Skills of the past / WED 3-19-25 / Brother in the Lemony Snicket books / Coxswain's nightmare / Most populous inland city of California / Hairy cousin of TV and film / Article of headgear, informally / Entrepreneur Kevin of "Shark Tank" / Fateful day in ancient Rome

Constructor: Evan Park and Jeffrey Martinovic

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (the "Medium" is because of the possibly unexpected rebus square)

THEME: STARBURST (10D: Chewy fruit-flavored candy ... or a description of what's depicted visually in this puzzle) — circled squares depict a "STAR" "bursting," if you read the circled-square configurations from upper left to lower right; that is, the letters "STAR" are depicted in various stages of coming apart, from a tight ball (all in one square in the NW) to wide apart (all the letters in "STAR" at least two squares apart from one another in the SE). There's one other explicit revealer: SUPERNOVA (59A: Astronomical event depicted visually in this puzzle), and then two other longer answers that seem at least theme-adjacent:

Theme (?) answers:

• MAKE IT POP (34D: Give something that extra oomph)
• HAD A BLAST (17A: Thoroughly enjoyed oneself)

Word of the Day: FRESNO (47A: Most populous inland city of California) —

Fresno ([...] Spanish for 'Ash tree') is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about 115 square miles (300 km²) and had a population of 542,107 as of the 2020 census, making it the fifth-most populous city in California, the most populous inland city in California, and the 34th-most populous city in the nation.

Named for the abundant ash trees lining the San Joaquin River, Fresno was founded in 1872 as a railway station of the Central Pacific Railroad before it was incorporated in 1885. It has since become an economic hub of Fresno County and the San Joaquin Valley, with much of the surrounding areas in the Metropolitan Fresno region predominantly tied to large-scale agricultural production. Fresno is near the geographic center of California, approximately 220 miles (350 km) north of Los Angeles, 170 miles (270 km) south of the state capital, Sacramento, and 185 miles (300 km) southeast of San Francisco. Yosemite National Park is about 60 miles (100 km) to the north, Kings Canyon National Park 60 miles (100 km) to the east, and Sequoia National Park 75 miles (120 km) to the southeast.

Fresno is also the third-largest majority-Hispanic city in the United States with 50.5% of its population being Hispanic in 2020. (wikipedia)

• • •

I need to talk about how bad "OH, ME" is. "OH, ME" is bad. There, I said it. No, wait, there's more. "OH, ME" is so bad that it ruined the solving experience today, making me mostly forget what a charming (and, if you count the bonus themers, dense) theme this was. It was the last answer I got, which means my solve ended on a "oh god no why?!" note—the worst imaginable note to end on. I have the words "TEAR DOWN!" written in all caps next to "OH, ME" in my grid print-out. Who says "OH, ME"? OK, now, who *living* says "OH, ME"? "OH, ME" makes me yearn for "AH, ME," an answer I hate almost as much. But at least "AH" kinda expresses weariness, whereas "OH" ... oh no. You gotta redo that section. Do not talk yourself into believing, just because you found it in a wordlist or in previously published puzzles, that "OH, ME" is acceptable. It isn't. You can eliminate "OH, ME" with some minor changes, though if you want to make anything more than a lateral move, you either have to change MAKE IT POP to MADE IT POP, or do a more sizable teardown (one that gets rid of FRESNO, at a minimum). 

[a lazy "fix"]

There's some fill that should make you absolutely recoil, and "OH, ME" is among that group. I was feeling pretty good about this puzzle, and then, at the very end, I very much wasn't. Because it's absurd, "OH, ME" was also the hardest answer for me to get in the whole puzzle (32A: "What a pity!")—a real perfect storm of buzzkill.

But if we just pretend we never saw "OH, ME," this puzzle improves considerably. The theme is neat, and neatly executed, with diagonal grid symmetry really helping to get an elegant visual expression of the theme. The double revealer is nice. Not sure why the puzzle decided to get cute with the two other longer answers. Seems obvious they are thematic, but they're not clued as such. They're just kinda winking at you there, like "MAKE IT POP, wink wink, get it!? Because the 'star' is 'popping,' eh, eh!? And HAD A BLAST, too, get it!?" I get it. Maybe it's best to just let those answers lie back and act casual, so the solver can have the ... joy? ... of discovering their thematic relevance. Anyway, they're good answers in their own right, thematic or no, so the puzzle benefits from their presence either way.

The fill is rough in the NW, all around the rebused "STAR" square, but it evens out somewhat in the other parts of the grid ("OH, ME" very much notwithstanding). My main complaint is that you've got not one not two but three "IT"s in this grid (MAKE IT POP, IS IT?, ENDS IT)— four if you throw in Cousin ITT (19A: Hairy cousin of TV and film). Basically I think the theme comes off nicely, but a lot more spit and polish could've gone into crafting the non-thematic elements of this grid. 

Bullets:

• 47A: Most populous inland city of California (FRESNO) — first of all, I grew up in FRESNO (from age 5 to 17), and yet, despite having a wikipedia page (somehow!?), I am not listed in the "People from FRESNO" section of the "List of People from FRESNO" page. How dare they. Second, I was trying to tell someone recently that there was a miniseries called "FRESNO" that came out when I was a kid, a kind of parody of late-night soaps set not in the glamorous worlds of oil, high finance, wine, etc. but in the somewhat less glamorous world of ... raisins (a chief product of the Central Valley). But as I was describing it, it felt like I'd imagined it. It seemed impossible that such a thing ever existed on television. So it was nice to confirm, just now, that yes, the series not only existed, but it had one of the most incredible casts imaginable, including my all-time celebrity crush and crossword superstar TERI GARR. Also, it's on YouTube in its entirety, so even though I imagine it is very bad, I am definitely going to watch it.

[Carol Burnett! Dabney Coleman! ... Charles Grodin!!!!]

• 3D: Skills of the past (LO[ST AR]TS) / 16A: Place to take a break (RE[ST AR]EA)— the only real tough thing about this puzzle would've been discovering this square. It didn't take me long. Got this answer down to LO-TS and the cross one as far as RE- and I just saw it. Most people aren't looking for rebus squares on any day but Thursday. Good to keep your mind open to the possibility on Wed. and Sun. as well.
• 6D: Org. concerned with plants (OSHA) — does it still exist? I have a hard time keeping up with what regulatory agency is being destroyed from day to day. The "plants" here confused me. I thought the puzzle was referring to "spies" ... only to have that very meaning of "plant" show up in a later clue (59D: Invasive plant? = SPY)
• 8D: Article of headgear, informally (LID) — "Hat." Just say "hat." "Article of headgear" is ridiculous. Unnecessarily wordy and confusing.
• 46D: 2019 sci-fi film whose name means "to the stars" (AD ASTRA) — never saw this, but I'm familiar with the Latin phrase. Nice bonus themer here (as is SULU, if you really want him to be) (57D: "Star Trek" character who was named for a sea in the Philippines)

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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