Hue granter? / TUE 11-19-24 / Track-and-field star Richardson / Saga sage since 1980 / First name in civil rights history / Common surname in Pakistan / Quintet found in a supervocalic word / Half of a rhyming synonym of "haphazard" / Sci-fi author Butler / Like content that causes secondhand embarrassment

Constructor: Erik Agard

Relative difficulty: Challenging (for a Tuesday)

THEME: TIME BUDGET (62A: What 17- and 38-Across combine to form?) — familiar verb phrases clued as if they were part of a time management plan:

Theme answers:

• SAVE THE DAY (17A: Find a way to avert disaster)
• SPEND THE NIGHT (38A: Have a sleepover)

Word of the Day: SHA'CARRI Richardson (38D: Track-and-field star Richardson) —

Sha'Carri Richardson (/ʃəˈkæriː/ shə-KERREE; born March 25, 2000) is an American track and field sprinter who competes in the 100 metres and 200 metres. Richardson rose to fame in 2019 as a freshman at Louisiana State University, running 10.75 seconds to break the 100 m collegiate record at the NCAA Division I Championships. This winning time made her one of the ten fastest women in history at 19 years old. [...] In July 2023, she became the US national champion in the women's 100 metres at the 2023 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, running 10.82 seconds. // Richardson won gold in the 100 m at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, beating Shericka Jackson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in a new championships record time of 10.65 seconds. On the penultimate day of the 2023 World Championships, she also won gold as part of Team USA in the women's 4 × 100m relay final with a championship record of 41.03 seconds.^[11] On June 22, 2024, Richardson defended her title as the US national champion in the 100-metre sprint event by winning the women's 100m final in 10.71 seconds (WL), qualifying for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, where she won the silver medal in the 100m and gold in the 4×100 relay.

• • •

My main comment on this puzzle is I've never heard the term "TIME BUDGET," LOL. I've heard of budgeting your time, and I've heard of time management, but while the concept of a TIME BUDGET is perfectly comprehensible to me, the phrase itself ... shrug. Not familiar. So unfamiliar that I had TIME- at the revealer and I looked back at the two theme answers and couldn't conceive of what could follow. Hacked at crosses and got BUDGET. It seems like a very clever idea. A tight, comprehensive, economical theme. Just wish the revealer had resonated with me instead of landing like a thud at my feet. Even after getting the "B" I was like "TIME ... BANDIT?" (that was a fun movie). But no, TIME BUDGET. I'm sure it's a common phrase—just didn't snap or crackle or pop with me. 

This puzzle played hard for me, but not for the reasons you might think, i.e. not because the grid was absolutely swamped with names. I knew all the names, except SHA'CARRI, which I knew—had seen, had heard of, could picture—but couldn't spell. Actually, besides SHA'CARRI, one name did give me trouble, but it's not because I didn't know it. It's because I thought it was a different name entirely. In fact, I was sure it was a different name entirely. I had M- at 22D: First name in civil rights history and without hesitation wrote in MEDGAR (Evers). Bypassing the most famous first name in American Civil Rights history—the most famous M-name for sure—that was probably not the smartest move. But MARTIN never occurred to me because it seemed too obvious. The way the clue is worded, I figured it was something less common. A deeper cut. So in went MEDGAR and screech went my solve, for a bit. Brittney GRINER got me out of the MEDGAR mess, but I still didn't see MARTIN for some time. It just wasn't computing. The Most Obvious Answer was not computing. Me: "MARVIN ... someone?" Oy. But that didn't mess me up nearly as bad as one seemingly insignificant square in the NE. I took one look at 19A: "Who ___?" and, with the "T" in place, wrote in "IS IT." "Who IS IT?" Seemed legit. Very legit. And the crosses check out, except ... why couldn't I make *any* sense out of 12D: "Don't bother with that"??? IGIOREIT!? I tore that "word" apart and tried parsing and reparsing it all kinds of ways: nothing. I could see that it was a phrase that probably ended in IT, but still, IGIO- ... IGIO- ... nothing starts with IGIO-!!! (unless Armani has written a memoir called I, GIORGIO that I'm unaware of). I checked every cross multiple times before finally realizing that it was "Who ISN'T?," not "Who IS IT?" So ... "IGNORE IT!" GAH, for sure. Many GAHs.

The other (lesser) slow spot in the grid for me came (unsurprisingly) in the initially empty BUDGET section of the grid. I did not know that SHAH was anything but a former ruler of Iran (46A: Common surname in Pakistan), and (worse) I thought that the "low tie" at 58A: Low tie score (ONE ALL) was ONE ONE (ONE ONE having been a "low tie" thirty-two times before in NYTXW history). So not only was BUDGET unknown to me, but the surrounding fill locked up on me, so I really did fizzle toward the finish. Not entirely satisfying. But again, as far as the theme goes, I'm willing to admit that the problem is mine, not the puzzle's. I *want* to be the person for whom TIME BUDGET meant something, who wrote in TIME BUDGET and thought "damn, that's good." But I wasn't. 

As for the names, it's almost comical how aggressively namey this puzzle is. I spent all weekend complaining about the puzzle steering so hard into proper noun trivia of late, it was like this puzzle was giving me the middle finger, LOL. The one reason I'm not as mad at this puzzle for its names as I am at some other recent offerings is that the names in this grid feel like they're making a collective statement, a statement about Black representation in the crossword puzzle. That is to say, this is the Blackest puzzle I've ever seen. Especially for a puzzle where Blackness is not part of the theme. Pound for pound, square for square, you'd be hard pressed to find a Blacker puzzle. VIVICA Fox and Brittney GRINER and MARTIN Luther King and SHA'CARRI Richardson and OCTAVIA Butler and SIMONE Biles and STELLA (from How STELLA Got Her Groove Back by Terry McMillan)? Seven Black names, all in a grid where Blackness isn't the theme!? That is impressive. Also impressive: a puzzle without white people. Not a one. Feels like a point is (low-key) being made—after all, there have been hundreds and hundreds of puzzles without Black people, so ... what if we tried it this way? I have to respect the puzzle's defiant commitment to Black visibility (and shout-out to today's honorary Black people, CARLOS Santana and YODA) (43A: Guitarist Santana + 15A: Saga sage since 1980). 

Bullets:

• 6D: Hue granter? (DYE) — OK so there's one white person in the puzzle ... kinda
• 20A: Like content that causes secondhand embarrassment (CRINGE) — love the modern clue on this one. CRINGE as adjective. Nice.
• 69A: Express contempt (SNEER) — ah, the SNEER/SNORT kealoa*! I wrote in SNEER but all the while thinking "it's gonna be SNORT." But I lucked out.
• 51D: Quintet found in a supervocalic word (AEIOU) — I follow enough word nerds on social media that I know what supervocalics are—words that contain all the (non-Y) vowels. FACETIOUS, for instance, contains them all in order. There's probably a special word for that: Superdupervocalic or some such nonsense.
• 49D: Half of a rhyming synonym of "haphazard" (HELTER) — the other half is SKELTER. Some warped part of my brain is connecting this clue to HOT (23A: Sweltering) via Don McLean

["HELTER skelter in a summer swelter..."]also["... and we sang DIRGES in the dark..."] (28D: Mournful songs)

NOTE: the tenth annual edition of the NYT's Puzzle Mania comes out on December 1. If you're not a dead-tree newspaper subscriber, you can now pre-order a copy of the puzzle extravaganza for yourself (for $7 + shipping). This is the holiday supplement that has tons of different puzzles in it, including (in previous years) a truly giant crossword puzzle, which you have to put on a large table or the floor to solve. Anyway, it's an event. And now you know how to get it if you want it.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*kealoa = a pair of words (normally short, common answers) that can be clued identically and that share at least one letter in common (in the same position). These are answers you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] => ATON or ALOT, ["Git!"] => "SHOO" or "SCAT," etc.  

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