Perfume ecclesiastically / THU 1-23-25 / Classic line from the Dick and Jane series / Advocacy org. that gained prominence in 1980s New York City / Steamed dumpling in Tibetan cuisine / E, in a musical mnemonic / Land whose name meant "between two rivers" / Bee-dazzler? / Literary husband of Zeena Frome

Constructor: Natan Last and the J.A.S.A. Crossword Class

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: POTHOLES (56A: Obstacles for a driver ... or what this puzzle's circled squares represent) — four circled squares function as POTHOLES, i.e. they contain the word "POT," and they interrupt Down answers that mean "road"  (in the Across answers, the letters "POT" function normally):

  
Theme answers:

• RO[POT]AD / SEE SPOT RUN ((3D: Either of two diverging in a Robert Frost poem / 15A: Classic line from the Dick and Jane series)
• BO[POT]ULEVARD / NEPOTISM (9D: Sunset in the West? / 16A: Hiring practice at a family business, say)
• AVE[POT]NUE / MESOPOTAMIA (22D: Way / 32A: Land whose name meant "between two rivers")
• STRE[POT]ET / MAPO TOFU (38D: Word with clothes or cleaner / 55A: Sichuan bean curd dish)

Word of the Day: ACT UP (44A: Advocacy org. that gained prominence in 1980s New York City) —

AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) is an international, grassroots political group working to end the AIDS pandemic. The group works to improve the lives of people with AIDS through direct action, medical research, treatment and advocacy, and working to change legislation and public policies.

ACT UP was formed on March 12, 1987, at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in New York City. Co-founder Larry Kramer was asked to speak as part of a rotating speaker series, and his well-attended speech focused on action to fight AIDS. Kramer spoke out against the state of the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), which he perceived as politically impotent. Kramer had co-founded the GMHC but had resigned from its board of directors in 1983. According to Douglas Crimp, Kramer posed a question to the audience: "Do we want to start a new organization devoted to political action?" The answer was "a resounding yes." Approximately 300 people met two days later to form ACT UP.

At the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, in October 1987, ACT UP New York made their debut on the national stage, as an active and visible presence in both the march, the main rally, and at the civil disobedience at the United States Supreme Court Building the following day. Inspired by this new approach to radical, direct action, other participants in these events returned home to multiple cities and formed local ACT UP chapters in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Rhode Island, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and other locations. ACT UP spread internationally. In many countries separate movements arose based on the American model. For example, the famous gay rights activist Rosa von Praunheim co-founded ACT UP in Germany. (wikipedia)

• • •

I thought this was a nifty little puzzle, with the one downside being that the revealer came as a huge anticlimax. You can see that those squares are "POTHOLES" as soon as figure out the rebus, which for me came at "SEE SPOT RUN." Once I saw that the cross was ROAD, and that the "POT" square disrupted ROAD (rather than being an actual part of the answer), I got it—the rebus squares are actual "POTHOLES." I don't know if it's possible to do the revealer any differently; that is, what else is it going to be but POTHOLES? But anyway, by the time I got to the bottom of the grid, POTHOLES was telling me something I already knew. Since the puzzle doesn't need a revealer in order to make sense of the theme, maybe there's some (as yet unconceived) answer out there that could have come at the concept obliquely. Something like BUMP IN THE ROAD (except not that, because "road" is already one of the answers). Anyway, POTHOLES felt superfluous. Like a sign saying "tree" next to a "tree." Like, yes, I see that that is a tree. That is obviously a tree. But leaving the problem of the revealer aside, the core concept here was lovely. Four different road types, all disrupted by "POT" holes. I love that "POT" doesn't work in the Downs. It's jarring, the way POTHOLES are jarring. And the "POT"s are all handled very nicely in the Acrosses. Those "POT" answers are all really interesting in their own right, and in none of them is "POT" actually a standlone word, i.e. the "POT" is well and truly "buried" in each answer (what I mean is that if one of the crosses was TEA POT, that would be less interesting/elegant than what we have here, which his "POT" hidden inside other words / phrases every time). The puzzle was too easy for a Thursday, but when the concept really works (as this one does), I don't mind the lack of challenge so much. I should add that the grid was very smooth overall, and had some nice non-theme answers, including "DREAM ON!" and "COME UNDONE." The J.A.S.A. Crossword Class puzzles are always really polished. You'd think puzzle-by-committee might get clunky, but nope. Reliably good stuff, every time.

There was only one answer I didn't know today, and that was MOMO (54D: Steamed dumpling in Tibetan cuisine). No Tibetan restaurants where I live. I know there's (at least) one in Minneapolis, where I visit frequently. I've driven past it a bunch. Maybe I'll make my best friends take me there next time I visit. This is a debut for MOMO ... at least as a food product. It last appeared in 1973, as an [Owl of Guam] (!?!?!?!?!). Wow ... I mean, wow. I'm kind of in awe of how obscure that is. Like, even the Gods of Crosswordese were like, "pass." First trotted out in 1942 ([Short-eared owl.]), then ... thirty-one years passed ... then [Owl of guam] ... then fifty-two years passed, and here we are, eating Tibetan food. I feel like this is a real story of perseverance and triumph. Instead of caterpillar-to-butterfly, we get owl-to-dumpling. All things are possible through crosswords.

Normally I would tell you where I struggled, but I struggled nowhere today. There will be many who (understandably) don't know who E.C. SEGAR, but I teach a course on Comics, so that's a name I know well (you see both ECSEGAR and SEGAR from time to time in puzzles) (the "E" stands for ELZIE, in case that's ever relevant ... which it has been, three times in NYTXW history). Bob ROSS, ETHAN Frome, Hall & Oates' "MANEATER," the Latin phrase DE NOVO—all these things are right over the plate for me. I'm guessing that for a lot of people, this will be among the fastest rebus puzzles they've ever completed—maybe not a record Thursday, as it's always a little time-consuming and fussy to enter the damned rebus squares, but still, I'm scanning the grid for real trouble areas and not seeing them. 

[35D: Hall & Oates hit with the opening lyric "She'll only come out at night"]

Bullets:

• 21D: ___ chips, snack from Hawaii (TARO) — so much tasty food in this one. 
• 28A: Bee-dazzler? (PETAL) — is it the PETALs that dazzle? I guess so. Bees are drawn to color. I just like that this clue references a ridiculous As Seen On TV product from the '90s:

• 31A: E, in a musical mnemonic (EVERY) — "Every Good Boy Does Fine" (or "Deserves Fudge")
• 47A: Laura of "Jurassic Park" (DERN) — there have been lots of tributes written in the past week for the late, great David Lynch, but Laura DERN's (which I just read today) is probably my favorite. Well worth your time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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