"Bad you!" / MON 1-20-25 / Tween sister of Barbie / Kevin of "Shark Tank," also known as "Mr. Wonderful" / Eccentric expert / Path of advancement for a lawyer / Go along with prevailing wisdom / Geometric figures whose subparts mimic the full shape / Sensation of acceleration / "Biscuit" for cookie or "chips" for fries

Constructor: Katie Byl and Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Medium (normal, easy Monday) (solved Downs-only)

THEME: WORK LIKE A DOG (56A: Do one's job to the point of exhaustion ... or a hint to the ends of 20-, 27-, 36- and 49-Across) — last words of theme answers, when reimagined as verbs, are what a dog might do:

Theme answers:

• PARTNER TRACK (20A: Path of advancement for a lawyer)
• POINT GUARD (27A: Position for Steph Curry or Caitlin Clark)
• FOLLOW THE HERD (36A: Go along with prevailing wisdom)
• STYLE GUIDE (49A: Manual for consistency in writing)

Word of the Day: CHIGNONS (35D: Hair knots with a French name) —

A chignon (UK: /ˈʃiːnjɒ̃/, US: /ˈʃiːnjɒn/, French: [ʃiɲɔ̃]), from the French chignon meaning a bun, is a hairstyle characterized by wrapped hair on the back of the head. In the United States and United Kingdom, it is often used as an abbreviation of the French phrase chignon du cou, signifying a low bun worn at the nape of the neck.

Chignons are generally achieved by pinning the hair into a knot at the nape of the neck or at the back of the head, but there are many variations of the style. They are usually secured with accessories such as barrettes or hairpins. Chignons are frequently worn for special occasions, like weddings and formal dances, but the basic chignon is also worn for everyday casual wear. (wikipedia)

• • •

Didn't notice the theme while solving (Downs-only), and my first thought on seeing the revealer was "GUIDE dog, OK, GUARD dog, yes ... HERD dog? Isn't it 'HERDing dog?' And TRACK dog!? What is that, a greyhound!? Boooo to racing dogs! Or is it ... a TRACKing dog? I dunno, man, two of these don't really work." But the reason they didn't work is because I was taking the theme the wrong way, i.e. imagining those last words were all supposed to precede "dog," when they're just verbs—actions a dog might perform. Work a "working dog" might do. A working dog might TRACK or GUARD or HERD or GUIDE. Yes, taken as verbs, all is well. And a couple of the themer phrases are even interesting answers in their own right (PARTNER TRACK, WORK LIKE A DOG). I could take or leave NO-GO AREAS, but BRITICISM I like a lot. It was fun to watch that answer come into view while solving Downs-only. "CRITICISM? WITTICISM? ... nope, BRITICISM! Nice" (61A: "Biscuit" for cookie or "chips" for fries). POINT GUARD is a weird one, in that it feels like a twofer. A working (hunting) dog might POINT. FOLLOW THE HERD also has a "not just the last word" kind of relevance, in that the whole answer seems like something a (herding) dog might do. But this extra-ness doesn't detract from the basic consistency of the theme. Like the (imagined) dogs in this grid, this puzzle works. It's not the most exciting theme ever, but it does what it says it does, and cleanly, so ... fine. Good Monday.

There was only one real "!!!" moment while solving Downs-only, and that came in the NE corner, where back-to-back six-letter names nearly did me in. I can't think of a less appealing show than Shark Tank. I've never seen a single ep. You'd have to pay me to watch it. So I have no idea who Kevin O'LEARY is ("Mr. Wonderful???" Yeesh) (10D: Kevin of "Shark Tank," also known as "Mr. Wonderful"). And as for STACIE ... look, I could remember SKIPPER. Wasn't she Barbie's ... something? Cousin? Waaaaaait a minute, my instincts were right. SKIPPER *is* Barbie's younger sister! How many younger sisters does Barbie have!?!? Three!?!?!? The third is Chelsea, who was called Shelly *or* Kelly (!?!?!) from '95 to '10 before becoming Chelsea in '11. STACIE is the only "tween" it seems. Skipper started out 8 but then jumped to 14 at some point. Chelsea seems stuck at age 7. Anyway, O'LEARY next to STACIE looked like a deathtrap for me, but once I was able to run both PARTNER TRACK and NO-GO AREAS through there, I remembered STACIE's name, somehow. And once I inferred ULTA (from U-TA; nothing else works there but the "L"), I could see that the most likely name-like thing I could make from the letters I had was O'LEARY. I had DYED as DEED before O'LEARY kicked in. Problem solved. Disaster averted.

My one other almost significant trouble spot was SUN-TZU (5D: Chinese general who wrote "The Art of War"), as I could remember only LAO TZU (the founder of Taoism). Very different people. And I had it as TSE at first, not TZU. But I ended up with CUS as an answer, which looked very wrong, and so I changed that "S" to a "Z" (CUZ! 25A: Since, informally), but still had LAO TZU. Eventually NO-GO AREAS and UPDO saved me. Big "D'oh!" moment when I saw SUN-TZU's name come into view. Should've been a gimme.

Bullets:

• 41D: "Bruh" ("DUDE") — Bruh! More 'bruh!' I gave you a Bruh / Brah / Bruv lesson just a few days ago, and here we are. In Thursday's puzzle, BRUH was the answer (to ["My man!"]). Here, the vibe is less excited (no exclamation point). More of a "What were you thinking?" bruh and less of a "Nice one!" bruh. So many bruhs. Too many bruhs. Lord, please never let bruhs appear in the plural, thank you, amen.
• 48D: "Bad you!" ("TSK TSK") — Has anyone ever said "Bad you!"? What a weird ... thing. To use. As a clue. Did AI write this clue? 
• 60D: Eccentric expert (GEEK) — I had NERD. Not sure GEEKs are eccentric, per se. Their level of interest in a topic is ... unusual, sure, but many GEEKs (of one kind or another) are normie as hell. 

Try to enjoy this Monday. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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