Jazz great Baker / THU 11-28-24 / Nutrient-rich soil component / Digital newsletter platform / French, in England / British designer Crawford awarded a C.B.E. in 2021 / Mythological creature with origins on Sherpa folklore / Examine in great detail, as a text / '90s rapper with the hit "Still Not a Player"

Constructor: Ricky J. Sirois

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: Stacks! — four Down answers = ___STACK, represented in the grid by their consecutive rebus squares forming a literal "stack" of the relevant word:

Theme answers:

• [SUB][SUB][SUB] (i.e. Substack) (14D: Digital newsletter platform)
• [SUB]ZERO (14A: Negative)
• [SUB]STANTIVE (17A: Considerable)
• TURKEY [SUB] (19A: Common order at a hoagie shop)
• [SHORT][SHORT][SHORT] (i.e. short stack) (34D: Pancake order)
• [SHORT] IRON (34A: 8 or 9, in a golf bag)
• RUNS [SHORT] (36A: Doesn't have enough)
• STOP [SHORT] (40A: Slam on the brakes)
• [HAY][HAY][HAY] (i.e. haystack) (35D: Place to find a needle, maybe)
• [HAY]RIDE (35A: Haunted ___ (Halloween activity))
• [HAY]SEED (39A: Bumpkin)
• MADE [HAY] (41A: Capitalized on an opportunity)
• [SMOKE][SMOKE][SMOKE] (i.e. smokestack) (54D: Factory chimney)
• [SMOKE]SCREEN (54A: Ruse designed to disguise)
• GOES UP IN [SMOKE] (57A: Amounts to nothing, as a plan)
• BUM A [SMOKE] (62A: Ask for someone else's cig)

Word of the Day: BIG PUN (45D: '90s rapper with the hit "Still Not a Player") —

Christopher Lee Rios (November 10, 1971 - February 7, 2000), better known by his stage name Big Pun (short for Big Punisher), was an American rapper. Emerging from the underground hip hop scene in the Bronx, he came to prominence upon discovery by fellow Bronx rapper Fat Joe, and thereafter guest appeared on his 1995 album Jealous One's Envy.

Big Pun signed with Fat Joe's label, Terror Squad Productions and Loud Records in 1997 to release his debut studio album, Capital Punishment (1998) the following year. Met with critical acclaim and commercial success, the album earned a nomination for Best Rap Album at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards, peaked at number five on the Billboard 200, and became the first hip hop recording by a Latino solo act to receive platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). His second album, Yeeeah Baby (2000) peaked at number three on the Billboard 200, although Pun died two months before its release. (wikipedia)

• • •

Happy Thanksgiving. Best holiday by a mile. Please don't call it "Turkey Day," which is blasphemy. Not everything has to be cute-ified. Some things are sacred. Also, not everyone eats Turkey. Although I do. And I will. Soon. With mashed TATERs, though again, why? Not everything has to be cute-ified. Just speak like a grown-up. They're "potatoes." TATER should only be used when preceding "TOTS." Or when someone hits a home run (which is the other "way" a TATER might be mashed) (27A: It might be mashed (in more ways than one!)). Wherever you are, whoever you are, even if you say things like "Turkey Day" and "mashed TATERs," I hope you are safe and warm and with people you love, and that you have many things to be thankful for. I'm thankful for Clare, who graciously filled in for me not once but twice, so that I can enjoy my birthday and sleep in for a couple days (though my body is on such a ruthlessly regular schedule that I pretty much woke up at 3:45AM anyway, though yesterday I lay there til a little after 4, much to the cats' consternation) (Alfie's "get up" routine involves crying and literally banging on windows, whereas Ida just walks all over you while purring loudly; I much prefer Ida's way, as it involves at least the facsimile of affection) (wow, that's a lot of parenthetical comments in a row) (speaking of "in a row"...). 

IN A STACK! I really enjoyed this theme, though it ended up being very easy to pick up, and once picked up, very easy to find and knock down. The first "stack" I encountered wouldn't stack right. I could see I was dealing with a rebus, and I wanted STOP [SHORT], but I also wanted RUNS [OUT], and I had no idea what kind of IRON I was dealing with in that golf clue, so I had [blank] over [OUT] over [SHORT]. Not intelligible. I'm realizing now that I didn't even look at the Down clue there. Bizarre. If I'd seen 34D: Pancake order, then [SHORT] stack would almost certainly have occurred to me right there. As it was, I went back to the SUB at the end of TURKEY [SUB] and I read *that* Down clue (14D: Digital newsletter platform), immediately knew it was [SUB]stack, then went back to the pancake clue and [SHORT]ed all those squares. Half the stacks in place, lightning quick. Then I thought "I wonder if we'll see a "smoke" stack. "Hay," I did not anticipate, though I should have. This was all happening very, very fast. So fast I never even saw some of the stuff I would not have known, or would have struggled with, like ILSE, who? That name was wonderfully absent from grids for over a decade, until it got reintroduced as a different "designer" ([Danish shoe designer Jacobsen]) in 2023, and now here it is again. Send it back to oblivion. We don't need another four-letter crosswordese name. All full up! Come back in 2028, or 2035. Or never. There aren't any ILSEs famous enough to justify crossword inclusion, though ILSE Crawford is better than ILSE Jacobsen, who doesn't even have an English-language wikipedia page. ARNE Jacobsen has a SUBSTANTIVE English-language wikipedia page, and are you eager to see him in the grid? You are not. Case closed. Au revoir, ILSE. As Bogart says in that famous Bogart movie, Key LARGO, "We'll always have Paris." [please send indignant corrections to ...]

ILSE was the worst of the fill, which ran a little rough. There are more ODISTS in crosswords than ever were or will be in real life. One texting abbr. is OK, two is too much, IMO (58D: Qualifying abbreviation). I could do without OMA DAE ACER ABA, but that stuff is all pretty ordinary (if unlovely). Mostly, the fill holds up, and you get a couple of nice longer phrases with international flair in the bargain (AMERICANOS, PIED-À-TERRE). The stack that yields the best crosses by far is the [SMOKE] stack. [SMOKE]SCREEN and GOES UP IN [SMOKE] are both vibrant and sparkly, and while BUM A [SMOKE] feels like a relative of "EAT A SANDWICH," it's a way more coherent phrase, so I'll allow it. Not only that, I like it. I quit smoking [checks watch] thirty-three years ago, but I do occasionally miss it. I actually like the smell (though only if it dissipates quickly—indoors, it would soon become unbearable). And you can look cool while smoking, which you absolutely cannot while vaping. No one, not a solitary person, has ever looked cool vaping. This is its major drawback, IMO. 


No trouble spots for me today. I am the right age to know BIG PUN, which, after ILSE, is the only name I can see giving people real trouble today. ESTES Park is right near where my mom and sister live, and it's been in puzzles a lot, so it's second nature to me, but if it's not second nature to you, then I imagine the ESTES/ILSE cross wasn't too pleasant. I can never precisely remember the German term for [Grammy] (ODA? OPA?), but the crosses there were a cinch (OMA!). I had SUBSTANTIAL before SUBSTANTIVE, which will likely be a common hiccup today. Had some trouble getting from [Uprightness] to HONOR, and a little more trouble getting from 8D: Delivery person? to ORATOR. I had the "O" and thought, "O ... B/GYN ... O? ... was its name-O?" Like maybe they were calling them "OB/GYNOs" now, slangily. I think GYNO alone can be slang (for "gynecologist"), but after "OB" ... I haven't heard that. And anyway, it was wrong. Wrong "delivery." 

Bullets:

• 65A: French, in England (SNOG) — clever misdirection here (using "French" as a verb meaning "kiss"). 
• 6D: Abbr. in a birth announcement (OZS) — as in "10 lbs 6 OZS" (which was the figure in my own "birth announcement," continued belated happy birthday to me)

[Beauty and the BAD KITTY]

• 46D: Pitcher for the reds? (CARAFE) — another good clue. Not hard, but clever (in case you somehow don't know, the Reds are a Major League Baseball team—more baseball-based humor for you on this Footballiest of Days)

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]