Martial art that uses bamboo swords / MON 2-3-25 / Obsolescent classroom wall fixture / Hopscotch locale / Makes an oopsie / Pushes down, as with the thumb / Spanish newborn / Captain Cook's right-hand man / Black-and-white dessert that's sliced

Constructor: Jack Scherban

Relative difficulty: Medium (average Monday)

THEME: CHALKED UP (34A: Achieved, as a victory ... or how you might describe 17-, 25-, 47- and 55-Across) — things that get "CHALKED UP"

Theme answers:

• BLACKBOARD (17A: Obsolescent classroom wall fixture)
• SIDEWALK (25A: Hopscotch locale)
• CUE STICK (47A: Need for playing pool)
• BOULDERERS (55A: Recreational rock climbers)

Word of the Day: Climbing chalk (see 55A: BOULDERERS) —

Climbing chalk is a dry powder substance that climbers use to improve grip and prevent slipping on holds. It is also known as magnesium carbonate or gym chalk. Chalk is made from magnesium carbonate, which is a naturally occurring compound. Magnesium carbonate absorbs moisture and reduces friction on the skin. Applying chalk to your hands keeps your hands dry, reduces slippage, and provides a better grip on holds. Chalk is commonly used in bouldering, gym, and other rock climbing. Climbers often carry it in a chalk bag or ball for easy access and application during a climb. (climbdaily dot com)

• • •

The final themer meant nothing to me. I have barely heard the term "BOULDERERS" and certainly had no idea they used some kind of chalk. All the other CHALKED UP things are superfamiliar. So the theme works fine, but it landed with a thud there, for me, at the end. The weirdness of BOULDERERS also made that SE section by far the hardest part of the grid to solve Downs-only, as I could infer SIDEWALK and CUE STICK from just a few crosses, but had a lot more trouble doing same with BOULDERERS. It's such an outlier, that answer: in terms of overall familiarity, in terms of it being human beings and not things, in terms of its being anomalously plural. It kinda ruins an otherwise adequate theme. Mars it, anyway. Otherwise, the theme seemed fine, except the part where the "UP " in CHALKED UP crossed the "UP" in SCREWS UP. It really is bad form, no matter how often we see this kind of thing. I don't care that the editor doesn't care. I'm not going to let it go. Constructors / editors should care more about polishing their grids and avoiding obvious / flagrant dupes wherever possible (today, I wouldn't care about the "UP" dupe if the "UP"s were in different parts of the grid. But crossing? Boo). 

This was a toughie from a Downs-only perspective, or should've been. It was certainly daunting to go into every one of those corners and stare down a succession of long Downs. The longer the answer, the harder it is (generally) to get with no help from crosses, so starting off with three 7s and a 6 looked tough ... but aside from a pretty understandable ILLEGAL-for-ILLICIT error, I got all those answers (and then corrected ILLICIT with no trouble). Whole NW was a cinch. Things got dicier in the NE, as I couldn't get either SCREWS UP (10D: Makes an oopsie) or SPOOK (13D: Give the heebie-jeebies)at first pass, and bizarrely inferred SIDE TALK (?) before SIDEWALK. ICK before EWW (an awful "spelling") (36D: "Gro-o-oss!") made CHALKED UP kinda hard to see for a bit. The SW was relatively easy, except I could figure out what a 37D: Black-and-white dessert that's sliced might be at first. Then, because I was looking at AS-N in one of the crosses, I wrote in ASSN (short for "association") where AS IN should've gone, making the PIE part of OREO PIE hard to see. But eventually the OREO part came to me and I just forced PIE in there and voila! Done. The SE, as I said earlier, was the roughest. STREAM before SCROLL (43D: Use TikTok, say); HON before BAE (55D: Sweetie). Uncertainty as to the spelling of KAUAI (KAWAI?). NENE and NIÑO before BEBÉ (45D: Spanish newborn). Couldn't get anything for 41D: Pushes down, as with the thumb at first. Wanted SPURTS at first but was not at all sure (46D: Small gushes). Very patchy and comparatively slow, that corner.

The one thing I kinda liked about this grid was DIDDLY / DOODLED. Couple of silly words that sound double silly together. Nothing else was terribly interesting or entertaining. Unless you're entertained by DIRT BAG (27A: Slimeball). It's colorful, I'll give it that. 

Bullets:

• 17A: Obsolescent classroom wall fixture (BLACKBOARD) — "Obsolescent"?? LOL tell that to my University, where I have had a BLACKBOARD in at least one of my classrooms for every semester going back to I can't remember when. In fact, this semester may be the first where both my boards are whiteboards. Even the room in the building built in the 21st century that I taught in last year had a damn BLACKBOARD in it. Lots of money going into building and expansion on this campus, but it ain't going into the rooms where Humanities courses get taught, that's for sure. 
• 10A: Uncomfortable health class subject, for short (STDS) — "Uncomfortable"?? Weird claim. It might be uncomfortable to have an STD, but to learn about them? Shrug. 
• 22A: Martial art that uses bamboo swords (KENDO) — every time I see KENDO in the xword, I think of Sam Fuller's The Crimson Kimono (1959), which is (I think) the only context in which I've ever seen people practicing KENDO:

• 51A: Female name that's a body part spelled backward (RAE) — glad I never saw this clue, because I'd've been like "GEL? That's a name? MRA? PIL? EOT? Who names their kids these things?"

OK, bye til next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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