Cornhole action / THU 1-16-25 / What follows T.S.A., weirdly / Sent a reminder text, in lingo / Gaming ___ (console alternatives, for short) / Part of a makeup routine / Something a meter reader reads? / Word that becomes its own synonym if you add a 'k" to the end / Affirmation not usually spoken at a Jewish wedding / First half of a two-volume encyclopedia on physics, aptly?

Constructor: Rebecca Goldstein and Adam Wagner

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: COMMON CORE (52A: Set of educational standards ... or a hint to 17-, 23-, 34- and 46-Across) — theme answers are double-clued and look like nonsense but make sense once you realize they all have COMMON COREs; that is, they are really two answers that overlap (all letters except the first letter of the first answer and the last letter of the second answer overlap)

Theme answers:

• MOBSCENEST(17A: Brouhahas / Most appalling) [mob scene + obscenest]
• EDNAMODEL (23A: "The Incredibles" costumer / Science class display) [Edna Mode + DNA model]
• CLOSESHOPE (34A: Lock up for the night / Despairs) [close shop + loses hope]
• APRESSKIT (46A: Like some activities at a mountain lodge / Marketing fodder) [après-ski + press kit]

Word of the Day: COMMON CORE (52A) —

The Common Core State Standards Initiative, also known as simply Common Core, was an American, multi-state educational initiative begun in 2010 with the goal of increasing consistency across state standards, or what K–12 students throughout the United States should know in English language arts and mathematics at the conclusion of each school grade. The initiative was sponsored by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.

The initiative also sought to provide states and schools with articulated expectations around the skills students graduating from high school needed in order to be prepared to enter credit-bearing courses at two- or four-year college programs or to enter the workforce.

• • •

[37D: Housing bubble?]

I enjoyed this, but on some literal level it doesn't quite work, spatially. Or ... what I mean is the two overlapping theme answers don't actually have a common core. The whole (nonsense) answer has a core (everything but the first and last letters) that belongs to both answer parts, so the CORE of the (nonsense) answer is held in COMMON by both overlapping answers, so ... OK maybe it does work. But the phrase COMMON CORE suggests the two (non-nonsense) answers have their cores in common, and they don't. I think the fact that the revealer, COMMON CORE, requires that I take the nonsense total answer as my frame of reference for the "core" part is what's throwing me. Anyway, the core of What I Write In The Grid is held in common by both answer parts ... yes, when I say it that way, it makes sense. Anyway, I liked this, though it was very easy, as you have two different ways to come at each themer (obviously). Double-clued, double-easy. I was like "well her name is EDNA MODE ... not EDNA MODEL ... although she does work in fashion, so maybe "MODEL" is related to that ... somehow ... no, wait, "Science class display" ... that's DNA MODEL ... OK, so they overlap. Huh. I wonder why." And that was my understanding of the theme until I hit the revealer down below. Sometimes on Thursdays, if the theme isn't apparent to me quickly, I'll hunt down the revealer to see if I can get a grip, but today, I had the concept quickly, so I just waited for the revealer to reveal itself naturally, in the normal course of solving, so that it could do its job, i.e. make me go "oh!" or "aha!" or "good one" or whatever. That mostly worked today. My reaction to COMMON CORE maybe didn't reach "oh!" or "aha!" or "good one" levels, but I think that's a fine way to make sense of what's going on in the themers (despite my real-time convoluted thinking at the beginning of this paragraph).

The fill on this one ran pretty easy. Crossing a gaming term with a makeup term at 1A/1D seemed like a hostile way to greet me, specifically (1A: Gaming ___ (console alternatives, for short) / 1D: Part of a makeup routine), but after that, nothing gave me much trouble at all. I though the soft drink named for a nut was actually the name of the nut (KOLA), and then there was the DANG / DAMN / DRAT / DARN hyperkealoa* at 40D: "Phooey!" crossing the BRUH / BRAH / BRUV hyperkealoa* at 50A: "My man!" And yes, BRUH, BRAH, and BRUV have all made NYTXW appearances in recent years. Did you know that on Friday, Aug. 11, 1972, BRUH was clued as [Macaque of the West Indies]!? And then (understandably) was not heard from again for 51 years, when it reappeared as this "bro" equivalent? You probably did not know that, it would be weird if you did. But it's true. BRUV is British, by the way, and likely to be clued that way in a crossword situation. But back to trouble spots ... just TROOPS, really (29D: North Korea has the fourth-highest number of these, after China, India and the U.S.). "Troop" has always been weird to me, in that I think of it primarily as a group noun (i.e. "troop" = group of soldiers), but then it's also the word for an individual soldier. They coulda made things clearer, honestly. Anyway, TROOPS was not the countable noun I was looking for. Oh, and I had NUDGED instead of PINGED at first (39A: Sent a reminder text, in lingo). The "reminder" bit suggested that somebody needed to be "nudged" into action; PINGED seems more neutral, i.e. it has no particular "reminding" connotations (to me).

Bullets:

• 21A: First half of a two-volume encyclopedia on physics, aptly? (ATOM) — I legit thought "aw that's cute" as I wrote this in. ATOM ... A-TO-M ... good one.
• 30A: Singer/songwriter Reznor (TRENT) — a gimme for any Gen Xer. I think of these days as primarily a composer. With collaborator Atticus Ross, he has two Academy Awards for Best Score (The Social Network, Soul) and an Emmy for Outstanding Musical Composition (Watchmen). Most recently, he and Ross did the music for Challengers (2024).

• 45A: Cornhole action (TOSS) — will admit my first reaction to this was a very Beavis & Butt-Heady "uh......" But it's just the beanbag TOSS game. Of course it's just the beanbag TOSS game. (If you have strict "breakfast test" rules re: the crossword, then definitely do not look at this definition of "cornhole")
• 49A: Affirmation not usually spoken at a Jewish wedding ("I DO!") — I don't think I knew this. And I've been to a Jewish wedding or two. Huh. Live and learn (and maybe pay closer attention next time)
• 8D: Something a meter reader reads? (POEM) — lol leave it to me to stumble over the one clue that is explicitly about my actual job. The second half of my Brit Lit I class covers meter in depth and yet today I was like "so ... someone who stares at a literal yardstick? No wait ... what's the word for a metric yardstick?"
• 42D: Button clicked to advance to a YouTube video (“SKIP AD”) — yes, I too wondered what a SKI PAD was, for a second…
• 56A: What follows T.S.A., weirdly (PRE) — "weirdly" because "PRE" is a prefix meaning "before," so it shouldn't follow anything. But it does. Here:

• 34D: Something to put stock in (CONSOMMÉ) — sincerely read this as [Something to put a sock in] and my only guess was "... 'IT'?"
• 53D: Word that becomes its own synonym if you add a 'k" to the end (MAR) — my eyes glazed over around "synonym" and I was like "nope" and just got this one from crosses. There's really no other way to come at an answer like this. What, are you gonna sit there all day thinking about every three- and four-letter answer in the language? No. I mean, I hope not.

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Last week during my yearly fundraising drive I decided to add Zelle as a payment method on the last day, which worked fine ... until it didn't. Several contributions were mysteriously rejected. It is not a big deal, but if you contributed that way, it's possible it didn't go through (this applies to only like a dozen of you). The problem was on my end ("MY BAD!"). I apologize. The bank and I have spoken. I should have the kinks ironed out for next year. For now, it's still just PayPal, Venmo, and snail mail. Thanks!

*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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