Head, slangily / WED 4-23-25 / Establishment in Chicago's Boystown / Grammy-winning Soundgarden hit of 1994 / Emitted squiggly lines, in a cartoon / Trounces in Mario Kart, say / Actress Noomi of "Prometheus" / Kinks song spoofed in Weird Al's "Yoda"

Constructor: Brandon Koppy

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: GALAXY-BRAIN (61A: Having ideas far too profound for anyone else to comprehend ... and what might help you solve this puzzle?) — first words of themers are parts of a "galaxy" (all star-related):

Theme answers:

• NEBULA AWARD (18A: Honor for "Dune" and "American Gods")
• STARSTRUCK (25A: Like Swifties vis-à-vis Taylor Swift)
• "BLACK HOLE SUN" (37A: Grammy-winning Soundgarden hit of 1994)
• NOVA SCOTIA (52A: Canadian province on the Gulf of Maine)

Word of the Day: GALAXY-BRAIN (61A) —

1. (Internet slang, often sarcastic) Enigmatic, perplexing, unfathomable; difficult to understand or comprehend.

From a popular meme in which an increasingly absurd or surreal series of thoughts with a common theme is paired with a series of images showing a human brain expanding and emitting progressively brighter beams of light, thus ironically presenting the ideas as too profound for an average mind to comprehend rather than nonsensical. (wordsense)

Galaxy Brain, also known as Expanding Brain, is a multi-panel exploitable image series comparing the brain size of a person relative to other variables. Though the expanding brain is usually implied to showcase intellectual superiority over various objects, it is more often used in an ironic sense to imply the opposite, where objects of derision are implied to be of higher standard than objects that are usually highly regarded. For example, when used with Whomst, a person who uses "who" will be shown with the smallest brain, while a person who uses the most ridiculous variation, i.e. "whomst'd've", will be shown with the largest brain. // This meme originated as part of the "Whomst" meme where the left column was derivations of the word "Who" were paired with increasingly elaborate pictures of brains depending on how intense the "who" variation was. One of the most popular early examples was posted to /r/dankmemes on Reddit on January 31st, 2017 by janskishimanski in a post that gained nearly 1,200 upvotes. (Know Your Meme) 

• • •

Not sure I've seen a clue change part-of-speech on me mid-clue like that before (from adj. to n.), but there's a first time for everything, I guess. Going out on a limb here and guessing that  "GALAXY-BRAIN" (adj.) is going to be unfamiliar to many not-extremely-online people, particularly older people. It has its origins in a meme, and (historically speaking) a fairly recent one. I was semi-stunned to find that the term (as contemporary slang, anyway) dates back only to 2017. I know that's 8 years ago now, but for me, that's like yesterday. Just happened. Sigh. I'm often really belated on picking up new slang, but I'm online enough to know what "GALAXY-BRAIN" means ... not that you really needed to have heard the term before to solve the puzzle, which is one of the things I don't really like about the revealer: the clue jokes that having a GALAXY BRAIN (n.) might "help" you solve the puzzle, but knowing something about actual galaxies or stars is useless—the "star" angle is something you discover only accidentally. So while the GALAXY part of the revealer makes sense, the BRAIN part I didn't buy. If I'd actually *needed* to think "stars!" in order to solve the puzzle, I might feel differently. I do like the revealer as a standalone phrase, and I give the puzzle credit for Really Trying to be current in its fill and cluing (although I'm not the best judge of "current"; my middle-aged brain still thinks "BLACK HOLE SUN" is current). 

"NOVA" is the only theme word that's doing what theme words oughta do, i.e. hide (the "NOVA" in NOVA SCOTIA is not the star-related version, whereas all the other theme words, as they appear in the grid, are, or are based on, their star-related meaning). Can't really fault the puzzle too much for the inconsistency, as NEBULA doesn't really offer you non-star-related cluing routes. I liked the fill at least as much as I didn't like the fill, and however I felt about the fill, it never felt sloppy or unpolished, so I appreciate that. Not sure I loved it, but I definitely found it interesting and was never bored.

The puzzle keeps things interesting by varying the fill, a lot, and not over-relying on tired short stuff. You're not gonna get through a grid without an IMAC here and and APED there, but most of the short stuff is inconspicuous, and the middle to longer stuff is pretty bouncy. I struggled most, as often happens, in the beginning, in the NW, where I wanted DIMWIT instead of DINGUS and things kind of fell apart from there (1D: Nincompoop). I also wanted OWNS (or PWNS?) for LAPS (19D: Trounces in Mario Kart, say). Between those two errors, and not having any idea what "Boystown" was (21A: Establishment in Chicago's Boystown = GAY BAR), yeah, lots of slipping and sliding around up front. Not loving the highly redundant BABY CRIB—makes about as much sense as "Baby bassinet"; [Bassinet alternative] should be CRIB. But otherwise, that corner came out pretty good. As I said, good fill at the middle and longer ranges: ASPARAGUS, "I MEAN IT!," PLAN AHEAD, "NOT AGAIN!," SASHIMI, DOLL UP, all welcome. Once I got out of the NW, the difficulty level seemed to even out. No further problems ... beyond having NEW TO instead of NEW AT (7D: Unfamiliar with), and having absolutely no idea who the RAP ACE was ... oh, sorry, that's not a RAP ACE, that's one name, RAPACE (13D: Actress Noomi of "Prometheus"). She has been in a ton of stuff, but damned if I've seen most of it, or managed to retain her name. I don't even remember the movie Prometheus. I sincerely thought Prometheus was that recent TV show where Jeff Goldblum played Zeus??? But that was called Kaos (RIP Kaos).

Notes:

• 18A: Honor for "Dune" and "American Gods" (NEBULA AWARD) — not sure I would've steered into Neil Gaiman, at this point, if I were a clue writer. Lotsa works have won NEBULA AWARDs, seems like, instead of American Gods, you could've gone with a work by someone who is not facing a host of sexual assault allegations.
• 1D: Nincompoop (DINGUS) — The only person I've heard say "DINGUS" as an insult is Nelson on The Simpsons. I know this word primarily as a substitute for "thingie." At least I think that's how it's being used here (from early in Chandler's The Long Goodbye, when Terry comes over to Marlowe's early in the morning asking for a ride to Tijuana):

I left him with that bright chatter and went out to the kitchen at the back. I turned the hot water on and got the coffee maker down off the shelf. I wet the rod and measured the stuff into the top and by that time the water was steaming. I filled the lower half of the dingus and set it on the flame. I set the upper part on top and gave it a twist so it would bind.

• 14D: Emitted squiggly lines, in a cartoon (STANK) — these lines are technically (very, very technically) known as "waftaroms." At least according to cartoonist Mort Walker, they are.

• 12D: In myth, one who flew too close to the sun (ICARUS) — would've liked this as a kind of wink at the puzzle's theme, except the clue dupes "sun" (from "BLACK HOLE SUN") so I don't like it so much.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Happy birthday, Shakespeare  

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