The "A's" here are just playing cards, such as one might find in Las Vegas (or any other place that has gambling). The "A's" are ACES. If you know absolutely nothing about sports, Consider Yourself Lucky today. Yeeeeeeesh. Monday clues are not supposed to baffle me. 

Now to the puzzle itself. It's really thin, with an underwhelming revealer. Feels like something I've seen done before, perhaps at another puzzle outlet. But that's not the problem. The problem is the concept is just tepid, and the revealer has no zing, no wordplay, no personality at all. Far too straightforward. Yes, those are all SOCIAL MEDIA actions (share, like, follow). But there's just three of them. With just three themers, the grid as a whole should be way more lively, with multiple 8+-letter answers (as opposed to none, which is how many this grid has). SHAREHOLDER is a snooze of an answer. LIKE HERDING CATS is great, but incredibly hard to parse if you're solving Downs-only. I had LIKEHER-INGC- and was certain that I had an error somewhere. No familiar phrase starts "LIKE HER," I reasoned. "LIKE HER what? Or ... is it ... LIKE ... HERRING?" Strangely, LIKE HERDING CATS is not a debut. It was used once back in 2012 (by a friend of mine, actually; hi, Mike). Whatever, compared to the rest of this grid, it's fantastic, so even though I floundered, I'll let it ride. FOLLOW YOUR BLISS feels quaint. FOLLOW YOUR HEART (same letter count) feels more natural to me, though I recognize that FOLLOW YOUR BLISS is a thing. Anyway ... boring, good, OK—that's how the themers seemed to me. The rest of the grid has nothing interesting to offer. It's not bad, it's just blah.


The Downs-only pitfalls for me came right in that "LIKE HERRING?" section, with the missing "D" making the two-word DUE TO very hard to pick up by clue alone (30D: As a result of). Other than that, I had the ACES issue, as you know, and then there was 41D: One might include a hammer, wrench and screwdriver—the slipperiest of all the Downs—which I had first as TOOL BOX, then as TOOL KIT (both much better than TOOL SET, especially in terms of the letter they bring to the grid (BOX > SET, KIT > SET, if only for that "X" and "K"). So getting SET was not just tough, but also semi-disappointing. It would be one thing if I'd ended up with the best or most colorful of the three options, but no, I ended up with ... SET. Sigh. I briefly wanted SAGA for 55D: Icelandic literary saga, but, well, you can see why that wouldn't work. Luckily I knew EDDA, both from grad school medievalist training, and from decades of crossword training (EDDA is crosswordese from way back—304 NYTXW appearances dating back to 1942). No issues with the clues, except I did not know that a SHOWER was, by definition, "brief" (6D: Brief rainstorm), and I've never heard ADS on Spotify in my life (39D: Content between songs on Spotify). That would be torture. If you use Spotify, better to splurge for Premium. Better for me, anyway.

Won't be here tomorrow, as it is a regularly-scheduled Claire Tuesday and also my birthday, so I'll be ... doing nothing, hopefully. Hanging with the cats as well as the human members of my family. Daughter's home for Thanksgiving week—we saw Wicked yesterday (starring Cynthia ERIVO of last Sunday's puzzle fame). I don't think I'd been out to the movies alone with my kid, just me and her, since ... like, Madagascar (2005)? No, Happy Feet (2006)? Something like that. So fun. She's taller now, and has a bigger vocabulary, so the experience is slightly different, but still a joy. I think the thing I'm proudest of though, is that when I asked her what snacks she wanted from the concession stand, her unhesitating reply was "Popcorn, Junior Mints." That's ... that's my movie snack order [single tear rolls down my cheek]. "She'd grown up just like me / My girl was just like me..."

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]